Category Archives: MtG

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

Trostani Token Spam Commander Deck

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

“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.”

Well here it is my Trostani – Selesnya (green/white) token spam deck, that was inspired by the card Divine Visitation. But before we go and look at the boring stuff, let’s just take a moment to take in the absolutely stunning art for the Commander.


I’ve managed to find just the art on the internet and here it is, Chase Stone’s incredible card art of Trostani Discordant.

The core tactic of this deck is to create lots of tokens, which we can hopefully can do with the likes of Anointed Procession, Doubling Season, Parallel Lives and Primal Vigor. Which if we are lucky can then turn into 4/4 Angel tokens when they trigger Divine Visitation.

There are blink/flicker effect cards in the deck to allow me to trigger that etb of Trostani, or any other creature I have with an etb I can miss use! If I can get Panharmonicon out and do all this, that etb triggers twice.

So I’d say this deck apart from being all about spamming out tokens, is a little combo like too. With the combo like behaviour being all around the generation of tokens.

Naturally there are also cards for generating tokens. The nice thing is there are a lot of mana abilities that can be used to generate tokens on creatures and lands.

I don’t have too many anthem effects, so that could be considered a weakness. So if we don’t have our inspiration for this deck out, the tokens generated at best will only get a +1/+1 from our Commander. I think iirc The Immortal Sun and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite are my only other anthems. So they are potentially a bit vulnerable to the likes of a Goblin Chainwhirler or similar effect.

There is also a feeble attempt at tutoring with a couple of cards, along with card draw. Although a few of the non basic lands are cycle lands.

Finally there is plan B. Not much of a plan B. But still it’s a plan. And that is Approach of the Second Sun.

Let’s look at the graphics from the decked app.

I’m happy with the AMC, 4 or under is my target. So nicely under. But bloody hell when did some of these cards get so expensive? I will say this every time we look at that b.s. number that is apparently generated by prices on Card Kingdom. How are people meant to play this game? I for sure on the one or two cards I bought in specially for this deck did not pay anywhere near the prices listed above.

Here is the deck list…

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 Baird, Steward of Argive
1 Beast Whisperer
1 Conclave Cavalier
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Leonin Warleader
1 Sumala Woodshaper
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Trostani Discordant
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Silent Sentinel
1 Trostani’s Summoner

Spells:43

1 Authority of the Consuls
1 Cloudshift
1 Demotion
1 Flower // Flourish
1 Land Tax
1 Legion’s Landing
1 Sol Ring
1 Assure // Assemble
1 Dawn of Hope
1 Dowsing Dagger
1 Martial Coup
1 Momentary Blink
1 Quest for Renewal
1 Saproling Migration
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 Crush Contraband
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 Vivien Reid
1 Bounty of Might
1 Hour of Revelation
1 Planar Bridge
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Approach of the Second Sun

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

My First Ever Standard Showdown!

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Wow was Saturday afternoon really my first Standard Showdown?

But what is Standard Showdown? It’s a weekly event where players turn up with their constructed standard decks and compete over a series of rounds for a special showdown booster pack. It costs a fiver at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole to enter, and at a minimum you get a regular booster pack for participating.

The previous weekend I had given my Golgari Stompy deck a test run against, as it would happen another Golgari deck. And it did ok in that match up. But how would it do against the meta at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole?

I’d spent the morning waiting for the post person to deliver our letters. I was hoping some cards for the new Commander deck might turn up. If there was time later I was hoping to give the new deck a play. I had alternatives I could play in the deck if they didn’t turn up. I left it to the absolute last minute possible before leaving. But no sign of the post person.

Round 1

I was up against Michael nephew of Kar-Fai. And both taking part in this Standard Showdown. Michael has infect in one of his Commander decks. That should tell you all you need to know about him! Michael was playing mono green.

Game 1 – “mana screwed: not having enough mana” I had none. That’s despite mulliganing down to 5 cards. I went with 5 cards and no lands, risking I would draw into one quickly. It was the wrong call. I got no lands at all until it was too late and I was going to die. This happens from time to time in the game, no point getting upset over it. Kar-Fai was suffering from being mana screwed too. However he had a couple of lands, just not enough. I could have done a lot with a couple of lands, I was jealous.

