I like Artifact Mutation. It's not as powerful, but I've always wanted to put AEther Mutation into a deck. Bounce a creature, get some saprolings. I think the main reason I don't is because it's a Sorcery instead of an instant.
I already changed my deck to include a blurb about stealing from your article :) It's funny, this is the second article idea we never talked about together but had the same idea.
Sovereigns of Lost Alara looks like another hot pick IMO. At .80 right now they're a steal. Eli Aden's 2nd place list at the Kentucky Open looks really solid, and given the right tweaks/testing, could do really well in the upcoming meta. (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=283944)
Academy is banned in Commander as well as EDH, like MMog pointed out.
I debated on including Time Stretch. I haven't used it in any of my articles thus far, but it is sort of a staple in Intet decks. I figured that in this case, why not? The only time that I have played it so far was when I Mystical Tutored for it so that I could try and recover from a poor board position. Didn't work, but it was worth a shot.
Sorry about the abbreviation. I usually do spell it out at first, but must have missed it this time. I just hate writing out Sensei's Divining Top, so I have been using that abbreviation for a while.
Feel free to use any part of the deck you want. I'm all about the free dissemnation of ideas!
I think you messed up by not taking the Shield and Turn to Slag. Both of those have synergy; one lets you live long enough to blow them out with the other, which is kind of what you want to do (stall) til your bombs anyway.
The academy is banned in EDH, but not sure for Commander.
I like the article. It's odd. I am currently working on an Intet deck and article myself. I am stealing some of your cards just so you know. My deck will be more budget friendly though.
My only two complaints:
1 What is SDT? I don't mind people using Abreviations, Initials or Nicknames for cards, but I would like to see the actual name first so I am aware of what I the author refers too. Not everyone knows the short cuts, especially a new reader/player.
2 Time Stretch. Seeing this card in the deck saddens me. It's part of my hated cards article part two.
Oh, ok, is that how it works :( , thanks grandpoobah.
I played with Contagion Engine in a draft the other day, and could only work out how to proliferate once. Luckily that card is so ridiculous anyway I still won.
In reality it should use the same interface as declare attackers, as currently there is no way of removing counters if you make a mistake.
I had been trying to play standard with the cheaper standard decks like Boros or RDW but last weekend I cashed out my Zendikar Fetches, Kargans, Goblin Guides, and other pre SoM money cards and have gone all in on SoM cards. The approach I am now taking is that I can play SoM block for the next year and be in a good spot for standard next year.
Have you run into the R/B build that Lord Erman was touting a couple weeks ago? I have been playing that and it has been doing pretty well for me. I don't have a ton of matches under my belt though so I am not totally sold on it.
Yes, Paul gets it. The point was if you could play an extra land like via Explore, you could use Manacraft again. The Issula set is chock full of common enablers which allow 'an extra land to played' either with a sacrfice or mana activation, etc...
I know I didn't get the wording right, but basically manacraft trades not being able to play a land for an interesting spell which might otherwise be broken.
(Like RR Instant, Manacraft, add RRRR to your mana pool.) You can view the full set if you click on the Issula link in the article and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
thinking back to my days of playing magic on the floor in the hallway of my high school during the revised/ice age era, it was DEFINITELY a huge rush when I got my first Tundra and I had to think long and hard about whether to take out an island or a plains in my deck for it. But the best thing about that decision was that I can't go wrong! Because Tundra was strictly better than either one, so whichever one that I chose to take out for my Tundra, I knew that I would be making an improvement to my deck. And whenever I drew my Tundra, I would excitedly throw it down in a separate pile next to boring islands and plains and all the kids would look on in awe. And then I got my 2nd Tundra and 3rd Tundra and experienced similarly exciting rushes.
whereas a card like force of will, definitely did not get a similar excitement level. I mean countering a card is cool and all, but there were plenty of counterspells that did similar things, and i wasn't sure if sticking the force in my deck would be improving my deck or making it worse, losing a card is pretty bad afterall and the other kids didn't really have such good cards in the early game that i would necessarily want to throw away another card just to counter. also force of will doesn't stick around the table for all to see, use it once and it gets lost in the graveyard, dual lands are almost bar none in that awe inspiring aspect of sticking around with a unique text box for all to see. the only thing better than a dual land is a mox.
