Commander 2013 Power Hungry

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps, 

We have for you today part two of five separate articles we are doing on the new Commander 2013 decks just recently released by WotC to a very welcoming Magic: the Gathering fan base.  Each of these new Commander pre-constructed decks provides a ready to play stack of 100 cards including a choice of three legendary creatures to act as your general which may be also represented by an oversized foil card.  The card list is a solid foundation which you can easily adjust to taste - we'll likely throw a few of our nostalgic favourites we've picked up from MTG Mint Card into the original mix. 

The is the overview / review for Commander 2013's 'Evasive Maneuvers' deck and we've prepared a video with our good friend Jon from 'Command Tower' on Tumblr.  

 
See the rest of the videos in this series:
• Evasive Maneuvers
• Eternal Bargain
• Mind Seize
• Power Hungry
• Nature of the Beast
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Here is the Commander 2013 'Jund' (black / red / green) deck and although it may not be as sought-after as the Mind Seize deck, we just love the decklist here.  Let's get into the three Commanders or Generals available to you -

Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Costing  three colorless mana and a 'Jund' (black/red/green), Prossh is a solid 5/5 flyer with two other very cool abilities.  When you cast this legendary dragon you get a number of 0/1 Kobold creature tokens equal to what it cost you to cast Prosh - this of course gets bigger with the commander tax as you recast it from the command zone.  Perfect for a build with a theme of creature sacrifice for an effect.  Prossh also provides a sac outlet which will pump him +0/1.

Shattergang Brothers
A goblin artificer here costing one colorless and a 'Jund' to give you a 3/3 body with three very relevant abilities in this build.  Each ability costs three mana and requires a sacrifice.  For two and a black you sac a creature to force each other opponent to sac a creature.  Likewise, two and a red with an artifact sac or two and a green with an enchantment sac will cause your opponents to sac in a similar fashion.  Very solid.

Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
This is a Coldsnap reprint.  For two and a 'Jund', you net a 4/3 legendary Orc Shaman.  The ability here is rather potent - Whenever you have one of your non-token creatures dies, you gain a 3/1 black & red Graveborn creature token.  If you were about to ask whether a sacrificed (or even 'devour') creature does count as dying, then yes, so sac away and reap the benefits of yet another token which can feed into your strategy here.
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Like we mentioned, this may very well be one favorite of the five Commander 2013 decks.  There are a good number of cards such as Stronghold Assassin which provides an opportunity to sac for a powerful effect or cards such as Stalking Vengeance to transpose a sacrifice into direct damage to your opponent.  All-in-all - two thumbs up on this very solid decklist.
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8 Year Olds

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We are firm believers that one can never be too old or too young to get into Magic the Gathering. We ourselves picked up this awesome game way back in '98 with Urza's Saga and (unfortunately) left the game to build 3 brand new magic players. We are now way past 40 and have returned with a big bang to pick it up starting with Lorywn.

Now . . . talk about young - How about an 8-year old placing top 100 at the Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur ?!? This came to our attention via ManaNation's most excellent web comic XMTG (HERE) which was by-the-way rather funny 'n' witty and always a good read.

Here is a republish of this interesting match for your convenience from Wizards :

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Saturday, March 13: 7:59p.m. – A Quick Glimpse at Round 8: Jamie San Juan vs Kurt Porter

by Ray "blisterguy" Walkinshaw

8 year-old Kurt Porter gradually became the talk of the tournament today. Son of James Porter: Grand Prix Manila Champion 2006, Kurt started the day without byes, but promptly got off to a 3-0 start anyway. From there he dropped two rounds, but battled back to be 5-2 going into the last round. With little else in the way of feature matches, I figured I’d give the little beater some time in the spot light.

Kurt Porter knows no fear. I don’t think they’ve covered that one in school just yet.

Porter lost Game 1 in the Jund mirror against Jamie San Juan, also of the Philippines, eliciting a rowdy but good natured booing from the huge crowd assembled around the feature match table. Game 2, Porter drew a great opening hand with both Blightning and Goblin RuinblasterBlightning. Porter binned a seemingly crucial Terminate to the Blightning, keeping Garruk Wildspeaker and Broodmate Dragon. Two turns later, the Dragons hit the table, and Porter rode them to victory and day two. The cheering was so loud, you’d think the 8 year-old had just won the whole event, and who knows? He may yet do just that.

The crowd watch on with bated breath.

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Not official but here is what we beleive the deck list was from the event . . .

creature [18]
4 Bloodbraid Elf, 3 Broodmate Dragon, 4 Putrid Leech, 3 Siege-Gang Commander, 4 Sprouting Thrinax
instant [4] 4 Lightning Bolt
sorcery [9] 4 Blightning, 2 Explore, 3 Maelstrom Pulse
land [27] 2 Dragonskull Summit, 4 Forest, 2 Lavaclaw Reaches, 3 Mountain, 4 Raging Ravine, 1 Rootbound Crag, 4 Savage Lands, 3 Swamp, 4 Verdant Catacombs
planeswalker [2] 2 Garruk Wildspeaker
60 cards
Sideboard: 4 Goblin Ruinblaster, 2 Terminate, 3 Duress, 4 Duress, 1 Maelstrom Pulse
14 cards

So very kewl - Congrats Kurt !

