Well it's about time these 2 decks got a big reveal honestly, both of the lists were spoiled sometime last night on Gathering Magic and well here they are.
Koth Deck - Erupt and Overwhelm
Creatures (21)
2 Plated Geopede
1 Pygmy Pyrosaur
2 Pigrim's Eye
1 Aether Membrane
2 Fiery Hellhound
1 Vulshok Sorcerer
1 Anger
1 Cosi's Ravager
1 Vulshok Berserker
1 Bloodfire Kavu
1 Stone Giant
1 Geyser Glider
1 Lithophage
1 Torchling
1 Chartooth Cougar
1 Earth Servant
1 Greater Stone Spirit
1 Bloodfire Colossus
Spells (14)
1 Koth of the Hammer
2 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Journeyer's Kite
1 Vulshok Morningstar
1 Searing Blaze
1 Vulshok Battlegear
1 Downhill Charge
2 Seismic Strike
1 Spire Barrage
1 Jaws of Stone
1 Volley of Boulders
Lands (25)
25 Mountain
Venser's Deck - Evade and Shimmer
Creatures (23)
1 Whitemane Lion
1 Augury Owl
1 Coral Fighters
1 Minamo Sightbender
1 Mistmeadow Witch
2 Scroll Thief
1 Neurok Invisimancer
2 Slith Strider
1 Sky Spirit
1 Wall of Denial
1 Galepowder Mage
1 Kor Cartographer
1 Clone
1 Cryptic Annelid
1 Primal Plasma
1 Sawtooth Loon
1 Cache Raiders
1 Windreaver
1 Jedit's Dragoons
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
Spells (13)
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Path to Exile
2 Preordain
1 Sigil of Sleep
1 Revoke Existence
1 Angelic Shield
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Safe Passage
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Vanish into Memory
2 Overrule
Lands (24)
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Flood Plain
1 New Benalia
2 Sejiri Refuge
1 Soaring Seacliff
7 Plains
11 Island
Seriously these are the lists for the decks, lame, honestly in this writer's humble opinion, the only reason to get the decks is for the walkers themselves and Path to Exile again, Elspeth vs Tezzeret was better then this, Ajani vs Nicol Bolas was better then this at least and that is saying something.
Now if you absolutely must have this product here are a few suggestions for each deck.
Koth Deck - Goblin Guide, Mudbutton Torchrunner, Blightsteel Dragon, Volcanic Fallout
You get the picture there, now let's give some suggestions for the venser deck.
Venser Deck - Mulldrifter, Reveillark, Swords to Plowshares.
I'm sorry but if your going to be purchasing this deck, use the contents for Elder Dragon Highlander please and nothing else since these were designed to be casual but again wizards fails once more without giving a damn, this is one product that is going to stay on the shelves i feel and no one is going to touch, expect these to be quite cheap because of this, anyways that is all for now, this is vergil signing off.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Banned and Restricted List Update: March 20th, 2012
Well hello everyone and welcome to this quarterly edition of the Banned and Restricted List update, now every 3 months the DCI contemplates what needs to be banned, restricted and such from formats and this particular edition covers the upcoming Pro Tour Avacyn Restored which is Block Constructed, 2 cards from this format got banned let's talk about em.
Block Constructed Bannings
Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue Banned in Block constructed
See the announcement below for the full explanation as to why.
Announcement ----> Banned and Restricted List Explanation
This basically puts a hinder into any token deck in this format, Souls was just way too powerful it seems, it's not even 2 months old and already got banned from one format, what's next, who knows. Virtue also got the ban hammer due to the fact it's enabler was very over powered, for a 2 drop enchantment that plays mostly white, this plus Honor of the Pure basically meant 3/3 flying, vigilance tokens would always hit, no matter what and it was driving people mad i suppose.
The Effective Date this starts is April 2nd, 2012 and it starts on Magic Online on March 28th, 2012 so enjoy playing those tokens on MTGO for a little while longer, you've got 8 days to play, well that's it for this edition of the emporium, so until next time this is vergil signing off.
Block Constructed Bannings
Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue Banned in Block constructed
See the announcement below for the full explanation as to why.
Announcement ----> Banned and Restricted List Explanation
This basically puts a hinder into any token deck in this format, Souls was just way too powerful it seems, it's not even 2 months old and already got banned from one format, what's next, who knows. Virtue also got the ban hammer due to the fact it's enabler was very over powered, for a 2 drop enchantment that plays mostly white, this plus Honor of the Pure basically meant 3/3 flying, vigilance tokens would always hit, no matter what and it was driving people mad i suppose.
The Effective Date this starts is April 2nd, 2012 and it starts on Magic Online on March 28th, 2012 so enjoy playing those tokens on MTGO for a little while longer, you've got 8 days to play, well that's it for this edition of the emporium, so until next time this is vergil signing off.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Avacyn Restored Rumor - Avacyn Card Fake or Real
Hello folks and welcome to yet another edition of the emporium, today I figured it is best to break down the latest rumor floating around the MTGSalvation boards, in which a card popped up called Avacyn, Archangel of Innistrad but in today's edition i'll be breaking the card down in bits and pieces, examining each spot of it, so without further ado let's begin.
Now first off with this particular card, yes i know this particular art is done by Jason Chan, that's legitimate in my eyes, that's all that's legitimate here, since this was the preview piece floating around when Avacyn Restored was officially announced here ---> Avacyn Restored.
I'd like to bring your attention first to the mana cost of the card, story line wise Avacyn was created by Sorin and we all know sorin is White/Black, wouldn't that put her in those colors as well to start with, since she was his creation, so already one piece of the puzzle has been shattered.
My next piece of evidence supporting the White/Black theory comes in at the title, it is way too small for a real card, the way each letter is printed is not the regular basis of a magic card period, you can look at pretty much every card printed to confirm this factor.
Her abilites alone are lack luster, no periods at the end of each ability also give me reason to believe this is a fake card, since apparently this was just presented to MTGSalvation, however this has been floating around the web for a week now, according to a source on the site, I mean Flying and Protection from Demons, copy pasta much here, let's see how many angels have that particular ability in my memory, Baneslayer Angel, etc.
Besides her last ability is also lame as hell, Humans you control have protection from Non Humans, gee that's lame, there's no cards that do that in this block, yet, still it's very lame, very lack luster and shows that people will show off anything, including the fact this art in the card above is for the booster boxes for the set, thanks to someone at sally for pointing it, they know who they are.
Anyways final judgment on this particular card is a big fat FAKE and if anyone has any convincing evidence otherwise, let me know in the comments below, but until next time this is vergil signing off.
Now first off with this particular card, yes i know this particular art is done by Jason Chan, that's legitimate in my eyes, that's all that's legitimate here, since this was the preview piece floating around when Avacyn Restored was officially announced here ---> Avacyn Restored.
I'd like to bring your attention first to the mana cost of the card, story line wise Avacyn was created by Sorin and we all know sorin is White/Black, wouldn't that put her in those colors as well to start with, since she was his creation, so already one piece of the puzzle has been shattered.
My next piece of evidence supporting the White/Black theory comes in at the title, it is way too small for a real card, the way each letter is printed is not the regular basis of a magic card period, you can look at pretty much every card printed to confirm this factor.
Her abilites alone are lack luster, no periods at the end of each ability also give me reason to believe this is a fake card, since apparently this was just presented to MTGSalvation, however this has been floating around the web for a week now, according to a source on the site, I mean Flying and Protection from Demons, copy pasta much here, let's see how many angels have that particular ability in my memory, Baneslayer Angel, etc.
Besides her last ability is also lame as hell, Humans you control have protection from Non Humans, gee that's lame, there's no cards that do that in this block, yet, still it's very lame, very lack luster and shows that people will show off anything, including the fact this art in the card above is for the booster boxes for the set, thanks to someone at sally for pointing it, they know who they are.
Anyways final judgment on this particular card is a big fat FAKE and if anyone has any convincing evidence otherwise, let me know in the comments below, but until next time this is vergil signing off.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Avacyn Restored Ultrapro Products
Oh boy it's that time again, time again to learn what products Ultrapro those magnificent folks have created for the upcoming set Avacyn Restored and what kind of sleeves, deckboxes and of course playmats to expect released alongside the new set, so without further ado let's see what's cooking doc.
Our first candidates are the new playmats, the angel is obviously Avacyn herself and the demon with the kick butt horns has gotta be Griselbrand, looks like the two pieces of Avacyn art are going to be on cards, as previously realized by other sets, usually playmat art is also card art in this case, the demon though i feel is the best one, personally.
Play mat art set #2 has 3 angels, much like the three amigos, except angelic, each angel has it's specific art and specific color feel to it, no one really knows what these three will do in the upcoming set, but i suspect them to be a part of Avacyn Restored in some fashion.
As per usual however, we also get new sleeves for the set, one of them is Avacyn and the other is the Griselbrand art we saw previously, both look extremely good and such, cannot wait to pick up a set of each.
Last but most certainly not least for the set is the Deckboxes/Binders for the set, one of them has Avacyn's first revealed art and the other deck box has Griselbrand's mug on it, while the binder itself has the second Avacyn art it would appear on it, for all the information on these and more, see the arcana link below as per always.
Ultra Pro ---> Ultra Pro Product Arcana
That should do it for this edition of the emporium, it's been quite a march break full of magic news honestly and i cannot wait to see what else is in store of course in terms of magic for the upcoming set, but first we gotta get through Venser vs Koth before that can happen, so hopefully next time there will be some venser vs koth updates honestly, until next time however this is vergil signing off.
Our first candidates are the new playmats, the angel is obviously Avacyn herself and the demon with the kick butt horns has gotta be Griselbrand, looks like the two pieces of Avacyn art are going to be on cards, as previously realized by other sets, usually playmat art is also card art in this case, the demon though i feel is the best one, personally.
Play mat art set #2 has 3 angels, much like the three amigos, except angelic, each angel has it's specific art and specific color feel to it, no one really knows what these three will do in the upcoming set, but i suspect them to be a part of Avacyn Restored in some fashion.
As per usual however, we also get new sleeves for the set, one of them is Avacyn and the other is the Griselbrand art we saw previously, both look extremely good and such, cannot wait to pick up a set of each.
Last but most certainly not least for the set is the Deckboxes/Binders for the set, one of them has Avacyn's first revealed art and the other deck box has Griselbrand's mug on it, while the binder itself has the second Avacyn art it would appear on it, for all the information on these and more, see the arcana link below as per always.
Ultra Pro ---> Ultra Pro Product Arcana
That should do it for this edition of the emporium, it's been quite a march break full of magic news honestly and i cannot wait to see what else is in store of course in terms of magic for the upcoming set, but first we gotta get through Venser vs Koth before that can happen, so hopefully next time there will be some venser vs koth updates honestly, until next time however this is vergil signing off.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Magic Online Cube Format
Hello folks and once again it's time for another edition of the emporium, it seems today's edition is all about the announcement that Magic Online is getting it's very own cube format, for those who don't know what a cube is, allow me to explain.
This particular format is where you draft from a pool of available cards, but the catch is you can make it as awesome as you want, you can add anything into the cube that has ever been printed in magic's history, but the catch is you may only put 1 copy of each card into the cube, much like commander or as i like to still call it Elder Dragon Highlander. For magic online's cube however it's going to consist of 720 cards, which will be changed from time to time, adding new, old and all sorts of neat little cards from all sets, showing what most consider the diversity of magic.
For a full list of the cards being used first, please go to the link below.
Full list of cards used --> Cube List
Now that's not all with this, with this you'll be drafting a special pack of magic on there, known as the cube pack, since obviously that's how it is done these days on there, let's take a look at the booster pack being drafted.
Now however, the cube event on magic online is only going to be playable on the weekend of Pax East, April 6th to 8th, 2012, so it is going to be a limited time event, but there will be a event at PAX east don't worry folks, it's a 64 man cube, with 8 people a pod, starting at 4 pm on the 6th, then it goes live according to the article at 5 pm eastern time for the remainder of the weekend, for full details see the link above of course, including the prizes for the event.
If you miss it though don't worry it'll pop back up again from time to time, for future events of course, this is actually a great chance to play cube for the people whom have never done so honestly. But however this is all the time we have for today, stay tuned for the next edition of the emporium, whenever that is, talking about more magic news, until next time this is Vergil signing off.
This particular format is where you draft from a pool of available cards, but the catch is you can make it as awesome as you want, you can add anything into the cube that has ever been printed in magic's history, but the catch is you may only put 1 copy of each card into the cube, much like commander or as i like to still call it Elder Dragon Highlander. For magic online's cube however it's going to consist of 720 cards, which will be changed from time to time, adding new, old and all sorts of neat little cards from all sets, showing what most consider the diversity of magic.
For a full list of the cards being used first, please go to the link below.
Full list of cards used --> Cube List
Now that's not all with this, with this you'll be drafting a special pack of magic on there, known as the cube pack, since obviously that's how it is done these days on there, let's take a look at the booster pack being drafted.
Now however, the cube event on magic online is only going to be playable on the weekend of Pax East, April 6th to 8th, 2012, so it is going to be a limited time event, but there will be a event at PAX east don't worry folks, it's a 64 man cube, with 8 people a pod, starting at 4 pm on the 6th, then it goes live according to the article at 5 pm eastern time for the remainder of the weekend, for full details see the link above of course, including the prizes for the event.
If you miss it though don't worry it'll pop back up again from time to time, for future events of course, this is actually a great chance to play cube for the people whom have never done so honestly. But however this is all the time we have for today, stay tuned for the next edition of the emporium, whenever that is, talking about more magic news, until next time this is Vergil signing off.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Japanese MPS Lands
Hello fine folks out there on the inter webs, it's vergil once again with another edition of the emporium, this edition i'll be looking at the 5 new MPS lands which are being given out to various stores around japan for extra prize support, so let's see em.
First up is the plains, which feels like a darkened atmosphere, since i missed the previous ones.
The island feels very vibrant and you can even see a symbol of Avacyn in the frame art work, meaning you know what plain these are from.
Swamps are always kinda fun honestly, considering i play Black a lot more these days then anything.
Mountains of course are dark, mysterious thanks to the arrival of Innistrad, giving us this new darkened atmosphere and finally here's the Forest for this.
Very little red riding hood like honestly, all except the fact there's no one there, so all in all, a very good set of lands to give out as promos.
Now how to get these bad boys, well unfortunately these are exclusive to japan only, sorry north american magic players, but it's just how this is done usually, you can check on EBay for these bad boys but finding them among japanese sellers is going to be near impossible since no one likes to sell basic lands honestly, unless it's as a collection.
For more information on this please see the arcana below.
Lands Arcana ---> Japanese MPS Lands
Without further ado though that's all for this edition of the emporium, since of course i'm in the midst of deciding how i want to go about things now, so for now it's basically time to say for those whom are on March Break right now, go play some magic ok, until next time this is vergil signing off.
Very little red riding hood like honestly, all except the fact there's no one there, so all in all, a very good set of lands to give out as promos.
Now how to get these bad boys, well unfortunately these are exclusive to japan only, sorry north american magic players, but it's just how this is done usually, you can check on EBay for these bad boys but finding them among japanese sellers is going to be near impossible since no one likes to sell basic lands honestly, unless it's as a collection.
For more information on this please see the arcana below.
Lands Arcana ---> Japanese MPS Lands
Without further ado though that's all for this edition of the emporium, since of course i'm in the midst of deciding how i want to go about things now, so for now it's basically time to say for those whom are on March Break right now, go play some magic ok, until next time this is vergil signing off.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Judge Promos - Pro Tour Avacyn Restored
Welcome back to yet another edition of the emporium, this particular i'll be taking a look at the 2 new judge promotion cards that were announced yesterday and give my thoughts on each one, so without further ado let's see these judge promos.
Interesting i must admit, Command Tower and Sneak Attack are the new promos this time around, very interesting, Command Tower right now sits about 5 bucks, Sneak Attack sits at about 25 dollars right now due to the simple fact it is a legacy staple card these days, impressive honestly, since both are legacy legal but one is only useful in that format, guess which one, yep the sneak attack. Command Tower is good and all but it was made specifically for Elder Dragon Highlander and not any other format, though it is nice to have a promo version of this finally revealed not even a year after the release of the commander product which sold out pretty much in North America the first day of it's release. Sneak Attack however has neat new art to go along with the new shiny black bordered frame and updated wording, meaning you can expect this to be a 60-70 dollar foil in the long run and Command Tower looks to be at about 40-50 dollars roughly by my estimates based on the past promos that are given to judges.
