Category Archives: MtG Deck Building

It’s been a long week for such a short week!

MtG, MtG Deck Building, still alive

It’s been a couple of days since I last posted, and I know how folks hope that the drivel has finally stopped if I haven’t posted for a day or two. And I so like to disappoint.

Even with a bank holiday on Monday, and turning 55 last Sunday. This shorter week has felt so long. Which I think is due to how hectic it is at work at the moment.

But gaming has been happening. Well last night it did with a second session of the Shadowdark rpg. But there will be a post mortem post about that in a day or so.

The cards needed for the Mindcrank and Duskmantle Guildmage combo deck have started to arrive. There were three envelopes waiting for me when I got home yesterday. With more on the way.

This deck is a different build to the one I had a few years back now. That was fun to play. So I’m expecting this to be just as fun.

I like experimenting with different deck archetypes, and I definitely have my favourites. But the experimentation does help in becoming a better MtG player. Even at a casual level. It allows you to assess the opponents deck, make inferences about possible cards, or type of card, and allow you to adjust your tactics based on that information.

For example if I was up against an elf deck or something that has splashed green, I would do my damn best to disrupt that early ramp from those Llanowar elves.

Those two new poison decks from Card Kingdom have given me the urge to revisit my Atraxa Commander deck and look at what new cards I should be considering to add to it. Although playing Atraxa as a Commander does put a pretty big target on the back.

Tuesday I got an email from Chaos Cards saying that they had the A Game of Thrones Mother of Dragons playmat back in stock. Something I had given up hope of ever owning.

Until that email landed in my inbox the price of the playmat was easily over double retail plus a hefty shipping cost on top. Assuming there was one for sale.

So I didn’t even hesitate in clicking the link and ordering one. Nothing like getting something you really wanted for slightly less than rrp and with free postage.

The playmat should be with me next week. With hopefully enough people willing to play the following Saturday.

So that’s my game related stuff this week during a very very hectic week.

Big Green Stompy v2

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

It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these deck posts. There are more planned. After all I have two new decks nearly finished, and three other decks that need updating with new cards.

I thought after the post the other day about one of the upcoming Kaldheim cards that I was really excited about I’d finally update the Big Green Stompy deck this morning.

Some times it is so easy to update a deck. Especially if its one I built a long time ago and I wasn’t using “good” cards but ones I had at the time.

Other times it’s so hard to do, as you don’t want to take cards out. But you have to because you want to use the new cards.

Below are the updated decks stats. The AMC has crept up.

Ok according to the Decked app that I use and CardKingdom if I had to replace this deck I would not be able to. But below I’ve listed the top 10 most costly cards that the deck currently uses.

Like so many cards, The Immortal Sun is in need of a reprint. It’s almost a staple for me, and possibly many others too. If at the same time they could reprint Growing Rites as well I’d appreciate it.

Ok here is the bit you really want the cards that make up this version of the deck.

Note yes it might be on the low side for lands. But there are mana rocks, cards that reduce the cost, creatures that tap for mana, and cards that search for lands. Plus cards that increase the amount of mana that lands tap for.

Creatures:35

1 Boreal Druid
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Feral Hydra
2 Hungering Hydra
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Leaf Gilder
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast (Alternative Commander)
1 Primordial Hydra
1 Voracious Hydra
1 Deathgorge Scavenger
1 Lifeblood Hydra
1 Llanowar Tribe
1 Managorger Hydra
1 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Elvish Piper
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Yeva, Nature’s Herald (Commander)
1 Gigantosaurus
1 Ohran Frostfang
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Aggressive Mammoth
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Gargos, Vicious Watcher
1 Hydra Broodmaster
1 Hydra Omnivore
1 Kogla, the Titan Ape
1 Oran-Rief Hydra
1 Giant Adephage
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Khalni Hydra
1 Worldspine Wurm
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:43

