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your dream deck isn't legal in any format so building it would be kind of a waste. It's like playing a deck with 42 lightning bolts and 18 land. Would run great but it wouldn't be a fair fight as you're not sticking to the rules of the game.

That and you're mana curve is all screwed up and you don't run enough mana sources to support your deck's high casting cost spells. I think even with it being as illegal as it is it would still loose to most deck out there.

[QUOTE=Seth]your dream deck isn't legal in any format so building it would be kind of a waste. It's like playing a deck with 42 lightning bolts and 18 land. Would run great but it wouldn't be a fair fight as you're not sticking to the rules of the game.
[/QUOTE]

It's perfectly legal for casual.

the "rules of the game" do not make any format-based limitations.

if it's got 60+ cards and no more than 4 copies of anything other than basic lands: it's legal.

[QUOTE=Seth]your dream deck isn't legal in any format so building it would be kind of a waste. It's like playing a deck with 42 lightning bolts and 18 land. Would run great but it wouldn't be a fair fight as you're not sticking to the rules of the game.

That and you're mana curve is all screwed up and you don't run enough mana sources to support your deck's high casting cost spells. I think even with it being as illegal as it is it would still loose to most deck out there.[/QUOTE]

so, what could I do to change it that would make it more legal, and might help with mana curve? Also how would I be able to find out if a card is legal in any given format or not?

Seras is correct that there is no actual card restriction for casual play but most players like to stick to the vintage restriction list for casual play because it makes the game more balanced. Vintage is the format that allows most cards ever printed to be played but has a very small limited list of cards that are just to broken to be played as 4 offs. It also has a few banned cards but not many.

constructed formats and their banned/restriction lists can be found here

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=judge/resources/banned

I'll look at your deck tomorrow and see if I can optimize it.

Cool, thank you very much. :)

I looked at all the cards and I failed to see the synergy. I don't understand why you play what you play. I mean I see a bunch of good cards and a bunch of well...not so good... cards but there's no synergy, the cards don't really support eachother.

Riptide Shapeshifter into Emrakul is obvious
Timevault, Timewalk, they are simply good (over the top broken but good) cards

the rest I don't see

- Mindslaver = brilliant if you either have a multiplayer deck or some sort of super controlish or combo deck which yours isn't

- Act of Treason and Dominus of Fealty: not bad cards but without doing anything unfair to either sacrifice the creatures you steal or permanently gain control of them they are not great either.

- Bazaar Trader, Telepathy, Orcish Spy, Boggart Forager, Fatestitcher: what do these cards do in your deck? I don't see it

- Eater of Days: I just see a big creature with an ability that says the other guy wins, what am I missing?


I don't mind helping but I don't know what you want to do with the deck.

The bazzar trader is for me to keep what I take with the act of treason and the dominus, the fatestitcher is to untap the time vault every turn. The orcish spy is to check if there is anything worth taking from the top of their deck with the telemin performance, and the forager is there to get something possibly better. Eater of days is there because I needed to have a big guy for cheap. And if I am taking at least 3 turns to their one, I think that sacrificing two of those to get it out is a fair deal.

And the telepathy allows me to determine if using the mindslaver at any given point is worth doing. Which also allows me to play their own powerful creatures and take them for myself with the gather specimens.

Does that make a little more sense?

And thank you for the help. It is very appreciated. I am still really new to the game and haven't really done a lot yet. So... Yeah. :)

ok I'm with you about everything except the Bazaar trader and keeping stuff. Bazaar trader gives permanents away, how does it let you keep what you take?

Bazaar trader says tap, target player gains control of target artifact, creature, or land you control.

It doesn't say that player has to be an opponent. And the end of turn no longer applies from the act of treason or the dominus because it is a separate instance of changing control.

Intersting approach. I'm not entirly convinced that it works but I guess it will. Still I would ask a judge like Nightloki to be 100% sure.

