Category Archives: Magic Monday
![My Top 5 Commander Pre Cons of 2025! [That I Wish I Had Bought]](https://dahubbz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/tdc-8-teval-the-balanced-scale-1.jpg?w=90&h=70&crop=1 "My Top 5 Commander Pre Cons of 2025! [That I Wish I Had Bought]")
My Top 5 Commander Pre Cons of 2025! [That I Wish I Had Bought]
I play casual commander with my wife. So the need to buy new pre cons is a feeling we get very seldomly. It normally takes a big set or something we are fond of to get us to buy one. For example, my extended family loves Lord of the Rings. They said they would learn to play magic if I got the decks. We had several game nights playing those. Fallout is one of my favorite IPs, so naturally I grabbed all of them. So as you can see, I rarely buy pre-cons, but when I do, I tend to get them all. My wife and I also got the Eldrazi and Sliver pre-cons from Commander Masters. Outside of that, I’m normally a buy singles, build my own decks kinda guy. With that said, 2025 presented several commander pre-cons that hit my radar, but I didn’t pick up. These are the decks I wished I had grabbed.
#5 Counter Intelligence (Edge of Eternities)
Here’s something funny. I almost asked for this Pre-Con for Christmas. At the end of the of the day, I just wasn’t very interested in the way that it played. That may sound weird for the #5 deck I wished I had bought, but the truth is, I liked parts of it more than the whole of it.
Kilo really interest me as a proliferate Tiny Leader commander. My thought process was to create a Uwr infect deck with Blighted Agent, and Prologue to Phyresis, then back that up with proliferate triggers from Ripples of Potential, Experimental Augury, and Thrummingbird. One problem I had is I’d rather Kilos be Grixis [BUR] so I could have Voidwing Hybrid and Anoint with Affliction. So honestly, I did not pull the trigger on this one, even though parts of it are cool. The mana base also has cards I like, too, which is a plus.
#4 World Shaper [Edge of Eternities]
Another Edge of Eternities Pre-Con. Admittedly, this set had a cool aesthetic and backed it up with some sweet cards. I have yet to play with the station/spacecraft cards. I’m kind of an old man at this point, so new things scare me. However, the the backing theme of saccing seems very coherent, which is not always present in a pre-con. This would be the deck I would buy for my wife. Despite Mardu being her favorite color scheme, she loves sacrificing for burn damage. I think the land subtheme looks interesting as well. So overall, I like the look of how this one plays.
Korvold as a back-up commander is kind of insane, and truthfully would probably be my wife’s commander. Scouring Swarm is one of my favorite cards from the new set. Exploration Broodship is a great call back to the OG Exploration. I’m limiting it to three pictures per deck, however there’s so many good, playable reprints in here its crazy. Harrow, Mayhem Devil, Satyr Wayfinder, Tear Asunder, The Gitrog Monster, Tireless Tracker, Moraug, Fury of Akoum, and Oracle of Mul Daya are all good inclusion and we could probably go on and on.
#3 Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed [Final Fantasy]
This could have been #1 as it was certainly the one I was most tempted to buy. It also is probably the closest to my actual playstyle. So why didn’t buy it? 2 big reasons. 1. I actually built my Esper commander from this very same set, Noctis. So I was conflicted building two commanders from the same set that were the same color. Their playstyle are very different, so I am not ruling her out forever, but I am not in a rush. Secondly, I play mostly 1v1 commander with my wife. So that really lowers her triggering potential. Since she triggers on each end step, playing 1v1 instead of multiplayer free for all cuts from four triggers to two. That was honestly the biggest reason I didn’t get this one. Now, don’t get me wrong, she would still let me draw two additional cards a turn loop. The second effect would still be in play and is what draws me to her in the first place. It just gets harder because her second ability is meant to trigger her first.
Admittedly, I found the reprint value here a little weak. It introduced Tataru Taru which seems to be approaching all star status. It does include one of my favorite combos: Torrential Gearhulk and Sublime Epiphany, allowing to you make multiple Gearhulks and cast multiple spells. Dig Through Time and Into the Story are sweet. Frantic Search and Unwind seem like omissions here.
