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![I’m Building a Pauper Battle Box [MtG]](https://dahubbz.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/images289029.jpeg?w=90&h=70&crop=1 "I’m Building a Pauper Battle Box [MtG]")
I’m Building a Pauper Battle Box [MtG]
Hey guys. I love Magic the Gathering. However, I almost exclusively play casually with my wife. As a result I like for us to have multiple decks sitting around the house so it never gets old. I like to build at least 4 decks for me and 4 decks for her. This is something I did with Pre-Modern. I’ll show those off in a future post. I like doing this with non rotating, affordable eternal formats. Now, affordable is obviously subjective and proxies exist and budget options to expensive cards exist. So with that said, unless your deck is built around something expensive, you can make most formats affordable one way or the other.
The affordability of Pauper as well as the sheer width of deck options is why Pauper has remained my favorite format since I gave up on Modern years ago. But I’ve never sat down and tried to flesh out a box. If I had done this experiment a decade ago when I started playing Pauper I would have thrown in my favorites at the time: GB Midrange for me. Burn for my wife. And rounded it out with stuff like Boros Monarch and Mono Black with Gary and the crew. But a lot changes in a decade. So here are the decks my wife and I are currently building
#1 Grixis Affinity
Before you scoff at this inclusion, I built this deck like 3 years ago ling before Utrom Monitor made this one of the most controversial decks in Pauper’s history. For those of you unfamiliar, with the release of the TMNT set brought ancillary products. Utrom Monitor found itself in oje of these side products. I believe it was a 3 of. Which made things awkward for 60 card formats where you want 4 of him, specifically Pauper. It was reselling for about $10 when it came out. When I’m building pauper decks, I don’t like cards even over $2. It kind of ruins the spirit of the format. Either way, I never invested in the Monitors. My win condition was a flipped Tithing Blade, Bolts, and Galvanic Blast. There was a creature package with Gingerbrute who could get in unblockable to set up ninjutsu for Ninja of the Deep Hour. And Refurbished Familiar was an absolute unit as long as you weren’t facing those Sneaky Snackers. This was probably my favorite Pauper deck of all time and could stand for some upgrades in the near future.
#2 Rakdos Madness
When I first saw the Madness Pauper deck, it was Rakdos. That’s my wife’s favorite guild so we started working on this build [foregoing the straight Mono Red Burn]. She plays burn in every format its available in [which is all of them…], so I thought it would be fun to add a layer of complexity to her decks. She loves point and click burn spells. This deck still plays loads of burn spells in the form of Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Vampire’s Kiss, Alms of the Vein, Grab the Prize and, at least for right now, Fruit of Tizerus. But the discard package will encourage her to keep track of multiple game spaces and timing. Fiery Temper and Alms of the Vein deal with discard, exile, and timing. Fruit of Tizerus forces her to keep up and remember what’s in her graveyard. Grab the Prize pseudo forces her to think about what she’s discarding. While Vampire’s Kiss will make her keep track of tokens and the game board itself. Its still her preferred strategy of burning the player out, but I think it will force her to pay more attention and become a better player.
#3 UB Birds
This is my pet deck. I actually built this and streamed it on the Dahubbz Youtube channel 8 years ago. Admittedly, it is kind of jammed in a weird place. Cavern Harpy is one of my favorite cards. I love repeating and abusing Enter The Battl… oh, yeah we don’t use that verbiage anymore. I mean I love abusing the Enters trigger [yeah, just doesn’t sound the same…]. So I started looking for the best things to bounce back with Cavern Harper and landed on a creature called Parasitic Strix. These formed the backbone of the deck. Now, we don’t have Baleful Strix or we would be cooking. As it stands, I use Tidehollow Strix as a replacement. Its Blue and Black, is a bird, is an artifact, and has flying and deathtouch. It checks like 4 out of the 5 boxes Baleful Strix does, so its alright. The deck has gotten some new toys in the last 8 years including Grim Bauble, Cryogen Relic, and heck I did my video a month before Cast Down came out. The only thing is its kind of is a UB based Artifact Fliers deck. As you saw with my Grixis Affinity list I already have an artifact deck. And as you’ll see in a few entries, I am planning a fliers deck. Still this is my baby. I have to have it.
