How to Build A Multiplayer Deck

I often play casual Magic after FNM, and often this takes the form of multiplayer. Too often, I find that the deck I'm using, while strong at duels, is terrible with multiplayer. Only my control decks ever manage to be decent at multiplayer. Hence, due to my preference for Jund at the moment, I decided to make myself a cheap, Standard-legal multiplayer deck.

I've never built a multi-player deck, so I started freeforming what I knew about multiplayer that was different from duels.

• A combo deck will make you the threat next game.
• Card draw is very good.
• Howling Mine makes friends. But is it good? Probably not.
• Bombs need to be more impressive
• Unless it's aimed at them, people won't counter spells. Also why card draw is very good.
• Politics is good (but that's not related to deckbuilding. Or is it?)

I immediately knew I wanted to be blue. A good second color might be black (removal), white (removal, gaining life) or green (Lurking Predators!!!)

I decided on white, since I like lifegain in multiplayer (if it's tacked on to something, of course.) I also need some Wrath effects, and Austere Command and Planar Cleansing are good cheap ones.

I headed on Gatherer to come up with a list of Standard-legal potential card drawing machines. I really wish Tidings was in M10.

Potential card draw:

Mind Spring (probably a 4-of, people get to lots of mana in multiplayer)

Mulldrifter

Divination (doubt it)

Cryptic Command (too expensive)

Covenant of Minds (can use it with someone who owes me)

Ponder (not really card draw, but still good)

Potential lifegain:

Kitchen Finks (almost certainly)

Kiss of the Amesha (also draws cards. I love it.)

Soul Warden (a 4-of)

Potential finishers:

Call the Skybreaker (great for excess lands in late-game, and hard to stop permanently)

Gargoyle Castle: Only 1 or 2.

Potential removal:

Oblivion Ring

Path to Exile

Potential misc:

Plumeveil

Wall of Denial

Wall of Frost

1-of rares I happen to have:

Exotic Orchard

Hallowed Burial

Ajani Goldmane

Jace Beleren

Reveillark (but for what?)

Gargoyle Castle

Captain of the Watch

Another Captain of the Watch

So what do we want to have?

4 Mind Spring

4 Mulldrifter

3 Kitchen Finks

1 Hallowed Burial

1 Ajani Goldmane

1 Jace Beleren

2 Captain of the Watch

2-3 Wall of Denial

2-3 Wall of Frost

3-4 Path to Exile

4 Oblivion Ring
4 Soul Warden

That makes 30-32 slots. Adding 24 lands, we have about 6 slots left.

4 Kiss of the Amesha

2 Call the Skybreaker

But we also need Wrath effects.

-2 Kiss of the Amesha

-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Mulldrifter
-1 Kitchen Finks

+3 Austere Command

+2 Planar Cleansing

Only in multiplayer is it fine to play with 2-3 of's of lots of decent cards you want to use. I'm embracing the casualness of this format as much as my Spike-crazed brain is able.

So the final decklist:

Lands (24)

12 Plains

10 Island

1 Gargoyle Castle

1 Exotic Orchard

Creatures (15)

2 Captain of the Watch

2 Kitchen Finks

3 Mulldrifter
4 Soul Warden

2 Wall of Denial

2 Wall of Frost

Spells (21)

1 Ajani Goldmane

1 Jace Beleren

1 Hallowed Burial

2 Planar Cleansing

2 Kiss of the Amesha

2 Call the Skybreaker

3 Austere Command

3 Oblivion Ring

3 Path to Exile

3 Mind Spring

This is a pretty crappy duelling deck, but in multiplayer, it does well: playing plenty of card draw and lifegain to keep the game going, some removal for the big creature eyeing ya, and a wide array of finishers (Captain, Call the Skybreaker, Ajani's ultimate) plus some Wrath effects to keep things fair.

I'm looking forward to playing it at FNM as soon as I can wrangle up the cards (not too hard, since I own all the expensive ones and most of the rest are commons)

Until next time, may you let your hair down.

Rotation

What are your plans when the rotation comes? Do you have a deck planned, or do you intend to just go with the flow? Leave your answers in the comments!

I personally plan to play a slightly altered version of Jund. I'm keeping my eye on Warren Instigator, that's for sure!

I appreciate any and all comments. What are your plans?

Tournament Report: August Week 4

Welcome back to Magic: The Blogging! People have expressed interest in the tournament reports, so I'm bringing them back. I didn't draft today, but I did have some interesting games.

