The Void

After a little testing, I decided to remove Tourach, Dread Cantor. This deck just wasn't using that card to its full potential. 

I thought about Kitesail Freebooter but apparently that princess is in another castle. Besides, I only really thought about Freebooter after finding out I didn't own any copies of Opposition Agent. Which is weird, I really thought I had some.

I'm not opposed to getting some but I'm trying to solve a problem in the now. Enter: Oona's Prowler. 

My thinking here is that if my opponents want to throw away cards to avoid taking damage, that's their problem. But a 3 power flier is nothing to sneeze at, and while I'm taxing their other resources they will have to make the choice of either hording what's in their hand in hopes they can play it in time to save themselves, or getting rid of things and hopefully drawing into something.

In the meanwhile, I can keep up the pressure with Timeless Dragons. 

I may still pick up Opposition Agent. There's no point in pretending that Oona's Prowler is a strictly superior card, because most of the time you'd want an Opposition Agent. For now and for this budget, however, I think I like where the deck is at. 

3 Spelltithe Enforcer
3 Windborn Muse
3 Elite Spellbinder
3 Anointed Peacekeeper
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Timeless Dragon
3 Oona's Prowler

4 Phyrexian Arena

4 Pile On

8 Swamp
10 Plains
4 Silent Clearing

4 Duress
3 Damn

Stall Out

So I started with removing these cards:

4 Shrieking Grotesque
3 Disenchant (SB material)
Mind Shatter
3 Silent Specter

Adding in

3 Duress
3 Elite Spellbinder
3 Anointed Peacekeeper
3 Thalia, 
2 Pile On

And this leaves me with two slots to fill that I'm not sure about right now. 

A test with the deck has suggested that the Chancellor of the Annex isn't very helpful. With no other function in the deck but to put a turn one tax on, I feel like something else will be more useful. I'm going to start with two more copies of Pile On, and then see where that takes me.

It was about this time that I noticed I had a different problem: Spelltithe Enforcer and Pillory of the Sleepless create a nonbo. Why not just sac the creature that's causing you to lose life? 

So I needed another removal spell and I think I found it in Damn. 

Let's see what happens. 

Black Silence/White Noise

I don't remember where the title for this deck came from, exactly. It was a song, and Fuz suggested it-a search reveals a Black Silence White Noise album, and a song from Dark Tranquility: White Noise Black Silence. I suppose either is possible!

The notion, at the time, was to create a taxing White deck with Black disruption. The disruption of an early game would allow for late game effects to take over. Effects like Pillory of the Sleepless would whittle down the life total while Windburn Muse would keep my opponent at bay and provide me with an attacker that's difficult to block.

But this is using some old tech, and White's taxation cards have changed. Let's see what I started with.

4 Shrieking Grotesque
4 Spelltithe Enforcer
3 Windborn Muse
3 Silent Specter
2 Noble Templar
2 Twisted Abomination
4 Chancellor of the Annex

4 Phyrexian Arena
4 Pillory of the Sleepless

3 Disenchant

8 Swamp
10 Plains
4 Silent Clearing

1 Mind Shatter
1 Pulling Teeth
3 Persecute

There are some obvious shifts that need to be made here. Mind Shatter is so clearly a filler card, and Disenchant effects really belong in the sideboard. In addition, White has better taxation effects, and while I have a place in my heart for Persecute, that card is really a card for the Commander format. Games generally move too quickly in 60 card matchups for Persecute to do what I hope it does, namely ravage the opponent's hand. 

Then, there's cleaning up that manabase a little: Noble Templar and Twisted Abomination are from a simpler time. So let's get to work.  

LotR Pre-Release

I know I just got finished saying that the LotR set didn't hold much interest for me, but a buddy was going to a pre-release and hey, hanging out with friends is cool! 

Here's how things went.

Match 1 vs Zachary

Game 1: I was able to grind out the ground game, as he didn’t get his tempo cards.

Game 2: He used War of the Last Alliance to get Faramir, Prince of Ithilien. I couldn’t remove it, and that was that.

Game 3: Whil he didn’t draw his tempo cards, he did get Faramir again. This helped stall the ground game, and I misplayed my Nimble Hobbit's abilities and forgot to pay mana to tap a blocker. This meant we went to time, and that was that.


Match 2 vs Lance.

Lance played like he was hungover. Don’t go to prereleases hungover folks. Trust me.

Game 1: He was able to play two Fog on the Barrow-Downs, shutting down my threats, and that was that.

Game 2: This time I had the pressure needed to win.

