Category Archives: MtG

Digging up the undead

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I started to writing a short message to the MtG group of some friends and realised by the end of it I was writing the start of a blog post. So here goes…

After watching the latest episode of The Command Zone with the dreaded return of SJW Jimmy Wong with the deck tech of his for a Zombie Tribal deck around the new legendary creature from M19 (that’s Core Set 2019 for regular folks) Varina, Lich Queen. Which allows for the first time the ability to build a zombie deck that uses the white zombies from the Amonkhet block, and more importantly Anointed Procession, along side the good ol’ black zombies. However I won’t be building a zombie tribal deck around this commander because I prefer my Scarab God as it’s Commander. Although Jimmy demotes Scarab God to just one of the 99. Another reason to dislike him.

So in the cards they talk about there are some cards I could squeeze into my current version of the deck, and also make use in an up coming deck in the planning. And it’s these cards I will start off with in this post.

As sufferers will remember I plan to build a Muldrotha deck where the graveyard is basically an extension of my hand. I actually want cards in my graveyard. So these two cards that Jimmy uses in his zombie deck actually looked pretty good in helping to protect my graveyard in the Muldrotha deck from being exiled. Leave a couple of mana open, and crack the abilities off in response to any exiling nastiness.


These next 2 cards I like rather a lot, casting my zombies for free or cheaper is nice. Even better the Warchief buffs them up as well, it means the 2/2 zombie tokens would come in as 4/3 tokens. Which is cool. Any buff to the tokens particularly (because my deck can generate a lot of them) to keep them on the battlefield longer is good. Plus if the Scarab God tactic isn’t working, it means I can at least start swinging in with these buffed up undead.

What’s better than having the Scarab God on the battle field with a load of zombies? Having him on the battlefield with these next 2 creatures.

Wow, cards that replicate the upkeep ability of the Scarab God in some way. These out with the Scarab God and a few zombies is a scary thought. Potentially game winning combo. Although opponents would have a turn to try and disrupt it and take me out.

I’m not sure about the following card. Probably wouldn’t play the first ability. But the card draw might be useful. It’s not as if I do anything with all the zombie tokens.


So despite Jimmy being annoying, and not as likeable as the temporary host that covered for him (who I thought had a better rapport with Josh), I have to begrudgingly admit there were some nice cards in his zombie tribal deck that I could use in mine, despite our battle plans being different.

Ultra rare QOTD

magic, MtG, qot

A very rare question of the day for here that I’m nicking from long time stalker, full time big brother and thought police WotC and their twitter feed.

I have an answer, which one or two also responded with on the WotC timeline. It has to be the really awesome Cat Dragon that I first saw in last years 2017 Dragon precon Commander Deck.


I like cats. And I have shared a space with some in the past. But I have to admit I fall more into the dog camp.

However this cat dragon token was super cute, and who wouldn’t want one of these for a pet? The art is very reminiscent of Toothless from How to train your dragon. Cute but super deadly.

But if this card hadn’t been printed, I’d have a hard time choosing between these two from Ixalan.


Both of these are “loved” and by that I mean hated by my ex-students. Ferocidon was so “loved” that I named him the “people’s champion”. Which it still gets referred by, by myself and ex-students. Raptor Hatchling also built up a bit of a fan club. His appearance would stop opponents attacking, because they knew I’d chump block with him and get that 3/3 dino upgrade.

So I have a fondness for these 2 dinos. And who wouldn’t want a pet dino? Every kid has at some time or or other wanted a pet dino.

Which creature would you choose?

Kess – Wizards 2017 Precon Upgrade v2

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

Thought I might share my new and improved (that’s going to be a subjective thing I know) Kess Commander deck, which sufferers will remember is based on last years 2017 Wizards Tribal precon Deck and the $20 MtgGoldfish upgrade (original deck list HERE). I also did an post highlighting cards that were begging to put into the deck. So did any of those cards make it into the deck? Too bloody right or we wouldn’t be here with this new deck list, and my poorly written ramblings.

Still not overly sure of the win condition, I’ve added the additional turns to the deck. There are more counter spells, and cards that give me card draw. Naturally I’ve tweaked the creatures, Guttersnipe had to be added to give me a bit more offensive capability from just doing my thing. The deck is still all about recurring spells from the graveyard.

When I remember I like to include the stats that the deck builder app gives me for the deck. The mana curve has dropped a tad, well hardly at all. So I’m relatively happy that it’s not got worse.


