Magic Origins!

Magic Origins has arrived at Wizardden.com! We have a big weekend ahead of us with a total of six prerelease events. This week's FNM will have side by side events of Modern and Standard. Something for everyone as we all wait impatiently for the big midnight release.

Starting tomorrow you may come in preregister for whatever event you choose. This will not only guarantee you a slot in the event, but also the color of your choice. If you don't make it to the event you preregistered for, and do not contact us asking to move to a later event, your box will be made available to other players. You will get $21 credit or after the set comes out, six Origins booster packs. Our full July schedule can be found here in last week's article. If you're just interested in the sealed events this weekend here you go.

Friday, July 10th - 11:59pm Sealed            

Saturday, July 11th - Noon Sealed                     

Saturday, July 11th - 7pm Sealed                       

Saturday, July 11th - 11:59pm Sealed                

            Sunday, July 12th - Noon Two-Headed Giant Sealed    

Sunday, July 12th - 5pm Sealed                     

As with all our Pre-Release events we will be raffling off lots awesome stuff. This time around our notable prizes include a Vendilion Clique playmat, From the Vaults Annihilation, and a baby Groot Pop! figure. Oh, and those Dragons packs are all Japanese.

Intro packs are also available, each with two booster packs. This is your only way to buy booster packs prior to the set release next week Thursday at midnight. We will be hosting a midnight draft that week so come pick up your preorders, draft, and trade with others so you are all set to go for Origins' first FNM.

We look forward to packing this place to the brim with new and experienced magic players alike. Come on down to Wizardden.com and get your fix.

Riddle Me This and other true stories I didn't make up...

Hey guys and gals, Christian with Team Rogue T3ch and www.roguedeckbuilder.com here with a super sweet standard brew. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Standard? Who cares?” and that’s a fair argument, but, we have some standard left to be played before Origins and I just found my new favorite standard deck to play, it would be criminal not to share it with you!

Riddle Burn
Spells
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
3 Anticipate
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Dissipate
2 Dissolve
4 Riddle of Lightning
1 Aetherspouts
4 Dig Through time
4 Mindswipe
2 Temporal Trespass

Creatures
1 Pearl Lake Ancient

Land
4 Temple of Epiphany
4 Flooded strand
4 Evolving wilds
2 Radiant Fountain
2 Shivan Reef
6 Island
4 Mountain

Sideboard
2 Wild Slash
2 Nullify
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Roast
3 Seismic Rupture
1 Aetherspouts

How it works

The basic idea is that you are a hard control deck that wins the game using large mindswipe or riddle of lightning to finish them off. You want to set up your draws with magma jet and anticipate in the early turns of the game and from then on it’s pretty simple, you counter everything. You need to remain in control of the board until you get enough mana to start mindswiping for 3-5 damage. Those smalls points of burn start to add up and will make a riddle of lightning lethal more often than not. Now, Riddle of Lightning is a high variance card by nature. I’m aware of that, but, with the abundance of high CMC (Converted Mana Cost) delve spells in the deck you very high reward for little risk. In testing I have only missed on a riddle once. The rest of the times I cast it, the game ended almost immediately. Flipping a dig through time or temporal trespass is backbreaking, dealing eight to eleven points of burn and showing your opponent that you’re refilling your hand or taking an extra turn afterwards is almost cruel in nature and unbelievably fun. Because we are relying heavily on counter spells it’s easy to get behind on board in the early stages of the game. You will take damage. So don’t be afraid of that. Magma Jet and lightning strike are great at keeping the board clear in the early game and the one of aetherspouts is good in a pinch if you need to clear out the riff-raff that made it past your counter magic.

