How to draft rares

Last Monday I was able to participate in a Innistrad draft. Here is what my draft pool looked like:

White:
Doomed Traveler
Avacynian Priest
Elite Inquisitor
Feeling of Dread x3
Spare from Evil
Midnight Haunting
Rebuke
Village Bell-Ringer
Mausoleum Guard
Slayer of the Wicked
Giest-Honored Monk

Blue:
Sensory Deprivation x2
Spectral Flight
Invisible Stalker
Sticher's Apprentice
Skaab Ruinator
Selhoff Occultist x2
Armored SkaabSo
Stiiched Drake
Frightful Delusion
Curse of the Bloody Tome x3
Grasp of the Phantoms
Battleground Geist

Green:
Grave Bramble
Somberwald Spider
Spider Spawning

Black:
Stromkirk Patrol
Ghoulcaller's Chant

Red:
Burning Vengence
Curse of the Pierced Heart x2

Artifacts:
Wooden Stake

Land:
Moorland Haunt

I ended up hating the green spiders because I drafted a deck that used a lot of 1/1 fliers, so I didn't want 1/2 spiders ruining my day. But the basic concept of the deck is to just try and over run them with fliers and pushing through just enough damage.

My first game was against Andy. Game 1 he had a couple of Werewolves out early, however, I had a turn 2 Inquistor. He was able to hold back just enough of the Wolves. He threw a couple of devils into the mix, but I ended up getting a Giest-Honored Monk out and it was a 7/7. Couple swings took down that game. Before game 2, Andy said he had 1 out...a Devil's Play. Ugh. No way to stop that. Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with it in game 2. I powered out a couple of creatures early along with the Inquisitor.

1-0

Round 2 was against Dan. He got out a few Werewolves. Then played Kessig Wolf Run...ugh!!! I was just able to squeak out game 1 against him. Game 2 I was not so fortunate. He played the Werewolf that has Intimidate when he flips on turn 2. Then Kessig Wolf Run. Then lots of smash. Game 3 was more in my favor. I got my Giest-Honored Monk Traitorous Blood and got smashed a little. However, on a pivotal swing, I was able to play a couple instants and flip all his Werewolves back. Took it down with 6 1/1 fliers, a Giest-Honored Monk and Inquisitor.

2-0

My 3rd opponent and I were done playing magic, so we split.

2-0-1

So, short little report, but a little insight. Go draft!

Trades

Went to the local game shop tonight for an Innistrad draft. I ended up doing some trades throughout the day and also after the tournament. This was my haul.

Cards going out:
Plow Under Foil $19.99
Sulfuric Vortex Foil $7.99
Blood Crypt $19.99
Rune Scar Demon Foil $4.99
Simic Growth Chamber Foil $3.99
Akroma, Angel of Fury $7.99
Fallen Angel (Commander set) $0.39
Angel of Despair (Commander set) $4.99

8 cards in total
Total lost = $70.32


The foil Plow Under was much more than I thought it was. This pulled down a lot of value.

Cards coming in:
Urbrask, The Hidden $5.99
Buried Alive $3.99
Hinterland Harbor $6.99
Sulfur Falls $6.99
Hall of the Bandit Lord $0.99
Hero of Bladehold Prerelease foil $6.99
Heartless Summoning $4.99
Living Death (Commander) $3.49
Lord of the Unreal x2 $3.49 + $3.49 = $7.98
Snapcaster Mage $29.99

11 cards in total
Total gain = $78.40

Total = +$8.08 +3 Playable cards

Trading is so god damn much fun.

An open letter to Wizards of the Coast

Dear Wizards of the Coast,

Let me first start off by kissing some ass and saying that I love your game. Everything about it. I love the social aspects, I love the different mechanics of the games which allow a different game every time it is played, and most of all, in the past year, I have loved the Elder Dragon Highlander format.

I believe that the Elder Dragon Highlander format (or Commander) is one of the most true forms of Magic the Gathering. The fact that the format only allows one of a card (other than basic lands) to be in a deck at a time, makes the game a bit more balanced. By only running 1x Kiki-Jiki, The Mirror Breaker and 1x Pestermite , you have a less of a chance of getting the two of them and going "infinite" on your opponents. I believe that the EDH/Commander format has been provided a sufficient banned list...up until now.  

Recently, you came out with a new method of offering invitations play in major tournaments, such as the Pro Tour. This new method that I speak of is the "Plainswalker Points System". Rather than spend my entire time writing about it, I will just have Evan Erwin explain it:

Through all the jargon, I was able to flesh out this fact: Your EDH/Commander leagues now count towards your Plainswalker Points. Correct me if I am wrong, but that would mean that EDH/Commander now falls under the Wizards of the Coasts jurisdiction of sanctioned formats in which you could qualify for major events. With that being said, I believe that Wizard of the Coasts needs to step in a take the reins as far as banned lists go for the format. What do I mean? One word:

Overhaul.

There are many, many, MANY cards and mechanics that need to be put under the microscope and need the sentence applied to them "Is this fair in this format? Does this make the format unfun? Is this card in the spirit of the game/format?" I think some serious examples need to be made:

1. The Infect mechanic.

Infect is a mechanic that is build for constructed, 60 card play. Infect was designed to be a win condition where if you could deal half of your opponents life in Infect counters, you win. Now take that same mechanic and apply it to EDH/Commander. Now, instead of requiring to deal half of your opponents starting life total, now you only need to deal a quarter of their life total in Infect damage. Where is that fair? Another way of looking at it is that in EDH/Commander, you can also kill your opponent with 21 points of "General Damage". However, it takes less than half of that to get there with Infect. Should we do away with Infect? Gods no. Infect is a great mechanic and being able to have alternate win conditions is part of what makes the game fun. I suggest the Infect rule be changed to 20 in the EDH/Commander format.

