$$$ /mtg/ $$$ Magic: the Gathering $$$ Modern $$$ Competitive $$$ General $$$

That guy who always posts this image here

Even when Jeskai Control was good (the sphinx rev days), the issue with the deck has always been a lack of a wincon. Even if you're a full hand of cards up on your opponent in card advantage, if you can't actually close out the game they'll catch up again and with the lack of card selection in modern you could easily lose a game where you had achieved complete control with your opponent drawing the nuts twice versus your two land topdecks. People tried so many things as a wincon and all were decent but the problem with Modern control has always been that there are so many different decks running around, finding a wincon that beats all (or at least most) decks was difficult to impossible

The power of Nahiri is threefold in Jeskai because she provides a fast wincon that is devastating against basically every deck, whilst also fixing topdeck issues with her loot ability. Even with Dredge running around I still deem her to be the strongest control wincon in the format (honestly no control deck has a shot at beating dredge game 1)

So I've been playing jeskai control on xmage and I'm thinking about buying into it and was wondering about snap/fatcaster ratios.

I've seen some go 3:1 or 4:1 but is it worth running 2 Fatcasters or is that a little too greedy for modern?

I'm leaning towards 4:2 but if I can save a couple bucks by cutting one snap I'd like to.

>Playing :
Shock Pox (loam pox with molten vortex, minus all of the bad cards)
tappedout.net/mtg-decks/shock-pox/

>Hated matchup:
probably living end or storm. I cant win without a lot of dedicated hate.

>Most savage plays:
generally, playing smallpox after their first turn. Most decks that try to play creatures turn one have to start over with four cards in hand. Also, infinite ravens crime or ghost quarters make games very unfair against a lot of decks.

Fakes might finally get me into competing in constructed MTG tournaments.

i run my sun and moon with gisela just for fun. but i think i should try nahiri

Don't have moneys for quality discard at the moment (Inquisitions and Thoughtseizes). Which ones of the following budget cards are closer to playable?
It's a mono B deck, so there's no real difference between 1B and BB.
Blackmail
Duress
Raven's Crime
Harsh Scrutiny
Wrench Mind

How is leonin arbiter resulting in game losses? Looking at extra cards isn't a game loss. I don't see where in the IPG this would result in a game loss.

Chinamen thoughtseizes are like 2,75 bucks each

>I still deem her to be the strongest control wincon in the format
I think that's too bold. I think she's good, and in terms of "If I ult I win" yeah sure. But strongest in the format? I don't know man.

I think it depends on how many Cryptics you run? If 4, I'd stick with the 3:1 split. 2 seems like it lead to some clogged up early game draws.

strongest *control* wincon in the format, it'd be arbitrary to compare her to Goblin Guide, Glistener Elf or Primeval Titan

You want four snaps, snapcaster is the reason to play blue in modern. But for budget reasoning you could start off with 3/2 and then save up for the last one perhaps. I'm not really a big fan of Torrential Gearhulk but when I tried him out he was pretty decent as a one-of as six is a LOT of mana in Modern.

Does anyone have pictures of the fakes they bought? I was thinking of picking some up, namely tarmogyofs and lilianas, and I as wondering how they looked and if they were good enough to pass during regular weeklies or even high level events.

>Maybe if you actually practiced the game, you would be better at this game, like the guy with fakes.
You practice without fakes. It's called PROXYING. You should try it sometime. Costs you literally nothing. That's even *cheaper* than fakes.

but you cant use proxies in tournaments...

Why are you doing *this* so much?

nah, dnoid I'm not paying for this
I can't find deck building, though.

Fake cards don't help you play better. In a 75-card mirror the better player is going to win more matches.

I know people that don't do proxy because they 'don't have the cards'
And what do you do when your slips of paper that say 'goyf' on the back of a basic land won't pass at FNM?

>What are you currently playing?

Lantern Control

>What do you hate to sit down across from?

Usually grixis control. Jeskai control isn't a dream either.

>How did you do at your last FNM?

4-0

>When's your next big tourney?

GP side event Saturday

>What are you playing there?

Lantern Control

>How many people are you borrowing cards from?

I don't think any at the moment

>What was the filthiest, most savage thing you've done in a sanctioned tournament?

Attacking with a "Leathal" inkmoth nexus with a Melira on the board. It's not my place to prevent my opponent from conceding.

The best part is that it deals no damage and no poison

I was thinking about some way to compensate my lack of budget for fetches and then I remembered this is a card.

