Calling All Autobots!

Happy Thor's Day Zoners! 

We got a few pieces of mischief I'd like to manage today. First of all, if you're looking for an article from me about what I like to talk about, here's my "Trick" Voltron piece that featured on CommanderCast yesterday. Check it out, leave me a line in the comments if you've got questions or an inspiration.

CommanderCast- Trick Voltron

In other news, let's get to the title for this article. Me and Gramps are in the market for some people that want to talk about Commander content and general Magic news. We're also gearing up for a big return of your favorite tech segment, The Stack, and we're looking for guests for that too.

This message goes out to all Autobots, particularly writers and avid Commanders looking for a soapbox.

So if you have a cool idea for an ongoing segment, or you're interested in chatting about cards, shoot me an email at unclelanddrops@gmail.com. We're here. We're waiting.

You can look forward to next week's feature, where I get to talk about the most Land Dropping Land Drops deck I've designed to date- Titania, Protector of Argoth. 

Alright. Mischief Managed!

-UL

TGZ News 4/25/14: Journey into Nyx and Announcing...

TGIF Zoners! Grandpa Growth here with a couple quick announcements!

First, this weekend is the Prerelease tournament for Journey into Nyx. This is your first opportunity to play with the new cards and get your hands on some sealed product. Make sure you reserve a spot at your local store for the event and have some good old fashioned fun playing with the new set!

Secondly, coming up next week we will have coverage of the new set here on the blog all week long with our set review. Uncle Landdrops and I will be breaking down all the cards and giving you our take on how JiN stacks up in the land of Commander. Make sure to check every day next week for the new content as it goes live!

Finally, we have a very special announcement. We are all very excited to reveal that we have a new contributor joining the team here at The General Zone. A long time friend and associate is ready to make the jump from consumer to creator and will be taking over the Thursday spot on TGZ. He has chosen the Zachroling as his pen name, spoiler: his name is Zach and he likes Saprolings. I won't give away too much more now, but look for his articles coming soon on Thursdays and he will be sharing his thoughts with us every Saturday in The Stack! Give him a warm welcome as he settles in here on the blog.

This has been a public service announcement. Thank you for listening. That is all.

-GG

TGZ NEWS 4/11/14: Duel Decks, Duels 2015, and Spoilers

After a short lull following the release of Born of the Gods, TGZ News is back with some exciting new developments in the world of Magic: the Gathering! New duel decks, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015, and Journey into Nyx spoiler season is upon us! Let's take a look.

Duel Decks: Speed vs. Cunning
Announced earlier this week on Daily MtG, this Summer's Duel Deck release will be called Speed vs. Cunning. Not much information was given in the initial announcement, but we can safely assume that it will follow the same formula as previous Duel Decks offerings: a few cards will feature new arts, there will be a couple of cards that haven't been printed in the new card frame, and there will be one or two money cards to try and hook us into buying an otherwise extremely boring product. Unlike other limited print Magic products like From the Vault or retro booster boxes, you can expect this to hold MSRP for a while...mostly because there won't be anything of value inside. Link to the announcement below:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1463

Duels of the Planeswalkers
This year we will get yet another iteration of Duels of the Planeswalkers, the annual release video game that ties into the annual release of the Core Set. This year's offering has some interesting twists! It will include the ability to fully customize decks from a larger pool of cards and to build your own decks. Whereas previous games have forced you to use under-powered pre-constructed decks and substitute only a certain amount of cards, Duels 2015 will push the game closer to the full customization potential of the Magic Online platform. Speaking of platforms, Duels 2015 will be available on Steam, Android, Xbox Live, and Xbox One. The expanded story mode will focus on escaping Garruk, who has been cursed by the Chain Veil. This essentially confirms that the Garruk featured in Magic 2015 will, in fact, be Garruk the Veil Cursed. This points towards Transform being the featured mechanic in this year's Core Set, although that has not been confirmed. Link to the announcement below:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1470

Journey Into Nyx Spoilers:
In an exciting change of procedure, Wizards has begun running previews a week earlier than usual. We will get to enjoy a full three weeks of spoilers leading up to the release of JiN. Stay tuned to Dailymtg.com for the latest spoilers as they are previewed and make sure to read our ongoing coverage of all the spoilers right here on The General Zone.

Till next time Zoners, this is Grandpa Growth signing off.
-GG

TGZ News 2/21/14

Hey Zoners! Big news from the Magic world and beyond. I am back in the world of the internet living and much has happened since our last news segment. Let's dig in and see what all the fuss is about.

