Messages

1

General Magic / Re: 8/24 Banned & Restricted Update

« on: August 25, 2020, 01:06:08 am »

That card should never have been printed.

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Deck Comments / Re: Menace IKO Arena Bo1 - Comments

« on: August 04, 2020, 03:44:07 pm »

With the current Bannings in Standard, the Menace IKO Arena Bo1 deck.  aka Phantom Menace, is kicking butt.   

I just walked from Gold 3 to Platinum 4 with 3 losses......

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Deck Comments / Re: Menace IKO Arena Bo1 - Comments

« on: July 31, 2020, 09:11:22 pm »

This deck nearly got me to Diamond in June.  It was a slightly different version that what Revision 2 is....

The newest revision is the current deck, but since M21 was released the Plainswalker heavy decks and up coming Shrine decks are harder for this to beat, unless it comes out blazing.
Currently it struggles to advance my level in Platnium, but it got me there quite easily.

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General Magic / Re: Do you like Ikoria's mutate cards?

« on: June 01, 2020, 04:40:26 pm »

I have a R/G Mutation deck that got me through Gold last month.  It is really nice for ramp decks, and easy to ramp into effective Turn 3 heavies.

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General Magic / Best Value: Two Mana Spells in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

« on: April 30, 2020, 03:52:45 pm »

Here we go with a pile of rares and mythics for me to talk about that cost way too much per card!  That is not quite true.  Only two of them, both mythics, are selling for $20 or more as of the time I am writing this.  I just need to calm down...... 

There are 54 Two Mana spells in this set.  Eight of them are reprinted from recent Standard, with Anticipate, Cathartic Reunion, and Essence Scatter being the most notable.  This list contains 9 cards, with all but one card being Multi-colored.  Some of these cards are interesting, but most are just solid value, even if not flashy.

 

Fiend Artisan – Big dollar mythic, it had best be making this list.  For 2 mana, it is a lesser Lhurgyof and a lesser Birthing Pod combined.  Which of course, feeds itself and get the next victim lined up… crazy card, crazy cost, crazy to not play this if you have it!



General’s Enforcer – Extra toughness and the ability to exile cards from anyone’s graveyard are the main pieces here.  When the exiled card is a creature, then you get a 1/1 white human creature token.  These items together are what puts General’s Enforcer on this list.  The ability where Legendary Humans are given indestructible, also means you can build a deck around it.  Not too useful in limited formats, but you could build towards that for Tabletop and Standard.



Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy – Super expensive mythic #2, on this list.  It doubles your mana generation from creatures and artifacts, and it fetches creatures from the top 5 cards of your library, directly onto the battlefield.  As a G/U card it just seems to add more power to a color scheme that already have excessive resources.  There are plenty of creatures and artifacts to help support Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy.



Labyrinth Raptor – This card has good value all by itself, but the whole play around creatures with Menace really makes this a build around creature.  I know I feel the need to give this a try.  The opponent will need to be very particular in choosing how to defend against your Menace creatures, and in the colors of Black and Red, you can have some combat tricks to seriously punish your opponent after they make their plays.  Could be lots of fun messing with their heads.



Regal Leosaur – As a normal creature it is a bear, but when mutated, it brings a huge bonus to your other creatures.  +2/+1 is a significant power shift and can really turn a Boros army into a game ending alpha strike.  If you can pile on additional mutations, either the same turn or future turns you can keep adding this on.  Even the mutate cost is still affordable early game.



Savai Thundermane – 3/2 for RW is a great deal but the cycle triggered ability is what really makes this card strong.  2 mana for a 4-life shift is a good deal and it doesn’t require a tap.  Savai Thundermane can be a strong piece of an aggressive Cycle deck.



Skull Prophet – Nothing super extravagant or wild here, just a solid creature with 3 power and two standard abilities for BG.  Tap it for mana generation, filling your graveyard, or as a fat 3 power attacker, Skull Prophet is value packed. 



Sprite Dragon – Flavor Text – Size of a pixie, rage of a hellkite.  Totally hilarious.  1/1 Flying, Haste Faerie Dragon that gets +1/+1 bigger every time you cast a non-creature spell.  Again, nothing unique here, we have seen its likeness before.  I find cards like this fun, but the fact that this has the creature type Faerie means a fun new addition to the tribe.



