Cardboard rehab: TCG/CCG thread

[commandercool]

I legit almost quit Pokemon this morning, but just as I was about to resolve not to play it anymore the game hit me with a compelling reason to stay. There's a much better version of my deck that relies on this Trevenant that goes for like $15, which is outside of my range of trading for. Moments before I was done for good, they added a booster pack bundle to the in-game store purchasable with farmable currency that includes two old packs and that exact card. So if I can grind up the coins to buy four of those bundles before July 6th (shouldn't be tooo bad) then I can give my deck a much-needed upgrade.

Unfortunately that would involve replacing my Pumpkaboos and Gourgeists with Phantumps and Trevenants, which is heresy. They're fine Pokes, but they don't compare to my gourdy pals. I really should cut dark from my deck entirely so I can use the psychic stadium (inability to knock out opposing stadiums is a huge weakness of my deck) but I would need a solid Psychic cleanup option. Mega Alakazam Ex would be good for that, but getting more of those sounds really hard...

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Duuuuude new Emrakul could be fucking great in mono blue tron

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Duuuuude new Emrakul could be fucking great in mono blue tron

My first thought is "well time for Nahiri to do to Standard what she did to Modern"

also foil tokens eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[MatsuriSakuragi]

It's bad enough Nahiri can pull Ulamog in Standard as it is. This is just cruel.

(I'm considering getting some Nahiri...)

[hyorinryu]

What's happenning to my Angels :_;

First Avacyn, now two of the Powerpuff Angels....

Mirrodin and Innistrad were my favorite sets too

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Ahahahahaha, it got even better! Eldritch Moon is already loving up on the neglected Mono-Blue Tron deck with not only new Emrakul, but a fucking 3-drop blue wish tutor that lets us pull any goddamn Eldrazi straight from our sideboard.

Absolutely. Stunning. I started running this deck at the perfect time.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Ahahahahaha, it got even better! Eldritch Moon is already loving up on the neglected Mono-Blue Tron deck with not only new Emrakul, but a fucking 3-drop blue wish tutor that lets us pull any goddamn Eldrazi straight from our sideboard.

Absolutely. Stunning. I started running this deck at the perfect time.

The fun thing? It works with any Eldrazi spell, not just creatures. You can pull up All is Dust if you want to.

Meanwhile, I'm getting into Standard again because it's been relatively affordable since the last rotation and it's nice to be able to compete in a constructed format on even ground.

[commandercool]

Alright, I finally ground out all of the fixed-rarity Trevenants I need for my new Pokemon TCG Online deck. I just need a handful of cards to finish the prototype, most of them being uncommons and only one of them being particularly rare. I doubt it will work out of the gate, but I can start adjusting it at least.

[hyorinryu]

Hmm...my little brother and sister want to  try making their own decks. What's the best way to get lands for cheap?

[commandercool]

Most game stores should have land very cheap, if not free trial decks you can have (I don't think Wizards has distributed these for a few years, but I know my store has a few tucked away for new players). Failing that, online stores tend to have cheap bulk land lots or you could just buy pre-made decks. As I've said before I recommend the Commander premade decks for casual players, even if they're not into Commander. They're packed with rares and exclusive cards and are 100 cards, which means they have far more than enough land.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Lots of LGSs will just give you lands for free. They've got an absolute overload of them. One of the places I go to just has a huge box of them with their bulk commons and uncommons, and they use it for drafting or anyone who is building a deck.

If they're new to the game, I also suggest looking into Playing Pauper. It's a super cheap format since all the cards are common, and the link provides lots of fun decks with prices and explanations of how they work. I've taken a shine to mono-blue Delver, myself.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Holy shit

Spoiler:

Brisela

is so cool

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

The card that has me interested the most so far of what's been revealed is the new version of Thalia, that looks like a good addition to a control build.

[commandercool]

Meld has spawned probably the most panicky idiots declaring that Magic has jumped the shark and everyone is going to quit of any mechanic I've ever seen. I think it's cool. Accusations that they're ripping off Yu Gi Oh, the lowliest card game there is, seem pretty unfounded too given that cool flip element. Looks fun.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

The card that has me interested the most so far of what's been revealed is the new version of Thalia, that looks like a good addition to a control build.

The one that has my attention most is Coax from the Blind Eternities and Emrakul, I feel, because I just got some of the big expensive pieces of mono-blue Tron (Academy Ruins, Ugin, Wurmcoil Engines, Oblivion Stone, etc) and that will just take the deck to a whole new level of terrifying.

Meld has spawned probably the most panicky idiots declaring that Magic has jumped the shark and everyone is going to quit of any mechanic I've ever seen. I think it's cool. Accusations that they're ripping off Yu Gi Oh, the lowliest card game there is, seem pretty unfounded too given that cool flip element. Looks fun.

They did that for Gatewatch too when "colorless" mana became a thing too. You don't really see anyone fussing about it now.

If they leave, good riddance. Meld looks like a fuckton of fun.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Meld has spawned probably the most panicky idiots declaring that Magic has jumped the shark and everyone is going to quit of any mechanic I've ever seen. I think it's cool. Accusations that they're ripping off Yu Gi Oh, the lowliest card game there is, seem pretty unfounded too given that cool flip element. Looks fun.

