The Format Less Battled

t has been a while since I last updated this blog, 5 days I believe, and I have been busy in that time. Grad parties and gigs among other things have taken up my time. Leading up to my gig, I had to e-mail one of my friends who has a ton of random drum parts that I have used to update my drum set. I used my dad's camera to take pictures of my broken part so he could get it for me, and when I uploaded it to my computer, I found a couple fairly old pictures from september or so:

I am a big fan of alternate formats, and this is a snapshot of me and my brother in the middle of one. We were playing a double headed giants game, where 2 players play per team and share 30 life. Teams take turns at the same time and go through steps at the same time (draw, combat, etc). On the say this picture was taken, it was only me vs kevin, so we both played 2 decks.

The 2 decks I am playing are Grixis and Bant

The 2 decks Kevin is playing are Merfolk and Naya Allies

Yeah, we all felt that way...

Anyways, after a short trip down memory lane, I want to talk about a couple alternate formats that I think would be really cool to play. The first I want to mention is EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander). I have no idea what that name has to do with how the game is played. In EDH, you have to select a legendary creature and then make a 100 card singleton (no repeats besides basic lands) deck using only the colors in that legendary creature's casting cost. That legendary creature, by the way, is called your general. He starts in exile, but can be cast during your turn as if he was in your hand. I made one just for fun (though it has never actually been used), whose general is Sedris, the Traitor King.

Another cool format, which I have played a ton of is Emperor. This is a 3 vs 3 format (although if you're like me you play 1 person vs 1 person, where each person plays 3 decks) where you have 2 "peons" or soldiers on each team and an emporer in the middle. A team wins when the opposing emporer loses. The emporer cannot be attacked, however, until one his soldiers goes down. The soldiers on either side can only battle eachother, while both emporers can get in on both sides of the battle at all times. Once any soldier goes down, the emporers can start firing off at eachother and everything insane starts happening, because the emporers have had a long time to set up, and have amazing board positions. This is a ton of fun, and I highly recommend playing it whenever you can (although it can take a really long time)

There is another format I have read about, but never delved into called pauper magic. In spite of the rising cost of magic cards (Jace, I'm looking at you), pauper magic is a normal legacy constructed deck consisting only of commons. Some cards have changed rarities over the course of their reprints, so a card that has ever been a common is permitted (Ex: River Boa was printed as a common in Visions, but has since been reprinted as an uncommon in 6th Edition and Zendikar). This sounds like a great format for people who don't go out and buy singles, because you get 10x as many commons than rares per booster pack, so you have an abundant supply of them. This is a format I look forward to tossing a deck together for some time.

Deck Tech Time!

A couple posts ago, I talked about my discard deck that started as a Br deck that soon became mono-black. After making it mono-black, I had a play set of Terminate and another of Blightning sitting next to me. After some trades with Nick, I got Sarkhan the Mad, a 3rd Sprouting Thrynax, and a Mind's Eye. What makes Jund so good in standard is the fact that it is aggressive colors with card advantage provided by Blightning and the Cascade cards. Not having any cascade cards, I instead grabbed Mind's Eye, a supposed junk rare from Mirroden. I think this card has potential though as a way to draw tons of extra cards, especially late game when you have a ton of mana and nothing to with it because your just top decking like crazy. I call the deck Junk Jund simply because it has loose parts of a jund deck that I just happened to have, and didn't spend a penny on it.

News Time!

The big news right now is the approach of M11, the new core set. Today, Wizards announced the pre-release and release cards. As it has been since Mythics were first created, the pre-release card is a Mythic Rare and the release cards is a rare. Also, starting with M10, half of the cards released are brand new. With that being said, check out these epic cards (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/471). While the release rare isn't that exciting (Flameblast dragon had the firbreathing dragon flavor much better), that Giant Mythic Rare got me excited! 6/6 for 4WW is fairly standard, but then toss in Vigilance (a very powerful mechanic is you have never seen a game dominated by huge vigilance creatures) and you have something pretty cool. But wait, theres more! Every turn (unless if they have something very very scary) you get cards back from your graveyard to help finish the fight. Talk about epic! I think this guy may actually see good tournament play. I know if he comes by on a draft table, he is getting snagged immediatly. Some current deck he could go in include UW control, where you could bring back Wall of Omens from your graveyard, drawing you a card at the same time for free. 

Let's rewind to M10. The release card was Vampire Nocturnus. It was a vampire lord that was a miserable mythic until Zendikar released and Vampires were easily the best race there. The Nocturnus's price exploded, and he is still $17 - $18. Now compare the art on the Sun Titan to this (http://www.blackborder.com/q/sites/default/files/images/409_ra4j02p19b.jpg). That art is some of the pieces of art released for Scars of Mirroden, the new set coming out in the fall. I'm just guessing, but Wizards is always trying to hint the future releases.

Vampire Nocturnus (M10) -> Vampires in Zendikar

Eldrazi Monument (Zendikar) & Eye of Ugin (Worldwake) -> Eldrazi Craziness

In planeschase and archenemy, they included a card from the upcoming set in each of the decks (Planeschase ->Zendikar, Archenemy -> M11).

Anyways, I see the sun rising, so it's time to go to bed. Peace