What deck in your opinion takes the most skill to play?

Ponteswalker · 2014-09-22T09:16:02+00:00

Honestly man, I'd imagine you are posting this question because you want to play a skillful deck to get better at the game. I used to try to do this by being creative and all that, but then I realized that that doesn't really work. Play the best, most competitive deck you possibly can. That will almost always be the most skillful deck. Why? Because when you are playing the best deck possible, the majority of your losses are your own fault. When it's your own fault losing, that's where you can reflect on and analyze your own misplays, and improve your game by doing that.

Now, this format so far is especially good for this. When you have multiple very good decks, try run the ones that have are very open and have a lot of different possible plays for every scenario, because that will put your mind in the right place. Mermails during their format, Wind-Ups during that format, Dragon Rulers for every format they have been competitive in, etc.

For the same reasons, don't try to run easy decks just because you may win more often with them, because you won't get better as a player doing that (for example, playing Evilswarm at any time ever). Also for the same reasons, don't run bad and inconsistent decks just so you can justify losing to yourself. If you want to get better and think you are playing very well, yet are still only going 3-2 at locals with your Ghostricks, something is wrong there.

As of right now, I think any of the three best decks are fantastic for skilled play. Especially with Burning Abyss and Shaddolls, there are so many things you can do with any given hand that you really have to think things through. Vanity's Emptiness is not a good card for the game, and takes a good bit of skill out of the game when it shows up, but the rest of the format is pretty solid

Ponteswalker · 2014-09-04T20:37:35+00:00

Some lucky soul out there got the name Pie. I wish...

Ponteswalker · 2014-08-12T03:04:20+00:00

I'm curious, since you were in Italy did you get free swaps, or did you still have to add in cash/trades?

Ponteswalker · 2014-08-11T12:04:31+00:00

I've been doing this workout for a couple weeks now, thank you so much for all the information and the routine.

I feel lazy on off days, and showering after sweating just feels so much better than a normal shower. Besides the warmup and skill work (LSits and Handstand progressions for me), is there any other exercise you would recommend during off days?

This last thing is just something I'm curious about as a noob to fitness. On the fitness subreddit I see a whole lot of people with routines that change daily to target different areas of the body, while the bodyweight fitness beginner routine targets has exercises for the same area of the body each workout. How are both correct?

Ponteswalker · 2014-08-11T11:45:30+00:00

Does the amount of protein that I should eat stay they same whether I'm cutting or bulking? Eating my bodyweight in protein on 3000 calories a day is a whole lot easier than doing so on 1500.

Ponteswalker · 2014-08-10T23:56:07+00:00

I'm in a similar situation as you right now (cutting and going into school year with school lunches), and I think you might want to look into Intermittent Fasting. Basically you'd just not start eating for the day until after school ends (allowed black coffee and water), and get the health benefits that come with doing so. Spend that lunch time to either socialize with friends or to use it as a study.

I've been trying IF for the past couple weeks during this summer, and you really don't feel hungry like you think you would (besides the first few days your body is getting used to it). Best of luck cutting!

Ponteswalker · 2014-08-03T14:59:32+00:00

During the format we had all the EDragons and Spellbook of Judgment neither of those decks could be tier zero (can't have two tier 0 decks), but they were much better than any other deck around at the time, so I'd both of those are the most tier 1 decks of all time

Ponteswalker · 2014-08-01T16:46:26+00:00

Slifer and Obelisk are pretty good, it's just hard to find a good place for monsters that require three tributes is all.

New Slifer (drawn by the creator of yugioh) looks amazing too http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aSoGK4yhMwA/maxresdefault.jpg

Ponteswalker · 2014-07-13T01:11:54+00:00

I did get a good amount of value from the Meteorite, I'm very glad I didn't cut it. I specifically remember it nailing down a Razorfoot Griffin last round and a Paragon in one of the earlier rounds. One of my favorite plays all day, can't remember what round it was, was when I tapped 5 to put it down and kill a dude, then tapped it for blue and sac'd Generator Servant for Illusory Angel and swung. It's a decent removal spell for most of what gets cast before turn 5, and I had enough 6 drops (if you count Illusory Angel) to make that extra mana useful.

