Magic: The Gathering

A lot has changed over this past year: DNA got his driver's license, Reaper got a new dog, whoojoseph got onto student council, and MAGIC THE GATHERING IS FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!

Sorry.

So yeah, I got talked into playing it sometime around December or January by my friend Chester after a lot of persuading. I knew if he made me play, my Yu-Gi-Oh days would come back to me and I'd automatically get addicted. Of course, I was right. I learned the game off of a piece of paper he gave me (not even the official one) one day while preparing for practice, and the next day he lent me a deck. That day, I went 3-0, and that was that. Now I've got about 3 complete decks of my own with about 4 concepts in the works, am a veteran of prerelease tournaments and FNM (Friday Night Magic), am an officially-listed DCI member with my own membership card, and carry around with me two of my decks wherever I go, just in case

So I guess this is the place to talk about anything and everything Magic. Whether you want to tell how you got suckered into the game like I just did, if you need any help with rules on how to play, want to discuss and debate the best/worst cards in the game, or if you're struggling in completing deck concepts, do it here.

Pfft. You totally forgot to mention how I gave you the cards Carapace and Protean Hydra for your first deck >___> But it's all good, you're probably better than me as a Magic player, and I've been playing about a month longer

Anyway, I was watching my friends Thomas and Ted play, and I got a little interested myself, so I bought a red/blue deck from Zendikar, and I got started. Eventually I made myself a red/black semi-burn deck, a green/white weenie, an Esper deck, a poison deck and various others I can't really remember. I'm not a strong deckbuilder, neither am I too much of a strategist. Oh well, I manage.

As of today I'm running a midrange Esper, an aggro blue/white Exalted and a black/white lifelink deck (the last of which was a gift from a graduating friend ). Hopefully I can play at FNM soon (I need a ride >___>)

Oh right xDDD sorry

Dear Jesus my first deck. It was a black/green fail deck constructed from the black/green starter from the M10 set that got butt raped every time I used it. Soon after, I went ahead and made a jund wither deck from scratch with many lulzey combos in it. Then I tried making a naya deck. As of now, that's about the only one since my first that didn't turn out so great. My current decks are the jund wither, blue/white level up/eldrazi(my current favorite and only legal deck for FNM) and my newest one, a green/white/black Treefolk/Wall deck

And you should hurry Joseph! Your decks will all be cycled out by next month

Good lord, your original Wither with your damned Quillspike. That was fun.

Oh yeah, I read that M11 and Archenemy won't affect Standard at all. They'll have the Alara blocks, Zendikar blocks and the Core sets, and they won't be kicking Alara out til Scars of Mirrodin kicks in. So I still have time to get into Standard!!!

Ah ok, good for you then. So you still have all summer and like a month afterwards. We should help Matthew make his deck FNM-worthy, and then we can all go to it together.

Alright, cool. How does he play? Aggro? Control? Battle of Wits?! :O

Well the deck he has is an eldrazi spawn producer with creatures that get +2/+2 if he sacs a creature. And then with nirkana revenant, all his swamps add double the black. Unfortunately, it's got no eldrazi in it from what I remember. Still though, it's a pretty legitimate strategy: pop out some spawn as chump blockers down below, and play zof shade. Once your opponent gets frustrated with the countless spawn and attacks, you block with a spawn, and then next turn sac all the rest of your spawns and swing with an open 10/10 zof shade, then drop a dread drone for another attacker and another creature to sac for zof shade next turn. If you don't have flying or trample, it's already a pretty hard deck to beat. My level up deck had a tough time hitting him before it was complete.

Edit: There's a standard constructed FNM tournament at Emerald Knights and Comics this Friday. You interested?

Oh, hot. I'll ask my parents if I can make it.

That, and I need to find a card to substitute my Skullclamp so it'll be Standard legal.

lol. Did you know that card is so broken it's even banned in Legacy?

It's pretty much banned in everything but Casual xD I love it so.

Alright so I finally finished this deck concept I've been working on since April. Wanna take a look see?

Sure, let's take a look.

