The Casual Gamer

The Calm In The Storm

Hey guys and gals!

It's time once again for a new Magic The Gathering set. This time we make a trip to Kaladesh, the home plane of Chandra. Kaladesh is filled with wonderful machines and some pretty cool new mechanics. 

My new favorite is vehicles. You can toss your creatures into a vehicle and rundown your opponent. Sorry no bonus points for making racing sounds while you do it. This set is BEYOND fun. 

Over prerelease weekend I got see a ton of cool deck ideas. Funny thing is this blog's deck idea came from our post prerelease clean up. Once the dust settles the game room looks like a battle has raged. The floor & tables are littered with wrappers, soda cans, scrap paper, and cards people leave behind. 

Usually the cards left behind are a bunch of commons with a few uncommons & rares that people don't have high hopes for. In a pile of cards Saturday night I came across Paradoxical Outcome. I couldn't believe somebody left it behind. It's not a standout card but something you can deck brew around.

My friend Brandon joked that the card will probably get banned in Modern because of what it does. Then we realized it was the key to a Standard Storm deck. The deck list is below and then I'll dive in to how it all works. 

Deck Name: Cannonball Run

Creatures: 23

Endless One x4
Bomat Courier x4
Thraben Gargoyle x4
Lupine Prototype x3
Foundry Inspector x4
Herald Of Kozilek x4

Artifacts: 11

Smuggler's Copter x4
Cultivator's Caravan x3
Aetherflux Reservoir x3
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship x1

Instant: 4

Paradoxial Outcome x4

Planeswalker: 1

Saheeli Rai x1

Lands: 21

Evolving Wild x1
Inventors' Fair x2
Island x5
Mountain x5
Nephalia Academy x1
Sequestered Stash x1
Spirebluff Canal x4
Wandering Fumarole x2

This build will cost you some cash. Probably about 120 to put together. That's the cost of a booster box. You can budget it up by dropping the Canal's for tap lands & the Fumarole for two more Evolving Wilds. Also switch out Smuggler's Copter for Sky Skiff and Saheeli Rai with a 4th Reservoir. This should drop the price of the deck by about 70. You can even drop the Flagship but I'm a fan of it, especially as very limited removal for the deck.

I'll break down the deck in the three steps of a Magic Trick.

The base of the deck resembles the "Stompy" build for decks like Werewolf Stompy in Legacy. It's all about overloading the board and just tossing huge bodies at your opponent. Yet this isn't really the deck, it's "The Pledge" in Magicians terms.

The first few turns look straight stompy. Get out your small guys to apply pressure with help of vehicles in later turns. On turn three hopefully drop one of your 8 "make my artifacts cheaper" lords. Then crank up the pressure by dropping your hand of cheap toys. This leads to our second Magicians term, "The Turn".

"The Turn" would be the Aetherflux Reservoir. It's unexpected. It's a gimmicky life gain card with an almost comical end ability. When you drop it, the opponent probably won't see it as a threat. You might even get a snicker out of them. Yet, it's the key to Standard Storm with the wording of the cards' first ability. That leads us to our final Magicians term, "The Prestige" (Aka "The Payoff").

Your board is loaded now. You should have a lord or two out. You should have a few cheap creatures. You might even have a vehicle revving up.

This is when you drop all your free cast stuff in your hand to start the standard storm count. After your free casts you then unleash Paradoxical Outcome and scoop up all your free casts or cheap casts leaving the lords on the field. Then draw cards equal to the numbered scooped. Finally recast all your free casts and cheap cast that you can. The reservoir will go nuts and you'll gain some insane life. Probably enough to fire off the Reservoir.

Just play testing, I was able to hit storm count 9 pretty regularly on turn 7. That's 45 life.

Cards like Rai & Flagship are cards to help move the game forward but not key cards. Rai is nice for her scry and ability to copy the reservoir for a turn to make Standard Storm easier. If you can ultimate her then it's pretty much game. The Flagship is removal and a big flying body to end the game traditionally.

This deck is super fun to play. It has holes but all decks do. It doesn't have real removal so you have to resort to smashing your creatures into things. It does put pressure on early and force your opponent to play to your terms. Plus the Reservoir/Outcome combo is a great meta-game switch. Those that haven't seen it before have the best expressions when they realize what is going on.

Last but not least it lets a cyborg werewolf drive a flying ship, and that's how we all win!

The Casul Gamer

ONE MAN WOLFPACK

I'm old.

When I first started playing Magic in 1993, my mom still gave me lunch money. I would like to tell you that my $20 a week always went towards lunch and not Magic. I'd also like to tell you that playing Magic in school made me the prom king.

Neither of those things are true. But it did teach me how to budget my money and date a person who is into me for me. Both valuable life lessons. So thanks Magic.

Now this weekend is Shadows Over Innistrad Game Day at 1PM with a $5 entry. It's a Standard Constructed tournament with Full Art promos for all players and Full Art Foil promos for those that make the top 8 cut. The winner will walk away with the champions play mat.

What deck are you going to play? Eldrazi? Mono-White Humans? Tokens? What if you only had my old school Magic budget? What if you only had $20 to build a deck with?

I took this challenge yesterday after stumbling onto a combo I absolutely love (and hate myself for not seeing sooner).

I've written about how awesome Zada, Hedron Grinder is. Then yesterday a customer had a question about Silverfur Partisan and how it's ability works. That's when my brain clicked that the two could work really well together. Best part is a play set of both is about $7. That's amazing.

Even better is since I'm going wolves (werewolves are too undependable to always be wolfy), I can spike in a ton of creatures at bare minimum costs. Match that with cheap targeting spells and we're talking super budget.

Here's the deck list before I break down the deck:

One Man WolfPack

Creatures: 21

4x Ember-Eye Wolf
2x Quilled Wolf
4x Scourge Wolf
4x Timberpack Wolf
4x Silverfur Partisan
3x Zada, Hedron Grinder

Spells: 19

4x Might of the Masses
4x Slip Through Space
4x Titan's Strength
4x Vines of the Recluse
3x Howlpack Resurgence

Lands: 20
2x Evolving Wilds
6x Forest
1x Highland Lake
2x Island
6x Mountain
2x Timber Gorge
1x Woodland Stream

All of that for roughly $17. There's money left to build a sideboard with. I'd suggest cards like Moonlight Hunt, Fiery Impulse, Glint, Expedite, and other situational cheap stuff to fill out the sideboard.

