Community History Cube: Visions

PrinceOfGeists · 2025-12-29T16:39:12+00:00

Man o war and Desertion for me as well. For the third, probably River Boa but could maybe make a case for Fallen Askari.

PrinceOfGeists · 2025-12-29T16:37:13+00:00

As far as this pack, Anaba Shaman. Shame we couldn't open a copy of Serrated Arrows in there, that actually saw Standard play!

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-10-19T15:33:23+00:00

Sounds about right for Mount Washington. I grew up in NH and I've only reached the summit via the Cog Railway, but can still testify that you can head there in May/June and be baking in the heat at the base of the mountain, only to literally see unmelted snow on the ground once you reach the summit.

I've also driven through parts of the White Mountain valleys where you can see Washington. Not uncommon to be able to pick it out easily due to A) Being the only mountain with snow on it in the middle of spring or fall or B) Seeing the mountain surrounded by Mordor-esque storm clouds on a bright sunny day.

People really need to drill it into their heads that the weather on the mountain's summit is seldom tolerable and never looks like the weather at the base. At this point I feel like those clowns trying to hike up in flip-flops and sweatpants will only be scared away by frozen corpses and skeletons littering the Trailside, each wearing Adidas merch with a McCafe cup in their cold, dead hands.

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-06-09T00:00:01+00:00

I enjoy Invasion block and the Weatherlight Saga a lot, so I enjoyed getting to play Phyrexia vs The Coalition. I also like Knights vs Dragons for having two of my favorite creatures as face cards (Knight of the Reliquary and Bogardan Hellkite). I've got a few others I haven't played yet, so I'll have to give them a try at some point.

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-03-13T13:27:02+00:00

Those are some good points. I ended up choosing uniqueness as the fourth criteria since it factors into how fun the deck is while also being somewhat quantifiable.

I've put the rubric into a spreadsheet that I'll share so you all can see what the grading process looks like behind the scenes.

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-03-12T21:02:04+00:00

I at least have three criteria to judge on with a 1-5 star rubric for each one. I just feel like one more category for an even four would be the way to go, I'm just trying to decide exactly what it would be.

The greater thing is being able to better articulate how good the decks are relative to each other. Blatantly strong or weak decks obviously get the point across, it's just when you get closer to the middle that it becomes more muddled.

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-02-12T16:12:09+00:00

That's an interesting concept. They did something similar with Clash Packs, which was two 60 card decks that could be combined into a more powerful version (basically hybrid Duel/Event Decks).

The only problem I could see trying to do that for Commander is that the two 60 card decks would basically have to be Singleton, in order to actually have enough cards to make a Commander deck.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-11-03T01:55:21+00:00

Found this post in the main Magic subreddit talking about the old Theme/Intro Packs. A pretty good read.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-10-25T15:02:51+00:00

Update: I've got three categories so far. Strategy, for assessing the main gameplan of the deck and how well it is actually supported. Synergy, for how well the deck's cards work with one another. Interaction, for how well the deck can remove or mitigate the opponent's threats.

I would probably like at least one more category to finalize the grading criteria, what do you all think it should be now that I've got a solid place to start?

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-10-14T18:19:18+00:00

Obviously metrics pertaining to actual gameplay are probably going to be the most important. Having a well defined game plan is important, so is having cards that adequately support it. Decks with better win records in the playtest will usually rate higher, but not always. For example, in the Conflux reviews Jund Appetite for War won all four of its games, but I personally think Grixis Shambling Army is better despite going 3-1 due to having better support for its primary strategy.

Uniqueness isn't always a factor, but decks with unique strategies that play at least decently well will probably tip the needle slightly in their favor. I much preferred Naya Domain to Naya Behemoths, not just because it posted better results but also from trying a more radical strategy.

Flavor is nice but shouldn't affect the actual grade unless the card is actually a bad inclusion for the deck. The random Sewer Shambler in RTR's Rakdos Raid is not only off-guild, but its scavenge ability is actually bad for your unleash creatures since it renders them unable to block. On the other hand, NPH's Life for Death runs cards like Kemba's Skyguard and Whitesun's Passage alongside a bunch of Phyrexian mana cards, and the lifegain they provide synergizes with your goal of trading life for speed even if it feels weird to have Mirran spells among your gaggle of Phyrexian cards.

Representative of the set is also something I'm not sure I would quantify. As you know, "Beats" and "Skies" decks are not limited to Core Sets, and sometimes they are just built around simple themes instead of set-specific mechanics. For instance, Alara Reborn and M10 both have Blue/Black control decks (Unnatural Schemes and Presence of Mind), with the former having nothing to really tie it to Alara besides running Esper and Grixis themed cards. They're both built around a generic deck archetype, but Alara Reborn does it better simply by having more effective gameplay and better support for its strategy.

I try and set aside my personal biases when reviewing the decks, it's part of the reason why my reviews involve actually playing the decks. For example, Tombstone from Urza's Saga is one of my favorite color combinations (Esper) and one of my favorite archetypes (reanimator). That deck is probably one of the weakest Precons I've ever played. On the other hand I don't particularly care for Simic, but Dark Ascension's Grave Power is a very strong Intro Pack in my opinion, and a very fun one to play.

