Duel Decks- Elves vs Goblins: Goblins Deck Review (Part 2 of 2)
Sam’s sat a few reviews out in favour of Jimi, whose been most enthused about testing the decks we’ve reviewed, but even that enthusiasm couldn’t hold Sam back when she had the opportunity to helm the elves to victory. Sam’s love of Green rivals that of Ken Nagle’s, and like many a Green mage the evlen tribe is near and dear to her heart.
For my part, I was more than happy to slide behind the goblins, RDW being one of my favourite archetypes. With a fistful of burn, what could go wrong?
Here are the notes from our three matches.
Wizards Announces Duel Decks: Ajani vs Nicol Bolas
Wizards today announced what we all knew was coming- Duel Decks: Ajani vs Nicol Bolas. What may be a surprise is discovering which version of Ajani will be included in the deck: Ajani Goldmane or Ajani Vengeant. We won’t know for awhile, but in the meantime head on over to the mothership and take a look.
Duel Decks- Elves vs Goblins: Elves Deck Review (part 2 of 2)
With Mirrodin Besieged behind us and the Event Decks about to be released, playing a few games of Duel Decks: Elves vs Goblins seems like a throwback to a simpler time, and in that spirit Jimi and I join battle behind two of the game’s most ancient foes. We’ll be back with the Mirrans and Phyrexians soon, but for now, there’s an even older battle to be fought, an enmity that spans times and planes. The haughty elf. The scrappy goblin. Two decks, three games.
Here are our notes.
Whispers of the Muse: Stric9’s “The Sparkler”
Welcome to the next installment of Whispers of the Muse, the occasional feature where a reader submits their tinkering of a precon deck and look for constructive criticism and feedback from the community. Time to put on the thinking caps, because we’re going way back in Magic’s history! Today we’re hearing from Stric9, who’s begun working on Stronghold’s The Sparkler. Here’s what he had to say:
Duel Decks- Elves vs Goblins: Goblins Deck Review (Part 1 of 2)
The Elves deck did a very solid job of identifying the key themes that make up the flavour of their tribe. Elves have ties to nature- they get mana ramping. Elves work well together- witness cards like Wellwisher and Heedless One which care about the number of elves in play. Elves… well, you get the idea. But the pointy-ears already had their time to shine, now it’s time for them to move over and let the Goblins run amok!
Like Elves, the Golbins’ deck follows a very straightforward structure. There are twenty-nine creatures, and just as before the one exception is an insect creature type. This is rounded out by a small handful of noncreature spells and a couple of nonbasic lands (including one that’s tribe-specific). The foil premium rare is also a mirror (Ambush Commander versus Siege-Gang Commander, the latter of the two being much better known to contemporaries eyes due to its inclusion in some Jund Constructed builds)., and there are a small number of cards of the same cycle (for instance, Voice of the Woods and Skirk Fire Marshal). That said, both decks still retain a very unique flavour due to the heavy tribal themes.
Duel Decks- Elves vs Goblins: Elves Deck Review (Part 1 of 2)
They may be a fixture now, but in the lifespan of Magic: the Gathering, Duel Decks have only enjoyed a rather brief run. First appearing in 1997, for their inaugural launch product Wizards mined familiar territory and assembled decks of Goblins and Elves to battle one another (although the series’ history actually had earlier roots). The card pool was fully bloated with these creature types, particularly the Onslaught block and the then-brand-new Lorwyn set, and these were heavily tapped to construct the decks. This would begin the Duel Decks tradition of alternating non-planeswalker-themed sets.
For this deck, what you see is what you get, no tricks or hidden surprises here. You want elves? Howabout twenty-eight of them?
New ‘Magic Beyond the Box’ Up- GDS2 Reflections
In today’s Magic Beyond the Box on Quiet Speculation, I revisit the Great Designer Search 2 in the wake of the final round of eliminations. One’s out, and three will be headed to Renton in the first week of March. How did our testing compare with that of Wizards? What insights about intro decks were revelaed by the judges? And who won those foil giveaways, anyway? Come find out!
By the way, if you’ve been scared off of visiting Quiet Spec in the past due to its long load times, that bug has at last been quashed. From end to end the site should be loading at the quick-step now.
See you there!
Mirrodin Besieged: Path of Blight Review (Part 2 of 2)
Coming full circle, we sat down tonight to put Path of Blight to the test against the deck that we kicked off the set’s reviews with, Mirromancy. While the end of the cycle, this was also something of a foreshadowing, as the mothership officially announced the decklists of the upcoming Event Decks today, one of which is an infect build. We’d be back with the poison counters before long, but this was a great chance to see how the set’s progressed since Scars of Mirrodin’s Phyrexian Poison’s overcosted weenie swarm.
Jimi opted to squeeze in behind Mirromancy, the spell-heavy Blue-Red Mirran deck, and here are our notes from the three matches.
Mirrodin Besieged: Path of Blight Review (Part 1 of 2)
As we begin our final review of Mirrodin Besieged, we have the table farily well set for the ongoing conflict. On the one hand, we have the Mirrans fighting for their very existence using every tool at their disposal. Be it through battle cry and metalcraft (Battle Cries), or heavy-hitting magic (Mirromancy), the line in the sand has clearly been drawn. Staring back from the other side are the Phyrexians, who have brought living weapons and proliferation to bear (Doom Inevitable). But of course, no accounting of the Phyrexians would be comlete without their signature mechanic for the set: infect.
Infect has proven to be quite a volatile addition to Magic’s keyword litany, as it tends to be somewhat polarising in a love-it-or-hate-it kind of way. Some revel in the flavour and the novel challenge of poisoning their opponents to death, a win condition far more feasible now than at any point in the game’s past. Others, however, see it as format-warping, particularly in those with altered life totals such as Commander and Two-Headed Giant. Let’s not even get started on the flap surrounding the Blightsteel Colossus! But like it or not, it’s here to stay, and Path of Blight proudly marches underneath its banner.
If there’s a subtheme to be had in the deck, it’s the seeping corruption that is Phyrexia. Infect was exclusively Black and Green for Scars of Mirrodin, but now having festered right under the noses of the Mirrans, it’s crept into everything. The idea of a Selesnyan-coloured infect deck would have been mindblowing just a few months ago, but here we see the evolution of the block. Gone is the overcosted weenie swarm, and here is something that has… adapted.
Whispers of the Muse: Mart’s ‘The Adventurers’
Welcome to the next installment of Whispers of the Muse, the occasional feature where a reader submits their tinkering of a precon deck and look for constructive criticism and feedback from the community. Today we’re hearing from Mart, who’s begun working on Zendikar’s The Adventurers.
Mart’s main area of concern is this:
anyone care to comment on it and help me tighten it up? perhaps even help me figure out how to properly shape a deck based on land and CMC since i really have no clue how to do that…
Mart included his preliminary 60-card list as follows:
Ertai's Lament 