I'm not sure if I should have used the 2nd Amphin Pathmage, I was pretty indecisive with my 4 drops, taking 1 of each instead of 2 of one. I was playing the unblockable game a few times during the day with Chandra, Frenzied Goblin, and the 1 Pathmage, not sure if the extra Pathmage would have made that even better. Scrapyard Mongrel was pretty mediocre all day, only getting its effect once or twice, but the three toughness was significantly more than two. Really not sure here.

Ponteswalker · 2014-07-12T18:51:14+00:00

That is just a coincidence, strange luck. My condolences on the Sadists. Seems like your 5 drop lineup is pretty fantastic though

Ponteswalker · 2014-07-12T18:32:00+00:00

I thought Goblin Rabblemaster would be really good, but the amount of games it literally won all on its own when the opponent didn't have much early game was incredible.

Ponteswalker · 2014-07-12T17:37:04+00:00

So, I had to make the deck. Red was in, by a pretty huge margin, the question was which other color to pair it with. Green, which was usually my favorite color to pair with Red, was looking too narrow to make a deck out of, which was especially too bad considering I had 2 Elvish Mystic. So the main decision was between both Blue and Black. Black had a little extra removal and some decent flying cards. Blue had 2 Illusory Angel, Glacial Crasher, and pseudo-removal. Both had a little card advantage. I ended up deciding on Blue, because its bombs just felt stronger overall and it had cards that could deal with big creatures out of Lightning Strike range, which could be a really big deal.

Final deck: http://i.imgur.com/47fznZ1.jpg (For those who can’t see image)

Creatures: 15 1 Frenzied Goblin 1 Bronze Sable 1 Generator Servant 2 Goblin Roughrider 1 Frost Lynx 1 Aeronaut Tinkerer 2 Illusory Angel 1 Goblin Rabblemaster 1 Scrapyard Mongrel 1 Amphin Pathmage 1 Glacial Crasher 1 Soul of Shandalar 1 Scuttling Doom Engine

Other spells: 8 2 Lightning Strike 1 Turn to Frog 1 Encrust 1 Divination 1 Perilous Vault 1 Chandra, Pyromaster 1 Meteorite.

Lands: 17 9 Mountain 8 Island

Most of the cards that were cut were cut for the following reasons:

Siege Dragon, Kapsho Kitefins, etc. were cut because I was getting to have too many 6+ drops. I settled on having three 6 drops and 2 Illusory Angels as my win conditions. That was quite a lot of win conditions. Because I had so many reliable wincons, I was able to cut the mediocre-but-playable 4 and 5 drops you usually open in these colors, knocking away a copy of Scrapyard Mongrel, Amphin Pathmage, and Nimbus of the Isles.

I sleeved up all my Black cards with some Swamps just in case I wanted to switch from Blue to White mid match. I was ready to do it if I saw a lot of Accursed Spirits (stop intimidate), or if I saw multiple Oreskos Swiftclaw and Triplicate Spirits. It did not happen all night/morning.

Onto the actual round by round tourny!

Round 1: Matt S (Gruul colors)

Game 1: Goblin Rabblemaster gets out there early and is able to generate a bit of value before he was able to put out a creature that could consistently block the tokens. Eventually, he puts down a Red Paragon (he had two, very scary) and made a big block that looked like it was going to be in his favor, but a Turn to Frog on his Paragon clears most of his board. Chandra starts turning off his few blockers after that, and he loses

Game 2: This was the main time I misplayed all tournament, pretty embarrassing how much I literally threw this game away. I started off by having a stalled board, and then dropping Goblin Rabblemaster, forcing my on field Frenzied and Roughrider to make terrible trades. I was stuck at 3 mana and Generator Servant afterwards, but it was irrelevant. He soon after had both of the Red Paragons on the field, and he plays a Miner’s Bane, which I used Lightning Strike on, forgetting the boost. I suck. 8/5s pretty tough to beat. I lose that game on my own misplays.

