Magic: The Gathering Multi-Planer Draft

Recently, my friends and I decided to do a three-pack draft. The one stipulation of the draft was, however, is that each participant was not limited to one specific set or block. All six of us brought all different packs and then drafted with those. The packs I had brought to the draft were Saviors of Kamigawa (In hindsight Champions would’ve been better), Future Sight and Darksteel.

I am normally a very unlucky person when it comes to opening packs, so of course my rares were as follows:

Darksteel: Shunt

Future Sight: Nix

Saviors: Scroll of Origins (I almost tore this card to shreds on sight)

Now, I kept shunt so it could be possibly useful to redirect a kill or draw spell, but dropped the other two.

I decided to start the game by drafting blue, but I later expanded to white. I also saw a lot of red bouncing around, so I picked up a bunch of nice burn spells like Carbonize, Searing Blaze and Forked Lightning. I also got a Journey to Nowhere and a Lumithread Field, both of which helped me a lot. The Field wasted my opponent’s kill spells and gave my creatures a nice little boost.

The first round went very well for me. I played a Neurok Commando and my removal kept my hand fresh. The second round went rather poorly, with my first game being lost to a Vampiric Link. The second game gave me no lands, and it was a downhill battle from there.

To rub salt in the wound, the winner’s pack had a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas in it.

Overall, I thought the multi-planer draft was a cool experience with a lot of mechanics and creatures bouncing around. If you want to participate in a draft, you can order your packs on http://www.mtgfanatic.com/ and have a draft with your friends today! Enjoy!

Magic: The Gathering Future Sight (Part 4)

This is the fourth part in my blog installments about my favorite set: Future Sight. You can read my reasons for liking this set so much on the original post (http://mtgdeckblogaura.blogspot.com/2011/01/magic-gathering-future-sight-part-1.html), but if that is where you came from, then enjoy these next cards.


New Benalia is a great alternative to a plains card because it gives white a little opportunity to scry, a very useful ability in virtually any deck. Your opening hand has too many lands? Well play this and make sure the next card isn't. Late game it can also protect you from unwanted draws so that you can get what you really need.


Nix is a rather unique counterspell. It only costs 1 to play and it counters anything that was played without a mana cost. In the context of the Time Spiral block, this makes perfect sense because of all the threats with suspend out there. Nowadays, it can be useful to stop your opponents from cheating things into play with cascade or something, but isn't much use over its brethren: Counterspell.


Patrician's Scorn is a white instant that costs 4 and destroys all enchantments. Its use comes with its second ability, which allows you to play it for nothing if you have played another white spell this turn. If you have no enchantments, mass enchantment removal can be more useful than singular enchantment removal, and the 0 cost is the icing on the cake.


Quagnoth is an interesting creature with an ability that protects your hand from some discard spells, and makes a nifty all around creature. This card is virtually uncounterable with its split second ability and has shroud, protecting it from a lot of removal. It is nice to have out, but a little costly for what you get.


Riddle of Lighting is a pretty powerful card for red, giving a scry 3 mixed in with a damager, maybe turning an Eldrazi in your deck into a 12 damage lightning bolt.


Rift Elemental is a cheap card and may help any suspend deck you have. For two mana, you can remove a time counter from a permanent or suspended card you own, and then on top of that, Rift Elemental gets +2/+0. 


You can buy these cards above and more that you like from the Future Sight set from http://www.mtgfanatic.com, where you can find great discounts and amazing rewards programs to enjoy the game of Magic: The Gathering without hurting your wallet. Stay in tune for the next installment! Enjoy!

Magic: The Gathering Future Sight (Part 3)

This is the second part in my blog installments about my favorite set: Future Sight. You can read my reasons for liking this set so much on the original post (http://mtgdeckblogaura.blogspot.com/2011/01/magic-gathering-future-sight-part-1.html), but if that is where you came from, then enjoy these next cards.


Llanowar Reborn is a strange land because of the fact it has the graft mechanic, even though it is a land. It gives a nice boost to a creature you play, protecting it from Contagion Engine or giving it just enough toughness to survive a burn.


Lucent Liminid is a weird enchantment because it is a creature and an enchantment at the same time. It may have the disadvantages of being both, but you must admit it is pretty cool to have a creature enchantment out in play.


Lumithread Field is another weird enchantment, but because it has a morph cost without being a creature. I would love to see the look on an opponent's face to see his pyroclasm fall flat because your "creature" is not only dead because it is no longer a creature, but because your other creatures will likely survive too.


 Lymph Sliver is cool because it gives a name to an already existing mechanic: Absorb. Whenever any sliver is dealt damage, prevent 1 of that damage. Simple, yet effective, and keeping up with the flavor of white protection.


Mesmeric Sliver is another sliver with a name-giving mechanic: Fateseal. Like one of Jace, the Mind Sculptor's abilities, when the sliver comes into play you may look at the top card of an opponent's library, keeping up with the reputation of blue control.


Muraganda Petroglyph is a niche enchantment that gives creatures without abilities +2/+2. You can use this card to either boost your vanilla creatures or make your tokens godly strong. Probably the later.


