Monday Magic - Building a Standard Deck (Budget Red Deck Wins)

While traveling for the holidays, I decided to check out a Friday Night Magic event at a game shop near where I grew up.  Unfortunately, when I looked into FNM venues, it seemed that none of them featured any drafts, and I had never played standard in a sanctioned event.  Determined to attend an FNM at a new place, I opted to put together a cheap deck just to give it a shot.

I had wanted to build a hyper aggro deck for a while, so this setup seemed to be the perfect opportunity to make it work.  As this is the first competitive deck I've really tried to put together, I thought I'd describe the design process in some detail.  I'm not much of a deckbuilder, but it might be a nice jumping off point for further discussions, and it might be fun to see the evolution of a novice deck designer.

Design
The basic premise is simple: Overwhelm your opponent early in the game, forcing damage through with quick, efficient creatures, sprinkling burn spells as necessary.  In line with that strategy, the deck needs to focus on mana-efficient damage.  We want each mana that we spend to deal damage almost immediately, and we need to avoid drawing lands as much as possible - we want to be able to dump our hand in the first few turns and draw only spells beyond that.  If we even reach the midgame, a win may already be beyond reach.

To blast through the first couple turns, we need all of our spells to be cheap - two converted mana cost or less - otherwise we run the risk of being unable to do much of anything early on.  Combine that with the need for fast bursts of damage, and we have a narrow gameplan.

Since we want to burst out of the gate, we definitely need several one-costing creatures.  Rakdos Cackler seems like a good choice, as it gives us two power for one mana; Firedrinker Satyr fits the bill, too. We're planning to drop a bunch of creatures in the first few turns, so Foundry Street Denizen may even deal more damage than a Cackler on turns two and three, depending on the plays we have available.  Legion Loyalist is great because it can smash through on turn one, plus its Batallion effect makes for more efficient attackers later on (with the added bonus of nullifying creature tokens from Pack Rat, Master of Waves, and Elspeth, if the game goes that far).

We want to follow that up with powerful two-drops.  Ash Zealot is a fantastic choice for two hasty damage.  Burning-Tree Emissary can make the Denizens huge for only two mana, as you can chain them on turn two (and then have even more power on turn three).  Another two-power-for-two creature, Goblin Shortcutter, can force some extra damage through an opponent's blocker, so it seems like a nice addition.  A two-drop that can bring more than two power to the field is pretty important, and Gore-House Chainwalker seems like a nice fit.

With a little army of efficient one- and two-costing creatures, we need some more ways to boost their damage.  Titan's Strength is a great choice, as it not only pumps but the extra Scry can help avoid unwanted land draws.  As a red, offensive-only Giant Growth, Rubblebelt Maaka's Bloodrush ability is an excellent combat trick.  Madcap Skills is a bit of a risk, as most Auras are, but it not only gives three extra power, but it can take a blocker out of the fight, too, so it has a pretty big payoff.  And, of course, Lightning Strike is just a solid burn spell, and it can eliminate most early-game blockers in the format.

Putting all those spells together makes for a pretty solid main deck, and none of those cards are too expensive, so it's a lot cheaper to throw together than a deck with Sphinx's Revelations or Nightveil Specters.

Main Deck
Creatures:
3 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Foundry Street Denizen
3 Goblin Shortcutter
2 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Rakdos Cackler
2 Rubblebelt Maaka

Instants:
4 Lightning Strike
4 Titan's Strength

Enchantments:
4 Madcap Skills

Lands:
18 Mountain

Sideboard
Sideboarding is another benefit of my first real excursion into standard.  I had never really thought much about designing a sideboard for any constructed decks I've put together (mostly because I primarily play casual, and it's impossible to have sideboard options for every random matchup I could have), so this gave me a nice chance to think about how to prepare for specific matchups.