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Now for something also very cool :

Want to get the jump on Rise of the Eldrazi sealed products, complete sets and assorted card lots or card storage accessories ? Want to save a bit of money with a coupon code ? Nice - so do we.

Check out MTG Mint Card and just enter "MTG-REALM" on check out page, make sure your shopping cart's value is over $50, and you will get $5 off. This code is good until the end of March, so plan your purchases now.

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Jund Aggro

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A quick review of Wizards Decks of the Week is a very decent place to start when looking for either Magic the Gathering deck ideas or to start thinking about developing an answer for these popular decks. If one were to assess the new hotness, look to the summaries of Standard on Magic Online top deck tournment returns, it becomes rapidly apparent that the deck to beat at the moment is Jund Aggro. Today, we will have a look at the common build for this deck.

For a deck list link from MTG Url, click HERE, for the analytical break-down, click HERE.

Main Deck : 60 cards

25 lands
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
4 Swamp
3 Terramorphic Expanse

15 creatures
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Broodmate Dragon
4 Putrid Leech
4 Sprouting Thrinax

20 other spells
3 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Resounding Thunder
4 Terminate

15 sideboard cards
4 Duress
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Jund Charm
3 Pyroclasm

Most variants include the hasty Bloodbraid Elf which cascades nicely into Putrid Leech, Sprouting Thrinax, Blightning, Ligthning Bolt, Terminate or even a Malestrom Pulse. This is very decent by any metric you may want to use. The idea here is to obtain the best deck effeciency by tunning your deck to include a good number of two and three drop spells. Bituminous Blast also acts in the same way to cascade into pretty much everything else with the exception of Broodmate Dragon which is typically reserved as the game finisher.

The other card that really stands out in most of these builds is the Jund Charm to wipe the board of tokens and smaller critters. This card is most often used to pump up Putrid Leech which one could even pump yet again to handle a Baneslayer Angel if necessary.

Of note also is the inclusion within the sideboard of Great Sable Stag. This is typically reserved should you go up against a similar Jund build. This card will offer a definite advantage in a mirror match due his protection against black. One can now feel safe with the typical Jund removal and be able to effectively block Putrid Leech and the ilk.

All in all, this is a very decent deck. The drawback (for very many of us) is that this is no budget deck which comprises the meat 'n' potatoes of the casual kitchen / FNM Magic that this blog is dedicated to. Expect to pay in excess of $300 were you to buy all of these cards as singles.

Primordial Jund

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For the next few posts, I will give you the skinny on each Shards of Alara 41-card Intro Packs (previously theme decks). These packs come with a foil card, a learn-to-play insert, a strategy insert, and an additional booster pack (w00t!). These are a great way to get into the game. As these decks are all similarly built (mana cost and strength), several players I know enjoy picking these up for casual play . . . so get thee hence to a gaming store !

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Primordial Jund

The plane of Jund is a savage, volcanic world of infinite dangers where dragons top the food chain. Amass a swarm of barbarians, vicious predators, and even dragons, and swallow up the meek forces of your fellow planeswalkers.



Jund Intro Deck

41 cards

3 Forest
2 Jund Panorama
{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1, {T}, Sacrifice Jund Panorama: Search your library for a basic Swamp, Mountain, or Forest card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
7 Mountain
2 Savage Lands
Land Uncommon
Savage Lands comes into play tapped.
{T}: Add {B}, {R}, or {G} mana to your mana pool.
3 Swamp

17 lands

2 Carrion Thrash
2{B}{R}{G}, Creature - Viashino Warrior, Common
When Carrion Thrash is put into a graveyard from play, you may pay 2. If you do, return another target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. 4/4
1 Flameblast Dragon
4{R}{R}, Creature - Dragon, Rare, Flying
Whenever Flameblast Dragon attacks, you may pay {X}{R}. If you do, Flameblast Dragon deals X damage to target creature or player. 5/5
2 Goblin Deathraiders
Creature - Goblin Warrior? Common
Trample, 3/1
2 Goblin Piker 2 Hissing Iguanar 2 Jund Battlemage
2{R}, Creature - Human Shaman, Uncommon
{B}, {T}: Target player loses 1 life.
{G}, {T}: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play. 2/2
1 Mycoloth
3{G}{G}, Creature - Fungus, Rare
Devour 2 (As this comes into play, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature comes into play with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play for each +1/+1 counter on Mycoloth. 4/4
1 Rip-Clan Crasher 2 Sprouting Thrinax
{B}{R}{G}, Creature - Lizard, Uncommon
When Sprouting Thrinax is put into a graveyard to play, put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play. 3/3
2 Thorn-Thrash Viashino 1 Thunder-Thrash Elder

18 creatures

2 Dragon Fodder
1{R}, Sorcery, Common
Put two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens into play.
1 Obelisk of Jund
3, Artifact, Common
{T}: Add {B},{R}, or {G} to your mana pool.
1 Resounding Thunder
2{R}, Instant, Common
Resounding Thunder deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Cycling 5{B}{R}{G}
When you cycle Resounding Thunder, it deals 6 damage to target creature or player.
2 Shock

6 other spells

Stay tuned for the rest of the intro decks and more spoiler goodness.