Category Archives: MtG

Ravnica Allegiance Open House Weekend

magic, MtG

This weekend is Open House weekend at your FLGS.

I’ll repeat myself from previous posts. I have had new people to the blog, and they may not know about these events.

Stealing the WotC image from their LGS pages, you can see that these Open House events are aimed at new players. They also hope to hook players back into the game.


So you want to learn to play MtG, or are a returning player and want to get back into the game. Turn up to your FLGS this weekend, get a free Welcome deck, and either the store owner or one of the MtG regulars will teach you to play the game.

After a few games of MtG you keep the free deck, and also get the following promo card.

This promo card will guarantee that there will be plenty of MtG regulars there to teach you how to play and play against.

I’m not sure if the Welcome decks will have any Ravnica cards in them. They won’t have any “value” cards in them, after all they are free. But they are a great way to try the game for free.

I’ll be at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole’s Open House event this Saturday. There might even be a Commander game to join in if I’m lucky. If you are in the area then pop in and catch a game with me.

Just for those that might be interested this is the upcoming schedule for MtG over the next few weeks as Ravnica Allegiance comes out.

If you did make it to the Open House, and had a good time. Then the following weekends Prerelease weekend is a fun event to attend. But I’ll talk more about that at the start of next week.

From Golgari to Simic

magic, MtG


And we are back to some MtG coverage. I know some of you will skip this post altogether, while others will be lapping this up. As they say you can’t please everyone all the time. Although it would make a nice change to please some of you.

With the next MtG set Ravnica Allegiance just three weeks or so away, spoiler season in full swing, it’s time to decide which guild I’m going to be for the upcoming pre-release event, and look at some of the spoiled cards.

A quick disclaimer.

“This isn’t a comprehensive look at the spoiled cards. It’s a look at cards that caught my eye at the time of starting the post (a week ago now).

I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming these cards will win tournaments, if they look like they are fun to play and do a thing then I’ll be happy.

A lot of the time when I’m evaluating cards I’m thinking whether they will fit into an existing deck, or go into one of the deck ideas I have. Sometimes they may even spark the idea for a deck.“

I have to say there have been some sweet cards shown so far. But I saw one that spoke to me and my horrors from the deep commander deck.

What a great card that will be. In Commander X can potentially be a big number. If this hits mid to late game, it’s a game changer. Handful of cards, life top up, and a big bad on the board. Plus the art is pretty cool.

With the horrors from the deep deck being a Simic deck, Allegiance will give me a tonne of new cards to consider for it.

I don’t think I do much, if anything with +1/+1 counters in the deck, or activated abilities. I’ll have to check that one. So at the moment Biomancer’s Familiar is a border line utility card for me. But it does combo off with the other two cards I’ve included with it below.

Simic Ascendancy, gives me a mana sink that makes my big creatures scarier, plus an alternate win condition. Zegana, comes in as a 4/4 but can quickly join the big creature squad with it’s adapt 4. And has that synergy with Simic Ascendancy.

Aeromunculus will not see play in my Commander deck, but I can see it being of use in a standard deck. I do think that these cards so far have potential for a Simic Standard deck.

Now Growth Spiral is just what the doctor ordered for my deck, card draw and ramp. Perfect. I like the split card. Removal and dig for a creature. The costs aren’t too bad. I’d prefer not giving an opponent a 3/3 body to hit me with next turn. But if it’s a choice between that and a much bigger dude I’ll take the 3/3 option every day.

These next cards will go in other decks. For instance Lavinia will certainly be welcome in my death and taxes deck. That deck is all about frustrating the other players and punishing them for playing the game. I can’t see how Mass Manipulation is anything but a Commander card. It’d be a funny card to play, but is it a great card? I don’t think so. 6 CMC to gain control of a single creature, 8 CMC for two, 10 for CMC for three. It’s an expensive card to play. I’d play it for that shit and giggles, it could be a game winner. Stealing a Planeswalker just before it ultimates and doing the ultimate yourself would be hilarious.

Wilderness Reclamation will definitely have a home in my big green stompy deck. But I can see it in the horrors from the deep, my elf deck, basically anything that splashes green.

