Standard Orzhov

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We want to wish everyone a happy and safe New Year's eve and the very best for the new year.  Oddly on the very last day of 2013 all three of us here at MTG Realm finally have found our Magic: the Gathering groove for standard and have decided on a standard constructed deck.  RStomp is going with a Kibler Golgari variation, RTech is polishing up her Simic-Grow / Flash and yours truly CopySix is packing a take on Ryo Nakada's Orzhov Aggro (minus the Mutavaults as they are $30-$35 each and we don't have the money for those right now).  We have recent acquisitions in hand now from MTG Mint Card and are ready for our next Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario.

Anywhoos - let's have a looky-loo at Ryo's list again for reference -

Ryo Nakada, Orzhov Aggro, GP Shizuoka 2013 Winning Decklist
22 lands : 4  Godless Shrine, 4  Mutavault, 2  Orzhov Guildgate, 7  Plains, 1  Swamp, 4  Temple of Silence

29 creatures : 4  Banisher Priest, 4  Boros Elite, 4  Daring Skyjek, 3  Dryad Militant, 3  Imposing Sovereign, 4  Precinct Captain, 4  Soldier of the Pantheon, 3  Xathrid Necromancer

9 other spells : 4  Brave the Elements, 3  Orzhov Charm, 2  Spear of Heliod

15 sideboard cards : 3  Dark Betrayal, 3  Doom Blade, 1  Pithing Needle, 2  Profit // Loss, 3  Sin Collector, 2  Thoughtseize, 1  Xathrid Necromancer
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We've played Orzhov for a while now and our hear broke after Innistrad rotated out taking with many of our fav cards (Intangible Virtue, Lingering Souls, etc.).  That is all now behind us now that we've evaluated M14's Xathrid Necromancer against our local metagame.  The Necromancer demands an immediate answer from removal, and makes combat a nightmare for the opponent. It also foils any plans that revolve around Supreme Verdict. We particularly like the interaction with Cartel Aristocrat which offers a sacrifice outlet to dump a cheap one drop for protection while generating a 2/2 Zombie token.  Some considerations we are giving to the main board and side board -

Immortal Servitude to cycle back all those cheap critters we've just turfed in the 'yard to restart the shenanigans yet again.  The 'Willing' side of the fuse card 'Ready // Willing' which provides deathtouch and lifelink - why?  Because nobody expects this sort of thingy.

Some other ideas we are toying with include (but are not limited to) using Calvary Pegasus to give all our dudes (humans specifically) flying when they attack.  High Priest of Penance is a nice two drop which will blow up any non-land permanent (enchantment, Planeswalker, etc.) and gives us another Zombie token while the Necromancer is out.  Thoughtseize may also be useful against some match-ups as well.

For a finisher, we may consider Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Obzedat, Ghost Council or perhaps Bloodbaron of Vizkopa.  There are a lot of choices but one thing of concern is should our opponent have a Ratchet Bomb to blow up our fresh 'n' fetid Zombie token army.  Suggestions always welcome of course in the comment thingy below or eMail.

Happy New Year / Happy Brewing!
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Mono-Green Standard Stompy

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

As it is Tuesday, we remind you that you may want to tune in to Tosh.0 on the Comedy Network - tune into the funny phail vids and tune out to the terribad writing and delivery by Daniel. Anywhoos - let's get onto that piece of Magic the Gathering news on the DCI banned and restricted list updates we first told you about in yesterday's post . . .

The DCI examined the current block format and found that creature-token based strategies were dominating and largely competing with other creature-token based strategies. In particular, Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls were very prevalent. In the interest of making Innistrad Block Constructed a more diverse and healthy format, the DCI is banning Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls.

Announcement Date: March 20, 2012
Effective Date: April 2, 2012
Magic Online Effective Date: March 28, 2012

Innistrad Block Constructed - Intangible Virtue is banned, Lingering Souls is banned.

Standard, Extended, Modern, Legacy, Vintage - No changes

As we don't play block constructed, this is us not really caring. For those on MTGO, our heart-felt condolences.
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Next up -

Onto the subject of today's post - hinted at in the post title - Mono-Green Standard Stompy. We had not played a mono-green build since Lorwyn and when we had seen some of the very excellent choices in the last Magic the Gathering spoilers with Dark Ascension, we could not help but start working on a build.

