Cardboard rehab: TCG/CCG thread

[Moogs Parfait]

I don't want to be a jerk about it, but preorders for our Touhou playmats end Sept 5th and I thought some people here might be interested.  Commander Cool already ordered a bunch.


http://danmaku.mysteryparfait.com/preorder-playmats

[PX]

I don't want to be a jerk about it, but preorders for our Touhou playmats end Sept 5th and I thought some people here might be interested.  Commander Cool already ordered a bunch.


http://danmaku.mysteryparfait.com/preorder-playmats

Dang, these are pretty good

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

I don't want to be a jerk about it, but preorders for our Touhou playmats end Sept 5th and I thought some people here might be interested.  Commander Cool already ordered a bunch.

I definitely was interested in them but then I saw the "shipping outside of US" fee and unfortunately had to decline

[Moogs Parfait]

Unfortunately I keep making heavy things

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Unfortunately I keep making heavy things

Fair. If I had the $40 or so CDN to spare I WOULD do it but my life has been very expensive right now

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Oh my fucking god, Kaladesh looks delightful.

I wanna make a Vehicle deck and run everyone over.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Oh my fucking god, Kaladesh looks delightful.

I wanna make a Vehicle deck and run everyone over.

If the fandom has not made at least one Utena joke by the end of this block someone needs to take away their permission to do anime references during Amonkhet

Meanwhile, I have put together a new Commander deck I've been meaning to do for a while with a lot of the GW stuff I've had sitting around

[commandercool]

If the fandom has not made at least one Utena joke by the end of this block someone needs to take away their permission to do anime references during Amonkhet

Oh shit, I'll admit to the obvious Utena references having completely slipped my mind. That makes building the vehicle deck even more appealing...

Meanwhile, I have put together a new Commander deck I've been meaning to do for a while with a lot of the GW stuff I've had sitting around

We actually had a guy in our group make a Sigarda deck that he unveiled just a couple of days ago. That deck didn't really tap her full potential, and I don't know that this one fully does either. There are a lot of very weak includes in here. Pretty much any vanilla in Commander is horrible no matter how on-theme it is, especially vanilla 1 and 2-drops. Doubly so in colors with slightly less-than-optimal draw power where a topdecked Elite Vanguard is a huge blow.

Maybe consider gradually cutting all of the vanillas, other creatures with small effects, and many of the auras for cards with slightly more Commander-relevant effects. Westvale Cult Leader, Increasing Devotion, Obelisk of Urd, Shamanic Revelation, and plenty of other cards are relatively cheap but will pack a lot more punch and you'll probably be much happier to draw them.

You're also extremely light on creature outside of a few Pacifisms, so even simple cards like Day of Judgment, Reprisal, and Divine Verdict will probably pull more than their weight.

Finally, you're missing a few of the inexpensive cards that I consider to be absolutely iron clad Commander stables including Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, and Temple of the False God. Find room for those if at all possible since they're nearly never not needed.

Edit: Actually I've never played a Commander deck with a curve that low, but 32 land would normally be considered brutally low. It might work since you've got a lot of cheap stuff, but that's not necessarily a good thing in Commander. Maybe consider cutting a lot of the small creatures for land (at least up to 36-37) and consider playing some of the mana-intensive card draw available in your colors like Tower of Fortunes, Loreseeker's Stone, Sandstone Oracle, and Mind's Eye. Finally, Mentor of the Meek is one of the best Humans in Commander so it might be worth hunting one of those down.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Mentor of the Meek is definitely on the "include" list, as well as of other value humans from the original Innistrad block such as Champion of the Parish. I can probably cut some of the vanilla creatures for some of the Outlast stuff from Khans. In addition to lands there's a few mana rocks I can throw in like Hedron Archive or Corrupted Grafstone.

Also should probably get a few anthem enchantments in here somewhere

[commandercool]

Hedron Archive is amazing value, and Dreamstone Hedron is often worth it as well. More anthems are probably smart, although anthems with non-card-advantage-generating single creatures are not the best combo ever, but your commander can shit out tokens so they'll rarely not be worth it.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

If the fandom has not made at least one Utena joke by the end of this block someone needs to take away their permission to do anime references during Amonkhet

Man, they're already making Yu-gi-oh references as it is. And it's going to last a very long time.

edit: holy shit new Chandra IS FUCKING BROKEN AS HELL OH MY GOD WIZARDS WHAT ARE YOU EVEN THINKING

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

holy shit new Chandra IS FUCKING BROKEN AS HELL OH MY GOD WIZARDS WHAT ARE YOU EVEN THINKING

I kind of want to guess it was "we haven't made a design mistake as profound as Jace the Mind Sculptor in a few years" but Torch of Defiance can't lock an opponent like JtMS can so maybe it'll work out?

[commandercool]

Meanwhile I'm looking at Metallurgic Summonings in Commander and wondering why it's so fucking good. That is monstrous value.

