Doubling Planeswalkers!

Note: The Miniseries 2 will not be airing for a while, due to Worldwake about to consume every post in this blog for about a month. In the meantime, enjoy this random-ass Extended deck.

Have you ever felt like Planeswalkers would be more awesome if you could use their ultimate as soon as you played it? I have. And now, there is a way.

Before anyone asks, this does, in fact, work within the rules. Behold the comprehensive rules excerpt that proves it:

306.5b A planeswalker is treated as if its text box included, "This permanent enters the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters on it equal to its printed loyalty number." This ability creates a replacement effect (see rule 613.1c).

Thus, as it's a replacement effect that adds the counters, Doubling Season works as another replacement effect to instead put more counters on. I scoured the planeswalkers to find the ones that could end the game basically by themselves with an Ultimate activation and found these:

Chandra Nalaar

Sarkhan Vol

Ajani Goldmane

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Nicol Bolas was out, way too expensive, but the other three work well. Chandra Wraths the board and takes 10 life from them, Sarkhan makes 10 4/4 fliers and Ajani makes two gigantic dudes (remember, Doubling Season!) Together, they provide enough consistency that I am near certain to draw one.

Doubling Season doesn't have that, so I added it's good friend Idyllic Tutor.

Here's the decklist I ended up with:

Lands (22)

4 Arid Mesa

3 Forest

2 Ghost Quarter

2 Mountain

2 Plains

3 Sacred Foundry

3 Stomping Ground

3 Temple Garden

Creatures (8)

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Noble Hierarch

Spells (30)

4 Ajani Goldmane

4 Chandra Nalaar

4 Chrome Mox

4 Idyllic Tutor

4 Naya Charm

2 Path to Exile

4 Sarkhan Vol

Sideboard (15)

4 Chalice of the Void

4 Engineered Explosives

2 Guttural Response

3 Krosan Grip

2 Path to Exile

Basically the idea is simple.

Step 1: Ramp into a Doubling Season.
Step 2: Drop a planeswalker.
Step 3: Win the game.

I don't think it's Tier 1, but it's a nice little strategy. If you already play Extended, you'll have all the expensive cards, and people will often think you're playing Zoo until it's too late.

I'll have some basic testing of the deck up tomorrow, as well as the rudiments of a sideboard plan. Enjoy!

Zendikar Decks Part III: W/B/R Control

Hello everyone and welcome to Zendikar Decks Part III! Today's deck is W/B/R Control. Here's the decklist I chose to run:

Lands (26)

4 Arid Mesa
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Marsh Flats
4 Mountain
5 Plains
5 Swamp

Creatures (4)

4 Baneslayer Angel

Spells (30)

3 Ajani Vengeant
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Day of Judgement
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Martial Coup
3 Path to Exile
4 Sign in Blood
3 Terminate
4 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard:

3 Blightning
4 Celestial Purge
4 Deathmark
1 Martial Coup
2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Path to Exile

I hopped on MWS to do battle.

Round 1 vs. Naya

Unfortunately I lost the notes for this match. I lost, but it went to 3 games. It was his bombs vs. my removal, and in Games 1 and 3 he drew better, and in Game 2 I drew better.

0-1

Round 2 vs. Jund Landfall Ramp

He plays a Turn 2 Lotus Cobra, which I Terminate. I lay a Chandra, and he gets a Harrow / Khalni Heart combo to put loads of land in play. I bolt an Ob Nixilis, and lay Ajani. I then have a fully charged Chandra. The game is over quickly as my planeswalkers burn him out.

Game 2 we play land-go for a while until I drop Ajani. He drops Ob Nixilis. I bolt it and start building up Ajani. He plays Broodmate Dragon. I Day of Judgement and get to 7 counters on Ajani. He Earthquakes for 7. Must be nice...

I drop Chandra and start building THAT up. He plays Baloths and Harrow for 14 power of dudes. I Day of Judgement again and build up to 8 counters on Chandra. I win next turn.

1-1

Round 3 vs. Mill.dec

He plays Birds of Paradise, I play Sign in Blood. He plays Grazing Gladehart. I'm confused. When in doubt, kill it. So I Volcanic Fallout. I drop Ajani, he drops Lotus Cobra and a fetch. Damn it. He plays a Khalni Gem. It could be worse. He kills Ajani next turn. I drop another one to kill Lotus Cobra. He Traumatizes me. Ow. I start building up Ajani, but he Archive Traps me, and then Trapmaker's Snares for Archive Trap #2. I  lose.

Game 2 I manage to get stuck on 2 land and he gets a Lotus Cobra. He Mind Funerals me, and plays Grazing Gladehart before I draw into red and manage to bolt the Cobra. He Traumatizes me. I Blightning him but he's gaining lots of life off Gladehart. He Traumatizes me again, and then searches for an Archive Trap a few turns later, still sittin' pretty at over 15 life.

1-2

Round 4 vs. Valakut Burn

He starts out with a Goblin Guide, revealing no lands several times. I Sign In Blood to find more land, but my life's plummeting. I manage to Path the Guide and play a Baneslayer, and he Lightning Bolts + Fallouts it. He lays Valakut and Bolts me to single-digits. This is NOT good. I fail to draw any stabilising cards, and die quickly.

