Thank you for stopping by.

I first became acquainted with Magic: The Gathering during Alpha set. After that initial foray where I was introduced by a neighbor to the game, I didn’t play again until the Tempest block. Then I took a long, 20 year hiatus until 2019 when another neighbor reinvigorated my desire to play by urging me to buy some Dominaria and Core 19 packs for a friendly draft. Since then I’ve found myself addicted to deck building.

I prefer traditional formats like Vintage/Legacy/Modern/Standard/Pauper as opposed to this zany, newfangled “Commander” format all the kids are raving about.

I lean toward the / end of the color spectrum; preferred hubs are Reanimator and any type of build that uses uncommon or otherwise off the wall strategies or win-cons.

God I miss the old artwork and flavor text from the older expansions; some of the new stuff is half decent but it doesn’t hold a candle to the gorgeous art of cards like those found in the Arabian Nights expansion or Mirage block. And then there’s the classical literary quotes on cards like Repentant Blacksmith, Juzam Djinn, Hammerheim, Karakas, Pendelhaven, Revelation...the list goes on! I weep softly when I realize just how lackluster today’s MtG sets are in this respect, by comparison. But, I digress.

Feel free to leave any comments or questions you may have on any of my decks; all upvotes are much appreciated as well.

Came across your profile and completely agree with all of your sentiments. Cheers.

February 23, 2024 1:41 p.m.

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Back, Down, Quarter-circle Forward + Upvote

March 18, 2024 12:41 p.m.

If you’re looking for feedback or suggestions, it would be most helpful to everyone if you added these cards to a deck list using the site’s official “Create Deck” option.

Click the little file folder at the top of the screen, choose Create Deck, and start plugging information in. It will create a list that’s far more easy to read, with built in options for comments and card suggestions by other users.

March 18, 2024 9:14 a.m.

I can see you have some answers for it (Tidehollow Sculler, Assassin’s Trophy, a couple sideboard swaps) but has Blood Moon been problematic? I’m not sure how often it sees play today.

March 17, 2024 8:34 p.m.

Don’t worry psionictemplar, I’ll add Fodder Cannon to the maybeboard. I’ll have to decline on the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Nightmare Lash shenanigans, just for price reasons. Fun idea though

March 17, 2024 6:04 p.m.

Said on Azorius Merfolk No1...

#5

Welcome back. I found myself in a similar boat when I started playing again around 2019. Yeah…there are encyclopedia’s worth of new rules, abilities and even card types to learn. It’s daunting. Good news is all the core principles are mostly the same.

For instance, taplands are bad (especially in Vintage). If you already own them or if budget allows, definitely run duals, fetches or shocklands. There are also variations, like SeachromeCoast, Port Town and Prairie Stream and these are much easier on the wallet while still being playable.

Also, running 1-of’s in a non-singleton format is usually a bad idea for the purposes of consistency, although certain OP cards that are restricted to a lone copy are still run for obvious reasons. Vintage gets away with bending the rules, in that sense. Specifically, I see you’re running just one Aether Vial. I would either commit to 4x (which plenty of Merfolk decks accommodate just fine) or remove it, as the odds of drawing just one copy are low to the point of being unreliable.

March 15, 2024 4:44 p.m.

Said on Tails from the …...

#6

Thanks kamarupa, always value the input. This one definitely needs fine tuning for better performance, and your suggestions are exactly the type of thing I’m looking for. I cycle this one once in awhile hoping for feedback like this. I have a feeling it’ll never be a reliable build, but it was too interesting an idea to pass up. I went ahead and added most of your suggested cards for whenever I get around to tinkering with it.

March 14, 2024 11:30 a.m.

Said on Green Combo...

#7

I like what you’re going for with this build, but to get there I think you may need to cut the rest of the high cmc creatures besides Wakeroot Elemental.

You’re going to need all the ramp you can muster to play Tooth and Nail and the Elemental, with little chance of casting anything else. This becomes a glass cannon, but that’s difficult to avoid with high cmc spells that don’t often see use.

March 8, 2024 4:15 p.m.

Said on Zombie...

#8

This reminds me quite a bit of one of my old builds. If I were to make any recommendations, it would be to pick one thing you want your deck to do and then double down on it while ignoring anything else.

For instance, there are some Mill effects here that don’t contribute to any sort of strategy. Something like Glimpse the Unthinkable has no place here. Additionally, your mana base is a bit on the light side, even with rituals (especially if you want to stand any chance at all of casting Army of the Darned). Shoot for 22-24 lands minimum.

Also, Demonic Tutor is restricted. There’s currently no format where 4x copies are legal.

