No Myr Mortals New Budget Deck

I mentioned Semblance Anvil earlier in the week, I was convinced there was a deck here and so I set my mind to finding it… It also gave me a chance to sort out two other decks ideas I had been toying with, so in a nutshell, this deck is three decks in one

No Myr Mortals

You will need…

2 Ajani Goldmane

2 Chandra Nalaar

2 Garruk Wildspeaker

2 Jace Beleren

2 Lilliana Vess

2 Leaden Myr

2 Copper Myr

2 Gold Myr

2 Iron Myr

2 Silver Myr

4 Myr Reservoir

4 Myr Battle Sphere 
4 Semblance Anvils

4 Contagion Engine

There’s no getting away from it this time, you are going to need non basics… I recommend 2 each of the entire Scars set, they are all about £3/$4:50 each at the moment, give or take.  In addition to that you will certainly need Terramorphic expanse, if you want to be sure of playing anything and whilst the fetch lands are better, they are only slightly better ( An Arid Mesa ain’t going to help at all if you need a swamp)  

This deck is also a little bit pricier than the other decks at the moment, but it does use a lot of cards that are… a) at their lowest price ever and b) are likely to increase in value…

I am talking about the old school planeswalkers of course. I actually started playing as these cards were introduced and I remember the fuss over the fact that Garruk was selling for £20 at one point. Now you can pick them all up for under £7 and one of them in particular is very, very cheap. Hopefully when you see what this deck does this might change, because the cheapest planeswalker is probably the best in standard at the moment. (discounting the Mind sculptor for the moment.)  Yes if this deck goes to plan you’ll be hard pushed to tell me why Chandra Nalaar is currently selling for £4/$6 or less.

So what does it do? And how does it work? Well let me explain, are you sitting comfortably? Good because this may take a while, you really should have asked what it doesn’t do.

The plan heads off in three directions at once, you are trying to imprint both architects and planeswalkers with the anvil, but which you do first will be relevant to circumstance more than anything else. The mana myrs are there for amp and mana fixing and you’ll need to decide in which direction to head based on the draw, but in theory by turn 6 you can, by proliferating,  set off anyone of the planeswaker’s ultimate abilities and possibly even two of them.

You could…

… give an army of Myrs +3+3 and trample  

 …mill twenty cards from your opponent’s deck

…get a 15/15 or higher avatar

…rob your opponent’s graveyard

…or best of all!!! Deal 10 damage to your opponent and all their creatures…

How you play will be up to you and based partly on luck and partly on the situation… The Myr Battlespheres will just keep coming back thanks to the eeservoirs and with the mana myr army and the anvils on play, you’ll always have spare mana to play and power the Contagion Engine.

So win conditions.

1.       Planeswalker’s ultimates or a combination of them…

2.       Myr Battlesphere beatdown it’s just going to keep coming back…

3.       Mana Myr swarming perhaps with Ajani’s counters? Maybe reinforced by liliana’s grave robbing? Perhaps pumped and trampling thanks to Garruk…

The more you play with this deck the more you’ll see the great synergies the old plains walker had together.  Garruk gives Ajani’s Avatar the trample he always lacked, Jace floods the graveyard for Liliana and Chandra?  Well Chandra doesn’t need any help to win games…

A word on planeswalker trading. These cards have been printed a few times and their value is going to differ, so if you sare trading to keep as much value as possible, and the person you are trading with doesn't care... then there are specific editions you'll want to try to get ...

Ajani - aviod M11 and M10 try and get a Lorwyn One

Lilliana - as above, but really avoid alternate art foil duel deck edition as these are worh less than the non foils.

Jace - again as above

Chandra - as above but the foil version is a better pick than the M10/M11

Garruk - As above except there is a kind of holy grail Garruk ( foil XBOX live edition...if your Garruk has a little xbox controller in bold in the centre, go buy yourself a cake you've earned it)


News UPDATE Nov 10th - I have now decided completely on my own and without any rigging from my friiends and readers that Semblence Anvil can readily be replaced in the deck by ANY OTHER CARD IN STANDARD on account of Semblence Anvil being completely pants... I thankyou!

