Magic the Gathering Adventures: August 2019

A Brawl Remembrance: Gishath (Ixalan) Part 2

I love this deck. It deserves a long post broken into two parts. Here, I continue to show how these cards interact in solitaire play. There should be a Panharmonicon deck with Dinosaurs someday...

Dinosaurs that fly are great, and when they can make a non-flying Dinosaur fly, that's even better.

Gishath is very difficult to cast, but once you do and attack with it, you can free cast additional dinosaurs. I took out Sun-Blessed Mount once I realized it tutors for the Planeswalker deck Huatli.

The incremental damage from Rampaging Ferocidon can add up nicely.

Here is a late game Path of Mettle. This deck does not have enough synergy with this card.

Priest of the Wakening Sun is a life gain machine, but can be taken out easily (as a 1/1).

Here is another batch of Gishath free casting of Dinosaurs.

Ripjaw Raptor is one of the best targets for a Forerunner tutor (enrage trigger draws a card).

Here is another batch of Gishath free casting of Dinosaurs.

...and another.

I put in Nissa after I had played many games. It's a great addition (to replace the DInosaur that tutors for the Planeswalker deck Huatli).

The Rivals Huatli can get an absurd number of counters that you can then use to mega boost one of your creatures.

A not-so-great Gishath free cast.

In this case, I really needed the land off Commune with Dinosaurs.

A smooth flow got me to this board (both Kinjalli's Caller, and Otepec Huntmaster are on the board).

Ghaltia is easy to cast with a full board (of course!!!).

A Brawl Remembrance: Gishath (Ixalan) Part 1

This is my favorite of the four tribes, with Merfolk a close second. Drop big critters for the win; what's not to like?

Commune with Dinosaurs is important to smooth out the Dinosaur drops, or, in an emergency, to avoid mana screw.

If you are allowed to have enough creatures on the board, Ghalta is not difficult to cast.

Some of the Dinosaurs drop tokens... nice!

Most of the time, Gishath drops way too late. I would have to work on the early mana to make that happen at least one turn early consistently.

Another Commune with Dinosaurs.

I did not trigger enrage here, and that's what Titonalli's Crown is really for.

Vanguard's Banner is late game draw perfection.

Path of Mettle is cheap for a reason: it is quite restrictive.
The first clause protects the creatures you want to use for the flip:
When Path of Mettle enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to each creature that doesn't have first strike, double strike, vigilance, or haste.
The second clause uses them for the flip:
Whenever you attack with at least two creatures that have first strike, double strike, vigilance, and/or haste, transform Path of Mettle.

You can kill off Raptor Hatchling and you get the token, but it's way better to boost it enough so that it doesn't die, and then you can get more than one tokes and keep your Raptor Hatchling alive.

There are two cards that reduce the casting cost of Dinosaurs by 1 mana in this deck: Kinjalli's Caller, and Otepec Huntmaster (shown in play below). It's great to have one of these on the board, and it's even better to have both!

I am done with this deck. There is a part 2 next.

A Brawl Remembrance: Admiral Beckett Brass (Ixalan)

This deck requires some thinking. There are several cards that yield incremental advantages. It is also hard to pilot in solitaire because there's no "other player" to abuse. Still, it's a really fun deck.

The tribal artifacts have been more important in this deck than I thought they could be. The Forerunner also surprised me: pinging for 1 a lot does add up.

An early solid board.

I am still misusing Protean Rider. I think it's a much better play to copy a stronger creature later game.

Felg Flagship causes opponent to discard: can be a really good effect.

Solid tutor targets: Ruin Raider (extra card draw at a cost), Captain Lannery Storm (additional Treasure tokens), Fathom Fleet Captain (Pirate tokens).