SCG Open: Boston Report *154th*

Hello everyone! As I have mentioned, I went to the Star City Games Open in Boston this past weekend that wasn't really in Boston but Boxborough instead. That is a good thing because when big events like PAX East say they are coming to Boston and are actually in Boston, you have to park 4 towns out and take the train in. But this event was in Boxborough in the Holiday Inn, so there was no rediculous traffic problems (10 seconds off the highway? nice!) and there was plenty of parking you didn't have to pay $5 for. If you went to the SCG Open: Boston a few months ago in the fall, you should have recognized this to be in the exact same place as last time. What is different from last time however, is the addition of 2-3 not SCG Vendors, 2 artists signing cards, a 3-D card maker, and a Twitter system for posting matchups which really recduced the crowds around the boards.

Like all great stories, I'm going to start this one from the very beginning. It's August 11th, 1992 and my mom starts going into labor... Ew, too early.... Fast forward 18 years, 8 months, and 11 days... It's Saturday 1am, and I'm still chilling at Toys and Things thinking about the Open that would be starting in just 9 hours. Wait, just 9 hours!?!?! I need to sleep! I quickly wrapped up plans with Henry for driving down in the morning, told 2 people I would trade with them at the event so I could get an extra 5 minutes of sleep, and I drove off into the night. The guys in the neighboring apartment thought no one was home at my house, or they didn't care, and scheduled that night to be a rockband party/rave night. Guess where my bed is? Right over their living room.... So after an hour of soft pulsating bass tones rippled through my head, I managed to finally ignore it and get a precious 5 hours of sleep. Pre-registration for the event started at 8am, with nothing happening until 10, so Henry and I shot for the middle and planned on arriving at 9. We took my car, which if you have never seen it, it is just a rustbucket on wheels. Windsheild wipers? They work everywhere except in the middle of the left side of the windsheild (aka right in front of my face). Cadalitic Converter? Nearly fell completely off 2 weeks ago. Stereo volume control? Remember up is down and down is up, and if you try to game it the dial will spin and do nothing. Spedometer? You feel like a badass tearing up the highway until you look at the GPS and realize you're reading 8 over.... But I digress.... We went headfirst into heavy rain and blindly passed many 18 wheelers (remember, the wipers barely work and the 18 wheelers kicking up water doesn't help), getting faulty GPS readings (taking 4 exits in a row to draw a 4 leaf clover pattern before carrying on just as we were going before), and undergoing other various shenanegans before finally arriving to the holy land.

His Ryan senses must have been tickling/I called him as we got out of the car, but I saw Mark when I got to the actual event within 3 seconds of walking in. As it turns out his school is only 20 minutes away, so he arrived promptly at 8am and immediatly engaged in everything SCG had to offer. After a brief tour of the venders and checking out the 3-D cards, we got down to business.

Quick Aside
{
I am really glad SCG decided to let other Vendors set up at their open. One big problem I had with the last one was feeling monopolized if I wanted to buy/sell cards. Now with multiple venders, a mini-capitalistic system blooms and players can avoid getting skrewed. I went to all the venders when I wanted to sell cards out of my binder, and only sold to the one that gave me fair prices which was Troll and Toad. Also, I compared selling prices across the Venders and saw CoolStuffInc had Tezzeret at 33 while the other venders had him for as much as 40. Brendan promptly bought the last 2 when he saw this, selling Knight of the Reliquary and Noble Hierarchs for them. Having multiple vendors keeps them all honest which is huge for all players!
}
End Aside

Here is the deck I registered for the event:

4x Goblin Guide
4x Spikeshot Elder
3x Ember Hauler
3x Goblin Bushwacker
3x Goblin Wardriver
4x Goblin Chieftan

3x Koth of the Hammer

4x Lightning Bolt
4x Staggershock
4x Searing Blaze
3x Arc Trail

2x Teetering Peaks
4x Arid Mesa
4x Scalding Tarn
11x Mountain

Sideboard:
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Perilous Myr
4x Mark of Mutiny
3x Cyclops Gladiator
3x Tumble Magnet
1x Hero of Oxid Ridge

The previous night I had played a far worse version of the deck that had +1 mountain, Bushwacker, Wardriver, and Ember Hauler. And I also had Plated Geopede instead of Goblin Chieftan. To say the least I greatly improved the deck by dropping it from 64 cards to 60 and replacing the awkward Geopedes with the Cheiftan that is dripping with synergy.

Round 1: Dominic, Junk

My opponent for this round was playing an innovative GWB deck that I feel could be strong if it was more refined, although it kinda felt like a GW Zoo deck that splashed black for spot removal and Inquisition of Kozelik. I did what my deck does best game 1 and exploded out of the gates with Goblin Guides and crushed all his blockers with Searing Blazes and Bolts and quickly killed him while being at 19 life, thanks to my own Scalding Tarn. Game 2 was a little slower, and things went poorly for me as he hit me twice with Sword of Body and Mind, providing a few extra essential blockers to stabelize at 9 life and kill me.

Game 3 however, was insane! As he was also a creature based beatdown deck, he didn't bring in any Day of Judgements. He lead a lot of creatures, including a Fauna Shaman into Bolts, Staggershocks, and Searing Blazes until I ran out of burn and he stuck a Fauna Shaman. At this point I swung in with a Spikeshot Elder and a Goblin Chieftan dropping him to 6 life. On his turn he uses Fauna Shaman to tutor an Obstinate Baloth and plays it bringing himself up to 10 life. A couple shots from my 2 power Spikeshot drops him back to 6 again, and once again he tutors up and drops a Baloth. At this point his board is far superior to mine, so I forgoe getting random damage in with the Spikeshot and instead opt for playing a Tumble Magnet. Here comes a Baneslayer! More grinding damage, and all of a sudden I'm staring down a Baneslayer AND a Wurmcoil Engine! I drop another Tumble Magnet and another Goblin Chieftan to make my Spikeshot deal a little more damage per shot, and that was enough to grind out a victory with 0 and 1 counters left on my Tumble Magnets.

2-1
1-0

Round 2: Igor, UW Caw-Blade

Like I said, I did minimal/no testing for this event, and if I did, the first deck on my radar would have been Caw-Blade. Had I tested this matchup I would have had Manic Vandal or Crush in the Sideboard as this matchup is a breeze as long as they don't have Mortarpod or Sylvok Lifestaff. Regardless, I did not have that and instead focused too much on the Kor Firewalker. I lost the key game 1 by having my team get eaten apart by Mortarpod + Squadren Hawk. However, I managed to rebound on game 2 with an explosive start. Game 3 was sad as I got killed by a Jace -12....

1-2
1-1

Round 3: Brian, UW Caw-Blade

Man, what's up with all this Caw-Blade? I just want to play against fair decks... Theres not much to say, you know how it goes... Gideon Jura, a flock of Hawks chumb blocking/trading... Jace TMS taking control.... Sun Titan to nail the coffin shut...

0-2
1-2

Round 4: Jerry, Goblins Mirror

The Goblins mirror match is one of the coolest games that play out, if you have never seen it. I had a solid game 1 while he was stuck on one land all game. Despite that, he did manage to eventually find land and bring me down to 8, but that's not quite 0. Thinking of that timeless article from Flores, I decided I would be the control deck in this matchup bringing in the Gladiators and Perilous Myrs, and it worked very well. I had the strange realization later in that game that I was playing mono-red and I was the one with 5 cards in hand while my opponent had exhausted all resources. I stabelized at 8 life and cleaned house from there.

2-0
2-2

Round 5: Melanie, BG Infect

This was a really sketchy round for me. I really like to chat and be casual with my opponent, and make everyone around us laugh a little to lighten the tournament mood. That's really hard to do when your opponent is an emotional sinkhole. I didn't hear her say a word during either of our games, and I don't even think I saw her smile. Creepy.... But game 1 I had 1 land all game, but had the nuts for just 1 land in the form of 3 Spikeshot Elders, 2 Goblin Guides, and a Lightning Bolt. I did draw a second land, but that was on the turn I killed her, and I didn't even tap it for mana. Her deck at times felt like a BSS draft deck as it was all the 2 mana infect dorks and pump spells. Game 1 she only had forests all game, and I would have considered her mono-green had she not revealed Skittles from my Goblin Guide. Game 2 went pretty much the same way with me killing her while at 4 poison myself. She did have all the mana she needed this game, but thankfully no Crusader came down. I did board in Perilious Myr for them, but I didn't draw the Myr either.

2-0
3-2

Round 6: Jeremy, UW Caw-Blade

Who would have guessed? 50% of my matches are Caw-Blade! I didn't test for Caw-Blade, but this guy apparently never tested for Red Deck. This brings the balance of who is unprepared back to a medium, which leaves that I should have a good game 1 let me kill him while at 22 life. I don't remember a lot of Game 2, except I hit the turn 2 Ratchet Bomb, kicked it up to 2, and just waited with it. Post Mortem I learned that he was unprepared for the mono-red matchup and didn't even bring Kor Firewalkers in his board. I sustained 2 swings from an equipped Inkmoth Nexus to go up to 6 poison, but in the end I managed to pull this one out.