Game 2 – I took a lot of early damage. But managed to stabilise at 1 life! Even went back up to 3 after a Vraska’s Contempt! If Michael had been playing red I might have been worried about being lightning bolted to defeat. But he was mono green. Which allowed me to turn the tables and take the win.

Game 3 – The deciding game. A bit more balanced but Michael took the win.

Final score: Loss 1-2

Afterwards while waiting for the next round Michael and I had a Friendly game with our decks. This time it played exactly as designed and swept me to the victory!

Round 2

In this round I was up against Dean and his white (can’t remember if he was playing another colour) token spam deck.

I lost both games, I just had no answer for the token spamming and the pumping up of them. I was able to remove an enchantment in a game to delay the inevitable but it was in reality a token (yes I went there) gesture.

Final score: Loss 2-0


Round 3

Saw me claim my first win of the tournament by default with a bye! So I used that time wisely taking lots of photos. It was an interesting round because it saw 2 uncle against nephew games. Dean crushed his young nephew. Which wasn’t a surprise, we tease Dean about exploiting his nephews for promos etc. Kar-Fai got beat by his nephew Michael. What added to the defeat was the fact Michael’s deck was built for him by Kar-Fai.

Round 4

The final round of the Standard Showdown was the rematch of last weekends game against John the store owner. Would John get his revenge? I felt that things were lining up for that to be the case.

Game 1 – I ended up winning with 4 weenies ( 1/1 creatures). I just didn’t draw into any big creatures.

Game 2 – My deck just worked, John never really drew into any answers. So once again I had defeated John in the battle of our decks.

Final score: Win 2-0

One person I enjoy playing Magic against is Grant. It’s always fun, we seem evenly matched in the games we have played in the past. Sadly in this tournament my poor record meant we never got to play. So Grant kindly accept to play a friendly game with me afterwards. Grant for the record was playing a golgari token spam deck. Which had got him into the top 4!

Game 1 – This token strategy of Grant’s didn’t seem as aggressive as Dean’s. There just didn’t seem as many hitting the battlefield. Enough for me to manage and get through to get the win.

Game 2 – I decided to use the Never Happened in the 60, at the expense of a Chupacabra and a Poisoner. Mainly in the attempt to remove some of the token buffs or creation. It was the best option I had in slowing down the token strategy. I thought I’d give Vraska a chance, so with Mastermind’s Acquisition I went and got her. I got to use her ability a couple of times before falling to the token horde. She bought me a little time if nothing else.

Game 3 – The deciding game. This was a really tense game. It could have gone either way. This time I gave Vivien Reid an outing. Her card draw was really useful, she distracted Grant and bought me time. It’s a shame she is a £20 plus card on eBay. I’d consider a second copy for this deck. But not at that price. However Vivien was the difference that gave me the win.

Really enjoyed the 3 games with Grant. Plus this was a top 4 deck it’d just beat!

Final friendly score: Win 2-1

In the final standings I managed to miraculously end up in 8th out of 12/13. In the participation pack I pulled a 6th Assassin’s Trophy (got my 5th last weekend from the bundle packs I opened). So real happy with that.

Meta round up: some mono green stompy, golgari, token decks (White and Green), and red plus red/blue(?). Will this still be the meta next week? Will there be tweaks being made to cater for decks faced this week?

Potential tweaks for next Standard Showdown

Currently I have no answer to the token spam. John showed me Find//Finality, which is a board wipe (kinda), and should get rid of those pesky tokens. It really is a major weakness of my deck.


I already have a play set of Pilfering Imp already. I like the look of it. Plus it allows me to interrupt the opponents plans. Just need to think is it good enough to replace Skittering Heartstopper? Ritual of Soot is another potential board wipe to consider.

I really enjoyed my first Standard Showdown. It was interesting to see the decks that were making up the meta. Will the meta be similar next week? How much will it have shifted in response to this weeks decks?


This is the final version of the Golgari deck that I played with at The Standard Showdown and the previous weekend against John (the FLGS owner).

For those remotely interested the only real difference between this deck list and the original is that there are now 4 copies of Assassin’s Trophy and Vraska’s Contempt instead of 3 in the main deck, and Duress went to make space for those extra copies. Plus I finalised the sideboard, Tetzimoc, Primal Death was replaced by another Never Happened.

