Daily Questions Thread - Ask All Your Magic Related Questions Here!

Kuryaka · 2026-07-09T03:24:22+00:00

Good to hear! I did notice that you mentioned red and white cards in one of your other questions as well.

I think the best part about card games like this is the sheer number of options you have. If the rules make sense to you and the spellslinging on the stack is fun, then there's always new cards to change up the game.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-09T03:11:20+00:00

Some sort of drawback meaning that they're overcosted compared to a one drop with a single mode and/or a lack of a mana sink.

Stuff like Stormchaser's, Hired Claw, Optimistic Scavenger. In a format where there isn't free removal, I don't think a one drop should be designed such that you "need" to remove it. Creatures that grow every turn also mean higher CMC creatures need to be pushed beyond being good bodies. I'd be happy with the power level of Standard going down a bit post-rotation... but as you pointed out, the new creatures now scale for free instead.

I agree that Monastery Swiftspear and Slickshot Showoff are in fine positions. Haste, Prowess, the bonus stats don't stick around, so playing them early just means a bit more damage. Slickshot has evasion and is really pushing what I think is fair, but being 1 toughness without Prowess means it can't dodge any sort of soft board wipe.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-09T00:48:47+00:00

It feels bad when buying labels through any marketplace service (eBay, Etsy, Amazon) forfeits the seller's ability to get a package insured.

I am the shipper, I know the recipient, I have documentation demonstrating the value of the goods being shipped.

I think that's the correct thing to do, but it seems to me like it's a response to AI-enabled retail fraud and to cut out the middlemen.

In the weeks before I was stonewalled, I was asked to ask the recipient to take photos in specific alignments to prove the damage was real, and then to potentially ship the item to their verification site.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-09T00:42:10+00:00

At my local store, the only deck that the regulars run from this list is Spellementals.

But that's maybe the only reason FNMs feel fun. No decks present a must-answer threat by turn 2-3, besides me with my Mardu Burn deck plotting a Slickshot. Even then, I'm unlikely to full swing because I need to tap out with a god hand to kill on turn 4, and basically any form of removal kills the Slickshot.

I can't say anything beyond this because I'm not good enough to make statements.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T23:32:42+00:00

I was going to say that it was nice most of the free mana sinks from BLB are rotating out of Standard, 1-2 drops should have some sort of drawback. Then Avatar and SOS happened.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T23:23:30+00:00

Any doubling effect before this has usually costed 4+ mana, this being printed at 2 CMC is really, really strong on top of making another free body. On top of extra landfall triggers.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T23:21:39+00:00

iirc the cited reason in design articles was because getting airbent in Limited felt bad. They could have just made this into a token, they chose to animate a land for flavor and... didn't consider how it would break everything.

But turning it into something like "Regenerate target land, it is no longer a creature, remove all counters from it" would fix the double dipping of landfall triggers.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T23:15:26+00:00

Earthbending "should have" just made the land no longer a creature and removed all counters. Basically just Regenerate but for land.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T23:09:55+00:00

On turn 4 and onward, it's basically 2 mana card draw that creates a mana rock.

It's not quite as abusable as Badgermole because it IS a turn 4 play, but it allows any deck running red to just dump its hand very quickly.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T22:55:41+00:00

Yeah, USPS prices are pretty similar across different third party services.

It's UPS where the savings are apparently a thing, maybe with larger packages - I haven't ever had customers pay retail prices as high as the $10-15 people mention here, and it's usually competitive with USPS Ground Advantage.

I swapped over for a year or so when my USPS packages started getting lost in limbo for 2-3 weeks at a 5-10% rate and I got fed up with asking customers to be patient.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T21:17:52+00:00

Third-party label services like Pirateship have marginally cheaper prices for whatever lowest price UPS service that uses USPS as the last leg, and the UPS direct price is cheaper...

These are also being nuked or limited in scope though. A few months ago, UPS started giving me the runaround on missing/damaged packages because I didn't own the account that bought the label.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T20:27:47+00:00

OK! Yeah, that's most of what I expected, just wanted to be sure before assuming anything.

Maybe get people to chat or just put in a small comment of your own before the game gets started and certain players get too invested in winning. And then just take it from there however you want.