Key Components

As you can imagine, delve is very important for the deck as all of your payoff high CMC cards use delve. It’s what makes this deck even remotely function. The card you flip off of Riddle of lightning is also the next card you are drawing, so, unless that damage ends the game, you need that card to be functional in the deck. Dig through time is obvious. Most times you want to draw that anyway to refuel your hand to keep you in the game. Temporal Trespass is also useful as it can replace itself and allow you to tap out on your turn if need be as you will be taking an extra one. Sounds great right? Well, what if you cast riddle of lightning on turn five? You don’t have the mana to cast these cards straight up. That’s where delve comes in. You have cheap spells for the early game, Jet, Strikes, anticipate, etc, but, with the amount of delve cards in your deck, that’s not quite enough most of the time. To off set this, you run several fetch lands. Due to the lack of access to Scalding Tarn we are using a playset of Flooded Strand and a set of Evolving Wilds. Strand is replaceable with Polluted Delta and evolving wilds looks bad at first, but, you have no turn one plays, so, in the early game it functions as a scalding tarn. Grabbing either of your two colors depending on how you draw has panned out. I tested with red fetches and additional blue ones as well but the damage adds up. You will end the game under ten life most often so any way to conserve your life is a plus in this deck. Since we are a two color deck, our easy mana allows us to slip a few radiant fountains in the list for the aggro decks and the synergy with pearl lake ancient is nothing to ignore and we’re more than happy to take advantage of it. Another key card is Mindswipe. Most decks in the format aim to curve out, so using it as a “force spike” in the early turns is usually good enough and once you’re in the late game they become some of your best draws. I’ve found myself taking two copies off of a dig through time more often than not. “Mindswipe you for lethal” is something you will say… quite often.

Sideboard

So, this is an updated sideboard from when I originally played the deck. First thing, Yes, seismic rupture could and, more than likely, should be Anger of the Gods. The reason I don’t have angers in the list because the matchup you want anger for is den protector/deathmist raptor decks but those same decks run siege rhino and anger is terrible against rhino. To be honest I found nullify to be a better card in the match than anger, so without the exile being entirely relevant, Seismic rupture does the same job and can save you a few bucks over angers. If you already have them, then by all means make the switch as anger is just rupture with upside and the additional red in the mana cost was never a problem in my experience. Okay. Now with that out of the way, I feel the rest of the sideboard is pretty self explanatory. Really just changing your removal/counter package to be more optimal based on your match. Nothing too spicy there.

So, this begs the question; Whats in the top three cards of my deck and will it kill you?

So, if you are looking for something fun and relatively cheap to build for your FNM before Origins comes out, I can’t recommend this deck enough. I think I’ll be playing it until casting riddle gets old or Battle for Zendikar comes out. Which ever comes first.

Until next time
-Christian

Preorders, FNM, Promos and More!

Ariel with Wizardden.com back again. Judge's Den is on hiatus while we prep for Magic Origins and will return on the 23rd. So what exactly am I bringing you this week? Origins events and other big announcements. This month we are doing things a little different and changing up our side event each week. You may have already seen our Facebook post about our side events, but just in case I have added our complete July schedule at the bottom of this article.

We have all our preorders up and a great deal for anyone who preorders today or tomorrow. If you get your box of Origins preordered today your entry to tonight's standard event is free. We are also extending this offer to tomorrow's Tiny Leaders and Standard FNM events. That's right, pay for your preorder which is already marked down to $94.99 and get your entry for free. Here is the full break down on our preorder prices.

Fat Pack $34.99

Booster Box $94.99 ($99.99 as of July 17th)

Booster Case $560.99

Friday 7/3
7pm Standard $5 (free entry with preorder of a box) 5 FNM promos handed out
7:15pm Tiny Leader $5 (free entry with preorder of a box) 8 FNM promos handed out
Midnight Draft $12, 2 FNM promos per pod

Monday 7/6
7pm Modern $10

Tuesday 7/7
7:30pm Chaos Draft $5 ($3 if you buy your packs here)

Wednesday 7/8
7pm Dragons/ Fate Draft $12

Thursday 7/9
7pm Competitive Standard $5 we are trying out the new mulligan/scry rule at this event. Random promos for everyone.