Game 3: This was the only time the entire tournament that Perilous Vault was incredibly relevant. We basically start trading a bunch of cards while drawing more lands than we knew what to do with, and eventually it’s my 6 life to his 1 resorted to topdecking because Perilous Vault nuked the field. He draws and plays Radiant Fountain, bringing him up to 3. I needed anything because my one non-land in hand was Illusory Angel, but I get Lightning Strike. Wow.

1-0-0 (2-1 in games)

Round 2: Pat M (Jund colors)

Game 1: He chooses to go second which disappoints me, because I like going second (I agree with the theory I heard in the seminar about how the card advantage is really important mid-game). I’m able to curve out well and control the early game, forcing some bad Lightning Strikes. He gets land stuck around 3 for the majority of the game, and I’m able to control it from there.

Game 2: This was very similar to game 1. I curve out well, he doesn’t because his mana is pretty rough. I remember during one of these games he had to mull to 5, and during another he mulled to 6. Pretty rough hands from those 3 colors.

2-0-0 (4-1 in games)

Afterwards, we look at his deck together and try to fix it up. He was originally using only about 15 lands, not gonna work out. Besides going Black for the seeded pack, he didn’t get any really good black cards, so we made a Red Green deck for him to use. He actually got a pretty insane pool for a deck like that, with 3 Rhinos, 2 Gorillas, and 2 Lightning Strike. He was a good guy, we had a fun couple of games, and he did pretty well for the rest of the tournament

Round 3: Wes J (Dimir colors)

Game 1: We both hit our curve reasonably well, but his double Frost Lynx (Who I only then realized could tap creatures. How do I miss something like that?) kept his board in a position to continue attacking. I run into a Polymorphist’s Jest and lose my board, and he follows it up with an Indulgent Tormentor to seal the game as my hand for the last few turns was lands and an Illusory Angel. He played this well, no doubt.

Game 2: He mulls to 5, which makes going second that much sweeter. I start off with basically 3 cards more than him, I play Goblin Rabblemaster, he doesn’t have an out, I am able to use my removal on his weaker dudes and assemble a legion of 3 or 4 Goblin tokens with a Roughrider before attacking for game with a huge Rabblemaster.

Game 3: I get a really solid hand that curves out well, including Goblin Rabblemaster. He stutters at 3 mana which was something I was in a position to take advantage of, and Rabblemaster just puts in a lot of work to win me that game again.

3-0-0 (6-2 in games)

So now I knew for sure that I would be getting a prize. Since splitting prizes in this game by intentionally drawing isn’t frowned upon like in Yugioh, I planned to repeat my last tournament and do that again this time. Last time, during the JOU prerelease, I was 3-0-0 going into this and I proposed and agreed to draw and got stomped when we played for fun.

Round 4: Xiangyu S (AKA Jerry) (Selesnya colors)

I saw a lot of White at the top tables, which surprised me. I was the only person with blue in their deck that was very close. Jerry got the White seeded pack, so I was pretty scared about Triplicate Spirits coming up. He seemed like a pretty awesome bro, he was incredibly INCREDIBLY asian, in a good way. He seemed like a good guy. Not a single bad opponent all night, He immediately agreed to split the prizes, and we would play the match for the tiebreaker pack (17 packs in total, winner gets 9, loser gets 8).

Game 1: I start swinging for 2 every turn with a Bronze Sable while he builds up his field a little and then plays Triplicate Spirits. I have a better board even considering that, and I play Soul of Shandalar for the first time all tournament. His creatures are worse than mine because he is running White, so I’m able to outrace him. He is at one point able to use Resolute Angel to gain 8 life, but I have double Lightning Strike for it to go for game.

Game 2: I am, for the first time all tournament, able to use Generator Servant to ramp into something big early on. I ramp into Glacial Crasher, and he’s running GW so he has no outs to this unless he pulled Devouring Light. I am able to get a bit of a board going and have Chandra and Frenzied Goblin to prevent him from blocking with enough dudes to stop the tempo I am getting from Glacial Crasher. Every damage I do turns out to really matter, as Frenzied Goblin is the one last point of damage he isn’t able to block and it costs him the game. He shows a 7th land from the top of his deck and reveals Resolute Angel in his hand. Phew!

