Well its that time of year again... Dark Ascension is upon us....

Appart from sounding like a dodgy goth night... We ask the obvious question is it any good and will it be fun or broken?

Well we'll have more ideas after the pre release, but here's what I'll be looking for...  for long term projects at any rate....

This card makes me sad... but despite this I shall be doing all I can to get as many as possible on Saturday... It will be an  absolute must for commander / edh and is frankly more wrong than snogging yer granny...

For those of you who don't speak foreign, it basically reads as... I spent £20 on this card so I can break the game of magic and labour under the impression that I'll look really cool in the process...or counter target spell
and play one that shares a type with it from your hand without paying its mana cost.. or in other words... sit smugly back with nothing but open lands and do nothing until you eventually get to 6 mana then win the game with what ever over powered uncastable bollox is currently doing the net deck rounds...It's not like drawing cards or digging is hard in blue... Well done... Wizards of the coast you have reached a new low....

Here's the actual text...

Counter target spell. You may cast a card from your hand that shares a card type with that spell without paying its mana cost.

and if that wasn't bad enough...

They've dropped this monster on us as well...

Curse of Echoes
Enchant Player
Whenever enchanted player casts an instant or sorcery spell, each other player may copy that spell and may choose new targets for the copy he or she controls.

No 1 pick for every EDH Commander deck from now on (at least in EDH it might be funny...)

Ok so we've gotten past the fun killers how about the rest of the field?



Well one might think that Wizards may have learned what happens when you make cards with flash back cards that cost less mana to cast from t he graveyard? Well like I asid you might think...

The whte mana here is almost not worth having.. I  mean don't; get me wrong...in a black and white deck it would be even stroinger, but as a card that reads pitch me and get two 1/1 white fliers for my mono black deck it doesn't seem bad at all.. hell 2 flliers for 3 in mono white isn't horrendous...



Staying with white.

With old spethy still in the top decks this guy is a must have... and for any token deck... tap to add a 1/1 is nuts... this could get broken...

I haven't had a real chance to go through the cards in great detail, but in black there are a couple that jump out...

Ignore the basic reprint of master's call on the left.... I'm talking about the Tragic Slip.. there aren't many situations where -13 -13 won't save your neck and it's not hard to have something to kill in  black... I can see this card getting some play....

and whether this bad boy sees play is a moot point.... I'm just glad it exists..
.

Increasing ambition is good too and double tutors in EDH are always good...

In red I love...

Card draw in red is tricky and add flash back and this is great...

For the Jonny Combo in all of us this could be a very quick clock...

Especially if you add it to

Increasing savagery 3 double green

Put five +1/+1 counters on target creature. If Increasing Savagery was cast from a graveyard, put ten +1/+1 counters on that creature instead.
Flashback
Ii mean sure its double green, but then we remember this...

See I'm at it already...



OK so I'll mention a couple more....

Ok so my favourite over powered monster is this... I mean how many abilities does a card need?
I can see this in the counterlash deck...I'm just glad folks don't like playing blue white control decks... Oh wait...

And for sideboard card of the set... I reccomend...(it's also good if you want to make enemies in EDH) or want to take up Legacy... These last two cards are going to go up in value

But the meta figher in me will always try and find some sneaky cheap way to win games and still have money for beer and my tip to this end is this curious little number...

I reckon this this jank rare is more playbale that in looks...  I can see it in a red aggro deck with elements of control... It could save spent blockers and zapped attackers early game and late game there ain't much it won't stop... and that ulitmate could be a game winner... 


update 26th... thanks to Brighton's James Tann for reminding me of this little bit of insanity....

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/magic_single_card.asp?cn=Havengul%20Lich&ref=hover

another top pick for saturday... How he'll do in sealed I don't know but in constructed he could be  a gem...

And what about the Palneswalkers?

And I have to mention this geezer... I sincerely doubt he's going to keep the silly price tag because his abilities are just a little bit tame compared witth others....

 

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

    

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...

Polymorph Redux..

