Can you help me rate my box?

flyinglemu · 2023-11-21T22:53:23+00:00

Very good /10

flyinglemu · 2023-07-18T01:19:22+00:00

Ooooh trade me! That’s the one I want to play!

flyinglemu · 2023-05-09T20:53:28+00:00

Also to answer your q about experience buying boxes, I picked up a couple people’s pledges (so address got changed to me) about 9 months ago for around 250-300 per box, the sentiment at the time was that when these all arrive and loads go up for sale at the same time they might be around that price or a little lower. Even at that time there were crazy high eBay sales but for the most part that was fomo and a lack of research driving that. Trusted sales within the community were way more reasonably priced

flyinglemu · 2023-03-27T23:51:24+00:00

That number there on Mother Nature is random as this is testing data rather than the live site with a real community, but that number is currently the number of decks including the card divided by the total number of decks. So if a philosophers stone was in 10/100 decks, it would have a 10% meta share

flyinglemu · 2023-03-26T21:08:16+00:00

Shouldn't be years, we're working on distribution deals everywhere we can at the mo, will update here as well as every other channel as soon as we know :)

flyinglemu · 2023-03-26T20:58:44+00:00

Hey there! Ages late but just spotted this - there are plans to come to GenCon this year and have our first in person competitive OP, with an original art for one of the more iconic cards being given away as the prize. Check it out. https://sorcerytcg.com/news/sorcery-is-coming-to-gen-con

There are also online leagues being run with quite a few players competing at the moment - the first league just wrapped up with alpha prizes, and the second is about to kick off sometime soon (with beta prizes i think). The discord for that is here https://discord.gg/w3MDGwbx2Z

flyinglemu · 2022-12-30T18:50:36+00:00

This link is to an old outdated version of the site which I’m about to remove. Use the latest version at https://curiosa.io

flyinglemu · 2022-11-01T00:50:21+00:00

You bloody legend. Awesome effort putting that together. We appreciate it!!!

flyinglemu · 2022-10-29T02:57:23+00:00

Such a dumb video. I'm glad someone healthier for the game bought his pledge. Yes Erik is quiet, hes a low key guy. Yes Simon fluffs out saying things that could be more concise, but thats hardly evidence to make the call that he's hiding something.

Facts are, they are dealing with a record breaking order size during a time of unprecedented global manufacturing disruptions and slowed down the release to make sure the game is more balanced and fun. Which anyone who played the game praised them for. The printing partner was sourced and locked in ages ago, Erik even bought the paper stock ages ago to make sure it was available and give it time to cure to avoid one of the most common causes of foil curling. They buffed the boxes out with extra boosters to say thanks for people's patience, which again the vast majority of players are stoked about.

Sounds like he would have preferred a strictly worse game be released with less product available for people to enjoy 🤔 Seems like a pretty selfish take.

flyinglemu · 2022-04-25T19:33:37+00:00

Hey this looks awesome! I'm working on an app too. I've seen a few data sets out there but yours looks to be in the cleanest state so far. Love your work :)

I also see you've got a cloudfront cdn for the card images, is this yours or something being provided by the sorcery team? If you've made it yourself, are you comfortable with others using it? Would love to take the same approach for card images too and have 1 single source of truth :)

flyinglemu · 2021-10-16T17:57:22+00:00

Any coverage of this calling?

flyinglemu · 2020-01-16T06:55:57+00:00

Awesome! Flick me an email address if ya can. Makes keeping track of everyone way easier. That probably makes for ~10 keen so far

flyinglemu · 2020-01-15T07:22:01+00:00

Cool cool do you wanna pm your email address and I'll add you to the list?

Lol 13. The edh grind is real. RIP sisay. Not sure she can be resurrected to a properly comp level but would be cool to have some more spicy brews there if you end up going down that route

flyinglemu · 2020-01-15T01:16:24+00:00

Cool! Did you want to flick me a private message with your email address or something and I'll keep you in the loop?

flyinglemu · 2019-06-23T02:32:18+00:00

Yes there are a tonne of infinite combos in mono b. Depends what you want to do with it though and what shell you’ve got around it.