Narcomoeba isn't a particularly amazing card, although it does let you laugh as your enemies mill this bad boy into play. It may possibly be used in a threshold deck where you can mill cards off of your library, but is too situational to be good.


This is the second of my multi-blog installment of my favorite future sight cards. Check out http://www.mtgfanatic.com for all these cards and much, much more for low prices and awesome discounts. Enjoy!

Magic: The Gathering Future Sight (Part 2)

This is the second part in my blog installments about my favorite set: Future Sight. You can read my reasons for liking this set so much on the original post (http://mtgdeckblogaura.blogspot.com/2011/01/magic-gathering-future-sight-part-1.html), but if that is where you came from, then enjoy these next cards.

Force of Savagery is one of those low cost cards with high power with a drawback. The drawback of this card is its 0 toughness, which is quite strange, meaning it will instantly die upon its summoning. You must have a card that can grant your field universal toughness, and if you do, enjoy your 9/1 trample for free.

Ghostfire is a card that's awesome in more ways than one. It may cost 2 more than lightning bolt, but it does have the added bonus of being colorless, and thus avoids protection and other card restraints. The other awesome thing is that in the storyline, the ghostflame is the way that Chandra and Jace defeat Sarkon, also inadvertently activating the Eye of Ugin, a plot that wouldn't be released until years after this card's printing. As a side note this card even mentions the Eye of Ugin in the flavor text.

Grinning Ignus is a reusable ritual card, granting two free mana with its ability. Even though its ability was nerfed by M10, it is still an invaluable card, giving a player 6 possible mana by turn 4.

Grove of the Burnwillows is a pretty decent land, but what makes it awesome is its art. Like a few other lands of the set, it has full color, and a grove of fiery trees makes a pretty sweet field too.

Imperial Mask is a very useful enchantment, especially if you enjoy the two headed giant game. This card, which is the only card to mention teammates, gives you and all of your allies shroud from the enemy, without a heavy color investment. You will find yourself enjoying the shielding from burn and discard this gives your team in any 2v2.

Imperiosaur is a great 4 drop creature for a 5/5. Like all amazing creatures, the catch is that you have to pay this cost with only basic lands. I personally like this, because I do not have a very lucrative money supply, so all I can afford are basic lands. Like most of these cards, it is an amusing stipulation.


This is the second of my multi-blog installment of my favorite future sight cards. Check out http://www.mtgfanatic.com for all these cards and much, much more for low prices and awesome discounts. Enjoy!

Magic: The Gathering Future Sight (Part 1)

My favorite set of all time is Future Sight, for a few reasons. First of all, I like the card design that some of them have, although we shall see if that is forewarning of things to come. The second thing was the weird one trip mechanics they threw in, stuff like Aura Swap. The last one being the hints into the future the set gave us, like the Planeswalker card.

I will discuss some of my favorite cards from this set, and why.

Aven Mindcensor is an awesome card for a few reasons. First, it allows you to shut down your opponent’s fetchlands, and also do it the moment they activate the ability, taking them off guard. The same goes for decks that rely on tutors and other such cards to win.

Bitter Ordeal is a nail in the coffin card (no pun intended). With its ability gravestorm, you can Damnation the field and then remove a multitude of awesome cards from your opponent’s deck, completely shutting out aggro decks with the Damnation and combo decks with the card that follows.

Boldwyr Intimidator has arguably one of the best rules text ever, and is extremely useful in any red deck, especially a warrior one. It was a very nice card and I hope to see more of cowards and warriors.

Darksteel Garrison is a nice way to counter pesky land removal on your most valuable lands, while providing the game with yet another artifact subtype: Fortification. Plus, anything with the name Darksteel instantly makes it awesome.

Dryad Arbor is the only land in the game to permanently be a creature and a land at the same time. Although this gives it some inherent weaknesses such as pyroclasm, it is a pretty cool combination of cards we haven't ever seen again.

Fleshwrither was a card whose keyword ability made him completely amazing. For just three mana, you could take any creature in your deck with a mana cost of 4 and put it right into play. This makes cards such as the Nephlim actually playable.

Flowstone Embrace is one of the strangest auras the game has ever seen. (We will get to the strangest one later). For the first time in Magic, it mattered whether that aura was tapped or not, making players look twice after reading it. 

This is the first of my multi-blog installment of my favorite future sight cards. Check out http://www.mtgfanatic.com for all these cards and much, much more for low prices and awesome discounts. Enjoy!

Magic: The Gathering R/G Pyromancer Ascension Deck

Recently, I’ve been inspired to create a deck around the card Pyromancer Ascension. It is a quest card that when the user casts an instant or sorcery copy that player puts a quest counter on that card. If that player casts an instant or sorcery spell, and the Pyromancer Ascension has 2 or more quest counters on it, you copy that spell and choose new targets for that copy. Being able to do this to your spells will almost always create a win condition, because every spell you cast doubles.

