SoM more previews

So remember way back to my very first post on April 19th? Probably not, but that's ok, but I don't know if anyone read it. Regardless, one thing I mentioned in there was putting a Snake Umbra on Niv-Mizzet and instantly winning the game. As it turns out, there is a better way. I was hanging out at Toys N Things, and I mentioned that combo. Someone else immediatly said there's a blue enchantment for that called Curiosity. This obviosly makes the deck much better as the mana is a million times more consistant.

On a more up-to-date note, I have caught wind of 2 more Scars of Mirroden cards. The first is the Buy-a-Box promo card, which you are garunteed to get if you pre-order a box of the new set, and then the extras are given out on a first come, first serve basis from there. The supposed Buy-a-Box promo for Scars has been leaked, and it goes a little something like this:

Memoricide
3B
Sorcery
Name a non-land card. Search target player's hand, graveyard, and library for any number of cards with that name and exile them. That player shuffles his or her library.

This card is simply awesome! This is a very spikey card, so it won't see much play around the casual kitchen tables, but instead it absolutely will see play in tournaments. Thank about this card against my Polymorph deck. If my opponent plays that card and says Polymorph, I no longer have a deck. Same is true for all combo decks, like Pyromancer Ascension. Take out the Ascension, and you leave them with a very weak burn/draw deck. The only thing to note with this card is that it cannot affect cards in play, so if the Ascension has already entered the battlefield, Memoricide can not hurt it.

However, a Japanese version of a Mythic Rare, reported to be the pre-release card has gone viral (I found this on StarCityGames). It looks a little something like this:

Translated, the card reads:
Wurmcoil Engine
Artifact Creature-Wurm
deathtouch, lifelink
when [cardname] go to graveyard from play, put a 3/3 artifact wurm token with deathtouch, and(might be 'or', the pic isn't very clear) a 3/3 artifact wurm token with lifelink into play.
6/6

This is going to be a really cool card, regardless if the mystery word is an 'and' or an 'or'. A 6/6 for 6 colorless mana is perfectly fine, but then adding deathtouch and lifelink (which WotC has seemed to do frequently recently) is simply nuts. Baneslayer Angel is loved because it's a 10 point life swing every time it attacks, but the extra 1 power/toughness makes you win a race against Baneslayer straight out. This looks to be a cool card (the art is awesome) and I am really looking forward to the new set.

Some other cool things about me before I sign off: I just traded for a pair of Japanese Time Spiral Ancestral Visions. On a related note, I am going to be sprucing up my Reanimator deck a tad so that I can play it in the weekly Legacy tournaments that go on at Toys N Things. My new train of thought? Get 4x Damnation and 4x Tormod's Crypt. Previously I had no removal in the deck because I wanted to reduce my opponent's reanimation as much as possible. However, that can often lead to getting blown out by a rush of creatures. So instead I have the Damnation to clean up any problems I have been given by my opponent, and then use Tormod's Crypt to make it devastating. If I can get my hands on these cards (or maybe I just proxy it all) I will be sure to place a report on how it is turning out.

That is all for now, so have a glorious day!

Scarred by Awesomeness

I have been home from working at camp for about 5 1/2 days and have been hanging out in magic stores 3 of those days. In those 3 days I was asked by people if they could look at my binder at least a dozen times. Each time I had to say no, but I have a bag of cards I have instead. 11 of those 12 times, they didn't bother. So today I decided to get a binder and a ton of sleeves for my rares and foils. In addition to jazzing up the inside, I printed out some cool arts that have been released as wallpapers on the mothership and put them in the slots on the outside. Here are some pics:

But more important that showing off your rares, theres many things abuzz with the next set, Scars of Mirroden. We are soon closing in on its release and the time tables look a little something like this:

Today's date: August 30th
Release Date: October 1st (32 days away)
Pre-Release Event: September 24th (25 days away)
Previews start on the Mothership: September 6th (7 days away)

So in a week expect a post on september 6th at approximately 1 or 1:30 am as I exclaim in joy like a little girl over its awesomeness. But we don't need to wait 8 days to start squeling, there's already a few cards out with much to talk about!

Before we get to the scant few cards that have been released from Elspeth vs Tezzerett and From the Vault: Relics, I should mention some of the rumors that have been going around. One of the rumors is that there will be 2 factions and there will be separate booster packs for each. The factions are thought to be Phyrexia ("the dark side") and Mirroden ("the light side"). Another rumor that went around was the release of purple mana. White is a major enemy of black, red (fire) is a major enemy of blue (water), and green is left in the lonely position of neutral. No fear, purple mana is here! Purple would be the color of machines so there would be a nature vs machines battle. One train of thought with that is instead of having new basic lands and all for purple mana, it would work like snow mana from ice age block where there were basic snow lands that produced mana of its color, but also made snow mana for when it was relevent.

While I don't know anything more about purple mana, We do know more about the 2 factions theory. First, here is a picture of the booster packs that has been leaked:

There are 5 arts (as normal) but there is also no distinction between dark side and light side, so the separate booster theory is false, however, there is still merit to the theory based on the 3 released cards I mentioned earlier. Take a look at these:

So what's the big deal? We have an uncommon artifact (with an awesome ability I will get to later), A mythic rare equipment everyone has seen by now, and a fairly boring common vanilla flier. Take a look in the text box for the watermark on the back of each card. Contagian Clasp has a watermark that has been in Magic for a very long time, the symbol of Phyrexia. The other 2 cards have a symbol we don't recognize. However it is believed to be the Mirroden Pure symbol. According to MTG Salvation, every single card is supposed to be affiliated with one of these 2 factions.

