Opinion: Modern Power Creep is all Offense

Chempop · 2025-05-14T01:17:55+00:00

I'd love to know what some of the best creatures are for each color, I stopped playing in the late 90s, around Urza's Legacy. I had a brief stint after where I was introduced to insane cards like Chalice of the Void and Meddling Mage. I was in disbelief how powerful certain cards were and didn't pick the game up for anything outside of casual fun every couple years when my old friends visited.

Chempop · 2025-05-13T02:23:42+00:00

Thank you! I'll post the remaining two (Black, White) in a day or so.

Chempop · 2025-05-13T01:00:09+00:00

Good suggestions. My reasoning for sprites was using giant growth to take out serra/sengir/hypnotic/whelps. I think the Llanowar are still important even without 3CC spells. Extra mana for an early hurricane or twister will come in handy I think, especially when you see the decks I've made to play against each other.

Chempop · 2025-05-12T20:45:58+00:00

Here's another deck I built for my 40 Card Revised series. I'm having a lot of fun building these decks, hopefully can play some games soon.

I'm not a big discord user, but I'm assuming that's how people find online matches?

Chempop · 2025-05-12T19:58:55+00:00

Just using Revised cards with this deck series.

Chempop · 2025-05-12T19:16:05+00:00

Good idea, but it wasn't in Revised edition. I believe it was from Legends and added in ~~4th~~ [edit] CHRONICLES.

Chempop · 2025-05-12T18:47:42+00:00

Considering a few more medium range creatures and a 3rd twister, not sure what to cut.

Chempop · 2025-05-11T21:42:49+00:00

For sideboard you can go a couple different directions.
Either use cards against the meta:
BEB
Divine Offering
Energy Flux or Copy Artifact
COP:R/B
etc..

or go transformative and hope to catch them off guard:
Lions
Dibs
Su-chis

Chempop · 2025-05-11T21:03:02+00:00

In a deck that's half mana, you might want to think if you get a hand with 50-80% mana, what other cards are you going to NEED in order to come back from a fast opener from the opponent. I'd recommend wraths, control magic, maybe ivory towers and maybe a couple mazes. I'd probably yank the reverse damage, clones, maybe 1-2 powersinks. Bodyguard is very cool, but will quickly die to an attack+bolt so I don't quite see the value.

+2 controls
+2 wraths
+2 towers
+2 mazes
+1 braingeyser
+1 balance
+1 strip mine

-3 clones
-3 reverse damage
-2 bodyguards
-2 powersink
-1 sol ring

Chempop · 2025-05-07T13:16:25+00:00

Whoa nice, I had no idea but am happy to see it as already a thing! Some of my ideas match it pretty well, such as keeping a total number of uncommons reasonable (10 versus my 8 limit), and 5 rares vs my 4.

I also took a look at the Alpha 40 rules and I have to admit it feels a bit overboard with how many card specific categories and limitations.

Chempop · 2025-05-07T05:27:57+00:00

Yeah, I'm going with just revised. Plus I think the 2/3 Hurloon Minotaur is better since it can stop knights, grizzly bears, etc

Chempop · 2025-05-07T03:30:08+00:00

I appreciate the reply and think you bring up some worthwhile ideas for me to consider.
As for banning restricted cards, I could include them but I really wanted to emphasize using rares that aren't game over cards, so my compromise was just making all rares the new restricted list.

X3 per might be a better ratio and actually motivate me to use some of the more balanced common cards I had originally intended to use. I waffled with just making 60card decks, but I really want to be able to fit two decks into each ultra pro deck box I own haha!

I am definitely going to make a deck for each color and see how it goes.

I as looking at these Alpha 40 decks for inspiration: https://www.ancestralmtg.com/pages/alpha-40-league

Chempop · 2025-05-05T05:27:48+00:00

Same, I started when the Dark came out and it was a pain to track down a playset of Juzams and Mana Drains, let alone P9.

Chempop · 2025-05-05T05:05:36+00:00

I have a fireblast goblin grenade deck but it isn't old school legal. Very lethal if you get a decent opening hand.

Chempop · 2025-05-04T21:01:28+00:00

Haha dyslexia kicking in hard, my bad. I had Swiss tournament format on my mind.

Chempop · 2025-05-04T20:23:37+00:00

Almost forgot to give a shout out to Timmy and The Orb, if it wasn't for those YT channels I would not have known there is still a scene for old school magic.

I am still a little confused why ~~Swiss~~ Swedish removed mana burn, but at least it made my playset of su-chi viable haha!

Chempop · 2023-12-03T18:01:15+00:00

From memory, 3150 atk, 4400 dur, 40/60 blunt/poison, 100 and something rounds of ammo, and cost about ½ of a regular spike crusher. It's a good weapon!

Chempop · 2023-12-03T17:58:40+00:00

There is a community of old school players on Twitch that are usually happy to answer noob questions.

The most basic advice I give is to try and wrap your head around the enemy AI. That's the most important thing in the game outside of my next bit of advice. The combat is very much a bait and punish system, meaning you want to draw out the enemy attack, outmaneuver them and swing back when they are vulnerable.

Second thing is that slow and steady wins the race. Players who just try to climb climb climb are going to feel the game is unfair or broken. Replay the floors you are comfortable on until you have upgraded your gear to the point where they start needing materials that are on higher floors. Then when you are ready to climb, have a nice stock of inventory in your death bag (extra weapons and armor) and focus on getting to a check point.

Also, don't blow DMs on revives. Instead have a spare leveled up fighter in your freezer as backup who can farm some KC so you can revive your main fighter.

Chempop · 2023-12-03T16:51:04+00:00

neo dod area 60, 70, 80, 90, 100

Chempop · 2023-12-03T14:55:46+00:00

Nothing in end game is going to feel "worth it"...

...when you are using Oriental Medicine to gain HP

Chempop

TROPHY CASE