UL's Better Deckbuilding: Barrin, Master Wizard EDH

Another Thor's Day, another Landdrops List.

Better Deckbuilding returns with one of the most ambitious brews built around one of the strangest cards Blue has to offer- the oldest sage, Barrin.

WHY BARRIN?

Barrin completed the "Double Rainbow" of Old Border/New Border Mono-Colored Commander decks I had, which was as follows:

Green- Silvos/Melira
White- Lin Sivvi/Isamaru
Red- Starke/Heartless Hidetsugu
Black- Greel/Akuta
Blue- Barrin/Thassa

Shortly thereafter, I became disillusioned with the maintenance of all these decks and have reduced it down to one apiece.

Still, it was the initial Old-Border requirement that drew me to Barrin. I'd gone through several different plans, ideas, and really had a lot of difficulty picking out Commanders because there isn't a lot of design space. You're either Aggro-Control, Artifact-Combo, Control, or just plain Gimmicky.

And if you see what's going on here, your Spidey Senses are right. This deck is pretty Gimmicky.

THE STRATEGY

Aside from Barrin being OB, the other big design quality was to create a blue deck which could control the board without playing counterspells. This was pretty congruent with my more aggressive approach to Commander. Back in January, I realized that I didn't do a whole lot of attacking in games, and in my interests to better both me as a player, and inform you as a blogger, I decided to concoct some techniques for more aggressive players who want to get good in a Wrath-Heavy format.

The strategy with Barrin is pretty simple. He is the Ultimate Unsummoner, throwing away everything on your board to throw threats back into your opponent's hands.

This goal is accomplished by committing permanents to the board state, and constructing lines of play in the game to pursue value. Much like Greel, we're able to get a little extra out of cards we play by doing something in the game that could be construed as anti-value or counterintuitive.

Because most players have to play creatures as threats to deal damage, this deck matches up well by out tempo-ing your opponents, not only with creatures, but other atypical permanents.

THE TECH

The first card we'll talk about is Jace, Memory Adept.

Not only does this deck feature most of the blue walkers (Still Mind Sculptor-less), but it also has a very strong "Jace" theme.

The idea with this comes from the staleness of seeing Jace get re-printed over and over. My playgroup in particular is just tired of seeing him, and so am I.

Though playing him doesn't sound like I support the paradigm, the idea was that sacrificing Jace and all his things to make a game more interesting gave the deck a silly but fun way to shed light in an otherwise angry beef with Wizards over the guy who is clearly their favorite blue p-dub.

While most of the walkers in this deck don't unite to form a real theme, one of the neat parts of my design is the sort of improvisation it takes to play it. Ultimately, this yields some seriously high variance in terms of games, which is not something I'm used to at all, let alone in a color that plays so consistently.

JMA is up here because I actually won a game using his second ability multiple times. Never thought I'd get that many chances, but I did, and it was cool. The planeswalkers in this color really have an underrated sense of respect at the table (with the exception of Tamiyo), and so it's not impossible in this deck to buy enough turns to go off with an ultimate ability, which gives us a chance to win.

So, not everything in here is an oddball.

Should be common knowledge that Gilded Drake is an incredibly powerful card. Along side his buddy Barrin, GD's even better, acting as recurring removal for your opponent's threats. Coupled with Sower of Temptation, these cards have the ability to continue to take your opponent's best thing, and combo with Barrin in order to force your opponent's removal spells.

Gilded Drake is the cheapest and most effective tool we have in the box.

The best way to play Barrin is to have cheap cards and enough Islands to get out before you cast him the first time.

Hatching Plans, the Wellsprings, and even Ordeal of Thassa have been nice options in this department.

HP is obviously the least flexible of the aforementioned, but it's still powerful. Barrin wants to play as much stuff as he can get out, and blue is never in short supply of weird things that let you draw cards. This is probably one of the better cards that takes advantage of the "permanent" requirement in Barrin's ability.

Early on in testing, I was playing a lot of Clone effects, which I deemed "too good" for what I was trying to accomplish.

Enter Master of Predicaments. Our group tends to love the Fact or Fiction subgame, and this resembled the spirit of the subgame, so I went with it. Turns out, it's been fun.

We play good cards in here, but not everyone should be putting a target on your back. Sometimes, you gotta live a little, and Master of Predicaments embodies the the philosophy and personality I've given to the deck.

One of the things that makes this card good is that the balancing number is 4. Conveniently, this is where a majority of my cards sit, including the Jace suite. Having spells that sit in this range just make it a little more difficult for your opponent to guess.

With access to bounce effects, we can potentially get multiple uses out of Morph creatures.

Since Khans dropped a bunch of new ones on our doorstep, I decided to do a little bit of testing.

Spellsnatcher is a card Grandpa really liked in his review of the set, and it's one I like too. Bringing in the Morph package for this deck is where I fudged my rule about counterspells, but the deck was having trouble with some answers, and I figured it was better to have them in fun, permanent-sized morsels. So no, I don't feel bad about it.

Bringing in the morph dudes also provided me the chance to add Ixidron for extra removal and another layer of trickery.

The last janky card we'll talk about is Shapeshifter's Marrow.

Before milling effects on planeswalkers became a plan in the deck, I had Geralf's Mindcrusher and Shapeshifter's Marrow in the deck.

It's kind of a happy accident that these cards all oddly worked together. The idea for Mindcrusher was just to be a nuisance, since it could be sacrificed and bounced to reset itself. And Marrow, disguised as an Enchantment, could be come an opponent's creature, and reset if I didn't like it.

Even though this card is more likely to get pitched by Merfolk Looter, I haven't seen enough of it to warrant cutting it. The theme and eccentricity exuding from it fit so well in here.

There are a lot of neat tricks in here, like resetting Solemn or Scourge of Fleets, or throwing 0/1 Goats from Springjack Pasture away to get rid of real creatures.

Aethersnipe ranks right up there. This is a significantly better card in Pauper, I'll admit, but I'm not against playing it in Commander.

Since Evoke gives you a chance to respond, Aethersnipe's trigger can actually be stacked and used in conjunction with Barrin's ability to either double your bounce triggers or recur Aethersnipe. Same goes with Nevermaker and Mulldrifter, some of TGZ's favorite pets. Again, just a another way to navigate the deck, especially in a tight spot.

Anyway, here's the full list:
The Bollocks Barrin Plan

Stay Tuned to the TGZ Station! C14 Spoilers are around the corner!

Shipping the Turn to You!
-UL

In General: Grandpa's Pauper Cube Part 4: Fast Facts

I am Grandpa Growth. You're a Zoner. This is The General Zone. On Sunday's here on the blog we talk about whatever it is I want to talk about...which for the last month has been Pauper CUBE!

Today we will finish my month long saga about Pauper Cube. We have discussed history, design, recent updates, and for my final act I will leave you with some fun facts and stories from my experiences with my own Pauper Cube.

