AuthorAbe Sargent

Now that we have acclimated to the cards in Fifth Dawn, is there a new deck here? Besides the obvious Krark-Clan Ironworks decks, of course. What about, say, Mono-Black Control?

It is obvious that there are a lot of good, fun cards from Unglued when you start to look through a spoiler. However, there are also some amazingly broken cards as well. In order to bring the good cards to your casual playgroup, you may very well need to examine the potential of a few Unglued cards.

Before I started playing multiplayer and casual Magic heavily over the last couple of years, I had purchased only two Unglued boosters. I liked the lands. I even skipped a local Unglued draft tournament, because I didn’t want to play with silly cards. I like my Magic serious. Today, I am a different person. I still like my Magic serious, but I also allow for a bit of frivolity. Sanctioned Magic has printed silly cards for ages. Why not allow in a few more from the Unglued sets?

Before I was selected to be on the Five Color Ruling Council, I was very vocal about what is arguably the most contentious issue in Five Color. However, after being placed on the Council, I decided to no longer be vocal. My opinion was known by most already, why belabor it? Since it is such a divisive issue, why talk about it? At the time, I believed that nothing would ever happen, so why work for change? Therefore, this is the first time in over two years that I have made my voice on this issue public.

Engineered Explosives
Single card in search of home. Likes decks with lots of different colors of mana, and few small casting cost permanents. Does not enjoy being related to cousins Pernicious Deed and Powder Keg. Instead likes to stand on its own. If you have a place in your deck for such a card, call us at 1-900-HOT-MACHINE-LOVE tonight. Don’t delay!

I have decided to bite the bullet. For as long as I have been a featured writer at StarCity, my personal bio has included the following sentences:”He has a Five Color Showcase deck he has been working on for years, and won Type Two, Extended, and Type One tournaments with it. This ultimate work is called, ironically,”Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy” – a title which proves that, like everybody else, Abe thinks the world revolves around him. The only difference is that Abe admits it.”
Many people haved asked me to tell them about Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy, and I’ve finally broken down.

And so the wheel turns. Last month the Five Color Council voted on the status of four cards. This month, we vote on three more cards, plus there are a couple of issues to attend to.

After a week of reading articles about Type Two decks or block ideas along with the occasional store tournament, it feels really nice to play with a different sort of deck – the type that defies typical tournament conventions. If you are looking for a deck to play casually that seems to run on a different axis than most, allow me to present three personal creations of mine that I have found to be a lot of fun.

Last week, we looked into the issue of adding Portal cards into your casual metagame. A lot of players have historically had questions about allowing cards from non-legal sets into their play circle. However, Wizards of the Coast recently released Oracle rulings for all of the cards from Portal sets. As such, many concerns about Portal have melted away. Today, I have listed the 32 best Portal cards to bring to your casual game.

When I first joined our multiplayer and casual Magic circle, I probably owned all of five Portal cards. Why would I need Portal cards, after all? I had a highlander Five Color deck with over 300 cards, several decks for each major sanctioned type, a more competitive Five Color deck, and a variety of casual decks. And yet, no Portal cards. Recently, Wizards of the Coast released official Oracle rulings for all Portal and Starter cards. However, there are some issues that need to be addressed before your playgroup uses these fine cards. Let’s go over them:

The cycle continues. Every few months or so, the Five Color Council has a larger ballot. February appears to be the largest one in a while. This month, we take a close look at three new cards and try to see if an old card should be put out to pasture. We also have an interesting question of succession.

In case this is your first time reading one of my set reviews, allow me to get the ground rules out of the way. One of the most boring things about set reviews is that so many cards which are marginally useful are reviewed. There’s only so many times I can read comments like,”Okay in sealed, bad in Constructed,” or,”Not the worst choice in a theme deck, but poor quality for tournament decks.” I have better things to do with my time than to review a bunch of chaff and filler. That will give me more time to discus the Darksteel goodies.

Three players are convicted of the ultimate crime: liking casual! If the any player confesses to the crime, and helps the police convict his fellow players, then the police will look kindly upon him. In fact, a player who confesses and convicts their partners will get away without being charged. However, the players who are convicted will go away for ten years plus five probationary years. If all players happen to confess, each will receive three years of jail time. Of course, if none confess, then all players get off with six months of jail time and then go free.

What do you do?

A lot of older songs, especially ones from the 50s and 60s, seem a bit formulaic to me. They are, for lack of a better word, boring. Simplistic. But there is the occasional song that is just magic to music. Good old fashioned great songs. True treasure. I feel the same way about Magic decks. Some old decks should be retired quickly – they are boring and stale. But not all decks in the graveyard of Magic are so inclined. With a few recent sets of crazy cards, maybe it’s time to revisit a few of these oldies. Can we make them better? Can we make them even more fun to play?