Tree Fellers New low Budget Deck

Here’s a cheap one and fun too...

I call it...

Tree Fellers

You will need...

4 Liege of the Tangle

4 Terra Eternal

4 Awakener Druid

4 Arbor Elf

4 Nature’s Spiral

4 Acidic Slime

4 Canopy Cover

4 Day of Judgement

4 Spider umbra

As this deck is so cheap why not take advantage of the cheap non basics and throw in some Sunpetal Groves (currently £2.50/$4) and Razorverge Thickets (currently £3/$4.50) and Stirring Wildwood (currently £2.50/£4) Historically speaking, non basics of this calibre probably won’t devalue much more than this and are more likely to increase in value, so go get some and stick it in. Having so much white in the non basics you may only want to play with a couple of plains.. If budget is a problem the deck is still playable with a mixture of plains and forests.

Ok if you’ve played magic before you probably already know what this deck does, but I’ll run you through it anyway.

The object of this deck is to hit your opponent with huge indestructible man lands... The Arbour elves are a deliberate pick over their llanowar cousins, because they can ramp or un-tap attackers to give you a hefty defence.

You’ll want Terra Eternal out as soon as possible and suddenly your land base is looking very strong indeed. Next, you’ll need an Awakener Druid out as soon as you can find one..

Eventually, you can umbra up the Awakener Druid and wrath the board, leaving only your indestructible forests and when the liege appears, pick up the strays and swing with lots and lots of 8/8 tramplers.  

The Acidic Slime will take out threats, Canopy Cover is there to protect the Awakener Druids and obviously Terra Eternal is man of the match, although remember before you wrath...  The 8/8 Liege lands will remain on the field if the Liege dies, but the 4/5 Treeman provided by the Druid will revert to being timber if the Druid goes.  If it all goes wrong use Nature’s Spiral to help pick up the pieces, or get the Umbras back and wrath again.

Just remember that no man is an island... But he could be a forest!

Our First Competition

Now it's only for fun at this stage, well fun and glory, but we have begun pestering Wizards for prizes (and trust me there's only so many naked pictures of me they can take...)(update 23rd Nov WE HAVE PRIZES see the end of the thread)

But for now you'll have to content yourself with fame on our soon to be introduced Wall of Fame and because I'm also lovely, I will send you a handbuilt deck of my choice from the list of many on this site...

So here's the Challenge...

You must create a deck centered around a key card of our choice...

The deck must clearly use this card at it's core and we will judge the best suggestions and publish the winner's deck at the end of the month...

November's Card is... Etched Champion

So how would you make a deck based on this card?...

Either, Email me your deck entries, or Post them as comments to this page... The competition will run until the 1 st of December...

...and to clear a few things up, your deck should be standard legal...

If there is enough interest we might add other categories later, but right now its T2/standard only....

The first two decks are in the comments box following this article so get innovating... If you want to win you have to be in...

 Update Nov 23rd We Have Prizes....

Yep through our contacts on the Front Line of the Mirrin Conflict we've managed to get out hands on some very exclusive Mirrin and  Phyrexian Wristbands... and if that wasn't enough we're also throwing in a sealed playset of FNM Merrow Reejereys....


We have also secured some prizes through a new affilation which we will be announcing at the end of the month so there wil be Prizes every month... And we're gonna let the winner pick the next card..


The competion will be judged by a DCI judge and his decision will be final...


We asked him what he was looking for in entries and this was his answer...


"I'm looking for something new, something I haven't seen before. I know all about the current game and you won't be winning anything by slippimg him into a deck that already exists... Unless he really makes it his own..."


Look ar the pretty things...

These are rarer than golem droppings and you can't get them anywhere yet...

Woot!

7 days in and over  700 views... I think even my magic addled brain can work out that's 100 views a day... Hurrah!!!

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You heard it here first!

