Saturday 26 May 2012

Going on Staycation!

Its that time of year again, where my friends and I rent a place by the beach and party for about a week. Mainly because a majority of us are born in the merry merry month of May. There will be plenty of drinking, smoking and cursing like pirates while we play cards, dominoes, and maybe even a couple of games of Magic. Should I not perish from alcohol poisoning or lung cancer then you can expect me back in action from about the 2nd of June, by which time, I will try to brainstorm something to post about. I'm thinking that I'll just provide a report of any of the Type 4 games we might play as our Type 4 stack is quite insane. If by chance, we don't manage to play any magic, then I figure I'll just post what my stack includes and perhaps recount some of the insanity that has occurred in the past.

Until which time I wish you, all my readers, safe travels and success in all your endeavors.

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.



L.E.F.M to the world!

Friday 25 May 2012

Thromok: The Vanilla Thrilla


Okay, so out of all the Planechase commanders that have been spoiled, Thromok interested me the most. Krond is cool too, as is Vela and I'll probably build decks around them eventually, but the thought of casting a massive creature, attacking with it, and then flinging it at my opponents for lethal damage was too enticing to pass up. So here we are.















The first cards that I wanted to make the cut no matter what was anything that allowed me to deal damage equal to any particular creature's power directly to a player, as well as anything that granted trample or some other form of evasion. Luckily, in R/G there is a rich bounty of cards that have these kinds of effects; so, with a token strategy in mind, I included:

Akroma's Memorial
Eldrazi Monument
Mage Slayer
Bloodshot Cyclops
Brawn
Champion of Lambholt
Craterhoof Behemoth
Kessig Wolf Run
Skarrg, the Rage Pits
Stalking Vengeance
Warstorm Surge
Fling
Grab the Reins
Overwhelming Stampede (Sweet Jesus!)

These cards should be more than enough to ensure that at some point of the game some massive damage will be dealt to someone. I wanted to include Pandemonium as well, but in the end I didn't have enough room with all the other cards I wanted to run, so Warstorm Surge by itself would have to do. So now that we have our Thromok synergy down, next up is the core of what this deck wants and needs to do: make tokens. So the following cards got invited to the party:

Druidic Satchel
Ant Queen
Avenger of Zendikar
Dragon Broodmother
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Master of the Wild Hunt
Mitotic Slime
Mycoloth
Rampaging Baloths
Ulasht, the Hate Seed
Awakening Zone
Doubling Season
Parallel Lives
Artifact Mutation
Sprout Swarm
Khalni Garden
Kher Keep
Garruk Wildspeaker (Also untaps Gaea's Cradle and gives Thromok trample. Perfect 3/3)

Next up we need to make sure we have our basic functions down: removal, card draw, tutoring and ramp, and maybe a little graveyard hate too.

Tutoring/Draw Power:
Expedition Map
Skullclamp
Fauna Shaman
Skullmulcher
Greater Good (I know the answer to this... its Reliquary Tower... right?)
Survival of the Fittest
Chord of Calling
Momentous Fall (I'll go with D, Reliquary Tower. Final answer Regis.)
Worldly Tutor
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea (Not to be used when we're winning.)
Harmonize
Natural Order
Primal Command (Doubles as graveyard hate if need be)
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fortune

Ramp:
Ashnod's Altar
Gruul Signet
Sol Ring
Primeval Titan
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Seedborn Muse (Awesome with Sprout Swarm!)
Yavimaya Elder
Gaea's Cradle
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach

Removal:
Master of the Wild Hunt
Artifact Mutation
Beast Within
Krosan Grip
Blasphemous Act (Hilariously enough, most of the time this will kill everything except Thromok)

Our removal section is a tad thin, and I'd like to add two more spells at least. I'm thinking of Rain of Thorns and maybe Shattering Pulse. I'd also like to add Tormod's Crypt for some more 'yard hate. So after I give this deck a test drive I'll see what can be rearranged.

