Stay at home Magic

Just another stay-at-home parent who loves Magic.

[markrosewater]

I’ve been playing Magic for over 20 years and the Unstable booster draft I’m going to tonight is my first ever DCI-sanctioned draft event. I’m so excited but nervous! There are SO MANY OPTIONS! Can you recommend just a couple of good drafting archetypes beginners like me can focus on? I’m afraid I’ll go too wide and have no deck to play at all!

Here’s some basic tips:

Contraptions:

White/Blue - Have affects to help better shape your overall Contraptions mix. Require having some other artifacts (note all the Order of the Widget creatures are also artifacts).

Blue/Black - Having More controlling Contraption cards. Can also steal opponent’s Contraptions.

Red/Black - The most aggressive of the Contraption combos. Focuses on more destruction effects.

Red/Green - Assembles the most Contraptions. Tends to use some die rolling.

Host/Augment

Green and White are the two most friendly colors for Host/Suture. They have multiple cards that interact with them. They also have the most Host/Suture. If you want to focus on it, you need to include green and/or white.

Black has the next most with blue and red the least. Remember artifacts host and sutures. They can help fill out your deck.

Try to have at least six hosts if you’re going to play some Augment cards.

Dice Rolling

White - has a few cards that rolls dice but none that interact with dice rollingBlue - Rerolls dice rolls.Black - increases dice rollsRed - rolls the most diceGreen - has the most cards that care about the results of due rolls

Factions Matter

Each faction (all ally combinations) has an uncommon that rewards you for playing the faction watermark. Remember that the Contraptions have watermarks and each faction has a theme its Contraptions work around.

I hope this helps.

[flavoracle]

Thanks very much!! Definitely helpful advice!

Quick Update:

I got one of the Contraption posters as a prize! And it was the EXACT faction I was hoping for!!!

What an awesome set…

[markrosewater]

I love that dinosaur tribal is a thing now but it got me thinking. When you introduce a new creature type as a tribe in a tribal set, isn't that parasitic? Because of the errata dinosaurs don't only exist on Ixalan but with so many creature types to support, it seems unlikely other non-Ixalan sets will have many (if any) dinosaurs. Or is this the kind of thing the core sets will address. By the way, this is not a complaint, just a curiosity. Thanks for your time.

If we weren’t willing to do tribes for the first time, we wouldn’t be able to do new tribes.

[talenlee]

God spare me from people who complain about parasitic design like it’s a gotcha

[tanisfahr]

I feel compelled to point out I specifically mentioned I wasn't complaining. I don't mind parasitic design. Energy is one of the most parasitic designs ever and I love it. But R&D do care and from what I've read try to avoid it, hence my question.

[tanisfahr]

Magic Score Sheet

I’ve been wanting to make a tournament score sheet for Magic and I finally got around to it so I thought I’d share it for all to use and also to get any constructive feedback people might have.

I had 3 goals for this score sheet.

It should not slow down gameplay.

It should be easy to use & read.

It should be smallish. 

Why a score sheet? Well, it’s not for casual play as there’s really no need but I felt like I could use one for tournament play for several reasons. 

I’m tired of being asked by my opponent, “Have I played a land this turn?”. This score sheet makes it easy to keep track of land drops. 

Although not common minor disagreements (such as, “Did you/I pay the 1 life two turns earlier?”) over life totals have happened often enough that I thought a simple memory aid for each change in life total would help.

I thought that collecting this data might prove useful.

So please, have a look and if you’re feeling game, give it a shot. As I mentioned before, constructive feedback is most welcome.

[markrosewater]

Has any particular instance of a minor detail / character becoming a fan favorite stuck with you through the years? How about a major character / event / card that got blown over by players?

Fblthp was a throwaway character on a limited-only card.

[tanisfahr]

More Fblthp, please!

[tanisfahr]

SOI: No Regenerate, Lots of Indestructible

A little while ago I wrote a post about replacing Regenerate with Indestructible. In that post, I argued that the two mechanics occupied the same design space but that Indestructible was more straightforward and easier for all players to understand. Now that Shadows Over Innistrad is out, I thought I’d take a hard look at the numbers to infer how WotC feels about this. The result? It does indeed appear that Regenerate is being replaced with Indestructible.

