With my sealed pool, I managed to pull some good cards but had no real support in those colors. I was thoroughly excited to see Emeria, the Sky Ruin and World Queller, but my supporting cast was limited to a Journey To Nowhere and a Shepherd of the Lost. I pulled a Hideous End and a Malakir Bloodwitch in black, and a smattering of decent red and green cards. The deck I built was not the deck I should have played, but the enamor of playing Emeria, the Sky Ruin was too much and warped my deck accordingly.

After losing to the Hedron Crab deck, I moved on to the Draft side event, pulling a very awesome UR Tempo deck using a pair of Living Tsunamis and bounce spells on the blue side and burn on the Spire Barrage on the red side. After losing to Allies played by the same player who played Hedron Crabs in the sealed portion, I called it a night. No “Priceless Treasures” were pulled during the night, but Zendikar Limited was a blast.

My next foray into Zendikar began with FNM for the new art Browbeat. I wasn’t sure what to play in the new Standard but I knew I wanted to play with a lot of Zendikards, so I borrowed Dave Meeson’s Tribal Thriftiness list and came up with this:

"Mono-Black Control, inspired by Dave Meeson"

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Land (25) 25 Swamp Creatures (12) 2 Malakir Bloodwitch 2 Guul Draz Specter 4 Vampire Nighthawk 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir Other Spells (23) 4 Disfigure 4 Tendrils of Corruption 3 Doom Blade 3 Mind Sludge 1 Haunting Echoes 4 Sign In Blood 4 Quest for the Gravelord Sideboard (15) 4 Duress 4 Vampire Hexmage 1 Haunting Echoes 1 Guul Draz Specter 2 Consume Spirit 1 Doom Blade 2 Deathmark

I wanted to run four Mind Sludge main, but out of all my Zendikar, I only had one and couldn’t find three others at my local shop. So three is what I ran. The Guul Draz Specters were meant to be Malakir Bloodwitches, but same story; I had two, the shop had none. I wanted to run Black Knight in the sideboard, but decided to run Vampire Hexmage instead. I trounced through four rounds facing the creature decks I figured would be there, but lost finals to a Mono-White Enchantment deck running Luminarch Ascension and Sigil of the Empty Throne. Black Knights were looking much better. I think I would have won if I had more proc-white creatures and discard. Both games were very close until he got to six mana and could Martial Coup the board. I really miss Hymn to Tourach as I was tempted to run Mind Rot but just couldn’t do it. I may test around with a heavier discard sweet and possible a light splash to get some Enchantment and Artifact destruction, but I had a lot of fun and Mind Sludge is VERY powerful.

"M10 Jund Mana Ramp"

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Land (22) 4 Savage Lands 4 Rootbound Crag 4 Fire-lit Thicket 2 Swamp 2 Mountain 6 Forest Creatures (14) 4 Broodmate Dragon 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Cloudthresher 2 Shriekmaw Other Spells (24) 2 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Banefire 4 Terminate 2 Lavalanche 4 Rampant Growth 4 Fertile Ground 4 Volcanic Fallout Sideboard (15) 4 Primal Command 4 Filigree Fracture 3 Pithing Needle 3 Mind Shatter 1 Makeshift Mannequin

Round one I got a bye. Yea.

Round two I played a Haunting Echoes deck. Something I noticed in this match was my threat density is lower than I like since I no longer had Treetop Village serving double duty. After a very long game one in which I didn’t draw into my mana acceleration early, I finally drew a couple Broodmate Dragons while she dug for Haunting Echoes to rip my deck apart. Game two I sided in two Mind Shatters and the Makeshift Mannequin for a Garruk and the Shriekmaws. This game was won on Broodmate Dragons into lethal Banefire.

Round three I played against Faeries. Cloudthresher and Volcanic Fallout are still very good in this matchup, and my fortuitous draws allowed me to 1 (accelerate), 2 (sweep), and 3 (bomb) both games quickly. Game two I sided in two Mind Shatters for two Shriekmaws, but they weren’t needed. When they must counter everything you do, you just overwhelm them.