Smothering Tithe and Verity Circle are so going into the death and taxes deck. I really love Smothering Tithe. It’s going to give so much ramp in Commander. By the time things get back to you, you could be 3 treasure tokens better off. So you are able to play big cards ahead of the curve.


Sphinx of Foresight I like the scry ability. Potential creature for the death and taxes. But I think in Standard this can be a powerful card too. That opening hand ability to sort your first 3 card draws isn’t to be sneezed at.

All the art from the spoilers I have seen has been awesome so far. I particularly like the rakdos stuff that’s been coming out.

When it came to choosing a guild for Allegiance, and especially the pre-release event, it was hard. I really do like a couple of the new mechanics, and the cards in one or two of the other guilds.

But it was the lure of going after cards for the horrors of deep deck, and trying to increase my chances of getting that Hydroid Krasis that finally swung it for me to chose Simic as my guild. I also like the idea of playing around with +1/+1 counters in Standard.

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.

Mana Screwed II

Game day, keyforge, magic, MtG


Out in the wider MtG world it’s the weekend of the Liverpool Grand Prix. Technically I think this is the last one before the become MagicFest. These sort of events (for me) are over priced. Especially once you add in travel and accommodation. I find events like UKGE much better value.

So while all those wanna be pro players were in Liverpool, I was taking part in my FLGS Standard Showdown again.

Due to road works I nearly didn’t make the start of the Showdown on time. So a call was made to let John know I was on my way and might be 5 minutes late. On the journey over I thought I had left one of my Carnage Tyrants in my big green stompy Commander deck. And part of the journey over was working out what would replace it. A Doom Whisperer would be the obvious choice. But luck would have it when I finally arrived at the store and checked my deck, I had put it back. Phew!

Let battle commence, the first round pair ups were announced…

Round 1 Kar-fai mono red

If my deck hadn’t decided to screw me over I would have done better! Being mana screwed is one of those things you live with in MtG. It’s an aspect of the game you accept. To be fair sometimes it’s not a fun experience. But what characterises every MtG player while they are experiencing the mana draught or mana flood (too much land opposed to too little/none) is the optimism that the next card will be the one you need. That mana that enables you to start playing. But the longer the draught goes on, the harder it becomes to turn things round. Until it gets to the point of no return, and saving the game becomes impossible and the optimism ebbs away to be replaced by accepting the inevitable. Luckily at that point the suffering is soon over as your opponent puts you out of your misery.

That describes two of the three matches I had with Kar-fai. The third game (which in reality was game 2 iirc) which I won was one of those games that I managed to stabilise and grab the win.

Result: Loss 2-1

Round 2 – bye

My loss meant I got to sit back, take some photos, and spectate the games being played.

Result: Win

Round 3 – Andy red white knights

Remember me describing in-eloquently above what it’s like to be mana screwed? Work with me here, it was a couple of sentences back or so. Recent history, from as far back as 40 minutes before, decided to repeat itself. I know I have mana in the deck, I’ve seen it. But once again it decided to play hide and seek.

By the end of our first game I think I’d resigned myself to the fact it was going to be one of those days, or to use an over used cliche, “a bad day at the office”. As dad used to be fond of saying “shit happens”. Indeed it does, and how we handle things after the shit happening, defines the sort of person that we are.

I’m not going to rush out and change my deck because of a bad result or two. I think it has already proved that it can on it’s day hold it’s own. I’m happy with this version of the deck, which won’t get changed until the next set rotation.

It won’t put me off playing in more Standard Showdowns either.

What I’m basically saying is I’m picking myself up off the floor, dusting myself down, and continuing to play.

It’s that trying again. Not being put off by failure. The determination to succeed. It’s been a really useful skill that has defined me since an early age, and been crucial as a programmer.

Oh bugger this is getting deep, I better change the mood quickly. I lost both games, for reasons that have already been discussed.

Result: Loss 2-0

Friendly Game 1 – Andy’s Mono Blue Mill Deck

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.

Andy got a copy of both the core cards of the deck out, and I was milling cards. Just not fast enough for it to really effect the end result. My creatures with nothing to block them swung in unopposed. And were doing damage faster than I was being milled.