Origins had 5 cards that referenced Regenerate, the Khans block had 6, the BFZ block had 3, and SOI has 0. Contrast that with Indestructible; Origins had 4 cards that referenced it, the Khans block had 7, the BFZ block had 5, and SOI has 7 (6 of which only grant indestructible until EOT). In addition, The last two sets have given us two cards, Bonds of Mortality & Burn from Within, that (for the first time) specifically hose Indestructible. This signals to me that WotC is abandoning Regenerate and moving forward with Indestructible in its place.

[tanisfahr]

Managing Your Card Collection

If you plan on playing Magic for a while, odds are you’re going to end up with a lot of cards. Card Creep is pretty much inevitable for us Magic lovers. I have been playing Magic since 1995 and have been collecting trading cards of one sort or another since 1978. Managing my collections has taken up way too much of my time through the years but a few years ago I hit upon a solution for managing my Magic cards that I thought I’d share.

Let’s start with the physical storage of your cards. Here’s how I do it:

Above is a rack mount shelving unit with six rack mount drawers & four castors. The piece of light-colored wood at the bottom is a guard to keep my 19-month old toddler from pricking his fingers on the castor screws (they stick up through the bottom).

Below is a picture of what’s in one of the drawers. Each drawer has a 3200-count trading card box which fits perfectly inside it. You can also see that I’ve inserted dividers stating which set follows the divider.

I have, for the most part, arranged my cards chronologically by set. The advantage to this system is that when new cards come out, I don’t have to rearrange the rest of the cards in my collection (as I would have to do if I arranged them all, for example, alphabetically by name). Currently I have three of these units with two of them completely filled (the third has two empty drawers right now). I love this whole setup as does my spouse. It’s relatively compact, mobile, and protects my cards. The only significant downside is it is not cheap. As I recall each unit (drawers, castors, rack mount shelving) ended up costing around $700. But you don’t have to get an expensive rack mount setup. Perhaps you or a friend/family member has an old dresser lying around that will fit one or more storage boxes in it. That’ll do. And it beats having your card collection spread out all over a room just waiting for someone to spill something on it.

The biggest reason to organize & inventory your Magic cards is it will save you time & money when building decks. I’ve heard many people say they don’t want to spend their time that but these are also the same people who can’t seem to find that one card they need for their deck that they swear they have and end up going through pretty much their whole collection looking for it. That’s how it used to be for all of us in the Stone Ages before smart phones & their associated apps. To my understanding there are many apps out there which will allow you to keep track of every card in your collection. I use Decked Builder and I love it. I have an inventory of almost my entire collection on there (I don’t keep track of tokens & non-full-art basic lands). If somebody asks if I have a certain card I’m able to pull out my phone and tell them in a few seconds whether or not I do. In addition, I build my decklists on there so I’m able to tell what cards, if any, I will need to purchase. And because all of my cards are neatly organized, it’s easy for me to locate the cards I own that I want to put into a deck. 

I have to be diligent with my collection. Any time I obtain new cards or give away cards I immediately update my database. Taking decks apart is a little tedious because every card must be put back in its appropriate place. But I have over 58,000 cards. If I’m not diligent I know I will spend even more time dealing with my collection and less time building decks & playing Magic.

[tanisfahr]

What’s a vanilla creature?

Recently there’s been a lot of discussion on social media about whether or not Dryad Arbor is a vanilla creature. After giving it a little thought I figured I might as well join in as well.

Keep reading

[tokens-matter]

I say vanilla creatures have 0 abilitys just a mana cost and stats say 1/1. I call creatures like dryad arbor, or storm crow French vanilla. They don’t have any special abilities but they have a little twist.

[tanisfahr]

I don’t agree that they have to be 1/1. That seems needlessly limiting. What would we call a 2/2 creature with no abilities (like Grizzly Bears)? Or a 3/3 creature with no abilities (like Watchwolf)?

