The Dragon Ghost of Christmas Past, and My Article From CommanderCast

Holiday Greetings Zoners! 

First things first here's an Ugin, in case you haven't seen it yet. Looks like some hot tech.

As I promised, or in case you didn't know, I've started writing for CommanderCast in addition to what GG and I have cooking over here at TGZ. 

Here's that link: Strategy: Poker? I Barely Commander!

Whatever holiday you celebrate, hope it's sweet. Merry Pizza. 

-UL

Reviewing 2014: GG's Picks

Hello and welcome to the final In General of 2014! All this month I have been looking back at the past year of set reviews on the blog; discussing some of my most and least accurate card evaluations. Today, we continue to review my personal performance. This time looking at the best and worst articles of 2014.

Favorite Post on the blog: Grandpa's Pauper Cube

In many ways I did not have a great year. For the first time since I joined the team here I missed a post. I also totally fumbled the rollout on a bunch of new content that I promised, but never could deliver. However, in other ways I think the year went very well.

In General had a great year. My core business, if you will, is this weekly column. Which, I have kept strong and reliable. The topics have varied widely, as have my motivations and interests, but the core principle of the column is that I bring something new each week: a format you haven't played, a concept you've never heard of, a dynamic that you haven't explored. I always want In General to be about breaking new ground. Showing and growing and churning and burning each week to inspire and edify. I had some innovative articles this year with equally punny titles. Here are just a few:

Vehicular Card Slaughter
Fashion is Danger
Journey to the Center of the Deck

But the best, the absolute cream of the crop this year had to be my month long saga about Pauper Cube. The old saying goes that home is where the heart is. And I know it is true with me. Whenever I drift away to new formats or new decks I am always drawn back to one place. Designing, playing, and maintaining my Pauper Cube keeps me playing Magic. It has kept me from walking away from the game. When you don't have a reliable test partner or a regular play group, what do you do? If you're like me you just dig around in your collection staring at cards for what seems like hours (and many times actually IS hours).

Debating with myself the merits of including Negate over Essence Scatter kept me interested in Magic and it kept my mind focused on the game in times where I easily could have just gone to do something else. It is my Magic muse. It is my baby. It is the most fun and the biggest challenge that I've had with the game. It is my crowning achievement and I was overjoyed at the chance to share it on the blog.

Least Favorite Post: SNAP KEEP?! (all of them)

Unfortunately, things didn't quite turn out as I had planned for the blog this year. I had ambitious goals to expand our posting schedule, add new content, and commit to increasing both our audience and internet presence. Between having to replace my computer, moving to a new city, and starting a new career, I just wasn't able to invest the same amount of time into the blog that I had promised.

I am officially calling SNAP KEEP my worst failure of the year, but the entire expanded content schedule including: news, Ill-Gotten Games, and You Make the Pick all fell flat (and then off the map). These are ideas that I still want to implement, but the future doesn't look like it is going to get any less hectic for me. Perhaps, if we had more resources and staff we could make this a reality...


Favorite Set Review: Khans of Tarkir Utility and Mana

Khans of Tarkir really does have it all. This set was juiced to the wall and there is no way to hide it. It has new players and old fans alike singing its praises. It has constructed powerhouses in every color. It has a surprisingly rich limited format which is a blast to play. Khans brought back tons of great ideas from Magic's past and tuned them up with brand new functionality. My personal favorite twist on what is now becoming a running theme is Villainous Wealth.


Worst Set Review: Born of the Gods Threats

Basically nothing about the cards in this article was good. In fact, the only card from BotG that generated any buzz at all was Kiora, the Crashing Wave and that buzz wore off very quickly; she hasn't seen much play at all in any format.

I don't think that the writing was particularly poor, but I do think that the Creatures in this set were mediocre and forgettable. Unfortunately, that opinion really showed through in the writing. It is just tough to get excited in that kind of situation and when I am not excited about Magic, something is definitely going wrong.

That's all for this week year folks. Enjoy the holiday season and all of its glory: time off from work, good food, family, fun in the snow (not available in all areas). I am off next week, but I will return triumphantly in 2015 with my New Year's resolution article! Happy holidays Zoners.

-GG

My Decks, The Tech, At Year's End.

Happy Last Shopping Weekend Zoners!

Today, we're going to take a quick walk through my Deck Portfolio. I've done a lot of re-tooling this year on most of the stuff that's come through the Better Deckbuilding series, and I thought it'd be a good idea to re-visit what I've been playing and show you the fresh-er tech from the changelog.

Let's go in alphabetical order.

THE ANIMAR DECK

The Thug in RUG got a huge mana upgrade with the scry lands, as well as some moderate pimping as I've started to collect some choice artwork and the cheaper foils. I snapped up copies of all the Duels Titans over the last year, and a few nice promo arts of Mulldrifter, Sakura-Tribe Elder, the cutest foil Pilgrim's Eye, and a cheeky foil Sigiled Skink. I was gifted a foil Clone from a Core Set and foil Archetype of Imagination, which acts as another copy of Sun Quan.

The non-block content was kind to my boy too, getting a sweet Conspiracy card in Dack's Duplicate, and a really excellent support card in Thunderfoot Baloth. I haven't added a Clever Impersonator, but if I can get a foil, I totally will.

BARRIN, MISTER WIZARD

This Barrin deck has been probably the most surprising and most rewarding deck I've built this year. Stacked to the brim with a bunch of cards that I like, I've had a significant amount of fun grinding out games trying to figure out how I'm going to win.

Playing and building this deck has helped me to forge a stronger understanding of myself and the cards I want to play, which has really changed my technical approach of building on TappedOut and scrolling through Gatherer. I still do these things, but putting cards in your hand in the decision-making process is always going to be helpful.

Reef Worm has been my top performer in this deck, probably by a mile. I think the $5 price tag on him explains a lot, but with Barrin, I have ways of ensuring that I get to release the proverbial Kraken. Teferi, Temporal Adept hasn't been too shabby here either, but not as good as Aetherspouts and Polymorphist's Jest, which are possibly better than they look.

GREEN EGGS AND GLISSA

Wanting to get more excited about Glissa, I took off her Dollar General Salary Cap, but kept her namesake's promise intact. In fact, we went old School with the removal, adding Smokestack and Triangle of War, the latter of which being pretty one-sided with a handful of Deathtouch and some seriously big bodies.

