Because we need a Magic: the Gathering thread.Follow

Shame we can't get artwork like this any longer

Most of the altered cards I see are just so awfully done, although there are some exceptions like Klug. Cards also quickly get to a point where they're no longer tournament legal (the original art, name and casting cost need to be clearly identifiable for your opponent) so it does pain me a little to see the Alphonse Mucha P9 set he altered as those aren't going to fly in a tournament anymore, for as far as there are any Vintage tournaments anyway.

From an Ars Technica article about Hearthstone and going first:

I'm inclined to say that the active/passive phases of Hearthstone make the tempo issue a little more aggressive.

For instance, going second in Hearthstone on my Mage deck makes certain early combos possible that just aren't without the mana card. For instance, turn 1 Knife Juggler, turn 2 Mirror Image (which gives me a 3/2 minion, two 0/2 minions with taunt, and does 1 random damage to two random targets on turn 2, plus whatever the 3/2 attacks).

That's 5 damage on turn 2. VERY respectable. And it has very commonly cleared the board for me and left me with a strong, early temp advantage.

But it's not possible until turn 3 without going second. So it's actually a tempo loss if you go first, relative to going second, so you'll probably toss out the mirror images on turn one (1 mana crystal), and just be done with it.

That said, if your opponent tossed out something that could take out your knife juggler on turn 1, you're obviously not going to play it. And they have a chance to interrupt it on their turn 2, which happens.

Assuming your opponent doesn't use Millhouse Manastorm (which gives you 0 mana spells the next turn), I think turn 5 is the earliest you can actually win in Hearthstone.

But if you ARE in a Millhouse scenario, a Mage could theoretically win on the second turn.

Turn 1, do nothing, or whatever.
Enemy turn 1, they use coin, they play Millhouse.
Turn 2, Mage casts Pyroblast x2 (20 damage) and Fireball x2 (12 damage) for free.

It's not something that happens, of course, because no one would hold onto Pyroblasts or 2 Fireballs instead of drawing new cards.

Much more conceivable is a 3 turn win with a Mage, using their Sorcerer's Apprentice and Mana Wyrm cards. But, again, that requires some SERIOUS luck with draws in terms of your own and requiring that the enemy can't clear your wyrm. Though you can still wreak some serious havok if you draw an apprentice and a bunch of spells at the start.

Well the effect of Millhouse is on your ENEMY, so the opposing player has to play it.

Millhouse - 2 mana - 4/4 - battlecry: Enemy spells cost 0 mana next turn.

In terms of attack/defense, he's extremely strong for that mana level. Without the battlecry, he'd give you easy field dominance. Because there's literally no way (I can think of) to clear him with 2 or 3 mana, alone. He'd essentially be guaranteed to survive at least one enemy turn. Two, depending on if you went first/second.

So the counterbalance is that enemy spells cost no mana the next turn. That gives your opponent a chance to clear him IF they have spells they can combo together or combo with a minion you already have out.

But even if you never have an attack phase with him as a result of that, he's still a really solid card. Your opponent will generally need to use at least 2 cards to clear him (reducing the size of their hand) or burn a card that they could have used later (like fireball, which does 6 damage).

But, thing is, spell-heavy draws are typically something you end up with by accident in most decks, because early on you want to be playing minions, not burning spells. So Millhouse has a solid chance of surviving to wreck even more havok.

The battlecry effect can definitely be a really big boon to your enemy. But it's also an effect they might have no good chance of exploiting. It's a gamble, but you stand to win from it.

The case of your enemy insta-winning because of it is incredibly unlikely. It would take 2 pyroblasts and 2 fireballs to make that happen. Pyroblast is 10 mana for 10 damage, and NO ONE is going to keep that in their drawing hand if they can avoid it, so the chances of you getting hit with it are already reduced. 2 is incredibly unlikely, unless the RNG god really hated whoever had Millhouse in their deck.

Same with Fireball. MAYBE you'd keep 1. But it's a 4-mana spell, and a 4-mana spell you typically hold of on using on turn 4 if you can avoid it, because it can clear much scarier minions than most things available on turn 4. So you won't keep 2.

It's possible for this to happen, sure. But "possible" in the sense of it being INCREDIBLY unlikely.

Like, your deck is 30 cards. So that's a 1/30 (opponent draws Millhouse) * (your draw chances) 1/30 * 1/29 * 1/28 * 1/27 = 5.06801273e-8 = .00000005068

And it's actually lower, because we didn't consider the chances of drawing pyros or fireballs initially against the chance of discarding them (thereby completing removing the chance of the insta victory).

It COULD happen. But it's really, really, really unlikely.

So, yeah, Millhouse comes with the risk of getting a Pyro to the face. But that's the gamble you take in placing a really strong minion on the board that early. And Pyro is still just 10 damage. They might shoot to your face, and they might clear Millhouse. Ideally, they shoot to the face, so you still have Millhouse, because who cares? You have less health but a HUGE tempo advantage so early. If they clear Millhouse, oh well. It's pretty much the one way you didn't end up with a temp advantage by playing him. And that's partly because Pyros are already a high-risk card to have in your deck, since you can't use them until 10 mana.

Win.

You were missing the best Constellation card in Eidolon of Blossoms, Sylvan Caryatids also help you cast the 3 colour stuff.


Also Pharika, because Pharika is awesome (and the snakes she makes are enchantments).

Junkstars is a pretty cool deck though.

That's fancy stuff.

I just used these to carry my cards around in high school. Stored my decks inside the small boxes that the 60 card packs came in, they fit inside the cardboard boxes. I didn't use sleeves so I can't tell you how well they fit.

The basic ultra pro Deckboxes thrown in a bag, if it's anything larger than an in store/FNM type deal don't take anything but what's absolutely necessary because of stealing. They're only 3 bucks or so anyway so I've got a bunch, never saw a need to get anything more fancy as they do exactly what's needed and nothing else.

Stealing isn't an issue in stores usually but GP's and other larger events, especially Legacy or Vintage are a huge magnet for thieves, hundreds or thousands of people carrying thousands of dollars in cards and the vast majority is concentrating hard on things other than their bag.

And I'm not the person to talk to for fancying up decks or fancy deckboxes, I don't even like foils at all.

Edited, Aug 18th 2014 7:34pm by Aethien

Hey, you've got these in like, 2 dozen different colours. What more do you need?