Khans of Tarkir!!! Brainstorm ideas for what's to come with Wizard Den!

Ok guys, I'm sure some of you heard the news that recently Wizards of the Coast purchased two trademarks; Khans of Tarkir and Dragons of Tarkir. A couple days later, Mark Rosewater and Rich Hagon put out a spoiler video for the next fall expansion, Khans of Tarkir! If you haven't seen this video yet, you can check it out HERE. There are some interesting things going on in this video and Mark's excitement level is a little too high for his own good which may lead to some dissapointments, but a lot of people are starting to speculate on what is to come.

One of the first things that Mark Rosewater mentions, is that Tarkir is a plane we have not explored yet, however, we have had a planeswalker who calls this realm home, Sarkhan Vol. The first speculation is that we'll be getting a Sarkhan Vol planeswalker in this block, whether old or new. This seems like a very easy spec as getting this excited over Sarkhan Vol is not really likely.

Mark continues to talk a bit about the plane of Tarkir, a "war-torn world ruled by warlords", a place full of dragons that Sarkhan became to worship, however, the dragons have long been extinct. Mark also gives a small background story on Sarkhan Vol in that he became a planeswalker
 and started traveling the planes getting excited to see dragons on other planes since he could not find them on his home plane.

Another picture spoiled in the video shows an army gathering on top of a cliff looking outward as if ready for battle. Many flags are flown in the army possibly denoting a guild or tribe so many people are thinking that Khans of Tarkir may offer a sort of dysotopian system much like Ravnica's guilds or Alara's Shards. Representatives of WotC have mentioned that they like to space their multicolored-focused sets apart 4 years as it can lessen the excitement for them since they are so popular so the magic community seems to think that we will not be getting a multicolored set this close to Return to Ravnica. The colors in this picture are interesting however; lots of White, Black and Red which would hint towards "wedges" being used in the set, though there are also a fair mix of races(goblins, trolls, humans and the main character up front almost looks like a Leonin, the race of Ajani and Brimaz) in the picture and the different flags could be the races/tribes/factions joining forces to take down a common enemy. The other hint is the code names for the block; "Huey, Dewey and Louie" which some people seem to think that it hints again at wedges since the 3 nephews of Donald Duck who are aptly named, wear Red, Green and Blue which is another wedge...

The third big spoiler is Mark announces that the block will be in Large-Small-Large format meaning, the Fall set will be a normal large size(269 cards) that we're used to, the Winter set will be small(~155 cards) which is normal, but the Spring set will be large where the second and third sets in blocks are usually small. The last block that was structured this way was Innistrad where the Spring set, Avacyn Restored was a Large set(244 cards) being that it included many new cards and mechanics. Zendikar block followed this format as well. Mark also mentions, however, that while it's a large-small-large format, there is "a twist"... He doesn't say anything else on the matter so it's up to us to brainstorm ideas on what that could mean.

A few ideas:

• We could be visiting different planes in the same block
• It could be Large-Small-Large-Small as Lorwyn/Shadowmoor mega block did.
• We could be getting "Snow" permanents

The last and best spoiler that Mark gives us is that there will be something that the magic community has been asking them to bring back after a long absence and something that the magic community has been asking for that they've never done. So something old and something new that we've been asking for a lot... Many people have already been speculating that we'll be getting fetch lands soon so that would fill the "something old" portion. Other ideas that people have come up with are: Horsemanship, Banding, Snow lands, full art lands(like zendikar) and tribal themes.

As for the "something new" portion, the ideas are endless, though you have to think 'What would the magic community want most?', since it's something we've been asking for. The new thing could be anything and there is no shortage on ideas out there from the community so, who knows? Let me know in the comments what you think it could be! There's mention that we'll get some more information on the set at the San Diego Comic Con on July 24-27 so stay tuned!

Until then,

DannyO
WizardDen.com

Why Modern and Legacy formats are cheaper than Standard.

Hey guys! I'm sure some of you have noticed how a lot of Modern and Legacy staples have been steadily increasing in price lately and they're starting to get a little ridiculous. Since I'm working on building a Modern and Legacy deck, I'm with you all on the high prices. If you're used to just playing standard, then looking at the investment amount to get a tier-1 competitive Modern deck looks daunting to say the least. However, there are a few pros and cons to investing into an older format. Today, I'd like to discuss some of these pros and cons in hopes that people can understand what I've learned lately; Modern and Legacy are actually cheaper than Standard!

