If It Looks Too Hard to Cast, It Probably Isn't | Pretty Deece

Follow Jon on Twitter: @feb31st

[@WeskersPlayhouse]

I, for one, welcome our new 5 color Chainwhirler overlords.

[@tcgplayercom]

Same

[@jamaigar]

Better yet: chainwhirler turbofog teferi control... with the surveil snapcaster-like spell

[@YzzleMate]

Progenit-er WWWUUUBBBRRRGGG

[@nickst.pierre5598]

YzzleMate Progenetus 2.0: WWWWUUUUBBBBRRRRGGGG Protection from everything, this applies while Progenetus 2.0 is in any zone, including outside of the game. If A spell or ability would cause Progenetus 2.0 to leave the battlefield, ignore its effect. When you sacrifice Progenetus 2.0, don't

[@Touphnya]

magic players used to splash colors, now they are splashing chainwhirlers...smh

[@ghostlourde2700]

You can't put all the best cards in a pile and call it a day? ...But Jund!

[@oddlyonlyjack9560]

... but jund!

[@AnikaJarlsdottr]

... But Jund!

[@zucchini_flowers]

Lol my first deck was jund for this very reason

[@hiimemily]

To quote the great Alex Steacy: Jund 'em out!

[@honeybadgerftw2383]

@@zucchini_flowers quite the investment off the bat lmao

[@abeesknee8306]

My main issue with the practice of setting cards up with restrictive mana costs is that they rarely actually have a major cost in gameplay consistency, but actually make the deck cost more by skyrocketing the price of fixing lands

[@espasmemuscular]

Might be the intention... WOTC are not particularlly known for not being greedy

[@Naykid391]

@@espasmemuscular you do realize that WOTC makes NO money off of the secondary market, right?

[@antonperera8940]

@@Naykid391 high price cards, especially when there are a lot like say a cycle of lands, up pack and box sales for investors, lgs, and individual players. Drums up demand for that set's cards and therefore it's packs.

[@knavenformed9436]

@@Naykid391 Are you sure about that? Are you sure the second hand market doesn't affect what kinds of products get printed? Isn't the 100th VIP Premium Full Art Foil Alt Art Signed Exclusive Box Topper even a bit suspicious?

[@zacksullivan7426]

@@Naykid391 reprint equity

[@christopherwoodbury7520]

Everyone else can cast Niv. Me I will always be 1 mana off and lose as a result.

[@mightyone3737]

I can't quite tell if he's being entirely serious, but I know from personal experience that designing around being able to reliably get cards out early is how you win, and decks that I've built to try to push past the 2 or 3 mana 'sweet spot' that most of my decks do best in have been very unreliable. They'll do great when things work out, and if they can face a deck that isn't ready to disrupt their fragile position they can compete, but vs a deck even sort of prepared for them they get utterly destroyed most of the time. This is why my green based decks are constantly jank, because I always want to try to fit in too many cards costing 4 or 5, because hey, I've got ~20 mana dorks, and this works fine on paper, but in practice, it's too slow and too clumsy to win reliably. Even using serious rampers, like 4 Priest of Titania and 4 Elvish Archdruid still struggles to reliably set up vs anything with any answer to creatures at all. It's a fun deck when things work out and it wins the game in one big attack, and it has answers to lots of types of cards, but those answers often come too late, or can't be cast after I've lost 4 mana dorks to burn/removal, and am sitting on 3 forests. Now, I know things would be very different if I didn't restrict my budget heavily, or spent all my budget on one type of deck, but I can't afford good lands to make multi-coloured decks able to beat my mono-coloured ones, so unless I'm in an EDH mood, I pretty much stick to mono-coloured atm.

[@stevsomeguy07]

This could lead to a really great video. “Most messed up Mana Bases in Standard history” Talk about times when we had absurdly good, fast and easy Mana in Standard, and also times when Mana wasn’t so good.

[@tcgplayercom]

I can't really think of a time when mana wasn't good. Urza/Masques Standard, maybe? I like "Most Messed Up Manabases" though.

[@TheCatHerder]

Odyssey/Onslaught standard, when we got fetches and had nothing worth fetching. Convinced me that my fetch lands were bad and I traded them away for nothing.

[@Janshevik]

dude, I remember that standard and people still went crazy over them. Don't forget there were still original duals in extended, if not extended then legacy.

[@TheCatHerder]

I was 12 and unaware of any format beyond standard at the time, it was definitely a folly of youth.

