Category Archives: Deck tech

Planning a Simic Deck for Standard Showdown

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I bet you are a bit tired with my current fixation with the Android universe, the Genesys RPG system and my untested theories about creating campaigns for a RPG.

The posting of cute attack chihuahua pictures may not be enough for you. Maybe you want a return to discussing MtG or even gaming reports.

So who am I to disappoint. Well ok I give you that, I do disappoint often. But not today, depending on your point of view.

In this post I’m going to look at my plans for my next deck for Standard Showdown and then finish off with a brief reveal of a possible update to the standard mill deck I built.

For this new deck I’m going Simic aka blue/green. So I have access to big stompy creatures, ramp, and the usual annoying blue control shenanigans.

Let’s look at some of the creatures I want to put into the deck.

Is it even conceivable to run green without Llanowar Elves? With it out early I’m casting bigger stuff ahead of curve. Which is why Steel Leaf Champion is in. Get that dream opening hand, and turn three I’m swinging in for 5 damage.

Hydroid Krasis is a card that can come out early if need be. But ideally this is the late game finisher. Pumping lots of mana into it so it comes in big, plus that when cast trigger tops up life and draws cards.

Wall of Lost Thoughts I like as a cheap blocker, buys some time to get pieces into place. In fact I also like it as an addition to the mono blue mill deck because of it’s etb of getting my opponent to put the top four of their library into their graveyard. And even though this deck isn’t a mill deck, it doesn’t hurt as a benefit. Might give my opponent the wrong idea about the deck.

Zegana, Utopian Speaker I like as a four drop. Especially considering I can Adapt 4 her and make her an 8/8. I only have one of her at the moment. A second and third wouldn’t go amiss.

Carnage Tyrant had to be in this deck. It’s the poster child for green in the current standard. Plus imagine how sick it will be with the odd +1/+1 counter on it.

Open the Gates is part of the ramp suite for the deck. This allows me to go get that key land early on. Plus that all important shuffle of the library.

Blink of an Eye cheap early removal, buys me a turn from a threat. With the ability to kick it and draw a card.

Ok Essence Capture is creatures only. But still a cheap counter spell that also puts a counter on one of my creatures. I like that.

Another piece in the ramp suite is Growth Spiral. Card draw, and being able to put out an extra land on the turn. I love it.

Thought Collapse same cost as the no longer legal Disallow. Sadly it doesn’t counter triggered abilities. But it does mill three cards. So not only a good counter spell for this deck, but also the mill deck.

Now Wilderness Reclamation is the reason why I’ve not gone with more creatures that tap for mana in the deck. I love love this card.

Vivien Reid is another card I like, and I need at least one more copy really for this deck and my golgari deck. Such a great utility card.

Simic Guildgate, comes in tapped. But on a budget I’ll take it. Plus I can fetch it with Open the Gates.

Biogenic Ooze I think has a lot of potential to be a game winner. With a possibility to abuse that activated ability with two or more Wilderness Reclamation’s out in that end step.

Applied Biomancy I like a lot. Bounce and a counter. Yeah I’ll take that. Especially with the next card out.

Simic Ascendancy. Pump up your creatures with its activated ability. Which I’ve already shown could be abused in the end step. But whether I’m abusing it’s activated ability and triggering its other ability. Or just triggering its ability another way. This is an alternative win condition for me.

Slimebind, just great cheap defanging a threat on the board.

Breeding Pool I’d love a playset of. But reality of finances means I will play with two copies.

Saruli Caretaker might make it as a sideboard creature. Nice card.

Shimmer of Possibility. Cheap. Find that card hopefully that you want, without revealing it. Yeah like it.

I didn’t pull any Mass Manipulation but I’m considering a copy in the sideboard.

Sagittar’s Volley, I kind a like. It’s removal against flying, and gets rid of the weenie flyers. Most likely a sideboard card.

The final card Persistent Petitioners not only has me wanting to rebuild the mill deck round this card. But I’m thinking maybe a Commander deck also might be fun.

I still need to work out exact number of copies for cards. Although finances do restrict one or two of the cards. But as first thoughts on the deck go, I’m pretty happy with it. Just need to see how it does in the real world against real decks.

UPDATE: Oops forgot to add in this little gem.

It’s got to be in the sideboard. Somehow!

