EDH: Horde of Notions

Hi, all! Back with a brand new EDH decklist. This one is an idea I got from Owen Burke's blog here. His article talked about a 5-color deck built to abuse Tooth And Nail by getting some of the most powerful and epic two-creature combos (but not infinite combos, like Kiki Jiki and Pestermite).

The one that made me really want to build a new deck was this one: Admonition Angel + Realm Razer (see Owen's write up for an explanation).

Anyway, Owen had some great ideas (some of which he in turn got from the EDH Forums). A few of the combos were right up my alley, while others weren't my style. Iona is a card I would particularly not enjoy playing against, so I chose not to play it either. It just seems unfun. (However, if I were to run Iona, I'd include Sakashima, the Imposter to shut down two colors).

Also I don't like Progenitus much. I prefer Horde of Notions for a (very small) Elemental sub-theme. Basically he just lets me recycle Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, Reveillark, and Spitebellows. Which is useful, but not the main focus of the deck.

Here is the list I came up with:

General: Horde of Notions

Mans:

Academy Rector
Reveillark
Karmic Guide
Admonition Angel
Yosei, the Morning Star

Clone
Mulldrifter
Keiga

Fleshbag Marauder
Dimir House Guard
Shriekmaw
Butcher of Malakir

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Spitebellows
Crater Hellion

Sakura Tribe Elder
Wood Elves
Eternal Witness
Silverglade Elemental
Primeval Titan
Vigor
Avenger of Zendikar
Terastadon
Woodfall Primus

Flamekin Zealot
Rafiq of the Many
Madrush Cyclops
Realm Razer
Empyrial Archangel

Solemn Simulacrum
Duplicant
It That Betrays
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Stuffs:

Planar Cleansing

Mystical Tutor
Rite of Replication
Treachery
Time Spiral

Vampiric Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Damnation

Cultivate
Harrow
Kodama's Reach
Harmonize
Wild Pair
Tooth and Nail

Fires of Yavimaya
Mirari's Wake
Finest Hour
Wargate

Sol Ring
Darksteel Ingot
Coalition Relic
Gilded Lotus
Skullclamp
Lightning Greaves
Crystal Ball
Minion Reflector

Wheres:

Plains x2
Island x3
Swamp x2
Mountain x3
Forest x 3
Hallowed Fountain
Watery Grave
Blood Crypt
Stomping Ground
Temple Garden
Godless Shrine
Steam Vents
Overgrown Tomb
Sacred Foundry
Breeding Pool
Flooded Strand
Bloodstained Mire
Windswept Heath
Scalding Tarn
Verdant Catacombs
Misty Rainforest
Arid Mesa
City of Brass
Exotic Orchard
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
New Benalia
Flagstones of Trokair
Vesuva
Phyrexian Tower
Volrath's Stronghold
Kor Haven
High Market

Okay, so lets talk a bit about what this deck is supposed to do. Briefly, it accelerates into a Tooth and Nail and gets whatever two-creature package most suits the current board position. There are a myriad of little combos and synergies to be found here, and I'll likely discover a few I didn't even consider whilst playing.

Let's touch on the lands quickly before moving on to the good stuff. The astute reader will notice I'm missing three of the Fetch Lands. This is because I don't own them, not because they don't belong in the deck. You should run as many of the Fetches as you can get your hands on, and supplement any holes with Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse (which I neglected to do, and will likely have to remedy soon).

The reason is that one of your more aggressive win-out-of-nowhere combos is Avenger of Zendikar and Flamekin Zealot. You want to wait until someone is vulnerable to attack, and you have a Fetch in hand to play AFTER casting T&N. You get the Avenger and the Zealot, making a shit-ton of 0/1 plant tokens, then use a Fetch to give your plants a +2/+2 bonus (on top of the +1/+1 bonus from the Zealot). Then attack with a hoard of hasty 3/4 plants and the Avenger and Zealot too, if needed. You can often kill a player in one shot doing 30 or more damage easily.

