Quest for the Holy Relics #5: Power Player

I bet most of you are following Santa throughout the night on the news or on Google maps, so I won't keep you too long. Here is the finale' to Part 1 of the Quest for the Holy Relics. It's been a great journey and thank you to everyone who's followed the segment and I hope it helps out with your relic journeys.

A few common questions frequently come up in conversation about relics and older cards; why would anyone spend so much money on one card? Moreso on a card they can't use!

The Magic community is very different from other trading card games with a notoriety and history that spans almost two decades, a Pro Tour circuit, and dozens of different formats to enjoy. The community has huge Magic personalities including Evan Erwin of The Magic Show, Sheldon Menery in Embracing the Chaos, and Luis Scott-Vargas of Channelfireball; not to mention a plethora of podcasts and articles across the internet.

A simple player in the community is multi-faceted; having qualities that can span from a casual player dabbling in Planechase to a PTQ/GP grinder. Most players can't be exclusively categorized into just one dimension of a Magic player. Many players play the game as well as collect cards. Show of hands; how many of us have cards that we keep because they have special memories? A lot of us have cards we keep safe because we obtained them through an awesome trade, an epic pack, or even first cards we used to start learning the game. There's an inherent, emotional aspect tied to the game and the cards you collect because of the game's history and the stability of its fan base. This stability ensures that precious cards will remain coveted and, well, precious.

Collecting also has a huge financial incentive. Holding on to older cards has been a huge advantage to collectors over the past couple years, where eternal format staples have been steadily climbing in price as demand for these cards greatly exceeds availability. The recent EDH boom and the loss of Extended and heightened interest in Legacy, older cards are being sold at premium and it becomes increasingly more difficult for newer players to get their hands on them. Fortunately for new players, WotC continues to produce promotional product that has many reprints of very powerful cards; a good example being Entomb in the new Graveborn product. A card almost unobtainable a few months ago is now widely available (and in foil!) for players to put a copy in their EDH deck or to start picking up Legacy. The problem with reprinting cards are the loss of value of players who spent the $35+ on their copies of Entomb before the reprint or for those who were holding the card with the incentive that the card would increase in price. Unfortunately, playing the financial game in Magic is tricky and dangerous. Sometimes projecting the value of a card based off of play in a format can be completely undone by a promotional product reprint. It's the risk you take with collectible items. Fortunately with relics, you have the Official Reprint Policy by WotC that prohibits the reprinting of revised dual lands and the Power 9 (among other older cards). This policy ensures the value and financial security of investing into older relics and helps me keep a piece of mind as I start making difficult choices into the power hunt. For the revised dual lands, they're the best of the best of fixing mana and will always be the best lands every printed in the game. Since they sit nicely on the reserve list, they prove to be a fine collector's item that can only increase in value as long as the Magic community continues to thrive.

Now on to the relics. I started researching the cost and availability of Power 9 across many websites and local stores. As you can imagine, a lot of locations don't have them. Very few areas in my region have any in stock, so I had to branch out. Since you don't really know when or where a piece of power may show up at a good price, I started investing cards into Channelfireball.com, since they consistently have relics available and sometimes get played versions in stock.

4x Darkslick Shores
4x Mental Misstep
1x Foil Lashwrithe
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Jace, Memory Adept
1x Grave Titan
1x Chandra, the Firebrand
2x Liliana of the Veil
1x Kessig Wolf Run
1x Garruk Relentless
1x Surgical Extraction

I moved the following for a little over 180 in store credit to use at my liesure. The trick to getting so much credit for a small amount of cards is simply demand. I started hunting the buy prices about a week before Worlds when demand would be at its highest since rumors and speculations about certain decks would cause some cards prices to spike. Usually before the larger tournaments, cards don't decrease, so you're usually ok selling whatever card it is. Look at Olivia Voldaren, hitting an impressive average of $16 during Worlds and now settles around $11. Setting your buys after a major event is a huge waste of time, since the 'rumored' decks will either have disappointed or the people who played at worlds are saturating the market with the cards they don't need anymore.

Since then, I used some of the credit to fund an EDH deck I've been inspired to build featuring Sedris, the Traitor King. So much for saving it for a piece of power. I got anxious. Along with the construction of my deck, I also picked up this awesome land.

Savannah: valued at $65.82

I picked it up because there had been a spike in the price of Savannah recently since more decks featuring Noble Hierarch and Knight of the Reliquary had been showing up in Legacy. Especially since the Grove of the Burnwillows and Punishing Fire strategy was so potent in the format. I also splurged a bit on the Savannah considering it was their only copy that was Mint Condition. Since then, I've spend the credit on some Commander purchases that have been awesome in my decks so far. Not too shabby.

About a month later, I started consolidating most of my trade binder and looking at everything left. My trade binder which had been bountiful and stocked was now small and barren. I was very proud of myself for comign this far and there were only two standing in my way.

The last two were a bit of an oddity, with a bitter sweet ending. I was checking the Coolstuffinc.com website and I saw a beautiful Mox Ruby up for sale. I looked at my trade binder one last time and thought I could make it happen. Flipping over an entire binder for 8 lands and a Mox would be an absolutely awesome feat. I took a couple friends and my girlfriend with me to go check out the trade and for some moral support; after all, flipping over $350 worth of cards is going to be painful. After setting up the buy cart for about 2hrs, my friends were getting antsy and started to complain. In hindsight, I can't blame them, but at the time, I only had that Mox in mind. After setting and resetting the buy cart several times, I came to the unfortunate conclusion; I could not get the Mox. After being about 50 dollars short, I conceeded to the fact that this Mox would again be the fish that got away. After going through the buy cart and taking out the few cards I genuinely wanted to keep, I hit just enough to breach 100 bucks. I settled with picking up the last Scrubland and 1 played Plateau. Unfortunately, I again forgot to take a picture of the trade and was very disappointed that I couldn't get the transaction in a photo. In the end, most of the trade binder had been flipped with the exception of a few money cards. Hopefully, I'll get lucky at Grand Prix Orlando in 2012.