One path we did want to take after Woodland Cemetery was set loose on standard was a build with Glissa, the Traitor, Hex Parasite, Perilous Myr. We also thought of using trying one of the new green fatties with a Deadly Allure on it or even unusual mana-ramp tech with an Undying Evil on Viridian Emissary to help churn out a Primeval Titan, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Engulfing Slagwurm or Carnage Wurm. All this went by the wayside however when we went simple mon-green. Righto - here's the decklist at the moment which we are eager to improve upon . . .


4x Young Wolf
4x Prey Upon
2x Noxious Revival
4x Skinshifter
4x Strangleroot Geist
3x Viridian Emissary
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Predator Ooze
3x Beast Within
3x Overrun
3x Vorapede
22 Forests

Sideboard
4x Ranger's Guile
4x Naturalize
3x Lead the Stampede
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
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Take note that this may or may not reflect the actual decklist as we know players at the local store (no names mentioned - Austin!!) may already sideboarded cards in even before we sat down to a match during a Friday Night Magic Event. We are already leaning towards using a full deckset of Corrosive Gale to pawn the token flyers in the local metagame. DROP US A COMMENT below with your suggestions - it is always appreciated.
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Lastly,

Avacyn Restored the final set in Innistrad block is now available for preorder at MTG Mint Card, they are now offering an early bird discount for the Avacyn Restored uncommon & common card sets as low as $34.99. Apparently this is a limited time offer only so you may want to order today and have your AVR cards shipped on 4th May.
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Aggro Myr

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope everyone had a great weekend - we certainly did. We rocked well at FNM with that life-gain deck and had a comborific time at least twice when Phyrexian Metamorph, Leonin Relic-Warder and Suture Priest / Soul's Attendant were in play. It was a simple matter of waiting for Felidar Sovereign to hit a stick for a turn. Anywhoos - we invite you to share a story of what cool plays you delivered or saw during your games.


Today we were going to yatter about all the Commander (formerly Elder Dragon Highlander) previews / spoilers which are not out but we will wait and update you next post. For now, we wanted to do a show 'n' tell on a very fun standard Myr deck we played over the course of the weekend. We would take this to FNM but the local metagame is rather competitive so this is relegated to the kitchen table.


There are a good pool of cards from which to construct a 60-card tribal Myr deck. We like tribal. Unfortunately, the challenge is that most Myr cards have a casting cost of two or three and things get sparse beyond that. Cards of note beyond this mana boundary are Myr Turbine and Myr Battlesphere. Throw in a Myr Reservoir, Tempered Steel and then your casual Myr deck choices are starting to look a bit more promising.

Anywhoos - let's have a look . . .

38 Spells
4 x Dispatch
4 x Plague Myr
4 x Myr Superion
4 x Hovermyr
4 x Palladium Myr
4 x Myr Galvanizer
4 x Myr Reservoir
4 x Tempered Steel
3 x Myr Turbine
3 x Myr Battlesphere

22 Lands
5 x random non-basic lands
17 x Plains

The only piece of control we considered for this beta-build is Dispatch. It had performed not badlly to date - it would be nice to have another deckset in the one-drop column but we will persevere for now.

The early fatty is Myr Superion (a very beefy 5/6 for two mana), which is supported by the mana-dorks Plague Myr and Palladium Myr who not only feed the mana required to cast Superion but will also serve well as chump blockers. The Myr lord, Myr Galvanizer is a decent three drop which pumps your Myr +1/+1 but we are loving the untap ability that is also on this card.

Myr Reservoir is another decent three drop which not only provides additional mana but also provides excellent recursion - fresh from the graveyard to your hand. Tempered steel is a monster, providing a +2/+2 pump to your little horde of artifact critters.


Games to date have also demonstrated that Myr Turbine should not be underestimated / under-rated. Sure it costs five but it does provide 1/1 tokens and a way to tease a Superion out of your library.

Finally the Battlesphere. This is the punch line of this build. For only seven mana, you get five bodies on the battlefield with a combined power / toughness of 8/9 - not too shabby.


We had won a LOT of games with this deck over the weekend and are currently looking to tweak some improvements to it. One place we are starting to chew on is a way to provide some evasion to the Battlesphere, whether is is an Armored Ascension or a rebounding Distortion Strike, only play-testing will determine.

Righto - your turn now - pipe in with your comments 'n' suggestions below in the comment thingy. Until next time, good gamery to ya and happy brewing.
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Finally - As the Magic 2012 core set due to be released soon, you may wish to start planning your purchase before it does hit the street and your local games stores. We suggest you take a look at the excellent assorted card lots at MTG Mint Card here.
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Artifact Aggro

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Happy Thursday MTG scholars,

Today we are asking for your input on a casual standard artifact aggro deck. With the vast cumulative experience of great number of Magic the Gathering players who read this MTG blog regularly, we think that we should have a fun build to win a number of games tomorrow at Friday Night Magic.

