Playing Catchup

So, over the past month or so I've been playing around with mostly two decks.
The first of which is my still-current standby; monogreen.


Monogreen Midrange
--Land (22)--
20 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Kessig Wolf Run

--Creatures (24)--
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Borderland Ranger
4 Dungrove Elder
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Llanowar Elves
1 Primeval Titan
1 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Strangleroot Geist
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Vorapede
1 Wurmcoil Engine

--Noncreature Permanents (9)--
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Birthing Pod
2 Garruk Relentless
1 Karn Liberated
4 Rancor

--Sorceries (5)--
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Genesis Wave
3 Green Sun's Zenith

--Sideboard (15)--
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Acidic Slime
2 Beast Within
2 Crushing Vines
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Torpor Orb
1 Super secret tech of the week


It needs work, as I haven't touched it in two weeks. I really like the one-of Pod, seeing as it doesn't show up enough to get in my way, yet can keep an opponent on their toes. The Genesis Wave, not so much.
Moving on, the second deck's one that I thoroughly enjoy, but am rather sad to observe as being a bit too slow for the format.



Seven Evil Ex's
--Land (24)--
8 Plains
9 Swamp
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Ghost Quarter

--Creatures (6)--
2 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Wurmcoil Engine

--Noncreature Permanents (12)--
1 Batterskull
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Gideon Jura
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Lingering Souls
3 Pristine Talisman
4 Sphere of the Suns

--Instants/Sorceries (18)--
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Day of Judgment
1 Entreat the Angels
3 Lingering Souls
4 Sign on Blood
1 Timely Reinforcements
3 White Sun's Zenith

--Sideboard (15)--
1 Act of Aggression
1 Celestial Purge
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Day of Judgment
1 Mimic Vat
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Revoke Existance
1 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Torpor Orb


This one's probably going to be deconstructed soon. There's just too many ideas I want to try before rotation.

"Packwars"

Ever tried playing a game of Magic with only one booster pack?
I know there’s a few variants of this kind of play going around, but here’s the one my playgroup uses:

1. Open your booster pack without looking at the contents (sleeving optional)
2. Add 15 land (3 of each color).
3. Play!

Generally speaking my group gives it a whirl whenever our combined haul for the night is too small for a few of us to draft. Like last Friday.


Packwars Suckpack 7/27
—Land (16)—
3 Forest
3 Island
4 Mountain
3 Plains
3 Swamp

—Creatures (7)—
Centaur Courser
Crimson Muckwader
Fog Bank
Knight of Glory
Kraken Hatchling
Yeva, Nature’s Herald
Vedalken Entrancer

—The Rest (7)—
Angel’s Mercy
Craterize
Divine Verdict
Essence Drain
Farseek
Pacifism
Volcanic Strength


This pack ended up being very defensive, opening with the Hatchling and Fog Bank early on. Yeva ended up being in my hand for all of the game, after being unable to find (or search for) a second Forest. Of the four players involved, I ended up being the last to lose, after dying to an opposing Entrancer.

Just a fun little thing I felt like sharing.

Deck - Tribal Wolves [G/W]

So yeah, I’ve been a tad quiet lately. So here’s an older deck of mine, if only to break the silence.

Wolves, while not the most cohesive creature type, happen to be my favorite. A few years back, after getting sick of a Goblin tribal made of anything lying around, I decided to put together something full of creatures I’d enjoy looking at.

When I originally assembled the deck, I had a couple ground rules: It had to have at least one of every in-color wolf in the deck, the critters being the theme and all; And in order to curve any future pursuits of foil cards, any “blinging up” I did had to be restricted to this deck. I feel that I’ve been faithful to both rules, but after the newer wolves in recent sets (which I haven’t updated the deck with yet), I’ve since decided to improve the deck, moving those that don’t make the cut into a display portion of my trade binder. So in other words, this’ll be the “before” list.


Wolves!
—Land (23)—
12 Forest
7 Plains
2 Graypelt Refuge
2 Temple Garden

—Creatures (27)—
1 Arctic Wolves
1 Dire Wolves
3 Howling Wolf
4 Lone Wolf
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Rot Wolf
4 Sacred Wolf
1 Tel-Jilad Wolf
1 Timber Wolves
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
2 Tundra Wolves
4 Watchwolf
2 Wyluli Wolf
1 Young Wolf

—Noncreatures (10)—
3 Alpha Status
1 Aspect of Wolf
1 Fable of Wolf and Owl
1 Howl of the Night Pack
4 Sound the Call


You can already see the disparity with what I like and don’t like to see in play. Master of the Wild aside, of course. Currently the main win condition of the deck tends to be an Alpha Status on a Lone Wolf or Sacred Wolf, which then dispenses a beatdown. Speaking of Lone Wolf…


Blurriness aside, that’s probably the pride of my collection right there. Particularly the top left one.

Until next time!

Budgetplay - Draw-Go [UW]

So, after taking a look at the previous deck, I realized it could be done fairly easily on a budget. Cutting out the Mythics is the most obvious first step. After that, removing the duals lands hurts our constancy, but gnaws off about a quarter of what’s left in the price. Normally I’d toss in Evolving Wilds to replace them, but with it in the deck already and all the X-spells I plan on running, I figure it’s better to cut Wilds and run Shimmering Grotto for fixing and let some basic land fill the dual-land gap.

Now what to fill these remaining holes with? Well, I like the redundancy of White Sun’s Zenith, especially with our drawing powers, so I’m upping it by one. I’d bring it to four, personally, but I have the dual-lands to support that WWW converted mana cost. It won’t be so easy here either, I think, but even if this deck lacks specific searching, it knows how to draw into things. Like land. And additional copies of something we probably shouldn’t be playing four of anyway. In also comes a Blue Sun’s Zenith, for additional card advantage. I figure it wouldn’t hurt off of a rewind, or any dead turn. Our third hole filler is a Darksteel Sentinel. He’s not the most impressive 6-drop out there, but the ability to flash in and survive most removal gives me some reason to give him a shot on the B-Team. I also ended up cutting a Day of Judgment in effort to budget up a bit more. The replacement for that was either a Divine Deflection or an Elixir of Immortality. I erred on the side of potential win-card, but won’t knock the other card’s ability to restock counterspells and life points.

I was tempted to throw in Intangible Virtues, but their lack of Instant-flavor detracted me. Here’s where I note that with Midnight Haunting and Lingering Souls around, one could easily go the token theme route. The reason I didn’t do that originally, at least the last time I played a physical variant of the deck, was because I tend to play heavy mass-removal (At the time, 4 Day of Judgment and 2 Phyrexian Rebirth). This deck is far from that, so it could work out. I guess I’m just not fond of seeing 1/1s all game long.


More Budgety Draw-Go
—Instant Speed (26)—
1 Darksteel Sentinel
1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
4 Dissipate
3 Divine Deflection
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
4 Rewind
3 Think Twice
3 White Sun’s Zenith

—Sorcery Speed (10)—
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Day of Judgment
4 Ponder

—Land (24)—
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Shimmering Grotto
10 Island
8 Plains


Strategy: It’s Draw-Go. On your turns, draw a card, and say go. On theirs, be a dick and slap counterspells on anything they try to do that seems important. Deviate from this plan to play 1cc’s if you can spare the mana, or to nuke the board. Savvy?

• Divine Deflection can easily be creature removal. Especially if they’re playing with Cavern of Souls. Watch out for those communists smarter opponents that cast things after combat!
• Unless Sentinel’s having a good day, most endgames will come down to White Sun’s Zenith. Before then, feel free to sacrifice kitties in combat. Remember, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll draw the card again.
• If you don’t have Rewinds, Cancel should suffice.
• There’s very little early game solutions for Strangleroot Geist here. Be prepared to take hits, or sideboard accordingly.

So what’s the damage, captain? A touch over twenty-five bucks as of this posting.

Deck Concept - Draw/Go [W/U]

Usually, whenever a significantly changed Standard Format comes around, there’s a type of deck I’ll turn to for the first week or two; Draw-Go. Normally, it’s to take a step back and see what everyone else is playing and also satiate that urge to be a dick. Now, I don’t feel like M13’s bringing along the significant change that usually involves something rotating out, but that second urge… Well, that gets increased by lacking the cards I want to play with. Particularly when I do have an old playset of Rewinds on hand.