This deck's single biggest worry, I think, is lifegain; if our opponent is able to gain life, even if just enough to stay alive for one more turn, we may be dead in the water.  Skullcrack is therefore an important part of the sideboard, as it can inhibit Revelation's ability to buy more time (while also giving a way to sneak past Master of Waves' protection in some circumstances).

The next biggest problem is blockers.  Seismic Stomp seems useful, too, particularly when dealing with weenie decks, as it gets blockers out of the way of our relentless assault.  Some additional burn spells give us a little less longevity, but they can clear out some of the peskier early-game creatures.  Shock and Electrickery are thus useful additions, too.  To round out the anti-blocker suite, Act of Treason can both open the path for our side of the board to wreak havoc and increase our damage output by stealing a powerful creature - a nice option against a deck with some really problematic creatures.

Sideboard
2 Act of Treason
4 Electrickery
2 Seismic Stomp
4 Shock
3 Skullcrack

Trial by Fire
Last Friday, I took this deck to an FNM, where a total of 28 people registered.  While it wasn't the biggest event, I know that some of the participants are pretty competitive, so I figure it was probably a decent example of your average FNM environment (which, of course, is almost purely speculation).

My overall record for the five rounds was 3-2.  Here's how it performed:

In round 1, I played a blue-green flash deck, which fell to our deck 2-1.  Even with Prophet of Kruphix, the only real threat in my opponent's deck was Polukranos, World Eater because a 5/5 blocker by turn four plus its Sylvan Caryatid backup stop our aggressive creatures without much trouble.  Act of Treason can turn the hydra against its master, nullifying that threat, and nothing else posed much of a problem, so I think our deck was pretty well suited against this one.

Round 2 brought a red devotion deck that slaughtered ours 0-2.  Boros Reckoner really ruins our day, especially when a couple hit the field on turn three thanks to Burning-Tree Emissaries and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.  Again I think Act of Treason is our best option, but I ended up mana flooded in game two, bringing the match to a close.  He also splashed white to play Chained to the Rocks, which effectively slowed our early game to allow the Reckoner blowout.  It's probably worth thinking about the mono-red matchup in some more detail and adjusting the sideboard accordingly.

I thoroughly trounced a black green deck 2-0 in round 3.  Both games were incredibly quick, and I only saw a total of three nonland cards in his list.  Abrupt Decay kills all our creatures, but losing a dude doesn't slow our gameplan too much, and his defensive creatures were too slow to stop once we get going.  His deck may have been terrible, but whether it was or not, it didn't give enough resistance to influence deck design.

In round 4, I faced the mono-blue devotion deck and ultimately won 2-1.  Lightning Strike clears Nightveil Specter and Skullcrack can handle Master of Waves, so I think we're in a good position against mono-blue post-board.  We lost game two because we couldn't answer Master without losing our entire board presence, allowing our opponent to whittle us down.  I probably misplayed somewhere along the line, but I still think that matchup is pretty solid.

It all came tumbling down in round 5, though, with a quick 0-2 loss.  Fleecemane Lion turn two, Unflinching Courage on the Lion turn three, and Boros Charm to give him double strike on turn four is pretty much the worst possible scenario for our deck - gaining 10 life puts our opponent pretty solidly out of our range.  The biggest problem here, I think, is that I just wasn't prepared to deal with this kind of deck.

Outlook
The overall future of this deck is good, though.  A 3-2 record isn't bad (particularly for my first ever standard event), and I think the main deck is pretty solid.  The sideboard needs some work, as Electrickery doesn't seem to be too useful (it's probably best for the mirror-match or for wiping Master tokens, so a couple copies are likely worth having), and I never even considered using Seismic Stomp except against the Reckoners, where I think Act would've been a better choice.

Basically, while the sideboard definitely needs to be tweaked, I think this performance serves as a proof-of-concept for this particular deck. It's nice to see a deck that costs less than $20 compete with some of the dominant archetypes in the current metagame, and I'm excited to see how this particular deck evolves in the future.

For now, I have some deck tweaking to do.