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.

Result: Win

Friendly Game 2 – Dean Mono Green Aggro

Dean finished top 3 with his deck. So I was curious to see how my deck would do against it. Especially since we shared cards.

Taking out Dean’s Llanowar Elf early on was a very wise decision. It slowed him down. My battlefield was building up faster than his, my big hitters were coming out. But so was Dean’s. We would soon be getting to that crunch point of a reckoning. A reckoning based on the current board state I’d win, but the board would be decimated. With Vivien Reid out I was able to keep my hand full of creatures to play. Then being able to ultimate her was enough to give me the game. This was the first time I’ve ultimated Vivien. Usually if I can use her a couple of times to get a creature or remove something then I’m happy.

Result: Win

So once the dust had settled and the WotC software finished its advanced calculations my final position was…

Final Position: 5th out of 7 (Kar-fai took top spot)

Prize: 1 participation pack (took a Battlebond booster) and a Standard Showdown booster (pulled a Crucible of Worlds).

After the showdown Kar-fai played some Keyforge with me. This was Kar-fai’s first time playing, so a learning experience. We used the following two decks of mine Evie, Desperado of the Melancholic Haven vs Blindingly Fanatical Erkki. Kar-fai played Erkki, and I played my latest arrival Evie.

Our first game was a white wash for Kar-fai. The Evie deck did all the work, but I forged 3 keys before Kar-fai had forged one. I did feel a bit guilty. Had I inadvertently used an over powered deck? This new deck was a voyage of discovery for me. I liked it. It was fun, especially the 3 warped wormholes that it had. I even enjoyed the mars side of the deck, a house I’ve not really played.

Afterwards we swapped decks.


This was a completely different game. I took an early lead, Kar-fai pulled back level. This game was dragging on. Neither of us could make that break through to forge the third and final key. We’d get the ember needed, but the other player on their go would be able to do enough to stop the key being forged. Whether it was decimating the opponent’s ember supply, capturing just enough ember, or even stealing it.

In the end we called the game a draw. Mainly because John wanted to shut up shop, it was closing time.

But despite that, and the twinge of guilt from the first game. I had a blast playing the games. That back and forth in the last game was intense and a blast. Plus Kai-far enjoyed playing, and is potentially looking at grabbing a couple of decks.

Despite my deck hating me today I had a great day of MtG and Keyforge.

Competitive crushes casual

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG

My FLGS The Hobbit Hole has started a Monday afternoon Commander club. It’s aimed at those at a lose end basically, like those between jobs, students, the retired, on holiday or some other reason.

I found myself at a lose end after taking mum shopping in the morning. So I thought why not?

Three decks found their way into my bag, Trostani, my mono red goblins, and the new death and taxes deck.

Once at The Hobbit Hole 3 other people for whatever reason found themselves at a lose end also, and decided to do some Commanderin’.

The good news from the afternoon of playing luxury cardboard rectangles was I got to play all 3 decks, and long story short they at least got to do their thing (to some extent) but didn’t come close to winning.

My decks weren’t bad decks in my opinion. Well I’ve admitted my death and taxes is a work in progress and needs at least it’s mana base revisiting. But they were out classed. As were the decks of 2 of the other players.

If we use the Command Zone podcasts power rating for decks (see graphic below, and a whole podcast here) which runs on a scale of 1 to 10 for the rest of this post it will help give a point of reference.

So the graphic they did maps like this. It should be noted for reference purposes the precons that WotC sell each year come in on this scale as casual decks and a power ranking of about 4 (in the opinion of The Command Zone presenters, and I wouldn’t disagree with that).


So where do my decks fall on this scale? I would rate my decks between 4 and 6 depending on the deck, so either casual/focused decks.

In yesterday’s 3 games two of us where definitely playing decks between 4 and 6 on the power scale. While one was boarderline between 6/7, and the archenemy player was definitely 8/9 on the power scale with his decks. I’m calling the player with the over powered decks the archenemy because that’s the way the games ended up. One against many.

