Commanding White Magic.

So lately I've been trying to construct a mono-white commander deck with Odric, Master Tactician leading the troops. Odric is a decent commander, yet untested by myself, none-the-less he comes with a lot included for his low cost. However this article isn't about Odric or the giant commander deck that he'll lead into fiery battle, it's about a small group of spells within the deck, the instants or as they keep rattling around in my head the "I got ya" spells.

Choices, choices,...

I'm looking at four slots or positions to fill, I have eight applicants who've applied. They are:

•Swords to Plowshares
•Path to Exile
•Divine Deflection
•Condemn
•Silence
•Faith's Reward
•Lapse of Certainty
& Congregate

Ok so really there are two slots open,

Swords to Plowshares & Path to Exile: these two cards are just to useful not to include, spot removal for one mana is excellent, I don't need to sell anybody that. Not only do they remove problematic creatures they also "protect" your own troops, for example if an opponent targets Odric with Control Magic, you can Path to Exile Odric in response, fizzling the Control Magic and netting you an extra land, nice. The same could be done in response to any removal spell. Gaining life in response to lethal damage (to you) with Swords to Plowshares can buy you some extra time, for cheap mana cost, these two are defiantly hired!

The other applicants….

Silence: I've heard a fair number of good things said about silence, namely the scenario where you Silence your opponents (It hits them all) for a turn to make your big play. In mono-white I'm not sure that will happen, it may more realistically stop a board wipe spell (one of whites weaknesses) or removal for a turn, but you'd have to believe or know your opponents had one. it won't stop spells already cast, so its more narrow on when it will be effective (best cast at the beginning of a turn). I really think Silence is a set up spell to help combos go off and frankly not much else, sorry Silence we'll keep your resume on file.

Condemn: Great spell, I've seen it's work first hand and have heard many more boast about it's rep. One glaring problem though, sure it "tucks" a beastie, but said beastie has to be attacking first. what if I need to remove a non-attacking creature, or a creature I don't want to attack me, say like an eldrazi with that o' so lovable annihilator ability? Yeah i can cast it for the same defense proposes as a Swords to Plowshares on my own creatures but the timing makes it awkward, to awkward. I like the "tuck" factor, but in my games it maybe to strong, and only being cast during an attack makes it less useful…We'll call you Condemn, good luck in your search.

Faith's Reward: Technically this card could be pretty hardcore if used with multiple planeswalkers on the battlefield, use up their loyalty, then cast this sucker and watch them all come back new & fresh. Could also be a dirty dog combo spell with cards like Armageddon, destroying all lands then bringing them back (untapped, in most cases), its pretty ugly, the kind of ugly I don't want hanging around in my games. Most of the time though I could see this spell being used to save my guys from being destroyed by a mass destruction spell, problem is many newer board wipes also exile & tuck. Sure its nit picky, but seriously Terminus is a real deal. On the flip side Oblivion Stone, Damnation, Blasphemous Act, Austere Command all just destroy and Faith's Reward is a great response it those spells. Mass destroy & sacrifice effects are all to common and this spell protects all permanents from those effects…in a nutshell it's white's counter or answer to mass destruction, Faith's Reward your Hired (on a temporary basis, we'll try you out, see if you fit!).

Congregate: I've used Congregate in the past to nauseating effect, nothing like gain 50+ life with one card, it can be truly a demoralizing spell to opponents. In a white life gain deck (or a life gain deck that uses white) this is one of those cards that helps makes your life total shockingly large, so large the other players will start thinking about putting Infect and other poison counter sources in their decks. Unfortunately my white commander deck is not a life gain deck, Odric cares about combat results not sitting back and letting everybody take a free swing at you because your life total is so ridiculously high you can't be killed. It's a great "Surprise I'm still alive" card in a non-life gain deck, but there'd better be creatures on the board or your dead anyways, if we augment the deck towards life gain, we'll give Congregate's resume another look over. Pass for now.

