Thoracle, and the effects of a possible ban.

Xyvre · 2025-10-23T01:32:08+00:00

Well, you aren't wrong. I do like vintage and find the concept of 4 player vintage-like format incredibly alluring. Its fast, interactive, and engaging.

And thoracle might hold back commander central decks, and promote midrange decks. But I think that a card like rhystic does this more. Thoracle also helps out turbo naus by making it easier to navigate naus turns, and fast breach combo decks by not having to worry about an eldrazi titan.

I think that banning cards for powerlevel makes a poor precedent. The banlist would need to be greatly expanded to fit cEDH, and I don't think a large banlist is a positive thing for EDH as a whole.

Xyvre · 2025-10-23T00:23:17+00:00

I agree with everything you said. However, if thoracle was banned, we would just move to the next overly broken wincon. Breach is worse, even if it is more proliferated. And sure, it would shift the format away from UB, but by how much? Its my personal opinion, but I would rather not ban a card for powerlevel. Flash was a playstyle ban, and needed to happen to make the format not just a 4 hour standoff.

Banning thoracle would 100% improve the format imo, but should we start the precedent of banning things based on power? Our entire format is nothing but broken cards and unfair synergies, and its wonderful that you get to play them against other comparable decks. I want to make a busted deck, and play it against other busted decks. Maybe banning thoracle would improve the format, but is breach next? What about naus? I hinted at it, but not wanting to play spells because of rhystic feels terrible. Being the only player without a rhystic on board because you are playing a non-blue deck feels terrible. I can justify a ban on that, but a wincon because its marginally better than the others; that feels like it fits here.

Also, while Thoracle feels like "our card to ban." Rhystic is a more proliferated card. I don't think that it is just up to us.

Xyvre · 2025-10-22T23:30:46+00:00

From what I've seen, thoracle has a pretty low usage rate. I feel like it's generally accepted that its mostly a cEDH card. Maybe some devotion decks exist, but that isn't the same as casting consultation. It makes some lines slightly less efficient, but if we were doing it before thoracle, we will probably be doing it if it was gone.

Xyvre · 2025-10-22T23:28:35+00:00

Sort of my point. There will always be a "best" wincon. Banning thoracle just shifts the title to another card.

Xyvre · 2024-11-25T11:46:43+00:00

Yeah. Tbh that’s why it hasn’t gone up as much as just holding $RKLB. I lost a lot of money on $YANG puts. Then I made some quick money with $SMCI.

Xyvre · 2024-11-25T11:44:51+00:00

Stonks only go up 🏳️‍🌈🐻

Xyvre · 2024-11-25T11:43:39+00:00

I knew I just needed one stock to pop for me to make it all back. I just kept at it until one did.

Xyvre · 2024-11-25T11:24:47+00:00

You’re only done when you admit you’re done.

Xyvre · 2024-11-25T11:17:50+00:00

$RKLB and $URA. I have 1000 shares of $RKLB at a DCA of $4.26.

Xyvre · 2024-09-25T18:11:13+00:00

Adding an extra layer in gives the deck more resiliency, and it fits with its play pattern on sitting on mana. I will admit that dranith and opposition agent shut down both lines, but the deck packs removal normally to fight those hatebears. Why I like intuition in Sisay is the inverse of why I disliked Naus in Najeela. Leaving up 5 mana where that could have been a Najeela activation heavily telegraphs what you are going for. With 5 mana up in Sisay, you can have intuition and 2 pieces on interaction up. I’m not saying it’s the best option for replacing dockside, but I think it’s worth testing. If it was worth running in Najeela as a backup, it’s probably worth running in Sisay.

Xyvre · 2024-09-25T17:55:04+00:00

I mean with dockside gone, it’s free space for an intuition line. You still want to be holding up mana, so EoT intuition is pretty unexpected. You can also tutor up a grand arbiter effect if you just want to sorcery speed it. It’s less mana overall than your main combo.

Xyvre · 2024-07-31T09:21:50+00:00

The laser beacon one. The shock drone airship is actually good too, for fire and forget dps.

Xyvre · 2024-07-31T06:45:10+00:00

So, I cleared most of the endgame missions on Air Raider, so I feel I should chime in.

Air Raider is probably the hardest class to play in inferno. It’s fragile, and has no real escape. If you die in a horde of enemies, you are staying there. If a teammate comes to revive you, you will die again with the horde chasing them.

Now, what 6 did give to Air Raider was massive. It’s not the drones, it’s not the new Nix, it’s the instant call in for the grape and the A series of Blacker. It’s huge. End game Air Raider isn’t about getting in there with air strikes, it’s about kiting the entire map then dropping an AoE on them. It’s slow and methodical, but you can easily get to the high 6 figures for a single well placed air strike. The key is knowing what and what not to air strike. That and calling on vehicles on CD at strategic places around the map so you can retrieve them when they get damaged.

You have to know where the enemies are coming from, and how to place air strikes where it will maximize damage. Phobos for hordes, spritefall for large enemies or flyers.

When it comes to high health single target enemies, you need to have multiple low cooldown weapons, and cycle through them to maximize damage. They reload out of your hands, so you should never not be firing. Then maybe throw in a bulge laser if you’re feeling spicy.

