Magic: The Gathering

[Arrow]

Anyone here play? I am -NOT- really all that good at this game. I run a black and white deck filled predominantly with Angels and Knights. I have 70 cards, 20 land, and serious mana draw issues.

[Cascading Dragon]

I used to play.
If I remember correctly, I usually had a 33%-50% land, and black/white decks were more life drain then any thing. Course, this was a few years ago.

[Arrow]

Mine's all life *gain*. That and insta-kills / exile cards. I go for lowest mana cost possible with maximum effect. I really would like a few "condemn" cards.

[tSwitch]

try to restrict your deck to 60 cards, and at 60 cards, 18-23 of that should be mana, split based on your cost ratio, you shouldn't run into mana issues that way.

note: only stray close to 18 if you have free artifacts or cheap creatures/spells that give mana that you can RELY on.

[Grafikal]

Mm, I happen to have a shit ton of cards. My roommates and I would play fairly often in college. I haven't played lately and us playing tapered off in like the last year since Wizards was making a shit ton of editions so fast. It became expensive to try and keep up and some of the new abilities were just ridiculous. So IDK what kind of black/white cards you have, but I usually play a black/white in group games. Generally a small amount of often weak creatures but overly abundant with +life cards and instant death cards. Not too useful vs artifacts or other black decks or gold cards involving black.

My favorite is the elf deck. I have virtually an unbeatable elf deck. Cheap mana costs, passively gain mana all the time without really trying to get mana which leads to a large amount of mana which allows for an extremely fast gameplay. It quickly overtakes any slow deck. It's got a large mix of trump cards that are */* where * is equal to the amount of creatures in play, or elves in play. Which is usually like 15 at any moment. Partially a token deck and always have at least 1 wellwisher on the field. An easy +Life each turn given the number of elves in play, which again, is a lot. I've only seen it fail a couple times in response to cards that do an AOE of 1 damage to each creature in play or (tap)Target creature or player loses 1 life which just picks off elves.

[Arrow]

I did try to restrict to 60 for a long time, and 20 of those were mana (ten of each white and black- getting the right color isn't the problem, it's getting it at all.) My friends play the same numbers and have a shit-ton of mana every game just from regular draw. I don't. Fuckin. Get it.

But I'm doing 70 now because I needed a few more creatures, and well, I'm at 70 AFTER removing some of my good spells.

[Cascading Dragon]

If you could post your deck list, we could try and help.
Just sounds like you have bad luck though.

[Arrow]

I'd say it's bad luck. But sure, I'll post my deck list- or as much as I can remember. It's actually at my buddy's house right now.

60 listed here, plus 3, and I can't remember seven of em...

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Plains - 10
Swamp - 10
------------------
Rest for the Weary - 1
Blinding Mage - 1
Brainwash - 2
Eland Umbra - 1
Revoke Existence - 2
Lone Missionary - 2
Holy Energy - 2
Stormfront Pegasus - 1
Serra Angel - 3
Soul Warden - 1
Knight Exemplar - 1
Elite Vanguard - 1
Leonin Den-Guard - 2
Palace Guards - 1
------------------
Disentomb - 2
Unholy Energy - 2
Hideous End - 1
Doom Blade - 2
Blood Seeker - 1
Giant Scorpion - 1
Black Knight - 2
Guul Draz Vampire - 1
------------------
Razor Golem - 1
Darksteel Axe - 2
Barbed Armor - 1
Accorder's Shield - 2
Golden Urn - 1



I have three other knights, one of which has protection against red, but I can't remember their names right now- I just got them yesterday, but they're pretty basic, and also old as hell. Can't remember the rest, but that's most of em...

[tSwitch]

Yeah running 1 and 2 of cards isn't a great idea.  I always design my decks around central themes, and try to put multiples of 3 or 4 of core cards in.  Mostly 3.  It makes them reliable draws while offering variation.

It also means you're not severely hindered by that one big monster being Doom Bladed.

[Cascading Dragon]

Yeah running 1 and 2 of cards isn't a great idea.  I always design my decks around central themes, and try to put multiples of 3 or 4 of core cards in.  Mostly 3.  It makes them reliable draws while offering variation.

It also means you're not severely hindered by that one big monster being Doom Bladed.

This is completely right. IF you are only going to run one card, it better be that you are waiting on other copies..
I know when I had my burn deck, I had at least 3 of every spell.

[yarow12]

Some friends of mine would play on the side of us while we played Yu-Gi-Oh! during lunch about four years ago. I liked the artwork, but I didn't really care much to get into the game.

[Arrow]

It is because I'm waiting for more copies. I'm searching through the binders at various slackers locations where I can find em. Fuck booster packs. >

I'm actually converting to mono-white tonight, so my list is gonna change.

[tSwitch]

Booster packs and Fat-Packs are the best thing that can happen to you.  Building decks from those is not only fun, but can lead to interesting strategies that you would never have seen or thought of before.

[Kokowam]

I used to have a lot of Akromas (so sexy). I've always wanted to get serious and play at times, but it's so costly ;-;

[Acolyte]

I run shadowmoor mortal coil. It's pretty nasty if you give it enough turns. Me being extremely quiet by nature, I'm usually ignored in multiplayer games, giving me a chance to pull off some awesome win-conditions.

