Category: Product Review


Thrive and Thrash Gatecrash Event Deck Review

Filed under: Event Decks, Product Review by elspethftw — Leave a comment
February 5, 2013

gatecrash-thrive-and-thrash

Perhaps I’m a bit biased towards Boros, but I just don’t find the Thrive and Thrash Gatecrash Event Deck nearly as good as its Boros Rally counterpart. Don’t get me wrong; there’s a ton of value to be had here! Yet again, Wizards has reprinted Thragtusk, making this the third time it’s been included in an Event Deck (will we see the secondary market price drop at all yet?) I will say, though, this one is not quite as easily playable out of the box. It’s definitely the trickier of the two to play. But it’s got some really good stuff in it, and if you’re a Simic (blue/green) player or are looking for some important pieces for a RUG (red/blue/green) deck, it’s worth your $25. Let’s take a look.

MANA BASE 

2 Evolving Wilds
10 Forest
6 Island
1 Mountain
4 Simic Guildgate

The Guildgates are always welcome, but unlike the other deck, there’s no regular dual land in here. A Hinterland Harbor would have immediately made this deck a steal at its current MSRP, so if I have any complaint with this mana base, that would be it. And what’s with the one Mountain, you ask? There is a reason for it, and the two Evolving Wilds should give you a chance to fetch it.

CREATURES

2 Acidic Slime
4 Arbor Elf
3 Borderland Ranger
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Dungeon Geists
2 Fog Bank
1 Gruul Ragebeast
2 Mist Raven
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
3 Strangleroot Geist
1 Thragtusk
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Yeva, Nature’s Herald

The creature line-up actually has a lot of very interesting stuff in it, including a few great value rares. While I’m not the biggest fan of Gruul Ragebeast, if you can get him on the board, you have a good chance at finishing that game off. His automatic fight trigger does have its place in this deck, so he works. Wolfir Silverheart is a great card hands-down, as well as Dungeon Geists, both cards that are at home in many decks. Thragtusk should need no introduction. Gain 5 life and when he’s removed from the field get a 3/3 beast token. Works well, and that’s why people covet so many copies of it.

Yeva, Nature’s Herald is an interesting little card. She has Flash and gives all of your green creatures Flash. I’m definitely a fan of this in the deck, but the rest of the creature line-up, to me, seems a bit underwhelming when you consider how much great Simic stuff lives in Gatecrash!

Three Strangleroot Geists are a staple of green decks. The Arbor Elves and Borderland Rangers get you your manas. Mist Raven is a nice little control card and Fog Bank protects your life points. Then you have Sphinx of Uthuun and Deadeye Navigator. This is where the deck gets a little meh for me. Deadeye Navigator has a nice interaction with Thragtusk, Sphinx, Dungeon Geists, and perhaps Mist Raven and Borderland Ranger. So there are a lot of interesting control elements here. But you ask, how will you be able to get quickly enough to these higher mana spells?

NON-CREATURE SPELLS

1 Bramblecrush
4 Farseek
2 Ground Assault
3 Urban Evolution
4 Verdant Haven

The Non-Creature spells in this deck are what make the seemingly odd creature line-up make more sense. The Bramblecrush can take care of an annoying planeswalker, enchantment, or even one of your opponent’s lands to keep them off of the colors they may need. Farseek grabs your Islands and one Mountain. Ground Assault is a nice little removal card (that requires your one Mountain!) Urban Evolution looks pricey but it’s worth the cost, as you draw three cards and can play an additional land card during that turn. Verdant Haven is a nice little enchantment that gains you 2 life and makes the enchanted land give you an extra mana of any color when you tap it. So now it becomes possible to cast an Acidic Slime on perhaps even Turn 4, if you hit everything right. These spells are what makes this deck work.

My biggest issue here is that one Mountain. It’s not vitally important that you have that Mountain early in the game, but who knows, you could end up having it milled or discarded and your red spells become useless (which you can survive with happening, but who wants to dead-draw a red card without your one Mountain?) Otherwise, it’s a fairly solid, if not tricky to pilot, passive-aggressive control deck.

SIDEBOARD

4 Dissipate
4 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Naturalize
2 Negate
3 Rancor

The majority of the sideboard allows you to go more towards control with Dissipate, Naturalize, and Negate. You also have three copies of Rancor and a playset of Flames of the Firebrand to make you more aggressive if the match-up calls for it.

All in all, it’s not at all a bad deal for the money. It’s worth picking up simply for the pieces that it comes with. I’m just not crazy about the deck. I’d have to actually play with it to change my mind about it, but it’s not one I’d feel comfortable playing. If you like what you see, it’s definitely one to consider brewing off of, but I know that there are much better ways to go. I like Simic Charm over Mist Raven. Experiment One is a great one-drop that you could flash in with Yeva. I feel like this deck focuses too much on building up mana to hit your combo pieces early. All someone has to do is ping off your Arbor Elves and Fog Banks and the more aggressive decks will rip this list to shreds.

