Wow, I really cannot believe that I haven’t written an article since August 15th of last year! I have been going through a bunch of transitions and am getting ready for one more when I will be moving to Minneapolis for an internship!! So I will be looking for Minneapolis area players to play with!!

Also as a piece of housekeeping and as a follow-up to my last post about using online trading for my Scooby Doo EDH deck I wanted to plug Puca Trade, a trading website that has been gaining a strong following (@PucaTrade on twitter). The idea is a peer to peer trading site that uses point systems for sending and receiving cards. Please check out their IndieGoGo project to learn how the site works and donate if you can. They are really close to securing funding to improve the site. I have been using it for months now and have gotten everything from commons/uncommons for casual decks to shock lands for standard.

Today I want to talk about a variation on my favorite format: EDH/Commander (for an overview of the format check here). I am very fortunate to have a regular EDH playgroup that plays together multiple times a week. Lately however, both within this playgroup and the EDH community at large I have been seeing the format become kind of stale. It’s natural that overtime any format (including casual ones) can become like this. People start seeing cards that work well, incorporate them into their decks, and pretty soon we are looking at the same staple cards being played in any and all decks. There have been some interesting discussions about this on Twitter recently, about how to keep the game fresh, how to encourage creativity in deckbuilding, and how to make sure EDH doesn’t die.

The variant I want to discuss today is Pauper EDH. I have known of people building pauper decks for a long time, but it wasn’t until @Torerotutor told me that his LGS had started playing this more that I considered talking to my playgroup about trying it out. While many people have already come up with their own rules, banned list, etc. for this format, I want to talk specifically about how my playgroup went about evolving our variant.

1. A Non-Legendary Rare creature for the Commander: For the purpose of our playgroup we wanted players to be able to build around some of the rare creatures that they loved. We liked the idea of your Commander still being rare in order to make it stand apart from the rest of the cards in the deck. We didn’t want to allow Mythics as the power-level of these would lead to a lot more up front bannings and we wanted the format to be as wide open as possible to start.

2. Commons/Uncommons only with a price cap per card of 5 dollars: So Pauper normally refers to decks with commons only, but we’re expanding the definition a little. We wanted people to explore the card pool magic had to offer and use cards that they might not otherwise use. We didn’t want this to be a format of Sol Ring, Sensei’s Divining Top, Aether Vial, Mana Crypt, Mana Drain, etc. Some of these are obviously really extreme examples, but we wanted to have a guideline to go on. We have been primarily using TCG mid-prices of NM cards and we allow some flexibility due to price fluctuations and also to some cards being artificially inflated due to availability (for example we wanted white to have access to spot removal and so we allow Path to Exile).

3. 40 life/21 General Damage: A lot of groups that I have seen playing this format are lowering life totals and amount of general damage that is needed. This can speed up games for sure, but this wasn’t necessarily one of our main goals. Since we are not pre-banning a lot of cards we also wanted to experiment with having normal life totals and if games did drag on forever we would revisit this.

4. Organic Ban List and Watch List: We didn’t want to start out by banning a ton of stuff. We wanted this format to develop organically within our playgroup and to be as wide open as possible. At the same time we did recognize some cards that would be below our price cap while still being problematic. The only common/uncommon that has been banned at this point is Skullclamp, but we have a lot of cards on our Watch List (for example Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, and Whispersilk Cloak). The main philosophy behind this is that we wanted the group to play a lot of games first and make decisions about cards based on problems that were consistently coming up. The biggest issue with creating a ban list is that it is so meta dependent and also can get clouded by what individual players dislike.

5. Banned Generals: We did decide to ban some generals up front that we felt would be too easily abused.

a. Serra Ascendant (I don’t know what to say here but duh)
b. Felidar Sovereign (follows same rationale as above) *edit: thanks to @RogueArtificer for pointing out this card is mythic, our original rules allowed mythics
c. Deadeye Navigator (this was a card that was already causing a lot of frustration in our other EDH games)
d. Magister Sphinx (the effect can be already overly powerful when you have a lot of ways to deal with this card)
e. Elvish Archdruid (Pauper’s version of Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary)

The main message I want to convey about this format is that we really wanted it to be what EDH/Commander was originally designed to be: A flexible rules approach to a casual format that really should be developed naturally within a given playgroup. Too often I hear players complain about how they don’t agree with the Official Ban List, or certain strategies that are allowed. When I suggest that they can change this, do whatever the hell they want, they look at me strangely. I understand the utility of having a ban list that is universal (if I want to play online, or play with new people I don’t know), but deep down I believe that this format should be open and should be changing all the time.