Plateau: valued at $43.12 and Scrubland: valued at $54.84

I was really excited to finally have finished the set of 10, but disappointed that most of my Power trades have fallen through. I feel very accomplished, but that there's still more growth to be done and I'm anxious and excited to start tackling Power trades. For the next trades, I'll have to do them more independently, so I don't have to factor in wasting others' time, which I do feel bad about (I almost feel like I'm hunting horcruxes). Thank you to everyone who supported me and look forward to Part 2 and the hunt for Power. I hope you all enjoy the holidays with friends and family and I hope Santa brings you guys relics under the Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas to all; and to all, a good night.

10 Revised Dual Lands: valued at $697.24

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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Pack to Power #1: Trades 2-6

This segment of the MTG Casual Net blog will be dedicated to a small portion of my Quest project I started back in September, 2011. The details of the Quest can be found Here. If you missed out on the introduction to my pack to power journey, check out Quest for the Holy Relics #4: Pack to Power, which has the pack opening and the first trade!

For my pack to power journey to succeed, I would need a couple of things; the first, having good friends who are willing to help me out on the journey and the second, card volume. The more cards you have, the higher probability of having a card someone wants or better yet, needs. Moving cards is the key to this project and I need to make as many transactions as possible to keep the selection of cards diverse and to build up a trading reputation. Keeping all this in mind, I went into the next few trades, shooting for volume to increase the amount of selection I have available.

Trade 2:

This one came up after my friend, Jav, and I were talking about my pack to power and how I was going to accomplish it. He mentioned that he needed a Blasphemous Act for his sideboard for Kessig Green, featuring the powerhouse of Dungrove Elder. Luckily, it's exactly what the doctor ordered. He was willing to help and I asked him to throw in every junky rare he didn't mind offering for the project. Appreciate the help, man!

-1 Blasphemous Act $0.99
+1 Moonmist FOIL $0.99
+1 Titanic Growth FOIL $0.49
+1 Tunnel Ignus $0.49
+1 Tower of Calamaties $0.49
+1 Thopter Assembly $0.49
+1 Dormant Gomazoa $0.49
+1 Djinn of Wishes $0.49
+1 Bludgeon Brawl $0.49
+1 Shape Anew $0.49
+1 Praetor's Grasp $0.75

Total: +$4.67

This trade is exactly what I needed to get started. I'm glad that I could help Jav out with his deck and he could throw me some fodder to hopefully move to people looking for random sideboard cards or casual decks. A lot of these rares were Standard legal, so I'm confident that a lot of them could move.

Trade 3-4:

This next pair of trades was with my friend, Gyula who's always really helpful when it comes to starting projects and is always a team player. He took a quick scan of my binder and took the foil Titanic Growth. Considering he doesn't really play green, I took this as a generous offer. He asked me to take a look at his binder, so when I opened it, a bunch of cards fell out. I decided to trade for them, since they 'jumped out at me' so to speak.

-1 FOIL Titanic Growth $0.49
+1 FOIL Galvanic Juggernaut $0.49
+1 Innistrad Forest $0.25
+2 Scourge of Geier Reach $0.20/each
+1 Distant Memories $0.49

Total: +1.09

The next trade was kind of an oops, since Gyula also wanted the Unburial Rites for his Dromar, the Banisher EDH deck. Since I knew he didn't really play red, I decided to go for a card that might be in demand in the right playgroup, considering a budget Kessig deck might turn up in a Top 8 somewhere.


-1 Unburial Rites $0.75
+1 Rootbound Crag $2.99

Total: +2.24

Trade 5:

The final 2 trades happened when I took my binder out to Gainesville, Fl to meet up with my friends, Sean and Jason. I had brought along my mentor, Roger who was in town for a couple games of EDH. After getting crushed by Sean's Bant token deck, we hit the trade binders. He pulled out a Thopter Assembly for his mono red EDH deck he's been concocting and asked me to put together a pile of cards for it. After putting a few cards in, I felt like I had taken too much, but he didn't mind.

-1 Thopter Assembly $0.49
+1 Wall of Omens $0.99
+1 Amulet of Vigor $0.99
+1 Temple Bell $0.75

Total: +$2.24

I'm really excited for this trade. Global draw effects like Temple Bell are really popular in the Orlando playgroup and I have high hopes for the Amulet and the Wall of Omens, both of which see lots of play in casual magic.

Trade 6:

This trade happened after Sean's roommate, Jason, took a look at the binder and saw the Praetor's Grasp that I think he could use. Jason is a heavy control player, so it's no surprise he chose the controlly black card. After looking in his binder for some small things, I saw a Greed and I knew that would move well in Orlando, since I have a few friends building black decks and card draw is always a premium. After a little hesitation, he let the Greed go. Of course the true win is that foil forest. I hope that Praetor's Grasp allows you to cast awesome spells, Jason (and hopefully I'm not on the receiving end of that spell!)

-1 Praetor's Grasp $0.75
+1 FOIL Innistrad Forest $0.99
+1 Greed $0.49
+1 Lifeforce $0.75
+1 Weakness $0.25

Total: +$1.73

I was really surprised by the price of Lifeforce. Strange counterspells out of blue sometimes get some love, so I'll take a small risk on it and see how it does.