#2 Temur Roar (Tarkir Dragonstorm)
Tarkir is my favorite plane along with Theros, so I was really tempted to grab each of the pre-cons. Ultimately I passed because April is so hectic [my anniversary, my wife’s birthday, and my daughter’s birthday] so I had very little in the way of spare time or money for pre-con decks. Temur is my favorite 3 color scheme, but it is also one of the hardest for me to build. I like the idea of Temur monsters [as Surrak Dragonclaw was the closest I’ve come to building a Temur commander]. Not sure if I want to lock myself into dragons. My wife has a Kaalia deck and has all our good red dragons. Ultiamtely, upon revisiting this deck, Eshki Dragonclaw has caught my attention as a Temur Adventure deck. I want a Temur commander deck. I’m just not sure who I want as my commander.
These are some really cool cards. I like the look of Sarkhan here. I think its a neat card.
#1 Sultai Arisen [Tarkir Dragonstorm]
My number one is Teval. My top 3 all interested in one way or another, but ultimately I did not pull the trigger on any of them. Teval is in one of my favorite color schemes and I love the play pattern. Unfortunately, my favorite commander deck is Mothman, the Sultai commander from Fallout. Still, this deck seems awesome. The reason its number 1 on my list is because it created a strategy I really want to play. I’m thinking about taking this idea down to Tiny Leader or Pauper EDH. When a card leaves your graveyard.
I actually didn’t realize Kheru Goldkeeper wasn’t in the pre-con. That’s actually crazy. Either way, I was thinking baout taking Kishla Skimmer to Tiny Leader and Goldkeeper to Pauper EDH. Thats getting beside the point. Point is, I like the strategy of this pre-con more than any of the other ones we’ve looked at. Delve and Renew, both sultai mechanics, play nice here. Flashback cards like Think Twice also seem okay. All in all, this strategy is the one I’m watching closely!
So there you have it. I think 2025 will be a year a lot of people look back on with a stink eye because most of the sets don’t feel like Magic. 3 Universe Beyond sets, a set in space, and a set about cars make it a weird year. Of course we returned to a fan favorite plane in Tarkir, so I cannot complain. Also, Spiderman and Avatar not getting commander decks I think are to their detriment.
So I will probably not be picking up any commander pre-cons, but next year Lorwyn might give us an elf pre-con and I am all about that! Anyway, thanks for reading. I will see you guys in the next one.
5 Uncommons I want in Pauper! (MtG)
The Pauper format has been one of my main TCG loves for as long as I’ve known the format. The history of magic and the strength of reprints and downshifts over the course of 30 years means Pauper has a wide array of affordable strategies present for Pauper enjoyers. However, there is always room for more cards and archetypes. Here’s five uncommons I’d love to see downshifted to common.
Quick Note: For anyone who doesn’t know. The card game Magic the Gathering has a non-rotating format called Pauper. The card pool here is any legal card with a common printing.
Ajani Pridemate
Here is a card I cannot belive has not seen a downshifting to common. This was an iconic card when I got into magic due to its interaction with the Soul Sisters, cards that gained you life when creatures entered the battlefield. He got a second life in standard and proved to be a reasonable menace still. I think Soul Sister’s would like to be a deck. It certainly has gotten tools over the year, but nothing quite like a beat stick Ajani’s Pridemate would be.
Gatekeeper of Malakir
When I joined the Pauper community, the defacto iconic deck was Mono Black control. Playing a suite of removal, discard and controlly creatures top ended with Gray Merchant of Asphodel. It did just get Accursed Marauder last year, but Gatekeeper would be an additional black pip for Gary. Im not sure which card would be better or if you just play Gatekeeper in the sideboard for additional edict effects. Either way, Gatekeeper is kind of a homeless card right now.
Strangleroot Geist
This card screams perfect for Pauper. I think it threads a good needle of being multi-archetypal while also not being so strong it would warp the format. Haste means any Green/Red or even mono green would probably want to play it. Because it has Undying it actually gets better in sac decks. Golgari Gardens would probably love it. Any deck that runs Fanatical Offering like cards or any deck trying to make Bayou Groff work, would probably love having this guy. I think this might be the card I want the most that also would probably be the least controversial.
Baleful Strix
Maybe I am being unreasonable? I don’t know. I don’t think its too unreasonable because being 1 toughness and blue means red and black have tons of ways of getting around it. Being an artifact means Red and White can destroy it. Having flying and being an artifact means green has ways of dealing with it too. As well as the fact you can just attack into it, even if it takes out what you swing with. I dont think people are sideboarding for this guy to be fair. The issue more so is it will already have replaced itself, but I don’t think it warps the meta or anything. I do think a lot of decks could use it. Blink decks, midrange decks, affinity decks, all could probably make use of everybody’s favorite bird.