Last time I played Draw-Go was on the onset of M12/Scars of Mirrodin/Innistrad. I was the first in the shop to run Delvers (As an additional turn one option, something to play turn 3 with a Leak in hand, etc), and ended up utterly dominating the unstable meta. Of course, I don’t think things’ll be so easy in M13/Innistrad/Return to Ravnica, with Delver being well known and all.

Anyways, here’s what I’m halfway tempted to run next FNM:


Draw-Delver
—Instants (23)—
4 Dissipate
2 Divine Deflection
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
4 Rewind
3 Think Twice
2 White Sun’s Zenith

—Sorcery-Speed (13)—
3 Day of Judgment
4 Delver of Secrets
1 Entreat the Archangels
1 Gideon Jura
1 Jace, MA
4 Ponder

—Land (24)—
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Evolving Wild
4 Glacial Fortress
8 Island
4 Plains
1 Swamp

—Sideboard (15)—
1 Day
3 Devastation Tide
1 Elesh Norn
2 Mimic Vat
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Revoke Existance


Strategy’s pretty simple: Do something turn one if you can. Otherwise, sit back and counter their stuff, playing spells at the end of their turn if you’ve got the mana free for it. Board wipe if something bad slips through or if you decide to take the risk and drop a planeswalker. Otherwise, win condition goes to Delver-smashing or Rain of Kitties litterboxing your opponent.

Sideboard’s all off the top of my head; it’s a tad removal heavy I think. But with Cavern of Souls around, I think it’s worth having. Also, I’m a little iffy on the mana base. Last time around I ran with only two Ghost Quarters and four Shimmering Grotto and did fine. You want to draw land consistently to work your way up to something big with room to counter, so the grottos are probably the better bet. Of course, I didn’t have a single Glacial Fortress back then…

M13 Prerelease

And I took fourth out of thirty. Huzzah!

So, I’m still not the biggest fan of the new line of Core Sets, but I have to say WotC did an amazing job on the packaging. Not only do the packs look sweet, but they open beautifully. Like they were made for “popping.” <— See 3:44 of this video. Heck, even the new card smell’s better than most recent sets. Methinks I get a bit too much into opening packs. <_<

Opened some good stuff for once. Wanted to go black/white, but ended up full esper for the draw. Blah blah blah details. Here’s what I opened / built, italics indicating rarity and foiliness.


Sealed For My Pleasure [BUW]
—Land (18)—
3 Evolving Wilds
6 Island
5 Plains
4 Swamp

—Creatures (13)—
Ajani’s Sunstriker
Archaeomancer
Arctic Aven
Chronomaton
Duty-Bound Dead
Guardians of Akrasa
Knight of Glory
Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
Sublime Archangel
Warclamp Mastiff
War Priest of Thune
2 Welkin Tern

—Noncreatures (9)—
Divination
Elixir of Immortality
2 Index
Murder
Oblivion Ring
Staff of Nin
2 Talrand’s Invocation

—Sideboard (8)—
Disentomb
Duress
Essence Scatter
Gilded Lotus
Guardian Lions
Healer of the Pride
Plains
Safe Passage

—Other Opens—
Battleflight Eagle
Captain’s Call
Divine Favor
Griffin Protector
Show of Valor
Silvercoat Lion
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
Cower in Fear
2 Walking Corpse
Wit’s End
Downpour
Faerie Invaders
Harbor Serpent
2 Hydrosurge
Jace’s Phantasm
Kraken Hatchling
2 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
2 Negate
Sleep
Vedalken Entrancer
Arbor Elf
Bountiful Harvest
Deadly Recluse
Duskdale Wurm
Elvish Visionary
Primal Huntbeast
Rancor
Ranger’s Path
Spiked Baloth
Timberpack Wolf
Arms Dealer
Bladetusk Boar
Dragon Hatchling
Fervor
Goblin Arsonist
Goblin Battle Jestor
Kindled Fury
Krenko’s Command
Reckless Brute
Rummaging Goblin
Searing Spear
Torch Fiend
Turn to Slag
Volcanic Geyser
Volcanic Strength
Wild Guess
Ring of Kalonia


Round 1 vs Black/Red (2-0) - I faced a highly competitive player known for his ragequit temper when things don’t go his way. Outside of Limited, all he’s capable of is netdecks. Moving on, since I’m not here to bash. Game one I do a little early attacking, and he gets out Vampire Nighthawk. I Talrand’s Invocation into two 2/2 flying blockers, stalling the field until Murder kills the Bloodhawk. He scoops in response, unwilling to lay out an (apparently) cruddy hand. Game two’s not much different, this time him scooping after loudly proclaiming mana screw and something along the lines of a rather snoddy “Nice three color deck.” Probably best that I kept my tongue held. After all, I was only mainboarding Gilded Lotus at the time, alongside my three Evolving Wilds and those Indexes.

Round 2 vs Green/Red and Black/Blue (2-0) - In game one I got out Sublime Angel, but ended up having to trade her with a Dragon Hatchling. Nefarox came out shortly after, but couldn’t attack on account of a Deadly Recluse. After a few turns of stalling, an Index grabbed my O-Ring to get it out of the way for the win. He switched colors for game two, and sadly for him I ended up curving perfectly, too much to stop.

Round 3 vs Monoblack (0-2) - The guy opened up four Murders, need I say more? My stars died easily, and my second game had a rather slow hand. Hey, luck can go both ways.

Round 4 vs Black/Blue/Green (2-0 / 3-1) - Battling a friend, we choose to split the prize packs and play for points. Which was a good thing, since I ended up utterly overpowering him. Sublime Angel + Talrand’s Invocation is really good stuff. Especially when it happens two games in a row. We played two more games after that, and still had a third of the round left when we’d finished.
All in all, an excellant showing.

Budgetplay - Shape Anew [RU]

Being a Johnny player more than anything else, I’ve been a big fan of Polymorph decks in the past. In fact, it was the first thing I tend to throw together in Standard whenever they announce a fun fatty creature.

Sadly, I realize that when October hits, we’ll be depending on Return to Ravnica to bring it back. So we better enjoy the one we have while it’s here.



Now, generally there’s three parts to the combo: The target, the spell, and the fatty. Let’s work backwards.

• Considering that Shape Anew works only with artifacts, I’ve only one one fatty in mind; Blightsteel Colossus. 
• Shape Anew’s our Polymorph. Fairly straightforward.
• Well aware of the existence of Naturalize and it’s kin as well as the ever fun Oblivion Ring, I want something that can survive the former and can sneak in before the latter has a chance to hit it; Darksteel Relic. With Trinket Mage, we only need to run one copy, therefore avoiding hitting another when casting Shape Anew.

There’s what I call a shell. Since this combo can work by itself, one can basically build a deck alongside these bits. In current Standard, that tends to be a Blade Splicer control deck. Since the release of Restoration Angel, Blade Splicer’s upped beyond the budget range I’m trying to shoot for. Since I want the combo to be the star here, I’m going to focus on digging for it. Red helps with that.

Speaking of Budget, I’ll be only using one Blightsteel Colossus. I advise against this, as drawing your only one without a way of emptying it from your hand rather sucks. Red helps with that.


Shaping Steel
—Land (24)—
4 Evolving Wilds
10 Island
10 Mountain

—Creatures (5)—
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Trinket Mage

—Spells (31)—
2 Apostle’s Blessing
1 Darksteel Relic
4 Faithless Looting
2 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
3 Pillar of Flame
4 Ponder
1 Red Sun’s Zenith
4 Shape Anew
3 Think Twice
3 Wild Guess


Like I said, lots of digging. And a few burning and counterspells to slow down the opposition. Ideally you want a turn 3 Trinket Mage, getting the Relic ready to drop/shaped on turn 4. If you’re wondering about the Apostle’s Blessings, they’re in to combat Vapor Snag/Oblivion Ring and to give us a quicker win against one-color boards. I’d have two more on Sideboard for sure.

As far as the mana base goes, I kept things even for the benefit of Wild Guess. As a Blightsteel discarder, it’s worth keeping around even if it doesn’t bode so well with a turn one Ponder. For those adding Sulfur Falls, I’d only take out one of the Islands.

Oh hey, how’s Andrew Jackson sound for a budget? Because as of this posting, the deck clocks in just under twenty dollars. Check it out.

