Farme Fatale EDH / Commander Deck

Today I woke with a 'mead infused' hangover, in a strange maiden’s bedchamber somewhere on  a plane I didn’t recognise . All I can tell you guys is I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that I was at war with all the mages in the world. As the battle raged higher, I realized with horror that not only had I forgotten all my mighty spells of combat, but I had also quite inexplicably become a farmer. Fortunately as I gazed round the ranch I discovered it was no ordinary farm, indeed it was a very special farm and I call it…

Farme Fatale

You will need…

Ok Guys I’m gonna start with the basics… if you’re new to EDH or just mad I think I should get you up to speed on the cards that all EDH decks should have…  Folks can argue till the cows come home (and they are on the way), but this is Gordon Vader list of must have cards inEDH/Commander (feel free to submit your suggestions) Obviously some of these are colour specific, but don’t worry too much about that now.

    Ok these are Gordon Vader’s all time, must have, top five EDH cards…

         Sensei’s Divining Top – Almost impossible to lose, this little cheeky scryer will let you get what you need and can help you draw answers at instant speed. They are getting pricey now, but you can still pick em up for about £4/$7 (Crystal ball is a good low budget version)

      Lightning Greaves – Generals like haste and more importantly they like shroud the 0 equip cost is what seperates these boots from the standard fair…  Whispersilk Cloak will do while you’re saving up.

          

      Sol Ring / Mana Vault / Mana Crypt – The cheapest of thes,e Mana Vault is still decent but you should try and run at last one of these…

        

         Tormod’s Crypt – Sometimes you just need graveyard hate and it doesn’t come much better than this, other option  include – Heap Doll and Relic of Progenetus. (in this deck I went for heap doll because a farm needs a scarecrow)

       

      Oblivion Stone – Board sweepers will keep everyone on your side, they come in various shapes and sizes, but for my money they rarely come stronger than the stone, other options are – Scourglass, Planar Cleansing, All is Dust… White has loads more options here and if you’re playing white you may want to look at Mass Calcify, Final Judgment, Wrath of God, Martial Coup, Day Of Judgment and  the king of EDH sweepers Hallowed Burial…

So there you have my budget top five EDH essentials… there are a hundred other cards I ‘d suggest if you have the money and the time to build a monster, but start cheap and play sneaky is what I always say…

So what’s next?  Well you’ve got your basics and what you need now is a plan… If you look at the post entitled, Farme Fatale update you’ll see a brief rundown of the generals I had to play. Each tdeck was specifically tuned to their general’s clolors and abilities… 

EG.

Wort’s deck was mostly instants and sorceries that are horrible when conspired (copied). Fireball/ Comet Storm/Destructive force etc etc.. 

Kemba’s deck was all about equipment and keeping them in play.

Sedris Deck was all  about getting fatties in the graveyard.

Sygg’s deck was basically polymorph and used various tutors and spells to find and protect Proteus Staff and the other half of the deck was about stealing creatures to use as targets. 

My Uril deck was about Farming...

Ok ok I will admit I did put a bit more thought into it than simply having lots of cows, but I did try and find farming related cards that were actually good rather than just about agriculture (I also turned down cards that perhaps could have been better than the ones I picked because they were farm related..) But.. most importantly I did try to utilize my generals awesome ability…

So first I’ll show you the Aura’s

Scourge of the nobilis

Fortitude – (almost as good as totem umbras)

Spider umbra (speak of the devil)

Snake umbra

Bear Umbra

Hyena umbra

Elend Umbra

Mammoth Umbra

Boar Umbra

Shiv’s embrace

Lightning Talons

Firebreathing

Lifelink

Luminous Wake

Sigil of the nayan gods

Celestial Mantle   (I could barely leave this little cracker behind could I?)

Next up the Two R’s   Ramp and Removal…

Ramp 

Culivate  - (do you see what I did here?)

Rampant Growth -

Harrow -

Winter’s Sky - (poor man’s mana reflection… great when you have a mix of lands, so you can still do stuff on the odd rounds and then ramps like a MOFO on the even ones..)

Carpet of Flowers - (a random one this, I play it because there’s always somebody playing big blue at our Club and this time it was Syyg and that early mana comes in really handy….)

Land Tax – (still on the farm theme)

Reap and Sow  - (get it? get it?)