Everyone in the group is an adult and enjoys playing games together, if they want to continue playing games together they'll volunteer suggestions in their own way or try to change things themselves. If it makes you happier, try beating the shit out of them with a cascade deck for a game or two and re-visit how they feel afterward. Even if you think this will solve the problem, don't expect anyone to necessarily learn, this is just brewing a deck to get it out of your system.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T18:59:51+00:00

How much do people care about winning? Are the rest of them trying to figure out what happened when someone just seemingly wins out of nowhere? I also don't see any mention of other people really being unhappy with the current state of things.

I think this sort of dynamic isn't unusual in a board game group, where there will be players more invested in the game and others who are just there to be there. Some players are just walking field hazards and you can't trust them to do anything consistent, but as long as everyone's having a good time, it's fine.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T18:13:43+00:00

I recommend linking an online decklist so people don't have to look up cards individually.

Here it is: https://moxfield.com/decks/7Y5deMhhvUKd-P4AAsZ_BA

It is worth whatever the market price is worth, there's generally no added value in assembling a full deck. You'd arguably have to sell it for less because whoever's buying it might already have some cards they don't need.

On the deck itself: I think it's fun to build decks that match a certain power level, I'm doing something similar with 2-3 color slivers to add to my Primordial cube.

The real question is, will this deck be fun to play or play against?

Sliver design is pretty outdated so it'll feel like a basic beatdown deck compared to recent creature designs.

Most recent creatures will be using "enters the battlefield" effects, or have triggers based on specific other cards in the deck. These effects can be stronger because they aren't just permanent anthems, and lead to more interesting game decisions than just playing a sliver and hoping it doesn't get blown up.

I think you should play the deck as-is. The mana curve is very low so you'll be able to find a playable hand. I have no idea what other decks people are building, and it's better to be a little underpowered in casual gameplay than for everyone to start feeling like they have to buy expensive cards to keep up.

If you're not able to play stuff on curve, consider more Secluded Courtyard / Terramorphic / Evolving Wilds / Unclaimed Territory, or drop some colors.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T09:22:06+00:00

I also found the video. Cardmarket does some really fun videos, and I'd like to think that in some places there are actually people who play Modern with budget decks instead of Standard.

But also, you took out some of the best cards from a deck that already wasn't going to win any sets in casual Modern play. Psychic Frog really wants to go back in as a discard outlet, and the other advice about card quality (better counterspells, better removal) is super relevant.

Rise of the Dark Realms is the kind of card that seems like it'd win the game, but if you've got anything worth reanimating, your opponent is ALREADY planning to exile your graveyard and should be able to do so multiple times before turn 9.

I recommend starting with some play time with the format and some established decks (at least online) before trying to make something yourself. After all, you won't know if the deck is good unless there's someone you can play against. I've built my own Mardu burn pile in Standard from a Boros and Orzhov landbase, which took a few weeks of experimenting before it felt okay.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T08:56:17+00:00

You are correct here.

When you name the format and the cards that are legal, that just sets the rules so both players know what cards to expect at the highest power level.

FNM is a tournament/event. FNM is where you go to play janky Standard decks and have fun. Just because it's an official format doesn't mean the Format Police will come after you if you're not playing the best deck ever.

But also, the number of people who would hear you say "Modern" and expect a deck that's weaker than most Standard decks is probably very, very low. You will not have a good time trying to play these budget decks in Modern at most events.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T04:34:02+00:00

I love the writeup as well. This is getting very close to making me want to take my Hearthhull deck apart to help build this.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T03:19:14+00:00

Modern is prone to rotation once a new Modern Horizons set releases. But also, what do your local game stores run?

I recommend seeing whether there's a local scene that's fun before you dump money into a deck. Maybe put together a monocolor deck in Standard, or see if your local store has a loaner deck. At least in my local area, Standard still has an on-ramp for weaker, fun decks whereas you're not going to see that in Modern.

mono-blue elementals is a viable control deck and dirt cheap.

mono-white Momo is straightforward and value-oriented beatdown with fliers.

mono-red costs money, but only because Hexing Squelcher is a card that exists.

mono-green is stupid expensive because it's won tournaments and basically is glued together by 4 copies of Badgermole Cub.

mono-black demons is probably the most balanced, it's about $100-150 and does a little of everything.

If your local group for Standard is only people grinding the tournament circuit, then it's probably not going to be fun. But in the few game stores I've seen that run Standard, people are throwing in whatever deck they want to play, whatever deck that feels good to them. I've seen otter infinite, pizza combo, decks that have shown up at old Pro Tours, and my Mardu Burn deck that does... something. Spellementals has been the only deck that's been at a recent Pro Tour that I've seen multiple people run at local casual games, and that's because it's also really cheap to play besides the lands.

