Magic: the Gathering - The Resurrection

[Izulde]

Thanks. Good to know. I remembered today why I played a lot of green back in the day and still do now... I *love* mana dorking.

[Izulde]

I got a Khans of Tarkir and a Magic 2015 booster yesterday with a Target gift card I had lying around. Rares were End Hostilities and Soul of Ravnica (which of course are both not that expensive, and Ravnica is very disappointing value-wise for a mythic rare).

Based on the cards I got, and some adjustments I did at home, I played with the following Standard deck yesterday (no change to Thrun's Redemption)

Oh, some other things to note. Based on BYU 14's advance, I did shuffling of stuff from first edition of this deck, putting in more multi-lands and dropping things like the Mender, the high cost removals, etc, to replace them. That included dropping to 7 Plains, 7 Forests, so keep that in mind. I'll further heighten it by bolding the changes from the interim deck.

New Deck
6x Plains
7x Forests
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Temple of Silence
2x Blossoming Sands
2x Jungle Hollow

1x Eternal Thirst
1x Suspension Field
1x Spear of Heliod
1x Triplicate Spirits
1x Solemn Offering
1x Naturalize
4x Abzan Charm
1x Feed the Clan
1x End Hostilities
1x Viper's Kiss
1x Titanic Growth
1x Incremental Growth
1x Reviving Melody

2x High Sentinels of Arashin
1x Ajani's Pridemate
3x Ainok Bond-kin
1x Paragon of New Dawns
1x Servant of Tymaret
1x Scourge of Skola Vale
1x Sylvan Carytid
3x Mardu Hateblade
1x Ivorytusk Fortress
1x Sungrace Pegasus
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Tuskguard Captain
1x Tormented Hero
1x Heir of the Wilds
1x Armament Corps
1x Seraph of the Masses

Essentially what I tried to do is reduce the mana curve, so I took out a lot of 4 casting cost creatures and replaced them with stuff like the Hateblades.

Booster Pack Adds
Seraph of the Masses
Paragon of the New Dawns
End Hostilities
Naturalize
Triplicate Spirits
Blossoming Sands

So I played against Mill Guy again. He did beat me a few times, but once I was mana screwed, and another time he managed to pull off the Thassa unblockable combo.

Interesting side note: the guy who I let borrow my deck that one time... he told Mill Guy "I could beat Professor with your deck. You're not playing it right." Mill Guy was like Okay! I destroyed him. After which, Borrower shouted at Mill Guy, "Your deck is terrible. It's the worst one I've ever seen in my entire life!" Mill Guy just shrugged.

But after next game (he ironically won that time), he had me look through his deck. I told him to get rid of Distant Memories and Lens of Clarity for, I forget what other two cards, but they were ones that pushed his deck more firmly to mill, which is what it needs to do.

Then when he started losing again, he kept whining about how he wanted Lens of Clarity in there and it's awesome and this and that, even though I was like Lens of Clarity serves no function in your deck other than looking at your next card at any time.

I noticed he kept looking anyway after a couple games, and there reached a point in one contest where he had some Tome thing out that milled me for 2 during every one of my turns. I had Praetor's Counsel in my hand that I think I picked up one turn, but I couldn't remember if I'd remembered to mill that turn or not. I *think* by the card count I forgot to, but at that point I was so tired of his whining and the couple of times that I caught him peeking, and I had 8 mana available, that I said to myself screw it, I finally have a chance to cast this and I want to see what it's like. And oh it was so damned glorious. Like sex with your favorite celebrity ever glorious, to return all graveyard cards to my hand and have a giant, no limit hand. Needless to say I won.

Besides, one of the times he won, I think he was using a wall that couldn't block fliers to block my fliers. My own fault for not catching that until the last game, but it still cost me a victory.

Anyway, as to how this new deck performed. Triplicate Spirits and Seraph of Masses both have the Convoke mechanic, which allows you to tap creatures for mana to help with the casting cost - either colorless or one of the tapped creature's mana colors. It is my new favorite mechanic, because I can treat creatures as mana sources. Paragon of New Dawns was somewhat useful, but would obviously be more so if I had more white creatures in the deck. Scourge of Skola Vale, Sylvan Carytid, and Reclamation Sage are staying in, but the rest might go, even Servant of Tymaret and Tormented Hero, as their drains are too slow.

I did play End Hostilities once, when he got out a creature that allowed him to put a 2/2 flying Drake into play every time he cast an instant or sorcery, but overall, I don't think it's useful enough to keep long-term.

So glad they reprinted Naturalize. That obviously went in.

Ajani's Pridemate with Eternal Thirst is a fun combo. Oh look, I have Lifelink. Oh look, I gained life. Bam +1/+1 counter. Oh, one of your creatures died? *Bam* another +1/+1 counter. Keeps getting more and more powerful every turn.

I may drop 1 or 2 of the Bond-kins. 3 seems overkill, and while first strike is very useful, that's too many cards to one ability IMO. Note that I got rid of the deathtouch, lifelink, and flying mechanics. I have enough fliers to where I don't need the flying, and my thinking was with the Hateblades and Heir to the Wilds, I didn't need deathtouch. I might swap the Abzan Priest back in for one of the Bond-kins to restore lifelink.

[Izulde]

A couple of other notes from yesterday's games (My program partner lost interest in playing, unfortunately):

1. In one of the 2 or 3 games I played with Thrun's Redemption, I didn't have much out for creatures, and Mill Guy was absolutely convinced he was going to destroy me. I burned him for 20 life in 2 turns - that was the Praetor's Counsel game. He got mad at that one.

2. During our last game, a guy showed up who apparently has a Blue/Black infect deck. The exchange went something like this:

Mill Guy: Hey, you have another Elixir of Immortality? (Izulde Note: Mill Guy pulled it 3 times during one game because of reshuffle/recall type cards. All it did was delay the inevitable of my beating him that game). If I get one, I think I can beat your deck.

BBI Guy: ...How is that going to help you? I have infect.

Mill Guy: *rambles about other stuff*

BBI Guy to me: You know what his problem is? He has no counters to creatures, so they can just build up and destroy him before he mills.

Mill Guy: I have defender walls and some with flying.

BBI Guy: So? That's not good enough, especially against an infect deck.

Me: I have an infect deck, too.

BBI Guy: Really? What colors you run?

Me: Black/green, but I broke it apart. I'd still like to play infect vs infect if I reconstruct it. What do you run?

BBI Guy: Blue/black.

Me: ...Interesting.

Mill Guy: Oh, that'd be awesome!

Other miscellaneous notes:

Seraph of the Masses hit the board quite a few times thanks to its Convoke. It was a major damage dealer because its power/toughness is equal to # of creatures in play.

Sentinels of Arashin really got to shine these games, with Abzan Charm and Armament Corps dropping off +1/+1 counters everywhere on creatures. At one point in a game, I had a 9/9 Seraph and two 8/9 Sentinels, plus some other stuff obviously.

Incremental Growth is so fun, (+1/+1 counter, two +1/+1 counters, three +1/+1 counters to three different creatures. You can see where this plays nicely with the Sentinels, Ivorytusk, and the ability grants.

Speaking of, I'm currently considering having one each of Lifelink, Trample, and First Strike granters in the deck (Abzan Priest, Tuskguard Captain, and Ainok Bond-Kin). While each ability is useful, none of them are so imperative that they need multiples. So that would leave me another slot open for that third dropped Bond-Kin.

Viper's Kiss I may move to Sideboard - it hasn't done much of anything in the games I've played thus far.

Titanic Growth is just meh unless trample kicks in, so I may pull it. It's not strong enough to be a game-ender, and there's no recall ability for it.

So that would be 3 cards dropped. Tormented Hero coming into play tapped really limits its aggro effectiveness, and the drain is slow, so if I kicked that out, I'd be at 4 open slots. 5 if I drop Servant of Tymaret. If Paragon of New Dawns goes, then I'd have 6 slots available. Oh, obviously End Hostilities goes, too. 7.

Which would give me quite a bit of play to work with.

[Izulde]

So after opening all my Time Spiral packs, I got some new ideas for decks, including reshuffle of a current one. So I present to you...

Dropped Cards
2x Mountains
1x Bonehoard
1x Chandra's Spitfire
2x Copperhorn Scout
1x Forked Bolt
1x Generator Servant
1x Gaea's Herald
1x Khalni Gem
2x Kiln Fiend
1x Punishing Fire
1x Tuktuk the Explorer

Thrun's Rainbow Redemption
6x Mountains
11x Forests
1x Copperline Gorge
2x Fungal Reaches
1x Ancient Grudge
1x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Bellowing Tangleworm
4x Birds of Paradise
1x Drove of Elves
1x Ezuri's Archers
1x Disintegrate
1x Fireball
2x Flame Slash
1x Foresee
3x Gemhide Sliver
1x Hivestone
2x Lightning Bolt
2x Lightning Strike
4x Lllanowar Elves
1x Mirari
1x Nature's Spiral
2x Naturalize
1x Nicol Bolas, the Elder Dragon Legend version
1x Overrun
1x Praetor's Counsel
1x Quest for Ancient Secrets
1x Quest for Renewal
2x Red Sun's Zenith
1x Summit Apes
1x Thrun the Last Troll
1x Wurmcalling

This deck's main purpose in life is now to either burn you or destroy you with some big creatures. Or destroy you with burn caused by creatures.

Gemhide Slivers makes all slivers into non-flying 1/1 Birds essentially, and Hivestone makes all creatures slivers in addition to their other creature types, thereby making *every creature* able to be tapped for any color mana.

Not only can this mana be used for burn (Red Sun's Zenith, Fireball, Disintegrate), but also to summon giant ass creature (Wurmcalling - XG, where the power/toughness of Wurm is equal to X).

We also have the fun of Mirari, which allows me to spend 3 colorless mana to copy any Sorcery or Instant I cast this turn, including copying all the mana spent on that spell. For example, say I tap 8 mana for a 7 damage Fireball. If I tap 3 more, I can do another 7 damage fireball and change targets if I want. It's limited to once per turn, but still very nice.

What's that, Izulde? You're splashing blue with Foresee, and Quest for Ancient Secrets? Yep. And you're putting Nicol Bolas in, even though you only have red of this three colors as your base?

Yep. Seems a damn shame to waste what is essentially a rainbow deck by not *finally* putting in my Elder Dragon Legend I've been hanging on to for a while.

Deck Storyline
Thrun has finally decided to break his silence and speak of the Phyrexian dangers of Mirrodin. More to the point, he has surmised that if he can master the five magics, he can summon the mighty Nicol Bolas and protect the plane from the menace that assails them all.

To that end, from deep in his forest home, he calls upon his innate understanding of nature to summon the birds who have the might of all magic within them, and re-establishes contact with the elves, so that they might relent of their fury over Glissa's alleged treachery (actually false from what I've read of canon), and work together to save Mirrodin. He also is stunned to find strange new beasts who also have the light of the five magics glowing in their gem-encrusted hides. He studies these creatures, and finds their source in a massive stone hive, from which he ascertains how to draw the essence of all magic from all his followers. Around the same time, Thrun masters the art of teaching his allies to stay ever vigilant.

The great troll shaman then leaves the forest, journeying to the mountains to learn the ways of fire and lightning's righteous destruction. There, too, he meets great apes who live on the border of the forest, and enlists their aid.

He delves into the waters for a brief time, just long enough to discover the secrets of knowing what is to come, and how to revive the fallen and the spent. Yet, knowledge is not all Thrun finds, for deep in an underwater temple, he discovers a gleaming silver globe set in a gold holder - a prize he senses is extremely powerful indeed. He takes it with him, believing the shimmering sphere to be of great value in the coming war.

Newly strengthened, Thrun returns to the forest and uses all the power that he has acquired, summoning mighty beasts as preparation before at last calling forth the great Nicol Bolas, seeking that venerable dragon's help in saving the troll's beloved homeland...

[Izulde]

Dramatis Personae Update
1. Mill Guy = Pip
2. Powerhouse Red Deck/Scavenge Guy/Guy Who Borrowed My Deck To Play Once = Robbie
3. SuperStandard Deck/Blue Green Standard the 4 way times = Franz
4. Student who plays Magic = Ajani
5. Super Red/Blue = Rushdie

I think that'll be a good summation of the main cast of characters, with pseudonyms of course.

So I get to campus today, and see Rushdie sitting at a table, so I take a seat, as Pip's at a huge table with a ton of people playing, talking, and watching a four way game.