2-0
4-2

Round 7: Ben, Naya

Game 1 I was simply flattened by 2 Vengevines before I could put him at 10 life... It was bad.... But Game 2 I got my mojo back on by clearing his board of creatures with Searing Blazes, and killed him only taking damage from my fetchlands. Game 3 was another grinder. According to my notes, he gained life on 4 occasions, first just 1 life, and 3 life the other times, but I can't remember how... To say the least, That extra 10 life saved him as I ran out of gas with him at 8 life and he took over with all of his beasts. I honestly felt like I had that game in hand the whole time, but sadly it didn't work out... After a minute or 2 of discerning what to do, I ultimately dropped.

1-2
4-3 drop

So as it turned out, I dropped just after the Legacy event started, which I was really hoping to get into if things didn't turn out well, so instead I just did what I do best: trading. At this point there was no real trading hive formed yet, but I found 4 guys trading right next to the SCG Vendor booth, so I plopped myself down, pulled out the binder, and got to work! At this point it was 5 or 6 o'clock and i didn't tap another land for mana until I got back to Toys at 1am, spending the entire time trading (read: not eating) so I dont' remember much. However, I did have some goals for what I wanted to trade for/get rid of. After 6 hours of traing, here were some notable changes to my trade binder:

-4 Eldrazi Monument
-2 Tropical Island
-4 Massacre Wurm
-3 Indomitable Archangel
+5 Noble Hierarch (1 painted)
+3 Lion's Eye Diamond
+1 Dark Confidant
+4 Painted Brainstorm
+1 Painted Inkmoth Nexus
+2 Italian Infernal Tutor
+1 FNM Tendrils of Agony
+2 Japanese Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
+1 Foil Steam Vents
+1 Painted Firespout
+1 Ensnaring Bridge
+1 SwagStorm (translated by a real Japanese guy)

I know there were a ton of other trades that happened, but I really can't remember what they were. I do kno that I bulked off 100 cards to SCG for a crisp $10 bill, and sold another $50 to Troll and Toad, but I don't really remember the contents of those that much either.... What I do remember is that after I went back to Toys N Things at 1am, I traded the 2 Japanese Tezzerets and a set of Reanimate for a Tropical Island, which I realized I needed after trading both of mine for the LEDs.

Overall, I had a fantastic time at the SCG Open, and i can't wait to come back to it again! Until next time, stay classy!

New Phyrexia Completely Spoiled!!! (Part 3: Green, Multicolored, Colorless)

Hello everyone! It is monday, 2 weeks before the NPH pre-release which would normally mean the start of spoiler season, but thanks to this leak WotC just released the whole set here. One good thing about this official release is I can use those images in this post instead of having to break it out to its text. Cards are simply better to look at. So without further ado, let's get to the cards!

This is simply a nutty card!!! A regrowth type effect for any color at instant speed is nice, but there are even more things you can do with it, starting with dropping a land on the top of your opponent's deck to time walk them, especially when they need a lucky one off the top to save themselves. Or how about this in a Counterbalance deck? Now you have all the cards in your graveyard as resources for countering spells in addition to your Top and Brainstorm! Imagine getting in a counterspell war where you have a Counterbalance but no top and you have a land on top. You cast a spell tapping yourself out, they Force of Will it, so you Force of Will in response to your Counterbalance trigger, but they Daze your Force of Will. So you let their Daze resolve sending them both to the yard, but then respond to the original Force by Noxious Revivaling your Force and putting it on the top of your deck. The Counterbalance trigger is still on the stack, and you reval your Force of Will that you put there with Noxious Revival, blowing them out by resolving whatever key spell you needed to AND getting to use one of your precious 4 Force of Wills again. Now that specific scenario probably won't happen because they should Daze first instead of Force, but that's the kind of thinking you need to have with this card when it comes to the possibilities with this card. Another random note on this card is that it shows some beef between the green and blue Praetors...

When I first saw this card, I initially dismissed it as some random bulk rare. However, Star City Games sent out a tweet saying that they increased the buy price on both Phyrexian Dreadnaught and Hunted Horror. Those cards plus Stifle could lead to an interesting UB aggro deck. The Phyrexian Dreadnaught/Stifle combo has been used for a long time now, but more recently (as of SCG Boston yesterday) it was used as the finisher in various Countertop decks (2 of which top-8ed SCG Boston). This is the kind of card that you can really profit on! Pick them up off people for a quarter - 50 cents, and if they ask just say it's your anti-Venser tech in Block or anti-Titan tech (both of which are pretty poor), then pawn them off to Legacy speculators or Venders. SCG currently has this card at $4, so you can sell it to a Vender for as much as $2! Besides that, this card actually is a piece of bulk.

Wow! A 5/6 for 2 mana?!?! Colorless mana?!?! It's like a Tarmogoyf for everybody! Wait, what's that clause? It has to be cast by mana from creatures? Dang.... Well we can't get another Goyf for nothing, let's explore some creatures making mana options:

1. Myr. This is what the card is trying to evoke flavorfully, but the cheapest Myr cost 2 mana, so the first would come town turn 2, the second turn 3, and this turn 4. A 5/6 on turn 4 is unimpressive compared to the Titans that typically get dropped by then. However, we can speed this up a turn with another card:
2. Birds of Paradise. Birds is probably going to be in ever deck the Superion is in, as it is the fastest creature accelerant possible besides Llanowar Elves and Arbor Elf (yeah, I'm suggesting this guy in an elves deck)
3. Eldrazi Spawn. The 3 fastest spawn makers are Brood Birthing, Nest Invader, and Spawning Breath. Of those 3, Nest Invader is my choice to help cast the Superion as it lends itself to the aggressive deck we want him in. Also, going T1 Birds, T2 Nest Invader, we can immediatly sac the token and tap the bird to play the Superion.
4. Grand Architect. This puts the Superion out by itself on turn 3, which is something none of the other choices have offered. The only problem with this option is that the Grand Architect decks ramp so fast they are usually dropping 6/6 Wurmcoil Engines turn 3 instead of messing with vanilla 5/6s.
5. Joraga Treespeaker. This is the other card that can play Superion by itself, but this card can do it turn 2, while being a part of the tribe where everyone makes mana.

So after reviewing these options, the clear winner with this card is Elves. Elves is the deck that always has an explosion of mana from all of its creatures, which synergizes all too well with Myr Superion. Also, most Elves decks are playing Genesis Wave, where this guy is always coming down off of. The biggest problem with elves is that it sometimes can't apply enough pressure fast enough, but with Myr Superion in addition to Vengevine (please note Superion's low mana cost makes casting 2 to recur a Vengevine an easy play) can probably push them up to tier 1 status. The bane of elves though is Day of Judgement effects, but Caw-Blade currently doesn't play any. I think this new kid is going to stir up the block

So, continuing our discussion of elves, how great would it be if the control player casts Day of Judgement, and in response you float 4 mana off your Archdruid. Then once the dust has settled, you cast Fresh Meat and now they are staring down a 12 + power board. Go to game 2? This will probably just sit in the sideboard, but it gives Zoo decks serious game against control. Want a goofy combo deck? Make a ton of Eldrazi Spawn tokens, sacrifice them all, pay 4 for Fresh meat, and whatever you have left over for your Furnace Celebration tokens, GG.

Speaking of funny combo decks, we already know Bloodchief Ascension is supidly powerful when it gets active, but if for whatever reason you need to speed the kill up a little bit, just drop this bad boy down, throw a lightning bolt, or even just a Hornet Sting at them, and let the madness take over! They will completely mill themselves to deck and go to -80 life or so in one fell swoop!

This is part of a Shrine Cycle, but this is really the only good one. I will play this in every deck I draft, even if its infect, because getting an endless army of 1/1 dudes isn't bad. The only thing that sucks about this card is that it's the worst topdeck in the world during the lategame. At 5 mana for casting and activating, you're going to want this at 5 charge counters or higher to get good value for your mana. An important thing to note is that this shrine gets counters on it each time you cast a white spell in addition to yoru upkeep, so if you draft a heavy white deck, you can drop this turn 2, then play your game as normal, only popping when you run out of other plays and get greeted by 10 1/1s that will happily kill your opponent.

This is a fantastic recursive token maker, which simply gets nuttier with a couple proliferations. With so many artifacts in this block, it will be hard to not play this card in your draft deck.

This is very clearly a casual card, and I think this is one of the finest political card out there. Pissing everyone off? I will pay a ton of life to cast phyrexian mana spells, then pass the bill to you. You can pass around that brink of death feeling every turn with this card, which will make you think twice about going red aggro all over the place! I don't think it has to be mentioned that this will never see play in constructed or limited.

Wow! This is another insane reason to go metalcraft! This card features everything Mirran in one nice smooth package. With the boros colors, the combat-oriented First Strike ability, and a very aggressive metalcraft ability (which buffs himself too up to an 8/4 first strike), this is another huge player in a possible metalcraft deck. I will delve more into the deck by the time of release, but I think this could be the top of the curve for such a deck!

