The Stack #31- TRAP CARD ACTIVATE!

Happy Saturday Zoners!

We begin today's journey with a little brain tickling from Philosoraptor.

I assure you, it fits. The gang's almost all back into full swing in this installment as we talk about some cards that have spurned surprising effects on us, the battlefield, or others.

Sometimes, in tricky situations, it is advantageous to design with the atypical in mind. Mixing things  up is a good quality to have as a deckbuilder and player, and it's important to keep you and your opponents guessing not only when you'll play a spell, but also how you can get it to work.

What we picked for you today are some cards that have actually surprised us in various capacities. So let's get to it.

THIS IS THE STACK!

SURPRISE! NO IT ISN'T! We're going to talk about Commander 2013!

JUST KIDDING! I'LL WRITE ABOUT IT TUESDAY!

THIS REALLY IS THE STACK!

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
My buddy and mentor plays a deck centered on this card. It's not an artifact heavy deck (though there is an Arcbound Crusher and Dross Scorpion in it), nor does it really play off of large numbers of creatures. In fact, when he pitched the idea of the deck to me, I laughed. He wanted to make a deck based on Norin, the Wary. Turns out, he's not even the main focus of the deck. This card is. This silly, old card is what makes the deck work 90% of the time. I have the scorecards to prove it. This card and a Suture Priest. You do the math.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
Have you ever feared Rhys and his army? I have and if the idea of this is anything close to that, I'd be ridiculous not to watch out for it.

Grandpa Growth - THUMBS UP
This is a perfect pick for this stack, my hat is off to you VJ. This card looks so fair, but really is so not. I feel like this topic is, "I learned my lesson the first time" or "Things I have been missing out on". You might have to google some decklists to figure out all the combos, but rest assured, people who play this card are intending for it to be pretty broken. Pro tip: don't let that happen.

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I'm actually getting ready to play G-Chamber in what I foresee being a pretty tough little combo deck. I have my own apprehensions about it- mostly, I don't want to turn it into a huggy bear card, and let it end up being the death of me. It's definitely a bad matchup against Doubling Season abusers and other token decks.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
You may recall Master Warcraft, which this card is a strong callback too, minotaurs and all. This card is less subtle, slower, and much more expensive. In exchange for those downsides you get a body with which to leverage all those attacks and blocks, but also you get the effect every combat. This can get ugly very quickly. This functions much like a copy of The Abyss stapled onto a Prison Term. Their best guy usually can't ever doing anything intelligent and they are almost guaranteed to be losing at least one creature per turn. This...is not 'fun'. Which is perfect for me. Unfortunately, this card is Red and White, which is not a color combination that I typically advocate for Commander play. If this were Legendary and sat at cmc 6 I would be singing a different tune, but for now I am going to say leave it behind.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I really like this. I already force people to attack with Basandra and War's Toll so why not add in more of battle shaping effects to the party.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
I get that his effect triggers each combat, which is nice, and that it basically can destroy a chump/creature-not-intended-for-attack each turn; but as frugal as it sounds, the CMC 7 just ruins this for me. For one, he's only a 5/5. I'm not always a big fan of big P/T, but when I think minotaurs, I think ridiculous power. I'd be more satisfied if he were a 7/3 honestly. Also, it is only one creature per combat that attacks/blocks and one creature that cannot. Two per turn isn't bad, but by the time he's in play, you may have a lot more to worry about, especially if your opponent lets you have him on the field.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I considered this card for a couple decks, but found the 7 CMC offputting. One of its redeeming qualities is the fact that it isn't a "when this creature attacks" trigger, something that severely crippled Odric, who is apparently not the actual Master of Tactics. I agree with GG. This would be a pretty neat little Legend. Definitely better than a couple of the cards they made with heavyhanded intentions in the RtR block (Here's looking at you, Aurelia).

JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK

Johnny Confidant-  THUMBS UP
Dying to infect is probably one of the worst ways to go. While talking to a fellow Animar player at my card shop about non-combo out win conditions he mentioned that Inkmoth Nexus has won him some games when plans went awry.

Looking through my deck he noticed Kessig Wolf Run was in it, so I already had half of it anyway. Granted this little combo works once then people tend to watch your mana once one of the two are in play which it kind-of a downside. Inkmoth Nexus took Alchemist's refuge once I got myself a Prophet of Kruphix.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS DOWN
I'm not saying Nexus is bad, or that this combo is overplayed. I just think this particular little ditty is one we all know, and without a good support system in the deck to assemble and/or make it unstoppable, it's not something I can really defend or support, from any angle. It's just how I play, and what I've learned from playing Animar. It feels like a distraction. Animar kills people by dealing 40 almost unstoppable points of damage. I'm not seeing why I'd want to play colorless land in a 3-color deck that can turn into a 1/1 that deals a different form of damage not aligned with this strategy. Playing this is just really unappealing to me on a lot of economic levels.

UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
Not a nice card by any means, but I've been pleased with the results. Preventing opponents from playing chump blockers when you're ahead, or from playing more creatures when you're down makes it a good two-way play. Just make sure you have a few creatures to play post-Wrath or whatever.

I tried this out in a couple of decks, and so far it's taken hold really well in Glissa T's, managing creature counts, keeping me from having to take too much damage, and saving other key artifacts by simply being a nice removal target.

It does pose some serious problems against decks with a lot of ETB creatures though- so be warned. But I think it's worth your time.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
So true that this card is not nice at all. I have been on a few bad ends of resource/utility denial strategies and while my playgroup doesn't have a "House ban-list" we try to shy away from excessive denial routes. I may play both Sylvan Primordial and Deadeye navigator, and in my upcoming Sydri deck ill be running Mycosynth Lattice and Arcum Daggsson but i'm not about to destroy all lands. Likewise if i'm in the lead i'm not going to put into play something that weighs significantly for a win. Personally i feel its better to lose less than i win, but win with interesting plays without hearing alot of "oh... this again"

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
This card is stellar. This is the kind of stuff I can get behind. Not surprisingly, this is also the kind of stuff that Commander players hate seeing. "Spirit of the Format" and all that nonsense. Play this. Play Hokori Dusk Drinker. Play Gaddock Teeg, or Thalia, or Heartwood Storyteller, or really anything. Deliver the beats while your opponent, who built a deck full of absolute garbage, loses in a slow and humiliating fashion.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
I like cards like Oblivion Ring and Fiend Hunter. I don't thoroughly understand this card, but I like it's ability. This is probably the best tempo creature control card that I've ever seen (at least that's what I want to think considering I've never played or seen this card played). The backlash of this card may possibly outweigh the benefits (UL hinted to this with ETB creatures), but if you have the cojones to play something this ridiculous, I'd expect you to also have counterspells and a way to protect this artifact.