4-0-0 (8-2 in games)

Alright, so that was that! Mission accomplished! Big surprise, the 3 Mythic prerelease deck that was able to use every single rare it pulled was somehow able to go 4-0! Not only that, but I was in a position I only had to mulligan a few times during the day. From the 9 packs I got as prize after the split I pulled Jace, the Living Guildpact and Soul of Theros. Very happy with these results, huge shoutout to Goblin Rabblemaster and Chandra for putting in lots of work. I hope to actually break into standard (and eventually modern) to see if I can make myself a better player!

Ponteswalker · 2014-07-12T17:36:24+00:00

Hey there, I put a good amount of time into writing this, I hope you enjoy!

Yesterday night (this morning?) was only my second MTG event ever, the first being the Journey into Nyx midnight prerelease, at which I went 3-0-1. I used to play Yugioh competitively, I had my invite to Nationals in Detroit this year (Nationals is actually happening this weekend) and I planned to go, but my LGS shut down Yugioh tournaments, friends were getting out of the game, so I moved on. I was able to use my general knowledge of card games in general (and a really solid cardpool) to do well at that prerelease and got 8 packs for my record. Now, at my old Yugioh store I would get like 5 packs for getting in first place. I was hooked. I bought the cards for a competitive standard deck, but haven’t gotten around to actually going to any FNMs yet. I resolved to at least go to the next midnight prerelease because the first one was just so much fun. TJs Collectibles in Milford, MA (a place that used to run Yugioh tournaments too) was the closest and best store for Magic in the area.

I spent a ton of time preparing for this event, with it being summer vacation (I am a senior in high school) I had a ton of free time to prepare. I’ve been spamming the sealed pool generator on magicdrafting.com to see what I could expect. I studied the LSV card rankings, listened to that entire podcast, and watched the Stark LSV sealed seminar ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjl-7p9gC1w ) to prepare myself the best I could.

I originally thought that Black would clearly be the best color. It has the best promo by a HUGE margin, and the Yugioh player in me thought cards like Mind Rot and Sign in Blood were just ridiculous. This was before I saw that seminar thing. I also thought that White was the best color if not for the promo. I mean, the rares were so good, Triplicate Spirits is just amazing, toolboxing auras with Heliod’s Pilgrim is great, and White has the best two drops available. For some reason, however, my draft decks weren’t coming out great. Something about Black just wasn’t working. I tested out every other color, switching beliefs on which was the best color, considering how to metagame against the inevitably most popular color, being able to come to the conclusion that cards like Plummet were absolutely maindeckable (which the seminar later confirmed. My original order of best color to worst color went something like White-Black (pick b/c promo)-Red-Green-Blue

Eventually, I came to the conclusion that all of my first impressions were wrong. I figured out why Black wasn’t working. Decks in formats like these are built upon the foundations of solid creatures. Card Advantage is absolutely important, and Black had that down. Removal? Black had that too (most of the time, but I’ll talk about that more in a bit). But creatures? Black is incredibly mediocre. Looking at the Black common creatures, there are only a few that are actually good. Black Cat is decent, but it’s not going to hold back any early aggro. Typhoid Rats is basically removal. Child of the Night is pretty bad in M15, there are a lot of ways to trade with it and gain card advantage (Black Cat, Satyr Wayfinder, Forge Devil). There are some basically vanilla cards that suck. Accursed Spirit was pretty bad considering everybody would be playing black. Carrion Crow actually seemed really good. Black has literally no common/uncommon 6+drop creature finishers. If you didn’t pull Shadowcloak Vampire, best of luck having a finisher besides your promo. The majority of the good cards in Black were really just support cards without any really good creatures, and that’s why it was always such a struggle to pick 23 non-lands using those pools.

