Johnny Confidants' Casual Kiki-Jiki

Hey Zoners, It's your old friend Johnny C here with a new article and a new deck!

For the past few month's I've been piloting twin Mono-red Generals to enrich my deck building skills. On a challenge I was asked to build a mono color deck without any Infinite combo's, So I built two. One was a Chaotic Multiplayer Norin the wary deck and the other is my Kiki-jiki deck.

If no Infinite's, Why Kiki?

I wanted to take a general that had as much stigmata with infinite combination tricks and change that expectation. When i come to the table with a general like Kiki the usual response was to target me first. Needless to say I lost many games during its introduction.

While I did omit those combo's I did not stray away from strong synergistic plays. Through play-testing I found that I don't have to interact with the table, and my general really only needs to show up when I'm going for the end game. This was something that I haven't had an experience with. There are a small set of commanders that you don't necessarily need to call upon until you are going for gold, Commanders like Oloro, Oona, and Sharuum come to mind and i'd like to add Kiki-Jiki to that list.

What came out of all of this is a Mono-red deck that people actually like to play against. They now know there are no win-outs that ruin the the experience of the table and the environment is very casual. This creates great moments that allow people to keep their fields, make strong moves and create moderate length games that leave players in good spirits.

Kiki's Agenda, Or lack thereof 

The main agenda is to get ramped up to about 4 or 5 mana. The spells that i play, Including Kiki dont get interesting until 4 and above. For that we look at red's love/hate relationship with Artifacts. Once we get there we have laid the ground for the second and more interesting phase, ETB Shenanigans!

Kiki Jiki has a well known relationship with creatures that provide value entering or leaving the battlefield. This deck is no different, but with a twist. Most of the creatures in this deck effect the board indirectly by making tokens or tutoring artifacts.  Laying low to assemble the bombs that lay in wait. The few creatures that effect directly are a mix of classic red creatures with some variety of niche abilities.

Kiki's Kit and Krew

Kiki has 3 big engine cards in this deck. Clone Shell, Hoarding Dragon, and Thornbite Staff. They respectively Find creatures, Artifacts, and untap Kiki enabling more of the previous two. Once I get the original out I'll have to make a choice, do i go for the best thing in case it gets destroyed by next turn? or find something moderate and go for what I know i'll get once the copy is sacrificed.

The Token package I mentioned are primarily Goblin producing. Why? Because with a beast like Krenko in this deck who wouldn't want more goblins? Krenko along with mono-reds new favorite enchantment Purphoros, God of the Forge makes for an excellent win condition. Along with them are; Siege-Gang Commander to fling those tokens around, Stingscourger being the goblin version AEther Adept, Goblin Welder to play switcheroo with artifacts, and Goblin Assassin to make everything a game of chance.

What is Mono red without a little bit of chaos? Effects that do things randomly or have a 50% chance of backfiring are right up the sub-theme of this deck. The previously mentioned Goblin Assassin is one of them but he is not alone. Teferi's Puzzle Box finds itself a strong presence in this deck. Card draw works differently in mono red ever sense Innistrad gave us the "Looting" effect and T. Box is both disruptive and advantageous. A personal favorite is the Tyrant of discord interaction with Kiki and Thornbite Staff. I've have 6 stacks of Tyrants continuously and spread out the love causing mass destruction. I call him my WMD.

The under the radar win condition award for this deck has to go to Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. i had a crazy opening hand of 3 Mountains, Sol Ring, Expedition Map, Burnished Hart and Ancient Tomb. it turned into a 6-you each end phase with just Kiki, Burnished Hart, and Valakut doing the work. The effect can be done with Solemn Simulacrum but its generally slower but better card advantage. This is the direct damage approach, creatures like Bogardan Hellkite, Fanatic of Mogis, Myr Battlesphere, and Comet Storm are the big burn package. They add pressure when life totals drop to about 20. I have been known to do 19 or more damage in a turn.

With all of this aggression where's the defense? The main defense in this deck is it's offense, creatures in the burn, token and chaos package enable blockers and removal for what's in play but unable to stop spells and  enchantments. Those two needed some kind of remedy and our answers are Price of glory, Chaos warp, and All is dust. Price of Glory keeps the table safe from counters, battle tricks, and EoT advantage plays like Top. Chaos warp is the Bail-out card Red has wanted forever even though it's a color pie flavor foul. Lastly All is dust is a kind of reset button that you see across many non white, non black mono color decks where wraths are rare, so its not real surprise its here.

The last topic in our kit is the Planeswalkers of the deck, Who is right for the deck and why? The answer I came up with was Koth and Chandra Ablaze. Koth has done well giving both mana and providing a 4/4 mountain in times of need. While I have yet to ultimate Koth the ability seems lacking in contrast to mana production and mana untapping. Chandra on the other hand is great, Dumping artifacts into the graveyard to be swapped out for with the Welder, tossing red spells I dont need for 4 damage, or simply drawing 3 cards at the cost of my usually empty hand. She is a strong Planeswalker for most mono-red decks. Combining damage, Wheel, and the Ultimate Flashback spell. For a time I did consider her Most recent incarnation for the card "advantage" but since we just go Act on Impulse in M15 i think Ablaze shall stay for the long run

Looking Forward, and Card considerations

Since I've had the deck up on Tapped out (link will be at the end) I've had a few suggestions that i have strong consideration for.