Another guy playing with Rushdie says to me, "Magic or Yu-gi-oh?" "Magic." "*grin*I'm sorry. You're at the wrong table." "Oops." So they get back to their game, and I notice Pip is just checking his phone, so I tap him on the shoulder. We head off to a spare table to play.

So, remember last week how I had Pip make a few adjustments to his mill deck? Well, apparently later that week, Robbie got so mad at Pip's deck he made major adjustments. Pip playtested the overhauled mill against another guy who made yet more adjustments.

Pip wasn't very happy with all these changes, remarking to me, "I get that they're trying to help, but just let me do my own thing, you know?" So I asked if I could look over his deck. I was then horrified to discover he carries his Magic cards around in a lunch bag, which ripped apart earlier in the day. I told him he needs to get a deck box for his Mill deck, and a box like I have for all his cards. He agreed, but I got the sense he doesn't have the money, so I'm debating whether to bring one of my spare boxes tomorrow to give to him.

Anyway I look through the deck, and immediately pull all of the Unsummons and a Doorkeeper, which would be great, except he doesn't have enough creatures with Defender in the new deck to make it work. The thing I immediately notice is that the mill starts *much* faster (a lot more 1 and 2 drop mills), and it's a much more focused, consistent deck overall. I was also pleased to see Lens of Clarity and Distant Memories were nowhere in sight, and that Sands of Delirium, a a card I insisted he put in last week, was still there.

So Pip picks out some replacement cards, and asks me my opinion on them, which I do, and in the end, his deck is looking much tougher and sleeker.

Then we start playing. We get through six games, and the following patterns emerge in what becomes a 3-3 draw:

Conditions In Which Pip Is Able To Win
1. He gets a quick 10 mill out on me and Jace's Phantasm becomes a 5/5. If he gets two out, I can potentially lose by Turn 4, as happened once.
2. He mills Quest for Ancient Secrets and Praetor's Counsel, which are my two mill stoppers.

Conditions In Which I'm Able To Win
1. Praetor's Counsel or Quest for Ancient Secrets hits the field.
2. Bellowing Tanglewurm hits the field.

Anything in between that and I usually win, because Jace's Phantasms are his only real offensive creature threat in the deck. He did mill me out once, in a game when he not only milled out Quest for Ancient Secrets, but also Nature's Spiral (which would have allowed me to re-fetch Quest for Ancient Secrets), and a good percentage of my burn spells. That was also the game Praetor's Counsel was the very last card in my library when it got milled out to end game.

Great moments from those six games
1. When I played Praetor's Counsel with no uncertainty for the first time (remember, last week it was uncertain memorywise if I did it legally or not). At this time, I also had out Hivestone and Gemhide Slivers. Needless to say, Pip was fucked. (Side note: Robbie and Franz came by to watch around this time, and they were both like, "You are so, so dead, Pip." Pip of course insisted that he was still alive. He wasn't. )

2. I finally got out Nicol Bolas that same game... only to have Pip counter him (Robbie forced him to put some counters in his deck, which would save Pip's ass a number of games this session. This wasn't one of them, but as of right now, Nicol still has yet to unleash his might).

3. The damn! look on Pip's face when I unveiled new toys Hivestone, Gemhide Sliver, and Mirari.

4. The time I had Quest for Ancient Secrets sitting out mid-game with a moderate graveyard, and Pip decides to use Traumatize on me, which forces me to mill half my deck. I immediately sac Quest and shuffle my graveyard in, "Thanks, Pip!" Robbie's like, "You know you just played right into his strategy there, right?" Needless to say, that was a win for me, because there's only one Traumatize in the deck, and Pip couldn't get any of his reshuffles out.

After those six games, Pip and Robbie play each other because Robbie's black/green Scavenge deck is a horrible opponent for Mill. Franz and I chat about card game mechanics in general while we watch.

Then Franz leaves, after Robbie whomps all over Pip. Pip's eager to break the stalemate, but Robbie asks if we can 3 way. I'm perfectly fine with this, as playing Pip's Mill all the time gives me tunnel vision, and I love playing a variety of people and decks.

What follows is one of the best games ever from a fun and drama standpoint.

It starts off with Robbie slowly building up his Scavenge army and my mana ramping. Pip is stuck on 3 mana and is getting attacked by me because 1. He has no creatures. 2. Keeping mill alive is dangerous to me because of milling, and because of Robbie's scavenge mechanic.

So it's Robbie and I going at it. We reach a point where he has several creatures out, including a 6/6, 5/5, and a creature that doubles the +1/+1 counters from scavenge, maybe one or two other things. I have two blockers out - Thrun and I forget who else. I of course immediately burn the counter doubler, which leads Pip to declare, "It's getting interesting now!"

This is Thrun's greatest hour, and where he shows why I named this deck after him. Turn after turn, Robbie's creatures attack, and turn after turn, Thrun blocks the 6/6 and regenerates. I'm eventually able to burn out the 5/5 and a 5/4, but I'm also down to 4 life and just Thrun as a blocker. Worse yet, Robbie's able to bring back the 5/4.

It's looking dire for me now. 4 life, a 6/6 ad a 5/4, with only Thrun's infinite regeneration standing between me and defeat. I should also point out that Robbie has 23 life, or something like that. Don't remember the exact total.

Wurmcalling hits my hand. 5/5 Wurm, and I'm able to survive at least another turn.

That's when Robbie makes the mistake that costs him the game. Instead of scavenging counters on the 5/4, he puts it on the biggest creature to make it 8/8. I block with the Wurm and Thrun, regenerate Thrun, and lose my Wurm, but also again kill his 5/4.

And then it happens. With 8 lands on the table, Avenger of Zendikar comes into play. Just like that, I have 4/4 Thrun, 5/5 Avenger, and eight 0/1 plant tokens to serve as cheap blockers.

I attack with Thrun, since I have blockers open. Down goes Robbie to 19.

I believe Robbie's 6/6 creature had attacks each turn if able, because he swung next turn, and a 0/1 plant creature chump blocked, and he's too smart to attack when he needs to work at whittling me away another way.

But then he also destroys my Fungal Reaches,and the card has another effect where I can put a basic land into play tapped. Landfall kicks in, and I now have 7 plants with 1/2 tokens.

Next turn, I must have gotten out another blocker - Gemhide Sliver, I think it was, because I swing with everyone, so Robby takes 16 damage from the plants, Avenger, and Thrun, knocking him down to 3 life. Otherwise I wouldn't have en masse attacked, because his 6/6 was still on the board.

Me with 4 life, Robbie with 3, and unless he can pull out a miracle, he's done.

*BAM* Board clearing card that wipes out everyone who is X converted mana cost or lower, including *just enough* to send Avenger of Zendikar home.

Only problem for Robbie? I drew Lightning Bolt and took him out (could have done it the turn before with Lightning Strike but I forgot to, so we both had blankout moments).

Still an epic game, and Robbie kept raving about how awesome Thrun was, and that it was one of the best games he'd played in a long time. For me, I've *never* had a comeback like that, ever, and for the guy I named my deck after and build the storyline around to be the one to keep me alive.. that's just awesome.

[Izulde]

A couple other notes:

After class, I always check to see if there's people still around and playing. Last night, Franz was with a couple people. This guy I've seen around offered to play me (I'll dub him Hagrid in case he comes up again).

Hagrid played a black/white life gain Standard deck. I stuck with Thrun's Rainbow Redemption, and ran into problems with having tons of mana, but nothing to cast other than a couple pumpable burn spells that couldn't completely wipe Hagrid out in two turns due to life gains he picked up.

Worse still, he had a black creature with Intimidate. I held my own for a while, trying to pump my storage land enough to knock him out with 2 turns of burn spells, but never got tot hat point. Then when I used a burn spell on his 6/8 flier, he tapped two white mana to make the creature indestructible, and after that, I had no shot.

Was funny seeing Paragons of the New Dawn and Ajani's pridemate used against me, though.

I was looking through my cards today for putting together a third deck, when I came across Chimeric Mass, which, like Wurmcalling, is a pumpable summons that would go great with Thrun's deck (artifact with +1/+1 counters for every mana cast). Even better, it can be made an artifact creature for just 1 colorless mana.

This becomes particularly useful when facing things like Hagrid's intimidate creatures, in addition to giving me another potentially big creature. I swapped out Ancient Grudge for it, as I prefer Naturalize anyway.

[Izulde]

While parts of my Standard deck were fun, overall it just wasn't very exciting to play - not like Thrun's Rainbow Redemption. So after buying a Fat pack of Magic 2015, and considering what I had, I made some big changes, and came up with a name and theme for the deck.

Avacyn's Meek To Mighty Warrior Horde
6x Plains
7x Forests
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Temple of Silence
2x Blossoming Sands
2x Jungle Hollow (This will probably need editing, but didn't want to mess with it for now

3x Abzan Charm
2x Banishing Light
1x Dictate of Heliod
1x Divine Favor
1x Feast on the Fallen
1x Incremental Growth
1x Ordeal of Nylea
1x Reviving Melody
1x Roar of Challenge
1x Spear of Heliod
1x Spirit Bonds
1x Triplicate Spirits

1x Ancient Silverback
1x Avacyn, Guardian Angel
1x Bloodsoaked Champion
2x Chief of the Edge
2x Chief of the Scale
2x Elvish Mystic
1x Heir of the Wilds
1x Herald of Anafenza
2x High Sentinels of Arashin
1x Ivorytusk Fortress
3x Mardu Hateblade
2x Seeker of the Way
2x Seraph of the Masses
1x Sylvan Carytid
1x Tuskguard Champion

Basic scheme here - flood the field with creatures, warriors in particular, and pump them up as quickly as possible. Then, if it gets to mid-late game, out come the angels, who should be large creatures, and who would grant me protection from colors. I want to fit another Triplicate Spirits in here, but not sure what I'd cut.

Again, obviously not a tournament winning deck or anything, but one that should hopefully be a lot faster and more fun to play than the previous two versions.

I'm also working on another deck for tomorrow, and may make another small change to Thrun's Rainbow Redemption based on the 2K15 fat pack pull.

[Izulde]

Made a third deck, but it's way too slow on the mana curve, so I'm just going to sit on it for now I think and decide what direction I want to go in.

I did make another change to Thrun's Rainbow Redemption though - swapped out a Flame Slash for a Siege Dragon - 5/5 flying dragon who destroys all opponent walls when he comes into play, then does 2 damage to each non-flying creature opponent controls when he attacks.

So basically, with the last two changes I made, I really beefed Thrun up for the mid and late game.

[Izulde]

So I got to campus yesterday and played Pip, as per usual. Naturally I wanted to test out Avacyn. First game he milled me like mad, and I was stuck with two Plains the whole game for mana, and I was thinking it's going to be a long day.

Then I beat him three straight games, largely on the back of various Warrior buffs and, in one game, Avacyn. Like I told Pip, this was designed to be much more aggressive. One game in particular, I was off to a bad start, and looking on the ropes, but then the Mystics kicked in, and I turned it around.

After that, I switched to Thrun, and proceeded to whip him five straight games, including one game where I won on Turn 6. The game after that, he started milling out my land and mana sources like mad, and I'm seriously mana screwed. But *finally* a mana source hit the board (I forget whether it was Bird or Elf), and I was able to bring out Summit Apes to again turn it around and force a victory.

Thoughts from that initial session re: Thrun - I continue to love on Avenger of Zendikar. Something like 3 or 4 of my last TRR deck wins have been due to Avenger. Bellowing Tanglewurm and Summit Apes are fantastic against Pip's deck, but that's because he's mono blue mill focus with very little creature capability. He admitted himself that he plays extremely defensively - to a fault.

So then a guy I'll call Java comes along. I first met Java last week, when he got annoyed at Pip for playing a non-Standard deck and was eh, whatevs about Thrun mana ramping because it's not Standard. Java really likes Standard.

Pip reached over to show Java how much land I milled, and I was getting nervous he was going to bend my cards, because Pip's very excitable, as I've indicated previously. Java bellows, "DO *NOT* TOUCH A MAN'S CARDS WITHOUT ASKING!" I very much appreciated that, and though my initial impressions of Java were not the best, they changed yesterday, in part because of that.

Anyway, Java asks if we can three way. I mention that's great because I have a Standard deck I've been wanting to test out against other Standard decks.

