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Month: January 2012

Dark Ascension and Wars Waged

Posted on by Carlos Gutierrez

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Prerelease weekends are always some of the most exciting weekends of the Magic year, and the Dark Ascension prerelease was certainly no different. It's always a ton of fun to see how the cards actually play, which ones might have some viability in constructed formats, and frantically trying to find the cards you need for Commander decks! This week's article is a finish to my series on artifact-themed decks, and will focus on Kataki, War's Wage, but first, I wanted to do some quick hits on Dark Ascension, and pick out my favorite five cards for Commander.

Quick Hits

So without discussion or proof, here are some of my impressions for non-Commander formats:

  • Lingering Souls is just as absurd as we all thought it'd be, and single-handedly wins games.
  • Pyreheart Wolf is absolutely absurd in limited. It seems mediocre until it's across the table from you.
  • The number of flash creatures, counterspells, and other tricks at 3 and 4 in Blue and White is really tough to play around.
  • Undying as a mechanic is going to define the limited format.
  • Bloodline Keeper is still unbeatable, and likely moreso, since there's less removal for it now.

Dark Ascension for Commander

Now, unfortunately, this set really doesn't seem that exciting for most constructed formats; at least to me. There are some cards that are pretty obvious hits for Commander - a new planeswalker in Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, a super powerful land in Vault of the Archangel, yet another graveyard enabler in Havengul Lich, and a new combo piece in Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. That said, there are still a few cards that I'm pretty excited about, and I'd like to take a little time to talk about them!

5. Dawntreader Elk

This is another really strong fixer at common, which I'm excited to see. It's a little worse than Sakura-Tribe Elder, but not too much. People still don't give Caravan Vigil the respect it deserves in Commander, and I'm hoping that this guy catches on a little more. Definitely not the flashiest card, but a very solid role-player.

4. Diregraf Captain

Zombies are just a ton of fun, and I'm really glad to see them get a really powerful lord. The combination of a great blocker plus Glorious Anthem plus Vengeful Dead, when all of those cards are playable on their own is great for the Zombie-Tribal decks, and this has definitely got me working on a Zombie deck of my own. Let's not even talk about how busted this guy is in Horde Magic; suffice it to say he's pretty close to unbeatable.

3. Counterlash

This and Scattering Stroke are as close to Mana Drain as we're ever going to get again, and Counterlash can be arguably better for Commander. It doesn't put you absurdly far ahead in the early game, but it will generally generate about as much mana as a Mana Drain, but also lets you cast stuff at instant speed, and that's something that can't be understated.

2. Requiem Angel

I already have a tough time not building only mono-white decks that attrition people out with creature tokens, and this card certainly isn't helping me resist that impulse. Letting Darien, King of Kjeldor Skullclamp up Soldiers, then the Spirits of the soldiers is really good. The Angel also lets you go infinite with Nim Deathmantle, Ashnod's Altar, and a non-spirit EtB effect creature. She does a lot of powerful things, all while just being a giant, splashable beater; definitely one of my top cards from the set!

1. Grim Backwoods

Last but certainly not least is the card that's here mostly because of my obsession with Child of Alara. Sweeping the board for value feels so good; especially when you can also do tricks with Dryad Arbor or Nim Deathmantle to get even more value out of Grim Backwoods. I'm pretty sure this is an auto-include for most G/B/x decks in the format, and especially ones that rely on effects like Grave Pact. This is a very powerful and synergistic effect, but shouldn't be overbearingly good. It's costed pretty much perfectly, and will enable a lot of cool interactions for my favorite deck!

Back On Track

The decks I've built so far during my artifact experimentation phase were a very aggressive Sakashima the Impostor deck, and a very controlling and attrition-y Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer deck. In both cases, I tried to avoid the prison cards that artifact decks tend to start running; Sundering Titan and Winter Orb, for example. In particular, I cited that Mycosynth Lattice leads to a lot of degenerate game states with Nevinyrral's Disk, Karn, Silver Golem, and other similar effects.

This deck has no such reservations, and is built pretty much exclusively to hate on other players with broken artifact decks. There are some very aggressive prison elements, some grindy attrition elements, and very, very few ways to actually close out a game once you've got things under lockdown. Because really, it's much more fun to get in for two with Kataki. Largely, the goal of this deck is to break the symmetry of prison pieces by casting them on your turn, leaving them in play for other player's turns, then sacrificing them before your untap step or during your upkeep. Then you can rebuy your prison pieces with various Open the Vaults effects, all while pulling ahead on resources with artifacts that like dying. Let's start with the simple part; your card advantage engine.

So Much Value!

  • Ichor Wellspring
  • Mycosynth Wellspring
  • Chromatic Star
  • Terrarion
  • Origin Spellbomb
  • Spine of Ish Sah
  • Junk Diver
  • Myr Retriever
  • Helvault
  • Core Prowler

This is where the deck starts; breaking the symmetry of Kataki's ability, and turning to your advantage. About half of these are, at their worst, cantrips or Blood Divinations. The key difference is that these are permanents that White is pretty good at recurring, which means that you're going to get to cast your Reach through Mistss a ton of times per game, and that each time you get to cast it, you're digging closer to another way to recur it and eke even more cards out of the deal.

In addition, you have some recursion in Junk Diver and Myr Retriever, which are especially awesome because they're creatures in addition to being artifacts. You've got Spine of Ish Sah as an incredibly powerful late game engine, as well as Helvault and Core Prowler as cards that enable your Momentary Blink/Recursion theme and your Counter theme respectively. These are certainly two of the highest-variance cards in the deck, but are very powerful if you get their respective engines going. Helvault protects your key guys, while also being another Spine of Ish Sah or enabling you to start Momentary Blinking your creatures.

All of these cards interact very well with White's ability to recycle permanents, especially cheap ones, over and over
again; so let's take a look at the crux of the deck, which is your ability to recur key artifacts:

Artifact Recursion

  • Second Sunrise
  • Open the Vaults
  • Roar of Reclamation
  • Sun Titan
  • Auriok Salvagers
  • Remember the Fallen
  • Argivian Archaeologist
  • Order of Whiteclay
  • Treasure Hunter
  • Mine Excavation
  • Razor Hippogriff
  • Arcbound Reclaimer
  • Twilight Shepherd

There are a few kinds of effects here that it's important to distinguish. You have huge one-shot recursion effects like Roar of Reclamation and Open the Vaults, which you really want to hold until late in the game so you can dump a ton of prison pieces into play at once. Then you've got smaller one-shot effects like Mine Excavation that are going to let you recur prison pieces mid-game or put you further ahead on cards. Then there are incremental value cards like Sun Titan and Order of Whiteclay, that can recur most of your card advantage artifacts, and some of your prison pieces. Generally you start locking up the game with one of these while your opponents are still trying to develop their mana past your prison pieces, and they just put you so far ahead on mana and cards that other players can't really overcome it.

Last, there are the EtB creatures, and the engines that try to take advantage of those, like Nim Deathmantle and Antler Skulkin. Furthermore, the deck even runs Karn, Silver Golem as a way to animate your artifacts and buy them back with your creature recursion engines. Karn is also generally the way that you actually close out a game, since it effectively puts a ton of power on your board for a very small investment up front.

Prison Rules

These cards are critically important to how the deck functions, because they buy you time. Time to enable your card advantage engines, and start making more land drops and to play more lock pieces to put people further and further behind. These are also the way that you just lock people out while you find a way to actually win the game, which usually ends up being Kataki or Karn beatdown.

The worst cards here are the Sphere of Resistance effects by a pretty fair margin. I'm not absolutely certain that these effects are completely necessary, but I do like how much time they get you to make extra land drops. Generally, you don't cast these on the first turn possible; you want to wait until you can keep people off of their four and six drops, since those are so much more powerful than most other early-ish drops. Then you can cast Kataki and a Sphere on the same turn, and decide on your turn whether you want to pay for your Sphere or whether casting an extra spell will help you keep them off their six drop another turn.

Besides those, you've got some more traditional lock pieces like Tangle Wire and Smokestack. These are largely the reason that the deck runs Proliferate effects, so that these aren't just embarrassingly bad in the late game. You want to be able to play a late game Smokestack and immediately put it up to three or four counters, since you have random artifacts that you want to sacrifice anyway, and other people will have to sacrifice real permanents.

You also have your non-basic land package, which can set up Buried Ruin loops with Crucible of Worlds, or just a Strip Mine/Wasteland soft lock if you can give up your land drop each turn. Generally, you really don't want to give up your land drop, since this deck is very mana-hungry, but I can't stress enough how important it is to keep people off of six drops like Primeval Titan and Sun Titan. Those are the kind of cards that you can't beat without the help of the rest of the table, and when you're playing a prison-ish deck, they won't tend to be very helpful.

Last, you've got game-ending cards like Sundering Titan and Mycosynth Lattice, which all but end the game on the spot. Sundering Titan will destroy between nine and fifteen lands over two turns, since you'll cast it, not pay for it, and likely rebuy it on your next turn. Mycosynth Lattice is a hybrid Wrath of God and Armageddon which you're pretty capable of sacrificing before you have to pay for all of your permanents. Sometimes other players will be able to take advantage of your Mycosynth Lattice, so it's certainly a card you want to be pretty cautious with, but the effect is just too powerful to pass up.

Utility Effects

At this point, most of the functionality of the list has been pretty fleshed out, and the deck really just needs a few ways to control the board if you get behind, and to protect your artifacts. There's also a few techy cards that I just like playing with, and a few more ways to try to win the game.

The first important card here is Sword of Feast and Famine, since it's another way to break the symmetry of Kataki, since you can pay for your artifacts and still cast spells. The effect is especially powerful underneath prison effects. I don't know if the effect is powerful enough to warrant running Steelshaper's Gift in addition to Stoneforge Mystic, but that's definitely a change worth considering.

You have a pretty typical suite of sweepers, spot removal, and a single Stonecloaker as graveyard hate. Typically, you want more than one piece of graveyard hate, and I think that a Scrabbling Claws could be good here, since it can cantrip and be easily rebought, but I haven't been playing against a ton of graveyard decks recently, so I feel reasonably safe cutting some of my hate.

Last, there are some sweet cards I just like playing with. Requiem Angel and Shrine of Loyal Legions are awesome for this deck, since they give you a ton of guys to sacrifice to Smokestack, blockers in the mid-game, and a win condition late. Shrine can be recurred all kinds of different ways, and the two interact very favorably; especially in conjunction with cards like Skullclamp and Mentor of the Meek. This set of cards is definitely pretty weak, but I really like playing with them, so I'm happy to run it.