For artifacts I'm thinking about Mangara's Tome, and Sands of Time. The Tome gives me some form of tutor and optional draw condition that can turn the tide and guarantee the card unlike Gamble. the big risk is if the tome is destroyed the cards are exiled but that's an acceptable risk. Sand of Time is a goofy card that switched the tapped cards with the untapped card's each turn. This has great synergy with Price of Glory and Kiki-Jiki. Preventing people from setting up all of their lands and giving kiki targets each turn.

For Enchantments I have considered Shivan Harvest. I produce many tokens especially ones that are going to die anyway so why not reap some destruction with them. While this card wouldn't see play with my main group, I do have a side group of players who are more competitive and this card is right up their ally. another LD card i could use would be Wake of Destruction for a all around land sweep.

In Closing, And what I've Learned

I absolutely love this deck. Mono-Red has been a blast to pilot as Kiki and even more crazy with Norin. I'm not saying it's for everyone but I highly recommend trying out a mono red commander. Red is constantly Misunderstood as the weakest color by EDH standards. When you compare it to the other colors and what they provide it's easy to rate red as the lowest, but Red's strength cannot be compared to any other color. It's entire line of thought is different and its own. Cards like Gamble and Act on Impulse represent the power of red. Its home to the most bizarre and silly creatures to exist in magic along with the only cards that gives loose change a place in your dice bag.

So take a walk on the wild side, For the Deck List, Click Here

 <3 J. C.

Glowing Ranks: Planeswalkers

Welcome back to Glowing Ranks, Uncle Landdrops' silliest-and-almost-serious way of arranging cards and card types.

Today I'm serving up an order for the Magic's Masters of the Multiverse and Leading Leaders in Loyalty Counters. I've got ten on the plate, so let's get cracking.

10. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Grixis is a color combo I don't play much, but something I like to admire when I see people playing it.

Nico B is at the forefront of most of these constructed decks, and almost always slotted into 5-color decks because it covers everything on the table with its two abilities.

Short of Karn Liberated, and the as-yet-to-be-determined new Garruk, there are few P-Dubs that can really impact a board state when you're down and get you back into it. Though more expensive, I liken these cards to Umezawa's Jitte in this way.

This is the altered work from Duel Decks: Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas, which I like quite a bit more than the prints from Conflux and m13. They look more like a monument to Magic's most evil than a portrait of the living thing. And this art, well, it looks like he had it commissioned to put up in his living room, you know, where he reads all the books (See original Nicol Bolas).

9. Elspeth, Sun's Champion

El-Speth. OoooAaahh!

Our third, hero-emerging Elspeth hardly comes out in my group anymore without an "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" allusion, because let's face it- She is the master of Karate and Friendship, for everyone. Just ask Ajani.

Though my appreciation for Knight-Errant is awesome, she's just too easy to like. With more token and Wrath power, this Elspeth has been more up my alley. I've enjoyed the times I've casted her, because in multiplayer, she's proven to keep herself alive for at least a couple turns with both abilities.

Now that the whole Theros block is over and done with, this art takes on new meaning, as we now know what the Godsend is- but how is she holding it before we know? How does she have it before he gets it?

8. Liliana of the Dark Realms

By far and away this is my favorite Liliana.

She doesn't do much like Original Vess. She isn't aggressive, like when she has the Veil. But she's hella effective.

This is one of the best printings that have happened for mono-Black in the format, and could happen. Having recurrable access to Swamps ensures that you're going to get to at least 6 Swamps for Grave Titan, and you don't have to worry about drawing lands for the next 2-3 turns.

While I'm not excited about her hair looking like a batwing, the art doesn't matter when you get to have a non-color-pie advantage.

7. Karn Liberated

If John the Revelator hadn't beaten him to the punch, Karn the Liberated would've written the book on the seven seals.

Like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, P-Dub Karn has the power to walk into a game and help you crawl out of it, should you fall behind.

Unlike Nicol B, Karn's penchant for justice and colorless mana makes him twice as dangerous. He can go in any deck and instantly improve it, and handle all those Indestructible threats. And he does all this while gaining you life, forcing your opponents to commit damage to him, hoping that you won't start the game over again.

I like Karn. I tend to slot my copies into decks that really need the help, and happen to have a few other P-dubs hanging around. It's a fantastic card, with a pretty nifty design, and I don't like blindly throwing good cards into decks for the sake of themselves. That's foolish.

6. Garruk Wildspeaker

Much like the 3/3 Beast token Garruk Wildspeaker creates, he too, is a tale as old as time.

Being more sentimental, he's one of my favorite Planeswalkers, not only because he's simple, but also because he does everything Green needs him to do- Ramp, Make a Dude, Make Dudes Bigger. Pure elegance for a wildman.

I've picked the Duel Decks artwork because it is my first copy of Garruk, and I played the crap out of it. I still do.

Untapping two lands is often gross. Combined with Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, and potentially Deserted Temple, you're looking at insane value.

Mostly, I prefer to cast him at 5 so I untap and Kodama's Reach. That's my favorite piece of value.

5. Chandra Ablaze

I have yet to play Pyromaster or the Firebrand, but so far Chandra Ablaze seeems to be the most playable of her various iterations.

Mostly, it's for the card draw. This is an easy advantage to get in Red, and it hurts the whole table because if they are seasoned Commander players, they have their turns planned before it rolls around back to them.

I've also used her +1 ability in conjunction with Squee, and other nonsense things I play in Red, simply because Red decks generally need spellshaping outlets to help it maintain consistency. There are just too many effects that it can't do regularly.

4. Gideon Jura

Of all the planeswalkers in all the Multiverse, Gideon Jura's design has to be one of the most innovative and underrated.