2 weeks beforehand, my teammate Jeremy lost the GSS Jund list I was playing, so I had to make a new deck. Here's what I made, totally off the cuff, with the thirty dollars + trades available (and I had Maelstrom Pulse already)

Lands (24)

4 Savage Lands
4 Vivid Crag
3 Vivid Marsh
2 Crumbling Necropolis
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Graven Cairns
2 Jungle Shrine
2 Twilight Mire
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swamp

Creatures (17)

4 Anathemancer
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Boggart Ram-Gang (lack of card availability)
3 Kitchen Finks (lack of card availability)
4 Putrid Leech
1 Vithian Renegades

Spells(19)

4 Bituminous Blast
4 Jund Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Sign in Blood

I didn't have time to build a sideboard, so I was going to have to play pretty tightly. Round One loomed.

Round 1 vs. Elf Combo / Synergy

I mulligan to 6, and he mulligans to 3. Ouch. He plays a Llanowar Elves, and I play Lightning Bolt. Normally I wouldn't, but I'm taking the chance he's stuck on one. He is. I play Sign in Blood. (18) We play Land-Go (Go for him, no lands) and then I play Bloodbraid Elf into a blank Anathemancer and swing (17). He plays Nettle Sentinel. I swing for 5 (12) and pass. He plays Heritage Druid. I swing for 5 (7) and play Sign in Blood. (16) He plays Nettle Sentinel, and pass. I swing, he blocks Bloodbraid Elf and lets Anathemancer through. I double Jund Charm to pump it to a 6/6 and win.

Game 2  I mulligan to five. He plays 2 Elvish Visionaries and I play Sign in Blood. He plays Elvish Harbinger. I play Putrid Leech, Lightning Bolt the Harbinger, and pass. He plays Jagged-Scar Archers. I swing, and pump (16) and kill the Archers. I play a Gray Ogre Anathemancer and pass. He plays Bramblewood Paragon. I Lightning Bolt, then Bituminous Blast into Vithian Renegades, coming up with a blank. He plays Coat of Arms and another Paragon. He doesn't swing, and next turn I bolt a 3/3 Visionary, and swing with Vithian Renegades. Paragon blocks. I play Putrid Leech and pass. Next turn I swing (14) and hit (12) and pass. He passes, I EOT Jund Charm Anathemancer. I swing (12, 4), then next turn swing for the win.

I later find out that he's a fairly new player, who was lent Elf Combo by a friend. I give him some tips (mainly to be more aggressive) and move on to Round 2.

1-0.

Round 2 vs. Esper Jank

Game 1 I mull to 6, and he plays Mistvein Borderpost. Next turn a Fieldmist Borderpost. I play Putrid Leech, and he plays Master of Etherium. I Maelstrom Pulse it, and swing. (18, 16). I pass. He plays two Borderposts. I swing and Jund Charm + pump the Putrid Leech. (16, 10) I Sign in Blood (14) and pass. He plays Etherium Sculptor, I Bloodbraid Elf into Lightning Bolt and earn the concession.

Game 2 He plays Etherium Sculptor. I Bolt it. He plays Esper Charm to draw two. I play Anathemancer for two. (18). He Crystallises it. I pass. He plays Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer. I play Bloodbraid Elf into Lightning Bolt, killing Gwafa, and swing for 3 (15). He plays Levitation. I play Bloodbraid Elf into Maelstrom Pulse, killing Levitation. I swing for 6. (9). He plays Crystallisation on Bloodbraid Elf and Court Homunculus. I swing, and Court Homunculus blocks. I use Jund Charm on Bloodbraid Elf. I play Putrid Leech, and pass.

He plays Mistvein Borderpost and passes. I swing, Etherium Sculptor blocks. I Jund Charm Putrid Leech and pump. (18, 3). He draws and plays Magister Sphinx (18,10). I Anathamancer for 2. He plays Court Homunculus, and swings with the Sphinx. (13, 8). I Bolt Court Homunculus, and swing for the win.

2-0

Match 3 vs. R/G Fat Guys

This is a Warp World deck, but with more big R/G creatures and no Warp World. It still has Siege-Gang commander and acceleration though.

I start off with Sign in Blood (18, 20). He plays Farhaven Elf. I play Putrid Leech. He plays Spellbreaker Behemoth. I swing. Farhaven Elf blocks. He swings, and I double Bolt the Behemoth to kill it. I then swing. (16,16)  He plays Broodmate Dragon. I EOT Bituminous Blast into a Sign in Blood, then Bituminous Blast on my turn into a Sign in Blood. I swing (10, 12) He plays Bogardan Hellkite and knocks me to 5. (5,12) I use Lightning Bolt and Bituminous Blast into Putrid Leech, and swing without pumping. (5,10). He plays Dragon Broodmother. I Bloodbraid Elf into Anathemancer for 2 (5, 8) and swing. He blocks a Leech with the 1/1 dragon and Bloodbraid Elf with the Broodmother. I Jund Charm so the Elf and Dragon trade. (5, 6) He draws and concedes.