Manabase

So, the manabase for this is pretty straightforward, and very similar to the one used in the last two articles. In any mono-colored deck that either wants to ramp quickly, or has very few color-commitments, I run Urzatron, [card Cloudpost]Locus lands[/card], and Vesuva, because there's usually very little downside, and occasionally they let you explode in the early- or mid-game.

The interesting cards here are Blinkmoth Well and Phyrexia's Core. Phyrexia's Core is there so that you can sacrifice lock pieces before your turn, to make them one-sided. Sometimes you'll use it to get extra value from Nim Deathmantle or something similar, but generally it's to break the symmetry of your artifacts. Blinkmoth Well does the same thing, but only with Static Orb. You tap the Static Orb at the end of the turn before yours, and you get to untap all of your permanents. This interaction used to work with Winter Orb, but was changed fairly recently; because of that, Blinkmoth Well may not be good enough, but it's still worth trying. With that, let's take a look at the final list!

[deckbox did="a145" size="small" width="560"]
*Note: the application I use to put together lists hasn't been updated with Dark Ascension cards, so there should be three cards missing: [card Thalia, Guardian of Thraben]Thalia[/card], Helvault, and Requiem Angel.

That's all I've got on artifacts for the time being. They're definitely an awesome type of permanent, especially for the decks that are built around abusing them. Lands are still my favorite kind of permanent, but this was certainly a fun change of pace! Over the next couple of weeks, I'm planning on finishing up some decks I've been working on for awhile: Yomiji, Who Bars the Way, Zombie Tribal, and Planeswalker Control!

Carlos Gutierrez
cag5383@gmail.com
@cag5383 on Twitter

Insider: The Hidden Treasures of Zendikar

Posted on by Douglas Linn

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Zendikar was a set designed around the theme of explorers and adventurers discovering ancient secrets and powerful treasures. The set was packed full of treasures, literally - the Hidden Treasures promotion by WOTC inserted iconic, expensive and rare old cards into a small set of boosters. Players could open an Underground Sea or a Candelabra of Tawnos; they might open Guardian Beast or crack Black Lotus. Zendikar was full of treasures inside the set, too; the Allies were like Slivers, growing with every new one. The long-awaited enemy-color fetchlands continue to pull good prices and deserve discussion of their impact on the game at large. Let's not tarry any longer... let's dig in to the first half of the world of Zendikar!

Archive Trap

$1.25

If you do the math on Archive Trap, you can see that it's set up to make a dream come true. Your opponent cracks their fetchland on the first turn and then, bam! Four Archive Traps blast their entire library out of the game. Even when you can't make the dream scenario come true, this Trap takes out an appreciable amount of someone's library for its mana. You can pull it up with Trapmaker's Snare or Merchant Scroll and have twelve in the deck, too.

But Archive Trap is more than just a card, it's a reminder for the trader that casual, junky cards like this and Sanity Grinding are worth actual money. Milling decks are fun and represent a blue strategy that doesn't rely on piles of counterspells. Huge numbers of Archive Traps change hands every month on Ebay, so these are hot to have in a binder.

$8.25

Marsh Flats

$8.00

Misty Rainforest

$11.00

Scalding Tarn

$10.75

Verdant Catacombs

$8.25

Ever since Onslaught, we wondered when we would get these babies. They made the biggest impact in Eternal formats, because base-blue decks must be able to play around Wasteland. In Legacy, grabbing a basic Forest lets you cast Tarmogoyfs against Merfolk. In Vintage, getting a Mountain means that you can evoke Ingot Chewers into a Chalice of the Void without exposing a Volcanic Island.

Even in newer formats, these cards link up manabases. In Modern, they get the Ravnica lands. These lands are actually quite a bit less powerful without fetchlands around, which sounds like a stupidly obvious statement. But when you compare them to checklands (Dragonskull Summit) and the 2-lands (Darkslick Shores, and is there any better name for these?), a fetchland isn't great. If you have no need for a shuffle, it will only snag one color, fixing but one of your colors. I think we've been used to fetchlands for so long that when we look at Modern manabases, we jump to fetches when filter lands or checklands might be much, much better.

Blade of the Bloodchief

$1.25

There is a small contingent of loyal Vampire fans, and their bloodsuckers don't sparkle, they kill. The Blade comes down early and can make the smallest thrall into a grand old monster. I think if you're going to make a casual Vampire deck, then the list probably starts with four of these guys.

Bloodchief Ascension

$1.25

I wanted so much more from this card than it is... you can put it together in a burn deck and get a lot of reach, but by that point, you've got them halfway to death anyway. It's better in Commander and it's a fine casual card. I like that this card gives you a great payoff and it has an achievable goal. It's clear how to get the quest counters on this.

Bloodghast

$3.50

Bloodghast promises something for nothing. Sure, a 2/1 for BB isn't much, but it just keeps coming back for more! Every land, every landfall from a fetchland, brings back this little ghoulie. Most of the time, it's not for long because you're sacrificing it to a Cabal Therapy, sending it away with Attrition, or feeding it to a Bloodthrone Vampire. Bloodghast comes up a lot in Legacy Dredge, which drives some of its price, but more generally, it's just an interesting card that casual players want. I foresee Bloodghast doubling in price over the next year; it's a Vampire and it is nigh-unkillable. I'd bet on that as a casual gainer!

Chandra Ablaze

$3.25

We've always wanted Chandra to be decent; every other color has a playable Planeswalker, but red just can't get its act together. She looks like she'll fit in a burn deck, but at six mana, good luck! Red doesn't need more card disadvantage and burn spells on its banner cards. Despite being unplayable in real formats, Chandra Ablaze still carries a few bucks. I know that Kelly Reid and Corbin Hosler actively trade for these, since they're frequently undervalued.

Day of Judgment

$1.50

Either a worse Wrath of God or a differently-named Wrath for your Gifts Ungiven decks. DOJ lets monsters regenerate through it, but that's what we have to put up with for a hugely powerful effect. I think this card is mucho underpriced at under two bucks; there are plenty of copies in print, but you can say the same thing about Wrath and even the skankiest white-bordered versions rarely dip below $5.

Eldrazi Monument

$2.50

This was briefly the "it" card when Eldrazi Green made waves in Standard. The idea was that you could summon a bunch of meaningless elves and tokens and then drop this thing, creating a flying army of monsters that actually means something. Giving your team flying is great in green - it's super-trample! Also, blowing away one plant token each turn didn't matter very much in the scheme of things. The monument shot up in about a week to $15, but it has since settled down after rotation. I peg this card to end up a lot like Akroma's Memorial. It'll eventually be $8 again when people realize that they all want it for their Commander decks.

Emeria, the Sky Ruin

$1.25

Emeria has slowly been ticking up in value.  It has an insane effect, but you have to pay a huge cost of playing all Plains. That Emeria isn't Legendary makes it even better, since you can get double the fun if you hit seven Plains and get two of these babies out. It's seeing a little bit of play in Modern with the mono-white Martyr decks. Those decks are The Real Thing and I wouldn't be surprised to see a breakout price jump on secondary cards like Emeria.

Felidar Sovereign

$2.00

My oh my, this can combine lifegain with actually winning the game! All those Life Bursts and Martyrs actually mean something when you can drop this guy and protect it. There was a howl in the Commander community when this first came out; people called for emergency pre-emptive bans. Turns out, killing a six-mana guy is easy enough to do.

$3.50

Back when Zendikar first came out and Quiet Spec was just a blog that Kelly ran, this card was spoiled and people divided sharply over it. A lot of people thought it was awful; after the first turn, it was bad, and it let your opponent draw cards all the time! It turns out that Goblin Guide was part of a devastating R/W Landfall strategy; by the time your opponent started their second turn, they might be at 16 life and facing down even more danger. The Guide has gotten a little bit of love in Modern because it's a part of Boros and Zoo decks. It'll be a solid roleplayer in the format for a long time.

Iona, Shield of Emeria

$8.50

Iona promises a hard lock in one card, a tremendous barrier to the opponent attached to a 7/7 body. It was the primary reason that Karakas went from $7 to $40. Iona and Painter's Servant could lock someone out completely; Iona and Unburial Rites became a combo with Gifts Ungiven. I don't think people attempt to pay retail for Iona, but there are plenty of ways to sneak her out. What I find most interesting about Iona's tradeability is that there were hundreds of transactions for her in the past few months. If your goal is to trade into a more liquid portfolio (meaning, easier to find customers), this is the card to look for. Converting this Angel into cash is simple enough.

Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet

$2.00

Mainly a Commander rare, either as a general or merely as a floating battlestation of doom. Unlike other big monsters with tap-out abilities, like Helldozer, Kalitas doesn't punish you too much for not attacking; it makes a token so your next combat phase will hit just as hard as the one you skipped.

That's it for the front end of Zendikar; join me next week as we look at serpentine lotuses, maniacal planeswalkers and crafty goblins!

Until then,

Doug Linn

Standard, where are you taking us?

Posted on by Mike Lanigan

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It's quite interesting how a new set affects the landscape of Standard. Not only are their hundreds of new cards added to the pool of playable options, but suddenly cards already legal become better or worse based on the existence of these new cards. Some of the new cards are so powerful they demand to be played, and others are so subtly powerful, that they need discovered.

A lot of the articles recently have been on the topic of Black White Tokens. If you have not ready those, they are definitely worth your time, because that deck is going to be a powerhouse. Both Patrick Chapin and Michael Martin wrote great articles for Star City Games, so check those out.

This is once case, where the deck and cards in it, will live up to the hype. Black White Tokens is an archetype that players love, and has proven success in the past. This will lead to players using the deck. There are really no weak links in the deck and it can be quite difficult to disrupt a strategy that plays multiple creatures from one spell repeatedly. This new token deck doesn’t have a broken card like Bitterblossom to lean on, but it will be just as influential in new Standard as it was previously.

My purpose today is not to talk about the token deck, however. What I want to do is create a picture of what Standard will look like and Black White Tokens is one piece. Since I believe the hype is justified, we will state our premise that Black White Tokens will be a Tier 1 deck and a driving force in the metagame. What implications does that have? Well, if that premise is true, then the other viable decks must adapt or stop being played. For example, is Blue White Humans really playable if the token deck can capitalize on the set up time it’s given to set up itself and then use an unending stream of token blockers to clog up the ground while it chips away at your life total? I am not saying that Blue White Humans is now suddenly unplayable, but it will certainly need to take things like this into consideration going forward. What about the other blue white deck, Delver? Can Delver really win on the back of its namesake when your opponent is creating an army of blockers that are not easily Vapor Snagged out of the way?