Beaten by the formula

Deck tech, Game day, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


I got lucky Saturday morning. The post arrived with copies of the core 2 cards for the mono blue mill I needed. Which meant I was able to put together an initial build of my take on the whole mono blue mill deck thing.

I’d found it easier to get the 60 cards to make the main deck, than I did getting down to the 15 to make the sideboard. So I decided I’d throw a sideboard together at The Hobbit Hole.

At The Hobbit Hole I bought some sleeves for the new deck, and a couple of extra copies of Surge Mare and Howling Golem. There was a Pokemon tournament going on when I arrived. Kar-Fai was participating in that instead of the Standard Showdown today. Don’t blame him, there was a booster box of Pokemon cards up for grabs as the first prize.

After sleeving my new deck an opportunity to take it out for a test drive presented itself. A young lad keen to play some magic before Standard Showdown wanted a game. I was curious to how the deck would do, so we shuffled our decks.

Friendly Game 1 – William

I was unsure how my deck was going to work. Obviously I knew my game plan. But would it actually get time to do it’s thing? Williams deck seemed to present no real danger. My pieces fell into place, and then it was just a matter of executing the plan. I milled William out.

The deck had worked. But to be fair, and I’m not being mean on William but his deck wasn’t a real test. William is learning, his deck building skills are still in their infancy. Mine aren’t much further along the path. But I knew I’d be facing tougher, more powerful decks in the Standard Showdown. However there was enough here to make the decision for me that I’d give the deck an outing in the Standard Showdown.

Result: Win

I decided to play William again but this time with my Golgari deck. I thought it was important he got an idea of the sort of decks he’d be up against power wise.

Friendly Game 2 – William

This was a by the numbers game for the deck. I didn’t hit any of my removal spells. But with two Steel Leaf Champions and a Vicious Conquistador out I didn’t really need to. The only “removal” I did hit was a Ravenous Chupacabra.

Result: Win

I left William and Michael (re)building William a deck.

Dean arrived and had a couple of cards for me that were going into the ninja/assassin commander deck. I’d traded an Assassin’s Trophy with him the previous week. I was pretty happy with the trade. The deck I’m building is a slow build, just ticking away in the background.

Andy had joined in the deck building effort for William. I hope William was listening and learning from the advice he was being given. But he did have a better deck to play with.

Right it was showtime, the first round pairings were called out.

Round 1 – Rebecca

I’d never played Rebecca before, I believe this was the first time she’d been to the store with her partner. She wasn’t a standard player either and like me thrown a deck together for today.

Our first game although I started milling Rebecca, I had no real answer for her 1/1 flyer that was getting pumped every now and again. And that was the one doing all the damage. I eventually bled out to that damn flyer.

Game two was a different story. I milled Rebecca out. She had cards in hand that it turned out afterwards she didn’t have the mana to cast. A little mana screwed.

The deciding game went to time. We didn’t need the five turns. When time was called, we had reached a point in the game that either of us could win it on our next turn. Rebecca needed to do five points of damage to me to win with that cursed flier, and I only had three cards to mill, that would happen when I started my next turn. Luckily for me, but sadly for Rebecca on her turn she could only get to dealing four points of damage to me. I was alive to start my turn and win.

I had won by the skin of my teeth.

Result: Win 2-1

Round 2 – Alfie

I’d played Alfie before but with the Golgari deck. After a little banter to lighten the mood and make it a bit more fun for Alfie, we started duelling.

Our first game went the same way as my first round first game. I was killing but not fast enough, and just got my butt kicked by creatures.

Game two went my way with the mill getting me a win. Alfie didn’t enjoy that experience much seeing his good cards going into the graveyard.

Game three the decider went my way also. It could easily have been a mill win or a creature smash win. I went for the creature smash for a change! It had to be done, because although that’s an option with the 16 creatures in the deck, it’s not the main win condition for the deck. They are mainly there to keep me alive long enough to get the win condition. So I don’t imagine with this deck that it will get many wins this way.

Result: Win 2-1

Friendly Game 3 – Kar-Fai

The Pokemon tournament had ended with Kar-Fai coming in second place, just missing out on the big prize again.

So to fill time between my next and final round we played our blue decks against each other. Kar-Fai had thrown some of his blue cards together to make a deck (his words).

There was some back and forth between the two decks. Kar-Fai had that unblockable 1/1 merfolk out. Which was annoying. But in the end mill ruled the day.

