Magic: The Gathering and Commander (EDH)

[Faithkeeper]

Played in a prerelase today (the third one of the weekend for this store) I went 3-1-1 and got 5/28. I used U/B control, I got some strong rares and commons, but I pulled no mythics or foil (top value card was druidic satchel, ant ~$4) and my only loss was to some dude with a very strong R/G deck in round 5 (was 3-0-1 and in second place, the "winner" was decided already but we had to keep doing rounds due to the amount of people.) He had 3 lannowar elves, 2 explores, a primeval, a dungrove, swiftfoot boots, and an overrun. and his reverberated overrun really messed up my counterspells. It was fun though. My draw was against another control deck first round.

I was a little upset about having to do a 5th round, but when I pulled a gideon and frost titan in my 2 prize support packs, I wasn't anymore.

 

[Faithkeeper]

oh and explores = rampant growth, silly me.

 

[DZLE]

Thems the breaks sometimes sounds like you had fun, and awesome pulls. I wish I coulda made it to my local pre release but I couldn't get work off. Kinda bummed because I took first at the besieged and new phyrexia pre releases I went to, so I wanted to see if I could rock three in a row

 

[Faithkeeper]

Yeah, it was loads of fun, I can't wait until Friday for the release tourney. I really like limited format.

 

[Lythium]

Commander is my new favourite format.

How will I play anything else ever again? ;-;

 

[Smooth Criminal]

>_>

I'm going to be playing Commander, too.

:3

Smooth Criminal

 

[Lythium]

All the cool people play Commander. :3c

 

[Lore]

Edh is my preferred name for it, and I love it as well. :3

Anyway, I can't decide on building a Bloodthirst deck or a Zombie Infestation deck that uses a mostly land-based deck with Treasure Hunt to draw a bunch. Any thoughts?

 

[TheLostHylian]

If anyone has/gets Magic Workstation or Cockatrice, we can play online against each other ^__________^

ps: if you play white in EDH it is necessary that you have Serra Ascendant. I watched my friend wreck face with a 6/6 flying lifelinker for 1 white on more than 1 occasion.

 

[DZLE]

Edh is my preferred name for it, and I love it as well. :3

Anyway, I can't decide on building a Bloodthirst deck or a Zombie Infestation deck that uses a mostly land-based deck with Treasure Hunt to draw a bunch. Any thoughts?

EDH / Commander the bess.
My friend is currently running a Black / Red bloodthirst deck with the new Bloodlord of Vasgoth and good Vamps like Nighthawk, bloodghast etc.
But I run over it pretty easily unless he has a hand chock full of burn... His deck is really fun though.

As for an infestation deck, theres a guy who took third (I beat him 2-1 for 2nd) at my local standard, his deck was simply this:
3 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Treasure Hunt
3 Zombie Infestation
50 Land

and an adequate sideboard.

He got lucky all night, but it's super *** cute.

If anyone has/gets Magic Workstation or Cockatrice, we can play online against each other ^__________^

ps: if you play white in EDH it is necessary that you have Serra Ascendant. I watched my friend wreck face with a 6/6 flying lifelinker for 1 white on more than 1 occasion.

I play on Cockatrice! PM me sometime.

And yeah, my playgroup has stated a new rule, You need 45 life for Serra to be online rather than 30, because it was becoming a problem, and gaining 5 life isnt out of the question for a great creature.
At local tournaments however, it's fair game, and yes, I do run it

 

[Sariku]

Hm, cool thread.

I play Standard and EDH, though I honestly prefer Standard. I enjoy EDH, but I get a bit bored of it because of the player pool down here and all their EDH decks that tear mine to pieces.

In standard I play a U/W control variant though, and I had a Goblins themed deck, but I kinda took it apart when I sold my Koths.

I miss Jund.

And the Devour for Power deck is stupid. It's crazy as it is, and all the best targets for the general are fifty cent rares like Jin Gitaxous (spelling) and Skytherix the Hard-To-Spell Dragon (spelling). I bought the worst Commander deck, being Rikku. Silly me.

*facepalm*

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Devour for Power is freaking baller.

If Morality Shift isn't on the ban list, I'm dumping that in there and I'm going to laugh my *** off.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Lore]

@Sariku: Jin is actually hovering at the 2.50 range, I believe.

And I'm gonna go with bloodthirst since my lgs doesn't have any ZI's.

 

[Lythium]

Yeah, Devour for Power is sexy.

