Scavenging the Prerelease

Hello everyone!

So like the whole world, I was waiting anxiously for Saturday to finally come out! Why? For the Return to Ravnica! A bunch of guys from my floor and I headed out to Larry's in Lowell for the midnight pre-release, and wow! That was easily my favorite pre-release of all time!

It's tricky to figure out exactly what made the pre-release so much fun.... Was it the anticipation for the new set? No, because every pre-release has new cards, but this was easily the best.

Was it the specific mechanics of RTR? Probably not, there's nothing particularly groundbreaking from this set, and other set have had equally if not more exciting mechanics.

I think the thing that made this pre-release the best of all time was the guild boxes. Over the past few sets, WotC has made a conscious effort to make pre-releases go from the meh of yesteryear to a once in a lifetime experience. For the grand majority of the lifetime of magic the prerelease was just any old sealed deck tournament. The only thing that would make you want to go to it (because sealed is a fairly boring format) is the fact that it's your first opportunity to get new cards. However I believe it was Mirrodin Besieged that was the first to change that mold. If you remember back then it was announced you had to either designate yourself as either a Phyrexian or a Mirran and you would get only faction packs from the side you chose to align yourself with (So I went Phrexian and I got 3 Phyrexian MBS packs and 3 packs of Scars of Mirrodin). The jig was that supposedly whichever faction won more pre-releases would determine the outcome of the third set of the block. There was a whole schtick on whether the set would be Mirrodin Pure or New Phyrexia with pics of booster art and packaging released for both sides. In fact, we knew the name of the fall set, Innistrad, before we had official confirmation on the name of the third set of the current block. In the end obviously Phyrexia "won". While the pre-release was very well received, the aftermath and all the drama left a bitter taste in everyone's mouth.

New Phyrexia, M12 and Innistrad were all normal. Flashing forward to Dark Ascension, there was the monsters vs humans thing. My store didn't do it because it was deemed dumb, but basically there were supposed to be a few people selected as the 4 monster tribes of Innistrad (Spirit, Zombie, Vampire, Werewolf) and every time they beat a human, that human would convert to the horror tribe. At the end.... nothing really mattered and you got bragging rights. This one seemed like a good idea, but never really materialized into much awe or good memories in the days and weeks to come.

Then came Avacyn Restored. The flavor of AVR was that Avacyn and the demons had broken out of the Helvault. So naturally a Helvault was given out to each store running pre-releases. After a certain number of goals were accomplished, all the stickers had been removed from the Helvault and the hidden treasures inside were unleashed for the world to enjoy. Almost all of them sucked - dice and tokens. However, there were some that had Judge Promos and foil tokens. These ones were worth several hundreds more than what the normal Helvaults were worth. To say that people lost their shit over this would be an understatement. People were livid that some stores would get special treatment and the insanely high value stuff while all the other smaller stores that may be struggling to retain customers got nothing and no incentive for players to stay. If it weren't for those premium Helvaults though, the Helvault thing would have been a lot cooler. Unfortunately, the overwhelming overbearing shadow of the premium Helvaults crushed any support for the 'vaults to oblivion and irrelevancy.

I didn't go to the M13 prerelease, but I don't think anything special happened there. And so now we move to yesterday - Return to Ravnica. What made this one so special? Relating back to Mirrodin Besieged, you had to make a choice as to what deck you wanted to play. In a normal sealed deck you have to open your packs and see what is good, but by choosing a guild pack you significantly increase the likelihood that you can play those guild's colors and therefor you can pick what deck you want to play before you arrive. This by itself gives players lots of choices! Instead of A vs B (with blue being left out and in neither guild), we had 5 choices that all have good and back matchups. It made its own metagame! Also, by only having one pack designated to each guild, you weren't locked into that guild like you were locked in at MBS. Also, in Mirrodin Besieged the two factions had a very clear good vs evil dynamic. In RTR there is no clear bad guy but instead 5 tribes at war with no obvious evil character. And one final touch to make a god thing especially sweet: the box. Having your pre-release come in a packed box just for you makes the whole thing feel special. Instead of getting in line to get your mystery meat and a scoop of slop, you have a special package just for you! It's individualistic as opposed to mass produced. While it may not mean something to most people, it simply adds to the allure in my opinion.

So the pre-release as a whole was awesome, but for me it was a good tournament. I wound up going 4-2 with Golgari, but my wins were complete blowouts and my losses were by inches. I already took apart my deck and so can't remember the exact contents, but the rares I opened were:

Lotleth Troll
Abrupt Decay
Jarad's Orders
Mecurial Chamister
Search the City

I finished in 11th place out of 44, which was good for a Staff of Nin... WOO! But regardless, the event was really fun, the trades were good, and I absolutely look forward to playing with these cards for real!

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

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack

Post Rotation Splinterfright

Hello Everyone!

This past standard season Splinterfright was played in fringe amounts, although players like Kibler picked up on the deck. Unfortunately the deck never picked up much turbulence and was outdone by decks like Delver and Zombies. In this new format, Delver and most notably Vapor Snag is not going to be legal anymore, so a slightly slower, but much bigger Splinterfright deck may be viable.