2. Gaea's Cradle

 This card needs to be seriously looked at. The only reason I say this is because Gaea's Cradle's younger, ADHD addled brother, Tolarian Academy, is already banned. If Tolarian Academy is banned, shouldn't Gaea's Cradle be banned for the same reason? Sure, Tolarian Academy is broken, but the reason why it is broken is because of cards like Metalworker (banned), the Moxes (banned) and other filthy artifacts. I personally play with Gaea's Cradle. Every time it hits the board, everyone and their mothers know that this card has to leave play as soon as possible or else very bad things will start happening. So, with Gaea's Cradle, it is a two way street. Either you ban this card because Tolarian Academy is banned, or you unban Tolarian Academy because this is unbanned.

3. Library of Alexandria

"Library is banned because it is expensive and potentially playable in every deck." Should this REALLY be a reason why this card is banned? I mean, seriously! Library of Alexandria is banned, however, Imperial Seal, a card I have seen been double the amount of Library of Alexandira is. If Imperial Seal wasn't a $200+ card, I would guarantee that black would see a lot more play in EDH, and it would be included. This is not a cry to ban Imperial Seal, this is just trying to shed light on the fact that banning a card, simply because it has a expensive secondary market, doesn't mean it should be banned. Library of Alexandria is great, but it also doesn't fit with the theme of EDH/Commander. More times than not, I have seen players have a goal of having as many cards in their hand at one time and allow themselves to have multiple choices and answers to what their opponents might do. 1 v 1, this card is pretty devastating, but again, that is where the Magic (pun absolutely intended) in this format lies. It would be 1 card in a 99 card deck that you would need to draw in your opening hand in order to make it useful.

So Wizards, you have released your EDH/Commander decks, you have released your From the Vaults: Legends, you have no made EDH/Commander a viable way of competing for a spot in your most prestigious tournaments, please, rethink your banned/restricted list and simply make this format the greatest that you have to offer.

Yours truly,

--Wilson Fisher

3 decks. 3 wins.

Last night we had a epic gaming session. I played a total of 5 EDH games and won 3. That gives me a winning percentage of .600! I know! I'm impressed too. Now here was the really tricky thing:

All 3 of my wins came with different decks.

Not one of my decks out performed the others. It was even across the board. Todays lineup consisted of Zedruu, the Greathearted, Rafiq of the Many and Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Let me give you a quick recap on each game:

Zedruu was the first of the night. The game went pretty smoothly. Keith was sitting to my left playing Kemba, Kha Regent, Dan was playing Rhys the Redeemed and to my right was Eric playing Ink-Treader Niphilim (which is more or less a house rule that he is a legend...don't ask). I play Rhystic Study  and Keith refuses to pay extra for any of his spells. I end up drawing nearly 3/4 of my deck before the end of the game. I exchange a lot of lands (mostly Mountains) with Keith to keep him off of his white and keep him mana screwed most of the game. Eric was the big pain in my side because he kept targeting the Ink-Treader with things like Unsummon type spells. I eventually got a lock on the board with Paradox Haze, Ghostly Prison  and Zedruu. I was gaining 10 life a turn, drawing 11 cards (one for my turn). Aaron actually pointed out that Thought Lash  can be used as a one shot kill...which I did. I eventually took out Eric with damage (Mostly from a Illusions of Grandeur), I took out Dan with the Thought Lash and with Keith. Well...

And then there was this










So that was game one. The big turning point in the game was Eric using Pyrokinesis on his Ink-Treader, and copying 1 damage to every creature and 45 at me (which I am now seeing it only hits creatures...but we weren't in the right state of mind to see this)...which put me at 18. I was at 63. Eric said he wasn't looking at my life total and the math just didn't add up. Alls well that ends well.


Game 2:
Rafiq of the Many

I built Rafiq of the Many as a infect deck. It is not nearly complete and right now, I would say it's a strictly 1 v. 1 deck. However, I entered into a 5 way EDH match which included Eric sitting on my left playing Animal, Player of Drums, Andy playing Teneb, The Harvester, Ben playing Merieke Ri Berit and Aaron playing Heartless Hidetsugu. This game took place after Aaron won in about 3 minutes, dealing 120 points of damage on turn...like...4. That was awful. I don't even remember how that happened. My memory has blocked it out. As far as I am concerned, that game didn't exist. Now, Rafiq is designed to just one shot players with things like Putrefax. Just infect them as fast as possible. So, I went along with that plan. Eric only had 2 toughness out when I had Rafiq out and I played Putrefax. That's 12 infect coming through. Next I got Andy with 9 infect and then proliferated with Throne of Geth . Everyone ganged up on Aaron because of the game before, so he was at a pretty low life total. I was able to finish him off with Celestial Colonnade. Ben was the hard one. I attempted to finish him off with a Inkmoth Nexus, then the Colonnade, and so on and so forth. Ben always seems to have answer for me, this time it was Sudden Spoiling , Voidmage Husher, and Wipe Away. I was at 2 life when I was able to wipe his board with Parallax Wave and finish him off with a Blightwidow, Sword of Vengeance   and a Rancor. Phew!