Now we've got most everything the deck should need and we'll just throw in a couple more relevant and fun cards and we've got something that looks like this:

Artifact: 10
Akroma's Memorial
Ashnod's Altar
Druidic Satchel
Eldrazi Monument
Expedition Map
Gruul Signet
Mage Slayer
Sensei's Diving Top
Skullclamp
Sol Ring

Creature: 23
Anger
Ant Queen
Avenger of Zendikar
Bloodshot Cyclops
Brawn
Champion of Lambholt
Craterhoof Behemoth
Dragon Broodmother
Eternal Witness
Fauna Shaman
Genesis
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Master of the Wild Hunt
Mitotic Slime
Mycoloth
Primeval Titan
Rampaging Baloths
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Seedborn Muse
Skullmulcher
Stalking Vengeance
Ulasht, the Hate Seed
Yavimaya Elder

Enchantment: 8
Awakening Zone
Beastmaster Ascension
Doubling Season
Fires of Yavimaya
Greater Good
Parallel Lives
Survival of the Fittest
Warstorm Surge

Instant: 10
Artifact Mutation
Beast Within
Chord of Calling
Fling
Fresh Meat
Grab the Reigns
Krosan Grip
Momentous Fall
Sprout Swarm
Worldly Tutor

Planeswalker: 2
Garruk Wildspeaker
Sarkhan Vol

Sorcery: 9
Blasphemous Act
Cultivate
Harmonize
Kodama's Reach
Natural Order
Overwhelming Stampede
Primal Command
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fortune

+37 Land

In this deck alone I decided to run Diamond Valley over High Market since the potential with Thromok was too good to pass up. I have all the manlands that I could find to provide more fodder for Thromok should I really need it, and I tried to squeeze in as many fetches as I could to help trigger Avenger and Rampaging Baloths. Spinerock Knoll and Mosswort Bridge also make an appearance since, in this deck, both conditions are very doable.

I'm still awaiting the Planechase 2012 decklists to be spoiled on the 28th before I make this list final. Dragonlair Spider for instance looks great and might get a slot, though I can see that with Thromok ready to go and a Warstorm Surge on the field for example, the first spell cast is more than likely going to be removal. So at best it just stalls the game for awhile rather than making tokens like I'd want.

Thats it for today's look at Thromok, if you have any suggestions or secret tech then please leave a comment! =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Monday 21 May 2012

Planechase Commanders!: Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my planechase spoilers review. I decided to only review the legendary creatures as I'm mainly interested in their use as commanders and not so much the rest of the planechase product. I mean, I do play planechase with my friends on occasion, even with some custom planes we found on the internet and some I made myself. So it should be said that I will probably end up including the new planes and phenomena into our planar stack when they are all spoiled but I'm not terribly excited about it.

Anyway, what appears to be the last of the new legends offered in Planechase 2012 is Thromok the Insatiable.


5 CMC for what is potentially the biggest commander out there, Thromok is (potentially) a force to be reckoned with. I suppose Wizards caught wind that aggro decks don't fare so well in EDH and decided to up the ante a bit. Now, if only he weren't so vanilla.

He makes me think of cards like Berserk, and Fatal Frenzy, where, if combined with them for much needed evasion, you are almost guaranteed a one shot kill (and I'm talking in terms of reducing a player to 0 not just dealing sufficient general damage.). You can also use cards like Fling and Grab the Reins if you're lacking in cards that grant evasion.

Obviously, you need to be running a token strategy for him to really shine and luckily, R/G is a great color combination to do it. (Yadda yadda... Doubling Season... yadda yadda)

Also, Thromok just might be the first commander that is able to deal 21 or more general damage in one shot without help. Well, now that I think about it, Kresh can too, though not as easily/quickly.


That's it for the legends of planechase from what I understand, though if any other legends pop up then I suppose that a part 3 would be in order and you know where to find me! =)

The next set where we might have some goodies is M13 in July, maybe not any commanders but perhaps some useable spells at least.

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Sunday 20 May 2012

Planechase Commanders!: Part 1

 Well, spoiler season for Planechase 2012 has begun and I'm kinda late to the party as far as posting spoilers goes but as the old adage says, better late than never. Now, I'll just say that I'm pretty excited for it overall, though, its mainly for the prospect of some potentially good commanders rather than the Planechase product itself. So far we've had some pretty acceptable commanders, I mean, just give me something better than Boris Devilboon and I'll play with it. Anyway though, on to the spoilers!