4x Arbor Elf
4x Boneyard Wurm
4x Lotleth Troll
4x Splinterfright
4x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
2x Disciple of Bolas
2x Kessig Cagebreakers
4x Ghoultree

4x Grisly Salvage
4x Mulch
1x Jarad's Orders

4x Woodland Cemetery
4x Overgrown Tomb
2x Golgari Guildgate
4x Swamp
9x Forest

Sideboard:
Abrupt Decay
Duress
Appetite for Brains
Thragtusk
Strangleroot Geist
Triumph of Ferocity
Gnaw to the Bone

This deck is very different from last year's Splinterfright deck, which had blue instead of black. After examining the blue cards that were available, I felt that blue was good for being an enabler, but that was it. Between 4 copies each of Grisly Salvage, Lotleth Troll, and Mulch, I think there should be enough enablers in the deck. Keeping this 2 colors makes the mana infinitely better than trying to add in blue, especially because we would get 0 shocklands to help out the mana base we would be required to play an island and a Borderland Ranger to make it playable. The only cards I would want to splash blue for are:

Tracker's Instincts
Deranged Assistant
Armored Skaab
Chronic Flooding
Screeching Skaab

All of these cards are cool and all, but none of them make me dying to play blue. These are all enablers for the green and black cards to be better.

Now let's take a look at what we DO have. This list is pretty straightforward with the Boneyard Wurms and Splinterfrights and Ghoultrees for beats, long with new friend Lotleth Troll as a combo of an enabler/very efficient beater. Arbor Elf is sweet to ramp up mana and even with Overgrown tomb do some color fixing.

But one card that really has me excited to play this deck is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord! Yes, I have 4 for a legendary creature in this deck because I want him every game! Let's break it down, first things first Jarad has the same power and toughness of Boneyard Wurm / Splinterfright except with a standing +2/+2 bonus on top! That alone makes it a contender for the deck, but it gets better! Back when Kibler was streaming RUG Splinterfright, splashing red for Grim Lavamancer, people kept on saying he should have Fling in the deck. While he never did put it in, the allure of flinging for 10 damage off a Ghoultree is still quite novel. Now here comes Jarad who has a 3 mana fling ability attached! Sadly he can't fling himself, however being able to toss Ghoultrees and Boneyard Wurms over the top at the opponent is incredibly powerful! This is the kind of  reach the deck has been looking for! If that was all, Jarad would already be a smashing success, however there is still one more ability! While you often won't sacrifice your lands to bring him back, it's still worth noting it's there in case you are super flooded you still have action available!

I really like this deck, and while right now it's probably still a little raw, I believe that in time this deck will actually be a contender! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack

Getting All Stormed Up In New Standard

Hello everyone!

I haven't posted at all in the past week, but that's because I have been at school very busy with classes, sports, and clubs. On our floor there is also a ton of magic being played (I had to pull myself away from the festivities in order to start writing this!) so there is never a dull moment!

For anyone who may be new to my blog: I am a huge fan of playing combo decks. For the longest time in Legacy, my decks consisted of Storm, Belcher, Elves, Dredge, and 4 Horseman. Recently I have moved a little towards fair decks, but regardless I am deeply rooted in combo. Thankfully, we now have a combo deck available in standard! May I present to you.... Coblins:

4x Guttersnipe
4x Goblin Electromancer

4x Krenko's Command
4x Goblin Rally
4x Battle Hymn
4x Burn at the Stake
4x Epic Experiment
4x Pillar of Flame
4x Searing Spear
2x Past in Flames
2x Wild Guess

4x Steam Vents
4x Sulfur Falls
10x Mountain
2x Hellion Crucible

The deck is pretty straight forward, though there are some cards I want to do more testing on before I am ready to call it a deck. I originally had 4 Infernal Plunge and 2 Faithless Looting where I currently have Searing Spear an Wild Guess. I think Searing Spear is better because we have more interaction with the opponent and it makes an aggro plan B a little better. Wild guess may cost 2 mana to Looting's 1, but it's better of Epic Experiment and it is not card disadvantage. This deck is 53% instants and sorceries, so you can expect pretty good value coming from an Epic Experiment. If you cast experiment, it is ideal to do so at X=5 or greater so that you can hit Goblin Rally. Also, with so many instants and sorceries, Guttersnipe will consistently hit for 4+ damage and will make it much easier to burn the opponent out with the Burn at the Stake. There are a lot of options for a sideboard, but I would start with these cards:

Krenko, Mob Boss
Negate
Bonfire of the Damned
Annihilating Fire
Ash Zealot
Flames of the Firebrand
Mark of Mutiny

Negate, and Ash Zealot are good cards to counter control strategies (Zealot only if they are playing Snapcaster and Lingering Souls). Krenko is a good card for it you're trying to grind an opponent out. Playing Krenko then following it with a Command / Rally is simply insane and will easily win you the game even if Krenko immediately dies after that. Bonfire is for any creature deck. Annihilating Fire is for Zombies, and Mark is in case there is any kind of Ramp deck in the new format. However, because of the lack of titans and praetors, there doesn't seem to be any attractive ramp targets right now.

This deck is currently a top contender for a deck I want to play post rotation, and I think with a little tuning, the deck will be able to fair very well! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack

RTR Commons and Uncommons

Hello everyone!

As I said yesterday, almost all of Return to Ravnica has been spoiled! As of this writing, there are only 4 cards left to be revealed, so now is a great time to start discussing what sweet goodies we get to play with for the next 2 years! Yesterday, I only went over Rares and mythics so today I want to spotlight on the commons and uncommons. Usually commons and uncommons never wow you or inspire you to build a new deck, but instead they are simply good cogs in the machine that is your deck.