Round four I played against Blightning Beatdown, a scary matchup to me as I don’t like getting hit with Blightning. Game one I went down in flames; I was in single digit life before I had four mana. Game two I took out Cloudthreshers for Primal Command, one Garruk for Makeshift and opened a hand of Forest, Fire-lit Thicket, Rampant Growth, Primal Command, Primal Command, Broodmate Dragon, and Kitchen Finks. Within four turns I had five mana and two Kitchen Finks. I proceeded to bury him with Primal Plow Under Angel’s Mercy Commands until I finished him with Kitchen Finks. Game three followed the same pattern only he was mana screwed from black.

Round five I faced the illustrious Time Sieve combo. Game one I was on the draw and looking at a hand of Savage Lands, Forest, Rootbound Crag, Rampant Growth, Rampant Growth, Banefire, Banefire. The ridiculous amount of acceleration I drew into from his Jace allowed me to EOT Cloudthresher, attack into Banefire for twelve while 3/4 of my library was Jace-ultimated into my graveyard. Game two I removed said Cloudthreshers, Terminates, Lavalanches, Garruk Wildspeakers, and Shriekmaws for Primal Commands, Filigree Fractures, Pithing Needles, Makeshift Mannequin, and two Mind Shatters. I opened up with Pithing Needle on Time Sieve, then bidded my time as I hit and missed with Fractures and Commands through counters. When I finally amassed enough mana to drop Broodmate Dragon, Path to Exile bought him another turn in which he drew Tezzeret the Seeker and Time Warp. I looked at my double Banefire and decided to roll into game three.

Game three for all the marbles. After much shuffling and banter, we opened our grips and began again much the same as game two, with Pithing Needle on Sieve and double Howling Mine. I drew all the right cards as he lost tempo to a Primal Commanded Borderpost, two Fractured Borderposts, and Kitchen Finks working in early damage. As he struggled to get to enough mana to EOT Cryptic and Open the Vaults, I Banefired him and took it home.

So chalk victory up to Primal Command, the decks MVP by far. I do not think I would have made it to the final table without, nor do I think I could have won it all. The deck needs some more tinkering for sure, but I’m not sure if I want to worry too much about it with Zendikar on the horizon, taking some key cards with it. As for now, I would love to fit Primal Command main deck, cutting Garruk and probably Lavalanche. If you love Broodmate Dragon and Banefire, give it a whirl at your next FNM.

Since then I have been keeping up with the series. I really enjoy the humor, puzzles, and point & click interface. When I was waiting for the next Monkey Island game to come out, I would pick up some other great Lucas Arts games such as Sam and Max Hit the Road, The Day of The Tentacle, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. If you have not had a chance to play these games, you really should pick them up now. If you have trouble playing the games, the ScummVM engine might help.

But enough reminiscing, on to the review! I picked up the game on Xbox Live for 800 Microsoft “Nixon Bucks” Points (10$). I chose the Xbox platform instead of the PC or iPhone because I wanted to play this game with my kids. Having played the game many times, I wanted a fresh perspective for this review. I wanted them to experience an adventure point-and-click game and show them that games can be great without having to blow something up every 30 seconds. The cool thing about this game is that it’s built on the old engine. When you want to see the old “jaggy lines” version (as my kids called it), you can switch over at any point in the game.

For being a game that’s almost 20 years old, it really held up well. My kids were actually involved in the story, laughed at the cheesy jokes, and even asked to play the sequel (even though it has not been remade yet and has “jaggy lines”). The game has revamped graphics, voice acting from the cast of The Curse of Monkey Island, and a new soundtrack. It even has a hint system built-in so you don’t have to stop playing to look up hints. If you can make it through the game without looking up hints on the XBLA version, you get an achievement.

I recommend you buy this game. The only complaint I had was that I already bought the game on floppy discs, then the re-released version on CD-ROM with an additional soundtrack, then once again on the LucasArts Classics Adventure Pack. I complained, but I really don’t know a fair way to verify that I already purchased 3 copies of the game…I am just being cheap :).