Another landfall based combo is the Admonition Angel + Realm Razer setup. You need a land in hand for this one too, but it doesn't need to be a Fetch. Any land will do. You T&N for the Angel and Razer, with the Razer then RFG'ing all the lands in play (including yours, but don't worry...). Then you drop a land from your hand using the Angel to RFG your Realm Razer. This makes all lands re-enter play, giving you MASSIVE landfall triggers off your Angel. Now your opponents have a dilemma: The Angel just ate their best shit, but if the kill the Angel, the Realm Razer will reenter play to Razer their Realms all over again. Kinky!

So the early game is just stall, develop mana, chump block, Damnate if necessary. Just stay alive until you hit 9 mana. There should be enough Tutoring/Draw to hit T&N by that point, but if you have trouble finding T&N in a timely fashion, season to taste with the Tutoring as needed.

That's really it, in a nutshell. Fortunately Horde of Notions is great as a General, so he makes a fine back-up plan. That's the main reason Rafiq is in the deck, to make Horde a massive threat.

Some of the other cards are in there just because they were in Owen's list and I was intrigued enough to try them out (Wild Pair, War Gate). Some I added as they seemed like egregious omissions (Rite of Replication, Board Sweepers, Fires of Yavima). A few are just pet cards that I can't help but add (Finest Hour, Treachery).

Finest Hour is really good with Rafiq, Horde of Notions, and particularly Emrakul. Academy Rector has some phenomenal targets here, so I threw in High Market and Phyrexian Tower to help abuse her.

Minion Reflector seemed fun, and since most of my guys are big fatties with ETBF effect, it seemed like an obvious choice here.

Some other fun T&N targets:

Yosei + Clone
Keiga + Clone
Fleshbag Marauder + It that Betrays
Fleshbag Marauder + Butcher of Malakir
Butcher of Malakir + It that Betrays
Kiki-Jiki + anything non-Legendary
Vigor + Crater Hellion
Vigor + Empyrial Archangel
Primeval Titan + Avenger of Zendikar (If you already have Fires of Madrush out)
Primeval Titan + Admonition Angel
Terastodon + Woodfall Primus
Emrakul + Madrush Cyclops
Emrakul + Rafiq (with Finest Hour out = 72 damage, Annihilator 12)

Those are the obvious ones, but the deck can basically be Lego-ed together to deal with nearly any situation.

A couple things I have in mind to add later are Exploding Borders, Puppeteer Clique and Acidic Slime. Swords to Plowshares is MIA and that really bothers me...

You might also add a few more Elementals to help Horde of Notions, but he usually does okay on his own.

Enjoy.

Elspeth vs Tezzeret Decklists

Well, they finally spoiled the complete deck lists for the Elspeth vs Tezzeret dual decks.

Here are the images for the Alternate Art Foil Planeswalkers (TM):

Yeah, what's with Elspeth's art? Yuck! I have no idea how that got past the art director. Jarvis, man, quit sleeping on the job! Tezzie's not so bad. It's not worthy of an alt-art foil planeswalker per se, but at least it's better than the original Tezzeret art.

Elspeth wouldn't be so bad, but the billowing cloak/tunic/whatever it is is just.... what the fuck? I have no idea how to read this picture. It just makes no sense compositionally. Disappointing.

You know what's NOT disappointing though? THESE:

Notice how I said "these"? Yeah, there's two (2) of these bad boys in each Elspeth deck! Woot! Now I only have to shell out for two of these boxed sets to get the playset.

Also making an appearance with gorgeous upgraded art:

Yeah, that's beautiful, but WTF Wizards? You just obsoleted this thing with Honor the Pure, currently in M11 and M10 before it... And despite HtP being about 10x better than this, IT doesn't even see play. Why would people want this? Yeah, I guess in Casual White Weenie, 4x Crusade and 4x Honor is pretty good, but still. A waste of a rare slot, but the fuck-win art kinda makes up for it.

... 2x alt art Swords to Plowshares really makes up for it though.

Oh, and Tezzeret gets this:

Pretty sweet, no? Not as hot as the StP and there's only 1 of 'em, but still, thanks WotC!

Anyway, let's get to the decklists shall we?

