Friday, November 21, 2014

Black-Friday Dealios (in store purchase only)




With Christmas right around the corner Wizardden.com decided to spread some holiday cheer and extend some Black Friday dealios to everyone. These deals will begin 11am on Friday November 28th and end at 11:59. They are only for in-store purchases. (sorry our all loyal internet followers).


Some of the sweet deals?

15% off all Accessories (Dice, Playmats, deck boxes ect)

$4.99 From the Vault Annihilation (With purchase of $150 or more)

$.0.99 Khans Holiday Gift Box (With purchase of $150 or more)

FREE Khans of Tarkir Booster (With any purchase over $30)


Hopefully we see you all here! Happy Holidays and Merry Spell Slinging




Thursday, November 20, 2014

Remember, remember, the Ashen Rider.


Aside from small upsets here and there standard seems to be stabilizing quite well. Now that everyone is going to there local FNMs with some idea of what they will be playing against it is the perfect time for the brewers to shine. There are many cards that not in the spotlight that could easily hold their own in today's meta. I'll leave the deck building to you, but here are some forgotten cards and synergies that at least deserve a look. I'll certainly continue my trend here at Wizardden.com of bring something new to the table just when everyone thinks they know what to expect.

Starting off lets remember the big baddy Ashen Rider. Don't let the eight mana scare you away, it is the largest thing in the air we have access to other than Stormbreath Dragon post monstrous and a forgotten angel that we will get to later. We do have access to quite a bit of mana acceleration these days, but I would probably stick to reanimating this devastating creature. Whip of Erebos and Rescue from the Underworld are still hanging around for the better part of a year. If you're feeling extra ambitious capitalize on the fact that it is not legendary and clone it for days. The main thing to remember about this card though is just how valuable catchall answers are these days with the wide variety of threats we face each week.
Speaking of threats, who remembers Colossus of Akros? Take a moment and think about your deck, if one of these dropped down across from you turn five and swung for 20 points trample the following turn would you have an answer? Turn five isn't really asking that much, that's only three to four extra mana. We have Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Karametra's Acolyte, and a plethora of smaller mana dorks that can get you there.
For those who don't know there was a small addition made to Magic 2015 in the from of promotional practice decks. These included cards that could only be obtained in these small packs. Fortunately though these cards are all reprints from fairly recent sets. There are two of these cards I am going to draw attention to; Aegis Angel and Terra Stomper. The angel is quite large by today's standards and the added indestructibility it offers can make cards like Hero's Downfall and Hornet Queen seem far less threatening.

The only Khans card I will talk about today is Sagu Mauler. This creature is a real threat to any deck relying on small creatures to get the job done. Once it is in play there is little that can remove it without some good old fashioned combat. I have personally been on the wrong side of a post blocks Temur Charm messing up my block on the Mauler.
Scuttling Doom Engine another bomb that is criminally underplayed. If Hero's Downfall has been a problem for you or you just like playing hyper aggressive large creatures then you should take a serious look at this monstrosity. While your at it maybe dust off those Chief Engineers?

All of the Souls from 2015 are worth thinking about except the blue one of course. Specifically though I am going to bring up Soul of Shandalar. It's activated ability is very powerful, bested only by the one on Soul of Theros in my opinion. However the reason I put the spotlight on Shandalar is it's keyword ability. First Strike puts it far ahead of most any creature it will meet in combat these days. If you can feed mana into this powerhouse he will make short work of your opponent for sure.
I am not sure if this one belongs on this list as I have been seeing it grow in popularity but even so it could stand to be used more. Arbor Colossus is a house and is super well positioned against the meta as a whole. Reach is surprisingly relevant and six power and toughness is just monstrous next the most commonly played creatures.
Today you probably noticed I focused on the more mana intensive cards we have access to, next time I will shine light on the cards with lower mana costs that we should be keeping in mind as we continue to adapt to this interesting rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock meta we have. This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com, thank you again for reading.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Doing 2x PPTQs in Style December 6th and 7th in Boise, Idaho!







The new Preliminary Pro-Tour Qualifier structure has its negatives and positives. Personally I think it will make for a better over-all structure to qualifying for the Pro-Tour. With that in mind, there are now going to be more Premium Level events across the world and its important to give players an opportunity to get maximum value out of their events.

Soooo...

Here in Boise, Wizardden.com has teamed up with Phoenix Fire Games to bring a weekend of PPTQs to everyone in the region.

