Planeswalkers (Paper Only)

I am looking for some cheap planeswalkers to make decks with In Real Life (IRL), and looked up all of them. Here they are. The Theros block planeswalkers are in their out of Standard rotation low.

These are here for someone else to use. I am looking for the cheaper ones only.

A Turn 2 Loss to Storm in Modern

Storm is Magic pretending to be Yugioh, and one of the decks I would like to see go some day. It can be amusing to see one of these decks go off. I have lost games like this one many times before, and the loss is not what annoys me, its the complete lack of interaction. If you don't have a way to stop the combo, it will go off all at once. Here is the blow-by-blow (with a few edits because it took my opponent something like 10 minutes to make all of the plays required).

My opponent had the two key pieces to get started turn 2: Paradise Mantle (Equipped creature has ": Add one mana of any color to your mana pool." Equip ) on Blistercoil Weird (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Blistercoil Weird gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Untap it.)

Keep tapping and untapping to generate mana and play cards that cost one mana in blue or red to cast and that allow you to draw a card each time (cantrips).

Three Peaks later, here is a 2-life zero-mana Gitaxian Probe.

Manamorphose does the same thing for 2 mana.

And then Pyromancer Ascension (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that has the same name as a card in your graveyard, you may put a quest counter on Pyromancer Ascension. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell while Pyromancer Ascension has two or more quest counters on it, you may copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.) begins the loop of more mana getting my opponent to draw more cards and once these land in the graveyard, they get more counters to copy those spells.

Hello Crimson Wisps, 1 counter on Pyromancer Ascension.

Enter Visions of Beyond.

Enter a second Faithless Looting (I skipped a few cards coming in).

And here Faithless Looting gets copied.

Now my opponent has a second Pyromancer Ascension. The copying can happen many times per turn.

Ideas Unbound.

My opponent has 22 cards in hand.

Grapeshot for the win.

And my opponent has an alternate winning condition with an 18/18 Blistercoil Weird unopposed.

Battle Cruiser Cube Deck 1 Avacyn Restored White Blue Humans

Here is a White/Blue with Avacyn Restored cards except for a play set of Mana Leak. The power level online in Modern Just for Fun is pretty high, definitely much higher than kitchen table Magic, and Mana Leak is here to let me play my deck through and occasionally even win with it.

My favorite combos in this deck involved drawing cards off Tandem Lookout or Mass Appeal. A crazy draw is when Tandem Lookout is soul bonded with Silverblade Paladin and they both deal direct damage to your opponent, drawing four cards out a single attack.

Here is the mana curve.

Here are a few simulated first hands.

And a few wins.

1. I couldn't do anything about a hexproof creature loaded with Enchantment Auras, yet I could drop Human after Human and attack with my army at will.

Here is one of the last barrages.

2. This mono black deck forced to discard a ton, but I could draw a ton to replace my lost Humans.

3. Here I outrace a tron deck. By the time my opponent played Wurmcoil Engine, I already had my army ready.

4. Here I lost, yet I did get to play Angel of Glory's Rise. 

That's a lot of soul bonding, too bad my opponent's deck was full of powerful Modern staples.

A Battle Cruiser Cube Part 1

The sets I want in it are Avacyn Restored, Battle for Zendikar, and Oath of the Gatewatch. I have a complete set of AVR from an online redemption. I am also missing very few of those cards online. I am not interested in Primal Surge, Marlignus, or Descent into Madness. Here are the cards I need online at this point.

It would be fun to pull a Griselbrand! Here is a pack I just opened. I know... its a lottery I should not be playing. And these packs are $4.17 online... ouch!

Anyways, on paper I have the complete AVR set, and an almost complete common/uncommon play set. This is the perfect set to match up with BFZ. Both sets have very limited removal that allows for the casting of gigantic spells: Battle Cruiser Magic at its best.

The easiest way to have fun building this cube is to get started with commons and uncommons only, and then add the rares and the mythic rares later. Griselbrand will be reprinted some day, and I am not in the mood to buy packs just to pull that card online. The same applies to Cavern of Souls.

Also, a cube is about having fun, and even if I am starting off with three sets, these are the foundation sets. If there is a cool card that I can add to have lots of fun, its in. The major limitation I want to keep is that I own every card online and paper at the same time. It is a lot of fun to be able to play decks made with cards in this cube online. I have already tried three preparation decks with AVR cards and cards from recent sets.

I plan to build this cube deck by deck, instead of including a bunch of cards and hoping that they can all be used to make working, fun decks. Now, about the decks:

On the eve of Battle for Zendikar coming out I have two types of decks: mostly Avacyn Restored only decks, and casual decks from a bunch of left over card packs from the many Deckbuilder Toolkits I have opened during the last few years. The AVR decks are easier to build because those cards were designed for a specific Limited experience, and the "Toolkit" decks are a little harder to build because they can a little off with their intended strategy.