That's all we got today. Until then, call "Shenanigans!" if you think that the person you're about to battle is going to let his Millenium Puzzle transform him into an older, better card playing Pharoah from Ancient Egypt. Say Yu-Gi-NO!

And enjoy your morning/afternoon cartoons.
-UL/JC/VJ/GG

More Theros Stuff: Gods and Monsters, for Scrying out loud!

Zoners, Planeswalkers, whatever you consider yourself, welcome to yet another Theros article.

Good(?) Gods, It's Time to Scry

So GG has talked a lot about the Theros set and UL mentioned a whole lot of legendary stuff, so Thassa's already been talked about quite a bit.

Still, she strikes my fancy. I know she's not the most blue card out there, but I like what she bring to the table though. I've had many a deck focused around library manipulation in order to get the most out of cards like Djinn of Wishes, Conundrum Sphinx, and Future Sight.

Planning future plays is helpful and a big part of my style as a Blue player. In a "God" creature type, I expect some foresight and mystical fortune-teller-esque abilities. Thassa delivers.

Scry 1 doesn't sound like much, but it can prevent an annoying land to get in the way of that crucial part of your combo, or get an annoying non-land out of the way so you can get another land drop in.

Other cards in this set that make me happy:

This soldier is a 2/2 for two, already a good start. I mentioned last time that I wasn't all that impressed with Heroic, but then I saw this card.

I'm still not going to say that I like Heroic, but in terms of this card, it kind of makes sense. The more spells cast on him, the stronger he gets and the more cards you get to preview/stack in your favor. His trigger makes him a hero in my book.




Now here's a little something nice. Control with a touch of control.

Counter spells have seemed to get better (for the most part) in recent MTG sets. Render Silent was my favorite from Ravnica, but Syncopate was another good one from that block, and who could forget the ubiquitous Dissipate reprint from Innistrad.

Now, Dissolve here isn't as powerful of a counter spell, but it does two things that I like, and at not much of an extra cost. Why Cancel when you can counter and look ahead at your own deck?

For fans of Condescend, this card may be laughable, but I say that it's worth putting in a deck alongside the beloved Condescend. Don't settle on one over the other I say; have your cake and slightly less appealing sweet bread with it.




This card will conclude my ramblings about the benefits of the Scry mechanic.

What I see in this card is a less powerful, but cheaper and easily repeatable Sphinx of Uthuun. The purpose of Fact or Fiction is to get card advantage and choice. The purpose of this is to stack the library so that future card draws are more fruitful. It is loosely comparable.

What makes this click for me is the beauty of Scrying each attack. High toughness and evasion will let it attack as much as possible.

The card's first ability is also a point of interest. Discarding a card to give it Hexproof until end of turn seems like a great idea, but tap it as well? Maybe not the best choice that Wizards has made, but balance is necessary for limited so trade-offs are inevitable.

"Ooooh... Look at that Big Scary Monster"

Monstrosity is a new keyword which has caught some attention. There's even a duel deck Heroes vs. Monsters out, which, you guessed it, features a preview of Heroic and Monstrosity as new mechanics.

This mechanic is almost more confusing than Heroic to me, though, so I'm uneasy about what types of shenanigans this will bring to MTG. I have to ask myself: What exactly makes a creature Monstrous? Is it the fact that it gets X counters on it? What if it loses the counters? Will it function in a similar manner to Undying if it does lose Monstrous along with the counters? Why does it cost so damn much? You get the gist of my concerns.

As expected with anything dealing with classical Greek literature, these monsters have a nice mythological flavor to them (in name only at least).

Here, we have a new kraken to add to the Blue late-game beat-down cards. It's like a more powerful Dungeon Geists without flying. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Turn 6 it can come out, and two turns later you could theoretically have a 10/10.

That may be cool, but you're still spending a lot of mana on it. 14 mana to be exact, for those who, like me, aren't the best at arithmetic.

Is it worth it? For me, that's hard to answer. I can't justify this card until I see it in use, but based on how it works, it will have all the faults that Dungeon Geists or any of those other "tap creature as long as you control ________" cards. It's too easy to get around. And without Islandwalk, Unblockable, or any other offensive boost, it's a rather poor excuse for a kraken creature.

If I'm spending 14 mana on a sea monster, I want it to be totally awesome, which means it could at least have Shroud so no one can blow it up with a kill spell or Trample so that it can still deal damage against puny blockers.

But anyway, what do I know about monsters?

Until next time Planeswalkers, just keep playing and whenever someone drops a monstrosity, just kick it in the nards.

-VJ



First Impressions of Commander 2013

Happy Tuesday Zoners!

This week, we're going to get the scoop on all 51 new cards in the Commander 2013 product that's slated to come out November 1st.

Last week, we got our first look at one of the potentially two (mum's the word on whether or not the Invasion Dragons will be included, as predicted) new cycles of Commanders, and so I figured it was time we talked about them.

JELEVA, NEPHALIA'S SCOURGE

Though revealed at Comic-Con, I was hoping that the extra time in between spoilings might help me get a little bit better perspective- but it hasn't.

The best thing about Jeleva is her CMC. Before her, Grixis had Mishra, but it's a tough deck to get online, or really, even want to play.

R&D has done a pretty nice job creating differentiation among its Legendary Creatures, and this is a good example. Jeleva is definitely a great opposite to her Grixis pals, being a little smaller and more spell-focused. I also like the way that they're playing with Commander as a format, scaling the power of her enter the battlefield trigger.

That said, it isn't all rosy for me here. My biggest beef is simply me being picky, but the flavor actually doesn't work. The question isn't whether or not this color identity should have these abilities. The problem is that they've crossed several wires in creating this card, creating a domino effect instead of looking at this card and saying, "Something's gotta give."

The three points of contention that I have are Name, her ETB trigger, and creature type; the last of which, is the most troubling. Being a Vampire means she has to "drink minds," apparently, and I'm honestly cool with that. By that, I mean, I don't hate it. Vampires "drinking minds" is a thing that makes sense.

