magic-junkie

Live mtgo streaming

2012-01-27T13:24:00.001-08:00

For those of you that like watching mtgo drafts , sealed or constructed events you can join my stream channel and have a nice time watching live events on mtgo! The channel's url is http://www.livestream.com/mtgo2012

So if you wish some live action check this out!

Dark Ascension first Spoiler. Faithless Looting.

2011-11-27T15:54:00.000-08:00

Well after a long time of inactivity i am back in the game . Presenting a very nice rare from the dark ascension , the second part of the Innistrad Block. Faithless Looting.

Jace the mind sculptor Banned in standard!!

2011-06-20T00:07:00.001-07:00

Effective Date: July 1, 2011
Magic Online Effective Date: June 29, 2011

Standard
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is banned.
Stoneforge Mystic is banned.

Exception: The deck list for the "War of Attrition" Event Deck will be legal in Standard if kept completely intact. That deck, which went on sale on June 10, contains two copies of Stoneforge Mystic.

On Magic Online, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic will both be banned in Standard as of the June 29, 2011 downtime. There will be no exceptions made for the Event Deck containing Stoneforge Mystic, as that deck will not be sold online.

I hope magic doesnt evolve into yugioh soon....

Some new won drafts !! Analysis coming soon on Som block drafts!

2011-06-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ok this draft was unfair and too bomb dependent but it led to an easy 3-0!
Lets get with a mythicless 3-0 record!

Jor kadeen first pick is such a guarantee to a succesful 3-0 record , I strongly advise taking him over most removals and other bombs!It is the new age metalcraft overrun on legs and first strike!

Som 3-0 U/Binfect

2011-06-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

Sheoldred ,whispering one spoiled!

2011-04-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

5BB

6/6

Swampwalk

At the beginning of your upkeep,return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep,that player sacrifices a creature.

New phyrexia surgical extraction spoiler

2011-04-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

Here is another spoiler that will definately see some play in from the new phyrexia set!

Spending 200$ on a playset of karn the released is a bad idea!!

2011-04-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have come across people on ebay spending 200$ on a playset of the new karn on presale!!!That is one of the worst investments i have come across on magic cards lately!Dont do that ,the set hasnt had a lot of cards spoiled and you should also consider that Karn is a card with seven converted mana cost and its type is planeswalker!!!

First of all 7 as a converted mana cost is something hard to reach in standard format ESPECIALLY when zendikar mana ramp rotates out of standard.(harrow, explore,overgrown battlement).Primeval titan hits the floor at six mana and most times he wins the game the next turn if not the turn it hits the battlefield.Karn doesnt do that.More than that you are not going to use karn as a four of at its mana cost.Seven is a lot of mana!!

Karn decks will emerge thats for sure , but 50$ each is more than the price of chase mythic the past sets.Koth settled at 25$, vengevine at 30$.Karn doesnt seem to be more than that even if it sees so much play.Which i doubt as seven mana will only make him see standard play.Extended , legacy and vintage is out of the question especially when people in legacy kill on turn one!

If there are more good mythics which i am certain karn will certainly have an average price ,with 50$ dollars i predict that you will be able to buy 2 or more karn the released after summer.This one i can bet on!Even if you have the money to invest on magic you should wait till more cards get spoiled and karns price drops as a presale.50 a card wasnt viable on jace the mind sculptor....How can it be on a seven mana plainswalker???

Bolas had similar extreme abilities as a planeswalker and saw little play,how could karn have a much better fate?

So wait till you see more!Dont hit buy blindfoldedly on every kewl planeswalker that shows around until he sees some play potential!!

Apart from that we might see the green planeswalker we are missing on new phyrexia,will Melira make an appearance?

If so will she be a four mana playable planeswalker and potentially the chase mythic of the set?So just dont spend half a jace on everything they throw at you!!!

New phyrexia spoilers! (with english translation)

2011-04-04T16:47:00.000-07:00

Phyrexian Canceller
Mythic

Creature - Horror
5/5
Trample
Whenever a source deals damage to Phyrexian Canceller, that source's controller sacrifices that many permanents.
"It is blessed compleatness." --Sheoldred, Whispering One

Puresteel Paladin
Rare

2/2
Creature - Human Knight
Whenever an Equipment enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card.
Metalcraft - As long as you control 3 or more artifacts, equipments you control have equip 0.

Norn's Annex
Rare
{PW}{PW}
Artifact
({PW} may be paid for with either or 2 life.)
Creatures can't attack you or Planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays P for each attacking creature.

Caged Sun
Rare

When Caged Sun enters the battlefield, choose a color.
Creatures you control of the chosen color have +1/+1.
Whenever you tap a land for one or more mana of the chosen color, add one mana of the chosen color to your mana pool.

Phyrexian Unlife
Rare

Enchantment
You do not lose the game for having 0 or less life.
While you are at 0 or less life, all sources of damage to you gains Infect.

Psychological Surgery
Rare

Enchantment
Whenever an opponent shuffles his library, you may look at the top 2 cards of that library. You may exile one of them, then put them back on top of that library in any order.

Spellsplitter
Rare

0/4
Artifact Creature
{PU}: Target spell or ability that targets a single creature targets Spellsplitter instead.
({PU} may be paid for with either or 2 life.)
"I'll show Vorinclex that for progress you require more than just teeth and nails." - Malcator, Unifier

Screamwhip
Rare

Artifact - Equipment
Living Weapon
Equip {PB}{PB} ({PB} may be paid for with either or 2 life.)
Equipped creature has +1/+1 for each Swamp you control.

Hex Parasite
Rare

Artifact Creature - Insect(?)
1/1
{PB}: Target a permanent. Remove up to X counters from that permanent. Hex Parasite gains +1/+0 until end of turn for each counter removed this way.
({PB} may be paid for with either or 2 life.)

Fresh Meat
Rare

Instant
Put a 3/3 green Beast creature token onto the battlefield for each creature that was put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn.
"Death is a scavenger's favorite appetizer."

Spawning Shell
Rare
{PG}
Artifact
({PG} may be paid for with either or 2 life.)
{PG}, T, sacrifice a creature: Search your library for a creature with CMC equal to or less than the sacrificed creature's plus one. Put that creature into play, then shuffle your library. Play this ability only when you can play a Sorcery.

Invasion Parasite
Rare

3/2
Creature - Insect
Imprint - When Invasion Parasite enters the battlefield, exile target land.
Whenever a land with the same name as the exiled card enters the battlefield under an opponents control, Invasion Parasite deals 2 damage to him or her.

Scrapmetal Fiend
Rare

*/*
Creature - Construct
Scrapmetal Fiend's power and toughness are each equal to the number of artifact cards in all graveyards.

Chancellor of the Furnace
Rare

5/5
Creature - (Giant)
At the beginning of the game, if ~ is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, at the beginning of your first turn's upkeep, you may put a 1/1 red goblin creature with Haste on the battlefield.
When this enters the battlefield, put X 1/1 red goblin creatures with Haste onto the battlefield, where X is the number of creatures you control.

Chancellor of the Dross
Rare

6/6
Creature - (Vampire)
Flying, Lifelink
At the beginning of the game, if ~ is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, at the beginning of your first upkeep,each opponent loses 3 life. Gain life equal to the life lost this way.

