Post #9: Stop Planeswalking on My Friends, Guys!

Obviously many articles have discussed the top Planeswalkers for a competitive or standard format. What are the top Planeswalkers in casual or multiplayer formats? Here are my picks for the Top 5 Casual Planeswalkers.

#5: Garruk Wildspeaker

When the first 5 Planeswalkers were printed in Lorwyn, Garruk emerged as the #1 Planeswalker, being the most used and most sought after. Even today, Garruk still sees tournament play. In casual, Garruk is a very powerful builder card. With Garruk's +1 ability to untap two lands, you can play him turn 4, allowing you to have a very powerful turn 5-6 play. On turn 4, with his +1 ability, you essentially have invested 2 mana into a Planeswalker with 4 loyalty, which is a great investment. Garruk's first ability also helps you fix your mana if your playing 2 or more colors in your deck and can help crank out spells requiring 3 mana of a single color. The ability also helps you recover from a mana/land famine in case you don't draw mana artifacts or some ramp/land tutoring in the early game. Garruk's -1 ability also gives you the option to produce a 3/3 blocker or strengthen  your army by putting out another beater. On a top deck or in the late game, Garruk helps you get back into the game with a fairly relevant 3/3. Garruk helps the control decks out supply (more mana) their opponents in the mirror match and helps defend itself with the token. Garruk gives the token/green based tribal decks another Overrun ability and helps give the G/U card advantage based decks the ability to race against combo or control decks. Garruk's downside is that his loyalty is low enough where he could be picked off by an opponent's creature or burn spell in the early game, but the advantage of a 3/3 or untapping two lands is worth it in most cases.

#4: Elspeth, Knight-Errant

After seeing tons of play on the tournament tables, it's no surprise Elspeth, Knight-Errant comes on top as one of the best Planeswalkers in casual. After the release of Shards of Alara, Elspeth, Knight-Errant changed casual magic and powered out white based aggro and control decks and really pushed white into a powerhouse color. Elspeth's first +1 ability puts a token on the board that can block, attack, hold an equipment, be the target of Elspeth's second +1 ability, and discouraging opponents' from throwing hate damage (damage you take from being open to attack) at you. The Second +1 ability helps you keep up an offensive against opponents with smaller/weaker creatures. The great thing about Elspeth is that she doesn't have any negative loyalty, so she's constantly making herself more difficult to kill as the turns progress. This makes her a perfect defense for creature based combo decks who need the focus fire to move away from themselves or the engine their trying to construct. Elspeth is great in the equipment deck, because they're consistently needing creatures to equip and give you a steady stream of 1/1 soldiers. The great thing about Elspeth, is after the first activation, she's at 5 loyalty, which puts her just right out of range of most damage spells and lets her survive past the first rotation. She has a lot of resiliency and the 1/1 tokens she can generate help protect her. 

#3 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Ok, so Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is an incredible card, we can all agree on that. Nicol Bolas still is the only card I've ever preordered on the first day it was spoiled. Nicol Bolas is the defining card of the grixis archetype. Nicol Bolas gives grixis the ability to destroy noncreature permanents (something more reserved for green) allowing him to knock out problematic enchantments and artifacts, something that very few black cards have the ability to do. Although Nicol Bolas is 3 colors and heavily commits you to a strategy, his sheer power finishes games very quickly and can shut down opponents' strategies within a couple turns. Unlike the other Planeswalkers, Nicol Bolas is a 'build around me' card and has potential to run the board. With a lot of support from Red mass removal, including (Obliterate, Jokulhaups, and Decree of Annihilation), Nicol Bolas easily cleans up the game. Nicol Bolas generally enters the battlefield and starts with 8 loyalty leaving him out of range to be picked off by a small flyer or a small squad of 1/1's. I chose Nicol Bolas over Karn Liberated because Nicol Bolas has the ability to mind control or destroy the permanent. Nicol Bolas also has 8 loyalty after a noncreature destruction, while Karn is left with 3 loyalty after exiling a permanent. Both Nicol Bolas and Karn can eliminate an enemy Planeswalker, but Nicol Bolas protects himself while doing so by increasing his own loyalty. Because Karn is colorless, he's more versatile than Nicol Bolas; but I haven't seen enough play with Karn to give him a spot in the top 5. I guess here, I'm giving Karn honorable mention. 

#2 Jace, the Mindsculptor

No surprise, but Jace, the Mindsculptor makes top 5. He's 1 color, so he's easily castable and sits at a comfortable 4 mana, making him easy to follow up after a board wipe. His ability to Fateseal an opponent, Brainstorm, or Unsummon makes him extremely versatile for control decks or the midrange blue decks. In a multiplayer match, Jace can help draw attention to him, which could help draw attention away from you if you're close to dying or can help control a board from opponents' bomb creatures. Jace protects himself using the unsummon ability or helps bounce your utility creatures, similar to Crystal Shard. Towards the late game, his +2 Fateseal on yourself can help you dig to the cards you need or on an opponent to keep them from drawing spells. Jace's brainstorm ability helps you dig 3 cards deeper into your deck to find the answers you need to (most of the time) a hostile board. Jace has the ability to play the role of a builder planeswalker and help you build to a stronger late game, or help you lock an opponent out of the game. I think the downsides, and reason Jace isn't #1, is he draws way too much attention. In larger multiplayer games, Jace will more often than not die, to Creeping Tar Pit, a barrage of flying creatures, burn, multiple players declaring combat against Jace, and a multitude of other horrible deaths. Jace is a great card, but doesn't have the room to shine until the late game when several opponents have died from a multiplayer game. 

