Unveiling a new Planeswalker

Hello everybody! As we roll into day 3 of Innistrad previews, we have lots of really cool cards to talk about (expecially since I wasn't able to post anything yesterday!). So let's not waste time saying hi and jump straight to the good stuff!

So this guy seems pretty unassuming, but this is one of my sleeper picks for best cards in the set! Well, maybe not #1 best, but absolutely top 10 material! Why? Let me put it this way: start trading for your Puresteel Paladins NOW! The major problem with the Puresteel Paladin deck as it is right now is that without it's namesake card, the deck doesn't actually do anything... However, with this guy in play as well, you have an insane card draw engine! Germ tokens are 0/0s, which are small enough to allow you to draw cards off Mentor of the Meek. If you have never seen the Puresteel Paladin deck in action, it's actually quite crazy, and frankly it dominates! Granting them another enabler is huge, and I expect that to be one of the decks out of the gate (although there's not any new interesting equipment yet...). A major loss to the deck is obviously Stoneforge Mystic, so maybe splashing Blue for Ponder wouldn't be a bad idea...

Now this is a subtly exciting card! It's basically a Journey to Nowhere with a kicker for W: put a 1/3 into play. Along the same strand of Skinrender, in the right decks, you will see this guy all over the place. In fact, Fiend Hunter plays quite nicely with Mentor of the Meek! Exile their creature, get a 1/3 yourself, AND draw a card! Take me down to value town! If I had to build a Puresteel Paladin deck right now, here is what it would look like:

4x Puresteel Paladin
4x Mentor of the Meek
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Leonin Relic-Warder
4x Leonin Arbitor
4x Memnite
4x Glint Hawk

4x Mortar Pod
4x Flayer Husk
4x Sword of War and Peace

2x Dispatch

2x Mox Opal
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Inkmoth Nexus
14x Plains

If you actually read the decklist, you will see a cool combo hidden in the deck. Go back read it again... Did you find it? It combines a land and a creature....

If you answered Ghost Quarter + Leonin Arbitor, you just won 50 points for Gryffindor! This is a cool little combo that has been on my mind for a couple days now, and I feel this is the deck to abuse it! If you aren't familiar with the combo, or can't figure it out for yourself, here's how it works: Ghost Quarter is a Strip Mine reprint, except they get a basic land. Using Leonin Arbitor, you can prevent them from being able to search their library, so you can ultimately play Strip Mine in standard! I feel like this is the best deck to play that combo because here is our deck's curve:

0 - 6
1 - 10
2 - 13
3 - 9
4+ - 0

In the same way that White Weenie decks of old played Armageddon to slow down the opponent while they brought some beats, so too can this deck land-lock the opponent (or at least set them many turns back) before crashing in for tons of damage with a SoWaP equipped dude.

Now that's what I call a morbid demon! When I said that I would be watching Morbid to see if there were any good creatures to add to my Birthing Pod deck, this is beyond what I had in mind! One thing I think is cool about this guy is that he is not Legendary and that he can't hit demons (although it is not a may-ability). So it would be very easy to take complete control of the game by having 2 Reapers out. Destroy one of their creatures with a Doom Blade, EOT kill 2 more! Because it's not a may-ability, you may be required to kill your own guys, but because it's non-demons only, having 2 in play isn't a liability to having them kill eachother. As of right now, I'm thinking of a BUG-Pod deck using cards like: Reaper from the Abyss, Frost Titan, Acidic Slime, Skinrender, Phyrexian Metamorph, Birds of Paradise, Bloodgift Demon, Sheolred Whispering One and more. i don't want to throw up a decklist yet, because Birthing Pod.dec is an archetype that changes dramatically as each new card is released.