End of the Day Total: +$11.97

Thanks for reading! If you'd like to make a trade, check out the Trade Document on the right hand side of the blog. I'll do my best to keep the list updated. Until the next trades, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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Standard Corner #6: Kessig Titans

After selling a lot of pieces of my U/B deck towards Commander/EDH cards to build new decks, I was a little sad that I'd be out of the Standard season for at least a year. But my obsession with Magic would not keep me away from watching coverage of Worlds 2011 in San Diego. I had the pleasure to watch the Channelfireball team take Tempered Steel to the top and securing 4 spots in the Top 8. However, the real champion in the room, was Jun'ya Iyanaga's Kessig Titan List running a whopping 4 copies of Primeval Titan and 4 copies of Inferno Titan. Unsurprisingly, the deck completely dominated the top 8 and crushed Conley Woods's undefeated Tempered Steel and Richard Bland's G/W Tokens in the Semifinals and Finals. After seeing the deck's amazing performance, I wanted nothing more than to sleeve this deck up and try it out myself.

The deck is extremely proactive and has a lot of versatility to compete against such a varied format. The ability to ramp into titans quickly is very strong and usually punishes the midrange decks that cannot interact with the early Rampant Growth, Sphere of the Suns or Birds of Paradise you'll be casting between turns 1-3. It also has the ability to survive well using an assortment of Slagstorm, Galvanic Blast, and Devil's Play to keep the board clear til a titan lands on the table. Fortunately, I already had most of the expensive cards and just needed to pick up a few things before I was able to sleeve it up and try it out myself.

Gyula, Evan, and myself headed over to Colisseum of Comics in Kissimmee, Fl to try out their FNM environment. I was very impressed with the players there and everyone was extremely friendly. You could tell that mostly everyone there knew each other and it was full of people who would work long hours and show up to relax and enjoy the end of their week. Here's the decklist I used this past Friday:

Spells: 34

4x Primeval Titan

4x Inferno Titan

4x Solemn Simulacrum

1x Birds of Paradise

3x Slagstorm

1x Beast Within
4x Rampant Growth
4x Galvanic Blast
4x Sphere of the Suns
2x Devil's Play
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Green Sun's Zenith

Lands: 26
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Inkmoth Nexus
3x Kessig Wolf Run
6x Mountain
5x Forest

Sideboard: 15
2x Beast Within
1x Bramblecrush
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Slagstorm
2x Acidic Slime
4x Autumn's Veil
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Viridian Corrupter
1x Asceticism

I admit, the sideboard was shoddily put together, but it had some strong answers against control, considering the playset of Inferno Titan and Slagstorm after boarding would be enough if I faced down an aggro opponent. Now, let's see how it went!

Round 1 was against a guy named Nick who brought U/W Blade to the table. In Game 1, my opponent played an aggressive turn 2 Invisible Stalker followed by a turn 3 Blade Splicer. With a Rampant Growth and a Solemn Simulacrum on my turn 3, I quickly cast Primeval Titan on turn 4. Unfortunately for my opponent, they could not reach their 4th land for the Angelic Destiny presumably in their hand or any piece of equipment to lay on the board, which quickly gave me the win. After sideboarding, I brought in the Slagstorm and Ancient Grudge. Unfortunately for Game 2, my opponent layed down a pair of Hero of Bladehold. After drawing no gas, we were both to Game 3. In Game 3, both my opponent and I took a mulligan to 5. After playing an Island, my opponent would have no lands for the rest of the game. I began top decking lands turn after turn until I had a turn 6 Inferno Titan that sealed the game. 1-0

In Round 2, I was paired up against a gentleman named Matt sporting what appeared to be mono White. In Game 1, I swept his early board with a pair of Galvanic Blast on his Mirran Crusader and Champion of the Parish. After playing a Primeval Titan that got Dispatched away from him having Metalcraft. Then an Inferno Titan that was promptly hit with Oblivion Ring, he eventually was swarmped to death by multiple Inkmoth Nexus. In Game 2, it all made sense with a turn 1 Flayer Husk. He was playing mono white Puresteel Paladin. After resolving a Paladin and dropping a second Flayer Husk and a Mortarpod on the battlefield I was in quite a bit of trouble. Soon after, a Kemba, Kha Regent would pose 7 toughnes and be difficult to kill. After I played an Inferno Titan, I was able to rid the board of the Puresteel Paladin, but was unable to stop the Kemba. After my opponent passed the turn with 3 Cat tokens on the board, a Mirran Crusader, and a Kemba holding 3 equipment, I looked for an amazing topdeck. Luckily, I had just enough mana. I first cast Slagstorm to wipe everything away but the Inferno Titan and Kemba, then declared attacks with Inferno Titan hitting the Kemba for 1 and my opponent for 2. After he declared no blocks and I went to my second mainphase, I played a second Inferno Titan that finished off the Kemba. After drawing his next card, he conceeded the match. 2-0

The next round was against a very friendly Irishman named Eoin. After sharing some laughs and making fun of Evan, we moved into Game 1. His turn 1 Champion of the Parish and turn 2 Hamlet Captain on the play did some serious damage. Unfortunately, I was famined with lands, but had a Birds of Paradise that helped me play a turn 3 Slagstorm that wiped his board away with me at 10 life. After the Slagstorm hit, my opponent had lost a serious amount of momentum and could not keep the beats up after a turn 6 Primeval Titan. In Game 2, my opponent hit a ton of lands and got swarmed by Inkmoth hits until he hit 10 poison. 3-0

After Round 3, there were only two people left that were undefeated, a girl named Carla using a very curious mono black Infect. We sat down and chatted for a few minutes and she was talking about how she had innovated the deck herself. The tournament organizer, Robby, told us that prize would be a split for the Top 4, so we decided to draw for our match so we'd both have a guaranteed spot in the Top 4. But, we did play for pride.