Friday 7/10
7pm Standard $5, 5 FNM promos handed out
7:15pm Modern $5, 5 FNM promos handed out
Midnight Origins Prerelease $21, capped at four rounds

Saturday 7/11
Noon Origins Prerelease $21 Sealed
7pm Origins Prerelease $21 Sealed
Midnight Origins Prerelease $21 Sealed

Sunday 7/12
Noon Two-Headed Giant Prerelease $21 per player (I will be here and play if we have an odd number)
5pm Prerelease $21 Sealed

Monday 7/13
7pm Modern $10

Tuesday 7/14
7pm Casual standard testing, come practice with proxies and decide what you want from Origins

Wednesday 7/15
7pm Dragons/ Fate Draft $12

Thursday 7/16
7pm Competitive Standard $5, Top cut after swiss, top heavy prizes, random promos to all
Midnight Origins release draft $12, Preorders may be picked up

Friday 7/17
7pm Standard $5, 5 FNM promos handed out
7:15pm Draft $12, 2 FNM promos per pod
Midnight Draft $12, 2 FNM promos per pod

Monday 7/20
7pm Modern $10

Tuesday 7/21
7pm Casual standard/ modern testing

Wednesday 7/22
7pm Origins Draft $12

Thursday 7/23
7pm Competitive Standard $5, Top cut after swiss, top heavy prizes, random promos to all

Friday 7/24
7pm Standard $5, 5 FNM promos handed out
7:15pm Commander $5, 2 rounds, 1 FNM promo to each pod winner of round one
Midnight Draft $12, 2 FNM promos per pod

Saturday 7/25
Smash Bros. Monthly (Melee at 1pm, PM at 2pm, Smash 4 at 3pm) $5 venue fee, then $5 per event entered

Monday 7/27
7pm Modern $10

Tuesday 7/28
7pm Casual standard/ modern testing

Wednesday 7/29
7pm Origins Draft $12

Thursday 7/30
7pm Competitive Standard $5, Top cut after swiss, top heavy prizes, random promos to all

Friday 7/31
7pm Standard $5, 5 FNM promos handed out
7:15pm TBD $?, We have a survey up on the Boise Magic Players group page on what you would like this to be.
Midnight Draft $12, 2 FNM promos per pod

We need to talk about Kevin and other true stories I didn't make up...

Hey guys and gals, Christian with www.wizardden.com and Team Rogue T3ch here to with some exciting news. Some of you may be familiar with www.roguedeckbuilder.com and the youtuber Kevin Crimin. For those of you who are not, Kevin is the proclaimed "Rogue Deckbuilder". He has a youtube channel dedicated to showcasing innovative and fun Rogue brews. I have personally been a fan of his content for a few years now and with the recent revamping of his website have been offered an opportunity to write articles and post videos for it. I recently accepted the offer and am super stoked for the opportunity! Just to clarify, I'll still be posting content here as well. I'll just have a second outlet to post Rogue T3ch and Wizard Den content and share our awesomeness with even more awesome people such as yourselves. That being said, We need to talk about Kevin...

Kevin is well known for piloting the modern deck 'Soul Sisters' to great success and was featured on www.gatheringmagic.com sharing his experiences at pro-tour Dragons Maze after piloting that archetype to victory at his local modern PTQ and earning him an invite to the event. Now that's old news, but, the archetype is anything but that. Having been used by him in a recent video series to finish 4-1 in a preliminary pro-tour qualifier on magic online followed by a respectable finish in the pro-tour qualifier itself. As well as his recent qualification to the Online Modern Festival finishing 4-1 once again has inspired me to give the deck a try for myself. Here is the 75 I have sleeved up and in my deck box right now!

Soul Sisters

Creatures: 27
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Soul Warden
4 Serra Ascendant
3 Martyr of Sands
4 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Ranger of Eos

Spells: 12
4 Path to Exile
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Spectral Procession

Land: 21
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Ghost Quarter
12 Plains

Sideboard: 15
4 Celestial Flare
3 Sundering Growth
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Return to the Ranks
2 Stony Silence
1 Wrath of God

That's the deck. My Version is a bit out dated. It should have 3-4 Auriok Champion in the 75 somewhere, but, they are sold out locally and are quite expensive sitting at $25 a piece!
So, none for me as of right now.
I ran This version through a Modern Monday event here at the wizard den. Let's see how it did.

Results!

Round 1: 
New players esper-exalted home brew.
I lose the die roll but get the nut draw. Turn one Serra ascendant, turn two Martyr, Activate to 35 life, swing 6/6 flying lifelink. Game was over.
No Sideboard.
On the Draw. Lead with Soul Warden, turn two, 2x Soul's Attendant, turn 3 spectral procession into turn four ranger for two ascendants. Opponent conceded.

