Category: Bang for Your Buck


Magic 2013 Core Set Event Deck: Repeat Performance Deck Review

Filed under: Bang for Your Buck, Deck Profiles, Product Review by elspethftw — 2 Comments
July 28, 2012

Wow, this deck contains a Thragtusk! Beleive it or not, as awesome as that is, it’s not even the best part of this creature-based deck. Not only is it more playable out of the box than its reckless Flashback-dependent Event deck counterpart, but it is wildly more consistent and has a far better base to build future decks upon. Let’s see what we have in store:

Creatures:

1 Acidic Slime
2 Arbor Elf
3 Attended Knight
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
1 Blade Splicer
3 Borderland Ranger
1 Brutalizer Exarch
2 Elvish Visionary
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Geist-Honored Monk
1 Glimmerpoint Stag
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
4 Roaring Primadox
1 Stingerfling Spider
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Thragtusk

Non-Creature Spells

1 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Lead the Stampede

Mana Base

12 Forest
8 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket

The main card in this deck, believe it or not, is Roaring Primadox…

Okay, you have four copies of a 4/4 beast that costs 3G and forces you to return a creature you control to its owner’s hand. Well, considering how many of your creatures have very good enter the battlefield abilities, this is actually welcomed. You have plenty of mana ramp in the deck between Avacyn’s Pilgrim for white mana and Llanowar Elves for green mana, so you’ll have no trouble re-playing your creatures.

First of all, you have Acidic Slime, which can deal with many sorts of threats, and if nothing else, can hit an opponent’s land. Attended Knight gives you two creatures for the price of one, and is even better if you can reuse it. Blade Splicer is basically a better version of Attended Knight that gives you a 3/3 golem and gives that and any other Golems you control first strike.

Borderland Ranger helps you grab lands from your deck every time he hits the board, giving you even more mana ramp. Elvish Visionary gives you plain and simple card draw. Fiend Hunter is a nice little removal card, and one copy may be too few. Geist Honored Monk can get really, really big, has vigilance, and gives you two flying tokens. Stonehorn Dignitary can lock your opponent’s battle phase down.

Glimmerpoint Stag is an interesting card in that it blinks a permanent when it enters. This obviously comes in handy with something like Acidic Slime, Geist Honored Monk, Blade Splicer, Thragtusk, and any other of your creatures that give you instant card advantage boosts just by exiling them until the next end step. You have to play this card at the right time, but it’s useful (unfortunately it’s in Scars of Mirrodin and not staying in Standard much longer). It’s also a 3/3 with Vigilance, making it a decent little creature.

I don’t have to say much about Thragtusk that I haven’t already said in my review, “Is Thragtusk Really a $15 Card?” I pretty much answered my own question right away. He fits beautifully into a deck that forces you to return creatures to your hand. Not only do you gain 5 life when he enters, but you get a 3/3 beast when he leaves, no matter however or whenever he does. For 5 mana, he does a lot. He’s even better with cards like Glimmerpoint Stag, Restoration Angel (which would be incredible with this deck!) and even little commons like Cloudshift! The fact that he only requires a single green mana out of his converted mana cost of 5 is just ridiculous in that you can splash him in so many decks! Sunblast Angel is another good card in this deck because if your opponent overextends, you can instantly punish them! It’s also a good flyer.

There are only a couple of cards that I don’t really care for in this deck. Brutalizer Exarch I’m not a huge fan of in this deck; I’d rather play a Solemn Simulacrum (helps you mana ramp even further and gives you a possible card draw). The Exarch can help you search out a creature you need or put a non-creature on the bottom of its owner’s library, good effects, but not necessarily needed in this particular deck. You could just run another Acidic Slime! Same thing goes for Stingerfling Spider, except that it’s only upside is that it’s a creature with Reach that can destroy a creature with flying. There are better removal cards for less mana than that. Again, you’re better off with another copy of one of the other creatures that acts as removal (Fiend Hunter would work here most of the time). You could also run Restoration Angel here, or any other decent 4/4 or 5/5 flyer (imagine Sublime Archangel here!).

Another card I’m not a fan of is Mwonvuli Beast Tracker. It does search out creatures, but only with deathtouch, reach, hexproof, or reach, making it sort of odd in this deck. It really can only search Stingerfling Spider (reach) and Acidic Slime (deathtouch). It would be good with Dungrove Elder (hexproof), but not in this deck. It’s an odd choice, better replaced by a Fiend Hunter or Blade Splicer or even an Attended Knight! If you run two or three Acidic Slime, I could see it being worth playing.

The non-creature spells are as basic as you get, Green Sun’s Zenith and Lead the Stampede. Stampede is great because so much of your deck is creatures, so you can maintain card advantage early and often. Green Sun’s Zenith is OK even at just one copy because it’s a re-usable tutor that immediately calls the target to the battlefield. The mana base is fairly simple, with two Razorverge Thickets to help you mana-fix on the first couple of turns. Two more of these would be preferable, as well as a full set of Sunpetal Grove (which is in M13) but for an event deck this is already a nice bonus.

If you find you’re still lacking against certain opponents, look no further than your side deck!

