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We're all just here for the deep Urza lore - Talking about Magic: The Gathering!
That was a surprise to me when I came back after several sets' break, seeing Alchemy showing up in Historic. I understand the rationale for it, to have an "everything available on Arena" format, but Alchemy design ranges from "fun, I wish this were doable on paper" (spellbook drafting, some of the "perpetual" effects) to "whyyyyyyyyyy" (cards with every possible color combination available as "specializations"...) so it is a nuisance at times.
Every single Alchemy mechanic is in "whyyyyyyyyy" for me. I want to play Magic, not Hearthstone. I wish the original version of Historic still existed without Alchemy, because there are a ton of fun cards I miss playing with that aren't Explorer-legal. Sigh. At least progress is being made towards Pioneer...very, very slowly.
eh, all things change. Digital-only mechanics don't bother me any more than coin flipping or dice rolling when it comes to randomness (I never played more than the tutorial of Hearthstone, so I don't know what else the comparison is meant to say). And I do appreciate some of the rebalancing attempts!
The predatory card economy bothers me, the pace of releases exhausts me, the wholehearted embrace of power creep leading to disasters like Okotober makes me facepalm, the death of organized play is a thing I grieve over. But a little bit of extra video-gamey fun on Arena doesn't especially register.
The predatory card economy bothers me, the pace of releases exhausts me, the wholehearted embrace of power creep leading to disasters like Okotober makes me facepalm, the death of organized play is a thing I grieve over. But a little bit of extra video-gamey fun on Arena doesn't especially register.
I've got this twenty odd year old sligh deck. It is the only think I kept when I sold off my magic cards in the early 20s. It was current to the Standard format I believe when I quit. I'm looking for some help in updating it to modern? I think that is what the regular format is these days and maybe Commander because that also is the most popular and less competitive format?
I'm not set on keeping it mono red but this was my favorite deck and my preferred play style so I want to keep it somewhat like this. Any help you all could provide would be much appreciated.
16x Mountains
2x Smoldering Craters
4x Shock
4x Kindle
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Fireblast
4x Incinerate
4x Bloodlust
2x Fireballs
4x Raging Goblin
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Ironclaw Orcs
4x Canyon Wildcat
4x Jackal Pup
4x Ball Lightning
Gonna tag some people in here I've mentioned this deck to before... @shivam @Destil @SabreCat and @JBear just cause I like him.
I'm not set on keeping it mono red but this was my favorite deck and my preferred play style so I want to keep it somewhat like this. Any help you all could provide would be much appreciated.
16x Mountains
2x Smoldering Craters
4x Shock
4x Kindle
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Fireblast
4x Incinerate
4x Bloodlust
2x Fireballs
4x Raging Goblin
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Ironclaw Orcs
4x Canyon Wildcat
4x Jackal Pup
4x Ball Lightning
Gonna tag some people in here I've mentioned this deck to before... @shivam @Destil @SabreCat and @JBear just cause I like him.
I'm no expert on those formats alas... If I were in your position, I'd browse "meta" lists and look for Mono Red and/or Burn archetypes and see what people are playing in that style lately. A few minutes' such searching landed me on this list--maybe what's in vogue for Modern Burn is using Obosh, the Preypiercer as a Companion so your Lightning Bolts and such do double damage!
I know burn is hard to do in Commander because the life totals are so high, but it still is an archetype! EDHRec lets you browse by "theme", of which Burn is one. Maybe a Torbran or Heartless Hidetsugu deck?
Burn-related nostalgia of my own: back when I first started, playing like Fourth Edition cards on picnic tables at summer camp, I helped my little brother get up to speed by building him a black/red burn deck. He then proceeded to beat the rest of us consistently, because our play style at the time involved durdling while building up big board states, followed by a lot of back-and-forth creature combat. Dropping a deck that could just Bolt and Terror and Fireball everything turned out to be a very apt metagame move, entirely by accident!
I know burn is hard to do in Commander because the life totals are so high, but it still is an archetype! EDHRec lets you browse by "theme", of which Burn is one. Maybe a Torbran or Heartless Hidetsugu deck?
Burn-related nostalgia of my own: back when I first started, playing like Fourth Edition cards on picnic tables at summer camp, I helped my little brother get up to speed by building him a black/red burn deck. He then proceeded to beat the rest of us consistently, because our play style at the time involved durdling while building up big board states, followed by a lot of back-and-forth creature combat. Dropping a deck that could just Bolt and Terror and Fireball everything turned out to be a very apt metagame move, entirely by accident!
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You could also switch to Pauper (a format which is only commons) and make a few cheap changes to have a very competitive deck right now for barely any investment. Here's a recent burn list that won a league. Pauper has a surprising amount of depth to it, it's worth a look.
