Category Archives: MtG

Elder Dragon Playmat – NOT a store champ

magic, MtG

This is the main prize from the weekends Store Championships. Which as those that struggled through Saturdays post will know I didn’t win. I think this is the first play mat for one of the few Store Championships I’ve attended that I like the art of.

My rewards for 6th, were a booster pack of my choice, and the following promos and top 8 deck box.


Luckily because outside of work I have no life, and while binging on Luke Cage Season 2 (which seems very marmite like for those that have seen it so far, I fall in the love it camp) I live online. When some-one had a spare (yeah I know) from the weekend and wanted a reasonable amount for it including postage, I was fortunate enough to be on the right Facebook page at the right time to claim it first.

Yeah I know how many play mats does a person need? For someone like me who obviously has a problem I don’t think there is an answer, except one more than I currently have.

I’m looking forward to playing my Dragon Tribal Commander deck and using the above play mat with it (once it arrives in a day or two).

Surviving, bluffing and big stompy creatures

Fenland Gamers, game night, magic, MtG

Fenland Gamers Friday Night Gaming

Last night saw the Fenland Gamers meet up at it’s usual haunt The White Lion to play some games. While Charlie, Diego and myself were struggling for survival in a post apocalyptic future once more in Outlive. Jonathan, Jess and Nathanial were subsistence farming in Agricola Family Edition.

The postal gods had been really kind to me, and the Kickstarter exclusives for Outlive had arrived the previous day. So we were using the new recessed player boards, first player marker and event. The other bits like the mini expansions, rooms, leaders I saved for another day.

I’d been doing really well for the first 5 rounds of the game. But the final round was a disaster for me. I went from being in with a shot at winning to not even being in the same country as winning. Failing to be able to scavenge or hunt enough food to feed my survivors meant I had to lose survivors when it came to the night phase. And that hit my scoring big time. I crashed to the ground hard.

Charlie had thought he was out of the running for most of the game, did not score any events, yet when we were totally things up made a late surge to come in a comfortable second place. Leaving the run away victor Diego and his survivors being saved.


While we finished off our game, the others played a quick game of The Mind. After which we all played a couple of games of Perudo. Component wise it doesn’t get much simpler than those in Perudo. Plastic cups and dice. Yet this simple bluffing game is such fun. I lost the first game, which Diego went on to win after being left to just him and Jess as the last 2. Naturally being out first, meant the friendly banter was aimed at me. I believe Jonathan’s words were “put that in your blog”. I did better in the second game, but sadly to rub salt in the wound Jonathan won.

This was Charlie’s last time at the group. He has had to move away for work. So it was great to have had this opportunity to play some games with him. Good luck Charlie with your year of living in Preston. We hope to see you at the end of September when we attend Tabletop Gaming Living.

We really are grateful to our hosts The White Lion for providing the facilities for us to game.

Dominaria Store Championship

Yesterday I’d finally got my act together and built a standard deck ready for the Dominaria Store Championship at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. I went with big green stompy.

My first game was almost a mirror match up. The main difference was they were playing more artifacts than me. Our 2 games were quick games. Both saw me mulligan to get the right cards that I was looking for. Which was basically to have Llanowar Elves, Steal leaf Champion, a couple of forests in my hand. Everything else in my hand is gravy. Both games saw me get Ghalta out cheaply. The second game I had him buffed up to a 16/16.

I knew my next match wouldn’t be as easy or quick. This win was going to put me in with the big boys.

Despite losing the next round 2-0. It doesn’t show how despite the losses, my deck did ok against the knights deck. The first game was not a complete walk over and saw me frustrating my opponent at almost every turn. Our second game saw an early Silent Grave at least stop some of my opponents graveyard shenanigans that allows him to recur cards. So yeah I lost, but I felt good about it. My deck had put up a good show for itself.

The third and final round saw me up against a blue/white Teferi deck. This was not a fun match up. Our first game saw me mana screwed, then when I tried to get something out it was countered, bounced back to my hand. The usual blue control shenanigans. In the meantime Teferi was out, and able to ultimate. I couldn’t do anything to prevent it. Every time my opponent now drew a card he could destroy one of my permanents, which was at that point 4 lands. The writing was on the wall, I conceded. Our second game was a better start for me, but still unable to keep any creatures out long enough to do any damage. I had lots of mana, but still Teferi kicked in again. So I conceded, no point going through the motions. I lost 2-0, and unlike the previous game, didn’t really enjoy the experience.

