Welcome back to another Crack a pack MTG with Bruce. Last week we busted open a pack of Journey into Nyx, but that draft format has come and gone. Sure, you might get a chance to Retro draft that, but let’s be real, the new hot game in town is M15 draft. We had a chance to watch the Pros draft M15 and got some neat new perspectives on things as some of the best drafters on the planet did their thing. Honestly, to watch Ben Stark or some of the other greats of the game draft is something else. I also had a chance to listen to Limited Resources and hear how Marshall Sutcliffe and Brian Wong, both very well respected limited players, regard the M15 draft format and with some interesting results. Both of them commented on how unusual a format this is because there doesn’t seem to be a correct draft order for the cards. Everything COULD be playable…but in that same vein everything COULD be the wrong pick. It makes for some interesting choices and reads at the draft table. So, with those ideas in mind, I thought a pack of M15 would suit our style just right…so here we go!
This is pretty average pack, but there are certainly some stand out cards in this pack that really catch my eye. The first place to start is with our Rare. Stormtide Leviathan is a massive 8 mana 8/8 creature that also has Islandwalk, turns all lands into islands along with their other type, and ensures that only creatures with Flying and Islandwalk can attack. Ok…normally I’m down on 8 mana fatty, but this guy can just lock an opponent out of their game plan and seal the deal for you. I’m actually mildly interested by this guy and what it could mean at the end of the game if I need to bust open a board stall. This will actually get a little consideration because the upside is actually so high.
Next, Quickling is exactly the sort of card I want to run. This is basically a flying “bear” with a downside…except I don’t think it is actually a downside at all. The fact that it was Flash means you can flash it in, bounce a creature that was about to die, and then recast your creature meaning that you don’t actually lose out. You could also reap the benefits of an Enter the Battlefield trigger if you can wangle it. No, this is very versatile, cheap, evasive, and could synergize nicely with a wide variety of fun creatures.
On Limited Resource, Marshall Sutcliffe was expounding on the virtues of Coral Barrier and I have to agree with him. This innocuous little 1/3 defender comes along with a squid token giving you a very solid return for your mana investment. Also, the fact that the squid has Islandwalk could also be very relevant. If you can synergize this guy with an Invasive Species or a Quickling you could really see some benefits and start to build a board state that really puts you in the driver’s seat. This is a very solid creature and would be high on my priority list.
The next creature that I would be looking at is the always boring Carrion Crow. A 2/2 flier for 3 mana makes this a Wind Drake. No one is going to write home about a Wind Drake, but the Crow is a serviceable flier and could make all the difference.
Sign In Blood is another card I’ve always liked because of the versatility. Usually I would cast this on myself to draw a pair of cards because I need to restock my hand. However, this one is versatile enough to target your opponent and effectively “shock” them . This seems like a silly way to use your spell, but if you are out front and you just can’t quite close the deal, sometimes “shocking” them with a Sign In Blood is all you’ve got left.
Shrapnel Blast is nice card mostly for the rather sick amount of damage it can deliver in short order. My only issue is that I’m not really sure that I dig the U/R artifact deck in this draft format and so I don’t prioritize this very highly. The only way I end up on THAT game plan is if I find “angry scissors” (Ensoul Artifact) early on and can then craft my deck to make use of artifacts. Otherwise, if I see things like Shrapnel Blast, Aeronaut Tinkerer and Scrapyard Mongrel, they aren’t as interesting to me and will be things that I would be looking at later in the round.
Plummet is always a fun card and something I like very much. Nothing like a Terror for fliers.
Research Assistant is an interesting card because of the “looting” ability that it packs. Late in the game, when I’m drawing more land than I need, I will HAPPILY pay the expensive activation cost on this guy for the chance to draw something more useful. Otherwise, he’s interesting, but not a super high priority and at common I’m likely to see at least one more before the end of the draft.
Ephemeral Shield is a nice combat trick. I’m not sure if I like it better than Ajani’s Presence from Journey Into Nyx. Ajani’s Presence has Strive meaning I can protect more than a single creature, but Ephemeral Shield has Convoke meaning you could still cast it even if you had no mana up to cast it. Either way, Ephemeral Shield is a very solid trick that can come in handy to save creature or lead to some sort of busted combat scenario. It isn’t a high priority for me, but if I find myself considering playing White I’d like to know that I have at least one in my pile.
Satyr Wayfinder, Thundering Giant, Black Cat, and Runeclaw Bear are all perfectly acceptable creatures, but they are largely interchangeable depending on what strategy you want to play. My motto for Drafting is always “more bodies is always good” and these help you to fill out those creature spots in your deck. I won’t turn my nose up at these guys.
Feast on the Fallen. Ok, I feel like this is a TERRIBLE card. The set up cost, of making an opponent lose life in order to trigger the effect, is very high. And then, what is more, you get a SINGLE +1/+1 counter! I’m sorry…that seems like a very low return for working hard to do damage to an opponent. Beyond the relatively low return, Feast on the Fallen does nothing to the board state. It doesn’t STOP my opponent from doing anything to me, it eats a card slot in my deck, and has a marginal effect even when I can trigger it. No, this is a bad card. I’ll pass it all day long.
For my first pick in this pack I would be weighing the Leviathan or the Quickling. In the end, I would likely pick the Quickling. With the Quickling I can almost be assured that I can cast it every game. 2 mana is very achievable (and if you don’t draw 2 mana before the game is over you may have done something terribly wrong) while the 8 needed for the Leviathan is not a sure bet. Besides, the Flying “bear” with synergy is super appealing and very much of interest to me. So, at the end of the day I would take the Quickling and leave the Leviathan to go around.
