I can't say for sure, but I'll try and come by next Wednesday.  Although again, I don't own any cards so unless someone wants to lend me a deck, I'll just be a spectator. 

Nam, Angel, JR, anyone who used to/still plays in the Cleveland area,

Hopefully one of you finds this.  Do you guys still play at Warzone?  I don't own a single card anymore, but I've been getting the urge to play the magical cards again - whatever format.  I'm even thinking about buying back in.  Legacy maybe?  Sooo draft, legacy, T1, w/e.  When do you guys play?  By chance is Chris doing anything for the pre-release?   Pm or respond here, it don't matter. 

Jeff W

Hi all

Time has come for me to sell my magic cards.  I have lost interest in the game due to other hobbies, namely triathlon.  I also want to invest the money to use for a car/condo when I graduate from law school in 2 years.  That said, what is the best way for someone in Northeast Ohio to sell a collection consisting of full UL power, Library, drains, duals, etc...  I really do not want to get hammered with $500+ of fees between Ebay and Paypal.  That said, Ebay is obviously convenient and all but guarantees a market price.  I do not know of any dealers in the area who would buy the whole collection.  I have a perfect Ebay rating ~100 + and have sold power before.

Is it best to sell each card individually via Ebay or wait until a convention and sell the whole collection at once?  I do not like to haggle b/c (1) I am not very good at it and (2) I would rather be doing other things than spend an entire day trying to get $20 more out of someone.  This really is a bottom line deal to me and I am looking to get the most money I can.  Thanks for the help.  I am not trying to advertise or sell the cards here at TMD. 

To the Cleveland crew (Chewy Nips):  Do any of the stores in Lorain/Rocky River pay Ebay prices for power?  (i.e. ~$380-400 for a Sapphire, Ancestral, etc...)

Jeff Wilson

@Mr. Sligh:  First order of business is that you need to cut the 4th Underground Sea and add in Polluted Delta #4.  As far as Timetwister goes, Tinker/Jar is better.  I am not a fan of Timetwister in any deck because if you don't win off the 7 new cards this turn, your opponent likely will do the winning for you on their's.  With Tinker you get the same effect as Timetister (Draw 7 for 2U) and you can pass the turn with Jar left unbroken.  In the absence of 4 Dark Rituals you usually will not have enough mana to go off the turn you cast either Tinker or Twister so being able to pass the turn, untap, and then draw 7 is much stronger.  Jar also does not refresh your opponent's hand as well as TT does.  Sure they can cast stuff EOT but say you are playing against Stax, where casting Twister is near suicide, busting Jar is basically playing Contract from Below.  Also running Tinker/Jar gives you double the threat as Jar can easily be played off Mana Drain. 

You are correct in running 2 swamps.  They have been awesome in my testing. 

I don't think you need Library.  I know I may get attacked for this statement but you should already be beating control in a 3 game match.  I have even found Library to be a curse sometimes as it encourages slow play rather than going for the throat which is what you should be doing against blue based control decks.  Peruse this thread for my arguments for including at least 1 Dark Ritual.  The card is awesome in comboing out, playing turn 1 Confidants, powering out the more expensive spells etc...

I hate TFK in this deck.  I have cut the card completely as it fills no vital role.  The deck plays in 2 ways.  Early Confidant leading to an easy victory or coming from behind with bounce spells or combo bombs ie. Desire, Jar etc...  TFK never fit into the early Confidant plan b/c you already should have more than enough cards to win and spending 3 mana on a Thirst is not that good.  TFK is also rather subpar at regaining advantage in a game compared to say Tinker/Jar. 

One more note.  2 Tops is at least 1 too many.  I am back to running a singleton but would never run 2 of them.  The effect is just not good enought to warrant 2 slots in an already tight decklist. 

Mockingbird
~Ryan Adams

Catch-33 (the album is basically one song)
~Meshuggah

Running Red in this deck is a mistake.  It pollutes your mana base with duals which costs you games against tough matchups ie. fish and turns stax from slightly favorable to unfavorable.  You also have to cut down on the number of fetches thereby makeing Top less powerful.  You don't need recoup for Gifts to be game ending.  You don't even need Will.  This past weekand an opponent played Turn 1 Tormod's on me and I was quite happy to see it b/c it meant he had one less card that I had to deal with.  You simply go for tutors, bounce spells, moxes etc... and promptly win.