The First 3 Way
As has happened in every three way I've ever played, Pip is a threat to no one, but he annoys Java by milling various Aegis cards (including one that grants the player hexproof) and his second Ajani planeswalker. This leads Java to keep swinging for Pip, in part because of the milling, and in part because of my board.

But before I discuss my board, I want to reinforce the second Ajani planeswalker thing. Java has a powerhouse standard deck, and that planeswalker is *AWESOME*. So awesome, in fact, I'll show it here:



As you can imagine, 1) this is an expensive as hell card. 2) would be perfect for any Abzan deck.

Unfortunately for Java, I got out Spirit Bonds on Turn 2, and had a couple fast drops (Mardu Hateblade and Chief of the Edge) that I also pumped for two flying spirit creatures. Add in Triplicate Spirits and Feast on the Fallen, and we have a situation where I have 5 flying Spirits, who I'm consistently pumping with Feast on the Fallen and with Dictate of Heliod. I also got another spirit by bringing in another creature, I forget who.

So at one point in the game, I've got 6 Flying Spirits, 5 of whom are at 3/3, 1 of whom is at 4/4. Java has no defense against fliers. Ajani's at 7 loyalty, 1 away from the 100 life gain. *Bam*. In fly the 4 and 2 of the 3 spirits, wiping out Ajani and dealing damage to Java for another FotF pump. I also have Ordeal of Nylea on one of the flying spirits.

I should also note that Pip went out about this timeframe to Java, but Java had nothing to stop my fliers, so I won the game next turn.

The Second 3 Way
Interesting early game note: Pip has both Elixir of Immortality out, and plays one right away. I go, "What the... Why are you even...?", and Java proceeds to lecture Pip on the three circumstances to utilize EoI, none of which apply at that moment.

Pip decided to go after me for milling this time, at least to start, but when he changes to Java, who has a much bigger army, that's when Java starts attacking him. Meanwhile, I'm sitting back with Mardu Hateblade, Chief of the Edge, and Sylvan Carytid.

Then another land hits. In comes Ivorytusk Tower. Next turn, Incremental Growth. 1 to Hateblade, 2 to Edge, 3 to the Tower. Say hello to very short tap periods!

By this stage, Pip's been pinging Java with a 5/5 Jace's Phantasm, so Java is down to 10 life. It comes back around to me and I attack with all three of my creatures, then cast Roar of Challenge on Hateblade and activate his Deathtouch ability - thrilled that I'm finally able to try out my little sequence. Java's creatures all swarm to Hateblade, and though I don't kill all of them, it's enough for the elephant and the chief to stomp him out of the game. Yay, pachyderm power!

That leaves Pip, who has a Fog Bank and the Phantasm still out. His life has also been whittled by Java. At this point, Pip is thinking he's still got a shot at this. Maybe he did. Buuut.... Banishing Light, followed by my second Banishing Light, and he's left defenseless.

Game.Over.

Needless to say, I was thrilled at how Avacyn performed. Not sure that it's strong enough to play in a tournament yet, and I'm very busy tomorrow night anyway with friends in town, but maybe next week...

I so, so want that Ajani Planeswalker, though.

[BYU 14]

Ajani is amazing and if I was playing Abzan would be a staple. I am surprised that quite a few Abzan players don't play him.

The Mardu deck we tested on Cockatrice last week has been pretty solid. I put most of it together on Magic online to test different things and was winning at a solid 78% clip through yesterday.

Today I have experimented and haven't been as successful, which confirms I pretty much had it right.

[Izulde]

When we both have time, I'd like to try Avacyn against you. My guess is that I'll still get whipped, but maybe I can actually offer a small bit of resistance this go-round

[BYU 14]

Sure thing, maybe Sunday morning?

[BYU 14]

The print below is the aftermath of just how good a card Seeker of the Way can be the current Standard Meta.

Cast it on turn 2
Turn 3 attacked for 2 - Opponent played Ainok Bond-Kin

Turn 4 Cast Lightning Strike to kill Bond Kin, pumped Seeker, attacked for 3, gained 3 life - Opponent played Abzan Falconer

Turn 5 Cast Crackling Doom to Kill Falconer, plus 2 to opponent, pumped Seeker, attacked for 3, gained 3 life - Opponent passed turn

Turn 6 Cast Hordeling Outburst, pumped Seeker, attacked for 3 gained 3 life - Opponent passed turn (At this point I was worried about End Hostilities from him, but it never came.

Turn 7 Attacked with 3 Goblins for 3, held Seeker back in case of Devouring Light (another Abzan removal staple) - Opponent played Anafenza the Foremost, which can get nasty, but......

Turn 8 Cast Crackling Doom to kill Anafenza and deal 2 to opponent, pumped Seeker, attacked with Seeker and Goblins for 7, game over.

If he gets down on turn 2 and you can control the opponent with removal, he just takes over. Plus you can see that I still had answers in hand

[Izulde]

Seeker of the Way hasn't done anything so far for me, but it's been used against me to great effect. Why does your screen capture look so nice and my Cockatrice so ugly?

[Izulde]

Venser and Ajani's Iridescent Knights
12x Plains
7x Islands
1x Sejiri Refuge
1x Calciform Pools

1x Blue Sun's Zenith
2x Call to Mind
1x Decimator Web
1x Evanescent Intellect
1x Luminarch Acension
2x Mind Sculpt
3x Negate
1x Mirrorworks
2x Pentarch Ward
1x Sword of Body and Mind
1x Strata Scythe
1x Tefiri's Moat
1x Truth or Tale

1x Ajani Goldmane (Planeswalker)
1x Ajani's Pridemate
1x Archon of Redemption
1x Children of Korlis
2x Drowner Initiate
1x Flying Men
1x Griffin Guide
1x Knight of the Holy Nimbus
1x Paragon of the New Dawns
1x Pentarch Paladin
1x Sage of Epityr
1x Serra Avenger
1x Sejiri Merfolk
1x Soltari Priest
2x Sungrace Pegasus
1x Suture Priest
1x Tividar of Thorn
1x Venser, the Sojourner (Planeswalker) (3 Loyalty, +2 Exile Target Permanent you own. Return it to battlefield under your control at next end step, -1 Creatures are unblockable this turn, -8 You get an emblem that says "Whenever you cast a spell, exile target permanent")
2x Victory's Herald

At first blush you might think, gee, this looks a lot like Ajani and Teysa's Wedding. But they're dealing with different mechanics. A&TW was all about slow life gain and slow milling. This deck does have a small amount of life gain in it, but it also has quicker milling (Mind Sculpt, Drowner Initiate, Evanescent Intellect) and is loaded with stuff that has protection or can bring protection (Tividar of Thorn, Solitari Priest, Pentarch Ward, Tefiri's Moat, Sword of Body and Mind)

Although this combo may not ever happen, it's possible that I could have Solitari Priest or Tividar of Thorn with Sword of Body and Mind, and two Pentarch Wards for all five color protection.

Basically the subtitle for this deck is "Fuck With Pip". With the protection stuff I have built in, the Negates to slow his milling and reshuffle stuff, and my own milling ability, to say nothing of the various forms of permanent destruction (Pentarch Paladin, Venser), he's going to hate this one even more than he does my mana ramp deck. (He especially hates Praetor's Counsel and is thrilled whenever he mills it).

Keep in mind - I made this deck less of a fuck with Pip than I could have... there's islandwalk stuff I left off the board.

Blue Sun's Zenith could probably go away, but I wanted *something* to build mana on Calciform Pools for.

[Izulde]

Aaand the Venser deck is getting junked after 1 day. Lost 4 straight times to Pip and it wasn't close.

Played a couple three ways with the Avacyn deck. Lost once to Franz, but once won against Sailor (new person). Pip finished last in each three way of course.

Got sick of losing to Pip, so I brought in Thrun. Went like 3-1 against him, losing only because he got 3 Tome Scours and a Jace's Phantasm out in the first three turns.

Then Thrun went into three way against Pip and Franz. Pip once again finished last, and I took second to Franz - wasn't even close, really.

Might try a blue/green mill and mana ramp deck, or in other words, combining the blue and green parts of Thrun and Venser. We'll see how that goes, though. Nicol Bolas and Mirari have been sadly underwhelming thus far, and the storage lands, because they require a colorless mana even to put a counter on, are slower than I thought they would be.

[Izulde]

So Sailor taught me the basics of Vanguard, and I played a game. Not a fan at all - the print is tiny, the artwork so-so, and the mechanics boring.

Oh, another side note: Pip was looking through Fellow Instructor (I'm not the only faculty that plays MtG)'s trade/buy stuff to figure out what to get. Robbie is trying to help him with the right cards to get for the deck, both his mill and I guess a Blue/Green/White EDH deck Pip's trying to put together? Anyway, Pip kept shooting Robbie's suggestions down, and finally Robbie got so frustrated he said, "Fine. Then I'm not helping you anymore!"

I didn't hear the entirety of this, since that's when Sailor was walking me through Vanguard, but I did notice a lot of cards Pip was picking out weren't that good. I know Pip is young and immature, but damn do I want to make a deck that just rips right through him again and again. I mean Thrun's Rainbow Redemption already does that on a very consistent basis, but still...

After class, I ran into Java and Franz, who were dueling in EDH. They asked if I wanted to join. Tried making a deck out of the three I had with me (Thrun, Avacyn, Venser), but couldn't do it, so Franz let me borrow one of his EDH decks. Franz won thanks to Omniscience, which feels broken as shit to me, especially if he's managed to drop Jace's 20 card on himself.

Afterwards Java drove me home when I mentioned I had an hour and a half bus ride and wanted to get back in time to pick up Dragon Age: Inquisition. I paid him $5 gas money because A) it's the polite thing to do, and B) It's a 25 minute drive. We had a good conversation, and he mentioned a store opening up soon that's going to be casual friendly, and is hosting a get together Thursday night that I could go to after classes.

It's worth noting that EDH really intrigued me as a format, and is something I'd like to try at some point. Vanguard, I never care to play again.

[Izulde]

Today was a most amusing day. Notes when I get home.

[Izulde]

Before I describe my day, the deck I built this morning.

Thrun's Mana Ramp City
20 Forests

1x Chimeric Mass
1x Decimator Web
3x Essence Scatter
2x Mind Sculpt
1x Mirrorworks
2x Naturalize
1x Nature's Spiral
1x Order of Nylea
1x Overrrun
1x Praetor's Counsel
1x Quest for Ancient Secrets
1x Quest for Renewal
1x Reviving Melody
1x Strata Scythe
1x Sword of Body and Mind
1x Wurmcalling

1x Ancient Silverback
1x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Bellowing Tanglewurm
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Elvish Mystic
1x Ezuri's Archers
1x Gaea's Liege
1x Gemhide Sliver
4x Llanowar Elves
1x Sylvan Caryatid
1x Talara's Battalion
1x Thrun, the Last Troll

So I took advantage of my decks breaking up trying to put an EDH one together to allow myself to completely rip apart my standard deck. Most of this is stuff you've seen in previous decks before. I think the only new ones are Essence Scatter (counter creature spell) and Gaea's Liege (a Time Spiral mythic where power and toughness when defending are equal to number of forests you control, and power and toughness when attacking are equal to number of forests opponent controls.. and you can tap Gaea's Liege to make any land a forest.)

I didn't think this deck was going to be very good at all, and when I got to campus and Fellow Instructor said he wanted to duel me with his nasty Sliver deck. I warned him that it was a crap test deck, but he didn't care and wanted to play it anyway.

Oh, a couple of notes. I said hello to Robbie, but he was busy with Yu-Gi-Oh, and that's a game I know for sure I have no interest in. Then I spotted Pip and Fellow Instructor on the other side of the room, so made my way there, whereupon I found out Pip spent $22 on a commander card that, frankly to me, is not worth that much at all. Yes, it's a one drop (one mana cost), and it has elf-making abilities, but it's tapped every use, making it a very slow build. This will become significant later. At the moment, I was just dumbfounded that he spent that much money. Java was there, too, but he was busy at another table.

So anyway, Fellow Instructor's challenge...

Game 1 - vs Fellow Instructor
He crushed me. I got out mana galore, but had no spells to cast, and the slivers of his red/green deck absolutely railroaded me. At this point, I was thinking my initial instincts were right, and the Mana Ramp City was indeed crappy.

