Fate Reforged Reviews

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Streamers of Georgian Bay here in Ontario is giving the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) the business end of winter but nothing quite compared to what Winter Storm Juno is expected to do as it rips up the east coast causing massive havoc from Boston to New York City.  If you are on the east coast, be prepared with some snacky-poos, long-burning candles, and all your Magic: the Gathering decks to hunker down with while you ride out the storm.

Here at MTG Realm, we are getting delivery of all our Fate Reforged pre-orders and plan to spend the remainder of the week brewing up lists with the new set for Friday Night Magic at our local card shop, OMG! Games.  Our pre-orders were of course based upon our evaluation of how each new card may be expected to impact the standard meta-game.  We're certainly not pros at picking the 'winners' in each set and it is always interesting to see what the pros thought.  It may be the case of closing the barn door after the horses have already booked it but we've got the following reviews from the folks we trust most in the game - 

• Evan Erwin with Brad Nelson doing their customary set review on The Magic Show.  This is always entertaining and we always feel better informed after.

• Luis Scott-Vargas (LSV) over on Channel Fireball who does great evaluations of the set's notable cards for play in limited as well as constructed.

Here's some very handy links to each YouTube episode that Evan and Brad have for Fate Reforged - just click on the images below.  Be sure to support this fan-supported show by dropping on over to Patreon.

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Here are the links off to LSV's articles which we suggest you would be very well served to read :

White

Blue

Black

Red

Green

Gold / Colourless & Top Ten

The Top Ten constructed cards according to LSV are:

10. Wild Slash9. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon8. Torrent Elemental7. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death6. Monastery Mentor5. Whisperwood Elemental4. Valorous Stance3. Soulfire Grand Master2. Crux of Fate1. Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Everyone's choice will be different due to their experience, play style and preferences so your top ten could look very much different.  What would your picks be (considering all constructed formats) ?
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Simic Then and Now

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

We want to have a quick looky-loo at one of our fav colour combinations in Magic: the Gathering today - green / blue and more specifically represented by the themes in Ravnica's Simic Combine . . . Let's explore!

Card of the Day - Monday, February 18, 2013
Prime Speaker Zegana – Gatecrash mythic rare. Zegana is the speaker for Zonot One, and she delivered the Fathom Edict that declared a new beginning for the Simic Combine. She claims that the Speakers' Chamber can replace her as guildmaster at any time, although not everyone believes this.

Card of the Day - Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary – Dissension rare. Momir Vig was the leader of the Simic Combine in the original Ravnica block. As an elvish bionmancer, he oversaw all the work done and determined the general direction Simic scientists took. But he also has his own work: a savage, instinct-driven being, based on cytoplastic technology.
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Here are two 60-card piles representative of how these two legendary guild leaders may operate.  Quite decidedly, Momir shines in a creature-centric EDH / Commander format, but  we'll cover that latter.
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Simic Aggro by ChaosfissionLand (23)
    2x Alchemist's Refuge
    4x Breeding Pool
    8x Forest
    4x Hinterland Harbor
    5x Island
Creature (27)
    4x Cloudfin Raptor
    4x Elusive Krasis
    4x Experiment One
    3x Master Biomancer
    2x Prime Speaker Zegana
    4x Strangleroot Geist
    2x Wolfir Silverheart
    4x Zameck Guildmage
Instant (6)
    3x Rapid Hybridization
    3x Simic Charm
Enchantment (4)
    4x Rancor
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Simic creatures by dimirshadowLand (24)
    2x Breeding Pool
    8x Forest
    11x Island
    3x Llanowar Reborn
Creature (25)
    4x Coiling Oracle
    3x Cytoplast Root-Kin
    2x Experiment Kraj
    2x Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
    1x Novijen Sages
    3x Plaxcaster Frogling
    1x Simic Basilisk
    3x Trygon Predator
    3x Vigean Graftmage
    3x Vigean Hydropon
Artifact (6)
    4x Ashnod's Transmogrant
    2x Evolution Vat
Instant (3)
    3x Cytoshape
Enchantment (2)
    2x Utopia Sprawl
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For some reason, we've overlooked a few of the cards in the Momir build and will want to drop by MTG Mint Card to pick up a few MTG singles for our Momir EDH deck.
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Mirrodin Besieged Crazy 8's

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We now have some of our pre-orders in and are rather happy with our Mirrodin Besieged Uncommon & Common set we got from MTG Mint Card. This lot provides a deckset of each uncommon and common in the latest Magic the Gathering set and the price was right. Considering the relative monetary value of some of the more sought-after uncommons, we declare great deal.