The metagame will adapt. Decks will change to fight the new decks. For example, the Invisible Stalker plus equipment plan is a great one against tokens. The token deck would have to rely on something like drawing Oblivion Ring to be able to beat Invisible Stalker. It’s not that Black White Tokens necessarily invalidates other strategies but it forces them to react to a new way to play this game of Standard. I think that the blue white decks will stick around. Decks that good typically don’t just become unplayable with the release of a new small set.

What about the other big tier one deck, Wolf Run? This is a ramp control deck that usually runs some number of sweepers. Sweepers are going to be excellent against tokens. Previously, sweepers were not as much of a problem because tokens had Thoughseize. Now, we have no good hand hate, so sweepers pose more of a problem. With Sorin, Lord of Innistrad being accompanied by his other planeswalker friends and Intangeable Virtue, sweepers won’t be as good though. Why waste time killing an army of three 3/2 tokens, when they are just going to replace them with a bunch more on their turn?

The puzzle is complex.

New aggro decks like Zombies, will be played probably. Who needs to attack when between the two new three drops Geralfs Messenger and Diregraf Captain players can just drain your life total with out actually getting damage through in combat. Zombies have intimidate and can come back from the graveyard, making them hard to deal with in combat. What if players start playing Phyrexian Obliterator again? How can tokens compete with a threat like that? The green creatures that run parallel to the zombies are strong also but they require as much of a commitment to green as zombies do to black. And then there are werewolves. We will see just how good they are in a world filled with tokens. Aggressive decks are interesting and complex with options as to how to build them. It seems like each of them aim to play a different game than the others.

What sense can we make of all of this? Well, hopefully this information has given you an insightful peek into the future of Standard but I do have a new piece to add to the puzzle of Standard. Massacre Wurm. Honestly, when I remembered the existence of this card, I was surprised that it has not seen play this season. Consider Elesh Norn // Elesh Norn for a moment. Many players considered Elesh Norn // Elesh Norn to be a trump comparable to that of Cruel Ultimatum. Massacre Wurm is one mana cheaper. Six is a lot less than seven, though triple black is more difficult than double white. Even with his difficult casting cost, Massacre Wurm has the potential to wreck a lot of players days in the upcoming weeks. We could try to fit in the six drop into a Wolf Run list similar to Conley Woods’ winning Grand Prix list, but I think the wurm might generate his own new archetype based on the way aggro will be built. Massacre Wurm is the perfect finisher for a control deck. It kills your opponents creatures and ends the game quickly thanks to his second ability.

The other black card that goes well with Massacre Wurm is Glissa the Traitor. Mabye it’s just a natural inclination to pair green and black together, or maybe it’s just my friends undying love for Rock decks that leads me down this line of thought, but these two colors seem poised to control the new format. The following list is just an idea based on a theoretical metagame, but it should be a great starting point for how to react to the new strategies.


The Heartless Rock

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Perilous Myr
4 Glissa the Traitor
4 Solemn Simulicrum
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Massacre Wurm
2 Rune-Scarred Demon

Spells

4 Tragic Slip
4 Heartless Summoning

Lands

4 Woodland Cemetary
4 Evolving Wilds

Certainly this is not a final version of this deck, but the idea intrigues me. Maybe running these cards in Wolf Run is just better, but this version certainly does a better job of controlling creature decks. Even something like replacing the Grave Titans with Massacre Wurm could be a great start. When working on this deck, I debated the inclusion of Green Suns Zeinth as well. It seems like the perfect card for the deck, but it doesn't have synergy with Heartless Summoning so I cut it from this particular list, but it is worth testing.

Speaking of Heartless Summoning, I plan to play a fun deck based on the card this Friday. I am a little burned out on Delver decks and the format in general, so I wanted to try something new and crazy. Let me state first that this deck is not meant for a competitive level event, just for FNM. The goal of the deck is honestly to be able to play Myr Superion. If you are looking for something fun, yet still competitive though, this may be the deck for you.

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Myr Superion
4 Grand Architect
2 Phyrexian Metaporph
3 Wurmcoil engine

Spells

4 Heartless Summoning

Heartless Summoning and Grand Architect provide a ridiculous amount of mana. I cannot wait to play this deck because it looks like so much fun. There may be tweaks before the event, but this is basically what I'm going to run. If you have been enjoying Heartless Summoning or Grand Architect, post in the comments below and tell me about it. I would love to hear the crazy stories about these cards. Enjoy FNM and Magic in general.

Until Next Time,

Unleash your heartlessness on Standard!

Mike Lanigan

MtgJedi on Twitter

Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com

Insider: Dark Ascension Prerelease Primer

Posted on by Corbin Hosler

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It’s that time again! I’ll make my calls on Dark Ascension, but I am for this to be a little different than all the other set reviews out there.

Like most of you, I keep up with the other financial articles out there, and there’s been no shortage of financial set reviews already. It’s interesting since just a little more than a year ago few people besides myself did set reviews, and now we’re inundated with them.

That said, I’m not going to make you slog through dozens of bulk rares. Instead, I’ll share what cards I’ll be targeting to both trade into and away from this weekend. I think it’s much more interesting (and important) to know where we stand on the major cards in the set, rather than tell you for the tenth time that obviously-bulk rares are, in fact, bulk rares. If I don’t mention a card, it’s because I have no strong feeling about it one way or another, and consider it a non-factor in my trading goals outside of the strategies I outlined last week.

One note to remember as you read through this is that in comparison to Innistrad, these cards will be opened far, far less and will therefore hold value much better. This is the scenario that can lead to a busted Mythic Rare (cough cough, Sorin) hold absurd prices.

If the card links aren’t quite up yet, here’s a handy link to a text-searchable spoiler.

Let’s dive in.

Mythics

Beguiler of Will

This card is going for $2.50 on SCG, and that feels a bit low in the long-term, as I believe this will be a fairly popular Commander card. A really good analogy is Lighthouse Chronologist, a Mythic from the similarly-under opened Rise of the Eldrazi that now sells for $4.

Pick the Beguiler up as throw-ins, but don’t give more than a buck for them, as I suspect there will be plenty of people will to trade them at that price.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

This card seems fairly powerful, and is definitely going into my Commander deck, but I don’t see much here at $8, at least for now. It doesn’t really compare favorably to Grave Titan or Massacre Wurm at six mana. Maybe after rotation it will be more playable, but the price is going to come down in the meantime.

Vorapede

Another one that feels too overpriced coming out of the gates at $7.50. The thing is, I do think this card is powerful, and Mono-Green has some absurd creatures at every point along the curve (Strangleroot Geist into Dungrove into Thrun into Vorapede or Garruk). If such a deck were to become a thing, this card could easily jump past $10. That said, pick them up if you can get them cheap, but don’t feel bad trading them away at their current price.

Falkenrath Aristocrat

I’m really up in the air on this card. I’m pretty sure it’s going to show up in Standard at some point, but like some of the other cards on this list, I see it going down before it will ever go higher. If/when it drops to $2-3 after not seeing play, it will likely be a solid pickup for next year’s Standard. It has to compete with Olivia Voldaren for "big R/B Vampire."

Havengul Lich

Overhyped for now. This card is preselling at $15 and that’s too high. Even if it began to see play somewhere, it likely won’t be as a four-of, though its synergy with Heartless Summoning will keep people on this card.

I’m pretty sure this card isn’t going to much play in the next few months since such a deck seems difficult to tune quickly, and will half in price. At that point we may re-examine based on where the metagame is at. We've seen combinations of this with Perilous Myr and Heartless Summoning, but that's three cards and a lot of luck. In many ways, this is like a Necrotic Ooze. It'll seem powerful, nobody will use it, Conley will put it in a deck and it will be popular again.

Huntmaster of the Fells // Ravager of the Fells

Opinions are all over the place on this card, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it will make an impact on Standard. The only question is when that impact will be felt. It's a sort of Kitchen Finks for one more mana, and Kitchen Finks is one of the best green creatures of all time.

I like what this thing does, as it passes the way-too-important Vapor Snag test. The two life is relevant in a field of Delvers pecking at you, and the 2/2 body it leaves behind will be useful.

And that’s if it never transforms. If it does ever flip, it Gets Real really fast. Huntmaster definitely feels like it can go all the way on its own if you can get it to transform. The power level is there on this card, and its buddy Daybreak Ranger // Nightfall Predator, may finally get a chance to shine in the next few months. I do think there will be a dip in this card’s price, but I’m definitely okay with targeting it in trades once it dips below $10.

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

And this is where the true chase card of the set comes in.

I’m pretty sure BW tokens is a very real deck, and especially so once Ratchet Bomb rotates (by the way, pick that up this weekend).

He’s $55 right now, and like it or not, our buddy Jace is the closest comparison based on set specifics alone (since Worldwake and Dark Ascension are in the same boat in that regard). Sorin is obviously no Jace (since nothing is), but he compares decently with other four-mana Planeswalker like Ajani Vengeant and Elspeth, Knight Errant. I believe he’s going to be more similar to the former pair than to our much-maligned buddy Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas.

Remember that Liliana briefly spiked to $70 a few weeks after the set released, and it's possible Sorin could do the same if BW performs in the first week or two. If that occurs, its price will slowly come down through the rest of its run in Standard.

$55 probably isn’t sustainable long-term, but I don’t see him dropping like a rock either. Liliana still commands a $30 pricetag, and I can’t see Sorin going lower than that anytime soon. I feel like $35-40 is going to be a fair price for this guy in a few months, so keep that in mind if you bust him this weekend. While he isn’t going to sustain higher prices than what he has now, it won’t be all that easy to pick more up later.

Rares

Thaila, Guardian of Thraben

This is pre-selling at $4, and I think that’s a reasonable price. I can see this being a fairly real card in Standard, and don’t think it falls below $2-3 during its run in Standard. It also has the potential to spike to $6-7 after a good weekend when the set is new, so keep that in mind.

I’m also not sure where this thing fits in among older formats, so keep an eye on that, as it will affect its price (especially foils) heavily.

Counterlash

It’s pre-selling for a dollar, and I don’t suggest you buy any at that price. But it wouldn’t hurt to grab a few as throw-ins this weekend because it seems like the kind of effect that will at least trade very well to the right player, and probably has some EDH applications on top of that.

Dungeon Geists

This card seems to be getting heavily hyped in the last few days. While I can see why, I also don’t think there’s a ton here. Four mana for a creature is a lot in the type of UW Delver deck it would seem to best fit into. They are practically free right now ($1 SCG price), so it  can’t hurt to grab a few this weekend, but I don’t suggest going deep.

Increasing Confusion

Pick up every one of these you can at the throw-in price it currently commands ($1.25 on SCG). You don’t have to look any farther than Glimpse the Unthinkable and Mind Funeral to see the power of the Mill deck among casual players.

