This is really fascinating how the brothers' war is a permanent state in Magic even after both Urza and Mishra are gone. Adepts of Urza prefer a Swiss army knife approach aka Turbo Xerox, while adepts of Mishra are focused on a single goal and simplicity.
The flavor text on Mishra's Workshop is timeless: "Though he eventually came to despise Tocasia, Mishra listened well to her lessons on clarity of purpose. Unlike his brother, he focused his mind on a single goal."
@jsakpc said in The Curious Case of Mishra's Workshop:
I understood some prefer blue vs blue all the day like in legacy, but it is vintage and kicking shop out of the top tier won't make the meta 'healthier'.
I suspect, though don't have hard data, that many "dissatisfied" vintage players are actually legacy players who started playing vintage out of prestige and to look like cool kids. As result, these players use blue decks because most of the cards in those decks are transferable between vintage and legacy. So choosing between adopting to a new to them format or insisting on changing the format, naturally they prefer the format to be changed to suit their preferences. Therefore, there is a notion that the Workshops deck is too strong and unbearable for the format.
Call me old fashioned, but Ensnare always worked well with [[Stasis]]:
@desolutionist said in Turbo Xerox and Monastery Mentor:
Yeah I suppose I just looked at TX differently than what you described. Where can I find more information about this Urza vs. Mishra theory? I have never read about this before.
I never read any specific articles about this "theory" because for me this is the grand story of the Magic world itself - a story about Urza and Mishra. All old sets are evolving around this story. There were books, of course. Perhaps, you will like these - Artifacts Cycle. And here is some brief summary - Storylines.
@poxeveryturn said in Your Favorite Card Art:
Personally my favorite is Stasis.
Stasis is my favorite card too. Not because of its art, though. But because it represent the essence of the Blue color - ability to change the fundamental rules of the game. Surprisingly, this abstract art is a work of the only professional artists who contributed to the first set. Fay Jones is a Richard Garfield aunt and she did it as favor to him. The rest of the artists were students (or something like).
I never saw any interview with Jones where she spoke about the artwork, but there is an opinion that the fox is actually Anubis who represents the kingdom of death. The pierrot (sad clown) represents tragic fate of human being doomed to die eventually. The scale symbolizes the purgatory, the process of weighting good and bad in ones life before sending him or her to heaven or hell. And a light-blue spot behind the pierrot and the scale symbolizes blue mana that the pierrot draws to freeze the scale. Why Anubis is blind-folded and is holding an orb in his hands, and what the palette and the crescent symbolize I do not remember. This touch of mysticism makes the art very cool :).
Unfortunately to my knowledge the original artwork it is not available for sale. At some point Jones gave it to her grandson who was playing Magic and where the original artwork now is a big question.
A few years ago I saw another version of the artwork some artist used for custom made playmats. It is "a bit different" but still looks cool.
And a few words about my favorite artist - Richard Kane Ferguson. His style is something that resonates with me very well (I also like Claude Monet) and I a' a big fun of his work. My favorite of his is Recall.
His works are available for sale from time to time and he has an active Facebook page. Just right now, his agent, Mark Aronowitz, is advertising Richard's reconstruction of Sol'kanar the Swamp King that is available for sale, if you are interested.
A fun fact, with Painter's Servant on Green, all your spells are uncounterable.
MAGIC ONLINE USER AGREEMENT
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online-user-agreement
2.2 Tournaments and Events.
(iii) Collusion A player or players working together to gain an unfair competitive advantage in an event. An example of collusion includes sharing knowledge of draft picks with other players of an event during the drafting portion of that event.
When a player stumbles and looks like someone who doesn't know what to do next AND his friend or friends tell him what to do and direct him so this player wins, I personally consider this as gaining an unfair competitive advantage.
Since MTGO is a game with prizes that have monetary value, this "ethical" issue can quickly evolve into a legal one.
P.S. Recently watched infant_no_1, ajfirecracker, and OriginalOestrus playing (I watch only recorded games) and had no any reasons to suspect them in any unethical behavior. So the issue of getting outside assistance has nothing to do with streaming itself, but with judgment of each individual player.
This is an interesting unorthodox idea. Do we have a critical mass of Elementals we can easily cast for one, maximum two mana? Other than Wispmare and Ingot Chewer, there are only a few others that I see can be useful - Shriekmaw and Flamekin Harbinger. (There is also Spark Elemental that can make zombie tokens, but this is a different approach you tried already with Shifting Wall and Walking Ballista. And since we are talking about fighting Leyline of the void, making tockens strategy doesn't work any way.)
