Wednesday, July 31, 2013

M14 Deck: Zoo Beatdown Mono-green

I am very much out of money until Theros comes out. The decks in this interim period will all be casual!

This deck is a  lot of fun in Just for Fun. I played against the money version of it, for which I have some screenshots here. This deck should really be called Green Deck Wins because you just throw 40 creatures at your opponent and overwhelm with them. Even if your opponent has removal, your next draw has a 2 in 3 chance of being a creature! I love this concept.




The money version has Kalonian Hydra, Scanvenging Ooze and Domri Rade. Needless to say, I got crushed. The Ooze feeds on creatures in the graveyard and the Hydra doubles every turn....


I also played against a Nivix Cyclops deck in Just for Fun and was able to do the 'overwhelm' thing.


M14 Deck: Lifegain Voracious Wurm Casual Build-around

I am very much out of money until Theros comes out. The decks in this interim period will all be casual!





I played against a slivers deck in Just for Fun and did well, but this deck is way too much of a combo deck to do well in tournaments. The cards have to line up too much to get enough life to boost Voracious Wurm and then give it hexproof with Alpha Authority. If you pull off the combo, you almost cannot lose.



Here is a fully built Wurm.


M14 deck: Casual Bant Hexproof

I am very much out of money until Theros comes out. The decks in this interim period will all be casual! I am using hexproof creatures and Voracious Wurm with a few lifegain cards.





Thursday, July 25, 2013

YouTube Videos of the 2014 Deck Builder's Toolkit

The videos are a lot quicker than scanning the cards. The toolkit comes with one pack each of Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, M13, and M14. I don't know what the M13 pack is doing in this selection and I think it is a mistake. The toolkit comes with some land, a selection of common and uncommon, and a selection that varies from toolkit to toolkit that has a play set of Transguild Promenade. Each Transguild Promenade is on top of a specific selection. I opened two toolkits and got the same three selections in each: milling with Dimir cards, red black without Rakdos cards, and Gruul. The selections that  were different were an Azorious selection, and a Slivers selection.


Here are the cards.


Here I compare the cards that are different for the two toolkits.


I made a Gruul slivers deck.


I also made a Dimir milling deck.



Rise of the Eldrazi online

I played a three pack draft of ROE and got me mostly black cards and artifacts. I already had a few cards, but not many.




RTR Block and M14 Redemption Status

Given that Theros block will be an enchantment block, I assessed what I had for RTR and completed a few playsets.







I also got me a Legion's Initiative. I completed a play set of Glaring Spotlight given that there will be a lot of Bant Hexproof going on in an enchantment block like Theros.


I pulled a paper Gideon and decided to get me a pair. I am slowly boosting my selection of white, much neglected so far. 


Because I have been avidly playing online from the beginning of RTR, my current redemption status is pretty good. Also, from GTC on the redemptions are $25 a piece from Wizards instead of $5 for the transaction fee and that has lowered the overall cost of the GTC and later cards: nice!




These are the cards I am currently interested in. I looked them up and the cards that are now at less than a dollar each have a 4 next to them.

White:
fiendslayer paladin
indestructibility   4
path of bravery
Blue:
quicken
tidebinder mage 4
Black:
lifebane zombie
sanguine bond 4
Red:
burning earth
mindsparker  4
Green:
enlarge 4
oath of the ancient wood 4
savage summoning 4
Artifacts:
fireshrieker 4
strionic resonator

I have done two M14 drafts and bought a few cards from the list above. These are the rares I currently have. I will wait until after Theros to get the cheap rares all in one go. There is an error in Gatherer and MTGO: Millstone is an uncommon, and the one I have is a foil.


August 23, 2013 update: played a draft and pulled a Voice of Resurgence!!!!


Did two drafts of M14 September 13, 2013 and here is what I am missing. I am done buying packs or playing in draft or sealed for this set.





Sunday, July 14, 2013

Lifegain deck online (Alive and Well split card build-around)

Here is a fun build-around with ones and twos of playables. I got a Thragtusk for the M13 redemption but did not add it to this deck.


Here is the deck.







Friday, July 12, 2013

A few core set cards: Green

On the eve of the M14 pre-release, and in no particular order.