Fastest Kills in Standard and Extended

Zero Quest

Ok I’ve played the original version of this deck ( quest for the holy relic ) and I have to confess I hate it. If it works and annoyingly, when I play it, it seems to work all the time, its brutal quick and there’s no coming back from the brink.   So in age old ‘Vader’ style I thought, if you can’t beat them... Eat them...

Ladies and gentlemen this is Zero Quest and it has the fastest potential win of ANY Standard deck (that I know of..)

Its combo based and about as stable as the Euro, but I’ll give you the skeleton and I’ll leave it you to sculpt a T-REX out of it.

You will need

4 Leyline of Anticipation

 4 Memnite

4 Everflowing Chalice

4 Mox Opal

4 Ornithopter

4 Kuldotha Rebirth

4 Goblin Bushwhacker

4 Lightning bolt

4 Goblin Chieftain

4 Chimeric Mass

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Arid mesa

14 Mountains

So... what does it do?

Well it can swing for 12 damage on turn ONE.

Yep, you read that right not turn two... turn one... You’ll need the god hand, but the deck is designed to generate that relatively easily ... So 12 damage on the first turn how? Well you elect to get second if you win the flip, or if your opponent wins you’ll probably be going second anyway. 

What you need in an opening hand is any combination of the following... 0 mana artifacts, mox opal, rebirth and most importantly the leyline...  As long as you have the leyline you opponent is going to have a bad day, just how bad is dependent on your luck...   

Here’s the trick...  Let’s say you have the god hand, and I cannot stress enough you don’t need it.

Leyline, ornithopter, mox opal, kuldotha rebirth, 2 x memnite, goblin bushwacker... Keep the hand and immediately as the game begins lay the Leyline. Now during your opponent’s upkeep step flash in the menites , the ornithopter and the mox opal, then use the opal for one red and sac the ornithopter to play the rebirth. This will give you 5 x 1/1’s before your opponent has even laid a land.

In your FIRST turn, draw and play a land and tap the opal and the land to play the Goblin bushwhacker making everything a  2/1 and allowing you to swing for !2 damage on Turn one in turn 2 lay a Goblin chieftain and that ain’t game, you ain’t playing right.

  

Of course these are god hands, but think about the deck, even if you can’t pull of the ultimate in turn one you could have a any number of battle ready 1/1’s ... 

No islands for leyline? Nope, it’s there for one reason and one reason only, mulligan till you find it.  Like I said this is the skeleton and we at Adventures in the Meta encourage you to make your own decks.   

Sideboard, we’re going to leave this to you to and I suggest that you completely change strategy on game two because a smart opponent will elect to play 2^nd in game two if you beat them game one.

Here are some other ideas to play around the leyline...

 Add Beastmaster’s Ascension and Birds of Paradise... and in your opponents first turn you can flash in the birds off the opal and then in your first turn you can lay a land and play Beastmaster’s Ascension, and swing for 3... In your 2^nd turn that’s game...

There’s even a horrific Extended Combo which is potentially a one turn kill.... again during your opponent’s turn flash in the memnites/ornithopters and then use the opal to play Amulet of Vigor.

In your first turn, play Windbrisk Heights and stick an Emrakul under it... As it comes in un-tapped, thanks to the Amulet you can then swing with 3 memnites and use the opal to activate it, thus ‘casting’ Emrakul and getting the extra turn...  Swing in on the next turn (which is really still your first turn) and that’s 21 damage including the memnites)

So there you have it the fastest kills in Standard and extended, that don’t require any help from your opponent.(You can do nasty things with Summoning Trap, but this will require your opponent to cancel your spells for you.)

Update for Christmas  (you can abuse this build further by the addition of Shared Discoveries ) of course you can now add islands too which will make the leylines work

update Dec 25th... I've been thinking about this concept over and over and I've come to a startling conclussion... If Wizards do introduce an Artifact Land in Mirrodin Besieged then I think we've just invented the new Archetype.

Why? Well for one thing the Mox opal will finally be playable anyway and with both llanowar Elves and Birds of paradise being 1 drop mana producers with leyline ofanticipation in play it could be easy to drop 3 mana on turn 1 - or 2 if that doesn't happen (which let's be fair, is a good plan b)... and that would give you access to a staggering choice of options including tutors, culitvates, turn one ratchet bombs with mana to spare ... the list is endless and you could easily replenish your hand... 

Turn one cultivate  - turn two jace's inginuity... anyone?

Proliferhate...