Access to all three of his abilities make him innately powerful. Add to that a plus ability to control your opponent's combat step, and you've got yourself a stew going.

He attacks, he protects himself, he controls your opponent's creatures- I'm shocked I don't see more of him at the table.

Between Gideon, Sarkhan the Mad, and Jace TMS, I think people can clearly see where Magic had to transform what it meant to be a planeswalker. Not that Sarkhan the Second was good, I just believe that they decided some of the experiments on these guys made them a little too good.

3. Tezzeret the Seeker

Unlike the other Planeswalkers with Duel Decks art, I find I like original Tezz the best because he looks like a Klingon with a robot arm, which is surprisingly more comforting than the weird, anorexic-looking alternative.

Tezzeret is #3 here because I do so many cool things with the second ability.

The most notable is a tutor for 0 to go get Seat of the Synod or Darksteel Citadel. Have you ever wanted blue ramp? Well, this is how we turn our Tezzeret into a Liliana of the Dark Realms.

Once we have the lands, he's a Garruk Wildspeaker. The more colors in the deck, the merrier. I'll play artifact lands for days.

Generally, I keep the costs of my cards lower, but with Tezz, the best strategy is to keep all your relevant artifacts less than 3 if you can, thereby "idiot-proofing" your tutor, and keeping up your Tezzeret so they have to attack into it. There is no reason to sacrifice your planeswalker, even for a Solemn Simulacrum (need I remind you Pilgrim's Eye is also a slightly better game off Tezz), if you don't have to. So don't be silly.

2. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

The artist for this card, Eric Deschamps, really hit a home run with Tamiyo. I love the work here. Smooth, elegant, multi-dimensional, abstract- it's perfect.

Which really, matches the card. Like most planeswalkers, her ultimate is a bit of a pipe dream, but the beauty of that ultimate is that every card that goes to the graveyard and comes back to your hand will be useful.

Moving upwards, her ability to stall out creatures and use that to further the card advantage makes her incredible value.

1. Garruk, Primal Hunter

Garruk 2.0 tops my list of Planeswalkers, mostly for sentimental reasons, but also for his -3 ability. This is going to be a lot of cards in Green if you play it correctly. In most cases, I tend to draw somewhere near 7-9 cards every time I activate it, and that's just nuts, considering that Harmonize is three cards for 2GG, and that drawing an amount of cards like that in a Green deck means you're drawing more threats.

The other two abilities are weird and theme-y. I guess my one criticism of this card is that you're taking Garruk up by making tokens to go off with-- more tokens? I'm not particularly excited about that, but the card draw more than makes up for it.

Anyway, that's all I got for today. Be sure to vote on today's poll.

Pass.
-UL

Who's your favorite planeswalker?

Jace

Elspeth

Garruk

Liliana

Chandra

Other

Poll Maker

In General: A New Paradigm for Core Sets

As you might have noticed, I am a fan of Magic 2015. It has juice, it has story lines, it has nostalgia, it has the 'new', and it has sparked more conversation than any core set I can remember...which is all of them. I love it. Plain and simple. But that doesn't mean I think it is perfect...

In the modern game, core sets behave more like expert expansions than the core sets of yore. It is strange to me that core sets now seem to contain more new cards than reprints. When I picture core set limited, I picture a very low power cube. It has basically everything you would expect and only a few new things. The mechanics would be restricted to the most basic, most common elements in order to keep the experience easily digestible. This is the version of your game that anyone can play, right when they pick it up. If a person has played Cube, but never played YOUR Cube they wouldn't need to much training to get into the swing of things. That is the goal for core set.

Somewhere along the line that all changed. Core sets are now just slightly more nostalgic expert sets. They can't produce a completely new mechanic, but they can freely print previous expert-level mechanics. Side note: does anyone still use the beginner, intermediate, expert terminology when referring to Magic sets?

I am thinking of a different model for core sets; for what an introductory product would look like. Instead of using core set as an avenue to produce new things that you want to see get made, or instead of using a rotating card pool to control what gets played in Standard;  make periodic updates to the SAME SET trying to hone it until it is perfect for the game of Magic. At least as far as an introductory product goes. Obviously that changes slightly, but consistently over time, so you will have to make up-dates and release a new version of the product every so often to hit those moving targets.

You know, that sounds kind of familiar. That is what core set USED TO BE. Here is THE GAME. There are other parts of it, but those are just modules that you fit onto this basic set.

I have some unsubstantiated thoughts of my own. Here is a completely unsorted, unregulated, unrestrained stream of hypothetical questions I have that could help re-imagine the core set as a product for beginners.

• Perhaps it should be on an as-needed basis instead of on the yearly model. Smaller, less frequent updates would help build consistency. This could help all players establish the same foundation for understanding the rules and basic strategies.
• What if you had set releases specifically designed for constructed and limited separately? Limited adds a new layer of complexity to an already difficult-to-understand game. Maybe we don't have to use one product to accomplish both of these goals.
• Expanding on that, you could market them differently. Bomb rares wouldn't ruin limited. Worthless commons wouldn't clog up your packs when you are looking for tournament quality cards. 
• What if, like Richard Garfield originally imagined, you played with these sets of cards independent of other sets, or in a modular fashion, instead of treating them as part of one giant mass?

This isn't a diatribe about how core sets suck. This isn't a rallying cry that they need to change. Ever since this Magic 2010 thing Core Sets have been getting a little...awesome. Instead, this is an inquiry: what does it do? Is that what we want it to do? How can it do that thing better?

