Athreos Tiny Leader

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

There is yet another snow squall warning for our area here in Barrie Ontario with temperatures still rather mild at 14°F with about 4 inches of the delightful white crud falling.  Meteorological conditions will not deter us from heading over to our local gaming store OMG! Games to take part in Friday Night Magic.  

Anywhoos, on to topic, OMG! Games is holding its first ever Tiny Leaders Magic: the Gathering event on Saturday at around noon-thirty.  If you happen to be in the area (about and hour north of Toronto), then make plans to attend this fun / exciting alternate game format.  

On Monday here on MTG Realm, we yattered about a Bant (green / white / blue) decklist featuring Jenara, Asura of War as the Commander / Tiny Leader with a +1/+1 counter theme.  We took a few eMails from the readership and there were a few of you who wanted a take on a black & white Tiny Leader build.  There is only two choices - Teysa, Orzhov Scion which is best served with a token theme or Athreos, God of Passage, a more recent card (and still standard format legal).

Here's our first attempt using Athreos and no one specific theme - there's lifegain, weenie, and control.  Let's have a looky-loo !

ATHREOS TINY LEADER

Leader - Athreos, God of Passage

CREATURES

Signal Pest

Soul's Attendant

Soul Warden

Tidehollow Sculler

Skirsdag High Priest

Suture Pries

Blood Artist

Cartel Aristocrat

Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Royal Assasin

Undercity Informer

Stillmoon Cavalier

Mentor of the Meek

Vampire Nighthawk

Monastery Mentor

OTHER SPELLS

Bone Splinters

Brave the Elements

Altar's Reap

Smother

Zealous Persecution

Raise the Alarm

Intangible Virtue

Honor of the Pure

Spear of Heliod

Mortify

Circle of Despair

Midnight Haunting

Spectral Procession (Edit - NOT legal)

Lingering Souls

Non-Basic Lands

Vault of the Archangel

Isolated Chapel

Tainted Field

Godless Shrine

Orzhov Bascilica

Orzhov Guildgate

Scoured Barrens

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

There are a good number of token producters, two anthem spells or other pump effects, some life gain and a buch of sac effects.  A little something for every taste and hopefully a list that is robust enough to put up a good fight against other lists. 

We already have a few different Tiny Leader lists and have not yet decided just yet which one to take to tomorow's tournament at OMG! Games.  Whichever one we do decide upon, we do know one thing for certain, we should expect fun.

Have a great weekend and Happy Brewing everyone ~

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Modern Soul Sisters

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

There are a lot of formats to our fav game Magic: the Gathering and were are certainly excited to have heard that Modern would be a sanctioned format for Friday Night Magic come January.  Modern has a very deep card pool and this game is certainly not stale with only a few prominent decks claiming top finishes.  We here at MTG Realm want to jump into this format but almost overwhelmed at all the choices to be had.  As a result RetroTech went with an Elf-ball (she loves her Elves) build and yours truly CopySix decided on a Soul Sisters build as we had most of the cards already.  Our latest order arrived fast from MTG Mint Card and we put our strategies to some real game playing tests.

We are still working on a final list for the Modern Soul Sisters but here is where we stand at the moment . . .
20 Plains (boring)
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
3x Serra Ascendant
3x Martyr of Sands
2x Path to Exile
4x Brave the Elements
3x Honor of the Pure
4x Squadron Hawk
4x Ajani's Pridemate
4x Spectral Procession
3x Ranger of Eos
2x Felidar Sovereign

The sideboard (a starting point):
2x Rhox Faithmender
2x Ajani Goldmane
1x Ghostly Prison
2x Mirran Crusader
1x Serra Ascendant
1x Ranger of Eos
2x Grand Abolisher
2x Stony Silence
2x Mark of Asylum
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Some cards we are still considering for inclusion to mainboard or sideboard -

Suture Priest
Aven Mindcensor
Proclamation of Rebirth
Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
Chalice of Life / Death
Elixir of Immortality
Figure of Destiny
Journey to Nowhere
Leyline of Sanctity
Rhox Faithmender
Student of Warfare
Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Mistveil Plains
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Some initial playtest results -
This build delivers huge fun and was very competitive against the Elf build. In each game, Serra Ascendant typically got that upgrade and Ajani's Pridemate was a monster.  Brave the Elements helped win games or save creatures from spot removal and we were very pleased with the performance of Felidar Sovereign as it delivered the alternate win conidtion on more than one occassion.