[@poyi1013]

Cat Herder no one was expecting to play like 20 years of magic back then~ extended was horrible back then. Enchantress and rock? Survival of the fittest? Sylvan library? Anyway standard were the only thing to play because it is more fresh and interesting~ the meta changes every 3 month so you don’t get bored.

[@ruki25]

Back in RtR/Innistrad standard, high schooler me figured out that a turn two farseek let me consistantly cast plasm capture on turn 3 so that I could counter my opponents 3 or 4 drop (it was a midrange dominant meta at my lgs, so everyone played 3 or 4 drops consistantly) and play Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker on turn 4 to start blowing up lands. Slide in some acidic slimes and badda bing badda boom.

[@sorvian25]

Pretty Deece has quickly become my favorite piece of magic content on YT. Keep up the good work Jon! Cheers

[@tcgplayercom]

Cheers!

[@peterbillings3276]

Seriously, this is what I’ve been looking for! Good work!

[@wedgemontindustries1745]

Totally on point. Trying to slowly get back into the game and this insight is super valuable

[@chrisbrooke5854]

Any good EDH player will tell you CMC and life totals mean nothing!

[@tcgplayercom]

Oh yes.

[@theodorereggiardo77]

correction: life means noting and only cmc matters. the colors of that mana almost never matter (unless you have infinite colorless and needthat one black to win...)

[@jemm113]

Unless you're Boros in which case the minotaurs were shit cause they were too expensive to cast, came out too late and couldn't even get its own game plan going the turn it came out!!

[@alejandrorivas4585]

@Ed Findlay lets play some cockatrice man

[@6slade]

as a player with a mono-white lifegain deck... well screw it the life is just stalling give me a scroll rack and an approach of the second sun and we'll call it a day.

[@zenmaster8826]

If color restriction was meant for higher powered cards, what the Heck where they thinking when they created wurmcoil engine AKA the colorless titan?

[@tcgplayercom]

Artifact blocks are fun

[@zenmaster8826]

@@tcgplayercom Really should have made wurmcoil 7 CMC.. I really didn't like how it shares the same converted mana cost as the titans while being colorless and having the same power and toughness as them..

[@MrBeaux]

+TCGplayer They really need to make a new block with the power level of the Scars of Mirrodin block. We haven't had one of those in awhile...

[@RugaQwarrcall]

@@MrBeaux Umm...no. They shouldn't. Mirridon block nearly killed the game because it was so overpowered most people ended up quitting the game because they didn't want to deal with it.

[@xed8530]

Mirrodin was disgusting. He said SCARS of Mirrodin. People were getting back in during that time. Standard was fun and overall was a good decision. It had a high power level but so did the sets around it so, it's fine. I do agree mirrodin was disgusting and unfair (which did attract some affinity and Mono U tron players though)

[@benjamin_burke]

Man, if only you had more time to explore this even more. Tarkir-Zendikar Standard had Dark Jeskai, five-color Bring to Light, and Four-Color Rally, as well as a handful of three-color decks.

[@tcgplayercom]

It was definitely on the table, but fetchlands + fetchable duals seemed too obvious. Still probably should've included them though!

[@stewartboyatt4673]

The thing is that mana base was actually super mathmatically solid. There were close to zero cards that required double pips in a single color, meaning you never had to have more than 14 of any one color in a deck (usually 12 or 13 was good enough). A deck could run 12 fetch lands to grab the right T1 & T2 basics, then just start chaining Tango lands. When 12 lands = 12 sources for each of your 4 sources you are in a nasty situation.

[@bedwablackburn]

Reminds me yet again how I want WOTC to finish the battle lands enemy cycle

[@bedwablackburn]

Reminds me yet again how I want WOTC to finish the battle lands enemy cycle

[@sanderdekoning1948]

My 5-colour Awaken deck from Tarkir-Zendikar Standard still is the favorite deck I've ever brewed.

[@perchipy7900]

“Five colour good stuff “

[@tcgplayercom]

Never goes out of style

[@perchipy7900]

Q

[@snowhusk]

"all the answers, all the time"

[@Cormonkey18]

Still waiting on that jodha deck to make it's way into standard lol

[@TheLangenator]

ahem *taps microphone * “Phyrexian Obliterator”

[@zemyla]

No one played it, because Dismember could be run in every deck.

