Welcome to the GML

Recently, I have been reading Patrick Chapin's book "Next Level Magic" which spends almost 400 pages delving into Magic theory and ultimately is supposed to make you a better Magic player. I am about 115 pages in and I have already learned a ton!

One thing that I feel qualified and intelligent enough to talk about is how he discussed the importance of having a Magic team. Before I had started reading this book, I had heard from time to time about pros testing with others before the events to make the best deck, but it wasn't until I read his section on playtest groups that it really hit me: Magic is comprable to a professional sport!

Especially in a "new" Standard like we currently have, where the rotation was only a month ago, new decks are constantly evolving and changing. In my last post I mentioned I played UB Control at FNM and Game Day, but on the night between I changed and moved some tech between main and the board. Even though Game Day was only yesterday, I already have some new tech I want to test with Vampire Hexmage and Mimic Vat to create an effective {3: destroy target planeswalker} engine, which would allow me to save my counterspells for other more prevalent threats. Also, playing Doom Blade on Kozelik and stealing it with Mimic Vat aint bad either in the late game.

Quick Aside
{
    I am probably playing a Mimic Vat in every new deck I make from here on out, it almost can't be bad!
}

I was increbily interested to think about how each team that comes to a Pro Tour typically plays one deck amongst the team, then over the course of the event they can give tips to eachother about various matchups if they were different than anticipated or if they catch wind of what some other team is playing. Also, Chapin discussed how rotating players through your team is healthy as new brians can spawn new ideas. This feels a lot like how NFL teams will trade players to give themselves a new mix of tools to create something different. Instead of offering way too much money, Magic teams offer incentives like other people in the team who may have put up solid results in recent events.

Maybe I'm just ranting about something that's obvious to you, but I think it's really cool thinking about how there are currently dozens of teams of people secretly meeting and mixing ideas to attack any given format, like Extended post rotation of Time Spiral block (although that might not be a great example because first place was a White Weenie deck, which had 8 cards from Time Spiral block, where 5 of them were lands, and second place was a Doran deck, which loses 4 Tarmogoyf and 2 Slaughter Pact, and losing them won't ruin the deck).

A good team requires many things. Chapin suggested first starting with a single other person that you work well with. Considering my current "team" consists of me and Mark playing games against every deck we brought with us from midnight til 5-6 am, that's who I would start with. From there, just like a football team has different people for different roles (Tom Brady didn't fill the same role Tedy Bruschi did back in the day), your magic team has different people from different roles. When he was preparing for 2007 Worlds, Chapin was on a team with Nassif (who is considered to be the world's best deckbuilder) among others. Chapin said Nassif asked him to provide a new decklist or idea EVERY SINGLE DAY. The idea didn't have to be tested at all, but a full decklist was preferred. So over the course of a couple months that's what he did, made lots of decks. Apparently the Dragonstorm deck that they settled on led him to finish second in worlds.

In case you're wondering how the deck worked, the basic explanation is that they would put Dragonstorm under a Spinerock Knoll then use various burn spells including Ignite Memories to build up a storm count and 7 damage to activate Spinerock's hideaway, cast Dragonstorm, drop some Bogardan Hellkites, and straight out kill your opponent with its ETB effect. Here's the decklist.

So in this team, the deckbuilders and deck testers were different people, which can form 2 sub teams that interact primarily with eachother (potentially several times a day) and secondarily with the other team (gether results at end of each day). Deckbuilders would pump out combinations of cards endlessly, finding hidden synergies and new archetypes, and the testers would create a gauntlet of known decks and exceptionally good new decks to play dozens of games of these other new decks against. Testers can make simple changes to decks, like making 1 card changes, but the ultimate flow of the deck would have to remain. Feedback may include stuff that worked or didn't work in the deck, or what really beat the deck. EX: this deck is really good, except it doesn't have a quick enough answer to mono-red, can we fix this?

When I was testing with mark, I was forming UW Control and Mark was making RUG. We had elves and mono-red (both mark's) to test against, so we both knew what we wanted to do aggainst aggressive decks. We didn't have another control deck to test against though, and so the only control matchup we could do was test our new decks against eachother. As I previously reported, I went 1-2-1, and mark top 8'd.

I would be interested in making a Magic team, but it would have to be more casual than the pro gauntlet. If you're reading this and are interested in having a more structured testing group where we share information and test against everything we can, hit me up on facebook or shoot me an e-mail. Lackie_xc_06@yahoo.com

Until next time, don't show up to an event with no testing, you tend to lose =D

A Tale of X-2

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this, but in the mean time I have been busy going X-2 at various events. Since this past Saturday (1 week) I have done:

TNT High Stakes running UW Control: 1-2-1
Scars draft BG Infect: 1-2
FNM running UB Control: 2-2
Game Day running UB Control: 2-2
Scars draft RB Beatdown: 1-2

Basically I came really close to prizing 5 times strait. While you don't actually "prize" in drafts, you do get much better picks in the backdraft which really make up for it. I don't really have much to say about limited, so lets jump strait to constructed. At the High Stakes I played UW Control, using 3 Sun Titans to recurse Jace Beleran instead of using Jace TMS (because I don't have any). The big problem I had with the deck is that I expected more control than aggro, so I main decked a set of Lumarch Ascension. I realized after this was a mistake and if I main decked any it would have to be just 1 or 2. With the prevailance of mono-red, Luminarch is completely dead. At the High Stakes, I started against BG Genesis Wave-Ob Nixilis. My opponent played REALLY slow and we wound up drawing to time after I stupidly tapped out when I had the game locked down. After that I was against mono red, and quickly lost after mulling to 5 and topdecking Luminarchs. Finally I got a break against mono-green beatdown, but then lost again to Mono Red. I then had to get out fast to make it to band practice in time.

The next weekend, I decided to swap my white for black and try the more removal-heavy version. First round at the FNM, I was paired against a kid named Casey, who I would be shocked if he was more than 10 years old. For some reason once again, I won game 1, then lost 2, then won 3. I didn't use the board against him because he didn't have one either. While last time he stuck a Steel Hellkite, this time I mulled to 6, kept 5 lands and a counterspell thinking to go pro on topdecks, but I instead got mana flooded. He was telling me after the game that he got his Wurmcoil Engine through a trade he thinks he got a very slight deal on. He traded a Quicksilver Gargantuan for the Engine 1-1 with a kid from his school. I explained to him how he did insanely well because Wurmcoil is currently $14 compared to Quicksilver's $.75. Even though they thought Quicksilver was on par with the engine because it could copy the engine, I took the time to explain to him the basics on mana curve and consistancy and he realized why he got such an amazing deal.

After that I faced off against Peter's Big Red deck which ran 4x Masticore. Maindeck Flashfreeze proved its worth again and I was able to hold off the assault to go 2-0. At this point I was happy for being 2-0 thinking I could win and prize, but then I faced a very loose Mono-Red deck which completely blew me out. His turn 1: Chimeric Mass for 0, Kuldotha Rebirth, Memnite. My turn 1: Creeping Tar Pit. Basically I got completely beaten down by 1/1s. Game 2 had a similar start except this time I had a pair of removal spells for 2 of his dudes. On his turn he played Mox Opal, then used the Opal's mana to Kuldotha Rebirth it. Yeah, I lost that one... In round 4, with my last chance to prize, I faced Weenie that got the nut draw twice in a row! to say the leasy I was mad. Very mad.

Afterwards, I did lots of trades, and acquired 3x each of the M11 and Scars UB dual lands to help with my mana. I went home, and teched my deck a lot for the Game Day, which included putting 1 Memoricide main deck and putting Tranket Mage in the board.

Finally game day came around, and after waiting an extra 45 minutes for players, we started our massive 10-person tournament.

As we were waiting, I made a fairly big trade with Joe:

My: Koth of the Hammer, Inferno Titan
His: Venser, the Sojourner, Stoneforge Mystic, 2x Summoning Trap, Reanimate, Chandra Nalaar

I will put how we valued the cards at the time, then will put their CFB prices in parenthesis.
Koth of the Hammer: 45 (36)
Inferno Titan: 7 (7)
My side: 52 (43)

Venser, the Sojouner: 25 (22)
Stoneforge Mystic: 4 (10)
2x Summoning Trap: 6 (7)
Reanimate: 8 (6)
Chandra Nalaar: 9 (2)
His side: 52 (47)

I knew as we were making the trade that Chandra wasn't worth $9, but he wouldn't have it any other way, and there was really nothing else in his binder that I would actually have a use for. Even though I really lost on that 1 card, I made it up with the undervaluing of Stoneforge and the overvaluing of Koth. Every one of those cards I traded for aside from Chandra has an immediate use too!