SIDEBOARD

3 Cloudshift
2 Dismember
3 Kemba’s Skyguard
4 Oblivion Ring
3 War Priest of Thune

Cloudshift lets you abuse your enter-the-battlefield abilities even more so than before! Two copies of Dismember guarantee that bigger creatures won’t stomp on your parade, so to speak. Kemba’s Skyguard offers you fliers that also give you 2 life when they come into play. Oblivion Ring helps remove anything you don’t want to deal with. War Priest of Thune destroys enchantments (here’s looking at you, Burning Vengeance!) Your toolbox is pretty much now complete with these additional options at your disposal.

Thragtusk is easily a $12-15 USD card as of this writing, and this deck’s existence may now make it a bit easier to get that particular card. But there’s a lot of good stuff here and this deck is built around a very consistent strategy. Your opponent likely will not be able to stop everything that you can throw at them. You have a large enough mana base that you should never find yourself behind on the curve and being able to consistently replay cards like Acidic Slime may end up becoming fairly easy to do. It’s the classic green/white deck that just puts more attackers out there consistently more often than the opponent has blockers. Simple combat math says this deck will win target game more often than not, so if you’re feeling like running an aggressive white deck that will have an answer for pretty much any threat, this one’s for you!

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Magic 2013 Core Set Event Deck: Sweet Revenge Deck Review

Filed under: Bang for Your Buck, Deck Profiles, Product Review by elspethftw — 2 Comments
July 27, 2012

The lists for the new Magic 2013 Event Decks are now available on Starcitygames.com, even though they will not be released until August 3rd. The first we look at is not necessarily the better of the two decks, but has a very interesting, unusual strategy by which it operates. There’s a reason the deck is called Sweet Revenge.

Here’s the list:

Creatures

2 Armored Skaab
4 Fettergeist
1 Firewing Phoenix

Non-Creature Spells

4 Burning Vengeance
4 Desperate Ravings
4 Faithless Looting
3 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Geistflame
3 Pillar of Flame
1 Red Sun’s Zenith
1 Rolling Temblor
1 Silent Departure
2 Slagstorm
4 Think Twice

Mana Base

1 Darkslick Shores
1 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Evolving Wilds
7 Island
9 Mountain
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Swamp

The creatures are not unbelievably exciting, but they’re cheap. Besides, they just need to defend you long enough for the true stars of the deck, the Flashback spells, to shine. The Armored Skaab drops four cards from the top of your deck into your graveyard as soon as it hits the board. Fettergeist is a cheap flyer with an upkeep cost, and truthfully a 3/4 for only 2 and a blue that flies is pretty relevant. Firewing Phoenix is essentially a greatly watered down version of Chandra’s Phoenix; it’s not a bad card overall, but 4 mana to return a relatively fragile 4/2 flyer to your hand strikes me as somewhat mediocre in this particular deck where your mana is better spent poured into your flashback spells. Obviously the Phoenix’s ability to return to your hand when it can easily be milled is good, but it’s just not that good.

Burning Vengeance is a very interesting enchantment, indeed, and is in fact the star of the deck. For 2R, it allows you to cause 2 damage to target creature or player every time you cast a spell from your Graveyard. You have lots of draw and discard power in Faithless Looting and Desperate Ravings. Forbidden Alchemy nets you a card to your hand and dumps three others into the graveyard. Geistflame and Pillar of Flame are nice cheap little burn spells. Rolling Tremblor deals 2 damage to all creatures without flying. Silent Departure is essentially Unsummon with a slightly high Flashback cost. Think Twice gives you even more draw power at instant speed. All of the aforementioned cards, with the exception of the Enchantment, of course, have Flashback. You also have Red Sun’s Zenith and Slagstorm for a little more burn power and board wipe ability, respectively. It’s an interesting sort of tool box that allows you to burn a little here, draw a little there, and all the while deal damage to whatever you please.

The mana base has a Darkslick Shores, the blue/black fast-land from Scars of Mirrodin, in the deck to help with the single Black cost in a couple of the Flashback spells along with a single Swamp. The deck is primarily red and blue, however, so you also have a Sulfur Falls, the blue/red dual land from Innistrad. Desolate Lighthouse helps your draw/discard engine going even more with its tap ability for 1RU. The four copies of Evolving Wilds help you both mana fix for your Mountains, Islands, and your single Swamp, as well as get the lands out of your deck and onto the board before they get milled by the Skaabs and draw/discard spells.

If you stay on curve with this deck and get a couple of your Burning Vengeance enchantments on the board, you’re going to be dealing damage pretty consistently and have enough cards in hand to keep the attack going. Being able to draw on the graveyard as a constant resource is definitely a very interesting strategy, and it makes for a fascinating budget deck strategy… although, there is a major hole in this plan that will be revealed right after we discuss the sideboard.

Here’s a look at the sideboard. It’s pretty straightforward, actually.

SIDEBOARD

2 Arc Trail
4 Bloodcrazed Neonate
2 Dismember
4 Screeching Skaab
3 Secrets of the Dead

If you need more direct damage or direct removal, you have it. Need more card draw? Secrets of the Dead has that. Need more attackers? Bloodcrazed Neonate and Screeching Skaab offer that, with the latter filling up your graveyard a bit quicker. The fine-tuning that this sideboard offers is pretty refreshing, and can help to mold the deck more towards your own play-style as much as it is to counter what your opponent is playing.

