Does anyone else play or collect? I've only just recently gotten back into it (M15), and I've got to admit, it reminds me of why I love TCG's in the first place! So, before I go on typing a large post (and potentially have to delete a thread that already exists elsewhere), who else plays or collects?

I bet you can't tell what one of my favorite cards to play is .

Wow, there's really nobody else on PA that plays Magic The Gathering?!

I've been building and experimenting with the new M15 cards like crazy. I really enjoy making and playing with five-color decks, and I've almost got my latest one down pat. Lots of playing and experimenting with the lady (yes, she plays; I'm one lucky guy).

Nobody else here plays this game? I kind of find that hard to believe! 

Meltdowner wrote: I started playing MTG two years ago on the Innistrad block. I have a white/green human and angels deck and a blue/white aura deck.

Awesome! Sounds like a great combination. I tweaked my five-color deck yesterday, and it's definitely improving. My biggest issue is keeping enough guys on the battlefield to block/counter while I ramp up mana to get my green monsters (Terra Stomper x 2 and several others I forget the names of) casted and out. It's a very well-rounded deck, and I have all sorts of spell counters and blocks to knock opponents off their guard when they try and exile my big guys .

What are you running for a deck? 

Totally understandable. I don't feel that I'm ready to play with strangers yet, as I still have several questions about the rules. We're going to a Friday Night Magic session tonight just to watch other people play. I feel like that's a really smart idea to understand the game more clearly!

Ironically, I built a monster green deck last night with the 2015 fat pack we just got; it's super brutal, and massive growth gets played like crazy lol. Yes, they do indeed have amazing mana ramping, especially the elf creatures who can be tapped as extra manna. My gf plays a red/black deck that has all sorts of destroy target creature cards, and she used to kick my ass constantly, Now I've got a plethora of huge trampling creatures that she can only keep at bay for so long, lol.

Some of my personal favorite cards in my green deck:

^Super awesome come-back card 

We also checked out Friday Night Magic in town last evening, and it looks like a promising community. I want to really get my deck to where I want it before I start playing with randoms. I don't quite have the confidence in the rule set to not look like a noob .

I also got a bunch of Sliver cards in said fat pack, and I totally want to make a five-color Sliver-driven deck in the future when I get the other colors!

That 4 vs 4 game sounds intense; that's still WAY over my head at this point .

^YES, that card is excellent! I've found that I seem to like Theros best out of all the spin-offs, as well. Im constructing a killer blue deck as we speak. 

I can't wait to test it out tonight .

Lmao, exactly. I'm definitely a counter-driven player; I like knowing what the hell is coming instead of betting my precious mana costs. I love setting up traps for my opponent to walk into, then hitting them with a counter, an instant, a sorcery, and then another instant while they're starting their next turn .

Tons of mana is crucial to a good blue deck.

I definitely like doing that with red-driven decks; that have an advantage in that area for sure. However, there's much fulfillment to be had when playing an aggro player who thinks they can just mow through you, and you're two turns ahead/stocked, and deliver an incredible combo .

As an aquarius, I find it hilarious that I'm drawn to the theme/advantages of the blue cards. My gf is an aries, and is also drawn to the powers of red. Intelligent game designers, if you ask me, lol.

^That's nuts! Ah, red deck games 

1 Coral Barrier

1 Trained Condor

2 Wall of Frost

4 Frost Lynx

2 Nimbus of the Isles

1 Prescient Chimera 

1 Mahamoti Djinn

2 Bronze Sable

2 Omen Speaker

1 Aetherspouts 

4 Divination 

2 Jace's Ingenuity

2 Negate

2 Peel from Reality

1 Turn to Frog

1 Mind Sculpt

1 Cancel

1 Retraction Helix

1 Void Snare

1 Hydrosurge

1 Spellblast

1 Staff of the Mind Magus

1 Invisibility

24 Islands

Nimbus is a trade off, but the mana curve on this deck is the most precise I've ever had it with anything I've built thus far. I don't own any Aven Fleewing, unfortunately; I had to improvise the best I could with what I've got! I actually have four Mahamoti total (not in this deck, of course lol). I have no idea how I got all of those. I have four Prognostic Sphinx as well, but I can never seem to find a good reason to sub him in.

Turn to Frog is probably one of my favorite cards for the reason you've mentioned above. It's the ultimate pisser to cocky opponents. the only thing more aggravating than TtF is this card:

I need to get a couple of these in my deck, and things will get REALLY interesting .

