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POP! Wave 2 Magic: the Gathering Planeswalkers

pop logo

After a rather successful wave of planeswalker toys, POP! has decided to make a second wave of vinyl figures. The expected release date is October 2014.

elspeth popkiora pop

gideon popsrakhan pop

nicol bolas poptezz pop 

                                                                     I just can’t wait!

My only gripe here is that it seems they screwed up on the skin colors of Gideon and Tezzeret. I’m pretty sure Tezzeret is supposed to be a dark-skinned planeswalker from most of the card art involving him, then again I could be wrong. What will Wave 3 look like? Are we going to get a sweet Tibalt figurine? Or variations on the ones already made. Sarkhan the Mad? I can only hope.

sarkhan the madKhans of Tarkir is not too far off either

 

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Groot Naya

groot naya ddt avatar final

Here’s another deck that I found quite interesting coming off the Pro Tour. It features the big guy in the article banner ‘Groot’ of Guardians of the Galaxy fame or as he is known in the Magic: the Gahtering Universe : Scion of  Vitu-Ghazi (guess he had to change his name once he got to Ravnica). He does a few neat things here – making:

1) a second 1/1 bird token

2) a Voice of Resurgence token

3) a 2/2 Selesnya Charm knight token

4) a 2/2 Satyr token from the deck’s main planeswalker – Xenagos

5) a 1/1 Cat Soldier Token from Elspeth’s buddy Brimaz

Groot Naya

Standard Format

Creatures: 26

3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Elvish Mystic
1 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
4 Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Skylasher
4 Voice of Resurgence

Instants: 5

2 Chord of Calling
3 Selesnya Charm

Enchantments: 2

2 Banishing Light

Planeswalkers: 3
3 Xenagos, the Reveler

 



Lands: 24


4 Battlefield Forge
3 Forest
4 Mana Confluence
1 Plains
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Plenty

Sideboard

2 Ajani Steadfast
1 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
2 Archangel of Thune
1 Chord of Calling
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Skylasher
3 Setesan Tactics
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Xenagos, the Reveler

The list looks pretty good in the maindeck, but I have to question the sideboard choices. Skylasher over Mistcutter Hydra? Then again, I am not the one that performed well with it, am I? Still, I would really try to fit in things like Advent of the Wurm or something like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion in the sideboard.

purphoroHammer Time!

Contrary to a few decks running Purphoros, God of the Forge this deck doesn’t ever get him to become a creature (much like my Commander deck, but that’s because I don’t want people messing with him). Scion coming into play gives you 6 free damage with Purphoros in play (same as Elspeth, but for one less mana). It’s not exactly a fair comparison either, because Elspeth is clearly the better card. Sorry Groot!

The deck seems to play long-forgotten cards of Standard past. Voice of Resurgence? Isn’t that a Modern card? Brimaz? Didn’t his hype die down? It feels somewhat refreshing to me because the last Naya deck I played was that Aurelia Spiritbinder combo deck. The addition of Chord of Calling in Standard gives us many many nice possibilities here, like Chording for a Spirit of the Labyrinth post-board. Reclamation Sage makes a small appearance too, giving us a reason to flash our recently ‘won’ copies in a Standard deck.

card_promo_reclamation_sageReclaim some beatdown!

If you’re going to be playing in the upcoming WMCQ later this month, then give this deck a serious try in your testing gauntlet. You might be pleasantly surprised, or at the very least want to play it more often in your local FNM events. It’s got a few silver bullets, more planeswalkers after sideboard and overall fun stuff. To quote a wise being: “We are Groot!”

groot

 

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Heroic Boros

heroic boros

ddt avatar final

 

Here’s a cute little deck that has quite a few synergies you can try at your next FNM event or M15 Game Day.

Boros ‘Heroic’ Token Aggro

Standard Format

Creatures: 23

4 Akroan Crusader
4 Boros Elite
4 Dryad Militant
3 Favored Hoplite
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Soldier of the Pantheon

Instants: 8

4 Dynacharge
4 Raise the Alarm

Sorceries: 4

4 Launch the Fleet

Artifacts: 4

4 Obelisk of Urd
1 Spear of Heliod
 



Lands: 20


4 Battlefield Forge
4 Mana Confluence
1 Mountain
3 Mutavault
4 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry

Sideboard

3 Boros Charm
4 Electrickery
3 Gods Willing
3 Keening Apparition
2 Phyrexian Revoker

 

The deck is rather affordable for something that managed to get 18 points or more during the Pro Tour. The mana base is easily the expensive part, but I wouldn’t recommend going on the cheap with Guildgates or Evolving Wilds. You need to hit your land drops untapped on each an every turn, potentially capping at 4 lands and no more. The 20 lands is probably the least I have seen in current Standard decks, but it’s rather warranted since most of the deck costs one.