Lapse of Certainty: One of whites few counterspells it's a good one…sometimes. I've watched more than one youtube video with a guy playing a mono-white commander deck casting this to save his butt for a turn, only to last one more turn with no hail-mary to save his skin come his opponents next turn. It's true no one ever really expects a counterspell in white, surprise aside what does it actually do besides buy you some extra time to "top deck" that next card. The times I've seen this cast and talked about, the offending target spell was usually a board wipe, mass destruction spell ready to set the white player back to the stone age, we hired a guy for this (Faith's Reward), Lapse of Certainty, we do not need your help at this time, thank you.

Divine Deflection: Wow, crazy card. Untested by myself, few feedback on the web, this is one spell that can potentially do some work. Damage is always flying around in Commander games, Divine Deflection basically "grabs" that damage and flings it at another target (either at an opponent, creature or planeswalker). Imagine taking the bite out of a Blasphemous Act and hurling the damage at an opponent's planewalker, that sounds like good times! It's protection but removal, something white needs more of (not just pure protection!) it also can protect multiple targets (although only hits one target back [darn!]) those targets are permanents not creatures, even better. The only draw back is the "X" in the casting cost, this may or may not be easy to pull off, however most of the time you'll probably be able to mess up more than a few points of damage here or there, my deck runs mana generators like Gilded Lotus, Basalt Monolith & the infamous Sol Ring plus a bazillion land fetch cards, I'm sure this spell will come in handy. Divine Reflection when can you start? Welcome to the team, lunch break is a half hour.

So here it all is, the decision process completed, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Faith's Reward & Divine Reflection, all in, my instant speed nasty surprises for all my opponents (some spells more known than others).  

I'll write a few more Commander articles time forgiving, hope you enjoyed, hope yours is well. Ta!  :^ }  

(Picture [art] credits from top to bottom: Raymond Swanland, Anthony Francisco,  Terese Nielson & Steve Prescott, top of the line artists all of you.)

What a Strange Animal

Mini post, spent some time looking at the bones of this animal Arsinoitherium, a cross between a hippo, a rhino and a pig (and possibly an elephant body wise). The world is full of dead wonderous beasts. It's good to be alive (i'm not sure who took this shot but photo credit to them, good pic-kudos to you).

Rotting Legion Control

so six (seven) months later... :^)

I find myself fixing up a pauper deck I built a while back, search "Zombor" in this blog and you will find the original list, here it is again new and improved (complete with Side board):

Creatures:

Rotting Legion x2
Spellstutter Sprite x4
Bala Ged Scorpion x1
Mnemonic Wall x1

Spells:

Preordain x2
Gitaxian Probe x4
Fog x2
Staggershock x2
Lightning bolt x2
Blightning x2
Firebolt x2
Doom blade x2
Foresee x2
Manaleak x2
Flame slash x3
Prophetic Prism x4

Lands:

Terramorphic Expanse x2
Forest x1
Island x8
Mountain x7
Swamp x5

Side Board:

Ancient Grudge x2
Manic Vandal x1
Staggershock x2
Incinerate x2
Duress x3
Mind Rot x1
Rotting Legion x1
Firebolt x2
Terminate x1

So not much has been done to the main board, gravedigger got booted for Bala Ged Scorpion, because I enjoy that they both cost the same but the scorpion had +1 toughness and still had some form of card advantage in that it could kill a creature. Incinerate MB was removed and added to the SB, for the cheaper Lightning Bolt. Preordain was bumped down to x2 in favor of Gitaxian Probe, taking a peek at an opponents hand is great when you have discard and counterspells in your deck, plus a first turn probe followed with a preordain is pretty fun.

The side board, I had many great options, but overall I kept the SB pretty straight forward. For swarm or weenie decks I added more Staggershocks & Firebolts, for control decks I added discard in the form of Mind Rot (easier to cast than Blightning) and Duress, with Gitaxian Probe, discard becomes more useful than normal, a single Rotting Legion was added as well as something decent to swap with doom blade vs mono black or near mono black decks. Terminate & Incinerate are both useful vs Regenerators, Terminate is also useful for targeting Guardian of the Guildpact if one is controlled by the opponent. Manic Vandal & Ancient Grudge are just good card advantage towards artifact based decks.