So you ask now how will people get their hands on these, well if you are a judge and you judge Barcelona this year you'll get a full set according to a source on MTGSalvation, GP Judges get 2 each i think, correct me if i am wrong and if you aren't a judge at any of the events well the only real way is to wait and see the ebay listings or check the usual sites like Star City Games, Channel Fireball, Blackborder, etc to ensure you get at least 1 of them for your commander deck of choice, anyways that's it for this edition of the emporium, another short but sweet one, until next time this is vergil signing off.
Interesting i must admit, Command Tower and Sneak Attack are the new promos this time around, very interesting, Command Tower right now sits about 5 bucks, Sneak Attack sits at about 25 dollars right now due to the simple fact it is a legacy staple card these days, impressive honestly, since both are legacy legal but one is only useful in that format, guess which one, yep the sneak attack. Command Tower is good and all but it was made specifically for Elder Dragon Highlander and not any other format, though it is nice to have a promo version of this finally revealed not even a year after the release of the commander product which sold out pretty much in North America the first day of it's release. Sneak Attack however has neat new art to go along with the new shiny black bordered frame and updated wording, meaning you can expect this to be a 60-70 dollar foil in the long run and Command Tower looks to be at about 40-50 dollars roughly by my estimates based on the past promos that are given to judges.
So you ask now how will people get their hands on these, well if you are a judge and you judge Barcelona this year you'll get a full set according to a source on MTGSalvation, GP Judges get 2 each i think, correct me if i am wrong and if you aren't a judge at any of the events well the only real way is to wait and see the ebay listings or check the usual sites like Star City Games, Channel Fireball, Blackborder, etc to ensure you get at least 1 of them for your commander deck of choice, anyways that's it for this edition of the emporium, another short but sweet one, until next time this is vergil signing off.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
GenCon Prizes Announced
Well after yesterday's information reveal I think it is time the information be discussed by me, it is in regards to the prizes that will be given out at the Vintage and Legacy championships at Gen Con in Indy this year when they do go there, so let's start with the vintage prize.
Two guesses as to what this honestly, i know, you should probably be able to tell the card in question, here's a hint it's a piece of power 9, the most precious cards in magic today, yes a alternate art Timetwister holy crap much, yes this is the big prize support for vintage this year at Gen Con, there is only going to be 1 copy of this in existence, so whoever wins the event is going to get a oversized version of this card, with this art, whoever the artist is here they did a magnificent job on this particular piece i would feel.
Moving onto the Legacy championship prize support so i heard you like storm, eh, well this is basically going to shut you all up.
Hmm, the art depiction itself should give this away, let's see it's a Chris Rahn art, let's see he's done 56 pieces to date, with 8 of those being mythics, yes he's responsible for the art on Sword of Body and Mind, War and Peace and Feast and Famine, as well as popular mythics like Huntmaster of the Fells and of course Blightsteel Colossus. I wonder what this piece is, hmm a brain in a storm, hmm oh Brainstorm yes for the winner of the legacy tournament at Gen Con he/she is going to receive this alternate art oversized version of Brainstorm done by Chris Rahn whom has done a very fantastic job on this piece alone. If we all remember the original art was done by a one Christopher Rush whom was also responsible for creating art for the original art for cards like Mana Leak, Lightning Bolt and of course Manabarbs way back in the day when he still did art.
Anyways that's enough of a trip down memory lane for you fine folks, remember Gen Con this year takes place this august, i won't be there but i can tell you from observing previous years of coverage of the event, it's going to be good, so that's all for this edition of the emporium, until next crime this is vergil signing off.
Two guesses as to what this honestly, i know, you should probably be able to tell the card in question, here's a hint it's a piece of power 9, the most precious cards in magic today, yes a alternate art Timetwister holy crap much, yes this is the big prize support for vintage this year at Gen Con, there is only going to be 1 copy of this in existence, so whoever wins the event is going to get a oversized version of this card, with this art, whoever the artist is here they did a magnificent job on this particular piece i would feel.
Moving onto the Legacy championship prize support so i heard you like storm, eh, well this is basically going to shut you all up.
Hmm, the art depiction itself should give this away, let's see it's a Chris Rahn art, let's see he's done 56 pieces to date, with 8 of those being mythics, yes he's responsible for the art on Sword of Body and Mind, War and Peace and Feast and Famine, as well as popular mythics like Huntmaster of the Fells and of course Blightsteel Colossus. I wonder what this piece is, hmm a brain in a storm, hmm oh Brainstorm yes for the winner of the legacy tournament at Gen Con he/she is going to receive this alternate art oversized version of Brainstorm done by Chris Rahn whom has done a very fantastic job on this piece alone. If we all remember the original art was done by a one Christopher Rush whom was also responsible for creating art for the original art for cards like Mana Leak, Lightning Bolt and of course Manabarbs way back in the day when he still did art.
Anyways that's enough of a trip down memory lane for you fine folks, remember Gen Con this year takes place this august, i won't be there but i can tell you from observing previous years of coverage of the event, it's going to be good, so that's all for this edition of the emporium, until next crime this is vergil signing off.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Complete Limited Set Review - Dark Ascension
The following was done in a span of three days 2 months ago after the arrival of Dark Ascension, this isn't to be taken very seriously at all, as this is one player's thoughts on the set as a whole, this entire set review will cover all 8 categories, White, Blue, Black, Red, Green, Multicolor, Lands and Artifacts. The final thoughts on the set as a whole will be posted at the end of the review, but for now enjoy.
For the purpose of this review i will be using the following points system.
1 – Avoid this if you can
2 – Maybe can be useful here, depending on the situation
3 – Middle of the Road material
4 – 2 copies or more, always
5 – Always go for it if you got it.
White
#2) Bar the Door – 2/5, for a combat trick it’s not bad, but not desirable, i’d leave it unless you absolutely are going a weak toughness route.
#3) Break of Day – 3/5, Fateful Hour i feel is what saves this card from being a 2, sure the boost for +1/+1 is nice but when it’s a pinch it’s nice to have indestrucibilty on your side.
#4) Burden of Guilt – 2/5, Unless you go a control route avoid it, i mean sure enchanting a opponent’s creature is nice, since it only says enchant creature and all, still only draft when necessary.
#5) Curse of Exhaustion – 2/5, control spells like this make me wonder if limited is truly getting any good stuff these days, since innistrad’s arrival it’s seemingly getting more interesting, but more difficult as well.
#6) Elguad Inquisitor – 3/5, A solid body with lifelink, puts a extra creature on the battlefield, which is also rather nice, expect to at least see 2 of these pass through your draft, if your going white i’d recommend drafting 1 of them.
#7) Faith’s Shield – 3/5, Combat is something of White’s forte these days and while protection is nice, fateful hour is what gives the boost to the overall limited score of the card, protection for you and your entire team for the rest of the turn is quite handy in a pinch.
#8) Gather the Townsfolk – 4/5, Often or not 2 mana sorcery’s usually turn out to suck but when they put 2 1/1′s on the field and have fateful hour that allows for 5 1/1′s to be present, it makes it quite desirable honestly for this good draft card, i hope this is the first of many.
#9) Gavony Ironwright – 2/5, Fateful hour is the only thing that saves this from being a 1 on my scale, 3 mana 1/4′s are nice and all but at the uncommon level i’d rather be drafting Fiend Hunter from Innistrad instead, but a +1/+4 boost from fateful hour helps in a pinch.
#10) Hollowhenge Spirit – 3/5, Flash flyers often have a habit of being rather clunky, but it’s enter the battlefield effect seems like a great overall thing when something isn’t going your way.
#12) Lingering Souls – 5/5, probably the best uncommon of the color so far, 3 drop sorcery that brings out 2 1/1 spirits with flying, even without flashback it’s still super powerful, a must have for any white player.
#13) Loyal Cathar/Unhallowed Cathar – 3/5, 2 different creatures but the transformation happens when it’s dead, really and for 2 white mana it gives it that nice i’m just gonna keep attacking vibe regardless, the vigilance also helps here.
#14) Midnight Guard – 3/5, another middle of the road guy, sure he untaps every time a creature hits the board, 2/3′s though are nothing to scoff at in limited
#15) Niblis of the Mist – 2/5, 3 mana for a flying 2/1 is kind of a little over costed here, espically for it’s secondary ability of tapping a creature, at least it’s not a 1 here.
#16) Niblis of the Urn – 3/5, This is better honestly, a 1/1 flyer that when attacking can also tap a creature down, the more perfectly balanced of the 2 for this particular color.
#17) Ray of Revelation – 3/5, Probably one of the only spells worth drafting in white for this set, i mean if your drafting green/white humans go for it easily, it does deal with those nasty curses and such.
#19) Sanctuary Cat – 1/5, 1 drops in this format that are vanilla aren’t that desirable espically a 1/2 vanilla, thus why it’s kind of like a last resort pick here.
#21) Silverclaw Griffin – 2/5, 5 mana is a awful lot to spend in limited in white even for a 3/2 flyer with first strike, your better off spending the 5 mana on something more worthwhile.
#22) Skillful Lunge – 2/5, Combat tricks are nice and all, but they are getting old here, seriously.
#26) Thraben Heretic – 3/5, Something that deals with nasty graveyard creatures is excellent here, limited needed something like this to compete with the zombies of Innistrad as well as the other things here, even for 2 mana and a 2/2 it’s nice
Rares Good to Draft: Thraben Doomsayer, Increasing Devotion, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Rares i wouldn’t mind taking: Requiem Angel, Seance, Sudden Disappearance
Rares to Pass: Archangel’s Light
Blue
#27) Artful Dodge – 2/5, combat tricks are nice as i previously stated but however they are getting very old here and i don’t want to constantly have to worry about this particular card taking up one of the many slots in my deck.
#29) Bone to Ash – 4/5, in any non constructed format counter spells are what blue players desire here, with this however you not only counters a spell but get a free card out of it, making it even more worthwhile.
#31) Chant of the Skifsang – 3/5, For a 3 drop aura it’s not that bad, better then a lot of the prevention tricks in this set so far, of which there is none prior to this card.
#32) Chill of Foreboding – 3/5, usually 3 mana mill spells turn out to be total jank but in limited this thing is going to be a beast, blue’s getting some decent material here.
#35) Divination – 4/5, Card draw in this format is very limited and with a reprint like this returning for said format i wonder if it’s not going to be impacted by the fact there’s stuff like Burning Vengeance and Snapcaster Mage available.
#38) Griptide – 2/5, for something that puts a creature on top of it’s owner’s library 4 mana is a little much, if it was 3 mana i’d consider making it a middle of the road card on my scale.
#40) Headless Skaab – 2/5, Not one of the more desirable zombies if your going that route but if not then i’d suggest to avoid this at all costs.
#42) Mystic Retrieval – 4/5, returning your spells and such is awesome and all, espically when you can go Red/Blue and play a burning vengeance style deck with this card, since it returns instants and sorceries to your hand, giving you that much more fuel.
#43) Nephalia Seakite – 3/5, 2/3 flash fliers in limited are nice, but 4 mana makes it a little easier to cast when your playing blue due to stuff like Deranged Assistant.
#44) Niblis of the Breath – 2/5, 2/1 flier that untaps things, excellent here honestly but with so many three drops in this format it’s kinda hard to decide if this is good early on.
#45) Relentless Skaabs – 3/5, 4/4′s normally are good here and with undying i think this card makes it a 3 instead of a 2/5 even with the high 5 mana cost it’s still a decent beater.
#46) Saving Grasp – 3/5, a much better combat trick that saves a creature when necessary or threatened by a spell, even with a white flashback cost it’s still decent for blue.
#47) Screeching Skaab – 4/5, Powering a zombie deck early on with this guy is going to be key, with Deranged Assistant and him i think zombies is going to be tough to beat in limited.
#48) Secrets of the Dead – 4/5, Finally a enchantment spell that rewards flashback costs for players, even for 3 mana it’s still really good and will power a flashback deck to victory.
#49) Shriekgeist – 3/5, so many 2 drops so little time but when it takes 2 cards off the defending player’s library it helps all the better here.
#50) Soul Seizer/Ghastly Haunting – 2/5, sure a creature that turns into a Mind Control is a nice thing and all but it’s a 1/3 for 5, which takes up a lot of resources early on and is easily dealt with removal.
#51) Stormbound Geist – 3/5, a 3 drop that has flying, undying and can only block other fliers, it’s ok, i mean it’s got it’s advantages like chumping and coming back as s 3/3 here, plus it has some serious evasion.
#52) Thought Scour – 4/5, If you draft blue at all this card is one not to be avoided, since the fact is it deprives resources of your opponent early on if you choose and let’s you draw a card, which isn’t half bad honestly.
#53) Tower Geist – 5/5, i only ever give 5′s when i see a effect like his, getting a card when he enters the battlefield, putting the other into the graveyard, as well as a flying 2/2 for 4 mana, sign me up.
Rares i would draft: Call to the Kindred, Geralf’s Mindcrusher, Increasing Confusion
Rares i wouldn’t mind drafting: Counterlash, Curse of Echoes, Dungeon Geists
Rares to avoid: Beguiler of Wills
Black
#54) Black Cat – 3/5, Sure a 1/1 is not much to talk about but when it’s 2 mana and forces a opponent to discard a possible threat when it dies, fantastic and with a ton of sacrifice outlets in limited this is a potential target for them.
#55) Chosen of Markov/Markov’s Servant – 2/5, Well for a DFC in this set, it’s not really that great for black unless you run a tribal vampires deck in limited and have some great bombs to go with it, for a 3 mana card that you gotta tap a vampire to transform it into a vanilla 4/4 i’m just not seeing it.
#57) Curse of Thirst – 2/5, Curses in limited may vary since the fact of the matter is they are so widespread over a lot of the different colors of the block, meaning if you want to draft a curse deck it’s more ill advisable then anything.
#58) Deadly Allure – 2/5, I’m not too impressed by this whatsoever i mean for 1 black you could probably end up playing a creature like Diregraf Ghoul in this format, but i suppose flashback kind of saves it here.
#59) Death’s Caress – 3/5, for a removal spell here it’s not that bad, even if it 5 mana to play, it’s still nice to have some removal here.
#60) Falkenrath Torturer – 3/5, 2/1′s that you can give a boost to are nice, but this one i believe is a middle of the road since it requires humans to do the job effectively.
#61) Farbog Bonefinger – 2/5, for a 5 mana 2/2 that gives a -2/-2 to one creature it’s kind of over costed here, for 5 mana i’d rather just go ahead and play something like Bloodgift Demon or even Mokrut Banshee here.
#65) Gravepurge – 4/5, 3 mana recursion for all your creatures and you get to draw a card, a high value card for Black finally here.
#66) Gruesome Discovery – 2/5, 4 mana discard that requires you to have morbid to make use of it, sure some things might die but i wouldn’t waste a slot unless i had no other option for Black
#67) Harrowing Journey – 4/5, Black really has a undervalued card draw motif here, with this being one of the three spells that does it this set, for 5 mana it’s basically a Sign in Blood and a half which is nice as a uncommon.
#68) Highborn Ghoul – 3/5, Zombies tribal is nice and all for 2 black, 2/1 intimidaters but i’d much rather take something like Spectral Rider over this if i wanted intimidate at least it’s a 2/2
#72) Sightless Ghoul – 2/5, Not one of the more impressive zombies of the block, considering it cannot block and has Undying, only pick this if you are going tribal and need a extra early attacker.
#73) Reap the Seagraf – 3/5, a balanced mix of flashback and that for 2 zombie tokens as a common give it all that much more incentive to draft a zombies deck here.
#74) Skirsdag Flayer – 4/5, Solid limited removal if you got a ton of sacrifice outlets and want to clear a opponent’s board, as a 1/1 for 2 mana too it’s a balanced piece of removal.
#75) Spiteful Shadows – 2/5, Psuedo Lifelink here is nice and all but meh honestly.
#76) Tragic Slip – 5/5, best removal spell for black this set honestly, what more needs to be said.
#77) Undying Evil – 2/5, for a undying card enabler it kind of is lame and is just basically another combat trick here.
#78) Vengeful Vampire – 3/5, 6 mana flying, undying 3/3′s are kind of nice but for the late game material here.
#79) Wakedancer – 4/5, Morbid enabler that grants tokens, yes please in limited.