Result: Win

Round 3 – Dean

Time to face Alfie’s uncle.

I knew this deck, it’s a fast Golgari aggro deck. My Golgari deck has beaten it. But would this new deck?

The simple answer is no. My meagre collection of creatures thrown out as a defensive shield did little to stop the onslaught. I did mill away some of his big nasty creatures like both of his Ghaltas. But in the end it was little consolation to being wiped out.

So the uncle had avenged the nephew.

Result: Loss 2-0

I think there was only one player who went 3-0 and won. Three ended up 1-2, with the rest having a 2-1 record. So that meant the WotC software would once again be applying the rules and deciding positions based on how well opponents had done. Which meant my position wouldn’t be too high. The two people I’d beaten had finished 9th and 8th.

Final position: 6th out of 10 with a 2-1 record.

I only got a participation pack this week, missing out on a Showdown booster.

Afterwards we had a five player game of Commander with the Planeschase cards. I was playing my Death and Taxes deck. There was a nice combo between one planes that forced a player to discard their hand and draw a new hand equal in size to the one they just discarded in their end step, and a creature of mine. My creature had an ability that said an opponent lost a life each time they drew a card. Which was funny. I think over twenty points of damage was done before my creature was removed.

In the end we ran out of time because once again apparently John wanted to eat, and spend time with his family! So there was no winner.

For those interested, or can’t remember what I wrote but for some inexplicable reason want to read more of my words, you can read my thoughts on putting the deck together in my post earlier in the week HERE.

For those that did go off and read my previous post on this deck I’ll apologise for repeating this disclaimer for those that didn’t.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

So I suppose you want to know what cards make up the deck and sideboard I used yesterday.

Creatures:16
2 Diamond Mare
4 Surge Mare
4 Vodalian Arcanist
2 Howling Golem
3 Homarid Explorer
1 Fleet Swallower

Spells:22
4 Opt
4 Blink of an Eye
4 Drowned Secrets
4 Psychic Corrosion
4 Secrets of the Golden City
2 Kumena’s Awakening

Lands:22
20 Island
2 Memorial to Genius

Sideboard:15
1 Windreader Sphinx
2 Fountain of Renewal
4 Essence Scatter
1 Millstone
4 Cancel
2 Patient Rebuilding
1 River’s Rebuke

In a change from tradition I’m presenting the deck’d apps graphs and pricing now instead of before.

Wow that’s a lot of 2 drops. I like the AMC, that means I can be casting at least a couple of spells a turn from turn 5 onwards. Which is what I want to be doing once Drowned Secrets is out.

I’m gobsmacked by how cheap the deck is to put together if I ever needed to build it again from scratch.

The deck was fun to play, well for me. So I’m glad I built it and played it.

Building A Standard Mono Blue Mill Deck Thought Process

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

So this will be a thinking aloud, chewing the fat, rubber ducking, showing my working out post. Choose your favourite tired cliche from that list. But basically I’m just going to waffle.

For those that have blotted out my post from the weekend (Mana Screwed II) I wrote the following about a mono blue mill deck I played a friendly game against.

“Andy had come across an article about playing mill at FNM, which also happened to be a budget deck, and he had the majority of the cards. So he built the deck. And that’s what I played against here. I recognised the cards that formed the mill engine (Psychic Corrosion and Drowned Secrets) I’d seen them put to good use in a series 5 game of Spellslingers with Day 9 playing the deck. Strictly Better MtG also did a deck tech on it also. But I hadn’t come across the article Andy had mentioned.

…

I have to admit I like the idea of the deck. And I was tempted to build a version of the deck myself when I first saw the episode of Spellslingers. Now I know I am going to create a version too. I’ll use the same core engine. But I’d love to know why no millstone.“

So here we are with me looking at building my take on this blue mill deck. I’ve deliberately not looked at the sources mentioned whilst putting this deck together. I want this to be my deck. Afterwards I will compare “notes” and see where we differ out of interest. But I won’t share that with you. I’d have bored you enough by then.

I suppose I should put my usual disclaimer here (slightly edited for Standard).

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

The core of this deck is Drowned Secrets and Psychic Corrosion.

So there will be a playset of both in the deck. Ideally multiple copies of both will be out. But one of each will be enough. So the deck needs to be playing blue spells and drawing cards.