Round 2
Merfolk
Lose the die roll but am rewarded for being on the draw as my opponent mulligans to five. Misses land drops until playing his first island on turn three. Game was over before it started.

Sideboard:
Out: 4 Squadron Hawk
In: 3 Sundering Growth (For vial/Spreading sea's) and 1 Wrath of god as they tend to flood the board.

On the draw again. He leads on Vial. No turn one play for me. No turn two play for him. I Sundering Growth the vial. Turn three Honor of the Pure into turn four spectral and he can't race. I take the match 2-0

Round 3
G/W Hatebears
I lose the die roll but have the nut draw. Turn one serra ascendant into turn two martyr, active to 35. Turn three I play a second serra ascendant. He scoops.
No Sideboard.
On the draw,  Mulligan to six. Opponent mulligans to five. Turn one serra ascendant, turn two martyr, active for 9 life gain, attack for lifelink up to 30 life and turn on ascendant. Draws were dead but I served damage with the ascendant until he conceded.

Round 4
G/R Tron
I win the die roll (Yay!). Unfortunately, this is a bad match up and my results her show that. My opponent (Ariel Adamson) has natural turn three tron. He filtered through a cromatic star to cast pyroclasm on turn two. Karn on turn three and a second pyroclasm on turn four. I scoop.

Sideboard:
Out: 1 Honor of the Pure, 1 Serra ascendant, 2 soul warden, 1 ranger of eos.
In: 2 stony Silence, 2 Sundering growth, 1 return to the ranks

On the play I mulligan to six. Lead on Serra Ascendant, turn two squadron hawk (Grab all 3 copies). Turn 3 Martyr+Activate. Attack twice and opponent scoops.
No Sideboard
Game three I'm on the draw. Mulligan to six. Turn two stony Silence. He has natural tron. Turn three karn, Turn four wurmcoil. I flooded out and had no action. Was a bad keep and I got punished. lost 1-2.

Round 5
Grixis Control
I win the die roll. Turn two honor, turn three spectral, turn four ranger. He had no action and scoops.
Sideboard:
Out: 1 spectral 1 honor the pure
In: 2 return to the ranks
On the draw. He plays anger the gods on turn three, turn five and snapcaster+anger on turn seven. Shut down my board advancement and beat me to death with a tasigur.
Game three I'm on the play. Lead on Ascendant, turn two pridemate. He angers me on turn three, turn four, turn six and snapcaster angers me on turn eight. I couldn't recover from four anger the gods and he beat me out with a gurmag angler. Tough beats.

Finished 3-2.

Changes:
I intend to cut all copies of kor firewalker from the sideboard. It's overkill against burn when you have Martyr of Sands in your deck. I want to go up to 3 copies of Return to the ranks and Stony silence and up to 1 Archangel of Thune in the sideboard. No changes to the main as of now, but, I would like to switch 3-4 auriok champions over squadron hawk and secure the wastes over martyr of sands and run a version closer to Kevin's 75 from his recent videos that can be found here.

The Future
I'll be doing an article and possibly a Video series on the upcoming Modern Festival where I'll either be; Piloting a friends Restore Balance deck in the tournament itself or Breaking down fellow Rogue T3ch Member Josh Kreiter's games and his overall finish in the event. Either way, look out for that in the coming weeks on here, as well as that and other video's and content on www.Roguedeckbuilder.com!

"Gone Rogue"

Until next time.
-Christian

Judge's Den: the Fifth Layer

Welcome back to Wizardden.com's Judge's Den. Continuing our series on layers, today is the fifth layer, otherwise known as the color changing layer. In general this is one of the easier layers to explain and work with. Lets take a look at what we can do on the fifth layer.