Anywhoos - Here's a short vid giving you some Show 'n' Tell of our new cards. We also go out on a limb and give you our opinions of the Top Eight Uncommons and Commons in Mirrodin Besieged for standard casual constructed.

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UNCOMMONS

Go for the Throat : Is solid cheap spot removal which we will consider to be on par with Doom Blade. DB can't hit black creatures while GftT can. The only drawback is the stoopid name as well as it's limiter to non-artifact creatures which by the way, standard environment has a few of.

Signal Pest : Battle cry on a one-drop is great. This thing has a target on it from Kuldotha Rebirth or other sac outlets or simply by itself swinging a piece of equipment.

Goblin Wardriver : Good cost two-drop for two with Battle cry which may see play in agressive goblin decks. One is pretty much limited to mono-red decks here.

Accorder Paladin : A two-drop Knight with an odd 3/1 body but hey - here's Battle cry again. Look to see him in a Knight Exemplar build or perhaps equipping him as this is still fragile.

Sphere of the Suns : This is an excellent target for proliferate as well as players who want to see some metalcraft action in their game. We almost prefer this over Everflowing Chalice.

Plague Myr : This is a great addition to your infect deck. Several players we know are replacing their Copper or Leaden Myr with this fella. Sure it provides a colourless mana but dropping another infect creature into play is good - especially with a Hand of the Praetors already out.

Treasure Mage : Will allow you to run singles of your fav artifact fatty to free up space in your deck. Popular cards to pull out of your deck with this may be Blightsteel Colossus, Platinum Emperion, Myr Battlesphere, Platinum Angel, Argentum Armor, Contagion Engine, etc. - you get the idea.

Lead the Stampede : Is vastly improved over Beast Hunt. This may see play in mana-ramp type decks which prefer less lands and more mana-dorks. This may also work well with Fauna Shaman allowing a larger pool of discard to find that singleton fatty.

COMMONS

Steel Sabotage : Great common in a metagame full of artifacts. Use in your sideboard to counter or bounce - we're thinking that your opponent who just dropped a Blightsteel Colossus into play will cry when you sabotage it.

Master's Call : Speaking of BSC, this is the go-to card of choice. An instant-speed two 1/1 myr for three mana is not at all bad - especially to push your game's metalcraft tech or give your Tempered Steel threat more bodies.

Leonin Skyhunter : We're not seeing any downside to a 2/2 flier for two - As this is a Knight, we expect to see this as a high pick for any mono-white Knight builds.

Ichor Wellspring : Card draw is simple card advantage. This one may be sacrificed to Throne of Geth or Kuldotha Rebirth to net you a card. Alternatively, it's come into play ability may be abused by Venser - not bad.

Crush : Not the best artifact destruction card out in standard right now but still decent. We're thinking that any black-red build will have both Crush and Go for the Throat in their sideboards.

Blightwidow : Infect decks finally have some good aerial cover. Previously we were limited to only Skittles or Plague Stinger to keep the unfriendly skies clear but now this nasty fella with reach provides another option to block or wear down your opponent's attack.

Horrifying Revelation : Although this does not provide the selection of Duress, it does eliminate two cards which may result in messing up your opponent's tempo which is never a bad thing. We're thinking of strategies with Agadeem Occultist, Bloodchief Ascension and the like.