Elspeth's list:
1  Angel of Salvation
1  Burrenton Bombardier
1  Catapult Master
1  Celestial Crusader
1  Conclave Equenaut
1  Conclave Phalanx
2  Elite Vanguard
1  Glory Seeker
1  Goldmeadow Harrier
1  Infantry Veteran
1  Kemba's Skyguard
1  Kor Aeronaut
1  Kor Hookmaster
2  Kor Skyfisher
1  Loyal Sentry
1  Mosquito Guard
1  Seasoned Marshal
1  Stormfront Riders
1  Temple Acolyte

1  Abolish
1  Blinding Beam
1  Crusade
1  Journey to Nowhere
1  Mighty Leap
2  Raise the Alarm
1  Razor Barrier
1  Saltblast
1  Sunlance
1  Swell of Courage
2  Swords to Plowshares
1  Elspeth, Knight-Errant

1  Daru Encampment
1  Kabira Crossroads
22  Plains
1  Rustic Clachan

Tezzeret's list:
1  Arcbound Worker
1  Assembly-Worker
1  Clockwork Condor
1  Clockwork Hydra
1  Esperzoa
1  Faerie Mechanist
1  Frogmite
1  Juggernaut
1  Master of Etherium
1  Pentavus
1  Qumulox
1  Razormane Masticore
2  Runed Servitor
1  Serrated Biskelion
1  Silver Myr
1  Steel Overseer
1  Steel Wall
1  Synod Centurion
1  Trinket Mage
1  Triskelion

1  Æther Spellbomb
1  Argivian Restoration
1  Contagion Clasp
1  Echoing Truth
1  Elixir of Immortality
1  Energy Chamber
2  Everflowing Chalice
1  Foil
1  Moonglove Extract
2  Thirst for Knowledge
1  Thoughtcast
1  Trip Noose
1  Tezzeret the Seeker

1  Darksteel Citadel
20  Island
1  Mishra's Factory
1  Seat of the Synod
1  Stalking Stones

Okay, so these lists are pretty dreadful... they might be fun if played strictly as intended - against each other, but these decks don't look to me like they'd even stand up to other similar products, such as the Archenemy or Planechase decks. The rares seem pretty week, but that might be due to the inclusion of the Planeswalkers themselves. Seems like a lame reason, but so it goes.

Fortunately, the foil Planeswalkers... well, okay the Elspeth... will be enough of a draw to move some units, and the alt art StP and Factory will definitely push these over the edge. There are some interesting cards besides those, though.

For instance, Tezzeret's deck comes with and Argivian Restoration. I'm sure this card isn't worth much, but it's interesting to me because I've never even seen it before! Foil is another older card most players won't already have (but I do, so "meh").

Aside from Swords, Elspeth has an Abolish, which is "meh" to me again, but most folks playing today probably weren't around for the (god-awful) set Prophecy, so it might be a good EDH or casual pull for others. The aformentioned Crusade, while not high-dollar by any stretch isn't exactly easy to find either, so a few folks might be just thrilled to have one. Temple Acolyte is a neat little card, a 1/3 makes a great early game blocker, and the 3 life bonus is nice too, but what makes me happy is the 2 mana cost. That's pretty good for such an old card. He'd have been a great lead-in to Loxodon Heirarch when Gruul and Zoo were running roughshod all over Standard. Okay, so he's still not great, but I've seen FAR worse at 1W...

The one rare I'm kinda stoked about is Catapult Master. This was another guy I had to look up because I'd somehow never even seen him before. He seems pretty good in this or any dedicated Soldier deck. I mean, he's a 3/3 for 5 mana and you have to tap FIVE guys to activate, but still... he does bait you into overextending right into your opponents Wrath effect, but if you're playing against the Tezz deck, no worries there.

As for the decks themselves... shit. I don't even think I'd wanna play them against each other, as is. So when these things drop, expect a post where I tinker with and update them and, maybe play a few games to see how the run with a little bit of help.

FNM Report 08-20-2010

Ergh, sorry for not posting in two weeks! I have been rather preoccupied, but that doesn't mean I haven't been playing Magic... last weekend I went 3-1 in the swiss rounds, but I had to leave before the 4th round was over to go see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Excellent movie, by the way. Totally fuckin' awesome.

Anyway, that tourney wasn't worth reporting on since I didn't see it through to the end. This Friday's tourney was pretty good though.

