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Bruce Gray - June 2, 2014

The plight of the Underplayed Theros Block mechanics – Inspired,...

Inspired MTG deck - Tormented Hero

The plight of the Underplayed Theros block mechanics

by Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters

We all watched the Pro-tour with baited breath not all that long ago.  For starters, Congratulations must go out to Patrick Chapin.  I doubt he’ll ever read this article, but the truth is what he accomplished is tremendous.  To defeat the world’s best players and win a Pro-tour is the stuff dreams are made of (although he made it look frighteningly easy!).  However, in amidst all the talk of Block Constructed decks, did anyone notice that there were hardly ANY of the mechanics from Theros block on display?  A block committed to the Devotion mechanic by virtue of being tied to the Gods of Theros…and it was virtually totally ignored.  There were very few creatures carrying the Monstrous ability.  Constellation got some love…most in the form of Eidolon of Blossoms.  Inspired? Tribute? Bestow? These hardly even got a sniff.  In the end it was wars waged as Elspeth tokens crushed Elspeth tokens and Thoughtseize and Brain Maggot crippled the hands of countless players.  No…the mechanics of Theros were sadly underplayed and it felt…I don’t know…deflating.

Well, I’m here today to try and restore our faith in the little used mechanics of Theros and present a budget worthy Casual Brew that can grind down an opponent (or multiple opponents as the case may be) and find a way of getting you a win from seemingly out of nowhere. The mechanic I’m thinking about is the Inspired mechanic because it is so tempting…so poised with potential…that to not attempt to build a deck would just be wrong.

Now, we have seen that some of the mechanics in Theros are very powerful.  Devotion powered out crazy amounts of elemental tokens with Master of Waves, drained buckets of life with Gray Merchant, and pumped out dizzying amounts of mana with Nykthos.  No, Devotion is pretty safe.  Monstrous is the same way. With Stormbreath Dragon and Polukranos running around still Monstrous is a thing and they may be joined by Fleecemane lion as staples of this mechanic.  Bestow and Heroic have shown to be invaluable in Draft giving these decks new reach and greater power than ever before.  No, these three mechanics are just fine despite not being played much at the Pro-tour.  However, Inspired and Tribute, both Mechanics from Born of the Gods have hardly got off the ground.

It makes perfect sense for why Tribute has been largely ignored.  In almost every instance the cards carrying Tribute present an option for your opponent to dictate the terms of the creature.  This means that you are no longer in control and if you are looking for a desired effect, well, I can assure you that you won’t get it because your opponent is out to put the screws to you.  Snake of the Golden Grove is a perfect example because you either get 4 life…or a 7/7.  Let me assure you, 100% of the time you will give your opponent the life gain.  However, if you REALLY needed a 7/7 to help you block…well…tough, you are out of luck.

Inspired on the other hand actually holds some promise.  This is actually an ability that you could use because the only requirement is that the creature untaps.  Simply untap. It seems so simple…but yet getting your card to actually untap is pretty tricky.  The most common ways of tapping it is by virtue of attacking with it and then on your next turn untapping it.  The problem is that usually if you go into combat, something dies meaning you could very well lose your inspired creature.  Other options exist like Spring Leaf Drum, Retraction Helix, Epiphany Storm and Claim of Erebos which all allow the creature to tap without combat, but this is extra work for you and harder to set up.  So, how to maximize your chances of Inspired without as much set up cost to your deck?

I have long been a proponent of making combat as absolutely miserable for my opponent as I can manage. This means I pack decks full of combat tricks, death touch, first strike, double strike and haste, basically ensuring that my opponent really has to think twice before blocking ANYTHING.  Well, Inspired gives you even MORE incentive to pack your deck as full of nasty tricks as you can find so that no one is keen to actually block.  With this theory in mind let me share with you a little deck list that I’ve put together to exploit the Inspired mechanic.

 

B/W “Grindy” Theros block mechanics deck for Standard

The game plan behind this deck is actually pretty straight forward.  You are looking to do everything you can to drain off the life of your opponent without attacking , but the creature base in the deck is actually aggressive enough that you can start on the beat down path and not actually take your foot off.  All the while you are looking to exploit the Inspired Mechanic as much as you can wrangle.

For 1 drops we have Tormented Hero which is a solid 2/1 for 1 black.  Sure, it comes into play tapped, but play him turn 1 and attack turn 2 and you’re pretty golden.  Also, when he is targeted he does exactly what you want the deck to do and that is drain the life of your opponent.  At 2 we have a couple of bears, namely Sun Guide and Pain Seer.  These are both aggressive enough that they can come down early and swing in, hopefully triggering the Inspired trigger on either of them.  Baleful Eidolon and Spiteful Returned are technically 2 drops, but are really there for the Bestow ability to basically make something totally unpalatable for your opponent to block.  Spiteful returned is also triggered just by attacking, making him just extra value.  The last 2 drop is Cartel Aristocrat because when you are missing a way to sneak through, Sacrifice a creature and get in there.  At the 3 drop spot we have the bread and butter.  Scholar of Athreos is an awesome mana sink and a solid blocker to plug up the ground.  Servant of Tymaret is a wily little 2/1 with regenerate that I WANT to block with and need to regenerate in order to trigger the Inspired ability when it untaps after regenerating. The 4 drops are really there as Bestow creatures apart from King Macar,  but at 5 we have Gray Merchant and he is a sure fire way to drain out a bunch of life all at once.  The spells are pretty tame in a Gods Willing to protect something or more importantly to allow a creature the ability to sneak in for free.  Necrobite presents an awful combat trick for your opponent.  He will need to play around a situation where you have 3 mana up or risk trading something for a deathtouch creature…who now regenerates.  Whether this is Tormented Hero’s heroic trigger, or regenerating a Pain Seer, there is going to be value generated.  The last one is Asphyxiate which is a poor man’s Hero’s Downfall.  Same casting cost…but much slower and more conditional.  Not my first choice, but acceptable considering the financial cost of a playset of Hero’s Downfall.

Some would say that this looks like an Extort deck from Gatecrash and I can’t disagree…except I prefer this model to relying on the Extort mechanic of Gatecrash because Extort rewards you for durdling around with spells and paying the extra mana to drain the life.  In this deck there is no need to durdle around.  If you have open mana sink into something…like your Scholar of Athreos, attack with your Servant of Tymaret, or cast a Bestow creature to make blocking totally undesirable. You are being proactive and engaged instead of being rewarded by casting derdling spells and hiding.

This deck is weak to decks packed with fliers or with control elements like counter spells and plenty of targeted removal.  Oh, and it still gets run over by the pack rat/desecration demon game plan prevalent in Standard, so don’t take it there.  Where does this deck shine?  Multiplayer variants of all sorts.  Free for all, Two Headed Giant, Grand Melee…if any of these formats match what you like to play then this is a cheap and efficient deck that will do work.  Life drain is absolutely brutal in multiplayer matchups and this deck is no different.

So, I have done my part to restore faith in the mechanics of Theros…particularly Inspired.  Now it is up to you to go forth and Inspire that same belief in your opponents and drain the life right from their souls…without ever attacking!  Enjoy frustrating the heck out your opponents because you can bet I’ll be enjoying every minute of it.

Thanks very much…and until next time keep it fun, keep it safe…keep it Casual.

 

Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters
 
@bgray8791
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Bruce Gray - May 25, 2014

Underappreciated cards of Magic sets past: Dragon’s Maze

Ral Zarek - Dragon's Maze art

 

 

 

Underappreciated cards of Magic sets past: Dragon’s Maze

By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters

So, much time has passed since I last wrote about underappreciated cards, but it has now been a full year since Dragon’s Maze joined us as far as a set to be played.  By and large, the reception for Dragon’s Maze was lukewarm at best despite having all the flash and dazzle of being the final set for the Return to Ravnica block.  However, the set was rife with cards that are geared for EDH and multiplayer formats with only a few staples that would get seriously added to the pool of competitive cards.  It did allow for the full Return to Ravnica block draft, which was also very challenging and tons of fun, but constructed players were deeply saddened by the near unplayable cards and fringe options the set yielded. However, this set was a veritable gold mine for casual players of all stripes.  Today, I’ll be going through my selections for some underappreciated cards at each of the 4 rarity slots (common through Mythic) that you might want to slide into a deck the next time you sit down to play at your next Casual Encounters.