Myr Sire : Two 1/1 chumps for two mana is mana well spent. Look for synergies with Culling Dias, Mortarpod and perhaps Nim Deathmantle. Great creature to sac and get one more rinse 'n' repeat.
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Please feel free to pipe in and provide comments below (we have several already on YouTube) as to your Top 8 picks for uncommons and commons.
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What I'm Playing 8

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Hello and welcome to yet another post of 'What I'm Playing'. This is where we, the abecedarian begrudging your greater experience in this our admired game of Magic the Gathering propose to you a standard constructed deck and you, advanced by years of experience, sagely provide us betterments.

So, without further ado, admit me, the constructor of this deck, who prologue-like your humble patience pray, gently to read, kindly to judge our Deck List.

Sneaky Kor . . .

Spells - 39
4 x kor duelist
4 x trusty machete
4 x harm's way
4 x brave the elements
4 x armament master
4 x kor aeronaut
3 x kor skyfisher
4 x kor hookmaster
4 x whispersilk cloak
4 x captain of the watch
Mana -21
17 x Plains
4 x Kabira Crossroads

Our thanks to Trick at ManaNation for developing MTG Url from which we had obtained the following graphics. Here are the Links to the LIST and ANALYSIS.

Creature - 23 / Artifact - 8 / Instant - 8 / Basic Land - 21

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We were for a time rather unsure of the Kor at this time. Certainly there are some very worthy cards but perhaps we had held too much stock in Armament Master who lacked a particular vigor in order to stay long enough on the board in order to provide benefits to his fellow Kor.

That was, until a colleague at Friday Night Magic suggested the use of Whispersilk Cloak which not only provided the much needed shroud required to maintain the Armament Master but also provided a very nice ublockable ability.

The construction so far proved to fair not that badly with the few casual kitchen table games we had played with a limited variety of other builds. We were very impressed with the Duelist, who we had placed a Trusty Machete on and then followed up with a Whispersilk Cloak. This piece of nastiness was at one time (with an Armament Master on board) swinging for 10 points of sweet unblockable pain. As the build happened to turn out all soldiers, we just auto-included Captain of the Watch.

We very much understand that this build is still far from complete and would like you to suggest improvements before we unleash this at our next FNM. Please remember that we, of limited income, may not be able to acquire the hotness which you may suggest so please also think in terms of budget.

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We are also thinking about a build with Emeria Angel and the very popular Hedron Crab. If you have any ideas with this deck that won't break the bank, please drop us a comment.

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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 !

LSV Top 8 ARB

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Hey there - remember just yesterday I was yattering away about Regionals and what impact Alara Reborn may have on Standard format ? Great. Well, anywhoos, this may be a good time to have a quick look at the top 8 Alara Reborn picks for constructed as present by Luis Scott-Vargas on Channel Fireball. You may have heard of 'LSV' - the exceptionally good who has been kicking butt and taking names on the GP / PT circuits . . . so - when this player has something to say about the standard metagame, most people take a listen.

Let's have a look at the video first before we get started.

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So how cool were those video effects ?! LSV was throwing exploding MTG cards . . . w0w ! - Just like Gambit of Marvel Comics / X-Men fame. I would love to have the kind of cash which allows me to throw ('gasp') a Maelstrom Pulse like that - Perhaps Luis had stunt cards stand in. Like I said - great video - solid delivery and much more engaging than those MTGO draft vids that LSV has been posting.


LSV's Top 8 ARB constructed : Anathamancer / Bituminous Blast / Bloodbraid Elf / Borderposts / Dauntless Escort /Maelstrom Pulse / Quasali Pridemage / Zealous Persecution

Anathemancer - 1BR
Creature - Zombie Wizard (Uncommon)
When Anathemancer comes into play, it deals damage to target player equal to the number of nonbasic lands that player controls.
Unearth {5}{B}{R}
2/2
With all those Five Colour Control decks out there filled to the brim with nonbasic lands are feeling the hate this card delivers. This promises to put a dent into some B/W token decks as well.