For the last few years Wizards has been in the habit of releasing new casual products every Summer. This has brought us some awesome products like the Commander pre-constructed decks and Planeschase. This years product is called Conspiracy and is designed for multiplayer drafting. As a big fan of casual drafting, I am very excited by this. The preview cards revealed with the announcement have already got me salivating, but what I am most excited about is this: this is the newest expert level product that also shares a name with a card. You can read the product info here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1430

This year's From the Vault product is also poised to deliver excitement. FtV: Annihilation, as it's called, is a collection of the most 'brutal' cards from Magic's history. As always, they have teased the announcement by showing one of the beautiful new pieces of art and, always, the internet is aflutter with speculation as to what this card might be. If you as me the answer is pretty clear, Sulfur Vortex. It is brutal, powerful, has a storied history within the game, playability in Legacy and Cube, and has never received a reprint.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1426

Magic has always had appeal to collectors, but many of the side merchandise have never really caught on. Wizards plans to change this with a new line of collectible figurines from Funko featuring the ionic planeswalkers from Magic. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1431

Finally, Pro Tour Born of the Gods begins today. The top players in the World are going to be battling it out with Modern decks featuring the brand new Modern Banned list. So far, the effects have already been felt with Wild Nacatl powering a resurgence of Aggro Zoo decks alongside a small smattering of Faerie decks utilizing Bitterblossom. You can follow the coverage all weekend long on dailymtg.com and you can watch the live web stream here: http://webcastplayer.wizards.com/

TGZ News: GPSAC, MTGO Cube, and Born of the Gods

Hey Zoners! Grandpa Growth here bringing you what is up in the world of Magic in another TGZ News!

GP Sacremento finished up last weekend and it was definitely an exciting tournament. The live coverage by members of Team ChannelFireball was awesome and their very own Tom Martell ended up taking down the whole tournament. If you missed out you should definitely check out the text coverage on the mothership and the video of the Top 8 Draft on Channelfireball.com:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpsac14/welcome
http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/grand-prix-sacramento-top-8/

Exciting news for casual fans, MTGO Cube will return January 29th! Announced this week on Daily MtG complete with an updated Cube list. Make sure to set aside some time next week to crack virtual packs and have some good old fashioned fun.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/other/01202014

Born of the Gods spoilers are all over the internet making waving and lighting up Twitter feeds from here to Hong Kong. Whether you are testing modern for the upcoming Pro Tour or just trying to get a leg up at your local prerelease make sure you check out the full visual spoiler. At the time of this post nearly the entire set has been spoiled!
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/bornofthegods/cig#

TGZ News: MtG Money, Movies, and m-SPOILERS

Big news this week in Magic! Wizards now has a license to print money in different currencies, Fox leaves a paper trail that leads to an MtG movie, GP Sacramento starts tomorrow, and the first week of Born of the Gods spoilers is in the books.

Wizards announced that they would be partnering with the government of New Zealand to produce collector's coins featuring Magic. The coins are pure 0.999 silver and feature a full color print of Jace the Mind Sculptor on one face and a relief portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the opposite face. The announcement on the mothership did not specify if this was the first of an ongoing series of releases or a single-release project. There has not yet been a initial offering price listed, but it should be noted that these special two dollar coins are going to receive a limited print run and will only be available while supplies last. If you ask me this is taking MtG financial speculation to a whole new level.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/news/281

The Hollywood Reporter is, well...reporting, that 21st Century Fox has made an agreement with Wizards to buy the film rights to Magic the Gathering. This would obviously lead the speculation that an upcoming film adaptation of some aspect of the games story will become a reality in the next few years. As of yet, there has not been an official announcement from either party about the project, but here is my pitch for a potential plot: Life for a teenager at Planeswalker High School isn't all that it's cracked up to be. In this whirlwind romantic comedy we meet Jace (played by Jared Leto) as he is struggling to fit into with his new planeswalking friends. It is up to him to balance class, spells, and the love of his life, Chandra (played by Alyson Hannigan), but can he prove to her that he is the strongest spell slinger in the multiverse by beating the captain of the sportsball team Gideon Jura (played by Josh Duhamel), in a duel?! Sweet god I hope not.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/fox-bring-magic-gathering-big-670529

This weekend is Grand Prix Sacramento! This is the final premier level event for Theros limited before we see the format shaken up by the release of Born of the Gods. You can catch live video coverage of every round at GGs Live, including both days, top 8, deck techs, interviews and more, with commentary by Matt Sperling, Ben Starke, and Marshall Sutcliffe. I don't need much of an excuse to watch more Magic, but how could I say no to watching Ben Starke balk in disgust every time someone makes a pun?
www.ggslive.com

Speaking of Born of the Gods, the first spoiler week has come and gone and there is plenty of awesome stuff to be excited about. New keyword mechanics, 5 new multicolor gods, a sweet Kiora planeswalker, and more to come soon. Check out the image gallery for the latest cards as they are spoiled.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/bornofthegods/cig#

Next up on TGZ we have The Stack tomorrow and In General on Sunday! See you next week Zoners!