In Game 1, she played Inkmoth Nexus and used it to swing for 1 poison every turn for the next 4 turns. This was a clear signal that she didn't have anything worth casting, so I went to work, first playing a turn 4 Primeval Titan, followed by a turn 5 Inferno Titan. After beats, I used Devil's Play to hit her for 9 and we moved on to Game 2. My sideboarding for this match looked like this,

+2 Acidic Slime
+2 Ancient Grudge
+2 Beast Within
-3 Slagstorm
-1 Thrun
-1 Devil's Play
-1 Solemn Simulacrum

I dropped Slagstorm since I predicted she would have a full set of Phyrexian Crusader and they would be close to useless against them. I brought in the Ancient Grudge/Acidic Slime for Inkmoth Nexus and the Beast Within against.. well everything she plays, considering a 3/3 Beast Token is close to irrelevant in this matchup. In Game 2, she played a turn 2 Plague Stinger followed by a turn 3 Dark Favor, swinging in for 4 poison. Unfortunately, I did not have the removal spell I needed to stop the onslaught and conceeded after she cast a turn 4 Phyrexian Vatmother.

After seeing the Dark Favor strategy, I dropped one of the Ancient Grudge and put back in 1 Devil's Play. In Game 3, I saw an opening hand filled with 3 land, Rampant Growth, Inferno Titan, and a beautiful pair of Galvanic Blast. After she played another turn 3 Dark Favor, I used Galvanic Blast on the Plague Stinger followed by another Galvanic Blast on her activated Inkmoth Nexus. Keeping her off her 4th land drop would be crucial as I droped down an Inferno Titan. She stopped it with a Doom Blade, but did not have a second when I dropped down a Primeval Titan. The Titan along with Kessig Wolf Run would kill her on the next turn.  Final record, 4-0.

So in the end, I got a respectable first place, 5 packs of Innistrad and the cool December promo, Savage Lands. Cool!

If I had to change anything about the deck, I'd probably try to fix the sideboard up so it has a better match up against control decks. Although I didn't play against any control decks, I still felt slightly unprepared for facing down a Mana Leak and Dissipate heavy opponent. I don't know if a full playset of Autumn's Veil is the right call. Potentially adding in a 4th Beast Within, Garruk, Primal Hunter or Garruk Relentless in my 75 may make a difference. As I play the deck, I hope to figure out more of it's weaknesses and fine tune it for the metagame coming in a post Worlds season. 

A cool aside: when Gyula and I went to grab dinner, we walked into a bargain shop to look for cups to go along with our 2L beverages. We stumbled upon Coke' Cola glasses and stared in awe. For only $1. We jumped in on that deal and bought 2. Unfortunately Evan got stuck with the red plastic cups. Sorry dude =p The night, we had drinks like kings. Until next time, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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In the Deck Box #2: Build a Deck Challenge and Sedris, the Traitor King

So I posted this on the MTG Casual Net Facebook Group, but I'll make a more official post for anyone who may follow this blog but aren't connected to the network.

(Image courtesy of MTG Realm)

The Build a Deck Challenge is a friendly competition to find out who can design, create, and playtest a new EDH/Commander deck. I'm hoping this will facilitate entering the format for those intimidated by the daunting task of building one. You're welcome to any online guides to building one or asking for help on this network. I'm also hoping that this will help players who have been feeling the pressures of school and work get involved in Magic again and might be a fresh change of pace to the monotony of playing the same cards.

The only restriction on the deck itself is a $100 budget cap. The deck can also be as simple as a Commander preconstructed deck, but it'll have to have a really cool story behind it. I'm hoping that everyone participating chooses a really interesting general that doesn't see a ton of play, which will keep the challenge fresh. I'm asking everyone to record their playtesting by either video or field notes of some sort. You can submit the whole story on the Fb group or by sending me a personal message over Fb with your deck submission. It's free to participate and anyone on the Fb group is eligible! Tell your friends!

To send the decklist, field notes, and any footage you have, send me a Facebook message or send me an email at davidjetha@yahoo.com. You can use MTG Deck Builder or any other decklist saving site to store your list and send me the url.

The end of the challenge will be New Years Eve of 2011 and I'll announce the winner sometime the first week of 2012. The winner will get a full spread article here on the MTG Casual Net Blog, a Q&A session with me in person or over Skype, and finally a full 10 packs of Dark Ascension (that Debbie Barbour Freeland has generously offered to supply) come the February release. If you're not in the Orlando region, I will send these out to you by mail. I will be the judge who determines the winner and I'll post the criteria as we get closer to the deadline.

Luckily for me, I found the general I'm excited to work with for this challenge. Although I will be competing in the challenge, I will not be eligible to win. Let me introduce you all to Sedris, the Traitor King.

I was looking on forums for a sweet new general that would be interesting to build around and one that hasn't seen a lot of popularity on the internet or in our metagame. I was hooked when I glanced over at the flavor text: 'He bids his minions rise from their graves to their knees.' How sexy is that? (pun intended?) So there were a couple things that Sedris can do very well. He's a zombie, a warrior, and he grants Unearth to all of your creatures in your graveyard. Well, I'm quite fond of graveyard themed abilities, so let's proceed from there. I want really awesome creatures to bring back from the graveyard. Unfortunately, Sedris only brings them back for a turn so our dudes only get a brief combat phase before they're gone for good. This means the creatures I'll be using will need to have a big impact on the board when they enter the battlefield or when they attack. So, we can automatically count Rune-Scarred Demon, Sphinx of Uthuun, and our favorite on-color titans; Inferno Titan, Frost Titan, and Grave Titan in.