Bituminous Blast - 3BR
Instant (Uncommon)
Cascade / Bituminous Blast deals 4 damage to target creature.
Cascade mechanic rocks. BB is all that and a bag 'o' chips. This gives you 2 spells for only 5 mana . . one spell dealing 4 damage and the second giving you a random - just how fun is this ?! FTK

Bloodbraid Elf - 2RG
Creature - Elf Berserker (Uncommon)
Haste / Cascade
3/2
Altough some players would rather choose the similar Captured Sunlight (2GW / Cascade / gain 4 life), over Bloodbraid Elf, I still think that the typical aggro player will go with the elf. 'nuff said - cascade provides not only a level of fun to the game, but also card advantage.

Borderposts
(Fieldmist, Firewild, Mistvein, Veinfire, Wildfield) Common Artifacts
You may pay 1 and return a basic land you control to its owner's hand rather than pay (Name) Borderpost's mana cost. (Name) Borderpost comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add Colour 1 or Colour 2 to your mana pool.
I concur that multicoloured artifacts in this block are a plus (and sometimes necessary) but cannot agree 100 % with LSV's assessment for standard - having a CIPT land/artifact in the fast-moving game of today, one had better ensure that these borderposts are fitted appropriately to your deck.

Dauntless Escort - 1GW
Creature - Rhox Soldier (Rare)
Sacrifice Dauntless Escort: Creatures you control are indestructible this turn.
3/3
Amazing card in constructed / limited. There has been a high number of solid G/W cards in this set / block but this one sits on top. If you see an Escort hit the table, you can be certain that your opponent will eventually be setting up with a Wrath of God / Martial Coup . . . be scared.

Maelstrom Pulse - 1BG
Sorcery (Rare)
Destroy target nonland permanent and all permanents with the same name as permanent.
A vicious Vindicate. Say bye-bye to multiple pesky problematic permanents. If anyone would like to donate this card to me, please eMail me so I don't have to take a second mortgage.

Qasali Pridemage - GW
Creature - Cat Wizard (Common)
Exalted / {1}, Sacrifice Qasali Pridemage: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
2/2
A solid two drop for just two - add exalted into the equation and this just went from decent to awesome. Then, just when you thought it can't get better, add a sac utility to eliminate a threatening artifact or enchantment . . . over the top my friends.

Zealous Persecution - WB
Instant (Uncommon)
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 and creatures target opponent controls get -1/-1.
For only 2 mana, one can mow the ENTIRE field clear of those 1/1 tokens. This instant is a solid combat tactic to employ - - when I saw this spoiled, I immediately planned this for inclusion with my one deck which runs Stillmoon Cavalier for enhanced combat step hilarities.

What I'm Playing 5

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Here is yet another post of something I am working on but have not yet playtested so perhaps the title is somewhat misleading. Anywho, I was rather fascinated about Sigil of the Empty Throne and it's ability to generate 4/4 flying white Angel tokens.
To take full advantage of this card's ability, I would need to maximize on the number of enchantments in the deck which of course would reduce the number of creatures one would be able to find a spot for. To this end, I needed to ensure that the creatures I did field were able to give the most 'bang for the mana' and decided that if I were effect any sort of damage to my opponent with the limited number of creatures, I would need to carefully evaluate my options.
I looked to one of my favourite mechanics, 'unblockable'. Steel of the Godhead was a good fit and also provided an enchantment to feed into Sigil of the Empty Throne. Jhessian Balmgiver also provided a good fit for this. Of course, anytime I am looking at an unblockable creature, I cannot stop myself from throwing a Quitus Spike into the mix . . . this is just fun (or nasty - depending upon which side of the table you are on).

The greatest threat to this deck (especially at my FNM) is burn and to a lesser degree control. To ensure that there was some protection from all the red burn out there, Mark of Asylum presented a good fit. Likewise, if I went up against a control deck with removal or bounce, I needed something else. Greater Auramancy provided the best answer for this. Not only did this also provide another potential 4/4 Angel token, but more importantly, it provided the shroud I needed to move my evil agenda forward.
Let's have a look at what I have to date. I'll remind you again, it has not playtested and I should fully expect a number of changes to it.