Deck Concept - Battle of Wits [BRU]

Yeah, I tossed this together the day I heard it was spoiled, and just want to get it out of my head and off my Sticky Notes.


Battle of Wits aka Deck Population: 227
—Land (90)—
4 Evolving Wilds
86 other lands

—Creatures (22)—
4 Bloodgift Demon
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Oculus
2 Rune-Scarred Demon
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Vampire Nighthawk

—Digging (53)—
4 Amass the Components
4 Dangerous Wager
4 Desperate Ravings
4 Divination
4 Faithless Looting
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
1 Mind Unbound
4 Reforge the Soul
4 Sign in Blood
4 Think Twice
4 Visions of Beyond
4 Wild Guess

—Graveyard Recovery (5)—
4 Elixir of Immortality
1 Time Reversal

—Mana Fixing (16)—
4 Gem of Becoming
4 Manalith
4 Traveler’s Amulet
4 Vessel of Endless Rest

—Stall Tactics (26)—
4 Blasphemous Act
4 Cancel
4 Circle of Flame
3 Death Wind
4 Devastation Tide
4 Dissipate
3 Killing Wave

—Tutors (11)—
2 Diabolic Revelation
4 Diabolic Tutor
3 Distant Memories
2 Increasing Ambition

—Win Condition (4)—
4 Battle of Wits


I think the groupings above pretty much take care of the basic strategy. Dig for Battle of Wits or if you can, tutor it. Then, if you need more cards in deck, find a piece of graveyard recovery.

Remember kids: Real combo players count their hand, graveyard, and permanents instead of their deck!

FNM Recap - GW 'Walkers (2-2)

Had a smaller attendance than I was used to last night; twenty-four people I think. Four rounds. Broke out my GW Planeswalker deck, modified a bit from the last time I mentioned it.

Wasn’t too hot a showing on my part, but I still ended the night 2-2. I suppose there are worse fates.


GW ‘walkers
—Land (23)—
1 Gavony Township
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
10 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Plains

—Creatures (18)—
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Primeval Titan
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Strangleroot Geist
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Wurmcoil Engine

—Noncreature Permanents (9)—
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Garruk Relentless
1 Gideon Jura
2 Karn Liberated
1 Mimic Vat

—Instants / Sorceries (10)—
4 Day of Judgment
1 Divine Deflection
1 Entreat the Angels
3 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 White Sun’s Zenith

—Sideboard (15)—
1 Acidic Slime
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Revoke Existance
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Thrun, the Last Troll


Round 1: 0-2 vs Naya Wolf Run.
Game 1 saw me mulligan away a one-lander into another one. Drew a second land, and was able keep up with my ramp spells. He plays a Primeval Titan, then I respond with my own only to see it Beast Within’d. I lose shortly after. Game 2 saw me getting Bonfire of the Damned for ten. I’ll leave it at that.

Round 2: 2-0 vs UW Bounce Splicer
He didn’t have a very good game 1; a single counterspell that took out a Geist, and having to pop a Ghost Quarter in order to find his first white source. By that time, I had Elspeth Tirel out. Then came Garruk, Primal Hunter. By the time he could get a flyer out I had a wrath in hand more than enough token-creation to recover fastest. Game 2 was quite back and forth, with three of my Days showing up to get rid of excessive Blade Splicers. The final stalemate was broken by hard-drawing my Wolf Run, which Thrun happily used.

Round 3: 0-2 vs Naya Pod
Had to mulligan to five just to see one land in game 1. It didn’t last long. Game 2 I managed to stall out long enough with Oblivion Rings to clear most of his board with Elesh Norn. After her came my Primeval Titan along with myself feeling pretty confident about winning. Naturally such thoughts were short-lived, since he O-Ring’d Norn and Zealous Conscript my Titan in order for exact damage.

Round 4: 2-0 vs Ferocity Ramp
Always fun to end the night against a friend. Game 1 saw a timely Day of Judgment murder a couple of his Dungrove Elders and a Primeval Titan before finishing via an 8/1 trampley Birds of Paradise. Game 2 I ended up ramping into Karn fairly early on. He dominated the board alongside Wurmcoil Engine. Took a while to get through lots of undying defense, but it happened. Not before exiling a Batterskull to the bottom of his exile zone, though.

I’m rather eager to get my hands on a playset of Rancor and a couple Akroma’s Memorial once M13 gets here. Been tossing around a Eldrazi Green-type of deck in my head.

Deck Concept - White Sligh

Daily MTG's Building on a Budget Column has ended. Those who know me or have read my comments on the articles know that I'm no fan of the last author. So when the namesake of the last article doesn't even make it in a deck, I take that as a reason to start building.

There's a tribal creature if I ever did see one.

 

I can't claim to have a record at making decent tribal decks. Wolves and Myr aside, I honestly don't care for them that much. Besides those two, the only time I made a serious tribal deck was back in Lorwyn times, after literally opening only goblins from a few back-to-back drafts. Today I'm going to turn to the same base strategy that I used when assembling that old thing: Sligh.

In a nutshell, Sligh is a type of aggressive deck that takes to heart the value of using all of your mana in a given turn. It plays cheap creatures for fast attacking combined with burn for removal and yelling "KO!" at your opponent's face. That last link goes more in depth and probably better than I could ever explain it.

Wait a second. I said burn, right? Well, okay, I'll disclaim now that going outside of red can severely hinder that burn part, which can't be understressed. We're fortunate to have a few ways to make up for it, but in the end, we lack the simple elegance of 'Bolt to the Head. 

Onto the deck building.

We're making tribal, so screw our concepts of good creatures and turn to Gatherer for a preliminary list of Soldiers and Knights that might be inclusion-worthy. Linked are the M13 cards, since I don't like making you do all the work.

• War Falcon
• Odric, Master Tactician
• Knight of Glory
• Crusader of Odric
• Captain's Call
• Attended Knight
• Aven Squire
• Accorder Paladin
• Hero of Bladehold
• Kemba's Skyguard
• Mirran Crusader
• Riders of Gavony
• Silverblade Paladin
• Spectral Rider
• Champion of the Parish
• Doomed Traveler
• Elite Inquisitor
• Gideon's Avenger
• Loyal Cathar
• Mentor of the Meek
• Porcelain Legionnaire
• Thalia
• Timely Reinforcements

A respectable list, no?
I see a few rather juicy inclusions that I want to use, but sadly won't. Immediately tossing in three Hero of Bladehold sounds grand, but that wouldn't be showing up Van Lunan, now would it? If budget is something you don't value, then by all means run her, Mirran Crusader, Thalia, and Champion of the Parish. Hell, that sounds like a pretty good reverse order of plays too! Moving on.

Copy/pasted from that-link-I-somehow-believe-is-easier-to-keep-referencing-than-just-to-relink, this is the general format of a Sligh deck:
1 mana slot: 9-13
2 mana slot: 6-8
3 mana slot: 3-5
4 mana slot: 1-3
X spell: 2-3
Removal/Burn: 8-10

That doesn't seem too hard to follow, no?


White Sligh
---Lands (23)---
23 Plains

---1cc Critters (12)---
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Elite Vanguard
4 War Falcon

---2cc Critters (8)---
4 Elite Inquisitor
4 Loyal Cathar

---3cc Critters (5)---
4 Attended Knight
1 Mentor of the Meek

---4cc Critters (3)---
2 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Riders of Gavony

---Removal (5)---
3 Bonds of Faith
2 Oblivion Ring

---X Spells (4)---
3 Divine Reflection
1 White Sun's Zenith


Okay, I kind of mish-mashed the X spells and removal a little bit. Divine Reflection tends to do that. But it's the only form of white burn I'm aware of in Standard that hits both creatures and players. Bonds of Faith tries to compensate its lack of player removal by strengthening most of your creatures. As far as general creature selection goes, I tried favoring creatures of card advantage; Attended Knight is the poor man's Blade Splicer, while Doomed Traveler and Loyal Cathar keep on swinging after they die. Mentor of the Meek is a one-of intended for the late game, to help use up that mana and keep up creature mass. Beyond boring old Plains, I leave the land up to you. My only advice is to favor battle cry over exalted.

Meh.

Deck Concept - Stuffy Love [GR] [BRU]

Another ReConstruction idea. I figured that I didn't give it any love last time he was legal, so it was due.