This is another addition to the Werewolf tribe, which I have been putting a lot of thought into recently. Werewolves seem to be more of a casual tribe as opposed to a constructed one, simply because of the inconsistancy of what you will be playing with. An essential card to the deck of course is Moonmist:

We don't care about the fog part, but the Transform part is quite attractive. Another card that seems to be tech in keeping your Werewolves as Werewolves is Silence. Just cast Silence on your opponent's upkeep and continue beating down. The White splash shouldn't even be a problem thanks to these awesome enemy-colored dual lands! Another major concern though is that you need to ensure the Human side of your army is able to still be as threatening as your Werewolf side. This is abviously where Mayor of Avabruk comes into play. Another idea is to have a black splash and use enough hand disruption spells (like Mind Rot) such that your opponent is forced to play off the top of their deck and won't be able to stop the Werewolves from beating down. One other important note on Werewolves: if you cast 2 Werewolves in 1 turn, you will turn all your Werewolves back into Humans!

And finally, the Marquee planeswalker of the block! This planeswalker is SWEET! Let's just cut straight to the upper-right hand corner: 1BB, just 3 mana! This gal is coming down fast to really mess stuff up! She attack's player's hands and boards, so I can see her being a natural 3 or 4-of in a B/x control deck! Let's go ability by ability and explore each one:

+1: Each player discards a card

The important word in this ability is "each". That means you too, so we obviously need to find a way to neutralize this effect or make a positive out of it. The first obvious choice is to play Flashback cards. Unfortunately though, there's not a lot of great flashback cards yet, as they either suck (Travel Preparations) or they cost too much mana to flashback (all the rest of them). However, any time a flashback card is previewed, start thinking Liliana! Another way to make this negative a positive is by playing recursive creatures. Imagine discarding Bloodghast to Liliana and then recurring him for 0 mana to start some beats? All while attacking your opponent's hand? However, the only recursive creatures require either Metalcraft (Kuldotha Pheonix) or red burn spells (Chandra's Pheonix). I guess Chandra's Pheonix wouldn't be too bad if we wanted to make this a B/R aggro deck as opposed to a UB control deck. Imagine: T3 Liliana +1, discarding Chandra's Pheonix. T4 Chandra +1, recur Pheonix, +1 Liliana to discard Pheonix. That 3 card engine could seriously halt your opponent's advances because after untapping on turn 5, everything costs 0 mana to do, and you're still playing normal magic! Another thought is to use this as a Reanimator enabler. In a previous article, the card Zombify was specifically pointed out on the Mothership. Last time I remember doing that was with the card Glory Seeker in ROE, and the card got reprinted. In the same way, I think Zombify will be reprinted in INS. Turn 3 Liliana +1, discard Sheolred. Turn 4 Zombify GG. Another reason I think Zombify will be reprinted: Rise from the Grave was oddly left out of M12. I doubt they would want the reanimator deck to have 8 reanimation spells in standard.

-2: Target player sacrifices a creature

This is an amazing ability on a 3-drop planeswalker! It's useful in both aggro and control, and even combo! In the aggro decks, it will help recursively pave the way for your beatdown to get through. In control, it's free removal, which they will take any day, and in the Reanimator combo, it's a great way to help control hate cards like the aforementioned Fiend Hunter. It's worth noting that Liliana comes down with 3 loyalty, so you can immediatly drop it, edict, and then keep on going.

-6 Separate all permanents target player controls into 2 piles. That player sacrifices all permanents in a pile of his/her choice

This is INSANE! Curse of the Cabal on a planeswalker!?! This is not only the most powerful ability for Liliana, but also the most skill-intensive ability arguably among all planeswalkers printed. I was reading in the forums, someone posted "Just separate all lands and other permanents, then they have to decide between mana or board position" to which someone replied "but what if they sacrifice all lands, and then crush you on board?" I think an exercise for future posts may be board positions and how you would separate the 2 piles so they have no shining options... And on the other side of the table, if you see they are plussing their Liliana quickly, how do you prepare yourself for the inevitable? Stock lands and spells in your hand? Race it? This effect is simply a blowout in the control mirror as resources and mana is a VERY highly needed resource for things like counterspell wars and being able to back up your bomb. Imagine if you are playing the control mirror and you ultimate Liliana, forcing your oppoenent to sacrifice half their lands, then you cast Grave Titan with double Mana Leak backup? They probably can't do anything about it! Especially if they had some lands tapped, and you put the tapped lands in the more attractive pile to keep, effectively destroying their capability to respond when it counts most.

