What We're Playing

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

As it was cold and rainy this weekend, we had the fire going and played EDH / Commander for most of Saturday and Sunday. We'll get back to you in the next post of what was played and some highlights. For today's post, we wanted to yatter a bit about how the current local standard constructed meta-game is never stagnant (like it was perhaps just a few months ago).

Decks we were playing just a few short weeks ago are coming up short in our Friday Night Magic games which is just one reason why we love Magic the Gathering - we get to go back to the drawing board and either tweak those decks or start all over brewing up a new one. We usually have several builds on the go - some are for casual kitchen table fun, while others have a more competitive profile for playing at FNM.

Two decks we have which have undergone some significant changes in the last month or so are the Township Tokens build and the Tempered Steel build (to a lesser degree). These builds are tuned specifically to the vagaries and peculiarities of the metagame. Only two things appear certain in this game - change is constant, and the gaming community in Barrie which rally to the OMG! Games store each Friday is good at adapting to the changing MTG game environment.

Anywhoos -
Let's see what we're playing. Here's CopySix's deck - we'll have a look at R-Stomp's black / red vampires and RetroTech's blue / white humans in a latter post . . .

Township Tokens
22 Lands : 9 Forest, 6 Plains, 4 Sunpetal Grove, 3 Gavony Township

28 Creatures : 2 Geist Honored Monk, 2 Garruk Primal Hunter, 3 Elspeth Tirel, 4 Hero of Bladehold, 3 Mirran Crusader, 3 Blade Splicer, 4 Birds of Paradise, 4 Avacyn Pilgrim, 3 Doomed Traveler

11 Other Spells :
4 Shrine of Loyal Legions, 3 Intangible Virture, 3 Oblivion Ring

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Tempered Steel -
20 Lands : 12 Plains, 3 Swamp, 2 Isolated Chapel, 2 Buried Relic, 1 Ghost Quarter

21 Creatures : 4 Etched Champion, 4 Vault Skirge, 4 Glint Hawk, 4 Signal Pest, 4 Memnite, 1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch

19 Other Spells : 4 Disptatch, 4 Origin Spellbomb, 4 Glint Hawk Idol, 3 Tumble Magnet, 4 Tempered Steel

We went with black in this Tempered Steel build due to all the secret stuff in our sideboard - yeah - the local meta is weird right now.
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Lastly,
The folks over at MTG Mint Card has one heck of a Christmas Holiday deal - you can knock off 50% (!) off express shipping for any purchase. This deal is good until 21st December which should allow you loads of time to Christmas shop for that special MTG fan.

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Township Tokens

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

We're in again with another Magic the Gathering standard constructed deck idea for today's post. Just a note - if you are reading this in the distant future, just check which blocks / sets are in standard. Anywhoos - Innistrad had delivered a wallop of Innistrad tokens to consider and the moment when we saw the new card Intangible Virtue, we wanted to build something with it.


Intangible Virtue, an uncommon enchantment with a cmc of just two (a colourless and a white mana), gives your creature tokens +1/+1 and viligence has some friends - namely the Innistrad rare land, Gavony Township which for a green, a while and two colourless mana, will dump another hard +1/+1 counter on each critter you control. White tokens can get a lot of love in this set with the addition of the M12 rare, Honor of the Pure. This sort of build has already garnered a moniker - Township Tokens and looks like it may become a popular choice not only at Friday Night Magic events but also with some of the more serious players.


The big question now is, where exactly are the tokens coming from. We looked to a green and white build but decided on mostly white with a splash of green. To this end, we chose the one drop Doomed Traveller which will produce a 1/1 spirit token, the house that is Shrine of Loyal Legions with the potential to create a small army of 1/1 colourless Myr tokens, and Timely Reinforcements (a life pump of +6, and three 1/1 while soldier tokens) which we think is critical given that this build is somewhat sidelined for the first two turns. We also have a lot of admiration for Midnight Haunting (producing two 1/1 white Spirit tokens, and the amazing Hero of Bladehold which not only has the Battle Cry tech, but also spits out two 1/1 white Soldier tokens when the Hero attacks. To wrap up this token burrito, we like to have Elspeth Tirel on board. This gal has the abilitiy to gain you a lot of life, generate tokens, and provide a game resetting board wipe while leaving the tokens intact.


Speaking of board wipers, a Day of Judgement is a solid choice for a global effect to reset the field from which you would likely be better adept at recovering since this is a token build. There is also some shenanigans to be had with the New Phyrexia card, Fresh Meat which can easily puke out an army of 3/3 green Beast tokens after you or your opponent cleared your side of the table.


We are still considering (but will likely go with) using Parallel Lives to double up the speed of the token engine. We also have concerns about dead draws (pulling a land when we do not need one, or vice versa), so we are considering using Mentor of the Meek which offers a card draw for onlly 1 mana every time you play a 2-powered creature.


Are you planning on building a token deck ? Which way will you go about it ? - Drop a comment below and get expressive with your creativity.
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Here's a quick look at two takes on a Township Token build from some recent tournaments . . .

Township Tokens, A Standard Magic deck, by Robert Smith
12th place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, United States on 2011-10-09

Maindeck:
Artifacts : 4 Shrine of Loyal Legions
Creatures : 2 Blade Splicer, 2 Doomed Traveler, 2 Hero of Bladehold
Enchantments : 4 Honor of the Pure, 4 Intangible Virtue, 2 Oblivion Ring
Instants : 4 Midnight Haunting
Legendary Creatures : 1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Planeswalkers : 4 Elspeth Tirel
Sorceries : 3 Day of Judgment, 3 Timely Reinforcements
Basic Lands : 9 Plains
Other Lands : 4 Gavony Township, 4 Inkmoth Nexus, 4 Razorverge Thicket, 4 Sunpetal Grove

Sideboard: 2 Blade Splicer, 1 Doomed Traveler, 2 Hero of Bladehold, 1 Oblivion Ring, 3 Marrow Shards, 4 Naturalize, 1 Day of Judgment, 1 Timely Reinforcements
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Township Tokens, A Standard Magic deck, by Andrew Shrout
12th place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States on 2011-10-02

Maindeck:
Artifacts : 4 Shrine of Loyal Legions
Creatures : 3 Doomed Traveler, 4 Hero of Bladehold
Legendary Creatures : 3 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Enchantments : 4 Honor of the Pure, 4 Intangible Virtue
Instants : 3 Dismember, 4 Midnight Haunting
Planeswalkers : 4 Elspeth Tirel
Sorceries : 3 Day of Judgment
Basic Lands : 3 Forest, 9 Plains
Other Lands : 4 Gavony Township, 4 Razorverge Thicket, 4 Sunpetal Grove

Sideboard: 2 Sword of Feast and Famine, 2 Oblivion Ring, 2 Naturalize, 4 Purify the Grave, 1 Day of Judgment, 4 Timely Reinforcements
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