As far as Imperial Seal goes, I think it may find a place but does require the inculsions of Top and Gush.  Otherwise it is way too slow after turn 1.  Running a 4 spot of tutors is extremely strong with Gifts.  Even if they give you say, Seal and Mystical, on EOT you Mystical for Recall and thereby negate the drawback of Seal on your next turn.  I have cut Darkblast from my previous list because it does not fit into this deck's role.  Sure, it did help me in a few game 1's but it also costs me games as I wish it was business instead of an answer.  The deck wants to be aggressive and Darkblast does not fit this role.  Coming out of the SB, it is fine but Game 1 I believe the deck should be as fast and threat dense as possible. 

SB issues: Is Duress the deck's best answer to Long right now?  Obviously you cannot pack Arcane Labs or Resitance Spheres.  Would Cabal Therapy be a stronger card than Duress?  I have not tested Therapy yet so I am simply hypothesizing here.  I have never been a huge fan of either card as they do nothing regarding the threat that is on the stack so I may also test out mana leak.

I played a build of TT Confidant to a T8 (4-2) finish at the Cleveland Mox Tourney this weekand.  The field was tough w/ 6+ Meandeckers and some other notable players (35ish total).  I was rusty as I had not played in a tournament for over 8 months.  I had not even played a live game until one week before the tourney so I cannot be too dissapointed with the finish. 

That said, I have some thoughts on the deck and am looking for some feedback because I liked my list but feel it could be improved upon.  
(Credit to Thug for the inception of the deck.  I am a mere thief of ideas)

4 Confidant
1 Yawg Will
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Tendrils
1 Dark Ritual (I stand by my earlier statements.  It is good)
1 Darkblast

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
2 TFK
2 Gifts Ungiven
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical
1 Rebuild
1 Hurk's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor

4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 U Sea
4 Island/SC Island
2 Swamp/ SC Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy

5 Mox
1 Lotus
1 mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring

SB notables
2 Tinker/ Titan (awesome in the matches it should be)
2 Massacre (not very good against fish)
3 Annul (wanted a card that doubled against Stax and Oath but it was not very good against either)
1 Library

0 Tops here.  Everytime I drew it in testing it was underwhelming.  I cut it for Merchant Scroll which is more powerful.  I did not want to lose to Wasteland and Stax so I cut LoA and added Swamp #2.  It was the right call and I never got Wastelanded (when it mattered that is) all day.  In fact, the second swamp won me a match against Uba stax in round 6 to put me in top 8.  My opponent had Wastelands in play and some artifacts but the Snow Covered Swamp let me keep my mana on the table to dig for, and subsequently cast, Hurkyl's Recall ftw.  I didn't miss LoA b/c you already have 4 of them against control which is a solid matchup anyways.  I am torn on the Darkblast because at times it was shitty but it was strong against the two welder decks I played. (obviously)  I don't know if the slot would be better suited as more business.  I cut all the jank such as Desire, Gush, Frantic Search etc...  Gifts was strong in testing so I cut TFK #3 an added another one.  It was strong all day as it finds cards that win in most any situation.  TFk was subpar but I could not think of what to replace it with before the tournament.  I tried more merchant scrolls but found that to be even worse.  Spending three mana on TFK really is not all that impressive unless you have dumb robots and welders.  Plus the only cards to pitch are your storm and mana generators which sucks at times.

This deck has a tough time with any aggro and Ritual based combo.  My losses were to U/W Fish (1-2), Grim Long (1-2) and Affinity/Stax (0-2; T8).  I put a good beating on the control decks I played, 2-0-ing Gifts, Slaver and Oath.  I also beat Uba stax 2-1 as said before.  The matches I lost though were disheartening because I never felt in the games due to no early Bob.  And when I did get him against Ravager in the T8 he killed me just as much as the dorks across the table (Could be my bad luck in flipping over FOW in both games). I found that I had a hard time coming from behind without the early card advantage of Confidant regardless of my opponents deck.  As I explained above, I tried to cut the situational combo pieces for cards that are always useful but when my opponents pressured me early I had a tough time recovering.  Any ideas on how to deal with Fish (?) as I feel U/W to be one of, if not the, worst matchup. 