Overall, I feel like people aren't opening themselves up to the opportunities that Liliana presents. I absolutely can't wait to get myself a set! I haven't looked at any preorder prices yet, but I am going to say she's worth $11. SCG currently has her at 35, so I expect that will come down very quickly. Just look at the price of all the other planeswalkers, aside from Jace TMS, the next most expensive is Tezzeret at 27, Nicol Bolas at 20, and Gideon/Elspeth at 17. Those 5 can all win the game completely on their own when you get into topdeck mode, which Liliana can't do. The previous 5 planeswalkers are all viable win conditions for a deck to be completely built around, which Liliana can't. Liliana is a perfectly designed toolbox planeswalker. She doesn't provide any insane over the top assistance, but there are very noticable incremental advantages every time you use her, which I believe is perfect planeswalker design.

I have one random point I want ot get on the page before I sign off for today: There is going to be a 5 ability planeswalker in this set, and the name "Garruk Relentless" for 3G appears on the double faced token. I believe those 2 will be the same card. On the front side, a 2 ability planeswalker with a weak + ability like, add G to your mana pool, and then a - ability that reads "transform Garruk Relentless". Then the backside will be an overpowered green/BLACK Garruk Planeswalker. Maybe +1: creatures you control gain deathtouch and Trample until EOT and -3: destroy target creature, put a 3/3 zombie beat into play. And then finally an un untimate like -7: Destroy all creatures in play, then put a 3/3 Zombie Beast token into play for each creature destroyed in this mannor. Just guessing... Anyways, until next time, stay classy!

Coming out of Hyde-ing

Hello everybody! Today is monday, not even 1am yet, and official spoilers have begun on the Wizards home page. Unfortunately today's posts on the Mothership weren't particularly exciting as it was a recap of PAX and then Mark Rosewater taking a pre-emtive strike on all the haters who are going to try to bash on Double Sided cards. I stated yesterday that I personally enjoy double sided cards as they absolutely attack what was thought possible for a Magic card to do, but I know a lot of people are vehemently against them. I was reading some MTGSalvation forums and talking with Mark and there was just a myriad of problems associated with them.

One I covered yesterday was about contstructed and playing the games out in limited and how the new token will help (which Rosewater said would be in 3/4s of the Innistrad packs replacing the basic land). One thing I oversaw in the moment was when you actually sit down to draft. Imagine you open my current favorite transform card - Ludevic's Test Subject - and windmill slam it first pick, now everyone at the table knows your in blue. The guy your passing to immediatly shifts out of blue and the guy passing to you can hate on blue all day with a glean in his eye. The real only answer to that is that you simply have to hide it with the best of your ability. Here's what I think I will do from here on out: If I first pick a double face card, I will hide it behind the basic land or token in the pack before pulling it out of the pack and quickly lay it on the table. Any other double sided cards I pull will be tucked under all the other cards.

Quick aside
{
The promo cards for Prerelease, Release, Buy-a-Box, and game day all got announced together in one tight knit bundle. You can see the announcement here. I must say, overall I am not excited over the promos, and I feel theyre pushing double face cards too much by not even giving out a mythic rare at the pre-release! The only card I enjoyed seeing was my baby Ludevic's Test Subject:

}
End Aside

So Mark Rosewater's preview today showcased a VERY flavorful card that will forever be known as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde instead of whatever civilized name it really has:

I like how they didn't even TRY to hide that they just printed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde beyond changing their names. The card arts look exactly like how they do!

One last note on double faced cards: Mark Rosewater said in his article that due to the printing requirements of double faced cards, there will be 1 double faced card in every pack, and their rarities will be normal based on frequency of the cards getting printed. Also, a foil double faced card will have both sides foil, which is just gravy! As Rosewater said, the dream pack is opening a mythic foil double face card, a foil normal mythic, and a mythic in its normal spot!