Cuz baby I know! The first cut is the deepest... If cards like that counterspell and the proliferate ability aren't enough to convince you that gettign that first poison counter is the most dangerous mistake to make, then maybe facing an endless insect horde is. The more you're infected, the less time you have to live. By the time you get to 3 poison counters, the infect player has lethal on board just from this card alone! This is a bomb among men in draft, and this is another card to make Virulent Wound even more dangerous!

This card has been getting the most hype of almost all the cards in the set as the most powerful tool for any green mage. This is a straight up Vindicate as long as you can deal with the token (Jace -1, Skinrender, x/4 creatures...). One deck that I have been thinking about recently is a GW Walls ramp deck that closes with Eldrazi and Iona. Just buy time by blocking with Walls until you can make a ton of mana with Overgrown Battlement, and drop a major fattie. This is the kinda card that deck is dying for. With all the x/4 walls, the token is completely irrelivant, while vindicating a Sword or planeswalker is backbreaking. If your opponent is mana-skrewed, you can stone rain them to oblivion. The uses for this card are endless!

This card has gotten Brian Kibler a little frustrated, but I like the appeal of a seemingly locked board suddenly turn around because the mono-black deck just cast a Giant Growth effect! This card can even see play in an infect deck if you want to go for the mono-Giant Growth type deck, as it is another spell you can throw on your creature to add up to 10

Man, as if infect needed to get any better! This guy is already a huge hard to manage infect dude, but being able to force through damage is something simply scary. If your playing Infect but haven't been able to push through any damage to proliferate, Spinebiter comes through in a pinch. This is yet another infect bomb that really pushes the power of drafting infect (but remember, there is less and less poison per set as you go through each pack in the draft...)

Talk about a boros slayer! Not only does your guy get protection from the deck, but you gain a coupe of life with each swing, buyng yourself additional turns to stabelize! This is the card that had the most hype before anything was spoiled, and while the abilities are lackluster, that doesn't even matter. Protection from red and white is amazingly powerful as people have said time and time again. That being said, I still feel Feast and Famine is better in control decks like Caw-Blade while this will be better in decks like Bant Aggro, where an equipped Mirran Crusader is nearly unstoppable! This is the real deal, but in an inglorious fashion

This guy has the same exact firebreathing/Hatred ability as Moltensteel Dragon, but I wanted to pull it up because it can be played in any deck without having to pay 4 life to play it initially. An important thing to be aware of is that this doesn't boost toughness, so it is easy to get blown out by Galvanic Blast or Instill Infection when going for the kill

I think this card is overrated. Yes it is good, but no it is not $25 good. With Stoneforge Mystic, this card is stupidly overpowered by being able to bounce and replay it to dodge removal like Shatter and Divine Offering. However, after Stoneforge rotates out of standard, I don't think this card will be a dominating player any more. Since I don't have any Stoneforges, by personal plan with this card is sell sell sell.

This is exactly what infect decks have been dying for! Frankly this isn't even an unreasonable card to make. It's basically a 2/1 for 1 mana, like Elite Vanguard. I believe this card will be a staple in a BG infect beatdown deck by starting the curve off very nicely. Patrick Chapin has even started posting lists on facebook for legacy infect, and they all include 4x Glistener Elf. Thankfully this is a common, so be sure to put aside 4 for future decks

Come on, you know you just want to play this in a Sensei's Divining Top deck, right?

This is probably the scariest and most dangerous card in the set for infect decks! Giving mass trample on infectors is scarily backbreaking. This won't see any play in constructed, as the important word in this card is gives infect, but in limited you can now get blown out by a wave of poison counters at any moment. Swinging out never looked like a worse option...

This has actually been a suprisingly long last section, but I guess that's thanks to this being the artifact block. But that's all for now, soon I will come back to these and talk about various cards in more detail, new decks, and yes I will give my report on SCG Boston. Until next time, stay classy!

Playing a Vintage Deck in a Legacy Event

There is a certain feeling that you get from time to time where you know you have the best deck in the room by far. You have an uncanny advantage that simply can't be matched, like playing an Extended deck in Standard, or a Legacy deck in Extended. The same holds true for playing a Vintage deck in Legacy, you simply feel too powerful.

Black Lotus? Check
Ancestral Recall? Check
Mox? Check
Demonic Tutor? Check*

Please note that by "Check" I really mean: I'm playing 4. For a while now I have had a casual interest in making a Tendrils Storm deck, the same casual interest that made me trade for Dredge. I looked up a list online, which included 4x Brainstorm, 4x Ponder, 4x Preordain, 4x Duress, Tendrils of Agony, Ad Nauseum, fetchlands, 2x Underground Sea, and 4x Dark Ritual, all of which I had, so I decided to actively pursue it. The deck wasnt hard to get from there. $10 got me 2 Infernal Tutor and an Il Gotten Gain, and I was able to quickly trade for 2 Italian Infernal Tutors. But then there were those Lion's Eye Diamonds..... LED is a $50 card which is played in Dredge, but there were many lists without any, but you simply could not play ANT (Ad Nauseum Tendrils) without them. I was walking around the SCG open yesterday (which I will post a report on soon) and saw Star City Games selling a bunch for $50 each. I passed, but then decided to buy an Italian one I saw from another Vendor at $45. I talked to the third vendor, and they said they didn't have any, but if they did they would sell it at $35. I was pumped and checked between every round for 7 rounds, but to no avail as they either never got any in or sold them immediatly.

Fast forward to the end of round 7 where I drop after going 4-3, I head over to the opposite corner of the facility from the Standard event where there is a huge trading Bazaar (of Baghdad). I managed to wurm myself a spot and proceded to not get up for 4 hours and spent the time straight trading. I walked around a bit, then crammed in another 2 hours of trading. 5 hours in I still had seen 0 LEDs, even in binders I wasn't trading with. Then the clouds parted and the angels cried out in a melodic harmony as this guy in a bright orange polo and big black cruffy beard comes up to me and asks to trade. There, in all of its glory and wonder, is 3 copies of Lion's Eye Diamond. I snap hand him the high value binder and he points out his interest in my 2 Tropical Islands. I soon move him the 2 Tropical Islands for the 3 LED to finish the set!

Fast forward to Sunday, I am sitting at my bed laying out cards for ANT and I only have to proxy a Thoughtseize and a Cabal Ritual in the maindeck! I immediatly make the proxies, play a few games solitare style, and pack it up for the legacy event. For reference, here was my list:

4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x Preordain
4x Dark Ritual
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
4x Infernal Tutor
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Ad Nauseum
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Il Gotten Gains
4x Thoughtseize
4x Duress
4x Polluted Delta
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Verdant Catacombs
2x Underground Sea
3x Island
2x Swamp

Sideboard:
1x Tropical Island
4x Xantid Swarm
10x other stuff

I never read the decklists when I read an article unless it is something I actualy want to build and I want to see how close I am to making it, so let me give you the TL;DR list:

12x Instant/Sorcery for U that draws cards
4x Black spell that nets 1-3 black mana
8x 0 mana artifacts that make mana
4x Card that gets some 1-ofs
8x Hand Disruption spells for B
4x Singleton spells that build storm and win the game
16x Land

Yeah, this deck exemplifies the power of KISS (keep it simple stupid), and because of that it's very consistant. For those not in the know, you are a combo deck with your only kill card being the 1-of Tendrils of Agony. The other 59 cards in the deck enable that card to kill your opponent. How is it so consistant? How do your games play out? Assuming you don't simply draw the nutty kill in opening hand, you want to Duress/Toughtseize to clear your opponent's hand while Brainstorm/Ponder/Preordaining until your hand is just right. Here are the key cards to have in hand before going off:

Lion's Eye Diamond
Infernal Tutor
1+ Dark Ritual/Cabal Ritual with Threshold

Now, just having those 3 cards wont get you to 9 Storm before casting Tendrils, cards like Lotus Petal and additional Rituals should be sandbagged in hand before going off. Here is a good combo turn:

1 Duress, take only disruption (if there is more disruption than you can answer, do not engage)
2 Dark Ritual
3 Dark Ritual
4 LED
5 Infernal Tutor, retain priority, sac LED to discard hand, fetch Il Gotten Gains
6 IGG, returning Dark Ritual, LED, and Infernal Tutor
7 Dark Ritual
8 LED
9 Infernal Tutor, retain priority, sac LED to discard hand, fetch Tendrils of Agony
10 Tendrils of Agony

(Infernal Tutor can search for any card a la Demonic Tutor if you're Hellbent. Hellbent, like Metalcraft, checks its respective resource upon resolution, so by retaining priority when you cast Infernal Tutor and sacrificing LED to discard your hand, you resolve Infernal Tutor in its Hellbent state and get anything you want.)

That seems pretty straighforward, right? Well if you get rid of the first 2 spells, things get awkward.... All the mana works out assuming you have 2 lands in play, but you will have a storm count of 7 when you go to cast Tendrils, which will only deal 16 damage.... It is in moments like these you grab Ad Nausaum instead of IGG, and draw as many cards as you can off of it. From there you should by able to get a storm count way beyond 9 and kill your opponent. Also, IGG lets your opponent get 3 cards back from their graveyard too, so if they have counterspells, it may just be better to get Ad Nausaum and not get blown out by a Force of Will.