First you'll notice there isn't any direct removal. When building I couldn't find any I truly liked that didn't take away from the deck or cost a bunch. I figured it was better for sideboard material and to focus on the strategy of the deck: Pump out wolves, pump up wolves.

This is an aggro deck. It just takes the first turn off. Like a wolf you stalk your prey. It also leaves turn one for tap lands to set your board for the game. Then on turn 2 you start jamming out wolves.

Since most of your spells are instant speed (even the enchantment) it opens up a bunch of combat tricks for your pack. Opponent has flyers then give a wolf reach. Opponent has a big beast then hit Titan strength to take em down. Opponent has a wall of creatures you can't bust through then make a pumper unblockable.

Add Zada to the mix and all your wolves can do those tricks. Add in Silverfur Partisan and you'll make puppies for each creature a spell copied by Zada targets. It gets crazy quick.

Even better is that it abuses the Magic rules for priority & stack. I'll go through a scenario that I worked with a MTG judge on. I believe this is how it plays out but if I am wrong PLEASE let me know. The judge I talked to seems to believe this is how it plays out.

You know your opponent has an Ultimate Price. They know you're holding Zada. Both of you are in a stand off. On the board is two wolves and a Silverfur Partisan on your side. Your opponent has three zombies. Your opponent doesn't wish to use the price on the Partisan because Zada is the game ender. You draw into your sixth land and play Zada.

Your opponent will scramble to tap their lands to blow up Zada but can't until you pass priority from the resolution of the casting. That's when you can cast one of your two spells, which will trigger Zada & thus lead to triggers on Partisan. You don't want to spam cast because you need the Zada ability to resolve first to trigger the Partisan.

You cast Zada then hold priority to cast Slip Through Space. The Slip targets Zada and triggers him. Before he can begin to create copies to trigger Partisan you need to pass priority. You pass priority so opponent can cast UP on Zada.

You respond to the UP casting by casting Might of the Masses. Then your Might of the Masses will target Zada and triggers him. That trigger resolves and creates 3 Partisan triggers for 6 total wolves. The first three wolves from MM come into play and then MM resolves on your original 4 creatures for +7/+7.

Next Ultimate Price resolves to kill your Zada.

Finally your Zada SS trigger resolves for 6 copies of SS to make your 6 wolves unblockable and you draw 6 cards. Those 6 copies create six wolf token triggers from the Partisan. You end it by swinging out with your three original wolves that are all unblockable 9/9.

So that's the deck. Pretty cut and dry. Play smart and be willing to toss your wolves around. It's ok to sit back and let the game come to you. As shown above the deck can pounce on your opponent in one turn.

Now let's rock out to some Duran Duran and start sleeving all those wolf tokens.

The Casual Gamer

Shadows Over Innistrad Is Here!

Were you one of the 178 players that participated in Nerdageddon's Shadows Over Innistrad Prerelease weekend? If not then you missed a helluva weekend. Including the discovery of my new best friend:

He's sooooo good!

When I first saw this card I didn't have my socks blown off. Not a huge defense, so he can be dealt with. His ability can bite you when you need land and your opp is putting it in your GY, but after playing with him that really isn't the downside. I'm not saying it can't come bite you but I tended to draw more spells with him & the times he sent land away, it helped because I drew power with my actual draw step.

In limited he was a beast because you're almost forced into higher casting cost stuff for deck construction & now those high costs get added value with this Devil on your shoulder. Add in his menace ability and you're scoring a bolt a turn with him as long as your opponent has only a creature untapped or alive. Something that happened often this weekend. 

So I got home after a long day of MTG prerelease fun and of course spent the next day brewing up my Standard deck. We've got a Fat Pack Battle this Friday for FNM but the rest of the month, including SOI Gameday on April 30th, is Standard Constructed at Nerdageddon. 

Here's my brew:

"Slow Burn" 

Creatures: 18

Insolent Neonate x4

Sin Prodder x4

Avaricious Dragon x2

Inverter Of Truth x1

Thunderbreak Regent x4

Goblin Dark-dweller x3

Spells: 19

Avacyn's Judgment x4

Tormenting Voice x3

Alms of the Vein x2

Exquisite Firecraft x4

Fiery Temper x4

Ruinous Path x2

Artifact: 1

Pyromancer's Goggles x1

Land: 22

Foreboding Ruins x3

Smoldering Marsh x3

Swamp x5

Mountain x11

No sideboard because I haven't really focused on that. The deck will take some tooling and testing but this is a good place to start.

It's a burn deck but it's not. Most of your burn decks are fast out the gate. This one really doesn't get the ball rolling until turn 3. Yet this one comes with mid-range headaches. The creature base has a lot of evasion abilities either with flying or menace.

The spells all can be targets for Dark-Dwellers plus be hefty enough to get value from Sin Prodder. The madness triggers for Vein & Temper are huge when paired with any of the discard cards. Pyromancer's goggles is just sprinkles. It adds mana and finishes games.

Now I wanted to add Kolaghan's Commands to this deck but at 20 a pop I wanted to stick to more of a budget. I added Ruinous Path & Alms of the Vein to replace the commands. If you wanted the more expensive version then switch those out and put the other two cards in your sideboard. The difference is a $110 deck or a $200 deck. 

As always Casual Gamer is about budget brewing. 

Again the deck isn't coming out of the gate strong. You might get a neonate on turn 1 but really its turn three where everything comes online. Don't be afraid to burn early and often. Get the Sin Prodder out as fast as possible, especially if you're holding land on turn 3. In fact the more Sin Prodder's out the better. 

After turn three just keep tossing creatures and burn out. Save your Avaricious Dragon & Inverter of Truth until you need them. Also Inverter is a great finisher with Sin Prodder. Outside of the lands in your GY you'll be turning your library into pure gas for the Prodder. This is one card I'm torn on for creature count. I might switch Inverter of Truth with Avaricious Dragon for a two of instead. 