We are often limited to what we design by simply what we have on hand in our binder. What we do have is a deck set of Steel Overseer, Voltaic Key and Tempered Steel. This should (we hope) be a decent enough core to build around. Here is what we have so far.


3 x Golem Artisan
3 x Lodestone Golem
2 x Etched Champion
4 x Tempered Steel
4 x Steel Overseer
4 x Myrsmith
3 x Silence
4 x Voltaic Key
4 x Origin Spellbomb
4 x Memnite
4 x Ornithopter
= 24 Creature and 15 Other Spells (39 cards)

2 x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
2 x Sejiri Steppe
17 Plains
= 21 Lands
Total = 60 Cards

We have 8 zero costing artifact creatures. Origin Spellbomb not only allows a card draw but provides another cheap Myr token to get onto the game table. Myrsmith is certain to provide several more Myr tokens to be generated. With this small army of artifact weenies we hope to pump some decent power into them with the help of Tempered Steel and Steel Overseer to overrun our opponent's defences. Hopefully no Day of Judgment is waiting in the wings but if there is a board-clearer, we should be able to recover in relatively short order.

By mid game, we hope to put a wrench in our opponent's tempo with Lodestone Golem which will increase the cost of their spells (providing they are not playing a mainly artifact deck). We rather like Golem Artisan which provides repeatable options to swiss-knife your artifact critters by pumping them or giving them flying, trample or haste (or perhaps all of the above if the mana is available).

As for the Sideboard, we have this initial list which we hope also to tweak . . .

3 x Devout Lightcaster
3 x Kor Firewalker
3 x Emerge Unscathed
3 x Journey to Nowhere
3 x Revoke Existence

Drop us a line (eMail or comment below) to send us in the right direction.

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And finally, a reminder about the promo MTG Mint Card is having - its a Thanksgiving Sale with 7% Store Wide Discount from today until the 25th November. Just enter coupon "THANKSGIVING" during checkout. You may want to use this when purchasing the new MTG Premium Deck Series : Fire & Lightning.
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What I'm Playing 7

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Just taking a quick break from the Zendikar land spoilers to drop yet another edition of 'What I'm Playing'. This is a MTG Realm feature where we post a real deck of physical cardboard goodness and yatter about it's particular qualities.
We also ask you, the blog reader, to provide constructive input as to how to tweak it.

(!) Just before we get into the nitty-gritty of the decklist and you provide comments, just know that these decks are intended to play casual at a sanctioned 'Friday Night Magic' event (standard constructed format) and that, because money does not grow on trees (at least, not around here), we often are unable to get a deckset of the latest hotness (although we wish we could). Let's go . . .

BIG BANT

click to enlarge

This deck is called 'Big Bant' as it gets big. Rather an original name we thought. It has been played about a dozen times at the kitchen table and has also been out to a FNM perhaps thrice now and has performed rather well to date. Altough it does not yet have a sideboard, it did take us to semi-finals (with a participating crowd of 25 to 35 players or so) during said FNM plays. We just need you to help us out to take spot number one at least once or twice to call it a solid build.

Anywhoos - We include six mana accelerators found within four Nobles and two BOP to provide juice for the engine. Nobles outweigh the Birds as not only they tap for Bant colours but also it provides exalted. Also you should know that there have not been any games to date that Knight of New Alara has not come out at least once per match (quite usually once or more per game) . . . perhaps I have an akwardly-placed lucky horseshoe.

Here is the next critter. The two-drop Bant Sureblade, although a 2/1, easily becomes a 3/2 with first strike with all the multi-colour deck love and typically gets a huge boost from the Knight to sprout it into a honk'n 6/5 by turn 3. At the moment I am considering Esper Stormblade over the Sureblade to give me a 5/4 flier instead.


Next up - Giltspire provides elimination should I take a hit from a creature. Most players in my neck of the woods take the Avenger seriously and takes him out first before doing anything. The life-linking 3/4 Rhox War Monk also grows to a 6/5 with the Knight. Unfortunately, I have only 3 Jenara presently and must admit this creature is awesome in play. With the Knight, this thing is a sizeable 6/6 flier and I have often been able to dump extra mana to drop additional counters on her.