Another cool quality about Sedris is that he's a blue creature and he's a reanimating engine. Now, we can add those awesome blue card draw spells that dig through the library and pitch things we don't need at the moment. This awesome package of card draw include Careful Consideration, Forbidden Alchemy, Compulsive Research, Fact or Fiction, and Intuition. So far so good. With this array of card draw, we should be able to thin our deck and get the cards we need for the early and mid game and dump big fatty creatures in the graveyard so we can Unearth them later with Sedris.

An issue that Sedris runs into is the exile the creature at end of turn trigger. I generally dislike exiling any of my own creatures, so this one is a tough speed bump to overcome. The Unearth clause does hold some interesting tricks. If the creature would be exiled by some other ability than the Unearth trigger, then that creature is exiled through the 'some other ability' instead of the Unearth trigger. This interesting footnote has some potential. This will give cards like Faceless Butcher in our deck a lot of power and ability to retain creatures in play from the undead army we are Unearthing. Another interesting interaction is with Cold Storage, where we can exile our creatures away and 'freeze' them under the artifact until we're ready to unleash the army once again. Another card I've been very curious to try out is Sundial of the Infinite. When we Unearth a creature and we end the turn and the 'exile the creature at end of turn' clause goes on the stack, we can use the Sundial to end the turn, exiling those triggers from the stack. With those pesky triggers gone, we can keep our entire Unearthed army! Imagine the possibilities!

So what happens when people exile our graveyard and make us have a sad time? Cards like Tormod's Crypt and Relic of Progenitus are cards we really don't want to play against. We could simply add Witchbane Orb, but it won't solve all of our problems. I say, we need a plan B.

Say hello to Sneak Attack. This card is another engine that will allow us to run our creatures on the board and smash face for a brief appearance on the battlefield. If our graveyard clogs up, then we'll use our hand full of cards as a weapon. This engine also works well with our Sundial that we're opting to play. Cheating in multiple creatures every turn will overwhelm most opponents and will help us gain incredible card advantage and tempo over time.

I hope you enjoyed my brief intro to the deck I'll be building for this challenge. I'm hoping to see some sick creations as the next couple weeks follow. If you're not on the Facebook group and you'd like to participate, click on the Facebook Group tab on the right-hand side of the blog. Until next deck insider, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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COMMANDER! Review: Planechase 2012 and Maelstrom Wanderer

Hey guys! So of course, the Commander product review ended once we covered all 10 of the new wedge colored generals. But WotC just announced the new Planechase 2012 product coming out on June 1, 2012! So this means this segment is open again and ready to talk about the new cards spoiled.

First off, if you haven't had a chance to checkout Planechase a couple years ago, you're definitely missing out. It's one of the most entertaining formats out there and can speed games up to the most unpredictable and chaotic board states in casual magic. I'm planning on busting out my own set in the Orlando playgroup very soon. For all you Orlando folk, get ready! Here's a set of Rules for the format for everyone wanting to jump in head first.

For older fans, the new product will add a new layer to the game, where it's not just running into Otaria and taking 4 extra turns (I've seen it happen). The most fun thing our smaller playgroup in Gainesville had was the Goat Token Race. Once you land a Goldmeadow plane, each player has a race to have as many Goat tokens as possible before we planeswalk away. The winner of this challenge always gets bragging rights of winning the subgame.

The great thing about this format is it's completely versatile. You can do so much with the format and it incorporates the flavor of being a planeswalker very well. You can compete with other planeswalkers and 'teleport' to different realms that are governed by very out of the box rules that enrich the experience of playing casual magic. Even moreso in EDH/Commander. A format that is notorious for being slow in multiplayer, planechase can help speed EDH games up by giving everyone free spells or soft locks the board. Sometimes you're working with your opponents to planeswalk away from the grief planes or when one player is abusing the awesomeness of another plane. I think the format has a lot design space for R&D to be creative and for players to interact with it.

Now onto Planechase 2012. The first spoiler we get from Planechase was the introduction to phenomenon. The first phenomenon unveiled to us is Time Distortion.

Time Distortion is very similar to Reverse from Uno, but has a very significant impact on the game. Reversing the turn order is very similar to Time Walk for the player that's right before you in turn order. Not only does it speed up their tempo by giving them an immediate turn afterwards, it gives them another set of upkeep triggers and another draw phase. Whoa! It completely hoses down the players after you in turn order, so it's a very dangerous card. Now, when sitting down to play with your friends, you'll have to subconsciously figure out how you want to sit to avoid screwing over a potential ally. The phenomenon, so far, are very interesting and gives Planechase a lot of flexibility in what it can do. Now that we can truly see the influence of the Aether in a match, I wouldn't be surprised to see more bizarre things happen with a roll of the die.

Now to the real meat of the spoiler. WotC casually spoiled this sweet legendary creature on the announcement for Planechase.

Maelstrom Wander is an awesome legend in R/U/G colors and gives the team haste and has Gaea's Revenge-like stats. Along with it's hefty 8 mana cost, he brings along with him two cascade triggers. Wait. You mean; TWO FREE SPELLS? This guy is crazy! Not only is he a 7 power beatstick with haste that can end a player's game with 3 hits for 21 Commander damage, he brings along with him two potentially game altering spells. The applications can be incredible when you manipulate your library in response to the cascade triggers being put on the stack. Using Mystical Tutor to find a Tooth and Nail and leaving 2 mana up to entwine the spell can be insane, especially since you're new found army will all have haste. Remember the Titans? (pun intended). Or how about hunting out a Blatant Thievery and taking a permanent from each of your opponents and getting another spell! What about using Worldly Tutor to find any 7 mana or less creature you want and cast it for free! There's also Sensei's Divining Top, Crystal Ball, Brainstorm, and Scroll Rack to help you find exactly what you want to cast. I'm really excited for this guy and he'll be an auto-include in my Intet, the Dreamer EDH deck.