There are seven layers in total, each with it's own article link here:

Copy Layer

Control Layer

Text Layer

Type Layer

Color Layer

Ability Layer

Power/ Toughness Layer

The first thing we need to understand is the three parts of a card that determine a card's color. First the mana symbols indicated the cost of the spell. In the absence of a mana cost, a colored card will have a color indicator, a small circle located to the left of the card type. This last one has been replaced by the color indicator. Previously cards that had a different color than their mana cost suggested had a line of rules text that would state so at the top of their text box. The most notable example of this is Pact of Negation. These will no longer change color if the text is changed, thanks to the color indicator in the oracle printing.

Now that we understand what determines color, we can begin to change those colors. There are many color changing effects in magic, I have added a list of them at the bottom of this article. When you apply one of these effects, we must understand that the only characteristic that will change is the color. Take devotion for example. If you control a Nylea God of the Hunt and a Khalni Hydra, and use Moonlace on the hydra your Nylea will still be a creature. Even though the Hydra is currently colorless, allowing it to damage a Mirran Crusader for example, the Hydra still has eight green mana symbols on it. Changing the mana symbols can only be done with text changing effects.

Color changing is really as simple as that. Once you understand what exactly is changing all the layers get fairly simple. The last major point to add is watch for whether the change effect is a set or in addition to. If it says "becomes" without adding "in addition too" then it will cease being any other colors. Thank you once again for reading Judge's Den here at Wizardden.com.

Change to White
Creature:
Aurora Griffin
Cloudchaser Kestrel
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails

Enchantment:
Celestial Dawn

Instant:
Niveous Wisps
Purelace
Heaven's Gate

Change to Blue
Creature:
Disciple of Kangee
Fylamarid
Grand Architect
Indigo Faerie
Metathran Transport
Neurok Transmuter

Instant:
Cerulean Wisps
Sea Kings' Blessing
Thoughtlace

Change to Black
Enchantment:
Darkest Hour
Grave Servitude
Sinister Strength

Instant:
Aphotic Wisps
Deathlace
Defiling Tears
Nightcreep
Singe
Traitor's Clutch
Touch of Darkness

Change to Red
Instant:
Chaoslace
Crimson Wisps
Dwarven Song
Incite

Change to Green
Creature:
Aisling Leprechaun

Instant:
Lifelace
Viridescent Wisps
Sylvan Paradise

Change to Colorless
Artifact:
Mycosynth Lattice
Thran Lens

Creature:
Ersatz Gnomes
Ghostflame Sliver

Instant:
Moonlace

Artifact:
Alchor's Tomb
Distorting Lens

Creature:
Blind Seer
Govern the Guildless
Painter's Servant
Prismwake Merrow
Scuttlemutt
Swirling Spriggan
Tidal Visionary
Vodalian Mystic

Enchantment:
Dream Coat
Sisay's Ingenuity

Instant:
Illusion/Reality
Prismatic Lace
Quickchange
Sway of Illusion

Grand Prix Vegas and Other True Stories I didn't make up.

Last weekend Magic History was made. As you know Channel Fireball hosted a Modern Masters sealed Grand Prix in Sunny Las Vegas. Like many of you, Wizard Den was there and Rogue T3ch was registered for the main event!

The format was new and honestly, we didn’t have much time to prepare. I personally had only done one practiced sealed at the Wizard Den and I feel like my sealed deck in the main event showed that and I’m almost certain I miss built. I was passed a pool that had Ant Queen and Wolfbriar Elemental that was supported by a Noble Hierarch. I also had 6 Ravnica Bounce lands and 2 Evolving Wilds. 3 or 4 or the bounce lands were on color but I was going to play them all and lower my land count to 15. With the card advantage gained from the bounce lands, it made sense to cut from my overall land count. I Also had a few domain creatures in red I wanted to take advantage of and ended with a 5-color ‘good stuff’ deck. The archetype is common and with my mana base it was supported. I was base green to take advantage of my bombs. I was 3-2 when I dropped from the event. I was technically still live for day two but that required I go 4-0 the rest of the day and I was not feeling it as I started with a first round bye and then back to back wins to 3-0(Even recovering from a mull to 4 to win game 3 in the 3rd round!). I then lost back to back to back matches against a really solid R/G beat down deck and then the best U/W Affinity deck I’ve even seen in sealed. He opened with Court Homunculus into Everflowing chalice for 1 followed by rusted relic and a turn 4 Indomitable Archangel to give his board shroud and I’m pretty sure I scooped to that and dropped from the event.

