Deck Spotlight #3: The Rise of the Wolf

So, another day, another blog, I guess?

I've lifted the lid on my favourite Standard-Legal deck so far, and my current project deck, and even done a bit of on-the-spot deckbuilding. But what haven't I done?

Today, I would like to showcase my favourite deck period (ever), my Werewolf tribal deck, the Full Moon Lynch Mob. (I'm crap at names, anybody with a better idea could probably outdo it) But, I digress..

My Werewolf deck was the first deck I ever looked outside of my spares in order to build. That is, once I'd fluked my way into pulling a Huntmaster of the Fells out of one of my first Dark Ascension Boosters. My first mythic rare of my Magic: the Gathering career, and I got one of the strongest aggro bombs to date. Quite a good start, no?

Needless to say, the 'werewolf mechanic' captured my imagination. A werewolf deck would become a race for the opponent: Kill me, or run out of spells. If you run out of spells, you'll be facing a lot more than the nice happy 2/2s I've been dropping the last few turns. And thus, my hunger for the Moon began.

As with any Tribal deck, I started where any search would start: The availability of Lords. Lords in this context meaning any number of cards which provide small boosts to creature of a type, in this case werewolf. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. For those well versed in Dark Ascension, the cycle of Captains covered the 4 main 'fantasy monster' archetypes. Diregraf Captain covered the zombie contingent, Stromkirk Captain filled the vampire section. Immerwolf was the werewolf version of this card, and made my little newbie heart skip a beat. A werewolf lord? That stops them transforming into their weak, fleshy forms? Oh Wizards, you spoil me. However, being non-wolf, I decided to add a smaller amount of them than most other creatures, as Werewolves are preferable over Immerwolves in most situations.

This lead me onto Mayor of Avabruck. What a beautiful card design. A lord that affects either humans or wolves, and switches when my humans become wolves and back again. I was aback. The wolf token spawning is just gravy, but those things become lethal if the Howlpack Alpha is left untouched. the basis was coming together.

Now, the colours told me I wanted to make it an aggro deck. Red and Green are an aggro partnership forged in the depths of the Helvault. As such, I looked to quicken my curve: I had 2, 3 and 4 drops. The 1 CMC creatures did not fail to disappoint either. Reckless Waif was a great choice to add to the deck, as swinging for a minimum of 3 on turn 2 if the opponent couldn't handle a turn 1 play was an exciting thought. What was even more exciting was the look of Wolfbitten Captive, which could swing for 3 on turn 2 UNTRANSFORMED, then transform in the opponent's upkeep as you would tap out pumping him. the Krallenhorde Killer has broken many any early frontline for me, as a 6/6 wolf is a good removal target, the 2/2 he becomes after is not, necessarily. As such, he goes untouched.

With those down, I explored my prospect of removal, to waste early resistance. I was drawn to Searing Spear (Lightning Strike as it is in the current decklist, the Strikes did not exist when I was looking) and lo, what was this? A werewolf with targetted removal. This just got better and better. Daybreak Ranger was probably the hardest wolf to amass a playset of, but it was ultimately worth it. The ability to throw a wolf amongst the enemy defenses and rip apart weak links, or to hate on those flyers coming at you, is invaluable.

Filling out the curve comes the copious amount of 2 drops. The Gatstaf Shepherds are decent beatsticks, and 4/4 Unblockables against all non-green decks when transformed with a lord out speaks volumes about its worthiness in the deck. Full Moon's Rise allows the wolves to run recklessly at the opponents force, threatening decimation of his field or his life total (often both), at more or less no downside to you. Oh, and it stops most board wipes. That has that going for it too. Speaking of decimation, however... Moonmist rounds out the decklist, providing one of the most demoralising sights an opponent staring down a field of humans can witness, guaranteed. I can not promote this spell enough, honestly. It's caused on the spot concessions, scoops, what have you, as your opponent who thought they were being clever by deliberately spreading out their casts in order to stop your horde transforming just had all their work undone... And then they run at the opponent, with no threat to themselves, annihilating everything in their path. Yep, this is a Gruul deck alright. And it's my favourite of all time.

Thats my deck spotlight folks, hope you enjoyed it!

Inpromptu Deckbuild #1: Gift of the Gods

So, I'm looking for a format which will properly frame the deck-builder's mindset into text form. As I've attempted before on this blog to frame my mindset, some decisions seem iffy even to me (and have even brought around changes to the decks - see my updated Wrath of Keranos build. So I'm shaking up the blog bag - I'm going to brew a deck right now, and transcribe my thought process to text.