That's all the spoilers I have for you guys today. As more information comes out about Planechase and the potentially amazing EDH/Commander cards, I'll be here to talk about them. Until the next spoiler, Magic players!

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-David J.

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Post #20: Ahead of the Game

EDH games are all about doing awesome stuff. I know this seems like a generic statement, but I'll explain. Most constructed formats are about winning as efficiently as possible (ex: Red Deck Wins in Standard), while keeping your opponents from killing you (ex: Merfolk in Legacy). EDH doesn't have the consistency to play control nor a low enough life total to support aggro, so to some extent; everybody in EDH plays a Combo deck. Most players are eliminated when one or more players possess a ridiculous board state and swing for lethal damage (or 21 general damage) in one turn or destroys all opponents' permanents (which happens to be Krark-Clan Ironworks, Spine of Ish Sah, Myr Turbine, and Dross Scorpion for me). This ridiculousness doesn't happen until about turn 20 or so (which can feel like 400 turns in a large multiplayer match). Regardless, all players have a good, long time to set up their field and bring out the best of their decks.

All interactions in the universe have a limiting factor that determines their speed and success. Magic happens to have two such limiting factors; cards in hand and available mana. David explained earlier how card advantage is important in EDH as a deck can quickly run out of steam if the player runs out of cards. Assuming you play one land and one spell each turn, a player will run out of cards in hand by turn seven and the game will slow down for that player. Obviously this doesn't happen every time, but unless you have a way to refill your hand, you'll likely run out of interactions with most of your opponents' plays. Most players Foresee this issue and play cards like Concentrate, Greater Good, Sign in Blood, and other card draw spells to keep gas in the tank. Similarly, spells in Magic (with few exceptions) cannot be played without mana. This is why an opening hand in EDH often has four lands, some ramp to ensure a strong mana base to player larger spells. Cards like Land Tax, Cultivate, and Armillary Sphere give the player a few extra lands for later turns. Solemn Simulacrum gets a special nod for doing both. =p

An article on TCGplayer.com by Craig Wescoe, Top 8 contender at Worlds 2011, discusses Three Models of Evaluating a Magic Game State. I'm going to try to summarize them quickly to illustrate my point. The card advantage model explains that the player with more cards has more options and has a better chance of winning the game. Deep Analysis allows the player to draw two cards for the price of one card (draw 4 after Flashback), which is an example of positive card advantage. Mind Rot, on the other hand, drains your opponent of two cards for the price of one, providing your opponent with negative card advantage (similar to tug-of-war, this equates to positive card advantage for you). Card advantage also occurs on the battlefield. Arc Trail can kill up to two creatures with one card; Acidic Slime destroys an artifact, enchantment, or land and usually takes a creature down when it dies using it's Deathtouch ability. The tempo model suggests that a more developed board in fewer turns presents a greater threat. Ramp spells like Sol Ring and Rampant Growth allow you to play big threats earlier by putting you ahead in the race of available mana. Aggressive creatures like Hero of Bladehold provide a player with seven power across three creatures that will win the game if left unanswered. Similar to the card advantage tug-of-war, bounce spells like Boomerang and Vapor Snag put your opponent behind on tempo, and thus push you further ahead. While the card advantage mode tends to manifest in control decks by giving a player more late-game options, the tempo model is the ideology behind aggro decks who plan to win the game before card advantage becomes relevant. The philosophy of fire model is a bit more tough to explain, but is most effective at deciding how to win the game. This model is concerned with managing resources and the most valuable resource is the 'continue playing the game' resource (life, cards in library, poison counters).

Now all of this theory-crafting and analysis compiles into one statement that I know has been beaten to death on this blog: ban Sword of Feast and Famine in EDH. Assuming it connects, SoFaF untaps your lands, forces your opponent to discard a card and deals two damage to the opponent (effect of the equipped creature not withstanding). Following the aforementioned theories, this provides your opponent with negative card advantage, provides you with extra tempo, and takes away life from your opponent's life total; satisfying all three models as a successful card. *In recent Standard, control deck Caw-Blade, aggro deck Boros Landfall, and combo deck Quest for the Holy Relic all benefited from the Stoneforge Mystic/Sword of Feast and Famine package. Whether you're reanimating fatties with Teneb or summoning legends with Sissay, Sword of Feast and Famine never quite seems to be a bad draw in an EDH game.

I hope you've enjoyed this week's installment of 'Rail on Sword of Feast and Famine.' Just Kidding! (but seriously, the card is kinda OP). Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on the article and give your opinion. See you next time!

EDH Lessons:

I saw a guy use Hymn to Tourach on Evan in an EDH game a while ago. Kinda mean, but whatever, it's his perogative. However, when I heard the same fellow talk about playing a multiplayer EDH match, he mentioned that he had to 'remove some of his 1v1 EDH cards.'
Lesson: if you have cards in your EDH match that are exclusively good in one-on-one matches, you might be a dick.

David pulled off his Karmic Guide/Necrotic Sliver/Reveillark/Phyrexian Altar combo from Teneb the other day on a 2-hour EDH game; I've never been so happy to lose. Later that day, he exiled Karmic Guide and Reveillark from his hand because he thinks the pair interact too favorably together.
Lesson: infinites are useful when you just want to end the game. If you're constantly trying to pull them off, you might be a dick.

