I once could tutor for something that would devastate the board but i went to get a door to nothingness just so i could have someone who was picking on me lose the game. EDH baby, well worth it haha
Hey, so I just wanted to say: You know that bit you said at the end, about us being more than just a sum of achievements + mistakes? Turns out I really needed to hear that. Didn’t expect if from one of my MTG subscriptions. So I just wanted to say Thank You for that. Came out of nowhere and helped me get some perspective on some things.
@@alecazam6755 I'm so glad that, when they disabled further comments on the Gatherer, they didn't delete the ones already there. Some good hilarity / combos / proto-memes are forever immortalized within those pages.
My theory is that he was meant to say "Any time you lose life, you may pay B to prevent 2 damage." and then some guy in development mixed it up. Then MaRo saw it and decided...what the fuck.
Hahaha, I was using Riptide Replicator in casual games with friends years ago. I had the bright idea to use it to make Locus creatures to boost up my Locus lands until someone pointed out you can't legally do that. Aww. So I'd use it for other nonsense that had no affect on gameplay. In one case a friend was hungry and wanted a sandwich. So I cast a Replicator to make Sandwich creatures to send him. "It's a 36/36 red sandwich..." "Oh that sounds good. Wait, isn't it a colorless artifact 'cause of Lattice?" "Technically it's a metal sandwich, yeah... Might want to chew it carefully." "Uh yeah um, *tapping* I'm gonna have you put that sandwich on the top of your library" "And it poofs. But that's okay. I've still got a sandwich factory!"
To find out what white does. One must play death and taxes in any format. That is how they become to understand that white is about small creatures that act in unity to defile their opponents. :-)
@@rantempo2528 - more or less. They struggled to have an identity for years, but now they're kind of settling into the archetypes of 1: small utility creatures, and 2: proactive defense (things like taxes or "choose a card, that card can't be played" effects - as opposed to reactive defense, such as counterspells).
It really fits Channel Fireball that they're named after a broken combo. Channel Fireball is the natural habitat of the Johnny, and as a Vorthos this scares me.
Phyrexian Mana is absolutely broken. If it weren't for that (major) issue, it would be an absolutely incredible mechanic. It is simple to understand, flavorful, thematically appropriate, worked amazingly well in the context of the poison counters, and remains the only instance where colored artifacts did not appear contrived.
@@maxwedewferg The main problem isn't that you cast your spell cheaper. It's that you can cast your spell for 0 and that it allow you to disregard color restrictions. Phyrexians spell that can be only cast if you control the corresponding basic land would be a nice solution I think. Making it cost 3 life would restrict the design too much and would not be played by the majority of people (making it a bad design for a worded mechanic).
I love the phyrexian mana as well but it is indeed pretty OP. I have a casual deck in abzan colors that uses spore counters on fungus and the best card draw spell I could find for that is tezzeret's gambit - a blue spell with a phyrexian mana. It doesn't require me to have black or green mana (usually the other 2 colors in abzan that can draw cards), it costs 2 life but most black card draw costs 1 life per card anyways and it even proliferates which gives a ton of value.
0:40 So thats where they got the name from, I literally never realized this and I've been playing magic for seven years, then again I barely know much about magic back in the days besides the stuff used in legacy.
Ive been playing for more than 18yrs, and never once thought it was that "clever" of a name to decypher its origins. You'll go down a rabbit hole trying to figure out why Magic players give different names to things in this game..
The dumbest thing that I've don't in mtg is casting risk factor with that's and year storm with a storm count of 12. My opponent made me draw 48 cards and instantly lost. That's when I stopped playing storm and realized that I was a bad person
I never had a lot of money growing up, and stopped buying MTG boosters sometime between the Mirrodin and Kamigawa, based on the cards in my collection. I started up again during the summer of 2011, and loved all the game-breaking mechanics. It was a refreshing change from the game a poor boy like myself would always lose to my more affluent friends.
Way back when Tempest/Urza Type 2 was a thing, I was playing in a small Type 1.5 tournament in my LGS. I had thrashed my Mono G Stompy opponent pretty soundly and I was feeling confident. I sit down across from my next opponent and find out he's also playing a Permission deck, which makes my day. I love nothing more than the Control mirror. We both do the usual Permission mirror thing where we're feinting, playing lands, and drawing extra cards to build up our hand and eventually he finds the hill he wants to die on and jams his finisher. I had a fist full of counters and I knew he did as well, so at that point the counter war was on. There's this huge chain of counters, he taps out to cast his last one, and I answer with a Mana Drain. I thought I had him... except that I forgot all about Force of Will being a thing, he had two cards in hand, and I had no counters left. You can imagine who won that exchange. Funny thing, I wasn't even really mad and it's been over 20 years, but that's stuck with me all this time.