I bought the Mirror Mastery one, looked through it, then gave it to my brother.

 

[Sariku]

So I'm tinkering my decklist for tomorrow, so I wonder if anyone who actually has competitive play experience has any worthwhile suggestions.

U/W Control
x26 Lands:
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Tectonic Edge
1x Mystifying Maze
4x Plains
5x Island

x12 Creature Spells
4x Wall of Omens
3x Frost Titan
2x Sun Titan
2x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Consecrated Sphinx

x18 Non-Creature Spells
x4 Preordain
x4 Mana Leak
x1 Deprive
x4 Day of Judgment
x2 Dismember
x3 Oblivion Ring

x6 Planeswalkers
x2 Gideon Jura
x2 Jace Beleren
x2 Venser the Sojourner

x15 Side board
x4 Spreading Seas
x4 Kor Firewalker
x3 Celestial Purge
x2 Condemn
x2 Divine Offering

I need to cut two cards from my main board, but I'm not sure what yet. I know I SHOULD cut Titans, but I don't want to cut any of my fatties since I'm going 4-1 every week at FNM. But maybe I'll try it this week? Ideas are welcome.

 

[Lore]

You really don't have to cut out anything. There's no rule that you can't have over 60 cards, and if it's only 1 or 2 over, it doesn't make too much of a difference.

Just got done with an hour and a half long EDH battle! My grave was exiled right after a buried alive (targeting Artisan of Kozilek, Damia, and Wrexial), so I had to play smart from there on out. Thanks to mill on both of us (he was running a GUB deck that had some mill, a mixture of great cards, and Damia that he borrowed from me as commander) we each had over 25 cards in our graves, so my Sewer Nemesis had lots of fun. However, even though I had Brawn in the grave, his Blightsteel Colossus kept knocking sewer lower and keeping me from winning via trample.

By the last turn, I had a Svgothos, the restless tomb (man land, name might be wrong), Sewer Nemesis, and a Mimeoplasm copying Vorosh. My opponent's hex parasite kept taking away any counters on my Vorosh, and since he had a card that let him untap everything on my turn, he kept all counters far away from Vorosh.

On that turn, I had 9 poison counters (he had Inexorable Tide), 37 life. He had 33 life, 14 commander damage. Next turn he was gonna win, so I had to draw a card to win it...

And drew Lhurgoyf, and won via trample damage. :3

 

[Sariku]

I 100% disagree on you saying having over 60 cards doesn't matter much.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

I 100% disagree on you saying having over 60 cards doesn't matter much.

Depends on the comp of your deck, Sariku. Forty to sixty cards is a good baseline (it's what most decks should be around, imo) but it is by no means set in stone. A handful of cards really isn't going to be throwing off your draw THAT much, especially if it's something like a stompy deck where you throw in something like a non-basic land or a Llanowar elf.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Sariku]

Depends on the comp of your deck, Sariku. Forty to sixty cards is a good baseline (it's what most decks should be around, imo) but it is by no means set in stone. A handful of cards really isn't going to be throwing off your draw THAT much, especially if it's something like a stompy deck where you throw in something like a non-basic land or a Llanowar elf.

Smooth Criminal

Sixty minimum, 40 is not an option in standard.

And if it's something like swapping a forest for a lanawar elf, go for it if you want. But when it's something like cutting usable cards for a card that gives options, it's different. You have both and it clogs up your draws.

I'm cutting a DoJ and a Frosty.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

That's why I said it depends on deck comp, man. I agree with you otherwise. Big difference when you're putting in a low cost, mana-producing creature into a stompy deck versus what you're running right now.

And I didn't know about the sixty card minimum in standard. I always thought forty was the lowest you could go.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Sariku]

That's why I said it depends on deck comp, man. I agree with you otherwise. Big difference when you're putting in a low cost, mana-producing creature into a stompy deck versus what you're running right now.

And I didn't know about the sixty card minimum in standard. I always thought forty was the lowest you could go.

Smooth Criminal

In limited formats, you have a 40 card min.

In standard, extended, legacy, etc. you have a 60 card min.

In EDH, of course, you have a 100 card minimum and a 100 card maximum.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Ah.

Okay.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Smooth Criminal

 

[1048576]

So I'm tinkering my decklist for tomorrow, so I wonder if anyone who actually has competitive play experience has any worthwhile suggestions.