$40 weekend pass! Which gets an entry into both stores PPTQs. (Or $25 individually). You can pay for both events at either store! First place at either event will receive a $200 travel stipend! Other prizes based on participation.

First Event: Standard
Saturday December 6th 
Registration 10am, Players meeting 11am.

Wizard Den
2139 Broadway Ave
#102
Boise, ID 83706
(877)-294-9273


Second Event: Standard
Sunday December 7th
Registration 10am, Players meeting 11am

Phoenix Fire - Meridian
44 E Fairview Ave
Meridian, ID 83642
208-629-4686

Good luck!



Khaned into Control




Hey everyone Josh here with WizardDen.com to talk about a new deck I've picked up; it's ups and downs a long with my ups and downs that have come a long with it. I hope this helps out in deciding if it is right for you to be Khaned into control as well.

This season I have decided to throw everything I know about Magic away and made the decision that  I wanted to learn to play control. Anyone who has played with or against me for the last few years knows this is a far cry from the midrangey decks I generally play but a change that was needed to shake things up and to keep my drive of progress satisfied.

I've tinkered with many ideas after having seen the UB Control list in action at the Pro Tour. One iteration I want to be good simply to have access to good mana is Jeskai control. Cards like End Hostilities and Elspeth look really good in a control shell and both blue and red aren't lacking in cards that could fit the bill either. After beating my head against a wall for several weeks I'm not convinced the card quality to build an efficient control deck is there and have consequently  jumped ship on my: "'Murica, controller of the free world" deck.


There is a deck I have put faith in. After playing an FNM with the deck I realized the lands are in fact scary when you dip in to a shard, but the rewards can be HUGE. There's no Pack Rat's but I suppose this will do for now:

3x Hero's Downfall
2x Anger of the Gods
3x Magma Jet
2x Murderous Cut
1x Silence the Believers
3x Perilous Vault
2x Dissolve
3x Disdainful Stroke
3x Mindswipe
3x Steam Augury
3x Dig Through Time
1x Jace's Ingenuity
2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1x Keranos, God of Storms
1x Mogis, God of Slaughter

3x Temple of Epiphany
2x Temple of Deceit
2x Temple of Malice
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Polluted Delta
1x Evolving Wilds
3x Dismal Backwater
3x Swiftwater Cliffs
1x Bloodfell Caves
2x Shivan Reef
2x Island
2x Mountain
1x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

The Sideboard I have built I must be honest is a little thrown together and hence I will not post with the rest of the list a few cards that have performed fairly well are: Negate, Jiroubai Murk Lurker, Despise and Crater's Claws. All of these cards interact positively with the bigger decks of the format, Abzan and Jeskai with Murk Lurker and Negate preventing burn and shifting your opponents burn spells elsewhere. Despise can take the threats out of your Abzan opponent's hand and Crater's Claws serves double duty in the match-up, filling the role of a removal spell to a threat that sneaks on to the board and can also kill off your opponent if you can play into it late. I generally don't recommend boarding into more than one Crater's Claws but it is a great card that gives some excellent depth to this deck.

Now for the main board and the reasons I feel I've been "Khaned".

Grixis is an insanely sweet color combination with the addition of Khans of Tarkir. The color combination is very powerful as is and that is without the additional gold cards a majority of the other decks in the format are playing. I can hardly imagine what this deck would be like with the addition of something like a Grixis Charm, Countersquall, Terminate, or even Recoil at this point. I have noticed while playing with this deck I get this overwhelming feeling of: "Wow this card is super strong, too bad I don't have a Tri-Land to match my opponent curving out." It's amazing how important the Tri-Lands are and I must say you can definitely notice the lack of it in this deck.

The deck isn't all bad though, like I said before: Grixis is an INSANELY sweet color combination.  Dig Through Time is an amazing card and in my opinion the most important part of this deck. Playing three colors is the reason there are only three in the deck and rarely do you need the fourth. Another reason you can get away with only playing three copies of Dig Through Time is the three copies of Steam Augury. Steam Augury is an excellent source of early card draw that can also in the late game put your opponent in a position to make some less than optimal decisions. Do they give you the Dig Through Time and removal spell or the counter spell, land, removal spell? These are the kinds of questions your opponent doesn't want to answer, making Steam Augury a great reason to look in to Grixis. Another great part of playing Grixis or any three color control deck is that you gain access to a great deal of scry lands and gain life lands. Being able to smooth out your draws often in the game as well as gaining life here and there is a great recipe to making sure you hit the late game, when you are at your best. This really is just scratching the surface on all of the benefits that come with this deck.

