Episode Archives

Brainstorm Brewery #145 – Fragments of Imagination

Brainstorm Brewery Brainstorm Brewery, Podcasts 0:53:49

It’s not all Vegas talk this week. Not that much of anything really happened financially this week. Mike Flores played a weird Dragon deck and made some cards that we wanted to go down not go down but other than that, it’s all gas as this frees us up to talk about what we want. Was the Modern Masters 2015 spoiler real? The gang can’t agree. It’s a contentious episode where only one cast member is introduced, other podcasts are insulted and no one thinks to make a Fogo bet this close to the whole gang getting together to eat at Fogo for the first time in two years. This is a wild one, and don’t miss it or you’ll regret it to your dying day.

 

  • Finance 101 is an e-mail and it’s all about MODO and real dollas
  • Was the Modern Masters spoiler real?
  • VEGA$
  • How do we handle being in Vegas at the biggest GP ever? Tips abound.
  • Pick of the Week almost doesn’t happen. We spoil you listeners.
  • Support our Patreon! We will use the money to make the cast better, not pay ourselves.
  • Need to contact us? Hit up [email protected]

 

Cabe Riseau produced the intro and outro music for Brainstorm Brewery.

Contact Us!

Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher

Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter

Money Draught #30 — Red Panda Rhetoric

Money Draught Money Draught, Podcasts 1:22:09

Topics include: Pro Tour “Friday card spikes”, Modern Masters 2015 availability, the new “Vegas House”, zoos and botanical gardens.

** This cast is for mature listeners **

Your Hosts:
Jason Alt — @JasonEAlt
Slick Jagger — @slickJagger
JR — @time_elemental

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New is Always Better – Getting Tricksy with Death and Taxes

Sandro Rajalin Articles

Death and Taxes has been a real force in Legacy for quite a while now. The deck may not be particularly powerful in itself, but it’s built in such a way as to position itself very well versus the format. Utilizing several different hatebears, Death and Taxes will make life hard for many opponents. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben laughs in the face of decks filled with Brainstorms and Ponders. Phyrexian Revoker can stifle many strategies if you know what to name with it. “Nice Sensei’s Divining Top/Sneak Attack/Lion’s Eye Diamond you got there”. While lists have varied over time the core concept of the deck has remained intact; a mono white deck filled with disruptive creatures and mana denial. The deck made a name for itself when Thomas Enevoldsen and Michael Bonde both took it to the top 8 of GP Strasbourg in 2013, with Enevoldsen eventually winning the whole thing. If you were paying attention back then however, you will know that the deck was already doing well in the hands of Thomas Enevoldsen. He had taken down the Danish Legacy Masters with it months earlier, and even took it to a twelfth place finish at GP Ghent in 2012. Still, GP Strasbourg was when the deck really had its big break. For reference, here’s the list he used to take it down.

This list is still relatively similar to many of the Death and Taxes lists we see today. People will shave a card here and there, tweak the numbers according to their preferences, or choose to go with more recent inclusions such as Spirit of the Labyrinth, Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Containment Priest. The core concept however has remained the same for a long time. Until now. If you follow news in Legacy you likely won’t have missed this new take on Death and Taxes that popular MTGO streamer Bahra has been playing recently. To be fair, people have been splashing different colors in Death and Taxes before, but this is the first time I’ve seen the red splash get this much attention. Let’s take a look.

[Deck title=R/W Taxes by Bahra]
[Creatures]
*3 Phyrexian Revoker
*4 Flickerwisp
*2 Imperial Recruiter
*3 Magus of the Moon
*1 Mirran Crusader
*4 Mother of Runes
*1 Serra Avenger
*4 Stoneforge Mystic
*4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
[/Creatures]
[Noncreature Spells]
*4 Aether Vial
*4 Swords to Plowshares
*1 Umezawa’s Jitte
*1 Batterskull
*1 Sword of Fire and Ice
[/Noncreature Spells]
[Lands]
*4 Wasteland
*4 Rishadan Port
*2 Karakas
*2 Plateau
*3 Plains
*3 Flooded Strand
*4 Windswept Heath
*1 Cavern of Souls
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
*1 Pithing Needle
*1 Ratchet Bomb
*3 Ethersworn Canonist
*2 Kor Firewalker
*3 Rest in Peace
*2 Council’s Judgment
*3 Sudden Demise
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Magus of the Moon can singlehandedly win games versus decks heavy with nonbasic lands, such as Shardless BUG and Lands. Imperial Painter posted really strong results last time Shardless BUG and Esper Deathblade decks were everywhere, and that was largely due to the strength of Blood Moon effects. Imperial Recruiter can recruit your hatebear of choice, and gets even better after sideboard, essentially giving you two more copies of whatever hoser creatures you choose to include. Sudden Demise provides some much needed assistance in the Elves matchup, giving you a way to clear their board. Those things all seem great, but they come at the cost of a weaker mana base and a deck that feels a lot clunkier. Whether the red splash is worth it or not will depend on the expected metagame, but whether you’re planning to play this deck or not you should know what to expect when your Death and Taxes opponent shows you a Plateau.

One twist on Death and Taxes that there hasn’t been as much fuss about is the blue splash. Death and Taxes is an incredibly tricky deck, full of intricate interactions, and this version takes it one step further! Check out this innovative take on the deck that a friend of mine piloted at a local 54-people tournament recently.

[Deck title=Tricks and Taxes]
[Creatures]
*4 Mother of Runes
*2 Gilded Drake
*2 Phyrexian Revoker
*3 Spirit of the Labyrinth
*4 Stoneforge Mystic
*4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
*4 Flickerwisp
*3 Vendilion Clique
*2 Venser, Shaper Savant
[/creatures]
[Noncreature Spells]
*4 Aether Vial
*4 Swords to Plowshares
*1 Umezawa’s Jitte
*1 Batterskull
[/noncreature spells]
[Lands]
*4 Flooded Strand
*2 Island
*3 Karakas
*2 Plains
*3 Polluted Delta
*4 Tundra
*4 Wasteland
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
*3 Ethersworn Canonist
*3 Meddling Mage
*2 Phyrexian Revoker
*4 Rest in Peace
*2 True-Name Nemesis
*1 Venser, Shaper Savant
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

This deck is sweet! If you thought Venser, Shaper Savant was good alongside Karakas, wait until you get to do it with an Aether Vial in play. How would you like casting Vendilion Clique in your opponent’s draw step when you have a Spirit of the Labyrinth? What about using Flickerwisp on your own Gilded Drake to effectively steal another creature? Sure, there are things I dislike about this iteration of the deck (such as the mana base and the absence of Containment Priest), but this deck is so full of neat tricks and powerful ways to abuse its cards that I can’t help but fantasize about all the potential interactions it presents. It’s a Death and Taxes list, but it also reminds me of this deck:

[Deck title=U/W Vial by Travis Gibson]
[Creatures]
*4 Mother of Runes
*2 Weathered Wayfarer
*4 Stoneforge Mystic
*4 Serra Avenger
*3 True-Name Nemesis
*1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
*1 Vendilion Clique
[/creatures]
[Noncreature Spells]
*4 Aether Vial
*1 Umezawa’s Jitte
*1 Sword of War and Peace
*1 Batterskull
*4 Swords to Plowshares
*4 Brainstorm
*1 Ponder
*4 Daze
*2 Force of Will
*2 Spell pierce
[/noncreature spells]
[Lands]
*2 Island
*2 Plains
*1 Cephalid Coliseum
*1 Karakas
*4 Tundra
*1 Wasteland
*1 Mishra’s Factory
*2 Windswept Heath
*4 Flooded Strand
[/lands]
[/deck]

This deck lacks the traditional disruptive elements of a Death and Taxes deck. Instead you have an aggro control deck with a fairly strong tempo plan. You lose out on a lot of what makes Death and Taxes a deck, but on the other hand you get to play with Brainstorm. I like how it’s built like an aggressive, threat heavier Stoneblade deck, but the Weathered Wayfarer package seems like it’s a bit too cute and not something I would be happy about drawing in the late game. The mana base is also stronger. The deck is more evenly split between its colors, and has already moved away from the mana disruption package. I think this deck has merit, though it may need further tuning.

As I mentioned earlier my main dislike about the Tricks and Taxes list was the mana base. Neither Venser, Shaper Savant nor Vendilion Clique is especially splash friendly, with both requiring double blue to cast. Thankfully though, the decks you want them against aren’t ones that typically play Wasteland, so it’s not as much of a drawback as one might think. I put together a first draft of what I would like the deck to look like. Losing out on Rishadan Port sucks and Venser just might be too cute for maindeck inclusion, but other than that I’m fairly happy about how it looks. Moving some Meddling Mages to the maindeck gives the deck more room for high impact sideboard cards, which should lead to better game two and three matchups versus a lot of the field. At first I wanted to fit some copies of Containment Priest in there as well, as the deck already wants to be playing the full four Flickerwisps, but the blue splash is enough more reliant on Aether Vial that I deemed it not worth it.

[Deck title=Tricks and Taxes by Sandro Rajalin]
[Creatures]
*4 Mother of Runes
*4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
*4 Stoneforge Mystic
*2 Phyrexian Revoker
*2 Gilded Drake
*2 Meddling Mage
*2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
*4 Flickerwisp
*2 Vendilion Clique
*1 Venser, Shaper Savant
[/creatures]
[Noncreature Spells]
*4 Aether Vial
*4 Swords to Plowshares
*1 Umezawa’s Jitte
*1 Batterskull
[/noncreature spells]
[Lands]
*4 Tundra
*1 Hallowed Fountain
*1 Cavern of Souls
*4 Flooded Strand
*3 Arid Mesa
*3 Plains
*4 Wasteland
*3 Karakas
[/lands]
[/deck]

The addition of both Meddling Mage and Vendilion Clique should give the deck some much needed tools to fight the Miracles menace. I don’t know how good Gilded Drake actually is, but it seems super sweet in this deck and should be able to swing games on its own. I’m inclined to believe that Venser, Shaper Savant is too clunky and might not end up making the cut, but I would rather have it from the start to see if it has merit and then cut if it does not. In that case we could probably afford to shave a land, or fit some Rishadan Ports in there. Hallowed Fountain is there as insurance versus decks that are capable of wastelanding us multiple times. Cavern of Souls is a nod to Miracles. An uncounterable Vendilion Clique to stop their Terminus should buy you enough time to finish them off, and if you have a Karakas you get to do it over and over again. I don’t imagine this deck will be tearing up the legacy metagame anytime soon, but I always enjoy an innovative twist on an established archetype. The legacy format is so diverse that a skilled pilot can always do well in any given tournament if they’re up to date on the current metagame and can tune their deck to beat it. Decks that go under the radar gain a lot of percentages because people simply don’t know how to play against them properly. This is especially true if those decks are also packing tricks that players aren’t used to seeing; tricky interactions with a high blowout potential. We saw this phenomenon years ago with the original Death and Taxes, and we’ve seen it with Infect in the hands of Tom ‘the boss’ Ross.

 

My name is Sandro Rajalin. I’m a Magic player, writer, and Legacy aficionado from Stockholm, Sweden. You can follow me on Twitter for all my magic related content at @SandroRajalin or email me at [email protected]

Pitt Imps Podcast #116 PT Experience

Pitt Imps Pitt Imps, Podcasts 01:42:19

This week the Imps welcomed back Zac Roorda as a guest on the show. He helped us go through the two GP’s in the city’s that start with K. One was Standard while the other was a rare Legacy GP in Japan. Then we picked Zac’s brain about what it was like to be a first time PT competitor. So cool by the way. We went over his decks and then began to ramble about everything.

Host    Angelo      Twitter  @ganksuou

Co-Host   Will      Facebook

Co-Host    Mike     Twitter @Huntmaster_Mike

Guest    Zac Roorda     Twitter   @Kithkinz

Show Email   [email protected]

The Pitt Imps is brought to you by Taitan Game Shop and the Brainstorm Brewery

The Status of Women in Magic: An Optimistic Prognosis

Haley Gentile Articles

Fellow Magic: The Gathering players, we need to talk.

To continue to nurture the healthy growth of our community and to maintain a sense of accountability to those who actively participate (and to those who would like to!), we need to be self-reflexive and introspective about the status of women. Aside from attending GP Orlando this past fall, I am rarely ever in a room with more than two other women players.

thecheesestandsalone

This article (and those I intend to publish in its wake) is an attempt to sustain a mutually beneficial dialogue that has recently become more salient. I have ruminated on this issue for nearly as long as I have been playing Magic, but Gaby Spartz’s April 7 article “6 Things You Can Do to Get More Women in Magic” on Channel Fireball motivated me to finally organize and articulate my many thoughts on this topic.

While future writings will provide examples of the experiences I believe we should strive to minimize as well as explore specific areas for improvement, the goal of this article is to set a positive tone by praising existing efforts.

