RIGHT PLACE MTG

UPDATE OF STANDARD

2011-03-12T12:46:00.004-06:00

Well, hello again my friends! I decided to take some time and give you an update of a deck I have been working on for a few months now and how it has evolved. If you go back a few articles you may see a GW deck that I was raving about. I still love the deck and have spent lots of time updating it and tweaking it.

Here is one of the Key Cards shown above.

The last two FNM's have resulted in a 4-0-2 record and then a 5-0 record. Not the ideal undefeated streak i would like (2 draws) but undefeated none the less. I noticed that the changes to the maindeck and sideboard have really helped me out.

I will give you a rundown of Last nights FNM from memory.

Round 1 - BWG Vat Allies

Game 1 I had a difficult time because of a slow draw and also 3 discard spells from him. Luckily the 3rd discard spell was a horrifying revelation which netted me a Vengevine in the yard. (1:12 odds) After that I was able to outrace him thanks to a kicked Kor Sanctifiers on the Mimic Vat.

Game 2 I just flat out raced him and was able to overrun him quickly with various creatures including a Thrun.

Games 2-0 (2-0 Total)

Matches 1-0

Round 2 - GW Homebrew (Anti Day)

This deck is made with mana ramp and huge threats such as Baneslayer, Wurmcoil Engine, Mitotic Slime etc.

Game 1 He had to mul to 5 and never got it going. I just had to outrace him and play a Vengevine or two before he got it going.

Game 2 He had to mul again to 6 and I was able to do the same thing. He played a Baneslayer but I top decked a Journey just in time to swing for lethal.

Games 2-0 (4-0 Total)
Matches 2-0

Round 3 - Mono White Knights

Game 1 He got stuck on two mana and was only able to play 2 creatures and an Honor of the Pure. I was able to blow up the Honor with a kicked Kor Sanctifiers and just ran him over with a few creatures.

Game 2 My opponent had a much better start, he actually got me down to about 7 life. We went back and forth until I got 3 Vengevines on the field and was able to sneak in damage through his indestructible army. I forced him to chump block with his Knight Exemplar then got him down to 2. The next turn he played DOJ but I had a Stirring Wildwood to finish the job.

Games 2-0 (6-0 Total)
Matches 3-0

Round 4 - Caw Go w/Venser

Game 1 I started off the game with a couple squadron hawks and double Journeyed two of his hawks just after blowing up a fresh Tumble Magnet. I then had to spend lots of time fighting through 2 Vensers and 2 Jace's. Thrun got home after dealing with the planeswalkers. (Thrun was an All-Star)

Game 2 Had a similar start. Was able to keep him off of 5 mana for a couple turns with a timely Tec edge and playing a threat thanks to Lotus Cobra. I got Fauna shaman going just in time to get a couple vengevines in the yard and attacking a few turns later.

Games 2-0 (8-0- Total)
Matches 4-0

Round 5 - Caw Go w/Venser (Again)

Game 1 I had to mul to 6 but was able to get a good start with Lotus Cobra, It then went back and forth for a while until I got Thrun on board with regen mana up thanks to a fetch land (missed 3 land drops prior). I had a couple other threats so he had to Day to extend the game but I had the mana to regen Thrun. I was able to ride Thrun to victory.

Game 2 We went back and forth for a while, but he ultimately had way too many removal spells for me to deal with. 2x DOJ 2x condemn (vengevine & baneslayer) 3x journey (hawk, cobra, Fauna Shaman) he stalled until he was able to go ultimate with Jace.

Game 3 This game almost went to time. It would have been a much easier game if i would have triple Tec edged him on turn 7 instead of just hitting 2 of his four lands at his EOT turn 6. I was able to get lots of Vengevines out thanks to a fauna shaman that actually stayed alive for a few turns. after he chumped with all of his hawks I was finally able to get through with just 1 turn left.

Games 2-1 (9-1 Total)
Matches 5-0

Well i wound up with 1st place and a little product, but I really enjoyed myself and had a fun time playing with my updates. The weird part was that I never drew a Garruk, which was one of the changes I wanted to try out.

Here is the Updated list

CREATURES (27)

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Vengevine
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Lotus Cobra
2x Kor Skyfisher
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Acidic Slime
1x Kor Sanctifiers
2x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Thrun, The Last Troll

PLANESWALKERS (2)

2x Garruk, The Wildspeaker

SPELLS (7)

2x Day of Judgement
3x Journey to Nowhere
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Basilisk Collar

LANDS (24)

3x Sunpetal Grove
4x Stirring Wildwood
2x Razorverge Thicket
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Marsh Flats
3x Tectonic Edge
4x Forest
3x Plains

I didn't feel like posting the sideboard yet but if you are interested, just let me know and I will post it. Again, thanks for reading and wish me luck in the future. I'm trying to ramp up and see if I can make a splash in the upcoming GP.

PTQ Update

2011-02-21T15:51:00.003-06:00

Well, well, well,

I had a very difficult time in my most recent PTQ. I had a big time roller coaster ride and it was not a fun one. I started the PTQ 0-2 and almost dropped out of the tournament but decided I had to get some points back and still felt like I had a solid deck, just bad draws. I eventually clawed myself back with going 4-0 in the middle of the tournament. I felt very comfortable that I had a shot at some packs, I just had to win one more match. i proceeded to go 0-2 to finish a disappointing day. Here is a quick breakdown on the matches I had.

Rnd 1 GW Trap - Lost
Rnd 2 5 Color Control - Lost
Rnd 3 Jund - Won
Rnd 4 Jund - Won
Rnd 5 Naya - Won
Rnd 6 Jund - Won
Rnd 7 Faeries - Lost
Rnd 8 Elves (mono) - Lost

Just in case you did not read any of the previous articles, I was playing Doran. Honestly, even with a 4-4 record (not good) I would probably still play it again if I had a chance. I never felt like I was completely outmatched, but I did feel like I had some unlucky draws. If I were to play the same deck again I think I would only make 2 changes, one main deck and one sideboard.

Here was the list.

CREATURES (22)

3x Birds of Paradise
3x Treefolk Harbinger
1x Stoneforge Mystic
3x Putrid Leech
2x Quasali Pridemate
2x Kitchen Finks
3x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Doran, The Siege Tower
1x Thrun, The Last Troll

SPELLS (15)

2x Path to Exile
3x Thoughtseize
2x Duress
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Behemoth Sledge
3x Maelstrom Pulse

LANDS (25)

4x Forest
2x Swamp
2x Plains
3x Stirring Wildwood
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Marsh Flats
3x Misty Rainforest
4x Murmuring Bosk
1x Sejiri Steppe

SIDEBOARD (15)

1x Bojuka Bog
2x Deathmark
2x Path to Exile
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Nature's Claim
3x Great sable Stag
3x Infest

As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed playing the deck and would have made only a couple changes.

Main Deck
-1 Quasali Pridemate
+1 Green Sun's Zenith

Green Sun's Zenith was sooooo good for me, I was never disappointed to draw it at any point in the game, be it late or early. It was always extremely useful since it fetches everything in my deck except for the mystic.

Sidebord
-1 Bojuka Bog
+1 Deathmark

Deathmark could be go for the throat all the same, but when I sided them in they won me several games, and could have won me more if I would have had extra to draw. Bojuka bog only got sided in against Jund, and i never had to use it!

Overall, I did enjoy myself but I was a little sad with the outcome. There were a couple of times where if I would have drawn a little different in key times I would have won 2-1 instead of losing 1-2. My 4-4 record could have easily been 6-2 but that's just how things work out sometimes.

Thanks again for reading. and if you have any questions or comments just leave me a note! Thanks!!!

Prerelease!!! Mirrodin Beseiged!!!

2011-01-31T12:07:00.004-06:00

I would like to start by saying I really enjoyed the Prerelease of Mirrodin Besieged, it was different and fun. I had mediocre success with going 2-1 in swiss draft and 4-2 in sealed but I will take it (much better than losing a bunch of points).

The Positives

- Great idea to do Mirran vs. Phyrexia all around. (diff promos and diff packs)
- Renewal of old cards (Blightsteel Colossus. Inkmoth Nexus etc.)
- New planeswalker to get.
- Nice flow from set to set.

The Negatives

- Too much infect (cards you would love to fit in a deck you can't because its infect only)
- Too much infect (did i mention there was too much infect)
- Drafts were awkward due to the different pack types.

Overall It was a nice step forward in the development of MTG as a whole. They played to the masses with the ability to "Make your own decision". It will be really interesting to see how they follow it up with the 3rd set. I believe that Phrexia probably wins the war based on my local stores choices, but we will see. I am rooting for the good guys!!!

If you read this, leave me a note and tell me about your experience and what you chose! Until next time, have fun!!!

WHATS NEW

2011-01-07T12:58:00.003-06:00

Hello everyone,

I would like to start by saying I am in the process of re-committing myself to Magic as a whole. I have been spending a lot of time getting into proper practices (or what I think are proper practices). I am tight on time with a full time job, a wife, and a child but I am doing my best to stay focused. My primary focus has been extended since that will be what the PTQ season and and Grand Prix will be. Now I know that the format will change because there is a new set coming out but that does not mean that it is too early to get to work. In fact i believe that the new set (a small set) will only make a marginal difference in the overall meta. I think that it may drag down a few decks from one tier to another and vice versa. i would even go as far as saying there could be one brand new deck that is created and competitive right away but not much more than that.

The biggest thing I have had to do is test, test, test. It is the only way to make sure you are prepared for what will come your way. With PTQ's you sometimes have the opportunity to steal games you should not win just simply because you are more prepared than your opponent. If I were to make a list off the top of my head of the primary factors that determine a match they would be.....

- The deck you are playing (including meta gaming)
- Play skill (including rules knowledge)
- Preparation
- Luck

I think if you are exceptional at one of these you can make up for some lack in one of the other categories. Luck obviously is out of your control but if you build a consistent and balanced deck and prepare it can seem to others that you have exceptional luck. You can create the perception of luck by playing the match based on what you anticipate because you have played these scenarios out time and time again through practice. It is a wonderful feeling when things come together that way.

Play skill is the hardest of these four to change. In a way it comes from years of playing and practicing. Some are much quicker students of the game and can pick up on some of the smallest details and use it to their advantage. I personally am still working on my rules knowledge and learn quite often from other players things I either didn't know or didn't catch previously, its exciting!

I am trying my best to keep an open mind about what deck I will play and what my game plan will be for the up coming events but I can't help to find myself drifting towards the deck I was originally planning to play. Thankfully I have been surprised that it is doing well against most of the current meta-game. Again though I can't get my hopes up to much until I have adequately tested and seen what changes will happen with Mirrodin Besieged.

In case you are wondering the deck I was referring to is Doran. To me it has a lot of game against not only a lot of decks maindeck answers but also most of their sideboards as well. Aside from Day of Judgement most of the other board sweepers don't hurt me too much since they only deal 2 damage or give everything -2/-2. All the hand destruction I pack helps me against control and combo, and typically my creatures are going to be bigger than most of the other agro decks. I did not plan on posting the list today but if anyone is interested send a message and I will be happy to post it.

Thanks guys, and for the original bloggers Nicki and Justin I will be at Area 51 tonight to get on you for not keeping up with your posts, lol

Until next time....Happy building.

Alternatives in Standard

2010-12-07T12:49:00.008-06:00

Hello everyone,

I have to apologize, my plan was to play this last FNM with the deck that I highlighted in my last blog, but I didn't. I did something I usually never do, I went with something untested that I liked and just had to try. I made a deck that has one of my favorite cards in it.

VENGEVINE!!!!

The interesting thing is, the deck is not made specifically for vengevine, but I do have lots of ways to help it out.

Here is the list.

CREATURES (28)

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Vengevine
4x Squadron Hawk
2x Kor Skyfisher
2x Baneslayer Angel
2x Sun Titan
1x Acidic Slime
1x Kor Sanctifiers
1x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Obstinate Baloth
1x Sunblast Angel
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence

SPELLS (7)

3x Day of Judgement
3x Journey to Nowhere
1x Sword of Body and Mind

LANDS (25)

4x Sunpetal Grove
4x Stirring Wildwood
2x Razorverge Thicket
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Marsh Flats
3x Tectonic Edge
5x Forest
4x Plains

The deck is primarily made to just be highly cohesive and interactive. To me it makes the games more fun! (but also slower). The most know combination is Fauna Shaman with Squadron Hawk and Vengevine. It gives you extra creatures to pitch to get what you need. The Sun Titans and Skyfishers are there to help recycle cards but the Skyfisher is also very helpfull in a pinch to activate Vengevine.

SIDEBOARD (15)

2x Obstinate Baloth
1x Kor Sanctifier
1x Acidic Slime
1x Basilisk Collar
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Condemn
1x Mold Shambler
2x ?

I can't quite remember the two cards i am missing out of the sideboard, in fact I'm lucky i remembered what was in the deck at all with out having it on hand. I have a great respect for deck building because you never know how it comes out. I will tell you a quick rundown from memory of my 5 rounds.

NOTE: Don't have my book with me so sorry if the recounts are extremely rough. If you have any questions leave a post and I will give you better details later.

Round 1 (RUW Control)

Yea this was an interesting deck to play against because I wasn't quite sure what to get when I went searching with Shaman.

Game 1: To make a long story short I lost after he landed Jace, Frost Titan and Sun Titan.

Game 2: Held him off of 6 mana for a little while and was getting board advantage until he landed Jace #2, Sun Titan and Inferno Titan. Somehow went to time.....

Lost 0-1 (0-1)

Round 2 (RUG)

Cant remember exactly what happened but i do remember seeing more Jaces and more Titans. Managed to bring it to time 1-1.

Tied 1-1 (0-1-1)

Round 3 (UB Control)

This was a tough and fun match up. I was glad to get a chance to play against one of the best decks in the format. The best part about the match up was that I knew the guy was playing the deck how it was supposed to be played. For the 3rd straight match i had to deal with Jace.

Game 1: He stuck a 3rd turn Jace and I was lucky enough to get a Vengevine in immediately to deal with it. Shortly thereafter he played another one, but I was able to keep him off of 6 mana long enough with 2 tectonic edges and was able to play around a few counterspells and pull out the win.

Game 2: this game went much the same way, it honestly could have gone both ways but It went to time.