Game Review - Contrast (XBLA, 2013)

One of the great joys of the gaming world is discovering some under-appreciated title and enjoying the hell out of it before any of your friends.  I like to keep an eye out for new releases that aren't accompanied by the multi-million dollar fanfare that big game companies bring to the table, and I especially like to give smaller developers a vote of confidence with my wallet.

Naturally, when I saw Contrast’s release yesterday, I was intrigued.  A game that combines clever manipulation of light and shadow with a gritty noir art style?  Of course I’m in!  While it starts strong, however, the game fails to build any serious momentum, so though it’s fun and interesting, it’s not very exciting.  Here’s why:

Contrast gives you control of Dawn, the best friend of a young girl named Didi.  It opens with Didi’s mother tucking her into bed for the night, only to have Didi immediately escape her room to go watch her mother’s performance at a local cabaret.  What ensues is a somewhat cliché story about hard times and desperate men, which is awfully disappointing because the plot could have been much more engrossing.

But that’s ok, because Dawn is invisible to everyone but Didi, and Didi and Dawn are the only characters the player ever gets to see; all other characters are represented only by the shadows they cast.  That is an incredibly cool storytelling device, and it makes the otherwise lackluster storyline a lot more entertaining.

That visual element gets mixed into the core components of the gameplay, too.  Dawn has the unique ability to transform into a shadow on a lighted wall, allowing her to interact directly with other shadows and maneuver through areas that would otherwise be inaccessible.  As such, the majority of the game revolves around the manipulation of light and shadow.  It’s a really nifty mechanic, allowing for clever puzzles and surprising interactions with the environment. 

The game’s biggest flaw is the lack of difficult puzzles.  I didn't find any of them to be very hard at all, although there were a couple that took a while because I couldn't quite figure out what the game wanted me to do (the source of the worst kind of puzzle frustrations…).  The end result is a mere 3-5 hour experience without a whole lot of challenge, which just seems way too short for the $15 price tag.  It was fun while it lasted, but it was much too brief.

In the end, Contrast feels like a beautifully-packaged proof of concept.  The wonderful art style and animation (save for the shadows’ hands – they all look like they’re wearing Mickey Mouse’s gloves) coupled with subtle music develop a wonderful atmosphere, and the voice acting is solid, even if the script is a little stereotypical.

With all that said, there are a few plot pieces that appear in the latter half of the game that hint at a complex back story, but those ideas aren't really developed.  They either seem like bizarre twists just for the sake of having a twist (i.e., twists that don’t really serve a narrative purpose), or they could be intentionally setting up DLC or a sequel.  I have no idea if there are already plans for new content in the future, but even if there will be another adventure somewhere down the line, it kind of feels like a cheap shot to leave those threads hanging.

Contrast is a beautiful game based on a clever mechanic.  It’s interesting to see it in action, and it requires the player to approach the game world in a somewhat unusual way, which makes it fairly entertaining.  It’s awfully short, it’s pretty easy, and it has virtually no replay value, so the price of admission seems a bit steep, but it’s worth a look if you like puzzle games and are hankering for a neat new mechanic.  It may not win any awards, but it’s a decent way to spend an afternoon.

My Rating: 6/10 – decent.

Monday Magic - Black Devotion Template

At major Magic events over the last couple weekends, Master of Waves focused blue devotion decks have been blowing people away in Standard.  The success of these decks combined with my assumption that devotion will continue to be relevant throughout the remainder of the Theros block has inspired me to start testing devotion in some other (cheaper) colors.

On the table right now is a black devotion template.  Using only cards from Theros, I'm hoping this list can serve as the template for a block-constructed deck once the full block has been released.

As usual, I'm building this deck only from cards I actually own.  I'd like, for example, to run several copies of Hero's Downfall in place of Lash of the Whip for much cheaper, much more effective removal, but I only have one of the former.  I'd also like to run a couple copies of Insatiable Harpy to help deal with evasion and Whip of Erebos to recur my enters-the-battlefield devotion effects.  I'd also love to have a couple copies of Rescue from the Underworld for further ETB shenanigans; alas, I have none.