Starter 1999, 2000, and the Portal series were attempts at this concept, but they ended up being too similar to a 'normal' set. They changed the rules instead of just changing the format. They didn't prepare you well enough for 'real Magic'.

All of this got me thinking. The game is hard to learn and hard to teach, but what if we had a tool to facilitate that? What if we had like a...Beginner's Cube. A small, tightly focused play environment where all the decks are pre-constructed. Specifically designed to easy to be use, but also to allow you to progress to higher difficulties. Sort of like the 40-card promo 'decks' that Wizards gives away at certain events, but with much more design work and much more potential for expansion.

This lead me to two possible designs for a prototype.

1. A very small set, less than 360 cards for sure. Each color would have maybe 3 rares 8 uncommons and 10-15 commons that would showcase the most common themes and mechanics in the game. This is for the real first timers. A kiddie pool if you will.
2. The second model would be large, 1000 cards or less, with only a few cards being printed in multiples. This would include every mechanic, in every color, for the ENTIRE history of the game. This is like the encyclopedia. The living, playing history of the game. You get to see it all, but just a few bites at a time and the cards that are shown are the simplest to understand. These are the hooks, the cards that get you into playing and designing with these mechanics. This would give you a small taste of what Magic has to offer, while showing you a little bit of everything there is to find out there in the game. You could really engender a sense of the game's rich history by including popular cards that have significant design choices or historical anecdotes.

Wouldn't that be great? If the flavor text on a card wasn't just some vapid nonsense, but instead told you something about why the card exists, how and when it was used, and how it fits into the larger picture of the game I would be just BESIDE MYSELF with joy. 

So here is my challenge to you, Zoners! Do you ever teach new players the game? Don't you wish it were a littler easier to get them to understand the nuances? Design a set for them. Make the Beginner's Cube and try it out. See if you can improve the translation of your experience into their learning. And of course, let me know how it works out! Feel free to share your designs here on the blog. In a few months, after I have spent some time building and refining my own, I will circle the wagons to discuss my experiences. Until then let us do our best to make the game that we all love as appealing and inviting to new fans as possible.

-GG

UL's Better Deckbuilding: Thassa, God of the Sea

Heya Zoners!

The last few months, I've been devoting most of my time to this Double Rainbow set of mono-colored decks, and it's taken me away from the TGZ dial more than I wanted to.

Fortunately, the drought has brought a downpour of things that I'm ready to talk about, and there's better way to segue into more water metaphors and cool deck designs than with Theros' resident female Poseidon, Thassa.

WHY THASSA?

With two sets of mono-colored decks now, my Deck Portfolio and this "No Two Set-Symbols Alike" requirement has gotten particularly challenging when choosing a Commander.

At the outset of constructing the new-bordered Mono-Blue deck, I thought it was going to be Sakashima the Impostor, because I love the card to death, and I was going to make Rayne, Academy Chancellor, my old bordered Commander. Weird choices, I know, but when it comes to my Portfolio, I do want to have some gender balance as well as some uniqueness.

While I know Thassa is a significantly more playable Commander than my initial picks, this wasn't so much a conscious choice to build around. That will sound strange logically, because to some this is all painted cardboard, and liking cards over others based on function can be generally silly.

However, it's not uncommon for me to be scrolling through Gatherer or waist-deep in a box of cards looking, and I'll have some inclination or instinct that draws me to a card. Often, the cards that my unconscious likes and picks aren't ever as good as Thassa is, but this odd predilection is something I've tried to hone as an artistic component to deck design. Being invested in the cards this way can often help keep you interested and motivated to power-up your design.

THE STRATEGY

There are two goofy, gimmicky names I've given to the philosophies behind which I play Thassa. The first is the design theme, which is universal for most of the God creatures, save Purphoros and possibly Heliod, and that is a "Devotion To Devotion."

What I mean by this is that we're strictly avoiding all permanents without blue mana symbols so that we can get our Commander online. Like most of the God cycle, combining Thassa with evasion and enough mana to do it ensures we have a cheap, serious, and consistent threat in blue, which should be scary, because blue doesn't have this card. I mean, the next best option is Thada Adel, and she is less than half as powerful, and much better against mirrors and other decks with blue in them.

Our "Devotion to Devotion" design is predicated on the color's biggest shortcoming- it's obvious lack of dedication in mana cost to the creatures we want to be playing. Again, because it's Blue, and there's always a back door, we innately have a back door- asset protection in the form of counterspell. In short, what we play, we have to be able to protect. Especially if it's Thassa.

Again, this is where design helps us again, because our strategy gimmick can come into play. I call it "High Tide, Low Tide." This strategy refers to Thassa's presence as a creature on the battlefield. In "High Tide," our 5/5 General is alive and attacking. This is the point where her value swells to its highest point, because she either turns the game into a 5-turn clock herself, or a less-than-8-turn clock with her and some friends.

Yet even at "Low Tide," which your opponents will probably be looking to control, Thassa provides insane value. Access to scrying means you're never going to miss land plays, and you're always going to get an extra chance to hit into a permanent loaded with Devotion.

Overall, this is a blue deck that wants to attack, and is fortified by Thassa's abilities to find threats and protection, and enable them to connect effectively. This is slightly different from a pure control strategy, because it's either hyper-aggressive, or hyper-control, in the sense that you get to decide what damage goes through, and your opponents can only hope they have enough answers to handle it.