Venser: UW Control, All American Allies
Stoneforge Mystic: Barely Boros Equipment
2x Summoning Trap: MG Eldrazi
Reanimate: Legacy Reanimator

I don't have a use for Chandra yet, but the card is very good as an effective way to remove Titans. You can play it on turn 5, then +1 it. Turn 6 they Titan, then you can kill the titan and still have Chandra at 1 afterwards, which means that unless they have Grave Titan, you get too keep on going with Chandra. And don't get me started about her ultimate....

So after that trade, I was placed against none other than the man I just traded my Koth to, and yes he was playing mono-red. I learned after that he already had a set, and the Koth I traded to him was his 5th, so I didn't actually boost his deck. He had a verry aggressive list, and among various things, he had Teetering Peaks target Goblin Guide, then give it double strike with Assault Strobe to hit me for 8 on turn 2 after hitting me for 2 the turn before, so before I could play a second land, I was down to 10 life. Ultimately I lost 1-2. The mono-red matchup has been a consistantly difficult one for me, but my current train of thought is that the deck is all-in on pumping creatures. With the exception of Jimmy's list with Kuldotha Rebirth, most red decks have Geopedes, Teetering Peaks, and Assault Strobe, so they have a few creatures that come out fast and then get huge boosts as opposed to having lost of creatures or having pseudo burn spells (Old mono-red ran Ball Lightning, Hell's Thunder, and Hellspark Elemental, which all died at end of turn). Because of this, and the loss of Unearth, a single removal spell can stop the deck cold. If I had a Disfigure on the Goblin Guide when it hit for 8, I would have easily won that game because I would have saved myself from that attack and the 2 following attacks, which ultimately would have given me 12 life for B. I lost 1-2.

Next, I was against Brady with his Vengivine-free Naya deck. He still had the Fauna Shamans, but they fetched for things like Inferno Titans. This game wasn't too hard as having maindeck Flashfreeze and Deathmark in the board gave me 5 really efficient hosers for his entire deck in addition to the rest of my control suite. At one point in the game there was a bunch of confusion about his mana that he was trying to float after I hit him with double Tectonic Edge, so I want to explain quickly what the new post-M10 rules is:

Previous to M10, mana wouldn't drain from your mana pool until the end of each player's turn, however, it was changed to the end of each phase. So if you had Mana Drain, the mana you get from it would go away after your upkeep, so the only way to use the mana you stole would have to be to play an instant during your upkeep. He tried to float mana from the 2 lands I blew up to bolt my Frost Titan during combat and block with 3 power creature, but we had to rewind a bit and ultimately I just didn't attack that turn.

Next, I found myself sitting across from the state champion, who had a unique RUG deck. This was a tough matchup for me, and I ultimatly lost when I missed playing a Flashfreeze on Garruk. Garruk was able to solve his funky mana problems, create dudes, and eventually overrun for the kill. Game 2, he sided in River Boa, and I didn't bring in Disfigure because I didn't think it would hit anything, and I wound up getting 2'd to death.

Going into the last round, everyone was 1-2 somehow with the exception of Nick who was 3-0 and Casey who was 0-3. I have no idea how that worked out because that adds up to 11 total wins and 19 total losses, but I just saw it as an opportunity to top 8 and get my Tempered Steel. I was against Andrew with his mono-red deck (so much mono red!!?!). I ultimately went 2-1 against him, but he almost won. The entire time, Nick was behind him muttering "misplay" at least twice a turn. I couldn't help but smile and laugh at how goofy the entire thing was. After the match was over, Nick spend 5 minutes talking about how he would have laid it all out, which would have killed me turn 5.

After tie breakers were calculated, I landed in 5th place where top 4 got $27 each. So I was the best looser!

So which is better: UW or UB?

White gives you:
Wall of Omens
Day of Judgement
Condemn
Sun Titan
Baneslayer Angel
Venser
Oust (great vs mono-red)
Celestial Purge
Celestial Connelaide

Black gives you:
Creeping Tar Pit
Disfigure
Consume the Meek
Doom Blade
Memoricide/Sadistic Sacrament
Consuming Vapors

Basically, both decks have different angles to removal, and I feel UW has better card drawing with Venser being able to +2 Wall of Omens. Speaking of Wall of Omens, that is something Black would love to have. The biggest problem I had all day was having no early plays besides counterspells and Preordain. If one or 2 creatures slipped through my Mana Leaks, then I would take a lot of damage fast. However, with Wall of Omens, I burned through my deck faster white stifling their early attacks. Also, Day of Judgement is often better than Consume the Meek because it comes down 1 turn earlier and it also can take down MG Eldrazi. Even in a situation where Wall of Omens is dead, it's a better cycling card. I still don't know which is better though, and I will be testing both vigorously.

Anyways, that is all for right now. Hopefully I won't have to play harcore catchup next time when I post. Until then, stay classy

I'm Just Feeding You Lies

Well, I was very wrong. Back when I started my Post Rotation Standard Decks series, almost everything I said is wrong. Here's the big package of lies. Here's a list of the statements I made which are wrong:

Lie: "This is the start of what is probably an incredibly short series"

Truth: If you follow the blog, you would know I put out a dozen decks. I wouldn't consider that incedibly short. Incredibly short tops out at a playset.

Lie: "Throne of Geth sucks..."

Truth: Throne of Geth is actually insanely aggressive. It's not easy to explain its goodness in a void, so I will give a more thorough explanation after you see the decklist

Lie: "Black is much stronger than green when it comes to infect cards"

Truth: The only real difference is that black has Hand/Skittles, while green has Putrefax. Putrefax is absolutely nuts, and as I found out quickly, it's not worth splashing black. In fact, I found that the artifacts have a big enough punch to give the mono-green version the punch it needs to put it over the top.

So without further ado, here is my mono-green poison decklist:

4x Putrefax
4x Corpse Cur
4x Ichorclaw Myr
4x Necropede
4x Joraga Treespeaker

4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Throne of Geth
3x Mimic Vat
4x Livewire Lash
4x Vines of the Vastwood

23x Forest

You can toss in as many fetch lands as you think you're willing to lose life for. This deck is 35% artifacts, and 73% colorless, so Ancient Stirrings is a really powerful tutor. The only bomb in the deck you can't get with it is Putrefax. Also, because your deck has so many artifacts, Throne of Geth becomes way better. Your opponent won't want to spend a kill spell on your creature if they know it will just give then a poison counter instead. Joraga Treespeaker seems a little peculier, but it really speeds things up. Turn 3 Putrefax is really good! It's even better if you wait until turn 4 to play the Putrefax so you can play Mimic Vat first. If Mimic Vat with an imprinted Putrefax isn't dealt with immediatly, you better hope to top deck Bolts and Blades every turn just to hold off your impending death. And that there Livewire Lash? If an infect creature equipped with the Lash gets shot down with a spell, it just says thank you and puts 2 poison counters on their opponent anyways.

So how does the deck really play? It shouldn't suprise you that it is all about getting aggressive. I played and recorded a pair of games against Mark's RUG control deck, which he finished in the top 8 of this past TNT high stakes with.

Game 1

I kept my opening hand, while mark mulliganed down to 6. Mark won the roll and started with a Scalding Tarn into Preordain. I played a land and played a Joraga Treespeaker. During his next turn, mark played another Scalding Tarn and Lightning Bolted my Treespeaker. On my turn I played a forest and a Necropede and passed. Turn 3, mark played a Raging Ravine and passed, while I played another Forest followed by a Necropede and Ancient Stirrings, which got me a Mimic Vat. I then attacked to bring Mark's poison count up to 1. Turn 4, Mark played an Explore followed by Misty Rainforest, then laughed and revealed 3 Primeval Titans in his hand. I played a Forest then attacked for 2 more poison, then dropped a Mimic Vat and passed. Mark played Jace the Mind Sculptor, and used him to Brainstorm. I played a Throne of Geth, then attacked. Mark cast Lightning Bolt on a Necropede, but I responded with a kicked Vines of the Vastwood. That brought Mark up to 9 poison, so I sacrificed Throne of Geth to itself to proliferate Mark to death.