Well, this one isn't anything especially new as its been spoiled for awhile and we all should be aware of the Avenger of Zendikar/Prime Time sillyness that it is capable of. Though it should be said that this card has a lot more potential for shenanigans than just Avenger/Prime Time. It should make for a decent commander or maybe even as a one of in the right decks. I'm thinking that he fits right in with Animar and Riku. Cascade two free spells and copy each one? Yes please!












Supposedly difficult to cast but with green being a popular color in a lot of multicolor EDH decks these days, and color fixing getting easier, its really not out of the realm of possibility to run this guy outside of just G/W. At least, in my opinion. Anyway, I'm a sad panda that this guy isn't part blue since I would've loved to do some shenanigans with Sovereigns of Lost Alara. (Though I feel I should point out that if you have an unenchanted Krond and a Sovereigns on the field and you attack with Krond then the enchantment from Sovereigns doesn't hit the field in time for Krond's ability to trigger. So maybe its just as well that he isn't blue.) Having said that, I'm still interested to see how a deck with this guy at the helm would do. He's a StP on a stick (even better actually...), which is pretty good, though he dies to pretty much any removal, but thats where the enchantments come in I suppose. He is also a pretty hilarious target for Take Possession and the like.






Neat synergy with pretty much any blink tech out there. I can see a kind of token strategy going for her and I would definitely play her with PortcullisDeadeye Navigator, and maybe even Pentavus, and abuse the shit out of her LtB ability. Speaking of Portcullis, combine with Bloodline Keeper and Intruder Alarm while Vela is on the field and hilarity ensues!

Oh, and Intimidate gravy is gravy. ;-)











That's all the spoilers for now, there are a couple other creatures spoiled but the images are horrible so I'm going to wait until better images surface before I get to reviewing them.

Hope all you guys are enjoying this spoiler season! Stay tuned for Part 2!

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Friday 18 May 2012

Introducing a New Format: R&D Commander

Now this post is kind of a continuation of my last post and a topic of its own in the same breath. Last time, I put forth my point that in today's meta game across casual and competitive formats monocolor decks are pretty much dying out or at least thats how it seems to me. Color fixing is getting easier and easier and multicolor spells are ubiquitous and usually more powerful than their monocolored counterparts, but before I go and regurgitate what I've already said, I'll get to the point.

For some examples of some card design options that would give monocolored decks access to some powerful cards that multicolor decks wouldn't have access to, I designed a cycle of Legendary Creatures that are strictly for mono decks.

They are as follows:


 Abilities are mostly flavorful, Angels are usually attributed with flying and vigilance and planeswalkers and magical beings draw mana from the land around them for power. Hence the concentration of white mana makes Darius more powerful. The abilities are also inline with what White is good at: granting protection, and Double Strike is mainly a White ability (Shared with Red).

The basic plains clause restricts it to monocolor as one of the main feature of mono decks is a higher number of basics.














Again the abilities and keywords here are not alien to Blue and the activated ability is again very flavorful. She's an Illusionist so when you think you're casting a spell targeting an opposing creature, she puts you under an illusion and the spell targets one of your creatures instead (or whichever creature she sees fit.).

Note that I'm taking whatever a particular color is good at and pushing it over the top in terms of power. This is to reflect my view that monocolor should have the raw power while multicolor would have versatility.

Again the basic clause restricts this card to mono blue.








 Demon with wings and no flying? Thats not very flavorful. Well if you notice, his wings have a ton of holes so he's not going to be doing much flying. He does look hella scary though so Intimidate fits.

Also you get your choice of a drain life effect or tutoring, basic swamp mana only though so no Coffers shenanigans for you! ;-)















I have to say, I'm not necessarily fond of Red, but this is my favorite. Anyway, only basic mountains can be used to cast this card, again, limiting it to mono red and the abilities are very flavorful. Notice how it says damage equal to its power so perhaps voltron would be a good strategy?




