In playing the UB control deck for a week on paper and for a few months on Magic Online I would always feel like the games I lost were really close, one more counter or a better removal or wrath and I would have had the game locked down. Grixis helps avoid this as you gain access to a counter spell that not only helps smooth out your colors, but also helps give you the extra edge you need to win the game. Mindswipe. This is a card that looked exciting then was really un-exciting now is REALLY exciting in my book. After receiving a beating due to what was initially a poorly built mana base and some more than questionable card choices a good friend of mine was screaming to me how good Mindswipe is. I originally only had two in the deck but after looking at the deck's current composition and the card a little more I finally came to my senses and moved up to three. In the early game where your opponent is still tapping out for their threats, this serves as a great counter spell that can add a little to the pain a lot of decks are already taking from their lands. It does it in style too, making your colors a little less intensive, which is very important without a tri-land. Once the late game hits this card gets very dangerous in that you have now probably dealt some damage in the form of a Sarkhan, Keranos, or even Mogis and now all of the sudden your opponent has to beat any combination of the three cards mentioned with what they have on the board as any spell your opponent plays gives you the ability to Blaze your opponent at instant speed. Playing Mindswipe also lets you go down on the number of Dissolve in the main deck which improves your mana requirements as well. Disdainful Stroke is also in the main deck as a way to counter big threats, Planeswalkers, and Hornet Queen but is one I have thought about shaving to go back up to three Dissolve. Disdainful Stroke is a narrow counter and is really good when it is good but is also very bad when it is bad.

As for the removal and win conditions of the deck. There are a few pretty nifty things happening that UB just can't quite compete with. Sure, we lose Bile Blight, a very important removal spell in the current format but is it really that bad when you get access to Anger of the Gods? The format isn't so fast you're dead if you kill everything turn three instead of one creature on turn two. Hero's Downfall is still in as the premier kill everything spell with support from the downed hero's little brother - Murderous Cut. The two copies of Murderous Cut may seem crazy to most, especially in a deck with Dig Through Time, it is fueled entirely by Steam Augury and an excellent addition to the deck. You feed quite a few cards in to the graveyard and rarely do I cast Dig Through Time for UU making Murderous Cut a great way to get some value out of your opponent giving you a two card Steam Augury pile by exiling the other three cards sent to the graveyard to kill their big nasty creature on board. Perilous Vault still makes the cut but I think it will only bee until January when Crux of Fate becomes legal. Perilous Vault serves as a necessary evil in this deck in the sense that it kills your win conditions too. This adds a whole different realm of complexity of play in this deck and makes certain lines a lot more narrow giving less wiggle room on when you can pull the trigger to win the game. The win conditions all do the trick particularly well and all serve a dual purpose, other than just winning the game. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker kills your opponent with force as a 4/4 in the air every turn brings the smell of death unless your opponent has a quick way to react to it. While it isn't serving up the smackdown in the air, he is making your opponents life miserable by killing most of the creatures that could pose a threat to him. Keranos is kind of not fair in the deck and I thing the single copy of Mogis will become a second Keranos because of this. Imagine this: you play your one copy of Jace's Ingenuity at the end of your opponents turn, reveal a land on your draw and get a fifth card due to Keranos' trigger. Now imagine that land you showed is a Temple of  Epiphany and you now can dig even deeper if the card doesn't interact in a positive way with Keranos next turn. This is a great way to solidify your control of the game and kill your opponent along the way. Mogis currently serves as a way to consistently drain your opponent or force them to lose a creature but the loss of only two life makes me a little less happy to play him. Rarely does your opponent sacrifice a creature unless they are hip to your Mindswipe's and the two damage puts them in range of burn or unless they have a huge swarm of creatures or tokens. He is still versatile and a way to get an additional edge off of one card, the same can be done with Keranos, God of Storms which has me believe either choice of card to play is probably fine.

This deck is a lot of fun to play and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to play something new in this format that is still in the air. I would love to hear if anyone does decide to pick up the deck or if you are already playing something similar. Big thanks to Christian Rasmussen for subconsciously motivating me to build and play this deck!!!

Monday, November 17, 2014

Delver, Treasure Cruise and You!