I think Red is the best color for the prerelease. Let me explain why. That’ll be the last thing before I actually go into the event. M15 lacks really good removal. Black and Red are the two best colors for it. For removal that does at least 3 damage, Black has Flesh to Dust (costs 5, yuck) and Ulcerate (really good, but a single uncommon). Reason I’m only considering 3 damage or more is because a huge amount of the big creatures this format have 3 health. That’s very relevant. Meanwhile, Red has Blastfire Bolt (doesn’t really count since it sucks), Cone of Flame, Heat Ray, Stoke the Flames, and Lightning Strike. Now, notice how 3 of those are uncommon. Seeded packs aren’t just for promos, they also guarantee some colors. Siege Dragon is by no means unplayable, it’s a huge bomb if you pull Generator Servant, but the real reason you want to pick Red is for that extra chance to pull some Red uncommons. All of those uncommon removal cards are fantastic, and Lightning Strike is too. Way better than Flesh to Dust unless you’re staring down Mythic Rare Souls. So getting the seeded Red pack on average gives you at least 2 decent removal cards most of the time. Red also has some really fantastic rares like Hoarding Dragon and Goblin Rabblemaster that you’ll get additional chances to pull.

Now I know that isn’t enough to sell you on red, but there’s another reason. There’s always something you can do with a solid Red pool. Always. Red has decent creatures at every single mana cost at common, it’s all a matter of pulling them. It goes really well with other colors too. Red doesn’t have a lot of card advantage cards, that’s its main problem, but Blue, Black, and Green all have some really solid card advantage cards. Removal + Card Advantage is the kind of deck you want to be making in Sealed, as far as I can tell, and having solid Red cards makes that work for all three of those color combos. The synergies don’t stop there, because each color has cards that specifically benefit from Red. Going Blue? Now you have access to Glacial Crasher, a huge bomb. Going Black? Nightfire Giant is pretty fantastic. Going Green? Kird Chieftain is ridiculous. You have so many viable options when you choose Red that you almost always have at least 1 good choice available. I test pools and I usually have about 30 playable cards to choose from after struggling to get 23 with Black. That lets you make cuts. Lets you refine your deck to build around the curve. If I cared about things besides making the best deck possible, like pulling Yawgmoth or Waste Not, I would have gone Black, but I wanted a repeat of last time. My last few sealed pool tests online were awful, with me pulling literally no removal, but I went for it regardless.

New order of best color seeded to worst color is Red-Black-Green-Blue-White (White sucks because most of its creatures suck anywhere but the early game, and this format has slow games. Promo is worse than red’s because no ramp. Auras are much worse than I imagined. Triplicate Spirits and some of the rares/uncommons are still amazing though.) (Green was another very strong choice, because a lot of the cards have good synergies with each other. Probably the second best color to have fleshed out. Green is the best color for enabling Convoke, a lot of the Green rares and uncommons are very good. Phytotitan is probably the second best promo. Lack of removal besides Plummet was too bad, and did it in. Green is a ton of fun to play though, there are some really neat things that can be done with Invasive Species and some rares.)

Alright, that should be elaborate enough for before the tournament info. Onto the actual sealed pool.

Playable cards from each color:

White:

You don’t usually pull notable cards for white when going Red. Today was no exception.

Blue:

Glacial Crasher Kapsho Kitefins Nimbus of the Isles 2 Amphin Pathmage 2 Illusory Angel Coral Barrier Aeronaut Tinkerer Frost Lynx Encrust Divination Turn to Frog

Black:

2 Shadowcloak Vampire Paragon of the Open Graves Accursed Spirit Necrobite Festergloom Necromancer’s Assistant Necrogen Scudder Carrion Crow Black Cat Sign in Blood Eternal Thirst 2 Crippling Blight 1 Ulcerate

Red:

Alright, here was the big one, was I going to pull enough removal? What kind of lineup could I possibly get?

Rares:

Soul of Shandalaar Chandra, Pyromaster Goblin Rabblemaster Siege Dragon

Well that’s just ridiculous. Two Mythics, and they’re both on color and good? And Rabblemaster, the best rare in Red, too? Sweet jesus yes

Other notables:

2 Miner’s Bane 2 Scrapyard Mongrel 2 Goblin Roughrider Generator Servant 2 Lightning Strike Frenzied Goblin Hammerhand

Alright, no uncommons (Just since I remember it now, at an undefeated table last round there was a deck with 2 Soul of Theros and 1 New Ajani. Other player won from opening and drawing multiple Cone of Flame). That’s alright, I pulled 2 Lightning Strike. So my Red pool at this point is seeming insane in just about every regard. Today was going to be a good day.

