Magic: the Gathering - The Resurrection

[Izulde]

I'll try it out then, as I initially had it in. Need to decide what to drop.

[Izulde]

Pharika's Enchanted Circle Adjustments
Dropped
1x Elvish Mystic
1x Incremental Growth
2x Hero of Leina Tower
1x Sightless Brawler

Added
1x Underworld Coinsmith
1x Godsend
1x Gnarled Scarhide
1x Master of the Feast (Might drop, though)
1x Fleecemane Lion

Shifting it more and more towards a pure enchantment creature deck. Godsend is an absolutely amazing card, though it takes 6 mana total to activate. This does make the deck run slightly slower with the loss of 3 one-drops and a 2 drop, replacing it with two 2 drops, two 3 drops, 1 drop, and the one I can't remember.

Master of the Feast allows opponents to draw a card on my upkeep, which is the tradeoff of a 3 mana (1C2B) 5/5 flier. Still debating on it. One thing I might do instead is drop it and maybe another card and put in a couple Grim Guardians (2C1B - Whenever it or another enchantment enters the field, each opponent loses 1 life). Still need to put my Doomwake Giant in, too, but I'll do that when I get back to Vegas, as my cards are all packed away right now.

The one thing I'm not sure on is if say I have both Underworld Coinsmiths out and I spend one black/one white for the mana activated ability... can I double up and spend 2 life in the same action to cause the opponent to lose 2 life, or does each ability need to be paid for separately?

It kills me to take out Incremental Growth, but with dropping the Heroes, it just wasn't worth it. Can't wait to try this deck out finally, though. Hope the Rotting Mastadons and Kin-Tree Invocation prove a consistently great combo. If not, no worries. Then I just drop them and use the slots for an even heavier enchantment-based deck. (And of course, Siege Rhinos

[Izulde]

Oh duh. The fifth card I forgot was Fleecemane Lion, which is an awesome, awesome card. The dropping of three green 1 drops, a 1C1W and 3C2G Enchantment in favor of a BW, WG, B, 1C2W, 1C2B means I need to reconfigure my mana distribution and bring Plains into it.

[Izulde]

Fate Reforged prelease event tomorrow night immediately after Friday Night Magic at my current favorite gaming store in town. I *could* go to one that's a lot closer to my apartment on Saturday, but if the crowd stays consistent to what I had last FNM, I'd prefer my current fave.

[Izulde]

Pharika's Enchanted Circle v 2.0

Lands
7x Forests
4x Swamps
3x Blossoming Sands
4x Jungle Hollow
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Temple of Silence
1x Temple of Malady

Creatures - E=Enchantment
1x Archetype of Courage (E)
1x Courser of Kruphix (E)
1x Doomwake Giant (E)
1x Fleecemane Lion
3x Grim Guardian (E)
1x Humbler of Mortals (E)
3x Leafcrown Dryad (E)
1x Nighthowler (E)
1x Pharika, God of Affliction (E)
1x Siege Rhino
1x Sightless Brawler (E)
1x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Underworld Coinsmith (E)

Enchantments
1x Armament of Nyx
1x Bow of Nylea
1x Brave the Sands
1x Eternal Thirst
2x Feast on the Fallen
1x Whip of Erebos

Non-Enchantment Non-Creature Spells
4x Abzan Charm
4x Feat of Resistance
1x Godsend
1x Reviving Melody

The first version of this deck had 11 enchantments. V 1.5 had 13. This one has 22 if I'm counting right. I realized as I was looking over the deck again that by putting in the Grim Guardians and having Underworld Coinsmith and Siege Rhino on tap, I was setting myself up beautifully for Feast on the Fallen's effects to kick in every turn, and those are enchantments besides, which help the constellation effects of Grim Guardian, Underworld Coinsmith, and Doomwake Giant. Oh and Humbler of Mortals too, obviously.

I'm thinking I'll drop two Feats in favor of Rhinos if they're cheap enough. Or maybe add more Coursers since they've dropped in price and would up the enchantment in addition to de facto mana dorking? Or maybe drop 2 Feats for Rhinos and the Caryatid for a Courser?

Stuff to think about anyway. I'm sad to shelve the Mammoth + Kin-folk Invocation before getting a chance to try it out, but I think this new, more dedicated enchantment version will be better in the long run, as the 8/8 token creatures introduced by Kin-Folk Invocation would be automatic targets for removal, and I have no way of retrieving those once they're gone.

[Izulde]

No Siege Rhinos in stock, but I got Erebos, God of the Dead, for $4. He instantly went in my deck, replacing a Feat of Resistance. $10.50 for Coursers, which made them automatic No.

[Izulde]

What an eventful, crazy night (as weird as that sounds to say about Magic.) Just got home an hour ago (yes, it was literally all night), and have lots to write up on, but will wait until I'm more awake.

[Izulde]

Small crowd for Friday Night Magic. So small, there's only 3 rounds.

Round 1
Up against a Mardu deck. Nggggh. Underworld Coinsmith and Grim Guardian hit the board early in Game 1, though, and start their constellation thing. By the time Pharika makes an online appearance and gets that good Eternal Thirst, it's all over. He had some big creature out that was causing me problems temporarily, but I forget who it was, and I had board control. Also, Brave the Sands was out.

Game 2, he's able to get his aggro mechanics out and I'm easily crushed.

Game 3, I learn the most satisfying sound in the world, and that's the great whomp of Siege Rhino hitting the board. Once again, Brave the Sands took effect, and there were one or two other items on the board, but this was a quick win for me and my first ever authentic match victory that wasn't forfeit or bye!

Round 2
Organizer, who I got Round 1 last time I played here. I joked that I hoped he wouldn't kill me as badly as he did last time. He did still hammer me, but he did it very politely, mulling down to 5 with me, before I finally had to mull down to 4. I actually lasted longer than expected, and he had some great advice for me after the game.

"Your mana curve is too low to be running 25 lands. You should be running 23, maybe 24 at most. Also, you're trying to run a constellation deck, but the problem is, your constellation is too small (Izulde thought: That's what she said).

You've got what, 7 or 8 constellation cards? That's not enough. You're concentrating so hard on that small constellation that you have a lot of weaker cards that are sacrificing a lot better things you could have in there. I mean it's your deck, but if you want to do constellation, you need things like Eidolon of Blossoms and think about going black/green."

It gave me a lot to think about.

Round 3
Up against *another* damned Mardu deck. I don't remember much how this match went, only that I actually managed to get a win off him, and he actually sideboarded me, which the first guy did as well, come to think of it. I just recall in one of the two Mardu matches that my Rhino got nailed by Utter End after a sideboard. I think that was Round 1, come to think of it. Means that I'm finally starting to have a deck that people take seriously.

So I've gone from pure 0-2 whomps the first two tournaments I've been in (bar the forfeit in the first one) to getting a draw last tournament and now yesterday getting my first match win and first tournament where I won games in two separate matches.

Post-FNM
Merchantess showed up, and she had Siege Rhinos. They were like $4.50 before the winter break, and now they're up to $4.75. I think they're likely to go up in price again, so I bought 3 to give myself a playset before the spike I think will come does.

Stars of FNM
1. Brave The Sands
Vigilance for all my creatures was a damned champ and a key factor in my Round 1 victory.

2. Siege Rhino
Obvious hero is obvious.

3. Archetype of Courage
Hit the board a couple of times and I still love this card so v.v. much. First strike is totally on my side? Yes.pls.

Duds of FNM
1. The Grim Guardian + Feast On The Fallen Combo
Yes, this hit the field at least once. In fact, I had *both* FotF out. And it was just a very anticlimactic combo. Granted, it was probably because Guardian was my only creature out at the moment, but still... I definitely got what Organizer was saying.

2. Underworld Coinsmith
He would only work in a dedicated B/W constellation deck. In a heavy green/black base like this one, he's pretty weak and not very exciting.

And since you asked, Lee, Doomwake Giant never made an appearance, although Humbler of Mortals did... and he came out when Siege Rhino was already on the board as my other creature, making him redundant.

So it's simply a matter of going to B/G constellation and splashing white for the Rhinos and Feats, right?

Well... not exactly. You see, there's this thing called the prerelease of the new expansion....

And that's next post.

[Izulde]

My first ever prerelease event. I was supposed to go to one back in 2010 or 2011, but the guys I was going with took off without me, then spent all the next few days talking about it. Needless to say, I was pissed. I've never quite forgiven them for it, either.

But this one I wasn't going to miss.

$30 charge, and the way it worked is this: You chose your clan: Abzan, Jeskai, Sultai, Temur, and Mardu, and got a special box for that clan. Guess which one I chose?



Duh. Though I was tempted by Temur and Sultai, as I've been toying with R/G/U and B/G/U decks respectively over the last few weeks, in addition to a R/B deck I've been contemplating.

Oh, and that's my new placemat beneath it. $7 for a plain green one until I can find a playmat I really like.

Inside the box was a package of clan-specific cards, four boosters of Fate Reforged, and one of Khans of Tarkir. We had 30 minutes to assemble a deck out of the cards we had, with a 40 card minimum.

First off, my promo card:



"Hi, I'm in ur game, stealin ur counterz"

Beyond that, I'm sorry to say, I didn't get much exciting, except for the following two cards:



I'm already drooling, envisioning a Modern deck I'm going to build around this possibly.

And then the most expensive card I drew:



$8.53 midpoint price. This dude would be freaking AWESOME in Mardu goblin token decks. Ping: BYU 14

So I'm sitting there, and I really, really want to find a way to force the dragon in the deck. But it's just not going to work, I finally decide. And in fact, it's getting 3 of this card that settle my direction:



The fact that this is a common is ridiculous, and I think we're going to see even more obnoxious Mardu aggro decks as a result of Harsh Sustenance and Brutal Hordechief.

I immediately snap up all the cheap casting cost creatures in B/G/W I can find and throw in some others, ultimately ending with this:

Fate Reforged Prerelease Tournament Deck
Lands
4x Forests
6x Plains
7x Swamps
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Scoured Barrens

Note: Basic lands were provided free by the shop

Creatures
1x Abzan Skycaptain
1x Alabastar Kirin
1x Arashin Cleric
1x Archers' Parapet
1x Armament Corps
1x Brutal Hordechief
1x Daghatar the Adamant
1x Disowned Ancestor
1x Elite Scaleguard
1x Hewed Stone Retainers
1x Hooded Assassin
1x Mer-Ek Nightblade
1x Rakshasa Deathdealer
2x Sandsteppe Outcast
3x Sultai Emissary
1x Typhoid Rats
1x Wandering Champion

Instants
1x Abzan Advantage
1x Feat of Resistance
3x Harsh Sustenance
1x Pressure Point
1x Reach of Shadows

b]Sorceries[/b]
1x Seek the Horizons

Now what I didn't know was that you're supposed to go 23 non-lands, 17 lands and make a 40 card deck in this format. Instead, I went 28 non-lands and estimated the landcount to 19, for a total of 47 cards - or 7 over the ideal size.

I should also note that I was frantically sleeving my cards as time was counting down, after having to buy a pack of sleeves to sleeve stuff (green, of course). Really, really feeling the time crunch.

Six round Swiss. Top 8 advance

Round 1
This guy had great luck in terms of card value draw in that he got no less than *3* of the dragons. Unfortunately for him, it meant a shit deck in composition, though he tried with a Jeskai red/white/blue. We also started late because he, too, was slow to sleeve though I had mine down before we were to start. I wiped him out pretty easily both games, thanks to the Harsh Sustenance and Reach of Shadows for removal. Don't remember the creatures that knocked him out, though. At the end of the 2-0 sweep, he said, "Fuck it. I'm going in all in on a five color deck for my dragons." Another guy was like, "You're playing dangerous." Dragons Guy: "I don't care. I got screwed in stuff to construct with."

Round 2
Best battle of the whole night. He was running Sultai, I think, and our first game went 30 minutes before he conceded, and then I beat him handily the second game. The beauty of Daghatar and Brutal Hordechief made themselves known this round. Although I didn't use Daghatar to steal counters, I used him to transfer his counters to my flying spirit. Which leads me to one of the cool mechanics of Fate Reforged - that of some cards that have choices. Sandsteppe Outcast is one - it allows you to either put a +1/+1 counter on it *or* bring in a 1/1 flying Spirit token when Outcast comes into play. Hooded Assassin is another one - +1/+1 counter or destroy a creature that took damage this turn.

Round 3
I'm in total shock that I swept both opening rounds and am in play to maybe, somehow pull off a Top 8. Then I go up against someone, I don't remember what he played, but I won the first, he won the second because I was green mana screwed the entire game until the last couple turns, and by then it was too late. Third game, I'm losing, and I'm trying to stall for the draw. Time's called. I continue stalling. Then on Turn 5, the last turn, he hits me with everything... and beats me by 1.single.fucking.point. If I'd gotten one more blocker out during Turns 0, 2, or 4, I would have salvaged the draw. Instead, 0 points, and a 2-1 defeat.

Round 4
There are some people who got insanely lucky on their draws. One was my next opponent, who not only drew a Brutal Hordechief, but *2* of this next card - a promo, and then another one:



Yeah. First game he got both of those assholes out and stomped me. Second game I was able to get stuff out quick enough to beat him. Third game he won, and it's another 1-2 defeat.

Round 5
By this turn, I'm getting hungry, and I'm getting mad. To go from 2-0 sweeps to nut-kicked in one round and a shit opponent draw in the next was really pissing me off. So I was quite snappy and an ass during this round, when I kept getting spell-screwed in both games I lost. I felt bad about it afterwards, especially since it was against the kid I got my first tie against it. Oh by the way, he got Ugin,the Planeswalker. I still do not have a planeswalker that's standard legal after umpteen gazillion packs that I got for Christmas presents, plus the odd one-offs I've opened here and there.

Round 6
By this time, I know I'm not going to make Top 8, and I'm trying to find the hey it's fun to play Magic mood again. It helps when my last opponent is a Jeskai player who has a very, very slow deck. He wins the first one because he lasts until his stuff hits the board, but Games 2 and 3, I brutally crush him to salvage a .500 record and 9 points in my first prerelease event.

Before Top 8 drawings are announced, the raffle results are held. $5 a ticket, max 2 tickets per person. 3rd place is 5 Khans of Tarkir packs, 2nd place is 5 Fate Reforged packs, and 1st place is an expensive card.

3rd place comes... it's a guy who had to leave early, so his Khans packs are set aside.

2nd place comes... it's somebody in attendance, and he gleefully accepts his Fate Reforged packs.

1st place number is announced... I check my ticket.... You've got to fucking be kidding me.

Izulde won the raffle!

What did Izulde win?



Congratulations are offered all around, and a couple of guys tell me it's going for around $80 on eBay. Cool stuff.

I immediately get an offer for the card from a guy in back. "I'll give you $50 for it."

"...No."

"Give you 65."

"...No, I want to wait and check the value first."

Come to find out, that $50 price he offered first? That was the low price point on TCG. Even the 65 bucks was below the $75 midpoint price. I don't appreciate people who try to rip off of others, so I wouldn't have sold it to him even he offered the $75 then. I don't care that it's good negotiation tactics or business sense - I have a strong sense of ethics about that sort of thing.

Side Note: As the time of this post, the low price is up to $58, the midpoint price to $76

Honestly, I'm probably not going to sell it. Christmas is my favorite holiday to begin with, and it was kind of a special season for me. Biggest reason is Mom getting her liver transplant when she had a month left to live (as we found out afterwards), but also me getting back into Magic and developing the beginnings of potential friendships through it. Plus, I've never, ever owned a card that was worth that much.

Other New Mechanics
Bolster - Gives +1/+1 counters to the creature with the lowest toughness among those you have. I *love* this mechanic.
Manifest - Next card on your deck comes into place face-down as a 2/2 creature. You can then cast the card if it's a creature for its casting cost. This sounds great in theory, but it can really screw you over, as it did me in the first game of Round 5.