That game was good, but subpar for both decks. Neither of us drew what we wanted, so it really just ended with the fact that I had some early plays. Here's a second game we played:

Mark started off with a Khalni Garden while I was able to get a turn 1 Treespeaker again. On his second turn, Mark played an island, followed by an Explore and another Mountain. I played a forest, and Mark Bolted my Treespeaker before I could level it up. We then had to talk for a minute about a rules understanding. After that I played an Ichorclaw Myr. Let me make a quick aside to explain the rules confusion:

Levelers (not the Mirroden one, the Rise of the Eldrazi ones) all have an ability called "Level Up". This is an activated ability. In Joraga Treespeaker's case, when it reaches level 1, it gains a mana ability. The activated ability of a leveler when it levels up can be responded to. If you remove it in response, then when the leveling resolves, there will be no legal target and it will be countered upon resolution. However, if you were to kill the Treespeaker after it had succesfully leveled up, then you wouldn't be able to stop it from producing mana. because a mana ability cannot be responded to. Therefore, strategically, the best thing to do is kill the treespeaker in response to it getting leveled up, that will effectively Time Warp your opponent. Anyways, back to the game:

So at the beginning of turn 3, Mark has a land for each of his mana and a plant token in play, while I have 2 forests and an Ichorclaw Myr. Mark played a Misty Rainforest and then played Preordain. On my turn I played a forest, then attacked with my Myr and Mark blocked with his plant. Post combat, I cast Ancient Stirring, but Mark Mana Leaked it. I then played a Livewire Lash and passed. Mark untapped, played a Misty Rainforest, and passed. I played another forest, followed by Joraga Treespeaker, then equipped an attacked with my Myr to bring Mark to 3 poison. Mark uptapped, dropped a Scalding Tarn, popped a handful of fetchlands, and dropped Primeval Titan getting Raging Ravine and Halimar Depths. On my turn I played a forest, leveled up Jorga treespeaker, played and equipped another lash to my Myr and attacked for 5. Mark blocked with his Primeval Titan, and thanks to Ichorclaw's ability, they traded. On Mark's turn he cast Destructive Force, which left me with no lands, and just a pair of Livewire Lashes in play. Mark was down to just 4 lands, which had 1 of each of his colors and Raging Ravine. We both took a turn of Draw-Go, then I had the much more exciting turn of Forest-Go. Mark respoded with a much more exciting turn of playing Misty Rainforest and attacked me for 4 with Raging Ravine. I once again had to draw and pass, hoping to hit another land for my 2 Necropedes in hand. Mark just attacked with his Raging Ravine again to put me at 11. I finally drew my forest, and wa able to play a Necropede. Mark foiled those plans though by playing a Frost Titan, tapping down my Necropede. On my turn, I hit another forest, and played a second Necropede. Mark played a second Frost Titan and started the beating, I realized I had no more outs and resigned.

I think I misplayed that game because when I know I'm playing a Destructive Force deck, I should just hoard lands once I hit 5 mana with 3 lands and an active Treespeaker. Had I held 2 lands in hand once I had all my mana, after the Destructive Fore, I would have been able to come back very fast and keep bringing the heat from the Necropedes. Regarless, most decks can't win after getting slapped with a Destructive Force.

I really like this deck, and it will obviously get better as more cards arise from Mirroden Besieged and "Action". Speaking Sideboard, an advantage of Poison is that it doesn't care about life totals, so running 4x Nature's Claim in the sideboard won't be a problem at all. Also, this deck may need more removal, so Brittle Effigy should do the trick. The other cards, I haven't decided on yet.

Regardless, I am signing off for now. Just remember, never let yourself get hit for poison once your at 5, you never know when that Vine of the Vastwood or Giant Growth may pop up.

I DRAFTED SCARS?!?!

So wednesday I was chillin at Toys, and someone asked if I would draft. I was in a good mood, and they really needed me to fill up the table so I said yes. Keep in mind I know almost nothing about Scars limited except that creatures are small and infect is tough to pull off, and this article from Conley Woods. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to draft, and I decided to run with whatever I open.
First pack, I decided to first-pick a Grasp of Darkness, remembering how the best decks of M11 limited would take Doom Blade first, and this card was mainly better (kills Skittles). It was after passing that first pack, that I remembered Conley's article, and I figured I would try the pro's idea. My deck was almost perfect! Here's the list:

1x Ichorclaw Myr
3x Dross Hopper
3x Grasp of Darkness
1x Moriok Reaver
2x Galvanic Blast
1x Furnace Celebration
1x Vector Asp
1x Wall of Tanglecord
1x Arc Trail
2x Oxidda Daredevil
2x Vulshock Replica
1x Blistergrub
1x Necron Scudder
1x Culling Dias
2x Exsanguinate (still can't pronounce this card...)
1x Tumble Magnet
1x Flameborn Hellion
1x Assault Strobe
8x Swamp
6x Mountain

Here's the TL;DR list:
1x 1 mana dude
5x 2 mana dude
5x 3 mana dude
6x creature removal
Furnace Celebration (8 cards in deck have sacrifice abilities)
Other random non-creature, non-removal cards
1x 6 mana dude
14x land

Yeah, I have 14 land in a draft deck, and I usually become mana flooded. The insane amount of removal wound up being the crushing blow to everyone else, and ultimately helped me go 2-1 (losing to the state champ).

TNT FNM 10/16/10 *2-3*

Last night I went to the FNM with my sick new brew: mono-black control. I picked this deck because I expected there to be a lot of ramp and UW control. Turns out I was wrong. I believe there was only one of each being played that night. However, not all was lost as there were a smattering of elves players around, which my 2 main deck Deathmark could do some damage to. Here was my decklist for the night:

4x Sign in Blood
3x Vampire Hexmage
2x Painful Quandry
3x Grave Titan
1x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Doom Blade
1x Deathmark
4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Skinrender
1x Memoricide
4x Mind Sludge
3x Duress

4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Marsh Flats
15x Swamp
1x Mystifying Maze

Sideboard
2x Deathmark
2x Doom Blade
2x Memoricide
1x Geth, Lord of the Vault (I do't really know why he's in there...)
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Suffer the Past
3x Inquisition of Kozelik
2x Haunting Echoes

This deck looks like it should do really well against creature based decks with the insanely high amount of removal it packs.

Round 1: UR Destructive Titan Control
This first round I was paired against Biasetti, who I had never played before in an FNM, but I have always seen him do incredibly well. As it turns out, the deck he was playing made my deck loaded with blanks. Basically, he was packing counterspells and draw spells, using red for removal, and then would win by playing Frost Titan, and then playing Destructive Force to lock his opponent out of the game. This is the deck that the guy from Toys who won states used. Game 1 was miserable and I lost to big Jace's ultimate when my hand consisted of 2x Grasp of Darkness and a Doom Blade and he had no creatures in play. Game 2 was much better for me, and I thought I may be able to take the game when I was able to resolve a Painful Quandry. However, he just played Volition Reins on his turn, followed by a pair of Frost Titans, which dominated my pair of Grave Titans. When Grave Titan can't untap, it can't attack, and so it can't make more chump blockers.

0-2
0-1

Round 2: Mono-Green Stompy
When I arrived I saw 2 kids, each probably 10 years old playing. I thought they were just there for fun, but when I sat down, I realized I was playing one of them for the actual FNM. Obviously his deck was incredibly budget, and ultimately it wasn't too good. Game 1 was a breeze, with nothing on his side of the field lasting more than 1 turn after he played it. I reached for my sideboard before game 2 and proceeded to recieve hate from all the other players around me who saw me boarding. I decided it really wouldn't be fair to board against this little kid, and in turn game 2 I played sloppily (probably cuz I was playing a little too easy) and actually lost. However, game 3 I came right back and finished with a Grave Titan for the win.

2-1
1-1


I took a break from writing this article for... 3 days... I came back and noticed my notes were gone, along with my memory. I believe I played Andrew's mono-green Eldrazi Ramp deck round 3 and lost, despite memoriciding away Prime Time. Then round 4 I was against mono-green poison, which I lost 2 games to a double proliferate. But then I was able to pick up win #2 against somebody who I can't even remember playing a deck I'm also blanking on. But in the end I was 2-3 and won nothing for my time

In hindsight, this deck would spend a lot of time killing itself. I found that running 8x fetch lands with 4x Sign in Blood was enough to kill myself without assistance, especially without lifegain. After the FNM, I traded for 3 Japanese Corrupts (1 foil) to help turn the tides a little more in my favor. The deck was a fun expiriment, but I will be playing a real deck next time.

All-American Heroes

Various color combinations have various names. Some easy ones are the mono colored decks: White, Blue, Black, Red, Green, and Colorless. However, there are 20 different 2-3 color combinations you can have for your deck, with most of them actually being used! Then up top there are another 6 color combinations in the 5 4-color decks and a five-color deck. I really have no idea what to call the 4 color decks, and naming a 5 color deck is something I just did earlier in this half of the scentence.

