Ral Zarek…party of one?

Sitting at my coffee table opening booster packs from M-14, dragons maze, and gatecrash. I would’ve had theros but they didn’t have any more of them at the store. As I am opening these booster packs, I was getting ok to pretty cool cards and most of the cards are what I already had in my collection, which is no big deal, more the better right? Some of the rare cards in the booster packs were pretty good, until I got to the last booster pack to open which was the dragons maze pack.

I write down my booster pack cards in my notebook, which is like an O.C.D. thing I have. As I write down the cards one by one, from the top to the bottom, I like to be surprised with what rare or mythic rare was in the pack. Now I am at the 2nd to last card in the pack. When I reveal the last card after writing down the card before it in my notebook, my jaw and my pen fell to the ground. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought I was either day dreaming or hallucinating; I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t sleeping and sure enough I was awake. I was hearing angel music in my head and the card seem like it had a nice glow of light animating from it. Then reality kicked in, there was no light or day dream or hallucinations. It was the real thing.

Ral Zarek, most people hate him and most people love him. Since the first time I’ve heard about the Planeswalker, I prayed to get him at some point in the future. Who knew that I would get him after theros came out, but since it’s still standard I can use him at a FNM event. Regardless of when I got the Planeswalker card, I was happy I didn’t have to spend over $10 for a single card and got him for the price of the booster pack.

What I like about Ral Zarek is that the mana cost to bring out isn’t high. It is two of anything and a blue and a red to bring out. It’s a great fourth turn card to bring out and start kicking it up with its abilities and hopefully don’t get killed in the time it is out on the battle field. To start right off the bat coming into the battlefield it gets a 4 loyalty counters and you can get started right away with the abilities listed on the card.

+1 on the loyalty counter gives him the ability to tap a target creature and untap a target creature.
-2 on the loyalty counter allows Ral Zarek to deal 3 damage to target creature or player
-7 on the royalty counter gives you extra turns for every 5 coins you flip that lands heads up.

For me I think the abilities are good to work with. The last ability on the card is what seems like what people really like. Let’s hope that you don’t have bad luck playing and get all tails, then you would not only lose your Planeswalker (if the loyalty counter was low enough to kill him) you lost your chance to do any extra damage. I think this Planeswalker would be good for a burn/control kind of deck, only because of the first two abilities listed on the card. It seems like the logical thing to do. As soon as I get a deck together I will post a deck list for it.

Aside from Chandra the firebrand and Ajani, caller of the pride Planeswalker cards, Ral Zarek is my favorite Planeswalker and now I own him.

Who is your favorite Planeswalker? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Thanks for reading my blog.

MAGIC THE COPIER

          Ever go to your LGS for Friday night magic for some good ol’ fun playing with other players and find out that just about more than half of the player’s decks are copies of the top 8 decks? I haven’t experience anything of that nature at my LGS, but I’ve heard words floating around about it.

          I can understand copying the top 8 is one way of being sure you win whatever the prize payout may be at your LGS. But I always feel that making your own deck is your own creative idea to try and win into the top player of the night. It doesn’t seem to be very fair for people who really can’t afford all those high priced cards to be put into their decks; they can only work with what they have. I mean who wouldn’t want a deck full of rare and mythic rare in it?

          Making your own deck is fun to do, especially when you can do everything in your power to stay alive in the game or even win a round.  But for most people it’s kind of hard to do because they can only work with what they got and a lot of times they don’t have much to work with. Yea people at the LGS can suggest things to improve the deck but it’s usually always the cards that are high priced or cards they don’t have that they suggest. There’s always the choice of bring all the cards you own in with you and they can help you out but sometimes that can be a pain to do, only because you don’t know for sure if they would help you or they will make your deck crappy and get away with it.

          Which would you like better? Going against someone’s creative deck or someone who copies the top 8? 

Also what deck do you normally run for Friday night Magic or any event?

Leave me your thoughts in the comments.

Have a happy and safe thanksgiving.

Thanks for reading my blog.

LANDS OF CONFUSION

      If you were anything like me when playing magic the gathering where you get mana screwed, then I know how you feel. You can build your deck and think it will be awesome to use and come to find two mana on the battlefield with the opposite color mana cost creatures and spells in your hand. Nothing can be more annoying than having that happen, well except for having to hear the gundam style song and seeing the dance constantly, and the opponent showing no mercy and destroys you in a few amount of turns.

     I decided to do some internet search on how to not get mana screwed, after a few dozen websites or so, I finally found it. It’s called the land formula. It seems pretty interesting to read and of course I had to read it a few times because I got easily confused on what it was telling me I should do. I realized there’s math involved, which anyone who knows me personally would think “oh crap”, yea true story. But I understood it a little better when I tried out the math problems on paper.

     I am going to use my Minotaur’s sword deck to use as an example for this formula.  First you separate the single and the multiple (such as RR) mana cost symbol and separate the color if you are playing more than one color deck. Take those single color mana cost symbol and count them up.