The biggest shakeup with Glissa was that she got more threats. She got my Jitte, my Soul(of New Phyrexia), a Spirit(monger) with new art, and a pimpin' promo Thopter Assembly. Oh, and a Doom Engine, that's been known to do a bit of Scuttling.

Still, the best changes I made were to gain some flexibility. Enter Vedalken Orrery, and a foil Shimmer Myr (pronounced Sher-mur-mur), which have been stronger than I thought. All in all the curve got bigger, but the deck got better.

HEARTLESS HIDETSUGU

Me and HH have been through a lot. In the beginning,  he entertained Kiki-Jiki, Siege-Gang Commander, Zealous Conscripts, and a whole host of over-costed removal and burn spells.

This last year, HH has been through a few different transitions. Being probably the most-played of all of my decks, he's seen a lot more cards in his squad. For the first half of the year, I played an eclectic build with Defenders. Post-Khans, I rocked some of the better Morph creatures.

The creature base is still something that needs work, and I like where it's going without the themes. Fortune Thief was a nice pickup, and actually put me in position to win a couple of times. Soul of Shandalar, Impact Resonance, and Flamekin Village were all nice grabs too.

But Daretti though! Probably one of the best Red cards Wizards has printed for us in the last two years. Depending on how you feel about his Commander-ability, he could potentially be among the top Commanders, next to Purphoros. Personally, I'm just happy to see another Red card that gives me access to "Rummaging" aka "Reverse-Looting" effects. Really, he's put this new Sarkhan to shame in terms of deck performance. We shouldn't stop talking about him. All hail Daretti, that glorious spider-wheelchair driving, goblin pope son of a bitch. Red is trending upwards folks. This calls for a Shiva Blast.

WHO'S THAT GIRL? NOT JESS...

Obvious Zooey Deschanel sitcom references aside, it's a fact here on the blog that I Love Land, and I'm not just looking around the room and just saying I love it.

I also love Titania. If there was no Narset in Khans, I think Titania would easily be the best new Commander.

It is for these reasons that Silvos got retired to the great pool of cards sitting in cardboard box on my desk. I Love Land, so does Titania, and she enables the Aggro-Loam deck that Grandpa Growth and I have both attempted to make in various capacities over the years.

The deck has practically built itself, but I've got a few more cards to tune and tweak for the first Better Deckbuilding of 2015. So stay tuned for that.

"THIN LIZZY," DEFIANT HERO

Lin Sivvi has had plenty of power since I designed the deck in the latter half of last year. I really wish I could get more games in with her, but the truth is that she's always going to be a Quality over Quantity kinda gal. So even though she doesn't get a whole lot of play due to time constraints, she's always playing for the long game, which brings the dynamic back to equilibrium.

This is probably a deck I could dedicate some more time to re-tooling in the next year. She's received an equal amount of attention relative to the basic upgrades I made in all of my mono-colored decks (you know, Deal Brokers, Myriad Landscapes, Blasted Landscapes, etc.), but only a handful of other cards have been slapped in. Jazzy G (Jazal Goldmane) found a home in place of a Heliod which I didn't think helped a whole heck of a lot. Arcane Lighthouse is a good tutorable option to help me better spot remove. I was able to trade for an Entreat the Angels. This deck burst onto the scene with a lot of power, so it's just been baby steps. I don't need to invent new ways to win- just new ways to play Mirror Entity.

SAFFI, DA BROKEST

My favorite infinite martyr got some scry land, but didn't need much more upgrading than a Deal Broker. She's such a boss that it wasn't necessary.

KARN AKA MR. BROWNSTONE

We talked about my Karn deck last week, so there isn't much to tell other than the fact that I just traded for a Planar Portal. He gets played, he combos, or we get conquered.

THE REST

We can take a moment of silence for Greel, but I'm not mourning any of the decks that didn't last this year. Greel was one of the most economically sensible approaches to mono-Black, and I wouldn't be surprised if I tried to bring him back. For now though, I'm going to be looking for something new to slot in his place in the portfolio.

In the meantime, I'm rocking Lyzolda, and Obzedat as adequate color replacements. So look forward to stories about them as well.

The last bit of news is pretty sweet. I know you guys haven't seen a lot of me this year, but I'll be ever-present in the online Commander content moving forward. In addition to running TGZ, your home for me and GG's awesome opinions and insight, I will also be writing for CommanderCast.

CommanderCast has produced some of my favorite non-TGZ content over the years, even given me a good framework for sharing all the Super-Secret-Tech I do here. So be sure to peruse the archive and check out the rest of their stuff. They worship Wrexial, Ib Halfheart, and the ever-flavorful Giant Shark, so you know it's good.

My first article runs next week, so if you need to escape the pesky cousins or obnoxious, clueless aunts, uncles, and/or grandparents, you can read how I use basic Poker techniques to improve my Commander game.

Well, that's all I got. All the lists are on TappedOut if you want to check 'em out, +1, and/or follow me.

Anyway, Be Safe, Make Good Choices, Happy Holidays, Pass Turn.

-UL

In General: Reviewing 2014: Misses

Hello and welcome back to In General. We are halfway through December and here on the blog that means it is time for me to take a look back at how I did in 2014. Last week we took a look at the biggest hits; all my predictions that were correct. This week we are tallying up my misses. All the cards that I was wrong about from this year's set reviews. Let's take a look.

My original assessment of this card was that it was good enough to replace the second tier token generators like Conqueror's Pledge. Well, that just wasn't true. Launch saw some very limited play at the Pro Tour, but Standard and Commander are not the same animal. There is no reasons to be playing a token maker that already requires you to have a bunch of Creatures in play.

I don't often make an unmitigated withdrawal of a previous statement, but this card just ain't 'it'. Leave it at home.



Okay guys. I don't know what I was thinking. It just all sounds so good in theory. You get to smash. You get to steal stuff. I should have known that 2/3's for three are not likely to make it work in the cutthroat world of Highlander.

I see a shining glimmer of potential in this card, but I don't think there is any real way to break it. I just got a little over excited about this dashing rogue.