Shards of Alara gave us easy names for the 3 colors found together with Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund, and Naya. These are all terms I have heard people use for their decks. For the 2 colored decks, we can look to Ravnica block:

WU - Azorius
WB - Orzhov
UB - Dimir
UR - Izzet
BR - Rakdos
BG - Golgari
RG - Gruul
RW - Boros
GW - Selesnya
GU - Simic

Now how many of these have you actually heard people use? I know I usually call allied-color pairs by their colors (UW Control, GR Ramp, GW Tokens). That leaves the 5 enemy-colored pairs, of which I have only ever heard Boros, Izzet, and Simic get used outside of the plane of Ravnica. A couple years ago, there was BW Tokens, and I honestly have no idea what the nickname of GB is. Then, finally we have the triple colored decks which have an allied pair in addition to their common enemy:

UWR
BUG
BRW
RGU
GWB

A UWR deck came out when Jund was the boogeyman called USA Control (Red, white, and blue). Also, at the Zendikar block constructed event monster was called a RUG deck. Recently, we have also had a Black/Blue/Green deck called Dredge-Uh-Vine, but it's colors were never locked in, I like to call that a BUG deck. Lastly, we have 2 triple color decks that are sadly unnamed because no one plays them. If you have any ideas for what to name BRW and GWB, post a comment.

However, I didn't come here just to talk about naming colors, we're here to play them! But to play spells, you need to have a solid manabase that allows you to get the colors you need. Often time, a deck can be amazing until you realize your manabase is really weak and you will never be able to cast your spells. Here's my take on manabases:

Single color - This is probably going to be the toughest manabase you have ever put together. It requires hours and hours of grinding out tiny percentages and can cause the worst headache you have ever felt. Just kidding, these are easy. For a budget version, just toss in 20 - 25 basics depending on what your deck requires. However, you can get fancy by tossing in fetch lands to thin your deck of lands, and then you can play a suite of "spell lands" like Tectonic Edge and Mystifying. Don't forget! Mono-colored decks have a man-land too if you want, Dread Statuary.

Allied Dual Color - There are 5 sets in standard right now, of them 4 have a cycle of Dual Lands, leaving Rise of the Eldrazi as the odd set out. It's probably impossible to get color-skrewed if you do it right. You can have 16 dual lands, which gives you plenty of room for the same spell lands you could get if you were mono-colored, although I wouldn't suggest Dread Statuary because it costs more to activate than 3 of the lands, and only Celestial Connelaide costs more.

Enemy Dual Color - We lost the shard lands from Shards which helped, but we still have the Zendikar fetch lands, plus we have 8 Terramorphic Expanses if you have harsh color requirements. I haven't had any problems with this color base so far.

Shards - I have not been able to make this work at all! I mentioned previously that I was changing the Bant Allies deck to UW, and while I said I would, I haven't actually done it yet. It's simply not working, and more often than not I find myself with a color missing (and conveniently that's always the color in my hand), and I feel the effort isn't worth the reward. Unless you have a solid plan to color fix, then steer clear of this. Jund's biggest problem in it's day and age was it's weak mana (which is why Spreading Seas was nuts against it). Bant was only good with mana because it ran 4x Lotus Cobra, 4x Birds of Paradise, and 4x Noble Hierarch. Naya also ran Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise to fix its color strains.

Allied pair with the friend everyone hangs out with but no one actually likes - This is much easier in my opinion than having a shard. Thanks to the Zendikar fetch lands, you can easily get your color requirements down without losing tempo. Let's say I run USA. I would have 4x Arid Mesa, 4x Scalding Tarn, 8x UW option lands, and go from there. If your sold on having a 3 color deck, this is how you should configure it, whether it's BUG, RUG, USA, GWB, or BRW (the last 2 still need a name!)

4 Color - Read what I wrote about Shards, and then double the impossibility

5 Color - Do you even want to cast spells? 5 color control only worked because there were 10 pain lands in 10th edition, 5 shard lands in Shard of Alara, and 22 lands that produced different colors of mana in Llorwyn/Shadowmoor. That's 37 total, or enough to have a solid 26-land mana base without ever having to repeat any lands. I doubt that will ever happen again in the near future, and so a 5 color standard deck won't happen either.

So how am I going to tie the title of this article in with everything that I have rambled about so far with mana bases? Well, I have been looking that that allies deck again, and thought maybe a USA Allies deck would be better. Artifacts are undoubtedly going to be a bigger player in standard this next year, and there is an ally who can stop any artifact deck cold, Tuktuk Scrapper. This guy, if untouched can wreak havok on any deck that runs even just a couple artifacts. 4 mana will kill an artifact, deal at least 1 damage to the player, and then leave you with a 2/2 to battle with. Also in red, we gain access to Akoum Battlesinger, and if you want to push your curve Kazuul Warlord. However, red also has almost all of the removal spells in standard, alongside black. We can play our Lightning Bolts, Arc Trails, Burst Lightnings, Flame Slashes, and Flings. I think if any deck is going to run Fling, it's going to be an ally deck. So many of your creatures become huge quickly, that a fling can push in an extra 6-7 damage and finish your opponent off.

As I have been talking about, the mana for this deck is much easier in the USA build than the previous Bant Build. Green had only provided me with color fixing/ramp and another dude. Here's a tip for deckbuilding, you never splash green to make your mana more consistant, it just makes things worse for you.

Another random thought  have before signing off is that Tunnel Ignus is probably a good main-deck card. Almost every deck plays fetch lands, and then there's our new boogey man, GR/Eldrazi Ramp. While I doubt Ramp will be as oppressive as Jund because Jund had way more card advantage and much less hate, it's still the deck to think about when you're building a new deck. The only deck that Tunnel Ignus will be dead against will probably be UW Control, and that's what the sideboard is for.

That's it from me to ----- BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!!

I was actually about to end this post for real, but then I looked at my open tabs and remembered one more thing I want to talk about. Wizards announced today the new Duel Decks: Knights vs Dragons! To this date, Wizards has printed 153 Knights and 91 Dragons. The description also mentioned goblins on the dragon side, which makes me think the dragons will be mono-red (or some combination of Jund which includes red, but probably mono-red), and the knights will mono-white. Here's 2 cards I'm predicting for the Dragon side: Hunted Dragon and Varacious Dragon, and on the Knight Side I'm picking Knight Exemplar. Right now, I think this will be a quantity vs quality battle. White Weenie vs Big Red. It's a little unfortunate that we get 2 White Weenie decks in the same year though... we just got Elspeth vs Tezzeret. Regardless, I think this one should be cool, and break the trend of tribal Duel Decks being much less cool than the Planeswalker ones.

Another thing to think about: Planeswalker Duel Decks can set up for the upcoming block (Elspeth and Tezerett are both supposed to be in Scars) but the tribal one can make you think about next block. Last spring we had PHYREXIA vs the coalition. Maybe "Shake" is going to have some hardcore oldschool magical flavor to it? I can't wait to find out! (Oh wait, Mirroden Beseiged hasn't even come out yet....)

Anyways, that's all for today, until next time, don't make a janky mana base! Oh, and stay classy

October Secondary Market Update

I was planning on writing this article a week ago, but life happened and I never got around to it. Regardless, let's take a look at our current prices. I will be using Star City Games prices because that is what I used last month, but then in [brackets] I will have the Channel Fireball prices because I think they overall charge lower, and that's who I prefer doing business with

So without further ado, here's Scars of Mirroden Mythics:

Elspeth Tirel - 40 [36]
Geth, Lord of the Vault - 5 [3]
Indomitable Angel - 6 [6]
Koth of the Hammer - 50 [46]
Liege of the Tangle - 3 [2.50]
Lux Cannon - 5 [5]
Mindslaver - 4 [3]
Molten Tail Masticore - 20 [27]
Mox Opal - 40 [35]
Platinum Emperion - 4 [2.25]
Quicksilver Gargantuan - 2.50 [1]
Skithryx, the Blight Dragon - 12 [16]
Sword of Body and Mind - 12.50 [8.50]
Venser, the Sojourner - 50 [34]
Wurmcoil Engine - 20 [14]

Magic 2011
Ajani Goldmane - 5 [4]
Baneslayer Angel - 25 [19]
Chandra Nalaar - 4 [2.50]
Demon of Death's Gate - 2 [1.25]
Frost Titan - 8 [7]
Gaea's Revenge - 4 [3]
Garruk Wildspeaker - 8 [6]
Grave Titan - 16 [14.50]
Inferno Titan - 8 [7]
Jace Beleran - 6 [6]
Lilliana Vess - 5 [3.25]
Platinum Angel - 3 [1.25]
Primeval Titan - 40 [37]
Sun Titan - 8 [7]
Time Reversal - 3 [2]

Rise of the Eldrazi
All is Dust - 20 [17]
Cast Through Time - 1.50 [1]
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn - 10 [10]
Gideon Jura - 22.50 [30]
Hellcarver Demon - 1.50 [1]
Kargan Dragonlord - 15 [15]
Khalni Hydra - 4 [4]
Kozelik, the Butcher of Truth - 10 [9]
Lighthouse Chronologist - 5 [4]
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - 8 [7]
Nirkana Revenant - 5 [4]
Sarkhan the Mad - 8 [7.25]
Transcendant Master - 4 [4]
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - 10 [8]
Vengevine - 45 [40]

The averages for the mythics of these sets are:
Scars of Mirroden: 18.27 [15.95]
Magic 2011: 9.67 [8.05]
Rise of the Eldrazi: 11.30 [10.75]

Compared to last month's report, the average price of Magic 2011 dropped $2.70 on SCG. However, notice how Rise of the Eldrazi went UP by $1.13. 7 of the ROE mythics have gone up in value in the past month. I can understand some of them, like the 3 legendary Eldrazi going up by $2 each due to the popularity of mono-green ramp, but I really don't know why Vengevine went up by $10! My only guess is that because Path to Exile rotated out of standard, there is only Journey to Nowhere to remove it from the game (but then Naturalize can bring it right back).