Who I Am

Before I commence outlining some areas where I see the Magic community succeeding at integrating women, I would like to briefly introduce myself. I purchased my first introductory deck during New Phyrexia and by Innistrad was drafting weekly. I have faded in and out of Standard, as no deck has captured my attention and excited me as much as [card]Nephalia Drownyard[/card] Esper Control during Innistrad/Return To Ravnica Standard, but the emergence of a viable Sidisi-Whip build may lure me back.

sidisibroodtyrant

Limited formats and Commander are my true passions. In terms of Mark Rosewater’s psychographic profiles, I align most closely with Johnny Jenny (more on this below!) but like any competitive player, I have Spike streaks! Sultai is my favorite color combination, though I tend to enjoy any two-color pairing contained within that triad. Outside of the Magic community, I am a Sociology PhD student who studies social movements and mass media. Now, onto my primary purpose!

How Magic is Different

I firmly believe Magic the Gathering is a unique gaming environment in that sexism and misogyny are not endemic to the game itself. Unlike videogames, which sometimes are structured in such a way that exclusion is built into the design, Wizards of the Coast employees have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to fostering a welcoming community. High-profile designers and directors like Doug Beyer and our beloved Mark Rosewater routinely discuss the issue of women in Magic. Most recently, throughout the week of April 13, MaRo featured a different woman employee, each representing distinct departments, on his Tumblr Blogatog. In March of this year, MaRo expressed that he regrets labeling the player archetypes he pioneered with male-gendered names and proposed alternatives (Tammy for Timmy, Jenny for Johnny, Mel for Melvin, while Vorthos and Spike remain gender-neutral).

The culture of inclusion extends beyond a few public figureheads, too. Some of you may recall the controversy surrounding the [card] Triumph of Ferocity [/card] art, which portrayed Garruk looming over Liliana and forcibly pressing forward between her thighs. Though Wizards initially fumbled, they swiftly acknowledged their error, apologized, and pledged to prevent similar mistakes in the future (and, as of yet, have maintained that vow!). When the card was reintroduced in Duels 2015, new art was even commissioned.

triumphofferocity

triumphofferocityduals

While employee composition and responses to mistakes are solid indicators of WOTC’s dedication to constructing a gaming environment where women can comfortably participate, what is most notable, in my opinion, are the cards throughout the history of Magic featuring depictions of widely-varied women in diverse roles with rich characterization. Across all segments of the color pie, women are regularly featured as warriors, priestesses, bureaucrats, sorcerers, healers, necromancers, spies, leaders, followers, and more. Recently, Wizards has even introduced a trans woman ([card]Alesha, Who Smiles at Death[/card]) and an agendered character ([card]Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver[/card] )! As I stated above, the presence of all of these factors leads me to believe the issue is not inherent to the game itself.

Community Figureheads

Professional players and commentators have contributed to keeping the conversation about women in Magic alive, too. Patrick Sullivan, Luis Scott-Vargas, Drew Levin, and Marshall Sutcliffe all cultivate productive and interactive conversations on Twitter, in their articles, and on their streams. I am also fond of Sam Black’s Facebook group “Story Time with Sam Black!” It is filled with passages where he genuinely reflects on gender. Even though many of the writings are not directly relevant to the Magic community, it is encouraging to see a professional player with high visibility exhibit sensitivity to the inequity commonly faced by women and the negative consequences of restrictive gender norms and roles for all people.

mangarasequity

Even amongst those of us who constitute the average player base, there are those who have established enclaves for women players. The Lady Planeswalkers Society (started by Tifa Robles), the MTG Diversity Twitter account, and the FEMtg and Lady MTG Tumblrs are all spaces intentionally created to facilitate women becoming more involved as well as commiserate and process negative experiences. The internet’s ability to connect people across time and geographic space reveals a consensus: current players acknowledge women’s relative absence and want to rectify it.

So What’s the Problem?

The dearth of women who play Magic competitively does not seem to align with WOTC’s informal and direct efforts to broaden the appeal of the game, the attitudes of tastemakers in our community at large, or the overall tone of the conversation online. So why does the issue persist?

dumbassdumbassdumbass

Anecdotally, I have the perception that there are many women who restrict themselves to kitchen-table casual play. I do not believe the gulf is attributable to women’s interest in Magic or in table-top gaming more generally. I am inclined to refocus my attention on the micro-cultures of local game stores and the average player base. Accordingly, in future editions of this column, the avenues for improvement I will explore (including but not necessarily limited to: general “othering” of women in Magic, the way we discuss female professional players, exclusionary language, and sexual harassment) will be overwhelmingly oriented toward the environment in which many of us are playing Magic: smaller-scale tournaments like the FNM you may attend weekly. The standards we collectively set in our respective LGSs inform how people behave when they attend Pro Tour Qualifiers and Grands Prix.

Being deliberate and conscientious goes a long way in terms of alleviating potential concerns. The examples I have described above make that much evident. As my title suggests, I am hopeful about the future of the status of women in the Magic community. I look forward to reading your responses and I am confident our discussions can be respectful and constructive.

MTG After Hours #12 – Saclings

Brainstorm Brewery MtG After Hours, Podcasts 0:31:53

Brainstorm Brewery After Hours is a collection of outtakes and stories that aren’t fit for publication on respectable websites. While Brainstorm Brewery is a podcast that strives for a PG-13 rating, After Hours has no such aspirations.
This week on After Hours, we are joined by Houston Whitehead and Jon Celso from the Tap N Sac podcast. This is from last year when Marcel and Jason were guests on episode 96.  Lots of hidden gems were covered with no regard for feelings. You’re welcome.

Cabe Riseau produced the intro and outro music for Brainstorm Brewery.

Contact Us!

Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher

Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter

Unified Theory of Commander: Answers

Jason Rice Articles

Up through this point in the Unified Theory of Commander, we’ve been primarily concerned with what our own decks want to do. Threats define the goals of the deck, while Draw and Mana give us access to those threats and the ability to cast them. As we move into the fourth element in our theory, its necessary for us to switch gears and start thinking critically about our opponents. Answers are all about responding to the other decks at the table.

Why Answers?

Remember from our last discussion that threats  attempt to advance a gameplan and create a win condition. They exert pressure on the table and “demand answers.” That means answers are the cards that respond to and hopefully stop threats from creating momentum for another’s players strategy. They relieve pressure at the table and ideally put your deck in a position to continue executing its own plan.

So we’ve got a functional definition of answers, but a lot of players who understand what an answer technically is still miss the material advantage of running answers in their decks. If we go back to our discussion on card advantage, its clear that Commander is a game of resource acquisition and management. Acquiring and utilizing resources is bound by rules, which dictate the time and pace at which we can use them. Threats attempt to reduce the amount of time left in the game. That’s “pressure.” It says that if this threat goes unanswered, then the table only has X turns before its controller wins. And sometimes X equals zero! If no one is holding an instant speed answer, the game is over.

Many answers cards may seem like card disadvantage in the moment, but when used properly they actually create time. They add to X, which creates more turns for you to acquire and utilize resources. So making sure your deck has appropriate answers to the threats at the table is going to be critical. Maintaining card advantage is pointless if you don’t have the time to execute your strategy and win the game, right?

The Answers Menu

So what cards qualify as answers? The most ubiquitous and obvious answers for our multiplayer format are wraths and boardwipes. A single spell that clears potentially dozens of your opponent’s assets from the battlefield clearly produces significant card advantage. Rarely does a friendly game of commander reach its conclusion without a single one of these powerful cards making an appearance, but these aren’t your only options.

but its still good!

Not Your Only Option

Single target removal spells such as Swords to Plowshares certainly have their place in the format, especially since they tend to function at instant speed and allow you to be very selective with their use. Removing artifacts, enchantments and other permanent types is important to consider as well. And yes, no matter how sad you are when it happens to you, land destruction is part of the answers package as well. Being able to use Strip Mine on  the Maze of Ith that’s keeping your commander from getting in for lethal damage might be pretty important if you are playing a voltron deck.

There are broader answers available as well. Cards like Chaos Warp or Karn Liberated hit just about any permanent and cover weaknesses in colors that struggle removing specific threats from the table. “Prison” cards such as Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere and other oddball defensive spells such as Nevermore see play in specific deck archetypes as well, so always be on the lookout for the right options for your deck’s specific gameplan.

Selecting Answers

So how do we go about selecting answers for our decks? For that, we need to turn inward again for a moment to the goals we set for our decks. If you know what your deck wants to do, you can begin to figure out what threatens it. If your deck isn’t creature heavy, then wraths will certainly work in your favor. Wraths become your enemy in a tokens deck, so finding answers that protect your side of the battlefield are much more important. Suddenly a card like Soul of New Phyrexia might seem attractive as an answer.

We also need to consider each type  of threat we might see at the table and make sure we are able to respond to all of them. We can do this broadly to get started. Make a list of permanent types and consider whether or not your deck has a way to deal with each of them. If your deck is missing removal for a particular permanent type, consider how it is going to handle one of those being played as a threat. You may need to make some edits.

A Threat & an Answer in the Right Deck

A Threat and an Answer in the Right Deck

We can get more specific by building another list of threatening deck archetypes, particularly those that might show up at our own card shops or regular gaming night with friends. If your deck is combat oriented, do you have answers for a “pillowfort” deck stacked with defensive enchantments? If not, a Bane of Progress might be an excellent inclusion. Is a voltron deck king of your playgroup? Then make sure your deck is packing enough instant-speed removal or sacrifice effects to keep their commander pointed at someone else. Consider the strategies that tend to leave your deck feeling hopeless and go find the tools to fight back effectively.

Reliability of Your Answers

Including another threat is almost always going to make you happier during deck construction than adding another answer. Its easy to imagine the myriad of ways each threat can win the game, but hard to consider all the ways in which you might need another answer. Have you ever daydreamed about casting Wrath of God for four mana on your own turn? Or blowing your Swords to Plowshares on turn three against a threatening Rafiq? Probably not.  So almost every EDH player to sleeve up a deck has fallen into the trap of overvaluing the density of their threats and undervaluing the need for answers.

It's about density of answers, get it?!?!

Is your coverage dense enough?

We try to avoid hard rules for things like card ratios in the Unified Theory because each deck has its own goals and each playgroup its own nuances. However, it is safe to say that when an opponent plays a big threat, you are almost always going to wish you had an answer in your hand. So its generally a good idea to distribute answers in your deck in such a way that you will see at least one in your opening hand or by the turn at which players at your table tend to start resolving major threats.

It’s relatively easy to follow that rule and use a hypergeometric calculator (like we did for mana sources) to find a good number of answers for your deck. If players at your table start resolving big threats around turn six, then fifteen answers makes your deck 90% reliable at playing defense. You can tune up or down based on a variety of factors, but remember that this is just a starting point. Just like the “start with 40 lands” guideline, make sure you don’t just cram 15 answers in your deck and call it a day. Like mana sources and threats, your deck needs answers that fit its strategy and the expected play environment. So keep adjusting until you don’t feel helpless against any strategy, but don’t give up the character of your deck to fit a specific rule.

Conclusion

Answers don’t feel as good as threats, but they are every bit as vital to making sure your deck is fun and functional at any table. When holding a shiny new threat from the latest set that desperately needs to join your favorite deck, you will be tempted to remove an answer to make room. You will even feel good about the swap when that threat resolves and the table collective groans at the advantage create your new toy. But those good feelings might be covering up the way your deck is actually getting weaker and less able to respond to your opponent’s own shiny new toys. Don’t fall into that trap. Find that answers that keep your deck in the game and run them.

Brainstorm Brewery #144 – Accessorizing

Brainstorm Brewery Brainstorm Brewery, Podcasts 01:07:48

Do you want to be ready for GP Vegas? Sure you do. If you want to be truly ready, there are a few things you want to get nailed down. You’ll want a BSB Tee shirt for sure. Keep your eyes peeled for the new Goblin token illustrated by Aaron Miller. And make sure you keep your earholes peeled for special events involving our cast including secret, listener-only parties.

 

We’re getting close to episode 150 which doesn’t really matter since we’re not planning on making a big deal out of it. So basically you need to wait a year for either Jason to get murdered or for episodes 200, whichever comes first. This week was a good one, with discussions about the nature of the podcast, mistakes made in the past, hope for the future, the state of various formats. Finance, obviously. Always finance. And that’s what you want, isn’t it? We’re your finance monkeys, and when you tell us, we’re just supposed to dance. Dance, monkey. Dance. Fine, you’ll have your dance. But we’ll do it our way. This is Brainstorm Brewery.

 

  • Intros are getting longer every week. You asked for it, frankly.
  • Finance 101 is from a listener and it’s all about accessories.
  • There was a GP in Japan. Guess how many Brainstorms were in the Top 8
  • What is the future of Legacy like?
  • Did anyone predict how valuable Dragons of Tarkir would be?
  • What were each cast member’s Top 8 cards?
  • Pick of the WEEEEEK
  • Support our Patreon! DO IT. You know this cast makes you more than $1 a week
  • Need to contact us? Hit up [email protected]
  • Seriously, though. The Patreon will help us expand our offerings and improve as a cast.

Cabe Riseau produced the intro and outro music for Brainstorm Brewery.

Contact Us!

Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher

Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter

Weekend Magic: 4/17-4/19

Jared Yost Articles

This week brings us Grand Prix Krakow, Grand Prix Kyoto, and Star City Games: Providence. That’s a ton of information to cover so let’s get down to business.