Evan used Jokulhaups in one of our matches the other day. Although I was annoyed that all my hard work was gone, i had to laugh because so was everybody else's (except David's Garruk, Primal Hunter; oops).
Lesson: use board whipes with cautino. Warning: may contain salt and laughter.

After a Day of Judgement, I was still left with a Shrine of Loyal Legions at six counters and Swiftfoot Boots on the field with a Myr Battlesphere in hand. Just when I thought I'd won, C.J. used Insurrection and nearly wiped me out on the spot.
Lesson: be prepared to deal with surprises when your opponents have many cards in hand.

My deck gets annihilated by Aura Shards (I play Hanna, Ship's Navigator as my general).
Lesson: if you find a common card that you have trouble against, FIND AN ANSWER.

EDH is predominantly a casual format and everybody just wants to have fun showing off their cool ideas. Cards like Erayo, Soratami Ascendant and Winter Orb RUIN THE GAME.
Lesson: don't be a dick or nobody will play with you.

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-Francisco Javier Remy

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Philosophy Behind #6: Combo

I would like to welcome everyone to the exciting conclusion of this three-part series as we finally address the deck archetype; Combo.

Combo, another very popular strategy in MtG, attempts to win as quickly as possible by using a few cards to gain an almost sure win. Often, combo decks attempt to try to search out the deck for the combo pieces in order to achieve this goal. These decks really focus on the interaction of two or more cards.

There are three things that combo decks value; power, consistency, and speed. A combo ought to be strong enough to ensure a win and should be able to achieve the combo before the opponent gains the upperhand.

Degenerate combos usually make an infinite amount of something, whether it be creatures, mana, life, cards, or even try to perform an infinite loop (by repeating a process over and over). In casual magic, and even in competitive play, you often won't make a lot of friends by playing with a degenerate combo (it's very frustrating for players to play against), so keep that in mind. Similar to my previous articles, here are few aspects regarding Combo decks:

• Few Creatures: Attempting to enable the desired combo, Combo decks don't ordinarily win by attacking. Creatures usually are used to enable the combo or as part of the combo itself. As such, creature removal isn't usually very efficient against most combo decks.
  
• Few Non-Land Permanents: Most combo decks hold on to creatures, artifacts, and enchantments until the turn they're ready to aim for the win. A good place to attack a combo deck is in the hand with discard spells. a timely enchantment removal spell or counterspell can also be effective in defeating a combo player.
  
• Life-Total Clock: Sometimes a combo deck will take as long as possible to win (i.e., the turn before the player would otherwise die, or the turn it has a definite win) to get as many draw steps as possible. Having a lot of cards act as viable resources for a combo player. A good strategy is to put pressure on combo decks, either with creatures or threatening spells, to coerce them into attempting to win prematurely.
  
• Narrow Strategy: Combo decks tend to be greatly focused, with their objective of initiating that combo. One strategy is to try to take away just one of the combo pieces (like via Memoricide or Cranial Extraction).
  
• Poor Defense: Many combo decks trade removal and responsive spells so that they can have room for cards to enact their combo.
  
• Specific in Nature: Combo decks are more diverse than other deck types and can vary vastly. Artiact removal might be great against one variant, but completely useless against another.

White operates very well with equipment-based combos, like Stoneforge Mystic and Quest for the Holy Relic. white has been also known to use 'blink' strategies to take advantage of 'enter the battlefield' and/or 'leave the battlefield' triggers. When it comes to life-gain combos, Felidar Sovereign and Test of Endurance come to mind. Karmic Guide and Sun Titan are great examples of white reanimation spells that can be the start of some irritating combos. White also has potent synergies with using enchantments, like Sigil of the Empty Throne. The most notable White tutors include Enlightened Tutor, Steelshaper's Gift, and Idyllic Tutor.

Blue's card draw and library manipulation give it the tools for a great color for Combo decks. Want to mill your opponent away using Brain Freeze? Another storm card that has been known for some potent combos is Mind's Desire. Hive Mind also prompts some powerful interactions with the right cards. Blue loves artifact combos, such as degeneracy with Mycosynth Lattice. Blue is also known to have great sorcery and instant cards, like Time Warp, where the player wins by taking multiple turns. The most notable Blue tutors include Personal Tutor, Tinker, Fabricate, Trinket Mage, Treasure Mage, and Mystical Tutor.

Black is great in Combo decks since it has the potential to tutor any card. Dark Ritual, Tendrils of Agony, and Necropotence have been in very popular combo decks. Animate Dead is one of many popular Black cards that interact with the graveyard to perform some powerful combos. Grave Pact is good with decks that have sacrifice outlets. With cards like Underworld Dreams, a player can win via forcing their opponents to draw into defeat. With some manipulation of the graveyard, one could play Bitter Ordeal and eliminate all spells from a player's library. The most notable black tutors include Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Diabolic Tutor.

You'll notice for Red, I don't discuss tutors because Red is a weak color in that area. I've seen Red combo decks that use Pyretic Ritual into Seething Song to finish off with Dragonstorm. Similar decks also involve Grapeshot, Ignite Memories, and Pyromancer's Swath. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can combo with some creatures to form infinite attackers, such as Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch.

Green's combos almost always involve either creatures and/or lands, staying true to the philosophy of the color. Tooth and Nail and Protean Hulk operate to gain two creatures to combo out or gain insurmountable card advantage with. Hermit Druid and Survival of the Fittest are popular in Dredge/Reanimation combos. In addition, Glimpse of Nature works well with cheap elves to draw your entire deck. The most notable Green tutors include Scapeshift, Natural Order, Chord of Calling, Wordly Tutor, and Green Sun's Zenith.

