Blog Archives
![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!
My New Job!
Tuesday I started my new job. I now work for a very awesome collectible store. It is very hard to know what to call it exactly. It’s not a local game store, not quite a local card store. It is a mix of both. It sells action figures, board games, video games, TCG card games. You name it. We even took in a collection of Barbie Dolls not to long ago. In other words, it is a wonderland. (Though for the sake of this blog, I am going to refer to as an LCS since I work with the cards and buy my comics from there.
I’m mentiong all of this to say this is now going to be a big part of my life. Right now, on Wednesdays and Thursdays I work 12-9. So yeah, I’m basically over there all day those days. Tuesday I have class 10:50-12:05pm than I work 12:30-5:30pm and back to school from 6:10-7:25pm class.
My job is super tedious but super sweet. We get traded in a lot of Magic the Gathering and Pokemon TCG cards. My job is to go through and assign them a grade on a 5 point scale. (Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played, and Damaged.) I sleeve them up in the corresponding sleeve and list most of them on our TCGplayer site. We have a 2nd crew that handles the storing and shipping of the cards. I just see to it that they get properly logged in the site.
However, I have been a nerd with several hobbies for my whole life. They have more stock than they could list before. Eventually, I will move onto comics and other collectibles. For right now though, we need to get all our cards up to date.
It is a desk job. I mostly sit at my desk for 9 hours except for my lunch break and the occasional bathroom break or so to stretch my legs. However, it is literally the coolest store within probably 100 miles of me, so I love it. My boss is a real good dude. My card grading co-worker also seems nice. They work around my classes. And, as I like to point out, the cards never give me sass. So, it is tough to complain with a job like this.
I’ve got to look at so many cool Magic cards. That’s a real perk. I could not afford/did not want to spend money on half of these cards. So, it is awesome to get to hold and look at them. Some of the highlights for me have been: Cavern of Souls, Teferi Hero of Dominaria, Sensei’s Divining Top, 4th Edition Lightning Bolt, Revised Blue Elemental Blast, Karn Scion of Urza, Sylvan Library, and Priest of Titania. There’s been some other stuff. One collection had some cool legacy elves pieces, one collection had the dominating Red Deck Wins from about a year ago. It is wild, truly. My co-workers stack had a foil version of Dark Confidant.
It is now more easy than ever for me to get my hands on TCG stuff. I’m strongly debating on bringing some of that stuff to the channel, maybe? I might do a TCG Singles pick up video as I’ve bought about 15 Magic the Gathering singles. I’m looking to add some Pokemon Singles or even do some unboxing on my Youtube channel. So, if that sounds interesting, make sure you follow me on here and subscribe to my Youtube channel here.
Well, I need to go to bed now. I hope you guys look forward to hearing about interesting stories and awesome finds.
Thanks so much for reading! Have a great day!
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!
What to make of UW Wizards in Modern (A Magic the Gathering Post)
Hey everybody. Let me start by saying that it’s been about a year since I played Modern. I love watching Magic the Gathering, but actually playing the game is different. I often fall in and out of love with it. Well, I decided to throw together one of my pet decks, UW Wizard, and take it to Modern. Now, I need two disclaimers.
Since I fall in and out of love with MTG, I rarely buy expensive cards. Namely, lands. I’m sure running 8 fetch lands or so would help the consistency of the deck. (I run 3)
And secondly, I’ve only played a few games, so who knows. But I have noticed a trend.
I am just going to put my thoughts out here and maybe some of you will get some use out of it.
I started brewing this deck back when Dominaria first released because of Naban
His ability to double triggers just screams value. These support cards jumped out to me.
I’ve found myself wanting an aggressive 1 and 2 drop and more Merfolks.
Maybe these two?
I got excited when Benthic Biomancer launched but honestly I never bothered buying him. He is a 1CMC Merfolk. In theory, he helps play on curve, discount Wizard’s Retort, and is another merfolk to reveal to Silvergill. Also is a semi Silvergill in that turn two he can draw us a card. I think he is a card where it is easy to talk yourself into him. May have to pick some up later.