Here is a deck mostly with Avacyn Restored cards to get things started (White/Blue Humans).

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/battle-cruiser-cube-deck-1.html

 I have abandoned the idea of using the complete AVR for a cube for now.

Here is a link to the deck I will actually use for this cube.

Battle for Zendikar Set Reviews

This is a marathon of a review. This is the first set for which I review every single card (minus the rare allied duals everyone knows about). Time will tell how on or off my review of a specific card was. Enjoy!

1. Old and New Eldrazi Colorless Cast Spells
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/old-and-new-eldrazi-part-1-colorless.html

2. Old and New Eldrazi Colorless Cast Creatures
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/old-and-new-eldrazi-part-2-colorless.html

3. Old and New Eldrazi Colorless Cast Creatures
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/old-and-new-eldrazi-part-3-colorless.html

4. Old and New Eldrazi Colorless Cast Creatures
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/old-and-new-eldrazi-part-4-colorless.html

5. New Eldrazi Blue Casts (and a Black one)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/new-eldrazi-part-5-blue-casts-and-black.html

6. Old and New Eldrazi Black Casts
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/old-and-new-eldrazi-part-6-black-casts.html

7. Old and New Eldrazi Red Casts
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/old-and-new-eldrazi-part-7-red-casts.html

8. Old and New Eldrazi Green Casts
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/old-and-new-eldrazi-part-8-green-casts.html

9. New Eldrazi Multicolored Casts (and a Red Cast)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/new-eldrazi-part-9-multicolored-casts.html

10. White Allies (and two Blue ones)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-10-white-allies-and-two.html

11. Black Allies and Vampires
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-11-black-allies-and.html

12. Red and Green Allies
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-12-red-and-green-allies.html

13. Multicolored Non-Eldrazi Spells (most are Allies)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-13-multicolored-non.html

14. Awaken, Converge, and Landfall (White and Blue)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-14-awaken-converge-and.html

15. Awaken, Converge, and Landfall (Black and Red)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-15-awaken-converge-and.html

16. Awaken, Converge, and Landfall (Green) + Planeswalkers
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-16-awaken-converge-and.html

17. Other Spells (White plus one Blue Spell)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-17-other-spells-white.html

18. Other Spells (rest of Blue and Black)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-18-other-spells-rest-of.html

19. Other Spells (Red and some Green)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-19-other-spells-red-and.html

20. Other Spells (rest of Green and Artifacts)
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-20-other-spells-rest-of.html

21. The Lands
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/bfz-review-part-21-lands.html

BFZ Review Part 21: The Lands

Link to Part 20

The rare allied colors cycle has been discussed and reviewed by too many already. They will be good in Standard. Some people call them Tangolands. I call them Suckerlands.

Ally Encampment: add 4 to your Ally deck, done.

Blighted Cataract: nice late game card draw.
Blighted Fen: nice late game sacrifice, although your opponent could have a choice to sacrifice a small critter.

Blighted Gorge: would be fun to use it as a game finisher just because. Seems like one of the weaker lands in this cycle.
Blighted Steppe: life gain usually delays the inevitable. It has a home in the white/black "Friends of Ajani's Pridemate" deck. Seems like one of the weaker lands in this cycle.

Blighted Woodland: very nice indeed. It replaces itself and gives you an additional land. I like it a lot.

Fertile Thicket: careful use required. OK, you dug up a basic land, and you could also end up putting four very good cards for that phase of the game at the bottom of your library. This card could backfire big time.
Looming Spires: a small effect for a tapped land. I am not sure I would use it.

Mortuary Mire: nice effect at common. "Target creature" can be one of your major threats. I like it a lot.
Skyline Cascade: could gain you an extra turn to do something against a big threat. I like this one although not as much as the black one.

Sandstone Bridge: a small effect for a tapped land. I am not sure I would use it.

 

Shambling Vent: one of the two money rare lands, and the one with the smaller casting cost. I plan to play it unless it becomes ridiculously expensive. 

Lumbering Falls: one of the two money rare lands, and the one with the larger casting cost. I plan to play it unless it becomes ridiculously expensive.

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods: its a nice boost in an Eldrazi deck. This set's Eldrazi Temple. Should be very useful.
Sanctum of Ugin: this set's Eye of Ugin. It is not Legendary, and that makes it really really good, but you have to sacrifice it, and Eye of Ugin does not need to be sacrificed.

Spawning Bed: a little heavy for the effect, but in casual that does not matter. Great casual card, must play.