Magic the Gathering

I'd get both event decks due to the fact that one comes with Silverblade and Thalia, and the other one comes with Thragtusk and Rancors. I am in need of copies of all these cards, and the cards that are in the event deck don't seem half bad either.

I feel bad for 2 of my friends.
They decided to buy a Booster box and split it. After opening all of it, the only mythic card worth mentioning that they got was Domri...

Well, the value of the box isn't dominated by the mythics. I wouldn't be upset about opening a bunch of shocklands even if my mythics were meh.

And are they sure the mythics weren't noteworthy? Duskmantle Seer is sweet. Aurelia's Fury is amazing. Each guildleader is pretty sick. I actually really love new Gideon (but still kinda liked old Gideon a little more). It doesn't seem likely that their box was full of Deathpact Angels and Hellkite Tyrants as their mythics.

edit: Remembered Giant Adephage is one of the less exciting mythics, too, but I actually love that card.

Mythics? Domri Rade, Hellkite Tyrant and Enter the Infinity. That's it
Shocklands? They got 3 only...
It's just one unlucky booster box

Ah, right, that's the other really fun mythic. I actually wanted to open an Enter the Infinite. Plenty of ways to abuse that, I'm sure. Only thing that comes to mind at the moment is Omniscience. Omniscience, Infinite, win.

Hellkite Tyrant can still be quite fun in casual if you build a deck around it. It's going in some EDH deck for me, for sure.

Domri's sweet, don't know if he's actually good yet, haven't seen him in action in constructed (played against him in limited, and he basically was just a really bad lifegain spell that game).

There are other rares that are worth something other than the shocks, too, but yeah, the shocks I think are the most valuable. But, geez, I hope they at least broke even with that box.

Is Aurelia, the Warleader actually good?
Isn't Boros suppose to be an aggro deck? And isn't 6 mana actually a bit time consuming in standard.

Also, let's say you have 2 Boros Elite and Firemane Avenger. You then Played Aurelia. Firemane Avenger deals additional 3 and Boros Elite gets +2/+2 till end of turn. Aurelia says you get another combat phase.

Now my questions, is that additional combat phase inside the same turn? Will you trigger Batallion again? Will Boros Elite become 5/5 when they attack again?

She's insane. She's the most expensive guildmaster, because she's probably the best. Six mana in aggro isn't optimal, but if you can do something as powerful as Aurelia, you've probably locked up the game.

And Standard was all about midrange before Gatecrash. We need a couple of weeks to see how Gatecrash changed Standard, but if it's still midrange, then Aurelia's perfectly fine in a slower Boros deck as the top of the curve.

And yes. It's easier for me to arrange my ideas formatting it, so here we go.

Yes, that combat phase is within the same turn. With Aurelia, your turn basically goes: Untap, Upkeep, Draw, Main1, Combat1, Combat2 (Assuming Aurelia attacked), Main2, End. Battalion still triggers. Boros Elite says that it gets +2/+2 until end of turn when it has its Battalion trigger, and it still works on that second combat step, so yes, if that ability resolves, it's a 5/5 on that second attack.

Ah, ok. Then she really is good if that's what she does. Making Batallion trigger twice. I'm probably going try putting 2 of her now.
Funny how she's actually in the first booster pack that I opened in Gatecrash.

Wait, so if you have 2 Boros Elite on the field, and you have another creature that can trigger Battalion, they both get that +2/+2 effect, so they both become 5/5s?

If that's so, that means I'm changing up my deck a bit for my Human Boros deck.

Aww, that would've ben funny, but I think the wording is implying just itself. So no, they're both just 3/3 if they both get a battalion trigger.

EDIT: I just remembered, Aurelia + Deadeye Navigator = As many attack steps as you have 1U.
Someone pointed out this combo at the shop I go to right before Gatecrash prerelease. I want to see this happen really badly.

