NitroGlissarin...

Ok the world is changing, It's that time of year when the meta shifts and the $100 card become $50 cards and the $1.5 cards become $50 cards....

If I could tell the future I'd be a rich man, but whilst I ain't no prophet, I reckon a can spot a trend...

There are two loop holes coming and now is the time to abuse them... Firstly black and more importantly blue/black control got all it's Christmases at once... With Go for the Throat, Black Sun's Zenith and Massacre Wurrm turning an already strong deck into a powerhouse, there's a chance here to get your self some power cards without spending a fortune... And don't forget to stock up on Inkmoth Nexus, Phyrexian Revokers and  Green Suns Zeniths too...

But I suspect the sneaky trick card you might want to get your hands on right now is Glissa The Traitor. Glissa is one of the most over powered card I have ever seen... In a world where the most effective removal wont touch artifacts and you can tutor and put into play green creatures at will, she is frankly mental...

A 3/3 for 3 is fair enough as it is, but give it death touch and I'm interested, but give it first strike and I love it... I'd have considered it powerful here, but there are not one, but two bonuses to come... Firstly the insane artifact recursion is just staggering and we're not done yet... Firstly its green and it's black so you get the best of ramp and removal but the best bit it's green and this means you can use the Green Sun Zenith to put it straight into play without having to worry about the black colour bar and if that wasn't enough it also means you can .get it out of the graveyard with ease...

I spent the latter part of Saturday getting my hands on a play set and I immediately set to work building around her... (Which is my second Glissa deck, the first I made before i'd even seen the card...)

Laides and Gentlemen i give you

Nitro-Glissa-Rin

We've had control for ages but this ones new this one is Green Black control and it's going to be nasty, really really really nasty....


You will need...

3 Everflowing chalice
3 Throne of Geth
4 Necropede
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Mortar Pod
2 Black Sun's zenith
4 Core prowler
3 Contagion clasp
2 Grim discovery
1. Preators council
1 Glissa the Traitor
1 Putrefax
1 Fangren Mrauder.
1 Phyrexian Hydra
4 Horizon Spellbomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Inkmoth Nexus
5 Swamps
6 Forests

Ok this one is slick, mean, black and green...

So what does it do? Well the key to the deck is glissa, 'but there's only one' I hear you say... and indeed there is, but that's fine because there are 4  ways to find her so effectively that's actually 5 Glissas in the deck...

Ok then we 've got her, so what does she do?   

Well  she gets back the boomsticks... Boomsticks? Yep this deck is designed to do two things.

1. Chew gum and...
2. Kick Ass... and you'll note that this deck is all out of gum...

Turn one.... Drop a spell bomb, relax and take in the view....and pass the buck (you can recur these later so if you donlt need mana help feel free to sac them to the throne...(chose your moment though... an untapped throne can be a safety net)
Turn two... drop a chalice or a necropede...
Turn three...  drop a chalice, if you haven't already, play the throne and swing with the pede... if you get through great if you don't sac it to the throne and put the chalice up and a counter on the biggest threat.
Turn four... In a perfect world you've got a chalice on 2, a throne of geth in play, a zenith in hand (and/or a Glissa )and you're facing an opponent with a critter with a counter on it...(or a poison counter...) So what to do? Well... if you can, get Glissa in play and then use all the the resources you have at your disposal to get rid of the critter  with the counter - maybe drop a clasp and Finnish it off? or sac the throne? to proliferate it if you can use lay a clasp then great as soon as the enemy dies get the necropede back...

The idea is to not let anything survive more than a couple of turns and in the process keep recurring the tools of the trade.

So nothing's sticking, great now how do I win?

The end game is simple... you have loads of options... Either use a green sun's zennith to get putrefax and swing when they are most vunerable.... or you can just keep recuiing necropedes and or core prowlers to the mortar pod to get the first poison damage... and then ramp it up with the thrones and the clasps... 


some neat tricks..

1. Your opponent has 3 x 2/2  knights on the field.... you have a chalice on one, a  Glissa, a core prowler, a throne of geth and a mortar pod on the field and 4 untapped lands....

So you play black sun's zenith... for one point.... giving every thing a -1 counter....then equip a core prowler with the mortar pod and sac it to give you opponent a poison counter.

As he dies, you proliferate the poison counter up (chalice goes to 2) and 1 of the knights to death instantly recurring the core prowler with glissa's ability...