This is the new creature to join the party with Kami of Ancient Law and Ronom Unicorn, except this time we have a card with a generic enough name to possibly be in a core set. I used to play War Priest of Thune back in the day, and Keening Apparition is just better because you can jam on turn 2, get some damage in, and then get rid of the enchantment as opposed to waiting to get value.

Now this card is one that I'm not sure will actually be good or not. It all comes down to how good detain winds up being. I think the ability will be good, at which point this guy will be awesome for tempo reasons. Being a human makes Champion of the Parish better, adding to the potential for a great WW deck. The only thing that isn't great about him is that after the ETB he's just a white Goblin Piker. Regardless, I think detain is an incredibly good ability that will see lots of play in standard, and this guy is low enough on the curve to make it worthwhile!

Wow! Now this is a cool card! I mentioned before that BG Splinterfright may be a deck, but this card may be a good enough reason to add blue in! There are many advantages to this card, starting with how it costs 1 mana less than Splinterfright. This means, no you can turn 2 enchant your forest, turn 3 mill yourself 3 to see if you hit a creature, assuming you do curve right into Splinterfright. Also, if you draw this card later you can just enchant an untapped land to start getting immediate value from the card! Keep in mind this is merely decent if you want to mill your opponent because they can just choose to not tap the land that will hit themselves/you will just draw them cards as you mill them into flashback spells. But to mill yourself? This card is super efficient!

Nothing to see here, just an essential reprint that will see play

Now this card is cool! We already have tons of ETB effects that cards like Restoration Angel abuses, but there is also a cool 3 card combo with this card that can soft-lock your opponent out of the game: 2x Faerie Impostor, 1x Mistbind Clique. With an Impostor in play (or you can play it with no other creatures and just retain priority in response to the ETB trigger) cast Mistbind Clique championing the Impostor. Then you can play another Impostor, bouncing your Clique which returns the first Impostor to your hand. Rinse and repeat every turn and you can lock your opponent out of mana for the rest of the game! I honestly think this combo may be enough to give new life to mono-blue faeries in Modern as another ingrained combo to control the game. Obviously rebuying things like Spellstutter Sprite and Vendilion Clique is a big game too, so Imposter will be a solid addition!

This card actually came out a while back, and I didn't think anything of it until ADB explained why it's so good: It will be the only 2 mana counterspell in standard post rotation, and it scales so it's (hopefully) never going to be dead like mana leak eventually is. The fact that it exiles is a good bonus. He pointed out how back in the day Faeries played 4x Broken Ambitions to fill the 2 mana counterspell slot with the bonus value of a scry 1. When I stopped and thought about it, I realized I really do need Syncopate in all my blue decks! This card will see tons of play! The Odyssey foil is at 8 right now, but will only go up as Syncopate sees more play, so if you're planning on playing a pimped blue deck, buy now!

Now this is a great sideboard card! Nihil Spellbomb was such a good card because it would draw you a card so you would never feel like you were actually down a card while attacking the opponent's graveyard. Also, late game you could just cycle it into more action. Now look at Cremate! This will be able to hold down cards like Unburial Rites and Snapcaster Mage while still holding value vs cards like Lingering Souls, Gravecrawler, and anything else that recurses from the yard assuming your timing is right.

So now we have the new Doom Blade variant, and this one is pretty cool! Obviously this is completely dependent on the meta to determine its playability, but I think starting off there will be enough targets to make it worthwhile. However, its stock will go down as Gatecrash and the third set are released and the meta is filled with more multi-colored dudes.

This card is cool, but probably isn't playable. But if the format needs it, now we have another set of Pillar of Flame type effects at instant speed. If mono-red were a thing (which I don't think it will), this would definitely go right in!

I think this is the best common Overload spell we have seen this far! This is basically a mini-Mizzium Mortars, and may not see play because of that card, but if the format is so fast where Mortars can't overload soon enough, then Electrickery may see some play. Of course, we also face the sad reality of just being 1 mana less than Bonfire of the Damned, and it might be that Electrickery is just that - a trick.

So these two guildmages I feel are the best 2 guildmages because of their lower abilities. Recursive removal is pretty sweet, and both of these guildmages can effectively prevent the opponent's board from being relevant at all! The Azorious one is the less likely of the 2 to get a ton of play, but the Rakdos one is epic!

Here we have the 2 last cards to complete the first half of the charms cycle. And yes, they are both good! Both feel like very flexible sideboard cards more than maindeck decks though. Starting with Rakdos Charm, what do we have? Tormod's Crypt is obviously useful in a variety of situations, but it also hoses other decks with the other abilities! Obviously a shatter is good too because it's still on the natural curve for that effect. The last ability seems the strangest, but I will table that one for a minute... Moving over to Golgari Charm, we have Shrivel/Demystify/Wrap in Vigor. Obviously each piece has its applications, but I think the best part of this card is the Shrivel effect. Killing little dudes is good too, but both of these cards are good sideboard options vs Splinter Twin. With Rakdos Charm, we can go back to the third ability. When your opponent has the inifnite creatures in play, just cast charm and make them take infinite damage! With Golgari Charm you can either kill their infinite Pestermites or fog their infinite Deceiver Exarchs. Overall I feel Rakdos Charm is better than Golgari Charm, but every card gets its day in the limelight.

Now this is a cool card! 5 mana for what is net draw 2, but is really draw 4. Just like how Brainstorm doesn't actually net any additional card, but is considered to basically be ancestral recall, so with Thoughtflare be considered an instant speed Tidings. If you really want to be a stickler and hang on the fact that you have to discard 2 cards, remember flashback is a thing. Whether the card has its own flashback or if you're playing Snapcaster Mage, Thoughtflare is the real deal!

