The Shrine

So, that Magic 2014 Planeswalker game did what it was supposed to do, it got me to sign up for MTGO so i could actually build a deck as opposed to playing with their very limited set decks. I've been focusing on the Return to Ravnika constructed block so I dont have to learn about all the old sets and its useless to get into the base Magic 2013 set because the 2014 base set is coming out soon (maybe it came out yesterday?)

RTR set is pretty fun and for very cheap i've put together a decent and somewhat competitive red/white weenie speed deck. But, all i have to say is Resurgence of Voice is a bullshit $40 online 'card'. Its cost is way too cheap for what it does and if you opponent draw 2 of them it is hard to beat. One guy i played had 3 in his starting hand it was a joke.



It doesnt look like much, but its an annoying blocker for 2 mana against an aggro deck and you have to eventually kill it, which only makes matters worse when that token comes out and they clone it all to hell with that new populate ability. Very annoying and it is by far the most expensive card in this block at $40, ita amazing so many people have 4 in their green white decks.

You need to use Pillar of Flame to deal with Voice of Resurgence. That doesn't make it less cheesy but it's the one card that can usually get rid of it effectively.

True. That would be a good sideboard card. I've decided that green white aggro decks are annoying in general. Of course, this is coming from a red white aggro, which is just as cheesy... but when the GW picks up steam (its more mid game dependant as opposed to red white) it is almost impossible to stop.

It seems everyone is playing GW Aggro, Mono Red, some variant of Mono Red (like mine, added a splash of white), or Esper control decks that are annoyingly slow in the online tournaments for RTR Block. I built a cheap deck (maybe $40 total?), but some of these GW and Esper decks you can tell are easily in the 100's of dollars, its insane.

Doesn't sound any different when the guy has the power 9 autowins way back.

Don wrote:Doesn't sound any different when the guy has the power 9 autowins way back.

Yeah i guess im just shocked the game still has the longevity and the prices can still be so high for some cards. I suppose they arent as expensive as when Magic was really popular, but the values havnt nosedived either. I like this online version, though. Buying commons/uncommons off the bots are super cheap and easy and there is usually a game or tournament every night.

Since i invested about $50 (10 for the download and 40 on cards) i'll keep poking around for a while and see how long it taked until i get bored. The game has changed a lot, but its still Magic and its still fun.

Aww crap. I need to jump on now. Still in Philly for work, and will get back on Sat.

Standard can be punishing and ends up being a waste of money in the long run for everybody except the top-notch players who use whatever broken cards are out there. I still say you should learn how to play Commander. Or if nothing else, play Limited and get cards as a bonus. Limited is a hard thing to master, but at least you get a ton of cards while you learn. (Standard is more about have an expensive deck than it is about skill. Limited is most definitely a skill-based game. Commander is just about re-capturing the fun of MTG and awesome 4 player matches.)

My biggest reward in Limited was playing it a bunch on MTGO, and then playing it in RL. I smoked a smallish game of Draft at this game store, and then I decided to enter a pre-release Draft game for New Phyrexia. Got 2nd place with a pretty good deck and about 50-100 players. Of course, all I got were RL MTG cards, and playing in RL just sucks compared to MTGO.

Anyway, I have a bunch of SoM/MB cards from my Limited playing days that I can share.

Also, I can't stress enough to watch videos and read/post on MTG Salvation, no matter what format you're playing. Lots and lots of good info there. There's some videos of set reviews that are very informative.

What is your MTGO username, Flip?

Its LewisCBR.

I've been playing a lot of block constructed, which right now is just Return to Ravnica, Dragons Maze, and Gate Crash.

I started by building a mono red deck because it was super cheap and yet very competitive, after a few good daily tournament places where i would win packs and then sell them for tickets i build a BWR deck and it isnt that bad, either. Its more fun to play, at least. Mono red feels cheesy and is all about fast aggro and winning in 4 turns. The BWR deck loses pretty badly to an Esper color deck, but those are expensive to build which means i dont see a ton of them in the tournaments, luckily.

In last weeks RTR Block Constructed Premier i got to the top 8! (5th, which was awesome because it was like 40 tickets worth of packs won)

https://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/M ... rn/5738663

All in all i've sunk in about $60 to the game, but now that my decks are getting stale i kind of want to build a new one. However, i dont feel like loading up $100+ to make a competitive one, so i'm content right now to see how the meta shakes out in the RTR Block format while trying to win tickets in the daily tournaments.

All of these $150+ decks i refuse to build unless i win the tickets to do it. Some of the card in an Esper deck (which is probably the best deck to make in RTR format right now) are like 30 tickets apiece and you need 4, its insane.

Sweet! Looks like you're doing just fine. Just keep it budgeted; no need to blow a bunch of money on these over-valued decks.

You using the beta or official client? I tried the beta, and it looks pretty and has some nice UI details, it's also even more of a hog than v3 was (if you can believe that), and some of the pop-up windows are annoying.

I'm using the beta client and while it still looks like it was coded in the 2000's, it gets the rules right. I've never seen the old client, and i hear this one is cooler, but i still cant believe that they cant develop something a little looking. Small things, like changing my back/battleground, would be nice and something about the font and sound effects are still, meh, to me.

Regardless, Magic is a super fun game and i'm enjoying the RTR Block Constructed community of people i've met, played against, and have had the opportunity to forum with. With the new set coming out soon, i'm not sure how block will be effected, but i'm hoarding my tickets until it comes out.

I went 3-1 (and thus 'won' 6 booster packs) in another daily tonight so i'm feeling pretty good about back/red/white which is pretty underrepresented in the current meta of block.

Flip wrote:I'm using the beta client and while it still looks like it was coded in the 2000's, it gets the rules right. I've never seen the old client, and i hear this one is cooler, but i still cant believe that they cant develop something a little looking. Small things, like changing my back/battleground, would be nice and something about the font and sound effects are still, meh, to me.

Yeah, overall, I'm still disappointed about the beta client. They've fixed a few things, but the last time I tried it was a year ago. So, it sounds like they have only 2-3 people working on the thing. The whole thing doesn't make sense, considering how much money they make off of MTG and how the game is going to shift to MTGO as the primary source of players (if they would just commit to it).

Flip wrote:Regardless, Magic is a super fun game and i'm enjoying the RTR Block Constructed community of people i've met, played against, and have had the opportunity to forum with. With the new set coming out soon, i'm not sure how block will be effected, but i'm hoarding my tickets until it comes out.

Yeah, MTG Salvation is a huge resource. I would jump on those forums, if you haven't already.

Flip wrote:I went 3-1 (and thus 'won' 6 booster packs) in another daily tonight so i'm feeling pretty good about back/red/white which is pretty underrepresented in the current meta of block.

I would call that Oros or Dega. Of course, that's just me. I hate the nicknames people give these colors.