Personally, I am a big fan of Scars Block draft, if not for the high level of money cards, then for the great amount of synergy throughout many cards in the set. Like anyone else, I have a pet card or two that if it won't fit, I struggle to resist and, if it will work with my build so far, I snap up with a smile on my face.
Now, some may disagree with me about my pet card, but I personally think it's wonderful. What card would this be? The rare Semblance Anvil. I first played with this card in a Scars of Mirrodin prerelease and it works very well depending on a couple things.
To draft a deck that can use Semblance Anvil efficently, if possible draft 2 Semblance Anvils, just so you have a backup in case the first is blown up or have a back up plan around for when your Anvil is shot by Divine Offering/Scrapmelter/etc.
A good backup to Semblance Anvil are Metalcraft creatures, as a Semblance Anvil deck wants to be packed with artifact creatures and Metalcraft decks want the same. So, game plan for drafting a Semblance Anvil deck:
1. Draft lots of artifact creatures.
These are more important than regular just artifacts or creatures. Why? Because slapping and artifact creature underneath a Semblance Anvil gives you the discounted cost on both artifacts and creatures, which is pretty nice.
2. Draft Metalcraft as a backup plan.
Of course, the Metalcraft creatures that are also artifacts are pretty good, but a smattering on non-artifact Metalcraft creatures, like Auriok Sunchaster, Blade-Tribe Berserker, or Carapace Forger, are perfectly fine, too. You'll probably still want to keep to at least 12 or more artifacts, however.
And that's about all there is to it. Enjoy trying out this janky deck in NMS draft, because I know I do, even if it's not always a winner.
-
- NacatlFleetfoot
- Registered User
-
Member for 15 years and 27 days
Last active Mon, Jan, 22 2018 18:35:30
- 0 Followers
- 639 Total Posts
- 1 Thank
-
Sep 18, 2011
published the article NMS Draft: Playing with Semblance AnvilPosted in: NMS Draft: Playing with Semblance Anvil -
Apr 22, 2009
published the article Borderpost QuintetPosted in: Borderpost QuintetWhile in the beginning of the spoiler season, I read that many people were disappointed with cards previewed for the soon-to-be released Alara Reborn. Now, with the addition of many more cards, things have become much more appealing. From cycles of cards, such as the confirmed 'Blade' cycle (Ex. Naya Hushblade & Grixis Grimblade) and the set of hybrid cyclers (Ex. Monstrous Carabid & Glassdust Hulk), there is plenty more to strengthen the 'shards', even if most speculate purely two color or just two color with minor splash will be played more often.
Of these sets of similarly themed cards, I myself am fond of the Borderposts. If you haven't already taken a look at various spoilers, allow me to break down the five borderposts for you briefly.
Veinfire Borderpost, Firewild Borderpost, Wildfield Borderpost, Mistvein Borderpost, and Fieldmist Borderpost are the names of these territory marking artifacts. Each of the titles preceding 'Borderpost' is thought to be combinations of two words representive of each of the five worlds merged under Alara Reborn. Each shard also seems to have taken a primary color, at least in the case of the Borderposts' mana abilities and costs. Field for white Bant, Mist for blue Esper, Vein for black Grixis, Fire for red Jund, and Wild for green Naya.
Each Borderpost has a CMC (Converted Mana Cost) of 3. One colorless mana, as well as one mana of each color each particular artifact represents. For example, Firewild Borderposts costs 1RG. The colorless mana, a single red mana representing Jund, and the one green mana symbol for Naya. However, the Borderposts also have an alternative casting cost, which can make them essentially a CIPT land of two colors, aside from their vulnerablility to artifact destruction and the like, of course. If you don't feel like paying 3, or just don't have the right combination of colored mana, you can always pay out 1 colorless mana and bounce a Basic Land you control back to your hand.
While normally, this would seem like a delay, where it might otherwise be thought of a some form of mana accel, there is an upside if you manage to score a Basic Land and one of the Borderposts in your first turn. Not following? Well, it's simple really. Throw down that one Basic Land of yours, no matter the color, so long as it produces at least colorless mana. Next, tap it for 1 mana and bounce it back to your hand. Now you can play your Borderpost. Voila, you now have access to AT LEAST two colors of mana next turned when your Borderpost untaps (All Borderposts come into play tapped, regardless of whether the original or alternative cost is paid), even more if that Basic Land you bounced back last turn was a different color from the mana provided by your Borderpost.