• In my original design for the cube, it was split into three sections based on different eras of Magic: Early sets, the block era, and the modern era. The idea was to draft one pack composed of only cards from each era. This would give the feeling of a full block structure where the block was the entire history of the game. Ultimately, I scrapped the idea because it was annoying to separate all the cards back into the different groups after the draft, but I still like the idea and am looking for another way to implement it. 
• There are sub-sets of cards that support specific archetypes like Storm, Infect, or Defenders, that wouldn't normally be playable in the cube because you wouldn't be guaranteed to see the cards that your deck needed. The sub-sets are 15-20 cards that are randomly inserted into the draft packs as a whole unit. That way you are sure that drafting a specific deck is possible, but it could be very dicey if multiple people try to go in on the archetype.
• I have also toyed around with the idea of shrinking the cube down to either 360 or 240, or at least having a sub-set for play in which all the relevant cards for Pauper combo decks would appear. It would be sweet to be able to have a limited environment where the archetypes are clearly defined. Storm, Midnight Presence, Blue/Black Reanimator, Jund/Reanimate, Dredge, etc. Who wouldn't love combo mirrors?
• I originally wanted to include stickers to cover the art on the cards. These stickers would feature pop culture references, funny/cute images, or eerily similar pieces of art from outside Magic. If this sounds like a silly idea, that would be because it is. But alas, this is the kind of thing that my friends and I get a kick out of. Example:

• In my original design I also had several uncommon cards that I felt improved the environment and played particularly well. Strip Mine, Maze of Ith, Complicate, and a few others were all included.During my update for Born of the Gods, I decided it was time to remove them and have a truly commons-only cube. I think it improved the format, but the loss of such defining cards has definitely lowered the power level.
• I had also created a sub set of uncommon cards that could be introduced into the packs just like I described earlier, but these were always uncommons from the latest set. A sort of 'Uncommon of the Month' club.
• Can you guess which Magic set has the most cards in my Cube? ...it's Gatecrash. Here's the top five:

1. Gatecrash - 26
2. Return to Ravnica - 22
3. Khans of Tarkir - 21
4. Rise of the Eldrazi - 21
5. Ravnica, Time Spiral - 18

Notice anything? There are a lot of lands in my cube, and therefore it is no surprise that the sets with land cycles are at the top of this list. Here is what that list would look like if you discounted the sets with major land cycles:

1. Rise of the Eldrazi -21
2. Time Spiral - 18
3. Innistrad - 13
4. Alara Reborn, Eventide, Planar Chaos, Tempest, Theros - 11

• With the most current update, I have changed things around. My previous article stated that Portal Second Age was the only set from which I had not included a card. Well, that has changed. There are now two: Antiquities and M15. A situation that I will be looking to correct at my first opportunity. Past that, there are six sets at the bottom tied with only 1 card each. Those sets are: Urza's Destiny, Saviors of Kamigawa, Prophecy, and all three Portal Sets. 
• I have chosen not to count Starter 1999 and 2000 as 'sets', but if I did count them, they would also be zeroes, technically. There are cards in the cube which have appeared in those sets, but I have not put any card into the cube that was ORIGINALLY printed in those sets. The reason being that they were mostly reprints so I treat them like pre-New World Order core sets (and all the cards pretty much sucked anyway).
• The most common Creature type is Human. I would make a list, but there really isn't anything else that is even close.
• I have played a two person Winston Draft where one of the players ended up with every single Extort Creature (there are 6). The odds of this happening are very slim, but not that unreasonable compared to what happened next. In one of our games he mulliganed to six cards and found that he had drawn all six Extort Creatures! The odds of this happening in his 40 card deck are 1 in 3,838,380. After staring in bewilderment for some time, he eventually decided that he needed to mulligan again.
• The most life that I have seen gained off of a Crypt Incursion: 36
• The most tokens that I have ever seen in play concurrently from a Lab Rats: 23 
• The most tokens that I have ever seen in play concurrently from a Sprout Swarm: Strangely, only 7. This probably just means that you are more likely to outright WIN THE GAME soon if you go off with Sprout Swarm than if you go off with Lab Rats (citation needed).
• Most damage dealt with a Sparksmith: 7, this record is unlikely to be broken because I have since removed many of the Goblin cards.
• I have twice seen someone lose to a lethal Fireball for the full 20.
• Most Mulldrifters cast in a single game: 5
• The original build had a dedicated Tribal theme with spirits being featured prominently, but I never once successfully Soulshifted something. 
• In my original 360 card design there were all six artifact lands and the UrzaTron, but no one ever got the full set of either into a single deck.

I can't recall anything else notable and this article has grown too long already. That is all she wrote on the Pauper Cube kiddies. I will be back next week with something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT involving one of my favorite new cards: Treasure Cruise

-GG

Glowing Ranks: Black Legends

Happy Weekend Zoners!

I know we've gotten a little off track, but after a lot of time off, ya boi Landdrops is back, and ready for the final installment of Glowing Ranks.

In case you've missed it, or you need a refresher, here's the previous ones in the set.

Green Legends
Red Legends
Blue Legends
White Legends

As a color, Black Legends were about as easy as ranking the Green ones. Whereas Green Commanders had more of an oligarchical structure and theme to what made them good, the Legendary Creatures with Swamp mana and the decks they want to build were highly variable in ability.

So when go to compare colors, and analyze the "Why?" questions behind my choices, I think this one can be a lot more open to interpretation than its predecessors. The ones that made the Top 5 in black are major players, but the distance between them isn't much.

5. Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

Number Five is about as rare as they come. By that I mean, I haven't even seen a Xiahou Dun in the real, much less at the Commander Table. And despite moving onto the block in a marginally shorter time than most collectors and nostalgic Magic players, I know the neighborhood pretty well.

So this is the most hypothetical ranking, but I believe it's well deserved. Besides, it's a lot more interesting than talking about Korlash or Greel.

What puts Xiahou in my list and not these other two is his ability to retrieve your favorite mono-Black spell.

Reanimator decks have become a very obvious, straightforward ordeal in our game. That isn't a problem for me so much as it is a proverbial "glove slap" to those players who don't want to challenge themselves by doing something a little different.

My point is Good Cards are Good, and we all get it. Yet Xiahou Dun, while good, is a pretty unblockable creature combined with the chance to play multiple Read the Bones, Night's Whisper, your favorite removal spell, or the dare-I-say-it-card Exsanguinate.

Personally, I'm a fan. For sure an expensive deck, but totally worth it.

4. Horobi, Death's Wail

Do you like control? Do you detest overpowered creatures?

If you do, sounds like you're singing Horobi's song.

This is a deck I used to play against regularly, and it's power is greatly underestimated.

Its power lies in the fact that its strategy can be aligned easily with mono-Black worst-kept mana acceleration secret, Cabal Coffers and Tomb of Yawgmoth, to ensure that Horobi never remains unplayable.