And Number 1 is....

#1 Gideon Jura

Gideon Jura is one of the most incredible Planeswalkers. He's at 5 mana that keeps him very playable and completely turns combat around. Entering the battlefield at a whopping 8 loyalty or Assassinate-ing a key utility creature makes Gideon a great piece of utility himself. Gideon's +2 can also help move attention from you to Gideon as you use the tempo to build your army to realiate into your opponent's relatively open board. The +2 ability also helps you eliminate your opponent's board with a timely Sunblast Angel. After leaving the board clear, his ultimate ability gives you a creature to swing at your opponent's Planeswalkers or bring your opponent closer to death. His ultimate ability also works like Chimeric Mass and gives you a very strong board presence after a wrath effect. After hitting the board, Gideon changes the way your opponents' engage in combat and by choosing the right opponent at opportune times, you can mark opponents to be open to be retaliated by other opponents. Gideon is one of the few political Planeswalkers that isn't a direct threat off the bat, but can really change the way opponents view each other. Like Jace, I don't think Gideon is made for every deck playing white (blue for Jace), but I feel in the right deck, both can be very devastating. 

Some of the honorable mentions for the Top 5, include Liliana Vess, Elspeth Tirel, Venser the Sojourner, Karn Liberated, and Tezzeret the Seeker. Hope you guys enjoyed, let me know if there was any Planeswalker you felt I should have mentioned. 

-David J.

Post #8: Number 3 Combo Please!

With the New Phyrexia Release, WotC gave standard a crazy combo cards in the form of Mindcrank, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Deceiver Exarch

In the first combo, a fully activated Bloodchief Ascension and Mindcrank kills an opponent in one go. After forcing your opponent to pitch a card in their graveyard or deal direct damage, it triggers the bloodchief ascension (to force them to lose 2) or the Mindcrank (forcing them to mill x cards). This combo requires an activation, either forcing your opponent to discard a card or dealing a point of damage, which could be difficult if you're late in the game. I think the combo won't see top 8 play in standard, but will catch people by surprise at a local fnm or a grand prix. If your opponent opens with a turn 1 Bloodchief Ascension, you know what to expect. Decks with this combo will probably be using red to activate the Bloodchief Ascensions quickly. I like this combo because it's very unexpected and could kill several players with a well-timed Slagstorm, hitting all opponents. I don't like this combo because it takes at least two turns to activate the Bloodchief Ascension, giving your opponent time to respond or race you in completing their combo or strategy. In Standard/Type 2, I don't expect this combo to make it to the top tables. For casual, I can see this combo making it into the Megrim/Liliana's Caress or in certain Mill archetypes as a faster win condition, but I don't expect the combo to make a significant impact on casual. 

In this second combo, we use 3 cards, including a Soul's Attendant or Suture Priest, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Leonin Relic-Warder. With a Soul's Attendant or Suture Priest on the board, then playing LRW followed by a Phyrexian Metamorph, you copy the LRW. With the copied LRW's 'enter the battlefield trigger,' copy exile the Phyrexian Metamorph, triggering the 'leave the battlefield' abilty, releasing the Phyrexian Metamorph from exile. This creates a cycle that enables you to gain as much life as you want. This combo already saw play in the Soul-Sisters variant and made Top 8 at the Star City Games Open in Louiville, Kentucky. The deck gains you a lot of life very quickly allowing you to force red decks to scoop and making your opponents almost completely unable to kill you. The combo also activates Serra Ascendant, making him a 6/6 lifelink/flyer that lets you end the game. The downside to this combo is that it requires 3 cards that makes it more difficult to pull off compared to the other two combos. I like this combo because it's relatively versatile, because the cards used to make the combo are still very strong in Type 2 play. In casual, I feel this combo could see play in mono-white Myr or certain white-heavy lifegain decks.  