GP Krakow (Poland)

Top 8 Decklists

Top 16 Decklists

Format – Standard

Standard is still all about dragons in Europe yet the Top 8 seemed to prefer the blue, white, and black dragons more than the classic red color. [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card] was the key player in many of the Top 8 decks and has thereby cemented itself as a powerhouse in Standard based on the results. No less than five Esper Dragons decks placed in the Top 8, with six total appearances in the Top 16. Let’s take a closer look at this deck for other key players besides Dragonlord Ojutai.

 

  • [card]Silumgar, the Drifting Death[/card] – A notable threat all weekend, Silumgar keeps opposing armies in check until the control deck can stabilize and finish the opponent off.
  • [card]Crux of Fate[/card] – I hear one sided [card]Wrath of God[/card] is pretty nice, of course a Dragons control deck is going to run it!
  • [card]Dig Through Time[/card] – Needed for card selection and a Standard staple in almost any blue deck.
  • [card]Silumgar’s Scorn[/card] – [card]Counterspell[/card] is nuts, and while you won’t always have Counterspell dragons in your hand available you can still cast it at the opportune moment to disrupt your opponent’s game plan. Just a solid card all around.
  • [card]Foul-Tongue Invocation[/card] – One of the new premier removal spells, this card reminds us of [card]Devour Flesh[/card] but is so much better. Expect to continue seeing it over its Standard life.

Other decks in the Top 8 included Blue / Black dragons (might as well be Esper), Jeskai Tokens, and Ojutai Bant. Notables from Jeskai Tokens includes [card]Secure the Wastes[/card] and [card]Jeskai Ascendancy[/card]. Notables from Ojutai Bant include [card]Den Protector[/card], [card]Deathmist Raptor[/card], [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card], and [card]Surrak, the Hunt Caller[/card].

Looking outside of the Top 8, the field becomes much more diverse. Bant Heroic, Red-Green Dragons, Abzan Whip, another Esper Dragons, Green-White Aggro, Green Devotion, Abzan Midrange, and Abzan Control were all represented here. Notables from the decks include:

  • [card]Hero of Iroas[/card] and [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] in Bant Heroic
  • [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card] in Red-Green Dragons
  • [card]Wingmate Roc[/card] and [card]Sidisi, Undead Vizier[/card] in Abzan Whip
  • [card]Avatar of the Resolute[/card], [card]Reverent Hunter[/card], [card]Den Protector[/card], [card]Collected Company[/card], and [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] in Green-White Aggro
  • [card]Rattleclaw Mystic[/card], [card]Whisperwood Elemental[/card], [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card], and [card]See the Unwritten[/card] in Green Devotion
  • [card]Den Protector[/card] in Abzan Control

Looking at the Top 8 doesn’t show many diverse results, however the Top 16 saw plenty of variety in the way that Standard decks can be built.

GP Kyoto (Japan)

Format – Legacy

Top 8 Decklists

U/W Miracles took down the event with Stoneblade in a close second. [card]Monastery Mentor[/card] made an appearance as a playset in Murakami’s Stoneblade list. Looks like Mentor has broken into Legacy formats and might be another threat along with [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] that will keep churning out tokens for years to come.

[card]Omniscience[/card] was an important player in Kyoto, with two Omni-Show decks making it into the Top 8. Other key cards in Omni-Show include [card]Show and Tell[/card], [card]Cunning Wish[/card], and [card]Dig Through Time[/card]. Along with Sneak and Show, Omni-Show is another deck that you need to look out for due its explosive combo nature.

Not a ton of innovation here outside of Omni-Tell (which has been around in Legacy, but has become better positioned since Dragons of Tarkir has been released) just solid deck pilots that were able to sweep through the preliminary rounds with decks like Storm.

Star City Games Open – Standard (Providence, USA)

Decklists

 

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
Abzan Reanimator 1st Oliver Tomajko Abzan Control 9th Thomas Roth
Mono-Red Aggro 2nd Peter Nguyen Temur Dragons 10th Brian Dolan
Sultai Reanimator 3rd Dustin Taylor Jeskai Aggro 11th Kei Rong
Abzan Control 4th Robert Vaughn Jeskai Aggro 12th Nick Allain
Abzan Aggro 5th Andrew Boswell Abzan Control 13th Dan Jessup
Abzan Control 6th Kyle Shane Abzan Aggro 14th Robert Elias
Jeskai Aggro 7th Noah Walker Mono-Red Aggro 15th Michael Ray
Abzan Control 8th Ben Feingersh Esper Dragons 16th Zachary Kiihne

With Esper Dragons barely making the Top 16, Providence instead featured plenty of Abzan action. Between Abzan Aggro, Control, and Reanimator decks taking five spots in the Top 8, there were also three copies in the Top 16. Cards in Abzan strategies that are notable include: 

  • [card]Siege Rhino[/card] – If you were Abzan, you were packing four copies of the Rhino in your deck.
  • [card]Den Protector[/card] showed up again across a few lists
  • [card]Fleecemane Lion[/card] was an important role player in both Control and Aggro lists
  • [card]Warden of the First Tree[/card] and [card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/card] in Abzan Aggro
  • [card]Deathmist Raptor[/card] was featured in Vaughn’s contro list

Not a whole lot of new tech from Dragons was featured in Abzan decks.

Rounding out the rest of the Top 8 were Mono-Red Aggro, Sultai Reanimator, and Jeskai Aggro. Notable cards from these decks include [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card] and [card]Sidisi, Undead Vizier[/card] in Sultai Reanimator and [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card] in Jeskai Aggro.

Rounding out the rest of the Top 16, Temur Dragons is the only unique deck. This deck featured four [card]Savage Knuckleblade[/card], four [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card], three [card]Whisperwood Elemental[/card], and four [card]Stubborn Denial[/card]. Though it is named Dragons, it doesn’t run any of the Dragon enabled spells like [card]Draconic Roar[/card].

Star City Games Premier IQ – Modern (Providence, USA)

Decklists

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
Abzan 1st Caupolican Lopez Yapor G/R Tron 9th Alexander Oliveira
Abzan 2nd Nick Giordano Abzan 10th Greg Gentile
U/R Twin 3rd Michael McKena Jeskai 11th Nicholas Heal
Burn 4th Ben Kazhdan Grixis Pyro 12th Luis Alfonso
U/B Faeries 5th Anthony Huynh Burn 13th Jonathan Delano
Affinity 6th Ian Hacker Burn 14th Alfoso Krivickas
Affinity 7th Griffin Kadar Affinity 15th Rachel Dillon
Esper Tokens 8th Zane Knapp Grixis Delver 16th Michael Deidolori

Moving on to Modern, Abzan and Affinity took four of the Top 8 spots along with U/R Twin, Burn, U/B Faeries, and Esper Tokens. Abzan seems to be adopting one [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] main deck, so look out for this card in Modern moving forward as well as Standard.

Looking at U/B Faeries, the deck featured [card]Mistbind Clique[/card], [card]Scion of Oona[/card], four [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card], and four [card]Bitterblossom[/card]. [card]Countersquall[/card] out of the sideboard is also an interesting choice, as it isn’t seen very often but can be a nice card in the right metagame.

In Esper Tokens we find four [card]Monastery Mentor[/card], [card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card], [card]Slaughter Pact[/card], and [card]Lingering Souls[/card]. [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] out of the sideboard is also notable, since token decks seem to be making waves in Modern as more people experiment with [card]Monastery Mentor[/card].

Rounding out the rest of the Top 16, notable decks include Grixis Pyro and Grixis Delver. Grixis Pyro featured [card]Young Pyromancer[/card], [card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/card], and [card]Kolaghan’s Command[/card]. Grixis Delver also had Young Pyromancer and experimented with [card]Gurmag Angler[/card]. Jeskai also made an appearance in the Top 16 playing [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card] and [card]Restoration Angel[/card], so UWR isn’t quite out of the running in Modern either even if we haven’t seen consistent results in a while.

Star City Games Premier IQ – Legacy (Providence, USA)

Decklists

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
Omni-Tell 1st Adam Brennan Miracles 9th Bradley Berk
Temur Delver 2nd Tanner Parente Grixis Pyro 10th Matthew Smith
Miracles 3rd Christopher Stitson Elves 11th Samuel Blau
Sneak and Show 4th Jason Grigely MUD 12th Hunter Prendergast
12-Post 5th Aaron Gazzaniga Abzan Deathblade 13th John-Paul Phelan
Omni-Tell 6th Daniel Hall Omni-Tell 14th Brandon Jones
Death and Taxes 7th Jake Bartlett Omni-Tell 15th Kevin Saunders
Omni-Tell 8th Cory Abrams Elves 16th Nicholas Malatesta

Finally, we had some Legacy action in Providence too and Omni-Tell was the story of this tournament. Not only did the deck take down the event but it also put four other people into the Top 16. In Legacy, a format as diverse as you can possibly get, this doesn’t happen very often and should be a sign that Omni-Tell is going to be a force in the format going forward. As mentioned in the Kyoto section, cards like Omniscience are key components of the deck that allow it play a very unfair game if left unchecked.

12-Post making the Top 8 hasn’t happened in a while. Key cards in that deck include [card]Oracle of Mul Daya[/card], [card]Primeval Titan[/card], [card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/card], [card]Candelabra of Tawnos[/card], [card]Crop Rotation[/card], and [card]Ancient Stirrings[/card] with of course the twelve posts ([card]Cloudpost[/card], [card]Glimmerpost[/card], and [card]Vesuva[/card]). The deck is resilient thanks to the land [card]Eye of Ugin[/card] and can come out of nowhere with a surprise win if you’re not expecting it. Though hard to build due to Candelabra being so rare, if your local tournament allows proxies for Legacy this could be an interesting choice to bring to the event if you’re looking for a combo deck that is unique and fun to play.

Grixis Pyro also appeared in Legacy, with notables being [card]True-Name Nemesis[/card], [card]Dack Fayden[/card], [card]Dig Through Time[/card], and [card]Cabal Therapy[/card]. Similar to the Modern version, this deck aims to take a more controlling path to victory.

Abzan Deathblade seems like a new deck archetype that appeared, but its really just a rename of Pikula with the [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] package. [card]Hymn to Tourach[/card] is a feature in the deck but otherwise it just plays Abzan goodstuff in Legacy.

That’s a wrap for this week! See you next time.

Just Juett: DTK Draft #2

Jarred Juett Videos

Pitt Imps Podcast #115 PT DRAGONS!!!

Pitt Imps Pitt Imps, Podcasts 02:39:13

Well its that time again. The Pro Tour. Did you miss it? Don’t worry, we got you covered. As has become a tradition for us we go over the entire thing RD by RD. Yup, every one of them. There was good Magics played. Some very naughty players. A very quick finals and so much more.

Host Angelo   Twitter @ganksuou

Co-Host Will     Find on Facebook

Co-Host Mike    Twitter  @Huntmaster_Mike

Show Email  [email protected]

Pitt Imps is brought each week to you by our sponsors Taitan Game Shop and Brainstorm Brewery

 

Red Deck Wins (a 5K)

Guest Author Articles

Hi! My name is Jake Tilk (@JakeTilk on Twitter), and last weekend I placed first in a 5K in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’ve never done one of these before, but I want people to see why Mono-Red is a good choice for any event. Here is the list.

As you can see, my deck is a little different from what you saw at the Pro Tour. But, what can I say about mine? It is extremely consistent. At first, I was a little apprehensive about playing mono-red at a big tournament like this. Mono-red, in my experience, has the possibility of running red hot, and then sort of petering out.

What was the solution to this?I had to find a red list that bested the top decks in the format. That is exactly what it did. The deck’s game plan involves using my creatures for the first three or four turns to swing as fast as possible then burning the opponent out with the average of about two burn spells in my hand on turn five or six. So, let’s go into my deck choices. As you see, a lot of this is pretty stock. But, then you get to the four main deck [card]Searing Bloods[/card]. Over the course of the day, I had a lot of people asking me how many Searing Bloods I was playing. When I said four, I was met with varying amounts of responses. Whether it was, “What about the control matchup?” or “How does that get over [card]Courser of Kruphix[/card]?” I can honestly say that Searing Blood over-performed for me that weekend as the card was absolutely ridiculous when it killed something.

Oh, and Courser? She ain’t no thang. Sure, that card is an absolute pain in the ass. But I will gladly trade my Zurgo the Bellstriker and a Searing Blood for a big ass body and life gain any day of the week. Another card that I got some skepticism for was [card]Break through the Line[/card]. After not really drawing this card except for the finals, I do not really have a huge opinion on it other than as a one-of, it is probably fine but needs more testing.

Here was the situation:

In the finals, I played against a really nice dude playing Abzan Aggro. I had a Break through the Lines on board for two turns or so. He was at five life and tapped out for [card]Wingmate Roc[/card]. I was at only one after chumping all of the Snuggasquad NA. In my hand I had a [card]Lightning Berserker[/card], and a Mountain. Commence my turn: I played the Mountain (now I have 6), dash Berserker, break her through the lines, and then I pump her four times for exacties.

I admit, when I was on the draw, I sided out Break against creature decks for [card]Magmatic Chasm[/card]. I feel like nothing else in my deck is that weird besides maybe the one-of [card]Roast[/card]. That was personal preference, and it actually over-performed in game ones getting rid of so many big ass bodies.