This time you can sac the Throne of Geth to itself giving your opponent another poison counter (both your opponent and your Chalice go to 3 )and killimg another knight and instantly getting the throne back.... now you can use the chalice to replay the throne and instantly re sac it to its self.. getting your opponent and your chalice to 4.

All you need for a win next turn is a Green Sun's Zenith...to get a putefax... replaying the coreprowler all you need to do is reequip it to the mortarpod and let it die again then, when you swing with the putrefax even if you opponent blocks you can recur the core prowler... Or you can pretty much do the same thing you did the last turn....

So let's recap...

That's a decent board position and in one turn you've wiped out a an army of knights ramped to an extra 4 mana and your opponent is half way to a game loss...

More tricks... Glissa - throne - play clasp - give a goblin guide a -1 sac clasp to the throne, give it another -1 when it dies get the clasp back - rinse and repeat...

In Trouble? Go get the Gimp... If aggro has taken its toll and you find yourself in need of life...Go get the Fangren Marauder... With the amount of sacrificing and recuring of artifacts this deck s capable of, you're going to live forever...

Of course you can also just swing in with the Inkmoths... and start the game from here...  Use the Grim Dicoverires to get your inkmoths and glissa's back.... Eventually  you'll get the preators council and the biggest hand you've ever seen...

For the sideboard you'll want the pistus strike... There's a sphinx coming and in addition to that you'll need a way to get those pesky inkmoths out of the sky... Also why not go for the old inquistion and duress cause game two memoricide is going to hurt...

Remember this strategy is to keep everything of the field...Use the tutors to get the threats and swing swing swing... use Glissa to hit walkers and the rest of the gang to get that infect damage up... V's aggro remember you can recur creatures so don't be afraid to let them them die and an early green Zenith should get you a 7/7 hydra that will soon stop the swinging...

The throne of Geth will keep your artifacts safe as well as helping you get the poison damage up. As you can easily recur artifacts as soon as an opponent tries to destroy or exile one, simply sac it to the throne..

 Iif your finding it hard to table Gliass here;s a revised list...We lose the hydra and putrefax but it does make the list more concise..


3 x cultivate
3 x contagion clasp
3 x throne of geth
4 x necropede
3 x core prowler
3 x Black sun's Zenith
2 x glissa, the traitor
3 x green sun's zenith
1 x fangren marauder
3 x grim discovery
3 x mortarpod
3 x everflowing chalice
3 x silverskin armor
4 x inkmoth nexus
4 x verdant catacombs
4 x tectonic edge
6 x swamp
5 x forest

 

My Parents went to Mirrodin and all they got me was this lousy Colossus

 So here's a thing.... Literally within seconds of the announcement of Blightsteel Colossus there were versions of this deck under discussion... and the ones I saw were getting pricier and riskier all the time... We looked a little at Polymorph earlier in my Crirtcal Mass deck and we know how risky setting up an 'all or nothing win' can be... Firstly you need to find all the bits to make it happen AND then you need to make sure you get them on the table AND then you need to be able to 'polymorph' without interuption AND finally you need to be able to swing unhindered with your silver bullet AND somehow survive long enougnh to let all this happen... Fragile? Oh I think that's fair to say...

So how can you make it less fragile?

Well for one thing you could give the deck more than one way to win...

So how can we make it cheaper?

Well with more than 4 'polymorphs' and more than 4 targets you don't need to add 'Jace the dollar Burner' to dig and search...

So how does it work?

Well we'll show you it first...

Ladies and Gentleman this is my new deck... I call it...

'My Parents went to Mirrodin and all they got me was this lousy Colossus' ...
because you do need at least one of those expensive cards...

You will need...


3 x shape anew
3 x mass polymorph
3 x precursor golem
4 x negate
4 x Not Of this World 

4 x master's call

1 x brightsteel collosus

4 x See Beyond

4 x mana leak
3 x preordain

1 x Emrakul, the aeons torn http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193452

4 x seachrome coast
4 x inkmoth nexus
4 x celestial colonnade
4 x misty rainforest
6 x island
3 x tectonic edge

Ok the principle is very simple... It has a ton of disruption and trades few targets for many in the polymorph / shape anew stakes...

The very worst that will happen if you shape anew an inkmoth is you'll hit a Precursor golem.. and get 3 of them... of  course you could just play a precursor golem and then shape anew that... turning 3 golems (because shape anew targets each copy ) into 6 golems and a Blightsteel Colossus.