Khalni Heart Expedition - ( a very very poor man’s Primeval Titan)

Removal

Path to Exile

Staggershock

Swords To Ploughshares (yep I got a farm card into my removal)

Crib Swap (technically this is a cow too)
Condemn (if you're in white there's no excuse not to run this card)

Here's The Search

Treefolk Harbinger – (can find me a forest or any of my changelings)

Worldy Tutor – (the cheapest of all the tutors cashwise a least)

Hibernation’s end – (an expensive, but rewarding way to find a lot of cows…)

Into the north – (go get me a highland weald thank you)

Ok so that’s the nuts and bolts but what about the Cows? Well these are all I could find…

Animals…

Aurochs (how could I not have them)

Bull Aurochs

Rhimebound Aurochs

Aurochs herd

Taurean Mauler

Pillarfield ox

Yoked Ploughbeast

Totem Guide Hartebeast (I decided that these looked like cows and probably made good eating, besides with Uril as my general I needed some aura tutoring,, and then I thought Venison mmmmm….)

Game Trail Changeling – (This and the mauler earlier are cows that are also sheep and pigs and porcupines and fairies and mermaids and avatars and whatever the things are that live inside biscuits… it’s all a bit disconcerting if you ask me…)

Glimmerpoint Stag - (Well, while we’re on the game menu)

Grazing Gladehart – ( I beat this one taste’s really good.)

Brindle Boar – (we’re on to the swine now, A farm’s gotta have some pigs)

Argothian Swine –

Realm Razer – ( Dude… it’s so clearly a big pig.... I could totally eat this)

Ok now we’re into the realms of fantasy a little bit and I may have reached here and there a little, but I hope you’ll agree there’s still cow-ish-esque-ness- in here somewhere.

Aura Gnarlid -(With all these auras on the battlefield we need another excuse to use them)

Woolly thoctar – (I got a friend who keeps these, he says the milk's awesome)

Ravenclaw Gargantuan – (Slaughter time for these guys is not for the faint at heart)

Mirror Entity - (It’s a cow… well really it’s just there to turn everything into Aurochs or incase some idiot brings their Sliver deck)

Zodiac  Ox (I am fortunate to have a decent amount of the Portal 3 kingdoms stuff. This is one of my favourite sets, the art is beautiful the cards are random and mad and hardly anyone has any.)

Zodiac Goat (well a good farm needs a Goat)

Zodiac Rooster (One of the few ‘plains walk’ cards in existence, if memory serves me there are under 5 such cards in over 11,000 cards)

Of course there’s one more card that any good farm can’t be without any ideas?

Well also from my Portal 3 Kingdom Set, my last card is…here…

I’m not going to bore u with the land other than suggest you do what I did and stick any land of the appropriate colours into the deck and add some basic (and snow basic) land.

You may notice that he usual links that I normally provide aren't working on this post and I want to apoligise for this, but I don't know exactly what went wrong (I'm blaming google gremlins)

but if you want to checl any card just cut and paste it here...

A liege of their own

Well we had a look at some global lords and we’ve picked out chainer and Balthor for the our new Commander / EDH deck SWISS ARMY KNIFE.

It’s time now for a look at the most insane lords ever.  The double pumping, utterly broken hybrid nightmares from Shadowmoor and Eventide, ladies and gentlemen these are the Lieges...

As there are only a few of these beasts in existence we’ll have more time to study them and their insane abilities...

Best / Worst? Where to start?  Well I’d like to start by thanking everyone who sent in suggestion for the favourite and least favourite lords. So I guess we’ll start here with Adam Tobin’s best and worst... Here’s what he had to say on the matter...

“As my collection only goes as far back as Lorwyn so far, my favorite Lord would have to be Wilt-Leaf Liege. In my opinion the best liege out of the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block, running 4 of these beasts is a must for extended elves and great for discard hate, even if it's just a sb. The worst Lord I've come across so far would be another liege from shadowmoor, Thisledown Liege…Ok I'm liking the +1/+1 for white and blue creatures, flash is alright too, but a 1/3? No thank you sir, just too much of a target.”

Wise word there from Mr Tobin, Wilt-leaf Liege was the Obstinate Baloth of its day and you have to remember that elves were a top deck at the time.  It’s all very well having a blue white liege that could lay golden eggs and turn all your opponents into Dita Von Tease, but if the only blue/white creatures were a couple of rabbits and a blind monkey then no-one was going to play them. As it turned out the Thistledown liege, despite its flashy title could do little more than appear at will, only to be bolted the second it hit atmo… 

So Mr Tobin’s arguments are strong and in their day he was probably bang on the money. (There were a lot of good green white elves) But we’re hitting the realms of Mirrodin Besieged in a couple of weeks and things have changed. So who is the top of the liege tree now? Well we’ll start at the bottom and work our way up.

First amongst the losers I’m going with Adam’s suggestion.  Flash aside there’s no getting away from the fact that Thistledown is really just a lightning bolt target for 4 mana. 