I personally feel that Scars singles are going to plummet in the next couple months. First, when a set first comes out, everyone is hyped up and mis-evaluate cards. For example, Time Reversal started at $30, but now it goes for $2. On the other hand, when Tarmogoyf first came out, it was less than $10 for a couple months before everyone realized it's insane and it went up to $100 (now that it's no longer in extended, it's about $50).

Based on mythics alone, you would open $73.08 [63.80] in Mythics each time you open a box. When I opened my box, my mythics were:
Lux Cannon - 5 [5]
Liege of the Tangle - 3 [2.50]
Elspeth Tirel - 40 [36]
Wurmcoil Engine - 20 [14]

So my total value in mythics was $68 [57.50], which is only slightly below average. However, a box isn't rated solely on it's mythics, there's about 32 rares in there too! Here's the top 8 rares in Scars:

Ratchet Bomb - 10 [9]
Hand of the Praetors - 6 [6]
Mimic Vat - 4 [5]
Ezuri, Renegade Leader - 2.50 [4]
Grand Architect - 5 [3]
Tempered Steel - 3 [3]
Dual Lands - 3 [2-3]
(All others $2 or less)

In case you're wondering I did open Ratchet Bomb, Tempered Steel, and 4 dual lands in my box. Right now, I feel like if you open planeswalkers from Scars, you should sell them unless its name is Koth of the Hammer. I think Koth is the only planeswalker of the three that will hold its value (which is why I didn't complain about trading Elspeth for Koth 1 - 1).

From now on for these monthly reports, I will be using Channel Fireball prices. I am a much bigger fan of Channel Fireball than I am of Star City Games for many reasons. Aside from pricing, I don't like how you have to pay $30 a year to see the premium articles on Star City Games. I would rather not pay if I don't have to, and the free articles typically aren't the most exciting articles. Channel Fireball is all free, and have been using lots of videos since they started (which is why they're called CHANNEL fireball). In fact, right now they have a draft video by a different person every day! If you're not like me and really enjoy drafting, then you can completely overdose on draft videos there. Star City Games is just starting to post videos too, but they're a little late to the show. One thing that I think is funny and awesome at the same time is how the Ruel brothers, Antoine and Olivier, went from the premium side of Star City Games to Channel Fireball about 2 weeks ago, so now I can get the Hall of Famer's articles for free =D.

That's all for now, I hope you have a glorious day, and be sure to stay classy

Some Fun Little Trinkets to Play With

Back a few weeks ago, Trinket Mage was spoiled to be in Scars of Mirroden and all I heard online was talk about how awesome this is and how it will be a huge staple in decks for the next two years. However, since then I heard little, until recently.

The other day I was perusing decklists from last weekend's NY 5K, and one of the decks had something I never thought about. It was a UR deck that ran the Sparkmage - Collar package. How did he fetch up the Collar? Well... Trainket Mage! Basilisk Collar costs 1 mana, so the Trinket Mage can fetch it up. According to Gatherer, there are currently 28 legal targets for Trinket Mage. Obviously, most 0 or 1 mana cost artifacts are very unexciting, but there are a few gems I want to talk about.

Everflowing Chalice
Even though this card costs 0, you will never actually play it for that. UW tap-out decks would rely on this card to help ramp them up a turn or 2, but it's incredibly awkward to draw this card late in the game. With a tutor from Trinket Mage, you could just play 2 in your deck with a smattering of Mages to fetch them and save yourself from awkward draws late in the game.

Mox Opal
I am not a fan of this card still. I think this card is all hype, just like Time Reversal was for M11

Quick Aside

Time Reversal is a mythic rare reprint of Timetwister, a piece of the Power 9, for a cost of 3UU
Time Warp is a mythic rare reprint of Time Walk, a piece of the Power 9, for a cost of 3UU
Jace's Inginuity is a reprint of Ancestral Recall (yeah, it was an instant) for 3UU, so it should be a mythic right?..... right?

End Aside

Back to Mox Opal, I don't think this card is really consistant enough for it's cost, or at least for now. Right now there are few Metalcraft decks around, and no one has yet to break the ability. So for now, sell this card, but when Beseiged comes out, we may be singing a different tune.

Nihil Spellbomb
This is a card I initially wrote off as being a junky card, but Mark slapped me with the facts after I used a set of these to proxy Seachrome Coasts. This card is actually really awesome sideboard tech against Vengivine decks without having to play black. Sure black lets you have it cycle, but without that this card is a 1 mana Tormod's Crypt! Drop this turn 1 vs the Vengivine opponent, and he won't be having a good day. Even if you only ban 1 Vengivine from coming back, that's better than Path to Exile! However, Vengivine isn't the only card that loves the graveyard. Necrotic Ooze decks will hate this card too. Isn't it interesting that the only deck that runs Necrotic Ooze (as far as I know) also runs the Vengivine/Fauna Shaman package. Here is our 1 mana combo kill!

Infiltration Lens
This is another balanced powerhouse card of old, as I have mentioned before. No one can complain about drawing 2 cards for 2 mana (and possibly many more times for no more cost), and I expect this card to show up in decks of all colors except blue, because doesn't need or even want it.

Adventuring Gear
This card never really caught on during Zendikar block, but all of a sudden this card has become all the rage! I still think the best place for this card to go is on a Goblin Graveleer, because on turn 3 your opponent can be down to 10 life thanks to a Goblin who felt like going on an adventure, and just so happened to find a fetch land

Basilisk Collar
Ok, we know this card is nuts, but I just wanted to say one more thing. You know what's better than Cunning Sparkmage with the Collar? Inferno Titan with the Collar! Attack, kill 3 or your guys, then bash for 6 + however much I firebreath. Oh, and did I mention the lifelink? Now I'm gaining almost double digits on life each time I attack!

Brittle Effigy
Mark and I decided at the same time that we both need a playset of this card. Unfortunately, every store I have been to is sold out. This card solves all of your problems from Emrakul down. It's even janky tech against Vengivine by preventing it from coming back with a vengence for that game. It's basically the catch-all spell that I find myself putting into more and more sideboards as Eldrazi Green Ramp becomes a bigger and bigger deck. It's simply the best answer to anything your opponent can throw at you.

Chimeric Mass
Another card that I heard people talk about, but am yet to see actually hit play. Theoretically, if you draw Trinket Mage with 10 lands, you could play the Mage, then follow it up with this guy to make him a 7/7, which isn't too shabby. The only unfortunate thing about this is the lack of evasion, but protection from sorcery-speed removal isn't a bad tradeoff (Day of Judgement)

Currently, I don't have any plans for the Trinket Mage outside of the Basilisk Collar combo. Trinket Mage does what you would expect, it gets you little trinkets. Nothing that will be mind-blowing, but every little piece of utility can come in handy some day. I don't think this will be an insane card that some people have said it will be, but don't let this guy slip your mind when working out your blue deck of any form.

This friday, I didn't play in the FNM, and instead opted to go to the movies and see The Town, which is awesome, and I highly reccomend seeign it. Next week though, I am sitting on 2 decks to choose from. First would be the Myr deck, which I am currently getting Riddlesmiths into instead of Myr Galvanizers for more card advantage, or the mono-black deck, which is more of a Meta-hoser than anything else. If I had to choose right now, I would go Black, just because I have the sideboard complete, but in time, I think the Myr deck will get itself together and be ready to rumble!