Okay enough blabbering, here’s one of the decks I’ve been playing lately, to give you an idea of what is in our playgroup.

Hellrider Pauper

General (1) 1 Hellrider Creatures (33) 1 Akki Coalflinger 1 Anarchist 1 Caterwauling Boggart 1 Flametongue Kavu 1 Gempalm Incinerator 1 Goblin Artillery 1 Goblin Bushwhacker 1 Goblin Chirurgeon 1 Goblin Fireslinger 1 Goblin Matron 1 Goblin Recruiter 1 Goblin Ringleader 1 Goblin Sledder 1 Goblin Warchief 1 Goblin Wardriver 1 Guttersnipe 1 Kruin Striker 1 Kuldotha Ringleader 1 Mindclaw Shaman 1 Mogg Fanatic 1 Mogg War Marshal 1 Pilgrim's Eye 1 Prodigal Pyromancer 1 Rabble-Rouser 1 Raging Goblin 1 Rummaging Goblin 1 Signal Pest 1 Skirk Commando 1 Skirk Prospector 1 Skirsdag Cultist 1 Spitfire Handler 1 Stingscourger 1 Vulshok Sorcerer Instants (8) 1 Brimstone Volley 1 Dogpile 1 Grab the Reins 1 Last-Ditch Effort 1 Massive Raid 1 Shattering Pulse 1 Staggershock 1 Street Spasm Sorceries (16) 1 Act of Treason 1 Arc Lightning 1 Browbeat 1 Empty the Warrens 1 Faithless Looting 1 Goblin Grenade 1 Goblin Rally 1 Kaervek's Torch 1 Lava Burst 1 Mark of Mutiny 1 Mob Justice 1 Pillage 1 Shattering Spree 1 Slice and Dice 1 Threaten 1 Unwilling Recruit Enchantments (2) 1 Goblin Shrine 1 Pyrohemia Artifacts (6) 1 Crystal Ball 1 Darksteel Ingot 1 Mind Stone 1 Pristine Talisman 1 Shrine of Burning Rage 1 Talon of Pain Lands (34) 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Haunted Fengraf 28 Mountain 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Teetering Peaks 1 Terramorphic Expanse

Finally I would just like to say that since I have started playing this format, I have rediscovered some of my zest for EDH/Commander that was lacking. I still get in games with all my Pimped Out More Competitive Decks, but I find myself wanting to play pauper most of the time. It’s cheaper to throw a deck together, which allows me to just build out of whatever I have around, and allows me to make changes easier without feeling like I have to get expensive cards. I already have 3 decks built, of varying levels of power and all I want to do is make more!

I want to thank all the readers who have been coming to check this out. I can be reached on the comments here and @HobbesQ on twitter! I appreciate any and all feedback.

Ok so this week we have a very special deck tech. It all started from a pretty silly gchat with @swordstoplow from twitter:

 

@swordstoplow: Probably going with the triplets

me: the sen kind?

@swordstoplay: Yup, the sen

me: I was hoping maybe you meant meddling kids

@swordstoplow: Lol

me: Scooby Doo deck

 

Sean was talking about building an EDH version of a deck archetype known as Eggs. However, I made the conversation take a turn for the better when I made a Scooby Doo joke and mentioned an Unhinged Card… That’s right a card from the joke expansion Unhinged (which came after the wildly popular Unglued expansion). In case you don’t know I am someone who likes to build EDH decks around a theme. I have Angus Mackenzie Enchantress since he IS Tim the Enchanter from Holy Grail, I’ve built Mono Blue around all morph creatures. Scooby Doo has always been one of my favorite childhood shows and the idea of building an EDH deck to encompass the show’s themes was enticing.