[@TheLangenator]

Fair point, but still, Obliterator is a bit ridiculous for its cost. A (slightly hard) 4 cost 5/5 trample with a huge upside

[@mightybatillo]

When you play monogreen but dont draw a land in 3 turns...

[@heriticsanghieli]

The other thing that made 5CC possible in Lorwyn Alara standard was the filter land cycle (Mystic Gate & friends), which allowed you to easily cast a Cloudthresher on 6 and a Cruel Ultimatum on 7.

[@tcgplayercom]

Oddly enough, the list I found didn't have any filter lands that produced green mana, but yeah, those lands (and Exotic Orchard) were all contributing factors

[@r.c.beringuela2426]

Back then, I was a broke young college student and the memory of being Banefired for 20 by 5 color control decks during Alara-Lorwyn standard still haunts me to this day.

[@tcgplayercom]

I still have nightmare about getting my Boggart Ram-Gang flash blocked by Plumeveil. Stupid wall

[@flamey9180]

I'm running niv-mizzet parun in a blue/black deck with 4 steam vents and 3 mountains.... Don't judge

[@theinternetshavecome1640]

Judge? I say you deserve a medal.

[@jellosapiens7261]

Thank you for inspiring me to play Conclave Cavalier, Aryel, Knight of Windgrace, and Knight of Malice in the Same deck.

[@tcgplayercom]

You are allowed to publicly thank TCGplayer for all your future wins.

[@Araragi298]

I appreciate everything you said except at the end 'screw the math!' Yes, taking risks has been very effective historically in competitive MTG. Right now the existence of Hollow one decks running cards like Goblin Lore is exactly just that. But good competitive decks use CALCULATED risk, meaning that there was indeed a lot of number crunching involved in fine tuning the list. You bet that includes mana bases. So no, don't 'screw the math'. Embrace it, and embrace taking calculated risks. They tend to pay off in the end.

[@jamaigar]

hollow one looks very random on the surface, but i've been told by a mathematician that it's not as random as it might look like, quite the opposite, it's very consistent. I've encountered similar cases studying statistics. Sometimes there is a pattern where there seems to be none and you gotta see the numbers to really see it. So yeah, embrace the math! It'll do you good ^^

[@siukong]

Yeah. A better phrase would be "reconsider the math, and your preconceptions about it"

[@Peter-qd7do]

You know, the main take away I have from this is Assasin's trophy is even better than I thought it was before. Lets shut down stupid dual lands!

[@tcgplayercom]

Not the intended takeaway, please do not do this

[@jordancaldwell2208]

I built 4 color UB control deck splashing green for Trophy and White for Teferi. The mana hasn't slowed me down yet.

[@Arvensa]

Yeah, that sounds spicy. I've been wondering if that could work. (Or if it's even worth doing when the Nexus of Fate deck exists-- get that card the hell out of MtG Arena, WotC)

[@jordancaldwell2208]

@@Arvensa Mission Briefing and Discovery make everything run well. Surveil is so good. The occasional Mission into Mission into removal/counter (with surveil 1)/Discovery (surveil 2, draw) is as great as it sounds. Trophy deals with Planeswalkers and Azcanta and Mission makes sure you have more when you need it.

[@stewartboyatt4673]

To be fair, Nexus of fate is about to get a lot harder to play with when bant loses 8 of its lands and its best fog. It will probably bounce back 3 months from now, but we do get a break till then.

[@Guglhupfscout24]

man that editing of the cards is so smooth! i love that style of presentation!

[@Humbugg22]

I teared up with nostalgia at the cruel control deck. What amazing times playing cruel ultimatum on turn 7 in Standard. Thank you for the video!

[@DaerkciwLuxa]

I really like pretty decee. It's a good show lots of fun. Great speaking voice my man.

[@tcgplayercom]

Thanks!

[@VictorTheLegend]

I thought it was a card, and the video was about that card. LOL

[@brandonguthrie8122]

This makes me think of a pokemon tcg deck called Archie's blastoise. Archie's ace in the hole was written off as unplayable. Then a guy showed up to worlds and ran over everyone in his path with what seemed to be too risky of a premise. My point being never count out certain cards because they seem restrictive. Be creative and try your best to make cards work. You might just be amazed.

[@tcgplayercom]

I'm down for ANY excuse to read up about competitive Pokemon decks, thank you for replying!

