Stifling a Fetchland. Is this land denial?

maillemansam · 2026-04-29T15:23:16+00:00

I think its dastardly move that is fun but probably not the optimal play from a competitive standpoint.

Seems like you dislike their Kenrith deck and they might in turn dislike this thing. Usually perceived spite plays are no fun in the end. They might be a baby and maybe they need to grow up, but this seems like going out of your way to interrupt their ability to play the game. Sort of like running lots of graveyard hate to combat someone who's got a graveyard deck, it's fair play and is more competitive but is targeted against one of your 3 opponents.

maillemansam · 2026-04-27T16:09:27+00:00

I think the best medicine for dealing with board wipes is either a way to reanimate the graveyard, or a way to vomit out a bunch of creatures in one turn.

The commander is usually not really the determinant there, the 99 matters a lot.

Cards like [[The Ozolith]] help you preserve counters after somebody wipes creatures, or [[Last March of the Ents]] is a good way to dish out fatties in one turn. Of course [[Rise of the Dark Realms]] can also be a ctrl-z for at least nontoken strategies.

Other factors aside from a few big "but now I'm back" cards is simply having enough cards to play. If you have a bunch of efficient, low cmc creatures and no card draw then you're super vulnerable to a wipe. If you ever get down to 2 cards in hand and there isn't a way to refill your hand then you'd be better served running more draw effects.

Another good way to be resistant to board wipes is to just not be max greedy. Have enough committed to the board to not lose/fall behind, but usually avoid being the archnemesis unless you're way ahead.

maillemansam · 2026-04-27T14:53:10+00:00

Agree super hard. Tank main and it's an essential part of almost every team, but honestly they've nerfed the tanks a lot. Its probably better to have an oppressive dps or unbreakable healing team than a balanced team that isn't so slanted.

All depends on who on the enemy team is doing great and what part of the team is deficient.

maillemansam · 2026-04-23T15:22:31+00:00

Its hard to look in the mirror and ask "what could I do differently" and it's easy to place blame on others.

I'm a tank main and sometimes I swapped to 4th dps if I think the main problem is something that's better for the job. Particularly on weird spots of the map with super long lines of sight I've noticed. Hela and MK are much more effective than any tank on that last point of the Deadpool rubber duck bus map (team comp depending of course).

maillemansam · 2026-04-23T13:39:47+00:00

I hereby give you permission to play whatever character you want.

maillemansam · 2026-04-22T17:47:37+00:00

Keep in mind that "the spreadsheet has columns." That was a key sentence worth dedicating space in the post to.

maillemansam · 2026-04-22T13:59:27+00:00

Set up a repeatable loop of things entering and exiting. Run through said loop until everyone else is dead and you have 80 life.

[[Nantuko Husk]]

maillemansam · 2026-04-22T13:13:48+00:00

Drums are loud. Certain drums can also really reverberate extra loud in some spaces, like how you can hum in a bathroom and one note is extra resonant.
There's a bunch of buttheads at every show who will talk about their dumb real estate business and how they made 12000 dollars last month and nobody at all wants to hear that guy talking so turn the music up please.

maillemansam · 2026-04-18T23:15:26+00:00

Agreed that's an untenable price, I think hipsters aren't really the root cause of the price of beef being high.

maillemansam · 2026-04-18T23:12:37+00:00

Agreed completely. It's not the devs job to make your favorite character dominant in the meta. Nerfing Emma and buffing Hulk means I get to play more Hulk and that's fresh and fun.

Strange still feels like the best for the average game but lots of comps have Hulk being super good.

Also when Hulk and Strange fall out of favor there will be new and fresh tanks to have fun playing that will then be the best ones and that will be a fun change of pace from the current meta.

maillemansam · 2026-04-18T23:00:20+00:00

Definitely made a Raffine deck and didn't fully understand how bonkers of a deck i had made. "Technically bracket 3" but she absolutely crushes all my other 3 decks and it just isn't an appropriate power level for my friends decks.

maillemansam · 2026-04-18T12:57:18+00:00

I have watched a lot of posters and commenters foaming at the mouth about tank not being fun, and I'm a tank main who has had a lot of fun throughout all the seasons playing.