This is very true and probably something I should have made more effort to clarify. This is by far my biggest year in speculation, with the 20-50x. Last year I was only at 6x of a card at most; many just 2x. A lot of the cards I'm speculating on outside of this list (like Grave Titan as you mentioned) I have just 3x. There's no need to go nuts on a buying spree in order to turn a profit or sustain your collection,l and it's far more manageable to sell a smaller cardpool.
My clanmates and close buddies on MTGO, who have been hearing my speculation picks for a while now (that's part of why I wrote the article - instead of repeating myself I can just post a link) are really interested in joining in on the action, but those who have, typically have only gotten 1-3x of a few cards they would have liked to use anyway. Only one other fellow out of dozens has bought more than this, and even he's gotten maybe 5x of a few cards, for about 17-18 cards total. Still, when these guys resell in a couple of months and are suddenly ahead 15, 20, 50 tickets, it'll be a welcome windfall!
I like seeing an article on something besides Standard and SOM Draft. Thanks for highlighting a block deck. This actually makes me want to play block, except I don't think I have time. But I like the entry costs compared to other formats. What is this deck's cost? 120 tickets?
Yeah, I don't think I was really prepared to play against that, and have slightly re-tuned my board to compensate. I'm actually really liking this format!
Don't doubt monoblack infect. My last five DE's im 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 4-0, and 3-1. It has some serious game play. That being said it's two worst match ups are the ever popular UW control deck and white weenie/tempered steel deck (just too fast). I have sideboard options for those deck but it takes a stumble from those decks for infect to win.
On the Contagion Engine, you may not be aware that if you select all the permanents and/or players that have counters for the 1st proliferate, it automatically goes to the 2nd proliferate, no clicking required. So you probably selected all the permanents, it advanced to the 2nd round of proliferate, and you clicked OK, skipping the 2nd round of proliferate.
Mirri's guile is a somewhat cheaper Library. Nothing replaces Cradle sadly except Academy which which requires a heavy commitment to artifacts. (The Phyrexian and Serra's are out of course because of color and lack of support) Counterspell is the alternative to Mana Drain. Same cost but you don't get the X mana.
Warp World imho works nicely in a token version of this along with Mass Polymorph and (if you are feeling dangerous) Wild Evocation.
I just read this article, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I think it's worth noting that it's perfectly possible to do this kind of long-term speculating on a much smaller scale with a much smaller budget. My MTGO account is worth an absolute fraction of what yours is, but I tend to keep myself in new casual cards for each set largely through this kind of "obvious" speculation. For three years running I just bought two tarmogoyfs in standard season, and sold them again come extended time (profit of ~20-25 tickets each year).
My current "trade stock" is just 4 KotR, 3 Maelstrom Pulse and a couple of Grave Titans (which I'm going to try to sell off this week, as they're about 4 tickets up from what I bought them at). Seeing as I only ever tend to spend about 7-8 tickets on casual cards from each new set (I spend a lot more offline!), buying and selling like this pretty much keeps me going on MTGO.
It's also really easy to keep track of prices and "liquidate" quickly when you only have three different cards to sell!
I do believe his reference is to the ability to play 1 land a turn (whether or not you have one to play) which is a basic rule of the game. Manacraft modifies this rule with the following clauses:
a) you can only manacraft if you have not used up this option yet this turn.
b) if you manacraft this turn you have used up this option.
I should also not that this option is not used up if someone casts Hypergenesis etc on your turn so that you get to play lands for free from your hand.
Cool article.
I like Artifact Mutation. It's not as powerful, but I've always wanted to put AEther Mutation into a deck. Bounce a creature, get some saprolings. I think the main reason I don't is because it's a Sorcery instead of an instant.
Rofl...ok then.