Round 1 was against Daniel with a W/B deck with allegedly a lot of removal but he didn't draw all that much removal against me (or lands for that matter), but it didn't help matters that I got nearly god-tier draws. Game 2 my opening 7 was this: Forest, Plains, Mystic Rainforest, Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, Sovereigns of Lost Alara. Yeah, I couldn't have stacked my deck and done better!

Round 2 was Conlon playing my deck but with Vengevines. Ugh, I hate this matchup, but we both got sub-par draws. My deck won simply by virtue of the fact that everything I draw is either a mana source or a massive must-answer threat. I drew a tad too much mana, but his deck was preforming a tad slower than it should have been, so everything I drew was relevant. One game our decks seemed to be having a battle of who could draw the absolute worst! I ended up winning the match, again bases simply on threat density.

Round 3 was against Jeremy Bright playing B/R infinite turns. Game 1 was a fairly quick kill, despite him drawing 37 Lightning Bolts that game. Sheesh. Game 2 was brutally tough and ended with him taking infinite turns. Game 3 was one of the most epically tough games ever. It all game down to this:
   He was at 12 life, with me at 10 life. He had two fully-leveled Coralhelm Commanders, tapped, so 10 power of Flying damage on the table. I have a Knight of the Reliquary and a single Bird Token and 6 lands. No mana dorks. Two cards in hand, a Jace and a Sovereigns. He had some # of tapped lands, but two lands open, a Mountain and an Island, with 4 cards in hand (I think).
   I untapped after taking the merfolk beating to the face, blocking one with a Bird token (I had two at that point) and going to 10. I untapped and drew a second Jace (not helpful!). It's important to note two more details here: one is that among my lands on the board I had a Sejiri Steppe (most KotR decks only run 1), and two is that I already KNEW he had an Into the Roil in hand from a Treasure Hunt earlier in the game.
Now, he rightly knew he's dead if I had Sovereigns, so he left two up. Presumably he left those two mana up for the Roil, anticipating me swinging out of nowhere for 12 (his life total). However, he had two or three other unknown cards in hand as well. If one of them was a Mana Leak, I was screwed. 
   I spent a good long while agonizing over what to do: go for the win with Sovereigns or play it safe by casting Jace and bouncing a Merfolk. Now, the Sovereigns plan was solid, as I had a second Steppe to save me from Into the Roil. IF, and this was a big If, he ONLY had Into the Roil and nothing else (Lightning Bolt would have been just as bad as Mana Leak) I won. He didn't know I had a second Steppe, as most deck only play 1 of them. Jace might have been a bad play regardless, but if I attempted Sovereigns and he flashed Leak, I was dead. So I really thought about trying to be careful and play it safe. However, in the end I decided to just go for broke.
   I tapped out for Sovereigns, and he just nodded at the inevitability of it all. I acted like I was trying to decide weather to swing with the bird or the Knight for a second and then seemed to settle on the bird. He went for the Into the Roil as I had hoped and, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. I tapped the KotR and went digging for Steppe #2. I was halfway through the deck and hadn't found it yet, when I started to remember thinking about taking the second one out! I began to get nervous and right then Jeremy asked if I was even running two of them (in a tone that suggested I shouldn't have two in the deck). I answered honestly: "I'm not sure, I may have taken it out". But... there it was after all. I show him the Steppe and he scoops 'em up offering a "good game". Indeed! Very intense.

Top 4: I play Trey, piloting Naya Shaman. It wasn't easy, but I got there with some luck and the uber-dense threat package my deck offers. During Game 1, Trey casts Bloodbraid Elf cascading into a Basilisk Colar - the ONLY non-creature card in his deck (other than land, obv) - when all he needed was a blocker for one turn. Finest Hour made a rare appearance and was critical in one game. I never seem to draw that card, but when I do, it wins like mad.

Top 2 was me and Jeremy again, but neither of us wanted to play that out so we split.

A fun tourney, some epic games. And I beat Conlon, so that was nice.

From the Vault: Control

Decklist first, discussion after...