The good thing is that Zombies offer a wide range of different deckbuilding directions to try; Aggro, combo, etc. Maybe look into a recursive loop featuring a sac engine, Gravecrawler and Diregraf Captain.

March 7, 2024 5:46 p.m.

Said on Good Vibrations...

#9

This one’s mostly for fun plainsrunner, just wanted to give a new lease on life to some old favorites that don’t see play anymore. I wouldn’t bring it to FNM or anything, just friendly matches or against other decks trying out some prospective ideas.

March 6, 2024 9:26 p.m.

Very helpful list, thank you for taking the time to make this.

March 5, 2024 3:21 p.m.

Said on A Pimp Named …...

#11

Can I just call it Sliver Overlord, or do I have to say the whole thing like A Tribe Called Quest?

March 5, 2024 11:26 a.m.

Hordewing Skaab isn’t legal in Modern. Usually the site is pretty good at highlighting illegal cards in red but this one seems to have slipped by. Skaab Ruinator is a worthy replacement, if it helps.

March 5, 2024 9:03 a.m.

Said on Bureaucracy!...

#13

Thrilled to see a bureaucracy themed deck built around The Council of Four. But don’t quote me regulations; I co-chaired the committee that reviewed the recommendation to revise the guild that card is in. We kept it Azorius.

March 2, 2024 8:17 p.m. Edited.

I’m a big fan of off the wall, experimental type builds that try something different or use cards in interesting, unexpected ways, and this looks like something I’d love to try out. Well done, +1, and I appreciate the detailed description too.

March 2, 2024 11:29 a.m.

Said on Tectonic Uplift...

#15

I can’t say as I’ve ever played a game of Oathbreaker, but I was recently trying to work Warp World into a (somewhat janky) Modern shell. I didn’t get very far. This looks pretty fun, so if I can get a game going I may try to proxy this and test it out. Good stuff here, +1

March 1, 2024 3:01 p.m.

Perfectly valid points. I’m actually more excited to see interesting, original builds that stray off the beaten path as opposed to purely competitive decks, but I suppose it depends on the venue. I think you’ve got a fun, functional mill deck here and if it’s working well for you as is then there’s no need to overhaul anything. All the same, let me link you to two different decks just in the event you may find something even more useful you’d like to try.

Competitive Dimir Mill

Tsunami (Mill)

February 29, 2024 3:10 p.m.

Something that was explained to me when I was working on my own mill deck is that to be effective, one has to pretty much fully commit to Mill. It may not seem like much, but investing in creatures whose primary function is to deal damage is using resources in a suboptimal way.

Jace's Phantasm and Vantress Gargoyle themselves appear to benefit from Milling, but don’t contribute to your goal in a meaningful way. These creatures’ sole purpose is to take 20 life and chip away at it, while ignoring the 60 of your opponent’s library. The rest of your deck is designed to reduce the 60 in their library to 0, while ignoring their 20 life points. So you have two unrelated strategies functioning in tandem, neither working at full capacity, when you could have fully committed to one and achieved results faster.

The obvious recommendation would be to run the crabs—Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab—but that would probably interfere with your allotted budget, as well as necessitating that you retool the portion of the deck built to work around the phantasm & gargoyle, neither of which you may be willing to do.

I think what you have here already is fine as long as you aren’t actually trying to win tournaments with it, so if I were you I’d continue to shop this around for feedback and maybe a path forward will present itself. Again, there are plenty of people who use this site that are actual experts, not armchair theorists in tinfoil hats like myself.

February 29, 2024 8:22 a.m.

Lots to like here. I appreciate that you clearly delineated what you want out of this and exactly what the parameters are, and I think this is fairly solid while working within those confines. There’s probably room to fine tune what you have, and I know of a couple other users on the site fer more knowledgeable in Mill than I, so I’ll be curious to see what advice is offered.

Incidentally, if you want to create a clickable link to a card in your deck description, just enclose it in double square brackets. Winds of Rebuke becomes Winds of Rebuke

February 28, 2024 3:25 p.m.

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Finished Decks 117
Prototype Decks 7
Drafts 0
Playing since Tempest
Points 970
Avg. deck rating 22.47
T/O Rank 17
Helper Rank 16
Favorite formats Modern, Pauper, Legacy, Vintage
Suppressed formats Brawl, Historic, Commander / EDH, Pauper EDH, Commander: Rule 0, Canadian Highlander, Highlander, Duel Commander, Leviathan, 1v1 Commander, Pre-release, Penny Dreadful, Heirloom, Hero, Noble, Tiny Leaders, Oathbreaker, Block Constructed, Arena, MTGO, Magic Duels, Unformat
Cards suggested / good suggestions 148 / 105
Venues Tales of Adventure
Joined 4 years