I'm excited for this new cycle of Standard. Fetches are gone. Rhinos are toast. Now we get to brew a whole new world. 

Don't forget to swing in this weekend to pick up your Shadows Over Innistrad Booster boxes, Booster Packs, Intro Decks, Fat Packs, and Deck Builder Toolkits. Everything is available at NOON on Friday. 

Casual Gamer

So yeah that happened. 

Grand Prix Detroit went down and I lead the charge to the bottom. I had high hopes for my deck going in but it was one of those days where the Magic gods leave you in your own personal Apocalypse. I went 0-4 with an overall record of 3-8. Outside of round 1 I had a shot in all games but found myself chasing my combo into the deep rounds.

In short, it was a rough one kids.

Now it's not all on the deck. Some games I dropped because simply I hadn't play tested enough. My nerves got the best of me in the early rounds leading to some HUGE rookie mistakes. I screwed up my own combo in one game by discarding the wrong card. Yup, rookie mistakes. 

Next time I would play in more regional tournaments to work out those nerves. Had I done more testing I probably would have been more calm and let the games unfold instead of trying to rush through the motions. I would say that cost me two games I know of and at least a match win.

The big takeaway from Saturday would be noticing some of the parts of the deck that just didn't work. For one I need a better back up loot card besides either Izzet charm or Tormenting voice. A good one casting cost one would be perfect. Now I'm not looking for another Faithless (though that would be cool) but something that allows for a card dump and draw. 

After the weekend I need to go back for some tweaks. While the deck is a combo deck, it could benefit from some new parts. If you look at Splinter Twin, it was a combo inside a control deck. One thing I flirted with after this weekend is adding in a Death's Shadow (or two).

I found myself draining my own life plus taking a few shots while chasing my combo. Tasigur was a good option to go offensive while I searched and survived. The shadow would be another that grows as I search. Again it's a tinker but could be the new wrinkle that solves some problems. 

Adding a Death's Shadow could open up using a "Spoils of the vault" in the deck. It's a card that allows you to name a card then reveal cards from the top of the library until you hit that card. Then lose a life for each card revealed. It can be a suicide plunge but does put combo pieces where you need them. The downside could result into a nice nudge for a Shadow. 

My final thought was to add more lands. While spirit guides are nice, I found myself wishing I had the more dependable mana instead of the bulk early game mana. I might jump the mana base up by two lands while dropping down a spirit guide & maybe a Tormenting Voice. 

In the end I had fun. Playing in a GP with 2500+ players is an experience in itself. I picked up parts for my Mardu Burn deck in Modern. Plus I got to see the holes in my current brew. I'll take my beats and rework the deck. Now we cross our fingers that Shadows Over Innistrad brings a few options. 

For those looking to see my Mardu Burn deck, I'll be posting on that next week. I'm still working the main board and figuring if I go mostly red with splashed of black & white or if I go a more balance color scheme. Either way it should be a fun build. 

Casual Gamer

I'm probably the worst blogger on the internet. If content is king then I have been a pauper lately. To be honest I've been spending a bunch of my "Magic" time on one thing: My Modern Deck.

If you hang at the shop, or have swung by for a FNM, then you've probably heard me talk about my deck. It's kinda all I talk about recently. Those that have read my blog will know Magic Solitaire, an attempt at a consistent first turn kill deck. It was fun but never anywhere near consistent.

Those who have read even further back knew about my love for Narset. There are just certain cards that certain players fall in love with. The enlightened master is one of mine. I've been obsessed with making a deck for her. She spawned Magic Solitaire.

Now it will be a year since I posted about that deck. A year to tinker.

It was fun hunting first turn kills but it just didn't win. I decided to take it back to the lab and build a more fluid deck that might give up the dream of turn 1 kills for more reliable turn 2 or 3 kills.

I got super serious about it when I found out last year that the 2016 Detroit Grand Prix would be Modern Constructed. I don't play high end magic often. Not enough time. But now my goal was to bring this rogue deck to the biggest tournament around and hopefully shock a few. I knew I wanted to keep the core of the deck the same. It was going to be a Narset-Goryo deck that aimed to abuse her ability.

At the same time the world met Grishoalbrand. It's a great combo deck. I borrow some from it. Mostly the Griselbrands. I just don't like the other parts of the deck. Adds too much clunk for what I'm trying to do. Plus I believe if any part of that deck gets banned it will be the Shoal and not Goryo. The Vengeance is too much fun for deck builders and isn't the card that makes the deck unbalanced.

As I added Grisel, I shaved down the Mana base while finding a good stable of cantrips and value cards. The deck is a combo deck that tries to cut it as close to the edge as possible. The true goal is to put all the right pieces in all the right places. That's when I knew the part I was missing.

I needed to learn to count cards.

Remember counting cards isn't illegal. It's high speed high pressure mathematics. It's a skill like shooting a basketball. You get kicked out of Casinos not for cheating but for pushing the odds in your favor. They like betting against those who can't predict the outcomes. Counting cards helps you peep a fuzzy future.

That's exactly what this deck became. It was about looking at the knowledge you have (your hand) and figuring out how quick you can dig through your deck & the odds of getting the right cards. It's not 100% guaranteed but it does tip the odds in your favor.

Here's the deck list to help

Name: Suicide Squad (Aka League Of Legends)

Creatures (13)
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3x Simian Spirit Guide
2x Tasigur, The Golden Fang
3x Griselbrand
4x Narset, Enlightened Master

Spells (37)
4x Faithless Looting
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Noxious Revival
4x Serum Visions
3x Thought Scour
4x Goryo's Vengeance
2x Manamorphose
2x Tormenting Voice
1x Jeskai Ascedancy
3x Relentless Assault
2x Waves Of Aggression
4x Fury of the Horde

Lands (10)
1x Swamp
3x City Of Brass
2x Gemstone Mine
4x Mana Confluence

Sideboard (15)
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Dead Drop
2x Pact Of Negation
2x Pull From Eternity
4x Wear//Tear
2x Izzet Charm
1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2x Pyroclasm

That's the deck

The most important part of playing the deck is understanding what opening hand to keep. If you start with too many junk cards (Jeskai & xtra attack cards) then you're ice skating uphill. You want combo pieces (Narset, Grisel, Goryo), Cantrips, or cards that put pieces in their places (loots). Thanks to the new mulligan rule you are given almost two starting hands.