So I took to Twitter! I wanted to get as many people involved as possible. I set up a google document and let people start editing, and sharing thematic ideas or specific cards. What we have so far is presented here:

Scooby Doo EDH

General (1) 1 Meddling Kids Creatures (42) 1 Meddling Mage 1 Azami, lady of Scrolls 1 Jushi Apprentice 1 Ith, High Arcanist 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner 1 Rayne, Academy Chancellor 1 Mangara of Corondor 1 Geistcatcher’s Rig 1 Ghost Ship 1 Pirate Ship 1 Old Man of the Sea 1 Aether Figment 1 Dream Stalker 1 Fathom Seer 1 Fleeting Image 1 Illusionary Forces 1 Imaginary Pet 1 Mistform Stalker 1 Lord of the Unreal 1 Phantasmal Bear 1 Phantasmal Image 1 Phantasmal Forces 1 Phantasmal Dragon 1 Phantom Beast 1 Phantom Monster 1 Phantom Warrior 1 Death-Mask Duplicant 1 Solemn Simulacrum 1 Duplicant 1 Sakashima The Impostor 1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1 Proteus Machine 1 Willbender 1 Voidmage Apprentice 1 Voidmage Prodigy 1 Coral Trickster 1 Disruptive Pitmage 1 Echo Tracer 1 Wall of Deceit 1 Weaver of Lies 1 Undead Slayer 1 Chronomaton Instants (13) 1 Arrow Volley Trap 1 Cackling Counterpart 1 Cryptic Command 1 Ghostway 1 Ghostly Flicker 1 Lost in the Mist 1 Meddle 1 Mysteries of the Deep 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Pitfall Trap 1 Refraction Trap 1 Sway of Illusion 1 Whiplash Trap Sorceries (2) 1 Switcheroo 1 Treasure Hunt Enchantments (7) 1 Coastal Piracy 1 Cowardice 1 Entangling Trap 1 Ghostly Prison 1 Hatching Plans 1 Imperial Mask 1 Ivory Mask Artifacts (12) 1 Blazing Torch 1 Bone Mask 1 Booby Trap 1 Executioner’s Hood 1 Farsight Mask 1 Ice Cauldron 1 Jester’s Mask 1 Mana Crypt 1 Mana Vault 1 Mask of Memory 1 Pit Trap 1 Uba Mask Lands (16) 1 Abandoned Outpost 1 Adarkar Wastes 1 Ancient Tomb 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Ghost Town 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Haunted Fengraf 1 Lotus Vale 1 Maze of Ith 1 Moorland Haunt 1 Mystic Gate 1 Mystifying Maze 1 Nimbus Maze 1 R&D’s Secret Lair 1 Ruins of Trokair 1 Sorrow’s Path

Based on people’s suggestions we decided to go with more morphs and illusions instead of actual ghosts. We also included some artifact creatures to represent the robots that were seen in the opening credits and throughout the show. Some other elements that we have are masks, traps, spells about misdirection, reveals, etc. The goal is that the deck will play out like a mystery with Legendary Creatures to represent our Heroes (and of course our Mystery Machine aka Geistcatcher’s Rig).  Here is a sampling of what we have so far:

Meddling Kids/Meddling Mage: The kids will be our general (I am assuming my playgroup will let me play it, we’re a pretty casual group). I included the meddling mage in here too just to keep on theme and he’s also a wizard (you might see that I am working towards a wizard sub-theme to help with some of the abilities on our legendary creatures).

Azami, lady of Scrolls: This is our Velma. She’s smart, she’s knowledgeable and most likely is going to be the one to solve mysteries by collecting the clue. Her card drawing ability is a great representation of this.

Jushi Apprentice: So this is Fred currently.  This card is mainly chosen for what it becomes when it flips: Tomoya, the Revealer. Usually Fred would create the traps and be the one to reveal what is going on.

Ith, High arcanist: This is Shaggy since are not in Red (cuz then it would obviously be Norin, the Wary). Basically Ith tries to keep scary things away, without getting involved himself. He may not be a total coward like we think Shaggy is, but he plays his part.

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: Scooby himself! Kira wants all of her friends to be left alone, and she wants to protect them (with a false front of acting tough). Scooby sadly is one of the ones I think we all struggled with and is one I’d love to hear more suggestions on.

Rayne, Academy Chancellor: Our Daphne, our damsel in distress. She’s the girl who finds a way to get into trouble, to get into danger. Rayne helps the team out by drawing cards when she or other people in the gang are in trouble.

Mangara of Corondor: Late addition Scrappy Doo. I wanted something that was small but gets the job done. Initially I had Isamaru, Hound of Konda but decided that another wizard was needed and could help with our sub-theme.