Totally understandable. Ironically, I got into it recently because it can provide me with enjoyment when funds are low .

Don't you have to discard a card to play Prognostic Sphinx, though? I always saw that as kind of a drawback; does it have to be from your hand or the field? Can it be the top card on your Library? That's where I get a little confused, otherwise I'd use it!

EDIT: Oh my lord, I understand what you're saying here, lmao. You're correct; I'm definitely subbing in two Prognostic Sphinx's in place of Nimbus! Said discarded card can be from anywhere, right?

Thank you for clarifying that! I wasn't sure what it ascertained to, so I was hesitant to use him. I just subbed in two in place of Nimbus of the Isles .

I have a deck for each guild 

I recently pulled the new Ajani planeswalker from Journey. Twas very happy and joined my playset of Fleecemane lions quite well. 

I also made a new Simic deck utilizing +1 counters, Hyrdas, cloning spells and these two

As the main cards built around.

Building up dozens of colorless for X summons then multiplying them with Vorel is just nasty. I've beaten my friend with 2 attacks one swing from a 8/8 attacker, then next turn it was 16/16. Flying. 

Now THAT is a bitchin' card! 

Preparing for a stellar evening of Magic The Gathering over here!

Let's not forget:

Anyone have experience building/playing Sliver decks? That's something I really want to try out...granted I actually come across those cards!

Oh awesome, thank you for that link!

My deck was VERY good! I kept my opponents at bay (and confused with counters) for MUCH longer than any game previously. My two Prognostic Sphinx were my powerheads and they flew over all non-flying/non-reaching creatures on my opponent's battlefield. Hexproof kept that black magic bullsh*t at bay, and my ice walls and frost lynxs kept them frozen and cost them turns. All three games went on WAY longer than usual; I finally feel like I have a winning combination here!

I acquired this one today:

Now, this card is a bit confusing to me; I understand the first part, but what about the last two parts there? Are all my lands islands (i.e. can if I had a split deck of two or more colors, I could use all mana as either an island or its original color)...as well as opponents? 

Are creatures without flying or islandwalk on both sides unable to attack? 90% of my heavy-hitters in said deck are flying, so I see no problem on that end.

Ah, to be somewhat new to magic .

Islandwalk allows him to be unblockable if they have islands, which his second effect ensures, because it makes ALL lands Islands as well. Then: It attempts to make Stormtide the only attacker unless another islandwalker is in play (highly unlikely) or flyers. 

Thank you for answering so quickly. That was my initial assumption, but I didn't know if I was just reading it wrong, as that is one HELL of a card! What an awesome ace up the sleeve .

I would just Clone it and prolly use something like Banishing Light.

Unless you've got the mana to cover the cost, as well as a few cancel/negate instants to counter your opponent's panic-stricken rebuttal, as well . That's actually the beauty of my deck; it's so well balanced, that I lure my opponent in then capitalize and send in the Prognostic Sphinx with hexproof to finish the deal.

Banishing light is an awesome card that I've gotten quite a bit of use out of already.

I play mostly EDH (Sen Triplets and Oros), but have Modern Green Nykthos/Genesis Wave and am about halfway through building U/B Fae. I'm extremely excited for Khans as BWR is a favorite color combination of mine.

Welcome to the party! 

That Triplets card is awesome and quite flavorful. I can see em being great commanders. 

ALL of what Luna was just saying is beyond my comprehension at this point, lol.

I'm glad there are some serious players here to learn from .

Allow me to explain my posts:

EDH (also known as Commander) = Elder Dragon Highlander. It's an alternate format with a 99 singleton card deck and one "Commander" which must be a legendary creature. In commander, the creature gets its own zone in the game and you may cast it any time you can cast a creature (providing you have the mana). If it gets killed/exiled, you can send it back to the command zone and the next time you cast it, it costs an additional 2 colorless mana. Cards in your EDH deck are limited to your commander's color identity, meaning that cards in your deck must match a color in the casting cost of the commander (there are some exceptions but it's complicated).

Modern is a format which is in between Legacy and Standard. All cards with the "modern" card frame are legal unless otherwise banned. It's fast paced and expensive as hell.

U/B Fae is basically a Modern control deck which uses Faerie creature cards to make your opponent mad at you until he/she concedes.

Thank you so much for that insight/information!

If I may ask, what exactly makes Modern so much more expensive than Standard?

Plus they're op as f**k sometimes. 