I'm a big fan of stax but in modern, the only two decks that have this playstyle (SnM and Lantern) are outside of my budget.

Do you think a pox deck running Root Maze would have a shot in competitive leagues on MTGO ? Mtggoldfish had some pretty good results with a janky death cloud deck in their budget series.

I guess the board never went to an illegal state, so you wouldn't even have got a warning.

I feel bad for the guy though lol.

Hey guys im just getting back into magic after a 10 year hiatus. Back when i used to play ravnica was the new block out and i really love the house of dimir mill/counter deck. Is there anything like that used at competitive games right now? I feel kinda lost with all the options to build my deck since i wanna start going to fnm again

>mill
>new players

What's your budget? Lantern Control is the best mill deck atm. And if you want to mill yourself, Dredge.

Mill is definitely not viable in any format.
If you're not sure what you want to play, Jund is the way to go.

It's like this morning all over again.

Lurk leddit for moar info bootlegmtg

>Fake cards don't help you play better. In a 75-card mirror the better player is going to win more matches
But it gives you the cards to play. Fakes don't make you to be a better player, they just allow you to play in tournaments without wasting tons of money on cardboard

So what's gonna be the big reprint for MM2017, Snap or Liliana?

Safe to say both, probably AV also.

Lili at mythic, snap at common

>New rarity: ultrahipermegarare. This is a card that was only printed there times in this set, good luck opening one!
>Groove of the burnwillow
>Liliana
>Snapcaster
>Inkmoth Nexus
>Horizon canopy
The res of the set is draft shit
Thank you limited shitters, you are the cancer killing Magic

Yep, they just didn't understand the interaction. I did like 15 points of non-poison "damage." And they scooped. oh well.

Same thing about being dead on board next turn at two life and revealing a hand of might, might, Mutagenic growth with a blighted Agent and 2 green lands available. Opponent at 0 poison. Opponent says "... Yep, I guess that's lethal." And scoops the cards. I never placed any of the spells on the stack and didn't say anything to imply paying two life. Just put my hand on the table.

Sounds like it could of been a "I'm pretty much dead anyways" concede.

How can they cost 3$ when there's no artificial scarcity? Just charging as much as they want because they're still 4 times cheaper?

damn I really want more modern cards with that old border

Because the person that made them needs to be paid for their work. It's that fucking simple.

They kill me immediately the next turn. I have no blocks and can't win the game. If they make me cast the spells I can die paying the two life or die after doing the 9 poison. But they didn't think about it and conceded. That was my intention. My body language is that I can kill them. Not that I concede. If they called my bluff that's fine. But I'm in it to win.

You're telling me user.

You're taking several illegal actions (minimum 2 GRV) by searching your library and taking a card from it without paying for the Arbiter tax.
The trick is that you wait until they grab what they wanted and put it onto the battlefield or into their hand (or wherever) and immediately call the Judge over before they shuffle and present. I've had this work locally at Competitive REL many times and at Professional REL (GP Day 2) once. You kinda have to lawyer a bit over multiple infractions but they're getting minimum a GRV Warning.

Sounds like you're a faggot. Please return to your circle jerk general. Thanks

I agree with , go fuck off.

>What are you currently playing?
Nya~ Burn (^・ω・^ )

>What do you hate to sit down across from?
Titan Shift
Its practically impossible for me to beat that shit.

>How did you do at your last FNM?
Last FNM I went to I went 4-0
Was back in my hometown where absolutely no one plays burn, so no one had any SB tech to deal with me.

>When's your next big tourney?
This Saturday, going with my big bro who's in the Army.

>What are you playing there?
Burn

>How many people are you borrowing cards from?
No one, but I'm gonna try and bum a fetch or two off a friend.

>What was the filthiest, most savage thing you've done in a sanctioned tournament?
Winning 4 games in a row using deflecting palms that I sided in.

While we're on the subject, ignoring leonin arbiter is a special action and doesn't use the stack, but do all players have to pass after taking a special action for the next spell on the stack to resolves? e.g. if my opponent ghost quarters me, passes priority and I pay the 2, do they have a chance to flicker the arbiter or can I pass and resolve GQ effect immediately?

>Being so bad you have to rulelawyer a win.
Wew lad, because just telling the guy if he is gonna pay the tax or not is too difficult.

if you flicker leyline of sanctity, can you still bolt your opponent?
Arbiter's ability is a static passive ability not a trigger.

magiccards.info/query?q=leonin arbiter&v=card&s=cname
1/1/2011: Paying {2} to ignore Leonin Arbiter’s effect is a special action. Any player may take this special action any time he or she has priority. It doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to.

