Hello everybody, I'm moving to Chicago in a few days to attend the university of Chicago.

I was wondering if anyone knew any good places to play magic over there. I'll be living in Hyde Park on campus.

First of all, where are the biggest places to play? I'm a player looking to play Vintage, draft, and casual formats.
Second can anyone give me the addresses and directions to those places? I've only been to Chicago a couple times and am not really familiar with the environments there.

Thank you very much.

Oh and if anyone knows how to get to Pastimes and The Odeum Expo from the University of Chicago campus I would greatly appreciate it.

Instead of double posting, please use the "modify" function. Thanks.

-- TAL

Since we're on the topic of tools in Oath, what do you people think of running Null Rods and Extirpates?

I've been testing around with new builds lately of Oath and was wondering what is your opinion on Wasteland and STrip Mine. I've been debating cutting these for a while now to build towards a stronger mana-base for 4 colors and opening up one or two slots in the deck for more spells. What are your thoughts on this?

So, the Carps have proven again at the lastest TMD Open that they know Oath pretty well. I know they probably will have something to say about how my build is insuffecient, but here's my list, originally the GWS version, but I tweaked it a little bit.

The reason for the tweaks if for the advent of Extirpate and Ancient Grudge along with the fact that Oath is in decline for everyone except the Carps.

I have chosen a 4 color build since I think it gives much more options than a three-color traditional build. Besides, most lands in the deck are 5-c lands anyway so the mana base won't be damaged too badly by the advent of a fourth color. Here it is:

Lands/Mana- Debating whether Sol Ring would be a good idea or not?
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Blue Fetches
2 Island
2 City of Brass
1 U-Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Trop. Island
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus

Creatures- These are always debated and subject to change. Just live with these two for now.
1 Akroma
1 Razia

Mandatory Stuff:
4 Oath
1 Gaea's Blessing

Protection Engine-
4 FoW
4 Mana Leak

Important Spells:
4 Brainstorm
4 IMpulse
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Tutors-
1 Crop Rotation
1 Vamp. Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imp. Seal

Open Slots-
8

As you can see, this build doesn't run Mana Drain, instead choosing the much more budget-friendly yet still effective Mana Leak which is sometimes Rune Snag.

The differences from the list Dan Carp ran at Waterbury are the exclusions of Chalice and Null Rod, and he adds in more disruption over my Impulses. I also run one more land and Imperial Seal.

So now I have a skeleton with 8 slots to work with. Of these 8, I can safely assume four of them are either going to be Duress, Extirpate, or Chalice. Need some input on this.

Here's where the inclusion of Red is important:
I will be able to run Ancient Grudge and REB/Pyroblast. WIth 4 slots left to work with I can either,

Include red goodies like Ancient Grudge and R&R.
Expand on the above 4 slots of (Duress/Extirpate/Chalice) and run another one of them for a solid disruption core.
Run More countermagic. Carp's list runs 10, I run 8. I could add in MisD, or I could go with 4 Rune Snag 2 Mana Leak or even 4 Counterspell 2 Mana Leak.

Do you guys have any thoughts?

Oh my god, I can't wait to go...untap, upkeep, Andy my shit, draw.

Well, it's certainly a solid card, but in Vintage there are so many better options. THe mana acceleration isn't good, might as well have...Darksteel Ingot and be indestructable. The thing as a win condition is terrible, might as well have a Juggernaut. If Control Slaver gets a hold of this thing...whoops double time walk. Skipping a turn gives your opponent more time fo find a win condition and/or answer. If you are so ahead in board position that GIVING YOUR OPPONENT A FREE TIME WALK is more helpful than detrimental, you're probably winning anyway.

I wasn't asking for a change in the artwork completely.

The Homelands Merchant Scroll is rolled out and has a space on the scroll maybe large enough to draw a small card or something. I figured since the Ancestral art can be pretty simple, it would be a good idea, or draw a mana drain squid or something.

Ever tried putting a picture of someone on a card? LIke, maybe Mindslaver or something you could draw in their head and shoulders and make it a full card-size art. Or Ichorid/Ashen Ghoul, you could draw someone in place of the art.

I"m really interested in what good alterations could be made to invitational cards. YOu already did a Solemn Simulacrum, so I'm very interested in Bob, Meddling Mage, and Dimir Cutpurse (yeah yeah).

Any vintage deck. The thing's looks to me like a bad Imperial Seal/Vampiric Tutor in that it doesn't do anything until the turn after.

Given that both Vampiric and Seal are restricted and still seeing extensive play, that's not such a bad thing.