This one I'm the most worried that it would be overpowered. Basically a 4/4 for 2 CMC and by fifth turn or sooner since we're in green you get a 7/7 with Trample and Hexproof. But green is good at fat and ramp so this shows the raw power that green is capable of.

The abilities were again flavorfully inspired. Five or more forests means dense foliage, which means it'll be hard to target anything when visibility is low, hence hexproof, and home-turf advantage in a large forest means +1/+1 and Trample.

Basic forests sold separately, playtesting not included. ;-)









So what am I getting at? Well after designing these creatures I realized they would make great Commanders and the sheer power would actually make people want to play mono. So after discussing it with a friend we decided to create the R&D Commander format.

Tired of Wizards not printing your dream commander? Do you want a legendary zombie that actually cares about other zombies? Then R&D Commander is the format for you.

Now, won't people go overboard and design crazily overpowered commanders? Probably. Though, this is where playgroup policing and house rules come into play. Obviously if your playgroup votes that a Commander you have created is too strong, then you should probably scale it back a little. Though, if you like, then here are the official rules unique to this format.

Card Design:
1- Cards you design must follow the restrictions of the color pie. In other words, don't design a mono black card that destroys enchantments and so on and so forth.

2-  If your Commander (or a another card you design) is an unblockable 7/7 for 1 CMC, that is obviously not going to work out for everyone at the table. Either create another commander or come up with a suitable drawback. Balance is what we're after here.

3- Use your common sense and try to come up with cards that are interactive and fun for everyone. Please do not purposely create degenerate combos. It is not advisable.

Play:
1- There are no altered play rules for this format of Commander. See here for standard Commander play rules.

Deck Construction:
1- You may create an original Commander for your deck as well as up to ten (10) original cards to be included in your deck in order to support any original mechanics your commander may have. As laid out in card design rules, please avoid purposely creating degenerate combos and look to create interactive and fun gameplay situations.

2- There are no other altered deck construction rules for this format of Commander. See here for standard Commander deck construction rules.


And that is pretty much it. Go crazy and create a commander that you always dreamed of. Your imagination is the limit. Well... and the color pie. ;-)

But before I forget:

What You Need to Play:
1- Magic Set Editor

2- A printer

3- Card to print on

4- Your imagination (Mandatory)

5- Card Sleeves (Optional)

Now for:

Legal Stuff:
1- It is not even nearly illegal to create proxies. However, creating custom cards and selling them as real is very illegal so I take no responsibility for your actions if you choose to do so.

2- I take no credit for any of the artwork in the above cards. Credit goes to the respective owners/creators of those images.

3- I do, however, take credit for the card design of the above cards
 though if you wish to use them then feel free. Just give me credit where it is due =)



Thats all for today, and remember the point of this is not to create unstoppable cards/combos and laugh maniacally while you trounce your friends but to have fun and encourage creativity. One of the high points of this format is the fun and thrill of designing your own cards and if you decide to give this format a go then I hope that it goes well and you have fun. Remember that balancing a card can be tricky and it may take a couple games of playtesting before you find the cost for effect sweet spot. My personal advice is to look to cards that already exist for inspiration and guidance. This format was created by me (Daniel Layson), and Corey Padmore.

Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions for the format or the cards that I posted, or just to let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Monocolored Vs Multicolored: What It Should Be

As we all should know monocolored decks, especially in EDH, are quite limited in what they can do as each color has a strength and a weakness. I began thinking about this after building my Griselbrand deck.

A multicolor deck has access to any card that a monocolored deck would plus more. Obviously, the more colors your deck incorporates the more options you are given. You kinda get the best of both worlds when playing in multiple colors.

For an example, Black has Go for the Throat, White has Swords to Plowshares. Great removal spells in their own right but rarely would you see something as good as "Destroy target permanent" in either monoblack or monowhite. However, mix the two together and you get Vindicate.

So it is clear that Wizards is encouraging us to mix and match colors to get the effects we need but where does it leave monocolored decks? Far, far behind.