Even something like Archive Trap, which was in a large set that will be opened a ton more than Dark Ascension will be, commands a $2 price tag. Confusion will easily be $3-5 in a year or two. It’s a long-term, but very low-risk, call.

Geralfs Messenger

$4 on SCG right now, even though names like Patrick Chapin have advocated for the card. Yes, the mana cost is extremely prohibitive, but people love two things nowadays — Mono-Black and Zombies. This thing is both, not to mention being powerful in its own right.

One weekend is all it takes for this card to jump to $8. I like grabbing these this weekend. What makes this card attractive is that it likely shows up in all the same places Gravecrawler does, but is still $3 cheaper.

Speaking of Zombies...

Gravecrawler

I don't love it at $8, but it certainly does a powerful thing, and drains life quickly one way or another with a Diregraf Captain out. Probably a solid $5 bill for its run in Standard, but I don't like it much higher than that.

And while we're mentioning the Captain cycle, these are going to be gold for an under-opened set. Grab every one you can and hoard them for the next year.

Hellrider

This is what I call reach for red decks. It’s similar to Hero of Oxid Ridge except it doesn’t matter if your guys are blocked. While the upside of the Hero isn’t here for Hellrider, the downside isn’t much either, since it’s so cheap right now ($2 on SCG). Pick these up for a buck this weekend if you can, it’s a pretty low-risk move.

Wolfbitten Captive

To continue the theme, this is another low-risk pickup (funny how those are always the best thing to target during Prerelease weekends). It could hit $4-5 if it starts to show up, ala Champion of the Parish. This thing hits for three on Turn 2 and then flips the same turn. Ceiling on this isn’t high, but it could be an easy way to double your money.

Grafdiggers Cage

Absolutely hate this card. I feel like it’s way too wide of  a hate card, even if its not as good as people initially thought. It’s still $10 on SCG, but you can find it significantly cheaper elsewhere.

I’m pretty sure this will come down as far as $4-6 during its run in Standard and as people realize it’s not as oppressive as they thought. But one thing that won’t come down much is the foil price of this card, since it apparently tears up the Vintage scene (so I’m told from trusted sources). The foil retails for $30 on SCG, but you can probably snap these up for half that this weekend, since most people aren’t clued into the Vintage scene.

Jar of Eyeballs

I’m not the first to mention this, but grab foils of this if you can. It’s got to be up there with the best of them in the “trades stupidly well for an unplayed card” category.

Let me explain why. There’s a jar. Full of Eyeballs. THAT GLOW!

Have fun this weekend!

Thanks for reading,

Corbin Hosler

@Chosler88 on Twitter

CommanderCast S5E3 | Olde Tyme Week

Posted on by CommanderCast Derp

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CommanderCast gains Flashback until end of the week! To kick off out retrospective-heavy Olde Tyme theme week, the latest episode of CommanderCast has myself, Donovan and Justin joined by CommanderCast's elder statesman OLD MAN FRED! We're looking at our introduction and growth as Commander players, examining old school strategies, and bringing some Olde Tyme Tech back. LETS GET IT.

Hit the button or play, or download the entire episode! The full show notes are here.

For more Wrexial-Approved material, be sure to hit up CommanderCast.com for some olde-tyme material ALL WEEK!

Ertai’s Meddling: Repel the Dark (INN)

Posted on by Jay Kirkman

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It's hard being a Human these days.

The living dead walk the earth, looking to devour the flesh of the living. Our own kind scavenge the grafs for body parts for their manufactured abominations. Vampires stalk them for their very blood, while the Wälder are the hunting grounds of the werewolves.

As if all this wasn't enough, the disembodied apparitions of their own dearly departed are returning with alarming consistency.

And if they thought the had a handle on things, that a sort of detente had been established that broke things more or less even, well... it's about to get a whole lot harder when Dark Ascension hits in a short few weeks.

Before that happens, however, we'll be taking a look at the Repel the Dark Intro Pack, a Green/White Humans tribal deck, to see how we might help the Humans improve their chances. Over at Ertai's Lament, we call these projects "Meddlings," and, in keeping with that spirit, we'll be employing the same two guidelines we have whenever we deckbuild from a precon.

Rule #1: No added rares or mythics.

The point of meddling with a deck is to improve the core values and underlying themes of the deck, rather than gut it and stuff it full of expensive chase cards. If you have a couple copies of Mikaeus, the Lunarch lying about and want to stuff them into your deck, by all means do so! But this feature is aimed to include those players who might not have access to a lot of those cards.

Rule #2: No cards from other sets.

Like Rule #1, this is in place to keep the deck accessible. Towards that end, we'll only be looking at cards from sets already represented in the deck, in this case Innistrad and Magic 2012.

To get a sense of what our beleaguered Humans have to work with, let's first begin with a look at the deck's stock list.

So... what to cull and what to keep? Let's assemble the forces and see what's available.

The Creatures

Avacynian Priest: We have an interesting trade-off here to consider when deciding upon a tapping option for the deck. Tappers like this have some solid utility on both offense and defense and are worth inclusion in a creature-based combat deck. The Priest has a non-Human restriction on its targeting, but is very flexible in its mana payment for the ability. Its Core Set equivalent, Gideon's Lawkeeper, demands White mana to activate, but gives you unrestricted tapping. Given the preponderance of Human-based decks in fashion at the moment, the Lawkeeper is probably the safer play.

Avacyn's Pilgrim: A look at the mana curve for the deck shows that, while Repel the Dark peaks at the 2-drop slot, it still has a sizable number of one-drops and three-drops bracketing it with some pricier noncreature spells backing it up. Although not purely aggressive in a Goblins sort of way (not least because it's a two-colour construction), the deck still wants to hit its drops right out of the gate and apply some early pressure. [card Avacynian Priest]Avacynian Priests[/card] not only help that strategy, but as Humans themselves they bring some tribal synergy along for the ride. We'll not only be keeping the pair here, but we'll be adding more.

Benalish Veteran: The Veteran isn't terrible- a 3/3 for three mana on the attack in a deck that wants to do precisely that. The problem with him isn't that he's a 2/2 otherwise, but rather that he has a lot of competition in his drop slot- and most of it better than he is.

Elder Cathar: I don't love the Cathar- another three-mana 2/2 Human- but he serves enough of a purpose here that he's worth a look. Repel the Dark doesn't have a lot of ways to deal with large creatures, and the ability to permanently pump up one of your own once he's headed for the Blessed Sleep can make your first strikers especially lethal.

Elder of Laurels: One of the risks in playing swarm decks is that you tend to run out of things to do later in the game. For these decks, mana sinks like this guy offer tremendous efficiency. He's also one of our two rares and his spot on the bench is uncontested.

Elite Vanguard: A workhorse of preconstructed Magic, he's come quite a ways since his earliest incarnation as the rare Savannah Lions. Although his 1 toughness marks him as brittle, two power on the opener is nothing to sneer at.

Fiend Hunter: This is obviously one of the strongest cards we'll have recourse to, being an automatic two-for-one and a solid tempo play. As an uncommon, we're free to add more- and most certainly shall.

Hamlet Captain: As a 2/2 for two mana, he's right on curve as you'd expect from Green, and his battle cry-esque power pump can add considerable threat to your Human army. A keeper.

Jade Mage: Although the Saproling tokens this lass produces don't really synergise with the rest of the deck, they are not without purpose. They're an easy and reliable way to trigger extra cards off the Mentor of the Meek, and can help flood the board with tokens- just the thing to drape an Overrun atop!

Mentor of the Meek: The deck's other rare and another three-mana 2/2. Swarm decks don't often have much recourse to card advantage, so when an opportunity like this comes along to keep gas in the tank, you'd be silly to turn your nose up at it.

Selfless Cathar: A combat trick on a stick, he's situationally useful but far from sexy. Like the Benalish Veteran, he loses out in light of greater quality at his position.

Slayer of the Wicked: Any time you can get a two-for-one that leaves a body behind, it's a hard one to resist. That said, the Slayer loses some of his shine when compared to the Fiend Hunter. Outright destruction is preferable to a reversible exile much of the time (though that shifts a bit in a graveyard-based set like this one), but the Slayer is an overpriced whiff if your opponent isn't playing with "monsters." Cutting these reduces the risk of being stuck with an overcosted card in hand, and trims the overall mana curve of the deck.

Thraben Purebloods: These reskinned Siege Mastodons are a fine pick for the defensive-minded player, but we're looking to go in the opposite direction. In addition, they're a fine thematic inclusion as man's best friend, but there's a certain advantage that comes with every single creature being a Human here. Gonzo.

Unruly Mob: Like the Slayer, these are another conditional risk/reward play. Draw one early, and you can watch it grow to unstoppable proportion over the course of the game, a sort of grow-your-own closer. Their value drops precipitously, however, with each successive round they're not in play. Of course, the way to ensure that you have the best-possible chance to play one early- include a full playset- is also the best way to ensure that you get shafted drawing one late in the game. With an eye towards consistency, we're cutting them their walking papers.

Those are the creatures, all twenty-three of them. We'll come back to the beaters shortly as we start adding and subtracting with real numbers, but first let's take a look at the noncreature support.

Noncreatures

Blazing Torch: This card rates in Limited because its removal in an environment where there really isn't all that much of it to go around, but here we can be a bit more selective. The blocking restriction is cute, but will likely be a whiff most of the time.

Bonds of Faith: Removal when you need it, and a creature boost when you don't? Getting mileage out of both halves of a bi-modal card is an enticing proposition, even if auras tend to suffer from an almost inherent risk of card disadvantage. This one's a keeper.

Bramblecrush: Often in Green and White precon decks, you'll find a singleton Disenchant or Naturalize effect, an out on offer just in case something truly odious shows up on the board. Bramblecrush gives you all sorts of options, but can't reliably deliver utility. If you're facing a simple combat deck, the things this can kill aren't exactly in abundance, and that's not even saying that if/when they appear they'd even be something you'd be happy spending a card and four mana to kill. We'll cut this and take our chances, as we don't expect the precon meta to be packed with planeswalkers.

Butcher's Cleaver, Sharpened Pitchfork, Silver-Inlaid Dagger: It's hard to imagine a weenie/swarm deck these days without their equipment, and Repel the Dark is no exception. All the better that these particular artifacts work extra hard in the hands of our intrepid Humans. We'll be keeping all three, as they have a natural progression on the mana curve (costing one, two, and three mana to deploy).

Overrun: Yes, yes, oh sweet Avacyn yes! The triple-Green mana cost is a little off-putting, but by the time you get to a point where you'd want to cast it anyway (read: have enough creatures to make it worthwhile), more often than not you should be there.