1 Morphling
1 Blinding Angel

4 Isochron Scepter

2 Mystical Tutor
2 Snap
3 Echoing Truth
3 Memory Lapse
4 Counterspell
3 Orim's Chant
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Holy Day
3 Raise the Alarm
3 Wrath of God

1 City of Brass
2 Coastal Tower
3 Thalakos Lowland
2 Adarkar Wastes
5 Plains
9 Island

There are a lot of things I want to say about this deck...

I guess I'll start with the beginning. It was mid-Mirrodin block, and Darksteel was out, but not Fifth Dawn yet. My best friend Stephen had been away from the game for a couple years (he's the one who got me into it in the first place). I kept playing while he took an extended break, which included selling me his whole collection.

A few years later, I'd made some new friends, ironically not through Magic, but it turned out they played it! So we had fairly close-knit playgroup, as we all played Magic, but were friends outside of the game. Steven was part of the circle, too, and naturally got sucked back in.

I had enough cards at this point that I could build many decks at once, so he'd just ask me to build something in a certain color or something. He'd just play whatever I built for him, and that was fine for a while. Soon enough, though he wanted to actually build decks himself, and so he came over to peruse my ample collection.

He'd seen Isochron Scepter in action, but NONE of us new it's true power yet. And this is where I go on a tangent, so bear with me.

I had never heard the term "net deck" before. I didn't go online and look up ANYTHING on Magic. I read Inquest magazine, but every time they talked about tournament decks, I zoned out and flipped past it. I tell you this, so that you know: I'd never seen a single decklist from any other source with Isochron Scepter, except a really janky one that Inquest published as soon as the set was spoiled.

The one thing I DID know was that Orim's Chant was one of the absolute best possible spells to imprint on the Isochron Scepter. I had three of them, that I'd never used. I was aware that they were a high-dollar rare, because they were always in the case at Top Deck Games and usually had the highest price tag of anything in the case. So I knew they were good, and worth some dough, but I just didn't have any use for such a spell.

Then as Stephen sat in my floor, flipping binders, he decided he'd make a deck with Isochron Scepter in it. He expressed this desire to me, but didn't know what else he wanted in the deck. Oh, wait, except he'd also found my three copies of Treachery and wanted to use those too. He said he knew the two cards had little to do with one another but he asked if I could help him build a deck with both.

Well, I said that if he wanted to use the Scepter, he'd have to include white, as the best thing to pair with it was Orim's Chant. Okay, so between these three cards, we seemed to be firmly in W/B control territory. Which was something we both never really did. However, we'd both heard of control decks that played exactly ONE win condition: Morphling. That was also something we didn't really know much about. We knew such decks existed but had no clue how to build them OR play them.

So we set out to forge a new path for ourselves, and enter the uncharted realm of Control.

I pointed out to him a few more spells, but largely left it up to him to construct the deck, as getting him back in the saddle of deckbuilder was the whole point. I was just there as a helper in case he got stuck. In the end, after about an hour of thumbing through every blue or white card I owned, he'd built some 73 card monstrosity. But as I thumbed through the deck he proudly handed over, I realized that it wasn't a monstrosity, or at least not a bad deck.

It looked pretty solid, actually. It had a few issues, mainly the over-the-moon card count, but amazingly enough the main reason was that he'd gotten afraid of the whole 1-win-condition thing and threw in some extra creatures. Fine ones, such as Man-O-War, and some not-so-fine ones that I can't remember. I cut all the excess creatures, save one: Blinding Angel (Morphling was not an excess creature, it was the one that already belonged). Two creatures was still kinda scary for us, so I kept in the Raise the Alarms he'd thrown in. But it really felt right at this point. Cutting all the creatures, left nothing else but No Stick, Treachery, Bribery, and Wrath as the only non-imprintable spells. That seemed exciting to us.

I trimmed the fat from his deck, and I think I added the 3 Wrath of God but the rest of the deck was all Steven. He built it, I streamlined it down to 60, and we were off to the races!

God. The deck KILLED our poor, poor friends. At the time we thought it was great fun, being able to respond to virtually every single threat laid before us... It wasn't very fun for our opponents. It never lost a game.