Already posted this in the modern general but if anyone else wants to take the challenge it might be fun.

I have just over $200 to spend on Magic cards that's burning a hole in my pocket. Put together a package of cards at that price I can buy on ebay or wherever else you can find them cheap. If it's good I'll post proof of purchase for everything on the list.

I collect for value but also play all different kinds of decks so either way you want to do it works. I already got offered a booster box of Modern Masters for $200 but I'd rather maybe buy some singles or playsets from that to fill out decks and get some other stuff instead of getting the full box.

Yes, but for a spell/ability to resolve both players have to pass without playing a spell or activating an ability. Does this count for that purpose?

If the ability can't be responded to I would assume you can't flicker the arbiter or flash in a second one until after you finish searching,as you can't activate abilities in the middle of something resolving. but frankly I'm no judge so I can't be certain.

>I already got offered a booster box of Modern Masters for $200 but I'd rather maybe buy some singles or playsets from that to fill out decks and get some other stuff instead of getting the full box

Smart move. 90% of the stuff in MM is fucking trash.

>Some good modern powerhouses off the top of my head (some goodstuff transferrable to other decks, some less so, trying not to list narrow stuff like Cranial Plating or Golgari Grave-Troll)
Lightning Bolt
Serum Visions
Inquisition of Kozilek
Thoughtseize
Aether Vial
Path to Exile
Mox Opal
Delver of Secrets
Snapcaster Mage
Remand
Mana Leak
Ancient Stirrings
Collective Brutality
Leonin Arbiter
old and new Thalia
Young Pyromancer (less so but still worth owning a playset)
Gitaxian Probe
Liliana of the Veil (too expensive)
Tarmogoyf (ditto)

>Nonbasics, always usable:
Fetches
Shocks
Mutavault
Celestial Colonnade
Raging Ravine
Ghost Quarter
Blinkmoth Nexus

That's a pretty good place to start.

Forgot to list some very powerful silver bullets like Rest in Peace, Stony Silence and their ilk.

Damn man, thanks. I was just looking at a Mox Opal actually. Do you think it's worth it to buy the Kaladesh invention version of that card if you can get it at a decent price or go with a regular version?

Fuck how could I forget
Wild Nacatl
Rift Bolt
Atarkas Command
Kolaghans Command
Lightning Helix
Nahiri, the Harbinger
Spell Queller
Geist of Saint Traft
Thought-Knot Seer
Life from the Loam

I'm sure there's plenty more I'm missing. Sift through for your favorites.

The kaladesh inventions/zendikar expeditions are purely bling, if you care about showing off your rare cardboard sure

Im more on the path of playability over collectability, but if you could get the inventions for a *very* modest premium I would get them. (For me, no more than say, 20%. But you might be different.)

I think they're hideous

That's what I thought. So far I'm grabbing regular Aether Vial, Mox Opal, a Nahiri or two, a playset of Young Pyromancer, playset of Mana Leak, Atarka's Command, and probably a booster of something for the fun of opening it.

I'm doing a mixture of both but it was $70, so not very modest haha.

I would definitely grab a playset of Lightning Bolt, Gitaxian Probe and Serum Visions

I already have the Lightning Bolts and Serum Visions but I can get a playset of Gitaxian Probe for $10 so I'll definitely grab that too. I like that card a lot.

>I'm grabbing regular Aether Vial, Mox Opal, a Nahiri or two, a playset of Young Pyromancer, playset of Mana Leak, Atarka's Command, and probably a booster of something for the fun of opening it.
Why wouldn't you build a deck? You won't even be able to play anything with the cards you're getting

I already have several decks, these are just to add to the ones I have.

>Because the person that made them needs to be paid for their work.
If Magic players realized this shit then they would realize that their stupid FNM should probably cost at least $10 with zero prize support because their store makes nothing off it.

And fucking FNM does not bring in sales. The vast majority of FNM players just get singles they need and not always from the store.

When I walked into a games store for the first time I couldn't believe people were haggling or begging for discounts on shit.

>I'm on Nahiri but Cryptic seems so amazing right now, I'm having trouble managing my four drop slot
I hear that Torrential Gearhulk plays well with Cryptic. It's a nice wincon, too.

>How can they cost 3$ when there's no artificial scarcity?
Because counterfeits aren't made on a fucking Xerox you dumbfuck.