Rares i would Draft: Geralf’s Messenger, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Zombie Apocalypse, Increasing Ambition
Rares i wouldn’t Mind drafting: Ravenous Demon/Archdemon of Greed, Gravecrawler, Fiend of the Shadows
Rares to Avoid: Curse of Misfortunes
Red
#81) Afflicted Deserter/Werewolf Ransacker – 2/5, For the first card of a color you’d expect it to be more useful in limited but if it had to be good, it’s only good when it transforms, but stopping it from changing is simple, play lots of spells which is what limited dows well.
#83) Burning Oil – 3/5, for a Incinerate with flashback it’s very useful here, deals 3 damage to attackers or blockers in both white and red colors, making red/white seem useful, allowing for perhaps easier alpha strikes.
#84) Blood Feud – 1/5, 6 mana to make 2 creatures fight, i’d rather pay 6 mana for a really useful card like the mythic of this color, Moonveil Dragon
#86) Erdwal Ripper – 3/5, for 3 mana and with haste it’s nice, plus it gets the pump from dealing damage since it’s a vampire plus it’s a common so expect to see these a lot.
#87) Faithless Looting – 4/5, red so needs card draw, this is it, 1 mana card draw at sorcery speed, excellent, flashback excellent, a overall worthwhile pick for red players.
#88) Fires of Undeath – 2/5, sure a 3 mana spell that deals 2 damage to target creature or player is nice, but if you want the flashback cost you gotta go black, which means vampires.
#90) Fling – 3/5, Decent reprint for a instant, it’s nice to see another reprint for Innistrad which is a constant, which means you can expect to see a lot of high power creatures being flung.
#91) Forge Devil – 4/5, Sure 1 drops that ping you and a creature are limited, but when they can attack the very next turn or get rid of a blocker against you early on, it’s worthwhile here.
#92) Heckling Fiends – 2/5, sure a 2/2 for 3 mana is nice and all, but when you gotta pay mana for it’s ability, i’d much rather pay for something like Olivia Voldaren or something like that.
#93) Hinterland Hermit/Hinterland Scourge – 3/5, a much better DFC for this set, sure it has a transform clause like all other werewolves, but it costs 2 mana to play and is easily playable in this set’s many DFC style decks for limited.
#97) Markov Warlord – 4/5, Late game 6 drops like this are sweet and yet sickeningly expensive, 4/4 with haste and two creatures can’t block awesome way to finish off a opponent with a uncommon.
#100) Nearheath Stalker – 3/5, Undying is perhaps the only reason this is a middle of the road card here, sure it’s a 4/1 but it becomes a 5/2 in the long run, great for blocking then attacking.
#101) Pyreheart Wolf – 3/5, Another undying card, so little time, but it basically makes half your team or all your team unblockable due to the first ability to allow only 2 or more blockers for each creature, with undying for 3 mana it’s also a nice end game material card in limited.
#102) Russet Wolves – 2/5, 4 mana vanilla 3/3′s are nice and all but the lack of abilites turns me off here.
#103) Scorch the Fields – 3/5, Land destruction and pinging humans for 1 damage each, not bad but not good.
#104) Shattered Perception – 2/5, Sure for 3 mana it’s great to reload your hand with new cards, but in limited you’d maybe only use this once, unless you had a way of returning spells to your hand or something.
#105) Talons of Falkenrath – 1/5, Enchantments like this turn me off of this color 2 mana to enchant, 2 mana to activate and with flash it still doesn’t save it.
#106) Torch Fiend – 4/5, removal for stuff like Runechanter’s Pike and the like is sweet, even for 2 mana, Shatter on a stick anyone?
#107) Wrack with Madness – 3/5, great way to remove a serious threat in this format by making a creature target itself, even as a common this is pretty middle of the road material.
Cards i Would Draft: Flayer of the Hatebound, Increasing Vengeance, Hellrider.
Cards i wouldn’t mind Drafting: Moonveil Dragon, Markov Blademaster, Mondronen Shaman/Tolovar’s Magehunter,
Cards to Avoid: Curse of Bloodletting, Alpha Brawl
Green
#108) Briarpack Alpha – 3/5, for a 4 mana card that has flash and grants a temporary boost to a creature it’s kind of nice to flash this in as a blocker in response to your opponent’s attack then counter attack afterwards.
#109) Clinging Mists – 2/5, A Fog is still a dog’s combat trick here, just add fateful hour and boom you get clinging mists.
#110) Crushing Vines – 3/5, For removal it’s not bad honestly, middle of the road material for nasty fliers or artifacts.
#111) Dawntreader Elk – 2/5, For a new Civic Wayfinder, it’s gotta prove to be better then land fetching in the form of a good reprint in this set, which isn’t the case here.
#113) Favor of the Woods – 1/5, Lame enchantment is very lame here.
#116) Gravetiller Wurm – 3/5, for a potential 8/8 with trample it’s not that bad, i mean a 4/4 though is nothing to scoff at in green and with morbid i feel with a creature dying this guy is going to get crazy big, crazy fast.
#117) Grim Flowering – 2/5, Sure green has card draw, but expensive late game card draw, 6 mana is kind of a lot to spend on a single draw spell, without flashback no less.
#118) Hollowhenge Beast – 2/5, Another vanilla 5/5 here for 5 mana is not what this set needs, it’s just a piece of filler.
#119) Hunger of the Howlpack – 3/5, A morbid enabler that puts 3 +1/+1 counters is good, for 1 mana to boot, nice little piece of limited tech for green.
#121) Kessig Recluse – 2/5, for 4 mana a 2/3 deathtouch reach creature isn’t that desirable.
#122) Lambholt Elder/Silverpelt Werewolf – 4/5, a very nice DFC when it changes, but a 3 mana 1/2 that changes into a 4/5 with card draw potential is what gives it such a high score.
#125) Scorned Villager/Moonscarred Werewolf – 4/5, Another really good DFC for it’s color, adding mana for 2 mana is not bad and this gives a new meaning to mana acceleration in DFC form.
#126) Somberwald Dryad – 3/5, Middle of the road 2/2′s for 2 mana with forestwalk, sure it’s a nice touch but we’ve seen it before.
#127) Strangleroot Geist – 5/5, One of the best uncommons of the color honestly, 2/1 that turns into a 3/2 for 2 mana with haste and undying beast of a card.
#128) Tracker’s Instincts – 4/5, Allowing to put a creature into your hand for 2 mana from the top 4 cards of the library is excellent here, with flashback it’s pretty good as well.
#129) Ulvenwald Bear – 3/5, a 3 mana 2/2 is good and when morbid is enabled it’s a bit better here.
#130) Village Survivors – 2/5, 4/5 vigilance with fateful hour to grant vigilance no thanks.
#132) Wild Hunger – 3/5, Great finisher material for 3 mana here, with flashback it’s just that much better.
#134) Young Wolf – 2/5, 1 mana undying with no real abilites, sorry folks, undying has it’s really good card already.
Cards i would Draft: Vorapede, Wolfbitten Captive/Krallenhorde Killer, Predator Ooze, Increasing Savagery
Cards i wouldn’t mind Drafting: Ghoultree, Feed the Pack, Deranged Outcast
Cards to Avoid: Lost in the Woods
Multicolor, Lands and Artifacts
#135) Diregraf Captain – 4/5, A very good uncommon for the set overall, a zombie lord that has deathtouch and makes opponent’s lose life whenever a zombie dies, pretty sweet.
#136) Drogskol Captain – 4/5, Spirit lord and wow, granting hexproof and +1/+1 at the uncommon level is pretty simplistic and awesome.
#141) Immerwolf – 4/5, Wolf lord for the set, grants wolf and werewolves +1/+1 and non human werewolves cannot transform back, excellent.
#143) Stromkirk Captain – 4/5, Last of the lords for the set, not bad, granting first strike along with the usual +1/+1 boost for all vampires, meaning multicolor had a good uncommon showing this time around.
Artifacts
#144) Altar of the Lost – 1/5, i don’t think i’d use this very much honestly, first you’d need like 14 flashback spells to even justify this particular card and with flashback not returning in Avacyn Restored, it kind of justifies the 1/5.
#145) Avacyn’s Collar – 2/5, For 1 mana it doesn’t do enough, sure it may churn out tokens for your dead guys, but that doesn’t really save it here honestly, even for a poultry 2 mana.
#146) Chalice of Life/Chalice of Death – 1/5, Just avoid this at all costs, it isn’t even worth inclusion into your deck and this being the second last Double sided card of the set is sure as hell dissapointing.
#148) Excutioner’s Hood – 2/5, Honestly i expect a little more out of equipments for s small set, just intimidate alone for 2 mana and then 2 mana to attach, sorry.
#150) Heavy Mattock – 2/5, sure it helps humans, but it doesn’t do much besides a traditional +1/+1 pump here and for it’s cost it’s just dissapointing still.
#153) Warden of the Wall – 3/5, A much better artifact for the set honestly, changes into a 2/3 with flying and you can tap it to add 1 mana for a mere 3 mana, not bad mid game material here.
#154) Wolfhunter’s Quiver – 1/5, The equip cost alone makes this a 1/5 in my book you gotta spend 5 mana on a 1 mana equipment to equip it, but then it only usually will hit werewolves, not.
Lands
#155) Evolving Wilds – 4/5, Nice reprint is still nice.
#157) Haunted Fengraf – 3/5, For a recursion land it’s good, well costed and well rounded making this a middle of the road material card.
Cards i would Draft: Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Havengul Lich, Huntmaster of the Fells/Ravager of the Fells, Grafdigger’s Cage, Vault of the Archangel
Cards i would Consider drafting: Grim Backwoods.
Cards to Avoid: Drogskol Reaver, Jar of Eyeballs, Helavault, Elbrus, the Binding Blade/Withengar Unbound.
Well with that, this is all 158 cards done in a limited review format, what this applies to is Draft, nothing but draft, suffice it to say this set has been out 2 months since this article was typed up, so without further ado here are the final thoughts on this set.
Dark Ascension has been interesting to say the least, 158 cards of unique horror flavor which goes quite well in limited, as well as some cards going better for constructed purposes obviously. Double Faced Cards in this set are equally as interesting as the last and with 2 mythic Double Faced Cards in this set compared to the last one, it is sure to be of some interest to players, but with a overall feel of horror i'm going to give Dark Ascension on a limited stand point a well earned 4 out of 5 werewolves.
That's it for another article, stay tuned tommorow when i catch back up on missed content.
For the purpose of this review i will be using the following points system.
1 – Avoid this if you can
2 – Maybe can be useful here, depending on the situation
3 – Middle of the Road material
4 – 2 copies or more, always
5 – Always go for it if you got it.
White
#2) Bar the Door – 2/5, for a combat trick it’s not bad, but not desirable, i’d leave it unless you absolutely are going a weak toughness route.
#3) Break of Day – 3/5, Fateful Hour i feel is what saves this card from being a 2, sure the boost for +1/+1 is nice but when it’s a pinch it’s nice to have indestrucibilty on your side.
#4) Burden of Guilt – 2/5, Unless you go a control route avoid it, i mean sure enchanting a opponent’s creature is nice, since it only says enchant creature and all, still only draft when necessary.
#5) Curse of Exhaustion – 2/5, control spells like this make me wonder if limited is truly getting any good stuff these days, since innistrad’s arrival it’s seemingly getting more interesting, but more difficult as well.
#6) Elguad Inquisitor – 3/5, A solid body with lifelink, puts a extra creature on the battlefield, which is also rather nice, expect to at least see 2 of these pass through your draft, if your going white i’d recommend drafting 1 of them.
#7) Faith’s Shield – 3/5, Combat is something of White’s forte these days and while protection is nice, fateful hour is what gives the boost to the overall limited score of the card, protection for you and your entire team for the rest of the turn is quite handy in a pinch.
#8) Gather the Townsfolk – 4/5, Often or not 2 mana sorcery’s usually turn out to suck but when they put 2 1/1′s on the field and have fateful hour that allows for 5 1/1′s to be present, it makes it quite desirable honestly for this good draft card, i hope this is the first of many.
#9) Gavony Ironwright – 2/5, Fateful hour is the only thing that saves this from being a 1 on my scale, 3 mana 1/4′s are nice and all but at the uncommon level i’d rather be drafting Fiend Hunter from Innistrad instead, but a +1/+4 boost from fateful hour helps in a pinch.
#10) Hollowhenge Spirit – 3/5, Flash flyers often have a habit of being rather clunky, but it’s enter the battlefield effect seems like a great overall thing when something isn’t going your way.
#12) Lingering Souls – 5/5, probably the best uncommon of the color so far, 3 drop sorcery that brings out 2 1/1 spirits with flying, even without flashback it’s still super powerful, a must have for any white player.
#13) Loyal Cathar/Unhallowed Cathar – 3/5, 2 different creatures but the transformation happens when it’s dead, really and for 2 white mana it gives it that nice i’m just gonna keep attacking vibe regardless, the vigilance also helps here.
#14) Midnight Guard – 3/5, another middle of the road guy, sure he untaps every time a creature hits the board, 2/3′s though are nothing to scoff at in limited
#15) Niblis of the Mist – 2/5, 3 mana for a flying 2/1 is kind of a little over costed here, espically for it’s secondary ability of tapping a creature, at least it’s not a 1 here.
#16) Niblis of the Urn – 3/5, This is better honestly, a 1/1 flyer that when attacking can also tap a creature down, the more perfectly balanced of the 2 for this particular color.
#17) Ray of Revelation – 3/5, Probably one of the only spells worth drafting in white for this set, i mean if your drafting green/white humans go for it easily, it does deal with those nasty curses and such.
#19) Sanctuary Cat – 1/5, 1 drops in this format that are vanilla aren’t that desirable espically a 1/2 vanilla, thus why it’s kind of like a last resort pick here.
#21) Silverclaw Griffin – 2/5, 5 mana is a awful lot to spend in limited in white even for a 3/2 flyer with first strike, your better off spending the 5 mana on something more worthwhile.
#22) Skillful Lunge – 2/5, Combat tricks are nice and all, but they are getting old here, seriously.
#26) Thraben Heretic – 3/5, Something that deals with nasty graveyard creatures is excellent here, limited needed something like this to compete with the zombies of Innistrad as well as the other things here, even for 2 mana and a 2/2 it’s nice
Rares Good to Draft: Thraben Doomsayer, Increasing Devotion, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Rares i wouldn’t mind taking: Requiem Angel, Seance, Sudden Disappearance
Rares to Pass: Archangel’s Light
Blue
#27) Artful Dodge – 2/5, combat tricks are nice as i previously stated but however they are getting very old here and i don’t want to constantly have to worry about this particular card taking up one of the many slots in my deck.
#29) Bone to Ash – 4/5, in any non constructed format counter spells are what blue players desire here, with this however you not only counters a spell but get a free card out of it, making it even more worthwhile.
#31) Chant of the Skifsang – 3/5, For a 3 drop aura it’s not that bad, better then a lot of the prevention tricks in this set so far, of which there is none prior to this card.
#32) Chill of Foreboding – 3/5, usually 3 mana mill spells turn out to be total jank but in limited this thing is going to be a beast, blue’s getting some decent material here.
#35) Divination – 4/5, Card draw in this format is very limited and with a reprint like this returning for said format i wonder if it’s not going to be impacted by the fact there’s stuff like Burning Vengeance and Snapcaster Mage available.
#38) Griptide – 2/5, for something that puts a creature on top of it’s owner’s library 4 mana is a little much, if it was 3 mana i’d consider making it a middle of the road card on my scale.
#40) Headless Skaab – 2/5, Not one of the more desirable zombies if your going that route but if not then i’d suggest to avoid this at all costs.
#42) Mystic Retrieval – 4/5, returning your spells and such is awesome and all, espically when you can go Red/Blue and play a burning vengeance style deck with this card, since it returns instants and sorceries to your hand, giving you that much more fuel.
#43) Nephalia Seakite – 3/5, 2/3 flash fliers in limited are nice, but 4 mana makes it a little easier to cast when your playing blue due to stuff like Deranged Assistant.
#44) Niblis of the Breath – 2/5, 2/1 flier that untaps things, excellent here honestly but with so many three drops in this format it’s kinda hard to decide if this is good early on.
#45) Relentless Skaabs – 3/5, 4/4′s normally are good here and with undying i think this card makes it a 3 instead of a 2/5 even with the high 5 mana cost it’s still a decent beater.
#46) Saving Grasp – 3/5, a much better combat trick that saves a creature when necessary or threatened by a spell, even with a white flashback cost it’s still decent for blue.
#47) Screeching Skaab – 4/5, Powering a zombie deck early on with this guy is going to be key, with Deranged Assistant and him i think zombies is going to be tough to beat in limited.
#48) Secrets of the Dead – 4/5, Finally a enchantment spell that rewards flashback costs for players, even for 3 mana it’s still really good and will power a flashback deck to victory.
#49) Shriekgeist – 3/5, so many 2 drops so little time but when it takes 2 cards off the defending player’s library it helps all the better here.
#50) Soul Seizer/Ghastly Haunting – 2/5, sure a creature that turns into a Mind Control is a nice thing and all but it’s a 1/3 for 5, which takes up a lot of resources early on and is easily dealt with removal.
#51) Stormbound Geist – 3/5, a 3 drop that has flying, undying and can only block other fliers, it’s ok, i mean it’s got it’s advantages like chumping and coming back as s 3/3 here, plus it has some serious evasion.
#52) Thought Scour – 4/5, If you draft blue at all this card is one not to be avoided, since the fact is it deprives resources of your opponent early on if you choose and let’s you draw a card, which isn’t half bad honestly.
#53) Tower Geist – 5/5, i only ever give 5′s when i see a effect like his, getting a card when he enters the battlefield, putting the other into the graveyard, as well as a flying 2/2 for 4 mana, sign me up.
Rares i would draft: Call to the Kindred, Geralf’s Mindcrusher, Increasing Confusion
Rares i wouldn’t mind drafting: Counterlash, Curse of Echoes, Dungeon Geists
Rares to avoid: Beguiler of Wills
Black
#54) Black Cat – 3/5, Sure a 1/1 is not much to talk about but when it’s 2 mana and forces a opponent to discard a possible threat when it dies, fantastic and with a ton of sacrifice outlets in limited this is a potential target for them.
#55) Chosen of Markov/Markov’s Servant – 2/5, Well for a DFC in this set, it’s not really that great for black unless you run a tribal vampires deck in limited and have some great bombs to go with it, for a 3 mana card that you gotta tap a vampire to transform it into a vanilla 4/4 i’m just not seeing it.
#57) Curse of Thirst – 2/5, Curses in limited may vary since the fact of the matter is they are so widespread over a lot of the different colors of the block, meaning if you want to draft a curse deck it’s more ill advisable then anything.
#58) Deadly Allure – 2/5, I’m not too impressed by this whatsoever i mean for 1 black you could probably end up playing a creature like Diregraf Ghoul in this format, but i suppose flashback kind of saves it here.
#59) Death’s Caress – 3/5, for a removal spell here it’s not that bad, even if it 5 mana to play, it’s still nice to have some removal here.
#60) Falkenrath Torturer – 3/5, 2/1′s that you can give a boost to are nice, but this one i believe is a middle of the road since it requires humans to do the job effectively.
#61) Farbog Bonefinger – 2/5, for a 5 mana 2/2 that gives a -2/-2 to one creature it’s kind of over costed here, for 5 mana i’d rather just go ahead and play something like Bloodgift Demon or even Mokrut Banshee here.
#65) Gravepurge – 4/5, 3 mana recursion for all your creatures and you get to draw a card, a high value card for Black finally here.
#66) Gruesome Discovery – 2/5, 4 mana discard that requires you to have morbid to make use of it, sure some things might die but i wouldn’t waste a slot unless i had no other option for Black
#67) Harrowing Journey – 4/5, Black really has a undervalued card draw motif here, with this being one of the three spells that does it this set, for 5 mana it’s basically a Sign in Blood and a half which is nice as a uncommon.
#68) Highborn Ghoul – 3/5, Zombies tribal is nice and all for 2 black, 2/1 intimidaters but i’d much rather take something like Spectral Rider over this if i wanted intimidate at least it’s a 2/2
#72) Sightless Ghoul – 2/5, Not one of the more impressive zombies of the block, considering it cannot block and has Undying, only pick this if you are going tribal and need a extra early attacker.
#73) Reap the Seagraf – 3/5, a balanced mix of flashback and that for 2 zombie tokens as a common give it all that much more incentive to draft a zombies deck here.
#74) Skirsdag Flayer – 4/5, Solid limited removal if you got a ton of sacrifice outlets and want to clear a opponent’s board, as a 1/1 for 2 mana too it’s a balanced piece of removal.
#75) Spiteful Shadows – 2/5, Psuedo Lifelink here is nice and all but meh honestly.
#76) Tragic Slip – 5/5, best removal spell for black this set honestly, what more needs to be said.
#77) Undying Evil – 2/5, for a undying card enabler it kind of is lame and is just basically another combat trick here.
#78) Vengeful Vampire – 3/5, 6 mana flying, undying 3/3′s are kind of nice but for the late game material here.
#79) Wakedancer – 4/5, Morbid enabler that grants tokens, yes please in limited.
Rares i would Draft: Geralf’s Messenger, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Zombie Apocalypse, Increasing Ambition
Rares i wouldn’t Mind drafting: Ravenous Demon/Archdemon of Greed, Gravecrawler, Fiend of the Shadows
Rares to Avoid: Curse of Misfortunes
Red
#81) Afflicted Deserter/Werewolf Ransacker – 2/5, For the first card of a color you’d expect it to be more useful in limited but if it had to be good, it’s only good when it transforms, but stopping it from changing is simple, play lots of spells which is what limited dows well.
#83) Burning Oil – 3/5, for a Incinerate with flashback it’s very useful here, deals 3 damage to attackers or blockers in both white and red colors, making red/white seem useful, allowing for perhaps easier alpha strikes.
#84) Blood Feud – 1/5, 6 mana to make 2 creatures fight, i’d rather pay 6 mana for a really useful card like the mythic of this color, Moonveil Dragon
#86) Erdwal Ripper – 3/5, for 3 mana and with haste it’s nice, plus it gets the pump from dealing damage since it’s a vampire plus it’s a common so expect to see these a lot.
#87) Faithless Looting – 4/5, red so needs card draw, this is it, 1 mana card draw at sorcery speed, excellent, flashback excellent, a overall worthwhile pick for red players.
#88) Fires of Undeath – 2/5, sure a 3 mana spell that deals 2 damage to target creature or player is nice, but if you want the flashback cost you gotta go black, which means vampires.
#90) Fling – 3/5, Decent reprint for a instant, it’s nice to see another reprint for Innistrad which is a constant, which means you can expect to see a lot of high power creatures being flung.
#91) Forge Devil – 4/5, Sure 1 drops that ping you and a creature are limited, but when they can attack the very next turn or get rid of a blocker against you early on, it’s worthwhile here.
#92) Heckling Fiends – 2/5, sure a 2/2 for 3 mana is nice and all, but when you gotta pay mana for it’s ability, i’d much rather pay for something like Olivia Voldaren or something like that.
#93) Hinterland Hermit/Hinterland Scourge – 3/5, a much better DFC for this set, sure it has a transform clause like all other werewolves, but it costs 2 mana to play and is easily playable in this set’s many DFC style decks for limited.
#97) Markov Warlord – 4/5, Late game 6 drops like this are sweet and yet sickeningly expensive, 4/4 with haste and two creatures can’t block awesome way to finish off a opponent with a uncommon.
#100) Nearheath Stalker – 3/5, Undying is perhaps the only reason this is a middle of the road card here, sure it’s a 4/1 but it becomes a 5/2 in the long run, great for blocking then attacking.
#101) Pyreheart Wolf – 3/5, Another undying card, so little time, but it basically makes half your team or all your team unblockable due to the first ability to allow only 2 or more blockers for each creature, with undying for 3 mana it’s also a nice end game material card in limited.
#102) Russet Wolves – 2/5, 4 mana vanilla 3/3′s are nice and all but the lack of abilites turns me off here.
#103) Scorch the Fields – 3/5, Land destruction and pinging humans for 1 damage each, not bad but not good.
#104) Shattered Perception – 2/5, Sure for 3 mana it’s great to reload your hand with new cards, but in limited you’d maybe only use this once, unless you had a way of returning spells to your hand or something.
#105) Talons of Falkenrath – 1/5, Enchantments like this turn me off of this color 2 mana to enchant, 2 mana to activate and with flash it still doesn’t save it.
#106) Torch Fiend – 4/5, removal for stuff like Runechanter’s Pike and the like is sweet, even for 2 mana, Shatter on a stick anyone?
#107) Wrack with Madness – 3/5, great way to remove a serious threat in this format by making a creature target itself, even as a common this is pretty middle of the road material.
Cards i Would Draft: Flayer of the Hatebound, Increasing Vengeance, Hellrider.
Cards i wouldn’t mind Drafting: Moonveil Dragon, Markov Blademaster, Mondronen Shaman/Tolovar’s Magehunter,
Cards to Avoid: Curse of Bloodletting, Alpha Brawl
Green
#108) Briarpack Alpha – 3/5, for a 4 mana card that has flash and grants a temporary boost to a creature it’s kind of nice to flash this in as a blocker in response to your opponent’s attack then counter attack afterwards.
#109) Clinging Mists – 2/5, A Fog is still a dog’s combat trick here, just add fateful hour and boom you get clinging mists.
#110) Crushing Vines – 3/5, For removal it’s not bad honestly, middle of the road material for nasty fliers or artifacts.
#111) Dawntreader Elk – 2/5, For a new Civic Wayfinder, it’s gotta prove to be better then land fetching in the form of a good reprint in this set, which isn’t the case here.
#113) Favor of the Woods – 1/5, Lame enchantment is very lame here.
#116) Gravetiller Wurm – 3/5, for a potential 8/8 with trample it’s not that bad, i mean a 4/4 though is nothing to scoff at in green and with morbid i feel with a creature dying this guy is going to get crazy big, crazy fast.
#117) Grim Flowering – 2/5, Sure green has card draw, but expensive late game card draw, 6 mana is kind of a lot to spend on a single draw spell, without flashback no less.
#118) Hollowhenge Beast – 2/5, Another vanilla 5/5 here for 5 mana is not what this set needs, it’s just a piece of filler.
#119) Hunger of the Howlpack – 3/5, A morbid enabler that puts 3 +1/+1 counters is good, for 1 mana to boot, nice little piece of limited tech for green.
#121) Kessig Recluse – 2/5, for 4 mana a 2/3 deathtouch reach creature isn’t that desirable.
#122) Lambholt Elder/Silverpelt Werewolf – 4/5, a very nice DFC when it changes, but a 3 mana 1/2 that changes into a 4/5 with card draw potential is what gives it such a high score.
#125) Scorned Villager/Moonscarred Werewolf – 4/5, Another really good DFC for it’s color, adding mana for 2 mana is not bad and this gives a new meaning to mana acceleration in DFC form.
#126) Somberwald Dryad – 3/5, Middle of the road 2/2′s for 2 mana with forestwalk, sure it’s a nice touch but we’ve seen it before.
#127) Strangleroot Geist – 5/5, One of the best uncommons of the color honestly, 2/1 that turns into a 3/2 for 2 mana with haste and undying beast of a card.
#128) Tracker’s Instincts – 4/5, Allowing to put a creature into your hand for 2 mana from the top 4 cards of the library is excellent here, with flashback it’s pretty good as well.
#129) Ulvenwald Bear – 3/5, a 3 mana 2/2 is good and when morbid is enabled it’s a bit better here.
#130) Village Survivors – 2/5, 4/5 vigilance with fateful hour to grant vigilance no thanks.
#132) Wild Hunger – 3/5, Great finisher material for 3 mana here, with flashback it’s just that much better.
#134) Young Wolf – 2/5, 1 mana undying with no real abilites, sorry folks, undying has it’s really good card already.
Cards i would Draft: Vorapede, Wolfbitten Captive/Krallenhorde Killer, Predator Ooze, Increasing Savagery
Cards i wouldn’t mind Drafting: Ghoultree, Feed the Pack, Deranged Outcast
Cards to Avoid: Lost in the Woods
Multicolor, Lands and Artifacts
Multicolor
#136) Drogskol Captain – 4/5, Spirit lord and wow, granting hexproof and +1/+1 at the uncommon level is pretty simplistic and awesome.
#141) Immerwolf – 4/5, Wolf lord for the set, grants wolf and werewolves +1/+1 and non human werewolves cannot transform back, excellent.
#143) Stromkirk Captain – 4/5, Last of the lords for the set, not bad, granting first strike along with the usual +1/+1 boost for all vampires, meaning multicolor had a good uncommon showing this time around.
Artifacts
#144) Altar of the Lost – 1/5, i don’t think i’d use this very much honestly, first you’d need like 14 flashback spells to even justify this particular card and with flashback not returning in Avacyn Restored, it kind of justifies the 1/5.
#145) Avacyn’s Collar – 2/5, For 1 mana it doesn’t do enough, sure it may churn out tokens for your dead guys, but that doesn’t really save it here honestly, even for a poultry 2 mana.
#146) Chalice of Life/Chalice of Death – 1/5, Just avoid this at all costs, it isn’t even worth inclusion into your deck and this being the second last Double sided card of the set is sure as hell dissapointing.
#148) Excutioner’s Hood – 2/5, Honestly i expect a little more out of equipments for s small set, just intimidate alone for 2 mana and then 2 mana to attach, sorry.
#150) Heavy Mattock – 2/5, sure it helps humans, but it doesn’t do much besides a traditional +1/+1 pump here and for it’s cost it’s just dissapointing still.
#153) Warden of the Wall – 3/5, A much better artifact for the set honestly, changes into a 2/3 with flying and you can tap it to add 1 mana for a mere 3 mana, not bad mid game material here.
#154) Wolfhunter’s Quiver – 1/5, The equip cost alone makes this a 1/5 in my book you gotta spend 5 mana on a 1 mana equipment to equip it, but then it only usually will hit werewolves, not.
Lands
#155) Evolving Wilds – 4/5, Nice reprint is still nice.
#157) Haunted Fengraf – 3/5, For a recursion land it’s good, well costed and well rounded making this a middle of the road material card.
Cards i would Draft: Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Havengul Lich, Huntmaster of the Fells/Ravager of the Fells, Grafdigger’s Cage, Vault of the Archangel
Cards i would Consider drafting: Grim Backwoods.
Cards to Avoid: Drogskol Reaver, Jar of Eyeballs, Helavault, Elbrus, the Binding Blade/Withengar Unbound.
Well with that, this is all 158 cards done in a limited review format, what this applies to is Draft, nothing but draft, suffice it to say this set has been out 2 months since this article was typed up, so without further ado here are the final thoughts on this set.
Dark Ascension has been interesting to say the least, 158 cards of unique horror flavor which goes quite well in limited, as well as some cards going better for constructed purposes obviously. Double Faced Cards in this set are equally as interesting as the last and with 2 mythic Double Faced Cards in this set compared to the last one, it is sure to be of some interest to players, but with a overall feel of horror i'm going to give Dark Ascension on a limited stand point a well earned 4 out of 5 werewolves.
That's it for another article, stay tuned tommorow when i catch back up on missed content.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Announcement: From the Vault: Realms
Yes it is true, from the vault has been revealed name wise, it is known as From the Vault: Realms, meaning there will be 15 different lands, all in foil of course now, we also got a piece of preview art with this, let's see it before we continue.
Oh wow, this is a very nice piece of art spoiled along with this set, i must admit. Flavor wise it feels like Dark Depths, you know the one that generates that 20/20 Marit Lage token and combos quite well with a certain vampire from Zendikar block. According to the announcement as well, some of these cards have never been printed in the current black border frame and for them it is the first time being done, well remember From the Vault: Legends did that as well, with a certain few cards from Portal Three Kingdoms and such.
So here is what we know for this at the moment.
MSRP: 34.99 US
Product, Concept and Development Team: Mark Gottileb
Release Date: August 31st, 2012.
Yes you can expect to see this being much higher then MSRP along with being released at the end of August, officially ending 2012's summer of magic as i like to call it, for the full link to the announcement please see the link below.
Link to Announcement ---> From the Vault Realms Announcement
With that this ends another edition of the emporium, on a very strange leap day in February, so without further ado this is vergil signing off.
Oh wow, this is a very nice piece of art spoiled along with this set, i must admit. Flavor wise it feels like Dark Depths, you know the one that generates that 20/20 Marit Lage token and combos quite well with a certain vampire from Zendikar block. According to the announcement as well, some of these cards have never been printed in the current black border frame and for them it is the first time being done, well remember From the Vault: Legends did that as well, with a certain few cards from Portal Three Kingdoms and such.
So here is what we know for this at the moment.
MSRP: 34.99 US
Product, Concept and Development Team: Mark Gottileb
Release Date: August 31st, 2012.
Yes you can expect to see this being much higher then MSRP along with being released at the end of August, officially ending 2012's summer of magic as i like to call it, for the full link to the announcement please see the link below.
Link to Announcement ---> From the Vault Realms Announcement
With that this ends another edition of the emporium, on a very strange leap day in February, so without further ado this is vergil signing off.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Magic the Gathering News Vol 15: PT Dark Ascension, Changes to Prerelease, Release Parties and much much more.
Hello everyone and welcome back to yet another monthly edition of the magic news, let's recap what happened in the month of february with some of the big changes to Magic as we may know it.
So as all may end up remembering, Launch Parties are going to change starting with Avacyn Restored in the fact that the term "Launch Party" is going to be phased out and that stores will be given more chances to run more prereleases and such depending on what store you go to to play magic on a weekly basis, it also means the promotional cards for said Launch Party are allowed to be distributed early on the release date of the new set, which is kind of nice i suppose in all honesty, plus since the upcoming set Avacyn Restored is a large set, it will be drafted on it's own for prereleases and booster drafts everywhere meaning no Innistrad for you, sorry, informational link will of course be below as always.
Article with Changes --> Changes to Launch Parties
Pro Tour Dark Ascension also happened earlier this month, with Wolf Run Ramp taking the entire event both PVDDR and Brian Kibler had a epic clash of 5 games to end the event with a mirror match wolf run ramp deck, that was a blast but the big shocker is the Jon Finkel vs Brian Kibler matchup where there was some serious classic moments there, congrats to Brian for his win and the next Pro tour as we know is Barcelona.
Grand Prix's a plenty this month, Kobe, Madrid were both booster draft/sealed deck while Lincoln saw Modern action, Baltimore saw a lot of standard decks once again but congrats go out to Bronson Magnan for winning Grand Prix Lincoln with his CAL deck, Grand Prix Kobe saw Masahiro Hiraga take the title in the booster draft, Grand Prix Baltimore saw standard and the winner of that event after a successful top 8 run was Matthew Costa while in Grand Prix Madrid, Ivo Grossholtz took the crown in a Sealed Deck/Booster Draft field which was over 1000 players, congrats to all four of you for winning your respective events and see you at Pro Tour Barcelona.
For those wondering if Tarmogoyf was going to be in Avacyn Restored, well kiss those dreams good bye as Mark Rosewater stated the following "While he makes sense mechanically, in makes no sense in a top down persepective in a horror block, so no we've never even considered reprinting it in Innistrad Block" the source will be below as always.
Source ---> Tarmogoyf Rumor Crushed
As we all know, this friday is the first night of Friday Night Magic in march, meaning a brand new promotion card, what could it be i wonder, well it's Tectonic Edge, the picture will of course be below
Yes friends you too can own your very own foil editions of the cheap version of Wasteland by winning your first FNM if it is your first of course, most stores like to have Standard though for their FNM's so keep that in mind before heading to your first new FNM for the month.
Well with that, that is the second month of the year done, we move towards a new month with a new product coming out Duel Decks: Venser vs Koth, so until next time you fine folks out there in magic land, this is vergil signing off.
So as all may end up remembering, Launch Parties are going to change starting with Avacyn Restored in the fact that the term "Launch Party" is going to be phased out and that stores will be given more chances to run more prereleases and such depending on what store you go to to play magic on a weekly basis, it also means the promotional cards for said Launch Party are allowed to be distributed early on the release date of the new set, which is kind of nice i suppose in all honesty, plus since the upcoming set Avacyn Restored is a large set, it will be drafted on it's own for prereleases and booster drafts everywhere meaning no Innistrad for you, sorry, informational link will of course be below as always.
Article with Changes --> Changes to Launch Parties
Pro Tour Dark Ascension also happened earlier this month, with Wolf Run Ramp taking the entire event both PVDDR and Brian Kibler had a epic clash of 5 games to end the event with a mirror match wolf run ramp deck, that was a blast but the big shocker is the Jon Finkel vs Brian Kibler matchup where there was some serious classic moments there, congrats to Brian for his win and the next Pro tour as we know is Barcelona.
Grand Prix's a plenty this month, Kobe, Madrid were both booster draft/sealed deck while Lincoln saw Modern action, Baltimore saw a lot of standard decks once again but congrats go out to Bronson Magnan for winning Grand Prix Lincoln with his CAL deck, Grand Prix Kobe saw Masahiro Hiraga take the title in the booster draft, Grand Prix Baltimore saw standard and the winner of that event after a successful top 8 run was Matthew Costa while in Grand Prix Madrid, Ivo Grossholtz took the crown in a Sealed Deck/Booster Draft field which was over 1000 players, congrats to all four of you for winning your respective events and see you at Pro Tour Barcelona.
For those wondering if Tarmogoyf was going to be in Avacyn Restored, well kiss those dreams good bye as Mark Rosewater stated the following "While he makes sense mechanically, in makes no sense in a top down persepective in a horror block, so no we've never even considered reprinting it in Innistrad Block" the source will be below as always.
Source ---> Tarmogoyf Rumor Crushed
As we all know, this friday is the first night of Friday Night Magic in march, meaning a brand new promotion card, what could it be i wonder, well it's Tectonic Edge, the picture will of course be below
Yes friends you too can own your very own foil editions of the cheap version of Wasteland by winning your first FNM if it is your first of course, most stores like to have Standard though for their FNM's so keep that in mind before heading to your first new FNM for the month.
Well with that, that is the second month of the year done, we move towards a new month with a new product coming out Duel Decks: Venser vs Koth, so until next time you fine folks out there in magic land, this is vergil signing off.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Standard Deck Examination: Mono Green Dungrove Elder
And so we come to the last of the deck examinations, this one is a bit post Dark Ascension but it's core was built in Innistrad thanks to a few cards from it, though i didn't get a chance to examine it till now, that is Mono Green Dungrove Elder which is one of the decks we saw at Pro Tour: Dark Ascension which focuses on the M12 rare Dungrove Elder while having a lot of ramp elements to it to get lands on the battlefield quicker, let's take a look at the first list now though.
The first list of choice is Todd Anderson's take on Mono Green Dungrove Elder, which seems to be one of the more difficult builds to beat these days due to the sheer ramp the deck has to offer, let's see it.
Todd Anderson's Dungrove Elder - Pro Tour Dark Ascension
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Daybreak Ranger
4 Dungrove Elder
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Strangleroot Geist
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Spells
3 Garruk Relentless
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Gut Shot
4 Sword of War and Peace
Lands
24 Forest
Sideboard
2 Corrosive Gale
1 Daybreak Ranger
1 Glissa, the Traitor
3 Naturalize
2 Precursor Golem
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
Already we are seeing the basics of the deck come together here, sure it's name sake and the basic lands are a start, but what are some more common themes with this deck archetype as a whole, well let's find out with our second list courtesy of Pro Tour Dark Ascension once again, this time however run by Iain Bartolomei
Iain Bartolomei's Dungrove Elder - Pro Tour Dark Ascension
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Dungrove Elder
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Strangleroot Geist
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Spells
2 Garruk Relentless
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Gut Shot
4 Sword of War and Peace
Lands
24 Forest
Sideboard
1 Batterskull
2 Creeping Corrosion
1 Glissa, the Traitor
2 Naturalize
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
3 Tumble Magnet
So the creature base is consistent with these two decks, a singleton Acidic Slime and Bellowing Tanglewurm which can be copied via a Phyrexian Metamorph, the standard ramp package of Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves are pretty basic for green these days, leading into a turn 2 to fetch a early attacker in Strangleroot Geist, or even a turn 3 green sun's zenith to fetch one of the deck's 4 copies of Dungrove Elder as a good way to start off the deck, of course spells may vary the creature base is starting to come together though as a whole, so with these two lists we pretty much understand the core cards of the deck already, so without further ado let's take at the core cards of Dungrove Elder
Creatures
Dungrove Elder - This deck's name sake for green justice of course, always consider this 4 slots in your 60 regardless if your playing this archetype.
Llanowar Elves/Birds of Paradise - Standard ramp package, sure we could be playing Rampant Growth, but it's not preferred here, standard creature ramp is much better honestly and these two are always 4x no matter what.
Acidic Slime/Bellowing Tanglewurm - You only need 1 of these each, considering the fact you can fetch them via your Green Sun's Zenith a lot easier then waiting for them.
Phyrexian Metamorph - Sure let's pay 2 life to get a copy card onto the battlefield, copying a sword, copying a creature like Slime or Tanglewurm, or how about a second Dungrove Elder or even a second Strangleroot Geist for that matter
Strangleroot Geist - Kinda required since he's the only 2 drop in the deck, undying, haste does help quite a bit and allows you to churn the extra bits of damage needed, i'd consider him a 4x but minimum of 3 in the deck at any given time.
Thrun, the Last Troll - Honestly the last time we saw this troll was a while back and well he's nice to have, 4/4 for 4, great bait for sweepers and all that neat stuff, you only need 1 of him honestly.
Spells
Green Sun's Zenith - A requirement honestly for this deck, fetching anything in it, period except for Metamorph, makes any green deck worth twice as much, 4x requirement here.
Garruk Relentless/Garruk, Primal Hunter - Just a back up plan in case stuff goes haywire, primal hunter's secondary ability is more useful then anything since it reloads your hand on occasion, Relentless is more useful as a token generator as well, but walker rule can't have two of the same subtype on the field, consider this 2x each easily
Sword of War and Peace - White and red decks a problem for you, no problem this is your answer right here, pro red, pro white, lifegain, direct damage need i say more, 4x easily and this will be the most expensive card in the deck since it sits at 30 bucks right now.
Gut Shot - Another 2x spell of the deck, it's pretty consistent, being one of the two phyrexian mana cards in our deck, dealing those last 2 points of damage is always crucial here.
The lands for the deck should always be basic lands, regardless, meaning you won't need to worry about mana fixers, no real reason to be running duals here, since you want the elder as strong as possible, so with this basic core of the deck, let's build our example list.
Vergil's Example List
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Dungrove Elder
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
Spells
2 Garruk Relentless
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Sword of War and Peace
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Gut Shot
Lands
24 Forest
The sideboards for both decks though vary and deal with different archetypes the same way here, though if you can't get swords, then i would suggest either Batterskull or perhaps another good living weapon card, or even get your hands on a set of Trepanation Blade for the final 4 slots of the deck, sideboards though of course as i state may vary but the consistency of the sideboard remain and i leave that to you the reader to decide, but without further ado it's time to end another article, this is the last standard deck examination i will do for post Dark Ascension, until next article this is vergil signing off.
The first list of choice is Todd Anderson's take on Mono Green Dungrove Elder, which seems to be one of the more difficult builds to beat these days due to the sheer ramp the deck has to offer, let's see it.
Todd Anderson's Dungrove Elder - Pro Tour Dark Ascension
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Daybreak Ranger
4 Dungrove Elder
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Strangleroot Geist
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Spells
3 Garruk Relentless
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Gut Shot
4 Sword of War and Peace
Lands
24 Forest
Sideboard
2 Corrosive Gale
1 Daybreak Ranger
1 Glissa, the Traitor
3 Naturalize
2 Precursor Golem
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
Already we are seeing the basics of the deck come together here, sure it's name sake and the basic lands are a start, but what are some more common themes with this deck archetype as a whole, well let's find out with our second list courtesy of Pro Tour Dark Ascension once again, this time however run by Iain Bartolomei
Iain Bartolomei's Dungrove Elder - Pro Tour Dark Ascension
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Dungrove Elder
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Strangleroot Geist
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Spells
2 Garruk Relentless
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Gut Shot
4 Sword of War and Peace
Lands
24 Forest
Sideboard
1 Batterskull
2 Creeping Corrosion
1 Glissa, the Traitor
2 Naturalize
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
3 Tumble Magnet
So the creature base is consistent with these two decks, a singleton Acidic Slime and Bellowing Tanglewurm which can be copied via a Phyrexian Metamorph, the standard ramp package of Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves are pretty basic for green these days, leading into a turn 2 to fetch a early attacker in Strangleroot Geist, or even a turn 3 green sun's zenith to fetch one of the deck's 4 copies of Dungrove Elder as a good way to start off the deck, of course spells may vary the creature base is starting to come together though as a whole, so with these two lists we pretty much understand the core cards of the deck already, so without further ado let's take at the core cards of Dungrove Elder
Creatures
Dungrove Elder - This deck's name sake for green justice of course, always consider this 4 slots in your 60 regardless if your playing this archetype.
Llanowar Elves/Birds of Paradise - Standard ramp package, sure we could be playing Rampant Growth, but it's not preferred here, standard creature ramp is much better honestly and these two are always 4x no matter what.
Acidic Slime/Bellowing Tanglewurm - You only need 1 of these each, considering the fact you can fetch them via your Green Sun's Zenith a lot easier then waiting for them.
Phyrexian Metamorph - Sure let's pay 2 life to get a copy card onto the battlefield, copying a sword, copying a creature like Slime or Tanglewurm, or how about a second Dungrove Elder or even a second Strangleroot Geist for that matter
Strangleroot Geist - Kinda required since he's the only 2 drop in the deck, undying, haste does help quite a bit and allows you to churn the extra bits of damage needed, i'd consider him a 4x but minimum of 3 in the deck at any given time.
Thrun, the Last Troll - Honestly the last time we saw this troll was a while back and well he's nice to have, 4/4 for 4, great bait for sweepers and all that neat stuff, you only need 1 of him honestly.
Spells
Green Sun's Zenith - A requirement honestly for this deck, fetching anything in it, period except for Metamorph, makes any green deck worth twice as much, 4x requirement here.
Garruk Relentless/Garruk, Primal Hunter - Just a back up plan in case stuff goes haywire, primal hunter's secondary ability is more useful then anything since it reloads your hand on occasion, Relentless is more useful as a token generator as well, but walker rule can't have two of the same subtype on the field, consider this 2x each easily
Sword of War and Peace - White and red decks a problem for you, no problem this is your answer right here, pro red, pro white, lifegain, direct damage need i say more, 4x easily and this will be the most expensive card in the deck since it sits at 30 bucks right now.
Gut Shot - Another 2x spell of the deck, it's pretty consistent, being one of the two phyrexian mana cards in our deck, dealing those last 2 points of damage is always crucial here.
The lands for the deck should always be basic lands, regardless, meaning you won't need to worry about mana fixers, no real reason to be running duals here, since you want the elder as strong as possible, so with this basic core of the deck, let's build our example list.
Vergil's Example List
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Dungrove Elder
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
Spells
2 Garruk Relentless
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Sword of War and Peace
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Gut Shot
Lands
24 Forest
The sideboards for both decks though vary and deal with different archetypes the same way here, though if you can't get swords, then i would suggest either Batterskull or perhaps another good living weapon card, or even get your hands on a set of Trepanation Blade for the final 4 slots of the deck, sideboards though of course as i state may vary but the consistency of the sideboard remain and i leave that to you the reader to decide, but without further ado it's time to end another article, this is the last standard deck examination i will do for post Dark Ascension, until next article this is vergil signing off.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Standard Deck Examination: U/W Spirit Delver
So Pro Tour: Dark Ascension is over and well we know that this particular deck is superb, piloted by the hands of guys like Jon Finkel and the like, it's time to take a look at the deck which basically made it's way to the top 8 of the latest pro tour without much difficulty.
Jon Finkel's U/W Delver Spirits - 3rd Place - PT Dark Ascension
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Dungeon Geists
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
1 Divine Offering
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Gut Shot
4 Lingering Souls
2 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
1 Revoke Existence
4 Vapor Snag
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dismember
1 Demystify
1 Dissipate
1 Divine Offering
2 Dungeon Geists
2 Gut Shot
1 Mana Leak
1 Negate
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Revoke Existence
2 Surgical Extraction
Now this is what i feel is going to define this archetype after the recent end to Pro Tour: Dark Ascension which was spectacular if i might add, with this deck there are 3 creatures that stand out besides Delver of Secrets here, Phantasmal Image, Drogskol Captain and Dungeon Geists which all have their purposes for spirits in this deck, but that's not the only pro tour list i wish to look at, let's look at Jelger Wiegersma's version of this deck which featured a completely different spell base and sideboard.
Jelger Wiegersma's U/W Delver Spirits - 8th Place - PT Dark Ascension
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Dungeon Geists
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
1 Divine Offering
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Mutagenic Growth
4 Lingering Souls
2 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
1 Revoke Existence
4 Vapor Snag
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dismember
1 Dissipate
1 Divine Offering
1 Dungeon Geists
2 Gut Shot
2 Mana Leak
1 Negate
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Revoke Existence
1 Surgical Extraction
Now his sideboard is a bit different since he has Ratchet Bomb, Timely Reinforcements and only a singleton Surgical Extraction in there to deal with things, but you'll notice the spell list it has a singleton copy of Mutagenic Growth which means his list was a bit different but didn't seem to do as well, thanks to his 8th place finish in the event though, both lists did quite well at the pro tour at that, now in comparison with the two lists in question it's not really difficult to tell the core cards of this deck just based off these two particular lists.
Creatures
Delver of Secrets - Pretty much required since the deck is named after this somewhat, plus the fact it's a 1 drop even makes it a lot better honestly.
Phantasmal Image - Sure copying a Delver is fun and all but how about when you copy a Drogskol Captain with this and your entire team is now hexproof
Drogskol Captain - Another very required card in this deck, prevents targeted removal on your entire team and when a second one or a imaged captain is out, well targeted removal doesn't do very much here.
Snapcaster Mage - Since when is snappy never required to do the job, flashback on your non flashback spells, is a decent attacker and when there is a chance it usually means something happens that is good for you and bad for your opponent when he drops.
Dungeon Geists - The entire reason spirits are good now, 3/3 that permanently locks down a opponent's creature as long as it exists on the battlefield, flies and is the biggest creature in the deck.
Spells
Ponder - This sets up your delver activation and pretty much sets you up for the next 2 turns officially, perhaps the single best way to flip delver of secrets on 3rd turn easily.
Vapor Snag - Another 1 drop spell that is very effective in the long run, sure swing with your entire team and play this as a response to attacking, negating a blocker and getting those few extra points of damage through, or good to deal with a big threat like a titan, send it back to their hand and make a opponent lose 1 life.
Lingering Souls - 1 of your 2 token generators of the deck, which for it's mana cost is pretty damn decent, puts 2 1/1 spirits onto the field with flying and with a captain or two that can turn into a lethal team.
Mana Leak/Gitaxian Probe - This combination of cards is required since we are going blue, card draw and the ability to tell what is in your opponent's hand with the probe, then to follow that up with a counter spell in leak, basically the 1, 2 punch for the deck.
Lands
Seachrome Coast/Darkslick Shores - Required if your going to be needing mana fixers, since there are only 7 basic lands in the deck usually, 4 of each is required
Moorland Haunt - The second token generator of 2 this deck has, need a extra blocker for a quick chump block, sure, or perhaps you want a attacker next turn, activate this on your opponent's end step, untap and swing, this is a 2 of easily in this deck since it's not as required as Lingering Souls
Glacial Fortress - The only core set dual required for this deck since the black fixers are in Darkslick Shores and the basic swamp, since white/blue is more required this is a necessity as a 3 of in this particular deck of choice.
So without further ado let's throw together this particular deck in our way with additions not included here.
Example List
Creatures
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Phantasmal Image
2 Dungeon Geists
Spells
4 Lingering Souls
3 Midnight Haunting
2 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Vapor Snag
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
Believe it or not there isn't much we can do if we want to change it to a more aggressive token style build, just add 3 midnight haunting to the deck, that's it, that is all we can do if we want it to be more aggressive honestly, anyways i'm afraid that's it for this particular examination, so i'm vergil and hope you enjoyed this little "Delve" into the U/W Spirit Delver i'll see you next time
Jon Finkel's U/W Delver Spirits - 3rd Place - PT Dark Ascension
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Dungeon Geists
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
1 Divine Offering
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Gut Shot
4 Lingering Souls
2 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
1 Revoke Existence
4 Vapor Snag
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dismember
1 Demystify
1 Dissipate
1 Divine Offering
2 Dungeon Geists
2 Gut Shot
1 Mana Leak
1 Negate
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Revoke Existence
2 Surgical Extraction
Now this is what i feel is going to define this archetype after the recent end to Pro Tour: Dark Ascension which was spectacular if i might add, with this deck there are 3 creatures that stand out besides Delver of Secrets here, Phantasmal Image, Drogskol Captain and Dungeon Geists which all have their purposes for spirits in this deck, but that's not the only pro tour list i wish to look at, let's look at Jelger Wiegersma's version of this deck which featured a completely different spell base and sideboard.
Jelger Wiegersma's U/W Delver Spirits - 8th Place - PT Dark Ascension
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Drogskol Captain
2 Dungeon Geists
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
1 Divine Offering
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Mutagenic Growth
4 Lingering Souls
2 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
1 Revoke Existence
4 Vapor Snag
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dismember
1 Dissipate
1 Divine Offering
1 Dungeon Geists
2 Gut Shot
2 Mana Leak
1 Negate
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Revoke Existence
1 Surgical Extraction
Now his sideboard is a bit different since he has Ratchet Bomb, Timely Reinforcements and only a singleton Surgical Extraction in there to deal with things, but you'll notice the spell list it has a singleton copy of Mutagenic Growth which means his list was a bit different but didn't seem to do as well, thanks to his 8th place finish in the event though, both lists did quite well at the pro tour at that, now in comparison with the two lists in question it's not really difficult to tell the core cards of this deck just based off these two particular lists.
Creatures
Delver of Secrets - Pretty much required since the deck is named after this somewhat, plus the fact it's a 1 drop even makes it a lot better honestly.
Phantasmal Image - Sure copying a Delver is fun and all but how about when you copy a Drogskol Captain with this and your entire team is now hexproof
Drogskol Captain - Another very required card in this deck, prevents targeted removal on your entire team and when a second one or a imaged captain is out, well targeted removal doesn't do very much here.
Snapcaster Mage - Since when is snappy never required to do the job, flashback on your non flashback spells, is a decent attacker and when there is a chance it usually means something happens that is good for you and bad for your opponent when he drops.
Dungeon Geists - The entire reason spirits are good now, 3/3 that permanently locks down a opponent's creature as long as it exists on the battlefield, flies and is the biggest creature in the deck.
Spells
Ponder - This sets up your delver activation and pretty much sets you up for the next 2 turns officially, perhaps the single best way to flip delver of secrets on 3rd turn easily.
Vapor Snag - Another 1 drop spell that is very effective in the long run, sure swing with your entire team and play this as a response to attacking, negating a blocker and getting those few extra points of damage through, or good to deal with a big threat like a titan, send it back to their hand and make a opponent lose 1 life.
Lingering Souls - 1 of your 2 token generators of the deck, which for it's mana cost is pretty damn decent, puts 2 1/1 spirits onto the field with flying and with a captain or two that can turn into a lethal team.
Mana Leak/Gitaxian Probe - This combination of cards is required since we are going blue, card draw and the ability to tell what is in your opponent's hand with the probe, then to follow that up with a counter spell in leak, basically the 1, 2 punch for the deck.
Lands
Seachrome Coast/Darkslick Shores - Required if your going to be needing mana fixers, since there are only 7 basic lands in the deck usually, 4 of each is required
Moorland Haunt - The second token generator of 2 this deck has, need a extra blocker for a quick chump block, sure, or perhaps you want a attacker next turn, activate this on your opponent's end step, untap and swing, this is a 2 of easily in this deck since it's not as required as Lingering Souls
Glacial Fortress - The only core set dual required for this deck since the black fixers are in Darkslick Shores and the basic swamp, since white/blue is more required this is a necessity as a 3 of in this particular deck of choice.
So without further ado let's throw together this particular deck in our way with additions not included here.
Example List
Creatures
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Phantasmal Image
2 Dungeon Geists
Spells
4 Lingering Souls
3 Midnight Haunting
2 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Vapor Snag
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
Believe it or not there isn't much we can do if we want to change it to a more aggressive token style build, just add 3 midnight haunting to the deck, that's it, that is all we can do if we want it to be more aggressive honestly, anyways i'm afraid that's it for this particular examination, so i'm vergil and hope you enjoyed this little "Delve" into the U/W Spirit Delver i'll see you next time
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Standard Deck Examination: Zombies [Better known as Braaaaaains]
With Dark Ascension, we got ourselves a few decent brains creatures these days and well, what better time to take a look at one of the new possibilites of standard in the form of a Braaaaains deck, you may know this as zombies, one of the classic horror trope themes, let's begin with a few example decks from various Salvation users first off.
Our first list is from the user Rage-Kage whom put together this rather impressive zombie deck featuring elements of New Phyrexia's biggest threats, Phyrexian Obliterator and Phyrexian Metamorph
Rage-Kage's Braaains Deck
Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Highborn Ghoul
4 Cemetery Reaper
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
Spells
3 Lillana of the Veil
2 Lashwrithe
4 Tragic Slip
2 Ghoulcaller's Chant
Lands
24 Swamp
Now this isn't bad to start with, but it has to be improved somehow, what if we went Black/Blue for the deck instead, Sheermadness10 decided to use a Black/Blue deck with elements of both the good zombies, plus Snapcaster Mage to recur all the really good spells of the deck, here's his list
Sheermadness10's Black/Blue Brains
Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
3 Highborn Ghoul
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Diregraf Ghoul
3 Diregraf Captain
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
Spells
3 Vapor Snag
3 Geth's Verdict
1 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
4 Ponder
1 Gravepurge
2 Dismember
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
11 Swamp
3 Island
Now out of this deck i like the land base for it, it's actually perfect for what we need and is very similar i feel to the black/white tokens balance of the land base, what if we were to use this land base to construct a black/blue style zombies deck focused on the aggro portion, with some seriously good cards to clear the way like sheermadness did in a sense, let's just make a example list for this variant.
Aggro Zombies Variant
Creatures
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Highborn Ghoul
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Diregraf Captain
4 Gravecrawler
4 Cemetery Reaper
Spells
2 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
3 Dismember
2 Gravepurge
3 Lillana of the Veil
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
11 Swamp
3 Island
With this aggro variant basically our gas never stops until our opponents are dead, the notable 1 drops of the deck Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul have always performed well in a pinch and a 2/2 on your first turn is usually nothing to laugh at honestly, considering you drop a Highborn Ghoul on your second turn to follow it up, meaning even if your opponent has a blocker, you always get through for maximum damage, dropping Lillana however basically ends their game since the board is constantly clear for your zombies to stumble their way through direct damage, what if though we were to use a more controlled/slower variant instead of the aggressive deck we are used to, Ben Delat of Salvation went that route at a recent FNM and 4-0'ed the event with his control zombies, here's his list.
Ben Delat's Blue/Black Brains Control
Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Phantasmal Image
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Diregraf Captain
Spells
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Dismember
2 Tragic Slip
2 Vapor Snag
3 Gitaxian Probe
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Evolving Wilds
11 Swamp
1 Island
Sideboard
3 Ratchet Bomb
3 Geth's Verdict
2 Flashfreeze
1 Bloodline Keeper
2 Ghoulcaller's Chant
2 Sever the Bloodline
2 Tragic Slip
You will note this is the only deck that has a sideboard so far, as the previous two are variants that really didn't have much, but with Phantasmal Image you are constantly going to be copying someone's titan's, big dudes and even Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite whom seems to be making a rise in a lot of decks these days, including Wolf Run Ramp, but if we are seeing a answer to most of the main threats decks have to offer which is good, meaning one of these days it's gonna be all about the control deck once again, or so i would hope, anyways now that we have a few lists, it's time to take a look at the core cards of zombies.
Creatures
Diregraf Ghoul - 2/2 that enters tapped, sure but it costs a single black mana, probably the best common zombie out there and should be a auto 4 of in any brains build in standard these days.
Gravecrawler - You know when you constantly return to the battlefield you are one of the best creatures in the format, even for 1 black mana, sure chump, play a zombie like Diregraf, recast this, continue till they are worn down, another auto 4 of in brains.
Geralf's Messenger - I think if undying worked well enough, this would be the go to guy for the deck, sure triple black for a 2/2 undying dude, it's enter the battlefield trigger is what brains decks love though.
Diregraf Captain - If you splash blue at all in brains, this is the card to splash for, honestly what's not to like about the lord of choice, or even if your going half blue, half black, still you have 8 duals in your deck which fix it for this dude.
Cemetery Reaper - If you go mono black, this is your man, or zombie i should say, lord for mono black and is a damn good dude of choice for the late game, churns out tokens off dead creatures to boot
Highborn Ghoul - Our 2 drop for the deck, probably the only 2 drop besides Black Cat, whom can be opted in for this guy due to the cat's effect, plus it being a zombie and all.
Spells
Tragic Slip - Stuff is going to die all the time, with this being bar none the best removal in the form of a single black mana, your going to have lots of fun with this particular removal spell, consider this a 4 of in any brains build.
The rest of the deck however is completely optional, with so many good black cards to consider to use, Dismember, Lillana, even blue cards like Phantasmal Image and Mana Leak for a more control sense there are quite a few directions zombies players can take their decks out there, you just gotta know where to look, anyways that's it for me for this edition, until next time this is vergil signing off.
Our first list is from the user Rage-Kage whom put together this rather impressive zombie deck featuring elements of New Phyrexia's biggest threats, Phyrexian Obliterator and Phyrexian Metamorph
Rage-Kage's Braaains Deck
Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Highborn Ghoul
4 Cemetery Reaper
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
Spells
3 Lillana of the Veil
2 Lashwrithe
4 Tragic Slip
2 Ghoulcaller's Chant
Lands
24 Swamp
Now this isn't bad to start with, but it has to be improved somehow, what if we went Black/Blue for the deck instead, Sheermadness10 decided to use a Black/Blue deck with elements of both the good zombies, plus Snapcaster Mage to recur all the really good spells of the deck, here's his list
Sheermadness10's Black/Blue Brains
Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
3 Highborn Ghoul
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Diregraf Ghoul
3 Diregraf Captain
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
Spells
3 Vapor Snag
3 Geth's Verdict
1 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
4 Ponder
1 Gravepurge
2 Dismember
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
11 Swamp
3 Island
Now out of this deck i like the land base for it, it's actually perfect for what we need and is very similar i feel to the black/white tokens balance of the land base, what if we were to use this land base to construct a black/blue style zombies deck focused on the aggro portion, with some seriously good cards to clear the way like sheermadness did in a sense, let's just make a example list for this variant.
Aggro Zombies Variant
Creatures
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Highborn Ghoul
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Diregraf Captain
4 Gravecrawler
4 Cemetery Reaper
Spells
2 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
3 Dismember
2 Gravepurge
3 Lillana of the Veil
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
11 Swamp
3 Island
With this aggro variant basically our gas never stops until our opponents are dead, the notable 1 drops of the deck Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul have always performed well in a pinch and a 2/2 on your first turn is usually nothing to laugh at honestly, considering you drop a Highborn Ghoul on your second turn to follow it up, meaning even if your opponent has a blocker, you always get through for maximum damage, dropping Lillana however basically ends their game since the board is constantly clear for your zombies to stumble their way through direct damage, what if though we were to use a more controlled/slower variant instead of the aggressive deck we are used to, Ben Delat of Salvation went that route at a recent FNM and 4-0'ed the event with his control zombies, here's his list.
Ben Delat's Blue/Black Brains Control
Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Phantasmal Image
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Diregraf Captain
Spells
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Dismember
2 Tragic Slip
2 Vapor Snag
3 Gitaxian Probe
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Evolving Wilds
11 Swamp
1 Island
Sideboard
3 Ratchet Bomb
3 Geth's Verdict
2 Flashfreeze
1 Bloodline Keeper
2 Ghoulcaller's Chant
2 Sever the Bloodline
2 Tragic Slip
You will note this is the only deck that has a sideboard so far, as the previous two are variants that really didn't have much, but with Phantasmal Image you are constantly going to be copying someone's titan's, big dudes and even Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite whom seems to be making a rise in a lot of decks these days, including Wolf Run Ramp, but if we are seeing a answer to most of the main threats decks have to offer which is good, meaning one of these days it's gonna be all about the control deck once again, or so i would hope, anyways now that we have a few lists, it's time to take a look at the core cards of zombies.
Creatures
Diregraf Ghoul - 2/2 that enters tapped, sure but it costs a single black mana, probably the best common zombie out there and should be a auto 4 of in any brains build in standard these days.
Gravecrawler - You know when you constantly return to the battlefield you are one of the best creatures in the format, even for 1 black mana, sure chump, play a zombie like Diregraf, recast this, continue till they are worn down, another auto 4 of in brains.
Geralf's Messenger - I think if undying worked well enough, this would be the go to guy for the deck, sure triple black for a 2/2 undying dude, it's enter the battlefield trigger is what brains decks love though.
Diregraf Captain - If you splash blue at all in brains, this is the card to splash for, honestly what's not to like about the lord of choice, or even if your going half blue, half black, still you have 8 duals in your deck which fix it for this dude.
Cemetery Reaper - If you go mono black, this is your man, or zombie i should say, lord for mono black and is a damn good dude of choice for the late game, churns out tokens off dead creatures to boot
Highborn Ghoul - Our 2 drop for the deck, probably the only 2 drop besides Black Cat, whom can be opted in for this guy due to the cat's effect, plus it being a zombie and all.
Spells
Tragic Slip - Stuff is going to die all the time, with this being bar none the best removal in the form of a single black mana, your going to have lots of fun with this particular removal spell, consider this a 4 of in any brains build.
The rest of the deck however is completely optional, with so many good black cards to consider to use, Dismember, Lillana, even blue cards like Phantasmal Image and Mana Leak for a more control sense there are quite a few directions zombies players can take their decks out there, you just gotta know where to look, anyways that's it for me for this edition, until next time this is vergil signing off.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Standard Deck Examination: Burning Vengeance
Well it has happened and Burning Vengeance has arrived onto the scene, everyone may remember my article on the deck prior to the release of Dark Ascension, but now it's time to take a look at the MTGSalvation primer of Burning Vengeance done by the user Jubokko on Salvation, here's an example list for starters since there is no primer list for the deck.
Burning Vengeance Grixis - MTGSalvation Primer
Creatures
3 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Burning Vengeance
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
4 Think Twice
3 Desperate Ravings
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Geistflame
3 Slagstorm
2 Whipflare
2 Doom Blade
2 Bump in the Night
Lands
4 Island
3 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Shimmering Grotto
Sideboard
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Mental Misstep
3 Flashfreeze
2 Tribute to Hunger
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Nihil Spellbomb
For a 3 color deck it sure is loaded with all 3 colors worth of spells that are currently used in today's meta, Slagstorm, Whipflare for sweeping, Doom Blade, Geistflame and of course Burning Vengeance to deal with threats and deal the necessary damage the deck has to offer along with the standard control package of Mana Leak/Dissipate to counter a lot of the big threats early on. With lots of potential changes this deck can make, it's a wonder this isn't just a Blue/Red list instead of it being a grixis list with all this mana fixing in it, seriously strange to see here, but this leaves us open for black on such a huge scale here, now let's take a look at another style of deck which is another triple colored deck featuring Burning Vengeance.
Blue/White/Red Vengeance - Salvation Primer
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Burning Vengeance
3 Day of Judgment
3 Desperate Ravings
2 Dissipate
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Geistflame
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice
2 Slagstorm
1 Whipflare
Lands
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Clifftop Retreat
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Copperline Gorge
1 Shimmering Grotto
5 Island
4 Mountain
For another triple colored list you are going to see a lot of sweeper spells like Day of Judgment, Whipflare, Slagstorm, etc, with Snapcaster Mage each spell becomes double it's potential value always and is a considered one of the core cards of this deck period, everything else is secondary but most of the time spells with flashback are preferred over spells without flashback, Think Twice, Desperate Ravings, Faithless Looting, etc meaning it's easier to cast these without having to blow a snapcaster on a flashback card then it is to blow it on a Mana Leak or a Day of Judgment for that matter, now what are the core cards of the deck for that matter, let's take a look.
Creatures
Snapcaster Mage - Considering what he does on a enter the battlefield trigger, this guy is a must for a 2/1 flash, even if he goes for 30 bucks now, drop a 120 on a set of these and your laughing, that's the most expensive card in the deck period.
Spells
Burning Vengeance - The deck is named after this card, but remember playing this style of deck means you've gotta exchange creatures for spells, so consider your choices carefully
Faithless Looting/Desperate Ravings - Either one of these two cards can be in this deck, most of the time, Faithless Looting will be put aside and Desperate Ravings is thrown in, but there are odd occasions where Faithless Looting is chosen over the ravings and i think Looting gets the higher edge here for the deck.
Think Twice - Blue card draw, yes please, and it's very consistent too, this is a must have 4 copies of
Forbidden Alchemy - Personally if you want to put a ton of flashback material in the yard and not worry, this is your guy, even if it does have a black flashback cost, it's remedied via the mana fixers in the deck at all times.
Mana Leak - Come on, your playing blue, you must have this as a 4 copies in your deck, it's a must have here, you know what this does i should hope.
Slagstorm - One of the many sweepers we have available here to use for this deck, it's probably the best one considering we can target a opponent directly with the damage from this and vengeance.
Dissipate - Another counter spell that can save your butt late game in this deck, probably give this 2 slots in the deck for a fact.
Lands
Sulfur Falls - Fixes our mana issues since we are going Blue/Red here, is probably the only dual you'll want to consistently play in this deck, with the rest being either Islands or Mountains for a fact.
Evolving Wilds - Since it's return in Dark Ascension, this is probably going to be the land fixer of choice for you, fetches whatever you need whenever you need it, does basically everything that you need it to do.
Shimmering Grotto - Probably the only off color fixer this deck will have, if we want to splash black since we have Forbidden Alchemy in the deck, we can play this and boom our colors are fixed.
So with this we have the basis for our deck, preferences aside here's how i would put this deck together.
Vergil's Burning Vengeance
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Burning Vengeance
4 Think Twice
4 Desperate Ravings
4 Faithless Looting
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
2 Slagstorm
2 Whipflare
4 Geistflame
2 Devil's Play
Lands
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Evolving Wilds
6 Island
9 Mountain
1 Shimmering Grotto
Now that we've gotten a generic idea of what to play in Vengeance, let's take a look at the sideboard material we can use for this deck, it's probably going to be consistently to deal with most of the meta as per usual.
Now these are mere suggestions for the sideboard, as per usual, so with that in mind let's begin.
Flashfreeze - You know your a good counter spell when you can basically hard counter all of Wolf Run Ramp period, end of story if your playing Vengeance this is a must have 4x for it.
Ancient Grudge - Artifact removal, with flashback and all that neat stuff, really if your not going to be using this, well be prepared to be overrun via Inkmoth Nexus's, Solemn Simulacrum's and the baddest mythic of scars block, Wurmcoil Engine, as well as the entire tempered steel meta.
Blasphemous Act - Consider this a 2x of sweeper when slagstorm/whipflare doesn't get there, 13 damage is a total boss, what more do i need to say with this particular card, it's basically a Gaea's Might Get there as they like to say when it counts.
Phantasmal Image - Hexproof dudes, please, Geist of Saint Traft, meh, Thrun, just show him your untapped island and anything else and he cowers in the corner, next.
Gut Shot - A little pinger for massively cheap, gets the last few points of damage through in a pinch and is a nice way to respond to a certain delver.
Delver of Secrets - You know your the best blue common creature in the format when you can deal with almost anything these days, Legacy loves him, standard loves him, Modern loves him, only realm he doesn't get love in is Vintage these days, geez wizards.
Anyways, just keep this all in mind when of course you go to build a vengeance deck and you should be fine, one would hope, with that in mind this is vergil signing off.
Burning Vengeance Grixis - MTGSalvation Primer
Creatures
3 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Burning Vengeance
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
4 Think Twice
3 Desperate Ravings
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Geistflame
3 Slagstorm
2 Whipflare
2 Doom Blade
2 Bump in the Night
Lands
4 Island
3 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Shimmering Grotto
Sideboard
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Mental Misstep
3 Flashfreeze
2 Tribute to Hunger
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Nihil Spellbomb
For a 3 color deck it sure is loaded with all 3 colors worth of spells that are currently used in today's meta, Slagstorm, Whipflare for sweeping, Doom Blade, Geistflame and of course Burning Vengeance to deal with threats and deal the necessary damage the deck has to offer along with the standard control package of Mana Leak/Dissipate to counter a lot of the big threats early on. With lots of potential changes this deck can make, it's a wonder this isn't just a Blue/Red list instead of it being a grixis list with all this mana fixing in it, seriously strange to see here, but this leaves us open for black on such a huge scale here, now let's take a look at another style of deck which is another triple colored deck featuring Burning Vengeance.
Blue/White/Red Vengeance - Salvation Primer
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Burning Vengeance
3 Day of Judgment
3 Desperate Ravings
2 Dissipate
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Geistflame
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice
2 Slagstorm
1 Whipflare
Lands
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Clifftop Retreat
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Copperline Gorge
1 Shimmering Grotto
5 Island
4 Mountain
For another triple colored list you are going to see a lot of sweeper spells like Day of Judgment, Whipflare, Slagstorm, etc, with Snapcaster Mage each spell becomes double it's potential value always and is a considered one of the core cards of this deck period, everything else is secondary but most of the time spells with flashback are preferred over spells without flashback, Think Twice, Desperate Ravings, Faithless Looting, etc meaning it's easier to cast these without having to blow a snapcaster on a flashback card then it is to blow it on a Mana Leak or a Day of Judgment for that matter, now what are the core cards of the deck for that matter, let's take a look.
Creatures
Snapcaster Mage - Considering what he does on a enter the battlefield trigger, this guy is a must for a 2/1 flash, even if he goes for 30 bucks now, drop a 120 on a set of these and your laughing, that's the most expensive card in the deck period.
Spells
Burning Vengeance - The deck is named after this card, but remember playing this style of deck means you've gotta exchange creatures for spells, so consider your choices carefully
Faithless Looting/Desperate Ravings - Either one of these two cards can be in this deck, most of the time, Faithless Looting will be put aside and Desperate Ravings is thrown in, but there are odd occasions where Faithless Looting is chosen over the ravings and i think Looting gets the higher edge here for the deck.
Think Twice - Blue card draw, yes please, and it's very consistent too, this is a must have 4 copies of
Forbidden Alchemy - Personally if you want to put a ton of flashback material in the yard and not worry, this is your guy, even if it does have a black flashback cost, it's remedied via the mana fixers in the deck at all times.
Mana Leak - Come on, your playing blue, you must have this as a 4 copies in your deck, it's a must have here, you know what this does i should hope.
Slagstorm - One of the many sweepers we have available here to use for this deck, it's probably the best one considering we can target a opponent directly with the damage from this and vengeance.
Dissipate - Another counter spell that can save your butt late game in this deck, probably give this 2 slots in the deck for a fact.
Lands
Sulfur Falls - Fixes our mana issues since we are going Blue/Red here, is probably the only dual you'll want to consistently play in this deck, with the rest being either Islands or Mountains for a fact.
Evolving Wilds - Since it's return in Dark Ascension, this is probably going to be the land fixer of choice for you, fetches whatever you need whenever you need it, does basically everything that you need it to do.
Shimmering Grotto - Probably the only off color fixer this deck will have, if we want to splash black since we have Forbidden Alchemy in the deck, we can play this and boom our colors are fixed.
So with this we have the basis for our deck, preferences aside here's how i would put this deck together.
Vergil's Burning Vengeance
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Burning Vengeance
4 Think Twice
4 Desperate Ravings
4 Faithless Looting
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
2 Slagstorm
2 Whipflare
4 Geistflame
2 Devil's Play
Lands
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Evolving Wilds
6 Island
9 Mountain
1 Shimmering Grotto
Now that we've gotten a generic idea of what to play in Vengeance, let's take a look at the sideboard material we can use for this deck, it's probably going to be consistently to deal with most of the meta as per usual.
Now these are mere suggestions for the sideboard, as per usual, so with that in mind let's begin.
Flashfreeze - You know your a good counter spell when you can basically hard counter all of Wolf Run Ramp period, end of story if your playing Vengeance this is a must have 4x for it.
Ancient Grudge - Artifact removal, with flashback and all that neat stuff, really if your not going to be using this, well be prepared to be overrun via Inkmoth Nexus's, Solemn Simulacrum's and the baddest mythic of scars block, Wurmcoil Engine, as well as the entire tempered steel meta.
Blasphemous Act - Consider this a 2x of sweeper when slagstorm/whipflare doesn't get there, 13 damage is a total boss, what more do i need to say with this particular card, it's basically a Gaea's Might Get there as they like to say when it counts.
Phantasmal Image - Hexproof dudes, please, Geist of Saint Traft, meh, Thrun, just show him your untapped island and anything else and he cowers in the corner, next.
Gut Shot - A little pinger for massively cheap, gets the last few points of damage through in a pinch and is a nice way to respond to a certain delver.
Delver of Secrets - You know your the best blue common creature in the format when you can deal with almost anything these days, Legacy loves him, standard loves him, Modern loves him, only realm he doesn't get love in is Vintage these days, geez wizards.
Anyways, just keep this all in mind when of course you go to build a vengeance deck and you should be fine, one would hope, with that in mind this is vergil signing off.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Standard Deck Examination: Black/White Tokens
So as per the normal procedure after the release of a brand new set, it's time to take a look at the decks which spawned courtesy of Dark Ascension's arrival onto the scene in standard, but first as per the normal procedure let's take a look at the primer for this deck, courtesy of MTGSalvation, special thanks for this primer goes to King Shane for his hard work in putting the primer together.
MTGSalvation Primer for Black/White Tokens
Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Doomed Traveler
Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Shrine of Loyal Legions
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring
Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
12 Plains
5 Swamp
So that is the basis of the primer right there in it's entirety, 24 lands, 7 creatures and of course 29 spells make the core of the deck, but let's put a bit more analysis into this particular list starting with the core of the deck
Creatures/Spells
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - Every list with him should contain at least 3 copies of this guy, his 2nd ability alone gives you a overwhelming edge and his first is just nasty at all times, meaning even if don't get a chance to use his 3rd ability your still gonna have a very potent generator on your side.
Intangible Virtue - The only non color based pump spell this deck can use, Honor of the Pure focuses on White, this focuses on how many tokens we can churn out, which is what we want here.
Gather the Townsfolk/Midnight Haunting/Lingering Souls - Basically our main token producers in this deck, should usually be maxed out at 4 copies each regardless, unless your playing a different style of Black/White tokens which i'll get into later.
Hero of Bladehold - I feel this creature is a perfect fit for this deck, Battle cry is so relevant here it's not even funny and the the fact it generates a constant presence in the deck at 4 mana is just insane.
Oblivion Ring - Do you know how many situations this is good for, 10, deals with Swords, creatures, pretty much any threat on the board and being one of the three drop spells in the deck, 2 main deck at all times, regardless of what you play, with the spare 2 in the sideboard.
Lands
Vault of the Archangel - The relevance of lifelink here is nil, but deathtouch is the most relevant ability, activate the vault on your opponent's attack step, use your 2/2's to block say a titan and trade effectively then return fire.
Isolated Chapel - The only real enemy land we can use here, it's a consistent drop when we need fixing, even if we have just plains, this is our black source so we can cast Sorin, flashback a Lingering Souls or use our vault's ability.
Now that we are done analyzing the core stasis of the deck it's time to take a look at some of the many lists featured in the Primer on Salvation, starting with a more control based variant of the deck, which is somewhat the same in terms of what the core of the deck should be with a few minor changes to it.
Salvation Primer - Black/White Tokens Control
Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold
Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
2 Day of Judgment
4 Despise
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring
Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
11 Plains
6 Swamp
Now let's go over the changes to this style, with the addition of Despise and Day of Judgment we removed the following, 4 Doomed Traveler, 1 Shrine of Loyal Legions and 1 Gather the Townsfolk, so we can slot in the 4 copies of Despise and the 2 Day of Judgment for the deck to make it a control style, plus the land base is just a tad different with the ratio of Plains and Swamp at 11/6 overall for the deck, making it a bit more black focused. With this next list is more the Aggro style of play with this deck, featuring a few additions that i thought would never make the list.