Hello watchwolf! Here is where you realize magic is such an intricate game: Compare Call of the Conclave vs Watchwolf - both are 3/3s for GW however then things get very different. Unsummon is pretty bad vs Watchwolf, however vs a token it's like a Swords to Plowshares! With populate, the token gains tons of value, and different cards pump the different types of creatures (Intangible Virtue vs Honor of the Pure). Also worth nothing is how this loses to Negate where Watchwolf does not, but this can also be Snapcastered. Also, this doesn't play well with Thalia... Overall though these will function the same and Call will be played.

This card seems like the nutter butters to me. If Azorious Arrester is potentially playable, then this guy is incredible! For an extra blue mana we get an extra point of power PLUS flying. Also, the fact that he costs 3 mana really doesn't matter much as if we're going to curve into him, we need some pressure to make the detained turn useful. Also worth noting is that Skyknight is also a Human, so once again Champion of the Parish gets a lot of support. WW will probably splash blue just for SkyKnight and probably Geist, or maybe go for the UW Delver/Champion hybrid Sam Black was advocating this past year. However regardless of what happens I think Skyknight will be a part of it!

And now, we have the first super playable Unleash card! While no one is surprised by it being printed, we are all interested to see what happens. I personally think it's a natural fit in Zombies because 8 1 mana 2 power creatures is never enough! It can also go in mono-red decks, but when you think about it, you realize that mono-red is better splashing black, and then you're just back to zombies again... Regardless, this absolutely assures Zombies is the deck to beat going into the new season. I will start posting potential decklists soon, but I know the Zombies deck is basically building itself! 4x each of Gravecrawler, Rakdos Cackler, Diregraf Ghoul, Rakdos Shred-Freak, Lotleth Troll, Geralf's Messenger, Dreg Mangler..... That's aggro as piss! Ready or not, Rakdos Cackler is coming to a turn 1 near you!

So this is 4 of a 5 card cycle. The Azorious is released, but I don't have a picture for it. The Azorious Keyrune is UW: for a 2/2 flying dude. So before, I was talking about how awesome Chromatic Lantern was, but I think it just replaced by the Keyrunes! Unless you're paying a 4+ color deck, I think the Keyrunes are just better because you gain so much value going late! Making a blocker/having a win condition is great, and at the same time we get mana ramp and mana fixing! Sidenote: One of my friends pointed out the Rakdos one's flavor text can be misinterpreted as the most painful dildo in the world, but I'm not going to go there.

Wow! That was a lot of cards! I am incredibly excited for RTR to finally hit the shelves so I can finally try out some new cards and decks! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie

Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

@ThingsILack

RTR (almost) Completely Spoiled!

Hello everyone!

Today at 6am a huge wave of spoilers from Return to Ravnica came out, and by huge wave I mean all but 10 or 15 cards! I have been too busy at school to be able to post on the spoilers as they have come, but I will do my best now to pluck as many cards as possible to talk about. Today I will just be going over Rares and Mythics, and then hopefully tomorrow I will talk about Commons and Uncommons.

Patrick Chapin wrote a whole article on this card, but basically while this Angel is Expensive, it is insanely good! Being a triple Fiend Hunter is pretty sweet by itself, but with other cool applications like getting guys back from your own yard or Cloudshifting in response to the Angel trigger targeting 3 your opponent's creature for a triple Plow in addition to the "new" angel's targets for sweet value. Do I think the card is good? YES. However I am slightly reserved on how much play it will immediately see because of how fast and resilient public enemy #1 is (GB Zombies). However once the format adjusts and slows down I think this angel will be a very prevalent threat!

This is a cool value-bear, but it has a lot of competition before it sees play in constructed. Other baddies to fight off: Elite Inquisitor, Knight of Glory, Nearheath Pilgrim, and Thalia Guardian of Thraben. I think This is better than the Pilgrim, but is probably worse than the other 3. The fact that Zombies is obviously so good is what makes Inquisitor and Knight of Glory so relevant and may be enough to make WW a playable deck for the first couple weeks of standard (because WW never lasts long).

So this card got printed, and I immediately did 2 things: Took Wheel of Sun and Moon out of my Enchantress sideboard, and took apart my dredge deck and put it into my binder. Yes, Rest is that good! For 2 mana we get a Relic of Progenitus PLUS Planar Void! It is important to make that distinction - This isn't Tormod's Crypt + Leyline of the Void because this also hits you. However, that's perfectly fine vs a deck like Dredge because they are so far behind at that point that the lack of your graveyard simply doesn't matter.

I like this card a lot. It may amount to absolutely nothing, but being able to bounce on the curve is very good, and the Overload is a complete blowout! The fact that you can overload on your opponent's end step and force them to discard a couple cards is very relevant. I think the card will be played, but I'm not sure if it will be in a tempo deck or a control deck. I'm currently leaning on tempo as bounce doesn't accomplish much in control and the card is fine as a Disperse, but you never know...

Interesting..... At first I thought this may be good in UB/x control because a 4 mana 6/6 is able to come down quickly and stop the board, but then I re-read the card and realized that your opponent is in full control of this card in the early game. Something like Lingering Souls or Gravecrawler completely blanks this card and made it such that you paid 4 for nothing. Late game when this would be good, anything else would also be good that costs more mana so I think this is a passer.