That said, when the deck does get turn 1 confidant you have a very high win %.  There really are no dead cards in the deck minus the 2 tendrils when it comes to your opening hand which is another strength.  I post the list because as it stands I don't think the deck is strong enough to win a tournament and thus needs improvement.  T8? Yes. Win? I dont think so.  Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

I can think of multiple games where Dark Ritual won me the game.  Any other card except for Black Lotus would have lost me these game.  If you want to argue whether either card should be in the combo version of the deck, then we have a different debate then my main point.  That point is that if you have one slot devoted to a single use mana source, Dark Ritual is greater then Mana Vault.  I have tested both cards in many games and this is the conclusion I have come to.  If you have tested and found different results, so be it.  If you have not tested the card and are simply conjecturing, I urge you to try the card out.  Is it dead sometimes?  Sure.  No more than Mana Vault is dead sometimes.  Does it simply win you the game when you are mana light against Smokestacks and Tangle Wires? Yes it does.  Does it let you power out Yawg Wills that would otherwise be impossible or non-lethal?  Yes it does.  Everytime I draw Ritual I have asked myself "Do I wish this is Mana Vault?"  The answer has always been no.

BTW I don't run Tinker so that again is a detriment to Mana Vault's case.

Mana Vault vs. Dark Ritual: A Debate

I see that most lists in this thread are running Mana Vault.  Some are running Dark Ritual as well.  I think Mana Vault is a flawed card in the deck (Cross and Thug's version) especially in the face of a superior card: Dark Ritual.

Dark Ritual
Pros: *Makes Black mana*, Allows for stupid Yawgmoth's Wills, powers out turn one Confidant in the absence of moxen, Speeds the deck up (more so than Vault.  Think Yawg Will here), Confuses the opponent (they may mistake you for a pure, Drainlesss combo deck)
Cons: Does not interact with the artifact bouncers/Tolarian Academy, Does not pitch to Thirst for Knowledge, not a permanent, Usually plays off a U-Sea, thereby decreasing your U mana available for that turn

Mana Vault
Pros: Interacts with artifact bouncers/Tolarian Academy, Pitches to Thirst, One more permanent against Smokestack and friends, Can be played via off color mox
Cons: Colorless mana, not as conducive to busted Yawg Will's/Tendrils.  *No turn one Confidant off a hand with lands and Mana Vault*

The fact that Ritual makes black mana is huge.  Ritual significantly decreases the decks reliance on Black Lotus when it comes time to play Will, Desire and Tendrils.  Also a hand of Ritual + Will is much greater than Mana Vault + Will.  Vault is strong with a Rebuild or other bouncer but I don't think that benefit outweighs the pros of using Ritual.  I would definitely run at least 1, if not 2 Rituals in the combo-ish version.  I am rarely disappointed to see one at any time.  They allow for turn 2-3 wins that would not be possible via Mana Vault. 

It goes without saying that this deck craves turn one Dark Confidant.  In fact, I almost view him as I view Oath of Druids in some matchups.  A Turn 1 Confidant, like a Turn 1 Oath, just wins some games.  Dark Ritual lets you achieve this; your main goal, more often. 

My opponent is playing U/W fish and has an Aether Vial in play with 2 counters.  It is the beginning of my upkeep.  I have two Dark Confidant's in play. 

The first card I reveal is Chain of Vapor.  My opponent then activates his Vial putting Meddling Mage into play naming Chain.  I argue that I put Chain of Vapor in my hand and therefore can cast it in response to his vial activation on a target already in play.  He says he can act between the revealing and putting of the card into my hand.  Am I correct?  Would not my foe have to have used vial before the Confidant trigger ever resolved and therefore before he even knew that Chain of Vapor was going to be revealed? 

Related topic:  Can I say resolve the 1st Confidant revleaving, say, Vampiric Tutor and then use Vampiric Tutor before the 2nd Confidant triggers?

Side note:  I should know this but if I have an effect that lets me sack mana crypt during my upkeep say Smokestack or Energy Flux, I still have to flip correct? 

Thanks in advance for the answers.