It should be a testament to the archenemy player that despite the three of us trying to gang up and take him out, he still wiped the floor with us. His decks were way to powerful.

I did try Krenko, Mob Boss as my commander with the goblins. Partly inspired by seeing him used in Bob’s goblin deck as the commander the previous week. I hadn’t really settled on the commander for the deck. So having the chance to try this card out was good. I liked it as the commander. Much better than Squee. Although I do like the idea of using Zo-Zu as the commander also.

Funny enough Treasure Nabber came out in my death and taxes deck but not my goblin deck. Which is when I’d have loved to have used it, as the goblins were up against an artifacts deck. Apparently whispering subliminal messages of “use your sol ring” or “use your artifacts” while Treasure Nabber is out doesn’t brainwash them into using their artifacts. It did slow down the others though because they refused to use their sol rings, or other mana generating artifacts. Sadly it didn’t affect the archenemy.

Island Sanctuary did get a chance to hit the table, sadly not with the other half of the combo. It gave me a couple of turns protection, and was useless once the archenemy got a steel hellkite out.

At the end of the session thinking aloud the archenemy player suggested he might build his next deck and not optimise it as much as he normally does. Luckily I don’t play commander against this player normally. I think this was the first time I had. But to be honest I don’t think I’d play with this guy again, unless he did turn down the level of his decks. It might be “fun” for him. But for me, and I suspect the others it wasn’t much fun for us. The little fun I did get was from my decks getting to do a little of what they were meant to do. Like generate goblin tokens or lots of tokens in general.

I suppose to some extent we didn’t fully establish the social contract and the power levels of decks that everyone was going to be playing. We ruled out mass land destruction, and going infinite. But the power level got missed. So a little blame does rest on the rest of us for the way this session turned out.

I know on a Friday evening the commander sessions are promoted as mildly competitive. That’s fine. I don’t play there on a Friday. For me Commander is a casual game that is meant to be fun.

If the game is with similar powered decks, or one or two are slightly higher on the power level, then the game is going to ebb and flow. And in general the majority will be having fun. But when there is such a big gap between power levels of decks. Then we get something like this session.

Monday Afternoon Commanderin’

Game day, magic, MtG

Yesterday I found myself playing Commander with a couple of friends at the Huntingdon Library.

For me it was a chance to try out the new death and taxes deck I’d thrown together that morning. It needs a bit of work, but the basic framework is there I think. The land base definitely needs working on. At the moment it’s mainly basics, with less than a handful of dual lands. It was ok for a rush job. But considering it’s a four colour deck with the partner commanders it needs a bit of work. The deck also needs a couple more board wipes.

I also gave the Trostani token spam a run. I had one new card Gaddock Teeg to put in it. A card that wasn’t cheap. Could I find it Sunday evening? Not a blooming chance. Like every other time I can’t find something, it just ate away at me. I knew I’d seen it. But I was beginning to doubt myself. Had I hallucinated that it had arrived? Where was that card? I searched and searched. Going through piles of cards over and over again, just in case I’d missed it. Yes I really should be better organised but I’m not. There was only one answer for it, eBay. I hit a bit of really good luck looking for the card on eBay. There was a copy going for half what I paid for the copy that I must have dreamt had arrived. I made a mental note to chase up the “missing” card, but in the meantime snapped at the bargain and purchased another copy. The mental torture had been stopped. Although I was feeling a little disappointed it would not be with me to use in the deck the next day.

Guess what turned up yesterday morning? Yep Gaddock Teeg. Like every other time this has happened. It’s a pattern that looks like it will forever plague me, even in my later years. I really don’t know how to describe it when this happens. I think the nearest I can get is having an itch that you just can’t scratch. It’s all consuming.

So Gaddock Teeg was in the deck. But as fate would have it, I would not draw the card in either of the games that the Trostani deck was used.

Big green stompy got another outing. But I never drew into the the ramp stuff. So it never really got to do it’s thing. Although it did get to frustrate my friends plans for a while.