Dragon’s Maze gave us a full set of 10 Maze Runners, champions for each guild that would negotiate the Maze and dominate Ravnica.  However, while it would seem that the Maze Runners were going to be the most powerful cards printed in the set, the reality was that many of them were clunky and poor at best.  No, the most powerful cards were creatures like Voice of Resurgence, Aetherling, and Blood Baron of Vizkopa and a select few spells like Advent of the Wurm.  However, while the Maze Runners weren’t much fun to play with, and these select high priority spells cost a small fortune to acquire a play set, there are still plenty of viable cards at all 4 slots that can bring some variety and fun effects to your next game.

 

Common:

Gatekeeper Cycle

Each of the 5 colours had a Gatekeeper for 4 mana.  These 2/4 creatures were serviceable bodies in their own right but hardly exciting unless you controlled a pair of guildgates, in which case you were able to reap some sort of benefit.  Now let’s be honest with ourselves.  In draft were you likely to EVER be able to grab a pair of guildgates? Not likely.  In any form of constructed format, were you likely to even THINK about playing guildgates, much less these guys?  NOPE.  In EDH you are only likely to have a pair of guildgates, at best, among your 100 cards which means you would be unlikely to be keen to run these cards either.  No, these gatekeepers fall firmly in the realm of casual players looking to do something silly with them.  Of their abilities, they are pretty standard (ie. Blue draws a card, Black gives target creature -2/-2, Red gives a threaten effect etc) and only impact the board when they enter play…but if you’ve read some of my previous articles I LOVE making these effects recur by finding ways to get my stuff to leave play and then re-enter the battlefield.  Also, as a Casual player, I’m very apt to play guildgates because they are very functional (if unexciting) ways to help smooth out your mana.  Particularly in a multiplayer game of some sort where things may be a little slower, the requirement for the correct colours is key and you may be spared the punishment of having lands come into play tapped by the slower pace of the multiplayer environment. These 5 guys are solid additions with decent bodies and good upside. Give them a second look and see if you can make them fit into a deck the next time you sit down to play.

 

Uncommon:

Give//Take

If you’ve been reading my other articles, you might have got the sense that I’m big on the shenanigans that +1/+1 counters can do for you in Return to Ravnica block.  Scavenge and Evolve are both super interesting mechanics and the ability to then turn around and draw cards off of those counters is super fun.  In a previous article about Gatecrash I attempted to describe how Zameck guildmage can be abused to draw all sorts of cards off those counters…but with Give//Take you don’t even need a Zameck in play to go card crazy.  Perhaps my most favorite play is to land Prime Speaker Zegana on the battlefield and draw cards equal to her power.  This can usually be a fairly solid number of cards because having her be at least a 5/5 is no real stretch.  However, on your next turn, cast both halves of Give and Take and turn all those +1/+1 counters into cards and suddenly your card advantage has gone bananas.  In a multiplayer casual variant this is totally possible and means that you now have a significant edge over the opposition because of the resources available to you. Let me assure you, it’s fun and your opponents will be doing their utmost to prevent this from happening since they don’t want to get caught behind in the race for resources…and when you pull it off it’ll be amazing! Try it out for yourself!

 

Rare:

Tajic, Blade of the Legion

This guy is so simple in terms of design and so mindlessly powerful that he gets overlooked.  A 2/2 indestructible creature for 4 mana means he’s likely too expensive for a Constructed format (and to trip his Battalion ability takes WAY too much set up cost), but in a casual environment this guy is a true menace.  It is very conceivable to see this guy get his Battalion ability triggered and be a MONSTROUS 7/7 wrecking ball of hate smashing around…and he’s indestructible meaning he’s wildly difficult for your opponents to deal with.  If nothing else he becomes a reliable blocker and suitable target to dress up with auras to pump him with because you are unlikely to get 2 for 1ed off of an exchange.  But here’s the thing, more than a few people in my play group will just flip right on by Tajic in favour of other creatures…and every time I ask “WHY? ARE YOU SICK? PLAY THAT DUDE!”.  He crushes face, is hard to deal with, isn’t unreasonably costed and is in perhaps the most aggressive colour combo available…making him a perfect bulldozer in your next game.  Trust me…you won’t regret it.

 

Mythic:

Ral Zarek

As always, the mythic slot is hard to pick because they are all powerful.  Dragon’s Maze was no exception and the planeswalker of the set seems like a dead obvious place to start when picking a card, but Ral was spoiled with great fanfare.  His ultimate, of flipping coins and taking extra turns, is hilarious and immediately caught the attention of the Magic playing community…only to hit the ground at release with a resounding THUD! He was unplayable in competitive Standard, and cost too much to play any Eternal format. His first two abilities are reasonable, but hardly awe inspiring, and the ultimate leaves a lot to be desired.  Basically, he was very quickly resigned to his role of coming off the bench for Casual Magic and I’ll happily pick him up to pinch hit for me!

If nothing else, the ultimate ability on Ral Zarek just SCREAMS Casual all-star.  When you think of playing Casual Magic you think of splashy cards, crazy abilities, and full on shenanigans…well…here you go! All of these things are rolled into the flip of coins as part of Ral Zarek’s ultimate.  Also, his +1 ability of tapping and untapping various permanents just leads to soooo many ridiculous plays that it is almost impossible to list all the possibilities.  Basically, Ral Zarek opens up loads of fun and innovative options that will totally take your opponents by surprise that I think he’s well worth the time to pick him up and give a try.

 

So, no article highlighting underplayed cards would be complete without some sort of deck showcasing some of the cards and today is no exception.  Now, if I asked you how do the vast majority of games get won and lost, what would you say?  If you said attacking with creatures, you would be right.  Sure, sure, there are some people who prefer combo or mill or locking out your opposition with a control deck, but let’s be real, you play Casual Magic to cast fat creatures, turn them sideways and see what powerful interactions you can dream up.  Now, let’s change the axis on which you are prepared to engage your opponent and instead of you using YOUR creatures to kill your opponent, why not use HIS creatures to kill your opponent.

Let’s see what I’ve got today:

 

Jund Punch your own face Decklist

 

The game plan with this deck was inspired by that older brother who used to take your hand and smack you in the face with your own hand…and then say “Stop hitting yourself!”.   So, your opponent is expecting you cast creatures and attack, but in reality you are waiting for them to cast creatures and then use Act of Treason and Traitorous instinct to take their creature and smack them in the face.  However, what made this deck really sweet was the addition of Smelt-Ward Gatekeepers who is an Act of Treason attached to 2/4 body…and if it is attached to a body it can be recurred.  So, the ability to have Roaring Primadox return Smelt-Ward Gatekeepers to your hand and cast it again for the recurring Threaten effect.  Ubul-Sar Gatekeepers is basically a Dead-Weight on a stick and Saruli Gatekeepers gains you a huge pile of life that can quickly put things out of range, but they aren’t the real threats.  Now, after you’ve taken the creatures with  the Threaten effect, most opponents won’t block because they don’t want to block their own creature, when they know that they will be getting the card back shortly so they eat the damage and hope to move on. Before you return the creature, nothing is more hilarious that sacrificing it to one of the numerous Sacrifice outlets in the deck for a) more damage b) cards c) to mill them d) attack their hand e) gain more life.  The options are endless and drive your opponent bonkers because they are expecting to get the creature back. As an additional way to close out the game Crackling Perimeter allows you to tap the large number of gates in your deck to do damage to your opponent and close out the game.  All in all, this deck is a funny way to punch your opponent in the face with their own creatures and to reap the benefits.

 

So, that’s my selection for underappreciated cards from Dragon’s Maze and a little sample of what you can do with the cards to make a fun and unexpected deck that can really frustrate your opponent.  Perhaps I’ve missed something and some of you have other things you would rather play, or cards that I may have skipped over, so I’m always game to hear what others think. Shoot me a tweet and let me know what you thought…or go ahead and build yourself your on deck and see what you can find from Dragon’s Maze to make your next Casual Night fun and lively.

Until next time, keep fun, keep it safe…keep it Casual.

By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters
@bgray8791
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Bruce Gray - May 11, 2014

So you want to play Standard on a budget MTG?

 

Planes of Planechase - standard on a budget MTG

So you want to play Standard on a budget?

by Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters

Spring is here! Thank goodness because winter felt VERY long.  The sun feels warmer, the snow is all gone and the excitement of summer is just around the corner.  It is also the time of change.  New flowers, new leaves, new clothes, new activities, new plans…ah…new plans…here’s an idea.

The Spring set is here with Journey into Nyx.  Standard will start to evolve with the new cards, but rotation is only 4 months away with a new block on the way that will change the complexion of the Meta-game completely.  Players who aren’t already committed to this Standard format but are looking to get into playing Standard have a very serious conundrum. They COULD run around and track down the chase rares to put together a strong Standard deck, but that can be pretty pricey for a limited 4 month window where the cards will be well and truly playable.  And if you are on almost any sort of budget, well, now we are talking a near impossibility.  So what is an aspiring Standard player to do? Well, let this be a sort of a road map to help you find your way to getting ready to play Standard. I’ll lay out a series of steps that an aspiring Standard player on a tight budget could follow in order to get ready to join the ranks of competitive Standard players at any Local Game Shop.