     First up are the red symbol cards:

1x Canyon Minotaur
2x Fanatic of Mogis
2x Minotaur Skullcleaver
2x Deathbellow Raider
1x Furious Resistance
2x Punish the Enemy
1x Thunder Strike
2x Madcap Skills

     There are 13 single red mana symbol in this deck, now let’s count up the multiple mana symbol of  the same color cards.

2x Borderland Minotaur
1x Rageblood Shaman
2x Rakdos Shred-Freak

      There are 5 multiple red symbols. Multiply it by 1.5, and get the total of 7.5. Add it to the already 13 to make it 20.5 to your total.  Let’s count up the black cards.

Black mana symbols:

2x Felhide Minotaur
3x Undead Minotaur
1x Doom Blade
2x Wring Flesh
3x Deviant Glee
1x Mark of the Vampire
2x Quag Sickness
2x Rakdos Shred-Freak

There are 16 single black symbol cards. Now for the multiple black symbol.

3x Minotaur Abomination
1x Hero's Downfall

    There are 4 multiple black symbols in this deck. Multiply the 4 with 1.5 to make it 6. Add that to the already 16 to make it 22 total.  To figure out the ratio you add the 20.5 with the 22 to get 42.5. Take the 42.5 and divide it with 20.5 to get 48.23% of your cards in your deck to produce red mana. Basically everyone wants to (or need to) have at least 24 mana in the deck. Because really any more than that would get you mana flooded unless you’re playing EDH, then it wouldn’t be a problem, right?

    Take the 48.23% and minus it with 24 and the answer will be 11.57. So round that down to make it 11 simply because there’s no way to put in .85 of a land, that can be quite difficult to do. The answer 11 is how much red mana you are going to need in the deck. Now I understand that Rakdos shred-freak is a hybrid red and black card since there are two in the deck you can divided them evenly by putting in 2 red mana and 2 black mana. You can divide the 22 black with the 42.5 and see what you can get out of the total, which is 51.76% and do the minus with the 24 and get 12 as your total. But if you are planning on a 24 land deck, you can figure that part out.

     It seems like when I do the math problem with the black cards, I come up with 23 lands total. So does that mean I add one more creature or spell in? Would that mess up the math I just did? It didn’t really explain that part of it. But they do say that having 20-23 lands are an aggro kind of decks. I will have to research it a little further to see if I can get a better understanding of this land formula. But whatever you do don’t do (as I did) the 20 land, 20 spells, and 20 creatures. It just doesn’t work very well in your favor as a new player to the game.

     As for the colorless lands you feel the need to put in, remember every two nonland source of mana lower the land count by one. But when adding trick colorless lands, add an extra land for every two colorless lands you put in.

Confusing right? Yea something to read into a little bit more.

     I hope that this will help with your mana troubles in a way. I know I might’ve not explained as well as I should, but I’m only writing this as I understood the article I read online. So don’t hate on me about it, which I know some of you might just do.

    What ways do you build you mana base around to make your deck work smoothly? Leave me your answers in the comments.

   Thanks for reading my blog; I hope it didn’t confuse you as much as it did to me.

WALLS OF LIFE

Today I am going to talk about my blue and white deck which I called “walls of life” yeah…still working on that tittle. The whole idea behind the deck is to keep the other player from doing too much or slow them down. With cards like claustrophobia, master of diversion, Imposing Sovereign, Lyev Skyknight, to help with the opponent’s creatures to unable to untap in the untapping step or detaining them till it's my turn again. Here’s my deck list and some explanation of why some of the cards are in the deck.

2x Ajani’s Chosen

2x Angelic Wall

2x Avenging Arrow

1x Azorius Arrester

1x Battlewise Hoplite

2x Claustrophobia

2x Dawnstrike Paladin

1x Daxos of Meletis

2x Divine Favor

1x Domestication

2x Essence Scatter

2x Fencing Ace

1x Gridlock

1x Imposing Sovereign

12x Island

1x Judge's Familiar

1x Lyev Skyknight

2x Master of Diversion

2x Phantom Warrior

12x Plains

3x Soulmender

2x Staff of the Mind Magus

2x Suntail Hawk

1x Wall of Frost

      I know as most of you noticed that Ajani’s chosen is in the deck. I know it don’t make much sense for the card to be in there because those two Ajani’s chosen are the only cards in the deck that does tokens. I figure with all the enchantments I have in the deck it would actually be helpful and get more creatures out onto the battlefield. The mana cost to get Ajani’s chosen out is a little bit high but it is well worth it if it will get more creatures in play with the enchantments coming out.