Canada's Chris Allinson gives us two reasons never to leave the gate open...

Who saw this potential one turn kill coming? Turns outs Putrefax and Renegade Doppleganger are the perfect way to finish off a bad day...

At Last A low Budget Mono Blue Deck

We’ve had a poke at blue players and control magic and Jace the Wallet Ripper, but at the end of the day as they say... If can’t join them... Beat them... 

So Ladies and Gentlemen, I present our first budget mono blue deck and it’s a cracker...

I call it...

The Merfolk Killers...

Because... They got Sol, but they're not a  Sol Ring...

You will need 

4 Grand Architects

4 Lighthouse Chronologists

4 Cosi’s Trickster

4 Enclave Cryptologists

4 Coralhelm Commander

4 Merfolk Sovereign

2 Thada Adel Aquisitor

4 Contagion Engine

4 Voltaic Key 

And lots and lots of islands....

There was a time when blue decks did agro too and this little beauty takes us back to those heydays.  The Merfolk Killers is a subtle nod to the famous 16 Lords deck and indeed including the Grand Architect this deck does still boast a impressive 12 lords (a lord is term for a creature that gives a particular race a bonus, usually +1+1)  

So it’s mono blue agro and it’s really very simple.

The trick to this one is Proliferation.and once you hava a counter on each creaure you're ready to go.

Almost all of the creatures in the deck have either level up abilities or can gain +1+1 counters.  When you find a contagion engine, you’ll take off like a rocket.  You can play it quickly using the Grand architect ability of turning all your blue creatures into sol rings and then in your opponents end step do it again to supercharge your levellers, naturally the keys are there for later game and should enable yout to proliferate 4 times a turn...

Use the Chronologist’s extra turns to super pump your merfolk and before you know it you’ll be swinging with colossal blue monsters.

For more sneakiness use the Sovereign to make Thada unblockable and steal artifacts from your opponent. Then use the Architect’s ability again to play them no matter how much they cost...

Watch and enjoy your opponents face, as he holds spells back for the mana leaks you don’t have and just smash his face with bigger and bigger merfolk...

   

The Dark Design

Mono Black Control

I know I go on about blue players and in particular Jace the Cash Guzzler, but I can’t deny that blue decks are a lot of fun and a lot of blue decks are control decks.  

Control decks, do exactly that, they seek to win games by controlling them. They may try to counter your spells or affect your library and basically ruin your day. Blue cards are particularly strong in this field and therefore a lot of control decks are blue or partially blue, but there have been more recent control decks that have no blue cards at all. Mono white control is possibly the most notable and is an excellent deck, but I’ve been coveting and planning a black version for a while so here it is...

I call it... 

The Dark Design

You will need...

4 Duress

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

1 Sadistic Sacrement

4 Diabolic Tutor

4 Everflowing Chalice

4 Voltaic Key

1 Contagion Engine

4 Throne of Geth

4 Prototype Portal

4 Elixir of Immortality

1 Temple Bell

1 Liliana Vess

1 Lux Cannon

1 Exsanguinate

Lots of swamps and a calculator, because once this thing gets going, you’ll have mana falling out of your ears.

This deck works in a very different way to most. What you are effectively trying to do is to leave your opponent with NO cards, none at all.  At the end of the game if all has gone well your opponent will have no deck, no hand and no permanents.

To play you have to achieve two different goals and keep yourself alive in the process...

The first thing you’re going to need is mana and lots of it, so half the deck is a great big mana battery...    

Here’s how it works...

What you are looking for in an opening hand is a prototype portal and a voltaic key. As soon as you have mana open you need to start generating keys. Because Voltaic key only costs one mana and its ability is pay one un-tap an artifact, the mini combo here is to un-tap the portal and make another one and so on until you use all your mana. When you get an everflowing chalice out you can really start to ramp, add the Throne of Geth and you’ll start to see the picture...  There’s so many ways to use this system it will get very confusing, but basically once it’s under way, within a few turns you should be able to generate hundreds if not thousands of mana. 