Praetor's Grip
Rare

Sorcery
Search target player's library for a card and exile it facedown.That player shuffles his or her library.As long as that card is exiled, you may look at it and play it as though it were in your hand.

Urabrask, the Hidden
Mythic
Legendary Creature - Praetor

4/4
Creatures you control have Haste.
Creatures your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped.

Glistening oil

Rare
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has Infect.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature.
When enchanted creature goes to the graveyard from the battlefield, return glistening oil to its owner's hand.

Species Transplantation
Rare

Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control are the chosen type in addition to their other creature types.
"There is no word more worthless than "evolution" from the mouth of Vorinclex. The only one who knows true Progress is me." -Jin-Gitaxis, Core Augur.

Karn the Released spoiled!!

2011-04-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the new planeswalker Karn as it has been spoiled earlier today, he will be present in the new phyrexia set!

Presaling the new planeswalker has already started on ebay, some vendors are asking 70$ as a presale price!!!I would advice against spending more than 30$ for a presale card anyway!

Zendikar draft queues on magic online!They pay so....why dont play?

2011-03-30T05:07:00.000-07:00

Here are two drafts i played recently,they all ended with me winning the whole thing so why not have a look to play on some queues and win those well paying booster packs!
DRAFT No1

DRAFT No2

Zendikar holds great value on magic online and it has a great amount of pay rares apart from its mythic rares!Also you get a chance to pull a jace the mind sculptor and who doesnt want that card anyway?!

Good luck and see you at the modo queues!

Action announced as New Phyrexia!

2011-03-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

So we will be seeing a lot more infect and as expected the 5 praetors of phyrexia!

Drafting on mbs!!3-0 with dinosaurs!!

2011-03-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

One of the easiest drafts i won, those bodies proved to be way to much for any of my opponents to withstand a game against it!

Jumanji,aka beating caw blade!

2011-03-09T00:37:00.000-08:00

You KNOW 80% of people are playing caw blade and you wanna get them?Here is the deck for you!Jumanji!
All you have to do is go an explosive start of your first rounds bring some guys down and stampede them!This strategy has a target on caw blade and is sure to bring your caw blade foes down!
Exploiting fauna shaman and vengevine will let you leave with day of judgement and lead the stampede will let you dig for more and more guys that jace and hawks cant beat unless they draw the nuts!
This list is a creature tool box constructed to make a caw blade match up a bye!
Here is the original list presented at the last SCG open!

Jumanji Featured by Lewis Laskin on 2011-03-06 (Standard)
Maindeck: Artifact Creatures 1 Molten-Tail Masticore 1 Phyrexian Revoker Creatures 1 Acidic Slime 1 Baneslayer Angel 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Fauna Shaman 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Lotus Cobra 1 Soul's Attendant 4 Squadron Hawk 4 Vengevine Legendary Creatures 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence Sorceries 4 Lead the Stampede 2 Overwhelming Stampede Basic Lands 4 Forest 2 Plains Lands 2 Marsh Flats 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Razorverge Thicket 3 Stirring Wildwood 3 Sunpetal Grove 2 Tectonic Edge Sideboard: 1 Glimmerpoint Stag 1 Kor Hookmaster 1 Kor Skyfisher 2 Leatherback Baloth 1 Obstinate Baloth 1 Viridian Corrupter 3 Journey to Nowhere 3 Nature's Claim 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence 1 Gideon Jura This deck will ramp on its first rounds to fill the board with creatures and go all in at caw blade match up.It also has some plan b options like masticore to inflict that last dmg where vengevines will have fuel from lead the stampede to be around on every turn! Linvala shuts down sparkmages and stoneforge mystic cheating swords into play! The deck also offers many synergies on the sideboard plan as the stag-skyfisher endless recycling that will also help making sure you cast a creature spell on EACH of your turns.Hook master will shut down a titan for some time and there is a lot of artifact hate to break swords when they make an appearance. This list apart from a rogue plan against caw blade gives us the basis we need on stopping caw blade.Stopping their day of judgement plan will almost certainly give us all the advantage we need to win caw blade.Apart from that being milled with sword of the body and mind or discarding a vengevine due to sword of feast and famine is an asset to our strategy! Possible additions to the list A greater number of acidic slime mainboard is certain to be of use either breaking swords or some lands and screwing our opponents out of mana if their mana base is a demanding one. We will be seeing more and more artifacts so this guy is certain to be of good use!Be it caw blade or boros they all use swords.Even that U/B tezzeret list will give us a lot to target with our slimes. Kor firewalkers in our sideboard plan will also do a lot against boros or mono red match up as they will stay on the board and keep our life total out of lethal reach.Apart from that sneaking them in with shaman is always an option! Green Sun's zenith is very good if we consider the versatility of the deck and bringing in just what we need in a certain match up will add a great value to this card hitting our mainboard.We will need creatures to make lead the stampede worth it but green sun zenith will give us exaclty what we need from our deck at a given point of the game, so it will be a good addition!Lotus Cobra mana can make even the most mana heavy creatures come into play with our zenith. Sun titan is certain to bring a lot of guys back each turn and can also see play in this list.Also bringing a phyrexia revoker back its turn is certain to stall many boards! Garruk wildspeaker is always usefull to lists like this .He can threat overrun on our opponents and will get us some guys wich will be very use full to stampede our foes life total! This list is in need of a lot of tuning i guess before it can get to tier one ,as the versatility of creatures it uses as a one of make it random more or less.Other than that i am sure it has what it takes to appear in some top 8 in standard any time soon!

Is red deck wins back?

2011-03-08T23:56:00.000-08:00

The last SCG open has ended and more or less it showed the power of the new "jund" Caw blade deck!

This deck has been dominating the top 8 of the tourney taking 6 out of 8 of the top.Havent people been trying to break this archetype?Of cource they have but to no avail...

But in the end what happened?Red deck won the whole thing...How?NONE was expecting this deck to make a come back anytime soon and there was certainly few hate against red spells..The pilot was an excellent red sorcerer of old time that evenly tried to have a double koth some time in the quarter finals forgeting that rules about legend cards have changed.Other than that he did few mistakes and did the best to send all his red spells on the face of his opponents.

Lets take a look at the list he used.

Red Deck Wins
A Standard Magic deck, by Patrick Sullivan
1st place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Edison, New Jersey, United States on 2011-03-06

Maindeck:

Creatures
4 Ember Hauler
4 Goblin Guide
4 Plated Geopede
4 Spikeshot Elder

Instants
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
4 Staggershock

Planeswalkers
4 Koth of the Hammer

Basic Lands
12 Mountain

Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Teetering Peaks

Sideboard:
4 Ratchet Bomb
4 Manic Vandal
4 Arc Trail
3 Mark of Mutiny

The list isnt anything new,it isnt anything people havent seen before or something unformentioned.It is good old red deck wins!
The reason it did so well is basicly that new archtypes have just to adjust to win one another so there is little room in the sideboard for old decks that are there but noone cares to take them to an event and start beating people with them.
We should remember that people used to beat jund with red deck wins back a year or so?But can red deck wins beat the Caw Blade power house?Chances are it is capable to do so!
This deck came to show us one thing,decks unexpected are easy to make it happen and people in big tourneys will be netdecking with just a little of tuning or not.Most decks are there winning and stable.But anyone trying to go rogue or in this current situation go "old" is likely to be awarded for doing so.Caw blade is deploying much faster than ANY older version of U/W control in the last years but red deck is by far faster than any type of red deck.
Another lesson we should learn from this is that people should go in tourneys with some sideboard plan about decks that existed some time in the current type 2 were they good for some time or not.If leyline of sanctity was in the sideboard of some caw blade versions,no red deck would stand chances against them.But it was not,caw blade players just have to beat the mirror and thats all theyll care about.
Will this make room for other archetypes to breath,valakut to make its come back?Some shape anew breed appear bringing blightsteel colossus in the game?Time will tell.

