u/AltruisticMACHITO

Title is a bit provocative for humour but seriously

>They went through season 3 without encountering a flipper until the finals, also really suspicious that the grand final match ups were Firestorm/Chaos 2 and Hypno/the bot that wasn't supposed to be there but would get absolutely ruined by the disc, Hypno has a track record of avoiding Firestorm

>Season 4, again, avoiding flippers and getting matched with Robots that were the least resistant the disc, poor Splinter

>Season 5, obviously rigged for Hypno-Razor final but they messed up again god damn Bigger Brother

>Season 6, at this point, everyone armoured up so they get a pass here

I'm specifically thinking of Zeroaura and Marshadow, these are cute/cool, appealing designs but being mythical means they're not being used on most trainers journeys and they don't have a featured spot in the story/region (for example being the ace of a certain E4 member or gym leader)

I'll admit though that on the flip side you have Volcanion, being mythical (and the unique typing) are the only reasons anyone remembers him

Might seem like a silly question but I can see an argument either way, you wouldn't run the weak stuff because they are low impact that does nothing to actually win you the game, the low cost cards in your equipment deck should be creatures with equipment synergy and other enablers

On the other hand, with the right board, low cost equipment is basically free to cast and equip and you get triggers off

Examples of cards I consider "weak/1 mana equipment" is Diamond Pickaxe, Strength Testing Hammer, Dragonfire Blade, Pipboy 3000. Just play equipment that actually gives you protection, ramp or card draw

I really like cards that can do multiple things, this card is both ramp and (repeatable) reanimation, that's pretty cool but what isn't is the mana costs

As ramp, it's a -4, that's a terrible rate compared to Thran Dynamo, HOWEVER, the ramp tokens are indestructible

Then there's the reanimation, brining back an artifact is pretty unique in colourless but that cost, yikes, not sure if there's any artifact worth that cost

So, what's the verdict? Does the multipurpose-ness make up for the costs?

What do you think of Mesmeric Orb in a self mill deck? Milling your opponents isn't considered a good thing normally because it actually helps them, the graveyard is like a second hand but if your deck is a self-mill deck, is the benefit worth the downside?

Who is Mesmeric Orb for anyway? Dedicated Mill decks?

I have an Imotekh, the Stormlord deck and he triggers off stuff leaving the graveyard, the problem is that there are so many good cheap reanimation spells AND cards that reanimate themselves from the grave, it's so hard to keep the number down, I think I'm at around 20+

Where is the cut off for you?

So, the obvious downside of them is that they're slow, on turn 3 you want to be doing something more impactful than playing a 1/2 with Reach and passing, in terms of mana advantage they're a minus 3 whereas mana rocks are a minus 1 but that's not what we're really comparing them to

What they should be compared to is green mana land ramp spells like Farseek, is the extra 1 mana worth the body? In a counters or equipment deck, I think so but what I'm not so sure about is, do you need ramp at all? or is it worth running the ramp on turn 3 instead of turn 2?

Ignore Wood Elves for this conversation since it's the one exception that brings in an untapped land

Bastion Protector gets included in a lot of precons, you would think it was a staple but I cut it from every deck because it does absolutely nothing on its own

I feel like there are better options for protection in white that do more, like I'd rather have one of the many cards that protect my entire board for the same mana cost or less, albeit from a single wipe

It's one of those ramp cards that brings in untapped lands, it's the best rate for its mana value, effectively a -2 to get 2 lands, which is amazing since some 2 mana land ramp spells like Rampant Growth and Farseek are also -2 for only 1 land

so do you auto include it in every green deck or if not, why?

When I build a 3 colour deck that doesn't have green, I usually run Sol Ring, Arcane Signet and 3x signets and 3x Talismans, after that it will be synergestic ramp but it could be Thought Vessel and Mind Stone, the two best colourless 2 mana rocks

But when you're building a 1 or 2 colour deck, you lose the 3x signets and 3x talismans in your ramp package, how do you get the amount of ramp up? Is your preference to use the lesser 2 mana colourless mana rocks to keep the mana cost of your ramp down or do you get adventurous and use the colour restriction as an excuse to use the cool 3 mana rocks

This of course depends on the deck but we all have a default mode that we work from

These used to be staples but these days, content creators call them "3 mana, do nothing", which isn't untrue

Herald's Horn, the appeal is the flexibility, it MIGHT be psudo-ramp, it MIGHT be card draw but you'd get much better pay off if you just decided on which you want and at a better rate, a 2 mana rock is better ramp that Horn, most of the time and Horn can also go multiple turns without drawing you a card, also turn 3, you usually want to be doing something more impactful

Vanquishers Banner - Is the cost too high now for something so slow? For 5 mana, you could draw 5+ cards is one burst

Like a lot of you, I have years of sales on Ebay and wouldn't want to lose that by moving over to Vinted but from everything I see, Vinted is just getting bigger, it's got more casual awareness and keeps adding new categories, are we wrong to keep holding onto ebay and is the brave and smart thing to do to move over?

I hope that ebay will still be best for certain categories

For me, it used to be 10-15, there are always some cards in a precon that are just obvious cuts, cards that push a secondary strategy (e.g. Riders of Rohan is tribal human AND Monarch) or are just flat out not very good (high mana cost for what they do)

With the Universes Beyond, I tried to preserve the flavour but over time my attitude changed and these days I'm making around 25 changes to any given precon

Why does Worn Powerstone have a better reputation than Thran Dynamo? I think Dynamo is great, you tap it the turn it comes in and you get most of your investment back straight away but with Powerstone, you're down 3 and over time you're getting less back

In the sets they are released in, Etched Foils are rarer than showcase frames and more expensive BUT imo they don't really feel like a special treatment and most of the time look really underwhelming.

So just wondering if there are Etched Foils fans out there

The argument with utility lands is usually that they have a low opportunity cost, I don't think that works with Myriad Landscape since it comes in tapped. Overall, what Myriad Landscape is, is 4 mana to land ramp 1.

In very slow games, that might be OK but everyone these days has signets and talismans, so why spend 4 mana to ramp when mana rocks are just a -1?

I've been upgrading a reanimation deck and there are a lot of low cost CMC reanimation spells and eventually I started cutting the 4+ cost ones like Dread Return and Extract from Darkness, they have their advantages but normally the whole point of reanimation is cheating out something so you want to keep the mana cost low

What do you think, do your reanimation decks still have room for the high CMC ones? For reference the low cost ones include Reanimate, Animate Dead, Stitch Together, Persist, Necromancy. Grave Researcher, Victimise, Afterlife from the Loam and then you need to leave some space for the mass revival ones like Rise of the Dark Realms and Living Death

I hear a lot of talk about "synergistic" ramp and I'm sure it's more creative and maybe even has a higher ceiling but my basic green ramp package for all my green decks is just so reliable and gets the job done, so what's your view?

My package below
Sol Ring, Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits, Nature's Lore, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves, Skyshroud Claim, I have a few more spot for the "synergy" stuff like a tribal card that reduces mana costs or something