Effect of Oath of Gideon

Oath of Gideon will give your planeswalker an extra loyalty counter upon entry to the battlefield.

I looked at all of the planeswalkers. Here are the ones to benefit the most from this card. BFZ Gideon is the only one you can ultimate on entry, but there are several that can ultimate next turn, and some (the four in blue) live after that +one turn ultimate.

[Modern] UB Baby Eldrazi Part 2 of 2 (Now Esper)

link to Part 1

I decided to add some stronger cards by adding White to the deck (from Dimir to Esper): Path to Exile and Supreme Verdict.

Here I take out an opposing flyer with Wasteland Strangler.

Wipe-out!

Exile a flyer....

And take out a second flyer. I swung for a near-win after this and my opponent gave up.

Of course, I often encounter over-powered decks. Why hit with Annihilator 4 alone? Sigh...

[Modern] UB Baby Eldrazi Part 1 of 2

My first attempt with these cards is BFZ-only since Oath of the Gatewatch has not yet come out online. I have helper artifacts to make sure I have cards in my opponent's exile zone, although often with this deck their work turned out to be somewhat of an over-kill, even making the deck almost a mill deck.

Nihil Spellbomb works great. Relic of Progenitus is better and I have both... don't know why I picked one over the other, but we are casual here.

Here is Ulamog's Nullifier countering a spell.

This deck had some graveyard interactions, but they were not strong enough for me to have to worry about them. In a not-so-casual setting I would have worried about every one of these interactions. 

And here you see how I am drawing two cards every time my opponent casts a land: sweet!

Time to swing for the win.

Altar of the Brood proved a little too efficient for my needs.

Oops.... my opponent is running a reanimator deck!

Ouch, ouch, ouch....

Too many Angels I couldn't remove!

link to Part 2

The Importance of Flash

There is a lot of hype about Thought-Knot Seer, but even though I love the card, can't wait to play it in Standard, and would like to even try it in Modern, I am not getting on that hype train. Take a look at these three cards.

What do the first two have that the third one does not? Flash, of course. I was thinking of all the hits I have taken from Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique, and all of them have one thing in common: they all happened at a time in the turn when the only way to make a play with a creature is for it to have Flash. With Flash, you can sit there waiting for just the right moment. You may have even played a spell that let you see your opponent's hand, and then you swing with Vendilion Clique and take out the offending card. It's a sweet play.

Now enter our new card, Thought-Knot Seer, which you can see coming because it can only be cast at the beginning or at the end of a player's turn on their turn. Never mind that it's a four-drop. That extra mana makes a huge difference between Vendilion Clique and Thought-Knot Seer. Oh, and did I forget that Vendilion Clique has Flying?

It is true, though, that Thought-Knot Seer is not blue. But it is also not generic like Wurmcoil Engine. You need a way to cast with Wastes. Still, I think Thought-Knot Seer is worth testing in Modern, yet I would like to test it in decks not running blue, since these are the only decks where Thought-Knot Seer adds something Vendilion Clique cannot add.

BFZ + OGW Eldrazi Part 2 of 2

Here are the more expensive Eldrazi. I will be adding notes in this post as I look at these Eldrazi for deckbuilding ideas. Most of these are too heavy for Modern, and the ones that aren't will more often than not need some help.

BFZ + OGW Eldrazi Part 1 of 2

Now that we have a large selection of Eldrazi, I would like to build a bunch of casual Modern decks with these new cards. I first lined up a few helper artifacts to make sure we have enough exiled cards in our opponent's exile zone. I will be adding notes in this post as I look at these Eldrazi for deckbuilding ideas.

Here are the lower casting cost Eldrazi. 

Fifth Dawn Rares Online and Serum Visions

My main goal for Fifth Dawn was to complete my playset of Serum Visions, and I picked one out of the second draft, had two promos, and bought one from the bots: I am done.

Here are the rares. I will stop here for these Flashback drafts. I need to save up for Oath of the Gatewatch!