Game 2. This is an incredible game for me, where I play very well and get a generous dollop of luck. He plays Fertile Ground. I play Putrid Leech. He plays Trace of Abundance. I'm stuck on 2, and remark that there are worse hands to be stuck on 2 at as I play my second Leech.  I swing. (18, 16). He plays Baneslayer Angel. I play my third land, swing, and then close my eyes and say 'Baneslayer Angel has first strike and lifelink, doesn't it?' He asks if I'm attacking with both, I sigh and say yes. He blocks one, I Jund Charm and pump it to kill Baneslayer Angel! Yes! I pump the other as well. (14, 17). He plays a Cloudthresher. (12, 15) I swing again, with the 4/4 Leech.. (10, 9). Cloudthresher attacks, and I pump my 2/2 and Lightning Bolt the Cloudthresher. (8, 9) He plays Broodmate Dragon.

He has lethal damage on the table. Flying no less. I draw Jund Charm, and grin with confidence. I swing, and he blocks with a Broodmate Dragon. I Jund Charm again (two bluffs!). He swings (4, 9) and plays Siege-Gang Commander. At this point, only Jund Charm can save me and even then Broodmate Dragon'll have me, but I draw Bloodbraid Elf, play it, CASCADE INTO JUND CHARM, wipe out his team, and swing for the win. Prodigious amounts of luck and skill won me that game which I really shouldn't have won, but I guess my bluffing has improved.

I move into the final round.

3-0.

Round 4 vs. Kithkin.

I bolt his initial Stalwart, and get stuck on 2 land. He plays another Stalwart and Knight of the White Orchid, then plays Forge-Tender and Honor of the Pure next turn. I get crushed.

Game 2 He plays Goldmeadow Stalwart and swings. He plays another Stalwart, then Honor of the Pure next turn and swings. (12) Here I make my mistake. I should Maelstrom Pulse his Honor of the Pure (you know, as I recommend in my OWN PRIMER) but instead I Pulse both his Stalwarts. He plays Spectral Procession, I Jund Charm. He plays Wizened Cenn and Figure of Destiny (3/3's). I play Putrid Leech. He plays more 3/3's and kills me. I die with a Jund Charm in hand.

If I'd Pulsed Honor of the Pure, it might have gone something like this:

I Pulse his Honor of the Pure. He swings for 4 (8) then plays Spectral Procession. I play Jund Charm. He plays Wizened Cenn and Figure of Destiny (both 2/2's). I play Putrid Leech. He plays more 2/2's, and I Jund Charm.

I might not have WON the game, but it was a blunder on my part nonetheless. The only good part about that game is finding out how right I was that Pulsing Honor of the Pure is the right move in this matchup.

3-1.

I come third, win a few boosters, and head home happy. 3-1's a good result, and now I know for next time. I also found my Sable Stags (2 so far) and Firespouts, so next week I should have a sideboard. I'll keep tweaking the deck for the rotation, and get a fully-powered Jund deck soon enough.

Until next time, may you follow your own advice.

From The Vault: Exiled: Why They Were Exiled

The following post is from the author of M:TG Color Pie at http://mtgcolorpie.wordpress.com/. His blog mainly focuses on the flavour of Magic. He wrote this post on From The Vault: Exiled. Enjoy!

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From the Vault: Exiled goes on sale this Friday and if you haven't pre-ordered your copy, wow, I'm sorry. These things will go like hotcakes: tournament worthy foils, some that haven't been printed in foils before, sought after EDH staples. But, this being a tournament blog, I've decided to give you all a history lesson in tournaments: why were these cards banned/restricted?

For some of you complaining why this set didn't have Sol Ring or Mana Drain or the like, calm down. Wizards is also giving us a history lesson; theses are cards that were too good to see multiple copies in a deck. So while you may be mad at Kird Ape being in here, there's a reason.

Name: Balance
Banned/Restricted format: Banned - Legacy & EDH/Restricted - Vintage
Why: Let's see, a Mind Twist, Armageddon, and a Wrath of God for 1W. Gee, how could that go wrong. Like all reset cards, Balance is too good when it becomes abused for a one-sided effect. Good against weenie decks, good against mana ramp decks and good against control decks. So having all that on one card at that price, is unthinkable these days. Imagine playing it in a deck with four-of's? Sick, right?

Name: Berserk
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Vintage (Unrestricted in 2003)
Why: 1. Wizards hates doubling (except MaRo). 2. This was way more powerful when creatures overran the tables. Vintage has shifted to more of the spells/combo control metagame over the past 10+ years and so to give creature heavy decks a chance, this was unrestricted. No one's called for it's restriction again.