Let’s Talk About Sideboarding

Against Abzan Aggro/Mid, and G/R. Play: -1 Mardu Scout -2 Hordeling -4 Wild Slash; +2 Harness By Force +3 Roast +2 Magmatic Chasm Draw: -1 Mardu Scout -2 Hordeling -3 Wild Slash -1 Break Through The Lines; +2 Harness by Force +3 Roast +2 Magmatic Chasm

Against Control: Play: -2 Hordeling -1 Break Through The Lines -1 Roast -4 Searing Blood; +3 Eidolon of The Great Revel +2 Outpost Siege +3 Arc Lightning Draw: Same thing.

Against the mirror: Play: -1 Mardu Scout -2 Heelcutter -1 Roast -1 Break Through; +3 Arc Lightning +2 Eidolon Draw: -1 Mardu Scout -2 Heelcutter -1 Break Through; +3 Arc Lightning +1 Roast

G/W Devotion: Play: -1 Mardu Scout -2 Hordeling  -4 Wild Slash +1 Magmatic Chasm +3 Roast +3 Eidolon of the Great Revel. Draw: -1 Mardu Scout -2 Hordeling Outburst -1 Wild Slash -1 Break Through The Line +2 Magmatic Chasm +3 Roast

Matchups

Round One: Abzan Midrange. I won the die roll and start slamming down little dudes. Game one is done in three minutes. People next to us were still resolving mulligans. Game two, I saw his deck was a little weird so I sideboarded like I normally do for Abzan and kept a bad hand. Still made it work though, through a Sorin, and Doomwake Giant.

Round Two: This round I played against my friend Travis Cullum. He was playing the Chris VanMeter Red Green deck, and I am not going to lie when I tell you guys I was a little worried. After a close match, with me closing the game out sub optimally Harnessing By Force his Thunderbreak instead of Searing Blooding his morph, I was put into top deck range with me at 11 and him at 1. I learned from this mistake and carried on. Thankfully he did not top deck what he needed to close this game out.

Round Three: G/W Devotion. This guy was extremely nice, and although I would like to say it was close, it was not a fun game of magic because I did Mono Red shenanigans game one, and game two he chose to mulligan to probably the best three card hand I have ever seen. It just was not quite enough.

Round Four: Also a nice guy. He made an awesome play in game two where he used Setessan Tactic’s to fight his Hornet’s Nest with my board and my Magmatic Chasm I was holding back became awful. Mostly because it does not get me past those flyers. However, in game three I pulled it out. My opponent was at 9. I had a Lightning Strike in hand, a Stoke the Flames, and 3 creatures on board. One of which was Eidolon of the Great Revel. He had a revealed Mastery of the Unseen off of his Courser. I also do not think that he expected me to have double burn spell in my hand. As most red decks do not play the amount of burn that I play. He slams the Mastery hoping to turn his dudes into some life. I respond by dumping my hand. That was a close one. If I was in his position with mana dorks I would probably do the same.

Round Five: Mono White Hate Bears?! This deck was insane. Also, the woman piloting it was very nice. All I can say is, I see how it ended up at table one. This is a deck I would love to test at FNM. It had main deck Banishing Lights, Silk Wraps, Valorous Stances, God’s Willings, Seeker of the Way’s, and wait for it. FABLED HERO. This guy was absolutely insane. God’s willing this guy and you push through a ton of double strike damage. A lot of the time he got through because I had to deal with his one and two drops. (Especially Seeker of the Way). The card that almost sealed the close game three with her was Secure the Wastes. In a trading one for one matchup, this card for six mana for her straight up almost blew me out. I definitely cannot stop something even that wide, even with Arc Lightning. I won the game three by burning her one blocker out, and swinging for game. She was racing me, which I admire.

Round Six: There were three undefeated players. I was in second, hoping to double draw in. Lucky me, I got the pair down. I offered him the draw in the hopes that he would win the last round. No dice. Jeskai Dragons wanted a piece of me. I sat down, and due to easy to Searing Blood Seeker of the Way’s,Soulfire Grandmasters, and tapped lands. I clutch stole the win.

Round Seven: I drew into first seed for top 8.

Round One Top 8: Played against my friend Travis Cullum again. He beat out two people in tie breakers finishing 5-1-1. This was an extremely close game three where I had two draws to end the game or else I lost. He had Courser of Kruphix, and four life. So basically my only real out was one turn. I had one card I could draw. With four left in the deck, that is exactly what I did. I slammed Stoke The Flames and praised the prophecy for drawing my one out.

Round Two Top 4: I played against Ryan Hovis, and his Esper Control deck. His list seemed much better placed against Red than many of the Esper decks that I was testing with. Although, that was not quite enough and the Outpost Siege pulled me through.

Round Three Top 2: Played against a new buddy of mine named Rick. He was playing Abzan Aggro. As I mentioned earlier, he got me really close and slammed Wingmate Roc. Break Through The Line definitely won me this match.

Now, what would I change about my deck for next time? Although, I really like my deck list. I think the only significant changes I would make would be the inclusion of Circle of Flame in my sideboard.  I would take out a Magmatic Chasm for it. In the main deck, I would consider taking out a Hordeling Outburst for a fourth Dragon Fodder to get lower to the ground.

Play tight, and long live Atarka! See you in Cleveland!

Commanding Opinion: Sedris, the Traitor King

David Rowell Articles

I started playing Magic with New Phyrexia,  the spring of my sophomore year of high school. I had been playing the Yu-gi-oh! and Pokemon TCGs for quite a while, but I had never really tried to play Magic. My brother finally convinced me to actually give it a shot.

Needless to say, I played and just kept playing. I learned fast and started to play Standard. Sadly, I played when the entire format was just between Cawblade and Splinter Twin. The “fun” I wanted to have with the format was stifled, and I just didn’t end up playing all that much.

Then, during the Summer of 2011, I learned about EDH as it was being officially re-branded to Commander; 100 card singleton with a General, or Commander.

My brother had bought all 5 of the decks, and allowed me to use one of them – Counter Punch, with [card]Ghave, Guru of Spores[/card]. The first time I actually played it against was in a pod with [card]Cromat[/card] “good stuff,” [card]Child of Alara[/card] Allies and [card]Silvos, Rogue Elemental[/card] ramp. I ended up winning with the regular Ghave deck with few modifications.

After that, I aimed to build my first EDH deck from scratch – [card]Nicol Bolas[/card], because he was a bad-ass Dragon that I already owned. While I waited for the cards for it to arrive, I purchased Devour for Power while it was still on the shelves and played with [card]Mimeoplasm[/card] with my brother.

I went to the local EDH league (casual multi-player with store credit awarded to winners) at my local game store and promptly got second with my homebrew, but realized that my commander was really, really expensive. I only ended up casting him once, and he got countered.

Then, I saw [card]Sedris, the Traitor King[/card] in somebody’s trade binder and promptly picked him up for a little less than a dollar, and made changes to the deck. While I’ve changed it a lot over the years and dismantled it multiple times, I’ve always kept Grixis close to my heart.

sedris the traitor king

[card]Sedris. the Traitor[/card] is a 5/5 Zombie Warrior for 3UBR that seems pretty unassuming – until you read his ability.Each creature card in your graveyard has unearth 2B.

Unearth lets a creature reanimate itself for a cost – in this case, 2B. It’s a slightly forgotten ability – the only card relevant in any formats that I can think of with Unearth would be [card]Hellspark Elemental[/card].

When I first discovered Sedris and what he could do, I automatically fell in love with it. I had already been playing [card]The Mimeoplasm[/card] so I was already well versed in reanimator decks.

As a self-admitted Johnny, I ended up building this deck as a Combo deck in my personal collection.

I chose Sedris over other Grixis commanders because of his intrinsic reanimation ability. While [card]Marchesa, the Black Rose[/card] is easier to cast and animates stuff even easier, Sedris has the ablity to pull the cards back out of the graveyard after he hits the board instead of having to already be in play.

deadeye navigator

Despite being considered one of the most degenerate cards in the format, he actually serves a very good purpose here. [card]Deadeye Navigator[/card] is the major enabler in this deck. On top of being fantastic with enter the battlefield effects, he enables a slew of combos in this deck, and saves our unearthed creatures from exile by flickering them with his Soulbond ability. However, one problem with this is that a lot of people seem to disagree about this ruling, so here’s the direct text from the rules compendium:

2B: Return this card to play. The creature gains haste. Exile it at end of turn or if it would leave play. Unearth only as a sorcery.

The other important thing to note about Unearth is that it causes a delayed trigger – the “exile it at end of turn or if it would leave play” part of Unearth. There isn’t anything in particular about Unearth referring to this in the compendium, but there’s this note on the Gatherer:

If a creature returned to the battlefield with unearth would leave the battlefield for any reason, it’s exiled instead — unless the spell or ability that’s causing the creature to leave the battlefield is actually trying to exile it! In that case, it’s succeeds at exiling it. If it later returns the creature card to the battlefield, the creature card will return to the battlefield as a new object with no relation to its previous existence. The unearth effect will no longer apply to it.

This makes every creature in the deck a major threat – being able to come back to life over and over again completely removes the downside from unearth, even if it costs us a little more mana. I used to play cards like [card]Conjurer’s Closet[/card] and [card]Teferi’s Veil[/card], but they just felt too clunky and really only worked for either a slower control build or a faster aggressive build. Our combo build is somewhere in the middle. [card]Deadeye Navigator[/card] takes up the slot of exiling to keep them nicely.
duplicant

[card]Duplicant[/card] is our all-purpose removal creature that has the upside of becoming just as big as the creature you exile. It gives us an easy way to get rid of annoying creatures like [card]Iona, Shield of Emeria[/card] or indestructible creatures like [card]Avaycn, Angel of Hope[/card] or [card]Blightsteel Colossus[/card].

palinchron

[card]Palinchron[/card] untaps 7 lands whenever it comes into play – essentially being a free 4/5 flyer. There’s also the fact that [card]Palinchron[/card] + [card]Dead-eye Navigator[/card] gives us infinite mana, to do whatever we like with it. At worst, you can also unearth it to untap some lands to unearth more creatures.

runescarreddemon

[card]Rune-Scarred Demon[/card] is a second [card]Demonic Tutor[/card] for this deck, allowing us to search any combo piece we need, and just be a 6/6 flyer..

Now we’re going to cover the main combos for the deck.

kiki-jiki mirror breakerzealous conscripts

[card]Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker[/card] and [card]Zealous Conscripts[/card] together are one of the main win combos in the deck. Similar to [card]Splinter Twin[/card] and [card]Deceiver Exarch[/card], you can get infinitely many Conscripts for a straight win against every player at the table.

deadeye navigatorpalinchron

These two together are already pretty well known – 2 mana to untap 7 lands over and over again, the usual. Once you’ve gotten all the mana you need, you can always blink Deadeye to soulbond another creature and keep blinking another ETB creature.

deadeye navigatorzealous conscriptsgilded lotus

These three together are another infinite mana combo, in the case your [card]Palinchron[/card] disappears, First, you have Deadeye paired with Zealous Conscript, and then tap [card]Gilded Lotus[/card] for 3 blue mana. You use 2 of that to blink Zealous Conscripts and untap Gilded Lotus and so on until you have all the mana you’ll ever need.

The two infinite mana combos are what enable the deck to easily finish off the game. Infinite mana gives you the ability to unearth everything in your graveyard and blink whatever you want with [card]Deadeye Navigator[/card] infinitely many times, whether it be [card]Rune-Scarred Demon[/card] to search your entire library to your hand, or for [card]Inferno Titan[/card] to burn every opponent to death.

And of course, Reanimation is our forte here.

havengul lich feldon of the third path

[card]Havengul Lich[/card] gives us the ability to recast creatures out of anyone’s graveyard, and [card]Havengul Lich[/card] gets that creature’s activated abilities, as long as you cast the creature. We don’t have a ton of activated abilities in this deck, but [card]Havengul Lich[/card] gives us the ability to keep a board presence and possibly keep important combo pieces out of other people’s graveyards and keep a check on other graveyard-centric decks.

[card]Feldon of the Third Path[/card], while very new to the Commander scene, is indeed very powerful in this format. He can power out strong creatures like [card]Nicol Bolas[/card] and [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] with ease. In addition, the token is sacrificed rather than exiled and still gets death triggers, which is important for Wurmcoil engine.

As for our reanimation spells, it’s a pretty standard yet.