In doing so, it neuters basically everything except something like Purphoros, where creatures don't really matter as long as damage is getting through. Even with permanents that can continue to target Horobi, it's still enough power to slow the game to a screeching halt- especially if there's a Cauldron of Souls out too.

3. Geth, Lord of the Vault

Now, Geth edges out Horobi, probably because I'm a combo nut. Any cards that we can combine and power-up to make them better than the sum of their parts is the proper place to begin a great deck.

So why does Geth get the three spot? Well, not only does he have access to tutorable combos, but he also possesses a high dependency for interactivity in order to do so.

When combined with the Altars (Ashnod's, Phyrexian, and "of Dementia), Geth's ability can be used to Reanimate these guys over and over, which is the kind of interesting and "creative" reanimate decks I'm talking about. While it was surely the design team that wins the points for excellent flavor and design, it's you who gets to benefit from this off-the-wall Zombie legend. Not only can you get stuff that doesn't belong to you and win, but you can also use it to mill them out, and potentially get something better.

And all of this is before we talk about how Geth performs in the Red Zone. A 5/5 for six with evasion and access to all manner of removal and Swamp pumps (Lashwrithe and friends) make Geth a much more exciting deck to play and play against.

2. Erebos, God of the Dead

The Gods, as we all have said, have completely taken over the Commander environment since Theros' release last year.

However, none have been so dominant across multiple formats in the last year as the deadest, whip-wielding-y-est, God in the Nyx Pantheon.

Maybe he was just riding the coattails of Thoughtseize and Gary, that Merchant from Asphodel, and a few other cards that supercharged his devotion, but Erebos is a card that is basically always going to be around your local game store or wherever Commander is played, for seven simple words:

"Your Opponents Can't Gain Life," and, "Draw a Card."

Even if you're not beating down with him, which I'm here to tell you means someone should take your Erebos deck away from you anyway, this card is one of the neatest little gems from Nyx.

Yet again, R&D proves without a doubt that they can make black cards.

1. Black Mike

You may be more appropriate with your nomenclature for this Cleric-gone-dark, but around my table, we know him affectionately as "Black Mike."

There are a few things I maintain are true about this insanely overpowered creature.

The first thing is that you don't know just how many Humans you have in your deck until you play against him. The second is that you'll kill at least one of those Humans because you'll forget that this card sandwiched this ability between his two primary abilities.

Honestly, I wish they did this more on cards. Could you imagine an Elesh Norn with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may gain life equal to the number of creatures you have with power greater than 3"?

Anyway, I shouldn't have to tell you how snapped Black Mike is, because you've probably played against him, or heard about how much he loves his Triskelion. It is the best mono-Black Commander solely because he's a weigh station for the treasure trove of ETB and dies triggers that are not even difficult to access in these colors. And like Geth, he gets to swing a 5/5 body unchecked against non-color opponents.

Phew! I'm Finished!

Hope you enjoyed. Be sure to debate or agree with me in the comments below. I'm always happy to talk shop.

Looking ahead, I've got some great tales, new tech, and a few new decks headed your way too. So keep in touch with your TGZ connections. New Commander spoilers are upon us too, and we're still here.

Pass Turn
-UL

In General: Grandpa's Pauper Cube Part 3: Cube Considerations

Hello Zoners! Welcome to In General. The Sunday segment here on The General Zone is about general topics applicable to Magic. Today's article is a continuation of a series all about my Pauper Cube.

In today's segment I will share with you the design document that governs how I build and maintain my cube. I think that this is the most important planning piece that you can do because it sets the stage for all the decisions you are going to make in the future. It is important to conceptualize what you want to accomplish and set out clear rules for how you will achieve those goals.

Guidelines

• 540 cards, Commons only, designed for casual Booster Draft and Sealed deck play.
• Singleton only, only one copy of each card is included.
• The cube does not follow the Pauper banned list. There is currently no banned list for the Cube and all cards that have been printed at common at least once are theoretically eligible for inclusion.
• No cards from Unhinged or Unglued are currently included in the cube although some cards from these sets have appeared in previous editions of the cube. E.g. Carnivorous Death-Parrot.
• No foils. Although they look nice, many foil prints warp, bend, or curl. They are also heavier than standard cards. All of these factors make the foils detectable even through sleeves, which would give frequent players an unfair advantage over players that are new to the Cube play group because they could identify certain cards by the general shape that they take.
• No foreign language cards. I only include the standard English printings of cards. Again, although they are desirable collector's items, they slow down drafting and gameplay if a player doesn't understand what a particular card says. This can also give more experienced players who could recognize card art or other features the ability to quickly evaluate cards in draft and create an unfair advantage. It is important to me that the cube stays accessible to new players. It is a casual format.
• No textless cards. Same as above.
• Whenever possible I use the original printing of a card from the first set it appeared in. Note: I will always allow players to use the Gatherer site to look up oracle wordings or judge rulings during play and draft. I assume all cards to work in the way that their oracle wording is stated in the event that it is functionally different than the card as it was printed.
• Cube updates occur frequently, but always at least once when a new set is first released. I monitor how individual cards are used and how they perform. I allow myself to change cards on a one-for-one basis pretty much whenever I feel it is necessary, but I do like to give questionable cards a few weeks to prove themselves.
• In previous editions, the cube expanded by two cards every time a set was released, meaning that it grew in size over time. With the release of Khans of Tarkir I committed to a major expansion of the cube moving from about 480 to 540 cards. This is already very large so I am not sure if I am going to continue my policy of adding two cards per set.

My Ongoing Goals for the Pauper Cube

• Make every card legitimately main deck-able. Efficient sideboard cards are necessary for any limited environment, but value-added versions of common cards are much more likely to see consistent play in every draft.
• Include at least one card from every expert-level expansion and modern core sets. 
• Include cards with historical significance, notable tournament performances, or unique abilities. There is a limit to how far I am willing to take this though, Benthic Explorers, while unique for a Blue card, just isn't competitive in this limited format.
• Include sufficient fixing so that drafters can take any card they want from a pack and realistically play all of their best cards in their deck regardless of color. Decks with better mana will get screwed less often than decks with less off-color requirements, so there is a benefit to being a disciplined drafter, but I don't want someone to feel left out if they are playing Blue/Green and the only removal they saw was Red.
• As always, decks with a coherent strategy and solid mana curve are more likely to win, so I try to keep the average converted mana cost of all the cards as low as possible. I shoot for a target of 2.5 and try to keep the Creature count above 50%. This mix ensures that the average average deck drafted from my cube looks like an all-stars team of other limited environments. More colors, but tighter curves. 
• Speed is one consideration that I often overlook. Proactive decks are good in this format, but pure Aggro decks often perform poorly. I want a way to create aggressive decks that win without giving up powerful taplands and multicolor cards.
• The Cube, first an foremost, should be a fun way to showcase the awesomeness that is Pauper. If it isn't fun to play or it isn't a good ambassador for the format, then it isn't doing its job.
• People should come away from a draft with a new perspective on how Pauper can be played. Most people underrate the power and depth of the format, assuming that commons are generally bad. That might be true of most commons, but Pauper is an eternal format and over the years some nasty stuff has gone to print. I want people to have that educational experience in an organic and entertaining way.