My final win loss ratio was 2-4 for the tournament, which was enough to bring me in 6th place, out of 8. So I walked away with 2 copies of the promo for the competition, a cool top 8 deck box, and a participation booster of my choice.

Afterwards we had a casual game of Commander. I played my Elf deck with Doubling Season added. Two of my opponents at the table were the players I lost against in the tournament. Now if allowed elves goes crazy. And they allowed my elves to go crazy. I did take some early hate when there was an artefact out that caused me to take a hit every time a creature came out instead of gaining a life. But my Commander allowed me to shut that off.

Funny enough the Teferi player from the tournament got salty when I killed him off, claiming he was not a threat. And at that point he wasn’t. But I didn’t like the Planeswalker that he had out. Plus before the game started there was a hint from one of the others he could go infinite. I thought he had a bit of a nerve being salty, considering his Teferi deck, and just because his deck hadn’t managed to get going. “This is the reason I don’t play Commander often” were his words to one of the others. I had no guilt. Revenge is a dish best served up in Commander.

To be fair if I had lost the game, I would have been happy it had started to do its thing. And Commander games one moment you are top dog, then something happens (usually a board wipe of some kind) levels the playing field, and then some one else gets the ascendancy. Then the cycle repeats. But I managed to stop a board wipe before it could happen. Got a Doubling Season out, had unlimited hand size, and a lot of cards in hand. So I would have recovered quickly from a wipe. But still I was able to swing in and get lots of damage in. I think at the end, all my elves were +5,+5 from artifacts and an elf played. Then I played an elf that because of Doubling Season came in with 20 +1/+1 tokens on it, which meant all my elves got also +20/+20. It was game over.

An unchecked Elf deck is a dangerous thing.

Afterwards I asked if the others could recommend cards they thought I was missing. I got a couple of good recommendations that I will track down to add to the deck. Which I know now one of my ex-students will be cursing and saying “hell no”.

Next Saturday is Open House weekend. So head down to your local FLGS, get a free Welcome deck, learn to play Magic. Play some games with your new deck. Then get the

full art Guttersnipe promo card. Which is a pretty sweat card in a red burn deck.

If the Magic bug hits you, you can also buy one (or more) of the 5 new Planeswalker decks that stores with a WPN are allowed to sell early at the Open House. The new Planeswalker decks are cheaper now at £10 approximately, but only come with a single booster pack now instead of 2. I don’t mind this, but some players are complaining.

So in a way this is going to be like a pre-pre-release. I like this bit from WotC allowing the FLGS to sell product early.

With all this goodness going on next week you know I’ll be there.

Core 19 Gets Spicy

magic, MtG

I try to not get caught up in the spoiler season for a new set. I keep an eye on the cards being spoilt, but coverage on here is literally zero. Others out there do it so much better than I ever could. Having said that here are some ramblings about the spoilers so far.

Wow WotC are knocking things out of the park at the moment. After recent Core 19 spoilers I’m expecting demand for booster boxes to go up even more. Luckily I’d already pre-ordered 2 boxes to get 2 of the buy a box promos (all part of a cunning plan). But with the announcement of some more reprints that are currently expensive (Crucible of Worlds for instance), well if players weren’t salivating for the new cards they are now.

BattleBond was from a Commander players point of view, a sweet set. Especially considering the dual lands printed, the reprints of Doubling Season, Land Tax and Swords to Plough, and some fun multiplayer cards.

Some recent spoilers make Core 19 very attractive to me as a Commander player and my decks. They certainly will be giving me that hard decision to make of “I like the card, it will go nicely in my deck, but what card does it replace?” This list is just going to grow I think as more cards are spoiled. I like that we are getting new versions of the Elder Dragons. Whether I will do anything with them is another question.

Is Goblin Chainwhirler Good Enough To Make My Mono Red Commander Deck?

magic, MtG

A couple of weekends back now (I think that’s right) was Pro Tour Dominaria. For me with a playset of Goblin Chainwhirler already in my possession from when I was cracking boosters, the news coming out of the event was good. 7 of the top 8 decks had him in. That’s seen his cost shoot up from around $5 to $7 something. Plus there is speculation that WotC may have to ban the card sooner than later from standard.

