Hi everyone. I am a decently good MtG player and I was wondering if there were any others on this forum who played competitively? I have lost in the finals of two PTQs as well as losing in the finals of the 2013 States. I play mostly Standard and whatever the current PTQ format is. I would love to talk about the metagame and other fun stuff like that.
I used to LOVE playing Magic when I was younger. I wasn't what you would call a "competitive player," as the furthest I've ever gotten in any serious tournament was a top-50 at Regionals back in 2004 during the Mirrodin/Onslaught blocks, and I honestly really suck at keeping up with the metagame (it seems like every time I find a deck that has the current metagame beat, suddenly some new deck that I've never seen before crushes me, and I have no idea how to beat it.)
I haven't played since the Zendikar/Alara blocks, unfortunately, because I always seemed to end up spending hundreds of dollars on a deck that ended up being obsolete two months later.
But whatever. I did play. It's just that I haven't been able to build a decent competitive deck since the days of Twelvepost and Affinity. Developers are getting too damn good at their job recently, and there are just SO many decks that can all win, I honestly just feel lost.
I remember the Zendikar/Shards format. I started in Shards/Lorwyn standard playing Kithkins. After that I was jumping around playing pretty much every deck except the best deck because I didn't wanna be a follower. lol. Now all I really enjoy is when there is a single best deck available.
I used to play all the time, too! I cut back a lot after 8th edition when the redesigned the card face.
So I'm curious, Ally, what type of deck are you playing in the current format? This topic kind of got me back into it, because I'd pretty much forgotten how much I used to love it, and I started watching videos from the Pro Tour and checking out the current metagame again.
So yeah, I'm curious.
There's three types of decks that I generally play. The main deck type that I usually end up playing is aggro. My favorite Magic color has always been red, so my primary deck type in the past has almost always been some sort of red/green beatdown deck. The second type of deck that I generally play is some sort of green combo deck, one that involves setting up a near-infinite mana base and going in for a HUGE kill. I like combo decks that generate a TON of mana, and let you play HUGE cards. And the third type of deck that I like to play is some sort of variant on a Red/White control deck. And by control, I usually mean burn. But I always design these decks as if they were control decks... using efficient card-advantage creatures like Solemn Simulacrum to give me card advantage, blowing up enemy creatures with the likes of Slagstorm and Pyroclasm, and then going for the face with red's amazing late-game finishing creatures and burn-spell combos. (Again, red is my favorite color in Magic, but I really don't like the typical "Red Deck Wins" method that focuses on weenie creatures, like Goblin decks and the like. I tend to prefer the burn spells.) In fact, this was the kind of deck that I played during my last venture into Standard, during last year's Innistrad / Scars of Mirrodin format.
I'll occasionally try playing a blue/white control deck, but usually it's just for purposes of playtesting against. Blue has always been my nemesis from day 1 of my Magic playing, and the color that consistently kept beating me, and beating me, and annoying the freaking hell out of me because it stalled the game so much and countered every damned thing that I played. I am SO glad that counterspells and bounce have been powered down in recent years. Playing against a million Psychatog decks during Odyssey block almost made me want to quit the game because they were so damned annoying.
Anyway, I've been analyzing the current metagame for a while now, and MAN, I must say, beatdown decks are just completely SICK right now. There's like three 2/2 creatures that can come out on the first turn, and Burning-Tree Emissary and Lightning Mauler are just sick, sick, sick! And I thought Zoo was good during Ravnica block. But now it's just completely ridiculous. So that's the deck that I'm going with right now... my own variation on the Red/Green beatdown deck, with some white splashed so that I can also play Boros Charm, and get Boros Reckoner out more consistently. I was playing around with it on LackeyCCG the other day, and again, I'm surprised how absolutely sick Red/Green is these days compared to the old days of Invasion and Odyssey when blue was severely overpowered. I mean, sheesh, I had people giving up by turn three against me, because I was already swinging for 6 damage on the 2nd turn after going Rakdos Cackler, Burning-Tree Emissary, Lightning Mauler, smash, while they still only had one land in play. Yeah... pretty sick. Methinks I like this format! :D
I'm also very much a fan of the Bant control deck style that Melissa DeTora used during the Gatecrash Pro Tour. I really like seeing a control deck that is primarily creature-based rather than based on counterspells. There are some excellent mechanic combos in that deck that I really admire. I played around with this type of deck before during Mirrodin block, but never really used it competitively, but yeah, I like this type of deck a lot when it works.
I'm not currently playing right now, but I am paying attention to the metagame and watching people play. The deck that I would most like to play right now would either be The Aristocrats Act Two or Naya Blitz.
The Aristocrats Act Two is a Red-Black-White Midrange deck with plenty of powerful creatures and the game-ending interaction between Blasphemous Act + Boros Reckoner/Blood Artist. Potential turn 4 kill.
Naya Blitz is a Red-Green-White Human Aggro deck that focuses on the synergy between Champion of the Parish with a bunch of other humans to create explosive draws that can end the game quickly.
I normally play a lot of blue, but I think it is slower than it should be currently.
I've been playing a lot of EDH lately. EDH, or Commander, is a casual format where you play with 100 card decks built around a legendary creature, your commander, and can only play one of any card other than basic lands.
Jesus christ I played obsessively in the nineties but I recognize almost none of what has been mentioned in this thread. Lol. I'd been looking to get back into it but now I'm not so sure. :laugh:
I've been to tournaments, but I'm certainly not competitive haha. I mostly play for fun.
An yes Magic the addiction. It's worse than a shoe shopping habit. ;)
I played from unlimited to hym homelands and mirage.
Then got back in shortly before getting married when they brought back a lot of old cards in a tribute series in last 6 years. Fell back out after that cycle ended.
I've been into Living Card Games and games like Dominion and Ascension lately.
Oh god, I used to be into Magic big time some years ago. The Ravnica block was the newest thing when I started and Kamigawa block was slowing leaving standard to much of my disappointment. I really liked its theme.
I've had all kinds of decks, from the guild-themed Ravnica stuff to bit of everything of some dual color combination. I guess my most successful deck ever was white/black deck during the Time Spiral block. I was pretty much the only one who could do anything against my friend's Sliver deck (seriously, THAT was a killer!). :D Then, I kinda modified it to ruin and it just didn't work anymore... But it mainly relied on big and bad flying and/or shadow creatures to lay waste on my opponents creatures. >:-)
Currently, I still have two decks intact. One is a Boggart deck from Lorwyn and goddammit, it works. Not many big creatures but where would you need them when you have a horde of smaller ones?
The other one is an Eldrazi deck built around Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre (oh yes, THAT Ulamog, the legendary Ulamog). Once managed to cast Hand of Emrakul on my THIRD turn. The only downside is that it needs huge amounts of mana to work and I need a good starting hand to get it going.
i would say im just getting into MTG, so im not good by any means. I get my ass kicked a lot but I still have a lot of fun playing!
unfortunately i think my decks are modern, and i have one standard deck that is quite weak :/
but what interests me the most about MTG is altering the cards!
I played Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planewalkers 2012, but i didn't get into it. I think playing it would be a better experience. Surely not better than Yu-Gi-Oh.