Meld has me interested because it could be one of the possibilities to how Contraptions to be solved

Also, it leads to some interesting gameplay scenarios since Melded creatures seem very potent but give you a huge card disadvantage.

[commandercool]

Meld seems to be tending toward being non-optional too, which is even more interesting. It's a weird, cool idea and the execution seems solid so far.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

okay

Spoiler:

Lone Rider

and

Spoiler:

Long Road Home

make it look like mono-white Humans isn't going anywhere in the standard meta any time soon.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

It's being considered for Soul Sisters tech too!  I'm a fan.

[hyorinryu]

Meld has spawned probably the most panicky idiots declaring that Magic has jumped the shark and everyone is going to quit of any mechanic I've ever seen. I think it's cool. Accusations that they're ripping off Yu Gi Oh, the lowliest card game there is, seem pretty unfounded too given that cool flip element. Looks fun.

Meld has spawned probably the most panicky idiots declaring that Magic has jumped the shark and everyone is going to quit of any mechanic I've ever seen. I think it's cool. Accusations that they're ripping off Yu Gi Oh, the lowliest card game there is, seem pretty unfounded too given that cool flip element. Looks fun.

They don't even work the same way. It's completely different from all the  stuff the have there  and I say this as someone who likes yugioh. It always annoyed me when my Magic playing friend said he hated yugioh because of crap that wasn't  true.

The melded stuff seems interesting.


Also,  just pulled a Sarkhan Vol in a Dragons of Tarkir pack. Feel like I should use him somewhow.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

my favorite siblings are back and together at last, I want to build a zombie deck for Standard all of a sudden

[commandercool]

Aw, that card is adorable. <3

I don't have room for another Commander deck (I've set a hard limit of six decks for myself) and I still haven't decided if I want Gitrog Monster to be a commander or not, but of the cards we've seen so far two are legends that I think would be really fun to build around. Brisela would probably be pretty cool as well (although not nearly as resilient as in any other format, since a lot of board wipes with higher converted mana costs do get played).

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Tree of Perdition is so fucking hilarious I want 4

It's already an instawincon with Triskaidekaphobia, and if you find ways to tank its toughness, you can sink your opponent into boltdeath range.

God, there's a deck waiting to happen with this one.


Also, all the new Horrors gives me hope for Thing in the Ice decks. Curious Homunculus and Goblin Electromancer can speed up your spellcasting, and you can have bunches of horrors on the field that don't get bounced when Thing flips. I've also purchased two Spellskites for my mono blue Tron deck that could fit nicely in there too, as they too are Horrors. Ingenious Skaab also gets a nice prowess boost while you're playing instants and sorceries to flip it, as well.

[commandercool]

So I've never really understood Tree of Redemption, or by extension Tree of Perdition. What happens to the tree's toughness when you swap? I mean, I know it swaps, but for how long? Is it permanent or does it wear off at end of turn? I'm assuming it is permanent, but for some reason that doesn't sit right with me.

I may legit play Tree of Perdition in Commander. Being able to set people's life totals is always borderline-degenerate tech (playing Arbiter Sphinx or the original Sorin will usually get you tableflipping in my local meta at this point), but this card is slow and awkward enough that it might be cool rather than horrible. Tree with boots as repeatable life total sniping starting turn one seems pretty dirty, but also kind of hilarious.

Soul Separator is fun design. Not reeeeally sure what I would practically use it for, but it's cool. And hey, there's how you get someone into range with Tree of Perdition, you use Soul Separator to make a 1/1 flying tree ghost and a 0/13 zombie. Cooooool.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

I'm not very sure, but all I know is if I don't have Triskaidekaphobia on the field, I want to tap the Tree and then cast Turn to Frog on it so it becomes a 1/1 before it resolves, instantly taking the opponent's life to 1, which you can simply ping.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Holy shit Eldritch Evolution is so fucking broken.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Holy shit Eldritch Evolution is so fucking broken.

I... it's a less costly Birthing Pod with wider range with the downside of "you can only use it once".

anybody want to take bets on how long it takes to get banned in Modern

[MatsuriSakuragi]

I would much rather have Snapcaster Mage banned in Modern than anything else. So fucking awful.

Eldritch Evolution is broken, but "fair" in the sense that it's not Birthing Pod. A one-off shot wouldn't be too bad, especially since you'd still be mid-late game to cheat out really huge threats with it (unless your bomb is a 4 or 5 drop, then ow), but when you can keep recurring it, that's where the problem would really lie.

Honestly, I may consider running W/G Soul Sisters just to be able to cheat out Archangel of Thune with it.

[commandercool]

Keep in mind that there's a real theme in this set between this card and Emerge of playing high-CMC creatures for alternate costs (Madness, Haunted Dead reanimation) and then exploiting that. You can probably get a pretty enormous casting cost creature into play early given all of Modern.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Keep in mind that there's a real theme in this set between this card and Emerge of playing high-CMC creatures for alternate costs (Madness, Haunted Dead reanimation) and then exploiting that. You can probably get a pretty enormous casting cost creature into play early given all of Modern.

It doesn't even need to be an enormous creature, this lets you get any 4-drop with only green mana on turn 3, including huge beatsticks like Siege Rhino that are balanced around their multicolor casting cost. The Abzan Company deck that formerly used Birthing Pod is probably going to get a lot of mileage out of this one.