We’re going to have a look at an old friend this week... There once was a time when polymorph was the fringe deck to watch. It made a show at a few tournaments and it also made an appearance as the sideboard for Pyromancer’s Ascension. You might think that with the advent of Mass polymorph we might see a resurgence, but we’re hitting the border of Mirridon Besieged soon and we haven’t even had a postcard. 

So no one’s playing it and it’s in the card shop bargain bucket, sounds like the perfect time for a rethink.  Ladies and Gentlemen I give you a twist on a classic...

I call it 

Critical Mass

 The problem with polymorph was always the reliability, left unchecked and if you were lucky a turn 3 Iona or Emrakul was probably game however if it went wrong, and it so often did, you could spend the entire game with an Emrakul in your hand and no way in hell of getting it out... or worse yet, lay token after token and not catch a sniff of an actual polymorph and trust me numerous as they are eldrzi spawn do not an army make.

Yes, there were pros, without lots of creatures taking up your slots it had loads of room for answers. (if you’ve just started playing or just don’t know what I am on about... Polymorph was a deck build around the premise that you only had one or two creatures in the entire deck and the rest of it was token generation and ways to search for the elusive polymorph which itself was there to cheat one of your two horrendous fatties into play ) So with all those extra spaces you could add in all sorts of madness.. There was a blue/green version with Into the Roils and negates and ponders, there was a red/blue/green version with staggershocks and bolts and Sarkhan Vol and I as I mentioned above there was a blue/red limited edition hidden in the sideboard of Pyromancers Ascension...  The problem is sometimes it just didn’t work.   So I got thinking is there anything I could do to make it more stable, well... this is what I came up with....

You will need.

4 Mass Polymorph

2 Chimeric Mass

4 Squadron Hawk

3 Rusted Relic

3 Glint Hawk Idol

4 Liquimetal Coating

1 Indomitable Angel

1 Emrakul

1 Iona Shield of Emeria

1 Ulamog

4 Everflowing Chalice

4 Preordain

4 Revoke Existence

3 Contagion Clasp

1 Elixir of Immortality

Go the whole hog with Glacial Fortresses, Seachrome Coasts and Celestial Colonnades, which will give you another threat. You don’t need fetch lands, so save yourself the cash and besides the more decks that use fetch lands the sooner we’ll see main deck Leonin Arbiters, with this deck at least you’ll waste 4 spaces in their sideboard.

Ok what makes this deck different from polymorph is that is has actual threats rather than tokens. The Squadron Hawk is a test play, but it does give you decent targets and of course once you find the first one you can strip your deck of all creatures except for your fatties.  As neither Chimeric Mass, Rusted Relic or Glint hawk Idol actually count as creatures until they hit the open air and even then, two of them will need a nudge.

It might not seem like much but a 2/2 flyer is lightyears ahead of an Eldrazi Spawn and it won’t take long before your rusted relics are swinging in for 5 and you can lay the Chimeric Mass for as much as you can spare.  Meanwhile, preordain for the Mass Polymorph and use the liquimetal coating and revoke existence for the serious game threats. Use the clasps for light removal and to pump the chalices and the Chimeric Mass.

If you can resolve a Mass Polymorph for 4 and get the fatties, or as many as you can in, the end of the game can’t be far off...

So let’s look at the creatures one by one...

The four are a team and they’ll work like one too.. 

Emrakul, Ulamog and Iona need little explanation and unlike the original, this deck will actually let you to play them if you need them, but it could take a while, but why the others? well the angel is there to protect Emrakul or Iona, because with the liquimetal coating  you can turn them into artifacts at will and give them instant shroud, bouncing them with Jace was a favourite trick of Blue White Control and you don’t want to go to all that effort just to have the critters sent back to you hand. Keep Emrakul in play for just one turn and you’ll soon see why Eldrazi ramp is one of the top decks. The angel is also playable early gameand good for protecting your investments.

Competitive?  I think it’ll hold its own... It’s certainly a strong fringe/rogue deck, with careful play it could easily be a contender...it's definatelhy stronger than Polymorph, as it can win games without ever  pulling off the trick...And remember you don't have to animate the Mass or the idol, before you polymorph... unless you  need to...