The way I see it, a monocolored deck should be the most powerful, at least in terms of its strengths, while a multicolored or even five colored deck would have more options but less powerful effects overall. Think of it in terms of a master of kung fu versus someone who is a jack of all trades martial artist. The Jack would have more versatility and thus can offer a wider range of offensive tactics but the master has honed one particular skill to a perfection as thus can perform it better than someone who has spread his knowledge over a wider area. Is one better than the other? Thats another topic altogether. All I'm saying is that it forms a kind of balance.

Now, how could this even be possible when a five colored deck has access to everything a monocolored deck would have and then some, while a monocolored deck only has access to its own cards. Its a one way street right?

The problem can only be solved by card design and a good example of making a card strictly monocolored is Atalya, Samite Master.

By forcing the player to spend only mana of a certain color, right away it empowers the monocolored deck and gives it a viable card to use over a deck that is employing all five colors.

"Jammin, what's your point?" I can hear you say and the answer is not to let monocolored decks fall by the wayside.

There is a certain flavor and charm about playing with only one color and while there is an inherent limitation to what a monocolored deck can do, all I'm saying is that decks that employ one color should have access to some more powerful cards that a multicolor deck wouldn't have access to. In order to give us a reason to play mono in the first place.

That's all for today and I hope you can understand my perspective and if by some chance you are reading this and you happen to work for Wizards then pitch my idea to them won't you? =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Monday 14 May 2012

Griselbrand in Command!


We should all be acquainted with Griselbrand by now, big, scary, soul-sucking demon that he is. Well today we're going to build a deck around him.

There are more than a few directions you could take Griselbrand, I decided on combo since Griselbrand himself would allow us to draw into our combos and tutoring spells rather quickly, and black, as we know, pretty much has the best tutoring spells. Now I'm not usually a combo player but I figured that there is a first time for everything. So I'm gonna give it a shot!

But before we go loading up on combos, we're going to need the essential elements that every EDH deck should have in order for it to function. First up, and probably the most important (especially since we're playing combo) is tutoring/draw power:

Expedition Map
Mind's Eye
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp (Combo Piece!)
Dimir House Guard
Rune-Scarred Demon
Necropotence
Vampiric Tutor
Liliana Vess
Beseech the Queen
Demonic Tutor
Imperial Seal
Increasing Ambition
Promise of Power
(+ G-Bizzle himself!)

These cards should allow us to get our combos in a quick and orderly fashion, and with Griselbrand providing so much draw power all by his lonesome we'll throw in:

Library of Leng
Venser's Journal
Reliquary Tower
Psychosis Crawler

Next up is mana ramp, we're going to need it if we plan to get Griselbrand on the field anytime soon:

Armillary Sphere
Basalt Monolith
Grim Monolith
Sol Ring
Magus of the Coffers (Doubles as a Combo Piece!)
Nirkana Revenant
Solemn Simulacrum
Black Market (Combo Piece)
Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

One last thing the deck needs before we start adding in our combos is some removal:

Oblivion Stone
Spine of Ish Sah (Much appreciated versatility to cover for our inability to deal with artifacts or enchantments)
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Shriekmaw
Steel Hellkite (See Da Spine)
Attrition
Grave Pact
Karn Liberated (See Steel Hellkite & Da Spine!)
All is Dust (You get the point by now)
Damnation
Profane Command

Okay, now we're to the fun part, the combos:

Ankh of Mishra + Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank (Clunky Wincon)
Reassembling Skeleton + Skullclamp (Draw Engine... Combine with Gravepact and/or Black Market for more fun!)
Leyline of the Void + Helm of Obedience (Wincon)
Leyline of the Void + Oath of Ghouls (Recursion? Don't mind if I do!)
Emissary of Despair + Mycosynth Lattice + Whispersilk Cloak (Not an instant Wincon but I like it)
Magus of the Coffers + Umbral Mantle + Exsanguinate (Wincon)
Grave Pact + Sengir Nosferatu (Board Control)
Grave Pact + Skeletal Vampire (Board Control... Combine with Skullclamp and/or Black Market for even more fun!)
Grave Pact + Pentavus (Board Control... Between the two vampires and Pentavus I gotta find one of 'em, right?)
Bottled Cloister + Ensnaring Bridge + Maddening Imp (Moar Board Control!!)
Caltrops + Death Pits of Rath (Board Control yet again...Combine with Maddening Imp if you wish to force the issue)
Lich + Repay in Kind (Awesome Wincon)
Words of Waste + Geth's Grimoire (Full hand for me, empty hand for everyone else)
Words of Waste + Griselbrand (See Above)
Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Deserted Temple + Exsanguinate (Not a guaranteed wincon but it should work often enough)
Claws of Gix + Spine of Ish Sah (Did I say it enough times? Board Control! xD)

