General CBS

safra

safra

Erik Twice said:
What non-poisonous enchantments do you like with Academy Rector? I'm curious

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I'm fully on Arena Rector now - I found that I was working really hard to create a density of enchantments that a drafter still couldn't reliably build a toolbox with. Tutoring one of two planeswalkers (especially if one of them is The Wandering Emperor, who gets to activate an ability if you chump block with the Rector) is a lot more reliable than settling for, like, Sythis, Harvest's Hand or The Restoration of Eiganjo, and lets me dedicate that environmental space to artifacts instead.

One of the best things a Rector does on board for her owner is threaten to chump block some attacker for value, discouraging attacks. If your Academy Rector just pulls out some 2-3 mana enchantment creature or value enchantment, I think that's a lot different than a post-combat free planeswalker; one is something Villain wants to 'play through' as if Rector were just a big ass Doomed Traveller; I know you're getting this enchantment anyway, let's kill this thing and play it out on the tempo axis; but a tutored-up free planeswalker does the Academy Rector 'thing' more efficiently and better. IMO. Thanks.

e: HOWEVER. Here are some targets for you:
 
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Brad

Brad

I'm looking for 3 card infinite combos, preferably with pieces that overlap and have some playability outside of the combo like Devoted Druid+(many things)+(mana dump). Then there's also a bunch of creature tutors to add redundancy.

Is there a resource for this other than our collective knowledge? I tried a couple of quick Googles and didn't find much. There's a site where I can enter a card name and get combos related to it, so maybe some combo-tastic cards could get me started.
 
Rusje

Rusje

LadyMapi said:


You need 12 mana worth of basic lands, but it gives you infinite mana and coincidentally lets you loop everything in your graveyard an infinite number of times.
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If you do not want 12 you could add type of cards. Those play nicely with ramp.
Add a and a mana sink and you have another combo part

I hear you on having accidental combo. It is non-parasitic, players can surprise you with a combo which you did not know of and so on.
 
Nanonox

Nanonox

Aesthetics problem here.

I usually go for the oldest printing (bonus points for old frames) and try to pick up Old Bordered foils when available.

However, they are releasing Mind Stone in Dominaria Remastered, which means it's going to have a foil Retro frame printing. Same thing for Altar of Dementia in BRO.

What do you do?! I am leaning towards picking up the Retro Foils, but this is wrecking my brain. Am I betraying Magic's history by going with the new shiny printings? Help ease my conscience please.
 
inscho

inscho

Nanonox said:
Aesthetics problem here.

I usually go for the oldest printing (bonus points for old frames) and try to pick up Old Bordered foils when available.

However, they are releasing Mind Stone in Dominaria Remastered, which means it's going to have a foil Retro frame printing. Same thing for Altar of Dementia in BRO.

What do you do?! I am leaning towards picking up the Retro Foils, but this is wrecking my brain. Am I betraying Magic's history by going with the new shiny printings? Help ease my conscience please.
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I prefer first printings, personally. I don't really care for foils...that said, the new old-bordered foils don't look like original old-bordered foils. I'd stick with the OG.
 
shamizy

shamizy

Nanonox said:
Aesthetics problem here.

I usually go for the oldest printing (bonus points for old frames) and try to pick up Old Bordered foils when available.

However, they are releasing Mind Stone in Dominaria Remastered, which means it's going to have a foil Retro frame printing. Same thing for Altar of Dementia in BRO.

What do you do?! I am leaning towards picking up the Retro Foils, but this is wrecking my brain. Am I betraying Magic's history by going with the new shiny printings? Help ease my conscience please.
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For me it depends on whichever version of the card looks the best to me. Most of the time that does end up being the oldest printing usually with an old frame, but this recent run with retro treatments have definitely made me lean towards certain card printings. However not all retro printings are the same quality (TSR is great quality, MH2 is pretty meh) nor does the art work as well for certain cards.

For example the LGS promos with Goblin Guide/Dig Through Time/Scavenging Ooze. I thought I'd be into all of them, but in person I ended up liking the Ooze better than existing options, Guide's art fit better on the original ZEN printing, and DTT looks better with the Sultai watermark to me (I'm a big watermark guy). Another example is Pernicious Deed in my cube. I don't like the old gold border that looks like straight up mud despite getting a nice shooting star, so I went with the Judge Foil that has pretty sick art that has not been reprinted in paper. Picked up a Schematic Aetherflux Reservoir Foil for an EDH deck and wasn't quite sure whether I'd like it more than the OG, but having it in person sold me real quick and I made that swap.

I'd probably just look at pictures of actual copies before buying one, it's a big YMMV thing with many different cards and arts. I will say that the two I've picked up for cube thus far (Mishra's Bauble and Chromatic Star) look excellent and feel like a definite upgrade to me compared to what I was running before.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Nanonox said:
Aesthetics problem here.