Creatures:29

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

Spells:10

4 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Mastermind’s Acquisition
4 Vraska’s Contempt

Lands:21

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

Sideboard:15

2 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Demon of Catastrophes
1 Vivien Reid
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
1 Silent Gravestone
2 Walk the Plank
2 Never Happened
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 The Immortal Sun

Horrors from the Deep Commander Deck

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

I’ve mentioned this deck in a couple of previous posts that looked at cards I was going to be using. Sadly for you I built the deck and played it.

I’ll put my usual disclaimer here about my decks, although I missed it with the recent Standard deck I shared on here. But still 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, whether budget or money is no limit. 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.

Disclaimer/rant over. Let’s look at the deck.

My Commander for this deck is from the 2018 Commander precons and is Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle. Not only does it turn into a 12/12, it taps for 2 mana, and only costs 4CMC to cast. Which means it can come out pretty early and help with the ramp.

This deck is all about big blue monsters from the depths of the ocean. It really is a deck built around that theme. It’s main tactic is about getting those big monsters out and stomping all over the place. However it has a plan B. It’s not much of a plan, but it’s taking extra turns. The blue version of my mono red plan B of taking extra combat phases. Unlike the green stompy deck there is no massive creatures here that go crazy with +1/+1 counters. However I do like some of the etb effects, to or abilities that mess with the opponents. You want to feel the hate of all the others play Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. It’s funny because all of a sudden the hand size is zero (unless they have an unlimited hand size).


I know it’s not 100% horrors from the deep, and that I have a handful of creatures that are there for their abilities. But this isn’t a tribal deck so I’m happier about having them in the deck despite them not being entirely on them.

Because my Commander gives me access to Green I’m using that side mainly for the ramp. Mana and lots of it. The main colour of this deck is blue. That gives me access to some classics for removal and countering spells. This isn’t a control deck. But it helps having the tools available to protect a key card, or stop that Planeswalker doing their ultimate.

There should also be a good chance I get to key cards fast. There are cards that allow me to filter my card draw and the classic Rhystic Study for lots of card draw.

I think my favourite card of the deck is Reef Worm. It’s like a Pokemon and keeps evolving! It starts life off so innocently as a 0/1 worm. Then when it dies, it transforms into a 3/3 blue fish. When the fish dies, it sheds it’s scales to become it’s inner 6/6 blue whale. Finally once the whale meets it’s doom it then releases it’s inner 9/9 kraken that has been hiding inside it along. It’s funny how your opponents are so reluctant to attack you with such a small unoffensive 0/1 creature in front of you.

Let’s look at the break down graphic.


I’m not surprised about the AMC being just over 4. Big creatures are not cheap to cast.

I always look at the price of the deck and think “when did that card get so expensive?” You can see why I proxy in the likes Rhystic Study. Who can afford that in every blue deck? It’s a shame that WotC don’t reprint cards like this more and get the price down for the majority of players.

Finally what you have been waiting for the actual deck list…

Creatures:26

1 Kraken Hatchling
1 Shore Keeper
1 Coralhelm Guide
1 Thing in the Ice
1 Timestream Navigator
1 Wall of Mist
1 Cold-Eyed Selkie
1 Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle
1 Reef Worm
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Segovian Leviathan
1 Stormsurge Kraken
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Shipbreaker Kraken
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Fleet Swallower
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
1 Scourge of Fleets
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Elder Deep-Fiend
1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Deep-Sea Kraken
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

Spells:38

1 Opt
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Stifle
1 Unbridled Growth
1 Anticipate
1 Call to Heel
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Fertile Ground
1 Ground Seal
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Negate
1 Plummet
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Cultivate
1 Disallow
1 Drag Under
1 Ever-Watching Threshold
1 Myth Unbound
1 Overgrowth
1 Regress
1 Rhystic Study
1 Vessel of Endless Rest
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Cryptic Command
1 Kiora, Master of the Depths
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Time of Ice
1 Whelming Wave
1 Octopus Umbra
1 Time Warp
1 Crush of Tentacles
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Nexus of Fate
1 Scour from Existence

Lands:36

1 Command Tower
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Desert of the Mindful
1 Evolving Wilds
11 Forest
1 Grixis Panorama
13 Island
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Rupture Spire
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Woodland Stream

October 2018 Deck Plans Post

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

Every now and again I like to do a post that updates my list of ideas for Commander decks.