If these things are true, I don't get how she could be "Scourging" it up in Innistrad. From my understanding, there were no mind drinking Vampires made throughout the duration of our favorite Gothic Horror themed block, which really feels inconsistent. It makes more sense for her to be slumming it up with Mirko Polo on Ravnica, even with the triple color identity problem. I don't know. I've spent too much time trying to figure this one out. Maybe someone can help me sort out the flavor math here.

My other big worry with Jeleva is that she enables the "lazy deckbuilder," and that bothers me a little bit. I don't see a challenge to building this deck. Everyone and their mother will be trying to take as many turns as possible, and it could be possible here. Overall, I'm more confused than enthused here.

PROSSH, SKYRAIDER OF KHER

Let me start by saying I'm glad they brought back Kobold tokens, even if I think it's really weird that a Dragon who leaves fire in its wake would have friends. I know I'm being critical, but really, I'm just someone who "Kher's."

Speaking of caring, in case you do, look at your copy of Karador. Now look at Prossh. Familiar art? Absolutely. This is yet another nice little Todd Lockwood piece, in case you can't tell by the color palette, and the way his creatures have this angular, "I'ma pounce on you!" perspective.

Anyway, I'm okay with a lot of things here. Dragons are cool. Jund coloring is alright, even despite the fact that I like to see a little more scaly, sinister-ness with these guys.

Not much really to say. I don't think this is necessarily a bad creature, but the art is deceiving. It's not actually jumping at me.

MARATH, WILL OF THE WILD

Well, folks, we've got a real Hylian Loach on the line. Your patience is sort of rewarded a little here.

Marath provides the Naya Dude Squad with a much needed aggressive threat. Every time he's cast, he'll at least be everything you paid for.

I was looking at Ghave on Amazon, and at the bottom, it said, "Those who bought Ghave also bought this." I couldn't agree more.

If you didn't have enough fun with Ghave the first time around, here's your second chance.

Just do me a favor- this is not Marath. It was correctly pointed out to me at the shop last week that he only goes by one name- and that name is, "Dad of Resurgence."

OLORO, AGELESS ASCETIC

Timelessness is the idea of making something so good that it literally will never be unrelatable.

Agelessness, on the other hand, is beginning to have an expiration date. I'm not someone who wants to handle the nonsense that is Medomai the Ageless in all his terrible game-ruining glory, and I think that most Commander players might agree, if they too weren't inherent contrarians.

I'm not really up on this card, if you get my drift. I actually don't totally hate it though. I think the text box is its best quality. There is some serious life to be gained here, and the idea of having an extra card feels like good value.

What I don't like is everything else. Mostly, it's the art. Time has actually run out on apathetic creatures chillin' gangsta style in makeshift thrones (Yeah, I'm looking at you Teysa). I'd honestly much prefer they just go to Sears, like the original Solemn Simulacrum, spend whatever it costs for a simple 8x10, and go from there. Oloro just looks like he's camping out on a run-down putt-putt course with no plans for the future. Get it together dude. You've got a lot of life ahead of you. Literally. I'm as disappointed in you as you are in whatever it is you have to be super-emo about. I'd love to be a Giant Soldier. Must get all the Giant Ladies.

This card will probably require a Xanax prescription. Just be prepared.

DEREVI, EMPYRIAL TACTICIAN

Last weekend, the world's coolest living badass genius street artist Banksy paid someone to sit out on a sidewalk in the streets of New York and sell his spray paint art work for $60 a pop.

Click for Video.

My point? Why then, are we stuck with Beast Wars art from 1996?

I'm very sure that this Empyrial Tactician is much cooler in person. I'd also venture to say he's full on Maximal, but looks can be deceiving.

As a card, again- I like the rules box. This is by far my favorite rules box of the ones we're reviewing today. It has some elements of great design and provides decent power for a deck that already exists- Blinky Bant.

The best part of this card is ability three. Navigating around the Flash mechanic and rewarding a player for building around this as a Commander feels like a perfect fit. A recurring four-cost chump blocker with an ETB tap ability actually stretches is value on the defense, and I like what can be done here.

I can't wait to see what people come up with for Derevi.

Please share your thoughts on these guys too in the comments below. I'm always anxious to know what the community thinks.

Until next time, remember to mind your surroundings.

Funny. You Never Learned to Mind Your Surroundings.

-UL

The Stack #30- Mistakes Were Made

Heya Zoners!

Even seasoned Magic players make some of the world's silliest mistakes, and today, we'll show you we are no exception.

GG, VJ, and I have dug back into games past to recall cards we'd liked to forget- the ones that probably shouldn't have happened, but did, and now we have to live with it.

We know we're not the only people who've gone flush and to 0 life at the same time, and so we encourage you to reflect on your moments of weakness as we do, if only as a reminder of the things that will never happen again.

SO CELEBRATE! THIS IS THE STACK!

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
If ever there was a game when I should have saved more counterspells, this was the one. Dragons are scary and must never touch the battlefield; but giants are silly and shouldn't be a concern. Still, this one landed and my popping down more creatures in hopes of swarming the other player was not helping. Technically, Fling is the card that brought me to 0 hit points; but it couldn't have done it without a 23/23 Hamletback Goliath as ammunition.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
Yea, this card is kind of silly, but it does hit hard. I say this all the time, but this card makes for a perfect example: a threat that does nothing but damage, even if it is a lot of damage, just isn't good enough. You need card advantage, protection from removal, extra bodies, or at least abilities that are relevant in combat.

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS DOWN
Clearly a card designed for Timmy, but I've never liked the way that this particular psychographic comes with a cruel little jab for players that like this stuff. Instead, I've started calling these "Number Munchers," because aside from its CMC and P & T, there's really not a lot of tastiness. I like my Number Munchers to be a little more literate.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS SO FAR DOWN
This isn't the most embarrassing card that I've ever lost to. It's not the card that I lost to most often. It very well could be the card that I lose to the highest percentage of times it is cast. It has been haunting me lately; I can't seem to get away from it. I have lost to this card just about every way you can lose to it, including actually being milled out of a game of Commander. There is a first time for everything, right? Granted he had infinite mana so he could have killed me with a ham sandwich, but that is beside the point.

This is an absolute HOUSE in Cube where you can pretty easily get an X = 10+ and kill your opponent on the spot. Normally, I am seeing this in Wrexial and Lazav EDH decks where I am promptly buried under an avalanche of my own Fact or Fiction and Bribery. I like to think I am above this kind of chicanery. I am wrong.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
I admit, I actually run this in my Lazav deck and I have used it shamelessly. I can see how losing to it would be embarrassing; I'd rather tell someone a Mind Funeral did me in. I do however like the card for multiplayer for reasons I shouldn't have to explain.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
The arrival of Gatecrash made the previously gimmick-y Dimir mill decks way better. Having Lazav as a "creature" interactive option to complement the already above-average level of Wrex-I-Mill spell decks gave people great options and cool cards to play, ascending from being just another failed deck to one that can get there in the late-late, if the price is right.

