FNM RoundUp 1-15

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Hello again wise and generous blog MTG Realm fans. Today we need your assistance with yet another casual standard constructed deck.

As our local meta-game dictates, one has to either play Jund or play something that is able to win against Jund. To this end, we put together a modified 'Spreading Seas' deck to disrupt the opponent's mana base. Just in case we went up against someone not playing Jund, we included a deckset of Convincing Mirage and a bunch of other stuff like additional Journey to Nowhere, Pacifism, etc., we thought was good at the time.


4 x Spreading Seas
3 x Into the Roil
4 x Path to Exile
2 x Pacifism
2 x Journey to Nowhere
2 x Luminarch Ascension
4 x Oblivion Ring
3 x Mesa Enchantress
4 x Wall of Denial
4 x Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 x Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 x Sphinx of Lost Truths
1 x Open the Vaults

4 x Seaside Citadel
4 x Terramorphic Expanse
8 x Island
8 x Plains

Match One : Realm Razer

Game One - Totally creamed my oponent by denying him the right coloured mana he needed.
Game Two - Crappy Draws, lost tempo and lost game.
Game Three - A very close game - it all came down to one turn really.

Match Two : Red Burn

Game One - whaa happened ?! - dead before I knew it.
Game Two - Repeat of Game One but this time with more pain - thanks - we hurt all over.

Match Three : Blue Control

Game One - Easily won with a half-dozen Angle tokens out.
Game Two - Another easy win - more Angel token goodness.

Anywhoos, we think that we may be on the right track but just need to get this thing tweaked a bit more - so - help us out and drop in a comment please.

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Speaking of Friday Night Magic, we will be making a gruelling three hour trip to London across the frozen wastelands of Ontario to take in an FNM at World's Away. If you happen to be thinking of going, look for us - we will be the one's kicking butt and taking names. Here's the 4.1.1 for Brad's cool shop.

Worlds Away
Phone: (519) 433-1267
666 Dundas St
London, Ontario, Canada, N5W 2Y8

"The home of Friday Night Magic."
FNM : 5:30 p.m. Friday - free to play and prizes to be had.

Hours :
Monday and Tuesday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
Wednesday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
Thursday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
Friday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.,
Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

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Spreading Seas v.2

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You may recall a recent post (HERE), where we tagged on some ideas as to a land denial / manipulation deck to answer the Jund threat . . . yep - just scroll to the bottom past the Rise of the Eldrazi art spoiler.

Anywhoos - We're having a closer look today after some very excellent eMails to us as well as comments posted to the blog article. The real issue at hand is that whatever one may do to mess up your opponent's land may in turn mess up their game. The bacon, of course, is in Spreading Seas and Convincing Mirage. These change the tricolour (Savage Lands) or two-tone lands into a lovely blue colour. These would be rather fugly in many other situations but as the metagame stands now, have brought them into focus.










Our choice of colours remain in white, blue and black, yer standard Esper tricolour. When one thinks onto the realm of Esper, one thinks artifacts, but this build contains no such cards except for Pithing Needle and Vedalken Outlander in the sideboard. The deck also contains no counterspells that one would expect in a control deck. This build is somewhat more aggro which we will get to.

Righto . . . In order to thin out your deck and get to the bacon, we are going to need that powerful mechanic 'Cascade';

1. Ardent Plea: The placement of this card here is somewhat tenuous. Sure, it does provide a small boost with it's Exalted ability, but we rather like what this can cascade into - namely Journey to Nowhere which is handly against Baneslayer Angel and other fatties. It also may cascade into the very useful Pithing Needle which you can use to shut down any Planeswalkers they have on their side of the table. One may also cascade into Luminarch Ascension and with the solid defence this deck has, we're certain you will be able to puke 4/4 Angel tokens out in short order. Finally, Adent Plea may also cascade out Vedalken Outlander which can go up against burn decks / Jund.

2. Kathari Remnant: This card can pretty much block anything and prompty regenerates for your convenience. This provides a cascade into this deck's hotness Spreading Seas Convincing or Mirage. It also chums out Jace Beleren, Wall of Denial, Ardent Plea, and Esper Charm.