This deck is quite interesting. Just don’t run into Ground Seal or Grafdigger’s Cage, both of which prevent you from casting cards out of the graveyard. If this engine gets stopped by those cards or timely enchantment removal, this deck can become far too impotent to be a truly competitive force. It’s a nice idea, and I appreciate the effort that Wizards put into designing this deck around such an interesting burn strategy, but it’s sort of reckless and depends a lot on luck and hoping your opponent can’t side deck against it properly. It could be a rogue deck that steals a tournament top one weekend, and be a total flop the next.

Let’s just say that compared to the other M13 event deck, this is one you’re better off stealing the list from and building on your own for about the same price (minus the two dual lands). Value-wise, this deck is only really worth the money if this strategy really looks like one you’d like to play right out of the box. The rares besides the two dual lands are nothing to be too excited about. The other deck, the creature-based Repeat Performance, is the one worth investing in. You’ll soon find out why… it has Thragtusk!

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Avacyn Restored Event Deck: Death’s Encroach Review

Filed under: Bang for Your Buck, Deck Profiles, Product Review by elspethftw — Leave a comment
July 26, 2012

 

We’ve already taken a look at the rather pedestrian Humanity’s Vengeance event deck from Avacyn Restored, so now let’s take a look at Death’s Encroach. I think that this deck is perhaps a bit better overall in that it doesn’t really need to depend on a mechanic like its White/Blue counterpart has to in Soulbond. This deck is a bit quicker and more aggressive with some very solid ways to do a lot of damage quickly. Let’s take a look:

1 Cemetery Reaper
2 Crypt Creeper
4 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Geralf’s Messenger
3 Ghoulraiser
1 Gloom Surgeon
1 Gravecrawler
4 Highborn Ghoul
4 Skinrender

3 Altar’s Reap
3 Despise
2 Dismember
2 Doom Blade
3 Go for the Throat
2 Lashwrithe

24 Swamp

The monster line-up is obviously nothing but Zombies, and with the exception of Gloom Surgeon, all pretty good cards. My primary issue with Gloom Surgeon is the fact that while it is technically indestructible, having to exile a card for each point of combat damage he would take just doesn’t not seem worth it for a 2/1. You would be much better off with another Gravecrawler instead of him. Crypt Creeper is interesting in that he can exile a card from a graveyard, preventing possible flashback or other sorts of recursion. Again you’d be better off with just two more Gravecrawlers, but for the review’s sake, if you have to go with what’s in the deck, it’s probably worth having.

Geralf’s Messenger is a very good card, and definitely one that you would want to have more than one of if you were to play this deck with any real aspirations of competing. Still, the fact that it’s in the same Event Deck as Gravecrawler makes this deck worthwhile. But your real heavy hitters in this deck (if you can call them that) are Highborn Ghoul, Diregraf Ghoul and Skinrender. Highborn Ghoul has Intimidate, which makes it a problem for most decks out there to handle. Diregraf Ghoul is a 2/2 for a single Black mana, and its only drawback is that it comes into play tapped. But considering how ahead of the mana curve you could be after playing two or three of these, that drawback just doesn’t really matter. Skinrender, while just a 3/3 for 4 mana, has the ability to put 3 -1/-1 counters on a target creature. The fact that it does its damage with counters and not just a traditional -3/-3 is very important for this deck because it can make bigger creatures that this deck would have trouble with into much smaller manageable threats. You also have Ghoulraiser. It’s only 1BB and a 2/2 with a good enter the battlefield ability: get a Zombie back from your graveyard. It is at random, but if you’ve already cast your Gravecrawler (either from your hand or your graveyard) you’re going to get back something useful. Obviously, this makes getting back your single copy of Geralf’s Messenger back much more easily.

I must also mention that Cemetery Reaper is in the deck. Obviously, he’s a very good lord card for the deck who also has a tap ability for 2B to remove a creature from any graveyard and give you a 2/2 zombie (essentially a 3/3 zombie with the Reaper in play). He’s another good possibility for Ghoulraiser to get back.

The removal package is fairly broad, with both Doom Blade and Go for the Throat in the main deck, plus two copies of Dismember. You also have three copies of Despise for hand control. An interesting inclusion is Altar’s Reap, which for 1B and sacrificing a Zombie, you can draw two cards. This is obviously combos pretty well with Gravecrawler, and is a nice way to get some card draw besides Sign in Blood (which was not in Standard when this deck was released, but is now with the release of Magic 2013).

The sleeper in this deck is the two copies of Lashwrithe. It’s a very interesting living weapon that’s really only good in mono-black, but for only 4 mana, you get a living weapon with X/X, X being the number of swamps you have in play. By turn 4, you’ll likely have a 4/4 already that can only get bigger. If the germ token is destroyed, you can pay 2 black mana and equip it to one of your other creatures (Highborn Ghoul is an excellent choice). Not only that, it’s equip cost has the Phyrexian mana option, meaning you could pay 2 life and one black or 4 life to equip instead. Considering that life is a resource you can easily afford to use with this deck, this comes in handy. If you can get both of these onto the board, your opponent will have a mess to deal with.

SIDEBOARD
2 Appetite for Brains
2 Crypt Creeper
3 Deathmark
1 Despise
2 Distress
1 Ghoulraiser
1 Surgical Extraction
3 Triumph of Cruelty

The sideboard offers some more hand control in Despise and two copies of Distress, plus Appetite for Brains, which can discard cards with mana costs over 4. You also get three copies of Deathmark to deal with white or green creatures that may give you problems. Triumph of Cruelty is an interesting enchantment card that forces your opponent to discard a card if you control the creature with the highest or tied for the highest power. With three copies of Triumph of Cruelty here, you could potentially have your opponent discard up to three cards a turn during each of your upkeeps. I don’t see this being a necessarily good strategy to win with, but it’s an interesting idea. There’s also a fourth copy of Ghoulraiser, two more Crypt Creepers for graveyard hate, and a Surgical Extraction. The Extraction is certainly a good card to have and does see play in other formats, so even leaving Standard won’t affect its value too much.