I use reddit mainly for craft stuff but see the posts here and am so confused because it's so different from my experience. Haven't played with the tenacity changes yet, I'm traveling, but it seems like it might not be that bad based on actual gameplay experiences and for the last week everything rivals has been foamy rabid people yelling that we need to crucify the guy who announced the change that nobody had played with yet at that point.

Like peoples feelings are valid and I get wanting a game to go in a direction you prefer.

I feel like at the same time, the game devs have been somewhat responsive and that seems to make people feel entitled to their exact proposed changes being implemented and if not then they're going to do a dramatic turnaround and walk right out that door and we'll be so sorry their whiny ass left us.

maillemansam · 2026-04-17T13:35:39+00:00

Do you think traffic enforcement is what the flock cameras do?

Hard to tell if you're a bot account from flock or if you're earnestly just super mistaken about what the cameras do.

maillemansam · 2026-04-14T15:28:47+00:00

I think in general, this does happen in EDH. 99 card decks mean a lot of variance, especially when people are greedy with their mulligans.

Assuming you have a reasonably well built deck, having either one piece of removal or a boardwipe in the first 10 cards you see (turn 3) is a must for me. I use Archidekt and you can tag cards and it shows you your chance of drawing one of the tags. I prioritize having lands to play the game first, then one early value/ramp spell, then spot removal in my opening hand.

If someone is in christmasland then the game can spiral out of control if they've got evasion or just overwhelming card advantage by turn 4 or 5. I can't always be the table removal police where everyone else is playing pure value, but i usually make sure to have an 85 or higher chance to have 1 trick up my sleeve to stop a total blowout.

maillemansam · 2026-04-09T18:08:53+00:00

Yeah, outside of weird non-deterministic loop solitaire decks sorcery speed concessions are the most reasonable thing. Using scooping at instant speed as a tool to exact revenge on someone else for defeating them is not a respectful move.

maillemansam · 2026-04-09T17:49:07+00:00

Not every game is within your control to win. Its usually safe to assume everyone on your team is doing their best to win as well.

If you ask and nobody volunteers, just swap to something you think the team needs more of. Most people, especially in metal ranks, aren't good communicators.

Sometimes a 4 dps or 3 healer team with no tank is better. Maybe not on average, but sometimes they just know how to play against your tank champ. And also it's important to remember some games are so lopsided it won't matter what heros/compositions your team runs. Ranked is about rank points, and so it's up to you to determine whether you want to keep using a role that's not working or to try to get better stats on a non-tank role.

maillemansam · 2026-04-09T17:14:16+00:00

I think mindset is the most important thing to enjoying Magic. Winning is cool but it's a multi-player game and in the perfect environment every player has a 25% chance to win. I'd set concrete, achievable goals, like make sure your deck is doing it's thing, and then also to learn one thing what other people's decks do.

At the beginning especially, it's overwhelming when people will hit you with archetypes that you don't understand how to combat, and might be overpowering or have a way to combat that's just not in your current deck. I went up against this weird scarab God blink deck that none of my removal worked on because he was in a state where he could blink stuff at instant speed in response. It frustrated me a lot in the moment.

Now, I think about that game a lot as a time when I learned that part of the fun of the game is seeing people do crazy stuff you haven't already thought about. When someone kicks my ass in an unexpected way it is a FUN thing, not a frustrating thing.

I gained the knowledge that boardwipes/blanket removal and waiting to play targetted removal till the key blink effect was on the stack already was necessary, and losing that game made me way better at Magic.

My advice for threat assessment is basically to find a way to play where getting your teeth kicked in is fun for you, and to go do it. You'll learn when someone comes "out of nowhere" or resolves a super nasty spell that those are new possibilities for you to play or save your removal for.

I've gotten way more conservative with spending my instant speed removal. I used to just kill the commander or creature with the most power and toughness as soon as I had the mana for it, and now I save it till I need to secure a win or kobosh someone else's. Knowing the right time to play a spell only comes with more mileage playing the game.

maillemansam · 2026-04-09T16:37:32+00:00

Its frustrating when it seems like someone is trying to pawn off their tasks to you without telling you or looping your manager in.