THE TECH

 

In my playgroup, Higure does a lot of work. There's a Reaper King deck that uses him to go find Changelings. In Taniwha, Higure bounces ETB flyers likeAugury Owl (Oh Yeah) to find his Ninja buddies and get damage.

Our plan is more like the latter, with a couple of key differences. The main being Higure is a devotion enabler, accessing a small but useful set of highly-trained martial artists to help spread out Thassa's requirement and, to quote Allstate Insurance, "better protect us from mayhem."

Additionally, Higure is also what I call a "Commander Doppelganger." My experience has been that decks with Commander-dependencies need backup plans. While Thassa is one resilient little card, it never hurts to have something that shares characteristics with your Commander in case you're in a pickle. Higure has worked out nicely here.

Next up we have some nice Pauper action.

The design phase yielded the obvious result that the longer Thassa was on, the easier it was to put damage and pressure on the table.

Even though Thassa can impose herself on an opponent's life total, the combination of casting permanents for devotion can sometimes mean that you have no mana left to get her damage through.

Enter Aether Adept. Like Mist Raven, which I'm also playing, these two creatures are low-cost solutions that can not only protect my life total, they also buy me turns from getting attacked, and allow me to race my opponent effectively.

 Sometimes, two cards are better than one. Predict is a cool little card I play if I need to dig a little deeper into the deck. With Thassa out, I'm always going to be right, and if it's a bad card, I don't mind not seeing it again.

Magus of the Future is surely a card that gets auto-attached to Devotion-based decks, and is pretty synonymous with a lot of degenerate combos and general badass-ery when it comes to blue.

While it may not be so under-the-radar, what's surprising is how necessary its actual rules text has been for this deck. I knew it was powerful, and I've had a copy of this for a long time, but I've never been excited about it because it was just a card in other decks.

Here, MotF has some serious work to do, and it's nice to see that. To supplement redundancy, I'm also playing Future Sight.

I've mentioned this on here before, but I'm not ashamed of playing Divination. And yes, I'm aware that to my left is a Yu-Gi-Oh card.

Pot of Greed is what I play to represent Divination.Any time that we can insert Yu-Gi-Oh jokes into our game, we do it. I started playing Divination so I could make this joke, and then was given an actual copy of Pot of Greed.

Overall, I think it enhances the game when you can do fun stuff like this, even if it is "sub-optimal."

Functionally, what I found was that the scry mechanic still needs to be supplemented with card draw. With most of the deck focused on getting cards through combat damage, via Thassa's Emissary, Coastal Piracy, and Joe Bident (of Thassa), something like Divination helps to fill the spaces in between investments nicely.

We talked a little bit about some cool Common tech last week, and I mentioned Mystic Restraints as one of the premier pieces of disruption for Thassa.

Bonds of Quicksilver and Claustrophobia are two other cards that I found supplement this package nicely. Again, these aren't the cards people are going to want to play in a more optimal setting, but Mystic Restraints and Bonds of Quicksilver both provide Instant speed tempo and a little bit of unpredictability.

While their hefty mana cost means you're probably not going to cast them until you have a little untapped mana left over, it's a good lesson in patience anyway. The bigger threats are going to be the creatures you want to enchant anyway. So just be blue, and be patient.

Doc Manhattan here holds a special place in my heart, particularly because it was part of many decks I played and played against back when I was a pretty green Magic player.

So when I was scrolling through my binder looking for cards to play, I couldn't take it out of the sleeve fast enough. This is a card that wants to be hanging out in decks with a bunch of permanents- the bonus being, that I have a chance to manipulate what I draw.

Most of the people I've played against particularly enjoy seeing this card too. It's just got that kind of effect. All the flavor, pretty cool art, and effective rules text.

Pongify is no secret to most of the people who have played against me. I don't remember if it was something I found myself, or something I ripped off GG, but the word of mouth spread, and now that Rapid Hybridization is around, holding up a lonely Island can also spell trouble.

Again, this is another card that I find takes on new meaning in a deck with Thassa. Because the Destroy text and the token are two separate instructions, Pongify can become a card I target Thassa with to produce an extra creature as long as I have the devotion.

This is a handy little trick against aggro deck as well as a nice way to get a creature that could help me draw an extra card off of Bident of Thassa.

Well, that was a lot, and there's still more! Here's the list:
Take To The Sea!

As always, I'm interested in your thoughts, ideas, and whatever you have rattling around. Share it if you got it.

Pass.
-UL

UL's M15 Loot

Amidst all the great M15-related stuff GG's been doing the last couple weeks, I decided to hold off on talking about the set until I got my hot stack of nonsense in the mail, which arrived yesterday. So it's time to take off our serious, awesome Grandpa-Growth-analysis hats, and put on our silly, "why-in-the-world-is-Landdrops playing this" ones. Maybe that puts a little excitement in your belly. Maybe you think me saying that is stupid, and my ideas are worse. I wouldn't disagree, but this is the Crazy Train, and we all know that the only direction it goes is "off the rails."

BLUE

At the top of the order is Quickling. 

What can I say? I'm a total sucker for Evasion, Flash, and protecting my stuff. I play Whitemane Lion, Faerie Impostor, Stonecloaker, and Dust Elemental, and so there's nothing that's going to stop me from continuing my silly penchant- especially when it comes in both Faerie AND Rogue form. I heart Rogues.

I got two copies, and I can't decide which decks would be the best fits. I really like it, I think I just need more. Maybe even a foil one. This art isn't great, but I think foiling could improve it. 