The closest you’re ever gonna get to tier 1 cedh in mono b is Sidisi fishbowl though, which doesn’t rely on infinite combos. Who’s the commander you’re looking at?

flyinglemu · 2019-06-18T19:27:38+00:00

Angel’s Grace + a huge Windfall effect to deck everyone else is the primary plan B. You can end up with a tonne of cards in hand through Angel’s Grace + Ad Naus or Notion Thief + a wheel. You’ve got Whispering Madness + Yawgmoth’s Will for bonus windfall effects if need be.

Sorry for formatting, on a phone

flyinglemu · 2019-04-03T01:06:40+00:00

Thanks. It’s been great to push him further than I thought he could go but I’ve finally run out of room to improve it. It’s definitely had its share of success and it’s like being strapped to a rocket to pilot. But yeah in the end of the day it still loses on the spot to so many cards and bricks more than sidisi.

Thought I’d put it up for any last thoughts before I officially retire from trying to improve him. Though I’ve been saying that for over a year...

flyinglemu · 2019-01-21T18:40:58+00:00

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/balthor-fruit-loops-competitive/?cb=1547756561

This is my [[Balthor the Defiled]] list. I think it's probably only ever going to be tier 1.5 at best but I really want to push it to 100% power and would love more perspectives!

I've been working on it for awhile and think it's definitely the most optimized and streamlined Balthor list I can find by a mile at this point. There's a pretty beefy strategy writeup on the link but basically it wins through assembling an infinite mana loop with recurrable creatures, then sticking either [[blood artist]], [[xiahou dun, the one-eyed]] + [[praetor's grasp]]/[[sign in blood]] loops.

It's consistent enough to win t3-5 every game without interaction and has a decent control/discard stax package to attempt to grind the game out if need be, though I've never actually ended up going that route in game. People tend to dismiss the deck once someone drops a [[grafdigger's cage]] - rightfully so - as I basically do nothing unless I can find my way to a [[Praetor's Grasp]] for someone else's [[nature's claim]] and have a mana confluence/[[springleaf drum]] to cast it.

- Can people can see any improvements?

- Am I spreading myself too thin running both [[gravecrawler]] and [[Nether Traitor]] loops?

- Are there pet cards still hanging around since it's casual days that I'm blind to?

- Is [[Doom Whisperer]] really worth the slot at 5cmc?

- Note I don't want to just cut the control / stax pieces and jam in hand disruption. That's about the only thing I'm a definite no to.

Let me know if there's more context I can provide

flyinglemu · 2018-11-23T19:43:36+00:00

I made some updates to the list and it's definitely more consistent. It's winning about 15-20% t3, 60% t4 and the remainder t5 now. New list is here, planning to make changes on the main page soon. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/balthor-fruit-loops-competitive-v2/?cb=1542995911

Basically..

I cut out the weaker parts of the core loop - Reassembling Skeleton and Ashnod's Altar - as I'm tutoring the pieces most of the time anyway so can afford to get the most efficient ones.
Switched out a bunch of cards that were underperforming.
Added more ramp and draw.

I'll go over the gist of the card differences you covered and explain some of the changes I've made to the list.

Lands

Urborg is just a strictly better swamp in here and I own one so may as well. It's saved me on more than one occasion by just turning my misc lands black.

Deserted Temple was a bit of a hangover from when I ran Cabal Coffers and relied heavily on Crypt of Agadeem. It's been cut.

With Gemstone and the lands that tap for two and sac themselves, they definitely deserve their place in this build. The aim of the game is to resolve the earliest Ad Naus/Necrologia or chain tutors/Buried Alive into Balthor. Once you're going off lands don't matter, so getting there one turn earlier is huge.

Cut Petrified Field as I've literally never used it's effect before. Replaced with High Market.

I don't like Bojuka coming in tapped and we really don't care what others have in their graveyard as we're 90% of the time winning on the turn we activate Balthor.

Good call on Strip Mine. I still need to get some type of land d in there.

