Shocked and saddened to hear this. My deepest condolences to his family.

Yeah, that will be a good day.

All time favorite magic play? No contest:
Once again, for emphasis:

That's nothing compared to the power level errata they slapped on Oboro Envoy.

Mud would be a lot weaker without Workshops. Remember, if you're playing artifacts, you can't play nonbasic lands. My picks for the top two decks would be High Tide (instants/islands) and Goblins (creatures/mountains).

Hmm, Leyline of Anticipation is new. That might just work. It'd turn the whole format into Flash-mirrors, though, where you can't do anything because your opponent will win in response. Lets you drop Chalice 0 on their upkeep too.

Chains are for Leylines, not Chalice. White Leyline is problematic otherwise. It's not like you can cast any bounce spells against Stax on the draw anyway.


So it seems like our "control" deck runs 8 Leylines and some counters, but we still have to beat Stax. Unfortunately, that means running lands. They can still get Trinisphere, Crucible, Strip Mine going, though. That's hard to beat. Darksteel Citadel?

No restrictions vintage is awful. You're relying super hard on winning the coin flip. That deck tries to compensate with free counters, but you run the risk of not actually being able to combo off (you need lotus or academy and windfall or desire, with pretty much just Serum Powder to make it happen). No Ancestral?

A more naive list would be something like this:

4 Mind's Desire
4 Tendrils of Agony
4 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Demonic Consultation
4 Demonic Tutor

4 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
4 Chain of Vapor

4 Black Lotus
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Jet
4 Mox Sapphire
4 Mana Crypt
4 Dark Ritual
4 Underground Sea

You could try a workshop prison build, turn one chalice and trinisphere is good (although you're even worse on the draw, so I guess you run lots of Leylines).

I've played highlander vintage tournaments. Combo is basically the only real deck, it's pretty depressing.

Sigh, no one remembers PhantomTapeWorm anymore. He was one of the greats. But back in the day, flamewar threads got deleted. We really should have preserved a few for posterity. At least we still have this thread around.

Thanks, that's super helpful for me. Do the buses down to DC leave from the same locations?

edit: I really did mean buses.

I shaved the beard while travelling. Let's see who can recognize me! Maybe I'll bring prizes.

Agreed. I will do my best to make it up to CT for this. Looking forward to seeing people!

I didn't bother to look for his other convos, but there aren't that many Italian players with lifetime bans. Aside from tournament fraud, the only possibilities would be one of these two:

Alessandro   Bottiroli   69839175   Tortona   AL   Italy   2007-10-11   2049-01-01   Unsporting Conduct   All
Angelo   Bottiroli   29088099   Tortona   AL   Italy   2007-10-11   2049-01-01   Unsporting Conduct   All

It looks like they're brothers. Which raises the possibility that Sephiroth is not one person, but two people.

Interesting. It looks to me like he's a non-native speaker, based on some of his sentence constructions ("go to the hell" "that done some many engineering stuffs" etc).

A quick check of the suspended DCI members list shows one non-American (a Brazilian) banned for Agressive Behavior in 2007, one of the few lifetime bans for that offense:
thiago   oliveira   20175963   londrina      Brazil   2007-01-09   2055-01-09   Aggressive Behavior   All

Although it is possible that instead it's the 2005 ban:
Laurent   Raynaud   60250087   Bordeaux   SUD   France   2005-03-04   2049-01-01   Aggressive Behavior   All

Those are the only two non-Americans that I saw who got lifetime bans for Aggressive Behavior in that time frame. 

MuzzonoAmi? Those decks were good, except for the budget Oath list that had ESG's for acceleration. Whoops!

Also, Nazdakka, the actual quote:

jpmeyer: oh man you are so reverting to the bd days
jpmeyer: HOLY SHIT
jpmeyer: 1 NEW CARD IN A DECK
jpmeyer: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
Smmenen: w/e
Smmenen: the deck is functionally different
Smmenen: with brainstorm
Smmenen: it is terrible without it
Smmenen: absolute garbage
Smmenen: so it is a huge advancement
Smmenen: and its all ME

From https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/prstanto/www/tmdquotes.html which is a repository of awesome. Have we mentioned Phil Stanton yet? He did stuff like compile metagame data, save all those irc/aim quotes, etc.