I'm surprised GG missed the glaring opportunity to Pop Culture blast you in the face, and I'm not going to strike out on the same pitch:

What if I say it's not like the others?
What if I say it's not just another one in your place? 

What if I say Wizards will never surrender when it comes to making clones? What if I say I'm happy about that? 

Foo Fighting Rhetoric aside- Mercurial Pretender is sweet. I don't need more Clones, but the slightness of upgrade is so enticing there's no way I'm going to say no. While it's really only as exciting as being a Mac user and going from the Leopard OS X to Snow Leopard, or from iPhone 5c to 5s, it's still enough to want to queue up the Internet's oldest Dancing Baby, and throw a small party for yourself.

OTHER BLUE CARDS I PICKED UP:

Polymorphist's Jest- Because should the day arise when I'm done playing Magic, I don't want to look back and be the guy that never turned another dude's guys into Frogs.

Aetherspouts- I like subgames. This presents one of the most interesting ones I've ever seen.

Kapsho Kitefins- I've been looking for cards to make a non-rare Animar decklist, and I think this looked pretty tasty. Having flying, I can also slot it into this basic Isperia the Inscrutable deck I've been working on, or even into Thassa.

Void Snare- Got two copies. Not sure if I'll play both, but for one blue, even at Sorcery speed, it's gotta be borderline playable, right?

Military Intelligence- One of my newer decks, Thassa, loves devotion, drawing cards, and it's cool to have a draw trigger when I attack. Not particularly an instant slam dunk, but I'm trying it out.

Glacial Crasher- Just another weird Pauper card I thought would slot nicely into Animar. 

GREEN

Perhaps Genesis Hydra is a slightly more purposive reason to dance like dial-up and AOL are still relevant, so I've kept it close in case for extra dancing time. 

Let me start off by saying I share GG's feelings of being annoyed by Hydras. When they were talking about Theros at last year's Comic-Con, Rosewater said that he was happy they'd finally found a creature type for all the colors, the last being Hydra.

In the last couple years, I've never seen more Hydras in my life. Some times I feel like I'm back in Ancient Greece, where you couldn't walk 5 feet into Athens without having to face a damn Hydra. They're like the 7-Eleven of mythology, now they've invaded Magic, and I'm not thrilled by this.

However, I do like what Genesis Hydra does. I like that its flavor matches up with a card we Green players have all beaten to death in Genesis Wave, and that it produces a kind of card advantage Green players might not get, in that it can cast a noncreature, nonpermanent spell as a result of its ability. I'm keen to try this. Looks like fun.

OTHER GREEN CARDS I PICKED UP

Reclamation Sage- Because duh. This is the biggest no-brainer in its color.

Kalonian Twingrove- Had a nice debate about this card with GG if you read the comments on Threats, Part I. Personally, I think this card is bonkers in mono-Green, but I also play a crap-ton of forests and ramp for days. This scales favorably with my plans, and could be a nice Commander Doppelganger when Silvos isn't out beating face. I've added a nice token package to it, and this is on theme there.

Shaman of Spring- It was green, it said draw a card, I couldn't resist. 

RED

Objectively, this card is as dumb as Grandpa thinks it is. 

Still, I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to play Ronald Reagan's favorite Magic card, or to say stupid things like, "Mr. Gorba-Dragon, Tear Down These Walls!"

Doctors maintain they still don't know what's wrong with me. Healthy people wouldn't say things like this, and they surely wouldn't be playing Magic cards like this, but I'm obviously neither of these things.

When Siege Dragon got spoiled, I wasn't so focused on the ETB trigger as much as I was his attack trigger, which goes great with Basilisk Collar and Loxodon Warhammer- things I play in HH. I also liked the idea of playing this in Animar, where he helps my like 2 and 3-drops to trade with mid-range guys. So I got one.

I want to Reagan Smash with Siege Dragon. And if I can sell you on this card, then I should use this as part of my application package I send to Wizards.

OTHER RED CARDS I PICKED UP

Act on Impulse- It's a secret that long ago they printed a card named Three Wishes in Visions that did the same thing for 1UU and was an Instant. Why this couldn't be as powerful, I have no idea, but I thought it was worth a look. I play a lot of garbage cards in HH, and I don't mind the extra dig or pitching it to another discard/draw spell.

Chandra, Pyromaster- This has been a ridiculously expensive card for a long time- at least, more than I want o pay for one. I'm happy to have waited, and I can't wait to see if her "Exile the top card of Library" effect is any good in Commander either.

BLACK

Other than Soul of Innistrad and Soul of New Phyrexia, I wasn't excited at all for the rest of the cycle. Well, I was excited about the blue one until I realized it was color based, not "quantity of color" based.

GG compared this to Grave Titan, and so did the rest of the Internet, and Soul of Innistrad is clearly not better. However, that was never going to be a "fair" fight to begin with.

Personally, a more accurate comparison for Soul is Theros' Champion of Stray Souls. While Champion provides a nifty little Graveyard Blink, Soul is going to be a little slower, but it's also bigger, will trade with bigger stuff, and gives you the opportunity in the long term for aggressive expansion.

I definitely think this is a card that wants to be played in big mana mono-black, and other graveyard/sacrifice based decks, which goes give it more of a label than the do-it-all Grave Titan. That doesn't make it worse necessarily, but I have a feeling we are never going to get the kind of power that those Titans had ever again.

I love this card. I didn't think I would throughout the creation and voting process, but I'm sold.

This is a card I ordered post pre-release because I was hoping the price might drive it down, but with another year of Thoughtseize in standard, we're looking at a card that makes value out of late-game Thoughtseize.