Name: Channel 
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy/Restricted - Vintage
Why: Yes, another Green spell. Part of the "first" combo Channel/Fireball, it was actually the first engine that changed one resource to another (life for mana). And because the mana is colorless AND you can pay it any time during the turn, you can do some crazy stuff for it. Right now it's in my Verdeloth the Ancient EDH deck. Really, really good.

Name: Gifts Ungiven
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - EDH/Restricted - Vintage
Why: In a format where some of the most powerful cards are restricted, it was only a matter of time before this one went the same way. "Hey, I'm going to go get 4 cards and oh, I've got a Yawgmoth's Will in my hand? Oh darn, I missed that." It's even banned in EDH. It's better than Intuition and Fact or Fiction in Vintage, the two cards that inspired this.

Name: Goblin Lackey
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Before the printing of Onslaught, the "best" goblins were Goblin Marshal, Goblin Welder, Mogg Fanatic, and Squee. After Onslaught: Goblin Goon, Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Sharpshooter, Goblin Warchief, and Siege-Gang Commander. Notice the better Goblins because players sure did. First turn Lacky. Second turn swing, put Siege-Gang onto the battlefield, cast Warchief. Third turn cast Piledriver, swing with all. That's alot of damage. It's a very powerful 1/1 threat.

Name: Kird Ape
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Extended (Unbanned in September 2005 with printing in 9th)
Why: Because a 2/3 for R is too powerful. Seriously, that's why Kird Ape was banned when Extended first started (I know because I read it in my InQuest magazine). Besides my first take with it (I thought it was +1/+2 for each forest in play), it was still a good card. Again, this is a time when more people were playing creatures than spells so anything this powerful on the first turn had to be ban-worthy. Of course, times have now changed, everyone can get a laugh that a "vanilla" creature can get banned. Right Tarmogoyf?

Name: Lotus Petal
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Since I'm a design guy, let's just go to the mouth of the designer of this card, MaRo? "This card shows how crazy Black Lotus is. During Tempest design, I thought it would be flavorful to make new “fixed” Black Lotus. Since I liked the idea of a 0 cost artifact, I lowered the number of mana it produced. The development team even questioned if it was too weak. In the end though we felt like the card might find some use in a very niche deck. I guess the niche decks were degenerate decks." Tolarian Academy says thanks (with some help from Hurkyl's Recall and the storm mechanic).

Name: Mystical Tutor
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: Like all good one mana tutors, it's too powerful in multiples (Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Merchant Scroll). Considering it gets the best cards in Vintage (Ancestral Recall, Yawgmoth's Will, Mana Drain), it's no surprise that this would get restricted when the metagame flipped to a more spell based environment. The "drawback" of putting on top of your library is not one at all; if you play it at the end of your opponent's turn you can draw it and not allow it to get stripped with a Duress/Thoughtsieze/Mind Twist.

Name: Necropotence
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy/Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: The card that started all of those breakfast cereal names. It's a real good card advantage draw engine. Back in the day (Ice Age) people would draw alot of cards, then Drain Life their opponent's life and do it all over again. In Extended it was also matched with an Ice Age card (Illusions of Grandeur) and MaRo favorite, Donate. Paying 1 life for a card is too good, as Yawgmoth's Bargain proves.

Name: Sensei's Divining Top
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Extended
Why: Sure, it's a card that takes some time to play through, which is totally something worth considering. But I believe that it's a combination of two cards that got this banned. First: Counterbalance, a house in Legacy. Second: the upcoming printing of Tezzert. Yes, this card was banned last year right before Shards came out. I guess being able to fetch this card and create a soft lock was way too good for Extended, and they're right.

[Not to mention even non-Counterbalance decks played it, and it slowed down the games so much that they went to time really often. -Salivanth]

Name: Serendib Efreet
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Again, another creature that was so powerful when Extended first started out as a format it was banned outright. Even by today's standards it would be a powerful card (as evidence by it almost being Timeshifted [Here's the link for you to use - http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/af139]) but powerful to be banned? At that time, there wasn't alot of cards that would see play to get rid of it (Swords to Plowshares and maybe Fireblast). Since then, there have been plenty of removal where it can safely see play in Eternal formats.

Name: Skullclamp
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Mirrodin Block, Extended, Legacy/Previously Banned - Standard
Why: The best example of why to ban a card in a format, Every deck had it, or was built to beat it. When introducing a new card type, it's best to push it a little bit to see how far it goes. But it wasn't even supposed to have the +1/-1 attached to it (It was originally to be +1/+2 but pushed it to make it better [Link -http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/af17] (By the way, read the last paragraph. It's the last line that's the most chilling)). This card is degenerate, which is why more artifacts are banned/restricted because they can go in any deck.

