Modern Coverage Online

I don't like the look of white border cards, therefore don't plan to cover 8th and 9th edition. Maybe I will change my mind later.

As of October 2015, I have covered the blocks in Standard while I have been a player (Khans of Tarkir, Theros, Return to Ravnica, and Innistrad). I also have good coverage of Rise of the Eldrazi and Scars of Mirrodin. That leaves two incomplete blocks (Scars of Mirrodin and Zendikar). The blocks I have not even touched are from Mirrodin to Shards of Alara, inclusive. I also have good coverage of Magic 2012/13/14/15 and Origins. I have good coverage for 19 sets and no coverage for 27 sets. I am excluding reprint sets and 8th and 9th edition. If I include Battle for Zendikar, the coverage is 20 versus 27 not covered. If I add reprint sets (both Modern Masters), the counts are 22 versus 27, and finally, if I include all sets in Modern, the coverage is 22 vs 29. That means that I am almost half way there. I am not counting Time Shifted or the Zendikar Expeditions as sets.

 

Online Promos

I am showing these more for my own future use than to share them. I didn't even know I had two Serum Visions! Promos are handed out for spending money on Magic Online and I sometimes don't look to see what promos are being awarded. This way I know about the ones I currently have. The play set of Path to Exile are a bonus because after players got the wrong one, Wizards, awarded (I guess everyone?) a free play set. That is so awesome. Maybe someday I can give these to a friend.

The only promos I have purchased are these Wurmcoil Engines.

Playing Scars of Mirrodin Online

Here is my viewing file for this set. I was not a player when this set came out. The next best thing is to imagine Scars of Mirrodin just came out, and I have a bunch of those cards to play. I can add to these cards from later sets, but it is an interesting deck building challenge to add from the two later sets in the block (Mirrodin Besieged and New Phyrexia) later.

The Wurmcoil Engines are promos (they tend to be cheaper than the SOM version).

And the Indomitable Archangel is from Modern Masters 2015.

[Modern] Very Casual Myr Deck

Playing this deck is like feeding a kitten to a tiger but not because of the deck itself, only that everyone in Just for Fun is playing really strong decks. The deck plays very well for kitchen table, and I have these cards in real life (IRL).

In this game, I gained a lot of life, and was poised to slowly grind down my opponent. They gave up.

Why does everyone who play green have to play a Primeval Titan?

Here I lost against a really strong black deck.

I was doing well until my opponent's infinite combo took over: sacrifice to indestructible to trigger Blood Artist.

Here is the 'drop lands for 2/2 zombies' Zombie Infestation combo deck.... anyways. I love Myrs and look forward to playing this deck on my kitchen table. Some day I would like to have someone to play against who will also be playing a kitchen table deck. Currently, no where in MTGO can I do that.

Cubes Matching Blocks Revisited

Some time ago I gave this topic a lot of thought....well, I guess I often give this topic a lot of thought. Cubes are a ton of fun to build, and formats comprised of non-sequential blocks are also a lot of fun.
Here is a link to that earlier post (December 25, 2012).

For Modern:

1. Mirrodin [artifacts]
2. Kamigawa [tribal]
3. Ravnica [multicolored]
4. Time Spiral [mechanics]
5. Lorwyn [tribal]
6. Shadowmoor [multicolored]
7. Shards of Alara [shards]
8. Zendikar [tribal/lands]
9. Scars of Mirrodin [artifacts]
10. Innistrad [tribal]
11. Return to Ravnica [multicolored]
12. Theros [mono-colored/enchantments]
13. Khans of Tarkir [wedges]
14. Battle for Zendikar [tribal/lands]
15. Shadows over Innistrad [tribal]

The periodicity for multicolored is not a surprise. The popularity of gold (and hybrid) cards is a fact.
3 (Ravnica), 6(Shadowmoor), 11(Return to Ravnica): 3 to 6 to 11 projects to 15. BUT Shadows over Innistrad announcement means 15 is tribal.

I am really wanting an artifact block, but it is an uncommon occurrence.
1(Artifacts), 9(Scars of Mirrodin), maybe 17?

Tribal is also very popular.
2(Kamigawa), 5(Lorwyn), 8(Zendikar), 10(Innistrad), 14(Battle for Zendikar), 15(Shadows Over Innistrad), maybe 17?

The best multi-block cubes are aligned along the three major themes: multicolored, tribal, and artifact. The devotion theme of Theros proved very popular (it is one of my favorite themes), but is too recent to come back. The odd blocks are Time Spiral, Shards of Alara, Theros, and Khans of Tarkir. (November 1, 2015 update: WRONG, Shadows over Innistrad is Modern block No. 15): {The next block has a low probability of being tribal, or a revisit . That means we are due most likely for another odd block, with a lower probability of a multicolored block (hybrid would be just super awesome!), or, even less likely, an artifact block.}

Based on the cards I have, I am hoping to mate my Return to Ravnica stash with a future multicolored cube. I did not have a chance to build a good-enough stash of the artifact blocks, and would like to build one with the next artifact block. I want more Myrs! (And I want them to look like the Scars of Mirrodin block Myrs).

And now that Shadows over Innistrad has been announced, I can mate my semi-gigantic stash of the original Innistrad with the return sets.

If we think of each block as either new territory or a revisit, we have:

Mirrodin [Revisit of Antiquities], Kamigawa [New], Ravnica [Revisit of Invasion]
Time Spiral [Revisit of Everything], Lorwyn [New], Shadowmoor [New]
Shards of Alara [New], Zendikar [New], Scars of Mirrodin [Revisit of Mirrodin]
Innistrad [New], Return to Ravnica [Revisit of Ravnica], Theros [New]
Khans of Tarkir [New], Battle for Zendikar [Revisit of Zendikar], Shadows over Innistrad [Revisit of Innistrad]

Revisit-New-Revisit-Revisit-New-New-New-New
Revisit-New-Revisit-New-New
Revisit-Revisit

Time for more New then?

[Modern] Origins Thopters

This deck is a lot of fun. My favorite move is to use Ghostly Flicker to generate a few more Thopter tokens.

In this first win an opponent playing Red Deck Wins ran out of patience. Its a slow grind but my tokens are poised to win this game and they knew it.

I went all the way to 1 life, and since my opponent did not have any 'hit to the face' cards, I was able to continue to wear them down.

In this next win I played Ghostly Flicker. So much fun!

See the difference? That's three extra tokens.

And then I swung for the win.

In this next win (Red Deck Win again, what gives?) it was red tokens vs thopter tokens.

My opponent played a Haze of Rage.

And it becomes four of them.

I had to chump block for dear life, but my tokens have flying and I can continue to generate more tokens all game long.