Once again, here is my usual disclaimer. There will be some players out there that won’t heed a single word of this.  They have the deep pockets needed to pick up all the Standard playable staples they need.  I however have players with a limited budget each month.  What exactly is that budget?  I have no precise number in mind, but the basic tenets will remain the same.  Players with slightly larger budgets can likely accomplish the steps more quickly, but even those with tighter budgets can hope to get there following these steps. So, without further delay let’s see what we’ve got.

 

Step #1- Acquire the mana base you will need.

As uncool as this sounds, the mana base is the backbone to every deck.  I have often maintained that the mana base can’t win you the game…but you sure as heck can lose the game if you don’t have the right mana.  Now is the time to track down full play sets of all the Scry lands, Nykthos, and Mana Confluence as these will be key lands in every two colour (or more) deck once rotation hits.  The nice thing with the mana base, from a monetary standpoint, is that they at least seem to hold their value once you’ve invested in them.  So, once they rotate out, you can probably still find a taker who will be willing to either allow you to trade for reasonable value or a shop that will give you decent (notice…decent) value off their Buy list.

Now, this is absolutely an investment.  Lands don’t come cheap and the scry lands all look to run at least $5 a piece (more for some of them), but if you can find someone willing to trade with you for them ,or a decent price on them somewhere, your budget will be wisely spent on these.  Don’t worry if you get fleeced a little on your trade.  If your end goal is to play Standard, then you will need the lands to play, and if you have other older cards that someone is willing to trade for to give you those lands, well, guess what? You’re doing it.

 

Step #2- Draft…LOTS

One of the biggest traps that players fall into is that they want to “crack packs”.  I love cracking packs…we all do…but the numbers don’t play out very well in your favour.  So, how else do you get cards? The answer is easy…draft.  For your entry fee into a draft you get the equivalent of 3 packs of cards…AND you get to try those cards out in game play.  This is the perfect place to try out that kind of unusual rare card you opened, just to see what it does. Maybe you want to try out a different colour combination that isn’t your all time favorite in order to get a feel? Draft is a great place to get your feet wet experimenting and trying out new ideas.  Heck, you might even win a few prizes along the way to further expand your pool of available cards without costing you any extra. Don’t bank on the prizes because you are out experimenting, so your decks may be somewhat less streamlined than other players, but every once in a while a little prize support is a nice bonus for your night of drafting.

Now, the danger with draft this time of year is that soon the new stand alone set will be out.  Last year it was Modern Masters, this year it’s Conspiracy.  These cards aren’t Standard playable, so if you do sit down to draft these, this won’t help you much in terms of getting you ready for Standard post-rotation (although it is fun!). So, be sure to be familiar with the format you will be drafting and the sets that will be used.

 

Step #3- Play Block constructed

It has already been said by Gerald right here on Three Kings Loot that one of the best ways to prepare yourself for the NEXT Standard format is to sit down and make a conscious effort to play block constructed.  Whether that is with your buddies at a kitchen table, or at a shop if they host a Block Constructed event, the experience of limiting your key card pool will be a huge factor in determining how prepared you will be for the next Standard format.  You will see what cards emerge as cards that were underplayed in the current format and that might make a splash once rotation hits.  So, Herald of Torment…time to shine big guy!

 

Step #4 Read. Watch. Learn.

The biggest difference with Magic in 2014 versus when I started in 1996 is that the amount of information available to players is staggering.  Between all the various discussion groups, websites, articles, podcasts, and videos there is no shortage of information for the average player.  I would strongly suggest that you take the time to sit down and read the thoughts of players and writers you like and respect.  As we near rotation many of these players will have the advantage of sitting down and doing their utmost to figure out the best strategies in the new format and can give you some helpful tips to help you along…just by reading the internet.

The other great asset is all the coverage of various events available.  Between the Pro tour coverage and coverage from other events around the globe (and watching MTGO for those who have time) you can not only see the deck lists of these many top players, but you can actually see them in action.  This will give you a chance to see the decision making processes tied to each choice made.  This is super useful so that you can make optimal use of whatever strategy you like best.  Let’s be honest, many of the guys on the Pro-Tour are going to get maximum bang for their buck with each card and it is undoubtedly helpful for us less experienced players to see them in action.  The same can be said of watching players at your local game shop that you respect and like the way they play.  Yes, it can be nerve wracking to sit down and watch someone live and in person at a store, but if you start talking to them you might find that they are quite willing to sit and talk shop with you to give you some pointers

 

Step #5- Time

It takes a lot of time in order to get really good at something and Magic is no different.  If you want to play Standard, and presumably if you are playing on a competitive (or semi-competitive ) basis you would like to be as good as possible,  then you will need to sink time into this.  This is by far and away the hardest part of making this transition. Up until this point you can do most of the steps I’ve laid out with some money you’ve saved up or for free on open sources on the internet.  However, there is a finite amount of time in each day and unless you are independently wealthy or playing Magic for a living, there will be other things that will drain your time.   This will mean evening trips to the game shop to sit down and play.  It likely also means some weekend as well.  You will need to sit and read about changes to the meta game and how it will impact your deck of choice. And most of all, you will need to play. Play lots.  Play lots against just about anyone.  The more you play, the better you will get at playing your deck and the choices you will need against each other archetype. Time is absolutely a commodity and something else you will need to gauge closely if you hope to perform to the best of your abilities.

So, these are the 5 steps that I’ve seen and other players I know take in order to climb into the realm of Standard competitive Magic. For some this works out great because they are prepared to invest wholeheartedly.  For others, this process is difficult for a number of reasons.  Needless to say, these 5 steps each have their own pit falls that must be navigated and may not come easy.  This is part of the reason making the transition from playing Casual Magic to Standard is tricky.  Not impossible…but it is tricky.  Needless to say, it can be very rewarding once you get yourself into the format, but it is not for everyone, and that’s ok.  Not everyone on the planet needs to play Standard…there are formats aplenty for each and everyone.

Thanks everyone and I hope that some of you find this helpful.  If there are aspiring Standard players out there I hope I haven’t made the process seem too daunting.  It is achievable, but it does take a plan.  This is just one of many ways to getting to your end goal. In the mean time, I’ll go back to brewing up silliness and see where my Casual meandering takes my Magic and my decks.

Take care and until next time Keep it fun, Keep it Safe…Keep it Casual.

by Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters
@bgray8791
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Bruce Gray - May 6, 2014

Casual Encounters- Duel Decks Mash up #1: Jund Tibalt/Vraska

Assassin Token

I had an interesting discussion with someone over the weekend about a previous article I wrote.  I have long maintained that getting into Modern doesn’t have to be overly expensive, as I have explained in a previous article right here on Three Kings Loot.  However, people still don’t seem to believe me.  So, I set myself a little challenge to show another, different way to get into playing Modern.

The Duel Decks, for those that aren’t familiar, are a pair of themed decks sold together with the intent of being played against each other.  This is for those players who are somewhat familiar with the game play of Magic, but aren’t really comfortable building their own decks yet.  The nice part about the Duel decks, particularly those built around Planeswalkers, is that there is a surprising amount of value and very playable cards contained within each. You can’t argue when decks contain foiled Planeswalkers, solid cards like Underworld Connections, premium creatures like Hellrider and Reaper of the Wilds, and splashy counter magic like Remand.  So, I periodically pick up these Duel decks, sometimes because of the sweet alternate art on the cards, or because I’m actually pretty jazzed about the cards that they contain.  The only issue with the Duel decks is that, because they are pre-constructed, they contain a large number of single cards as opposed to the more powerful 3 or 4 of certain cards that get used in other constructed decks made by players.  This means that your deck has a high degree of variance each time you draw.  This is fun if the other deck has an equal amount of variance, but if the deck is more concentrated and loaded with high powered spells then the reality is that you are likely to get blown out.  What can you do about this?

My solution has been to take two of the Duel Decks and to mash them together to see what I can brew up as the best deck.  My starting point was to take the Tibalt deck from Sorin vs Tibalt and then to take the deck made for Vraska out of Jace vs Vraska.  This means that you get R/B/G deck in terms of colours, which is normally referred to as Jund.  Now, my limitations were that I could only use the cards contained in the decks.  You’ll see I violated this a little bit, but that I’ll explain what I did and I don’t really think that I violated the spirit of the deck.  I will also go through some of the options you could make in order to spice up this new deck that I have affectionately taken to calling Jund Mash-up.