  • [card]Animate Dead[/card]
  • [card]Dance of the Dead[/card]
  • [card]Dread Return[/card]
  • [card]Necromancy[/card]
  • [card]Reanimate[/card]
  • [card]Victimize[/card]

Now, just because I’m a Johnny, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to attack, too.

nicol bolas

The original Commander never left – [card]Nicol Bolas[/card] is still a very mean guy – a single hit from this guy will wipe out that players entire hand. The main thing done with Nicol Bolas is to just have him in play for one turn and hit a vulnerable player with him. Reanimation + Haste is his best friend most of the time. [card]Feldon, of the Third Path[/card] is probably the best way to get him out consistently and against multiple players.

thraximundar

[card]Thraximundar[/card] is a super-aggressive card. 6/6 haste that gets bigger and eats creatures on the swing is pretty strong. A decent commander in his own rite, but not what we’re going for here. For the most part, he’s here simply to counter creatureless decks like [card[Narset, Enlightened Master[/card], [card]Melek Izzet Paragon[/card] or low creature count voltron decks like [card]Bruna, Light of Alabaster[/card], [card]Sigarda, Host of Herons[/card] and [card]Zur the Enchanter[/card]. [card]Fleshbag Marauder[/card] helps with this too.

lord of the void

[card]Lord of the Void[/card] is about as aggro as they come. A 7/7 for 4BBB, this 7/7 monstrosity lets you drag cards out of your opponent’s library. Against creature-centric decks, this is probably one of the first things you’re going to try to get in play. Even against decks like [card]Narset, Enlightened Master[/card], exiling those cards before they can get to them can be game changing.

wurmcoil engine

[card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] is a purely aggressive card. Originally a Birthing Pod and Control finisher in standard, he’s very consistently seen in Commander these days as an all around good card. A 6/6 for 6 colorless is already easy to manage in any deck, but also having Deathtouch and Lifelink on the same creature can wipe out big creatures and combos with trample enablers (not in this deck, but still relevant with cards like [card]Nylea, God of the Hunt[/card] and [card]Surrak Dragonclaw[/card] in the format. In here, he’s pure value. You don’t get his “when it dies” trigger off of Sedris, but it’s a big and swingy enough creature to turn games in your favor and eat removal without skipping a beat.

In order to get to these creatures and combos, we need a significant amount of drawing and filtering to get to them.

careful study faithless looting frantic searchizzet charm

[card]Careful Study[/card]. [card]Faithless Looting[/card], [card]Frantic Search[/card], and [card]Izzet Charm[/card] all draw 2 discard two at low mana costs to get us some early games to discard big hitters like [card]Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur[/card] and [card]Nicol Bolas[/card].

dack fayden

[card]Dack Fayden[/card], the greatest thief in the multiverse, is the only planeswalker we need for this deck. His only real purpose is to +1 and do the same as the two above cards. His -2 is also very relevant – stealing early game [card]Sol Ring[/card] and other mana rock plays. Also a very strong play against Artifact decks like [card]Sharuum, the Hegemon[/card] or [cardMemnarch[/card].

desolate lighthouse

[card]Desolate Lighthouse[/card] is a basic utility card for this deck. The deck doesn’t have very many mana sinks, and this card slots right in to giving us a discard outlet even when we may not need it.

jin gitaxias wheel of fortunereforge the soulwhispering madness

[card]Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur[/card] is a sneaky one. 10 mana is too much even in Commander, but this deck can pretty easily get him to hit the board turn 2 or 3 with an entomb and a reanimate spell. Drawing 7 and dicarding down to your maximum hand size is just as good as the other two here in most cases. [card]Wheel of Fortune[/card] and ]card]Reforge the Soul[/card] are both pretty straightforward – discard everything and draw 7. [card]Whispering Madness[/card] is a windfall with a Cipher trigger. As we can easily swing in repeatedly, it’s not uncommon that we’ll get a few uses out of it.

On to the decklist:

[deck title=Sedris the Traitor King]
[Creatures]
Body Double
Consecrated Sphinx
Dack’s Duplicate
Dead-Eye Navigator
Duplicant
Feldon of the Third Path
Fleshbag Marauder
Glen Elendra Archmage
Havengul Lich
Inferno Titan
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Lord of the Void
Nicol Bolas
Palinchron
Phyrexian Metamorph
Rune-Scarred Demon
Sedris, the Traitor King
Solemn Simulacrum
Thraximundar
Urabrask the Hidden
Wurmcoil Engine
Zealous Conscripts
{/Creatures]
[Spells]
Animate Dead
Arcane Denial
Beacon of Unrest
Black Sun’s Zenith
Blasphemous Act
Buried Alive
Careful Study
Chromatic Lantern
Counterspell
Crux of Fate
Cyclonic Rift
Dack Fayden
Dance of the Dead
Darksteel Ingot
Demonic Tutor
Dimir Signet
Dissipate
Dread Return
Dream Halls
Entomb
Exhume
Faithless Looting
Frantic Search
Gilded Lotus
Izzet Charm
Izzet Signet
Life’s Finale
Lightning Greaves
Mystical Tutor
Necromancy
Pyroblast
Reanimate
Reforge the Soul
Remand
Sensei’s Divining Top
Sol Ring
Spell Crumple
Victimize
Wheel of Fortune
Whispering Madness
[/Spells]
[Lamd]
Blackcleave Cliffs
Blood Crypt
Bloodstained Mire
Command Tower
Crumbling Necropolis
Darkslick Shores
Desolate Lighthouse
Dragonskull Summit
Drowned Catacombs
Flamekin Village
Graven Cairns
island
Mountain
Polluted Delta
Reflecting Pool
Reliquary Tower
Shivan Reef
Steam Vents
Sulfur Falls
Sunken Ruins
Swamp
Temple of Deceit
Temple of Epiphany
Temple of Malice
Temple of the False God
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Watery Crave
[/Land]
[/deck]

Now, this is by no means the only way to build Sedris, but it’s the way I’ve had the most luck with. The mana base isn’t 100% optimized, but it’s pretty close. It’s what I’ve run for my entire time playing the deck.

Until next time,

David M. Rowell

Commanding Opinion: Angus Mackenzie

David Rowell Articles

angus mackenzie

[card]Angus Mackenzie[/card] is one of the legendary creatures that are simultaneously exclusive to Legends and on the Reserved List – making it extremely expensive now. I’m surprised it didn’t spike again when Tiny Leaders became a popular format.

So what does he do?

Well, for WUG, you get a 2/2 Legendary creature. Nothing too impressive, but he’s at least playable as soon as turn 2 or 3 with the right mana fixing. His ability is the real reason he is powerful – for WUG and tap, you prevent all combat damage this turn, as long as it is done before combat damage.

Due to the fact his activated ability is [card]Fog[/card], his deck tend to play more defensively – preventing the damage makes you basically invincible to damage as long as you leave 3 mana open. The most common strategy for this is for Superfriends – Bant gives you a lot of fantastic planeswalkers combined with [card]Doubling Season[/card].

doubling season

Obviously, the main thing for a Superfriends deck is to play a ton of planeswalkers.

Essentially every Planeswalker in this deck can immediately use its ultimate if it comes into play after [card]Doubling Season[/card]. As a quick reminder, [card]Doubling Season[/card] only modifies the loyalty that the Planeswalkers enter with. They’re placed when a planeswalker enters play, but adding loyalty is a cost to use the activated ability of the planeswalker. [card]Doubling Season[/card] only causes twice as many counters to be “placed” when counters are “placed,” not added as a cost.

clockspinning

[card]Clockspinning[/card] is a more narrow card. For U, you can take a counter from any permanent or suspended card and either remove it, or add another counter of that kind to that card. As this includes loyalty counters, it’s already pretty good. It wouldn’t be worth playing if you only used it once, though – it has Buyback for 3 colorless mana, which lets you cast it and then return it to your hand if you pay the buyback cost.

gilder bairn

[card]Gilder Bairn[/card] is the only way we really have to double our Planeswalkers after they’re already in play – for 2{G/U} and an untap (not a tap) you double all of the counters on target permanent. Fairly self explanatory. The only real downside is that it has to be tapped in order to use its ability. Luckily, Angus prevents all combat damage,

M15 has given us quite a few new tools for this deck, in fact.

the chain veil

[card]The Chain Veil[/card] is the newest Superfriends support card. The downside is mostly non-existent in a Superfriends deck as you should always have at least 1 planeswalker in play that you’re using. By paying 4 mana and tapping it, you get to use each planeswalker you control an additional time this turn. This can easily push certain Planeswalkers over the amount of counters that they would need to activate their final abilities.

rings of brighthearth

Combined with [card]Rings of Brighthearth[/card], you can then double the Chain Veil activation to get an additional two planeswalker abilities per planeswalker you control. Even when you don’t have the Chain Veil in play, you can use the Rings to get additional planeswalker abilities (though no additional loyalty counters).

ajani steadfast jace the living guildpact

We also got two new Planeswalkers from Magic 2015 that feel almost exclusively for Superfriends. [card]Ajani Steadfast[/card] has a powerful -2 that helps out your other Planeswalkers, but his ultimate combined with [card]Doubling Season[/card] gives you an emblem that causes all damage that you or your Planeswalkers would take from a source to 1 – making it much easier to survive an onslaught even if Angus isn’t in play. [card]Jace, the Living Guildpact[/card] is fairly strong in this deck. His +1 isn’t as bad in Commander as it is in Constructed due to the size of the decks, but his ultimate at -8 is just ridiculous and it can automatically go off with [card]Doubling Season[/card].

teferi temporal archmage

While [card]Teferi, Temporal Archmage[/card] is allowed as a commander, he serves a much better purpose in a Superfriends deck like this. His -10 is the most notable aspect when it comes to this deck. The emblem he gives you lets you use your planeswalkers every turn, not just on your own turns. Aside from that, his +1 is solid card filtering, and his -1 is very powerful as well, untapping important artifacts like [card]The Chain Veil[/card], and whatever mana rocks you play.

seedborn museProphet_of_Kruphix

[card]Seedborn Muse[/card] is already a fantastic card in Commander, and Teferi just makes it even better. It essentially lets you use each of your planeswalker’s abilities twice every turn, including your opponent’s turns. [card]Prophet of Kruphix[/card] is also very good, but Seedborn Muse is strictly better in this build of the deck due to lack of creatures and the number of permanents we’d like untapped.

karn liberatedugin the spirit dragon

Our two colorless planeswalkers (the only two in the game, to be fair) are both ridiculously powerful, especially with doubling season. Even with Karn unable to ultimate directly off [card]Doubling Season[/card], having 12 starting loyalty even at 7 mana is ridiculous (and his regular 6 still isn’t bad) and his +4, while better in 1v1 than multiplayer, can slowly whittle away player’s hands while pumping up Karn. [card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/card] on the other hand does go ultimate just with [card]Doubling Season[/card]. His -10 gains you 7 life, draws you 7 cards, and put any 7 permanents in your hand into play. Very, very powerful.  His +2 is also pretty solid burn/removal, especially on a colorless permanent that gives us 2 loyalty. The -X is mostly an emergency board wipe if we desparately need it, but hopefully you won’t, as it’s very likely to kill Angus. However, it is very good against token decks, as you can -0 to kill all colored tokens in play. Just a little tip.

narset transcendent

[card]Narset Transcendent[/card] is a new planeswalker from Dragons of Tarkir. An alternate time line of [card]Narset, Enlightened Master[/card] (who will get her own article or two in some time) [card]Narset Transcendent[/card] is a ridiculous card, especially with the ultimate. The +1 is very solid in this deck as we play only 10 creatures (plus our commander) you have about a 51% chance of hitting a non-creature non-land card off of her ability. The -2 isn’t too relevant, but it’s usable on removal like [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card] and [card]Path to Exile[/card] to get rid of a few problematic creatures. The big thing is the ultimate – opponents are unable to cast noncreature spells for the rest of the game. There’s plenty of decks in Commander that don’t play very many creatures, so this can easily completely swing a game in your favor, depending on what you’re playing against.

The rest of the Planeswalkers in the deck are simply there to have their ultimates able to be activated with [card]Doubling Season[/card] on board, mostly.

The deck essentially is a pillow fort deck – just prevent people from doing anything to you. With the planeswalkers, it constantly gives you something to do with all the time pillow-forting provides.

Without further ado, here’s the list I compiled.

[deck title=Angus Mackenzie Superfriends]
[Creatures]
Angus Mackenzie
Azor’s Elocutors
Gilder Bairn
Lighthouse Chronologist
Prophet of Kruphix
Seedborn Muse
Silent Arbiter
Spike Weaver
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Trinket Mage
Viral Drake
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
Ajani Steadfast
Arcane Denial
Azorious Signet
Chord of Calling
Clockspinning
Constant Mists
Contagion Engine
Counterspell
Crab Umbra
Creeping Renaissance
Cultivate
Darksteel Ingot
Darksteel Plate
Doubling Season
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
Enlightened Tutor
Explosive Vegetation
Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury
Ghostly Prison
Inexorable Tide
Jace, Architect of Thought
Jace Beleren
Jace, the Living Guildpact
Karn Liberated
Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Kirtar’s Wrath
Krosan Grip
Lightning Greaves
Mirari’s Wake
Mystical Tutor
Narset Transcendent
Nature’s Lore
Path to Exile
Propaganda
Ranger’s Path
Rewind
Rings of Brighthearth
Selesnya Signet
Simic Signet
Sol Ring
Skyshroud Claim
Supreme Verdict
Swords to Plowshares
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Tezzeret the Seejer
The Chain Veil
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Wrath of God
[/Spells]
[Land]
Ancient Den
Breeding Pool
Command Tower
Flooded Grove
Flooded Strand
5 Forest
Glacial Fortress
Hallowed Fountain
Hinterland Harbor
4 Island
Kor Haven
Maze of Ith
Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
Mystic Gate
3 Plains
Prahv, Spires of Order
Razorverge Thicket
Reliquary Tower
Seachrome Coast
Seat of the Synod
Sunpetal Grove
Temple Garden
Temple of Enlightenment
Temple of Mystery
Temple of Plenty
Temple of the False God
Tree of Tales
Windswept Heath
Wooded Bastion
[/Land]

[/deck]

viral drake contagion engine

The deck also has a few cards to Profilerate.