Something else that has been released is a ton of new arts for SoM. I'm not going to post them all here, so here's the link to view them. Here are the arts to take note of:

Elspeth Tirel: She's back! The epic planeswalker from Shards is rumored to have gone GW (which kinda makes sense. Look at the art for Knight of the Reliquary. Also, Tezzerett is supposed to be in SoM too
 Venser, the Sojouner: Return of the creature/counterspell from Future Sight. He could be a planeswalker, but there is no evidence supporting either way
 Mox Opal: IT'S A MOX!!!!!!! Last time we saw a Mox printed (not in FTV: Relics) was back in Mirroden before it was scarred, and that was the Chrome Mox (which is insanely powerful). I bet this card is both Mythic Rare and completely insanely powerful
 Hoard Smelter-Dragon: This is the foil cover card of the GR starter deck
 Etched Champion: Clearly a reference to Etched Oracle from 5th Dawn and a possible indication of the ruturn of the sunburst mechanic

So anyways, about that new mechanic proliferate... THAT IS ABSOLUTELY NUTS! I can't wait until I get my hands on a bunch of cards with proliferate. That plus the other mechanic announced, Infect (wither + poisonous), is absolutely brutal. Notice how the card says you can also boost the number of counters on a player? Yup, poison counters is looking like a fairly legit way to win all of a sudden. Also, beyond poison counters, or even +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters on creatures, think about quest counters on Zendikar quests, level up counters on levelers, or loyalty counters on planeswalkers! There are almost counters on everything these days, and being able to add to ALL OF THEM at the same time for just 4 mana is insane!

Quest Counters - There are 7 rare quests, and only Quest for Nihil Stone has absolutely no problem gettign juiced alone (Mind Rot/Blightning = job done). Archmage Ascension is easily the best once it's activated, but it requires too many counters to work. Use Howling Mine and proliferate and you have an active quest in 3 turns. For Beastmaster and Bloodchief Ascension, proliferate will help you keep your counters racking up when your opponent has put up too strong defenses. On the contrary, if you're getting bashed, manually putting counters on Luminarch Ascension can soon relieve you of your pain with a legion of angels. One more copied spell from Pyromancer Ascension is nothing to scoff at, and manually putting counters on Quest for Ula's Temple may be necessary when you're drawing all your counterspells and contol magic. The 2 blue rare quests are the only 2 I haven't worked with yet, but thanks to proliferate, expect some sort of blue control dropping boom-booms from the sky deck in the near future

Level up counters - I already talked about the mana advantage provided by Venerated Teacher in a previous post, but this has the same merit. While it costs 1 more to have half the effect, it's still great mana advantage. Remember, you're not required to use it, so if your level up costs for the turn are less than 4 for a single level up across the board, then there's no need to use it. But when you have Zulaport Enforcer + any other leveler, you get some solid mana advantage.

Loyalty counters - Holy cow! I shouldn't have to explain to you why this is awesome. Of the 16 planeswalkers printed, using proliferate once would get them to their ultimate ability a full turn faster on 6 of them (Ajani Goldmane, both Chandra, Nicol Bolas, Sarkhan Vol, Sorin Markov). Also, Tezzeret and Garruk could already use their ultimate on their second turn of existence, except with proliferate, they will survive using it. 5 planeswalkers (Ajani Vengeant, Elspeth, Jace TMS, Liliana, Nissa) have ultimate abilities that put you in a position where it is almost impossible to lose, but they need many counters to reach that point. Proliferate can accelerate them to those insane abilities and help ensure your victory. And for the planeswalkers I didn't mention (Jace Beleran, Gideon, Sarkhan the Mad) more loyalty counters is never a bad thing. For Jace, you can use his -1 ability non stop and ensure you have huge card advantage over your opponent. For Gideon, you can either give him more life to absorb a big attack, or you could help him use his -2 ability more and completely dominate the board. And for Sarkhan, it's finally a way to give him back loyalty counters. If you play Sarkhan and don't proliferate that turn you could use his -2 ability 6 times instead of 3 or 3 times followed by the -4 instead of only once then the -4. If he is almost $20 for having no + ability and only having epic - abilities, how much better is he when you can bring him back up in loyalty?

Basically proliferate is absolutely nuts. I did a getherer search for the keyword "counter" in standard and got 175 results. I quickly skimmed through and took note of things about countering spells, so after removing those, there are 141 cards that deal with counters on permanents of some kind, which shows how simply insane proliferate can really be. And because I know paul is going to mention it, proliferate is completely broken when combined with Doubling Season.