Next up guys I should warn you that if you are of a weak disposition you may do well to get behind the sofa and look away now… 

Yep you guessed it it’s a boar tusk liege and it’s a staggering 3 / 4 trampler (I know frightening isn’t it) Ok it pumps both green and red creatures, but have you even seen a green creature that needs a boost? (ok ok… ignoring birds of paradise)

So for the astute amongst you these were the baby lieges and there’s one more and whilst Mr Tobin’s Wilt-leaf Liege may have been the Primeval Titan of its day, I think that Ashen-moor Liege could easily be the Grave titan and thus the pair of them are definitely at the top of their game.  Ok it may only be a 4/1, but getting rid of it’s going to cost your opponent 4 life. And if you can prevent it from dying then those 4 life are going to add up. Plus if any critters need a boost it’s the little sneaky black ones…  

So… if these are the babies, you have to ask… who’s the Daddy?

Ok someone’s got to be first and it’s a genuinely tough call amongst these guys. I guess without a deck dedicated to him the most specific, and therefore potential least useful card would be the Muck-field liege.  I mean sure the ability to un-tap all your tricksy merfolk tappers and green mana generators in your opponents turn is awesome, but without the blue and green creatures to play their part it’s not going to win you any EDH games despite its otherwise awesome ability …

Next up Creak-Wood Liege is the cheapest of the big boys and at first glance its ability to spawn a 1/1 each turn doesn’t seem that great, of course a quick second glance and you’ll instantly see that the 1/1 are black/green and are therefore instantly pumped by their creator into 3/3’s and a free 3/3 every turn is decent no matter what way you look at it and once again it’s the black critters that need the boost…

And in third place… Mind-wrack liege ok it’s the priciest of the lot at a hefty 6 mana and four mana to flash in a critter from your hand isn’t bad, oh but it has to be a blue or a red critter darn it… hang on though isn’t Progenitus red? (and blue for that matter) oh it is… oh…

And the runner up is… Balefire liege, now this was a close call and I’m still in two minds but there has to be a winner.. Balefire liege is awesome there’s no way round that. Play a white spell get a free healing salve play a red spell hit your opponent with a free lightning bolt, play a red/white spell get a free lightning helix. Top stuff…

There can be only one and here it is… ladies and gentlemen I give you liege of the lieges.. Death Bringer Liege… firstly It pumps black critters and white critters, but play a white spell and tap out a defender… play a black spell take out a tapped out attacker…  play a black white spell take out anything… and there are some great black/white spells.

And there we have it all the best and worst lieges in the game... get digging for the following cards because there are a few stars here that we can use in our upcoming EDH deck. Death Bringer is a must and I’m also looking at Ashen moor and  Balefire liege ignore the rest we have work to do... and  bet you thought we’d forgotten , but no we don’t talk about Glen Elendra Liege... its pants and Oona is a very naughty fairy...

At last My Cow General....

Folowers of the blog may or may not be aware that I have secretly been buidling a Barnyard beatdown EDH / Commander deck..

And Last night at FNM I sucessfully obtained my general. Guys, I got to tell yiu this bovine based deck has proven quite the challenge, but finnaly I have the missing piece and next week I shall present the completed and devastating natural beauty of....

FARME FATALE

Featuring as the general....

Uril the Mistsatlker... it's just a big cow really... look it's even got horns....

Now at my local club its EDH night next week, so I have exactly 6 days to ready the deck for battle and I need as many bovine suggestions as possible in green, red and white...

Please send your ideas to Gordon Vader at gordonvader@hotmail.co.uk

As long as a card has SOMETHING to do with farming or livestock it can go in....

Think.....Pillarfield ox, farmstead, land tax, taurean mauler, arouchs..clock work horse... anything... so please send those ideas in...

Knowing my club I don't have much chance of winning, but you never know, maybe with your help? I'd love to beat some insane $3000 grand deck with a herd of cows....

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Whiite Weenie Christmas?

 This one's from regular contributor MAXFAN... What I like most about it is the number of 'sideboard' cards in the main deck... Some folks will tell you that the likes of White Knight and Kor Firewalker don't belong in the main deck because they are colour specific, but those same people seem to forsget that they are both still decent 2 drops and if you happen to be playing Red or Black, you've just given yourself a massive advantage... So I for one applaud MAXFAN'S  innovation and leftfield thinking. Anyways enough from me here's the deck...Gordon Vader....

This is what I currently have going on in Standard.