Shardless Agent
Maybe this steams from me loving Sultai Cascade in Legacy. Or maybe it comes from seeing Shardless Agent printed into Modern, get a home in Temur Rhinos, and than that deck being banned into oblivion before I could play it. Maybe a 3 mana cascade is too good for pauper? I’m not sure because you’re not cascading into Crushing Footfalls or Living End. Yes, its a good value card but I think Pauper keeps it in check. We do have Fire/Ice to play with. But we also dont have the cool free 3 mana counterspells to get around cascade either. I do think this might be the hardest one to imagine because it actually got upshifted to rare.
What do you guys think of these cards? Are there any here that would be busted if downshifted? I think Modern Horizon 3 injected enough power into the format where these probably aren’t going to redefine the meta at this point.
I’m Creating a New Magic Format!
Hey guys. Today I’ll be going over the cards I want to try for a new Magic the Gathering format. This is a casual, shared deck (and graveyard) format that takes inspiration from the Dandan (Forgetful Fish) format. It’ll mostly be my wife and I playing. I wanted a fun format where we could share a deck and graveyard. This is how we play Lorcana in our format we call The Battle Tower. Maybe I’ll do a post over it next (let me know if you like Lorcana and want casual Lorcana content). The point of this post is to get my early thoughts down.
Okay. There’s plenty of great resources over the format of Dandan, so I won’t be going over it here. However, I will touch on the basics real quick.
Dandan is your beatstick in this format. While Crystal Spray acts as removal playing on Dandan’s Landhome mechanic. Memory Lapse covers the other game inside the game. You and your opponent share a deck. So Memory Lapsing their spell puts it on top of the share deck for you to draw.
So if this is a new format, what creature are we picking, and what gimmicks are we using?
Aegis Turtle is our beat stick. It’s worth noting he wasn’t my first choice. I searched tirelessly for a 0/4 for 1U with no other text (aka a vanilla creature). Im not saying it doesn’t exist. Just that I couldn’t find a perfect one. Weight Advantage also wasn’t my first choice for an ability to deal damage based on power, but it was the cleanest, most simple option. Both players begin with Weight Advantage in play (or just have a picture of it handy as a reference).
These replace Dandan’s removal package. The idea is you target your opponent’s turtle, making them a 5/0, killing it. One thing I love about Dandan is how it takes cards that aren’t good in the grand scheme of magic and gives them a home. Inside Out was already on my radar as it was a pauper all star back when I was getting into pauper. Twisted Image had a place in modern at one point being able to kill Spellskite. It’s cool to give these old cards a new home.
Memory Lapse returns to this format as the main counter spell of choice. Brainstorm is a legacy All-Star and I expect it to do the same here. No, we don’t play fetch lands, but we’re all about messing with the opponent’s draw.
Here’s a list of other cards we will be trying in this format.
Notable omissions
As far as Diminishing Returns is concerned, its mostly because I don’t own it. But I also don’t like the idea of winning by deck out. Right now I think we will just shuffle up if we run out of cards. Commit//Memory is another option if I want another piece of interaction that fixes the graveyard without giving into decking as a strategy. We will have to play test more.
Ive read Acknowledge Knowledge is a bit of a notorious card. I like the card, but I’ve heard this card can snowball and feel unfair. I’ve seen people playing Chart a Course as an alternative. I feel like, for right now, Flame of Anor simply replaces AK and is more versatile.
Predict and Portent are on my TCG buy list. I like both in theory, but I don’t own either. These could certainly work their way into future versions.
Interesting cards I might try.
Freeze in Place seems pretty solid in this format. It slows down a pretty aggressive turtle and the scry 2 is always nice. Giant’s Amulet is either perfectly tailored to this format or an absolute trap. So it creates a 4/4 and then makes it a 4/5 perfectly staying within our divisible by 20 rule. It also makes a wizard allowing you to trigger the bonus effects on Flame of Anor. I like the idea of it, I’ll be testing it out. Devour in Flames is another card that could be perfect for this format. Yes. islands aren’t as impactful as they are in Dandan, but we have some utility lands that we could reset.
Counter Spells.