As it’s nearly Christmas you may have noticed we haven’t been as prolific as usual. So apologies if we’ve been a bit slack, but we’re going to make it up to you now with a brand new deck. It’s quick, it’s brutal and the entire thing will cost less than a single ‘Jace The Pocket Melter.’

I have to give a nod to my good friend Jim for the foundations of this deck. He’s still promising to submit his original list and when he does I’ll stick it up, but Adventures in the Meta can’t wait forever so I’ve decided to make my own version with a few twists....

I call it Proliferhate... but I’m open to better names...

You will need

4 Triskelion

4 Grafted Exoskeleton

4 Throne of Geth

4 Steel Overseer

4 Everflowing Chalice

3 Ortnithopter

3 Darksteel Myr

3 Etched Champion

4 Voltaic key

3 Contagion Clasp

1 Elixir of Immortality

8 Mountains

8 Islands 

4 Mystifying Maze

4 Dread Sanctuary 

As the deck is entirely colourless why not have some fun and play some Jedi Mind Tricks on your opponent. I've gone for blue and red so they'll be more likely to play with caution. 

The Mazes will take out dragon lords and superpumped unblockable posoinous monkeys. whilst you can actually pump the sanctuaries with the overseers and then proliferate the counters.  

So what does it do? 

Well this deck is really three decks in one.  It’s one part ramp, one part aggro and one part control and the key to the deck is proliferation.  

So what’s the plan ?

Start as you mean to go on with an early Ornithopter and either the Elixir or preferably a Voltaic Key. Turn two either drop a Chalice for 1 or the Overseer. The Thopter will get in the way of any early beats with its 2 toughness and because it flies, if it needs to get in the way of a Plague Stinger it can. By the third turn you have many options.  

What you are ultimately trying to do is to swing in with artifact creatures and to use proliferation and Voltaic Keys to mega charge all your attackers. There’s also a couple of sneaky tricks hidden in the deck and  with any luck your opponent will be too busy dealing with 6/7 flying thopters to notice them. 

Grafted Exoskeleton may seem an odd choice for the deck, but not only does it give your critters a +2 +2 bonus, it’s also fuel for the throne and more importantly it can be a single turn win. If you can get it on Triskellion not only does it turn him into a virtual Contagion Engine, but you can simply give your opponent poison counters with his ability  add some proliferation and you could easily take game in a single turn... 

EG. Let’s say he comes in with 3 counters, you have the throne, 2 keys, an overseer and the exoskeleton play.  First equip it with the Skeleton and give your opponent a poison counter, next tap the overseer and reset Triskellion  to 3 counters , next sac the overseer to the throne  and proliferate Triskellion up to 4 and give your opponent another counter.  Next untap the throne with a key and tap it again this time saccing the key. Your opponent will now be on 3 counters and Triskelion will have 5 counters use the last key on the throne and boom!  Your opponent will have 4 poison counters and Triskelion will have the last 6 he needs to finish the game. Ok it’s unlikely, but this is the one turn version, if you do it over a few turns and you’ll find it’s easy, and don’t forget you can swing with him too and use the counters to take out any defenders.

Grafted ExoSkeleton really? None of my other creatures have infect? 

Why not and it doesn’t matter that your other creatures don’t have infect.  By the time you can equip and play the ExoSkeleton, you’ll either be pinging with the toxic Triskelion or swinging in with a massive flying thopter. Either way it’s bad news for the other side, and don’t forget with the ExoSkeleton on Triskelion, the counters will stick and with the amount of proliferating you’ll be doing, walls and titans will fall by the wayside while you ramp into the Stratosphere and push your opponent to the limit. 

We all have to make sacrifices and this deck is no different and you may have to chuck everything in the bin to get what you want, but don’t worry too much about it, because your deck is running a natural safety net. With the Elixir of Immortality, your deck is a never ending loop of little martyrs, all ready to bounce back out of the graveyard and pick up the banner once again.

Match ups? 

V’s elves – With double tapping Overseers and Indesctructible mega charged Myrs and Pro green Champions, yYou should be able to hold own until Triskelion’s big guns come out. In stalemate the Exo Skeleton could easily give you the win.

  

V’s Eldrazi Ramp. – Go in fighting and don’t be afraid to throw away triskelion in an attempt to stop your opponent from ramping.  If you’re iucky you can pull off the ultimate nose rubs and kill Emrakul with a 15/16 Ornithopter ( I haven’t quite pulled this off but I did manage to kill one with two 9/10 thopters.)  

V’s Valakut -  Agaiin it will be down to pace. Keep your creatures massive and swing swing swing...