Cursecatcher on its surface seems worse because they can simply pay one to bolt or path Naban. However maybe we want to run both? or maybe we just need more merfolks and the slight disruption is just a plus? I’m not really sure honestly.
Wizard’s also needs more stack or hand disruption. We don’t get very solid interaction in either phase. We can mess with creatures all day. We need a 2CMC card like Kitesail Freebooter that would let us view their hand. This would let us set up our Meddling Mages better and then use Deputy and Reflector to better effects. Not to mention, a freebooter like effect in wizards getting a double trigger would be great. Other cards I’ve considered would be Spell Queller and Thalia just to get some more controlling effects. We lose out on some synergies because they are neither merfolk nor wizards but they are pound for pound good cards.
Interestingly enough, since Naban, Reflector, and Meddling Mage are all humans, you could cut out the merfolk package and use cards like Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial and Unclaimed Territory naming humans and still cast half your wizards. Then your playing Naban, Kitesail, Thalia, Meddling Mage, Reflector Mage, still playing Deputy, and maybe Champion of the Parish
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41e2sQBIGRL._AC_.jpg":[370,265],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41e2sQBIGRL._AC_SY355_.jpg)
If Naban and Champion see a human entering the battlefield like Meddling Mage, then Champion gets double +1/+1 if I am not mistaken. This strategy ultimately makes Wizard’s Retort worse but I’m sure other counters such as Unified Will could work.
You could also cut the human package and play mostly merfolk.
I run Harbinger in my paper deck. I did not have him online so I cut him. That felt like a big mistake. I never had enough Merfolk for Silvergill and the curve was wonky. I also wanted more bounce effects against Infect. So, whether its Harbinger or not, I do think the deck wants more 2 mana interaction. The draw back to the lords is that none of them are wizards except Harbinger and Master of the Waves. I think that might be okay if we had more interactive merfolk. So, I’m not sure how deep I want to go on Merfolk at the moment. I think Wizard’s wants a more reliable 2 mana draw card. Like a Silvergill or Elvish Visionary but less dependent on our hand.
Lastly, a good 3 mana lord.
I’ve just been underwhelmed with Naru any time I wasnt playing casually (Casually, it is amazing). She almost makes me want to splash red for 4 lightning bolts. As ETB and copying Lightning Bolt and then having Naban trigger allowing Naru to trigger again on the bolt almost seems like a reasonable way to close the game with just 5 mana. Let me know if that sounds just crazy.
I suppose a parting question will always be why not play Humans, Merfolk or Spirits? I suppose there’s a brewer in all of us who wants to create a new archetype. Wizards seems to work fine in fair creature metas and good draws with Naban into Deputy should help manage almost any board, but I feel like wizards needs more hand and stack interaction to solidify itself. I guess there’s a chance we just cut Naban and try to play UW Good Wizards.
I’m not going to submit a decklist because I’m not sure what the correct build or numbers are. Here are other Wizard’s that could be great SB or meta dependent calls.
In testing, Phastasmal Image worked to great effect but it was bounced or walking ballistaed every chance someone got. Unsettled Mariner could fix some problems with Wizard’s Retort, Silvergill, and Champion of the Perish, but it doesn’t interact with the stack or hand and it doesn’t effect the board. I’m undecided on if I want to buy some and test it out.
Have you played with UW or UWB or UWR wizards? If so, let me know. And if this inspires you to brew it, let me know how that goes.
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!
Life Update: New category, Youtube, and time away.
I fell in love with blogging almost a year ago. It was place to talk about anything: Mangas, School, games, you name it.
So why is it I havent made a post in nearly a month?
Multiple reasons.
- I’ve been sick and and unmotivated.
I had this cold back in February and it was not that bad. It keep me bed for long periods of time, because more than I was sick, I was just always tired. I don’t sleep right to begin with but I was always woke up before 11am. I can’t really say I have since I got this cold. Which makes being productive hard when I sleep for half the day.
2. School work out of nowhere.
If you follow my blog any you know in January I was doing a daily blog(If you didnt check it out than I highly recommend it) and was taking five classes and trying to start working. I was completely fine than. However, somewhere along the line my classes up’d the work out of nowhere and so many test, and written assignments, and discussions were due. I had to drop 2 classes just to even be able to balance all the things I was doing. It sucked.