This deck is a work in progress, and I am presenting it here in my article, because I want to get more people involved! That’s right readers: I want your help! I need your help! I want us to work on bringing this together as a whole deck. The plan is that I will organize everyone’s suggestions, and then set to building the deck (which is going to take a lot of trading and most likely some trading online). This will let me talk more about trading online and some of the differences that are involved between this and trading in real life.

(EDIT): Here’s the googledoc link. If you send me your email I can add you as an editor to add suggestions. @browndr has been doing this and contributed greatly to this initial list!

I want to thank all the readers who have been coming to check this out. I can be reached on the comments here and @HobbesQ on twitter! I appreciate any and all feedback.

P.S. At Comic-Con this year Mark Rosewater (@maro254) mentioned that a third UN set would be possible if the people wanted it. So let him know that you do!

I want to apologize for the gap in my articles. I am currently a graduate student in a clinical psychology program and summer is our transition period. I help run a clinic and we have been working on getting the new therapists trained. Things are settling down and I should be back on track now!

Last time we met I gave you guys my Part 1 of my Comic-Con Experience. This week I’d like to pick up where we left off. I had spent my day getting art done by @inkwell_looter and @postrk. I’d finally traded for a foil Voidmage Husher for my Nicol Bolas EDH deck. Things were going good. But then I was put to the test with a tough decision: Play in the 2HG event (which my friend and I won last year) or go to the Magic Panel (which I had missed the year before).

In order to clear my mind and decide I headed over to the open gaming room to play some EDH. Right as I sit down in walks Aaron Forsythe (who I had the pleasure of playing against the year before at con). He sits down at a table up front and starts gunslinging (you play him one v one, if you win you get a pack. If you lose I think he taunts you and does a little dance). With my pride on the line, I queued up to play him and then proceeded to feel like a total jerk when I dropped Turn 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Turn 4 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Aaron had an awesome Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder deck which abused the hell out of Blasting Station. I was able to get Jace up to ultimate though and won a pack of M13 with Quirion Dryad on it (which Aaron was awesome enough to sign).

We decided to go to the Magic Panel (we had played Scott Larabee the night before at EDH and I was interested to see him in action up on the panel). Now for those of you who have not been to Comic-Con or have not been in the last couple of years, the lines have gotten insane. Last year over 200 people showed up for the Magic Panel who were not even able to get in. They moved to a bigger room this year, but we were apprehensive so headed over to the room 2 hours early… and saw a line already! We got in quickly and snagged seats up near the front but had to sit through two other panels in order to save this spot. I spent most of these early panels sitting along a wall with my phone plugged into a charger so that I could make sure I could take photos and upload any spoilers. While waiting for my phone to charge I saw that I had a Direct Message on Twitter from @wizards_magic. My heart skipped a beat because I had no clue why I would be getting a message from the and right before the panel was set to start.

 “Hey! We are having a free invite-only M13 sealed event at the Marriott at 8pm tonight, and I’m inviting some of our Twitter followers. Members of R&D will be there as well as other Wizards employees and other players from the community. Let me know if you’d like to come! You are free to invite a few friends as well.”

WHAT??? I mean really? HOLY CRAP! (We’ll come back to this later)

Finally the Magic Panel started! Awesome people from Wizards walked around giving us all Nicol Bolas Head Pieces and a pack of M13 (which had just been released that day). The energy in the room was so high, everyone was smiling, I felt like a kid again. I was yelling out at the panel (at one point when they showed art for Return to Ravnica I remember yelling out “I saw SLIVERS!”). The people in front of me kept turning around and laughing with me… at least I hope it was with me and not at me since it turned out to be @natasha_lh. The panel was hard to focus on since I was trying to take a photo of any potential spoiler and upload it to Twitter immediately along with commentary by Mark Rosewater, Aaron Forsythe, Scott Larabee, Mat Cavotta (so awesome to have an artist on the panel), and Mark Purvis. It’s actually very funny to me that Mark Rosewater wrote his article on fame after Comic-Con because anytime I saw him I could see people becoming nervous and wanting to approach him but being scared (I had been this way the night before). In case you didn’t get to see the panel you can go watch it here (I think I can be seen around the 13:10 minute mark trying to get in line to ask a question. I’m the short dude in a dark blue shirt…)

After the Panel, we rushed over the open gaming area in order to find out more about this Free event with Magic celebs. It felt so awesome to be invited to this and when I showed up I saw tons of other people I had either already met or had been wanting to meet from Twitter and from their blogs. Artists were there (both ones who had done magic cards and the awesome @inkwell_looter who I’ve mentioned over and over), writers were there from Channel Fireball,twitter people like @metaknightmare (who is one awesome dude, had a chance to hang out with him a lot) and @sunie_fdc (who had done the community cup before), Rosewater, Forsythe, Purvis, Cavotta and then me and my friends.