So like I said, I wound up sleeving this bad boy up and took it to the Legacy event at Toys. When I got there, the normal joking around began, and Winchester came up to me pulled out 4 Leyline of the Void and said, "I got these just for you!" I calmly responded, "You know I play Chain of Vapor right?" to which he simply said he could kill me before I drew it. That seemed to satisfy him, and I smiled very wide because he had no idea what he was getting himself into.

Round 1: Anthony, Goblins
I don't remember a lot about our games, but that's because they were over very quick. He was having mana flooding like crazy both games, and I was able to combo out under no pressure twice in a row.

2-0
1-0

Round 2: Andrew, Fish
I was playtesting this matchup a bunch before the event started, and it wasn't lookin too good. He puts me under pressure, which makes Ad Nauseaum worse, and he plays counterspells, which makes IGG worse. Untilmately it didn't matter as I was put under intense pressure with soft counterspell backup. Game 2, I brought in the Xantid Swarms, and got one on turn 1 with an otherwise loose hand, but he got a Jitte on a dude and used one counter to kill the Swarm. All of a sudden I'm incredibly vulnerable and he aggroed out from there.

0-2
1-1

Round 3: Mike, Mono-blue control
I was watching Mike's game from round 1 where he was playing against Keith's mono-white control deck, and naturally they had a draw. His deck was a wall of counterspells, followed by Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Teferi. I felt like I should have a good matchup as long as I was able to disrupt him. Game 1 I had no gas but 2 Duress and a Thoughseize, so I kept. I killed a counterspell with Duress, but he had 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptors. I drew into a Preordain and started sculpting my hand. I should have taken away his other Jaces, but I didn't. He landed a Jace and brainstormed. I REALLY should have Duressed him here, but once again I didn't, instead opting for a Brainstorm at the end of his turn, drawing my top card and passing, leaving a Dark Ritual on top. My hand consisted of Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, Cabal Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor, Duress, and Thoughtseize. He played a 5th land and slammed down a Jester's Scepter, with 2 lands up. I knew he had a Dark Ritual, so I had to go into the tank..... 4 lands in play.....
1 Duress
2 Thoughtseize, hand is now just land
3 Dark Ritual, countered by the Scepter, leaving him tapped out
4 Lotus Petal
5 Cabal Ritual w/Threshold
6 LED
7 Infernal Tutor, sac LED, grab IGG
etc for win
Game 2 He got another Jester's Scepter in play, but I guess he didn't like it because he bounced it back to his hand with Echoing Truth and replayed it. I cracked a Misty Rainforest and studied my deck trying to discern what he took. I didn't count out all the 4-ofs, but I noticed there was no Il Gotten Gains or As Nauseaum, so I just scooped. Turns out his first Scepter just had a Brainstorm and land, while the second one had Ad Nauseaum, IGG, Preordain, Ponder, Ritual, aka the nuts. Game 3 I don't remember but I think it involves a turn 2 kill.

2-1
2-1

Overall, I was thoroughly satisfied with the deck, and really glad I traded for those LEDs! I have also incorperated them into my Dredge deck, which simply makes it faster then before! Now instead of having to wait all the way to turn 2 or 3 to win, I can do it turn 1 from time to time! It's insane decks like this one that really get me excited to play Magic, because it's dramatic and completely off the wall! Now I can have even more fun at the Legacy events by concealing whether I'm Dredging or Storming (or Counter-topping if I feel like being boring) until M1G1! Until next time, stay classy!

*If you haven't figured it out by now, Black Lotus is LED, Ancestral Recall is Brainstorm, Mox is Lotus Petal, and Demonic Tutor is Infernal Tutor

New Phyrexia Completely Spoiled!!! (Part 2: Black and Red)

Hello everyone! For those of you tuning in late to this broadcast, New Phyrexia has been completely leaked, and I am going through discussing various cool cards from the set that get me excited. I already talked about White and Blue, and today is Black and Red:

Despise

B
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a creature or planeswalker card from it. That player discards that card.

This card adds to the Duress/Inquisition package of 1 mana targeted discard spells, and I think this is the best of the 3. Planeswalkers are incredibly prevalent right now (32 Jaces anybody?), and creatures are always going to be played, so this should never miss. It is awkward using Duress/Inquisition sometimes against Valakut because you will often just miss and go home crying, but you can make them Despise you when you strip their Primeval Titan from they're now sucky hand. Props to this card as well for having a great name (Go for the Throat is still awkward to say...)

Dismember

1{b/p}{b/p}
Instant
Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn

This card is really interesting! Often times this card will be a Doom Blade type effect, except it can kill indestructable cards. This is an obvious first pick in draft, and it doesn't even put you in any colors! As far as constructed goes, unless if something goes wrong and we have a need for a turn 1 -5/-5 spell, Doom Blade is just better.

Reaper of Sheoldred

4B
Creature - Horror
Infect
Whenever a source deals damage to Reaper of Sheoldred, that source's controller gets a poison counter.
2/5

We haven't seen a whole lot of really good infect cards yet from the set, but then this bad boy shows up. Blocking isn't too productive against him, but taking the damage isn't fun either.... Lightning Bolt doesn't work.... You simply have to Go for the Throat this guy or you're in trouble, like when facing down Phyrexian Cancellor, whose name is now apparently Phyrexian Obliterator. This is definitely a solid infect card to start your sickening draft with.

Sheoldred, Whispering One

5BB
Legendary Creature - Praetor
Swampwalk
At the beginning of your upkeep, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature.
6/6

This Praetor is awesome, but is probably only going to be a boss on the EDH and other casual tables. The biggest problem with upkeep triggers is that they can be avoided with a well-timed removal spell. But this is definitely going to hold some good value because of the casual demand this is bound to receive, so don't pawn it off too low.

Fallen Ferromancer

3R
Creature - Human Shaman
Infect
1R{tap}: Fallen Ferromancer deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
1/1

An infect pinger?!?! Nice!! One really powerful archetype in BSS draft is the UR control deck with Vedalken Anotomast, counterspells, removal, and Flameborn Hellion. This guy is an instant addition to that deck by simply being great recursive removal, and just like a normal pinger, he can always just go for the face. Also, this guy does have 1 point of power, so if you have your opponent down to 5 life with 0 poison counters, he can just start bashing with the team. I would probably first-pick this guy.
 
Moltensteel Dragon

4{r/p}{r/p}
Artifact Creature - Dragon
Flying
{r/p}: Moltensteel Dragon gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
4/4

This is a really cool card! Having the ability to Hatred-esque pump is an awesome way to make the most of your advantage! I can definitely see this card striking fear into the souls of unsuspecting vistims as you pay 10 life to hit your opponent for 9 and kill them from out of nowhere! Hatred was a little broken, but by having to pay 2 life for each 1 extra damage makes this guy way more fair (but it's still awesome)

Ogre Menial

3R
Creature - Ogre
Infect
R: Ogre Menial gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
0/4

And now I present you the same card, with infect! This card isn't necessarily very powerful, but is something we haven't seen on any infect creatures yet, making it something worth pointing out. The one danger of this card is that it can be a 1 turn clock if everything is dead and you and your opponent are in a topdeck war, this guy can swing for 6 or 7 poison really fast! Imagine drafting a RB infect deck and going turn 2 Plague Myr, turn 3 Ogre Menial, turn 4, swing for 3-4 infect damage, turn 5 win? I would absolutely play this in a mono-red deck as the threat of him killing you in 2 swings is simply scary! I think this card is a sleeper in draft!
 
Priest of Urabrask

2R
Creature - Human Cleric
When Priest of Urabrask enters the battlefield, add RRR to your mana pool.
2/1

I spy with my little eyes.... a red Priest of Gix! I can't testify how good Priest of Gix was, excpet one time playing Phyrexia vs the Coalition where I went turn 1 Dark Ritual -> Priest of Gix -> Phyrexian Negator, GG.

Whipflare
1R
Sorcery
Whipflare deals 2 damage to each nonartifact creature

This is a very interesting Pyroclasm variation, which really makes me want to make a Myr deck (although I may not have thought of it were it not for the art of burning Myr.... the art and the rules text don't make sense together...). The only problem with Pyroclasm right now is that most decks don't get harmed by it. It is good vs Vampires, Mono-Red, and Boros, but that's basically where it stops. Caw-Blade doesn't mind losing a hawk or 2, and Valakut just shrugs it off as they lose nothing. This is just a very interesting card to consider next time you take your little Myr tribe to war.

That's all the Black/Red cards I'm going to cover today, I'm sorry they aren't as exciting as Jin-Gitaxias, but I didn't make the set, I'm just reviewing it! I will probably have part 3 of this series up tomorrow night, so stay tuned! Until next time, stay classy!

