Card of the Day: Wall of Denial

When I was opening up my packs for the Alara Reborn two headed giant prerelease I happened on this card and was very pleased to see that it fit into the esper deck that I was currently constructing. It is a pretty powerful card because of its relatively low cost and powerful abilities. It is also somewhat abusable though not as much as yesterday's card (Path to Exile). It only has one big drawback: defender. But since it is a 0/8 it really wouldn't be that much better of a card without it. It's also hard to remove because of shroud so unless they counter it when you play it, its most likely not going anywhere.

Strengths
-Low mana cost (CMC=3)
-8 Toughness
-Flying
-Shroud (Doesn't die to path :):):))

Weaknesses
-0 Power
- Defender (though as mentioned before there is little this card could do even if it could shed this ability)

Ways to Abuse:
-Reveillark- This card can be brought back with your lark and it fits with the coloration of most popular Lark decks
-Play early against pretty much any aggro deck in the current meta and they will have a hard time getting past it

Overall a very fun card to play and I'm glad I managed to get it in one of my packs during the prerelase (saved my ass more than once!)

(Picture Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast inc.)

Card of the Day: Path to Exile

So I really didn't get off to a very good start with my daily "Card of the Day" posts but I'm going to attempt to keep up with it better in the future. Anyway, on to today's card: Path to Exile! Arguably one of the most powerful cards in the current standard. For just one white mana you can permanently remove a creature from the game. At instand speed!! In a standard dominated by decks running white as one of their colors I just have one word for this card: Overpowered! While there is the inevitable drawback of letting the creature's controller fetch a basic land and put it into play it is still a rediculously strong card. You can actually use this to your advantage with a card like Knight of the White Orchid. Aggro and control decks are actually having their mana bases altered to include basic lands just because of this one card!

Strengths:

-Low mana cost (W)

-Instant speed

-Creature is removed from game

-White card in a standard dominated by decks running white spells

-Highly Abusable

Weaknesses:

-Gives land advantage to opponent

-Can only run 4 of them per deck :P

Ways to Abuse:

-Knight of the White Orchid: Path their creature and then play the Knight nulling the land advantage of your opponent!

-Tidehollow Sculler: Path your Sculler as it comes into play. It's leaves play ability goes on the stack above its comes into play ability before you even look at your opponents hand. This allows you to permanently remove a non-land card in your opponents hand from the game and get land advantage at the same time!

-Reveillark: Path your own Lark to get it to leave play quickly and gain land advantage at the same time!

(Picture Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast inc.)

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)

Card of the Day: Glassdust Hulk

I've decided to do a post each day that highlights a card that I have either found an interesting use for or just find terribly interesting! After a little deliberation I decided to make the first post about the card featured above: Alara Reborn's Glassdust Hulk. When I first saw the card I noted that if properly abused it has the potential of being extremely powerful and with its cycling ability along with prevalent artifact/graveyard interaction in the current standard it can be an amazing utility card as well!

Strengths:
- 4 Toughness = Doesn't die to most damage-based removal
- 3 Power = When it is unblockable it actually hits pretty hard
- Cycling = Gains card advantage through hybrid cycling ( This also makes it a potential recursion target once it hits the yard)

Weaknesses:
- Dies to Path :P ;)
-Relatively high mana cost (though we will probably never actually pay it)

Ways to Abuse:
- Master Transmuter : Bounce and play artifacts to boost the Hulk and make it unblockable
- Sharuum the Hegemon : Cycle it and then put it into play with Sharuum's ability
-Sanctum Gargoyle : Cycle the Hulk and then return it to your hand to repeat the process. (Even more abusable if coupled with Master Transmuter to bounce the Gargoyle in and out of play)
-Scarecrone: Cycle and then use Scarecrone's ability to put it into play gaining a powerful creature and card advantage for only 5 mana!
-Makeshift Mannequin: Cycle for card advantage and then put the Hulk into play at instant speed!

Overall a very powerful and abusable card that I will enjoy using in my Transmutation deck (see earlier post). I am also excited to see the other ways it can be used and abused that I haven't thought of yet!

(Picture Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast inc.)

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)

Bear Down!

So I was bored and a little slap happy after trying to finish a paper for one of my classes this evening (or morning..whichever you prefer!) and I decided to make a blue/red "Bear Down!" deck in honor of the University of Arizona being so awesome...

Creatures:
4 Taurean Mauler
4 Mothdust Changeling
4 Fire-belly Changeling
4 Shapesharer
4 Amoeboid Changeling
4 Turtleshell Changeling
3 Changeling Beserker
1 Mistform Ultimus

Other Spells:
4 Wings of Velis Vel
4 Blades of Velis Vel

Lands:
10 Island
10 Mountain
4 Mutavault

The basic goal of this deck is to get as many bears into play as possible, buff the bears with spells and attack with the bears. A deck of this caliber needs no more explaination

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!