The problem with taking our deck advice is that we are used to a more competitive environment, with more standard decks.

You should give us a rough decklist that your friends are using, that would help our advice a lot more.

1 is playing a G/W Enchantment Creature deck. It focuses on pumping up creatures.

1 is playing a mono Black Zombie Drain Life deck. Very slow.

1 is playing a simple Stompy Deck.

I can get more detailed info next time I go.

So GP Boston is coming up pretty soon and I live nearby. I play a lot online but I haven't played with physical cards in many, many years. Trying to decide if it would be fun to go. What's the crowd like? (In terms of age / freakiness / whatever) If I play well online will I have a chance to do well here or is it too different? What kind of side events / etc are available?

will be there looking for moneydrafts!

Live events are easier in general than online events. Expect a ton of people there though as sealed M10 is a popular set (i predict 600+ people).

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Eve...dprix/boston09

Theres the link to the wizards official GP boston info page with everything you need there.

At first I thought this was pretty bad advice, but Flamekin Bladewhirl + Ball Lightning + Hellspark Elemental + Spark Elemental is actually a lot of elementals. (Any others? I'm sure Harbinger is terrible, but Ashenmoor Gouger? Stigma Lasher?)

On the other hand, experience has told me don't fall in the trap of looking too hard to find synergies, especially with decks that are all about brutal efficiency and killing fourth turn every game. You don't have time to draw synergies in that kind of deck. Usually you just dilute to power of the deck, and changing a quarter of a potent winning deck just to 'enable' a one-drop is not a good motivation.

Entered the 7PM Alara block sealed 4-round swiss and got dealt this pretty solid Esper deck. Last few changes I made were taking out some of the white to make it more UBw rather than UBW. Dunno if that was right. Could have gone 100% artifact creatures.

Agreed.

Perhaps Conscripts instead of Fanatics?

I'd run zombie outlander/fatestitcher/messnger falcons for sure, prolly ethercast knight too

cut the counsel (even though I love the card), glaze, vectis, yoke?

with your lack of 3 drops, i'd try to get one or both katharis in there. Not playing fatestitcher is a crime. It's a first pick quality card. Same with aven squire

To be fair, we were just tinkering with this for Type II. Spark Elemental is just awful when you have stuff like Lava Spike, Rift Bolt, and Lightning Bolt at your disposal. Harbinger isn't awful for T2 (but bad for legacy), since he makes sure you draw a legit threat next turn. The opportunity cost of 3 damage to their face is pretty steep though. We haven't tested this as thoroughly as we would like, but so far it's not bad, and competitive.

i like the idea of all artifact decks but your deck only has two cards that scream for artifacts (glaze fiend, thresher). with this pool i would just build a UBw deck with a solid curve. including the screechers for turn 3 is a good start and zombie outlander is always nice in UB. fatestitcher is a must obv. id also play dregscape zombie.

out go yoke, counsel, glaze fiend, serpent and a land.

also, since you can morph into an almost as solid UWb deck, you seemed to be unsure about the base of your deck until pack 3 was over. when you decide earlier which colours are main and which are splash, you will end up with a much stronger deck

This was a sealed pool.

There's also Tezz and Mechanist benefiting from artifacts.

Thanks for the input everyone. Definitely some good insight I missed out on.

oh my bad

anyone know a good trading bot to get rid of bulk commons and uncommons?

Wasteland obv

New rules turn Mogg Fanatic into a piece of crap. I'd suggest Rift Bolt there instead.

What the **** how is this a sealed pool? Did you hide all the green and red cards?

Not playing Fatesticher/falcon/outlander is criminal.

Yeah I hid all the red and green. It was bad enough that I didn't want/need feedback on that.

Skipping Fatesticher I see now was just a total error. Excluding the white cards was a last minute switch to try to make white more of a splash rather than playing 3 evenish colors. Based on what I've read here it sounds like that was pretty wrong.

Hmm nice some evidence that people do show up at Magic tournaments looking like adult professional types:


(Chris Lachmann at US Nationals today)

So, my friends and I are thinking of consolidating all our cards and making a cube, and bulk-selling everything else to SCG or ebay or something. Do you of you guys have any good guidelines for starting a cube?

You can print images on stickers and stick them on basic lands, then just sleeve the whole cube. My friends did that, and they said it was a lot of work, but it works fine and lets you customize everything a lot easier.

I'm in worcester and havent played in ages. Any kind of playing group around here? Would love to money draft

Whats a Cube?

I'm thinking of maybe expanding beyond just playing with friends and going to a tournament or two. Start off with Legacy. I am loving my Sligh deck, but for Tournaments I want to bring something a little different. So....

So I'm building a Vial Affinity deck with a loose decklist something like this...

4 x Ornithopter
4 x Frogmite
4 x Myr Enforcer
4 x Arcbound Worker
4 x Arcbound Ravager
4 x Master of Etherium
4 x Disciple of the Vault
4 x Aether Vial
4 x Springleaf Drum
4 x Cranial Plating
3 x Thoughtcast
4 x Seat of the Synod
4 x Vault of Whispers
4 x Darksteel Citadel
3 x Tree of Tales
2 x Glimmervoid

Thoughts? What are the prevalent Decks in Legacy right now? Zoo? Goyf-Sligh? Merfolk?

I'm not too sure whats Extended right now but could I adapt that to Extended as well?

I think that Vial is banned in extended (and possibly in Legacy). In any case, your affinity build looks pretty standard to me.

A cube is where you build a "set" out of one-of powerful cards, from all different sets. From this set, you draft (or play sealed I guess), and you have constucted level power in a limited format. Basically, its something that people do to reminisce over some of the awesome old cards they have. It's also a lot of fun, and cheaper than paying for a draft (if you already have the cards).

Vial is banned in Extended yea, just found that out but It can be replaced with Chromomatic Star. Disciple can be replaced by Shrapnel too.

Damn Cube sounds fun.