On first draw you get to see seven cards. If you mulligan, with the scry on keep, you still get to see seven cards. When looking at your cards try to see how far your hand will let you look.

Serum Visions has a look value of 3. When cast it shows you three cards deep into your deck. Same with Thought Scour but Visions is a little less chaotic. I originally had Tomb Scours that have a look value of 5 but with no draw and all dump they tended to be too unreliable.

As you look over the deck you'll notice it doesn't have a shuffle mechanism. One of the biggest parts of Modern is search and shuffle. Unless forced to do so, this deck won't. It's simple. You don't want to. It's hard to card count a shuffling deck.

Now those that are still foggy on the card counting I will go through a sample starting hand to hopefully show. I draw Goryo, Brass, Serum Vision, 2 Faithless, Spirit Guide, & Relentless Assault. I have a card count number of 14. I see seven cards and have the ability with what I have to see seven cards deeper. That is nearly 25% of my deck. I have a combo piece and two ways to place my other pieces. I have 7 chances to hit the other combo piece which make up ~14% of your remaining deck.

That's good odds.

In this situation you would Serum to draw and set your next draw. If it's a sweet scry you can use the spirit guide to loot and speed up the process. The Assault gives you a bonus dump card you don't have to worry about in your hand.

That's the deck in a very small nutshell. I could get really detailed and go over each card in the deck plus their purpose. Yet I want the four of you reading this to come back. I won't bore you.

In the end I don't know what will happen. Which is ironic since I based the deck on seeing the fuzzy future. What I do know is that I will catch somebody with the deck. I'll drop a jaw or two. And that will make this year long journey complete.

Good luck to those who play this weekend and I'm coming for a HoF pin!

Grand Prix Detroit

Grand Prix Detroit has come and gone. The largest team event in Magic The Gathering history with 680 total teams and more than 2000 players. If I told you Team Nerdageddon went 6-2-1 and finished in 65th place then you'd think we had an epic weekend. 

You'd be right and wrong at the same time. 

Team Nerdageddon consisted of Josh Kretz (right), Hunter Mayes (left), and myself (guess). Josh was our team captain because he does GPs a lot more often than the rest of us. It was my first BIG tournament in 10 years and Hunter's first ever. We did VIP because if you're only doing one GP a year then do it up. The extra $50 per person is worth it.

Our sealed pull was not the best. I'd say our two best cards would have been an Erebos's Titan & an Abbot of Keral Keep. In my deck the best card was my Evolutionary Leap. By no means was it the worst sealed pull in history but during deck construction we knew we only had enough for two good decks.

Josh played a Black/White tricks build using Kytheon's Tactics, mighty leap, etc & a ton of renown guys. Hunter built a green/red aggro deck with some good removal and speed. I went with blue/green tempo. It was more like a Ford Tempo. None of us felt extremely confident in our decks.

The highlight of round one came when we got seated adjacent from my favorite pro team, The Pantheon: Reid Duke (first), William "Huey" Jensen (second), & Owen Turtenwald (last). They went 9-0 for the day. It was awesome to watch their match.

Our match wasn't that great. We lost and not in memorable fashion.

Second round was the worst match up of the day because in the last five minutes the teams were tied at 1-1 with Josh going into his third game. The other team asked us to draw. We of course declined and wanted to play it out with 5 min left because a draw is as bad as a tie. That's when it got horrible.

The kid across from Josh began to slow play. He would watch the clock at the end of the hall and take 30-40 seconds to decide on land play during turns 1-3. He played no spells yet took nearly 3 minutes off the clock. By turn three Josh had put a 4 turn kill clock on the kid. That was the last regulation turn we played as the team advised the player to wait until overtime.

That's when we learned from the judges that they need to witness slow play and that nothing can be done unless they see it. So we went to Overtime. 

We ended the fifth turn by leaving the kid at 2 life. Had we played at actual speed then it woukd probably never have gotten to overtime. A draw and a bad taste in our mouth is what we went into round 3 with. 

We were so steamed about those kids we didn't focus on round 3 and dropped it 1-2 to decks we should have beat. Focus it a must in Magic. Tons of misplays by us.

Round 4 our opponents never showed up. So we got the free win and a big wide window to go grab lunch. 

Round 5 we grabbed the win in a really tight match up. Probably our most fun of the day because next the true shenanigans begin.

Round 6-9 we never played a real opponent. Each round we sat and nobody showed. We ended up 6-2-1 because five of our opponents never cared to played. So we drew opponents on scrap paper. They followed us to each match up. Unofficially we are the greatest imaginary Magic players of all time. 

We became kind of a mascot to some of the Judges. They would swing by and chat. Near the later rounds they'd sit and we'd share stories. Even in the last round they began to calculate if we had a shot at day 2. It turns out we were a tie short. Had we gone 7-2 then we would have made day 2. 

Then again had we never gotten that tie then would we have even been 6-2-1? Nobody knows but the facts & numbers say slow play cost us a shot at the title. That's our story & we're sticking to it. 

At the end of the day it will say on paper that we scored 19 points with a 6-2-1 record to become the 65th best team out of 680 teams at Team Sealed. While that might not be reality, it is a great story to bring home. We had our names up on the board ahead, next to, or just behind some of the greatest hall of fame names in Magic. 

Plus it was kind of cool to walk out of the Hard Rock Cafe and have guys at a table point us out and say, "Those were the guys I told you about". 

Casual Gamer: Origins

Getting Back To Basics

Origins is upon us! 

We get to learn where the epic journey of five of our favorite Planeswalkers began. There are some pretty sweet cards being releasedx including the flipwalkers. My favorite happens to be Disciple Of The Ring but I have to bring in my second choice of Willbreaker. These two work really well together.

Disciple is a versatile card in a control deck. Your counters and draw spells get to be extra fuel for whatever situation may arise. Even better is how Disciple tags up with Willbreaker. 