First off, let’s review the deck list for each of the decks I’m using for the Mash-up.

Here is Tibalt-

Sorin-vs-Tibalt-Duel-Decks-Spoiler

 

Now, for Vraska.

Jace vs Vraska art

These two decks give us quite a number of options to take any Mash-up in, but there are some very obvious cards that are too good to pass up.  First off, Tibalt and Vraska need to make the cut because they both offer us some very powerful abilities.  Both of these Planeswalkers get a bit of a bad rap, but only because there are others out there that are far more powerful.  That doesn’t mean that these two can’t be solid additions to a deck such as this. Next, Underworld Connections is too good a card to leave out simply because of the card draw ability.  Reaper of the Wilds and Hellrider are extremely powerful 4 drops that can’t be ignored. Terminate is an extremely efficient removal spell and Browbeat allows you to do two things you want: either draw cards, or make your opponent take damage.   So let’s take a look at what I slotted in here to make up the 60 cards in the Mash-up deck.

Jund Mash-Up deck

 

So, there is the 60 card list.  You’ll notice that the only additions I made were to add an extra Reaper of the Wild, because I had an extra, an extra Treasured Find (for exactly the same reason). I substituted Night’s Whisper and replaced it with the improved Read the Bones.  Finally, Last Kiss was replaced with the virtually identical Pharika’s Cure.  For the Read the Bones I was prepared to pay the extra colorless mana to Scry 2 and then draw 2 meaning my card selection was vastly improved.  For Pharika’s Cure  I decided that the double black in the casting cost was preferable to paying three mana (2 colourless and a black) because I could have access to it earlier.

So, with only minor substitutions I have created a Jund Mash-Up deck that can do a little bit of everything.  The heavy creature removal package pretty much assures everything dies to my spells.  The Underworld Connection and Browbeat and Read the Bones allow for additional card draw to keep up the pressure.  Blightning is the only real source of hand disruption, but with the ability of Treasured Find I could replay this card and make use of the ability again…and I could go and craft a sideboard out of the remaining cards that will assuredly pack some pretty good discard options.  Lastly, the curve of creatures is pretty reasonable.  Jund decks have the ability to get out early and this deck is no different.  With a number of 2 drops early pressure is almost a guarantee and by 4 mana the real heavy hitters are hitting the battlefield allowing you to really take charge.  All in all, the build “feels” pretty decent, if still a little high on the variance order due to all the single cards in the deck.

The easiest way to spice this deck up would be to tinker with your land base.  Now, I’m not going to go for pricey lands because you may not have the high price lands like Shocklands from Return to Ravnica.  However, there are still a number of options available to you still in the form of Guildgates, namely Rakdos, Golgari and Gruul.  The issue becomes if you add in these 12 Guildgates a lot of your land comes into play tapped…which is a perfectly valid observation…but with a tri-colour deck such as this you may put more of a premium on the lands that produce 2 colours instead of just playing basic lands. It also means Tainted Wood may not be a strong choice because you may not control a swamp to allow it to produce green and black mana.  Other options are more of the Zendikar life-gain lands like Kazandu Refuge or Akoum Refuge.  These inexpensive lands still give you access to both colours of mana, but at least you get a life when it enters the battlefield. Of course, you can keep going on down the line and find plenty of expensive lands if you want, but if the goal is to try and keep your deck cost down and at a reasonable level these choices are perfectly acceptable.

For those interested, the Duel Decks themselves run about $25 for either the Sorin vs Tibalt or the Jace vs Vraska decks at your local game shop, so you would need to shell out about $50 in order to put this together.  All in all, that’s pretty decent value and gives you a starting point from which to begin to build your Jund deck to make it more competitive.  This shell will give you enough of the key ingredients that you can play and not look out of place, but as discussed, you will miss out on the consistency due to the much higher degree of variance in the cards in your deck.  Still, it is a beginning and a fun stepping stone to get you into Modern and ready to play…and gives these Duel decks a new lease on life outside of just being decks primed to face off against each other.

So, before you turn your nose up the next Duel Deck you see, take a second and give it a deeper look.  Is there something more you could be doing with this collection of cards?  What pieces could you put together in order to maximize what you get out of these deck lists?  The possibilities are just about endless even with such a limited card pool and it won’t break the bank…and has plenty of fun available when you play.

Thanks very much and if you guys have any feedback or suggestions on things you would like to see me explore, I’m all ears and would love to hear what you guys want to see me dig up and bang on next.

So, until next time, Keep it fun, keep it safe…Keep it Casual.

Bruce Gray

@bgray8791

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Bruce Gray - April 21, 2014

Casual Encounters- Kraken new deck ideals for Journey into Nyx –...

 Tromokratis

I love spoiler season! The new cards start to open up so many crazy and neat new ideas to make decks, revisit old ones, and brew up some silly things that I can take with me to my next Casual card night.  Well, Journey into Nyx is no different and has offered up loads of fun new ideas already and I wanted to take some time to share some of the Casual new brews I’ve been piecing together even before Nyx drops in May.

The first deck I started brewing up was for our return to “Hobo” night at our Casual card night.  I wrote about Hobo night in a previous article, but basically we all agreed that we would play no Rare or Mythic Rare cards in our decks, but we could play commons and uncommon from any set.  This really challenges you because many of the most potent spells that we all like to play are Rares or Mythics, so to force ourselves to play commons and uncommon is healthy and refreshing, and usually evens out the power level of the various decks.  Yes, this format is usually called Peasant, but that just sounds dull, so we opted to call it “Hobo” and the name has stuck.

My inspiration for the deck came from watching the coverage of the MTGO championships a couple of weeks ago where I saw a Standard take on a “dredge” style deck.  The deck exploited the power of cards in the graveyard to deal some pretty healthy amounts of damage and looked pretty exciting, so I sat down to see if I could create something similar for Hobo night.

I started with the auto include cards for this sort of deck, namely Satyr Wayfinder and Grisly Salvage.  These cards allow me to start to burn through the top of my library to find land or creatures and fills up my graveyard to be used at a later time. These are the “raison d`être” for this deck and need to be there in suitable quantities to fill up your yard, but more importantly ensure you never lack for land so that you can chain together powerful spells as the game moves along.

The next creature that is an automatic in this sort of deck, particularly in a Hobo variant, is Nemesis of Mortals.  The 5/5 for 6 mana sees the cost to cast him reduced by 1 colourless for every creature in your graveyard.  As a result, you could be casting this guy for much less than the 6 mana in the casting cost without much trouble.  However, Nemesis of Mortals gets better from there because his Monstrosity 5 ability gets reduced in cost by 1 colourless for each creature in your graveyard.  This guy can very easily get silly big for a bargain basement price thanks to all the graveyard shenanigans in your deck and makes the prospect of going into combat very difficult because it is such a huge monster.

However, what happens when some of my key components end up in the graveyard because I’ve put them there myself?  There are a number of ways to return lost creatures to your hand and have them be available to you again. Now, I will be honest, this isn’t the same dropping them onto the battlefield and cheating big fatties into play because you still need to cast the spells again, however it does ensure that you have access to the creatures and a chance to re-use them, which is very helpful.  Pharika’s Mender, Odunos River trawler, and other “Raise Dead” effect cards allow you to get your most potent threats back again and force your opponent to burn more removal spells on things that just don’t stay dead.

The final piece is the plethora of Bestow creatures that this deck packs.  Bestow has proven to be a very valuable ability in Limited formats, and once again this is a form of limited format.  Baleful Eidolon and Nyxborn Wolf can come down early as blockers to plug up the ground and play solid D to get us through to the point where our bigger bombs can take over.  Nyxborn Wolf, at 3/1 can trade up to take out larger creatures, but the Eidolon can shut down attacking by virtue of the Deathtouch ability.  Once they have served their purpose they can then be brought out of the yard and used to Voltron up another threat and really do some work.

 

Here’s the deck list.

Hobo – G/B “reanimator”

So, people will point out that this decklist isn’t Standard and my response is, you’re 100 percent correct.  However, without much trouble you could make this Standard playable.  A few minor adjustments like replacing Sign in Blood for Read the Bones would be the first switch. I could absolutely replace the Disentomb, and Raise Dead with Treasured Finds.  So without breaking the spirit of the Hobo deck I could make some adjustments and make it completely Standard Legal, but sifting through my boxes I came across these cards and they did the job just as well and for less mana.  It can also be ramped right up to match the Standard “Dredge” decks running around these days making this a decent skeleton upon which to build a more robust Standard deck.

