Building a New Standard

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Tomorrow, a brave new world will open up for Magic: the Gathering players at their local gaming stores.  Like thousands of other gamers, we'll be dropping by our local store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario to have a fun-filled Friday Night Magic evening.  With the rotation of 2 blocks (four sets), the standard card pool just became a little bit smaller, but in our opinion, a whole lot more exciting.  

The newest set Ixalan, provides some incentives to build a list based upon the four tribes of Ixalan -
• Dinosaurs (Sun Empire)
• Pirates (Brazen Coalition)
• Vampires (Legion of Dusk)
• Merfolk (River Heralds)

We have ordered the above list in line of which tribes are expected to be the most powerful in the new standard environment.  Synergies and other tribal-based bonuses are great but may not be fully realised until the next set, Rivals of Ixalan produces additional support.  

For now however, the smart player (by way of example), may not be playing a tribal go-wide strategy with Orzhov (black / white) vampires but may be better served with a token-based strategy instead, utilising some of the new vampire spells which create tokens, such as Queen's Commission or Call to the Feast.  

There are some potential pitfalls of course.  For example, playing a Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle to create vampire tokens does force one to go 'all in' with vampire tribal, whereas it may be more prudent to look to previous black / white tokens lists prior to the rotation (some of which were not that bad), and simply update that with the goodies from Ixalan.  Examples again may be Servo Exhibition and Sram's Expertise coupled with Hidden Stockpile and Anointed Procession to double-down on token producing.

Whichever way you may be charting your course, it is typically rather important to set yourself up a strong board presence upon which to build as early on in the game as possible.  Another example used here is what one would love to see in an opening hand (or early card draws) should you be playing a Naya (white / green / red) Dinosaur decklist.

Playing Imperial Lancer turn one immediately followed by Nest Robber just seems sublime as you look to land four damage on the second turn.  As these two creatures become less relevant later game then you always have fodder for chump blockers.

Likewise, as Dinosaurs are relatively a tich more mana intensive, consideration should be given to mana acceleration early game.  Whether it is a 'man-dork' or a 'Banneret' (Morningtide reference) to reduce your mana cost.  The example here may be having Drover of the Mighty come down turn turn (which is a lovely 3/3 should you already have a dinosaur out) to tap for any colour - and / or - have an Otepec Huntmaster reduce your dino overhead by one.  The Huntmaster, also provides the benefit of sending a toothy hasty surprise over the fence.  Again, building your list for synergy (whether tribal or no), should be provided equal weight in most cases with designing with your opening hand in mind.


Happy Brewing Ixalan fans !

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Ixalan B/W Tokens

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

On Friday, concluding the official preview season, the full Ixalan card image gallery went live over on the mothersite.  Since Friday, we here at MTG Realm, like many other gamers, we sequestered ourselves and went to the drawing board to create and develop ideas for standard constructed decklists.  At the beginning of previous standard seasons, we would attempt to update an existing 'tried and true' decklist, but with 4 of the 8 Magic: the Gathering sets rotating out of standard, there was perhaps only two or so good lists not adversely affected.  One suggestion is to build one of the 4 Ixalan tribes, but it appears that only Dinosaurs and Pirates presented strong enough options, with Merfolk and Vampires seeming weak, at least until improved support for those tribes are available in the next set, Rivals of Ixalan.

Early on in the previews, we were rather keen on Orzhov Black / White Vampires but were soon dissuaded from pursuing this.  One of favourite decks of all time was a Black and White Token strategy during the original Innistrad block with Intangible Virtue (Creature tokens you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance) at its heart.  When Aether Revolt was released we attempted to mimic a black white token list again, with Hidden Stockpile and similar synergies and again with Amonkhet's Anointed Procession.

In Ixalan, we are now presented with another opportunity to attempt a similar strategy with the combination of Legion's Landing and Call to the Feast.  With Anointed Procession and Hidden Stockpile still in standard constructed, is it enough to make this a serious consideration ?  There is no good anthem effect available at this time, so perhaps a gain and drain scheme but having something as as epic as Cartel Aristocrat and Blood Artist at this time is looking slim.  Perhaps we can hope for flooding the board early with tokens and dropping the opponent's life to critical before they land an incredibly large dinosaur.

