CONTINUING TO MARDU PART DEUX

        I went through all my standard cards and picked out what would be a best fit for the mardu deck. I figure (also help from a friend) control would be a good addition to the mardu deck. Of course I probably picked out like over 100 (seems like) cards I thought would help fit into the deck but I cant be having a 160 card deck around.

I went through my theros block to search for cards fitting in with the mardu colors.  Surprisingly to me I have more white cards than anything else. Which shouldn’t be too surprising because white is pretty good with removal/control. I will give you a list of cards I thought might be fitting for the deck and I will post it on the tappedout.com page where my deck is in the maybe board. In person I will experiment with the newly picked out cards into the deck before messing around with it online (it’s also a pain to be moving and typing new cards in).

Game day is in less than three days. I have not the slightest idea of what to bring (if I am even going) deck wise to the event. The list of cards below are listed as how many I actually have not how many will go into the deck, because some cards can be one to many of and screw up the game because I wouldn’t be able to draw what I needed in order to stay alive.

Leave comments of your thoughts of what you would do to make this deck work?

Thanks for reading my blog!

DECK FROM TAPPEDOUT.COM



FROM THEROS

1x spear of heliod
2x vanquish the foul
4x ray of dissolution
4x gods willing
4x Battlewise valor
4x Scholar of Athreos
2x dauntless onslaught
2x sip of hemlock
4x opaline unicorn
4x spark jolt
4x Akroan hoplite

FROM BORN OF THE GODS

2x fated retribution
3x dawn to dusk
4x excoriate
1x archetype of courage
3x eidolon of countless battles
2x hero of iroas
4x oreskos sun guide
4x revoke existence
4x hold at bay
2x acolyte’s reward
3x nyxborn shieldmate
4x grisly transformation
4x necrobite
4x claim of erebos

FROM JOURNEY INTO NYX

4x oppressive rays
3x eidolon of rhetoric
4x reprisal
3x banishing light
4x magma spray
2x harness by force

EXCITEMENT…FOR NOTHING…

Ever do a booster draft or just buy booster packs and get excited about certain cards that you got in the booster pack? Ever find out that certain card you got excited about you already had multiple of? Not that it happened to me, but it happened to me last week.

Now you feel weird for getting excited about those cards you’ve gotten, as long as no one else knows and maybe you can come up with a story behind it which is somewhat true but not really, should anyone find out.

When you have a vast collection like most magic players do (if not all of them), you tend to forget some of the cards you have already in your collection. It happens to me all the time. It probably happens to other players too that has been playing since it came out in ’93 or recent years. Best thing to do is either sell off the many multiple you have or trade them for other cards you could really use in vintage, legacy, modern, EDH, or standard.

It’s a weird moment when you open your box of magic cards and (I don’t know if anyone else does this) go to where the manna cost order you need to put the card in, and find 4 or 5 or even 11 of the same card that you somehow forgot you have, simply because you have multiple decks with the same card and have no use for the ones sitting in your box. Like I said before, not that it happened to me, but it happened to me last week.

What’s the one card you got excited about and forgot you have multiple copies of the same card?

Please leave a comment and thanks for reading my blog.

INSPIRED TO DO SOMETHING (THE GOOD AND THE BAD)

        Inspired is a unique mechanic that can be really useful or not. Like most creatures would normally do when they are tapped, is they become untapped and the inspired mechanic triggers.

       Some creatures with inspired can be triggered right when they become untapped, some you would have the choice to pay mana cost to trigger it, unlike bestowed enchantment creatures, the mana cost isn’t usually high to trigger the inspired mechanic. For example, let’s take Fellhide spiritbinder that is a 3 colorless and a red mountain to cast. After your turn is over and the opponent took his or her turn, now it’s time to do untapping of your creatures and mana. Now the Fellhide spiritbinder is untapped, you choose to do the inspired mechanic so you pay 1 colorless and a red mountain mana, then you put a token on the battlefield that is a copy of another creature except it’s an enchantment in addition to its other types. It also gains haste and you exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

       There are some creatures where you don’t have to pay mana cost to trigger its mechanic to do anything. You just untap the creature and the inspired mechanic triggers.  Some will give you life gain, a +2/+0 (till end of turn), tap target creature, put +1/+1 counters on it, ETC. there are different kinds of things that inspired does when it’s triggered. Some are ok and some are not ok, it depends on your style of playing.