-GG

Theros: Land of Heroes, Artifact Enchantments, and Ponies

Hey Planeswalkers,

I'm sure you guys are excited to see Theros come out later this month. Or maybe not. Either way, we've got some spoilers as they relate to Commander, the only format where you get to cast a cool dude even after he's been killed multiple times.

Today, I'm only going to be focusing on some of the big changes in rules and cards that I find particularly notable (in a good or bad way).

The Heroic Mechanic

So, "Heroic" is another block specific mechanic that is supposed to invoke images of Odysseus or Theseus or that guy who did that impossible feat in that one Greek myth. But how does it relate to EDH?

Well, for starters, the "Heroic" mechanic only triggers when the creature's controller casts a spell that targets it. So it seems like if you really want a "Heroic" deck, you'll have to load up on instant speed creature buffs, protectants, and anything that can target your creature. Which at that point, I'd say lose the Heroic mechanic if you're already giving one creature Giant Growth, Might of Oaks, Hunter's Insight, Run Wild, etc. Could Wizards be getting more convoluted as they try to invent fun new mechanics?

I guess we'll have to look at some "Heroic" creatures before calling judgment. Let's start with this cute Quasi-Greek couple, Anax and Cymede.

Now, their ability is pretty darn good if you ask me. Definitely worth wasting a spell on. It could even be a great general. First Strike and Vigilance seals the deal on these guys. This is both a flavorful card and an effective one.

But you do have to have spells on hand to make the best use of Anax and Cymede, or any other heroic creature. Considering what A & C does in particular though, you'll most likely be using a lot of instant speed buffs/protections like Barreling Attack or Bathe in Light.

I feel this card will play in well with mechanics like Battalion from RTR or Battle Cry from Mirrodin Besieged, simply because all three of these play off having a nice little army of 1/1s or 2/2s.

Weenie/token deck builds will probably also be a feature in decks built around Anax and Cymede. Few things are scarier than twelve 3/3 trample creature tokens charging at you.

In the other couple heroic cards I saw, you can get a 1/1 soldier (good for token decks, but I couldn't find a good quality pic) and this shameful creature they call the Setessan Hero. More like a Setessan Zero.

Why do I say it's a Zero? Start with the creature itself. A 5-drop 4/5: good for most creatures, but I'd expect a bit more generosity from green.

Secondly, you'd have to spend mana on spell triggers for her heroic, which targets mana, which leaves you with less mana to use as attackers or defenders. Seems counter-intuitive to me. You're better off using Animate Land or Vivify, cards that get right to the point rather than having to target a creature in order to target another target. Kamahl is the original land creature-making creature, and he would certainly disapprove of this joke of a warrior.

Maybe if "Heroic" triggered on abilities that target the creature, I'd be a bit more pleased with it from a playability perspective. Otherwise, I just feel that this mechanic beats around the bush.

Until I see more heroes from Theros (slant rhymes, clever Wizards), they'll be an afterthought in my
books.

Except for you Bowie. You will always be in my forethoughts.

Card Type Shakeup

I'm still wondering why it must be both an artifact and an enchantment. Maybe normal enchantments can't be tapped. Maybe it has something to do with an artifact/enchantment-based mechanic that will be utilized in the other two sets of Theros block. Maybe it will make it easier for red decks to destroy or blue decks to take control of.

Regardless, the Bow seems pretty good for a commander like Trostani or Kamahl. It's built for aggression and covers some of what green decks need: flying protection, life gain, and graveyard retrieval. Not to forget Graft/Evolve mechanics working in conjunction with the first option. Put this next to your Fathom Mage and draw like crazy.

A green artifact is a little hard to comprehend though. Isn't green the color to usually destroy artifacts? I mean I've seen plenty of artifacts in green decks, but never an artifact that carries a green identity (the artifact creatures from the Scars of Mirrodin block don't count).

There are also a bunch of enchantment creatures, but we'll get to that with next week's spoilers.

And finally, we have this lovely gem to the right. That's right, it's a Pegasus, not the first of its kind either. But for two mana, you get a better version of that terrible Chasm Drake from M12. This card will make an Mikaeus deck or any white weenie/human token deck many times more awesome (combo with Anax and Cymede???).