I forget how much fun I have writing this stuff up, I should get more posted, tomorrow is a brand new day and hopefully yours is a good one.

"I'm Back!"

Probably the most typical post for a blog, the "I'm back after XYZ period of time, for ABCD number of reasons". It's almost humbling writing this, knowing I'm part of a larger collective now. So yes after many weeks of work, flight training and trying to enjoy summer, I'm back and have decided to make posting here a (at least) once a week goal, so hopefully six months from now, I'm not reading this thinking what the heck happened to my goal of weekly writing or worse yet doing a second, "I'm back, no really this time" post.

Rain Blahs

Well it's been almost a full week here of poor weather, rain storms, snow showers, slush spit, thick mist, heavy haze and when it isn't those things it's scraggly grey clouds (aka scud) flouting endlessly on a sea of grayish milk. Then there was yesterday, a nice sunny day in the middle of all this crap, a totally out of place day, now it's back to milky seas and bone chilling wind... low blow nature (credits to the artist).

full moon.

Today, or rather tonight is the full moon, yet again, beware the moon.

Besides people acting nutty & lycanthropy, I wonder if fear of the full moon simply comes from the fact that it illuminates the land at night. Predators, beast, human or otherwise could possibly see better allowing easier hunting, the full moon exposing prey instead of concealing it like the new moon. Luckily the moon at it's fullest is a sign that it will soon be retreating back into the earth's shadow or umbra, taking everyone's restlessness and anxiety with it (credits to the photographer).

Some Art.

Cruising the web, looking for interesting art these last few rainy days, of course my interest in magic (the card game) often crosses paths with my interest in art, here are a few pieces from the newest set:

I should have warned the viewer these are a bit disturbing, this one is fantastic, the artist handles the negative space so well, uses it to add the the eeriness of whats going on.

Alittle nip & tuck from a cyborg surgeon, the skull like face and whitish body, with the combination of an operation in a dark room remind me vaguely of modern alien folklore, which only bolsters the creepiness! 

   I don't know, when I look at this beast I'm not over whelmed by horror (which is fine as I prefer not to be!), I do however see "The Prawn from Hell", this is what happens when you mix the seafood at Red lobster with toxic chemicals and interesting amounts of radiation. 

I really like the reds and whites with the different shades of grey and light browns in the background, never mind that it's some kind of nightmare toy doll.   

As always, credits to the various artists (keeping it short and sweet today).

Deck Types in Magic.

There are three main deck types in MTG, Aggro, the aggressive type, Control, the defensive type and a third type call Combo, which uses a series of parts to win. There are also a number of different subtypes in magic as well as seen here (nicely listed out):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_deck_types

one to focus on in particular is Midrange found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_deck_types#Midrange

The next pauper deck I talk about will be a Midrange deck, similar in function to the "Rock".

 (a very bad dog, by Nils Hamm)

Crusoe

Here are some arts by N. C. Wyeth for the story "Robinson Crusoe", really fantastic stuff his work. The art captures the feel and emotion in the book, of Crusoe's words as he tells about his life. Here are some fav's:

This first one is of Robinson not listening to dear old dad, gee that sounds familiar....

Out on his own, collecting what he can after, basically, total disaster.

In this scene we have Crusoe realizing the magnitude of his situation, I love this "shot", who hasn't been where he has in this picture? His problems are bigger than he is, manifested in the background.

I like this one because it shows Crusoe in a home of his own doing, relaxed, he's reaping his rewards here. A dry shelter with a solid table and chair, a sturdy fence to keep pests out and a good book (well the good book, ;^} ), what more could a man want?