So before I close what I'm pretty sure is my longest post of all time, I want to mention 2 cards that cou can expect to see in a future random deck idea post. The 2 cards are Juniper Order Ranger and Heartmender. In addition to being really cool, they also work great with persist creatures by making them able to persist forever. Consider those combined with Glen Elendra Archmage! I didn't play during the reign of wither and persist, so I never got to mess the abilities, but I won't go down that road right now, it's already 1am... Until next time, stay classy

Spiraling through time and rotations

Oh hey there, how you been? At last night's FNM, DJ and I decided it would be really cool to split a Time Spiral box, so we did, and today we opened 18 packs each and made 60 card decks out of them. I have been looking forward to opening Time Spiral block packs for a very long time, so I was thoroughly excited when the time came. I opened some really cool cards including:

Lotus Bloom (foil!)
Chronosavant
Curse of the Cabal
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
Evangelize
Fungus Sliver
Gauntlet of Power
Gemstone Cavern
Ith, High Arcanist
Moonlance
Norin the Wary
Nether Traitor
Restore Balance
Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII
Stuffy Doll
Sudden Spoiling
Swarmyard
Thelon of Havenwood
Walk the Aeons

While I don't remember all of them, DJ also opened some really cool cards, including:
Deep-Sea Kraken
Hypergenesis
Magus of the Scroll
Opal Guardian
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Sedge Sliver
Spectral Force
Wheel of Fate

I wound up making 2 decks. The first I made was a BG fungus token deck. The second was a UW deck with a small flanking sub-theme. DJ made a 5 color sliver deck. After a couple plays of each, we discovered there wasn't enough mana consistancy despite many storage lands to make it work, and my decks wound up winning. DJ then switched to his Veggie Zoo deck and proceded to crush me twice.

After that I went back home and started organizing and fixing my cards and decks. I have ultimately decided I am going to get a binder for my cards... tomorrow. As I was finishing up touching up my decks, I put them in 2 groups depending on whether they were standard legal or not. All of a sudden it hit me; Scars of Mirroden is being released in a month and 3 days, so there will be a lot of cards rotating out of standard. One of the most important things that is rotating out is the triple option lands. Without thee it is much harder to play 3 color decks. A 3 color deck of mine is Bant Allies. I decided to work on making it a 2 color deck, but the question is do I want WG or UW? White is simply required for an allies deck because it has the only 1 mana ally, the only instant speed spell specially for allies, and aruably the best ally for its mana cost in Kazandu Blademaster.

Green has 7 allies:
Graypelt Hunter - a good creature, trample is very helpful
Harabaz Druid - a solid enabler and mana fixer
Joraga Bard - frankly useless
Oran-Rief Survivalist - a simple efficient creature
Tajaru Archer - Doesn't do too much
Turntimber Ranger - Obviously the best of the green allies, it provides an instant army
Vastwood Animist - Don't be fooled, this guy isn't as good as you initially think

Blue has 5 allies:
Halimar Excavator - This guy is actually incredibly powerful, acts as a wall and another way to win
Jwari Shapeshifter - Another copy of any of my best allies? Thanks
Sea Gate Loremaster - Nothing like a free Ancestral Recall or more every turn
Seascape Aerialist - Too weak and overcosted
Umara Raptor - Suprisingly powerful, most aggresive blue ally

Both blue and green have 4 good allies, but I feel the blue ones are better than the green ones. The card of advantage provided by Sea Gate Loremaster can win you the game all by itself. Also with blue, we gain access to control magic that can enable our allies aggressiveness. With that in mind, here is my initial UW decklist:

4x Hada Freeblade
4x Halimar Excavator
3x Jwari Shapeshifter
4x Kabira Evangel
4x Kazandu Blademaster
4x Ondu Cleric
3x Sea Gate Loremaster
4x Talus Paladin
4x Umara Raptor
4x Mana Leak

2x Evolving Wilds
4x Glacial Fortress
9x Plains
7x Island

This is an incredibly inexpensive deck that comes out to just over $50, $30 after removing the 4x Glacial Fortress

I guess I was in the UW mode because I made another UW deck with only cards that won't rotate out of standard. This was more of a control deck starting with abusing the combination of Sun Titan and Jace Beleran. Here's the decklist:

3x Sun Titan
2x Frost Titan
4x Jace Beleran
4x Wall of Omens
4x Everflowing Chalice
4x Mana Leak
3x Cancel
3x Jace's Inginuity
2x Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
2x Baneslayer Angel
2x Negate

4x Celestial Connelade
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Sejiri Refuge
8x Island
6x Plains

Obviously Baneslayer Angel isn't a budget card, but I recently acquired 2, so I figured why not add them? The list I adopted this from didn't play Baneslayer because it costs too much, so it works fine to go without.

I randomly looked at how many non basic lands there are in standard right now, and it is a staggering 59! They break out a little something like this:

Shards of Alara: 10 (Panorama Cycle, Shard Option Cycle)
Conflux: 5 (Various)
Alara Reborn: 0
Zendikar: 20 (Common ETB Lands, Refuge Cycle, Rare Cycle, Fetch Lands)
Worldwake: 14 (Common ETB Lands, Man Lands, Various)
Rise of the Eldrazi: 2 (Evolving Wilds, Eldrazi Temple)
M10/M11: 6 (Option Land Cycle, Terramorphic Expanse)
M10: 1 (Gargoyle Castle)
M11: 1 (Mystifying Maze)

Anyways, I am going to post this before it hits midnight for once, so have a good night