For this deckbuild, I want to build around untapped power. Something that may be under-appreciated in standard, not quite as dominant as Master of Waves. For the locus of my deck-brew, I would like to present the epitome of Theros' untapped power - Gift of Immortality. When this card got spoiled people went nuts (I remember it well, it was my first spoiler season that I was a contributor on the MagicTCG subreddit for) but, in the wake of Esper, Mono-B and Mono-U decks, the Gift from the Gods did not see much use. So, wh
at could it use?

The first thing that comes to mind is 'What does this card synergise with'? My gut tells me enter the battlefield effects, so I'll work with that. After a quick look around the current standard format (No BNG just yet, patience) more or less any colour combination is amazing. Going Orzhov would allow the destructive Ashen Rider or more subtle Sin Collector, Azorius would allow Lavinia or just about any other detain creature there is. In white hybrids though, the cards I'm most excited to look at are Viashino Firstblade or Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, making me lean towards Boros or Selesnya. The Firstblade creates seemingly unrelenting aggro, but is janky with the Gift's effect; it would have to die in my main phase 1 in order to have its effect be of use. So, Trostani it is.

I have an idea, I have a theme. I'm pretty sure I want it standard - if not I'd have a few more ideas from standards past. But, keeping with Standard, what would we do? Trostani gives life gain and can populate, we could work off of that, but bearing that in mind, we want something to work with the Gift. What are our options?

It doesn't take long to find a fitting combo piece - Armada Wurm, Selesnya Battering Ram instantly springs to mind. Take time to think of all the interactions between these 3 pieces. An immortal wurm recurring indefinitely would create 10 toughness worth of life gain per recursion from Trostani, as well as providing a token which we can sink mana into to populate. The interactions are delicious.

Now that we have a combo core, my thoughts turn to the mana curve. Sets of 3, 4 and 6 CMC - hardly healthy. We need to quicken the curve, by adding in some weenies to stop our faces getting caved in before we can drop our combo. With the idea of constant big creatures hitting the board, I looked into the Simic mechanic, Evolve, for inspiration. Immediately I found Experiment One; renowned aggro beatstick and evolve outlet, he sees copious use in a lot of strategies involving big creatures as the front runner. Or shambler. Or however an ooze moves. Glorious.

Add in sets of each, and we're at 16 cards. Add in land (assumed 24, we aren't playing aggro - which could legitimately run less) and we're at 40. Boy, that went fast. But, we're not quite done yet. In case of spanners in the works- primarily Naturalize - I want to run Auramancer. In a deck so dependent on the combo of Gift of Immortality, losing even one would be a hefty loss to us. Hey, even slap a Gift onto the Auramancer - infinite recursion!

Next, getting to that 6 land as quickly as possible to drop our Gatecreeper Vine. Allows the grabbing of land on entry and - best of all - allows infinite grab with a Gift attached. Not that you'd necessarily want gatecreeper to have one, but it certainly breaks those land veins apart and thins our deck to find more land. He's not exactly the most durable fellow either - he's often killed early game, but is a valuable source of stall against weenies - even evolves Experiment One, whats not to love?
Wurm into play is a perogative. For this, taking note of the gaping hole at 2 CMC, I suggest

On the other hand, the deck's now at 48, and is all creatures. Lets see what spells can offer the Immortal Selesnya Engine. Immediately before looking anywhere I know i'll want Advent of the Wurm, which produces half an Armada Wurm. Not exactly Giftable, but will allow Trostani to do something while we twiddle our thumbs waiting on the big guy himself.

As much as I hate on it, artifact/enchantment hate is important, love it or hate it. I could go naturalize but while looking through cards Sundering Growth may be
helpful. This could be moved to the sideboard but at this point it may be useful. Populate is a godsend as well.

Speaking of enchantments to hate on, I have an idea. With Trostani providing us so much lifegain, why not supplement this constant stream of life gain with Angelic Accord? Token spawning providing life, which then provide tokens... that provide life. You get the picture. Props to synergy during sundering growth at this point, populating in your opponents turn would cause an angel to spawn at your opponent's end step too.