Your Willbreaker is super powerful but kinda fragile. 3 toughness isn't hard to deal with. Also remember all critters collected return to your opponent when Willbreaker goes bye bye. Not a fun scenario. Luckily Disciple can add some protection with an endless barrage of noncreature counters.

Even better is Disciple can recruit creatures for 1 measly mana. Just simply exile an instant or sorcery then untap your friend's Siege Rhino. Now you have a Siege Rhino. 

Looking at these two cards, and reading about the lore behind Origins, made me think about when I started Magic. Today I love me some red burn but when I was a tiny planeswalker, I preferred blue control. That's why I decided to return to my origins with a deck built on my old gaming budget: $40. 

$40 doesn't seem like much but to a 13 year old kid in 1993, that was a fortune. It also happened to be a month's worth of allowances. I would say I've been a budget builder since birth. Here is what I brewed up:

"Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo"

Creatures (15)
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
4 Sigiled Starfish
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Willbreaker
3 Disciple of the Ring
Spells (22)
2 Anticipate
2 Curse of the Swine
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Reality Shift
3 Valorous Stance
4 Negate
2 Banishing Light
4 Dissolve
Lands (23)
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Tranquil Cove
7 Plains
10 Island

Sideboard (15)

2 Ajani's Presence
2 Gods Willing
2 Icy Blast
3 Erase
3 Neutralizing Blast
2 Divination
1 Ojutai's Command

I couldn't think of a fun nickname for this deck but Breakin' 2 just kept popping up in my head. 

The deck is pretty simple. Stall out until you can lock down the board. Use your Rams as blockers and slow trickle life gainers. Starfish are great blockers plus they'll make sure your draw is not a dead one. They also both can block 2/2, which will be the main creature type they face. 

In fact all creatures in this deck can block 2/2 attackers. Reality shift & Curse will help turn any Rhino or Dragonlord into a manageable situation. This allows you to let creature spells be cast in the mid-game while saving higher counters for board killers like Atarka. 

Originally I wanted to squeeze a Brimaz in here but budget friendly he isn't. So I put Eidolon of Rhetoric. This card will grind the game to a halt. It also will help you protect a board advantage because Disciple can counter noncreature without exhausting your one spell a turn. 

Once the board is on lock you can pick your win. Simply use the Disciple for a few smacks or take what creatures they have to overrun them. A fun one is to use Curse Of The Swine with Willbreaker. All their creatures become yours then get exiled for an army of pigs.

Nothing better than a pig bomb. 

All in all this deck with sideboard costs a few pennies under $40 to put together. Again I made budget decisions like dropping Brimaz and choosing Evolving Wilds over Flooded Strands. Those two moves alone saved me $50 in budget.

This deck probably won't win any world championships but it will give opponents headaches. It gives you a punchers chance, which is all you can ask in budget brewing.

Origins releases this Friday with a Fat Pack Battle during FNM at 7PM. Entry is $40 and each player receives an Origins Fat Pack to build a deck with. Prizes determined by the number of players. We'll also have booster boxes, intro decks, toolkits, clash packs, and booster packs available when our doors open at noon. 

The Casual Gamer

Modern Solitaire

For the most part I am a Standard player and a drafter. They actually go hand in hand. I enjoy deck building the most about Magic and both formats utilize that aspect in my opinion the best. Yet, there is always more I want to do with the game. That is why I have recently looked into building a Modern deck.

There are some pretty fun looking Modern decks like Delver or Storm. Again I'm a sucker for anything that is friends with blue or red. Give me both and we may start to get serious. Yet I'm not exactly looking to break the bank. The mana base alone for those decks is going to send my wallet running for cover.

I could always go with Modern Burn. I've seen some cool lists from Grand Prix decks that are only like 120-150. Yet I don't want to be stingy. This is a Modern deck after all. I won't be switching it up in a month. I'll fine tune it but it'll stay by my side for awhile. That kind of commitment deserves a higher ceiling. 

Not like 500 but something I could feel comfy with. 

Maybe half that. 

A good Modern deck with blue and red that has some flare to it for under $250. That is my goal. 

After looking around the internets I got a suggestion from a player to check out this Travis Woo Narset First Turn Kill Deck. I've written before how much I love Narset. Even better is she is pretty much at bargain basement levels right now. A play set for $6 is not too shabby. Yet there was a lot I still didn't like about the deck.

The same stuff I didn't like about the other Narset First Turn Kill Deck I had seen from Gabriel Pancerzewski at Mana-Fyx Games. For one I don't want to drop my budget on Emrakul. I love the big lug. I just don't like his price. 

I also never like the heavy exile and mulligan play the deck forced on you when I played it proxy. I toyed with the Omniscience & Enter the Infinite combo but never liked that it opened me up to being milled too easily by an opponent. Plus Omniscience at $16 a pop is more than I want to assign a fringe card. That kind of price tag goes for the card that makes the entire deck run. 

For a play set of Goryo's Vengeance your going to drop about $50. That is an Emrakul. I'd rather have that playset than any number of Emrakuls. This card is one half of the coin that makes this deck. Having one in your starting hand makes it a favorable keep. I'm not saying you won't mulligan but it will jump the value of the hand. You have the entire coin in Narset & Goryo's Vegeance for roughly $53. That is budget.

This my version of the Narset first turn kill deck. It has the ability for first turn kill but I added some substance to the deck to help it go off on any turn. It also is designed to be played like a game of Solitaire. I have a lot of time alone in the shop. This kind of deck fits my play schedule. 

Solitaire

Creatures: 8

Simian Spirit Guide x4

Narset, Enlightened Master x4

Spells: 40

Faithless Looting x4

Gitaxian Probe x4

Noxious Revival x4

Pull from Eternity x4

Spoils of the Vault x1

Thought Scour x3

Tome Scour x4

Goryo's Vengeance x4

Relentless Assault x4

Waves of Aggression x4

Fury of the Horde x4

Lands: 12

City Of Brass x2

Gemstone Caverns x4

Gemstone Mine x2

Mana Confluence x4

Sideboard: 15

Feldon's Cane x1

Guttural Response x4

Nature's Claim x2

Smelt x4

Research // Development x2

Murderous Cut x2

It's pretty straight forward. Your perfect hand is a Gemstone Cavern, Narset, Goryo's Vengeance, Pull From Eternity, and a second mana source. You want your opponent to go first because then you can play the Caverns to exile the Narset to put her in the graveyard with Pull from Eternity.