The thing I noticed about the deck Andy played was the lack of creatures. I think the only one he said he had was Fleet Swallower. So I’ve gone with 16 creatures that can act as blockers but also give me a secondary benefit that fits in with the game plan. It’s why I went Surge Mare over Wall of Mist for example.

But you will notice that there are 2 colourless creatures that won’t trigger Drowned Secrets. However Diamond Mare doubles up on the Drowned Secrets and gives what could be valuable life gain when blue spells are cast. Howling Golem will give card draw, although sadly my opponent also benefits from that. For the record there will be one Fleet Swallower in the main deck, and a second copy in the sideboard.

I know I will be playing playsets of both Opt, and Blink of an Eye.

The benefit of Blink of an Eye, it’s bouncing a creature back to hand, but kicked gives card draw. I don’t think Opt needs much explaining if any.

After the above cards I’m undecided how the remaining slots will be taken up in the main deck. Cards I’ve been looking at including are:

Fountain of Renewal, Disdainful Stroke, Essence Scatter, Expel from Orazca, Millstone, Radical Idea, Unexplained Disappearance, Befuddle, Cancel, Divination, Secrets of the Golden City, Sinister Sabotage, Unwind, Wizard’s Retort, Bone to Ash, Capture Sphere, Chemister’s Insight, Kumena’s Awakening, Sleep, Patient Rebuilding, The Mirari Conjecture and Weight of Memory

For the sideboard I’ve been considering the following cards:
Muse Drake, Fleet Swallower, Windreader Sphinx, Fountain of Renewal, Selective Snare, Time of Ice, Patient Rebuilding, Weight of Memory, and River’s Rebuke

What I have to balance with the remaining slots is card draw, removal and possibly a counter spell or two.

I’m going to play 22 lands, 20 will be basics, and 2 copies of Memorial to Genius.

With Vodalian Arcanist I also have a little ramp for casting instants and sorceries. So I’m boarder line on the land front.

So that’s my thinking so far on this mono blue mill deck. The clock is ticking because I’m considering giving it an airing at this weekends Standard Showdown. Which means the extra copies of some cards I need had better show up quickly.

Defending the title

Deck tech, Game day, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

My third Standard Showdown, and the first opportunity to defend my win, and spread the Keyforge love.

In this Standard Showdown there was 8 participants.

Round 1 – Dean

Dean took the first game easily. Well relatively. There was a too and fro, but his deck kicked in and took the victory.

Second game I should have taken a photo of the board. It was getting very wide, I had stabilised at 6 health. But the numbers were in my favour. I had an Assassins Trophy in hand to make sure. Drew a Vraska’s Contempt while looking for my Find//Finality. I was happy to flood the board until that happened. I had the upper hand. Dean swung in. But as expected I came out on top. I finally got my Find//Finality to give me the extra edge as I cast the Finality side. That was enough to give me the win.

The decider between us was a by the numbers win for me using my weenies, my removal and a Steel Leaf Champion.

Result: Win 2-1

Round 2 – Alfie

Dean’s nephew was playing with an improved deck from the previous week (I wasn’t there remember, I was having a good time in Ipswich), that was meant to be fast. But it really was an easy match up for my deck. I was able to control the battlefield through my removal, get my creatures out. To be fair I don’t think I got to see Alfie’s deck working as intended. But that’s the luck of the draw sometimes.

Result: Win 2-0

Round 3 – Andy Hall

Andy is one of those players that goes to GP’s, plays very competitively. I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying he is one of the stores top MtG players. And I think this was the first time I’ve played against Andy. And what a time to play him, battling for the top slot.

It’s not fun being killed by your own creatures. But that is what happened in the 2 games we played. I did some damage to him, so it wasn’t all one sided. The 2 games went this way. I’d do some early damage, then Thief of Sanity would come out, hit me, steal a card (usually one of my big hitters, like Carnage Tyrant in game 1). Then because I didn’t draw into my removal or have enough lands (oh they would be in the graveyard thanks to that awful card) I’d be at the mercy of my own card.

Although I feel I had a moral victory with Andy misplaying my Assassins Trophy. He’d stolen and cast my Nullhide Ferox, then with only enough mana spare to cast the trophy tried removing my Steel Leaf Champion until I pointed out that he couldn’t. The Ferox was stopping him from doing so.