It's sweet, and it's immediately going into Greel.

OTHER BLACK CARDS I PICKED UP

Eternal Thirst- This is probably going to be the card I regret picking up from the set, but whatever. It's a rinky-dink ten-cent enchantment that gives black creatures lifelink and a +1/+1 counter whenever a creature dies. I liked the idea of comboing with Crypt Rats so much I thought it'd be worth it, but it's probably not.

WHITE

Like Magister Sphinx, I have a feeling Resolute Archangel is going to agitate kitchen tables everywhere. In cases like this, I feel pretty justified in being the first to do it.

Resolute Archangel is dangerously powerful. If you manage your life total correctly, and you play her in the danger zone, there's no doubt you should be gaining over 25 life when you cast this 4/4. Again, insane value when you think the next best life gain card is Beacon of Immortality. This severely outclasses it, and it can be blinked and bounced to your hand.

I think the future is going to go 1 of 2 ways. Either Archangel is going to get banned by the EDHRC, or we're going to see more cards with this rules text. Either way, I'm down.

OTHER WHITE CARDS I PICKED UP:

Hushwing Gryff- It felt silly not to. I've been griping about getting more copies of Torpor Orb for a while, because I want to see what happens when we have quality answers to ETB triggers. This is certainly a quality answer. Gryff is basically an ETB counterspell.

Return to the Ranks- Whenever GG says that a card is going to hold its monetary value, I listen. He's my Magic Stockbroker, if there ever was a thing. RttR is something I knew I'd like in both my mono-White decks from a playability standpoint, but I wanted to have a back door plan for getting rid of it if it didn't make the cut. It's not as profitable as I'd want, but I have a feeling Craig Wescoe's White Weenies in Modern are going to be totes ridiculous at the next Pro Tour.

Ephemeral Shields- Convoke and a cheap casting cost gives a creature the opportunity to be a free counterspell on a Doom Blade. Another suspect purchase, but if I keep them in that dime-to-quarter range, I think I'll be able to sleep at night.

COLORLESS

Sorry Miss Jackson's of the World- This card is fo' Real.

And yes, it's made to make your daughter cry. And no I won't apologize a trillion times for playing it.

I think SoNP is easily the best of the cycle, not only because it slots into every deck, but because it provides each deck with another 6/6 for 6 threat with Trample. It's the Temple Bell of Creatures. I don't see any reason not to be considering this, especially when he protects your stuff.

Naturally, this card has been powered down because everyone and their mother is playing Deglamer/Unravel the Aether/Return To Dust which fortifies the Path/Swords removal core that already existed in most decks. Even so, there is still such a small quantity of cards that hose Soul that I doubt we'll be playing much longer without seeing two or three of this guy coming out to play.

Additionally, I love Daarken's artwork on this one. It's like he got together with the people who designed the Transformer graphics and asked himself, "What would Elesh Norn and Wurmcoil Engine look like if they had a Transformer baby?"

The last card worthy of a picture is possibly the funniest card I've seen printed in a long time.

Seldom do cards combine flavor, silliness, and somewhat awkward, unorthodox power to create a fresh, unique offering to our game.

Despite this card being very nonsensical, it makes me happy to see. Another set, another new target for Trinket Mages everywhere.

OTHER COLORLESS CARDS I PICKED UP:

Rogue's Gloves- The 2/2 Pay/Equip ratio might be a little too fair for this design, but it says Draw a Card, so why not give it a spin?

Radiant Fountain- Not much, but I still liked it enough to get copies. Card draw isn't my only favorite. I also love Land.

Well, that's my list. What cards are you most excited about? Be sure to include them in the comments below.

Pass Turn.
-UL

In General: Magic 2015 Pauper Picks

Hello Zoners! I am glad that all the hustle of the set review is behind us. It is a very busy time here on the blog and that doesn't leave us very much time to dedicate to other projects that we want to get to in the future. This week, I want to stop and talk about a few of the cards that didn't make it into the set review, specifically, some commons.

A common has to be truly outstanding to make an appearance in Commander. So, unless you are playing a pauper variant, you aren't likely to care about them for casual use. I however, play a ton of limited, a ton of Pauper online, and maintain a Pauper Cube which is an absolute blast. In the near future I am going to post my list and preach the virtues of this criminally underplayed format. It is the most fun I have playing the game. That is the truth, but I digress.

Magic 2015 is a powerhouse set. It is a telling sign! When your set is strong, it is strong all the way down to the commons. M15 doesn't appear to have anything that is going to break the game or shatter your favorite format, and thank the lord for that, but it does have solid cards all across the board. Everywhere you look in this set you will find juice!

Today I want to share some of my favorites from the set and talk a bit about why I find them so interesting. Let's jump right in!

We're going to kick things off with a SALAMANDER! I am not a hundred percent sure why we have both both lizards and salamanders. I am also not sure why this is either one of them when it could easily have been a merfolk.

There have been many similar Creatures in the game. Hard/impossible to block is a very common mechanic at this mana cost. That is certainly playable; in my pauper cube I have some slots dedicated to this kind of thing. What makes Pathmage exciting is the ability to make other Creatures, and possibly multiple Creatures unblockable. I can get behind that. It singlehandedly solves board stalls and gives a way for smaller midrange strategies to punch through a control deck's defenses.




This is another mild upgrade, but a key difference that makes this very valuable is there is not yet enough of this effect to saturate your decks. A three-power two-drop with no drawback is pretty special. It isn't much help on defense, but the same could be said of Gorehouse Chainwalker. This is going directly into my cube, where it will happily smash face.