The card that Quicken helps the most, IMHO, is Deep Analysis.  Deep is a strong card as a sorcery and would be a fucking awesome card if it was an instant.  The only problem is that it would require 3UU to play a deep at end of turn yet the flashback would be easy enough for only 1UU.  But Draining something into Deep A and then using quicken to flash it back on your opponents turn likely would put the control player ahead enough to win the game.  Perhaps some sort of Mono-blue control deck could put the two cards to use, like the days of unrestricted FOF.  Neither card sucks on it's own so you would not be staring at some 5 card combo with Quicken that you would never be able to pull off.  At worst, Quicken catrips which is not 'that' bad I guess.

Drummers:  Pete Sandoval-Morbid Angel,  Neil Pert-Rush
Guitarists: Andres Segovia, Al Di Meola, SRV, Eddie Van Halen, Dave Mustaine
Bassists:  Victor Wooten, John Paul Jones

Song (ever):  Recuerdos de la Alhambra-Fransisco Tarrega
Songs (modern):  God of Emptiness-Morbid Angel, New Millennium Cyanide Christ-Meshuggah, Harvest and Serenity Painted Death-Opeth, Domination-Pantera (RIP Dime)

Say there is an equilibrium of creatures currently in play and I control Oath of Druids.  It is now the beginning of my upkeep and I have an untapped Orchard.  How do I declare the stacking effects of Oath, if possible, to put a token into play under my opponent's control in order to Oath this turn? 

My opponent has Tolarian Academy in play.  May he/she respond to me playing my own Academy by tapping it for mana?  Since playing lands does not use the stack I am confused as to whether the opponent can respond to the land drop that will kill both of them.

Along the same lines, I play tinker and my opponent has some lands in play.  I get a Sundering Titan that kills the lands.  Can the opponent respond to the Titan effect by tapping for mana or must they respond by floating mana in response to Tinker if they are going to respond at all?

Can I get the mana from Mana Drain if I counter a instant or sorcery cast off Boseiju?

Thanks again for putting on a great tournament Kyle.  The judging was fair and not overtly strict which helped to maintain the fun factor that this game is all about.  The competition was solid and all of my opponents were good people.  Looking forward to the next one in May.

On a side note.  I guess first turn 7/10 is not good enough

~Jeff

I think the best part of the America video is the Tusken Raider posing as a terrorist.  Love the gaffi stick.
In regards to the second clip:  "Looks like a big taco" ROFL!!

Lists are fun so I shall chime in.


Million Dollar Baby- I saw this about one month ago and must say that it is one of the best movies I have ever seen.  Masterpiece.
Gettysburg (Pickett's Charge is probably my favorite scene from any movie. Armistead's dialogues are timeless)
Saving Private Ryan
Shakespeare In Love
Sideways This should serve as a blueprint for future comedies.
Death of a Salesman
A Christmas Story (Family tradition to watch this at least once around the holidays)

I would include Apocalypse Now if it wasnt a totally unoriginal film.  But I enjoyed Heart of Darkness and therefore enjoyed the film.

Last time I checked, Oath ran two legendary creatures in Akroma and Spirit of the Night which they would not mind dropping into play from their hand.  What deck is this guy going to fit in?  He is green.  Not an artifact that can be played off Workshop.  

I probably like big dumb green creatures as much as the next guy but unfortunatly they are not playable right now.  On a design note, it is nice to see R&D actually making some decent aggro creatures these days.

Another question arose, in a recent game, about Rack and Ruin.  If there is only one artifact in play, can it be destroyed with Rack and Ruin?

Thanks

I have 2 artifacts in play and a goblin welder as well.  My opponent cast Rack and Ruin targeting my two artifacts.  In response, I weld out one of them for another artifact in the yard.  Does the Rack and Ruin get countered since the original targets are no longer there?  Does it just kill the one artifact that is left?   Does it kill the one original target and the new artifact that was welded in?  Thanks for the help.

Tainted Wood wrote:

I am trying this mana configuration (1 seat, 1 D. Citadel) right now and I have not had any problems against wastelands or shamans.  It adds more color consistency since I run a swamp in place of the Sea.  So I recomend using the Seat only if you use the Swamp to keep the number of un-wastelandable lands even.  I guess it might sometimes come back and bite you in the ass but further testing will tell.  