I am excited for these, but I almost feel like it's completely stealing the show. Did you know that there's ghosts in Innistrad? As it looks right now, there will be no new subtype "ghost" but they are instead going to utilize the subtheme spirit. Oh yeah, and there's zombies and vampires too! Let's keep moving before double faced cards get stale:

There are 5 major tribes in Innistrad each representing 2 ally-color pairs:
Humans - GW
Ghosts - UW
Zombies - UB
Vampires - BR
Werewolves - GR

As the flavor goes, as far as I undertsand, there is a charecter (mentioned in the art interview I believe, but I don't feel like looking it up now) who kept the horrific creatures of the night apart form the humans. However, that charecter has vanished and now the horrors are closing in on the humans. Strap yourself in, it's time for a bloodbath! As we have learned with previous tribal themes and blocks (note: this set isn't supposed to be strictly tribal based, it's supposed to be horror trope based), every tribe requires a champion. The Vampire champion has been released, and she is just awesome!

Olivia Voldaren
Legendary Creature - Vampire
2BR
Flying
1R: Olivia Voldaren deals 1 damage to another target creature. That creature becomes a Vampire in addition to it's other types. Put a +1/+1 counter on Olivia Voldaren
3BB: Gain control of target Vampire for as long as you control Olivia Voldaren
3/3

This card feels like a cleaner version of Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet in the way Vampires convert mortals to become like them. A major difference between the 2 cards (besides costs) is that with Olivia Voldaren you can use the creatures abilies after they have joined your side. So instead of just getting a 6/6 Vampire when you take an Inferno Titan, you get a Vampire Inferno Titan with all the milk and cookies and killing and firebreathing attached. This card is so exciting and flavorful I simply can't wait to see what they do with all the other cards in this cycle!

But wait, there's more! There's a rare cycle I have been dying to see get printed for 2 years, and a very nice reprint that will probably see some play. Let's start with this hotness:

Yeah, that's right! M12 dual lands now come in enemy colors! This is really exciting from a deck-building perspective in that now you will always have a very solid mana base! Here's a potential mana base for the future:

4x Terramorphic Expanse
3x Dragonskull Summit
3x Rootbound Crag
4x Woodland Cemetary
3x Mountain
3x Swamp
4x Forest

The only reason Scars Dual lands are played is because they come into play untapped turns 1-3. With the M12 duals and that mana base, you lands come into play untapped turns 2-500. I am absolutely willing to give up my first turn of having a dual land to never fall behind on tempo for the rest of the game!

However, there is still one last card to be unveiled today, and that is the reprinting of Ghost Quarter! I bet half the reason it got selected was it's reference to ghosts, but regardless this card is pretty sweet. It's our new Wastelands varient a la Tectonic Edge, but works very differently. With Tectonic Edge, you could lock your opponent out from casting spells for a period of time, but with Ghost Quarter, you are attacking their mana base and specifically action lands. If the lands in Innistrad block are as prevelant as they were in SoM block (read: not at all) then Ghost Quarter will never see play. Just like mana bases in Legacy are designed with Wastelands in mind, so too will decks in standard play with Ghost Quarter in mind - lots of basics. With Zendikar block leaving, real estate is becoming far simpler than ever before, and you know, it's nice for a change.

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

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

Transforming Everything you Thought was Possible

Hello Everybody! Today is a very exciting day as Innistrad just had its first official wave of spoilers come out from WotC, the day before spoilers "officially" begin. Let me put it blatently out there: Innistrad is going to be EPIC!! You can read the official announcement and also watch the spoilers video on YouTube.

Innistrad features 4 mechanics, one of which is a returning mechanic. Let's start with the returning mechanic and get progressively cooler from there.

Flashback was a mechanic introduced originally during Odyssey block and made a return in Time Spiral block (along with every mechanic made up until that point). Flashback will return once again in Innistrad, but as of right now, there are only 3 cards that have flashback:

Moan of the Unhallowed
Sorcery
2BB
Put two 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens onto the battlefield
Flashback 5BB

This card isn't too exciting, except I know it will absolutely be a sweet card in limited.

This card could see constructed play in a R/x control deck as it is flexible between being a 2-for-1 or being a suprise finisher. Once again, this card is basically a Fireball and thus is a bomb for limited (though it is a rare)

Travel Preparations
Sorcery
1G
Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures
Flashback 1W

I really wish this card was an instant because then it could be a cool combat trick. As is, I doubt this will see play in my sealed deck or any deck I play, which is unfortunate.