For the final, and probably most impacting combo, Deceiver Exarch is a very cool card and very similar to Pestermite from Lorwyn. However, Lorwyn never had access to Splinter Twin. When you attach Splinter Twin on Deceiver Exarch, you can tap to make a copy of Deceiver Exarch, then untap the original copy of the exarch and repeat the process as many times as you like, giving you a semi-infinite army of 1-4 creatures that have haste. The combo wins once executed. Since they released Deceiver Exarch, the price of Splinter Twin jumped from around $1-2 to $9-10. This jump shows just how badly standard players have been craving a combo piece. At the Star City Games Open in Orlando, Grixis Splinter Twin received several spots in the Top 8. The reason this deck is so powerful (and generally splashes black or green) is because Deceiver Exarch is so resilient. The 3 mana 1-4 has flash, allowing him only to be responded to by instant speed answers (assuming you have splinter twin in hand) leaving out (Journey to Nowhere and Oust) and has 4 toughness, leaving it out of range of most red removal (Burst Lightning [not kicked], Lightning Bolt, Arch Trail, Slagstorm/Pyroclasm). Furthermore, this combo piece is a creature, leaving it out of range of the best counterspell in standard right now, Spell Pierce. With a handful of removal, countermagic, and card draw (from Into the Roil, Preordain, and Gitaxian Probe), the deck seems very good to play at local FNMs and can be played without Jace, the Mindsculptor (obviously better with Jace), which makes it a great budget deck to play (less than $100 without Jace) and can perform very well. As long as Splinter Twin remains in standard (till October), expect to see this combo kill people out of nowhere. Unfortunately, the deck loses to Suture Priest and has a difficult time competing with Stoneforge Mystic's card advantage to see consistent top 8 spots. For casual, this will add another alternate win for the red/blue decks looking for speed and add another combo piece to the Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind decks.


The thing about all 3 combos that I really like, they're all inexpensive to pull off, you don't have to break bank to obtain any of these cards and they're ascesible to anyone who likes playing combo decks. Personally, I don't like playing combo decks, but I'm glad WotC printed a few that could help incite some creativity and innovation from NPH. 

Casually Hirarious #1: Pilot

Hey guys. So some of you may know me as the sex guy because I talk about sex all the time and colonnaday and massacray wurm. But I’m not here to talk about these great cards. Or how great sex is. I’m here to talk about Grappler Spider. What is Grappler Spider you ask? Is it a joke by MTG to get people to laugh? Is it comedic relief? Is it a tool that discourages parents from buying their children Magic cards so that they won’t come up to them and ask, “Hey, Dad. Why is there a penis on this spider?” OR is it a completely relevant card that stops notorious flying creatures such as Mulldrifter and Squadron Hawk DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS?!

When you’re building a singleton deck, there is no room for poopy vanilla creatures that don’t do crap like Wooly thoctar and Wooly Thoctar, not to mention Wooly Thoctar and the always bland and poorly designed Wooly Thoctar. You have to think utility and SYNERGY!! Let’s go through a few of these great creatures
So Singleton is supposed to be a deck that has an answer for almost anything that comes your way, but at the same time all the pieces work together in an efficient fashion. At first glance, Trygon Predator may seem like a situational card, but think about how much more relevant artifacts and enchantments are in the kitchen table meta i.e. swords, auras, O-ring, and swords. At that point, one will realize how much of a house Trygon is. For example, say you’re playing against an artifact deck and you’re playing an Intet-colored singleton. They drop an artifact land and pass. You drop a land and pass. They drop another land and Sol Ring and then you say holy crap I’m dying. Then he passes. Then you draw and see predator, but you also see that you have a Lightning Greaves in hand. Funtime in you’re pants at that point. You drop the greaves after playing a land (because playing land is SUPPOSEDLY a good play) and then pass. The other guy is like lol this guy is so boned because I have a Darksteel Forge. Whatever. He plays a land then some shitty artifact creature that says you can search a basic land when he enters the battlefield and then when he dies you draw a card (UMM POOR DESIGN MUCH?!). then you drop predator, the guy goes “HA! A bird…what does it—s@#$. You just won the game on turn three. 

Efficiency guys. 2 for 1’s are good supposedly. Titans are God’s gift to casual play. Sun Titan in recursion decks is a house. Primeval Titan gets you two utility lands, Inferno kills tokens. If you’re playing green and white shocks, throw in Wood Elves and KOR CARTOGRAPHER (WHITE RAMP?! WHITE RAMP!!!). Now let me tell you why Ondu Giant is better than these cards (cartographer and elves). You drop him and search a basic because you don’t want to run shocks. Cool. What’s the big deal. Um, you can kill cartographer and elves…and still have a creature. HELLO, BOARD!!!

So a lot of these creatures have ETB (enter the battlefield) or triggered effects. What about activated abilities? Some of you might be tempted to say “Oh yeah he’s going to talk about Llanowar elv—WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you really want a turn 59205879847 1/1 that taps for green? Yeah didn’t think so. One of the kings of activated abilities is Mr. Geth himself. Look at him. He’s big. He’s black. He Intimidates especially if you’re playing white. He’s super Terry Crews that died and came back from the grave and can recur the crap out of everybody. He should be called Geth of the I win, go home. 

Think 2 for 1. Card advantage and board are what win games. Whats better than 4 dudes for 5 mana a la Siege-gang Commander? Mulldrifter? Hello!? IT’S MULLDRIFTER!! A 2/2 flier and 2 cards for 5? YES PLEASE!!!! Indrik, Harmonic Sliver, and Acidic Slime take care of gross artifacts and enchantments and they do it well because there’s a lot of noncreature counters out there. Also, persist is a great mechanic that can really help with getting board. One of the greatest examples of this is Woodfall Primus which essentially takes care of two noncreature permanents (Planeswalkers…I heard those were kind of good, too). Efficiency is key, think of all card types and be sure you can take care of them. At the same time, make sure you’re not stuffing your deck with indrik-like cards. You need variety. Have a little ramp, a little naturalize, MAYBE a little recursion, a little exile, and even counters on a stick (i.e. Draining Whelk and Mystic Snake). ETB, triggered and activated abilities and static effects make creatures infinitely better and more threatening. Think about it!!!