Valiant Rescuer – 3/1 seems to be popular in this set.  As the only card on this list that is mono colored, we have a creature that does not have flashy new abilities, but the combo here brings real value.  Generating 1/1 human soldier tokens is always a nice ability.  Having that ability trigger off from Cycling is really, quite strong.  Add in the fact that Valiant Rescuer also has Cycling and you have another piece of a nasty RW Cycle deck.

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General Magic / Best Value: One Mana Spells in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

« on: April 22, 2020, 08:21:46 pm »

I was not thrilled when I heard what Ikoria was all about.  Companions seem like a stretch, and right away it made me wonder which other popular game did they get the idea from.  Mutate didn’t excite me much in concept.  Then I got a chance to play it, and I find that as usual, there are plenty of intricacies and nuances in Ikoria that I didn’t expect.  The addition of Cycle really adds to the mix, as well as the play of humans and non-humans.  There is some fun stuff here.

As for one mana spells, we have a total of 23 cards.  Three of those are reprints from recent or current sets, and nothing to really mention.  Half of what was left actually made this list.  One stands shoulder and quills above the rest, but the list is pretty strong.



The Ozolith – The Ozolith Commith… A counter catching artifact that lets you load those counters onto a creature just before combat would have been very interesting BEFORE Ikoria.  With the introduction of counters that represent core abilities instead of +1 or -1 (or poison) it makes the Ozolith a very interesting card that epitomizes the Build Around moniker.  Whether or not you can get a deck around this to be competitive is a different story. 



Fight as One – A nice spell with choices upon casting, similar to the Charm spells.  It brings huge value if you have one of each appropriate target on the battlefield.  There are quite a few potential strategies within Standard to allow you to maximize the potential of Fight as One, as a spoiler or a combat trick.  Even if you only have one target, the ability to save it at instant speed still brings value.



Light of Hope – Another Charm spell with all 3 choices providing strong value.  These choices are very White, and the +1/+1 being a counter as opposed to end of turn is really nice.  4 life is a good number, and the ability to destroy an enchantment on the fly will often be useful bringing one your permanents out of enchanted exile, or take off some nasty aura that your opponent may be using. 



Mutual Destruction – Sacrificing a creature to kill a target creature can easily be an affordable cost.  There are some nasty big creatures in competitive decks out there that can be taken out by sacrificing a token creature.  The interesting side effect involving Flash also gets this effect to go off at instant speed, making it that much more effective, allowing your token to block one target, and then be sacrificed to destroy another.  Talk about taking one for the team....



Swallow Whole – I know this card comes with some specific situations, but even getting points deducted for that, it still makes the list.  Very similar to Mutual Destruction, Swallow Whole allow White to do a very similar effect, but instead of the sacrifice, you tap your creature and it grows  (ummm Lunch!!) while your opponents creature is exiled.  (Get into my belly!!)  This would be a phenomenal card if it were an instant.  Worst case scenario is you suffer the first attack of your intended target… unless you have a way to tap it down, which White has a plethora of.  Bon Appetite.



Almighty Brushwagg – Almighty indeed, and you deserve what you get if you let this creature stay on the board long enough to activate the Giant Growth ability.  Even worse, if they can do it twice!  The fact that this doesn’t say once per turn is nice.  With all the other ways to enhance your unpumped Almighty Brushwagg, this card will often be a force to be reckoned with.  I already see a tabletop deck designed to win, over and over with Brushwaggs.



Blisterspit Gremlin – A card that can be setup to produce more damage than expected for the investment and it could become a staple in Red Deck Wins.  It triggers Spectacle, pumps Chandra’s Spitfire, and becomes 3 points of damage while Torbran, Thane of Red Fell is in the game.  Maybe even over and over if you can keep untapping it.  Notice that it says each opponent, which means even more hits in EDH.



Flourishing Fox – This 1/1 fox gets +1/+1 every time you cycle a card.  It also has Cycle itself, which means additional copies can help boost the one on your battlefield.  Add in the various cycling creatures that get to add tokens to targets when cycled, and you can really make some nasty foxes. 



Serrated Scorpion – Originally, this card was not on my list, but after finding it on SBMtG Dev’s list of under-rated cards, I revisited it.  It is a 1/ 2 creature, making it a valid blocker for most turn one creatures from your opponent.  In addition, the 4 point life shift that occurs when it dies is helpful. (Even more in EDH)  Opponents will often avoid killing the Serrated Scorpion, so you may be able to capitalize on the deterrence.