I started to smell the coffee when I scrubbed out of two separate drafts that began with Flamespeaker. I just don't know what it is. This seems like the kind of thing that Red really wants, right?

Well, something here isn't right. If it were a two drop, or if the P/T were reversed, maybe we would see more production out of this guy, but things really have not panned out well for this card. This is particularly disappointing for me because I am always trying to make Red work.




I have to be completely honest. I don't see anything wrong with this card. I can't think of even one single thing. There are plenty of Blue/Black reanimator decks, but in the six months since this card came out I have not cast it nor played against it even once. Why are people not playing this? I was sure that it was immediately going to make a splash in Commander. I guess I can't always be right, but this one kind of stings because I was really excited for this card. Maybe it just wasn't mean to be. That is a shame though; this sewer monster is just sooo cute!



I had this one pegged for the bargain bin. This is easily the biggest miss of the year for me. I made comparisons between this and Treasure Cruise in the Khans Review articles that were not very favorable, but it would appear that Dig has just as much to offer the discerning Blue mage as Cruise and then some.

In fact, the popularity of combo decks in various formats have propelled Dig to equal Treasure Cruise in playability.

It is interesting to me to see how the story develops as we draw closer and closer to the next banned and restricted list update for both Modern and Commander. Many writers, including myself, expect to see both Dig and Cruise banned in Modern. At any rate, I am taking my yearly dose of humble pie. Dig Through Time is pretty awesome, I was wrong. What else is new?

That is all for today my fellow Magic fans. Next week we will continue our yearly review with my picks for the best and worse posts from 2014.

UL's Better Deckbuilding: The Chronicles of Karn-ia

Happy Thor's Day Zoners! Landdrops here with another installment of Better Deckbuilding with Karn, the Rock Monster Mainstay.

WHY KARN?

Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this one.

A few years ago I played against this deck. My opponent had the deck at at least 60% foil, probably more, including some of the most expensive foils I've ever seen.

This was at a different shop, so for a metagame where the average game includes 5+ players, I found this to be a pretty effective deck.  The quick acceleration combined with the overstimulation of Commanders and cards getting played help to leave the old Mirrodonian(?) appear less threatening than some of the bigger players I saw there. Coupling big, hard-to-remove threats with access to a handful of infinite mana combos, the deck was something I saw as "Neat, but not my style."

After completing the Double Rainbow project this year, I felt a need to go into some new territory for something challenging and fresh. I know, Karn has basically been around for a long time, but I think everyone can understand the idea of seeing old cards as new challenges, which is what happened here.

THE STRATEGY

The first pledge I made in construction of this deck was to not play any Eldrazi cards at all, avoid Blightsteel, and not play Mass Removal or Mycosynth Lattice.

After getting beat pretty handily in his inaugural voyages into 1v1 and multiplayer, it was clear to me that Lattice, O-Stone, Disk, and All Is Dust were necessities Karn needed if I was to ever win a game.

Having rules likes this in design are just as important as knowing when to break them. I talk a lot about design constraints, and how to keep them, but this is a good example in the case of its opposite.

For me, and those Zoners who are privy to the 72-page density of Joseph Conrad, building and playing Karn was my proverbial voyage into the "Heart of Darkness." With few options for Threats and Answers, the point of restraint and resistance to slamming Eldrazi is a pretty thin line.

The plan with Karn is to use his ability in a couple of instances. One, being the ability to create infinite mana combos with Voltaic Contrstruct and either Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, Grim Monolith, or Mana Vault in order to fuel other cards. Maybe it's a Darksteel Colossus. Maybe it's a Mycosynth Lattice. Maybe it's just a lot of Animated Artifacts. This has been, more times than not, how the deck effectively ends the game.

The second instance of Karn-imation (Animating friends for Karn) is part of what I just mentioned- swinging at our opponents. We're not being Aggro, per se- we're attacking when we can get ahead in the life total game, or there's an opening for our Dreamstone Hedron to come to life and smack an opponent for a big 6 damage without us feeling overextended and that potential 3 mana misused. This is a pretty conservative deck overall, seeing as how one Bane of Progress will, as I call it, "mmmBoP"  us to death. And if you even know who Hanson is, you know that this is equally as painful.

The third instance in which this deck wants to animate artifacts is to surprise trade defensively, or to keep us from not dying. Being a conservative deck, we're more often than not fine with taking points of damage versus chump blocking until it matters. Mostly, this deck wants to play for the next turn to see if we can draw into a combo.

THE TECH

The first piece is a new one, and a nice addition. In conjunction with our primary combo, We can essentially draw our whole deck. Not to mention that we can also attack with it if we have too many cards. This is a card that Karn needed, but I can't imagine a justification in other decks. It just doesn't do enough anywhere else.

Again, this is another card I probably wouldn't play anywhere else. Unbanning this surely changed the conversation for Karn too. Having yet another piece to combo infinitely, or just drop early and slam a threat helps to give the deck that taste of power.

Also, if I haven't said it yet, I was not on board with this unbanning. Call me hypocritical, but I found it as such when the Rules Committee felt it necessary to justify their, "Just say No" campaign for Rofellos and Braids. It's probably the first time I've disagreed with what they've done, so it is worth mentioning again. And if they're going to give me things to abuse, then well, I'm going to do it. It's just good business and human nature. This deck may be all about robots, but I'm not.

One of the best cards for this deck is Memory Jar. Already being good, I know obvious card is obvious.

However, this is another card that finds its stride in colorless. Without a lot of card draw, it can do exactly what it's been doing since Urza's Legacy- giving you extra cards and tempo-locking your neighbors out of others.

With Karn out and cards in hand, Memory Jar also becomes exciting to battle with. Size-wise, these are the kinds of artifacts Karn wants to bring to life.

The mana base in this deck isn't quite where it needs to be yet, but this one of the few pieces of tech that can be powered-up here. The same goes for the Tron Lands, which I've activated two times more than I ever thought I would. (Obviously, I thought it would never happen.)

I don't have Vesuva yet, but copying it with Thespian's Stage and slamming Glimmerpost has been a real treat. Maximizing this economy in the future seems pretty sweet.

Another sweet new piece of tech is Tomb of the Spirit Dragon.