Another swing and miss.... While this card is kinda cool, it's made for aggressive decks which don't play/need 6 drops.... Obviously insane in limited, but this will never get cast in constructed.

I saw GerryT was playing this card in the sideboard of his zombies deck for control matchups, and I think this is absolutely fantastic for that! Also, this would be good in a control deck (MB Control?) because LD these days is limited to Ghost Quarter, which isn't really even seeing play! I think this will see maindeck play in B/x control and sideboard play in any B/x midrange/aggro deck.

This card SCREAMS combo, but right now I think the only place it can see play is modern storm. In standard there's simply not any good win conditions besides chaining burn and in legacy Ad Nauseum is just better. But Epic Expiriment will be very good in Modern because it makes the deck no longer reliant on Past in Flames to build up enough storm to win, now it can play right through Leyline of the Void! Whether this is a maindeck or sideboard card (3 in board straight for 3 past in flames) is to be determined, but it's absolutely earned a spot!

Welcome to Magic where we have this thing called power creep. A 3 mana 4/4 gets printed, which is absolutely above the curve! Oh wait, it's now uncounterable! Now that's absolutely overpowered! Wait, you can't even Inquisition of Kozelik it?? Geez! And the saddest part? This probably isn't playable. Having no abilities on board makes you a huge liability. Unless you're so undercosted that you are named Wild Nacatl, Insectile Abberation, or Tarmogoyf, you probably don't belong. Sad reality is sad

Well this is interesting! Remember that card Splinterfright? Yeah, that's still a card.... Jarad's Orders may be too slow for that, but maybe a deck like Frights wants it? GerryT and Brad Nelsen posted up a frights list that uses Craterhoof Behemoth as its fatty using tons of mana dudes to create a surprise kill. After the fact they said Craterhoof probably isn't the right fatty, but regardless the deck will probably get more consistent post rotation with this tutor along with better mana. No Nihil Spellbomb and Surgical Extraction means there won't be as much gravehate at the start which means there will be time for things to get a little frightening as everyone loses their heads over Zombies.

This guy probably won't make the cut in standard, but regardless is a very cool card! I think I will be going Golgari for the pre-release, and this card is a huge part of it! Scavenge is a sweet very relevant ability anyways, but doubling it? That's insane! A 4/4 for 4 is also a perfectly legitimate threat in limited too!

Hey look! It's the new Blue Sun's Zenith! I think Revelation will be a sweet 1 or 2-of in new UW/x control decks going forward. Both drew cards, but I think the gaining life is much more relevant than the shuffle clause. Tapping out, even at the end of an opponent's turn puts yourself in a vulnerable position, but being able to gain a small handful of life and then untap and casting something like Supreme Verdict basically wins you the game on the spot! I don't think it really needs to be a mythic, but regardless this looks sweet!

Woah! This is cool! Oblivion Ring is cool and all, but it just got Kanye'd by Detention Sphere! This card is so good, I may splash blue in my enchantress deck just for it! In Standard and Modern this will replace Oblivion Ring everywhere! This kind of cheap interaction is exactly what a UWx control deck needs and this will see INSANE amounts of play everywhere!

There was a period of time when all but the Izzet uncounterable cards were spoiled and we were all insanely stoked to see what the Dracogenius had cooked up! Then Rosewater tweeted:

"C

UUR

C.C.B.C.B.S.O.A.

C.T.S.Y.D.C.

O 1UUR"

And 0.25 seconds later PV responded with the full text of the card besides the name. At first I was super excited at the idea of such a cheap overload to counter tons of spells. Then I thought about when I actually need to do that..... Storm? In a counterspell war everything 1-for-1s so countering the stack accomplishes nothing. All formats where Storm is legal so is Mindbreak Trap. The only thing that makes me think I will ever use Counterflux is maindeck in modern to have a bad maindeck answer to storm. But that's pretty loose..... I don't even think this will see play in Standard over Dissipate and Syncopate because of the prevalence of flashback and other graveyard synergies. It's cool, but remember - cool doesn't always mean good.

And my last card for the day today is really interesting! This guy eats graveyards for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and all for sweet value! The first thing to note is that he is a conditional Birds of Paradise, which probably won't lead to turn 2 3 mana dudes unless if they surprise reprint fetchlands on us (not going to happen). If this was just a BoP, that would be pretty disappointing though.... Nah, the Shaman is much better! He can be a pseudo grim lavamancer by making your opponents lose 2 a turn, but only consuming 1 card a turn (and can get guys from any grave!). On defense though, he can also gain you life to hopefully protect yourself, or at the very least give you something proactive to do every turn! I really like this card a lot! While I don't know where it will belong, I think it will absolutely see play!

That's all I have for today! That covers the majority of the rares in the set, but there are some more to be spoiled. Return to Ravnica is looking to be an amazing set and I can't wait for the pre-release and new standard! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack

The Return of 5CC?

Hello everyone!

We are now a full third into the RTR spoiler season, and one deck that has constantly been bugging me as a potential thing is Five Color Control. Now, I don't think we have the perfect Reflecting Pool - Vivid manabase that was of old 5CC in Lorwyn, but we do have some pretty sweet mana with all the duals and obviously Chromatic Lantern. What I want to do today is start looking at each of the colors and see which offer the best cards for us to start building our deck around. So without further ado, let's get digging!