Christian with www.wizardden.com and Team Rogue T3ch here to talk to you about our second favorite format; Modern! I myself am pretty new to the format but can honestly say I am a huge fan. I will start by saying I will not talk about Jeskai Ascendancy as it is already banned in my head so better to not waste any time. On the other hand, Treasure cruise is not! So with that being so you can expect to see a lot of delvers on the other side of the table. 

Treasure cruise has caused a strange phenomenon in modern causing cards that were considered to be "Insane" now "Unplayable". Format staples such as Dark Confidant have been removed entirely in favor of splashing blue and adding X number of cruise as it simply does his job better than he does. Also from what I have observed Snapcaster mage is falling out of favor as, again, drawing three cards seems to be "Strictly better" than flashing back a bolt more often than not. I personally am not on the archtype but lets look at the deck so you can get an Idea of what cards you either need to build this deck or what you need to be able to beat.

Creatures
Delver of Secrets
Monastery Swiftspear
Snapcaster Mage
Young Pyromancer

Instants
Electrolyze
1 Gut Shot
Lightning Bolt
Mana Leak
Remand
Spell Snare
Vapor Snag

Sorceries
Forked Bolt
Gitaxian Probe
Serum Visions
Treasure Cruise

Basic Lands
Island
Mountain

Lands
Arid Mesa
Misty Rainforest
Scalding Tarn
Steam Vents
Sulfur Falls

Sideboard:
Dragon's Claw
Blood Moon
Dispel
Electrickery
Magma Spray
Negate
Spell Pierce
Shattering Spree

The deck has one game plan. Play the cheapest/most effective spells in it's colors and gain infinite value from young pyromancer. If that doesn't do the trick it can just burn you out/beat you to death with delver of secrets while keeping a full grip thanks to good 'ole treasure cruise.

Looking at the deck you may have noticed, a good portion (if not the majority of the deck) cantrips. Everything replaces itself so you always have answers,burn, or fodder to fuel pyromancer/monastery swiftspear. I have played against this deck. I play boros burn, which is usually very quick and aggressive but delver is just as aggressive but has the added benefit of always keeping its hand full with cantrips that eventually become bolts and remands... Needless to say it can be a tough matchup.

In short, the deck is very effective at getting the most value at the cheapest mana cost. Also, besides the mana-base. The deck is relatively easy on the wallet and that has only helped it grow in popularity so be prepared to play against a similar list at your local tournament or multiple variation at a larger event.

This is the part where I would give you some tips to beat the deck...
I don't really have any, it's certainly beatable, I just have yet to find a big weakness to exploit. Piloting burn I have found it to be a race. If I use resources to stop it's creatures I don't have enough to kill them before they play more threats. So I just go to the face until I'm hellbent or one of us is dead. That strategy seems to work 50% of the time but it's all I got.

Until next time...
Christian

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Planning Ahead


This years first snow is now falling on Wizardden.com's roof. It's time to be thinking about the next couple months. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that next weekend is the shopping nightmare known as Black Friday. This is the time when those who plan well ahead make their decisions on what to get their friends and family for the holidays and pick up cheap trinkets for anyone else. Sure we will have our own sales here but I am actually going to talk about something that doesn't cost a dime. This year, give the gift of Magic.

Pull out that drawer, go to the back of the closet, or slide out that box you hid away some time ago and reacquaint yourself with just how many magic cards you have. Times have changed since you started playing, where every card was once an adventure of it's own you now amass commons and uncommons like a squirrel packing away nuts for the winter. Perhaps it is time to share that adventure with others. Take all those old silly cards and make decks out of them. Give them to your friends, family, and their kids. Teach a new generation of to enjoy what you have come value so.
 I bring this up for a few reasons. Like I said times have changed some of those old cards are now pretty valuable. Who knows how many Sensei's Divining Top, Remand, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Gitaxian Probe you have hiding in there. It's also worth noting that with a little quality time and some patience you can save a great deal of money this season without avoiding all contact with people till the snow blows over. Most of all though, this could be the start of long lasting friendships forged on our favorite spell slinging past time.
When building these, do be careful how you build them. Remember that every first time player is going to enjoy the big simple things the most. The rush of casting a 7/7 trampler with no worry of a counter spell is paramount in making it both memorable and enjoyable. Avoid tricky interactions that muddle up the stack. As a general rule steer clear of instants till they grasp the basic rules. It also helps if you try to limit the number of unique keywords each deck has.