I especially like the tokens concept plus Obelisk of Urd Convoke. Sure, maybe you lose a turn but you’ll more than make up for it on the next swing. Chosen creature type? Hmm…. it’s pretty obvious

soldiersYeah, unfortunately she’s not in M15 for some Preememinent Captain abuse

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RUG Slivers

rug slivers

ddt avatar final

We recently had our little influx of new slivers come into the Standard fold in Magic 2015. While they are all pretty awesome, some are a little more synergetic with others. The 3 standouts are: Sliver Hivelord, Diffusion Sliver and Venom Sliver. I had been joking for most of the RTR/Theros Standard format that I wanted to build a RUG Slivers deck because I adored the interaction between Thorncaster Sliver and Bow of Nylea. Now this is much more possible with Venom Sliver. You can even the deathtouch goodness when you’re playing defense with Striking Sliver.

The reason for not going all out 5 color or Naya are rather obvious. Black was the most superfulous color before, only providing Lifelink (something a deck that is mostly going to be the aggro doesn’t really want/need). The latest addition it provided in Leeching Sliver just seemed worse than Thorncaster Sliver (yes, yes it cost less mana).

 

RUG Slivers

Standard Format

Creatures: 32

3 Blur Sliver
4 Diffusion Sliver
4 Galerider Sliver
4 Manaweft Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
1 Sliver Hivelord
4 Striking Sliver
4 Thorncaster Sliver
4 Venom Sliver

 

Instants: 3

3 Chord of Calling

Artifacts: 1

1 Obelisk of Urd

 



Lands: 24


4 Breeding Pool
4 Mana Confluence
4 Mutavault
4 Sliver Hive
4 Steam Vents
4 Stomping Ground

Sideboard
1 Back to Nature
1 Chord of Calling
2 Domri Rade
2 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Negate
1 Pithing Needle
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Syphon Sliver
1 Sliver Hivelord

The White contingent of Slivers seems so deep at first, but upon closer examination is not that mana-efficient and doesn’t really give you good overall value. Bonescythe Sliver is all awesome and stuff when you’re laying down the early beats before your opponent can react, but he’s oftentimes a glorified Striking Sliver (especially when deathtouch is involved). Constricting Sliver is all “OMG! I want infinite!” until you realize that 6 mana is way to much for what is essentially a Banisher Priest. Also, how many slivers would you be holding back at that point so you can use them to exile their stuff? We aren’t exactly drawing a bunch here.

Sentinel Sliver is ok-costed, but aside from allowing us to attack and also use mana when Manaweft Sliver is in play … Meh!

Steelform Sliver is just not what we want to be paying mana for, nor wasting a slot in our decks. 4 Predatory Sliver is A) cheaper and B) overall better.

Then there’s Sliver Construct …

sliver conI can’t believe I almost forgot about it

Another reason for giving Slivers a try is that the mana is as perfect for it as it’s going to get. With 8 Standard legal sets and all the Return to Ravnica duals in circulation, it’s hard to argue. We even have 2 ‘rainbow lands’ at our disposal: Mana Confluence and Sliver Hive. Everything we are casting in this deck is a Sliver (save 4 cards in the main deck). Because of this detail, we can even hard cast a Sliver Hivelord without  even the aid of Manaweft Sliver or tutoring it up with Chord of Calling.

chord of callingWelcome back!

Ah yes! the glue that holds the deck together. It does exactly what this deck needs when it needs it.

Need some first strike to get your deathtouch slivers killing larger attackers?  Done

Want to clear the way by deathtouch pinging would-be blockers out of the way? Done

Need to protect one of your slivers from targeted removal, sort of ? Done

Hell, do you need to do something about that ‘lucky’ Supreme Verdict your opponent just topdecked? Done

The thing that makes Chord of Calling so good in this deck isn’t that we are infinite comboing our opponents like the Kiki-Pod Modern decks. It’s that it instantly affects ALL our other slivers and doubles as a trick up our sleeve. I’ve often found myself just ‘Chording’ for a Galerider Sliver to get my team of slivers through enemy lines in order to win the game.

galerider sliverQuite the efficient flyer

The sideboard is very much catered to just more Chord of Calling targets as well as a few cards that can sometimes shore up weaknesses, such as all our stuff getting repeatedly Banishing Light‘ed and Detention Sphere‘d. Syphon Sliver even makes a small appearance in there, just in case you end up needing that extra little life cushion.

