Magic the Gathering Adventures

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

A Brawl Remembrance: Kumena (Ixalan)

This deck has made me realize how good Song of Freyalise is. Unimpeded, the counters just keep coming.

Guardian Project is a card draw engine, and Deeproot Elite will give one of my Merfolk a counter when I cast a Merfolk.

Tapping Kumena is tricky, because you are trading not attacking for card advantage. It's a shame there isn't a card that creates many Merfolk token a-la Krenko in Goblins.

Tapping for counters seems like a better idea than tapping to draw a card.

Growing Rites of Itlimoc is just an awesome card.

The counters enabled in Merfolk are what make this deck viable.

I love Proliferate!

Three tapped Merfolk early game is worth it for the extra card.

Any time I tutor for this deck, Deeproot Elite is my go-to critter.

Simic Ascendancy is cool, but I did not find that useful in Brawl. I think this card is much better in Commnder. The Brawl games are just not long enough to get this card to 20 counters.

All about the counters.

The Brawl manabase will need many dual land cycles. Otherwise, the monocolor and colorless decks will have a really strong advantage. Look at this pathetic mana screw!

Sunday, August 18, 2019

A Brawl Remembrance: Elenda (Ixalan)

This is a fairly linear strategy: drop Vampires, beef them up once in a while, tutor for them once in a while, and as they die in combat, Elenda gets bigger. The End.

Legion Lieutenant is a good pick for tutoring.

It's a fairly liner deck... drop Vampires, protect them, win (if possible).

Here is a great end-of-game layout.

Forerunner of the Legion gives temporary boosts that come in handy.

There are several Vampires in this deck with Ascend.

Champion of Dusk will draw a card for each Vampire on the board. That can be quite the draw.

Here is the outcome.

Sorin has a +2 ability. I need to remember that.

Twilight Prophet was the pick here. Double draws each turn are great!

In solitaire no Vampires die. In a real game, they sure will, and then can be used to boost Elenda.

Here is another great layout of Vampires.

And another.

Profane Profession is a fantastic card. It cannot be modeled in solitaire because you want to exile opponent creatures. I have played it against real opponents, and it's a very disruptive card.

It's linear, all right; and it's also fun!

A Brawl Remembrance: Tatyova (Dominaria)

This is one of my favorite Legendaries from Dominaria. I so wanted to make it work, but it is one mana too heavy to be amazing. It's just fun at five mana. I love this deck, and it's a shame that this card will soon be rotating out of Brawl. This card and this deck make me nostalgic for what the first season of Brawl could have been... so much potential. The deck abuses (or uses) many cards that enable me to drop an extra land and is heavy on one of my favorite abilities: Proliferate.

Most of the screenshots here, because they are from solitaire, are completely fictitious. If any opponent lets you get this far with a counters deck, they don't know how to play Magic. I am just having fun here. While I did not capture Beast Whisperer triggers in these screenshots, this is one of the go-to cards in this deck.

Evolution Sage is a major abuser of Proliferate.

Song of Freyalise is amazing in this deck. Getting one counter on each creature when it exists is just amazing.

Proliferate away!

Simic Ascendancy can get to twenty no problem in this deck. In a real game, you won't get that far. I think this card is much better as a playset and a build around it. In this deck, it's just a side show entertainment.