Paul pretty much always played Elves. If Blinding Angel hit once, he was never going to attack again the rest of the game. Holy Day on the Stick was the same thing. Or, obviously, Chant. He could ONLY win by attacking, and had little artifact removal, which the ample countermagic was able to ward off.

Anne played... I don't remember what exactly, but I'm sure it had Blue, or Black, or both. I do remember a game against her where I got Memory Lapse on the Stick and she drew (and tried to cast) the same spell about 5 turns in a row. When I pointed out to her that she could break the cycle by NOT casting anything, she said "well, what's the point, then?!" and scooped up her deck.

Chad played a few different decks, but played against the deck piloted by Stephen maybe once, and piloted by me maybe once, and then refused to even shuffle up his deck if he knew we were playing this deck. I played it in a few 4 or 5 player free-for-all games. Counterspells should be terrible in multiplayer, but when you have near-infinite counter magic, it actually works like a charm. Bolstered by the Wraths and Bribery's it easily took down a whole table.

I think we had the deck together a month or more, but it only took about two nights of gaming before every single one of our friends learned to say "No" to the No-Stick. We literally could NOT get a game if we brought the deck out. Fortunately I had several decks built, so we still got our Magic fix, but the W/B deck was very clearly off limits.

Sad thing was, it was hands down the best deck either of us had ever built at that point. It's telling, I think, that THIS deck was banned from our table, but my Tolarian Academy deck stocked with Tinkers, Memnarch, Mycosinth Lattice and Karn was not. Oh they hated the Academy deck, to be sure. But they never expressly forbid me from playing it. I played it for months before they finally begged me to give it a rest. But the W/B No-Stick? I played 5 game at most with it ever, before it was officially blacklisted.

Steven played a few more games with it, as he was the lesser pilot, but only because he was just getting back into the game, and was still re-learning the ropes. But I honestly don't think even HE lost a game with it. Soon enough, even he couldn't play the deck.

Well, I guess that is the story of how I learned to play control decks, and Stephen built one of his masterpiece decks. And, between this and the Academy deck, I earned a reputation that I still haven't shaken to this day, despite not having cast an Isochron Scepter in over 5 years.

FNM Tourney report 08/06/10

Small turnout tonight, as GenCon is going on. Lame. Oh well. Anyway, before the tournament started I swapped out the last two Sea Gate Oracles still in the deck for two Fauna Shamans. I don't have the Vengevines but I still figured it couldn't hurt to have a way to turn a late-game BoP into a more useful threat such as Baneslayer or Sovereigns. Finding Sovereigns more consistently can only help, right?

So like I said, small turnout, and not a great deal to report, but I had a few epic games.

Round 1: Up against Mono-red, I lose game one due to a combination of an explosive hand on my opponent's side of the board vs. my really, really slow hand. If he'd been dumb enough to let my Noble Heirarch live, I'd still have been just fine and dandy, but I really needed that mana and he knew it.
    Game two was a tough battle, but Jace 2.0 and a single Dragon Claw kept my head just above water. I stabilized at 2 life and then got a one-shot kill with Rafiq + Conscription. That might have been game three, actually. Don't remember. I know I won both games with Conscription (big surprise), but details are a bit fuzzy. The one detail I do remember is that I was at 2 or 3 life when I won those games, so it was a very close match.

Round 2: Ugh, paired against Chad. He's playing the R/G Eldrazi deck that he played to help me test my Bant deck originally... I destroyed him then, and my deck is even better now, so he just conceded the match on the spot so we could play EDH instead.

Round 3: Daniel with a sort of W/U control, I guess. Not the standard net-deck variety, I don't think. Anyway, it was an uphill battle. It seemed hopeless for me when he dropped a Mystifying Maze. That seemed the perfect foil for my Conscription plan. However, I drew into a Finest Hour which was the perfect foil to his perfect foil. He could stop ONE Conscription but to follow it up with a second one in the same turn? Yeah, that was a bit tougher to deal with. So fighting through all that removal and Spreading Seas and what-not, not to mention him getting his Jace out first in one game, it was tough, but I pulled out the miraculous win.