My son is at the age where he is really starting to enjoy Mickey Mouse, especially the Mickey Mouse Club House.  After seeing many episodes I started thinking about the relationships this cartoon is portraying;  What if this existed in real life…

The one that really gets me is the combo of Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto.  Lets review.  Mickey is best friends with a mentally challenged dog who can walk upright and talk named Goofy.  At the same time, Mickey has a pet dog, Pluto, that does not talk but is twice as smart as his best friend, Goofy.  Did I mention that Pluto and Goofy are the same breed of dog?  So lets apply this to real life:

I have two friends that look very similar, one is a little slow but I like him, Rob, none the less.  I have a second friend, Bob, that is very smart but does not speak, mostly grunts to tell me what he wants.  Rob and I walk and talk while I drag Bob along with a leash on his hands and knees.  Just another normal day in the land of Disney!

The lesson here is to keep your dumb friends close and keep your smart friends on a leash!

Now that calls for the Hot Dog Dance!

Even though the Iphone 3.0 software release allows for Push Notification, I am still anxiously awaiting on true push email.  As I wait, I devised a way to insure I get my important email pushed to me.  Allow me to share my push email work around.

1. Forward your email:  Build a rule to forward the email you want to be pushed to your phone.  If you are like me some email is more important than others.  I built a rule in Gmail to forward mail from certain senders to my push address.




2. Set up your forwarding address:  If you have unlimited texting package you can use one of the following addresses depending on your carrier.   Simply place your cell number before the @.

For a FREE method of doing this download the app TEXTFREE Light.  This is not only a great way to text for free (limited to 15 texts per day)  but ths app allows you to setup a direct email address to be used with Textfree, yourname@textfee.us.  Because this app has background push notifications you can set this as your forwarding email and voila! Pushed emails!

Granted you will still have to open your mail app to reply, but you will know when mail arrived instantly!

Enjoy, and let us know how it works out for you.

I knew after opening my packs that black was going to be my primary color; between Vinny, Doom Blade, Tendrils of Agony, Consume Spirit, and Rise from the Grave, my most effective removal was there. I didn’t open any real midrange power creatures, so I looked at complementary strategy. The best cards I opened in white were Harm’s Way and White Knight; there were some minor tricks with Glorious Charge and Safe Passage, but I couldn’t commit. In blue, I had Ice Cage, a couple Serpant of the Endless Sea with one Convincing Mirage to go with, and an Illusionary Servant; again, not steller. Green provided a Llanowar Elf, a Stampeding Rhino, and an Entagling Vines. With no Borderland Rangers or Rampant Growth, I didn’t feel comfortable playing the Lurking Predators I opened since I couldn’t get it into play quickly, nor did I have enough good threats to abuse it; ditto on the Elvish Piper I opened. I settled on red since Shivan Dragon is a big, strong threat and I also opened a Lighting Bolt and Goblin Artillery. So off to round one with this list:

"M10 Prerelease"

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Land (16) 9 Swamp 7 Mountain Creatures (14) 1 Black Knight 1 Child of Night 2 Dread Warlock 1 Drudge Skeletons 1 Looming Shade 1 Royal Assassin 1 Berserkers of Blood Ridge 1 Canyon Minotaur 1 Goblin Artillery 1 Goblin Piker 1 Shivan Dragon 1 Viashino Spearhunter 1 Wall of Fire Other Spells (10) 1 Consume Spirit 1 Disentomb 1 Doom Blade 1 Rise from the Grave 1 Tendrils of Corruption 1 Lightning Bolt 1 Panic Attack 1 Trumpet Blast 1 Rod of Ruin 1 Whispersilk Cloak

If I rebuilt my deck, I would have dropped the Disentomb for another land, probably a Mountain and dropped the Consume Spirit for another dude, like the Warpath Ghoul I opened. The rest of the deck played beautifully. One of the greatest synergies was Child of Night wearing a Whispersilk Cloak and Goblin Artillery. Royal Assassin was the MVP, totally making my Dread Warlocks and Black Knight take it home. I managed to mise my Doom Blade everytime I needed it, ripping it off the top not once or twice but THREE times to kill an Armored Ascended Gaurdian Seraph, a Serra Angel, and an Oakenformed Silvercoat Lion.

If you haven’t played with M10 yet, you should get out there and play. Its a fantastic set and a lot of fun!