So, whilst you’re charging your battery how do you stay alive? Good question, but since you asked, you'll have to snatch the threats out f your opponents hand before they can play them. Turn one use Inquisition of Kozilek to take any 1/2/3 drop creatures and have a good look at their hand. Write down what you see and use your judgement as to when and how to steal the other threat cards... Don’t worry too much about cards out of the range of inquisition, if your deck behaves they’ll never get the chance to play them. 

So you got mana and your opponent’s graveyard is filling up, what next?  Well what you’re actually trying to achieve here is to play a kicked Sadistic Sacrament as soon as you can (possible on turn 5, I think).  

What you’re trying to do here is take out your opponents land. With most decks running 24 lands and assuming they’ve played one each turn that means they should have 5 in play and another 4 in the deck which they are never going to find now with the odds  you’ve just given them.  Now you want to use an elixir to get your sacrament back in the deck and do it all again until naturally they have no cards left. 

Use the tutors to find Liliana then use Liliana to tutor for your combo bits, you can use the Temple bell to draw the card on the turn too or you can use your keys to un-tap the Temple Bell and just draw lots of cards. 

Another trick here is to mill them to death by repeatedly tapping the temple bell with keys and masses of mana. For best effect do it during their end step forcing them to discard them before they have a chance to use them.   

Once you’ve exiled all their lands and any spells that they could have played it’s time to power up the doomsday laser... So go and get the Lux Cannon, with keys and thrones already in play, its possible you could destroy all their permanents in one turn. If you’ve done your job that will mean they have no way of playing any of the spells left in their deck and you will have effectively shut them down...

Ok here is how it works...

Dream hand - 2 x Everflowing Chalice , Prototype Portal, Voltaic Key, Inquisition of Kozilek and a pair of Swamps. 

Turn One - Drop swamp, play inquisition remove negate or goblin guide or the biggest threat and pass turn...

Turn Two - Hopefully draw a swamp lay the other swamp and drop chalice for two

Turn Three – Draw Throne of Geth, lay swamp and drop the portal imprinting the key, fasten seat belt and pass turn...

Turn Four –It’s going to get mental in a minute, let’s say you’ve drawn the god hand and this next card is another swamp... Tap chalice for one and pay one from a swamp for the other chalice -tap chalice and one more swamp for throne – tap another swamp to tap portal and make a key pay the last mana to un-tap the one of the chalices and then pass turn...

Turn Five - Draw a card, let’s say it’s a swamp... First tap one swamp and tap portal to make a key - sac key to throne proliferate. - Putting chalices to 2 -  tap one for 2 mana - use one mana to un-tap portal  use the other to make a key – tap a swamp use one to un-tap the portal make another key - tap chalice for two use one on  key to un-tap portal with last mana make another key lay last swamp to un-tap the throne - sac a key to the Throne and proliferate... you now have 4 swamps two chalices with 3 charge counters each, a Throne Of Geth,  3 voltaic keys  and a prototype portal with a voltaic key imprinted on it...

Next turn you could proliferate the chalices to 6 each and make 16 keys...

On the turn after you could proliferate them to 22 each and make 40ish keys or tap and un-tap one of them 17 times generating over 70 mana, after that it starts getting silly...

Alternative Win conditions...

We already looked at the milling element with temple bell but there are quite a few ways for you to win with this deck.

Alt win 1. Liliana’s ultimate. If you try to target creatures with the Inquisitions you’ll find it’s easy to proliferate liliana to her top ability.  So go rob the graveyard and swing...

Alt win 2. Exanguinate - Once you have the mana (and it shouldn’t take long) go get this little baby and you win....

Sideboard...

The world’s your oyster here you could swap out the snatches (duress, inquisition of Kozilek) for removal (doom blade, Grasp of Darkness)or add some reanimation with Rise from the Grave. If you come across any planeswalkers add Vampire Hexmage and if you need some life in a hurry Corrupt will see you through and even give you another win condition. And if you need graveyard hate then add leyline of the void or Bojuka bog...