Will Pickett getting deck advice from his round 3 opponent Josh Utter-Leyton

None of us made day two or had an “Insane Pool” or pulled “Crazy Value” A few of us were better tested than others but we did our best and all in all the trip was great! I heard some complaints about the events running poorly or taking to long but with upwards of 9,000 people trying to play in drafts/constructed/etc all at once I have to say I was impressed with the judge staff’s performance as a whole and with the exception of one incident in a Modern grinder I was participating in, I was fortunate to experience no such issues.

Picture I took from the Roof of the parking garage of the El Cortez on Fremont ST

Now, anyone that knows me will tell you I don't like sealed. The value gained from playing in the main event was too high for me to skip it and grind constructed side events for prize tickets(That was my original plan). I do have to say though, even with my dislike of sealed, Modern Masters 2015 sealed is fun format with numerous available archetypes and deck choices. If you haven't had a chance to do a sealed event, I highly recommend drafting the set while you still can. Only one rival for "Best draft format" in my eyes and that was vintage masters draft online (You got to draft Blue/Black storm in that format. What more do I have to say?).

As none of us found fame, glory or riches in the Nevada desert, There's not much more for me to say about the GP. Modern Master 2015 on the other hand? I have a few things to say about the set itself. Modern is my "on-again, off-again" favorite format. My feelings for the format Wax and Wane with the meta game and whether I'm enjoying the deck I'm playing and Winning with it (I guess I'm a spike). The decks I'm playing is seriously hindered by my access to the cards in the format. I, like many of you, Have had to make my deck choices based on whether the deck plays Tarmogoyf/Noble Hierarch/etc. I can't say the set is perfect but since it's release I have built two decks I have wanted to build for a while but simply couldn't afford to. First being Abzan. I'm gonna save the second for another article as it's a bit of a brew and still needs testing. Back to Abzan, I don't have Goyf, but I do have Noble Hierarch and that opened the door to the version I really wanted to play.

Wilted Abzan

Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Voice of Resurgence
2x Qasali Pridemate
3x Loxodon Smiter
3x Kitchen Finks
3x Wilt-Leaf Liege
4x Siege Rhino

Spells:
2x Thoughtseize
4x Path to Exile
4x Lingering Souls

Lands:
4x Windswept Heath
3x Marsh Flats
2x Verdant Catacombs
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Temple Garden
1x Godless Shrine
2x Razorverge Thicket
1x Wooded Bastion
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp

Sideboard:
2x Thoughtseize
2x Stony Silence
2x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Back to Nature
2x Zealous Persecution
2x Spellskite
1x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Fracturing Gust

Now, i'm not gonna say the deck is perfect. The fetch lands could be better and the sideboard could be more streamlined against our meta, but, I did get a lot of testing in Vegas and this the 75 I piloted at our Modern tournament last Monday to an Undefeated finish.

Round One
Paired against Blue/Green Tron. For those of you unfamiliar with the Modern Format; "Tron" or "Urza Tron" is a deck that takes advantage of the Cycle of Urza Lands that Wizards of the costs printed in numerous sets through out the years. Urza's Tower, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Mine.

The deck runs cards like Expedition map and Ancient stirrings to tutor the lands as fast as possible and play cards like Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon as early as turns 3 or 4. The Blue version backs that up with counter spells and early tempo plays. You can imagine this is a rough match-up. I was locked out of the game, game one. Mulligans from my Opponent and early thoughtseizes + timely path to exile on his wurmcoil engine ended game two in my favor. I don;t recall the details of game three but I know I took  the match. 

Whew.

Dodged a bullet.
Round Two
Paired against Red/Blue Splinter Twin combo.
The deck is a R/U tempo/control deck that has the ability to instantly kill you with the combo of Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite + Splinter Twin to make infinite copies of the chosen creature and swing for lethal.

