Author Topic: Magic: The Gathering  (Read 3315 times)

I just recently got into Magic. By recently I mean I got my cards today.

I have a Vampire deck, a Water deck, a Fire/Death deck and a Light/Earth deck.

I guess I like the Vampire death the best so far. I have only played with my friend Bryan and my dad.


Discuss the game.

I don't play it too seriously myself, but I just recently made a green/artifact deck from some of my friend's cards.
Let's just say that I feel like a douche when I play primordial hydra and predator ooze by the 4th turn.

oh god my brother has like this loving huge box of magic cards he used to use as a kid lol

How did I miss this topic.

I LOVE MtG. Since college started I've had to quit (temporary break), but I plan to get back into it at some point. The shop I play at back home has some good players that play there, so while I haven't actually placed well (lack of money to invest in a good deck) I do know how to play on an almost tier 1 level and I'm fairly competent at building decks. However, a lot of this comes from playing with my friend who has actually taken the next step and started playing in regional competitions and placed well. He regularly gets 1st in FNM if that's any indication of his skill.

I don't play it too seriously myself, but I just recently made a green/artifact deck from some of my friend's cards.
Let's just say that I feel like a douche when I play primordial hydra and predator ooze by the 4th turn.


You should be able to play those at a much faster speed. For example:
Turn 1: Forest, Llanowar Elves
Turn 2: Forest, Predator Ooze
Turn 3: Forest, Primordial Hydra, Swing with the Ooze for 2, Main Phase 2 drop the Primordial Hydra with 2 counters
Turn 4: Upkeep the Hydra becomes a 4/4, Swing for 7 total.
Turn 5: Hydra becomes a 8/8, Swing for 12, GG

Take into account that that is considering they don't block.



Anyway, what formats do you all play? I goofed around with Magic until the M11 Gameday, which is when I started playing the Standard format. That would mean I started played during the Alara and Zendikar blocks. I played through the entire Scars block until M12 came out, which is when I got more into EDH (Which is my favorite format and I highly recommend).  I wanted to get into the Modern format, but I needed to save money for college, so I haven't started building decks for that yet. Plus, nobody here (that I know) plays MtG, nor are they very interested in that sort of thing, which is disappointing. Out of the new sets, I've seen most the cards from Innistrad and few of the cards from Dark Ascension, so I'm not really sure what the "good" cards are for those sets.


Anyway, I'd be more than happy to start posting my different decklist ideas and such here if you would like reading them. My friend is really competitive in his builds and loves green, so I could post his lists if anyone would like. They are in the Standard format and tier 1 level, so the cards aren't that cheap. I am not very competitive, so I tend to build fun budget decks that generally win through some sort of gimmick. One of my better examples of this is my Infectious Dancing deck. To give you a quick rundown of a perfect game:
Perfect Opening Hand: Pulse Tracker, 2 Flayer Husks, Demon of Death's Gate, 2 Swamps, Tainted Strike.
Turn 1: Swamp, Pulse Tracker
Turn 2: Swamp, Swing with Pulse Tracker for 2, play both Flayer Husks, sack all 3 creatures and 6 life to play Demon of Death's Gate
Turn 3: Swing with the Demon of Death's Gate, pump it with Tainted Strike for 10 infect and the win.

Keep in mind that this was when CawBlade suffered the loss of Jace, so I was generally able to stick the demon before they could really do anything to stop me (especially when I played first). If they were able to counter the Tainted Strike, I would still win within the next 2 turns with regular damage or nicely timed Sign in Blood allowing them to draw.

You should be able to play those at a much faster speed. For example:
Turn 1: Forest, Llanowar Elves
Turn 2: Forest, Predator Ooze
Turn 3: Forest, Primordial Hydra, Swing with the Ooze for 2, Main Phase 2 drop the Primordial Hydra with 2 counters
Turn 4: Upkeep the Hydra becomes a 4/4, Swing for 7 total.
Turn 5: Hydra becomes a 8/8, Swing for 12, GG

Take into account that that is considering they don't block.
Yeah, I can get them out that fast, but my hand isn't usually perfect.

I play casually only, occasionally EDH, but I adore this game so much.  My Sligh deck usually wins turn five or six, lol.