Game 3: I drew lands. He drew spells. You might imagine how it went.

Match 3 vs Max

Game 1: His deck rolled through me, with two Erebor Flamesmiths on the table and more than enough reasons to cast Sam's Desperate Rescue in multiples. .

Game 2: I had to mulligan to five, and unfortunately my first play came on turn 4 with a Bag End Porter. 

Boy that sucked. Not just the losing, but the fact that I just felt like the games were...dull slogs. I didn't get to make interesting choices, the Ringbearing mechanic didn't increase my interactivity and instead put a tremendous pressure on me to have removal-something notoriously slim in Limited formats. I found myself getting pinged by tiny creatures with the Ring, allowing a huge upside of looting, and even extra damage, for my opponents.

This is the first pre-release I can think of in forever where the games just were not fun. On top of that, a small group went to the pub to play more games with our decks and the 'grindy unfun slog' just continued for me. I won a few games, but I didn't enjoy the experience. 

Part of the issue might've been my deck; I thought the curve was pretty good, and for the most part I didn't have to mulligan often or have trouble finding my colors. But I just didn't have anything useful to DO, more often than not. It was really easy for my opponents to run away with games. 

However, Black had only one creature, Red didn't offer any removal and Blue... well I don't exactly get Blue in Limited. 

Anyway, here's the deck:

Old Man Willow
Arwen, Mortal Queen
Shelob, Child of Ungoliant

Shire Terrace
Great Hall of the Citadel
7 Forest
6 Plains
1 Swamp

2 Westfold Rider
2 Hobbit's Sting
Gandalf the White
Eowyn, Lady of Rohanb
Nimble Hobbit
Bill the Pony
For on the Barrow-Downs
Dunedain Blade
Escape from Orthanc

Many Partings
Shower of Arrows
Galadhrinm Guide
Chance-Met Elves
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Ent's Fury
Delighted Halfling
Bag End Porter
Entish Restoration
Pippin's Bravery
Enraged Huorn
Mirrormere Guardian

Who Can It Be Now (Redux)

So, after a few years (wow, 2014) I have come across Who Can It Be Now again. "Hey," I thought, "let's give this a whirl!"

Let's take another look at the deck. 

3 Defense Grid

3 Penumbra Wurm
2 Nicol Bolas
3 Pathrazer of Ulamog
2 Pelakka Wurm
1 Worldspine Wurm
3 Dragon Tyrant

4 Sneak Attack

4 Seething Song
4 Lotus Petal
2 Pyroclasm

1 Dwarven Ruins
2 Sandstone Needle
3 Forgotten Cave
2 Smoldering Crater
14 Mountain

3 Gamble
3 Reforge the Soul

Well then. I think we can say it's time for a little refresher. 

First; there are too many lands that ETB. Forgotten Cave can be cycled for one mana, but Smoldering Crater? That can just be a Mountain.

Most of the creatures I like! But it's probably time to take a look at creatures that have been printed since 2014...

Oh my.

However, I don't know that creatures are what Who Can It Be Now really needs. It needs card draw, something Red didn't have much of in 2014. It's 2022 though and cards like Thrill of Possibility exist. 

Also, the threats like Dragon Tyrant are 100% glory of cool things. Let's try this:

3 Defense Grid

3 Penumbra Wurm
2 Nicol Bolas
3 Pathrazer of Ulamog
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Worldspine Wurm
1 Atraxa, Grand Unifier 

4 Sneak Attack

4 Seething Song
4 Thrill of Possibility
2 Cathartic Pyre

1 Dwarven Ruins
2 Sandstone Needle
3 Forgotten Cave
16 Mountain

3 Gamble
3 Into the Fire
4 Strike It Rich

The new goal is to both increase my mana production via Strike It Rich-freeing up Lotus Petal for another deck that might be more appropriate, a Storm or artifact based one-and cycle through my cards a lot faster with Thrill of Possibility and Cathartic Pyre. 

I also took out Reforge the Soul for Into the Fire. This requires me to be a little savvy about how I play my cards out; saving lands in hand for more draws with Into the Fire is a line of play I need to be aware of. But Into the Fire removes an effect that could help my opponent as much as me, while also giving me the option to cast a Pyroclasm on turn three, if I haven't been able to get my pieces together. 

Finally, I have made room for one Atraxa, Grand Unifier. If she's great in Reanimator builds, maybe she can help close the gap in Sneak Attack builds. 

At least, that's the hope. Red as a color has changed so much in the past eight years that it would be foolish to ignore what's opened up. 