Ending this i would like to post another red deck i saw in the same tourney and is certainly a lot of fun to play!

Goblins A Standard Magic deck, by Douglas Scheinberg 11th place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Edison, New Jersey, United States on 2011-03-06
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Ember Hauler 4 Goblin Chieftain 4 Goblin Guide 4 Goblin Wardriver 4 Spikeshot Elder 4 Warren Instigator Instants 4 Burst Lightning 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Staggershock Sorceries 1 Arc Trail Basic Lands 17 Mountain Lands 2 Tectonic Edge 4 Teetering Peaks Sideboard: 3 Sword of Feast and Famine 4 Molten-Tail Masticore 4 Manic Vandal 4 Mark of Mutiny I believe this list will be great to run around (and fast too) at some modo daily queue taking some quick games!Or of cource your local fnm!

Learning from the pros:An interview with Christian Calcano.

2011-02-28T16:29:00.000-08:00

Most people of the magic community certainly have heard a lot of Christian Calcano lately.His finishes have made him a known player and he keeps scoring better and better results as time passes by!I managed to get in touch with Christian and asked him a few questions that let the casual player get a grasp of the thoughts of a pro!

How you started playing magic?
I was 14 when I started. I played a different game (yugioh) and a friend who played both taught me how to play magic, i was instantly hooked.

Achievements so far?
PT Amsterdam 33rd
Worlds 2010 15th
GP Portland 12th
GP Denver 10th
SCG Open Richmond 1st

How difficult it is after all, 'getting pro' ?
It's definitely hard, you have to really want it. Be willing to travel for ptqs and such. It took me over 80 PTQs and 20 GPs to finally q for my 1st PT.

You scg richmond standard open showed you could pilot a valaramp with great results,do you believe this deck can reappear in the top places of tourneys before it rotates out of standard?
It definitely can. The deck is really powerful and it place 3 copies in the t8 of SCG Open Indy (the week before paris). The metagame did drastically change since then, but the deck is powerful and I'm sure will see make a big finish at either an SCG Open, or one of the standard grand prix.

We are seeing you in alot of tourneys around the world,how do you keep up with all this travelling,is it worth it?
It's definitely been worth it for me. The friends and memories you make are the biggest part of traveling to these tournaments for me. I've gotten to meet some amazing people and see some places that people dream of all from this card game.

Your tourney results are getting better and better this last months,is it skill or practice that helps you do so?What would you advice a player who would like to go competitive in order to improve their results?
It's probably fair to say it's more practice then anything. My biggest finishes were all in limited and i draft and play a lot of sealed to prepare for limited. If i had to give advice it'd be to practice a lot for the tournament you're planning on going to. Also a big thing for me towards the end of this past year was not going on tilt. If you make a mistake or get unlucky just forget about it and move on. If you dwell on it or think about it too much it'll affect the way you play and cause you to lose.

Sealed deck,it defines the day one of many grand prix nowadays,How much is luck a factor as far as pool is concerned?
It definitely matters to a certain extent, but not as much as people think. I'll be honest, there have been times where i've gotten a pool that was amazing and didnt make day 2. So I think it mostly depends on building your deck correctly to give you the best chance to win. When I build my sealed pool, i go find other players who I know are better than me and ask them how they would build it. This helps me know what i couldve/shouldve done differently and how to sideboard for the day.

Mirrodin besieged is now the active draft format ,How do you believe things have changed?
The first pack dictates the entire draft now. I feel that infect got better and metalcraft got worse. because in the first pack there arent many good artifacts that you want to play. After pack 1 you should have a good idea of what colors you're going to be.

At pro tour paris you brought your own build,was it worth it?Is building your own list and testing it worth the time when most tourneys are ful of pretty much specific power houses of type 2?
It was definitely worth it. We played and tested the deck specifically to beat the t2 decks that were the power houses at that time like valakut, UB control, uw control (without mystic). A good example would be Gerry T winning the SCG Open DC this past weekend. His deck was by far the best choice for the tournament. CawBlade splashing red for lightning bolt and cunning sparkmage. He knew going into that tournament that CawBlade and Boros would be the two most played decks and his innovation of adding red to the best deck to beat both of those decks was a good example.

Magic online,how much time you spend online?Can magic online help the new player get better?
I spend about 10-20 hours a week on Magic Online. It can definitely help the new player get better. On mtgo there are tournaments at all times so you can play whenever you have freetime. It's where i play most of my limited games and the main reason why I had all those finishes in the past few months.

At grand prix denver you lost the last match and didnt make top8, what's it like doing so well in a tourney all day and losing the game that would get you to top 8?
It's the second time i've been in that position and it's definitely not fun. I felt mostly unstoppable the whole weekend having only lost twice up to that point (to the eventual champion). But afterward my friends were there to console me and remind me that a top 16 is still an amazing finish which it is.

Have you ever played versus a greek magic player?What's your opinion about greek magic players?
I played against one greek player at a side event at paris. He was a good guy and played well. One of the things i like to do is follow event coverage and one of the things I noticed is that greek players do very well on the european GP circuit. I've seen many t8 GPs and not too long ago one t8d PT Austin.

Anything you would like to add?
If you're a PTQ grinder like I was who still hasnt qd yet, dont give up. Just keep trying, whether it'd be at a real ptq or on magic online, play your best and eventually you'll get there.

Thanks a lot Christian!That info has been very helpful and i hope you get the best results at your future tourneys!

New Archetypes rising!Scg DC

2011-02-26T17:58:00.000-08:00

Starcity games tourney in DC standard open is having its final day one games by this time and a lot new decks and ideas have sprung to give us food for thought.And playtesting!
The main target deck for most people has been the current powerhouse of standard Caw!blade.Most people seem to have targeted the specific match up as they expected a lot of people to show up with the current list,which indeed has shown up quite a LOT.
We have seen a lot of variances of the caw blade deck too, their target was also the mirror and of cource boros.A dominant list appeared piloted by the well known american mtg grinder and pro Gerry Thompson.
His list?