-Carlos Cabrera

Philosophy Behind #2: Aggro

To follow about more of the Philosophy behind Magic: the Gathering, I wanted to address the three major deck types: aggro, control, and combo. In my last entry, I talked more about other ways the game utilizes philosophy (namely in game state, colors, and gameplay decisions). For this entry, I wanted to discuss how constructed decks usually follow one of these three archetypes. The following two links are probably the best authorities on describing the three types of strategies (for beginnings or those warranting more information): 'Aggro, Combo, and Control' and MTG Wiki Deck Types.

Most individuals design their decks around these three strategies in mind and it affects all the aspects the design mentioned in Part 1. Every deck might have some aspects of aggro, control, and combo (though most can probably characterize their decks as one of the three). Once an individual recognizes what kind of deck they intend to make, that person can commit their strategy more aptly to that approach. As such, let’s take each of the three strategies one by one, and assess the strengths and weaknesses (and examine some great examples of each).

"Aggro is a strategy that aims to win by producing maximum damage output in the shortest number of turns. This strategy often places a heavy emphasis on using creatures as efficient damage sources. Aggro strategies can be slow and relentless or fast and ruthless, in both cases attempting to overwhelm the opponent's defenses and reduce them to 0 life. “

When it comes to building aggro decks, here are some good guidelines:

• Most aggro decks focus on a lot of creatures. For an effective beatdown deck, I usually suggest 21-28 (30-40%) so that you have a steady supply of creatures. Creature power and toughness are most important in aggressive strategies.
• Damage spells are useful because they allow the option to trade those damage spells against creatures or directly to end the opponent late game.
• Often include spot removal and/or mild disruption.
• Although some may end the game very late on, most capitalize on trying to end the game early.
• They don’t focus as much on card draw.
• They often leave the player exposed defensively. Cards that cause early game drawbacks are usually most affordable in aggressive strategies (i.e. fetchlands).
• They are sensitive to mass creature/permanent removal.

How the colors generally approach aggro strategies:

White has great early beaters (like Steppe Lynx or Savannah Lions).  White also plays well at giving bonuses to other creatures you own (like Glorious Anthem or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite) and is the best at token generation. At the same time, white has some great end-game beaters, like Akroma, Angel of Wrath. White also is one of the better colors at spot removal as it does an adequate job with most kinds of permanents (often exiling nonland permanents, and destroying artifacts/enchantments). It has great evasion with flying and protection. In addition, in combat, it’s often resilient (in the case with creatures like Baneslayer) with first-strike, vigilance, and even lifelink. Sometimes they even have indestructibility or double-strike.

Blue is probably the weakest at aggro (since it’s a heavily control color), but can have strong-late game finishers, like Stormtide Leviathan or Sphinx of Jwar Isle. Blue is great at returning permanents back to their owner’s hand (allowing for head on damage with creatures) and is the color with the strongest evasive abilities (like unblockablility, landwalk, and flying). They can also allow for combat tricks with abilities like flash and can tap things down to get in for damage. They are also pretty resilient by having shroud.

Black aggro often comes at some cost. Though black can have strong creatures and direct damage spells, they often come at the cost of life loss, creature sacrifices, and other forms of in-game consequences. Great beaters include vampires, like Vampire Lacerator or Vampire Nighthawk, as well as powerful demons, like Abyssal Persecutor. Black interacts heavily with graveyards and disruption, like discard, can deal with early threats to get into the red zone. Black also utilizes some evasion mechanics, like those listed in the blue section, as well as intimidate. Deathtouch and Regeneration also help in a creature race.

Red is great for its early game. It has the best creatures at low costs, like Goblin Lackey or Ball Lightning. It also implores powerful damage spells like Arc Trail, Burst Lightning, and everyone’s favorite, Lightning Bolt. Red loves to utilize haste and sometimes trample or even flying. Red also utilizes first- and double-strike for added damage. Red can involve a lot of early-game commitment though; however you tend to get more out of each spell cast as they often deal the most damage.

Green is also a great color for aggressive strategies. Its creatures are often the best for their mana costs, in terms of not only power and toughness, but also abilities. Green takes advantage of that by providing cards that allow for “mana ramping” (like Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, and Primeval Titan), which allows for playing even more powerful spells earlier than your opponent. Green utilizes a lot of token generation like white. Green is known best for trample, but has been known to utilize reach, shroud, and vigilance. To a lesser degree, it also uses indestructibility, lifelink, haste, intimidate, deathtouch, and first strike.

So, that is all for today. I hoped you enjoyed this look at the aggro strategy and look forward to follow-ups as I also address control and combo archetypes.