That makes 60 cards, but one last minute gem in the sorcery section catches my eye - Call of the Conclave. A 3/3 on turn 2 is nothing to sniff at - even less a 3/3 that can be populated. This is a kneejerk last addition into the mainboard, opting to lower the numbers on Trostani and Armada Wurm to 3 each, as the high CMC pieces are a nightmare if drawn in the early game; and Trostani, being legendary, has the disadvantage of only being allowed onto the board one at a time. Sundering Growth, being a situational addition, is reduced to a 2 of so it's less likely to be drawn when unneeded.

With the cards sorted, I look to tweak the mana base. With a purely basic set of land, the split of mana symbols of the deck is almost equal, white having 4 more than green. In which case, I alter the skew so it is 11 forests to 13 plains, to ensure I draw the right colours when I want to. In terms of nonbasic land, I obviously want Temple Garden. Its flexibility is unparalleled, so I cut down 2 of each basic for a full set. Also, I know I said no BNG, but the scryland from BNG, Temple of Plenty, will do wonders in this deck. In order to keep the balance of lands equal again, I remove 2 of each for a full set. And the deck is done.

I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did, and I hope this fulfils its purpose - to give people an insight into the mind of a deck builder. The decklist of the made deck in today's article is available here. Happy Deckbuilding!

Deck Spotlight #2: How the Orzhov stole Christmas

Well, weekends turn out to be quite the busy time.

Anyway, let's jump back in with a cautionary tale: How the Orzhov stole Christmas.

Or rather, how my favourite Standard-Legal deck functions. Without further adieu; I give you - Your debt will be paid in Blood - a deck built off of my tapping into the previously unexplored function of mass extort triggers. Quick to finish out in single or multiplayer games, it's the reason why my playgroup shudder when they see my prize deck leave my box.

It hasn't always looked the way it does now, it used to be slow and cheap. It didn't have Debt to the Deathless and it sure as hell didnt have Gray Merchant of Asphodel - this was originally spawned out of a gatecrash fatpack and a bargain pickup of an Obzedat, Ghost Council at my LGS. The previous iteration featured stalling with high toughness creatures with extort until you either drained them VERY slowly, or Obzedat hit the board and they scooped.

This current iteration, however, is not so subtle.

That is to say, in single player it's not so subtle. In multiplayer its possible to lie low by crapping out extort triggers, but not extorting so as not to draw attention. Then, a few crypt ghasts down the line, extort a Gray Merchant for 5 triggers and watch as the ETB effect of the Merchant swings you past 100 life. Or, more recently, just debt to the deathless for X = 10. Thats ended many a game there (Not actually as unachievable as it sounds with 1 or more Crypt Ghast  in play).

Single player is a whole different kettle of fish. The player aggressively rips at the opponents life total for 1 or 2 life a time, all the while gaining from the experience. Nothing is more demoralising than a creature being killed by a doom blade, then also losing 5 life. Either the opponent runs out of life quickly, or I stall out long enough to drop a bomb: Be it a Gray Merchant or the Ghost Council, if left untouched either end the game either on the spot or after a few turns. The oppressive Demon-without-a-downside dropped early can also force board control off your opponent, or their game might end quicker than planned.

My sideboard has yet to be tried and tested, but in philosophy:
- Blind Obedience. Because nuts to you, haste. Also a 1 or 2 of in control matchups with plenty of board clear but not much in the form of enchantment hate.
- Dark Betrayal. A mirror with my Doom Blade count against the Mono-black/heavy black Orzhov builds

that have been seen recently. Absolutely nuts in those matchups.
- Deathpact Angel. This ones a bit iffy, but the angel has been seen to be solid in a control matchup too, often requiring two (or more) separate removal spells to clear for good. Also evades most ground threats.
- Glare of Heresy. This ones the same as Dark Betrayal but targetted towards white weenie builds, particularly the ones coming up in BNG. Protects against gods too, should I need to deal with Heliod (lol) or Ephara.
- Hero's Downfall. For when all of my removal isn't enough. Acts as a mono-black Dreadbore to deal with any pesky planeswalkers.
- Pithing Needle. Always-include sideboard card since its inception, shuts down all planeswalkers and Aetherling.
- Ratchet Bomb. Mostly used for token clearing, particularly from white weenie and Master of Waves. That nightmare of a card.
- Thoughtseize. Honestly a proper contender for the mainboard too, great for early disruption of combo decks.

That, my friends, is a look into the Orzhov Syndicate through one of my prize decks. Join me next time!

Born of the Gods

Well, that took long.

