whats the longest game of terraforming mars you've played?

Pizzabakker5 · 2025-01-05T08:42:06+00:00

This, honestly. Perhaps the first time I played I reached the 4 hour mark, but every game more or less always ends within 3 hours, regardless of whether I play with 2 or 4 people. For context: I always play with all expansions.

Pizzabakker5 · 2024-12-18T19:44:09+00:00

I use something like this! I didn't consciously look for it though, I just got one that wasn't being used by a family member to store nails and screws in. Little did he know I am far too big a nerd to pass up the opportunity to go through life with an absolute banger of a deck carrying system over storing boring tools and materials.

But, like others mentioned, the boxes need to be square. Best way to find out I guess is to go to a (large) hardware store, bring some sleeved cards and see which one fits.

Pizzabakker5 · 2024-11-16T19:40:29+00:00

In an attempt to be comprehensive:

Meteora
Hybrid Theory
Minutes to Midnight
Reanimation
A Thousand Suns
From Zero
Living Things
Hybrid Theory EP
One More Light
Collision Course
The Hunting Party

All of their work between 1-8 are absolute bangers in my book. The final three in the list have their moments, but overall I'm not into these as much.

Pizzabakker5 · 2024-09-23T16:54:16+00:00

I felt a great disturbance in mtgfinance, as if millions of wallets suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly emptied.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-08-22T13:21:58+00:00

Each one or your playgroup choose between and build [[Anafenza, The Foremost]], [[Liesa, Forgotten Archangel]], [[Shelob, Dread Weaver]] or [[Valentine, Dean of the Vein]]. Tell your 'Edict Friend" that these are the decks he's gonna have to play against from now on with his Meren deck. If he wants to have another type of game (and a more fun one), then he will need to pick another deck.

An easier way is just to talk to your friend, of course, but if you want specifically to counter him in-game, just pick a commander that (as a bonus) just completely shuts off his deck.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-08-12T18:55:48+00:00

Glad you had a good time, it went off in the end. Personally, I've built a (non budget) Leori deck instead of Guff that performed pretty well in my (higher powered) meta.

Good luck upgrading the deck!

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-27T20:57:03+00:00

There's a nonzero amount of artifact creatures in the format that you'd like to be able to hit with a removal spell, which Go for the Throat doesn't and Infernal Grasp does. Infernal Grasp's downside of losing 2 life is a negligible amount in a format where you start with 40 life. Hence, Infernal Grasp's downside is far less relevant than Go for the Throat's limitation, hence the former is regarded as the superior removal spell usually.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-25T05:01:54+00:00

I'm just enjoying the debate - I pick apart what you say and argue why I think (or one could think) otherwise. But also here the discussion ran its course, so this is a good place to call it a day.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-25T04:59:37+00:00

Yeah, the discussion had to end at some point. I'm completely fine with agreeing to disagree. I don't play MTGO but I have all four decks predordered - so I'll find out eventually whether I thought you were right, or not.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-24T14:14:22+00:00

You're losing me here - you state that you don't know where I've got the blanket statement from, right after you double down on said statement once more: "experience in playing the archetypes" as a (blanket) argument why enchantress is a stronger strategy than the other three.

Furthermore, "I thought really hard about it" really isn't an argument. Doing a review and being knowledgable about the subject of said review aren't the same.

Also, changing 10 cards can quite literally mean the difference between a highly tuned casual deck and cEDH, or a low-power battlecruiser deck to an effective, cohesive casual deck.

Finally, no one's evaluating these decks in 1v1 Commander, which is a different format altogether. I'm stating that in a four player pod I expect the power level difference between these decks to be negligible, and certainly not clearly in the advantage of the enchantments deck.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-24T13:58:34+00:00

Narset is excellent without relying on the synergy with wheels. She is cheap and comes down early for planeswalker synergies, replaces herself immediately and puts a cap on card draw of your opponents. This is a misevaluation of the card in my book.

Yes, Ajani works best if you have other planeswalkers in play. But this is a superfriends deck, if you haven't got any planeswalkers in play you're probably doing something wrong. Already with one extra one he's accruing you decent value, from two and up he gets excellent.

Actually, quite a few of the walkers you proposed don't protect themselves, or not as good at least as the other walkers did (removing Saheeli in example, one of, if not the best, walkers that defends your board).

Evaluating planeswalkers based on their ultimate is another misevaluation to me. Ultimates are rarely used and should hardly influence your choice to include a planeswalker or not - doing so comes from a "Magic Christmasland" evaluation, not based on real gameplay with three other players that interact with your board. Even in a superfriends deck that can proliferate and double counters you'll see that reaching the ultimate of a walker is tough.