Pip then asked if we could 3 way, which we were both cool with. During the ensuing 3 way, this strikingly pretty girl showed up and apparently was going to be back later to talk trade/buy with Fellow Instructor. I was going to introduce myself because I heard Lathum screaming in my head, "Talk to her, you pussy! Man up!" buuuut I didn't, even though my mouth opened to say something, and she saw me looking at her, so I'm sure I looked quite stupid, like a giant fucking Izuldefish.

Anyway, on to the game.

Game 2 - 3 way vs Fellow Instructor and Pip
The usual saw of Pip being a complete non-factor in 3 player games applies here. He says he's won a couple of 3 player games, and I believe him, but it has to be through a fast Jace's Phantasm run, because otherwise, he only survives past the first one out if other players ignore him. Which they'll sometimes do, because he's so weak.

Fellow Instructor got mana screwed - no mana in his opening hand, but he felt adventurous and loved his opening hand. Problem being, the mana screw continued. Finally, he started coming back. I'm sitting there at 7 mana with Avenger of Zendikar out with 5 plants, and I'm looking in fairly decent shape, but Fellow Instructor's starting to sliver ramp.

And then I get another land drop. Never mind the 1/2 plants, that brings out your friend and mine... Praetor's Counsel. Fellow Instructor and Pip both swear, because it's pretty much game over when that happens.

Sure enough, it was, though by this point, Pip had milled me down so much that I tapped a Bird to bring in Quest for Ancient Secrets to prevent my getting milled out. It ended up largely academic, but still.

Game - 3 way vs Fellow Instructor and Pip
I can't remember exactly what I had out - Ancient Silverback and some mana sources, plus one or two other things. Drove of Elves maybe as a 4/4? Anyway, I attack Pip with the Ancient Silverback and the Drove I'm pretty sure it was. Pip blocks with Wall of Frost, and I Overrun to kill the Frost. Fogbank is out there too and blocks the other one. Unfortunately that meant the Silverback was frozen the next turn even with Wall of Frost gone, but still.

Fellow Instructor I hadn't attacked because he had a couple nasty slivers out, including one that granted deathtouch as I recall. Next turn, I drop Bellowing Tanglewurm. This naturally means Pip is finished whenever I decide to take care of. Fellow Instructor is cool with this because all he needs is a green mana.

Until Pip mills two Forests.

Long story short, I wiped out Fellow Instructor, one turn shy of his finally getting a forest to combat the Tanglewurm's Intimidate.

Pip, of course, was an easy finish after that.

Following this game, a guy who'd been at the table and was working on making a black/white deck who I'll call Jace (he was fairly new to Magic) asked if we could four way. Naturally, no problems, so off to the races we go.

Game 3 - 4 way vs Fellow Instructor, Jace, and Pip
We follow what is an unwritten rule of this particular Magic playing community, which is to leave new players alone in a multi-way game - for the true newbies, so they can have the fun of staying in the game as long as possible and learn by watching how other people's decks plays out; and for new to the other players newbies, to see how this new arrival's deck works (I've had this latter courtesy extended to me on more than one occasion since joining the group).

Jace actually hangs back for much of the early game. Fellow Instructor is slowly building, and I very quickly realize I'm in a situation where I can have some fun. Turn 1, Bird of Paradise. Turn 2, Strata Scythe, exiling a forest. When the others at the table read what Strata Scythe does, it's a collective swearing situation. (Exile a land. For every other land of that type on the battlefield, attached creature gets +1/+1).

Recall, if you will, that Fellow Instructor was playing red/green, and forest is the land that grants my Bird +1/+1.

*Then* on top of that, a turn later, Ordeal of Nylea on the Bird. +1/+1 counter every time the Bird attacks, and when it hits 3 +1/+1 counters, sac Ordeal to bring two basic land cards into play tapped.... which of course feeds right into the Strata Scythe.

So I work on Pip until Fellow Instructor starts his Sliver ramp. Then, I switch to him and get him down to 11 life. My next turn, my Bird is now a 9/10, and I attack again. Fellow Instructor goes to move his life total to 2.

"Wait," I say with a grin. "Tap tap tap tap tap... aaand Overrun."

"....Shit."

Pip comes back from making a phone call, "What happened?"

"...He overran me."

"Damn."

Pip was an easy squash, and when I go to turn on Jace, I'm sitting at 12 life through various attacks, mostly by Fellow Instructor.

Just when I think I have Jace finished off (he had 2 creatures out by this time, Undercity Informer and another one I forget the name of - tap for colorless mana any time a spell is cast, and each opponent loses 1 life, and Jace gains that much life), he pulls Elixir of Immortality. 5 life and he's still alive.

Next turn, he casts a card that gives him 3 life for every creature in my graveyard, and he survives for yet *another* turn. In fact, it took two turns to finally finish him off, but that was damn heroic on his part the way he kept fending me off.

Found out after the game the reason he played so passively was because he had a 6 land opening hand, and decided to roll with it (he was playing black/white, by the by), hoping he could pull his Angel to stop my rampaging Bird of Paradise.

At this point, Fellow Instructor says he's done playing and is going to discuss transactions with some people at another table. Jace, Pip, and I decide to 3 way.

Oh, and during this game, the girl came back, and I was once again going to introduce myself, and she even said, "What's going on here?" and Jace was like, "He's winning pretty easily right now." Perfect opening and I didn't say anything because I was studying the fucking field.

Game 4 - 3 way vs Jace and Pip
I drop a Bird of Paradise first turn, and Turn 2, Sword of Body and Mind. Pip swears, because Pip knows he's done. So I start cheerfully swinging and doing 2 damage, milling for 10 cards.

A turn or two later, Strata Scythe again, which made my Bird a 4/5 because I had 2 forests out (this is what I would have for a large portion of the game. I keep attacking and milling Pip, and I'm starting to get excited now because I'm going to finally mill his ass out if he doesn't get Elixir of Immortality.

WHICH HE DOESN'T, AND I FINALLY MILL HIM OUT!

...But he'd stopped paying much attention to the game because Merchantess, a girl with a massive Magic collection who has a side business in trading and selling cards came back, and he was looking through her blue cards, so he was like "Yeah, whatever, don't really care right now. I'm looking at cards."

I'm going to damn sure remind him Monday though.

Anyway, to Jace. He's got some stuff out, but nothing that worries me. I build up finally mana wise to where I'm able to bring out Bellowing Tanglewurm, but it was already pretty much over before then, especially since I'd gotten Quest for Renewal going long before. Jace had a hard time grasping the concept of not being able to attack creatures directly like in Yu-gi-oh, because he kept trying to Mardu Hateblade my mana sources, and I'm like "Nope. Sorry man, but only players and planeswalkers."

So that was an easy win, too, and a SECOND VICTORY FOR BIRD OF PARADISE!

Yeah, I'm that jazzed up. As I've said before, I *love* Bird of Paradise. If I could get a playmat of it, I would. ....Oh wait, evidently there's one on eBay. Guess I'll go bid on it!

Back to the cards, Pip was complaining that he really wanted Lord of Atlantis and a few other cards, but didn't have the money. And the girl was trying to work something out to where she would hold it for him and they'd figure out a meeting time with payment next week, but the logistics were proving difficult. And Pip was just like "Guh, it's so hard to find this card!"

If it is or not, I don't know. All I know is, I myself hadn't seen one in literal years. So finally I asked her how much everything together was, and she said, "4.25." I looked at Pip and said very calmly, "Will you pay me back on Monday?" He said he would, so I bought the cards for him, and insisted he pay me back Monday. We'll see if he does or not.

Then as I was briefly looking through her green cards before class (Jace was putting together a red/green deck to challenge me but I was running out of time), and saw some interesting cards - the one that takes away hexproof from opponent creatures and grants hexproof to yours. But the mana cost on it was like 8 or 9, so I held off for now, especially since it's a card that's in current rotation.

And then my eye fell on Bellowing Tanglewurm, which is fast becoming one of my favorite cards. Asking price was a quarter, so I took out Gaea's Liege, which is too slow anyway, and put in my second Bellowing Tanglewurm.

Pip did not look pleased at the change.

[Izulde]

eBay one is going for too high a price. Found a seller of Birds of Paradise playmats for $28 plus $2 shipping, but I'm asking about the condition first.

[Izulde]

Java told me that there would be a lot of people playing casual Thursday night at this one gaming store that isn't officially open yet (I think I mentioned this already, but if not, here it is).

After class, I go to the intersection he says it's at, and like a lot of gaming stores in the Vegas area, this is not exactly what I would call a good neighborhood. And I can't find the bloody store. Try texting and calling Java, and nothing.

So I'm like fuck this, and leave. One thing about living in Vegas, or really any major metro area - you develop a pretty good danger sense after a while, and mine was going off here.

On my way home, I stop in at Target, and grab the last pack of Nyx. (Because Fat packs are a ripoff - deck boxes are for shit, and the spindown die is meh). I'm standing there looking at the Commander decks, wondering do I get or do I not get. Obviously green is going to be my choice if I do get - no matter what time in my life I've played Magic, I always gravitate towards green as one of my most heavily played colors, as I think I may have mentioned before.

I put the green Commander deck in my basket and wander the store, debating whether I actually want to go through with getting into Commander or not.

I circle back around and there's two guys standing there. We get into small conversation, and I'm thinking the one guy looks familiar, and finally he says "...You look familiar."

"Yeah, so do you."

"...Don't you teach English?"

"Ah! That's it."

IOW, one of my former students. From one of my college sports sections. So it turns out that at UNLV, where I haven't played yet because it's difficult to find time on Tues/Thurs when I'm there, they play Commander almost exclusively. And at the community college, Franz, Java, and Fellow Instructor all play Commander. So that sealed the deal for me, and alleviated any qualms I had about getting into that particular format.

Haven't opened the green Commander pre-con to see what's in it yet, but Nyx was a little disappointing. The rare was another Dictate of Heliod, though there may be a couple cards I have use for elsewhere.

[Izulde]

Guided By Nature Pre-Con Commander Deck
Commander
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

Creature (37)
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Elvish Skysweeper
1 Essence Warden
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Priest of Titania
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Wellwisher
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Timberwatch Elf
1 Titania's Chosen
1 Wood Elves
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Drove of Elves
1 Immaculate Magistrate
1 Wren's Run Packmaster
1 Lys Alana Huntmaster
1 Masked Admirers
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
1 Creeperhulk
1 Silklash Spider
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Grave Sifter
1 Primordial Sage
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
1 Siege Behemoth
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Terastodon
1 Lifeblood Hydra

Sorcery (10)
1 Hunting Triad
1 Whirlwind
1 Overwhelming Stampede
1 Overrun
1 Grim Flowering
1 Collective Unconscious
1 Desert Twister
1 Wave of Vitriol
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Sylvan Offering

Instant (2)
1 Harrow
1 Fresh Meat

Artifact (10)
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Emerald Medallion
1 Moss Diamond
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Assault Suit
1 Seer's Sundial
1 Predator, Flagship
1 Loreseeker's Stone

Enchantment (3)
1 Beastmaster Ascension
1 Song of the Dryads
1 Wolfcaller's Howl

Land (37)
1 Crystal Vein
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Gargoyle Castle
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Havenwood Battleground
1 Jungle Basin
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Slippery Karst
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tranquil Thicket
25 Forest

Draw power is obviously a thing in Commander, judging from these cards I was skimming through. Quite a bit of draw card, mana ramping, some protection against flying... overall, this is a pretty damn strong deck out of the box, and that's what I've heard. Although quite a few people have told me black is the single strongest out of the box.

The primary purpose of this deck is obviously big creature swarm, principally elves, although there's a nice setup of wolves with Deathtouch due to Wren's Run Packmaster, which makes for a nice pairing with Sword of Body and Mind - a combo I initially had in, but dropped, along with other wolf cards (Wolfbriar Elemental, Wolfcaller's Howl).

So here's what I did instead

Thrun's Swarming Elf Army
Commander
Thrun, the Last Troll

Thrun is my boy. I've made him the naming convention of most of my green decks since I got him, and of course he was instrumental in the epic comeback win against Robbie in the three way with Pip. Plus, he's damn hard to kill, which is important for commander decks.

Lands (37)
34 Forests
1 Havenwood Battleground
1 Jungle Basin
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

Fuck that to all the non-basic land stupidity. We're playing it straight here. Jungle Basin calls back an untapped forest, but then is a two mana source after that. Havenwood Battleground can be an emergency 2 green mana reserve, but it's the weakest of the three, so I may drop it. The Vastwood can be tapped to put a +1/+1 counter on each green creature that entered the battlefield this turn. It's nice enough in the default deck with some of these cards, but can become downright dangerous with a few other cards, as you'll see.