Smite the Monstrous: It's always interesting to see how cards are valued within a set. This one is much worse than Reprisal, but in Innistrad it's still a cost t you'd consider paying and be happy to do so from time to time. Unfortunately, creatures that it can solve usually won't be appearing until later in the game, when what Repel the Dark is really after is clearing the lanes of the red zone early to help its beaters get through. Cut.

Spare from Evil: This is another conditional card that will try and lure you in with tempting visions of blowout alpha strikes as you skip through endless ranks of Zombies, Dragons, Beasts, Oozes, and whatever else. Against Humans, however, it's as good as a dead card, and it takes up space that can better be used elsewhere- like real removal.

Titanic Growth: What's a combat deck without its Giant Growths? The applications for this are abundant, from combat trickery to piling on that last bit of damage to a wounded opponent. On pedigree alone these Titanics are unsinkable.

Time to Build

Elder Cathar

Culling out the chaff from the above list gives us plenty of room to grow. We want to have a solid start most opening hands, so we'll fill out the one-drops with two [card Gideon's Lawkeeper]Gideon's Lawkeepers[/card], four [card Avacyn's Pilgrim]Avacyn's Pilgrims[/card], and a trio of [card Elite Vanguard]Elite Vanguards[/card]. We'll also be keeping the pair of [card Jade Mage]Jade Mages[/card] for our two-drops.

Our three-drop complement is where the real muscle of the deck lies. The pair of [card Elder Cathar]Elder Cathars[/card] are staying put, as is the Elder of Laurels.

We'll round out to a full playset of [card Fiend Hunter]Fiend Hunters[/card], as that will be one of the deck's workhorses to keep the red zone relatively free of obstruction. We'll also add another Hamlet Captain, bringing the total up to three. Cards like the Captain, which improve the ones we're already playing, are a definite plus in this sort of deck.

And of course, there's the Mentor of the Meek.

In our revamp of Deathly Dominion, we threw in a bit of unconventional tech that supported the deck's theme of sacrifice by including a Crumbling Colossus, which was a bit of damage as well as a death trigger for morbid all in one. On a similar note, we'll be adding a curveball to Repel the Dark as well: the Thraben Sentry. There often comes a point in swarm decks where you start to realise you're running out of steam on the board.

Maybe you haven't drawn your removal as much as you like, or maybe you got off to a slower than usual start. Often it's once your opponent begins dropping creatures in the 3/3 range when you realise that you're going to fall just short of being able to kill off your opponent, as they can start to profitably block you and stall the board out. The Thraben Sentry is your ace in the hole here, since you can virtually be assured that something on your half off the board is going to die and gift you with the Thraben Militia.

And hey, if they decline to block your now-redundant Avacyn's Pilgrim, or opt to let that Elite Vanguard through, then the Sentry is doing his job.

As for supporting your attackers, the biggest change here is bringing in a playset of [card Oblivion Ring]Oblivion Rings[/card]. Removal in Magic 2012 and Innistrad isn't as good as it's been in the recent past for White, but these catch-all enchantments are about as good as it gets.

We'll then add a second Overrun to double your chances of drawing it- without having so many in the deck that they risk holding you back with a virtual mulligan when they appear in your starting seven.

As for the rest of the deck, we'll keep the pairs of Bonds of Faith and Titanic Growths, as well as the equipment package. Our land suite (10 Forest, 14 Plains) will also remain unchanged. Overall, this should give you a good, aggressive early-to-midgame deck with plenty of avenues for play early, and some places to sink your mana later on.

With full playsets of Fiend Hunter and Oblivion Ring, you should be able to keep the red zone fairly clear of defensive obstacles, with a virtual auto-win in your [card Overrun]Overruns[/card].

You can find the final decklist over at Tappedout. Naturally, different folks build different decks, so if there's a different route you might have taken this deck, let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for tuning in and helping to give the Humans a fighting chance.

Insider- Prerelease Thoughts

Posted on by Chad Havas

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As always, pre-release time is an exciting time to be a speculator, while all-in-all not an extremely lucrative one. Those seem counteractive, but it should make sense, if you’re in the thick of it. Spoilers and pre-release is when speculators start drooling over what will come in the next few months, but in reality, buying into cards at pre-release pricing is often incorrect. We use the brief period during spoilers to position ourselves for existing cards that may move, but what about the new cards? What’s the best method for obtaining the newest stuff both for trade, profit and use?

I love trading, but ultimately, I need the pieces to my deck.

Depending on how many you need there are a few ways to go about this. The easy (see: expensive) way is to simply pre-order the singles you’ll need so you’ll get them quickly without question. If you have a dire need (like a pro-tour) or maybe the expense just isn’t an issue to you (then you probably aren’t reading QS), this is an option. Better yet, is to troll your Pre-release for trades, or trade in your sealed pool to the LGS in exchange for the cards you need, if possible. Keep in mind, all the cards you don’t need will be at inflated buy-prices this weekend.

I want to complete a set for my collection.

This is also something that many people like to have, a complete set of all the cards (or possibly 4x). Again, there a few ways to accomplish this. A very solid option is to pre-order sealed product. You have the ability to sell off extras at inflated prices, and be fully stocked for Standard. If you’re not in as much of a rush, you can always wait for MTGO redemptions to appear and you can buy them on EBay around $115, or build your own on MTGO through drafting.

I want to make as much profit as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Sealed product is the only way to go if you are trying to flip cards. Buying sealed product in bulk will get you the best possible prices, and you’ll just need to be diligent about getting the cards turned around quickly. Keep in mind what kind of volume you can expect depending on your medium for selling. On EBay, do you have a good enough feedback rating? Are your prices competitive with what traditional retailers are selling?

You should be asking yourselves these questions as you develop your business plan over time. What are my goals for this week? How is what I’m doing now moving forward with that plan? I know I repeat these questions regularly, but sometimes you need a gentle shove to get moving in the right direction.

This time, I’ll be judging at my pre-release. The support for a judge is about as good as the winner of the pre-release, and I’m sure I’ll get plenty of limited in this season, so I decided to try a different route this time. In trades, I’m looking for a lot of the Green Rares. I like that WotC is pushing the power level of the Green creatures to give them a fighting chance in the Standard Metagame against a sea of removal, bounce and countermagic. I’m a huge fan of the Undying mechanic, and will be stocking up long term on Strangleroot Geist. At rare I like the One-drop Werewolf, Wolfbitten Captive, and the unusual indestructible guy, Predator Ooze. I’ll be swooping these up in trades as quickly as possible, but am not drooling enough to start pre-ordering. Lastly, in Green, the Vorapede, is going to be appearing all over constructed for the forseeable future, I just don’t see his price spiking too high as he’s only good in narrow applications. I’ll be waiting for a price dip before I pounce on that insect.

Outside of Green? There’s really no cards I’m excited about from a value standpoint (Aside from Gravecrawler which I expect to be a $6 card throughout it’s Standard life), but some cards I expect to see play are Hellrider and Dungeon Geist. Both are really interesting, one punishes aggro, while one punishes control. I think these both have merit, but I don’t see either one being broken or worth investing in.

What cards do you hope to open in the Pre-Release? While I’m sure we all want the Sorin, I’d be really happy if I could build a sweet Zombie deck.

GL HF!

Slobad, So Bad

Posted on by Carlos Gutierrez

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For week two of my artifact extravaganza, I wanted to move away from a more proactive beatdown deck to a deck more my speed - something more towards the combo or attrition end of the spectrum. To do that I'm recruiting Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer; a guy who's traditionally been looked down on because he doesn't do a whole lot. However, if there's one thing I've learned since I started playing this format, it's that sacrifice outlets are begging to be abused.

However, Slobad is in a little bit of a weird place, because he sacrifices Artifacts as opposed to creatures. This means that the cards that are more traditionally used to take advantage of sacrifice outlets - things like Nim Deathmantle, Saffi Eriksdotter, Grave Pact, and others - are of limited value because of the kinds of Artifact Creatures that are available. Really, there are creatures like Solemn Simulacrum, which is great value, but is never actually going to win you the game, and then there are creatures like Sundering Titan, which will either win the game or get you hated off the table immediately. When you're building a deck, you have to decide whether or not you're going to cross this line, and then commit to that mindset.

Speaking of crossing lines, a card which seems to shape the direction of an awful lot of artifact decks is Mycosynth Lattice. Once you include Mycosynth Lattice, there's an awful lot of temptation to become a very anti-social deck because of the number of silly interactions with Mycosynth Lattice. Whether it's Darksteel Forge and Nevinyrral's Disk, March of the Machines, Karn, Silver Golem, or even just Hoard-Smelter Dragon. You have to decide in the deckbuilding phase whether or not you want to play with these kinds of cards and then follow through in the rest of your deck. If you run any of these types of cards, the table has to aggressively try to kill you before you assemble them. If you run some, but not others, you won't have the tools to proactively fight an entire table at once.

Generally, I'm opposed to anti-social decks, since they oppose what I want out of a casual game. Everyone's welcome to have a deck that they keep in a black box with "In Case of Zur/Azami/Jhoira/etc" written on it, but beyond that, I'd rather have interactive games that focus on combat and swingy spells. That said, I've got my guilty pleasures too, and I'm not going to be able to give up running one of my favorite corner case combos in this deck. Feeling stupid? I know I am!

Stop Hitting Yourself!

Mindslaver is a card that is currently in exactly zero of my decks. I ran it once in a Yomiji, Who Bars the Way deck, but come on, it's a Yomiji deck! It's a card that takes forever to resolve, frequently locks players out of the game, and in general is a terrible, terrible card for the format if you're not looking to play high powered decks. However, there are some hilarious interactions that only come up when someone gets Mindslavered. One such interaction involves Chain of Plasma!

The way I'd play with Mindslaver in this deck is to steal someone's turn, draw as many cards as possible, and then cast Chain of Plasma, targeting them. Then they "choose" to discard a card to copy Chain of Plasma, targeting them again. The end result of this is that they discard their hand and take a ton of damage. Take that, Reliquary Tower!

With the interaction between Crucible of Worlds and Buried Ruin, especially in conjunction with Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, you can protect your artifacts from just about everything, and rebuy them as many times as necessary. Conveniently, this can let you Mindslaver lock someone if you really want, but I'd rather just Chain of Plasma them. Unfortuately, I haven't found a great way to rebuy your Chain of Plasma outside of Surreal Memoir, which is pretty poor. If you've got any thoughts on that topic, be sure to let me know in the comments!

Sacrificing For Value

While the ability to make things Indestructible is certainly awesome and will always be relevant, the real upside of Slobad's ability is that you can sacrifice artifacts at will. It turns out that when you can do that, there are some neat things that you can do, most of which revolve around cards that like dying or seeing other things die. We've already touched on my favorite card in the format, Nim Deathmantle, but there's all kinds of other interactions with cards like Ichor Wellspring! Take a look:

Sacrifice Me!