Top 4: Chad again. This time he gives it a go, but his deck fucks him over. My deck performs pretty badly, in one game I had to pitch a Sovereigns to Fauna Shaman to go get a Baneslayer. I had Rafiq out already, but couldn't get through, so I needed a flyer, or a sixth land. I couldn't seem to get the 6th mana, so I finally just cashed in for a BSA and then drew the 6th land immediately after! Go figure. However, BSA + Rafiq was just as much of a problem for him as Sovereigns would have been, and on to Game 2. Game 2 was much the same with my deck drawing poorly and being very, very slow, but somehow his deck managed to be just a tad bit slower still, and I eventually won a match that left both of us rather annoyed with our decks.

Finals was a rematch with Daniel and his WB control deck. It was not a match either of us really wanted to play. Even though I won the first round, and felt I could pull it off again if I had too, it's just more effort and every play requires intense thought to win. Fortunately prize support worked out that we just split for two packs apiece, and we were both glad not to have to play it out all over again.

My packs were TERRIBLE: Clone and a Traumatize.  Ugh. The BEST thing in my packs was a Crystal Ball. Whoopie. Still, it was a good time, and my deck continued to serve me well, even when it drew badly, it managed to not suck TOO much.

I'm With GoCo

Ghost Council of Orzhova! 

And here is his deck:

3 Nip Gwyllion

4 Mourning Thrull

3 Night Sky Mimic

3 Orzhov Pontiff

3 Blind Hunter

4 Ghost Council of Orzhova

2 Divinity of Pride

3 Mortify

3 Unmake

3 Zealous Persecution

3 Edge of Divinity

2 Cauldron Haze

4 Godless Shrine

3 Orzhov Basilica

3 Caves of Koilos

2 Tainted Field

2 Leechridden Swamp

5 Swamp

5 Plains

This list probably isn't right where I want it, but I can't make up my mind what all I need and what I just like. This is reflected in the lack of 4x any particular card, as I tried to cram in everything but the Kitchen Sink... ooh, Kitchen Finks would be great here, but I'm a stickler for off-color hybrid stuff. It ruins the aesthetics. 

But as I was saying I like too many of these cards, but I can't figure out what to cut to make more stuff 4x. Obviously, I like Ghost Council. A lot. He's just about my favorite card out of the whole Ravnica block - along with Niv-Mizzet and Loxodon Hierarch. 

Hmm... then again, maybe more diversity is a good thing for this deck. Maybe diversity > consistency here? 

One thing I do know is that I'd LOVE some card draw up in dis bitch. Sign in Blood, maybe? Phyrexian Arena is probably better. Dark Confidant? No, the problem with any and all of these is that every single card in the deck is multi-color; either traditional W/B or Hybrid. One of the reasons for this is to support the amazing Night Sky Mimic (note: this card is a 3x just because I can't find the others; I have like 10 of them, but could only find 3 at the moment - this guy WILL be 4x once I locate their hiding spot). And it was just fun seeing if I could build a deck with ZERO mono-colored cards. 

So a search of Gatherer reveals that the only card that is W/B that has the word "draw" anywhere on it is Conjurer's Ban. The Ban is a pretty mediocre card, and just cantrips, so it doesn't even really count as "card draw" so much as it is "card parity". Now, see if Castigate was a cantrip, that'd be just dandy. Alas, I guess I'll have to just see how she does without any draw, and maybe I won't need it after all.

The deck is capable of explosive starts - swinging with a 4/4 Lifelink on turn 2 or a 7/7 Flyer on turn 3 is pretty damn hard to stop for most decks. The 1-2 punch of Zealous Persecution and Orzhov Pontiff can be quite devastating as well to many decks. Blind Hunter is silly, but I always wanted to try to make him good. He's probably gonna get the axe at some point, but not before I give him ample opportunity to prove himself.

I wanted a couple of Deathbringer Lieges in here too, but it made the curve just a bit too steep. Maybe I can work 'em in later... we shall see. It would be nice, as it turns every spell in the deck into removal. Yeah, the more I think on that, the more I think I want 'em, but I dunno. 

