Monthly Archives: September 2014

Honest Magic Update

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I am about to be super honest with you all. I am not the most comfortable with this so be gentle.

The core of my standard deck is the following:

4 Mystic
4 Kiora’s Follower
1 Caryatid/rattlesnake (think i like Caryatid more)
2 Courser
4 Yisan
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Hornet Nest
1 Nylea
1 Nylea’s Disciple
2 Polukranos
4 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Arbor Colossus
(currently in 1 Keranos)
1 Hornet Queen
1 Soul of New Phyrexia

1 Bow of Nylea
2 Cords

Various lands

Cards that our out are:
1 Burring Tree
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Prime Speaker

So my issues post rotation are with the lost of Shock lands and losing those 4 key cards can i fix my tool box for the new standard?

So here are my thoughts for you to destroy or offer your advice.

1, The mana will be the key to new standard.
2, There are 3 or 4 stupid fast decks in the format that we can expect to crush the field, we can’t loose to fast agro…
3, Sagu Mauler is the finisher we want.

Okay so lets look at the options.

Stay Red splash.

I think that red is the strongest against fighting against the agro decks. Circle of Flame is a beating but that is a sideboard card at best right? And who is going to argue with Savage Knuckleblade? Guy is a house.

But are there enough depth for us?

The first gut feeling go Black.

Black gives us sudo card advantage with Hythonia the Cruel and Pharika. Creature wraths are super powerful. And turning dead cards in to sudo removal spells is just good. Black also gives us a great 1 drop in Cruel Sadist and another amazing card advantage in Soul of Innistrad.

But then there is the White option.

Herald of Anafenza in the other killer 1 drop in the format. And it just compounds with what my deck wants to do. How many times can i use it a turn? How is Dauntless River Marshal or Fleecemane Lion as our 2 drop. And Soul of Theros is another house when it comes to a surprise Alpha.

So thoughts? Help? For the first time in a while i am not sure what to do.

Magical Monday 9.29.14

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A few weeks back i talked about how my wife wanted a standard deck “of her own” so to do battle. Back then she wanted a “Chandra” deck which i took as a big spell build. Then this last week Khans went out and she won her first draft at the release FNM winning out with a big monster Temur deck. I said it once and i will say it again but if you get to the mid/end game and force the opponent to answer 5/5 after 6/7 sooner or later they will just not have an answer and you will be able to win out.

I drafted a mean agro mardu deck where i was able to beat down faster then the fatty deck most of the time; but the games where my deck gave me one or two to many lands and not a spell were not good times. Welcome to the on back foot train, your direct ride out of the prize pool.

Anyway, drafts aside her fire as been rekindled for “us” to build her own standard deck. But she is now in love with the idea of building around the Temur clan. We went to our local shop and bought some singles. Well she mostly bought singles and i mostly bought up sets of the new dual/life lands just to have them around. We got to work putting something together with all the cards she liked and bought and it was not few good. We have been making tweaks and it is getting better and better. It has a workable shell and she might get her cake. Mean while i have kept tweaking the list i put out the other week mainly do to my desire to make Oracle of Bones seem good enough to win. 😉

So here is my updated list.

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Boon Satyr
4 Oracle of Bones
1-2 Nylea, God of the Hunt
0-1 Nylea’s Disciple
2 Dragon-Style Twins

4 Lightning Strike
4 Stoke the Flames
1 See the Unwritten
4 Become Immense

4 Xenagos, the Reveler

4 Wooded Foothills
4 Temple of Abandon
2 Rugged Highlands
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Mountain
6 Forest

I really like how a we can do 20 damage from left field, Dragon-Style Twins is stupid good and Become Immense is just well immense. There is some Oracle lovns’ in See the Unwritten as well as Become Immense. A turn 4 9/7 haste for a turn is real good also.

I am not sure how many Nylea vs her Disciple we need. One way or another there are 3-4 Disciples in the sideboard. Speaking of the sideboard i think that 4 Anger of the Gods are a must as well as some number of Arbor Colossus and maybe Crater’s Claws even. That card feels real good also.

Other then i am thinking about going and seeing about trying my hand at this year’s tcgplayer states i am out of here if i am going to get this out on Monday.

<3s

Magical Monday 9.22.14

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Wow, Khans prerelease was nuts right? Not going to lie, i was not super pumped for Khans before Saturday. But now, i am ready to get my agro on. I went Mardu and was super pleased with my pool. Ended up in second “i think”, i ended up taking one round loss. Games 1 and 2 were not even close, i curved out into a flooded opponent, game 2 i had 4 solid removal spells and mana to cast them when my opponent was able to cast a big trample hexprof guy and was able to protect it the only turn i had enough power to block and take it down. Game 3 was one of those games where karma got me and i got stuck on 2 mana until turn 9 and that was a come into play tapped land even and was just too far behind at that point. Had i gotten that 3rd land anywhere near time think i would have won handily but that is Magic.

Then i got to dust off my old EMT skills in round 4, i had just finished winning the match when a the match next to me says “think he is having a seizure, what do i do?” And i was able to jump to action. Thankfully, Gabe is doing fine.

Okay lets jump to some deck thoughts and see what is rattling around in my noggin now that i have gotten to play with some of the cards.

In Modern:


Yeah think there is a deck here. Work in blue for some counters and card draw/selection and some other burn and just wow.

