Homebrew Pick of the Week: Breath of Malfegor

Since WoTC has been paying more attention to multiplayer interaction lately I thought it would be appropriate to highlight one of the more fun cards that made its debut as part of the Alara Reborn set. Without further ado I present: Breath of Malfegor



I know what you are thinking..OK maybe I don't but I know what I'm thinking..OK maybe I don't but you have to admit that this card is funny. Hitting each opponent for five damage in a multiplayer game is kinda ridiculous (and also slightly suicidal!). It's definitely not be the strongest card when you are looking for a good price-to-burn ratio in a one-on-one matchup. The ironic thing is that it's still more efficient than some older burn spells from back in the day when Magic made you pay dearly for your powerful spells. Yeah nobody really misses those days.. Anyway, there are plenty of ways to exploit this card in the standard multiplayer environment. My two-headed giant partner cracked one of these at the Alara Reborn pre-release and it evened up the field and helped us make up a lot of ground in more than a few matches!

Strengths:

- 5-5 Cost-Damage ratio

- Can hit more than one opponent in a multiplayer match

- Light coloration (only 2 out of the 5 mana in the cost are colored)

Weaknesses:

-Cost-Damage ratio is fair but not as efficient as others in standard

Ways to Abuse:

-Twincast it to deal ten damage to each opponent in a multiplayer match

- Cascade into it with Bituminous Blast for an explosive nine damage to one opponent and five to the rest.

Later this week I will post a decklist built around this card for my weekly "Hombrew Decklist". I'm thinking Grixis colors with "each player" hand destruction, some Twincasts, a few burn spells and a Malfegor or two. Should be an interesting deck and I am excited to try it out in my local multiplayer group.

(Picture and links provided by Wizards of the Coast inc.)

Favorite EDH generals

Right now I'm playing an Esper EDH deck with Sharuum the Hegemon as my general. I guess I just have a thing for artifacts. I'm also building a deck around the popular general; Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. He is incredible with some of the new hybrid cards that have come out in the last couple sets and provides insane card advantage. I'm thinking of making a mostly creature deck with decent abilities so that after you play Momir, pretty much everything you get after that will trigger his ability. Also cheap hybrid cards such as Slippery Bogle will trigger both abilities because of how they are put on the stack. This means that any hybrid card is a tutor for any other creature in your deck. (Let me know if I am mistaken in this regard please!) Should be fun and I will post a decklist as soon as I get done! What generals are you using in your EDH decks and what is your favorite?

(Pictures and links provided by Wizards of the Coast Inc)

Homebrew Decklist: Doran Lark

Since Reveillark is the Homebrew Pick of the Week I tried to find creative ways to utilize its ability. Out of the hoards of great lark targets that are currently type II legal, Doran, The Siege Tower is one of the most efficient and hilarious. Instead of getting back your little 2/2 with some decent ability you are essentially getting a 5/5 with an ability that severely changes the game state. Coupled with cards like the freshly printed Grizzled Leotau and Lorwyn's Treefolk Harbinger it makes your side of the board extremely mana efficient and, at times, just plain scary! Since both of those are also great lark targets it makes sense to build a deck around this idea of putting out low mana creatures with less than two power and huge toughness. That was the idea behind this week's Homebrewed deck: Doran Lark!



Doran Lark


Creatures:

3 x Doran, the Siege Tower
4 x Grizzled Leotau
4 x Tidehollow Sculler
4 x Birds of Paradise
4 x Treefolk Harbinger
3 x Ranger of Eos
2 x Reveillark


Other Spells:

4 x Crib Swap
2 x Behemoth Sledge
4 x Captured Sunlight
4 x Maelstrom Pulse


Lands:

2 x Brushland
2 x Fetid Heath
2 x Forest
3 x Llanowar Wastes
4 x Murmuring Bosk
3 x Plains
1 x Swamp
2 x Treetop Village
1 x Twilight Mire
2 x Wooded Bastion

The general idea of this deck is to get highly efficient creatures out quickly along with Doran to seal the deal. Tidehollow Sculler keeps their big threats at bay or at least forces them to use a path on your Sculler instead of Doran later on. Birds of Paradise is the main fixer for the deck and allows a turn two Doran which is blisteringly fast. It also can swing for one flying damage if once you get your Doran on the field. Treefolk Harbinger both tutors up Doran and can beat for 3 once he is out. It can also grab a forest if you find yourself up against a wall or getting mana screwed. All for one green! Grizzled Leotau is both a great lark target and a great card to pair with Doran both early and late game. Ranger of Eos is good in this deck because he can grab both your Birds and your Harbinger for yet another explosive play.


Maelstrom Pulse and Crib Swap are your main removal cards in the deck. The Pulse keeps tokens and basically any non-land permanents from becomming a problem. These are going to be especially good against the even stronger post ARB Black/White tokens match up. You may be asking yourself why I'm using Crib Swap instead of Path to Exile. Two reasons: 1) With a deck this efficient I'm not worried about spending the extra two mana to get a card with a lesser drawback 2) It can be tutored with a Treefolk Harbinger. This gives those Harbingers a viable target (besides a forest) if you already have a Doran in your hand or on the field.


The last two cards are fresh off the printing press and are especially fun/awesome in a deck like this. The first is Behemoth Sledge which is basically a colored Loxodon Warhammer. It is far superior to the Hammer in this deck because once Doran hits the field, the sledge remains equally useful while the Hammer loses quite a bit of its potency. It seems to be made for Doran and is very fun/funny to play in this deck. Cascade has brought a wave of useful cards to the meta and one of the most fun and great in this deck is Captured Sunlight. It mitigates the hurt of your numerous pain lands and can pretty much cascade into anything in the deck besides your Ranger.