Looks pretty good as is. Standard and Extended doesn't have enough broken shit to make it ban-worthy and Legacy wouldn't use the thing because it's too slow.

I think you should take a Homelands Merchant Scroll and draw an Ancestral Recall/Force of WIll/Mana Drain on the scroll. There isn't enough room on the new art to draw something directly on the scroll, I don't think, maybe you can figure out a way to do it.

Option One:
You drop mana acceleration and play some spells, allowing you to power into turn one Wheel of Fortune with gas. You now 'begin' the game with a spell count of 4 and 7 cards in hand.  You have a good chance of winning the game.

Option Two:
You drop mana acceleration and play Wheel of Fate, but can't drop the gas because you have nothing to play. Your opponent now 'begins' the game with +4 card advantage while you have nothing to show for your turn one besides a spell which won't resolve for another 4 turns.

Yeah, it's bad.

Yes, I understand that choosing a school based on Magic is a bad choice.

At the same time, I think that Magic has become a part of my lifestyle and I would like to continue playing.\

The question wasn't rather or not I should go 'college X'. The question was whether or not there are places to play around certain universities.

Alright, I'm looking at colleges to apply to (it's my senior year in high school) and obviously one of the most important things is whether I can find somewhere to play close to school.

I'm looking into several universities, so if everyone could chip in and tell me any card shops I could visit, it would be much appreciated.

Keep in mind I probably won't be able to bring a car freshman year.

THese are the Universities' addresses:
Northwestern: Evanston, IL
Cornell: Ithaca, NY
Brown: Providence, RI
University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, MI
University of Chicago: duh
NYU: New York
UPenn: PHilidalphea, Pennsylvania

I know a lot of these are longshots which I probably don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting into, but places to play Magic are very important in my college search.

Thank you very much in advance.

Anyone have any news at all? I feel this is an important topic which people should remember to pay attention to from time to time.

I doubt the problem is that the players are going to make the card broken. I just think it's a problem with the DCI which doesn't want to deal with the possible repurcussions. Vintage players have been vying for the unrestriction of Voltaic Key, Dream Halls, the two bad Moxen, and TIme Sprial for a while now.
I doubt anyone could make a broken deck with 4x Chrome Mox 4x Mox diamond, or find a use for 4x Voltaic Key, but the fact remains that it's probably a whole easier for the DCI to make no changes and say 'we think the format is healthy now with the current B&R list' then to actually get together, look at decklists, read player recommendations, and decide which cards need to be taken off. Especially in a non-sanctioned format.

A note to the Moderators- I don't know if this has been a topic on the Open Forums before, but I can't find a Stax discussion besides the Staxless Stax thing which this is entirely different from.

So, due to my extremely restrictive budget I have done some brainstorming and testing with Stax and drawn up this new variant.

Lands:
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone MIne
4 Waste
1 Strip
1 Academy
1 B-ring

Morphling is an inferior creature to today's Oath Standards. It just soaks up way too much mana, and there are too many things that can race it. The good thing about Morphling is that you can hardcast it in a time of trouble, but if it gets around to that situation I don't think you're going to want to spend 3-4 mana a turn just to make Morphling effecient. Play the other Oath creatures that people recommended (Akroma, Razia, SSS, SPirit of the Night) because they are hasty (with the exception of SSS, but it's un-swordsable, which I believe is what you were looking for) and provide a faster clock than Morhpling withough locking up your mana base.

I'm not as seasoned of a Stax player as you guys out there, but there are some things that I would like to point out.

Chalice of the Void maindeck isn't such a bad choice. There's some debate between people about where it should go, it might just be a matter of preference. I run Chalice main, and although I"m not a name-player, it seems to work ok. It also has a synergy with Tangle Wire.

Do NOT cut In the Eye. I have played against some people on Workstation and In the Eye can absolutely kill some decks. Gifts takes a really hard hit, as does combo.

I have not taken a particular liking to Memory Jar. More often than not, you have less of an ability with Stax to go broken than your opponent. This is even true in goldfish games. Wheel of Fortune is to me also a very big IF for the same reason. Sometimes, you just don't have the ability to break it as much as your opponent does. And it doesn't have the disadvantage that Memory Jar has of going away at EOT. If you don't do something absolutely explosive off Wheel of Fortune you're in some seriously deep shit.

I like Jester's Cap main, since it's good against Oath, Gifts, and combo. I would definitely put in at least one maindeck and see how that works out for you.

Duplicant in the board also if there's Oath in your meta.