When Sultai Emissary dies, it manifests the next card. Guess what it manifested? Daghatar. And when a card manifests, all enter the battlefield effects are nullified, because it's already in the field when it's face down

So I have some thinking to do on whether to pursue the constellation route, bring back Avacyn's Meek to Mighty Warrior Horde, or pursue some other angles.

Semester starts again tomorrow, so I'll create a couple of decks to play with (and post them here, obviously).

[Izulde]

Erebos and Pharika's Deadly Flying Rhino Circus
Lands
4x Plains
4x Forests
4x Sandsteppe Citadels
4x Jungle Hollows
2x Temple of Silence
1x Temple of Malady
3x Blossoming Sands
1x Windswept Heath

Creatures
2x Abzan Falconer
1x Archetype of Courage
1x Brutal Hordechief
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Daghatar the Adamant
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
1x Fleecemane Lion
1x Ivorytusk Fortress
2x Mer-Ek Nightblade
1x Nighthowler
1x Pharika, God of Affliction
1x Rakshasa Deathdealer
2x Seeker of the Way
4x Siege Rhino
1x Sylvan Caryatid

Artifacts
1x Bow of Nylea
1x Whip of Erebos

Enchantments
3x Abzan Ascendancy
1x Brave the Sands

Equipment
1x Godsend

Instants
2x Abzan Charm
2x Feat of Resistance
2x Harsh Sustenance
1x Raise the Alarm

Sorceries
1x Launch the Fleet
1x Reviving Melody

Just a deck to test out today and see how it goes. Originally I had 4 Abzan Charms and 4 Abzan Falconers in here, but cut them for Harsh Sustenance and Mer-Ek Nightblade respectively. The Ascendancies stack, and obviously it's built around the Rhinos and creature swarm - 21 actual creatures, plus the Raise the Alarm and Launch the Fleet, and however many of Abzan Ascendancy are out to give flying spirit tokens. Brutal Hordechief is potentially huge here.

More of a midrange deck really, but one that should hopefully generate enough life gain/drain with the Rhinos and Sustenances to keep me alive against aggro decks.

[Izulde]

Brief Erebos and Pharika's Flying Rhino Circuses Report
Played it against a Sliver Modern deck and a Legacy Stasis deck this past week. Won 1 game out of 5 against the sliver deck and managed to beat the Stasis deck, but overall, I just wasn't feeling it. If anything, it seemed like it was taking a step back.

EDH Deck Change
Thrun got dethroned by Surrak Dragonclaw, making a red/blue/green deck because the community college has suddenly gone EDH-mad. I haven't seen Pip at all, so I think he quit school. This saddens me on many levels. I spend most of my pre-class time talking to Fellow Instructor, and I'll usually see Robbie around, though our schedules don't match much. I've seen Franz a couple times, too.

Anyway, the Dragonclaw deck (which still needs a name) is still elf tribal, but it sneaks in every dragon I have for doublestrike fun with Atarka, and has a couple counterspells in it, which will be stripped away soon in favor of another build. It's been an enjoyable deck so far. In the two complete games I've managed to play (a six-way and then a 1 v 1 with Prez, who I just saw again last night), I took 3rd in a game against decks that are strong without being stupid like certain UNLV players' decks, and I beat Prez's Soldier swarm deck thanks to Siege Behemoth, elf buildup and Coat of Arms hitting the field.

Last Night
I didn't realize last night was Modern. I brought Flying Rhino Circus. Oops. Important note: I bought a pack of Fate Reforged and got a mana dork, the blue/black dragon, and something else I can't remember. I also bought from Merchantess a green bard fetch card and Heliod, since I'm A) getting into the habit of collecting god cards apparently, and B) Heliod makes much more sense with Flying Rhino Circus. Pharika and Erebos went out, Heliod and some other stuff went in, including an Elite Scaleguard.

But it was Standard against Modern, which is the Magic equivalent of bringing a knife to a gunfight. So all night I was facing Modern decks built around destroying my board and/or forcing me to discard. I did get to play Merchantess for the first time, though, and listen to a long, drawn-out negotiation she had over a complex series of card trades, which was cool.

What really reached me, though, was my last match against the guy running it (Not the normal organizer, but one of the regulars). He fucking played one of those stupid as shit Jeskai Ascendancy infinite combo decks, and won on Turn 3 or 4 in both games. I was so irate over another one of those fucking things that I left without getting my card, vowing that I was done with Modern, and done with Abzan.

So people want to play removal and denial huh? Two can play at that shit. In the process of building a deck idea that I've wanted to for a long time anyway.

[Izulde]

So I uh... um... went with a mono white heroic deck for tonight

[Izulde]

Heliod's Heroic Horde
Lands
20 Plains

Creatures
1x Abzan Battlepriest
3x Abzan Falconers
3x Akroan Skyguards
1x Archetype of Courage
2x Elite Scaleguards
3x Fabled Heroes
1x Favored Hoplite
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
1x Phalanx Leader
2x Seeker of the Way

Noncreature Spells
1x Godsend (Buff and Cockblocking fun)
3x Acolyte's Reward (Protection)
3x Banishing Light (Removal - Thought I had a playset, but guess not)
4x Feat of Resistance (Protection)
4x Gods Willing (Protection)
1x Hold at Bay (Protection)
1x Raise the Alarm (Chump blockers)
1x Revoke Existence (Artifact/Enchantment removal)
1x Spear of Heliod (Buff + maybe removal)
3x Suspension Field (Big creature removal)

And I'll sideboard 4 Glare of Heresy and another Revoke Existence.

This is quite literally a cheap and dirty deck. It'll be the first monocolor deck I've seen in this meta I believe, and I hope it can do *something*.

[Izulde]

Dropped 2 Falconers, the lone Revoke Existence, and Raise the Alarm in favor of beefing up the Heroics.

Lands
20 Plains

Creatures
1x Abzan Battlepriest
1x Abzan Falconers
3x Akroan Skyguards (H)
1x Archetype of Courage
2x Elite Scaleguards
3x Fabled Heroes (H)
2x Favored Hoplites (Found my other one) (H)
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
1x Phalanx Leader (H)
2x Seeker of the Way
3x Wingsteed Rider (H)

12 Heroics. Perhaps a bit short still, but we'll see how this goes.

Noncreature Spells
1x Godsend (Buff and Cockblocking fun)
3x Acolyte's Reward (Protection)
3x Banishing Light (Removal - Thought I had a playset, but guess not)
4x Feat of Resistance (Protection)
4x Gods Willing (Protection)
1x Hold at Bay (Protection)
1x Spear of Heliod (Buff + maybe removal)
3x Suspension Field (Big creature removal)

[BYU 14]

How did Brutal Hordechief do for you? I am thinking about adding either that or Monastery Mentor to my Mardu deck, though Mentor is the likely choice, I am curious if Hordechief did anything of note?

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

How did Brutal Hordechief do for you? I am thinking about adding either that or Monastery Mentor to my Mardu deck, though Mentor is the likely choice, I am curious if Hordechief did anything of note?

He was solid in pre-release, and I think he'd be good in your deck (hence the ping), but he's one of those cards where to get the most use out of him, you need to play wide and not tall.

I was wondering why Mentor is so expensive, and then I saw the "with prowess" part of the token trigger. Makes me want to think about hunting him down myself.

[Izulde]

So I get there shortly after 6, and it's a bit iffy to run because I'm the 6th guy and 8 is the minimum (supposed to start at 6:30). One more guy shows up, and then the manager says okay, he'll play too so we can run a tournament, even though Magic isn't his game (I love the staff there).

Oh, I should also mention, the last time I played a mono white deck was 1997 at the very latest, so I'd been listening to '90s music for most of the bus rides there, and felt very odd/nostalgic moodwise.

Round 1
As it turns out, I draw Manager first round. He borrowed a deck from Woodchuck, one of the regulars, and it happens to be a blue/red artifact deck built around the obnoxiousness that is Scuttling Doom Engine. First game, Scuttling Doom Engine hits the board twice, only to be immediately removed by Banishing Light and Suspension Field. I win, carried by Fabled Hero with a +1/+1 counter, and Abzan Battlepriest sitting back to let FH provide the 6 damage attack with lifelink. Second game, Seeker of the Way pounds away, and I have my first 2-0 victory in Standard ever! Yay!

Round 2
So here's me with my little maybe $30 at most in value deck up against one of those expensive Sidisi Sultai B/G/U Sultai constellation whip decks (thought it was $250, but it appears I'm wrong after looking at it. Still, one of his Polluted Deltas alone is worth almost as much as my deck). Game 1, he hits a land pocket and draws 7 straight lands. Fabled Hero destroys him yet again, and Battlepriest makes another appearance. Oh, and I'm able to exile Whip and Sidisi. Second game, he boards in Sultai Charms and wins with a fast getting out of Whip and my counters absent. Third game, he wins again because despite exiling one Whip, he gets out another one.

Oh, and in Game 2, guess what he took me down with? That damned two Doomwake Giant BYU 14 mentioned So as Game 2 was winding down and the loss was inevitable, I asked him, "What can I do to prevent the -/- of Doomwake Giant?" after I tried to use protection on Favored Hoplite to keep it alive, only to find it doesn't work. He said, "Nothing, really. Just like how the only reason I was able to win this game was because I was able to use Sultai Charm to get my stuff back." Still, I was glad my little budget deck was able to take down a much more expensive Sidisi whip deck for even one game.

Round 3
Despite there only being the minimum 8 players, Manager was still allowing Top 4 to have prizes, with a 20-10-5-5 in store credit breakdown ($5 is the entry fee, so a Top 4 allows you to break even). Despite the 1-1, I was still in play to finish 3rd or 4th if I won this match. Mardu midrange against Woodchuck, which meant.... Stormbreath Dragon, the bane of every fucking deck I build. I hate it when Franz played this again me so often, and I hated it when Woodchuck brought it out. So close to 4th...

So obviously monowhite needs to go out the window, but I want to stick with the Heroic theme. It was surprisingly fun to play, and the most enjoyable deck since Avacyn's Legion of Heliod. Funnily enough, I realized as I was waiting for first bus on my way to the store that I should have put Cavalry Pegasus in rather than Abzan Falconer.

Heroes of the Night (Pardon Pun)
1. Fabled Hero
When looking up different dual color heroic decks afterwards, I noticed there's a raging debate going on over FH. He's a card people either love or hate because of his 3 mana cost. Me personally? I love him, and was thrilled when I pulled a third one of him over Christmas, even though I'd already bought 2 (back when it was $2 even). He's down to $1, so I'll see if Merchantess has any more next time I see her. There weren't any in the cheap rares binder the store has on stock... but it might be Merchantess' anyway - not sure.

2. Abzan Battlepriest
For the most part, he just sat there and let whoever had the +1/+1 counter get lifelink, but that's all he needed to do, especially when Fabled Hero went to town. He did get a couple swings in during one of the Round 1 games, however.

3. Archetype of Courage
I've yet to see him in any of the Heroic netdecks, but he's still great. Even better, he drew a lot of the removal attention the two games he hit the field, freeing up the heroic guys.

4. Suspension Field/Banishing Light
These guys did work all night long. While they can be disenchanted, which is their main weakness as the Sidisi deck proved, they did their thing.

Duds of the Night
1. Elite Scaleguards
Every time he came up, I glared at him. 5 mana casting cost, which put a real crimp in my ability to run protection or banish stuff, and while the bolster is nice, his secondary ability never saw play. He quite simply does not belong in this deck after all.

2. Phalanx Leader
He came out a couple times, but did nothing. His main function is in a wide heroic deck, and I never had more than four creatures out at any one time. He really needs Launch the Fleet or something to fan out. And with a double white cost, I'm not too thrilled with him. Yes, I know FH is also double white as part of his 3 CMC, but he does stuff.

So the question now becomes, which color do I pair up with white? That's a tough choice, one I'll talk more about later (probably after I've decided what direction to go in).

But for now..

Obvious Drops
1x Godsend
2x Elite Scaleguard
1x Phalanx Leader
4x Wingsteed Riders

Why Wingsteed Riders? Well, 2/2 flying is cool and all, but the double white really needs to be worth it in a dual color deck. Fabled Hero and Archetype of Courage have proven themselves. Wingsteed Riders, no.

It kills me to get rid of Godsend, but its effective mana cost is 6, and it's a double white. Plus, equipment isn't targeting.

One of the big arguments going right now is Feat of Resistance vs Defiant Strike. Most people are in love with Strike because it targets and draws a card for just one white mana. Personally, I'm just sitting here going, um, I'd rather have the protection and the +1/+1 counter rather than the temporary +1/+0 effect.

Probable Drops
1x Abzan Falconer
3x Akroan Skyguards
1x Spear of Heliod (It's another card that's best for wide Heroics, and the mana I need to keep open for killing creatures that do damage to me is best used for protection targeting IMO)

Much of this is going to depend on the direction I go in, whether wide or tall, and what color I pair up with white.

Possible Drops
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
1x Hold at Bay
2x Seeker of the Way

9 Protection spells might be overkill, and if we're going dual color, Heliod might no longer be a thing (he didn't hit the board for me anyway). Losing Heliod would really suck thematically, so I'll try to keep him in if it makes sense.

Dropping Seeker of the Way might sound like heresy, but it depends on what I do with the rest of the board.

We might also see the Suspension Fields and Banishing Lights drop if the other color offers more reliable removal. Hell, Fabled Heroes might drop in the end if I decide the 2W is too high after looking at possible options.

Oh, and there's a lot of chatter about Lagonna Traiblazers as a Heroic deck staple. Not gonna happen with me. 1. I don't like 0 power creatures. 2. The burn-proof thing isn't a big deal because my meta doesn't see a lot of burn anyway - it's heavily direct removal focused.

[Izulde]

BYU, have you considered Dragonrage for your deck? That card is just stupid, and capable of infinite combos, apparently.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Oh, and in Game 2, guess what he took me down with? That damned two Doomwake Giant BYU 14 mentioned So as Game 2 was winding down and the loss was inevitable, I asked him, "What can I do to prevent the -/- of Doomwake Giant?" after I tried to use protection on Favored Hoplite to keep it alive, only to find it doesn't work. He said, "Nothing, really.

That card is a pain in the ass, but it can be shut down, get 2 or 3 Hushwing Gryff's in your sideboard and it negates the -1/-1, plus stops triggers from Siege Rhino and Hornet Queen. The best part is it has flash, so you just keep it in your hand and cast as an instant in response to those cards being played.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

BYU, have you considered Dragonrage for your deck? That card is just stupid, and capable of infinite combos, apparently.

I have given this card some thought, it would fit fairly well with a play set of Hordeling Outburst and Raise the Alarm, just don't know what I would cut and since I am cutting 2 Raise the Alarms and 1 Seeker to add 3 Monastery Mentor's it makes it even harder to add.

4 cards I will never cut from my main deck are Goblin Rabblemaster, Butcher of the Horde, Crackling Doom and Hordeling Outburst, but then how to you choose between Chained to the Rocks, Stoke the Flames and God's Willing, which has made this deck ultra competitive again and is responsible for 1 or more matches won every tournament because it saves my big threats and is under the radar as I have never seen it in another Mardu deck.

I am thinking about building a Jeskai tokens deck and I think this card would really fit well in there or in a Red/White deck along with Howl of the Horde.

[Izulde]

I thought Hushwing Gryff was like super expensive, but I guess it's $2.50 a card. Worth getting then at that price for sideboard.

Speaking of... I pulled a card today in a Fate Reforged pack that immediately dropped two colors from heroic dual color consideration.

Presenting, at currently $19 midpoint price, none other than...



Yeah. He's almost worth as much by himself as the rest of my monowhite heroic deck put together. So I'm down to either R/W or U/W heroic... or if I felt like being super daring, American Heroic (what R/U/W heroic decks are called).

Obviously the lifelink for sorceries and instants favors red burn as removal instead of the temporary exile friends in Banishing Light and Suspension Field.

Definitely gives me a lot more to think about.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I thought Hushwing Gryff was like super expensive, but I guess it's $2.50 a card. Worth getting then at that price for sideboard.

