@thewhitedragon69 said in SMIP: 2020 B&R Roundup:
@desolutionist I doubt chalice will ever be unrestricted again, because it's decidedly "unvintage." You get to play all your moxen, then stop your opponent from playing any of theirs, for 0 mana. When you are on the play, it's like a free karn, great creator. Null rod at least stops EVERYBODY'S moxen. It's only good after turn 1 when your opponent is playing things like PO that want to cast moxen more than once.
Who decided it’s “not vintage”? Some guy who doesn’t even play Vintage?
Chalice on zero is great on the play and it was fine for years. Gave a lot of underpowered decks a fighting chance.
And I don’t really think anyone cares about the PO mirror match if that’s what you’re getting at. Both players decide to play a boring deck and so they get what they deserve.
I think WotC has been looking at restrictions to balance more than unrestrictions lately because they want to slow the game down and avoid the "coin flip" perception. If you unrestrict everything, sure, you could viably play any number of strategies, but then you get to where every archetype is so uber-powered, it can win on turn 1. The foil to that would be running 8+ free counterspells, but then you get into the matches of "turn 1 win" vs "counter your opponent's turn 1" and the matches generally become decided on if you had the free counterspell or not on the opener. I think WotC (and most players) want to avoid that situation.
Instead of the coin flip perception, you get the highlander perception in which games can be decided on how many and which restricted cards you drew.
I kind of see it like Magic is a skilled sword fight, and WotC is trying to limit the length and strength of swords to make a balanced and good fight. Although the argument that "everyone could have bazookas" would make no single deck superior is true, it doesn't make for fun, skillful samurai showdowns.
WotC / DCI can try but they’ve been terrible at it. The game has changed directions since when I began playing. Their new vision misses the mark for me.
I think taking PO down a peg would be fair and on par with the restrictions they've made in the past. I've once thought Opal could be the target.
But instead of taking PO down a peg, why not boost everything else UP a peg? Unrestricting Gush, Chalice, and Golgari-Grave Troll would take some players away from PO and onto different decks. Unrestricted Chalice would at least make it pretty risky to play Mox Opals.
Ankh of Mishra?
I’m not sure how the damage redirection works anymore, but maybe you can redirect the damage to W&6
Have you tried Swords to Plowshares?
I wouldn’t mess with Tabernacles, just load up on Swords and Paths and play control. You should otherwise be able to handle Memnite and Rootwalla
It’s good to have relevant cards. When I play Xerox I play 4 Wastelands, 4 Plows and maindeck graveyard hate. You make one-for-one trades and win with superior card advantage. You might just not be playing enough relevant cards. Silver bullets won’t work as well as just playing enough relevant cards that cost one mana or less.
@vaughnbros said in UG Grow-a-Titan:
I think it’s a cool concept. Just some thoughts, I’d have two major questions if I were to work on this list:
Is 1 Gush + 2 Daze enough land bouncing? The quality of other options is not great, but there are cards, like Ghostly Flicker, that get around the land drop issue altogether, and Trade Routes that provides an engine to return your lands.
Is 6 explores and 0 fastbonds/explorations the correct configuration for additional land drops? I know there are diminishing returns on Fastbond effects due to the card disadvantage and this deck doesn’t completely need the effect, but the first one seems like it might be worth it if you are running into a lot of land drop issues.
If making land drops is an issue, I highly recommend trying out the blue counterspell, “Thwart”. I used to play it in Vintage Stasis around 2015 and it was quite impressive. And if making land drops also becomes a thing, then I have to also recommend the card, “Stasis”. It’s pretty powerful
For nostalgia I started picking up middle school cards. I can’t really afford Academy Rectors or Mox Diamonds, but 90 cent Spiritmongers, 2 dollar Exalted Angels and Vindicates, and 30 cent Psychatogs will do!
It’s funny how people go wild over cards that destroy Planeswalkers. Meanwhile Vindicate has sweet art and is sitting in the dollar bin
The greatest memory of magic I have is when I first started playing... Like the day or two of. Basically my deck was just every card I owned. One of the creatures had a fascia peel and I couldn't even read its stats. We would just play at the kitchen table, like 4 of us. Sometimes 1 on 1 at the picnic table at the park (no sleeves). This product reminds me of capturing that moment.
I want to buy a couple pre-cons so I can try playing MTG with my fiancé. Are there any recommendations? I can see the older ones seem pretty bland in comparison to the new “duel decks”.
I like the idea. Similarly though what about just poison? That deck is (was?) a turn 2 combo deck in Pauper. Using things like Invigorate and Mutagenic Growth