Another thing about the sideboard is that we really have to assume that we’ll mostly have 1 color at any time, so no random off-color spells or spells that cost 2 of the same color unless they are Slivers (Chord of Calling for similar reasons). No Boros Charms, Detention Spheres, Banishing Lights, etc. We pretty much have some Negates to protect our horde from mass removal (Supreme Verdict notwithstanding). The sideboard will probably flesh out more as the metagame becomes clearer later on.

bonescytheReally a shame I can’t play this awesome looking promo sliver guy 

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San Diego Comic Con MTG Previews

Here we have some Commander and Duel deck goodies:

 

speed vs

 

Looks like one of the guys from Kahns of Tarkir preview art

teferi pw

One of Magic’s oldest planeswalkers

tef2

Fall COMMANDER SET – releasing November 7th, 2014

gisa

Gisa from Innistrad block, whom we knew only via flavor text

The new hologram makes all these cars look so darn sexy, eh?

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Izzet Nykthos

izzet nykthos

ddt avatar final

While the Monogreen Nykthos deck posted a few weeks earlier is pretty neat, the majority of Nykthos-powered decks are still Standard. Usually they are monoblack, monoblue, monored and even monogreen (sorry, White). Izzet is not really a devotion-based combination as it’s usually more noncreature spell-heavy.  Sometimes those Blue/Red mages like to get their hands dirty by actually attacking …

 

Izzet Nykthos

Standard Format

Creatures: 27

4 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Frostburn Weird
2 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Instants: 4

2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Turn/Burn

Artifacts: 2

2 Hammer of Purphoros

Planeswalkers: 2

2 Ral Zarek

 



Lands: 25


1 Mana Confluence
12 Mountain
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Steam Vents
4 Temple of Epiphany

Sideboard

2 Aetherize
2 Dictate of the Twin Gods
1 Electrickery
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Harness by Force
4 Mizzium Mortars
2 Negate
2 Turn/Burn

The majority of the damage comes from red’s resident Gray Merchant of Asphodel > Fanatic of Mogis

fan of mogisEach opponent ? Look out two-headed dragon format ! 

We all know the usual red suspects as far as devotion goes, but amazingly enough we get some nice options from the blue ‘splash’. First off, we get a nice little removal spell called Turn/Burn. It pretty much zaps everything that would be a problem, creature-wise. (Master of Waves, Fiendslayer Paladin, Desecration Demon,etc.) Things that are too big too burn or otherwise untargetable by anything red (of course in the later case we are only using the Turn part of the spell). When you aren’t doing that, you can also get some interesting two-for-ones against various other decks as well.

turnClearly did not see enough competitive play

Here’s another Blue bonus splash:

cyclonic riftShould clearly be banned in Commander

Cyclonic Rift‘s praises have been sung far and wide, so I’ll just abstain from reiterating. It’s usually one of the first cards we cut against a lot of matchups though. We can now focus on one of the main reasons, we are going Izzet. You’ve probably already figured it out by the article banner pic. It’s our super underplayed and super overhyped since Dragon’s Maze release planeswalker … Ral Zarek

ral zarekHe used to be 50$. Hard to believe, huh?

It’s fairly obvious what Ral here does for us: he untaps Nykthos ( a feat usually only matched by Voyaging Satyr in Standard monogreen devotion decks). I’ll let you imagine the insane early plays this entails (casting and monstrous-ing a Stormbreath Dragon). His other abilities come in very hand as well. Well, other applications of the first ability plus the -2 bolt one. You get to untap a mana and tap down their would-be blocker so you can get in there with your aggro dudes (Stormbreath Dragon, Boros Reckoner,etc). He becomes increasingly good versus the non-Hero’s Downfall control decks because of that as well (and of course the fact that he can bolt their planeswalkers).

On a side note, it really sucks that he needs to untap ‘another permanent’ otherwise he would have given the inspire mechanic some kind of life (which we can only hope the Convoke mechanic will do when M15 is released).

The deck is really all about explosiveness in the early game. Yes, Yes, Supreme Verdict can ruin our day but that’s not going to stop us from trying to get in there, is it? You need to keep your Burning-Tree Emissary for when it matters instead of just casting them and using the 2 mana for a random ‘Burn’ on some creature or something. Of course, if you have Hammer of Purphoros out, that’s a different story. We are an aggro deck after all, just that we have a mid-to-late game versus control decks. Purphoros and his Hammer go a long way (unfortunately some of them are playing Planar Cleansing nowadays). That’s where Keranos gets his time to shine as well.