[tokens-matter]

I said say a 1/1 as an example. They can be a 10/10 with no abilitys and still be vanilla.

[rasta-nana]

I refer to any creature with no activated, keyword, or triggered abilities ‘vanilla’.

Vastwood Gorger, for example, is a Vanilla 5/6.

If a creature has no abilities for all intents and purposes, it is Vanilla. I.e. someone asks me the on-the-board consequences of them blocking something of mine, I tell them that it is effectively a vanilla X/Y as it stands, if it lacks any combat-relevant abilties. Dryad Arbor, I would refer to it not as a vanilla until it is attacking and already tapped. 

[tanisfahr]

An interesting take on this. I’ve never heard of somebody describing a creature as vanilla during combat if it has no combat-relevant abilities. Thanks for sharing.

[tanisfahr]

What’s a vanilla creature?

Recently there’s been a lot of discussion on social media about whether or not Dryad Arbor is a vanilla creature. After giving it a little thought I figured I might as well join in as well.

Keep reading

[tokens-matter]

I say vanilla creatures have 0 abilitys just a mana cost and stats say 1/1. I call creatures like dryad arbor, or storm crow French vanilla. They don’t have any special abilities but they have a little twist.

[tanisfahr]

I don’t agree that they have to be 1/1. That seems needlessly limiting. What would we call a 2/2 creature with no abilities (like Grizzly Bears)? Or a 3/3 creature with no abilities (like Watchwolf)?

[tokens-matter]

I said say a 1/1 as an example. They can be a 10/10 with no abilitys and still be vanilla.

[tanisfahr]

My bad. I misunderstood what you meant.

[tabakrules-deactivated20190523]

Just curious, is there any special reason tokens don't have a color indicator? And on a separate note, I'm still a little peeved the Packers didn't go for two.

Tokens don’t have color indicators (the graphic) because they don’t have color indicators (the characteristic). Their color is simply defined by the effect that creates them.

We’d been fairly ineffective in short yardage situations all game, and our defense was playing really well. Going for two would have been exciting, but I think the call was fine.

[tanisfahr]

Thanks Matt. I always appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions.

[tanisfahr]

What’s a vanilla creature?

Recently there’s been a lot of discussion on social media about whether or not Dryad Arbor is a vanilla creature. After giving it a little thought I figured I might as well join in as well.

Keep reading

[tokens-matter]

I say vanilla creatures have 0 abilitys just a mana cost and stats say 1/1. I call creatures like dryad arbor, or storm crow French vanilla. They don’t have any special abilities but they have a little twist.

[tanisfahr]

I don’t agree that they have to be 1/1. That seems needlessly limiting. What would we call a 2/2 creature with no abilities (like Grizzly Bears)? Or a 3/3 creature with no abilities (like Watchwolf)?

[tanisfahr]

What’s a vanilla creature?

Recently there’s been a lot of discussion on social media about whether or not Dryad Arbor is a vanilla creature. After giving it a little thought I figured I might as well join in as well.

The whole discussion comes down to how one defines “vanilla creature”. From what I can tell there are two camps. The first camp defines vanilla creatures as creatures with no rules text. The second camp defines vanilla creatures as creatures with no abilities. It’s important to note that the disagreement stems over the definition. Thus the basic idea, in my opinion, is to choose a definition (whether it’s one of these two or another one) that matches up well with everybody’s expectations of what is meant by “vanilla creature” and will allow the creature (and all printings of it) to be readily identified as vanilla or non-vanilla. 

The Future Sight version of Dryad Arbor clearly has rules text: Dryad Arbor is green. The FTV: Realms version of Dryad Arbor doesn’t have any rules text. The reason it doesn’t have any rules text is because WotC came up with the color indicator to indicate it is green. In addition, at some point it was added to the rules that being a Forest means “tap to add 1 green mana to your mana pool”. What if WotC comes up with a symbol that means a creature has flying? Would future reprints of Storm Crow now be vanilla? The idea that Storm Crow could become vanilla because if future innovations with card design strikes me as ludicrous. Thus, I am forced to reject the definition of vanilla creatures as creatures with no rules text.