W/U/R Caw-Blade Featured by Gerry Thompson on 2011-02-27 (Standard) Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 1 Sword of Body and Mind 1 Sword of Feast and Famine Creatures 4 Squadron Hawk 4 Stoneforge Mystic Instants 3 Lightning Bolt 2 Mana Leak 3 Spell Pierce	Planeswalkers 3 Gideon Jura 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Sorceries 4 Day of Judgment 4 Preordain Basic Lands 3 Island 3 Mountain 4 Plains Lands 4 Arid Mesa 3 Celestial Colonnade 2 Evolving Wilds 2 Glacial Fortress 3 Scalding Tarn 3 Seachrome Coast	Sideboard: 1 Basilisk Collar 4 Cunning Sparkmage 1 Inferno Titan 1 Sun Titan 1 Dispel 3 Divine Offering 4 Flashfreeze

He has added red for lightning bolt (i kill your boros hero) , a stable (as it appeared so far ) option in the spot removal section of the deck.
His sideboard contains basilisk collar and of Cunning sparkmage which i am sure stopped a lot of hawks,guides,heros or even fatties (via basilisk collar deathtouch) tonight.
Inferno titan has also made an appearance in the deck, this was a surprise i believe as the red titan makes the deck a bit more mana dependent on red mana.I do wish to see GerryT's analysis on this one and how this titan helped him or not..
The white titan is bringing almost everything back, swords creatures and lands.A very clear selection for this list.

Another list tha appeared in the tourney and is certain to be taking a spot in the current metagame and deck discussion is this one.

Monoblue Architect Featured by Ali Aintrazi on 2011-02-27 (Standard) Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 1 Contagion Engine 4 Everflowing Chalice 2 Ratchet Bomb 3 Tumble Magnet Artifact Creatures 1 Steel Hellkite 2 Wurmcoil Engine Creatures 4 Enclave Cryptologist 4 Grand Architect 4 Thrummingbird 3 Treasure Mage Instants 1 Stoic Rebuttal	Legendary Artifacts 2 Mindslaver Planeswalkers 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Sorceries 4 Preordain Basic Lands 17 Island Lands 4 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Mystifying Maze	Sideboard: 2 Ratchet Bomb 1 Tumble Magnet 1 Blightsteel Colossus 4 Perilous Myr 1 Platinum Emperion 4 Flashfreeze 2 Negate

The games i saw played by this list were dominated by a creature that is played a little even in limited, Thumming bird!!!

It was an amazing synergy thummingbird proliferating chalices , magnets,cryptologists, ratchet bombs ,jace and best of all POISON counters!
All Ali had to do was a mere swing with his nexus for one(some times 2 due to grand architect effect) and then proliferating via means of thumming bird and Contagion engine!This deck was giving caw blade a hard time on the board mindslaving them games away or after sb Blightsteel colossus making them poisoned in no time!
Treasure mage was a sweat tutor effect,cryptologist a huge card advantage and mystifying maze a silent force nullifying sword swings all night ,and could do so all the time!
As far as for aggro?Platinum emperion can come down in no time thanks to grand architect!
Great archetype, a cheap one and there is sure a lot discussion going around this one in the near future.

Those two lists made a great impact in the tourney along with bonehoard getting main or side in many caw blade decks as predicted by almost everyone!

While watching games i even came across a furnace celebration - awakening zone list that seemed to simple but really abusing sylvok lifestaff and celebration synergy.
I will publish that list tommorow as it seemed quite intriguing!Taking 3 life and dealing 2 damage by sacrificing a token and paying two mana is indeed something valuable!
Till then good luck at the modo queues for mirrodin besieged release events!!!

Blue Black vampires.Budget and effective!

2011-02-22T16:58:00.000-08:00

Is primeval titan something you got bored of?Caw blade's Jace worth too much?Fauna quest's vengevines a card you are not willing to spend on?Br vampires sounds so easy to stop with day?Here we go with another deck braught by christian calcano at the pro tour paris!B/U vampires!Let's check the original list:

Christian Calcano's Blue-Black Vampires

Standard - Pro Tour Paris 2011

Main Deck 60 cards
4 Creeping Tar Pit 4 Darkslick Shores 4 Drowned Catacomb 2 Marsh Flats 7 Swamp 2 Verdant Catacombs 23 lands 4 Bloodghast 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir 4 Nantuko Shade 3 Phyrexian Revoker 4 Pulse Tracker 4 Vampire Lacerator 23 creatures	3 Duress 3 Go for the Throat 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Unified Will 14 other spells Sideboard 2 Dark Tutelage 2 Disfigure 2 Flashfreeze 1 Go for the Throat 2 Marsh Casualties 2 Skinrender 2 Tectonic Edge 2 Wurmcoil Engine 15 sideboard cards

This deck exploits the speed of vampires as far as damage is concerned with the addition of nantuko shade and a lot of discard and a way to protect your board,unified will.
Phyrexian revoker also promises to do a lot in stopping enemy gideon and fauna shamans from doing what they usually do, give their controller's a win once past their first untap step...
Along with our 23 creatures that dont go any further than the 2 (3 for gatekeeper of malakir ) range come 3 go for the throat to eliminate any creature that would give our enemies board advantage.
This deck poses severe difficulty being controlled and gives us the opportunity to deal early damage and protect our creature advantage.
Duress and inquisition of kozilek will give us info on our oponnents hand and will take away incoming stoneforge mystics before they bring the devastating sword of feast and famine.
Creeping tar pit will also get rid of those jaces as it will certainly creep under hawks to send enemy jaces to the bin or provide damage that can give as the win.
Another positive fact for this build is its low price range that makes it easy to build for the next local FNM.

Sideboard options
Dark tutelage:The bane of every control match up.It provides card advantage control decks cant cope with.If this one hits the board on time it will make things difficult for every control player to keep incoming threats back.
Disfigure:This card is our bullet for lotus cobra and other low power creatures that we will want out of the board on our early turns,kills goblin guide steppe lynxes and that annoying new hero boros has been using lately.It also is good for enemy tar pits and lavaclaw reaches .
Flashfreeze:Yes people are still using titans to fetch those valakuts..
Marsh Casualties:Stops hawks from going down as a team of potential blockers, stops boros and kuldotha red from explosive starts,it is a must sideboard plan for aggro matchups.
Skinrender:It is good for taking down enemy creatures and will give as another 3/3 body.Something we will need against heavy creature decks as a 2 for 1 solution.
Tectonic Edge:Celestial colonade and valakuts always make awesome targets for this one!
Wyrmcoil Engine:It is good against aggro decks and it has evasion against go for the throat.Once it hits the board it will make an excellent blocker or attacker if needed and will do great things to augment our life total.

This deck is not the power house caw-blade and boros level but it can pose decent matches against them.It is a deck most people wont be expecting to see once creeping tar pit appears and will give most of our opponents the impression we are playing blue white control.It also is able to stop day of judgement ,a card control is hoping to resolve most of the time in order to stabilize.Revoker is shutting down planeswalkers and nantuko shade can certainly get huge in order to resolve some devastating blows.