1 Adventurous Impulse
1 Animist’s Awakening
1 Attune with Aether
1 Sol Ring
1 Bonds of Mortality
1 Emerald Medallion
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Land Grant
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Nylea’s Intervention
1 Thought Vessel
1 Charge of the Forever-Beast
1 Crushing Canopy
1 Cultivate
1 Garruk’s Uprising
1 Gift of Paradise
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Krosan Grip
1 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
1 Retreat to Kazandu
1 Rhonas’s Monument
1 Unbound Flourishing
1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
1 Court of Bounty
1 Leyline of Abundance
1 Momentous Fall
1 Return to the Earth
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Whirlwind
1 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Doubling Season
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Primal Vigor
1 Vivien Reid
1 Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate
1 Caged Sun
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Wave of Vitriol
1 Zendikar Resurgent
1 Praetor’s Counsel
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 The Great Aurora
1 The Great Henge

Lands:22

1 Detection Tower
1 Emergence Zone
1 Field of Ruin
15 Forest
1 Guildless Commons
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary

Finally think I have found a Commander for my in progress deck

Commander, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Thought I would write a post to break up the Belated #RPGaDAY2020 posts. I’ll be back tomorrow with the Day 5. But you are looking tired, and need a little MtG break!

I’ve been mulling over and every now and then going through my collection looking for cards to go into a possible Eldrazi Commander deck.

Part of that mulling process has been who will be the Commander?

I didn’t want to use one of the legendary Eldrazi as that instantly tells any opponents what I’m playing and puts a huge target on my back.

It was only during the Commander Legends spoilers that it hit me The Prismatic Piper would be perfect.

Putting The Prismatic Piper out would mean that my opponents would have no idea what my deck is until I played a basic land.

So far this is what I have. Yes some obvious big hitters are missing at the moment. But I have time to save up to get those. These are initial thoughts anyway. Still others to add to the list. There will be a lot of tweaking before I settle on the final version to start playing with.

Creatures:17

1 Stonecoil Serpent
1 Walking Ballista
1 Hedron Crawler
1 Palladium Myr
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Conqueror’s Galleon
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Epitaph Golem
1 Scuttling Doom Engine
1 Meteor Golem
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Roving Keep
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Desolation Twin
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Emrakul, the Promised End

Spells:26

1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Bag of Holding
1 Expedition Map
1 Sol Ring
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Arcane Signet
1 Culling Dais
1 Damping Sphere
1 Golden Egg
1 Mind Stone
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Torpor Orb
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Mana Geode
1 Spectral Searchlight
1 Spinning Wheel
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Karn, the Great Creator
1 Panharmonicon
1 Thran Temporal Gateway
1 God-Pharaoh’s Statue
1 Ugin, the Ineffable
1 Chromatic Orrery

Lands:40

1 Animal Sanctuary
1 Arch of Orazca
1 Buried Ruin
1 Command Tower
1 Crumbling Vestige
1 Cryptic Caves
1 Emergence Zone
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Fabled Passage
1 Field of Ruin
1 Field of the Dead
1 Gateway Plaza
1 Grasping Dunes
1 Interplanar Beacon
1 Karn’s Bastion
1 Mobilized District
1 Painted Bluffs
1 Phyrexia’s Core
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Sanctum of Ugin
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Urza’s Mine
1 Urza’s Power Plant
1 Urza’s Tower
15 Wastes
1 Zhalfirin Void

What do you think I should be adding to the 99?

Shark Storm!

Commander, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I seem to be back in a MtG groove at the moment. It’s been creeping up on me for a little while now.

Wanting to build decks again, finally update existing ones.

I’m even missing playing the game! Not enough to fire up a MacOS machine, and download Arena though. It’s more the playing with friends, attending prereleases sort of thing. The social side. I miss games of Commander.

Earlier in the year Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths hit the shelves of empty FLGS around the world. I said in a post at the time this was a set I was excited about because thematically it fitted in with one or two of my Commander decks. Sadly I wasn’t excited enough to spend time or money going after single cards to strengthen my decks.

But now things have changed.

I’d love a set (singles) of the Godzilla themed cards. But only one or two fit into decks I play. And I can’t currently justify the expense.