Between Mind Grind and Whispering Madness, there is a lot to fear now. I used to play the Grind, and I really liked it. There's nothing I dislike more than folks who think they can limp into a game short on lands, and though I don't believe GG is necessarily doing this on a regular basis, this definitely hurts the marginal deck I see that thinks they can get away with a land count south of 35.

On another note- GG needs a nemesis, and I'm glad it's something as powerful, silly, and fun as Mind Grind. The poetic nature of this occasion is not lost on me. I know I sound a little sadistic, but I spent years thriving on finding goofy tech to beat Grandpa down with, and it is still the standard by which I build the majority of my decks. Contrary to popular advertisements, this is the best part of waking up- Not Folgers in a cup.

UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
I find that I either have little shame, or I've put up mental walls to hide my more embarrassing defeats. I don't think the latter is the case- but then again, would I know if I was?

I feel like I've been the "embarrasser" than the "embarrassee" in more occasions, not because I'm good, but simply because I play with oddballs like Batwing Brume and Avarice Totem.

Anyway, Stuffy Doll is a "bad" card by some people's standards. I think it's fine. It was my fault I lost. I attacked into it and subsequently lost the game. I got the Red Zone Bug playing Animar, and thought if I didn't attack I was going to lose. I haven't made this mistake twice.

I don't think I'd play Stuffy Doll, but I've said this before about other cards and wound up playing them. Having a blocker that forces your opponent to play around it or sway them from attacking altogether is valuable if you play the turn clock game. I'm not sure it's worth its casting cost, but I'm sure there's a way around that.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
I don't think that I would play this either, but I am not going to mince words about how powerful it is. Indestructible threats are difficult to deal with by definition. This guy needs a solid piece of equipment to be offensive, but it becomes tough (and painful) to stop once it gets going. There are plenty of ways to abuse this in damage dealing combos, as well. On defense, this card is more impressive, but not really what I would call an all-star. It is tough to race effectively and plays well in long games. I can see people, new players mostly, evaluating the power level of this card improperly and not reacting appropriately in-game. Once you see it work though, you typically learn your lesson.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
This card almost cost me a draft once, and for that I was ashamed. Although UL makes a good point about having a blocker that forces opponents into or around it, Raggedy Ann isn't exactly a game winner. If you do wind up losing to this card, it is indeed your fault, since I've not seen any good combos with this card and infinite damage loops, since if you are going to deal infinite damage, why have this as a middle-man?

Well, that's all we got for you today.

Feel free to leave us any thoughts you have in the comments below!

Grandpa will be back tomorrow with some knowledge, and look for our schedule to get its stride back this week.

This is UL signing off, reminding you all to get your Furbys spayed and neutered.

Maybe that will shut them up.
-UL

UL's Better Deckbuilding: Greel, Mind Raker EDH

Hey Zoners!

Sorry about the missing the last couple posts, but  your Uncle Landdrops is returning to you live with another exciting installment of Better Deckbuilding, the place on TGZ where I talk about deck design in the hopes that you will actually, "try this at home" in your own way.

Today we're going to talk about my mono-Black Commander- a most horrific Spellshaper I call "Greel-y Dan" for the same nonsensical reasons I call Lin Sivvi "Thin Lizzy."

Clearly, the only thing I like more than logic and puns is rock'n'roll. So let's rock'n'roll.

WHY GREEL?

Much like the jazz rock band from which he gets his name, Greel-y Dan has many similar qualities of its rock'n'roll namesake. He's under-the-radar, powerful, and an intriguing part of Magic's old-school, and whereas most other people will find him offensive, there's a sort of brilliance to his madness.

My inner EDH Hipster latches onto a lot of underplayed cards, but not purely for fashion or a trendy anti-social lack of caring.

Typical deck design usually starts by choosing a Commander, and the foundation for good deck design always supplies a stream of logical justifications to explain the choice. "Generally" speaking, this is what I believe is the big difference between making a deck and being a better deckbuilder.

Here, Greel was chosen for several reasons. For starters, I like this card a lot. That's an important quality for motivation to make it work and keeping a deck together.

Second, I have a soft spot for the Legendary Spellshaper and most Spellshapers. I find their abilities to be very underrated, and, being that's the place I find most comfortable to play from, there was a nice connection.

Third, Greel had all the physical characteristics I was looking to fit into my deck portfolio- Mono-Black, Discard, Non-Attacking Commander, Engine, Reanimator, Spellshaper, From Prophecy.

Match.com couldn't have come up with a better fit.

THE STRATEGY

Although Greel turned out to be much less of a challenge than I realized, the process for creating strategy was still intensive.

There are a lot of easy traps to fall into when designing discard decks. I know because I fell into them in my Magic infancy, loading up on Megrims and Liliana's Caress.

The problem with cards like this is that there is a real rigidness to the way that they have to be played, and a real flimsiness to its execution. Although Mono-Black doesn't have much to do in the early stages of the game, these weren't cards I was interested in.

Getting Greel to survive his first turn was going to be a challenge, so I took out a lot of the additional motivations people would have for killing him- Rings of Brighthearth and Illusionist's Bracers- and opted for a fairly stripped down approach.

From that point, all I had to worry about was the activation cost. Making sure I have cards in my hand is a pretty big deal, but so is making sure I had cards I wanted to pitch. This meant redundancy, access to heavy tutelage, and a lot of card draw to keep him activating, but I still needed to find a way to make my discard activation worthwhile. So I added sizeable threats and a nice Reanimate package.

Putting all of this together, I was able to come up with a really nice lose-lose strategy for my opponents.

In the deck, Greel creates a powerful ultimatum: find an answer and let me stick my threat, or lose your hand, let me discard, and proceed to get an unchecked threat on the table.

Naturally, this is the primary strategy, but the beauty is that Greel is just a huge supplement to the deck, and not always the most terrifying piece. So let's pop the hood on this bad boy and check out some of the bigger pieces of the deck.

THE TECH

The key to this deck is to draw cards. Drawing keeps the mana flowing and the deck humming along. With access to tutors, it basically provides ways to get answers and threats to get and pitch.