I already changed my deck to include a blurb about stealing from your article :) It's funny, this is the second article idea we never talked about together but had the same idea.
Sovereigns of Lost Alara looks like another hot pick IMO. At .80 right now they're a steal. Eli Aden's 2nd place list at the Kentucky Open looks really solid, and given the right tweaks/testing, could do really well in the upcoming meta. (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=283944)
Academy is banned in Commander as well as EDH, like MMog pointed out.
I debated on including Time Stretch. I haven't used it in any of my articles thus far, but it is sort of a staple in Intet decks. I figured that in this case, why not? The only time that I have played it so far was when I Mystical Tutored for it so that I could try and recover from a poor board position. Didn't work, but it was worth a shot.
Sorry about the abbreviation. I usually do spell it out at first, but must have missed it this time. I just hate writing out Sensei's Divining Top, so I have been using that abbreviation for a while.
Feel free to use any part of the deck you want. I'm all about the free dissemnation of ideas!
I think you messed up by not taking the Shield and Turn to Slag. Both of those have synergy; one lets you live long enough to blow them out with the other, which is kind of what you want to do (stall) til your bombs anyway.
SDT = Sensei's Divining Top
Sadly, Academy is banned in Commander. ;_;
The academy is banned in EDH, but not sure for Commander.
I like the article. It's odd. I am currently working on an Intet deck and article myself. I am stealing some of your cards just so you know. My deck will be more budget friendly though.
My only two complaints:
1 What is SDT? I don't mind people using Abreviations, Initials or Nicknames for cards, but I would like to see the actual name first so I am aware of what I the author refers too. Not everyone knows the short cuts, especially a new reader/player.
2 Time Stretch. Seeing this card in the deck saddens me. It's part of my hated cards article part two.
Oh, ok, is that how it works :( , thanks grandpoobah.
I played with Contagion Engine in a draft the other day, and could only work out how to proliferate once. Luckily that card is so ridiculous anyway I still won.
In reality it should use the same interface as declare attackers, as currently there is no way of removing counters if you make a mistake.
That's my plan exactly, and no I haven't run into RB yet, but I have a good feeling about the matchup... at least until black gets decent discard.
I had been trying to play standard with the cheaper standard decks like Boros or RDW but last weekend I cashed out my Zendikar Fetches, Kargans, Goblin Guides, and other pre SoM money cards and have gone all in on SoM cards. The approach I am now taking is that I can play SoM block for the next year and be in a good spot for standard next year.
Have you run into the R/B build that Lord Erman was touting a couple weeks ago? I have been playing that and it has been doing pretty well for me. I don't have a ton of matches under my belt though so I am not totally sold on it.
Not to mention if you opened any Alliances at all you got tons of Fows :)
the most expensive part of the deck is the planeswalkers.
Venser at $14 and Elspeth at $10. Sunblast is .60
Monolack infect comes under 25 tix.
Yes, Paul gets it. The point was if you could play an extra land like via Explore, you could use Manacraft again. The Issula set is chock full of common enablers which allow 'an extra land to played' either with a sacrfice or mana activation, etc...
I know I didn't get the wording right, but basically manacraft trades not being able to play a land for an interesting spell which might otherwise be broken.
(Like RR Instant, Manacraft, add RRRR to your mana pool.) You can view the full set if you click on the Issula link in the article and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
thinking back to my days of playing magic on the floor in the hallway of my high school during the revised/ice age era, it was DEFINITELY a huge rush when I got my first Tundra and I had to think long and hard about whether to take out an island or a plains in my deck for it. But the best thing about that decision was that I can't go wrong! Because Tundra was strictly better than either one, so whichever one that I chose to take out for my Tundra, I knew that I would be making an improvement to my deck. And whenever I drew my Tundra, I would excitedly throw it down in a separate pile next to boring islands and plains and all the kids would look on in awe. And then I got my 2nd Tundra and 3rd Tundra and experienced similarly exciting rushes.
whereas a card like force of will, definitely did not get a similar excitement level. I mean countering a card is cool and all, but there were plenty of counterspells that did similar things, and i wasn't sure if sticking the force in my deck would be improving my deck or making it worse, losing a card is pretty bad afterall and the other kids didn't really have such good cards in the early game that i would necessarily want to throw away another card just to counter. also force of will doesn't stick around the table for all to see, use it once and it gets lost in the graveyard, dual lands are almost bar none in that awe inspiring aspect of sticking around with a unique text box for all to see. the only thing better than a dual land is a mox.