FNM at TJ's

11 hours ago, I was leaving for WPI to hang out with some people and play in the FNM there. The nearest store was having a draft, and we all wanted to play constructed, so we went to a slightly further, but completely insanely awesome, store: TJ's Collectables in Milford. 5 of us (Me, Defo, DJ, Mark, and a new member to the team Adam) went there for the FNM. I was playing my new Primeval Ramp deck, Defo had mono-green elves, DJ had Veggie Zoo, Mark had UW control, and Adam had Simic Polymorph. By the end, our results were:

Mark 3-1
Adam 2-2 or 1-3 (I forget)
DJ 1-2-1
Me 1-3
Defo 1-3

My games went as the following:

Match 1 vs Mark (UW Control)
How lucky? I get paired up against my arch enemy in round one. I believe he took game one, then I took game 2, and in a close game Mark took game 3. I thought it was a fine matchup for me, but when I got 12 plants with Avenger of Zendikar followed by 2 lands, making them all 2/3s, getting hit by Day of Judgement really hurts...

Match 2 vs Mono-Green
I don't think this guy I played against was very serious at magic at all. I basically walked right over him in 2 very quick games. No real threats came both games, and I essentially auto-piloted the whole thing. After nearly getting timed out against Mark, having 35 minutes left in a 50 minute round was very weird. I wound up just watching everyone else play their games for a little bit.

Match 3 vs Mythic Conscription
This was a tough game. First, the guy I was playing was a stickler for the rules and everything had to be done right and in proper order (Played a land, then cultivate. When I went to put 2 counters on Khalni Heart Expedition, he said I only get one because I forgot for my land drop. I said I was aware of the trigger and was just making my plays first. He still said no. Thankfully I didn't lose tempo thanks to a top-decked Harrow). Second, Mythic Concription is a scary deck! Out of nowhere, I would get hit by a 12/13 trampling flying Birds of Paradise. Due to that I was a little more edgy than I should have. I made one bad play mistake game 2 when I had 8 lands, and he had 2 lands untapped. I paid 6 for Primeval Titan, and he simply Mana Leaked it. I could have easily avoided that and won game 2, which would have made me win 2-0, but instead I had nothing else and lost 1-2.

Match 4 vs Mono Green
More Mono Green? Unfortunately this guy didn't suck and instead he had a very fast very aggressive mono green deck. He said he doesn't even run Beastmaster Ascension because he wins before it's enabled. With many Garruks and Overwhelming Stampedes, he very quickly got the job done. I didn't even win a single game because both times he got a ton of mana fast and killed me before I could get stuff activated.
After that game, we switched decks and kept on playing. It was evidant that the matchup was clearly in the Mono Green favor because it still kept on winning.

Overall, I had a great time! Here's some notes I have on the deck and hot it played:
-I never boarded in Ulamog, I couldn't think of a deck that I would want him in against
-I really wish I had Pyroclasm in my sideboard and not Lightning Bolt. I get enough Lightning Bolt action from my Valakuts going crazy, and the actual Lightning Bolts have very narrow uses. Pyroclasm would have strait out won me the game during Match 4 when I was facing down a huge army of small 1/2 toughness creatures. Instead I was forced to play Destructive Force, but he played a land and recouperated with mana-making elves
-Mold Shambler is amazing! I think I may move it main deck because it is very versitile. Aside from Vengivine Naya, all decks play with intense enchantments or planeswalkers (and some Naya play Garruk)
-Destructive Force is insane, but I may cut it. It really hurts my dekc in addition to theirs. Removing that will clear up space to put in the Mold Shamblers, and a 28th land
-Fog could have saved my life many times when the alpha strike came barreling my way, so maybe by removing Destrucive Force and Ulamog, I can sideboard in Fog
-Another card for sideboard is Summoning Trap, getting Primeval Titan countered is really painful!

Anyways, it's closing in on 2am, so I need to get some rest. Maybe I will post an update later today on how the decks are, and I will give a report on the Time Spiral box DJ and I are splitting :) Time Spiral is a sick set, and I am pumped to crack some packs!

Bold Predictions Gone Right

After coming back from the summer, I heard about 3 decks that have become very powerful pro-level decks. All 3 I had thought about and conceptualized before they exploded in popularity. The 3 decks? Life Gain (called Soul Sisters by Conley Woods), Pyromancer Ascension, and Primeval Pinnacle.

The life gain I was originally working on was WB to utilize lifelinking vampires and Sanguine Bond. In addition to Sanguine Bond, I used Felidar Sovereign as a win condition. The Soul Sisters list is fairly similar, but Serra Ascendant is a simply amazing addition from M11. Here's My decklist

The pyromancer ascension deck I have is different from the pro-tour list because I run Kiln Fiend and Surrakur Spellblade. Here is my decklist

The Primeval Pinnacle deck was one I first found on Channel Fireball back when Worldwake was just released. Obviously Primeval Titan wasn't released yet,but the deck was still very powerful. That later became the RUG deck that did insanely well on the pro tour that was Zendikar Block constructed. I don't play RUG because I don't want to buy 4x Jace TMS. The deck hasn't changed much, just became more popular. Here is my decklist

I have had the pyromancer ascension deck for a while, and have already written about it in this blog. I just finished putting together the other 2 decks recently, so I recorded a game of Lifegain vs Primeval Pinnacle.

