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Mar 25, 2012 -- 6:10PM, Beniwiwi wrote:

I totally agree, it's way too slow, still I would take it 10 times out of 10 over Stasis wich is probably the most ridiculous card, right before Chaos orb .

Ummm... what exactly do Pursuit of Knowledge and Stasis have in common lol? It's not like we're not comparing Ponder to Preordain with that one :P.

Mar 26, 2012 -- 6:50AM, Beniwiwi wrote:

Both are cards that at first look you go" Oh I think could do something with this" but then you realize there isn't much you can really do on a fast and effective basis so you just forget them.

Both are also 2 pretty crappy rares.

Emphasis mine.

Going to have to disagree with you on this. Stasis , when combined with Frozen Aether , can lock your opponents out of the game incredibly quickly. All you need is something like Forsaken City  to create a hard lock.

May 2, 2012 -- 8:25PM, trann wrote:

Great guide, I am still coming back to it and the other color guides to help me with my card choices.  I especially pay attention to sample deck lists and I often use them as a launch point for my own decks.  I was looking to add a multiplayer white deck to my collection (currently only have the New Phyrexia white event deck for the rare duels with friends) but noticed that the only really budget deck in the list was the Rebel Aggro deck.  This was kind of disappointing because I really like the White Mage playstyle of lifegain/protection/weenies.

The sad reality is that Magic isn't a cheap game any more. Any card that's even remotely playable is $5.00+, especially if it's from an older set. This is especially true for "bad" colors such as White that don't get very many playables to begin with. When it does get a good card it will almost inevitably shoot up in price. I do my best to list budget decks whenever I can, but it's becoming more and more difficult as the game increases in popularity. I try to look at my lists and shave money cards wherever I can, but in doing so I usually make the deck much weaker and less consistent. There's only so much that I can cut before I'm looking at a deck that I wouldn't personally play, and that defeats the whole purpose of this guide. I want to show people what powerful decks look like, but that's not always easy to do on a budget. Hell, that's putting it far too lightly. Budget decks are always going to be bad. That's why they're budget decks. If you could play a hyper-competitive deck that was inexpensive to build then everyone would be fielding it. Budget decks are cheap because they use low quality cards, and low quality cards aren't what you want to be playing with in general. That's why I try and urge people to think of my decks as stepping stones to building their own. You don't need to copy them card-for-card, you just need to embrace the theory behind the deck itself. My token aggro deck doesn't need multiple Elspeths. You could run some Carthars' Crusade s in those slots or whatever. I want to showcase a powerful card like Elspeth since she will make the deck stronger overall, but you can still substitute her for budget options if needed.

May 2, 2012 -- 8:25PM, trann wrote:

Does White just have few really stand-out card choices for multiplayer?  It looks like many of the stand-out duel cards are also really good multiplayer performers, which is different than the offerings Black has (affordable cards that are powerhouses in multiplayer like Exsanguinate ).

White is a very weak color in general, which makes it hard to build solid decks for it. Its best cards tend to be things such as Limited Resources , Armageddon and Balance , which are much more powerful than Exsanguinate could ever hope to be. They're not "fun" cards however, so people tend to avoid them. As such, you're basically playing with the (arguably) worst color and aren't even taking into consideration its best cards. Also, a lot of White staples are cards such as Swords to Plowshares and various weenies, which tend to fare miserably in big Chaos games. I know that some people hate on me for bashing StP and other spot removal, but in 7 years of playing multiplayer magic it's never failed to disappoint me. What it basically boils down to is that people end up playing White for Wrath of God and then some mediocre spells and effects. That's just not going to cut it more often than not. WoG is good, but it's not enough to win you games. Again, as good as White's removal is, it only has a select-few "power" cards that it can use to win the game, and those cards tend to be rather costly.

May 2, 2012 -- 8:25PM, trann wrote:

Lastly, I picked up a set of the Rebel Aggro deck you had listed.  I am pretty excited to test it out with some of the spare equipment all-stars I have laying around for my unfinished Equipment aggro deck ( Batterskull , Umezawa's Jitte , Loxodon Warhammer ).  What do you think about adding Outrider en-Kor to the list as a combo with Cho-Manno, Revolutionary ?  Or even a singleton Mirror Entity ?

Mirror Entity should just plain be in the deck. It's a mistake to not have some listed. I'll update the deck to reflect that during my next update. The other cards seem fine, but don't particularly excite me. Cho seems like he'd be a fine a blocker, so I don't see why you couldn't add a few them in the deck. The Outrider just seems lackluster, as I'm not too sure what it actually accomplishes. It just seems like a "3/3" (or whatever) with a fairly marginal ability.