new magic player

[thiekster]

Whats up everyone,

My name is Matt Thieken, i'm a incoming senior in materials engineering. I just got back into magic after about a 5 year absense and thought id check out the rpi club... some of you may know me as the beatboxer for The Rensselyrics a-cappella group maybe? maybe not... but i just got back into things and i have maybe 600 cards mostly from zendikar block and and magic 2011 and im looking to get into standard format and learn the rules and mechanics better so i could compete in the future... i just made a standard deck with my cards (as limited as they are) that consists of black and green deathtouch creatures aswell as some powerful cards luch as lotus cobra and eldrazi monument... im not too experianced in the mechanics involved with many cards abilities and have been looking at winning decks from pro tournements for help... I do alot at RPI but would like to learn from some of you who i assume have endless magic knowledge. I have some good newer cards to trade and barter for other new standard cards to help other people and myself boost our standard playing decks! anyway though id say hey, and ill stay in touch for when i arrive back on campus august 21st-22nd

PS. if someone uses the card blightning one more time on me i will kill them... forwarning

[NyxAvatar]

Well sure, people here love to teach! I mean, they love to hear themselves talk, which happens to be a by-product of teaching, so it works out great. If you have questions about competitive play, you should talk to Diesel and Foghat and Godtoucher and Bobbeh. Just shout their names when you show up to a club meeting and you'll find them.

PEE ES If you don't like blightning, you should totally get your hands on Obstinant Baloth. It's green, it's from M11, and it turns blightning into your best friend!

[fadedoasis]

Obstinate Baloth.

[NyxAvatar]

Ugh, W slash E, Grammar Nazi

[thiekster]

Yeah i was looking into him for my sideboard in the deck im making he seems priceeeey for me atm so im sticking to my main deck first i'll see if i can post the deck i am trying to create in a excel sheet with the cards i need still highlighted and how many i would need in the trade forum

[fadedoasis]

I'm not being a Grammar Nazi. If you do a card search for "Obstinant", you will find zero cards, and if you search for "Baloth", you will find too many. I was helping others find the card easily.

[NyxAvatar]

My bad, didn't know 10 was too many O.o

[Chingali - King of the Cosmos]

I love you.

[Kiki]

You said you played magic 5 years ago. Have any older cards? 5 years ago must have been ravnica block.

But yeah, I'd be happy to listen to myself talk about magic.

[thiekster]

so maybe it was more like 10 years ago... but my cards got stolen back then so thats part of why i quit... but i wasn't oold enough to really understand game play then i think my older brother was teaching me and at the time i thought he was making up rules...

[thiekster]

I'm going to my first FNM in Burlington Vermont friday! anyone have any quick tips? mannerisms to avoid? things not to do? should i let the people i play know its my first... or let them find out by how newbish i play my spells/ how often i need to stair at every card they play... is play usually fast and will people be angry if i take my time to think things out?

there should be over 20 people there
should be a grand old time!

[massimiliano]

Best thing to do is to take your time and think about plays before you make them.

[Mike]

One of our members has actually written an entire article on this subject.

The Tournament Scene

[Kino]

That's a pretty good article. I can certainly remember my first FNM. A lot of that advice really makes sense.

Also, Max now has the most interesting avatar on the forum.

[DazBoot]

lol, how the hell did you remember that Mike? I didn't know that you read the stuff I wrote!

[Mike]

Other than my sometimes freakish memory, you asked us for advice on it, and we all said TAKE A SHOWER FFS

[thiekster]

cleanliness is next to godliness.

i just bought sleeves i have a GB deck ready with suitable sideboard...

Not the most amazing thing ever but I really do enjoy playing it. with a little luck I get mana boost to up to 8 by turn 4-5 with E spawns and i have some great cards to play at that point as well as many good traps which really i've had better luck playing the regular CMC instead of waiting for the trap to set. Death Touch and tokens with beastmaster ascension and bloodchief ascension and eldrazi monument. its kinda non directional but its been beating some of my veteran friends type 2 decks. but they tell me my cut is deadly... aparently when i cut their decks they get crap. I said yeah its called death touch.

pulled the 4/4 ooze card that turns into 2 2/2s then 4 1/1s i think he was a great addition to the ideal of the deck and in the same set of 3 packs i bought i got a frost titan! cant be upset with that.

i'll let you know how bad i do

[Kiki]

Ok, just remember that standard has an incredible creature power creep, and lightning bolt is back, and the current fnm meta just seems to have an increase in play level, so its going to be a bit tougher that it used to be.

[akshay4876]

if you play deathtouch you should play some sword of vengence because deathtouch +first strike + trample is broken right now because of the current ruling.
If you have a 2/2 deaththoucher equiped with a sword of veng you have a 5/3 first strike, trample, haste, vigilance, deathtoucher. If it is blocked by 3 2/2s you can do one damage to each one and then do 2 damage to the player. Basically wiping his field. or if he blocks with a 6/6 you could do 1 damage to the 6/6 and 4 to the player. This does not require first strike but it just ups the brokenness factor by 10. and sword of vengence has it there for szhitzandgiggles.

edit: Also depending on the traps i recommend to not have them in the deck unless you really know the meta. You could sideboard them.

[thiekster]

thats a great idea!

So i played magic all weekend literally was at the shop from 6-12pm Friday and then 11am-8pm sat. I played in Friday night magic, another standard tourney, and a M11 draft. I've never had so much fun losing a game in my life!!!! lol. I had my crappy green black deck and i won maybe 7 games out of upward of 25-30. can honestly say i only won 1 match against a rather awesome Jinx Idol deck which i killed using mitotic slime horribly...

the draft was the best part of it all. i made a blue green mill deck with traumatize and jaces erasure and a few of the mill cards. it worked OK only because people drafted some slow decks and the deck size is 40 and its easier to do that... i had one kid down to 5 cards by turn 6 and he beat me with the draw of his final card.

the tourneys were to help a local player go to Amsterdam for the pro qualifier! so i was gladly involved... FNM was JACE JACE JACE, titan ramp, JACE... almost everyone played blue white control with wall of omen baneslayer and jace... i Had the mindsculpter use his -12 ability on me my first game ever lol... I learned so much about magic from those people it blew my mind. The pro guy was playing gunslinger matches where if you beat him he would give you a prize from his personal collection and he gave out rares and mythics every round of the tourney.
i got my annihilated by eldrazi and conscription...

so now i have a red-green pyromancer ascension/ quest for pure flame/ valukut/ ramp-landfall deck I'm testing out.
its based on the titan ramp deck i saw but taking out the titans(Because i cant get my hands on those) and adding pyro/quest.
I look forward to learning the draft setup with you guys.

Matt