Faction Action Part 2

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We are still short one mailing from Hong Kong containing pre-orders but we won't fret as we feel we could still squeak off a decent deck for the upcoming Mirrdoin Besieged Game Day. One or two extras cards purchased from the local game store as well as some trading during Friday Night Magic and we should be in fine form for this weekend's tournament.

Anywhoos - let's get to business . . .

We strongly suggest that you review our post about Game Day (HERE) from last month. Essentially, participants must play with a faction aligned deck on Mirrodin Besieged game day. A faction aligned deck must include at least ten cards featuring the Mirran or Phyrexian watermark and NO cards containing the opposing watermark - that is if you want to score some extra promo card prizes, otherwise just ignore this. For example a deck containing ten Phyrexian watermarked cards from Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged and a variety of other standard legal cards would be a Phyrexian aligned deck as long as it contains no cards with the Mirran watermark.



Here is a suggested serving for a Phyrexian aligned deck (look to yesterday's post to see a Mirran deck) -

37 spells
2 x Contagion Engine
2 x Skittles, the Blight Dragon
3 x Black Sun's Zenith
4 x Hand of the Praetors
3 x Phyrexian Crusader
3 x Plague Rats
4 x Sign in Blood
4 x Plague Stinger
3 x Necropede
3 x Plague Myr
3 x Disentomb
3 x Duress


We do not yet have a sideboard for this but do have some cards we're looking at - namely Phyrexian Revoker and the ilk. The build is OK and has tested not too badly, the problem is, it's just boring as all heck - not to say that infect or poison is boring, just this build. We are thinking of jazzing things up with some blue control perhaps. Almost all Phyrexian builds stampede towards one goal - poison - it's kinda like having a waffle with no butter or syrup on it. This line of thinking makes us ponder whether Phryexians even like waffles.

Anywhoos - let's get to the cards here . . .

Contagion Engine is the only proliferate in the main board right now - don't worry, there's some Contagion Clasp in the sideboard. Next up is Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon - This is an infect fatty which, if it sticks to the table, should make the other players nervous. His best buddy is Mr. Crowhead-thingy on Hand of the Praetors. The deck needs to cast a lot of infect spells and will of course take advantage of this with Pretzl Hand.


Phyrexian Crusader is one of my new fav cards in the set at the moment, right behind Mirran Crusader and we are contemplating a black 'n' white Knight build. Anyshoos - One critter we've come to appreciate is Plague rats which hands out delicious poison counters to all players in the game - yeah - including yourself but in our experience, we were always able to follow up with some proliferate on this line.

An infect creature with evasion is vital and we have it with Plague Stinger. We've also come to appreciate being able to ping with Necropede. One of the latest editions to the build is Plague Myr which was added to provide utility as a mana-dork and a blocker.

Wrapping up we have Duress to mess with our opponent, some Disentomb to recycle our critters form the graveyard to play them again (we think this card superior to Corpse Cur), and Sign in Blood which will provide some much needed card advantage - more cards in hand equals better options at any stage in the game.


So -
We want to know if you are going to Mirrodin Besieged Game Day and if so, what will you be bringing along to game with. Drop us a comment in the form thingy at the bottom of today's post. Don't have a standard format Deck ? - Don't worry - there are Mirrodin Besieged Event decks available for purchase at your store.
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Faction Action Part 1

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

Some good news we would like to share with you - it now appears that we may be going to Mirrodin Besieged Game Day! We were a bit apprehensive that if we did not get our cards in on time before Game Day, we would not have all we needed for a faction aligned deck. One of our pre-orders, stamped on February 4th in Goldenrod Florida finally arrived yesterday (March 1st). We still have an outstanding pre-order shipped on the same date from Hong Kong we are still waiting for but with purchases from the local game store and some trading we think we may have scrapped together a deck for Game Day this weekend.

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Anywhoos - let's get to business . . .

We strongly suggest that you review our post about Game Day (HERE) from last month. Essentially, participants must play with a faction aligned deck on Mirrodin Besieged game day. A faction aligned deck must include at least ten cards featuring the Mirran or Phyrexian watermark and NO cards containing the opposing watermark. For example a deck containing ten Phyrexian watermarked cards from Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged and a variety of other standard legal cards would be a Phyrexian aligned deck as long as it contains no cards with the Mirran watermark.