That is it for today. I will be back next week when I finish up my Pauper Cube series by sharing some fun facts. See you then, Zoners.
-GG

Glowing Ranks: White Legends

It's Thor's Day, and we're back continuing to sort out these mono-colored power rankings.

In case you've forgotten, here's what we've done so far.
Green Commanders
Red Commanders
Blue Commanders

Time to Rank!

Honorable Mentions

Jareth, Leonine Titan

Jareth is a cool card, and often a handful to deal with.

As part of the Onslaught cycle of Pit Champions, the easiest comparison to make is to Silvos- and that's one where it's probably not even close. Whereas Silvos can roll downhill with a lot of power and little regards for itself, a longer game is always going to favor Jareth.

A common theme among the White Legends, as you'll see, is granting color protection, and generally being defensive. While we haven't even begun to break into the Top 5, we're already seeing that White's defensive tactics are how they generate offense.

With a combination of Righteousness and color protection at activated ability speed, a Vigilant Jareth is adept at chunking away Commander damage while staunchly defending your life total. The ability to untap and get protection from multiple colors at instant speed typically means that short of a Wrath, or holding up a Duplicant, the 6-mana that gets invested in casting Jareth is going to be mana well sunk. He draws a lot of answers, so if you pace yourself well, many of your better cards can slip under the radar.

Darien, King of Kjeldor

The Coldsnap Royalty doesn't crack the Top 5, but his presence should be noted, due in part to his uniqueness among white-colored brethren.

Darien is where everything I've said about the better White Legends- Defense is offense, blah blah blah- goes to die. The truth is that the best way to defend is to let the damage happen.

Since his ability is going to turn players away from attacking, Darien decks are uniquely suited for some of the format's mana that typically goes in multi-colored decks. City of Brass, Tarnished Citadel, and even Ancient Tomb are nice ways to crank out small armies.

When used in conjunction with the Soul Sisters, the loss is basically moot. You'll take damage, get a dude, and get it back.

Generally, this is a great strategy. However, there is a reason he didn't make it any further in my Power Ranks, and the answer is as easy as Doom Blade. The deck relies so much on Darien and really wide combat zones that answering the deck is as easy as any removal spell in the format. Or if you want to be particularly vindictive, waiting to Wrath until after you've let the player ping his or herself to death.

5. Cho-Manno, Revolutionary

Cho-Manno is a Rebel, and the deck designed around him has a cause: Defensive Voltron Combo.

Pariah, Pariah's Shield, and Entangler are all extremely accessible cards which combine to create a damage-free board state.

There are a couple reasons Cho-Mo got the nod over one of these other decks. The first is that this combo, without budget restriction, is more tutorable and protectable than ever before. The addition of Heliod's Pilgrim and Plea for Guidance to the plethora of Equipment and Enchantment tutors on the market only means that you'll be able to find a piece of your combo every time.

Another reason is that Cho-Manno doesn't have to be the creature that eats everything up, leaving the door open for Auratouched Mage and Boonweaver Giant to help dig these cards out of your library. Hundred-Handed One and Pallisade Giant are also sweet cards that can support their Rebel leader in this way too.

On top of that, the best cards in the deck are extremely recurrable. Replenish, Retether, Nomad Mythmaker, and even Auramancer are all playable, and force your opponent to have to be opportunistic with how they get damage in.

The inherent weakness of this deck is that you have to dedicate some amount of resources to doing your own set of damage. The upside is that it's entirely possible, the longer you draw the game out. At some point, your opponent, if they're not playing with a removal engine, is going to do so.

While I've practically built the deck for you, there's still plenty to consider. And if you run with this idea, be sure to send me your list.

4. Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant

On a Stack episode a while back, we talked about how the Kamigawa flip legends have taken major slides back due to the imposition of indestructible Gods.

That said, I believe Rune-y can still stick around. With a handful of cards that can protect permanents, not just creatures, and a few cards that make Enchantments untargetable, there's still plenty of shade for him and his Essence to thrive in a more competitive metagame.

Additionally, the value that R-T's Essence provided is enough incentive to continue to build decks around it. Eating all of the damage will take some key cards out of your opponent's hands while forcing them to use their better answers.

As far as I can tell, this deck can still go strong, as long as it's been adapted to the newer landscape.

3. Kemba, Kha Regent

As we get closer to the top, the big theme you'll see is that these decks are good defensively as they are on offense.

Kemba is the beginning of this trend. As Voltron was a strategy before the Kha Regent was a Commander, assembling a deck racing to 21 was always going to be an easy task.

With the addition of 2/2 kitty value, the Kemba deck is really set for offense and defense short of an Overrun.

Overall, she's poised to make a threat out of either turning sideways with Swords or acting as a diet version of Rhys the Redeemed. Definitely one of the better offense-based decks in the white color pie.

2. Lin Sivvi

Like Cho-Manno, Lin Sivvi is a deck trying to play grindy defense and protect your life total. Aside from that, these decks couldn't be further apart.

Lin Sivvi is a very grindy deck whose aim is to challenge the length of the game. Acting as the centerpiece to all the action, Lin Sivvi can call on a handful of Toolbox players to chump, dump and recycle.

I play this deck, and I've said before it plays a lot like the Glissa T's Control Engines, because you can remove and Wrath your way out of most of the problems.

However, there are some iterations of this deck aiming to create infinite life-gain loops. Either way, there is a lot of defending that happens with this deck.

Still, if you can get into the super-late game, the power of this deck is going to be pretty immense. Smaller combos, like Phyrexian Processor and Children of Korlis, are bound to create some big tokens to smash with, while Mirror Entity often shows just how much damage he and a couple friends can do with the 13 or 14 mana you've probably accumulated by then. With Lin Sivvi, the offense is late, but often a 1 or 2 turn clock.

1. Eight-and-a-Half-Tails

At the top we find "almost Ninetales," and the reasons are obvious if you've ever played or played against it.

Though a very small little Fox Cleric, Eight and a Half Tails offers up one of the most unique little combination of abilities you'll ever see on one card. I love being able to interact on the stack, so to have the power of targeting a card as a spell sitting on the stack is extremely powerful- especially for 2W, and especially in white.

Again, Tails offers up a powerful ability that can be used to get damage through or put up the pillowfort. Though a lowly 2/2, Tails is probably not going to win with Commander damage, but I've seen it happen with access to a couple of pro-white Swords or enchantments.