Robison out and about in a boat of his own making, in a first solo boat trip, anything could go wrong, he's at the mercy of nature and his control is limited. I can really relate to this one well being an amateur pilot, you have only your knowledge to rely on. In this scene, the fact that Crusoe has only his eyes and arms to guide him and no other instruments to help him on his course, makes it all the more frightening.  

And finally robinson teaching a parrot how to be civil and speak like a human, people come up with all sorts of strange things to do when they don't need to make money and have no one to boss them around.

These are just some of N.C. Wyeth's paintings he did for Robinson Crusoe, for more info on N.C. Wyeth look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.C._Wyeth

If you ever have even a small desire to read the story of Robinson Crusoe, do so, recommended.  

Spring.

It feels like spring here finally, at least where I'm at, warmer weather, longer days, birds talking up a storm during the day, actual storms, t-storms included, no-yucky snow showers and of course, my personal spring fav, allergies. Not uncommon to see mornings like the one in the picture above now (credits, to it's photographer).  

Happy April 1st!!

Happy or possibly unhappy April Fool's to all (and yes it is actually april 1st here, no joke)!

I won't pull a prank on you guys n' gals, or maybe, just maybe I have, if your reading this your probably to late (oh dear!), but it really isn't worth worrying about so just go on with your day and forget about this post, it will do no good, no good what so ever to dwell on what horrible joke has befallen you just...this....second! ;^P

but really, for reals, nothing is wrong....   :^I  

Code Name: Zombor!

One of the cool things about having your own blog, is you get to talk about all of your weird little hobbies, todays topic is about Pauper Magic (MTG), the all commons format (which is also my personal fav).

Here's is a deck I cooked up several weeks ago, It's name for now is simply "Zombor" named after the large zombie boss you fight in the SNES game Chrono Trigger. This deck, simply put, is a four color control deck, it's four colors and likes to "control" the board to win, lets have a look at it's guts:

The List:

Rotting Legion x2
Spellstutter Sprite x4
Gravedigger x1
Mnemonic Wall x1

Prophetic Prism x4
Doom Blade x2
Fog x2
Incinerate x2
Mana Leak x2
Staggershock x2
Blightning x2
Firebolt x2
Flame Slash x3
Foresee x2
Preordain x4

Forest x1
Island x8
Mountain x7
Swamp x5
Terramorphic Expanse x2

(Side board incomplete at the moment)

This deck is all about 1-upping your opponent through a mix of direct card advantage (Staggershock, Firebolt, Foresee, Blightning, Spellstutter Sprite), having better cards (Rotting Legion, scry [through "sifting"] effects) and/or having decent answers to an opponents plays (Doom Blade, Fog, any burn, counters).

I'll admit the card counts are a bit awkward, two of this, one of that, four of those, but with a combination of scry (Foresee, Preordain) card drawing (same cards, plus Prophetic Prism) and reuse through card recursion (Mnemonic Wall, Gravedigger, Firebolt), the awkward numbers soon smooth out. The mana base was also another challenge, but Prophetic Prism makes it possible as do again scry effects and to a lesser degree the two Terramorphic Expanses, which there are only two of so as not to draw as many in the mid to late game.  Many of the cards are pretty straight forward, burn kills creatures, counterspells for cards I might not be able to handle with a kill spell, Blightning (discard) to punish an opponent with a low hand size, however there are three cards I'd like to focus on here:

Rotting Legion: the black 4/5 zombie, rotting legion is simply better than most other creatures in the pauper format, it's huge body lets it survive combat, burn spells and lets it ignore most black kill spells. Tapping when it enter's play is rarely a penalty, compare rotting legion to guardian of the guildpact and you'll find legion survives more types of spells (and combats!) for one more mana.  

Spellstutter Sprite: It's no surprise how good this card is, but frankly I am surprised by how little it's used in many pauper decks sporting blue. There are an abundance of one casting cost spells used in the pauper format by a variety of decks and the sprite hoses all of them regardless of color. This made it to good to pass up and after using them as just a four of with no other faerie support, I've found they work just fine, they break all kinds of plays from burn to combos and they put you up a card by giving you a (flying!) 1/1 creature, of course these sprites are the perfect bodyguards for the legion.