Arcane Denial is meant to be the feel-good counter spell. Im not sure if it’s worth it letting your opponent draw so many cards. Though it could mess up opponent’s scry. Dissolve is weaker than the other options, but it casts a wider net and gives a scry. Stern Scolding is extremely narrow. It has some merit because it can counter your opponent’s T1 Turtle if you are on the play. Deprive is probably less impactful in this format where islands don’t matter as much. Again, there are 2 lands where it matters. Of course Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast is arguably the best counterspell in this format as it counters almost everything, but red mana is at a premium in this format.
Lands
Temple of Epiphany and Izzet Boilerworks are probably our two best options for Red Blue. Temple allows for scrying, while Boilerworks resets some valuable lands. Halimar Depths is great in a shared deck format. Lonely Sandbar can be bounced back for cycling purposes. Mystic Sanctuary is one of the best lands for blue decks to get back those important spells.
Other land options.
Right now, these are two lands I’m debating on adding. Castle Vantress is super interesting because it adds more value to islands (making cards like Deprive and Devour in Flames more interesting bouncing back basic islands.). Desolate Lighthouse worries me a little that it would become like AK, a snowball for the player who has it.
So these cards are the current pool of cards I’m looking at. The list will be around 80-100 cards. Feel free to try your own build. I’ll post a deck list when my wife and I have finalized a list. I could playtest cards like Serum Visions, Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time, or Preordain, too. So the next update could have completely different cards, but this is where I’m starting.
Keep in mind, all cards are two of except Aegis Turtle (8x), Memory Lapse (currently 8x but could fluctuate), Inside Out (4x), Twisted Image (4x), Invert//Invent (4x), Brainstorm (4x). Those are the core cards for now. Everything else should be 2 of.
Follow this page for more updates!
Thanks for reading! Have a great day.
Lord of the Rings Magic the Gathering Haul!
The latest Magic the Gathering Product is a part of their Universe Beyond series. Before, this included the likes of DnD and Warhammer. This means Lord of the Rings was an obvious next step. My wife’s uncle and cousin both wanted to play so I grabbed us some pre con decks and deck boxes. Let’s take a look at what I got!
First up is The Hosts of Mordor Commander Precon. This deck is Red/Black/Blue and sports Sauron as the commander. I almost bought two since her cousin and uncle both said they were interested in it.
Next up is Elven Council. This is the one I debated on playing. Green and Blue are my two favorite colors and elves are my favorite creature type. This one seemed tailor made for me. However, her cousin apparently loves elves as well, so he be playing this one.
Last up is Riders of Rohan. This is a Blue/Red/White colored deck with Eowyn as the commander. With everything previously mentioned, this might be the one I end up playing with first. It creates tokens and draws cards. I typically like doing those things, so I can get behind it!
Then I snagged the starter kit so I could show her uncle and cousin how to play. Typically I don’t buy these starter kits as I’ve been playing for almost a decade now. I made an exception because they love Lord of the Rings and have never played MtG, so this seemed like a fine starting point.
I also grabbed some 100 count deck boxes to keep the commander decks properly stored.
So there you go, guys, that’s my haul. My local store was sold out of the Hobbit pre con so I was unable to complete the set, sadly. What product did you get from the set? Are you buying sealed products or singles? Let me know down in the comments below!
Thank you guys so much for reading! Have a great day!
Manga Monday: Little Battlers Experience Volume #1 A Perfect Starter Manga
I was at my LCS a few weeks back and found this manga among their relatively small section. Little Battlers Experience has been like finding a small new world. I read the first volume and wondered why I had never heard of the series because it seemed like a perfect mainstream series to make into a million offshoots. Upon further research, that is pretty much the case.
Littler Battlers Experience, LBX for short, came out in 2011 (a decade ago!). However, it is pretty tough to say what the initial idea was. Wiki claims the series is based off of a game developed by Level 5 (one of my favorite video game studios). The first game came out on PSP in June of 2011. The manga predates that by 5 months. But maybe Level 5 wanted a manga out to introduce kids to the series before the game’s release? The anime came out in March of the same year, both predating the original game. By my calculations, there’s no ongoing anime, but a series called LBX Girls just wrapped up their first season. It has spawned several video games, spin off mangas and anime adaptions.