Overall, this deck has a much more straightforward plan of attack than its White/Blue event deck counterpart. It can cause a lot of damage quickly and has enough removal and recursion to keep a sustained attack. The Lashwrithes won’t be available in Standard much longer (as of this writing) but that won’t keep this Zombie deck from winning a few games at a local FNM even in a few months. If you get three more copies of Gravecrawler and a couple more copies of Geralf’s Messenger (neither of which are particularly expensive anymore due to their ready availability in these decks), you can have a very competitive budget deck for about the price of two of these decks. This deck definitely has more “Bang for Your Buck” than Humanity’s Vengeance, and unless you are bent on playing blue/white humans, this deck is the better investment.

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Avacyn Restored Event Deck: Humanity’s Vengeance Review

Filed under: Bang for Your Buck, Deck Profiles, Product Review by elspethftw — Leave a comment
July 25, 2012

Continuing this mini-series of looking at the Innistrad block event decks, we have the Avacyn Restored blue/white event deck, Humanity’s Vengeance. Overall, this deck may be the better value, but it may not be head and shoulders better than its mono-black Zombie counterpart, Death’s Encroach:

Let’s see what we have:

1 Blade Splicer
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
1 Mirran Crusader
3 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Nephalia Smuggler
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
3 Tandem Lookout
2 Wingcrafter

2 Dismember
1 Divine Deflection
2 Mental Misstep
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Righteous Blow

2 Glacial Fortress
9 Island
1 Moorland Haunt
12 Plains

Right off the bat, looking at this list, there are a lot of good cards here. Besides the three copies of the always useful Oblivion Ring, we have several pretty good rares in here as well, Blade Splicer, Mirran Crusader, Phyrexian Metamorph, Glacial Fortress, and Moorland Haunt, as well as Divine Deflection. That last rare isn’t so exciting, but still somewhat useful. Like it has been with the event decks with each set, though, one deck has more cards that are very playable now and the other has more cards from the current block.

From purely a Standard player’s standpoint, this deck isn’t really as great a value because most of these cards are cycling out in Oct. 2012 (all of the rares besides Moorland Haunt, Glacial Fortress and Divine Deflection, plus Dismember, Mental Misstep, Porcelain Legionnaire, and Gideon’s Lawkeeper). As we look at the other deck, you’ll see it has perhaps not the same number of money cards, but more cards that will stay in the Standard format and be worth more to Standard players. Still, from purely a money standpoint, the big three rares from the Scars block, Blade Splicer, Mirran Crusader, and Phyrexian Metamorph, have value in other formats, so it’s still a good value when you consider all of the Innistrad block cards in the deck, as well.

As for the deck itself, it is very much keen on the idea that Soulbond will carry you to victory. Wingcrafter can make your guys fly, Tandem Lookout can draw you cards, and Nephalia Smuggler can blink your guys so that they can re-Soulbond at your leisure. You also have Nearheath Pilgrim’s Soulbond ability to give itself and another creature lifelink. Fiend Hunter is excellent creature removal (and will be for quite some time in Standard) and Gideon’s Lawkeeper can help you keep big threats tapped down.

Righteous Blow, Dismember, and Oblivion Rings are a good removal package. Divine Deflection is an interesting card that can turn damage you would take into a pseudo-burn spell; it’s not bad, but it needs to be played at just the right time to be truly effective. For the mana base, you get two copies of Glacial Fortress, which has been reprinted in Magic 2013, and is always a useful dual land. You also get Moorland Haunt, a great card for crapping out 1/1 flying Spirit tokens for a minimal mana investment (UW and tap).

The sideboard is interesting:

SIDEBOARD
3 Cathedral Sanctifier
2 Cloudshift
2 Inquisitor Exarch
4 Mana Leak
3 Negate
1 Pacifism

There seems to be this theme in the deck of gaining life often enough that you can stay ahead of your opponent. Cloudshift is a sort of replacement for Nephalia Smuggler if you find his ability to be too expensive to be worth using. The Mana Leak and Negate are good if you need that control element. The Inquisitor Exarchs and Cathedral Sanctifiers are interesting for their life gain aspect. The one copy of Pacifism doesn’t do much for me, but I could see cases in which you may want it to stop that one big creature you just can’t deal with.

My problem with this deck is that it does a nice job of keeping your life total up and occasionally giving you the ability to fly over things and perhaps draw some cards. As is, though, this deck doesn’t really do much but wear down your opponent. The deck is built around a  hold-out sort of strategy. It doesn’t really have a finisher. It has enough removal  and moves quickly enough that it can serve as an OK white weenie deck. This deck can stay on the curve consistently enough that you should never have too many dead draws.

It’s not a bad deck, and if you’re jumping back into the game and need a deck to play, it’s worth a look. But the Zombie deck I think is a bit better and needs less tweaking than perhaps this one does. I’d just pick up Restoration Angels, Champions of the Parish, and Silverblade Paladins, then build a deck around them. It’s obviously a lot pricier than buying a couple copies of this deck, but it’s more worth it, considering that those cards cause a lot more problems more quickly than anything here does. It’s just an underwhelming deck.