Fog: The "alpha strike" the "all in","all chips on the table" play, usually involves a player attacking with all of their creatures with the hope it kills their opponent, I've found this to be troublesome when building control decks as most can't handle an overwhelming attack, sometimes it's not possible to kill all or most of an opponents creatures before they kill you. Enter fog. Fog is truly a delightful card, for a point of green mana, it can stop a lot of bad things, like a mob of attacking creatures, if used cleverly it can also net you extra cards off an opponents plays (boosting their creatures with instants before they attack, for example). One of the best parts about fog in this deck, is that using Prophetic Prism you can "hide" your fog plays pretty well, by leaving a prism untapped and any land open, generally if people don't see the green mana on the board they don't see fog. Fog is a fail safe for when your other spells fall sort.  

I'll probably update this deck more in the future (at least a SB!) but for now it does fairly well and crushes all kinds of archetypes, shines best against aggressive decks though, for an additional resource here's a nifty little website I use to look up Magic cards:

http://magiccards.info/

a nice site, good search engine with excellent scans of the cards (used above). Look for more pauper decks here in the future, as I will be posting them.  

Here's a Tale....

about two frogs (credits to my dad for sending this to me in an email).

This isn't the only version of this story I've heard actually, if you cruise the net you can find many
alternate stories each with a similar message, however this is one of the better ones I've heard:

Two Frogs
By: Author Unknown

A number of frogs were traveling through the woods. Two of 
them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered 
around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they 
told the two frogs that they were as good as dead.

The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out 
of the pit with all of their might. The other frogs kept 
telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs 
were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. 
Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the 
pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made 
it out.

When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear 
us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He 
thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

This story teaches two lessons:
1. There is the power of life and death in the tongue. An 
   encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up 
   and help them make it through the day.

2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be the 
   push over the edge. Be careful of what you say. Speak 
   life to those who cross your path. Anyone can speak 
   words that can rob another of the spirit to push forward 
   in difficult times. 

It's a pretty interesting story gives a little bit more drama to Thumpers advice, it also reminds me vaguely
this and the alternate versions of a "dangerous (or hazardous) attitude" a term they use in aviation (there are 5 dangerous attitudes), the one I'm thinking of is Resignation, the "I can't do this, I give up (because I have no control)", the other frog clearly had it (with no help from his fellows!).

Speaking of Zombies...

If your ever bored on a rainy day I suggest you go and google Arthur Suydam, the guy that does the covers for Marvel's line: Marvel Zombies, I've never seen in film, TV or any other modern day art the kind of skeletal, bloody, half-eaten looking zombies this guy paints. These "things", these undead freaks are just horrific, road kill with a pulse is being to nice. The art featured here is Zombie Hyperion, hurling a car, very much like Superman (of course Hyperion is Marvel's take on Superman, Marvel Zombie Superman, if you like). More can be read about Arthur here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Suydam  

ZAMN art!

Ah Zombies Ate My Neighbors, beloved early teenage years game, probably one of the best SNES titles ever, here's some ZAMN art I found while, sifting through webpages one day (credit goes to all the individual artists).

Bonus survival advice: the Martian Bubble Gun kills Ants, drinking a Mystery Potion with one bar of health left usually recovers you like a first aid kit (more often then not), the Martians really do hate tomatoes.

Favored Scars Art

For those of you that follow Magic (MTG), the Scars of Mirrodin block has really cranked out some wicked paintings, here are some of my fav's from the latest two (three!) sets (The picture with the myr [google it] actually just come out on the main "mothership" site today, 3-30-11, an instant fav! Somehow totally cute and killer creepy at the same time.), kudos to all these fantastic artists!:

Ok I lied, this is just some of my favored art from Scars....may post more later. :^p

Today's fun fact

What is UNICOM?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICOM

just a test! blogger UNICOM!