I really dig that they have now brought color-specific (or rather exclusive) hosers to common. There are enough one toughness Creatures in Pauper that this can realistically sweep the board. At the very least you will be able to kill a few of your opponent's dudes and set up some messy blocks.



Kor Hookmaster has happily been occupying a spot in my Pauper Cube since the initial design. I am excited to include a second copy, even if it is positioned in a slightly less aggressive color. This is okay for two reasons: First, Blue and White work well together. Secondly, there are enough multicolor decks, that having another cheap value Creature is never a bad thing.







It isn't very often that I have to review a card that I have no precedent for. This is a cheap Creature. That is a good thing, but it combines the Creature half with another kind of card that I never play...Burst of Speed. Is that good? I have no idea, but it is interesting.





We have had a lot of Creatures like this in the past. They are huge, they have some sort of weird drawback that prevents you from attacking players who don't control an island, and they have some combat-related keyword ability that is mostly irrelevant.

Well, this shakes up the mold by making it care about mountains instead of islands. This would normally be a problem. Since it is a Blue card, you will most likely have an island laying around, but perhaps not a mountain. Six mana is too much to pay for a Creature that can't attack. Trample is also unheard of on Blue cards. All that adds up to something interesting, but probably not worth serious play.



This effect is extremely powerful. Totem-guide Hartebeest sees play in Commander decks because tutor effects are just that good. There are only a handful of ways to search your library at common and those almost always find some kind of land. This can find removal spells AND buffs. The body is mediocre for its cost, but this is a full two mana cheaper than its closest historical counterpart. You had best believe that this is going to make an appearance in Pauper.

So the Green color-excluded card is pretty sweet as well. This is a combat trick that I can get behind...mostly because, instead of exposing you, it protects you. Fog effects are occasionally used in Pauper, but this is really more like a Safe Passage than a Fog. This is going to make some normally reasonable blocking decisions look very silly.

There aren't many combat tricks in a traditional Cube. In Pauper Cube, they make up a much larger portion of the card pool and they make for some very interesting game play. Knowing what combat tricks to play around and when is a key aspect of winning matches in basically any limited environment. Adding unique rider text such as 'nongreen' to a card like this is going to make that mental chess match much more difficult.



BRO FIST! Where are my Pewdiepie fans at?! Oh, they don't play Magic. I forgot.

We already got to look at one interesting Red card that could sort of switch functions mid-game. It is a true testament to the awesomeness of Magic 2015 that there is actually a SECOND interesting Red common that can switch functions mid-game.

Inferno First doesn't look like much, but I think I will get some real mileage out of this in my Pauper Cube. If it trades with a Creature, that is fine. If it does more than four damage to your opponent on the way...well that is pretty incredible for this price.



A 3/3 for three in common sounds good in theory, but it turns out that there really isn't anything special about that. This however, has the added value of an enter the battlefield trigger. It looks like a drawback or an additional cost, but we have seen before that this effect can be very valuable. Kor Skyfisher has been a staple of the Pauper format for years. Giving you the ability to retrigger other etb effects, reset enchantments or the permanents they are attached to, generating an extra mana, or creating an expensive untap effect. I'm surprised this can't cook your breakfast too.

So we know that the ability is powerful and relevant. The key to evaluating this card then, lies in its body. A 2/3 Flier for two mana was an excellent deal and certainly better than getting a vanilla 3/3 for three, but I think that is alright. This card is still going to have a place.



Deathcult Rogue saw plenty of play in it's limited environment and has done good work in my Pauper Cube. Enforcer here fits the same role, but it is easier to block and harder to cast. Why does Red always get the short end of the stick?

Still, I think this is worth a shot because aggressive decks need to punch through crucial points of damage in the late game and it is much less likely that your control opponents will have Red Creatures. They would probably have a Mulldrifter or Ulamog's Crusher instead, which cannot block this.




Sentinel Spider is a huge threat in my Pauper Cube. It is just such a brick wall for opposing Creature decks. This is not anywhere close to the same power level, but it does share one important characteristic: It can effectively block 95% or more of the Creatures commonly played in Pauper. That alone makes this an excellent defensive play. I think that is reason enough to test this out.

Because Cube is almost exclusively a singleton format, you can't include some of the most important cards in the Pauper world. Squadron Hawk, Cloudpost, Glimmerpost - those are some important names. The format still wants something like Glimmerpost though, and I am happy that this will give me access to that. At the very least, it is something to return with your Invasive Species.





I admit that this card seems kind of bad. It bears a striking resemblance to Puppet Strings, which was already thought of as 'the bad Icy Manipulator'. Keep in mind though, this effect isn't common. I repeat for emphasis: This is an uncommon design, that has been printed at common. That demands a certain amount of attention. Conventional logic would state that they have made it safe by increasing the cost, but a colorless removal spell is nothing to sneeze at in limited.


I just hope that this a little more Moonglove Extract and a little less Razor Boomerang.

The flavor text on this card isn't entirely vapid. It sort of breaks the fourth wall in talking about how R&D has had to go through the design process for umpteen different variations of Boomerang. Because, you know, they can't just print Boomerang. At least this is one of the better variations. Sigh.


As always, thanks for reading. We really appreciate the support you guys have been giving us. Traffic has been steadily increasing on the blog and in the last year we have hit some very significant milestones. I am confident that we are going to break 5000 visitors this month. We will strive to keep providing great content for our readers and we have big hopes for the future.

-GG