Speaking of... I pulled a card today in a Fate Reforged pack that immediately dropped two colors from heroic dual color consideration.

Presenting, at currently $19 midpoint price, none other than...



Yeah. He's almost worth as much by himself as the rest of my monowhite heroic deck put together. So I'm down to either R/W or U/W heroic... or if I felt like being super daring, American Heroic (what R/U/W heroic decks are called).

Obviously the lifelink for sorceries and instants favors red burn as removal instead of the temporary exile friends in Banishing Light and Suspension Field.

Definitely gives me a lot more to think about.

Yeah this card is broken and is the reason I am looking at Jeskai Tokens or R/W Heroic. Would be a sweet combo with Launch the Fleet in a U/W soldiers deck too using Battlefield Thaumaturge too.

[Izulde]

Working on putting together a hyper-aggressive American Heroic deck (Mana curve tops out at 3, with most 1 and 2). Its main effect will be to Voltron, with Battlefield Thaumaturge (which I only have 1 right now), knocking things like Feat of Resistance and Lighting Strike down to 1 colored mana.

Won't get it done before I have to leave for campus today (Damn that hour and a half bus ride), but I'm getting kind of stoked to see how it will work.

[Izulde]

So I found out today that a couple of readers are fascinated by this thing, but aren't clear on what the hell I'm talking about specifically So I figured I'd take this time before class to talk a bit about the basics of Magic.

Magic the Gathering: The Colors
You've heard BYU 14 and I talk a lot about colors so far. Magic is ruled by the most basic concepts of colors and mana.

There are five colors in Magic - red, white, blue, black, and green. The descriptions I give here will be very brief and generic, but should give a general sense of what each color is designed to do.

Red
Uses red mana. This is where you find what we call burn spells, or spells that deal direct damage to creatures or players. It tends to play very aggressively and be focused on offense, relative to other colors. One of the strongest colors to play mono (by itself).

White
Uses white mana. White is usually a much more defensive color (hence why I had so many protection cards in my monowhite heroic deck from last tournament). White does have some offensive capabilities as well, though not as much as some other colors. It can play well as mono color, though not quite as well as red.

Blue
Uses blue mana. Blue is what I like to call the thinking man's color. It's based heavily on control, whether that's through countering things other players try to do, drawing more cards themselves, stealing stuff other players have, or what have you. Milling (or forcing another player to draw all their cards from their deck and lose the game) is another strategy involved here. IMO, blue is the weakest color to play mono.

Black
Uses black mana. It's a fairly aggressive color too, with some of the same trickery aspects as blue. Unlike blue, which has very limited options for creatures and offense, and what options there are, are expensive, black has a nice suite of offensive powerhouses. I'd probably put it in the middle for mono ability, along with white.

Green
Uses green mana. This color is all about growth and big, fat creatures. When you hear me talking about mana dorks and mana ramping, I'm talking about green almost exclusively (there are some exceptions). This is my favorite color of the entire game and it plays really, really well mono, like red.

People pouring in, so time to head out. Hopefully this gives a little bit more of an idea. I'll continue the basics next time. Feel free to chime in with any specific questions you have, or if you also want to add stuff, Abe and BYU, go ahead.

[Izulde]

I'll talk a little bit more about the basics another time. For now, I want to point out the dangers of Magic. See, I turned on the bath and thought I would go work on deckbuilding while the tub filled. Yep. You guessed it... Damn forgot about the water running until half the apartment was flooded. Lot of mopping, towel wringing, and laundry as it turns out, as it got into my dirty clothes pile.

But I have the basics of a deck.

Grandmaster's Heroic Monks and Hoplites
Land
1x Battlefield Forge (R/W painland - it costs me 1 life to tap for red or white mana)
1x Mystic Monastary (R/W/U - In M:tG, U = Blue, B = Black)
3x Islands
5x Mountains
7x Plains
1x Temple of Enlightenment (U/W)
1x Temple of Triumph (R/W)

19 lands

Creatures
1x Akroan Crusader (R) (H)
4x Akroan Skyguard (CW) (H)
1x Battlewise Hoplite (UW) (H)
1x Battlefield Thaumaturge (CU) (H)
3x Fabled Hero (1C2W) (H)
2x Favored Hoplite (W) (H)
1x Monastery Swiftspear (R) (Haste) (P)
4x Satyr Hoplite (R) (H)
1x Soulfire Grandmaster (CW) (P) (L)
1x Seeker of the Way (CW) (P)

19 creatures, of which 14 are +1/+1 counter Heroics, and 3 of whom have Prowess, which is where a non-creature spell is cast, they gain +1/+1 until end of turn.

Heroic Triggers
2x Fall of the Hammer (CR)
4x Feat of Resistance (CW)
4x Gods Willing (W)
2x Jeskai Runemark (2C1U)
2x Ordeal of Thassa (CU)
3x Temur Battle Rage (CR)
1x Triton Tactics (U) (Targets *2* creatures)

18 Heroic triggers, which might seem like too many, but in Voltron, you're trying to pump up one hero as hugely as you can - hence the largeness.

Other Spells
2x Banishing Light (2C1W)
2x Deflecting Palm (RW)

I can't completely get ride of removal. While Fall of the Hammer is removal, too, I also need non-creature removal, so two of Banishing Light stays. Deflecting Palm is great for when there's a huge creature I can't get rid of, or when a big burn spell comes flying at me. For its mana cost, the damage is not only prevented, but gets turned right back on the opponent.

That's going to be a nasty surprise for somebody.

Notice all the RW and 2C1W next to the cards? That's their casting cost. In the case of Deflecting Palm, that's 1 red mana and 1 white mana. For Banishing Light, it's two colorless mana, which can either be colorless mana, or mana of any color, plus 1 white mana. So we say that the Converted Mana Cost, or CMC, is 2 for Deflecting Palm, and 3 for Banishing Light - IOW, the *total* mana it takes to cast it.

Aggressive decks want low mana costs. In this case, I have:

8 1 CMC creatures
8 2 CMC creatures
3 3 CMC creatures

5 1 CMC heroic triggers
11 2 CMC heroic triggers
2 3 CMC heroic triggers

2 2 CMC other spells
2 3 CMC other spells

All in all, a low curve deck with 13 1 CMC cards, or what we call 1 drops, 19 2 CMC cards, or 2 drops, and 9 3 CMC cards, or 3 drops. We say that the curve on this deck tops out at 3.

But just as important as the curve, particularly in a tri-color deck, is looking at what *kind* of mana it needs. For that, the important thing to know is how much of each *color* is needed.

Spells needing 1 Blue: 1 - A two creature heroic trigger
Spells needing 1 Red: 6 - All of which are 1 drop creatures
Spells needing 1 White: 6 - 2 creatures, 4 heroic triggers
Spells needing 1 colorless, 1 White: 10 - 6 creatures, 4 heroic triggers
Spells needing 1 colorless, 1 Red: 5 - All of which are heroic triggers
Spells needing 1 colorless, 1 Blue: 3 - 1 creature, 2 heroic triggers
Spells needing 1 Blue, 1 White: 1 - a creature
Spells needing 1 Red, 1 White: 2 - Both other spells
Spells needing 2 colorless, 1 Blue: 2 - Both heroic triggers
Spells needing 1 colorless, 2 White: 3 - All Creatures

So we have:
8 1 drop creatures, which are either red or white
8 2 drop creatures, 6 CW, 1 CU, 1 UW
3 3 drop creatures, which are 1C2W

So from the creature count alone, we can see that red and white should be prioritized for mana sources if we want to make this deck fast, which I've done above - mountains adding red mana, plains adding white mana. I've privileged the white mana, because double as many 2 drop cards are 1 White as there are that need 1 Red as part of the equation.

Blue may getting shafted here, but that's going to have wait for further discussion, because I need to head to campus, despite a still drying out apartment.

[Izulde]

The elf tribal EDH deck has been fun, especially when I made it into a R/U/G Surrak Dragonclaw one, but I started to break it apart when I tried putting a Villainous Wealth Standard deck together. Didn't feel like trying to put it back together again (and am not sure I can find the sleeves for it anyway - I really need a two bedroom apartment that has a room I can devote exclusively to Magic).

Instead, I'm working on putting together a junkball Voltron Erebos deck. I won't have time before I need to head out to finish it, but the idea is low-cost creatures to keep the devotion kicked in, then Voltron Erebos with lots of enchantments and artifacts, then kill everyone with Commander damage. Also a ton of summon from graveyard cards for the inevitable board wipes that hit the field.

Erebos's ability to prevent opponents from gaining life also nerfs the ridiculous life gain EDH decks in my meta, though commander damage is considered separate from life damage.

[Izulde]

I have trouble finding all my sleeves when putting decks together, so the other night after class, I walked to the game shop to buy a box of Dragonshield sleeves for my Erebos deck. Chose red because black on black is meh, and I already have green and turquoise so didn't want to get blue. Clear, Brown, and Fusion I had no interest in. Ditto Pink and some other color I can't remember. I almost got Purple, but decided Red would look better with the black theme.

I also picked up two more Favored Hoplites at a buck each for the Grandmaster Heroic deck, which will allow me to drop the Akroan Crusader (he doesn't fit the Voltron aspect of the deck) and probably a Fabled Hero to reduce the curve so more.

Other cards I picked up - a handful of 50 cent cards for my Erebos deck, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for $3, and I consider it a steal at that price. Why?



This thing is great in so many different kinds of decks. Probably not the American Heroes deck I'm building, to be honest, but this should be an EDH staple like Reliquary Tower is. Incredibly insane mana ramp opportunity, and I think the price is going to shoot up as more EDH players realize how important this card is. Sadly, I didn't realize until after I got that there's a couple of small nicks in the top of mine. Oh well, consider it as adding character, I guess? I do tend to be pretty sensitive to card condition.

Anyway, I picked up yet *another* card for cheap yesterday from Fellow Instructor. A quarter bought me Flying Crane Technique, which may mean I have to reconfigure my deck.



You can see where this lends itself more towards a token/wide Heroic deck, or even more so, a Prowess deck. There's considerable argument over whether this card is a get the win card, or whether it's a win more card. In Magic community parlance, the phrase "win more" means it's a card that if you play it, you're already winning the game, and this is just making that win bigger.

Personally, I'm going to see it as a get the win card (AKA win con, or win condition) until further notice.

On the other hand... is American *really* the way to go? Shouldn't I be reducing the mana stress by going R/W or U/W instead?

Let's take a closer look... both at the cards I have in the deck and the ones I'm thinking of adding

White
4x Akroan Skyguard (CW) (H = +1/+1 counter)
3x Fabled Hero (1C2W) (H = +1/+1 counter) (DS)
4x Favored Hoplite (W) (H = +1/+1 counter + prevent all damage dealt)
1x Soulfire Grandmaster (CW) (P) (L)
2x Seeker of the Way (CW) (P) (L when Prowess triggers)
4x Feat of Resistance (CW) (Protection) (Add +1/+1 counter)
4x Gods Willing (W) (Protection)
2x Banishing Light (2C1W)

Red
1x Akroan Crusader (R) (H = Add 1/1 red soldier token with Haste)
1x Monastery Swiftspear (R) (Haste) (P)
4x Satyr Hoplite (R) (H = +1/+1 counter)
2x Fall of the Hammer (CR) (Target creature deals damage equal to power to another target creature)
3x Temur Battle Rage (CR) (Target creature gains doublestrike until end of turn. Ferocious - If you have a creature with power 4 or greater, target also gains trample until end of turn)

Blue
1x Battlefield Thaumaturge (CU) (H = Hexproof until end of turn) (Instants and Sorceries cost one less colorless mana to cast)
1x Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest (2C1U) (P) (Whenever you cast non-creature spell you can pay 2 of R and/or White mana. If you do, target creature gains double strike until end of turn)
2x Jeskai Runemark (2C1U) (Enchanted creatures gets +2/+2. If you control R or W permanent, creature also gets flying)
2x Ordeal of Thassa (CU) (Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature when it attacks. When target creatures has 3 or more +1/+1 counters, sac Ordeal and draw 2 cards)
1x Triton Tactics (U) (Up to two target creatures get +0/+3 until end of turn. Untap creatures. At this turn's end of combat, tap each creature that was blocked by one of those creatures this turn and those creatures don't untap during controller's next untap step).

Red/White
1x Akroan Hoplite (RW) (Whenever attacks, gains +1/+0 for each other attacking creature you control)
2x Deflecting Palm (RW)

Blue/White
1x Battlewise Hoplite (UW) (H = +1/+1 counter and Scry: 1)

Red/White/Blue
1x Flying Crane Technique (see above)
1x Jeskai Ascendancy (RUW) (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Untap those creatures. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.)

You can see where Jeskai Ascendancy lends itself to those stupid infinite combos I hate seeing so much.

Of course, then one might also have to consider Mantis Rider, a 3/3 flying/vigilance/haste for RUW - the Jeskai answer to Siege Rhino.

So you can see where this gets very complicated.

Red/White? Blue/White? Red/White/Blue?

I'm thinking no on Blue/White... I just see Deflecting Palm being too valuable to lose, and I'm tempted to get 2 more and run a full playset for what's in my meta.

So we're down to Red/White or Red/White/Blue.

What We Lose By Dropping Blue
Battlefield Thaumaturge
Battlefield Hoplite
Ordeal of Thassa
Triton Tactics
Flying Crane Technique
Jeskai Ascendancy
Jeskai Runemark

The question then becomes... what replaces those items, and how do the lands then shift?

Well, here's the thing... if we drop blue, then Akroan Crusader becomes useless. Red does have Coordinated Assault as the answer to Triton Tactics (+1/0 and first strike until end of turn for up to two target creatures).

There's also Valorous Stance if I can find it, which is CW and offers the choice of making a creature indestructible until end of turn, or killing a creature with power 4 or greater.

Decisions, decisions. Another possibility is to splash blue for FCT and Ascendancy. That might be the smartest route to go, actually. That also means chucking the 3 islands in favor of a second Mystic Monastery I have, a Tranquil Cove, and a Saltwater Cliffs. (Ideally all of them would be MM but I don't have 4 yet)

So if we do that.... here's what I for sure know I want as a base.

Lands
2x Mystic Monastery
1x Battlefield Forge
1x Temple of Enlightenment (U/W)
1x Temple of Triumph (R/W)
1x Tranquil Cove (U/W)
1x Saltwater Cliffs (U/W)
7x Mountains
5x Plains

19 lands

Creatures
1x Akroan Crusader
1x Akroan Hoplite
4x Akroan Skyguard
4x Fabled Hoplite
1x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Satyr Hoplite
1x Soulfire Grandmaster

16 creatures

Heroic Triggers
4x Gods Willing
4x Feat of Resistance
3x Temur Battle Rage

11 triggers

Other Spells
2x Deflecting Palm
2x Banishing Light
1x Launch the Fleet
1x Jeskai Ascendancy
1x Flying Crane Technique

7 other spells

19 + 16 + 11 + 7 = 53

7 slots left, as I think Fabled Hero is just too much mana for this deck. It's designed to be aggressive, so we don't want any double colors if we can help it.

Let's say I pick up 3 more Akroan Crusaders and 3 more Monastery Swiftspears before tournament starts. That would be 59, which leave me a perfect slot for a certain god, if Merchantess has him...

[BYU 14]

I would play crane as a win card too, though probably from the sideboard if I was facing a ground army with bigger threats than mine. Could also come in handy from the sideboard as a defensive card if you were facing a U/W deck using stratus walk

[Izulde]

Sooo.... the deck ended up changing quite a lot.

Pre-tournament Purchases from Merchantess


Say hello to Mr. Awesome.

I also bought 3 more of Akroan Crusader and 3 more of Monastery Swiftspear. Out went the Satyr Hoplites and in went the Crusaders.