White
Elite Inquisitor
Feeling of Dread
Knight of Glory
Pacifism
Entreat the Angels
Lingering Souls
Oblivion Ring
Rhox Faithmaster
Restoration Angel
Terminus

Blue
Thought Scour
Syncopate
Augur of Bolas
Cyclonic Rift
Snapcaster Mage
Negate
Think Twice
Dissipate
Fettergeist
Forbidden Alchemy
Amass the Components
Jace, Architect of Thought
Lone Revenant
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Jace, Memory Adept

Black
Duress
Tragic Slip
Murder
Tribute to Hunger
Vampire Nighthawk
Liliana of the Dark Realms
Mutilate
Sever the Bloodline
Bloodgift Demon
Curse of Death's Hold
Unburial Rites
Griselbrand

Red
Bonfire of the Damned
Faithless Looting
Devil's Play
Geistflame
Pillar of Flame
Desperate Ravings
Magmaquake
Mizzium Mortars
Searing Spear
Chandra, the Firebrand
Thundermaw Hellkite
Blasphemous Act

Green
Farseek
Gatecreeper Vine
Garruk Relentless
Silklash Spider
Thragtusk

Colorless
Desolate Lighthouse
Nephalia Drownyard
Hellion Crucible
Tormod's Crypt
Elixir of Immortality
Chromatic Lantern
Gem of Becoming
Gilded Lotus

Multicolored
Azorious Charm
Supreme Verdict

Abrupt Decay
Vraska, the Unseen

Dreadbore
Olivia Voldaren

Izzet Charm
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius

Selesnya Charm
Sigarda, Host of Herons

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Huntmaster of the Fells

So the first thing we need to think about when building a control deck is what do we need to beat? There hasn't been a lot of talk about post-rotation decks yet, however there are some that we can expect:

Zombies - Probably BG, but might splash red for Aristocrat, Brimstone, and Bonfire
Jund
Delver - Probably UWR, but a 2 color may work as well
GB Graveyard based deck that could splash any/all of the other colors for various cards

And even if we don't know an archaetype that will be popular, we can at least think of some individually powerful cards like Mizzium Mortars and Abrupt Decay that should change what our answers look like.

After looking at the cards, considering different problems, I know I absolutely want to play White, Blue, and Red:

White:
Terminus is our major winner here. With insanely resilient zombies like Gravecrawler, Lotleth Troll, and Geralf's Messenger, just playing a Day of Judgement is never going to cut it. Now I will also be playing Supreme verdict because the card is still fine, just not the perfect answer. Not being able to be countered vs Delver is INSANELY important, so therefor it deserves its slot.

Blue:
Blue is required to cast the Supreme Verdict, but also I think I want my win condition to be Niv-Mizzet because he can win the game completely by himself after untapping just once with him. Augur of Bolas may not be bad depending on how fast the format gets as the new Wall of Omens. Also, having Think Twice/Desperate Ravings makes Terminus much better. Izzet Charm is also a very powerful and very flexible card that will be very helpful.

Red:
Niv Mizzet again, but also having access to spells like Bonfire of the Damned (probably just a 1-of) and Pillar of Flame will really let us control the board.

Now I am completely torn between playing Black, Green, or neither:

Black:
Black gains us access to Duress, which is huge if the control mirror becomes a thing. Lingering Souls is a nice touch. Also, we gain access to other kinds of sweet removal like Tragic Slip. We also can play Curse of Death's Hold in case a tokens strategy becomes good, and we can finish with Nicol Bolas!

Green:
We don't get much from green, and it may prove to be unnecessary, but I think Thragtusk may just be powerful enough to warrent the addition of the color. When we do add green though, we gain access to Gatecreeper Vine, another pseudo-Wall of Omens that draws us a dual land so we get a little mana fixing.

Now why would we go just 3 colors? It makes for a better mana base. Obviously doing testing will be able to determine which version is the best, but for today I want to write up sample decklists for each of the potential color combinations...

UWR Control

3x Niv Mizzet, Dracogenius
3x Augur of Bolas

3x Terminus
4x Supreme Verdict
1x Bonfire of the Damned
4x Pillar of Flame
4x Desperate Ravings
4x Syncopate
2x Dissipate
4x Izzet Charm
1x Oblivion Ring

2x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

4x Steam Vents
4x Hallowed Fountain
2x Clifftop Retreat
4x Sulfur Falls
4x Glacial Fortress
2x Desolate Lighthouse
2x Island
2x Mountain
1x Plains


4 Color - Green

1x Niv Mizzet, Dracogenius
4x Thragtusk
2x Sigarda
4x Gatecreeper Vine

3x Terminus
3x Supreme Verdict
2x Bonfire of the Damned
4x Pillar of Flame
4x Syncopate
4x Chromatic Lantern
4x Desperate Ravings
1x Oblivion Ring

4x Steam Vents
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Temple Garden
1x Selesnya Guidgate
1x Izzet Guildgate
1x Azorious Guildgate
1x Grove of the Guardian
1x Desolate Lighthouse
2x Clifftop Retreat
2x Rootbound Crag
2x Sunpetal Grove
1x Sulfur Falls



4 Color - Black

2x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius

3x Terminus
1x Supreme Verdict
4x Dreadbore
2x Tragic Slip
4x Syncopate
4x Lingering Souls
4x Desperate Ravings
2x Forbidden Alchemy
2x Izzet Charm

4x Chromatic Lantern
1x Gilded Lotus

2x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

4x Blood Crypt
4x Steam Vents
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Drowned Catacombs
2x Isolated Chapel
2x Sulfur Falls
2x Nephalia Drownyard
2x Shimmering Grotto
1x Glacial Fortress



So each of these decks have a lot of the same core cards, however they each have different cards to fill in the rest of the package. Are these final lists? Obviously not! We don't even have all the cards in the set spoiled! It's very possible some innocuous common or uncommon is able to fill a significant role in the deck. I do think that a control deck of this nature is very possible to build, and can be a contender in the new format.

