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.