The same thing will happen with the polymorph (except you might hit an Emrakul too) so you really have 6 shape anews in the deck...

What makes this deck a bit unique is that if all else failed you can just play the threats and with double the targets and double the polymorphs you don't need a $100 mndsculptors which you would then have to defend...

So you have 8 main deck counters and some scry and some disruption.. and the best bit is the Vader tech from Control This! Not of this World. is the perfect way to keep your fatties on the table...

Something Something Dark Side...

It's pre release tomorrow and I know which team I'm batting for...

I thought we'd take a moment to look at the optons...

Well the good guys might always win in the movies, but I got a sneaking suspicion that Phyrexia are gonna sweep game day.

So what side should you play?

Well depends on a few things....

First money... If you were trying to make the most out of your buck then the Mirran prerelease card is worth pretty much half the entry price, whereas the Phyrexian one is worth a quarter...

Cards and their approx values...

Cards to look out for

Tez (£25?)

Blightsteel Colossus/ Thrun (£15?)

Massacre Worm / Sword of Feast and Famine, and Inkmoth Nexus ( £9.... although the land may go up yet...)

Of all the zeniths the green and black are worth the most....

Both the crussaders are worth a bit,  with the black slightly ahead...

Cards that I think will go up in value?

Phyrexian Revoker is a must have, I can’t believe it’s only £2... This card is Jack the Jace killer and it will see main deck play...Contested warzone looks terrible (and it does ) ...but there’s something about it that’s screaming at me... A good aggro deck could use this as another 4 bushwhackers...  

Uncommon? Well clearly go for the throat is the new doom blade and they are already pre-selling for £2 (that’s as much a s a revoker?) Unfortunately, I don’t suspect they will be much help tomorrow  and you may want to keep them in the sideboard..

So what do I recommend playing tomorrow? Just have fun that’s what I say... but on a competitive level, two words will dominate tomorrow and you can bet the winning players will be from one of these two camps... Infect or Battlecry... Personally I reckon Infect will be stronger (it’s like playing an opponent who has 10 life, rather than 20) So if you don’t get a big load of these in your pool or you just plain don’t want to play infect or battlecry, then I got two words for you... FIRST STRIKE... get as many first striking critters in your deck as you can...

Here’s some Gordon Vader tips for winning on game day...

  

      Research... If you are reading this then you already have a head-start, but maintain that lead and go to the wizards site and look at the spoilers... 

         Removal Removal Removal, don’t make it clunky and specific – the ability to destroy a flying non green non artifact creature during the declare attackers phase is pointless.. 

      Watch out for the bombs... A bomb will win you games, a 7 card combo in 3 colours won’t. 

      Never let an infect creature through if your opponent has a lot of green mana untapped. 

      Try to stick to a colour scheme you can live with... (even if it means leaving out that Mythic rare)

      Ideally you should try to play one colour, unless you have a strategy that looks consistent...

Ok some specifics...

Good cards to play... 

I’m not going to speculate on bomb cards because you’re going to get what you get... 

Commons and uncommons though... here’s my pick...

Top of my list would be...

Corrupted conscience ( I haven’t seen a lot of Enchantment hate and this would be horrible at the right moment...)

Steel sabotage could also be good..  

Virrulent wound is awesome and I think we’re going to see more of this card...

      

       Red got some great burn... Slagstorm, Concussive bolt and Burn the Impure

       will all save the day for someone tomorrow.

       Anway these are just some ideas... So go have fun and I hope you get all the

       Mythic rares you want...   

      

       What Side am i taking?

        

        Well Mirran Of Course... Someone’s got to keep these Phyrexians at bay and

        didn’t you know the good guy always gets the girl?           

        Here's the link to the entire Spoiler.. 

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Master Forgery

Over the course of the last few weeks I have been tinkering with a few cards. I’m sure it will come as no surprise to my astute readers that I have a penchant for a few in particular. And anyone who has played with The Tardis, The Dark Design and Big Blue Boom Button will know that hidden in the depths of these decks there are a few awesome combos. I’ve been meaning to post the results of my experiments for a while, but there were other decks to build first and this one is similar enough to the three I mentioned to  call for some distance. Basically this is stripped down version of my grand architect deck without all the smoke and mirrors and it is, to be quite frank, the NUTZ…

Ladies and gentle men this is potentially the new Archetype, because Mirrodin Besieged can go one of two ways now…

If it goes down the big artifact route then this could be the new rock and roll… If it doesn’t then you ‘ll probably never hear about it… I’m hoping for the former… I know there’s one spell in this set that combo’s off like a rocket in this deck but we’ll get to that later. 