This is actually considered a favorable match-up for me. The mainboard Qasali Pridemage and Path to exile gives me main-board ways to disrupt the combo and early threats, some of which are uncounterable(Love you loxodon smiter), allows me apply threats to the board early and hold up(or fake) an answer for the combo. This plan worked perfectly game one as a turn two loxodon smiter off of a Noble Hierarch attacked with exalted trigger until his life total was 0. Sideboard yielded the additional thoughtseizes and a pair of spellskite. Some players tend to sideboard the combo out entirely. I don't know what my opponent did as I went Hierarch into Smiter into "Attack until one of us dies". SPOILER: I went undefeated, so, he died. Not me.

Round Three

The match my deck was designed for. My opponent was running traditional Abzan Midrange with Liliana of the Veil, Tarmogoyf, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc. 

Well, this opponent doesn't have Liliana. I learned this after the match. He did run 1-2 Dark Confidant in his 75, Either way, I was happy with the pairing. He stumbled game one and I curved out quickly to take the game. Postboard I take out my Thoughtseizes and board in Zealous persecution to win the Lingering Souls war. This game was a slug-fest and ended in a top-deck war that he ultimately won. I didn't sideboard for game 3. He opened on a pre-game Leyline of Sanctity. I found this odd as it seemed likely I would board out my hand disruption but you never know I guess. With him on the draw but down a card as the leyline did literal nothing against me I just followed my curve. Traded removal early and ended in another top-deck war. I had spirit tokens and a gavony township that I drove to the finish line. 

Yay! Victory was mine! It was awesome, I did a lot of trading to finish this deck in Vegas and winning with it right of the gate was awesome and solidified the time and effort that it took to get it together. 

I don't think this is the "Best deck" or anything. I mean, this was just a Modern 8man tournament. I do however think the deck is sweet and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to cast Siege Rhino in modern but can't afford 'Goyf and Lilly for the Traditional Midrange version as I consider this version to be on-par in power-level. 

A different Animal, but, still the same Beast

(Thanks Kobe!)

Thanks again,

Until next time.

-Christian

Judge's Den: The Fourth Layer

 

It's back! Judge's Den has returned after a week off for Grand Prix Vegas and an unfortunate day spent sick. Picking up where we left off on our layers discussion, today we are covering the Type Changing layer. This layer is the one players get confused by most often. Cards like Blood Moon, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and Dryad Arbor come up a lot in modern. Links to the previous articles can be found here at Wizardden.com. With that, lets break down how these cards interact.

There are seven layers in total, each with it's own article link here:

Copy Layer

Control Layer

Text Layer

Type Layer

Color Layer

Ability Layer

Power/ Toughness Layer

The first thing to understand about the type layer is what exactly can be affected. The type line has three parts that can be present. Type which can include; artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, phenomenon, plane, planeswalker, scheme, sorcery, tribal, and vanguard. Super Type which can include; basic, legendary, ongoing, snow, and world. Lastly Subtype includes any other text printed on the type line of a card. Subtypes are tied to their types, for example, if an elf stops being a creature then it also is no longer an elf.

Type changing effects will apply in one of two ways, setting or adding. Blood Moon for example sets nonbasic lands to be mountains overriding any preexisting subtypes. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth however only adds an additional type of Swamp. Unlike other subtypes basic land subtypes have an added effect giving the permanent a mana ability corresponding to that subtype. This mana ability will override any other abilities if the type change effect is a setting effect.

Where things often get most confusing is when types are changing on something with multiple types. Lets take Dryad Arbor for example. Dryad Arbor has both a land type and a creature type, each with a corresponding subtype of forest and dryad respectively. If Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth enters the equation then the Dryad Arbor is now a Creature Land - Forest Swamp Dryad. This means that it taps for either a green or black mana. Now if we add a Blood Moon a few things happen. First Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth loses its swamp making ability when it becomes a Legendary Land - Mountain. Dryad Arbor becomes a Creature Land - Mountain Dryad. Notice that it is still a creature. Blood Moon's effect only applies to land subtypes though it will remove any other abilities the lands may have, it will not remove it's other attributes such as power and toughness.

I hope this clears up a lot of the confusion surrounding type change effects. To keep it simple, ask yourself what exactly it is changing and realize it is not changing anything other than that. Spreading Seas does not change names, types, or supertypes, it only changes land subtypes. Next week we will talk about color change effects. Thank you for reading here at Wizardden.com.