[@brandonguthrie8122]

@@tcgplayercom it was worlds 2015. You'd think the card was ban worthy because of how blistering fast the deck plays. No one knew it was even possible to play it let alone so consistently :)

[@Yuzuki1337]

Whats even cooler is that the same Blastoise was already the engine players tried to cheat it out asap in the very beginning of the Pokemon TCG in a deck called Rain Dance :)

[@bedwablackburn]

Reminds me a great deal like playing dark ritual, buried alive with Reya and 2 strong creatures back in the day and either reanimate or exhume T2 to start the gravy train. That is, glancing at that deck with my rudimentary knowledge of Pokemon.

[@aliasn4088]

Wow, i looked up that deck and oh my god is that nasty. It has a hell of a turbo engine and just search and deck and dump its hand. Then you play Archies ace in the hole and just end your opponent because suddenly that graveyard isnt a graveyard and you are staring down a very powerful field.

[@Derpolnischfrosch]

My Manaphilosophie went like this today: play Gateway Plaza on the first turn Facepalm Concede

[@johnbaird6752]

Flashbacks to Temur Reclamation splashing white for Teferi in the pre-ban standard meta intensifies

[@a_doggo]

That bant deck was great, one of the first iterations on my Standard deck after returning the magic following an 18-year hiatus (1994-2012; parents had a toy store, long story).

[@Astar72439]

longer episodes plz this is my favorite thing

[@tcgplayercom]

Thanks!

[@LoxeBi]

"You shouldn't be able to put all the best cards into a deck and call it a day." R&D: Hold my beer.

[@theinternetshavecome1640]

Man, the Internet needs more places where people clearly and amusingly explain things that otherwise are as confusing as they are humourless. Thanks, Jon, for providing one of those places!

[@nlb137]

I think that price makes a big difference in multicolor decks. A budget 'kitchen table' deck (which is what most people have the most experience with) are likely going to be running mostly basic lands and maybe common-rarity lands like the ravnica gate cycle (and even then only for a slower deck). Shocklands and things like reflecting pool are $10 a pop, fetchlands are more like $40-50 (numbers from a quick google). Running even two colors with something like a 10/10 land split, or 8/8/4 with a set of common fixers like guildgates, makes running high-color cards a lot more sketchy than running the same things in a deck with a lot more color-fixing.

[@kirbyjoe7484]

No, Goblin Chain Whirler was never meant to be played only in mono red. It was however supposed to have a significant build around cost to your mana base if you wanted to play it in multicolor decks which it does. I think basically their intent was to restrict those playing Whirler and similarly costed mono color cards to mostly two color decks which they pretty much have although that may change with the completion of the shock land cycle in standard. I think it may be possible to play something like Whirler in a three color deck if the player is basically willing to lose like a third of their life to their own lands in order to be able to consistently play it on curve. Giving cards ridiculous mono color mana restrictions doesn't keep them from getting played in multi-color decks but it does however increase the build around cost of the mana base in those deck. I have played five color tier one decks in the past and the one thing that is always true of them is you are getting kicked in the balls by your mana base in order to play all five colors. Generally those sorts of decks start with green as a primary color and then employ some sort of birds of paradise type mana dork that makes multiple colors of mana if not all of them. On top of this the deck must be played in a standard setting where there are a ton of busted multicolor land cycles present that don't come into play tapped. Usually these lands will instead burn your face off in one way or another so you often need to run some sort of life gain as well vs aggro. And finally these decks usually need to have some sort of early card draw, card filtering or further mana fixing present. All in all there is a real price you pay for going rainbow colored and in those decks it is exceedingly painful to run cards with lots of single color dedicated mana in their casting cost.

[@felixseifert1733]

i love 5 colored decks, and the random stuff that comes with it i saw the card: mazes end, and knew i want to play it, so i figured, i had to stall the game enought to make use of it: the only way possible, take all my defenders and be able to block every attack that comes after turn 3 until you win, by the time i added the door to nithingness (takes two mana of each color, but u can choose a player that looses the game) and fireballs for additional win conditions, i have a creature that, when tapped, gives me mana for each defender creature i control so basically i wait and at some point i simply say: you lost, and thats just super fun, because you can really see the struggle on your opponents face, trying to tear down your walls, and boooom fireball

[@conovan5081]

Funny how this showed up as a recommendation after I watched mono black Niv-Mizzet control deck

[@thecollector8802]

This has given me confidence an deck idea I’ve had floating around for a while

[@Cesshiphop]

I, for one, LOVED Thragtusk and Restoration Angel in standard. As Cruel Ultimatum as well. I was definitely one of the "You can't do that" "Watch me" type of folk.