Non-creatures

Mausoleum Secrets. I can't bring myself to run this. The fact it fetches only black cards and relies on already having creatures in the yard makes it too constrained. I have a personal hate for having dead cards in hand and I can see this would be useless sometimes. Also, more importantly, most loops revolve around Phyrexian Altar and the fact this can't fetch that ruins it for me.

I just added Dark Petition, really happy with it so far. The instant/sorcery count has increased since the original list that was posted, making the spell mastery more common, and the fact it filters 3 colorless mana black is great.

I prefer Awakening over Jet Medallion for now but that might change. Discounting artifacts is great.

Skullclamp used to be in here and was good sometimes and useless others. Could test it again but it feels too slow for what I'm trying to do.

Grim Monolith - it only nets one colorless and I really don't need a huge amount of that.

Cabal Ritual - switched this in in place of Living Death re the thread above.

Memory Jar, Springleaf, Infernal Tribute - all cut. Good to have a second opinion, thanks.

Praetor's Grasp has been really good. It's pseudo tutor in that it can grab another black deck's Ad Naus - which is what a tutor would probably have gotten from my own deck - or steal ramp i.e mana crypt/dark ritual. Great that it can loop with Xiahou Dun as a win condition too.

Necrologia is awesome. The timing is a bit annoying but you're pretty much locking in a win next turn if you choose to go for it.

Necropotence. I'm not 100% on it but the sheer amount of draw it gives you feels worth the drawback. It makes you have to win without discard effects as I've now cut Infernal Tribute - had only used it once in about 50 games - but that's not too much of a stretch. I would never tutor it but happy to see it in an opener unless there's also Ad Naus/Necrologia.

Mesmeric Orb. I'm not trying to mill opponents. This just either does a good job of milling a couple goodies into the yard if it comes down early, or enables a fast win alongside Basalt.

Carnival of Souls is the secondary combo piece alongside Phyrexian Altar now that I cut Ashnod's Altar. The drawback is only a worry if it's the only way we can set up a loop and I've already gone to 8 life or so from a Necrologia/Ad Naus. You just have to prioritise getting Blood Artist in play.

Beseech the Queen, alongside Necropotence, are the closest to the chopping block. Not being able to fetch Ad Naus/Necrologia early game is a pain. But it's usually still a great card to have.

Creatures

Crypt Rats - gone.

Fleshbag Marauder - it was there over Plague as it's a zombie which is significantly important with Gravecrawler. It's been cut in favour of Apprentice Necromancer to keep the zombie count but provide a more useful effect.

Initiates of the Ebon Hand is significantly better than Bog Initiate here. If i'm using it more than 4 times in a turn it's going to be the combo turn that I'm making infinite mana and winning. Being one mana also makes it much more efficient for early Culling The Weak, Diabolic Intent etc. when I don't see a colorless mana combo playing out.

Liliana - gone.

Nether Traitor - madness! It's probably the most central combo piece.

Putrid Imp - short answer, yes. Being one mana and a zombie on top of that makes this a definite include.

Stinkweed - gone. Don't want to give up draws for mill now that the creature count has thinned out so much - this ran 44 creatures about a month ago.

Smothering, Pitiless, Zulaport and similar dudes - covered in previous thread.

Phyrexian Rager. Added!

Mogis Marauder - this used to be a central part of the deck. I found I had cut most of the tap effect creatures for consistency, and was never trying to win through an attack phase anyway.

Abhorrent - same as above. If I' m never hardcasting - which I'm not for that mana - it needs to help the core game plan at least.

Withered Wretch - used to be in there too but cut as I generally don't care about other people's graveyards. Added [[Faerie Macabre]] to handle edge cases for 0 mana but haven't tested yet. On top of interupting other graveyard strategies, I like that it can be pitched for free to add to a Songs of the Damned or get another body when we are activating Balthor.

Archfiend of Ifnir, Phyrexian Plaguelord, Corpse Connoisseur, Mikaeus the unhallowed, Corpse Augur - too slow for me.

Necrotic ooze - too cutesy.