When I typed up the ending to my previous post yesterday, I had completely forgotten today was the day the Born of the Gods set in its entirety was released to the public. So, as I understand, this is where I would put my opinions about the set.

The set itself looks promising, as a person who in recent times has been looking into drafting and sealed tournaments, the strong drafting scene of this set is somewhat reassuring. The inspired mechanic has shenanigans written all over it; I wish I could say the same about tribute, but all that says to me is 'Let me do this... no?... Oh ok, then I'm stronger!... Oh... Dead.' We shall see, but I'm pretty sure Inspired will outdo its Tribute sibling.

Onto cards I'm particularly looking forward to:

- Spirit of the Labyrinth. People all over the internet are clamouring over this one, screaming bloody murder over how powerful it is and how it will break eternal formats. Me? I just think it'll be a cool sideboard card
for my favourite deck, Orzhov Control.

- The Archetypes. All of them. They're in all the colours, but I may as well cover all of them here, as they do more or less the same thing. I love the idea of them. I don't quite understand the flavour involved, but that doesn't stop me musing about how long multiplayer games could descend into a war for keywords, and then there's that one guy who builds a Chromanticore deck and takes them all. Glorious.

- Hero of Iroas. This card is more personal use than anything; I haven't covered it in this blog yet but one of my favourite decks is my Boros Aggro deck, which centres heavily on 1) Heroic triggers on most creatures, of which this card has one; 2) Aura spells, which this card makes ever more efficient. Needless to say with athe Wrath of Keranos) I have a space in which to put him as well.
card that's falling out of favour (the Adept doesn't quite do the work here that he does in

- Tromokratis. Ok, so I'm putting this here because I'm not that big a blue player. And the flavour overload is amazing. This card will be a free win at the prerelease if the poor sod trying to make it work can unleash it onto the board. That'll be the problem with 16-18 land though. Even still, lots you can do with this card, and I can't wait.

- Gild. Ah, King Midas. Once again, this one is because I'd like to try it out within the Orzhov Council. An easy answer to pesky gods, as well as ramping me up, deserves some kind of mention. Covers new ground
as far as black is concerned too; I didn't quite put transmuting a target into solid gold into the black player's thinking.

- Fate Unraveler. These bleed affects are a guilty pleasure to my sadistic side. Really. Mind Seize is my favourite Commander deck for good reason, and this old hag will be a very synergistic addition to Nekusar's card draw/punish engine.

- Drown in Sorrow. A double Shrivel. That's neat. A double shrivel that costs less than double shrivel? Now you're spoiling me. Double shrivel, cheaper, that scrys? Wizards you sly bastards.

- Bolt of Keranos and Scouring Sands. These I'm looking forward to for the same reasons. If you're wondering why, have a look at my previous post, about my deck; The Wrath of Keranos. These would be
happy additions to at least consider.

- Searing Blood. What isn't there to like about this card? Burn. Very red. Burn that burns the player. Also quite good. At that mana cost, at instant, there's not much I'm going to complain about if I draw this in a draft, really.

- Scourge of Skola Vale. My token green card for the 'Stuff I'm looking forward to' article, that's also going to serve its purpose in my Golgari deck, running things such as Corpsejack Menace and copious amounts of creatures with Scavenge. The synergy is delicious.

- Karametra and Phenax. My two favourite gods of this set, Karametra is itching for somebody to break her.
Phenax has people stepping up to the plate to break him six ways from sunday because, deep down, we are all criminally insane.

Thus concludes the synopsis of my opinions for the Born of the Gods set of Magic: the Gathering! Thanks for reading.

Deck Spotlight #1: The Wrath of Keranos

So, a wee bit of history.

I'm a student, on a student's budget. This doesn't necessarily translate well into a Magic hobby. But, a budget means that every so often, I can treat myself by shaking up my hobby, and opening up avenues of play that I have not previously experienced. Here is my most recent addition to my main deckbox, hopefully to be a faithful friend for a while yet.

The link to 'The Wrath of Keranos' is here.

This deck happened more by mistake than anything; I was working on another deck and improving its consistency in particular. A combo was brought to my attention involving Flamespeaker Adept and Aqueous Form which, supported by other things, meant a guaranteed 4 damage to the face a turn. On top of fixing your draws. On top of other buffs you may give it. The fact that I hadn't even seen this combo before, after the 15 or so weeks the Theros set had been in Standard, blew my mind. I needed to capitalise on this discovery - and capitalise I did.