So, what is Little Battlers Experience? This game came out late in what I call the “kids anime” genre. Think Pokemon, Digimon and even Bakugan. A lot of those animes came out in the late 90’s and early 2000s. Most kid animes did not take off after that time period. Bakugan is probably an exception, coming out in 2007. And it just missed the DS/3DS revival. Yokai Watch kind of became the next generation’s Pokemon in a way. The DS and 3DS helped give a lot these made for kids animes a place to branch off into games. LBX tells the story of how little robots were built for kids to battle with. They’re customizable robots and the stages are cardboard dioramas. Our main character’s, Van, father was a creator of LBXs. He would die in a tragic airplane accident. 5 years later a woman holding a mysterious briefcase shows up being chased by 3 men. She hands the briefcase to Van and tells him to run. The briefcase is revealed to have an LBX created by Van’s father. Later it is also discovered that Van’s father hid a blueprint to an unlimited energy source in the robot. Van’s father is also alive and being held captivate by the evil organization introduced earlier. Van must win a tournament to claim the key needed for the infinite energy machine. For exchange of the key, the organization will release Van’s father.
The story is nothing special or groundbreaking, but it does not need to be. The manga is mostly for kids and to help sell the video game. On that front, I think it does a fine job. The art is good, the characters are likable but not really unique and the story doesn’t drag on. In fact, one of my complaints is the story progresses pretty quickly. Another knock is that, for now, the characters are only passable. The good guys are heroic with reckless abandonment and the villains are corny levels of cliché. This won’t matter to kids who are just enjoying robots killing each other. Volume 1 is fine as far as the setting, the scope, and grand scheme of the story. I feel like volume #2 may help in those departments as the LBX tournament is about to start.
But on the plus side, this is a great starter manga for kids. It only ran 6 volumes so it should be easy to collect. It is pretty action pack to keep the kids’ attention. The battlers are similar to Pokemon or any of those kind of mangas. There’s no foul language, no blood and guts, no perverted comments or degrading of women. It is just a good, clean fun manga.
Recap: To reiterate, this a fun manga if you are into series like Pokemon, Zatch Bell or anything that seems similar to those. If you like those adventures, you’ll feel right at home with this one.
Action: This manga has action in every chapter. And its robot action too!
Romance: No hints of romance currently.
Plot: Again, this is a kids series. The plot is deeper than say Pokemon, but it is not the main draw here.
Characters: I like the characters. Right now, they are all pretty stereotypical. We have the stubborn hero, the jaded grandson, the cartoon villain, the buddies through it all pals. But they are likable and well written for what they are.
The World: The world is like ours, but with mini fighting robots.
Humor: This isn’t your typical edgy humor Shonen but it has moments of being funny.
Verdict: 7 out of 10. It is not perfect but I enjoyed my time with it. My LCS has 2-4. I’ll probably pick them up at some point. I recommend checking this one out for sure if it sounds interesting to you.
5 Historic Decks I Want to Brew (With the Addition of Amonkhet)
Amonkhet Remastered launched less than a week ago with hopes of adding a bunch of powerful, new cards to the Historic format. With it new archetypes will emerge and existing ones will look to strengthen or refocus themselves. Here’s 5 decks I want to brew now.
Honorable Mention: Bant Approach of the 2nd Sun
This is a controlling ramp deck. Growth Spiral and Uro are a great reason to play blue and green in the deck. Blue also gives great counter spells and draw spells as well as Planeswalkers. Green is mostly here to ramp us.
#5 White Black Zombies
Zombies were a big part of Amonkhet block. It is only natural to think the tribe would see an uptick in playable cards now. Dread Wanderer, Wayward Servant and Thoughtseize headline a stellar cast of new cards. Zombies are always an interesting tribe being a black aggro deck. They get interaction in the form of Murderous Rider and Thoughtseize which is powerful. They also get recursive creatures and creatures that make tokens which can be used directly in conjunction with the draining abilities of Corpse Knight and Wayward Zombie. I see a lot to like in this deck. It’s filled to the gills with rares though so it is not the cheapest deck to throw together.
#4 Sultai Scarab God
This deck is going to look a little familiar to the standard deck of old. I see new UB list running Murderous Rider and Brazen Borrow. That is probably correct. At first, I didn’t like that idea because those cards don’t really do anything when getting revived by Scarab. However, they do allow you to interact with the board on turns 2 and 3 and buy you time to get to turn 5+. I do want to run high impact cards to revive off of Scarab so cards like Chupacabra, Champion of Wits, and Hostage Taker all come to mind. We want to control the game with our spells and creatures and then pull away with the insane card advantage in the late game Scarab God provides.