One of my friends is going to the final PPTQ (a WotC event for wannabe pro players, and it’s final because WotC are rebranding/relaunching/changing the big event stuff for 2019 onwards) at The Hobbit Hole on Saturday. So while our other friend was off getting some food, we played some friendly Standard to test out his deck for the weekend. I lost that 2-1. Red aggro/burn. Such a nuisance. Considering one of these decks won Saturday it should do reasonably well. But I’m not sure what the field will be like. Will this PPTQ draw out the stores big time players? Very possible considering the following weekend Liverpool hosts a Grand Prix. So I’m pretty sure they may make an appearance to get those all important points that they need to qualify for events.

I have to admit my friends goblin commander deck was pretty effective, spamming out goblin tokens at great speed. I think I have his commander in my goblin deck. The other friends rat commander deck was also interesting.

Overall a great afternoons commanderin’.

Midday Showdown At The Hobbit Hole

Game day, magic, MtG

Another Saturday and another (my fourth) Standard Showdown. These are getting addictive!

Naturally I tweaked the deck a little this week. There were some cards I wanted to give a try. But more on that later.

Once again this Standard Showdown was an 8 man field.

Round 1 – Charlie (red aggro)

I’d never played against Charlie before, he’d been looking at his deck with Ben when I arrived at the store. I’d overheard Goblin Chainwhirler being mentioned so I knew at least this deck had red.

Game 1 started off to plan, but I was undone by Experimental Frenzy with no way to remove it while it was out. Experimental Frenzy just allowed Charlie to flood out an overwhelming board state that I was unable to stop.

Game 2 was more like it. Things clicked, creatures came out, I controlled the board. That annoying card didn’t come out.

Game 3 for me was a complete disaster. I was mana screwed, so it was just turn by turn chipping away at me until I was dead.


Definitely my undoing against this deck was the combination of Experimental Frenzy, lots of cheap cards, and plenty of lands. Once that combination is in place, unless you can disrupt it, you have lost.

Result: Loss 2-1

Our games were pretty quick. So we played a couple of friendly games to fill the time. Our first game was a first for me too. I had the perfect start with the perfect hand. It had the mana, Llanowar Elf and Steel Leaf Champion. So I was attacking with with Steel Leaf Champion turn 3. The deck just went through the gears as intended and won before Charlie got started.

The second friendly game was more of the earlier Experimental Frenzy b.s., while I struggled for mana. Naturally I finished on another loss.

Round 2 – Paul

Another new opponent, this time Paul who had thrown together a Boros deck.

This was an easy match up for my deck. Especially when in the first game Paul had to mulligan down to 4 cards, and ended up mana screwed. I had some sympathy, as MtG players we have all been there. You just have to sit there hoping against odds that you draw into mana before it’s too late. Sadly for Paul that moment never came. Remember I’d been in a similar situation in the first round.

The second game Paul just never had a board presence. So once again despite him having mana this time, he was unable to stop me swinging in.

Afterwards I had a look at Paul’s deck. He was going Boros dinosaurs. But was missing the copies of the obvious ramp cards, and a few dinosaurs. I like the idea behind the deck, and I think it could be a fun deck to play.

Result: Win 2-0

Round 3 – John Golgari v Golgari

We’ve seen this match up a couple times since I built this deck. Both times my deck has been victorious. Naturally in that time tweaks have been made by both of us. John is still chasing that graveyard boosting his creatures tactic.

However as in the previous games my deck was victorious. Being able to remove any of these big threats John could create because of his graveyard and swing in unimpeded worked for me. It’s a simple tactic, and has been successful for me in the past.

Result: Win 2-0

Overall Record: 3rd Place 2-1

Prize support was down this week. Third place only got me a participation booster and after a roll off a Showdown booster.

So how does the WotC system determine that I come third, whilst another player with the same match ratio comes second?

After a bit of internet research, and downloading the official WotC tournament rules, I looked at page 17.

“The following tiebreakers are used to determine how a player ranks in a tournament:

1. Match points

2. Opponents’ match-win percentage

3. Game-win percentage

4. Opponents’ game-win percentage”

So basically one of those tiebreakers didn’t go in my favour. I know the Opponents’ game-win percentage I had would have been worse. My route to two and one was easier, with opponents that had a worse track record than those faced by second place. So basically you not only have to win, but you want you opponents to do well also.