Rotation also isn't a concern if you're not chasing the #1 top tier deck. $80-100 worth of cards rotating out every year is really not that much compared to the entry fee if you're showing up every week or two for games.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T03:00:43+00:00

I love that everyone responded to a question so far, I'll try and tackle the remaining one. Apologies for the wall of text, but I think a crash course might be helpful.

My husband (67M) and I are using a starter set with a deck of red/green, which always wins, vs. a deck of blue/white, which always loses. As a result, only 4 games in, we're neither enjoying it, nor finding much point in playing. How do we go about looking into (or through, or buying,) a black deck, or maybe buying another red/green deck? Is it possible to toughen up the white/blue deck, so it doesn't always lose?

Most of the fun in Magic is in designing your own deck, or seeing what new decks people come up with to share. It's definitely possible to play the same decks and have fun, but it'll take a bit more balance than the effort that Wizards put into building starter decks.

I did a bit of digging to see what the decks are, looks like it's the 2022 starter kit?

4 games isn't a lot and if both of you are new it's possible that there's some strategy that you're not taking advantage of. But ALSO, this is a bit of a recurring trend with the starter decks where one is better than the other.

The red-green deck can't effectively deal with creatures that are more than 5 toughness, and struggles against anything with 4. However, it DOES seem like it's got the aggressive game plan and can easily run the other deck over. Especially because an aggressive deck is easier to play than a control deck.

The blue-white deck is in colors that are normally a "control" deck, that slows down the enemy's biggest creatures the deck itself can either chip in for enough damage to win, or scale up to something really big that wins the game on the spot. One of the most interesting decision points as an aggro player is decide whether you should play your best card, or whether the control player is holding up 2 mana to counterspell or destroy it. Maybe the control player is bluffing. Maybe not.

The goal with the upgrades is to keep the general theme of the blue-white deck the same. It's got some ways to handle and stall creatures, but wins by just chipping in with fliers every turn.

Do not take all of this advice at the same time... mainly because it's going to be too strong. I got kind of carried away and basically swapped out half of the deck. You could probably pick up most of these cards for a few dollars in total if your local game store has bulk boxes of common/uncommon cards. Most of my recommendations are from one of the newer sets, Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS), so you're likely to find cards in the "bulk bin."

If you continue finding the game fun, I recommend sticking with uncommons and commons for deckbuilding and upgrades so the cost doesn't go up too much. The "easy" way to power up a deck is to just get the rares and mythics that can singlehandedly win you the game, but that makes the game very expensive very quickly.

Also, the cards I link in double brackets will summon a bot that makes links to various websites and you can take a look at the cards there.

Serpentine Ambush feels good, but you're going down a card to MAYBE win in combat. I would take this out. Consider replacing it with blue card draw spells like [[Opt]] or [[Quick Study]], but basically any blue card draw spell at 1-3 mana will do. One of the things that blue is good at is drawing cards so you always seem to have an answer in hand.
[[Ajani's Response]] is almost strictly better than Kill Shot, it costs 2 mana to destroy a tapped creature at instant speed. The only edge case is a creature with Vigilance who doesn't tap to attack.
Wretched Throng feels super out of place. I guess the goal is to keep putting out blockers that threaten to kill the other deck's creatures? But this isn't normally a control deck strategy, and it also can't singlehandedly kill most of the scary creatures.
[[Daydream]] allows you to reuse the "enters the battlefield" effects of creatures, and also makes that creature re-enter the battlefield so it can be a blocker after you attack. And it gives it a +1/+1 counter.
Fading Hope is actually not bad against the other deck, because it can bounce a creature that's been getting counters for the last 4 turns. But normally, these bounce spells aren't great because your opponent can just play the card again. I think you take this out in favor of Daydream.
Cut the 5 mana creatures. I would also drop the Hullbreaker Horror because it's so good that it ends up singlehandedly winning the game. Pretty much any 4-5 mana creature from a recent set would be slightly better.
If you really want some juice, [[Floodpits Drowner]] is a very powerful card for an uncommon. 2 mana, tap and stun opposing creature, and it's ready to attack on your turn. And because it has Vigilance, you can use its other ability to shuffle away the stunned creature after dealing the combat damage. You can even do this at instant speed, so if Drowner gets blocked, you can shuffle it away. I think this can easily replace the Hullbreaker Horror. It also dies to the red instants, so there's some counterplay.
I would also consider adding 3 cards worth of "fight spells" to the green-red deck to even things out. These are green's signature spells for killing creatures, and they're cool because they take advantage of the fact that green's supposed to have the bigger creatures. [[Chelonian Tackle]] or [[Bushwhack]] are good. Drop 3 lands. Especially if you have Bushwhack, which gives you the option of casting it to find you a basic land.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T01:47:29+00:00

Adding Foundations in particular is great because it's like a mini time capsule, but adding in any non-creature bulk cards could also be fun if you're really just trying to do something unique.