I also like to for a laugh have the app tell me how much the deck would cost me to replace if some mishap would occur to it. The app wasn’t able to give me a price for the Nexus of Fate. Which after the recent pro tour where it was part of the Turbo Fog deck that swept all before it, is going for between $25 – $40 at the moment.


As you can see the deck has got a bit more expensive to buy.

Ok here is the updated deck list that you have been patiently waiting for.

Creatures:15

1 Timestream Navigator
1 Young Pyromancer
1 Guttersnipe
1 Izzet Chemister
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Archaeomancer
1 Kess, Dissident Mage
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Bloodline Necromancer
1 Body Double
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Mercurial Chemister
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Torrential Gearhulk

Spells:47

1 Brainstorm
1 By Force
1 Dark Ritual
1 Faithless Looting
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Comet Storm
1 Counterspell
1 Dimir Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Go for the Throat
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Into the Roil
1 Izzet Signet
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Terminate
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Crosis’s Charm
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Disallow
1 Cyclonic Rift (1 Frantic Search, if you can’t get or don’t have CR)
1 Rhystic Study
1 To the Slaughter
1 Unstable Obelisk
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Cryptic Command
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Jace’s Sanctum
1 Memory Plunder
1 Primal Amulet
1 Dark Petition
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Mana Geyser
1 Silumgar’s Command
1 The Mirari Conjecture
1 Time Warp
1 Game Plan
1 Spelltwine
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Kindred Dominance
1 Necromantic Selection
1 Nexus of Fate
1 Decree of Pain

Lands:38

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Command Tower
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Grixis Panorama
10 Island
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Mountain
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Scavenger Grounds
6 Swamp
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Marsh

I promise you this

Game day, magic, MtG

that when my horrors from the deep Commander deck is complete and it hits the table in anger, I will be meming the heck out of it. Especially with stuff like the following…


Yesterday I ended up in Huntingdon library playing 1v1 Commander. Not my favourite way to play Commander, it’s missing the political element. But still it was fun and gave me a chance to try a couple of the new 2018 Commander decks, and also give my Wizards and mono red decks a spin.

The two 2018 decks I sleeved up to play with were the Lord Windgrace – lands matter “Nature’s Vengence” and Estrid, the Masked – “Adaptive Enchantments” decks.


I played these decks against Bob’s unsleeved Saheeli, the Gifted – artifacts “Exquisite Invention” deck that I had picked up for him the same time I picked up my decks.

Our first game saw Windgrace square up against Saheeli, and stomp his way to victory. Estrid was up next and did ok, but got her butt handed to her and lost.

We then took our own decks for a spin. I look at my Wizards deck and think “what’s the win condition?” One of the games Bob had me milling the top 3 cards of my deck at the start of his upkeep. He needed lands. But I didn’t mind the milling, with Kess’s ability, and other cards I had, milling was not an issue for me. I could still play the spells.

I stole creatures from Bob, frustrated him with counter spells, took extra turns, basically abused the blue side of the deck, and won both games with it.

Mono red (now with a foil Etali) did its thing in it’s first game, and fought its way to victory with multiple combat rounds and doubling up its damage at the right moment. The second game saw it going up against a black aggro deck.

That game was swinging in Bob’s favour especially after his Chainer’s Torment hit the third age and created a 21/21 Nightmare Horror token. I had one creature on the battlefield, it wasn’t looking good. A matter of a couple of turns at most before I was toast.


But then on my turn after that monster token was created I top decked a Captivating Crew. I checked my mana, double checked, and then triple checked it. I had enough to not only cast the card but to also pay for its activated ability. So that’s what I did. I took control of the 21/21 and swung in for the win. Phew what a blooming top deck. I think I had 2 other cards that allowed me to steal a creature(s) for a turn. I have to admit before I drew the card, I had no clue how I was going to get out of the situation, and was hoping to delay things long enough to think of a solution.

Our final game was back to the 2018 decks. Lord Windgrace once more squared up against Saheeli. The Saheeli deck failed to get any real creature presence on the battlefield, so my deck was able to get swinging without taking any repercussions. I don’t think I took any damage in this game before getting the win.

I think the 1v1 format did favour my Wizards deck in those 2 games. But this 1v1 format in no way means that the decks are really good, I just had better draw than Bob. It’s fun, you still get to play those cards you couldn’t in formats like modern or standard. But part of the fun for me in Commander is the social/political side.

Ok what did I think of the two new 2018 decks I played? They were fun. Lord Windgrace is really easy to pilot. Estrid less so in comparison. So if I was a noob to Commander and MtG I’d probably get Lord Windgrace. I have to admit I’m not overly sold on the Planeswalkers themselves. They seem a little underwhelming. Especially the ultimates. Take Lord Windgrace I could see him fitting in with the Muldrotha deck with his +2 and -3 abilities. Don’t think I’d ever ultimate him.