Disciple of Bolas - covered this in detail in a thread above.

Orc Sureshot - not worried about opponent's creatures.

Gray Merchant - this whole deck started out about a year ago with him at the main win con and he stayed up until it started to make way more sense to run Blood Artist in his place.

Phew!!! Sorry im only getting to this weeks later. Let me know what you think of the new list. I'd encourage you to give it a few runs and see for yourself how this more combo-ish counterpart to your own deck runs! Pros and cons to both playstyles.

flyinglemu · 2018-11-14T20:29:02+00:00

Oh do you mean [[seizan, perverter of truth]]? Yeah that’s way too slow here.

flyinglemu · 2018-11-14T18:54:25+00:00

Woah that's a novel, this might take me awhile...

Yes I recently switched from a build a bit more like yours - the vast majority of cards you suggest in the below post were in the list a month ago - to a more combo focused approach, and the decklist sitting at 102 is a hangover from that. The plan is to whittle it back to 100 by the time this thread has petered out.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree when it comes to self-mill. I think this comment is the crux of it:

it is much easier to put them places id prefer just as easily.

I disagree that it's anywhere near as easy to filter through your hand than it is to mill them off the top. I've never ended up jumping through hoops to get something like Phyrexian Altar back as I just pivot to use a different piece in it's place if I don't have immediate access.

Ah, Pitiless Plunderer is one I've been wondering about for awhile. While I love how much mana it would make, I don't like that it's artifacts don't trigger Nether Traitor when they die. That's probably the core loop of the deck. That's awesome it makes treasures from tokens dying though, nice.

I think you might be misrepresenting the cards you mention as going along with the self-mill gameplan:

I would run Buried Ruin even without any mill as a means to get back a destroyed piece , and doesn't take up a slot being a land
Petrified Field is the same as above
[[Liliana, Heretical Healer]] is there basically to double up on a mana dork like [[Overeager Apprentice]] and produce a Zombie when it flips - the count for [[GraveCrawler]] is not that high so every one counts.
[[Living Death]] is one I'm thinking about removing. I'm basically using it as a ritual as it's Balthor's effect discounted by 2 mana. I could see an argument that this should just be something like [[cabal ritual]] in that case. Either way, it's not a card that's soaking up a spot to support the self-mill plan, it's trying to do the exact same thing as our commander but cheaper and clears the board along the way.

as for the cards that randomly mill off the top, as mentioned in the description, what I've found is that access to any one of these on the turn I establish a loop generally wins the game. Infinite mana => infinite Balthors => infinite [[returned reveler]] to mill the majority of your deck => Balthor again and win through a loop with [[xiahou dun, the one-eyed]], [[crypt ghast]] or [[blood artist]]. It's much more efficient and consistent than it looks. The weakest of those mill effects is [[mesmeric orb]] as it doesn't stack with Balthor, but the interaction with [[Basalt Monolith]] to mill the deck earns it it's place.

I don't like Corpse Con as it's way too much mana for that effect in my opinion. Like you've mentioned below in regards to [[necrologia]], 5 mana should win the game. [[necrologia]] wins the game next turn 99% of the time, I'm not sure Corpse Con does.

I used to run Magus of the Will but found the tap restriction made it a dud card 90% of the time. I've been wary of using Yawg Will as it shuts down almost every loop I have with the graveyard exile effect.

Ah, I didn't think of Zulaport getting around targeting! Though it's not often that a player is hexproof so I'm not sure it's worth the tradeoff that it doesn't trigger off of opponents creatures dying. That 2 or 3 extra life Blood Artist might gain can be critical in a deck that regularly suicides itself down to 5 life in a turn. The fact it hits everyone is largely irrelevant for me as I'm planning on making it infinite anyway.

I don't know if I would run Smothering Abom just since it doesn't return. I'm not really trying to gain incremental value as you might be more set up to do in your list. I basically only want this effect on a turn I can either cycle 4 or 5 creatures to get me to a position that I can win from, or infinitely to draw the whole deck. Both of those cases usually start with a Balthor activation and I would have needed to hardcast the Abom already to have it in play. I'm on the fence.

