Magic: The Gathering (TCG) Catch-all

Pre-releases are the bomb! Fun city. I always perform terribly at them for some reason, despite being a fairly competent Limited tournament player.

I'm just back from an M14 draft and a couple Commander games. The draft went just ok. I ended up in a green-red sliver deck, but unfortunately where were two other green decks among the five of us, and one of those was also in slivers (we had both picked up early Megantic Slivers) so it didn't turn out great. Still ended up 2-2, and the games were close.

Coincidentally, I won one of the Commander games with a borrowed Grimgrin zombies deck by casting Damnation immediately followed by Rise of the Dark Realms which hit, amongst other assorted nonsense, a Maelstron Wanderer. Much fun.

My curiosity is piqued. Wizards announced Magic 2015 yesterday and I found something interesting among the details...

Wizards of the Coast wrote:

Available in Booster Packs, Intro Packs*, Clash Pack*, Fat Pack*
(* - Not available in all languages)

So what do you imagine a Clash Pack is?

TCGplayer also pointed out a change in card aesthetics:
IMAGE(http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/features/2014/229fjk2sdalkfeatwk01_en_card_wastenot.jpg)IMAGE(http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/features/2014/aiwesdfkw9242featwk01_en_card_walloffire.jpg)

How are people feeling about the Born of the Gods cards they've revealed? I'm not overly excited about it yet, but I think that's mostly because I'm impatient for them to reveal more commons so we can get a feel for what limited will be like.

Also, I went out and got the cards for a Momir Vig commander deck. It's packed to the gills with fun utility creatures I've been wanting to get to play with. I'm looking forward to trying it out soon.

So this is a draft I got to play in over the weekend:
IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfBOBDMIEAEm7JG.jpg)

It was interesting to see the synergies that could be built up from all the disparate sets. There were two very different green-white decks - one token-focused, the other a lot of big stompy things - for example. They keep printing efficient blue and white fliers, I guess, and so there was a solid deck full of those, topped off with a Quietus Spike, an odd piece of equipment I'd never heard of before which is pretty damn scary in a deck full of evasive creatures.

I had trouble nailing down my colours in the draft for a long time, but eventually settled into a burn- and bounce-heavy red and blue, with a black splash for Terminate. It could have used a couple more early aggressive creatures to leverage the tempo advantages it was able to generate, but it had enough reach to finish out games in the form of the likes of Lobber Crew and Minamo Sightbender and I was able to go undefeated. Good times!

4dSwissCheese wrote:

So this is a draft I got to play in over the weekend:
IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfBOBDMIEAEm7JG.jpg)

It was interesting to see the synergies that could be built up from all the disparate sets. There were two very different green-white decks - one token-focused, the other a lot of big stompy things - for example. They keep printing efficient blue and white fliers, I guess, and so there was a solid deck full of those, topped off with a Quietus Spike, an odd piece of equipment I'd never heard of before which is pretty damn scary in a deck full of evasive creatures.

I had trouble nailing down my colours in the draft for a long time, but eventually settled into a burn- and bounce-heavy red and blue, with a black splash for Terminate. It could have used a couple more early aggressive creatures to leverage the tempo advantages it was able to generate, but it had enough reach to finish out games in the form of the likes of Lobber Crew and Minamo Sightbender and I was able to go undefeated. Good times!

AWESOME! I would love to play something like that. Did you keep the cards you drafted?

I have barely played Theros, but I'm planning on hitting this pre-release just because they're always a good time.

The fellow who brought the packs kept all the cards. There was some good stuff in there. Of note were a foil Sarkhan Vol, a Mystical Tutor, and a Vesuva.

Just wanted to say good luck to everyone who is going to a pre-release this weekend.

I'm at my local store waiting to start. Anyone play already and have impressions?

I also brought my 3DS in hopes of Streetpasses, but none yet.

Had a ton of fun at the pre-release today. Helps that I got good cards and won 4 packs. My deck had Elspeth and Kiora in it (Aleady more than paid for my entrance fee!)

I'm really liking this block so far. Hope they keep it up!

I didn't pull any splashy rares, but I did go 4-0 and then intentionally drew to wind up second place, winning 15 packs. This is by far my best pre-release performance ever. Despite being a very experienced limited player, for some reason I generally suck balls at pre-releases. Happy to buck that trend today, though!

I had a bit of a weak pool that I didn't play very well and ended up at 1-2. Still a good time, though.

I went with the red box, and promptly pulled the white and blue promo cards out of my BotG packs. Sadly I didn't have enough depth in either of those colors. I did get Underworld Cerberus, Hythonia the Cruel, and an Ember Swallower from my Theros packs, and I ended up with a black/red deck with a weird curve and clunky removal. I had a bunch of close games, but my deck wasn't consistent enough. I ended up 3-3, but one of my wins came when my opponent dropped from the tournament in round 5.

My wife also went 3-3. Her run was even more frustrating because she went 3-0 and then lost her last 3 matches. In game 3 of her last match she had drawn 12 lands by turn 8.

We're doing a 2-headed giant event this afternoon. We play well together and the bigger card pool makes for much better decks, so we're really looking forward to it.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I didn't pull any splashy rares, but I did go 4-0 and then intentionally drew to wind up second place, winning 15 packs. This is by far my best pre-release performance ever. Despite being a very experienced limited player, for some reason I generally suck balls at pre-releases. Happy to buck that trend today, though!