Update

This is just the alpha list and I'm already thinking about dropping the clasps thanks to a suggestion I swap em for negates from a fella named 4 tens...  I reckon he could be right there.,..

New update...

Suggestions for a green blue version have been coming in and its not a bad play... green will give you ramp and more token generation and access to the possibly game swiinging Autumn's Veil and you can use nature's claim or naturalise inplace of revoke existence

Either way I'd strongly suggest swapping the clasps for See beyonds and not negates... as unlikely though it is to draw two or more of your fatties, fate would find it hillarious...

  

The Good news about mythics...

Now I do like Magic and I do respect the boys and girls in R&D I mean they must have such a headache making sure that what they do doesn’t break the system. Of course sometimes cards slip through the net that are stupidly overpowered and I can imagine their faces when on Monday morning the boss drags them all into a meeting to ask them exactly what they were thinking when they let Lotus Cobra out of the building.. My point is, they can’t get everything right and its fun when you find one of their gaps.

 Like the first time you realise that Soliton and Heavy Arbalest is an AK47 and Liquimetal coating and revoke existence is a doomsday laser.  There are other gaps too, not everything can be a mythic and they must spend weeks trying to get that right, but would anyone play a Mox opal over a Steel Overseer or an Archdruid or even a Trinket Mage? I played a 12 player draft recently and opened an Opal. I passed it and 12 turns later I got it back. 

The thing is, I do think Mythics have their place. They artificially inflate their own price and thus devalue normal rares. You can pick up a Birds oF Paradise for £4/$6 these days and that has got to be a record and which would you rather have in your deck?  Having said that kids all it will take for Mox Opal to become the most played card in standard is for Wizards to suddenly think it’s a good idea to bring artifact lands back. 

We are at Adventures in the Meta are looking forward to Mirridon Besieged and shall be making some educated guesses and total punts as to what we might see in the new set very soon, feel free to send in your suggestions and watch this space...

Pssssst.... Pentavus










that was a complete punt but if the R%D boys & girls are watching... please bring back pentavus....

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...

    

Big Blue Boom Button aka Grand Architect combo or Mono Blue Eldrazi Ramp

There was something niggling at me yesterday, I probably need to get out more, but instead I decided to build a deck. I’d been working on a blue deck recently and I had a look at some of my cards and a thought struck me...

There are some really broken cards in Scars and two or three cards keep jumping out at me.  So I decided to stick them together and suddenly... the entire game unravelled.

I guess its mono blue Eldrazi ramp?

Ladies and gentlemen, this one is going to raise eyebrows.

I call it... 

Big Blue Boom Button

You will need. 

1 Ulamog the Infinite Gyre

4 Grand Architects

4 Kraken Hatchling

4 Trinket mage

4 Enclave Cryptologist

4 Liquimetal Coating

4 Everflowing Chalice

1 Expedition Map

2 Kuldotha Forgemaster

2 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Spawnsire Of Ulamog

1 Mindslaver

2 Elixir of Immortality

1 Platinun Emperium

1 Prototype Portal

1 Voltaic Key

1 Eye of Ugin

4 Eldrazi Temple

18 Islands

Ok this deck may take a few run-throughs, before it starts to make sense. At first glance the inclusion of the Eldrazi temple may seem unusual, but as it unfurls I hope you can see the method behind the madness and remember it still taps for one colourless...

This deck uses a few tricks, but where you’re headed is Spawnsire of Ulamog. We’ve seen ideas around this card before and its ultimate ability is so tempting, but equally too out of reach to be competitive. Well it was, this deck smashes that theory and not only makes it possible, it makes it easy... This is how it’s done...

You will need a few cards to make this happen, but they’ll come easy and you won’t even raise an eyebrow until it’s too late.

Big Blue Boom Button uses an engine not dissimilar to my mono nlack control deck The Dark Design. What you are looking for is an opening hand with a grand architect, any blue creature, liquimetal coating, a trinket mage an expedition map and a pair of islands.  I realise this is the god hand, but to be honest you can do this trick any number of ways so I’ll just skip to the end.