You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.

Viral Drake is the more important of the two due to the fact it can practically be a win condition on it’s own. As Proliferate does work with infect, a single counter from [card]Viral Drake[/card] could lead to death after a few activations of its second ability.

Contagion Engine is also a very good card, especially against decks like [card]Darien, King of Kjeldor[/card] or [card]Krenko, Mob Boss[/card] due to the fact that it puts a -1/-1 counter on each creature target player controls when it comes into play, and then has the ability to proliferate not once, but twice per activation.

inexorable tide

[card]Inexorable Tide[/card] is another really cool card – every time you cast a spell, proliferate. Pretty much as strong as the above cards, but it’s very good with [card]Clockspinning[/card] due to the fact you can keep casting it over and over again due to Clockspinning’s Buyback.

All of t hese allow you to add counters to planeswalkers you have, as well as increase the number of level up counters on [card]Lighthouse Chronologist[/card] or the filibuster counters on [card]Azor’s Elocutors[/card]. Aside from that, the deck essentially just spams planeswalker abilities and just pillowforts as much as it needs to until it accomplishes what it needs to.

azors elocutors

 

[card]Azor’s Elocutors[/card] is one of the main win conditions of the deck. For 3{W/U)(W/U), you get a 3/5 that doesn’t have any impact on the board state – or does he?

At the beginning of each upkeep, he gets a Filibuster Counter – and if you have 5 or more of them, you win. With cards like [card]Doubling Season[/card], [card]Clockspinning[/card], and [card]Gilder Bairn[/card] you can win over the course of one or two turns.

The downside is that any time you take damage from any source, he loses a filibuster counter. Luckily, our Commander just happens to prevent damage – lucky us, huh?

lighthouse chronologist

[card]Lighthouse Chronologist[/card] is probably the coolest level up card from Rise of the Eldrazi. He lets you take a turn after every turn that isn’t yours – if you get him up to level 7. Again, with all of our counter doubling, it really isn’t that difficult to get him up to 7.

Superfriends is a really cool concept, and I think that Angus is one of the deck options for it. And of course, this isn’t the only way to build an Angus Mackenzie deck or a Superfriends deck – but it’s what I recommend.

Until next time.

-SolemnParty

Brainstorm Brewery #143 – Double Down

Brainstorm Brewery Brainstorm Brewery, Podcasts 1:31:19

VEGAS HYPE.

 

Sorry, that slipped out. But, you know. Vegas. Ummmm you know. Hype.

 

If the gang wasn’t hyped enough already, the cast of the Command Zone EDH podcast on Rocketjump, Jimmy Wong (@jfwong) and Josh Lee Kwai (@JoshLeeKwai)  come by to talk Vegas, EDH, the PT, the CHEATERS at the PT and more. It’s a great discussion and it goes a little long. BONUS cast! It’s not quite double length, but what do you expect with double the guests? You expect professional quality EDH, finance and Magic gossip information. So put it in your head already.

 

  • The gang is joined by Josh Lee Kwai (@JoshLeeKwai) and Jimmy Wong (@jfwong)
  • VEGAS HYYYYYYPE
  • Finance 101 is all about EDH sealed product
  • EDH is discussed at length. Marcel is sad.
  • Buy a shirt, nerd.
  • There was a PT!
  • Cards got played!
  • Cheating was perpetuated!
  • Chapin? Cheater or no?
  • Should Magic get instant replay like sports?
  • Pick of the week!
  • Support our Patreon! DO IT. You know this cast makes you more than $1 a week
  • Need to contact us? Hit up [email protected]

 

Cabe Riseau produced the intro and outro music for Brainstorm Brewery.

Contact Us!

Brainstorm Brewery – Website – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – RSS – iTunes – Stitcher

Ryan Bushard – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook

Corbin Hosler – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Jason E Alt – E-mail – Twitter – Facebook – QuietSpeculation

Marcel White – E-mail – Twitter

Weekend Magic: 4/10-4/12

Jared Yost Articles

This weekend brought us Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir. After an intense weekend (especially due to all the infractions that were documented) there was a healthy diversity of decks that made the Top 8. Let’s take a look at these decks and see what types of cards from Dragons were seeing play.

Top 8

Decklists

The deck that took down the whole tournament was Martin Dang’s R/g Aggro, where the only card he was splashing green for was four [card]Atarka’s Command[/card] and one [card]Become Immense[/card] as a surprise finisher. If this hasn’t been stated enough already, [card]Atarka’s Command[/card] is the real deal and you should expect to see it plenty of more times over the course of Khans Standard. Not only that, but the card is also pretty insane in Modern – I hear having some additional [card]Boros Cham[/card] utility is never a bad thing and at rare it means that the card will sustain a much higher price over the long term without a reprint.

Also present from Dragons were three [card]Zurgo Bellstriker[/card], four [card]Dragon Fodder[/card], and four [card]Roast[/card] out of the sideboard. Zurgo and Dragon Fodder are not suprising, as they can easily increase the clock against opponents who are playing a slower match that provide nice early turn plays to create tempo for the deck. I expect since Dang’s deck is so easily to pilot that we’ll be seeing it more and more over the coming months, unless a control archetype is established that is able to push it out of the format. I think we’ve seen in the past though that Red Deck Wins has been around for quite some time in Standard, and this time yet again I think we’ll be seeing it over the coming months.

Looking at the runnerup’s deck, Shota Yasooka was on Blue-Black Control which is the exact opposite of what Dang’s deck is trying to accomplish. The deck operates much more slowly and eventually builds itself up to a position where it can take down the opponent after establishing control. Two [card]Dragonlord Silumgar[/card], three [card]Icefall Regent[/card], two [card]Foul-Tongue Invocation[/card], four [card]Silumgar’s Scorn[/card], two [card]Ultimate Price[/card], and one [card]Haven of the Spirit Dragon[/card]  made the main deck while [card]Ultimate Price[/card], [card]Stratus Dancer[/card], [card]Duress[/card], [card]Virulent Plague[/card], and [card]Dragonlord’s Prerogative[/card] made the sideboard. Based on his results, it looks like Dragons has added plenty of good cards to the control player’s arsenal. [card]Silumgar’s Scorn[/card] especially is a spicy card, since as the game goes on it turns in [card]Counterspell[/card] which is extremely powerful for the mana cost. Control definitely has some exciting days ahead and plenty of new toys to play around with from Dragons.

Rounding out the Top 8, other cards from Dragons making waves include:

  • Four [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card] and two [card]Surrak, the Hunt Caller[/card] from Starsky’s Green Devotion
  • One [card]Dragonlord’s Prerogative[/card] and one [card]Ultimate Price[/card] from Sullivan’s Blue-Black Control
  • Three [card]Surrak, the Hunt Caller[/card], four [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card], one [card]Roast[/card], two [card]Draconic Roar[/card], and one [card]Haven of the Spirit Dragon[/card] in Chung’s Red-Green Dragons. There was also one more [card]Roast[/card] in the sideboard.
  • Two [card]Ultimate Price[/card] and two [card]Duress[/card] out of the sideboard in Cammilluzzi’s Abzan Control
  • Three [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card] and two [card]Shaman of the Forgotten Ways[/card] out of Hendriks’ Green Devotion
  • Two [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card], two [card]Dragonlord Silumgar[/card], two [card]Icefall Regent[/card], one [card]Dragonlord’s Prerogative[/card], three [card]Foul-Tongue Invocation[/card], four [card]Silumgar’s Scorn[/card], two [card]Ultimate Price[/card], and two [card]Haven of the Spirit Dragon[/card] in Ohlschwager’s Blue-Black Control. Also one [card]Foul-Tongue[/card] Invocation and one [card]Virulent Plague[/card] out of the sideboard.

As you can see, Dragons affected some decks more than others. We’ll have to wait and see how Standard will be shaken up over the next few weeks based on the results. Until then, we’ll just have to take a look at the numbers from 24-27 points or better to see if there are any other Dragons of Tarkir cards that did well yet didn’t make the Top 8 of the tournament.

24-27 Points or Better

Some trending cards from the rest of the top finishers include:

  • Even though the card didn’t make the Top 8, [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] was one of the most played cards in the tournament from Dragons. There were multiple decks playing three to four copies since it is very versatile in the current Standard. I expect we’ll continue to see plenty of Dromoka’s Commands being cast over the coming months, along with of course [card]Atarka’s Command[/card].
  • Let’s also not forget about [card]Deathmist Raptor[/card]. This efficient, death-touching lizard beast is certainly going to be used to nicely fill out curves over the coming months. Not only does it provide a decent threat that is also a rattlesnake, it also has recursion in the late game! You can’t ask much more from your three drops which is why plenty of pros opted to play Clever Girl.
  • [card]Den Protector[/card] is a surprising notable, and while not every green mage was packing them this weekend they still showed up across a few different decks that did well. It has just enough going for it that it can be a decent threat that like Raptor allows you to recur things later in the game. Keep an eye out for Protectors, as not every morph is going to be Raptor from this point on!
  • [card]Secure the Wastes[/card] – Only viable in token strategies, but it can really do work when your opponent isn’t expecting it! Having a surprise four tokens at the end of a turn that are ready to attack with a [card]Jeskai Ascendency[/card] in play are not joke.
  • [card]Sidisi, Undead Vizier[/card] – Yes, due to her utility and [card]Demonic Tutor[/card] powers the pros also felt that Sidisi had much to offer. The only downside is that sometimes you don’t exploit because you need the body, and other times you’re paying five mana for Demonic Tutor which is pretty terrible. When it works though, it works well.
  • [card]Encase in Ice[/card], [card]Self-Inflicted Wound[/card], [card]Display of Dominance[/card], [card]Rending Volley[/card] – Great sideboard cards are great, so expect to see some hate for your color’s enemies as we continue through Standard due to the new color hosers getting printed in Dragons.
  • Minor appearances were also made by [card]Ojutai Exemplars[/card], [card]Dragonlord Dromoka[/card], [card]Kolaghan’s Command[/card], [card]Dragon Whisperer[/card], and [card]Collected Company[/card] but not enough copies were seen to note any trends amongst all the 24-27 decks. These cards appeared more as tech rather than real threats that were the core of the player’s deck.

There we are, with another Pro Tour come and gone. Though many players have despaired Dragons as being a “weak” set, I think this Pro Tour has proven that there is power in several of the cards that have been printed. In the grand scheme of things, I think we’ll need to wait and see if anything else emerges but this is what we have for now in Standard. Until next week!

Pitt Imps Podcast #114 We Be Draft’in

Pitt Imps Pitt Imps, Podcasts 01:28:29

This weeks show starts with Angelo talking about some very personal things that has been going on. You know all the things he normally says he doesn’t want to talk about. Then after a the guys take a break they come back to go over SCG Cuse. They go over the slight rules changes to Platinum Pro’s and PPTQ’s. Then they draft for the PT.

Host Angelo     Twitter  @ganksuou

Co-Host Mike    Twitter  @Huntmaster_Mike

Co-Host Will    Facebook

Email  [email protected]

Pitt Imps is brought to you by Brainstorm Brewery and Taitan Game Shop

Just Juett: DKK Draft #1 (Video)

Jarred Juett Videos

Winning TCGplayer Modern States

Max Perlmutter Articles

Believe it or not, I haven’t written a tournament report in a long time and I don’t think I have ever written a report on a deck that wasn’t Zoo. But that’s what I’m going to do today.

Here goes nothing!

The Deck

[deck title=Infect]
[creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
2 Spellskite
1 Ichorclaw Myr
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Become Immense
2 apostle’s blessing
2 Distortion Strike
2 Wild Defiance
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
2 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
2 PendelHaven
4 Inkmoth Nexus
[/lands]
[sideboard]
4 Nature’s Claim
2 Dispel
2 Spell Pierce
2 Twisted Image
2 Spellskite
1 Wild Defiance
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Distortion Strike
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

I love how the maindeck feels with this configuration. However, I want to make some sideboard changes. I love having the third [card]Distortion Strike[/card] in my sideboard but since the deck is such a dog to [card]Chalice of the Void[/card], I want to cut it and possibly one of my [card]Nature’s Claim[/card]s for [card]Viridian Corrupter[/card].

The Tournament

The tournament was held at Top Deck Games in New Jersey, which is one of my favorite stores to play at in the area. Since Pennsylvania states were six hours away in Pittsburgh it was logical to go battle in New Jersey. For those who don’t know me, I will mercilessly talk shit on New Jersey, as any self-respecting Philadelphian does. Suffice to say I will never live this down.

The first few rounds were mostly easy wins. I played against the [card]Goryo’s Vengeance[/card] deck and killed it before they could go off in two quick games. Following that I beat up on [card]Splinter Twin[/card] a bunch before picking up losses to Grixis Delver and their [card]Izzet Staticaster[/card]s, as well as Green-Black Infect, which just obliterated me.

inkmothnexus

 

Going into the final round of Swiss, my opponent assumed we were dead for top 8 and conceded to me. He didn’t realize while we were 9th and 10th in the standings that 7th and 8th were also battling it out against each other. Based on tiebreakers, the winner of our match would be the 8th seed. I guess this was my lucky day.