So it looks like if we want to use Cavern of Souls, we lock ourselves in a scenario "wispmare or bust." And this is assuming that we already have Cavern. And since we expect to face Leyline, we can't really maximize our chances of getting Cavern with help of Petrified Field. So, kind of the entire structure falls apart.
On a different note, but similar in spirit, why then not to use Reverent Silence with several Bayous and Tropical Islands? This way we can have more "disenchant" or "boomerang" effects than they counterspells. Just an impromptu idea.
@blindtherapy said in [MH2] Grief:
this card is an unmask that:
There is a difference between "target opponent" and "target player." So I wouldn't claim that Grief is strictly better than Unmask.
Urza's Straitjacket
Artifact (3)
{This} can not be countered. Indestructible. Players cannot pay life.
Alternate Reality
Enchantment UU
You may discard your hand to put {this} into play; effects that alter casting cost has no effect. Play this ability only as a sorcery.
All other permanents gain phasing.
@blindtherapy said in [MH2] Grief:
this card is an unmask that:
There is a difference between "target opponent" and "target player." So I wouldn't claim that Grief is strictly better than Unmask.
It looks like this is a good time to dig out my MECCG collection. But seriously, I am concerned more about how much damage MtG can do to the LotR franchise rather than how the LotR franchise can affect MtG. MtG will be just fine.
(Source - link)
What a beauty! I hope that this year we will see many of the Vintage staples reprinted with the old frame.
Happy New Year everyone!
Arabian Knights is set worth collecting because of the artwork and unique vibe of the set.
The name of the set is "Arabian Nights." This set is named after a very famous collection of middle eastern folk tales known as "One Thousand and One Nights" aka "Arabian Nights." That is why there are characters in the set such as Scheherazade, Sinbad, Ali Baba, etc.
@botvinik said in Cage V RIP:
My newer iterations use enlightened tutor and maindeck RIP, arcane lab, energy flux(sometimes stony if I expect more PO), and of course back to basics. I have found this silver bullet approach to be very effective vs a variety if unfair decks and BTB cripples most "fair decks" to the pont where I don't feel bad about mainboard enlightened tutor.
Just curious, since you like 3CMC blue enchantments, what about Propaganda?
Natural Balance
Squandered Resources
@griselbrother said in How do you beat W&6 with fair hatebears?:
I remember you played that green enchantment that gives your creatures shroud at some point (I forgot its name) - perhaps that's something to look into again?
Dense Foliage?
A fun fact, with Painter's Servant on Green, all your spells are uncounterable.
@brass-man said in HollowVine / Survivalless Survival:
I agree with @Rat3dE . I can't speak for everyone who runs [[The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale]], but it's a reasonable choice in specific matchups. Like you said, the HollowVine decks don't run a ton of mana to support a Tabernacle, but you'd bring it in only against decks that are even less equipped to handle it.
It looks like partially The Tabernacle is a response to a specific metagame. Is this still the case now?
I don't play online and very irregularly play in paper so my knowledge of the metagame is quite outdated. Nevertheless, I was under impression that Dredge is getting leaner and meaner as a response to fast combos and mid-range controls, not to mentions thanks to new forces (let the force be with us).
I noticed that in the Vintage Challenge #12130342 Dredge and HollowVine 6-1'ed. It would be interesting to hear from the players, but I have no idea if PTarts2win or WingedHussar has a TMD account.
@rat3de said in HollowVine / Survivalless Survival:
@Chronatog It is because the deck has such a terrible Dredge matchup that you need Tabernacle to try to even come close to winning from my understanding.
I see your point. It makes sense to have The Tabernacle instead of Leyline of the Void as Dredge was blessed with Force of Vigor. And Tormod's Crypt and Ravenous Trap are not good enough as Dredge now has more blue Forces.
However, Ichorid doesn't need Dredge to cast anything and Vengevine needs two creature spells. So while HolowVine is putting its act together under the Tabernacle, Dredge just punches into the face with those hasty Ichorids and episodically summons Ashen Rider to take care of the holy ground's protection or Flame-Kin Zealot to accelerate the assault.
From this perspective would it be more efficient to use Leyline of the Void as a more proactive/preemptive defense rather than Tabernacle that may quite passive and a little bit too late?
HollowVine also has blue Forces so while Dredge is looking for Force of Vigor plus a green card, the time HolowVine buys is critical in gaining a slight advantage over Dredge.
I can be completely wrong as I don't play much these days, but I am still unconvinced.