It should be noted that Claws of Gix is also great for theft prevention. =)

Now we just throw in our manabase and we're done:

Commander:
Griselbrand

Artifact: 23
Ankh of Mishra
Armillary Sphere
Basalt Monolith
Bottled Cloister
Caltrops
Claws of Gix
Ensnaring Bridge
Expedition Map
Geth's Grimoire
Grim Monolith
Helm of Obedience
Library of Leng
Mind's Eye
Mindcrank
Mycosynth Lattice
Oblivion Stone
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Spine of Ish Sah
Umbral Mantle
Venser's Journal
Whispersilk Cloak

Creature: 15
Dimir House Guard
Emissary of Despair
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Maddening Imp
Magus of the Coffers
Nirkana Revenant
Pentavus
Psychosis Crawler
Reassembling Skeleton
Rune-Scarred Demon
Sengir Nosferatu
Shriekmaw
Skeletal Vampire
Solemn Simulacrum
Steel Hellkite


Enchantment: 10
Attrition
Black Market
Bloodchief Ascension
Death Pits of Rath
Grave Pact
Leyline of the Void
Lich
Necropotence
Oath of Ghouls
Words of Waste


Instant: 1
Vampiric Tutor


Planeswalker: 2
Karn Liberated
Liliana Vess

Sorcery: 10
All is Dust
Beseech the Queen
Damnation
Demonic Tutor
Exsanguinate
Imperial Seal
Increasing Ambition
Profane Command
Promise of Power
Repay in Kind


+ 38 Land



In our manabase we have the dynamic duo of Coffers and Urborg as listed previously as well as High Market (More theft prevention), Volrath's Stronghold, and since we have so many artifacts, Buried Ruin. Plus a few more staple-y lands.

I'd like to add in a Filth if possible to give creatures like Psychosis Crawler, Kagemaro, and Nirkana Revenant some evasion. I'll probably end up taking out the Ankh of Mishra combo as its the clunkiest of the wincons but we'll see how it goes I guess.

One last thing I'll say is, the reason that I'm not usually a combo player is because I find that combos can easily be denied/disrupted but in this case Griselbrand is his own backup plan. If all else fails, three swings to the face should take care of any opponent.

Thats it for my take on Griselbrand, if you have any suggestions or cool combos that I may have overlooked then please leave a comment! =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Friday 11 May 2012

Soulbond: Monogamy vs Bigamy

So I'm reading through the recently released Soulbond cards from Avacyn Restored and I noticed a discrepancy between some of the cards.

The explanatory/reminder text for what Soulbond does is:

"You may pair this creature with another unpaired creature when either enters the battlefield. They remain paired for as long as you control both of them."






















"Both of them" leads us to believe that the pairing is exclusively between two creatures at a time yet on cards like Wolfir Silverheart it says "each of those creatures" while cards like Silverblade Paladin say "both creatures". Needless to say, this little quandary led me to the rules forums to make sure what the ruling on Soulbond was and it is indeed only between two creatures at a time. So then the only question I was left with was: Why the discrepancy?

Perhaps Wizards is trying to tell us that bigamy is wrong and you can only ever have one true soul partner.

Wolfir Silverheart huh? What a wolf indeed! ;-)

Anyways, thats my random thought for the day and I know I haven't posted for a couple days but I guarantee that more is on the way!

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Saturday 5 May 2012

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Humans

Today's installment will complete our look at the tribes of Innistrad and what they have to offer, and as the title says, today we're looking at the humans. Judging from the abilities of humans like Champion of Lambholt (An auto-include in my opinion) and Champion of the Parish, much like our vampires, +1/+1 counters seems to be the name of the game. So lets see what we can do with that.