I call it

Master Forgery

You Will Need

Either… now this is important because how you start the deck is dependent on your preference….

4 Kraken Hatchling (defensive play - good against elves & Aggro)

4 Cosi’s Trickster (Aggro play – good against Control of nay kind)

4 Enclave Cryptologist  (cautious play  for blue players trying to shy away from putting mind sculptors in every deck they possess regardless of colour)

In my version I play hatchlings (because for me they tend to survive longer)

So here we go…

4 Kraken Hatchling

4 Trinket Mage (yes this deck needs them)

4 Grand Architect

4 Kuldotha Forgemaster (It wouldn't surprise me if they banned this card)

4 Prototype Portal

3 All is dust

2 Whispersilk Cloak

2 Elixir of Immortality

 1 Voltaic Key

2 Everflowing Chalice

1 Mindslaver

1 Lux Cannon

1 Ratchet Bomb

2 Platinum Emperion

1 Platinum Angel

Land wise you can go anywhere you like with this deck… there is an argument for fetch lands and Eldrazi temples, but we are a budget blog… so I’ve gone simply for 16 islands, 4 tectonic edges and 4 dread statuary – a must in this deck…   

So how does it work? Well its partly combo based, but it’s a very simple and achievable combo… All you want to do is stay alive long enough to play a kuldotha forgemaster and have it survive a turn… if you can do that then there is a real chance you’re going to win… 

There are of course secondary agendas and the most important of them is to get a Voltaic key imprinted on a prototype portal if you can achieve this with mana to spare and a forgemaster in play there is only one deck in the meta that can survive more a few turns…

Ok it all sounds a bit pricey, surely it’ll just get mana leaked out of the water?… Of course like all decks you will have to play with caution against the likes of control. But if you can resolve an architect with even a couple of blue creatures in play then you’ll have mana and mana spare for the likes of Mana leak.  And there only a few cards in today’s game that can deal with the fat bottomed forgemaster… Doom Blade will be your worst threat but if you gat get him out for just one turn like I said they are going to really suffer… How?What?Why?

Well the forgemaster is a tutor extraordinaire, there are few cards in the game that can tutor cards into your hand at instant speed, let alone into play.  Of course if you’re not in any immediate threat of dying and he’s been round the table once the first thing you want to get is a prototype portal. So unless you already have this in place sac everything (except him) to go get one… You should have a voltaic key in hand… You know when you played that trinket mage earlier? So go sac everything activate the lands if you need to or that Whispersilk cloak or your everflowing chalice… EVERYTHING… because if you can do this… You are going to win and there are only a couple of cards in the world that can stop you…  For a start counters spells are no longer going to affect you as everything you want will be tutored into straight into play. So you have a couple of blue critters… a forgemaster and a keep on the portal…  what can you do? Well the simple answer is anything…

Ok here’s some scenarios… you are on 6 life, you’ve taken a beating , Valakut is about to go off and your opponent swings with Primeval Titan… he also has a khalni heart expedition on the field with a couple of counters… So he swings and gets a couple of mountains…  What can you do? Well first you wait.. He can see then end is in sight (and has a safety net in the heart  ) so he directs all the damage to you… In response you can tap the portal and generate some token keys (if you don’t already have some) and sac them to the forgemaster to instantly tutor the Platinum Emperion into play (now your life can’t change) now your opponent is not an idiot.. so he uses the extra lands to crack the shrine and goes and gets more mountains and targets the Emperion… But you were ready for this too so using one mana and a key you can un-tap the forgemaster and tap and sac the Emperion and the key and any other artifact to go get another one... (this actually happened to me once during a game…)   In my turn I made some keys went and got mindslaver taped and sacked it and killed him with his own deck…   

‘Oh but he’d target the forgemaster’ I hear you say! (and smart players are starting to realize this is the best play… )

So he targets the forgemater, in response you can make keys and tap and sac them to get the emperion then un-tap the forgemaster with another key and tap sac it and the forgemaster and another key to go get another forgemaster…All at instant speed (still think I was mad saying it could be banned?) 

Where am I getting all these keys? Well as you have one on a prototype portal (which is an artifact) and it only cost one to make a key and the keys ability is to un-tap an artifact… you simply use all of your mana to keep tapping and un-tapping the portal to make keys… With a Grand Architect in and a couple of his buddies in play you should be able to make 8/9/10, possibly more keys a turn.

