I dont claim to be near any of you peoples level of knowledge about MTG, I do would like to give my opinion.

This one seems quite clear to me. By learning to play all the major archetypes you expand your knowledge in a way that makes it far more realistic that you can make assumptions about your opponents future plays, that actually hold some truth. I am, ofcourse, not talking about specific plays [Will he duress for my FoW, or play Negator]. I am talking about the outline of your opponents plan. With your knowledge of the deck and of the current in-game situation, it gives you a bonus, for lack of a better word.

For me, there is one major upside, and htat is that I always get to play with my favorite deck, Oath Salvagers. Besides that, you learn just a bit more about it than you otherwise would have.


About learning to play a single deck: you dont become a pro because of your continuing dedication to this deck. If you are not a real pro with more than one deck, then how could you become one by just playing this particular deck? If you dont have more than average knowledge and feeling about most of the formats archetypes you will lack skill in certain situations.
About learning to play all the major archetypes, In this case it seems too difficult to me, to keep up with the ever changing game we play. How can you keep playing 6-7 decks, updating them with new cards, innovate, play test, discuss, etc.
Most people dont have time for this. Besides, it isnt really fun, is it?


Frankly, I dont know. When it comes to winning, I'd like to be a generalist.
When it comes to having the most enjoyment I would be a specialist. Because I get more fun that way and thats what I am playing hte gmae for.

So you want to use a copy you get from EoTS the next turn. but he can use a copy too.

But if you play an Abeyance, can't the opponent just copy that abeyance in response? The ability triggers when a player plays an instant or sorcery, then a copy comes on the stack. If the second player plays an instant after the first player played an Abeyance, the second player can get an Abeyance copy?

He didnt say turn 2, but he said 2 turns after you play oath.

There is no need to slow down your opponent with your pernicious deeds if you can win before you even have enough mana to blow things up with them. You need atleast 4 mana of 2 different colors to play it, and oath itself only needs 2 of atleast 1 color. That seems more effective to me. Sure, sometimes you need to remove something nasty but will you need 3 deeds for that?
Also I think those 3 counterspells could be changed to mana leaks to avoid problems with you mana base with only 5 fetchable blue and 10 blue total.

So copies trigget EOtS aswell?
I dont understand how you will go infinite sice the card says *Whenever a player plays an instant or sorcery card,* instead of *spell*

//edit
Nevermind, I understand it now. Thanks for your extra explaining.

Sorry for my noob question, but how do you go infinite?
And, in the text below you use your merchant scroll three times, but I thought you only receive 1 copy with Eye of the Storm?

I would prever Jitte above Armadillo cloak. although jitte does not give trample it does give a way to get rid of creatures by giving them -1/-1 and you can choose to either gain a 2 or 4 life or just do more damage when you dont need the extra lifepoints.

Thanks for your explanations, it is all very clear now.

Here is an example: [original link-> http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=24614.0 ]
What I don't understand about this decklist is what the kill exactly is, besides the more obvious attack phase.
I looked it over with a friend and we couldnt find any other kill than aggro.
Can someone help us with that?

3rd: Martin Bonneville
Bomberman

4 Force of will
3 Brainstorm
3 Thirst for knowledge
4 Mana drain
1 Time walk
1 Fact or fiction
1 Ancestral recall
3 Aether vial
2 Phyrexian furnace
1 Engeneered explosive
2 Aether spelbomb
1 Pithing needle
4 Trinket mage
3 Medling mage
4 Auriok salvagers

4 Flooded strand
4 Tundra
6 Island
1 Mox jet
1 Mox ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox emerald
1 Mox pearl
1 Sol ring
1 Black lotus
1 Library of alexandria
1 Polluted delta

SB :
4 Sword to plowshare
1 Chalice of the void
2 Disenchant
1 Tormod’s crypt
2 Exalted angel
3 Energy flux
2 Veldaken shackles

@alban
he actually does mention Chalice in his 'stack of sideboard cards'

@iep
with colossus, welder, any oath creature and other creatures, Waterfront Bouncer looks like a good main/side board creature to me.

These lands will, as stated by other people in this thread, lower the entrybarrier a bit. Also stated before, it might make new decktypes possible. And there are just more duallands availible. might that not point to the exact opposite of the topic title, that WOTC tests their new content quite well? IMHO its a very good idea to redo not-too-powerful popular t1 cards