New Phyrexia Completely Spoiled!!! (Part 1: White and Blue)

Well, I was trying to come up with a whitty or comical name for this post, but there's no other way to really put it... The Godbook for New Phyrexia, which apparently is a PDF that WotC gives to chums like you and I for initial reactions on the set, has been leaked. Now obviously we have to say that all of these spoilers are unofficial, so nothing is garunteed or etched in stone, but there's a good chance this is 99.9% correct. I can't seem to find the link to where I found the file, but all of the cards have been copied down in text form onto MTG Realm here (there's many pics too for the TL;DR folk). I have talked about a bunch of cards in the past, so I am going to skip around to the interesting ones. I'm only going to do the White and Blue cards today, but I will surely touch on the others in the next couple days:

Blade Splicer
2W

Creature - Human Artificer
When Blade Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control have first strike.
1/1

In the Mechanics article from the Mothership, they mentioned a Golem tribal theme, and this is one of 6 Splicer cards that are 1/1s which produce Golems ETB. This one gives first strike, while the other 5 give Vigilence (Sensor Splicer), +1/+1 (Master Splicer), flying (Wing Splicer), trample (Maul Splicer), and regeneration (Vital Splicer). I think it goes without saying that this is purely for limited and casual. In constructed, theres cards  like Arc Trail and Cunning Sparkmage that will just leave you with a pile of Vanilla 3/3s. In limited these cards are quite potent because removal is like gold, being a first pick almost every time (unless you open like Skittles), and theses Splicers require 2 pieces of removal to completely erase. Not a first pick by any means, it's just a couple dudes, but something to definitely watch out for!

Cathedral Membrane
1{w/p}

Artifact Creature - Wall
Defender
When Cathedral Membrane is put into a graveyard from the battlefield during combat, it deals 6 damage to each creature it blocked this combat.
0/3

I actually really like this card! This reminds me a lot of Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch (holy unnecessarily long name Kamigawa block!), but obviously being removal instead of a bounce spell. I don't see many constructed applications to this, but it would be the greatest way to kill a Titan! One thing that is awesome about phyrexian mana is that you can view this card as a colorless 1-drop! I almost always play U/b control in BSS draft, but if I had this card I would absolutely play it! Removal is removal, and this also does a nice job of holding back a wave of creatures. Imagine if your opponent has a 2/2 and a 3/3 and you have Cathedral Membrane. When they declare attackers, there's a whole lot going on! Obviously attacking with just the 2/2 isn't profitable, but what if they attacked with just the 3/3, or both? Do you block? Take the damage? It's a great way to get into your opponent's mind, and the decision tree is very complex.

Norn's Annex

3{w/p}{w/p}
Artifact (R)
Creatures can't attack you or a planeswalker you control unless their controller pays {w/p} for each of those creatures.

This card has been spoiled for a while now, but I just realized an epic combination for this card: Gideon Jura! Drop this on turn 4, and Gideon on turn 5, and +2. Now if your opponent is playing white, you attack their mana, but if they aren't you have a burn spell that protects your life total and other planeswalkers! The problem with Gideon in combination with Ghostly Prison is that if they have 6 lands, they tap out and attack with 3 creatures, or they play spells and don't attack, or they could tap all their mana during Main Phase 1, have the mana leave the pool as you enter combat, and attack with nobody. However, everyone has 20 life to use as a resource, and if you tap out you lose. I honestly think this card incombination with Gideon could be a part of some pretty sick decks (talk about a game breaker in the Boros mirror!!!)

Argent Mutation

2U
Instant
Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to its other types until end of turn.
Draw a card.

In a similar vein to Master's Call, this card can give Metalcraft at instant speed, which can leed to all kinds of shenanegry in a game of limited. At the very least, this card is a cycler, so it is something that i playable in any blue deck. Also cool is using this to Shatter anything, like yo ucould with Liquidmetal Coating.

Arm with Aether

2U
Sorcery
Until end of turn, creatures you control gain "Whenever this creatures deals damage to an opponent, you may return target creature that player controls to its owner's hand."

This card is nuts!!! If I ever find myself in a U/x infect deck, this card is the stone cold nuts! You hit for a couple poison counters and bounce their whole board??? Then next turn you can just swing for the kill! Well-times bounce spells are very good in limited (read: Quicksilver Geyser), and this does a fantastic job of that. Just try to pack a Myr Turbine from MBS to go for the stupidly overpowered blowout! In constructed, this card is held back by being blue. The only swarm deck that I know of that is U/x is the Conley Woods UG Vengevine deck with Riddlesmith, Memnite, Ornithoptor, Vengevine, etc. This card could make that deck just a little more goofy and maybe even good!

Corrupted Resolve

1U
Instant
Counter target spell if its controller is poisoned
 
I don't know if I can really call this card a sleeper, but this is my pick for one of the most deceptively powerful cards in the set. In the right deck, this is as close to Counterspell as you can get. Don't forget about that there Virulent Wound, the only infect burn spell printed. These 2 cards could become best friends in the new UB infect list that comes out after NPH is released. Previously, there wasn't anythign bad about getting infected except that you could get Proliferated. Now, all bets are off, and getting infected could be the game-ending mistake!
 
Defensive Stance

U
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -1/+1
 
[Insert joke here about how bad this card sucks, how it has a Mirran symbol on it, and how the Mirrans suck too. Make it whitty enough to sooth the pain of how terrible this is]
 
Gitaxian Probe

{u/p}
Sorcery
Look at target player's hand.
Draw a card

I have heard a ton of people saying since Scars of Mirroden was released, and Standard shifted that Peek was a card they would play simply because knowing what your opponent has is that important! Well ladies and gentlemen (I don't think any chicks read this blog. If you're a chick and you read this blog give me a hollar so I don't piss you off when I start dropping jokes about how women can't drive) I present to you the baby of Peek + Street Wraith. This is a much more potent card for Constructed as opposed to Limited, but if you desperately need a 24th card for your draft/sealed deck, this fits the bill just fine. Imagine this opener:

Gitaxian Probe, see they are playing Boros
Island
Preordain, drop Spell Pierce to the bottom, keep Day of Judgement

Normally, you really wouldn't want to Preordain on turn 1 unless you're a combo deck or need lands, but thanks to this Probe, you know what is important or not from the start. Another place I expect to see this card getting heavy use is through the control mirrors. Knowing that your opponent is just bluffing that Mana Leak is HUGE when you have a Titan in hand. Right now EsperBlade is popular because seeing your opponent's hand turn 1 and making them discard a key card is VERY powerful. However, with Gitaxian Probe, I expect EsperBlade to really fall out of popularity because this fills a similar role (learning their hand), while maintaining the number of cards in hand. Now will all control decks start with 4x Jace, TMS, 4x Preordain, 4x Gitaxian Probe?

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

8UU
Legendary Creature - Praetor
Flash
At the beginning of your end step, draw seven cards.
Each opponent's maximum hand size is reduced by seven.
5/4

No, I'm not lying, this is a 10 mana blue creature with stupidly powerful abilities. If I ever see anyone cast this card, I realy don't know what I would do, although it feels good to flash this guy in at the end of your opponent's turn, make them discard their hand, then crush your opponent with the weight of card advantage. You will also want to commit Sepaku when they Doom Blade this before discarding for the turn. By being such a big fattie, the only way to make him playable is through cheating it into play. Standard gives us just Summoning Trap (although this + Iona + Terastadon + Emrakul kinda makes me want to make a standard Trap deck. The only problem is Jace TMS is the only card that can put the fatties back on top of your deck).  Legacy is where we will see this card, and you know I am stoked! Here are the cards we could use to drop this bad boy into play way too early:

Show and Tell
Reanimate/Exhume
Dread Return
Defense of the Heart
Elvish Piper

I don't think this will be overly good in Dredge because you have to wait until your turn ends before you draw cards, at which point Sphinx of Lost Truths is just better, but I think this is my new favorite Reanimate target! Reanimator is supposed to bring up a fattie that puts the opponent in such a position that they simply can't win from, which vanilla fatties like Inkwell Leviathan don't do all too well. Untapping with Jin-Gitaxian is basically a garunteed victory. You draw so many cards you are forced to discard every turn while your oppoent goes strait to topdeck mode. They don't have lands, and any spells they have will probably get countered considering your drawing 8 cards a turn! A couple turns later, you can Exhume another fattie like Terastadon to close out the game (and destroy something awkward like Ensnaring Bridge that's in your way). If Iona/Painter's Servant wasn't enough to convince you to play Defense of the Heart, how about Jin-Gitaxian + anything?!?! Alongside an Iona, it can give you inevitability for their last turn against Swords to Plowshares, alongside Emrakul they face down 20 power with what is soon to be no board and no hand. Alongside Eager Cadet you still can't lose! This is by far the best card in the set from my vantage point! It's going for 4 right now on ChannelFireball, but I can see this card ascending to the ranks of Emrakul and Progenitus as a $8-10 card!

Tezzeret's Gambit

3{u/p}
Sorcery
Draw two cards, then proliferate

This isn't a very interesting card as a whole, until  we realize how this is actually a colorless Divination! This is going to see play in every deck I draft, and I wouldn't be too suprised to see it show up in some constructed decks. Having the proliferate on top is just gravy! Imagine playing mono-red, you go T4 Koth, attack with a mountain, T5, Tezzeret's Gambit, ultimate Koth GG. I hear using this in an infect deck is good too!

I am going to stop here for today, but I will follow up in 2 more segments (Black/Red, Green/Multicolored/Colorless) in the next couple days. There is nothing overwhelmingly powerful or game-changing in New Phyrexia, but there is a ton of very interesting cards worth looking at. Until next time, stay classy!