It was just a grinder of a game. I was telling the guys that it has been a while since I played a multi-player EDH game where opponents would go out one by one. It's usually everyone all at once. Anyways. Interesting.

Game 3:
Ezuri, Renegade Leader

The only thing I can attest to this win was the fact that nobody (except for Mike) who knew what I was doing! On my left this time was Keith playing Oona, Queen of the Fae, Mike playing Jenara, Asura of War and on my right was...oh god....um....New Guy playing Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer. This game was just bad. My turn sequence went like this:

Turn 1: Forest, Arbor Elf
Turn 2: Oran-Rief the Vastwood, Fyndhorn Elves
Turn 3: Greenweaver Druid, Gaea's Cradle, Fauna Shaman
Turn 4: Lurking Predators VROOOOOMMM!!!!!

Lucky for me, the first creature that came off the top of the Predators was Dosan the Falling Leaf so I was able to do whatever I wanted on my turn. The game ended with me having 17 creatures on the board with Deserted Temple  letting me untap my Cradle. I played Ezuri and swung in with the team. It's totally overkill, but I also had an active Beastmaster Ascension, Slate of Ancestry. Huge damage. No Wraiths also. That was a big part of this game. Biggest part even.

So, there we have it. 3 decks. 3 wins. A control deck, a one shot kill deck and a hyper aggro deck.

I'm not gloating.

I want to point out lots of things happened that allowed these wins to happen. Play errors, focusing on other players for past games, not drawing appropriate cards and players not knowing what your deck does.

EDH is a cruel mistress.

When all else fails...

Play Triumph of the Hordes.

While you won't find me at the top of the Sheldon Menery fan list, I can get on board with his Triumph of the Hordes ban theory. I mean...let me start over:

I love Triumph of the Hordes. I think you can equate my happiness playing Triumph of the Hordes is the same as a small child in footie pajamas running downstairs on Christmas morning and seeing a crap ton of presents. However, the payoff of Triumph of the Hordes is like finding out all those presents are socks. Sure they are useful and at the end of the day, it's something you will use, however, you would have been happier with a Gameboy.

Triumph of the Hordes falls into a category that my friends and I have been making of cards that, while not powerful enough to ban, do what they shouldn't do in EDH. Example?

Yep. Cards that should be fine on their own, but they make the EDH rules work for them instead of the other way around. Infect is a mechanic that does this. What Triumph of the Hordes should read in EDH is:

Until end of turn, all of your creatures get +1/+1, trample and all of your opponents life totals become 10.

Yep. Nice and tidy.

I was playing a game last night where I was playing Elves (link goes to deck list) and I was able to go: Concordant Crossroads, Genesis Wave (for 9), Triumph of the Hordes. Win. Did I get the win? Yes. Did I feel good about it? No.

So, you have to look at Triumph of the Hordes as a card that does something that it shouldn't do. We have already banned cards that do things that they shouldn't do in EDH. Does this card warrant a ban also? If we do that, do we ban other cards that simply do things that they shouldn't? You know, that Felidar Sovereign just wins you the game? He does that. Infect is just a mechanic that isn't made for EDH.

However, on the other side of the coin, the argument of why to ban it is exactly the reason why it can't be banned. If you ban Triumph of the Hordes, you should also ban the following:

ALL OF THESE

If you ban something that is related to the mechanic that makes it broken, then you would need to ban the mechanic all together. Triumph of the Hordes is a great card, but, if you are looking for friends, I don't suggest Triumph of the Hordes.

We are going in circles here. Point being, Triumph of the Hordes wrecks.

A great P1P1 cube

So, I wake up, and find this:

I honestly can't make this pick. At first I thought:

1. Time Walk
2. Jace the Mind Sculptor
3. Mox Ruby
4. Maze of Ith
5.....My brain exploded.

Who can make this pick? The biggest problem is that after you pick Time Walk, you will be splitting blue with the next 3-4 players (depending on where they pick Mox Ruby and Treachery).

Ugh. Just had to share this. But I think Time Walk is pick 1.

Angus Mackenzie Version 2.0

Bigger. Faster. Stronger. More foiled.

General (1) Angus Mackenzie Lands (36) Savannah Tropical Island Tundra Hallowed Fountain Breeding Pool Temple Garden Vivid Meadow Vivid Creek Vivid Grove Flooded Strand Misty Rainforest Windsweapt Heath Selesnya Sanctuary Simic Growth Chamber Azorius Chancery Ancient Den Tree of Tales Seat of Synod Stirring Wildwood Celestial Colonnade Seaside Citadel Command Tower Reflecting Pool Vesuva Maze of Ith Academy Ruins Reliquary Tower Minamo, School at Water's Edge Forest x2 Plains x3 Island x3 Creatures (21) Mother of Runes Birds of Paradise Noble Hierarch Ethersworn Canonist Grand Abolisher Gilded Drake Edric, Spymaster of Trest Peacekeeper Jace's Archivist Windborn Muse Solemn Simulacrum Kuldotha Forgemaster Silklash Spider Sphinx of Jwar Isle Consecrated Sphinx Sun Titan Frost Titan Vengeful Archon Blazing Archon Inkwell Leviathan Blightsteel Colossus Planeswalkers (7) Tezzeret the Seeker Venser, the Sojourner Ajani Goldmane Gideon Jura Jace, The Mind Sculptor Jace Beleren Garruk, Primal Hunter Instants (9) Path to Exile Swords to Plowshares Condemn Constant Mists Tangle Capsize Bant Charm Fact or Fiction Cryptic Command Sorceries (7) Ancestral Vision Armageddon Wrath of God Time Warp Bribery Hallowed Burial Recurring Insight Artifacts (13) Sol Ring Expedition Map Voltaic Key Howling Mine Lightning Greaves Grim Monolith Scroll Rack Swiftfoot Boots Horn of Greed Crawlspace Gilded Lotus Norn's Annex Mindslaver Enchantments (6) Elephant Grass Luminarch Ascension Rites of Flourishing Ghostly Prison Propaganda Future Sight