Like Lin Sivvi, and even Jareth, their ability to "sink mana" can effectively be used to solidify and protect your board state, which is the commonality among successful mono-White EDH.

Pass Turn.
-UL

In General: Grandpa's Pauper Cube Part 2: Khans of Tarkir Update

Hello and welcome back to In General, the Sunday segment where we discuss just about anything relating to Magic the Gathering. This week we are picking up where we left off talking about my Pauper Cube. In last week's article I shared my list and my early experiences with Cube. Today we are going to skip ahead by several years and talk about what changes I have made for the inclusion of Khans of Tarkir.

The Starting Gate

My Cube was already pretty large at 480 cards. It was designed to showcase the full history of the game and include virtually every common card that was historically significant, inherently powerful, or genuinely unique. It is also very important to me that every player be able to main deck basically anything that they draft. This requires two important steps:

• Including enough fixing so that a full eight person draft pod could be playing multicolor brews if they wanted to. Four and five color decks are not just possible in Pauper limited, but they are actually dominant. It is harder to draft mono-color than it is to draft five color 'good stuff'. 
• Second, sideboard cards have to be applicable to general gameplay. There are certainly some powerful niche cards like Dismantling Blow, but I didn't want effects like Circle(s) of Protection that would end games incidentally. 

The major consequence of this decision to favor multicolor decks and enable splash cards is that it becomes harder to draft a focused, archetypal deck. You can't build a Red Aggro deck if every person at the table is going to steal your Lightning Bolt and put it in their Blue/Green deck. For more delicate archetypes, like Storm combo, it becomes harder to draft without a high density of the proper support cards. In a 360 card Cube where you are guaranteed to see Empty the Warrens in your draft, it is safe to go all-in on the archetype from pick one. That basically isn't possible with 480 cards.

Khans of Tarkir brought me to a decision point. With five new fixing artifacts and ten new quality dual lands, multicolor decks could be at an all time high. Including these cards would permanently erase one and two color decks. I didn't want to change the balance of the format because I was happy with how it played pre-Khans. I had a dilemma and I chose to expand.

Adding cards up to 540 would allow me to include these powerful new fixers and also make it easier to add many other cards that had been waiting in the wings for a long time. The sacrifice is that the overall card quality goes down and aggro decks suffer as it becomes tougher to acquire the premium one and two drops. Multicolor midrange decks will thrive because fixing is plentiful and there exists a plethora of replaceable 'value' cards to stall games and punish niche archetypes. I am not saying I like it or hate it. I can't garuantee how long it will stay this way, but for now I am fully embracing what Khans has to offer and playing the new duals alongside the RTR Gates.

Card Changes:

+10 Dual Lands

If there was an award for most difficult to
cast mana rock, the borderposts would win.

Out: Borderposts 
In: Banners

I have always loved this cycle for its versatility. If you are playing a decent number of basics, they can act just like a ETB tapped dual land which is the standard for Pauper. Doing this also helps you trigger Landfall effects and puts otherwise useless lands into your hand for discard effects and Retrace.

I have a feeling that these will be back, but for now I am taking them out to make room for the new clan banners which offer three colors. Comparable to the Obelisk cycle from Shards of Alara, the Banners are slow, but are sometimes necessary to round out the color requirements in a loose deck.


Out: Triclopean Sight
In: Ainok Bond-Kin

Triclopean Sight has been on the bubble for years now. It just isn't powerful enough on its own to justify including it in my Cube. I gave it a short run last year along with other Theros block cards to enhance an "enchantments matter" theme, but now it is time for it to go.

Replacing it is a premier two drop. Bond-Kin is strong in aggressive and defensive decks and is going to perform well whether you draw it early or late. The fact that it only requires one colored mana means that this card is going to be a high pick for virtually any deck. I expect it to be a key player in my Cube.

Out: Court Street Denizen
In: Mardu Hordechief

Well, if we are trying to expand options for multicolor decks, then a Creature that only plays well with other White Creatures is going to get worse. Instead we will get to make some tokens off of our Raid triggers. Pauper is heavy on Creatures, so the games tend to revolve around combat. The vast majority of those Creatures cost three or less. That means that a 2/3 is going to be able to survive combat with about half of the Creatures in the cube, so the body is much stronger in this format than it is in a typical Khans draft. The 1/1 is also much more relevant. With high quality equipment like Bonesplitter hanging around, every body counts.

Out: Voice of the Provinces
In: Phantom Nomad

Voice has been comfortably occupying a spot in my Cube since it was printed. There are only a handful of Flying 3/3's in the entire format, so the body demands an answer. The fact that it leaves behind a little value even after it is removed has made it a welcome addition to all of my White decks. The trouble is that it is very expensive and at that price point you can get more for your money. I think that slower, controlling deck will benefit more from having a high-value early play like Phantom Nomad. Nomad impressed me in Vintage Masters draft and I think that it will also add strength to aggressive decks who need a high density of two drops.

No joke, this is probably the most powerful
card in all of Khans of Tarkir.

Out: Fade Away
In: Treasure Cruise

Treasure Cruise is one of the breakout cards from the new set. It is seeing play in every format in the game so there was no chance I was leaving it out of this update. Fade Away has been on the bubble from the very first list I drafted. It is a very unique card, especially for a Blue common.

The truth is that situational pseudo-removal just isn't removal. It almost always generates card advantage, but it usually just blows up a couple of your opponents lands. Now that certainly has value, but it doesn't mean as much if you are already behind on the board. Fade Away will most likely be back in the future, but it tends to move around a lot.

Out: Spearpoint Oread
In: Mardu Warshrieker

In general, I have been very pleased with the Bestow cards. They provide bodies, versatility, and value, which is everything I want from a Creature. Spearpoint Oread has been underperforming though. The Bestow cost is very high and the mana cost is nothing special for the body that you get. I think Warshrieker will provide much more play. The potential to fix colors and boost tempo is already very exciting and 'free' spells are always worth something. Considering the high power level of the format, that three mana can buy you some impressive plays.

Out: Ravenous Rats
In: Mardu Skullhunter

I consider this a temporary change. Ravenous Rats is a classic card and it will probably never be permanently replaced. But for now, Skullhunter is an exciting new update of the card that let's me play with new mechanics and new twists on an old favorite.

I prioritize including cards that have significant historical precedents, and Ravenous Rats fits the bill, but there is another reason I want to keep it in long-term: I want to have one card from every expansion in the game's history, which I have been able to do...thanks to Rats. First printed in Portal Second Age, it is the only card from that set that was in my Cube, so I am now missing something to fill that requirement.

Out: Drakewing Krasis
In: Grazing Kelpie

Multicolor cards are always tough to evaluate. There are such a great deal of cards competing for so few spots that tough choices have to be made. Krasis has been under performing. One toughness Creatures are the easiest to remove and it feels bad to lose your whole board to an Electrickery. Ultimately, Krasis is replaceable, so I decided to exchange it for something more unique.