Quarterfinals: Infect Vs Affinity

I played against the first seed, who was a person I know pretty well, as we play at the same local store. We both knew what the other was playing, and that Infect versus Affinity is always a race. I won game one on an easy kill before dying to [card]Chalice of the Void[/card] in game two.

Game three, I took my first turn: just a land, nothing special. My opponent responds on his turn by putting six permanents into play. Instead of deploying a threat, I held up [card]Spell Pierce[/card] and I got rewarded when I got a target on turn two.. After that a couple of pump spells sealed the deal and I was through. Pretty lucky day I’d say.

Semifinals: Infect Vs RWg Burn

I lost game one, which is just an awful game for Infect anyway. I Probed on turn one and say a hand that told me I was dead on turn four. My opponent had revealed [card]Skullcrack[/card] to me off my Probe and decided to mock me after I called a judge for an oracle text because I wanted to make sure it had the damage prevention clause so I didn’t burn an [card]Apostle’s Blessing[/card] trying to block. He of course thought I was an idiot and assumed I wanted to redirect it to my [card]Spellskite[/card].

I won game two and he punted game three when I was dead on board, because instead of reading [card]Wild Defiance[/card] he just assumed it would trigger off of [card]Grim Lavamancer[/card].

I guess it was a little bit of karmic justice helping me get the win. People, please treat your opponents with respect.

Finals: Infect Vs Affinity

My opponent for this round was an incredibly good Affinity pilot named Vipin Chackonal, the runner up of Grand Prix Richmond. Luckily, my deck decided I would have an unblockable, nearly unstoppable, turn-three kill in game one, so that was nice.

In game two, I mulliganed down to three cards and didn’t see a land, but at least I didn’t reveal any information and I would get to be on the play.

In our final game, I played a fetch land on turn one and simply passed. Vipin played a [card]Glimmervoid[/card] followed by a [card]Mox Opal[/card], in response to which I made the heads-up play of Spell Piercing. After that, he Thoughtseized me and then placed his Glimmervoid in the graveyard. My [card]Blighted Agent[/card]s were able to finish off the game.

I had won the tournament.

furnacecelebration

Going Forward

This deck is insane to play and I’m having loads of fun with this change of pace. I was considering brewing up a CounterCat-esque Zoo list for Star City Games States next week, but after this tournament, I’m going to just make some sideboard changes and run this one back.

I hope you enjoyed this and hopefully I’ll have another one for you after next week!

Just Juett: FKK Draft #1

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Brainstorm Brewery #142 – Strange Brew

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Kitchen-Table Magic: Ta Ta Tuck

David Beedy Articles

I’ve been playing Commander with my kitchen-table group of friends since the original Commander decks were produced by Wizards of the Coast. I remember sitting in the food court area at GenCon back in 2011 with newly opened Commander decks. We had no idea what we were getting into, but we have had great fun with the format.

In case you have been hiding under a rock for the past couple weeks, you should know that the Commander rules committee adjusted the rules of the format so that when your commander is changing zones to your hand or your library, you can now choose to send it instead to the command zone. In the past, the hand and library were the only two places a commander could be sent without the “send to the command zone” replacement effect.

My play group never really understood the tucking rule. It didn’t seem to fit the format. Why would a format that bends over backwards to keep its commander within reach have this complex way to hide another player’s commander in their deck?

Elder Dragon HIGHLANDER

In Elder Dragon Highlander, “There can be only one.” The “Gathering” in Magic: The Gathering may have gotten its original name partly from the “game” played by immortals in Highlander, powerful beings searching for and defeating one another in combat.

ugin the spirit dragon

The Commander format takes that idea one step further and identifies a legendary creature as the commander to serve in the immortal planeswalker’s place. That creature should assume an immortal role in games of Commander by being available to cast from the command zone no matter how many times the creature is killed or removed from play. Under the rules of Highlander, an immortal keeps coming back until you chop off its head. In Magic, that means taking your opponent’s life total to zero.

Tucking the commander never felt right. It felt like getting your head cut off, but without the instant-death effect. Instead, death came slowly over the next 14 turns as your commander deck bled all over the floor.

Unnecessary Complication

Tucking was always just a little too complicated to explain to new Commander players. It should be simple to explain. If your commander is removed from play in any manner, you can have it go to the command zone instead.

Tucking complicates the dance between the command zone and all other zones. Instead of being simple, explaining where the commander goes based on which effect is resolving was always face-melting.

“If your commander dies, you can put it back in the command zone instead of the graveyard. If it gets exiled, same thing. Now, if it gets sent to the bottom of your library, you are out of luck.” Huh? I’ve been asked why tucking was the rule, and I have never really been able to explain it. Flavor-wise, it does not make sense. Rule simplification-wise, it still does not make sense.

Where Did My Deck Go?

When I build Commander decks, I use my commander card as the focal point. It is a Johnny’s wet dream! You know you will have access to the commander card all game long, so you can fantasize about all those crazy interactions between your commander and the rest of your deck.

When the commander card is tucked, all your dreams turn into poopy diapers. When a commander is tucked, a lot of the fun of a deck is tucked with it. I am glad the rules committee said “no more.”

dragonscards5

Tuck Haters

It should be noted that there are some long-time Magic players out there who will get into Commander precisely because tucking is no longer involved.

Do you have friends who play Magic, but hate Commander, like Marcel of Brainstorm Brewery fame? Maybe the death of tucking will tempt some experienced Magic players who had a bad tuck experience or just thought that tucking was too counterintuitive among the other rules of the format. I believe that removing the tuck rule and making the interaction between commanders and zones simple will keep more players engaged with the format. More players keeps the format healthier.

Tutors Still Fun

Will we play fewer tutors? I doubt it. In a 100-card singleton format, tutors buy a little more consistency. Plus, there is always that one combo that ends the game.

If you aren’t playing at least one game-ending combo in your Commander decks, you should consider adding them. Sometimes, we just need to put the game out of its misery. Tutors get that job done nicely. I don’t agree with the rules committee that changing the tuck rule will decrease the number of tutors people are playing. Tutors are still very good (and fun!) in a format with 99-card libraries.

I have listened to the belly-aching from many a podcast host and column writer over the rule change. I think it is a positive one that simplifies the rules and stays true to the spirit of the original Elder Dragon Highlander. I am guessing the tuck rule was in place because of troublesome commanders with few outs. Instead of creating a rule that complicates the game, ban those commanders. I think the committee was correct in this rule change. Could we see some new commander bannings in the future resulting from this change? I think it is highly likely.

Brago Returns

My brother has a [card]Brago, King Eternal[/card] deck. He loves Brago. Everyone else hates it. When Brago comes out, it gets tucked. Every time. When we see Brago sitting in the command zone, we save our tuck effects for it.

The result is that my brother never gets to play his Brago deck. There are other ways to deal with the Brago deck without tucking Brago, but tucking the commander is the easiest way to deal with it, so that is how we do it.

Now that the rules have changed, we will have to start investigating the other ways to deal with the Brago deck without tucking. My brother gets to play his Brago deck, and we get a new challenge, figuring out a new way to make him suffer. That seems like a win for everyone.

Weekend Magic: 4/3-4/5

Jared Yost Articles

Last weekend brought us Star City Games: Syracuse. This Open featured Standard as the main event with a side of Modern and Legacy. Let’s see what the results were and note any trending cards amongst the lists.

Star City Games Open – Standard (Syracuse, USA)

Decklists

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
G/R Aggro 1st Chris VanMeter Jund Midrange 9th Gerard Fabiano
Abzan Aggro 2nd Jesse Grogan R/G Aggro 10th Aaron Garitillo
Temur Aggro 3rd Andrew Nacci Jeskai Tokens 11th Todd Anderson
Mono-Red Aggro 4th Michael Egolf Abzan Aggro 12th John Davison
R/g Aggro 5th Ryan Sandrin R/g Aggro 13th Chris Thomas
G/R Aggro 6th Stephen Rice G/R Aggro 14th Xavier Biron
Bant Heroic 7th Tom Ross G/R Aggro 15th Brandon Pascal
G/R Aggro 8th Van Nguyen Abzan Aggro 16th Max Mitchell

Chris VanMeter took down the event piloting G/R Aggro, which also put three other people into the Top 8 and another four into the Top 16 (basically half the top 16 was G/R, though there were differing archetypes among these decks which I’ll get to later). This has been an established Standard archetype ever since [card]Xenagos, the Reveler[/card] was introduced to Standard with Theros block but it definitely looks like Dragons of Tarkir has given this deck some tools to make it really strong. Chris is playing three Xenagos along with some new additions from Dragons of Tarkir. The deck featured a playset of [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card], two [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card], a playset of [card]Draconic Roar[/card], and two [card]Roast[/card]. Last week, we saw that Roast is one of the most played uncommons in Standard at the moment, because five damage for two mana is extremely efficient.  The deck also played three copies of [card]Haven of the Spirit Dragon[/card], which I’m sure was nice to recur killed Atarka’s for value. Even getting back [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card] and [card]Strombreath Dragon[/card] is pretty nice too, especially if you can play them on curve the turn that you sacrifice the land to return them to your hand. In the sideboard, there is another [card]Roast[/card] along with [card]Seismic Rupture[/card] from Dragons.

G/R Aggro Decks in general were playing the following cards from Dragons:

  • Midrange Version
    • [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card] (playset)
    • [card]Surrak, the Hunt Caller[/card] (two to three copies)
    • [card]Draconic Roar[/card] (two to four copies)
    • [card]Haven of the Spirit Dragon[/card] (one to three copies)
    • [card]Deathmist Raptor[/card] showed up in two lists as well
  • True Aggro Version
    • [card]Lightning Berserker[/card] (two to four copies)
    • [card]Zurgo Bellstriker[/card] (three to four copies)
    • [card]Atarka’s Command[/card] (three to four copies)

The second place deck, Abzan Aggro, featured a playset of [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] across the main deck and sideboard. Other notable cards included were a playset of [card]Siege Rhino[/card], [card]Rakshasa Deathdealer[/card], and three [card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/card].

Notables from the rest of the Top 8:

  • Three [card]Frostwalker[/card], four [card]Savage Knuckleblade[/card], three [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card], and two [card]Surrak, the Hunt Caller[/card] in Temur Aggro
  • Four [card]Lightning Berserker[/card] and three [card]Zurgo Bellstriker[/card] in Mono-Red Aggro
  • Four [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] in Bant Heroic

Notables from the rest of the Top 16:

  • One [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card] and two [card]Sidisi, Undead Vizier[/card] from Jund Midrange. This deck is pretty interesting as we’ve never seen a deck before that’s tried to combine [card]Outpost Siege[/card] into a G/B deck build but as we’ve seen over the past several months we should just learn to expect as much from Fabiano!
  • One [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card], three [card]Anticipate[/card], and two [card]Secure the Wastes[/card] in Jeskai Tokens
  • Three [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] in Davison’s Abzan Aggro, along with three [card]Ultimate Price[/card] out of the sideboard
  • Two [card]Surrak, the Hunt Caller[/card] and two [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] in Mitchell’s Abzan Aggro

Though it would appear that G/R or R/g strategies dominated this Standard Open, there was still plenty of innovation going on even in established lists like U/W/x Heroic.

Star City Games Premier IQ – Modern (Syracuse, USA)

Decklists

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
Affinity 1st James Harrod Hatebears 9th David Gree
G/W Hate Bears 2nd Kyle Dauch Abzan Midrange 10th John Boccardo`
Jund Midrange 3rd Andrew Boswell Abzan Collected Company 11th Max Brown
Abzan 4th Jacob Lee Abzan Midrange 12th Kevin Florio
U/R Twin 5th Nick Kent G/R Tron 13th Taylor Stovenson
Affinity 6th Andrew Skorik UR Delver 14th Edgar Bustos
Jund Midrange 7th Rudy Briskza Grixis Twin 15th Dan Jessup
Abzan Midrange 8th MIchael Derzco Affinity 16th Randy Belcher

Affinity took down the Modern portion of the event, with another copy of Affinity, two Abzan, and two Jund decks also placing in the Top 8. The second place deck was G/W Hatebears, which is a deck that can do well at Modern events if they are packing the right type of hate. Key cards from Dauch’s deck included four [card]Aven Mindcensor[/card], four [card]Leonin Arbiter[/card], four [card]Noble Hierarch[/card], three [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card], and three [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card]. The deck was strangely packing many 1-of’s without any way to tutor for them, which is interesting but allows easier sideboard decisions I guess. [card]Horizon Canopy[/card] also helps filter through the deck, so maybe that was the reason he didn’t want to play more than one [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card] or [card]Linvala, Keeper of Silence[/card]. Either way, the deck did well and will continue to put up results in Legacy as Wizards continue to print more “hate” creatures in green and white.

Who says [card]Dark Confidant[/card] is irrelevant in Modern? Boswell’s Jund Midrange was packing a full playset of Bob and he seemed to do pretty well at this event coming in third. Though it should be noted that the other Top 8 Jund Midrange did not play any copies of Bob and also reached about the same level of success. We even have our first Dragons of Tarkir card featured in this deck, one [card]Kolaghan’s Command[/card] out of the sideboard. Speaking of which, looking at Briskza’s list he was playing two copies of [card]Kolaghan’s Command[/card], one in the main deck and one in the sideboard. Another card featured in the decks was [card]Huntmaster of the Fells[/card], with one version opting to play two copies main deck and the other version playing two copies in the sideboard.

