Copmmander Videos 2

~
Happy Sunday MTG peeps,

On the weekend, our BroChcho Jon, of CommandTower.tk, dropped by and we went through all five Commander 2015 decks.  These were a very lovely gift from our awesome Bro Eric at Christmas.  

These posts (to be updated) will link off to all the videos we had worked on - 
(1) Commander 2015 Intro
(2) Call the Spirits (Black / White)
(3) Seize Control (Red / Blue)
(4) Plunder the Graves (Black / Green)
(5) Wade into Battle (Red / White)
(6) Swell the Host (Blue / Green)

In this post, we have a video where we will discuss the black and white 'Orzhov' Commander product named 'Call the Spirits'.

Call the Spirits
Daxos the Returned travels across Theros in a never-ending search, surrounded by spirits that are drawn to his power. As mighty enchantments enter the battlefield, the spirits he summons grow larger and larger, leaving his enemies overwhelmed.

The primary theme of the deck is enchantments, and the secondary theme is lifegain. The primary new commander is Daxos the Returned, the secondary new commander is Karlov of the Ghost Council, and the reprint commander is Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts.

New cards for Commander 2015
• Banshee of the Dread Choir
• Bastion Protector
• Corpse Augur
• Daxos the Returned
• Daxos's Torment
• Deadly Tempest
• Grasp of Fate
• Herald of the Host
• Karlov of the Ghost Council
• Oreskos Explorer
• Righteous Confluence
• Sandstone Oracle
• Shielded by Faith
• Thief of Blood
• Thought Vessel
~

Commander 2015 Review 1

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

As promised here at MTG Realm, we are getting to a review of each of the new Commander 2015 decks.  For the first one, we are looking at the Black / White one and will likely have the next review next week, so stay tuned.

Call the Spirits

Daxos the Returned travels across Theros in a never-ending search, surrounded by spirits that are drawn to his power. As mighty enchantments enter the battlefield, the spirits he summons grow larger and larger, leaving his enemies overwhelmed.

Here are the three Black / White legendary creatures supplied with 'Call the Spirits' which may be used as your Commander -

• Daxos the Returned

• Karlov of the Ghost Council

• Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

Daxos the Returned, 1WB
Legendary Creature - Zombie Soldier
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, you get an experience counter.
1WB: Put a white and black Spirit enchantment creature token onto the battlefield. It has "This creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of experience counters you have."
2/2

Karlov of the Ghost Council, WB
Legendary Creature - Spirit Advisor
Whenever you gain life, put two +1/+1 counters on Karlov of the Ghost Council.
WB, Remove six +1/+1 counters from Karlov of the Ghost Council: Exile target creature.
2/2

Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts, 5WB
Legendary Creature — Human Advisor
Vigilance, protection from creatures
Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, destroy that creature. Put a 1/1 white and black Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
4/4

Given the name, 'Call the Spirits' of this pre-constructed Commander list, one would imagine a Spirit theme of sots, and indeed the primary commander, Daxos the Returned, does produce spirit tokens but this really is an Enchantments matters theme.  There are approximately (by our brief revie) some 21 Enchantments as well as 7 Enchantment Creatures.  There are 5 more additional creatures, 2 sorceries, and 1 artifact with a synergy with enchantments.

Daxos is all about casting Enchantments. For each Enchantment that you cast, you get an experience counter. You then can then pay the activated ability of 1WB to generate create Spirit enchantment creature token with power and toughness equal to the number of experience counters you have. These tokens can be serious threats later in the game as they enter the battlefield in continually larger forms.  These do lack evasion like flying, which is granted to many other spirit creatures but is more than offset by the promise of the potential for rather large P/T token which could land damage with the likes of Rogue's Passage to grant it an unblockable ability.  Some suggestions for modifications include going all in with enchantments which may include consideration for the other 'Constellation' cards not in the current list (Skybind, Grim Guardian, Agent of Erebos, etc.).  Consideration should be given also to the Theran gods Heliod, Erebos, and Athreos as well.

