DD Merfolk vs. Goblins

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Happy indeed as we are pleased to report another milestone - that MTG Realm has now exceed over 6.6 Million page-loads and more than 15,600 followers across our social media platforms.  

Enough of us though - Today we are to yatter about the latest Magic: the Gathering product coming your way, but first, it is time again for a another Gaming Store highlight.  This time we are going to Central New York - quite specifically 'Play the Game / Read the Story' located in the Salmon Run Mall in Watertown, New York.  

Play the Game / Read the Story has a total of three locations - one in Watertown, which we had visited and two others in Syracuse.  MTG Realm had provided a Google Review over at this link as well.  The staff member we interrogated / interviewed was great.  She plays Magic: the Gathering and was knowledgeable in the product offerings from WotC.  The Watertown location had a solid selection of sealed product and good games area.  There was a fairly large selection of common / uncommon singles but not very much in rares / mythic rares winning the location a very respectable 4 out of 5 stars from us.  Here are some pics we snapped for you -

Righto - on to today's news !

The full decklist for Duel Decks: Merfolk vs. Goblins, releasing November 10, 2017, was posted to the French language Magic: the Gathering site, but as the same information was not posted on the English language site, we suspect that a staffer may have jumped the gun.  Let's talk - 

Duel Decks let players dive right into battle with ready-to-play, sixty-card decks that contain powerful cards united by a theme.  In the case of Merfolk vs. Goblins pits two of the most recognizable tribes in the history of Magic against one another.  Duel Decks are designed to allow players dive right into battle with everything you need to start gaming.  Here is the teaser blurb for this pre-constructed product - 

Prepare to become the Master of the Waves or to launch a Goblin Grenade: the proud  defenders of the sea and the destructive mountain dwellers finally settle their accounts. Call a friend to play with these ready-to-play decks!

Each decklist appears to have a solid and supporting theme and contains one mythic rare and nine other rares to support your deck's tribal strategy.  Here is the list for each - 

TIDAL GUARDIANS

Creature (22) : , 1 Master of Waves, 1 Harbinger of the Tides, 1 Master of the Pearl Trident, 1 Tidebinder Mage, 1 Wake Thrasher, 1 Merfolk Sovereign, 1 Cold-Eyed Selkie, 2 Tidal Warrior, 2 Scroll Thief, 3 Streambed Aquitects, 1 Inkfathom Divers, 1 Merfolk Looter, 1 Merfolk Wayfinder, 1 Merrow Reejerey, 2 Rootwater Hunter, 2 Tidal Courier

Sorcery (6) : 4 Aquitect’s Will, 1 Mind Spring, 1 Concentrate

Instant (6) : 1 Engulf the Shore, 1 Misdirection, 2 Essence Scatter, 1 Tidal Wave, 1 Triton Tactics

Enchantment (2) : 2 Claustrophobia

Land (24) : 21 Island, 2 Lonely Sandbar, 1 Blighted Cataract

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RECKLESS VANDALS

Creature (20): 1 Warren Instigator, 1 Goblin Diplomats, 1 Goblin Rabblemaster, 1 Goblin Chieftain, 1 Goblin Goon, 1 Goblin Razerunners, 1 Krenko, Mob Boss, 2 Foundry Street Denizen, 1 Goblin Tunneler, 2 Boggart Brute, 1 Goblin Glory Chaser, 1 Ember Hauler, 2 Goblin Wardriver, 1 Gempalm Incinerator, 2 Goblin Ringleader, 1 Battle Squadron

Sorcery (7) : 3 Krenko’s Command, 1 Relentless Assault, 1 Goblin Grenade, 1 Hordeling Outburst, 1 Cleaver Riot

Instant (7) : 2 Brute Strength, 3 Ghostfire, 2 Tarfire

Artifact (2) : 1 Brittle Effigy, 1 Goblin Charbelcher

Land (24) : 20 Mountain, 2 Forgotten Cave, 2 Blighted Gorge

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As with all sealed preconstructed product, one should understand the intended audience / consumer first and foremost before passing any sort of judgement upon the product design.  Collectors and Modern players may prematurely pass judgement that because the lists have no Cursecatcher, Lord or Atlantis or Goblin Guide, that criticism is warranted.  