First, I laid out my thought process; what did I want this deck to do? My mind instantly settled on Aggro; all face smashing, all the time. That's what this interaction does, and sets of Aggro backup shall make it stronger. So naturally, in went a ton of Aggro tools, particularly those with scry. Titan's Strength was a no brainer; +3/+1 is good, slapped onto an adept makes +5/+1 and FIRST STRIKE, for 1 red mana. My little combo-creating heart leapt for joy. My next thought was removal. Could I remove threats, and make my creatures more formidable? Of course I could. Magma Jet was added without a second thought. Of course, there's a better way of removal; countering spells before they resolve. Dissolve seemed foolish not to add. And thus, my core was born.
decks need some removal too, this much was certain.


But, a deck doesn't only have 4 creatures, does it? I flicked backwards and forwards through standard legal contenders, which left me with 4 eligible addins:

 - Guttersnipe. This nasty little goblin has been milling around my collection almost since I started my expedition into Magic last year but it was only until now his purpose became relevant. With so many instants
and sorceries flying around, his trigger generates a lot of free damage.

 - Young Pyromancer. He's been used in burn decks since he was first spoiled in Magic 2014 a few months back, and I knew what he was capable of. Churning out a token whenever Guttersnipe would smack the opponent for two. Nice thought, but 1) budget is a deciding factor, I have precisely none of these on hand, 2) he fills a role similar to the goblin in Red. The search continued.

 - Nivix Cyclops. A powerful common if ever there was one, people have been trying (and some succeeding) in creating combo's for this monolith to one shot an opponent. Shenanigans aside, being at common he's a very flexible addition to a spell heavy deck.

 - Spellheart Chimera. A late addition to the Izzet creature party, this card provides some flying  utility for the deck. In built with evasion, it poses a large threat should the game carry on late, in a deck with 20+
noncreature spells. Instant inclusion.

That was the creature base covered, but one thing remained; interweaving core combo and support cards. To do this was simple: I added in cards from the Return to Ravnica set, where the Izzet Guild (and style of play) holds its roots. An old tournament staple, Mizzium Skin were added. This card is all kinds of useful at dodging targetted removal, and at common is a great budget pick. But after that,  my final 4 spells needed to be chosen. Eventually I settled on Teleportal for the following reasons. 1) Boardwide
unblockable. Nothing's stopping your dudes. 2) Another instant/sorcery to boost everything you have, save Flamespeaker. 3) Flexibility. It could be an aggressive early play, or a late game finisher. I have no words to describe the handiness of
this card.

And thus, the story of The Wrath of Keranos was told. Join me next time when I find something that has grabbed my poor attention span long enough to write a meaningful piece on it!

Introductions, of a sort

So, it begins.

It's 1AM, I'm sat in bed with a laptop, and I'm unable to sleep. It's the same as any other night, really. Except this time is different. I feel like writing.

Hello out there, I'm quite often known to most people as Unmistakable (via online alias, anyway) and this is a blog about my interests. These may shift from time to time, as people's interests generally do, but at this point in time I'm feeling some posts related to a hobby of mine: Magic: the Gathering.

It's a hobby, certainly, but of a more traditional sort. A lot of hobbies nowadays feature at least some immersion in the virtual realm, and it is to an extent, but not so much for me. Sure, there's MTG online, the server provided by wizards to allow the playing of the game across countries and time zones instantly. For me, at the moment at least, it's about the paper aspect.

Quite recently, since the new year in fact, I've succumbed to deck building in my spare time. Not just the decks thrown together from spares, I store lists, elaborate them into killer brews, then unleash them on my playgroup. I'm one of few to do so, granted, but it keeps my mind active. I feel in my element, as I have done in so many other games, so many other times before. But a little different. Since I was a boy, my interests were in the online gaming communities. Runescape, World of Warcraft, more recently Guild Wars 2 or League of Legends - all of them missed the level of immersion I feel when sitting down with my friends to play a card game.

It is lying awake at this hour that made me wonder how I could contribute, how I could spread my accumulated knowledge around, perhaps document it for when I've long forgotten it, then the idea for a blog came to mind. I have a few ideas of things to write about, God knows how long I could ramble on for, so lets see how it goes. I'm not going to make outlandish claims of updating content, but if it helps me sleep, I can only assume it's good for me.

Peace.