Until next time guys, come up with cool new decks and tell me about them, I am bored of hearing about ramp all day (even though I play it too XD). Stay classy

Post Rotation Decks Episode 12: Proliferating the Draw Step

4x Archmage Ascension
4x Jace Beleran
4x Foresee
4x Preordain
2x Inexorable Tide
1x Time Reversal
2x Lux Cannon
2x Jace's Inginuity
4x Deprive
4x Mana Leak
31

1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Frost Titan
1x Sphinx of Magosi
3

26x Island

This is more of a theoretical decklist as opposed to one that I would actually play in an event, or at least wouldn't until it gets more refining. Basically, I noticed that some insane decks are built around dodging costs of cards that have insane abilities (Polymorph/Brilliant Ultimatum/Summoning Trap --> Emrakul). This deck's insane card whose abilities are nuts is Archmage Ascension. Using proliferate, you can rapidly accelerate the counters on the ascension and once it is going, just straight out win. Then, once you can hand pick out the cards in your deck you grab your 3 finishers: Wurmcoil Engine, Frost Titan, and Sphinx of Magosi. Wait, Sphinx of Magosi? Yeah, that card is nuts in this deck! Because it has an activated ability which doesn't require tapping that draws you a card, you can fetch a counterspell out of your deck for just 2U! Late in the game, you just play draw-go, and bash for a lot. Then if for some weird reason your boom booms die, fetch out your Time Reversal from your deck, then cast it to bring everything back from your graveyard to your deck. Then, if you already have a live ascension, instead of drawing 7 cards, you look for the EXACT 7 cards you want!!! From there you really can't lose.

Oh, by the way, did I mention this deck has 2 Lux Cannon? If you start proliferating like crazy, this card becomes the new Death Star! One thing that blue doesn't have is destruction and removal. This can destroy anything that pisses you off. Planeswalkers? nah. Creatures? don't poke me. Enchantments? card disadvantage. Their Lux Cannon? THERE CAN ONLY BE MINE!!!!

Theoretically, this deck is sick. I am kinda interested in suiting it up and testing it out, you never know when you can land some sick brew. Speaking of new brews, Mark and I came up with a UW control list built around Venser. You can see it here.

That's enough from me for today (or at least this post). Recently, I found a SCG competition to try and win the right to write articles for them and get paid A LOT. Here it is. So maybe hopefully sometime soon you will see me on Star City Games =D. Until then, stay classy

Post Rotation Decks Episode 11: Mono-Red Part 2

I was poking around the archives of SCG premium (all articles posted 1 month ago or longer are available to us who don't pay for premium) and found an article of epic porportions by Patrick Chapin called "Sixty". I didn't take time to actually read it, but at the worst it's just a great way to think of potential decks. However, not only did I pour over some old Chapin, but some Zvi stuff too. One article he was talking about how he came to design Beastmaster, his Zendikar block deck that did insanely well, and in the process he mentioned a hyper aggro mono-red deck he thought of, which included a couple cards I forgot about and found to be the perfect replacement for Ball Lightning and Hellspark/Hell's Thunder. Those cards being Zektar Shrine Expedition and Elemental Appeal.

This token can bring a world of pain for your opponent. Boom! I just took a third of your life! Here is the deck he originally proposed (for Zendikar Block):


4x Burst Lightning
4x Forked Bolt
4x Searing Blaze
4x Staggershock
4x Zektar Shrine Expedition
4x Elemental Appeal
4x Goblin Guide
4x Plated Geopede
4x Kargan Dragonlord
4x Arid Mesa
4x Scalding Tarn
16x Mountain

Since this decklist was posted, we have received M11 and Scars to add to the fun, although there really isn't much to add aside from Lightning Bolt and Koth. Also, I am a fan of the Devastating Summons/Bushwacker package, so I will throw that in my version too.

4x Goblin Bushwacker
4x Goblin Guide
4x Plated Geopede
4x Kargan Dragonlord


4x Lightning Bolt
4x Forked Bolt
4x Elemental Appeal
2x Devastating Summons

4x Koth of the Hammer


4x Zektar Shrine Expedition

4x Arid Mesa
4x Scalding Tarn
14x Mountain

This build is incredibly aggressive, and can be incredibly fast, like a turn 3 win!
t1 - Goblin Guide, attack 18
t2 - Lightning Bolt, attack 13
t3 - Devastating Summons, Goblin Bushwacker kicked, attack 0

That being said, Devastating Summons is a very risky card. Only play it if you can win that turn, aka you have the Bushwacker. Having too many Devastating Summons is really awkward so I have 2 in the deck. Enough to draw it a good amount of time, but it is also unlikely to come in pairs too often. Zvi said that Devastating Summons is really bad with Kargan Dragonlord, and while I agree, I also believe that you should only use Devastating Summons if you will win that turn immediatly. Once again, Koth is a champ by providing Day of Judgement-proof attackers and can make a kicked Elemental Appeal come down on turn 5 for the win. Did I mention how good Zektar Shrine Expedition is? With our 8 fetchlands, it is entirely possible for this to go off on turn 4. The main problem with mono-red is that it can have some inconsistant draws, but I think this may be better by having less dependance on curving out and instead just bringing the heat from all angles.

Post Rotation Decks Episode 10: Don't Koth at this Idea

Well even though I just said in the last deck idea post that I wouldn't have intros, this one does require some preamble. As we know, Scars has 3 planeswalkers that are all selling for $40-50. Mark and I put together a solid Venser deck, but he has the decklist (so Mark use that list as a blog topic! If you do I will link to it). Episode 6 of this series covered my idea of what to do with Elspeth, but what about Koth? Well the obvious first thought is mono-red. Mark and I made a mono-red deck when we were hanging out the other day which ran 4 Koth. However due to the loss of Hell's Thunder, Hellspark Elemental, and Ball Lightning mono-red is much slower. While big red may be a deck of some kind, pumping out Inferno Titans for big finishers, I want to try going red/green for more mountains to make koth better. Here is my first idea of what you could do:

4x Inferno Titan
3x Primeval Titan
4x Goblin Guide
4x Kargan Dragonlord

4x Koth of the Hammer

4x Lightning Bolt
2x Arc Trail
2x Comet Storm
4x Harrow
4x Khalni Heart Expedition

4x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
8x Forest
13x Mountain

Obviously this is very similar to the GR Valakut Prime Time deck, but once again, I made some updates and variations to it. My biggest problem before was that the mana base didn't match the spells even remotely. With this deck, I just used my mana calulator program to get a rough estimate on my mana base, moved one red mana to green, then cut 4 mountains for Valakut. Instead of going for big spells that take all of your mana, this deck is all about removal and small guys to bring the early pressure (and if you draw the dragonlord late game he is still relevant), then toss in some ramp and the titans come down followed by Koth and everything starts blowing up. Removal is at a suprising low right now, but this deck has it all. Cool sideboard coards include shatter and combust, so you can specialize your removal to the deck your against.

Koth is an insanely powerful attacker. Should he ever actually ultimate it is effectively impossible to lose because you have 7-8 completely customizable damage every turn to eat Baneslayers with, or if they don't drop anything to kill you can attack their life total. This sounds like another cool deck that could be fun to use if you already have 95% of the pieces (Mark)

Post Rotation Decks Episode 9: The New Endless Turn Combo

After getting all the way to episode 9, I have run out of nice little intros to say before all these conceptual deck ideas. So for the last few episodes, I'm just going to cut the chase:

4x Lullmage Mentor
4x Grand Architect

4x Mana Leak
4x Deprive
4x Stoic Rebuttal

1x Time Reversal
3x Jace's Ingenuity

4x Jace (TMS or Beleran, your choice)

4x Mindslaver
4x Prototype Portal

20x Island
4x Halimar Depths

This is a counterspell deck. You want to play as slow as possible, making sure you always have counterspell mana up to prevent your opponent from doing anything. Then, once they have ceased to cast spells, you use Jace to gain card advantage and dig to find your 2 pice finisher: Prototype Portal + Mindslaver. With those 2 in play, you no longer need to worry about anything your opponent does and you can take control of all their turns for the rest of the game at the low low price of 10 mana every turn. How do you pull that off? Well your only 2 creatures are Lullmage Mentor and Grand Architect. With the Lullmage Mentor, your 16 counterspells can soon become a small army of blue merfolk (which can then team up to counter spells themself). With the grand architect in play, they equal a lot of mana. If Grand Architect and Lullmage Mentor are both in play together, then you only need 3 tokens to have infinite turns.