But the burning question of the day is, “is Goblin Chainwhirler good enough to make my mono red Commander deck?” Followed by “if so which card does it replace?”

Ok before I ramble on about Goblin Chainwhirler, here is a LINK for those that want to refresh their minds of what cards are in my mono red deck.

So Goblin Chainwhirler is a 3 CMC for a 3/3 that has first strike, and an etb that does 1 damage to each opponent, Planeswalker and creature they control.

For my deck the reason this would be added is that etb. It’s a way to clear the board of 1/1 tokens. A second more expensive Blazing Volley. Ok not quiet because after playing I also have a 3/3 creature on the battlefield, but it achieves the same. It’s also been compared in podcasts I’v listened to, to Rampaging Ferocidon. Which is currently banned in Standard. I don’t see this as powerful as Ferocidon that had menace, stopped life gain, and every time a creature entered the battlefield the owner lost a life. Same CMC. However Ferocidon could be discounted, because it cost 2 any mana, and 1 mountain. Compared to Chainwhirler needing 3 mountains.

I think I do currently have a slot for this in the deck. I like Narnam Cobra, a 2 CMC 2/1 colourless artifact creature. But Chainwhirler is the ideal replacement for it. So that was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

My harder decisions I think will be how to fit the following 2 cards into the Scarab God deck and the mono red respectively.

But I’ll talk more about these in a future why did I buy these post. So letting you off the hook there.

Sunday Commanderin

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG

Sunday saw some 40k players taking part in a tournament over at Chatteris.

Luckily there was enough space for not only these miniature gamers but also other gaming like MtG and board games. So an invite was issued for others to come and make use of it.

My FLGS The Hobbit Hole was holding a MtG Standard Showdown, some of us had turned up to play Commander, other general board gaming.

With a failed attempt (once again) to organise a Commander session the previous day to play the new Anthology. I had decided to use the opportunity to play on Sunday to pick up my 2 copies.

When I arrived there was already a Commander game running using a couple of the new reprinted decks. The Atraxa deck being played had a Doubling Season added to it. So while that was going on I picked up my order and opened one up. I then immediately started sleeving the Atraxa deck. This is a deck I really wanted to play. For me it was almost at a mythic/legendary status because of its high cost to buy since coming out in 2016.

In the game currently running, the Atraxa deck was doing it’s thing. However I wish I was paying attention to what the other deck was from the Anthology being played was, because that was the one that ended up victorious.

I really like the presentation of the Anthology set. The only drawback I can think off is instead of the little included leaflet that is more flavour text for the deck than helpful, is a little bit about the tactics, how to play the deck for newer players. A “it would be nice to have” for these anthologies (this includes both sets) is the giant version of the Commander cards that come with the Commander decks when they were sold separately (I’m assuming that the older decks had these).

While the Standard Showdown was going on, 3 of us played Commander. I played my Dinosaur Tribal deck that now had Helm of the Host in it. Sam, John’s daughter played my Atraxa deck, and our third player was playing a Meren deck and all that graveyard shenanigans.

Sadly for the Meren player they were not really allowed to get the graveyard shenanigans going. I was forced by them to do an earlier than planned exiling of graveyards when they went to destroy my Silent Gravestone. But after that the Atraxa deck was exiling cards at will with one of their cards where they spend a swamp to exile a card from a graveyard, and if it’s a creature get a +1/+1 counter. Both our graveyards were hit that way.

I was starting to get a commanding board state, Rampaging Fericidon, and Gishath were out amongst others. Then bam, board wipe. But I was able to rebuild. Bought out my Commander, then Etali came out. I drew into Helm of the Hosts, and after my thinking, equipped Etali with it. Which with a kindred charge played, meant for one turn I was attacking with 3 Etali. Yes just think about that. That turn I killed the Meren player. Next turn Atraxa went down.

My deck had clicked. The Atraxa deck looks a lot of fun and I can’t wait to play it, both the standard unchanged deck, and a modified one. Yes I’m going to do the $20 budget upgrade from mtggoldfish as my starting point.