Since the last post which was back in July I’ve built the Muldrotha and Horrors from the Deep (deck listing coming soon) decks. I also have an unplanned and untested mono red Goblins deck built.

So what has sparked this update? Driving in to work Monday I had an idea for a new Commander deck based on one of the new cards from Guilds of Ravnica, as you do.

I have to admit when I first saw the legendary creatures for Guilds of Ravnica I wasn’t inspired to build any decks round them. The card that I was thinking of was not a legendary creature. The card inspiring me was Divine Visitation. This card is crying out for a token spam strategy. Apart from my Elf deck, I don’t really do token decks. I go big normally not wide. Having said that my dragon deck has been known to go wide (unintentionally).

But who would my commander be? Then I remembered Trostani Discordant (pulled as a foil at the weekend) but not the colours. I knew it had white, but did it have green?

As luck would have it, it did. I was starting to like this card. It’s 3 abilities were also pretty cool. There is the anthem effect of +1/+1 to other creatures, then an etb generating 2 1/1 tokens (that instantly become 2/2), and the final ability I love, if a nasty opponent steals her away I get her back. And I looove the art on this card.

I already have copies of 2 key components to the main strategy of spamming out tokens and turning them into 4/4 angels. I don’t think I’ve used Anointed Procession at all in a deck, so I’m chuffed that there is a deck that I’m going to be using it in. Doubling Season a classic that doesn’t need explaining.

If by some chance I’m allowed to have all 4 cards out at the same time, that’s 8 4/4 angels that get +1/+1 so 5/5 angels.

So naturally for this new deck I want to be utilising blink/flicker effects on my Commander. I also want cards that create tokens, and I definitely will have to research what tutor cards are available in white and green. Idyllic Tutor was top entry in a quick Google search for white.

So that’s my initial thinking for this new deck. I can see it pushing the others that have been on the list to the back once more.

Here is the new list of deck ideas.

  • Trostani token spam
  • Infect/wither deck (Atraxa as the commander possibly)
  • Atraxa deck upgraded
  • Death and Taxes
  • Care bear
  • Abuse etb – Brago, King Eternal as the commander
  • Saproling and fungus (go wide or go home!) possible Commander Slimefoot, the Stowaway
  • Ninja

Right I’m off to trawl edhrec for ideas.

Golgari vs Golgari

magic, Magic League, MtG

Saturday I went over to my friendly local purveyor of fine luxury cardboard rectangles (nicked that from the MTG Historian YouTube channel) or FLGS The Hobbit Hole as it is also known.

Old age had been playing its cruel tricks on me in the days leading up to the weekend. For some reason I’d thought there was another store champs happening, and had been building/updating my Standard deck (see my Golgari deck list – although it’s slightly out of date now and I’ll have to update it).

It was in fact Magic League time. I was there already, I had to be to pick up some product. So thought why not? Opening packs and building decks is always fun. Although history should have taught me by now I never do great with my pulls in these sealed events.

I ended up throwing my red and white pulls together to make a Boros deck. It was a deck, not a great deck, used the throw spaghetti against wall and see what sticks method. Others there seemed to be taking the whole thing a lot more seriously, and spending a lot of time analysing cards and building their most optimal deck.

So while that was going on John (the pusher of fine luxury cardboard rectangles) and myself had a game of standard using our standard decks that we are planning to use in the standard showdowns (which start next weekend).

It was Golgari vs Golgari. A mirror match up? Not quite. Johns plan and cards were based around the graveyard and the undergrowth mechanic. Mine as you saw in the deck list (even with the tweaks) is an aggro deck. It’s creatures and removal. If you include the Ravenous Chupacabra and Thrashing Brontodon there is 13 pieces of removal of one form or another in the 60. Something that it would turn out plays into John’s plan. Apparently the more competitive regular players at the shop play a lot of removal or denial in their decks. So now I have a little bit of info on the meta I might be facing next weekend.

Anyway in our first game it came down to one moment. It was fairly evenly balanced. I’d been removing John’s creatures with my removal suite, that had pumped John’s creatures. He had a 12/12 flyer on the board because of this. I was empty handed, and needed an answer. I needed to top deck a solution. Ideally as John said at the start of my turn, some removal. I didn’t draw any of my removal. But I did draw the next best thing. Masterminds Acquisition. Plus I had the mana to cast it and cast the solution I fetched. I went to my sideboard and fetched my walk the plank. Obviously I remove the threat and swung in for the win.

