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!