It also bears mentioning at this point that this pack is a BUST for players in White and Red. The vast majority of the cards in this deck are Black, Green, and Blue meaning that you could reasonably expect that there will be players beside you that will also be in those colours. After a single pick I wouldn’t get worried, but I would start to become conscious of such factors as the draft continued.
Well, there we go. We’ve seen a number of M15 packs and seem some pretty interesting stuff. Would you have gone with the Leviathan? Quickling? Something else? These choices start to get tricky and some other points of view will help us all, some shoot me a tweet and let me know what you think.
Next week I’m going to go and truly find a Retro pack…something from the Return to Ravnica block will be on deck. Which set? That’s a surprise for next week, but it will no doubt bring back a measure of nostalgia for those of us who enjoyed RTR or GTC draft formats.
So, until next time, may you open only Mythic Rare Bomb.
Thanks for reading
By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters @bgray8791 on Twitter
You turn the key and lock up the shop for the day, ready to go home and get some grub before heading out to Friday Night Magic, ready to test out that shiny new Heroic deck you’ve been tweaking when your phone goes off. It’s your little cousin, and he is going on about how Grandma got him the Magic Holiday Gift box for Christmas, bragging about how he pulled a Fabled Hero, Prognostic Sphinx and Polis Crusher. He sounds so excited about his loot, when he asks you if he can come with you tonight. You think about it for a second and say why not?
You go and pick him up and bring him home, looking at his collection realizing quickly that what little has isn’t going to stand a chance at your local game shop. You walk over to your overloaded shelf of magic cards and pull a deck off of it. It’s one of those Pauper decks that you read about on Three Kings Loot’s website the other week. It’s the mono black one, which only seemed appropriate after you saw your cousins reaction to the dreaded Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Like a kid in a candy store.
So you both scarf down some pizza while playing a few matches before heading over to the shop, only to realize once you step through the door that it wasn’t Standard tonight, but Vintage. Your heart skips a beat thinking about how wrecked your cousins deck is going to get against that kind of competition. A Standard Pauper deck isn’t built to take on those types of decks. So you ask him how much money he has on him, thinking that maybe you could get a few cheap cards to give him a chance. He looks at you and says that all he has is the twenty dollars that aunt Gladys gave him. Twenty dollars isn’t going to go far in Vintage, not by a long shot. But then you have a brainstorm and hop on your smartphone and look up Classic Pauper decks. They are cheap enough and might just have a chance.
Given your cousins fascination with the Gray Merchant you settle on a Mono-Black deck and walk up to the counter giving the list to the owner, before realizing that Classic Pauper is an online format only and that there are cards printed from sets not released online that could be added. You make a few changes to the list and smile as your cousin begins gathering all the cards together to take on his first challenger.
The store owner calls out the pairings and you sit down beside your cousin and watch as he drops down a first turn swamp and Duress to draw out his opponents Force of Will, followed by a second swamp and a Hymn to Tourach. His opponent groans and your little cousins face lights up. Maybe, just maybe, he can pull this off.
The above is a Mono-Black Control deck in Classic Pauper, a format that is almost exclusively online. There are a few stores that hold tournaments and the format is growing in paper popularity, but it isn’t mainstream yet. Inside you can see a healthy mix of discard and removal and card draw, a board wipe to keep things under control, and your end game Gray Merchant and Corrupts. A deck like this costs under $20 at 3KL, and is a great way for a new player to have a deck that has a chance of being competitive if they ever come across some really old school players, and they don’t have to give up their college loan to afford it.
As a quick rehash, if you are not familiar with the Pauper format or did not read my previous article on it, Pauper is a format made up entirely of commons. All the standard rules to Magic apply with a 60 card (minimum) deck and a 15 card (maximum) sideboard. The major thing to note about Classic Pauper is that it allows for any card that has ever been printed at the common level to be used. Yes, even a card like Rancor. Speaking of…
So, like I did with my last Pauper article I am going to throw an extra bone at you, an alternative if you aren’t a control player is Green-White Hexproof. One of my personal favourites. The deck ‘runs on rails’ as it were, and is relatively easy for young or new players to pilot. It’s very simple in that you try and get your Hexproof creature down and then load it up with aura cards and beat your opponents face. “Cheap” and effective auras include Armadillo Cloak ($1.99 each), Rancor ($3.75), Ethereal Armor ($0.25 each), or it’s older and more effective brother Ancestral Mask ($0.49). Combined with aura’s like Abundant Growth ($0.25) that enchant your lands to mana fix, you can quickly make quite the untouchable beat stick of a creature.
So there you have two cheap and effective Pauper decks you can build for new players to help them get into Vintage.
Who says that Magic has to be expensive?
~ Gerald
| Set Name | Magic 2015—Core Set |
| Number of Cards | 269 |
| Prerelease Events | July 12-13, 2014 |
| Release Date | July 18, 2014 |
| Launch Weekend | July 18-20, 2014 |
| Game Day | August 9-10, 2014 |
| Magic Online Prerelease Events | July 25-27, 2014 |
| Magic Online Release Date | July 28, 2014 |
| Pro Tour Magic 2015 | August 1-3, 2014 |
| Pro Tour Magic 2015Location | Portland, Oregon, USA |
| Pro Tour Magic 2015Formats | Swiss:
Top 8:
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| Official Three-Letter Code | M15 |
| Twitter Hashtag | #MTGM15 |
| Initial Concept and Game Design | Aaron Forsythe (lead) Max McCall Shawn Main Mike Gills Jenna Helland |
| Final Game Design and Development | Billy Moreno (lead) Shawn Main Adam Lee Tom LaPille Sam Stoddard |
| Languages | English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish |
| Available in | Booster Packs, Intro Packs*, Clash Pack*, Fat Pack*
(* – Not available in all languages) |