For more ideas, here's the Gatherer list of every W/B card in Magic currently. Almost all of these cards could be playable, though some would require a bit of a paradigm shift in the deck to make sense. Some particularly tempting morsels include:

Angel of Despair

Debtors Knell

Gerrard's Verdict

Identity Crisis

Teysa, Orzhov Scion

Vindicate

Those are just the cream of the crop, but most of the cards on the list are playable. I really think W/B is my favorite color pair in Magic, but I rarely actually build W/B decks... odd.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

(Props if you get the reference in the Title, BTW)

Correct me if I've lost count, but I believe this is the 5th and final deck in my Planeswalker series, utilizing the new M11 "signature spells" and today is all about the hot, hot, hottie Chandra Nalaar.

Let's get the list up front and center:

3 Cinder Pyromancer
4 Gelectrode
4 Chandra's Spitfire
4 Wee Dragonauts

4 Ponder
4 Preordain
3 Flame Jab
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Flame Rift
2 Chandra's Outrage
2 Chandra Nalaar

4 Steam Vents
4 Cascade Bluffs
3 Shivan Reef

4 Halimar Depths
2 Island
6 Mountain

Okay, so I won't bullshit you - This deck is a bit of a failure in my eyes. It's a good deck, don't get me wrong, but I had to make sacrifices in the optimization department to follow the rules of this series. Essentially, this deck only plays 2 Chandra's Outrage because the point of the exercise was to use ALL the signature spells. But while Outrage is a fine card and occasionally it's useful here, it's just WAY to expensive for what this deck wants to do. And honestly Chandra herself doesn't really belong either. Jace, the Mind Sculptor would be a better fit, in fact. So for YOU, who are not constrained by the rules set for me by this exercise, running Chandra and her Outrage are not required, and in fact, not recommended. I'd replace them with 4x Rift Bolt, or some such thing.

That out of the way, lets look at what the deck does RIGHT. Turns 1 and 2 you usually play a Halimar Depths and/or a Ponder to set things up, then on turn 3, start laying down 3-drop dudes. Usually you want to just play creatures until you have one Flyer and one or two Pingers. Hold your Instants and Sorceries back as much as possible until you've got a few dudes out. Then, if  they let you untap with all that shit intact, empty your hand of as much Burn and Draw as you possibly can, using your mana as efficiently as you can. Don't forget to untap your Gelectrodes and Pyromancers!!!

By the time you're tapped out or empty-handed your opponent should already be getting worried, as by now your Spitfires and/or Dragonauts should be upwards of 10+ power each. Swing for the win. Simple as that.

Oh, yeah they might have removal, so for those following at home, you might try to squeeze in some cheap countermagic (nothing over 2 mana!) to protect your beaters. Wrath isn't that big a deal, just try to hold at least one guy in hand - you should never need more than three on the table to win, so drawing more lets you keep some in reserve.

And, one other thing, Flame Rift was just there to give me at least a shot at playing this in a Multiplayer game, but this is definitely more of a duel deck. Flame Jabs also help in this regard, though they're pretty excellent in a duel too.

Some cards I'd consider for this deck:
Curiosity (funny as hell on a Pyromancer, but prolly not worth the slot)
Rift Bolt (a must really, but I appear to be missing all of mine)
Ancestral Memories (Ponder and Preordain are great, but sometimes you want more cards)
Remand (yeah, they keep the countered spell in hand, but you really only want to cast this against removal anyway, so if they don't have the mana up to re-cast it right then, they're dead)
Grapeshot (4 Ponder, 4 Preordain already looks suspiciously like a Storm deck, so why not?)

Finally, I tried this deck back in the day with just 4 Dragonauts and 4 Gelectrodes. It was fun and okay, but didn't draw enough dudes. I waited until they printed good, suitable analogues for each so that I could rebuild the deck with basically 8x of each. Now, I seem to draw TOO many creatures some games. However, removal is much more prevalent than it was back then, so that might still be for the best. You can try it at 12 or 14 guys, and see how it does. I might just run 3x of all the guys, but I dunno yet.

Well, that's it for the Planeswalker deck series, and I'm really happy with all of them. This one less so just because I couldn't seem to design a deck that Chandra's Outrage belonged in, but I really thing it's the weakest out of all 8 of the signature spells, so I can't blame myself too much.

Enjoy!