Won 1-0 (1-1-1)

Round 4 (White Artifact)

Played against my co-worker Mandi, it was like her 2nd ever FNM playing a mono white artifact build. It was a far better deck than I played my second FNM, but Vengevines just came out too fast and I was able to blow up a couple Tempered steels when i needed to.

Won 2-0 (2-1-1)

Round 5 (Pyromancers Ascension)

Kind of a bad match up pre-board because of my useless removal spells but I at least have a couple ways to blow up ascension main deck.

Game 1: Got a little lucky here, he had only 1 burn spell opening hand and only one counterspell by turn 4. I stuck an early vengevine and he didn't rip a bounce spell or lightning bolt in time to deal with it before he died.

Game 2: Sided out my Day's and Journeys and added a slime and sanctifier. Again I got a little lucky, on turn 4 he had 3 mana open and one counter on ascension, i played a kicked Kor Sanctifier expecting a counter and he had none. I then got vengevines going again for the win

Won 2-0 (3-1-1)

I was happy to end up in 6th place out of 30 people considering I had only played the deck once or twice and had a thrown together SB. The only thing I know for sure is that it is really tough to play around Jace especially 3 times in a row. So it makes me happy that I only lost 1 game considering.

I have a few ideas about possible changes to make, one of them would be adding 2 Gideon's main deck in place of a Baloth and a Sunblast Angel. In closing though I really enjoyed the deck, it was very "toolboxy" which is something me and my friend Eloy both like. The deck still has some weaknesses but is very fun. Overall I think this will be my deck of choice for a while.

P.S. for those of you who have taken the time to read this please take just a couple more seconds and leave me a message either to just say hello or give me some input on the deck. Thanks!

Tony Derbigny

Time for Change

2010-11-23T14:02:00.010-06:00

As you may already have read a few articles ago I have been playing a really kool goblin build. I built it before the artifact goblins made headlines with a few top 8 finishes. My version uses rebirth but also uses far less artifacts. I have really enjoyed playing the deck, in fact I have been very successful with it. Over the last 6 or so FNM's I believe I have a record along the lines of 25-4. Which is solid in my opinion. But........

Its time to update my deck that I have been playing. Its time for a change. Why, you ask? Because I am in a position to where hate is flowing my way and other people are making versions of my deck and I want to be different. With the FNM (my local shop) metagame changing to where everyone is either running a pyroclasm or marsh casualties or tons of spot removal, I want to flip the script.

Now, at first thought with this picture, your saying to yourself...... everyone plays with trinket mage. It's in UB control, its in UBR, its in URG. Yea but here is where I went different. I went with a UW Artifact build. WHAT????? Yea that's what I was saying at first too but I have been working on the list and its seems to win in some very strange ways, it is not really a control deck by design but it has surprising resiliency. Check out the list.

CREATURES

3 Wall of Omens
3 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Trinket Mage
3 Etched Champion
2 Molten Tail Masticore
2 Wurmcoil Engine

SPELLS

3 Everflowing Chalice
2 Darksteel Axe
1 Chimeric Mass
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Brittle Effigy
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Into the Roil
3 Day of Judgement

LANDS

6 Plains
6 Island
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Seachrome Coast
3 Tectonic Edge

The sideboard is yet to be finalized, I have a lot more play testing to do to get it where i need it. In fact the same can be said for the main deck. But here is a rough draft of where it would be.

SIDEBOARD

3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Spell Pierce
1 Devout Lightcaster
2 Condemn
1 Ratchet Bomb
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Kor Sanctifiers

Ok so you may see already where this is going but just in case let me explain. When i build decks I typically have a few goals in mind.

-Synergy
-Multiple win conditions
-Answers for everything (Main and SB)

The deck meets all these goals to a degree and I will try to give a quick explanation for each.

SYNERGY

There are several things that I think attribute to synergy here but some of them are obvious and others not so much. Trinket mage and all the 1 or 0 drop artifacts is one. Well known due to UB control is all the recursion from elixir of immortality. You get to recur all sorts of fun toys like killed man lands, ratchet bombs, into the roils, day of judgement and all the creatures that help u draw cards etc. Molten Tail Masticore with all of my creatures (and yes I do know that he butts heads with elixir, which is why i cut him from 3 to 2) but when he is good he is great.

WIN CONDITIONS

One obvious win condition is Wurmcoil Engine and Masticore, but there are a few others. I can actually deal damage with my small guys thanks to some equipment. But one of the most fun ones is Etched Champion because of his great interaction with Darksteel Axe. He basically becomes a 4/2 that cant be blocked or killed by most anything. An unblockable guy with 4 power can end games fairly quickly.

ANSWERS

There are lots of answers in here as well. My early drop creatures and Day of judgements are my answers for early agro like Goblins, RDW, Infect and Elves. For Other control decks I have into the roil, tectonic edge, brittle effigy, ratchet bomb etc. For Mid range decks its just kind of a mixed bag, a little bit of everything.

In conclusion I really like this deck but I still have some work to do and testing to see if it is really as good as i hope, let me know what you think and hope you like it. Thanks.

Tony Derbigny

Alternatives In Standard

2010-11-15T17:04:00.003-06:00

Hello everyone and if you are reading this I am appreciative of your support and hope you enjoy the articles. I have to get the original blogsters back on so I'm not the only one on but its still fun. I have a special treat for you today, I have a buddy who I am featuring in todays article. He recently won his first FNM with a very fun and even more importantly, very original deck. I have seen this thing in action and it is very kool! I asked him to send me the decklist and a quick write up on how it is supposed to work and he took it seriously and sent me a full article. I will share that with you today and hope you enjoy.

Here it is!!!
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MONO BLACK

Creatures
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Skinrender
3 Moriok Replica

Spells
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Duress
3 Mind Sludge
3 Grim Discovery

Land
20 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge

SB
2 Disfigure
3 Memoricide
3 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Duress
3 Black Night
1 Royal Assassin

Strategy:
This version of a Mono-Black deck tries to take advantage of all the creature decks in the meta with decent game against control decks. Many of creatures are two-for-ones in the form of:

· Gatekeeper of Malikir
· Skinrender
· Moriok Replica

Vampire Hexmage and Vampre Nighthawk serve two roles. While Hexmage is good at fighting planewalkers, Nighthawks allow the deck to race other aggro decks. Many times, Nighthawk is just another removal spell when the opponent is the beatdown deck. Other times, Hexmage is able to swing a couple times against opposing control decks and take down their plansewalkers. Duress is there for redundancy.

The main beater is Nantuko Shade. If he is able to slip under early counter magic, he can end games quickly if not answered.

The discard package can be strong if used in conjunction with an early beater. Against creature decks, I use the Inquisition of Koziilks as another removal spell and treat it as a cheaper Smother. The Mind Sludges are in there against ramp and control decks.

Tectonic Edges are in there to punish the 2-3 color decks that rely heavily on the dual lands for mana fixing. The ability to kill multiple lands early on, followed up by a Mind Sludge can be devastating for the opponent.
But what makes the deck “pop” are the Grim Discoverys. The ability to recycle Tectonic Edges and all of the two-for-one creatures is what helps the deck win attrition wars. Often, I am able to play Gatekeeper early on to make them sac a creature and then destroy a land. Rinse and repeat a few turns later and then eventually play a Mind Sludge to take out their hand. Often, the best play might only constitute getting back either a creature spell or a Tectonic edge. However, getting both back is awesome sauce.

So far at my FNMs, I have done well against all the creature decks from RDW, WW Quest, Poison and Allies. I have not faced Elves so I am not able to comment on this match up. Against creature decks, I board in the following:

OUT:
3 Mind Sludge
2 Vampire Hexmage

IN:
2 Disfigure
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Royal Assassin

I wish I talk could more regarding the U/x control match ups. Not very many people are playing control at my local FNM but I tested against a U/B control list and I seemed to have a good match up since their Doom Blades were dead and I would attack the manabase. If I was able to get an early Nantuko Shade on board, then the game was over fairly quickly. I have also tested against U/W control and that match up is more challenging since many of their cards are also two for ones. Against U/W control, I board in the following:

OUT:
4 Skinrender
1 Gatekeeper of Malikir
2 Moriok Replica

IN:
1 Duress
3 Memoricide
3 Black Knight

Against U/B:
OUT:
4 Skinrender
1 Gatekeeper of Malikir
2 Moriok Replica

IN:
1 Duress
3 Memoricide
3 Nihil Spellbomb – Use this to foil their Elixir of Immortality plan

Since many control decks use big bombs as their finishers, I use the Memoricides to take them out if Jace the Mind Sculptor is not already on board.

I treat the ramp deck similar to the control decks. Board in a Duress, 3 Memoricides, the Royal Assassin and 2 Ratchet Bombs. If you get a Memoricide name Avenger of Zendikar since this deck is a dog against it. If not, then there is the hope to kill all the tokens with a Ratchet Bomb. Keep them off multiple Valakuts with Tectonic Edges and use Grim Discoverys to get them back. Even though many of your spells are not as powerful as the Valakut deck’s, you need to play the match up as if you are the control deck. Try to land a Mind Sludge as early as possible. Game two they will side in Obstinate Baloth. If I had to choose which creature I would rather fight between a Baloth or Avenger of Zendikar or Primeval Titan, I would choose the Baloth any day of the week. The life gain is negligible since you are the control deck in the match up.

This deck has also difficulties against Mimic Vat decks. If possible, make them discard the Mimic Vat or Memoricide it away games two and three. I try and combat Mimic Vat decks similar to ramp decks. Many times once you have the game under control, a couple swings from a Nantuko Shade will usually end the game.

I know there are other match ups I did not mention but at the moment, these are the decks I have played against at my local FNM. I imagine if Elves was a bigger deck in my meta, I would consider Marsh Causalities in the board as well.

Eloy Hernandez

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P.S. Eloy I would just like to thank you for your contribution and hope that we can talk about some more victories and new fresh ideas in the future. Great Job!!!!

Current Standard

2010-10-20T12:17:00.005-05:00

Its interesting to start out a blog with a picture but at this time it seems to be relevent. Im not one to always jump on bandwagons, but this is the most powerfull card in standard right now next to Jace 2.0. As you may know Valakut Ramp has been the strongest deck with the rotation, thanks to the fact that it lost almost nothing. Also in the same category is Eldrazi Green, it is a very strong deck and whats best is that it can win from nowhere (Also runs Primeval Titan). Luckily there have been a couple new emergences with States. Thats what I would like to talk about today.

Here is a list.

Format: Type II - SOM 2010 TCGplayer.com WWS BostonFinished: 3rd - 4th Place

MAIN DECK

2 Jace Beleren

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Wurmcoil Engine

3 All Is Dust

4 Doom Blade

3 Everflowing Chalice

7 Island

2 Swamp

Lands [26]

SIDEBOARD

3 Negate

1 Skinrender

The most interesting one to me has been UB control. I actually built the deck last night for an opportunity to try to test against it. I think the deck is really good due to its versatility and ability to adapt to different situations. Here is my list of reasons why it has been strong over the last few weeks.

- Good removal (mass + spot)

- Countermagic

- Plays Jace 2.0 (lol)

- Multiple ways to win (flexibility)

I actually prefer the version that runs the tringet mage - elixir shenanigans, but just like UW control, there are several effective builds.

Next up is UR, the interesting thing about UR is that there are several different builds available that work differently. You have UR control/UR Force and Pyromancers Ascension. The only major difference between the normal UR and Force is obvious, other than that they are very close. Pyromancers Ascension is another carry over from pre-rotation with just some minor adjustments. I actually built that deck wayyyyy before it made top 8 anywhere but i thought it wasn't that great and I gave up on it too early. I think my mistake was that i ran double negative, lol.

There is also a deck out there called Mono white Quest. It is by far the most explosive deck available in that it can cause a turn 2 scoop. The problem is that it too heavily relies on you getting the right cards. I played against it during an FNM and saw it at its best and worst. Luckily for me I saw it mostly at its worst. If you are a super agro/combo player this is definately a good choice for you.

There are also several different decks that still run Fauna Shaman and Vengevine, but they are mixed into so many decks and have so many random builds that I wouldn't dare to try to properly categorize it all so therefore I'm just going to skip it. I know that I also skipped over UW control and some other decks but it just seems to me that the UW players are switching to UB due to the meta. I could be wrong but thats just me.

Last but not least i have RED. Now there are probably 4 red decks right now and they are all solid.

Boros

RDW

Big Red

Goblins

I actually use the lesser know of these 4 which is goblins for a couple of reasons. One, I thought it would be different, two it seems to be the most consistent. Here is the list.

22 CREATURES

3 Memnite

4 Goblin Guide

4 Goblin Bushwacker

3 Perilous Myr

4 Ember Hauler

4 Goblin Chieftan

16 SPELLS

3 Kuldotha Rebirth

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Searing Blaze

3 Staggershock

3 Burst Lightning

22 LANDS

3 Arid Mesa

3 Scalding Tarn

2 Teetering Peeks

14 Mountains

SIDEBOARD

3 Manic Vandal

2 Shatter

3 Mark of Mutiny

3 Combust

2 Tuk-Tuk

2 Forked Bolt

I fell in love with this deck just because of its versatility, speed and consistency. The things that hurt me the most don't completely handicap me. For instance pyroclasm is really good against me but with a lot of haste in the deck i can continue to apply preasure even immediatly and still have burn for backup. The second biggest threat is Kor Firewalker, who has recently fallen out of grace since UW control has lost followers. The great thing is that having Perilous Myr maindeck gives me a way to deal with it either through rebirth or burning him myself to get rid of the firewalker.

Well thats all I have for now, please comment and let me know of your ideas or if you have any comments for me. Let me know what your favorite deck is.

Next Level?

2010-10-16T09:33:00.005-05:00

Well I would like to start by appologizing in advance for the crudeness of my first blog. My intention is just to share some of my ideas and just some random information. I guess I would start by telling you a little about me. I am 29 years old married with a beautiful wife and daughter and am working full time at Chase Bank. I have been playing Magic for about 14 years off and on. I am a huge fan of the game and love to spend my spare time playing it. In this acticle I plan to share my evolution as a person and player and how they relate.

I guess I should start by talking a little about my progression as a player. I started playing in Highschool when I saw some kids in the back of class trading cards and it got my attention. I started getting a few packs here and there and just built some decks and taught my step brother how to play. We really enjoyed it until my Aunt saw them and told my mother they were bad and convinced her to throw them away. I was really bummed but was happy I learned.

