Land Friday

And now it's working again. You'd think somebody going into computer science would understand this sort of thing better. Really, though, it's not lack of skill that's holding me back, just lack of effort.

Besides, it's working. Isn't that proof?

Original Art

Land Friday Postponed

Oh bugger. MSE ain't workin' properly. See, all those cards I just put up were saved on this site already and now I can't get Magic Set Editor to open. I'll get today's land up as soon as I can to placate the desperate Land Friday fanatics (of which there are no doubt many). In the meantime, I'll introduce Al Capone, the newest Ancient Byzantine Engineer. You may already know him as Frank Sinatra. He's gonna be raving about his so-called amazing 3-0 draft deck and posting a card tomorrow while I'm in Utopia (again).

I went 3-0 in drafts before it was cool.

EDIT: Al has fallen victim to one of the many traps blogger likes to set up. See, posts show up on the time and date that you start writing them, not when you actually post them. To illustrate this, I'm going to start three now and post them whenever the whim strikes me (i.e. whenever I remember). All three will show up as if they've been posted today, be we know better, don't we?

Jund is so broken...

If you get passed the kind of nonsense I got passed during my last foray into Shards/Conflux/Reborn drafting. Howdy folks, new contributor Al Capone (formerly mentioned in posts as "Frank," which should have properly been "Frank Sinatra") here with a draft report for a very solid 3-0 Jund deck. Here's the list:

1 Rip-Clan Crasher
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Jund Hackblade
3 Terminate (!)
1 Macta Rioters
1 Jund Sojourners
1 Sprouting Thrinax
2 Branching Bolt (!)
1 Drag Down
1 Dark Temper
1 Wild Leoatu
1 Sewn-Eye Drake
1 Rhox Charger
1 Beacon Behemoth
1 Gorger Wurm
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Sylvan Bounty
1 Igneous Pouncer
1 Cavern Thoctar
1 Absorb Vis

17 basic land

Sideboard: 1 Magma Spray (I just didn't need more removal)

The deck has a couple shortcomings, namely its lack of borderposts for fixing and activating the hackblade and hushblade that I decided against maindecking (in favor of the easier-to-cast and quasi-fixing Elvish Visionary), its lack of tri or fetch lands (which is why I maindecked Absorb Vis, Sylvan Bounty and Igneous Pouncer) and its lack of a true late game "bomb" (it is worth noting that my 4 and 5 drops are all capable of finishing the game and that the jerk next to me who was in Naya/Jund-splash took a Predator Dragon, a Channelhord Wurm and a Lavalanche; I paid him back by wupping his ass in the finals). Other than those few issues, this is the best deck I've drafted in some time. The triple-terminates just make life easy. An example: the afore-mentioned jerk and I are stalemated in game 1 of the finals, with the exception of my Sewn-Eye Drake swinging overhead as a 5 turn clock. He drops Channelhord Wurm to try and break the stalemate, very evidently pleased with himself. I nod, ask if he's done and Terminate it at eot. No big deal. I'm holding another Terminate and a Drag Down. You see how this deck might be kinda good?

Round 1: Was never close. My opponent is a newb of some variety, good-natured but very much out of his league. He plays a janky Esper deck. I play early creatures and kill literally everything he plays for the first 6 turns of games 1 and 2 as his life total goes from 20 to 0 very, very quickly.

Round 2: The only other player (besides Jerk) whose deck scared me. This was, after all, an insane pool of cards we opened at this table. His Bant deck packing lots of Crystalizations, Celestial Purges and 2 Oblivion Rings seems a force to be reckoned with. I am wrong. My removal is slightly better and my creatures are better and more numerous. He does not have enough creatures for my removal and I take games 1 and 2 quickly. He asks for a 3rd game, which I win handily. He asks for a 4th, to see if his deck can possibly beat mine (it can't). It doesn't. Please note, though, that he had a deck fully capable of going 3-0 and he was capable of playing it there...in a different pod.

Round 3: Jerk to my right. Game 1 stalemates until my Sewn-Eye Drake starts beating overhead. I build a defensive, he hunts for answers until, as he sits at 2 life and I sit at 13 with a tapped 3 power flyer, he topdecks Predator Dragon, sacrifices all 6 of his creatures and swings at me for 16 in the air. I look at my tapped flyer, my Drag Down (-3/-3), his 16 power and my 13 life. Well, I had to lose a game some time...

Game 2: Turn 1 Mtn, Turn 2 Forest, Rip-Clan Crasher swing 2 (18), Turn 3 Jund Hackblade, swing 4 (14) Turn 4 Wild Leoatu swing 4 (10) Turn 5 Bituminous Blast his only blocker, cascade into Sewn-Eye Drake, swing 11, game 3?