The decks do seem missing some good reprints that would enhance them. Lord Windgrace is screaming for Crucible of Worlds and Scapeshift. Why Sensei’s Divining Top isn’t in the top of the deck matters deck I don’t know.

And those are reprints that could have, no should have been in these decks that I can think of off the top of my head (with my limited knowledge of cards). Especially considering the increased cost of the decks.

I don’t think there is one deck in particular so far that I would like to upgrade and play, like I did with the 2017 Wizards and Dragons decks. There are some cards I’d like to use in other decks, some existing ones, some in the planning stage.

The themes I like a lot. And the deck builder side of me would like to take the themes and build decks around them. Not sure more than a handful of cards from these decks would make it in to any new deck built round the themes.

As I said these are fun to play. I don’t think as the decks stand warrant the price increase. They stink a little of WotC price gauging a popular product. Compared to the other Commander precons I’ve played/own (2017, and both Anthologies) if I had to buy a Commander deck tomorrow I’d be going with one of the 2017 decks first if I could get it for rrp.

I’m really proud that my ex-students have continued to play MtG since I left, and now have this regular Saturday event at Huntingdon Library going on.

Kill me I dare you, I’ll only come back stronger

Commander, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Back at the start of July you had to endure a post of mine pontificating about plans for a future Commander deck built around big blue creatures such as leviathans, kraken, octopuses, squids etc. A blue version of the green stompy deck basically.

Well I’m still undecided about a Commander for the deck. I don’t really have any candidates yet to consider. So undecided is a bit of an exaggeration, more haven’t a bloody clue.

However I do have a card I want to include in the deck. It’s a fun card that requires the following 3 tokens.

The card I found when it dies creates the 3/3 fish token. Which snowballs up to that 9/9 Kraken token.

So what creature starts off this insane sequence of events?

This is kind of an anti-removal card. It’s not in my opponents interests to board wipe, or remove the creature because it gets replaced by something much bigger. It’s initially a bit like the Raptor Hatchling. A chump blocker that gives me something bigger. Yeah this discourages an opponent attacking too.

I like cards like this, Rekindling Phoenix, the Dragon Egg token, it makes them hard to remove, or punishes your opponents for attacking by making you stronger or giving you some benefit. The only way to stop that dying ability triggering is exile.

Plus I can kick this whole sequence of events off myself. If I have to sacrifice a creature, guess which one it will be? If I have to place a -1/-1 counter, do damage to a creature I control. The target will be this creature if it’s out. Why wouldn’t I? It’s win win for me.

Could this be my Commander?

Would give me access to the green ramp, is fairly cheap, and thematic.

Brains!

Game day, magic, MtG

Starting todays post with a photo Jonathan took with his latest geeky toy during our Costa coffee gaming session. Which just so happens will see him life casting pretty soon. Once we have gaffer taped the GoPro clone to the side of his head.

I am seriously rocking that dwarven Lord of the Rings/Dungeon and Dragons look. I hope Amazon are taking note here and cast me at least as a dwarf extra in their Lord of the Rings tv series.

Yesterday I got a chance to take 4 of my Commander decks out for a spin. It was long overdue, I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms.

The first of my decks hitting the table was my Angel deck. Sadly I had to mulligan down to 5 cards, and still I was borderline being mana screwed for the game. Not surprisingly I didn’t win.

The second game saw big green stompy pound the table. Although none of my ramp cards surfaced, it still managed to throw its weight around, stompying all before it.


As the above photo shows certain creatures can get rather silly if they are not handled. It won’t surprise you dear sufferers that this deck crushed its way to victory.

Our third game the Scarab God and his zombie horde rose to the table. Although the Scarab God didn’t win, I was happy he did his thing.

Game 4 saw me actually get to play the Atraxa precon (with a doubling season in it as the only change). This was the first time since getting the deck in the second Anthology that I’d played the deck. Although the deck had been played by others. Another game that I didn’t win. But it did take an early dominant position, which if it had killed one of my opponents would have probably gone on to win. Instead in a rare moment of weakness I showed mercy and paid for it later. I did enjoy playing the deck. It fired it’s thing off. I think I’ve said in an old post I don’t mind losing. If I’ve had fun, the deck has done what it’s designed to do, winning is just gravy on top.