As a freshman in college, 3 years later I saw some guys playing in my dorm and decided to get back into the game. I was still purely a novice but started caring more about rarity since they added colored set symbols around this time. I began to learn from players better than me, but we were still crude in our deck building and play methods. I had no idea about type 2, extended etc. We just enjoyed the game and tried our best to beat each other.

Again as I transfered to another school a couple years later I found myself not playing. One day I found a local hobby shop near school and I began to meet more players and play FNM. Thats where my game really began to evolve. I learned how to build more competative decks and really grasp the rules and play against some solid competition. At this point I had my first taste of success, I attribute it to really having the time to focus on testing and having good test partners. I got 3rd place at a block PTQ in Houston for Los Angeles(2005). I played there for several years until I graduated and moved away.

Once I moved to DFW and got married I had to find another place to play, luckily there were several and I get to bounce around. I finally got to play regularly for a few years and have had the opportunity to tune up my game. I still have alot of work to do but I have gotten better thanks to some great competition and some skilled friends. I had my second taste of success as I got 3rd place at another PTQ Amsterdam here in Fort Worth (2010). Its a little tough to get to top 4 twice and never get that 1st place finish, but its hard to complain when I have only gone to 6 ptq's ever and have made top 8 twice. My plan is to go to more events but only if I am properly prepared. I asked myself what was different on those two top 8's and the answer I kept coming up with is that I had a deck I was comfortable with and had tested alot during FNM's etc. So my plan now is to only go if I have had proper testing.

Whats really interesting is I get my first shot at a sealed PTQ this weekend! And that is different from what I have ever done on this level but I am hoping for the best. I did get one good taste of it during the release event a few weeks ago and was very successfull 6-0 (100% MWP). But this is going to be far tougher with a higher grade of players. In fact what makes me nervous is that since then I have not had any practice with sealed or draft and I know the best players have been grinding and testing with friends and Magic Online. My only hope is that I run hot and play close to mistake free magic. But I am so excited and can't wait to try it out.

I will let you guys know how it go's and explain my experience and the reasons for eather my success or failure. Please comment if you have any questions etc. Thanks for listening to my story and I wish you "good gaming".

Combo and Synergy - January

2010-01-17T10:12:00.010-06:00

Like many of you, I can't wait to see what all World Wake has in store...and like many of you...I look for new spoilers every day, hoping to find how the new set can be broken. Here are a few spoiled cards from World Wake that have some cool interactions with some cards we already know. (Thanks to MTGSalvation for the spoiled lists).

As if Red wasn't strong enough. In the new set, Red can carry a playset of this in its sideboard to cripple Blue. Ricochet Trap reads:

"Instant - Trap. If an opponent cast a Blue spell this turn, you may pay R rather than pay Ricochet Trap’s mana cost. Change the target of target spell with a single target."

For one Red, you can change the target of any counterspell a Blue player has to target Ricochet Trap instead of its original target.

Knight of the Reliquary is such a cool card and Celestial Colonade is amazing. In a Bant deck, he can sacrifice a Forest or Plains to find a 4/4 Blue and White vigiliant, flyer that produces mana. I cant wait to see what other manlands come out in the new set.

This is one my favorite combos from the new set. Enchant a fetch land such as Misty Rain Forest. Block with your Misty Rainforest / Wind Zendikon creature. Sacrifice the fetch land. When sacrificed you are able to search for a Island or Forest and return the Misty Rainforest to your due to Wind Zendikon's triggered ability. This could really break landfall decks.

Kalastria Highborn could be a really broken card in the new set. Paired with Vampire Aristocrat you can sacrifice any creature at any time to Syphon Soul your opponent. Pair these cards with Bloodghast and you could have a truly broken combo.

My Top 4 finish with Barely Boros

2010-01-13T19:09:00.014-06:00

The last blog I wrote detailed my decision to go with my Bloodchief Beats deck at the Star City Games Standard 5K this past Saturday. Well, obviously I had a change of heart shortly before the tournament. I had been going back and forth between the Bloodchief deck and a Barely Boros deck I had for a couple of weeks. When I wrote the blog I felt as if I had made up my mind for sure. My thinking was that Blightning was better than Zektar Shrine Expedition, Terminate was better than Mark of Mutiny, and Bloodchief Ascension could be better than Ajani Vengeant in certain matchups. Other than that the two main decks were identical. Both featured heavy RDW spells like Goblin Guide and Hellspark Elemental.

Thursday night before the tourney an idea hit me like a ton of bricks. What about Day of Judgment main decked? It solves my problems with Shroud creatures like Wall of Denial and Sphinx of Jwar Isle as well as flyers like Emeria Angel and Broodmate Dragon. In other words, Day of Judgment takes out what Earthquake doesn't. With this revelation I decided to go with Barely Boros instead of Bloodchief Beats. I changed my mana base a bit to allow for more Plains and tweaked my sideboard and added more fun surprises for my opponents. Here is the final deck list I decided on...

Maindeck:

Creatures
4 Goblin Guide
4 Hell's Thunder
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Plated Geopede

Enchantments
4 Zektar Shrine Expedition

Instants
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt

Planeswalkers
3 Ajani Vengeant

Sorceries
2 Day Of Judgment
3 Earthquake

Basic Lands
8 Mountain
4 Plains

Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Terramorphic Expanse

Sideboard:
3 Baneslayer Angel
2 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Manabarbs
2 Celestial Purge
2 Path To Exile
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Day Of Judgment

As you can see the main deck is very similar to some other Barely Boros decks you'll see out there except for one major distinction, Day of Judgment. I won plenty of games by blowing up the board with DOJ and unleashing a couple of loaded Zektar Shrine Expeditions on turn four. This never failed to catch my opponent by surprise. Game 2 I always brought in Baneslayer Angel which was another nasty surprise for my opponents. This gave me a significant advantage over RDW which I ended up playing in three different match-ups. Here's the breakdown of each match I played in the tournament.

Round 1 vs. Red Deck Wins (W 2-0)

This is a very good match-up for me because of my ability to race and gain life at the same time. Ajani Vengeant is really good in games 1 of this match-up. Here's what I side in for games 2 and 3.

-3 Earthquake, -2 Day of Judgment, -2 Ajani Vengeant
+3 Baneslayer Angel, +2 Celestial Purge, +2 Path to Exile

As good as Ajani Vengeant is Baneslayer Angel is even better against RDW. That combined with Path to Exile and Celestial Purge make it almost impossible for RDW to beat me. My Unearth creatures keep coming back while I remove theirs from the game. Seems so unfair but I'm not complaining.

Round 2 vs. Jacerator (W 2-1)

This match-up was extremely difficult. I knew what the deck had in it but I had never actually tested against it with my deck. The one thing I had on my side was plenty of burn. This allowed me to swing in on my turn and if he used a fog spell I would wait till the end of his turn and burn his face with Lightning Bolt or Burst Lightning. This damage added up over time and ended up doing him in. What made it even more difficult for me is that he ran Wall of Denial main deck instead of Day of Judgment. That made it hard for me to deal damage with Hellspark Elemental and Hell's Thunder. He won game 1 but I had answers in my sideboard for games 2 and 3.

-4 Hell's Thunder, -1 Hellspark Elemental
+2 Goblin Ruinblaster, +2 Manabarbs, +1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Hell's Thunder was virtually useless against him but I kept in 3 Hellspark Elemental's because they are easy to Unearth and if he makes a mistake and taps out late in a game I can swing in with lethal force. Goblin Ruinblaster helped me slow him down with a little land destruction and Manabarbs would have beat him by itself if I was able to get it resolved. Unfortunately I never did so I had to beat him the old fashioned way by swinging away. I won game 2 by a steady stream of burn. Game 3 was much more tense as I had one card left in my library when I finally landed the killer blow with 2 Hellspark Elementals, two 5/5 Plated Geopedes, and one Goblin Guide all rushing in. I got lucky when he didn't show a fog spell and won the game right there.

Round 3 vs. Red Deck Wins (W 2-1)

This match was very similar to Round 1 except he had an amazing hand in game 1 and I had a so-so hand. Even with that he only had 6 life left when he beat me. Games 2 and 3 went according to plan. See Round 1 for sideboard strategy.

Round 4 vs. Emeria's Pledge (W 2-0)

This was a very strange match. My opponent was given a game 1 loss because a judge caught him illegally shuffling. It's a good thing because I wasn't paying attention at all. This set him on tilt in game 2 and after being stuck on two lands through turn five he scooped up his cards and walked away. Once again I wasn't complaining and was glad for the win. The judge informed us that we would have to play with our main decks in game 2 so there was never a side-boarding opportunity.

Round 5 vs. Mono White Aggro (W 2-1)

All I remember about this guys deck was a bunch of First Strike creatures including Baneslayer Angel. I was able to take game 1 by burning every First Striker he threw out there and swinging in with my team. He never recovered and we were on to game 2.

-4 Hellspark Elemental, -3 Zektar Shrine Expedition
+3 Baneslayer Angel, +2 Volcanic Fallout, +1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant, +1 Day of Judgment

Hellspark Elemental wasn't going to do anything for me against his deck and Zektar Shrine Expedition wasn't much better. Game 2 he went first and was able to gain control of the board with numerous First Strikers. He played Baneslayer Angel on turn 5 and there wasn't much I could do about it. After a few swings he had the win and we went on to game 3. Game 3 I went first and that's always a good thing with my deck. Turn 1 Goblin Guide followed by turn 2 Plated Geopede followed by turn 3 Hell's Thunder followed by turn 4 Ajani Vengeant followed by turn 5 Baneslayer Angel. Well, that's about as good as it gets for my deck post sideboard. Needless to say I won the game.

Round 6 vs. Red Deck Wins (Draw 1-1)

You might be wondering how the hell do two super fast aggro decks go to a draw. Well, let's just say that my opponent tended to take quite a bit of time pondering each and every move he made. He made very good decisions but he took an incredible amount of time making them. To make matters worse he was able to play 3 Dragon's Claws in game 2 but not much else. This made almost every spell I played an automatic 3 life gain for him. I ended up pulling out a win in that game by playing a kicked Burst Lightning for 1 damage. Ridiculous! Game 3 I had control again and probably would have won but once again he slow played every single turn. It was frustrating and embarrassing that two Red decks end up drawing but that's what happened.

Round 7 vs. UW Shroud Control (W 2-0)

Game 1 I saw three Deft Duelists hit the battlefield by turn 4. I had Earthquake though and he quickly ran out of steam after that. It was obvious that he was playing my worst matchup in the meta-game so even though I won game 1 I had my work cut out for me in game 2.

-4 Hellspark Elemental, -3 Hell's Thunder, -4 Goblin Guide
+3 Baneslayer Angel, +2 Goblin Ruinblaster, +2 Manabarbs, +2 Volcanic Fallout, +1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant, +1 Day of Judgment

I decided to ditch most of the aggro elements of my deck and added as much anti-control spells as I could from my sideboard. It worked perfectly. I was able to successfully cast 2 Baneslayer Angels, 1 Goblin Ruinblaster, and 1 Manabarbs which ended up sealing the deal. There's not much a Control Deck can do about a Manabarbs on the board especially if they're staring down two Baneslayer Angels.

Round 8 vs. Jund (W 2-0)

The guy I was playing this round ended up placing 2nd overall in the tournament. He was undefeated at this point and was already going to make the Top 8 even with a loss in this round. He wanted to go grab a bite to eat so he offered to concede to me in order to make that happen. Even though I wanted the chance to play Jund because I felt good about my chances against it I gladly accepted and went on to prepare for Round 9.

Round 9 vs. UWR Control (Draw 0-0)

This was the last round before the Top 8 was determined and both of us were undefeated. We were informed that we could draw in to the Top 8 without playing and that we did. So, I went to go watch some of my prospective opponents as they battled to get into the Top 8.

Round 1 of Top 8 vs. UWR Control (W 2-1)

I ended up getting seeded against the same guy I drew with in Round 9. This is generally not a very good match-up for the deck I was running but the 2 main deck Day of Judgments and the anti-control sideboard ended up tipping the match in my favor. Game 1 he pretty much dominated me. I never drew Day of Judgment in order to get his Walls off the board and it cost me the game.

-4 Hellspark Elemental, -4 Hell's Thunder, -1 Burst Lightning
+3 Baneslayer Angel, +2 Goblin Ruinblaster, +2 Manabarbs, +1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant, +1 Day of Judgment

Game 2 started off with Goblin Guide followed by Plated Geopede. He played a Wall of Denial on his turn 3 and another on turn 4 to slow me down a bit. I was able to slip by and do minimal damage over the next few turns and then I drew a Day of Judgment. Hoping not to get countered I played it and smoked the board. This cleared the path for the Baneslayer Angel sitting in my hand and he never recovered. Game 3 I was able to get a Plated Geopede, Ajani Vengeant, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant all on the board at the same time. He had a Baneslayer Angel and a Wall of Denial on the board. For two turns I was able to draw a fetch land and with Elspeth's help swung in with Plated Geopede as an 8/8 first striker. The first turn he took the 8 damage and the second turn he blocked with the Wall. At this point I decided to blow up the board again with Day of Judgment and finished him off the next turn with Ajani Vengeant's helix ability and a resolved Earthquake.

Round 2 of Top 8 vs. Vampires (L 1-2)

This match ultimately was decided by the person that ended up winning the die roll in order to go first. As you can imagine he won the roll and ultimately the match. Game 1 I was completed dominated by 2 Vampire Nighthawks, a Bloodghast, and of course Tendrils of Agony. I was able to get him down to 11 life but because of the Nighthawks he finished the game with 21 life. This actually might be the worst matchup for me because of the life gain ability of the deck.

-4 Hellspark Elemental, -2 Zektar Shrine Expedition, -4 Burst Lightning
+ 3 Baneslayer Angel, +2 Celestial Purge, +2 Path to Exile, +2 Volcanic Fallout, +1 Day of Judgment

Game 2 was about as well as my deck had played all night. I had an answer for everything he put on the board and was able to finish the game without losing a single point of life. After finishing him off with a Burst Lightning and Lightning Bolt on turn 5 it was off to Game 3 where he would be going first again. Game 3 was actually very close until the very end. We were both at 7 life when he swung in for the win. The turning point of the game was on his turn 6 after I had played Baneslayer Angel on turn 5. He dropped a Vampire Nighthawk and a kicked Gatekeeper of Malakir which took out Baneslayer Angel. This changed the board dramatically and after playing Malakir Bloodwitch the next turn I was needing Day of Judgment or it would be the end of me. I didn't top deck it and ended up on the losing end of this one.