Sadly I wasn’t able to stick around for a second game of Commander, I made a poor judgement call earlier in the day. If I’d picked up the cat litter on my way out of town I’d have been able to play on. Sadly I didn’t think of that at the time, or I did and was too lazy. But the end result was I needed to hit the pet shop before it shut.

A big thanks to the 40K players for opening up the event to none players to use as well. Had a great afternoon.

Revisiting my first built Commander deck

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


I finally got round to revisiting my first ever Commander deck that I built (which was only last year). I never posted that deck list, I just never got round to it.

The deck was a bit unfocused. I described it as having a plan a, plan b, plan c, and if none of them worked a plan d. The deck could make zombies, or play them. But it also had the ability to punish other players for playing the game. So they could lose life for drawing a card, or lose life for discarding one (which I could then force them to do).

I had fun playing the deck. But I just felt it needed a bit of direction.


I decided to stay with the Scarab God as my Commander, and be a bit more focused in the deck to utilising his ability.

So I’m doubling down on zombies. My creatures are zombies, or if they are not I can make them zombies! There are spells in to generate zombie tokens (lots of them). Naturally there are the classic black cards for tutoring and board wipes.

I think I’ve played the deck 3 or 4 times, and it did it’s thing, or tried to. So I’m pretty happy that it is now going in the right direction.