There are a couple of cards Shark Typhoon and Shark token that grabbed my attention and imagination from Ikoria. Both have art by Caio Monteiro that I love.

It’s obvious these cards were inspired by the rather cheesy, “low budget”, guest appearance packed, B movie Sharknado series of movies. I am a fan of those movies. They are tacky, cheesy, tongue in cheek. But entertaining, and fun.

And the movies were the first thing that came to mind when I saw the art on the cards.

The art is gorgeous. Caio has done an amazing job here. The sharks look monstrous, the raw power of the weather phenomenon has been captured. It feels threatening and wondrous at the same time. Love it.

Here are the actual cards.

The enchantment Shark Typhoon is so my Simic Horrors from the Deep Commander deck. A deck that has one or two new cards that need fitting in somehow (among them Arcane Signet, the Thriving Lands, modal doubled sided cards that are lands one side, a spell the other, plus others).

Ok most of the time it’s not going to be spamming out big sharks. It should generate something between a 1/1 and a 7/7. With the majority being 3/3’s or 4/4’s. But bodies on the board for blocking don’t hurt. Plus that cycling does allow me to sink mana into it and get a big body on the board.

I so want to play Commander now with this deck (once updated).

Testing! Testing!

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I finally built the set part of the Lego Movie Set I have. It’s been sitting on a shelf for nearly two years now.

So I took a test photo with it (below) that has Lego me in it next to a MtG card.

The possible idea I had and still might play with is to use the set to create alternative content for this blog, like videos! But there is a major hurdle that needs to be overcome first. The same hurdle that had to be overcome before this Lego was built. Apathy.

Let’s briefly look at the MtG card while we are here.

Kaervek, the Spiteful is one of the recent MtG cards I have put to one side for possible use in Commander decks.

It’s not a card that would go into a current deck of mine. It’s not a zombie for starters so wouldn’t make my Scarab God deck. However it’s something I’d like to team up with Massacre Girl. Kaervek is a 1/1 token board wipe and keeps it clear. Which I really like the idea of. The decision is do I go mono black and have Kaervek as the Commander or do I splash black and have them as one of the ninety nine? That decision will have to wait until I finish another deck idea that I have floating around.

I do have to say that the flavour text on this card is awesome.

On a completely different note using the Big Bang AR app I took this selfie that it enables you to take and turned it into a thumbnail for the blog.

What type of post I will associate it with I have no idea.

Go ahead and jump!

magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I’ve not written anything for more than a couple of days. Even with the easing of lockdown, the opening of shops etc, I’m still observing it as much as possible to minimise the risk of bringing anything back that could be passed onto Nan or Mum.

There have been no plans yet discussed about holding club game sessions again. Our hosts aren’t open yet for instance.

So in reality there hasn’t really been much to write about. There is not a lot of gaming going on with others.

Although I did play a couple of games of MtG using a Core Set 2021 Prerelease kit Monday afternoon with a couple of friends using webcams. Or in my case a cobbled together setup of my iPhone showing my play area. And viewing my opponents play area on my iPad. The magic glue was a discord server, and for me two discord accounts!

That almost felt strange writing about MtG. I haven’t done that it a while.

Hitting the UK any day (hopefully, although I do believe WotC may have pushed the date back for reasons) is Jumpstart.

I think the easiest way to describe Jumpstart is WotC do Smash Up! for MtG. Or as WotC describe it “…mashes together themes from throughout the history of the game and lets you skip the deckbuilding part. … Grab two boosters, shuffle them together, and you’re ready to go.” So you can see why I compare it to Smash Up! Which builds its decks in the same way.

So what can you expect in a Jumpstart booster? “Each booster contains 20 cards centered on a theme. What theme each booster contains is randomized, but each themed 20 cards will be sealed inside the pack and labled.” Apparently “One in three boosters includes an extra rare.” But there are nearly 500 reprints, 37 new cards, and it also shares cards with Core Set 2021 but is a separate product. “Every pack includes one basic land with art that matches the pack’s theme. A few of them use thematically appropriate lands from M21, but most of them use brand-new themed land art created for Jumpstart.”