Iroas's Akroan Heroes
2x Mystic Monastery
1x Battlefield Forge
1x Temple of Enlightenment (U/W)
1x Temple of Triumph (R/W)
1x Tranquil Cove (U/W)
1x Saltwater Cliffs (U/W)
5x Mountains
7x Plains

4x Akroan Crusader
1x Akroan Hoplite
4x Akroan Skyguard
2x Cavalry Pegasus
4x Fabled Hoplite
1x Iroas, God of Victory
4x Monastery Swiftspear
1x Soulfire Grandmaster

4x Gods Willing
4x Feat of Resistance
3x Temur Battle Rage

2x Deflecting Palm
2x Banishing Light
1x Valorous Stance
1x Jeskai Ascendancy
1x Flying Crane Technique

Round 1 - Bye
I sat and watched Merchantess play Tie Guy (the dude I got my first ever tie from, who I've played a few times). Tie Guy was playing blue/white heroic, and so I saw stuff like Battle Hoplite and the new expansion blue spell that allows you to untap target creature, which was great for him in defense. Favored Hoplite was a thing as well, and he clearly was using the Voltron strategy. He won game 1, she won games 2 and 3, as Tie Guy got hosed on card draw Game 3. I definitely saw why so many people rave about Defiant Strike this match, too.

Round 2
Some new guy who threw together a hella expensive deck 2 minutes before tournament start. Genesis Hydra, Poulkranos, that G/R Planeswalker whose -6 is draw seven cards and play any creatures for free I think it was. Nasty, nasty deck. Game 1, he beat me after a very long, 20-25 minute battle. Iroas hit the field in this second game and his abilities meant I was running and gunning for far longer than I should have been able to. And that's with him having two Stormbreath Dragons in play - the bane of my monowhite heroic. Game 2 saw me winning thanks to Monastery Swiftspear, Cavalry Pegasus and I think Akroan Skyguard and maybe Grandmaster? I wanted to hold out for a tie Game 3, but Genesis Hydra and yeah... 1-2 loss.

Round 3
Up against Woodchuck, a very familiar foe. Game 1 was a victory for him, thanks to getting two Butcher of the Hordes and Stormbreath Dragon out. Game 2, Cavalry Pegasus did magic flying stuff with humans, and I was able to Glare of Heresy his Sorin, and Deflecting Palm one of his 2 Butchers and got the win. He tried to sac the Butcher after I did Deflecting Palm, but the judge overruled him, saying Deflecting Palm would just transfer to the next Butcher. So, controversial win. Game 3, he had *3* fucking Butcher of the Hordes out. I fought well, but still wasn't able to win. Came down to one game.

Round 4
Merchantess this time. One game, Akroan Skyguard rocked her world. Another game she won because I could not draw a single damned creature to save my life. Third game was very close and could have gone either way, but I misplayed the last turn because I forgot Iroas's second ability, so I lost.

So, 1-2, 1-2, and 1-2. I'm a lot more competitive than what I was when I first started, though.

Heroes of the Night
1. Monastery Swiftspear
I can see why she's a $2.63 uncommon. One drop 1/2 with haste and prowess? Yes, please! Merchantess killed her outright Game 1, commenting, "She's a real C-word." Definitely going to keep the playset in.

2. Iroas, God of Victory
Balla god is balla. He was as exactly as awesome as I predicted he would be, and gives the deck much needed power force and protection. Then I can use my protection spells for breaking through defenses.

3. Akroan Skyguard
I wasn't sure about him, because of his 2 casting cost and 1/1 start, but his flying was hugely helpful, so his playset will stay in.

4. Temur Battlerage
Doublestrike even on one turn proved amazing, especially on the Skyguard with no flying defenses. I need a fourth one.

5. Fall of the Hammer
It doesn't affect Grandmaster's Instants and Sorceries have lifelink thing, but this is still a heroic trigger and ended up being a very effective source of removal, especially early on. It gets rid of a creature, plus triggers prowess, so this might become a playset thing.

6. Deflecting Palm
This card is so, so, *sooooo* good. I need two more for the playset.

Duds of the Night
1. Jeskai Ascendancy
Hit the field in Round 2, but didn't really do anything when it was there.

2. Flying Crane Technique
Drew it a couple times, but was never in danger of getting played.

3. Akroan Crusader
...Yeah. He just did nothing at all, really. The one drop is nice, but the extra soldier does nothing but add chump blockers, and weakens the deck when it goes to midrange.

Overall though, I really enjoyed this deck. I only had to mull once (and should have mulled one other game).

I think I'm going to drop blue and just go pure R/W Heroic.

Drops
2x Mystic Monastery
1x Tranquil Cove
1x Saltwater Cliffs (R/U)
1x Temple of Enlightenment
1x Jeskai Ascendancy
1x Flying Crane Technique

7 cards

Probable Drops
4x Akroan Crusader

11 cards

I may pour the lands right back into more lands. Ascendancy and FCT will get replaced by Deflecting Palm. Not sure what I'll do with the Crusader slots. If I put the Satyr Hoplites back in, then the Cavalry Pegasi might need to go because between the Skyguards and the Satyr Hoplites, that's 8 creatures who can't take advantage of the main reason for having Cavalry Pegasus in here.

Still need to find room for Defiant Strike, too. Maybe drop Banishing Light to the sideboard? Decisions, decisions.

[Izulde]

I didn't go last week, due to being sick.

This week, however, there was a Gameday event (plus a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier, which is why it was stupid to have Gameday events the same day).

I bought 2 Deflecting Palms before the tournament to give myself a full playset, and this is the deck I went with.

Iroas's Quick Heroes
Lands
9x Plains
7x Mountains
1x Temple of Triumph
1x Battlefield Forge

18 lands

Creatures
4x Akroan Skyguard
4x Favored Hoplite
1x Iroas, God of Victory
4x Monastery Swiftspear
1x Satyr Hoplite
1x Soulfire Grandmaster

15 creatures

Non-Creature Spells
2x Banishing Light
4x Deflecting Palm
4x Defiant Strike
2x Fall of the Hammer
4x Feat of Resistance
4x Gods Willing
2x Hammerhand
3x Temur Battlerage
1x Titan's Strength
1x Valorous Stance

27 non-creature spells

I was hoping to sell/trade my foil Wooded Foothills, but Merchantess wasn't there today, sadly. I played Woodchuck in a game before starting, and he whipped me soundly. Not a good start.

Round 1 - Vs Organizer
I actually managed to whittle him down to single life in the first game before his Coursers took over and stabilized his life total. Game 2, I got red mana screwed and lost fairly easily. Still pretty proud that I managed to take him that long, though. Third game was stupid, though. All four of my Favored Hoplites dropped by Turn 4, but without red mana, I had no way of buffing from the stuff in my hand.

Round 2 - Vs Doomwake
Doomwake is the nickname I'm giving to the guy who double Doomwake Gianted me a couple weeks ago. Follows a lot of the same pattern as against Organizer, only this time, in the 0-2 defeat, I whittled him down to single digit life totals before his own Coursers came in. After the match, he confirmed my thoughts about a playset of Titanic Strength to make the deck far more aggressive. Oh, and I found out that double strike does *not* mean damage to the player if first strike kills a blocking creature, which was disappointing to learn. Might have to rethink Temur Battle Rage's place in this deck now. Oh, and my deck is starting to get known around the shop, because during one game, Doomwake was like, "Okay, now I have to ask myself... how many protection spells do you have in your hand?" Worst feeling of the afternoon: When he used a Planeswalker's ability to exile/mill my cards, and used my own Soulfire Grandmaster against me to win

Round 3 - Vs New Guy
Haven't played this dude before, but he had a Whip deck he put together from a bunch of cards he got from Doomwake. The first game, I lost, because he got his Whip out and nailed me with not 1, but *2* Hornet Queens. I also had Iroas out, which negated his deathtouch creatures We also had a crazy amount of life swings, because I kept hitting him for huge life totals from my board, and got some lifelink from Soulfire Grandmaster, and then he would hit right back with his whip crew next round. Second game, I got fast enough to beat him, thanks to Monastery Swiftspear and two Akroan Skyguards, I think it was. Third game, Soulfire Grandmaster, an Akroan Skyguard, and two Monastery Swiftspears for the comeback victory! The guy was disgusted because he didn't win a single match with the deck.

We then discovered that because there were only 6 people, Woodchuck and I tied in every single tiebreaker. The program put him in the Top 4, but Organizer was debating it, because that didn't seem fair to him. I offered to play for it. Manager said why not flip a coin or have them play for it or something. Woodchuck also suggested playing for it. So finally Organizer said, "Okay. Play for Top 4, then."

vs Woodchuck For Top 4
I told Woodchuck he'd probably win anyway, because I've never beaten him in a match. Lo and behold, Game 1, I win. I played it very stupidly, though. Had out Akroan Skyguard pumped up to a 5/5 I think it was, and Soulfire Grandmaster. If I'd attacked with both, I would have won, but only attacked with Skyguard. This allowed him to build up, and I was in danger of losing until Feat of Resistance came through.

Game 2 was insane. I had him down to 1 life, and 3 creatures out. He's got the red/green god out that pumps up an attacker, and one of his attackers is Avalanche Tusker, which forces a creature to block. I forgot Tusker's ability, so when he attacked, I started tapping a Plains. Woodchuck said, "Hold on! I'm using his ability to force the Swiftspear to block". That turned out to be a huge mistake, because the instant I tapped the Plains, he knew I had Deflecting Palm in my hand. What followed was his using Nykthos and Genesis Hydras to build up an insane board state and I'm sitting there with a completely empty board. He whittles me down with Elvish Mystics until he gets a Courser out and is finally able to build up enough life that he's able to withstand Deflecting Palm when I have to play it, and goes on to win.

As one observer remarked, "That game was just retarded."

Game 3 was much quicker. Iroas hit the board and it was goodnight. When somebody else expressed surprise that Woodchuck lost, he grumbled, "I couldn't deal with Iroas."

[u]Top 4 Matchup - Vs 3 Dragons Guy[/b]
Remember the guy who bitched about drawing 3 dragons in the prerelease event? Yeah... it was him. I wasn't expecting my luck to continue, and it didn't. Got white mana screwed in Game 1, and in Game 2, I didn't understand an ability so I declared blockers wrong and went out pretty poorly. Still my first Top 4 showing, though!

These were my prizes:

Foil version of this card


Playset of this card

My $5 entry fee back

This was on Saturday, by the way. Was going to post it last night, but drank a lot of wine instead, and fell asleep. Best Valentine's Day I've had in years. Now if I can just find where my other Titanic Strengths are... I'd also like to add Ordeal of Heliods, to give me that extra boost of life.

Heroes of the Afternoon
1. Iroas, God of Victory
Every time he hit the field, I had a legit shot at winning in the midrange, even against all the other, much more expensive decks. He was also MVP in the Woodchuck match.

2. Monastery Swiftspear
She's become the card that really makes this deck go. With her prowess and all the non-creatures I have in this deck, she becomes deadly. I also love her artwork. In fact, she joins Birds of Paradise in my Favorite Magic Cards Of All Time list. If there was a playmat of her artwork, I would so buy it.

Don't think I've posted her before, so here she is:



3. Akroan Skyguard
I keep wanting to kick him to the curb, but time and time again, he just gets it done in a format that tends to play much lower on fliers.

4. Fall of the Hammer
Continues to be a sneaky good removal spell in addition to firing prowess and heroic. Lot of times there would be a 2 Toughness creature who would cause me problems. Drop it on the Swiftspear, and bye-bye creature. Seriously considering playsetting this.

5. Banishing Light
2 is the perfect number for Banishing Light. With a 3 CMC, it's one of the most expensive cards in my deck, but it was great for planeswalker banishment. Still thinking about possibly sideboarding it, but it was key in the Woodchuck match to remove Kiora, the Crashing Wave and prevent her from screwing with my universe.

6. Soulfire Grandmaster
His lifelink is so damned useful for building up my life total to stay alive in the midgame if it goes that far. One of my favorite plays was targeting him with a pump spell that also fired the Swiftspears. Is he really being used to maximum advantage in this deck? No. But when the Theros block rotates out and I lose my Heroic theme, I can still keep the Swiftspears and him around as a R/W aggro base.

Duds of the Afternoon
1. Hammerhand
I thought this would be more useful than what it was, but this is one of those cards that unless it's a Turn 1, 2, or maybe 3 draw, the target creature can't block ability is useless, and in order for the haste to benefit, it's at minimum a 2 or 3 mana commitment. I mean, the +1/+1 is supposed to be a nice pump, but I feel like Titanic Strength is better and will be more of a winning card.

2. Temur Battle Rage
Last week, it was great when put on the Skyguard. This week, it did not much at all. Thinking this is a good place to cut down to 2 in order to create slots for the Titanic Strength.

Future Plans
*Drop 2 Hammerhands and 1 Temur Battle Rage at minimum
*Add 3 Titanic Strength at minimum
*Consider other adjustments to add in Ordeal of Heliod

Hero of Iroas is an interesting card, but not one I'm including in this deck. He's not only $5.52 a card, he runs much better in a U/W heroic that has Ordeal of Thassa and Ordeal of Heliod, and I'm committed to R/W because of the Swiftspears.

Of course, looking this deck over, I could consider splashing blue for Aqueous Form... Hmm...

[Izulde]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, somebody asked Woodchuck why Avalanche Tusker was in his deck. He gestured to my board and said, "To deal with shit like this." It's a sideboard card of his, apparently. I wonder if playing my heroic deck the last few weeks caused him to put it in sideboard.

This is Avalanche Tusker:



3 Dragons Guy was also running R/W, by the way... but he was running it as a Goblin aggro deck. Flashback to a certain Mr. BYU 14's deck for sure.

[Izulde]

So I dropped the 3 I said I would. Right now, I've got in 2 Ordeal of Purphoros and 1 Chained to the Rocks. I also have 4 Glare of Heresy, 4 Barrage of Boulders, 2 Revoke Existence and 2 Glimpse of the Sun God in my sideboard.

I *think* BoB and/or GotSG could be win con cards in the right circumstance, but for now, I'm going to sideboard them. Note that the maindeck and sideboard may/will change before the actual start of play if Merchantess is there tonight.

That may include dropping one or both Banishing Light, another or both Temur Battlerages, and one or both Fall of the Hammers. Need to open up slots for 3 Titanic Strengths to test the playset, plus I might find other cool stuff I want.

[Izulde]

A Brief Synopsis of Last Week
Ran with the same deck and went 2-2 (one was a forfeit, though). Akroan Skyguard and Monastery Swiftspear continue to be the best cards in the deck, but I'm still having problems killing someone fast enough, and I'm starting to feel like this deck is underpowered.

This Week
Merchantess was finally there last night. Low price on foil Wooded Foothills is $40, but since midpoint is only $47, she offered $34 in trade-in value. I took it, because I don't have a very good storage setup yet for my cards and don't want to risk the condition getting worse. I picked up 3 Titan's Strengths to max the playset, and 3 Ordeal of Heliods, dropping Banishing Lights, 2 Deflecting Palms, and a couple other cards I don't recall to sideboard.

Match 1 - vs Mirror
I'm calling this guy Mirror because he runs a lot of the same cards I do, but has Mardu colors to get in Butcher of the Horde. Game 1 sees me winning, but I lose Game 2 because of two straight terrible draws after mulling, and in Game 3, I was stuck on one white mana the whole game.

Match 2 - vs Organizer
Game 1 I get him down to single digits before he again stabilizes with Elpseth. Note that this was with a 5 card mulligan that I almost came back from being down that much to beat him. Game 2, I have him on the ropes, and he comments after destroying my Swiftspear with Ordeal of Heliod and me with no protection in hand, "I'm hanging on by a thread here." I've sideboarded in 4 Glare of Heresy, dropping the Temur Battlerages and the remainder of my Deflecting Palms. He gets out Elspeth. Glare of Heresy. He brings out a second Elpseth. I top deck Glare of Heresy and wipe that one out, too. A third Elspeth hits the board, and this time I can't get my removal out in time, so he wins. (He runs four Elpseths in the deck, by the way).