                As far as life gain goes I got cards like dawnstrike paladin, divine favor, Soulmender, staff of the mind magus to help with that. Dawnstrike paladin is a high cost creature to put out, no doubt. But with vigilance and life link on the ability part is a good addition. Not only I don’t have to tap to attack with it I can’t use it to block the other players creature when they’re attacking on their turn. If dawnstrike paladin causes damage to the other creature it’s blocking and the other creature dies, I gain life from that with the life link. If I do damage on my turn to the opponent’s life total I gain from that with the life link. Artifacts like staff of the mind magus are great to leave out on the battlefield, only because whenever I cast a blue spell, I gain one life from the artifact each time. Divine favor helps you get 3 life gain just for coming out plus it gives the creature a +1/+3. I know it don’t seem much, but for a 2 drop in mana cost, I say it’s a pretty darn good card to have. For a 1 drop creature you can gain 1 life by tapping Soulmender. I know you lose the chance to tackle the life total of the other player but gaining one life isn’t so bad when the creature is only a 1/1 power and toughness.

          How can I forget to mention Daxos of Meletis? Because I really did forget, until I was editing this blog the next day (its common). The great thing about this card is that he can’t be blocked by creatures with power of 3 or greater. Hopefully the smaller creatures would be dead when using Daxos to attack and they only have bigger creatures to block with. When Daxos deals damage I then exile the top card of that player’s library I can gain life from the cards mana cost, and then (or I may) cast that card for its mana cost as though it has any color of mana to cast it. Most people say Daxos is only good in EDH. But I feel he’s also a big deal to use in standard and or non-standard decks. You can do a lot for just a 3 drop mana cost card. Maybe more than most people realize.

          What is your favorite 2 color combination deck? And what does it do to help you stay alive? Leave me comments with your thoughts.

          Thanks for reading my blog.

MERFOLK’S CORNER

         Usually I’m not a big fan of blue decks, I am usually the mono red or white deck kind of guy, but this mono blue deck, I will make an exception. Usually I like blue mixed with other colors, but even then I’m not big fan. I really don’t know why I don’t like blue so much. I just can’t seem to find and explanation on it other than I always get beat down with the color and it never works out for me when I build the deck with the color. I also used to not be a big fan of slamming people with spells because I always felt that creatures are a better way to go. But I’ve changed a little and letting more spells in my decks a little more. Maybe that’s why I am constantly losing. Of all the FNM and events I went to, I’ve only won 1 round…against an 11 year old kid. Pathetic.

The whole idea behind this merfolk mono blue deck is to really keep the other player from doing anything. Like countering their spells, keeping the creatures tapped, and keeping them from attacking me when I block with my defenders. A card like merfolk spy that has islandwalk is helpful as long as the defending player has blue in their deck too and then the creature can’t be blocked when attacking.

There are a few merfolk cards in the deck that don’t have any abilities. But the instants and enchantments that are in the deck will pick up the slack for the missing abilities. I have defenders in the deck only to hold off against the other players attacking creatures. Some defenders are just there to defend with no other abilities. Some defenders that are in the deck have abilities where when it blocks the other creature it keeps it tapped during its controllers untap step. Which render the creature tapped useless during the players turn to attack.

So here’s my deck list for you to see what kind of cards are in the deck.

2x Merfolk Spy
2x Aqueous Form
2x Annul
1x Nivmagus Elemental
1x Triton Shorethief
2x Coral Merfolk
2x Stymied Hopes
2x Vaporkin
2x Murmuring Phantasm
1x Metropolis Sprite
1x Voyage’s End
1x Cancel
1x Wall of Frost
2x Scroll Thief
2x Frost Breath
2x Guardians of Meletis
1x Wavecrash Triton
4x Breaching Hippocamp
2x Water Servant
2x Spell Blast
1x Griptide
2x Unknown Shores
22x Island

Please comment with your thoughts about the deck, what would you change about it?

What is your favorite mono colored deck?

Thanks for reading my blog.

WHAT’S THE ORDEAL, MAN?

            Ordeal by definition is an experience that is very unpleasant or difficult. This really lives up to its name in the Theros set with its enchantments. The enchantments in the set are pretty good, some are better than others, but that is expected. Each enchantment does its own unique thing for various types of creatures.

For example:

Ordeal of Heliod is one mana and a white mana to put out onto a creature. Once it’s out on the battle field attached to a creature, it gets a +1/+1 counter each time the creature attack. When it gets 3 or more +1/+1 counters on the creature you sacrifice the enchantment. When you do that you gain 10 life. Not only you can make your creature powerful with the +1/+1 counters, you can also gain 10 life from for a 2 mana drop. That is an excellent card to have and put out. Unless the opponent have a destroy enchantment card then it’s no good to put out.

Another example of how each enchantment can do different things for your creature is Ordeal of Purphoros. Just like Ordeal of Heliod but only with one mana and a mountain mana to cast it.  It does the same thing with putting the +1/+1 counters whenever the creature attacks, when you have 3 +1/+1 counters on it or more, sacrifice the enchantment and when you do, it deals 3 damage to player or creature. This enchantment can be used as a game finisher, or help get rid of a creature the opponent controls.