But that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack

RTR Spoilers Week 1

Hello everyone!

Classes have started here at UMass Lowell, and I'm simply having a blast here! My floor is very social, and my classes are all very good, which naturally makes blogging a little tougher to do. But fear not! I will do my best to constantly have posts up to keep up with whatever is new in the multiverse.

Since I last posted on Monday, we have taken in another dozen spoilers, so let's get right to them!

To start things off, we have basically made Savannah Lions and Elite Vanguard completely unplayable outside of niche tribal decks, and have replaced them with this Dryad, which I feel is actually completely playable in Modern and Legacy! This Dryad already is perfect for any creature-based aggro deck, especially because usually those decks don't have a use for insants or sorceries in the graveyard anyways! In modern, this is a great card to shut down decks like Storm that use Pyromancer's Ascension and Past in Flames to gain advantages. In legacy, this card shuts down Snapcaster Mage and Past in Flames from a Storm deck, so I can see this card being a solid 1 or 2-of in Maverick!

A rule absolutely worth knowing: If you Lightning Bolt Dryad Militant, the Bolt is exiled. If you Murder it, the Murder goes to the graveyard. This is because the Dryad doesn't actually die until state based actions are checked, at which point the Bolt has already been Exiled. On the other hand, if she is Murdered, then the Murder goes to the graveyard because the Dryad is already dead.

And now, we have an insane 2 drop for Zombies! This card is awesome because it's simply so good at grinding out games and providing that constant threat your opponent can never deal with. With such cheap regeneration and the potential to constantly grow, this guy will be a nightmare to deal with! Obviously the interaction with Gravecrawler is fantastic as well!

This guy isn't actually all that new, however with new cards like the aformentioned Troll, I have seen the Zombies deck get more and more aggressive! Back in the day, there was a deck called "Zoombies" and I think we're at that point again. Having a haste dude is just good for the deck to have more avenues for aggressive starts. Consider curving Gravecrawler into this guy into Dreg Mangler! That puts the opponent on 9 life on turn 3! Geralf's Messenger instead of Mangler? 10 life! I think adding in this Freak will allow more busted openings from the zombies deck and allow more blowouts to happen!

This is a card I didn't previously consider, however a couple people have asked my opinion on. I think this card will only be playable if necessary for curve reasons. Just like how Fume Spitter was just a 2-of for utility reasons, in the same way Slitherhead will be useful, but never insane. Easily cuttable, but definitely playable.

I think this card is definitely better in EDH and casual formats than it is in constructed. Unfortunately, having 4 toughness means it gets hit by Mizzium Mortars, so it's very weak. Isperia, Consecrated Sphinx you are not! And that is my supreme judgement.

Conveniently up next (it's almost like I planned this!) we have a 6 mana flying blue creature that draws you additional cards that has that essential extra toughness! I think Niv-Mizzet is absolutely insane! I think my control deck of choice is going to be 5CC with all sorts of goodies up and down the chain like the next card about to be spoiled, Thragtusk, Niv-Mizzet, and Nicol Bolas all pulled together by the insanity that is Chromatic Lantern! Niv Mizzet is insane because he can pull an Olivia Voldaren and wrath the opponent's board, but he also can swing for 5 and imitate a Scroll Theif, or he can just flat out Think Twice + value for all your mana in the pool! I can honestly see games going "Wrath you, Niv Mizzet, draw go for rest of game." Unlike old Niv Mizzet, this one has it all! Sure there's no intant-win with Curiosity, but this guy just wins anyways, so it doesn't matter!

Now this is good! When no good wrath was printed in M13, I was getting a little worried, however the verdict has come in that this card is supremely awesome! Yes, it's a little more obnoxious on the mana, but the fact that it is uncounterable is pretty sweet! Now a Delver deck can't just sit back on a counterspell and ride a Geist to victory! There's not much to say here, however it is an essential card to be aware of.

Woah. This is cool. I have dubbed this card the Vindicate of Kozelik for obvious reasons, and it certainly does a great job of impressing! This card is good in every format! In legacy and Modern, the games are faster, so the permanents are cheaper, so naturally VoK is good. Even in standard, there are so many cheap cards that this catch-all is amazing! Nice Oblivion Ring! Honestly, O-Ring was one of the cards that was best at stopping Zombies, but now that option is kinda moot.... This is also a card that I REALLY want to use a Snapcaster on! Absolute bomb here!

This is just a bad memoricide, but I wanted to point out how weird it is that we have so many spells that are uncounterable..... Between Slaughter Games, Abrupt Decay, and Supreme Verdict, it really feels like there is no point to counterspells for a while.....

Hi Cursecatcher! This card is awesome in Delver because it's a nice cheap tempo pushing threat. Nothing to get too excited about, but definitely something to remember. I can see this seeing play as a potential 4-of!

And here is our obligatory fatty that seems out of place! However this time I don't think we will be breaking Legacy or Modern (phew!). I just think this card is strange, useless, and frankly just not needed in the set. I get that we're trying to get splashy here, but an 11 mana 15/15? Now we're just getting rediculous....