Legacy on a Budget: High Tide

Hello Everyone! If you are following the Legacy metagame at all right now, you should know about the High Tide deck that recently came in 1st and 3rd place by the Hatfield brothers at SCG: Atlanta. They ran the exact same list:

Artifacts

4 Candelabra of Tawnos

Enchantments
1 Mind Over Matter

Instants
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
4 High Tide
1 Intuition
3 Meditate
3 Turnabout

Sorceries
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Time Spiral

Basic Lands
12 Island

Lands
2 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta

Sideboard:
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Brain Freeze
1 Echoing Truth
1 Intuition
1 Meditate
3 Pact of Negation
1 Rebuild
3 Repeal
1 Snap
1 Turnabout
1 Wipe Away

The most expensive card in this deck by far is Candelabra of Tawnos, sitting at a budget-slaying $351.99 a pop, for a total of $1408 for the set! And this is the only deck it's playable in..... But before we say that this deck simply can not be built unless you win Who Wants to be a Millionare, let's price out the rest of the deck:

4 Candelabra of Tawnos (352, 1408)
1408

1 Mind Over Matter (7)
2 Blue Sun's Zenith (1, 2)
4 Brainstorm (1.5, 6)
3 Cunning Wish (5.5, 16.5)
4 Force of Will (84, 336)
4 High Tide (1, 4)
2 Intuition (24, 48)
4 Meditate (9, 36)
4 Turnabout (2, 8)
463.5

4 Merchant Scroll (1, 4)
4 Ponder (0.5, 2)
2 Preordain (0.5, 1)
4 Time Spiral (32, 128)
135

2 Flooded Strand (25, 50)
2 Misty Rainforest (12, 24)
2 Polluted Delta (27, 54)
128

1 Brain Freeze (2.5)
1 Echoing Truth (0.5)
3 Pact of Negation (7, 21)
1 Rebuild (0.25)
3 Repeal (0.25, 0.75)
1 Snap (0.5)
1 Wipe Away (0.25)
25.75

Total price: $2160.25

This is a suprisingly low cost deck! Okay, over $2000 isn't cheap to you? Me neither.... What if I just amended that stat a little:

Total price without Candelabra: 752.25
Total price without Candelabra and Force of Will: 416.25

Wait! Are you seeing this? 65% of this deck's cost comes from a set of Candelabras! Of the cost of the rest of the deck, 45% of that comes from Force of Will! If you have Force of Wills already, or can get them for cheaper (I have heard of a ton of guys gettnig for for 50 recently), the price of the deck is low low low! Here are all the not Force/Candelabra cards that cost $10 or more (premium cards):

Flooded Strand: 25
Polluted Delta: 27
Misty Rainforest: 12
Time Spiral: 32

Yeah... Fetchlands, which are a staple of every deck in every format, and Time Spiral, the card which makes this deck even possible. Thats. It.

Oh, did I mention we can cut Onslaught fetches for less expensive Zendikar ones? By cutting 2 Flooded Strand and 2 Polluted Delta for 2 more Mistys and 2 Tarns, we save $52, or 50%!

Ok, so where was I? Oh yeah, back to those giant elephants in the room: Candelabra and Force of Will. Take a look at Candelabra of Tawnos. Read it, reread it. What does it even do? Just untap lands? Why is that even expensive? It's basically because of the nature of being from such an old set.... Check out all these other cards that we can use to untap lands (which generates more mana after casting High Tide). Snap is already in the Sideboard, so we know it is definitely solid, although it is a complete blank against other Storm deck, so I would suggest Could of Faeries to replace Candelabra. $2 for the set of Faeries will save a penny or 2 over the Candelabras. Now for that Force of Will.... Force of Will is the format-defining card in Legacy by being the glue that slows down every other deck in the format, so no deck can be runaway broken fast. However, this deck produces so much mana, that you can try to get away without it. Legacy is an old-school spells based format, which makes Spell Pierce very playable, but if you want to play it safe, Counterspell works just as well. $2-6 for the set saves you a lot over $336 for Force eh? Obviously, if you have Force, it is better, but assuming we're starting with nothing, these are the changes we have to make to save money.

So, let's see where these changes leave us:

Starting Price: 2160.25

Cuts:
4x Candelabra of Tawnos
4x Force of Will
2x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
1848

Replacements:
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Spell Pierce
2x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
56

Finishing Price: 368.25

So yes, I am telling you that you can buy a full tier 1 Legacy deck for about the same price of a playset of Jace, the Mind Sculptor (94, 376)! If you are looking for a crazy deck that wins without swinging for 20 in Legacy that is very resiliant to hate and is very consistant, look no further than High Tide! You never know how feasable it is to buy/trade for a deck until you price it out! Until nest time, stay classy!

Is It Worth It?

Hello everyone! We are getting closer and closer to the release of New Phyrexia, and the official spoilers will start pouring out in just 1 week! Today, the mechanics article was released on the Mothership and a certain card REALLY spiked my deckbuilding interests. But before I get there, we need some background:

Scars of Mirroden was released, and was viewed as a very weak set because of the linear mechanics. Unlike Landfall, which simply requires you play lands in your deck, the major themes of Metalcraft and Infect required your entire deck to follow a tight theme. Even with another set, neither of those mechanics have blossomed into a tier 1 deck yet (yeah yeah... UB infect... that runs 2 infect cards, 1 proliferate card, and the rest is a typical UB control deck). Let's take a look at what we gain by going all-in on infect:

-Your opponent starts at 10 life instead of 20
-Pump spells become twice as powerful
-Walls lose effectiveness against the onslaught
-Proliferation can give you games when your creatures burn out

Basically, you only gain advantages in combat, which can still be raced by mono-red style decks, or wiped out by Day of Judgement. However, infect is still a major threat as taking 3 poison sometimes feels worse than taking 6 damage. Let's look at Metalcraft, what advantages can we gain by going mono-brown:

-Bigger creatures then the mana should provide (Ardent Recruit, Auriok Sunchaser, Carapace Forger, Ezuri's Brigade)
-Spells become more powerful then the mana should provide (Stoic Rebuttal, Galvanic Blast)
-Mana Ramp (Mox Opal)
-Protection from your opponent's spells (Indominable Archangel, Etched Champion)

One of the problems with Metalcraft becoming a deck is that it takes a lot of work/board commitment for mediocre gain, and your opponent can always blow you out with a well timed Shatter. A card was released today, that is by far the most powerful effect post metalcraft out of the entire block and frankly I don't think it can get better then this:

By having the additional requirement of Metalcraft, we have a Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile card with no drawbacks! So now I ask the question: is it worth it? Obviously this card is nuts, but we need to figure out how it can be utilized best. The first place to check is what decks already get metalcraft alot? As you carry on with your life after reading this article, be actively aware of when you have Metalcraft. Maybe you're playing Caw-Blade and you have a Sword, Tumble Magnet, and Mortarpod in play. Seeing as we don't have a very artifact-heavy metagame right now, a new deck needs to be built to accomadate this card. Here's some sweet Metalcraft cards:

White:
Dispatch
Indomitable Archangel
Auriok Sunchaser
Blue:
Vedalkin Cetarch

Stoic Rebuttal

Red:
Galvanic Blast


Green:
Ezuri's Brigade

Carapace Forger

Artifact:
Mox Opal
Etched Champion

There's clearly not a lot out of any one color, but maybe it's a good thing to not go too deep into the Metalcraft theme, but instead use it as a source of value. 2 Archetypes that jump out at me is a GW Beatdown deck and a UW Control deck. Unfortunately for Tezzeret, black isn't that good for artifacts (yeah Phylacatory Lich!) but maybe we can splash black in our UW control deck for him. Here are some other artifacts that are great:

Aggro:
Memnite
Ornithoptor
Adventuring Gear
Signal Pest
Glint Hawk Idol
Phyrexian Revoker
Steel Overseer
Tumble Magnet

Control:
Brittle Effigy
Phyrexian Revoker
Ratchet Bomb
Sphere of the Suns
Everflowing Chalice
Wall of Tanglecord
Tumble Magnet
Lodestone Golem
Mindslaver
Steel Hellkite
Wurmcoil Engine

Clearly Metalcraft is going to be expanded with a couple cards in New Phyrexia, so keep your eyes on these lists, maybe a hot new deck can explode out of them. As a player who has a natural affinity for control, a UWb Metalcraft control deck feels really cool. White could also provide Day of Judgement, which works scarily well with Wurmcoil. From a financial perspective, picking up the rares like Mox Opal, Indomitable Archangel, Tempered Steel, Etched Champion, and Ezuri's Brigade may not be a bad idea.

It's almost that time again for some innovation and fresh deckbuilding, and you know when that time comes I will be all over it! Until next time, stay classy!