Why not just play a Tri-land then? Well, I can give you one good reason. Even though a Borderpost only counts for two mana slots and colors, unlike the triple-slot Tri-lands, it also counts as a multicolored permanent. A good handful of ARB's cards benefit in some way from multicolored permanents, not to mention there are some in the other sets in this block, too. Cards of particular mention are the 2-drop Blade cycle, who each gain +1/+1 and a neat bonus ability whenever you control a multicolored permanent. These Blades also count for three colors, regardless of what you played to cast them, which makes them nice additions to cards that activate around certain colors of cards. Allow me to provide a sample curve or two to demonstrate:
Grixis Shard:
t1: Island, Tap and Bounce for Veinfire Borderpost.
t2: Bounced Island. Grixis Grimblade (Now a 3/2 Deathtouch)
t3: Grixis Panorama. Sedraxis Alchemist for bounce.
OR
t3: Kederekt Creeper (x2)
In the above, Grimblade benefits from Veinfire and become a decent 3/2 Deathtouch creature, while on the next turn, you can either play off Grimblades blue and red colors for bounce with Sedraxis Alchemist or preparing discard creatures with Kederekt Parasite.
Naya Shard:
t1: Mountain, Tap and Bounce for Wildfield Borderpost.
t2: Bounced Mountain. Naya Hushblade (3/2 Shroud now)
t3: Naya Panorama. Ember Weaver for First Striking-Fly Blocker.)
Again, a blade benefitting from a Borderpost. This time it's Naya Hushblade. Say goodbye to worrying over the trouble of spot removal like Oblivion Ring or single burn like Resounding Thunder (The poor Hushblade'll still get toasted by Fallout, unfortunately). While Ember Weaver isn't the best choice, it is nice to be able to drop a 3/3 First-Striker with Reach for only 3. You could instead sub the panorama for a Forest or Plains and play a Woolly Thoctar instead.
Bant Shard:
t1: Forest, Tap and Bounce for Mistvein Borderpost.
t2: Bounced Forest. Bant Sureblade (First-Striking 3/2 for 2!)
t3: Island or Plains. Rhox War Monk.
Yes, in this situation, there is no permanent benefitting from Sureblades tri-color goodness, but Rhox War Monk is the much better play in this situation. I think you get the drift now, even if my more-or-less basic knowledge of Magic didn't draft the best explanation or exploitation of the Borderposts and Blades.
In conclusion, I think the Borderposts will replace the 3 cost Obelisks, due to their being slightly easier to cast, though some may believe them CIPT or tapping for only 2 colors instead of 3 is troublesome and opt for the Obelisk. In the end, the Borderposts are a 3-1 artifact. Mana Accel, Fixing, and Blade-Cycle/Multicolor Enabling. This concludes my bit on Borderposts (and some blathering about the Blades).
Next time I'll be reporting on my experience with my local card shop's ARB pre-release events. Until then, have fun with the idea of the Borderposts.
-
Apr 20, 2009
published the article Learning My Way Around StandardPosted in: Learning My Way Around StandardWhile I've been back in Magic for only about a month or so, I'm still getting a handle on what is particularly popular/ relevant in standard. With my luck, I'll have a decent knowledge of all the mains decks that see wide play just in time for many of the key cards to rotate out. Then it'll be back to square one getting to know new decks or observing the retooling with the additions of Alara Reborn and M10.
I love playing the popular strategies, whether it's on one side or another, even if sometimes it can be just downright painful to have your ass smashed in when a popular deck really gets brewing. So far, I've only gotten to play against a couple of the popular standard decks, these being, if I am speaking correctly, Boat Brew, 5CC, Blightning Aggro, and RDW. %CC is the only deck I've played against solo, while I played against RDW and Boat in a multiplayer game or two.
Boat Brew was interesting to see and at first I wasn't sure what was going on. I wasn't able to see how well my budget Naya Aggro really did against Brew, considering the third player of our multiplayer game kept burning the crap out of anything I dropped on the board, instead of focusing on both of us other players. Still, I nearly groaned when I finally saw the synergy between the cards running rampant across the table, like Reveillark, Ranger of Eos, and Figure of Destiny. Needless to say, I did lose the game with two decks beating me down, one with heavier focus on me.
Five Color Control was a delight to play and I actual went 1-2 in my solo match. I nearly won the third match, managing to get my opponent down to 1 life, only to stall out and get ripped apart four turns later. Again, this was playing my budget Naya Aggro. Hitting fast played a big part in managing to win the first game. Ultimately, %CC took me down, though I had to say I walked away feeling fairly satisfied with a 1-2 record.