Name: Strip Mine
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: Because even it's younger brother who can only hit non-basics is pretty powerful (Wasteland, for those who didn't know). Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam make this abusable and the fact that this land kill can't be countered (non-Stifle) is bad idea jeans (Look, if I could link to a non-Hulu site for this sketch, I would. If you can see Hulu, look it up). Land destruction does make things less fun to play (can you can't play anything) and this card is a great example why. Though I'm sure if this was in Standard right now, 5 color control wouldn't be as powerful.

Name: Tinker
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy & EDH/Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Great idea gang: Let's make a card that allows you to put an artifact into play (It wasn't battlefield back then) without making you pay for it. We'll even allow you to search your deck for said artifact when you don't have it in your hand. Draw back: all you have to do is sacrifice an artifact. It's like you're tearing apart one artifact for another. Let's print it! Besides what a bad idea that is, the other reason it got banned in Extended was not the Bosh/Isochron Scepter brokenness, it was right before Darksteel came out. You know, like Darksteel Colossus (Oath of Druids was banned at the same time as well [Link -http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/rb100], I wonder why).

Name: Trinisphere
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: As was Strip Mine an unfun card to not allow spells being played, this is a little different. Yes, it shuts down cheap combo decks but in Vintage with Mirshra's Workshop it can take a player out of a game. By playing a few Moxes, Workshop and this in the first turn before your opponent has even played anything holding a hand full of Moxes and a Lotus, you've won the game. It was too disruptive to even consider not restricting it down the road.

That's a look at the cards in the From the Vault: Exiled list. While I felt they picked cards that showcased some of their mistakes, there could've have been some more interesting choices in terms of "promo awesome to have in foil" cards (Tolarian Academy, Memory Jar, etc...). Maybe they're saving those for From the Vault: Exiled 2: Exiled Harder. 

What if: Magic Had A Sixth Color?

I can't make any non-standard mana symbols on Magic Set Editor, so I've done the best I could with the tools available. Just imagine it as purple.

Welcome back to Magic Academy 2.0! I am your host, Salivanth, and today we're going to be concluding the series on color by talking about the last color, Purple. You can find the link to the white portion of the series here, the blue portion here, the black portion here, the red portion here, and the green portion here. 


From the Magic 2010 excerpt:

Purple is the color of exile. Many of it's mechanics relate to exile, and it is the only color than can bring cards back from exile that weren't sent there for a particular purpose, such as Oblivion Ring. Purple can deal with any type of permanent, but it's usually only temporary, or it's quite expensive.Purple goes well with white, because white exiles cards. Purple is also the master of time, able to skip phases and even turns. Since Time Spiral, it has exclusively had the Suspend mechanic, which exiles a card for a certain number of turns before it can come into play. Purple is a clever and powerful color. It's allies are white and blue. It's enemies are black, green and red.

Purple's race in M10 is the Tempalken, offshoots of the Vedalken who were sent out for their experiments with time, which the vedalken believed was not to be tampered with, for fear of the consequences.


Purple has a lot of ways to use exile for their own gains. The most simple one is exiling cards, but other colors can do that. Purple also has the ability to give up time later in order to play a cheaper spell. Example:



Okay: but we want ways to USE exile. What's UNIQUE to Purple? This.




Then there's the pumped up version:



Purple is also a control color. Here's a card that makes waves in Standard as a piece in the popular MirrorStag combo deck:



The combo focuses on exiling a Mirror of Fate (which it does by self-milling along with graveyard exiling) and playing a Stagnation. Next turn, it plays Mirror of Fate, sacrifices it, and you get all the cards in your library except for seven lands exiled. Then you can play any card in your deck, and it's basically impossible to lose.

Purple's second main power is the power to manipulate time. Whether through sacrificing it:



such as with Temporal Bandit, a Johnny creature, or through gaining it, with the more tournament-worthy Time Warp.




Lastly, Purple has the Suspend mechanic in it's M10 arsenal. Time Spiral gave it to all the colors, but Purple got it back after that set. Here's a suspend card that can ONLY be suspended:



And that's all we have time for today. Join us next week as we delve into Strategic Attacking and Blocking.

Until next time, may time be on YOUR side.

How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 3

Hello, and welcome back to my series of How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 3. Last week we covered analysing the metagame, and this week, we'll be covering the nuts and bolts of bringing two decks to a tournament. The list which inspired this series can be found here. 


Why Two Decks?