Rounding out the rest of the Top 16, another copy of Hatebears appears along with a new deck called Abzan Collected Company. Featuring four Dragons of Tarkir [card]Collected Company[/card], the deck also utilizes [card]Congregation at Dawn[/card] in order to setup some pretty C.C situations where you’re going to get a ton of value. Is this the new direction that the old [card]Birthing Pod[/card] deck are going to go? I’m not sure if its good enough to play at larger events but the build is so unique that I would love to see it continue to see more results. It even plays [card]Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit[/card] for value with [card]Melira, Sylvok Outcast[/card]!

Star City Games Premier IQ – Modern (Legacy, USA)

Decklists

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
Jeskai Stoneblade 1st David Melendez Death and Taxes 9th Adam Quinlon
Deadguy Ale 2nd Wilkin Chau Deadguy Ale 10th Aaron Webster
Miracles 3rd Drew Brantner Elves 11th Erik Burger
Grixis Control 4th Jason Smith Storm 12th Bryant Cook
Miracles 5th Ronald Mackenzie Dark Maverick 13th Jesse Adams
Shardless Sultai 6th Ted McCulskie Burn 14th Nicholas Herbs
Mono-Red Burn 7th Jacob Shannon Jund 15th Douglas Wilson
Sultai Delver 8th Elliot Wolchesky Sultai Delver 16th Paulo Cesari

Deadguy Ale is the story of this Legacy event, which put two people into the Top 16. A deck that hasn’t put up any results in quite some time, Deadguy Ale is pretty much your classic B/W discard heavy deck that plays efficient threats while tearing the opponent’s hand apart. More recently, the deck has been called Pikula since Chris Pikula brought it back as an Abzan-based deck, however the original name hearkens back to the days when it was only black and white.

[card]Hymn to Tourach[/card] is usually seen, but not always. In this case, Chau’s opted to play Hymn while Webster chose to splash green for [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] and [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]. Chau’s deck stuck to a main deck of black/white only spells with a splash of green for sideboard answers like [card]Engineered Explosives[/card] and [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card]. [card]Chrome Mox[/card] is an interesting addition to the deck, which allows it to play [card]Lingering Souls[/card], [card]Vindicate[/card], or [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] a turn earlier than expected. You could even have a turn one [card]Dark Confidant[/card] or [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card]! Certainly an interesting deck to say the least.

Dark Maverick is also a more unique deck. Notables included four [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], four [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card], and four [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card]. Dark refers to playing black for [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] and some choice sideboard cards. [card]Sigarda, Host of Herons[/card] also showed up in this build as a nice GSZ target against [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card].

Rounding out the rest of the Top 16 is pretty much your average Legacy metagame these days. Nothing really innovative or exciting in the rest of the lists.

That’s all for this week! Keep checking back for more weekend Magic results.

Commanding Opinion: Toshiro Umezawa

David Rowell Articles

Sorry for having not written anything in quite a while. I’ve been very, very busy with work and family life, so I’m going to be making some edits to guest posts I received a while back and reposting them on here so people can still enjoy them.

This was originally a guest post from when I wrote on WinTargetGame.net. We were taking posts from people on Reddit and reposting them to our site with their permission. Since they wrote these articles specifically for us, I want them to still be out there on a public forum to be discussed and viewed. Anything in these is not necessarily my opinion, but the opinion of the people that submitted these posts to me.

On with the post!

Does anyone else out there remember when every Magic set got a novel? I used to love that, I collected those little paperback bastards and would always have a dogeared copy of one of them in my backpack next to my books for English class. While Kamigawa block had some gameplay issues, its novels were stellar. I recently reread them and in doing so reacquainted myself with [card]Toshiro Umezawa[/card].

Last time I read through the Kamigawa trilogy, EDH was not a thing, now I had the ability to bring my favourite character from the books to life on the tabletop. This is how my Mono-Black KILL ALL THE THINGS deck was born.

toshiro umezawa

Having played him for a while now, I have discovered that Toshiro is a very cool card and he possesses exceptional potential—but he comes with some serious pros and cons.

Pros

He Is Cheap – A mono-color Commander with CMC 3 is exceptionally easy to cast and re-cast. You can reliably count on Toshiro to be present for the majority of the time you’re playing the deck.
He Is Unassuming – Commander players take the phrase “fear the unknown” and turn it on its head. When you sit down for a game of Commander, the table is far more likely to attack the deck that has slaughtered them before than the deck they have never seen. There is almost no one out there that has seen a Toshiro Commander deck which is a massive advantage for you.
His Ability Is Powerful – Once you have figured out how to make Toshiro tick, he is an absolutely devastating Commander.

Cons

He Is Tricky To Master – Figuring out what makes Toshiro tick will take some time. I have been playing him consistently for months, with solid success, and there are still micro-interactions in my deck that I don’t notice until it is too late.
Indestructible and Hexproof Ruin Your Day – You will have to play some niche answers to these keywords because an Avacyn or an Uril will shred your face if you’re just relying on Black “good stuff” to carry the day.

Toshiro is an odd duck because he is both linear and flexible.

In order for it to make sense to play him as your Commander, you have to have lots of instants and you have to make sure that there are a lot of things dying on your opponents’ side of the board. A Commander with so many caveats to success definitely falls into the “linear” camp.

Toshi’s flexibility comes from his color identity. Mono-black loves playing instants that also happen to kill things. There is a surprisingly deep card pool of viable options to choose from with Toshi and there are many viable lists that can be drawn from such a “linear” Commander.

The wide variety of options aside, here are some things most Toshi lists should play:

A Quick Disclaimer

Before you die-hard Elder Dragoners out there tear apart some of my suggestions, I need you to breathe deeply and remember the lesson that [card]Necropotence[/card] taught us all those years ago: It doesn’t matter what your life total is if you’ve already won the game.

black marketcrypt ghastnirkana revenant

[card]Black Market[/card], [card]Crypt Ghast[/card], and [card]Nirkana Revenant[/card] are all-stars in most lack decks. Toshi can get a little mana-hungry, especially if your graveyard is very full and lots of things are dying, and having any combination of these three on the battlefield ensures that you will never be at a loss for options. Toshi decks tend towards being controlling, and the extort from the [card]Crypt Ghast[/card] can get some surprising mileage in longer games.

cabal ritualdark ritualspoils of evil

[card]Cabal Ritual[/card], [card]Dark Ritual[/card], and [card]Spoils of Evil[/card] also address the issue of mana, but do so in a very different way. Playing Toshiro is all about learning how to chain the spells from your hand and the spells in your graveyard together in order to properly manipulate the state of the board. While “ritual” effects are not always very good in Commander, they are excellent in a deck that can use them to establish a presence early in the game and then be guaranteed to use them later to maintain advantage.

entombvampiric tutor

[card]Entomb[/card] and [card]Vampiric Tutor[/card] are both instants and tutors, which is important to Toshiro. Toshiro is a deck that is very much about setting up your dominoes and then knocking them down just right. The ability to tutor twice with one card is instrumental in executing a victory with Toshi.

silence the believers

[card]Silence the Believers[/card] is currently the best black answer to indestructible creatures. It sucks that Toshi won’t see them die, but sometimes [card]Avacyn[/card] has just gotta go.

vendetta

[card]Vendetta[/card] is generally considered bad in Commander. In a format where mana is rarely a problem and creatures tend to be BIG, a removal spell that trades its casting cost for a penalty directly influenced by the size of its target seems bad. Trust me on this one though—after many games with Toshi, having a one-mana removal spell is amazing.

liliana of the veil

Speaking of generally considered bad in Commander, [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] is right at home here. Her +1 has synergy with Toshiro’s graveyard manipulation, and her repeatable edict that costs no mana is insane in this deck. When anything dying lets you cast a potentially powerful spell from your graveyard, your opponent sacrificing a token to her ability seems a little less heartbreaking.

vithering boonimps mischief

[card]Withering Boon[/card] and [card]Imp’s Mischief[/card] don’t seem very good. Both of them are worse versions of cards in other colours, but this doesn’t mean you can write them off. Both of these cards allow Toshi, and Mono-Black in general, to catch opponents off-guard. It’s amazing to witness how powerful people’s assumptions are, even if you have these lying in your graveyard, plain to see, people will still be surprised when the Black deck counters their [card]Sigarda[/card] after casting [card]Doom Blade[/card] on their Wurm token.

lethal vapors

At its very worst, [card]Lethal Vapors[/card] reads “target player loses a turn”; at its best, no one is quite sure how to react to this card and you get to harvest substantial advantage from it. If you have cast a lot of utility instants in the first few turns, this card will let you maximize their impact and set you up for the mid-game. If the momentum of others players has been out of your ability to control, this card will let you curtail that momentum for a bit so that you can stabilize.

null profusion

I have saved the very best for last: [card]Null Profusion[/card]. If there is one thing that this deck is going to be doing a lot of, it is casting spells. Null Profusion is the perfect card advantage engine for this deck, because while you’re going to be getting more than one use out of most of your spells, you’re still going to be burning through them. Null Profusion ensures you never run out of fuel for your Mono-Black Murder Fire.

The cards listed above are things that I would recommend for anyone thinking of building a deck around Toshiro Umezawa. To fill in the rest of the deck, I would suggest the following categories of cards:

  • Creatures that kill things when they enter the battlefield (eg. [card]Shriekmaw[/card])
  • Things that let you pilfer from opponents’ graveyards (eg. [card]Fated Return[/card])
  • Things that let you profit when lots of creatures are dying (eg. [card]Blood Artist[/card])
  • Answers to Hexproof and Indestructible

Lastly, you should settle on a consistent way to win the game. My Toshiro deck is what I would call Attrition-Combo: I chip away at the life total in the early game using opportunistic attacks and creatures taken from the graveyards of my enemies, I then close out the game with repeated castings of [card]Tendrils of Agony[/card] thanks to [card]Yawgmoth’s Will[/card] or a powerful creature buffed with [card]Hatred and [card]Tainted Strike[/card].

I have seen Toshi builds that hew much closer to traditional Mono-Black control and I have seen hyper-aggressive Toshi strategies that try and clear a path to the red zone as quickly as possible. There are a lot of ways to play Mr. Umezawa and the best approach is to play and tweak until you find something that works for you.

[deck title=Toshiro Umezawa]

[Creatures]
Chainer, Dementia Master
Crypt Ghast
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Kuro, Pitlord
Magus of the Coffers
Massacre Wurm
Nirkana Revenant
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Solemn Simulacrum
Toshiro Umezawa
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
Attrition
Black Market
Black Sun’s Zenith
Cabal Ritual
Caged Sun
Culling the Weak
Damnation
Dark Ritual
Darksteel Plate
Demonic Tutor
Devour in Shadow
Diabolic Edict
Doom Blade
Dictate of Erebos
Entomb
Exsanguinate
Exquisite Blood
Glaring Spotlight
Go for the Throat
Grave Pact
Hatred
Imp’s Mischief
Jet Medallion
Karn Liberated
Lethal Vapors
Life’s Finale
Lightning Greaves
Liliana of the Dark Realms
Liliana of the Veil
Mutilate
Necropotence
Null Profusion
Ob Nixlis of the Black Oath
Painful Quandary
Phyrexian Arena
Reanimate
Sanguine Bond
Silence the Believers
Slaugher
Snuff Out
Sol Ring
Spine of Ish Sah
Spoils of Evil
Tainted Strike
Temporal Extortion
Tendrils of Corruption
Tragic Slip
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Vampiric Tutor
Vendetta
Victim of Night
Withering Boon
[/Spells]

[Land]
Arcane Lighthouse
Bojuka Bog
Cabal Coffers
Myriad Landscape
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Phyrexian Tower
Phyrexia’s Core
Reliquary Tower
27 Swamp
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Volrath’s Stronghold
[/Land]
[/deck]

Good Luck and Happy Building!

PS: Toshiro makes a cool addition to the 99 if you’re playing a graveyard-centric Black deck. Since I started using him as a commander, he has popped up in my playgroup outside of the command zone. Jarad Dredge, Marchesa Board Wipes.dec, and Skeleton Ship Control have all made use of Toshi. If you’re planning on having a full graveyard, you are going get your money’s worth out of a three-mana permanent that does a good impression of [card]Yawgmoth’s Will[/card].

-/u/JackSonor

MTG After Hours #11 – Final Straw

Brainstorm Brewery MtG After Hours, Podcasts 0:09:26

Brainstorm Brewery After Hours is a collection of outtakes and stories that aren’t fit for publication on respectable websites. While Brainstorm Brewery is a podcast that strives for a PG-13 rating, After Hours has no such aspirations.
This week on After Hours, Corbin is “forced” to tell a story about a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings that went badly. Corbin wasn’t comfortable with the world knowing that his wife consumed alcoholic beverages and had him pick her up and give her a ride. If anything, making the responsible choice and calling for a Designated Driver is a great example. What’s not a great example is showing up at Buffalo Wild Wings A) right before closing and B) ever. Enjoy After Hours episode number 11 and look forward to getting these a lot more frequently. You’re welcome.

Cabe Riseau produced the intro and outro music for Brainstorm Brewery.

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