Artifacts (9)
1 Chimeric Mass
1 Coat of Arms
1 Colossus of Akros
1 Emerald Medallion
1 Mirrorworks
1 Sol Ring
1 Strata Scythe
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sword of Body and Mind

Here we have our first non-Thrun additions (not counting land swaps obviously). Sol Ring is a Commander staple. Emerald Medallion I kept in because it's mono green, so bar the artifacts, this knocks casting costs down one colorless mana - which will be important for quicker getting out of things. Swiftboot Boots is in there for indestructible plus haste, which is very useful for certain cards in particular. Coat of Arms is a given in this deck, and won't just benefit Elves (more on that later). Strata Scythe has proven its worth multiple times obviously, and is a new favorite of mine. Colossus will be a fun 20/20 indestructible attacker when made monstrous, which can come soon in this deck. Mirrorworks I'm still going to try and get going, because can you imagine doubles of any of this stuff? That's what we call nice - though Sol Ring and Emerald Medallion are obviously meant to be early drops.

Sorcery (10)
1 Cultivate
1 Elvish Promenade
1 Nature's Spiral
1 Overrun
1 Overwhelming Stampede
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Reviving Melody
1 Sylvan Offering
1 Whirlwind
1 Wurmcalling

Can you imagine Sylvan Offering and Elvish Promenade on back to back turns? Talk about a flood of elves. Sylvan Offering does have a bit of a drawback though - it not only gives you an X/X green Treefolk Creature token and X 1/1 green elf Warrior tokens, but one of your opponents, too. Then again, if Coat of Arms was out, or if Overrun or Overwhelming Stampede hit the field... that wouldn't be an issue at all. I was so very very excited to get another Praetor's Counsel, though left my old one in since it already was properly sleeved. Whirlwind is here because I only have one creature with flying in this deck (and we all know what it is), and while I do have a few other protections against fliers, board clearance is always good. Cultivate and Reviving Melody are fetches, of course.

Instant (2)
Naturalize
Nature's Claim

Artifact/Enchantment destruction. Only difference is Nature's Claim gives its controller 4 life. Not an issue with how this deck runs.

Enchantment (3)
1 Beastmaster Ascension
1 Ordeal of Nylea
1 Quest for Renewal

My following the pre-con deck in terms of distribution is purely accidental, though it's scary in a way how they're lining up exactly, minus an artifact. Anyway, Beastmaster Ascension is almost broken. Quest counter every time one of my creatures attacks, and when there's 7 or more quest counters, all creatures I control get +5/+5. Well shit, I can do that just with an elf-making swarm. Ordeal of Nylea is a fave too - it not only pumps, it fetches land when it falls off! Quest for Renewal is a <3 card, too.

Creatures (37)
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Drove of Elves
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Elvish Champion
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Essence Warden
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Ezuri's Archers
1 Greenweaver Druid
1 Immaculate Magistrate
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Jagged-Scar Archers
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Karametra's Acolyte
1 Lifeblood Hydra
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Lys Alana Huntmaster
1 Masked Admirers
1 Nylea's Disciple
1 Priest of Titania
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Reverent Hunter
1 Siege Behemoth
1 Silklash Spider
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Talara's Battalion
1 Terastodon
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
1 Timberwatch Elf
1 Titania's Chosen
1 Wellwisher

The base of the deck was already quite strong as I said, so of the 37 creatures, I only felt the need to change out 13, strengthening the elf presence, adding another couple flying creature blockers, increasing the mana ramp, adding more permanent destruction, and the new mechanic for me that I've never used in any deck before - devotion to green, the last of which involves Reverent Hunter, Nylea's Disciple, and Karametra's Acolyte. That's two humans and a centaur, which doesn't seem to fit the other deck creature types (elves, beasts), until you consider that two of them are archers and one is a druid. Why does this matter? For Coat of Arms. To wit:

Elf Creatures or Creature Summons
1 Elvish Promenade
1 Sylvan Offering
1 Drove of Elves
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Elvish Champion
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Essence Warden
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Ezuri's Archers
1 Greenweaver Druid
1 Immaculate Magistrate
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Jagged-Scar Archers
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Lys Alana Huntmaster
1 Masked Admirers
1 Priest of Titania
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Talara's Battalion
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Timberwatch Elf
1 Titania's Chosen
1 Wellwisher

Archers
1 Ezuri's Archers
1 Jagged-Scar Archers
1 Nylea's Disciple
1 Reverent Hunter
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Titania's Chosen

Druids
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Greenweaver Druid
1 Karametra's Acolyte
1 Llanowar Elf
1 Priest of Titiana

In fact, every single creature has the potential of having another of its type on the field in this deck with the following 4 exceptions: Sylvan Primordial, Birds of Paradise, Silklash Spider, and Lifeblood Hydra. Spider has reach and is 2/7, and for XGG can do X damage to target creature with flying; Hydra is XGGG with Trample, X power/toughness in form of counters, and when it croaks, gain life and draw cards equal to its power; Primordial destroys target non-creature permanent of each opponent, and for each permanent destroyed that way, I get to fetch a Forest and put it into play tapped. Oh and it's 6/8 with Reach. And of course, you all know what the Birds do.

Planeswalker (1)
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

In a certain sense, Freyalise is better as a commander than Thrun because she's a mana dork pump (+2 loyalty = Elf Druid that's the same thing as Llanowar/Elvish Mystic) when she hits the field, and can destroy artifacts and enchantments (-2 loyalty). But Thrun can't be countered and regenerates, and he's my boy, like I said, so he stays. I'd probably mill myself if I used her second minus ability (-6 loyalty - draw a card for each green creature you control). Then again, if I had Praetor's Counsel in hand... so she might be useful yet.

So yeah... I have a feeling this is going to be a very fun deck to play. Once the elf and mana ramping starts, it's going to get pretty ridiculous. Or so I hope anyway.

[Izulde]

Halimar, the Poison Sea
10x Forests
8x Islands
2x Halimar Depths

3x Birds of Paradise
1x Bellowing Tanglewurm
1x Blighted Agent
3x Blightwidow
1x Cryptoplasm
4x Cystbearers
2x Elvish Mystic
1x Glistener Elf
2x Halimar Wavewatch
3x Llanowar Elves
1x Phantom Warrior
1x Phyrexian Juggernaut
1x Triton Shorestalker

2x Grafted Exoskeleton

1x Boar Umbra
1x Ice Cage
1x Incremental Growth
1x Mana Leak
2x Naturalize
2x Negate
1x Ordeal of Thassa
1x Overrun
1x Praetor's Counsel
1x Quest for Ancient Secrets
1x Spell Pierce
1x Walk the Aeons

This is markedly different from Glissa's Unholy Elf Army, not least because it's green/blue. That deck also focused more heavily on elf swarming for the win (and did only a so-so job at it), with infect as a secondary win.

Here, it's all about the infect, and as fast as possible. We have my usual mana ramping love, with infect creatures (Cystbearers, Glistener Elf, Blightwidow, Phyrexian Juggernaut, Blighted Agent), and Blighted Agent, Triton Shorestalker, and Phantom Warrior are all unblockable. Plus the usual fun from Bellowing Tanglewurm. I want 3 more Blighted Agents for this deck and drop 3 of the Cystbearers.

Notice there's no Contagion Clasps and no other form of Proliferate? No Phyresis either. Instead, we have the 4 drop Grafted Exoskeletons which give +2/+2 and infect. Is Phyresis better? Yeah, but that's the tradeoff by going from black/green to blue/green.

I think it'll be fun using the mana ramp to quickly level my Halimar Wavewatch to Level 5 (2 colorless mana/level) and be 6/6 with Islandwalk. Especially against Pip. Then again, remember when I thought Venser and Ajani's Iridescent Knights was going to hose him, and I lost every single game against that fucking mill deck?

Might make a second deck yet tonight. Well, it'd be third because, well, Commander and all that. But we'll see.

[BYU 14]

This is my current standard competitive Mardu deck right now. Made some tweaks to get it faster. So far promising, 23-4 in testing including 4-1 with the alternate version.

Creatures
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster (alternate 4 Bloodsoaked Champion, even faster)
4 Butcher of the Horde

Planeswalkers
2 Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker
2 Sorin Solemn Visitor

Spells
3 Hordeling Outburst
2 Raise the Alarm
3 Chained to the Rocks
4 Crackling Doom
4 Lightning Strike
2 Magma Jet
1 Murderous Cut
1 Stoke the Flames

Lands
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Temple of Triumph
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Caves of Koilos
6 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Plains
1 Swamp (drop the plain and run 2 Swamp with the BSC version)
2 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Silence

Sideboard
2 Elspeth Suns Champion
1 Chandra Pyromaster
2 Read the Bones
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Utter End
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Suspension Field
2 End Hostilities
2 Dictate of Erebos
(Also run an alternate version with 2 Hushwing Gryff instead of Read the Bones depending. Haven't decide which to keep yet)

Adding the Raise the Alarm makes it faster as I can usually get something out on turn 2 every game now. Bloodsoaked Champion is a 1 drop, so I can a first turn creature down, but have to draw a Bloodstained Mire, Swamp or Cave of Koilos to do so, which is not always a guarantee.

Still not sure I will run with Bloodsoaked or Goblin Rabblemaster (a 3 drop), which has been underwhelming for me as people try and deal with it quick, so I usually get 1 token for it. Even when it does get pumped from multiple tokens, it can be blocked by a 2 toughness creature, no matter how big it's power gets. So to use Rabblemaster effectively I have to use removal to have it run unopposed, which isn't always possible on turn 3/4. With Bloodsoaked Champion's raid ability I can bring him back for 2 mana after he gets killed, so it can still be a factor late game for 2 damage, or a sacrifice to trigger Butcher's abilities, but it can't block so I lose that.

[Izulde]

Only 12 creatures would scare me. I tend to run very heavy creature decks. I've noticed you tend to be the reverse. I need to put a standard deck together again at some point, but may wait until after the new expansion comes out in mid-January.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Only 12 creatures would scare me. I tend to run very heavy creature decks. I've noticed you tend to be the reverse. I need to put a standard deck together again at some point, but may wait until after the new expansion comes out in mid-January.

Actually it is 28 creatures, since Outburst and Raise the Alarm produce 16 1/1 creatures between them. Good for early advantage and late game chump blocking/sacrifice to Butcher's abilities.

Then when you factor in Sarkhans +1 is a 4/4 indestructible Dragon, and Bloodsoaked Champion (when I run it) has the raid ability to be resurrected if it is in the graveyard and I attack that turn, it is really 30+ creatures, with plenty of removal to spare

[Izulde]

Touche`.

[Izulde]

BREAKING NEWS!!! PIP ACTUALLY PLAYED A NON-MILL DECK!!!!

It was his merfolk deck that he'd talked about as building, and one he needed Lord of Atlantis for (he did pay me back, by the way). Not too much exciting to say here - The Poison Sea went roughly .500 against his deck. He had a lot of islandwalk mechanics, but I was able to avoid that after the first game due to constantly pulling either Halimar Depths or a Bird of Paradise for my blue mana.

The merfolk deck was eh speedwise. Can get out the swarm, but it's a lot like Glissa's Unholy Elf Army in that it takes time for the mechanic to get going, and I kept thinking "If I still had the red green mana ramp/burn deck, I would be destroying his deck again and again."

Not all a loss, though. We played two games of three way against a guy who ran a 1 creature control/burn deck. The dude won both times because Pip was trying to prevent my infect, and I was trying to kill Pip off before Islandwalk took effect. The first one was great - I killed Pip with Bellowing Tanglewurm and Llanowar elf on a life kill (this was also the game I had both Halimar Wavewatch fully leveled out, but he kept tapping them both turns with a creature he had out), and the dude killed me with burn in the exact same instant.

Truth be told, Poison Sea is boring as shit to play. Infect is a very boring mechanic. So I'm going to completely deconstruct it. I'm hoping after class to finally break out Thrun's Swarming Elf Army (which needs a cool name BTW), but it depends on when everyone goes home.

We did have an interesting scenario breakout. This one guy accused another guy of taking his binder and wanted it back, and it looked like a fight might break out. I was looking around for security to bring them over, as they usually patrol the area pretty frequently, but couldn't find them. Fellow Instructor was there, but was busy in one of the Lord of the Rings CCG variants.