Lifegain won the roll and kept an opening hand of 7 consisting of:
Kabira Crossroads
2x Plains
Soul's Attendant
Soul Warden
Ajani Goldmane
Baneslayer Angel

Titan also kept an opening hand of 7 consisting of:
Valakut, the Molten Pinnicle
Terramorphic Expanse
Mountain
Harrow
Cultivate
Primeval Titan
Comet Storm

Turn 1:
Life went first playing a Plains followed by Soul's Attendant.
Titan (D - Mountain) played a Terramorphic Expanse that fetched a forest.
20 - 20

Turn 2:
Life (D - Serra Ascendant) played Kabira Crossroads and then Soul Warden, and attacked with the Soul's Attendant [Looking back, the better play was plains, Soul Warden, Serra Ascendant, then attack]
Titan (D - Valakut) played Valakut and then passed
23 - 19

Turn 3:
Life (D - Survival Cache) played a plains, then the Survival Cache, which drew another Survival Cache, and then attacked for 2.
Titan (D - Explore) played a Mountain followed by Harrow, sacrificing a forest to find a forest and a mountain. Then, with those 2 lands I played Explore (D - Mountain) and played a second Valakut
25 - 17

Turn 4:
Life had Survival Cache rebound (D - Plains, War Priest of Thune), then played a plains followed by Serra Ascendant and another Survival Cache (D - Plains), and attacked for another 2.
Titan (D - Khalni Heart Expedition) played a mountain followed by Cultivate, which put a Forest into play and a Mountain in hand.
31 - 15

Turn 5:
Life had Survival Cache rebound (D - Baneslayer Angel, Plains) and played a plains and Baneslayer, then attacked for 8, gaining 6 off lifelink
Titan (D - Harrow) started the turn by playing Khalni Heart Expedition and then a mountain. Harrow, sacrificing a forest, fetched 2 mountains which started the insane activations of Valakut. Each Mountain played because 2 free lightning bolts. The 12 damage was split 6&6 to kill the Baneslayer and the Serra Ascendant. Then the Khalni Heard Expedition was sacrificed for a forest and a mountain. The mountain created 2 lightning bolts killing the Soul Sisters.
41 - 7

Turn 6:
Life (D - Plains) played the plains, and then played Soul Warden followed by Baneslayer.
Titan (D - Oracle of Mul Daya) played a Mountain, which killed the Baneslayer, and then Primeval Titan, fetching the last 2 copies of Valakut, the Molten Pinnicle. [There are only 4 more mountains in the deck, and with the opponent at 43 life, we need to make sure each mountain does as much damage as possible. The current board position is stable enough at the moment to allow for preparation]
43 - 7

Turn 7:
Life (D - Sunspring Expedition) played War Priest of Thune and Ajani Goldmane, and then used Ajani's +1 ability.
Titan (D - Destructive Force) tapped out for Comet Storm, dealing 9 damage each to both enemy creatures, Ajani, and the opponent's life total. Then, I attacked with the Primeval Titan, fetching a pair of Mountains, each of them doing 12 damage to the face.
7-7

Turn 8:
Life drew a Soul Warden and conceded.

I think this was a really cool game that exemplified the power of both of these decks. I think if I didn't make the play mistake for the Life deck on turn 2, things could have ended very differently , because there would have been more pressure on the Primeval player. I look forward to playing Primeval Force at tonight's (TONIGHT!!) fnm.

Hello Again World

Wow, it has been a while since I have updated this blog due to my working at Boy Scout Summer Camp, but fear not for I am back!

Up in the land I love so well there was a ton of Magic to be had. In fact, it was because of working there last year that I even got back into Magic because a dozen or so people played. However, I became a million times better over the course of this last school year and it reflected in the games all summer.

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in winning your game of Magic instead of simply having fun. At camp, Magic is all about having a good time and relieving stress/pent up rage in a can. Decks weren't made of 4x Baneslayer and other $50 cards, instead it was whatever you opened up in your booster packs. The only valuable cards I saw there were 1x Gideon Jura (opened by a guy just getting into it from the ROE pack in a Deckbuilder's Toolkit) and 2x Kozelik, Butcher of Truth (1 I traded for, the other was owned by a guy who almost didn't play all summer). That being said, the games were all alot cooler because there were less blowouts.

Now that I am back though, I look at the 3 decks I wasn't finished building when I left: Titan Force, Lifegain, and Mill Kill. I am leaving one of my bragging points for a short time *gasp*, and I intent to get some more expensive cards in the form of Primeval Titan ($50), Baneslayer Angel ($30), and Elspeth, Knight Errant ($40).

Well actually I'm not buying the Titan. I backdrafted one after a draft with the local friends, and then in another draft I backdrafted some Fauna Shamans. The fauna shamans got traded with a little cash for a pair of Primeval Titans, and now my friend Mark has the 4th one on hand for trading when we get together again.

Anyways, I don't have much more to talk about except to say, "Hey I'm back!"