Champion of Lambholt is easily one of the most important humans in the deck since humans usually have small bodies so the evasion is going to be crucial to our game plan. Sadly, the humans have no viable lord or anthem effects for us to use so I found myself wanting to play with Cathars' Crusade. It doubles both of our Champion's output and even if it should be destroyed, unlike a traditional lord or anthem effect, any benefits we managed to get out of it are permanent. Some similar cards to use in tandem with the Crusade are: Mikaeus, the Lunarch and Gavony Township.

In my opinion, any deck with access to card draw should probably find room for some. Though I can't speak for anyone else, I know that my least favorite thing about Magic is being in topdeck mode. So having said that, and considering the fact that almost all humans are 2/2 or less then its obvious that Mentor of the Meek fits right in.

Now, at this stage of the deck, a pattern is arising. A lot of our cards trigger when a creature enters the battlefield, so why not use this to create some great synergy? And if synergy is what we're looking for then look no further than Thraben Doomsayer; churning out a human token each turn, we are able to trigger both of our Champion's, Cathars' Crusade, and/or Mentor of the Meek all without having to use any of the creatures we may have in hand. His 'Fateful Hour' ability is narrow and probably won't come into play very often if at all but at least its gravy! Also, as if the Doomsayer wasn't good enough, we can also add Mausoleum Guard for almost equal synergy.

Now the deck just needs some finishing touches so we'll add some good stuff, some necessary utility, and some more thematic cards in the form of Silverblade Paladin, Rebuke, and Travel Preparations respectively.

The Paladin and Rebuke need no explanations I'm sure, but Travel Preparations may seem lackluster at first glance, though, I think it is actually great for enabling an alpha strike with Champion of Lambholt and is also good for recharging Mikaeus or even perhaps doing both at the same time.

We'll just add in the rest of our manabase now and we're done, our list looks something like this:

Creature: 24
4 x Champion of Lambholt
4 x Champion of the Parish
3 x Mausoleum Guard
3 x Mentor of the Meek
2 x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
4 x Silverblade Paladin
4 x Thraben Doomsayer

Enchantment: 3
3 x Cathar's Crusade

Instant: 4
4 x Rebuke

Sorcery: 4
4 x Travel Preparations

+ 25 Land




One card I'd love to find room for is Deranged Outcast so I'd have a sac outlet for Mausoleum Guard and could also put the Doomsayer's tokens to even more use. Silverblade Paladin contributes nothing to the theme (other than being human) but I'm reluctant to cut him because he's so good.

Oh well, as with a lot of deck ideas, we usually find ourselves with more ideas than we have room for and either way I think the deck is pretty good as it stands. Though, of course...yada yada... playtesting ... yada yada. ;-)

This concludes our venture into the realm of Innistrad and as we delved into its tribes, I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for me.

Remember to leave a comment if you have any suggestions or if perhaps you feel I overlooked a card as I'm very open to different perspectives and ideas.

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Friday 4 May 2012

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Wolves

Today we look at the werewolves of Innistrad and what a block constructed deck built around them might look like. I wasn't particularly looking forward to this one as the transform mechanic for the werewolves in this set is unreliable to say the least.

They transform to and from their human state based on the number of spells played by any player on the turn before. I probably don't need to tell you why this is bad but for the sake of any newer players reading I will. Basically, anything that allows your opponent(s) to decide what happens to your cards is generally a bad thing. Cards like Browbeat for example seem good at first glance, 3cc for three cards is a pretty good deal, as is 3cc for five damage, but your opponent will always choose the lesser of two evils to minimize your advantage. So, like Browbeat, Dash Hopes, and many other cards, our werewolves are very difficult to rely on but despite all this we're going to build a deck around them anyway. So lets get into it.

Thankfully there are a few cards that we can turn to to mitigate the issue I just talked about and they will be our first cards to make the cut whatever happens. They are Immerwolf and Moonmist. Immerwolf isn't exactly a werewolf but for the sake of making the deck at least playable I chose to dilute the theme just this once.