So, I decided to look around for a competitive Modern deck and found one that I think I will enjoy for a while. Which brings me to a good point. Pick a deck that you will be happy playing for a long time because you probably don't want to start dumping money into another deck after you finish the first one. I ended up picking B/G Control also known as "The Rock". After I finalized the list I want, the deck came out to about $2,500. Luckily I already had a good chunk of the cards needed for the deck, but the 4 Tarmogoyf, 4 Dark Confidant, 4 Verdant Catacombs and 2 Marsh Flats comes out to about $1,439.60 right now. That's... a lot for 14 pieces of cardboard. BUT! The biggest lesson I learned recently, is that the money you put into your Modern/Legacy staples is more stable than investing into Standard staples. Meaning, that if you dumped that much money into standard staples right now, by the time they all rotated out of standard, you'd be lucky to keep 25% of your investment. So much of Standard value just completely tanks after rotation. The value of Tarmogoyf, Confidant, etc will hold it's value over the years. They will always be playable in Modern, and these ones actually are highly played in Legacy too so those cards are even more secure. The value will still fluctuate a bit as the format changes around, but for the most part, you're not going to lose thousands of dollars from one year to the next once you invest into a Modern/Legacy deck.

Around this time every year, Modern/Legacy staples trend to rise in price and during the summer, they trend on coming back down. Prices fluctuate as archetypes become more or less popular, and as certain decks win major events. They also fluctuate as formats move through the seasons which is the most influential factor on prices. Think of it this way. If you wanted to get into snowboarding during the winter when everybody is excited about hitting the slopes, you'll be paying full price for a board, boots, bindings, lift tickets, etc. However, if you look into buying a setup during the summer, you're more likely to get a much better deal. Likewise, if you're looking into getting into Modern while the Modern season is in full swing, you're likely to pay a much higher price than you would if you look into it during Standard or Block season. Because I'm excited about Modern and Legacy right now, I'm probably going to be spending a bit more for some cards than I would later in Summer or early Fall. Prices for many of the cards I mentioned earlier have never been higher than they are right now. That means that they can come down. I highly recommend keeping daily/weekly tabs on the cards you're looking for. Pay attention to the trends and the decks that perform well in major events. You'll be able to find cards for much better prices when you understand how prices for cards move around.

Now let's dig into the Standard format a bit. Right now, you can pretty much build any Tier-1 deck for about $400-$600. As sets rotate out, a lot of the value is lost so you're best case scenario would be to take that $400-$600 deck and trade it straight across for the new stuff each spring about 4-5 months before rotation occurs.

Assuming you could find someone that;
1. Has the cards you need for the new cards.
2. Is willing to take your cards that are going to rotate.
3. Doesn't de-value your cards because rotation is coming up.

If you can find this guy, then there's still an issue. You don't know that what you're trading for is going to be a Tier-1 deck. Sometimes you can have a good idea to make an educated guess and get there, but for the most part, you're going to lose value on this trade. Keeping up with each rotation is rough because you're not the only person preparing for it. Some people start preparing for rotation as early as... now(May). That makes it difficult to trade away your staples from the rotating block to these people for the new stuff. Because of this, you have to put more money into buying the singles you need, opening boxes of the new sets, or finding value in the older portion of your collection(that will always hold value) to give away for something that's good for 2 years(or less). This is a never ending cycle every October that forces you to dump money into the game to keep up with the competitive environment. Of course, if you're a casual player, you're probably not too worried. But if you plan on being competitive and even plan on traveling for bigger events, then you'll need to devote some amount of resources to keep up with the format.

It might not seem like much right now because you have a decent collection for standard and you can probably move your Esper Control deck into Mono Black Devotion without too much stress. But when the new block comes out in October, your collection has already dropped in value. You don't really have time to trade your old stuff for new stuff before it's not legal in standard anymore. It costs money to keep up with standard, and if you're good at events and can collect some store credit, trade well and find some cheap cards to pick up on, you can lessen the blow, but in the long run, you'll be constantly spending money to keep up with the format. This makes standard the most expensive format in the game. It just seems like it's not because it's much cheaper to get a good deck quick.

Modern and Legacy aren't cheap. Pick a deck and set goals to get some cards over a period of time. Budget a small portion of your paycheck each month to get one or two cards. After awhile, you'll have a good deck that will always be worth what you put into it. Then if something comes out in a new set that provides something valuable to your deck, you just pick them up while they're cheap in standard. Nothing in standard usually ever reaches higher than $30-$35 dollars. That dollar amount looks like nothing compared to a play-set of fetch lands.