One more week ’til Magic 2015

No idea where this deck is headed post M15. It doesn’t seem to have received any kind of support really, but if you like to try the decks that are a little off the beaten path, go ahead. Give it a try. Seriously, it’s actually much better than it looks. We promise.

 

ral banner

 

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UG Faeries

ug faeries

ddt avatar final

Modern is a for the most part defined as a format, but much like Legacy in its heyday you always get some fresh new decks that pop up and take you by surprise. Such was this deck that almost took down a 200+ plus PTQ.

 

UG Faeries

Modern Format

Creatures: 21

2 Scryb Ranger
3 Mistbind Clique
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Venser, Shaper Savant

Instants: 9

2 Voidslime
2 Remand
2 Cryptic Command
3 Mana Leak

Artifacts: 7

3 Sword of Feast and famine
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Vedalken Shackles

 

Lands: 23


2 Forest
4 Breeding Pool
2 Mutavault
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Tectonic Edge
6 Islands

Sideboard

3 Kitchen Finks
2 Spellskite
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Spell Snare
2 Hurkyll’s Recall

The cool thing about this deck is that you actually accelerate into some pretty nice stuff.

Turn 1 : Noble Hierarch off a Forest of Breeding Pool.

Turn 2: Mutavault and pass turn or Breeding Pool

Opponent’s Turn: they cast a 2-drop.

Activate Mutavault to turn it into a creature then Spellstutter Sprite their spell.

OR

Cast a Scryb Ranger, return a forest to hand to untap Noble Hierarch and cast a Spellstutter Sprite to counter their card.

 

noble hierarchMana dorks. They don’t just look good, they ARE good!

It’s got way better tricks but that’s just a small early game example.  You can also Time Walk your opponents that classic way by going Mistbind Clique on their upkeep and then countering something with Cryptic Command later while bouncing your Mistbind Clique to hand and having another chance to Time Walk your opponent next upkeep as well. It gets even better if you championed a Vendilion Clique with it since you get a great deal of value all while getting rid of their best card (kind of) and gaining hand knowledge.

vendilion cliqueDid you hear about the new cool Blue/Green Faeries deck?

 

voidslime bubbleAngel meets tentacle

The green splash is pretty sweet even for cards like Voidslime. Yes, Squelch or Trickbind do the ‘counter activated ability’ thing as well, but Voidslime is much more versatile (depite not having the Split Second of Trickbind of the Draw a Card of Squelch). Your Scryb Rangers do very good work in various matchups, like untapping your Mistbind Cliques or tapped attackers equipped with Swords in order to surprise block and kill their attackers. If you think you will miss your next land drop, you can even end of turn the Scryb Ranger.

This will allow you to tap your mana dudes (Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch) as well as your lands for mana, then untap one via Scryb Ranger. You then bounce a Forest to your hand and then play it as your land drop. You’ve just generated 2 extra mana! This is not an uncommon play for when you want to cast and equip a Sword of Feast and Famine on your turn 3 (even with the missed land drop). Obviously you get insane value if you connect with the equipped creature, since you get to untap and setup a Spellstutter Sprite counter (or Mana Leak). Don’t be sad if your counterspell was Voidslime either (you can activate the Scryb Ranger ability on your opponent’s turn as well to generate another mana and allow you to go ahead and Voidslime their spell.

scryb rangerFaeries used to be green. True story!

The deck is worth a try for anyone looking for something cool and different to try (I always am) in a  format that is still open to innovative brews. I am not a fan of the overpriced Bitterblossom at the moment either, but it still can be a ‘thing’ depending on how the metagame shift.

I was a little shocked to see that this little gem is being released in Magic 2015:

hushing gryffYeah … we probably don’t want our opponents casting Gryff here

I really like it when cards that are meh (like Torpor Orb) get a body attached to their ability to make them very playable. Things like Magus of the Moon, Thalia,etc. It gives you the opportunity to maindeck hate cards with decent stats in decks that are more aggressive all while keeping the aggro plan going.

While a budget version of the deck is possible, I would not really recommend it. You can’t fully replace cards like Noble Hierarch and swords,etc. Spellstutter Sprite is criminally underplayed in a format where it can counter soooo many spells with it (even without the extra Fairies in play). Wish I still had that Spellstutter playmat I did her holding an Umezawa’s Jitte …

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Maralen of the Mornsong EDH

maralen edh budget

ddt avatar final

Sometimes you make a random Google search and are just blown away by the results. I encountered this deck while trying to find ‘budget edh decks’ or something along those lines. Amidst the infinite posts of people saying: “Ashling, the Pilgrim and 99 Mountains. LOL”, this little gem was unearthed. Granted, surprise is a big factor in this deck’s success as it will probably not work twice (then again…). Boseiju gives you that extra oomph! to overcome counterspells when you want to ‘combo off’.