The other new Commander available in this list is Karlov of the Ghost Council.  In short, many Magic: the Gathering players may believe that Karlov does not belong in this list, even as a supporting card.  There is only 5 cards within this decklist which may gain you life so we can expect that Karlov would not be collecting many +1/+1 counters and subsequently exiling creatures.  The consensus with the MTG Realm playgroup is that Karlov would be best suited in its own list with a strong life-gain theme.  Some suggestions off the hop would to be to include a number of cards with 'Extort' to be able to trigger that life-gain or perhaps cards one would expect in a 'Soul Sisters' type of strategy.  Essentially cards that will allow Karlove to grow rapidly, perhaps with lifelink and those with a triggered ability when you gain life like Ajani's Pridemate.  Should you find that your list is providing huge life gain (with the help of Rhox Faitmender), consider an alternate win condition like Felidar Sovereign (if you playgroup allows this).  Alternatively, you may want to push Karlov off to a supporting role in a list that focuses on a theme of +1/+1 counters like Ghave, Guru of Spores.

As for the reprint of Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts, we think that perhaps this is best left in a supportive roll as a late-game bomb.  There are a few lists we've seen that look rather nice with Teysa but we feel that that this one is better in the mixx of 99 rather than in the Command Zone.

Here are the newly printed cards that are included in the 'Call the Spirits' Commander 2015 decklist.  In general, all solid support cards which could also find gainful employment in a variety of other Commander lists.

Banshee of the Dread Choir

Bastion Protector

Corpse Augur

Daxos the Returned  (Legendary)

Daxos's Torment 

Deadly Tempest

Grasp of Fate  

Herald of the Host

Karlov of the Ghost Council  (Legendary)

Oreskos Explorer

Righteous Confluence

Sandstone Oracle

Shielded by Faith 

Thief of Blood

Thought Vessel

Depending upon your taste, we suggest you pick the one of the two new Commanders (as we suspect WotC intended), and then provide some fine tuning (in the case of Daxox) or a complete overhaul (in the case of Karlov).
~

The Orzhov Chiefs

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

If you've been reading MTG Realm for any length of time, you will likely know that we kinda have a thingy for white weenie strategies in our Magc: the Gathering games.  When Chief of the Edge and Chief of the Scale were previewed we were certainly stoked and soon after had roughed out a decklist which resembled something along the following lines . . .

Creatures
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
4x Mardu Hateblade
4x Chief of the Edge
3x Chief of the Scale
4x Cavalry Pegasus
3x Mardu Hordechief

Spells
4x God's Willing
4x Feat of Resistance
3x Raiders' Spoils
4x Rush of Battle
3x Timely Hordemate

Shortly after all the Khans of Tarkir cards were previewed we were very happy to see that WotC had developed the 'Conquering Hordes' Khans of Tarkir Event Deck which sort of validated our belief that an Orzhov build relying on a warrior sub-type might just be viable enough in standard constructed.  

Unfortunately we had only played a single Friday Night Magic event with our Orzhov Warrior list before becoming hopelessly infatuated with an Abzan Midrange decklist and a Mardu Midrange decklist (after our MTG Mint Card pre-orders had come in) which we essentially played ever since.  Today, we wanted to revist our earlier list and re-evaluate it.

One Drops
Bloodsoaked is still great with its ability to drag it back from the graveyard.  Mardu Hateblade is still fine with us - an early drop with activated deathtouch certainly makes opponents hesitate to swing in.  God's willing is good protection - dang we're still sore that Brave the Elements has rotated out of standard.

Two Drops
We still are satisfied that by playing only two colors, we have decent odds to reliably cast the multicolour Chief of the Edge and Chief of the Scale on the second turn, so we won't change that at all.  The four 'Feats' may be a bit over the top and we could likely do better with either removal or disruptions such as Mardu Skullhunter instead.  Our personal 'signature' card is Cav Peg - we'll always play this in a build that features mostly humans. 

Three Drops
Just occupied by Mardu Hordechief - yet another Chief.  The 'Raid' tech is solid and you'll almost always get the token out of it which makes the stats here acceptable (three mana for a total of three power and four toughness).