Mike Gills was in charge of running this event and was a great host! He walked around, handing us all 6 packs of M13 (this was awesome since it was Release Day and I was missing my normal event at my LGS) to build a sealed deck with. Basically you built your deck, then you played anyone else who was invited to the event. If this all sounds like some kind of #humblebrag I’m just going to warn you that it gets even better…

This event was easily my highlight of the Con. It’s actually easily the highlight of any Con I have ever been to. Here I was playing Magic along with the creators, the promoters, the runners of the game. Here I was side by side with other fans, other Twitter/blogger personalities and getting to actually play magic instead of just talk about it all day every day. I built a pretty mediocre white/black deck with Ajani, Caller of the Pride and Odric, Master Tactician as my bombs. I think I went like .500 with the deck but the matches were all amazing and fun. We sat there playing for hours (halfway through Mike brought us 6 more packs and we were able to change our deck, which I did). Mat Cavotta had to leave and handed me his cards (later I would find a Sublime Archangel in there!). I also got to play Aaron Forsythe again (and win)!

So the final thing I want to talk about here is honestly the top moment of my whole Con Experience. Toward the end of the night, I finally got the chance to play @inkwell_looter which I had wanted to do since round 1. He’d made my tokens during the day, I interact with him fairly regularly on Twitter, and he had such a great personality. Right as we sit down Mike Gills comes over and says, “Ok this match is going to be for a Foil Uncut Sheet of M13 Uncommons”. I sat there mouth agape as I saw Rancor, and Rewind, and Tormod’s Crypt… and I had to win. Unfortunately things did not look good for me as I mull to 5 game 1 and get resoundly stomped. Game 2 was the opposite with Inkwell having to mull but he almost stabilized the board with some great early plays. I finally was able to get to Odric and swing for exactsies! Game three was fairly anticlimactic as I landed some early fliers and went on to win this!

This brought me to the end of my one day that I was guaranteed to be at the Con. Final stats: 19 hours at the Convention Center, close to 50 games of magic played, 22 packs of M13, a foil uncut uncommon sheet, artwork and tokens by some amazing people, and wow…

I want to thank all the readers who have been coming to check this out. I can be reached on the comments here and @HobbesQ on twitter! I appreciate any and all feedback.

_­­­

P.S. I was able to come on Sunday and traded my Uncut sheet for a Judge Promo Command Tower and Judge Promo Dark Confidant. The sheet is amazing, but sadly I had nowhere to hang/display it at this point!

I want to give a quick word of thanks for @JustActTypical on Twitter who has made it possible for me to experience Comic-Con the last 3 years.

As many of you know this past week was San Diego Comic-Con. I’ve been very fortunate to get to go the past three years to at least one day of the actual Con. The past two years a lot of my time has been spent playing magic in the open gaming room and going to panels on some of my favorite TV shows. The past couple of years, Wizards and Magic in general have not had a huge presence at the Con. There is always an open gaming area, and last year there was a panel. They often have a booth to demo Duels of the Planeswalkers, and sometimes a member of R&D will come gunsling (bring a deck and play against all-comers) in the gaming area for a while. Today I present Part 1 of my Con Experience!

This year Wizards really stepped up their presence and their availability. They created an off-site MTG Experience that anyone could go to (and get a sweet Euro land, or a foily Merfolk Mesmerist).  This was really beneficial because I only had a Con badge for one Day this year. I had actually arranged to come play a game of EDH/Commander with Scott Larabee from Organized Play on Thursday night (we’ve been playing regularly on MTGO but I had not met him in person).