Finally Accuser makes his umpteenth grab for the other guy's backpack to get his binder back, and Other Guy screams, "Fine! Take your bitch ass binder back!", throws it up in the air, scatters cards out of it, and spits on one before storming off. Fellow Instructor caught the tail end of this and said something to Other Guy as he walked off, but I didn't hear it - too far away.

So Pip, somebody else, and I, helped Accuser pick up his cards. I don't know what exactly happened there. I do know people have had cards stolen before, so I always make sure to watch my cards very closely, and have my box secure in my backpack, and my backpack secured to me when I play. Still a sad event.

In other news, The Girl was there again today, for brief instances twice. The first time I wasn't sure entirely it was her, as it was from a distance. The second time, I knew it was her, and I was going to get up and introduce myself, but she was clearly on her way out, and talking to Robbie and another guy I've seen in passing.

Soooo I went to a possible source close at hand.

"Hey, Pip. You know who that girl is over there?"

"*distracted look* Eh, no."

And then she was gone. Not a big deal. If I see her again Wednesday, I can introduce myself then. If I see Fellow Instructor tonight or him and/or Robbie Wednesday, I can ask them. I did, however, find the striking contrast in fashion styles fascinating. Last Wednesday, she was dressed in striking purple/black goth style attire. Today? Dark blue sweatpants and a Denver Broncos stocking cap with a pom-pom on top.

So this is a girl who I'm pretty sure likes Magic and football, and is cute to boot. Seems like a really nice trifecta to have.

Now to decide what deck to build for Wednesday...

[Izulde]

After class last night, I stopped by the union. There was a tabletop rpg session going on, but Franz broke away to play against me - a few Commander games, and then some 60 card games.

Going against Franz is pretty much going against one of those obnoxious tournament players, so needless to say, he beat me all games but one 60 card, where I had my unblockables out and managed to roll with Walk the Aeons and Overrun to get my first ever victory over him.

We chatted about decks and various cards, and he commented, "I like your Abzan Warrior deck", and implied I should go back to it, though the warrior mechanic is perhaps a little too underpowered for tournament play.

One 60 card game was amusing/frustrating. I kept building up Birds with Grafted Exoskeleton, and he kept finding ways to kill the Birds. He plays heavy blue, but a much nastier form of multi-color blue than Pip's mono blue forays.

In three games of Commander, I managed to build up in two games, but every time, Franz came back with either a field reset or some other way to neutralize me. He's of the opinion that blue is the best commander color, and perhaps he's right. I do eventually want to make a Nicol Bolas Commander deck. That said, the craziness of having 24 mana out by like Turn 6 or 7 was a bit dizzying, and involved me doing a lot of math to play as much stuff as possible in a single turn. Franz also approved of Thrun as a commander because he's such a difficult kill, and apparently there's such a thing as 21 commander damage leading to a win, no matter what the life total. So I need to reconfigure the deck to make Thrun the best badass of them all.

[Izulde]

Went to the Gaming Room after office hours and waited around a table while a four way game of EDH went on. One player had to leave after that, and he asked if I wanted to hop in, which I did. Three games of four-way ensued, and I discovered just how damn much fun Commander is.

It's crazy to see all the mana and combinations fly around everywhere, and it allows for a more fun, slower play that shows off just how elegant and pretty Magic can be at its highest levels.

The first game got ridiculous. I had an elf deck, and so did someone else. Priest of Titiana hit my field Turn 2, and then it was off to the races. I think it got up to 10 elves (including a third player who copied my Priest of Titiana to put in an elf and hitch the elf mana riding train). Both elf players also had out Timberwatch Elf, which you tap to give +1/+1 to target creature for each elf on the battlefield... so needless to say, Thrun ramped up mighty quick, and singlehandedly won the game for me, my first ever Commander win!

The other games I lost, but I was competitive in every game. Thrun made people very nervous and I was close to controlling the board with a 14/14 Thrun in one game when a black/white player brought out a Wrath of God to clear the field everywhere. I was so damned mad, because I was well on my way to winning that game, I think.

Anyway, two of the decks I played multiple games against both belonged to the same guy, who let other people borrow them. One was a Goblin deck (literally creating hundreds of goblins), the other an infinite mana combo deck (I despise infinite combo decks on general principle, because they're bullshit).

For further tweaking, I think my initial hunch of building Thrun up to be an absolute badass is the way to go.

Edit: Neither one of us had the green Planeswalker as our commander, by the way. I had Thrun and he had Ezuri.

I also really, really wish there was a Thrun playmat. But I can't find anything official, and the only custom mat I found had Thrun holding a light saber as an obvious Yoda play, and crossing universes like that isn't to my interest.

[Izulde]

I made up another 60 card this morning, but I was late getting out the door so I didn't post it. It's getting broken up anyway, as I didn't like playing it. Essentially it was a green/red with the obligatory 4 Birds, and the idea of pumping up creatures.

Got to campus, and I notice it feels empty. Pip is looking through a Yu-Gi-Oh collection for cards to buy, Robbie is playing Yu-Gi-Oh, though he did say hi and I stopped by his table to chat with him a bit. No, I didn't ask about the girl. :P The day just felt weird, and I'm not used to waiting to see if a game opens up I can get in there.

Franz was busy in a 60 card 4 way and then putting together a 60 card aggressive Jeskai deck, so we played after he put the deck together. I got ROFLstomped every game. I hate, hate, -hate- aggro decks with red in them.

Pip eventually made his way over and we played a couple games of 3 way before I had to head off. Most notable part of this - Franz with his normal 60 card, playing a game where he kept us both alive until he felt like knocking us out at the same time. I could have killed Pip at any time, but went along with Franz's gambit, just to see what happened. When I got back (turned out very early because I wanted to give students more time to write their research paper), I was met by a frazzled looking Pip and a cheerful Franz.

"So what's gone on since I've been gone?"

"He's been toying with me and toying with me."

"Not surprised."

So after Franz finally finished Pip off, beating him with his entire deck, we got into a 3 way. Franz won again naturally, but this time he showed no mercy, making short work of Pip, who had to go anyway.

After Pip left...

Franz: "I can't stand that kid. He's all like oh look I've got a 3/2, a 2/2, and a 3/3, and I'm like okay... I've got a 5/5, 6/6 with flying.. it's like what's your point?"

Me: "True... and he was all bragging about his deck, and I'm like ...it's a merfolk deck. It takes a long time to build up and is really reliant on opponents playing blue."

It turns out Pip also pisses people off by not asking before he can touch cards, and he digs his fingernails into cards when he goes to look at them, which causes dents (as Franz told me after I instinctively reached for a card, then immediately apologized when I realized what I did).

Oh, side note: The guy who threw the binder in the air Monday evidently bought a stack of Magic cards and had just left them a few on the table... and there was a Launch the Fleet rare. Guess who bent the corner of it? Yep, Pip. I mean, he's not a bad kid at all, but people just do.not. like him because of how loud, obnoxious, and careless he is.

Anyway, after that, we play a couple games of Commander, which against Franz's deck is still a head-banging experience. Then, as we're starting to get set up, two other guys who were on their way to grab supper stopped by, and Franz asked if they wanted to 4 way. They agree, and we settle in to play.

What followed was an insanely fun game - Franz with mono blue and a 1/3 Commander that everyone draws extra cards (I despise playing against that deck btw because of his abilities to take extra turns, and that fucking Omniscience), a guy I'll call Mario with red/blue/black/white and a commander that does damage to other players every time they draw a card, and the fourth guy, who I'll refer to as Prez who played... blue, green, and red I think it was. Don't remember what his commander did off the top of my head.

So three baseline blue players, and a green. What followed was a build up by me, including playing Terastodon to destroy a non-creature permanent of each player. What I didn't realize was that I could have destroyed land, but it's something to know for next time. It also gives the players who had their property destroyed a 3/3 green elephant. This naturally led to some hilarious jokes about finding elephants in the strangest places, etc.

Franz is up next and he copies my Terastadon, and he shows no mercy, destroying a land on everyone's field. So yeah, lots of elephants roaming around the board now. He did it even though I told him if he left me I wouldn't destroy his permanents next turn, because I had more permanent destruction coming next turn, which made Mario and Prez very nervous. He didn't take my offer, though. :P

Then I play my next permanent destruction card when my turn rolls around.. only to find out that 1) It's been banned in EDH play, and 2) Prez countered it anyway.

That card?

Sylvan Primordial.



So I have to take it out of my deck, which makes me a sad panda.

Anyway, I'm getting out a lot of stuff, including the usual insane mana ramp that comes with mono green Commander madness and I'm clearly in control of the board. Prez is begging Franz to overload Cyclonic Rift because otherwise they're all doomed... especially since I have Thrun out with Sword of Body and Mind attached to him, and that whole protection from green/blue thing...

Sadly, when I attack Franz to try and start taking him out, he does indeed overload Cyclonic Rift, which wipes out the board. I build up again, intent on killing him before he can nail me again, and it gets to a point where I'm able to drop Overwhelming Stampede with a 10/10 Thrun hanging out on the field with a bunch of elves, including Elvish Champion, and Prez had a forest out.

Franz: "You know you can kill us all, right?"

Me: "Really?"

Franz: "If you assign the damage right."

So I assign the damage. Prez is an easy kill because of forestwalk, but Mario pulls out a ton of stuff that kills off my Champion and a couple other things, which is *just* enough for Franz to survive, and because Drove of Elves was part of the attacking band, it gets then killed off as well, leaving me with only Thrun left. I'd also built up my life to 50 by this point, thanks to the green elf that grants 1 life for every creature that comes into play.

So it was down to me and Mario, who scared me because he's a powerhouse player like Franz from what I hear. Sure enough, I give it my best shot, but I was always destined to second by that point of the game, even though I pulled off turning his Commander into a forest to try and buy me time. (Thanks Song of the Dryads!). The ballsiness of that move got me props.

In chatting with Mario and Prez as we packed up and headed out, I discovered that they originally played green when they started learning Magic, and watching my deck, even though I didn't win, made them want to go back to their roots. That made me feel damn good, like my deck is worth something.

I did drop the Bird and Nature's Calling and don't remember what I put in to replace them, save that one was a Split Second spell to kill Franz's Omniscience right away. I think I'm also going to drop Sylvan Caryatid, and obviously I have to drop Sylvan Primordial, so I've got some wiggle room. I have a few ideas of what might replace them, but we'll see.

Oh, another note: Franz could have made me the first person out but he misplayed when to bring in Thassa, which would have made his Infect-bearing Sphinx unblockable and killed me in a single turn, since I had no response on hand. The next turn is when I launched my Overwhelming Stampede, so even I had been first out, at least I was still competitive against three guys with very strong decks, so that's good.

Important Note #2: Mario had a Cyclonic Rift in his opening hand, but held back on using it unless he needed to, so I would have finished second no matter what. As far as I know, green has no answer to Cyclonic Rift other than to rebuild as soon as it can.

I feel like I should end this post by finally showing my boy:



So, so awesome!

[Izulde]

Avacyn's Legion of Heliod
11x Plains
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Forests
2x Blossoming Sands
2x Jungle Hollow
2x Temple of Silence

2x Abzan Charm
2x Banishing Light
1x Dictate of Heliod
1x Gods Willing
1x Feast on the Fallen
1x Incremental Growth
1x Market Festival
1x Mass Calcify
1x Naturalize
1x Ordeal of Nylea
1x Reviving Melody
1x Revoke Existence
1x Spear of Heliod
1x Spirit Bonds
1x Suspension Field

1x Abzan Battle Priest
1x Archetype of Courage
1x Avacyn, Guardian Angel
1x Cavalry Pegasus
1x Evangel of Heliod
1x Favored Hoplite
1x Herald of Anafenza
2x High Sentinels of Arashin
1x Ivorytusk Fortress
1x Master of Pearls
1x Oreskos Sun Guide
1x Paragon of New Dawns
2x Seraph of the Masses
2x Seeker of the Way
1x Sungrace Pegasus
1x Warden of the Beyond
1x Wingsteed Rider

All white creatures and a non-white boardwipe, with green and black used for support spells/buffs. I have no idea if this will play any better than the Meek to Mighty Army before - I just know that it's going to play much slower due to the reduction of turn 1 drops. We're also losing the Mystics, though the total ramp will stay the same due to Market Festival. It's a much more concentrated deck anyway, whereas the other one couldn't seem to make up its mind what it wanted to be the basis. Here it's clear - white the base, with green/black support.