Here's the current list.  It's a little heavy on the upper end of the mana curve, but hopefully I can fill some of the gaps mentioned above and the next couple sets will provide a bit more for surviving the early game.

Creatures:
2 Abhorrent Overlord
3 Baleful Eidolon
4 Disciple of Phenax
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Insatiable Harpy
2 Keepsake Gorgon
4 Mogis's Marauder
1 Nighthowler

Instants:
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Lash of the Whip
4 Pharika's Cure

Sorceries:
4 Read the Bones
3 Sip of Hemlock

Artifacts:
1 Whip of Erebos

Lands:
23 Swamp

At this point, the basic strategy is pretty straightforward: Build up my devotion by dropping permanents until I can hit Gray Merchant or Mogis's Marauder to deal tons of damage.  The Overlord is an alternate win condition, plus a sac outlet so I can recur the ETB effects if I can't win with some burst damage a bit earlier in the game.  Read the Bones helps control my draws and look for what I need, with Pharika's Cure offsetting the life cost.

To form a more effective baseline for future modifications, the changes I'm hoping to make within Theros are:

• Add more Hero's Downfall, removing Lash of the Whip
• Add another Whip of Erebos, probably removing a copy of Read the Bones
• Add another early-game creature or two, removing either Pharika's Cure or Nighthowler

I intend to play a few matches with this setup to see how it goes, with particular care going towards tweaking the overall speed (this may end up being too damn slow) and seeing whether Nighthowler and Insatiable Harpy are even useful.  Either way, I think this deck will be pretty fun to play, so here's hoping it's somewhat effective, too!

Monday Magic - Let's Talk About Theros

Holy crap, I'm excited about Theros.

I was able to attend my local Friday Night Magic last week after missing both the Theros prerelease and release events, so it was my first opportunity to play with Magic's new Greek-themed set.  And I have to say - Theros made one hell of a first impression.

The Set
Sure, a lot of my excitement comes from the fact that I ended up winning the FNM draft (my first such win), but the set brings pretty sweet mechanics and feels incredibly well-balanced.  Although the Theros metagame certainly hasn't stablized, no single deck archetype appeared dominant.  Aggressive decks were a bit stronger than slower controlling decks, but I think that's just because the set is new and people don't quite know what they're doing.  In the coming weeks, I expect several dramatically different styles to emerge victorious as players get more comfortable with the set's powerful keywords.

In addition to being a surprisingly flavorful set (see Underworld Cerberus and Rescue from the Underworld) with some fabulous art, Theros is incredibly fun to play.  Each color has powerful common or uncommon removal capabilities (directly, like black's Sip of Hemlock, by fighting, like the green Time to Feed, or through combat tricks, like the uncharacteristically blue Triton Tactics), and there are a few big nasty creatures in each color, too.  As a result, it seems possible to build strong control decks and strong aggro decks in virtually any color combination; I think the metagame for Theros will be pretty exciting.

The real high points, however, are the awesome set mechanics.  Each is strong, and they all affect gameplay in significantly different ways, giving the Theros a very robust feel.

Scry is a returning mechanic that allows the player to look at the top N cards of his or her library.  After considering the options, the player is then able to put any number of those cards back on top of his or her library and the rest on the bottom.  Scry is a powerful tool for controlling the flow of the game, as it allows you to filter lands when you're looking for answers or a game-winning blow, or you can use it to guarantee land draws if you need to hit your next land drop.  It serves as pseudo card advantage, and it's a great weapon in any sort of deck.

The Mechanics
My favorite of Theros' mechanics is probably Bestow, which gives a number of creatures an interesting alternate ability.  Similar to Gatecrash's Bloodrush, Bestow lets you cast a creature as an Aura enchanting another creature.  It then grants that creature's abilities to the enchanted one, buffing the existing creature.  The biggest threat, however, is the fact that a creature cast using its Bestow cost will revert to a normal creature if its target disappears - destroying the enchanted creature leaves the Bestowed creature on the battlefield.