Stuffy Burn [GR]
---Land (23)---
4 Buried Ruin
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Rootbound Crag
9 Forest
4 Mountain

---Creatures (18)---
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elvish Visionary 
2 Predator Ooze
4 Stuffy Doll
4 Viridian Emissary

---Noncreatures (5)---
2 Batterskull
3 Garruk Relentless

---Instants / Sorceries (14)---
4 Blasphemous Act
4 Faithless Looting
2 Rampant Growth
4 Red Sun's Zenith


Idea's mostly straightforward. Burn the doll. Extra style points if you get a Batterskull onto it.

And now for the crazy...


Dancing Dolls [BRU]
---Land (24)---
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Drowned Catacombs
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Sulfur Falls
3 Island
3 Mountain
2 Swamp

---Creatures (7)---
3 Creepy Doll
4 Stuffy Doll

---Noncreatures (11)---
3 Pristine Talisman
4 Sphere of Suns
4 Spiteful Shadows

---Instants / Sorceries (18)---
1 Blasphemous Act
2 Bonfire of the Damned
3 Diabolic Tutor
3 Faithless Looting
3 Ponder
2 Slagstorm
4 Switcheroo

Just a shell for this fun interaction:
Stuffy Doll + Switcheroo + Spiteful Shadows.
You do the math.

Deck Concept - Worldfire [RU]

With M13 coming out, ReConstructed is asking for something featuring M13 cards. Naturally, I defenestrated all tribal ideas and tried thinking up something amusing.

This monstrosity was begging for some attention.

So I gave it some thought. Points of dwelling:

• Hitting the mana to cast it.
• Surviving to the point where I can cast it.
• Winning after casting it.

Well, for the first point, Blightsteel Colossus's old friend Counterlash cuts Worldfire's mana cost by a third. It's at cost of card advantage, but who cares? Clearly we're playing a Johnny deck here. Which means we have a fourth point.

• Digging for the combo.

That does help with the second point a bit. Also focusing on defense will be Red Sun's Zenith, Distortion Wake (suck on that, tokens!), and the respectable blocker that is Augur of Bolas. Remember, any non-lethal damage we take is irrelevant after Worldfire hits.

Third point, winning. That Red Sun up there helps. I originally wanted to run Vexing Devils, but decided to keep this budget. Oh well. Going with Delver of Secrets; It'll flip almost half the time with the amount of instants and sorceries that we're packing in this nonsensical thing.

And lastly, for giving the Johnny a happy ending, we have the cheap masseuse's named Ponder, Faithless Looting, and Wild Guess. If the most inexperienced of the three isn't doing it for you, try replacing it with some Pillars of Flame for second and third point reinforcement. Also good for getting use out of redundant combo piece draws.

Ideally, when Worldfire hits, it'll be off of an opponent's sorcery spell. Well, they probably aren't playing twenty in their deck, much less any after game one when they see you hit six mana. That's why twelve of our sorceries cost one to play. A seven mana Worldfire is still better than nine. I'd also suggest having one land in hand for dropping after a Worldfire, unless you're feeling particularly draw-lucky. You should have a much easier time than your opponents at casting a cheap win condition, particularly with all the filtering spells in the deck. 

So, putting it all together we're looking at:

Worldfire [RU]

---Lands (24)---

2 Desolate Lighthouse

4 Sulfur Falls

9 Island

9 Mountain

---Creatures (8)---

4 Augur of Bolas

4 Delver of Secrets

---Combo (8)---

4 Counterlash 

4 Wildfire

---Sorceries (20)---

4 Distortion Wake

4 Faithless Looting

4 Ponder

4 Red Sun's Zenith

4 Wild Guess

Yeah, just be glad I didn't try to squeeze in room for two more land or Gitaxian Probes...

Deck Concept - RW Aggro

For the past two weeks I've had this thing stewing around half-formed in my head. Let's just get it out of there. Particularly since I don't have access to the somewhat required Vexing Devils to run it. The idea started with basic Cloudshift abuses and evolved into a "Boy, I'd like to see Sun Titan bust a Lightning Mauler out of the 'yard..."


Pink Assault
---Lands (24)---
4 Clifftop Retreat
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Slayers' Stronghold
8 Mountain
8 Plains

---Creatures (23)---
3 Blade Splicer
2 Leonin Relic Warder
3 Lightning Mauler
1 Mentor of the Meek
2 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Silverblade Paladin
3 Stromblood Beserker
3 Sun Titan
4 Vexing Devil

---Noncreatures (13)---
3 Cloudshift
2 Divine Reckoning
4 Faithless Looting
2 Fling
2 Oblivion Ring


I also wanted to run Priest of Urabrask to abuse with cloudshift, but ultimately decided that without something like Inferno Titan, it's not so easy to spend a solid RRRRRR. Oh well, that's what it gets for being a concept.

Quick Post - Catching Up

Since I'm clearly rather slow when it comes to reporting tournaments, here's the nutshell version;

• Game Day - Went to a small turn-out shop, GW 'walkers decided to have a crappy mana base. Ended up Top 4'ing from my first round bi, and winning on sheer luck.
• FNM  6/1 - Walkers again, 3/2 overall, deck failed me in the last round. Oh well.
• Library Tourney 6/5 - YourDeck.Dick stomped, surprisingly. Ended up taking second after having a draw-go fest against UW Humans.
• FNM 6/8 - Walkers yet again. 3-1-1'd into Top 8, immediately mana screwed against Delver while still putting up a fight. Major deck changes.

Decklist - Cascade Modern

Arg, I still need to post the weird luck-sacking that was my Game Day. In the meantime, something casual. I've had it around for a long time, but seeing as how it's one of my Planechase decks, and a new Planechase set came out...


Resonance Cascade
---Land (26)---
3 Arcane Sanctum
4 Crumbling Necropolis
2 Gemstone Caverns
4 Jungle Shrine
2 Mirrodin's Core
3 Reflecting Pool
4 Savage Lands
4 Seaside Citadel 

---Creatures (10)---
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Enigma Sphinx
3 Enlisted Wurm
2 Mulldrifter

---Instants/Sorceries (22)---
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
4 Captured Sunlight
3 Deny Reality
4 Esper Charm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Mnemonic Nexus

---Noncreature Permanents (2)---
1 Maelstrom Nexus
1 Obelisk of Alara


General Breakdown:
The deck's goal is to abuse cascade, ultimately ending on discard spells most of the time (88% of the time when cascading from cc4). Later, half of the discard (Esper Charm) spells can switch over to card draw, further increasing the card advantage gap. The other half (Blightning) has a built-in Lava Spike, giving it a long term use and enabling a sense of inevitability.

I won't go into to much detail this time around, but I'll make a few notes still;
 - The few lands that come into play untapped are intended to do so to help get casting earlier. The deck is a slower one otherwise.
 - For the above reason, Captured Sunlight is important.
 - Mnemonic Nexus is a vital provider of recursion. It restocks the dangerous spells while also screwing around with some Modern-archetype strategies.
 - Obelisk of Alara and Maelstrom Nexus are fun little add-ins. One gives me late-game shenanigans, the other makes the deck feel like the Half-Life reference that is the deck title.


Now, the above list is what I consider to be the "competitive version." Blightnings can be hell in multiplayer, and Mnemonic Nexuses turn a neutral game into one that lasts for hours. So here's my quick modifications for multiplayer, namely Planechase:
 - 4 Blightning, -4 Esper Charm, -2 Mnemonic Nexus
 +2 Sprouting Thrinax, +2 Rhox War Monk, +2 Wooly Thoctar, +1 Tamanoa, +1 Knight of New Alara, +2 Primal Command

FNM Recap - GW 'Walkers (5-1)

Blah blah blah introductory paragraph. Anyway, again I decided to try my not-so-superfriends build at FNM. This time around, I went with the simpler of the two build-changes I was thinking about.


GW 'walkers
---Land (23)---
2 Gavony Township
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
10 Forest
4 Plains

---Creatures (16)---
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Primeval Titan
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Strangleroot Geist
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Wurmcoil Engine

---Planeswalkers (8)---
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Garruk Relentless
1 Gideon Jura
2 Karn Liberated

---Artifacts / Enchantments (6)---
4 Abundant Growth
2 Mimic Vat

---Nonpermanents (5)---
1 Creeping Renaissance
1 Entreat the Angels
4 Day of Judgment
1 White Sun's Zenith

---Sideboard---
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vorapede
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons


In other words, kicked out the Sun Titans for a Wurmcoil and a Primeval, while reducing the sideboard Thrun's by one in favor of a fourth O-Ring. Also, a friend wanted me to try out an Entreat the Angels in place of one White Sun's Zenith, so I gave it a shot. I still wanted to switch out the Pilgrims for Birds of Paradise, but had forgotten to do so until drawing my first hand of the night. Whoops, too late!