All in all it was an incredible experience and if it's any consolation the guy playing Vampires ended up winning the whole thing against Jund the following round. This was supposed to be his biggest mismatch but he ended up winning 2-0. His deck was very consistent and seemed to be very well built. You can check out all of the Top 8 decks and profiles here.

Thanks for reading and good luck on your next coin flip!

Lad takes 4th place at Star City 10k

2010-01-12T13:08:00.002-06:00

Our own Lad (Justin Petri) took home 4th place at the Star City $5000 Standard Tournament this past weekend. Check back later for his comments on the deck and the tournament itself.

Go here for his deck list

Congrats Man!!!

Bloodchief Beats

2010-01-06T19:39:00.006-06:00

The StarCityGames.com Standard 5K will be in Ft. Worth this Saturday and my partner and I will be there ready to grind it out. Nicky will be playing his beloved Grixis Control deck featuring Chandra Ablaze and Cruel Ultimatum. I happen to think his deck is the best Control deck going right now. I have been testing out quite a few different builds looking for a way to beat Jund. My Shroud Control deck is very strong against Jund but has struggled against speedy token decks. I toyed with the idea of adding Red to the Blue and White I was already running and I got much better results because of Earthquake. In fact, Luis-Scott Vargas just won the StarCity tournament in LA with a similar strategy. Here is the deck list he ran...

UWR Shroud Control

3 Ajani Vengeant
2 Jace Beleren
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Wall of Denial
2 Divination
2 Double Negative
2 Earthquake
4 Flashfreeze
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mind Spring
2 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas

4 Arid Mesa
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Sejiri Refuge

SIDEBOARD
4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cancel
2 Essence Scatter
3 Luminarch Ascension
2 Mind Control
2 Negate
1 Oblivion Ring

I am very tempted to go to battle with this deck as I have a lot of experience playing it in various forms. The only problem is that I expect to see quite a few players show up with this deck as their answer to Jund as well considering it won the whole thing in LA. I always like to go Rogue whenever possible because I feel it gives you an advantage over the rest of the field. Sometimes it works and sometimes it fails miserably. With this in mind I've decided to make a 180 degree turn and focus on speed as my ticket to victory. I love the color Red in magic and I'm very impressed with the sheer speed and finishing power of RDW. However, I don't think Red is enough to do the job especially with a Wall of Denial on the board staring down at you. I decided to take the strengths of RDW and splash in some Black to the mix. The deck list I came up with is...

Bloodchief Beats

4 Goblin Guide
4 Hellspark Elemental
3 Hell's Thunder
4 Plated Geopede
3 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
4 Earthquake
4 Blightning

4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Teetering Peeks
4 Mountain
4 Swamp

SIDEBOARD
1 Bloodchief Ascension
3 Duress
2 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Manabarbs
2 Terminate
2 Volcanic Fallout

The key to this deck is Bloodchief Ascension. It gives you a significant advantage in both the mirror match as well as the other speedy deck in the format, Boros. Grixis control has very few answers for it and LSV's UWR deck only runs one Oblivion Ring in the sideboard to answer it. This spell could be a nasty surprise for anybody out there not prepared for it. Because of the addition of Black I've also added Blightning and Terminate to the main deck mix. Blightning is one of the scariest spells going right now and works really well in combination with Bloodchief Ascension. Terminate is our main deck answer to Baneslayer Angel, Rhox War Monk, and other powerful creatures that prove to be annoying. The rest of the main deck is basically the best spells that RDW had to offer. Plated Geopede can be an absolute beast in this deck with 8 fetch lands and 4 Teetering Peeks to power it up and Goblin Guide might be the best one drop creature Red has ever had.

The sideboard is where we really make a difference in dealing with the tougher decks out there. Duress and Manabarbs are obvious inclusions when up against any Control deck. Fleshbag Marauder is mainly in the sideboard to help against the Shroud creatures. Wall of Denial and Sphinx of Jwar Isle can be really tough to deal with. Malakir Bloodwitch is also good against Wall of Denial but is really good against anything running Baneslayer Angel. Volcanic Fallout is sided in against Boros and White Tokens.

I feel this deck has all of the strengths of RDW and adding the Black helps neutralize some of the weaknesses. I highly recommend the deck to anyone looking to play something a little less expensive while at the same time competitive. I hope you guys are doing well and good luck on your next coin flip!

The Evolution Of Chandra Grixis Control

2009-12-30T10:26:00.007-06:00

Through out the last several months I have been playing versions of this deck, and I have settled on this build for the next Star City 10K in Fort Worth, TX in two weeks. I love this deck...it has everything you want in a deck: It Beats Jund, Has Explosive Wins, Runs Cruel Ultimatum, and did I mention that IT BEATS JUND. I have had several positive encounters with the newest build vs the cascade bastard deck; and I am not the only one (see What Beats Jund). According to their results, Grixis Control has a 65% win rate vs Jund.

Now on to the deck.

Maindeck
2 Chandra Abalaze
1 Sorin Markov
2 Jace Beleren
3 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Terminate
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Deathmark
3 Earthquake
3 Flashfreeze
3 Double Negative
3 Couriers Capsule

These are the 4 primary win factors. Chandra Ablaze is awesome in this deck. She can Flame Javelin opponents or creatures. She can cripple a control mirrors hand with her second ability and refill yours, and her ultimate is GG. Sorin is a powerful addition to the deck. He helps syphon life and can reset your opponents life to 10 if their life starts to get to high. His ultimate Mindslaving ability is hard for your opponent to deal with. Cruel Ultimatum is the "I Win" card. Very few opponents can deal with 1 Cruel let alone Chandra and Cruel. And lastly is the power creature of the deck, Sphinx of Jwar Isle. This is the F you card that Jund hates to see. Jund has no answer for this guy and he puts your opponent on a clock that results in your win.

This deck is really good vs Jund maindecked. The sideboard has a few cards that help with certain matchups.

Sideboard
3 Malakir Bloodwitch - vs anything white and Baneslayer
2 Siege Gang Commander - vs RDW and Boros
2 Haunting Echoes - vs anything unearth, Vampires, and maybe other control decks
2 Swerve - vs control or burn decks
1 Flashfreeze - vs anything red or green
3 Countersquall - vs control mirror
2 Essence Scatter - vs fast aggro decks, vampires, or anything Sphinx or Baneslayer

Shroud Control

2009-12-04T09:36:00.008-06:00

Everybody knows that Jund is the big bad boogeyman in the corner ready to crush anything that comes its way. Sure, there have been a few creative decks out there that have knocked Jund off its high horse. Eldrazi Green in Nashville and Naya Lightsaber at Worlds come to mind. But Jund still has the best percentages against most of the field. I've been working on a deck for a while now that absolutely crushes Jund but has struggled mightily against swarming token decks. I've recently made some changes to it to hopefully address the problem against decks like Eldrazi Green and Mono White Tokens...

Shroud Control

Creatures
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Wall of Denial
4 Deft Duelist

Planeswalkers
3 Jace Beleren

Enchantments
4 Luminarch Ascension
3 Oblivion RIng
2 Journey to Nowhere

Sorcerys
2 Mind Spring

Instants
4 Arrow Volley Trap
3 Hindering Light
4 Harm's Way

Lands
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Sejiri Refuge
8 Island
8 Plains

Sideboard:
4 Celestial Purge
4 Flashfreeze
2 Devout Lightcaster
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Into the Roil
1 Telemin Performance

The only two changes that I've recently made is adding Arrow Volley Trap and Journey to Nowhere in place of Day of Judgment and Path to Exile. Arrow Volley Trap is a very experimental spell that may or may not work. The problem with Day of Judgment is that there were games that I had a couple of Wall of Denials and a Deft Duelist on the board and my opponent had 6 creatures looking to attack on his turn. Sure Day of Judgment took out all of his stuff but it also took out my Shrouded protectors as well. Most of the fast aggro decks can reload pretty quickly which put me at a significant disadvantage. Hopefully Arrow Volley Trap will solve the problem of swarming creatures while still keeping my creatures alive on the board. Path to Exile is great when you have the abiltity to use it on your own creatures if needed to mana ramp. Since all of my creatures have Shroud that becomes impossible and there were too many times where I gave an opponent the extra land that he need to play a finisher of some sort. Sure, I lose some speed with Journey to Nowhere but it's a safer spell with the type of deck that I'm playing.

The overall theme of the deck is to control the board until you can unleash either of your two finishers, Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Luminarch Ascension. The Ascension is my favorite card in the Zendikar block as it fits my style of play perfectly. I've always been a Blue/White type of player and the Ascension can end the game very quickly once it goes online. The Sphinx is the best Blue creature in the game right now. Jund has absolutley no answer for him.

I'm not claiming that this deck will take the field by storm or anything but I do think it has as good a shot as anything else out there short of Jund. It also has one big advantage in its corner... In 8 matches it's only lost to Jund once and I would like to think it was a fluke. If you do decide to play this deck let me know what kind of results you get. Thanks for reading and good luck on your next coin flip!

Vampires

2009-11-14T11:36:00.013-06:00

After much deliberation, I decided to play my Vampire deck at last night's Friday Night Magic which proved fruitful; I eventually won 1st out of 42 people with this deck (record was 6-0-2). Here is the list I played with and some notes on how to win with our Twilight friends.

These guys are the obvious "I like to win" cards. Vampire Nocturnus is a non-legendary beast that overruns your opponents by making all your vampires +2/+1 and flying if the top card of your library is black. The deck uses Marsh Flats, Sign in Bloods, and Relic of Progenitus to help draw or shuffle your library to increase the chance of a black card. Malakir Bloodwitch is the best "F Baneslayer" card ever made. She can block Baneslayer all day AND can't be Path to Exiled or Doom Bladed AND syphons life for each vampire you control upon entering the battlefield.

These are the guys that get the job done while waiting for the deck to explode. Bloodghast is my favorite card in the set. He is a recursive, possible haste 2/1 for 2 mana that returns to play at each land drop. He is amazing. Most control and burn decks have a hard time dealing with him. Vampire Nighthawk is the best limited uncommon in the set and is an amazing standard card as well. Black can't get any happier than an uncommon 2/3 flyer, lifelink, deathtouch creature for 3 mana. Gatekeeper of Malakir is an amazing card as well. He causes your opponent to sacrifice a creature upon entering play ("F you Great Sable Stag, Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Wall of Denials, and everyone else.") Vampire Hexmage is an awesome 2/1 first strike creature that can kill planeswalkers and reset quests.

Sorin is an amazing card that most other Vampire decks aren't using (which perplexes me greatly). He is AMAZING. Typically he will kill creatures or players while gaining you life or drop your opponent's life to 10, which is amazing vs the mirror or other lifegain decks (last night I beat the mirror with Sorin; with Tendrils of Corruption and Vampire Nighthawk he had his life at 28...I played Sorin, dropping it to 10 and alpha striked for the win). His 3rd ability is amazing especially vs control, but typically he will win the game with his 1st ability. Tendrils of Corruption is the deck's power spell. It is an instant kill spell that gains you X life for 4 mana.

The deck also uses these 2 sideboarded cards that give it a huge edge in certain matchups. Fleshbag Marauder acts as another Gatekeeper of Malakir ("F you again Great Sable Stag, Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Wall of Denials, and everyone else.") When he comes into play both players sacrifice a creature. Typically I will sacrifice Bloodghast and return him to play at the land drop. Relic of Progenitus is a great card vs the Bloodghast mirror and any other graveyard deck including Pyromaner Ascension and Hellspark Elemental. It helps get rid of those pesky recursive creatures and can be sacrificed to remove all graveyards from the game to draw a card (which can help ensure the library's top card is black for Vampire Nocturnus.)

Maindeck
4 Bloodghast
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Vampire Nocturnus
3 Vampire Hexmage
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Duress
3 Disfigure
2 Sorin Markov
4 Sign in Blood
3 Tendrils of Corruption

2 Marsh Flats
21 Swamp

Sideboard
3 Deathmark
3 Mindsludge
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Marsh Casualties
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Malakir Bloodwitch

This deck is a blast to play and can restabilize itself the longer the game lasts with card draw in Sign in Bloods and 13 lifegain cards (Sorin, Tendrils, Malakir, and Nighthawk). It is a blast and can win. Enjoy!!!

Rise of the Eldrazi

2009-11-12T14:02:00.006-06:00

MTG Salvation recently released some information about the 3rd block in the Zendikar set.

The set's logo.

The new set's symbol.

A awesome picture featuring Nissa and Sorin and what appears to be the Eldrazi behind them.

Elspeth Assault V2

2009-11-11T11:02:00.009-06:00

After many hours of testing and seeing what works and doesn't work I've made some changes to my original Red/White Elspeth Assault deck that I posted after Pro Tour-Austin. The old list just wasn't quite strong enough to deal with the really powerful decks that are making the rounds in today's meta-game. The newest deck to make a splash is Eldrazi Green which took 1st place at a 5K tourney in Nashville recently. It features Elves, Elves, and more Elves combined with token producers Ant Queen and Master of the Wild Hunt. Toss in 3 Eldrazi Monuments and you've got yourself a very powerful Aggro deck that destroys other Aggro decks. It has a tougher time against Control but still holds its own very well. Here is the list that placed first in Nashville...

Artifacts
3 Eldrazi Monument

Creatures
3 Ant Queen
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Great Sable Stag
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Master Of The Wild Hunt
4 Nissa's Chosen
2 Noble Hierarch

Planeswalkers
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Nissa Revane

Lands
20 Forest
4 Oran-rief, The Vastwood

Sideboard:
1 Eldrazi Monument
3 Pithing Needle
4 Acidic Slime
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Mold Shambler
3 Mycoloth
2 Windstorm

Its biggest weakness is that it doesn't main deck any removal and the only creature removal it has is 2 Windstorm in the sideboard. But, it gets around that with the Master of the Wild Hunt which can act as a removal spell every turn. I'm not sure how my Elspeth Assault V2 would do against this powerhouse as I haven't tested it out yet but I would like to think it would be able to compete. Here's my latest installment of Elspeth Assault...