Kelpie is easier to cast, has a very solid defensive body, and an ability that is hard to find. That ability might also not be that useful, but it does give you a way to interact with Flashback cards and Gravedigger. Besides, a 2/4 Persist is probably worth playing on its own.

Out: Shambling Shell
In: Safehold Elite

This might look a bit weird on the surface. Moving up to 540 cards means that there will be 70 spots for multicolor cards. With ten two-color combinations, one would guess that each 'guild' would get seven cards. That is how things normally go, but not all guilds are created equal. There are some that have fewer cards that I would actually WANT to put in the Cube. Cutting a spot for G/B cards opens up room for me to include one of the many G/W cards that I have been trying to fit in for a long time.

In this case, cutting a difficult to cast card for one that is easily played by any Green deck allows me to shuffle slots around without actually penalizing certain color combos. A Green/Black deck can still make use of a solid two drop that they can easily cast.

Out: Consult the Necrosages
In: Suicidal Charge

The same concept applies here. Red/Black has been very competitive for a long time and it is tough to justify cutting quality pieces like Blightning. I have long adored Consult the Necrosages for its elegant design and flexibility, but it rarely ever gets used in discard mode. That makes it just worse than Divination in most decks and Divination is not good enough to be in the Cube. On the other hand, Suicidal Charge will be an unbeatable finisher in some decks. I expect it to end quite a few games in short order.

Out: Singe-mind Ogre
In: Traitor's Roar

I have goals for the mana curve and composition of each color. I want each segment of the Cube to be at least 50% Creatures and have a average converted mana cost as close to 2.5 as possible. I have noticed over time though, that multicolor cards tend to float in packs until they arrive at a player who can actually make use of them in their deck. At that point they need to actually make into that persons deck or it will just NEVER get played.

Because of this I have decided to relax my composition requirements for the multicolor segment. I hope that it will stimulate drafters to maindeck more powerful multicolor cards, even if they are a bit harder to cast. At any rate, if Red/Black players don't want to play Singe-mind Ogre, it needs to come out. I expect Traitor's Roar to give this color combination more of what it really wants: reach, answers to larger Creatures, and ways to punish slower decks.

Bubble Cards:

As with any choice, there will always be roads left untraveled. I keep a collection of cards that are right on the fringe of making into my Cube, but the missed the cut this time. If a card doesn't fill its role properly or fails to meet expectations I can make replacements without needing to do hours of research. These are a few of the notable entrants on that list. I'll leave you with a short comment on each:

Demonic Dread - I want the Cascade, but R/B is too heavily contested to have a wonky card like this right now. Maybe one day when I get tired of having midrange decks I will change this for Spawn of Rix Maadi to give aggro decks a quicker way to punch through.

Stitcher's Apprentice - I have always been a fan of the old limited combo of Threaten + sacrifice. Currently there are just too few ways to steal a Creature to make apprentice a high draft pick. Blue is the most competitive color and there are better ways to use this slot.

Into the Roil - Speaking of competitive, I always have trouble deciding on the correct number of bounce effects for the cube. Too many and aggro is unplayable, but there are so many excellent ones that I always want to cram in more. There are just so many powerful cards, like Into the Roil, that I really wish I had space for.

Sporemound/Sporoloth Ancient - I want a 5 cmc token generator in Green, especially in a build of the Cube that is so focused on interactive midrange decks. Both of these cards have been in the Cube before, sometimes together, but for now they are both on the outside looking in.

Three color Cards - I have taken a hard stance against including any three color cards, being that they are just so difficult to cast. Most people won't even try, no matter how strong the card is. The new three-color Morph cycle makes me think that maybe I should try and make space for them, particularly Ponyback Brigade and Efreet Weaponmaster.

That's all for this week. If you haven't been catching the coverage of the Pro Tour...why not? At the time of this writing the Pro Tour hasn't begun yet, but by the time you guys read it the action will all be over! Next week I will be back with the conclusion of my series on Pauper Cube!

-GG

Khans Part II: Red, White, and Green

Happy Thor's Day Zoners!

Today we get back on track talking about the cards I consider to be "spicy meatballs" for Commander. We talked Blue and Black last time, so let's look at the rest of the color pie today.

Red has always been appropriately colored when it comes to Commander and the order in which our society ostracizes stepchildren. Seems like every semi-powerful card has a marginally unequivocal drawback when compared to its other-colored kin.

Wild Guess was the double-red incarnation of Tormenting Voice, and I think both cards, in this case, benefit the Red deck considerably. A few weeks ago I mentioned the Squee deck as a viable engine deck, and Tormenting Voice does well to help support the strategy of incremental advantage via Squee-throwing.

Additionally, the better Red decks in the format are usually looking for redundant combo pieces anyway. By reinforcing this with redundant card draw, it makes those decks a lot better, perhaps adding incentive to playing a card like Wild Guess where you might not have played it by itself before. It's no Kodma's Reach and Cultivate, but it's a start in the right direction for the oft-shunned mages who prefer Mountains.

Enter the Dragon...speaker...conversation.

Don't get me wrong, I love this card. GG's assessment in the set review felt pretty on point- it's a card that has power, but does it simple and easier than some of the other P-Dubs out there.

Still, I'm not sure how playable it is in our format. I had the luck of opening one up in pack 3 of a draft a few weeks ago. Unfortuantely, Sarkhan didn't get to see play because I'd hard drafted into Sultai with a pack 2 Sagu Mauler.

But I've slotted him into HH, where I think he could do work similar to what my Thundermaw Hellkite does in the deck, so we'll have to see. I don't think we'll ever get an ultimate off, and I don't see any reason to minus loyalty for a midrange threat, so it's all or nothing with our Ugin-chasing buddy.

Since we talked about Sarkhan, I'll opt not to talk about the other obvious red card Ashcloud Phoenix. Instead, we'll talk about this nifty little enchantment called Goblinslide.

In my playing of Khans Limited and Sealed, I've gotta admit the mechanics and flow in design have been some of the most natural that I can remember.

Goblinslide is one of the nice little includes in set design that can illustrate what I'm talking about. It's a card that combines Mardu creature-bashing with Jeskai trickery, making it a decent pickup as the packs get passed around in draft. While Mardu is probably less likely to pick it up if there's a decent face-beater, Goblinslide helps to turn some of the mana rocks and overcosted removal into additional chumps or damage as the game goes on.

In Commander, this is going to be another solidcard for mono-Red. Squee, Purphoros, Krenko- these are all Commanders that want to turn their spells into additional value. Bear in mind there's additional tempo incentive, even if you're casting a Goblin Offensive, due to the fact that the token you get off Goblinslide does have haste.