U/W Control
x26 Lands:
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Tectonic Edge
1x Mystifying Maze
4x Plains
5x Island

x12 Creature Spells
4x Wall of Omens
3x Frost Titan
2x Sun Titan
2x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Consecrated Sphinx

x18 Non-Creature Spells
x4 Preordain
x4 Mana Leak
x1 Deprive
x4 Day of Judgment
x2 Dismember
x3 Oblivion Ring

x6 Planeswalkers
x2 Gideon Jura
x2 Jace Beleren
x2 Venser the Sojourner

x15 Side board
x4 Spreading Seas
x4 Kor Firewalker
x3 Celestial Purge
x2 Condemn
x2 Divine Offering

I need to cut two cards from my main board, but I'm not sure what yet. I know I SHOULD cut Titans, but I don't want to cut any of my fatties since I'm going 4-1 every week at FNM. But maybe I'll try it this week? Ideas are welcome.

The two big ballers in standard right now are Valakut and Splinter Twin, and neither of those care about your sorcery-speed creature stoppage, so I'd cut Omens and DoJ and move 3 Timely Reinforcements to the main to cover all those creature/aggro matchups.

Ponder and Preordain are both legal, and they're both good enough for legacy, and they're both common. 4 of each.

You have too much high-CC stuff. I count 12 cards CC5 or higher. Most decks are much faster than that. You have 4 Ponder and 4 Preordain, so I'd try to cut that down to about 8. You choose. Personally, I think Venser and Sun Titan don't belong, as you don't have enough targets. Tec Edge is basically the best thing you can be doing, and you'll have enough of them if you need to find them. You definitely want a singleton Karn if you can get your hands on it. Again, you're cantrippin', so you'll find him as soon as you get that high. 8 library search also means you can cut a single land if you want.

I'd add more counterspells. Keep them spread out, since you can find the one you need when you need it.

The last couple slots can go to singleton blow-out cards like Revoke Existence, Surgical Extraction (kills Twin and Bloodghast Shenanigans,) and Day (just to keep them honest.) I wouldn't add low-CC creatures, since Dismember is everywhere and you have no other targets for it.

Edit: Tempered Steel is a real deck. Side Revoke Existences.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Numbers is good at this sort of thing.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Sariku]

The two big ballers in standard right now are Valakut and Splinter Twin, and neither of those care about your sorcery-speed creature stoppage, so I'd cut Omens and DoJ and move 3 Timely Reinforcements to the main to cover all those creature/aggro matchups.

Ponder and Preordain are both legal, and they're both good enough for legacy, and they're both common. 4 of each.

You have too much high-CC stuff. I count 12 cards CC5 or higher. Most decks are much faster than that. You have 4 Ponder and 4 Preordain, so I'd try to cut that down to about 8. You choose. Personally, I think Venser and Sun Titan don't belong, as you don't have enough targets. Tec Edge is basically the best thing you can be doing, and you'll have enough of them if you need to find them. You definitely want a singleton Karn if you can get your hands on it. Again, you're cantrippin', so you'll find him as soon as you get that high. 8 library search also means you can cut a single land if you want.

I'd add more counterspells. Keep them spread out, since you can find the one you need when you need it.

The last couple slots can go to singleton blow-out cards like Revoke Existence and Surgical Extraction (kills Twin and Bloodghast Shenanigans). I wouldn't add low-CC creatures, since Dismember is everywhere and you have no other targets for it.

Edit: Tempered Steel is a real deck. Side Revoke Existences.

Honestly? I disagree with most everything you just said. Especially using Ponder AND Preordain. The only deck that needs that is Pyromancer Ascension, and last I checked that wasn't this deck. Preordain is strictly better than Ponder, so it sticks. Ponder just isn't very good.

I have a lot of fatties because my deck revolves around Venser doing sick **** with them. Venser plus Frost Titan wins me most of my games because they stop the opponent from doing anything with their field.

Sun Titan grabs tectonic edge, dead Colonnades, Jace Belerens, Oblivion Rings, Wall of Omens, Spreading Seas, AND Kor Firewalker. Sun Titan and Venser means I'm allowed to be risky with my deck. Revoke Existence is garbage when we have Divine Offering, and Divine Offering has no reason to be main boarded unless you're very scared of spellskites, which Dismember bodies.