Round 1 - [GRU] Slime Combo (2-0)
From what I saw, the goal of his deck was simple: ramp up to, then play Acidic Slime and Deadeye Navigator. Then use that ramped-up mana to "1U: Destry target land." while bating in their face with Navigator's body. Assuming an early game Sword on a Birds of Paradise doesn't end the game before that. The red's for Faithless Looting, and what I assume to be a few Titans in there.
Game 1: Got out a few bashers while watching him ramp up. Acidic Slime came up, eating an enchanted Gavony Township. I thought little of it until his next turn, recognizing the combo after it hit the table. Looking at the little creatures on board and a Gideon in hand, I had little option in my mind for how to deal with this threat. With no mana to be a nuisance with, he ended his turn and my draw saved the day: Entreat the Angels. Taking a good twenty seconds in an odd pose, deliberating whether the cards in one hand would be better than the sole one in my other hand, I miracled up three seraphs with all my mana. Knowing it would be my last spell this game, I passed the turn. He attempted to attack, and my untouched life total took the hit. He then destroyed all my lands with the combo, a futile display, as my next turn saw him taking an evasive twelve to the face when eight was enough.
Sideboarding: +4 Oblivion Rings, +3 Green Sun's Zenith, +1 Sigarda; -4 Abundant Growth, -1 White Sun's Zenith, -1 Entreat the Angels, -1 Creeping Renaissance, -1 Gideon Jura.
Basically I sided out the late game stuff for removal. And without Abundant Growth, I went back to "playing a sixty card deck." Should know my ravings over that cantrip by now.
Game 2: We start with early mana guys, he ramps while I swing a bit with Strangleroot Geist and Garruk Relentless starts his wolf-production. He lays down a Sword of Feast and Famine and equips it on a tapped Bird. With an Oblivion Ring in hand, I decide that exiling the Bird means my aggro machine won't be slowed down. The game ends two swings after that.

Round 2 - Esper Frites (1-2)
Standard Unburial Rites deck, forgoing red's digging ability to focus on blue control.
Game 1: I let lose some early aggro. Looking good until he hard-casts Unburial Rites on Elesh Norn. With no wrath in hand nor creature on board, I call it after he plays a Lingering Souls.
Sideboarding: +4 Oblivion Rings, +2 Ratchet Bomb, +2 Nihil Spellbomb, +2 Thrun; -4 Abundant Growth, -1 Entreat the Angels, -1 Creeping Renaissance, -1 Gideon Jura, -1 Elspeth Tirel, -1 Garruk, Primal Hunter, -1 Karn Liberated.
Out go the less helpful things vs. flying souls and counterspells, in go things that slow him down and endure wrath-effects.
Game 2: Early aggro skirts by his counterspells, and I play into them while he digs for solutions. A well-placed Spellbomb causes him to concede.
Game 3: I attack early, and end up staring at a Timely Reinforcements. Quite unfortunate. What follows is him breaking out Norn again and a little stalling on my part. Ultimately unsuccessful.

Round 3 - [W] Tempered Steel (2-0)
Call it somewhat old-fashioned, in Standard-terms. An older archetype involving small artifact creatures being pumped up by each other and Tempered Steel.
Game 1: Early aggro gets out there, and when he slaps down the Steel, I respond with my board-wipe spell. My Geists survive to finish the job.
Sideboard: +4 Oblivion Rings, +2 Thrun, +3 Green Sun's Zenith, +1 Sigarda; -4 Abundant Growth, -1 White Sun's Zenith, -2 Mimic Vat, -1 Elspeth Tirel, -1 Garruk PH.
Mostly I want removal, and a way to deal with his Inkmoth Nexus. Garruk Relentless become focused as creature removal, and Karn sticks around for his ability to exile enchantments and land alike.
Game 2: A Viridian Emissary paves the early aggression. He's not finding what he wants and resorts to attacking with two Inkmoth Nexus. I green Sun up a Thrun, and use a second Sun to bring out Sigarda. With her blocking his flying infect, I finish the game with 5 poison counters.

Round 4 - [RU] Reforge Mill (2-0)
Facing a friend and what I believe to be his rather fun deck. The goal is to abuse miracle via Noxious Revival, mainly via Reforge the Soul hand draws. Secondary to that, Devastation Tide and Bonfire of the Damned keep opposing boards from getting too problematic. After that, discarded Increasing Confusion flashbacks finish off the opponent's deck. Failing that, it's a quick sideboard away from turning into a burn deck that's capable of refreshing it's hand quickly.
Also was a feature match! Meaning it was posted online for everyone to see! At least until next Friday...
Game 1: A combination of early creatures and a lack of solutions finished the game fairly quickly. And there was much digging done for sure.
Sideboard: +2 Nihil Spellbomb, +3 Green Sun's Zenith, +2 Thrun, +1 Sigarda, +1 Vorapede; -4 Day of Judgement, -4 Abundant Growth, -1 Garruk Relentless
I want to take out my anti-creature spells, and for once, playing a 56-card deck is a liability.
Game 2: Was a long game. I kept playing my creatures into Tides and a few burn spells. Eventually I got him down to 2 life and no creatures on the board, probably one turn away from being milled. I flashback Creeping Renaissance in order to play one Strangleroot Geist, its haste winning the match.

Round 5 - [U] Architect (2-1)
Fairly straightforward deck: Use small blue creatures to deal some damage early game, then break out a Grand Architect to sneak out some large artifact early. 
Another feature match. Nice timing. Also his first FNM. Pretty impressive, and makes me feel bad being one to stand in his way.
Game 1: I got chewed out by his aggressive little things. Stuck on three land with at least one Day of Judgment in hand the whole time.
Sideboard: +4 Oblivion Ring, +2 Thrun, +1 Sigarda; -1 Wurmcoil Engine, -4 Abundant Growth, -2 Mimic Vat
He was running Phyrexian Metamorphs, so I didn't want him to see/steal my artifacts. Hexproof creatures to negate some of his Disperse shenanigans.
Game 2: He manages to pull a hand full of Architects. Unfortunately for him, Garruk Relentless and removal take each out one-by-one. Gavony Township upped my wolves and co. to lethal powers.
Game 3: Phantasmal creatures come out this game, and manage to do some damage. Another Garruk Relentless takes advantage of their targeting weakness, and my creatures quickly take over again.

Top 8 - Esper Frites (2-0)
Oh, don't worry, it was the same deck from earlier.
Game 1: Early aggro isn't missed. They come out and start pounding to the point where he has to cast spells on his turn to hold me off. Lingering Souls is put on blocking duty. I draw White Sun's Zenith, attack him, and try to end my turn. He sneaks in a Blue Sun's Zenith for massive digging, only to see me White Sun enough kitties to end his day.
Sideboarding: Same as before.
Game 2: To my surprise, a Strangleroot Geist comes out uncountered. He's followed by Thrun. Pretty content with those, I avoid overextending my attacks. He's having a hard time finding solutions, and casts Tamiyo to slow down a vulnerable Primeval Titan. At that point I play Karn and disappear the sandled-rival planeswalker. He doesn't last long after that.


After that, we split the top four. Records-wise, I took second that night. Overall, I'm rather pleased with how the deck ran. And while I don't think it's as strong as MonoPod, it's the more interesting of the two to play.

Decklist - Warp World Modern [GR]

Remember my old Warp World decks? As far as MtG goes, I'll never forget them. Nor forgive myself for missing out on their existence back in Ravnica.

After my old Warp World deck stopped being Standard, it sat around for a few months, slowly losing bits of it in a process that I call cannibalization. As for a current example, MonoPod's fighting a losing battle to stay intact. Before that, I had a Heartless Architect that just last weekend succumbed to complete separation. When the decks down to three major parts (Heartless Summoning, Grand Architect, and Myr Superion), it's time to admit defeat.

Anyway, sometime around a year ago, I got the urge to rebuild the deck for casual play. It looked something akin to this, with the additions of Lotus Cobra, Ob Nixilis, and a solo Emrakul.