I love to play white weenie, but I hate the Quest for Argentum Armor deck. It might have something to do with the fact that I once lost six consecutive coin flips attempting to break a Sorcerer's Strongbox. This is the deck I've built to have better consistency. You could play it without the dual lands, but Stirring Wildwood is insanely good and you'd lose a couple sideboard cards. Just be sure to activate the man-land before you cast Brave the Elements or use Ajani.

The goal is to continuously draw two mana creatures that threaten to end the game by themselves or with one other creature in play by making them large with Honor of the Pure and/or Ajani Goldmane. If large is not enough, give the team protection with Brave the Elements for the win.

The Kor Firewalker might look a bit odd mainboard, but it wins free Game 1's. White Knight is good enough as a 2/2 First Striker even if the protection from black never becomes relevant.

Tajuru Preserver and Oust in the sideboard are for the green ramp decks, Leyline for red and black as you'd expect, Revoke for decks packing good artifacts, and more Journey to Nowhere for other random creatures.  Depending how many colorless creatures are running around in your meta, you might change out the Brave the Elements for more Journeys in the maindeck.  Also, if you have Day of Judgments, there are matchups where it should be coming in.

Creatures (26)

4 x Student of Warfare (this card is certifiably nuts, get them!)

4 x White Knight

3 x Kor Aeronaut

3 x Kor Skyfisher

4 x Kor Hookmaster

4 x Kazandu Blademaster

4 x Kor Firewalker

Other spells (11)

4 x Honor of the Pure

2 x Ajani Goldmane

3 x Brave the Elements

2 x Journey to Nowhere

Lands (23)

8 x Plains

4 x Razorverge Thicket

4 x Stirring Wildwood

3 x Sunpetal Grove

4 x Tectonic Edge

Sideboard (15)

3 x Leyline of Sanctity

4 x Tajuru Preserver

3 x Revoke Existence

2 x Journey to Nowhere

3 x Oust

"Max Fan"

Our week of madness begins!

We all love a trier and history is full of tales of brave folks doing mad things in a last ditch attempt to steal victory. Whether it’s a bunch of Greeks in a Wooden Horse, an African madman driving a herd of Elephants over a mountain range, some guys blowing trumpets at the walls of Jericho or even some farmers hiring a handful of cowboys or was that samurai? The point is, if it hadn’t worked, and let’s not pretend for a second that a million other fatally flawed plans didn’t, we’d never have heard of it. Conversely as they did succeed (even if only in the movies ) the modern world has such a soft spot for death defying feats of heroic lunacy, that these stories are immortalised. (usually by making movies)

So my friends in honour of the brave 300 we are going to investigate the world of do or die last ditch, million to one shots and general lunacy in the world of Magic...  Most times these decks and combos will do nothing, but fizzle out feebly, make you swear profusely and look like an idiot... but sometimes just sometimes... the little blue touch paper will ignite and your opponent will be able to do nothing but stare open mouthed as you utterly devastate his plans with what can best be described as a wooden horse and some trumpets...  

We’re going to look at some crazy combos and decks for Legacy, Extended, EDH and not one, but 2 standard decks and one for them is brand new...

Today we’re going to have a look at Legacy and tomorrow we’ll look at Extended and then we’ll have a crack at standard for the weekend..
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So to our first deck and this one is the perfect example of what we’re talking about. Two parts jank 50c rare, one part combo ramp and one part madscience.  This is a legacy deck like no other, it has 4 cards that cost more than $1 and whilst they are pretty expensive they are by no means bank breakers. I won’t bore you with the whole deck, but the combo is pure cheek.   

This is the infamous Krark’s Thumb One Turn kill combo... (Now we mentioned on the blog that we’d offer a prize for anyone who guessed it, no one did, but we did get an alternative idea which was along the right line and would kind of still count from Brian Leahy...so well done to you sir) We’ll tell you Brian’s idea in a second, but here’s the combo we had in mind...

You will need the god hand (But hey his is legacy and who doesn’t... plus if you had the money you could probably make this more stable)

So this is it...

1 Chrome Mox (about $15/20)

1 Krark’s Thumb

1 Mountain

1 pyretic ritual

1 seething song

1 (any) red spell

1 Game of Chaos

If you go first and your opponent isn’t playing blue (and force of will... and has it in his opening hand... and you’re not seriously unlucky) you’ve won...

How?  Well imprint the mox with (any) red spell... lay the mountain... tap both for the ritual... use the 3 mana for seething song you can now play both Krark’s thumb and the Game of Chaos and all you have to do to win is flip and win FIVE coin flips and because of Krark’s Thumb you basically have 10 chances to do it...  Because Game of Chaos goes up geometrically it works like this...