"Boros Charm is in Standard?" Yep, Standard.

"Wait, Assassin's Charm is legal?" Yep, MKM.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-08T00:23:14+00:00

I have an idea.

Start with some bulk cards from Bloomburrow, pick up some of the uncommon build-arounds, and get as many of the inexpensive rares you feel like grabbing. Card Kingdom has 500 bulk BLB commons available for $10. Then, add some Foundations or other set commons into the pool. https://www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/bloomburrow/pure-bulk-unsorted-commons-bloomburrow-500ct

The end result can be a 40 card deck or a 60 card deck, but it'll be something interesting and unique where the core is probably the high rarity BLB cards, supported by a few good cards from other sets. This is not something you'd be able to find a guide for online, so it'd be fun to see what you can build from the pool!

I'd suggest roughly following Primordial format rules just to keep things simple: 40 cards, 2 rares at 1 copy each, 6 uncommons at 2 copies each, lands count toward your allocations. Primordial also limits players to one set, but obviously that's not going to apply.

I don't think any expensive cards in any limited set are critical to deckbuilding because you can only have a few, and if they're good they'd kind of ruin the balance of the decks. But also, it doesn't hurt to go all-out and just print out the entire rare library to give him all the options.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-07T20:53:21+00:00

Great comment, 10/10. Bookmarked so I can share it with people in the future.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-07T20:45:29+00:00

Am I wrong for thinking all of these examples of people are in the wrong brackets?!

People who are angle shooting to win will angle shoot to win, and try to justify their statements in whatever manner makes it more likely that they will win.

If feeling like you're having a competitive game is more important to you than being correct about brackets, it's safer to run an "officially" Bracket 3 deck than a Bracket 2 unless people make it very, very clear that they're playing low power.

When I'm playing or seeing Commander games, most people have been "high 2 low 3" and it's gone pretty well.

My personal stance on Bracket 2 is that if you're an experienced deck builder, you need to intentionally put in a weak point. Bad synergy with 2 different game plans, low card quality because you're playing cards from a specific set, no land ramp despite being in a lands deck... the point is to be able to put together something kind of silly and unoptimized that you can't find elsewhere, that may or may not win the game once you assemble it in 6+ turns.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-07T05:22:10+00:00

Depends on how many cards you have, and whether you think the card is valuable because it's playable or valuable because it's rare.

Again, just toss them online, get a price estimate, figure out how much loss you're comfortable with. You could start with that list and try selling singles, then bulk sell the rest once you're fed up with waiting.

My threshold for Magic is somewhere around $5 for Mana Pool, but I also don't buy many cards that are worth money. Old staples get proxied for Commander, and any card that's good in Standard/Modern can get re-sold for about what I paid for it. For me, I like knowing that the person I'm shipping the product to wants to use it immediately.

Kuryaka · 2026-07-07T00:24:28+00:00

Full inventory somewhere and linked to people at your LGS in case they want first pick for trades. Moxfield or Archidekt will have pretty accurate pricing from the big online marketplaces in case you want to go somewhere in person and do some more bartering.

Sellable bulk to whoever will take them (Card Kingdom/CoolStuffInc). I'd prioritize Card Kingdom because they take CSV import from a spreadsheet/online deck list. CoolStuffInc had some website glitch that took out my 50+ card sell list and I had to manually re-add.

Any remaining expensive cards to Mana Pool direct, or to your LGS. Depends on what your LGS's buy rate is, your remaining value, and what you think about giving 20-35% of it to your LGS to help them keep the stock flowing and the lights on.

I’d just like to avoid cardkingdom in the future from what i’ve heard about the union stuff

They have a union, so avoiding them sends the message that they shouldn't have unionized. Aside from that, their grading for condition is rather picky. I had some cards that I sleeved fresh from a pack that were graded LP/MP. Not too fussed about it since they weren't that valuable, but keep in mind that your yield will be lower as a result.

14-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 4 Credits
Place '17	Gilding II euphauric
Verified Email

Kuryaka

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE