It became a necessity to find something else to play after losing eight straight rounds with Atarka Landfall, and another 4 with Atarka Red. I was determined to stop losing to the various Jeskai and Abzan decks that were flooding the format. Suddenly something clicked in my head while watching the coverage of Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar on Friday. [card]Silkwrap[/card] they had said again and again on coverage. They kept talking about [card]Silkwrap[/card], and then I remembered how many cards there were that exiled creatures and permanents and went to work.

After about twenty minutes I had a rough list for the deck and picked up the cards on Magic Online. And then my wife started looking at me like I’m an idiot as I sat at my computer laughing my ass off while playing the deck. She finally looked over in time to see me land a [card]Starfield of Nyx[/card] and swing for lethal. “How much was that?” she asked as I was laughing hysterically “All of the damages.” I relied. This went on for about two hours until I realized Atarka Red was still a deck and that I needed sweepers.

I went to work trying to figure out what I was going to use to help keep the early threats away. I finally decided that [card]Radiant Flames[/card] was exactly the early sweeper I needed and Immediately put some [card]Outpost Siege[/card] in the sideboard to help in the controlling matchups. After a few more matches I realized I wanted to play this at the PPTQ the next day if I didn’t qualify for the Magic Online PTQ that night with it, so we ended up making a round to the local shops and picking everything I didn’t have up for about $80.00.

I played quite a few more matches trying to ensure that I had the right configuration of cards at my disposal while preparing for the Magic Online PPTQ. I felt like I had it right, so I brought up the window to join. I must have gotten distracted by something, because as I watched the timer count down to begin the event I was doing various things. Suddenly the event began, but my match didn’t pop up. I looked all over for my name, thinking I had gotten the bye. Suddenly it hit me that I had somehow not joined the event. Oops. Well I guess I am playing that PPTQ tomorrow after all.

I showed up to the PPTQ with plenty of time to spare, and waited and waited. We eventually had the event start with eight players. That meant single elimination. I was paired against a Dark Jeskai deck. I was able to maintain the board, but he kept getting in with [card]Mantis Rider[/card]s the turn he would cast them and chipping away with a couple points of burn here and there to take me down a game. Game two I was able to land some win conditions and slowly take the game. Game three didn’t go so well as he had a [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card] waiting for my only win condition of [card]Sigil of the Empty Throne[/card] while I drew nothing relevant.

Do I have enough time to make it to states? I think I do! As I ran off to my car. I made it with about five minutes to spare before the tournament was supposed to start. I quickly got registered and my deck list written out, and then waited about a half an hour for the tournament to start. So much for rushing.

Here is the list that I played for the tournament.

[deck title= States Enchantress]
[Creatures]
4 Herald of the Pantheon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Myth Realized
4 Silkwrap
4 Suspension Field
4 Stasis Snare
3 Elemental Bond
4 Starfield of Nyx
4 Sigil of the Empty Throne
4 Quarantine Field
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Canopy Vista
1 Cinder Glade
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
10 Plains
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Celestial Flare
4 Surge of Righteousness
3 Radiant Flames
2 Outpost Siege
2 Suppression Bonds
2 Planar Outburst
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Round 1- 4 Color Abzan 2-0

Game 1- I started off quite slow this game being down a card on the play, while he was able to put on a lot of pressure. Some timely draws an a [card]Starfield of Nyx[/card] were able to put my opponent on the defensive and then out of the game after being active for a couple of turns.

Game 2- I was able to just dominate this game with some anemic beats from a [card]Myth Realized[/card] backed by all the removal ever.

Round 2- Esper Dragons 2-0

Game 1- I was able to play super tight getting into a battle over a [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card] at the end of his turn allowing me to resolve a [card]Starfield of Nyx[/card] on my turn and take over the game.

Game 2- Was super super long, so just some of the cool plays. I was able to resolve a [card]Starfield of Nyx[/card] as some point with active [card]Outpost Siege[/card]. He countered a [card]Suppression Bonds[/card] earlier in the game which I was able to bring back into play on his [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card], which would force him to find a 2nd one if he wants to attack with one. He did play another and I brought the [card]Suspension Bonds[/card] back into play on it. [card]Celestial Flare[/card] was also very good as another way to get his dragons off the board, and I did draw both of them.

Round 3- Mono Green Eldrazi 1-2

Game 1- He drew all of his [card]Nissa’s Pilrimage[/card]s and a [card]Nissa’s Renewal[/card]to ramp while I sat on all of my [card]Silkwrap[/card]s not being able to remove all his gigantic creatures.

Game 2- I ran out an early [card]Herald of the Pantheon[/card] and an early [card]Sigil of the Empty Throne[/card], and just ran him down through him drawing both of his [card]Windstorm[/card].

Game 3- I drew all of my [card]Suspension Field[/card]s while he drew all of his mana dorks this time, I started to put myself in the game when he nailed me with an [card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/card] to essentially end the game on the spot.

Round 4- Mono Green Eldrazi 2-1

Game 1- I had the early aggro game again with a [card]Herald of the Pantheon[/card] into turn four [card]Sigil of the Empty Throne[/card] and turn five [card]Sigil of the Empty Throne[/card] to easily close out game one.

Game 2- I started off pretty great until he cast [card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/card] on turn six or seven to get everything back. I was unable to draw and answer in the few turns I had left to me.

Game 3- I went super aggressive with a [card]Herald of the Pantheon[/card] into [card]Sigil of the Empty Throne[/card], and was able to fade his good draws for long enough to win

Round 5- 4 Color Control 0-2

Game 1- I resolved a [card]Myth Realized[/card] early, but nothing else relevant. He was able to counter every relevant spell I drew and ended the game with an end of turn [card]Secure the Wastes[/card] for something like eight.

Game 2- I was only able to resolved [card]Myth Realized[/card] again this game losing to a flurry of counterspells and a [card]Secure the Wastes[/card].

At this point I was super bummed that I had lost a second match, and very pissed at how few spells I had resolved that match. Fortunately my friends were able to help me calm down and get my head back in the game.

Round 6 Bant Megamorph 2-1

Game 1- I mulliganed to six and flooded super hard while he was able to get an emsemble cast of planeswalkers active.

Game 2- I exiled about ten creatures/planeswalkers while beating down with a [card]Herald of the Pantheon[/card] to end the game.

Game 3- I started super strong with the turn four [card]Sigil of the Empty Throne[/card] plan, and ate three of his creatures in a turn to end the game.

I didn’t think I would make top eight, but was hopeful that I could somehow slide in. But when the standings went up I was in ninth. No prize, no glory, but the deck was great.

Over the course of the tournament I realized just how bad [card]Elemental Bond[/card] was and how often I stalled on mana and changed the deck a bit.

[deck title= Enchantress]
[Creatures]
4 Herald of the Pantheon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Myth Realized
4 Silkwrap
4 Suspension Field
4 Stasis Snare
2 Outpost Siege
4 Starfield of Nyx
4 Sigil of the Empty Throne
4 Quarantine Field
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Canopy Vista
2 Cinder Glade
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
10 Plains
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
3 Celestial Flare
4 Surge of Righteousness
3 Radiant Flames
1 Outpost Siege
2 Suppression Bonds
2 Planar Outburst
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

The deck is super hard to sideboard with, as most of the cards do roughly the same thing. But one thing I have been doing is cutting a [card]Plains[/card] on the draw.

That’s all I have for now. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below and I will do my best to answer them.

Thanks for reading,

Josh Milliken

@joshuamilliken on Twitter

In my last article, I talked about what kind of things to take into account when you’re choosing how to store & organize your Magic collection. This time, I’m going to talk about a few of the most common methods people use to store their cards and how well they work for different purposes.

Massive pile of cards in a cupboard/under your bed

Classic pile of cards. Courtesy of Casper Orluff

I know some players who use this method, I think because it takes no time or effort at all. Simply throw your cards on top of last week’s, and you’re sorted. It’s easy to expand this method as your collection grows, however your housemates/significant other/neighbours may object.
However, it’s not that great when it comes to keeping them in good condition. Cards get easily scratched or bent when they’re in a heap, and people are less likely to trade with you if your cards are in bad condition. It’s also difficult to find a card when you want one for a trade or a deck, and you may end up buying or trading for cards you already own and just can’t find.