Moving onto white, we have some great creatures in the Outlast department. Though I like them all, Abzan Falconer is by far the the superior playable option. Designing around +1/+1 counter-based decks like Ghave, Marath, or even something lowly like White Mike (Mikaeus, the Lunarch) provides some serious evasion.

While there will be a lot more removal to point at it in Commander versus a format with 60 cards or less, it's worth playing, if only to force removal so that you can cast a Sun Titan, and get right back to work.

While I love the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Artwork" going on with the Pearl Master, this is one of the few cases in the set where I felt Wizards got something wrong.

While Tormenting Voice is a great redundant addition to Wild Guess, essentially making both cards more useful, MoP fails to make anything OP.

The main reason is that he is the best morph creature in his colors, which means that immediately this card isn't playable in mono-White if you're looking to surprise someone.

The second reason this card bums me out is that he could've been made relevant, regardless of whether or not he's the best white morph creature, if his morph trigger was "When Master of Pearls is turned face up, other creatures you control get +2/+2," turning the card into a janky half Elesh Norn or Kabira Vindicator, and again, forcing your opponent(s) to come up with an answer.

I get the design choice. The EOT clause was put here to facilitate the eventuality of someone removing MoP, giving you a chance to respond, so you aren't left with nothing. Still, if R&D didn't mind a little awkwardness, they could have their cake and eat it with something like, "When Master of Pearls is turned face up, other creatures you control get +2/+2 until the end of the turn in which Master of Pearls leaves play." Flavor-wise, there might not be enough pearls to make this work, but it would surely make for a cooler card.

What's good for Standard isn't always good for us- and Wingmate Roc is surely going to be good for Standard.

I'm a big fan of this card, so I'm probably just going to force the Bird Buddies into Commander, and make it work somehow. Mine's probably going into basic Isperia deck I pull out for newer players.

This probably isn't a good idea, as this is another card GG doesn't believe you should be hanging your hat on, and he's right. The life gain and extra bird isn't even close to the value you're gonna get from the Soul Sisters if you're looking to gain life, and it's not nearly as much value as Captain of the Watch or Knight-Captain of Eos, if you're just looking for pure tokens and value.

If my opinion changes, you'll be the first to know though.

See the Unwritten was in my prize packs from Khans prerelease, and I was pretty excited about it. After the card got spoiled I figured it'd be as nuts a Garruk, Caller of Beasts in the Stompy green decks, which is where mine was going to go.

Honestly, it took me longer to decide whether to put this in Melira or Silvos than it did to realize this card is just not gonna work well for me. Although I'm a fan of the easy value granted by the mid-range fatty mechanic Ferocious, it's clear to me See the Unwritten is going to have much better returns in formats where there's access to multiple copies of creatures you want, versus spinning the wheel in a 90+ card deck and hoping you overcommitted to big creatures and have options amongst the top 8 cards of your deck.

Were I not so convinced this is just severely outclassed by Summoning Trap, I would tell you to give it a chance. That said, I don't think that, ironically, this card is the real trap.

Time to go big by GETTING BIG folks!

This is my super-sleeper Commander pick of the set, for obvious reasons, but let's run through them quickly anyway.

First, the trickiness. It's an instant that turns even your most awkwardly unplayable  Elvish Mystic into a dude that can eat a Titan. The scale finally fits our game, making it absurd for the part of the game when we need to turn dudes sideways. And in case you've never played a Forest mana on a turn in your life, this is a big part of the green player's game plan.

And the best part? It's NEVER going to cost 5G. Between cost reduction and the odds that you're probably never going to need most of the nonsense you put into your graveyard anyway, Become Immense is a Giant's Giant Growth. Any green deck dedicated to 21 points of legendary creature damage, and every green deck dedicated to making combat wide and ripe with Overrun effects wants to be getting this card into play- so essentially, it should be huge in mono-Green decks and other splash-colored Stompy variants too. This card allows you to be Beserk without spending $50 to buy your own copy of Beserk. So don't just do it big. Become Immense.

The last card we'll talk about continues with my theme of noncreature green cards, known affectionately in my local game store (and probably everyone else's too) as Bear Punch.

Even though the best part of the card is the artwork, the fact that we're continuing to get fight cards is sweet. Most of them, I'll admit I don't even play, and I'll probably be pulling this card out of Silvos before long, but I do enjoy having the option of pumps and bear-tackling to get damage through. This is a solid card, particularly when combined with the abundance of deathtouch that green has inherited over the last several blocks.

In Limited, I've been doing a lot of Bear Punching with Heir of the Wilds to great result. So if you've got some good stories about fight mechanics, or Bear Punch stories, be sure to share them in the comments below. I love a good Man vs. Wild story.

Pass.
-UL

In General: Grandpa's Pauper Cube Part 1: A Brief History

I have referenced my Pauper Cube in many of my previous articles, but I have never actually posted the list on the blog. That changes today. I will discuss Cube and it's history. I am going to talk about Cube, C/Ube, and Pauper Cube; the differences that interested me, where I got my start with Pauper Cube, and what my goals were/are for my own draft set. Let's begin.

Wherefore Cube?

When most people explain the concept of Cube to a new player, they do so by saying something like this: "It is a collection of cards that you draft from, just like regular limited, but it is made up of the best cards of all time!"

When the first Cube was built, that was probably true. Throughout the early years of community development, all cubes were very similar. There were only so many cards that were 'Cube worthy' and it was easier to make decisions about what to cut. There were only six categories of cards really: the five colors and colorless. For a long time Cubes were almost unanimously 360 cards, 60 of each color and 60 Artifacts/Lands. Hence the name: Cube, an object with six equal sides. Cubes rigidly followed the singleton rule. This configuration worked out perfectly so that an entire eight man draft pod could put together 45 cards in their pool and the entire set would get played.

As time went on and the game continued to grow Cubes grew along with it. There were now so many good cards that you couldn't always cram everything in and still have room to personalize. Cube designers started to experiment with the characteristics: size, composition, mana curve, themes, balance. Discrete archetypes grew out of this: Mono Red Aggro, Mono Black, Reanimator, Blue White control, 'The Enemy': mid-range value decks of varying color compositions, e.g. Junk. It was possible for cubers to design with these specific archetypes in mind so you could see consistency every time you played.

Divergence

Nowadays, Cube looks very different. Now the answer to the question of what Cube is has changed as well. A Cube is a player-designed, community grown card set for Limited Phantom play. That is a broad and nebulous definition, but at least it is wholly accurate. It is no longer appropriate to talk about Cube as "the best cards ever". That, simply put, is too narrow an interpretation and limits the potential of the environment you are trying to create.

I have seen a Plants vs. Zombies Cube. A Human vs. Zombies Cube. A Tribal Cube. An everything but Blue Cube. A Zoo Cube, which was awesome. Who do you think wins in the battle of cats, lizards, hounds, apes, birds, and fish? There is a Cube for every kind of player AT LEAST!

