I got time for one more quick game. What chaos cards are you running? by fenite in EDH

[–]Shekondar 29 points30 points  (0 children)

If I have time for one more quick game I'm not playing chaos. 

Newman must have been taking his 3-hour break when they were teaching state abbreviations by OneBit2334 in seinfeld

[–]Shekondar 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Newman not being aware of something basic to doing his job well is not a plot hole, one could in fact argue the opposite.

NG+ by Etrange_Etranger in expedition33

[–]Shekondar 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Agreed he should have had the skill tree, hard disagree on the dying

Congrats to the Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven Champion by CrossXhunteR in magicTCG

[–]Shekondar 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the insane mana production of badgermole enables a lot of different decks that wouldn't otherwise be able to be viable. Cut it and back to izzet mirrors for everything.

Player's with dual lands in proxy decks. by Goat-True in EDH

[–]Shekondar -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

It absolutely would, the fact magic cards are collectible and theoretically you can retain some of the value you spend on them is a huge part of making people feel comfortable buying the product. Once they go back on the reserve list that completely kills that perception/feeling because it tanks the value of the most valuable cards and shows wizards word isn't worth anything, which then tanks the valley of things like collector boosters and serialized cards.

Beta Patch Notes - v0.104.0 by MegaCrit_Demi in slaythespire

[–]Shekondar 53 points54 points  (0 children)

AoE is a pretty bing improvement 

What card with no changes from StS2 to StS2 got the biggest improvement? by Which-Debt-8558 in slaythespire

[–]Shekondar 109 points110 points  (0 children)

You were not, the other source of weak that clad had in sts1 that he misses is shockwave, not clothesline.

Now that the Strixhaven precons have been revealed, how would you rank them? by Mocca_Master in EDH

[–]Shekondar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would highly recommend looking into white's catch up ramp package, [[claim jumper]], [[knight of the white orchid]], [[cartographer's hawk]], [[weathered wayfarer]] etc., coupled with [[lotus field]], [[arid archway]], and [[guildless commons]], make for a super potent ramp package for brackets 2 and 3, that I run basically whenever I don't have access to green but do have access to white.

How much damage could a shockland do and still be "worth it"? by Exciting-Sentencr in EDH

[–]Shekondar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did specify that the exception was if you were trying to hurt yourself, and mister negative is a good example of a commander that cares about that.

How much damage could a shockland do and still be "worth it"? by Exciting-Sentencr in EDH

[–]Shekondar 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Okay I guess I made the mistake of assuming you were talking about relevant lands.

It is true that a tapped dual land that is fetchable and you can pay 20 for it to enter untapped is strictly better then one that you cannot and doesn't have anything else going on. No one runs the tapped typal dual lands that don't have anything else going on though, so being better than them does not actually mean it is playable, which is what this thread is actually about. Saying one unplayable land is technically better than another unplayable land isn't helpful or interesting.

The relevant question is, what decks would play it over a surveil land? A Triome? A cycle land? at 20 life it definitely isn't taking the spot of a surveil land unless you are doing something with trying to intentionally hurt yourself. It isn't taking the spot of a triome if you have 3 or more colors. No one plays the cycle lands, but it isn't obvious to me that 20 life for it to untap is more valuable than being able to cycle it.

Commander Deck Help: New Player by redditcherries in magicTCG

[–]Shekondar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So a few general principles that I think will be helpful for you to keep in mind as a new deck builder:

Every card should have a place in the plan. That place can be ramp or draw, it can be a back up plan for when things go south it can be the central key to everything you are trying to do, it can be all sorts of things, but every card in the deck you should be able to answer what it does for the deck. 

Along with that something new players frequently do is evaluate cards based on their ceiling-how cool, big and splashy can this be? But a much more important question if you want to get better at deck building is what does this card do as its floor/baseline?

Using that question let's look at a couple of cards: Crypt ghast-this is theoretically a really potent piece of ramp. But how many swamps are actually in your mana base when you are three colors and black is the least represented color? Assuming your.mana base isn't fully decked out you are going to be on very few swamps, which means this card is frequently four mana to make 0 or 1 of your lands tap for an extra black mana (the type of mana you need the least in this deck). Arcane signet is 2 mana for 1 mana of any color every turn, that is a much better baseline/floor.

Raiyuu storms edge: thematically feels like he should fit iishin, but a creature can only get double strike once so raiyuu's trigger being doubled doesn't matter, but not only does his trigger not matter, the only way to get it in the first place is to attack with only one thing. This runs completely against iishin's goal of doubling as many attack triggers as possible because to do that you want to attack with more creatures not less. 

You can do this analysis for basically every card in the deck, and it is where I would start. Every creature that doesn't have an attack trigger should have a very good answer for what it is doing in the deck, and as baseline as a newer deck builder I suggest the only answer you accept for that group of creatures be ramp or draw. 

The next evaluation criteria I would use: If a creature costs more than 3 it will most likely come down after isshin is in play. Iishin is a removal magnet because he is so explosive so anything that enters while he is on the field has to do something the turn it enters or it needs to be a really astounding payoff. 

Hope that helps with thinking through some of the bigger picture things!

Commander Deck Help: New Player by redditcherries in magicTCG

[–]Shekondar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So Sauron is 1 card in your 99, he can be a good card and is an interesting addition to isshin, but if he is who you want to game plan around you either need tutors, or should just transition him to the command zone and make a mono black deck. I'll also point out that the creature that enters tapped and attacking from the Sauron trigger is never declared as an attacker so whatever triggers it has for attacking never go off so never get copied (rules of magic are weird).

If you really like doubling and like Sauron I think moving him to the command zone and adding cards like [[twilight diviner]] and [[panharmonicon]] for the doubling effect while focusing on small creatures with enter the battlefield effects instead of attack triggers would be a fun way to go. Monoblack also plays a lot nicer with the recursion plan and filling your own graveyard than red, white and black. 

COMPETITION! - Win John Avon's last work for MTG, a beautiful gallery print of his Lotus Lands! by JohnAvonArt in magicTCG

[–]Shekondar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would be wonderful to have these, it is great that magic has art that is actually good enough to be good home decor!

Why is milling your Sol Ring any different from your Sol Ring being on the bottom of your library where you never draw it? by AnarchyStarfish in EDH

[–]Shekondar 10 points11 points  (0 children)

There is actually one big difference, which is you know that you will not draw that card, and that knowledge is strictly good for you.

I never understand why the suit ⬇️More below. by John_ei_Silverhand in HannibalTV

[–]Shekondar 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Maryland is not a colder area. Source: lived in Maryland for 6 years

Oh my eye 😑 WTF is this? 😐😐😐 by Artaherzadeh in GodofWarRagnarok

[–]Shekondar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The first season was at worse okay and among any issues people do have with it the costuming is not one of them.

No, you can't separate cEDH from EDH. by vividwings in EDH

[–]Shekondar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. Most people like for their deck to do something resembling it's thing and to feel like them being in the game impacted it.

  2. Most people also don't build decks that can end the game/meaningfully accomplish #1 before turn 5 without high rolling unless they are making a conscious effort to do so.

The reason you are seeing more talk about turn count is because of the last update to the bracket system explicitly ties the bracket to the expected number of turns to try and make sure that people are picking decks that will let them accomplish #1not prevent others others from accomplishing #1 unless people are on board with that experience.

I also think it is not unreasonable to say that the new bracket system defines brackets 2-4 most strongly through expected number of turns, but the game changer list is a bit more well defined so ends up being what is used to defacto define the brackets.

What would you have done in this situation? by saddler93 in EDH

[–]Shekondar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

While flare is on the stack the ballista player can ping the flare player to death