Result: Loss 2-0

The dust settled, results entered and analysed by the WotC website. Which meant that with the way it calculated things I came in third out of the field of 8. If a result had gone my way in one of the other games, despite having the same win/loss record with second place I’d have ended up in second place.

In respect to what prizes people got there is no difference between second and third place. We both got a Standard Showdown pack, a participation pack, and an extra booster for being second/third.

Final standing: 3rd with a record of 2 Wins 1 Loss

This is what I pulled from the Standard Showdown pack…

I was really happy when I opened up the Standard Showdown pack as you might guess. Foil Angrath and plains. Angrath will potentially fit in nicely with the new deck with that +1 ability. Already had Karn, but still what a pull.

Highlights of the 2 boosters (I went with 1 Amonkhet and 1 Hour of Devastation because Guilds of Ravnica had sold out, and they are awaiting stock)…

Once again reasonably happy with the pulls. Aven Mindcensor saves me digging out my playset to use one in the death and taxes deck. A cycle land is always welcome. Hour of Devastation and Razaketh’s Rite also cards that will go well in the new deck.

And I’ll repeat over and over, sounding like a broken record. But the way I evaluate new cards is will they fit well into a deck of mine, or be of use in one I’m building.

There were a couple of games of Commander afterwards. Less said about them the better, one player was using a totally OP deck and just crushed all before him.

I didn’t get to play any Keyforge. I did ask Dean and Andy if they had heard of it, and I might as well been talking to my chihuahuas at that point. The local awareness at my FLGS is literally zero.

Ok the bit for those that are remotely interested, my deck list for the Standard Showdown.

The main change for this version is the addition of a second Vivien Reid Planeswalker to the sideboard, and the 4 Find//Finality (2 in main deck, and 2 in the sideboard). The cards that made way for this were the Silent Gravestone, Status//Statue, Mastermind’s Acquisition.

Creatures:26

4 Llanowar Elves
2 Skittering Heartstopper
4 Vicious Conquistador
3 Dire Fleet Poisoner
4 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Nullhide Ferox
3 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Carnage Tyrant
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:13

4 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Find // Finality
2 Never Happened
4 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:21

6 Forest
1 Foul Orchard
4 Golgari Guildgate (a)
1 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
2 Woodland Cemetery

Sideboard:16

2 Skittering Heartstopper
1 Dire Fleet Poisoner
2 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Demon of Catastrophes
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
2 Find // Finality
2 Ritual of Soot
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 Vivien Reid

Potential Death and Taxes Commanders

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

So you remember Tuesday when I talked about when that potato mountain thing happens?

It finally looks like the death and taxes deck idea is getting its moment in the sun.

I have an idea of the cards I’m going or want to include in the deck. Sadly as you will see from the possible candidates of suitable Commanders below running a 5 colour deck isn’t an option. And I’m not sure there is enough justification to put effort into trying to get that option on the table.

So let’s look at the cards I found out about (mainly from a reddit post).


Azor, the Lawbringer – I like the card, the etb is a nice bonus. The whenever attacks is really nice, life gain and card draw. It has 2 of the colours I want access to. If it had black it’d be perfect. One of the 99 I think.

Gaddock Teeg – I really like this card. 2 CMC, shuts down noncreature spells such as Torment of Hailfire or Omniscience. Sadly it’s just white and green. So it’d fit nicely into say my Trostani deck. But regrettably doesn’t give me access to blue or black,

Kambul, Consul of Allocation – punishing opponents for casting noncreature spells really like it. Like Azor it’s short a colour, this time blue. But will make a great card as one of the 99.

Captain Sisay – what a great ability this card has. Tutoring for that legendary creature as and when you need it. Wow. But sadly like Gaddot the colours it gives access to is its drawback for me.

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV – this is a fun card, reduce the cost of your own spells while taxing your opponents. If it had a third colour like black it would be ideal. But I think at best for me it’s one of the 99.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death – a 3 colour Commander giving me access to red. The ability is cool. But no blue! A great one of the 99 if red becomes an option.

Tymna the Weaver & Thrasios, Triton Hero – I’m not overly sold on these 2 cards as Commanders. The abilities just don’t wow me, or inspire.