Salvation Primer - Black/White Tokens Aggro
Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Suture Priest/Accorder Paladin
Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Honor of the Pure
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring
Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
12 Plains
5 Swamp
With this deck you'll notice it's not 60 but 62 cards, yes there is a reason why because of the fact Honor of the Pure is in this deck plain and simple, which you never have seen this particular enchantment in this type of deck ever honestly, but most of our token generators are white, besides Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Now let's take a look at the changes made to this particular list, the lands are switched back to the proper numbers meaning it's more focused on white then anything with only 3 black cards and 1 black ability required for the deck, the addition of the extra creature can either be Priest or Paladin, it is your call on this but i'd pick the priest for the mirror match up honestly, since then they will lose life for each token hitting the board and you gain life off each token played. Honor of the Pure replaces our Shrine for this deck meaning we have to basically stay focused on white and we can't just use colorless mana much anymore, oh well. Other then those slight changes to the deck, the deck pretty much remains the same as the core deck presented at the beginning, including the creature base.
Now after that lengthy examination we are not done by a long shot, there are still a few more things i want to look at, the Matchups for this deck, in this heavy U/W Delver, Red Deck Wins and of course Wolf Run Ramp at that, with such things as Delver of Secrets and turn 1 Stromkirk Nobles out there floating around, how do we deal with this kind of stuff, well let's take a look at the sideboard material cards also provided by the primer.
Ratchet Bomb - Sweeper spell that kills tokens, etc, slow but very deadly when it goes off, this will be one or the only sweeper missed in the deck if not playing control.
Stony Silence - Artifacts, please this stops em all, tempered steel, Shrines, Opals you name it it stops them all, regardless at least a 1 or a 2 of in your sideboard for most of those based style decks.
Nevermore - It's the unquestionable card that stops all hexproof creatures, Dungrove Elder, Geist of Saint Traft, walkers you name it, it stops period, simple as that, considerably good sideboard material for the deck.
Timely Reinforcements - Personally i don't understand what the big deal of a 3 drop sorcery is in this case, sure it's a situational card like most sideboard material cards but hasn't proven itself to be the threat level necessary even for the sideboard
Hex Parasite - Anything that eats counters for breakfast is sickening, sure with stuff like Phantasmal Image and stuff in the current meta, i'd consider this one of the more versatile cards of the sideboard.
Most of the other spells in the deck are considerations including Black Sun's Zenith, Swords, Dismember, Spellbomb, Abolisher etc, but the ones listed here are probably the most productive sideboard material cards to run for the deck as a whole, but also remind yourself 2 of the sideboard slots always belong to the remaining Oblivion Ring's in the deck, so with 13 slots to work with, each card is a deep consideration when building White/Black tokens as a whole, but for now i will leave you to consider this and such, because that's all the time i have for this article, until next time this is vergil signing off.
MTGSalvation Primer for Black/White Tokens
Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Doomed Traveler
Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Shrine of Loyal Legions
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring
Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
12 Plains
5 Swamp
So that is the basis of the primer right there in it's entirety, 24 lands, 7 creatures and of course 29 spells make the core of the deck, but let's put a bit more analysis into this particular list starting with the core of the deck
Creatures/Spells
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - Every list with him should contain at least 3 copies of this guy, his 2nd ability alone gives you a overwhelming edge and his first is just nasty at all times, meaning even if don't get a chance to use his 3rd ability your still gonna have a very potent generator on your side.
Intangible Virtue - The only non color based pump spell this deck can use, Honor of the Pure focuses on White, this focuses on how many tokens we can churn out, which is what we want here.
Gather the Townsfolk/Midnight Haunting/Lingering Souls - Basically our main token producers in this deck, should usually be maxed out at 4 copies each regardless, unless your playing a different style of Black/White tokens which i'll get into later.
Hero of Bladehold - I feel this creature is a perfect fit for this deck, Battle cry is so relevant here it's not even funny and the the fact it generates a constant presence in the deck at 4 mana is just insane.
Oblivion Ring - Do you know how many situations this is good for, 10, deals with Swords, creatures, pretty much any threat on the board and being one of the three drop spells in the deck, 2 main deck at all times, regardless of what you play, with the spare 2 in the sideboard.
Lands
Vault of the Archangel - The relevance of lifelink here is nil, but deathtouch is the most relevant ability, activate the vault on your opponent's attack step, use your 2/2's to block say a titan and trade effectively then return fire.
Isolated Chapel - The only real enemy land we can use here, it's a consistent drop when we need fixing, even if we have just plains, this is our black source so we can cast Sorin, flashback a Lingering Souls or use our vault's ability.
Now that we are done analyzing the core stasis of the deck it's time to take a look at some of the many lists featured in the Primer on Salvation, starting with a more control based variant of the deck, which is somewhat the same in terms of what the core of the deck should be with a few minor changes to it.
Salvation Primer - Black/White Tokens Control
Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold
Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
2 Day of Judgment
4 Despise
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring
Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
11 Plains
6 Swamp
Now let's go over the changes to this style, with the addition of Despise and Day of Judgment we removed the following, 4 Doomed Traveler, 1 Shrine of Loyal Legions and 1 Gather the Townsfolk, so we can slot in the 4 copies of Despise and the 2 Day of Judgment for the deck to make it a control style, plus the land base is just a tad different with the ratio of Plains and Swamp at 11/6 overall for the deck, making it a bit more black focused. With this next list is more the Aggro style of play with this deck, featuring a few additions that i thought would never make the list.
Salvation Primer - Black/White Tokens Aggro
Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Suture Priest/Accorder Paladin
Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Honor of the Pure
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring
Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
12 Plains
5 Swamp
With this deck you'll notice it's not 60 but 62 cards, yes there is a reason why because of the fact Honor of the Pure is in this deck plain and simple, which you never have seen this particular enchantment in this type of deck ever honestly, but most of our token generators are white, besides Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Now let's take a look at the changes made to this particular list, the lands are switched back to the proper numbers meaning it's more focused on white then anything with only 3 black cards and 1 black ability required for the deck, the addition of the extra creature can either be Priest or Paladin, it is your call on this but i'd pick the priest for the mirror match up honestly, since then they will lose life for each token hitting the board and you gain life off each token played. Honor of the Pure replaces our Shrine for this deck meaning we have to basically stay focused on white and we can't just use colorless mana much anymore, oh well. Other then those slight changes to the deck, the deck pretty much remains the same as the core deck presented at the beginning, including the creature base.
Now after that lengthy examination we are not done by a long shot, there are still a few more things i want to look at, the Matchups for this deck, in this heavy U/W Delver, Red Deck Wins and of course Wolf Run Ramp at that, with such things as Delver of Secrets and turn 1 Stromkirk Nobles out there floating around, how do we deal with this kind of stuff, well let's take a look at the sideboard material cards also provided by the primer.
Ratchet Bomb - Sweeper spell that kills tokens, etc, slow but very deadly when it goes off, this will be one or the only sweeper missed in the deck if not playing control.
Stony Silence - Artifacts, please this stops em all, tempered steel, Shrines, Opals you name it it stops them all, regardless at least a 1 or a 2 of in your sideboard for most of those based style decks.
Nevermore - It's the unquestionable card that stops all hexproof creatures, Dungrove Elder, Geist of Saint Traft, walkers you name it, it stops period, simple as that, considerably good sideboard material for the deck.
Timely Reinforcements - Personally i don't understand what the big deal of a 3 drop sorcery is in this case, sure it's a situational card like most sideboard material cards but hasn't proven itself to be the threat level necessary even for the sideboard
Hex Parasite - Anything that eats counters for breakfast is sickening, sure with stuff like Phantasmal Image and stuff in the current meta, i'd consider this one of the more versatile cards of the sideboard.
Most of the other spells in the deck are considerations including Black Sun's Zenith, Swords, Dismember, Spellbomb, Abolisher etc, but the ones listed here are probably the most productive sideboard material cards to run for the deck as a whole, but also remind yourself 2 of the sideboard slots always belong to the remaining Oblivion Ring's in the deck, so with 13 slots to work with, each card is a deep consideration when building White/Black tokens as a whole, but for now i will leave you to consider this and such, because that's all the time i have for this article, until next time this is vergil signing off.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Magic the Gathering News Vol 14: Dark Ascension Spoilers, Intro Packs, GP updates and much much more
Hello everyone and welcome to this first edition of the news for 2012, in this edition we will be covering the following items Dark Ascension Spoilers, DKA intro packs, GP's for the month of January, as well as the most interesting piece of news to come out of magic, which was the App for Android and Iphone's which is scheduled to be released sometime soon, so let's get to it.
Well another spoiler season come and gone, Dark Ascension's season officially ended on the 23rd of the month, but left that residual taste in our mouths which isn't good, about 60% of the rares i feel are completely unplayable outside of limited/EDH and casual play, which sucks because usually rares usually end up defining a set, but here's the breakdown of the rarity for those curious souls 12 Mythic Rares, 38 rares, 44 uncommons and 64 commons which make up the 158 cards in the set, out of the set though here's just a general top 5 for those interested.
5. Gravecrawler
4. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3. Vorapede
2. Huntmaster of the Fells
1. Grafdigger's Cage
Yes my list is a little whacked with the two mythic DFC's of the set taking the top 2 slots, but DFC's have proven to be good, look at Mayor of Avabruck for crying out loud, anyways when the set is released this friday, please be sure to make sure to pick up at least 2 boxes to get the majority of the good stuff in this set, since a lot of the uncommons/commons are better then most of the rares here.
During the same week of spoilers we also got the intro packs for the set, the names of the intro packs are as follows Swift Justice, Relentless Dead, Dark Sacrifice, Monstrous Surprise and of course Grave Power and these will go on sale the same day Dark Ascension is released to the public on Feburary 3rd, 2012, they will range from about 8 dollars to 14 dollars a intro pack depending on the contents of the rares and how your local game store prices them, for the intro pack lists please see the following link
Intro Pack lists --> Intro Pack Lists
So a new app for the IPhone, IPad and Android phone users is scheduled to come out sometime within the next while as of this writing, did i mention it's free it's called the Magic the Gathering Toolbox and it lets you build decks, gives you a article reader, card search, Life tracker and it even has a event calendar and store locator for you, interesting i know right, updates though for later sets after the release of this will cost a bit of money, how much is still unknown as of this point, but it is a great resource for any magic player to have on the go, for the full arcana link to the description of this app please see the link below
Application Arcana --> Magic the Gathering Application
As per usual of me it's time to take a look at the Grand Prix's which happened this month, starting with the first one Grand Prix Austin which saw long time bad boy Raphael Levy take the crown of being austin's champ for 2012, earning his spot in a upcoming pro tour, as well as the more recent stuff with Grand Prix Orlando which saw a epic finale bewteen Patrick "The Innovator" Chapin and Conley "Deck Doctor" Woods duking it out with new innovations in terms of decks but it was Conley Woods whom dominated the event and claim his trophy showing why he had a undefeated run at worlds, he's a changed man folks.
Anyways that's all the time we have for this edition of the monthly, stay tuned next month when we finally learn of the Event decks for Dark Ascension, look back at Pro Tour Honoluhu and of course so so much more, until next time though this is vergil signing off.
Well another spoiler season come and gone, Dark Ascension's season officially ended on the 23rd of the month, but left that residual taste in our mouths which isn't good, about 60% of the rares i feel are completely unplayable outside of limited/EDH and casual play, which sucks because usually rares usually end up defining a set, but here's the breakdown of the rarity for those curious souls 12 Mythic Rares, 38 rares, 44 uncommons and 64 commons which make up the 158 cards in the set, out of the set though here's just a general top 5 for those interested.
5. Gravecrawler
4. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3. Vorapede
2. Huntmaster of the Fells
1. Grafdigger's Cage
Yes my list is a little whacked with the two mythic DFC's of the set taking the top 2 slots, but DFC's have proven to be good, look at Mayor of Avabruck for crying out loud, anyways when the set is released this friday, please be sure to make sure to pick up at least 2 boxes to get the majority of the good stuff in this set, since a lot of the uncommons/commons are better then most of the rares here.
During the same week of spoilers we also got the intro packs for the set, the names of the intro packs are as follows Swift Justice, Relentless Dead, Dark Sacrifice, Monstrous Surprise and of course Grave Power and these will go on sale the same day Dark Ascension is released to the public on Feburary 3rd, 2012, they will range from about 8 dollars to 14 dollars a intro pack depending on the contents of the rares and how your local game store prices them, for the intro pack lists please see the following link
Intro Pack lists --> Intro Pack Lists
So a new app for the IPhone, IPad and Android phone users is scheduled to come out sometime within the next while as of this writing, did i mention it's free it's called the Magic the Gathering Toolbox and it lets you build decks, gives you a article reader, card search, Life tracker and it even has a event calendar and store locator for you, interesting i know right, updates though for later sets after the release of this will cost a bit of money, how much is still unknown as of this point, but it is a great resource for any magic player to have on the go, for the full arcana link to the description of this app please see the link below
Application Arcana --> Magic the Gathering Application
As per usual of me it's time to take a look at the Grand Prix's which happened this month, starting with the first one Grand Prix Austin which saw long time bad boy Raphael Levy take the crown of being austin's champ for 2012, earning his spot in a upcoming pro tour, as well as the more recent stuff with Grand Prix Orlando which saw a epic finale bewteen Patrick "The Innovator" Chapin and Conley "Deck Doctor" Woods duking it out with new innovations in terms of decks but it was Conley Woods whom dominated the event and claim his trophy showing why he had a undefeated run at worlds, he's a changed man folks.
Anyways that's all the time we have for this edition of the monthly, stay tuned next month when we finally learn of the Event decks for Dark Ascension, look back at Pro Tour Honoluhu and of course so so much more, until next time though this is vergil signing off.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Dark Ascension Prerelease Primer
As per usual with the prerelease of a new set, let's go over the information on the Dark Ascension prereleases which happen around the world at your local game store this weekend, bear in mind some of this information is more recent.
Some prereleases around the world will have a Monsters vs Humans theme going on with Monsters from all different tribes being chosen out of the various players, the 4 tribes are Werewolves, Vampires, Spirits and Zombies which depending on the size of your prerelease will be different, each prerelease will be giving away the card of choice as per usual which is
Ravenous Demon/Archdemon of Greed and these promos will be in quite a large supply as per the policy of Wizards of the Coast or at least i hope so when it comes around to picking one of these up, some prereleases will be occuring on both days of the weekend at some game stores around the world, for more information on this i suggest you look at your local game store where you go to play magic.
For your prerelease it also depends on your LGS but the standard tradition for a 2nd set is the following 3 packs of the first set, in this case Innistrad and 3 packs of the new set which in this case is Dark Ascension, if your prerelease is 6 packs of Dark Ascension however feel free to report their butts to wizards since they are in violation of the prerelease rules in regards to the product they can give out for the event, each event will be usually 5-6 rounds of round robins with packs being given out at the end of the event for prize distrbution of course.
Of course as always please be sure to have fun while playing the game of Magic and that you adhere to the code of conduct of being a magic player, which is always be professional, after all it's just a game but people often judge others on their code of conduct so keep that in mind, anyways for those attending this weekend's events be sure to have fun and enjoy the Dark Ascension prerelease events happening worldwide, because next week the set is officially released to the world, this is vergil signing off.
Some prereleases around the world will have a Monsters vs Humans theme going on with Monsters from all different tribes being chosen out of the various players, the 4 tribes are Werewolves, Vampires, Spirits and Zombies which depending on the size of your prerelease will be different, each prerelease will be giving away the card of choice as per usual which is
Ravenous Demon/Archdemon of Greed and these promos will be in quite a large supply as per the policy of Wizards of the Coast or at least i hope so when it comes around to picking one of these up, some prereleases will be occuring on both days of the weekend at some game stores around the world, for more information on this i suggest you look at your local game store where you go to play magic.
For your prerelease it also depends on your LGS but the standard tradition for a 2nd set is the following 3 packs of the first set, in this case Innistrad and 3 packs of the new set which in this case is Dark Ascension, if your prerelease is 6 packs of Dark Ascension however feel free to report their butts to wizards since they are in violation of the prerelease rules in regards to the product they can give out for the event, each event will be usually 5-6 rounds of round robins with packs being given out at the end of the event for prize distrbution of course.
Of course as always please be sure to have fun while playing the game of Magic and that you adhere to the code of conduct of being a magic player, which is always be professional, after all it's just a game but people often judge others on their code of conduct so keep that in mind, anyways for those attending this weekend's events be sure to have fun and enjoy the Dark Ascension prerelease events happening worldwide, because next week the set is officially released to the world, this is vergil signing off.
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