Magic: The Gathering

[Xerlic]

I'm no judge, but the question is whether or not the tapping is a may or not since it doesn't say "may" on the card. Even at regular REL if a player misses a "may" triggered ability, the judge will assume that the player chose not to use the ability.

If the tapping is mandatory, then the game should be rewound.

[Deftscythe]

There's no "may," but the wording is "up to 4" targets, which amounts to the same as a "may" because you can choose 0 targets.

[AlexRuzhyo]

Casually played MTG a long, long time ago and my buddy's giving me a black "rat deck" to get back in. Assuming I'd want to take up MTG what would be some good, "safe" entry buys? Starter decks? Deck builder?

And accessories! Going for quality this time around. Feel free to suggest or critique. These are what I'm considering.

Deck Protectors:
Going Dragonshield Black or KMC Matte Black. Most like DS.

Deck Box:
Ultra-Pro Magnetic Flip (90~100ish cards but has width gap.)
Ion Magnetic Flip (80~ish sleeved cards, but fit the width better.)
Ultra-Pro Satin Tower (Compartment is neat and could carry dice but the box has no class. )

Mats? Please suggest. I've a 7-piece Chessex set. Anyhing else I should sorry about?

[BaneTheBrawler]

You might need more dice. They work exceptionally well as +1/+1 counters, and depending on the decks you build you may find yourself with huge armies each requiring multiple dice. Especially with that new Trojan Horse card; So much potential there.

I have a toolbox my mom gave me years and years ago with small compartments in the lid. I keep my dice and counters in top, with my decks and tokens and mat in the bottom. I use plain 70 card ultra pro deckboxes. They can hold more, but I never go above 60 anymore. I have a labelmaker, so each box is labeled by mana colors and a single word name. For example: "Red/Blue/Black: Bolas" I keep my tokens in a single-row cardbox about the length of two fat packs; it's far too large at present, but the extra space is useful for Planechase cards and likely sideboard cards. For storage, I again have far too much room at present, but will expand into it over the years. A 5 row cardbox for lands, another for commons, and a three row for (at present) uncommons rares and mythics. I got some cheap card dividers and labeled those too, so they're all sorted. I'll probably narrow down my sorting even further, as the commons in particular are.... unruly. I have an Ultra Pro Wit's End mat, but any mat will do. For sleeves I have green Dragonshields. I like them a lot, but my friends prefer Ultra-Pro.

Deck builder is nice; it gives you a nice storage box and a decent selection of cards. Intro decks are generally decent, but I haven't looked at the specific decklists recently. I would NOT recommend the battle packs, with the two semi-randomized decks. Unless you want a bunch of commons for that set. Fat packs are my favorite, but I only ever pick up one per set. Once you get enough lands to build whatever decks you want (won't take long), if you're not interested in the boxes/dice/etc, I'd say just plain old boosters.

[AlexRuzhyo]

Most likely getting the Rush of the Wild event deck, my sleeves, and a deck box. If I stick with it I'll consider the deck-builder and fat packs. I fear that to enjoy the game I would need to go "all-in", as my friends are competitive and may disuade a casual apparoach.

I hope the event deck can be "fixed-up" a bit with cheap or uncommon cards. Honeslty, I barely went over it, but I didn't see much out of the Intro Packs (possible exception to Death Reaper), so I'll just go with the "higher tier" option of the event deck.

[Chrius]

Had a fun 'argument' at pre release with a guy about his abuse of the phrase 'in response' and him thinking just saying in response makes him immune to any mistakes in the stack.
His attacking 2/2 dude gets targeted by a pump spell and he has extra mana so I'm thinking I'll hold off on my deal 2 damage spell and let it through.
But, he says in response and taps out for a 2nd pump spell. I cast my 2 damage spell and he says that it has 3 toughness. I say, but you said in response. He then explicitly says that both of his spells are on the stack, yet he somehow thinks his first one has resolved. It wasn't in the yard or anything, it was on top of creature and underneath his second spell. It's prerelease (and I won on the swing back anyway so wasn't super worried) so I like to assist with confusion on the stack.
I tell him that he can allow the first spell to resolve, then cast the 2nd spell so that there is never a chance for me to safely cast my kill spell. He's been playing for years and has always been told to say 'in response.' I'm not convinced he learned what was actually happening in that interaction.