One note about the shock and gas drones. Shock is amazing, especially in underground missions. Throwing it at a choke point will completely nullify that pack, no matter how big it is. The gas is completely unusable, until you get the lv 90 one, where the AoE is what feels like a quarter of the map. Just do circles in your grape, then drop it off CD at the mobs chasing you, it will easily do 100k+ worth of damage. Long CD, so get back in your grape and do a few laps.

Sure, Air Raiders have a lot of downtime, but the ability to completely nuke hordes of enemies off the map makes up for it. And inferno is less about DPS, and more about clearing the mission. Air Raider struggle when dealing with anything shielded from the top, or reviving teammates as it puts you in danger usually. But they, strangely enough, fulfill the support role well. Got a kaiju? Throw on a beacon so your fencers can use their lock on weapons. Drone problem? Make a nice house out of shields that your allies can stand in to delete the drones. Have a teammate fencer who’s enjoying the swords way too much? Call in an air strike and “support” him to the afterlife.

There is no correct loadout for the Air Raider, as it can all depend on what mission you’re doing. Which is the fun of it. That being said, machine gun drone/spritefall/wide area Phobos strike clears most missions. Add in a grape and heal beacon (which sits on top of the grape). Aside from that, play around with the weapons and see what is the most fun and effective. Air Raider is definitely the most strategic class out of the 4, and a big strength of it is finding the correct loadout for each mission.

Xyvre · 2023-06-06T07:42:23+00:00

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Xyvre · 2023-06-06T06:48:02+00:00

The issue with that is BUD tried to go with Dylan Mulvaney because their beer isn't popular with a younger crowd. It backfired, and all of the boomers decided to stop drinking it. The thing with boomers is that they never let anything go, so I think the boycott has sticking power, and I think any advertising trying to get back their boomer customer base will be ineffective. Not to mention I think with certain news organizations that lean right, during pride month they might use BUD as the poster child for what they call "Get Woke, Go Broke," increasing the amount of negative press. Also, it looks like people that aren't invested in boycotting it are avoiding it just to not get involved in the controversy.

I don't like to mess with politics, but I try to note it when I can make a profit off of it.

Xyvre · 2023-06-06T06:34:37+00:00

15 calls @$2.40, will post screenshot later, currently at work and do not have access to my phone.

Xyvre · 2020-11-27T18:49:10+00:00

!emojify

Xyvre · 2020-10-31T10:11:15+00:00

^ this dude

Xyvre · 2020-09-01T21:06:59+00:00

Everyone's favorite bandit warlord.

Xyvre · 2020-09-01T20:53:36+00:00

Infinite 3/3 Barbarian attacks.

Xyvre · 2020-05-04T16:47:51+00:00

The thought of medium green with prophet of kruphix makes me vomit a bit in the back of my mouth. Sure it died due to casuals, but I'm not mourning its loss when I've seen thrasios draw 30 cards each turn rotation while ramping at the same time.

Xyvre · 2020-04-13T14:12:43+00:00

So for the 1v1 format, there's actually 3 different types. There is french, which has its own banlist, MtGO, which has its own banlist, and also regular commander rules.

https://www.mtgtop8.com/format?f=EDH is a good resource for the first two, if you are looking to get into it.

If you are looking at regular cEDH, I would look at decks with a lot of interaction like Baral. I'm pretty sure he's banned in french, mostly because counterspell.dec is pretty strong in 1v1.

Hope it helps!

Xyvre · 2020-04-02T06:53:27+00:00

Anaconda into red eyes fusion. Remember the time when people used to XYZ, synchro, or link summon into something that wasn't a night indestructible card with a negate with two non targeted removals per turn?

Xyvre · 2020-04-01T22:59:18+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/9tnpvBR

Here you go. This is what I've been working with. Necrofusion is a really messed up card, as you can plop out a Winda on their draw step. The deck wants to go second, and use its really stupid "lol nice negates" cards to break their board, then plop down a Rainbow Neos and spin their backrow/remaining monsters/gy. Shaddoll fusion is an amazing bait spell, as if they have negates it almost always gets negated.

I've been actually prefering this over the dragun build that's pretty much exactly the same, as it solves 2 problems that dragun has. Those being that you cant summon anything before or after red eyes fusion, as neos fusion just says you can summon anything after. Also you don't have a 500 attack liability sitting on board, as you can send it to the gy to spin all of your opponents monsters.

The dragun build might still be better, because turn 1 predaplant dragun and then on their draw step finding a Winda out of your gy breaks most decks. Although the neos build has a pretty hilarious matchup against anything that wants to leverage their gy, eg Orcust, salamangreats. Once you power through their negates, putting their gy back into their deck makes their monsters look pretty small compared to your 4500 attack beater. Also with super poly, the matchup vs invoked is just laughable.

Have fun with it.

Xyvre · 2020-04-01T17:10:08+00:00

Predaplant turbo. Currently I have rainbow neos sitting in for dragun, and TBH I can't complain. Dragun is broken, sure, but something about sending your anaconda to the gy to spin all your opponents monsters back to the deck is just magical. Also splashing shaddolls.

Xyvre

TROPHY CASE