One of the most difficult parts about constructing the mana base for this deck is being able to manage every piece of tech you have. The Expedition Map package is gigantic. I can't tell you how many times I've taken damage when I had untapped land and a Mystifying Maze. You'd think someone who loves the lands would pay a little bit more attention.

Anyway, Tomb of the Spirit Dragon is a nice little utility land that gives us a "mana sink" and a way to gain back life we might've lost if we were fools initially and forgot to tap our mana for Mystifying Maze during combat. With Lattice and Clockwork Omens in multiplayer, this is even more nuts.

The other TPB, The Pirate Bay, may have been raided by INTERPOL or Swedish Police (I don't remember what the article said) this week, but that shouldn't stop anyone from showing your acronym-twin support for Teferi's Puzzle Box. That's because I put a relevant news plug in here that's completely unrelated to a Magic card Wizards has printed in various ways since Visions.

This is just another deck where TPB's going to be effective, forcing your opponents to keep cards in their hand if they want to see more of their deck, and giving you more cards to find combos for, which is going to be a likely scenario at just about every stage of the game.

Last card I'll talk about is Serum Visions.

What's worth mentioning is the insane amount of charge counters that can happen here. Serum Tank ensures that as long as you're being active, you'll be able to draw some gas if you have nothing else to do. And this deck can do some good durdling.

Anyway, this is my list. It's got a few updates that I'll make in the next day or two, but most of the pieces are intact. Lemme know what you think.

The Chronicles of Karnia

Pass.
-UL

Reviewing 2014: Hits

Welcome to The General Zone's annual review of ITSELF! At the end of the year we should always take a moment to look back and reflect on what we have accomplished this year. Here on the general zone we have had an interesting journey in 2014. Plenty of twists, turns, and surprises. In today's article I will be examining my own performance in the set review articles...starting with my successful predictions. If you were hoping to hear about my most dramatic slip-ups and omissions, stay tuned to the blog because next week's In General will be fully dedicated to my biggest misses.

So just to be clear, if you see a card on this list it means that my pre-release predictions about the card came true. Either I said it was bad and it was, or I said it was great and it is.

This card drew a lot of attention when it was initially previewed. There were many opinions about its playability on both sides of the coin. I however, would like to take full credit here for correctly determining that it was, in fact, not good.

The real killer here seems to be that there is really no easy way to repeat this effect. Worst Fears can give you a big advantage, but the up front cost is high. Additionally, being a Sorcery means that you don't have much control over when you pull the trigger on this, which is unfortunate.



I feel bad about this one, but when you're right: you are right. I think that everyone, from the design team, to the community, to the players, wanted Godsend to be good. It is just a really cool idea, but the execution falls short.

Personally, this doesn't discourage me, and I hope that it doesn't discourage R&D either. I want to see more Legendary planeswalker equipment in the future. I would love to find out what Sorin's sword could do or what Ajani's busted shovel-axe is supposed to be called.

It is pretty unfortunate that this is two colors, but that could also be a good thing. If this were just one color it would really be tearing up the league. Listen guys, I am going to break it down here for you real simple like: Haste is good. I know this might not be much of a revelation, but I have to take victories where I can get them.

This has been a banner year for Clone effects. We have seen some great updates that have brought this effect back to the forefront of the Commander game. After a change to the rules for how Commander treats cards like this one just a year ago, things were looking grim for the future playability of our shapeshifting friends. I for one am glad to see that they are still around and kicking, maybe as good as ever.

The Rabblemaster! Sir Rabblerino has had a great end to the year. A breakout performance in Standard has brought Gobbos back in to the spotlight in a big way. I am usually not down with the G-men, but I have been excited to watch the coverage of high-level tournaments this season because of how cool this Jeskai has turned out to be in Standard. It has been cool to see how the archetype has developed from the release of Khans, to the Pro Tour, to the Grand Prix scene. I am finally excited about pro-level Magic again.





Here we have another M15 card that is Standard legal, but this one hasn't yet been given its chance to shine...in Standard. To my people who keep an impressive library size, we have been loving the new Nissa. Apparently she is still on Zendikar and still busting stuff up.

Bring it in close here guys, because I have something important to tell you: Four lands...is a lot of lands. As Creatures and spells get cheaper and more efficient, four land might mean more than they ever have in the past.

This gal just makes so much mana, how could she not be good? Well, if you still haven't gotten on the bandwagon, we have plenty of room! Come and see why the grass is greener on the Green side of the fence.

Say no to the Rhino! Hushwing has seen action in Standard, Modern, and some limited Commander play. I have switched away from playing Aven Mindcensor and instead I am now packing Hushwing Gryff whenever I can.

I think that it is pretty funny that the place you most want to play this is in Modern Pod decks, but there are so few Pod decks left in the format that you don't have to worry about the mirror match very much.

You know I had to talk about this at some point. My exact words were something like, this is the closest thing to Ancestral Recall that we are going to get. AND BOY IS IT CLOSE! There isn't much left to be said about Treasure Cruise that hasn't already been said so I will just leave it here.

Alright, it's time to return to my college football extravaganza! I will be back next Sunday where we will turn the tables and take a look at my biggest whiffs; the worst predictions that I made in 2014.

-GG

Glowing Ranks: Played and Unplayed From Commander 2014

Hey all. Landdrops here with another episode of Glowing Ranks.

Today we're gonna talk Commander 2014. I've had a pretty swell time checking out the new tech, and now felt like a good chance to get out of the streets and report in on my findings.

Since I've been a little behind the curve, I'm double dipping on Top 5's today, and it's going to work out. There's a lot to like out of the C14 stuff- some I've gotten a chance to play, some I haven't. So there's the dichotomy- 5 best cards I played, and my fave five that are looking to get in on the action.

THE UNPLAYED


5. Aether Gale

I don't have a copy of this card yet, and though apprehensive, I'm gonna trust GG's assessment in the review and throw it into my Barrin "Pile Of Fairness" deck I wrote about last time.

Unlike other blue cards, my biggest concern is the slowness of the card, not maintaining six legal targets. Sorcery speed makes this card, too fair. Maybe it find a home with other fair things. I don't know.