1^st  flip - they lose 1 - you gain 1 (19 v’s 21)

2^nd flip- they lose 2 – yiou gain 2(17 v’s 23)

3d flip – they lose 4 – you gain 4 (13 v’s 27

4^th flip –they lose 8 – you gain 8 (7 v’s 33)

5^th flip they lose 16 – you gain 16 (-9 v’s 39) of course if you lose the flip here you’re probably in trouble)

So there you have it. A cheap as chips (potential) first turn kill. I’m not for a second suggesting that you take this along to the world championships, but next time your beardy mate wants to play in a legacy tournament ask to borrow his chrome moxes (it can probably be done with mox opal too or perhaps some fancy lands) and hit the local traders 50p box in search of a Krark’s thumb or two...  You might not win any games, but you’ll have a blast and just maybe... yeah... just maybe...

Oh and before we forget, we got to say thanks to Brian for suggesting Mana Clash as an alternative. It could technically work too, but it would take at least 20 flips and maybe more and the chances of that happening, even with Krark’s thumb, are just a little too low...

If you want my exact Krark’s thumb decklist send me an email... but there are some great cards out there so If you just want to potter along on your own here are some suggestions to look out for... Planar Claos, Goblin bomb, Chance encounter ( imagine these last two with proliferate ) Bottle of Sulieman, Goblin Assassin (put in goblin assault too) and my favourite... Fiery Gambit (awesome card)   

Tomorrow we’re going to look at Extended.  It’s another nasty tricky combo deck and once again it’s great when it works and pants when it doesn’t... So what’s the plan this time?  Well there are less combo pieces but once again we’ll give you a teaser... How can you play a Titan, give it haste and double strike and wipe your opponent’s board all on turn three? And you can’t use any mirrors, cobras, polymorphs, pipers oh and you can’t use green at all...  

One final note of caution.... We recommend this deck as a casual or fun deck, but if you do take it to a tournament remember this very important rule...

You are not allowed to have any money on the table at any time (like a coin)  so use a coin that isn't legal tender.... (I use a french frank ...:if you think I'm being too cautious imagine you've just beaten a legacy player who has been playing foir 2o years and whose desk is worth £5000 and knows every rule... he;s gonna know this rule too and all he has to call a judge and pont at tjhe coin on the table... Would you really blame them? )

 

And yes we know its not guarenteed, but it also doesn't cost 2 grand...

Mirrodin Besieged Speculation

Well the whole set is out now... and we've got a feature at the top of the blog about our picks for the prerelease (just look at the latest post...) We'll come back later and take a lok at what we got right and what we got wrong.... We predicted the return of the Mythic Swords and we got Goblin Wardriver horribly wrong.. lol, but thats all the fun of the game.. anyway have a look at our newest post and enjoy the Weekend...)   

(update jan 14th- this is important...with a bit of trial and error and tinkering with the orb of Insight.. we have some findings... look for any thing in red in this article....) 

Mirrodin Besieged wil soon be upon us and now's the time to start guessing...So we at Adventures in the Meta have been harrasing our contacts, making some educatred guesses and making stuff upand we've come to some conclussions and a load of speculations....

So what do we know?

Well we know that Scars contained a meagre 20% Phyrexian cards and that for Mirrdodin to be besieged by them its gonna take more than that, so we can assume we are due a large swing to the dark side... Perhaps 50/50? perhaps even more. Update Dec26th - Bingo - factions listed as 50/50

 We also know that there is at least one major player in the story missing and most likely two. So I’m gonna bet we see a return of Tezzeret and Nicol bolas. Tezzeret was once a seeker, but I’m guessing from the hints we’ve had that perhaps now he might be a thinker or perhaps a shaper?

 He is an Agent and he fits right into my Masterhy Forgery deck...

Speaking of which has anyone actually read any of their Scars cards? Have a look at Tempered Steel and tell me we won’t be seeing Ghalma the Shaper any time soon, perhaps a Loxodon Articifer?  As to her abilities we can only speculate but I’m guessing she could be a tutor of some description.  On the Pyherxian side I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a Sheoldred Whispering One popping up quite soon. As we already have an Infect lord, I suspect she may be tainted strike on a stick… In red, I’d bet my Alpha collection that we’ll see Krol the Furnace Priest, who I predict will be another goblin lord. There’s two more jumping out at me, but I couldn’t guess at their colours, but nonetheless I reckon we may see Vorimnclex, Voice of Hunger and Kara Vrist, Neurok agent…

Guys it looks like we have have to wait until the next set for some of these legends as if seems the most likely legendary creatures will be Glissa (which we know) and Thrun (possibky a troll...) 

And here he is and he is AWESOME...

Ok so we’ve made some educated guesses what else are we likely to see?