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Dark Ascension Event Deck: Spiraling Doom Review

Filed under: Bang for Your Buck, Deck Profiles, Product Review by elspethftw — Leave a comment
July 24, 2012

Ah, a Birthing Pod deck ready to play right out of the box! So how good is it? Let’s take a look at the list:

1 Acidic Slime
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Brutalizer Exarch
1 Hex Parasite
1 Morkrut Banshee
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Perilous Myr
1 Phyrexian Rager
3 Skinrender
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Stingerfling Spider
4 Strangleroot Geist
1 Viridian Corrupter
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Wakedancer
4 Young Wolf

2 Birthing Pod
2 Diabolic Tutor
3 Doom Blade
1 Mortarpod

2 Evolving Wilds
14 Forest
1 Grim Backwoods
8 Swamp

Understandably, this is a very creature heavy deck. If you look at the main board, it’s a pretty solid line-up as you move up the mana curve. While Birds of Paradise would typically be the card of choice for a 1-drop in this deck, Young Wolf is a nice little card, as it has Undying and can immediately replace itself as you go into a Viridian Emissary or Strangleroot Geist. Hex Parasite is a nice little tech card that allows you to remove +1/+1 from your Undying creatures so that they can return yet again, although I haven’t seen how good this strategy is in competitive practice. Rounding out the two-drops you have Perilous Myr, which is a nice little card that can be popped for two damage.

The three drops are where the tech really begins to shine if you play the deck right. Wakedancer has a good morbid ability that nets you two 2/2 creatures for the price of one. Phyrexian Rager draws you a card at the cost of 1 life. Viridian Corrupter destroys an artifact when it hist the board and is a 2/2 creature with infect. Of all of the three, the Corrupter is a bit risky, since it can end up destroying your own Birthing Pod, so it’s only worth playing when you don’t have your Pod on the board or when there is an obvious target for it. It’s also a sort of random Infect card in a non-Infect deck.

Solemn Simulacrum is a great inclusion in this deck and belongs in any deck with Birthing Pod. Three copies of Skinrender round out the four drops, making for a nice cheap removal tool. The five-drops are a bit underwhelming, but still useful. Morkrut Banshee has a very good Morbid ability that causes -4/-4 to a target creature (but it’s not optional). Acidic Slime is a card that just belongs in any Pod deck, and can destroy a wide variety of things (at worst, it can hit a land) that allows gives you a 2/2 creature with Deathtouch. Stingerfling Spider is nothing special, except that it has reach, and an optional ability to destroy a flyer, something this deck has an obvious weakness against. Bloodgift Demon is the best of the five-drops. He’s a 5/4 flyer that at each of your upkeeps must deal 1 damage to target player, but that player also draws a card. My main issue with Bloodgift Demon is that as you’re already using life as a resource with Birthing Pod, since you’re going to be using the optional Phyrexian mana cost of 2 life more often than not to keep ahead of the mana curve. so he’s a risky play.

To top off the deck, you have Brutalizer Exarch and Myr Battlesphere. Brutalizer Exarch is interesting in that it has three fairly useful abilities. It’s not one of the better six drops that you could use, but considering that it’s a stepping stone to Battlesphere, it’s necessary that there be a six-drop in the deck. Myr Battlesphere is a pretty nice card. It’s never been a money card, but a 4/7 that gives you 4 1/1 Myr tokens when it enters the battlefield is already pretty good. Also, whenever it attacks, you may tap X untapped Myr you control. For each of those, Battlesphere gains +X/+0 until end of turn, plus it deals X damage to defending player. It’s not bad, and considering how aggressive this deck is on removal, that Battlesphere could get in unchecked for up to 8 damage.

For a starter Birthing Pod deck,  it’s not bad. If you get your Birthing Pod early, the game could end very well for you. You have 3 Doom Blade to deal with threats, on top of all of the removal already in your creature base. Two copies of Diabolic Tutor will help you search out your Pod, but at 4 mana, you’re already well behind in the game if you have to use it on turn four to get one. You may have the removal necessary to stay in good shape until that point, but it’s not a good sign. Mortarpod is a nice little card to work with your Strangleroot Geist and Young Wolf for quick removal or pinging.

The mana base is rather standard besides the one rare land in the deck, Grim Backwoods. I’m no fan of Grim Backwoods, but I understand its inclusion in the deck, since it can draw you a card later in the game at the expense of one of your weaker creatures. But for 4 mana and a tap, plus a sacrifice? That’s not worth a card draw. You’re better off with a third Evolving Wilds. It’s one of the weakest rares in Dark Ascension, and it’s only real redeeming quality is the quote from Liliana: “I love what they’ve done with the place!” Otherwise, the mana base is fine.