[Izulde]

Legion of Heliod proved a very fun deck to play. Went up against Pip's merfolk deck and beat it four straight games thanks to Cavalry Pegasus (all humans gain flying when it attacks), the +1/+1 counter effects of Incremental Growth and High Sentinels of Arashin, and the creature production of Spirit Bonds.

I really appreciated removal in this deck, too. Especially one game where Pip had out major board control, including two unblockable Phantom Warriors. Mass Calcify hit the field and he was done. People really praise Seeker of the Way, and it showed off its awesomeness several times.

Then Franz came over and we did a few 3 ways, of which I won 2. It was during this that we realized Avacyn is only good at protecting *other* creatures, not itself. oops. So I might revisit the name of this deck. I do like having the Sun Guide in here for the cheap, quick life gain. Fun part of this one - bringing out Evangel of Heliod for 7 1/1 soldier tokens. I'm still not convinced of this card due to the 6 mana cost.

Banishing Light is becoming another favorite card as a cheap exile mechanic. Sure it can get removed, but it's still very nice to have. Then we four wayed with Sailor, who used Pip's Mill deck and had as his only objective destroying Pip as revenge for all the mill outs he'd suffered from it. Forget who won that one.

Then Sailor had other stuff to do, so we reverted to a 3 way.. and it's here that we finally saw Pip's deck what it's intended to - bring out Lord of Atlantis and Stormtide Leviathan. And the thing was... he *still* lost. Even funnier - he would have lost either to Franz's Temur aggro deck, or to my deck, because I had Incremental Growth in hand with fliers that would have destroyed him.

Pip is like "Oh my deck's not that bad. I know it needs work but it's a pretty good deck." And Franz is like, "...You were able to do what your deck is supposed to do 1 time in how many games?" and I added, "And you *still* lost."

After class, Franz was still around, so we played both Standard and EDH. In Standard I won maybe once or twice, but I very quickly realized that Master of Pearls and Herald of Anafenza completely suck in this deck, and they're going to get removed. I also need to put in black removal, because Stormbreath Dragon absolutely ruins me whenever it comes out. Hornet Queen is a real assfarmer, too.

EDH got a little ridiculous. Mirrorworks got out and I just started copying artifacts, including Coat of Arms, which led to a scenario where both of us had 40/40 Elf Warrior tokens, to say nothing of my own elves out. Unfortunately, that was also when he had Stormtide Leviathan out, which I had zero answer to, thanks to his also putting Swift Boots on it to make it hexproof.

Finally that game ended and we had a 4 way EDH with Fellow Instructor and a guy I'll call Pudge. I had major mana screw for the early game, which I've never had before, and it hurt my chances of winning, even when I finally started getting mana and began building up. Still, I might have had a chance due to Elvish Champion and Ezuri out, plus the elf that gives me life for each elf on the battlefield.

But Fellow Instructor had out N's Disc (forget the full name) that wipes the entire board, plus Elpseth as another removal. Then Pudge played a card that turned all permanents on the board into artifacts. By this time, it was time for the union to close, and Pudge was just like, "Use the Disc, wipe out the board, and let's call it a stalemate". Which Fellow instructor finally did, and it would have meant a Turn 1 reset because lands being artifacts now made them destroyed as well (which in turn would have wrecked my plan to bring out Praetor's Counsel after the board wipe and regain position).

Thrun deck definitely needs more flying/anti-flying measures put in. I'd made some changes to it already, designed around more mana fun, but I think I might junk Sylvan Offering - too equalizing a force, even if the elf production is great.

And of course, Avacyn isn't even close to tournament worthy - it's just capable in casual play.

[BYU 14]

Just finished one of the craziest matches I have had on Magic online. I was playing my Mardu deck against a B/W life gain. I won game 1 in short order, but game 2 became a battle of life back and forth.

We were bout even mid game, but then I got Butcher and Sorin in play, followed up with a Sarkhan and it was steadily downhill for my opponent from there. Created enough tokens to protect the planeswalkers and ended up triggering both of their ultimate abilities, which turned it into a runaway at that point. When I delivered the lethal damage, I ended up with 126 life at the end, easily the highest total ever.

You can see the sequence below from mid to late to end game

[Izulde]

Wow. That's insane. Where did all your lifelink for your creatures come from?

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Wow. That's insane. Where did all your lifelink for your creatures come from?

Once I got Sorin up I was plussing him for lifelink and getting 11 each swing by Butcher and Sarkhan and 2 each for every block on the swing back from the tokens, plus Seeker of the Way had it's prowess trigger go off every time. I was gaining 20 life a turn sometimes, pretty cool. His issue was he put everything into gaining life and really had no answers in terms of removal except I think 1 Murderous Cut. I told him to invest in 1 or two more of those and look at picking up either Utter End or Hero's Downfall, preferably the latter. Then get Glare of Heresy in the sideboard for extra removal against decks like mine and Abzan.

[Izulde]

Yeah I've really come to appreciate removal's importance in Standard.

As for the updates of my playing, etc...

I've given up on playing at UNLV. Went Tuesday and it was just stupid because everyone there has win combos that can and do win by like Turn 4 or 5. When like 5 games of 4 player EDH last maybe 30 minutes, you know it's just gotten stupid. Particularly annoying - an infinite drakes combo leading to my Coat of Arms getting stolen to give those infinite drakes infinite power and toughness.

Yesterday at my other campus, Franz and Pip were playing the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers edition game with a guy I'll call Scrooge (he's a self-admitted cheapskate but who also has a very strict moral code - fascinating dude in a lot of ways). Scrooge was well on his way to winning with a crazy scenario until Franz convinced Pip to play a sequence that led to everyone losing. I've never played it so I can't explain the mechanics.

Pip was loud and obnoxious this game as per usual. He kept shouting that he would have won the game if he had one card to get another card, and Franz and Scrooge are like "...No... no you wouldn't have. Scrooge had a ton of points just from this pile, and that's not counting all the other stuff."

Pip: "It would have been close!"

Franz, Scrooge & Me (I'd ascertained something of VP total calculation from listening: "Nope, it wouldn't have. It would have been a rout."

Pip: "But I did really well for it being my first time."

Scrooge: Eh, it wasn't bad.

Franz: And actually it was your second time.

Pip: First real time! Professor, wanna play?

Yes, yes I did. I then promptly waxed Pip who got mana screwed, while I had Seeker of the Way, and I think Cavalry Pegasus up, maybe one or two other things. Pip still has yet to beat this deck. Oh by the way, I chucked Herald of Anafenza and Master of Pearls for Murderous Cut (black removal) and the black card that makes a land so that target opponent loses life whenever the land is tapped. Neither one got in play, however.

Then Franz, who was tweaking his aggro Temur deck, joined in for a couple games of three way. I don't remember offhand who won the first game between me and Franz, and I had to go after I was the first one knocked out in the second game (which rustled my jimmies, because I should never be last in a multi-play with Pip, even with his Merfolk deck).

Oh, and I also found out about a card/comics shop close to campus that's got great reviews. Pip got an Arbor Colossus for 10 cents (worth 33 cents, it turns out) there, which is a card that'd be great for my deck.

Also talked trade/sale a bit with Franz. We may have a framework whereby I trade a Stoke the Flames for a Siege Rhino, though I would try to get a little something extra since STF is worth slightly more than SR.

Pip kept whining about how he needed Bident of Thassa, but he didn't have anything Franz wanted for it. So then Pip asked me to get it for him, and I'm like, "...No." I helped him out once with Merchantess, and that was enough. Besides, I was frankly getting tired of his whining.

After class, I stopped by and Franz, Scrooge, Mario, and Prez were playing four way Commander. Mario sped up the game as much as possible so that we could five way EDH. As he noted, we would then finally have all five colors represented, as they were lacking green in any of their decks (It's so fun being the mono green guy).

I built up with elves quickly and got out Coat of Arms. Sylvan Offering for 8 proved my friend, although I mistakenly attacked Scrooge (who I gave the elves to... they were 22/22 elves by the way) at Franz's urging. I should have left him open to keep my elves at +21/21. Lesson learned. Anyway, I attack everyone in turn. Mario survives 99 damage attack from 9 elves who were 11/11 at that point, thanks to some destruction cards, and a little help from Franz to survive with 3 life.

Then when I attacked Franz, he used Aether Storms or something like that to send attackers back to my hand and survive. Mario started pinging me, and then Prez finished me off with attackers that needed 2 blockers for every attack plus all damage dealt to attackers was nullified (should have killed him first rather than Scrooge).

So Franz won that game.

Prez, Mario, and Scrooge started playing 3 way Yu-gi-oh, while Mario, Franz and I played a 3 way of EDH. I'm sitting in a decent position, with Thrun, Mirrorworks, activated Quest for Renewal and Beastmaster Acension on the board, and Sword of Body and Mind is in my hand, just waiting to get Mirrorworks treatment and equipping to Thrun to destroy both Mario and Franz with his what would have been 13/13 and protection from blue (to say nothing of milling 20 cards with each swing).

...And then Franz hits with Cyclonic Rift overload right before my turn.

Me: DAMN IT! *table slam*

I guess I was louder than expected, because everyone in the area looked at me. Oops. Afterwards Franz was like, "Why were you so surprised? I said I was putting it on the top of my library with that fetch." "I didn't hear you... I thought you said something else."

I've never, ever gotten to Mirroworks Sword of Body and Mind. Other artifacts, yes (including Coat of Arms, which was awesome fun), but not the Sword. I think I'll keep Sylvan Offering in, though.

The problem with being mono green is that you can be awesome early, but then everyone guns for you as the biggest threat on the board (literally). I've thought about switching to Surrak Dragonclaw and running green/red/blue, but I love Thrun so very much.

Difficult decisions.

[Izulde]

Today I had to drop off paperwork at community college, so went to store Pip was telling me about... only to discover that it's the same exact store where people had hissy fits over Saturday tournaments a few years ago.

I spent a lot of time searching through the 10 cent singles and 25 cent singles drawers. They had a special where if you got 20 cards at 10 cents each (for $2 total) the price dropped to 5 cents a card, or a buck. So I put together a pack of 20 and I think I'm set, until I look through the cheap rares binder and find two Fabled Heroes sitting there at $1 each. I immediately buy them and go to swap out 3 of my 20 pack for a playset of Cavalry Pegasus. Only I couldn't find a third one, so I ended up stumbling upon Acolyte's Reward, which, after some thought, I find I'm intrigued enough to put in.

After all the purchases, I'd spent $3.25, and we had...

Dropped
1x Evangel of Heliod
1x Herald of Anafenza
1x Master of Pearls
1x Oreskos Sun Guide
2x Seraph of the Masses
1x Sungrace Pegasus

Avacyn's Legion of Heliod: The Tournament Edition
11x Plains
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Forests
2x Blossoming Sands
2x Jungle Hollow
2x Temple of Silence

2x Abzan Charm
1x Acolyte's Reward
2x Banishing Light
1x Dictate of Heliod
1x Gods Willing
1x Feast on the Fallen
1x Incremental Growth
1x Market Festival
1x Mass Calcify
1x Murderous Cut
1x Naturalize
1x Ordeal of Nylea
1x Reviving Melody
1x Revoke Existence
1x Spear of Heliod
1x Spirit Bonds
1x Suspension Field

1x Abzan Battle Priest
1x Akroan Skyguard
1x Archetype of Courage
1x Avacyn, Guardian Angel
3x Cavalry Pegasus
2x Fabled Hero
1x Favored Hoplite
2x High Sentinels of Arashin
1x Ivorytusk Fortress
1x Paragon of New Dawns
2x Seeker of the Way
1x Warden of the Beyond
1x Wingsteed Rider

Oh, one more thing - I *finally* get a set of mini-dice today, so Franz can stop bitching at me to get some. They're very cool orange and red speckled dice with green pips (you can argue they're yellow, too). Was very glad to have them during the tournament.

Round 1
I draw the guy who's organizing the whole thing. That means umpteen planeswalkers and lots and lots of high powered cards. Needless to say, I got squashed. He told me afterwards, "You did well with what you have. Just got to improve your deck little by little with stuff."