The other thoughts rolling around focuses around:

Here is the deal, Friday’s FNM was a M14 draft where i picked this guy up early in pack 2 after drafting 2 Juggernauts, 2 Ajani’s Pridemates, and a Staff or two. Have to say i really liked how this deck played and the engineer was always good. And do you know what beats a turn 3 Juggernaut in limited? Not a lot.

I also had a lot of games won on t1, soul mender, t2 Engineer, t3, Pridemate Staff+land drop gain 2 life, t4 attack with a 5/5 followed up with some sick equipment like Brawler’s Plate or  Hot Soup. Made for a some sweet blow outs and i will be exploring busted things to do with the Engineer in the future.

Okay, lunch time see you all next week.

<3s

Magical Monday 9.15.14

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First off sorry for no write up last week, i have taken on a project and i was caught up in it last week. That might happen from time to time but i will try and keep posting a Magical Monday write up at the first of the week in my short list.

Now on to Magic.

One of my favorite decks over the years was a deck build around the enchantment Wild Pair.

This deck was standard legal for me and gave me some of my most fun games ever. It was build mostly around 2/2s like Mystic Snake, Venser, Shaper Savant and Whitemane Lion. It is a beating. As it is still 98% together i could whip it out and give someone some good beats like it was 2008…

I bring it up because what i am playing now feels a lot like that Wild Pair deck, I don’t really have a cool name for the deck but i am kinda calling it the Power of Music…

It is a G/u/r Yisan, the Wanderer Bard/Kiora’s Follower/Prophet of Kruphix deck. But really it is a Prophet of Kruphix deck. That girl is just hot stuff. So like everyone and their dog that is into Magic, i am looking at Khans hoping for some power and dreading the cuts to the mana base…

That being said the deck looses like 7 cards, 4 lands and some men. Aka nothing that can’t be replaced with simi-random Khans, cards.

So lets look at what 3-5 cards that Khans’ might bring to replace the following.

  • Burning-Tree Emissary
  • Skylasher
  • Izzet Staticaster
  • Prime Speaker Zegana

To be fair there is not a lot of solid replacements to me… Which is strange as the deck has a slight Temur tilt already. Well every slight as the only red card is the one Staticaster but you would think that there would be some kind of Tim in the set. I mean isn’t there always a Tim? Well guess not. But there is a whole clan around this wedge…
There is an argument that one  mana dork for 2 could be replaced with another Theros more mana dork but that seems worse in the long run but a Rattleclaw Mystic could work as a burst mana guy just not in the same manner. At least it could attack vs another 0/3 mana wall.

But the rest? There is just not a lot of love in those colors.

But there might be some help in Sultai… Hear me out, Rakshasa Deathdealer is a bundle of options in a handy 2/2 for 2 shell. He can’t stop flyers but a possible 4/4 regenerating attacker might make the cut. Grim Haruspex might be the replacement card engine we need if we add in a little Bloodsoaked Champion as a recurring sacrifice.  Speaking of sacrifice that could be sweet as a one of Embodiment of Spring. Trust me sometimes you want another 1 cc guy other then E. Mystic.

There is one card i am looking forward to working in, Clever Impersonator. “A copy of any nonland permanent” that i can cord/Bard up is a super sweet tool box option.

Thing is i am not one of those people that can just read the spoiler and “Know” what card will better my deck and what wont. I will say i feel that Bug aka  Sultai will be my Khan of choice for a while in standard. Although i am playing with another Affinity like deck that i will see if i can get a hard list together soon.

See you next week,

<3s

Standard Affinity? Bonus MtG…

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2 Astral Cornucopia

4 Springleaf Drum
2 Rogue’s Gloves

4 Ensoul Artifact
2 Military Intelligence
2 Fated Infatuation

4 Ornithopter
4 Triton Shorestalker
4 Chief Engineer
4 Illusory Angel
4 Chasm Skulker and/or/mix and match Crystalline Nautilus
4 Master of Waves

4 Darksteel Citadel
16 Island

This is another deck my son and i have been working on. It this is an updated list compared to what he is playing but it is not that far off. Think the main difference for him is he is still using Daring Thiefs and some tap/untap effects. I have to say keeping them in has been working out for him fairly well. There has been a lot of “trade you my 1/0 elemental for him” being had at my kitchen table.

Well the thiefs have been doing work until he traded me one of them for something and i flashed in a Kiora’s Follower. Lets just say a blow out happened after that. But hey they were still doing work, just not for him.

Take a look and try it out. Think 99.9% of the decks cost is in master of waves. Other then him the whole deck is like 50 cents. Okay Chasm Skulker are like 3$s….

Okay i am peaceing out.

<3s

Magic Monday on Tuesday 9.2.14

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So i just lost the amazing post i had knocked out. It was fairly great with 2 deck lists and some stories about the family and magic. And WordPress ate it. 😦 Have to say i am a little pissed and want to walk away from the PC. But that is not right.

But i don’t really have the time to redo the whole thing so here is a deck list for the wife that is my attempt to make a “Chandra” deck that is at least somewhat good.

4 Elvish Mystic
2 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Oracle of Bones
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

4 Lightning Strike
4 Stoke the Flames
3 Fated Conflagration
2 Revel of the Fallen God

4 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Xenagos, the Reveler

22-23 lands….

Again sorry for the short post but WordPress is about to get shot. See you next week.

<3s