Four Drops
Raiders Spoils is OK but we're now not entirely sold sure there is an unconditional pump of +1/+0 with a conditional card draw, but we may be better served.  Timely Hordemate is another solid 'Raid' card getting one of you 2CMC dudes back from the yard to the battlefield.  One of our fav cards in the build is Rush of Battle which, in a warrior build, provides a lovely +2/+1 blanket pump with lifelink.

Improvements
Some improvements we are considering at the moment are :
• Athreos, God of Passage - This is a very viable option to drain your opponent's life or alternatively keep your hand full of options.
• Mogis's Marauder - This may be the closest thing we have to our beloved Brave the Elements.
• Sorin, Solemn Vistor - decent 'Walker in our colours.

• Permanent Pump - such as Spear of Heliod, Hall of Heroes, or Obelisk of Urd.

~

Standard Orzhov

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We want to wish everyone a happy and safe New Year's eve and the very best for the new year.  Oddly on the very last day of 2013 all three of us here at MTG Realm finally have found our Magic: the Gathering groove for standard and have decided on a standard constructed deck.  RStomp is going with a Kibler Golgari variation, RTech is polishing up her Simic-Grow / Flash and yours truly CopySix is packing a take on Ryo Nakada's Orzhov Aggro (minus the Mutavaults as they are $30-$35 each and we don't have the money for those right now).  We have recent acquisitions in hand now from MTG Mint Card and are ready for our next Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario.

Anywhoos - let's have a looky-loo at Ryo's list again for reference -

Ryo Nakada, Orzhov Aggro, GP Shizuoka 2013 Winning Decklist
22 lands : 4  Godless Shrine, 4  Mutavault, 2  Orzhov Guildgate, 7  Plains, 1  Swamp, 4  Temple of Silence

29 creatures : 4  Banisher Priest, 4  Boros Elite, 4  Daring Skyjek, 3  Dryad Militant, 3  Imposing Sovereign, 4  Precinct Captain, 4  Soldier of the Pantheon, 3  Xathrid Necromancer

9 other spells : 4  Brave the Elements, 3  Orzhov Charm, 2  Spear of Heliod

15 sideboard cards : 3  Dark Betrayal, 3  Doom Blade, 1  Pithing Needle, 2  Profit // Loss, 3  Sin Collector, 2  Thoughtseize, 1  Xathrid Necromancer
~

 

 

We've played Orzhov for a while now and our hear broke after Innistrad rotated out taking with many of our fav cards (Intangible Virtue, Lingering Souls, etc.).  That is all now behind us now that we've evaluated M14's Xathrid Necromancer against our local metagame.  The Necromancer demands an immediate answer from removal, and makes combat a nightmare for the opponent. It also foils any plans that revolve around Supreme Verdict. We particularly like the interaction with Cartel Aristocrat which offers a sacrifice outlet to dump a cheap one drop for protection while generating a 2/2 Zombie token.  Some considerations we are giving to the main board and side board -

Immortal Servitude to cycle back all those cheap critters we've just turfed in the 'yard to restart the shenanigans yet again.  The 'Willing' side of the fuse card 'Ready // Willing' which provides deathtouch and lifelink - why?  Because nobody expects this sort of thingy.

Some other ideas we are toying with include (but are not limited to) using Calvary Pegasus to give all our dudes (humans specifically) flying when they attack.  High Priest of Penance is a nice two drop which will blow up any non-land permanent (enchantment, Planeswalker, etc.) and gives us another Zombie token while the Necromancer is out.  Thoughtseize may also be useful against some match-ups as well.

For a finisher, we may consider Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Obzedat, Ghost Council or perhaps Bloodbaron of Vizkopa.  There are a lot of choices but one thing of concern is should our opponent have a Ratchet Bomb to blow up our fresh 'n' fetid Zombie token army.  Suggestions always welcome of course in the comment thingy below or eMail.