-Michael Hood-Julien

Standard Corner #1: New Phyrexia Powerhouses

At David's request, I’ll (Nick LoCastro) be talking about the way New Phyrexia will impact the metagame of the standard format. Now, there are some amazing cards in this most recent set for all formats and to review them all would take quite a bit of space. As such, I’m going to limit this review to five cards from the common and uncommon rarity and their impact on the standard format.

Porcelain Legionnaire

Wow, so right off the bat we’re looking at not only a fantastic draft card, but also a great card for the standard format. Porcelain Legionnaire is a colored artifact creature reminiscent of the ones in the past Shards of Alara block. This seems like it would detract from its feasibility because it ties you to playing white mana, but that’s where a novel mechanic from New Phyrexia shines: Phyrexian Mana. This new mana symbol allows you to pay the cost either with one white mana or two life. Two life might seem harsh as a cost, but when put toward a first strike 3/1 package that you can play as early as turn two in any color deck is truly a minimal cost at best. I predict this card will see a lot of play in the popular “White Weenie Quest” or “White Weenie Tempered Steel” deck in standard as it fits into the color scheme already and is another great early threat in an already fast-paced agro deck. An early 3/1 first strike package that can fuel the Quest for the Holy Relic or come in as a 5/3 first striker with Tempered Steel is certainly nothing to scoff at.

Gitaxian Probe

Out of all of the commons from New Phyrexia, this common is my personal favorite. Let’s break down the card a bit first. This card also uses the Phyrexian mana cost mechanism, which means that despite being a blue card this gem can fit into any deck looking for some card advantage that was previously reserved for the favored blue decks. For either two life or one blue mana you can observe the threats in your opponent’s hand and then thin your deck out a bit by drawing a card. For the standard format blue/black control player, like myself, this card really shines. So long as I have a black mana source on turn one, I can Gitaxian probe my opponents hand, draw a card, and then Duress or Despise away whatever threat my heart fancies without any chance of whiffing with my discard cards all…on…turn…ONE. Card advantage and knowledge all from a one drop is truly a powerful package (fitting nicely into the niche that Ponder left open when it rotated out) that will make an impact in all formats of magic and could help in bringing back more combo decks of past formats.

Uncommons! Very rarely do you come across a Magic set that has uncommons that are valued as much as most other rares or even mythic rares in the set. Mental Misstep was the obvious staple that the Legacy format could just scoop up and its value definitely shows that.  But there are a good number of other gems in the uncommon pool that we’re going to tackle now.

Depise

In the current standard format, black mana has not been as heavily represented as it was last year when blue/black control was king. Nowadays, we have the generic blue/white Caw-blade and the many color variants flooding the market. That’s not to say black mana had a weak package of utility. In fact it was quite the contrary. When it came to one-drop discard spells, standard black decks could look to M11’s Duress or Rise of Eldrazi’s Inquisition of Kozilek. Duress was your go-to card for anything that wasn’t a creature or land. IoK was the go-to card for anything with a converted mana cost of 3 or less. The combination of these two cards could handle most of the current standard format threats including: Squadron Hawk/Stoneforge Mystic/ and other small creatures, Sword of War and Peace, Sword of Feast and Famine, Mana Leak and other counterspells, planeswalkers, etc. However, it couldn’t handle larger threats like the Titans from M11 that dominated the standard format since their release. Well no more! Despise is what I consider to be the replacement for IoK, which would be rotating out at the end of this year anyways, in the standard blue/black or mono black control decks. Between Duress and Despise there are no card types, besides lands, that could be missed in the discard process.

Beast Within

Though I’m not an avid fan of the green mana in standard play, this card is rapidly changing my mind. Beast Within is a ridiculously powerful card that I’m surprised to see at the uncommon rarity. Let’s break the card down so you can see just what I mean. At a cost of two colorless and one green mana, this spell is not on the costly side for the green mage. But a CMC of 3 is nothing revolutionary so lets keep reading. “Destroy target permanent”….WOAH, wait what?! That’s right folks, you can use this gem to get rid of Jace TMS, Gideon Jura, Valakut the Molten Pinnacle, Sword of Feast and Famine/Body and Mind/War and Peace, any of the Titans, and whatever else you want that is threatening your board so long as it’s on the field. Not only that, but you can deal with the threat at instant speed! The one downside is that in the place of whatever permanent you destroyed, a 3/3 green beast creature joins that side of the battlefield. But compared to the threat you removed with this card, a 3/3 beast is a simple problem to fix. All of that for 3 mana is simply too good to pass up so make sure you get your playset of these as early as possible.