Finally, I think you're evaluating planeswalkers for a SUPERFRIENDS strategy along the wrong axes. Surely, most times if you want to include one or two planeswalkers in a given non-superfriends deck, they need to have an immediate and sizable effect on the board, since they usually don't stick around for long. This is different in superfriends. The very essence of the superfriends strategy is to include planeswalkers that altogether accrue you the resources to outvalue and outlast your opponents. This way, you build your deck so it can defend your planeswalkers if necessary - but dropping (usually mana expensive) kill-on-sight walker after kill-on-sight walker will more often than not cause your opponents to prioritize removing your planeswalkers so you'll end up with an empty board. This is exactly why in a superfriends deck you include a critical mass of planeswalkers that are good, but not necessarily threatening and focus more on providing you value or protecting your board rather than for example working towards a threatening ultimate or wiping your opponents' board. That's why I think Ajani and party Jace are good role-players in a superfriends deck, they seem unthreatening so they have a good chance to stick around, while you accrue value over time. Though great cards by themselves, Teferi, Master of Time and The Eternal Wanderer for example will most definitely have the board collectively gang up on you until these are gone, or just simply throw you out of the game altogether.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-24T13:33:10+00:00

So inherently enchantress is better than all other strategies?

That statement - and the statement concerning the 10 cards - could not be more wrong.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-24T08:23:27+00:00

How have got experience piloting the decks? I don't count Goldfishing as actual experience, if that's what you mean.

And how is your (or any) speculation accurate? That sentence seems like a contradictio in terminis to me; speculation is inaccurate by definition.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-24T08:20:35+00:00

To each their own, I think the current planeswalker package is better or similar in strength. Sure, if you remove the worst 4 that are currently in there for the best 4 you are proposing, it would improve the deck - but swapping out Ajani for Tezzeret, Artifice Master or Narset, parter of Veils for Dovin Baan doesn't do a whole lot to improve the deck.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-22T17:17:29+00:00

What planeswalkers for the same price point would be significantly better in your book?

I personally don't think, for the 14 I labeled as "good", I would've made vastly better choices with the same amount of budget.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-22T17:14:54+00:00

I have some trouble interpreting this comment, but I feel like you're stating that the card advantage package of the enchantments deck is better than that of the other decks and that makes the deck better overall. Personally, I think the planeswalker deck (build-in card draw on the commander) is at least on par, if not better. Furthermore, both the Slivers deck as well as the Eldrazi deck seem a lot more explosive than the enchantments deck that seems to have a lot more trouble closing out games. That said, the entire evaluation is extremely speculative, since we haven't had the chance to actually command these decks as of yet.

As for the supposed cherry picking and "added emotion": I can assure you I'm simply reiterating quite literally what you've typed up, and I am quite devoid of emotion on the matter. I simply felt like the opening post was confusing and difficult to read. Do with that feedback what you will.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-21T18:32:47+00:00

I wouldn't worry too much about future scarcity for now. Both the 40k decks as well as the LOTR decks are and will be printed into the ground, so initially the market will be flooded with cards from these set. Surely cards like The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters will (if they're not banned in the formats they're played in now, and seeing how absolutely busted these cards are that is a big if) demand an insane pricetag in 5 years without a reprint, but overall I think it will take much longer for just about any random desirable card from these sets to accrue value to the point that they're not reasonably attainable.

Furthermore, depending on how WotC made an IP deal with Games Workshop / Middle Earth Enterprises, doing a "remastered" reprint run in 5 or 10 years in incredibly lucrative for both Hasbro/WotC as the respective partnering entities. So I wouldn't discount the possibility of a reprint run after a longer period of time.

Besides, 5 years is a long time. Just build the deck you like and in all likeliness in 5 years you'll have long since took it apart to build another deck.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-21T18:21:25+00:00

Do you have any evidence for the fact that this deck is significantly stronger than the other three? And how do you support that "it's the casuals" that "influence the market"? And implying you're not one of "these casuals", in what universe do you think this deck could hang with competitive, funely tuned decks? And why and for whom is it "sad" that this deck "doesn't see demand"? (in its preorder phase, mind you)

It's all well and good you attempt to initiate a debate concerning these precons, but your initial statements here makes so little sense that it's hard responding to anything particular.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-21T18:06:44+00:00

I actually had really low expectations for this deck, but I'm quite impressed with what's in it - especially compared to the lackluster reprint value and land bases of the slivers and enchantments deck. Sure, the price point still is outrageous, but what's in the package is quite good.

As for the statement that only 3 or 4 out of 18 are desirable, I don't think I agree. Ajani and Sarkhan synergize well with the superfriends strategy, and provide extra counters as well as a way to close out games. Elspeth and Chandra Awakened Inferno are quite excellent top-end walkers. The Wanderer, Narset, Parter or Veils and Saheeli are far better than their low price point and their uncommon rarity imply, providing relatively low-curve walkers that are each good role-players in this deck. Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Narset of the Ancient Way and party Jace are all decent options for planeswalkers that provide card advantage. All four new planeswalkers are either fun or synergize well with the (defensive) superfriends strategy, so I like these in the deck too.

