Post #19: Brambling Around

I'm not entirely sure what to talk about today, since I don't really have an itinerary or anything pressing to discuss, so I thought I'd just ramble about stuff that's been happening to me.

I just got back in Orlando from a trip to Gainesville to visit my girlfriend. I just want to thank everyone in Gainesville for their hospitality and hope to see you guys again soon. In trading news, Gainesville was a Wasteland for trades and I was a bit disappointed with the casual environment. It seems to have fallen off the Clifftop Retreat since I left.

 I did have an interesting ordeal, where someone had two relics in the name of Scrubland and Savannah for trade. He was a nice guy and was looking for U/B cards for his Standard control deck. I put up a Liliana of the Veil, Snapcaster Mage, Consecrated Sphinx, gameday promo Black Sun's Zenith, and about $20 in random cards (including the $9 in my pocket) for the pair, which I thought was fair. Unfortunately, he didn't agree and started retracting from the trade as the 45min dragged on. After a lot of waiting and agonizing, the trade didn't go through. Win some, lose some. 

In other news, Brendan posted the standings for the Kansas City Star City Games Standard Open Series on the Casual Net Facebook Group. Both U/W decks in the finals? Other than that, the top 8 was pretty varied. It's nice to see that Wolf Run Green isn't running the entire show. I really wish the price of Scars of Mirrodin lands would drop to a more reasonable price. I'm reluctant to buy any because they will be almost near useless once they rotate, considering eternal formats have better lands and EDH/Commander has better options. I am excited to see where this mono Black infect deck goes. It's cool to see Whispering Specter and Lashwrithe go all the way. 

So, what about that Graveborn? I'm really excited to see all these reanimator goodies. Entomb, Animate Dead, and probably Reanimate itself, is pretty awesome. More importantly, I'm really excited for Crosis, the Purger. If you guys don't know, I'm really obsessed with the 10 dragons (5 from Invasion and 5 from Planar Chaos). My mentor, Roger who taught me how to play the game, had insanely powerful casual decks designed around the older 5 dragons, so it's difficult not to respect and admire their power. As they already paid homage to the Planar Chaos dragons in the 2011 summer Commander product, the older 5 have been slightly neglected all these years. Fortunately, Rith, the Awakener had a make over in the From the Vault: Dragons set and Treva, the Renewer saw a sweet promo for the 2009 Pro Tour season. I'm extremely anxious to see how bad ass Crosis looks. Be on the lookout November 18th!

The one thing I did have some focus on today was to talk about Sword of Feast and Famine; one last time. 

I'm going to make a bold (and possibly foolish) statement: Sword of Feast and Famine is the strongest equipment ever printed. Yes, even more than Sword of Fire and Ice and even the infamous Umezawa's Jitte. This pro G/B sword can do things than none of the other swords can; provide tempo advantage. The ability to untap your lands is very reminiscent of Time Walk and can easily feel like taking an extra turn with every swing. This sword allows you to run spells on the board significantly quicker than your opponent because you're able to use your mana twice every turn upon sword impact. The mana doubling advantage is obvious when you see the power of Mirari's Wake, Mana Reflection, and Mana Flare in casual games and in EDH/Commander. Sword gives you that ability and then some. The sword's second ability also gives you card advantage. When your opponent loses a card after every hit, you're almost guaranteed to have more cards in your grip than your opponent, giving you a higher probability of having a threat or an answer to their threat. I don't think it feels good to be hit by a Hypnotic Specter with a Bear Umbra on it. As explained by Javier, the limiting factors to playing spells are the number of cards in your hand and the amount of mana you have to play those spells. Sword of Feast and Famine affects both by limiting the amount of cards your opponent has and giving you more resources to cast more spells. 

Having more cards than your opponent is paramount in multiplayer formats and is extremely powerful in competitive formats. Just take a look at U/W Blade, Wolf Run Green, U/B Control in standard, arguably the best decks in the format right now; all packing this Sword. Look at Legacy, U/W Stoneblade running a copy or two of Sword of Feast and Famine in the maindeck over both Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa's Jitte. This sword is the real deal and it's not surprising why this sword is fetching a $35+ pricetag. 

I hope this was entertaining and somewhat informative, I'll hopefully have a more in depth post next week. I just finished building my Intet, the Dreamer EDH deck and I'm really excited to test it and get back to you guys with the details. 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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