Innistrad block was chock full of human creatures that would love to get a ride on this pony (this is not meant to be sexual in any way, stop giggling). This is to human creatures as War Falcon is to Knights/soldiers. As with the heroic Anax and Cymede, I see this card being paired with Battle Cry in a weenie deck. It just makes too much sense.

Plus it's a Pegasus!

Fluttershy approves this card for Commander.

Until next time, stay classy Planeswalkers.

-VJ

Super Secret Sunday #10: Spoilers In General

Hey everyone, welcome back to Super Secret Sunday, where normally we talk about under played cards, under the radar strategies, and under-thought thoughts. In lieu of the regularly scheduled discussion of super secret tech, I am going to talk about something completely different! Spoilers! And a preview of a different kind of article that I will be doing for the blog. A broad-based column about pretty much any topic in Magic, loosely tied to EDH; called In General. This is a 3S. Written in the style of In General. Preview. B00m.

R&D is in the business of making new cards. Which I love and fully support. I like when they make NEW cards. I even like a good reprint every now and then. I may sound like a bit of a miser, but I don't like that they make so many 'new' cards every year that are really just for the sake of doing it (to make a whole bunch of fast money). Every set has new keyword mechanics, most of which are too niche to have a real impact on constructed, e.g. Sweep, Kinship, or Fateful Hour. These mechanics don't have much resonance and suffer from the all-too-common problem of poor conveyance. These mechanics just end up being forgotten. They aren't useful for competitive play and aren't appealing to casual players. No one has ever come up to me and asked if I wanted to battle their Sweep deck. Never happens. I want an R&D department that takes more time to get things right, instead of just using a 'shotgun' approach; throwing out mechanics all willy-nilly.

Something else that really gets my goose is when they make the same mechanic over and over, but they give it a new (usually worse) coat of paint each time. Kicker is the poster child for this. There are like a hundred versions of Kicker. Some are more obvious than others, but the 'extra price, extra effect' mechanic is very prevalent, and not just in Magic either, it's all over the place. Toppings on ice cream, luxury cars, combo meals. People love options, and optimization problems, but mostly options. So all kicker really is, is a modal choice. In fact, people often replace the names of other lame mechanics by just saying they will 'kick it' instead. I have even gotten into the habit of replacing Unleash with Kick. Let's look at the latest iteration of Kicker on a new Gatecrash card.

Extort basically gives your other spells Kicker. Much like Equilibrium or Mentor of the Meek. Except Extort is not a powerful evocative name. It is the kind of name that I will just automatically be dropping in favor of 'kicking'. The flavor also doesn't make a whole of sense to me. Extort is trying to equate the trading of life in game to the trading of money in the 'story' (for lack of a better word). R&D is sending a confusing message about the role of the player, flavor-wise. Now it seems like we are a corporation or a bank account; just a big stack of money getting moved around. Secondly, extortion is not exactly a two way exchange. One party, in a position of dominating power, makes demands of the weaker party, backed up by the threat of punishment. The Extort mechanic involves a trade. I pay mana and I get your life. This, again, sounds like a business deal, but is also a pretty fair deal. Extorting someone should not feel like a customer-vendor relationship.
Final note: I like this card. Seems like a fine, limited quality rare, with potential for use as a card advantage engine in specific decks. Kinda weak. Fun. Sure.

Bloodrush eh? I remember a mechanic called Channel. Which was sweet. Evoke was also sweet. They give you the option of using your creature as something other than a creature. Which is an awesome design space, in my opinion. Bloodrush is just Channel. A silly, narrow version of Channel, with a terrible new name. Channel had flavor, you use up the 'spirit' of your creature card to use the essence of that creature, which makes more sense in the Spirit/Arcane set. Bloodrush...you...well...make your guy big and angry by...discarding a...NOPE. Bloodrush has no flavor, mostly because it crosses the boundary between flavor and game mechanics. To understand it within the game...you have to go outside the game? Terrible conveyance.
Mark Rosewater said in an interview, that each guild would be getting a new keyword mechanic, which I hated automatically, but I would be excited if it meant 10 GOOD NEW mechanics. This is poor execution of an old mechanic. This is not something I want. Also this card is horribly weak. Really, really pathetic.

 I once heard Aaron Forsythe talk about design in a presentation he called, "Between the Ravnicas". In said speech he talks about why Haunt was such a poor mechanic. It had flavor, but lacked resonance. People just didn't latch on to it. It was a bit confusing; it has exiled cards interacting with cards in play, it always does something different, it doesn't leave any visible, in-game, marker of the Haunt trigger, so it is easily missed, and the rules don't specifically address what happens to the exiled card after it does its thing. It just stays out there in no man's land. I find it really strange that Forsythe, as head of R&D, would approve the printing of a mechanic which is almost EXACTLY THE SAME AS HAUNT (which was actually just Imprint in disguise anyway).
Cipher has all of those same problems, which are even worse now because of the new trigger rules. This card generates a ton of triggers, but doesn't give you a convenient way to acknowledge or address them. It also has one of the same problems that Sweep, Kinship, and Fateful Hour have. Why make a keyword if you are just always going to explain what that word means?