There are some weird ones where it gets you to draw 2 cards or target player discards 2 cards from their hand. And if you are mana screwed or not getting the land you need, there’s one that would allow you to get 2 lands from your library and put onto the battlefield tapped and then shuffle your library. It’s always good to get a free shuffle of the library for a chance to get better cards in your draw phase.

Enchantments are great spells magic the gathering have. Some could help you a lot or they can actually hurt you. Tell me what your favorite enchantments are in the theros set in the comments. And what creature would you use that enchantment on?

Thanks for reading my blog.

FNM: DRAFT = FAIL

          On October 18th, I and my brother in law were meeting up to do Friday night magic: draft. Now my brother in law was running a little late because he’s coming from about 45 minutes away and his ride was late getting him. I got to shop early and there are only about four players including me and my brother in law. Problem is; they needed 8 players. So the shop waited to see if other players would show up. By this time my brother in law showed up and they announced that they were cancelling draft due to lack of players and closing shop soon for the night.
          So I and my brother in law had decided to buy a bunch of booster packs and do our own draft at my house. In my mind I wanted to do red and white deck if the cards were right, but I was open to anything I can get my hands on. So it turns out I was drafting red and green around destructive revelry instant rare card. So here’s my deck list I ended up with.

1x warrior lesson
3x spark jolt
1x messenger speed
1x sedge scorpion
1x savage surge
1x destructive revelry
1x satyr redonist
1x defend the hearth
1x voyaging satyr
1x Minotaur Skullcleaver
1x Rageblood shaman
3x two-headed Cerberus
1x time to feed
1x flamespeaker adept
1x demolish
1x fanatic of Mogis
1x nylea’s disciple
1x wild celebrants
1x arbor colossus
1x nessian asp
1x vulpine goliath
8x mountain
8x forest

I do have extras I drafted but they didn’t seem to fit in with the deck I was building. But they were perfect for other decks I have that can use some upgrading. My brother in law drafted black and blue. His deck was pretty good with spells like counters and such, but he had problems with getting creatures out to do a lot of anything since I can make my creatures powerful with the instants and sorcery I had.  On top of that he was mana screwed too, that helped out a lot. I got a win out of my first draft in 6 turns. Which I think is pretty darn good considering I just built the deck and never tested it out before.

Even though we only played one game of draft, my brother in law was really tired. He had just gotten off of work and headed straight up to my town to hang out. I was understandable about it, though I secretly wish we could’ve played some more, but he didn’t bring any of his cards with him so it didn’t happen.

The shop I normally play at is pretty slow at this time of the year and told me they usually pick up in November. This was the 2nd time that this has happened to me not being able to play due to lack of players. I put a note to myself to remind me to call ahead and see if there’s going to be enough players to play a few rounds before heading all the way over there and feel guilty into buying things there when I really shouldn’t be.

Two questions for this blog.
1. What was your worst experience at your local game shop?
2. What was your best deck you made in draft?

Please comment below and thanks for reading my blog.

MINOTAUR’S SWORD

Theros has done a good job of putting out a fair amount of Minotaur, well enough for me to make a deck with those kinds of creatures with the mix in of the M-14 core set.  Now I’ve made some changes to the deck from what it was previously listed as which works out good because I haven’t published it yet and no one knows what I had in it before (which also saves me the trouble of getting “why's that card there? That makes no sense” or that one douche bag who thinks that everyone else’s decks are trash, has something to say, which will probably say something anyway). Here’s my deck list/breakdown.

3x Deviant Glee
1x Furious Resistance
2x Wring Flesh
2x Madcap Skills
1x Hero’s Downfall
1x Doom Blade
1x Thunder Strike
2x Deathbellow Raider
2x Rakdos Shred-Freak
1x Rageblood Shaman
2x Quag Sickness
2x Minotaur Skullcleaver
3x Undead Minotaur
2x Fellhide Minotaur
1x Mark Of the Vampire
2x Fanatic of Mogis
1x Canyon Minotaur
2x Borderland Minotaur
2x Punish the Enemy
3x Minotaur Abomination
12x Swamp
12x Mountain

Granted that some of the Minotaur’s in this deck doesn’t have any abilities on them and I’m pretty sure most people wouldn’t put a bunch of cards in without any type of ability added to them. But it’s ok for me because a Minotaur deck is what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Even though some of the cards have no abilities, that is where the enchantments come into play to pick up the lack of abilities. I am not building the decks for pro-tour or anything like that.

Deviant glee is a great enchantment to have for a one drop mana to attach to creatures. Deviant glee give the creatures a +2/+1 and if you tap a mountain it will give it trample till end of turn, which is a great thing to have added to the creature.

              Madcap skills is also a good enchantment because it gives the creature a +3/+0, I know the +0 doesn’t sound so great but the enchantment also provide that the enchanted creature can’t be block except for 2 or more creatures, in my opinion it’s a great card for a 2 drop manna cost.

