Magic: The Gathering

[Norellicus]

Nah I'm not super thrilled about it either, seems like you could get more interesting combinations out of INN-DKA-AVR

3x AVR just means lots of soulbond at every table

[Hank]

Question: If I have a Pyromancer Ascension in play, and it has two quest counters on it, am I able to sac a Terramorphic Expanse in between the copy and original cast of Brainstorm? Example: Copy resolves, sac Terramorphic Expanse, deck shuffle, Original is cast and resolves. I guess I would have to sac in response to the original being cast?

I guess it would essentially be me creating a Jerry-rigged Ponder+

[Zilong]

I think the safer bet is to just activate it upon the resolution of the copy, not like it really matters but it does gives you option of not wasting the shuffle on the off chance the first spell got countered.

[Ethan]

1. Place brainstorm on stack.
2. Ascension triggers.
3. Responses to ascension trigger.
4. If none, brainstorm copy goes on the stack.
5. Responses to copy.
6. If none, copy resolves and you brainstorm, then you regain priority to do things (instants, most activated abilities like terramorphic)
7. Responses to those things.
8. If something, repeat until they are all resolved.
9. Original brainstorm resolves.

The stack resolves one item at a time. So steps 6, 7, and 8 can occur any number of times before the original brainstorm ever resolves.

[Hank]

That's what I thought, thanks!

Here is the deck I'm toying with:

60 cards, 0 sideboard
5 Island
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Terramorphic Expanse
8 Mountain
21 lands


4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wee Dragonauts
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Chandra's Spitfire
16 creatures


4 Vapor Snag
4 Pyromancer Ascension
4 Browbeat
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Manamorphose
3 Soul's Fire
23 other spells

It's not particularly original, but I'm enjoying using it with my friends. I'm debating swapping out the Browbeats for Brainstorms.

[Zilong]

Browbeat isnt that great of a card since the options of doing either of two things is always worse than either the two effect alone when it's given to your opponent.

If you're not going by modern's banlist, I'd run the full set of Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm just to make activating the ascension a cinch.

Manamorphose isn't that great if you're not going for storm, so you may want to either replace that or replace your finisher for warren or brain freeze instead of the fiend/dragonaut if you'd rather go storm, maybe with Erayo thrown in just to troll

[Hank]

My only argument for Browbeat is that I typically get to draw for three every time. My friends know the deck, and being at 15 health is a realistic killshot range.

That being said, my goal is to make the deck sturdy and I don't like the randomness. Plus, when I'm playing with my friends, I like for my decks to be "good enough." I like to win, but I want it to be like a sword fight rather than a gun duel; a back and forth rather than a build up to a combo.

[Xerlic]

I don't like your manabase. You're running 8 fetchlands that make the land come into play tapped. This is bad because your curve is low. In a 2 color deck, you're better off running scalding tarn (fetch), steam vents/sulfur falls (duals) or just more basic lands.

[Hank]

That was another concern of mine. The deck used to be mono red so I could more or less fetch at my leisure, but adding the blue concerned me. Do you think 7 island, 4 Terramorphic, 10 mountain would be better? Or ditch fetch completely?

I don't plan on spending more than $2 on a single land. It's not that it's unjustifiable, I just don't play magic enough to warrant it.

[zoobernut]

Prerelease starts tonight at midnight at the local card shop so we will see how fun this new set actually is for limited. Anyone else doing prerelease events?

[Weltall]

Thinking about going and thinking about quitting the game altogether haha. We shall see...I got to move out of my apartment today.

[Krandor]

I'm going to one tomorrow morning. I'm hoping I can make some cheap ass trades for Tibalts and Griselbrands before people realize how useful they are (Tibalts anyways, people already know Griselbrand at least has value in Legacy).

[Norellicus]

Yeah I'm going down tomorrow morning, will be interesting to see the cards in play. Looking forward to the whole helvault thing too.

[Xerlic]

I'm going to the pre-release tomorrow. I did the midnight one for DKA and, honestly, a magic that begins at midnight is not fun at all. Good luck to everyone.

[Chrius]

My shop gives a free fat pack if you play 4 of 6 events this weekend. So... going for that.

[Krandor]

Store did Avr two headed giant after FNM.

Herro 2x Cavern of souls, tibalt, and sigarda from the 6 packs I pulled (4 for games and 2 as prize)

[Myrrh_Quetz]

PRE-RELEASE DAY

[Tricen]

4-0-2(intentional draw) into a top 8 split of 75players. Didn't drop a single game. Was hella fun, thoroughly enjoyed it

[zoobernut]

Well I was going to go to the midnight prerelease but I ended up staying home with my wife to help her take care of our sick baby. I think I might be able to go to the sunday event though.

[Norellicus]

Bleh, 1-3 on my prerelease. I had a pretty good deck I think (link), but I was getting screwed hard on draws; one game I didn't have a playable hand at all from 7 all the way down to 2 cards, and the games where I had playable hands I'd draw terribly and just couldn't answer opposing creatures :/

I had fun though, it was cool getting to see a bunch of new cards. And I got a bunch of helvault bits (our store has two helvaults for two events, and only 24 players per event, so there was plenty to go around lol).

Overall opinion of the set is positive. It's got nice bombs that really add drama to the table (Malignus always got a groan out of my opponent), and the Miracle cards are really fun to draw; more than once I popped Reforge the Soul when I really needed to pull a rabbit out of my hat. It only actually saved me once, but it was still fun to be like "okay, I'm dead next turn if I don't figure something out now" and then drew the Miracle.

There is a distinct lack of mana fixing in the cards I saw though, will make Limited interesting.

Edit: Also Vexing Devil is a beast, if nothing else it totally works as a psych move to throw people off balance.