My meta also plays a ton of aggro of control, very few combo, and DoJ is a baller against every form of aggro except Glint Hawk Idol, Gideon, and man lands. I barely want to take out a fourth DoJ, but I am because I kind of have to to make room for O-Ring. Omens are arguably one of the best easy Venser targets, stops aggro, keeps me from dying to Phyrexian Obliterator, is grabbed by Sun Titan, and can't be bolted.

The deck has a lot of synergy, and TBH most of your suggestions were just bad for what I'm trying. I have a crazy good matchup against Valakut; it's a joke to my deck. Splintertwin on the other hand is another beast, but the suggestions you made doesn't stop the twin besides the way already too late Surgical Extraction.

Sorry for bashing everything you said (and how bad my spelling is today), but I think that you're completely wrong.

And I used to mainboard six counterspells, but they just aren't important right now where I play. Spot removal and interactions is more important. And then my 5 hard counters still get the job done regardless.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

>_>

Why did you even ask for advice if your deck is pretty much "perfect" as it is?

Smooth Criminal

 

[Sariku]

It's not perfect, at all, but the ideas that were given to me just didn't fit into the deck.

And all I asked was for help on what cards to cut.

 

[1048576]

Hmmm, if you don't need to stop Twin that's one thing, but I don't think your assessment is very fair.

Venser + Titan is almost the same as Titan + Titan or Titan + Phantasmal Image. Obviously Titan + Titan wins games, but I don't think having 11 mana worth of card go undisrupted should be plan A.

Surgical Exraction is more for Vengevines and stuff you can't otherwise deal with. If you don't have that, then feel free to disregard. The twin boost is more icing than the primary function.

Counterspells (hard counters, like Cancel, not Spell Pierce) work best against Twin and Valakut, because they can't really afford to play the permission game with you.

You should specify the meta in which you play next time. That's prolly the source of most of our disagreement. I still think you can afford to give up like 8 of the slots you're devoting only to aggro without losing much game to it.

As for Sun Titan, you have 9 non-land targets mainboard, and I suggested taking out 4 of them. O-Rings tend to get exiled or just sit there more than they hit the graveyard, so I don't think my statement that you have too few targets for Sun Titan is unreasonable.

Edit: The largest reason to play Ponder right now (aside from the fact that it's just a really good card, and it will win you the permission game in the mirror) is that the meta is very open right now, so you need a lot of different answers. You don't have room to play 8 Tec Edge against Valakut, 5 Timely Reinforcements against aggro, 4 Dismember against Twin, 4 lil' Jace against control, etc...) Having all those cantrips lets you do that with the cost of a bit of tempo, but the benefit of filtering away those DoJs you don't need in the control matchup, for example.

If you are trying to be proactive and run mostly generic answers, that's understandable to not run Ponder. But I can't see the cost in something like -1 DoJ -1 WoO -1 Frost Titan -1 land + 4 Ponder.

 

[Sariku]

Hmmm, if you don't need to stop Twin that's one thing, but I don't think your assessment is very fair.

Venser + Titan is almost the same as Titan + Titan or Titan + Phantasmal Image. Obviously Titan + Titan wins games, but I don't think having 11 mana worth of card go undisrupted should be plan A.

Surgical Exraction is more for Vengevines and stuff you can't otherwise deal with. If you don't have that, then feel free to disregard. The twin boost is more icing than the primary function.

Counterspells (hard counters, like Cancel, not Spell Pierce) work best against Twin and Valakut, because they can't really afford to play the permission game with you.

You should specify the meta in which you play next time. That's prolly the source of most of our disagreement. I still think you can afford to give up like 8 of the slots you're devoting only to aggro without losing much game to it.

As for Sun Titan, you have 9 non-land targets mainboard, and I suggested taking out 4 of them. O-Rings tend to get exiled or just sit there more than they hit the graveyard, so I don't think my statement that you have too few targets for Sun Titan is unreasonable.

S-Extraction is okay against Valakut if I kill a permanent, or their land, but I have enough cover for that deck. Yes, the Titans are a lot and that's one of the reasons my deck isn't agreed upon when people talk about it. To me, it's just increasing my chances of drawing them. Have they screwed me over before? Kinndaaaaa, yeah, but not the point that I could have been fixed with other playable cards.

If I start getting wrecked by Valakut, I have flashfreezes I can sideboard.

DoJ doesn't just stop aggro. I'll gladly let decks summon big creatures, like Primetimes or Inferno Titans just so I can DoJ it and their battlements or other nonsense (as long as I'll be promised next turn in a favorable situation).