Try your best to match players to the best colors for them. Your micromanaging busy friends will likely enjoy white weenies, remember to give them some good answers like Oblivion Ring so their smaller creatures don't feel outclassed. Those thinkers and manipulators in your life will of course find some joy in blue with bouncing, tapping, and controlling creatures while attacking with evasive creatures and blocking with things like Wall of Frost. Know someone drawn to the darker things in life? Toss them some demons and Sign in Blood and watch their darker side come out as their tear off their own arm and beat you with it. Hotheaded, impulsive friend with a twitchy trigger finger? Give them the reins to a hasty dragon and a Lava Axe to Fling and watch them revel in a fast paced game. Lastly for those who enjoy the biggest plays, the story tellers, braggers. Give them some Rampant Growths and the largest green beats you can find. These are of course just suggestions to keep it simple but fun.

Regardless of what you chose to build or give away just remember the most important part, keep it fun. Magic is a game of ever growing depth and complexity, keep it fun every step of the way or it becomes to difficult to continue on and enjoy the best it has to offer. This has been Ariel once again with Wizardden.com bringing you an early gift idea before you spend far too much on one time gifts valued more by the tag than the time spent receiving them.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock. Standard Meta game breakdown.


Christian with www.wizardden.com and Team Rogue T3ch here to talk to you about our favorite format; Standard. Like after every rotation, this format is significantly different that the one before and seems to have alot of room for brewing and deck idea's. Over the past couple months we have seen a lot of awesome archtypes make top 8 finishes. The format is very diverse as there is no defined "Best deck". Abzan and Jeskai have been battling for that title since the first standard tournament after rotation but neither has cemented itself with that title.



As I said, the format is very diverse but still seems to be very Rock/Paper/Scissors(Lizard,spock). Abzan being rock, Jeskai Scissors and the other archtypes falling under Paper. From my deck building and playing I can say Abzan and Jeskai are the most popular taking up 50-60% of the field more often than not. The other archtypes being: G/x Devotion, G/B/x constellation, Mardu midrange/walkers,Temur Monsters/aggro U/B Control, U/W or Esper control, and Boss Sligh/aggro. The "Paper" decks are all very good and as I said have had some impressive finishes as of late but when playing and building these decks I have seen one common issue. It either beats Abzan and loses to Jeskai or beats Jeskai but loses to Abzan. It either goes bigger than the midrange decks and out aggroed by the tempo decks or Vise Versa. It's proving hard to find the middle ground to be favored against both.

The Mardu Midrange:

deck I talked about a few weeks back has been found to have a good game against both but is never favored. It always came down to the draws and it's games were very grindy and always came to a very close finish for either player. It is a very viable deck and just having a 50/50 shot against all decks goes to show its versatility but the deck has yet to show consistent results due to how swingy the matches are.

Blue/Black control.

 I have been piloting the deck since I wrote about it a few weeks ago. I can say it is very good. Not quite as dominating as control has been in the past but has given me X/1 or better results since playing it. That being said, the deck is very good against Abzan and other midrange. It even has a favorable match against boss sligh/aggro decks. It's issue is it folds to Jeskai. They back so much burn that you can't counter it all. You get stuck in a spot where you can either cast a draw spell and risk dying with it on the stack or do nothing and risk letting them build up more burn in their hand. I'm pretty sure the matchup was 80/20 in jeskai's favor. With the amount of people on the archtype at any given event, it may not be a wise choice to sleeve up this deck. I personally have gotten off the archtype and don't see myself going back.

G/B/X Constellation. 

The last article I wrote was about this deck so I don't want to go too deep into it. This is a deck with a solid game against both Jeskai and Abzan due to it's synergies and card advantage. Neither Abzan or Jeskai pack mass removal to disrupt the constellation engine ones the pieces are assembled and it gets going. Because of this, it has a positive match against both. It's issue is the enchantment hate the almost every deck has access to. If the archtype becomes more popular,  the hate may outweigh the value of playing the deck. Just something to keep in mind.

G/X Devotion.

 Very linear strategy. Play a lot of mana producers and ramp into big threats.I have to say that this is the deck I always fear being paired against just because of how scary the top of their deck can be if it comes down to it. With all the mana producers, it can leave with some pretty bad draws if you get all mana dorks and no threats which is probably why it has not seen any big finishes as of late. The addition of red and black has given it a lot of resilience and is a very solid deck choice. Not much else to say about it.

Boss Sligh/Aggro.