There are now 5 card draw spells: Night's Whisper, Sign In Blood, Read the Bones, Ambition's Cost, and Ancient Craving, shown here.

So yeah- we're losing quite a bit of life to dig. However, that really shouldn't be much of a problem. Control decks will usually wait to counter these spells when they can leverage tempo, like, when you have no cards, and Aggro decks are grateful for the self-mutilation that is occurring, even though they probably don't realize removal spells are abundant in this deck.

There isn't actually a whole lot of discard outside of Greel in this deck, and although that's mostly due to the fact that our Horror Spellshaper is a house as a Commander, it's also due to the fact that Cabal Conditioning is also super sick.

Since we're drawing a lot of cards, this is usually pretty castable, and often happens before turn 7 with access to mana rocks. It's a bomb in multiplayer, and I don't think I've ever targeted anyone for anything less than four, because it combos with Geth's Grimoire, and I proceed to drawing more stuff.

Geth's Grimoire is one of the most powerful cards in the deck as a result of both this and Greel. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this, and more redundant if I continue to talk about it any more than I already have on the blog.

No one ever sees this coming, which is why I love it so much. It's also the kind of card I have no problem pitching to Greel if I'm in a tight spot, because I'm basically preventing my opponent from casting whatever it is they have in their hand.

Obviously, when I don't have Greel, this card is equally as awesome. I've gotten some serious mileage out of it in a couple of games, and it's usually worth the cost to play it. There are some things money can't buy; for every creature spell, there's Withering Boon.

Imp's Mischief is another card I put in here as non-creature, pitch-worthy target, though it is usually mana rocks and lands that are going to go first.

One of my favorite little pieces of tech is this here Ringwraith.

It doesn't look like much, but the incremental value in multiplayer cannot be understated. I dig this out of the graveyard about as much as I try to abuse Solemn Simulacrum, which is quite a bit.

On turn 3, casting it can usually net me a land or a bad spell. However, as the game drags on, holding up single cards becomes increasingly more vital and powerful. Getting this multiple times in a game, particularly with the Grimoire out, makes this a lot more powerful than it looks, which I think is saying something, particularly with this artwork.

For a while, this has been the primary game ender for this deck. Abusing Kokusho was too annoying for everyone, and for whatever reason, this always seemed to be the card I cast that ended the game.

I think we've all seen this card, so I think we understand how and why it's good.

Still, I think being up in arms about Kokusho and not this card is strange. It represents a significantly larger pool of damage, and is one card.

WHAT THE GODS GAVE ME

So despite winning a lot of games off the backs of thirteen undead 2/2's, I decided that I would like to have some other routes to winning in this deck.

As a result, Greel saw the most card changes when Theros dropped a couple weeks ago, and I've been pleased with the results so far. Here's what I added.

The whip has actually been the most surprising card for me. I was not a big fan when it got spoiled, because I can't stand it when an activated ability works at sorcery speed.

Sometimes though, I'm an idiot, and this was the case. The Whip covers one of my decks biggest weaknesses, giving me huge swings of life gain when necessary, and is much more powerful than I originally gave it credit for.

You can't see it, but I am holding my thumbs up at my screen as I write this. I know, I'm talented and dextrous.

To misquote GG, "This card is a meat popsicle." A big, tasty, and awesome meat popsicle. So eat it up, and love it.

My refusal to play Exsanguinate and my polite metagame boycott of Kokusho has led me to perhaps to a more powerful option, but that's okay.

It only took me one turn last week to discover just how powerful this card is. Playing and reanimating him in one turn allowed me to gain 26 life. I guess I just don't know what's fair anymore. I hope I don't get the impulse to take him out. Still wrapping my head around the fact that he's a common. This is not Highway Robber-y. It is much more.

Got Hythonia out a couple of times, and it's as good as it sounds. As a support card, it is every bit the card I thought it'd be when I talked about it as part of the Set Review.

In my Greel deck I decided to play Decree of Pain and Black Sun's versus Damnation and some of the other Wrath options I have. Hythonia's another sizeable threat that can end games and generate "all of the tempos." I like it a lot.

We'll end by talking about the man downstairs.

He is everything I predicted he'd be, and more. In conjunction with the Whip, I was able to keep my life total from not only getting into the danger zone, but also use part of my life to draw an extra card or two incrementally and proceed to victory.

The tempo that can be generated with devotion is Erebos' best quality, and with the Whip, it made for a very tough tandem to beat.

Overall, my assessment is that the Gods make Commander much tougher, and the choice of colors all the more relevant now, as Green and White have the most access to quality removal.

I hope to feature an article about how to play these guys next week.

That's all I got for Greel. My list actually needs some updating, but as always, here's my list if you want to check out what I'm playing. Feel free to leave me suggestions or +1 it if you like it.

Greel, Mind Raker EDH

Until next time, don't piss off Zeus. You know he hates it when you worship false Mimeoplasms.

-UL

Paupularity Contest: Theros Top 10

For many years between Lorwyn and Innistrad I complained that the design of sets had become increasingly poor. Rares became more and more overpowered and polarizing, some were ridiculous and some were just ridiculously awful. Meanwhile, cards of lower rarities became essentially irrelevant. A variety of factors led into this, but the main consequences were that booster packs increased in price, but decreased in value; Limited environments became particularly stagnant, weighed down by uninteresting gimicks and impossible-to-defeat bombs; cards no one cared about got reprinted with abandon and the high-profile cards people wanted went under-printed (with the notable exceptions of Titans and some Planeswalkers). I was fed up. Suddenly, a change came! Innistrad drops and the world is upside down. We have commons in the tier one decks of every single format. Delver dominates Standard, Modern, Legacy, and even sometimes Limited for months on end. The draft format is fresh and engaging. It requires skill and there are clearly defined archetypes in addition to the typical two color nonsense decks. There are common/uncommon combos being discovered even late into the pro season. I was so excited. There were constructed quality cards at every rarity! Imagine that! Well the trend has continued through RtR block and now here we have Theros, which looks to be one of the juiciest sets ever. There is quality everywhere you look on this plane.

That was a lot of preamble, I know, but I am trying to cope with the wellspring of emotions that I am feeling. This is a rare thing for me, you see. Today, I am going to be breaking down my Top 10 new commons from Theros. Let us jump right in!