Why would you bring two decks to a metagame? Simple: The local metagame at the PTQ you're attending is likely to be a bit different to the world's metagame. So by bringing two decks each designed to oppose certain metagames, e.g, W/U Reveillark for Anathemancer-heavy metagames and Five-Color Control for Elf Combo / Time Sieve Combo heavy metagames, you can be sure of attacking the metagame from the right angle. 


Make sure you bring decks with different weaknesses. Elf Combo and Jund seem quite different, but they're both vulnerable to the same thing: sweepers.Whereas Elf Combo and Five-Color Control on the other hand operate on totally different realms, and both require totally different sideboard plans. So you could pick one of these decks based on which one the event was less hostile towards in sideboard choices.


Testing Two Decks


Most people would advise testing two decks equally, but I think that you should become equally competent at both. Becoming competent at Elf Combo requires less matches than Five-Color Control, so if you were to run 100 matches, I'd suggest 30-40 Elf Combo matches and 60-70 Five-Color Control matches in your testing. That way you're confident with both of them, and ready no matter what deck you pick.


More complex decks require more matches to master, so take the time to learn them well.


This has been a very short post, but the concept doesn't require too many words to explain. Join me next week as I talk about doing the same anti-metagame move for your sideboard before the event.


Until next time, may you say only what needs to be said (yes I know this is a short post!)

Assassin Magic

In the average Free-For-All, people won't play threats early, because they could get ganged up on. This leads to a slow game indeed, where very little happens in the first few turns. But what if you could play threats without fear, because only one person was gunning for you? Everyone else is gunning for someone else. But you don't know who's after you...

Welcome to Assassin Magic.

I don't know if this format has already been created (probably) but I do know I came up with it myself. Here's how it works. Get a 4-6 player multiplayer game ready. Then, everyone writes down their name and puts it in a hat, or have someone shuffle them randomly. Each player draws a name, and looks at it. If anyone draws their own name, redeal. Once everyone has a hidden name, play begins.

Your objective is to beat the player whose name you drew. If they are eliminated by any means, whoever had them as a target gets 1 point, and receives the eliminated player's current target. The game ends when one player is left standing, and whoever has the most points wins.

Note: If Player A eliminates Player B, and Player B's target is Player A, ALL names are redealt randomly. If your target's on 2 life? That's part of the randomness of the game.

The idea of this format is to make aggro viable in multiplayer and to provide a fast and fun game: with a bit of bluffing. You could attack someone to make them think you're targeting them, or to make your target think that, then blindside them. Of course: you have two players to tackle: the player you're supposed to be eliminating, and the player who's supposed to be eliminated.

This also provides an element of strategy: if Player A has one point already, the rest of the table doesn't want Player A's next target to die, so they may cripple (but not kill) Player A. Of course, Player B's target is Player A, so if Player A's target is already weak and so is Player A, Player B can strike...

Potential House Rules

Last Man Standing: Award +1 to the person who is the last to survive.

Foiled: Award +1 or +0.5 to anyone who kills someone who targeted them.

Variants

Double Trouble: Each player fills in their name twice, then picks one name from a hat. This may lead to one player being targeted by two, and others by none. If a player with two targets is eliminated, add their target to the undrawn pile and each targeting player gets one point and a new target from the undrawn ones.

Two Contracts: Each player fills in their name twice, then picks two names from a hat. The two names must be different. Defeat both of your targets to win the game. If one of your targets is eliminated, you must reveal the name.

Team Assassin: Play 2v2 or 3v3 (3v3 better). Each player fills in their name, and each team picks an opposing team member. If that team member dies, your team wins the game.

Transparency: Play like normal Assassin, but all targets are revealed.

Hopefully on Saturday I get the chance to test it out, playing my R/G deck and seeing how that goes.

Until next time, may you secretly hold all the cards.

Your First Deck

In a mini-celebration of my Twitter question being selected as a bonus question for GP Bangkok's coverage, I decided to ask the same thing on my blog. What was the first deck you ever built yourself? Leave your answer in the comments: I'm sure we all have some cool stories to share!

5 Ways To Get Ahead Before A Rotation

Greetings readers. The Zendikar rotation is happening in a month, and is certain to shake up Standard. Almost all of the current archetypes will be thrown out the window, and those that aren't will still change. Thus, it's a perfect time to write an article I've been holding onto for a while: how to get ahead of the competition before a rotation.

1. Practice with a resilient deck.

A lot of people, after a rotation, will suddenly have to audible into a brand new, unproved, untested deck. If you can pick a deck, for example Jund, or Time Sieve Combo, that will remain relatively untouched by the rotation, and become familiar with it, you'll be like a shark among the minnows as they try to master their new decks while you use the one you've been familiar with for a month.

