Magic: The Gathering

Time Spiral is one of the greatest sets ever, yes. As are the rest of the sets that came out in 2006, other than Coldsnap (I still like Coldsnap)

I do think that 2011 gave us some very damn good sets (Innistrad, New Phyrexia and Mirrodin Besieged)

Wouldn't say the game is at its finest, though.

Well, I said a set. But more to the point, not really. Black's "thing" is in, theory, sacrificing life and creatures in order to obtain benefits. But this often translates into creatures like Lord of the Pit and Juzam Djinn, which force you to pay life in order to obtain a powerful creature early on the game.

My idea is a set based around things like Reanimate, which encourages you to play lifegain in order to obtain a major benefit (The more life you have, the more confident you can be in reviving something that will probably help you).

Phyrexian Mana doesn't address the idea either, as it's an optional cost that is there in order to gain a tempo advantage or to allow you to do things in situations where you normally can't do things.

Ah. Kind of like what my Lifedrain deck is turning into. Get life, pay life to get absurd stuff (Necropotence motherfucker), laugh maniacally.

I think Red in that set would function like Phyrexian mana, though, because that fits Red's theme better than long-term gains.

edited 12th Mar '12 4:50:48 PM by Exelixi

Do split colour symbols (the ones that can be paid with, say, blue mana or white mana) count as a colored mana symbol for Chroma?

Afaik yes.

I see.

Context: Remember how I was talking before about all the Black cards that are costed with nothing but solid mana symbols and how cool that was?

Well, I had an idea. . .

Since Chuck wasn't completely certain: yes, hybrid mana symbols count as symbols of both colours for the purpose of chroma. Hence why chroma was in the same block as hybrid being a major thing.

@Lovecrafter, last page: I didn't hit Sadbot with the comets; that survived to the end. Killed everything I didn't own, though.

Funniest game I was a part of today:

Me, using modified Graveborn, against a friend's modified Wolf Run Ramp.

Turn 1: He plays a forest. I play a swamp, Entomb Sphinx of the Steel Wind.

Turn 2: He plays Full Moon's Rise and says, "Uh... well... I should be okay as long as you don't play Reanimate."

I untap and cast Reanimate.

He makes this face and sweeps.

Exhume would have worked as well!

I like Graveborn, it's pretty damn awesome for a 'pre-con' deck.

Hmm, then that's probably how Sachi got killed (also in hindsight, what monster would ever willingly target his own Sadbot?). Means I'm still missing one of Juan's creatures. What else did he cast besides Riku, Edric, twin Krosan Restorers and twin Overbeings of Myth?

And that's why my werewolves splash White for O-Rings.

Graveborn is one of the most powerful pre-cons to have come out in years.

edited 13th Mar '12 12:16:11 AM by Lovecrafter

Everyone. That's why Sadbot is so sad.

But the whole point of sadbot is that you get a free draw from someone killing him. You shouldn't waste mana on killing a sadbot. Except maybe {1}, I guess.

Anyway, as I recall, I casted Riku, Krosan Restorer, the two overbeings and Edric.

Sadbot is sad because he wants to return home to his wife and family, but knows he can't because even his own summoner wants him dead. The kicker, of course, is that the ones that do end up surviving now wander the planes as Deathseekers, because that's how they were programmed.

Huh, I could've sworn you hit me in the face for 14, with two 6/6 Overbeings, a 1/2 Restorer and something else. Oh well.

I almost want to write The Ballad of Sadbot now.

Write one where sadbot gets sacc'ed to a birthing pod.

I'd like to see a set where nantuko are used instead of elves. Or spider-people, but you'd have to give them all reach which would cause any number of problems.

Oops, I thought they were in Odyssey but I think I was conflating Odyssey and Onslaught.

The point stands. The Orochi were pretty cool too. And our current green tribes (humans and werewolves) are not bad either. Elves get tiresome.

I find goblins to be more overdone than elves honestly. It's really odd that in a game which is primarily serious, we get a colour whose iconic race is basically comic relief. (Not to say that there's no room for comedy in the game or that I don't find a lot of goblin cards funny, just that it'd be nice for red to get a "serious" race more often.)

I find goblins consistently likable because they're funny, although I do agree that more variety in red races would be nice. Werewolves and vampires are serving red quite well at the well, and devils are good too. The return of orcs and dwarves wouldn't go amiss, though.

I do like goblins, I just don't like that they're red's default race.

edited 13th Mar '12 10:14:37 AM by Nyktos

What would you want? Not being snarky, genuinely curious. There are some good cases to be made for a number of other races, I'm sure.

I don't know. I mean, white doesn't really have a default race, and black has two, so it's not like there even necessarily has to be one. I'd love to see flamekin more often, and I think dwarves have potential (though the typical characterizations of dwarves — especially the more red-feeling ones — may be too close to how red-aligned humans are often portrayed). My block-setting uses orcs, which have fallen out of favour in Magic due to being too similar to goblins, but my block plays them up them up as being mean and sadistic rather than stupid. Obviously they lean more to the black side of red (and the red humans in the block lean more toward green).

I liked the flamekin too.

Dwarves are weird since a lot of their culture is quite close to white's outlook. Maybe if they did enemy-colour race pairings again...

edited 13th Mar '12 10:33:06 AM by Idler20