Happy New Year / Happy Brewing!
~

GP Shizuoka

~
Happy Monday MTG peeps,

As we are sliding into the holiday season, we hope all of you are happy, safe and getting some time to get some Magic: the Gathering games in.  Speaking of Christmas giving, drop over to MTG Mint Card where they are wrapping up their Massive Christmas Clearance sale which ends on the 27th December - some good deals to be had there.

Anywhoos, here at MTG Realm, we've been working out a new Orzhov (black / white) build for standard constructed based on a 'haunted humans' build taking advantage of a number of cheap / powerful white weenies along with Xathrid Necromancer.  The Necromancer here promises to churn out a small army of 2/2 black zombie creatures for each game - one for each time the necromancer or a human hits the graveyard.  You can apply a board wipe or chump block with impudence knowing full well that you can easily re-populate the battlefield.  Our thinking was to take full advantage and also incorporate sacrifice outlets along the lines of Cartel Aristocrat.
~
Speaking of Xathrid Necromancer, we want to congratulate Ryo Nakada who had won over the weekend the title for Grand Prix Shizouka with an Orzhov build featuring none other than the necromancer.

We really like this list and will likely modify what we already have laying all over our kitchen table to include some of these card choices.  The necromancer also made the 'Top 5' cards of GP Shizuoka according to Wizards.  From fifth spot to first, they were Maser of Waves, Domestication (wow!), Pack Rat, Obzedat, Ghost Council and Xathrid Necromancer.

Happy deck-brewing - we'll see you at the game tables.
~

B/W Janky Junk

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

You may recall yesterday's article about Commander 2013 pricing.  We were yattering last evening and decided that we would rather pick up some singles online from MTG Mint Card for some of our EDH stacks this Friday and then wait a few short weeks until the second print wave hits out local gaming store by which time, prices should hopefully correct downwards a titch which will allow us to grab one or more additional decks.

Anywhoos - today we want to talk about our play style for a moment.  We love to play under-used / under-appreciated cards in our strategies.  It's difficult to look at the hundreds of cards on our shelves, all perfectly standard-legal, and not use but a fraction of them.  To this end, we enjoy developing some interesting kitchen table games (like 'pile draft' where we draft from decksets of commons), or have casual pauper matches in order to better appreciate some of the cards in our collection.

Righto - onto today's topic - black 'n' white junk.  Perhaps not an apt description but one we could use as there are some questionable card choices or just outright jank which could serve better in another format - but perhaps not standard.  It was our aim to use a few cards which we rather liked but did not quite make the cut to popular standard.  Let's have a look . . .

Nothing totally weird just yet here - a cr@p ton of Orzhov goodies - High Priest of Penance, Sin Collector, Alms Beast, Desecration Demon, Obzedat and Blood Baron of Vizkopa.

Some of the non-creature spells - thoughtseize, Doom Blade, Devour Flesh, Read the Bones and Whip of Obzedat.

Now for some of the interactions we rather like.  First and foremost is to nullify the downside of lifelink provided to creatures blocking or blocked by Alms Beast with Erebos - not too shabby.

We also would love to get Gift of Immortality onto High Priest of Penance which essentially can nerf non-creature permanents all day long and keep coming back for more.

We are also thinking about the inclusion of Ethereal Armor (gawd we do like that card a lot) in this mix as well - perhaps giving a pump and (what some players forget about) first strike.  Giving that Alms Beast first strike will mean that you opponent may never get that extra life link.

We know this may never get to Top 8 at our local Friday Night Magic event but it does feel rather nice that we are using some of our cards we might not normally use by getting in some games at the kitchen table.

Got a deck you don't feel comfortable letting off its leash at your FNM?  Drop a line below in the comment thingy.
~

Exquisite Orzhov

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,
We here at MTG Realm are at it again - deck-brewing for standard constructed.  We've accumulated a sufficient number of new Magic: the Gathering Gatecrash cards to be able to start testing a few strategies for tomorrow's Friday Night Magic event at our local card shop and of course over the weekend.  Yesterday we looked at a sample Simic (green / blue) strategy to play and evaluate some of the new cardboard awesomeness.  Today, we're looking at an Orzhov (black / white) but more specifically, the Exquisite Blood and Vizkopa Guildmage 'infinite' combo in an Orzhov shell.  We've put together and taken apart this several times and through discussions with our group, decided on this particular pile of 60 cards.