And then, in early April, I saw this:

I loooooooooooooooove Lotus Cobra.

How to get one of these promo bad boys? Play in a Grand Prix.

So that's what I want to do.

And that meant turning the deck serious. Because I feel it'd be the most appropriate deck to play for that cobra.


Warp World, Modern [GR]
---Lands (25)---
1 Arid Mesa
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Stomping Grounds
8 Forest
4 Mountain

---Creatures (27)---
4 Joraga Treespeaker
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Wood Elves
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Primeval Titan
2 Avenger of Zendikar
2 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Eternal Witness
2 Rampaging Baloths
1 Urabrask the Hidden

---Enchantment (4)---
4 Khalni Heart Expedition

---Sorcery (4)---
4 Warp World


General Breakdown:
The deck's goal is to cast Warp World, abusing EtB and landfall to gain an upper hand while decks running less permanents suffer. If Warp World isn't around, ramping into big creatures quickly suffices.

The Land: A bit more complicated this time around. The fetchlands are to take advantage of landfall and to abuse Stomping Ground's Forest/Mountain nature. Wolf Run's placing is pretty straightforward. With the amount of ramp effects in the deck, and my need to draw more, I'm feeling pretty comfortable at 25, though going higher was a possibility for some time.

The Ramp: Joraga Treespeaker, Khalni Heart Expedition, Lotus Cobra, Overgrown Battlement, Primeval Titan, and Wood Elves... quite a few here, eh? It's needed, since eight mana's my goal. And believe me, that's a hard number to race towards. I had to sign a deal with the devil and use the Titans. They lowered my average turn-cast for Warp World from turns 5-6 to turns 4-5. A rather important improvement in a competitive environment. Also, they're the main reason I haven't gone up to 28 lands in the deck.

Eternal Witness: General graveyard recursion as usual, with the major note of bringing Warp World back to hand post-Warp. Combined with enough land, or Lotus Cobra's mana, it can lead to a situation I call "Infinite Warping." Infinite Warping tends to lead to a mix of the following: huge battlefield for me; opponent death-by-Hellkite; and lack of battlefield permanents for others. Nine-out-of-ten Judges recommend opponent's concede when that happens.

The Big Guys: Avenger of Zendikar, Bogardan Hellkite, Primeval Titan, Rampaging Baloths, and Urabrask the Hidden all count here. The Avengers and Baloths love the post-Warp environment, pumping out craploads of token critters. And the Hellkite's make quite an entrance, burning opposing creatures as well as throwing fireballs at heads when I need to end things quickly. Primeval Titan helps fuel the token frenzy in addition to busting out the Wolf Run's for more win conditioning. Lastly is the smaller and solitary Urabrask, enabling a free swing post-Warp, which generally is enough to do the trick.

Warp World: Confuses opponents, hates planeswalkers, ignores Cascade, screws up board states, and is a Sorcery that doesn't play well with other nonpermanents. Almost as effective as throwing a Comprehensive Rules print-out at your opponent.


I don't have a set sideboard for it yet, but it'll come. Most likely after I obtain the three each Stomping Grounds and Titans for the deck. Expect mucho anti-counterspells and an obligatory solo Emrakul, She Who Tears the Aeons.

Casual playtesting has mostly been positive for me. We'll see how it goes after putting it through the minor modern tournament grinder. The big tournament for me is in November, so I've got a little time...

alt by Card Kitty

Decklist - Your Deck.dick [BU]

Well look at that. Six posts in one month. Well, I'd say these ReConstructed submissions have done the trick. Afterall, we're matched with total posts in 2010 now. Now to match 2011. What to post now... what to post n- AH! My deck from two weeks ago. It didn't do so hot then, but it wasn't this close to finished then either! Here it is in untested current form:


Your Deck.dick [BU]
---Lands (24)---
4 Drowned Catacombs
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Shimmering Grotto
1 Forest
5 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Swamp

---Creatures (13)---
4 Cryptoplasm
1 Dark Imposter
3 Evil Twin
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Phyrexian Metamorph

---Noncreatures (4)---
2 Mimic Vat
2 Mind Control

---Spells (19)---
2 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Cackling Counterpart
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Praetor's Grasp
4 Stolen Goods


General Breakdown:
The Lands: Have the potential to simulate any color, while hopefully leaving our Dimir needs fulfilled. Hopefully an upgrade from my unshared, earlier version.

The Creatures: Simulate my opponent's stuff. Evil Twin is underrated, Cryptoplasm is annoyingly useful, and Imposter takes advantage of late game mana supplies. I don't foresee any problems against anything Legen-wait for it-dary.

Black Sun's Zenith: Because I can't easily simulate craptons of tokens outnumbering my field.

Cackling Counterpart: Usually reads, "Get out of jail free, Mr. Cryptoplasm."

Gitaxian Probe and Ponder: Because this kind of deck needs some digging.

Praetor's Grasp: Rather underrated, in my opinion. It usually reads: "Choose one--Setup your next turn's strategy; or steal target opponent's Sword of X and X. If this is your fourth turn, entwine." The sad thing is, I'm not joking. Upped from three in the former version.

Stolen Goods: It could be a boat.



"What deck are you playing?" "I don't know, you tell me."

Brainstorming - Bits and Pieces

Those of you who use a fairly current version of Windows might know of an application called Sticky Notes.

Kind of like that, except mine's much less organized.... and mostly "stacked" on the bottom right of my screen.


So for the sake of my desktop, I'll be clearing off anything slightly-worth keeping here.


Bounceplay [W]
Just playing around with all that flickering...
Lands:
20 Plains
4 Seraph Sanctuary
Creatures:
3 Leonin Relic-Warder
4 Fiend Hunter
2 Sun Titan
4 Emancipation Angel
4 Restoration Angel
1 Avacyn
3 Suture Priest
Not Creatures:
2 Bladed Bracers
4 Scroll of Avacyn
1 Defy Death
0 Divine Reckoning
0 Divine Reflection
4 Cloudshift
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Gideon Jura


Future Deck Idea: Surgeatron
 A Primal Surge deck that gets up to ten with Urza Lands.


Eternal
A broken list of pieces to consider for an Eternal Dominion deck.
Eternal Dominion x4
Paradox Haze x4
Chalice x4
Surge Node x4
Cycling
Cloud of Faeries
Complicate
Decree of Silence
Dragon Wings
Miscalculation
Vedalken Shackles
Propaganda
High Tide
Copy Enchantment
Drift of Phantasms


Empires Deck
An unfinished concept for the respectively named artifacts.
4 buried ruin
22 land
4 crown of empires
4 scepter of empires
4 throne of empires
4 forbidden alchemy
4 faithless looting
4 ponder
2 batterskull
2 wurmcoil engine


Mental Note: Make a Myr deck soon.


Random R/G Deck Concept
4 noxious revival
4 reclaim
4 thunderous wrath
4 faithless looting
4 vexing devil
4 risky bet
4 stormblood beserker
4 strangleroot geist
1 red sun's zenith
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 galvanic blast
1 thrun
23 land


Ah, that's a bit better. Maybe there's a little purple weight off my mind, too.

Decklist - GW 'Walkers

Another free Standard ReConstructed challenge. Also what I played with last week, finishing eleventh after a 3-2 run.

Basic premise, as usual; Planeswalker it up.


GW 'walkers
---Land (23)---
2 Gavony Township
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
10 Forest
4 Plains

---Creatures (16)---
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Strangleroot Geist
2 Sun Titan
4 Viridian Emissary

---Planeswalkers (8)---
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Garruk Relentless
1 Gideon Jura
2 Karn Liberated

---Artifacts / Enchantments (6)---
4 Abundant Growth
2 Mimic Vat

---Nonpermanents (5)---
1 Creeping Renaissance
4 Day of Judgment
2 White Sun's Zenith


General Breakdown:
The Land: Pretty straightforward, I think. Gavony's are for the unusual times in which I have open mana.

The Creatures: Pilgrims are for mana fixing and early aggression. Later on they become fuel for flipped Garruks. Emissaries and Simulacrums are for ramp and early aggro trade-off. Let them die. Strangleroot's emphasize early aggression, later on becoming bodyguards for the walkers. No complaints there. Unlike with Sun Titan. I need to test him more, since he hasn't been out with any graveyard targets yet. Considering the amount of games I've played with the deck and how many appealing <4 drops are in the deck, I'm on the fence with him.