Anyway what about playing this package:

1xVoltaic Key
1xSundial of the Infinite
1xTime Vault
1xMindslaver
4xFabricate
1xAcademy Ruins

Sundial allows you to permanently keep creatures you steel with Act of Treason and simular spells, Key allows you to untap Time Vault and Fabricate is glue that fetches the artifact you need. Academy Ruins makes it more difficult to break.

Playing 4xMana Drain could be the mana boost you need to combo out (infinite turns/infinite mindslaver).

Good deck fillers would be instand speed stuff (so you can keep mana open to counter at all times) like Snapcaster mage, Counterspell, Impulse, Brainstorm...

keeping Riptide Shapeshifter/Emrakul seems like a good idea for an alternative win.

If you keep it Red/Blue you could go

4xGoblin Welder
combination of Seat of the Synod/Great Furnace
Maybe Trinket Mage with a little toolbox like (Sensei's Divining Top, Grafdiggers Cage, Tormod's Crypt, Meekstone...)
4xThirst for Knowledge

You can make a pretty strong brew here. If you buy the 1 Timevault and forget the rest of the P9 cards (Timewalks) then you can keep your deck at a 500$ budget. If you add 4xMana Drain to it you can aim at a budget of up to a 1000$. I know this is just a dream deck for you but putting some figurs down might put things in perspective.
It's still far cheaper then what I play as a tournament deck these days :)

Hm... That is a good idea. Having only one time vault, and being able to retrieve it from anywhere. And the voltaic key would be faster than the fatestitcher because of cmc, and summon sickness. although, it costs one to use instead of free like the stitcher.

I like your suggestion, I will probably look into switching it to something similar to that setup.

Although I am not sure how the sundial helps me keep stuff. It ends the turn, and therefore skips to the end phase where effects like act of treason wear off. Or am I incorrect about that?

Either way... Thanks for the help. :). What do you think of the second deck?

[QUOTE=Kazzong]Although I am not sure how the sundial helps me keep stuff. It ends the turn, and therefore skips to the end phase where effects like act of treason wear off. Or am I incorrect about that?

Either way... Thanks for the help. :). What do you think of the second deck?[/QUOTE]

Sundial exiles everything on the stack, what you need to do is let the delayed triggered effect of act of treason go on the stack, then end the turn. Sundial exiles the effect from the stack and it won't resolve so you don't have to give the creature back. The effect did trigger so it won't trigger again.

I'll look at your second deck and get back to you

A second great way to untap Time vault and tutor it up or tutor other combo elements is to include a few Tezzeret the Seeker.


Your second deck is a myr deck, not really my thing. Just make a lot of myrs and kill the other dude, or generate infinite mana and "fireball" him, seems to be what you to have going on now. Just be aware of the big vulnerability of these kinds of creature decks. 1 well timed wrath of god and you're dead.

[QUOTE=Seth]Intersting approach. I'm not entirly convinced that it works but I guess it will. Still I would ask a judge like Nightloki to be 100% sure.[/QUOTE]

It's one of the rulings on Bazaar Trader, it even uses Act of Treason as the example =)

[QUOTE=Seras]It's one of the rulings on Bazaar Trader, it even uses Act of Treason as the example =)[/QUOTE]

so it's actually good for something :)

[QUOTE=Seth]A second great way to untap Time vault and tutor it up or tutor other combo elements is to include a few Tezzeret the Seeker.


Your second deck is a myr deck, not really my thing. Just make a lot of myrs and kill the other dude, or generate infinite mana and "fireball" him, seems to be what you to have going on now. Just be aware of the big vulnerability of these kinds of creature decks. 1 well timed wrath of god and you're dead.[/QUOTE]

Yeah tezzeret would be good, but I can't stand playing with planeswalkers inmy decks. Althiugh admittedly I do have a lone agent of bolas in another deck. But, the seeker would be a very good way to tutor, and untap the timevault.

so, would there be any counter cards that would work well in the myr deck? Or perhaps maybe an eldrazi monument would do it? or a sadistic sacrament perhaps might keep me safe?