Maybe a vampire land? What exactly is the Mephidross? I haven’t got a clue, but its popping up all over the place, Speaking of lands I reckon we may see the Bladehold too… Update dec 26th - We haven;t seen the bladehold yet but we now know we were on the right lines With the release of (Hero of the Bladehold) 


There are 4 new non basic lands - 3 affiliated to Phyrexia and 1 to Mrran

There are at leas two heroes in the new set... 

Ok now the lateral thinking…   

Why do Rise From the Grave and Grave Titan make zombies? (asides from the obvious) (update 28th we forgot Nim Deathmantle thanks to Max from Brighton UK for pointing that out) Are we missing a zombie lord? Why if everyone is playing blue/white and mono green do we have 5 dual lands in the first part of the series? Logic tells me that there’s a whole pile of gold cards coming…

Zombie lord looking very likely, there are 5 new zombies too

Ok we’ve got the Myrs so what else is missing from the original Mirrodin? Well, with infect and distortion strike and vines of the vast wood it would be insane of Wizards to return the mighty Loxodon War Hammer, but are there any other artifacts out there that could make a re-appearance?

Personally, I ‘d love to see Pentavus return, but I wonder if it might just be a little too powerful since the addition of the proliferate mechanic… 

no pentavus yet... boo!

I can totally se the return of Annul, its s good sideboard safety net if Wizards have made anything too broken…

We''ve had all the Swords and all the Towers now and the last two were a little bit of a disapointment compared to their countreparts, so maybe there are more?

Here are our artists impressions of the missing tower and sword...

(UPDATE DEC 16th) look at this IMAGE  from the newly released Beseiged  Art Gallery and tell us we wrong about the new tower.. (WE WERE WRONG ABOUT THE NEW TOWER LOL...Well you can't get it all right : ) )

Update Jan 7th We are now almost certain to see a new sword in Beseiged.... My vote is for...

Sword of Chaos and Order?...  red/white?

equipped creaures has +2 +2 

when equipped creature attacks destroy target artifact (equipment?) and gain 2 life...

and protection form relevant colours

BINGO on the sword 100% confirmed as Mirran and pro red and white - possibly sword of something and ORDER but not chaos and god chance it gains life...OR... It's phyrexian alligned and pro green and black....UPdate Jan 15th - WE can now completely confirm that the sword is Mirran (fact) and its name is Sword of Feast and Famine (about 90% certainty) colours we're still shaky on it sounds black green... We just can't say for certain...as for ability... I am only guesng but... when equipped creatures attacks - each player sacrifices a creature and put two 1.1 somethings into play... 

Here's the sword at last....

There is No tower yet....

Wild stabs in the dark?

Well I personally think we’re a bit shy of walls, so I reckon we’lll be seeing a Steel wall or the equivalent and I’d like to see some colourless removal… Anyone remember Ghost fire? Also Wraths… We lost both Planar Cleansing and Scourglass in the last rotation and I wouldn’t be surprised if we got one of them back… Or maybe a return for Oblivion Stone? 

There is most certianly a wrath or two but not sure what kind yet...

Here we go.. A new kind of martial coup....

Also we now know that there are at least two mirrored cards Peace Strider and Pierce Strider (dreadful play on words by the way…)but it’s likely that there will be more..,

There's deefinitely more and we know there's a Forestwalk v's Mountianwalk one...

 Here's a gamble for you... Currently you can get a Mox Opal for about $20/£15... If Wizards decide to bring back Artifact lands then these little beauties could well be the most played card in standard.  So what do you think punk? Do you feel lucky?

There's an unconfirmed possibily of a legendary artifact land called ISH something

Well we got very close with this one...

Update dec 26th - new mechanic - 

Battle Cry (Whenever a creature with Battle Cry attacks, each other attacking creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn.)

7 creatures have battlecry all mirran

Ok so we've had a sneaky peek at some of the new cards... Glissa the traitor, thopter squadron and and hero of bladehold and a sudden thought struck me... We are running low on cheap removal...So I predict we are going to see a new Path or Swords and I think we are going to see it very soon...

Update Jan 7th - Ok what we know....

Well we now know for certain, that there is a Glissa the Traitor, A Hero Of the Bladehold, Peace and Peirce Striders, Thopter Squadron and two knights one black one white... We also know that there is a hydra of some kind in green( Perhaps blight hydra? or poison Hyrda? (phyerxian hydra) or maybe Venonmous  Hyrda? ) We know that there is a Crawler of some kind.in black ( Phyrexian Crawler )and that there is some sort of (Angelic? ) Herald... in white or red or maybe even red/white.(Destiny's Herald)

Update jan 10th some new cards at last...