And where do O-Rings get exiled from? Other O-Rings? If I O-ring something and someone else O-rings that, they wasted a great card just to get their other KC back into the field, rather than getting rid of one of my own. That sounds like a good deal to me. It gets rid of planeswalkers and Titans, which Dismember can't get rid of.

 

[1048576]

Leonin-Relic Warder, Karn, and Revoke Existence will exile it as well, while Beast Within, Acidic Slime, and Nature's Claim will destroy it.

You sound like you know what you're talking about, so I'm sorry for insulting your intelligence, but DoJ on Primeval is much, much worse than countering it. I don't think this is a point of contention. If you have a lot of titans as well as aggro, I highly recommend dropping something: DoJ, Wurmcoil, w/e, for another counterspell.

I do think the whole house of cards is sort of suboptimal. Timely Reinforcements beats most of these aggro decks by itself, but you can't run it because you need the whole package of Wall of Omens, Sun Titan, and Venser if you're going to be running any of them. It's stable to be sure, but I just don't like any of those cards, and I don't think they do enough when together to justify running them individually. I've made my point though, and you've made yours. To be fair to you, I've never used your deck, and I've never been in your local.

What's the Wurmcoil for? My first guess would be that you're hoping to get out of reach of Valakut, but if they get 3 Valakuts on the table you're just dead anyway, so you're better off trying to answer the Primeval. My second guess is that it's another aggro killer. You already have so much of that though. It's redundant. You can certainly make 60 by taking them out if that's your justification.

Edit again: This is going to sound stupid, but I think you'll get what I mean without me having to explain. Ponder is also good because it's easy to side out.

 

[Sariku]

Leonin-Relic Warder, Karn, and Revoke Existence will exile it as well, while Beast Within, Acidic Slime, and Nature's Claim will destroy it.

Everything except Revoke Existence is an absolutely great point, so I will give that to you. I forgot how many vindicates we have in Standard right now.

You sound like you know what you're talking about, so I'm sorry for insulting your intelligence, but DoJ on Primeval is much, much worse than countering it. I don't think this is a point of contention. If you have a lot of titans as well as aggro, I highly recommend dropping something: DoJ, Wurmcoil, w/e, for another counterspell.

What's the Wurmcoil for? My first guess would be that you're hoping to get out of reach of Valakut, but if they get 3 Valakuts on the table you're just dead anyway, so you're better off trying to answer the Primeval. My second guess is that it's another aggro killer. You already have so much of that though. It's redundant. You can certainly make 60 by taking them out if that's your justification.

I forgot to explain myself a bit with the DoJ a Primetime, lol. In my mind when I go through that situation, I tell myself I'm okay counterspelling a creature to bait a summoning trap, just to get more value from my card (luckily I've never hit a Terrestadon, haha), so I agree with what I said earlier was completely stupid. The other though, I will take a risk and play into a Summoning Trap to do that.

And Wurmcoil has no special reason, and if I found a much better option other than having a fatty, then I'd surely do it. I thought about boarding them out, but they do have an okay matchup against aggro and can somewhat survive after DoJ. I like them in the mirror as well. It also dodges Go for the Throat (dunno why people play that card, I think it's bad right now).

 

[1048576]

because spellskite can't redirect it to itself.

 

[Sariku]

because spellskite can't redirect it to itself.

If you want to target it, you can do it either way. It was an example. Spellskite isn't as hot as I thought it was a few weeks ago.

But Phyrexian Metamorph... <3

 

[DZLE]

I'd 2 DoJ tbh. 4 is too clunky in my personal opinion.
It sounds like you know your meta better than any of us though, so you should be able to playtest and over a period of time know what you won't miss more than the next.

In other news, I took 1st in Standard tonight. New composition of my deck feels great.

 

[1048576]

I'm testing for standard post rotation. New Garruk + Gideon is sick. With a lil' ramp, you draw 6 cards on turn 5. Next turn, you have a planeswalker or two, your deck in your hand, and 7 mana to play with. It's hard to lose from there.

Edit: I also think Precursom Golem is going to skyrocket in value. Red has Grim Lavamancer to fill the inst/sorcery burn role, black players are turning to go for the throat, and white didn't get it's typical 1-mana exile target creature.

 

[DZLE]

My deck isn't losing too much post rotation. The changes won't be hard to make.

The sideboard is getting ****ed, though.