This means I’m leaning toward the definition of vanilla creatures as creatures with no abilities. That is a pretty straightforward definition. Dryad Arbor wouldn’t be a creature but Crimson Kobolds (being red is not an ability). The only card that might fall into a gray area with this definition is Isamaru, Hound of Konda. If you think being Legendary grants a creature an ability (if at any time you control another CARDNAME, sacrifice this CARDNAME or the other CARDNAME) then Isamaru is not a vanilla creature. If you think being Legendary does not grant an ability, then Isamaru is a vanilla creature.

Currently I think vanilla creatures are best defined as creatures with no abilities but for now I’m on the fence about Isamaru. And of course, somebody could point out something I’ve missed or an error in my reasoning. As always, I welcome any constructive discussion. Let me know what you think.

[tanisfahr]

Anybody else notice this?

I was going through my collection when I noticed two cards in Ice Age that use the original white mana symbol which is strange because the current white mana symbol first appeared in 4th (before Ice Age) and as best I can tell all of the other white mana symbols in Ice Age are the current version.

[tanisfahr]

Alternate Format Review: Piñata

My playgroup got together this past weekend and we tried out an alternate Commander format: Piñata. If you’re unfamiliar with this format, it’s pretty straightforward. Players can’t attack or do damage to each other. The only things you can attack are planeswalkers & the piñata. The piñata has 25 life times however many players there are (for example, if there are 3 players: 3*25=75 life). And lastly, players can use their creatures to block for the piñata (or their planeswalkers). The winner is the person who delivers the killing blow to the piñata.

I was really excited to try out this format because I thought it would solve the main issue I have with multiplayer formats such as Commander: it’s boring for people who have been removed from the game. Often in multiplayer games the best strategy is to take an opposing player out and thus improve your chances of winning. However, removing somebody from the game isn’t very fun for them and having fun is kind of the whole point. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing the strategy or even people who pursue that strategy, I’m just pointing out that some people have very limited time available to play Magic and don’t want to spend that time watching the rest of their playgroup play.

We played two games of 3-person Piñata. I used an Athreos deck the first time and a Silumgar deck the second time. Silumgar turned out to be a bad choice as his ability was useless in this format (though surprisingly I almost won). While myself and another were just using our tried & true Commander decks, the remaining member in our playgroup chose to make a deck specifically for this occasion. It was a Sliver Hivelord deck with (not surprisingly) lots of slivers & (surprisingly) Fog effects. Recycle was also in the deck which was a card none of us had used before and turned out to be incredibly effective at cycling through one’s deck.

In the end, I was a little disappointed with the format. While everybody was in the game until the end, it appeared to create a different issue: somebody gets to be the king-maker. While this didn’t happen in our first game, it happened in our second game. In that game it happened that I attacked and only the opponent to my right could stop me from inflicting the killing blow. However, if I was stopped then the opponent on my left would be able to win the game. So by either action or inaction, the opponent on my right would decide the victor. None of us are fans of that kind of gameplay. Perhaps it was a fluke but it didn’t feel like a fluke. Additionally, the board was incredibly crowded and complex. After all, since we couldn’t attack each other and we weren’t all that interested in blocking early in the game, our armies just kept growing. That might change in future games as we become more experienced in this format.

[tanisfahr]

Monoblue Beginner Deck

You never know when somebody might be up for learning how to play Magic. With that in mind, I built 5 monocolor decks for beginners. The decks aren’t meant to be powerful, they’re meant to be fun & easy for beginners to play with as well as balanced with each other for good gameplay. Also, whenever possible (and appropriate) I tried to choose cards that had reminder text. The first deck I built was monowhite. Here are the rules I used to build that deck:

Each card will be common and have a modern card frame.

Each deck has 20 creatures, 18 spells, & 22 lands.

Each deck has an average cmc (not counting lands) of 2.5.

Each deck has 2 artifacts.

Each deck has flying except for Green which has reach.

Each deck has creature removal.

Each deck has 4 cycling lands and other card draw.