>Implying that's why they're expensive

No, even if they're on a professional press it would still be very marked up over cost at a dollar a piece. You're looking at the fact that people will buy them either way, that its far cheaper than the alternative. If someone won't buy them at 12 bucks but will buy at 1, they'll probably buy at 2 and probably buy at 3. It's strictly about driving profits.

Yeah, but it's not even just that because it goes further.

Kind of off topic but i'm a Veeky Forumsg so..

It's like when people complain about designer clothing costing too much because of "it's just a shirt" or some shit. They completely ignore the fact that a literal genius had to put absurd amounts of work into that garment.

>a literal genius had to put absurd amounts of work into that garment.
And it still looks like shit.

can anyone point me in the direction of a good blue control deck? im just starting play and the idea of countering andcontrol appeals to me

If your new then why did you come to a competitive thread?

I'm actually not much of a fan either, but the model looked like Sang Woo Kim

You're in luck! Play legacy miracles. That's the best I can do.

to be competitive.

So without knowing anything about the modern format or meta you decided to ask Veeky Forums? Just fucking Google it or watch some YouTube videos man, it's not fucking hard.

Probably because he's new and doesn't know the difference you fucking neckbeard. This isn't FNM at the Autismbowl where your cheeto stained deck of Tarmogoyf and Jace reprints you got off AliExpress make you a badass, don't be a fucking cunt.

Also

>You're

Something that's cheap and fun to start with and will keep you in the game you might like is Mono-Blue Brains. You can put it together for like $20.

People like you are why Magic is dying again.

its hard to ask youtube what decks are good to run. i figured you guys are out at fnm and have competent decks and can point me in the right direction. im not asking for you guys to build me a deck.

>"Don't be a cunt"
>Corrects grammar
>Suggests a deck that is unlikely to get a single win at FNM

Seems like you're the real cunt. Instead of holding his hand and telling him to play bad decks that will make it so he doesn't even get to have fun, tell him to do some basic fucking research on a several hundred if not thousand dollar investment.

thanks for the suggestion. i dont mind spending a bit of cash for a deck if i need to.

mtggoldfish.com
mtgtop8.com

Really, these are the only resources you need for competitive decklists.

Now has been killing magic for the last 5 years user. Not my saltiness that literal retards think they can get legitimate advice off of the modern thread on Veeky Forums

And yes you can do that exact thing you just said. Hell there are entire websites that tell you what is good in the current met and what isn't. Don't act like this is secret info either. Just put some fucking effort in, instead of wanting to be spoon-fed

i had a question about mtgtop8. what exactly do all the percentages mean?

like for aggro it says 46%
Metagame Breakdown

814 decks

Jund 51 6 %

So, anyone with chinamen wanna go and post pics? I wanna know if the quality of his cardboard has improved.

The OP in these threads has gone to shit. They used to tell you all you needed to know. Look through the archive here, there might be threads with a good OP there.

The percentage means how popular the decks are. When you hear people talk about Tier 1 or Tier 2, it doesn't mean how good the deck is but how often they're played.

we split decks up into 3 main types, aggro combo and control. 46% means 46% of decks that top 8 events are aggro. The site is bad at categorizing a lot of decks though, and puts many in the wrong type.
51 is the absolute number of decks that have top 8'd recently, rather than a percentage

so when im specifically looking at lets say jund decks and one has a level rank of 10 that means that one is played more than all the others?

ranked is what they placed the that tournament, e.g. 10 means they came 10th. Some have a range of numbers, e.g. 5-8, because whoever publishes the results might not specify who came 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, but rather which decks ended in the top 8, and which ended in the top 4. Level is how 'important' the event was, or the perceived level of competitiveness.

No. They still suck. I have some and they're not very good. Zendikar fetches are good though

new to modern and i want to build affinity since its about at my price range and seem fun. is it a good deck? seems like artifact hate in general would kinda wreck it, how common is that in modern?

Affinity has an amazing game 1 but usually loses game 2 because of how much artifact hate there is

Affinity is completely balls to the walls. Even with all the artifact hate out there, It still has an amazing win rate because of how fucking nuts it is. Its not uncommon for the deck to completely dump its hand on turn 1 and then just win. Counting to 20 (sometimes just to 10) has never been more fun, or quicker.

So what is monastery mentor played in for it to be $10 at my LGS? I want to run Esper control/tokens and I'm just wondering about it's price

Modern is not the only format

My first thought was probably legacy but I know nothing about the legacy metagame. I want to know what non-modern decks run it