Theres a Game for Everyone

Hello everyone! So you probably noticed I haven't posted in a week, and that's because I haven't had anything I really wanted to talk about in the past week. In case if you haven't heard, 32 copies of Jace the Mind Sculptor finished in the top 8 of this past weekend's GP, with 60 being in the top 16. 1 Boros deck piloted by PV finished 15th, as the only non-blue deck in the top 16. I had traded off 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptors for Dual Lands a while back, so I don't have a playset, and I stupidly traded off Stoneforges, so I have 0 of those too... Also, I have been having no success with Valakut, so looks like I can't play any tier 1 decks... Whine whine, complain complain.... When in doubt, play mono-red! That's what I did for this past FNM, although I foolishly didn't have any Spikeshot Elders. I promptly went 0-3 drop....

So after not doing well in Standard on Friday, there was a TCQ at Toys. I would have played to give another whack at it with my mono-red deck, but I had work. Instead, I decided to play a game I am particularly good at: the trading game. The TCQ brought in players from all over the North Shore, which created a fresh pool of people I have never traded with before. As I may have mentioned before, one of the problems with only trading with the local community is that the pool of cards you want to trade for can dry up fairly fast. With all the new people coming through, a myriad of promos and legacy cards were sought after.

I traded for a couple hours before going to work, and after work I had nothing to do but play Magic until 1 AM, which is exactly what I did. In the process, I made the biggest trade of my life:

My:
Revised NM Tropical Island (110)
Revised HP Underground Sea (90)
Revised NM Volcanic Island (77)
Mindbreak Trap (2)
279

His:
2x Grindstone (48)
2x Visions Natural Order (70)
2x Polluted Delta (54)
Time Spiral (32)
Show and Tell (30)
4x Knight of the Reliquary (40)
Foil Mindbreak Trap (5)
Ratchet Bomb (5)
284

As much as it hurts to trade out Dual Lands, the variety of Legacy staples that I got in return makes it worth it. If Legacy cards keep on rising, by splitting my 3 staples into 6 staples, I profit more if everything goes up by $5. Even if they don't keep on rising, I cna still use these cards to build cool new decks, like Painted Stone, or budget High Tide (no candelabra, replace with other untap lands spells like Snap). Finally, Sunday came around, which means Legacy came around, and I misplayed countless times to finish 1-2... It was a very saddening way to close out the weekend...

I guess one thing I have picked up from this weekend is that even if you're not succeeding in what you thought you would each week, not all hope is lost. And if for whatever reason you can't draft, Standard, Legacy, or trade, just take some time off! No one said you had to spike yourself to the point of no fun!

Speaking of spiking out, I realized that I had completely spiked out when I sat down to play some casual and I found myself calculating out potential attacks and pressing my advantage in type 4, which is the greatest format if you have never played. I think I may have to touch on that soon... ntil next time, Stay Classy!

Extracting New Levels of Awesome

Hello Everyone! After the mass release of what is probably unauthorized spoilers, we finally got a real one from the Mothership. Brace yourself because this is deceptively epic:

So let's start by looking at this card compared to other cards printed in the past: This is almost the exact same thing as Extirpate from Planer Chaos. Almost. There is one line of text that appears on each that does not appear on the other that creates a world of a difference: Extirpate has Split Second and this costs a Phyrexian Black mana. When I was texting Mark about this, I didn't know that either card could target non-basic lands, so when Mark mentioned it to me my response was: "It can target non-basic lands!!!??? OMGWTFBBQSAUCE!!! Thats awesome!" Come to find out later that Extirpate can also target non-basics I felt a little foolish afterwards... But regardless, this card is going to be one of the premium rares of the set!

Standard: This card is going to have a big affect on standard I feel, starting with making Vengevine decks much worse. Interestingly enough, they make a Phyrexian card, Spawning Shell, to make the deck insane and then they release the perfect hoser. However, even without Vengevine, maybe this card will still see play as an anti-Vampire card by taking out their only resiliant creature: Bloodghast (good card to move right now).  Also, capitilizing on its ability to get rid of non-basic lands, Tectonic Edging a Valakut becomes a much more attractive option all of a sudden (UW Caw-Blade plays 4 Tec Edge, and can easily pack this in the board by just paying 2 life)! Speaking of this in Caw-Blade, remember when people were packing 6-7 Jaces to win the Jace war in control mirrors? Why not just win it faster by nailing your opponent's big Jace and then removing all copies from their deck? That seems good. I think this card could show up in every sideboard of every deck for a while, or at least until graveyard decks have been Extracted from the field. Last note: this + Hex Parasite laughs maniacly at all your planeswalkers

Legacy: Zendikar offered us Mindbreak Trap as an immediate sideboard card to beat Tendrils Storm (Silence/Orim's Chant is laughing at you) for every deck, and now we have Extirpate for everyone not playing Black sounds like a card that will also show up everywhere. However, I think this card will make much less of a splash in Legacy because splashing colors is so easy and in Legacy Land, the counterspells cost 0 too. Being able to get countered is far more important then dropping the cost from 1 to 0 mana, unless you're playing Belcher.

Extirpate is at 9 currently, and this card may start higher simply because of it's utility in Standard, but overall I think this will be worth less then Extirpate. Probably 7-8. Once it drops out of Standard, it will drop to 3-5, seeing play as a budget/easier to acquire Extirpate for Legacy.

On a completely different note, I am playing mono-red right now in standard with some hot tech named Cyclops Gladiator. Yeah, go look it up. I think this guy has the potential to be insane against decks like Valakut that can slow you down with their walls, or it can be the nail in the coffin against Vampires after I Slagstorm their board, then pick off their creatures as they hit play with the Gladiator. Another cool piece of tech that I still can't understand why it's not being used is Zektar Shrine Expedition. It's 2 mana for 7 damage! What's not to love?

Another completely random thought: Sarkhan the Mad and Jace, the Mind Sculptor go very nice together. Brainstorm, then draw a land with Sarkhan to keep him at 7 and you digging deeper into your deck. Then, after a while you can turn walls into Dragons with Sarkhan and beat face. Maybe it's just too loose, but it feels cool.

Until next time, stay classy!

TNT FNM/Draft 4/9/11

Hello everyone! As you may know by now, I really am not loving Standard right now. As LSV just put it in a Magic TV episode recently, there are only 3 tier 1 decks: Valakut, Boros, and Caw-Blade varients. I happen to own 0 Stoneforges, and 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptors, so I can't play caw-blade right now, and any blue deck is hard to do without all 4 big papa Jaces. This sucks because blue is my favorite color by far. That leaves Valakut, which I have turned awa from recently because it loses to itself, and by this point everyone knows how to play against it and beat it, which is bound to happen when you're the baddest guy on the block for the past 8 months. I picked up a set of Bala Ged Thief hoping to brew up some B/x allies, but I never got around to it and instead audibled to UB Shape Anew instead.

Round 1 I was paired up against Petropolis, who is one of the best players at the store right now (I would rank him third behind ADB and Heal). He was playing EsperBlade. I discovered firsthand why UW Caw-Blade is the best version to run if you have the cards: the mana is really bad, and he lost to it both games. If you want to run caw-blade, I would suggest just the 2 color version, because 3 color is a very tough mana base to pull off unles you're playing Tundra, Tropical Island, and Misty Rainforest. All you really lose is Inquisition of Kozelik and in return your numbers go up against the entire field while still having a great mirror game thanks to your 4 Tectonic Edges. But I digress, game 1 there wasn't very many tricks going down. I played my disruption, countered his spells, played a Jace Beleran to preemptively kill his Jace, GG. Game 2 he was stuck on 2 lands for what felt like Eternity, but he managed to do a lot with that mana countering spells, playing birds, the whole deal, but a turn after he got a third land, Marsh Flats, I dropped big ol' Blighty with a big Jace in play. He made some plays, and passed with only Marsh flats up, with Squadren Hawk and Stonforge for blockers. My first instinct was to just bounce Stoneforge and win, but I was worried he could have something as devastating as Condemn. All of a sudden I realized I was actually reading my opponent, so I brainstormed into 2 land, preordain. I kept preordain, pitched the lands and drew... INQUISITION! As it turns out, yes he did have the condemn, and I just closed the game down from there.

2-0
1-0

Round 2 I was against a mono-black infect deck piloted by Mr. Wnichester, who has an awesome last name and your tickets to the gun show. It was in this match that it hit me how bad Shape Anew is. After a short period of me removing all of his threats, he happined to get me for 1 poison, then proliferated me to death with 2 Contagion Clasps. The Shape Anew combo takes 4x Trinket Mage, 4x Shape Anew, 1x Darksteel Axe, and 2x Blightsteel Colossus. Replace that with 4x Phyrexian Crusader, 4x Skittles, 3x Contagion Clasp and you will instantly have a more proactive deck that never runs into the "I have 2 Blightsteel in my hand... I lose...." What a convenient segway into game 2! I had a fantastic opening hand that had both Trinket Mage and Shape Anew, a Mana Leak, Blightsteel Colossus, and 3 lands. With the Blightsteel I was on a mull to 6 immediatly, but that was probably the best 6 card hand possible so I snap kept. 2 turns later I topdeck Blightsteel Colossus #2.... awkward.... There are only 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor in my deck and while I could draw both of my 2-of Blightsteel, I couldn't draw any Jace and promptly lost.