We think differently - this would appeal to casual or new players looking through their local gaming store.  This is also correctly priced in our opinion as well at an MRSP of $19.99 USD (from the WPN site although the main site indicates $24.99 USD).  To buy all the singles separately would almost certainly put you over that value.  We are liking what we see and do look forward going head to head with this in our playgroup.
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Standard Sligh

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Our congratulations go out to fellow Canadian Alexander Hayne on his successful win at Grand Prix Kraków over the weekend with his Esper (white / blue / black) Dragons decklist.  Five of the Top 8 lists were in fact Esper Dragons (Control) which featured Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Silumgar, the Drifting Death and Dragonlord Ajutai.

In other news, specifically financial news, Hasbro the parent company of Wizards of the Coast provided a rather decent / optimistic First Quarter Report.  Games category revenues increased 7% in the quarter. Franchise Brands MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY increased revenues in the quarter and contributed to successful overall revenue of the company.

As we had mentioned in yesterday's post, we've been spending a bit of time brewing up standard decklists and have 4 so far and a mountain of Magic: the Gathering cards to clean-up, sort, and organise after this is all done.

Anywhoos, one of the new lists we are rather pleased with is a standard format Goblins (or 'gobbies', as we like to call 'em).  This build is essentially a mon-Red token strategy which can be considered a slight variation of Sligh.  If you may be unaware, Sligh decks (named after Paul Sligh) are generally red-based aggressive decks that use small and cheap creatures on early turns to quickly diminish the opponent's life total. If the creatures are not enough, burn spells are used to finish the opponent off. The burn spells also double to remove blockers. 

Let's get into it now - 
As you may know, here at MTG Realm, we've got a thingy for token decks and we want to take yet another run at it using Purphorus, God of the Forge and Obelisk of Urd.  Simply, Purphorus will ding your opponent for 2 life every time you drop a critter while Obelisk can be dropped early for its convoke cost.  These two cards represent Plan A and Plan B which we will give equal weight to.

 
Rather obvious we need to power the engine with cheap creatures, so we will use Dragon Fodder, Hordeling Outburst, as well as Goblin Rabblemaster to help get out 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens.

Here's the summary of it thrown togehter -

• 4x Frenzied Goblin - nice one-drop which gives the opportunity for a small measure of control over how the opponent blocks.
• 4x Foundry Street Denizen - solid one-drop which will typically be packing a bigger punch with all the creatures we are dropping.
• Mardu Scout - 3/1 for 2 ain't bad and we like that we can dash this out should we suspect sorcery removal.
• 4x Dragon Fodder - 2 drop for 2 gobbies
• 3x Goblin Rabblemaster (one's a promo) and we only have three of 'em.  Good token generation and this guy can get huge himself.
• 4x Hordeling Outburst - 3 drop for 3 dudes.
• 3x Purphoros, God of the Forge - we don't ever expect him to go nuclear and are quite happy with how this pings.
• 3x Obelisk of Urd - Urd is the word y'awl.  Nice +2/+2 pump - just be sure to name 'goblin' as your creature type.

• 2x Roast -  conditional spot removal
• 2 Arc Lightning - our metagame has a lot of small dudes.
• 1x Hammer of Purphoros - haste is nice.
• 4x Stoke the Flames - solid convoke burn

Sideboard for our locality -
• 2x Arc Lightning
• 2x Anger of the Gods
• 2x Harness by Force
• 2x Lightning Strike
• 1x Roast
• 2x Impact Tremors
• 3x Krenko's Enforcer
• 1x Stormbreath Dragon

Our casual games at the kitchen table shows that this has promise and we will likely bring it to our local gaming store, OMG! Games here in Barrie after we feel a bit more confident with it.
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