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Magic: the Gathering - Oath o/t Gatewatch |OT| Look again, the mana is now diamonds!
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
- Start date
- Status
charlequin
Banned
Yeah I think there's a fundamental error where they thought "oh look, all these guys doing secrety stuff for Bolas will show everyone he's still a player!" would work and it really doesn't. Magic does environmental villains well, and individual villains who can appear on-screen decently. Unless you can make their threat environmental, though, there's no way to make an individual who hides out somewhere else and never does anything directly threatening.
The problem with Bolas is that they have him positioned as a puppet master, but there are no clues or evidence as to what his strings are pulling. Like, at all. Either he is so good that it's all going as planned and is completely in secret (bad for the audience) or they have no idea what they're doing with him and will eventually retcon a story/plan together to make him relevant again. I honestly wish it was him causing the issues in Innistrad so the 'mystery' of Bolas would start to unveil a bit.
SigmasonicX
Member
Bolas is Nahiri.
I knew it!!!
But seriously. I can't understand their plan of inaction with him. They gave him a whole core set where he was the focus... and he did zero.
It's always like he shows up for a second, says "But it was me, BOLAS!" and then vanishes again until next time. His schemes are supposedly so above everyone else that they make no sense, and he still manages to lose to neo-walkers in spite of supposedly being the ultimate chessmaster because reasons.
Etrian Oddity
Member
I'd love for Garruk to just randomly off Bolas since Nicol has degenerated into "he doesn't care because he's so strong!" drivel.
I miss Garruk a lot .
Nikodemos
Member
Because, between the mindless ferocity of the Eldrazi and the all-permeating insidiousness of the Phyrexians, Bolas just comes off as "oh, it's that asshole again". It's kinda hard to get a working angle out of that.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Further tricking out my Zur the Enchanter EDH deck. Going full voltron gonna be pretty annoying. Pacifying (not literally) hexproof creatures, feelsgoodman.
Next up is beefing up the land base which is gonna hurt.
Next up is beefing up the land base which is gonna hurt.
Giant Panda
Member
I was going to make a Zur Deck, but I was concerned that it was going to be too much tutoring, which would make games too similar. Have you found that to be a problem?
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Lots and lots of shuffling, often you're just the police dealing with any threat on the board but you can also just tutor up Necro pay a bunch of life and end the turn with 7 counters in hand.
There's also the option to go into stasis lock or if you want to make yourself especially popular Standstill.
Telepathy is my secret tech to make the rest of the player seem more dangerous than me.
It's only as linear as you make it would be my conclusion.
Still prefer my Angels though, with Avacyn 3.0 I finally have an alternate commander to use. Gisela draws too much hate, even though Aurelia ends games much faster, for some reason
blindrocket
Member
I played Commander tonight with my Oloro control/enchantment deck (no creatures in it) and it feels like it durdles too much or something. I had my Sanguine Bond combo broken so I couldn't win that way. I think that it needs more ways to finish the game.
I ended up winning by Commander damage with Oloro which isn't exactly how I want to do it.
I ended up winning by Commander damage with Oloro which isn't exactly how I want to do it.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Isn't there multiple cards enabling the combo now, including creatures?
blindrocket
Member
That's a flaw with the planning and writing, not with Bolas as a character. It wouldn't be hard for a talented writer to make you care, they just don't seem like they're prioritizing his arc now or in the near future. But now that I think about it, he's minimally involved in about half of the current spinning storyline plates.
.
- The Eldrazi: He orchestrated their release and now Emrakul is on the loose.
- Phyrexians: He sent Tezzeret there because of ...?.
- Tarkir: He killed Ugin in the past and likely thinks him dead still.
- He has no involvement in Ravnica or Theros or Innistrad that we know of.
That's 50% of what's up right now. So he's weaved in for sure, but it's just so minimal it's hard to even care.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
This is the main combo
I know the combo but aren't there a couple new pieces enabling the combo as well. I mean Cliffhaven Vampire from OGW works even.
Infinite Stars
Member
Play the standard blue combos like infinite mana into USZ? Or Enter the Infinite into Lab Man?
Yeah, attacking and winning with Commander damage definitely isn't what most players expect with Oloro LOL.
Zur is definitely a linear deck. Any commanders with built-in tutor abilities will inevitably be linear.
blindrocket
Member
Yes all very good. I just tried to go with a creature-less version of Oloro. I suppose that it's just not my style in Commander?
I need to make a lot of cuts either way.
pelicansurf
Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
Boo, Narset deck. Do you get hated out each game? I would always kill you first (forever).
I have a mono-green stompy deck with Omnath as it's leader.
Then a new mono-white voltron with eight and a half tails as it's commander.
They're both pretty sweet.
I have a mono-green stompy deck with Omnath as it's leader.
Then a new mono-white voltron with eight and a half tails as it's commander.
They're both pretty sweet.
pelicansurf
Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
I haven't played against a Zur deck, but seems pretty OP a la Narset.
Not really. I play 3 handed against the same two people 75% of the time, and the decks are all pretty competitive. I usually switch decks after a game or two; we each have a couple paper decks and we have a ton of printed proxy decks between us and a lot of the time we just randomize deck picks.
divisionbyzorro
Member
He's not the most competitive, but I still have a soft spot for Grenzo as a commander.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
My next commander deck is the first I'm gonna be comboing off in. The combo is gonna be insanely stupid though.
It's versatile though.
It's versatile though.
Giant Panda
Member
I've seen a lot of people run Oloro as control decks, but I'm a sucker for theme/tribal decks, so my version is essentially life-gain tribal. Not running Felidar Sovereign though, I find that sort of win condition to be unfun.
phazedplasma
Member
kev walker hhnnnnnnnnnnggggggg
Good catch on Wayward Disciple, I didn't notice that.
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Also, I know Crow of Dark Tidings was unofficially leaked, but I quite enjoy the artwork.
charlequin
Banned
It's also on the robes of the cultists in the trailer.
The requisite crazy-person line-drawing theorizing:
And of course the inevitable parodies:
"God's Beard!"
Member
New twitter preview!
Soul Warden flips into Blood Artist.
If you play it in a BW deck you can sac your stasis snare after processing so you don't lose out on card advantage. Or you can sac something that's already gonna die. Could be good with Lili.
divisionbyzorro
Member
I like this new take on Chalice of Life/Death
pelicansurf
Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
Speaking of good stuff to sac in B/W:
Demonic Pact LIVES
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Kinda weird they didn't spoil Jace early, seems like they usually spoil the face Planeswalker before the normal set spoilers come out.
keeblerdrow
Member
We have a couple GPs this weekend.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Drana is mai waifu.
She's just so much fun to throw into a deck. I've been playing B/R Dragons and I just dumped the Flamewake Pheonixes for Drana and it certainly doesn't seem particularly worse, and you get amusement out of pumping your whole team.
She's just so much fun to throw into a deck. I've been playing B/R Dragons and I just dumped the Flamewake Pheonixes for Drana and it certainly doesn't seem particularly worse, and you get amusement out of pumping your whole team.
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