Possible innovations!
As the current metagame is sure getting a lot of hawks and blades or some boros attackers we will have to adopt to this environment in order to make this build more effective against those matchups.I believe that the addition of mana leak to the main board in the place of go for the throat would be a great addition in order to stop stone forge mystic and hawks from landing, it is also a great way to stop early ramp spells from valakut builds or people from bringing down artifacts and tezzeret.As long as go for the throat has been around people have been tending to build around it and this will possible make it impossible for us to remove enemy forgemaster stuff like engine or battlesphere.
If aggro deck is popular in our local tourneys duress is something that we should seriously consider replacing by the means of disfigure in the main board.
Steel sabotage might also come in handy as it is something most people wont be expecting and if played correctly it might give us a 5 mana tempo lead that can be crucial in a match against caw blade.Another use for steel sabotage is taking down ratchet bombs and really will help against tezzy decks that are bound to show up more and more...
Doom blade is a card that could also appear in this decklist as tezzeret decks will have no problem against go for the throat and who wants a dead three card package in their deck against a certain matchup?U/B is certainly down for "maintenance" due to sword of feast and famine so we arent fighting grave titans any time soon.
Jace beleren could also be an addition to this deck.Apart from hating the big jace card advantage it offers can be crucial against certain match ups.
Kalastria highborn is as mana dependent as nantuko shade so i wouldnt resist playtesting this build with her along especially against aggro decks that wont let us rely on unified will to leave mana open and where life gain will be a major factor on who will eventually win.

Those are some addition one might make depending on what he can be expecting to face on the tourneys he will attempt, there certainly a lot more tuning that can be done to this deck and its colours certainly offer many cards to be tested.This decklist certainly offers some goodies that can be exploited and be winning conditions.
In the end it is a deck WITH blue but WITHOUT Jace that calcano took to 7-3 on pro tour paris so why wouldnt it make a good option of a deck to run at a local tourney and expect to go well with?
Good luck sleeving this deck up and good luck!

Caw blade! Searching in our current toolbox deck strategy.

2011-02-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

The new deck archetype that appeared at the pro tour paris is soon dominating type 2 matches around the globe.It is certain that we will be seeing a lot of blade bearing hawks flying around in the next 3 months.The stoneforge mystic-sword cell has proved its self as a huge addition to the blue white caw go deck.

Now that the scenery has been set i believe it is high time to search our current standard toolbox to see if there are any new toys that would give as advantage in the 'blade' wars.We can do so by searching any weaponry that might appear in the sets that are legal in the current standard.

So lets do some searching of what additions might there be apart from those two masterpieces of equipment.

Lets begin by searching in the oldest set available ,Zendikar.We have these piece of equipment.

Adventuring gear:Nope this isnt usefull in a deck without fetches to go for maximum damage.

Blade of the warchief:Not enough creatures to make this worthwhile.

Blazing torch:I would consider this one as a bonus burst lightning with no kicker option which can be good and useful in some aspects but certainly not standard useful.

Explorer's scope:This could have some synergy with jace to give as an extra land drop but in most aspects it is weak.

Grappling hook:Nope.

Spidersilk net:Nope

Trailblazer's boots:Non basic land walk is somethink that would make our creatures unblockable versus some match ups but other than that it is totally useless.

Trusty Machete:It is a good piece of equipment but our swords are better by miles so there is no use adding this one up.

Let's see what worldwake has to offer as far as equipment is concerned:

Basilisk collar:It is good, it has some potential as lifelink is extremelly usefull in some match ups but sylvok lifestaff is by far greater when we come down and check the creatures we run in Caw blade as the 3 life given by the staff is by far greater than the 1 life we would get from basilisk collar hawks!

Hammer of ruin:This one has potential to be a sideboard plan in the current metagame.It has an ability that is begoming more and more relevant in standard.Destroying enemy equipment.It is good and i believe it might see play in the coming months making our opponents thinking twice before striking with their swords as this piece of hammer is able to be smashing swords all day long and it also gives a +2 attack pump which is something to be considered.People wont be expecting this equipment any time soon and i would advice you to use this one as a sideboard plan in places where caw blade will be dominating.Divine offering does the job once where as this might do it again and stick there to give as an advantage for the race!!

Kitesail:Nope.

Razor boomerang:Nope.

On to the rise of the eldrazi set!

Hedron matrix:Well it could be good but is is waaaay too expensive!

Ogre's Cleaver:Expensive,expensive ... argentum armor expensive...

Pennon blade:Expensive and irrelevant for our deck.

Warmonger's chariot:It is irrelevant and we cant fill any defenders for this to work as it would ruin our game plans and deck strategy!

Now it is time to check in our coreset.M11.

Sword of vengeance:hmmm let's see, +2/+0 added up with first strike ,vigilance, trample and haste.This is i believe an EXCELLENT addition to the caw blade strategy.It offers GREAT abilities and first strike means no sword hits are getting through no time soon.Trample is sure killing some jaces and haste is sure making more of our hawks active.On top of that we have vigilance.That means attacking and standing ready to stop ANY incoming sword attacks.Sword of vengeance is soon making to the sideboard plans of caw blade decks.We may see it mainboard as it offers a lot and can put the pressure factor on another level!

Warlord's axe: A Bit too expensive for just a +3/+1 pump...

Whispersilk cloak:Nope.

So on to scars of mirrodin:

Accorder's shield:Nope

Argentum armor: Too expensive vindicate effect..

Barbed battlegear:Aren't most are creatures at one power?

Bladed pinions:Nope.

Darksteel axe:Not that good in standard...

Echo circlet:No way!

Heavy Arbalest:No way!

Infiltration lens:Irrelevant.

Limewire lash:It is a good piece of equipement in limited but nothing else.

Nim deathmantle:Paying (4) for the rise from the grave effect is not standard viable.

Strata scythe:This is a good piece of equipment but there are a few things it can do in standard.It gives just a pump effect that can do little in this format and will not be able to win games in a world of day of judgement and jace the mind sculptor...

And our final set mirrodin besieged...

Bonehoard:It is a creature and it is a good one.Living weapon -stoneforge mystic is huge and i can see this one making it through some caw blade decks.Its ability is easily broken and it can even constitute a game finisher.Apart from that it has few abilities other than the ability to become a massive beater.

Darksteel plate:No thanks!!Even if my opponent gave this card to me for free i would laugh at it!

Flayer husk:We are not kuldotha red!

Mortarpod:I love this card but not for the caw blade deck.

Piston sledge:This one is good when it comes to play BUT if a creature we own drops it then its a waste!

Silverskin armor:No.

Skinwing:Another living weapon but not so good to make it in our decklist.

Strandwalker:Another living weapon but not so good to make it in our decklist.

Viridian claw:Sealed deck material...

So After checking what is legal in standard we have some possible additions to caw blade that might see play in the upcoming months,these ones

Those two are either usefull in the current metagame or ready to beatdown enemy decks.I believe we are seeing those some time soons on the battlefield summoned by known mages :)

Will this guy make it to our caw blade 75 or our enemies list?

This one can stall all our tutoring effects.All of them.The good thing about this guy is that PLAYER'S cant search libraries so that even its user may be stalled by it , considering the current metagame.I dont believe that a deck that is built on tutoring can use him even as a sideboard plan.Boros cant sac fetches , stone forge mystic cant bring any blades on , and hawks aint bringing any more hawks along.But how can we use this one?An esper tezzeret deck?A white winnie deck?One thing is certain that if this guy finds a home in a tier 1.5 deck that can capably win games he will be a great condition to stall most decks of our current metagame.Even titans wont be fetching lands.But dont forget that he can be easily removed and that has been its drawback till now...This card has the potential to do a lot in stalling most current decks but it is highly possible that with this guy in our list we have to let go of the current huge card advantage offered by the standard tutor effects in order to gain in tempo and do something about the powerhouses of the current standard.So if we are seeing this guy in play real soon is not certain, some people will try to break this guy and i dont know wether it is viable but it is possible.Were this guy a mind lock orb things would be different but he isnt.And kuldotha red will be around for the next months making this guy a waste in that matchup so making him main board is not something that could easily happen.Taking away the surprise factor of game one versus tutor decks that could give us game one with this guy around in our mainboard..