The Real Last Post

And back, despite poopular demand, it's me! I said I would be gone for the summer, but I had to come home for a day, so I hopped on the computer to do a short review of what I think of Magic 2011 so far, so that's what I will do. My source for what the cards are is MTG Salvation (http://mtgsalvation.com/m11-magic-2011-spoiler.html). I won't explain what the cards do here, but will instead expect that you read them yourself. Also, most of these cards are commons and uncommons, so they will have a larger effect on limited play instead of constructed

White

Ajani's Mantra - This card by itself isn't very exciting at all, however, it does synergise well with the next card

Ajani's Pridemate - This card is sick! As a 2/2 for 2, it should be included as filler for any of your white draft decks anyways, but because it has the capability to grow, it is only better. In constructed, this card synergizes amazingly with Ajani himself. +1, I gain 2 life, put on a free +1/+1 counter, and keep on rolling. Obviously this card works great with the mantra

Armored Ascension (reprint) - I only once saw this card do good things, and I expect it will stay that way. Auras provide card disadvantage, so it's not worth it

Assault Griffin - It's a white Snapping Drake. Fine for limited filler, but that's it.

Baneslayer Angel (reprint) - This is the card many are excited about. After shelling out $200 for a playset, many are relieved it's still relevent for another year. The standalone best creature in standard is coming to a booster near you (now you just need to find that booster)

Cloud Crusader - Not very exciting, but it is certainly playable. In core set limited especially, it could be great on defense for you

Condemn (reprint) - It's similar to Swords to Plowshares. I think this could see some play in constructed, it will be this or Oust because Path to Exile is gone

Elite Vanguard (reprint) - White Weenies only, the only problem is that White Weenies is a pretty weak deck.

Excommunicate (reprint) - I have never seen this card cast, but it's basically an unsummon that prevents your opponent from drawing a card, which is pretty good

Goldenglow Moth (reprint) - Paul really liked this card for the longest time, and yes if it get's some buffs, it is absolutely ridiculous

Holy Strength (reprint) - has never been exciting, and it will continue to not be

Infantry Veteran (reprint) - It's like an offensive only verison of Angelic Page, which makes it kind of a pinger. I don't think it will really see play, because it's simply a very narrow pinger

Mighty Leap - Cool combat trick, like the defensive Giant Growth. I think it could see play for that reason, it also gives evasion, which makes it more viable for attacks as well

Pacifism (reprint) - I really like this card, although it still permits abilities. Otherwise, it's very effective removal on the huge beater

Safe Passage (reprint) - Overpriced Holy Day, although is a lot more effective by still allowing you to remove their stuff

Serra Angel (reprint) - Has been around since Alpha, has always been decent, but especially with Baneslayer, it will never see play

Silvercoat Lion (reprint) - very vanilla - coresety, nothing cool to say

Solemn Offering (reprint) - I think enchantment removal is becoming more pertinant, although everyone is focused more on creatures and planeswalkers for now

Sun Titan - I am insanely excited about this card! I hope to get many and make an awesome deck out of it. This card will appear again as a combo piece (with a green card)

Tireless Missionaries - power/toughness is too low, but still, this can be the last random card to fill your draft deck

Wild Griffin (reprint) - another boring vanilla creature that will never see constructed play, but is decent in limited

Blue

AEther Adept - I actually like this creature. Similar to Surrakar Banisher from Worldwake, except that I think this is better pound for pound. It comes down 2 turns earlier, which can make the difference between living and dying, and it's still a meh body at 2/2. If i'm playing blue, this guy is in

Air Servant - Seems like this guy would go great with Merfolk Seastalkers, but I think the Merfolk's Ability is better than this guy's

Augury Owl - This card is awesome! The easiest card to compare this to is Sage Owl, and this card blows it out of the water! "But wait, you see one less card!" Guess what? Let's say your in the topdeck war and you get this guy. You play is and see land-land-land. You can pitch those all to the bottom of your library and effectively draw 3 cards because of it (saves you 3 draw steps). If you have land-land-bomb, you can pitch the lands, leave the bomb on top, and still have decent draws afterwards

Azure Drake (reprint) - This card is your vanilla limited filler

Cloud Elemental (reprint) - Almost the exact same ase the Drake, except it's a lot more aggressive. I would take this over the drake if they were side-by-side

Dimisnish - Similar to, although not as good as, Snakeform, this is insanely powerful. They attack with a Baneslayer Angel and all you have is your Cloud Elemental untapped. All of a sudden, they lose the best creature in the game and only gain 1 life for their efforts

Foresee (reprint) - I like this card as well, but for the same reason I like the Augury Owl, scry is a very powerful mechanic. for one mana more than divination, you get a card a million times better. Even if you want to keep all 4 cards, you get to pick the order you get them. And, as you pitch a card, you save yourself an entire draw step from being dead

Harbor Serpant - I can see this card doing well with Spreading Seas. You can play a 2 color deck with a set of Spreading Seas and still make this guy a pretty good beater. Previously with a card like this that would never be feasable. YEAH SYNERGY!