Match 3 - vs Merchantess' Boyfriend
He plays monoblack Aggro. Game 1, I get a shit draw and he ROFLstomps me. Game 2 is a whiteknuckle race, but he eventually beats me by wiping my board, though I was able to use Valorous Stance to knock out his Erebos Devotion (I later realized that I incorrectly played this, because VS is creature 4 toughness minimum, but he missed it, too.)

Match 4 - vs Tie Guy
The Waste Not deck. Game 1 is a farce where I again can't get close to killing him fast enough. Game 2, I get him down to 2 life, but his shenanigans stabilize the board enough that he's eventually able to come back and beat me.

So, rough night all around. No heroes this time. Bile Blight, Drown in Sorrows, and Hero's Downfall are running wild all throughout my meta, and even with all the protection spells I have in my deck, it's not enough. Not when I'm running as few a creatures as I am. I also either got mana screwed or mana flooded a lot tonight, and I can't seem to consistently find the right amount of mana.

The sense that this is a weaker deck in this meta continues to grow, and I'm thinking of changing the deck.

I also still have $32.50 in credit with Merchantess

So I have to think about the direction I want to go from here. My meta features a *ton* of black and removals, so I have to figure out a way to combat that, and I have to decide if I want to stay aggro, or shift to midrange. And do I even want to stay in red/white? Maybe go to green/red? I don't know.

I really don't.

[Izulde]

Been a long time since I've updated. Honestly, with the 3+ hour round trip commutes most days (save the one day a week I've been getting a ride to school as part of hanging out with a girl), I just have not felt like making that same trek on a 5th day just to play Magic in a meta I'm mediocre in.

I missed most of the Dragons prerelease events, but managed to catch one on the Sunday before release day. I was kind of pissed off because I asked for, and confirmed Green/White over the phone. I got handed the last box, which was Blue/White. I said, "I confirmed Green/White over the phone because you said you had everything but Green/Red." "Sorry, Blue/White's the last I got."

Needless to say, I was pissed. My anger also carried over when I realized I got a really shit box and pack draw, and wound up having to go Green/White anyway. My first match I lost 1-2 in a close one, then proceeded to get destroyed 0-2 in every other match. The one bright side about it all? I managed to pull a mythic rare, and quite a few dragons. The mythic rare?



So yeah, this is gonna be a thing. I might even get a playset of these in order to be able to go back to my Green roots. Also picked up a few more Dragons (I describe Dragons of Tarkir as DRAGONS, DRAGONS EVERYWHERE!)

Currently the Shaman is sitting in my Commander deck, but he'll probably be moved to a Standard deck for next week. Which reminds me... after the prerelease event, I revamped my Commander deck to put more Dragons in, and lessen the emphasis on elf tribal. Don't remember what all tweaks I made.

Which brings me to Thursday. I *finally* get to campus early enough to jump in a game. 4 way Commander and my elf tribal gets going, especially with Titiania's Chosen and Elvish Champion, and all four players having green as part of their manabase. And Coat of Arms is out on the field. But then my CoA gets destroyed, and then Planar Cleansing hits the board.

"I'm not worried," I said.

"You're not?" somebody else asked.

"Nope. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8... Perfect. Just enough. Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptap... Praetor's Counsel!"

A collective groan from the table.

Skimming through the dynasty, I've mentioned the joy of Praetor's Counsel before, but have never posted it.



You can see where it's one of my favorite cards. I still need to get a Reliquary Tower. That's one of the things I'll have to get from Merchantess next time I see her. Which reminds me, I need to text her sometime this week, because....


...Izulde's go-to store has changed. More on that in the next post.

[Izulde]

So a very, very long story short, Izulde won his first ever tournament! It was a draft tournament that was Dragons/Fate/Dragons. I built a green/red deck after originally planning to go red/blue. It featured several games that ended on the very last turn, where either my opponent would win or I did. My prize was 7 packs of Dragons of Tarkir, the best pull of which was Dragonlord Dromoka (sp).

I switched to a red/green in standard, and found I hated it when I tried it at my old place. My new place, where I won, and that's within walking distance of Izulde Palace, hasn't had anyone show up on FNM, so you might think I've been out of Magic.

Nope! A Sunday EDH/Commander tournament opened up a half-hour's walk away (give or take 10 minutes) so I've been doing that. I started off with Surrak Dragonclaw, then switched to the Dragonlord I pulled. Elf tribal has always been the backbone, and while I enjoyed the Dragonlord deck, and even came close one week to getting out of my pod to the winners one, I just wasn't satisfied (that's what she said). The close time? It got to time running out and then draw. I was sitting on the highest level total thanks to Suture Cleric. Then, on the very last turn of the game, the final player hit Laboratory Maniac draw out combo for the win. I was *sooo* damned pissed.

Last week I piloted a crappy Glissa the Traitor deck. It did okay for being crappy. But I decided I really wanted to put together an actual, working Glissa deck. Tooling around the Internet, the main basis for her seems to be three deck types:

1) Control
2) Reanimate
3) Combo

or some combination (ha!) thereof. Only Izulde does not have the cards for that. More to that, he's not really interested in playing control or combo. Izulde is a true green player at heart, which involves smashing people in the face with big fatties.

Who is Glissa?



Obviously this is promo card artwork, and it's the first promo card I got back when I first re-entered Magic my first semester of the MFA program at UNLV. I've always had a soft spot for her ever since. Remember my original Glissa's Poison Elf Army deck? Well, now she's elevated to Commander.

So the last version had elf tribal as the basis, with some removal and some voltroning artifacts in, but the win cons were awfully weak, so I revamped the deck to give it much more focus.

Glissa's Elven Crusade (Working title until I can find a better one)

Planeswalker (1)
Glissa the Traitor (Elf)

Lands (29)
Evolving Wilds
Golgari Guildgate
Jungle Basin
Jungle Hollow
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
15x Forests
8x Swamps

Creatures (28)
Bellowing Tanglewurm (still a favorite)
Birds of Paradise (Like I was going to leave this out)
Carapace Forger (Elf)
Copperhorn Scout (Elf)
Elvish Archdruid (Elf)
Elvish Champion (Elf)
Essence Warden (Elf)
Ezuri, Renegade Leader (Elf)
Ezuri's Archers (Elf)
Gaea's Herald (Elf)
Gladecover Scout (Elf)
Greenweaver Druid (Elf)
Immaculate Magistrate (Elf)
Imperious Prefect (Elf)
Jagged-Scar Archers (Elf)
Joraga Warcaller (Elf)
Llanowar Elves (Elf)
Lys-Alana Huntmaster (Elf)
Paragon of Eternal Wilds
Priest of Titiana (Elf)
Reclamation Sage (Elf)
Skirsdag High Priest (the only black creature in the deck)
Talara's Battalion (Elf)
Thornweald Archer (Elf)
Thrun, the Last Troll (I found my boy my Japan binder, and he's going back in)
Timberwatch Elf (Elf)
Titiana's Chosen (Elf)
Wellwisher (Elf)
Wildheart Invoker (Elf)

Artifacts (20)
Barbed Battlegear (+4/-1 to creature)
Bow of Nylea (an enchantment artifact, but still an artifact able to be recalled by Glissa!)
Brawler's Plate (+2/+2 and trample for creature)
Chariot of Victory (Creature has first strike, trample, and haste)
Coat of Arms
Commander's Sphere
Darksteel Plate (Indestructible, and equipped creature is indestructible, too. Another Glissa staple).
Heart-Piercer Bow (Whenever equipped creature attacks, deal 1 damage to target creature defending player controls - which, with Glissa's deathtouch = instakill)
Jester's Cap
Nihil Spellbomb (A Glissa staple)
Nim Deathmantle (Creature has +2/+2, Intimidate and is a black Zombie. When nontoken creature is put into graveyard, you can pay 4 mana to return creature to battlefield with Nim Deathmantle attached.)
Piston Sledge (+3/+1 to creature)
Prowler's Helm (Creature can not be blocked except by Walls)
Rogue's Gloves (If equipped creature deals combat damage to player, draw a card)
Strata Scythe (When it enters play, search library for land card, exile it, and shuffle library. Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each land in play with the same name as exiled card)
Swiftfoot Boots (Creature has hexproof and haste)
Sylvok Replica (Also a creature)
Thought Prison
Tormod's Crypt
Trailblazer's Boots (Creature has non-basic landwalk)

Sorceries (7)
Elvish Promenade (Elf generator)
Nature's Spiral
Overrun
Praetor's Counsel
Read the Bones
Roar of Challenge
Sign in Blood

Instants (6) - Every single one of these is artifact or enchantment hate, due to the Sunday meta being heavy in combos involving these
Back to Nature
Krosan Grip
Molder
Nature's Claim
Naturalize
Unravel the Aether

Enchantments (8)
Beastmaster Ascension (People get a little nervous when this hits the table)
Eternal Thirst (Creature has lifelink and whenever creature opponent controls dies, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature)
Fallen Ideal (Creature has flying and sacrifice a creature to gain +2/+1 until end of turn)
Feast on the Fallen (At each upkeep, if an opponent lost life last turn, put +1/+1 counter on target creature you control)
Nighthowler (although a creature, it will only see the field as enchantment for Glissa, as its effect is +X/+X, where X is number of creature cards in all graveyards. )
Quest for Renewal
Song of the Dryads
Underworld Dreams

So as you can see, Elf tribal is still very much at the heart of this, but the deck is also built to Voltron the hell out of Glissa as a primary win condition.

To be honest, the land total is a little low for an EDH deck, even with one that has mana sources outside of lands, but we'll try it and see.

Other Cards To Consider Getting
Thornbite Staff - Almost every Glissa deck has this, and I consider it priority #1.

Expedition Map - Another Glissa staple, but before I get it (it's a landfetch artifact), I need to get...

Urbog, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Every land is a swamp in addition to its other types

Cabal Coffers - 2 colorless and tap, add a black mana for every Swamp you control. You can see where Urbog + Cabal Coffers = black mana heaven.

Forbidden Orchard - This shows up in a lot of Glissa decks, too. Tap for any color, and when it's tapped, the opponent gets a 1/1 colorless Spirit token - aka fodder for Glissa's recursion ability (i.e. fetching an artifact from graveyard when creature dies)

Other stuff I need:

Loxodon Warhammer and O-Naginata - both equipment pieces that not only buff Glissa (or Thrun!), they give trample.

Demonic Tutor/Diabolic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor/Wordly Tutor/a bunch of other cards I've forgotten - one of the best things about black, and also a little bit in green, is the ability to search for specific cards with the Tutor cards. I have none. And they become particularly important if I'm going to need to up to my land count at some point.

Of course, I'll have to cut cards to add all of these nifty things in, if and when I get them, and perhaps the Elf tribal theme will go away, as I add in more powerhouse cards.

Oh, the one black creature I added?



Fantastic Glissa synergy, and I'm surprised I don't see him in more decks of hers.

[Izulde]

Izulde went shopping at the Grand Prix event today and picked up 9 cards for his deck - some of which will stay no matter what Glissa's deck turns into, some of which are for this edition, or another elf tribal if Glissa changes form.



Door of Destinies is the second card I bought after hunting around a few places looking for price/condition combination. Note that I did this for *all* the cards I bought - some to greater success on condition than others, and ditto the price, which we'll see later.

Obviously this card is built for tribal decks and only tribal decks. Remember Pip? He bought this card for his not that great 60 card merfolk legacy deck. It's much better in a green tribal, which has more mana ramp sources to get it out quickly. You can see where it potentially becomes very powerful when I name elves, and if this and Coat of Arms both hit the field, opponents better have a board wipe handy, or they'll be toast.



Expedition Map was my first purchase, which I found at the right price/condition combo at my second vendor. From then on, one of my primary focuses became getting non-basic lands to make it worthwhile, as I alluded to in my last post. Most land fetches will only get you basic lands (Plain, Swamp, Island, Mountain, Forest), so to have something that will allow you to fetch a non-basic land, particularly one that can be used over and over with Glissa's artifact recursion ability, is *fantastic*. I also love the artwork on this card - it's like the elephant is hoisting the warhammer to the creature above it, saying, "Here you go. SMASH THEM WITH PACHYDERM POWER!"

Oh, Loxodon Warhammer! I hunted all day for this card until finding it at a certain vendor I'll describe below. Obviously, this card is *perfect* for a Glissa deck with any sort of Voltron theme. +3/+0, trample, *and* lifelink on a creature with death strike and first touch? Amazing, simply freaking AMAZING!



One of the things I love about looking through any binder I find is discovering wholly new cards. The first one I saw today was dirt cheap because it had a blue water stain on the side. Obviously I didn't get that, but I was instantly hooked. Cast a creature for a single green mana and tap?! YES PLEASE! Obviously one of the more expensive cards I bought, but this is going to be permanently in this deck unless it loses creature focus completely.

The place I bought this, I got three cards from them, and they were wonderful people (AmazingMTG.com). They listened to my concerns about card condition, and asked me what artwork and set I wanted the cards from. There's two versions of Elvish Piper artwork - female and male. I hated the male one and loved this one. The prices were also quite fair, and I was thrilled with their customer service. I also saw they had 3 laptops and multiple cellphones that kept up to date digital records of their inventory, so it was just a very well-run and maintained booth overall, despite the fact that they were one of the busiest vendors at the GP (and for good reason).

They also asked me what art I wanted for Loxodon Warhammer. One has a badass elephant handing the warhammer off. The other just has the warhammer. Guess which one I wanted? I said I didn't care what set, just as long as it was the best card condition possible. That meant I got the Commander edition, which isn't as cool as getting it from one of the non-Commander sets (non-Commander versions are also more expensive), but it's still awesome, and condition matters. This card is always going to hang out in this Glissa deck. That's an unchangeable lock.



I took a slight hit on Vraska in terms of price and condition, but there were literally only two places that had her out, and the other one, while in better condition, was asking far more than the midpoint price, so I got it anyway - especially since the guy offered me my choice of his two copies to pick which condition I liked better. While her ultimate will probably never seen the light of day, her protection mechanic and permanent destruction mechanics are both first-rate abilities. And if her ultimate *does* hit, it's good night with the Super Assassins, if I can make even one unblockable.

Gilt-Leaf Palace was one of the 3 cards from Great Place. A slight nick, but again, I only found it in 2 places - the other being where I found Elvish Piper, so I discovered 2 new cards in the same binder, both with major condition issues. It's fantastic for the deck as constructed - in Glissa's colors and very easy to turn it into a defacto dual land rather than a tap land. Perhaps not a permanent home, but one worth having in its current format.



I was a little irritated when I saw the condition of this card after I bought it, but I literally found it only one other place, and that also had not great condition. It's from one of the Kamigawa sets, which are popular (Asian theme) and expensive ($19 for Champions, $14 for Destroyers or whatever it is, for a single pack). I'm furious I missed that block in one of my breaks form the game. I would have loved the shit out of that set.

Anyway, it gives a legendary creature Fear until end of turn for one black and tap. What is Fear, you ask? Can not be blocked except by black and artifact creatures. Not quite as useful in my meta, which features a lot of artifacts, but it can be used on Glissa and Thrun - maybe one or two others? I'd have to look again - which makes it a worthwhile inclusion, as well as another non-basic for the Map to go find. It'll stay as long as Glissa's my commander, which means it'll always be there. :P More legendaries for it to interact with would be good to make it have greater usefulness, though.



I looked at least 10 vendors for an Urbog that I liked with price/condition combo. Ironically, I got it at the same place as the previous card. This land is an absolute must in any deck that runs black for mana fixing. Unfortunately, the other half of the combo, Cabal Coffers, I couldn't find a price/condition match I wanted, so I'm still without it. But at least I have one half of it.

Ah, Garruk Apex Predator aka Serial Killer Garruk. Expensive as hell casting cost, but his abilities are great - kill a planeswalker, put a deathtouch beast in play, creature destruction, and another great ultimate. To be honest, he's probably a luxury in this deck, and I wasn't going to get him until I saw a price/condition combination I simply couldn't refuse.