I checked in on Facebook, got my Euro land and then proceeded to ask where I could find him. I was told to just knock on this back door and he would be in there. What I didn’t know is that the door would be answered by Mark Rosewater (@Maro254 himself)… I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t often meet people whose work I read regularly or helped design something like half the cards I play with. I felt awkward and out of place immediately so I did the only thing I could think to do: Ask for him to pose for this photo with me and Scott Larabee next to a giant Jace statue. After I was done freaking out I was able to get in a game of EDH with Scott and his awesome Damia, Sage of Stone BUG Zombie Tribal Deck (I think the Green was just for Glissa, The Traitor and Vulturous Zombie). I played my Nicol Bolas EDH (which I will be showing off on here someday), and two friends joined us playing Maelstrom Wanderer and Ghave, Guru of Spores. The game was pretty epic with Ghave controlling the board while Maelstrom Wanderer sat back and waited turn after turn to find a green source. Once he finally dropped a forest into play, it was pretty much game over for the rest of us (cascade is broken just in case you didn’t know). It was an awesome time getting to see all the cool FBB (Foreign Black Bordered) duals and shiny foils in Scott’s deck and showing off some of the ones in mine! I really enjoyed that there was somewhere to play a few games of Magic and by sweet Magic products like a Planeswalker Symbol Messenger Bag that was off-site. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for San Diego residents to get to experience the Con, so this helped bring a little part of it to the public.

Friday morning I arrived to the Con with Dallas (@JustActTypical) around 5am in order to stand in line to get badges. What do you do when you have to be somewhere 3 hours early and sit in a line? Play more EDH obviously (noticing a trend?).  In past years we have gotten in line this early in order to sit in one room all day long (the big TV show/Movie panels) but this year I wanted to try and meet some of the awesome artists that I know from Twitter and get some work done on my Spellground Playmat.­­ Rk Post (@postrk , artist of such cards as the Avatars, Morphling, Torchling, Arbor Elf, Tidehollow Sculler, Owen Turtenwald penis tokens…) often complains on Twitter how no one ever brings him coffee at events. So armed with a Venti Mocha from Starbux I marched up to him with my Playmat in hand. His first remark to me was “You’re shorter than I thought you’d be.” Rk is an awesome guy with a great personality, and a wry sense of humor. I found him to be so approachable and willing to play along with jokes.

Case in point (this next paragraph is not PG-rated): Another artist at the con @inkwell_looter has been doing tokens of Pro Players for Channel Fireball. Rk Post has been altering tokens of Owen Turtenwald to have a giant penis. I of course wanted to get one of these (because I am like a 12 year old some days). Rk came up with the idea to alter the token as Demon Turtenwald and then have me take it over to Inkwell’s booth and have him add on to the perverted drawing (if you’re brave it can be viewed here). Going back and forth between the booths of two artist’s I really enjoy getting penis drawings was one of the best memories I have from Con. I also purchased a more normal Zombie Token and Zombie Goat Token from Inkwell, who was cranking out amazing full color individualized tokens all weekend (I saw numerous other people with them).

I have never really gotten to interact with artists and people in the Exhibit Hall before. In past years I either avoided the Hall due to crowds, or I walked the floor for a few hours, looking at stuff but not stopping to meet/talk to people. Twitter has opened up relationships with so many people online, that felt great to interact with some of these people in person (crazy concept I know). Both Rk and Inkwell were awesome and I would get a chance to interact with Inkwell in a Magic Setting later on Friday Night (coming in Part II). I can’t believe I have already reached 1000 words (typical length of my posts) and we are only to lunch time. Join me next time when I talk about the Magic Panel and the Special Sealed Event I was fortunate enough to play in.

I want to thank all the readers who have been coming to check this out. I can be reached on the comments here and @HobbesQ on twitter! I appreciate any and all feedback.

I was going to discuss my pre-release today, but the site for creating decks that look good on the web-page does not have M13 up yet, so I will share my experience with M13 sealed at a later date.

Luckily I had a Budget Modern deck that I have been playing on MTGO that I thought might be of interest to you readers! Without further ado, I present the deck-list for the Deck I like to call Hide and Seek.

Hide and Seek

Main Deck (60) 4 Lightning Helix 4 Genesis Chamber 2 Howling Mine 4 Ajani’s Pridemate 4 Soul’s Attendant 4 Norin the Wary 2 Ghostly Prison 4 Suture Priest 4 Soul Warden 4 Lodestone Myr 4 Lightning Bolt 10 Plains 10 Mountain

Sideboard (15) 2 Dawn Charm 4 Pyroclasm 4 Disenchant 2 Kami of False Hope 2 Avacynian Priest 1 Condemn

This deck is basically a Modern version of what is called “Soul Sisters.” Basically it’s a RW life gain deck that revolves around playing  Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, and/or Suture Priest and then gaining a ton of life and powering up things like Ajani’s Pridemate. I kind of think of this as a deck to just have fun with. It’s silly, it gains a ton of life, and it can usually find a way to win.  I put this deck together for ~6 tickets, so it truly is budget (I’ll discuss how I would improve it later on).