Then on your turn one you Goryo's Vengeance and send Narset off to the races. If she gets 7 attack phases then you win the game. Noxious Revival helps put extra attack turn cards on top of your deck to get free cast by Narset. Pretty much once you get two attack cards exiled by Narset the game is yours. 

Tome Scour and Thought Scour help push your deck into your graveyard in hopes of hitting Narset there or grabbing a combo piece for next turn with Noxious Revival. The Faithless looting works the same way. Also lets you discard Narset from a starting hand or turn draw. 

I don't know the exact percent that it goes off on turn 1. It feels as if it goes off very consistently on turn 2. Once the deck gets flowing it tends to have the ability to go off every turn.

This is my kind of Modern Deck.

It's budget friendly. It's flashy and quirky. It's red and blue (and everything else). It's the Modern deck I want to keep handy for the next couple years. 

I'm not delusional in thinking this build is going to be on par with Delver or Storm but I know it has a chance against any deck in the format. 

Some purists would say it really isn't playing Magic. There is no real interaction with the other player. You are basically going to a tournament to sit in front of another person for 7+ rounds and play by yourself. I say that isn't true. 

Just having an opponent forces interaction. My sideboard exists for that reason. The Grafdigger's Cage is REALLY scary for this deck to see. 

I believe nobody would want to see this deck because of the chance it goes off twice. No worse feeling than being a round from the money and you get double first turn killed. That kind of stuff gets tables flipped. 

To me this balances the scales. I can't afford the big net decks but I can afford to give myself a chance against anyone sitting across from me no matter what deck they bring to the table. 

Until next time I'll keep playing by myself.

The Casual Gamer

The Spread Offense

It's been awhile. Nearly 4 months since we began our journey into the land of Tarkir. This weekend the time stream shifts and the events of the past will be changed to alter the present.

After such a strong set like Khans of Tarkir, it is hard to be the follow up set. Khans is one of the best sets in Magic history. The fact that two cards have already found their way to the banned list, including Treasure Cruise pulling the hat trick, is a testimony to the strength of the set.

Fate Reforged isn't Khans of Tarkir. It is however one of strongest support sets I've seen. The amount of commons and uncommons that are going to see regular play across formats is a pretty impressive list. Also cards like Monastery Mentor & Soulfire Grand Master will have huge impacts on the tournament scene. All in all Fate Reforged might not start off with the kind of hype that Khans did, but after people play more with the set it will turn out to be one of the more popular sets because of all the utility and diversity that it brings to the game.

As always I have found my favorite card from the set. In fact I have two favorites. I love the card Dragonrage. It will be a card that Magic players keep playsets of for decades. At face value it is a great card for game ending finishes. Load the board, swing with all, funnel all your red mana into an unblocked creature. Good Game.

Then there are the combos that this card lets you pull off. This card can generate a lot of mana fast. The drawback is you need to use that mana during the combat phase. I have three other options for that mana besides funneling into a dragon's breath mechanic.

Option one is Purphoros. His ability for giving +1/+0 for all creatures becomes really good when you have all that extra red mana. Why pump seven creatures with seven +1/+0 pumps when you do double Purphoros for +2/+0 to all creatures and use the left over mana for an extra +1/+0 pump to whomever.

Option two is Dictate of the Twin Gods. It's five mana to double all your damage. Seven 1/1 tokens are attacking. Drop the dictate and turn a potential 14 damage into 18 damage. Gets even better with more creatures.

Option three involves my other new favorite card, Arcbond. This one is a bit tricky, and brings tons of risk. With Arcbond you can turn anyone into an insta-bomb. Add in Dragonrage and you turn that bomb nuclear.

Here is the combo:

Attack with all your creatures. When they declare blocks cast Dragonrage then use three of that mana to cast Arcbond targeting one of the blockers. Then funnel all the left over mana into the creature being blocked. The arcbonded creature will then deal all that damage to every creature and player. Add in a deflecting palm to prevent all that damage and double the damage on your opponent.

I'll give you a scenario:

I'm attacking again with my seven 1/1 tokens. My opponent has a 2/2 Runeclaw Bear that he uses to block a token. He's at 16 life so he's not afraid of the six damage my other tokens represent. 

As he declares the block of his bear I then cast Dragonrage to produce seven mana. I then use three of that mana to cast Arcbond targeting Mr. Bear and then use two untapped lands to cast my deflecting palm on the bear. I finally funnel the four remaining mana from Dragonrage into the creature being blocked to give him +4/+0 for a total of five assigned damage.

As damage resolves it would play out like this: 

He would take 6 from my tokens, then his blocker would take 5 from my attacker. That blocker would then deal 5 damage to all other creatures and players. My Deflecting Palm would prevent that 5 from me and deal it to my opponent. He would take a total of 16 damage, our boards would be clear, and I would take no damage. That would give me the game. 

(Big Thank You to MtG Judge Randy Tice for helping me cross all my T's and dot all my I's)

Using this combo, and my love for Dragonrage, I have built a new budget deck for under $50. Take a look.

"Block This"

Creatures: 8

Humble Defector x2
Mardu Scout x3
Iroas, God of Victory x1
Purphoros, God of the Forge x2

Spells: 29

Defiant Strike x3
Launch the Fleet x3
Titan's Strength x3
Raise the Alarm x4
Deflecting Palm x1
Arcbond x1
Dragonrage x4
Hordling Outburst x4
Howl of the Horde x2
Dictate of the Twin Gods x1
Triplicate Spirits x3

Lands: 23

Temple of Triumph x3
Mountain x10
Plains x10

Again with budget building there are some restrictions to card selection. Red/White Spread works really well with Goblin Rabblemaster, Monastery Mentor, and Brimaz. Yet those three will run you about 200-225 to fit into your deck. Not very budget friendly.