Shoebox

A shoebox is a fine place to start storing a small collection. Our collection lived in a shoebox until we both started drafting a lot and it outgrew the box.
Firstly, it’s super cheap – assuming you bought some shoes at some point, the box comes free. Also, it’s easy enough to carry a shoebox around if you need to – as long as the lid doesn’t fall off during transport.
It’s pretty easy to use a few bits of cardboard to divide up the box into sections so that you can begin to sort your cards to easily find what you’re looking for. You don’t even need to sort too much as your collection will be pretty small so just splitting by colour or set would be fine.
A shoebox is fairly robust so can hold as many cards as you can pack into it without falling apart, and it will keep the cards in decent condition – one thing to watch out for though is that you may not be able to completely fill the box as it might not be the right shape to hold rows of cards, and if your cards are rattling round then they might get damaged as you carry the box around.

Fat pack boxes/holiday boxes

Fat pack boxes come in different designs for each new set.

These are the main kinds of boxes sold by Wizards of the Coast, they’re pretty easy to get hold of as most shops that stock MTG will have these for sale at some point – fat packs when each set is released, and holiday boxes in November or December. Fat packs generally don’t cost very much more than the price of the nine boosters that come with it, so the box itself isn’t a huge cost if you were planning to buy some boosters anyway, the holiday boxes are a bit more expensive for what you get but the box is a more useful size.
They’re about as easy to transport as a shoebox, and the lid is a bit less likely to fall off in transit – holiday boxes get quite heavy when they’re full, though.
The holiday box is divided into three rows and comes with a few dividers, which makes it quite easy to organise cards and split them into sections. Additionally, you can fit a plastic deck box inside a fat pack or holiday box to separate out some particular cards, or so that you can fit your deck inside the box as well as loose cards.
These boxes are fairly robust, and they’re the correct size to fit an even row of cards in, so they keep your cards in fairly good condition. If you pack the box very full though, the cards at the front and back can get caught by the lid so I tend to put a bit of cardboard or a sleeve at each end to protect the end cards. You can also sleeve all your cards if you want to protect them from scratching against each other inside the box, but I don’t bother with that except for rares.
It’s fairly easy to expand your collection (unless Wizards discontinue these products) as you can just buy a new box each set or each year. A fat pack box will hold a playset (four) of all the commons and uncommons from a small set, and one row of a holiday box will hold a playset of all the commons and uncommons from a large set. As these boxes are all the same size, you can pile them up in a corner and keep all your cards in one place.

Bigger boxes/long boxes

This long box can hold several thousand cards, so it’s good to use card dividers to split up the rows.

As I mentioned, the holiday boxes and fat packs are pretty expensive if you only want a box, and there are several manufacturers that make bigger boxes to store cards in. These can be single row or multiple rows (typically three or four), mostly they are corrugated cardboard but you can get single row metal or plastic tins also. Unfortunately they don’t tend to be stocked by the smaller gaming shops as they don’t sell very fast, so often the best place to get these is either at a large event with traders such as a Grand Prix, or buying online (and often the shipping can be more than the product).
These boxes (especially the multiple row boxes) are generally for long term storage as they’re quite difficult to transport without a car, and they get very heavy as they can hold a few thousand cards ie several sets worth. We use these for storing cards that have rotated out of the standard format as we don’t need to access those cards so often.
These boxes are a bit more robust than the fat packs and holiday boxes as they’re corrugated card not just thick cardboard. They generally come flat packed so you can order a bunch, and then assemble them as and when you need. They’re plain so you can write on them which cards/sets/colors are in which box for easy reference, but they don’t look very attractive.

Binders

Most players have at least a couple of binders to keep relevant trades in (this is a trading card game after all), and they can be split into two kinds – firstly the ‘book’ types which have pages of plastic pockets bound in – these come in different sizes but generally there are the small ones with four to a page, the A4 sized ones with nine to a page, and there’s also some new wider ones with three rows of four so you can keep playsets together. Secondly you can get ring binders and buy the loose pages of plastic pockets separately (these are all generally A4 sized with nine to a page). You can use any kind of ring binder really for these, and they’re easier to expand by just buying more sheets, but they also get pretty heavy.
Binders are generally more expensive than boxes for the amount of cards you can store, so most players use a combination of the two – binders for the higher value cards or easily traded cards, and boxes for storing at home.
Binders make it fairly easy to find what you’re looking for as you just flick through the pages. They also protect the cards quite well. One pitfall is that the cards can all slide out if your binder is accidentally turned upside down, so you need to be aware of that when it’s in your bag. There are book-type binders with pockets that open to the side rather than the top to avoid this problem.
The main reason why most players don’t use binders for all their cards is the expense vs how many cards you can store, binders also take up more space than boxes due to all the plastic pockets. If you have multiple binders be sure to label what’s in them to save time finding cards in the right binder. It can also take more time to organize your cards as when you want to add one card at the beginning, you then need to move every other card along one.