The next deck is entirely Casual based on one of recurring theme in Theros block on Kraken, Octopuses, and other sea creatures.  Whelming Wave was given to us in Born of the Gods, and now with the spoilers from Journey into Nyx we have Scourge of Fleets.  With these two sweeper effects in Blue’s arsenal the possibility exists for a viable Kraken/Control deck.  Don’t believe me? Check this out.

Mono-Blue Kraken Control

The idea behind this deck revolves around the interaction between Archaeomancer and Mnemonic wall and Whelming Wave.  When you hit turn 4 you are banking that you have Whelming Wave in your hand and return all creatures that aren’t Kraken, Leviathans, Octopuses or Serpents to their owners hands.  Then on turn 5, cast your Archaeomancer or Mnemonic wall, buy back your Whelming Wave and restart the cycle.  You will continue to cast the wave and buy it back with the Archaeomancer/ Menmonic Wall interaction as you stall looking for one of your bigger Sea critters.  So, hit the Sealock monster and when you wash away your opponent’s creatures Sealock Monster stays and can now attack into a open board.  If you get stuck, Sea God’s Revenge approximates the same effect as you wait to piece together the combination and the dissolves are there to protect your creatures, should things get ugly.  Scourge of Fleets is another possible sweeper condition that comes with a huge body and is asymmetrical in design, so he’s sort of like Plan C if you need to go down that road.  The last pieces of this deck, the Hypnotic Siren and the Voyage’s End are to play some early interference as you set up your board.

Now, you may have missed it, but I stated that this was a Casual deck list.  There is no way I’d even attempt to play a Tier 1 Standard deck with this list, but the hilarious interactions between Archaeomancer and the Whelming Wave are well worth the risk.  I can’t wait to see the face of my opponent when I repeatedly wash away his stuff as I stall…and then swim across the table with my Sealock Monster and crush him.  That would be priceless.  It would certainly be entertaining and very flavourful with all that we have seen from Standard.

 So, there you have it. Some fun deck ideas that are flavourful, relatively inexpensive, and fun to play.  By all means, give them a try and see what think.  The Hobo Dredge deck might be really good for a player who isn’t convinced playing B/G Dredge is for them, but once they get the hang of it with this less high octane model might be willing to speed matters up and go play with the big boys of Standard.  The Wave deck is just funny and I can’t wait to put it together.

If you have other ideas or more fun ideas for funky decks I would love to hear about them.  I`m always working on some new deck  ideas that could make playing at my Kitchen table fun, entertaining, and fresh.

As always Keep it fun, Keep it safe…keep it casual.  Until next time!

Bruce Gray

bgray8791

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Bruce Gray - April 11, 2014

Casual Encounters – Mono-Green Stompy (Budget Standard)

Arbor Colossus

One of my favorite types of decks is full of big, green, stompy creatures.  They have always been a thing, right from the days of War Mammoth and Craw Wurm right up to today.  Other archetypes have changed enormously but the contents of the Mono-Green deck is basically unchanging…lots and lots of creatures. So, with everyone’s favorite creature heavy archetype in mind I thought I would take a moment and share with all of you my version of a Budget Mono-Green deck that is fun to play and ridiculously inexpensive to build.

Mono-Green decks are sort of like a big piece of artillery that everyone can see.  You know that once the cannon fires, if it hits ANYTHING, it is game over, and there really isn’t much you can do about it.  So, you can watch the Mono-Green deck load up and cast ramping spells and creatures and all you’re hoping is that you can disrupt the canon just enough so perhaps it mis-fires, or you can dodge the bullet.  If you can’t shut the deck down it is just a matter of time before some hulking Green beast crushes you underfoot leaving you wondering what freight train just ran you over.

I’ve seen a number of iterations of Mono-Green stompy decks since the release of Theros and while I’m impressed I’m not satisfied.  I want MORE. I want BIGGER! I WANT MORE DAMAGE! And Born of the Gods gives me the perfect tool to drop wild amounts of damage on my opponent and to push mono-green from good to ridiculous. Here’s how.

In the past, Mono-green has been afflicted by the reality that usually big creatures are expensive. So, Green mages have developed all sorts of ways to ramp out lots of mana and then cast their giant fatties.  However, in today’s Standard environment green creatures are leaner and meaner than ever before but can still pack a mighty punch making Mono-Green really and truly something viable and fun.  I’ll go through some of the all stars I’ve picked out for my deck and why you should consider playing them in your Mono-Green deck.

Voyaging Satyr– Is there a better, inexpensive Mana dork than this guy?  Probably not.  He’s just good, and super readily available as an inexpensive creature.  Add in that he isn’t a 1/1 but a 1/2 and suddenly he has a little more upside as well.  This deck needs 4.

Swordwise Centaur– He is solid as a 3/2 for 2 green mana …and a devotion engine in this deck.  While I won’t call this a devotion deck, there are times when this is a useful attribute and well worth the time to put these guys in.  They start the beat down early and give you targets for some of your spells later in the game.  On a side note, you could just as easily play Kalonian Tusker as a 3/3 for 2 green, but I said this was a budget deck.  Sure, Tuskers are only $0.50 a card on Three King’s Loot, but Swordwise Centaur is $0.15…and you likely have a million thanks to any drafts you’ve played or packs you’ve cracked.  Save yourself the money and play the Centaur because you will rarely see any difference in terms of play.

Korozda Monitor– This 3/3 4 drop (2 Green, 2 Colourless) is the meat and potatoes of this deck.  He’s 3/3 and has trample, making him ideal for a Stompy deck of any sort.  Also, his scavenge ability is relevant because if your first one ends up in the yard, oh well, scavenge him onto something else (like another Monitor) and smash away.  With 2 green in his casting cost he is also a solid contributor to devotion.

Thrashing Mossdog– This handy 4 drop gives you a 3/3 with reach.  This is super relevant because this deck will struggle against decks that carry lots of fliers.  The reach can help settle down your defence, and again, when he dies, scavenge his on to a Korozda Monitor and have the 6/6 bring the pain.

Nylea’s Emissary– The 3rd 4 drop in the deck is essentially because he can grant something else you control trample, contributing to the Stompy nature of the deck. If you need him on the battlefield as a creature, that’s fine as well, but he’s exactly the sort of creature this deck wants.

The deck is running a playset of Forced Adaptations.  These can totally take your Korozda Monitor and turn him into an unstoppable beast very quickly and for 1 mana, who can go wrong.

However, the really spicy pieces are six cards that can only be described as back breaking.  The first is one out of the M14 Core set that was largely overlooked.  It isn’t flashy, but it just ends games.  Yup, you got it…Fireshrieker.  This seemingly innocuous 3 mana artifact gives something double strike.  Now, we all know that Double strike is powerful, but how powerful is it?  Trust me…on creatures with trample it straight up ends games…like…immediately.  So, a pair of Fireshriekers make the deck and give you an enormous ability to do damage.  The final 4 spells are from Born of the Gods and are one of the few spots where this deck actually cares about devotion.  Aspect of Hydra gets good reviews at Draft, so why not apply the same logic to constructed and put 4 in this deck?  It would mean that any creature with Trample would be able to do a devastating amount of damage and really turn the heat up on an opponent.

As a little demonstration let’s see what this deck can do.

Turn 1- Play Forest, pass the turn.

Turn 2- Play Forest, tap out, cast Swordwise Centaur.

Turn 3- Play Forest, tap out, cast Fireshrieker, Attack with Centaur.

Turn 4- Play Forest, tap out, Cast Korozda Monitor,

Turn 5- Play Forest, equip Fireshrieker on Monitor, cast Aspect of Hydra on Monitor, attack with the team. At this point The Monitor is 3/3 double striking and gets +4/+4 from the Aspect of Hydra…meaning he’s hitting for 14 points of trample damage.  That’s huge! And if the Centaur can sneak through as well it’s game over…or at the very least you are in the driver’s seat.  As always, this is against a goldfish with no responses, but the potential exists for this deck to deliver a wild amount of damage.

So, without further delay, here’s the deck list.

 

Mono-Green Stompy- Budget Standard

The nice piece with this deck is the cost to you in order to build.  Many budget decks put the threshold for overall cost at $2/card or maybe $50-75 for the whole deck.  This deck comes in at …under $20! Yup, for a crisp $20 dollar bill you to could be the proud owner of a ridiculously stompy mono green build.  However, this deck is like the old beat up Honda Civic you bought as a 17 year old kid…it’s straight forward, it works, and it gets the job done.  However, you could totally trick this deck out with some fun additions that will push your price tag up, but still keep it very affordable.