Our second game was more one sided. John did get his Vraska, Golgari Queen out and use her +2 ability once. He was lucky I didn’t have any open mana at the time. But my turn was easy, I cast my Vraska’s Contempt and got rid of her. There seems to be a bit of poetry of removing Vraska with her own contempt! I was also building up a few creatures on the battlefield, dealing damage, and finally swinging in with lots of lethal.

It was interesting to see the two different approaches to the same guild. Obviously John was building for the meta he plays in. While I built for a play style I like, and not knowing what meta I’ll be up against. It was also reassuring to see my deck work as planned and great to test it.

I did get my butt handed to me in my single Magic League game. The only notable thing was they were playing a 3 colour deck, oh and unlike me put thought into their deck.

To go with my haul, I bought 3 copies of the 3 cost Pitiless Gorgan, and 2 copies of Demotion. Those 5 cards were 90p. I do like Pitiless Gorgan, not just the art, but as a 3 drop to play.

I’ll go over my pulls from the haul in another post.

Golgari Stompy – Standard Deck

magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I needed a Standard deck to play at Standard Showdown. A few of the cards that I used in my mono black aggro deck had just rotated out. So I used this as an opportunity to update it to a green/black or golgari deck. The Assassin’s Trophy when I saw it kind of put that idea into my head.

So the “classic” combo of Llanowar Elves with Steel Leaf Champion were obvious additions. But what else? Well because this is stompy, Ghalta and Carnage Tyrant were also must adds.

I still kept the Mastermind’s Acquisition, it allows me to run some single copies of cards,and to go into my side board for an answer or even my library. That card has saved me a couple of times in the past.

As you can see I finally decided after a week of flip flopping to settle on Skittering Heartstopper. The deciding factor was it’s ability to still be around after a Chainwhirler.

This should be hopefully a fastish deck. The ideal opening hand has a swamp, forest, one of the dual lands, Llanowar Elves, Steel Leaf Champion, Assassin’s Trophy and any of the 3 or 4 drops. This deck wants to be hitting hard and fast. But I also want it to have the ability to go to a mid to late game if need be. That’s where my 4 drops and above come in. 3 mana allows me to play the majority of my deck.

Here’s the deck break down.


I’m really chuffed with the AMC. I’m fairly happy with the mana curve. If all goes to plan in a game those 3 and 4 CMC cards are coming out a turn early.

I was flipping shocked when I saw how much the deck would cost me to buy if I didn’t have the cards. I’m lucky I had 99% of the cards already. One or two of them have had to come out of a Commander deck or two (I’ve left a card in the decks to remind me what came from where). I could have pushed the cost up of the deck by running a playset of Overgrown Tomb and a full playset of Woodland Cemetry, and I could have justified the cost by saying that they could be used in other decks afterwards. But deep down I know I couldn’t justify the purchase knowing I had the plenty of the slower and cheaper Gates.

Here is the list of cards that make up my Golgari Stompy deck.

Creatures:29

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

Spells:10

2 Duress
3 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Mastermind’s Acquisition
3 Vraska’s Contempt

Lands:21

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

Sideboard:15

2 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Demon of Catastrophes
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Tetzimoc, Primal Death
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
1 Silent Gravestone
2 Walk the Plank
1 Never Happened
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 The Immortal Sun

Flip flopping

magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Yesterday morning I was “deckbuilding” or more like gathering the cards I have for my Standard deck to use at this coming weekends store championship at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole.

At the moment I have Hired Poisoner in the deck, but it’s eating away at me that maybe I should be putting Skittering Heartstopper back in instead. Skittering Heartstopper had that slot in the deck in the old mono black aggro deck before rotation gutted it.

Why do I like Skittering Heartstopper? In this post Goblin Chainwhirler world it’s going to stay on the board. It will also block other 1/1 creatures and remain on the board (assuming they don’t have deathtouch). Plus I can give it deathtouch and have it take out a much bigger creature. Which is nice, and something an opponent has to think about before swinging in with that big hitter. However I do have to sit with 1 swamp untapped to be able to do that. And that’s a draw back.