Gen Con Indianapolis 2011

By this time tomorrow, my plane will be landing in Indianapolis. 

Why, one would ask, would someone voluntarily make their way to the hottest place on the planet (yes, I know that is from about 2 weeks ago, but it is still bloody hot)?

Gen Con Indy.

Magic 24/7. US Nationals. Legacy championship. EDH tournaments. Drafts. ETC ETC ETC!!!!

So, I am going to try and update this as often as I possibly can. But after the tournaments, I will have tournament reports, deck write ups, pros and cons, and pictures.

Very exciting. Stay tuned!

Just a great play

I had a little moment last night playing EDH. One of my favorite things about playing a new deck is that you begin to find combos that you would have never seen on paper. I was playing Kaalia of the Vast and my conventional combo for the deck was something like this:

So, it takes a person who is possibly asleep to miss the interaction here. But there was something I never thought of using this. So, here is the situation: I have Blood Speaker on the table, along with Sarkhan the Mad (with 5 counters), Dragon Mage, a Dragon token, Akroma, Angel of Fury, Kaalia of the Vast and a Mother of Ruins. My opponent was at about 37. I was just about to combo out with Blood Speaker with the Conspiracy in my hand, but then I saw that I could play Conspiracy, name dragons, and then use Sarkhan's last ability to deal damage to my opponent. 22 damage there and the rest flies over to pick up the scraps. GG.

Pretty sick.

Shoes

Oh my god. Shoes.

For a great long while, Lightning Greaves has been a staple in all EDH decks. Your deck could essentially look like this:

General
Lightning Greaves
Sol Ring
97 other cards

and you wouldn't be too far off from a winning deck. However, something new is on the horizon that is going to make all EDH players take a second look at that Lightning Greaves. Ladies and Gentlemen, Swiftfoot Boots:

Sure, it isn't the best picture ever, but spoilers are spoilers are spoilers and this is a confirmed spoiler from the new M12 set. Swiftfoot Boots reads as such:

Swiftfoot Boots
Converted Mana Cost: 2
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature has hexproof and haste.
Equip: 1
Uncommon

For those of you who are not in the know, hexproof is the new keyword for Troll shroud....Ugh! You don't know what Troll shroud is either?! I have to do everything around here. Troll shroud is where you can target your creature with spells or abilities and your opponent cannot. So, lets do a side by side comparison of Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves:

Lets go from top to bottom. Between the battle of names, we are going to have to give it to Lightning Greaves. Swiftfoot Boots is a pretty lame name.

Lightning Greaves: 1
Swiftfoot Boots: 0

They both cost 2 so that is a push there. As far as picture go, I really like the FNM promo picture better than the regular Lightning Greaves picture, however the picture of Swiftfoot Boots is much better than the regular picture of the regular picture of Lightning Greaves. So....push?

Okay, now that that is over, we can get down to the nuts and bolts of the card which is the comparison of which is better:
Hexproof and a Equip cost of 1

OR

Shroud and Equip cost of 0

Honestly, both are amazing. I can see both scenarios working to your advantage. I really like throwing the Greaves from one creature to the other, however, I have had times where I have had a pump spell or some kind of spell that gives a protection from a color, but I can't play them. There was a scenario where I had a Hallowed Burial, Venser, The Sojunour  and Lighning Greaves on Angus Mackenzie. My whole plan was to use Venser to exile Angus and then send everyones creatures to the bottom of their decks. I had to do some tricky maneuvering to make Stirring Wildwood a creature, put the boots on him, exile Angus and then Hallowed Burial. Swiftfoot Boots would be so easy to work around that.

However, a argument can be made for moving the boots back and forth from one creature to the other to get that haste ability without spending any mana. Equipping a Kuldotha Forgemaster, using him to sac 3 artifacts, getting Blightsteel Colossus, putting the boots on him and infecting. You can't do that with only 5 mana with Swiftfoot Boots.

So, I guess it is up to you. Do you have a deck that doesn't want your opponent to target your general but you can exile/pump/protect your general, but you have a lot of expendable mana? Or do you have a deck that just wants your dudes to just get there?

Close call. You don't want to make the wrong choice for your deck do you?

.....

Wizards of the Coasts and the Commander format and other dysfunctional relationships

In the past few days, we of the EDH/Commander format saw cards spoiled that will "help" us play EDH (I'm dropping Commander from now on in this article). I use the quotations around "help" very loosely. Wizards of the Coast saw a cash cow in the EDH format and jumped in with both feet. And then jumped on it again and again like a small child who just found a puddle.