The first addition is a no-brainer…add in a couple of Arbor Colossus.  This gigantic 6/6 for 5 (2 colourless and 3 green) is an almost automatic include once you are prepared to open up your wallet and go a tad pricier.  He’s big, he kills fliers, he gets bigger when he’s monstrous, and is a huge devotion engine for your aspect of hydra.  He’s the first guy off the bench for sure.

Next, if you want to go a little further, is the Bow of Nylea.  This Swiss Army knife of an artifact does a little bit of everything with its various modes, but the real fun is giving everything you have deathtouch when you attack.  Who really wants to put something in front of a deathtouch creature?  Not me…so it makes combat super awkward and something most opponents will seriously re-evaluate.

The third addition is something that usually gets forgotten is Deadbridge Goliath.  He’s big at 5/5 for 4 and when he dies (as you likely hope that he does) you can scavenge his +5/+5 on to another creature giving you an instant WMD that will need to be answered.  Plus, he’s cheap to pick up because everyone has opted to play Poly (aka Polukranos) for the same 4 mana.

After that, the choices are up to you…do you want to play spells that draw you cards?  Hunter’s Prowess or Warriors’ Lessons are options.  How about just more damage?  Don’t forget Giant Growth. Want to kill things in the air? Plummet is always an option.  Are the Gods or other enchantments causing you grief?  Fade into Antiquity.  Need to kill a creature?  Pit fight or Time to Feed.  You can cover all the bases and the deck still doesn’t break the bank!

So, if you are looking for a very inexpensive deck to build and enter the realm of Standard, feel free to give this little guy a test drive and see what you think.  He’s fared pretty well for me in a number of match ups, and when your big fat stompy guy flattens an opponent the satisfaction is well worth it. So, give it a try and let me know how it goes for you and what changes you made to the deck…I’m always keen to hear how decks change and evolve.

So, until next time, keep it fun, keep it safe…keep it casual.

Bruce Gray

@bgray8791

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Bruce Gray - April 7, 2014

Casual Encounters – Underappreciated cards of Magic sets past: R...

Return to Ravnica - Jace and Niv-Mizzet

In my never ending quest to dig up some fun cards that I can use to spice up my next casual card game I turned my attention to my box of Return to Ravnica and rooted through to see if there was anything else that I could dig out.  Return to Ravnica was a terrific set that will be known for a few things.

Return to Ravnica brought back the 10 guilds of the original Ravnica set which is immediately a fan favorite.  This interesting new twist made the set rich and very flavourful as each of the guilds got their own mechanic to make them interesting.  It also brought back the shocklands, which in my estimation, are the 2nd best set of dual lands printed.  Obviously, the best set of dual lands is the original set with no drawbacks at all, but the shocklands are intriguing in their own right. The shocklands present the option of coming into play untapped at a cost and are quite skill intensive in order to balance the need for untapped land with taking damage from shocking yourself.  The shocklands also have the two different land types in the description (island/ mountain etc.), just like the original dual lands, making them very appealing in other formats where having untapped land is paramount regardless of the cost.  As a casual player I can fully appreciate why these lands are highly coveted and extremely useful and pick them up whenever I can.  Return to Ravnica also introduced a whole swath of terrific cards like Jace, Architect of Thought, Sphinx’s Revelation, Supreme Verdict, and Loxodon Smiter.  These cards have seen extensive play in Standard since their release and with good reason.

Now, I’d like to take a moment and dispel a notion.  I’ve played at my fair share of drafts, sealed events, and the occasional constructed event at the local gaming shop.  The usual players consistently talk to me like I haven’t got a clue what is going on and like I have no idea how to play.  Just because I usually play casually doesn’t mean I don’t understand what is happening, or that I can’t identify what is the difference between a powerful card and a weaker card.  I actually have a very good idea what the difference is and it isn’t that I choose not to run the powerful card…it’s that I can’t play with them because I don’t have them.  Many casual players operate on a budget and picking up the high end, pricey cards isn’t feasible.  In my case, I crack a relatively small number of packs each month…that’s it…and I have to play with whatever I find.  So, while I would like to play with all the best cards, I am forced, out of necessity, to get the job done with other things.

So, while Return to Ravnica yielded some terrific cards that are run extensively in Standard, it had some quieter gems that I would encourage you to dig up and give them a try, if only to diversify your next casual encounter.

 Common:

The first card s exactly what the player of a White “weenie” or a control/tempo deck wants to run.  It is cheap, suitably aggressive, and plays into the strategy to tempo your opponent to slow them down.  Who is this guy?  Why it’s Azorius Arrester.  This guy is a staple in White.  He is clutch in the late game to remove the opponents’ best creature for a turn.  He is key in the early game to get out in front of the race by clearing the road for early damage.  He trades up to take out “Bears” quite favorably.  He is just a useful and versatile 2 drop and a nice addition to the deck.  My friends often choose to ignore this little guy, but I’ll run a full playset every time.  He’s just a meat and potatoes type of creature that doesn’t get much love and is often passed over for flashier cards.

Another favorite of mine is in a very different colour.  I rarely choose to play Black, but this common has helped me to feel more comfortable because it allows me to play a little more aggressively.  Sewer Shambler is a 3 drop (1 black, 2 colourless) for a 2/1.  This is hardly earth shattering and is in fact a little overpriced for what you get. However, the real beauty of this guy is the Scavenge ability on this card.  When I saw the Scavenge ability I was intrigued.  It made creatures in your graveyard very useful and potentially explosive sources of damage.  Some of the Scavenge costs on some of the creatures in Return to Ravnica are really steep and provide very little benefit (i.e Drudge Beetle).  However, the Sewer Shambler  has a very reasonable cost of…exactly what you paid to bring it into play.  So, for 3 you get to give another creature in play +2/+2 (Sewer Shambler’s power)…wait…isn’t Sewer Shambler a 2/1…so by scavenging this creature I get MORE than I would if I had the creature in play?  Wow…um…ok! Thanks.  So, this inexpensive common can do double duty in a deck as a) a creature to apply pressure, but more accurately to block and die and b) a reasonable costed pump spell to boost another creature you control once it is in your graveyard.  This is very applicable and sometimes the difference between finishing off your opponent or giving him an extra turn to dig up an answer.

Uncommon:

At the uncommon slot there are a lot of choices, but the one that I always like seeing turn up is Thoughtflare.  This 5 mana draw spell (1 Blue, 1 red, and 3 colourless) makes my opponents chuckle because it seems so ridiculous, but every time I see it I’m always thankful it comes up.  It’s a massive hit. Let me explain why. Invariably I get stuck where I’ve got 1 or 2 dead cards in my hand.  They just aren’t helpful at this point of the game and are sitting there and I need answers!  Divination is ok…but it’s a sorcery and can be slow and clunky.  Opportunity draws me 4 cards, but that may put me into the situation where I’m at 8 or more cards and need to discard anyway…plus it’s 6 to cast instead of 5.  Thoughtflare acts like Opportunity and the discard ability is not unlike that of Faithless Looting.  So, Opportunity AND Faithless looting…for 5…at instant speed.  Sounds good to me! It is even better if the cards you discard have flashback or can be recurred by some means (Archaeomancer, Auramancer) so that you still have access to them, making this a very valuable way to draw cards. So, all in all, drawing 4 cards off Thoughtflare and then discarding two is just fine by me most times.  It digs me far enough that I can usually find something useful.  It slims my hand down by making me discard a pair of cards I don’t need that I can usually get back if I’ve planned for this.  It can be cast on my opponents turn at instant speed. It also makes me laugh because no one else ever thinks to run it.  Try it out yourself and you’ll see what I mean.

Rare:

There were some bomb cards at the Rare slot in Return to Ravnica, but one of them that never saw Standard play just screams Casual Card.  Perhaps it speaks to a little bit of my personality, but nothing makes me happier than taking my opponents creatures and then beating my opponent with them. Grave Betrayal is a hefty 7 mana  Black enchantment that whenever a creature your opponents control dies, the creature returns to the battlefield under your control AND gets a +1/+1 counter at the next end step.  If I’m running Black I’m packing as much removal as I can find slots in my deck and this card is great.  It is even better in a multiplayer game, because the wording on Grave Betrayal stipulates when a creature of ANY opponent dies I get control of it.  That includes board wipes, spot removal, combat or another form of removal, and they come back bigger thanks to the +1/+1 counter.  It basically means you have a pile of creatures from your opponents’ graveyards in front of you and get to smack your opponents with them.  Priceless! This is a perfect casual card and can take a multiplayer game from boring to ridiculously funny!