Once you have the Expedition Map ready to go, you’re looking for the Eye Of Ugin. Now it’s safe to assume that you’re going to have some blue creatures in play and if you have a Grand Architect and the liquimetal coating in play you’re probably going to win...

In your opponents turn, use the Liquimetal Coating to turn the Eye of Ulgin into an artifact (yep, you guessed it and it works) tap any blue creatures to tutor up the Forge Master, as the Eye OF Ulgin searches for colourless creatures not just Eldrazi.

In your turn play the Forgemaster and if you can, play the trinket mage and get the Voltaic Key if you don’t have it already.

Next you need to tutor up a Wurmcoil Engine, using the eye and the Architect’s trick again, play it in your turn. This will give you some defence until their next end step.

This time sac the wormcoil and a liquimetal coated land and drop a chalice for zero to sac to the Forgemaster and go get the portal.  As you already have the key, imprint this and make as many keys as you can by tapping blue creatures and un-tapping the portal. You should be able to make upwards of 6 and you can now sac 3, at instant speed at any time to tutor up the other Wurmcoil for defence or the Mind Slaver to steal your opponents next turn or the Platinum Imperium to stabilise your life.

At the end of your opponents next turn use the liquimetal coating and the Eye to look for the Spawnsire or Ulamog if you have enough mana to play him. If you need to, go find the elixir and replenish your library.  As soon as you find a Chalice you’ve won, quite literally.  

Remember! Whenever you have spare mana use it to generate keys.

The end game is simple, you use blue creatures to create huge kicked chalices and then the excess keys to un-tap them, this should enable you to play the Spawnsire in one turn and then all you need to do is use the Liquimetal Coating  to turn the Spawnsire into an artifact and then you can use your blue creatures to activate the ultimate ability and bring in your horde of Eldrazi from outside the game, or even just Emrakul and few other fatties.  

The synergy of this deck is incredibly fluid, once you have those keys in play you can tap and un-tap nearly everything by tuning everything into artifacts with the Liquimetal Coating and then using the keys to un-tap the coating and then moving on to the next one. You can even use the blue creatures to tap for 2 mana then use the Liquimetal Coating to turn them into artifacts and use 1 of the 2 to un-tap them so you can tap them again for 2, leaving 1 mana floating.  With enough keys you can achieve almost anything.

The Liquimetal trick also works on the Cryptologists which will help you dig deeper in the deck and once you have the portal and the key you can create enough keys to tap and unto the world...

Here’s an example....

Let’s say you have...  1 Eye Ugin and 5 islands in play...A Grand  Architect, a forgemaster and two hatchlings on the battlefield, a key on the portal and liquimetal coating and last turn you made 3 keys...

This turn you can... tap an island to make a key, tap a trickster to make 2 mana use 1 to untap the portal and make another key use the last to make another key... sac three keys to the Forgemaster go get Mindslaver, tap the other trickster and the architect for 4 mana and sac Mindslaver to take opponents next turn.  Use the liquimetal coating to make the Architect an artifact, tap an island for 1 mana, use a key to un-tap him, tap him for 2 mana, use 1 mana on another key to untap the portal and then make another key, keep using your islands to keep making keys until you have one key left and 3 mana, use this to untap the forgemaster, sac 3 keys to go get the Elixir of Immortatilty use 2 mana to tap and sac the elixir and reset your deck...

Next turn you can do the same thing again and your opponent... will never have another turn.

This deck also has solid defence from the one drop 0/4 hatchlings and once the Forgemaster is in play you should be able to tutor up anything you need rather than play them, so counter spells will have limited effect on your deck. It’s a blue deck, so sideboard counter spells for game two because whilst it may be funny to have 15 Eldrazi marching out of the sideboard in the middle of the game, there’s really no need, as an Emrakul will pretty much win the game for you.

 I’ve tested it against most decks and its pretty quick and left unchecked, this deck will eat pretty much anything, although it is weak against memoricide in game two, hence the counter spells. In the first game unless your opponent has a great start or main deck artifact hate, they are going to really struggle to compete.