Following with the Greek theme of heroes, monsters, and gods, Monstrosity lets your big baddies get even bigger.  Paying the Monstrosity cost on a creature (which can be done at instant speed) will add some number of +1/+1 counters to that creature, providing some fearsome combat tricks or just a way to dump unused mana in the late game.  When many of these creatures become Monstrous, they also trigger further effects, like destroying a creature or preventing creatures from blocking for a turn.  Monstrosity turns some of your beefiest creatures into long-term investment plans, paying dividends well into the game.

To combat the set's monsters, the Heroic mechanic allows smaller creatures to engage in David and Goliath style combat.  Heroic triggers any time you cast a spell that targets one of these fearless creatures you control, and the ability provides some additional benefit, like +1/+1 counters or drawing a card.  These effects occur after any type of spell you cast, including a Bestowed creature, allowing you to draw ridiculous value from auras and battle tricks.

Finally, the gods of Theros are empowered by your Devotion to their color.  As a measure of your fidelity to a color, your Devotion is simply the number of times a mana symbol of that color appears in permanents you control.  Devotion has a number of powerful uses, from turning your otherwise passive but omnipresent gods  (like Nylea) into imposing creatures to gaining life (like Nylea's Disciple) or draining your opponent's life (as the Gray Merchant does).

Those five elements give Theros incredible depth and make it a fantastic set to play.

The Draft Deck
To give an idea of how Theros plays out, here's the deck that I ended up using at FNM:

Creatures:
1 Akroan Crusader
1 Blood-Toll Harpy
1 Cavern Lampad
1 Ember Swallower
1 Flamespeaker Adept
1 Fleshmad Steed
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Minotaur Skullcleaver
2 Returned Centaur
1 Tymaret, the Murder King

Instants:
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Pharika's Cure
2 Spark Jolt
1 Titan's Strength

Sorceries:
2 Portent of Betrayal
1 Rage of Purphoros
1 Read the Bones

Enchantments:
1 Ordeal of Purphoros
1 Scourgemark

Lands:
7 Mountain
10 Swamp

It was a moderately aggressive deck, with many cheap creatures doing most of the work, but the bigger things like Ember Swallower give something to look forward to in the late game.  I used a little bit of everything in this deck, mostly allowing the various Scry spells to help me find the particular pieces I needed at any point in a game.  Read the Bones is unbelievably powerful, particularly while Flamespeaker Adept is on the board to take full advantage of the Scry.  Cavern Lampad did a lot of work, both while an aura and while a dude, and the Gray Merchant got me out of a couple tight spots.

All-in-all, I was able to dabble with all of the set's mechanics a bit and, with the exception of Monstrosity, I put them to good use.  I found that Scry is just an awesomely powerful mechanic, especially when attached to some basic removal spells.  I expect to see much more coherent decks as people get used to the set, though.  I'm looking forward to building decks that feature each of the other mechanics a bit more prominently in the coming weeks; it should be a great time.

The End
It seems like this set is all about getting tons of value out of your cards, and it's incredibly fun to play.  I highly recommend that everybody with the slightest interest in Magic give it a shot.

Monday Magic - Dragonshift!

Since I opened my first copy of Dragonshift during the Dragon's Maze pre-release, I have wanted to build a nasty Izzet deck with Dragonshift as the main win condition.  During my various Dragon's Maze shenanigans, I managed to acquire a full playset, which makes the dragon deck even more appealing.

The final straw came from seeing my favorite Magic Online streamer, callmechalk, build a pretty cheap (and surprisingly effective) Dragonshift deck, so I've given in and ordered my first set of singles online (it's not a huge investment, though, as some friends had given me a monetary gift with the provision that I only spend it to order cards).