Mythic Rare:

By the time you get to the Mythic rare spot it is hard to actually pick something that is “underappreciated”.  Most Mythics find a home somewhere, but the one that lends itself to the most silliness and fun combat choices is Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius.  He’s hardly overlooked by players who know their stuff, but he never really found a deck in Standard and still hasn’t, which makes him a candidate to slide into some sort of casual build.  His casting cost of 6 (2 blue, 2 Red, 2 colourless) can be a bit steep, but hey, I’m the guy playing 7 mana enchantments and 5 mana card draw instants…so 6 is totally in my wheel house.  You get a 5/5 flying dragon, which is always cool.  These stats are largely on par with the classic dragon, Shivan Dragon.  However, the ability to draw cards and deal damage without combat that accompany Niv-Mizzet make him an awesome addition to a deck and a real menace.  Evasion, range, good stats, card draw…this guy does it all and sadly makes Shivan Dragon look like a powder puff. So, really the only drawback is the 6 to cast him, but I an a world of 5 mana draw spells and 7 mana enchantments, this can work and make your game all the more enjoyable.

No article would be complete without a deck list highlighting how some of these pieces can go together into a casual deck.  The one I’m showing here is for what my friends and I called “Hobo night” where we couldn’t play any rare cards.  Common and uncommons were allowed from any set, but no rares at all.  Yes, this is usually called “Peasant”, but we preferred “Hobo”.

U/B “Hobo deck”

This deck is premised on building your own hexproof, unblockable creature and then dropping your opponents to the floor as quick as possible.  Many of the creature can’t be blocked already (Keymaster Rogue, Deathcult Rogue) and Elgaud Shieldmate soulbonded provides the hexproof.  The other option is the Mask of Avacyn which is surprisingly useful.  To speed up the clock on your unblockable creatures, the scavenge ability of the Sewer Shambler and Zanikev Locust can be used to boost the crunching power of your attackers.  The other cards are mostly removal (murder, ultimate price, devour flesh etc) or cards that allow for deck manipulation.  Brainstorm is an all-star, but Sage Aven is extremely useful, Diabolic Vision is extremely powerful for a mere 2 mana and Pilfered Plans is an improved Divination thanks to milling of your opponents’ deck.  All in all, a fun, very inexpensive deck to put together that has lots of interesting lines of play and provides for lots of options.

So, next time you go to sit down and play a game with your friends at your next casual encounter, take a moment and look for a few little treats that you can do to liven up your playgroup, bring some fresh cards to the table, and take the evening from the usual, to the unusual.  Once again, thanks for reading and enjoy your next Casual Encounter.

 

Bruce Gray

@bgray8791

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Gerald Knight - March 31, 2014

Knight’s Booty: Missing Piece [Modern, Mono-Black control]

Liliana's Specter

Welcome back to Knight’s Booty.  I’m sorry but I don’t have a short story for you this week.  Instead I have a deck that I’ve been testing out in Modern that fills a gap that is missing in the current metagame.  Now the reason for designing this deck is taken from Chapin’s “Next Level Deck building” eBook, which I highly recommend to anybody who wants to take that next step.

See, if we take a look at the current metagame (using mtggoldfish.com as our baseline) we are sitting in a very combo heavy environment.  Splinter Twin is sitting at 13.26%, with Melira Pod at 12.14%.  That’s only two decks and already we are covering a quarter of the metagame.  After that we look at UR Storm at 5.43%, Scapeshift at 4.15%, Ad Nauseum at 2.24% and after that it peters off.  So add all those percentages together and we are sitting pretty at 37.22%. Up from a quarter to a third of our current metagame is made up of combo decks.  Which when you think about it is pretty amazing really.

So how do we go about punishing this combo dominant metagame?  We could try going to go aggro and beat them to the punch. But most of the above decks are ready to “go off” by turn 3, and can aggro decks really beat that clock?  I don’t know, but even with the power of Zoo and Affinity I can’t be comfortable in saying that they have faster clocks.  And do we really want to try and compete with other aggro decks? I personally don’t.

So the next level up is control.  In which we have UWR and Hatebears as your big bad guys. Combined however they only take up 7.98% of the metagame.  Something is seriously lacking there, don’t you think?  Even if you add in UW Midrange you are only looking at 10.86% of the metagame being control decks.  This just doesn’t seem possible.  Especially when you have Esper control eating the standard environment alive.

So what does this mean for us?  It means that we can open up a whole new can of worms by moving into an area that is seeing very little love (control) and a colour that is notorious for it (black).  That’s right, I’m talking about Mono-Black Control, with a focus on discard.  But why discard you ask?

Because, just because.  Seriously though, if over a third of the decks you are going to be facing are combo decks, you can easily pick them apart by removing their combo pieces from their hand.  And aggro?  Back up your discard with removal, another thing that Mono-Black Control is famous for, and you can take control of the board as well as their hand.  Not to mention that the deck gets monumentally better whenever your opponent mulligan’s.  If their deck punishes them before the game even begins, then we are going to be in an even better position to win.

Now, that is not to say that the deck doesn’t have it’s weaknesses because it does.  It suffers in the fact that despite all of it’s abilities to disrupt the field and the hand, it can’t stop a topdeck.  It also stalls out late game with a lot of dead cards in hand.  But compared to the benefits, I am willing to overlook that little matter.

First off, the deck list as it currently stands:

The one card that it is missing is Thoughtseize, which can easily be put in place of Duress.  But only if you have that kind of money.  Now the one thing you might immediately note is that I am running a splash of Red in there.  This is because Black has no inherent artifact hate, or nothing that is cheap enough to warrant being included in the build.  But red does in the form of Smash to Smithereens, which in my past experience playing burn in Modern is a fantastic sideboard card.  And having immediate access to Red does give some interesting options if we ever wanted to include a devastating card like Blightning, or Rakdos Charm.  But I am focusing more on the Mono-Black version.

I want to talk about each card individually, but it will probably be easier if I break it down into each suite of cards, with the obvious Discard being the first.

First up is Inquisition of Kozilek.  This card is a very powerful discard spell as the name of the game in any deck that isn’t control based is speed.  Which means that cards are going to be cheap.  Tarmagoyf only costs two, Kitchen Finks costs three, Pyromancer’s Ascension costs two, and so forth.  So Inquisition of Kozilek has the ability to hit a lot of the cards out there that can cause problems.

After that I will address Duress.  It’s not Thoughtseize, that’s for certain, but it can come in handy where Inquisition can’t.  It can hit the higher costing cards, such as Splinter Twin, Birthing Pod, and Scapeshift.  But because it can’t hit creatures it loses playability.  That is the reason why I am only running a single copy in the mainboard, with more in the sideboard for when you do come up against decks like Twin, Pod, and Scapeshift.  It can be an easy swap out of Inquisition for Duress and you don’t set off your card balance.

Next is Raven’s Crime, which I am honestly thinking of upping to three copies.  The card is incredibly good in the late game when you’ve setup your win condition or are waiting to do so and you need to empty out your opponents hand.  It turns every late game land draw into another discard spell, and it works in conjunction with Smallpox when you will have to discard something.  I can’t tell you how many times I have been happy to have a Raven’s Crime in my graveyard and how many times I’ve been sorry to not have one.

Last, but not least in our spell slots for discard is Wrench Mind.  This is about as close to Hymn to Tourach as we will ever see again.  Sure, it doesn’t discard at random, but it is a straight up two cards for two mana.  And when you can play this on turn two after your opponent has already played a land or two, plus an early drop from their hand, it seriously wrecks your opponents game.  The earlier you can see this card the better your chances of victory will be.

The next section I am going to address is the removal suite, but first I need to talk about a card that fits between the two, and that is Smallpox.  I don’t quite know how I feel about the card itself.  It is very punishing to both players, but usually more so to our opponent.  I mean I love the card.  It has performed amazingly well in the early game against decks like Storm and Pod.  As an aside, it is a fantastic turn two play against Pod as it removes two sources of mana available to them, and slows them down significantly.  Storm is another matter, in that they need three mana to “go off”, unless they get a two mana “god hand”, and using Smallpox to slow them down to a crawl can hurt them more than it will us.  Like I said earlier, we can discard a Raven’s Crime to it or any excess discard spells that aren’t doing us any good.  And we are running a minimum of creatures so there is very little chance that we will be hurting our board state.  Again, I love this card, but when I read it in a bubble it makes me cringe.

Now onto the removal suite.

 Victim of Night is the first one up, and it can kill just about anything.  In the current metagame there aren’t many Zombie creatures, nor are there Vampires or Werewolves.  So there isn’t much that it can’t take care of, plain and simple, and because we aren’t worried about colour restrictions we can carry the two black in it’s mana cost with ease making it a superior choice to Doom Blade.  There is only one other kind of creature that this can’t hit and that is one who has protection from Black, but we have a spell to deal with that.