This is the precise reason I'm using Jund: only six non-land cards in it will actually be affected by the rotation, so I should easily be able to adjust it to the new metagame and the new card pool.

2. Keep up on the spoilers.

If you want to get an edge, you want to know what gets spoiled basically immediately. To that end, I advise subscribing to @mtgsalvation on Twitter, and checking the spoiler sites regularly. Twitter is a great place to find breaking news: I've only recently started using it, but it's quite useful already.

If you know the cards before the rotation actually happens, you'll be able to formulate a deck for when it does happen, continuing in the spirit of point 1.

3. See what people are saying about it.

Just by reading this you're on the right track to achieving point 3: finding out information. What are people thinking about the rotation? To that end, I suggest visiting Starcitygames.com, mtgsalvation.com, this blog, and any other Magic sites that have strategy articles several times a week. With the rotation looming large, that's what everyone will talk about, so plug into the flow of information.

4. Be aware of what will be lost.

Be aware of what decks will become unworkable. For example, Faeries, Elf Combo and Five-Color Control become impossible, since the core of each deck has been nuked with Lorwyn's departure. Blightning may survive, Jund and Time Sieve Combo will survive.

You also need to be aware of the metagame shift. For example, if Jund and Time Sieve are likely to appear in large numbers, how should you adjust your deck / sideboard for it?

5. Be prepared to adapt on the fly.

Lastly, the time after a rotation is a time of great flux. New decks will appear and become invalid by the day, so be prepared to change decks after the format settles down after a few weeks. You never know: new decks may pop up to make Jund utterly impossible in the new metagame, and White Soldiers may pop up and seize power. Be prepared to adapt to anything.

Until next time, may you be calm in a sea of confusion.

How To Build an M10 Sealed Deck

Hi, readers! Today I'll be going through building a Sealed deck with M10. I randomly generated the deck with Magic Workstation (which finally sorted out it's Mythic Rare issue) and got started.

I opened 6 M10 boosters. Here's what I got:

White (16)

2 Angel's Mercy

1 Celestial Purge

1 Divine Verdict

1 Glorious Charge

2 Griffin Sentinel

1 Holy Strength

1 Lightwielder Paladin

1 Pacifism

1 Serra Angel

1 Siege Mastodon

1 Solemn Offering

1 Soul Warden

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Veteran Armorsmith

Blue (12)

1 Divination

1 Fabricate

1 Horned Turtle

1 Ice Cage

3 Illusionary Servant

2 Jump

3 Tome Scour

Black (16)

1 Assassinate

1 Black Knight

1 Bog Wraith

1 Deathmark

1 Disentomb

1 Doom Blade

3 Kelinore Bat

1 Looming Shade

1 Mind Rot

1 Rise from the Grave

2 Sign in Blood

1 Tendrils of Corruption

1 Unholy Strength

Red (18)

1 Act of Treason

2 Fiery Hellhound

1 Goblin Piker

2 Jackal Familiar

1 Lava Axe

1 Lightning Elemental

1 Manabarbs

1 Panic Attack

1 Seismic Strike

1 Stone Giant

2 Trumpet Blast

1 Viashino Spearhunter

3 Yawning Fissure

Green (17)

1 Birds of Paradise

1 Bramble Creeper

1 Cudgel Troll

2 Fog

2 Llanowar Elves

1 Master of the Wild Hunt

2 Mist Leopard

1 Nature's Spiral

1 Prized Unicorn

1 Protean Hydra

2 Rampant Growth

1 Regenerate

1 Stampeding Rhino

Artifacts (5)

1 Gorgon Flail

1 Mirror of Fate

2 Rod of Ruin

1 Whispersilk Cloak

Lands (0)

Without even sorting into playables, the first color to cut is Blue. It's not even splashworthy. The Servants are okay, but UU defeats a splash idea. Red is the next one to go, being slightly weaker than the other colors.

Now we sort our remaining colors into playables:

White (11)

1 Celestial Purge (SB)

1 Divine Verdict

2 Griffin Sentinel

1 Lightwielder Paladin

1 Pacifism

1 Serra Angel

1 Siege Mastodon

1 Soul Warden

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Veteran Armorsmith

Black (11)

1 Assassinate

1 Black Knight

1 Bog Wraith

1 Deathmark (SB)

1 Disentomb

3 Kelinore Bat

1 Rise from the Grave

2 Sign in Blood

Green (13)

1 Birds of Paradise

1 Cudgel Troll

2 Llanowar Elves

1 Master of the Wild Hunt

2 Mist Leopard

1 Prized Unicorn

1 Protean Hydra

2 Rampant Growth

1 Stampeding Rhino

Artifacts (2)

1 Gorgon Flail

1 Whispersilk Cloak

It's fairly obvious we want Green as a main color, with most of the bombs and the mana fixing. We don't really want to play the Kelinore Bats if we can avoid it (and we can with Green's creatures) so Black is out, and we don't want to splash for more than 1-2 cards that aren't worth it, so that leaves us with a G/W deck with 25 cards.