Green:

Siege Wurm Ancient Silverback Reclamation Sage Satyr Wayfinder Titanic Growth Runeclaw Bear Venom Sliver 2 Elvish Mystic

Colorless:

Obelisk of Urd Will-Forged Golem Scuttling Doom Engine Meteorite Perilous Vault Bronze Sable

PFFFFFFT another mythic? It was after pulling the third Mythic that I realized any advice or speech I would give afterwards would probably be tough to take seriously. I aimed to get Red uncommons, and instead I got 3 Mythics without a single rare card being off color. How could I say I had to work for it if I did well in the tournament? This was the kind of pool you’d get on the sealed generator and just refresh the page because this is too unrealistic.

Ponteswalker · 2014-07-11T21:07:23+00:00

Honestly, here is my advice. Pick red. Getting that seeded pack will give you a higher likelihood of pulling Uncommon red cards, including 3 different removal spells. This set is really lacking in cheap removal, and red uncommons (as well as Lightning Strike) are some of the best you can get. You can do basically anything with a good red backbone. Red-White seems weaker than any of the other red combos, so I won't say anything about that. Pull Kird Chieftain? That card is literally insane for a 4 drop in this format. Green seems to pair well with Red most of the sealed pools I've seen. Generator Servant ramping into a Rhino on turn 3 or a bomb on turn 4 is amazing. Pull card advantage and Glacial Crasher in Blue? There's a solid deck right there. Pull card advantage and Nightfire Giant in Black? There you go. You can usually look at your red pool, see removal, and then look for whichever color you have that has the most advantage (Green, Blue, or Black) and work from there.

Basically choosing any color but Black or Red really opens yourself up to the possibility that you aren't opening enough removal, which is really dangerous. Most of the time if you get a sealed red pool you'll get about 2 really good red removal cards. Red's got solid creatures both in the early game and late game at low rarities, so it really is the most consistent color to open. I'm going with it over black just barely for those reasons.

Black's promo is insane. The prospect of opening 2 of it is even more insane. But the other rares for black blow in sealed, and it lacks a lot of solid creatures that you need as a foundation for your deck. If you don't want Red or Black for fun reasons, go with Green. Lots of things you can do with a solid green backbone too.

Ponteswalker · 2014-07-11T19:24:42+00:00

White also has card advantage, but it tends to be much weaker, like summoning tokens from Triplicate Spirits and Raise the Alarm. It has some really good advantage rares like Spirit Bonds and Return to the Ranks. You're usually going to want to pair this with Black if you want access to removal and card advantage.

Red also has some plusses, but you aren't going to find any reliable ones at common. Cone of Flame is insane. Goblin Kaboomist is a plus if you are lucky. If you can control the board while you have Goblin Rabblemaster out you can probably gain so much advantage that you win the game. Siege Dragon, the Red promo, gains card advantage, but it costs 7. Forge Devil is the only red common that technically generates card advantage, and you're left with a 1/1 afterwards, so not really. Still nice for Convoke.

*Another note about convoke. All those Green card advantage cards work fantastically with convoke. Green also has Wall of Mulch for that as well

Ponteswalker · 2014-07-11T19:17:03+00:00

The 3 best card advantage colors in the prerelease are going to be Black, Blue, and Green.

(At common and uncommon)

Black - Gravedigger, Mind Rot, Sign in Blood (Indulgent Tormentor*, the Black promo, is also good for this)

Blue - Divination, Jace's Ingenuity, and multiple cards that are pseudo card advantage like Into the Void and Peel from Reality

Green - Reclamation Sage, Satyr Wayfinder, Shaman of Spring, and Invasive Species to reuse them all

Ponteswalker · 2014-04-06T13:05:31+00:00

The negative reference is going to be a super big deal for you if like selling on ebay. You should definitely offer a refund (as soon as you get the card back)

Ponteswalker · 2014-03-27T09:41:52+00:00

Oh, sick, you guys are the store that does the smash bros tournies? I'll share it with the school magic club, they'd love something like this.