Rageblood Shaman is a great 3 drop card for what it can do. It has trample and gives other Minotaur creatures I control a +1/+1 and trample. I know I only have one of Rageblood shaman in the deck but it’s the only one I have for the time being and I plan on getting at least 2 more for the deck. That way it can give my Minotaur’s 3 +1/+1’s.

Fanatic of Mogis is a pretty good card as well. It’s 3 of anything and a mountain to cast out onto the battlefield. When it enters the battlefield it deals damage to each opponent equal my devotion to red. That means each permanents that has a red symbol on it deals damage. So if you have 2 Deathbellow raider with madcap skills on each of them and 2 Rakdos Shred-Freak which means it would deal 6 damage right off the bat. If you wait just long enough and hold off on putting Fanatic of Mogis out by turn 4 and at the right time, it can be a good finisher card.

I also have some good instants and sorcery cards in the deck as well, like doom blade that can destroy a creature and the wring flesh card to give a minus 3 minus 1 onto a creature making it a little less powerful creature to attack you with or kill it. Let’s not forget punish the enemy; even though it a 5 drop card, it’s a good card for what it can do. It deals 3 damage to target creature and 3 damage to target player.

How big of a fan are you of Minotaurs?

Please comment and thanks for reading my blog

HUMAN SOLDIER (DECK BREAK DOWN)

          As the theros set has been released and set in stone, it was time to make some fun new standard decks. The greatest thing about theros is that it’s based around the Greek mythology. So being both my favorite things in one, who could blame me or anyone else to be excited about it? I will give you my first new deck list and I will do a little breakdown as to why the card was put in there.

12x Plains

12x mountain

2x soldier of pantheon

2x Titan’s strength

2x spark jolt

3x Akroan crusader

1x Truefire Paladin

1x Akroan hoplite

2x Battle wise valor

2x Ill-tempered Cyclops

2x Setessen Battle Priest

1x lightning strike

2x magma jet

3x phalanx leader

2x solemn offering

1x dauntless onslaught

4x two-headed Cerberus

1x Anax and Cymede

2x Observant Alseid

1x Spear of Heliod

2x decorated griffin

2x Fortress Cyclops

          The whole idea behind the deck is to try and make it as close to a human soldier deck as possible. The human soldiers part of the deck all help out in some way or another, granted all the creatures in this deck aren’t human soldier but I can only make the deck with what I got. If I could, I would buy the cards I would really need for the deck, but I kind of like having the Cerberus and the Cyclops in the deck. It makes it seem like they’re the sidekick for the humans. Until then this is what I have to deal with.

          One of the things I love about theros is the ability triggers they have. Like for the human soldiers in the deck have heroic which is where the creature gets targeted by a spell, it will do its ability. Some of those abilities will help other creatures by giving them a +1/+1, or put out a token creature or two, and ETC.

Phalanx leader heroic ability is triggered by a spell you cast that targets phalanx leader, when that happens, other creatures you control gets a +1/+1. The great thing about this ability trigger is, you can use instants, enchantments, and sorcery’s on the creature and it will do the ability. The +1/+1 counter doesn’t go away until the game’s over, not till end of turn like most abilities. Instants like titan’s strength that gives target creature a +3/+1 counter till end of turn would trigger Phalanx Leader heroic ability and give other creatures a +1/+1.

Another creature with heroic ability is Akroan Crusader. This creature heroic ability is whenever you cast a spell that targets Akroan crusader put a 1/1 red soldier creature token with haste onto the battle field. It does the same thing as phalanx leader only with tokens when you target Akroan crusader.

Cards like Setessen battle priest heroic ability lets you gain two lives when you target it with spells. It’s a great card to have if your life is in trouble and looking for a way to stay alive a little bit longer, or you just want to be ahead of the game and gain life early and give the other player that much more trouble trying to bring your life down to zero.

Remember this deck is still being tweaked out and I built this deck for fun, not competitive. What new triggers are your favorite from the new theros set?

Please leave your comments below. And thanks for reading my blog.

THEROS FAT PACK

       The official release of theros is finally here. It seemed like it took long enough to get here to mess around with the new cards and mechanics to enjoy. As most of the players know, the fat pack contains a book, a dice, 9 booster packs, and a pack of land cards. Plus the box it came it is also a card holder, just provide your own dividers.

Now I’ve opened up the fat pack and got my booster packs out, my land cards, two deck boxes, book manual, and finally the ever so cool looking dice. Here are my booster packs cards I’ve opened up, and I have to say theros have exceeded my expectation as far as how cool the cards are. I realized that i made a mistake on the booster numbers and i put 3 twice (it was really late and i was tired) and counted wrong the rest of the way, so from the second #3 on its supposed to be one up higher.