The Planeswalkers: Garruk Relentless is mostly burn in green. Otherwise, his purpose as well most of the rest is token generation. Gideon takes special note as a control card, especially when paired with the awesome might that is Karn.

Abundant Growth:  For the low price of 'GGGG,' I'm playing a 56-card deck. Better yet, those 'G's only need paying when I run into one of these bad boys. Also, they mana fix. And if I'm having trouble taking out cards when sideboarding, I can easily go back up to a sixty card deck. In summary, I love this card.

Mimic Vat: For dead creature abuse. I like stealing creatures, and I like wiping the board. That's why you'll see this in most of my decks until it rotates out. Savvy?

Day of Judgment: Speaking of board-wipe, here it is. I'm not the biggest fan of white weenie and variants of it running around. So a playset of these badboys and planeswalkers who don't mind it should help display my displeasure for the current meta.

White Sun's Zenith: Late game token generation. Think I might mix it up with one Entreat the Angels. See how well it can rival my Rain of Kitties.

Creeping Renaissance: A one-of for the late game, to restock my hand with creatures and planeswalkers. I've dropped this down in one game only to see my opponent concede on the spot. That said, current board state  has a lot to do with how much I appreciate drawing this card.


Sideboard:
2 Ratchet Bomb: For eating tokens and anthem-effects.
2 Nihil Spellbomb: Anti-graveyard shenanigans.
3 Oblivion Ring: General control
3 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vorapede
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

The last bit is what I call a transformational sideboard. I can switch out cards weak against particular decks. Like Elspeth Tirel when facing a burn deck. This switch, especially the addition of Green Sun's Zenith, can greatly improve the speed of my deck.


Changes: 
 - Next time I try the deck, I want to replace the Sun Titans with Primeval Titan / Wurmcoil Engine or 2 Wurmcoils. Like I said earlier, still on the fence there, considering his post-board worth.
 - In favor of turn two Stranglegeists, I'm wanting to switch out the Pilgrims for either Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise. Probably going to lose the one-mana drop aggro at the end of that decision tree.
 - One Thrun's coming out in favor of an Oblivion Ring, I think. With the Green Sun's, I think I can warrant the extra control.
 - Might play with the lands a little more, too. If I keep the Sun Titans around.
 - One Garruk Relentless might come out for something. Assuming I can figure out what that something is.

Think that's about it!
 

Commander Decklist - Iname, Death Aspect [B]

Once again a ReConstructed entry, calling for unbarred Commander entrants.

So I choose to pull out my strictly casual one.
Goal of the deck is simple; get out Iname, then abuse that graveyard.

Iname's Army
General: Iname, Death Aspect
---Land (35)---
Barren Moor
Crypt of Agadeem
Dakmor Salvage
Ebon Stronghold
Polluted Mire
Spawning Pool
Temple of the False God
28 Swamp

---Spirits (25)---
Akuta, Born of Ash
Banshee
Cairn Wanderer
Cruel Deceiver
Deathknell Kami
Enemy of the Guildpact

Foul Familiar
Ghost Hounds
Gibbering Kami
Hyalopterous Lemure
Keening Banshee
Kemuri-Onna
Kuro, Pitlord
Lost Soul
Midnight Banshee
Moonglove Changling
Morkrut Banshee
Nether Shadow
Patron of the Nezumi
Revenant
Seizan, Perverter of Truth
Spirit of the Night
Thief of Hope
Wicked Akuba
Will-o'-the-Wisp

---Iname Abuse (11)---
Balthor the Defiled
Dread Return
Ghoul's Feast
Haunting Misery
Living Death
Living End
Mortal Combat
Patriarch's Bidding
Songs of the Damned
Stir the Grave
Zombify

---Odds and Ends (9)---
Beseech the Queen
Cruel Tutor
Dark Ritual
Demonic Tutor
Lightning Greaves
Nightmare Lash
Sensei's Divining Top
Temporal Extortion
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

---Kill Spells (9)---
Consume Spirit
Damnation
Devour in Shadow
Dismember
Eyeblight's Ending
Kiku's Shadow
Rend Flesh
Shriekmaw
Toxic Stench

--- Ramp Cards(10) ---
Charcoal Diamond
Coldsteel Heart
Darksteel Ingot
Fellwar Stone
Jeweled Amulet
Manakin
Mana Prism
Phyrexian Totem
Prismatic Lens
Sphere of the Suns


Totaling Up:
29 Creatures
1 Enchantment
1 General
8 Instants
35 Lands
12 Noncreature Artifacts
14 Sorceries


Pretty straightforward, I think. Only real thing to note is Ulamog, who mostly comes out with the help of Songs of the Damned or Crypt of Agadeem.

[witty ending remark here]

Deck Concept - Brain Surgery [BW]

Another ReConstructed submission, this one called for anything Standard.
Also, I'm highly tempted to test-run it at FNM for kicks.

The basis of the deck is proactive control; using effects that take out threats before they hit play. And in case I fail to neutralize a particular annoyance, nuke the field and see if they can try again. Here's how it looks right now:


Brain Surgery aka Lobotomies for Everyone!
---Lands (25)---
9 Plains
9 Swamp
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archangel

---Instants / Sorceries (22)---
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Day of Judgment
1 Despise
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Memoricide
4 Surgical Extraction
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 White Sun's Zenith

---Permanents (13)---
2 Batterskull
1 Gideon Jura
1 Karn Liberated
2 Mimic Vat
3 Nevermore
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Wurmcoil Engine


General Breakdown:
The Land: The most iffy part of the deck in my opinion, only because I lack Isolated Chapels. Ghost Quarter is against "shenanigan lands," though I do wish I had been able to squeeze in a Sun Titan to help abuse it. And Vault of the Archangel is kept to a minimum from my fears of mana fixing needs.

The Sweep: Black Sun's Zenith and Day of Judgment are my primary board controllers. Taking up a tenth of the deck, I rely on them to keep me around after my first few turns of setting up / information gathering.

The Recon: Despise and Gitaxian Probe let me know what's in their hand. I'd play more Despise if I could find room, but I can at least console myself with more on the imaginary sideboard. For now, shooting a Surgical Extraction at a random graveyard card will suffice while giving me a bigger picture.

The Removal: Memoricide and Surgical Extraction eat threats for good, and Nevermore curses them with having to stare at cards they can never play. Oblivion Ring takes care of confirmed one-of threats and more than likely early game annoyances. Karn gets the later threats (Fun Note: His +4 alleviates the earlier mentioned curse).

The Traders: Timely Reinforcements fit here, even though their main intention is to replace life lost from early aggro and phyrexian carelessness. The tokens can be used to hurt opponents, but hopefully will at least trade with other critters. Same with White Sun's Zenith (Rain of Kitties) and Mimic Vat, though both respectively without the life gain.

The Big Threats: Batterskull and Wurmcoil both damage people while putting Reinforcements' life gain to shame. Gideon Jura finishes this small section, complementing the lifelinker's evasive abilities with his post-wrath attacking. Or as I like to affectionately call it, "pulling a William Wallace."

Until next time!

Deck Concept - Red Deck Wins [Ru]

I've decided to try regularly submitting decks to the ReConstructed Column on Wizards' web site. Figured it'd be a good way to both get the Creative juices flowing and encourage at least weekly posts.

This week's article (linked above), asked for Innistrad Block submissions. So with very little knowledge of the general metagame in the format, I threw this together:


Red Deck Wins (or at Least Draws a Lot)
---Lands (22)---
15 Mountain
2 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Island
4 Sulfur Falls

---Creatures (14)---
3 Lightning Mauler
2 Pyreheart Wolf
3 Reckless Waif
2 Torch Fiend
4 Vexing Devil

---Instants / Sorceries (21)---
1 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Brimstone Volley
4 Dangerous Wager
3 Desperate Ravings
1 Devil's Play
4 Faithless Looting
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Thunderbolt

---The Flourish (3)---
3 Runechanter's Pike


General Breakdown:
 The Land: Yeah, it strays from pure red. Thank Desperate Ravings for that. At least I didn't throw any blue in the deck. Suck on that Delver.

Faithless Looting, Desperate Ravings, Dangerous Wager: The draw. The idea's to empty your hand as fast as possible for the Gambit. Looting's for filtering into things you want to play, and Gambit's just more draw in general.