This art really throws me as well. I get it, the ghost is whispering mad thoughts in his ear. Why the extreme angle perspective? Why the visual curvature? It looks like I am inside a snow-globe and he is examining me.

Next let's talk name. Cipher is most often used as a noun, but this is the much rarer verb form of the word. Are we going to say, "Cipher this guy?" And why does the reminder text reference 'encoding' a card? Encode isn't a rule, or a game action; not yet at least. This reminds me of Obsidian Fireheart. Lastly, why isn't this just called Encode instead? (Is that even any better?)

Flying makes sense. One creature flies over another so they don't interact the same way in combat. Pretty intuitive. It is actually LESS effective when they spell it all out for you, like on Orchard Spirit. Cipher is the opposite of making sense. The mechanic is so complex that you will ALWAYS need reminder text. Giving it a short name is useless if you need the long-form explanation of what it does.

The idea behind making up new words usually falls along two lines. Something new is created, so we need a new term to define it. The other route is to refine previous words to shorten them, make them more powerful or easier to identify. Reach is great, Shroud is great. They shorten long blocks of rules text. In short: More refinements and improvements. Less weird, off the wall new key words that don't make sense and are only usable for one block.

Well, I've had just about enough of my own complaining for today, but I will be back soon with a follow-up piece on some of my favorite card designs, mechanics, and what can be done to improve the way mechanics are created. Super Secret Sunday will be back to the regular grind next week.

Your go kid.

Deck Page Update

We got two new decks contributed to TGZ this week, courtesy of Dakota aka Dekootz. So be sure to check out his Omnath and Rafiq builds.

Remember! If you'd like to share your builds with us, just shoot me an email at UncleLanddrops@gmail.com with a link to your name and a link to your deck.

Thanks! Keep 'em coming!

-UL

Your Decks (Here) on TGZ!

Hey fellow TGZers-

It's been a little while since I updated the Decks archive with some of my more recent stuff, and so I did that recently.

I've been a little behind the curve as far as some of the big projects on the site, and I still haven't got caught up, but I promise there are good things on their way, including a new fun variant I hope to be playtesting soon.

Speaking of decks and decklists, I'd really like to add some more stuff to our little home here on TGZ.

So this is a call for ALL decks! Seriously.

If you have decks, share your tech! Post it on a deckbuilding site like tcgplayer.com or tappedout.net and shoot an email over to UncleLanddrops@gmail.com with your username/real name/criminal alias and I'll be happy to put it up in the TGZ deck archive.

No deck is too bad, no deck is too good. I know I sound like car salesman, but I'm for real.

Many embarrassing decks of mine are there, so feel free to check that out. We've all got to start somewhere, you know.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I'm not dead, and not to touch your radio dial. We're still here, alive, and potentially relevant.

Fin.

-UL.

Where In The World Is Uncle Landdrops?

Sorry I've been away from the wire a while, but all is good in the world that's 'sposed to be.
The Internets have their hold on me again, and I'm here, typing away with a head full o' new ideas.

In the down time, I was working on some upcoming projects for the site. I'll talk about that in a minute. That and a couple  o' games of EDH in.

For those that care, I actually won a sweet multi-player game the other night with Linessa and her friends in my mono-U Blueberry Bounce House Deck.

I mentioned this deck a while ago in an article I wrote, and I've made changes since, but one of the most interesting things about Linessa and the BBH is that I've found many different ways to win by combo-ing various pieces in the deck.

The obvious combo in the deck is Palinchron and any of the mana doublers, such as Extraplanar Lens, Caged Sun, and High Tide. However, I don't really go off with that too much, because I don't look for the combo, even with a Mystical Tutor in the deck.

Even so, that isn't the most interesting.

My first crazy combo was going Ultimate with Tamiyo to create infinite mana and copies of Palinchron with Rite of Replication so I could draw a bunch of cards with a GG favorite, Whispers of the Muse. I also use Blue Sun's Zenith, on occasion.

My second combo was an insane Yosei-style-lock with Brine Elemental, Aether Adept, and Sakashima the Impostor. It didn't hurt that I also had a Caged Sun out to get the mana, either.

Last Wednesday though, I had my most favorite one yet.

It started by going ultimate with Tezzeret.