This is very true and probably something I should have made more effort to clarify. This is by far my biggest year in speculation, with the 20-50x. Last year I was only at 6x of a card at most; many just 2x. A lot of the cards I'm speculating on outside of this list (like Grave Titan as you mentioned) I have just 3x. There's no need to go nuts on a buying spree in order to turn a profit or sustain your collection,l and it's far more manageable to sell a smaller cardpool.
My clanmates and close buddies on MTGO, who have been hearing my speculation picks for a while now (that's part of why I wrote the article - instead of repeating myself I can just post a link) are really interested in joining in on the action, but those who have, typically have only gotten 1-3x of a few cards they would have liked to use anyway. Only one other fellow out of dozens has bought more than this, and even he's gotten maybe 5x of a few cards, for about 17-18 cards total. Still, when these guys resell in a couple of months and are suddenly ahead 15, 20, 50 tickets, it'll be a welcome windfall!
Not even, it's just at or under $80 with my list.
I like seeing an article on something besides Standard and SOM Draft. Thanks for highlighting a block deck. This actually makes me want to play block, except I don't think I have time. But I like the entry costs compared to other formats. What is this deck's cost? 120 tickets?
Yeah, I don't think I was really prepared to play against that, and have slightly re-tuned my board to compensate. I'm actually really liking this format!
Don't doubt monoblack infect. My last five DE's im 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 4-0, and 3-1. It has some serious game play. That being said it's two worst match ups are the ever popular UW control deck and white weenie/tempered steel deck (just too fast). I have sideboard options for those deck but it takes a stumble from those decks for infect to win.
On the Contagion Engine, you may not be aware that if you select all the permanents and/or players that have counters for the 1st proliferate, it automatically goes to the 2nd proliferate, no clicking required. So you probably selected all the permanents, it advanced to the 2nd round of proliferate, and you clicked OK, skipping the 2nd round of proliferate.
Mirri's guile is a somewhat cheaper Library. Nothing replaces Cradle sadly except Academy which which requires a heavy commitment to artifacts. (The Phyrexian and Serra's are out of course because of color and lack of support) Counterspell is the alternative to Mana Drain. Same cost but you don't get the X mana.
Warp World imho works nicely in a token version of this along with Mass Polymorph and (if you are feeling dangerous) Wild Evocation.
Nice deck...much nicer than my version. :)
I just read this article, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I think it's worth noting that it's perfectly possible to do this kind of long-term speculating on a much smaller scale with a much smaller budget. My MTGO account is worth an absolute fraction of what yours is, but I tend to keep myself in new casual cards for each set largely through this kind of "obvious" speculation. For three years running I just bought two tarmogoyfs in standard season, and sold them again come extended time (profit of ~20-25 tickets each year).
My current "trade stock" is just 4 KotR, 3 Maelstrom Pulse and a couple of Grave Titans (which I'm going to try to sell off this week, as they're about 4 tickets up from what I bought them at). Seeing as I only ever tend to spend about 7-8 tickets on casual cards from each new set (I spend a lot more offline!), buying and selling like this pretty much keeps me going on MTGO.
It's also really easy to keep track of prices and "liquidate" quickly when you only have three different cards to sell!
I do believe his reference is to the ability to play 1 land a turn (whether or not you have one to play) which is a basic rule of the game. Manacraft modifies this rule with the following clauses:
a) you can only manacraft if you have not used up this option yet this turn.
b) if you manacraft this turn you have used up this option.
I should also not that this option is not used up if someone casts Hypergenesis etc on your turn so that you get to play lands for free from your hand.