So that's all we have for Flashback, which isn't too exciting. However, I said Innistrad was going to be amazing, so let's hit up some new mechanics!

There is a new enchantment subtype in Innistrad called Curse. First, can i say how awesome the idea of having curse cards is for the horror set? With curse cards, you enchant players - yourself or your opponents - and based on the one spoiled card so far, an effect will take place every turn. Here is our only spoiled curse card thus far:

How sweet is this card!? First, I want to point out how the subtype is Aura CURSE. That means theres a good chance of a curse deck arising if enough pro-curse cards get printed, which Mark Rosewater hinted there would be. Now onto what the card actually does: slow mill. I am willing to bet this card could see some constructed play. With flashback returning as well, this card could be used so you could Ancestral Recall every turn by milling 2 and drawing 1. Hopefully you mill some flashback cards and you will have more spells ready to be cast than you can manage!
However I am willing to bet there will be curses that are reminiscint of the Zendikar trap cards. For example, imagine this card:

Life Sucks
Enchantment - Aura Curse
2RB
Enchant Player
Whenever enchanted player gains life, that player loses 2 life for each 1 life that player gained

The card doesn't do anything except on certain triggers, at which point it shuts down a certain aspect of their traditional gameplay. Curses could get pretty big in this regard! Consider:

Mindlessness
Eachantment - Aura Curse
4BBB
Enchant Player
Whenever Enchanted Player casts a spell, that player discards a card

This is the type of card that can immediatly lock a player out of the game. Although now that I think about it, this card is the same as Painful Quandry, but play along... There's a lot of great design space with curses and I am really excited to see where the real creative professionals run with it!

But off to another mechanic! The next one the roster is a mechanic that I can see being used all over the post-rotation Birthing Pod deck: Morbid. Morbid, as of right now, is a mechanic that when a creature ETB, if another creature died earlier that turn, then an effect happens. Like curse, there is only 1 card printed that has a morbid ability announced thus far, but this one isn't too exciting:

Cool, you gain some life and get a dude... This guy will be awesome in limited, but the mechanic is really whats so cool! Think about this in limited first: you have a 1/1 and they have a 3/1 and they attack you. Do you block? This could be a very frequent problem in future limited environments. Consider this:

Morbid Warrior
2GG
Morbid - If a creature died this turn, Morbid Warrior enters the battlefield with 2 +1/+1 counters on it
3/3

If creatures come out like this as bloodthirst spin-offs, combat could get awkward. You could have taken 3 and then just faced off against a 3/3 which is manageable, or you can save 3 life now and face down this scary 5/5 beatstick. Like Landfall, I can see this mechanic evolving over the course of the block to include things like enchantments and instants just to stir the combat pot a little more!

I can also see Morbid as a part of all kinds of decks in constructed. Imagine having Morbid cards in hand with a card like Bloodthrone Vampire in play. Then you are in full control of your Morbid triggers, and you can take a quick trip to value town when you have a bunch of death trigger guys like Occulus or Archon of Justice! Also, Birthing Pod.dec will absolutely gain some beautiful goodies from this set as guys will now have the capability of getting boosts. As of right now, the Birthing Pod decks are more or less control decks either by making infinite Acidic Slimes and land locking the opponent, or by dropping guys like Elesh Norn or Inferno Titan that take control of the opponent's board presence. With certain Morbid triggers, I'm willing to bet we could have a deck where Morbid creatures come down and beat face very quickly!

Now we come to our last mechanic, and let me tell you, this is an exciting mechanic! There doesn't seem to be any official name for the mechanic, whether its transform or double face cards, but either way this mechanic shatters what anyone thought was the limits for magic card design. You know how each magic card ever printed has this back:

Yeah, well that's not there anymore... Instead we have cards that have a face on both sides of the card!! I'm not a very creative person (as you can see by my card mock-ups for various mechanics is really just other cards reformed to match new mechanics), but I absolutely would NEVER have thought of this! Before I talk too much about this new mechanic, let's show off a mediocre card with this mechanic:

Ok, that's interesting and all, it adds a little randomness as the card will flip back and forth randomly depending how the game rolls. Once again we see how this mechanic messes with resource management as if your opponent wants to shrink down your Werewolf, they have to cast 2 spells in one turn. One thing I want to point out is how in the upper left corner, there's a day/night symbol on either half of the card. That's just awesome! Now, I said that guy was mediocre, so what's a more exciting double face card?

