Bad Deck Baz Presents It's A Wonderful Life!

Hello and welcome to the final installment of the Bad Deck Baz series. We've raced a 5/5 flying shrouded sphinx and out-milled a mill deck. Now let's see what we can do with It's A Wonderful Life!

It's a Wonderful Life!

A “Bad Deck Baz” Deck

10 Plains

2 Forest

4 Sunpetal Grove

4 Kabira Crossroads

4 Graypelt Refuge

4 Battlegrace Angel

4 Mycoid Shepherd

4 Grazing Gladehart

2 Sunseed Nurturer

2 Mesa Enchantress

2 Lifelink

1 Landbind Ritual

3 Sylvan Bounty

3 Cradle of Vitality

4 Soul's Grace

2 Celestial Mantle

2 Sunspring Expedition

3 Angel's Mercy

Sideboard 

3 Felidar Sovereign

3 Wall of Reverence

2 Captured Sunlight

4 Solemn Offering

3 Ajani Goldmane 

As you can see here, Baz has definitely taken this lifegain theme to heart, with 73/75 cards gaining life, or having the potential to do so. Let's see how it goes.

Round 1: It's A Wonderful Life for Bant!

He gets Hierarch, Borderland Ranger, Ranger of Eos, Hierarch before I manage my first spell: a Sunseed Nurturer. I drop a Mesa Enchantress and Landbind Ritual, but I've already noticed a problem with this deck: without Wrath effects, the opponent can and will keep scaling up their threats until your lifegain can't keep up. He drops a Scute Mob and a Sphinx, and mows me down.

Game 2 is a near instant replay. Hierarch, Borderland Ranger, Dauntless Escort. I do put up some resistance this game.  My Wall of Reverence meets a Path, my Gladehart has to chump, and my Ajani has no defenders. I get slammed again.

0-1

Round 2: It's A Wonderful Life for Grixis Control!

I drop Gladehart, and Mycoid Shepherd. The latter gets hit by Double Negative. I land a second, and he Quakes for 4. He Cruels me, and I Soul's Grace my last Shepherd in response. My hand and board are decimated, but I'm at 35 life. A Sphinx of Jwar Isle and a Siege-Gang Commander decimate that pretty fast though. I drop a Battlegrace Angel which meets a Terminate. He then kills me.

Game 2 I get stuck on 3 lands. Against a Siege-Gang Commander. I never find land 4. It isn't pretty.

0-2

Round 3: It's A Wondeful Life for Mono-White Lifegain! (no really!)

He gets Knight of the White Orchid, which my Gladehart is able to stem the wounds of. I drop Battlegrace and attack with my 3/3 lifelink Deer of Death. We keep going back and forth with two Knights vs. Battlegrace, and then I drop Cradle of Vitality. It meets Oblivion Ring. I drop another one, to make a 4/4 Gladehart thanks to Landfall. His Knight Trio slams me. (3 Knights of the White Orchid). He then drops an Elspeth and an Ajani. His Knights slay me, despite my 6/6 and growing Gladehart. I actually manage to drop an 11/11 Sunseed Nurturer and crack 60 life, but Elspeth's ultimate ensures my eventual defeat.

Game 2 I come out strong with Sunspring Expeditions. Ajani clashes with the Knight, and he drops Wall of Reverence. I drop Mycoid Shepherd, he drops Oblivion Ring on Ajani. He drops Emeria, the Sky Ruin. I drop Cradle, he names it with Pithing Needle. I Solemn Offering his O-Ring, but Baneslayer re-kills Ajani. I attack with the Shepherd, crack an Expedition, and make a 13/12. He says I can't do that, but I point out that Cradle's ability is triggered, not activated. 

He plays another Wall and starts gaining 10 life a turn. He soon gets Emeria the Sky Ruin active. He gains a lot of life and casts Day of Judgement to kill my creatures which I can't bring back. However, I drop a Cradle of Vitality, Mycoid Shepherd, and Wall of Reverence. This combo allows me to make a very very large Wall, but his guys keep coming back so I can't attack without trample, which the deck does not have. I get 2 500+ P/T creatures and 850 life, but he finds his Felidar Sovereign before I find mine and the game is over.

0-3

Round 4: It's A Wonderful Life for Time Sieve!

Turn 4 I get a Mycoid Shepherd while he gets Kaleidostone and Howling Mine. He's wary of my one trick: gaining life to foil his attack. Therefore when he comboes off he makes sure he hits me for about 20 above my life total, and I fold.

Game 2 I get a Cradle and a Battlegrace. I also Solemn Offering his Howling Mine. In a long, boring game, he attacks for 13 with a Hulk, and I triple Soul's Grace, hoping he'll deck himself trying to deal 60 damage. Unfortunately, he does not.

0-4

And that ends the Bad Deck Baz series! With my stellar 2-10 record I now depart for greener pastures where I can go 3-1 once again. Join me next time as I explore a concept that is incredibly important to playing Magic competitively: even if you hate me for believing it.

Zendikar Achievements!

I was wondering a couple of months ago: what would make Magic even better? ACHIEVEMENTS! But what was the point of making achievements just for myself? Flash forward to now, and I now have the medium to do so.

For the uninitiated:

Achievements, also known by many names, like awards, accomplishments, feats or badges, are certain objectives within a game, the accomplishment of which awards a certain amount of points (usually). Gamers love achievements, as it's in their nature to strive for objectives. Xbox 360 has it, World of Warcraft has it...why not Magic?

Thus, every time a new set is released and whenever the hell I feel like it, I'll release a new group of achievements. If you succeed at one, feel free to post your story!

Here are the first 15 achievements I've come up with:

HOW Much Mana?: Kick one of the following cards: Conqueror’s Pledge, Rite of Replication, Sadistic Sacrament, Elemental Appeal, Gigantiform. (10 points)

Land Ho!: Play 3 land in a single turn. (10 points)

Suicide Indeed: Take 10 self-inflicted damage in one game. (10 points)

Winnin’ The Expedition: Activate 2 Expedition cards in one turn. (10 points)

Another One?: Play 4 of any card that isn’t a basic land in a single game. (20 points)

Cards Up My Sleeve: Destroy 3 different types of permanent in one game. (The permanent types are creature, artifact, enchantment, land, planeswalker and tribal). (20 points)

Down With The Chief: Defeat a player who has a Bloodchief Ascension with 3 or more counters on it. (20 points)

Here Have Some Cards: Win a game by casting Sign in Blood on an opponent. (20 points)

Man of the Land: Have a 10/10 or bigger creature from among the following: Knight of the Reliquary, Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, Territorial Baloth. (20 points)

Not Very Observant: Play the alternate casting costs of 3 traps in a single game. (20 points)

The Other Rare-Draft: Pick 12 full-art basic lands in a draft, then 3-0 the draft. (30 points)

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Fetches!: Go Top 3 at FNM with a mono-colored deck. (30 points)

You Suck: Steal a permanent, destroy all creatures, and take an extra turn in a 24-hour period. (30 points)

I'd like feedback on this, since it's a pretty unique idea, and I figure either it totally flops or it does well, and I love experimenting.

I am currently accepting stories and submissions for new achievements at salivanth@live.com, or on Twitter at

www.twitter.com/mtgsalivanth.

Happy achieving!