Game 3: Basically the same start. T2 Crasher, T3 Hackblade, T4 Sewn-Eye, T5 Beacon Behemoth, then Terminate, Terminate, Terminate to win the draft. His deck was good. Mine was better. And he was to my right. Those Terminates (except the 1st, which I opened) and that Bit Blast came past him (he was busy taking Lavalanches and other bullshit). Such is life.

Anyways, that's the draft and the deck, hope it was educational. Moral of the story: Draft triple Terminate. Real moral: Jund is probably the strongest deck to draft in Shards block. Take removal, back it with big bodies, and (the deck's other shortcoming) take Putrid Leech. That guy is the best 2 drop in the set, draft or constructed.

I plan to be back in the future, with cards to show you. Until then,

--Al Capone

Card of the Day(s) - Guide of the Wasted Realms, Curse of Camon, Heiml's Hand, Mountain Lion

I am returned, albeit briefly. I've spent pretty much the whole week at UT orientation and when I got back my computer decided to die on me, so updates have been even less usual than usual. I tried putting the cards up in the edit posts section of this site and having Draco post them but for some reason it didn't work. Whatever that reason may be, here's what you missed from Tuesday:




Not a whole lot here. Black/Red does colorless. Not a whole lot of innovation, and not a great name.




Well, that's something. A couple of other lace concepts I thought about:

-Lace with indestructible (too powerful, and the easiest check on power level -high mana cost- doesn't matter on lace cards)
-Lace with unblockable (same deal as indestructible, and having unblockable enchantments doesn't make much sense)
-Lace with basic (no practical application as lace doesn't work on lands)
-Lace with snow (kinda nifty, and I probably should have done it instead of legendary)
-Lace with delicious (too powerful)

The Guide and the Curse share the same original artwork.

Now here's Wednesday's card:




Heiml's a forest spirit.

And now the card for today:




I don't think spirits talk like that. This was from back when Barlem was human.

Original Art - Guide of the Wasted Realms & Curse of Camon
Original Art - Heiml's Hand
Original Art - Mountain Lion

Card of the Day- Edicts

Hey, Sports fans...Wait, wait, wrong blog. Hey, loyal readers, it's Nameless One back once again, filling in for Grell. I heard that he was having computer problems, so here I am, desperately attempting to fill his space once again.

Today I bring you my cycle of mythic rare sorceries, based on the Ultimatums from Shards. I call them...Edicts. Sound cool huh? Well, let's start with the white edict.
The white edict is like Akroma's Vengence on awesome. All the edicts cost 5 and 3 (their color). I'm not sure if they're costed high enough for their effects, but I did my best.

The blue edict is a combination of Bribery and Blatant Thievery with some awesome thrown into the mix. It's probably broken, but meh. Costs eight.


The black edict. It's like Diabolic Edict, with a strong dose of steroids. It's what black's all about, rolled up into one card. It's the least synergetic edict, in my opinion, but the edicts are all about clearing the field. It's a theme.
The red edict. Of course, it blows things up and then deals damage to people. It's also the edict I'm somewhat uncomfortable with, since it's questionable whether its effect is in the correct color, since red is usually damage based board sweeping.

This is the odd ball edict. It's the only edict that doesn't benefit significantly from multiplayer and also the only edict that doesn't destroy large quantities of stuff. Or clear the board in some way, anyway. It's also another one that I'm questionable with the power to cost ratio.

So yeah. Buncha powerful sorceries that benefit from multiplayer and will (hopefully) win you the game. Let's hear those comments!

Original Art:
Justice
Cunning
Cruelty
Destruction
Birth

Systemic Anomaly: Please Contact Your Supervisor

Grell is currently having technical difficulties. Postings will resume normal schedule shortly.

--Draco, Al Capone (previously Frank)

Card of the Day - Ash Fiend, Numb with Regret, Smog Ruach

Congratulations to lace, the winner of the eighth keyword poll. We're all very proud.

Just so you know, you don't have to vote for the mechanic that's winning. There are other options. Speaking of options, there are two new keywords to choose from - Flourish (which I didn't include in any of the previous polls because I thought I'd already posted a card that had it) and Omit (one of Nameless One's keywords). Get voting.




Lace takes its name (and its function) from the cycle of laces in Alpha. I'm not quite sure what happens if you have two lace cards for different colors in your graveyard. Something exciting, no doubt.




I feel like lace would have been pretty good in Shadowmoor, with its color-matters ideas and its graveyard hate. Keep in mind that Numb with Regret doesn't go to your graveyard until after it resolves, and anyway its target has to be a white creature when you cast it.




Smog Ruach likes being around any cards that change his color, including lace cards. He and Ash Fiend are practically best buds.

Original Art - Ash Fiend
Original Art - Numb with Regret
Original Art - Smog Ruach