I stopped by one of the local stores and picked up a few miscellaneous cards. Oddities that I added to the decks to try out include:
Soul Manipulation
Evolving Wilds
Rupture Spire
Illusory Demon

I'm not sure how good they'll be, but I can always cut them if they're not working well.

I find that many of the Guildmages/Witches tend to be quite solid later on. One-card engines are excellent in this format.

Yeah, I can tell your group plays a lot of aggro; that's more dedicated mass removal than I'd be comfortable running (although I have several of them in my SB!). The first list I posted is super greedy and can have problems with aggro, but then you stabilize and get to have some fun. Then again, I've had games where I cast Dragoons 5-6 times and ended in the single digits, so it can be tricky. The second list is a little more robust, but less unfair.

I can't imagine playing Whispers over Mulldrifter. You can even cash it in early if you need a few cards!

How is Terramorphic Expanse? I have a few, but I never made room to try them out.

Lots of nice cards in that list! A few specific card questions, then I want to talk about lands.

1) Psionic Blast - is this worth it? I just think you could have a counterspell or a mana fixer here. Or both, Traumatic Visions is amazing. It's a transmute target, though.

2) Ordered Migration - better than Mistmeadow Witch? The Witch is a house with CIP creatures, and you can still pull some great tricks even without putting damage on the stack.

3) triple Transmute spells. I was running that many, but now I'm down to just Perplex. Your spells feel a little more situational, though, so the extra tutoring may work out.

4) no Shriekmaw? That card is a house.

Okay, now lands. I notice that you have all five tri-tap lands, where my decks have 6 and 4 Rav bounce lands. Here's a quick rundown of the pros and cons:

tri-tap pros
Taps for 3 colors of mana (huge)
You can lead with them early to play cards in a specific color
no tempo black hole if they're destroyed
no forced mulligans--you can keep a hand of all tri-taps

tri-tap cons
comes into play tapped
can't tap for more than one color at once
no card advantage

bounceland pros
Gives you an extra land (huge)
taps for both colors every time
you can keep a hand with 2-3 lands and have enough mana
can reset Gemstone Mine

bounceland cons
comes into play tapped
tempo black hole if they're destroyed
hard to get them into play early
occasional forced mulligan from hands like double bounceland, fellwar stone, harrow, spells

I really really like the card advantage from the bouncelands, but I haven't tried the tri-lands. Have they worked out well for you?

The current structure is definitely not set in stone. We want to see how the current layout works in practice, now that people will be more attentive to thread titles, but we may consolidate or separate out the results if that ends up making more sense.

Please continue to leave us feedback as you try out the new site layout. We want to hear from everybody.

It's banned, though, for being on the Restricted List. Like Sol Ring or Fact or Fiction. Otherwise, yes, auto-include.

I've slacked off on updating my skittles decks with the past few sets, but here's where I'm at right now. The lists are designed to be fun in random casual play, and to play well against each other in case someone wants to play but needs to borrow a deck. I cut Skullclamp because it was too good and made games completely unfun. Suggestions are welcome, especially new cards that I should take a look at.

First Decklist. This is based around creature recursion, and having powerful answers to whatever my opponent plays. Key colors are G, U, B:

Eternal Witness
Yavimaya Elder
Harrow
Thornscape Battlemage

Dreamscape Artist
Traumatic Visions
Mulldrifter
Negate

Haunted Crossroads
Phyrexian Reclamation
Gravedigger
Shriekmaw
Nightmare Void

Swords to Plowshares
Radiant's Dragoons
Stonecloaker
Seed Spark

Avalanche Riders
Flametongue Kavu
Thunderscape Battlemage
Ingot Chewer
Fireball

Perplex (UB)
Moroii (UB)
Selesnya Guildmage (GW)
Kitchen Finks (GW)
Spitemare (RW)
Firespout (RG)
Trygon Predator (UG)
Mistmeadow Witch (UW)