In regards to the SB against Oath, I usually board out a TFK, Brainstorm, Time Walk, Intuition and Slaver (In 2 E. Explosives, 2 Aether Spellbomb, 1 Duplicant) but I am considering boarding out the AK's and Time Walk instead as you usually do not need to draw that much and want to use Intuition to fuel Welder fun.  It comes down to whether of not you can resolve one of the Sb cards which should, in theory, win the game.

I think some of my results at the tourney were due to the fact that my Oath opponents got ridiculous draws.  Every game, they had Oath either turn one/two with Forbidden Orchard.  But when I did have the answers, they out countered me.  Maybe I am missing the real threats they have, but when they drop Oath with double counter back up to my single Mana Drain or FOW this deck really cannot do too much, (Game one that is.)

Having the Aether Spellbombs should help out.  With the spellbombs in the board are the anti-spirit cards (ie. Bombardment, Spawning Pit) necesary?  Boarding in 2 of REBs, Spellbombs, and anti-spirit tech should go a long ways to improving the post-board matches.  Is there anything else I am missing to improve my play against the deck?

Oh and I forgot to say, congrats on a solid finish.

I recently played something closely resembling this deck at Lakewood and made T8.  I got rolled on by Oath in the tourney though.  The deck was responsible for my 2 match losses of the tournament.  I did not have the spellbomb tech (had Goblin Bombardment and Spawning Pit) in the board but none the less, how does this deck beat Oath??  This is a very important question because Cruci-slaver is very strong against the rest of the field, but it just dies to Oath.  

Are the spellbombs enough to take games 2 and 3?  Barring the nuts game 1, you will lose to Oath.  So that puts this deck in a huge hole.   Oath can out counter you, out-tempo you and beat you before you even get a foot in the door.  I noticed you said that he never found Oath in round 4.  Is  this the best plan for us Control Slaver players.  Luck of the draw?  What other plans of attack are out there?

Bram wrote:


I wonder if this artist is an Opeth fan because that swamp resembles much of the band's cover art, especially the album Blackwater Park.  On a whole these look awesome.

Ok thanks.  This is what I thought but many people would argue with me.  Thank you for clarification

Simple question:  Can I discard two artifacts off a Thirst for Knowledge?   Or must I pick one artifact or two non-artifact cards?  Thanks.

I don't know how good this card is, but I do know it is an awesome album with some brutal artwork.  
http://www.cannibalcorpse.org/discography/tomb.jpg

spankweasel



There is a strong contradiction here my friend.  Masticore + Damping Matrix is not good.  I don't know what your entire list looks like but these two cards do not make good bed fellows.  You also say that you play in a heavy aggro meta.  If this is the case, Exalted Angel becomes that much more nutty.  Flipped up Angel against aggro....Pwned!

Damping Matrix is THE card that makes this deck viable.  Otherwise there really is no advantage to playing EBA over say, Hulk.  Data has shown that at least 2 maindeck Matrices are a must in any EBA build.  Even if you play in scrub aggro metas, the card shuts down so many random ass things it is unbelievable (Cursed Scroll, G Shaman, Viridian Zealot, etc... I am trying to think of common aggro creatures).  

Phid and his buddy shadowmage have been proven to be too slow in the current enviroment.  Run Skeletal Skrying instead.  Phic cc = 3 mana.  You get no cards in return once you cast him.  It would take you 3 turns to draw two cards which you could get right away from the SS.  Plus the SS is sooo much more explosive off Mana Drain then a little snake ever could be.   Skrying also has the potential to draw more cards when you need them as compared to the Snake.  Sure, if Ophidian stays around for a while you will win but often times you are left wishing he was faster.  

-Jeff

ps.  Started posting before Hi-Val's post was up.

Lol yea it may be luck and it probably has something to do with the fact that Ive only been playing the deck for a little over a month but who knows.  

I did a little testing today and LoA is not good.  You say it best in that it doesnt produce white.  Period.  Along those lines I dont think Scrubland is necesary.  It is a struggle to get WW up but not that desperate.  The Mox is an interesting idea.  I dont know if it is worth it though.  Card Disadvantage in T1 is not good.  We all know this but if problems persist we may have to give it strong consideration.