         I can say I had some nice pulls from the booster packs. Lots of defenders, enchant creatures, heroic, bestow type if creatures in the packs. I didn’t get any god type of cards, but hopefully in the future I will be able to get a few and hopefully will go with the decks I have made with the theros cards. But as of right now I’m not to worry about trying to get them, but it would be nice to have some of them.

What I love about some of the new cards in the set are the human soldier and Minotaur that are in the set. I was able to make a couple of nice decks out of those kinds of creatures. Of course they may still need to be worked on a little bit but I like how they work as of right now (I’m not saying they’re going to be the best decks ever made).

For the theros set, I have to give it thumbs up. If I had 99 hands I would have 99 thumbs up, that is just how much I like this set. The next few blogs will be about my new decks I made from the set.

Do you have the new theros? If so which ones did you buy? Booster box, Fat pack, Intro decks, or booster packs? And how do you like the cards you’ve gotten?

Thanks for reading my blog, please comment and share.

FLANKING, IT’S NOT A TREND

            Flanking is a trigger ability from the time spiral block. What the ability does is when a creature with flanking attacks and a creature without flanking block, the blocking creature gets a -1/-1 until end of turn. So if a 2/2 creature with flanking attacks and a 2/2 creature without flanking blocks, the blocking creature gets a -1/-1 so it becomes a 1/1 creature before any damage is dealt. Normally both creatures would die and be put into the graveyard but with the flanking, the blocking creature dies and the 2/2 stays alive and gets to hang out with its buddies on the battlefield a little bit longer.

            If there are multiple creature on the battlefield with  flanking are attacking and the other player blocks one of them, then the flanking trigger on all of the creatures attacking will trigger giving that blocking creature a -1/-1 for each creatures attacking with flanking. For example: there are five creatures with flanking out on the battlefield attacking and the other player blocks with a 4/4 creature without flanking. Then that 4/4 will be dealt with 5 -1/-1 counters on it, killing that 4/4 creature.

            Flanking hasn’t been around for quite some time now in the magic the gathering world. It would be awesome to have it back on the cards in one of the new series they would come out with in the future. I don’t know about anyone else but I certainly wouldn’t mind having it back.

            What’s your favorite trigger ability? Please leave me a comment and thanks for reading.

DETAINED, BEATEN, AND LIFE GAIN. (The white and blue deck breakdown)

           This is a breakdown of my white and blue deck. It’s pretty much themed around detaining your creatures so it really can’t do much while I bring my creatures out to kill you and gaining some life while I’m at it. Granted it’s not a win by turn 5, 6, or 7 turn, but it’s a fun deck to play with. Also white and blue together tends to be slower than most decks than red and black, white and red, and red and green decks that are out there. Plus, it also depends on how you built the deck.

            Here is the deck list and then I’ll do the breakdown of some of the cards into why they are there and what purpose do they have to help in the game of Magic.

Creature
2x Ajani's Chosen
2x Angelic Wall
1x Azorius Arrester
2x Dawnstrike Paladin
2x Fencing Ace
1x Galerider Sliver
1x Imposing Sovereign
1x Judge's Familiar
1x Lyev Skyknight
2x Master of Diversion
2x Phantom Warrior
1x Sentinel Sliver
1x Sliver Construct
3x Soulmender
2x Suntail Hawk
1x Wall of Frost

Instant
2x Avenging Arrow
1x Dramatic Rescue
2x Essence Scatter
1x Gridlock

Land
12x Island
12x Plains

Enchantment
2x Claustrophobia
2x Divine Favor
1x Domestication

For starters, fencing ace is probably one of my favorite cards to play with. Even though it’s a 1/1 creature, it has double strike, which means it can do damage twice instead of just one. Let’s say I put a divine favor enchantment on fencing ace and give it a +1/+3, not only it would make the card a 2/4, it would do 4 damage with the double strike. Plus I also gain 3 lives to my life total just for bringing the enchantment into the battle field.

I used to not be a big fan of cards with defender ability on the card. I’ve always felt that they were a waste of a creature by just having them defending and not attacking.  I was always the players that want to do a bunch of damages and be done with it, but I kind of been changing my ways of playing the game.  Let’s talk about wall of frost. It’s a great card to be able to bring out on the third turn and it be a 0/7 defender, but here is where it gets pretty darn cool. It has the ability to tap the creature I block it with and it can’t be untapped during the next controller’s untap step. Which means if they got a creature that is powerful but not to powerful enough to kill my defender when I block, that creature that got blocked will stay tapped and can’t be used for anything for as long as the game goes on. Same goes for angelic wall with the difference of it’s a flying defender, doesn’t make any creatures be tapped when it’s block and it’s a 0/4.

Cards like Imposing Sovereign is good for making the opponent’s creatures come into the battle field tapped is a good help against creatures with haste so they can’t attack right away and prevent them from blocking with the new creature in the battlefield. Enchantments like claustrophobia enters the battlefield will enchant a target creature causing it to tap and stay tap until the enchantment is either destroyed or the game ended. Also cards like Azorius Arrester, Lyev Skyknight can detain creature until my next turn which leaves them open for attack.