4. Fell the Mighty

This Lin Sivvi Rebels deck I've been running is going to love another one-sided "Power Wrath." Retribution of the Meek is one of the biggest bombs I have to use in conjunction with Mirror Entity. While this costs a little bit more, I'm with GG on this- Fell the Mighty is gonna be a house everywhere it can see play.

The big reason is that it has the capacity to protect low-power Aggro Commanders like Daxos and Doran, creating an evasion haven for these guys to go Voltron and put your opponent a turn behind the curve. It's a solid card that's easy on the eyes.





3. Masterwork of Ingenuity

I'm a sucker for clone effects and equipment, which made me apprehensive in my pre-order due to the "pizza milkshake" concept. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, this is what I mean.

Pizza = Good.

Milkshake = Good.

Pizza + Milkshake = Plain Gross.

Another reason to play this card is that not only can you tutor for it with Stoneforge, Taj-Nar Swordsmith, Steelshaper's Gift, and Stonehewer Giant, but it's also a great card for the mono-Blue Trinket Mage package. Do your opponents like to show off their Swords of X and Y? Do they like to play Jittes and swing beats? If so this is a nice metagame option for like, one-fifth to one-tenth of the market price for the Good Stuff.

2. Domineering Will

DW is a card I predict to be much more one-sided in a deck where Barrin is the general. At instant speed, I can generate about as much or more value in an opponent's combat step with exponential opportunities for value.

The lines of play are always going to result in x-for-1 trades, where x is dependent on how you want to interact with Barrin, especially with mana later on in the game.


1. Malicious Affliction


My top card is Double Doom Blade, and the reason it's not in any deck yet is because I have yet to ascertain what this card means. It's not bright. It's not vivid. It's that morbid, disgustingly good kind of card I try to save for my favorite decks.

Recently, I retired Greel, so it might be a while before I find a home for this sucker. If the fixing were better, this is really a Glissa T's card, but not one I want to have to count on, with it being double black and Glissa T's having double green. We'll see. I might just get the itch to throw it in anyway.

THE PLAYED

5. Nahiri, the Lithomancer

Now, Nahiri isn't a card I've physically played, but I've seen enough of it already to tell you it's kind of exciting, even though I'm not fond of walkers coming from the Command Zone.

With her Stoneforging ancestor and the aforementioned Equipment tutor package, Nahiri is in a unique position to power up bad equipment and break the top tier cards. Add the Lithomancer to a list of cards the rock with Skullclamp. Mono-White now has a way to create a card draw engine.

The -2 is also nice when you have clunky Kaldra pieces or an Argentum Armor for which there is no reason on this earth to pay full price.

Overall, I'm still okay with it. It's not game-ending, but she does work.

4. Daretti, Scrap Savant

I'm surely guilty of liking this card too much, but I don't think anyone can blame me.

I've already dusted off the Inglourious Basterds "Doh-me-neek Dee-co-co" jokes when I activate his abilities. I hold out my hand and say, "More Dah-ray-tee."

None of the Daretti cards in my group stay out for long, but it's too fun to miss every time Goblin Pope of Artifacts finds himself out and looting. So don't be a square. Buy your Daretti today.

3. Titania, Protector of Argoth

I texted GG about this card, but what I really wanted to do was pull a Back to the Future and say, "Yo, Chuck. This your cousin, Marvin Berry. You know that sound you been looking for?" and then hold the phone up so he could hear the sounds of repeated Strip Mines and multiple Life from the Loam triggers as I stomp my opponents with 5/3's.

No one wants, or should buy, the mono-Green Commander product- unless you want all of the Elves. But unlike Titania, that bores me.

Silvos got retired because of just how nuts the dedicated Titania Aggro-Loam deck has been. There are so many elements of combo and card advantage and tempo that are just too good to pass up.

Titania is the card I thought she was going to be in the Legends Review, and the deck is exactly what I thought it would be. All in all, it's fresh, unique, and I hope R&D are able to find more ways to combine these styles of effects and incorporate them into Commander.

2. Reef Worm

Lil Reefy fit perfectly into the Barrin deck I'd started playing at the time it was spoiled, so I knew it was a must-have in the pre-order.

Again, the Worm's been as good as anticipated, comboing with Barrin to give me chump blocks, a threat, and multiple chances to bounce things that are in my way.

There are some people who haven't gotten the Kraken yet. Obviously, this deck is a great niche include because it's always going to be, as Qui-Gon says, the proverbial "bigger fish."

1. Myriad Landscape

I got 8 copies of Myriad Landscape in my pre-order. That's not only a testament to how much I believe in the power of card advantage, but also in anticipation of this card tripling or quadrupling in price.

Being that most of my decks at any given time are mono-colored, this wasn't just mindless and arbitrary either. All of my decks are packing the immense value you're going to get from this card. It's one tap-land I think I can get behind, even in decks that I thought might not want it.

Opening hands with 2 lands and a Landscape have never been so sweet. Getting value at your deck's foundation is the best thing the design team did for us in this product, and that kind of structural support really helps to pave way for more of these big bad monsters and spells they also like to pump out every year. It's just one card, but Myriad Landscape is a gigantic step in the right direction.

What did you like in C14? What did you hate? Let us know in the comments below!

Pass Da Turnski.
-UL

In General: A Theoretical Mailbag Part II

Hello and welcome back to In General. Last time we were discussing some questions that I am frequently asked by readers. At the time of this writing I am travelling in preparation for my Thanksgiving celebrations, so today's article will be short and sweet. If you missed the previous article scroll and down to read below. Let's get to the questions.

How did you get you start with Magic?

I began playing the game when I was very young. My brothers were given some cards by a friend. It was mostly junk from the early expansions of the game. At the time, Ice Age had just come out. I really had no idea about the bigger game because I was so young at that time. I thought that the cards that were in that box were the only cards that would ever exist.

I became obsessed with Blue early on, mostly because that was the only thing that I could play. One brother had staked off Red and the other Green and White. I remember trying to cram more and more counterspells into my deck until it was about eighty or so cards. There were only two creature cards in the whole deck: a Merfolk of the Pearl Trident and a Leviathan, probably thirty counterspells. This was not a good deck. It was until a few years later before I started to realize why I lost all the time. I thought that the game was one hundred percent luck. It hadn't yet occurred to me that I had choices and those choices could affect the outcome of the game. It was Magic that taught me that skill existed and what it meant.

