Official MTG Thread!!

[Magmoormaster]

I figured it would be nice to have a dedicated space to talk about MTG.

---

I recently got back into MTG after about a decade. I played standard for about a year, dabbled in modern but never really had the money to be competitive, and got into EDH towards the end. Stopped playing mostly due to college and not having time. Sold my cards to pay rent. I got fired over the holidays, and needed something new to do while waiting around between job interviews and such.

Therer's a couple LGS's near me, one of which is really cool. They actually charge a $10 fee to sit at a table, which honestly ups th quality of players. It's a great atmosphere, very unlike the usual dingy game store. Anyway, as someone who hasn't played in a long time, it's crazy how much the game has changed. EDH being the primary format now is wild but awesome. I think it's also the root cause of some of MTG's current problems (like how the Universes Beyond sets get more attention than in-universe sets) but that's a different discussion.

Despite the shop employees saying the players are all pretty casual, most players are running pretty powerful decks. I technically haven't seen any infinite combos, but I've seen several Gruul/Naya stompy decks, Yuriko, Ovika, a really crazy Flubs deck that I couldn't explain at all but was really over the top. I've been working on a Brudiclad deck, trying to make it powerful enough to keep up. Last week at FNM, I was one turn away from winning basically each game but lost cuz someone was just a little faster. Fortunately people are cool with proxies, cuz I'm not at a point in life where I can drop $50+ on a Rhystic Study.

Sidebar, I still have a word doc with my old decklists from a decade ago... It's funny looking back at them and seeing how bad they were lol. Even the strongest EDH decks I saw back in the day would get stomped by a mediocre deck these days. And that's less to do with power creep and more to do with better deckbuilding. It's also sad to see the value of stuff these days; wish I hadn't sold my Mox Opal back in 2017 for $40-50 when they're worth $170ish now.

[Jonnydread]

Hey me too! I just played Commander mode with some friends and had a good time, first time playing in a good ten years. I still have a couple shoeboxes of cards that I'd like to go through and build something out of, but I was always just a casual player so I have a lot of catching up to do and I don't know what half of words you said mean.

Riot

[Riot]

Haha was already typing

[Riot]

Yeah, I’m super frustrated with MTG. It’s just on easy mode now. As soon as WOTC started seeing that EDH/commander was where people’s interests were leaning, they started printed cards specifically for it, thus ruining the very essence of the game.
The power creep became so intense - if you're not playing broken cards, you’re not winning.

The new tier system is so stupid. I run a Gwafa deck that would be considered a tier4 deck because of a couple of cards, but in reality, it’s a Gwafa deck… so it’s really, really not winning.

My cousin recently moved home and we started playing together 25 years ago, so I bought us a couple of precons and it’s the most fun I’ve had playing in quite some time. I highly recommend you do this, unless you’re really only in it for the game play and not the unique, fun, deck building. If you’re just in it for the game play, hop on edhrec and build the same cookie cutter netdeck as everyone else and send it!

Im also not a big supporter of the Hasbro money grab of combining dumb ass movies, tv shows and whatever else with MTG. That’s an entirely different conversation though…

[Jonnydread]

but... but... Cactuar :'(

[Magmoormaster]

Much like how I enjoyed working on guns as much if not more than playing paintball, I enjoy the deckbuilding process here. I didn't start with a precon, but my deck is my own. I definitely used EDHREC as a starting point but between finding different synergistic cards while digging thru bulks and some stuff just kinda sucking, my deck is pretty dramatically different.

I agree that the game changers part of the new tier list is too rigid, for the exact reason you mentioned. I think if you use it more loosely to describe the intent of the deck, it works better. But any sort of tier system is going to be limited in efficacy, and easily broken.

Either way, I'm a tryhard and want my deck to be on the high side of tier 4. If i had a more casual group to play with, that might be different. But as it stands...

[Riot]

I fear that if you want to be competitive, you’re going to need the best deck that’s already been made… within reason, of course. No one is coming up with a cEDH deck that’s isn’t already proven…
Based on what you said; I think you’re looking for what we call “competitive casual.” Haha. Make it as good as you want, without copying the netdecks. Of course, even if you make the best version of a deck, it’s already online, which means you may not have copied it, but it’s unoriginal… and that’s the part I hate.

[Magmoormaster]

Oh yeah no, I'm not doing cEDH. That's why I said tier 4 and not tier 5.

I understand what you're saying about the best already being out there, but I kinda disagree. My commander is fairly low in popularity and I have yet to see any list built remotely like mine. Obviously I haven't looked at every list, but there's plenty of room of creativitiy and still make something good. They'll probably be similar in a lot of ways, sure. But that's just the nature of, well, anything really.

[freedom]

wish I hadn't sold my Mox Opal back in 2017 for $40-50 when they're worth $170ish now.

That price hike was due to modern unbanning it after a ten-year ban.
Please don't beat yourself up; I played when alpha cards were nearly worthless since they had different corners (sleeves weren't a thing yet).

[Grendel]

I play friendly Commander games with some friends, I too love building decks and other then abiding by the banned cards list we allow all cards from all eras and just stick with "Deck Value" limits. I just got done trading some paintball parts for some bulk cards to have more fodder to work with. I just got done blowing up all but two mediocre decks and in the process of sorting and cataloging what I now have so the new builds begin this weekend.

When MTG first came out in the early 90s a gaming friend tried to get us into the game but it really never caught on with my immediate group back then. I did not get into playing until my daughter and her husband talked me into playing back around 2015.

[redsquirrel]

Started playing around 2013 and have sold off my collections twice. Enjoy building jank and alt win-con decks (often one in the same). Have mostly ever played kitchen table magic in various formats and these days the most fun I have is playing casual games with duel decks/precons.

I’ll jump on Arena for a week or two a year, but don’t spend any money and quickly uninstall it because it’s such a time waster. Used to enjoy attending prereleases but it’s hard to find the time and the release schedule is just overwhelming now. Take me back to 3-4 a year please.

Had a weekly commander group for a while but that died off and now I’m more interested in D&D if I’m going to play a game.

[Magmoormaster]

I do kinda miss kitchen table mtg. I had a friend back in 15-16 who I'd play with all the time, but the friendship fell apart. I didn't have time to go to the LGS for games, so I ended up selling my cards a year or so later. That said, I do prefer high power games. With a bit of proxy'ing, it can still be pretty cheap too.

-------

So back in the day, I had a really lousy Mogis commander deck, which was designed just to cause chaos. Had a lot of sacrifice half your permanents, lose half your life total, etc. It was fun but definitely more of a troll deck than anything. As mentioned in the OP, I still have my old decklists saved on my computer, so for a laugh I went back and looked it over. I see now how to make it both much more powerful and really mean. Given its price, I won't ever build it (maybe proxy it), but here it is:

https://moxfield.com/decks/2V5-Fn0izE6f0KXbSIi86A

I call it "Salt the Earth." Basically just board wipes, mass sacrifice, mass land destruction, some extra turns, and ramp to get you there. Would probably only play it once, and then everyone would hate me lol.