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic – now this is a card and a half. Plus it’s the perfect 3 colours that I want in this deck. a very strong contender for the Commander. But I feel the emphasis with Oloro should be away from my death and taxes plan, and more life gain. Which is a completely separate deck.

Karador, Ghost Chieftain – this card might just be going into my Muldrotha deck. I like the ability a lot, gets around Commander tax. But it has no blue. So for me not an option for the deck at all.

Hokori, Dust Drinker – mono white. Sadly this is only a one of the 99 candidate.

Am I placing too much emphasis on blue? If the cards above aren’t good enough to be the Commander, but are great one of the 99 cards. Most of those have blue in their cost. I think they are good enough to make sure whichever Commander is chosen gives me access to those cards.

As I was writing this post I thought I wonder what other partner Commanders are there? So I googled them to find out the answer. And came up with this pairing.


First off it gives me 4 colours. Which admittedly is harder to build a mana base for. But it gives me access to the ideal 4 colours for this deck. That splash of red gets me access to Harsh Mentor and Rampaging Ferocidon, 2 great punishing cards. I prefer red over green as the fourth colour because it gives me a lot more cards that fit in with the plan for this deck. Although being able to play Sisay and Gaddock would be sweet.

These 2 fit more with the plan in my opinion than the pairing above suggested on that reddit thread.

So it looks like for the time being my death and taxes deck will be using 2 Commanders.

Some initial ninja and assassin cards

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


You may remember a recent post where I hit on the idea of using assassins along side the ninjas in one of my thematic Commander deck ideas for a Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow Ninja deck.

So I present the creature cards I’ve got so far (commander in bold). Have I any glaring omissions? Obviously there are considering I’ve only got 12 creatures so far.

Creatures:12

1 Skullsnatcher
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Darkblade Agent
1 Walker of Secret Ways
1 Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
1 Etrata, the Silencer
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Throat Slitter
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Silent-Blade Oni

As all decks I’m brewing sometimes I go all out and focus solely on that deck until it’s built. It’s like I have to build that deck, nothing else matters.

Just like Richard Dreyfuss’s character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (great movie, I even had the Marvel movie adaption of it) and the mash potato mountain he had to make at the family dinner table. Once that “got to build it” bug bites, everything else doesn’t exist.

Or like this one and some of the other deck ideas they are a slow brew, quietly sitting there getting the odd card added to them as and when. That when is usual when I’m watching some deck tech video on YouTube. Naturally edhrec also gives me ideas for cards to use. While the deck is slowly simmering away in the background, new ideas do sometimes jump ahead due to the above character flaw described poorly above. But they are waiting for their turn in the spot light, and to get the star treatment.

One such deck idea nearly ready for prime time and its 15 minutes of fame is the death and taxes deck. The reason this may be the next to receive the hyper focus is to produce a deck that would punish this Niv-Mizzet deck I’ve heard of. I know cards I have would definitely punish that card, or deck entirely. The main draw back is a Commander. At the moment I have no idea which legendary creature to use.

Azor was my initial idea for the Commander. But I want access to black too, unless I can find a white or blue card that punishes card draw of an opponent. It’s time to hit the books as they used to say and see if I can solve the problem.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Trostani Token Spam Commander Deck V2

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


Sorry Jonathan yet another MtG post. I had something else lined up but I was tweaking this deck yesterday and discussing a similar deck a friend had created on Messenger. They had gone with Emmara, Soul of the Accord as their commander. There was some crossover with cards used, which you’d expect.


But naturally the friend had cards that allowed them to untap/tap outside of the normal steps of a turn. Which is what you want to be doing with their commander.

My friend wasn’t happy with the way the deck performed against a Niv-Mizzet deck another friend was playing. That draw card, 1 damage was keeping the token spamming under control, along with the usual blue control stuff. Sometimes there are just bad match ups, it’s the nature of the game.

So we were talking, I pointed them in the direction of my deck list, and edhrec for ideas. Which brings me to this post. I thought I better share my current untested updated deck list with the tweaks I’ve made.

It’d be interesting to see my deck against this Niv-Mizzet deck. I think I’m generating tokens at a faster rate, and buffing them up quicker so it may fair better. Especially if I could politic the other players to pick on Niv-Mizzet.