Corrupted Resolve

I highly doubt we’ll ever see another counterspell in the standard format as powerful as the one aptly named “Counterspell” from much older sets, but Corrupted Resolve comes darn near close. Now this card will not be as widely used as the current standard format staple known as Mana Leak mainly because it has the requirement that the controller is poisoned before it becomes active. This is a pretty hefty price, but the upside is that at one colorless mana and one blue mana, it’s a more lenient counterspell than the cost of two blue mana for “Counterspell” and it doesn’t become useless like mana leak does in most late game situations where paying the three mana cost to negate it is more viable. What really makes me believe this card will see play in the standard format is the recent rise of blue/black infect-control decks. Up until this point, Infect decks have not really been a viable standard powerhouse in relation to RUG/BUG or the crowd favorite, Caw-Blade. However, with access to this counterspell all that has to be done is get one poison counter on the opponent and this card is active for the rest of the game! With old cards like Virulent Wound or Inkmoth Nexus and newer cards like Blighted Agent, getting that first poison counter on the opponent in the first few turns has never been easier.

If you enjoyed Nick's post about NPH cards and their impact on standard, let us know in the comments or on our MTG Casual Network Facebook Group!

Post #7 Casually New Phyrexia

In this post, I wanted to talk more about New Phyrexia and its impact on multiplayer and casual magic. Instead of doing an entire set review, I'm going to dissect the 5 new praetor cards and talk briefly about some cards to look out for. Hopefully I can do justice to these 5 extremely powerful cards.

I'll avoid trying to sound like an advertisement, but I wanted to comment on New Phyrexia as a whole and what it means for the magic multiverse before delving into the cards. When I started playing magic with Lorwyn, I've been introduced to new planes ever since and it's been really informative, but I never really felt connected to people who had been playing for many years. Coming back to Mirrodin and watching the siege of Phyrexia was an amazing experience. I felt the urge to go back and read a lot on the history of the Magic multiverse. Phyrexia played a huge force for years as the classic enemies of planeswalkers and leaving the original plane of Dominaria in ruins. I think that New Phyrexia is a historical set and play a huge role in the multiverse and will be for many years as people remember when Phyrexia was reborn. I can't wait for this set to be released in a couple days, to say the least. 

Hopefully I don't beat a dead horse by discussing the cards in the set, because many other blogs, including Bojukablog, The Magic Show, and Channelfireball have discussed the set in great detail. I'll talk about a few cards with a more casual lens. 

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

E-Norn is a really interesting creature that fits in a lot of important decks in casual. She gives the token decks something they've been needing for quite some time, a creature win condition. Unlike Eldrazi Monument and Akroma's Memorial, E-norn is a creature with a big body (7 freakin toughness) that can help aid in combat or help block after an alpha strike at an enemy player's face. Furthermore, E-norn throws -2/-2 across the board on opponents creatures, which is very powerful against the tribal decks, the token mirror, or weenie (red, white, or black) decks. The applications of the -2/-2 is almost limitless. Since E-norn makes opponents creatures smaller, your opponents will have to reconsider attacking with titans (because elesh norn can kill any of them in combat). E-norn is also very powerful in the u/w control decks using Godhead of Awe, forcing your opponents heavy creature strategies to crumble very quickly. I like E-norn a lot because she doesn't limit you to mono white (unlike Crovax, Ascendant Hero), so you can use her in a lot of different splash decks. Although, Crovax is a stronger mono-white general, E-norn is very versatile in being offensive (pump your dudes +2/+2) and have a defensive quality (7 toughness) that makes her great in a white deck needing a creature pump or a creature hoser.

Some obvious downsides, E-norn costs 7-mana in a color that doesn't generally ramp. However, with the help of a green splash or the use of signets or other mana-producing artifacts, he can still be played when relevant to the board. Furthermore, in multiplayer, E-norn (like all the praetors) draws a lot of unwanted attention and will have some players screaming bloody murder to kill the creature or alpha strike you. I feel that E-norn can protect you in most situations, but I recommend vigilance, flying, life gain, and other defensive mechanics, to maintain an offensive and keep yourself alive. E-norn is a crazy card and expect to play against her quite a bit. 

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

JG is a really expensive card to play. 10 mana for a blue creature is very demanding. I'm glad he has flash though, allowing him to be played at very opportune times, although if you're opponent is familiar with it, they probably will be expecting a flashed JG at end of turn. I think JG is very specific, playing it to force your opponent to pitch their hand at the beginning of their end step. JG is a very difficult card to play, more specifically on when to play him. Knowing when the best time to play him is key in keeping him alive and destructive. Playing cards like Asceticism and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner work great with JG and could really turn the game around. Although drawing 7 cards at the end of turn is a bit weaker than during your draw step, you're still drawing 7 cards! Think about the impact of Necropotence and how format warping the card was. I feel JG, in the right deck, will have the same devastating effect in the casual format. I think he's a really good card for the control decks trying to take out opponents' options. In casual, JG is really strong in controlling multiple opponents in the late game. JG is a really good follow up to Decree of Pain or Plague Wind. I think JG will really shine in the u/b decks as a late game win condition or the decks that take advantage of cheating strong spells in play, like Intet, the Dreamer or Elvish Piper. 