Creature Spells:
Goblin Ruinblaster x3
Hellspark Elemental x4
Hell's Thunder x3

Non-Creature Spells:
Ajani Vengeant x4
Elspeth, Knight-Errant x3
Goblin Assault x4
Lightning Bolt x4
Journey to Nowhere x4
Day of Judgment x3
Martial Coup x2
Oblivion Ring x2

Lands:
Arid Mesa x4
Terramorphic Expanse x4
Plains x8
Mountain x8

Sideboard:
Celestial Purge x3
Goblin Ruinblaster x1
Luminarch Ascension x3
Intimidation Bolt x3
Volcanic Fallout x2
Oblivion Ring x1
Banefire x2

I decided to take out the 3 Scepter of Dominance and put in 3 Goblin Ruinblaster instead. I think the Ruinblaster is a little better because I can permanently take out an important non-basic land and have a hasty creature on the board to do some possible damage as well. Ruinblaster is an absolute monster against all of the 3 or more color decks out there. Take out a Savage Lands against Jund on turn 4 and it could really hurt them down the stretch.

I also took out the 4 Burst Lightning and put in 4 Journey to Nowhere. There were too many times that I ran into a situation where I needed something a little more powerful than Burst Lightning to play on a troublesome creature like Baneslayer. Path to Exile was my first choice until I realized how it would negate the effect of Ruinblaster. It doesn't make sense to play Path to Exile and give your opponent a free land in a deck that has land destruction as a way to control the board. Journey to Nowhere gives me the same power albeit a little more expensive than Path to Exile.

Another addition to the main deck is Martial Coup in place of Banefire. Martial Coup is one of the best spells out there for late game board control. To be able to wipe the board and reinforce your side at the same time is pretty sick. This is a very important spell when dealing with late game monsters like Broodmate Dragon and Sphinx of Jwar Isle.

The last change I made to the original main deck is a small one. I decided I needed to main deck one more Elspeth, Knight-Errant and took out one Oblivion Ring to make room. There were too many games where I was waiting for an Elspeth to swing the game in my favor and came up empty handed. This decks main win condition is Goblin Assault comboed with Elspeth, Knight-Errant. It's hard to stop a 4/4 flying Goblin that comes at you every turn no matter what.

The sideboard has been changed up a bit as well. I took out the Baneslayers and put in Luminarch Ascension. This spell kills other control decks and Baneslayer just becomes a big target for removal because I have so few creatures to begin with. I'm planning on testing this version out quite a bit. If you guys decide to use it let me know how it fares against the other decks out there. Peace out and good luck on your next coin flip!

Combo and Synergy - October and November

2009-10-26T08:39:00.014-05:00

This month's Combo and Synergy highlights several key components of decks being played around the Magic Community. Hopefully, they will inspire you to create a combo deck of your own (and one that will hopefully pwn all the prevalent aggro decks out there). Enjoy!!!

This month's first combo is from Lad's Mill deck. The deck abuses Archive Trap and Path to Exile. On the turn immediately following his opponent's creature drop, Lad Path to Exiles it from the game. Most opponents will then search for a land. After doing this, Lad plays all the Archive Traps from his hand without paying their mana costs to begin milling anywhere from 13 to 42 cards.

These two cards are awesome together in a Grixis Combo deck. Use early Lightning Bolts, Burst Lightnings, Blightning, and other burn spells to trigger the Ascension. After the Ascension is ready, play Archive Trap to mill 13 cards and syphon 26 life from your opponent for the win.

This is an awesome combo for getting rid of pesky creatures. Play Journey to Nowhere, and when Journey enters play name the pesky creature to exile. While the exiled ability is on the stack, bounce Journey to Nowhere to your hand with Into the Roil. Journey will return to your hand and then the creature will be exiled. Since Journey reads, "When Journey to Nowhere leaves the battlefield, return the exiled card to the battlefield under its owner control," Journey will look to return its exiled card to the battlefield when it leaves; however, since the card has yet to be exiled it won't be returned...after Journey is bounced the triggered ability will then resolve and exile the pesky creature forever....And then you Journey something else.

This is an awesome 2 card combo that has seen some top 8 tournament play. Eldrazi Monument requires you to sacrifice a creature at each upkeep; Bloodghast returns to play each time you play a land. Sacrifice Bloodghast to the monument and return him at your land drop.

These two cards have seen some play and make for a crazy win condition. Warp World requires both players to shuffle all permanents they control into their library and then reveal that many cards from their library and put all revealed permanents into play under their control. Ob Nixilis is a 3/3 demon that has landfall (drains 3 life and gets +3/+3). When Ob Nixilis comes into play he sees how many lands also came into play and they trigger his landfall (ex. Ob Nixilis and 4 lands equals a 15/15 Ob Nixilis that drained 12 life). Also, if 2 or more Ob Nixilis are revealed, they are both put into play. Their legendary sacrifice rule is put on the stack and the landfall triggers and will resolve first (ex. 2 Ob Nixilis and 3 lands equals 2 12/12 Ob Nixilis that drained 18 life that will be sacrificed.)

The Rise and Fall of My Magic Greatness...

2009-10-25T10:46:00.005-05:00

Like Lad mentioned before, we got back from Pro Tour Austin last weekend and it was an awesome experience. The weekend was full of awesomeness (if Colbert can coin a word, then so can I). While there, Lad and I participated in a few Standard side tournaments and I brought the new version of my Chandra Control deck. Here is my updated list (which will change as the new metagame develops).

Maindeck
3 Chandra Ablaze
2 Sphinx of the Lost Truth
4 Bloodghast
4 Sedraxis Specter
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Terminate
4 Blightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Burst Lightning
2 Swerve
2 Volcanic Fallout

Lands
4 Crumbling Necropolis
3 Dragonskull Summit
3 Drowned Catacomb
6 Mountain
4 Island
5 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Deathmark
1 Volcanic Fallout
3 Grixis Charm
1 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Countersquall
1 Swerve
2 Rites of Replication

There were 149 people signed up in the tournament; I sat down at my table to wait for my opponent. A few minutes later, I looked up as my opponent sat down. His name was Charles Gindy (last year's US National Champion). I was nervous. Here I am, a small fish trying out a new control deck versus last year's Cruel Control National Champion.

We played....I won the roll and went first. I dropped an early swamp and passed. He played a land and passed. I dropped a drowned catacomb and played Bloodghast. He played another land and played Howling Mine. I was excited...I wasn't playing Jund and my deck does well versus most control decks...I drew my 2 cards, attacked with Bloodghast and played Blightning and he discarded a Time Warp and another spell. He played another land and Pyromancer's Acension and lightning bolted my Bloodghast. My turn...I drew my 2 cards, played a land, Lightning Bolted him, Burst Lightninged him dropping his life to 10, and then attacked with my hasted Bloodghast dropping him to 8. He followed up by Lightning Bolting me and Pyroclasming the Bloodghast. Turn 5, I drew my 2 cards, played a land, and played a Sedraxis Specter. I attacked with my recursive Bloodghast and he bolted him. I passed the turn. He played 2 more burn spells which turned his Acension on and passed the turn. I drew my 2 cards and drew a land and a Lightning Bolt. I played the land, returning the Bloodghast and attacked with both creatures dropping him to 3 and then burned him for the win. Game 1....I Win!!!

Now for Game 2. I sideboarded worthless Terminates and Volcanic Fallouts for Grixis Charm and Countersquall. He played first. He dropped an Acension on turn 2. I played my Blightning on turn 3 causing him to discard 2 burn spells and played my Sedraxis Specter on turn 4. We both stalled out at 3 lands for 2 turns. He activated his Acension on turn 5 and I bounced it back to his hand on my next turn. He followed up by drawing another land and playing 2 more Acensions (which were quickly activated over the next 2 turns). Around turn 8, he was stalled at 4 lands and I drew my 6th. I decided to play Chandra Ablaze and removed 2 counters to activate her 2nd ability to cause both players to discard their hands and draw 3 cards. He discarded another Time Warp and a burn spell (if I did not do this and if his next card was a land he could have Acensioned for 2 extra Time Warp copies). He did not draw any relevant spells, and I ended up burning him with Chandra and attacking him with Bloodghasts and Specters for the win on the next turn.

I couldn't believe it...I beat the US National Champ in a Control Mirror...This makes me the new National Champ (right?). Well it made since in my mind so I quickly took my throne....

I happily moved on to the next round and sat down to play. I lost the roll and he went first. My opponent played the dreaded Savage Land and my heart slowed to a halt as I knew what would later taker place (a turn 2 Putrid Leech, Turn 3 Sprouting Thrinax, turn 4 Bloodbraid Elf cascading into Blightning, and turn 5 Bitumous Blast cascading into another Sprouting Thrinax.) Few decks have a chance against a draw like that.

Game 2, I sideboarded in Rites of Replication to copy his creatures expecially Broodmate Dragon and Bloodbraid Elf (to do a cascade of my own) and Grixis Charm to bounce his lands and help kill his 4/4 creatures. I drew my hand and felt pretty confidant about it (I drew 3 lands, 1 Lightning Bolt, 1 Bloodghast, and 2 Terminates.) I played my tap land and passed. He played a Duress and got rid of my Lightning Bolt. I drew another land and passed. He played a land and plassed. I drew another Terminate. He played the expected Blightning and I got rid of my Bloodghast and a land. I drew a Sedraxis Specter, played it, and passed. Then came turn 4's coup d'etat....He played a land and Thought Hemmorhage naming Terminate. I revealed the 3 in my hand loosing 9 life and the rest of cards in my hand. He finished the game over the next 2 turns with double Bloodbraid Elf cascading into a burn spell and a Great Sable Stag.

It was like the Rise and Fall of Rome. I had abdicated my throne as quickly as I secured it...I am no longer the reigning ruler of Magic greatness (Damn the Man!!! Damn the Electric Fence!!! and Damn the Jund!!!)

I ended the tournament at 5-3. I beat 2 Jund Decks, RWU control, Bant Aggro, Time Warp Acension and lost to 2 Jund decks and a Bant Lotus Cobra deck (lost game 1 due to getting stuck with 3 lands through turn 6; won game 2 by Rite of Replicating a Sphinx of Lost Truth to discard 2 Bloodhasts and draw more cards including a land to bring the Bloodghasts back on the next turn; and lost game 3 for my opponent's luck in drawing all 4 of his Path to Exiles by turn 7 and removing my double Rite of Replicationed Baneslayer blockers from the game for the win.) I ended at 26th place. It wasn't 1st but it was still a blast.

Pro Tour-Austin Part 2 (Elspeth Assault)

2009-10-21T16:27:00.016-05:00

Well, the dust has settled and we've been back in town for a couple of days now. Austin was really a terrific trip. It seems we played MTG for about 36 hours over the three days we were there. Whether it was tournament action or testing out deck ideas we were totally focused on the task at hand... finding out what the meta-game is shaping up to be early in the Zendikar season. I can tell you that two decks dominated all three tourneys that I played in and they both happen to be Aggro. Jund Cascade and Red/White Boros were the boss decks all weekend. I had three decks that I brought with me... Esper Mill, Red/White Control, and my own version of Jund Cascade. I decided not to play the Esper Mill deck because I thought it would get eaten alive by Jund. I played my Red/White Control deck once and my Jund Cascade deck twice. My best finish was 6th place with my Red/White Control deck which turns out to be quite strong against Jund and does reasonably well against R/W Boros. If you're like me and you prefer more of a Control deck than I highly recommend my Red/White Control deck which I will title Elspeth Assault. I'll first give you the deck list and then I'll break down the strategy.

Elspeth Assault

Creature Spells:
Hellspark Elemental x4
Hell's Thunder x3

Non-Creature Spells:
Ajani Vengeant x4
Elspeth, Knight-Errant x2
Goblin Assault x4
Lightning Bolt x4
Burst Lightning x4
Day of Judgment x3
Scepter of Dominance x3
Banefire x2
Oblivion Ring x3

Lands:
Arid Mesa x4
Jungle Shrine x4
Gargoyle Castle x2
Plains x7
Mountain x7

Sideboard:
Celestial Purge x4
Goblin Ruinblaster x3
Baneslayer Angel x4
Intimidation Bolt x2
Volcanic Fallout x2

This deck has a very strong mid-game which means you'll need to withstand the onslaught of powerful early game decks like Boros and compete with the most dominate mid-game deck going right now, Jund. Against other control decks with a powerful late game you'll need to overwhelm them before they can establish their late-game dominance.

Early on the strategy is to hopefully get Hellspark Elemental out on turn 2. If you're playing Boros you may need to hold off and use Lightning Bolt and Burst Lightning to slow them down the first couple of turns. I saw Boros decks consistently win games on turn 4 if left unchallenged. Hell's Thunder is a good turn 3 play in the right game. Against other Control decks it might be better to play Scepter of Dominance on turn 3 if you have it available. That card really hurts Control decks.

These are our control spells in the deck. All four of these spells uniquely help establish board control so that we can get momentum on our side. I like Oblivion Ring over Path to Exile for this deck because of the versatility. There are many permanents out there that could present trouble besides just creatures. We don't need cards like Jace Beleren or Luminarch Ascension to stick around for very long if you know what I mean. Day of Judgment is self explanatory. The ability to wipe out the board is about as good as it gets for this deck. Ajani Vengeant is, in my opinion, the best Planeswalker out there right now. If you're able to get both him and a Scepter of Dominance to stick on the board at the same time it will be very hard for another control deck to beat you.

These two cards have such amazing synergy together. Goblin Assault produces a token with haste ever turn and Elspeth, Knight-Errant makes the token a 4/4 flyer every turn. This is absolutely the most explosively part of this deck. If you can set up the board and get this combo engine going than your opponent ends up under the gun very quickly. Combine this with the Unearth abilities of Hellspark Elemental and Hell's Thunder and you've got a very explosive mid-game indeed.

Banefire is in the deck just in case we need that final burn spell that can seal the game. I love Banefire because by the time you really need to use it you should have enough mana to make it unstoppable. I can't tell you how many games it has won me in a stalemate against another control deck. It is an amazing card.