Geth’s Verdict is the answer to “protection from black” and furthermore Hexproof.  Now I’ve talked about Hexproof in a previous article and it is probably one of my favourite all-time decks to play.  So I know how much of a pain in the butt it can be.  Now, when I was regularly playing pauper and running Hexproof the worst thing in the world I could run into was Mono-Black Control because they had the one answer that could get around that restriction and that was Geth’s Verdict, because they were targeting me and not the creature.  So unless your opponent is going to side in Leyline of Sanctity, you can be pretty sure that Geth’s Verdict will take care of what Victim of Night can’t.  Oh, and it also hits your opponent for one life to boot.  And yes you can kill your opponent with it, even if there are no creatures on the board, so it is never a dead card.

The last card in our removal suite replaced Doom Blade and has tested out fairly well so far.  Sudden Death.  It is more expensive, but it can do some things that a lot of removal cards can’t.  It can take out creatures that are indestructible to start, as long as you can get their toughness down to four or less, which means that a few of the newly printed “gods” are even threatened by this card.  And there is no fear about not being able to kill most creatures, because outside of Tarmogoyf and a pumped up Hexproof dude, there aren’t any creatures currently being run with more than four toughness.  Four is the magical number in Modern because it can beat Lightning Bolt, and Sudden Death can go above that number.  Now the last thing about the card, and by far it’s the most important aspect of it, is that it has an ability called Split Second.

 

This mechanic deserves it’s own little section.  Split Second is a fantastic ability and a powerful one that isn’t utilized often enough in my opinion.  First off I want to ask you a question.  Have you ever been playing against a blue player and tried to kill their Delver of Secrets only to have them Counterspell or Mana Leak your spell?  It sucks doesn’t it?  Well because of the way Split Second works the spell can’t be countered.  You see as long as the spell with Split Second is on the ‘stack’ no other spells or abilities, that are not mana abilities, can be played.  Meaning no counterspell.  And furthermore it can disrupt a combo like Deceiver Exarch and Splinter Twin.  if by some chance they managed to land Twin you can kill the creature in response and they don’t have the opportunity to make their infinite army, nor can they cast a counterspell to prevent it from happening.  The same goes with Pod and the infinite combo of damage and life gain through a sacrifice outlet.  You can kill the outlet before the chain has a chance to go off and by doing so at least buy yourself some time.  It can also affect Affinity, a deck I haven’t mentioned yet.  Normally if you were to kill their powerhouse Arcbound Ravager they could sacrifice a bunch of artifacts to it to make it’s Modular ability huge and then when it died they could just redistribute them anywhere they wanted.  Well, with Split Second they don’t have that option and Ravager just straight up dies.

After our removal suite we throw in a splash of utility with Sign in Blood.  A good little pay two life draw two card spell.  Or at least that is how it is read most of the time.  And it is a good payoff.  Late game it can let you dig for the answers you want or need and early game it can simply refill your hand after annihilating your opponents.  Not to mention that because it reads “target player”, you can use it to finish off your opponent as well.  And a lot of players out there will agree that there isn’t much out there that is more disgusting that being killed with a Sign in Blood.

Now a deck wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t have creatures.  Well, that’s not entirely true as there are creatureless decks out there, but this isn’t one of them because if we ran only discard and removal we would easily lose any ground race.  Now we aren’t running a lot of creatures, but the ones we are running have an immediate impact on the game.

Ravenous Rats is the first one that I’m going to address, and it is the weakest one by far.  We are paying two mana for a 1/1 body that isn’t good for a whole lot other than chump blocking.  But it can chump block like a champ!  What’s special about him is that when he enters the battlefield he makes your opponent discard a card.  It’s not random, but it’s still something.  So early or late game this creature can disrupt the hand, clog up the board for a turn, or maybe even eek out a few points of damage on the attack.

After the rat we have Liliana’s Specter, a flying rat one could say?  She does the same thing as the Ravenous Rats, in that she forces your opponent to discard a card, and sadly she also shares the same toughness quality seeing as she is only a 2/1 body.  But she does have flying which can help gum up the air if you need a easy blocker there, or she can fly over anything on the ground that is waiting to eat your face.

The last creature to enter into the fray is a personal favourite of mine, and he is none other than the Chittering Rats.  Yes, another rat.  But he is a good rat.  Well, for a common he is a good rat.  Correction, he is a great rat!  I mean, he is below the power curve of being only a 2/2 bear for three mana but when he enters the battlefield you Time Walk.  Not familiar with that card?  It’s an old card that was printed only up to Unlimited and it is banned in everything, except in Vintage in which it is restricted.  Because it gives you an extra turn for two mana.  That’s powerful, no matter what stage of the game you are in. An extra turn?  Hell yes, I would love to take two turns in a row!  It can be a huge tempo shift!  But now you are asking  how does the rat give us an extra turn?  Well when he enters the battlefield he forces your opponent to take a card from their hand and place it on top of their library.  Effectively making them ‘re-play’ their previous turn.  This is even more effective when you have already chewed apart their hand with your suite of discard spells.  And it’s even more effective when you work it into our “win con”.

Shrieking Affliction.  A single black mana for an enchantment that will punish our opponent for playing their hand out too fast, as Aggro decks are known to do, and reward us for emptying out our opponents hand.  The best part about this enchantment is that if you can empty their hand entirely, and this is if they do not have card draw in their suite of spells (but nobody runs Divination), then there is an almost guaranteed six damage over two turns, in which they either allow the clock to continue or they buff up their hand in hopes that they can outlast the effects of the Shrieking Affliction.  This of course only works if you don’t draw up into one of our many spells that force our opponent to discard.

Now, you might be asking yourself why we aren’t using something like Liliana’s Caress (a strictly better Megrim).  Well because with the way that our deck is designed we don’t want our opponent to have any cards in hand, and in order for Caress to affect our opponent they have to have those threats.  Once we get our opponent into “topdeck” mode, he is simply going to play out whatever cards he draws into without fear of taking the two damage from the Caress.  Making it a dead card on board once we are done destroying their hand.

And the last card to make it into the deck is one that I’ve been experimenting with as a real late game kill card, and that is Haunting Echoes.  See, the deck will regularly go into the late stages of the game with ten and twelve turn games, as we either wait or dig for our win con or beat our down slowly with creatures.  What this means however is that we will usually be filling their graveyard with a ton of cards, either from hand removal or board removal.  Now imagine if their graveyard is full and you are now both playing the top deck game and you pull Haunting Echoes.  You cast it targetting their graveyard and suddenly their deck has shrivelled down to almost nothing but basic lands.  I’m pretty confident that at that point your opponent won’t have enough answers in their library to deal with you.

Sounds fair enough, doesn’t it?  Well, I’m not done yet.  I’m going to do something that I don’t normally do and go into the sideboard.

If you go back and look at the list there is red splashed in there, and I think I said something about Black not having any inherent artifact hate.  A simple splash of Smash to Smithereens works to alleviate that problem, and this card is good against several decks.  Obviously you want to side it in against Affinity and Pod, but you can also use it in the fringe match ups where Aether Vial shows up, as in Merfolk and G/W Hatebears.  The other card that isn’t in the main board is Leyline of the Void.  An enchantment that gets around Abrupt Decay and can destroy several different decks at the same time.  Storm is one of the key matchups as both Pyromancer’s Ascension and Past in Flames require the graveyard in order to function.  That’s not to say that a storm deck can’t “go off” without them, but you would be smart to mulligan into seeing this in your opening hand.  Another big deck that it can come in against is Pod.  It shuts down the infinite damage and infinite life combos, and forces them to move into a mid-range beatdown deck.  Not the best of solutions, but it makes the matchup very playable.  The last one I’ve added in is a personal preference in Echoing Decay, which is fantastic against tokens, but it really should be traded in favour of Infest or another “sweeper” type effect.

And so there you have it.  A deck that is reasonably affordable compared to other decks that are in the metagame right now (I mean, come on… Pod is almost $2100?) and is suited to fight a lot of the popular decks.

Until next time,

~ Gerald Knight

Extra Booty: Now this is purely speculation, but there is another reason why I am investing in building this deck and that is because of a card that is being released in M15 which I think can put this deck over the top.  Waste Not.  The community designed card.  For those of you who haven’t heard about it or don’t remember what it does, it is a two cost black enchantment that has three different effects when an opponent discards a card, depending upon the card type.  A creature card will net you a 2/2 zombie token, a land card will net you two black mana, and if they discard anything else you get to draw a card.  All said and told I don’t know how this card wouldn’t be a beast in the deck and I am planning on pre-ordering at least four of them.