0-2
1-1

Round 3 I was against a GW Vengevine deck. I have practiced against it before and her only disruption was a 1-of Leonin Relic Warder. She happened to get it off a turn 3 Lead the Stampede. I Shape Anewed anyways because I had 4 lands in play, none in hand, but I had a Consume the Meek, so I could just draw a land, get back Blighty during combat and ruin her day, untap and win. The problem with the plan is right when I stopped drawing lands... awkward.... I don't even remember game 2 but I lost that too.

0-2
1-2

At this point I just dropped because I really didn't see the point of playing with a deck I knew was terrible any more. I don't reccomend this deck simply because it has many very awkward draws and is a combo that actually isn't any faster than a T3 Phyrexian Chrusader, T6 Skittles unless you curve out perfectly, at which point there's a 1 turn difference. Consistency > Raw power (read: Bant w/out Natural Order in Legacy). A bunch of people were putting together a draft, so I decided to hop in. It wound up being a full 8-man sanctioned draft, and I drafted one of the only decks I know how to: U/x control. To say the least my deck was almost perfect, I just lacked an epic finisher. Highlights of the deck:

Myr Turbine
Silverskin Armor
Sylvok Lifestaff
3x Vedalken Catarch
3x Neurok Invisomancer
Morbid Plunder
Moriok Replica
Ichor Wellspring
2x Rusted Slasher

Obviously the nuttiest cards are the 3x each of the Cetarch (mind-blowingly good) and the Invisomancer. I was a little light on the artifact count, but Myr Turbine and Silverskin Armor really helped me out in that department. The only thing I was lacking was a finisher. All I really had were my 3 Invisomancers, a Sky Eel School, and a Lumingrid Gargoyl. So when I had the board locked down and it was time to close the game fast, that never really happened. Despite that one flaw, I went 2-0 with the deck before losing to Heal in the finals against his deck that had an Ascetiscism. That card single-handedly beats my deck as it was just a mono-removal deck. So I came in 2nd in a sanctioned 8-man, which is just an epic feeling. One cool trick in my deck that I wanted to showcase that I pulled off a couple times, and have done it in previous drafts, is the 3 card combo of Moriok Replica, Sylvok Lifestaff, and Morbid Plunder. Replica equipped with Lifestaff is awesome because you net gain a life to draw 2 cards which is fair of course... and then you Plunder it back to do it again! I really like Morbid Plunder in draft because it's pseudo-removal. Just trade cards with your opponent, and then return your creatures to your hand post-mordem. It will piss them off :)

And no night of Magic would be complete without trading! I put together several trades, although I specifically remember 2: the first was my 2 Scalding Tarn for his Vengevine. I did profit by 5, but the Zen fetches, as I say time and time again, are the best Legacy cards in Zendikar and will be worth the most in 5 years. So in the very long term he did profit, but I still need one more Vengevine to do Spawning Shell shenanagry with after New Phyrexia is released... The second trade was much bigger:

My:
Wastelands
2x Grave Titan
Lux Cannon
Contested Warzone
$5 card (can't remember....)

His:
Tropical Island

I made out by about $5 in this trade, but in the past 24 hours Tropical Island has gone up another dollar. Seriously, if you haven't gotten Dual Lands yet, just do it! If you can't afford them, start trading for every Ravnica block Dual you can get your hands on. They are oftend just as effective as regular duals (if you weren't planning on using them that turn, you can just crack fetch EOT, have it come into play tapped, then untap at your turn). The scars lands are also great for Legacy, and if nothing else the Painlands cycle are all about 3 each.

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

New Phyrexia Spoilers?! Already?! Pt 2

Well, I decided I would pick up where I abruptly left off, be sure to check out the first part here. Let me just explain what I was doing with the expected price at the end of each card. I said when Thrun, the Last Troll was released that I imagined it as no more than an $8 card. It was released as a $20 card, and has done nothing but drop in price since. I never traded for it, and immediatly sold the only one I packed. It currently sells for $8 on ChannelFireball and Star City Games. By identifying what I think the card is really worth, I can set my eyes on whether or not to invest in the card. FYI: SCG came out with pre-order prices on these spoiled cards, and they put Karn at $45. It's not worth that much.

Urabrask, the Hidden
3RR
Legendary Creature - Praetor

Creatures you control have Haste.
Creatures your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped.
4/4

At first I saw this card as an awkward combination between Kismet and Madrush Cyclops, two cards that never saw play, and I dismissed it. However, in conversation with Mark, we identified it as a serious tempo card, and could find a nice home in RUG. RUG is a tempo deck, which is a very strange archetype in which you gain small incremental advantages on your opponent each turn through more mana (Lotus Cobra), more cards (Jace, the Mind Sculptor), and disruption (Lightning Bolt, Inferno/Frost Titan) that puts you multiple turns ahead of your opponent, from which they can't come back. A big reason comes into play tapped lands are disadvantageous is because your board doesn't advance a turn to match your opponent. By making your opponent's creatures come into play tapped, it prevents your opponents from being able to create a board position as fast to prevent your Titans from crashing in. Giving your creatures haste has very nice symmetry with the Titans too...
Expected price: $4

Spawning Shell
3{pg}
Artifact
({PG} may be paid for with either or 2 life.)
1{PG}, tap, Sacrifice a creature: Search your library for a creature with converted mana cost equal to the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost plus one and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
 
This is the card that I am most excited for out of all the ones spoiled. When it first was released you could search for any creature with converted mana cost equal the the sacrificed one's plus one or less. I was excited because you could chain Vengevines into more Vengevines, while Fauna Shamaning for more, and you would have all 4 in play in no time! Obviously we will have to wait for the cards to be officially announced, but assuming you have to search for a creature exactly one more, we can still go Vengevine -> Acidic Slime -> Titan. But moving beyond this specific card, Phyrexian mana is awesome! Being able to pay life instead of using mana is an awesome way to change your turn progression. Also, note how you don't even have to be playing green to use this card! Obviously this works better with green than any other color, but why restrict ourselves?!?! Maybe we have a ton of disrupting creatures like Skinrender and Massacre Wurm that we want to drop into play on cue? Control decks can have 3 finishers that are only god against specific decks, and tutor up to the one they really want! Vampires can use this to sacrifice Bloodghasts grabbing Captivating Vampires! This is another outlet for getting rid of Abyssal Persecutor! Right now I have my mind on a Fauna Shaman-Vengevine-Green Sun's Zenith-Spawning Shell creature tutor package, like the BG one I am having some success with right now.
Expected price: $1 until it's broken, then up to $6
 
Fresh Meat
3G
Instant

Put a 3/3 green Beast creature token onto the battlefield for each creature put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn.

I smell... combo! Need I remind you of the existence of Eldrazi Spawn? How about a whacky combo with Hellion Eruption? This card won't see play simply because it's so odd, but if the Meta shifts to a creature vs Day of Judgement one, this card very well could see play.
Expected price: $1

Caged Sun
6
Artifact

When Caged Sun enters the battlefield, choose a color.
Creatures you control of the chosen color have +1/+1.
Whenever you tap a land for one or more mana of the chosen color, add one mana of the chosen color to your mana pool.

Don't look it up, what do you think Gauntlet of Power sells for? It never saw constructed play... Would you believe me if I told you it's a $7-8 card? Gauntlet of power is massively popular in EDH and casual, and this card is the exact same, except it works with non-basics too. Trade for these off of the spikes for a buck or 2 and move them to the casual guys at 8.
Expected price: $7-8

Hex Parasite
1
Artifact Creature - Insect

x{PB}: Target a permanent. Remove up to X counters from that permanent. Hex Parasite gains +1/+0 until end of turn for each counter removed this way.
1/1

I spy with my little eyes a colorless recursive planeswalker killer. Because you can pay 2 life instead of a black mana for the activated ability, this is another completely flexible card that I expect to see in every single deck going forward. Unlike Phyrexian Revoker, this is a proactive card that even if you kill, the damage remains. Gideon is one of the banes of beatdown decks, but with access to this card, a little mana goes a long way to stopping Gideon from slowing you down too much. Also, consider this: kill Jace by draining 5 counters, which makes Hex Parasite a 6/1, then attack and kill Gideon. Sounds fair to me! I expect this card to be played in control and beatdown decks as it helps win Jace wars and keep the way Gideon-free, but Valakut doesn't want this random card, and I don't expect to see this card in RUG either.
Expected price: $3

Screamwhip
4
Artifact - Equipment
Living weapon
Equip {PB}{PB}
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each Swamp you control.

This is the card that got me thinking about a mono-black beatdown deck. Mind Sludge is another powerful swamps matters card. Mark sent me his mono-black beatdown deck on facebook earlier today, and I will probably touch on it in a couple days. But this card is a lot like Bonehoard, it will usually more powerful then its mana cost would suggest. The longer the game goes on, the more powerful this card gets as well, so you have a ton of reach. Any 1/1 you draw late can suddenly be a 9/9 and end the game immediatly. Also like Bonehorde, it won't be worth much.
Expected price: $1

I felt like finishing up with all of the interesting cards I didn't touch on in the first part. So that's all for now! Now I need to get my mind back to the present and prepare for SCG Boston in less than 3 weeks! Until next time, stay classy!