There were two opponents left, with basically nothing left on their board a Cryptic Command couldn't handle, so I tapped one guy's dudes and bounced the lone guy on the other side. After activating Tezzeret, I killed an opponent with 5/5 artifact creature versions of Expedition Map, a Conjurer's Closet, Extraplanar Lens, Seat of the Synod, Sol Ring, and my favorite Sad Robot, the Solemn Simulacrum. Marching them Machines straight to victory.

The previous turn, I'd played a Battleball and used Conjurer's Closet to get 8 total Myr tokens. So I strapped on a Corrupted Conscience and swung 5 unblocked damage (Cause of Tezz he was a 5/5), tapping 8 Myr to pump my Battleball and deal the other opponent 13 infect damage. It was actually 21 total poison, because of the way Battlesphere works, but he had Purity out.

This wasn't a clean, prim and proper combo at all, but it was awesome. Thanks to Archaeomancer, that had been like the 3rd or 4th Cryptic I got to cast and about the 6th spell I'd recurred in the game.

So where have I been? I guess the answer is Magical Christmas Land, where the goofiest and craziest plays exist.

Those are the games we remember, even if we don't get to go there to often.

However, now that I'm back, I do have some exciting things for TGZ.

The first thing is that I've been working on a great tool for you guys out there who like opinion and analysis and all the debate you can muster in between.

There will soon be an official little database on TGZ for Generals. Over the past week, I've been slaving it up to examine, grade, and evaluate the 462 currently playable generals in EDH (Myojins and Banned Cards excluded), as well as provide a few of my comments as to their grading.

I'll be working with my site developer to hopefully craft a neat visually acceptable experience. Look forward to that in the next few weeks.

As for more current news, look for me to be talking about some great alternative EDH formats this week, including one GG and I created but never played called the "Restriction Rainbow."

Speakin' of the old fogey, Grandpa Growth's crackin' his old knuckles and dustin' off his keyboard to bring you some excellent insight into value cards for each color. Look for those great articles to be comin off the press pretty shortly.





That's it for now. Gotta get back to the stuff, so like my favorite wizard, Gandalf, I'll just say, "Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east."

Do not take me for a conjurer of cheap tricks.

Passin' the Turnski.

-UL

Outdated Deck Challenge Accepted!

I've mentioned in a few recent posts that I've been listening to an EDH podcast called Commander Cast.

It's a bunch of fun EDH players led by a friendly Canadian from the North, Andy aka Ghooosts with a range of recurring hosts and whatnot talking about various Commander stuff.

In one of their previous shows, Andy and company started a segment called "Entourage," in which they take a really underused and probably horrible Legendary Creature and attempt to build a skeleton of cards that could be included in the deck.

Their first airing of this segment created a surprising motivation within the cast, as they made a mockup for an Ib Halfheart EDH, which led to the emergence of the Ib Nation.

Knowing how much trash I talk about Red, this obviously wasn't the challenge for me.

A few weeks later, however, I got pretty inspired to go full-on goofy and create a deck based on one of their features in the Entourage segment.

No longer a Lord... Weird.

I decided to accept the Chorus of the Conclave challenge.

For a few weeks, I've been tweaking and testing, and I have to say... it didn't come out half as bad as I expected.

Obviously, the first problem we see with this basically unplayable general is that there's a pretty big mana investment to get the Chorus to come play.

Even when I put her into play, I still have the problem of having things to kick- So obviously my creature curve will have to stay generally low. 

However, with some newer cards and a pretty extensive Gatherer search, I compiled a list that I think is guaranteed to make any creature-caster uber-excited.

As part of the Entourage segment, the other guys shoot out a couple of suggestions to put in the deck.

Of these, the most exciting card to me was a card I'd neither seen nor heard of.

You can always tell a Milton Card...

Spike Weaver. With the potential help of a Chorus, this card felt like it could get this seemingly bad deck online with recurring fogs.

Spikey was sort of my inspiration, but I didn't have to look to far to find some other things I wanted to try.

My first playtests of the deck, I realized quickly that this deck needed wayy more creatures than my normal count which hovers between 18 and 23.

Alot more. Try 38.

The other deckbuilds I saw online backed this up, and so I cut a lot of the mana ramp that I normally play.
It's a sad day when a Green player has to pull Kodama's Reach and Cultivate and Realms Uncharted out for Sylvan Rangers and Civic Wayfinders, but I did, and the deck is all the better for it.

The next challenge that I ran into was creating a way to protect my boardstate. Since I'm mostly playing a bunch of 3-cost or less dudes, I'm basically wide open in the Damnation of Judgment Department.