[@Lotties_handsaw]

Ever since I started playing in return to Ravnica block I have staunchly and fullheartedoy believed that one color is too few and three is too many.

[@johnbaird6752]

Omnath 4 busts in like the cool aid man

[@shuboy05]

Woah, I actually got that 1997 champion deck for my birthday. That was back in the day that Wizards sold those champion decks. I vividly remember each of those cards.

[@The_Evening_Sun]

And now with chromatic lantern you can literally play a five color deck with only 1 type of basic land.

[@m3ntal_floss937]

A C not consistently though. I’d play all 5 basics just in case

[@kungfupandaluver6919]

HOLY SHIT the mtg 25 year anniversary was cool and all but this guy just dropped the MTG HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A QUARTER OF A CENTURY bomb on me and I was not prepared to realize this

[@testshietchannel]

The Problem isn´t mana cost. It´s mana Fixing. End of story.

[@starvalkyrie]

Yeah it's not an R&D "slipup" it's an accounting one. 5-color decks move those $100 landbases so, don't look for that to go out of style.

[@jeffreyhughes210]

T

[@BMoser-bv6kn]

​@Corpsefoot Gaming Yeah, that's how the gacha revenue model works. A few things in the pool matter, the majority of it is garbage that goes into the trash. If everything were playable, every card would have value and be cheap as heck. It's something MTG can do with their first mover advantage. Other games that came after had to be more pro-consumer: living card games where you pay $40 for a core playset. Or $15 for a playset of an expansion. Which is cheaper than like... one MTG card. Chase lands are the core value drip for them. For a very clear example of how incredibly miserly they are: they could make all basic lands full-art lands. Functionally and aesthetically, it would improve the game tremendously. But Wizards and Hasbro don't do it. It would cost them $0 to do and would improve the game, but making MTG the best game it can be is not their goal. Creating an economy of scarcity is. A starving nerd is easier to extract revenue from than a fulfilled one.

[@mightyone3737]

@@starvalkyrie Erm, you mean the $100 for a playset ones, right? It's not hard to spend 1k on the landbase for a 5 colour deck (and you can very, very easily spend a lot more), and naturally as long as WotC prints a decent dual land in a set, it will be a chase card, so this does help move a crap-ton of product. @Corpsefoot Gaming MTG has many different levels of play, and it is an unfortunate reality that most players won't have access to the best cards. Getting a good shot at a playset of a given rare requires what, 4 boxes of product to open? Possibly more? Most of which will be filler or flavour cards, which is why most people don't bother with this. Most people pick a level of financial investment they are comfortable with and suffer the decks they can build at that level. I'm so cheap I don't buy packs, I just buy the odd single that I'm sure will improve my deck, yet cost no more than $2, unless it's really clearly going to be an all-star in the deck. I know I'd get my butt handed to me by almost anyone that's a serious player, but I have fun, so I don't complain too much about the fact that the best lands in the game are all ancient and cost hilarious amounts of money.

[@jonathanmellette8541]

Man, this is the first episode of this I've seen, but Jon, you've got a great voice and presentation, and I appreciate your dry wit. (And I'm a professional speaker, so I tend to evaluate such things somewhat critically.) You've gained a subscriber here.

[@baconpantsable]

The look on Niv's face. That is the look of a man who let out a sneaky fart and nobody can figure out who did it.

[@noble64890]

yknow back then our *ancestors* actually played true magic; dropping that vital 3rd mono-color devotion land was by itself a miracle in a 5 mana color deck

[@louislamothe3832]

Jodah, Archmage Eternal enters the battlefield!

[@Malfuuu]

A streamer quoted once "humans want to believe they are thinking creatures when they definitively are feeling creatures". He wanted to explain why he played a card nobody played at the time. "this card feels bad, it looks bad... but it isn't" And he made good uses of this card, created decks absolutely original. This gave me inspiration and since then I create decks thinking about natural cognitive bias.

[@hydra66]

chromatic lantern back in standard means you can cast anything you want.

[@tcgplayercom]

Fingers crossed!

[@tonysmith9905]

Relying on Lantern is super bad. Get your mana base fixed correctly and you'll never look at it again.

[@Cormonkey18]

And with Jodah anything is possible

[@Sebobles]

Pretty Dece is the reason I’m still subscribed to this channel. Thanks for creating great content.

