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.