Whisper Squad – This is a funny card, and when I see it the sneaky noises from cartoons pops into my head…. This ability can not only get you up to 4 creatures on the battlefield quickly, but that is 3 less cards you have to wait for while trying to draw other threats and answers. 

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Deck Comments / Re: Duck tribal - Comments

« on: April 14, 2020, 04:51:48 pm »

Here is a list of cards that can be, or create ducks.

Riptide Replicator
Volrath's Laboratory
Adaptive Automaton
Metallic Mimic
Proteus Machine

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Deckstats Feedback / Format filter in the DeckBuilder

« on: April 13, 2020, 07:50:04 pm »

The internal card filter list in the DeckBuilder does not have Historic as an option.

In the card database window, under the "Legality" filter option.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Bant Incarnation Deck / Need Constructive Critics.

« on: April 13, 2020, 06:24:48 pm »

My latest change has been to remove both of the Dance of the Manse and replace them with one Plain and one Island.

That card came off as a "Win More", and I never found myself in a spot where it would actually pull me out of a tough situation.

The extra land pretty much insures that I won't get mana hosed, and this deck does not sweat having a glut too much, there are plenty of ways to play extra lands or scry them away if you don't want them.

I have started playing this version in Ranked Standard  (Bo1), and not doing too bad.  Super fast decks are the big weakness here.  Any of the Mono Red decks mostly just have this deck dead by the beginning of turn 4.

An additional piece I found, in playing Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, is that the color mix of your lands doesn't matter while that card is in play.  That has been huge in a few games.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Bant Incarnation Deck / Need Constructive Critics.

« on: April 10, 2020, 03:42:13 pm »

Early observations:
Adjustments to the color mix of the lands was needed.  So slight adjustment -1 Island, +1 Forest.

After 5 game adjustments:
I made more significant adjustments to try to increase the overall synergy of the main design of this deck.  This does NOT take into consideration $$$.
-3 Paradise Druid
-1 Knight of Autumn
-2 Sephara, Sky's Blade

+3 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove - Still lets you accelerate your mana, eliminates the mana color concern, plus it is an enchantment.  Great target for Enigmatic Incarnation and lets you get four mana creatures.
+1 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling - Bounces creatures, a good portion now of which are also enchantments, plus it is an enchantment.  Great target for Enigmatic Incarnation and lets you get five mana creatures.
+2 Arasta of the Endless Web - Punishes Red and Blue decks, plus it is an enchantment.  Great target for Enigmatic Incarnation and lets you get five mana creatures.

I also changed up the mana base.  I added in 2 Castle Ardenvale and 2 Castle Vantress, the come in to play untapped quite often, and mid to late game mana sinks that actually help.  I also bumped the Fabled Passage up to 4.  I got rid of the temples and lowered the number of shock lands to 3 of each.

After these adjustments my win ration on Play, is above 60%.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Bant Incarnation Deck / Need Constructive Critics.

« on: April 09, 2020, 09:32:15 pm »

I see that your mana ratios don't jive with your color costs.

Do you find that this deck meets its color requirements regularly, or do you find cards stuck in your hand for a while until you have the right mana mix??

It is my intent to play this deck on Arena. I will keep you posted on results and considerations.

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General Magic / Best Value: Two Mana Spells in Theros Beyond Death

« on: January 23, 2020, 04:08:56 am »

Two mana spells.  The bread of butter of any limited deck and most constructed decks.  There are always so many to choose from in a new set.  Most of them are worth the cost of 2 mana, and occasionally there is a stinker or two that can't even carry that much value, (I am looking at you Mirror Shield). 

Theros Beyond Death has 62 two mana cards in it.  6 of them are reprints, with most of those already legal in Standard.  With all the cards in all the sets to chose from for a new release, they cannot find a card with a similar effect, they just need to add these in again?  That is so annoying.  I have pared that list down to 10 cards that provide value of more than twice your two mana investment.  One of the cards in this set has a value more than FOUR times your cost!  I want it banned, and we haven't even seen it hit paper Standard yet!  (It did knock me out of contention for top 8 at my prerelease, even when I had Ashiok, Nightmare Muse on the board.)

Half of these cards are rare or mythic, and those ones are very powerful.  Expect to see a number of these in competitive play and expect their price tag to be up there a bit.