Each deck should reflect what the color represents.

Although these decks are meant for beginners, they’re also great for using with people who know how to play but rarely get to play. For example, my youngest sibling loves to play but (with four children under the age of 7) just doesn’t have the time. However, when we get together we’re usually able to find a little time and these decks, given the card choices and straightforward strategies of each deck, allow us to maximize the number of quality games we get.

CREATURES (20)

Elusive Spellfist (4)

Jeskai Sage (4)

Umara Entangler (4)

War-Wing Siren (4)

Prescient Chimera (4)

SPELLS (18)

Downsize (1)

Unsummon (1)

Courier’s Capsule (2)

Fate Foretold (2)

Ghostform (2)

Nullify (3)

Singing Bell Strike (3)

Divination (3)

Scatter Arc (1)

LANDS (22)

Island (18)

Lonely Sandbar (4)

This deck has four themes: noncreature spell synergy, control, removal, & card draw.

Noncreature Spell Synergy: With Prowess having recently been introduced and promoted to evergreen, this seemed like a straightforward flavorful approach to take with blue’s creatures. Jeskai Sage & Umara Entangler have Prowess. Elusive Spellfist has two abilities that trigger whenever a noncreature spell is cast. War-Wing Siren has Heroic and Prescient Chimera lets you Scry 1 whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell. To specifically help War-Wing Siren I threw in four targeting spells: Fate Foretold (2 copies) & Ghostform (2 copies). Fate Foretold also helps with card draw as does Jeskai Sage. Also note that War-Wing Siren & Prescient Siren provide blue with eight fliers.

Control: Blue is known for control and I would be remiss if I didn’t include any. This deck has four counter spells (3 copies of Nullify & 1 copy of Scatter Arc). In addition it also has Downsize to to diminish an opponent’s attack. 

Removal: Technically removal is a subset of control but I’m keeping it separate because it’s a theme for every deck. This deck has four removal spells: Unsummon (1 copy) and Singing Bell Strike (3 copies). 

Card Draw: Blue is the king of card draw and for good reason. Blue tends to have weak creatures and doesn’t have many cards that do direct damage. Card draw allows blue to keep up with the other, more aggressive, colors. This deck has 16 cards that provide card draw: Jeskai Sage (4 copies), Courier’s Capsule (2 copies), Fate Foretold (2 copies), Divination (3 copies), Scatter Arc (1 copy), & Lonely Sandbar (4 copies). In addition, Prescient Chimera provides Scry which isn’t card draw but sure does help.

The success of this deck depends on card draw. When this deck is able to draw a bunch of extra cards, it can be successful. If it can’t, it’s toast as it’s creatures just aren’t powerful enough to hold off most decks. 

As always, I welcome any constructive comments you may have.

[tanisfahr]

My stance on leaks

I don’t like them. 

[tanisfahr]

Monowhite Beginner Deck

You never know when somebody might be up for learning how to play Magic. With that in mind, I built 5 monocolor decks for beginners. The decks aren’t meant to be powerful, they’re meant to be fun & easy for beginners to play with as well as balanced with each other for good gameplay. Also, whenever possible (and appropriate) I tried to choose cards that had reminder text. Here are the rules I used to build the decks:

Each card will be common and have a modern card frame.

Each deck has 20 creatures, 18 spells, & 22 lands.

Each deck has an average cmc (not counting lands) of 2.5.

Each deck has 2 artifacts.

Each deck has flying except for Green which has reach.

Each deck has creature removal.

Each deck has 4 cycling lands and other card draw.

Each deck should reflect what the color represents.

Most of these rules came from the first of these decks that I built: monowhite.

CREATURES (20)

Akroan Skyguard (4)

Veteran Armorsmith (4)

Court Street Denizen (4)

Veteran Swordsmith (4)

Abzan Skycaptain (4)

SPELLS (18)

Mortal’s Ardor (2)

Chosen by Heliod (4)

Pacifism (2)

Puncturing Light (2)

Raise the Alarm (2)

Revoke Existence (1)

Kill Shot (2)

Marble Chalice (2)

Solemn Offering (1)

LANDS (22)

Plains (18)

Secluded Steppe (4)

This deck has four themes: soldier tribal, life gain, removal, & card draw.