Now, I am all for stupid, ridiculous cards that are just not fair. However, when I see that WotC is making these new decks that make me say "Well jeepers, I have to buy this to stay competitive!" it kind of makes me a little peeved. I get over that quickly and just come to terms that. Now, I start looking at the cards and about the 3rd card deep I start going into this:

I mean, holy shit snacks! Are you kidding me?! All of these cards look like they have never been play tested and are just dumb! With that being said, here are the cards I am really excited to play myself:

Easily the best land you can have in a EDH deck. Just think, you are playing some kind of Bant commander. You have Seaside Citadel in your hand and you also have this. You have to generate a mana on turn one. Is there even a argument here?!

Ways to make this card not broken: Make it Legendary. How fun would it be to battle over a Command Tower.

Ugh. Moving on. (Love Command Tower)

I like the Join Forces mechanic. I really REALLY like the Join Forces mechanic. I like, even more than the Join Forces mechanic, Collective Voyage. Sure, you can draw some cards with the blue one or make a dragon really beefy, but for one mana, you can excel your turn 4 into turn 6 (1 to play Collective Voyage, 2 mana to search out 2 lands, turn 4 you play your 6th land). This means, for those of you not getting it, if a turn 4 Primeval Titan, who turns your turn 5 into turn 9 (Same as above, but add two more lands from the Titan)! Holy land ramp Batman! Joining Forces is fun, but I really like the idea of watching people tap out then playing a card like this.

Finally:

I've always thought that red has gotten the shaft in EDH. You can't burn them out and trying to out control a blue deck is...well...Link to funny "Not fair" picture .

Stranglehold are what blue decks are going to be saying that isn't fair (you can just click on the link with the picture again). I would have loved to see this card cost 1 red, but at 4 mana, you can still get it in under the wire before they can go off with Time Warp. This one card makes me want to start playing decks with red in them...now if there was a good general with red.....Hmmmm....

Nope. Can't think of one.

Tolarian U.

Going through my academics, I found out that film really appealed to me. There was something really fun about going to class, watching a film, and then talking about it. That is pretty cool. Of course, I had a hidden reason why I liked film so much. Film has a lot of unique and rich history, but the history of film only dates back to around 1880's-1890's. That means that film has only been around for 130-120 years, and for a good number of those years, there wasn't a whole lot of narrative story lines. It was mostly people kissing or trains pulling into stations. In the grand scheme of things, that is not all that long. Therefor, it made it a lot easier, in my own opinion, to study film as oppose to, lets say, history of Europe. This got me thinking a bit:

Magic the Gathering has been around since 1993. This means that in 2013 it will have been a game for 20 years. To many people, they use it as an income. They call themselves "professionals" at the game. The time people put into tuning decks, studying the metagame and playing in tournaments is usually more than the time it takes to study for some tests.

My question to the peanut gallery: How long until Magic the Gathering becomes an academic course in college?

Now, my other question is this: How freaking cool would it be to major in Magic the Gathering?! Granted, you would forfeit any chances of ever having sex again in your entire life, but you could write your dissertation on Dredge!

Imagine going to class and learning about the philosophy of land base construction. Your instructor would say something like this:


Please pull out a piece of paper, write me 38 lands for a commander deck that is for a blue, black, white land base. I would like the general theme of the land base to be man lands and graveyard manipulation.

I am being totally serious. I bet there is a school that you can major in Magic...maybe one of those independent, feel good-ery type schools. There is also a great deal of history you can go into with Magic such as when it was released, general pro-tour winner knowledge, evolution of decks, etc.

I think it is a great idea. Maybe it's because I went to one of those feel good-ery type schools.

Dice on my cards

For those of you who know, I love having dice on my cards. How much do I love it?

I have to point out the saproling in the middle. That is a die with a whale on it. Big win. (Black player only has one die on their cards...fail).

Breaking Melira, Sylvok Outcast

So.

For a bear, she has two pretty good abilities and one amazing, stupid, broken ability. Can you find which one it is? 


If you said you can't get poison counters you are wron-....what? Phyrexian Unlife?  Yeah. I guess that is pretty good.


Ok. So two pretty great abilities. But the one amazing one is the one that says "Creatures you control can't have -1/-1 counters placed on them". This is one of those abilities that start getting the juices flowing. The first thought you might have is breaking something like this:

Holy board wipe Batman! So when this bad boy starts to Persist, it won't get those -1/-1 counters. So you can just keep blowing up everything. Oh yeah, you will also have infinite mana. That's pretty darn good.


Yeah, but you are above that kiddie stuff and you want some down and dirty standard brokeness. Well, have you thought about Black Suns Zenith for a one sided board wipe? How about this gentleman:

Want some rules to back this one up?


121.5. If a spell or ability refers to a counter being “placed” on a permanent, it means putting a counter on that permanent while it’s on the battlefield, or that permanent entering the battlefield with a counter on it.


Lawyered.