Now, anybody who cracked a booster of Shards of Alara and saw this guy and Wild Nacatl didn’t need a large neon sign to tell them that he would be fantastic in an Extended format Zoo build; Ranger Zoo is nothing new, as I think the first article I saw on the deck as I was modifying my Zoo deck was on thestarkingtonpost.com by Bill Stark himself. To get an idea of how I looked at the card, lets have a look at my original build and see how I modified it for Ranger of Eos:

"Where Wild Things Are"

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Land (22) 4 Stomping Ground 4 Sacred Foundry 1 Temple Garden 4 Windswept Heath 4 Wooded Foothills 2 Mountain 2 Forest 1 Plains Creatures (21) 4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Kird Ape 4 Wild Nacatl 3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda 2 Duergar Hedge-Mage 4 Tarmogoyf Other Spells (17) 2 Tarfire 1 Seal of Fire 4 Lightning Helix 4 Magma Jet 3 Umezawas Jitte 3 Oblivion Ring

This version was kind of all over the place, using some questionable slots to pump Tarmogoyf. This was pre-Conflux as well, so Path to Exile was not available. Magma Jet was MVP, keeping the flow of cards going when my hand ran out. Oblivion Ring was a fine addition for dealing with such threats as Mycoloth and other annoying permanents.

Now, in order to utilize Ranger of Eos, I needed to make room for four so I could see just how potent he could be. I also felt a late game creature to fetch up would be handy, so a Figure of Destiny needed to be in here too. To make up the slots, I cut the lackluster Duergar Hedge-Mage and Isamaru; sorry puppy, fetching you up just isn’t as awesome with Legendary on your collar. Lets have a look at my list that won first at the local Extended scene:

"Rescue Rangers"

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Land (22) 4 Stomping Ground 4 Sacred Foundry 1 Temple Garden 4 Windswept Heath 4 Wooded Foothills 2 Mountain 2 Forest 1 Plains Creatures (24) 4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Kird Ape 4 Wild Nacatl 4 Ranger of Eos 3 Woolly Thoctar 4 Tarmogoyf 1 Figure of Destiny Other Spells (14) 4 Lash Out 4 Magma Jet 4 Tarfire 2 Umezawas Jitte Sideboard (15) 3 Duergar Hedge-Mage 3 Kataki, Wars Wage 4 Pyrostatic Pillar 3 Path to Exile 2 Gaddock Teeg

As you can see, I committed fully to four Tarfires. Lash Out is absolutely spectacular and couples greatly with Magma Jet for a dash of library manipulation. Woolly Thoctar provides some swingy beats on the third turn. When a Cat is followed by an Ape, then a Thoctar, the opponent is already scrambling; now follow that with the Deck MVP Ranger of Eos. Not a bad feeling indeed.

The weakest card I feel is honestly Tarmogoyf; cutting the ‘Goyf would involve adding a couple Jittes, changing Tarfires to Incinerates, bringing in the fourth Thoctar, and maybe another fetchable creature like a second Figure of Destiny. I’ll be tweaking and tinkering, and let me know what you think.

Now, I don’t allow this to greatly mar my deck design, but it does change my metagame slots. Keep this in mind when I post my decklists; I’m not JUST looking at the top decks when I design my sideboards and maindeck.

The reason I mention Sphinx of the Steel Wind is not necessarily that somebody mised one into play and trounced me; the deck that this was found resident was a deck built around Master Transmuter which when allowed to sit around with untapped blue mana can be a very powerful tool, fueling cards like Magister Sphinx and Sphinx Summoner.

The same sort of situation arose a while back when I was just getting back into Standard. I played my usual intro deck, something with a lot of red cards that burn or blow up stuff to get a feel for what the scene was like. Treefolk Aggro made an appearance and trounced the field. Red has a hard time dealing with indestructible stuff being played for free. Leaf-Crowned Elder is the lynchpin of the deck, but learning that is difficult when you are new to the field. I’ll also note that this same deck went to Cogcon and took first in the pre-Reborn Standard event toppling Faeries and 5c Control in the process.