Yeah! A 0/3 wall! Take that fool! What's up? Come at me bro!

I told you, come at me, but nope, now you're the dead one! This guy specifically feels like a combination of Morph and Level Up, but it has it's own identity. I can absolutely see this guy being played in a U/x control deck as a finisher. This card reminds me of Tarmogoyf in that its not too scary if you drop it on turn 2 (Goyf is often just a 1/2 thanks to your fetch land), but in a very few short turns it puts you on a 2 turn clock! One thing I want to point out is that to add a hatchling counter on Ludevic's Test Subject, you can do it instant speed (like Figure of Destiny). So now you can pass turn to your opponent with 2 mana up and they still have to play around mana leak. If they don't play anything worthwhile, you just prepare them for their decimation! Also, as I understand, there should be no new instance of summoning sickness added when the card is flipped over, so if you want you could invest 4 or 6 mana to add whatever last hatchling counters you need and immediatly attack for 13 trample and put them in a situation where they HAVE to do something or else they lose. And in the meantime you still have a 0/3 wall to hold back an attacker and save yourself some life. I believe this guy will be played heavily in limited and constructed in control decks for months to come!

Now I do have one inherent problem with flip cards: the whole not having a real card back problem. Whenever I draft at the store, no one cares enough to put their draft deck into sleeves. Even in constructed with sleeves, Dragonshields can be translucent and you would be able to see exactly which card you will draw next turn through the sleeve, which would lead to many cheating scandles. This causes the need for a TON of proxies, especially if you want to make a Werewolf tribal deck. Thankfully WotC thought of that problem, and make official proxy cards:

With this card, which I believe will be in the token slot of a booster pack, you clearly identify which of the 20 double face cards it represents (every color gets at least 2, this is going to be awesome!), then when you play the guy you pull the real card from your tokens pile and continue as normal. Get as many of these double face tokens as fast as you can, they will be used heavily for the next 2 years. I think if I use double face cards in tournaments, I will use this token just to ensure I don't get called out for cheating. You know somebody is going to go out of their way trying to snipe other players (because they suck). I really like double face cards, and I can't wait to see what other cards will come from the mechanic in the weeks and sets to come!

I have been talking forever, so it's time to wrap things up. Overall, I am absolutely stoked for Innistrad and I can't wait for the official spoilers to start rolling in tomorrow! One thing I like is how resource management is getting pulled subtly in many directions with Flashback, Morbid, and double faced cards. This set is just dripping with flavor, and I'm absolutely ready to hop on this terrifying bandwagon for the next year!

Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

Dude, that was so 2 weeks ago!

Hello everybody! As I previously mentioned, I was gone all summer working at boy scout camp. Just 11.5 weeks. How much news could I possibly miss?

Jace and Stoneforge banned in Standard!?!?!
Modern is the PT Philly format!?!?!
Crazy banned list in Modern!?!?!

Yeah, thats just a couple events, but those are huge events! I think its humerous how even though Jace and Stoneforge got banned in Standard (and modern) that Caw-Blade is still considered a top-tier deck. That just goes to show you how much of a beast that deck was. I would be willing to argue it was the most powerful deck for its archaetype of ALL TIME. The only thing I can think of that could take that throne away from it is maybe Combo Winter or Necro Summer, but I wasn't around for that time in Magic history so I can't ever really know for sure. I am very glad they banned Jace and Stoneforge though, even despite owning 2 of each, because now there is actually an oportunity for creative deckbuilding. There's two decks that I'm throwing together for the waning weeks of standard before rotation: Allies and Bant Pod.