We want to know - Are you playing Modern and what is your build or strategy ?  Drop us a line in the comment thingy below.
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Suture Sisters

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

WoTC minion Jacob Van Lunen had an interesting article up today on the mothership in his regularily appear column, 'Building on a Budget'. We are regular readers as we are forever somewhere in the aether between budget and more competitive decks - we score a budget build and continually upgrade, and changing out cards when we can trade buy that choicer rare. Fortunately for us, we had come to a place were we were rather happy with our Soul Sisters life-gain deck - and then only had a limited opportunity to play until the one key card, Soul Warden, rotated out of standard.


Anyhwoos, do drop by Jacob's article on Soul Sisters 2011 and give it a read. Our previous deck used Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant with friends such Serra Ascendant and Ajani's Pridemate. Another card still in standard we had employed was Transcendent Master but found that it simply was too slow. Another noticeable difference is that we have a deckset of Solemn Offering in the sideboard instead of the 2 and 2 split Jacob has with Divine Offering. We feel the Solemn one provides more utility in our local meta-games over the Divine one.

The non-budget build that Jacob speaks onto is the redonkulous combo of Leonin Relic-Warder and Phyrexian Metamorph while a Suture Priest of Soul's Attendent is out in play to gain infinite life. A build featuring this combo from pro-player Conley Woods is present near the page bottom. We feel that with this huge arbitrary number, having a Felidar Sovereign hit and stick to the game table until your next upkeep wins you the game. Our future plans for this deck will likely include playtesting Batterskull to determine just how well a 4/4 lifelink / vigilence living weapon component ineracts with the rest of the cards in this soup. Perhaps we even go with a Stoneforge Mystic equipment package with swords and Batterskull.


Anywhoos, here's the build for now . . . please pipe in with your comments and help us out to make this deck a bit more viable.

1 x Exilir of Immortality
4 x Brave the Elements
3 x Serra's Ascendant
4 x Soul's Attendant
4 x Suture Priest
4 x Ajani's Pridemate
4 x Luminarch Ascension
3 x Survival Cache
2 x Ajani Goldmane
2 x Baneslayer Angel
2 x Elspeth Tirel
2 x Sun Titan
3 x Felidar Sovereign

2 x Kabira Crossroads
1 x Tectonic Edge
19 x Plains
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We have played this current build extensively against Elf builds and mon-black control builds. For now, the current build performs good, winning about half the matches but does not quite go over the top to the next level. We also have solid feelings about Felidar Sovereign as an alternate win condition. We do like the token capacity with the Ascension as well as the potential board wiper with new Elspeth leaving on the field only tokens. We have had a faily tough time having Serra's Ascendant actually stick around long enough with games to date as it has a big target on it, which perhaps does serve a purpose by buying some time to work on other angles.


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Get A Life

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Happy Monday MTG Peeps,

As it is Valentines Day, why not send that special Magic the Gathering player in your life an apropos V-Day card - great collection of MTG-themed cards over nearby at 'Other Side of the Planet'.

There have been about a dozen eMails (Frank - yours three requests only count as sone sorry), well as two or three requests from guys at our local store (looking at you Austin) that we here at MTG Realm do another 'What We're Playing' segment. Since we like you the reader so very much, we will do at least two before the week is out. We'll get to some new builds with awesome Mirrodin Besieged cards latter but for today, we will re-visit an older (still standard environment) casual Alt-Win Life Gain deck. Life Gain builds did seriously drop in popular favour with players after 1/2 of the 'Soul Sisters' (Soul Warden) left standard play but we're still willing to attempt to make something work on the game table. having said that we think there may be some new answers in the next set 'Action' (New Phyrexia / Mirrodin Pure) in the form of Suture Priest.

ALT-WIN is short for alternative win. This describes any deck that utilizes specific cards or strategies that win you the game without bringing your opponent down to zero life or less. There are quite a few out there but not that many which make it to the pro-circuit. The latest popular Alt-Win decks are of course made with the slick 'Infect' tech from Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged. These builds do not attempt to drop your life to zero but pile 10 poison counters on you to win and are somewhat popular in our local meta-game right now.


Anywhoos - we wanted to yatter about an Alt-Win Life Gain deck which utilizes Felidar Sovereign to win the game by pushing your life total to 40. Not having a parachute with an Alt-Win build is a bit risky so one would be well served by ensuring there is provision for a beater or two. The primary goal of this particular build is complete kitchen table fun and it certainly delivered on this.


Here's the list after some serious tweaking . . .