Our fifth game saw the Angels descend from the heavens once more. It wasn’t exactly a heavenly host, but I had 3 angels out (1 of them my Commander) thanks to me hitting my land drops. My opponents were struggling for land. That was enough of window for them to do their life linked damage. I was felling pretty happy with the board state, with the cards in hand. I could control the game. My health was ridiculous, the only thing I’d have to worry about was Commander damage possibly. And I did take 8 points of it. Before turning all their creatures into 1/1 creatures with no abilities. Naturally the angels flew to victory.

“He has risen, for he is the Scarab God!” Yes our sixth and final game of the day saw the undead once more shambling over the Earth. The Scarab God was out with a couple of zombies early on, kicking off his ability each turn. A board wipe put an end to that. One of the other players managed to ultimate his Ajani Planeswalker, and had an emblem that gave him 3 1/1 cat tokens at the end of each turn. That needed dealing with somehow, otherwise it could get out of hand fast. Between myself and the third player we controlled the cat token spam. But I needed a more permanent answer. I think for the first time ever with the Scarab God I used his activated ability to get me a couple of zombies from my opponents graveyards. I then played the enchantment that gave me zombies tokens at the start of my upkeep. That should if kept on the board allow me to keep pace with the cat tokens. Luckily I got to determine the order of the upkeep triggers. Always zombie tokens first, then the Scarab Gods ability. I get to do more damage that way, and scry more. I didn’t need to attack, just generate zombies somehow. The Scarab God would do the rest. And he did. He took out the cat token spamming player. Then a couple of turns later with 26 zombies in one form or another on the table killed the remaining player. The zombie horde of the Scarab God won the day.

Out of 6 games I won 3. They were great fun. Even the ones I lost. A great day of Commander.

Graveyard Shenanigans with Muldrotha Early Look

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

This is an early look at some of the cards I’m putting (at the moment) into my Muldrotha graveyard shenanigans Commander deck.

Naturally considering the name of the deck, Muldrotha, the Gravetide is my Commander.

Which means this deck is all about treating the graveyard as an extension of your hand. So I actually want cards in my graveyard.

So there are cards that have me discarding or sacrificing as part of their cost. Which is fine because these are cards are not gone, I can bring them back either to my hand with spells or use my commanders ability.

I’m also using cards that make use of landfall, or lands on the battlefield and graveyard.

But what’s my win condition? How am I going to win the game? I think it’s going to have to be swing in with creatures. I know at the moment I’m light on the creature front. I think I’ll aim for 25 in total. What the remaining 12 will be I’m not sure.

I know on the spell front I need some targeted removal, especially for getting rid of potential graveyard hate. Can’t have people disrupting the game plan. Because graveyard hate is a big threat to the deck. With access to blue, I can include some counter spells, black will give me access to some board wipes.

Yes Sol Ring, Field of Ruins, Evolving Wilds, and Command Tower will be in the deck. They are a given really.

I need to do more research on the card front for sure.

Ok here are the cards so far.

Creatures:13

1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Eternal Witness
1 Isareth the Awakener
1 Gravedigger
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 World Shaper
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
1 The Gitrog Monster
1 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
1 Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar
1 Protean Hulk
1 Torgaar, Famine Incarnate

Spells:11

1 Crop Rotation
1 Vessel of Nascency
1 Grisly Salvage
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Harrow
1 Krosan Grip
1 Sultai Charm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Scapeshift
1 The Mending of Dominaria
1 Worm Harvest

WotC start more drama!

magic, MtG

What a surprise. But what have they been up to?

Well it’s Commander 2019. To start with WotC raised the rrp of each deck. This year the price of a single Commander deck is £34.99, up from £29.99 in 2017.

That’s a pretty big price hike in relative terms. Would we see the estimated value of the decks increase, or more importantly the power level to match the price increase?

After the deck lists were put up the answer was no.

And that set the internet echo chamber into an uproar. Price increase and underwhelming deck lists was all the fuel they needed. It didn’t help when you have the YouTube “shills” or chosen ones (aka bought channels either with free product or hard cold sponsorship cash) that seemed to ignore these short falls and talk about the decks as if they were the best thing since sliced bread, or the last WotC product, just adding oil to the fire.

I can see the point of view of the online lynch mob. And to some extent I agree with them.

I have to admit I was underwhelmed by the Planeswalker commanders. From the spoilers there were some cards of interest for other decks. But no high(ish) value reprints like Sensei’s Divining Top, which people were hoping for. I’m not sure I’ll be buying extra copies to break up for deck building (sometimes the cheaper way to get the cards) or to upgrade. Which is ok. I’m happy with that. I’ll buy the singles that I need.