The list for Melira just goes on and on and on and on.  So here is a pretty good standard deck that revolves around Melira that I've been cooking up:

6x Swamp

5x Forests

4x Verdant Catacombs

2x Marsh Flats

2x Misty Rainforest

4x Inkmoth Nexus

3x Birds of Paradise

4x Lotus Corba

4x Melira, Sylovk Outcast (brroooooken)

4x Phyrexian Crusader

1x Phyrexian Vatmother

1x Skithiryx, The Blight Dragon

2x Etched Monstrosity 

4x Inquisition of Kozilek 

2x Despise

4x Go for the Throat

1x Doom Blade

4x Green Sun's Zenith

3x Black Sun's Zenith

SIDEBOARD

4x Nature's Claim

4x Torpor Orb

2x Doom Blade

1x Black Suns Zenith

2x Duress

2x Hex Parasite

So, the big "combo" of the deck is Melira + Etched Monstrosity. 10/10 for 5. Also, you can use Black Suns Zenith with Melira in play to Plague Wind at a super discounted rate. You can go with the Infect rout or the damage rout. The sideboard is as follows: Nature's Claim and Tropor Orb for Caw-Blade/anything with Splinter Twin. Extra Duress' for Spinter Twin. More Black Suns Zenith and Doom Blades for dumb decks that think that they can beat me with creatures. 

Most importantly, this is NOT Caw-Go, Caw-Blade, Hawkward, anything with Squadron Hawk and Jace....cause those are dumb.

Cube drafting (In the past!!)

I use this site called Bestiaire  and it generates packs and it creates AI's to draft with you. It ranks each card and picks them from there. It's pretty cool. It doesn't really recognize archetypes (such as Infect or good decks) but it still gives you an okay idea about how to draft.

The other cool thing about Bestiaire is that you can draft a cube...down side is that it's a little dated. How dated?.....Well, to give you a hint: Lebron James was still a Cavalier. The Phillies were about to win their first world series since 1980. Live your life by T.I. and Rhianna was number 1 on the billboard charts. AND Shard of Alara was hot off the presses. WIth this particular draft, I wanted to draft in the morning and see if I would make the same picks later that evening.

SO! Go blast your T.I., remember what it was like to live in a simpler time and draft a simpler cube:

Pack 1 Pick 1

There are a few good cards in here, but only one first pick. Library of Alexanderia is just so good. If you haven't had a chance to play with it, I highly recommend it. It is so choice. Gifts Ungiven and Karmic Guide are both good. But yeah, windmill slam your Library and feel good about yourself.

My morning pick: Library of Alexandria
My evening pick: Library of Alexandria

Pack 1 Pick 2

This pack is pretty crunchy. Two different Derm's, Oversoul of Dusk, Harmonize, Decree of Pain and City of Brass. I usually want my second pick to keep me open and flexible. When I look at this, I see that Harmonize is pretty good, but I already have Library as a great card draw engine and I want to win games and not just draw lots of cards. The Derm's are cool, but blockers mean they will disappear soon and I will get no benefit. Decree of Pain really locks you into black and I found that City of Brass ends up hurting more than helping. Now: Oversoul of Dusk. 5 mana for a 5/5 is okay, but a 5 mana 5/5 that can end games against certain decks? Yes please.

My morning pick: Oversoul of Dusk
My evening pick: Oversoul of Dusk

Pack 1 Pick 3

Well, seeing that Oversoul puts me into Green/White, I want to look for something around those colors, but since it is only pick 3 out of the 1st pack, I figure I can explore into different colors. The pack before this one had a Jungle Shrine in it so it might be a little feisty to grab something in red, play Naya and start to really beat face. With that being the case, it might be fun to grab Fires of Yavimaya or Sudden Shock. But in the morning I thought about Oversoul and Library as my picks and thought it might be better to go with a slower, more controlling rout. Plow Under is a really fantastic card and is incredibly underrated in cube drafting. Putting your opponent behind two turns and messing up your opponents draws for turn turns is amazing. Even more so when you can put one of those Dissension lands like Azorius Chancery type or a tapped land on top of their deck. Cube drafting also makes Plow Under really powerful because if you can draft some ramp, you can really mess up your opponents plans.

My morning pick: Plow Under
My evening pick: Plow Under (Morning me is pretty smart)

Pack 1 Pick 4

Hey, remember a few blog posts ago when I was talking about how Regrowth is nuts? You know how nuts it is with Regrowth?

My morning pick: Regrowth
My evening pick: Regrowth

Pack 1 Pick 5

With Oversoul, Plow under and Regrowth, it looks like we are in fact going with Green with the chance of white. With that, there is still a chance of grabbing a different color, but there are two pretty great green cards. One being Primal Command, the second being Viridian Shaman. I think morning me is wrong here and didn't think that Viridian Shaman isn't that good. Primal Command is pretty sexy with the things that you can do with it. Gain 7 life? That can turn a game around. You can also put any non-creature card back into their deck and stop any kind of Reanimator deck in it's tracks. However, Viridian Shaman is a two for one and in cube there can be some pretty nasty artifacts.

My morning pick: Primal Command
My evening pick: Viridian Shaman (maybe morning me isn't that smart)

Pack 1 Pick 6

Maze of Ith!? KER-PLOW!

My morning pick: Maze of Ith
My evening pick: Maze of effing Ith

Pack 1 Pick 7

Little hard here. Rude Awakening can win games by itself but I have a bunch of 5 drops alreay. Pristine Angel is pretty bomb-y but pretty white. But Ohran Viper has death touch and can draw me more cards, which can also help out the Library.

My morning pick: Ohran Viper
My evening pick: Ohran Viper

Pack 1 Pick 8

If I wanted to be more aggressive, I would have picked Treetop VIllage or Moldervine Cloak. I really like Orim's Chant though. If played correctly, it can win you the game. In cube, saying "draw go" is essentially giving your opponent a free Time Walk. The two aggressive cards fit into our (so far) mono-green deck, but I like more of a control deck and splashing white will help us out with that.