Basically the fastest way to win is to tutor in an Emperion and then a whipersilk cloak on the next turn… If you can achieve this unmolested then only Day of Judgment can save them… and it won’t really save them it will only reset the board… Sure there are other long and convoluted multiple card combos that can help, but remember they now have 3 turns max in the game… Jace will help hear you cry! What Jace? You just took him out with an unblockable 8/8 and he couldn’t help any way as the Emperion has shroud.. (Platinum Emperion is a very under-rated card… and you can get them for $5 trust me this is a good investment)

Other fun plays….

They bring in a ratchet bomb to take out your portal… in  response make some keys and tutor one up yourself… then use the keys to tap and un-tap to get it to two counters and set it off before they can do anything with it… I’ve had upwards of 50 keys in play at times and once that’s happens imagine what you can do with the Lux Canon…

This deck is so flexible it’s ridiculous… As long as the forgemaster gets through a single turn…

They can’t… bounce it

                       Exile it

                       Destroy it

                       Steal it

                       Make you sac it…

                       Because you can sac it in response… Ok for the last one you’d have to get the Mindslaver, Ratchet bomb or Canon instead but is that really so bad?

Ok I play this deck a lot and I can tell you that it’s strong against every deck… I ‘ve beaten every single tier one deck with it and I’m not going to say its unbeatable , but I will say it’s a tough deck to beat…

God hand Mox goblins can give it trouble… and Big red can be a pain.. It should walk over
Valakut.. Its strong against elves and vamps (although be careful of domblades and gatekeepers…) It eats blue white control and Mono green Eldrazi, but this deck’s nemesis is Blue Black control… A clever player can steal the combo pieces from your hand and the forgemaster will die to a doom blade….

Of course you could go blue black yourself and beat them at their own game with duress’s and inquisition… Blue black is the sole reason I run two elixirs as taking one from your opening hand (which can often be the only target has the unfortunate side effect of ruining this deck…)

Anyway the reason I am publishing this list now is there may well be two card in the next set that either make or break this deck… If there is, as I suspect there may be, a ‘destroy all artifacts’ card, then this deck won’t work or will need silly counterspell cover… BUT…Spoiler Alert…. Spoiler Alert….Spoiler Alert….

There is a destroy all artifacts card... but there's some good news too... 1.. its double green and 2. the only artifacts that seem to have folks worried are the indestructible colossus and the split in two wurmcoil engine... So until some one invents a Tezz infect deck (which is unfortunately likely) then there's no real reason to panic

There you have it the first combo of Besieged and you heard it here first… Of course this may all be nonsense, but hey its only a game…

Update Jan 19th... Well as if this deck needed any more help.... Here's sme more resons to get building...

In one game recently I had  over 300 voltaic keys in play... Add throne of geth  and some Tezzs and that my firend is game set and match...

Need a way to secure the mindslaver/ portal  lock? 'Et voila..'.

If 3 turns is too long to wait for a kill... Then why not add the Brightsteel Colossus ?  in theory with a really good hand, you can actually have this swinging and equipped with a Whispersilk Cloak by turn 4...

Fog anyone? because thats pretty much the only way your opponent is going to see turn 5

Rather than re write the whole thing

Here'sa major update....

http://tragicthegathering.blogspot.com/2010/11/mirrodin-beseiged.html

Our week of madness begins!

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

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

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

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

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

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

So this is it...

1 Chrome Mox (about $15/20)

1 Krark’s Thumb

1 Mountain

1 pyretic ritual

1 seething song

1 (any) red spell

1 Game of Chaos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Mirrodin Besieged Speculation

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

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

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

So what do we know?

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

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

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

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

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

And here he is and he is AWESOME...

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

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


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

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

Ok now the lateral thinking…   

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

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

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

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

no pentavus yet... boo!

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

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

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

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

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

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

equipped creaures has +2 +2 

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

and protection form relevant colours

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

Here's the sword at last....

There is No tower yet....

Wild stabs in the dark?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well we got very close with this one...

Update dec 26th - new mechanic - 

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

7 creatures have battlecry all mirran

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

looking good for this fella 


Well we got close...


Another unnofficial card...

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


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

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

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

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

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

Phyrexia have an 11/11 perhpas a juggernaught

 Here;s the 11/11


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

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


Jan 17th more new cards...

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