About a month ago myself and Gareth (my sounding board for all my deck ideas) were talking about the new human soldiers that have been released in RTR.

The main card we looked at was Champion of Lambholt. Everyone knows about Champion of the Parish, but the ability of stopping blockers from chump blocking your humans and letting them get into the red zone is very important.

By getting the low casting humans out and then building the power of your champion where no one can block your creatures by either using the Gavony Township or Mikeaus and get in there! If that fails play the long game and drop a crater hoof and roll  over for the win.

Have a look atthe list and see if this would work for you at your local FNM.

Hello everyone

RTR is in full swing and I have been playing it like a little kid on Christmas Day . Having the ability to play multicoloured decks with a pretty stable mana base now, the triple colour deck is real.

A few weeks ago, I played a Junk Token list at the Gauntlet Games FNM in Wynnum North, Brisbane and was lucky enough to go 4-0.

This was a great start but it also didn’t use the cards that were game breakers in this format, cards like Thragtusk, Angel of Serenity, Jace, Architect of Thought, I have been a fan of BANT (White,Green,Blue) style decks for a while. The moment Thragtusk was spoilt, Big Sexy screamed to be flickered for value.

So this BANT deck was not totally my idea, I have been playing around with a version with a lot of bounced Thragtusks and snapcasters,but Cardboard Witch published a list and an amazing article talking about a philosophy concerning Centaur Healer being a better bounce target than a Thragtusk due to the face trying to hold out and get more value with the Restoration Angel / Thragtusk business is actually reversing your mana curve, where you can cast a Healer on turn three and then an Angel on four THEN cast Big Sexy on Five for a total of Eleven extra life and Eleven power on the board before Turn Six!

My play style is more control based but to have a list like this is a nice change. I changed a few cards from Cardboard Witch’s original list but that is just for my play style.

I’m still thinking about using a few more board sweepers but that would be only due to my local meta game at Wyunnm North Gauntlet Games. There tends to be a creature heavy meta and my side board would reflect that, a few supreme verdict’s and maybe feeling of dread to hold the opposing creatures from another player and let my guys do some work.

Have a look and tell me what you think!

Happy Brewing!

 

Happy M13 everyone! With a new core set, players will quickly find the deck type they are comfortable with and start to beat face the best way they know how.

When the spoiler list was release there were a few cards that caught my eye, one being Jace’s Phantasm, a one blue casting 1/1 Flyer with a condition, if your opponent has more than ten cards in there graveyard, it gets a +4/+4!

WHAAAT?! Are you nuts!

WoTC have developed a creature that is not format breaking but if you show it a bit of TLC you will be rewarded with a big flyer.

One of the things that give it a good boost is the color, blue is all about screwing with different zones, one being counter magic to protect the Phantasm and the other is Milling your opponents library.

Yeah I said it, that dirty four letter word, Mill, if you haven’t got it now this is what I’m writing about, a Mill deck with a nasty surprise.

For the last few years WoTC has made a game that is very creature centric. Players love to cast creatures and run them into the red zone. This is what I am counting on. I want people to have truck loads of creatures in there library so I can mill them to the graveyard. In M13 they kept in a card that has not being used a lot but will be perfect for this deck.

Rise from the grave is a great card to get that killer creature in your opponents graveyard and allow you to beat face with it, at the same time your activating your Phantasm’s for more fun! All of this and you milling away your opponents options keeping your board state safe and giving you more options.

So how do I get the cards into the graveyard? There are a few options available, Mind Sculpt, Thought Scouwer, and Jace memory adept, also Trepidation blade. Also in the land department, there is Nephilia Drownyards. So many options!

So here is my list I will be playing at our FNM

Miller Time!

4x Jaces Phantasm
3x Vault Skurge
2x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Lilliana of the Veil
2x Jace Memory Adept
1x Nicol Bolas
3x Trepidation Blade
4x Mind Sculpt
3x Go for the throat
3x Vapor Snag
1x Disperse
3x Thought Scour
2x Galvanic Blast
1x Red Sun Zenith/Devils Play
2x Rise from the grave

2x Evolving Wilds
3x Nephilia Drown yards
2x Black Cleave Cliffs
3x Dark Slick Shores
4x Drowned Catacomb
2x Dragon Skull Summit
2x Mountains
3x Islands
3x Swamps

So what do you think?

2x Mutilate
2x Black Sun Zenith
2x Red Sun Zenith
3x Liliana’s Shade
3x Curse of Deaths hold
3x Murder
3x Go for the throat
2x Inferno Titan
2x Zealous Conscripts
3x Searing Spear
4x Shimian Specter
2x Magma Quake
4x Duress

4x Helion Crucible
4x Dragon Skull Summit
3x Black Cleave Cliffs
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Mountains
10x Swamps

So let’s start out why Helion Cruciable? Simple, its a creature spell that can’t be countered. With all the wannabe blue wizards out there, you need to get a creature out when you need it.

So what’s with the rest of the deck list?

You have multiple paths to victory, one is with a 4/4 Helion causing your opponent a headache he/she won’t forget for a while. The other paths to victory are the use of burn.