This build is really centered around one of my favorite cards in the game: Norin the Wary. He’s basically Sir Robin (the Not Quite So Brave as Sir Lancelot) who runs away… a lot. The first time I saw this card, I knew I wanted to find a deck that it played in. This list is actually an update to the multiplayer build I used to run (except it had win cons such as Mob Justice, which is not Modern Legal). The deck wants to abuse Norin in two main ways: Constant Life Gain, and Token Generating.

Key Cards:

Norin the Wary: Duh

Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, and Suture Priest: This is your life gain engine. The best addition to this deck from my initial build is actually Suture Priest since she punishes your opponent’s for playing creatures and rewards you for playing yours. Priest can actually win games outright

Genesis Chamber: Pairs with Norin. Everytime he enters the battlefield he brings a little 1/1 friend with him, and each of these creatures trigger your Soul Sister’s. More importantly those little 1/1s that your opponent gets will cause them to lose extra life from Priest

Ajani’s Pridemate: This is the biggest threat in your deck

Ghostly Prison: This deck wants to make it hard for people to attack you so that you can sit back and have an insane life total.

Some tips to remember:

1. Norin the Wary is legendary. You cannot have two of them in play at the same time. I’ve forgotten this before especially because I am like oh well if I play a 2^nd one then the 1^st one leaves play… and then it comes back at EOT and legend bombs itself
2. If you have Lodestone Myr and Howling Mine out, you can tap the Howling Mine during your opponent’s upkeep.
3. Use your removal wisely, don’t just kill anything that hits the board. This is a lifegain deck, so you can take a fair amount of attacks. Early game threats are often good to get rid of so that you can stabilize

I have mainly been playing this deck in the Just for Fun room on MTGO. It’s a casual deck and is going to have a hard time against most Tier 1 decks (even though I have taken it into the tourney practice room and had some awesome games with it, it really makes people say WTF?). It does fairly well in the casual games, and I could even see playing it in multiplayer games (this was how I played it initially). If I wasn’t going to play it as a Modern deck I would add Last-Ditch Effort and Mob Justice back in (they are hilarious win cons).

If I wanted to add some more money to the deck (or was building it in paper where I could trade for the cards) I would add the following: 4 Path to Exile, 4 Sacred Foundry, 4 Clifftop Retreat, 4 Serra Ascendant, 2 Ensnaring Bridge, 2 Felidar Sovereign. I often cannot deal with large creatures (duh) and so path to exile would be an auto-include. The Ascendant’s and the Felidar’s take advantage of the life gain (and it is very easy to meet the thresholds needed to activate them). Finally, Ensnaring Bridge is really good at grinding out long games. You are able to sit behind it and make them either deal with it, or not attack you (since this deck wants to overcommit). It has always been a standout in my paper version, but they were too expensive for an initial budget build.

The purpose of today was to give people a cheap, easy to build budget deck that can sneak a lot of wins and is pretty hilarious in my opinion. I used mainly CardNexus bots and MTGOtraders bots to get the cards from the deck and recommend both of those. You can even visit their websites (www.thecardnexus.com, www.mtgotraders.com)  to purchase the cards and then pick them up online!

I want to thank all the readers who have been coming to check this out. I have been pretty shocked by the amount of traffic I have gotten, and I want you all to know how much I appreciate it. I want this blog to be for everyone and to really help cut down on the intimidation factor that can come with joining the magic community. I can be reached on the comments here and @HobbesQ on twitter! I appreciate any and all feedback.

p.s Thanks to @EdGuise88 for his help with how to use HTML tags for the deck! Also congrats to @metaknightmare who won the Iphone Case from last article’s giveaway! I will do more in the future when I get something cool to offer

It’s almost Friday!! Ok, it’s actually only Tuesday when I am writing this, but that’s when I start thinking about the weekend…

So why should you be so excited about Friday?? Because of Friday Night Magic (if you don’t know about FNM my first suggestion is to click here). FNM can be a great way to add a little competitiveness to your game and also let you play people outside of your normal playgroup (which can help you grow as a player and a deckbuilder). It’s also a great way to start getting more into the Magic Community and meet other local players. Doesn’t hurt that you can get some nice shiny versions of cards (current promo is Acidic Slime which is an EDH/casual player staple in my opinion). Today’s post is going to look at what to expect at your local FNM, and what you should do to prepare for and play in the event.