4x Hada Freeblade
4x Adaptive Automation
4x Akoum Battlesinger
4x Jwari Shapeshifter
4x Kabira Evangel
3x Kazandu Blademaster
3x Talus Paladin
1x Tuktuk Scrapper
2x Umara Raptor

4x Preordain
3x Spell Pierce

4x Seachrome Coast
4x Arid Mesa
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Mountain
4x Island
5x Plains

The big addition to the deck is Adaptive Automation. This card is so sweet in that everybody should want him for their casual tribal decks, but he is also a force to be reckoned with in constucted as well. He simply adds so much power to your board. Each ally in this deck adds something special and unique to the gameplan, and Adaptive Automation is no different. I have already talked at length about how good Allies is (t4 kills anybody?), but it often does take curving out to make things work. The spell pierces are in there for crippling spells, especially Day of Judgement. Imagine on your turn 3, you play an Akoum Battlesinger and then pass. They untap, play a 4th land and cast Day of Judgement. You spell Pierce, and they basically just scoop up their cards. Turn 1 Hada Freeblade is still as dangerous as a turn 1 Wild Nacatl (if not more), so this deck is still ballin'.

The other deck I am assembling is the LSV Bant Birthing Pod deck found here. Although I kinda don't want to buy Lotus Cobras... Aside from the cobras and fetchlands, the entire deck will survive post rotation. I am willing to bet that with Innistrad's graveyard theme, there will be a sweet Birthing Pod decklist right out of the gates. I have mentioned before how epic of a card Birhting Pod is, so I will absolutely be tracking the spoilers close for cards that will work with the deck. Other cool cards to think about with the upcoming graveyard theme set is Visions of Beyond and Necrotic Ooze.

The other new format is Modern. PT Philly is next week, which will bring huge changes to the format obviously, but one deck I think I may build is Doran Rock. The deck is very fast and very aggressive, and lets me use the Dark Confidants and Tarmogoyfs I have in my binder. No one is really trading for those right now due to their grotesquely inflated prices, and I have been dying to cast them since I got them (still hasn't happened). Here's the list I'm thinking about right now:

4x Dark Confidant
2x Tarmogoyf (I only have 2 and theres no way I'm buying 2 more. Maybe the trade gods will smile upon me)
4x Doran the Deige Tower
4x Treefolk Harbringer
3x Loam Lion
2x Spellskite
4x Sheltering Ancient

2x Duress
4x Thoughtseize
3x Path to Exile
3x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
2x Misty Rainforest
3x Murmuring Bosk
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Plains
3x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
3x Treetop Village
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Verdant Catacombs

Another Idea of where to go with this deck was more of a control route with lots of walls that has an "oops, I win" moment as soon as it drops. Think along the lines of Wall of Omens and Wall of Roots. Another card worth considering is Dungrove Elder. It would take a small adjustment to the mana base, but he could be an absolute beating in this kind of deck. Another card I want to point out from this deck is Sheltering Ancient. If managed correctly, it's a 5/5 trample for 2 mana which is a beating. Either they don't have any creatures in play and you just smash the Red Zone, or a Maelstrom Pulse/Path to Exile can clean the whole problem up for you and then you bash for 20.

I'm not going too hard in Modern right now, as prices are sure to drop shortly after the Pro Tour, and there's bound to be some changes to the banned list afterwards as well which will change the meta with every step and every swing. But that's all I have for today. Until next time, stay classy!

-Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

The Grand Return

Hello Everybody!

After 11 weeks of inactivity, I am finally back! According to my little stats chart that tracks the amount of page views I get, I had 3,508 in May, 2,071 in June, 785 in July, and 0 in all of August so it's now time to fight back for my little piece of the world wide web to be noticed again. So here we go!

As has been true in 2009 and 2010 as well, I worked at Hidden Valley Scout Camp this summer. This past year I was the Emergency Skills director, so anything involving disasters or emergencies, whether logistical or first aid based, was all in my domain. But that's not what your here to read about (though if you want me to tell camp stories, I could probably write dozens of pages on stories!). You probably came to the magic blog to talk about tapping, untapping, and things of that variety.