The side board is as follows:

SIDEBOARD

1 Acid Web Spider
3 Autumn’s Veil
1 Beast Within
1 Despise
1 Dismember
4 Distress
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Gravedigger
1 Myr Sire
1 Wakedancer

The Acid Web Spider is basically just Stingerfling, except it destroys Equipment. Autumn’s Veil is an interesting tech choice against blue/black control decks – this deck type’s main nemesis, shutting down many counter, removal and bounce spells for a turn. Beast Within is removal for the bigger threats you may not be able to handle. Despise is a nice way to get a major threat out of your opponent’s hand. Dismember is nice quick removal. Distress is an interesting inclusion in that it adds a great deal of hand control to your deck. In theory, it could be a good idea in that you’ll be able to limit your opponent’s options and be able to know what you may have to play around. Entomber Exarch helps you with that hand control strategy that can also get you one of your creatures back from the grave. Gravedigger does half of what Exarch does (gets one of your creatures back) for the same converted mana cost. Myr Sire gives you another two-drop that relpaces itself with a 1/1 Myr token when it dies (I’m not sure why you would side it in). You also have a second copy of Wakedancer, presumably to replace Viridian Corrupter if it’s not proving useful.

Overall, I think that this deck isn’t quite as consistent as the other Dark Ascension Event Deck, Gleeful Flames. It’s a tool box sort of deck that really needs a visit to the hardware store. There are just far better cards that should be in this deck. Sheoldred, Whispering One is actually one of Wizard’s suggested additions to the deck, and that’s a definite one. You can make this deck pretty good for pretty cheap but as far as out of the box play-ability, this deck is definitely the weaker of the two. Also, in October 2012, this deck will be completely unplayable in Standard. It may be worth the $20 (or even around $15 if you can find it on sale) just for the Birthing Pods, Solemn Simulacrum and other useful commons & uncommons. It’s also pretty well structured; it just needs better tools across the mana curve.

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Dark Ascension Event Deck: Gleeful Flames Review

Filed under: Bang for Your Buck, Deck Profiles, Product Review by elspethftw — Leave a comment
July 23, 2012

As I have fallen behind greatly in reviewing the more recent event decks, now is as good as a time as any to see if these FNM-worthy decks have enough “bang for your buck” as I like to say!

With the release of Magic 2013, a lot of these cards will be rotating out in a few months (as of this writing) so let’s look at both the deck on its own, as well as what you can expect to have be useful from this deck in the future.

Thanks to Starcitygames.com, here is the deck list.

4 Forge Devil
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Fireslinger
4 Goblin Gaveleer
1 Hellrider
3 Torch Fiend

4 Artillerize
4 Brimstone Volley
1 Curse of Stalked Prey
2 Faithless Looting
4 Goblin Grenade
3 Infiltration Lens

3 Haunted Fengraf
2 Inkmoth Nexus
17 Mountain

The creature line-up in this deck is very simple. They’re all small creatures that can do more damage than their initial mana cost may suggest. Forge Devil is good for taking out your opponent’s smaller creatures, but at the cost of 1 damage to you. Goblin Arsonist is a bit better card, as it deals 1 damage to either a target creature or player when it dies (giving it great synergy with Goblin Grenade!) Goblin Fireslinger has a tap ability to deal one damage to a target player, an okay ability, but nothing special; however, it is also a Goblin, so it’s good with Grenade. Goblin Gaveleer is a little 1/1 with trample that gains +2/+0 for each equipment attached to it. Torch Fiend is a nice 2/1 that can sacrifice itself for artifact removal. Hellrider is the boss monster of the deck, a very good rare from Dark Ascension that not only is a 3/3 with haste, but it also causes 1 damage to your opponent each time one of your creatures declares an attack, making all of your little Goblins much more dangerous.

For the non-creature spells, you have a full line-up of Artillerize. With it, you sacrifice a creature and deal 5 damage to a target player or creature. When your little Goblins outlive their usefulness, this card really comes in handy. Brimstone Volley is a 3 drop burn spell that can deal 5 damage with its morbid ability. This makes it combo very well with Artillerize, cards like Torch Fiend that can sacrifice themselves for an effect, and of course, Goblin Grenade. Curse of Stalked Prey is one of the more underrated curse cards which allows your Goblins to gain +1/+1 counters each time they deal combat damage to the enchanted player. Faithless Looting allows you to draw a couple of cards and discard two cards that aren’t currently useful to you, and it also has flashback, meaning you could easily discard the second copy of Looting if you draw it and use it again later. Goblin Grenade may be the best card in the deck, allowing you to for one mana and the sacrifice of a little Goblin to do 5 damage to anything. Infiltration Lens is an interesting little equipment that draws you two cards any time an attacking creature becomes blocked. It’s cheap to play and has a cheap equip cost, making Goblin Gaveleer more of a threat and allowing for easy cheap card draw to keep you ahead of your opponent in card advantage.

For the mana base, you have 3 Haunted Fengraf to start. Fengraf is interesting in that it can get creatures back to your hand from the graveyard by sacrificing it and paying 3. The only time that this would seem necessary, however, is if your Hellrider is destroyed and it’s the only creature in your graveyard. That mana would be better spent elsewhere, it seems. However, the 2 Inkmoth Nexus are an interesting inclusion. They don’t seem to fit into the general theme of the deck, but replacing two copies of the Fengraf for 2 more Nexis could make for an onslaught of flying infect creatures. It’s a curious choice for this deck, though.

The sideboard is pretty darn good, though.

SIDEBOARD

2 Act of Treason
4 Arc Trail
1 Dismember
2 Gut Shot
3 Into the Core
3 Torpor Orb

Honestly, I think the Arc Trails are better suited for the main deck and Gut Shot may be, as well. Into the Core is nice artifact removal. The one copy of Dismember may help you take out that one big threat and the two Act of Treason can help you swing for game. Torpor Orb is a great inclusion, as well, as it helps you shut down pesky enter the battlefield effects.