3. Enigma Sphinx: Because it had cool art. Oh - and it is a nice fattie which floats back to near the top of your deck if it gets pwn'd. This of course can always cascade into pretty much everything else in the deck including Day of Judgment and Identity Crisis.

Let's have a look at what we have so far . . .
(check out the linky on MTG Url)

4	Arcane Sanctum
3	Ardent Plea
4	Convincing Mirage
4	Day of Judgment
3	Drowned Catacomb
2	Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2	Enigma Sphinx
4	Esper Charm
4	Glacial Fortress
6	Island
2	Jace Beleren
4	Kathari Remnant
2	Marsh Flats
4	Plains
3	Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4	Spreading Seas
2	Swamp
3	Wall of Denial
Sideboard
2	Identity Crisis
3	Journey to Nowhere
4	Luminarch Ascension
4	Pithing Needle
2	Vedalken Outlander

To move the game tempo from punk to Lawrence Welk there is a full deckset of Day of Judgment will go a long way to bury a mass token threat as well as nail down that very irritating Ranger of Eos. This will buy valuable time to move your agenda forward.

As for Planeswalkers, we have Elspeth and Jace. Elspeth, Knight-Errant is a swiss-knife utility card in this deck - it will pump up an attacker for a big beating (thinking either Sphinx or even the bird skeleton here). Elspeth will also churn out a chump blocker or even give you huge advantage with it's third ability when you decide to start dropping those Day of Judgements. As for Jace, he was












So after you mess up your opponent's mana base, how are we planning to win ?
One word - Sphinx power. Specifically, Sphinx of jwar Isle and Enigma Sphinx. We love Sphinx jwar Isle as it provides a stategic glimpse at our deck's top card so we will know when or when not to drop a cascading card into play. Not only is Sphinx jwar Isle about $120 cheaper than Baneslayer, this sphinx pretty much laughs at most of today's standard removal so you know it will stay in the skies where it belongs.

So drop us a line and provide some improvements !

Spreading Seas

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Good Day to all.
I hope that you will forgive my recent absence but I have been offlined to spend some quality time with H1N1. Hope that none of you decide to take this virus home with you.

Anywho, just getting back into it again and have noticed that Wizards has finally provided the official announcement to Rise of the Eldrazi today on Magic Arcana, the name of the third and final set in the Zendikar block. Altough we brought you this news more than a week ago (post HERE), there is a new image to look at . . .


Boy does that creature (presumably an 'Eldrazi') look not very pleased.

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Now - as the title of the post suggested (Spreading Seas), I wanted to yatter about this card and the potential answer it has to many of those Jund decks you may be running up against at FNM.

Spreading Seas, just like Convincing Mirage, may assist the player to disrupt an opponent's mana base very early in the game, and if properly followed-thorugh may just mess up their play enough to squeak out a win. In fact, the use of cards such as these against most multi-colour decks will just simply mess things up rather royally.

I've seen a few decks developed with Spreading Seas (the better of the two cards here). So far, the deck which has intrigued me most are the ones in which Sigil of the Empty Throne are prominent. I have even taken a liking to some of the decks I have seen with Kor Skyfisher which can bounce one of your permanents (read: enchantment) in order to play it again and pump out yet another 4/4 Angel token with Empty Throne.

As you will need some breathing room (read: live long enough), to set up your tech, look for Wall of Denial which most Jund decks I've seen does not have an answer for. This should buy just enough time to get things on the roll for you.

Some cards I am considering . .

Ardent Plea
Convincing Mirage
Ice Cage
Journey to Nowhere
Kor Skyfisher
Mesa Enchantress
Oblivion Ring
Sigil of the Empty Throne
Spreading Seas
Wall of Denial


Please drop my a line and suggest a final build for this with Spreading Seas and Sigil of the Empty Throne figuring prominently. I would do this, but as swine flu ate my brain, I am out of commission for at least another few days.

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