The idea behind the deck at your core is to spread your opponent super thin. He may have 3 HUGE creatures but you've go 13 small ones. Over three turns, if nothing changes besides attackers dying to blockers, that is enough to deal 21 damage. (13-3=10, 10-3=7, 7-3=4, sum=21). Then add in combat tricks.

Attack with your 13 and go to the bread n' butter of Dragonrage. Now you've got enough to do 23 damage in one turn with your opponent's 3 blockers on the board. Defiant Strike & Titan's Strength will help add damage to your final total while filtering your deck out. Humble Defector is good for card draw and gives your opponent a blocker when you need one for the nuclear option.

The "one off" spells are for situational flavor such as Arcbond, Dictate, Palm, and Iroas.

The Howl is great when you attack with one 1/1 then cast that for a triple cast of either Outburst or Spirits (9 tokens). Even better when you convoke down for the spirits to do it all for three mana. Also it can double Dragonrage if cast pre-combat.

Purphoros is a doomsday engine. You drop tokens, he does damage. You produce a ton of mana then he buffs your tokens. You dash out your scout, it becomes a 5 damage Goblin bomb. If I had him in my opening hand, I'd hold back token spells until I got him out. Purphoros paired with token spells is dirty.

I didn't include a sideboard yet, because this deck will require heavy play testing to see all the holes. Without direct removal there will be some who urge putting that in the sideboard. I feel that keeping removal out of the deck helps streamline the true theme of the deck which is full speed ahead with little concern for what will happen next.

Should be an interesting play and worth the $50 to put together.

What decks are you brewing on a budget? Let's brew together this Friday during our Fate Reforged endless drafts. $13 entry into an 8 person pod. They'll be single elimination pods. We'll keep drafting all night until there is nobody left to play.

The Casual Gamer

Budget Black

The new standard season is upon us. It also happens to be holiday shopping time. The worst time to be a casual gamer. Your already tight gaming budget is squeezed even more. 

Once you're done with the holiday shopping hopefully you've got forty dollars left in your pocket for fun money. If so then don't fret because you can still rock a fun deck and not bust your budget.

For fans of this blog, this very sporadically updated blog, you know my passion is budget Magic. Yes the best decks in any format cost a few hundred bucks. Look at mono-black. Just four Thoughtseize and four Hero's Downfall, two staples of any black deck, eat up nearly $150. Not exactly budget friendly for eight cards. 

Yet there are replacements like Despise & Murderous Cut. Not as strong as the staples but they do cost just over $4, or 2.7% of what the staples cost, for playsets. That is pure budget Magic. 

The first rule of budget is mono-color decks are best. The answer is simple: land. If you are playing mono-colored then you don't need anything more than basics. That's like $3 in cost for your mana base leaving you $37 for the rest of your deck.

The second rule is to find a theme or a card to build around. For my budget black deck I picked Waste Not. For one it is the card designed by the entire Magic Community during voting last year. Second, I like the mechanic of the card. It's a discard engine meaning it's fueled by discard. So I found my card and my theme in one spot, Mono-black discard!

The third rule is fitting the deck to the budget. With no huge commitment to land base and Waste Not being less than $10 for a play set, I've got $27 dollars to work with. That's like a salary cap for a pro sports team. Here is what I came up with:

Trigger Happy

Creatures (12)

Master of the Feast x4
Disciple of Phenax x2
Fate Unraveler x4
Gray Merchant of Asphodel x2

Spells (25)

Despise x3
Bile Blight x3
Sign in Blood x4
Waste Not x4
Mind Rot x4
Rakshasa's Secret x2
Tormented Thoughts x2
Murderous Cut x3

Lands (23)

Swamp x23

Sideboard (15)

Tormod's Crypt x2
Dark Betrayal x4
Viper's Kiss x3
Extinguish All Hope x2
Necropolis Fiend x2
Dead Drop x2

There is my mono-black discard deck. Not bad for less than a tank of gas (even when prices are low).

The largest problem discard runs into is your opponent running out of cards. You can't target an empty hand. That is where Sign in Blood & Master of the Feast come into play. They both are cards that help restock your opponent's hand so that you have more fuel for Waste Not. This turns a drawback for the Master into an advantage. It also can make Sign In Blood a very dangerous card come late game.

Fate Unraveler turns the screws even harder. You're putting cards into your opponents hand, might as well make them pay for it. Even having one of these guys out makes cards like Sign & Master into bigger threats.

This deck is a true mid-range deck. It sets the table in the first three turns and looks to crank up the pressure beginning on turn 4. Your first turn most of the time will be a land drop. If you have a Despise in hand then cast that but otherwise you're on drop & pass duty.

Turn two opens the deck up a little with hopefully a Waste Not but you can also use a Sign or Blight if the situation calls for it. The best play is always the turn two Waste Not. It brings your deck online.

Turn three brings most of the deck into play. You should be getting land drops for the first three turns. At this point you have to decide what the best action is. I like Mind Rot to start the discard but a Master of the Feast can really put pressure on early while keeping your opponent's hand stocked. My play would be to always choose discard first.

Once Waste Not gets going you should be drawing cards and dropping zombies. Tormented Thoughts on a Master turn 4 is crazy good. It usually drops your opponent's entire hand and you end up with a flood of cards & zombies. As you keep drawing you'll keep dropping more Waste Not and the quicksand gets thicker for your opponent.

Here is the price list for the deck from TCGplayer Mid:

That is "Trigger Happy", my Magic on a budget deck for the holiday season. You can still get Mom a copy of Lethal Weapon and play competitive magic. It's a holiday miracle. 

The Casual Gamer

The Booster Box Challenge

It's finally here, rotation. 

Goodbye Ravnica block. 

Goodbye Core 2014. 

Hello Khans of Tarkir. You sexy beast you!

The biggest challenge to rotation is finding a deck you enjoy in Standard. Most people just lost half, if not more, of their current Standard deck. That either means trying to fill the holes with a new set or scrapping the old for something brand spanking new. 

You spent two years playing Esper control, why not try Temur Aggro?

That is why most people budget bigger for the post rotation set. It's got the cards that will be the foundation for Standard for the next 18 months. You'll need more than a couple of cards to begin rebuilding or starting a new. Hardcore Magic players will buy a case of boxes (6), while the casual gamer will grab a booster box. 