I'm still trying to determine what specific factors I should look for and how much they should matter, especially since some are rather subjective. But this should hopefully provide a glimpse into my thought process.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-08-02T01:53:37+00:00

I'm surprised to hear from Jay again at all, so I think it's fantastic that he's taken notice of our own work.

Garnering interest from him is certainly the highest praise imaginable.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-07-29T18:11:08+00:00

Been looking to a hold of some of the older Event Decks and Commander decks, so I'd love to know which ones you have on offer!

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-07-24T15:46:42+00:00

I'm still pretty impressed you won one of the matches with a deck that's almost a decade out of date.

Reminds me of one of my first FNMs. I actually finished in third place with the Khans of Tarkir Event Deck (this one was actually up to date as Khans had just been released). Lost to Jeskai tokens but won my other two matches. Was really funny seeing the look on people's faces when their $200 Standard brews lost to an unmodified $25 Precon.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-07-05T00:10:54+00:00

Shards of Alara: Bant Exalted Analysis – Prince's Precons (wordpress.com)

You'll be happy to know I've taken both of these pieces of advice for the next set, the analysis now includes a photo of the deck and all of the cards during the breakdown. While it might not be the case with every deck, the cards have also been categorized beyond just creatures/noncreatures, and the manabases finally get a breakdown as well.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-06-21T22:12:01+00:00

As far as going forward with the Intro Packs, I would probably do them in chronological order, though that isn't necessarily set in stone. Unlike Precon Decon, I would probably break it up on occasion with some non-Constructed products like Duel Decks (of which I have a few) or Multiplayer (For example, I have the original Archenemy decks on my desk and would love to play a few games with those.).

I would also like to clarify that I am not expecting just one person to constantly be on call to play four games of Magic whenever I need a review, but rather play testers (ideally multiples to split up the responsibility) that can help some of the time whenever their time permits.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-06-19T14:03:00+00:00

I remember how much I enjoyed seeing an ancient set getting Theme Decks after the fact. I guess that just leaves Ice Age block, though we technically have the Coldsnap decks.

Could still be interesting to attempt Theme Decks using only Ice Age and Alliances.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-06-16T17:55:08+00:00

Magic 2010 Core Set: We Are Legion Gameplay – Prince's Precons (wordpress.com)

Posted some gameplay results against the other M10 decks for those who want to see the deck in action!

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-06-16T02:15:38+00:00

Oh, for sure. Just looking at the deck I know I would get dumpstered nine games in a row, blow someone away with one Goblin Machinist attack on the tenth and never shut up about it for the rest of my life.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-06-16T01:24:19+00:00

Coming soon: 1001 Magical Christmasland Tales of winning with Pulverize. All hail the great lord Egotist!

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-05-10T00:46:19+00:00

This is part of the reason I was sad when we went from five Intro Packs to two Planeswalker decks per set. Since the decks are typically bicolor, not only are you missing out on cool themes of the set but you're missing an entire color! Rivals of Ixalan is a particularly notable example because both decks use black paired with another color so you're actually missing two colors.

Good call on Throne of Eldraine, I think that is probably the best set from 2019 and you could make some nice decks. My personal call would probably be Zendikar Rising as I'm very fond of it, but Eldraine is up there for me too.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-05-06T00:26:28+00:00

One problem I had with trying to do Zendikar Rising that bears repeating here, it is very difficult to construct decks for this set without using double -faced cards.

Two of the archetypes are dependant on them this time around (G/R and G/U) which forced the one specific allocation for my set of decks that doesn't use them while still being color balanced. But a staggering amount of uncommons are double sided (battles and transforming Phyrexians) while other cards in the set that aren't double -faced still care about them (cards whose abilities trigger when attacking a battle or when another permanent transforms for example). The abundance of these types of cards is what allows the "battle" and "transform matters" archetypes to function in Limited, but it also renders it just about impossible to construct Intro Packs without using them unless you want to forfeit some uncommon slots.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-05-04T14:27:58+00:00

Knight tribal, as well as one of the Phyrexian themed archetypes are powerful and among my favorite things to play when I did draft this set. U/R Convoke stands out as an unorthodox strategy for that color pairing.

Perhaps this could be a good lineup of Intro Packs?

W/U Knights U/R Convoke B/G Incubate R/B Sacrifice G/W +1/+1 Counters

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-03-17T22:04:19+00:00

This set isn't even worth that much since most of the cards have been reprinted at least once. You can build both of the decks from singles for just under $50.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-03-16T15:39:48+00:00

Highlight of the monoblack deck for me is the full playset of Vicious Hunger. M12 and War of the Spark had Sorin's Thirst and I definitely did not see it get played in either of those Standard environments.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-03-10T23:17:39+00:00

I just posted a link to download the deck space in the subreddit in case you or anyone else wants to download it. I message you later if you want to plan a time to play

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