38 Spells
3 x Exilir of Immortality
4 x Soul's Attendant
3 x Serra Ascendant
3 x Brave the Elements
3 x Rest for the Weary
3 x Journey to Nowhere
4 x Ajani's Pridemate
3 x Survival Cache
2 x Ajani Goldmane
3 x Day of Judgement
2 x Baneslayer Angel
2 x Elspeth Tirel
3 x Felildar Sovereign

22 Lands
19 x Plains
2 x Tectonic Edge
1 x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
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Exilir is a neat little card providing some serious lifegain while implementing a great recycling program. Soul's Attendant is great if you can get it to go off at 30 life which has not happened very often for us but it does allow a nice fat target for our opponent to work on while ignoring latter threats. Brave the Elements and Journey to Nowhere allows some measure of protection for cards we wish to preserve or to remove opponent's threats. Day of Judgement also buys some time to reset the board - who cares if you knock some of your critters off as well - you can always get them back with Exilir of Immortality.



Rest for the Weary provides an amazing 8 life on landfall for only two mana while Survival Cache at three mana provides a rebounding total of 4 life and 2 potential card draws. Ajani Goldmane is decent to trigger life gain, provide +1/+1 counters (which is great against an infect deck) and has the possibility of creating a massive fatty in the form of an Avatar. The next Planeswalker, Elspeth Tirel is from Scars and we think is seriously underrated. Elspeth is another great life gain card, provides chump blockers as well as another board sweeper. Baneslayer Angel is a no-brainer in any build which needs lifegain. Finally, Felidar Sovereign is the card which provides that alt-win condition - we just wish it had evasion.

Our fav play to date was a combo using Elspeth Tirel to blow up everything and altough we had no tokens out we had three fatties trapped under Journey to Nowhere. After the Journey's left play, we had almost a full board to alpha strike for lethal damage next turn.

Righto - that's it for now - comments most welcome below and feel free to send in pics of your fav build you're playing with right now to copysix [at] gmail [dot] com.
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In other news, we've been watching with some interest the rise and fall of Mirrodin Besieged card prices on MTG Mint Card. One big loser is Thrun, the Last Troll which was moving at around $32 but now at around $20. One big winner is Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas who was at one point going for around $35 and is now pegged at over $50 and we expect to rise a bit more. Anywhoos - it's a great time to revisit as the general metagame is starting to settle down and solidify after the set's release.
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Soul Sisters

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Good Day MTG peeps,

We wanted to yatter about the local meta game today which kind of went head over heels for that white weenie life-gain archetype using the M11 Ajani's Pridemate and Soul Warden / Soul's Attendant. We did have this sort of deck put together within two weeks after M11 came out and it seemed that everyone and their monkey were playing it. If there is something we really do not like, it is playing a stoopid mirror-match. To this end, we will consign ourselves to construct a deck which hopefully wreck havoc on everyone's fav mono-white life-gain deck.


First things first, let's yatter about the life-gain deck. This deck list was put togehter by MTG pro-player Conley Woods who went 3-1 in U.S nationals. The deck is named Soul Sisters for some obvious reasons - the 4 Soul Wardens and 4 Soul's Attendants in the deck. Basically, it runs 8 copies of a 1 mana creature that allows him to gain life for every creature that enters the field. Gaining life is pretty sweet in this build given the fact that Conley also ran 4 Ajani's Pridemates and 4 Serra Ascendants. Essentially, this deck is based off the concept "Life is power." The rapid tempo in which this deck gains life directly relates to just how powerful and effective his creatures will be.

Ajani’s Pridemate typically gets to rather an alarming size due to the fact that most of the decks in Standard play a lot of creatures to trigger the soul sisters.

Also, Pridemate can get big quickly. For example, turn one Soul Warden, turn two Pridemate, a few more creatures from you and your opponent could turn the Pridemate into a 6/6 or 7/7 creature by turn three which not a pleasant thing to be looking at across the game table.

The life gain from the sisters also helps you beat creature decks because you gain so much life that it’s hard for your opponent to kill you. Also, Serra Ascendant becomes a 6/6 pretty easily against those decks if you have one or two sisters on the battlefield. For example, against Mythic, Conley went turn one Soul Warden, turn two Soul Warden and Kabira Crossroads, and then turn three he cast 2 Ascendants that were both 6/6 (his opponent had played two creatures).

Here's the list . . .

Creatures (24)
4x Ajani's Pridemate
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
4x Serra Ascendant
4x Ranger of Eos
4x Kor Firewalker

Land (23)
15x Plains
4x Kabira Crossroads
4x Tectonic Edge

Spells (13)
4x Brave the Elements
3x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2x Oblivion Ring
4x Survival Cache

Sideboard (15)
2x Celestial Purge
2x Oblivion Ring
1x War Priest of Thune
1x Sun Titan
2x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3x Path to Exile
4x Luminarch Ascension

Some of the challenges in beating this deck . . .

I have a Mythic Conscription build as well as a Cunning Sparkmage / Naya Collar build - either of these may have to face down a Linvala, Keeper of Silence in the life-gain side-board. Also, Path to Exile, Oblivion Ring, and Celestial Purge can deal with many of the threats which we are thinking about sliding in a buiild. Perhaps we double the volume of pingers in the mix, throw in some removal, etc.