As I have mentioned in previous posts regarding camp magic, it's very casual. Suprisingly though, I didn't see any white weenie decks getting played all summer. The popular deck this year was artifacts (which makes complete sense considering we just passed the artifact block), and there were 2 guys who I helped build UW control decks for. I didn't play a ton this summer, but I only lost 2 games all summer. The first game I was playing my UR Pyromancer Ascension deck and kept this opening hand for no good reason:

Island
Island
Island
Pyromancer Ascension
Foudre (Italian Lightning Bolt)
Burst Lightning
Volt Charge

I proceeded to draw more red spells and more islands for 5 turns until I finally drew preordain which got me a mountain, and I still was almost able to win. The other game I lost was a Vampires mirror match and I simply got aggro-ed out.

The decks I played with this summer were ANT, Painted Stone, Dredge, Birthing Pod Vampires, Pyromancer Ascension, Relentless Rats, Mono-Red, and Jund. I also had a Type 4 Stack with 160 or so cards in it that was very very popular. In hindsight, I probably should have built a deck that wasn't simply over the top powerful so I could get more games in because often people would only want to watch me play someone else so they could see the combo and never actually face it themselves. As such, I kinda took the role of coach/deckbuilder/judge this summer which was cool for a change. One of the things I have is a free box which is full of junk bulk commons/uncommons (read: Mindless Null) and I give any card in there out for free to anyone who wants it. That box was everyone's favorite destination in Staff Site! Having hundreds of Japanese New Phyrexia cards and Russian M12 cards didn't help most people, but the english cards were very popular.

Quote of the Moment:
"Magic is printed in other languages!?!?"
"Are foreign cards legal in Magic tournaments?"
-Very Casual Staff Members

To which I refer them to this awesome announcement: Magic in Korean

Many people started with nothing and completely made decks out the cards in that box, which I glad to help them with. After all, that's just my proxy box, so I wasn't going to do anything with it anyways. Overall I had a ton of fun this summer changing lives and teaching merit badges and offering the camp programs, but also the magic scene was fun in a very different mannor.

If you follow card prices, you probably noticed the shit hit the fan approx 2 weeks ago when Modern was officially declared as the PT Philly format. Here are some noticable price jumps:

Grove of the Burnwillows:  3 -- 21   x7
Vendillion Clique:             12 -- 41   x3.4
Vesuva:                            10 -- 31  x3.1
Gifts Ungiven:                     3 -- 8    x2.6
Life From the Loam:           6 -- 16   x2.6
Tooth and Nail:                  9 -- 18    x2
Pact of Negation:              11 -- 21   x1.9
Sower of Temptation:         6 -- 10    x1.6
Spell Snare:                        3 -- 5    x1.6
Horizon Canopy:                6 -- 9    x1.5
Tarmogoyf:                      71 -- 110  x1.5
Mutavault:                        23 -- 31    x1.3

And the Shocklands all almost doubled in price:
Hallowed Fountain: 21 -- 40
Watery Grave: 16 -- 30
Blood Crypt: 13 -- 24
Stomping Grounds: 14 -- 24
Temple Garden:  13 -- 23
Godless Shrine: 14 -- 28
Steam Vents: 14 -- 31
Overgrown Tomb: 11 -- 23
Sacred Foundry: 10 -- 21
Breeding Pool: 17 -- 36

I sadly traded off 4 shock lands this summer as part of a huge trade, but I did get 2 Tarmogoyfs back in addition to other stuff, so its not that bad off. Here was the big trade of the summer and the current values:

My:
2x Bayou (74, 148)
Volcanic Island (76)
Stomping Grounds (24)
Godless Shrine (28)
Sacred Foundry (21)
Overgrown Tomb (23)
Umezawa's Jitte (22)
Sword of Light and Shadow (33)
Illusions of Grandor (3)
Total: 378

His:
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (27)
2x Wasteland (56, 112)
2x Glimpse of Nature (17, 34)
2x Tarmogoyf (110, 220)
Abeyance (4)
Secluded Glen (2)
Hex (0.50)
Goblin grenade (1)
Krark's Thumb (0.50)
Total: 401

So overall, I went +23 on this trade, which didn't turn out so bad considering I shipped all those shocklands at 11 a piece and lost a lot of potential money on them. Regardless, I still have a Sacred Foundry in my binder I got for 6 at a store in Manchester's shelf.

Anyways, this post was a little all over the place, but ultimately I am back and ready for an epic year on Innistrad. Until next time, Stay Classy!