Aphemia, the Cacophony - As a 2/1 Flying creature for 1B, this is a very playable card.  The extra ability to exile enchantments from your graveyard to generate zombies is a really nice effect.  Even pulling this off once makes the card a great value.  By the way, enchantment creatures are still enchantments.  In current Standard and limited formats, the enchantment requirement can still be effective because there are plenty of quality cards that fill the bill.  Outside of Standard, this becomes less competitive but we are not too worried about that here.


Bronzehide Lion -  This is a blatantly strong card.  3/3 for GW that can be made indestructible is already enough to put this card on the list.  The afterlife aura effect just makes this card nuts.   As one of the four rares, it may end up with the least monetary value unless a strong deck using Green and White finds it way into the meta as this is not a build around card.  This is quite the hat tip to Narnia…..


Daxos, Blessed by the Sun –  Once this hits the battlefield, it becomes a 2/2 minimum due to it own casting cost, but as your battlefield grows with White permanents, so does toughness of this Demigod.  In the last number of Standard formats, creatures that gained you life for other creatures entering the battlefield or dying have found their way into playable decks.  Daxos, Blessed by the Sun will be no exception. 


Destiny Spinner – This is one of the more enigmatic cards on my list.  It is one of those cards that makes you wonder if you can build a deck around it, and break open Standard….. But I am not sure that it can (Will she just break my heart like every other enchantments matter creature I tried to use?).  It does do some interesting things.  Your creature and enchantment spells become safe to cast, which is really nice for Green and or White decks.  The ability to animate a land, with the power and toughness equal to your "devotion" to enchantments.  Notice that this is a permanent animation, which is what makes this potentially more viable. 


*Eidolon of Obstruction – Tax time for Planeswalkers!  If I am not mistaken, this is a first time ability that forces planeswalkers to pay mana to activate.  Although that ability is not universal, it certainly can change up a game against the right decks.  As a 2/1 First Strike for 1W, it is playable with some value and the newness of this ability is what put it over the top for this article.  As I type this, I am wondering if I over valued this ability.  I am not sure this should be in the main deck, but a strong sideboard card.  It depends on the meta, so I will give it an asterisk.


Gallia of the Endless Dance –   2/2 Haste Satyr Lord for RG.  That sounds like fun, and looks like it too in the artwork.  When that party becomes a war party, attacking with at least 3 creatures, you discard one card to draw TWO!!  That is a nice bonus on the traditional red card draw.  Gruul players are going to have fun with this, not to mention playing tribal Satyr decks!


Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger – I don't even want to talk about this card.  It is beyond stupid. 6/6 for BR.  That is already stupid.  Then, when it comes into play from your hand, opponents discard a card, and take 3 points of damage for a discarded land or no discard.  This also happens every time Kroxa attacks as well.   That is a bunch of suck for 2 mana.  But it gets worse!!!  Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger has Escape….  And when used it gets to stay on the battlefield….  Ridiculous.  Also this is the highest valued two mana card I have ever rated…..


Slaughter-Priest of Mogis – There are a number of cards in this set that have two abilities. One that triggers, and a second that can activate the trigger.  Slaughter-Priest of Mogis is one of them.  When ever you sacrifice a permanent it gets +2/+0 until EOT.  Sagas are sacrificed when complete, there is food tokens, Omens… yes plenty of useful things in your deck that can trigger this.  The second ability lets you sacrifice a different creature or enchantment to get first strike, which also gets you +2/+0…  4/2 first strike, or worse.  Don't let your opponents keep this in the game, you will regret it very soon.


Underworld Rage-Hound – The first time around, this ELEMENTAL hound is a 3/1.  So what that it can't block, you don't usually play Red so you can stand around and block stuff all day.  When it escapes it is a 4/2, and it will escape, again and again.  If your opponent tries to exile it, sacrifice it to your Slaugher-Priest of Mogis.  Then bring it back next turn

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General Magic / Re: Best Value: One Mana Spells in Theros Beyond Death

« on: January 21, 2020, 04:57:30 pm »

I think Mogis's Favor could also be on this list. It is like a Darkblast variant that can be used offensively. Kills every X/1 your opponent can play.

I concur.  I reviewed my scoring on Mogis's Favor and updated accordingly.  It now qualifies for the list and has been added.  Thanks MonteTribal!!

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General Magic / Best Value: One Mana Spells in Theros Beyond Death

« on: January 21, 2020, 02:51:21 pm »

Theros Beyond Death is here.  I found it interesting at the prerelease that there were very few new players, but there were a number of players who have not played in a while, that came back to play Theros. 