And to end things today, I have a card I'm not remotely excited about! Lots of people have been talking about this card. In fact, when it was spoiled we had over 100 comments in the first hour in a magic thread I'm in on facebook. A lot of people liked her, but I'm not so convinced. The +1 simply doesn't do anything.... The -3 is the best part, but isn't worth 5 mana, and the -7 is a Captain's Call..... Maybe I'm not dreaming enough, but I just don't see it right now....

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

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack

Ravnica Spoilers at PAX!

Hello everyone!

My head just exploded! I have been at college for 2 days now, and it has been tons of fun! I even got to break out my party suit twice already, which is a green morph suit! To say the least the party went from lame to insane in about 31 seconds.

But that's not all!

.

..

...

....

RAVNICA SPOILERS!

It took me a few days to get my wifi hooked up here, so when I did I looked on facebook and learned that they were showing off some new cards at PAX and IT IS INSANE!!!!! I'm not going to waste your time with the intro. You're probably not even reading this part anymore anyways, let's just get to the cards!

Starting things off, we have the Rakdos mechanic "unleash". To say the least, this ability is aggro as piss! You can have a creature with unleash ETB with a +1/+1 counter and then have that creature unable to block. Carnival Hellsteed probably costs just a little too much to be good, but it should be solid in limited. I really like the mechanic though, and I can see a card or two possibly making its way into a BRains deck.

Chromatic Lantern is crazy! I think this card will be able to single-handedly bring back 5 Color Control as it gives you a completely perfect mana base! When comparing this to Prismatic Omen, this card is actually better because it's colorless, but it also produces its own mana and ramps!

Adding to the Charm cycle, we have the UW one, which is... alright.... Obviously the best version is to put an attacking or blocking creature on top of an opponent's deck, which is good for tempo reasons, but really isn't good for anything outside of a delver deck. This card is actually just bad for control, but I can imagine Snapcastering the Charm to keep on Submerging your opponent can be a major part of next year's standard!

Now this card has be excited! Along with Burning Vengeance and Goblin Electromancer, I think there's a potentially awesome combo deck to be built! When you have cards like desperate ravings and think twice fueling your combo, there's a lot of gas! With Burning Vengeance it was good, but inconsistent because of the overwhelming need for its namesake card. Now with Guttersnipe we have 8 effects and with Electromancer we don't lose to the high mana costs like we used to!

Now this is a charm I can get behind! Before getting into the first 2 effects, this is a 2/2 vigilance flash creature for 2 mana. That's cool! But wait, if you need a different effect at the moment, Selesnya Charm can help! A mutagenic Growth effect is actually far better than you think even in constructed! Think about how many times a certain block happens that would simply be ruined by a Giant Growth? Now consider that any GW deck can run that effect at no cost! Oh by the way, this also deals with huge bombs an opposing control player may lay down, so this is absolutely relevant regardless of the matchup!

Sorcery Terminate is a strictly worse Terminate..... What's that you say? Destroy target planeswalker? Now we're talking! This is the first card ever printed to have that text, and you can absolutely expect foil Dreadbores to be an INSANELY hot commodity! This card seems insane in BRains, but the applications go far beyond that! 5CC? Seems good. Jund? Check! Is this card playable? Check!

This card is awesome in all your graveyard shenanegry that will probably include Splinterfreight, Ghoultree, and friends. This, along with Forbidden Alchemy allow us to rapidly dig and mill through the deck picking out the cards we want/need to make the combo work. By the way, did you know that they're both instants?! This will allow some very tricky game situations to come up that will be simply awesome to see happen!

This card I feel is absolutely fantastic and under appreciated. Normally it's a Flame Slash, but then you can Overload it and turn it into a Flame Wave! Take note that this effect is completely one sided, so it actually plays more like a Bonfire of the Damned! I feel like Missium Mortars isn't seeing enough love right now, but will actually be insane!

And then there's this guy.... What a chump! Who ever thought a 4 mana jace could be playable? Well I think it goes without saying that the Architect of Thought is worse than the Mind Sculptor. Now is this new Jace on the level of a normal planeswalker? Kinda? His +1 is pretty unimpressive, however his -2 and his -8 are very good. I think if Jace sees play, it will be primarily for his fact or fiction ability. With that ability it basically reads, "draw 3 cards" because you only get the cards that are useful to your situation. I think he will definitely see play along with Tamiyo in some sort of U/x Superfriends deck, but as for what the rest of the support is, or what the second color is, must still be determined.

Now here's a card I'm actually very excited about! Why? Isn't this just a different Borderland Ranger? Well it says you can also get a gate....

Woah! You can tutor up a Dual Land! This will make mana bases so much easier now that we can tutor up the Dual of our choice! I would also like to point out that these are called Gates and the next set is called Gatecrash. Just sayin.

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

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack




















Oh wait..... I think this might be worth showing off....
















Get ready........

!!!BAM!!!

Yes, we have official confirmation that the Shock Lands are back!!!!! This is a huge step in the right direction for making Modern super easy to get into for an Eternal format, but this is also sweet in its own right! It was pretty obvious from the start that Shocklands were coming back when they printed Arbor Elf instead of Llanowar Elves and they brought back Farseek, but some people didn't want to cry wolf quite yet. I have been championing Shocks for a while and I'm glad to see them all released!

I just want to put something out there quickly for a moment: Steam Vents into Sulfur Falls.

Yeah, that works how you want it to! So now we have 3 full sets of Dual Lands between Innistrad/M13, the Gates, and the Shocks! Just saying.... (5CC!)