I started playing and learning about the game more seriously when Mercadian Masques came out and I started to buy boosters and play at the local store much more. That is when things started to really pick up. I began playing MTGO right as 7th Edition came out because they let you play a free trial which was really cool to me since I still had a monthly allowance from my parents of like ten bucks.

What is your favorite draft format of all time?

I am going to assume that we aren't talking about Cube, because we all know that I would say Cube. I loved Rise of the Eldrazi, but so did pretty much everyone else, because it was sweet. I really like Invasion-Planeshift-Apocalypse. I like that old-timey wild west feel that formats used to have. Wizards has really made a lot of progress in simplifying and streamlining the limited experience in the last ten years, but some part of me will always be partial to the old school Magic I used to know. Drafting prior to 8th Edition was a whole different ball game.

What was your favorite set?

Champions of Kamigawa. No further explanation.

Favorite card?

Grandpa Growth. Duh.

Well, what was your favorite constructed environment?

Again, assuming that current Pauper doesn't exist? The last time I played Standard was years ago. The last time that I enjoyed Standard was long before that. Probably, Onslaught-Mirrodin Standard. Everyone remembers how brutal Affinity became, but no one remembers that Affinity had a very bad matchup against Astral Slide. Do you know why? WRATH OF GOD. The last time Wrath was legal was about a full decade ago, and after they took it away Magic went through one of the worst periods in its history. Coincidence? I think not.

Why do you always want to draft five color?

I am not going to tell you what my limited rating is, but it is high. Higher than you'd believe. I play a lot of limited and I understand the game well enough to see the lines that you can draw across formats. When I get tired of playing a format, which happens pretty quickly these days, I just like to play five color. Many modern limited sets are so similar to each other that they often get solved in a matter of weeks. I want to keep playing, but I can't keep myself interested unless I am still learning and trying new things.

Plus, we all know it deep down inside: Five color was the way that the game was meant to be played.

That's all for today Zoners. I hope you enjoyed your turkey and time off. We will be back next week to start off our second annual year-in-review series, starting with the "Hits". I'll see you then.

-GG

In General: A Theoretical Mailbag

Hello and welcome to In General, the segment where your old Grandpa Growth talks about a broad range of topics like: strategy, psychology, new formats, and whatever else I feel like throwing at you. Today we're not doing that.

Today, we are answering questions. You're questions. To Me. It is like a 'mail bag' article, but we don't get mail. Please don't send me anything. This is a blog. On the internetz. We communicate with electricity instead of paper. Welcome to the future...

What formats are you playing?

I don't play Legacy, Vintage, or Modern. I think that these formats are all very interesting, but they just don't appeal to me. In paper, the constant activation of fetchlands makes any game in an eternal format very laborious. Also, they tend to get stale very quickly once the buzz from a new set dies down. Take Modern right now: It was solved and there were established decks, Khans comes out and changes those decks, but now there is a new set of decks. I wouldn't exactly call it 'solved', but we are close enough that you are just going to be playing the same few matchups over and over. For that reason, I try to steer clear. I play Commander in paper and I will play Cubes of various flavors, but that is pretty much it.

Online, I don't mind fetchlands at all. The interface on MTGO may not be the best, but it cuts down a lot of the wasted time that you need to do things like draft or shuffle. I love to play online for the convenience. I partake in Pauper, MTGO cube, Commander, and a variety of limited events. Currently, I am playing a lot of Khans draft because it is pretty great.

I have heard that a lot of people play Standard. I don't. The last time I played in a Standard event was an FNM in Shards-Zendikar Standard. The last time I played a competitive REL or higher event was in the mid 2000's.

What decks do you play in format x?

Commander: My decks don't change much. I only change a few cards per year unless something dramatic happens. I have been playing Glissa the Traitor, Maelstrom Wanderer, and Bruna Light of Alabaster since they were released. I also have a Jhoira of the Ghitu deck that I have been playing since Scars block and a Nicol Bolas deck that I have had in various forms for many years off-and-on. I always have at least two side projects that I will get excited about and build, but never really develop. Currently, those are Sharuum the Hegemon and Purhporos God of the Forge.

Pauper: I literally own the entire format. My MTGO collection, much like my paper collection, is old and includes thousands of cards. So I basically play whatever I want to when I enter the cue. Delver is still the best deck, that is pretty obvious. I have been brewing a lot lately trying to come up with something else to play that can actually compete with the field. I have been working a new version of Mono Black that is more aggressive, but I am stuck at an impasse. If you want to beat Delver you can. There is a way. Play your own Delvers, but maindeck all four Hydroblasts and all four Pyroblasts. Don't play Counterspell, play Dispel. The problem with this is that you are worse off against any other decks and you are only like 60-40 vs. Delver. That is a lot of loss for little gain.

Sidenote: I have played against the same guy 6 or 7 times in the last couple weeks and he is playing UW control with Jeskai Student. He is beating the crap out of me with a deck that looks like a steaming pile. I might have to play that, maybe it is the future.

But what else are you playing?

When I am not playing Magic...? That is what I do to exercise my mind. I play drums to exercise my creative muscles. I like jazz, blues, and progressive metal. I play Ultimate Frsibe to exercise my body. When I am goofing off I play a variety of Steam games. I am addicted to the value of Steam sales.

What is your creative process?

When I first began writing about Magic I never thought about it. I just turn on some music and sit down at my keyboard. It was well into my second year before I stopped and thought: "what am I going to talk about this week?" If you have never done a periodical you may not think about the commitment it takes to regularly produce something on the same schedule without hitting any hiccups. Everyone has deadlines at work, but this is something that we do in our 'off time' you might say. So finding room in my schedule to write for an hour or two hours (in the case where no additional research is required) is tough. I just have to get it done so I can move on to other things (or play more Borderlands apparently). 

My creativity comes in waves, so I have to capture that in the moment. Sometimes I will just jot down all my ideas on a list and pull from them later. Sometimes I will write multiple articles weeks in advance. I am almost always a week ahead so that I can take care of editing and formatting issues before the piece goes up, but there have definitely been times where I was writing my articles the day of. So far, I have been doing it over two years and only missed one post. I am satisfied with those results.