My morning pick: Orim's Chant
My evening pick: Orim's Chant

Pack 1 Pick 9

Nothing really fun here. Should have went with the Wooded Foothills. Went instead with:

Morning pick: Duergar Hedge-Mage (ew)
My evening pick: Wooded Foothills

Pack 1 Pick10

Well, that Jungle Shrine came back so I could have gone into red. Oh well. The Armadillo Cloak is in colors and, on the plus side, it's good. Putting it onto things like....Oversoul of Dusk? Yes. Yes I will.

My morning pick: Armadillo Cloak
My evening pick: Armadillo Cloak

Pack 1 Pick 11

Moment's Peace. Move along.

My morning pick: Moment's Peace
My evening pick: Moment's Peace

Pack 1 Pick 12

Divinity of Pride can be a bomb in certain decks....but quadruple white? Sprout Swarm....ugh....12th picks are 12th picks for a reason.

My morning pick: Sprout Swarm
My evening pick: Sprout Swarm

Pack 1 Pick 13

Ok, this took a second. I usually like hate drafting Rack and Ruin here, but I went with the Signet here. Meh. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I can foresee myself getting more artifact ramp later and I should have went with the Rack and Ruin.

My morning pick: Azorius Signet
My evening pick: Rack and Ruin

Pack 1 Pick 14

At least the Signet has one of my colors.

My morning pick: Golgari Signet
My evening pick: Golgari Signet

Pack 1 Pick 15

Ugh. I'm not a big fan of Signets and my last three picks were Signets. Oh well. I guess they can be backup ramp if I need to. I'm actually okay with this one and the W/U Signet because they make it possible for me to splash a little blue, in case I get a Recall or Time Walk later.

PHEW! Pack 1. Lets see what we have so far

Signet's o-plenty. I like our green base and having Library and Maze just make it easy to build a deck. 38 cards + Maze + Library = Winner. Plow Under. Man....that card is such a beast.

Pack 2 Pick 1

Ok. We have to make some tough choices here. No windmill slams. The cards I see that could be cool in our deck are:
Platinum Angel, Knight of the White Orchid, Serra Avenger, Temple Garden. Slim pickings. I never never never hate draft on the first pick of a pack and if I was ever tempted, it would be grabbing the Vampiric Tutor. My morning self went with Knight of the White Orchid. I'm a little skeptical of that pick now that I am actually looking at Platinum Angel, but the tricks you can pull off with the Knight are just too good. Plus, if we are lucky, the Temple Garden will come back around and we can grab that out of our deck with the Knight. I think that was the main reason why I grabbed him. If I had grabbed the Rack and Ruin out the the first pack, I might have been more temped with the Angel.

My morning pick: Knight of the White Orchid
My evening pick: Knight of the White Orchid (with some skepticism...double white is never fun...ever)

Pack 2 Pick 2

Ugh! Where are my bombs?! Oh well. So, this looks a lot like a Hometown Buffet salad bar. There are things that look just okay and you wonder if they are just keeping all the good stuff in the back for themselves. It's come down to Cloudthresher and Magus of the Disk. Going with my G/W tempo strategy, I am going with the Disk. He will clear the board, keep the good stuff around, like Maze and Library, and I can always Regrowth him later. Cloudthreser is cute for the same reasons, but 2 damage to flyers isn't enough to cut it in cube. He is also quad-green which can be awkward. Also, lets be sneaky and see if that Sanctuary comes back around. That would be great with Knight of the White Orchid.

My morning pick: Magus of the Disk
My evening pick: Magus of the Disk

Pack 2 Pick 3

Pulse of the Fields. Now there is a great card. If can really win games when it's not dealt with. However, there is actually a better, two for one card here. Can you find it? Is it:
A) Duplicant
B) It's Duplicant
C) This is me picking Duplicant and crossing my fingers that Pulse of the Fields comes back
D) All of the above

The answer is: C.
.......Um.

My morning pick: Duplicant
My evening pick: Duplicant (So good)

Pack 2 Pick 4

I did a bonehead thing here and went with the card that jumps out at you when you play G/W. Yeah. I went with Aether Vial. The actual pick I should have made was getting ramp (Llanowar Elf or Farseek) or go with the Guildmage. I think the Farseek is pretty special because it can grab duals. Smooth move morning Wilson.

My morning pick: Aether Vial
My evening pick: Farseek

Pack 1 Pick 5

*sigh* Okay, here is a rule in draft. When you are making a deck that controls the tempo of the game and you want it to go late and you see a bomb like Akroma, YOU PICK THE AKROMA.

My morning pick: Archon of Justice
My evening pick: Akroma, Angel of Wraith.....ugh. Pack 2 isn't going so smoothly.

Pack 2 Pick 6

Not too many goodies here. I feel like I am going to be left with the Signet, but I make my first good pick in the last three picks. Reveillark is pretty great and it's a shame Karmic Guide was in pack 1 (remember when you windmill slammed the Library? There were other cards in that pack...Don't feel bad, I didn't see them either). Revillark is going to be great with Knight of the White Orchid and Magus of the Disk. I'm excited about this.