Aggro has fallen out of favor in this standard. The guards were down for a few tournaments allowing some great finishes for red mages but from what I've seen, enough decks have a good game plan against aggro that it has not been able to get a solid foothold in the meta. Although I hope that changes, as for now, I don't think it is viable.

Well, I can't say what the best deck it. Doesn't look like anyone can. Abzan and Jeskai are both very good. Which is better? The world may never know...



Thanks for reading,
Until next time.
Christian

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Commander 2014


Commander 2014 hits shelves tomorrow, Friday 11/7/14. Here at Wizardden.com you can pick yours up at $34.99 a piece or if you want to get all five of them at once it'll run you $154.99. With that in mind lets take a look into the decks.


Before we take a look at the decks as a whole lets get the value out of the way. As it stands today there are no True-Name Nemesis or Scavenging Ooze type gems, but there are some that are drawing some attention. Containment Priest, Daretti, Scrap Savant, and Dualcaster Mage are all holding a $15 price tag prior to release. The priest and mage in particular we will likely see some of in legacy builds, though where the priest already has a solid home in Death and Taxes the mage may struggle to find a good home. The rest of the walkers are finding a home with the much needed reprinting of Wurmcoil Engine at the $8 mark. I have my eye on Masterwork of Ingenuity, Hallowed Spiritkeeper, Scrap Mastery, as well as the new lands, Arcane Lighthouse and Myriad Landscape. All of these cards are unique and powerful granting them homes in more and more EDH decks as time goes on. Inversely as more decks want to play these cards they will likely be much harder to find.


 Now for what really matters, how much fun are the decks?


Going in WUBRG order lets start it off with Nahiri, the Lithomancer and Jazal Goldmane leading the white deck. This token equipment deck is reminds me of the best Kemba, Kha Regent decks I have seen in the past. It has many of the lesser know yet super relevant cards for this type of build. It looks like a lot of fun to play and other than adding in some more powerful equipment and the Puresteel Paladin, Leonin Shikari, Lightning Greaves set the deck is really good right out of the box.


 Teferi, Temporal Archmage and Stitcher Geralf bring us a blue deck of drawing cards, confusing your opponent with morphs and instants, and big blue creatures. It is hard to judge how this plays just seeing the decklist. I can tell however some refinement and direction toward a stronger control, leviathan beat down, or twiddling milling zombie nonsense makes for a formidable deck.


Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath and Ghoulcaller Gisa bring us black deck in the deepest sense of the phrase. Lose life and sacrifice creatures, in exchange for drawing cards, killing creatures, and bringing back the dead. If you enjoy playing black than this deck will be a blast. Flavor wise this is my favorite of all five of the decks as it nails everything that is black magic. Get yourself some tutors, the rest of the mana doublers, and even more over powered black bombs and the deck is a true force to be reckoned with.

Bringing the chaos and forge is Daretti, Scrap Savant and Feldon of the Third Path. This particular red deck takes an approach that seems to be growing in popularity lately, artifact red. Out of the box this one seems the most formidable but is obviously susceptible to some well placed hate. Fun cards like Wurmcoil Engine with the artifact reanimation make for a very durable board state with continuous pressure. First additions should probably mana increasing artifacts and some good old Mycosynth Lattice shenanigans.


Bringing all the might and regrowth of green is Titania, Protector of Argoth and Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury. This one looks like everyone's first mono green commander deck. Personally I did start with Omnath, Locus of Mana and over the last four years it has grown in power and depth. This seems like a great deck for newer edh players as it provides a simple base to work with and you dont feel outclassed since you can put down some serious pressure.

Once they start getting opened up we'll see just how good they are, come down to Wizardden.com and pick yours up before they're gone. This has once again been Ariel, and thank you for reading.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Looking at G/B Constellation in standard.


Christian with www.wizardden.com and Team Rogue T3ch back to talk to you about some more standard awesomeness! As you likely know, this past weekend was another StarCityGames.com standard open and with it came some awesome new decks, better versions of old decks and everything between. Which really means, competitors showed up with new takes on an unreasonable amount of Abzan and Jeskai. With that being said, as you may have noticed from the image above, I'm not talking about the winning deck list from the SCG event today (Although the winning list did look pretty sweet, and definitively spicy enough to burn a tongue or two). Instead, we'll look at G/B Constellation piloted by Brendon Freeman to a very respectable #3 finish.