[@tcgplayercom]

Wow, thanks a lot!

[@asimpletrashgoblin8109]

Hey! 1:30 that’s five color control! That’s when I started playing magic!! We all earn our beats one way or another. Lol

[@Ellicess]

I’m currently running Niv-Mizzet reborn in standard. WHOOOOOOOOO!!!

[@SeaDraGraphics]

I didn't understand anything, but still liked the video!

[@soren1803]

I will say that you’re cherry picking a little bit. A few wubrg messes actually succeeding is not that bad in a sea of 25 years of magic.

[@danielrazo450]

I think it's specifically about the future of Return to Return to Return to Return to Ravnica Standard using sets like Lorwyn as an example. With all 10 shocklands and checklands, we'll be able to build crazy mana bases that would be able to cast something like Niv-Mizzet Parun and Assassin's Trophy in the same deck, for example.

[@soren1803]

Daniel Razo I mean, we also have chromatic lanterns, so anything is possible if you try hard enough

[@concernedmom4204]

@@danielrazo450 nice profile pic mane, i fuckin love zizek

[@confoglclips4865]

People actually say things other than "bwurg"? I didn't know there was any acronym other than the noise you made when you tried to make it work.

[@ApotheosisCM]

@Confogl Clips It's "wubrg" because that's the order of the mana symbols on any five-color cards, which is a good order because it puts all the friendly colors next to each other.

[@sondaddydaddyson3481]

I played a zendikar,lifelink deck, tripple color of green,white,and black... ahhh the good ol days...

[@gormold4163]

I have a casual deck that I fondly refer to as my mono green rainbow deck. It only has forests, but uses cards like market festival and sheltered aerie and pretty much any land enhancing enchantments I could get my hands on. I also use arbor elf and other untappers to pull out up to 56 mana of any color combination I want. The rest of the deck is just various ways to use that much mana at once. I try to have at least one mana dump in each color.

[@theorca3893]

So, quick question. In a limited format do you normally run 24:16 or 23:17? People often tell me 23:17 but I find I get flooded and I usually win with the 24:16. Thoughts?

[@MeandMonkeyLP]

I think the problem is that Wizard is not really aware of Cards like Dragons Hoard, Birds of paradise and the like, which allow you to basically put in a splash for free

[@DrunkManSquakin666]

I use hash marks on a piece of scrap paper to count the number of mana symbols in the costs of my deck and build the mana base to reflect what I see. I only use Any Lands like City of Brass only in decks with three or more colors, mostly because I have a lotta decks and not a lot of money. Makes life easier. But, I do my best to have as many dual and multi-lands as reasonably possible when needed. Nice vid, by the way. Very informative.

[@joelmonteiro1419]

That deck that won worlds was a lot of fun to play with.

[@jackmarino8162]

My commander mana base is simple: at least 30 basics, no exceptions. Add 4 to 10 non basic lands. Add rocks depending on the number of colors in the deck. At least 4 color producing rocks in a 3 color deck. 3 rocks in a 2 color deck and 2 in a mono colored deck. The mana base is different for 4 or 5 colors: 25 basics, 10 to 15 non-basics, 6 rocks and at least 1 "Color Equalizer" such as chromatic lantern.

[@Minion777]

I pray for the day we return to a Lorwyn/Alara standard meta.

[@tcgplayercom]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@ninjagonepostal]

I recall being sent to the 2009 Washington DC Grand Prix with Naya Zoo. 23 lands and an atrocious land base at that. 32 creatures, Gideon Jura and Behemoth Sledge to make Student of Warfare a mini Baneslayer Angel and tutoring sledge with Stoneforge Mystic. It was wild but, even the pros that were present that looked at the deck were surprised to see it running in standard and beating Jund better than 51% of the time. Actually, iirc, the worst I ever did against Jund in that tourney was draw. Sadly,I played against a lot of Super Friends and UW Tapout. Didn't make day 2 by 1 match.

[@justinfaretta4075]

In MTGA my Niv-Mizzet control burn deck is easily my most competitive. The dream is you turn 3 Sarkan, turn 4 Niv. If Niv lives long enough to untap, you just win the game. Period. So worth the risk.