Jace's Erasure - I mentioned in a previous blog post that I am not a fan of milling as a deck strategy, but just like Ajani's 2 cards, this gets better with it's uncommon counterpart

Jace's Ingenuity - An instant speed Mind Spring for 3. I think this is a really powerful card that helps the rest of the deck get better

Mind Control (reprint) - This has always been a fine card, and will continue to be. (Works great on Baneslayers)

Negate (reprint) - Very powerful card as some of the most game-breaking spells are not creatures, this card is always in demand

Preordain - This is half of Foresee for a quarter of the cost. I think this card may replace Ponder, but it is very powerful nonetheless. I am still thinking about which is more powerful, and I think Preordain may take the cake

Sleep (reprint) - If this was an instant it would be insane, but as a sorcery, it's just a really weird fog

Tome Scour (reprint) - I am not a fan of mill, and that's all this card does

Unsummon (reprint) - Great utility removal for blue, will see some limited play

Wall of Frost (reprint) - If you have never played against this card, it is insanely annoying! Sometimes you can attack with a large group to get as many attackers through as possible, but this card can block a creature, which prevents damage the next turn from it, and then block another creature next turn to do a ton of 2-for-1 stuff

Water Servant - Pseudo Morphling is pretty interesting. The great thing about this guy is he can play offense and defense really well by being able to be any size from 6/1 to 0/7 as long as you have the mana

Black

Barony Vampire - A vanilla creature that is only made better by its tribe

Blood Tithe - I like this card if you want to make a great multi-player deck. Even in one-on-one though, it still does the job in a pinch

Captivating Vampire - For the 3 months that M10 and M11 are legal in standard together, this and Vampire Nocturnus are going to make Vampires really good. Even post rotation, this guy is still nice by lowering the curve, giving a consistant boost, and even being able to take control of the game in the later portions

Child of the Night (reprint) - Not very exciting, but it follows the vampire flavor It's interesting to note that the 4 black cards so far are all vampiric

Corrupt (reprint) - Tendrils of Corruption for 2 more mana and can target players. I think Tendrils is much better, so I'm a little dissapointed. Regardless, this card could still do fine in a mono-black deck

Diabolic Tutor (reprint) - never really useful, except I use it in my Reanimator deck to help me find my living deaths. Aside from that I have never seen it used

Doom Blade (reprint) - excellent removal, very powerful in all formats. Will see lots of play. If your drafting black, take this card high

Gravedigger (reprint) - I have consistantly found this card to be pretty powerful, especially in limited where you only have 1 copy of that epic creature that just got killed

Liliana's Caress - Megrim, except strictly better. It costs 1 less mana and your opponent can't use damage prevention stuff on it

Liliana's Specter - Not too exciting, but helps work the Caress. A 2/1 flying for 3 is fine by itself, and the added discard a card helps gain some card advantage

Mind Rot (reprint) - a standard discard card that is often very devastating. Provides card advantage by itself, and in many games can be a complete blowout (your opponent had 2 cards in hand, now they have 0 to your 2 or 3. They have to top deck everything, you have lots of options)

Nether Horror - This is a pretty bad card. A 4 drop that can get beat by a one drop and most 2 drops. Pass on this guy, he's Horror(able)

Nightwing Shade - Finally a shade that has flying! This guy is pretty sweet, and in some ways 1B: +2/+2 is better than B: +1/+1. Even though you have to work in packs of 2, it makes the card more playable when you have 2 colors

Reassembling Skeleton - This is how they are replacing Drudge Skeletons and I like it. You can tap out for a big spell, still block, and still retain your creature

Rise From The Grave (reprint) - A great card to use right after a Doom Blade. Nothing is worse than killed by your own zombified creature

Stabbing Pain - very powerful card that I really like. It's a combat trick, it's atter preventation, it's removal, it does it all

Unholy Strength (reprint) - like it's holy counterpart, this card isn't too exciting, and I will not play it

Red

Act of Treason (reprint) - can be a very game changing card, really good for a very aggressive deck

Ancient Hellkite - Really powerful, if you can ever get it into play. At 7 mana with RRR, that's not very likely to happen. If you're playing mono-red, they should be dead by the time this guy can come out

Arc Runner - Only good when they have no defense. Without trample, this guy becomes nearly unplayable

Chandra's Outrage - This is really good. Similar to Searing Blaze, but less conditional and capable of taking out Wall of Omens

Chandra's Spitfire - This card really makes you want to play a burn deck. Similar to, but I feel less powerful than, Kiln Fiend. The flying is a nice bonus though

Ember Hauler - This card can actually be pretty good. You could attack for 2 damage and then do a bonus 2 to finish off your opponent, or any number of things. Think of it as a 2/2 for 2 that can transform into Shock at any moment

Fiery Hellhound (reprint) - The only problem with this guy is that his toughness doesn't get a boost. A bear could step in it's way and stop all your firbreathing shenanegans

Fiery Servant - This is another card that really makesyou want to play red burn. This guy + Chandra's Spitfire + Kiln Fiend as your only creatures, then have your other spells be Lightning Bolt, Searing Blaze, Burst Lightning, and other things of the variety and you have a Standard burn deck that could be pretty decent. Keep in mind he costs 3RR, which is way above the curve for burn

Fireball (reprint) - this never really excited me, and it still doesn't. It can do small stuff effectively, but as the game goes on, the more it becomes obselete

Fling (reprint) - I am really excited for this card!. Like Soul's Fire, this can make you win out of nowhere. Your opponent may take some damage and leave themselves with a 3-5 like coushin. Cast fling and sac your beater. Game over. Creature blocked by a wall, fling it at a creature you need to get rid of, it wasn't dealing damage anyways

Goblin Balloon Brigade (reprint) - Not great at all, not worth spending time talking about

Goblin Piker (reprint) - Filler material only

Goblin Tunneler (reprint) - Printing this guy 2x in 4 months? He was never played in Eldrazi limited, and will see even less play in M11

