Mirrodin Black is good at attacking. Consume Spirit is good at finishing your opponent once all your guys go through unblocked. Without any decent counters in Mirrodin, Consume Spirit always hits for the full boat. Guaranteed damage. I like the sound of that.
You know why I hate Pewter Golem? Guess you’ll have to check inside to see…
Before we get started, let’s talk about the deck itself. Relatively few articles have been written about Twiddle Desire, and most people are dismissing it as a viable deck for PTQs. There is good reason for this, since it is one of the hardest decks to play, and is not as rewarding as I would like it to be in terms of supporting good play. Simply put, the average player should not just pick up this deck and go to town expecting to get a turn 2 kill consistently. It isn’t going to happen.
Even for experienced players Twiddle Desire does not win on turn 2 25% of the time. Not even close. It’s far better.
I used to love Extended. I have written more articles on Extended than any other (sanctioned) format. I play Limited, I like T2, but I have always loved Extended. At least, until now I have. The sheer power of the Tier I combo decks makes it futile to play any original decks. In a format where a turn one Isochron Scepter imprinted with Counterspell may be too slow, other non-combo decks have very little chance…
This week Oscar plays in a real life Type I tournament, writes about his performance, and goes in-depth on the Keeper versus Dragon match-up. Everyone who has ever complained that Oscar rarely writes about his losses needs to read this one…
Twelve-Land Decks, B/R Slivers, Osyp’s Main Chimp, and more, all in the latest edition of the StarCityGames.com Digest!
A Tier 1 Anchor card is a card that you will never pass if you open it in Pack 1. Consequently, some of the artifacts in this category are cards that you will never pass…well, ever. These are far and away better than any common, and I would say”any uncommon” as well, but in Mirrodin that is an assertion that is liable to get you into trouble. You will pump the fist when you see one of these in a pack. Throughout Onslaught Block, it was never possible to open two Tier 1 cards in the same pack. Sure, Lightning Rift was good and all, but if you open Visara the Dreadful and Lightning Rift, the Rift is getting shipped like you were Aristotle Onassis.
This has changed. There is a big dumb elephant lurking about. You may be sending Bosh, Iron Golem off to the left. Just a warning.
With Mirrodin almost ready to be released on Magic Online, I’ve received a number of emails regarding the makeup of a successful draft deck in the new format. How many Lands? Spells? Creatures? Equipment? As with most things in Magic, the number of Spells and Equipment tends to vary from deck to deck. Two important constants that I’ve found though are the amount Creatures and Land you want to have. Usually I’d never want to run less than twelve creatures, and fourteen or more is gravy.
Now let’s talk about Land. For those of you who have been unable to get a good amount of experience in the format as of yet, you need to know that the standard rule has just been thrown out the window…
Welcome to the holiday season, at least here in America. It is a time for family, friends, and toasty warm feelings to keep us comfortable on long, cold winter nights. For me, where there are friends, there is also Magic. So, what is your Magic group doing for the holiday? Here are a few suggestions to make things a little extraordinary.
As I mentioned in the previous installment, the idea of the base set is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of each color. This is evident in the Blue in 8th Edition, so much in fact that I can imagine a designer muttering”color wheel this, Rosewater!” as he added yet another awful creature and unplayable rare under the Blue section. Here are particular things to look out for if you want to draft Blue…
Mind’s Desire is not a deck, it’s a twisted demon; a parasite that infects your brain and sucks all the gooey morsels out, leaving you nothing more than a haunted shell of a man. This is the tale of a downward spiral in the tainted, aberrant madness of something far more sinister than Magic or playing solitaire. It is, indeed, a tale of Ten Thousand Goldfish! Mad, insane Goldfish. Actually, at some stage I will give you a pretty good idea where Mind’s Desire sits in regards to strength and speed in Standard… but mostly I’ll just rant and rave like a lunatic. Saddle up!
For four mana you get one of the most formidable, unequipped attacking commons in the set. Fangren Hunter edges it out in Red Zone considerations but I believe it beats out number three in my mind, Myr Enforcer. I always talk about the creature-light format, but it is still important to have quality creatures. I often go to look at a deck laid out and ask how many creatures it has. I routinely get answers like”eleven” or”thirteen.” I then look down to see three Myr, two Soldier Replica, an Auriok Transfixer, and a Yotian Soldier in the creature pile. I, in no way, mean to malign these creatures. They are good and necessary parts of a deck. But they don’t attack, at least not well.
Ken wrote,”Spellbomb does one thing very well… it kills Spikeshot Goblin.” Well Ken, I hate to burst your little fantasy bubble but Pyrite Spellbomb burns every two-toughness creature. It kills both of Blue’s best commons, Neurok Spy and Somber Hoverguard. It also kills Black’s best creatures, Nim Shrieker and Pewter Golem. Pyrite Spellbomb kills Skyhunter Cub, Auriok Transfixer and all of the Myrs.
Have you noticed the pattern? Pyrite Spellbomb kills good creatures. The only downside of Pyrite Spellbomb is that it is weak versus the Green creatures in Mirrodin. It doesn’t kill Tel-Jilad Chosen, Tel-Jilad Exile or Tel-Jilad Archers, but then again Hematite Golem doesn’t do very much versus these guys either.
Many of you may be unfamiliar with Iron Man (I plan on explaining our group’s specific rules later on), so I will expose the basics here. Essentially, if a card leaves the play area for any reason, it gets ripped (or destroyed in a creative fashion). While many find this objectionable, everyone I know has a ton of commons from expansions they don’t need, so they can usually begrudgingly admit that getting rid of them in this fashion is, at least, plausible.
As with any format, however, there will be those that try and make an impression while playing, by getting rid of foils, foreign black-bordered cards, APAC lands, and even Power 9. I must admit I am one of these people.