V’s Blue Whte Control – Your Myrs will beat Day of Judgment and the Champions will beat Jace and Gideon.  And don’t forget Infect works on Walkers too.  

V’s Infect – Block everything and you’ll win... Save Triskellion for anything that gets a distortion strikeor use your Mazes

Are you a Magic Judge? Do want to earn a bit of cash?

I'v had an email from those Lovely Wizard Retail Researchers Qualvu...And they need some help so... if you are a DCI judge or run FNM magic events they want to talk to you and there may even be some money in it for you.... 
 
lwilson@qualvu.com

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..
.

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...

Enttry for out first contest is now closed....

There will now be a short period of judging and a week today we'll announce the winner and ask them to generate a new key card for the next competion



Many thanks to everyone who took part.. Our judge this mointh I'm sure you'll be pleased to know is not I Gordon Vader, but Instead DCI Judge Micheal Chamberlain...  He will be appraisng all the ideas and will be offering feeback on all the decks.entered.  His decison willl be  impartial, but final...

On Adventures In the Meta this week we'll be looking at crazy combos, one turn wins and anything that falls into the realm of insanity... Do if you have a combo or an mad deck idea? Does you r deck win by dropping you;r life to -1000 or cby turning everthying into chickens?  If you do have any suggestions send them in...  I'll gve you a little taste and a teaser for now...

Can you think of a Krark's Thuimb first turn kill? there is a potential one... (maybe more ) we'll offer a special prize to anyone who can guess it before we post the article tomorrow....


Our email is Gordonvader@hotmail.co.uk

Tangle Mangle

OK we’re coming out of The Twilight Zone for a moment. This one is fast, nasty and cheap. It’s mean blue/green aggro and this is a contender

Tangle Mangle

You will need.

4 Tangle Angler

4 Blight Mamba

4 Overgrown Battlement

4 Prized Unicorn

4 Gargoyle Sentinel

4 Twisted Image

4 Garruk Wildspeaker

4 Overwhelming Stampede

4 Turn Aside

4 Khalini Gardens 
use 4 teermorphics to find one of the 4 islands and the rest can be forests...

Simplicity itself this one... Regenerating toxic defenders and throwaway chump blockers to start and then quickly into mid game with tricksy lures and then for a finisher either use Garruk or the stampede to trample up that poison damage, of course don’t forget to switch the anglers power an toughness before you use the stampede... or if you’ve managed to get it past the blockers..  Ramp with the Battlements and Garruk, use the plants to get in the way and remember there’s more than one way to use Twisted Image. If you’re desperate it will draw you a card, if you’re smart it will draw you a card and take out a blocker or a ramper and if you’re lucky and smart it can draw you a card and win you the game. Yoiu can also use the Gargolyes as targets for the stampede, just remember to pump them frrst....

Remember that 8 of your creatures can force your oponents to block and theefore you can choose what a you want to get through... :

Use tangle angler or prized unicorn to tie up the blockers while you pile through with a combination of trample damage and poison counters. So why split the damage? Well what you are trying to do with the deck is to attack on two fronts. It has a few tricks which you’re opponent will have to watch unless he wants to concede and early defeat.  It’s nasty on a lot of levels, but there are some sneaky moves hidden in its midst.  Got a prize unicorn and a tangle angler in play with a twisted image in hand?  Left unchecked that’s 5 poison counters in one turn and you get to draw a card, add an Overwhelming Stampede and that’s game.

Twisted Image is not only a cantrip its also a doomblade for walls

  

Or it might just win you the game

    

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.

New deck Alert Blue BLack The Fortune Teller

So I’ve gone mad... I don’t know why, but suddenly all I can think about is Blue decks.   I think it was it was the Big Blue Boom Button deck that got me started...

I think a lot and that’s probably why I started this blog... But it dawned on me that the best EDH decks and best causal decks I have played all did the same thing... They all tutored heavily.   Now there are some combo decks around at the moment and this one is no different and no better no worse, but when it works... oh my god when it works... Oh and i decided to make it Blue/Black upon request for a blue black deck from Milenko from Venezuela... And let me say... 

“hola a todos los jugadores latinos magia” and I really hope that  translates

Ladies and gentlemen I give you... Blue/Black Uber Control... I call it...

The Fortune Teller

You will need..