Card index drawers/custom built storage

I don’t know any players myself that go to the trouble of getting furniture for the express purpose of storing cards, but I’ve seen a few examples online. If you can get hold of one of the old card index drawers that libraries used to use for library tickets, they tend to be the right size for storing cards too. These days most libraries will already have got rid of these as they’ve all switched to electronic databases but there’s a few around. Other people may also commission their own storage system that suits their collection. Obviously this is an investment, and it may not be that easy to expand once it’s filled. It looks a lot better than ratty cardboard boxes, though!

In the end, most players use a combination of methods to store their cards due to the different ways they want to use them. Hopefully you can now judge which ones are best for your collection.

Our Standard collection: Khans block, Origins, Battle for Zendikar plus trade binders

I woke up on Monday the 28^th of September feeling good. The weekend had been great, I was recently employed, everything was well. And then it came to four o’clock, and my heart sank as I logged onto The Source and I read these words:

“[card]Dig Through Time[/card] banned in Legacy.”

I couldn’t believe it. It had survived three BnR update announcements. I thought that it was going to become a format mainstay. But sadly, my blue delve spell of choice (Sorry [card]Logic Knot[/card]) was gone. I’m gonna miss you buddy. It’s been great playing with mini Demonic Tutor in Legacy but I suppose it was time for you to go.

But it’s time to move on and tackle the Banned and Restricted List update for Battle for Zendikar.

Yes, Dig Through Time is gone. What was a card that pushed non-blue decks out of the format is now a relic of a time gone by, sent to serve time alongside [card]Survival of the Fittest[/card] and its big brother, [card]Treasure Cruise[/card]. Now despite the fact I loved the card ever since it entered the format, I do believe that Wizards were right in banning it. I played with two copies in Miracles since Khans of Tarkir came out and loved the inclusion but it changed the format in a big way. I don’t think it warped the format to the same degree Treasure Cruise did but it had an impact that a lot of people hated.

It was no surprise that decks that didn’t have Islands were at a disadvantage in Legacy but it didn’t stop them from putting up a good fight, and sometimes, punishing those blue decks. Death and Taxes and Elves are decks that immediately spring to mind, but you could go further with things like Jund, Maverick, the various [card]Life from the Loam[/card] strategies, and so much more. But when Dig was in the format, you just couldn’t beat the card advantage and long game power the card had. Before, BGx decks would often attack blue decks with cards like [card]Hymn to Tourach[/card] and [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card], but it was useless when those decks could run these powerful delve draw spells and refill their hand as quickly as they were attacked, leaving the attrition player with nothing and the other with a fresh belt of ammo. While it was less so when Treasure Cruise was banned, blue decks could, and would, keep in Force of Will against these attrition based decks because the card disadvantage didn’t matter anymore because of how easy it was to reload.

I am sad that Dig Through Time is gone. I was a big fan and I don’t think it was as toxic as Treasure Cruise was. Though I will admit, towards the end of its life, people were beginning to maindeck [card]Pyroblast[/card] and that is always a poor sign. So while I am sad to see it leave, I am not surprised.

So now that it’s gone, what will happen to Legacy?

For a start, the Omnitell deck that ran rampant is gone. Even though it was a deck that existed before, it gained so much with Dig Through Time. It was streamlined and much more efficient. It could set up the combo of [card]Show and Tell[/card] plus [card]Omniscience[/card] faster and with more resiliency. The deck was also 90 percent redundancy in the form of cantrips like [card]Ponder[card], [card]Preordain[/card] and [card]Gitaxian Probe[/card]. All of these cards were there just to fuel Dig and sculpt a hand of the combo and enough counterspells to win the fight. Without Dig though, the deck has lost the card that made it so resilient and fast. It will stick around but it will be back to running the [card]Dream Halls[/card] version with [card]Enter the Infinite[/card] and [card]Release the Ants[/card].