#4 Mardu Synthesizer
This was a deck I thought up for a wife a while back but never had the pieces for it. Its an update [albeit now like 3 years old] take on Boros Monarch. I really liked the Kor Skyfisher and Glinthawk interaction back in the day. Synthesizer is a good pick up because it has a great ETB you want to abuse. Grim Bauble has another cool abusable ETB allowing the deck to pick off small aggro creatures. Of course, Refurbished Familiar is probably the main reason to play black. A 2/1 flier that forces the opponent to discard upon entrance is going to be great to bounce back to your hand and replay it. I was sold on the Mardu version for my wife when I saw Black Mage’s Rod. It fits my wife’s playstyle very well. Other reasons to splash black can include Cast Down, Tithing Blade, or Fanatical Offering. Outside of that, red provides burn in the form of Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Blast and some good sideboard cards like Red Elemental Blast, Smash to Smithereens, and End the Festivities.
#5 Gruul Monsters/Cascade
I love Gruul monsters. The original Gruul Monsters from Khans of Tarkir was one of the first decks I saw play on camera and I fell in love. I certainly try to recreate it in any format I can. Unfortunately I’m not sure the curve is in their in Pauper. I don’t think we have something like Gruul Spellbreaker in Pauper. However, the top end in Red Green is super strong. It also plays into argubly my favorite mechanic in Magic- Cascade! I’m still working on an exact 60 I like but some of suspects I’m looking at are: Writhing Chyrsalis, Annoyed Altisaur, Boarding Party, Arbor Elf, Llanowar Visionary and Eldrazi Processor. The rest of the curve will be filled out as I go. All in all this appeals to the gruul part of my brain. Ramp into big mana, cast big dumb dudes, and Cascade into values.
#6 Jund Sac
Okay, hear me out. I’m not entirely sure what I want this to be. In 2015, my wife and I walked into a Walmart and bought the Demonic Deals starter the deck where my wife learned the joys of casting Act of Treason, stealing my elf, and saccing it to her Blazing Hellhound. I think Pauper has potential for a similiar deck. However, it seems black is mostly preoccupied with saccing its own stuff. That’s mostly done in Golgari Gardens. Which seems to have turned into a mostly mono black deck these days. Gixian Infiltrator seems like he would be an interesting build around card, but I’d have to think about fun unique ways to build this that aren’t just Golgari Garden. So this is a work in progress.
#7 Cawgates
Caw Go and Caw Blade are some of the most iconic decks in Magic’s history from a time before I played. This is a chance to play a similiar style deck. Now sure, I don’t get access to Jace the Mind Sculpture, Stoneforge Mystic, or the great equipment package of Standard’s past. However, now we get to use Brainstorm, Counterspell, Journey to Nowhere, and the gate package to simulate the equipment angle. This is probably the deck I’m customizing the least. I’ll most likely find a stock list and just rock it. But really what battle box is complete without some form of UW?
#8 Soul Sisters
Mono Red Burn was my wife’s first MtG love. Oddly enough, mono white life gain or Soul Sisters was the deck she played next. We put a spin on it where she played the Soul Sisters first, but then played cards like Keldon Marauders and Viashino Pyromancer to play creatures that burned on entering. I think they literally made Phlage based off this deck idea, so blame my wife for that one. Anyway, there’s ample ways to get a Soul burn deck going in pauper with Souls Attendent, Soul Warden, Essence Warden, and Suture Priest plus all the burn we can do with Molten Gatekeeper, Raphael Tough Turtle, and Marauding Blight-Priest. We also can go infinite with Scurry Oaks if we build a combo engine around it with something like Ivy Lane Denizen. Our Battle Box is also lacking in combo, so I think this would be welcomed. Its really up to my wife to figure out exactly how she wants to build it.
Pauper is cheap enough, I’d like to work up to a good bit of decks over time. Elves, W Heroic and Simic Land Animate all are on my radar. You also never know when a busted common will come out and create a new archetype over night.
Do any of you guys play pauper? Do you ever build battle boxes for your favorite formats? Let me know what your favorite Pauper decks are!
Must-Try Cards from Lorwyn Eclipsed
Lorwyn Eclipsed is almost here, but the whole set is now spoiled. I thought it be fun to look at some of the cards I’m most excited to brew around. It is worth noting I rarely play Standard, so most of my picks are for other formats. I like Pauper, Tiny Leader, and Pauper EDH more right now. My picks will reflect my current interest (not so much power level or general buzz.). Let’s get on to the list. Leave a comment below on the cards you are most excited about.