Some Jumpstart packs are out in the wild because they were given away with Core Set 2021 booster box purchases from stores. Reports have the print quality of the cards being poor. I’ve also seen it reported Jumpstart is not a limited run product and that WotC will keep printing it as long as there is demand. So as long as you are patient there is no need to pay through the nose for this set.

I like the idea of this set. It’s great for new and returning players. Buy two packs and play! It makes getting started very accessible. Like ninjas and dinosaurs? But the packs and go. Doesn’t get easier than that. I’m hoping it pushes Rhystic Studies prices down, and I pull one. There are certain themes I’m interested in as Commander deck material.

All I want to now is get some boosters and play some casual MtG.

My planned instant upgrades for Faceless Menace

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

It’s Commander Christmas tomorrow. Yep the Commander 2019 pre-con decks hit your FLGS. We finally get our hands on the decks.

Commander content creators like The Command Zone and MtG Goldfish have already put up posts/videos on budget upgrades that can be done to these decks.

I’ve decided to share my planned upgrades but using cards from the current Standard legal sets. There have been some great cards that I think warrant the label of being a Commander staple. Naturally if you have the likes of Cyclonic Rift, Rhystic Studies, and Sensei’s Divining Top put them in. I will be. But for this post they fall outside the selection criteria for talking about.

Out of the four decks the one so far that I’m most excited to play in it’s straight out of the box form, and also upgrade is Faceless Menace and the morph mechanic.

I will say this does not mean I’m not excited to play the other decks. It’s just Faceless Menace appeals to me the most.

For any post like this bare in mind the cards are subjective, selected based on my local meta (your local meta will most definitively be different), what I have in my collection and can afford (which is also very very subjective).

So let’s look at the cards I plan to upgrade the deck with from the current Standard legal sets.

When this years decks were being spoilt with their graveyard shenanigans such as flashback and that madness mechanic I kept thinking where is the graveyard hate? I like graveyard hate. These three cards do a pretty awesome job of shutting down that shenanigans. Plus the nice thing about Grafdigger’s Cage is that it stops also those decks/cards that allow/treat the library as an extension of the hand, with casting the top card of your library.

Flash is a great mechanic. Being able to flash out those 2/2 morph creatures each player’s turn for free with the Commanders ability is amazing value. The Leyline and Vivien give me that ability. Lotus Field is a nice land.

I like tutors. Scheming Symmetry is a great Commander card especially if you can cast it as if it has flash.

I love Immortal Sun, plus it doesn’t switch off the 2 Planeswalkers I’ve included here. They were included for their ongoing abilities. If I get to use the activated loyalty abilities that’s a bonus. It’s extra card draw, spells get cheaper, and a buff to creatures. Amazing value. Plus with Ugin it means casting a morph card is free.

Well you already know why this Ugin is here. It’s that discount. The other stuff is just gravy. I like Bag of Holding. That maybe an unpopular opinion. But I like that I can dump cards into it to use later in the game.

If you are going to be able to play cards as if they have flash, then you need the mana. I loved playing Wilderness Reclamation in Standard in my Simic deck. And I love it in Commander.

So they are the Standard cards I am going to upgrade the deck with. The bigger question is what goes? I know the alternative commanders are first for the chopping block. But after that I’ll decide once I have the cards in front of me.

What do you think? Did I miss any?

Epic Ninja Skills

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

After taking Mum for her weekly Monday shopping trip to Morrison’s, I needed to play some MtG to unwind.

Luckily my FLGS as regular readers will know, runs a Commander Monday thing for those that find themselves at a lose end on a Monday afternoon.

When I got there all that was going on in store was a game of 40k. So while I was waiting for other Commander players to show up I made some changes to the ninja assassin deck.

Andy and Sam turned up with their Commander decks, and thus combat was started.

I was stuck on 3 mana for a few turns. It didn’t help that Sam countered or removed a couple of pieces that would have aided in me being able to play stuff. Whilst I was basically defenceless Sam then got a few cheap shots in with a 1/1 flyer. I was feeling a bit targeted by Sam.