Additionally, there's a pretty huge opportunity cost that I was worried about, considering that Chorus of the Conclave really needs to be played when there are dudes in hand, not on the battlefield.

My "creative" solution was to install a creature recursion engine, similar to Cloudstone Curio, but a little less immediately removeable.

Again, I'd remembered a card that had been talked about as part of the Secret Tech on Commander Cast. Dust Elemental.

In my Gatherer search, I also found some similar cards to add to the deck:

Whitemane Lion
Fleetfoot Panther
Stonecloaker

Now, I can manipulate and leverage value out of my dudes. In the late game, post a Chorus-cast, I can even create a way to get guys on the battlefield back to pump up again, while also abusing their utility.

It's really the perfect plan. Until Chorus gets countered and/or removed into the uncastable range.

So there's a contingency for that. Gavony Township, Elesh Norn, Mirror Entity and Forgotten Ancient help to make up for lost time if I'm facing dudes that are too big to handle.

Mirror Entity has pretty sweet synergy in the deck, as I'm able to pump up the power and toughness under the +1/+1 counters.

Additionally, I have a couple hate bears on the squad. RtR's new hybrid G/W one drop, Dryad Militant. And the most hated of all the bears- Gaddock Teeg. Michiko Konda is also in the deck to provide a little Rattlesnake effect against attacking me.

Together, I'm able to create and control the board state from protected ground by being able to bounce creatures when I have to and start all over again.

Though I may lose a few counters, being able to save important creatures for later is pretty critical.

In the multiplayer environment, I've found it to be pretty inoffensive to most people. I had some guys wigging out over Spike Weaver un-kicked, but if I wasnt playing threats, then I guess the deck wouldn't be doing much either.

Obviously, you aren't gonna play Elesh Norn without turning a few heads.

Anyway, here's the full decklist so you can see some of the other cool interactions in the deck.

Chorus of the Conclave EDH.

As always, thoughts/critiques are welcome.

Pass Turn.

-UL

Eat Your Wheaties, And Respect Your Elders, Or Whatever

We've got a new contributor to the TGZ, and I want you to make him feel welcome.

His name is Grandpa Growth, and the answer is yes- we are related, in terms of Magic and EDH. Grandpa got me started playing Commander. So there's a little of my family tree.

To answer another question you didn't really ask preemptively, yes he is exactly like your grandfather and mine. GG's tough, opinionated, drinks scotch, and comes bearing the gift of stories and so-called infinite wisdom as it pertains to EDH. 

Believe me though, when I say there is great value to be found in his words. I've learned a lot from GG over the years, and it gives me great pleasure to have him doing a little bit o' writing here for TGZ, and you would do well to listen to his advice and follow his rubric for deck success.

Look for Grandpa's stuff soon on TGZ.




Passin' muh turn.

-Uncle Landdrops

Kokusho's Free AT LAST!

Oh Lordy, Lordy- Kokusho's free at last.


As of Sept. 20th, the Commander banlist has been updated.

For me, the biggest move here was getting Kokusho back in decks. You can't play him as a General, but hey- he was never good out in the open anyway.

The other big notable move was banning Primeval Titan. Yeah. If you didn't see this coming, well, you must really like the spiderhole you've been hiding out in. Probably for the best. I've been abusing this card for months, and I have to say this will be better.

The last ban was for Worldfire. Now, I know what you're thinking. This card was meant to be cast with our huge piles of mana. So why'd it get the axe in Commander?

According to Sheldon Mennery, father of EDH and part of the Official Rules Committee, the banning of Worldfire is mostly due to the unfortunate mechanics that it inhibits.


It was felt by the rules committee that because a General could be cast with mana floating after cleansing a board, this card was really no better than Sway of the Stars or Biorhythm, both of which are already on the banlist.

So yeah. Prime Time's not Prime anymore. The World won't set on fire, and the Evening Star is on the rise.

Super excited for legit Kokusho. Start playing yours.

Peace. Love. Land drops.

-UL.

Rakdos has Returned, Officially.

So after flavor-tease with the spoil of Rakdos' Return, we finally got a glimpse of the Legendary Demon as a card- and boy, does he seem pretty good.

The picture isn't so clean. Even so, Rakdos' power-level is pretty immense. This is the art though.

My first impression is that this card, though with this goofy converted mana cost, feels pretty competitive, as it is a dude that's 4 for a 6/6. Hopefully, his utility as a creature-inhibitor will help get him into more games, especially in EDH.

However, with a majority of the other spoils getting released over the past week, we have to look at cards like Ultimate Price, which will wreck the draft/sealed meta even with Rakdos in its midst. The new Detain mechanic might also be good against this guy.