[@halla1rw]

I've got a Sliver Commander deck, so my mana base was easy. I've got 2 of each basic, the 10 scry temples, the 10 Ping lands, and 5 other helpful lands that come in untapped that tap for any color. Throw in Chromatic Lantern, the 2 slivers that make slivers tap for mana, and the creature that does what Lantern does. Basically the base runs perfectly fine! :)

[@Josh-99]

Ha! I'm old enough to have played that old Mirage/Visions 5-color deck. The correct answer to the lands was to run 4 City of Brass and 4 Gemstone Mine with a single Undiscovered Paradise. The deck was meant to be fast, so dealing damage to yourself or depleting your mines wasn't that big of a deal. I kept a Paradise on the sideboard, which I would swap in for a CoB against Sligh or a Gemstone Mine against U/W Control. I also ran a few more Ice Age painlands over Swamps. Also, the Earthquake was amazing, as it allowed you to burn your opponent out of the game or force a draw in an unwinnable situation. You're right about one thing: Magic was wild back then.

[@lain2k3]

Again, Invasion nails it. Awesome multicolor block, real consqeuences for playing too many colors.

[@tcgplayercom]

That block is so great.

[@peterbillings3276]

Yes! My entire framework for multicolor deck mana bases and mana costs is based on that set... there should be a [Price of Progress]

[@flare6255]

I'm watching this in 2022 for like the 30th time. On my other screen I'm watch someone play Grixis Invoke Despair where they're running Galvanic Iteration (UB) and multiple Invoke Despairs (1BBBB) as the main combo in the deck. Some things just don't change.

[@OuterRim-CCG]

We have a 4C deck in the works for GRN standard! I'm hoping that it will be sweet!

[@tcgplayercom]

GL!

[@Yuzuki1337]

Is it gonna be WUBG? :)

[@Cormonkey18]

Play 5 color and convoke Impervious Greatwurm turn 3

I once thought something like Obliterater's quad black cost meant I could only play it in mono black. I now see the error in that, and have situated it into a green-black deck with lots of fight effects.

[@Genderkaiser]

Really the more islands, mountains and forests you have, the better your mana base is. The same goes for plains and swamps; you realistically want to take them out of your deck to optimise your consistency

[@luizgagliardi6614]

Wow, the editing of this video was great! So was the content. Keep it up!

[@tcgplayercom]

Thanks!

[@TheBlackdragon936]

All the groves need is amulet of vigor and something to find the amulet.

[@baconsir1159]

Saw the vivid lands and immediately knew what the mana fixing was lol, used to use those in Commander for Atraxa. Not great, but not bad

[@hallohi2414]

sound logic *drops mic* * walks away*

[@executiveelf8793]

Your mention of Thragtusk gives me a need to mention my casual deck combo. Thragtusk+Archeomancer+Displace, Play Thragtusk and Archeomancer. Cast displace on the two of them to exile them and immediately return them to the field. When Archeomancer enters the field, retrieve Displace from your graveyard. Repeat this as many times as you can pay 3 mana every turn.

[@lordjaraxxus5418]

throw in unwinding clock and mana rocks and make it infinite. edit: or unwinding clock and the artifact that turns everything into an artifact

[@StarkEpiphany]

I realized this back when I started playing when I decided to make prismatic slivers useing only basic forests as the land base.

[@ryanmorfei6325]

One of the many reasons draft is so cool. These restrictions actually matter. You have to do a lot of work to properly support additional colors.

[@miaouew]

I played 5 color black exclusively for many years. Best deck ever. I loved it

[@Virsconte]

Alongside "Pretty Good" by Jon Bois, this could be the start of an ultra-specific subgenre: KZbin videos series about games called Pretty X by people named Jon.

[@bennya863]

old magic in a nut shell bad creatures op instants and sorcerys op lands sick art

[@7yditchfits]

Man, Cruel Control was such a sick deck. A bit before my time but I saw videos of it. Good stuff.

[@evansokolov5023]

I remember one of the first decks I built was a 4 color aggro deck with all basics and 4 evolving wilds. I played 2 plains, 6 mountains, 4 swamps, and 6 forests. I was never mana screwed. If you believe it, it can happen

[@judecomia6896]

This guy is gold.