For a ninja deck, my ninjas were staying rather well hidden. The only one I was able to ninjitsu out was my Commander!

Once my deck started delivering lands and cards so I could start stabilising and doing stuff, I was way behind on the mana front. Luckily Andy saw Sam as more of a threat than me, so he targeted Sam and not me. That really did give me the breathing space to get ready for the moment Sam was killed.

Fortunately for me, in a fitting moment of revenge it was me that delivered the killing blow to Sam.

The showdown between Andy and me was epic. He was casting cards from hand for free. Luckily Rhystic Study and God-Pharaoh’s Statue provided some cost to him. It also helped that he was top decking as well. Andy also had a massive life total. My only chance of victory was Commander damage.

But I was getting to a board state that if Andy didn’t do anything was going to give me the win. My Commander was buffed and unblockable by Andy. Archetype of Imagination really helped with that. Plus all my creatures were ninjas thanks to Conspiracy.

So I was swinging in for 4 Commander damage each turn. And that’s how I won. Sadly for Andy his Cyclonic Rift remained locked deep in his deck.

I like this deck a lot. It’s fun to play. At best I’d say that power wise it’s a 6.

On the way home I started thinking about updating the mono red aggro deck. I’ll play that next.

Ok you are probably at least curious about the changes I made to the deck. So for your entertainment and great comedic effect here is the section of the post that lists version 2 of the deck.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for 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’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.“

16 new cards (bold italics below), which sees lands decrease to 34 from 37. The lands also see a rejig with the number of basic lands dropping also to make room for some more non-basic lands, including the new staple (for me anyway) Lotus Field.

I’ve added a bit more removal that allows me to handle Planeswalkers. But still nothing that allows me to get rid of enchantments specifically. I’m still relying on the rather blunt instrument of bouncing all permanents back to hand. Not ideal. But for now it’ll have to do.

Creatures:36

1 Changeling Outcast
1 Hired Poisoner
1 Mist-Cloaked Herald
1 Pilfering Imp
1 Siren Stormtamer
1 Cerulean Drake
1 Daring Saboteur
1 Duskmantle Operative
1 Metropolis Sprite
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Warkite Marauder
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Eyeblight Assassin
1 Mist-Syndicate Naga
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Slippery Scoundrel
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Throatseeker
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Walker of Secret Ways
1 Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow (Commander)
1 Azra Smokeshaper
1 Etrata, the Silencer
1 Ingenious Infiltrator
1 Moonblade Shinobi
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Storm Sculptor
1 Fallen Shinobi
1 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ninja of the New Moon
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Throat Slitter
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Silent-Blade Oni

Spells:30

1 Bag of Holding
1 Brainstorm
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Price of Betrayal
1 Scheming Symmetry
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Sol Ring
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Pillar of Origins
1 The Elderspell
1 As Foretold
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Golden Demise
1 Icon of Ancestry
1 Rhystic Study
1 Urza’s Incubator
1 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Mass Manipulation
1 Mastermind’s Acquisition
1 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Conspiracy
1 Devastation Tide
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Vanquisher’s Banner
1 God-Pharaoh’s Statue
1 The Immortal Sun

Lands:34

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Barren Moor
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Command Tower
1 Cryptic Caves
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate (a)
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Field of Ruin
1 Gateway Plaza
1 Guildmages’ Forum
1 Halimar Depths
5 Island
1 Isolated Watchtower
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Lotus Field
1 Morphic Pool
1 Mortuary Mire
4 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Unknown Shores
1 Watery Grave

So now you know the cards in the deck, it’s time for those pointless graphs.

What do you think of the changes?

I’m thinking I might try and squeeze in the leylines. Not sure what they would replace.

Silent but deadly

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

For the holidays my FLGS is running daily events on the days it’s open. Luckily for me there were a handful of us with spare time and a Commander deck at the store to play some Commander yesterday afternoon.

My initial activities at the store involved me putting the finishing touches to my Ninja Assassin deck. I’d got the majority of the cards I needed. I just hadn’t put the finishing touches to it. So I added some new Core Set 2020 “staples”, plus I took one or two cards out of my Scarab God Zombie deck.

