Origins Multicolored Uncommons in Play

As a fun challenge I am making decks with each one of these. [I finally played all ten decks by September 7, 2015!]

1. Black/Green (or Golgari) Elves with Shaman of the Pack

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/08/standard-origins-elves.html

2. Black/Red (or Rakdos) with Blazing Hellhound

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/08/standard-origins-rakdos-blazing.html

3. Boros (White/Red) Build for Iroas's Champion

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/08/standard-origins-boros-build-iroas.html

4. White/Black (Orzhov) Build for Blood-Cursed Knight

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/08/standard-origins-build-for-blood-cursed.html

5. Blue/Black (Dimir) - Possessed Skaab

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/08/standard-origins-dimir-possessed-skaab.html

6. White/Blue (Azorius) - Thundering Wyvern

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/08/standard-origins-azorius-thundering.html

7. Red/Green (Gruul) - Zendikar Incarnate

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/08/standard-origins-azorius-zendikar.html

8. Blue/Red (Izzet) - Reclusive Artificer

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/standard-origins-izzet-reclusive.html 

9. Blue/Green (Simic) - Bounding Krasis

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/standard-origins-simic-bounding-krasis.html

10. White/Green (Selesnya) - Citadel Castellan

http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/standard-origins-build-citadel-castellan.html

[Standard] Origins Rakdos - Blazing Hellhound

It took many deck substitutions to get to this deck, and now it is really smooth and quite the beater in Just for Fun.

Here is a win against elves.

Shaman hits me for 7... ouch, this card wins games!

Once I play Archfiend of Depravity my opponent knows they are about to lose a bunch of their critters next turn anyways and launches a Kamikaze attack.

Flyers when my opponent does not have any.

I sacrifice the Archfiends and my Hellhound wins the game.

Here is a win against a very fast dash deck.

I took a beating and then I was able to stabilize.

I took out one of the opposing critters.

Then caused discard and took out the second critter.

Hit to 1 life.

Then use my Hellhound to score the final point (life).

M15 Frame as a casual format

There are many casual formats possible for Magic, and as long as it is cards in your collection, you can make a format with whatever you want in it. I have been thinking of coming up with a home format that is small and current, and I can find no better format than the M15 frame. It sucks that it begins with Khans of Tarkir, which, although it has something for everyone, including me, ranks low in my list of favorite blocks.

I like Scars of Mirrodin (because of artifacts) and Return to Ravnica (because of gold cards) best, followed by Innistrad because it is our era's Urza block of brokenness and format-dominating cards.

At this point an 'M15 frame' format is as small as the Standard format after Theros rotates out, and that gives me something to look forward to.

The problem I have encountered with every other casual format or cube I have come up with is money.

1. The Artifact Modern blocks: Mirrodin and Scars of Mirrodin. If these packs were cheap I would be building it!

2. The Modern Multicolored cube: Ravnica and Return to Ravnica. I have a ton of RTR, but those Ravnica packs are super expensive... next idea.

3. The Multicolored Supercube, adding Invasion to Ravnica and RTR is an even more costly idea. $10 old packs hits the wallet really hard.

Yes, I could 'go pauper' but let's face it, the rares is where the ridiculously fun play is.

Back to main, I think the M15 frame casual format has great timing and is easy on the wallet. I have already attended pre-releases for M15, Fate Reforged, Dragons of Tarkir, and Origins, and all of these packs are still at Target and Walmart.

If KTK block did not have Treasure Cruise I would have probably not started up on this made-up format, but Treasure Cruise is in this format, and that is a lot of casual fun.

Sucker Lands and the Zendikar Fetch Lands Mess

The Modern format got Modern Masters 2015, and it seems that for paper players, Modern is where former Legacy players are going. Maybe this is also true online. Now with the news that the Zendikar fetchlands will not be reprinted in Battle for Zendikar, the price of those cards has begun a huge increase. Here are the online prices (thanks to MTGGoldfish for such an awesome site, check them out: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/ )

Here is what happened yesterday.

This is what happened today. It seems that the rush to buy slowed down a little.

Modern seems to be the new Legacy as far as entry cost is concerned, minus the color imbalance (blue is the color of Legacy) and the long list of very broken cards. I am disappointed that the Zendikar fetchlands will not be reprinted in Battle for Zendikar, but I understand that Wizards may need those lands to sell some other product and they already have enough cards they feel will sell Battle for Zendikar-allies, full art lands, new rare lands (which I am calling sucker lands because every time I pull one I will feel like I should have pulled a Zendikar fetchland).

I am glad we have the allied color fetches.

September 3 update: the Sucker Lands seem to be getting the name Slowlands and I think it will likely stick.

September 10 update: Tangolands is another name I have seen been used. In time a specific name will stick. I like Suckerlands, but no one seems to be calling them that.

October 10 update: seeing the mana bases in the first batch of BFZ standard (follow this link to the first of three articles net decking this large batch of decks), I guess I do see why the Zendikar fetchlands will likely not be in Standard while the Onslaught, or allied color fetchlands are in that format. Easy access to all colors makes everyone build the same deck, and that is no fun. I think I now understand why Wizards made the right decision by not having all ten fetchlands in the same Standard format. 

Legacy Stash Online 2015

Link to previous article on Legacy Staple buys

I have written before about how awesome it would be if there was a Legacy Masters online in 2016. These days Legacy seems to be pretty much dead online, and that is a shame. I have amassed a ton of Legacy cards online and I see no prospect of getting to play them. After Vintage Masters events ended and the Flashback Draft events ended the prospects for Vintage and Legacy online look grim.

I still hold out hope that someday Legacy will be a format that is often played online! And especially by casual players like me who want to play all those cards that are NOT staples. I hope the same for Vintage as well. I made a few Legacy buys and plan to do a few more. My hope springs eternal for Legacy and Vintage online.

August 14 update:

I am currently missing all of the blue duals, which have gone down in price some since my May 2015 blog post.

Tropical Island $8.91 to $5.59
Volcanic Island $19.21 to $13.36
Underground Sea $15.51 to $11.40
Tundra $10.66 to $8.66

[Standard] Origins Elves - Shaman of the Pack

Definitely a battle cruiser version of Elves.

I did surprisingly well. Here I win even though one of my big elves got enchanted with Pacifism. 

I have done well against some of the red decks now in play. I surprisingly beat this Goblin token deck.

And I also beat a sightly different Goblin token deck.

And another, this one in Red/Black. This one was Shaman of the Pack for the win.

Mirror matches are not that much fun. They are a Shaman of the Pack race. I won this one, and lost another one.

Origins Buys for Casual Deckbuilding

Elves.

Various low-priced rares. Some will work out great, most will be junk rares as always.

September 8 update: $15 for more casual play, and Languish.