Decree of Poison

Hello everyone! I have been doing a lot of thinking since yesterday, mainly about control decks along the esper shard ranging from UW to UB to mono-Black. One thing in particular is how Shape Anew --> Blightsteel fits in. I am a true Johnny-Spike, and if theres an awesome combo out there I MUST try it. Martin Juza had a random comment a the end of his article today on CFB that made me feel a ton better about playing the Shape Anew deck.

Quick Aside
{
There are 6 level 8 players in the world: LSV, Martin Juza, Shuhei Nakamura, Brad Nelson, and the 2 Guillaumes. The first 3 write for Channel Fireball. The last 3 write for Star City Games. Going into worlds, CFB had LSV and Brad while SCG had none of them. since worlds, CFB acquired Juza and Nakamura and SCG acquired Nelson and the Guillaumes. This is really starting to feel like a clash of the titans! I like CFB more, so that makes Star City Games the Yankees of Magic, just going out and buying the players who have been succesful as opposed to making average joes like Fffreak become champions. Channel Fireball (aka the Red Sox) also just got a Japanese player. I don't care the Dice-K referance is 4 years too late! Oh, and Juza's column is called Czech Mate. <--- That's awesome! As a chess player (and now absorb chess player) I couldn't help myself from breaking out into a smile from reading just 2 words =D
}
End Aside

Oh yeah, awesome card: Not of This World. Here, you probably have no idea what this card even does becauseThe  it's that card that goes last pick in draft every time, then doesn't get played, then is used as a floormat for the rest of the draft:

Yes, that is a 0 mana counterspell for anything that targets the big bad Blightosaurus. But it's better than that! It can also Stifle abilities, whether they're of the Jace variety, Journey to Nowhere variety, or even Mystifying Maze. Shape Anew has been getting crap because they can still find a way to remove your Blightsteel Colossus, but thanks to this card they have to have at least 2 cards! How often does that happen?

So I really want to use this package, but these are the essential spells:

4x Master's Call
4x Shape Anew
4x Not of this World
2x Blightsteel Colossus

That's 14 cards! Not exactly chump sideboard material.... I originally had just the 10 cards in my UW sideboard for a transformational attack on Valakut in particular, but 14 cards in the board just to have an alternate win condition isn't worth it. I might as well make a new deck, so here it is:

2x Blightsteel Colossus
4x Shape Anew
4x Master's Call
2x Not of this World
3x Day of Judgement
3x Condemn

3x Mana Leak
2x Spell Pierce
2x Deprive

3x Spreading Seas
3x Jace TMS
4x Preordain

4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Tectonic Edge
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Glacial Fortress
3x Island
2x Plains

Sideboard:
2x Not of this World
2x Spell Pierce
2x Jace Beleran
1x Day of Judgement
4x Perimiter Captain
2x Journey to Nowhere
2x Oust

This list runs more counterspells than I usually do with 7 in the main and another 2 in the board (not counting the 4 Not of This World). In Typical fashion, board out removal against control for more counterspells and against aggro you replace the counterspells for removal. 2 cards I want to bring light to are Perimeter Captain and Oust. Kuldotha Red is the fastest deck in standard with the deck curving out at 1 and being mana flooded when it hits its third land. Wall of Omens isn't fast enough, nor does it stop much as Kudotha Red is a pure swarm deck (it plays Signal Pest, what do you expect?). Perimeter Captain, on the other hand, comes down on the first turn, which is suprisingly important, and it has "lifelink" in that it gains you 2 life whenever it blocks. This life gain can nagate the damage dealt from 1 or 2 other creatures, so you are all of a sudden under a whole lot less pressure. If you can resolve Day of Judgement you are typically all set. Oust on the other hand is a card that has always felt very powerful as a major tempo swing. Drop an Oust on something like Signal Pest or Memnite and you have removed a solid amount of damage while also making one of their future top decks suck (read: do not Oust a haste creature). As always, this is a purely conceptual list and hasn't been tested at all yet.

Financial corner:

Don't look, what is Contested War Zone at? If you said 2-3, you are very wrong. Try 8. Yeah, I'm really glad I just traded for my second one, I saved myself $6 there... It's too late to make a ton of money off that card, but how about Decree of Justice White Sun's Zenith? Right now White Sun's Zenith is at 1.50. Compare that to Decree of Justice, which is at 4. Nick from Toys said he bought 16. I didn't go that far, but I do have 10 coming in at $1.02 a piece after shipping. Whenever you see a strategy article, always think of it from a financial perspective.

Shape Anew has doubled in price from 75 cents up to a buck and a half.

Knight Exemplar is closing in on $7.

What other cards may break out in price? This is the question you should be asking yourself these days. In the era of up to the second price checking from your smartphone, and when none of the Besieged cards seemed to be grossly overpriced, there's no money to be made selling grossly overpriced cards or trading for cards that just jumped up in value. These days if you can't speculate a card's price, you will lose.

Random trade:

My:
Hero of Bladehold (we value at 10, really at 9)

His:
Sensei's Divining Top (we value at 7, really at 12)
Razorverge Thicket (we value at 3 really at 2)

+5 =D

That's all for today! Until next time, stay classy!