Now, the deck needs a wincon, something to propel it to victory and I think Kessig Wolf Run is what we're looking for. It ensures that even if our werewolves revert back to their weak human state they can still pose a threat. Now, after deciding that the Wolf Run is our wincon there are two things we'll need: ramp and decent creatures to target. The ramp in the Innistrad block does leave much to be desired and unless I overlooked a card or two, the best I could find was Mulch and Caravan Vigil. Oh, and we also have Moonscarred Werewolf.

As for creatures to target with our Wolf Run we are slightly more fortunate in this area as we have Terror of Kruin Pass and Ironfang. Ironfang may seem a little lackluster but if you noticed, Wolf Run doesn't boost the toughness of our creatures so First Strike is actually pretty relevant. Some other great werewolves we can add are Merciless Predator and Ravager of the Fells. Ravager is pretty much "good stuff" as far as werewolves go since he rewards you no matter which form he transforms into.

At this point, we only have space for a couple more cards so I think we'll add Full Moon's Rise and the rest of our manabase and we're done. Our list looks something like this**:

Creature: 22
3 x Huntmaster/Ravager of the Fells
4 x Immerwolf
4 x Kruin Outlaw/Terror of Kruin Pass
4 x Reckless Waif/Merciless Predator
4 x Scorned Villager/Moonscarred Werewolf
3 x Village Ironsmith/Ironfang

Enchantment: 3
3 x Full Moon's Rise

Instant: 4
4 x Moonmist

Sorcery: 8
4 x Caravan Vigil
4 x Mulch

+ 23 Land  

One thing that worries me with this list (other than the inherent problem with werewolves to start with) is that something feels wrong with the creaturebase, I mean, all the cards have a justified role in the deck but its just so many four-ofs that it feels wrong (to reiterate) though it feels like it has more four-ofs than I really need. I dunno, maybe its just me.

Some playtesting should reveal any issues to be sorted out anyway. So take this list with a grain of salt I guess.

Anyway, this covers our look at the Werewolf tribe and next up is G/W Humans to complete our look at the tribes of Innistrad.

If you have any suggestions please feel free to leave a comment. =)

**Edit - I just realized that Wolfir Silverheart would really be phenomenal in this list and I'm not sure how I forgot about him. The question is though, should I dilute the theme any further? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated! 

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Vampires

Today's look is at the Vampires of Innistrad and how one could go about building a deck around them. Vampires in Innistrad seem to have a recurring theme of getting stronger once they damage a player so lets go with that.

First up, setting a very aggressive tone to the tribe is Stromkirk Noble, able to hit the board early and swing (hopefully) before any non-human blockers come down. So we can see already that it would help if we had him as a four of.  Some other cards that fit nicely into the deck are Markov Blademaster and Falkenrath Marauders as well as Stromkirk Captain to help our vampires take control of the board; speaking of controlling the board, we can throw in a couple of Olivia Voldarens too.

As I said earlier most of our vampires seem to have a thing for dealing combat damage to players, so why not double (or possibly triple) their output by adding Rakish Heir and Curse of Stalked Prey? Also, since our vampires need to do damage to players before we start getting any value out of them, we're going to need plenty of ways to mow down any blockers that might hinder us, so we'll add Brimstone Volley, Thunderbolt, and Tribute to Hunger. Brimstone Volley's morbid trigger might seem a bit unreliable but even three damage should be enough to clear away blockers in the early game and thats where this deck looks to set the pace. The fact that it is possibly good in the late game as well is just gravy.

One last thing we'll do is add a few Reforge the Souls to prevent us from running out of gas and we're done.

Creature: 21
3 x Falkenrath Marauders
4 x Markov Blademaster
2 x Olivia Voldaren
4 x Rakish Heir
4 x Stromkirk Captain
4 x Stromkirk Noble

Enchantment: 3
3 x Curse of Stalked Prey

Instant: 10
4 x Brimstone Volley
4 x Thunderbolt
2 x Tribute to Hunger

Sorcery: 3
3 x Reforge the Soul

+ 23 Land

Thats it for our look at the B/R Vampires of Innistrad, next up is (ugh) the R/G Werewolves.

Any suggestions or cool tech, please leave a comment! =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.