Anyway send me any ideas you might have about this card or other artifacts that could stand aside in the current caw blade deck!

Till then grab your swords and slash some of your enemies to zero or less life!

Magic Online, mirrodin besieged prerelease!!! NO thanks!

2011-02-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

Mirrodin besieged is launching on magic online this week!Those of us who want to play with the new cards can now do so online for the first time!So lets see how we can participate in the mirrodin besieged prerelease events!

Prerelease events consist of two basic tournament types:
Mirrodin besieged prerelease swiss sealed flights, paying 30 event tickets and using our mirran war mark or a phyrexian on we can enter one of this events.We will be given 3 scars of mirrodin boosters and 3 "faction" affiliated boosters(i guess they ll use the print run of the faction boosters that were used in the paper prerelease) an play a four round swiss event.The water marks is something new in magic online and anyone who has logged in the last 12 months will receive 3 water marks to play in the specific events, any prerelease event that uses these watermarks will also pay out water marks to continue using them for future prerelease events!
The prize payout of these events are mediocre to say the least...Booster pack prizes according to match points each player has achieved are as stated here:

Match Points	Prizes	QPs
12	10 Mirrodin Besieged booster packs	3
9	4 Mirrodin Besieged booster packs	1
6	1 Mirrodin Besieged booster pack	0

This means you will pay 30 tickets for the maximum chance to get 10 mirrodin besieged boosters you will be able to use NOWHERE in the first few days apart from selling them at the lowest price possible at some bots that will emerge as always to make profit from the prerelease.
All these if you go 4-0 as a good 3-1 will pay you back just 4 boosters ,in comparison to the daily events 6 packs that is also far bellow what any player should be expecting!
So if you are playing for prizes stay away from those tournaments as their payout is BAD.You could perhaps make some tix if you open a good mythic or two,they will be overpriced for the first few hours as there will be few tezzeret and sword of feast and famine around and a lot of people who will pay good to get them fast.
Oh and i almost forgot, each participant will get a bonus glissa where a 3-1 or better will get a bonus foil one,considering the worthless mythic a 1 tix for the foil version value i believe that this bonus prize doesnt make any difference.It has been since worldwake that we have seen such a bad prerelease card anyway...No hero of bladehold for anyone...That one might have been worth a bit more that's why i guess.

You thought the 4-3-2-2 drafts were stealing a pack from players?(considering 8-4 and swiss tha gave you 12 packs 4-3-2-2 gave out 11 packs).Now presenting you the new
Mirrodin besieged 8-player swiss draft queues!
You just have to give 20 event tickets and you can enter a mirrodin besieged ONLY booster pack draft that guarantees the lowest quality drafting with a set of a few cards to deck build and of cource the following booster prizes:

Match Points	Prizes	QPs
9	4 Mirrodin Besieged booster packs	1
6	2 Mirrodin Besieged booster packs	0
3	1 Mirrodin Besieged booster pack	0

So if you win the draft you will get yourself 4 booster packs when having paid 20 event tickets to just enter....
You also get that 'useful' glissa promo and if you win the draft you get a bonus foil one!That is you spend 20 tickets to play a mirrodin besieged draft that is not meant for drafting on its own and if you win you will get yourself some one tix promo and four packs that will be useless unless you sell them somewhere at a really low price....
You will be given some mirran and phyrexian watermarks too....One of each to be presice.The boosters wont be faction affiliated if that makes any difference.We wont see any of those booster packs online!

So prerelease is going on for the next days on magic online, it is paying worse than any event would and even the worst tournament organiser abusing prizses wouldnt dare to pay out for the money needed to play those events...
I would strongly advice against playing any of those events as it is almost as wizards is cheating on players having huge entry fees and paying out almost nothing in return!It is hard even if you win to make enough to reenter such an event and all they are giving is a bulk mythic...So mirrodin besieged is launching and you want to play magic?Sell those watermarks if it will be allowed trading them away and stuff and go draft zendikar...At least it has money rares...!

Caw-go! Are we there yet?

2011-02-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

Pro tour paris is over and we have the results of the type 2 clash between the pro players!
The winner?One deck tech known to most of us after worlds... its name? Caw go!
Ben stark won the pro tour using this specific list , a varience from what has been known to us as Caw go at worlds forth!
The list is the following:

Ben Stark

Pro Tour Paris Top 8, Standard

Main Deck 60 cards
4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Glacial Fortress 5 Island 1 Misty Rainforest 4 Plains 4 Seachrome Coast 4 Tectonic Edge 26 lands 4 Squadron Hawk 4 Stoneforge Mystic 8 creatures	4 Day of Judgment 1 Deprive 3 Gideon Jura 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 3 Mana Leak 4 Preordain 4 Spell Pierce 1 Stoic Rebuttal 1 Sword of Feast and Famine 1 Sylvok Lifestaff 26 other spells Sideboard 2 Baneslayer Angel 2 Divine Offering 2 Flashfreeze 1 Negate 4 Oust 3 Ratchet Bomb 1 Sword of Body and Mind 15 sideboard cards

It is pretty much the list of kibler-Nelson at worlds with the addition of stoneforge mystic,one of each of the new swords , a life giving sylvok lifestaff ,some baneslayers ,oust and divine offering at the sideboard plan and of cource Ratchet bombs!

This deck has the power house Jace tms and abuses its brainstorm ability with a lot of shuffling thanks to fetch lands , squadron hawks and the newest addition of stoneforge mystic!
The strategy of the deck is board control until you can get some of your hawks, gideon or celestial colonade swinging with weaponry and giving you significant advantage untapping your lands and then playing as a permission deck would during the opponents turn!
The deck can easily control games with mana leaks and board sweepers as doj, fog effects from gideon and all that with the tremendous card advantage jace gives.
Winnie decks have to kill you really fast or resort to playing around Doj when you have all the time to defend with chump blocking hawks untill gideon lands to give you the game...
Ratchet bomb in the sideboard is also an extremelly usefull addition to stop the new signal pest winnie decks that will be around in the next months for sure!
Valakut and ramp decks have great difficulty with the new sword that will take their cards at crucial parts of the game when they will be trying to play their combo , spell pierce main is really devastating early ramp spell and potential summoning traps and the new green sun zenit really leaves the deck unaffected as it will be really hard for it to get past through mana leaks and spell pierce.

I believe this deck offers great stability with its tutoring and card drawing, it can do extremelly well vs winnie decks with ratchet bombs and dojs, vs ramp decks due to counterspells and early swings and control due to its swords that are the bane of enemy control decks.It will surely be dominating standard for the next months and is surely one of the archetypes that will follow us till october when the rotation occurs.