I'm not a huge fan of Innistrad, although I like that they toned down the power for it, so I'm a bit excited for Avacyn Restored.
« Last Edit: February 29, 2012, 09:35:16 PM by Wynd_Fox »

Can someone explain how you do combos and stuff?
Like, don;t you shuffle your deck? :x

I've been bored the past week, so I started developing a program so I could digitalize my deck. =D



Still need to go back and clean up the images, and add a few more small features, but it's otherwise done. =)

Yeah, I can get them out that fast, but my hand isn't usually perfect.

With green your goal should be crazy mana ramp. Pack 8 guys like llanowar or some other spells and you'll be fine.

Can someone explain how you do combos and stuff?
Like, don;t you shuffle your deck? :x

That's the thing, shuffling your deck does effect all this, but you build your deck in a way to get your combos.
Firstly and most importantly, any GOOD combo is only 2 cards. Here is an example of a great 2 card combo:

By playing Deceiver Exarch on your third turn (or the end of the opponent's third turn due to flash), you can equip it with Splinter Twin on your turn 4. With Splinter Twin equiped, you can tap Deceiver Exarch to create a copy of it. When the copy enters the battlefield, you can untap a permanent (aka anything on the field, including your tapped Deceiver Exarch). So you untap the Exarch and retap it to create another copy, which you use the new copies ability to untap the original. You can do this an almost infinite number of times until you create more guys than they can defend against. Then you attack with all the copies (because they have haste) and win the game.

Combos don't have to be with only 2 cards, they can have more pieces to them, but the more pieces you add, the harder it gets to play the combo due to the random shuffles.
Secondly, most formats allow you to have up to 4 of a card in your deck, so you should put in 4 of each combo piece.
Lastly, the rest of your deck should be about stalling your opponent and helping you find your pieces. Putting in cards that let you draw/search your deck can be very vital to finding your combo cards. Adding cards that synergies with your combo pieces are also good because they can provide a backup plan in case you can't get your combo out quick enough. Lastly, you don't want to let your opponent have free reign while you're trying to get your combo onto the table, so disruption is key. Adding counterspells, removal, board wipes, and etc. give you time to set up your combo.


Anyway, as a little more about my short MtG career, by the end of it I was sick of how fast the gameplay had gotten. Sick of turn 3 goblin wins, turn 4 combos, etc. I stumbled across TurboFog and instantly fell in love. I won most the games I played online and a lot of the ones I played in person. While most long games take 15-20 turns max, playing against TurboFog can make games drag on for 30+ turns. In fact, in most TurboFog decks, there is no win condition. You simply play until they run out of cards and lose. In the second game, you don't even have to win because time will usually run out and you will have more rounds won. Here is my variation of TurboFog. The Ulamog is in there as a win condition as well as allowing me to never run out of cards.

Here is a list of all the decks I bother to put online. The Niv-Mizzet EDH deck is actually my friends, he wasn't aware that he was using my account when he attempted to upload it.

I started playing a few months ago and went to my first draft game last week (won 2/4 games).
Does anyone play Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalker 2012? If so you should add me on Steam so we can play some games  :cookieMonster:

I just went out and bought a zombie deck, mixed it with my vampire deck and now have a full Death Deck.

I feel like I'm playing it incorrectly.


My vampire deck will kick your vampire deck's ass.
3 olivia voldarens and 4 vampiric dragons c:
Also other cards

So you don't set your deck, you have to shuffle, right?

Like isn't it 3 minutes for Tournaments?

I started playing a few months ago and went to my first draft game last week (won 2/4 games).
Does anyone play Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalker 2012? If so you should add me on Steam so we can play some games  :cookieMonster:
I do, on occasion. My Steam is WyndFox.

Three minutes seems excessive, but yeah, you have to shuffle. And decks aren't called life, death or whatever. They're Green (it has forests, basically), Red (mountains), Black (swamps), White (Plains), and Blue (Islands). And contrary to common belief, White isn't good, Black isn't evil. In fact, I'd say White's the most likely to be evil color, but that's really an opinion.

I do, on occasion. My Steam is WyndFox.

Three minutes seems excessive, but yeah, you have to shuffle. And decks aren't called life, death or whatever. They're Green (it has forests, basically), Red (mountains), Black (swamps), White (Plains), and Blue (Islands). And contrary to common belief, White isn't good, Black isn't evil. In fact, I'd say White's the most likely to be evil color, but that's really an opinion.
Um, ok, sorry/

I heard 3 minutes was the time for tournys. :x