[LittleSlurpee]

I just started playing MTGO recently, after playing MTG with cards for a couple years now.

If anyone feels like hitting me up for some games, feel free to add my to your friends list. My username is Skowl.
Same goes for trading.

I haven't used any of my "new player points" or "event tickets" yet (I'm too nervous to jump into any event when I feel like my current decks aren't very good. My collection is limited.)

But anyways~ Hit me up and let's play! :D

[Xerlic]

Had a fun 'argument' at pre release with a guy about his abuse of the phrase 'in response' and him thinking just saying in response makes him immune to any mistakes in the stack.
His attacking 2/2 dude gets targeted by a pump spell and he has extra mana so I'm thinking I'll hold off on my deal 2 damage spell and let it through.
But, he says in response and taps out for a 2nd pump spell. I cast my 2 damage spell and he says that it has 3 toughness. I say, but you said in response. He then explicitly says that both of his spells are on the stack, yet he somehow thinks his first one has resolved. It wasn't in the yard or anything, it was on top of creature and underneath his second spell. It's prerelease (and I won on the swing back anyway so wasn't super worried) so I like to assist with confusion on the stack.
I tell him that he can allow the first spell to resolve, then cast the 2nd spell so that there is never a chance for me to safely cast my kill spell. He's been playing for years and has always been told to say 'in response.' I'm not convinced he learned what was actually happening in that interaction.

This is how it was in the old days when the stack didn't exist. Stuff was just cast "in response". At first I didn't pay much attention to how the stack worked since, fundamentally Magic, was the same and all the stack did was define exactly when a player could cast a spell. Well, turns out that it's pretty important haha.

My LGS is letting us draft Theros early tonight.

[Chrius]

This is how it was in the old days when the stack didn't exist. Stuff was just cast "in response". At first I didn't pay much attention to how the stack worked since, fundamentally Magic, was the same and all the stack did was define exactly when a player could cast a spell. Well, turns out that it's pretty important haha.

My LGS is letting us draft Theros early tonight.

His line of play wouldn't even work in the old batch system since he said in response to his first spell. If he cast the first spell and passed priority, I would let it go since he had mana and cards. Since he cast his spell, said in response and cast another spell, then I am allowed to cast a spell that will resolve before either of his spells. The only thing different in batch was that once a spell resolved, you went all the way down to an empty stack with no chance to start up again, which we weren't doing anyway.

[AlexRuzhyo]

Bought Heroes vs Monsters and realized it wasn't standard.
Is a shame, too. I liked the Heroes deck. Since it was just realeased I thought they's be legal.

Bought two Theros intros. White and Red face-cards. Pulled an Elpseth in one of the booster packs.
Frankensteined a Red/White out of the Intros and whatever legal Heros cards I had. Don't know what to do next.

I feel as though I should sell Elpseth to buy more stuff, or trade it off for a bunch of more useful stuff - the only problem being that I don't have a direction.

[Xerlic]

I feel as though I should sell Elpseth to buy more stuff, or trade it off for a bunch of more useful stuff - the only problem being that I don't have a direction.

You probably need more information to decide on a direction.

Are you trying to build a standard deck to compete at tournaments? Are the tournaments small local tournaments or do you plan to go to bigger ones like an SCG open or a Grand Prix? Are you trying to not spend a lot of money? Competitive magic can get very expensive. If you're just planning to play at something like FNM, then starting off with an intro deck and improving it is a good start.

If you're looking to play Boros (R/W is usually called Boros), check out this list that got 9th at the SCG Open this past weekend - http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=59607. Try to trade the Elspeth for some Boros Reckoners.