So if you happen to own some jace and gideon i would advice you to start practicing this built for upcoming tournaments as piloting this deck can certainly get you to a lot good tourney finishes or even wins!

Some other facts i would like to mention about the past pro tour.
Tezzeret WASNT all that owesome in the pt paris , chapin is a good player and the deck something new, for from that tezzy decks of the builts we have seen are for certain weak and i wouldnt advice ANYONE to buy a tezzeret at the current outrageous rate of 50$..
I , speaking for myself , would trade away all tezzeret agent of bolas i own at their rate now that they are overestimated like ... A LOT!.
U/B control will have a great difficulty copying with the new winnie decks and now that the sword of feast and famine is out there they will have terrible time stopping creatures bearing the sword or both swords so it is high time you should be trading those grave titans away...
Signal goblins will certainly be the 20-25% of every tournament as it is cheap and viable an you can now get your goblin guides at the new event decks released by wizards soon!
Mirrodin besieged has left its impact on type 2 in the form of sword of feast and famine...Jace decks arent going away any time in the near future so if you want things to change on type 2 you should wait till "action" comes out.
Till then i would advice you to get your hands of caw-go!It is an excellent deck to pilot at any tourney and fun to play!

The mythic rarity in mirrodin besieged.

2011-02-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

Here in this article i would like to analyse the mythic rare cards printed in the last set mirrodin besieged.
Let's start our analysis of those 10 new cards with :

Blightsteel Colossus

Price tag:15$
This is a new emrakul like card that can get you the game with one swing most of the time.It is vulnerable to a lot of mainboard removal of the current standard ,journey to nowhere jace bounce and most bounce effects will get this guy out of the battlefield.There is even more room for hating this card if he ever makes it out of fnm type decks in the form of spells like revoke existence and arrest.
I believe this card to go down in the 8-9 $ range as all people will want one or two copies of this guy for their binder or casual decks but this is it.There are few things that cost so much as (12) to bring down and this guy offers very few assets compared to his mana cost...People will try to make him hit the board now and then with other ways than just casting him but the times of 11/11 creatures are gone for now.

Consecrated Sphinx

Price tag:8$

In the times of titans such cards cannot do anything to see constructed play.A flier for 4/6 with a good card drawing effect has nothing to do with the current standard.There are a million ways to remove this one out of the battlefield and i see no reason to keep this one in any deck other than a fun fnm deck with jace's erasure and some mill effects.A bad mythic of what i would consider 2-3$ actual worth.

Glissa the traitor

Price tag:8$

This card is offering something almost not seen before (apart from nirkana cutthroat at kozileks cost) , other than that it has some short of irrelevant colours like (G)(G)(B) and a secondary ability that is quite difficult to be exploited at this point of standard.It is withing bolt range and go for the throat has made this creature even easier to remove.I dont see much in this card at the moment and i wouldnt pay more than 4$ to acquire it.

Hero of bladehold

Price tag:10$

This one is a strong card that has one disadvantage, it has to attack to justify its mythic rarity!It is easy to remove as it dies to all removal spells apart from those in the red deck arsenal but its effect is extreme if a game status leaves this for more than 2 turns on the battlefield as from there on it will be unstopable...I like this card and its effects and i believe it might see constructed play some time in the future.It is not a format staple but it is not bad.I would give up to 6-7$ for this one.

Hero of Oxid Ridge

Price tag:8$

This card has a strong effect in the decks it might be usefull, it evades walls and chump blockers of all shorts and does so effectively at the round it hits the boards.The good thing is that all the others attacking withit will evade walls.The drawback? it has 2 toughness.Now how bad is 2 toughness against u/w and u/b control?

They will have to use removal of some short which wouldnt care fot the toughness of a creature anyway!I believe this card has the potential to be a boros valuable as it can even finish game.The haste factor is just too good and battlecry is a must for aggro decks nowadays !Its price tag is fair enough and i am sure a lot of people will die the turn this hero hit the board in the next one year or so for sure!If you love aggro just grab your playset of those before they get to higher price tags!

Massacre wyrm

Price tag:10$

I dont like this card apart from its limited use.It is a card that might kill some aggro players the moment it hits the board, its effect is indeed strong but at 6 mana in the era of titans we have come to require more!By turn 6 an aggro deck will have you killed or it has lost the game.The aggro player more or less knows that.This one has some board sweeper potential but nowadays aggro decks have anti pyroclasm strategies.Most of them are built to evade pyroclasm effects even with main board answers.So its sweeper effect might do absolutely nothing.And then you are left with a 6/5 wyrm...Too much for a mythic black craw wyrm..

I wouldnt trade for this card neither buy it.Even when it reaches 2$.Sunblast angel is by far better and its a rare 4/5 flier!

Praetor's Counsel

Price tag:4$

I wouldnt ever , ever like to open this one in any of my boosters and will be very sad if i did.It is a 1$ mythic.That and no more.

Sword of feast and famine

Price Tag:12.50 $
Well another sword with protection from a colour that shouts REMOVAL.I like the pro black it is very effecient against a lot of decks.The untap ability might come in handy where the discard effect is coincidential.It might come in extremelly usefull or irrelevant.I like the sword and i believe it has is place in ww quest decks.It is not as good as sword of mind and body but i believe its price will remain around the 10$ range.We will see this piece of toolbox around more than often in the time to come.All thanks to stoneforge mystic.

Tezzeret, agent of Bolas

Price tag:35$

The planeswalker of the set.He is cool at first nice artwork shows some power level, but are his abilities any good?One thing is for certain , he needs artifact in order to function in ANY way and he can do nice with them.Being black is a GREAT disadvantage as a celestial purge sends him to some other plane of existence along with devout lightcaster.He will see play as he is a planeswalker and people will try in any way to break him.He comes ultimate really fast but his ultimate isnt a killer.Not in ways a u/b deck will make it a killer.I think he is overpriced at the moment and will drop to the 20$ range.Even if a deck will find a way to abuse him this wont be for long.Artifact removal is sooo common in the mirrodin besieged era and all decks have the capability of mutilating an artifact based deck real fast in the metagame.When i first saw him like most players i expected a new jace like planeswalker, i was disappointed a lot.Time will tell about this card.

Thrun, the Last Troll

Price tag:20$
This one has been printed to provoke a headache to control players.It will until some card like baneslayer or disperse justice moves to the control mainboard to deal with this one.I believe he is sideboard material and that's it.He needs 6 mana to be an active regenerator and a primeval titan is always the best drop green has to offer at that range.He will do a good work to poke on enemy jaces but no more than that.White has a lot to do against him and black has come to some outs recently.He ll drop soon to the 10-15$ range as against some much ups it is just a mediocre 4/4 that can be considered indestructible.Control will find a way around him and there are many answers against him.Great sable stag was better than this guy and it didnt last long as the control decks bane.So nor will this guy.After the print of jace the mind sculptor i can see the way to stop this card from reigning in standard tournaments.The answer is october 2011.

Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on the mythics printed for besieged!Time will tell which one of them will be of value in the end and which one will break standard!(if any)Till then stick around for more feedback!

Momir basic Tactics.