It certainly could do with some optimisation. But as a “first draft” check I’m I’m along the right lines and that the general game plan works, it’d do.

I also got a rather nice fancy deck box for it. That fancy box being the Dragon Shield N100+ (or something like that).

It’s like a slim version of an Ultrapro deck box I have. The Ultrapro box is rather fancy, and was extremely difficult to get hold of at the time. These cool Dragon Shield N100+ boxes are easy to get for starters. Which is a big big plus.

We managed a couple of Commander games. The first one was a 3 player (Glen, Alex and myself) game, and I had Grafdigger’s Cage out, and it was keeping Glen’s deck under control. It stopped him using some graveyard shenanigans. So Alex kept attacking me! Naturally once I was out of the picture Glen was able to step up his game, use those shenanigans I’d kept under control and win.

Our second game was a five player game. Most of us had our moments, and were able to do something pretty cool. I particularly liked that I was getting to play some of those new “staples”. Scheming Symmetry was used really effectively in this game. I went and got a 7 CMC ninja and put on the top of my deck. Whilst the player I selected to join me in finding a card and putting it on top of their deck, went and chose a card that was going to be painless if used against them. That’s the nice thing having a ninja threat that let’s you exile the top 2 cards of their deck and cast the cards for free! Remember that 7 CMC ninja? Well with my Commander connecting that meant I hit everyone for 7 damage.

In the end Glenn and myself were head to head. But he was able to lock me down with enchantments long enough to grab the win.

I actually really enjoyed playing this deck. I love the ninjitsu mechanic. The deck needs some form of enchantment/artifact removal. Also I may have to dig out a Settle the score for those indestructible creatures. But I’m happy with the power level. It’s a 5 at best. Which is about right.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for 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’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.“

Creatures:36

1 Changeling Outcast
1 Hired Poisoner
1 Mist-Cloaked Herald
1 Pilfering Imp
1 Siren Stormtamer
1 Cerulean Drake
1 Daring Saboteur
1 Duskmantle Operative
1 Metropolis Sprite
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Warkite Marauder
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Darkblade Agent
1 Eyeblight Assassin
1 Mist-Syndicate Naga
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Slippery Scoundrel
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Throatseeker
1 Walker of Secret Ways
1 Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow (Commander)
1 Azra Smokeshaper
1 Etrata, the Silencer
1 Ingenious Infiltrator
1 Moonblade Shinobi
1 Nightshade Assassin
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Storm Sculptor
1 Fallen Shinobi
1 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ninja of the New Moon
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Throat Slitter
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Silent-Blade Oni

Spells:27

1 Bag of Holding
1 Brainstorm
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Scheming Symmetry
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Sol Ring
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dowsing Dagger
1 Pillar of Origins
1 Assassinate
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Dimir Locket
1 Icon of Ancestry
1 Murder
1 Rhystic Study
1 Urza’s Incubator
1 Creeping Chill
1 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Drawn from Dreams
1 Mastermind’s Acquisition
1 Conspiracy
1 God-Pharaoh’s Statue
1 The Immortal Sun

Lands:37

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Barren Moor
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Command Tower
1 Cryptic Caves
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate (a)
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Field of Ruin
1 Gateway Plaza
1 Guildmages’ Forum
8 Island
1 Isolated Watchtower
1 Karn’s Bastion
1 Morphic Pool
8 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Unknown Shores
1 Watery Grave

Oh and here is the obligatory mana curve.

WotC Ruin Saturdays

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


The first Not Saturday Showdown since Core Set 2020 hit, and WotC changed how they did prize support for organised play, and killed off Standard Showdown.

A simple explanation of the new prize support is now each store gets an allocation of prize packs (the equivalent of the old Showdown packs) based on the tickets and engaged players that they have.

Each pack is made up of 4 cards. You can get the full break down HERE.These new packs replace FNM promos, Open House promos, and Standard Showdown packs, etc.