My sideboard choices are pretty self-explanatory. The one that may confuse a few people is my decision to sideboard Baneslayer instead of maindecking it. Because my deck has so few creatures I decided that it's not a good choice for game 1 because of all the removal most decks are running. The strategy is to show my opponent that I have very few creatures in game 1 so that he'll hopefully side out most of his removal for game 2. That's when I surprise him with Baneslayer and hopefully it's enough to seal the deal. In the end it really just depends on the match-ups. Sometimes Baneslayer is a world beater and sometimes he's just an easy target for removal.

I'll be playing this deck for a while and hope you'll give it some consideration as well. If you're like me and you're always looking for ways to topple the big dogs than I think this has as good a chance as anything else out there right now. If you have any suggestions or questions please don't be afraid to leave a comment. That's it for today and good luck on your next coin flip!

Pro Tour-Austin Part 1

2009-10-14T18:34:00.015-05:00

Hello friends, this is a big week for me as I will be traveling down to Austin with my blogging partner to participate in the Pro Tour-Austin festivities. We will both be playing in four separate Standard Constructed events, one on Friday, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday. I'm sure we'll both have plenty of stories, both good and bad, to tell when it's all said and done.

As you know there is always a lot of speculation as to which deck ideas will be strongest in the meta-game once a new block is released. I have decided to bring three decks with me. One of them is a creation of mine called Esper Mill which I will be discussing extensively in a bit. Another is a Red/White control deck I've seen before that uses Goblin Assault with Elspeth, Knight-Errant. I've made a lot of changes to the one Mark Hendrickson took to the Top 8 at Nationals earlier this year but the idea is the same. The last one is Jund Cascade. The only real difference between mine and the other current Jund decks is I use Sarkhan Vol in place of Garruk Wildspeaker.

Esper Mill is, you guessed it, a three color Mill deck using the Esper colors. I've always been a sucker for the decks that feature an alternate way to win. This deck will be my main play unless it proves to be too weak in the current meta-game. One big reason I will play this deck is the amount of really strong creatures in Standard. Because of this I feel there will be a lot of decks either featuring the really strong creatures or playing the spells that get rid of the really strong creatures. The reason this is important to me is that I don't have any creatures in my deck at all. So, all of those removal spells in the other decks become wasted spells. Sure, most good players will side in the necessary cards to deal with this in game two but if I can get that advantage and win game one it makes it much easier on me.

The early game cards in this deck are Duress and Esper Charm. I want to try my best to disable my opponent's hand first before I turn my attention to destroying his deck. Esper Charm is also great when your opponent has a pesky enchantment on the board or maybe you need to reload by drawing a little later in the game. This deck would not be as effective without the versatility of Esper Charm.

I will control the board with Day of Judgment and Path to Exile. These are both very efficient creature removal spells that should buy me enough time to destroy my opponent's deck. Path to Exile is also great when used as a combo piece with Archive Trap. I take out a creature, my opponent searches for a land, and boom I drop Archive Trap for zero mana cost. If I have two Traps in my hand and one Twincast then it's basically game over. This brings me to the meat of the deck...

These are the spells that eventually get us the win. Mind Funeral and Archive Trap are used to set up the big finishers, Jace Beleren and Haunting Echoes. If you're able to successfully cast Haunting Echoes after a Mind Funeral and an Archive Trap it virtually guarantees you the win as most decks carry three or four copies of each spell in their deck.

Last, but not least, our utility spells are Twincast and Negate. Twincast is very important in this deck as it allows you to copy Archive Trap or Mind Funeral at a cheap cost. I regularly mill ten to fifteen cards with Mind Funeral. Twincast lets you double that for a total of five mana. It's very similar to the Sanity Grinding / Twincast combo. Twincast is also useful in many other situations. Anytime your opponent plays a powerful sorcery or instant you can copy it and yours resolves first. Imagine if you are able to Twincast Cruel Ultimatum. It would be a nasty surprise for your opponent. Negate is in the deck as a spot counter against potential problem spells like Thought Hemorrhage or Blightning.

Here is the final decklist...

Instant Spells
Path to Exile x4
Archive Trap x4
Esper Charm x4
Negate x3
Twincast x4

Sorcery Spells
Day of Judgment x4
Haunting Echoes x3
Mind Funeral x4
Duress x2

Planeswalker Spells
Jace Beleren x3

Lands
Arcane Sanctum x4
Drowned Catacomb x4
Glacial Fortress x4
Marsh Flats x3
Plains x3
Swamp x3
Island x4

Sideboard
Telemin Performance x3
Pithing Needle x3
Celestial Purge x3
Mindbreak Trap x2
Identity Crisis x2
Negate x1
Duress x1

I'll let you guys know how this deck fares in Austin when I post Pro Tour-Austin Part 2 next week. I look forward to any comments you might have and good luck on your next coin flip!

Chandra Control

2009-10-08T16:13:00.013-05:00

Chandra Control is a powerful control deck I created that centers around the powerful planeswalker Chandra Ablaze and the amazing sorcery Cruel Ultimatum.

Chandra Ablaze's 1st ability allows you to add a loyalty counter by discarding a red card to Flame Javelin, deal 4 direct damage to target creature or player. Her second ability is amazing against another control deck. Both players discard their hands and draw 3 cards which limits the options they have stored up till now. Chandra's final ability will win you the game...remove 7 counters to play any number of red instants or sorceries from your graveyard without paying their mana costs. This final ability leads me to the next card that wins the game and plays nicely with Chandra...Cruel Ultimatum.

Cruel Ultimatum is probably the most powerful sorcery Magic the Gathering has ever created. It changes the game dramatically. Your opponent has to sacrifice a creature, discard 3 cards, and lose 5 life while you return a creature from your graveyard to your hand, draw 3 cards, and gain 5 life (basically they lose 4 cards and 5 life and you gain 4 cards and 5 life...all this from playing 1 card is just crazy and overwhelming.) The goal of the deck is to play Cruel Ultimatum on turn 7 by casting it at full cost and recasting it and others through Chandra's final ability hopefully on turn 8.

This version of Chandra Control only runs 4 creatures maindeck. Sedraxis Specter is a 3/2 flyer with unearth that causes your opponent to discard a card whenever it deals combat damage to that opponent. It is a great early game threat, and, with its unearth ability, it is a great target to discard for Chandra's 1st ability. The deck also runs 3 Magma Phoenix in its sideboard. Magma Phoenix is a great creature to side in versus aggro decks. Magma Phoenix deals 3 damage to each creature and player when it is put in the graveyard and returns to your hand for 5 mana to do it all over again. The Phoenix is also a great target for Chandra since it can return to your hand after being discarded.

In addition to these threats, the deck is compiled of some the most powerful red spells in the current Standard.

These two burn spells are amazing and may be the most powerful red burn commons that Magic has ever made. When playing the deck, you should save these cards to kill your opponent's creatures early on and then begin punishing your opponent directly in later turns while waiting for Chandra final ability to trip them once more. (Key note about Burst Lightning: when playing it, you can kick the spell...so when Chandra's final ability trips, you can add the kicker cost when casting it through her ability for additional damage.)

These 2 spells are used to help control your opponent's hand size and threats while still dealing direct damage to him or her. Thought Hemorrage is a great sideboard card that can be sided in to further limit your opponent's options in control and combo deck matchups.

Bitumous Blast is an awesome instant creature burn that cascades into some of your other powerful burn or card draw spells. Grixis Charm is a sideboard card that helps bounce an annoying artifacts (such as Pithing Needle), planeswalkers, lands, or enchantments (especially if the Zendikar quest enchantments take off). It is also another excellent kill spell and can be pitched easily to Chandra.

Here is my final build:

Maindeck
4 Chandra Ablaze
4 Sedraxis Specter
3 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Divination
4 Terminate
4 Blightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Burst Lightning
3 Bitumous Blast
3 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard
3 Magma Phoenix
3 Thought Hemorrhage
3 Grixis Charm
4 Countersquall
2 Swerve

The maindeck is designed to stall creature heavy, aggro decks. In more control or combo deck matchups, side out the unneeded kill spells for Countersquall to counter non-creature spells while still depleting his or her life total, Swerve to redirect spells (awesome against Time Warp decks...redirect the extra turn to yourself), Thought Hemorrhage to limit their hand size, and Grixis Charm to bounce their combo pieces.

Tonight will be my first run with it at our local FNM. I will post any changes I think will need to be made afterwards in the comments section...If any of you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. Enjoy.

Combo and Synergy - September

2009-09-14T09:49:00.010-05:00

Like many of you...I am wondering what the next best builds will be with our beloved (and often hated) Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks leaving Standard. So this month's Combo and Synergy installment include four card pairings that have inspired Lad and I to some new Magic builds for Standard and Extended play.

This an awesome combo that will likely see lots of play by players this year. Play Dauntless Escort on turn 3 (or 2 with Birds of Paradise's or Noble Heirarch's help) and play Day of Judgement on the next 1 or 2 turns. While Day of Judgement is on the stack, sacrifice Dauntless Escort to wipe out your opponent's board while your other indestructible creatures remain and attack unthreatened.

This is an amazing 2 card combo that Lad is using in one of his new decks. Play Goblin Assualt on turn 3 and Elspeth on 4. Every turn, starting with 4 your new Goblin token will attack and Elspeth will give it +3/+3 and flying. So you will basically have a 4/4 flying Goblin token with haste each turn. A devastating combo that can easily get out of hand.

I love Chandra Ablaze. Ever since I first saw her, I thought about adding her to my new Cruel Control deck. Chandra first ability is awesome and her 2nd is okay, but her final is amazing. On turn 6, she can discard a copy of Cruel Ultimatum and deal 4 damage to target creature or player. On turn 7, you can play another Cruel or discard it. Then on turn 8, you can play all sorceries and instants in your graveyard...Hello Cruel Ultimatums and Twincasts :)

The final card pairing is an amazing Extended combo. Play Rampaging Baloths (or any other Landfall creature) and on the next turn play Scapeshift. When Scapeshift comes into play, sacrifice each land you control to replace them with other lands and put that many Beast tokens into play.

I hope these ideas give you some new thoughts on your next builds. Let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas for future combos and synergies.

Playing against Blue Control

2009-09-11T16:09:00.002-05:00

Hello everybody,

It's been a while since I've posted but I hope I have some useful information for you with this one. Before I get into the subject matter I want you guys to know that my partner and I will be heading down to Austin for, believe it or not, Pro Tour - Austin on the weekend of Oct. 16 - Oct. 18. We'll be blogging about our adventures and, um, misadventures I'm sure.

Now, back to the task at hand. I know quite a few people that hate playing against counter decks. Every time you play a spell it seems to get countered and the frustration mounts. With this post I'll try to go in depth at how I feel are the best ways to play a counter deck.

I've found that one of the best ways to counter a control deck is speed. If someone is playing heavy counter spells you're going to want to play as many creatures at once as you can. Don't play one per turn, play three on the same turn. Granted, you won't be able to use them as fast, but at least one of them should sneak through. The other thing you're going to want is cards that disrupt their counters. Guttural Response is a Blue players worst nightmare!

You may also want to try token producing cards. If you can get a card like Bitterblossom to stick on the board then you'll keep producing a creature each turn without having to play a spell. I recently ran a Green/Black token deck at a tournament and beat a very tough Faerie deck because I was able to gain card advantage through numbers. Of course, my Green/Black Token deck didn't fare so well against Volcanic Fallout in the next match but that's besides the point.

Here are a few last tips when playing against a control deck.

1) Force him to react to you not the other way around. You should have him wondering what you're going to play next and whether or not he wants to counter it.

2) Don't be afraid to play dummy spells. For instance, don't make the first creature you play in a turn your 5/5 monster because he will counter it. Instead, play a smaller creature or two. Who knows, maybe he'll run out of mana or maybe he'll run out of counterspells. Maybe he won't counter your small ones because he's expecting you to play a big one. Either way you end up on the winning side because he'll either be wasting his spells on your weenies or you have a couple creatures in play.

3) Try to keep his hand empty. If he doesn't have any cards in his hand he can't counter your creatures. Cards like Thoughtseize, Duress, and Tidehollow Sculler are great for this.

4) If you're losing don't keep using the same deck setup over and over. The definition of insanity is repeating your actions over and over and expecting a different result.

I hope this helps all of you that love playing Aggro and hate playing against Blue Control. Maybe next time we'll try to figure out a way to beat those pesky Wrath of God/Damnation type Control decks. There is nothing worse than building up an army of Soldiers only to have them wiped of the board. Those damn control freaks!

That's it for now and good luck on your next coin flip!

Zendikar Rumors

2009-08-21T10:38:00.010-05:00

Just wanted to post some reported rumors of the upcoming Zendikar set. Here are a few rumors I have found on the web from various sites with previews.

Rampaging Baloths - 4GG
Creature - Beast (M)
Trample
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a 4/4 Beast creature token onto the battlefield.
6/6

From what we can tell he is a Black Planeswalker and probably a Vampire.

Chandra is back and she looks to be all Red again.

Here are a few reported common rumor previews.

Stay tuned for more previews as they come up.

My So-Called Cruel Grixis Fae Life

2009-08-16T10:14:00.014-05:00

Ever since I saw the prerelease for Lorwyn I knew that I wanted to build a Faerie deck (there is just something sexy about the Fae)...However, once the cards came out, everyone and their mother began building Faerie decks. So my goal was to build a cool, powerful Faerie deck that was different from all others out there. Here is my latest build. It is a very controlling deck (especially against creature heavy opponents).

The deck is designed to lock down your opponent until you can overrun him/her with creatures or the awesome sorcery Cruel Ultimatum. A fun card that causes your opponent to sacrifice a creature, discard 3 cards, and lose 5 life while you return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand, draw 3 cards, and gain 5 life. This awesome card tilts the game in your favor everytime it is played and typically will win the game for you.

The deck runs 12 creature cards (Sower of Temptation to steal your opponent's favorite creature, Scion of Oona to boost your Faerie creatures and give them shroud, and Spellstutter Sprite to counter spells) and the awesome token generating Bitterblossom.

The rest of the deck is designed to lockdown your opponents every move. The deck runs 8 counter spells (the versatile Cryptic Command and Broken Ambitions).

And 8 powerful burn spells to slow down your opponent's creatures (Firespout and Lightning Bolt). Typically each time I play the deck, Firespout is the card that pushes the game in my favor. It deals 3 damage to each creature without flying (totally demolishing most token and aggro decks) and gives me time to setup my lockdown. Both of these burn spells are Faerie's answers to Green's new Hero Great Sable Stag.