2 aura gnarlid
4 llanowar elves
3 Gatherer of Graces
2 kor spirit dancer
2 sovereigns of lost alara
2 umbra mystic
1 Auratouched Mage
2 Academy Researcher
2 Nomad Mythmaker
2 retether
2 Temporal Isolation
2 nature’s spiral
3 idyllic tutor
4 Arcanum wings
3 eldrazi conscription
2 flicker form
2 rancor

4 Seaside Citadel
8 Plains
6 Island
7 Forest

Basically the strategy is to get Eldrazi Conscription on the field as fast as possible, attack for over half your opponent's life total while annihilating 2, and if it doesn't happen early game, in the late game pop out sovereigns of lost Alara or Auratouched Mage to do it for you. I put in flickerform both to bounce the abilities of Academy Researchers and auratouched mage, as well as serve as a barrier of protection against time bombs like scourglass; and if Umbra Mystic is out as well, it acts as totem armor. Obviously all these auras on my creature make them scream kill spells, so I put in nomad mythmakers to bring back the auras to the battlefield, and nature's lore to get back any aura or creature I want. Then, if there are a bunch of auras in my graveyard, I throw down retether and put them all back onto the battlefield, most likely all onto one creature (Aura Gnarlid preferably). then my removal is temporal isolation, or if need be, flickerform. My land base is extremely basic, I'm not too creative with that. And yeah. It's sort of a mythic conscription deck without the mythics xD. I came up with it right as the mythic conscription first deck came out, too

Ohh, sweet. I was about to ask if these were the cards you were planning on using on Friday, but then I saw that you have Ravnica and Guildpact cards in there. Still, looks like it'll be a lot of fun. I had an idea of building a deck similar to this, except it was just auras with totem armor and without the conscriptions or anything. I decided against it.

Yeah this is gonna be casual. I'll leave FNM to my level up deck. I was thinking of going full totem armor before since I pulled bear umbra and stuffs, but then I realized the brokenness of Eldrazi Conscription (Attacking for over half your life total AND trample AND annihilator 2???!!!) and I couldn't resist xDDD.

Makes sense I didn't even know that card existed til you brought it up now. Hell, I still don't know half the cards in M10 [x

You don't know about Eldrazi Conscription?!?!?!?

It's the rapest aura card ever printed. Pay 8 colorless(yeah not even 10), and enchanted creature gets +10/+10, trample, and annihilator 2. The only thing that it doesn't give is totem armor, which would be ridiculous if it did. But yeah, do you have any deck ideas in the works?

Yeah, I looked it up when you brought it up, and I was like "Holy shit, that's epic." And I have a couple running through my head. I just tore my poison deck apart, and now I have Whispersilk Cloaks, Llanowar Elves, Golgari Rot Farms and Dark Rituals that need a home, so I'm looking for a good concept for a green/black deck... none as of yet.

I wanna build a five-color deck, revolving cards around Prismatic Omen and getting some crazy effects (insane mana accel from Keeper of Progenitus and Bloom Tender, etc.; bonuses from Sunburst and Domain cards, etc.) Hell, maybe I could even throw in Maelstrom Angel and Progenitus if I could. No guarantees though, and it's still in the works; I need to narrow it down to a single thing I want to do with a five-color deck, so it's getting there.

Chester and I were talking about making an all colored deck. It's pretty hard. I think the only cards we settled on were the five bringers (of the dawn) fusion elemental and maelstrom nexus. The only problem I have with keeper of progenitus is that it helps your opponent out too, 'cause it doubles their mana supply also, so basically he'll be able to pump out his fatties just as fast or (if I'm playing Kris) faster than I do.

With Prismatic Omen, I'm trying to build a dragon deck around Scion of the Ur Dragon comboed with Teneb, the Harvester and prismatic omen adjusting my land base to play them. The only problem I have is that I want to make the deck ALL dragons, but the cheapest dragon I found costs 4, and its effect is not so great. On the other hand, once I get those two cards out, I can basically play every other card in my deck for free...twice. And then I can just pop in my sarkhan the mad and that'll be that.

Ohh. Yeah, that's true. Dragons are like angels in the same that they're pretty pricey. Even so, Teneb and Scion make a good combo, so you'll need to get them out quickly. If anything, once you have Prismatic Omens out you can use a tutor or two to get them if they don't come out within the first few turns.

I guess, but then I need to wait until turn five to pop out scion, and before that I'm essentially a sitting duck. I guess if anything I'll put in 4 birds as chumps and mana accelerators combined with 4 heavily handicapped llanowar elves (since they add only green, and I'm gonna be needing A LOT more than just green).

I can't go to FNM this week. Apparently parents decided to have a party this weekend. -__-

Aww man. And I don't wanna go alone, either >_>

...No, never mind, actually! I can go (as long as I clean up the house tomorrow)!

lol awesomesauce. When will you be able to come down?