Now the trick is that you don't control your opponent during your turn, so this is where things can get tougher, but also where Jace the Mind Sculptor is better. Either Jace should work for this deck no problem to provide a large amount of card drawing and ultimately counterspells in hand. I know Jace the Mind Sculptor is hard to get your hands on because it costs 15.5X as much as Jace Beleran. However, if you can get your hands on him, it's worth it. Jace TMS can bounce creatures back to your opponent's hand so when your trying to close out the game while controlling every one of their turns, you can use Jace TMS to remove their blockers by unsummoning them 1 by 1. I was never a huge fan of Jace TMS until I played with Mark's UW Control list and realized how insane he is by being able to single-handedly close out games. If you don't have Mindslaver combo up and running, Jace can put a soft lock on your opponent by reducing the quality of their draws (and yes you can eventually straight out win, but you never play a planeswalker just for their ultimate).

So yes, for the first time ever in this blog I am saying spending the money is important. Jace Beleran can go in almost every blue deck because he is simply recursive card advantage. However, Jace TMS is almost exclusively used in control decks because his +2 and -1 abilities control the game and if you only want to draw cards, Jace Beleran comes out a turn faster and is less intimidating.

I don't know if I will make this deck or not, mainly because the only cards I have for it are the Lullmage Mentors and the Time Reversal. Even still, just because you can't build it doesn't mean your buddy can't and besides, making decks is good practice.

Until an hour from now, peace

Post Rotation Decks Episode 8: Who turned out the lights?

Blah blah introduction blah blah, here's the decklist:

4x Vampire Hexmage
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Skinrender
3x Grave Titan
2x Geth, Lord of the Vault


4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Deathmark
4x Mind Sludge
2x Painful Quandry
4x Sign in Blood

4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Marsh Flats
17x Swamp

How many times have you been to a standard event, let's say FNM and across the table you were looking at swamps? Probably not recently. The big decks that used black were:

Jund
Esper Control
Vampires
Grixis Control
BR Aggro

Now, with the exception of Mark making his UW Control deck go Esper for one event, I haven't actually seen any of those decks played in an incredibly long time. All the other colors, on the other hand, have seen heavy play. Naya, Bant (Mythic), UW Control, Primeval Titan decks, Stompy (Zoo), and Mono-green have all seen incredibly heavy play. Hold the phone, those all include either green or white! Just like when Jund was the boogeyman and anti-jund decks were GW or Naya, causing every blue player to play 4x Flashfreeze, I feel theres a dis-porportionate amount of GW decks making Deathmark a maindeck-able card.

This is basically an aggressive control deck. only 10 non-land cards in the deck don't directly hurt your opponent. Planeswalkers are taken care of by the Hexmage, creatures are removed by the Gatekeeper, Skinrender, Grasp, and Deathmark, and their hand is attacked with Mind Sludge and Painful Quandry. Once everything is locked down, Grave Titan can win the game by itself. If that's not enough or if you don't draw it, we have another 6 mana finisher in the form of Geth, Lord of the Vault. Geth can make any board position good by building an army by himself helping to stabilize during any weak board position.

One important thing to note before I end this installment, be weary when using Skinrender. If there are no other creatures in play, you can't play him because he is required to put the -1/-1 counters on a creature when it lands. That means if he is the only one in play, he must kill himself so you payed 2BB to discard a card.

I like this deck, and I look forward to going into the red zone with an army of zombies soon

Post Rotation Decks Episode 7: Next Level Levelers

Another day hour another deck. I talked previously about a level up deck that I made and how it has turned out to be a very fun deck with the potetential to win as fast as turn 4 or to have the durability to fight a longer game AS LONG AS IT GETS VENERATED TEACHER. Nothing is more embarassing then never drawing the teacher and getting overrun because your 1/1 dudes for 1 or 2 mana are simply sitting there awkwardly and not actually helping you get anywhere. Your opponent doesn't even need to worry about removal to keep them in check because he can just wait until you level up one of them and kill that one. However, Scars brings us the proliferate mechanic, which is insane in this deck! Venerated teacher costs 2U. Steady progress costs 2U. Venerated teacher gives you 2 lever counters each and leaves you a 2/2 dude. Steady progress gives you 1 level counter, but also draws you a card. Yes, Venerated Teacher is still better, but Steady Progress does as good job of being another 4 weak Venerated Teachers. Here's the new list:

4x Skywatcher Adept
4x Halimar Wavewatch
4x Guul Draz Assassin
4x Zulaport Enforcer
4x Null Champion
4x Venerated Teacher

4x Spreading Seas
4x Steady Progress
2x Doom Blade
2x Contagion Clasp
4x Preordain

4x Darkslick Shores
4x Misty Rainforest
5x Island
3x Verdant Catacombs
4x Swamp

Yes, the highest converted mana cost is 3, and the biggest creature is a 6/6 islandwalk. Yes, levers are awesome! One other thing that is really cool about this deck besides how it can have some insane blowout draws and how no one is expecting it is how little it costs. First, there are no Mythics on the list. Here's how the percentages break out in terms of rarity:

Common: 34/60 = 56.7%
Uncommon: 2/60 = 3.3%
Rare: 15/60 = 25% (Excluding lands 4/60 = 6.7%)
Mythic: 0/60 = 0%
(last 15% is basic lands)

Aside from the lands, there are a grand total of 6 cards you must change if you want to bring this to a pauper event. If you can't think of anything, just bring a suite of counterspells! I feel this version of the deck with proliferate should be much more consistant with 10 ways to get lots of level counters cheap compared to the previous 4. I already had this deck built, but I will definitely update and let you knwo how it goes!

Post Rotation Decks Episode 6: Might of the Masses for 20

Hello again, and welcome to another episode of various deck ideas made possible post rotation with Scars. Today, we have a deck that I have been talking about for the past month or so, and that is GW tokens. Without further ado, here it is:


2x Avenger of Zendikar
4x Emeria Angel
4x Kozelik's Predator
4x Nest Invader

4x Awakening Zone
4x Beastmaster Ascention

2x Nomad's Assembly
4x Might of the Masses

3x Ajani Goldmane
3x Elspeth Tirel
3x Garruk Wildspeaker

4x Sunpetal Grove
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Stirring Wildwood
4x Plains
6x Forest

The only this this deck is missing, which is hard in green and white yet essential in every deck, is card advantage. Sure you will have creature advantage, but there's no fetching or draw spells in this deck. Despite that though, I imagine this can have some insane plays. Mark and I were talking about using Conqueror's Pledge to smack down a ton of tokens late game, but I wound up having to cut it for Beastmaster Ascension. Instead, I have 2 copies of Nomad's Assembly. That card is insane! Imagine you have a decent board poition with 5 dudes in play. You play Nomad's Assembly and those 5 dudes becomes 10. Then, the spell rebounds and that 10 becomes 20! I just made 15 1/1 tokens for 4WW! Now imagine if I played Ajani Goldmane, made them all 2/2s and swung in with vigilance. That's 20 damage attacking across 10 creatures (the other 10 have summoning sickness), which is insanely hard to stop. What if instead I played Beastmaster Ascension? Then I have 10 6/6s coming at you (what if I had both?!?!) for 60 damage. If you manage to survive that, then I have 20 creatures attacking next turn instead of just 10. If any one of them get through, I can give him +20/+20 for G with Might of the Masses =D.

Oh, and that there Elspeth. Yeah, this is the deck she was made for! +2 gain 10 life, -5 destory all blockers in your way, then drop Beastmaster Ascension for the win!

I think this is another really cool deck that is worth looking at for your casual gaming, maybe with some card advantage this can be a huge deck!

Post Rotation Decks Episode 5: A Relentless Assault

Hey, what a suprise, another new deck! Well actually this is technically a deck that you could have built for the last 7 years since Mirroden came out, but I wouldn't feel like a complete fool actually using it today. It's a Relentless Rats deck, but check this out:

20x Relentless Rats
2x Grave Titan

4x Memoricide
3x Sadistic Sacrament
3x Doom Blade
4x Sign in Blood
3x Grasp of Darkness

13x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Marsh Flats

Now this deck is incredibly basic, but it gets the job done. Relentless Rats starts as a 2/2 for 3, not exciting but not appaling either (see Scornful Egotist [although i did read a really cool combo for this card I will talk about eventually]). As the Rats start piling up, so does the damage and the beats. What from Scars made this deck so much better? Well... the only Scars card in the list, Memoricide. Imagine playing Memoricide turn 4, naming Day of Judgement. Now their one out against you is no longer viable. Soon, the Rat's power and toughness should exceed the threshold of getting killed by damage and cards like Condemn don't actually do much to it. It's not like 1/3 of the deck is Relentless Rats or anything.... Also, Sadistic Sacrament fills that same role, but the Sacrament is good if you don't actually know what your opponent is playing Game 1, especially if you can recognize it as a polymorph deck or something and can remove all their boom booms. I felt it was necessary to put in 2x Grave Titan simply because one not being answered can win you the game by itself. Now if something weird happens and they pull Maelstrum Pulse out of Alara and somehow play it in a Standard event, you still have creatures that demand to be dealt with.