The downsides to JG include his small 5/4 body, that can easily be taken out by a well placed Chandra Nalaar or a red spell within 4 damage. Also, unlike Consecrated Sphinx, the card draw isn't controlled. With JG, the heavy card draw isn't under a 'may' clause, so you're forced to draw copious amounts of cards, which could put you significantly closer to milling yourself. Finally, if your opponent is playing Reliquary Tower, JG's -7 max hand size ability is nullified, removing your ability to control your opponents' card advantage. I don't think many people will be playing JG in casual, but prepare late game removal or have graveyard efficient mechanics (like dredge, reanimation, flashback, unearth, or hellbent).

Sheoldred, the Whispering One

Ok, Magic has been feeding the reanimator strategy slowly with cards like Geth, Lord of the Vault and Sun Titan, but this card really takes the cake. They gave Sheoldred the pseudo Debtors' Knell ability which makes him completely insane. Sheoldred will be very good in the recursion, control, and jund archetypes. Sheoldred is a very tempo heavy creature, where with consecutive turns, she brings you significantly closer to winning the game. Sheoldred's sac ability is also extremely good. For recursion, it'll keep all of your opponents's creatures into their graveyards to reanimate, and for control, it helps keep opponents' boards creature free. The zombie tribal archetype will also love this card because it helps their zombies punch through on opponents and gives them a late game finisher. As opposed to some blogs, I believe that the swampwalk ability is strong on this card. A lot of people in Commander/EDH play Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the black decks, giving sheoldred unblockability in many cases. Unlike Debtor's Knell, Sheoldred is a creature, which helps defend you. I've had many instances when I've played D-knell and was soon after killed by many raging opponents. I feel sheoldred is a safer option because (psychologically) she doesn't hit opponents graveyards, so opponents feel like their graveyard isn't under siege. For some reason, casual players get really upset when you take their creatures, who knew. Since she's a creature, she's easier to remove with a creature kill spell; however, she does a good job of discouraging opponents to attack you on the ground. With a 6/6 body, she's pretty resilient and trades with all of the titans. 

At 7 mana, she runs into some of the same problems the others do, the mana cost is really heavy. Also, sheoldred is really weak against the token decks or some of the tribal decks (like goblins) whom throw their creatures at you, rather than value each piece of the army quite heavily (slivers and zombies). Sheoldred's sac ability could also backfire by triggering 'leave the battlefield abilities,' like Reveillark or gives the reanimator mirror and jund decks a free sac outlet. When facing Sheoldred, look out for the reanimator clause, because after a couple turns, your opponent will begin to take control of the game. Creature removal or mass board wipe can take care of sheoldred. Or graveyard hate cards, like Relic of Progenitus, Bojuka Bog, and Tormod's Crypt, which all can severely hinder Sheoldred's upside ability and help take your opponent down. 

Urabrask the Hidden

So UtH is a difficult creature to discuss. Other than Madrush Cyclops, they're aren't many creature cards that give your team haste, so UtH is really special. Also, being mono-red makes him very playable in any deck that has a red splash in it. I feel that Urabrask is really good in the mid-range aggro red decks, jund, naya and good in the land control decks, such as Numot, the Devastator. Being able to have the Kismet ability in red is really relevant to getting your creatures in the red zone more easily and quickly. The kismet ability also helps keep your opponents' tempo behind your own and allowing the control deck some speed to outrace heavy aggro or tribal decks. UtH also works very well with Sunblast Angel in the control deck. Urabrask shuts down control decks relying on single creatures to block and defend themselves by forcing them to enter the battlefield tapped. Also, giving your team haste is really powerful, especially with Broodmate Dragon in jund or Godsire in Naya. I feel Urabrask is one of the best 'green' (yes, green) cards printed for casual magic. The green/red aggro deck has been desperately in need of a creature that gives the team haste to beat down multiple opponents quick enough to be relevant. UtH also works really well with the titans, like Lightning Greaves, gives your titans extra value by shooting them into the red zone, which could also work very well with Primeval Titan in the r/g ramp decks or r/g Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. 

The downsides to UtH are quite few. His 5 mana cost is in perfect range of playing a bomb card afterwards to smash into your opponent and his 4/4 body takes him out of red removal range and keeps him alive against 2/2s and 3/3s in the early game. If UtH has a downside, it's the fact that he can't guarantee a win in a multiplayer game by himself. The other praetors have abilities powerful enough to win games against multiple opponents, while UtH speeds up your tempo and allows you to potentially kill one or two opponents, but doesn't really shine until a more bomb like creature to help UtH win the game. 

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger

Finally (yay!), we reach Vorinclex. I'll admit, when I first saw VoH, I thought he was really boring. I saw the ability and was unimpressed. At first, he feels like an 8 drop Mana Reflection, but his 7/6 trampling body is nothing to scoff at. It's a pretty relevant size in casual and again, trades with titans (and enemy praetors, except E-norn). The mana doubling ability is good with r/g ramp decks, mono green eldrazi decks, and r/g land destruction. Vorinclex has a really unique ability similar to Winter Orb, allowing you to freeze up opponents mana base that helps against the control decks. Vorinclex is really good for the r/g land destruction decks looking for the bomb creature to help lock down their opponents. In some strange way, I can see Vorinclex as a sideboard against control decks, for control decks that play/splash green. Shutting down your opponents' mana base or limiting them to the Rule of Law ability can be devastating against combo decks or decks relying on 'mana sinking' (certain token builds, auto-win decks, and the proliferate strategy). Vorinclex will make some huge waves in casual green decks across the board. 