4 Preordain

2 See Beyond

2 Sign in Blood

2 Spreading Seas

1 Mimic Vat

1 Temple Bell

4 Archmage’s Ascension

4 Prototype Portal

1 Voltaic Key

4 Everflowing Chalice

1 Jace Beleren

1 Volition Reins

1 Contagion Clasp

1 Elixir of immortality

1 Tainted Strike

4 Throne of Geth

1 Cancel

1 Consuming Vapors

1 Doom Blade

4 Dark Slick Shores

4 Drowned Catacomb

4 Creeping Tar Pit

1 Tectonic Edge

And a equal mix of swamps and Islands  

Ok so I’ll be the first to say it this is a COMBO deck and therefore it’s going to be hit or miss... It’s a little bit more reliable than the average Combo deck as it will eventually get to the point and there is a good deal of what we used to call scrying in the old days.  

Basically I’ll spare you the nitty-gritty, all you are trying to do here is get Archmage’s Ascension online as fast as possible. So it’s preordain to find a chalice, ramp and lay the ascension as soon as possible ... draw extra cards anyway you can and there’s  load of  ways to do it...

Once you get a counter use Throne of Geth and any artifacts you can to proliferate like mad, until you get it on line. Sac EVERYTHING to get the counters up and don’t forget to draw extra cards and when you’re digging this time, look for voltaic key to un-tap the throne so you can proliferate higher and temple bell to help you draw cards.  

If you’re alive when Archmage’s ascension actually happens, you should be able to turn the game back, because now, you can see the future.

Use temple bell to draw the exact card you need to solve the problems you’re facing, naturally go get a voltaic key first and then un-tap the temple bell.... about to go over to a mindscultor?  go get volition reins...  Need some life? go get consuming vapors... don’t like the look of that baneslayer? Doom blade it,  but not until you have the mimic vat ready and waiting... Or of course you could just cancel it... the other cards are completely up to you, (mine are just suggestions) but what you are looking for is a way to deal with any situation.

How do you win? Well once you’re back on your feet swig in with a Creeping Tar Pit... Oh they forgot about that card (and they will have) boom temple bell for tainted strike... 4 poison counters and you can proliferate it up too... But imagine this... It gets through, it’s late game you’ve been pumping a chalice and maybe some voltaic keys from Gordon Vader’s Patented Portal method?  Which as soon as you have the mana you should go get and thanks to the elixir you could even have played the key early game and even sacked it to the throne to help get the ascension online.  Anyway it’s possible to keep proliferating over and over and even to proliferate your opponent top death in one turn...

Caution peeps ... I’ll be the first to say that this deck is utterly combo based therefore about as reliable as Scottish weather, but sometimes just sometimes it’ll go like a high high-class hooker and with it you’ll wipe the smug smile off some tier-one-net-decker and for the rest of the day you’ll be able to walk on water and heal the sick...*

*Gordon Vader - cannot guarantee that you can walk on water or heal the sick, but he also can’t guarantee that you can’t...

    

New Deck - Mono White - Hard Kor

 I’ve had a good look through the lists and I’ve discovered a bit of a gap. 

There’s a green deck and few red decks a black deck and even a blue deck, but we’re missing a white deck and that’s just not cricket. 

White is my colour of choice, my own standard deck is white and I will get to it eventually, I played it last night at FNM and devastated Blue White control in my first game. At the end of the game, my opponent had six Jaces in his graveyard, four Mind Sculptors and two babies, two Vensers and a Gideon which if my calculations are correct is about £350. It was a hell of a fight, and my opponent did take the next game to force the draw, but it goes to show that with some thought you can consistently beat the ‘top decks’.  I promise I’ll post it soon, but mean while, I did some thinking and I reckon there’s a few solid white decks in standard at the moment, but today I’m presenting my homage to white weenie.  I call it...

Hard Kor.

You will need.

4 Armament Master

3 Dawnglare Invoker

3 Kor Duellist

3 Kot Cartographer

3 Lone Missionary

3 Kor Outfitter

4 Sun titan

3 Adventuring Gear

3 Darksteel axe

3 Basilisk Collar

3 Accorder’s shield

4 Emeria the Sky Ruin

4 Tectonic Edge

17 Plains

Ok so this deck is pure aggro, the idea is to get the Armament Master out as early in the game as you can, cover him with cheap equipment and then suddenly your little Kor Army will be looking very nasty indeed.

If you can get an axe on the Master and an axe and a collar on the Duellist, you’ll have a 5/5 double strike/death touch/life-linker ready to defend by turn 4 and by turn five he could be swinging for 18 damage easily.

As early in the game a you can, get a shield on the master to take him out of the range of burn and the rest of the game should be yours.  Use the outfitters to flit equipment back and forth to your advantage and to keep your manna open for more attackers.