2011-02-05T15:14:00.000-08:00

Momir basic is a format for the magic online platform.All you need is a 60 land deck and a momir avatar to have what it takes to play in a momir tournament.The fee for this tournament is a mere 6 event tickets and the prize payout is worth it!

The game is as follows, both players begin at 24 life total and all you have to do is win your opponent in a match of best out of three.

To summon creatures to win your opponent you need to trigger the activated ability of momir , use (x) mana and discard a land card.The mana you use on (X) configures the converted mana cost of the creature that will come to fight on your side.The creature that will hit the floor will be a random spawn from all creatures printed on magic online.So this event is by a great factor based on your luck rather than skill but there are a few tips that can get the luck factor more on your side.

Let's come across some battlefield tactics on momir basic.

First of all you should avoid one drops as it is kind of hard to find a creature that will provide enough to change the outcome of the game apart from perhaps a mana pusher like a bird of paradise or a noble hierarch but other than that there are no reasons to discard a land so early as you will need it for a later summon.

Later on 2-drops till 6-drops you will have to hope for creatures with evasion that will inflict some damage and provide something for your opponent to worry about as removal are out of the question in this format.

Flying , shadow , fear , horsemanship are huge at those drops and they can win the game before your opponents spawn some serious threats.I woulds advice on missing early drops as it has occured again that a kargan dragonlord finishes the game by turn 5.

While playing momir you should have one thing in mind.8 drops!

8 Drops most of the time come down as bombs like demons angels or huge creatures ready to claw your opponents to lower than zero life.So be careful not to waste lands at earlier turns and have nothing to pose one your opponents late drops as if you played creatures from your first round you most possibly will stall around turn 6 or 7.

Your mana base is something of importance as you can even go for 12 of each land type or use just swamps and mountains that are usefull for most damaging abilities and so avoid being struck by islandwalk and forestwalk creatures that might appear now and then and give your opponents the win.By chosing to use some land types and not all you should also forget paying upkeep costs for creatures that require colours that your mana base may miss.This will happen once or twice but at least you will just miss a drop or two on the whole tournament while using red or black will come in handy almost once or two in every match.

The prize payout factor on Momir basic on magic onlince.

You will need 6 event tickets to enter a momir tourney and all from 3-1 and above will receive prizes.

Being 3-1 gives a 6 booster prize while being 4-0 gives a generous 11 booster prize.

In momir luck plays a major factor so lets say you have the average outcome and get paid 30% of the time, that means that for each 3 tourneys you enter you will receive 6 boosters at least or 24$ worth of boosters .

6 event tickets cost 6$ so a median outcome on momir tournaments will provide you with at least 8$ profit for each 3 tourneys you enter.

Luck is a factor but there are bad plays and bad players in momir so if you try and stay focused while playing you might receive even better results and improve your outcome on momir tournaments.

I believe that momir basic is an excellent way to make some profit on magic online which is on its own quite demanding as far as $ are concerned.

So if you are about playing some magic online and wanna have fun as well as earn some extra boosters i ld advice you to go grab a momir avatar and go for it.

Good luck at the modo queues!

Inkmoth Nexus , a land that will leave its stain on constructed...

2011-02-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

One of the most outstanding cards Mirrodin besieged has given us in the form of this land, let's check its abilities:

Tap:add (1) to your mana pool

(1): Inkmoth nexus becomes a 1/1 artifact creature with infect and flying until end of turn.Its still a land.

This manland has made huge difference with the old worldwake man lands .

First of all forget all about enters the battlefield tapped manlands , this one loses you no tempo , it is a land that enters ready to produce any mana you may need for your turn.

Furthermore this land is an ARTIFACT creature so it may be an excellent addition to most artifact decks that

will emerge with the current set of magic or the next one.It is a legal target for a shape anew that will make our nexus a 11/11 infect trample indestructible blightsteel colossus.All that for the mana cost of (3)U plus one , the cost for the nexus to activate it self into an artifact body.

Nexus has also some other synergies in the new contructed and gives us a lot of choices to exploit it .

It is viable for a tempered steel deck

It is viable for the steel overseer 'pump' effect

It is a colorless infector that will make a usefull addition to any infect or proliferate deck.

It is a way to trigger metalcraft as an extra artifact 'land'.

It is an every turn plague stinger with haste for your infect deck for the cost of (2) each turn!

This land offers evasion too, it might easily take a place in the jace wars as it is able to poke enemy jaces for one at the cost of (2) which is far less than the cost of (4) for an activated creeping tar pit.

If we even consider the new removal Go for the throat , our nexus is even more amazing as it is no legal target when enemy tar pits ARE.

I believe this card will be a must have playset for most of the competitive type 2 decks and will certainly have its place in regural play.

Its current price tag at 12$ is stll low and i will prompt anyone of the magic players to acquire this card as this card sees only possibility for a higher price tag than the current and certainly no less.

We could also look at previous lands that bear similarity to inkmoth nexus.

First of all

This card is from darksteel it is almost the same as the currrent nexus but for fact, it has no infect but the ability to pump another manland of its type, this makes our newer nexus significantly stronger as it is an effecient 2/1 flier , somehow stronger than the older 1/1.

Another card was :

We all know it and this land still sees play in legacy and is rather a strong addition to some legacy decks as is mutavault currently dominating extended tournaments.

See the abilities of those older powerhouses and our current inkmoth nexus which also offer a significant factor,evasion which most of those older manlands didnt offer.

Ending this ode to inkmoth nexus i offer a deck list that finished first in the last magic league tournament, the first after mirrodin besieged launched.The results are up to you:

UB Shape Anew
1st - mr_thompsom
Main Deck		Sideboard
1 See Beyond 1 Everflowing Chalice 2 Go for the Throat 4 Shape Anew 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Duress 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 4 Preordain 2 Jace Beleren 4 Mana Leak 4 Trinket Mage	1 Blightsteel Colossus 2 Grave Titan 3 Swamp 4 Island 3 Inkmoth Nexus 4 Creeping Tar Pit 4 Drowned Catacomb 4 Darkslick Shores 3 Tectonic Edge 1 Misty Rainforest	1 Jace Beleren 1 Duress 1 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Go for the Throat 3 Black Sun's Zenith 2 Memoricide 2 Disfigure 2 Flashfreeze 1 Wurmcoil Engine 1 Negate

A potential deck for the post mirrodin besieged era!

2011-02-05T05:32:00.000-08:00

You would like to take a new budget deck and try to grab some wins at your next FNM, then this might appear as a solution.
The combo of your deck is the inkmoth nexus-masters call transmutation into Blightsteel colossus via the means of shape anew!
All you have to do is scry into your combo cards and bring your fatty in to finish the game!Renegade Doppelganger might be there to give an 11 infect trample swing the time your fatty hits the battle field!
Here is the deck list:

4x Renegade Doppelganger
2x Blightsteel Colossus
4x master's call
4x shape anew
4x preordain
4x mana leak
4x augury owl
2x foresee
4x dispel
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x glacial fortress
4x seachrome coast
2x arid mesa
2x misty rainforest
5x island
3x plains

sb
4x spell pierce
3x ratchet bomb
4x Divine offering
4x Luminarch ascencion

This has been a test article of my new blog stay tuned as more articles will come up!