The easiest way that I get material is that I sit down to write and have more to say than I originally thought. We have targets for word count and such so I often have to break my articles into multiple parts to keep the length appropriate. That results in me writing up to a month's worth of content all at once, and uploading it over time. That was the case with the Pauper Cube series and that is also the case with this very article.

You're an MTG writer, do you like any other MTG community authors?

Of course! I love to read and to digest other opinions. That is the primary way that I learn about the game. My favorite is Matt Sperling of Channel Fireball, particularly "Sperling's Sick of It". I agree with him about a great many things and I love to bark up the authority tree when I see someone do something that doesn't make sense to the community.

Also on CFB, I like Alexander Shearer and Frank Karsten. They have a very analytic approach to the game that I respect. The numbers don't lie kids.

I dig pretty hard on Adam Styborski, creator of Gatheringmagic.com I modeled my Pauper Cube off his design and routinely go to his site for all my spoilers.

Are you actually a Grandpa?

No. Also, my last name isn't actually Growth.

Why do you even have pen names then? 

That is a really good question. UL had one, and when I came on board I just followed suit. So did the other guys. It is kind of our thing, I guess. We don't really have anything to hide, in fact, if anything our anonymity is kind of bad. It prevents us from growing our audience face to face. People wouldn't ever recognize me if they saw me at a store or event.

That is all for this week guys. Next week, I will be doing another article like this, tackling more of the most common questions that I get from players and readers. After that, we are on to December, the end of the year, and time once again for our annual review articles. See you then and enjoy the turkey.

-GG

Card Corner: Let's Make A Deal...Broker

Zoners, I'm sure it happens more often than not that I miss cards that represent pure, unadulterated value. Sometimes, it is just miscalculation, sometimes I'm just looking at the card in the wrong light.

Whatever the case, today's Card Corner segment is an attempt to redeem myself on perhaps the best tech to come out in Conspiracy.

Ladies and Gentlezoners, I missed a colorless Merfolk Looter, and while I'm sure you can see all the massive block of text which could made me ignore it, there is no excuse, and that's why we're here- it's all about redemption.

The truth is, Deal Broker breaks, in my mind, the concept of a bargain. It's a utility dude a la Looter that slots into every artifact deck in the format, and every deck that wants the benefit of an extra card or a Reanimator package. If you're thinking, "Hey, that's like... 70 different decks," well, you're right. It's about as useable as Solemn Simulacrum.

Now, we've got to talk about the drawback. Obviously, there's a couple points I need to make to counterbalance the Nic Cage "high praise" I've heaped on this card.

First and foremost, three-cost looters don't bode well against the control deck curve. What makes Merfolk Looter innately powerful as utility is that your opening hand can survive 2 lands, nonsense and a Looter because most decks aren't going to want to waste a counter early on, or you're on the play and they don't have double Island yet.

At 3 CMC, it's going to be slower than you might want. Let me remind you though, that most of the decks going to play this are going to be ones that both want draw power, and have access to artifact-synergy.

The decks that will take the best advantage of Deal Broker's game-breaking card advantage will be blue and red decks, as they already have access to similar cards or redundancies and artifact color support.

Glissa the Traitor is in a unique position to get immense value from Deal Broker, with abundant tutelage, Beacon of Unrest, and Glissa engine triggers.

Aside from being supported well in the Glissa T's Murder Machine, I can't see it being supported well in Green and Black, which might be a problem if you're trying to create something more consistent.

White is going to present less options, which will make this great addition, but a volatile one. The cool thing is that it has some synergy with Equipment decks that like to grab artifacts out of the bin, and is conveniently a 3-cost permanent, which makes it fair game for Sun Titan.

Price-wise, this is a $.25-.50 card, making it prime for high investment. I suggest you buy-low. Cause if anything, my massive purchases of this card will only artificially inflate it.

Eat Your Wheaties, Play Your Solemns, and Go Forth Unto The World and Break The Game With Deal Broker.

Pass.
-UL

Commander 2014 Review: Utility and Mana

Welcome to the fourth and final installment of The General Zone's Review of Commander 2014. We have been very excited about this set, both because of the cards and the establishment of a pattern that signals yearly releases for Commander products in the future. If you have missed any of the previous segments of the review please check them out here: Threats, Legends, Answers.

In this segment we will finish up the review by taking a look at the mana and utility cards. A mana card is simple to define: it produces mana, fixes colors, or puts lands into play. Utility cards is a much broader category. Generally speaking, they expand the options and functionality of your deck. They might allow you access to new lines of play or increase your resource base. This category is essentially a catch-all for everything that doesn't fit anywhere else. Check the individual card descriptions for details.

Our first offering is a spin-off of an old theme. The 'siren' mechanic is flavorful and powerful, but has often been relegated to limited-only play. The ability to sing someone's Creature to shipwreck in a suicide charge is useful, but highly situational. This card would have similar problems if it weren't for the ability to direct attackers elsewhere around the table. In a multiplayer game this really can't go wrong, unless the opposition chooses to gang up on you for your abuse of their attack steps.

Realistically, this is going to get removed by the first person who gets pissed off by it, but I don't think that is so bad. Getting them to spend removal on your cheaper, low-end cards is a good way to save your game-enders from getting immediately killed. Most of the time though, this is either going to paint a target on your back or get swept up in a Wrath. As interesting as this twist on a limited favorite may be, I can't recommend it for serious players.



I only have one question: why doesn't this untap lands? That is a real bummer. Picture this scenario: The game has moved into the sunset stages; what Uncle Landdrops affectionately terms the late-late game. Somebody topdecks a nightmare card, but everyone is out of gas. You know that you don't have a counterspell, but it doesn't seem like anyone else is going to be able to do anything either. So you draw a bunch of cards to dig toward and answer, but you spent a ton of mana trying to do it. You can let someone else do the same, but they may not have the land to cast the counterspell that they find either. You're stuck.

The above situation might seem like a narrowing of the card's potential, but if I may speak honestly: that kind of desperation is the only reason I could see myself casting this card. For the same mana cost you can get the same amount of cards or more and NOT give any extra advantages to an opponent. You need a reason to cooperate with the people who are trying to defeat you, like a cheaper price tag or a unique effect. This card really has nothing that I want.