Personally, I found constellation to be the most interesting mechanic out of Theros to make constructed play. It sadly only got to see tournament play with Ravnica block/M14 for a few months before it lost a lot of key cards to rotation (Primeval Bounty, Mana Blume and Underworld Connections are good examples here). Even with those losses, the first deck I tested in khans standard was a constellation deck and saw positive success with that build. Mostly coming from rotation presenting a slew of mediocre decks. The constellation cards had already gone through a slew of testing and proved to work well, with a field of people playing new and unknown cards, good 'ole constellation got me some sweet wins. As the meta continued to adjust and, after the Pro-Tour Khans, it seemed decks using the constellation build were getting out-classed. So its exciting to see one of these builds making it into a top-8.

Without further adieu....


Maindeck:

Creatures
Elvish Mystic
Hornet Queen
Satyr Wayfinder
Sylvan Caryatid

Enchantment Creatures
Courser of Kruphix
Doomwake Giant
Eidolon of Blossoms

Instants
Murderous Cut

Legendary Enchantment Artifacts
3 Whip of Erebos

Legendary Enchantment Creatures
Pharika, God of Affliction

Sorceries
Commune with the Gods

Basic Lands
Forest
Swamp

Lands
Llanowar Wastes
Temple of Malady
Windswept Heath

Legendary Lands
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard:
Arbor Colossus
Doomwake Giant
Bile Blight
Pharika, God of Affliction
Nissa, Worldwaker
Thoughtseize


Now looking at the list it's almost a mix between the B/G Dredge, B/G Constellation and Mono-Green Devotion decks from last standard. You have your mono-green staples with Mystic, Sylvan Caryatid, Courser and Hornet queen. Sure, that all makes sense. Then you see four Satyr Wayfinder, four commune with the gods, Pharika and a whopping three maindeck Whip of Erebos straight out of dredge and then you toss in the constellation wonder twins Eidolon of Blossoms and Doomwake Giant which goes really well with courser, whip, commune and Pharika. Now with all this "dredging" or self-mill going on. Murderous Cut is an obvious auto-include here (seeing as you're not in blue and trying to support a dig through time/treasure cruise). Very efficient removal that kills any creature and with no Nighthowlers in the 75 to worry about, you are free to delve away your graveyard at the drop of a hat without messing with your game plan too much, if at all. 

Just looking at the list on paper there is obvious synergy here. Commune grabbing enchantments or threats and the usual green ramp strategy which has proven to stand on it's own in this format. You gain the awesome card advantage and board control of constellation while recycling threats from the graveyard with whip activations and refilling via self mill. Nothing quite compares to whipping back a hornet queen but if that's not available at the time there's more than likely a Doomwake or Eidolon waiting in the bin to draw you some cards, wrath your opponents board or at the very least gain you some life! That leads me into my next point. Whip of Erebos is very good card in the current Khans of Tarkir standard. With the midrange decks stalling out or forced into racing damage and the tempo/aggro decks trying to burn you out of the game. Having maindeck access to a renewable resource such as your graveyard is too good to pass up. Add that to the card advantage engine of constellation,oh yeah and the lifelink! I learned the hard way that racing is not what you want to be doing if your opponent has a whip and you don't... 



That's enough about the maindeck. The sideboard looks pretty standard for this color combination. Full set of Arbor Colossus for the Jeskai tempo/aggro or even  Mardu midrange matchups. You do have to be able to stop those fliers from time to time.Then Doomwake Giant number four if you find three not being enough blights for cheap removal and extra value. Nissa, I have to imagine is for some of the grindy midrange games and of course is very good against decks like Blue/Black control.Then rounding out the board with a playset of everybody's favorite black card; Thoughtseize. The card is just good. You know what it does. You don't need me to explain it.  



Anyway, if you like drawing cards, killing creatures, and manipulating your resources to take control of a game and bury your opponents in card advantage, then G/B Constellation might be the deck for you. Of course I do have to admit that with a strategy like this there is some serious enchantment hate available in the current format. The big one is, of course, Back to Nature. Yes, it is a card that kills all your enchantments(at instant speed even) but to be fair when was the last time you saw someone make room in their sideboard for it? It's been while.

Final thought? Any deck I actually WANT to see a Pharika in my opening hand is a deck that is probably alot of fun to play. I mean, seriously, look at that artwork man. Timmy player thought aside, this deck looks like alot of fun and pretty competitive against the meta.



Thanks again for your time.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
 -Christian.