#3 Grixis Pteramander
Pteramander finally gets a one mana hand strip spell and it is one of the best ever, Thoughtseize. Claim to Fame is another interesting addition here. We can now fire our creatures off a bit more aggressively and then just claim them back later. Of course, in the late game Fame can help swing over with haste late. Is Censor good or bad in this deck? The card is a very polarizing card to begin with. However, cycling allows us to fill the yard for Pteramander’s adapt while also drawing a card. I think I’m willing to test it in here. The goal of a Pteramander deck is to play cheap interaction cards that don’t need targets to cast. Shock is a good example of being able to interact with creatures if needed or sling it at them for damage. Pteramander becomes insane value late in the game as a 5/5/ flier for an overall 2 mana investment
#2 Collected Company Elves
My astute readers will notice Amonkhet did not reprint a single elf creature! So how did this get #2 on the list? Well, the other half of the name kind of gives it away. Collected Company.
Elvish Clancaller and Imperious Perfect definitely gives the deck a few lords it needs. Llanowar Elves, Dwynen’s Elite, Elvish Visionary and Steel Leaf Champion allow the deck to play an on curve aggro plan. Collected Company helps the deck “elfball” so to speak or recover quickly. I’ve never got to play with CC because it has always been so expensive. I can’t wait to finally test this out. Merfolk is also probably going to love this new card too.
#1 Esper Approach of the Second Sun
I’m curious how Draw Go this archetype wants to be. Or does it want to play Planeswalkers and ramp spells? Would it prefer to play Settle the Wreckage, an instant speed board wipe, or tap out for a less conditional removal spell like Shatter the Sky? I think pure control favors Esper, while tap out, ramp and planeswalkers, favors Bant with Uro, Hydriod Krasis.
There’s some other interesting decks such as Jeskai Cyclers and Esper Humans or even Riddleform that look really fun to brew around.
Let me know which deck excites you the most.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
My Personal Spell Book (A Magic the Gathering Post)
Okay, guys. I’ve been seeing this go around. First off, Sam Pardee shared a photo of his own personal spell book. I’ll add the link to the picture here via twitter. Sam’s Spell Book
Then, MTG Streamer Jim Davis made a post about his own personal spell book. You can read that here. People in his comment section were taking the time to post their own. So, I figured why not? Ill make my own!
By the way, this is a post about Magic the Gathering. I guess I should add some context. The spell books are a product of cards centered around specific Planeswalkers. The spell books feature iconic cards and moments involving the Planeswalkers.
Here’s an example of a card from the Jace’s Spell Book.
Okay, so the idea is I will list the 8 cards that would be in my spell book. These aren’t necessarily the best spells in the game. They’re just spells I love or have a fondness for. Okay let’s start the list off
Elvish Mystic
My goodness. This is arguably my favorite card of all time. This was the first card I ever opened in a pack. I had a friend explain to me how a creature could tap for mana. I thought ramping was the most busted thing ever. I immediately started grabbing all the big, dumb green creatures I could find and threw it in a deck. At the same time, I tried watching some Magic the Gathering streams to understand the game better. One of the first matches I watched was a GR Monsters deck. Elvish Mystic was a huge part the deck allowing the deck to play cards earlier than normal. On top of that, he lead to my love of the Elf tribe. He is a pivotal part to the modern version of elves. I jam him in a lot of green ramp/monster decks. I’ll never forget how cool I thought this guy was. And quite frankly, he still is.
Genesis Hydra
Well, we had to ramp into something right? To be fair, I feel in love with a lot of the monsters like Polukranos, World Eater, Hydra Broodmaster, Terra Stomper and Destructor Dragon, but the card I loved the most was Genesis Hydra. I would put so much mana into this guy I would end up hitting Polukranos anyway. They were an unstoppable duo in my play group. Definitely my favorite casual deck.
Mana Leak
In all my time playing magic, this may be the card I have cast the most. It took me forever to realize why this card was so good. I thought this card would just eventually be so bad. Which, I mean, to be fair, after turn 5 or so the card is just bad. However, Modern, a format I was new to, was just too fast to not be interacting with your opponent on turn 2. It’s been a corner stone of most of my UW/UWB modern decks.
Shaman of the Pack
Standard Elves was arguably the first competitive deck I ever built as most of my Monster decks were casual. I could have so many other elves in this spot such as Dwynen’s Elite, Elvish Visionary or Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Dean which are all strong candidates. I loved them all. However, draining people for a crap ton of damage was just so much fun. This is a deck I am currently trying to rebuild with some strong modern upgrades.