So in this new version we now have the new combo I discussed in a previous post (Island Sanctuary and Sandwurm Convergence). There are a couple of cards that make use of the populate keyword (Growing Ranks and Sundering Growth). Which copies a token. A little bit more removal (Sundering Growth and Hour of Reckoning), followed by some protection with Privileged Position. Tolsimir Wolfblood gives an extra anthem/lord effect, and along with Oketra the True and Sandwurm Convergence more token generating.

Here is the updated deck stats for this second version of the deck.


There is an expensive to cast sorcery I’d like to squeeze in somehow, it’s basically a board wipe (potentially), especially against other token spam decks. That card is Ezuri’s Predation.


I’m thinking maybe History of Benalia as the card to make way for it. Might try the deck with and without.

Here is the updated deck list (new additions in bold).

Creatures:24

1 Haazda Marshal
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Conclave Guildmage
1 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
1 Shanna, Sisay’s Legacy
1 District Guide
1 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Flickerwisp
1 Ledev Champion
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Conclave Cavalier
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Leonin Warleader
1 Oketra the True
1 Sumala Woodshaper
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Trostani Discordant
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Silent Sentinel
1 Trostani’s Summoner

Spells:43

1 Authority of the Consuls
1 Cloudshift
1 Flower // Flourish
1 Legion’s Landing
1 Sol Ring
1 Dawn of Hope
1 Dowsing Dagger
1 Island Sanctuary
1 Martial Coup
1 Momentary Blink
1 Quest for Renewal
1 Saproling Migration
1 Sundering Growth
1 Acrobatic Maneuver
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 History of Benalia
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 March of the Multitudes
1 Selesnya Locket
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Sprouting Renewal
1 Teferi’s Protection
1 Anointed Procession
1 Circuitous Route
1 Growing Ranks
1 Panharmonicon
1 Parallel Lives
1 Second Harvest
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Wrath of God
1 Conjurer’s Closet
1 Divine Visitation
1 Doubling Season
1 Fumigate
1 Primal Vigor
1 Privileged Position
1 Vivien Reid
1 Hour of Revelation
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Approach of the Second Sun
1 Hour of Reckoning
1 Sandwurm Convergence

Lands:33

1 Blossoming Sands
1 Bountiful Promenade
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Desert of the True
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Field of Ruin
7 Forest
1 Foundry of the Consuls
1 Krosan Verge
8 Plains
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Selesnya Guildgate (a)
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Shefet Dunes
1 Survivors’ Encampment
1 Temple Garden
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Warped Landscape

Potential Fun Combo For My Token Spamming

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

The Magic Historian (a YouTuber) did a change to his usual style of video about MtG and started a “community/crowd sourced” deck building project around a deck idea he had. There were a couple of rules about building the deck but that’s unimportant.

What is important is the card he said that had to be used (Island Sanctuary), the card he used to play with it back in the day (Mystic Decree) and the card he suggested people might consider (Sandwurm Convergence).

Apart from Mystic Decree (wrong colour) the other 2 cards are Selesnya colours (white and green), and would fit in nicely into my Trostani token spam deck.

I have a similar package in my Horrors from the Deep deck with Archetype of Imagination and Stormtide Leviathan.


I could see Mystic Decree being a sweet addition to that deck.

What I like about the combo of Sandwurm Convergence and Island Sanctuary is it fits in with the token spam strategy and gives me that bit of protection, breathing space to find maybe a solution to a problem on the board, develop my game plan.

It really was fortuitous coming across that video yesterday. The timing couldn’t have been better. There will be a version 2 of the Trostani deck, there are some cards in the Selesnya Guild deck that would be at home in the deck too. So there will be some reviewing going on, cards having to justify their place in the deck. But that’s also true for the Horrors of the Deep deck too. I have a handful of cards that are shouting for a place in the deck.

Ninjas meet Assassins

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

One of my planned Commander deck ideas is a ninja themed deck with Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow from Commander 2018 as it’s Commander.

I think it’s accepted that there are not enough (good) ninjas to make a deck with. Which has been a bit of a brake on the brewing of the deck.

But then I had a moment of clarity when I saw the card Etrata, the Silencer.


Assassins are like ninjas! How about if I make the deck a ninjas and assassins deck?

Thematically it works. Or it does in my little make believe world.

It means I can’t use tribal boosters, or if I do it will be to boost a subset of the creature base. Unless I run Arcane Adaptation to make them all one creature type. The half way solution could be to run a mix of general boosts and tribal ones.