I think to make this work you have to focus on Control or you have to focus on board presence. I see RUG being a good way to build off of this. I would personally say this is a great foundation for a very good Simic or RUG deck but I think it needs work to be competitive in the Standard meta-game.

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Boros Rally Event Deck Review

Filed under: Event Decks, Product Review by elspethftw — Leave a comment
February 5, 2013

This is what I found on Tumblr this morning: the Gatecrash Boros Event Deck...

BEST EVENT DECK EVER! Let’s break it down!

mtg-rally-and-rout

While there will be many that may prefer the fact that there is the Thragtusk in the Simic counterpart to this deck (review soon to come) this Event Deck has money cards up the wazoo! WHile I am a bit frustrated that I have already purchased several of the cards featured in this deck for my own Standard Boros Deck, the inclusion of Clifftop Retreat and Silverblade Paladin officially makes this deck worth the $25 MSRP price (as of this writing, I still need 2 more Clifftop Retreat!)

As for the list itself:

MANA BASE

3 Boros Guildgate
1 Clifftop Retreat
8 Mountain
10 Plains
1 Slayers’ Stronghold

So, so happy about the Clifftop Retreat being included! The Slayers’ Stronghold is a nice inclusion, as well. Three copies of Boros Guildgate is also quite welcome. Pretty solid mana base here.

CREATURES

1 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Elite
1 Champion of the Parish
4 Doomed Traveler
2 Firefist Striker
2 Lightning Mauler
1 Silverblade Paladin
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
1 Spark Trooper
2 Sunhome Guildmage
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Truefire Paladin

This is where the bulk of the value for this deck comes in. Ash Zealot is a fantastic card of whcih I already own a playset, but I know someone who can use the ones I’ll be getting. A playset of Boros Elite is fantastic. Who doesn’t want a 3/3 for 1 mana? However, the inclusion of Silverblade Paladin is just amazing. Now I can get some double strike action going! Now if THAT wasn’t enough, you get Spark Trooper, Thalia, and Champion of the Parish!

Spark Trooper is an interesting card. He’s a 6/1 with trample, lifelink, and haste. Yes, this guy has LIFELINK. So who cares if this guy gets blocked? He’s pretty much an automatic 6 life for you every time he swings. He’s gone at the end of combat, but really, this guy is more than worth his 4 mana cost.

Thalia has been a fantastic sideboard card for awhile. She makes all non-creature spells cost 1 colorless mana extra. While I wouldn’t be mainboarding her, it’s great to have a couple copies around. She’s a fine main boarding option if you don’t mind paying 1WR for Charm, 2W for GAther the Townsfolk, 1R for Pillar of Flame, and 2R for Searing Spear, but honestly, it’s best to use her against the control match-ups.

Champion of the Parish is a great card and the build in the event deck works fantastic with him. He’s going to get really big, really fast. He’s just a really solid card all around. Especially considering you have the Doomed Travelers and Boros Elites for one-drops alongside him, you could be bashing through really, really fast.

Some of the other creatures are certainly worth mentioning. Firefist Striker is an interesting card. His Batallion ability reads that if you attack with him and at least two other creatures, you can target a creature and have it unable to block for that turn. Not a bad card, but I think there are better options. Lightning Mauler has a Soulbond option to give a creature haste, which isn’t bad. Skyknight Legionnaire is an old Ravnica throwback, a 2/2 flyer with Haste (actually prefer the old artwork, as well as the Arena Foils).

The last couple creatures, Sunhome Guildmage and Truefire Paladin are interesting, as well. I find the Paladin a bit better than the Guildmage. The Guildmage has an ability for 1WR that gives all of your creatures +1/+0 until end of turn. As it’s a mana ability, you can potentially use this a couple times in a turn to deliver the final blow. However, his second mana ability for 2WR to put a 1/1 soldier token with haste on the board is overcosting in my humble opinion. However, the Truefire Paladin is a nice little uncommon.  He’s a 2/2 Vigilant for RW, and his mana abilities are strictly better than the Guildmage’s honestly. His first ability gives him +2/+0 until end of turn for just RW. His second ability, which also only costs RW gives him first strike until end of turn. I definitely like this guy, and will definitely consider him in my own Boros brews.

NON-CREATURE SPELLS

2 Boros Charm
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Searing Spear

You’ll certainly want to be running 4 copies of Boros Charm, but the other spells here are good options. Four copies of Gather the Townsfolk interacts quite well with the Champion of the Parish, so if you decide to focus on the Champion, Gather the Townsfolk is for you. Pillar of Flame and Searing Spear are pretty standard removal/burn cards that you pretty much have to sideboard.