My main issue with this event deck, besides the fact that it is a nice cheap budget version of Red Deck Wins is that there are cards in it like Inkmoth Nexus that don’t fit the theme of the deck. I’m not a big fan of Torch Fiend and Forge Devil, either, as it seems to me that the direct damage spells are what will win you the game in the end. Having two copies of Hellrider and a couple of Arc Trails in the main deck seem like a better strategy. Overall, though, the deck is pretty balanced. I just think it needs to be played more aggressively than the main deck would suggest. The Torch Fiends seem better in the sideboard. Torch Fiend is decent only because it’s a one-drop (it makes you wish Raging Goblin were still in Standard!) Overall, this deck is worth your $20 investment, if you want to play it in standard before Return to Ravnica drops in October. Even still, if you’re looking to just have a Goblin deck to play casually, or want to have the bare-bones of a good Legacy Goblin deck, this is definitely a good starting place.

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CABAL THERAPY! Graveborn Releases Even More Great New Foils!

Filed under: Bang for Your Buck, Product Review by elspethftw — Leave a comment
November 12, 2011

cabal-therapy

I honestly doubt this comes as much of a surprise to many Legacy players, but they reprinted Cabal Therapy! This is obviously yet another big reason to buy the Graveborn foil deck! Granted there was a foil version in Judgment, but now you can have one for only about $4-5 USD!

But it doesn’t stop there. We have a new foil Dread Return, which yes we already had in Time Spiral, but a more easily acquirable version doesn’t hurt! Terastadon is certainly interesting. But it’s the other new reprints that are especially fascinating.

Exhume is a common sorcery that hasn’t been seen since the days of Urza’s Saga. It’s pretty good, obviously. For one and a black you can put a big bad creature onto the board while your opponent probably won’t yet have anything of much consequence to oppose it. It’s really nice to know we’ll be getting a foil version of this!

Blazing Archon is very interesting in terms of the Reanimator deck. You might ask why a 9 cost 5/6 flyer is so good, but hey, creatures can’t attack you! In a Reanimator deck, this is obviously very, very usable. Is it one of the best options? No, but you could find plenty of uses in EDH for it! Its inclusion definitely makes sense and certainly shouldn’t be overlooked.

Sphinx of the Steel Wind is a very fun mythic rare from Alara Reborn. It’s playable in EDH, certainly, but seriously, a 6/6 with flying, first strike, vigilance, lifelink, and protection from red & green is just absurd. Especially when you consider with a re-animator deck you could have this thing out on Turn 2. Of all the creatures in the deck, this is easily going to be the most sought after card. Really cool looking, too!

All-in-all, with these new reprinted being revealed, along with a few other common and uncommon reprints that aren’t really worth mentioning at the moment, the Graveborn deck is now easily worth your $35 USD. It wouldn’t hurt to order perhaps 2 or 3 copies now!

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Graveborn: Premium Foil Deck Review

Filed under: Bang for Your Buck, Product Review by elspethftw — Leave a comment
October 30, 2011

Star City Games is right now featuring the new Premium Foil Deck, Graveborn. Just by the five cover cards, you can be pretty sure this deck will be worth your money. I don’t know if I’d bother pre-ordering it yet for $35 until we know more of what’s in the deck, but I think it will be worth it considering what we’re already seeing.

Animate Dead (5th Edition Uncommon)

This is a really nice reprint. Being able to get back any creature in ANY graveyard is certainly worth losing the 1 power. Also, this card hasn’t been printed since 5th edition, meaning you aren’t going to find any black bordered versions (besides Alpha and Beta) in very good condition. Having a foil version of this card is going to make some Legacy players very happy!

Avatar of Woe (Commander/Archenemy/Prophecy Rare)

This card’s been reprinted twice recently, in both Archenemy and Commander. It’s a pretty useful EDH card and it’s certainly worth inclusion in this deck, especially considering Prophecy foils of this card go for around $25 USD. It’s a nice cheap way to get a foil version of this card for your EDH deck!

Buried Alive (Commander/Odyssey Uncommon)

Basically Entomb, but it puts up to three creature cards from your deck into the graveyard. It’s just been reprinted as an uncommon in Commander, but again, the Odyssey foil version is about $10 USD, so this is a nice cheap upgrade. IT’s very, very useful in both EDH/Commander and Legacy.

Crosis, The Purger (Invasion Rare)

Commander players and Legacy players rejoice! While not exactly the greatest card in Constructed, Crosis is a fine choice for Jund EDH players because of the hand destruction this card can wreak upon your opponent! This is certainly a nice card to have in foil, considering how expensive Invasion foils, especially rares, can be.

Entomb (Odyssey Rare)

This is a very, very good card, and will be worth most of the price of the deck. This card is incredibly self explanatory: search your library for a card and put it into your graveyard. Then shuffle your library. Talk about Legacy Re-animator decks having fun with what is currently a very rare card!

So far, this deck looks promising. It remains to be seen just how much value there will be in this deck, but if you’re looking for the Animate Dead, Buried Alive, and Entomb in foil, then you may be well off pre-ordering this right now! Personally, I would wait for the full deck list.