Wait!!!!! What about Reveillark?


This deck probably seems like more of a Doran deck than a Reveillark deck and well...it is. Lark brings back most of the cards in the deck and makes for explosive middle and late game plays. It's the card that inspired me to build the deck and it is what makes it all the more potent against a slew of decks full of various types of spot and mass removal. It is the glue that holds the deck together, its foundation, its very life force!! OK enough with the metaphors already! I think you get the point! I'm still working out the kinks so let me know what you think of the decklist and how you think I can improve on it.

(Links and pictures provided by mtgfanatic.com and magiccards.info respectively)

Updated "Artifatties" Decklist

Artifatties!

Creatures:
1 x Grim Poppet
1 x Platinum Angel
1 x Scarecrone
1 x Inkwell Leviathan
4 x Master Transmuter
4 x Merfolk Looter
4 x Tidehollow Sculler
1 x Magister Sphinx
1 x Sharuum the Hegemon
4 x Sphinx Summoner


Other Spells:
4 x Mind Stone
3 x Sculpting Steel
4 x Thousand-Year Elixir
3 x Makeshift Mannequin
2 x Tezzeret the Seeker


Land:
3 x Island
2 x Mystic Gate
3 x Reflecting Pool
2 x Sunken Ruins
4 x Arcane Sanctum
4 x Vivid Creek
2 x Vivid Marsh
2 x Vivid Meadow


Added the Makeshift Mannequins back in because they are more consistent than running just scarecrone. 2 more sculping steels got added into the mix because they are extremely versitile cards when paired with the Transmuter. It basically adds three more of each non-land card to the deck. Updated the mana base a little and added Tezzerets to the mix because he strengthens the deck considerably. Still needs some work as far as spot removal and aggro control but its getting there!

(Links and picture provided by MTGfanatic.com)

Artifatties!

As I opened my Conflux booster box I opened several ( 3 in fact) Master Transmuters and thought that her ability would be extremely fun to build around. Shortly after I managed to get distracted by a building my Druids! and Merfolk decks ( see earlier posts) and forgot all about the idea. Sometime later I happened upon an article on the Wizards website talking about a budget version of the deck I had already been thinking about making. I decided it was time to build the deck and after purchasing the cards that make up the main engine of the deck I decided to try and take it a few steps further. I made the mana base smaller and more efficient (though much more expensive) as well as adding more fatties from Conflux and Shards. I then proceeded to troll the Alara Reborn spoiler in search of cards from the upcoming set that would make the deck even more fun when the new set came out. Here is what I have right now:

Creatures:
4 Master Transmuter
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Plumeveil
4 Sphinx Summoner
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 Sen Triplets ( Alara Reborn)
1 Filigree Angel ( Alara Reborn)
1 Ethersworn Adjudicator
1 Platinum Angel
1 Scarecrone
1 Grim Poppet
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Inkwell Leviathan

Other Spells:
4 Thousand-Year Elixir
4 Mindstone
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Sculpting Steel

Lands:
3 Reflecting Pool
2 Vivid Marsh
4 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Meadow
4 Arcane Sanctum
2 Sunken Ruins
2 Mystic Gate
3 Island

I'm not sure how stable the deck is in its current form and I'm still messing around with the creatures and numbers of cards right now so please feel free to give me suggestions! The way the deck works is by getting your Thousand-Year Elixir and Master Transmuter into play and then use the Sphinx Summoner to tutor up whatever you need for the situation you are currently in. Merfolk Looter is another key utility card because it thins your deck out quickly to get your key cards into play faster.

I decided to take out the Makeshift Mannequins that were originally in the deck in favor or Scarecrone because it has the potential to be better in most match ups (especially against control). Scarecrone is especially good with Sharuum because you can tap four colorless and tap it to return Sharuum and with its ability on the stack tap one colorless and sac it to draw a card returning both it and Sharuum to play and gaining valuable card advantage in the process. Inkwell Leviathan is amazing because once you transmute it into play it is nearly unstoppable (save for a Wrath). Filigree Angel is going to be fun because you can pop it in and out of play with your Transmuter gaining 3x the number of artifacts you control of life each time! Sen triplets is just plain good against control decks because even if they try and bounce or path it you can just use your Transmuter to keep it in play!

The deck stands up pretty well against any spot removal because you can just use your Transmuter to bounce things in and out of play (including itself!) causing your opponent's removal spells to fizzle on resolution because of a lack of valid targets. I'm also thinking of trying to replace something with Glassdust Hulk (Alara Reborn) because it has awesome synergy with Master Transmuter and the rest of this deck. I might end up putting Sen Triplets in the sideboard for control matchups and replacing it with Glassdust Hulk in the main deck. The sideboard isn't complete so any thoughts on that would be appreciated as well! The rest is pretty self explanatory and it is an extremely fun deck to play and tweak! Please let me know if you have any ideas about how to make the deck better or just more efficient!

(Pictures Courtesy of Coolstuff.com, diver.com & trollandtoad.com)

PTQ Ravinity

Here is the decklist for the Ravinity deck I've chosen to run in this saturday's Pro Tour Qualifyier tournament in Mesa, Az:

Creatures:
4 Ornithopter
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Frogmite
3 Master of Etherium

Non-Creature Artifacts:
4 Cranial Plating
4 Chromatic Star
4 Springleaf Drum

Other Spells:
4 Thoughtcast
3 Soul's Fire

Lands:
4 Ancient Den
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
2 Blinkmoth Nexus

Sideboard:
3 Thoughtseize
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Path to Exile
1 Krark-Clan Shaman

This is not by any means an original idea but I tailored the deck to fit my purposes and it is a blast to play!

Food for thought...

EDH Zombies anybody??