Too many plans Zombie Focused

Creatures:24

1 Proven Combatant

1 Dire Fleet Hoarder

1 Doomed Dissenter

1 Khenra Eternal

1 Miasmic Mummy

1 Tattered Mummy

1 Burnished Hart

1 Desiccated Naga

1 Eternal of Harsh Truths

1 Liliana’s Specter

1 Liliana, Heretical Healer

1 Lord of the Accursed

1 Moaning Wall

1 Plague Belcher

1 Bloodhunter Bat

1 Carrion Screecher

1 Fate Unraveler

1 Gavony Unhallowed

1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury

1 Liliana’s Reaver

1 Liliana’s Shade

1 Vizier of Many Faces

1 The Scarab God

1 Fleet Swallower

Creatures:22

1 Proven Combatant

1 Doomed Dissenter

1 Khenra Eternal

1 Miasmic Mummy

1 Tattered Mummy

1 Desiccated Naga

1 Eternal of Harsh Truths

1 Liliana, Heretical Healer

1 Lord of the Accursed

1 Moaning Wall

1 Plague Belcher

1 Carrion Screecher

1 Gavony Unhallowed

1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight

1 Liliana’s Reaver

1 Vizier of Many Faces

1 Archfiend of Depravity

1 The Scarab God

1 Archetype of Imagination

1 Soul of New Phyrexia

1 Overseer of the Damned

1 Distended Mindbender

Spells:36

1 Dark Salvation

1 Liliana’s Indignation

1 Sentinel Totem

1 Sol Ring

1 Traveler’s Amulet

1 Consign // Oblivion

1 Crook of Condemnation

1 Essence Scatter

1 Liliana’s Caress

1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh

1 Torment of Hailfire

1 Arcane Adaptation

1 Bontu’s Monument

1 Depths of Desire

1 Heartless Pillage

1 Liliana, the Last Hope

1 Never // Return

1 Oath of Liliana

1 Commit // Memory

1 Damnation

1 Diabolic Tutor

1 Liliana of the Dark Realms

1 Mastermind’s Acquisition

1 Raiders’ Wake

1 Contract Killing

1 Dark Petition

1 Increasing Ambition

1 Liliana Vess

1 Liliana’s Mastery

1 Liliana, Death’s Majesty

1 Painful Quandary

1 Revel in Riches

1 Spell Swindle

1 Deadly Tempest

1 Liliana’s Influence

1 Liliana, Death Wielder

Spells:39

1 Dark Salvation

1 Raise Dead

1 Sol Ring

1 Crook of Condemnation

1 Damping Sphere

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Torment of Hailfire

1 Trespasser’s Curse

1 Arcane Adaptation

1 Fortuitous Find

1 Golden Demise

1 Gruesome Fate

1 Infest

1 Liliana, the Last Hope

1 Never // Return

1 Recover

1 Soul Salvage

1 Sudden Spoiling

1 Wander in Death

1 Damnation

1 Dark Bargain

1 Diabolic Tutor

1 Endless Ranks of the Dead

1 Icy Manipulator

1 Mastermind’s Acquisition

1 Settle the Score

1 Torment of Scarabs

1 Dark Petition

1 Final Parting

1 From Under the Floorboards

1 Increasing Ambition

1 Liliana’s Mastery

1 Liliana, Death’s Majesty

1 The Eldest Reborn

1 Vanquisher’s Banner

1 Deadly Tempest

1 Stir the Sands

1 The Immortal Sun

1 Army of the Damned

Lands:40

1 Barren Moor

1 Blighted Cataract

1 Cascading Cataracts

1 Command Tower

1 Cradle of the Accursed

1 Crumbling Vestige

1 Desert of the Glorified

1 Desert of the Mindful

1 Dismal Backwater

1 Dunes of the Dead

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Fetid Pools

1 Ipnu Rivulet

4 Island

1 Mortuary Mire

1 Nephalia Academy

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Rogue’s Passage

1 Skyline Cascade

1 Submerged Boneyard

1 Sunscorched Desert

13 Swamp

1 Temple of the False God

1 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Vivid Marsh

Lands:39

1 Barren Moor

1 Blighted Cataract

1 Cascading Cataracts

1 Command Tower

1 Cradle of the Accursed

1 Crumbling Vestige

1 Desert of the Glorified

1 Desert of the Mindful

1 Dismal Backwater

1 Dunes of the Dead

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Fetid Pools

1 Ipnu Rivulet

4 Island

1 Mortuary Mire

1 Nephalia Academy

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Rogue’s Passage

1 Skyline Cascade

1 Submerged Boneyard

1 Sunscorched Desert

12 Swamp

1 Temple of the False God

1 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Vivid Marsh

That’s my Scarab God Zombie Deck. What cards would you replace?

Why did I Buy That Card? #6 Emrakul, the Promised End

magic, MtG

Why I bought this card I have no idea. 13 CMC is expensive, but depending on your graveyard could be reduced by a maximum of 8. Being 13/13 is cool but worth the cost? Flying, trample, and protection from instants, does that make it worth the cost? I’m not sure those alone make this card worth it. But the fun factor of casting it and taking over an opponents next turn before returning control to them could be funny. Forcing them to attack another player, cast a spell that could hurt you against another player, the options are limited. But worth the cost? Potentially for the lol’s.

But still I come back to why did I buy this?

Why did I Buy That Card? #5 Iona, Shield of Emeria

magic, MtG

Wow what an expensive card to cast, 9 CMC for a 7/7 flyer! But there must be another reason why this angel is so expensive?

Well there is, and the reason Iona is going in my “still a work in progress” Angel Tribal Commander deck. It’s her ability.

When Iona enters the battlefield, I choose a colour. Seems innocent enough. However my opponents then can’t cast spells of that colour. That’s crippling, and funny. Well funny if you aren’t on the receiving end of it. This ability takes out a mono deck, cripples most decks, or at least cuts down on the cards they can play.

Ok in EDH this might just put a great big target on you. But then again a lot of cards will be doing that.

The nice thing is that despite my opening comment about being expensive, I should hopefully be able to cast her for less. In an ideal world I should be getting at least 2 mana discount on all my Angels. But that is a side of things I need to investigate more. Plus any ramp I have out, it really shouldn’t be that hard to cast.

Why did I Buy That Card? #4 Entreat the Angels

magic, MtG


The thing about Commander, unless your group is hyper competitive you get to play the more costly cards that usually in other formats you don’t get to cast or play with. So this minimum of 3 but more likely 5 CMC Sorcery is totally playable.

I saw this card in a folder at my FLGS, and thought “mmmm, this might be nice in my Angel deck”. The plan isn’t to go wide with the Angel deck but being able to put a handful of 4/4 Angel tokens out to buy me time is a handy trick to have up my sleeve.

Worst case with this card I’m paying the X X and 3 white, which isn’t the end of the world especially in the mid to late game. Ideally I’m casting it for the miracle cost and getting 3 or more of the tokens out. To help with this I may put Sensei’s Divining Top in the deck. The managing the top 3 cards of the deck and controlling the order means I’m more likely to meet that miracle condition.

So there we have it another piece in the work in progress Angel Tribal Commander deck.