Perhaps someone can take this opportunity to explain the point of group hug decks to me. The goal of the game is to win. If you are not trying to win the game you are really just an obstacle to the people who are taking the game seriously. If you look at Magic as a means to socialize, you picked a great hobby, but that doesn't mean that you need to go so far as ignoring the strategy of the game. I like close games. Grindy games. I don't like it when somebody plays weird crap like this and just enables another player to combo off instantly. That is not 'in the spirit of the format' or in the spirit of stuff Grandpa likes either.

A separate argument: Do you know how many cards you could get yourself for this amount of mana? I mean without giving anyone else any. Because that number is big. Convincingly big, if you will. Big enough to make me never want to play Pheldagriff.



This card is pretty lame. It is pretty much a hundred percent worse than other Furnace effects. Why the design team thought that this was the direction they wanted to take things, I can only guess. Quite frankly, I find this kind of stuff offensive. This is chaff and should have been omitted from the product entirely. The only reason I choose to comment on it here is that it opens up avenues for future development in this design space. Below I have submitted a sample design for review by our readership:

--
Bitter-er Feud
4{R}
Enchantment

As Bitter-er Feud enters the battlefield, choose two players.

Creatures controlled by one of the chosen players may only attack the other chosen player or a planeswalker that player controls.

If one of the chosen players leaves the game, sacrifice Bitter-er Feud and the other player may draw a card.
--


This card is going to lead to some incredibly one-sided victories. Some people are going to say that this is bad. They are going to try it out and have it under-perform their expectations. These people are bad at Magic, bad at deck building, and generally don't understand the concept of strategy. This is one of the best cards in the set and it is totally broken. You can quote me on that. Troll on my minions.






I would love for other people to beat the crap out of each other for my personal gain, but I am just not interested in investing a card and SEVEN mana in making that happen. There is another way to achieve this outcome: be less obnoxious than at least one other player in the game.

I am the type of guy in my play group where, when we all shuffle up to play, I am the number one target from the jump. People don't need any excuse to come after me because they know that I am packing heat and I play to win. I could easily see equipping this onto a Creature and then everyone else in the game just refuses to attack with it because they know that if it is part of my game plan, they are better off not playing along.



It is pretty unfortunate that they keep printing mana rocks that cost more mana than I want to pay. You see, I shy away from Artifact mana because it is so fragile. Commander's Sphere actually deals with this problem nicely by letting me cash it in for a fresh card with no activation cost. However, I have completely stopped playing mana rocks that cost more than two.

When I make my mulligan decision, I am not going to keep a hand that features two lands and an accelerator that I can't cast. I have lost too many games that way. I prefer to have more real lands in play and keep land heavy hands with the expectation that the game will go on for many turns. This happens to be the case in most Commander matches anyway.

I do especially enjoy the juicy irony that a Commander-specific card is basically unplayable in all of my Commander decks. I would really look forward to playing this in Pauper Cube if the templating weren't so decidedly asinine.


Masterwork of Ingenuity is another in the not-so-long line of Legacy-staple cards that have been specifically introduced in Commander sets for the purpose of intentionally bypassing Standard legality. Remember True-Name Nemesis...yea...that was fun.

I have some serious gripes about the design of this card though. It has the equipment subtype, but no equip ability. It is, I believe, the first card designed this way. It seems as though the design team created it with the sole purpose of combining it with Stoneforge Mystic in Legacy. I like that they made this card, but I have serious misgivings about the way that they chose to implement this idea and the impact that  choice could have on other formats besides Commander.

It is an overly expensive mana rock that doesn't even produce a single color. This card is stone unplayable. Or rock unplayable if you enjoy puns. People are going to retort that this card is good because it has extra value later in the game...here is an idea:

Why don't you add value by DOING YOUR FREAKING JOB! 'Added' value means going above and beyond the call of duty. Going before and below said call and also stopping to pick up a snack on the way home is not adding value.





My friends, I believe that we finally have the answer.

Just kidding, we don't have a damn thing. Remember Homeward Path and how sweet it was when it first came out? Everyone was playing it and thinking it was so great. And for a while it actually was pretty good, but there is an upper limit on how much pollution you can poor into your mana base before your deck is completely unplayable.

I don't play Homeward Path because I am not worried about people stealing my stuff. I hardly have anything of my own anyway. I have more Control Magics in my decks than I do actual threats. The same logic will keep me from sleeving up Arcane Lighthouse. I just play more Wraths and less Paths. Seems like an easier way to defeat Geist of Saint Traft than getting color screwed.


This card is pretty hot. I don't think I am ever going to be able to reveal an Elemental. I am going to be revealing so many Mulldrifters in my Maelstrom Wanderer deck!

Many decks want hasty threats. Actually, all of them do, but some people don't understand the value of it. This card has the potential to come into play untapped a nonzero percentage of the time AND it produces colored mana. That makes it a huge upgrade to Hall of the Bandit Lord. Oh and also you don't have to pay a chunk of life every time you tap it. That's kind of nice too. The trade off is that it makes your guy cost two more for the privilege, which could be a genuinely prohibitive expense. This card certainly isn't going to break the format and probably won't even see wide scale play, but it is worth a second look and is sure to catch people off guard.

I saved the best for last. This is my personal favorite card from the set. Krosan Verge has long been overlooked in the format. With so many flashy rares and Legendary lands running around it seems to get lost in the shuffle, but Verge has quietly been one of the most powerful lands in the entire game. Maybe now with the printing of an OBVIOUSLY INFERIOR VERSION of the card people will start to remember why it is so good and jam it back into their decks.

Note: despite not being able to fix multiple colors or fetch dual lands, I will still be playing this card in every deck with 16+ basics. Spell lands are insanely good. Rampant Growth is insanely good. A Rampant Growth land is thereby insanely good.

Well it was a long journey, but we finally reached the end. What do you think about the new cards? Are these pre-constructed decks everything that you had been hoping for? As always, remember to leave your feedback in the comments below. We read and respond without fail.

Things will be back to normal starting on Tuesday again so be sure to check back and see what UL has cooking up to take advantage of the new goodies from CMDR14.

Till next time Zoners.

-GG