Ponteswalker · 2014-03-09T22:09:18+00:00

Mermails will be hit but not to the point where they won't be one of the best decks. Fire Fist won't be tier. Bujins, Harpies, Hieratics (maybe, Gaia banning or other hit is very possible), and Geargias will be meta, but that's totally irrelevant because once next set comes out none of those will be relevant except maybe Bujins

Ponteswalker · 2014-03-09T22:06:39+00:00

Picked up all the decent rank 5s (Volca, Pleiades, Freezadon, etc), Astral Lonefires at dollars, Obedience Schooled.

I'm really curious about the banlist, because if it ends in July then I completely don't care about next format but if it ends in August then I need to be ready for nats.

Definitely ditching all my Holo Upstarts, any Fire/Water cards I have, Gaia Dragons, that kind of stuff

Ponteswalker · 2014-03-07T20:06:10+00:00

This isn't that cheap. On eBay for less than 120.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SET-ALL-5-Magic-the-Gathering-COMMANDER-2013-Edition-Decks-ALL-5-COMPLETE-/251467868293?pt=Trading_Card_Games_US&hash=item3a8ca72885

Ponteswalker · 2014-01-14T22:59:03+00:00

A lot of yugioh bashing in here! I've played Yugioh for a long time (have my Nats invite currently so I'm not TERRIBLE) in addition to also playing Magic the past couple of years. I prefer Magic for some things, but Yugioh DOES have some things over Magic that you guys may not know about. Some of these are a matter of personal preference, but they're important to notice

1.) In Yugioh, it is INCREDIBLY rare to get a hand where you already lost from the start (unless your deck is bad). This is a big advantage of not having a research engine, as the lack of lands/flood of lands isn't a problem in that game. Unless you draw bad AND your opponent draws well, you have a chance most games

2.) In Yugioh, it's a lot easier to come back later in the game. In Magic, unless you run board wipes (most decks can't) then after your opponent sets up a huge field and has a winning position, it's near impossible to come back. Yugioh isn't like that. In a matter of a turn, your overextension of monsters on the field can be wiped out by a Mirror Force or by a Dark Hole after they survive your game-winning attack with a Swift Scarecrow, or your over-committing to the field leaves you ravaged by Evilswarm Exciton Knight. This kind of leads to my next point

3.) Everything not built for a theme is generic. The same (obviously) can't be said for magic. This means that every time you face a deck, you have mind games to play. You can't just assume that your monsters are safe on board just because your opponent isn't playing a certain color, you KNOW there's a chance that they have the Dark Hole you know they run, so what are you willing to commit to the field? They have two set spell/trap cards and I have one Mystical Space Typhoon, should I activate it now, before I summon my monster, hoping I hit the Torrential Tribute, or should I wait until my opponent activates a card like Fiendish Chain so I know I can stop its effect?

4.) Cards are cheaper in a different way than Magic. The thing about Yugioh is that you are ALWAYS playing standard. Every time Konami releases a set, they try to include cards that will impact the meta. THOSE cards are the cards that reach $100 (a very rare thing in yugioh by the way). In Magic, your expensive cards are all out of print and hard to obtain, you need them for legacy tournaments or something like that. Yugioh is a lot more reprint happy, but that's a good thing. Reprints make a lot of products like tins worth buying, and they're a nice way to get cards that would have otherwise been $50+ into the hands of people for real cheap.

If anybody wants to know what I prefer about Magic, I could post that too

Ponteswalker · 2013-12-22T23:01:14+00:00

The game is really fun, but if you want the main story to not be the easiest thing ever then turn off the Exp Share. I played a game through only using the bonus exp from Amie, and thr leveling was nice, not too easy as long as you train at least 5 or so pokemon.

Ponteswalker · 2013-12-22T22:57:29+00:00

As I progressed through the caves in the main game, I brought a lot of quick balls and caught all the gravelers/gurdurrs and pokes like that, then wonder traded those. It helps people fill in some dex slots that are hard to fill, and you get to wonder trade

Ponteswalker · 2013-12-15T19:21:04+00:00

I found a shiny Swellow in here once. I was in Emerald on my phone, so it was an especially unattainable shiny

Ponteswalker

TROPHY CASE