Lord of War

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Today at MTG Realm, we would like to yatter a bit about some of the cool new cards in the re-started Core Set, Core Set 2019.  Quite specifically, the five rare tribal lords.  A "lord" is an informal term that refers to any creature or other permanent that confers boons to other members of the same creature type, typically without conferring such bonus to themselves.  In Core Set 2019, there is one Lord in each colour :

• Valiant Knight (W knights) — Grants other Knights +1/+1, activated ability (3WW) to grant Knights double strike

• Supreme Phantom (U spirits) — Grants other spirits+1/+1.

• Death Baron (B zombies) — Grants skeletons and zombies +1/+1 and deathtouch

• Goblin Trashmaster (R goblins) — Grants goblins +1/+1, activate ability to destroy an artifact when you sacifice a goblin.

• Elvish Clancaller (G elves) — Grants other Eleves +1/+1, activated ability (4GG, Tap) to tutor another copy of itself onto the battlefield.

When Core 2019 releases on July 13, 2018, and before the large Fall set on October 5, 2018, there is a metric ton of cards in Standard format, but are we able to double down on the above Tribal Lords ?  Ixalan / Rivals of Ixalan was a block that did have a tribal theme, but restricted to Pirates, Dinosaurs, Merfolk and Vampires. 

There does exist however, some cards which may assist in a tribal theme should you want to move forward with the aforementioned Core Set 2019 Lords -

Arcane Adaptation (2U) - forcing all your creatures to creature type
Metallic Mimic (2) - +1/+1 counters on named creature type when they enter the battlefield
Radiant Destiny (2W) - conditional (City's Blessing) named creature type you control gets +1/+1 and vigilance
Vanquisher's Banner (5) - named creature type you control gets +1/+1, card draw upon casting that type

The most apparent choice may be Zombies.  There was a time, not that long ago, where Zombie tribal did climb to the top tier before the wheels fell off when some choice cards from Magic Origins / Shadows Over Innistrad block rotated out.  There are two Lords, or more specifically, a tribal enchantment and a Lord, in Amonkhet which may be shoed in to build a Zombie Tribal decklist -

• Liliana's Mastery (Amonkhet) - Zombies you control get +1/+1.
• Lord of the Accursed (Amonkhet) - Grants other zombies +1/+1, activated ability (1B, Tap) zombies gain menace

There is also a handful of other useful cards to support this theme as well which we will not go into, but do want to make a point that Embalm and Eternalize are two existing mechanics which also may be of use here.

Happy Brewing !
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Ixalan Tribal

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

There are a number of new (and one previously spoiled / now officially confirmed) Ixalan cards out today.  Before we get into into it, here is a brief summary of all the new Magic: the Gathering cards to be released into the wild at month's end.

Adanto Vanguard
Captivating Crew
Charging Monstrosaur
Dire Fleet Ravager (confirmed)
Imperial Lancer
Makeshift Munitions
River Sneak
Vicious Conquistador

Righto, if you've been following the MTG Realm blog for a good stretch, you will most likely know we have a thingy for Tribal.  This fondness may be a function of just when we came into the game - Lorwyn - a block which most definitively tribal in nature.  

We also do not count ourselves among good standard deck-builders and we admit that often we take an easy path by choosing a tribal 'Lord'.  Specifically a card which provides an advantage to playing with the same creature type.  Often this is basically a simple buff to power and toughness.

In the upcoming set Ixalan there are the four following 'tribes' - 

• Pirates (blue-black-red)

• Dinosaurs (red-green-white)

• Vampires (white-black)

• Merfolk (green-blue)

To date with just over half of the Ixalan set now revealed, there only appears to be two conventional 'Lords' as well as a handful of other cards lending some synergy to a creature type.  The following Ixalan tribes have a conventional Lord -

• Dinosaurs - Thundering Spineback - Other Dinosaurs you control get +1/+1.

• Pirates - Admiral Beckett Brass - Other Pirates you control get +1/+1.

Not to fear however.  Should you wander down the tribal path in the new standard constructed format, you will be very well served in securing copies of the following cards - 

• Arcane Adaptation - All will be one.  This enchantment is a great equalizer.

• Pillar of Origins - Mana rock to play any colour for the chosen creature type.

• Vanquisher's Banner - Buff's P/T as will as given you a card draw - damn good.

• Unclaimed Territory - same as the pillar, but in Land form.

We are certainly excited about taking tribal for a spin in this set and are hoping for additional support cards forthcoming this week.  We suggest that you may wish to Sam Stoddard's article today on the mothersite 'Developing a Tribal Set' to receive a better appreciation of some of the tricky and strategic work that Wizards of the Coast does to make tribal work in balanced and engaging game environment.

