Merfolk Update

I decided to finally post a decklist of Merfolk in its current state. It's pretty much what I've been talking about all along but with a few cards added in after Alara Reborn's release.

Merlark 2.0

Creatures:

3 x Cursecatcher

4 x Merrow Reejerey
3 x Reveillark
3 x Mirror Entity

4 x Silvergill Adept

2 x Sower of Temptation

3 x Stonybrook Banneret

3 x Meddling Mage
3 x Sygg, River Guide

Other Spells:

3 x Sage's Dousing
3 x Path to Exile

3 x Cryptic Command

Land:

4 x Adarkar Wastes

1 x Faerie Conclave

5 x Island

4 x Mutavault

3 x Mystic Gate

2 x Plains

4 x Wanderwine Hub

Sideboard:

2 x Flashfreeze

2 x Glen Elendra Archmage

2 x Jace Beleren

4 x Burrenton Forge-Tender

2 x Celestial Purge

3 x Wispmare

The main changes to the deck consist of the addition of three Meddling Mage and a little tweaking of the sideboard for the post-regionals meta. Since everybody and their mother seems to be running BW tokens lately I decided to add Wispmare to my sideboard because of the abundance of bitterblossoms and Glorious Anthems in the current meta. I also added a couple Flashfreeze to the side because of the ridiculous Bloodbraid Elf that is going to be making Jund decks much more powerful.

You may be asking yourself why I'm running Mirror Entity instead of Wake Thrasher. The answer is simple: It's BETTER!. Wake Thrasher is able to buff itself without using up any of your resources but the versatility of Mirror Entity is much better for a deck like this. Can a wake thrasher save your entire board from a Volcanic Fallout? Can Wake Thrasher make your entire team Merfolk? Can Wake Thrasher let you pump your entire team at the same time? I didn't think so.. It's true that Wake Thrasher is a good card, I'm just not convinced it's better than Mirror Entity. That's pretty much all I have to say about this deck that hasn't already been said. Let me know what you think!

(Links & pictures provided by Mtgfanatic and Wizards of the Coast Inc. respectively)

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.)

Silence Fools!!

I found myself looking at the Magic 2010 Core Set preview cards and one of the cards just floored me...


Silence is pretty awesome anyway you slice it. It can literally lock the game down for one side of the board if they can figure out a way to keep playing it. I was thinking about making a mono white control deck with 4 of these and for Isochron Scepters for the next Extended season. Check out the article about 2010 here.That could be fun. More on this after I get back from vacation!!

(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)

If I Was Going To Regionals...

Because I'm going to Disneyland this weekend (WOOT!) I will be unable to attend regionals. This is actually a relief because I'm nowhere close to having a deck tournament ready. If I weren't so lazy maybe I would be more dissapointed :P If I was going to go to regionals on Saturday I would most likely be playing either the Doran Lark deck from earlier this week or a Red/Green Aggro deck I've been working on that utilizes some new Alara Reborn cards such as: Bloodbraid Elf, Jund Hackblade, Violent Outburst, and Colossal Might. It has made the pair of colors much stronger and I filled the deck with cards that would compliment the hasty strategy that these cards encourage. The basic premise of the deck is to hit early and often and for as much damage as you can. It also lets you play multiple spells for a single cost by using cascade. It is a simple deck but it is fun to play because it is so blisteringly fast!

RG Aggro

Creatures:

4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Jund Hackblade
4x Figure of Destiny
4x Rip-Clan Crasher
4x Hellspark Elemental
4x Boartusk Liege
4x Boggart Ram-Gang

Other Spells:

4x Incinerate
3x Colossal Might
4x Violent Outburst

Lands:

4 Forest
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
9 Mountain
4 Karplusan Forest
2 Treetop Village

Speed and stability are two very different things. The Sideboard that I'm working on is going to help make this decklist more stable against the current Meta. Though if it proves to be too unruly then I will probably go towards a Jund approach rather than just Red/Green. Please let me know what you think!

(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)

Homebrew Pick of the Week

So after reviewing my "Card of the Day" posts (or lack there of) I decided to just do a weekly post about a card and then do another post about building a deck around that card. This week's card is one of the most built around cards in the current standard and is probably one of the most fun cards to play in the last few sets. Without further delay I present: Reveilark!

Reveillark is an amazingly versatile card that can be useful and abusable in a hundred different situations. You can pretty much do anything you want to it or with it. Many people will be sad to see it go when the Lorwyn block rotates out of standard in October.

Strengths:

-4/3 Flyer for 5 with a strong ability

-See "Ways to Abuse" section for more

Weakness:

-Used best in decks that don't ramp (however there would be no need to ramp into it because you would have no target for its ability)

-Can only run 4 of these per deck :)

Ways to Abuse:

-Evoke- Can evoke it to instantly gain the advantage of it's ability.

-Beat for 4 until someone blocks or uses a spot removal and then get 2 creatures from the graveyard into play

-Use to Path to Exile to make use of its ability and ramp at the same time

-Use Fulminator Mage to decimate your opponents land and then get him back via lark to do it all over again ( good vs most decks in standard because they all run tons of non-basic land)

-Ranger of Eos to Flamekin Harbinger to Reveillark and equivalent strategies make decks like boat brew insanely powerful/efficient

-Use Turn to Mist to blink your Lark in and out of play to keep it on the field but also gain the advantage of its ability ( this was even better when Momentary Blink was still in standard).

-Brings back Figures of Destiny or equivalant buffable beater and then pump them for an efficient beatdown strategy

-Brings back token producers like Siege-Gang Commander

So basically there are numerous ways to abuse the power of Reveillark making it one of the most used cards in the current standard meta. I think that after Alara Reborn this card has only gotten stronger in blue white decks and possibly green white as well. It will be interesting to see how the meta changes as Alara Reborn starts to be incorporated into current type two decks with the abundance of great lark targets in every color. I'm especially interested in seeing how the meta changes in October when the new set causes the Lorwyn block to phase out. It is definitely going to change the face of standard significantly.