Another big tip is to pick a deck to build for Modern that includes a lot of cards that move into the Legacy deck you want to play. For example; the Tarmogoyfs, Confidants, Fetch Lands, Liliana of the Veil, Abrupt Decay, all move into the Legacy Punishing Jund deck that I'll be working on once I have the Modern version complete. That way, I'm not buying two complete(and expensive) decks, but rather 1 and a half decks.

The only big con to investing into Modern is the potential to get something banned in the format. If Birthing Pod were to get the 'Ban-Hammer', not only the Birthing Pod itself, but most of the deck would probably take a big hit in price. So that's something to look at when choosing a deck to build. The Rock deck that I'm working on could get Tarmogoyf banned, but the deck would still be pretty good. Liliana of the Veil won't drop. Dark Confidant won't drop. You get the picture. There are decks that can take a hit and there are some that can't, depending on the specific card that could get banned.

Basically, look for a deck, stick with it, set goals for collecting the cards. It won't be overnight, but eventually you'll be able to play Modern and later, Legacy.

My intention is to get players to start investing their resources into more long-term, and although higher price, lower-risk cards. The biggest complaint for players not playing Modern or Legacy is the cost. It's not really an excuse because Standard is more expensive, it just takes planning and a little effort. You can do it!

Thanks for reading,

DannyO
WizardDen.com

What do the archetypes gain from Journey into Nyx and what new archetypes could show up?

Hello again! Since I skipped writing an article last week, I'm writing a second for this week! yay... Anyway, let's talk some more about what everyone has been talking about for the last few weeks,

Legacy!

jk, we'll talk about Nyx... jeez

So today Journey into Nyx becomes legal for Standard play and I've been brewing for a couple weeks now trying to find that deck that just feels good and so far I've got nothing. The answer might just be to keep playing Mono Blue, Mono Black, U/W control or Jund Monsters. Well as a member of a team that focuses on building rogue decks, that's hard for me to submit to. I'll do it, I'd just rather try to find something different and fun first.

Well, let's talk about what these tier-1 decks might gain from JOU so we can have an idea of what to expect for the new meta. We'll start with

Mono Blue: If you remember, when Born of the Gods came out, this deck took nothing from it and continued to crush faces. Most likely, it'll remain that way with Nyx, but just in case, let's look at some playables from JOU that they might pick up.

Dictate of Kruphix. I've definitely heard talk of people thinking this will end up in Mono Blue. The devotion is good and it keeps the game moving fast. I disagree. If your deck isn't specifically designed to generate massive amounts of card advantage every turn, this card does not belong in your deck. Turbo fog or a deck full of wrath spells would be ok, but giving your opponent more cards to answer the creatures you're trying to win with, especially now that we have access to Extinguish All Hope, is a no go.

Polymorphous Rush. Now this could be a huge bomb in Mono Blue, especially if you have access to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. After you stick a Master of Waves for 4+ tokens, the next turn they all become Desecration Demons, Nightveil Specters, Archangel of Thunes, etc. That could be pretty rough to deal with. Again, you'd probably need Nykthos to get enough mana to make it worth it, and then it'd probably be a 1 or 2-of.

Nothing else looks playable for the Mono Blue archetype so most likely it'll just keep plugging along unless something else comes along that just becomes the rock to their scissors.

Next, let's look at

Mono Black: Born of the Gods provided Bile Blight which has earned prestigious titles such as; "The Great Elspeth Killer", "Destructor of Mutavaults", and my favorite, "How many tokens did you get with Master of Waves?... oh right, NONE! Nice 2/1 for 4 dude". So what about JOU?

Brain Maggot. I personally am over Pack Rat and I'd rather strip their hand even more with Brain Maggot and Thoughtseize than strip my own hand hoping it gets there. I tend to lean on the more controlling side of the game so that's just my thoughts. I think this card is good in any deck with black.

Extinguish All Hope. Man I miss Mutilate... This is the next best thing. Ya, you don't really want to be blowing up your own creatures and you won't always hit all of theirs so this will probably only be a 1-of at most. Still, it's a wrath and is the only way to beat those deck that just flood out with creatures.

Silence the Believers. This is a good removal spell, can answer Gods, and can sometimes hit more than one creature. The mana cost is pretty high, so again at best, this will be a 1-of in any Mono Black decks.

That's about it and none of them are really upgrades, so Mono Black might just stick to what it's used to too.

U/W control. This archetype actually gets a few playable options to consider.

Nyx-Fleece Ram. It's not great, but it helps stop the early game aggro and picks up some precious life points. Unfortunately it dies to your Supreme Verdicts so it most likely won't be considered, however, it exists and it's an option.