12 Creatures
4 x Zealous Guardian
4 x Vedalken Outlander
4 x Jhessian Balmgiver

24 Other Spells
4 x Path to Exile
4 x Greater Auramancy
4 x Oblivion Ring
4 x Steel of the Godhead
4 x Quietus Spike
4 x Sigil of the Empty Throne

24 Land
16 Plains
8 Islands

Sideboard
4 x Asha's Favor
4 x Mark of Asylum
+ ? ? ? ?

If you have any suggestions that could help me out, please leave a comment - it would be greatly appreciated.

What I'm Playing - 1

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What I'm Playing - Part 1

It's not uncommon to hear Magic Players tell you just how kick-butt their particular constructed deck is. In fact, this just about dominates the banter in between games during Friday Night Magic. I'm usually the one listening and occasionally piping in with a 'that's nice' or similar non-committal contribution.

I rarely detail to others exactly what cards or combos I have available to unleash upon my opponent. There are two-fold reasons for this . . .

1. I am always evolving my deck - either dropping or picking up cards for my line-up and adjusting their numbers, and

2. I would rather not have the person I am blathering to know all the tricks up my sleeve lest they know exactly what to side-board before our very first match game.

Anywho, today is the day I lift the hood off the engine, as it were, and lay bare all the ugliness that is my deck.

As I typically rotate two decks in and out of my casual games during FNM, this will be a two-part post.

Let me first introduce to you the unimaginatively-named 'Deathbringer' deck . .
(click to enlarge)

This deck currently consists of 61 cards mostly from Eventide with a dash of Shards of Alara thrown in >

Lands
11 x Swamps
11 s Plains

Creatures (in order of casting cost)
4 x Nip Gwyllion
4 x Tidehollow Sculler
4 x Nightsky Mimic
2 x Restless Apparition
2 x Stillmoon Cavalier
3 x Voracious Hatchling
1 x Divinity of Pride
4 x Deathbringer Leige

Other Spells (in order of casting cost)
3 x Beckon Apparition
4 x Edge of Divinity
4 x Batwing Brume
4 x Unmake

Sideboard
I am embarrassed to mention as it is currently a mess.

Before you start lobbing me with eMails concerning my choices, just know that I do not have that slippery creature known as 'Disposable Income' - I have had to feed it to my three kids and use its skin to clothe them.

Anywho, I'm fairly happy with the construction so far.











By turn two, I usually have an Edge of Divinity attached to a Nip Gwyllion giving me a decent 4/4 with lifelink. I try to get the Nightsky Mimic out as early as possible in order to start flying sorties with a pumped-up 4/4. As Tidehollow Sculler is a recent edition, the jury is still out - the plan here is to steal my opponent's best card be it removal or bomb and try to have the Sculler evade capture. Mr. Tidehollow also shares and lends in the benefits of all that is White and Black in this deck as well.











Speaking of removal, I rather enjoy the use of unmake. In my opinion, this card is much more satisfactory (and permanent) than Oblivion Ring. The only draw-back - it only works on my opponent's critters and leaves the rest of those pesky permanents. Also in the three-drop column is the very versatile Apparition Stillmoon Cavalier and it's not-so-superb Restless Apparition.













The four-drop column is a relatively lonely place - and for good reason - I cannot imagine any other critter willing to share space with a lion that has snakes for a mane. I will also attempt to get out the Voracious Hatchling as early on as possible and typically within the next turn, I have the four -1/-1 counters off of it.

In the last column, the five-drop creatures are a deck-set of Deathbringer Liege and a lone Divinity of Pride. Did I mention Deathbringer? This card is freaking fantastic. I cannot even begin to describe the swath of devastation it brings to the opponent's board. When this jolly, most tentacled of Horrors crashes the party, he also drops a +2/+2 for each of my other participating critters . . . it is then that the party is in full swing.













If you have any constructive criticism for this deck or suggestions for a sideboard, please leave a comment . . . just remember, I do not own a golden goose.

Stay tuned for my second 'What I'm Playing' installment.