Wow that's a lot of packs! At my LGS 4-0 got you 10 packs, 3-0-1 7 packs, and 3-1 4 packs, so it seems a lot of people who were 3-0 would agree to draw (which sounds like the same as what you did), but that meant only 7. I'm curious how much your entry fee was? It was $22-28 here, depending on how early you preregister.

$35 here, the highest I've ever heard of, but this store is extremely centrally located in Houston and in a nice, brand-new building. I saved $10 last time driving 40 minutes to the suburbs, but decided it wasn't worth it.

I've seen and heard of a lot of different formats for pre-releases. The one you described is my favorite. I suspect it's also the most lucrative for the store.

My store did 5 rounds and paid the top 16 places. 1-4 for the same payout.

Interesting. A bit pricey, but sounds like it's worth it. Shiny store sounds nice

Played some more kitchen table Magic yesterday.

This feel really weird for me to comment on the infamous Icy Manipulator but in my years of casual play since 1994 I've never actually used one or seen one in action. So apparently I've been running on a couple misconceptions on how the card works. I've always assumed that:

1. You need to tap the Icy Manipulator to tap out another card
2. Special abilities of cards tapped by the Icy Manipulator can remain active

Now, finally, I realized these assumptions were wrong. In reality, Icy Manipulator is all kinds of broken!

Maclintok wrote:

Played some more kitchen table Magic yesterday.

This feel really weird for me to comment on the infamous Icy Manipulator but in my years of casual play since 1994 I've never actually used one or seen one in action. So apparently I've been running on a couple misconceptions on how the card works. I've always assumed that:

1. You need to tap the Icy Manipulator to tap out another card
2. Special abilities of cards tapped by the Icy Manipulator can remain active

Now, finally, I realized these assumptions were wrong. In reality, Icy Manipulator is all kinds of broken!

You had it right before, though. Google a recent Icy pic.

Yeah, good to know my memory wasn't entirely shot. I must have clung to the updated version because I encountered the older one.

For easy reference

Despite being hugely frustrating it did uncover a few fundamental flaws with my deck. Lack of artifact/enchantment removal being one of them. (we don't play with sideboards)

The old one was supposed to work the same way, but it may not be as clear.

Edit: "Mono" means it can only be used once per turn, effectively tapping.

Just throwing this as another potential website. MTGVault.com. It serves a similar function to tappedout.net although I don't feel it's quite as good as of this time. However, I think it's a better website at actually uploading your deck.

EDIT: And Pro Tour Born of the Gods just finished. Modern event, lots of Blood Moons this round of decks.

EarthboundHaizi wrote:

Just throwing this as another potential website. MTGVault.com. It serves a similar function to tappedout.net although I don't feel it's quite as good as of this time. However, I think it's a better website at actually uploading your deck.

I think this is a solid site. I promptly uploaded most of my recent decks there as I was getting annoyed with the current broken state of MTGDeckbuilder.net.

Maclintok wrote:

. I've always assumed that:

1. You need to tap the Icy Manipulator to tap out another card
2. Special abilities of cards tapped by the Icy Manipulator can remain active

Now, finally, I realized these assumptions were wrong. In reality, Icy Manipulator is all kinds of broken!

I'm so confused; both if those assumptions are correct...

Artifacts with continuous effects used to "turn off" when they were tapped, and Icy Manipulator was the most reliable way to tap artifacts. That's probably what you're thinking of. Many years ago they changed the rules so that artifacts don't inherently care if they're tapped or untapped. Any old artifact where the old rule was relevant was given an errata to add "if this card is untapped" to their effects. Check out the various printings of Howling Mine for an example. Click on the set symbols to see the different printings.

There's a new set coming out early next month called Conspiracy. I hadn't even heard of it, but a co-worker of mine sent me this video Wizards put together of 8 well known MTG figures drafting a box. It looks crazy, but a lot of fun.

I am so psyched for Conspiracy that I figure I'm in for two boxes sight unseen. I love drafting, I enjoy multiplayer.

ARISE!

Khans of Tarkir prerelease is this weekend! It looks awesome! Wedge (three-colors with two enemy pairs) set at last! Allied fetchlands return! Beefcake! BEEFCAKE!

What are yall's plans? What clan are you choosing for your prerelease pack?

I'm doing a Saturday afternoon event. My one regret there is that I'll be missing college football, and specifically the Aggie game, though it's against a very, very down SMU.

I took the "Which clan is right for you?" online quiz and got the result of Abzan, which is GWB, the colors formerly known as Junk. The quiz measures philosophical values, but this also makes sense mechanically for me. In original Ravnica, Golgari was easily my favorite guild. I've also got a lot of white mage in me, and I played a ton of Orzhov in Gatecrash draft.

So go Abzan!

Sadly I won't be able to attend the pre release this weekend (forgot to ask for it off, oops). Had I gone I would have liked to go with Temur. I love me some synergistic phaty smashing :D.

Hope you all's tournaments play in your favor!

Just signed up for Sunday prerelease. Abzan for me!

Renji wrote:

Just signed up for Sunday prerelease. Abzan for me! :D

Word, fam!