The Defiler cycle also disagrees. Though to be fair, it does seem much more balanced by having a creature have the ability to substitute health for one mana for other cards instead of just being able to mix and match every color because color doesn't matter anymore.
"Have you ever done something dumb in a game of magic?" Um let's see at WAR pre-release, I had Davriel on board, Opponent had 0 cards in hand and at 4 life. I play Shriek diver and look at their board, see that I'm SUPER dead if I don't leave a blocker. I don't give the diver haste, and realize as i'm passing the turn that he would've been dead if i had attacked
I started playing Magic in Arena and have some pretty bad mistakes. Some memorable examples include: - Forgetting to play my one Land per turn - Forgetting to check my creatures' toughness and consequently sending them into combat to die - Forgetting to check opponent's creatures' toughness and consequently tapping my creatures for no valid reason - Not wanting to risk attacking with my flying creatures even if my opponent has no flyers - Summoning a creature then remembering that I can't attack with on the same turn But my favourite, if that's the right word, was when I passed the turn without playing the 8/8 Mammoth that was in my hand. The face-palm was strong with that one.
Dumbest thing I did was when I first started playing edh. I went infinite with locusts god drawing my whole deck without lab maniac out. I went from super high to super low after realizing lol
Yeah, there are honestly worse things to do for one Mana in modern. It's not great by any means, but it's comparable to the other blue cantrips in the format that aren't opt.
I dis something really dumb on war of the spark pre release, i was at one life, my opponent had a devil token that dealt one damage when it dies, i cast liliana’s triumph. And then proceed to realize i had letal on him, because he was at 3 life and i had a ashiok skulker and mana to activate it. So... yeah, it cost me the match.
"Ever do something dumb" I had Glacial Chasm on the field, and got an Azor's Elecutors to 4 Counters before I had to sacrifice my land! Opponent had more than lethal on board, so I sacc'd the Chasm, and passed turn. He... forgot to attack me! He straight-up forgot to delcare any attackers, and I won through Filibuster Counters!
Just saw the Commander 2019 spoiler and had to come here and comment... At Wizard's HQ: "What would be more broken than Phyrexian mana?" "An Urza that makes artifacts into moxes!" "Let's do it!" "Ok, what's after Urza...?" "The son of Yawgmoth that makes all your black mana in Phyrexian mana! ... how can it go wrong?"
I really wish there where more of these videos. This dude has a talent with relating to the viewer on such a real level. Full of information,humor,and deep thoughts. Much love.
As somebody who was introduced to magic during mirrodin revisited, I'm really sad that the block turned into such a nightmare. I still hope wizards returns to the plane someday...but I acknowledge that the things I found "cool" about it were all pretty broken.
A big mistake I remember making was casting Dovescape in my silly little birds deck just to "be funny" while I royally trounced everyone else while they were still confused. The deck was built to have ways of getting more birds than my opponents and getting more benefit out of it. But these guys fought back strongly. Turns out my opponents had been holding big-cost cards and started dropping them to challenge my creature count. Worse, they had been holding on to X-cost cards and got a ruling that the X can be used to make all the birds they want. There were lots of birds that day. Most of them were not mine. It was a sad day.
Dumb thing. Played mono red in standart (recently). Final round comes. I'm 3-0 and I'm playing against Jeskai control. Pass the turn when I have lethal. Lose the game
@@tcgplayercom I just love Jon's videos! His content is very interesting and fun. I wish he could upload more often. Thank you for your content and listening to your fans. TCGPlayer and Jon!
So the Pretty Dece series has been one I've really enjoyed since I stumbled upon it. Always great topics and you narrate them in a really enjoyable way. This was a particularly exceptional episode, especially with that "final thoughts" message. Thank you for continuing to make these!
Would like to say that the way you put the whole argument into perspective at the end of each video is inspiring and a reminder to us all about self reflection. Thank you guys for the amazing content, especially you Jon.
My Dumb MTG play: Cast Rite of Replication Kick it Target Lorthos, The Tidemaker My opponent explains the Legend rule to me I lose the game. Magic is fun
My errata: W/P can be paid with 2 life if you control a Plains. U/P can be paid with 2 life if you control an Island. etc. Probe is probeably still a probelem, but maybe pod is podssible to unban.
im currently playing a troll Bolas's Citadel and a really good Command the dreadhorde deck in standard, kind of funny that if you can make it to 6 you get 1 life for 1 mana again with command.
@@tcgplayercom I have green black idk guess the kids are calling it tron, but yeah explore heal with a little bit of reanimation. I also have esper artifact citadel that uses the cute combo of the split azorius card that heals and kayas wrath with saheeli and lilianna. I love wand of vertibre with citadel and gaes blessing in both.