I think my FLGS gets 8 or 10 packs a week to use as prizes for all events in a week. It used to get 6 Standard Showdown packs a week, plus promos for FNM, and any event specific ones.

Just how would this new system work?

Not very well.

Basically there were 2 packs up for grabs 1 each for the top 2 spots. No door prize for last place. And no random draw for the remaining packs for the week. So there was less prizes, and less chance of getting a prize. Pretty shitty.

For me WotC have ruined our Not Standard Showdown. They spent all this time trying to build up the standard player base. Which is what they want really. It sells packs/booster boxes. Now with abandoning the Standard Showdown event, cutting down the prize support they are putting this at risk, and undermining the store and that format.

Standard Showdown was fun (still is). It was/is cheap to enter. However just getting a booster pack for participating and a greatly reduced chance of a prize is not enough to attract me. Now I ask the question do I travel the half hour to my FLGS to get just a booster pack or do I stay local and play with friends? The later option sounds a lot more attractive now. Back to kitchen table magic.

In the above equation I also need to factor in the meta. In my FLGS meta it’s getting a bit stagnant. Only two or three of us play different decks on a regular basis. The majority play the same deck week in week out, with the odd tweak when new cards come out. Some of those decks are pretty strong, and means they finish in the higher places regularly. Which reduces the chances even more of a prize in the new prize support structure. And it’s not much fun. Oh it’s your aggro dino deck again, oh cool burn. This new less generous prize support is only going to encourage more of this sort of meta. In fact it’s going to encourage more net decking for the better decks.

So reflecting on the above what WotC have decided for me is no more Not Standard Showdown. I’ll probably only attend pre-releases now. Won’t bother with booster boxes. I’d already dropped the bundle because of the change to it for Core Set 2020. I’ll target buy the cards that I need for Commander when new sets come out. Which actually hurts WotC because they don’t see any of that money. And just concentrate on playing my favourite format of Commander with friends.

It’s going to be interesting to see if my decision is reflected amongst other MtG players, and if is if the number doing so will make a difference.

So yesterday in my actual event games I did crap. No hiding from it. Being mana screwed in a few of them just didn’t help.

Now the casual games was a different story. Especially against Bob. But when it counted he won. Our casual game where I played Orzhov against his burn was funny. The games were over in seconds! First game opening hand Leyline of Sanctity. So a turn zero play. He saw that, slammed his hand on the table, put it on top,of his deck, and conceded. Game 2, I mulliganed into the Leyline again. Same result. It was funny his reaction. But we are used to that from him. Plus mono red burn typically doesn’t have any enchantment removal. Leyline of Combustion also proved affective against burn.

Let’s look at the cold hard numbers that don’t lie, but don’t tell the whole story either!

Casual Games

Bob (before): Win 2-1

Kid (before): Win 2-0

Bob (between using Orzhov deck): Win 2-0

Bob (at end): Win 1-0

Not Standard Showdown Stats

Participants: 11

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Sam Loss 0-2

Round 2: Buy Win

Round 3: Dean Loss 0-2

Round 4: Bob Loss 0-2

Record: 1-3

Final Position: 9th

Prizes: 1 participation pack

So for the history books this is version 2 of the Gruul Dino deck that I used at the weekend. You can, if you are even remotely interested to see my initial version of the deck, look at the post with the deck list here.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for 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’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.“

Creatures:27

4 Marauding Raptor
3 Otepec Huntmaster
4 Raptor Hatchling
3 Ranging Raptors
2 Ripjaw Raptor
4 Shifting Ceratops
3 Charging Monstrosaur
2 Regisaur Alpha
2 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:12

3 Commune with Dinosaurs
2 Act of Treason
3 Rhythm of the Wild
2 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
1 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:21

3 Evolving Wilds
8 Forest
7 Mountain
3 Rugged Highlands

Sideboard:15

3 Thrashing Brontodon
2 Grazing Whiptail
1 Burning Sun’s Avatar
1 Carnage Tyrant
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Savage Stomp
2 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator
2 Leyline of Combustion

And as is tradition for when I give a deck list here is the mana curve and cost of the deck.