Here is a suggested serving for a Mirran aligned deck (look for tomorrow's post to see a Phyrexian deck) -


37 cards
4 x Memnite
4 x Ornithopter
4 x Signal Pest
4 x Steppe Lynx
4 x Glint Hawk
4 x Quest for the Holy Relic
4 x Kor Skyfisher
3 x Squadron Hawk
4 x Accorder Paladin
2 x Argentum Armor

Sideboard
4 x Stoneforge Mystic
1 x Sword of Body and Mind
1 x Sword of Feast and Famine
3 x Journey to Nowhere
3 x Kor Firewalker
3 x Revoke Existence
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This build has 18 cards with the Mirran watermark and no cards with the Phyrexian watermark so this deck is good to go for game day. Not surprisingly, the first 12 cards in the deck kind of gives away the punchline - yep - Argentum Armor. Loads of cheap critters and bounce cards to trigger Quest for the Holy Armor which will let the player search for the very devastating Argentum Armor card. Many of the critters has evasion (flying in this case) to help land damage and bring the game quickly to an end in your favour.


As we expect quite a number of players to bring along a Phyrexian faction-aligned deck, we have Stoneforge Mystic in the sideboard along with a pair of swords. After some more playtesting, we may fiddle further with the sideboard and get some Mirran Crusaders (double strike protection from black and green ain't bad).

So -
We want to know if you are going to Mirrodin Besieged Game Day and if so, what will you be bringing along to game with. Drop us a comment in the form thingy at the bottom of today's post. Don't have a standard format Deck ? - Don't worry - there are Mirrodin Besieged Event decks available for purchase at your store.
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MBS Game Day

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Magic the Gathering players are sure to be looking forward to the upcoming Mirrodin Besieged 'Game Day' which will be taking place on the weekend of March 5th and 6th, 2011. Find a location near you who is running this event with the handy Locator app from Wizards.

Game Day events are organised at local hobby / game stores approximately 1 month after each set's release. Magic Game Day is 'Standard format' (Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Magic 2011, Scars of Mirrodin, and Mirrodin Besieged), and will showcase the newest cards in Mirrodin Besieged.

Don't have a standard format Deck ? - Don't worry - there are Mirrodin Besieged Event decks available for purchase at your store. There should be a post about MBS Event decks from Wizards tomorrow.
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Anywhoos - Let's yatter about the promos !

All participants receive an exclusive Treasure Mage promo card (while supplies last). The Top 8 payers each receive a full-art Black Sun’s Zenith promo card. The cards are awarded to the Top 8 even if the tournament cuts to the Top 4.

The Top 2 finishers with Mirran-affiliated decks receive a Pristine Talisman preview card from Mirrodin Pure. The Top 2 finishers with Phyrexia-affiliated decks receive a Suture Priest preview card from New Phyrexia! This is in addition to any Top 8 prize cards you might win for their overall event finish.

Black Sun's Zenith, xbb
Sorcery, Rare
Put X -1/-1 counters on each creature. Shuffle Black Sun's Zenith into its owner's library.


Treasure Mage, 2u
Creature - Human Wizard, Uncommon
When Treasure Mage enters the battlefield, you may search your library for an artifact card with converted mana cost 6 or greater, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.


Suture Priest, 1w
Creature - Cleric, Common
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain 1 life.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, you may have that player loses 1 life.
1/1

Suture Priest appears to be an solid candidate to replace Soul Warden in the Soul Sister's deck which oddly enough we were just blogging about in our last post featuring a mono-white life gain deck.

Pristine Talisman, 3
Artifact, Common
Tap : Add to your mana pool. You gain 1 life.


This is very reminiscence of the old Talisman cycle in the original Mirrodin set. We really don't expect to see another full cycle across all colours but rather a simplified one featuring Mirran and Phyrexian mirrors.

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A reminder about what a faction aligned deck means when it comes to Standard events . . . A faction aligned deck must include at least ten cards featuring the Mirran or Phyrexian watermark and NO cards containing the opposing watermark. For example a deck containing ten Phyrexian watermarked cards from Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged and a variety of other standard legal cards would be a Phyrexian aligned deck as long as it contains no cards with the Mirran watermark.
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And finally a word about storing your Magic the Gathering cards . . .

We suggest you recycle that dumpy looking cardboard box you carry your pride and joy in and use the awesome looking Magic Mirrodin Besieged Mirran Crusader / Phyrexian Crusader, Ultra Pro Magic the Gathering 9-Pocket Portfolio. This puppy from MTG Mint Card holds 90 Cards and will make your trade bait look sweet.
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