With that, I'd like to mention that many combos in MtG involve more than one color, especially the more viable ones and the list does little to compare to the comprehensive list of combos. With that, I'd like ton conclude this discussion on Combo decks. Also, I'd like to credit the following articles as a reference and helping me write this article. Aggro, Combo, and Control by Jeff Cunningham and Wikipedia.

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-Michael Hood-Julien

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Quest for the Holy Relics #4: Pack to Power

I started my first Pack to Power project a little more than half a year ago and failed miserably. I used a binder that was rather clunky and cumbersome to move around and I felt embarrassed to hold a binder full of 'junky' cards in the beginning. Worst of all, I didn't have my trading priorities in order.

(If anyone's curious, Pack to Power is a project started by Jonathan Medina on Gatheringmagic.com. For more details, check out Quest for the Holy Relics #1: Humble Beginnings)

At the time, trading had become a big thing and I thought I was ready for the next step. Using my personal trade binder, I had been able to trade for almost anything I wanted or needed at the time. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in trading for things I wanted or cards that looked cool instead of cards I knew could move. At the time, I was unable to make the switch from personal trading to a 'next-level' trading. This time, I'm all in.

I picked up a new, light-weight binder that will make it easier to move around and it'll have a better presentation. I've also put Standard deck building aside to completely commit to the Quest. This shouldn't be too difficult considering I want to play more EDH and Casual magic in the next few months and dedicate more time to articles about them and growth of the casual formats. Any involvement I have in Standard will be reduced to borrowing decks and commenting on the format by following the Star City Games Standard Open Series and other big events. This will help me maintain focus on the Quest. I've also slowly emptied my personal binder towards Power and relics to reduce the amount of binders I'll be carrying.

I picked up this binder a couple days ago along with this lone Innistrad pack that I hope will become a piece of power one day and a binder that will be my Trusty Machete. I was aiming to pull an Innistrad dual land, a rare that sees play in sideboards or maindecks, or even a mythic rare to help me get through the grueling beginning stages. Unfortunately, none of those things happened.

Our beginning contents begin with an overly impressive assortment of cards. yay..

Blasphemous Act

Delver of Secrets

Bloodcrazed Neonate

Silverchase Fox

Spare from Evil

Geistflame

Stitcher's Apprentice

Mulch

Smite the Monstrous

Armored Skaab

Blazing Torch

Unburial Rites

Rolling Temblor

Rakish Heir

Wolf Token

Double-Faced Card Proxy

Hm. Not the best pack in the world, but we can work with it. Blasphemous Act has seen play in Standard decks' sideboards that don't have the means to get double red for Slagstorm but still want to kill off the token armies. Delver of Secrets is also really hot right now, I'm just not sure how many people haven't already bought their copies. There's also that Unburial Rites that's in a strange spot of being good, but not good enough. I'm hoping to find someone with a B/W EDH deck that hasn't picked up their copy yet. The proxy card is obviously, priceless. After putting everything away in the binder, I sat down to play some Casual games with a couple of guys sitting around. One of the guys (that also had the name David!) spotted the Rakish Heir and needed it for his red deck. Awesome start!

-1 Rakish Heir $0.59

+1 Brutalizer Exarch $0.20

Total: -$0.39

(Prices taken from Coolstuffinc.com)

Already off to a loss, I made a few mistakes with this trade. I should have thrown in another common or two considering he really needed the card and I didn't think the Rakish Heir was worth more than a quarter. Hopefully, I can find someone with a green EDH deck that needs an exarch, considering he's very strong. I'll have to be more aggressive in the future trades. Live and learn. 

Going back about a week ago, I had been stalking the price of Underground Sea for a while for the Quest. The price of the dual had been on the fall recently, since the U/B decks in Legacy had been falling short these past few months. To my surprise, a mint condition Sea was listed, when there had only been played versions available for several weeks. A lot of the trade opportunities that have come up for Underground Sea have fallen through too many times and I knew I had to act fast. 

I had a quite a bit of cards ready to sell set aside to obtain it, considering it's the most expensive of the dual land cycle and I knew it would be a tough one to tackle. After putting everything in the buy cart, here were the numbers.

Daybreak Ranger

Mikaeus, the Lunarch

Knight of the Reliquary (promo foil)

Green Sun's Zenith

Seachrome Coast

Basilisk Collar

Stoneforge Mystic

Necroskitter

2x Damnation

Helm of Kaldra

Pristine Angel

Decree of Pain

Buried Alive

2x Black Sun's Zenith (promo foil)

Damnation (promo foil)

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of all the traded cards because it was an FNM night and the local store was crazy with people running around, sorry about that. The store was packed and I patiently waited for the staff to resolve (i got jokes!) all of their other plethora of buy orders of Yugioh cards. I kept myself entertained watching Evan dance around frustrated at them taking so long and the text messages from CJ, complaining about how late we were for his friend's birthday party. Relics have priority tonight. I walked home with this awesome pick up.

Underground Sea: valued at $127.79

After nabbing the Sea, I felt a really big sense of accomplishment and realized there were only 3 more duals left to tackle, Savannah, Scrubland, and Plateau; all relatively easier to the one's I've already obtained. This dual also set the precedent of starting the hunt for Power of 9. A feat I've never had experience with and am extremely reluctant to start. I've already received offers and potential trades for Power, but I've been almost afraid to put so many resources in to obtain. It's difficult to justify trading away a bunch of playable cards for a relatively unplayable piece of power, unless you're jumping into Vintage. There's a grey area in Magic cards between utility and luxury. An idea I'll have to Ponder over for the next few weeks. I'll save the bigger complications and details behind my recent Power searches in another post. Until the next relic, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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