Because of this change, I expect to see Sneak and Show come back. The deck was pushed out by Omnitell as the former was a much more resilient version of the combo deck and wasn’t vulnerable to the same hate the other version was. Before, one could [card]Karakas[/card] the big fattie the deck cheated in to play or [card]Pithing Needle[/card] naming [card]Sneak Attack[/card], or even playing a card like [card]Containment Priest[/card]. But when the Omnitell was Showing in an enchantment that allowed them to just cast Emrakul, these cards were gone. The deck was also able to load up on counterspells that it could unleash for free.

The other impact of Dig leaving the format is that non-blue decks are going to come back. We’re going to see Maverick come back, even though it may not be the best time to play it what with Miracles having such a strong position in the metagame. Death and Taxes, a deck that was already going strong in a world of Dig Through Time, is going to come back as well. Elves as well I think gains a lot out of this banning. Elves has been punished heavily since KTK was released. The Treasure Cruise Delver decks were able to race Elves and packed cards like [card]Forked Bolt[/card] and [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] that attacked the tribe so well, and even when Cruise was banned, it was still hard for the forest dwellers to keep up against the decks that abused Dig Through Time, so now I think it’s time for it to make a resurgence.

Delver decks are going to stay, by-and-large, the same however they won’t have the late game strength as they had with Dig. I believe that Grixis/4 Colour Delver will be the Delver deck of choice as it has access to cards like Young Pyromancer, [card]Cabal Therapy[/card] and [card]Gurmag Angler[/card], as well as having the green splash for [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] and [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]. It’s also got access to a lot of cheap countermagic. These decks normally played two copies of Dig so those slots easily get filled in with something like [card]Spell Pierce[/card] or [card]Flusterstorm[/card].

I predict as well that Canadian Threshold is going to come back. This deck was at one point the best deck in Legacy and would be a monster against nearly all of the field. However the printing of Treasure Cruise pushed it out as its mana denial plan of [card]Stifle[/card] and [card]Wasteland[/card] were useless against decks that could refill with Cruise and Dig, but the deck couldn’t play these cards because of the anti-synergy with [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card] and to a lesser extent, [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]. Now though, the deck is able to breath once more and while I think it has been outclassed by other Delver decks, I think it’s going to come back now that Stifle and Wasteland have room to play around in.

Another deck that we haven’t seen since KTK is Shardless BUG. Shardless BUG I believe is one of the best decks to play right now, now that Dig is gone. Card advantage was very rare in Legacy up until the blue delve spells came into the equation and the only deck that really got card advantage was Shardless. The deck gave up counterspells other than [card]Force of Will[/card] so that it could use [card]Shardless Agent[/card] to the best of its ability, normally abusing the interaction with [card]Ancestral Visions[/card]. But when other decks could easily keep up with the advantage Shardless generated, the deck fell a little bit out of favour. That and it fell into the attrition decks that were relegated to a subpar status when delve became the monster that it was, and still is to some degree. But now, not only does it produce some incredible card advantage, but it also has a fantastic matchup against Miracles. It can attack the deck in a variety of ways and I believe is the choice of deck to play if you’re playing in a large Legacy tournament.

I’ve talked a lot about Dig Through Time’s banning but have neglected to talk about the unbanning of [card]Black Vise[/card]. When Legacy was created, Black Vise was one of the cards on the original banlist that was put there because of the way the format looked at the time. Legacy no longer is dominated by hyper efficient blue draw spells and Black Vise no longer punishes decks the way it used to. The only strategies that it fits into that I can think of are Burn, which would rather play a [card]Goblin Guide[/card] or [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card] on turn one, or MUD, which is an unpopular and underplayed deck. There are also plenty of cards that get rid of it that are played in the mainboard of decks: Abrupt Decay, [card]Council’s Judgement[/card] and [card]Vindicate[/card] are all cards that see play in the main of Legacy decks.

Dig Through Time had a great run, a better run than I’d say Treasure Cruise did, but all dogs must have their day and now it is gone. But it’s time for us to move on and embrace this world of non-blue fair decks, with their [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card]s [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] and [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card]s. And with the last Legacy GP of the year in just over a month’s time, you can be sure that this change is going to get people gearing up for one heck of showdown.

Until next time!