How do I get there?

I call this Keys to Victory. This is achieved by controlling the board, the bread and butter of a control deck. The moment your opponents creature hits the board you have a decision, destroy it, if you cant destroy it take it.

Or do you?

When you play a control deck you have to remember, don’t be hasty think about it, will his planes walker be a good thing for you if you draw a Zaleous Conscript and take it for the it’s ultimate? Will the creature on the board help you in the late game?

Sometimes you need to take a few hits to achieve the ultimate goal. Remember your life total is a resource, you only lose the game when your life total reaches zero, winning with one life point or one hundred you still win the game.

“Know your weakness and build your deck to minimize these weaknesses”

Time to be real, Black and Red have a problem with Enchantments. You can side board in Artifact hate, but enchantments can be a problem. How do you get rid of them? One way is attacking your opponents hand, this is where Duress and Shimian Spectre come into play, they are a triple threat, you cast your spell the effect happens (in the case of Duress) or the creature hits and you have to powerful things happen, one you see your opponents hand, the next you take something out of his hand! For bonus points if it’s the specter you can take more than just that card and you lower his life total.

When this happens a few times it’s just a magic the gathering wonderland for the B/R Mage.

Game plan:

Control the board using Black removal and red burn.
Use hand destruction to get rid of pesky spells (I.e. Enchantments)
Build your board state to cast a Helion or Titan to finish the game.

Is this the end? Noooooo this is just the beginning, this is just a start to the evolution of this deck. Have people look at it, get their feedback, play it at your local and see if it works in your meta.

Good luck and I would love to hear how you go.

@whoisles

With M13 only a few weeks away, a few of us have been talking about a few deck ideas.

The established decks will get a boost from the new cards, for example Delver will get a new creature in the form of Void Stalker.

And Red / Green Agrgro or Naya will get a new creature in the form of Thragtusk.

But what about a new deck? What about a deck that will use a new color that will be coming back up to a power level that was only whispered about by planes walkers in the back corners of the room, after they had dropped from every tournament in the last few years?

Now I can talk about mono-black control, but I’ll leave that to other brewers, low fruit will always be there. I’m thinking about another deck idea.  With the spoiler of Hellion Cruciable all I could see was a land that could create multiple creatures that can’t be counters.

The only problem with this is unlike entreat the angels where it’s almost a insta win, this bad boy needs a little TLC before you reap the benefits. What the best way to get the fruits of your labour? How about controlling the board until you are ready?

After talking about this concept with a few brewers, I think it maybe time to spring RB control to the masses. Using powerful spells like mutilate and black sun zenith to keep the board clear and using cards like Murder, Go for the throat and Doomblade for spot removal. You have mini sweepers like Whipflare or Slagstorm to clean up weenies.

What about a more permanent solution? I’m thinking about Curse of Deaths hold to make the board a veritable no man lands. (Hmmmm sounds like a great name for the deck) Then to finish it off Red Sun Zenith to destroy pesky undying creatures and to use as an alternative win condition.

What about creatures? Looking at the spoiler list a few jumped out at me, Lilliana’s shade will fit in well to build mana and a pump able threat for your opponent to worry about. The one creature I’m excited about is the reprint of Shimian Specter, If you are making a ‘No mans land’ then you will have a better chance to connect with this baby and start whittling out the pesky planeswalkers and enchantments you may have problems dealing with later on in the game.

Remember this is a control deck and not a tempo deck, your in it for the long game and not a quick four turn kill.

With that small gem of wisdom I will get the list uploaded and ready for you all to look at and comment on, the more people that look at it the best it is to refine and make sure Im on the right track.

Deck list will be up soon.

Thanks for reading

@whoisles

Hello everyone,

My name is Les Kershaw. I have been a Magic player since Revised and played until Mirage, I then got married and had kids, thinking my days of flipping cardboard were over. Then about two years ago a a work mate heard I played many years ago and thought I may want to get to know a new group of people and see if I still have the ‘spark’.

After trying to get my head around the concept of no mana burn, no damage on the stack and the use of these new fangled things called planeswalkers. I started to look at another part of this beautiful game, deck building.

Back in the day of Mirage and Ice Age I was a HUGE fan of the Ernie-geddon deck. a creature tempo deck that would shut you out for the win. Casting Aramgeddon to destroy all your lands and only have my Dijinn on the board was a game winner.

After my return to walking the planes. I made the odd creature deck and that was fine, then I made a Tempered Steel deck. Oh boy, the deck was fast and could kill you in four turns. It was potent and apart from the Mox opals was a relatively cheap deck to build.

Fast forward to 2012 and there are a few decks that rock my world, Delver is a great tempo deck, Red Green Aggro, Esper Control have all been seen by me smashing face at my local games store on a Friday night.

But M13 is on the way and this is the best time for brewers to make a name for themselves. So here I am, writing a blog and sharing my thoughts on a few deck ideas I have running through my head. I hope a few people read my blog and get an idea for there own deck.

@whoisles