I think I will actually build this deck too because everyone has Relentless Rats, but noone is willing to actually put it all together and try it out. The only expensive cards after Grave Titan are the fetch lands, which everyone should have regardless because they're so good.

That is all for now, I have been typing for 2 hours and it's just passing 3:15am, so I think I might go to sleep. Might. But anyways, until next time never doubt the bulk rare

Post Rotation Decks Episode 4: Pseudo Affinity

Hello hello hello!
I recently played at and blogged about an FNM I went at toys where I did very well for myself. One of the decks that I played against was a UW Myr deck that exemplified how powerful Tempered Steel really is. Also, today on Daily Deck Lists on the motherhip we have a deck that simply pours out its hand before restocking to 7 and then dumping everything again. The first deck didn't have card advantage, the second doesn't really have any finishers, so I am going to bring them together. Here is a quick decklist:

2x Myr Battlesphere
4x Gold Myr
4x Silver Myr
4x Paladium Myr
4x Myr Galvanizer
3x Steel Overseer
3x Wurmcoil Engine
3x Lodestone Golem

3x Semblance Anvil
4x Tempered Steel
4x Time Reversal

4x Seachrome Coast
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Tectonic Edge
5x Island
5x Plains

Theoretically with this deck you could have some incredible things happen like this: you have Semblance Anvil in play with an artifact imprinted on it. The only card in your hand is Time Reversal. Cast Time Reversal, which effectively reads "3BB: Draw 7 cards" and then dump your hand. 15 cards (Gold Myr, Silver Myr, Steel Overseer) now cost 0 mana, while everything else is now dramatically undercosted. Myr Battlesphere is already nuts when it delivers 18 power for 7 mana, but when you cut its cost down to 5, it is simply mind blowing!

I really look forward to this deck making splashes down the road. I know I will be making this entire deck, partially because it is so inexpensive. After Wurmcoil Engine (which isn't required at all) you have to worry about Time Reversal, and lands mainly. Hopefully soon I will have a post documenting this deck being played. But until then, have a good day

TnT FNM 10/1/10 *3rd place 3-1*

Hello there. I am back to my usual time of writing these blog posts, where it is currently 1:18 AM. I look forward to doing nothing this weekend, so staying up late until the sun rises sounds like a nice treat.

What's a better way to kick off a chill weekend than with a whole lot of Scars of Mirroden? I picked up my pre-ordered box and fat pack and got some fairly nice results. I got no Mythics in the fat pack, but in my box I got four:

Elspeth Tirel
Liege of the Tangle
Lux Cannon
Wurmcoil Engine

I was pretty pumped when I opened each of these for various reasons. First, Elspeth is simply a money card to me (which I later traded 1-1 for Koth), but Liege is incredibly fun and wins games all by itself (as long as you don't get hit by Day of Judgement), Lux Cannon makes me really want to make a crazy proliferate deck, and Wurmcoil Engine is the 6th titan. I wouldn't have crack open my whole box right then and there, but I needed one more Genesis Wave for my mono-green Eldrazi deck, and I wound up getting it deep in the box. 30 seconds before the FNM started I had my sideboard thrown together and I was ready to play! Here's my list for the night:

Main Deck
4x Primeval Titan
4x Oracle of Mul Daya
3x Overgrown Battlement
3x Kozelik
1x Ulamog
3x Avenger of Zendikar

4x Khalni Heart Expedition
4x Harrow
3x Cultivate
4x Explore
2x Genesis Wave

20x Forest
4x Eldrai Temple
1x Eye of Ugin

Sideboard
1x Emrakul
1x Asceticism
3x Hornet Sting
2x All is Dust
1x Liege of the Tangle
3x Slice in Twain
2x Summoning Trap
2x Wurmcoil Engine

Round 1: GR Valakut Ramp
For the first round I was against a budget GR Valakut Ramp deck thata didn't run cards like Primeval Titan. In both the games we played I had a very strong draw and was able to ramp out the Eldrazi before he could stick his 3rd mountain. This round actually ended really quickly and I had a lot of extra time to mill around and watch people play their games. And when I say mill around I mean I had a great time watching a mill vs mill battle which ended in the UB version beating the mono-blue version. I felt really good about my deck and was looking forward to the next round

2-0
1-0

Round 2: Mirror Match
I wasn't the only one who picked up on how awesome this deck is and it turns out 3 (including myself) of the 9 people in the tournament were playing this deck. The other decks there included 2 mill decks, GR Valakut, UW Myr, and GW Stompy. I think the 9th deck was a UW control deck, but I am not entirely certain.

I knew I was in for trouble before the match began when I saw cards from my opponent's deck as he was shuffling. After playing out for a bit during game 1, I was able to stick an Avenger of Zendikar, dropping 8 tokens in play followed by a land making them all 1/2s. I passed the turn with 2 harrows in hand planning on going for the alpha strike next turn and making good use of the fact that Harrow was an instant and could suprise him for lethal. He made verbal note that I had a Harrow in hand (revealed by Oracle earlier on top of deck) and felt safe with his configuration before passing to me. I topdecked a Harrow and couldn't help but laugh. As expected I attacked and he blocked with everything, but a triple Harrow is just awesome! (keeping with the theme of 3s, a few minute later a mill player yelled about how he triple Archive Trapped someone for 0 mana!).

Games 2 and 3 didn't go over too hot for me. In one of the games he played 3 Everflowing Chalices in a row, using the mana from each of the previous ones to play the next and all of a sudden had 6 bonus colorless mana in play. I was pretty quickly crushed from there.

1-2
1-1

Round 3: UW Myr
Before the FNM started, I was talking with Jurras (I definitely spelt that wrong..) and I looked at his deck that he had all laid out which was very similar to the UW Myr deck that was in the back of my mind (which has since been edited and will show up in a post after I'm done with this one).

I was actually really happy I got to play against this deck because I got to see how it really played out. And what's the verdict? THIS IS SOOO SICK! The only trouble Jurras had with his deck was the lack of card advantage, something I touch upon in my updated version, aside from Jace TMS. Even despite that, I really had to play on my toes against this deck. Mana Myr don't seem very dangerous at first, but when all of a sudden Tempered Steel hits play and you get nailed for 12 damage, you start to play more carefully. I lost game 1 simply because I didn't take my time and really thoroughly evaluate all the numbers. I got confident that I could win with Kozelik, so I attacked, he sacrificed 4 lands and took the 12 damage. With my blockers down I got hit for 21 in one fell swoop.

That being said, games 2 and 3 I took my time a lot more and double checked everything before going forward and I only wound up winning game 3 by one point. On one hand I was amazed Jurras had the deck together on release day (although opening up 15 boxes does help...) but I was even more excited to see how it was actually very legit. On a side note, dropping Myr Battlesphere with Tempered Steel already in play is scary. 18 combined power for 7 mana? That costs 2 less than Terastadon and doesn't require you to lose lands or other permanents.

2-1
2-1

Round 4: UB Mill
I knew my opponent was playing Mill because I had watched him play previously and I felt like there was no way I could lose this matchup. First, I am still not a believer in milling, and secondly I am running 4 Legendary Eldrazi that make all of mill's hard work go to waste on a moment's notice.

Both games went by fairly uneventfully, although one funny event occurred when I played Primeval Titan, searched for my lands and then got hit with 3 Archive Trap for 0 mana (second time he has done that today!). Although nothing actually really happened because all of my Eldrazi got milled, making everything shuffle back, it was still really funny and very awesome.

2-0
3-1

Overall, I really enjoyed playing with this deck, but there are a few edits I want to make. First, Oracle of Mul Daya doesn't pull its weight in this build. I run 25 lands as opposed to 28, which makes her a lot more inconsistant, and ultimately led to giving my opponents information about every card I was drawing. So I would cut those for Jorage Treespeakers aka Sol Ring. There are no 1 drops in the deck, and this turn one is amazing because it doesn't break tempo at all while allowing a turn 3 Titan no problem:

t1 - forest, Joraga Treespeaker
t2 - forest, level Treespeaker, Overgrown Battlement
t3 - forest, Titan

And if you had the nut draw that means you get Avenger of Zendikar next turn for 5 or 6 tokens with many +1/+1 counters after attacking with the Titan which can mean a turn 5 win. Wow, that is speed never before possible without the Treespeaker!

Also, one other small tech with this deck is to bring in Tectonic Edge. I think 3 instead of Forests strait out should be good.

Anyways that is all for now, until next time I hope you have an awesome time cracking open Scars and packing some epic Mythics.