Guest Meddling: Upgrading the Coalition
I’m a fan of preconstructed decks, especially some of the non-intro products Wizards has been putting out. However, I take a different approach than Jay. I like to customize, tear apart, rebuild, refocus, and repurpose what I pull out of those boxes.
Sometimes I like to retool decks into easier-to-play, more-consistent versions of themselves, so that I can hand them to new players and explain them quickly. Other times I like to tinker with decks and fill them with bomby, splashy cards that make for lots of fun. Once in awhile I like to optimize for the kill. Either way, I feel like personalizing preconstructed decks is a great way to make them more interesting and more fun, utilizing some of the basic framework.
One of my favorite preconstructed decks in the past year was the Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs the Coalition set, because I loved that storyline and was thrilled to be able to play as Urza and Yawgmoth, re-enacting that climactic battle. Then I played the decks.
Duel Decks- Garruk vs Liliana: Liliana’s Deck Review (Part 2 of 2)
After the epic clash last round that saw Garruk himself directly intervene to save his deck from ignominious defeat, we weren’t quite sure what to expect this go ’round. There are only so many miracles in a deck at any given time, and the thought was that Garruk had burned all his. Nevertheless, Sam volunteered to pilot his deck, based as it was on her most accustomed archetype: Big Dumb Beats(tm). That left me behind Liliana, and here are our notes from the confrontation.
Duel Decks- Garruk vs Liliana: Garruk’s Deck Review (Part 2 of 2)
One thing I derive a lot of personal satisfaction from is seeing Magic players improve their game. Jimi’s been playing a lot lately, between the site’s reviews and the Precon Championships, and more and more I’ve been finding her ever the more worthy opponent. In a game where even the pros admit they make multiple mistakes in each game, I’m always looking to improve my skill as well. As I’d find, piloting Garruk would put these skills to the test. We set the table for the customary three matches, and here are our notes from the clash.
Duel Decks- Garruk vs Liliana: Liliana’s Deck Review (Part 1 of 2)
Having introduced ourselves to Garruk and his surprisingly creature-light deck, we now turn to his opposite in this storied conflict, Liliana. On a strict creature-card basis Liliana actually has a very slight edge (19 versus 18), but unlike the more straightforward Green deck, she has comparatively few beaters, instead looking to gain some ground on the back of utility creatures. As we’ll see, though, that’s hardly the extent of her reach, and she might almost be as dangerous as a Red mage in the endgame- consider yourself warned!
We’ll begin today’s analysis with the creatures of darkness.
A Meddling of Sorts: Garruk vs Elspeth
On the lookout for a good read? Head over to Gathering Magic, where Erik Saeger’s tinkered with the Duel Decks to make an Infected Garruk battle an Elspeth with an Equipment theme. Let’s support our Precom Community, and tell ’em Ertai sent ya!
Duel Decks- Garruk vs Liliana: Garruk’s Deck Review (Part 1 of 2)
Just over a year ago, in Octover of 2009, the fourth of the Duel Decks series was released. Based upon the animosity between its two namesake planeswalkers as found in lore (as well as a novel that actually never ended up getting published, for reasons still unknown), the deck pits a mono-Green beats deck against a comparable mono-Black creation. It continued the tradition of the late-season, planeswalker-themed Duel Decks release begun with Jace vs Chandra, and continued with Elspeth vs Tezzeret.
Garruk’s deck is an interesting construction. For the most part, when you think of mono-Green beats, you tend to think of decks that ramp into the very large beaters Green has been known for for all of its history. That’s not an unreasonable expectation, but Garruk’s Deck bucks convention quite dramatically. Yes, you have the beaters, and yes there is ramp (albeit very little, more on that later). Instead, what’s most surprising is that the deck is split dead-even between creatures and noncreature spells. This is highly irregular- mono-Green beats tends to flood its deck with critters to ensure a steady stream of them, then slave its noncreature options to be ramp and a few support cards, like Giant Growth.
News: Wizards Announces MTG: Commander
Some exciting news this morning as Wizards has unveilied it’s multiplayer product for this year. Following in the footsteps of Plaechase and Archenemy, the new Commander series is an official support of the very popular EDH format, and best of all the decks will contain a sum of 51 new cards. Here’s the launch notice, and here’s Aaron Forsythe’s thoughts on the matter for good measure. Check it out!
Premium Deck Series: The Slivers Review (Part 2 of 2)
Back on her feet just weeks after the new baby and ready to spit fire and rain lightning like she did when she was pregnant, Jimi was excited at the prospect of getting a run in with Fire & Lightning. As it happens, I needed a worthy foe to act as foil to The Slivers, so over cups of tea and cocoa we set in and waged war. The Slivers, as a five-colour deck, have an apparent disadvantage against the hyper-aggro mono-Red Fire & Lightning. Would I be able to hold on long enough to get my poor Slivers a foothold, or would I go down in flames. Here’s how our matches panned out.
Premium Deck Series: The Slivers Review (Part 1 of 2)
As any vanquished opponent might tell you, the Slivers can prove most resilient in any number, and the same can be said for the tribe as a whole. Most other popular, enduring tribes in Magic are part of the common folklore and mythos- Goblins, Elves, Merfolk. While other creature types have had some endurance throughout the years (see our history of the Kor here), it can be argued that few have fared as well as the lowly, unassuming Sliver.
Premium Deck Series: Fire & Lightning Review (Part 2 of 2 )
I don’t know who was more excited to roll up the sleeves and get down to playing- me with the new Fire & Lightning deck, filled with one of my favourite archetypes, and Sam with the five-colour critterfest Slivers. They seemed an enticing matchup, for the decks were not balanced against one another in design (the way, say, Duel Decks are) and anything could happen. In Phyrexia vs. The Coalition, Wizards similarly pitted a five-colour deck versus a mono one, and had to build in some restraints to the Phyrexia deck so that it didn’t just win almost every time (as you’d expect a Suicide Black to do).
These constraints- a larger mana curve and disparate win conditions- helped balance both halves of that Duel Deck, but for the Premium decks no such considerations were in place. Indeed, the nature of Slivers and its inherent card economy- where much like Allies each successive card of that type makes all the others stronger- meant that I fully expected to be given a run for my money. Fire & Lightning is more spell-heavy than the typical precon, so I’d have fewer creatures to provide a recurring presence. Slivers is almost entirely made up of creatures. Would I be able to burn through them all and get there, or would I find myself drifting with an empty hand while the swarm of Slivers overran me?
We sat down to find out, and here are our notes.
Ertai's Lament 