Lava Axe (reprint) - This isn't actually too bad. It follows the red theme of insane amounts of burn

Lightning Bolt (reprint) - yay! Lightning Bolt is sick! I would 1st pick this card if I had to, and I would be very happy. After Terminate rotates out, this will see a ton of tournament play once again

Prodigal Pyromancer (reprint) - Pingers are awesome! In the Shards of Alara draft I had a pair of pingers that were always relevant. Many limited creatures have 1 toughness, and this guy om nom noms on all of them

Shiv's Embrace (reprint) - Not too exciting, as enchantments are always held back by the thoughts of the card disadvantage they provide. Card disadvantage aside, it's not too exciting for 4 mana

Volcanic Strength - another enchantment that will not get played. This could potentially be sideboard material though, as it hoses red

Vulshok Berserker (reprint) - It's like Bloodbraid without the green mana and the broken cascade mechanic. Still hoses planeswalkers and like most haste creatures, does a good job scaring your opponent

Green

Awakener Druid (reprint) - think of it as a 4/5 for 3, not a 1/1 with a buddy. Killing the 1/1 kills the 4/5. so just get in there with the 4/5 until absolutely necessary. Great fun card

Birds of Paradise (reprint) - this cars has been in every core set except 9th, where it was in Ravnica instead. Great card seeing a lot of play in Mythic right now

Cultivate - I really like this card. It's Kodama's Reach in a non-arcane version. Lots of ramping and fixing without any land sacrificing, all awesome stuff. This is great in limited, ensureing you're never mana skrewed

Fog (reprint) - a nice utility card that comes in handy very frequently when you don't want your stuff to die

Garruk's Companion - I really really like this creature. He puts on the pressure fast and puts your opponent in a tough position often before they get a second land into play. May also see some constructed play in fast green decks (Beastmaster?)

Garruk's Packleader - I really like this as well. Provides green with nice card advantage. I really want to combo this with the Sun Titan to attack with the 6/6 vigilance to get a free creature in play and card in hand (play creature you just drew to draw some more?)

Giant Growth (reprint) - One of only 2 cards to be in every core set. This was part of a cycle of 3-for-1 in Alpha (Healing Salve, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, Giant Growth) and this has been the most fair of them all (Healing Salve is just bad... Dark Ritual and Ancestral Recall are comepletely broken, Lightning Bolt is back)

Giant Spider (reprint) - The other card that has survived since day 1. It's interesting that the 2 cards to have survived both start with Giant... They sure do have a giant history. Just an unexciting blocker

Greater Basilisk - Very nice defender and attacker. Deathtouch is one of those abilities that gets other creatures out of the way nice and fast. Could even be a finisher, but will probably just help accelerate you to the end game

Llanowar Elves (reprint) - In M10 draft, my favorite colors were Green and Red because of Llanowar Elves, Elvish Visionary, and Lightning Bolt. Llanowar and Bolt are back, and we don't know about the Visionary. Regardless, this guy is really awesome. t1 - forest, Llanowar. t2 - forest, Cultivate. t3 - 5 mana

Naturalize (reprint) - a utility card that will always be around

Plummet - this is very powerful. Green now has an answer to all it's worst problems. Leaf Arrow was odd, but this is like a green Doom Blade. Bye bye Baneslayer!

Prized Unicorn (reprint) - A great card for punching lots of damage in one big attack. Great in an overwhelming creature deck

Sacred Wolf - I like the troll-shroud, but the 1 toughness makes it too vulnerable. Almost anything can kill it now

Sylvan Ranger - Like Borderland Ranger except 1 mana easier and -1/-1. Because it doesn't put it into play, I think this is worse then Borderland Ranger because neither actually accelerate, and the 2/2 is more relevant later on in the game as opposed to 1/1

Wall of Vines - Decent card. Can certainly hold back the enemy until turn 5 or so. Good card to fill in as a final slot

Yavimaya Wurm (reprint) - It's a Craw Wurm with trample! It's like Craw Wurn except it doesn't get intimidated by the little 1/1 dude who blocks it

Artifact

Sorcerer's Strongbox - Not exciting at all. Flip a coin stuff is just annoying, and 6 mana to draw 3 cards is frustrating as well, especially when you have Jace's Ingenuity at your disposal. Will never see constructed play, very rarely will it make limited play (if it does, you know their deck is bad)


That was exhausting! Only half the set has been spoiled so far, and official spoilers start next week, so be sre to stay tuned. I will be at camp, so I won't be able to. I think I'm going to grab a box of M11 ASAP and host a draft at camp.

One More thing. There's rumors of Ranger of Eos being printed in M11. If he is, that's epic! That would go great in the conceptual WG Card Advantage deck with Sun Titan and Garruk's Packleader.

Quick touch on the news ~~~~~~~~
New Premium Deck Series : Fire & Lightning. You're paying $35 or more for an all foil, gets beat up easily, burn deck. Not worth it at all, im not going for this.

Change in Extended. Extended used to be the past 7 years, now it's the past 4. They also banned a pair of cards which leaves no top-notch decks legal. I think this will just turn out to be standard all over again, but only more powerful. Fairies, Jund, 5 Color Control, and WU Control will probably be some of the big decks there. I am not too excited for it.

Well, now for real I am gone. Peace out!