Dealing with set specific abilities

[lhuffman]

Hello all,

This is my first post in the forum.

My family and I began playing when Mirage was the current block. We got very involved in it and have many cards and decks from the early sets (because at the same time a friend quit playing and gave us hundreds and hundreds of cards from the earlier sets)...

Anyway...we stopped playing a few years ago and have only recently picked it back up. Over the years my son and I would buy a pre-constructed deck of the newer sets here and there and give it a try...so we have an ecclectic collection of decks and cards. We have now found our way back to the game and fund ourselves playing every evening.

On to my question...Does anyone know of any guides or articles that give good and practical advice for dealing with abilities that do not mesh with newer or older sets? The perfect example is a deck with shadow...playing against decks that do not have it (boring). Obviously I am not referring to abilities like flying or landwalk or others comnmon through all sets...but those abilities that make a once fun deck now play boring because of abilities that are either too powerful or too weak to play with other sets.

I hate to get rid of these olds decks and cards, but if they cannot play well with other newer (or older) decks then it limits our ability to dip into our decks and really pick the ones we want to play. I hate having to decide if some decks will play with others...would be better to be able to just pick them up and play.

I have toyed with the idea of subbing more common abilities for the less common...but I am thinking that it cannot be that easy.

...or am I missing something? I am not an expert by a long shot, so perhaps someone can tell me how they deal with this.

Thanks all...this group and entire site seems great. A perfect place for casual gamers like my family. I will be here often, I can already tell.

Larry

 

[Spiderman]

I don't know if any guides, but shadow creatures are vulnerable to pretty much any type of removal out there than any deck should have (direct damage, white removal, black removal, blue bounce or stealing).

Having cards and abilities from one block play against another is one of the great things about Magic and one of Garfield's visions. Frankly, if your decks are getting beat or always beating another deck due to a specific ability or mechanic, then the losing deck is probably very narrow in focus.

 

[Limited]

I agree with Spiderman: it was how the game was meant.
But I also understand the problem. Especially with Shadow, it removes all the interaction from combat. When playing against a newer deck, creatures with shadow might as well have "this creature can't block and is unblockable".
As far as I see it, there are only a few of these abilities:

• Shadow, just because it removes all combat interaction and can 'race' a lot of decks which felt they were safe behind big walls.
• Madness, just because there are a lot of cards in which discarding is supposed to be a drawback and Madness almost makes it a bonus.
• Affinity for artifacts, mostly because you figure 4 to 8 artifact removal cards should be enough for any deck, until an deck with 50+ artifact spells appears at the table.
• Horsemanship, simple because it hardly exists and will render a creature unblockable.

You can solve these kind of dificulties in two ways (in my opinion, of course)
1) Agree to not play the Shadow deck again.
2) Build each deck, keeping in mind that you might face a Shadow deck. This can be tedious, but this allows to accept that a certain deck just can't beat the Shadow deck (it would compromise it too much) and you can just concede immediately and move on to the next game.

As for replacing abilities with others; I think this would open a big can of worms. You could agree that Shadow actually means Fear, but than you would just shift the deck advantage to beating non-black decks..

It's a pickle.

 

[Spiderman]

BTW: Welcome!

 

[Gizmo]

The simple way to deal with Shadow is to substitute it for flying. Simply say all Shadow creatures have Flying instead.

 

[jorael]

This is more about shadow than 'block specific mechanics'. If you ask me shadow is just a bit lame, not broken.

By the way, I can't think of any block mechanic being too good or anything. Even affinity is fair if you adhere to the banned list of mirrodin block.

There are quite some good old card that mess with newer mechanics: graveyard removal, cheap counterspells and removal like Terror/swords to plowshares/Wrath of God/nevinyrral's disk still solve a lot of problems...

*note: perhaps I should give Spike Cannibal a try. I bet there will be a lot of counter to take (sunburst, graft mechanics anyone?) *

 

[Oversoul]

This is more about shadow than 'block specific mechanics'. If you ask me shadow is just a bit lame, not broken.

Shadow can be cool. Each of the three types of shadow creatures have their own advantages and there are a few powerful cards to be found in there. One guy in my old playgroup built this U/B shadow deck that was quite versatile and could even hold its own in multiplayer. Shadow isn't even close to broken, but I don't think it's lame either.

 

[hrothmar]

Shadow can be a easy way for ninjas to enter the fray..(f.i. thalakos seer).
Other than that I see no 'cool' uses for shadow creatures.

 

[Limited]

Other than that I see no 'cool' uses for shadow creatures.

Other than a sensless downbeating of the unblockable kind?

 

[DarthFerret]

Shadow is great for any ability that activates only if a creature "damages" an opponent.

 

[TomB]

Shadow's fun as long as you remember to put a few creatures into your deck that can block non-shadow guys, and enough creature control to take care of the rest. I have a white shadow deck that uses the En-Kor creatures, and Mother of Runes, to distribute and dissipate damage from my opponents attacking creatures, and uses Soltari Priests and Monks to do damage to my opponent, hopefully augmented with Empyrial Armor after an Armageddon has gone off.

It can actually be quite nasty if it comes out right...

 

[Mikeymike]

Couple of ways I can think of to deal with Shadow creatures:

1) Creature removal, whether it be spot or mass. Back in the day R/U and U/W did have to deal with shadow critters and were often successful at it.
2) Play Phyrexian Splicer. It is a bit of a goofy card, but it is useful against both shadow and non-shadow decks, and creates fun combat situations. If you and your son are playing creature heavy decks (which it seems you are) it should rarely be a dead card.
3) Effects that prevent/shun creatures from attacking (Collective Restraint, Story Circle, etc.). Slightly alternative method are cards that re-direct unblocked damage (Boros Fury Shield, Mirror Strike, Opal-Eye Konda's Yojimbo)
4) Play a weenie deck of your own.

A deck with efficient creatures with quality removal should be able to handle Shadow critters, since those efficient creatures will likely offer slightly better P/T to cost ratios than the shadow creatures, and be largely unblockable when going heads-up against Shadow. Yet a deck like this would also not be useless when NOT going up against shadow, which is a key.