Also included in the deck are 2 awesome Shards of Alara cards (Grixis Charm and the sideboarded Swerve). Grixis Charm is a powerful game changing card (bounce a permament to its owners hand, kill a creature by giving it -4/-4, and overun your opponent by giving your creatures +2/+0). Swerve is a fun card that can totally surprises your opponent. Redirect one of their spells in your favor (ex. I once redirected my opponent's Oblivion Ring from targeting my Bitterblossom toward his powerful Planeswalker...he couldn't overcome this surprise).

Here is my final build:

Maindeck:
creatures:
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellsutter Sprite

spells:
3 Cruel Utlimatum
4 Bitterblossom
4 Cryptic Command
4 Broken Ambitions
3 Grixis Charm
3 Fire Spout
3 Lightning Bolt

Sideboard:
creatures:
3 Glen Elendra Archmage

spells:
3 Swerve
1 Firespout
2 Peppersmoke
3 Doomblade
3 Sleep

Hopefully this new build will inspire you to think outside of the box with your builds. Feel free to leave comments with your thoughts and ideas.

Dramatic Angels

2009-08-12T10:41:00.019-05:00

There is a combo from the Shadowmoor block that I have always been in love with... Dramatic Entrance + Woodfall Primus. In my opinion Woodfall Primus is the biggest and baddest guy on the block from the Shadowmoor set but he's just so damn expensive. What if you could cheat him in on turn 4 or 5? Well, now that's a whole different story. All of the sudden you have a 6/6 creature with Trample and the ability to destroy any non-creature permanent when he comes into play. Think that's scary? It gets even worse because he has Persist which means if your opponent Terrors him than he comes back into play and destroys another non-creature permanent. Dramatic Entrance + Woodfall Primus is a match made in heaven.

Speaking of heaven, I think I've finally found a fun and casual way to bring that combo into the plane of Alara. I've always wanted to make an Angel deck that is different and the world of Bant definitely gives us options. Imagine Dramatic Entrance + Empyrial Archangel. She's not someone you would want to meet on a battlefield. Her Shroud ability is what really sets her apart as an almost lock to win the game for you. What's crazy is that with a little luck and a little mana acceleration you could potentially get her out on turn 4. I wouldn't want to be the other guy in that matchup. Now, let's discuss the other pieces to the puzzle.

Our early game spells are Rampant Growth and/or Courier's Capsule. Each one is very useful in setting us up to succeed in the later game.

Bant Charm is absolutely necessary in this deck. It's an extremely versatile spell that can bail you out of a lot of tough situations. Fog should buy you another turn to drop your combo. It's also great when used with Stoic Angel. Let's say your opponent attacks you with three creatures on turn 3. Drop Fog to prevent all combat damage and play Stoic Angel on turn 4 which will allow your opponent to only untap one creature. Nice!

These pretty ladies are the only other creatures in the deck but they'll definitely help hold down the fort until the big guns come out to play. Guardian Seraph can be a beast if you're playing a Weenie or Token deck with a lot of small creatures. If your opponent attacks with 5 1/1 Faeries none of them deal damage to you!

All in all I think this is a fun deck that will win some games for you in a casual setting. Here is the final Decklist...

Creature Spells
Stoic Angel x3
Empyrial Archangel x3
Jenara, Asura of War x4
Guardian Seraph x3
Woodfall Primus x3

Instant Spells
Bant Charm x4
Dramatic Entrance x4
Fog x4

Sorcery Spells
Rampant Growth x4

Artifact Spells
Courier's Capsule x4

Lands
Seaside Citadel x4
Terramorphic Expanse x2
Vivid Meadow x4
Plains x2
Forest x6
Island x6

I hope this deck has given you guys some new ideas. Drop me a line if you have any questions and don't be afraid to leave your thoughts in the comments section. Take care and good luck on your next coin flip!

P.S. I've got quite a few decks for sale at my ebay store. All of them are custom made for casual yet competitve play. Take a peek at...
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/RIGHT-PLACE-MTG

Combo and Synergy - August

2009-08-05T09:50:00.012-05:00

Probably like most of you, I love to see how cards from the newer sets interact with some of my favorite cards from the past. This month's combo and synergy highlights some of my favorite interactions.

Ever since I saw the preview of Demigod of Revenge I wanted to build a deck around him. The first card that came to mind was Buried Alive. With one copy of each card in your hand you can search for the 3 other Demigods and put them into the graveyard to await their return. Another perfect card for this deck is Dark Ritual. With 2 Dark Rituals in hand you can play Buried Alive on turn 1 and play all of your Demigods on turn 3 and attack for 20 in the air.

I have always loved Isochron Scepter. I am currently building a deck with it comboed with Twincast. Now you can copy any instant or sorcery for 2 mana. This works great in combo decks and against counter decks (You can counter their counters by Twincasting it).

Another Isochron Scepter combo but more mean. :) Imprint Silence and keep your opponent from ever playing another spell again.

Another powerful two card combo. Play Dauntless Escort on turn 3. On turn 4 sacrifice him and play Wrath of God. This will destroy all of your opponent's creatures and all of your creatures will be indestructible for the turn. A fun way to wipe out your competition.

This is one of my favorite combos that I use in an Evoke deck. Reveillark states, "When Reveillark leaves play, return up to two target creature cards with power 2 or less from your graveyard to play." Body Double states, "As Body Double comes into play, you may choose a creature card in a graveyard. If you do, Body Double comes into play as a copy of that card." Body Double is a 0/0 creature when it is not in play. When Reveillark goes to the graveyard choose Body Double as one of the creatures to return to play. When Body Double comes into play choose the Reveillark in the graveyard. Now for the rest of the game the Body Double will be an annoyance that your opponent will be forced to deal with. When the Body Double dies it goes to the graveyard and its triggered ability goes on the stack. When the ability resolves it can choose Body Double again since it is a 0/0 in the graveyard. Return to play as Reveillark and repeat indefinitely. These 2 cards are blast to play together and a pain to play against.

Early Look at Zendikar

2009-07-25T22:59:00.004-05:00

Below is some information on the upcoming Zendikar set that I found at www.zendikar.net.

1. Zendikar does not have a multicolor theme. This is confirmed from Mark Rosewater’s latest article, “Tweet Talk” This means that Zendikar is monocolored.
Additionally: “Lights”, the 2010 large set, also does not have a multicolor theme.

2. Zendikar is NOT themed with pirates, dinosaurs, robots, ninjas, or monkeys. There goes the hope of anything like that. Note this does not 100% discourage Imperiosaur’s “basic lands only” ability.

3. Zendikar’s theme is hinted with this following passage:
Here’s my hint. There is a space in Magic design that we’ve explored on individual cards but have never explored thematically as a block theme. We started with that theme and then crafted a world that made it make sense. Once we had the world, we then made a bunch of other mechanics that made sense in that world. The design and creative did a lot of back and forth work to integrate the mechanical themes into the world. I do feel the world we’ve create is a resonant one, but not one with pirates or dinosaurs. Or robots. Or ninjas. Or monkeys. Let me wrap this answer up by saying that I’m quite excited with how Zendikar turned out, and once I’m allowed to freely talk about it, I anticipate I’ll start getting letters to ask me to stop talking about it.

4. There are a total of three Planeswalkers in Zendikar. One is confirmed to be Nissa Revane, and the other two are a mystery. The second Planeswalker, however, is a character who has previously appeared. Note that this might be interpreted to be Nissa Revane, who is “appearing” in Duels of the Planeswalker (the Xbox Live Arcade game). The exact quote is:
Q: how many planeswalkers are there in Zendikar?
A: Three, one of which is a planewalker that’s appeared previously.
Also: Note that Elspeth left the plane of Alara (or at least Bant) at the end of her webcomic arc. She could very well be the Planeswalker who appears in Zendikar.
Also: Note how Rosewater says “appeared”, not “printed”. It doesn’t discourage the possibility of Dominaria-centric Planeswalkers seeing print.

All four of these bits of info can be found on “Tweet Talk“, Mark Rosewater’s latest column.

Fun with Merfolk

2009-07-25T11:19:00.019-05:00

Merfolk are not your typical cute little fish unless you think a potential turn 4 or 5 kill is cute. For some reason this tribe has always been my favorite. Maybe it's because I've always had a thing for my two favorite colors Blue and White joining forces and taking over the world. Today I rebuilt my Merfolk deck to be more up to date with the new release of M10.

First thing I did was swap my old Merfolk staple, Lord of Atlantis, with the new boss, Merfolk Sovereign. It hurts to see the old guy retire but sometimes you just gotta move on with the new kid. Now that I'm not using the Islandwalk theme anymore its time to restructure the rest of the tribal deck.

The cards that were able to make the transition easily were Silvergill Adept, Wake Thrasher, Sygg, River Guide, Merrow Reejerey, and Cursecatcher. All of these cards from the Lorwyn block are still legal in Standard, at least until October, and they fit what I'm wanting to do with the new build. Cursecatcher is a nice play on turn 1 because it could potentially make a key instant or sorcery spell your opponent controls one mana more expensive which could mean the difference between a win and a loss. Silvergill Adept is a great 2 drop in this deck because it allows you to draw a card and put a 2/1 creature on the board for such a cheap price. The other 2 drop is Sygg, River Guide and he can give any of your Merfolk protection from the color of your choice until end of turn. The main combo engine of this deck though is Merrow Reejerey and Wake Thrasher. The synergy between the two is fantastic. Merrow Reejerey taps or untaps a permanent every time you play a Merfolk spell. Wake Thrasher gets +1/+1 until end of turn every time a permanent you control is untapped. Combine that with Merfolk Sovereign which could make Wake Thrasher unblockable and you've got a potential monster on turns 4, 5, and 6 if your opponent can last that long.

The new kids on the block are Meddling Mage, Wall of Denial, Harm's Way, and Sleep. Meddling Mage is an absolute must have for any W/U deck much less this Merfolk Deck. To not include her would be rather silly. Wall of Denial is great because it allows me to shut down my opponent's biggest threat on the board. Not much can get past an 0/8 defending flyer with Shroud. Harm's Way is in this deck as an answer to global damage spells such as Volcanic Fallout. If you've got Merfolk Sovereign on the board with two other 2/2 Merfolk creatures Volcanic Fallout would be enough to wipe them all out. But if you cast Harm's Way and redirect the 2 damage from Merfolk Sovereign to your opponent then your Sovereign lives and in turn saves your other two Merfolk creatures as well with the +1/+1 pump. The great thing about Harm's Way is that it is versatile and can be used in many different types of scenarios. Sleep is one of those cards that you play as a final lethal blow. It's a very powerful card that gives you two turns to try and make the kill without worrying about your opponent's creatures retaliating. Now that we've gone through the strategy behind the deck I'll lay out the deck list for you as constructed...

Creature Spells
Merfolk Sovereign x4
Silvergill Adept x4
Meddling Mage x4
Wake Thrasher x4
Merrow Reejerey x4
Sygg, River Guide x3
Wall of Denial x3
Cursecatcher x4

Instant Spells
Harm's Way x4

Sorcery Spells
Sleep x3

Lands
Wanderwine Hub x4
Glacial Fortress x2
Island x9
Plains x8

I hope this deck has given you guys some new ideas. Drop me a line if you have any questions and don't be afraid to leave your thoughts in the comments section. Take care and good luck on your next coin flip!

P.S. I've got quite a few decks for sale at my ebay store. All of them are custom made for casual yet competitve play. Take a peek at...
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/RIGHT-PLACE-MTG

Lorescale Coatl deck

2009-07-17T09:21:00.014-05:00

Ever since the latest block came out, I have been interested with the card Lorescale Coatl.

It is such a cool uncommon that I decided to build a new deck around it. The deck went through 4 different rebuilds until I settled on this final version. I built the deck as a blue / green beat down deck with lots of cool manipulation cards from various sets. The first card I knew that had to be in the deck is Brainstorm.

Play Lorescale on turn 4 and wait for your opponent to decide what to do with the creature. When your opponent decides to Tarfire Lorescale or attack you, play Brainstorm. Brainstorm allows you to draw 3 cards and then put 2 on top of your library. Your Lorescale is now a 5/5 and will wait to attack for 6 on your next turn.

I also added a few other key rares to help assist Lorescale in the beatdown. The first addition was the amazing mythic rare Jenara Asura of War and the second is cool rare Murkfiend Liege.

On turn 5 you can play Jenara and activate her ability to make her a 4/4 flyer. Or you can play the Murkfiend and watch your huge Lorescale Coatl (potentially a 9/9 creature) attack and then untap to block on the next turn.

I also added 2 other key rares to this deck to help power through the game. Cold-Eyed Selkie adds to the potential card draw boosting Lorescale even further. Cytoshape is a really cool card that has lots of options for this deck. You can use it to pester your opponent by Cytoshaping their biggest creature into a 1/1 when they decide to attack or block. Or, my favorite, Cytoshaping your Lorescale Coatl into a Cold-Eyed Selkie after your opponent decides to take a big hit. Your Cytoshape Lorescale Coatl will draw you a lot of cards thus boosting your other Coatls on the board.

For the final blow to your opponent, I added a playset of the cool Morningtide uncommon Bramblewood Paragon. When playing the deck I keep Bramblewood in my hand until I am ready to lay down a killer blow, which is usually by turn 5 or 6.

This is a very fun yet casual deck that never plays out the same each time I play it. I win with so many different options, primarily with the help of Cytoshape and a huge Lorescale Coatl. Below is my final decklist...

Creatures:
Lorescale Coatl x 4
Jenara Asura of War x 4
Murkfiend Liege x 4
Cold-Eyed Selkie x 4
Bramblewood Paragon x 4
Vigean Hydropon x 3
Elvish Visionary x 3
Coiling Oracle x 2

Instants:
Brainstorm x 4
Cytoshape x 4

Lands:
Seaside Citadel x 4
Forest x 8
Island x 8
Plains x 4

Let me know what you think... If you have any other ideas for the deck or if you like the deck idea. Check here for a variant and other deck ideas for sell: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/nickyrucker

Dovescape Deck

2009-07-12T17:19:00.012-05:00

Dovescape is a card that I've always been fascinated with. About two months ago I built a deck around the card which is very token driven. There are only 2 creatures spells in the deck in order to take advantage of Dovescape's unique ability. With that said let's move on to the strategy behind the deck...