Other than that, I haven't really bought any other cards. My friend said he'd think about giving me some though. I wouldn't mind trying a burn deck.

[tSwitch]

I run shadowmoor mortal coil. It's pretty nasty if you give it enough turns. Me being extremely quiet by nature, I'm usually ignored in multiplayer games, giving me a chance to pull off some awesome win-conditions.

Other than that, I haven't really bought any other cards. My friend said he'd think about giving me some though. I wouldn't mind trying a burn deck.

Too bad Shadowmoor was cycled out of Type 2 like a year or more ago and it's not FNM legal.

I have a Llorwyn block Blue/Black Fae Control that was my go-to until the block was phased out.

[Arrow]

New deck list. Still not ideal, still needs work, would prefer it to be a bit smaller, but here's what I have now before I can start searching stuff out again.

Code Select Expand


TOTAL: [ 73 CARDS ]
------------------------------
Plains - 20
------------------------------
Auriok Steelshaper - 1
Blinding Mage - 1
Darksteel Juggernaut - 1
Defender of Law - 1
Elite Vanguard - 2
Gold Myr - 2
Knight Errant - 2
Knight Exemplar - 1
Leodon Den-Guard - 2
Lone Missionary - 2
Loxodon Wayfarer - 2
Palace Guard - 1
Palladium Myr - 2
Razor Golem - 1
Serra Angel - 3
Soul Warden - 1
Steel Hellkite - 1
Stormfront Pegasus - 2
------------------------------
Armored Ascension - 2
Brainwash - 2
Condemn - 2
Eland Umbra - 1
Holy Strength - 2
Luminous Wake - 1
Mighty Leap - 1
Rest for the Weary - 1
Revoke Existence - 2
Smite - 2
Whitesun's Passage - 1
------------------------------
Accorder's Shield - 2
Barbed Battlegear - 1
Darksteel Axe - 2
Golden Urn - 1
Hammer of Ruin - 1
Whispersilk Cloak - 1
------------------------------


I'm trimming it down as you read this.

[tSwitch]

You have too many single copies of cards.

[Gracie]

I never played it, but if it's anything like Yu-Gay-Oh, running singles is never as good as packing 2-3 (4 for magic I guess) of hard hitters. Not necessarily big bad and ugly, but cards that make it so you never get a dud draw.

My input, I'll disappear now.

[tSwitch]

It's a far more complex Yu-Gi-Oh.
Compare Go Fish to Chess.

But that basic rule does hold true.

[EvilM00s]

I  used to play in '94 or so, just after the Legends expansion. Wow... anyway, I had a (totally tournament illegal) red/white deck in which all my creatures were prot/red, 4 of each creatrure, and about 2/5 land. 4 mana flares, sunglasses of Urza, so white mana counted as red, 4 inferno, 4 circle prot red. Blast out 2 or 3 infernos, use the excess mana to protect myself, all my creatures mowed you down.

[Cascading Dragon]

Just because I could, I wiped off the dust on my cards and made a burn deck. Turns out, I have lost quite a few cards... I have singles of cards I used to have 4 of..
I also read up on the new rules.. No mana burn? That makes some of the cards I have waaaaaaaaayyy better.

[Grafikal]

Eh, the rules are new. I forgot about that. I remember that the only one that really affected me was the no mana burn thing. I only play house rules anyway. I don't do tournaments. Did that when I was much younger and it was gay. Kids got way too worked up over cards and things. Everything was so technical and not fun. House rules is how you play a game the fun way. Kind of just neglected the whole new combat rules about using instants and new ways to block/attack and shit. lol

[tSwitch]

Eh, the rules are new. I forgot about that. I remember that the only one that really affected me was the no mana burn thing. I only play house rules anyway. I don't do tournaments. Did that when I was much younger and it was gay. Kids got way too worked up over cards and things. Everything was so technical and not fun. House rules is how you play a game the fun way. Kind of just neglected the whole new combat rules about using instants and new ways to block/attack and shit. lol

Tourneys are fun if you're not playing with a bunch of douches.  I did a FNM tourney at the local card shop a few times and even with official rules it was a good time.

[Grafikal]

Yeah, they're ok, but I usually get stuck with those kids that have like every single card ever made, buy a couple boosters every paycheck, they go home and do nothing but read strategy and build decks, then they show up and act all cocky, lose and then RAGE SO HARD. Plus it's more stressful. Having to actually care somewhat about what's in your deck and then having to go somewhere just to play and then all the people around like it's an olympic event. It's just the whole thing is a little more stressful than just sitting down with a few friends at the dinner table and playing whatever decks you feel like playing for an hour or two. And like I said earlier, WotC was releasing new expansions almost every single month making cards less than several months old completely useless in tourneys. IDK if they still make them that fast considering it's been a good year since I've bought or been into Magic, but it was completely pointless to buy new cards or do tourneys like that without having to spend A LOT of money constantly on getting new cards. The money wasn't worth it. That's another reason I always prefer house rules, lol, cause there's no "Oh that edition was released 4 editions ago and you can't use them". haha