Magic: The Gathering - General

[Jonathan Meer]

Because we need a topic for it.

Just got a Deck Builder's Toolkit. Coolest thing; exactly what I needed.

125 semi-randomized cards
four boosters "from a variety of recent [MTG] sets"
100 land (20 of each)

$20

[Kaden]

I bought one of the toolkits when they came out for... M11, I think? I don't really remember.

It's a cool idea and I'm glad WotC made them. The booklet it comes with also talks about basic stuff like how many lands-ish a deck should have, what's common for spell-to-creature ratios... stuff that's really cool for people who are not super into deck-building.

Personally, I enjoy deck building almost more than playing the actual game. Type 2 is easily my favorite format, when I'm not just playing Limited, because I like the constant changing of what sets are legal and what cards you have to work with and so on.

I'll probably never devote enough time to MTG to have the encyclopedic knowledge of what's legal to really build some more competitive stuff, but I love trying to find ways of making shit like Knowledge Pool or Gutter Grime playable.

The Theme Decks have also gotten pretty good as Magic has evolved. If someone's looking for ideas on how to make a type of deck, either pick up an intro deck that's trying to do a similar thing, or pull up the deck lists. They're never going to be competitive with actual constructed decks, but they're about on-par with the decks in Duels (on-par in terms of construction, not card quality).

[Jonathan Meer]

So I'm planning to Booster Draft this friday (Friday Night Magic). No idea what to expect (other than egotistical nerds thoroughly ravishing my ass). Any tips / advice?

[Kaden]

Most people are pretty chill, but everyone definitely thinks they know what's up with any given set. Ask people what cards they like for the format and whether or not they think exalted is overrated.

Also, I suggest ignoring white/black and moving in on green early. The exalted deck is way overdrafted and Primal Huntbeast can easily steal a win.

[Vad]

Kaden, you ever play a sun burst deck? Sooo much fun.

[Kaden]

Didn't play while sunburst was a thing. I'm ok with that, though, because that's exactly the kind of thing I would try to force every time.

[Jonathan Meer]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MTG-M2013-m13-Bo..._500wt_922

Core 2013 Booster Box (36 booster packs) for $88.99, free shipping. Works out to about $2.50 per pack.

Just bought one for myself.

[Jonathan Meer]

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/first-vamp/

My deck as it currently stands. Will probably be removing the Evernight Shades once I figure out a good replacement.

[Kaden]

Get rid of Vampiric Fury. It's not really a "vamp" deck when you only have 3 vamps.

I actually like the Shades in there with Fling. Makes a decent enough kill condition, given what you're working with. You also have some synergies with sac-ing creatures, so that can give Fling some extra value.

Unhallowed Pact is also a decent one to ditch. You have beefy enough creatures that I can't imagine many scenarios where you'd rather spend an extra card enchanting and then killing one of theirs when just killing it will probably be enough.

EDIT: I'd probably cut a couple mountains in favor of a couple more swamps, too. With the exception of Arsonists, you don't need early red mana, whereas a turn three Nighthawk is a pretty big game.

[Kaden]

Went to a Grand Prix qualifier (or whatever it's called... I can never keep the names of these things straight) and won, so my team for Grand Prix San Diego will have three byes going into it. Thought that was pretty cool and I figured there would be a couple here who actually knew what that meant.