Anyway, here's the deck, with primary credit going to chalk for smashing face with a very similar deck online.

Creatures:
4 Goblin Electromancer
4 Young Pyromancer

Instants:
4 Battle Hymn
4 Dragonshift
4 Shock
4 Think Twice

Sorceries:
4 Faithless Looting
4 Krenko's Command
4 Molten Birth
1 Teleportal

Lands:
7 Island
12 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls

The basic strategy is pretty straightforward: Generate a bunch of tokens using the Pyromancers, Krenko's Command, and Molten Birth; use the Electromancer to make those spells cheaper, then Overload Dragonshift to end the game in a hurry.

Cards like Think Twice and Faithless Looting not only help find pieces of the combo that you need, they do double duty with the Pyromancers, making tokens when flashed back.  Battle Hymn raises the funds necessary to blast Dragonshift, and Shock cheaply generates tokens through Pyromancers while serving as early-game protection from pesky creatures.

While this deck is generally aggressive, looking just to get 5 or 6 tokens in play to overwhelm your opponent in one attack, Teleportal serves as a slower late-game win condition, if you can get to the point of having ten creatures in play (and you're desperate).

Teleportal is probably weakest link, followed perhaps by the Electromancers or Shocks, as those don't contribute as directly to the game plan, but I think it works pretty well as is.  Plus I don't have anything that seems to fit better, so I'll run with this for now.

As for the dual lands - I included some copies of Sulfur Falls primarily because they're pretty cheap right now; the more recently printed Steam Vents is nearly three times more costly.  I think Steam Vents are really only preferable if your starting hand has only nonbasic lands, as in that case, the Falls are guaranteed to play slowly.  Otherwise, I think Vents would be unnecessary, so I can justify the cost.

For an added bonus, this deck is currently Standard-legal, at least for a couple more weeks.  Get in there and dominate Friday Night Magic while you can!

To close it out, I want to plug callmechalk again, both for his fun stream and for the deck inspiration (and most, if not all, of the list, I honestly can't remember exactly what his Dragonshift deck runs).  Check him out if you're into Magic Online streams.

Monday Magic - Bruna the Aura Collector (EDH)

As I have gotten more experience with the EDH format, I've wanted to start using a somewhat less standard deck.  The two decks I've used to the point (Varolz, the Scar-Striped and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius) follow a relatively simple formula: play big nasty creatures and try to capitalize on the commander's gimmick.

Instead of building a deck that emphasizes beefy creatures, I decided that I wanted to use Bruna, Light of Alabaster as my commander.  The game plan is thus very different - buff Bruna enough to get one-hit kills on my opponents.  Running an aura-heavy deck should make Bruna a significant threat the moment she hits the field, and removal isn't a problem, as she's able to grab auras from my graveyard.

This strategy is significantly more technical than the other decks I've built, so it's going to require a lot of tweaking to get right.  (It doesn't help that I don't have too many excellent blue or white auras...)

When choosing cards for this deck, I tried to keep three basic things in mind:

First, and most obviously, I need to run a bunch of things that pump Bruna.  Along with auras, I've included some other enchantments (like True Conviction) and a few creatures that synergize with enchantments (like Mesa Enchantress).  Since I'm expecting Bruna to draw a lot of hate, I've also included a couple ways to give her haste or hexproof (Swiftfoot Boots does both) to help mitigate the damage.

Second, Bruna's converted mana cost of 6 makes her a rather late addition to the battlefield, so I need to make sure I survive long enough to get her into play.  To keep with the enchantment theme, I've tried to include passive deterrents to attack (Sphere of Safety fits well, but other effects like Dissipation Field and the much less enchanted Norn's Annex seem good, too) in lieu of powerful blockers.  I figure this is the biggest hole in my current gameplan, but we'll have to see how it works out.