Obviously, the downside to Vorinclex is his 8 mana cost, but he's a green creature, so the 8 mana isn't too terrible. His Winter Orb clause really hurts opponents and (similar to E-norn), he'll draw a lot of attention from other ramp decks, control decks, and decks relying on a strict mana base (5-color casual or decks with 3+ colors). When facing Vorinclex, cards like Seedborn Muse, will really help you take an edge on the Vorinclex player and help take him down, while your other opponents try to recover from lands that remain tapped. 

The upside of these cards is just limitless and I could spend hours talking about how strong these cards are. I hope the post wasn't too long and arduous to read. If anyone has any requests for any cards from NPH for me to talk about in a casual or multiplayer standpoint, feel free to leave a comment. I check the blog daily =]

If you want to know more about the Praetors, follow their story on 'Getting to Know the Praetors'. (link courtesy of Magic, yo). 

Post #6 New Phyrexia Prerelease

Today I went to the New Phyrexia Prerelease. It was a lot of fun, but I did run into some unfortunate problems. I'm completely unlucky when opening packs, so I have to rely on a trained eye and some classic technique to get me some wins. For those of you who don't know what happens at a prerelease, each person gets 6 packs (in this case, 3 of New Phyrexia and 3 of Scars of Mirrodin) and you use the cards you receive in those packs to create a 40 card (minimum) deck (with basic lands available outside of the packs). 

Here were my Sealed Pool Rares: 

Yeah, pretty unimpressive. The coolest thing in that picture is a Molten-Tail Masticore; however, I ended up not using him because my sealed pool didn't have enough solid creatures that I wanted to use. What a shame. The white looked promising, but the cards weren't strong enough and I felt my white pool didn't have enough removal, so sorry white golem splicer.. thing. In the pool, I had one equipment, so Kemba, Kha Regent was a bit useless. I did get to use the Spellskite, since he was a solid blocker against infect and helped my few bombs on the board evade removal. 

So what do you do when you have no bombs? Make sure your opponent doesn't get theirs! In one instance, my opponent played one of the chancellors that has toughness (6 toughness if I remember correctly) way beyond anything that any of my removal cards could have handled. I had to find a way to take care of it before the card got way out of hand and victory would be far beyond my reach. Here, I played Vapor Snag their creature after they tapped out their mana to cast it. Then on my turn, I played Mindculling forcing them to discard the only two cards in their hand (which included their bomb creature!), ensuring that I took care of the problem and got to draw two cards. A win/win for me. 

When you're at a prerelease, there's a few things that I've learned along the way. They can last anywhere from 4-6hrs where you don't have enough time to leave the store between rounds, bring food and drinks! Although really ironic, I feel it's one of the most important things. Also, if you get discouraged from a loss in the first round, don't worry, keep playing. A lot of locations distribute prizes if you go at least 2-2 (which is great for beginners!). Remember that the new cards are just to experiment with and no one expects you to be an expert with any of the mechanics (except when you block with a Platinum Angel... yikes!). Finally, remember to play fair and a lot of the people who attend prereleases don't know the values of the cards they pull in packs. Trade fair and be polite. I have a few stories about some 'unfriendly' traders today, but that will have to wait for another entry.

My final record was 3-1. I started with a Black/Red deck, then splashed a little bit of green. I decided that I didn't like the direction of the deck with it's low creature count, so I switched to a Black/Blue deck with a splash into red, which turned out to work very well. Here's the prize from my record:

Post #5: What is the Point??

I wanted to take this entry to kind of explain what the whole purpose of this magic group and the blog were. I created MTG Casual Net to network with people in Gainesville and Orlando who played Magic: the Gathering. I was hoping to find new play groups to meet and trade cards with. On my journey, I found so much more.

I found that a lot of people played Magic, so many people. But most of them were either embarrassed or shameful to admit it. I feel like a lot of the people who play magic, card games, or some sort of role playing game get a lot of negative attention from people outside of the Magic community. When I've told some people that I play magic, I've been called a nerd or a geek and I assume this happens to other people who play as well. I feel like once I open the door and let people know that I play, they attribute negative stereotypes against me, like I'm unsociable or a weird person (maybe I am!)

On the flip side, I've met a lot of great people through magic or showing them a little of 'my' world behind the cards. I feel that the Magic community (and other card games) has a lot of diversity and people from many different backgrounds that love playing the game. This diversity is largely unseen to the public eye and I'm hoping that this group helps to shed some light on this awesome community.

Just some words of wisdom before I leave this entry. Don't let Magic become an addiction, it's a hobby that everyone can enjoy. Once it becomes an addiction, it's no longer fun. Play nice, no one likes a jerk. If you can't afford a card, you weren't meant to have it. And if you can afford it, that doesn't mean you should buy it (which goes back to, don't be a jerk). Hope everyone going to the New Phyrexia Prerelease has a great time!