There is almost no other game action I love more than drawing cards, maybe countering spells. The time has come to pick a draw spell. It was tough! There’s Opt, Sphinx’s Revelation, Chemister’s Insight and many more. However, when I built my first Esper Control deck, think twice was an important part of curving out right. Giving you something to do on turns 2 and 3 while keeping mana open to Mana Leak something if needed. I think this card is a staple in “Draw Go” Control.
Thought Erasure
I could not put this card in my Esper control deck in standard fast enough following it’s printing. I destroyed a lot of people curving this into Sinister Sabotage. They took care of problematic threats while each surveiled allowing you to smooth draws, hit lands, or get more counter spells. I loved this start. I had a rule that I would keep most hands that allowed me to cast Thought Erasure on Turn 2 and definitely keep the ones that let me curve into Sabotage.
My first exposure to an alternative win condition. Which is to say, winning without reducing your opponents life to 0. Many people thought this card was broken. It really wasn’t. I did win a lot of games with this card as the win con, but that’s not to say it could not be beaten. It did feel good to only have to run this if you did not want to run creatures. There’s talk of Wizard’s adding Amonkhet to MTG Arena. You best believe we will be tearing up historic with Esper and Bant 2nd Sun!
Nissa entered my life at an interesting time. In my casual group I was the green player. I was also the only one of us to pull a Planeswalker. Naturally she went into every green deck I was building at the time. Nowadays, Nissa the character is still my favorite Planeswalker though this probably isnt my favorite Planeswalker card, I doubt it is even my favorite Nissa PW card. Gideon being a creature PW that dodges boardwipes makes him ideal for my control decks. The new Narset is busted not letting opponents draw additional cards on top of finding more spells. Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is an aggressively costed PW who can be a creature factory to help against sac effects and generate blockers. Though there is no denying the impact this card had on me. It further more convinced me to play green. It made me feel more powerful than my friends without PWs. And fetching up all my forest to run my opponents over was such a great feeling.
So there you have. I left off plenty of great cards like Path to Exile, Savage Knuckleblade, and Disdainful Stroke. But that’s how making a list goes after all. Let me know what spells make your list!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Magic Monday: Oath of the Gatewatch First Impression
Oath of the Gatewatch is Wizard’s latest installment in their addictive tcg Magic: The Gathering.
To me, BFZ was, for the most part, disappointing. I had high hope for the allies, but the best they could do was a gimmick Sac deck. Now, Gideon did provide some umph, some 60 dollar umph.
I remained spoiler free and last week my girlfriend and I bought two of the pre-constructed decks.
I got myself concerted efforts. A green/white deck that relied on the new Mechanic Support.
Support reads “As this card enters the battlefield, Put a +1+1 on up to X creatures. Needless to say I love this mechanic. I’m a green player so getting to make my creatures bigger each turn worked wonders for me.
This was my promo card
He’s pretty sweet. The rest of the deck felt weird, but effective. It was filled mostly with white weenies and some okay fliers. I was able to beef them up to form a giant massive flying army. I was winning every game until I helped her tweak her deck to be a little better suited(I gave her some reach creatures and plummets to help disrupt my board presence.)
Her deck was the vicious cycle deck. Its a green/black deck that wants to sacrifice creatures to gain advantages. It’s an okay deck, but for whatever reason she couldnt get it going until my army had already amounted. To combat this we gave her some plummets and other forms of removal like ultimate price. After that, she won the next four. We filled the deck with scion token producers and she sac’d them to activate bone splinters, so I never had a board presence. But hey, she was enjoying it!
All in all, I barely feel like these decks gave us a taste of OGW. Our deckes were filled with a bunch more BFZ cards than I thought they would have. And I feel as if her deck didnt seem to redefine standard as much as it was just a rehash of the aristocrats style of play.
I love the support mechanic and I’m definitely interested in building around it. The big draw back is it runs tiny creatures and at times(If I fell behind) support felt like a dead mechanic. You cannot support yourself so if there’s nothing on the field, Gladeheart Cavalry’s support is wasted. I still have more mechanics to fool with so I’m interested in seeing what else this expansion set has in store.
Have you guys got a chance to get your hands on any OGW cards/deck yet?
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
Magic Monday: A Beginner’s Guide to Magic- White
Wishing for white Christmas? I got you covered!
This week we end our Beginner’s Guide to Magic. Where does the time go?