 

[Sariku]

I went 4-1 last night at FNM, taking 4th place. I really hate how my shop does it, as they don't do top eight. They play until there is an undefeated. Which you can say "Just don't lose" in response to my complaining, but it's aggravting how you can play someone who isn't very good first or second round, and then because they constantly lose, your tie breaker becomes bad when the tournament is over. That's what has happened with me the past two weeks. I went 4-1, but placed 5th and 6th (my store pays out packs from 1st to 4th place) just because I played "worse players."

I wish there was a top eight, so that if I didn't place first, that's my fault, and not, dare I say it, just luck.

I lost to a really bad player who always seemed to get just the right card, which seems to happen a lot to me. He was playing the Caw-Blade decklist that just won that StarCity event. The winner of my FNM was playing Puresteel Paladin, with second playing Caw-Blade, third was something, and I placed fourth.

It was an okay night. :o

 

[1048576]

This is my favorite deck for post-rotation:

11. Swamp
12. Forest

4. Perilous Myr
4. Viridian Emissary
4. Beast Within
4. Glissa, the Traitor

4. Birthing Pod
3. Mimic Vat

1. Viridian Corruptor
3. Skinrender
2. Solemn Simulcrum
2. Precursor Golem
2. Acidic Slime
1. Wurmcoil Engine
1. Massacre Wurm
1. Sheoldred, Whispering One
1. Rune-Scarred Demon

Pretty self-explanatory. Beast Within, Skinrender, and Glissa work surprisingly well together. Beast Within + Mimic Vat are basically your only game against combo.

 

[DZLE]

No Grave Titan in that list makes me cringe, but if it's for casual, then that looks pretty sweet.

Still, not much use looking at full decklists for post rotation because you're missing all the cards of ISD.

I could see that deck getting crazy if it got going, but no idea why you'd main deck massacre wurm over grave titan, same with rune scarred demon in such a straight forward non-toolbox list. If you put 2 grave titans in those slots the deck instantly looks better, especially with mimic vat. Thats 4 zombie tokens you get to keep per vat activation.

G-titan under a vat is 100% game unless they kill your vat, basically.

 

[1048576]

Funny you should mention that. I played this deck today against an aggressive white token deck. I won 2 games at 1 life. One off the back of Rune Scarred fetching Massacre Wurm, another off Precursor Golem into Massacre Wurm. I agree Massacre Wurm is underwhelming in a vaccuum compared to Grave Titan, but he fills a void in this deck.

Precursor is better under Vat and saccing with Birthing Pod. Grave Titan is better standalone, but Precursor fills the same role, so I wanted to be flexible and not have DoJ answer everything. There's no Lightning Bolt post rotation, so Precursor becomes a bit more dangerous.

I don't think there's a better 7 drop than Rune Scarred right now for the deck. Something that's easy to overlook is that he's the only guy in the deck with flying, which comes up when trying to prevent those last couple points of chip damage. I can't just run one 7-drop in case I draw it.

Glissa adds a lot of consistency to the deck because she can get Pod or Vat (or Precursor) back if they get destroyed. Also, the whole reason I built the deck is because the Johnny in me wanted to play with Glissa, so she stays lol.

My casual circle of friends has a rule where if your hand has 0 lands, you get to mulligan for free. So I proxied a legacy dredge deck with a single Bazaar of Baghdad. Our playgroup no longer uses that rule.

The reason I'm testing for Innistrad now is that I want to see what holes exist in the metagame, and what the typical angles of attack are, what decks need, etc... That way I can evaluate a card and know whether it''s price will go up or down before it does. For example, UW control is a good deck, but it needs a second high-level counterspell. Green ramp needs something that can make 2 mana, so if Khalni Heart Expedition was reprinted, I'd scoop them up. There's no good combos right now (post Zendikar,) so if any combo exists, it would have to be really difficult and/or unimpressive before people don't buy it and build decks with it. The meta post innistrad will likely not be gunning for combo. Tempered Steel is far better than anything red, but it's fairly tight and it has enough tools despite being mono-colored, so I don't think aggro cards will make too big a stir. Creeping Corrosion is still bad. Etc...

If I had money right now, I'd buy:
Karn
Precursor Golem
Frost Titan
Vengeful Pharoah (useful in older formats, as a totally free effect)
Timely Reinforcements
Necrotic Ooze (dunno why everyone seems to have missed this one)

Lastly, I have more fun in a smaller card pool I can fully explore, as opposed to something like extended where your opening hand matters far more than what deck you picked.