Saturday, January 31, 2015

FRF Builds

1. Abzan Beastmaster: This deck highlights Abzan Beastmaster. Once one or two are on the board with a fattie, the extra-card drawing begins.

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/standard-mono-green-frf-build-abzan.html

2. Soulflayer Deck by Bibleman: This is a deck I played against (Blibleman is the player, great byuild!) and it is way more effective than the build I tried.

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/standard-soulflayer-deck-by-bibleman.html

3. Fun with artifacts: This deck is not a beater, but it showcases some of the new artifacts and it can win sometimes. Definitely a casual deck.

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/standard-fun-with-artifacts.html

4. Mono-Black Soulflayer: Erebos has gone down a lot in price. Here is a deck that uses devotion only just a little and uses Soulflayer only just a little as well. It is quite effective so far.

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/standard-mono-black-soulflayer.html

5. Warriors: Utter End is an awesome card in this format and is the card that makes this deck a fairly consistent winner in Just for Fun.

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/standard-warriors.html

6. Monastery Siege and Stubborn Denial Blue Green: This deck is a ton of fun, and even very good on account of how the two showcased cards work. Once you control a big critter, Stubborn Denial becomes a Counterspell for one blue.

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/standard-monastery-siege-and-stubborn.html

7. Blue Red Temur Battle Rage tryout.

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/03/standard-blue-red-temur-battle-rage.html

8. [Modern] FRF Build: Sage's Reverie: I tried several Standard builds that just didn't work. The deck works in Modern but it is not a strong deck. It is playing three colors and it could use some of the Fetchlands I don't have.

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/03/modern-frf-build-sages-reverie.html

Just in case the Zendikar Fetchlands are in Dragons of Tarkir, I intend to focus on the following two-color pairs in my FRF builds, matching the colors of the Zendikar Fetchlands:

Arid Mesa is White/Red
Marsh Flats is White/Black
Misty Rainforest is Blue/Green
Scalding Tarn is Red/Blue
Verdant Catacombs is Green/Black

Also:
Manifest, Delve, and Warriors

Here are the 30 cards I want to try out first:







Tuesday, January 27, 2015

[Standard] Mindswipe ahead of Fate Reforged

Mindswipe is a great ending spell, but I would not use it as an early counter spell since there are far better options. I built a shell with the sole purpose of casting it late game.



And I was able to cast it for the win (FTW) against a Villanous Wealth deck.


Here is Mindswipe winning me a game. It is not that consistent and against fast decks it is quite useless... we shall see how it plays when Fate Reforged enters the format.


Update for version 2: I lost to flyers and made a small change. Two Chasm Skulkers out; two Stormchaser Chimeras in. Now the deck is balanced and well thought out. It will take me a while to get good at it because of how many interactions are in it at the same time.


I pulled another awesome Mindswipe casting FTW... so sweet.



Sunday, January 25, 2015

[Standard] Black Devotion stand-by deck for the first month of Fate Reforged play

This is a budget alternative. The play set of Nykthos is not shown here but is in the deck.



Here is a win with Gray Merchant, a card I hate to lose against, and also like to win with.


Here I beat the super-agro Seeker of the Way deck. This is not what usually happens against this deck. I am only showing the one game I won but the stars need to be aligned for this very casual and budget black devotion deck to beat a very successful aggro deck.



[Standard] Morph stand-by deck for the first month of Fate Reforged play

This deck should do all right in Just for Fun for the next month. I usually wait to buy a lot of the cards for a new set one month in, after the limited grinders have increased the supply of cards enough for the prices of the casual staples to sink.







Here is a win against a green fatties deck.


Here is a win against a control deck that ends with a blue fatty.


Preparations for when Fate Reforged is in Standard online

I took a look at the artifacts I had, added a few, also got play sets of the casual lands and a few good rares that are not ridiculously expensive. I splurged on Dig Through Time now that it is only for all formats except Modern. I am planning a RUG (Red Blue Green) shell with Morph to try out Manifest. I still do not know if Manifest will be a thing and want to figure that out for myself.


Here are the artifacts. I try an artifact deck every now and then just because I like them. I am hoping that the artifact 'plants' in M15 mean that Dragons of Tarkir will have at least a minor artifact theme.




Here are the casual lands.



Saturday, January 24, 2015

[Standard] Chasm Skulker Version 2

Someone in the forums said that Chasm Skulker is one mana too heavy to be a really good card, and I agree. That one additional mana means one extra turn to take damage from your opponent. Even then, against casual decks in Just for Fun this deck is powerful and a lot of fun.




Here is a win with an unblockable Chasm Skulker.


Here is yet another win with the same setup as the previous game.


And if by turn three I am hitting for 5, I can cause a lot of damage early in the game. This deck, however, is very weak to removal. 


Thursday, January 22, 2015

Four Packs of Urza's Legacy and One Pack of Urza's Saga online

No spectacular pulls, still, I love opening packs, even when they are really just 1's and 0's.









Here is the Urza's Saga pack.