If Pauper isn't your jam, you might want to consider Pioneer instead of Modern. Modern is a significantly more expensive format, to the point where I think Pioneer is actually more popular now because of it. But I have no real Modern experience, so take that with a grain of salt. I just know that I see way more Pioneer events these days.
I don't play Commander, but I know there's a type of deck in the format called "group slug" that basically tries to burn out the entire table at once. I imagine someone like shivam will be able to tell you more about that though!
If Pauper isn't your jam, you might want to consider Pioneer instead of Modern. Modern is a significantly more expensive format, to the point where I think Pioneer is actually more popular now because of it. But I have no real Modern experience, so take that with a grain of salt. I just know that I see way more Pioneer events these days.
I don't play Commander, but I know there's a type of deck in the format called "group slug" that basically tries to burn out the entire table at once. I imagine someone like shivam will be able to tell you more about that though!
I thought Modern was the "new" Standard which was what I played way back when.
Though back then there were maybe two formats?
Though back then there were maybe two formats?
Oh yeah, there's been an overwhelming proliferation of different formats over the last few years.
Standard is still Standard! It's the rotating format where only the most recently printed sets are available, though they keep changing the rules on how many sets are legal at a given time and when/how sets rotate out. I usually look at What's in Standard? to keep things straight--it's not an official Wizards site but it's very concise and well maintained.
Modern is an "eternal" format, meaning cards don't rotate out of the pool on any regular basis. It's Eighth Edition onward, i.e., since the introduction of the "modern card frame". Cards occasionally get banned, but mostly it's just new stuff coming in as sets are released. All Standard legal sets get added to the Modern card pool; some supplementary sets (like Modern Horizons and the new Lord of the Rings) go directly into Modern without being Standard playable; some supplementary sets skip both Standard and Modern and are only playable in Legacy (mostly Commander branded things I think?).
Legacy is the almost-everything-goes format, and Vintage is even more so, where you're allowed to play Black Lotus and other ridiculous cards as one-ofs.
Explorer and Pioneer are somewhere in between the above and I have no idea what they're about. @.@
Historic is an online-only thing that's "all the cards we've released on the Arena client". There's also Alchemy which is ... something else Arena-related that I've never played.
Those are the formats that probably most resemble what you're used to--60 card decks, with a maximum of four copies of any named card other than basic lands; when playing best-of-3, a 15 card sideboard.
Then there's the singleton formats! No more than one copy of any given non-basic-land card.
Commander and Oathbreaker are multiplayer, usually casual in style though highly competitive play communities exist.
Brawl is a little-played multiplayer format with 1v1 variants playable, mostly on Arena.
Those all involve having a set-aside "commander" card or cards that you have consistent access to throughout the game, and deckbuilding restrictions related to the commander's colors. The particulars of what goes in the commander slot, and how many cards to a deck, differ by the variant in question.
Canadian Highlander is a 1v1, 100-card, competitive singleton format that aims to ban as few cards as possible, instead assigning "point values" to broken cards, and a deck can't exceed a particular limit of points among the included cards.
...and more besides.
Confused yet? It's friggin ridiculous. Some of it's player-driven (Commander, Oathbreaker, and Canlander were all kitchen table variants before they caught on), some of it is Wizards trying to wrangle their aging behemoth of a game to keep the player base steady, and altogether it's become downright bewildering. Standard and Commander are probably the easiest constructed formats to get into if you're starting from an empty collection. Or maybe Canlander, if for no other reason than that the Canlander community is culturally not averse to people using proxy cards for whatever they need!
Standard is still Standard! It's the rotating format where only the most recently printed sets are available, though they keep changing the rules on how many sets are legal at a given time and when/how sets rotate out. I usually look at What's in Standard? to keep things straight--it's not an official Wizards site but it's very concise and well maintained.
Modern is an "eternal" format, meaning cards don't rotate out of the pool on any regular basis. It's Eighth Edition onward, i.e., since the introduction of the "modern card frame". Cards occasionally get banned, but mostly it's just new stuff coming in as sets are released. All Standard legal sets get added to the Modern card pool; some supplementary sets (like Modern Horizons and the new Lord of the Rings) go directly into Modern without being Standard playable; some supplementary sets skip both Standard and Modern and are only playable in Legacy (mostly Commander branded things I think?).
Legacy is the almost-everything-goes format, and Vintage is even more so, where you're allowed to play Black Lotus and other ridiculous cards as one-ofs.
Explorer and Pioneer are somewhere in between the above and I have no idea what they're about. @.@
Historic is an online-only thing that's "all the cards we've released on the Arena client". There's also Alchemy which is ... something else Arena-related that I've never played.
Those are the formats that probably most resemble what you're used to--60 card decks, with a maximum of four copies of any named card other than basic lands; when playing best-of-3, a 15 card sideboard.
Then there's the singleton formats! No more than one copy of any given non-basic-land card.
Commander and Oathbreaker are multiplayer, usually casual in style though highly competitive play communities exist.