How did the prices go, by the way?

Door of Destinies - $3 TCG Midpoint - $4.04
Elvish Piper - $7 TCG Midpoint - $7.62
Expedition Map - $1.50 TCG Midpoint - $1.85
Garruk, Apex Predator - $11 TCG Midpoint - $13.40
Gilt-Leaf Palace - $2 TCG Midpoint - $1.89
Loxodon Warhammer - $1 TCG Midpoint - $0.81
Shizo, Death's Storehouse - $7 TCG Midpoint - $7.62
Urbog, Tomb of Yawgmoth - $9 TCG Midpoint - $9.33
Vraska the Unseen - $4 TCG Midpoint - $3.55

Total: $45.50
TCG Midpoint Total: $50.11
Total Savings: $4.61
% Savings: 9.2

Not bad at all, thanks to my heavy shopping. Lost on the Warhammer due to Commander version, and the biggest bath I took was on Vraska, but overall, I'm pretty damned pleased with the work I did.

Other Cards
Thornbite Staff
Completely forgot to look for this somehow. Obviously, priority #1 tomorrow.

Cabal Coffers
Already discussed. Might just end up getting it from Merchantess, though I won't get any midpoint savings, and who knows about the condition? Will look again tomorrow.

Forbidden Orchard
$6 and honestly, the more I look at it, the more I'm eh on it, particularly since I have so few ways in the deck of dealing with fliers (my single biggest weakness in a creature fight). Not worth the money in this deck after all.

O-Naginata
I literally asked at every single vendor, I think. Nobody has it. I asked Merchantess via text, but she said she needs to look later to see. Ironically, we were both at the Grand Prix all day and never saw one another.

Tutors
Cheapest I saw Vampiric Tutor for? $28. That's a nope card. Didn't see the other black tutor cards. Did find Worldly Tutor for $7, but 1) I didn't like the condition, and 2) I'm honestly not seeing a creature in this deck that demands being tutored for. So that's on the wait and see list.

A friend of a friend and I got into discussion about the deck after a mutual friend of ours shared my photo album and tagged him. He pointed out the fliers weakness and suggested Spiders, which I'm not going to do. It cuts into the elf tribal, and I don't like spider card artwork. He was also cool to the idea of Thornbite Staff because it makes Glissa or the artifact itself an instant target.

He did, however, suggest I add Sidisi, Undead Vizier, which has an enter the board effect of sacrifice a creature, tutor for a card, any card. It's cheap enough that I'll look at adding it if I can find it tomorrow.

Akroma's Memorial
Saw this a few different places, and damned near pulled the trigger. I probably should have, as it would be a game finisher in this deck. I'll probably pick it up tomorrow, pending price/condition combo, of course. FoF was like, well it can be exiled. And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, so can every other artifact I have. 7 mana costing cost, but oh so amazing.

Nath of the Gilt Leaf
A FoF suggestion. In fact, he recommended changing commanders to Nath and running a discard subtheme. That's not a bad idea at all, especially since it should be cheap. A potential new commander for Elf tribal (which is where he gets used a lot), but 5 mana casting cost makes me a bit eh. We'll see, though. Glissa's not moving from the commander slot of this deck, however. Not after I put this much into it.

Nylea, God of the Hunt
I might already have this card. I can't remember. At $4 most places, it wouldn't be the end of the world to get a double, and honestly, this deck is primed to be Green devotion, so she can get online pretty quickly. Plus, trample effects, yo!

What the Hell Do I Cut?
9 cards wanting entry.

Immediate Cuts
1. Paragon of Eternal Wilds (The +1/+1 doesn't add much, and I have lots of other ways of giving Glissa trample).
2. Wildheart Invoker (4 mana to get in, and 8 mana for the +5/+5 and Trample is too much mana that needs to be spent elsewhere in this deck)
3. Brawler's Plate (7 mana total - 3 to get in, 4 to equip, for a +2/+2 and trample on one creature. Again, mana better spent elsewhere)
4. Rogue's Gloves (card draw is nice, but it needs other cards to ensure that Glissa or whoever can deal damage to somebody. Just not efficient.)
5. Thought Prison (The gradual life drain is cool, but 5 mana to get in, and who knows when someone's combo is going to go off before then? I honestly almost didn't put in for the first rework.
6. Tormod's Crypt (If I had a discard/mill subtheme, this would be great. Because it's not, it just simply isn't going to do much unless other players are running control).
7. Overrun (Seems like a win more card than anything else, since in Commander, it would need a lot of buildup already in place from creatures to be effective. Not a finisher, so out it goes.
8. Nighthowler (Again, not running enough discard/mill mechanics for this to work, and also not very effective in my meta with artifact and enchantment emphasis)
9. Fallen Ideal (3 mana to make Glissa fly isn't really worth it in the end. And it's only a win con if other cards are in play, or if opponents have no fliers).

That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. So, in essence:

-2 creatures
-4 artifacts
-1 sorcery
-2 enchantments

+1 creature
+3 artifacts
+2 planeswalkers
+3 lands

So in total:

Going from 28 to 27 creatures
Going from 20 to 19 artifacts
Going from 0 to 2 planeswalkers
Going from 29 to 32 lands, which now puts us much more in the traditional acceptable range (34-37 is the norm for Commander decks)
Going from 7 to 6 sorceries
Going from 8 to 6 enchantments

One last thing - Glissa herself underwent a transformation today!



Yep, quite a lot of MtG artists were in attendance, and Steve Argyle, the guy who did Glissa's promo, also did one of my other favorite art cards, Monastery Swiftspear, which I didn't have on me. So I need to go there tomorrow morning and get him to sign those.

This quickly led me to find other cards I had on hand in my deck or binder for artists to sign, and the following came up:





I'm also going to be looking for cards I have by other artists who were there, so I can have those signed, too.

[BYU 14]

With as expensive as standard can get going through rotation, this is getting me interested in commander. Might have to try this out.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

With as expensive as standard can get going through rotation, this is getting me interested in commander. Might have to try this out.

I'll never go back to Standard or Modern or any of the 60 card formats unless I come into a ton of money. It's actually a lot more fun than I expected.

[BYU 14]

Think I will work on a Mardu commander with Kolghan

[Izulde]

Glissa's Elven Crusade (Working title until I can find a better one)

Commander (1)
Glissa the Traitor (Elf)*

Lands (31 +2)
Cabal Coffers - GP Sunday buy*
Evolving Wilds*
Gilt-Leaf Palace - GP Saturday buy*
Golgari Guildgate*
Jungle Hollow*
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx*
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood*
Shizo, Death's Storehouse - GP Saturday buy*
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - GP Saturday buy*
14x Forests
8x Swamps

Planeswalkers - Both GP Saturday buys (+2)
Garruk, Apex Predator*
Vraska the Unseen*

Creatures (28 Unchanged)
Bellowing Tanglewurm*
Birds of Paradise*
Carapace Forger (Elf)*
Copperhorn Scout (Elf)*
Elvish Archdruid (Elf)*
Elvish Champion (Elf)*
Elvish Mystic (Elf)*
Elvish Piper (Elf) - GP Saturday buy*
Essence Warden (Elf)*
Ezuri, Renegade Leader (Elf)*
Ezuri's Archers (Elf)*
Gaea's Herald (Elf)*
Greenweaver Druid (Elf)*
Immaculate Magistrate (Elf)*
Imperious Perfect (Elf)*
Jagged-Scar Archers (Elf)*
Joraga Warcaller (Elf)*
King Macar, the Gold-Cursed - GP Sunday buy*
Llanowar Elves (Elf)*
Lys-Alana Huntmaster (Elf)*
Priest of Titiana (Elf)*
Skirsdag High Priest*
Talara's Battalion (Elf)*
Thornweald Archer (Elf)*
Thrun, the Last Troll*
Timberwatch Elf (Elf)*
Titiana's Chosen (Elf)*
Wellwisher (Elf)*

Artifacts (23 +3)
Bow of Nylea*
Chariot of Victory*
Coat of Arms*
Commander's Sphere*
Darksteel Plate*
Door of Destinies - GP Saturday buy*
Expedition Map - GP Saturday buy*
Heart-Piercer Bow*
Hero's Blade*
Jester's Cap*
Loxodon Warhammer - GP Saturday buy*
Nihil Spellbomb*
Nim Deathmantle*
Piston Sledge*
Prowler's Helm*
Sensei's Divining Top - Kamigawa packs*
Scroll of the Masters - GP Sunday buy*
Strata Scythe*
Swiftfoot Boots*
Sylvok Replica*
Tenza, Godo's Maul - Kamigawa packs*
Thornbite Staff - Russian - GP Sunday buy*
Trailblazer's Boots*

Sorceries (4 -3)
Nature's Spiral*
Praetor's Counsel*
Read the Bones*
Roar of Challenge*

Instants (4 -2) - Every single one of these is artifact or enchantment hate, due to the Sunday meta being heavy in combos involving these
Krosan Grip*
Molder*
Nature's Claim*
Naturalize*

Enchantments (7 -1)
Beastmaster Ascension*
Eternal Thirst*
Feast on the Fallen*
Midnight Covenant - Kamigawa packs*
Quest for Renewal*
Song of the Dryads*
Underworld Dreams*

The asterisks are because I was checking to make sure I had all my cards. I was getting 101 on the decklist here (forgot I removed a forest), and 99 when I was actually hand-counting, but when I went through one by one, I'm getting 100 exactly. And I just got it again, so we're all good.

In total, 16 cards swapped from Glissa v 1.1. As you can see, lands, artifacts and planeswalkers got boosts at the expense of enchantments, instants, and sorceries.

This is also a much more heavy Glissa Voltron deck now, and playing more to her particular strengths. There's still a considerable elf tribal element here, but it's much more about her, as I wanted it to be - the elf tribal took too long to get going, although when it did, I usually had a very good chance of winning.

We lost an elf or two along the way to make room for the artifacts. The GP buys are noted on the day that I purchased them. The Kamigawa packs? Those are from a pack each of Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Saviors of Kamigawa that I bought for myself as a splurge present at the end of the GP Sunday night.

The biggest pull I got from the Kamigawa packs is one that almost paid for all 3 packs by itself:



This card clocks in at $31.63 midpoint TCG price. I've seen a *ton* of commander decks with it. I'd go so far as to call it one of the primary staples, regardless of what color you're using. Sol Ring is another primary staple, but since I'm green, I don't worry too much about mana.

The other card I want to talk about from Kamigawa, that's only worth 14 cents?



This really needs the Urborg and Cabal Coffers combo out to be truly effective, and would work better in a mono black deck, especially since I don't have that many black mana sources out. So perhaps it'll get cut. Still a fun card, however.

And the other fun card I added?



Admittedly, the exile works against Glissa's recursion ability, which is graveyard and not exile. And it'd be a lot more powerful if it exiled something other than creatures... but then it wouldn't be overpriced at the dollar I bought it for.

Realistically this card will get cut for something else. I just wanted to add an element of fun, though, by putting in as many new cards as I could see making reasonable sense to include.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Think I will work on a Mardu commander with Kolghan

The Dragonlord version to give all your creatures haste? Interesting... I'm not sure he'll be a good commander, though. His secondary ability is useless in Commander, and his 6 mana casting cost means the aggro effect won't kick in until later in the game. I figured you'd go with a black/white/red commander to get the full Mardu range.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

The Dragonlord version to give all your creatures haste? Interesting... I'm not sure he'll be a good commander, though. His secondary ability is useless in Commander, and his 6 mana casting cost means the aggro effect won't kick in until later in the game. I figured you'd go with a black/white/red commander to get the full Mardu range.

I was thinking Kolghan because of the dash ability and +1 to all attackers. That way he doesn't stay exposed

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I was thinking Kolghan because of the dash ability and +1 to all attackers. That way he doesn't stay exposed

Ah right. Storm's Fury then. There have been people who have built some very interesting decks based on her, just from my skimming.

[Izulde]

So tonight's playtest... I got mana screwed on 2 of 3 games, so I need to bump the lands up. Glissa decks in general tend to run about 35-38 lands, so I'm behind the curve on that.

The one game I wasn't mana screwed, I got off too late because I didn't realize Urborg is also a swamp, so I could have started Glissa going like 3 or 4 turns sooner. Oops. Stupid me. But live and learn.

I did get to play Vraska, and she drew much approval when she hit the board, because I was able to use her minus ability to blow up a permanent. I chose Helm of Obedience to wreck another player's combo that would have won him the game. He told me afterwards that it was a very smart play on my part. Even though she died my next turn, she's going to be a keeper in this deck.

Although it got countered, the appearance of Underworld Dreams also was applauded. It's not a card that many people have in their decks apparently, but it destroys certain types of decks (the fucking Laboratory Maniac, I'm looking at you).

Another game, I found out Heart-Piercer Bow is useless... it's the bow that does the damage, *not* the creature. So that's out.

Sensei's Divining Top hit the board 2 out of 3 games, and one game, it saved me from mana screw. To show just how much a staple it is, and how versatile it is, I saw it in at least 3 other decks tonight, all with widely different colors.

The one I didn't get mana screwed, I might have won via commander damage if I could have gotten Glissa out sooner. As it was, I had the guy who won at 15 Commander damage (Nim Deathmantle, and then NDM + Loxodon Warhammer on my last turn).

This has me thinking that I need to rip out the elf tribal, and focus specifically on Glissa as a Voltron commander. So, looking through the current deck...

Lands
Needs to go up, but if I take out the elves, then Nykthos is on the chopping block. Shizo hit the board and was redundant due to Nim Deathmantle, but building redundancy in a deck isn't necessarily bad, especially EDH. Nykthos is the only drop I'm considering, though, other than a possible redistribution of the Forests/Swamps.

Planeswalkers
Vraska stays. Garruk I'm still on the fence about.

Creatures
Staying
Birds of Paradise - Mana dork of any color
Carapace Forager - Becomes a 4/4 with 3+ artifacts in play
Thrun, the Last Troll - A secondary Voltron possibility

Everything else is up in the air, though the mana dorks (Elvish Mystic and Llanowar Elves) will probably stay.

Artifacts
Automatic Drops
Coat of Arms
Door of Destinies
Heart-Piercer Bow

Possible Drop
Bow of Nylea, depending on how many creatures are cut.

Enchantments
Possible Drop
Beastmaster's Ascension, again depending on the creature cuts

I have to go to bed soon, and if I start looking more heavily at what I have, I'll be up until it's time to go to work... but initial thoughts:

1. If I'm going to be Voltroning with equipment, I need mana... lots and lots and lots of mana. Land retrievals might again be a thing in this deck, and if so, Avenger of Zendikar meanders his way back in.

2. There's not a lot of creatures in my particular meta. Most of the decks tend to run on artifact and enchantment infinite combos, so I probably need to beef up the artifact/enchantment hate.

3. I need an alternate win con to keep people from slamming Glissa until her casting cost gets too ridiculous. Thrun helps out with that (Hi, hexproof!) due to his own Voltron suitability, but I feel as though I should include more fat creatures.

4. So maybe I should include some control elements? Not necessarily Stax, which is about locking down opponents (and I fucking *hate* people who play that shit - really ruins the game), but spot removal (even though it tends to be scorned in EDH) and what not. Which reminds me I totally forgot about Executioner's Capsule! Oops.

5. I looked at cards that would transfer +1/+1 counters to Glissa, but when she bites it, those go away, and it doesn't feel like it's any faster than equipment. Plus, that mana and time is better spent simply re-equipping her with stuff (and I now see the utility of Hero's Blade is better than I thought... Oh, you knocked out Glissa? Guess what... she gets Hero's Blade for free when she comes back).

Sooo...

Basic Things
1. Mana, mana, mana
2. Equipment for Glissa, and perhaps enchantment buffs, too, just in case I run across artifact hate and the enchantments end up being much cheaper than equipment.
3. Enchantment/artifact hate.
4. Fat creatures for alternate win cons.
5. Consider control.
6. Also consider deathtouch creatures for 1 v 1 trades.
7. Does Vesuva have a role here to play? (Non-basic land that become a copy of any other land in your control) ...Yaass... Vesuva can become another Cabal Coffers. MOAR BLACK MANA!