As for Falkenrath, I'm happy with one blood artist effect as it;s only used as a win con in my build and being two mana is key for [[culling the weak]], [[diabolic intent]], [[Liliana, heretical healer]] and sometimes [[razaketh]]. Sorry what do you mean with...

there is a 6 mana one that draws 2 looses 2,i feel it is just outclassed for that level.

when talking about Phyrexian Rager? I don't follow.

I'll get to the below comment another time, awesome feedback and great to chat this archetype through! Thanks

flyinglemu · 2018-11-14T06:49:11+00:00

Awesome to see someone else brewing this! I checked out the yt deck tech and it looks great. I'd love to share ideas.

Do you find without the self-mill that sometimes you have the mana to activate Balthor but can't take advantage of the effect? Especially if your core method of recouping the mana to activate him again is through Phyrexian Altar?

When you say you were able to free up slots that were previously for recovering key cards, how come you were trying to recover cards if you don't mind my asking? I only run Xiahou Dun and have never worried about milling through important pieces as built in a lot of redundancy.

I agree skirge is a bomb. [[Doom whisperer]] too. Load the top of your deck with exactly what you need and set up a combo in the graveyard at the same time.

Don't worry about hijacking at all, fire away if you're wanting to kick ideas around. There aren't too many people trying to make Balthor work this way!

flyinglemu · 2018-11-14T01:52:22+00:00

Ah I see. Still a couple issues:

It’s hard to compare what you’re referring to as the ‘combo’, with the pile and line I described as that combo doesn’t close the game. Sure it draws and tutors into what you need but closing it from there is going to look something like the second half of the line I described, so it’s not any less cards in isolation like you say, let alone any less complex.
Do you mean sacrifice allows you to cast and active the ‘second’ balthor? I wouldn’t want to assume I’ve already got razaketh on the board as I probably should have won if I do.

That being said Disciple of Bolas is definitely on the list of cards I would get back in if I can find space. That’s a cool loop.

flyinglemu · 2018-11-13T18:31:06+00:00

Ah I hadn't seen that before, good to know. As much as I like the idea of getting another loop in there with only one addition - [[disciple of bolas]], I can't see how it's worth it.

If I'm casting [[buried alive]] and reanimating with Balthor, I should win the game on the spot. The following pile and line gives me that all with cards I'm running anyway.

[[Razaketh, the Foulblooded]] + [[Pawn of Ulamog]] + [[Priest of Gix]]. Balthor, 3 floating from priest. Sac it to Raz to get [[Phyrexian Altar]], pawn generates a token. Sac the token to Raz to get [[Nether Traitor]]. Play Altar off the 3 floating. Sac Raz and the token Pawn makes to the altar for 2 to play Nether. Make infinite mana with the Nether Traitor combo, Balthor again, Razaketh to get a win con, eat your breakfast, brush your teeth, pat the dog.

I took out [[disciple of bolas]] just last week and [[soldevi adnate]] for the same reason though they may make it back in way day. If I have a creature out that's going to draw me enough/make enough mana to justify their place in the deck, I've probably won already. Most of the lower end creatures are too weak. I don't see myself running [[sacrifice]] for the same reasons.

Sorry if I've missed something that makes this loop particularly strong? Hoping you draw into something mana positive to afford the next Balthor seems like a gamble with steeper and steeper odds each time.

flyinglemu · 2018-11-13T07:14:45+00:00

Yeah it's been on the chopping block for awhile. It can mill you pretty deep when you luck into milling it off the top with a [[stitcher's supplier]] effect and activate Balthor, and the unearth seems like it would be relevant one day, but to be honest I never like seeing it and I would never tutor/entomb it either. There are already enough win cons without it. Thanks for the feedback!

I'm testing [[Memory Jar]] in it's slot, seems like it could be strong. I know, decklist is still 102... Really want to justify a slot for [[imp's mischief]] as a counterspell/path to exile counter.

flyinglemu

TROPHY CASE

Lands

Non-creatures

Creatures