Round 2
One of the cards I think I pulled recently (I'll have to check to be sure) is Villainous Wealth. I've been tempted to try and splash blue for it, because it looks awesome. Guess what I faced this round? Yeah... a black/green/splash blue deck built around Villainous Wealth. It pissed me off to no end seeing my cards be used against me. He also had the planeswalker who lets you steal creatures from opposing players. I fell pretty hard to this one, too, though was able to stay alive for extended periods of time, thanks to removals and Spirit Bonds.

Round 3
This is the one guy I thought I maybe had a shot at beating. I'd seen him play before the tournament, and noticed he ran red/white/black. I was tipped off to his deck not being tournament great when I saw Herald of Anafenza on the field. Game 1, he's slightly mana screwed early, but then starts building and has Raise the Alarm soldiers out and a planeswalker, I think it was? Meanwhile, I'm sitting there with Seeker of the Way, Spirit Bonds, and a spirit token. He's down to enough life that I can beat him in a couple of turns if he doesn't draw mana, but I don't feel safe about that. I draw Incremental Growth to hand, and I'm cursing my having only two creatures when it dawns on me.... it doesn't say creatures I control! So I +1/+1 one of his soldiers, +2/+2 Seeker, and +3/+3 the Spirit token, which flying damage is enough to kill him and net me my first ever MtG tournament game win!.

Other notes: The early game was dominated by Avacyn, who did her damnedst to show she was worthy before he hit her with Hero's Downfall.

Second game, I see the dreaded Butcher and Ankle-Shanker combo, the Ankle-shanker of which I got recently. So I lose that one, even though I've got Spirit Bonds out yet again, and am constantly using it to summon blockers and stay alive, stay alive.

Third game - we're going back and forth. I've destroyed one Butcher and exiled another via Banishing Light. He's got the Ankle-Shanker out again and a couple other things I can't recall. I once more have Spirit Bonds out (Seriously, I was getting incredible luck all night with Spirit Bonds in play), along with High Sentinels of Arashin, plus whatever spirit tokens I had floating around (har-har).

I get him down to one life, with the Butcher out and Ankle-Shanker gone via some removal of mine - I forget which. High Sentinels and a spirit are back on the board, thanks to Reviving Melody. I think I've got him, when all of a sudden, he sacs one of his soldier tokens and gives the Butcher lifelink to shoot up to a safe level of life.

I think I got rid of the Butcher after that, and I'm sitting with a 1/1 spirit token. Organizer calls time and there's 5 turns. Long story short over the next five turns, as I don't remember the exact sequence, neither one is able to secure victory conditions, thereby ending in a draw and my first non-forfeit, non-bye tournament points ever in Magic!

Round 4
A real jokester was my opponent this time. Played mono black and harming Herald of Torments, and other stuff. First game, I had to mull down to 5, so it was over before it started. Second game, he got mana screwed, but Warden of Beyond got its chance to shine here, as I exiled something of his to make my Warden 4/4, and I had a couple other creatures with total board control, and won shortly, making it my second ever tournament game win. Third game, mana screwed again.

Round 5
I was given a bye, and automatic 3 points. Like the guy who forfeited the last tournament I played in, I don't count this.

Promo card for participation was meh. Our choice of three, and I picked up the black/white multi-player card, not realizing it was MP until after I'd already chosen it. Should still be fun, though.

General Tournament Notes
1. Removal is *heavy* in Standard right now. I can't count the number of times I got slammed by Hero's Downfall, which I probably need four of. Bile Blight got a lot of play too, which is a card I have. Something to think about, I guess, though it's useless against Stormbreath dragon.

2. Everyone, and I mean *everyone* I played against had at least one planeswalker, and most had multiple. Guess who has not a single planeswalker who's Standard legal? Yeah, me.

3. Spirit Bonds was a frigging champ tonight. It hit the board in several matches and kept me alive turn after turn after turn.

4. I got to attack with Fabled Hero a grand total of once. Every other time he arrived on the field, he was an immediate removal target. So it appears my hunch about his awesomeness is right.

5. Seemed like every deck I played with green in it had multiple Coursers of Krufix (sp) in it. It was worth keeping the enchantment removals in my mainboard (I had no sideboard) just for that alone. Guess who doesn't even have 1? Yep, me again.

After the tournament, I bought 3x Abzan Ascendancy at 25 cents each from Merchantess, who, it turns out, works at the store. She asked if I'd seen Fellow Instructor, who apparently plays there some Fridays, but I hadn't and didn't.

Siege Rhino down to 4.50 store price. So tempted to buy a playset, but then I would need to bring in Abzan Falconers, which would raise the mana curve back up again after I lowered it by getting rid of the Seraphs and Evangel. Still, I can't get this image of flying Siego Rhinos out of my head.

I do like this deck, though, and I think it can be tweaked to be more successful even if I do get rid of the humans + Cavalry Pegasus to fly mechanic, in favor of flying rhinos with lifelink (Abzan Falconers and Battle Priests is my current thought). But I need to think about the path I want to take the deck before I commit serious money to it.

[BYU 14]

Good showing, deck is slowly coming along. Would definitely pickup Rhino and add 3 or 4 Sylvan Caryatids in their as well, always nice when you can use it to drop a Rhino on turn 3.

I hate playing Villainous Wealth decks with all the burn I was playing in my Mardu deck. Only one guy was running it at the store I play at and I was able to beat him both times, but they are always tense matchups if he gets it out late. The key against them is press early and make them have to use it when they can only steal 3 or 4 cards, then hope half of them are land

I am going with my Mardu protect deck today. All removal out except 4 Crackling Doom, 3 Chained to the Rocks and 2 Hero's downfall. Anxious to see how the 8 protection from cards (4 Gods Willing and 4 Feat of Resistance) will fair. I am expecting they will give me an element of surprise since I have never seen a Mardu deck run them and could be game savers by keeping Butcher in play.

[Izulde]

Thanks. Rhinos and Caryatids I'm a bit conflicted on - it would involve a complete reconstruction of the deck, but we'll see.

Other things I noticed - any deck with black in it usually had Thoughtseize and Hero's Downfall, but both are out of my price range atm, and I'm morally against spending more than a few bucks on a single card (my screwup with Temple of Silence the tournament before this notwithstanding).

Yeah, that Villainous Wealth is not fun at all to go against. I just checked and I did pull it and Ankle-Shanker over the last couple weeks. Ankle Shanker was a *bitch*. Even when I had enough power to stop it, that combo of first strike + death touch was unbeatable.

I'm curious to see how the Gods Willing and Feat of Resistance go, too. I was thinking this morning that they act as essential counterspells to removal spells, and Feat of Resistance would be particularly useful in the deck that I'm running - even if I do eliminate the Humans + Cavalry Pegasus baseline.

[BYU 14]

The new build was solid today, place top 4 and my only loss was to a R/B constellation deck whip deck. Game 1 went almost 25 minutes and he just wore me down. Game 2 I boarded in all the right answers (Hushwing Gryff, Anger of the Gods, Utter End and Erase) but only drew a Hushwing Gryff and an Utter End and while Hushwing stopped Doomwake Giant and Hornet Queen from triggering their effects he had mana advantage and got a second Whip of Erebos down after I used Utter End on the first and I didn't have enough gas to stay up with him.

Thinking I will keep Feat of Resistance and put three Lightning Strikes back in for Gods Willing. Not having some burn can be a frustrating late game, but overall I am happy with the results.

Also played Commander for the first time after the tournament, borrowing the store owners deck which was just insane, but so many of the cards are older, so I wouldn't have had a clue on how to pilot it if he hadn't been giving me pointers. Still fun, so I may look into playing this more.

[Izulde]

Commander is like crack once you start playing it.

Surrak Dragonclaw is going to be my new Commander, I think. I love Thrun, but mono green has no answer for things like Stormtide Leviathan, so I need to run R/G/U to get some destruction/counter stuff to deal with those sorts of threats. It's weird, actually... my Standard deck is built around flying, but my Commander deck currently has no fliers.

Think I'll keep the elf swarm as the main basis of the deck, but remove some stuff to get red destruction and blue counter in there - perhaps some fliers as well. It'll be tough figuring out how to distribute the lands due to the 1 per card limit with exception of non-basic lands, but we'll see how it goes.

[Izulde]

Played Current Student last week against his legacy Blue/White deck built around control and defense until he gets a creature hexproofed and pumped up. I won 3 games out of 4, so that was pretty good.

Then yesterday, while I was waiting for students to drop final assignments off after I took my math final, I played the new Lord of the Rings deck-building game with Pip and a couple other people. It was the last one with the journey of the Ring either destroyed or not. Lot of fun, but it's a long play. Everyone lost, which was my objective when my win con got screwed, so yay.

I also made tweaks to the Avacyn deck to be able to test out which of the added abilities I liked best, and cut away the Human + Cavalry Pegasus combo. Although I beat Pip 4 games to 2 against his merfolk deck, which has new nastiness in that he got cards that turn lands into islands, I was annoyed at losing even once to him. Yes, his is a legacy deck, and yes he was bragging about beating some guy by Turn 7 thanks to Door of Destinies and a merfolk he can keep blinking in and out to pump up all his merfolk, but I hate losing to him, and the Avacyn deck felt worse for the changes I made.

Then I played against his mill deck and went 1-1. He almost milled me out twice, but the first game I managed to get Sentinels of Arashin and Fabled Hero pumped up and once I exiled his board, it was a quick two turn wipeout to save me. Standard isn't really made to mess with mill right now, or have defenses against it.

I've made major changes to the standard deck, but I'm still not happy with it, so I'm not going to post the overhaul I did, like I usually do. I still need to reconfigure my Commander deck as a Surrak Dragonclaw deck, but I also want to make a G/Blue/B modern Mill deck around Villainous Wealth and mill stuff.

I'm also a little annoyed with myself right now - I can't find where I put my Bile Blight, and I need that as a sideboard for dealing with those damn goblin swarm decks that certain people run. :P

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I'm also a little annoyed with myself right now - I can't find where I put my Bile Blight, and I need that as a sideboard for dealing with those damn goblin swarm decks that certain people run. :P

Don't hate

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Don't hate

Found my Bile Blight, and I have some other toys on tap for dealing with your deck. You'll ROFLstomp me still, but at least I might last a few turns.

[Izulde]

Based on my Christmas pulls, I'm toying with a green/black base and a red/black base in two new decks. Both have new themes. The black/red took me by surprise, but the pulls demand a deck around them. The big question is where and how much white is involved in each deck.

[Izulde]

Pharika's Enchanted Circle

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 Elvish Mystic
2x Hero of Leina Tower
3x Leafcrown Dryad (E)
1x Mistcutter Hydra
1x Nighthowler (E)
1x Pharika, God of Affliction (E)
2x Rotting Mastodon
2x Seeker of the Way
1x Siege Rhino
1x Sightless Brawler (E)
1x Underworld Coinsmith (E)

Enchantments
1x Armament of Nyx
1x Bow of Nylea
1x Brave the Sands
1x Whip of Erebos

Non-Enchantment Non-Creature Spells
4x Abzan Charm
1x Incremental Growth
4x Feat of Resistance
3x Kin-Tree Invocation
1x Reviving Melody

It's not a perfect deck, and I may take out the Heroes of Leina Tower and Feats of Resistance in favor of making it even more of a black/green/white constellation deck. It's the Pharika pull that got me really interested in building this deck, and I kept going back and forth on how to construct it. I may still make some changes before Friday, including making this a green/black/blue deck instead. There's some blue cards I got that I really want to play, and if it wasn't for Underworld Coinsmith, Brave the Sands, Siege Rhino, and the Heroes, I would have switched over.

I love the idea of Rotting Mammoth + Kin-Tree Invocation combo... 2/8 zombie elephant, and then that 8 toughness is used to create an 8/8 creature for one black/one green. Or if Heroes are pumped up, using those for Kin-Tree Invocation...

Still a black/red deck I'm trying to sort out, too.

[BYU 14]

I like the direction you are going, a couple more Siege Rhinos and a pair of Doomwake Giants and you are going to compete

[Izulde]

I do have a Doomwake Giant, but I'm not sure it's worth it?

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I do have a Doomwake Giant, but I'm not sure it's worth it?

At very least a great sideboard card, especially with whip. It gives the -1/-1 when it hits the board to take care of tokens and agro decks and also comes out ahead of the curve with Mana Dorks, plus the added bonus of being able to whip it back in and repeat the cycle.

It is a staple in a lot of Sidisi whip and Abzan reanimator decks and has to be dealt with when it hits the board.