Third, I need to cycle through my deck to grab as many auras as possible, and I need to make sure I hit land drops (because I expect to be spending a lot of mana to revive Bruna repeatedly).  Tossing auras into my graveyard isn't a problem, as Bruna can fetch them from there, so I've included a number of ways to cycle cards out of my hand to run through my deck (I think Merfolk Looter is the most efficient), plus some general deck stacking (like Petals of Insight).

I think the whole thing comes together reasonably well, leading to a deck that is pretty cohesive.  I have a couple ways to deal with some of my biggest threats (exiling my graveyard totally castrates me, so I'm running things like Stony Silence to block some common graveyard hate).

Here's the current build:

Commander:
Bruna, Light of Alabaster

Creatures:
Auramancer
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Elgaud Shieldmate
Isperia, Supreme Judge
Kor Sanctifiers
Luminate Primordial
Merfolk Looter
Mesa Enchantress
Murder of Crows
Spectral Gateguards
Stoneforge Mystic
Urbis Protector

Instants:
Banishing Stroke
Sphinx's Revelation
Think Twice

Sorceries:
Divine Reckoning
Flux
Heed the Mists
Petals of Insight

Artifacts:
Azorius Cluestone
Azorius Keyrune
Fieldmist Borderpost
Mask of Avacyn
Necropouncer
Norn's Annex
Swiftfoot Boots

Enchantments:
Angelic Destiny
Cloak of Mists
Dissipation Field
Divine Favor
Drake Umbra
Eel Umbra
Eldrazi Conscription
Ethereal Armor
Ghostly Touch
Green Scarab
Holy Mantle
Honden of Seeing Winds
Indomitable Will
Insight
Knightly Valor
Lifelink
Mind Control
Murder Investigation
Oblivion Ring
Orim's Prayer
Psychic Surgery
Righteous Authority
Sigil of Sleep
Spectral Flight
Sphere of Safety
Spirit Mantle
Stony Silence
Traveler's Cloak
Tricks of the Trade
True Conviction
Volition Reins
Way of the Thief

Planeswalkers:
Venser, the Sojourner

Lands:
Azorius Guildgate
17 Island
22 Plains

Assuming I can survive the first several turns, this deck seems like it'll be a solid threat, and I think it'll be a lot of fun to play.  There's still some fat that could be trimmed, as I've included some cards that don't fit with the above considerations or deal with direct threats (or at least, they don't deal with threats very well), but I don't think I own any cards that would fit into the theme more comfortably.   I also need to get some more powerful auras (I'd definitely like to replace things like Divine Favor).  Maybe some other changes will become clear as I test the deck a bit.

The Hiatus is Over!

Oooooooook.  The last couple months have been crazy busy for me, with some work-related travel and a number of other personal developments.  Although my schedule is still pretty hectic, it’s also a lot more predictable now, so I’m going to try to get back into the groove of things.  Here are my plans:

No More Monday Magic (at least not weekly)

For the next few weeks, I'm not going to be posting a regular Magic blog, mainly because I don't have much to talk about.  Seeing that a core set is currently in season, I don't have any crazy new deck ideas and my usual play group isn't doing a whole lot.  I do have a new EDH deck that's probably worth discussing, so I'll post that deck list on Monday, but after that, I probably won't talk much about Magic until the next set is released.

Reviews Taking Over

With Magic taking a break and my relatively busy schedule, my main writing focus will be reviews for the games I'm playing.  I've been dabbling with a bunch of random games recently, so I hope to be able to churn out some quality reviews in the next few weeks.

Plus A Regular Streaming Schedule!

My biggest goal, though, is to maintain a semi-regular streaming schedule.  I haven't quite decided on the schedule yet, but I'm hoping to stream at least three times a week.  I am definitely planning on streaming on Sundays, so you can look out for that tomorrow.  I'm thinking Mondays, Wednesdays, and/or Thursdays; I'll make the schedule pretty clear once I've set it.

And that's where I am.  I'm looking forward to putting out some new content in the next few weeks.  Until then, tschüss.