Honorable Mention: Boulderfall
I get a huge kick out of this card. Brad Nelson, in The Magic Show's Theros Set Review called it "just Bogarden, because you don't get the Hellkite." I think that's funny enough to warrant a mention, but the card really is pretty sweet. This format looks to be a little on the slow side and removal spells will be at a premium. I am eagerly awaiting the first time I get to send one point of damage at my own guy to trigger a Heroic ability. In that context, this card is the Overrun of the Heroic decks; it pumps your whole team and you just send in the clowns, let them sort out the blockers. This card is pretty far away from being Rolling Thunder, but let's face it. Rolling Thunder is o.p. It was later fixed as a more expensive Rare...and then subsequently un-fixed a decade later as a potentially less expensive mythic, oh well.

#10 Voyage's End
A little bit of a strange pick here. This card doesn't read like the cards people typically get excited about. This isn't flashy. It's not a bomb. It probably isn't a high draft pick. But what it does, it does well. A strong tempo card that will fill out your deck and win some games. With so many Enchantments in the set this will rarely be pure card disadvantage. This reminds me of Vapor Snag, a burst of tempo with a small but tangible benefit attached. In aggressive decks Scry finds gas to help keep the pressure on. When you have to use this on defense it isn't as good, but the Scry effect will help you find a more permanent answer a lands to drop a big blocker.




#9 Two-Headed Cerberus
This little guy is pretty sweet. 2/3 Vanilla creatures for three mana have become pretty standard at common in recent sets. Which is a cool thing to see. Grey Ogres were never exciting and always felt strange when compared to Bears. They have a higher cost so it sends a bad message in design if they aren't superior in some way. The power/cost curve is central to the integrity of the game, although it often feels like it is defined by exceptions instead of the rules.

This creature is a cool upgrade to a standard 2/3. It's first point of damage has first strike and it packs on a huge upside if you can increase its power. Double Strike gets out of hand very quickly and if it gets above 4 you basically have The Abyss.



#8 Aqueous Form
It is hard to underestimate this card. It has a lot of raw power and as the game goes on it makes it almost impossible to lose. The immediate damage provided by having an unblockable threat is backed up by recurring card selection letting you out gas your opponent in long-sequence exchanges. These pseudo-race situations occur pretty often in Commander. This isn't some janky combat trick. This is an engine and the output is beatdownz.



#7 Cavalry Pegasus
Take to the sky! Giving your whole brute squad evasion is pretty sick and definitely worth much more than two mana. This is an efficient, low-cost beater than can quickly begin chipping away in your opponents life total early in the game and represent a crazy breakthrough attack later in the game. The fact that this can play the same role as an Overrun and just push through lethal in a board stall makes it an excellent draw later in the game as well. This only does one thing, but it does it very well. I expect to be seeing a lot of this card on my opponent's side of the Pauper table.


#6 Minotaur Skullcleaver
Inner-Flame Acolyte and Viashino Firstblade are super sweet aggressive threats. This is much easier to cast and therefore a pretty significant improvement. Four is a substantial amount of damage and later in the game people are not going to want to take a hit like that. This will create situations where you can set up a favorable trade or even a chump block. Haste is a proven quantity. It's awesome. It wins games.

#5 Akroan Crusader
Tokens are super sweet. It only takes a few for them to really start paying dividends and if you really get a chance to go off you sometimes end up with so many that you can't ever lose. One drops are also super sweet. They don't really have to do much before paying dividends either. Sometimes early pressure can put you so far ahead that your opponent will have trouble coming back even if they stabilize. Sometimes you opponent is able to keep pace and outclass your one drops with bigger threats. The cool thing about crusader is that he can stay on the table and still be relevant even if he isn't attacking.



#4 Leafcrown Drayd
I see this as a DIY Thragtusk at common. Check it out, if you Bestow this onto a reasonably sized guy then you will be getting a pretty sizeable body on the board. If they deal with your monster, it leaves behind a smaller replacement guy in its place. Reach isn't exactly the same thing as five life, but oh well, what can you do? This is an awful lot of value for a card that can also fill the curve just like a regular two drop. Commons usually aren't this good people, this is something to get excited about!



#3 Nimbus Naiad
I am unsure about these next two. I have gone back and forth about which is better. This card reminds me a lot of Drake Umbra, which some of you may recall was absolutely insane in limited. That card was an uncommon and when the creature got destroyed you just had to ditch the aura. Naiad gives you a similarly huge flier for the same cost, but when it gets removed you are left with a creature that still has Flying. Wind Drake now with added value.



#2 Breaching Hippocamp
Look guys. I am not going to try and defend the flavor. It is bad. I don't know why the horse if a fish. I don't know why it jumps out of the water. I get that the surprise attack from below the surface is modelling Flash, but I don't get how that maps onto untapping another guy. Luckily though, this card is crazy good. Having three power means that it will probably be able to trade straight accross with one of your opponents creatures, so in that sense it is basically like a clunky removal spell. The extra blocker is a huge kicker though. You will usually get to just eat one of your opponent's attackers for free. I can't wait to finally use my Ulamog's Crusher on defense, this is going to be so sick. Even if you can't force any awkward combat exchanges or generate any card advantage this is still a relevant, albeit unimpressive, body. It can attack and pick up swords just like everybody else. Any creature is good on an empty board.

#1 Read the Bones
Read 'em and wheep! You might have been able to guess this was going to make an appearence on the list based on how I gushed for it in the set review. I can't help it. This card is the bees knees and everybody knows you shouldn't threaten your old Grandpa with a good draw spell. I will take advantage of that every time. I won't beat around the bush; I am unabashedly saying this: You will see this card in tournament decks. This is Top 8 deck list kind of stuff.

I am excited by the flavor text as well. It sets up so many jokes about learning your lesson and it is actually appropriate and relevant in actual teaching situations.

That's all for today Zoners. See you next week.

-GG

In General: Cardfirmation Bias

Hello Zoners, Grandpa here. Welcome to another In General, where we discuss top level strategy, game theory, developing your skills, what makes good cards good, the Commander metagame, and apparently now social psychology.

That's right, today is the first of many articles where I will be talking about Magic, Strategy, NOPE! Psychology. Joke is on you. Or your brain, rather. This is because we are going to examine a cognitive bias and how it can affect your play. A cognitive bias is a trick that your brain plays on you. It secretly urges you to make illogical decisions, view situations inaccurately, and collect/process information poorly.

Don't expect this is be a full blown master's course in social psych. I encourage you to continue your education. Knowing yourself and knowing others will make you better in all aspects of your life. This game isn't just cards and strategy; your mind takes center stage and you have to keep it sharp. If you let yourself fall into these traps then it will definitely cost you games. There are many of them, in fact here is a list: ShaB00M! Some of these may not apply to you, sometimes you might be in denial.