I'm not altogether sure of the cascading Captured Sunlight. I do ejoy dropping a Jenara or a Rhox Monk but presently think this card's inclusion is somewhat shaky. Knight of New Alara has made this deck shine in past games and, as mentioned earlier, has always seen play. Moreover, I cannot count the times I have top-decked this cardboard win. This essentially gives 5 of my 9 creatures a full 3 power boost.

Next on the list is some critical control for late game. We have a full set of the Bant-coloured four-drop 3/4 Stoic Angel to greatly restrict our opponent's ability to untap more than one creature. To couple this is another set of Murkfiend Liege. This creature really is a 'horror' as a follow-up to Stoic. He (or it?), not only bumps all your blue and green creatures by +2/+2 but also allows you to untap all your blue / green critters at your opponent's upkeep, essentially providing vigilence to your critters.


Quite similar to always having the knack of drawing Knight of new Alara, I seem to have very good luck being able to have the Stoic / Murkfiend couple out (just slightly more than half my games).

Here is the list shizzle . .

BIG BANT

37 Spells
23 Lands

4 x Noble Hierarch
2 x Bird of Paradise
4 x Bant Sureblade
4 x Giltspire Avenger
4 x Rhox War Monk
3 x Jenara, Asura of War
4 x Captured Sunlight
4 x Stoic Angel
4 x Knight of New Alara
4 x Murkfiend Liege

4 x Seaside Citadel
9 x Forest
5 x Plain
5 x Island

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Sideboard Assistance

Sideboard is currently non-existent but I do have some half-formed ideas.
Reborn Hope may be a candidate to provide some recursion. Esper Stormblade may be swapped out for Bant Sureblade for better aerial defence. Favour of the Overbeing is a decent aura to provide most critters flying / vigilence and a +1/+1 pump. Snakeform is a hilarious card and make most opponents cry - there really is no other reason for sideboard inclusion other than having an insurance policy against a your opponent's Fatty McFatster.

Anywho - Please drop us a comment and help us fix this up ! Thnx !

Deck Types

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As there are 451 magic cards in the Lorwyn block, one would be able to play a multitude of different types of decks constructed around mana colour, card combinations, creature race, or class. Most Magic players enjoy constructing a deck just as much as playing the deck itself.

Whatever you may have strategically incorporated into your magic deck, it may be classified as one of three basic deck types and futhermore into several different subtypes. The three basic types are as follows;

Control Deck - This type of deck contains cards intended to control or interupt your opponents play by a variety of methods such as creature removal or counterspells. The strategy with this sort of deck is restrict your opponent from ever gaining an upper hand and then to produce one or more cards or card combinations to win the game.

Aggro Deck - The name for this deck type is a diminutive for 'aggresive'. As the name suggests, the cards within this deck has been included to deliver the most amount of damage possible. An Aggro deck would typically contain a large amount of creatures which can overwhelm blockers early in the game and begin dealing damage directly to the opponent before they would be able to mount a resistance.

Combo Deck - As you may have guessed, this type of deck uses a combination of cards chosen to deal a large amount of damage to an opponents, often in just a limited number of turns. To be able to bring out the strategic combination of cards quicker, the player often includes cards which allow them to search their library for them. The Lorwyn block provides eight such cards called 'Harbingers'.

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As a singular blog post is insufficient to even attempt to provide exiguous examples of Lorwyn block constructed deck types, I will resign myself to suggesting cards which may lend itself well to these decks.

Control Example: Some colours naturally lend themselves naturally to certain deck types. Blue has traditionally seen itself being considered for inclusion in control-type decks. There are several white and blue Merfolk cards which may be candidates for inclusion in a control deck. One strategy is to 'mill' (from the older Magic card 'Millstone') until all their cards are removed thus winning the game. Some cards to consider here are Drowner of Secrets, Ink Dissolver, Grimoire Thief, and / or Jace Beleren.

















Aggro Example: If you are looking to overwhelm an opponent, there are many cards available which crank out a multitude of tokens which will take care of business. Cards such as Lys Alana Huntmaster, or Elvish Promenade may be considered for this task.









Alternatively, a player may decide to deliver massive hits and include cards with 'trample' which are able to deal damage to their opponent even when blocked. Some examples may include Nova Chaser or Boldwyr Heavyweights.









Combo Example: Some players build a deck around one or two very effective card combinations. Given the size of the Lorwyn Block one can imagine the great number of combinations available. These range from from fairly simple and effective combinations such as coupling Kinsbaile Borderguard and Graceful Reprieve to more complex ones requiring two or more. Another example of a simple and effective combo is Militia's Pride and Dolmen Gate.

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Remember, the deck you decide to build is bounded only by your imagination.