Anywhoos, the above card images serve as a core to the yet to be developed list which might not get off the drawing board -
• Sacred Cat
• Anointer Priest
• Angel of Invention
• Servo Exhibition
• Hidden Stockpile 
• Start // Finish
• Anointed Procession
• Legion's Landing
• Call to the Feast
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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 BW Tokens

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

If you've been reading us here at MTG Realm, you will certainly know that know that since we first blogging about Magic: the Gathering back in 2008, we sort of have this thingy for token decklists.  Furthermore, you may surmise that pro-player Craig Wescoe is certainly held in high regard around here as we feel we share similar overall game strategies and deckbuilding styles. 

To say that we were crestfallen after Honor of the Pure, and latter on, Lingering souls rotated out of standard would be a gross understatement.  We will not feel too sadened however as there is always Modern format for us to get another kick at the can as it were.  Anywhoos, as today's post title suggests, we are having a looking at Modern Black / White tokens and more specifically, the deck that Craig Wescoe took to game with at the recent Born of the Gods Pro tour Valencia Spain last weekend.  Here is the list now - 

MAIN DECKCreatures [4]
4 Squadron Hawk

Spells [31]
4 Doom Blade
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Honor of the Pure2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
3 Sword of War and Peace
4 Thoughtseize

Lands [25]
4 Arid Mesa
3 Fetid Heath
4 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Vault of the Archangel

SIDEBOARD
3 Disenchant
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Tectonic Edge
The first thing you may note is why no Bitterblossom?  Bitterblossom was very recently unbanned in this format and there is little doubt that this is a powerful token generator.  What we were most interested in after the un-banning is finding a home for
Bitterblossom in a 'Soul Sister' strategy where the continual one life point loss each turn for Bitterblossom would be negated by the one life point gain from either Soul Warden or Soul's Attendant.  We would also strongly consider using the token critter +1/+1 pump offered by Intangible Virtue over Honor of the Pure which of course only pumps white creatures (since we're greedy, we'd most likely use both).  All-in-all, this was certainly a difficult meta-game decision Craig had to take.

There is no doubt that Craig's list using Squadron Hawks, and a package of removal and discard was very robust. Some eight cards of instant spot removal is excellent to disrupt combos such as Deceiver Exarch / Splinter Twin and the like while six discard spells helps remove troublesome spells.  Squadron Hawks and Lingering Souls can pick up Sword of War and Peace and cause serious damage by flying over Kitchen Finks or Wall of Omens.  There is also 3 copies of Tectonic Edge in the main board to blow up the potentially very powerful Gavony Township.

In short, we love this build and hope to put our own touches on to it after we acquire a few odd singles from MTG Mint Card.

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B/W Tokens

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

For today's Magic the Gathering article we wanted to provide you a current list of what our black / white (B/W) Tokens build in order to brainstorm a possible evolution of this into the new standard.  The new coolness for token strategies to live in is decidedly in Green / White Selesnya and populating tokens with stronger bodies.  Perhaps the saving grace here is that there with the exception of Precinct Captain or Ash Zealot, there are few choices for a First Strike creature which makes the lifelink / death touch ability on Vault of the Archangel just a bit more valuable.

Anywhoos, this is or rather was a decent strategy but we feel that it may be the end of the road without a mjor overhaul in order to be competitive with the local meta-game.  We may retire it to the kitchen table or let it chill on the shelf until we see what lovely Orzhov cards we get in the next set, Gatecrash.  We already have made several purchases at MTG Mint Card to this end but first wanted your judgement on whether to Pump It or Dump It, along with your sage opinions.

Here's the decklist  . . .

37 Spells -
4x Tragic Slip
4x Doomed Traveller
4x Gather the Townsfolk
4x Intangible Virtue
4x Lingering Souls
3x Midnight Haunting
3x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3x Oblivion Ring
3x Angel of Jubilation
2x Entreat the Angels
3x Increasing Devotion

23 Lands -
11x Plains
5x Swamp
4x Isolated Chapel
3x Vault of the Archangel
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The most obvious hinderance at the moment is of course the loss of Honor of the Pure with the standard rotation.  To this end, we now have Angel of Jubilation, which will pump all our non-black critters on the game table.  The build was already a titch bi-polar with Honor as it did not do anything for Sorin's vampire tokens so there really is not much change here other than the extra mana now needed on a card now suspectible to spot removal.  This also means that Altar's Reap in our sideboard is less valuable should we stall out mid game and need some card draw.