Playing FNM means that you have to go to an actual Local Gaming Store (LGS). A lot of new players are intimidated by this. I remember the first time I ventured beyond the kitchen table games I had always played and went to Ralph’s Comics. I went in to buy singles (mainly old commons and uncommons) and can remember walking into the store and feeling shocked. First of all there were all these cases of cards, and binders of cards, and packs for sale, and sleeves (what the hell are those for?), dice, everything. I didn’t even know where to begin and I felt nervous asking anyone for help. During this first visit I also saw all these regulars just sitting at tables talking about magic, playing magic, and for the most part having fun. But I wasn’t one of them, and so I didn’t really try to interact with anyone. I stood around looking awkward (I actually still do every time I go to a new store for the first time). It took multiple times of going in for me to even ask someone if they wanted to play a game.

I was just so afraid I would get ROFLstomped, or play incorrectly and I didn’t want to look like a fool. However, most of my friends who had started playing together at each other’s houses were getting bored and drifting away from magic while I was getting hooked. I think the hardest part for me was overcoming this idea that I would be labeled as a n00b. I’ve since learned that every store will have casual players and people I can identify with. And when I started I did get ROFLstomped but I learned both how to play better and make better decks. The most important point I want to make on this is that while there are some bad stores, most are good places, most are there for you the gamer, and it’s a great way to get into the community. FNM is a great way to go to, since this is the lowest level of competitive magic and is really aimed at casual players and helping people learn the rules and how to play in matches.

Preparing for your First FNM (for the purpose of examples I am going to talk about Constructed Format):

1. Call Ahead: Find out what time FNM will be, what time you need to be there to sign up by, and most importantly what the format will be. FNMs can be either constructed (you bring your own deck that is format legal: Standard, Block, Extended, Two-Headed Giant) or they can be limited (these are Draft and Sealed formats which I will discuss in a later article).
2. Stuff to bring: Your deck, dice, pad of paper (my preferred method for keeping track of life), trades, bottle of water, scarf, Tardis… Whatever you need to play a game of Magic bring it with you. If you don’t own sleeves for your deck or dice most stores will have these. I highly recommend sleeving your deck if you haven’t done this before. Easier to shuffle and protects your cards.
3. Know your deck: For the first FNM you don’t need to get online and netdeck, spending tons of money. If you want to, great. But I think you will learn more if you bring one of your homebrewed decks. You want to play something that you are comfortable with and that you know all the cards in. Make sure that all the cards are legal to be played in the format being played. By bringing your own deck you will learn what works competitively and what doesn’t. You often will be up against some Tier 1 decks (top decks played by the pros), and you might lose these matches, but you are going to learn a lot about how decks are played. It’s more important to just get comfortable playing more players that you have never met!
4. If you’re confused: ASK! The rules enforcement level for FNM is the lowest that there is. Sure you can’t just break rules and take things back, but if you make a mistake the penalties are much less. If you are confused by a play your opponent made, ask him why it works, or ask a judge. Most people at FNM hopefully aren’t going to be jerks, and will want to take the time to explain it to you. If they don’t want to help you, don’t worry. Just ask someone else later! The biggest thing to remember about FNM is that it is a learning experience. You might lose a lot early on, but you will learn how to build better decks, how to play better opponents, and you will learn where you are making mistakes. Just like with poker, or chess, or any other skill game, the best way to get better is to play tons of games. The more games you play, the more you will recognize board states, and what plays you are supposed to make.

This is really just a short intro, and if there are any topics I didn’t cover well enough please comment! I will respond to every comment (assuming I don’t get hundreds, which isn’t going to happen). It also helps me see where I can help you guys in the future!

As always I can be reached on the comments here and @HobbesQ on twitter! I appreciate any and all feedback as this is my first blog.

PS: I know today’s articles had a lot of links, but I wanted to make sure people had the resources to learn more about FNM and the different formats that are offered. I highly encourage you to look at these articles if you are starting out.

PPS: In case anyone wants to know, my first FNM deck was a Turbo Fog Blue White Mill deck, it was horrible, but it was hilarious to play