You Can't Depend on the Sacraments

In the end, I decided to split the difference. I didn't do this just because however: the power of Starnheim Unleashed fills a huge role in Busload, giving it some reach that would otherwise be lacking. That didn't mean I could ignore the lack of removal, however. 

To that end, Selesnya Guildmage needed to go. It was another another mana sink, but four mana to give +1/+1 to everything just isn't even comparable to Ezuri. With six removal spells in Busload, that should give me enough density to reliably remove a creature that needs to go. 

Testing this out against Noah, I found that for the most part I've got it dialed in. He was playing a really interesting Vesuvan Drifter deck that could do terrible things to me.

But the games were engaging and I felt like I got to make interesting choices and take actions that kept me in the game.

I like where this is at, and I think I can move forward. 

4 Thorn of Amethyst

2 Llanowar Elves
2 Elvish Champion
3 Sylvan Messenger
3 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Llanowar Knight
3 Imperious Perfect
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Elvish Archdruid
3 Priest of Titania
3 Leaf-Crowned Visionary

2 Ossification

4 Fateful Absence

4 Brushland
5 Plains
9 Forest
4 Razorverge Thicket

3 Starnheim Unleashed

15 Sideboard
SB: 4 Glowrider
SB: 2 Reclamation Sage

SB: 4 Rest in Peace

SB: 3 Path to Exile
SB: 2 Force of Vigor

Here We Go Again

So, the MTG take on Lord of the Rings is in full swing and the previews are coming in hot. For those of you who are excited about this mashup, yaaaay! I am happy for you. 

But for some reason this just bores me to death. 

Part of it is the introduction of the Ring Tempting mechanic. Like Exploring the Dungeon, this feels burdensome on the additive side. ANOTHER item you have to keep on you to remember/understand what it does, but isn't a card you can actually play. So I can't just read a card in play and understand what it does: there's now a reference card. Three of them, now-because you know people are going to combine all of these mechanics. One of the more streamlined things about Magic was: reading the card explains the card. 

Now there's a whole rules subset that aren't on the cards anymore. 

Digitally, this probably isn't as much of an issue but I don't care about the digital form of Magic, except as it helps me find an easy way for me to play with friends who don't live in town. After that; this just feels like extra bits of stuff I need to try and play the game-a game that already has more than enough bits.

Then there's the subject itself. The Lord of the Rings was a fine trilogy of films, and the books are foundational to current fantasy literature. I have enjoyed both-the movies more than the books, which tend to meander. But I do not understand the grip it has on popular culture at large. It's fine, even good in places but that's about where it ends. People have improved considerably upon the foundation LotR laid.  

"You don't have to care about that!" is the response.

Right. And I don't. Except. 

There are cards that could make something I'm doing better, or are unique. White countermagic, Blue mana generation, and so on. So I am required to pay some amount of attention to this thing I would like to ignore. 

The Making Of

I have stumbled across this talk given by a Marvel Snap developer and it is exactly my kind of thing. A window into how the sausage gets made. 

Also, it helps me feel vindicated about not taking certain things personally: when Jason and I play, he'll often complain about a location-a location that sucks. He's not wrong about it.

But without that kind of variance, we wouldn't have the game that we do, and that game is pretty great. For me, these sucky locations add strategic layers, not annoyances. One of my takeaways from this talk is; that's what they're supposed to do. 

So cool! Working as intended. 

You Can Depend On The Worst

Had an test game with Noah (who was playing a Show & Tell variant) last night and the problem with using Starnheim Unleashed became apparent in game two. 

I had a Starnheim Unleashed foretold, and was building my army when Noah put a Phyrexian Dreadnought into play. I took the first hit, playing a bunch of elves from my hand including an Ezuri, Renegade Leader. 

But one hit was all I took: when Noah attacked with the Dreadnought next turn, my elves already had +2, and I proceeded to give them another +6, with mana up to regenerate the two 10/10's I was using to block with. 

I already had all the mana, and something to do with it. How would Starnheim Unleashed get me out of a situation where I already had what I needed? Creatures getting +6 and trample should win me the game. Making five 4/4 fliers with that mana would be fine, but it wouldn't change a situation where I was losing to one where I was winning. 

And that I realize, is the problem I really need to solve. Which means I have to reorient my thinking about what should go in that space. If the issue is that if they take away my mana dorks, I have no game then the obvious solution is; figure out how to either protect said dorks, or stall the game out long enough to get more dorks. Since I'm currently liking what Fateful Absence is doing, I'm inclined to lean into that direction, at least for now.