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

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!!!