At the Oakland Grand Prix in like 2011 or whatever I was playing pretty straight-forward UB faeries into UBG faeries (actually barely a faeries deck, but it ran clique so...) in round 2 after a draw round 1. I desperately needed a 1-1 record, and it went to game 3 (after a sick sequence in game 2 where ancestral vision resolved after cryptic/cryptic/mana leak/spell snare, hard to lose after drawing 5 cards in a turn) where we were running out of time and my opponent played a second night of soul's betrayal to completely lock me out of creatures (no mutavault, my only target to champion with mistbind clique after -2/-2 is a bitterblossom). This was an enormous blunder on his part because it's easy to forget that night is a legendary enchatment. Problem is, I also forgot this fact, and responded with counter/bounce cryptic and later lost the match to goyf. The second dumbest thing I've ever done in MTG is... nothing. I was in finals of one of those bigger-than-usual local Magic events all day on a Saturday so it was Kind Of A Big Deal to take 1st or 2nd place. Best out of 5 with a judge officiating and everything, closest thing I'll ever get to feeling like I'm playing in a featured match. I was up by 2 games playing BG elves into five-color control (llorwyn block was /something) but in the third game I had zero cards in hand while my opponent had a fistfull of cards trying to get his seventh land to play cruel ultimatum. All I have is a wren's-run vanquisher in play to apply pressure. I draw wilt-leaf liege, dead on its own because if my opponent has cryptic it literally nets him a card. I draw another wilt-leaf liege... garbage, I can't cast two in the same turn. Opponent puts down a vivid land, I get cruel ultimatum'd on his next turn. I draw... wilt-leaf liege. My foot is bouncing underneath the table while my face is an absolute granite slab while I watch him consider, hem and haw, count his land, contemplate, and decide yeah... my opponent has three cards in hand, I have a baneslayer angel in the graveyard, I need to kill that 3/3... this is a full value cruel ultimatum and there can't possibly be anything that makes me dead next turn because I don't have mana up for countermagic (in hindsight it's kinda crazy that he even thought about it, but hey no time limit). He declares cruel ultimatum and I immediately say "Cool, I win," and lay down three 8/8 wilt-leaf lieges. That has to be in the top 10 of brainless plays that won someone a best-out-of-five match. Thanks for reading, if you got through that wall of text. Cool video!
This was wonderfully edited! I really cut my teeth in "competitive Magic" at my local FNMs during Scars Block, and while I look back on it fondly as a former Birthing Pod and Infect player, I also look back and think "Damn that Standard format was busted."
@@tcgplayercom Well I'm starting my first shift at a new job today so mistakes will most likely be made lol. I do however always try to learn from the mistakes I do make.
I remember coming back to mtg after a break and the current standard was scars of mirrodin and innistrad blocks. That was a fun time. I made a human deck that would end up as one of my favorite archetypes, with my favorite card in the game "Champion of the Parish". I never played in tournaments much, but the best I ever did was during this time where I got 3rd iirc using a UG turbo infect deck. Taking full advantage of that crazy phyrexian mana with mutagenic growth and apostle's blessing. That was some crazy shenanigans that nobody expected. I even had a hilarious incident in that tourney where I faced a guy with some UW superfriends or control of some sort, and he tried to bait me into an incorrect ruling. He tried to use a Gideon ability to destroy one of my creatures, which I responded to by using an Apostle's Blessing to give it protection from white. He paused and had a confused look on his face, as if he wasn't sure that pro white would stop Gideon's effect (he's an experienced player, ofc he knew it worked but he was faking) in an attempt to get me to second guess myself and believe that it didn't (he thought I was new to the game when really I was just new at that lgs). I didn't buy it and someone nearby even agreed with me and he let it go. He lost and I later found out he was super salty about losing to some new guy with a dark horse deck that he wasn't prepared for at all with his UW hyper meta control deck. That was probably the most satisfying game of magic I've ever played.
Once, while playing a game of EDH, my friend had his commander, Admiral Beckett Brass out. Somebody played a board wipe, and in response he cast Siren's Ruse, not realizing that the spell would just flicker his commander immediately, causing it to still die to the board wipe. He died a little inside as he realized what he did, and we just sort of looked at him already knowing that it wouldn't have saved his creature.
That ending sentiment made my day. Thanks! The thing we've all done that was dumb was vampiric tutor then forget we did that and crack a fetchland afterwards. 🤣
the best part about this video is when it shows g probe being banned in modern under it shows ggt, then later when it talks about pod (which was banned ~2? years earlier) it talks about how they think ggt is good to unban
TCGplayer Haha holy shit that’s right. I actually joined the service at that point. I stopped paying attention and only collected here an there. Now I’m a family man who just collects and plays kitchen. I don’t play at all to what I did in high school.