Are you trying to take a more casual approach ie just playing with friends? This is usually referred to as Kitchen Table magic.

[AlexRuzhyo]

You probably need more information to decide on a direction.

Are you trying to build a standard deck to compete at tournaments? Are the tournaments small local tournaments or do you plan to go to bigger ones like an SCG open or a Grand Prix? Are you trying to not spend a lot of money? Competitive magic can get very expensive. If you're just planning to play at something like FNM, then starting off with an intro deck and improving it is a good start.

If you're looking to play Boros (R/W is usually called Boros), check out this list that got 9th at the SCG Open this past weekend - http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=59607. Try to trade the Elspeth for some Boros Reckoners.

Are you trying to take a more casual approach ie just playing with friends? This is usually referred to as Kitchen Table magic.

FNM and Kitchen table. The kicker about my friends is that they play Standard at KT. I'd like something borderline competitive; something cheap but may be upgraded if I ever decide to put the money in it to do so.

From all the preconstructed decks and what M13 XBL game I've played I tend to.enjoy Red and White. Vigilance, Haste, First Strike,.Tokens, group buffs, ect. The Theros event deck is White/Blue so I've been eying that.

I've a 41 (100%) iTrader on Pojo so I should be able to trade my Elpseth, Thoughtseize, aand couple Fleecemanes once I pick a deck type. Maybe offload my YGO cards as well. Damn, I wish the nearest card shop wasnt on the other side of Memphis.

EDIT: The SCG link you posted didn't work for me, but I've been checking out Boros decks. Came across one that I already have a bulk of the cards for. It took $15 to fill in the gaps, with the exception of the foundries, and addition of a couple frontline medics. It's kind of a pauper deck but should be enough for me and what I'd use it for, or at the very least a good base to take boros further.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/boros...os-26-09-13-2/

[Syntex]

Anyone catch some of the devotion builds from PT Theros?

[Xerlic]

People at my store are all over the mono U list.

I was actually sitting on a bunch of stuff that exploded at the PT that I'm probably going to sell for some photography stuff lol.

[Chrius]

Piloted a mono black devotion splashing green to 5-3-2 at SCG DFW, just over 600 people
Played against Esper control 6 times and went 3-3 - I'm surprised I even went 50/50 on it
Mono black 3 times going 2-0-1
and a ramp monsters deck that drew on turns
Round 2 I played against a coworker and we played the exact same 75 and decided to draw
Pretty happy with the results given that I haven't played magic since the end of September, and only kept up with articles and videos on the meta, with cockatrice practice the night before

[Xerlic]

Esper player here. The Mono-B matchup can be pretty rough cos of Thoughtseize + Whip + Underworld Connections and having Doom Blade be straight blanks except against Mutavault. It's downright bad if it's the BG version since they now have Abrupt Decay to blow up DSpheres.

Blood Baron can be pretty brutal against Mono B, but I think a lot of lists now run Devour Flesh iirc.

Grats on your finish. 10 rounds of magic is pretty rough lol. I usually get massive headaches during any events that go past 4.

[Chrius]

Ya my esper wins were on the backs of awesome thoughseizes / duress (after side) and connections. Losses were where I drew no CA and just got answered until time for them to take over
We are looking at moving to the full 4 ofs on both connections and decay, where we played 3 before. I do run some devour flesh, and we have lifebane zombie in the board for things like blood baron / ghost dad, but I'm not sold on that yet.

[Tricen]

The black devotion decks are pretty not bad against esper. I wouldn't call it a bad matchup though. It can go both ways very easily. A well timed thoughtseize/duress definitely messes up game plans. I've been playing esper for a bit and I've been enjoying it. The list changes around, but it's mostly the same.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

Just got back into this, anyone in the Denver area down for some casual match ups on weekends?

[Xerlic]

Just got back into this, anyone in the Denver area down for some casual match ups on weekends?

NYC area here, but you can try the Wizards locator to see if there are any stores in your area: http://locator.wizards.com/