My morning pick: Reveillark
My evening pick: Reveillark

Pack 2 Pick 7

This pack is really tricky. There are two great white creatures and a Mishra's Factory....but there is also another card here. Palenchron is nuts....but take a gander at Glare of the Subdual:

Remember that Sprout Swarm I "ugh'd" about? Doesn't this card make us look smart for having that in our decks? Doesn't this card help a lot with our tempo? I went with this because the Spectral Lynx doesn't fit into our color scheme (and it creates a nonbo with Armadillo Cloak), the Priest is double white and not very fun. The Mishra's Factory is the other one that I would want, but the colorless mana it produces outweighs the 2/2 it creates.

My morning pick: Glare of the Subdual
My evening pick: Glare of the Subdual

Pack 2 Pick 8

 Kind of a snore fest here. I went with Rafiq of the Many because of the two Signet's I already had. Plus, a turn 4 Rafiq, turn 5 Oversoul of Dusk puts them on a two turn clock.

My morning pick: Rafiq of the Many
My evening pick: Rafiq of the Many

Pack 2 Pick 9

Temple Garden! Woo-hoo! I am so smart! I am so smart! Smrt! Now let's see if the Sanctuary is in the next pack....

My morning pick: Temple Garden
My morning pick: Temple Garden

Pack 2 Pick 10

USA! USA! I had no doubts it would come back I knew it would come back all along. I rock.

My morning pick: Selsenya Sanctuary
My evening pick: Selsenya Sanctuary

Pack 2 Pick 11

Wow. Everything I want comes back. This is how to draft. There was a moment where I thought that Life/Death would be a interesting card, but I didn't pick it for the same reasons why I didn't pick Rude Awakening. Pulse of the Fields just fits too well into my deck though.

My morning pick: Pulse of the Fields
My evening pick: Pulse of the Fields

Pack 2 Pick 12

Vandals makes my the next three guys have to pick lands. I like that.

My morning pick: Keldon Vandals
My evening pick: Keldon Vandals

Pack 2 Pick 13

Force Spike is a card I never like having played against me. I could care less about the other two.

My morning pick: Force Spike
My evening pick: Force Spike

Pack 2 Pick 14

My morning pick: Eyes of the Wisent
My evening pick: Eyes of the Wisent

Pack 2 Pick 15

Let's take a look at what the deck looks like now:

I like what it looks like so far. More white now. Still some cool tricks. I am really excited for pack 3. Let's get going.

Pack 3 Pick 1

I am personally not a fan of Mana Vault, however, this deck needs some ramp pretty badly.

My morning pick: Mana Vault

My evening pick: Mana Vault

Pack 3 Pick 2

For those who have played against me know of my affinity of Mindslaver-ing people. However there is a bomb creature that fits into our G/W tempo deck and that would be Yosei, The Morning Star. I do not like passing Demonic Tutor, but not being so deep into this pack and not being in black would just be a wasted pick. You don't win cube drafts by hate drafting. There are a few support cards that would be cute if they tabled. 

My morning pick: Yosei, the Morning Star

My evening pick: Yosei, the Morning Star

Pack 3 Pick 3

Lots of fun blue cards here. Arrest is actually going to be my pick here. Morning me and evening me agree with this one. Fantasic tempo card. Faith fetters is strictly better though...oh well.

My morning pick: Arrest

My evening pick: Arrest

Pack 3 Pick 4

Oh hello Faith's Fetters! So glad you were able to make it to the party!

My morning pick: Faith's Fetters

My evening pick: Faith's Fetters

Pack 3 Pick 5

Lots of great cards here. Paladin en-Vec is temping, however, double white is tough times. I think he is the appropriate pick here. However, morning me went with the mana fixing Wooded Bastion. I don't fault morning me for this. However, I already have Temple Garden and Selesnya Sanctuary to help fix things. I think a more aggressive approach to this pack was needed.

My morning pick: Wooded Bastion

My evening pick: Paladin en-Vec

Pack 3 Pick 6

2 for 1's are good. But 4 for 1?!

My morning pick: Cloudgoat Ranger

My evening pick: Cloudgoat Ranger

Pack 3 Pick 7

Nothing really impressive here. Went with Ancient Tomb. Should have gone with Celestial Crusader.

My morning pick: Ancient Tomb

My evening pick: Celestial Crusader

Pack 3 Pick 8

My morning pick: Harrow

My evening pick: Harrow

Pack 3 Pick 9

Wistful Selkie is tempting, however, he would be three green. Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers is the correct pick.

My morning pick: Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers

My evening pick: Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers

Pack 3 Pick 10

My morning pick: Heartwood Storyteller

My evening pick: Heartwood Storyteller

Pack 3 Pick 11

Spitemare would have been cool here, but nothing to combo with. Gemstone Mine is a good mana fixing source.

My morning pick: Gemstone Mine

My evening pick: Gemstone Mine

Pack 3 Pick 12

My morning pick: Rendclaw Trow

My evening pick: Rendclaw Trow

(Just going through the motions here...)

Pack 3 Pick 13

My morning pick: Light From Within 

My evening pick: Light From Within (would have been great with Paladin en-Vec)

Pack 3 Pick 14

Doesn't really matter. Went with the Specter. Slightly more playable.

Pack 3 Pick 15

So lets look at what the deck looks like after that marathon:

Pretty nifty little G/W tempo deck. I really like how it shaped up. Library and Maze really make the deck what it is. Overall, I give it a B+. It won't win any awards, but it will get there.

Here is what the deck looks like after cuts:

Good curve, nice earthy tones. Good stuff.

For my next post I'll talk about some standard deck lists now with the new set out.