If you want to go into specifics and the math behind those tiebreakers look at Appendix C of the tournament rules.

6 Player Commander

After battling it out with our standard decks a 6 person Commander game started. I was playing my mono green big stompy deck. Dean was playing some partner Commander deck. Michael was playing an Edgar Markov vampire deck, Charlie had borrowed the b.s. dragon deck from Dean, can’t remember Andy’s deck, and Ben was back with the b.s. no fun Estrid deck.

Luckily for the rest of us the Estrid deck never got to hit its stride, although it did have a white enchantment out that meant Ben tapped a creature at the start of each players combat phase. Very annoying if you only had one creature out.

I was ramping nicely, getting stuff out. The others were targeting the two b.s. decks (dragons and Estrid). I played Praetor’s Council, so I had an unlimited handsize. Which was handy for when Dean was bouncing creatures back to hand on mass. I wasn’t having to discard cards because of it like the others.

Andy hit everyone for 8 life each, and gained that much life. He was looking good on 80 odd life, it would have to be commander damage to take him out.

Eventually plays started dropping out. I was in a reasonable position on 30 health and creatures out on the battlefield. I was a threat, but not acting in a threatening way by attacking. If anyone thought of attacking me I’d remind them “do you really want to upset the big nasty green creatures?”

Dean and Ben were under 10 health, so I killed them both off. Leaving just Andy and me.

So how do you win against a player on 86 life? My 2/2 Commander wasn’t going to be doing much Commander damage, even if it had been out on the battlefield.

Thanks to Zendikar Resurgent (ZR) I was getting basically double mana, and card draw. Which was handy because I drew into Primordial Hydra (PH). Primal Vigor (PV) was already out also and going to play an important part in the plan.

I played PH which entered the battlefield as a 52/52 (X was 26 thanks to ZR and PV did the rest) with trample. I thought as a matter of honour I better let Andy know what would happen at the start of my next turn.

Andy decided to swing in with everything. The total damage would be short by 4 points of killing me. He had no cards in hand. But I suspected shenanigans. So I held PH back, and blocked with my other creatures. The last thing I needed was a creature being given deathtouch and killing PH.

We resolved the combat. I went down to 13 life.

Next turn 52 more +1/+1 tokens went onto PH due to its ability. Thanks to PV it then got 52 more and PH was now a 156/156 with trample if I did my maths right.

I could now one shot kill Andy with a really big fecking hydra. Forget Godzilla. King Kong who? Primordial Hydra was the man!

I swung in with everything. There was a massive over kill. And a bloody big crater/footprint with Andy’s corpse at the bottom.

I’d won!

Ok here is the bit some of you have been very patient and waited for.

I’ve been wanting to try these 2 cards in the deck for a while now. But couldn’t really decide what I would swap out. But after Andy looked at my deck the last time he commented about how he couldn’t see why Dire Fleet Poisoner fitted in. Ok I don’t get any benefit from its etb effect. But I really liked the flash and deathtouch. I still do.


I really like the art on Pitiless Gorgan. It’s why I got a playset in foil. The card is very cheap too, even as a foil. Or was when I got them.

Now Pitiless Gorgan isn’t as good as Dire Fleet Poisoner in my opinion. Costs more and doesn’t have flash. But I can use just forests to cast, which is a benefit if I haven’t hit any swamps or dual lands.

I like that ability of Pilfering Imp. It adds another control element to the deck, and getting rid of potential threats from an opponents hand. Plus a flying chump blocker if needed and a cheap bit of damage.

Here’s the deck list…

Creatures:28

4 Llanowar Elves
3 Pilfering Imp
2 Skittering Heartstopper
4 Vicious Conquistador
2 Pitiless Gorgon
4 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Nullhide Ferox
3 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Carnage Tyrant
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:11

4 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Find // Finality
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:15

1 Pilfering Imp
2 Skittering Heartstopper
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Demon of Catastrophes
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
2 Find // Finality
2 Never Happened
2 Ritual of Soot
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen

Oh before I forget here’s the mana curve and amc for the deck.

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.