Sacrifice other Stuff!

  • Cauldron of Souls
  • Scarecrone
  • Arcbound Reclaimer
  • Nim Deathmantle
  • Furnace Celebration
  • Vicious Shadows
  • Salvaging Station
  • Mimic Vat
  • Blade of the Bloodchief
  • Skullclamp

This is how you're going to get Artifacts to start going in and out of play, which is exactly what [card Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer]Slobad[/card] is best at. Now, unfortunately, most of your engines are creature-based, since there aren't a ton of cards like Salvaging Station or Goblin Welder that can rebuy artifacts. That's not too much of a problem though; you can either loop Junk Diver or just use Karn, Silver Golem to make some creature where there weren't any before.

There's only a few cards here that are powerful enough to really take over a game. Things like Nim Deathmantle and Goblin Welder are so important to pulling ahead that you want to be able to tutor them up as efficiently as possible. These cards on their own all but necessitate tutors like Goblin Matron and Godo, Bandit Warlord, just to find the few cards you have that are truly game-breaking.

Now, the other thing that you want to do besides just rebuying your artifacts is to actually get value and make progress towards the end goal of killing everyone. Enter Furnace Celebration and Vicious Shadows! Even if they have answers to your recursive guys, these two will let you just kill someone, especially once you have your other engines up and running so you can have plenty of artifact creatures jumping in and out of the graveyard.

Another thing you might consider is adding more [card Sword of Feast and Famine]Swords[/card] to this deck. Because Slobad can protect both your swords and your Artifact guys that you've suited up. The only Sword I'm running is Sword of Light and Shadow, simply for another recursion effect, but both Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of Fire and Ice could be very good in this style of deck.

The Other Side of Slobad

Up until now, I've been focusing primarily on the cost of activating [card Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer]Slobad's[/card] ability; admittedly that's probably the most important thing that Slobad brings to the table. There is still the actual effect to take advantage of! Oddly enough, when you can make things indestructible, you're going to want to use that ability to protect your stuff from removal. The thing is that you can use this ability either proactively or reactively. You can either defend your important artifacts from other people's removal, or aggressively protect your stuff from your own mass removal.

Protect Your Stuff!

  • Caged Sun
  • Gauntlet of Power
  • Mirrorworks
  • Sculpting Steel
  • Duplicant
  • Platinum Angel
  • Uba Mask
  • Mind's Eye
  • Steel Hellkite

Now, there's not too much sweet tech here, but there's a couple of sweet choices. First though, the obvious ones. Oblivion Stone and Nevinyrral's Disk let you sweep everyone else's stuff while using Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer to protect your own things. Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power let you go really big with cards like Furnace Celebration and Nim Deathmantle. Beyond that, you've got a number of sweet utility cards like Duplicant and Mind's Eye that you just want to protect.

The two cards that I think are most interesting are Platinum Angel and Uba Mask. Platinum Angel is a card that doesn't typically make the cut in Commander decks, since it's just so easy to destroy; but I think that changes when you're running it in a deck that can protect it so readily. The other interesting card, Uba Mask, is the first of several cards that hate on the blue decks. Uba Mask is pretty poor against bounce spells, but is absurd against decks that just want to draw cards and counter spells.

Card Advantage and Utility

At this point, there are about nine slots left in the deck for your favorite card advantage and utility spells. Generally, I dedicate a large number of these slots to instant or instant-speed effects, so that your deck can interact with the stack on other players' turns. For this particular deck, I don't feel that this is as necessary, because of the number of sacrifice tricks your can do, but it's still something to keep in mind.

So as you can see, the focus here is mostly on copying other people's spells, or doing more of what you're doing already. It's my opinion that Red has the most anti-social top-end spells in the format, because most of those spells are Obliterate or some such. So instead of worrying about trying to find fun spells to top off your curve, just steal someone else's Blue Sun's Zenith or Tooth and Nail.

Beyond that, we have the pretty typical card advantage engines of Chandra Ablaze, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Knollspine Dragon to reward you for doing the things that Red does - emptying your hand, being aggressive, and burning them out - and really that's all you want; something that dovetails nicely with what you're already trying to do.

The Mana Base

As I mentioned in my previous article, I tend to refrain from heavy suites of artifact acceleration, because I feel like they lead to degeneracy that I don't like in my games. That said, especially for mono-colored decks, that kind of power is necessary to keep up with some of the more powerful multi-colored decks. I tend to focus on the most powerful acceleration available as well as acceleration that can be cashed in for cards later on.

Mana Rocks

There are certainly additional powerful accelerants that you could be running, stuff like Mana Crypt and Worn Powerstone, but I really do want to limit the density of ramp to make sure there's only so much potential for degeneracy.

The artifact ramp isn't all that exciting. The lands, on the other hand, are pretty sweet. This is my pretty standard mana base for a mono-colored deck without many tough color commitments:

Lands!

Alright, so there's some Artifact Lands that interact well with Slobad. Then there's utility lands like Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. But then there's the sweet colorless "ramp" package of Urza Lands and Locus Lands.

Even though these lands rarely get active you have to realize that, unless you have some hefty color requirements, there's very little downside to running them. Particularly in this Artifact-themed deck, the color requirements are so minimal that you can really run as many colorless utility lands as you want.

Really, that's what the Manlands are for. They allow you to run a relatively high land count and still have action, particularly with any Arcbound creatures you choose to run. Blinkmoth Nexus is definitely the most powerful of the Manlands you can run, since it has effectively quadruple strike, but the others certainly earn their place.

Here's the final decklist:

[deckbox did="a144" size="small" width="560"]

Honestly, I'm pretty happy with the decklist. It does a lot of interesting things, and has a really powerful lategame. The best thing is that you combine a lot of fairly innocuous cards to do some pretty powerful things. If your group doesn't respect the power of cards like Vicious Shadows and Furnace Celebration, then they will pretty shortly after playing with something like this!

There's certainly some ways to power up the deck some; you can use Slobad to protect lock pieces like Storm Cauldron or Smokestack, or to protect Voltron-y equipment. You can run more degenerate artifact mana, and top out with things like Mycosynth Lattice to go with your Nevinyrral's Disk.

The moral of the story is that there's a ton of powerful things that you can do with an artifact shell. So far we've looked at a Blue beatdown deck and a Red attrition deck; next week I want to look at a White prison deck with Kataki, War's Wage. Be sure to check it out!

Carlos Gutierrez
cag5383@gmail.com
@cag5383 on Twitter

Monday Night Magic #294 | Spot the Inspiration

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Better Double Tap, Because These Zombies Aren’t Dead Yet!

Posted on by Austin Clough

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Hello everyone! With the newly released Dark Ascension spoilers fully revealed, I thought it would be a great time to do some speculating, since that's half the fun of trading!

I have always been a fan of Zombies, whether movies, books, or Left for Dead, they are pretty interesting creatures. Once I saw that Innistrad was going to have some Zombie support, I immediately got excited. By the time all of the spoilers were out, I already had a full proxied EDH deck with several cards preordered with Grimgrin-Corpse Born was my Commander.

He has been one of my favorite cards ever since he was spoiled and I can see him getting a boost in price. But why? Because of Gravecrawler, the new one-drop found in Dark Ascension.

Zombies!

This card is amazing. Almost.

Gravecrawler has everything going for it: it's a 2/1 for 1 and can combo great with Grimgrin-Corpse Born, but it still needs a home other than a 1 of in an EDH deck for it to actually have a worthy price tag. With that being said, I think that might be its downfall.

Another card came to mind while I was thinking about Gravecrawler: Stromkirk Noble. Stromkirk Noble is a one-drop, and a very good one at that for Red Deck Wins. Stromkirk Noble did not have a role in Red Deck Wins until a couple weeks after its release, where it took off in price. It went from $3-4 to up to $12 at its height, now bellowing out at around $5.

My advice with Gravecrawler is to stock up, but realize when the right time is to get rid of them. In paper Magic, whether a card has a home or not, it is hard to get rid of a lot of cards unless you are able to frequently go to tournaments across the states.

I would not pick up more than 8-10 of these if you decide to. My general rule is to fill one page in a binder, of nine cards. That way I have a playset and a number not be hard to get rid of. And hey, if all goes wrong, at least you have a nice looking page!

Beyond the one-drops, let's take a look at all of the new Zombies that are coming out from Dark Ascension.

I have mixed feelings about Geralf's Mindcrusher. For Innistrad limited block, this card will be a great fatty, aid you in milling out your opponent (especially with it having Undying) and will even benefit you in the self milling decks, but other than that, I do not see it going anywhere in standard.

Does this card make you think of any card from Innistrad? Yep, me too: Skaab Ruinator. This card will be seen all over limited, not only is it a cheap x/6. Like Mindcrusher, I do not see it having any play in Standard as of this meta, but this may be a reason to force Blue if you get a couple of these in your draft early on.

There are always cards in the set that I do not understand why they were printed.

This card is one of them. For 2U, you can have our friendHeadless Skaab, which is much harder to get over, especially in limited. With that being said, this does have Undying, so this card will have its uses. What they are is yet long lost in a brewers mind.

I know that I am mentioning a lot of self mill limited decks, but this is the kind of deck that Innistrad and Dark Ascension compliment. Screeching Skaab is a very good two-drop for your limited self mill decks. Either this card or Shriekgeist will go very well in that aerchtype.

Yes this is a Zombie, but it really is not worth a spot in any deck. If Black Cat had Undying, this would be a totally different story, but it doesn't so I would suggest putting it back with your bulk commons.

Here we go. This is what we have all been waiting for. Some good Zombies! For BBB, you're almost guaranteed to make your opponent lose 4 life. And it's a 3/2, which isn't too bad. Bummer it can't deliver its two damage to your opponent or creature. If that were the case, this card would simply be great.

Let’s get the Undying engine rolling! Mikaeus comes back with revenge after getting bitten from a Zombie (I'm guessing here, as I'm not sure on the lore, but that is usually how one becomes a Zombie). And he's stronger than ever.

Even though it costs as much as a titan, it has Intimidation, which can be surprisingly helpful when U/W Delver is a common deck. After the Titans are rotated out, I see this card rising in value and will be a great EDH card nevertheless.

Meet my favorite Zombie in Dark Ascension.

For 1BU this cards is great. Deathtouch is a very crucial ability with so many swords running around in the current meta, and the +1/+1 boost is a way to get even more bang for your buck. Especially after most of the new zombies get their own +1/+1 from Undying.