In building this deck, I realized it would become seriously flawed against white and green because of enchantment removal, and flawed against blue because it’s ability to bounce cards, removing all counters from them. Then I decided to rely on mana acceleration to get out heavier cards like Chandra Ablaze and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs. I then looked for cards that would also benefit from mana accel and I found the land Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and the creature Dragonmaster Outcast. The Valakut turns every mountain into a Lightning Bolt and Dragonmaster Outcast gives me a strong creature base, much like Kazuul.

So, all there was left for me to do was to decide what spells I wanted. I obviously went first for Lightning Bolt because it is a very potent card that can get rid of an annoying creature or deal damage to an opponent or a planeswalker. I then went to other burn spells like Chandra’s Outrage. Dealing 4 damage to a creature and then 2 to its controller was very appealing, especially as an instant. Pyroclasm and Cerebral Eruption also were good options for the deck because they both do damage to mass amounts of creatures, to control swarms. Cerebral Eruption may be a little unpredictable and it may cost a little more, but it only deals damage to your opponent and his creatures, and it gives you a peek at his top card.

I then went to find the green cards to put in my deck. Cultivate was a must, allowing an extra card out and one into my hand. Explore was also an attractive option, granting another land onto the field and giving a draw. The last green card that I put in my deck was Slice in Twain. This card also granted a draw, and destroyed enchantments such as Leyline of Sanctity or Aestheticism that would otherwise run amuck with my deck.

I decided on the planeswalker Chandra because she could a) Deal 4 damage with a more useless burn spell, b) Use her second ability to let me put cards into my graveyard and let me draw a new hand of cards, making it easier to play activate Pyromancer’s Ascension, and c) Using her ultimate to take all the burn spells and launching them into the face of my opponent.

I brought these cards for cheap on the website http://www.mtgfanatic.com, where you can find low prices and great rewards programs.

A red/blue coin flip deck

COIN FLIP DECK

As we know, coin flip decks are a very casual archetype that sees relatively little mainstream play in Legacy. However, with the right cards you can pilot one of these decks to as early as a 4^th turn win. The card that makes this all possible is the Mirrodin artifact: Krark’s Thumb. With this card you are allowed to re-flip an unfavorable result on a coin toss. Based on the number of coin-dependent cards in this deck, that is a very important card to have in play. Some of the main cards that will make this kind of deck win are Goblin Bomb and Chance Encounter. With Goblin Bomb, after each successful upkeep coin toss, you get a fuse counter; keep in mind you lose a fuse counter for each lost flip. At five fuse counters, you can sacrifice Goblin Bomb to do 20 damage to your opponent, you can pretty much assume you’ve won at this point. To get to five fuse counters even faster, you can use Clockspinning to add an extra existing counter of your choice to your Goblin Bomb to get to that magic number five even faster. With this in mind I would strongly advise using a Red-Blue Coin Flip deck. You gain access to cards like Stitch in Time and Squee’s Revenge, Which both give you massive card and turn advantage, if you’re lucky of course. Another card you absolutely need in your coin flip deck is Chance Encounter. With Chance Encounter out, all you need is 10 successful coin flips you win the game! What could be better? But, as you have probably guessed there is in fact an instant-win combo that you can get done by turn 4. With Frenetic Efreet, you can generate an endless number of flips no matter what the results of the flip before are. Because you can use the ability even when it phases out. This was updated in a later card Frenetic Sliver that specifically says that it must be in play to use its effect (no stacking coin-flips). The errata for Frenetic Efreet got a similar update around Odyssey that was later changed back. To this effect Wizards said (If you care):

“This card got power-level errata when Chance Encounter was printed in Odyssey. Frenetic Efreet lets you play its activated ability as many times as you want in response to itself (since the cost is just ). When the first such ability resolved, you'd flip a coin and Frenetic Efreet would go away (either to the graveyard or the phased-out zone). According to Frenetic Efreet's original wording, all the rest of the abilities would still resolve, causing you to flip a coin each time. Nothing would happen to Frenetic Efreet (it's gone by now), but you'd get the easy opportunity to win lots of irrelevant coin flips and put plenty of luck counters on Chance Encounter, allowing you to win the game when your next upkeep started. To combat this combo, and the otherwise pointless free coin-flipping this card facilitated, Frenetic Efreet got errata stating that you flipped the coin only if it was in play.”

”In keeping with our current policy regarding power-level errata, the Efreet is going back to its printed functionality. If this proves to be broken, it'll be addressed with bannings and/or restrictions.”

So with these basic combos you can basically construct a very fun coin flipping deck that might actually do quite well. These are the cards you absolutely need:

4X Goblin Bomb

4X Chance Encounter

4X Frenetic Efreet (you don’t need this but it’s only 37 cents on: www.mtgfanatic.com, plus it’s a good combo)

4X Krark’s Thumb

These are cards that you should really put in your deck:

4X Clockspinning

4X Stitch in Time

4X Fiery Gambit

The rest is up to you…and luck! Have fun deck building!

And if you need cheap cards go here: www.mtgfanatic.com

I’m not even kidding.