Runed Halo is the only 2 drop you have in this deck and it is very important that you have a full play set of 4. It allows you to neutralize the biggest threat your opponent might have very quickly in the game. This should buy you some time to gain control of the game using the "meat" of the deck which comes on turns 3 and 4...

Ideally you'll want to have Spectral Procession available to play on turn 3 and either Glorious Anthem or Ajani Goldmane as your play on turn 4. This will set you up very well to control the board. Other good cards for turns 3 and 4 are Opal Guardian and Cenn's Enlistment. While they are not ideal plays in these spots they are good substitutes in case you didn't draw your Spectral Procession. Path to Exile is a very versatile card that can either take out a powerful creature your opponent has or allow you to accelerate your mana by exchanging one of your tokens for a land. This will allow you to play Dovescape a turn early which could be very important.

Mirrorweave and Hallowed Burial are great bailout cards that can also be used to generate Dove tokens after Dovescape is played if you don't need to clear the board. Once again, every spell in this deck are non-creature spells except for 2 Godhead of Awe which brings us to the "finishers" of this deck...

Once Dovescape is played you should be able control the game decisively from that point on. If your opponent has a big creature on the board with some sort of evasion or Trample then you have Godhead of Awe to even the playing field. Most of the time you'll have more non-creature spells than your opponent so you'll just out-Dove him to death. This is an exciting deck that is very fun in casual play. Here is the final decklist...

Creature Spells
Godhead of Awe x2

Enchantment Spells
Dovescape x3
Runed Halo x4
Glorious Anthem x2
Opal Guardian x4

Instant Spells
Mirrorweave x4
Path to Exile x3

Planeswalker Spells
Ajani Goldmane x2

Sorcery Spells
Hallowed Burial x4
Spectral Procession x4
Cenn's Enlistment x4

Lands
Plains x24

I hope this deck idea has given you guys some new ideas. Drop me a line if you have any questions and don't be afraid to leave your thoughts in the comment section. Take care and good luck on your next coin flip!

P.S. If you like what you see I have a similar Dovescape Deck for sale at my ebay store. Check it out at...
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/RIGHT-PLACE-MTG

twitter

2009-07-09T09:51:00.001-05:00

We have gone twitter.

Check it out at:

http://twitter.com/rightplacemtg

Combo and Synergy - July

2009-07-06T09:26:00.014-05:00

These two cards are awesome together in a 4 or 5 color control deck. Play the Flurry of Wings when your opponent is attacking with all his or her creatures. Let each of the tokens block a creature, and before damage is dealt play Fight to the Death to kill each attacking and blocking creature. An instant WOG ability is awesome to play with and devastating to play against.

These two cards are okay on their own; however, they are crazy powerful together. Tap the druid to float a forest mana. Put a -1/-1 counter on the druid to untap her and use the floated mana for Quillspike's ability to eat the counter and become bigger. You can infinitely reapeat this combo to make an infintely large quillspike to attack or block with.

Progenitus is such a cool card; however, he is just so bloody expensive. So why not play him for 1/2 his cost. On your opponent's turn, while he or she is attacking, play Dramatic Entrance putting Progenitus into play surprising your opponent's strongest creature, killing it and setting yourself up to attack for 10 on your next turn.

This is a cool way to wipe your opponents off the board. On turn 3 play Feral Hydra putting 2 counters on him when he comes into play. Then on turn 4 play Mirrorweave making all creatures in play a copy of Feral Hydra. All creatures will become a 0/0 and those without counters will immediately die.

This is an awesome combo that can wipe out your opponent in no time. Choose white or blue when you play Painter's Servant. Then on turn 5 kill your opponent with Chaotic Backlash. Chaotic Backlash will do damage equal to twice the number of white or blue permanents he/she controls (which should be atleast 10 damage if they have 5 lands in play.)

Wizard Manipulation

2009-06-24T14:44:00.022-05:00

One of the coolest themes in MTG is the Blue Wizard theme. Throughout the history of Magic there have been many powerful control based Wizard decks that have done very well in tournament play. Today I want to share with you my own Wizard deck that I have developed over the last year or so. Most of the cards are from the Lorwyn block but there are some older cards that take it over the top. There are 3 major themes in my Wizard deck that make it a formidable force to be reckoned with. I focus on counters, stealing the opponent's creatures, and bouncing permanents. All three of these are tried and true Blue themes within Magic. First we'll discuss the combos that are in the deck...

This combo can be deadly if it is executed properly. First, play Sage of Fables on turn 3 and then Glen Elendra Archmage on turn 4. You are now set up to counter all of your opponent's noncreature spells indefinitely because your Archmage will keep coming back into play with a +1/+1 counter from Sage of Fables which washes out the -1/-1 counter from the Persist ability.

The first card, Familiar's Ruse is the main combo card for the other three cards. You can counter an opponent's spell and return either Vendilion Clique, Venser, Shaper Savant, or Sower of Temptation back to your hand. All three of these creatures have unique abilities when they come into play so you are at an advantage if you can play them over and over.

Cryptic Command is a devastating card that is even more lethal when Twincasted. Ouch! Other notable cards in this deck include Vedalken Shackles, Evacuation, Stonybrook Banneret, Sage's Dousing, and Telepathy...

Here is the deck list laid out for you...

Creatures
Venser, Shaper Savant x3
Sage of Fables x3
Sower of Temptation x4
Glen Elendra Archmage x2
Stonybrook Banneret x4
Vendilion Clique x3

Artifacts
Vedalken Shackles x3

Enchantments
Telepathy x2

Instants
Twincast x1
Familiar's Ruse x3
Sage's Dousing x3
Cryptic Command x3
Evacuation x3

Lands
Island x23

Ideally you would like to get Telepathy out on turn 1, Stonybrook Banneret out on turn 2, and Vedalken Shackles out on turn 3. This run of cards should give you some pretty powerful leverage to control the game the rest of the way. This is a fun deck that should do pretty well in a casual setting. Let me know your thoughts and good luck on your next coin flip!

Duels of the Planeswalkers

2009-06-22T09:22:00.004-05:00

Like many of you, I jumped for glee when I heard that Magic was releasing this for the Xbox Arcade. So I downloaded it last week and got a few hours of game play in. So here are a few thoughts so far:

Well. Overall I like the game. The best part is that it only costs 800 microsoft points and you get a free foil Garruk card with purchase... Sweet ...It is also super fun to play through the campaign mode and I especially enjoy spending a few minutes throughout the day going through the challenges sections (several are super easy, but there a few that will stretch your mind...I am talking to you Lilliana Vess).

I do have a few frustrations though.
1. The game clock presses you to make a choice before you are ready. Too many times I have missed an activated ability or playing a spell because my time ran out.
2. Some of the controls seem clunky.
3. I don't believe there is any way to make your own deck. You use each planeswalker's deck and you are able to switch out cards that get for each deck, but you lack the ability to mix decks.

But all in all, I think it is definitely the best game Magic has put out and again the price is worth it. I have yet to play any multiplayer online, but I am sure I will begin soon enough.

Hit me up if you want to give it a go online and leave us your thoughts.

Xbox Live Gamertag: JADE BLUE 1979

Lucky Charms!

2009-06-17T10:49:00.026-05:00

Ever since Shards of Alara was released I have been fascinated with the five charms that came within the set. Each of the planes of Alara has its own charm and I've always wanted to make a five color deck built around these charms. I think I've finally built a deck that just might be fun in casual play. First let's look at these charms one by one...

The Bant Charm has an answer for any troublesome artifact in play, a creature that is too tough to kill, or any instant that your opponent might be saving to hurt you or one of your creatures. It's a very versatile charm and one of my favorites.

Esper Charm is absolutely a necessity in this deck as it provides an answer for pesky enchantments like Bitterblossom or Oblivion Ring while also giving you a two card draw option which is huge. The discard option is cool in certain scenarios where you think your opponent might be holding something lethal in his hand that you wish to get rid of.

The first two options with Grixis Charm are probably the most useful. The only time I would use the last one is if I had two or three creatures on the board and could deliver the knockout blow.

The main use for Jund Charm in this deck is the global removal option which deal 2 damage to each creature. This is very nice if you're up against a speedy token deck that has 4 or 5 creatures on the board by turn 3 or 4. The first option is great if you're playing against an Unearth or Reanimate deck of some sort.

All three of Naya Charm's options are incredibly useful to me. Doing 3 damage to target creature speaks for itself but where this card really shines is the second and third options. To be able to return a card from your graveyard to your hand is very strong in this deck as it allows you even more options. Maybe you have a Jund Charm in your graveyard and you need to bring it back to clear the board again. Or, maybe you need to bring Bant Charm back to put that giant creature your opponent just played at the bottom of his library. The third option could be a game winner as you can tap all of your opponent's creatures freeing your guys to attack at will.

This deck is unique because we'll be putting 4 of each charm in it to start. That means more than half the deck is made up of charms. So, where do we go from here? Well, I start with 4 Worldheart Phoenix as the best possible creature for this deck...

To be able to bring a creature back from the graveyard to play over and over is very useful indeed. Not only does she come back but she comes back as a 4/4 creature every time. I love this card for five color control. Another creature card I put in this deck is the very useful Stoic Angel...

She can lock down the board for you until you rev up your mana base so you can do some real damage with your charms. Another great card for this deck is Child of Alara...

This puts your opponent in a very tough spot as not only does he have to deal with a 6/6 creature with Trample but if he decides to remove him he'll destroy all other permanents in play accept lands as long as he goes to the graveyard. Your opponent does have options though. Spells like Oblivion Ring and Unmake can answer him very nicely but he's still a big threat as long as he's on the board. Last but not least we'll put 4 Quirion Dryad in the deck to add some creatures for the early game...

So here is the final deck list as constructed with the cards mentioned above...

Creatures

Worldheart Phoenix x4

Stoic Angel x4

Quirion Dryad x4

Child of Alara x3

Instants

Bant Charm x4

Esper Charm x4

Grixis Charm x4

Jund Charm x4

Naya Charm x4

Lands

Exotic Orchard x4

Rupture Spire x4

Arcane Sanctum x3

Crumbling Necropolis x3

Jungle Shrine x3

Savage Lands x3

Seaside Citadel x3

Unstable Frontier x2

The biggest weakness of this deck is that it takes a while to rev up. If you don't have any Quirion Dryads in your hand you might not be able to play anything until turn 4 because most of the lands come into play tapped. The best answer for this is take out some charms and add more global removal such as 4 Firespouts or something along those lines. Let me know where this deck takes you. That's it for today and good luck on your next coin flip!

Combo and Synergy

2009-06-13T11:15:00.014-05:00

Probably like you, I first fell in love with magic when I found the synergy that certain cards have together. This is the first installment of my newfound love between cards.

Why should you be stuck with 1 / 1 creatures when you have Godhead of Awe in play? Play Sigil Captain so your 1 / 1 creatures will be 3 / 3 creatures (and bigger when Godhead leaves).

This is one of my favorite new combos I came accross. Sigil Captain places two +1 / +1 counters on a 1 / 1 when they enter play. Glen Elandra has persist...Sacrifice Glen Elandra to counter target noncreature spell. She heads to graveyard and her persists triggers, returning to play as a 1 / 1. When she comes into play she receives two + 1 / + 1 counters becoming a 3 /3 that keep countering your opponents non-creature spells.

This vicious combo has been wrecking tournament and casual play for the last month. A twincasted sanity grinding will demolish a deck on turn 5.

Evoke Shriekmaw to kill your opponent's creature. While his sacrifice is on the stack, turn him to mist and wait for him to return to play to kill another poor defenseless creature. All this for 4 lovely mana.

With Twilight Shepherd in play, destroy all creatures with mana cost 4 or greater and an artifact, enchantment, or another creature. Twilight Shepherd will go to the graveyard, persist will trigger and return to play bringing Austere Command back to your hand. I devastated an artifact deck with this two card combo.

Favorite New Mechanic???

2009-06-07T20:37:00.000-05:00

Today I was asking myself which new mechanic is my favorite in the three Shards of Alara sets. Let's go through them one by one...

1. Devour - Devour is an ability that allows the most vicious creatures to grow in size by preying upon other creatures.

2. Exalted - Exalted is an ability that pumps up a single heroic attacker.

3. Unearth - Unearth is an ability that lets a dead creature come screaming back to life for one last turn.

4. Domain - Domain is an ability word. It appears in italics at the beginning of an ability that counts the number of basic land types among lands you control. (An ability word has no rules meaning.) Domain abilities first appeared in the _Invasion_ block, although the word "domain" didn't appear on those older cards.

5. Cascade - Each time you play a spell with cascade, you'll get a free bonus spell from your deck . . . but you don't know what it'll be!

In all honesty I've only had the desire to play decks with the Devour and Cascade mechanics. I've played against a Bant Exalted deck but still have not come across anyone playing an Unearth or Domain deck yet. So, I can only speak on the three mechanics that I have experience with. Exalted is an interesting mechanic but unless you have a deck with 4 Noble Hierarch and 4 Rafiq of the Many than you're probably not going to win very many games.

Devour has been pretty fun to play with but I wouldn't call it a dominating mechanic unless you're playing Predator Dragon. Being able to come in on turn 6 with a hasty dragon that has Devour 2 can be a brutal hit to your opponent. If he devours 3 goblins in play than he attacks as a 10/10 flyer... hard to stop that.

I'm still getting used to the Cascade mechanic but I think it's already my favorite. One of the best cards in the Alara Reborn set is Bloodbraid Elf. For 4 mana you bring in a 3/2 creature with haste and you get to play a 3 mana or less spell for free. Pretty nasty stuff. I recently built a Red and Green Haste deck that features Bloodbraid Elf. I'll post the deck as soon as I test it out some more.

That's all I got for you today. Check back often and good luck on your next coin flip!

Welcome!

2009-06-07T14:20:00.000-05:00

Whether you're new to Magic the Gathering or a crusty old veteran like me this blog is here to help inform you about anything and everything that is happening in the MTG world we live in. You'll find ideas on new decks that are casual as well as competitive. We'll try to go outside the box as much as possible and give you ideas and strategies that aren't mainstream. So check back often and good luck on your next coin flip!