Tragic Slip and Oblivion Ring are still relevant in today's new standard constructed but may not be as well suited against the new midrange aggro builds.  Most players we know playing / splashing red are using this for Pillar of Flame or Searing Spear which hints at what the new standard decks need to defend against - Zombie builds.

We can only say that the only card in the above list we feel very, very good about in any build going forward is Entreat the Angels.  The last few games we've had on the kitchen table, this was a saving or butts more often than not.

Drop us a line -
Should we retire this now and persue another build or can we save the core list with some amendments ?
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DKA B-W Tokens

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We have a series of posts over the next few days in which we provide a decklist of real Magic the Gathering cards the group has collected and present to you, the reader for a critical review. We hope to take said finished build and slay the local meta-game at the next FMN. Oh - When we say critical review, we mean constructive suggestions and not stuff like, yo dude - your dog is fugly - that sort of thingy.


Anywhooos - first build up for your review Elspeth Tirel, beautiful mysterious knight from Alara (and Mirrodin) goes on this date with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and the pair promptly has tokens, and loads of 'em. Righto - here's the first build - post Dark Ascension B/W Tokens -


38 Spells
4 x Doomed Traveler
3 x Shrine of Loyal Legions
4 x Intangible Virtue
4 x Gather the Townsfolk
3 x Go for the Throat
3 x Altar's Reap
4 x Lingering Souls
4 x Midnight Haunting
3 x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 x Elspeth Tirel
2 x Sun Titan

23 Lands
2 x Vault of the Archangel
2 x Evolving Wilds
3 x Isolated Chapel
4 x Swamp
12 x Plains

Sideboard
3 x Tragic Slip
3 x Revoke Existence
3 x Oblivion Ring
3 x Divine Offering
3 x Dismember

Solid enough of a start but only one 1-drop. No Honor of the Pure here as we thought that Sorin's little 1/1 vampire tokens would not benefit as well as the Myr tokens from Shrine of Loyal Legions. Alter's Reap provides a cheap card draw and GftT is our spot removal. Best uncommon from DKA is Lingering Souls and we've paired this up with Midnight Haunting.

For the moment, we have 3 Elspeth and 3 Sorin in here. Following is Sun Titan which can and will bring back almost every card in the build. Vault of the Archangel is this deck's Gavony Township. The lands are continued to be tweaked to provide maximum effeciency.

UPDATE : Pop on over to our buddy Vergil's (Vergil's Magic Emporium) site for a very decent summary of this deck archetype he posted on the same day as us. He's been writing about MTG since 2010 and is much less derpy than us.

Righto, your turn.
We admit we are not the best brewer and given our love of the casual game, will often include cards because of righteous artwork. Your job, if you so choose, is to take this build and provide improvements so it's not sad panda time at FNM.

Lastly,

If your are looking to pimp up your deck beyond just having a number of foils and / or alternate art / promos in your stack, we suggest you check out MTG Mint Card which has excellent prices not only on foils but Chinese language cards - which looks Kung-Fu Kewl.
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W/B Tokens

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

There really is no ignoring the very large elephant (or rather vampire planeswalker) in the room any longer. Your Magic the Gathering at your local store / games club is set to change with the introduction of Magic the Gathering's newest set, Dark Ascension. The most hyped about deck that a lot of players want to drive in White / Black Tokens with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad as the key card, along with the amazing flashback card, Lingering Souls.

Well, let's get down to the nitty-gritty and talk about suitable cards which might just work in a standard constructed deck. First up - mana base -
Plains, Swamps, the Innistrad dual-land, Isolated Chapel, and Vault of the Archangel which can really put a zing into your alpha swing with your horde of tokens by giving them deathtouch and lifelink (which in our opinion is one of our fav combinations - we LOVED Deathbringe Liege deck featuring Basilisk Collar in Eventide!).
Next, cards to consider to help pump up your newly created tokens . . .
Intangible Virtue and to a lesser extent, Honor of the Pure are your choices. Next up - cards for your consideration - please do not limit your choices to these but brew up your own and test your build . . .
These cards are the major components to your token engine. We threw in Suture Priest because no-one expects her ! Next up - let's protect your butt or project your power on the game table - some other spells for your consideration . . .
Again - spice to your own taste here - some of these may be suitable in your side-board. Test, make notes, and have fun!
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We expect that before the end of the day, the entire list of singles will be up on MTG Mint Card for pre-order.

We suggest you get in there quick before they sell out of the more popular cards . . .

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