This is a more recent version of Oath of Druids. Since I have no Mana Drains, I play the GWS version, modified a little since the advent of a new, good blue counterspell in Coldsnap:

Lands:
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 City of Brass
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

Artifacts:
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus

Control Element:
4 Force of Will
4 Rune Snag
2 Mana Leak
4 Duress

Tutor Element:
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
4 Impulse
4 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Ancestral Recall

Winning:
4 Oath of Druids
1 Akroma
1 Razia/SSS/Spirit of the Night (this is personal preference mainly)
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Time Walk

I think that's it for the list. More likely than not I left out an important 4-of, but this deck is very explosive.

Choices Explanation:
You run Akroma and some other fattie, depending on preference. Akroma is protected by your huge control element (Force, Rune Snag, Mana Leak, Duress) and if you play SSS you don't have to worry about removal.

4 Impulse are very good. Since you need to be explosive, Impulse helps dig for your combo pieces.

On a side not from the Changster's misfortune:

MoxLotus has said that he recieved a bunch of his cards back, including some of the unique stuff, from an anonymous sender.

Congrats on finding your stuff, hopefully Roland will be able to do the same.

If you're looking for Mana Drains I would recommend you go Italian. Athough everyone with an affiliation to the SCG.com pimp thread will slap me, you can get EX-NM Italian drains for like 80 bucks.

And yes, being the biggest dealer in all of Magic-dealer-tude allows for some pretty serious gouging.

NWI-
No one is MAKING you send anything to anybody. It's just lucky for Roland he's got lots of friends and lots of places who are willing to look out for him.

As for being a communist, sorry buddy, you're about 50 years too late. Y'know, they teach kids about people like you in High School history classes.

quote(some random textbook)/ There was an evil man who though everybody who didn't wholeheartedly support him was a communist and should be put out of a job and have their relatives marked for all eternity./quote

This is voluntary charity idiot. There are some people like Null Rod who have donated hundreds of dollars worth of powerful Vintage staples, down to the people who've chipped in with a few Standard chase rares.

You shouldn't berate someone's friends for trying to convince people to help a guy out in his time of need. And don't even try to make a comparison to Iraq. Wounded soldiers fighting for America have my deepest sympathies and I wholeheartedly support them, but they weren't forced into fighting, they volunteered to serve their nation. Roland didn't volunteer to have a new car's worth of money stolen from him, there's a big difference.

Don't try to come onto the 'please help out our World Champion' thread and convinve people not to donate stuff. No one's making anybody do anything, no one's even making you read this thread. Mr. I am pro-moneymaking at whatever the cost, would it be right for someone to walk into a business and advise people not to buy stuff?

I think just for this dude, we should give Roland a Purple Heart or something, contract Vroman to do an extreme alteration on like, a Sol Ring. That would be pretty sweet.

Oh, and btw:
quote: People should post what they send.  No reason for him to get 13 Mindslavers. /quote

He doesn't have any Mindslavers yet

A true Johnny would not run Mana Flare or Heartbeat of Spring. The deck MUST be mono-blue. You should even run 4x Blue Shoal as countermagic with your infinite mana.

Cunning Wish, Mirari, copy finding [instant] original finding another Cunning Wish is one of the coolest things you can do in Magic I think.

If you're worried about mana burn just run some bad creature with an ability such as:
U: This creature gains flying until end of turn on a 2/2 for 5.

Has the suspect been revealed by the security tape? That alone should be evidence enough. I'm sorry I have not donated anything to the cause because I don't really have a job or source of income, but I will definitely try to help out in the near future.

My name is James Tsai, I'm 17 years old and a High School Student at Okemos High School.

I started playing Magic in the last month of Darksteel, and immediately turned to Vintage as soon as I found out if I spend 10+ bucks on Eternal Dragons, Ravagers, Chrome Moxes etc. they would become really useless really fast, so I chose a format where I would be able to make long term investments.

I don't play much outside of Vintage and 8-man draft tournaments, although I do find time to play a test game or two on MWS. Normally I'm logged on as Player because I'm too lazy to get a username.

I've only had the opportunity to go to one tournament, and that was the RIW Power8 tournament, Day One in Novi. I got 11th place due to goldfishing too much the night before and resolving Brainstorm before my opponent said okay. It happened twice that day. Oops game loss.

I don't have the cash to buy any expensive cards like Power, Drain/Shop/Bazaar, but I do enjoy playing 10-proxy Vintage a lot. THe decks I currently play are:
Ichorid with Unmask
SS
5-color Stax minus one Mox Emerald, 10 proxy FTW
Mana Leak Oath

-James Tsai