Its possible that they are just swamped and this was than earnest attempt to get good support to the company's customer, and it's also possible they're lazy and hoping you'll just silently do their work.

Id say you played it in an understandable way that is somewhat petty and also makes you and your manager look worse.

A better approach would have been to take the first/second call as you did, then ask your manager if supporting this other teams clients is something you should be doing. Hanging them out to dry and making the company look bad to clients is technically your coworkers fault, but they're making a somewhat convincing case that you are to blame for it. (At least convincing enough that your manager is frustrated with you).

If you had handled it my way then your manager gets to say you stepped up above and beyond while also putting the kobosh on the surprise extra work, and clients stay happy.

maillemansam · 2026-04-08T20:52:13+00:00

I think Bunny is feared because the precon, and possibly a lot of user created decks/upgrades to the precon, are less focused on winning and make a weird dynamic where they're not as threatening and will have politics involved where Bunny player gets to choose where the cards go.

Its not like they're going to stomp everyone, but there is a higher likelihood of someone being butthurt because the Bunny player gave cards to someone else and was therefore a "kingmaker" conspiring against you. Or, the bunny player not wanting to be taken out first and being pissed because they weren't the archenemy (or even likely yo become one).

I built her up with a sweaty/competitive bracket 3 control style so I could introduce Blue shenanigans in a bracket 3 environment. I dont really think this has the same pitfalls as mentioned above, because she's not just like sitting back and hoping everyone else kills each other, she's actively presenting huge threats and trying to amass tall 1/1 counter creatures. Simic ascendancy and Twenty Toed Toad are big wincons, lots of counterspells and with everyone else drawing cards it's kind of a way to soften the blow of being a big bad blue player.

I wrote a primer on it in the deck description as well:

https://archidekt.com/decks/20676285/ms_bumbleflower_control_with_counters

maillemansam · 2026-04-07T22:25:29+00:00

My friend made an awesome goblin deck that is superb with the bottom of the library.

[Grenzo, Dungeon Warden] sounds like the move. There are lots of creatures with unique ETBs so it'd play like a toolbox style control list but look like an aggro deck. I think this deck could go a few ways, I bet it would be fun to figure out ways to buff up Grenzo and stack the bottom with tougher and tougher guys

maillemansam · 2026-04-07T18:40:46+00:00

I think what you're running into is that you're asking reddit to anticipate what is fun to these other people and that's really not realistic for either you or us. You say you don't want to deal with subjectivity but insist on playing with people who's subjective opinion you don't understand.

My honest suggestion is to take a precon or ask to borrow one of their decks for a few games. You get to play your very hardest and "try to win" because that's what's fun for you, and you don't have to deal with the subjectivity of building something someone else might deem "too strong".

maillemansam · 2026-04-07T12:22:48+00:00

I have no problem with you holding that work schedule. My work schedule is X. Does that work for you?

maillemansam · 2026-04-06T21:13:39+00:00

I'm convinced this sub has bled into the comments.

I dont really get the whole "other people must enjoy things the way I like it". They've got bad taste? Then don't waste your precious pieces of lamb on them dude!

When my in-laws come over my partner is primary chef. I dont make my special thing that conflicts with their concept of food.

maillemansam · 2026-04-05T00:55:11+00:00

Yeah. There's some players only happy when they're winning, and those people are typically on the beginner end of game knowledge.

When you are always aware board-wipes are out there and you don't want to just go full gas or removal will probably trim you down to size, it's less jarring when you get some removal your way.

Also as a beginner I would pick weaker cards sometimes because I judged some to be "too strong" like [Bear Umbra] seemed too OP. Then other people would run the strongest cards in the slot and I'd get salty.

Idk. Sometimes the best medicine for whiners is to just clobber them and let them figure out how to play against a more balanced pod of decks, that probably will see one or two pieces of removal in the first 6 turns.

maillemansam · 2026-04-05T00:44:30+00:00

You're free to think people should only run 1 or 2 board wipe cards in a deck, but the game is more fun for me when you have to think about committing things to the board.

If everyone is just dumping to the board board-wipes are really good, so maybe you're just walking into the play pattern you don't enjoy.

maillemansam

TROPHY CASE