Further eveidence to suggest a powerhouse knights deck is on the way...


Update Jan 11th...unnofficial card alert...

I haven't seen an official version, but it's looking pretty likely....

As if red needed more quick critters...We should point out that this card doesn't officially exist yet, but I for one wouldn't be surprised if it does turn up soon looking pretty muxh as it does here...

looking good for this fella 


Well we got close...


Another unnofficial card...

seems like tatterkite is back... looks at first glance to be the answer to infect... but it ain't gonna stop a  plague stinger...


And yet more eviendce to suggest knights are going to be the deck of choice... Personally I still reckon it wiill be black/white rather than mono white...

And here's another....This one's a reprint...

Looking at this card I can't help thinking that this time it may be one of a pair like Peace and Peirce striders or Mirran and Phyrexian Crussadors.  Is there a Mirran Rager and if so what will it do? perhaps a 1/1 for three that draws a car and gains a life? ( if this is the case it'll be going straight in my Emeria deck...) Also note the reference to SHEOLDRED, whispering one in the flavour text, further eveidence to suggest we may yet be seeing her very soon...

Ok This is an Adventures Exclusive... We can now reveal that there is a phyerxian card that can potentially lose you the game... if it's cost is not met.. There is a slim chance this card says you can't lose the game, but ts far morelikey to be a kind of immortal coil or Slaughter pact... 
(Update Jane 16th... There is a slim chance that this card may actually be a target player loses the game... Or and I really hope not...but it could even be a reminder of the infect rule on a card... i.e If a player has more than 10 poison tokens they lose the game....:  (  ) OK this card has turnerd out to be a conination of cards including a wurm card that enters the battlefield and effectively draws your entire graveyard and allows you to have any hand size for the rest of the game...

We'll bring you more as we get it...

Phyrexia have an 11/11 perhpas a juggernaught

 Here;s the 11/11


There's a new Miran hell kite and they have a 9/9  (could be the same card who knows?)

Heres' the Hell Kite and she's a princess...


Jan 17th more new cards...

Bonehoard and Shimmer Myr are the most exciting for me... but I think we're starting to get  a picture of how prominent infect will be in this set...

Red/black/white madness

Well we’ve been here for 3 weeks and the feedbacks been great. So I did a bit of listening and it turns out a lot of folks want the same thing; something competitive and something cheaper than the tier. Well i 'm not sure how competitve this one is but its a lot of fun..

This deck is unusual in that it uses s few higher price cards, but as the game has changed these cards have dropped in value and the very idea that you could create a budget deck featuring them would have  been a joke three weeks ago.. Ladies and gentlemen this deck uses Baneslayer Angels and in a previously unheard of fashion. Before you say I’ve gone corporate, remember that a month ago these cards were £30/$45 and now you can pick them up on ebay ‘buy it now’ for £13/20 (just to prove my point look here). This deck also uses the planeswalker that proliferate was so clearly aimed at.... Sarkhan The Mad. You can currently pick one up for just £6.99 and by now you might be thinking ... ‘Oh yeah... I get it...’  Well good but we’ve got more to add, but these two cards have a natural synergy which this deck will exploit to the nines.   I call it.

Scars Tech 2- The Wrath of Sarkhan

You will need

4 Dragonmaster Outcast

4 Baneslayer Angel

4 Sarkhan the Mad

4 Act of Treason

3 Liquimetal Coating

3 Throne of Geth

2 Everflowing Chalice

1 Elixir of Immortality

3 Mimic Vats

4 Ratchet Bomb

4 Condemn

Lands, well I am open to suggestions ... right now I’m running 4 terra morphics and 4 evolving wilds and a mix of basics 

Ok basically this is red black control with a double splash of white for the Angels and condemns. The condemns will keep out early threats and defend well against dragons.  In fact most things in the deck will do well against dragons, which is also lucky because you are going to be facing lots of dragons. Why? Because you’re going to be giving them away like they are going out of fashion.

Ok so in what universe is it a good idea to give away dragons? Well it all depends on planning, let’s say you knew there would be dragons and maybe you had planned ahead and ordered the industrial size tins of wieners and a great big dragon cake for the party... and basically set your deck up around that fact... Well surely that would be better than having just anything turn up and try and eat you... and besides... you might be giving your opponent dragons, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to let them keep them.

So what’s the plan, well first things first, you’re not going to be giving away anything unless you a) need to and b) can handle it.

So here’s the general plan...