Font of Fortunes. I actually feel that this card means you can cut Jace, Architect of Thought from the deck altogether. Playing this on turn two allows you to have counter magic up for turn 3 and later. Then if they don't do something worth countering, or they do something that you can answer in a different way, you can just pop this for two mana and pick up two cards. It's better than divination because the 2 mana to play and to activate is less of a burden than 3 at sorcery speed. If you think of it like Think Twice, it's one less mana for the same two cards, but you have to commit to it and wait a bit for it. This card is great and I hope it picks up in popularity.

Deicide. Revoke Existence just got wiped from existence. Artifacts have been non-existent already so the fact that Deicide can only hit enchantments is not even a downside. The upside however is that you get it at instant speed which control decks will value very highly. And of course, the additional upside of stripping their entire deck of the remaining Thassa's... scry me a river... oh wait! you can't! trolololol

Some great additions here, I would definitely expect to see some of these floating around in U/W/x lists from now on.

Finally, lets take a look at what R/G/x monsters gains from Journey into Nyx.

Setessen Tactics. Probably the only playable card that this archetype will use. This allows them to fight off other mid-range decks but the downside to this is that in order to use it, you have to skip your combat to do so. Also, the +1/+1 effect is only temporary. Either way, it's not too expensive to target 3-4 of your creatures and destroy their side of the board.

Tormented Thoughts. Not sure if they'll use this if they're in black, but they do have big creatures that are aggressively costed so Tormented Thoughts acts like a Rakdos's Return where you get the damage in with the creature itself, then sack it to pitch their hand. Probably better sideboard against control decks, but if you have black you have access to Slaughter Games and Rakdos's Return anyway, so who knows?

So that's what we'll most likely be looking at for the existing archetypes. What about new archetypes that could show up?

Like I said before, I've been brewing a bit with Journey into Nyx and have come up with a few ideas. Some I'm pretty sure won't be competitive at all, and others might have a chance if I can tweak the deck just right. Here are some ideas I've thought of in the last couple weeks.

Not posting entire deck lists here, just some fun syngergies I've found.

Boros Reckoner/Dictate of the Twin Gods

Any damage dealt to the Reckoner is doubled and he in turn doubles it again at your opponent's face! Kind of cutesy, dangerous against aggressive decks to have their creatures deal double too, and not sure how to build around it exactly yet, but I definitely want to see if it can work.

Dictate of Kruphix/Notion Thief

You draw two cards on your turn, one on their turn and they draw the one they normally get anyway. Again, I'm not sure how else to structure the deck to make sure you can keep their board clear and win with the thief attacking in every turn, but the synergy is hilarious. Master of Feasts is pretty funny here too.

Eidolon of Blossoms/Mana Bloom(or any enchantment you can keep casting for triggers)

The constellation mechanic is interesting and my last article discussed a deck that could use it well, but not really abuse it. The only way I can think to abuse it would be to bring your entire graveyard into play after milling 20+ enchantments off your library to get a crap ton of Constellation triggers. The only way I've thought of doing that in standard would be to flood the board with enchantment creatures and pop a Legion's Initiative. Even then, the effects we have access to for that mechanic are 'meh' at best. Losing life off of Grim Guardian is probably the best one for mana cost, size of creature and power level of effect with Forgeborn of Oreads being a close second. Eidolon of Blossoms just draws you cards, it doesn't win the game, though it helps you get there.

Lotleth Troll/Strength from the Fallen

Again, Constellation isn't amazing, but the synergy here is hard to miss. The only problem is casting enchantments to keep getting the effect every turn. Strength from the Fallen(and every other card with constellation) triggers when itself enters the battlefield, so at least there's that. Nighthowler works well with this setup for triggering the constellation and essentially doubling the effect. Since Lotleth Troll has trample and can regenerate easily, he will be tough to deal with and this could turn out to be one of the better strategies I've thought of so far.

Skybind/Crystalline Nautilus

So you bestow the Nautilus on one of your opponents creatures, trigger Skybind targeting the creature you just bestowed. They have to sacrifice it from the bestow and you get your 4/4 back. If you were building a control-y shell around Skybind, Crystalline Nautilus is not the best card, but pretty good at making them sacrifice the creature you want and getting a decent body afterwards.  Not really something you want to build a deck around, but good synergy.

So of all of these ideas I've had, the Lotleth Troll one is probably the most consistent and the most powerful so I might sleeve something up with that tonight and see where it takes me. Well, I hope I've been able to get some gears turning for your brewing needs. Journey into Nyx has turned out to be a very exciting set and I look forward to seeing some new and fun archetypes.

See you all at FNM!

DannyO
WizardDen.com