[@boorango122]

While this is in a custom card, online only format which makes it somewhat errata/update/ban happy with a high power level, my MSEM deck’s mana base is pretty good: four copies of farseek. Four copies of camahueto calf, a 1/1 for G that taps and sacs to bring back a land from your graveyard. Four Chratteri Restoration, a 2-mana sorcery that gives you tapped lands from your hand and graveyard as well as a tapped basic from your library. four of the selesnya shockfetch (you don’t pay life to sac it, but it’s treated like a shockland), some shifting lands (taps for a colorless and sacs for one of four tapped token dual lands per variant), three of each abzan check dual, and the remainder of the mana base is basics. If this sounds completely insane, that’s because it is, and needs to be since it’s an abzan control deck that wins games with mass land animation. And that’s without the absolutely broken biglands that got banned for being broken.

[@ArcturusMinsk]

"if you will it, it is no dream" - Walter Sobchak

[@drewp9819]

This is a really insightful video, and fun an hell to listen to and watch

[@braddorcas9363]

Being greedy in magic is where dreams come true. I always go big and grandiose in edh and I either pull something amazing off, or die a miserable death causing complete chaos in my wake. I'm fine with either.

[@joshwhitmire5753]

Wizards: let’s have guild gates, shocklands, checklands and scrylands in standard all at the same time... seems like a good idea

[@mofire5674]

"If you can dream it you can do it..." One with nothing in viable tier 1 deck, let's go

[@omarsmemorybank]

R/B Aggro w/Hazoreth is one of my favorite decks, I’ll always keep those cards together

[@gulmunthos]

I mean, we are also having Chromatic Lantern, so lands can tap for any color if you wanna jam those in a deck. Don't have to worry about abrade for them.

[@AnguishedDead]

"Screw the math; if you can dream it you can do it" I am teetering really close to making my plans for Abzan knights into WBGR Knights this next standard season. But I want to actually play with my Abzan deck before i try a 4-co version just to splash some boros goodness.

[@willnash7907]

1:35 Honestly 5-colour control decks are my jam, man

[@kellenliame2674]

I did the m20 prerelease yesterday, ran both Vivian, and the 5BBB 8/8 demon. I also threw in any of the dual lands I had because Vivian ult. Holy crap it’s funny playing green black, then all of a sudden you play a red dragon. Actively messed with everyone when I ult’d her.

[@Swoozman]

My mana base philosophy is that greedy mana bases are fine... as long as punishment cards are printed. Price of Progress is my favorite card for a reason. Play your 5 color deck, but pay the consequences for consistency.

[@reggietheanarchistrat8805]

How did he not mention obliterater this entire time

[@lordnevaman5925]

Fun fact, basically every draft deck I've ever made ended up being between 3 and 5 colors because, even when I knew the set and what I wanted, the guys I draft with ended up taking everything I was planning on having come around (even the really BAD cards). So this is pretty much how I play magic.

[@vikingdazed7366]

Couple months back i returned to magic through arena. my constructed archetypes went as follows. first mid range deck with any interesting cards i could find 1-2 colours. Second aggro decks mostly mono colored started to splash some colour for 1-2 cards that i found interesting. third 5 colour controll deck with every intersting win con that could stand on its own in my limited collection. I do not play constructed these days but felt it was on topic.

[@pawsdfgg9238]

I never go above CMC of 2.5 In rainbow. It's just easier to maintain mana stability that way. And I've always had a habit of never including nonbasic in any deck I make unless it's more than 3 colors which mainly/only include lands that tap for one color or the other, never all. They work fine so far so I'm going something right.

[@danielmartinontiverosvizca7325]

"dual lands were a mistake" -Richard Miyasaki

[@evernewb2073]

the very first deck I designed was a (mostly) colorless arcbound deck, it actually had a couple colors in there but even with the full set of urza lands + cloudposts taking up most of the space for lands in there I literally never once had a game where I ran into any trouble getting the token 1 of a color most cards use. the SECOND deck I designed on the other hand? that was a 5-color sliver deck that ran like an absolute machine, even something as simple as having go-get-land cards and basic lands means you will rarely fail to meet color requirements unless the opponent deck wipes out mana sources, having nonland generators of different colors cranks that up to a near certainty, and most of these options just make the deck play faster...speaking of which finding a viable source of card drawing to fit into a deck used to be a LOT harder, that basic draw rate runs dry in a heck of a hurry unless you're placing things that have ways to put your mana to work. funny side note: once I'd gotten assorted mana generation cards together from making a few different decks I found that I could actually make more mana more reliably with a generic 2 dollar green deck manacritter + landsearch engine than the expensive specialized colorless ones, one HUGE trend in MTG is that the best way to do a thing is rarely the intended way (likewise the best use of a card is often not the intended one)