3. Started a Youtube Channel
I’ve stated before Youtube was my first love. I started my first channel back in ’09 and slowly fell out of it. I went out and bought my first mic and editing software and fired up the dream once more. I started blogging back last summer. This Youtube channel has been in the works since the summer of 13. While the blog was a spur-of-the-moment thing and the youtube channel has been very calculated, I wanted to give equal attention. Sadly, I have not. The blog actually takes a lot of time and money(in some instances). Somewhere along the lines my time shrunk. This also goes hand in hand with motivation. Sometimes recording a youtube video is as easy as hitting record, playing the game, and just talking along with it. The blog, however, I either have to watch an entire anime, read a volume, or what have you, and than plan it out.
4. Decreasing Quality
Maybe the biggest reason. Watching anime, reading manga, playing the games, is not the the hard part. It’s the planning the post. I like to be insightful, unbiased, and salt in my own brand of off beat humor. I begun waiting to the last moment and just throwing together material and it got to the point of asking myself “Would I actually read this myself”. This has slowed me down greatly. Everything stems from being unmotivated. I get basically no hours at my job, my apartment is up for inspection later this month, I’m in this weird transition period between possibly transferring colleges and moving nearly 6 hours away, and everything kind of has me in a funk. One of the few things making me happy is making videos and my voice has been gone for the better half of a month so I cant even do that.
*Next topic*
As the title suggest, I am going to talk about youtube.
I am currently doing a Pokmeon Golden Age Let’s Play. I think it is going to finish up with 8 or 9 videos. I also do unboxings every Saturday. I’ve already opened two mew collection boxes and will be opening the Celebi box sometime this week! I also will be opening the dual box for Magic the Gathering and the latest structure deck of Yugioh. My top fives will eventually migrate over to the channel as well. I’m working on putting together a let’s play of Pokemon Gray Topaz and Zelda: Minish Cap. I’m debating on doing Dragon Ball Z Legacy of Goku 2 and Super Mario 64. Anime and Manga reviews may or may not move over to the channel(They may stay a blog exclusive)
Go Subscribe to Dahubbz on Youtube.
*Last Topic*
A new category. Crunchyroll has a random feature that will assign you a random episode to watch. I want to integrate this into the blog. I will watch episode one of a random anime that crunchyroll spits out at me and give my opinions on it and call this “Random Wednesday”. It’s just a test run but I’ll try it out either this Wednesday or the next so be on the look out!
Update- Daily Blog Challenge, Finally an announcement
So if you follow this blog in any capacity, you know I do daily posts. You also probably know I havent been doing it regularly. I’ve talked about this once, and I’m still having trouble with it.
A. I’ve been sick all this week. It’s just a running nose, sore throat, and cough. With the occasional headache. I do not take medicine for anything that wont kill me, so I’m naturally fighting it with water and sleep. Which takes time.
Also, I had a three page paper due and a test. Albeit, these are not hard, but the study and prep time take time away from the blog.
I’m happy to say I shuld get a top five out today for favorite Majora’s Mask mask. So if that interest you, stay tune!
I’ve talked about it before, but I’ll mention it again because it is relevant. I started this blog with the hopes of creating a safe and healthy environment for lovers of anime/manga/video game/etc to come together, to meet and discuss interests. I’m proud to say I took the next step today. I made a forum.
Here we have topics like “Suggest a manga to everyone” or “What anime are you currently watching” I’m open to suggestions and I really want to turn this into a hangout spot for everyone.
When I was Freshman in High School, I took part in a forum that changed my life. It was a pokemon forum and I made awesome friends. Unfortunately, those people(Myself included) all took a break from it and we failed to stay in touch. But that truly made my summer incredible. I was an introvert and did not have real good friends in school yet(that changed my junior year). But this was a big stepping stone into helping me grow out of some of those problems. I would love to give back to a community, the way a community gave to me.
Please do not hesitate to check it out, make suggestions, and tell your friends. Of course it is small now, but we can make it grow!
Here’s a link http://dahubbz.proboards.com/
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
Check back later today for a top five, and next week for more big announcement
Da_Hubbz 