While I was searching, I found a couple cards that I brought back from Wisconsin that are the same thing as a swamp and a forest respectively, but they're non-basic lands. Can you say Expedition Map targets?

I need to meet with Merchantess this week and spend out my credit for cards to beef it up. Why? Because I'm entering the big commander tournament next Sunday, where the prize is a full set of Revised dual lands. Go look up the prices. Drool and/or cry, at your leisure.

[Izulde]

Glissa's Dark Crusade (New working title)

Commander (1)
Glissa the Traitor (Elf)*

Lands (34 +3)
Cabal Coffers - GP Sunday buy*
Evolving Wilds*
Gilt-Leaf Palace - GP Saturday buy*
Golgari Guildgate*
Jungle Hollow*
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood*
Shizo, Death's Storehouse - GP Saturday buy*
Tree of Tales (New)
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - GP Saturday buy*
Vault of Whispers (New)
Vesuva (New)
12x Forests (Altered; -2)
11x Swamps (Altered; +3)

Out went Nykthos, and in came 3 swamps, Tree of Tales, and Vault of Whispers, the latter of which are artifact lands that produce a green mana and black mana respectively. IOW, 2 lands that can have Glissa recursion ability, in case they get blown up.

Planeswalkers - Both GP Saturday buys (+2)
Garruk, Apex Predator*
Vraska the Unseen*

Creatures (22 -7)
Arashi, the Sky Asunder (New)
Bellowing Tanglewurm**
Birds of Paradise**
Brass Squire (New - Artifact Creature)
Carapace Forger (Elf)**
Elvish Archdruid (Elf)**
Elvish Champion (Elf)**
Elvish Mystic (Elf)**
Elvish Piper (Elf) - GP Saturday buy**
Ezuri, Renegade Leader (Elf)**
Greenweaver Druid (Elf)**
Immaculate Magistrate (Elf)**
Joraga Warcaller (Elf)**
Llanowar Elves (Elf)**
Lotus Cobra (New)
Painsmith (New)
Priest of Titiana (Elf)**
Skirsdag High Priest**
Soul Collector (New)
Sylvok Replica (Artifact Creature)
Thrun, the Last Troll**
Timberwatch Elf (Elf)**

A lot of cuts here - wiping out the Elves that don't add mana, or buff Glissa in some way. Lotus Cobra is a mana generator via Landfall, Painsmith has great synergy (whenever you cast an artifact spell, target creature gets +2/+0 and deathtouch until end of turn). Obviously the DT is redundant, but it's another Glissa buff. Arashi is in here as another way of dealing with fliers, and a 5/5 body, though he'll probably be a first cut. Soul Collector allows me to gain control of creatures that it deals damage to, if that creature goes into a graveyard that turn. The idea here is, have it do damage, then finish it off with Glissa. Not sure how well it'll work, though. Brass Squire is another synergy add - I tap him to attach target equipment I control to target creature I control. So instead of paying all that mana to equip Glissa or Thrun or whomever with stuff, he allows me to do one for free. We'll have to see how useful he is.


Artifacts (22 - Unchanged; I just moved Sylvok Replica to Creatures)
Chariot of Victory**
Chromatic Star (New)
Darksteel Plate**
Expedition Map - GP Saturday buy**
Hero's Blade**
Jester's Cap**
Livewire Lash (New)
Loreseeker's Stone (New)
Loxodon Warhammer - GP Saturday buy**
Nihil Spellbomb**
Nim Deathmantle**
Piston Sledge**
Prowler's Helm**
Sacred Armory (New)
Sol Ring (New)
Sensei's Divining Top - Kamigawa packs**
Scroll of the Masters - GP Sunday buy**
Strata Scythe**
Swiftfoot Boots**
Tenza, Godo's Maul - Kamigawa packs**
Thornbite Staff - Russian - GP Sunday buy**
Trailblazer's Boots**

The new stuff here is mana (Sol Ring); mana fix/card draw (Chromatic Star); buff (Sacred Armory - albeit a bit costly at 2 colorless mana for a mere +1/+0, but it's repeatable for infinity); buff/recursion subability (Livewire Lash); draw power (Loreseeker Stone).

Sorceries (5 +1)
Cultivate (New)
Journey of Discovery (New)
Nature's Spiral*
Praetor's Counsel*
Roar of Challenge*

Cultivate is a land fetch card (2 basic lands, 1 in play tapped; the other in hand) while Journey of Discovery is fascinating. For the same cost as Cultivate, I can either fetch two basic land cards and put them in hand *or* play an additional two lands this turn. If I pay the cost twice, I get to do both things.

Instants (4 Unchanged) - Every single one of these is artifact or enchantment hate, due to the Sunday meta being heavy in combos involving these
Krosan Grip*
Molder*
Nature's Claim*
Naturalize*

Enchantments (10 +3)
Beastmaster Ascension*
Boar Umbra (New)
Eternal Thirst*
Feast on the Fallen*
Forced Adaptation (New)
Midnight Covenant - Kamigawa packs*
Molting Snakeskin (New)
Quest for Renewal*
Song of the Dryads*
Underworld Dreams*

3 additions here, all of which are enchantment buffs for Glissa. The Umbra has Totem armor, which means if Glissa would be destroyed, she stays in and the enchantment is lost. The Snakeskin has 2C1B to regenerate her, which is another form of protection. Unholy Strength may get chucked for Executioner's Capsule, which I'm supposed to get from Merchantess tomorrow morning.

Still To Go In
Executioner's Capsule

Cards I Debated Putting In
Mirrorworks - But it's 5 mana itself, and copying artifacts costs an additional 2 mana. Probably too slow for the meta, which has stupid shit like Turn 1 etc wins.

Sylvan Caryatid - The hexproof doesn't really matter for Commander, which has very little spot removal, and I felt like with the increased land fetches that Lotus Cobra was a better fit. Not as reliable, but the chance for more mana in a turn.

Nykthos - Yes, I'm still thinking about putting it back in. I have enough permanents that it might be useful, and it'd be another thing for Vesuva to consider turning into. Maybe not, though.

Colossus of Akros - He would be another potential wincon, so maybe he should go in over Arashi. I mean right now, my wincon is Glissa or Thrun via Voltron.

Overall, I feel like I strengthened the mana and have more synergy to improve Glissa's Voltron wincon ability. I'm probably not going to win the big event tomorrow - $25 entry with the prize for winning one of every single Revised dual land. But it seems like I've given myself a better shot this time.

[Izulde]

Round 1
Guy wins my pod on Turn 3 with the Hermit Druid combo. Scion of the Ur-Dragon was his commander. I hate when EDH does stupid shit like this.

Round 2
A lot more fun. Two green players against two blue players. The green players (I and another guy) ganged up on the blue players to take them out, and while he already had the game won unless I pulled a board wipe, which I don't have, it was still fun to take 2nd. Vraska the Unseen got to destroy a Winter Orb, and Thrun the Last Troll got Voltroned because I had no black mana available until the last couple turns of the game. I could have maybe held out another turn by destroying his commander with Garruk, Apex Predator on the next turn... but yeah.

Sit N Go
Two pods of 4 players each. Prize was a box of boosters (don't remember the set). One of the guys from Round 2 was in my pod, a Co-Organizer of the Sunday EDH that is my weekly Magic fix now. He was one of the blue players, and he's the guy who plays a deck that locks down and steals your stuff - hence why he was a primary kill target in Round 2. As it turns out, I had an artifact/enchantment destroyer in hand, and I should have left a green mana open to kill his infinite mana combo. Unfortunately, I had tapped out to bring Glissa into play for my Turn 3, and couldn't stop his infinite mana from going off. Three green players at the table and we couldn't beat him. Darksteel Forge hit the table, or whatever card makes all artifacts indestructible, and we were done unless somebody had an Exile or Sacrifice-style board wipe, which none of us did. I and another green player did have Song of the Dryads in our deck to transmutate something of his, but neither of us could pull it.

Afterwards I was talking to Co-Organizer, and he mentioned, "Your Glissa deck is too fair. Black/Green is a really powerful combo, but your deck is too dedicated to her, and doesn't do enough to disrupt the janky shit that everyone else is doing."

Point taken. I need to again reconstruct this deck to better fit the meta, which is all about stupid combo shit for the most part, that can win in the first few turns.

So what are some common Black/Green combos, if I wanted to fight fire with fire?

Druidspike


Put counter on Devoted Druid, take it off with Quillspike for +3/+3 boost. Repeat this for infinite power/toughness Quillspike. Very simple, clean, basic combo.

Mike + Trike Combo
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwYMOXmIUAAy5wy.png

Because of Mike giving Trike undying, Trike can do infinite damage to infinite opponents. This requires a fair bit of mana to pull off, but it's one of the easiest infinite combos in the format.

There's other combos, but they're multi-card, complex, and give me a headache just thinking about them. I like clean, straight shots. But the question is, would I have fun putting these combos in? ...I'm not really sure.

Any Glissa combos? Well, there's the machine gun effect of Glissa + Executioner's Capsule, which can essentially wipe the board of nonblack creatures opponents control for as long as I have black mana open. That's in the deck already, and will stay.

Other than that, not really. Besides, I despise infinite combos and find them completely unsporting. It's a trait shared by my fellow Glissa players I've noticed, who frequently, when posting decklists, say they don't want infinite combos as part of the suggestions (indeed, one decklist creator groused that he accidentally put an infinite combo in, but since it took four cards to pull it off, he supposed he would live with it. )

The Questions
1. What are my wincons right now?
Glissa/Thrun Voltron and Vraska's ultimate, which I've never managed to fire because I keep using her to blow stuff up instead. I mean, that's great, don't get me wrong, but still... it's an unused win con.

Neither one has worked, and in fact, I haven't won a single game since making Glissa my commander. Granted, that's because I haven't played her casual, but still. OTOH, I don't want to throw out the possibility of a Glissa commander win. I'd still like that to be an option.

2. How can I answer threats?
This is the big issue right now. As Co-Organizer said, my deck plays too fairly. It needs more hate, more answers.

So those are the two biggest questions that need answers. So just thinking aloud here...

The Core - Cards That Are Locks In This Deck
Commander (1)
Glissa the Traitor (Elf)

Lands (4)
Cabal Coffers
Evolving Wilds
Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Planeswalkers (1)
Vraska the Unseen

Creatures (1)
Birds of Paradise

Artifacts (4)
Executioner's Capsule
Expedition Map
Loxodon Warhammer
Sensei's Divining Top

Instants (3)
Krosan Grip
Nature's Claim
Naturalize

Enchantments (3)
Midnight Covenant
Song of the Dryads
Underworld Dreams

So that's 17 cards for absolute certain I want in the deck. Either they're cards I love (Loxodon Warhammer, I'm looking at you), or they go to supporting specific things I want to do in this deck. Or they're answers (see the Instants).

By the way, in that essential green vs blue game, Co-Organizer played Gauntlet of Power, naming blue, which would mean that Islands produce 2 blue mana instead of 1 - or a way for the blue guys to get back in the game. I glanced at my fellow green player and asked, "Do we want to let them back in the game?" "Nah." "Okay... taptaptap... Krosan Grip your Gauntlet of Power." "Fuck!"

Random Thoughts
If I'm not going to be one of those early turn infinite combo doofuses, I need more answers to those combos. And they have to be low casting cost.

Tutors would really help the deck out, but $$$$. Liliana Vess would be one of the cheaper ones at $9, because she's a 5 mana casting cost and the fact she only tutors to top of the library. Then again, if I had the Top out or another card draw mechanic... Hmm. Still, I like the idea of adding more planeswalkers, and I can then chuck Garruk, who I think belongs in a new Elf tribal deck I may build at some point.

Urf, which reminds me... I didn't hear what Merchantess said the price on Executioner's Capsule was. I think she said $4, but it's like 20 cents on TCG. I may have gotten robbed, but we'll see when I get my phone back tomorrow, what the text message says.

I should revisit this when I'm more awake and have time to look through cards to start planning my deck better. I do have some ideas though... but they're mostly along the Glissa Voltroning track. :P

[Izulde]

I'm just not sure if I can put together a deck with Glissa I really like that has a shot of winning. Which kind of sucks after I sunk cards into it, but I don't know. Started putting together a deathtouch-based deck, but that doesn't stop trample, which makes it pretty useless as a defensive mechanism, since the creature-based decks, when they go off, go off because of trample.

And then I found myself looking at my old buddy Iroas. He's been insanely powerful whenever I've played him in Standard, and if I decide to drop $20 on a card from a set that wasn't released in the US (Portal of Three Kingdoms), all my creatures become unblockable, because Iroas says they can't be blocked except by two or more creatures... and this card says...

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers...0516&type=card

So yeah... unblockable.

I think I need to roll with Glissa for a while yet, while also think about Iroas and this other card I have that I'd love to build a deck around:

http://www.mtgotraders.com/store/med...ker_Zegana.jpg

Some very interesting commanders to consider, certainly.

[Izulde]

So I had Glissa partially deconstructed. Merchantess couldn't meet with me because of going to her SO's dad's for Father's Day. I was waiting for cards to put in the deck. Didn't feel like trying to put Glissa back together for Sunday, so I said hell with it, and threw together an Iroas deck built around Human tribal.

I made a couple of changes already (took out a Dragon and two single creature red mana pumps and added Leyline of Sanctity, the elephant hammer, and Sensei's Diving Top), but for all its intents and purposes, the following is the decklist I ran with last night:

http://www.mtgvault.com/travelingman...ddy-roosevelt/

Game 1
I made a very stupid play early on. I was so eager to get the card draw going with Wandering Champion that I cast Pressure Point to have an open field of Second Organizer and attacked. He told me, "That was a mistake. The third guy has Priest of Titiana out." You guys may remember PoT from every elf tribal deck ever.

Sure enough, next turn, the elf tribal guy gets out an artifact that allows him to create infinite mana, and he kills us both by being able to pump up his creatures to infinite power/toughness. The sad part? I had a Divine Offering in hand, and could have destroyed his artifact in response to keep the game going. So... second straight week I could have kept the game going longer, and didn't. Second Organizer was disgusted with me, and Elf Tribal guy apologized for the quick win, saying, "I don't like to win that early, and it's the first time I've ever pulled that off." It was also only his second pod win.

Oh well, lesson learned. I rebought in for $5.

Game 2
Co-Organizer, Second Organizer, Friendly Giant, and me. I felt like a guppy amidst sharks, because all three of these guys are way experienced, and I think every single one of them has at least one card in their deck that's worth more than my entire deck put together, or close to it.

I'd learned my lesson from the last game and the week before finally, and just hung back. I got Door of Destinies in my opening hand, and that's the engine that makes this deck run. Co-Organizer is getting hated on, so he's struggling to get his Memnarch engine running. Friendly Giant and Second Organizer are building, while I very quietly work on my board state, getting Door out and dropping a few humans.

It gets to the point where Second Organizer very much has dominant board position, even with Friendly Giant hosing everyone with Winter Orb, a card I normally hate. In this situation, however, I loved it. As you can see from the decklist, my mana curve is quite low, and anything that kept the sharks from going off was perfectly fine with me!


This card causes major problems

Second Organizer was fine though, because he had mana rocks out, like Gilded Lotus, so he was able to keep doing his thing. Surprisingly though, some very stupid plays were made by Co-Organizer and Friendly Guy, which led Second Organizer to shake his head and remark on it. SO is a cool dude really - just an abrasive personality. CO had been having a shit day, both in Magic and IRL, so his head wasn't right.