Blightning Aggro I actually played against and teamed up with in a Two-Headed Giant game. Discard is not good for my deck, but in the first game my team was facing up against a cruddy esper deck and Blightning Aggro, my opponenets put far too much focus on my opponent (who was running some kind of G/W/U deck) and my aggro got to build up, which is a very stupid thing to let my deck do (Unless a good board sweeper or tapdown is in hand, it's a little difficult responding to a couple of Woollies and land-pumped Wild Nacats. The game I played alongside Blightnign Aggro though, we got whooped when the opposing team finally decided to focus equally.
Red Deck Wins was another multiplayer game, and is my most recent. RDW was the only standard deck in the brew, however, my other opponent's deck Extended for some of his dual lands. Mine was an Extended deck making use of G/R slivers, almost exclusively from the Time Spiral block. Even with plenty of burn coming my way, I managed to keep on both opponents for extensive damage (Slivers like Two-Headed, Reflex, Bonesplitter, and Might together can drop heavy damage). I ended the game with a Battering Sliver pumped with Petrified Plating, bowling past one of my opponent's Demigods after we'd already eliminated the other player. I think my ending life was somewhere around 10.
I've never gotten to use any of these lovely decks IRL, though I do have fun setting them up in MWS and going a few mirror rounds. I've tried Faeries, 5CC, Naya Aggro, and BW Tokens, among others. Faeries is my particular favorite, 5CC following, with BW Tokens actually bringing up the rear. Perhaps it was merely that some decks just don't show their full potential in a mirror-match, but the decklist I played for BW Tokens just seemed to unstable.
And that's about it. I honestly can't wait for ARB to blow onto the scene next week, well, at least in the prerelease. While the spoilers haven't been all too explosive, there should be at least a couple additions worthwhile. From discussion with others, Spellbreaker Behemoth sounds popular, though so does Meddling Mage (Which could effectively cancel out Behemoth anyways).
I'd love to hear every's comments on dealing with the popular standard archtypes, so do me a favor and leave me a note or two with your particular opinion. -
Apr 13, 2009
published the article Sometimes Victory Is HollowPosted in: Sometimes Victory Is HollowThere's no greater feeling than throwing down that game winning card and being declared match winner, is there? Well, that honestly depends on who you played against. I recently discovered at a local FNM torunament, a win doesn't always feel like a win, regardless of how bad you whooped the other player Not following? Allow me to explain what went on at that particular tournament.
That night my local card and gaming shop was packed, over thirty people and a full twenty-five of them signed up for the Type 2 tournament. For this relatively small store, this was quite a mass of Magic players. They ran the gauntlet from prim and neat to wild and grungy, from Faerie decks to Blightning discard decks. Now, I'm used to seeing a colorful group at FNM, but typically none of us are below fifteen or sixteen.
One entrant into the tournament surprised me. At first I thought they were just tagging along, but when I heard the young child, whom we'll just call 'Kid' for the sake of privacy and the article, who turned out to only be around seven or so, was actually entering the tournament, I had mixed thoughts. My first (as most of you out there might conclude) was there'd be at least one easy win. My second thought, 'maybe I shouldn't underestimate this kid, even if he was so young'.
Well, guess who was my first match of the night? You've got three guesses, and the first two don't count. That's right, Kid was my first round opponent and, while the little voice in the back of my head was trying to keep me from getting too cocky, but another was shouting a lot louder this would a way easy match. So, I sat down at the table with a good sense of confidence.
While I can't recall most of the match details, I can recall some of the less complex ones. I was playing my adjusted Naya Aggro deck, which had been playing fairly hard and fast, like it's supposed to, in test runs earlier that day. At first I was confused by my opponent's deck type, which I never came to a clear conclusion on, which consisted of creatures like Cylian Elf, Shorecrasher Mimic, and Slippery Bogle.
Whatever kind it was, it generated creatures like mad. I'd attack with three creatures one turn to his three, he'd have his block, clearing Kid's side of the board. His next turn, I'd look away for just a few seconds and look back to three or four creatures on the board. Still, when it came down to mere mass of creatures, my deck had the advantage for the fact not only were my creatures bigger (Wild Nacatl pumped from Mountains/Plains, Woolly Thoctar, etc), but I also ran a fair deal of burn. The only noncreatures I saw in my match with Kid from him was Gift of the Gargantuan and a blue-green spell that gave his green creatures +1/+1 and Flying.
In the end, after a little while of knocking out creatures, I won, sweeping 2-0. Yet, as he went off to talk to his parent about the match, I couldn't help but feel that the win was a little empty, not at all like I felt when I swept another opponent two rounds later. Talking to a couple of other players around me who had seen the match, I got a couple chuckles from my statement 'I kind of felt bad for winning'.
I'm honestly just hoping the kid'll get better quick so I don't feel like that again. So all I can say in my closing words, know that sometimes, even if you win, you're not necessarily going to be happy about it.