Hired Poisoner I like because it’s a 1/1 with deathtouch. That makes it a great chump blocker taking out much bigger and costlier creatures. However in this post Goblin Chainwhirler world will it be able to stay on the board long enough to do that kind of job? I like that I don’t have to hold a swamp back to activate the deathtouch.

I have no idea what the meta is like at The Hobbit Hole. I’m expecting that I will have to go up against decks with Goblin Chainwhirler in them. I’d be surprised if I didn’t. I’m also expecting I may be up against “mirror” decks. I was at the last one, although we did differ by one or two cards.

As I finish writing this post I think I’ve talked myself into…

No Holds Barred Commander Game This Saturday

Commander, magic, MtG

This Saturday the Huntingdon and Chatteris MtG Group that some of my ex-students set up will meet up at their usual location of Huntingdon Library and play what I call a No Holds Barred game of Commander.

Usually the group plays with the usual Commander rules, plus the social contract of

  • No mass land destruction
  • No infinite loops
  • It’s not a big list but one that hopefully makes the games enjoyable for everyone even if they lose.
  • But the game Saturday those rules are off the table, you can play mass land destruction, you can go infinite. Plus one or two of the regular Commander rules get suspended. Your Commander can be a Planeswalker (not just the ones that have the text allowing them to be), and there is no ban list.
  • My entry into this game will be a slightly tweaked mono red mass land destruction deck.
  • I’m looking forward to seeing what the others have in their decks of hate. I’m also hoping that there will be a chance to give the new goblins tribal deck an outing.

    • Some of my pulls from the GoR booster box

    magic, MtG

    Last weekend was Prerelease weekend for Guilds of Ravnica, I didn’t attend a Prerelease event (I gave that up for the disappointing Tabletop Gaming Live) but I did get a booster box and the 2 Planeswalker decks.

    So I thought I’d share with you some of the cards I pulled got from 40 booster packs in total that I cracked open. I will put a disclaimer here, these may not be the best cards in the set. However they are cards that I liked the art of, or thought I could use in one of my Commander decks. Sadly for this set none of the legendary creatures I saw in previews grabbed me, and made me jump up and want to build a deck around them, or even use them in a deck.

    I was chuffed to pull Vraska, I liked the art for this version of the Planeswalker, and the abilities were not bad. I’m half tempted to use her in a Commander deck. But at the moment I’m more interested in having her in the sideboard for my golgari Standard Deck for Store championships. Which was why I was over the moon to get one Assassin’s Trophy (which I think before Prerelease was the most expensive card to buy on preorder. I don’t think the price has dropped since either). Ideally and living in cloud cuckoo land, and having the Magic equivalent of a lottery win, I was dreaming/hoping of more than one copy of this to be pulled. As I said I could dream. I can see it as a Commander card, but this is going to be a strong removal card for my Standard Deck. Chromatic Lantern is going to go into a lot of decks. It’s such a good mana fixer.

    Impervious Greatwurm the buy-a-box promo. I saw that in the previews and thought that was made for my big green stompy deck. I can’t wait to find a spot for it and play the deck again. And I love the flavour text of the card, it is so me, and my stompy deck.

    Vicious Rumours is definitely a multiplayer game or Commander card. I love the art on it. Definitely think I’ll be using it a deck or two in the future. Another card I really love the art of is Thought Erasure. It has that noir look to it. Very atmospheric.

    Never Happened, a more costly Duress? Maybe but it should help to stop that nasty graveyard shenanigans happening. The addition of picking from the hand or graveyard and exiling I think makes the extra cost worth it. I love the art also. The next 2 cards I like for the cheapness to use in a black aggro deck. In fact Hired Poisoner may replace a card in the new deck. The flavour text is cool too.

    I know at the top of the post I said none of the legendary creatures inspired me with deck ideas. There was potentially one exception. Niv-Mizzet, Parun. I have another Niv-Mizzet legendary creature. Sooo the idea of building a deck around them and their abilities might be interesting. Or would they fit better in a death and taxes style deck?

    Ok Homeward Path isnt from GoR but I thought I’d tag it on to the end because I got it in the post the same day. Forgot how I stumbled across the card, but it was a must have. I hate having my commander stolen, it throws a serious spanner in the game plan. This will be my protection against that.

    Did you get any good pulls from the weekend?