This game made me want to kill myself painfully. He starts out with double Quest for Pure Flame and starts dropping burn creatures like Hellspark and Ball Lightning. I Path, Purge or Terminate each one of them. This continues for a LONG time but I can't draw a finisher, despite siding more in. Eventually he drops a Valakut and burns me to death. I didn't have any way of dealing with burn besides attacking with Baneslayer. Number of finishers in the deck: 8. Number of cards I drew in that game: 20ish.

1-3

Salivanth's Rating: 1.5/5
Matches Won x2: 2/8

Score: 3.5

This deck is terrible. I don't give it a one because when it did get the mana right, against a creature deck, it was hard to beat. All control decks should be though. The deck has several flaws:

Lack of ability to close the game. I should have added Luminarch Ascension.

Bad mana. This is a 2-color or shard based format. Even 4 colors are better than 3 enemy colors. Seriously. Don't play with an arc deck. It WILL FAIL.

Total inability to deal with non-permanents. This is not good in a deck that needs to be able to answer everything the opponent plays.

Do not play this deck, for the love of god. If you're desperate for a control deck I'll make another one, but don't play this one!

See you tomorrow with Warp World!

Why Is Warren Instigator Mythic?

Today, Evan Erwin revealed the following spoiler on The Magic Show:

Warren Instigator
Creature - Goblin Berserker
Double Strike Whenever Warren Instigator deals damage to an opponent, you may put a Goblin creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
	1/1

This card is, without a doubt, amazing. I feel that Standard's plethora of removal can handle it, and that it's not as broken as people make it out to be. A Turn 3 hit is very different to a Turn 2 hit.


However, I have a complaint. In this article, Wizards made the following quote: 


"We want the flavor of mythic rare to be something that feels very special and unique. Generally speaking we expect that to mean cards like Planeswalkers, most legends, and epic-feeling creatures and spells. They will not just be a list of each set's most powerful tournament-level cards."


Flavor, Wizards. FLAVOR. Warren Instigator PLAYS epicly, but it doesn't feel epic to me. Planeswalkers are one-in-a-million beings that fly across the cosmos and are incredibly powerful mages. Legendary creatures are heroes or villains: the most powerful, charismatic characters on a whole plane of existence. Even Baneslayer Angel, neither legendary nor a planeswalker, is not something you expect to see as often as a rare locale, or the lord of a tribe.


Warren Instigator is. Ignore the pretty rules text for a moment. What is Warren Instigator, from a flavour perspective. Let's examine the card as it looks in booster packs.





That's better: now we can see the art and the flavour text.


So essentially, what we have here is a Warren Instigator, which does exactly what it's name is. It instigates warrens. A warren is a goblin habitat, and Google defines 'instigate' as


 "someone who deliberately foments trouble"


or as 


"a person who initiates a course of action".


Now, Warren Instigator could be either one. Perhaps the danger is real, perhaps the danger is not: but in the end, what we have here, and this is supported by the flavour text of this card is, occupying the slot reserved for legendary creatures and planeswalkers...


A goblin that yells out to other goblins and gets them to come outside and fight.


That's all. Someone who says "Hey guys! There's danger out here, come kill it!"


So why, WHY was this mythic? As a 1/ 1 double strike that puts Goblins into play, it's strong as a rare, but certainly not Baneslayer Angel swingy. The Orb of Insight says that the amount of times 'Goblin' appears in Zendikar is 17. Assuming that this makes up seventeen cards (unlikely, since there's almost certainly going to be a couple of cards that reference goblins without BEING goblins) that's still not too many goblins. Let's even weight it towards commons. There are 7 commons, 5 uncommon, and 4 rare (and 1 mythic, of course) goblins in Zendikar. Note, this is more than is probable.


There are a total of 101 commons in large sets as of Shards of Alara. There are also 60 uncommons. That means that on average, there will be about three goblins in five packs: or 15 goblins in a draft.


This seems like a lot, but you certainly won't get every goblin in the draft. If you're lucky, let's say you get 9. This includes a copy of Warren Instigator.


The odds of you drawing a Warren Instigator in the first 3 turns are 1 in 4. Half the time you draw it, it'll be the mid-late game and you might not even HAVE goblins in hand. Add to the fact that some of these goblins are going to be weak creatures, and you have the chance of a blowout being very slim. Most of the time Warren Instigator comes out, it'll shoot out one weak goblin, and then it'll be a 1/1 double strike.


Contrast this with Baneslayer Angel, the other non-legendary, non-planeswalker mythic.


If you draw Baneslayer Angel one in three games, she will still probably win you that game if your opponent does not have the removal spell. If you're at 5 mana, she's ready to fight. Contrasted with the highly situational Warren Instigator and she's clearly too swingy for rare.


Warren Instigator is not, so the only thing I can think of is that Wizards has broken it's own policy to print this money-rare: essentially, they've distorted the meaning of 'mythic' in order to sell more packs. Warren Instigator isn't MYTHIC. It'd still be a chase rare: why should it be mythic? 


What's your opinion? I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. I'd rather think Wizards had an excellent reason for printing this card at Mythic than they forgot about what a Mythic should be, or worst-case, disregarded it to sell more packs. 


The spoiler post will be on tomorrow, in addition to the tournament report. I just figured this had to be said.