So when you decide to make a Cube, you are deciding on what restrictions you want to place on this new format. There really aren't any rules except that it should be internally consistent. It is like a comic book universe of Magic cards. You decide the characters and the setting and the story just plays itself out in every game.

An important step for me was deciding on what FORMAT I wanted my Cube to be played in. I love draft, so I primarily designed it with eight-man booster draft in mind. This is more or less the most common approach, but you can tailor any set to play differently in a given format, so keep that in mind. I knew I wanted to do somethings differently with my own Cube, but it took some digging to generate ideas.

(Magic the) Gathering Information

I began by reading. The Cube community has always been a strong, underground society. Back in the day there was no MTGO Cube for new people to look at so the only way to learn about Cube was to go and play somebody else's. I took much of my inspiration from Adam Styborsky's Pauper Cube, which is linked HERE! And also Eric Klug's Common/Uncommon Cube, seen HERE! I already had a friend with more a standard Cube so I knew from the outset that I wanted to do something different. Messing around the rarity restrictions seemed like a natural place for me to take it because I have such a deep love for the Pauper constructed format.

I wanted to create a draft environment that showcased the surprising power and incredible depth that Pauper has to offer. I wanted to show people that you can do very broken things, just like in regular cubes, but also show people some unique cards from Magic's past that would normally never get into a Cube.

With those overarching principles in place I starting building...but I have run out of time to talk about it this week. I won't leave you hanging, here is the list as it stands now: Grandpa's Pauper Cube. Next week I will go deeper into the design choices and my personal philosophy on Cube and after that I will talk about the updates I made for Khans of Tarkir. Till then Zoners.
-GG

Khans Cards, Part I: Black and Blue

Happy Thor's Day Zoners!

I've been out real-life planeswalking since we got the taste of Tarkir during prerelease, and I'm anxious to bring you a few of the hidden gems I've been digging since sealed, limited, and cracking open my big box of Khan goodies.

As you saw in GG's Set Review last week, there's a lot to like, and probably not a whole lot aside from a cycle of charms and a cunning replica (Clever Impersonator) that are going to immediately make their way into the market. Eventually, everything finds its way back to EDH, but even the response time of social media's finest isn't always going to be right on the money.

So today I'm going to do a little bit of speculating and forecasting, you know- the usual Landdrops meditation and meandering on cards I like, cards I want to play, and cards I hope and expect to see at the kitchen table nearest me, and by Interwebz extension, you.

We'll start things off nice and slow with a spicy, nasty little blue card.

Earlier in the week, I had a chance to have a chat with VJ about this card, and we both agreed that it's a nice one. Honestly, I'm a little more pessimistic about its impact in the Commander metagame, but it's not going to stop me from playing it. VJ called it a "Counter Target Commander" spell, which I think feels pretty accurate, though I'm still unsure how good that is.

My skepticism only really concerns how many gigantic spells we want to counter. Generally, that is threats, whether they're from the Command Zone or otherwise, and every big X spell, which yes, will change on the Stack (Genesis Wave for 7 on the stack is GGG+7= CMC 10). So there's some upside.

Being a more aggressive version of Thoughtbind, I'm liable to want to play this. Again, it's a counter with a low intensity for blue whose design is going to force even the worst control players to hold up a spell until something big is on the stack. While it's not going to be your most trustworthy counterspell, if you like having a handful for tempo, this might be worth taking for a test drive.

Potentially, Stubborn Denial just might outclass Disdainful Stroke. Here, I like the versatility more. This is easily better than something like Turn Aside, which I always played but never cast, and really going to make your opponents think twice about casting Treachery, Removal, or a Planeswalker-level threat. Bonus added, obviously, if you're ahead.

I think it's good enough to be in the conversation because it's almost as good as Complicate or Daze, but it's not too underpowered that you want to rip it in half. It's the kind of card Control players want to play, particularly in 60-card formats, where you have access to multiples and only a couple of game-ending threats. Again, I think this can be replicated and supported with the combination of older, better versions, so this strategy could become a good one for EDH too.

Our last blue card is another Instant blessed the Ferocious Temur mechanic- Force Away.

This is another card which I'm really riding high on. While I was a little bit disapointed about not having enough Mid-Range Fatties (Temur's "Not-A-Theme" Theme), like this horse in the artwork, I'm chomping at the bit to get an Unsummon and a Looter on tempo. It just seems cool.

Despite Mid-Range Fatties being silly, I think Ferocious turned out nice. The power level of cards like this and See The Unwritten will find their full potential in Standard and Commander, where they can be more thoughtfully designed around, while giving a nice little tempo-based answer with incentives in Limited and Sealed. Nice job all-around on Ferocious.

Big card is big, Black card has Zombies- I know it's not incognito, being mythic and all.

Still, I have something to say to people who feel its cost is going to keep this from being relevant.

Delve Makes This Card Real.

Even with Gristlebrand Quadruple Black, this card is going to get a lot of surprise kills. Mono-Black already plays Army of the Damned, which, with Flashback is immense value and pressure. Like Stubborn Denial, ETP is just more reinforcement. Since most Mono-Black decks aren't without Cabal Coffers and Urborg, and probably a Crypt Ghast and other Swamp-Doubling shenanigans, Empty the Pit is going to be huge, going to be done at the end of your last opponent's turn, and it will finish off the table. Because when you can supplant the cost by delving for one of the X's, a BBBBX spell is very easy to manage with all the tools. This is going to be a house very quickly. So get your own, and be on the lookout for others with a copy of their own.

While the morph mechanic on GH is a little more for limited, Haruspex's other ability, when anticipated correctly, is going to yield nice return with a sac outlet in play.

I like this card a lot. It's not Harvester of Souls, but it's a decent, cheaper costed alternative for mono-Black and other token sacrifice decks.

Last card for today is the BS Champ.

I've got a lot of things to say about this card. At prerelease, it was in my Sealed pool, directly contributing to my second place finish with a very average Abzan deck.

Later, I was asked why he can't block when he has so many shields. While I have no idea about the answer to this question, I can explain why he won me so many games, and more importantly- why he'll do well to translate back to Commander.

A relentless threat, BS Champ is basically a functional reprint of Bloodghast. Unlike B-Ghast, which needs to see land to stay alive, our new version prefers seeing action, which is just as low of a barrier. And with 1 toughness, is in the perfect space to be a complement to EDH Equipment Extraordinaire, Skullclamp, and any Grave Pact trigger you can get your hands on.

While Champion was effective because the Sealed and Draft formats don't really get online until players start dropping Morph dudes, he's going to be just as good in Commander because he's resilient, so people will take the damage, or he'll get blocked, die, and you can go get him back either immediately or on your following turn. And if you don't need him for that, he becomes an excellent little utility sacrifice dude. Get your copies while you can. I have a feeling this could be real in some 60-card formats.

Pass Turn.
-UL