Which inspired mechanic creature is your favorite?

Please leave a comment of your thoughts.

Thanks for reading my blog!

TRIBUTE, A WIN-WIN SITUATION

With the official release of born of the gods coming out February 7^th-9^th 2014, I figure I talk about one of the new mechanics for the set, Tribute. It’s a great mechanic to work with. The odd part is letting the other player decide either or not to pay the tribute. It could work to your advantage either way.

Tribute comes in different shape and form. Mostly with counters if the tribute is paid. Nessian wilds ravager (which is a hydra 6/6 creature with a 4 and two green mana to bring out) has tribute 6 mechanics. The opponent chooses if it would get 6 +1/+1 counters on it or if they don’t pay the tribute, the creature then fights another target creature. This could kill the other creature that is untapped from blocking you when you attack with the other creatures on the battlefield.

Other form of tribute can do things like cast and instant or sorcery without paying the mana cost, putting tokens out on the battlefield, gaining life, gain control of another creature, etc.  They have the tribute mechanic for each of the colors as well, not just certain ones.

I like the new mechanics that born of the gods has to offer. Not just the tribute. I’ve heard a lot of people aren’t too happy with the set; I seem to like it enough. But I just know that the 3^rd set in this block is just going to be epic, which is journey into nyx and it’s coming out in May of this year.

What is your favorite new mechanic?

Comment with your thoughts

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

TRADING FAITH

          Trading is a topic I have talked about before, but this one is different. Since the EXTRA!.....EXTRA! Blog has been posted I’ve been trading with other players, through pucatrade.com and the wonderful people at the Magic the gathering community board on Google +.

          Normally I don’t trade with other players other than my brother in law, just because I fear I might get ripped off, but I gave it a try. It’s mostly form the website and the community right now, still hasn’t done it at my LGS.  The players at my LGS seem friendly enough but looks are deceiving. 

          I’ve gotten a Planeswalker and some sliver cards so far, and few more still coming in the mail. The sliver cards I got from the person who sent it to me had put some extra sliver cards in the envelope  with the one I was asking for (in protective hard card sleeve of course). Found out from someone else about that it is pretty much normal for someone to do that, which I think is a really cool thing to do.

          This tells me that the magic communities are full of great people. It really opened me up some more to the idea of trading with other players in person. Thanks MTG Google+ community and pucatrade.com for opening me up some more to start getting rid of the extras or card I have no use for to other people who needs the cards more than me.

          How often do you trade? Do you trade by the need of the card or the value of the card?

          Thanks for reading my blog, please comment your thoughts.

If you are interested in my trade and want list I will post a link for it.

Card trade list ß----link

Pre-release or release?

          I’ve come to notice that there’s a mix between people’s feelings about the pre-release weekend, as well as the release weekend. Some like doing the pre-release better and some like doing the release better. There even people that don’t like to go to either releases at all, they rather just get to booster box or whichever and just use it for Friday night magic or an event involving magic.

          I myself only been to 2 pre-releases and they weren’t all that bad. Even if you don’t win at what tournaments they have set up, you’re still leaving with a bunch of the new cards before it’s even out to the general public, to me that screams bragging rights. Sure in most cases you don’t get that absolute best card they have for the set, but still you can get some pretty decent cards out of it, maybe even a Planeswalker or a god card could be pulled.

          It don’t really matter which release I go to, I’m still walking away with a bunch of cards. I don’t know about everyone else’s LGS, but the one I go to do the same stuff in the release as they did in the pre-release. It’s still fun to go to and hang out with other players. Maybe even show a new player how to play, which is a lot of fun to do. In other words my preference is either one of the releases, which is if I can afford to go to one of them.

          Born of the gods the second set of the theros block pre-release is February  1-2, 2014. The official release weekend is February 7-9 (technically the 8^th considering it’s a midnight release on the 7^th) and game day is March 1-2, 2014. Hope everyone will enjoy the new set.

          What’s your preference? Pre-release or release? Please leave a comment of your thoughts.

          Thanks for reading my blog.