Pillar of Flame, Thunderbolt, Devil's Play, Brimstone Volley: The burn. Preferably on those annoying things that like to block your ever-aggressive minions.

Bonfire of the Damned: For erasing those little annoyances en masse.

Runechanter's Pike: See all those noncreature spells I just barely brushed over? Yeah, this if for taking advantage of their crispy shells. And it lasts longer than Harvest Pyre.

Vexing Devil: Ah, we've hit the meat of the deck. Somewhat. This minion acts a great burn spell or a soon-dead critter, depending on what's less inconvenient for your opponent. Still inconvenient.

Reckless Waif: The poor girl, this deck leaves her fairly conflicted. Early game she can be rather angry, but after the draw spells start up she'll probably calm down. Still pretty handy with a Pike.

Lightning Mauler: For giving things haste, I think. Meh.

Torch Fiend: Not a bad body. Kick this minion at any unpleasant artifacts your foes show you.

Pyreheart Wolf: Of course I'd save the most annoying creature for last. I'm sure a Pike on him will annoy most token decks.

"Oh noes, my ice cream!"

Deck Concept - Land Destruction [GR]

I don't usually pay attention to this kind of deck; not really interested in this kind of "solo play" deck. Considering the amount of early game plays going down in standard, it might prove interesting. And a friend's interested in it, so here's more or less the response I gave him:

After taking a look at land destruction in the format, here's a quick first draft deck. Feel free to tear it apart from here.

22 Lands
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Young Wolf
4 Viridian Emissary
2 Beast Within
4 Bramblecrush
4 Melt Terrain
4 Tectonic Rift
4 Invader Parasite
4 Acidic Slime

No big finishers, but it loves the early game setup. And could probably lose some destruction for more win condition if testing/desire dictates.

Or Demolishes...

Those never hurt....

Concept Decklist - Temporal Mastery [GRU]

EDIT: I need to learn how to read. Specifically, the exile portions on cards. Still, this can stand as an example on how easily Miracle can be broken.

Spoiler season for Avacyn Restored. I like most of what I see so far, but today my thoughts are focused on one previewed card so far; Temporal Mastery.



A marvelous plaything indeed.

Miracle has awesome flavor behind it, and must feel awesome to pull off when it happens. Shame I'm going to abuse it.

See, we've got a few things that ensure we know what our first draw is.
- Noxious Revival
- Reclaim
- Ponder

That strips away the divine sheen, doesn't it? But wait! Two out of three require a graveyarded / already cast Temporal Mastery, don't they?
- Faithless Looting

Nevermind! Actually, I'm certain anyone familiar with Standard knew that was coming. Here's where I note that Civilized Scholar and Merfolk Looter work decent without splashing a third color, but leave a gaping vulnerability to creature hate. Smallpox and Liliana of the Veil are excellent options for a heavy black splash... if one can afford a playset of Liliana. Speaking of black, Zombie Infestation can also be considered a legitimate option.

Anyways, now we've got some idea of how to abuse our timeplay. But think about it; when I'm Time Walking, my "first turns" are always going to be a miracled Temporal Mastery. Hard to explain what I'm trying to get at here, but I'm concerned about running out of land and hand quickly, which doesn't bode so well when a good amount of turns could be used merely setting up next turns. I need something to help combat that.
- Rites of Flourishing

Alright, sounds like a cool idea and all, but how am I going to win?
- Delver of Secrets

Why hello there. I dig the early game potential to be swinging even on turns I waste making more turns. Now to page through my trade bind and find a few other random win condition-makers. It's a concept deck anyway, and is bound to change after Avacyn Restored has bared a little more flesh.
- Jace, Memory Adept
- Sturmgeist
- Charmbreaker Devils
- Galvanoth

I'll admit, the last two weren't quite so random. Jace takes advantage of our multiple turngen potential and gives us more drawing if we really really needed it. Sturmgeist works decently with Rites of Flourishing. And the last two are meant to generate more absurdity, especially together. Charmbreaker Devils comes out late enough in the game to make hardcasting Temporal Mastery an easy possibility, and Galvanoth gives us card advantage through non-hand spellcasting. Combined, you could see a random chance miss the Mastery but hit a green spell to put said Mastery back on top of your deck, then the second critter casting it without breaking a sweat. Could be sweet.

And because I don't like all this early game mana-pickiness, a playset of Birds to smooth out some edges.


Timeplay
---Lands (24)---
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Sulfur Falls
7x Island
4x Forest
1x Mountain

---Creatures (11)---
4x Birds of Paradise
1x Charmbreaker Devils
4x Delver of Secrets
1x Galvanoth
1x Sturmgeist

---Noncreature Permanents (5)---
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Rites of Flourishing

---Instants/Sorceries (20)---
4x Faithless Looting
4x Ponder
4x Noxious Revival
4x Reclaim
4x Temporal Mastery


And yes, if I ever put this deck together, I'll do some stencil-work on a blue deckbox.

Update - MonoPod [G]

With an added Top 8 (4-2), a near miss (3-1-1), and a casual standard (3-0) under the deck's collective belt, I've decided that this time around I'll skimp on the quick recaps.

The deck hasn't changed too much. Lent out one of the Wurmcoils, so the replacement has varied between tournaments (Creeping Renaissance, Increasing Savagery, and Steel Hellkite, respectably). After obtaining a Vorapede tonight, it's in the slot. Acidic Slimes have earned their keep enough to stick around. Considering how often I've sideboarded in Karn, he's replaced one of the Pods. So far, no complaints. Lastly, I've switched out a Forest for an Island. It's nice being able to fetch it up in non-Dungrove games in which I know they'll be a Phyrexian Metamorph coming soon.

So, in summary:
-1 Forest, +1 Island
-1 Wurmcoil Engine, +1 Vorapede
-1 Birthing Pod, +1 Karn Liberated


Monopod
---Lands (23)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
18x Forest
1x Island
2x Mountain

---Creatures (32)---
2x Acidic Slime
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Llanowar Elves
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Precursor Golem
1x Predator Ooze
1x Primevil Titan
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
1x Wurmcoil Engine

---Noncreatures (8)---
3x Birthing Pod
1x Garruk Relentless
1x Karn Liberated
2x Mimic Vat


---Sideboard (15)---
3x Autumn's Veil
2x Batterskull
3x Beast Within
3x Corrosive Gale
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll

Oh yeah, Beast Within in sideboard. Phyrexian Obliterator has been going around. It deals with him when I can't manage to copy it, in addition to having a little more control in the deck.

General Strategies
No recap, but I'll still go over a little of my local metagame/strategy.

Control: The hardest part of facing control are the variants going around. All I can really say is that tight play and timing my Autumn's Veils are key. Surgical Extractions go in if I see Dissipate or Phantasmal Image. Mana Leak's the easier play around. Dungrove Elder is key here, since Wrath-less variants have little solution to deal with him.

Zombies: Comes in two variants; Obliterator and non-Obliterator. Both I try to stay on the offensive with at all times. Metamorph gets saved for when Obliterator comes out, otherwise I try to make myself a Geralf's Messanger or big thing in general. Mimic Vat is boss here, giving some killed things chance for revenge, snatching a recurring zombie, or even catching the previously mentioned Obliterator.

French Rites: Are problematic, to say the least. Either I have to race them before Elesh Norn comes out, a hard task; or I have to catch her/it in a Mimic Vat. Post sideboard I can delay with Beast Withins and Surgical Extraction. Pods are out, given the abundance of Ancient Grudge. One of the best matchups to have a "Deus Ex Karn" in.

Red Deck Wins: Race race race. Bloodthirst is a bitch. Stormblood Berserker is hard to play against, when burn can eat my many little creatures. Dungrove is key, with Wurmcoil an objective in both stabilizing and turning the tide. Post sideboard, Beast Within cancels damage steps and Batterskull gives me a better chance of keeping my life up. If my mana dorks take hits to keep me from ramping, that's less burn for me to eat. As for Chandra's Pheonix, Surgical Extraction is too situational to deal with her, so I have to steal a red philosophy: Annoying things opponents have go away when they die.

Delver: I haven't seen it too much recently, but the goal is simple; Race, resolving a Dungrove if possible. The spirit-emphasized variants are where Corrosive Gale shines.

About all my mind can conjure up for now!