#5 The Evoke Elementals
I’m lumping all these guys into one spot. I think they are versatile and fun. I don’t know if any will see standard or modern play or anything like that, but they certainly could. I am more interested in them from a cube perspective. Cube is one of those formats where you can tailor make the power level and synergies. It’s very easy to create environments where these guys are all stars. Not to mention, I like when Wizards does these big, fun cycles like the Gearhulks, Gods, and Titans of previous sets.
There’s five Incarnations and I really like four of them. Deceit reminds me of Dinrova’s Horror and apparently has already found a combo with Superior Spider-Man. Wistful seems like a more flexible Mulldrifter, which is never a bad thing. Emptiness seems solid. I never scoff at flexible reanitomater spells and this is one that can double as a removal spell. Vibrance has to be my favorite though. It gives me strong Kroxa meets Uro vibes. Both of those cards are in the running for two of my favorite creatures ever. This can bolt anything and/or ensure you find your next land and gain some life. I really like this one. Catharsis is my least favorite as I am just not interested in anything it is doing.
#4 Glister Bairn
Honestly, this is a set of honorable mentions. Where there’s interesting stuff for pauper and interesting cards that can be commanders. However, most of the set doesn’t exactly sing to me. I’m putting this on the list not because I’m rushing out to get it, but because I think it is interesting. There’s plenty of interesting ways to make off color tokens in Blue and Green to generate tokens that are white or red or black. Amssing Zombies makes black creature tokens. Resculpt makes blue and red elemental tokens. Glimmerburst can draw you two cards and make a white enchantment creature token. Like I said, I’m not rushing out to build it. I just love these creatures that provide deck building limitations and puzzle. These are fun thought exercises.
#3 Iron-Shield Elf
There’s plenty of elves I could have picked. Formidable Speaker, Champions of the Perfect, Virdent Emissary, are all great elves that could probably slot right into Lathril when they come out. I’m putting Iron-Shield Elf on here because A. He’s probably going to fly under the radar so I figured I’d give him his 15 seconds of fame here. B. He slots into one of my decks that isn’t just elves. I built Hashaton in tiny leader. Admittedly, the existing discard outlets we have are pretty good. Therefor, I am not sure if he will make the cut, but I think anytime we get instant speed “free” discard outlets we should at least take notes. All in all, elves got a lot of support this set and that is always cool.
#2 Maralen, Fae Ascendant
Speaking of Elves getting support, here’s something crazy. She combines two of my favorite creature types: Elves and Faeries. She rewards you building elf ball so you have a high creature count as well as rewards you for playing flash faeries. I like both of these strategies. My thing is I’m not 100% sure how I want to build her. I’ve had Lathril Elves for a while and always wanted to splash blue for Sultai elves. However, I have been waiting for a good UB Faery commander that speaks to me (obviously, there’s a bunch of good ones. I just haven’t really pulled the trigger on them yet.). Is it finally time to pull the trigger and just smash them together? I’m not sure. I also already own Mothman as my Sultai commander. So I am conflicted, but this is atleast very cool and on my radar.
#1 Abigale
Abigale checks a lot of boxes for me. I don’t own a lot, if any ,Orzhov commander decks at any level (Pauper EDH, Tiny Leader, or regular commander.). Despite loving WB as a color combination, I’ve yet to see a strategy that speaks to me. But Abigale in Tiny Leader is currently speaking to me. Her ability to blank the bad text of big creatures like Rotting Regisaur and Death’s Shadow is so tempting. Not to mention, players have already found a whole host of other creatures that are big and dumb with drawbacks that Abigale can just remove. Then you play blink spells like Ephemerate so you can keep triggering her etb. I think the design idea was to use her ability to blank your opponent’s creatures like Badgermole Cub, because I’m not sure she got any other support in Lorwyn which makes me think Wizard did not envision her being an archetype, but more so a hate piece. Maybe I am wrong or missed something, but that’s how I see it. Anyway, I think she is the card I am most looking forward to building and that is in Tiny Leader.
So there you have it. The Elementals and Elves are eating good. Merfolks got some cool cards but nothing that made we want to build them. There’s plenty of other cards that look cool or I’m keeping an eye out to see what they do, but these are the cards that jumped out to me for brewing purposes. Let me know what you are building when Lorwyn Esclipsed officially releases.
Thank you guys for reading. Have a great day!
![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!
Da_Hubbz 