Early game you’ll be looking for the outcasts and condemns  to get in the way of early attacks. Then the game can run two ways, firstly use Sarkhan to make your opponent sac their biggest threat and give them a dragon, which will just bounce off your angels until you’re ready to steal them back and swing. Then either sac them to Sarkhan, to get a dragon all of your own or you can get Sarkhan to make it deal damage equal to its power to your opponent or their biggest threat before turning in to an artifact and sacking it to the throne to proliferate Sarkhan back up...

...Or you can steal their creatures, or even just sac an outcast, to make a dragon and swing through the air for massive damage... Obviously their dragons will just bounce of your Angels which have the all important ‘protection from Dragons’. Andif one does get through, don’t worry, that turn two ratchet bomb can take them out at instant speed.

Late game the outcasts will conjure up all sorts of chaos and give Sarkhan more fuel for the fire...  

Use the Chalices and the throne to ramp and you should be able to keep pace with most decks. 

Sarkhan can take out most threats and as long as you can deal with the dragons you are going to give your opponents you can mix up their strategies and confuse their game. Use the mimic vat to steal their sacked creatures and keep swinging.

Dependent on which of the tier you’re up against your play will vary, against Eldrazi Ramp don’t be afraid to blow up overgrown battlements with Sarkhan and obviously any actual Eldrazi, against Red Deck blow up your own outcasts and against elves blow up the mythic regenerator and the archdruids.

In testing it’s proving pretty capable, but as always I’d love to hear some suggestions...

News just  in fromn Karchev.... Bloodghast is a good additon to the gang maybe over the thrones ???  anyway keep em coming...

Blue White The Short Con

Ok I’m sticking with blue for the time being, but I‘m also making a welcome return to white. This one is tricksy little number that they won’t see coming first time round, but you’ll have to really sweat to win after they raid the sideboard....Guys this ones for fun...

 I call it...

The Short Con

You will need...

4 Totem-Guide Hertebeest

4 Merfolk Spy

4 student of warfare

3 spreading seas

4 Aura finesse

3 Celestial mantle

1 True conviction

4  Eel Umbra

4 Felidar Sovereign

4 Palladium myr

1 Elixir of Immortality (as always)

24 lands including , a few of the blue white non basics and maybe even some Celestial Colonnades

Ok so I said this deck is tricksy and it is exactly that. What you are trying to do is get Celestial Mantle on a creature with one blue mana spare.

The myrs are there to help you ramp and there is some card draw and disruption from the spreading seas.

Ideally you want the Celestial Mantle on a merfolk spy with the spreading sea in play. What you are trying to do is to keep getting combat damage through and therefore doubling your life, before eventually playing a Feldar Sovereign with an umbra on it if you can do this you’ll probably win.

The trick is aura finesse, there’s no way you’re opponent is going to let you double your life and will go hell for leather to prevent you getting the damage through. So you’ll want the Aura on the merfolk spy and our opponent will think you’re trying to use its island walk ability to get the damage through, the real trick is you want him to spend all his mana and removal on the spy, because what you’re really trying to do is get the aura on the student of warfare for double strike damage.Next turn you'll have the chance to flash in eel umbra to protect your Student.

In play testing, I found that opponents will let the student through rather than letting the merfolk in. Of course the trick here is aura finesse and that’s why you wanted the one blue spare, after blockers, once action has been taken and just before damage, flash in aura finesse and switch the Celestial Mantle from the spy to the student(if he wasn’t blocked obviously) , or as soon as they try to deal with the spy. Boom you’ve just caused combat damage with a double striker that means your life doubles twice.  Let’s say you’re on 14 instantly you’ll go to 28 and then 56 in one turn...

Early game you’ll want to play aggro, pace your opponent and to keep the student on the field with umbras and keep him levelled. You must have the aura finese in hand and have the spare mana before you play the mantle. Target anything other than the student, your opponent will think you’re an idiot, but they will be laughing on the other side of their face in a second.  

Next turn you’ll want to umbra up the student, if you haven’t already and then get the sovereign on the field as soon as you can. If you have another Aura Finese then you’re gonna win... because all you have o do is switch the umbra to the sovereign when they try and kill him and unless they can get 16 damage past your blockers, not forgetting the double striking student you will enter your upkeep with over 40 life and win.

Use the wildebeest ti find the auras you need,

You can experiment with some counter spells and white removal and the like, but this deck is quite tricky if your opponent makes the wrong play it will be very hard for them to come back, all you need to do to win late game is keep one card in play.

Against elves you’ll need day of Judgement and more umbra’s... Against - Valakut - you’ll want Leyline of Sanctity-  Against Eldrazi ramp you’ll want divine intervention (that’s a joke not a card) Against Blue/White control you’ll want to play cautiously and remember hitting a planeswalker counts as a player and therefore your life will still double.