Confirmation Bias

What it is: The overvaluing of information which reinforces your view point. It causes you to dismiss or ignore information that disagrees with your established beliefs. This can manifest in several ways, some important ones are:

• Selective Memory - Subconsciously, you retain certain information and memories while discarding others. In this case, we are talking about remembering evidence that supported your opinion, but not the counter-evidence. Ex: you remember that you won three die rolls in a row tonight, but don't remember that you actually lost more than you won. Resulting in the belief that you are the Roll Master. (A name by which my roommate actually calls me because he incorrectly believes I win more die rolls than him)
• Biased Searching - You go looking for information with a preexisting agenda. You go looking for articles/advice that support you, so it isn't surprising that you find a lot of information that you agree with.
• Observational Selection - You don't pay much attention, but suddenly now you start seeing something everywhere. Cell phone towers, for example. Normally, not a subject of much concern, but if you start looking for them you will find they are everywhere. This bias suggests that they are showing up more now than before, like they are multiplying. It is important to note that this simply isn't the case. The government has always been watching you, duh.
• Mis-association - Sometimes, in pursuit of defending your entrenched beliefs you will wrongly perceive a connection between events or fail to observe a connection which does actually exist. This happens all the time in personal relationships: one party feels blameless and doesn't understand how their actions affect the other person. When confronted about it, this person will dismiss the other as being 'crazy' or 'overreacting' thus further vindicating their own viewpoint while alienating all others. Note that the related problem of association verse causation definitely falls into this category. 

Illustrating Examples
Let's look at some samples of how confirmation bias can hurt your game:

• There is a certain creature that you hate seeing. You are tired of losing to it. In your mind it seems like every time this thing comes out you lose. This creature, this Shmimeval Titan let's call it, is unstoppable, right? I mean, you always seem to lose to it, so it must be too good. What's really happening is that you are being handed piles of evidence saying that you need more answers in your deck, but all you can hear is: Shmimeval Titan is overpowered. When faced with controverting notions, you interpret it has reinforcing your point instead of detracting from it.
• Let's say you play a lot of casual games. You are the master of the kitchen table. It feels like you win 70-80% of your games. Your deck is so good, right? So you go to post it online and these vultures on the forums rip it to shreds. You try to explain to them that you have a crazy high win rate, but they don't seem to get how awesome you are. Eventually, you just write them off. They aren't good enough to understand why you are successful. Maybe they are trolling super hard. Perhaps it is just the typically critical nature of anonymous commenting; they wouldn't be able to deny you in person. Here, you are receiving feedback that you had skewed results. Either, you haven't been keeping accurate accounting of your wins and losses or you are playing against statistically inferior competition. Because of your cognitive bias however, you will not see any of the underlying factors that happen to be very relevant to your view: Strength of competition, relative play skill, match up considerations, individual players' expectations for game play (i.e. the vagaries in the 'spirit of the format'), luck...these factors differ vastly across playgroups and severely affect the outcome of games. Knowing exactly what factors contribute to a win can be difficult, but be sure to keep an open mind. Third party feedback has the innate advantage of NOT being subject to your biases.

I hope you enjoyed this article. I hope even more so that you you were able to take something positive away from it. Self-improvement is core to the human experience. It drives us. Often though, we must look inward for the solutions to our problems. The mind is a powerful and necessary tool, but it is also the source of nearly all of our struggles. Educating ourselves about these pitfalls will help us correct them and even avoid them in the future.

If this wasn't exactly your cup of tea, fear not. I will be doing at least another one of these in the future, but for next week I am going to be talking about some Pauper shenanigans and new cards from Theros!

-GG

The Stack #29- We Respond

Happy Saturday Zoners.

Apologies for the last couple of break days. Life seems to have us preoccupied a little at the moment, but we appreciate you guys checking in with us on our regular "skedge."

Cause we're here today, responding with, well, responses.

GG, VJ, and I picked out our faves to share with you today.

So let's get to it!

THIS IS THE STACK!

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
Have your friends ever gone to activate a fetch land at a somewhat inappropriate moment? Maybe they just wanted to save time or were bored because they didn't actually have anything to do on your turn. S that D. Shut that down with your instant speed Sinkhole...aaaaaand then draw a card for the maximum strength rub-ins. In order to prevent long term scarring, you should apply cold water directly to the site of the burn.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
I agree with my cohorts: tutors are played at a sickening frequency, and what better way to insult the tried and true Demonic Tutor than by drawing a card for two mana? Some of the best control I've seen, or it could just be that I like everything about Ravnica.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
One of the funnier memories I have of this card is a turn where GG played it in response to try to draw into a counterspell and then tried to crack his fetch land EOT. Hence came the line we've repeated a lot since- "Sometimes I play this game."

Good pick. Tutors are annoying. Shut It Down.

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
I have a lot of fun with this card because I don't see a lot of other players using this. When I first saw it, lights went on in my head and I thought, "hmmm, could be a Blue kill spell, or Path to Exile." I've been using it ever since. It just seems like one of those unexpected game-changers, and I have indeed used it against a Volcanic Geyser for 30 damage.

Willbender was a close second as well, since I've seen Willbenders turn Doors to Nothingness on their owners.

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS DOWN

I've had a lot of trouble with this one, and I was hoping it would be tech. I'm glad VJ's getting mileage out of it though. I will continue to try to work it into various lists, but so far I've had no luck.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
This is a pretty good one. I was glad to see it get moved down to CMC2. There have definitely been superior versions in the past, but I think this in a great place for basically every format except Legacy; where cards have to be unfair to be playable, of course. I couldn't see myself actually starting this in a Commander deck, but then again, I am amazed someone started a Volcanic Geyser. What do I know?

UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
This or smacking the Temple Bell is probably the most likely response I have to most plays, and of those two, Miko is obviously my favorite. What can I say? I love land.

This usually isn't a desperate move either. I do this in response to people playing dudes, ending turns, upkeep triggers, etc. I play a lot of answers usually, so this is more about meta-interactivity. It's what I do before I decide to do something. Or nothing.

Also- being proactive on the draw creates a different dimension to the game. Most of the time it's pretty likely I have an answer already in hand, and I like to think it helps keep my opponents feeling some kind of pressure.


Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
I have never not played this in an EDH deck. That should tell you something about how much I use it. I eat breakfast maybe once or twice a month. I activate Mikokoro like, every day. It is extremely powerful. IF you aren't using this in all your decks you just don't get it..or you don't want to win.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
Temple Bell is a tad more preferable simply because you don't have to pay 2 each time you activate. However, the advantage of this is you can start pulling sly UL style bluffing by turn 3, if all goes that way. It serves two purposes, but I guess the second one is a better response than adding 1 mana to your pool. Unless someone plays Armageddon. Then you might want to put something in your pool before all is lost. But even then, you might be able to draw a land with the second ability.

As always feel free to share your favorites in the comments below.

Please tell me you'll respond. Until then, have an A1 Day.

-UL

Another Break Day

Happy Thor's Day Zoners.

We're taking the day off again. Be back Saturday.

-UL

Spin It Into Myth: Theros Tech I Like

Well hey there Zoners!

The past week or so has felt weird, but I think we're getting back to schedule.

So it's time for America's favorite ongoing segment about all the Jank Hipster Tech I'm trying out, so get out your Grandmother's old sewing wheel, or your Grandad's old record player- It's time to figure out if I'm playing stuff that's worth anything.

Maybe someday we'll be able to stop talking about Theros on this blog. However, that dawn is still coming.

Still, I think this one's going to impress. My preorder stuff showed up in the mail yesterday afternoon, so I figured I'd share some of my bad cards.

But first, we gotta clear the old clutter out of the way. 

LAST TIME, ON SPIN...

White cards seemed to be the theme last time, and it made sense. My Lin Sivvi deck was getting off the ground, and I was also trying to get desperately inspired by a creatureless Tajic deck that was a little rough on the self-esteem.

Still, I had some pretty big winners.

WINNERS

Nevermore

In the right hands, this card is gigantic value. Truthfully, there were several opportunities I've had to completely shut down Voltron decks and other Commander centric decks, but I let my sympathy bones get the best of me, and decided to play it on something else or pitch it.

I really like this card though. I know because of Theros people will be packing more enchantment hate than ever, but it's still an obstacle. There are several decks that have very few ways to interact with it, most notably red, black, and blue, and this card has the potential to hose people if their deck is flimsy. It's a bad card that punishes bad players with the word of a bird. What's not to like?

I almost want to play a couple copies. Not every deck plays multiple answers to threats, and having additional design support through Peek effects or other discard can really make this card that much stronger. It's a lot better than I thought it was.

Shinen of Life's Roar

One of the craziest suggestions we had for a senior prank back in high school was to get an elephant and stick it in a classroom on the second floor with a bunch of mice running around. Apparently, elephants are terrified of them.

To this day I don't know how we thought that was realistic, but the image is a pretty good illustration of what Shinen can do. Swaying chump blocks in combat is usually relevant in green, and is a different kind of way of interacting if you're sick of being the "Overrun Guy."

Yavimaya Hollow also helps keep this thing alive.

CONTINUING QUESTIONS

This time around I don't have cards that are pure flops. I'm still unsure, but we're still going to get them out of the way anyway.

Gideon, Champion of Justice

I've had this guy out in several games now, and I've come to the conclusion no one, understands this card, including me. It's clear that Gideon's power was seriously quelled in development, making him very niche-y, favoring token matchups to get his counters on.

After this, I've been fairly lost. To me, he's just not a threat. There's no way that you'd have incentive to exile the entire board state in Commander, even if you did get enough counters on it to go off and start swinging. So in regards to restarting, it's worse than Karn.

Still, he tends to draw attacks on the table. I got kinda heated in a particular game where my opponent's felt this was a threat in the early game, killing him in two turns, only to let my Elspeth Knight-Errant stay resolved for about 3 turns after that. It wasn't about drawing attackers either. It was about the fact that simply because he was a Planeswalker, it made people scared.

Overall, it's just been really odd, which has made for an interesting case study. I hope to find a conclusion here at some point though.

Skyship Weatherlight

Tajic was an indestructible man, but I didn't like the deck. Unfortunately, that means the ol' Weatherlight, like me, is currently doing the job hunt. I really do like this card.

It's a nostalgia pick, but I might have room for it in when I finish putting together Daxos. We'll have to see.

THE NEW STUFF

Alright, we've reached the main event.

BEHOLD! GOOFY THEROS RARES!

Colossus of Akros

GG had an article a while back based on Sam Stoddard's Concepts of Threats.

This is surely not a premier threat like Emrakul, Kozilek, or Ulamog, but it's about as far as I venture Wizards will go when they print a potential Trample/Indestructible 20/20.

I'm trying this card out in Blue Braids, where all my overcosted Timmy cards go. At the very least, it's intriguing to see if I can get him swinging. If I can't, at least I have a big blocker.

Gift of Immortality

Obvious flavor fouls aside, I think GG was a little rough in the Set Review on this one.

This is a card I like quite a bit. Decks with proper sacrifice outlets and ETB/Dies triggers really like the value adding here. I have a new trigger happy deck that is going to abuse the tar out of Gift, and I'm excited about it.

Prognostic Sphinx

Braids is getting another nice addition to its small Sphinx subtheme.

It's not much of a threat, but having a castable threat that will contribute to getting card advantage goes a long way in longer games.

More importantly, I'm excited at the chance to re-invigorate a deck I really haven't been playing a lot of games with.

Unlike KFC's terrible marketing campaign
for their new wings, this little spell
seems pretty tasty. Don't eat it though.
Hashtag, I Read The Bones

Read the Bones

This one isn't nearly as sketchy of a pick. I picked this cause all the other black cards I'm going to play are pretty obvious- Erebos, his Whip, and Hero's Downfall.

Read the Bones is a really nice budget option for every deck, and is another great Pauper option. I got a playset of this card. I can't wait, and neither can Greel or Glissa T's.

Reaper of the Wilds

Speaking of Glissa T's- she got a billion playable goodies from Theros.

Aside from the relevant God Weapons, this is one of the better fits for GB decks in general. All of the good Golgari Legends like to kill things. Reaper of the Wilds not only makes those triggers worthwhile, but also the ability to chunk damage and force trades with big blocks.

Five toughness keeps it from dying to other midrange dudes in the same size, and bonus- when it does die it will trade with something probably bigger than it.

It's a nice one. Play it. Love it.

Well, that's all I got. Feel free to share your favorite new tech with me as we begin to play new Theros tech. I'd love to hear about it.

Until then, keep the world turning by doing some Spinning. Make everything a myth.

-UL