Fast forward, and one of the dumb plays forces Winter Orb to be sacrificed. By that point, I'm okay. I've got a decent board set up, including Cavalry Pegaus, and the newly opened mana allows me to bring in both Heliod and Iroas. Unfortunately, we're at the point where SO will win the game on the next turn after killing CO. I do what damage I can to SO, knowing I can kill FG off if he manages to finish SO on his turn, which FG readily admitted. SO taps out my Cavalry Pegasus and goes to block. FG points out Iroas' ability that requires all attacking creatures to be blocked by two or more creatures. SO grunts and says, "Fine. I'll just take the damage then." That put SO down to 13 life - easily within killing range for FG.

And then FG lands the Tezzeret that allows him to tutor, and pulls out an infinite damage combo that kills us both, winning the game.

Still, I was proud of what I'd managed to do with my budget, last minute Iroas deck, and more importantly, I had fun with a Commander deck for the first time in months. I mean, I always enjoy playing Magic, and I liked my previous decks, but this was the first real delight to play. Sentimental value and money sink aside, Glissa just never fit my preferred playstyle.

So I text Merchantess and apologize for the annoyance of my switching decks to focus on, and that I'll have a new cardlist for her. She answering saying it's no problem, and just let her know what I need.

Oh, one more thing... SO asked to see Bloodfire Enforcers when I played it, and remarked, "A 4 drop that's 5/2 and can easily be given first strike and trample? That's actually a really decent card.. and it's Standard legal! Wow." I ed at that.

There are some very obvious drops in this deck, which I'll go through one by one.

Obvious Drops
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
-I regret getting him now. A house in Standard, yes, but in EDH, he's the very definition of mediocre, and doesn't really fit fantastically in any deck.

Lose Calm
-I had a creature steal subtheme running, as you'll see if you look through the cards, but single shot creature steals don't seem like a strong enough wincon to me. The next couple cards have the same single shot issue.

Rush of Battle
Trumpet Blast
-These are one turn use anthems (or cards that give bonuses to all your creatures, or all creatures of one type, whatever). As single use cards, their buffs are so minor (+2/+0, +2/+1), combined with their casting cost, that they need to be dumped.

Avacyn, Guardian Angel
-Love the card, but this is not a deck that cares about saving single creatures, other than the gods, who are only creatures if the devotion is up. The second ability is too mana-intensive. And the triple white cost is sketchy in a dual-color deck anyway. Soo... out she goes.

Mortal Obstinancy
-The buff is single creature, weak, and the enchantment destruction is too conditional.

Claws of Valakut
-I mean, if I have a lot of Mountains out, it becomes a nice buff. If I don't, then it becomes a bit too pricey casting cost wise, on a lot that could better be used for something else.

And with the drop of two single creature target spells, we can also eliminate...

Phalanx Leader
-He's great if you have cards to target him. But with only Spirit Loop and Acolyte's Reward remaining, he becomes pretty useless.

Akroan Conscriptor
-See Phalanx Leader, especially since AC is a 5 drop.

So that's 9 very easy cuts to make, and there's others we can drop out with little issue for upgrades, most likely.

Upgrade Possibilities
Lands
----------
Reliquary Tower - $3.87
Clifftop Retreat - $4.45
Cavern of Souls - $43.97

Tutors
------------
Idyllic Tutor - $14.50
Goblin Tutor - $0.73
Enlightened Tutor - $14.50

Creatures
-----------------
Yuan Shao, the Indecisive - $20.56
Champion of the Parish - $2.69
Angel of Glory's Rise - $0.33
Taurean Mauler - $2.73
Tajic, Blade of the Legion - $0.58
Silverblade Paladin - $0.50
Purphoros, God of the Forge - $6.37
Gisela, Blade of Goodnight - $11.20
Eidolon of Countless Battles - $1
Aurelia, the Warleader - $4.58
Angel of Jubiliation - $2.58
Intrepid Hero - $1
Mikeaus, the Lunarch - $3.05
Herald of War - $1.25
Iona, Shield of Emeria - $13.49

Artifacts
----------
Sunforger - $2.11
Akroma's Memorial - $11.95

Enchantments
----------------
Aggravated Assault - $10.62
Nevermore - $0.47

Can I afford Cavern of Souls? No. But it would be flipping awesome in this deck. It's a long-term addition. Lands can just replace basics, no problem.

Going down the list... all three tutors are pretty much auto-include, even though the Goblin one only gets me something I can use 4 out of 6 rolls. Enlightened Tutor is an artifact/enchantment tutor, Idyllic only an enchantment tutor. Red sucks ass for tutors - the worst color of all for it, in fact. Gamble lets you tutor for anything, but random discard is also required, which means you might discard the thing you just fetched for... aaand it's also $21. Nope!

Yuan Shao, which you may recall from last update, is an auto-include despite its heavy price tag, if I can find an English language version in good enough condition. Most of the ones available are Chinese, which I have no interest in. I may have to buy this one online, though I hate doing that. With him and Iroas out, ALL MY CREATURES ARE UNBLOCKABLE. I know, I'm repeating myself. Don't care. Too psyched about it.

Gisela (4C1R2W) and Aurelia (2C2R2W) are expensive as hell to cast, but if you look up the cards, you'll see that they're both huge gamechangers. Or just wait until I get them and post them in this thread. They're staples in pretty much every Iroas deck I looked at, and I remember when I played 60 card casual, how badly Gisela wrecked everyone at the table.

Important note: this Mike is the white Mike, *not* the infinite combo, instawin black Mike. He's also a little slow because without other card support, he can only be tapped once per turn. Very cool card, though.

Champion of the Parish also needs to go in this deck. +1/+1 counter every time a human enters play under my control? Sure thing, bro! Tajic, Blade of the Legion is a bit costly in casting (2C1R1W), but he's indestructible, and has a Battalion effect (attacking with at least 2 other creatures) of becoming a 7/7. That's value right there, so he probably needs to go in.

Herald of War is a slow build, but with each +1/+1 counter on her (she gets one for every time she attacks), Human and Angel spells I cast cost 1 colorless mana less. That goes a long way to making the deck run faster, so is probably another auto-include.

Angel of Jubilation is an anthem effect, but the real reason she's 1C3W is her second ability, which is Players can't pay life or sacrifice creatures to play spells or activate abilities. IOW, it completely shuts down certain types of decks. I don't know if there's enough of those decks in my meta to justify her, but she's a strong candidate.

Taurean Mauler gets fat very quickly in EDH, because he gets a +1/+1 counter every time an opponent casts a spell. Oh, and he's also all creature types at all times, so he gets Door and Coat buffs. Probably *should* include.

Angel of Glory's Rise is great for this deck, though hella expensive at 5C2W. Why is she great? Because when she enters the battlefield, she destroys all Zombies (not relevant here), and returns all Humans from my graveyard to the battlefield (ABSOLUTE RELEVANCY!) ...Yeah, I'm screwing my mana curve here, but probably another need to include.

The other creatures I'm probably not going to add for now, as they're either too expensive or too eh. Purphorous I'm not sure about - the pump effect and the granting all creatures trample is great, but I'm not sure I'll have enough devotion to ever have him online.

Anyway, through creatures we have, not counting the lands... let's say I throw in everyone I said should probably be in, or is an Iroas staple... 12 cards, so we'd need to make 3 cuts.

Moving on... I don't run enough instants to make Sunforger worth it, and it's slow, so scratch that. Akroma's Memorial pretty much demands to be in this deck, though. Recall I was considering it for my Glissa deck. 7 colorless mana is insane cost, but it gives a TON of abilities to all my creatures.

Aggravated Assault gets me another combat step, albeit somewhat mana-intensive. It's also repeatable, so that needs to go in... I can literally give myself 3 combat steps a turn if Aurelia and Assault are both on the field and I have the mana. Maybe even more if I'm *really* mana flush. Nevermore is just a great fuck you card to problem commanders, so I really want to include that.

15 cards, which would mean 6 more cuts if I got them all. Actually, with the number of creatures I'm going to run, Eidolon of Countless Battles should probably go in, too... 16. 7 more cuts. I would also love to get Iona, 9 mana casting cost aside. Being able to completely shut down the blue players would be LOVELY! 8 more cuts.

Let's see here...

1. Crater Elemental (Just saw his Ferocious is Activated)
2. Ajani Goldmane - really only useful if I'm running a lot more lifelink.
3. Acolyte's Reward - damage prevent/redirect is devotion to white, so bai.
4. Impetuous Sunchaser - Weak card is weak, especially with forced attack.
5. Word of Seizing - May as well chuck the steal theme. Well, except for one card.
6. Citadel Siege - Belongs in a Voltron deck IMO. Single creature buffs are meh.
7. Nav Squad Commandos - 3/5 that becomes 4/6 with Vigilance if Battalion kicks in. 5 mana seems a bit blah for this, and it's a card I wasn't sure about to begin with.

Quick check before my 8th pick - I'm cutting 4 humans and adding... 4. So thus far, that means I have.. 22 humans. Okay, still good enough to be tribal. Or is it? I'm going to say yes for now, and then tweak as necessary. Or maybe I should be cutting some of these adds. Hmm... decisions, decisions.

Stuff to think about certainly.

Oh, and you'll notice there's quite a lot of angels cropping up in the add list. If you look at most Iroas decks, they tend to be a lot of Soldier tribal with angels mixed in. I'm going a similar route - just with Humans, and perhaps more angels than most Iroas decks have, outside of the Aurelia and Gisela staples. Maybe that's a mistake.

OTOH, as constructed, the deck is *heavily* reliant on getting Door of Destinies out early. Diversifying to angels who do stuff is probably a good thing - plus, Coat of Arms and all that.

A lot of Iroas tribal decks have more anthem pumps than I do. But IMO the pumps are so small relative to their casting cost, they're just not worth it. Particularly since my only token generators are one shot deals in Launch the Fleet (which I may make my last cut) and Secure the Wastes.

I'll think more about this later.

[Izulde]

So Goblin Tutor is from the joke set (Unhinged) and Merchantess doesn't have any Enlightened Tutors left. She also is out of Taurean Mauler.

The cards I'll be getting from her this weekend:

Lands
-----------------
Reliquary Tower
Clifftop Retreat

Spells
----------
Illuminated Tutor

Creatures
-----------
Champion of the Parish (Human)
Aurelia War Leader (Angel)
Tajic Blade of the Legion (Human)
Silverblade Paladin (Human)
Angel of Jubilation (Angel)
Herald of War (Angel)
Angel of Glory's Rise (Angel)

What about Gisela and Akroma's Memorial? Those will wait until I see how the rest of this plays out, since there's over $10/card.

I ordered an English Yuan Shao the Indecisive online, but that's not going to be here until the first full week of July. I got that and from eBay, my first ever true dual land. Thanks for the birthday presents, Mom!

Additionally, when sorting through my cards, I added Mirran Crusader, Tivadar of Thorn, Children of Korlis, and Serra Avenger - or 3 more humans and an angel.

So that's 12 non-land cards. We already have the 9 obvious drops below. The 3 drops after them will be Crater Elemental, Citadel Siege, and Word of Siezing, I think.

All told I'll be dropping 2 humans and adding 7, which takes my human count to 27.

My overall creature count is originally 24, so dropping... 4 and adding 12, once Yuan Shao gets here. That means 32 creatures, yay!

Oh, I also put in Expedition Map to be able to fetch Nykthos once I have a boardstate in play.

Edit: Make that 34 creatures. 36 if Iroas and Heliod are online. Forgot about the Archetypes.

[Izulde]

So it turns out Merchantess had a worn Enlightened Tutor that she was willing to give me $2 off for the condition, so I took it. She only has one Angel of Jubiliation at the moment and it's in one of her decks, so I said just to keep it. Not sure what happened to Herald of War - she may not have that, or it may have been missed.

I went to her house and played with 3 way Commander with her and her sig other (still don't remember if it's her bf or husband). I rolled with this deck:

http://www.mtgvault.com/travelingman...ddy-roosevelt/

Game 1
Enlightened Tutor opens in my hand, so I play it to fetch Door of Destinies and things are going fine until Merchantess plays a card that wipes my board by dealing enough damage to kill my creatures. MM (Merchantess' Man, I've decide to call him), got land screwed the whole game, and it was a squash.

Game 2
I draw into the same.damned.part of my hand, so the game goes pretty much the same as last one, though MM is able to get a bit of a board state out himself before she squashes us. The kicker here? Enlightened Tutor, unlike most tutors, calls the card to the top of your library, so it's your next draw. Guess what my next draw would have been? ...Yeah. Door of Destinies.

Game 3
Merchantess is slow off the draw this time, and I whittle her down with Borderland Marauder carrying the elephant hammer (Loxodon Warhammer). MM is gunning for her, too. But then she steals the Marauder from me and a lifelink creature from MM to stabilize her board. Still, we've got her down to 14 life, and by this time I've got Archetype of Courage, a pumped Warden of the Beyond, and an Angel of Glory's Rising wielding the elephant hammer. Oh, and we got her to 14 because Aurelia the Warleader hit the board on my side and I hit her twice. Then she steals Aurelia and even though I have my Angel of Glory's Rising kill Aurelia next turn, it's not enough to save us, due to the commander's recursion ability, so we lose again. The real Kicker? I completely forgot about Iroas, and could have delayed the game, or possibly even won if I'd remembered to bring him in play. So.damned.frustrating. But better to make that mistake in casual rather than in tournament.

Merchantess' Commander


This is a fantastic commander. Merchantess tends to play a lot of black, though she also does green/white. Very much a control player. MM, on the other hand, is an aggro player, and as a result, he doesn't like EDH all that much.

Star of the Night - Iroas Edition


Absolutely badass. She's worth every penny it costs, and I <3 her very, very much.

Minor Stars
Archetype of Courage
That first strike ability keeps me alive against more powerful decks and creatures. It couldn't entirely keep up with Marchesa, but I lasted longer than anticipated because of it.

Loxodon Warhammer
I was seriously debating whether the Warhammer belonged. Well, never doubt an elephant. The pachyderm punch proved quite useful in the third game, and I noticed in looking through other Iroas decks that it's an equipment often included. Glad to see one of my favorite cards prove itself.

I'm thinking I really need to include Gisela sooner rather than later.

Going To Get Cut
1. Nav Squad Commandos
I've been iffy about this card even putting it in. A 3/5 with pseudo-vigilance and maybe 4/6 for 5 mana is really kind of crap.

2. Impetuous Sunchaser
As I said before, it's kind of garbage.

3. Outpost Siege
Mana ramp is a problem in R/W, so say I pull a card I don't have the mana for. Then it's bad. And the other ability is useless in EDH.

4. Launch the Fleet
Too mana-intensive for this deck. It's been a dead card in my hand every time I've drawn it.

Obviously Yuan Shao is replacing one, and Gisela will replace another when I buy one... probably tomorrow at the shop. That's a 5 mana and a 7 mana, significantly bumping up the curve - though Yuan Shao is a straight swap for Nav Commandos.

As for what will immediately replace those 4 cards tomorrow (other than Gisela for Nav Commandos if the shop has it), I'm not sure other than cards to buy. There's opportunities for other cuts, too.

What to add
Mana Ramp Stuff
As a green player at heart, y'all know I love having lots of mana to cast spells. That's one of the great weaknesses of red/white - there's just not much out there in terms of mana ramp or card draw, because you're gaining power (flying esp. in white), combat pressure, and burn (in red's case).

And the red/white/green commanders all stink. So it's basically rocks like Sol Ring, which I need to leech from my Glissa deck, and Gilded Lotus, etc. There's single use mana ramps, but I don't care for those, TBH. There's also Mana Vault and Mana Crypt, but they both deal damage to you, and Mana Crypt even in its cheapest version is over $150. Thanks, but no thanks (though I've seen plenty of Commander decks that actually have one).

Card Draw
I have a few of these options in the deck already, but most card draw in these colors, particularly red, are of the discard a card before drawing it. Not something I'm particularly interested in doing.

So what are my other options? Slow down the rest of the board. So if I had enough mana rocks, I could run Winter Orb (which you saw before), and there's a certain elephant card that slows down the game, too, which is only $1 so I'll toss it in if the shop has it, even though it's 4 mana (2C2W).

Sooo... more stuff to think about. We'll see how tomorrow goes.