I usually go for the oldest printing (bonus points for old frames) and try to pick up Old Bordered foils when available.

However, they are releasing Mind Stone in Dominaria Remastered, which means it's going to have a foil Retro frame printing. Same thing for Altar of Dementia in BRO.

What do you do?! I am leaning towards picking up the Retro Foils, but this is wrecking my brain. Am I betraying Magic's history by going with the new shiny printings? Help ease my conscience please.
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If you prioritize Old Border Foil over Old Border Nonfoil, the new Altar of Dementia and Mind Stone are the oldest Old Border Foil printing.
 
alvoi

alvoi

I would take into account also one very important aspect of the aesthetics of a card: the set symbol.

Weatherlight set simbol: an open book, beautiful, interesting, makes the card feel powerful
Dominaria remastered set simbol: what the heck is that thing it looks like a withered cauliflower

So for Mind Stone 100% better the old one.

For Altar of Dementia I don't know, the gear of Brother's War set symbol is strange and a bit off-centered and also bronze mythic instead of the beautiful black coloured Tempest set symbol in the original, but I wouldn't dislike a foil new copy. So for this one I think you could "upgrade" to the new one (I also like the alternate versions with the art studies, it feels unique)
 
Seeker

Seeker

I'm sick of Wildfire and Burning of Xinye going fifteenth... so I decided I'd swap one out for the OG:


What's good with it? Looking for a high power level, south of Mind Twist but I'm not shying away from Wurmcoil Engine.

Here's everything I already have, although many obviously don't typically end up in 'haups decks:
Planeswalkers (in general)
Adanto Vanguard / Seasoned Hallowblade
Charming Prince / Yorion, Sky Nomad
Elspeth Conquers Death
Riftwing Cloudskate (although you'd better time it right...) / Greater Gargadon
Shark Typhoon
Bloodghast (zero mana is the cheapest recursion, obviously all the Scrapheap Scroungers of the world are implied too)
Reanimate (and so on)
Bitterblossom / Dreadhorde Invasion / Black Market Connections
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer (dash in general sort of, but Ragavan in particular can also ramp you into two spells on a Jokulhaups turn)
Rekindling Phoenix
Thragtusk / Workshop Warchief
Titania, Protector of Argoth (the two-card combo that tempted me to start Jokulhaupsing in the first place!)
Woodfall Primus / Kitchen Finks / Murderous Redcap
Hangarback Walker
Wurmcoil Engine

What I don't have but have at least considered:
Kytheon, Hero of Akros
Land Tax
The Eldest Reborn (like ECD, you can cast it beforehand and get the best value out of it after blowing everything up)

That said, I'm sure I missed something. Recursive creatures? Death triggers? Slow flickers? Enchantments? What would you personally cackle at managing to wheel P3P10 with a Jokulhaups in your pile?
 
Seeker

Seeker

Dom Harvey said:
Selfless Spirit! And all the cool Sagas printed over the past year + Search for Azcanta
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I should probably have included Showdown of the Skalds on my list, because it lets you play it, then next turn 'haups and play a land off of it. That's above "any saga" replacement level (although all the Kamigawa ones that turn into creatures are obviously significantly better, maybe I should get on The Modern Age or Life of Toshiro Umezawa or something? Kumano Faces Kakkazan is probably replacement-level as a red one drop and also works with 'haups if I just want more incidental combos. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is also obviously in, though my brain shortcut to "the goblin token dies so it's a nonbo :)"). Ooh, there's also Binding of the Titans although that's obviously older. Maybe I just suck it up and actually include more than a tiny graveyard theme.

Search for Azcanta is in, didn't even think of that as an enabler! I was like "oh when it turns into a land it'll die" but no, you just wait to flip it and suddenly it's the best Rampant Growth ever.
LadyMapi said:
and the Bridge lands.
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Flagstones won't be any good in anyone else's deck! As for the Bridges, the rest of my fixing power level is high enough above etbt duals (don't have an artifacts matter theme, and I'm on fetches/duals/shocks/fastlands/painlands/6 Horizon Canopy + 4 Pathways) that I think while they'd obviously go in decks, they'd still be lame late picks.
Rusje said:
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How is Court of Grace? I've never actually tested it. It felt like it'd be absolutely backbreaking if you kept the Monarch and totally blank if you lost it immediately since it does nothing on etb. I do have Palace Jailer and the two white initiative creatures, so it would fit white's "hit you and steal the crown" semi-subtheme. If it's not oppressive as hell I should totally give it a shot, that's a great call.

also here is my cube in case seeing what I have in sparks any ideas about what I have not (it's not very Riptide insofar as, you know, power maxing. but I like what I like.)
 
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