  

This deck is really fun to play and it will leave your opponent scratching their heads and looking like you’ve just punched their favourite puppy.  

 Now I feel I should say that this deck also works with pretty much any artifact you can think of..  I have gone for the cheapest options, but you could swap out the Platinum Emperium for the Masticore and of course you could have a horrid amount of Eldrazi in your sideboard and if you can afford the Big Three (Kozilek, Ulamog, Emrakul) then they would be worth including... but it also works with out them and come on guys whens the next time you're actually going to play any Artisans of Kozilek. Pathrazers of Ulamog or It That Betrays?


UPDATE 

Nov 12th

Ok after some playtesting I reccomend that the following changes are made to make the deck even more playable.

 You can drop the Trinket mages because the forgemasters can find all the combo pieces a lot earlier and you really need the spaces for more portals and voltaic keys, you can also drop a chalice and an islond for more expedtitoin maps...

In yoir sideboard you really only need three emrakuls to win the game and use the other spaces to safety proof the deck...  

As soon as you reach Spawnsires ultimate ability, play Emerakul.  In your second turn swing with him, after combat play the second one, which will give you another turn and destroy the pair of them . In your next turn play the last one...If you don't win, your opponent is somehow cheating or you don't deserve to win..

Update Nov 13th

Ok now I call the deck Eldrazi ramp, but to be honest that's not really the trick...
What this deck is really trying to achieve is a forgemaster in play (Easy enough!) and then to tutor a portal  and imprint the key... with any blue creatures and an architect (or even without) this deck can do increadible things... 

Lets say the erchitect is in play...  and just one other blue creature 1 liquimetal coating and I've made 2 keys and I  have 4 lands...

Watch this for card advantage...

In your turn I can make 7 voltaic keys...

...on my turn I can  sac and use the remaining mana to tap and untap the forgemaster enough times to play both my wurmcils,  my emperion, sac both my wurmcoils,  tutor up an elixir tap and sac it (gain 5 life potentially... ) and then retutor both the wurm coils back into play...

thats 4 lands for 2 x 6/6 deathtouch/lifelinkers 2 x 3/3 lifelinkers and 2 x 3/3 deathtouchers  and an 8/8 thats says my life doesn't change...oh and I gained 5 life...
oh actually I don't do I? or do I?... because I can make one of the tokens blue and then sac the emperium in response before gainng the life and then retutoring the Emperium...Also remember that most permanents can be turned into artifacts and thus become viable targets for the grand architects... Celestial Colonnade,  Dawnglare invoker,  air servent etc etc etc....  

Here's the match ups...


Eldrazi ramp.... If you can get the portal and the key on turn 4/5 and then tutor for the Emperion... There is little they can do to beat you.... Even if they Ulamog they Emperion you can just tutor up the elixir tap sac it and use another key on the forgemaster and re tutor the Emperion again... all in the same turn... with the amount of keys you can generate each turn Annihilator just tickles and because Empoerion and portal are colourless they can't all is dust it...


Elves - use the Kraken hatchlings early game turn 2/3 to stop early damage, but don't let them die.  Then when you get the architect/ eye get the forgemaster and portal… if you can survive until the Emperio is out you should win... a really funny way to finish elves is to mindslave them late game and genisis wave them to death... as they MAY choose to put any cards revealed by the wave onto the battlefield and you will chose not to and therefore mill them to death with their own card… if they are running ulamog, play him and take out their biggest threat with him as you can make any number of keys each turn it won’t matter...

Valakut  because Valakut is such a one trick pony as soon as you can, tutor up a mindslaver and just ruin their game by using all their explores, cultivates and tap and sac the shrines to bring in all the mountains you can because when those mountains are on the field and they run out there deck is useless... 

Red deck will probably eat you

Blue white control  - you'll need to keep recurring mindslaver and doing the wrong things with their planeswalkers... fate seal them with jace and bounce jace with venser to keep him down, use gideon to blow up their creatures...If they wrath you could be n trouble..


That’s about it... It’s a fun deck, but needs some work...

.

My kind of girl

Just please don't tell me they're alphas!

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!