M10 is an 18-land format, so we have to cut 3 cards.

After cutting a Birds of Paradise, and 2 Mist Leopard (unfortunately, but we have too many good cards) we have the following decklist:

Salivanth's M10 Sealed:

Lands (18)

9 Forest

9 Plains

Creatures (16)

1 Cudgel Troll

2 Griffin Sentinel

1 Lightwielder Paladin

2 Llanowar Elves

1 Master of the Wild Hunt

1 Prized Unicorn

1 Protean Hydra

1 Serra Angel

1 Siege Mastodon

1 Soul Warden

1 Stampeding Rhino

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Veteran Armorsmith

Spells (6)

1 Divine Verdict

1 Gorgon Flail

1 Pacifism

2 Rampant Growth

1 Whispersilk Cloak

And there we have it. One sealed deck, ready to play. The basic steps to take are: eliminate two colors, then strip down to playables before eliminating a third color as a main. If it can be a splash, determine the splash, then cut down the other two colors so you have an appropriately sized deck of 22 non-land playables. Then play!

Until next time, may you branch out and experiment with other styles.

Why You Guys Were Right: Situational Cards vs. Topdeck Cards

Yesterday, I held a comments poll over what card was better: Mind Control or Sleep? The situation was Pack One, Pick One of a draft.

When the results were in, Mind Control won 3-0. All three commentors gave good reasons. Here are their comments:

AndreStompy: Mind Control. I find it's just better. That's not to discount Sleep, which is quite a good card. But I feel much more comfortable picking Mind Control knowing I'll play it, than if I were to pick Sleep and have to only be so-so in this deck.

Basically, Mind Control is only a dead draw if they don't have creatures, in which case, who cares about a dead draw?

Mtgcolorpie: Mind Control. Your bomb has now become my bomb. Sleep is more situational if you could finish them off or need to hold them off. Everyone plays creatures in limited.

Thomas David Baker: Mind Control.

I think of Mind Control in terms of card advantage. Mind Control is simultaneously a very strong removal spell and a bomb/strong creature in one card. A really good 2-for-1. The only situation where it isn't brilliant is at less than five mana, or where you are winning anyway. In which case you now have insurance against that changing.

Sleep can win you the game, no doubt, even steal it. But it is much more situational. Mind Control is the better top deck.

The one mana difference in casting cost is not significant as you won't be casting Sleep immediately after making your fourth land drop anyway.

Thanks for all your comments, guys. All of you are correct. Let's look at the points raised here:

• Mind Control is better than Sleep
• Mind Control goes into a wider variety of decks
• Mind Control performs at full power in every blue deck
• Mind Control can take their bomb
• Mind Control is card advantage: A Terminate and a bomb in one card (Great way of looking at it!)
• Sleep is more situational. Mind Control is a better topdeck.
• The one mana doesn't matter since you don't want to play Sleep Turn 4.

These are excellent points, including some that I didn't consider in my own assessment. For the record: here's my assessment:

Mind Control. Mind Control can perform a wider variety of roles than Sleep can. Sleep breaks a creature stall, and that's all it does. Stealing your opponent's best guy will 90% of the time break a creature stall. So for one more mana, you get something that does everything Sleep does, and far, far more.

The main argument I want to showcase is:

• Sleep is more situational. Mind Control is a better topdeck card.

Thank you Thomas David Baker. You have made the exact point this article was to open with: if you could topdeck a bomb it would almost always be Mind Control, because in 99% of situations, it's more useful. However, Mind Control is a better card than Sleep in general, so let's look at some more closely matched cards.

If these cards were in the same set, available in a draft for an R/G deck, which would you pick? Personally, I would pick the Rannet, because it's more useful in some situations: like when you have 2-4 mana, for example. Ridge Rannet is almost never a totally dead draw.

The main reason Mind Control is better than Sleep is because it is almost always the better topdeck. As previously indicated, Sleep is only good in one situation, Mind Control is good in a multitude.

Until next time, may your first-pick be a bomb whenever you draw it.

P.S: Damn you guys are awesome. Seriously, I love my readership. You are all smart, totally brilliant people and I hope you keep making insightful comments for years to come. This is why I blog (that and I have too much Magic enthusiasm to keep it bottled up!) Great job, guys!