Soldier Tribal: I picked tribal because that’s an easy theme for beginners to identify and pick up on. So each creature is a soldier, there are two copies of Raise the Alarm, and consequently there’s a fair amount of synergy just between the creatures. White is primary in flying so I put in 8 fliers (Akroan Skyguard & Abzan Skycaptain).

Life Gain: Beginners like life gain and White is the champion of life gain so this seemed like an obvious pairing. There are 5 cards that provide life gain in this deck: Mortal’s Ardor (2 copies), Marble Chalice (2 copies), & Solemn Offering (1 copy). Mortal’s Ardor also serves as a way to trigger Akroan Skyguard’s Heroic ability. Solemn Offering also fits in with the theme of removal and Marble Chalice fulfills the artifact requirement.

Removal: Removal is, of course, an important part of any deck and beginners need to learn how and when to use it. This deck has 8 cards that focus on removal; 6 provide creature removal (Pacifism, Puncturing Light, & Kill Shot) & 2 provide artifact/enchantment removal (Revoke Existence & Solemn Offering). As I’ve already noted, Solemn Offering also fits in with the life gain theme. In addition, Court Street Denizen has an ability which can at times be effectively the same as creature removal.

Card Draw: As per my rules, this deck has 4 copies of Secluded Steppe (a cycling land). In addition it also has Chosen by Heliod which also serves as a way to trigger Akroan Skyguard’s Heroic Ability.

Again, this deck is not meant to be powerful. Several of the cards are, to put it politely, weak. However, they are straightforward to use and that is the point. As always, I welcome any constructive comments you may have.

[tanisfahr]

Alternate Formats: All Lands

I’m a big fan of alternate formats. It helps to keep my overall Magic experience from getting stale by introducing me to different gameplay and to new (at least to me) cards. It also causes me to explore different deck archetypes and to be creative in new ways.

If you’re not familiar with the All Lands format, it’s pretty straightforward: each player’s deck contains only lands. There are a few consequences to this format.

You never miss a land drop.

You play only one card during your turn.

You are unable to play any cards during your opponent’s turn.

There are a few exceptions to the last two rules. The cycling lands, Tolaria West, & Rustic Clachan all have abilities (you discard the card in exchange for an effect) that can be played any time you have priority. Terrain Generator has an ability that allows you to play an extra basic land from your hand. There are also the Hideaway lands which allow you to play a card (provided certain criteria are met) that you had previously exiled. Finally, there are fetch lands, some of which allow you to get up to two lands (either basic lands or specific types of land) onto the battlefield.

I played this format for the first time recently. I just wanted to see how it worked so I made two identical 42 card decks (they were identical because I didn’t have  time to make two decks; they were going to be 40 card decks but at the last minute I added two of Mishra’s Factory to each deck and didn’t want to waste time deciding what to pull out) with cards I had on hand and asked my spouse to play with me. Here are my observations from our game.

It’s a slow format. Being able to play only one card per turn does not a fast format make.

Your hand is always full. That’s what happens when you can only play one card per turn.

There are (almost) no surprises during combat. The lack of instants means there is no hidden information during combat (unless your opponent has a Rustic Clachan in hand or the possibility of playing a card exiled by a Hideaway land).

There are a surprisingly large number of options during your turn. From which of the 7-8 cards in your hand to play to what to do with the cards on your battlefield. Most every card on the battlefield can generate mana and most every card has some useful activated ability. That ends up leaving you with a bunch of mutually exclusive options.

Land destruction is obviously powerful. 

Token creatures are surprisingly powerful. There’s no mass creature removal and no target creature removal. Token creatures can be killed, but there are fewer options.

I enjoyed our game as did my spouse (though I suspect it was because I was skunked 20-0). I wouldn’t mind playing this format again though I doubt that will be any time soon. I definitely don’t see this format taking off but I know that it’ll be in the back of my mind as I evaluate the lands from future sets.