I think that this card has a lot of synergy with Grimgrin. You can activate Havengul Lich’s ability to give it Undying and then do a loop with Grimgrin’s untapping ability to keep giving Grimgrin +1/+1 while only paying 2. While this is an end game combo, since it is mana heavy, I think that it could be successful and at least make Grimgrin somewhat playable.

Speculate on the Speculation!

This is the biggest thing you can do during spoiler season! Why? Because everyone thinks that a certain deck is going to be the next big thing. So why not work with the contrast of their predictions and yours?

This brings us back to Grimgrin. I personally think that there will be a good deck with Grimgrin, Unbreathing Horde, and Gravecrawler, and I know many people in real life and Twitter that think the same. Most of the people interested in these cards will likely be of the casual variety, wishing to build fun casual and EDH decks, so consider your audience and trading partner's preferred formats when on the trading floor.

I cannot say that I am a trading mastermind. Not even close. But that is why we have social networks and a great selection of Magic writers online. Ask your friends on Facebook or some people on Twitter what they think! If the general public thinks a card is going south, it is probably too late to move them at a reasonable profit, so talk to people before it's to late and follow what the fantastic Insider writers at Quiet Speculation have to say.

So go out and brew up some cool decks and go speculate on Dark Ascension!

Austin Clough
@AustinTCGs

Insider: Rebalancing Your Portfolio

Posted on by Sigmund Ausfresser

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Every so often it is wise to reassess one’s collection and identify which cards are performing as expected and which are falling flat. Usually, I perform this evaluation every time a significant change in MTG happens.

Well, over the next couple weeks there are going to be a couple of these changes. First, Dark Ascension is going to be released and become Standard legal. This set, while seemingly underwhelming to some degree, will still have an impact on the Standard metagame.

Second, Modern season will commence. This format is wide open at the moment thanks to all the recent bannings, and I anticipate some hefty price swings as a result.

Standard: Re-evaluating Potential Strategies

A few themes from Dark Ascension immediately jump out at me. First, it seems that a B/W deck is inevitable. This includes the printing of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad along with many synergistic humans and a Vault of the Archangel.

Second, it seems that Wizards is again pushing for a B/R Vampires deck in Standard. Such a deck may remain underwhelming, but having the ability to run premier removal alongside Olivia Voldaren and Falkenrath Aristocrat is a strategy worth at least considering. Perhaps a third color splash could even make the deck more viable.

Finally, Dark Ascension is continuing to drive home the importance of the Graveyard. But this emphasis is not consistent in strategy. For example, a card like Ghoultree synergizes well with Kessig Cagebreakers and the likes of Armored Skaab, Deranged Assistant, and Forbidden Alchemy. Meanwhile, cards like Skaab Ruinator aim to thin your Graveyard, making these two themes incompatible.

Knowing all of this, I have what I need to make an educated evaluation of my speculation targets over the past couple months. In all honesty, some cards I have acquired will likely not pay out as expected. On the other hand, some cards may still have potential.

The most obvious change in mindset involves poor Skaab Ruinator. Before Dark Ascension spoilers began, I had enough confidence that this 5/6 flier would synergize so well with this set that I picked up a playset. Fortunately, I kept my speculative buying of this card in check and I managed to keep my average purchase price to less than four dollars each. After testing this card myself and witnessing how awkward it can be in light of Dark Ascension, I have decided this card is no longer worth having. He is very powerful, but it is SO AWKWARD to play him more than once in a game.

Meanwhile, on the bullish side I still really like the Innistrad Dual Lands (chart courtesy of blacklotusproject.com).

Just two short weeks ago I emphasized how these cards were all hitting their bottom. Thanks to Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Isolated Chapel has seen a bump sooner than the others. Star City Games now sells this particular B/W land for $7.99. This is not the ceiling.

The other Innistrad Dual Lands haven’t yet responded this drastically, mainly because their utility in the new Standard is less obvious. But do not be deceived. These lands will be in Standard for quite some time still, and there will be plenty of opportunities for the format to shift direction, driving up the price of some of the other Innistrad Dual Lands. If you don’t have your sets, I would highly recommend you move in while these cards are near a bottom.

I have also begun acquiring Innistrad cards that synergize well with having cards in the Graveyard. I like Kessig Cagebreakers and Splinterfright in particular. Both cards sell for around $0.40 each and may become fringe playable when Dark Ascension becomes legal. And while I commend my colleague for purchasing 94 of them (https://www.quietspeculation.com/2012/01/a-frightful-tale-my-speculation-story/), I most likely would pick up just a couple extras as trade throw-ins.

The final card I want to mention in Standard is Visions of Beyond (chart courtesy of blacklotusproject.com).

I made a call on this card a while back, indicating possible synergies with the Graveyard themes of Innistrad and Dark Ascension. Clearly, the card has not broken out in any measurable form. However, a clear bottom has occurred in the above chart and every Graveyard card spoiled (e.g. Increasing Confusion) gives me slightly more hope for Visions of Beyond. I have my set and I may trade for a couple more. But my rating on this one for now is “hold”, as there seems to be some better opportunities elsewhere.

Latest Modern Developments

Modern season is upon us and now is the time to pay very close attention to shifting metagames for potential pick-ups. For example, I have read some buzz on Twitter about a Merfolk deck once again becoming viable. Chris Davis from Channel Fireball has even taken a Merfolk build through a Daily Modern Event on MTGO with decent success. Wizards may have finally banned enough cards to make this strategy viable.

Another trend that seemingly popped up overnight is the mono-W lifegain Martyr deck. Taking a page out of an older Extended deck, this brew strives to gain giant amounts of life and implements Serra Ascendant for major life-swinging beatdowns.

Other noteworthy Modern deck brews include a return of Jund, the ever-present Past in Flames storm decks, and my personal favorite, Melira-Pod. Each of these decks appears to have a home in this tumultuous Modern metagame.

Naturally, as Modern evolves and stabilizes there will be some windows of opportunity for profit. On the other hand, some previously well-positioned cards may have fallen out of favor.

In fact, one card that I have recently scaled back on buying is Past in Flames:

I admit to purchasing 14 copies of this card in a heartbeat when they dropped to $3 apiece. They have made a reasonable rebound, but seeing a card like Graftdigger's Cage spoiled in Dark Ascension has immediately turned me off. Additionally, players have begun playing Ethersworn Canonist in their main decks making the uphill battle with this card even more daunting. Do I see this deck impacting the metagame? Absolutely. Will I hold onto a few? At $3.50 each, why not? Have I sold most of the 14 copies? You betcha. I am way too risk averse to ride this card much further.

What should I do with the cash made from selling my Past in Flames? I should focus on purchasing cards with better potential upside, of course! With the resurfacing of Merfolk strategies, I like Aether Vial (chart courtesy of blacklotusproject.com).

This card peaked over $10, but has since traced back into single digits. Many creature decks will benefit from playing Vial, but Merfolk decks in particular love playing free, instant-speed creatures while holding up counterspells.

Speaking of counterspells, which versions do we think Merfolk may run? It is hard to predict so early in the season, but I would like to nominate Cryptic Command. It will probably never reach its Standard highs of $20, but the card commonly sells on eBay for $11 and could reach as high as $15. If anything, this card will remain easy to trade for and away for as long as Modern is a format.

There are so many other cards with potential in this format that it is difficult to name them all. If Black finally becomes a relevant color in Modern, cards like Dark Confidant, Thoughtseize, and Maelstrom Pulse all become strong buys. In fact, these three in particular have already seen a small rebound in price. Maelstrom Pulse in particular may already be a wise card to acquire because of Jund’s popularity.

Change is Good

Significant events in the MTG community such as new set releases and PTQ seasonal changes all merit a re-evaluation of trade strategy. Ignoring these forces is not recommended. Sometimes it is wise to sell some cards for a loss that did not pan out rather than holding them all the way down to bulk rares in the hopes that they see play.

I myself have purged my Skaab Ruinators and Past in Flames in light of these recent events. By selling now I manage to avoid significant losses, enabling me to purchase cards with greater promise. If I don’t do this I would be throwing good money after bad – an unwise business practice.

-Sigmund Ausfresser
@sigfig8

Insider: Assembling Alara Reborn

Posted on by Douglas Linn

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Alara Reborn was audacious, for the simple fact that the entire set is composed of gold cards. In retrospect, it was phenomenally risky - gold cards, like gold itself, have a cachet that comes from being numerically rare in a set. When sets have only four or five gold cards in the whole folio, opening one makes the pack more exciting. When "goldness" is reduced to a mechanic that says "you get a slight discount on these abilities," it loses a lot of its punch. Nonetheless, I think Alara Reborn was a fine set. People like to play lots of colors in their casual decks, and ARB made it possible to support three or more colors without a painfully expensive manabase. It also packed in some fantastic cards, from power uncommons to greatly efficient utility rares. Oh, and there are dragons, too!

Bloodbraid Elf

$1.50

I remember that when this card was spoiled, people knew it was good, but only Patrick Chapin was talking about how incredible it was. The elf is a Lightning Bolt, a Black Lotus, a Fog and a cantrip wrapped up in one card, depending on what you want to make of it. It formed the bedrock of the Jund deck, cascading into Lightning Bolt and Sprouting Thrinax and racking up card advantage each time. It was a prime reason that Demonfire didn't see much play - you didn't want to cascade into an X=0 spell.

Bloodbraid Elf was so strong that people looked to put it into everything. You could run it in Five Color Control and hope to rip an Esper Charm from it. You could Cascade into a Sedraxis Specter if you wanted to. Bloodbraid Elf doesn't see much play these days, but it is still a premiere spell for what you get at four mana. It's a card so powerful that the Jund strategy solidly contained Jace, the Mind Sculptor for most of its run in Standard.

Dragon Broodmother

$3.25

And a Broodmother it is! You can have the first token eat Momma, or it can snack on a field of Saprolings. You can stock up on little Dragonlings for several turns and then let the next one eat all the rest. The ability to repeatedly make tokens, especially ones with Devour, is great. We know how strong a card like Verdant Force is; a monster spawner that can make evasive giants is even better. It's not competitively worthy, but the Broodmother remains a casual killer.

Jenara, Asura of War

$2.00

I remember that when Jenara came out, people positively lost it because we all perceived it as a tournament-staple mythic rare. A 3/3 flier for 3 that can grow when you have spare mana is a solid monster - she can even come down on the second turn with a Ignoble Hierarch. I tend to think that Jenara has a yet-undiscovered spot in Modern; she's not as efficient as Tarmogoyf, but she's a fine second to the Goyf when you already have four of them in the deck. Jenara can become so big, so quickly, that you can just invest some mana in her and ride it to victory; fliers are quite rare in Modern.