It's pretty logical that there's a hierarchy of players who would want to hoard as many OP cards as possible, and make crazy decks.

Do you guys go to FNM much? That's something I'd really like to start doing.

Pre-releases are fun too. 

I'd love to start going to FNM once I've got a little more confidence, lol. My gf and I started playing about a month back, and we really enjoy it. I love building decks and testing them; I was a Pokemon TCG fanatic back in the day (1998-2002) and would play in-store tournaments all the time. I can't believe it took me this long to discover MTG.

I would really build up a "beefy" deck before joining FNM, though there you can get a lot of help and advice from friendly players. So it could really go either way. 

It's cool that your gf enjoys it too, having a friend or significant other being involved in eachothers' hobbies is a really nice thing.

Something with strong counter spells/instants and a beefy offense is exactly what I'm aiming to achieve. I'm sure I'll get my ass handed to me plenty, but my blue deck is getting increasingly more impressive. And I agree; I'm incredibly lucky to have a gf that's into both MTG and progressive music.

That site is exactly what I've been looking for .

It's a pretty good site, though tappedout.net is also worth checking out.   http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/i-hope-senpai-notices-me/" rel="nofollow - My EDH deck on tappedout.

I've checked out tappedout.net before, it's not bad.

Any new cards/pulls for you lately? Do you usually go for boosters or singles? I've gotten two 2015 deck builder's tool kits and a 2015 fat pack since starting about a month back, and I haven't regretted the purchases. Great way to get started and build an inventory, IMHO.

Have you ever gotten a booster box? Those things are so tempting but such a gamble. I saw a video of a guy pulling a foil NIssa Worldwaker on his second pack, essentially paying for the entire box lmao.

I've only bought 1 booster box.

Dragon's Maze. 

Yes, when Khans comes, RTR, Gatecrash, Dragon's Maze, and M14 will rotate out. This happens because Standard will have a 2nd block in it, and it can only hold 2 blocks and a core set. Casual is basically whatever you want to play unless you have house rules.

That makes total sense, and that's what I assumed. Now, when we say "rotate out" -beyond casual play, of course - is that just for tournament play and/or FNM? That's where I'm still a bit confused. Is FNM usually casual or house rules or something to that effect?

FNM is casual, but sanctioned by WotC meaning that all decks must have legal cards for the format being played. If you're a noob and accidentally put a wrong card in it's no big deal, but it's helpful to play by the rules.

That's why I made sure my blue deck was mostly, if not all, M15 cards.

Thank you for providing that info, Luna!

I need some more heavy-hitting creatures in my deck. I do fine with cancelling out her ridiculous sorcery spells, and sending her front line back into her library, but it's like the entire time I'm just keeping her back without really getting a chance to attack too often. I have won several games with that strategy, then unloading once her front line is down for the win. Flying creatures with 4-5 damage  usually do it, but I need to have plenty of counters in my hand to ward off the sorcery bullsh*t lmao.

I'm thinking of combining the best of my blue and green decks, but I need that balance of powerful with the ability to cancel her from "Flesh to Dust"-ing my big guys. Any tips, friends?

I also assume that playing against other people is what brings the variety out of each deck, and that's also something I haven't had the chance to do yet. I figure if I can overcome that deck, I can pretty much handle anything lol.

Dis.

I run two in my Simic. 

Flanked from the air via two Prognostic Sphinxes with flying and hexproof.

This is the thinking though: If you have an amazing card 4 time sin the deck you'll have a higher chance of drawing it and utilizing it's strengths in combos and general play compared to having many single cards that might not fit the situation theyre used for all the time. My decks are typically built around a concise theme with the cards built around it with some variety on executing that strategy.   

That's why x4 of some cards is better than x1/x2 of tons of cards. 

I'm starting to truly understand the value of building decks around a few different combos using cards whose value is maximized for the mana it costs to cast/use them. Mana ramping is officially where it's at.

http://deckbox.org/sets/762478" rel="nofollow -

Hornet Queen with double strike would be brutal.

I ordered a few Overrun cards. Now THAT'S where this deck is going to get insane .

Here's a valid question; do you guys prefer to run high, mid, or low mana curves most of the time?

I'm already quire fond of mana-ramping, and building in multiple strategies should something get taken out on me. More mana is always better than less; I've had a habit of mana-screwing myself in my first couple of decks. You'll always lose with less mana, but you can sometimes turn things around if you've got plenty running.