So I'll ask, is it better to spend that budget on the box or on the deck? 

Me, I personally think buying a box is smarter. It gives you a good base of commons and uncommons to build from over the next 18 months, plus it gives you great trade bait to pick up the cards you want, and maybe a few extras for down the road. Sure buying an entire deck in singles gives you the deck you want but then there is no flexibility and no trade bait, outside of your money cards, to pick up some versatility. 

Yet it made me wonder, "What kind of current Standard deck could I put together for 109.99?". That's a larger budget than I usually use for a deck, but if I'm willing to drop 109.99 on a box of Khans then 109.99 isn't out of the ballpark for a deck I'll play with for over a year. 

Here is the deck I came up with:

Waiting 2 Exile

Creatures (7)

Generator Servant x4

Narset, Enlightened Master x3

Spells (30)

Deflecting Palm x2

Lightning Strike x4

Magma Jet x4

Anger of the Gods x1

Howl of the Horde x3

Arc Lightning x4

Chandra, Pyromaster x2

Jace, The Living Guildpact x2

Stoke the Flames x4

Cone of Flames x1

Elspeth, Sun's Champion x1

Dig Through Time x2

Land (23)

Temple of Epiphany x1

Temple of Triumph x1

Battlefield Forge x2

Evolving Wilds x2

Island x2

Plans x2

Shivan Reef x2

Mystic Monastary x4

Mountain x7

Sideboard (15)

Erase x2

Magma Spray x3

Reprisal x2

Negate x3

Banishing Light x2

Winterflame x2

End Hostilities x1

And that is what I'll be playing for the next few months until the new set in January.

The deck I guess would fall into the category of Tempo. It can be a burn deck or a control deck. To me it is a Narset deck. When she was spoiled about a month ago, I lost my mind. She was everything I wanted in a card and more. So I built this entire deck around her.

The mana base was most import to figure out. For budget purposes I avoided fetch lands. I feel evolving wilds are just as useful and I'll take the "tappped" disadvantage so that my fetch can grab me one of my three basic land types instead of two. 

The other big money land choice would have have been Mana Confluence but I took four Mystic Monastary instead. It gives all three mana and at end game I don't have to worry about choosing between one life and casting a spell. Confluence is great for speed decks that don't care about life totals. This deck works well with tapped lands because it is flexible in play style. 

Once the mana base was taken care of I began working on my main deck. Generator Servants are a no brainer. He pushes out Narset on turn four with haste. That puts a lot of pressure on a deck to answer. Plus he helps bring out Planeswalkers earlier or cast a Dig Through Time for 3 cheaper (2 mana, delve the servant).

The rest of the deck was just finding the optimal instants and sorceries. Howl of the Horde is a game ender. Narset triggers the raid ability plus usually provides an burn spell to copy. Nothing more fun than turn four Narset then getting double Howls plus a burn spell for the win. 

The sideboard is put together to adjust for situational match ups. Negates are more protection than control. There is only a handful of spells that can remove Narset from the field. Negate counters those. The rest of the sideboard is pretty straight forward.

Now the important part, the price:

That's a full deck and a sideboard for less than a box of Khans. I'm excited to keep tinkering with this deck but after play testing this weekend, and spending the past three weeks putting the deck together, I am confident this deck would be FNM ready for Standard this Friday.

What would you play if you had to take the booster box challenge? Aggro Mono-Black? Mardu Midrange? Delver?

No matter what you play, it's going to be a fun time. We're past rotation and that feels like a new day. 

A day full of free burn spells!!!

The Casual Gamer: I've Got Gas

It's almost the most exciting day of the summer, well besides Rex Manning Day, it's almost Magic's Core set release date. This Friday we kick off a new year of Magic with a power packed Core set. After a weekend of prerelease action I have found my favorite card from the set.

Hi, my name is Chris and I'm a red aggro addict. 

For Journey Into Nyx my pick was of course a red card. I love Prophetic Flamespeaker. Now I've found the card to complete my Flamespeaker deck. That card is Act On Impulse. An uncommon that not only has awesome art but one helluva an ability.

When you play Red aggro the biggest problem you face is running out of gas. Red just doesn't have draw power. You knock your opponent to 6 by turn 5 but by then they have their board set to handle your onslaught. Now you don't have the cards to replace your falling minions. That's running out of gas. You're dead on the side of the road.

This is why Act On Impulse is huge. It's red draw in a way that truly fits with red. 

One of my friends who plays at the shop, Brent Buchanan, plays a deck that uses Prophetic Flamespeaker. I really like the deck he plays and used it to build this mono-red devotion deck that I like to call...

"Devoted to Exile" (A.k.a. I've Got Gas)

Creatures: 22

4 Legion Loyalist
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
2 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells: 17

2 Dragon Mantle
3 Lightning Strike
3 Magma Jet
3 Wild Guess
4 Act on Impulse
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands: 21

17 Mountain
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

This deck is simple. Just overload your board with fast creatures. Then when you start to run low use cards like Mantle, Guess, and Impulse to replenish your stock. The Shrine is very important because it will provide the mana needed to fully take advantage of Act On Impulse.

Here is how a good first five turns goes:

Turn 1 - Mountain in Loyalist (attack)

Turn 2 - Mountain into Burning Trees (as many as you can play) then into a Freak or Zealot. (Attack)

Turn 3 - Mountain into Flamespeaker (ATTACK)

Turn 4 - Shrine into Chandra. (Loyalty counter and ... ATTACK)

Turn 5 - Activate Shrine and play Impulse to overload the board with hopefully a Fanatic (or two)

Yes this deck has holes. Every deck does. It also has a lot of fun in it. When you do drop your Act On Impulse make sure you haven't done your land drop for the turn. That way if you exile a Shrine this way you can play it and possibly even play another Act to really see the deck go off. The true awesome is when you hit Chandra's Ultimate and use it to do a triple Act On Impulse. 

The downside to this deck is pretty much the meat and potatoes are all cycling out at the end of September. Much like Red Aggro this deck probably doesn't have a long shelf life. That is unless Khans has a ton of double red two drops. Then we might really be cooking with gas.