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Lord of War

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  One of the first first new standard format decks we had derp'd out with after Khans of Tarkir came out was a Black / White Warrior build featuring Chief of the Edge and Chief of the Scale which we pre-ordered from MTG Mint Card the day it was previewed.  We kinda have a thingy for these sorts of pump and 'Lord' effects and think perhaps it was mainly due to the timing of when we first experienced Magic: the Gathering - Lorwyn block - a block with a heavily featured tribal theme.  This was a theme which made it a bit easy for novices like us to start deck-building.  We had a lot of fun with changelings as well.  The 'Lord' moniker was provided perhaps from Lord of Atlantis from Alpha which also had Goblin King and Zombie Master.

The very next and natural progression for us was to continue along creature-based strategies using 'lords'.  A lord essentially is any other permanent, very often a creature, which granted a bonus, most often in increased power and / or toughness to the same creature type.  We had Faerie deck lists with Scion of Oona, Goblin builds with Mad Auntie, Fish tech with Merrow Reejerey, etc., ad nauseam.  We think we even had a list for each of the Lieges in Shadowmoor as well which were 'colour lords' - a boost to any of your creatures with the stated colour.  Latter on in our our MTG journey, things got really interesting with other not-so-typical Lords such as 'keyword' lords like Hand of the Praetors, or other 'selectable' lords like Adaptive Automaton.  The horizon stretched very far indeed.  One of our most favourite recent builds was one which featured a nut-ton of token generators and Intangible Virtue.

For and interesting article on the mothersite from MaRo, you should check out 'Lord of Things' (from back in 2012).  If you are contemplating a starting point in building a Commander list and just cannot decide on a Commander (General), you may be well served working backwards from creature, keyword, or colour lords.  Back in 2012, Channel Fireball did a cool 'Top 8' or best 8 MTG Lords - 

Top 8 Magic the Gathering Lords
8 : Drogskol Captain
7 : Coralhelm Commander
6 : Imperious Perfect
5 : Scion of Oona
4 : Goblin Warchief
3 : Merrow Reejerey
2 : Elvish Archdruid
1 : Lord of Atlantis

 
For some lulz, we will leave off with two 'Un-Lords' - Chicken a la King which gives Chickens a +1/+1 counter whenever a 6 is rolled on a 6-sided die, and the unforgettable Assquatch, which pumps your donkey's power / toughness by +1½.

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Top MTG Lords

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We caught a recent episode of Magic TV over at Channel Fireball yesterday which got us all nostalgic for some of our older Magic the Gathering cards. In the video, Tristan Gregson and Luis Scott-Vargas went over their picks for the Top 8 Lords.

Magic the Gathering Lords are essentially creatures which grant effects to other creatures according to their creature types, colors, or other attributes and are most often used in tribal decks. Typically, only creatures which give (at least) +1/+1 to all others of its creature type without any sort of activation are considered 'Lords'. Creatures that pump entire colors or that shrink entire colors are not considered lords.

Anywhoos - here's the video :


Top 8 Magic the Gathering Lords

8 : Drogskol Captain
7 : Coralhelm Commander
6 : Imperious Perfect
5 : Scion of Oona
4 : Goblin Warchief
3 : Merrow Reejerey
2 : Elvish Archdruid
1 : Lord of Atlantis

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Since every MTG player has their own individual taste / character and game style, we invite you to provide additional honorable mentions for your favourite Lord. Some cards which we have a fondness for are :

Vampire nocturnus
Lord of the Undead
Master of Etherium
Bloodline Keeper
Adaptive Automaton / Brass Herald
Daru Warchief
Death Baron
Field Marshal

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Altough not strictly Lords according to the definition, we did want to mention our special inclination for the quasi-Lord 'Liege' cycle in the Shadowmoor mini-block. Each of the Lieges in this block has a mana cost of XHHH, where H is a hybrid mana symbol and X a colourless mana. Each liege had two seperate abilities which provided a +1/+1 bonus to a creature that matched either colour, and which stacked for those that matched both. There was also a cool ability or effect appropriate its colors.

The lieges from Shadowmoor have allied-colour costs and the Knight creature type — Thistledown Liege, Glen Elendra Liege, Ashenmoor Liege, Boartusk Liege, Wilt-Leaf Liege. The lieges from Eventide had enemy-colour costs and the Horror creature type — Deathbringer Liege, Mindwrack Liege, Murkfiend Liege, and Balefire Liege, Creakwood Liege.
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Also of note - the folks over at MTG Mint Card has cracked open a few more boxes of Innistrad and has now restocked. If you've been looking for that special hard-to-get sorcery or Planeswalker, drop by.
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