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Bang for Your Buck! Innistrad Event Deck – Hold the Line

Filed under: Articles, Bang for Your Buck, Card Reviews, Deck Profiles, Innistrad by elspethftw — 2 Comments
October 15, 2011

Of the two Innistrad Event Decks, Hold the Line clearly has more Bang for Your Buck! While Deathfed has some fine rares to add to your collection, this deck is more playable right out of the box! Let’s take a look:

Creature Spells:

  • 1 Champion of the Parish
  • 4 Doomed Traveler
  • 2 Elite Vanguard
  • 4 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
  • 4 Accorder Paladin
  • 1 Elite Inquisitor
  • 4 Fiend Hunter
  • 2 Mirran Crusader

Champion of the Parish, Elite Inquisitor, and a pair of Mirran Crusaders are probably worth a good chunk of the value in this deck. Their support troops are also quite solid, especially a full play set of Fiend Hunter.

Non-Creature Spells:

  • 2 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
  • 4 Bonds of Faith
  • 2 Honor of the Pure
  • 2 Butcher’s Cleaver
  • 4 Oblivion Ring

Silver-Inlaid Dagger and Butcher’s Cleaver are solid Innistrad equipments. Honor of the Pure is a must in any mono-white deck. A play-set of Oblivion Ring allows you to answer most serious threats that will be posed against this deck: Titans, et al.

Plus, you get 24 Plains. Nothing special there.

SIDEBOARD:

  • 3 Nihil Spellbomb
  • 3 Suture Priest
  • 4 Leonin Relic-Warder
  • 4 Celestial Purge
  • 1 Nevermore

This is a very good sideboard. Every card in here is pretty self-explanatory, with Nevermore being the card of name “Liliana of the Veil” or “Koth of the Hammer” or perhaps even “Birthing Pod.”

It’s a pretty solid deck that with minor adjustments can take an FNM or two, depending on how competitive your local environment is.

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Bang For Your Buck! Innistrad Event Deck – Deathfed Review

Filed under: Articles, Bang for Your Buck, Card Reviews, Deck Profiles, Innistrad by elspethftw — Leave a comment
October 15, 2011

So, Star City Games has revealed the lists for the Innistrad Event Decks! Honestly, they both look pretty decent, so today let’s take a look at the blue/green deck, Death Fed. Just looking at the list, you’re easily going to make back your $20. Let’s take a look

Creatures:

  • 1 Birds of Paradise
  • 4 Llanowar Elves
  • 4 Boneyard Wurm
  • 3 Viridian Emissary
  • 2 Merfolk Looter
  • 1 Splinterfright
  • 4 Armored Skaab
  • 2 Acidic Slime

Pretty nice cards here. Obviously, 1 Birds of Paradise seems sort of thrown in, but it’s a welcome addition. Llanowar Elves is classic. Emissary helps you get the lands you need. Merfolk Looter is good for a little draw power and throwing cards you don’t need int he graveyard to help several cards in this deck. Two Acidic Slime are pretty basic, destroying lands or key artifacts to hinder your opponent’s progress.

The Innistrad inclusions here are Armored Skaab. Boneyard Wurm, and Splinterfright. Armored Skaab is a blue Zombie common who’s s a 1/4 that when it enters the battlefield, you put the top 4 cards of your deck into the graveyard.  Boneyard Wurm is an interesting uncommon from Innistrad that I like; the more creature cards you have in your graveyard, the stronger it becomes. Splinterfright is a rare creature card whose power and toughness is equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard, just like Boneyard Wurm, except that at the beginning of each of your upkeep steps, you put the top 2 cards of your deck into the graveyard.

Non-Creature Spells

  • 1 Ratchet Bomb
  • 4 Mulch
  • 1 Gnaw to the Bone
  • 4 Forbidden Alchemy
  • 2 Bonehoard
  • 2 Spider Spawning
  • 1 Green Sun’s Zenith

Ratchet Bomb is a nice little inclusion, as is Green Sun’s Zenith. Two copies of Bonehoard do very well in this deck, as well. Gnaw to the Bomb just gains you tons of life, which at 1 copy probably isn’t too bad, but life-gain is rarely that good in Constructed. Forbidden Alchemy is a great common. You see the top four cards of your deck, add one to your hand, and ditch the other three into the graveyard. Spider Spawning is OK, but at 5 mana, it’s only going to be really good late game, and is barely worth playing in my opinion.

Lands

  • 1 Hinterland Harbor
  • 13 Forest
  • 7 Island
  • 3 Swamp

Hinterland Harbor, being the blue/green enemy dual land in Innistrad, is certainly the most expensive of the cards in this deck. Otherwise, just basic land. The 3 Swamp are included for the flashback costs of a couple cards in the deck.

SIDEBOARD

  • 3 Naturalize
  • 4 Flashfreeze
  • 4 Negate
  • 2 Gnaw to the Bone
  • 2 Mind Control

Pretty standard sideboard, really. I don’t really see any real point to have two more Gnaw to the Bones in the sideboard. I don’t think you’ll need life-gain quite that much. It’s not really a very good card, especially at 3. It’s only going to be good late-game, and 1 copy in the main-board is probably more than enough. I would replace these with Beast Within.

Overall, the deck relies on dumping a whole bunch of creature cards into your graveyard and beat people down. Pretty basic, but it’s an interesting fun deck to pick up and play, not to mention it has some very good cards that are played in many other decks. Certainly, it’s worth your money, although not quite as good as the mono-white deck, Hold the Line.

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