There are 25 spells with a CMC of one, that do not also have an X beside them.  Two of them are reprints and neither Infuriate or Traveler's Amulet are exciting reprints.  I can see their usefulness in limited, but nothing really interesting.  I am glad to see that only one of these cards is Rare, and most of the rest are uncommon or common.  That means better playables for your budget decks and drafts.

I also noticed that the overall value of the one mana spells has gone down significantly.  I do have 6 7 cards to talk about, and 4 of them bring MORE than three times their cost in value.  Throne of Eldraine had 5 in that category.  Having said that, there are no honorable mentions here.


Alseid of Life's Bounty - 1/1 and Lifelink for W is a fairly standard card in sets these days, and very playable.  Alseid of Life's Bounty also allows you to save a critical creature or enchantment card later on in the game, when being a 1/1 Lifelink creature is no longer that useful.  There is no surprise combat trick here, and you have to hold up a mana to do so, but it makes your opponent think twice about pulling off a combat trick.


Chainweb Aracnir - A very nice anti-flyer card for one G.  It can take out any early 1/1 flyers your opponents have, when it comes into play.  This is a strong spider for the early game.  Chainweb Aracnir also has escape, and when it comes back later in the game, it is sized to take out midgame sized flyers.  As a 4/5 it is capable of taking out most flyers in Standard, and the cost to do so is very fair.


Cling to Dust - Cling to Dust is the latest Black card that seems to do a number of tiny effects for B.  Vicious Rumors was the last one.  This time, the key effect is the instant ability to exile a card from a graveyard.  Excellent for removing cards with Escape, of which there are some very pesky ones out there.  If it is a creature you get a three life bonus, and if not you get a card!  So there is no real cost for having this card in your deck, as it can just replace itself if your opponent is not pulling juicy stuff from their graveyard.  It also allows you to target any graveyard, so it can be used on yourself in case of an emergency or to cycle it out of your hand.  In those situations where this effect is in high demand, Cling to Dust also comes with Escape!  It is quite expensive, but it can be a game saver. ((((Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger))))


Karametra's Blessing - Just can't get away from the elk….  Karametra's Blessing is a fairly standard combat trick, but in the case that its target is enchanted or is an enchantment creature, hexproof and indestructible is an incredible boost.  Obviously this set has many targets that get the full Monty version here.  Very strong combat trick in limited, and in Standard you can easily have a deck that can take advantage of this card consistently. 


Mogis's Favor - This is a card that can be extra tricky.  As a power booster for one of your creatures that can handle the -1 toughness, but it can be used to remove opponents 1 toughness creatures, of which there are a bunch of in Standard, and THB in particular.  Add on top of that an Escape clause…. And it pulls double duty.


Shadowspear - One mana to bring into play, and two to equip it.  It is not really an early game play, as your mana base will rarely support summoning a creature and getting the Shadowspear on to the battlefield and then equipped by turn 3.  Once it is equipped, your creature gets quite powerful, very quickly.  The extra ability to remove Hexproof and Indestructible from all of your opponents permanents (including land) makes this a God Killer.  Extremely powerful card in any format.


Soul-Guide Lantern - Yet another card that helps you remove Escape cards from your opponents graveyard when it comes into play.   It has two options for use;  Exile your opponent's graveyard, or the ability to sack the Soul-Guide Lantern and draw a card.  Nice defense against any graveyard heavy decks, removing Escape cards and slowing down any future escapees. The second ability keeps this card from being a dead card in your deck, making it quite playable.  ((((Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger))))

Edited to add in Mogis's Favor, as suggested. 

15

General Magic / Re: Using Probabilities while building decks, but what about playing?

« on: January 17, 2020, 01:21:50 pm »

Morganator 2.0,  it does help and is kind of where I am going with this exercise.

Soren841, what you are talking about is what I have pretty much always done.

What I am trying to do, is to be more mindful of the probabilities while playing the game. 
Ultimately, this needs to become second nature, but using charts both as a reference, and a reminder to think about, is a good starting point to begin to incorporate this into game play.

It is a skill that some folks just have, and I have a bit of it, but I want to be even more effective because I want have reasonable numbers in my head more than just an idea.

Mindfully applying math is what I am trying to foster here.  Not a novel idea, more like a key skill that should be exercised.