 

Warning: this deck is

r for retarded

 

Dark Sphere Dreams

Commander Format

Creatures: 5

1 Maralen of the Mornsong
1 Memnite
1 Ornithoper
1 Phyrexian Walker
1 Shield Sphere

Instants: 2

1 Ad Nauseam
1 Dark Ritual

Sorceries: 1

1 Sickening Dreams

Artifacts: 12

1 Expedition Map
1 Dark Sphere
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Feldon`s Cane
1 Jeweled Amulet
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Lotus Petal
1 Spellbook
1 Venser`s Journal
1 Welding Jar
1 Astral Cornucopia

 



Lands: 80


72 Swamp
1 Peat Bog
1 Ebon Stronghold
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Buried Ruin
1 Crystal Vein
1 Gemstone Caverns

 

The deck is simply trying to accomplish one thing: Cast Ad Nauseam and win (preferably cast an end-of-turn Ad Nauseam). There are a few more cards we can maybe add to the main deck in order to increase our chances of surviving the early game, but I wanted to just reall focus on how little this thing actually costs to make. In fact, here`s the bare bones version you can make (you don’t even have to sleeve your deck at this point since the sleeves will be worth more than the deck itself… unless you use penny sleeves)

 

penny sleeves

Remember these babies ? Probably from your first ever MTG deck?

You win by casting a Sickening Dreams with a full hand (aka. your whole deck give or take) then discarding a bunch of cards ( roughly 50? depending on how much life other players are at). You then activate the ‘awesome’ Dark Sphere to halve the damage to you from Sickening Dreams. Of course, counterspells will ruin your day, so you can set up by getting a Boseiju early on with Maralen on turn 4 or an earlier Expedition Map. The rest of the deck is there to accelerate us, even a turn 3 Astral Cornucopia is fine if we have the Ad Nauseam already in hand so we can ‘go off’ on turn 4. You need colored mana though, so Sol Ring is surprisingly absent (2 black required on turn 3 if you are casting Maralen on that turn). The other lands are mostly accelerants or buy us time (Glacial Chasm) or can recur a countered spell (Dark Sphere). Elixir of Immoratality can allow us to start over everytime we whiff our combo as well (Assuming Maralen can remain in play). It’s definitely an under 50$ commander deck and then under 10$ if you go with the ‘no frills’ version.

1 Maralen of the Mornsong

1 Ad Nauseam
1 Dark Sphere
1 Sickening Dreams
1 Elixir of Immortality
95 Swamps

It doesn’t even merit its own little decklist box thingy, that’s how cheap it is.

For those of you that are in the mood for upgrading the deck in value, tricks or resilience you can go ahead and run some Gatherer searches. So far I’ve got:

Ivory Tower
Mishra’s Bauble
Urza’s Bauble
Phyrexian Tower
Slaughter pact
Duress/Thoughtseize

You can always keep it lying around and troll newer players with it, kinda like a ‘Magic Trick’ in its own right. Right?

dark sphere

“Save a child, rip up a Dark Sphere today” – the Fun Police

PS: Yes, it actually took me a while to find a ‘DDT’ in Magic: the Gathering but it happened. Thank you mark Tedin for drawing such an awesome card (Repentant Vampire). Also, thanks to Sasha who asked me for this card, since I would have probably never stumbled upon it on my own.

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World Magic Cup Qualifier Goodies

MAG_WCQ_INT_4C_Blk_Sm_V2

 

The promo card given out to everyone participating is:

 

geist promo

Where’s that FOIL angel token I had lying around?

Much like the Vengevine of last year, the card is a Mythic and sure to be in demand. Be it Modern or Commander, Geist of Saint Traft always wiggles his way into some kind of deck. A lot of players might just want a more ‘affordable’ foil copy for their cubes (Along with all those sweet Conspiracy FOIL draft artifacts and Hidden Agenda cards). If you’re good/lucky enough to make it into the Top 8, you can even claim this awesome playmat:

lili mat

Is that Liliana’s veil? 

I’m guessing this is a not so subtle hint that Liliana is the black planeswalker in Magic 2015. We do catch a small glimpse of her in the Trailer for Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015   Garruk is the main character it seems. Is he a flip card? Monoblack? or something really really bizarre. I’m almost willing to bet one of his abilities will be a Beast Within. Go on down and give your almost last hurrah to Standard, give it the good old ‘college try’!