From the other point of view I have on these decks, the most important thing for me is “are these decks fun to play?” I think I may have mentioned it once or twice before, but for Commander I like to keep a copy of the decks in pristine condition, unchanged, ready to pull out at a moments notice so my MtG playing friends and I can play a game with out worrying if they have a deck or not. Just choose a deck they like the look of and away we go. I won’t know the answer naturally to my question for this point of view until I get my grubby hands on the decks and play some games with them.

It will be interesting to see if this years decks get a second printing like last years. The deciding factor will be has the online echo chamber captured the mood and opinion of the silent majority. And it is a silent majority who vote with their wallets. If they are representative then there will be product left unsold on the shelves, and no demand.

Oh btw we haven’t seen the end of the drama. Come the next set, WotC have increased the price of booster boxes to distributors but not the rrp, so naturally we expect that increase to be passed on to the FLGS. Which means their margins either have to take a hit, or they won’t be able to discount from the rrp. So the increase gets passed on to us. Expect to see a similar online shit storm to hit depending on reprints, and the estimated value of a booster box.

There is other ongoing drama and I may comment on that at some point, but at the moment I’ll give commenting a miss. Which most of you will be glad to hear.

Conjuring New Tricks

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Here we are with the threatened blog post from yesterday (well I wrote this a while back apparently and only just discovered the post in my drafts folder, so not quiet the next day as I say here). Where I shared with those remotely interested the current Wizard Commander deck that I am playing based on last years Arcane Wizardry precon and a $20 upgrade (as created by MTGGoldfish) that was applied to it, which I then changed by a couple of cards.

Since I did that upgrade earlier in the year new cards have come out in the form of new sets like Rivals of Ixalan, BattleBond, Dominaria, and now Core Set 2019. Plus my adventures amongst the planes of the MtG universe have bought me into contact with old cards that are new to me, or ones I knew about and hadn’t considered until now.

It’s the nature of the game, new cards come out, and often the first thought that goes through your head is “this card will go nicely into my xxxx deck”. And that may be so but then you are left with which card does it replace? Sometimes it’s really obvious because the new card is a better version of one that you currently use. But then you have to evaluate the card, does it weaken or strengthen my decks game plan?

First up for consideration and putting pressure on the existing cards are these four creature cards. Torrential Gearhulk and Vampire Charmseeker double down on the game plan of being able to use the graveyard as an extension of my hand, and play instants and sorcery spells from there. While Spellseeker allows me to go fetch a 2 CMC or less instant to sorcery from my library. That ability alone to go fetch the spell I need is powerful. I just got to make sure I have spells that I can fetch that way.

Timestream Navigator would along with two of the other cards introduce a new tactic to the deck. That being the extra turn. I’m not a fan of the infinite loop (I have built decks that have gone infinite in the past to illustrate the mechanic to my students), they are not fun to play against, and in a casual group fun format like Commander I feel they are against the experience of the format. I don’t mind an extra turn/combat phase, but not infinite. So there is nothing in here to make these extra turns infinite. I suppose Timestream Navigator has the potential to go infinite if you are down to your last card. But I’ve not seen a game of Commander go through 98 cards yet to get to that state.

These 3 enchantments are potentially evil. As Foretold the longer it stays out on the battlefield is going to give me so much value. Rhystic Study potentially going to give me insane card draw. Omniscience although expensive if I can cheat it out will like As Foretold give me such value. But for both I need lots of cards in hand, which the likes of Rhystic Study and one or two of the cards below would hopefully do.

Search for Azcanta is probably the easiest one to put in. Even though it’s a legendary enchantment it could replace a basic land. If I don’t flip it, I have a scry effect each turn, but if I do it taps for a mana or allows me to go looking for an answer in my top 4 cards. It’s the flipped side I’m more interested in.

Only 2 Sorceries, Game Plan is a chaotic card that is just a (potentially) fun card to play in a multiplayer format. While Time Warp is the second of the cards that give that extra turn.

I have 9 potential instants to include. The first is that controversial buy-a-box promo Nexus of Fate. The third and final card that gives me an extra turn. Like Timestream Navigator this one goes back into the library and not the graveyard.

Then we have card draw, that digging for the right card at the right time. Having answers when the questions are being asked. These are cards that hopefully help me get to those answers quicker. Then we have some targeted spells to control what’s going on. The fact that all these spells can be played more than once is just extra gravy.


So those are the cards pushing on the door wanting to claim a slot. What do they replace? Do they fit in with the game plan?