One option is to get a Leyline of Punishment on board. Sure the last line of the card that says damage can't be prevented may be good but what is golden is the line before it which states Players can't gain life. So do you pack a four of and just mulligan until it is in your opening hand so you can play it for free?

Please fill our head with some ideas as to what we should be bringing to FNM - drop us a comment - we would love to hear from the lot of ya.

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Scars of Mirrodin Factions

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With all the rumours about watermarks (confirmed with the SoM spoiler card Sword of Body and Mind) and the like with the upcoming Scars of Mirrodin release, it stands to reason that there could very well be something to it. Well look no further, this announcement from Wizards to Tournament Organisers pretty much confirms Phyrexia and Mirrodin factions as we had posted about in one of the forums last month.

Here is the announcement of interest . . .

In Wizards of the Coast's continuing global efforts to build strong Magic player communities in hobby stores and offer great gaming experiences, we are pleased to announce the following changes to Magic Game Day:
* Scars of Mirrodin Game Day (October 30-31) features special rules allowing players to align their Standard decks with one of the factions featured in the set. Players that align their decks are eligible to win exclusive preview cards from the February 2011 Magic set, Mirrodin Besieged! This change is part of a marketing campaign that will kick off in September, themed around the factions presented in the Scars of Mirrodin block. For more information on Game Day, check out www.magicthegathering.com.
* To make Magic Game Day accessible to even more players, Game Day will become a Core-level benefit in the Wizards Play Network (WPN). This change will take effect with Scars of Mirrodin Game Day, which begins scheduling on August 12th, 2010. WPN Core-level locations will be able to schedule one Game Day and Advanced-level locations can schedule two. For details on the WPN and its levels, see www.wizards.com/wpn.

WPN Advanced-level locations will also get access to the following new benefits:
* An Advanced Support Kit starting with Scars of Mirrodin. These kits are identical to a Gateway Support Kit, but with ten additional exclusive prize cards.
* The most active Advanced locations will have the opportunity to run WPN Premium Tournaments. This ongoing benefit recognizes the biggest and best-run tournament circuits that our Advanced locations run, giving them enhanced K-values and calling them out on our online Event Locator!

How is the Scars of Mirrodin Game Day going to work?
Magic Game Days will take advantage of the new settings and mechanics in the latest set. For Scars of Mirrodin Game Day, players can build a Standard deck that affiliates with one of the two factions in Scars of Mirrodin. (While having an affiliated deck is not required for Game Day, it will add a unique and significant element of excitement to the tournament.) The top 2 finishers affiliated with each faction receive a preview card from the February 2011 Magic set, Mirrodin Besieged! This is in addition to any top 8 prize cards they might win for their overall event finish.

What does it mean to "affiliate" your Standard deck?
All cards in Scars of Mirrodin are affiliated with one of the two factions in the set. An affiliated deck must have at least ten main-deck cards from the chosen faction, and none in the main deck or sideboard from the opposing faction. The deck must still be Standard legal.
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News from MTG Mint Card as to the Top 10 Selling Cards August, 2010 !
Three weeks after the M11 releases, the titans are out of the top ten selling list. Half of the top ten cards are from M11 and the remainder are from Rise of the Eldrazi and Zendikar. From the numbers, it appears that Rise of the Eldrazi is as popular as Magic 2011. Here's the low down -

1. Ajani Goldmane
2. Leyline of Sanctity
3. Coralhelm Commander
4. Destructive Force
5. Guul Draz Assassin
6. Jace Beleren
7. Nissa Revane
8. Eldrazi Temple
9. Awakening Zone
10. Liliana's Caress

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Next up - Playtesting a mono-white life-gain deck which is in need of your input.
Then we start building a deck, we chuck a mess of cards together that we've deemed to work and then play the ever-luv'n cr@p outta it to start thinning out cards which do not work. Have a look at the following list and tell us how to improve - just remember that we do not have piles of cash around the house to buy WalletSlayer Angels.

Big A$$ 64 card life deck

42 Spells
2 x Elixir of Immortality
3 x Goldenglow Moth
1 x Brave the Elements
1 x Emerge Unscathed
3 x Serra Ascendant
2 x Soul Warden
2 x Soul's Attendant
3 x Honor of the Pure
3 x Wall of Omens
3 x Ajani's Pridemate
2 x Scepter of Dominance
3 x Survival Cache
3 x Wall of Reverence
2 x Cradle of Vitality
2 x Ajani Goldmane
2 x Sun Titan
2 x Celestial Mantle
3 x Felidar Sovereign

22 Lands
20 x Plains
2 x Serjiri Steppe


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