But that’s the updated plan for the ninja deck, or ninjas and assassins deck. What assassins should I put in the deck?

Goblins Tribal Commander Deck

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


Wow lucky sufferers, back to back Commander decks. This one and yesterday’s deck Trostani were played yesterday (ok as a 1 v 1 Commander games). Not a great test for them, but at least I could see if they were able to their thing.

“I’ll put my usual disclaimer here about my decks. I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I proxy in expensive cards and produce them when I play. It helps keep costs down. I can’t afford multiple copies of expensive cards to put in decks. Commander is a casual format about having fun. And that is the ethos I hope I have when brewing the decks.”

So with that copy and paste disclaimer out of the way, for your reading delight I present…


I kind of fell into this deck. There have been one or two nice new goblin cards in recent sets, along with a reprint or two. Plus they were in one of the last but one duel decks to be released. So I had a good base to start building this deck from. Plus the cards I didn’t have (mainly some goblin lords needed to pump up the goblins) were rather cheap.

Because I’m staying mono red I’m able to reuse a few of the cards from my Etali mono red Commander deck. So for me I’m getting a lot of value from that deck.

For this deck I decided to go with Squee, the Immortal as my Commander. Although I may try it with different Commanders to see if it makes a difference. But I like that although Squee doesn’t combo or do anything for other goblins, he is impossible to get rid of. Plus he has no Commander tax, so he can be used for cards that require a goblin/creature to be sacrificed over and over again.

This is a tribal deck, so naturally we have the odd tribal card in the deck to pump up our goblins on top of any anthem effects we get from our goblin lords. Of which there are a few.

There are a handful of cards that also generate goblin tokens. This deck doesn’t specifically aim to go wide. But it doesn’t hurt to have the option to increase the number of goblins on the battlefield.

There is a removal suite for this deck, both targeted and mass removal. There are cards that improve our card draw in the deck, but this is a weakness of red, and the 3 or 4 present hopefully help. I have one card in the deck that acts as graveyard hate, I may tweak that with adding one more. But I’m happy with the 3 or 4 cards in their to get round hexproof targets.

So the overall plan is to beef up the goblins, and swing in for the win. I’m hoping at a minimum the goblins will be getting a +2/+2 boost. Which would help them avoid one or two of my own cards aimed at keeping the board clear of spammy tokens.

Lets look at the graphics produced by the Decked app for this deck.


Pretty chuffed the AMC just scrapes in under 3. I think this is a pretty cheap deck, although for some reason it wasn’t able to price some cards. So it’s a little more costly than the price shown.

Ok the bit you’re interested in the actual cards that make up the deck.

Creatures:32

1 Fanatical Firebrand
1 Goblin Banneret
1 Goblin Glory Chaser
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Dark-Dweller Oracle
1 Ember Hauler
1 Goblin Instigator
1 Goblin Trailblazer
1 Goblin Wardriver
1 Metallic Mimic
1 Warren Instigator
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Boggart Brute
1 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Chainwhirler
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Goblin King
1 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Goblin Warchief
1 Guttersnipe
1 Squee, the Immortal
1 Treasure Nabber
1 Tuktuk the Explorer
1 Zo-Zu the Punisher
1 Battle-Rattle Shaman
1 Beetleback Chief
1 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Trashmaster
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Volley Veteran
1 Battle Squadron
1 Siege-Gang Commander

Spells:35

1 Blazing Volley
1 By Force
1 Fall of the Titans
1 Glaring Spotlight
1 Goblin Grenade
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mutiny
1 Sol Ring
1 Sudden Demise
1 Traveler’s Amulet
1 Abrade
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Krenko’s Command
1 Lightning Strike
1 Pyroclasm
1 Chaos Warp
1 Herald’s Horn
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Risk Factor
1 Aether Flash
1 Goblin Barrage
1 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Melt Terrain
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
1 Radiating Lightning
1 Vance’s Blasting Cannons
1 Cleaver Riot
1 Fiery Intervention
1 Hour of Devastation
1 Vanquisher’s Banner
1 Caged Sun
1 Obelisk of Urd
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Star of Extinction

Lands:33

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Detection Tower
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Madblind Mountain
24 Mountain
1 Ramunap Ruins
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Shivan Gorge
1 Sunscorched Desert
1 Temple of the False God