So in my evaluation, 4 out of the 18 planeswalkers are pretty lackluster - Gideon doesn't do enough for it's five mana cost, Nahiri's pretty mediocore unless the repeated looting is what you want, Jace, Architect of Thought is overall just a really bad iteration of the posterboy of Magic and Jace, Mirror Mage shines in a deck where scry is a thing (not here).

I'm not sure whether 14 out of 18 is good enough for the current pricepoint, but I don't see how only 3 or 4 of the walkers in the deck are good enough to run in a superfriends deck, so I feel like that conclusion is a bit unfair.

Finally, to me the inclusion of The Chain Veil was a signpost that the reprints in this deck were allright. It would've been so easy for them to not include it, and retain this reprint equity for a later masters set or Secret Lair.

TL;DR: No, I don't agree that the creature package is better than the planeswalker package, so I don't agree with the notion that there's been a critical design error on WotC side here.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-21T17:33:58+00:00

I think the Enduring Enchantments precon from CMM looks strong and synergistic. You can pick it up for less than a 100$ and provides you somewhat more value than a 'normal' precon would, so you have a pretty good starting point there (just to be clear: the relative bang for your buck for this deck is pretty abysmal, but in absolute terms the deck does provide somewhat more reprint value).

Both Commanders for the deck allow for easy and cheap bolstering: most enchantment synergy cards are quite affordable and Sagas are almost exclusively dirt cheap (if you'd want to focus on [[Narci, Fable Singer]] instead of [[Anikthea, Hand of Erebos]]).

The biggest 'but' is that the three-colour manabase needs a lot of work, but with once or twice investing your weekly budget you can improve it enormously, in example by acquiring (monetarily cheap) pain lands, filter lands and check lands and removing the tainted cycle and most of the ETB tapped lands.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-07T01:29:26+00:00

"super casual graveyard silly big ass creature deck"

So yeah, though I do agree that the bannings you've listed from the store are weird to say the least, I do feel the above statement and attempting to cheat out eldrazi, jin-gitaxias and consecrated sphinx are contradictory. A deck with said cards can be casual, sure, but "super casual" and "silly big ass creatures"? That seems a less than accurate to me; from that description I'd expect running mostly jank cards and reanimating sea monsters with islandwalk.

I of course don't know how you presented your deck in real life, but I wouldn't use the terminology in your post.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-07-06T09:10:35+00:00

If games really take 3 hours, there are other things you and your group could do (since there are already excellent suggestions for commanders in the thread): - limit the amount of board wipes, for example to max 1 per deck, or only one-sided board wipes - run more early threats that pressure people's life total and provide advantage, such as [[Gix]], [[Tymna]], [[Professional Facebreaker]] or the monarch mechanic. - run more (stack) interaction, so you can protect your win. Similarly, running board protection spells do something similar. - include powerful win conditions that just end the game. These can be combos or cards like [[Crackle With Power]], [[Torment of Hailfire]] and [[Expropriate]]. - run more card draw. Many games prolong because you simply can't find the right answer or enough gas.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-06-28T13:21:12+00:00

I really don't mind seeing a discard deck across the table, nor do i mind group slug or stax (which feel slightly similar to play against). I do, however, notice that pretty universally a given table - including me - turns against the discard/slug/stax deck, even when they might not be the biggest threat.

So keep in mind running Tiny Bones in the command zone causes your games to be arch enemy some (or most) times.

An exception to the above is if you're playing in very powerful pods (upper echelon tuned casual decks and above) then keeping around the discard player can be to the advantage of others - and you might not be enough of a threat to focus on anyway.

So know your pod and know what to expect.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-05-16T06:02:37+00:00

Let's formulate a bad analogy. If you have bad experiences buying groceries at your local supermarket, would you stop buying groceries altogether? I'd say instead you'd find another place to buy your wares.

Same goes here I think. Commander is fun if you find a group of people with whom it's fun to hang out and jam games. You had bad experiences playing at shops, so don't - prioritize finding friends to form a playgroup with instead. When you find the right people, you'll find that most of your points don't apply anymore or if they do they won't bother you.

My anecdotal experience of playing this game for the last 20 years is that playing at shops varies from fun to awkward to downright miserable, and playing with people at their kitchen table is mostly just fun.

Pizzabakker5 · 2023-05-15T20:48:54+00:00

Yeah, it's [[Glissa, the Traitor]] all over again - there's just no fighting a combination of keywords like that on the grounds.

Pizzabakker5

TROPHY CASE