[commandercool]

Wait, why are there multiple cards for the same planeswalker in the same set now? And why are the extra ones numbered past the normal set numbers? And why are they so terrible? That Nissa is probably the worst planeswalker ever printed.

Actually these are probably for those new planeswalker-based theme decks, aren't they?

God I am so fucking tired of planeswalkers. Can we get over the obsession with them please?

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Wait, why are there multiple cards for the same planeswalker in the same set now? And why are the extra ones numbered past the normal set numbers? And why are they so terrible? That Nissa is probably the worst planeswalker ever printed.

Actually these are probably for those new planeswalker-based theme decks, aren't they?

God I am so fucking tired of planeswalkers. Can we get over the obsession with them please?

They are for the Planeswalker decks, and they are deliberately meant to be underpowered. They're meant to be non-competitive so established players don't need to buy them, but splashy enough to be exciting for new players.

Also, I don't think they're going away any time soon, given they're a major pillar of the lore at this point (although I think they got a bit of overfocus with the Oaths cycle and Call/Deploy the Gatewatch)

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Yeah, I think they need to focus more on new planeswalkers if they're going to keep making them. Saheeli Rai is a step in the right direction, she's super neat.

[hyorinryu]

More Tibalt pls. Don't even need a reason.

Can't be bother to buy cards right now

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

with Consul of Allocation I really want to try my hand at building a black-white lifedrain deck in Standard. There's that 1-mana lifelink vampire, Kalastria Healer, Lone Rider, Shambling Vent, Sorin... I think there's a lot to work with here.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

That card sounds like a blast to play in a Death and Taxes shell. Not only do they have to pay extra to pay noncreature spells, but they also need to pay life and you gain life in return. Beautiful.

[commandercool]

Hooooly shit, Kaladesh's basic land are gorgeous. I think I'm going to have to try to get my hands on 20 of each art to pad out Commander decks forever as Ravnica basic land gets harder and harder to come by. Now if they  an just pull off attractive Mountains, something Magic very rarely does, I'll be super happy.

Edit: Okay yeah, they did it. Jeeeesus those Forests...

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Those "Masterpiece Inventions", though. I swear, if they reprint Aether Vial after I spent all this time collecting my playset...

[commandercool]

Oh are those Expedition-type things? How nuch did Expeditions effect the value of things they reprinted?

[MatsuriSakuragi]

If I recall, not much, since they were so rare. I just mean I'm going to be kinda salty if Aether Vial gets a reprint with super elegant art like the rest of these because I'll want it so bad ;;

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

My concern about Inventions/the Masterpiece series is that it means that staples for older formats are going to be stuck as chase rares rather than being reprinted in any meaningful quantities

On the other hand, they made some sweet picks of what artifacts to reprint. Commander players and Modern affinity players are gonna have a field day

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Aether Vial's getting a reprint. And it's GORGEOUS.

fuk

EDIT: HOLY SHIT. Swords, Mox Opal, Crucible of Worlds, Steel Overseer, Painter's Servant, Lotus Petal, and so on. A fucking shame that they're chase rares and won't make prices drop at all.

[commandercool]

Honestly I kind of think most of those are really ugly. They're super garish. Of all of them I think I only really like a handful, and even then the border is a bit much.

I'm very pro-this kind of thing though as chases go. Cosmetic chases are great in my book. As a Heroclix player where chases have always been viable in the metagame and are increasingly becoming more and more so, this kind of shit is super appealing even if I seriously doubt I could ever be bothered to keep one over cashing it out for more cheaper cards and I kind of think they're ugly. Depending on how the value settles I could maybe see myself hanging onto some of the Commander staples (Mind's Eye, Lightning Greaves, Solemn Simulacrum) and the sheer ostentatiousness of the new swords is kind of amazing, but mostly I'd be happy to trade them off. And that's fine by me.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

On the contrary, I love the blingy glitziness of all the Masterpiece artifacts. It fits Kaladesh's flavor so well. I just wish they were reprinted to be, you know, actually accessible to players, not be some kinda trophy card that costs more than a piece of cardboard should ever fucking cost.

[commandercool]

I'm certainly not saying all that visual noise isn't fitting for the setting. It totally is, and that's neat. I just don't want it in my deck.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Fumigate looks like a fun wrath effect. Gaining life for every creature that blows up looks good on its own and absolutely ludicrous in Commander

[commandercool]

Meh. There are a lot more relevant added effects to a white wipe in Commander (Phyrexian Rebirth, Martial Coup, Hallowed Burial, Austere Command, maybe even End Hostilities) to the point where I can't see Fumigate making the cut very often. It is a token hoser and those are invaluable, and white doesn't have too many of them, but it's not a proactive one so I don't know that I would want to run it very often.

It might have a niche in life-hungry decks, but those tend to be black/white and therefore have access to other token hosers like Massacre Wurm. Gaining 10-20+ life while stabilizing the board with a Necropotence in play is cool, but I would still rather have a 10-20+ power creature from Phyrexian Rebirth. But I guess there's probably room for both in that case.