Brawl is a little-played multiplayer format with 1v1 variants playable, mostly on Arena.
Those all involve having a set-aside "commander" card or cards that you have consistent access to throughout the game, and deckbuilding restrictions related to the commander's colors. The particulars of what goes in the commander slot, and how many cards to a deck, differ by the variant in question.
Canadian Highlander is a 1v1, 100-card, competitive singleton format that aims to ban as few cards as possible, instead assigning "point values" to broken cards, and a deck can't exceed a particular limit of points among the included cards.
...and more besides.
Confused yet? It's friggin ridiculous. Some of it's player-driven (Commander, Oathbreaker, and Canlander were all kitchen table variants before they caught on), some of it is Wizards trying to wrangle their aging behemoth of a game to keep the player base steady, and altogether it's become downright bewildering. Standard and Commander are probably the easiest constructed formats to get into if you're starting from an empty collection. Or maybe Canlander, if for no other reason than that the Canlander community is culturally not averse to people using proxy cards for whatever they need!
Pioneer is a non-rotating format with a higher power level than Standard, but lower than Modern/Legacy, due to a larger available card pool. Its pool starts at Return to Ravnica and moves forward from there. Since it lacks a lot of the crazy expensive Modern-only cards (particularly the fetchlands and Modern Horizons cards), it's also easier for most people to get into.
Explorer is the Arena equivalent - it's a true-to-paper format with as many of the Pioneer cards are available on Arena. The full Pioneer card pool isn't on there yet, so it's effectively a stopgap format that they'll backfill over the next X years until it eventually just becomes Pioneer. This is a source of much frustration for people in the community who wish they'd get Pioneer in the game faster, but Wizards is slow-rolling it to an absurd degree.
Alchemy is WotC's attempt to turn Magic into Hearthstone with lots of wacky digital mechanics, unless you start playing Arena you'll never have to think about it.
Explorer is the Arena equivalent - it's a true-to-paper format with as many of the Pioneer cards are available on Arena. The full Pioneer card pool isn't on there yet, so it's effectively a stopgap format that they'll backfill over the next X years until it eventually just becomes Pioneer. This is a source of much frustration for people in the community who wish they'd get Pioneer in the game faster, but Wizards is slow-rolling it to an absurd degree.
Alchemy is WotC's attempt to turn Magic into Hearthstone with lots of wacky digital mechanics, unless you start playing Arena you'll never have to think about it.
lol, coincidentally, I *also* got rid of all of my MTG cards except one deck when I quit Magic back in 1997, and it was *also* a mono-red burn deck (which I still have). Great minds!
I knew there were reasons for my liking you Jbear! Sligh is the best. Though I am annoyed no one calls it that anymore... BUT they do have all these dumb names for color coded decks?! But you can't say SLIGH?!
MTG is ruined!
Magic: The Gathering's Rarest Lord of the Rings Card Has Been Found
Some lucky person just became a millionaire by opening a pack of cards. That’s because it has been revealed that the rarest, most sought-after card in the entire new Lord of the Rings expansion of Magic: The Gathering has been found.
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@Falselogic
This deck is almost entirely Pauper legal already:
Pauper is a great format and mono-red is a very sold deck there, I'd start with seeing if you can make it work like that.
This deck is almost entirely Pauper legal already:
Pauper is a great format and mono-red is a very sold deck there, I'd start with seeing if you can make it work like that.
Thank you to everyone for the advice! I really appreciate it.
I want to take this moment to tell any randoms that play Standard on Arena that I genuinely dislike each and every one of you on a personal and visceral level, I wish you ill, and that I hope all the bad things in life happen to you and no one else but you.
STOP SPAMMING REMOVAL, YOU COMPLETE ANIMALS.
(edit: forgot to put in the important distinction of Standard, because so far Brawl hasn't been nearly as painful)
STOP SPAMMING REMOVAL, YOU COMPLETE ANIMALS.
(edit: forgot to put in the important distinction of Standard, because so far Brawl hasn't been nearly as painful)
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Maybe that should be "compleat animals"
Not a fan of control, I see.
*proceeds to bark at screen like a junkyard dog for the next 37 minutes*
(I say all this like my ass didn’t spend a good couple months shrinking critters down with Toxrill and Sludge Monster, and also cloning the shit out of the latter)
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Mr Bean
Chief Detective
Coincidence or not, Shivam gets to be a magic card set in one of my favorite books and I couldn’t be more jealous.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 
Here's a neat thing that happened: today at work, I see a notification in our MTG Slack channel from someone I don't know. I click over and it's one of our researchers. They said they used to work for Wizards but don't play Magic, so would anyone like this 2020 employee holiday promo card they've been holding onto? I've always thought the various employee-only promo cards were neat, but never expected to see one in person (and said as much). They told me to come over to their desk and claim it, so, uh, now I own a copy of Topdeck the Halls. Thanks, nice coworker!