EDIT2:
I built another Counterball (Counterbalance + Crystal Ball) deck for Modern on Cockatrice, but I'm still not that confident about it. Instead of taking direct inspiration from a Legacy list like I did the first time, I built it from scratch, but I haven't decided the mana base yet, since I want to figure out the sideboard first.

I don't get it. Aurelia ability can only be activated when she attacks for the first time in that turn. The 2nd combat phase you get is still inside that turn. So how can you get many attack steps with Deadeye Navigator?



Also, I don't get the Counterbalance/Crystal Ball combo. What if your opponent is playing Green or Black?

So, the text on Aurelia says "Whenever Aurelia, the Warleader attacks for the first time each turn..."
Since she left the battlefield with Deadeye Navigator's ability, when she reenters, she's considered to be a "new" Aurelia, therefore, if she attacks, it will have technically been the first time that Aurelia attacked, so you'll get another combat phase.

If it said "Whenever Aurelia, the Warleader attacks, if this was the first combat phase of the turn...", then the combo wouldn't work.

The combo is based upon a very powerful Legacy deck called CounterTop, in which they use Sensei's Divining Top and Counterbalance. The Top is banned, so I'm using Crystal Ball instead. The point is that you can set up the top of your deck to counter anything they try to cast for free, and essentially just lock them out of the game. I don't think what color's the opponent is playing is relevant.
It's a difficult deck to play, and to build, at least for me, though. There's lots to consider.

Then can I also use Cloudshift to make her attack for the third time?

Yes. Again, because she left the battlefield, Aurelia's treated as though she just came into play, so the game's rules consider this to be her first time attacking, even if it's already the second combat phase.

So, any "flicker" effect can be used to abuse Aurelia's ability. Super awesome.
I was gonna mention Restoration Angel, too, but that actually doesn't work... *sadface*

So, I've been recently watching some old MtG world championship videos, and I really feel like building the Bob Maher's 2000 World Championship deck. I'll cost a hefty $275 USD, but if I could acquire it, I would due to the fact that the deck looks like a lot of fun to play.

2000, wow, old school. I don't think I've seen any that far back, except maybe the first time I ever watched a Magic tourney that my friend showed me once (it looked old), and while that got me into professional Magic, I haven't seen anything that far back.

Bob Maher's, the Dark Confidant's, deck.... Wonder what it was. Do you have the list?

Why is Dark Confidant very expensive and why is it rated so high?
Can someone kindly explain it to me?

Card advantage. His ability essentially says that you draw two cards each turn, at only a two-mana investment. Almost every competitive deck with black uses him in fours because he helps you get very far ahead, which is why he's so expensive. The highest mana cost you'll hit is probably four, maybe five, and on rare occasions. You should take on average 1-2 damage, and if his trigger checks a land, you take no damage.

If you ever see people play at high-level tournaments, you'll notice that people will go to great lengths to kill an opponent's Dark Confidant. I saw someone use Jace, the Mind Sculptor as a bad Brainstorm just to try to draw a removal spell for a Bob (Dark Confidant's nickname, since professional player Bob Maher is the one who designed the card).

Ah, so if you have Dark Confidant, you don't want to have a lot of high cost cards right? Also, is it really that hard to have card advantage when black?

Darn it... it's actually hard to build a standard Orzhov deck

The cards you play at these high-level tournaments are low cost anyways. Jund, for example, plays Tarmogoyf, Lightning Bolt, and various one-mana discard spells. This and lands are usually what you hit, since this makes up probably two-thirds of the deck, all those other times, you might hit those high cost spells, but there are things like Bloodbraid Elf (which is banned now) or Kitchen Finks, which make the loss of life hurt much less.

Again, the most life you should lose from a Dark Confidant EVER is five life, and it's on rare occasions. And, black is probably the second best color for card advantage. It just so happens black has one of the best options in Dark Confidant. All decks need card advantage of sorts, and Bob is one of the best ways to get it, because he does more than just draw cards. He's a creature, too, so he can attack the opponent as well.

You don't need to limit yourself to two colors. Three colors is fine, three color decks have proven their worth time and again in Standard.