This card seems like it'll be pretty good in Commander too. So get a couple copies of it.

Make sure you check the RtR spoiler. Only 30 cards to go.

Peace. Love. Landdrops.

-UL

Who Will Receive Your Allegiance?

The Promo cards have been released for Return to Ravnica Prerelease day, so the time to choose your Guild is upon us.

Contrary to my own misinterpretation of the speculation, our promos will not be the Guild Leaders.

This is probably a good thing, considering that the spoiled ones so far seem to have goofy mana costs, and would promote a very lopsided metagame because Niv-Mizzet seems to be better than the others.

So here are the cards. Wizards also spoiled the ensuing promo cards for the future GameDay at the end of October and the preceding FNMs, which you can find here.

Return To Ravnica Promos Spoiled

 

The good news, in my opinion, is that they all look pretty equal in power. Kudos to Wizards.

If anything, I see a slight advantage to Izzet, because their charm is the most powerful, though pulling a GB rare in the Golgari guild would make that deck a contender.

Assuming you're gonna play some Limited to get these cards, you do have a couple combinations depending on which guild you choose.

I'm assuming you're gonna have to play three color, so you're deck will probably be one of these combos:

Green-Black-White (Selesnya/Golgari)
Green-Black-Red (Golgari/Rakdos)
Black-Red-Blue (Izzet/Rakdos)
Red-Blue-White (Izzet/Azorius)
Blue-White-Green (Azorius/Selesnya)

Kudos if you get a more consistent set of playables though.

Consider this though when you choose your guild in a couple weeks. Don't look at the cards, necessarily.

Good Luck Future Guildleaders!

Pass it up

-UL

...And We're Back.

Hey folks.

Took a few days off from the blog to focus on a few relevant life things.

But I'm back. And with tidings of a new Guild Leader Spoiled!

Meet Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

Seems pretty okay, right? 


First impression seemed like this would be bad.

Then I realized Trostani is the bulkiest Rhys the Redeemed I ever did see. 


And now, I feel better.

Some other cards have come out too. Hope you've been following. In case you haven't, the best card to come since my "baby hiatus" was Abrupt Decay.

And this, my friends, is abrupt decay.

Cause Vraska wasn't cool enough a day earlier, and long ago in the land of Alara, Maelstrom Pulse wasn't good enough for us in the land of Highlander.

But it's gonna cost you. ChannelFireball has it pre-selling for $14.99. Might as well just buy a box.

That's my plan.

Anyway, I've got some new stuff to talk about, so look for the posts as they come.


Pass Turn.


                                           Ya boi Uncle Landdrops.

A Planeswalker that's GB? Yes Frickin' Please!

I'm usually a, "Check the Spoilers in the Morning" kinda guy.

Patience has always done me well- but boy, was I happy I got to see this new beautiful face. Pun now intended.

Check out this new face to the Ravnica beat. Vraska the Unseen!

She made my night. Love her abilities. Love her art.

Vraska makes me wanna start a whole nother site.

ILOVEVRASKATHEUNSEEN.COM.

I'll wait till the morning for that though. Hopefully, the domain name won't be taken by then. Hell, it probably is now.


Go To Sleep.

-UL

Hello Old Friends! RTR Spoiled Cards Update

Today we got our first look at some of the familiar faces from Ravnica. Two Old/New Guild Leaders!

And the flavor and builds seem sweet!

Here's the new Niv-Mizzet. With a P and T boost and an inversion of his previous ability, the newly dubbed Dracogenius seems pretty awesome. I love the art too. Very regal.

And the other new/old face. Isperia!

Add caption

The Sphinx Azorius Legend is now a 6/4 with a HUGE upgrade in abilities which I'm super excited about.

Yeah, it's CMC is now 5 instead of 6... But it seems a small price to pay.

The art was spoiled at Comic-Con a while ago, but it still looks awesome now that it's bordered by a card.


A few other cards were added too. A huge beater named Worldspine Wurm and some smaller dudes.

I'll let you check 'em out.

Return to Ravnica Spoiler



Pass Turn.

-UL

Decklists...Now Open!

Over the years, I've been archiving my lists in case I want to revisit or rebuild them.

Here on this site, I've posted links to all the decks I've made over the past few years. Check 'em out!


These are decks that I've had some success with. Some complete flops (Here's looking at you, Intet).

But at the very least, maybe you'll get inspired.

The OTHER reason for this page is that I want YOUR decks to be here too!

Post your decklists on a site like TappedOut.Net and then shoot me an email at UncleLanddrops@gmail.com with the link and your username.

That's how it works. Like Pie.

Enjoy the new page! 

Peace, Love, and Landdrops

-UL