Use the Hook Master to take out any opposition and the missionaries if you need some life in a hurry. The cartographers serve double purpose in helping you get to Emeria’s ultimate and triggering landfall for the adventuring gear and remember it stacks, so a duellist equipped with two adventuring gears when the cartographer comes in could swing for18 damage alone.  More if you have an equipped Armament Master. Almost every Creature in the deck is a Kor creature with an extra ability so the +2 +2 bonus from the Master will make them very potent indeed.

Once you have the mana, open simply use the Invokers to take out the defence and the game should be yours. Keeping it mono white and playing a high range of plains will help reach your goal of getting Emeria online, and remember once it’s up and running, bringing back a titan will also bring back almost everything in your deck so don’t worry if they get countered or destroyed early on, the graveyard isn’t a bad place for them in this deck. 

The tectonics will take out pesky threats like other tectonics and horrible non basic like Raging Ravine, Celestial Colonade and Valakut.

You’ll have so much fun with the Sun Titans in this deck. Swinging in and before blockers are declared, reanimating an outfitter to put a collar on the Titan, or a hundred different plays. Remember the Titan can also bring back the tectonic edges, so don’t be afraid to use them on your opponents land and if you do get ‘edged’ yourself the Titan can also bring back Emeria.

You can still pick up pre release Sun Titans for under £5, making them officially the cheapest of the five, this can’t last for long so get them now.

Get them here...

So there we have it, our first mono white deck and I think it’s cheap, fun and very playable.

Price wise, the promo titans are the most expensive cards at £5 followed by the Collars at £4, Emeria the Sky Ruin is about £2 and the Armament Master is only £1.

If you wanted to jazz it up a little you could add an Iona or a couple of Stone Forge Mystics and maybe sword of Vengeance/ Body and Mind, but it works well as it is. Any way have fun and please send in your ideas, comments and thoughts.

  

A Word About EDH

Elder Dragon Highlander

Often referred to as simply E D H, this is probably my favourite faction of magic. EDH is usually played as a multi player game and decks can vary hugely in power and price. Its also very much aboiut diplomacy, you can win games by losing and lose games by playing the best card and sometimes looking at the wrong player funny will take you out of the running,.I love it, because of all these things.

I’ll tell you the basics and if you want to learn more I’ll post some links in a moment, but there’s a point to this story and I want to get to it...

So basically to build an EDH deck, you will need...

One legendary general... Rule of thumb, the more abilities the better...

One 100 card deck ( including the general ) No duplicate cards (except basic lands ) and only cards in the colours of your general...

The general starts off outside of the game in a special exile (known as the command zone, if he is killed or exiled you may return him to the command zone and replay him, but each time you do he/she costs 2 colourless mana more to play,. this is accumulative)
.

 You have 40 life and if you take 21 points of combat damage from a single general you lose.

And that in a nutshell is EDH.

The full rules can be found here...

Last night we played a four player match.  Dave P, Tim H, myself and Kitt.  Both Dave P and Tim H are seeded players, indeed one of them is in the UK’s top 20...

Kitt and I are not.  

Dave’s deck is a carefully created collection of his best cards and his general is Rafiq of the Many, a particularly despised general in the world of EDH, Tim is playing Teneb the Harvester, Kitt is playing Kemba, Kha Regeant and I am playing Patron of the Akki.  

Where this story gets interesting is how the game went, by the second turn both Tim and Dave had at least £100 of cards on the table. Dave’s got a pair of dual lands and Tim is sporting a Mox Diamond and Maze of ith. Now you have to remember that Kitt’s equipment deck is half cats and half rusty swords, bread knives and pots and pans and I picked up my general in a 30p box at the local store and there is only one kind of land in my deck and they are high and pointy and people like to climb them.

Naturally Kitt and I won. Well Kitt won really, but I gave him the game and our smug alert went off the chart...

Over the next week, I shall be building my fifth EDH and I intend to theme the entire thing around cows.  You may laugh and I suspect you might, but trust me when you’ve been beaten to death by a herd of herbivores the laughing stops. (on a related note I was once killed by an alarming amount of Squirrels, which was just embarrassing) 

So to help me on this quest, I’d like all of you to find as many cow or more importantly cow related cards as you can and send me the suggestions.

I also want to know if you have similarly insane theme decks. Do you have a Gang of Gingers? or a Bat Attack deck? or anything weird and wonderful? Send in your deck lists and I’ll create a top ten bizarre EDH deck list...

The email is

gordonvader@hotmail.co.uk

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...

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...