 
Our overall goal in this is to live for just enough turns to have both Exquisite Blood and Vizkopa Guildmage on the game table.  After these two have met, we will pour our three mana (1WB) to activate the Guildmage’s second ability, promptly followed by triggering a lifegain.  The options are faitly open at this point - we could swing in with a lifelinking attacker, pay the one black or white mana to extort a spell or just a bump in the night to get the ball rolling.

Here's our draft list . . .
22 Lands
2x Vault of the Archangel
2x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
6x Swamp
6x Plains

19 Creatures
4x Cathederal Santifier
3x Vizkopa Guildmage
3x Blood Artist
4x Vampire Nighthawk
3x Rhox Faithmender
2x Ozbedat, Ghost Council

19 Other Spells
2x Blind Obediance
3x Sign in Blood
4x Orzhov Charm
2x Orzhov Keyrune
2x Chalice of Life / Chalice of Death
3x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3x Exquisite Blood
~
Still developing a sideboard against the new and forever changing metagame.  For now however, we do have a few Faith's Shield in the sideboard board may save either our Guildmage creature or the Exquisite Blood enchantment as well as some Elixir of Immortality which not only will give us a lifegain but also some protection against all the new mill builds we expect.  We also wanted to be able to have a plan 'B' and included Chalice of Life / Chalice of Death which we loved since it was reprinted - having this artifact flip and pinging for five is solid good.

Anywhoos - any MTG Realm reader out there have an Orzhov build they would like to share - drop your ideas or your list in the comments below !
~

Orzhov Extort

~
Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Up here in Barrie, Ontario, we got a lot of snow last night - just up to your knee - which means a lot of snow clearing for us.  If we were evil, we would likely extort someone to clear all that white cr@p for us.  Oh - speaking of extort - the new Gatecrash Orzhov (black / white) mechanic is now out in the open with today's 'gift' preview on the mothersite.

If you cannot immediately find today's special Gatecrash spoiler on the page, click on the present appearing on today's article banner to open.  Today's new game card is appropriately a Thrull creature and features the new Orzhov guild mechanic.  Let's have a looky-loo . . .
~

Treasury Thrull, 4wb
Creature - Thrull, Rare
Extort (Whenever you cast a spell you may pay {WB}, if you do each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.)
Whenever Treasury Thrull attacks, you may return target artifact, creature, or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand.
4/4
Illus. Mark Zug
#201/249
~
On Ravnica, Thrulls are a signature race of the Orzhov Syndicate, who use them as unthinking servants. Like Dominarian thrulls, the Orzhov thrulls are created from magically animated dead flesh - sometimes even the dead flesh of prominent guild members who left their bodies behind to become spirits.
~
This particular Thrull  has the ability to return any artifact, creature or enchantment from your yard into your hand every time it attacks, which is a really decent recursion ability.  Now - for the Orzhove mechanic - with Extort whenever you cast a spell you may pay {W/B}, if you do each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life, which is a very flavourful mechanic for Orzhov.  Essentially, you can pay only once for each trigger, and each instance of Extort triggers separately when you cast a spell.  All we can say for the moment is that we are getting our Godless Shrines and Isolated Chapels from MTG Mint Card now as we feel that Orzhov may be delivering big on fun gaming.

Edit - We want to include this comment from our friend 'Marvel Sutantio' in Jakarta (Indonesia) on the new mechanic - 

The new spoiled card for Orzhov is Treasury Thrall. A life drain kicker is pretty nice, especially in the late game. Play a couple of cheap spells and we can siphon the life out the opponent FTW. What interest me is the Extort ability (at least on this card) doesn't specify what kind of spell we have to play. It could have a lot of have other variations, where we pay 2,3 or even X. Or have to play black or white spells, etc.

Either way, I think BWU, BWG & BWR can be quite fearsome. 

~