       Then there’s the card Soulmender. It helps me gain life, not much, but it helps in some way shape or form. Sure I would be using up my mana and a creature card to get that life gain but if I have other creatures out that can be big hitters or big blockers, it’s ok to be using it in time of need. Also if I have Dawnstrike Paladin out on the battlefield I would gain 2 life for every time it has dealt damage, which in my case would be 4 life’s since I have 2 of the same card in the deck. Even with its high mana cost to cast, it seems pretty much worth it to pay the mana cost and put it out.

If you want to test out the deck it can be done here. CLICK HERE.

         Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, please leave me a comment about what would u do to make this deck better, and what are your favorite color decks? (Mono or multi-color).

SLIVER AND THE BEAST (WITH HELP FROM THE ELVES) deck and break down

With recent release of the 2014 core set of magic the gathering card playing game. I’ve been buying up the booster packs and fat pack from the new set. Granted there aren’t any really super awesome cards in the set, but I can make a pretty decent deck out the set or have what’s standard cards mixed in with it.

Take my recent Sliver and Beast deck I made with the mixture of M14, gate crash, and return to ravnica. The deck is still a working progress, but it does quite OK for now. Here’s my deck I’ve been working, and then I will explain why some of the cards are in there for what purpose.

Creature

2x Adaptive Snapjaw

2x Advocate of the Beast

1x Brushstrider

2x Elvish Mystic

1x Kalonian Tusker

1x Manaweft Sliver

1x Marauding Maulhorn

2x Predatory Sliver

1x flames of the firbrand

2x Rumbling Baloth

1x Sliver Construct

2x Striking Sliver

1x Thorncaster Sliver

1x Battle Sliver

1x Slaughterhorn

Instant

3x Chandra's Outrage

2x Fog

3x Shock

Sorcery

2x Lava Axe

2x Seismic Stomp

Enchantment

2x Awaken the Ancient

2x Lightning Talons

Land

12x Forest

12 X Mountains

            The whole purpose behind the beast creatures (Adaptive Snapjaw, Brushstrider, Kalonian Tusker, Marauding Maulhorn, Rumbling Baloth) is to make them powerful than before with the help of Advocate of the Beast. What the card does, is it gives the beast creatures a +1/+1 counter at the end of my turn, which is helpful for blocking creatures attacking me or have them have more attacking and defensive power for my next turn (like a 3/3 beast creature will become a 4/4 creature my next turn and so on and on). With the enchantments like lightning talons that would give my creature a +3/+0 and have first strike (which give damage to the creature before they attack me) on the already powerful creature from putting a +1/+1 counter on the creature each turn can end the game much quicker.

           

            Let’s go onto the slivers in the deck. They too can help out other creatures too, as long as they are slivers. Slivers like the Manaweft sliver helps other slivers to get the ability to have extra land mana on the battlefield to help get more creatures and or spells out quickly, which the land mana goes away at the end of the turn. Predatory Sliver will help other slivers get a +1/+1 counter on them along with the ability to create land mana. Striking sliver will help other slivers get first strike; Thorncaster sliver will also give slivers the ability to deal extra damage if that sliver makes a combat damage. So if I have 4 slivers out and they have that ability, then if they make combat damage then the player is getting dealt that much extra damage. Battle Sliver also helps with slivers power by giving them a +2/+0.

            

            Last thing we should not forget about the elves. I know there isn’t many in the deck (like I said, it’s a working progress) but Elvish Mystic also help with getting one extra land mana onto the battlefield to help with the creature and spell casting needs. Although it may seem cruel they are also good for blocking creatures attacking me as well.

            

           Thanks for reading my blog, please leave a comment on what your suggestion for the deck would be or what kind of deck you have that the cards work with each other? Here's the link from tappedout.com ofthe deck if you want to test it out, SLIVER AND BEAST DECK

M14 FAT PACK RELEASE WEEKEND

This past weekend was the official release of the new core set M14. I am very excited for this to come out mainly because I’m in hopes of getting enough slivers to make a decent or even a good deck with. But slivers aren’t really the only thing I am really looking forward to using, am looking forward to any other new cards, and planeswalkers, I never had before.

Upon opening the shrink wrap, I pulled out of the cardboard sleeve a deck holder box and a player’s guide. Out of the box holder comes with 2 60 card deck box you put together yourself, 9 booster packs, a deck of land cards, and a M14 D20. I am going to run a list of the cards I’ve gotten from the booster packs.