White is honor and pride. White is about the army of many. It’s about justice and valor. White is all the little pieces that make the machine work. What’s the best creature type to represent white in this standard? Allies of course.
Here’s a mono White Allies Deck I threw together!
Lands 21
21x Plains
Creatures 28
4x Cliffside Lookout
4x Expedition Envoy
4x Seeker of the Way
4x Kor Bladewhirl
4x Serene Steward
4x Lantern Scout
2x Archangel of Tithes
2x Felidar Soverign
Other Spells 11
4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3x Silkwrap
3x Valorous Stance
1x Radiant Purge
Summon as many allies as you can. The rally will trigger and give us sweet perks. Tithes and Felidar are the only non-ally triggers in the deck, so you should get them often. Remember Ultimating Gideon right off the bat can be the right play giving all our little guys +1/+1. If you can’t afford him put in Retreat to Emeria instead. Also, if you want the consistency of the Ally triggers over the finishing nature of Tithes and Felidar, add 4 of Hero of Goma Fada.
White are players who- like synergy with their creatures. Every creature works for the good of the whole. You will in no way have the biggest creatures, you will have no permission based cards, and no burn damage. You will, however, have creatures that go well together as well as solid removal. Kill and exile stuff that is in your way and then rally your way to victory behind first strike, double strike, etc.
Pros- Everything goes together. You get to play Gideon. You have access to some of the best removal in standard. What you like in size and speed you make up in your army. In your brotherhood valor and justice will always shine through.
Cons- You do not want to fall behind. Outside of maybe Soverign and Gideon, you do not really have a card that is going to just break the game. Be mindful of board wipes and know stabilizing might become more difficult the harder the hit, as a single creature will likely not win us the match by itself. No counter magic, no burn magic, and no pump spells(Outside of Gideon’s emblem) make us a little less exciting than the other colors but build your army and ruthlessly take down your opponent before they can mount a comeback.
Well there you have it!
Beginner’s Guide to Magic is through, but Magic Monday will make a return in 2016 down the road.
Until than check out more Magic Monday Here!
Magic Monday: A Beginner’s Guide to Magic- Black
In honor of the Star Wars movie, we join the dark side.
You know the stories they tell you about witchcraft and voodoo and necromancy? Well that were here to do! Black wizards use tricks and savage tactics to manipulate aspects of the game. Often, they do not care about their creatures and gain perks when they die. Black is very twisted, but it is very satisfying.
Here’s a mono Black deck I threw together for today:
Lands 23
23x Swamp
Monsters 29
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
4x Hangarback Walker
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Qarsi Sadist
4x Carrier Thrall
4x Nantuko Husk
2x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
2x Smothering Abomination
1x Gurmag Angler
Spells 8
1x Bone Splinters
3x Alter’s Reap
2x Ruinous Path
1x Murderous Cut
1x Duress
1x Transgress The Mind
Creatures die! It’s part of the game, after all. Our deck just takes advantage of this. This deck is stylized in the form and aristocrats deck that runs cards that want to die. Were mono black and not fancy. So we do not run Rally The Ancestors. You want to be sac’n Bloodsoaked Champion because he can revive himself. Hangarback leaves tokens behind, which, in return, can sac’d themselves. Do this while Zulaport is on the field and you start to hurt your opponent. Sac’n as a result of Nantuko Husk can beef him up and just kill your opponent right there. Drana, Smothering, Gurmag are here to finish the deal. The spells are mix of goodies from removal to draw spells. Duress is good for control and Transgress picks stuff out that is bigger than us.
Black is for players who- want evil creatures and diabolical spells. If you have ever dreamed of playing the bad guy black is for you. You have access to some of the best straight removal, most of your creatures have abilities
Pros- Black cards give you some amount of say in what sticks around(In the form of removal). Like green, the little guys shine here. Though green pumps its creatures, black normally does not mind if it’s creatures die. You may not always have board presence because you are sac’n your creatures, but with all your removal they should have trouble establishing a board on you as well.
Cons- As mentioned, your creatures are small. Drana is a flyer which helps, but she’s still a 2/3 for 3. Gurmag is a welcomed addition because you can delve all your sac’d guys to get him out for 1 or 2. Remember, black with go faster, green will get bigger, and blue will try to deny you, but you are the most wicked one of them all!
Next week we finish the colors up with white!
Until then check out more Magic Monday here!
Da_Hubbz 