So interesting decks do show up and play, and I have to keep an open mind when designing my own deck. After reading Louis Scott-Vargus’s latest article condemning Midrange strategies, I looked at my Bant deck in a different light. Now, I don’t think anyone should just outright drop a particular strategy, since the keys to success lie in preserving your options.

Bant needed to pick a direction; it played a clunky aggro game and an even more unweildy control game. My wife’s original idea for the deck was to get Wall of Reverence into play and follow up with Stoic Angel, all the while keeping the game out of reach for aggro decks behind lifegain and the Angel’s anti-swarm ability. Against Control, you get out early exalted creatures and beat in. The problem arose when you started drawing walls against control and beaters against aggro; you were outclassed.

I’ve decided I’m going to try and focus on the control route, albeit a non-traditional control route. I don’t have Cryptic Commands, so those of you looking for phenominal cosmic power will only find an itty-bitty living space. I am basing this on the idea that aggro will be dominating my meta and the few control decks I run into can be sideboarded effectively. Seeing one of my innovations gaining notoriety has given a little more confidence. The sideboard may see tweaks here and there, but the idea is to hide behind walls while my evasive attackers get pumped from exalted utility creatures.

"Bantrol"

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Land (22) 4 Seaside Citadel 4 Adarkar Wastes 4 Brushland 3 Reflecting Pool 3 Forest 3 Plains 1 Island Creatures (26) 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Qasali Pridemage 4 Jhessian Infiltrator 4 Stoic Angel 4 Wall of Denial 4 Wall of Reverence 2 Rafiq of the Many Other Spells (12) 4 Bant Charm 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Path To Exile Sideboard (15) 4 Negate 4 Dauntless Escort 3 Martial Coup 4 Mulldrifter

Let’s do this!

"Hastey Jund"

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Lands (16) 4 Karplusan Forest 8 Mountain 4 Sulfurous Springs Creatures (24) 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Jund Hackblade 4 Boggart Ram-Gang 4 Hells Thunder 4 Hellspark Elemental 4 Tattermunge Maniac Other Spells (20) 2 Firewild Borderpost 2 Veinfire Borderpost 4 Blightning 4 Flame Javelin 4 Incinerate 4 Giantbaiting

First things first; why no Figure of Destiny?

Figure of Destiny is an interesting card that evokes a lot of different opinions. Most people agree that he is good, but I feel he isn’t a staple but a role-player; in fast, burn ‘em out type decks I’ve never liked seeing one in my opening hand. I think he is perfect for more midrange aggressive strategies, otherwise his mana investment needs are a drain on early resources better spent elsewhere. With the modifications to this deck, it relies on its turn one drops less. I wanted another “burn” spell or hasty creature to fill this slot, and Hellspark Elemental felt just perfect for the spot keeping a mid-to-late game presence in the deck.

The Borderposts are an experiment in lowering land count with borderposts. They are also multicolor, so they work well with Jund Hackblade. They serve a dual role being a 1 drop multicolor replacement for Figure of Destiny and being a mana source/fixer. I feel its worth trying at minimal loss to the decks strategy.

Lash Out was another card I felt needed to be swaped. Bloodbraid Elf into Lash Out to eliminate an opposing blocker is excellent. Winning the clash is greater still, but cascading into Lash Out with no good targets doesn’t feel right. At first, we played with Soul’s Fire, figuring on a cascade we will always have Bloodbraid Elf to do three damage to a creature or the opponent, but we swapped for a more pressure oriented card, Blightning.

We’ll be testing this deck out and I will report here with the results.

"Junder and Blightning Strikes Twice!"

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Lands (22) 4 Savage Lands 4 Karplusan Forest 4 Llanowar Wastes 4 Treetop Village 3 Forest 2 Mountain 1 Swamp Creatures (16) 4 Goblin Outlander 4 Troll Ascetic 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Broodmate Dragon Planeswalkers (3) 3 Garruk Wildspeaker Other Spells (19) 2 Banefire 2 Violent Ultimatum 4 Fertile Ground 4 Rampant Growth 4 Terminate 3 Lash Out Sideboard (15) 4 Blightning 4 Volcanic Fallout 4 Filigree Fracture 2 Hurricane 1 Banefire

Decisions decisions…