Jenara is also a stellar general in Commander; she comes down cheaply and you can make her much bigger when you get into the later game.

Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund

$3.00

Karrthus is a heck of a play in Commander. With only one other Dragon down, you can slam someone apart. He even saw play as a trump in Oath of Druids decks in Vintage - you see, Hellkite Overlord was the Oath creature at the time. A crafty opponent could take a swing from your Overlord and then Oath up Karrthus, taking the Overlord and frequently killing you in the process.

Lord of Extinction

$4.25

This guy is some sort of Super-Goyf, getting above 20/20 pretty easily. Unfortunately, it cannot best the slightest blocker without evasion. I must think that I'd run a Kessig Wolf Run or four to make sure this can contact. It's a total killer on a Commander table; if you're caught without creatures, then it's goodbye. That's what drives this casual card up to a few dollars.

Maelstrom Pulse

$8.00

A Vindicate with a tradeoff; you can't kill lands, but you can evaporate a token army. You can score a two-for-one. You can unwind a dangerous board position. Maelstrom Pulse is a fantastic control card, sweeping away twin Tarmogoyfs, dual Blood Moons or marauding Memnites.

Pulse has dropped a little from its highs at $14, but it is still a power rare, with some new attention from Modern. If Jund breaks out in Modern, we could see this rise up a few dollars.

Meddling Mage

$2.25

My, how the mighty mage has fallen. Meddling Mage held a legitimate place in older Standard and Extended, because there were only two or three relevant kill spells. The first Mage chanted away the Terminate and then the subsequent ones could confine game-winning spells from the opponent. These days, a 2/2 for 2 that has only a slight impact on the board is less powerful. Even in Standard, there was an incredible abundance of different kill spells. You could fight Jund's Terminates, but their Lightning Bolts and Maelstrom Pulses would still get through. UW could stop it with Path to Exile or Jace. All in all, Meddling Mage is more appropriately titled Middling Mage these days.

Mind Funeral

$2.25

Mind Funeral is a heck of a milling card and it appeals to a casual player because it seemingly punishes someone for being greedy about their lands. Mind Funeral can torch fifteen cards for three mana, making it one of the more efficient milling spells around. It's a sleeper casual uncommon hit; check your junk binders and move the ones you find!

Nemesis of Reason

$2.50

If there were a creature that persuasively encouraged milling, this is probably it. Every time it swings through, with that seven-toughness rear, it chomps about a fifth or more of the opponent's library. It doesn't matter if they're hiding behind a million tokens and a thousand life if they lack cards to draw. Nemesis is not a compelling creature in a non-milling deck, but it's a fine thematic pounder for an opponent who loves their Tome Scours.

Sen Triplets

$2.25

This wins the award for the longest creature type line.

The Triplets are a really interesting creature for a casual deck; you get to Mindslaver an opponent in a way, or at least shut down their reactive spells. Importantly, you cannot tap their lands to pay their spells, but if you have things like Prismatic Lenses around, that's not much of a problem. My big gripe with the Triplets is that they are very fragile for the mana cost and ability. I'd love to untap with these in play, but I'd much rather sneak them out with a Quicksilver Amulet to expose them for less time.

Sphinx of the Steel Wind

$4.50

You can see why people call this RoboKroma. If this thing came with Haste, I'd be cramming it into every deck that I could, thanks to that lifelink. As it is, this Sphinx still bashes aggressive decks apart. It dodges all kinds of removal and skips out on Doom Blade and Go For The Throat, too. I doubt that there's a competitive format where you would pay eight mana for this, but it has seen play in Vintage as a Aeronaut Tinkerer target.

Thraximundar

$5.75

Thraximundar has really picked up in price after Innistrad. Take a look at the BLP graph and notice that it'd been as low as $2.00 last July. I picked up my copy then and I was surprised to see how high it went up. My best guess is that Thrax is a great general in Commander - he'll assassinate any solitary monster that an opponent has out and he grows bigger with every sacrifice that happens on a big table. Mostly, I think the Innistrad-timed bump happened because a lot of people, myself included, became interested in Zombie Commander decks. This is the best legendary Zombie around, and it's in the correct colors for a really slick deck.

Uril, the Miststalker

$1.50

When Uril came out, people immediately pegged it as a Commander killer of epic proportions. Tack an Armadillo Cloak or a Rancor on it and just ride that general damage all the way. Since this guy is Hexproof, you can be sure that absent a sweeper, he's not going anywhere. Uril hitting the board definitely makes people treat the U/W Commander a little better!

That wraps it up for Alara Block! It's a fun and profitable set and it's highly useful for a trader. One need look only at this set review to see the piles of casual crack that a good trader can move. You can take those Lords of Extinction that a competitive grinder wants to dump and trade them off to someone who loves the giant monster in their Commander decks. Alara is full of this kind of gold, both literally and figuratively. Happy trading, and until next time,

-Doug Linn

Insider: Dark Ascension Prerelease Tips and Tricks

Posted on by Corbin Hosler

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Welcome back to the Revenue Review! This week I want to do something a little different. We’re super deep in Dark Ascension spoilers, of course, and there’s a plethora of articles (some are even mine) about the new cards and what they mean.

Rather than tell you for the hundredth time what cards from the new set are good, I want to talk about what you’re actually going to do with them once you get your hands on them. Next week I’ll do my usual Prerelease Primer, where I note the cards to look for and what I think they’re going to do financially, so this week I want to look at another aspect of the prerelease atmosphere — how you’re going to use these cards.

Let’s start with the most important thing.

Have Fun

Since the rest of the article is going to be about how to profit at your prelease, speaking from a pure EV perspective, I figure it’s best to stress this point first. You are at the prerelease, first and foremost, to have fun with friends playing a game we all love. There are few tournaments more exciting than a Prerelease, whether you’re with a few a buddies at your local shop or hundreds at a Regional Prerelease (Oh, wait…).

The point is, don’t take either the tournament itself or the trading aspect too seriously. Let’s be honest. With the type of player who comes out to a prerelease, you’re not going to have any trouble making money at the trade tables, so remember all along the real reason why you’re there, and have some fun.

Get In, Get Out

Play in as many prerelease events as you can, for the reasons mentioned above. Open the shiny new Dark Ascension cards. Use them. Stare at them in awe. Play them. Win more of them.

And then get rid of them as quickly as possible.

As we all know, new cards only hold inflated pricetags for two weeks to a month before they begin to drop off rapidly.

While I’m telling you to get rid of the cards quickly, that doesn’t mean I’m telling you to accept the first offer that comes along. These cards have inflated pricetags for a reason — they are a hot commodity. Use that to your advantage, and hold out for the best deal you can get. There will definitely be people who will tell you that your Sorin isn’t worth $60. The thing is, they’re probably right (more on that next week), but that doesn’t mean you should move it cheaply. Someone, somewhere at that event will give you a premium trade price on it, and you should hold out for that.

And just because a potential trade has you ahead “on paper,” it doesn’t mean it’s a good deal for you. Sure, getting a ton of small-ticket items may technically put you ahead on a deal, but if your goal is to trade into Legacy staples, that pile of Standard lands might not be such a good trade, even if you’re coming out ahead on strict prices. In short, when you have the new cards, you have the power. Use it wisely.

On that note, if you’re trading from cards from the new set, either because you need them or you think something is undervalued, do everything you can to only trade other cards from Dark Ascension for them.

Just as you’ll profit from trading from new cards into old cards, you obviously don’t want to pull the trigger the opposite way unless you have a good reason for doing so. Maybe you really need a particular card for your deck, and don’t mind losing some value to do so. Go for it! The most important thing about trading is that it’s not about making money — it’s about making both parties happy. Sometimes that involves money, and sometimes it doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to lose value if it gets you what you want.

This isn’t your world

Chances are, if you’re reading this article right now, you aren’t the typical prerelease attendee. Most of the people who walk through the door for a prerelease are not tournament grinders who are up-to-date on the latest Modern tech.

Instead, they are a group of friends who play at home or maybe play EDH. They’ve seen some of the new cards and have come for the experience. Sometimes they even just take the packs and go home without playing a match or drop after one round to go do something else.

Sounds crazy, right? Well, that’s the point. You just aren’t on the same wavelength of many of the typical attendees or a prerelease. And that’s okay. You can and should welcome these people into the shop and make them feel comfortable. Not only does this go along with Point #1, it also fosters a better community that, in turn, will increase your profits at the trade tables.

Now let’s talk about trading with these guys. It’s a gold mine, and we all know it. In my experience this is the group of people who are most likely to make trades without checking or even caring about the value of cards (if they even brought trades). It’s not even a matter of ignorance, it’s often one of apathy. Card values just aren’t as important as filling out their EDH or kitchen-table deck.

Of course they’re going to care if all of a sudden you’re trying to trade Dark Ascension cards for duals, but for the most part you can make very profitable trades with these casual players that will make both parties happy. As I said above, you will very quickly lose this pipeline if you set out to rip off every player in the room, so don’t be a slimeball.

Standard Sucks

This is mostly my personal preference, but when trading, especially at an event where the coming metagame is completely unknown, do your best to avoid trading into other Standard cards. Not only can the metagame change suddenly, making something like Runechanters Pike bulk again, but Standard cards have a relatively short window to move.

At your prerelease, I suggest moving into Modern and casual cards moreso than Standard. We’ll be right in the midst of the Modern PTQ season, so demand will be strong for the format, and the future growth of Legacy is uncertain due to Modern. While dual lands are never going to be a bad investment, I think the growth on Legacy cards will be more muted over the next year than it has been for the last 12 months.

As for casual and EDH cards, you should be able to both pick them up from the typical Prerelease attendee and move them to these same people. While trading at an event like this, I usually look for the most stable cards I can get. For instance, I’ll be looking heavily for Zendikar fetchlands (gotta catch them all), in addition to other Modern cards. I’ll also look for the usual casual fare, such as the Liege cycle and other goodies like Divinity of Pride.

Speaking of Divinity, there’s one last point I want to touch on. In case you weren’t aware (and many people aren’t), Black/White is one of the most popular color combinations among casual players. Look at things like Fetid Heath and the Divinity to see for yourself. With Sorin coming out I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the cooler B/W cards from Eventide (another small set) in the vein of Deathbringer Liege see a small price bump. While Sorin’s playability in Constructed won’t likely affect these as much, it could easily inspire more people to put together a deck in those colors, meaning that these cards will likely trade better than usual if nothing else.

That’s all the space I have for this week. Next week I’ll be back with my usual prerelease primer and make some predictions about the financial future of many of the super-hyped cards (and maybe some sleepers) from Dark Ascension.

Until then, thanks for reading,

Corbin Hosler

@Chosler88

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