Fellwar Stone
Prismatic Lens
Aether Vial
Crystal Shard
Etched Oracle
Infused Arrows

Gemstone Mine
Vivid Grove
Vivid Creek
Vivid Marsh

Simic Growth Chamber
Golgari Rot Farm
Selesnya Sanctuary
Gruul Turf
Dimir Aqueduct
Azorius Chancery

Mishra's Factory
Wasteland

Pendelhaven

4 Forest
Snow-Covered Forest
Island
Snow-Covered Island
Swamp
Snow-Covered Swamp
Plains
Mountain


Second Decklist. This one is based on more aggressive creatures.It was also an excuse to use a lot of neat hybrid/multicolor spells, especially Slave of Bolas, with guildmages/witches to take advantage of all the extra lands you get from your mana fixing:

Sakura-Tribe Elder
Explosive Vegetation
Kodama's Reach
Harrow
Shard Convergence

Dreamscape Artist
Traumatic Visions
Phantom Monster

Phyrexian Reclamation
Shriekmaw

Radiant's Dragoons
Orim's Thunder
Seed Spark

Avalanche Riders
Flametongue Kavu
Fireball
Fire Bolt

Slave of Bolas (UBR)
Crosis's Charm (UBR)
Grixis Soujourners (UBR)
Moroii (UB)
Dimir Guildmage (UB)
Inkfathom Witch (UB)
Azorius Guildmage (UW)
Seedcradle Witch (WG)
Desecrator Hag (BG)
Kulrath Knight (BR)
Spitemare (RW)
Harvest Gwyllion (BW)

Fellwar Stone
Prismatic Lens
Gruul Signet
Dimir Signet
Phyrexian Totem
Aether Vial

Gemstone Mine
Vivid Creek

Simic Growth Chamber
Izzet Boilerworks
Orzhov Basilica
Golgari Rot Farm

Wasteland
Mishra's Factory

3 Forest
3 Island
3 Swamp
3 Plains
3 Mountain

Wow, it's weird to be back. It looks like people have covered the basics already, so I'll add a little. I can also answer questions.

I was promoted to moderator back in '03, I don't remember why. I joined Meandeck in '04, so that can't have been the reason. Probably I just posted a lot. I took over as the day to day admin when Zherbus didn't have enough time for it anymore, and Pete kept me on as lead admin when he bought the site. I stopped posting in '08.

I'm heading back to the east coast for law school this fall, however, so I might finally be close enough to some tournaments to play Type 1 again. I might as well check out TMD from time to time, too.

Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter are crazy. I'm actually cutting down on random 2-for-1 guys like Fire Imp because I'd rather have cheaper removal to play before I get my engines up and running.

No.

I don't care who plays it, but here's the list you need to use:

The Deck

Blue
4 Mana Drain
4 Counterspell
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Amnesia
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timewalk
1 Timetwister
1 Braingeyser
1 Recall

White
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Disenchant
2 Moat
2 Serra Angel

Black
Demonic Tutor

Green
Regrowth

Artifact
2 Disrupting Scepter
1 Jayemdae Tome
1 Mirror Universe
5 Moxes
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring

Land
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
4 City of Brass
3 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Islands
3 Plains

Sideboard
2 Divine Offering
2 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Blood Moon
1 Ivory Tower
1 Jayemdae Tome
1 Disrupting Scepter
1 Moat
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Fireball
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Feldon's Cane

I'm in. I've had some good times playing Mafia around a table, and I'm curious how it runs online.

Don't forget tulips! Bram should be an expert on those.

The only cards in my T4 stacks that do not count as your spell for the turn are the lands. I think it's worth leaving that up to houserules, because every stack is different.

There's the classic "Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?" from Alice in Wonderland.

For an answer, I prefer Huxley's classic "Because there is a B in both and an N in neither," although there are others.

Welcome to TheManaDrain! Our forum rules are here. You'll want to look at rules four and six, in particular.

Thread closed.