Sideboard
3 Bonds of Faith
3 Electrickery
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Skullcrack
2 Thunderous Wrath
3 War Priest of Thune

Pretty solid sideboard here. Thunderous Wrath can always pull a win out of nowhere. Skullcrack is the perfect answer to Thragtusk. Electrickery is a nice option against token-heavy decks or decks that love to throw out a lot of 1/1 creatures. Oblivion Ring is pretty standard white removal. War Priest of Thune is a great way to exile nasty enchantments. Bonds of Faith is the only card here I’m not too thrilled with. It’s an Enchantment that gives a creature +2/+2 but it has to be a Human; otherwise, it can’t attack or block. I’d ditch these in Constructed, as there are far better options to consider for pumping your creatures quickly and cheaply.

Overall, this deck gives you more bang for your buck that any event deck I’ve ever seen. This easily beats the Vampire Onslaught deck that I once declared the best value Event Deck ever prior to the release of the Golgari event deck during Return to Ravnica. If you’re running Boros, definetly buy one. If you just want the Clifftop Retreats, Champion of the Parish, and Silverblade Paladins for Naya Humans, well, buy out your store.

Up next: the Simic counterpart, Thrive and Thrash!

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From the Vault: Realms – Part I

Filed under: Product Review by solemnparty — Leave a comment
August 18, 2012

In this article, I’ll be going over the first four cards of the latest From the Vault, Realms.

The set is completely land, all of which are playable in EDH/Commander to some extent.

Cephalid Coliseum is originally an uncommon from Odyssey, the original art being by John Avon and the new art being Cliff Childs. While it’s not great for a blue source, tapping for one blue and taking a damage, it’s mainly used for the Threshold ability, for blue and a tap, you sacrifice it to have a player draw three cards and then discard three cards, being very good in dredge and black/blue re-animator decks.

Personally, I enjoy both artworks, but I have to like the new one, as it looks better in the modern border.

Desert was originally printed in Arabian Nights, and then reprinted as a Timeshifted card in Time Spiral. Desert has always been a great card, holding off the common 1/1 creatures by itself and deterring large creatures in multiples. Desert is also one of the cards that did get new artwork, and I have to say it’s impressive.

While High Market isn’t considered as great as Diamond Valley, though better than Miren, the Moaning Well, High Market sees a significant amount of Commander play, and is a nice card to see printed in here; though people will complain about this not being Diamond Valley instead. Sadly, it didn’t get a new artwork, though the original by Carl Critchlow is very nice.

Oh, Maze of Ith. Originally from The Dark, Maze of Ith for From the Vault: Realms is already pre-ordering on Star City for $50 USD, making the usual MSRP of $35 for one of these box sets completely worth it. But, as usual, the actual stores are going to be selling them (and the individual cards) for a lot more. While it doesn’t produce mana (unlike its watered down counterpart, Mystifying Maze) it completely removes a creature from combat, preventing all damage dealt to and by that creature. In fact, Maze of Ith is even part of an infinite mana combo with Argothian Elder. Great inclusion, and I’m not surprised to see it among the cards getting a new art out of the set.

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Return to Ravnica Spoilers/Izzet vs Golgari Duel Deck Spoilers – Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind

Filed under: Card Reviews, Product Review, Return to Ravnica by solemnparty — Leave a comment
August 8, 2012

While this is technically a spoiler for the Izzet vs Golgari Duel Decks, it is assumed he will also be printed in Return to Ravnica.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is a 2/2 Legendary Zombie Elf for BBGG; which doesn’t seem all that impressive. Though, his first of three abilities makes up for his low power for a 4 drop; he gets +1/+1 for each creature card in your graveyard. With the older Golgari mechanic, Dredge, he quickly becomes a monster. However, we still don’t know what the new mechanic for Golgari is going to be in Return to Ravnica.

His second ability is an activated ability for 1BG and sacrificing a creature; each opponent loses life equal to the sacrificed creature’s power. Essentially, it’s a fling to all of your opponents. If you’re playing him in Black/Green/Blue EDH, you could deal infinite damage with Grim-Grin + Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm.

His last ability is a nice touch; you can sacrifice a swamp and a forest to return him from the graveyard to your hand. I personally don’t like sacrificing my land, but green can usually spare it with the amount of ramp.

I doubt he’ll see Standard Play when he comes out, personally; however, I expect him to see quite a bit of play in EDH/Commander, due to being a legendary creature and being a Ravnica one at that. I like him myself.

The other card I’m going to mention is Niv-Mizzet’s reprint, that I’m a little disappointed about.

As Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind is the same is ever, it’s missing one thing.

“(Z->)90° – (E-N²W)90°t=1″

This version doesn’t have any flavor text, which I’m a little disappointed in. While the Champs one not having flavor text makes sense, it doesn’t even have the alternate flavor text shown in From the Vault: Dragons.

I’ll get to Niv-Mizzet in my Generally Speaking series when I get to him.

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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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