BOOSTER PACK 1

Plummet

Suntail Hawk

Zephyr charge

Undead Minotaur

Show of valor

Siege mastodon

Lava Axe

Archaeomancer

Minotaur abomination

Sensory deprivation

Wall of frost

Doom blade

Sengir vampire

Garruk’s horde

Mountain

BOOSTER PACK 2

Suntail hawk

Zephyr charge

Lightning talons

Brindle boar

Coral merfolk

Striking sliver

Seacoast drake

Solemn offering

Quag sickness

Divine favor

Voracious wurm

Blightcaster

Dragoness

Ratchet bomb

Swamp

BOOSTER PACK 3

Undead Minotaur

Pitchburn devil

Show of valor

Chandra’s outrage

Scroll thief

Quag sickness

Academy raider

Solemn offering

Predatory sliver

Merfolk spy

Opportunity

Windstorm

Blessing

Domestication

Island

BOOSTER PACK 4

Ranger’s guile

Pitchburn devil

Essence scatter

Lay of the land

Lava axe

Wring flesh

Brindle boar

Regathan firecat

Nightwing shade

Charging griffin

Briarpack alpha

Molten birth

Staff of the magus

Ratchet bomb

Swamp

BOOSTER PACK 5

Shadowborn apostle

Marauding maulhorn

Pay no heed

Armored cancix

Seacoast drake

Goblin shortcutter

Divine favor

Liturgy of blood

Mind rot

Woodburn behemoth

Diabolic Tutor

Stonehorn chanter

Into the wilds

Master of diversion

Island

BOOSTER PACK 6

Negate

Child of night

Lay of land

Capashen knight

Brindle boar

Vile rebirth

Wild guess

Pillarfield ox

Groundshaker sliver

Nightwing shade

Flames of the firebrand

Vial of poison

Trading post

Swamp

BOOSTER PACK 7

Frost breath

Plummet

Master of diversion

Shock

Chandra’s outrage

Regathan firecat

Rumbling Baloth

Archaeomancer

Auramancer

Spore mound

Encroaching wastes

Rod of ruin

Flesh pulper giant

Imposing sovereign

Plains

BOOSTER PACK 8

Capashen Knight

Essence scatter

Seismic stomp

Undead Minotaur

Vile rebirth

Dawn strike paladin

Nephalia Seakite

Dark favor

Griffin sentinel

Sensory deprivation

Bubbling cauldron

Vampire warlord

Barrage of expendables

Galerider sliver

Forest

BOOSTER PACK 9

Child of night

Lay of the land

Duress

Goblin shortcutter

Divine favor

Liturgy of blood

Mind rot

Deadly recluse

Striking sliver

Accorder’s shield

Manaweft sliver

Stonehorn chanter

Xathrid necromancer

Diabolic tutor

Island

   Eventually I am going to make decks out of these cards, not sure what color decks I am going to make as of yet, but I was thinking along the line of maybe a bant or jund deck, Or I might just make two colors decks. Although it may seem like the cards I opened aren’t as good as they look, but I am sure a decent deck can be made with them, even if I add them to the existing decks I have laying around. I didn’t get as many slivers as I hoped to get but I have no problem with buying them individualy to make myself a maybe sort of decent sliver deck. We will see when that time comes around, until then thanks for reading my blog and leave comments of what you would do with these cards to make a deck with? And if you yourself have gotten the core set of any kind (booster, fat pack, etc.) what cool cards did you get from them?

SLIVERS.....YEA OR NAY?

               Word has it that the slivers are being revived for the new M14 core set. Word also hasit that mostpeople are kinda upset about the fact that the slivers are coming back. Me on the one hand is pretty happy about the slivers making a comeback. The abilities they have are pretty good for what they are, not to mention having other slivers in the deck will become more powerful than they already are before they even reach your hand.
               

               I've some of the spoilers MTG has on their Facebook, website, and other spoiler pages. Some of them are pretty expensive mana cost to be bringing out, but is their abilities worth the extra mana cost to have in the deck? for some I do think it's worth it, but only for the ones that would make the other slivers more powerful. Ones with the ability to give other sliver vigilance doesnt seem all that worthy of the extra mana cost to bring it out, unless the mana cost is what the power and toughness eqals to, then it's ok (I guess). The ones that would give other slivers hatse or +2/+2 or something like that would be well worth the effort to give mana to get out.

              I've seen in the comments for the slivers on various pages all pretty much stating how much they hate the way the new slivers look. For me I like the way they look, I think they are pretty cool looking. It was the fact that people are hung up on how the slivers have 2 legs instead of one, this doesnt seem to bother me much as the next person. I really worry more about the abilities and power and toughness than the actual artwork. maybe when I have a bit much to drink or something I'll praise the artwork but even then not that much.

              It seems like from what I've seen from the spoilers there could be a good amount of red and white slivers to be able to pull off a nice red/white deck. It also looks like a all green sliver deck might show up as well. but I haven't seen any for black or blue yet, or if they are going to make one for those colors at all. If they do make them for those colors then they might want to surprise us or something (but highly doubt it would be of any kind of surprise at all).

               Before I sign off of here I just want to ask you readers if you like the whole sliver idea coming back or would you rather it stay away? and if you were ever into slivers in the past what color did you use for the deck and how fast can you get a win by?