Into The Irresistible Orbit

 The first new take on the deck:

2 Tilling Treefolk
2 Disciple of Grace
2 Titanic Bulvox
2 Bloated Toad
1 Darkwatch Elves
2 Peacekeeper
1 Disciple of Law
1 Krosan Colossus
4 Flourishing Fox
2 Eternal Witness
4 Knight of Autumn
2 Aurelia's Vindicator
1 Pale Recluse

2 Astral Slide
4 Astral Drift

2 Secluded Steppe
3 Tranquil Thicket
1 Grasslands
4 Plains
6 Forest
4 Scattered Groves
4 Overgrown Farmland

4 Edge of Autumn

What changed: More copies of the Astral effect, some good ETB creatures with Eternal Witness and and Knight of Autumn, and a few more lands, just at a glance. 

It isn't huge, but I hope that it gives the deck a little more consistency and a little bit of power. 

Go The Scenic Route

The first game with Let's Take A Trip Together went the way I suspected it would. I can't be too hard on the deck though: it hasn't been meaningfully updated since Onslaught (so, never) and my metagame has shifted significantly. 

This means that Aura Shards, Phantom Centaur, and Phantom Flock can be removed immediately. Aura Shards is fine in the sideboard but I need to make room for threats. 

There's good news though: people have been messing with Astral Slide and Astral Drift, which means I already have some neat ideas about where to take this deck!

Cards like Flourishing Fox offer a scaling threat, Eternal Witness is such an obvious card I can't believe I wasn't running it already, Knight of Autumn slots extremely well in, and look at these Disguise creatures that might be worth considering.

This means that there's cards from Ikora-a sadly underrated set-and Murders at Markov Manor-a kinda sad set- to explore and that's exciting to me, too!

Sick Day

 Sorry folks; not quite feeling up to snuff today. Catch you in a couple. 

Free Pizza: What If...?

I managed to get my free pizza pretty early in the What If...? season, and while I got to the finish line on an old reliable, the workhorse for me was a metagame call.

Here's a Cassandra Nova & Darkhawk deck. I know people like to try the "hawks and rocks" deck combing Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur, but I always found those two cards to be pulling in different directions. One or the other, not both. Even when that deck was the hotness, I felt it was a poor choice and filled with bad design. 

However, with Thanos being everywhere (a deck that runs an additional 6 cards) and Arishem always being present in a meta where people just don't know what they're going to do, I felt it was time to hit 'em where they live. 

I love hitting 'em where they live. 

Let's Take A Trip Together

Taken from the groovy Morphine song, this deck is based off the OLD Astral Slide decks

    

2 Venerable Monk
4 Tilling Treefolk
4 Phantom Centaur
2 Phantom Flock
2 Disciple of Grace
3 Titanic Bulvox
2 Bloated Toad

1 Darkwatch Elves
2 Peacekeeper
1 Disciple of Law
1 Krosan Colossus
1 Pale Recluse

3 Aura Shards
4 Astral Slide

2 Drifting Meadow
3 Slippery Karst
4 Secluded Steppe
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Grasslands
2 Plains
2 Forest
4 Scattered Groves
4 Overgrown Farmland

4 Edge of Autumn

So what is the plan here? Get out an Astral Slide, then use cycling cards to turn cards like Titanic Bulvox from morph creatures into beaters, or reset the counters on Phantom Centaur, gain life via Venerable Monk, or just lock out my opponent's combat step with Peacekeeper, while still being able to attack myself. 

Astral Drift was printed back in Modern Horizons 1 so I think it's high time to give this deck an update. 

50 Cards

I really enjoyed this video from Rhystic Studies, and it made me think about those cards which have had a big impact on me in the game.

So here's five:

Alruen-a conversation around this card was instrumental to having me think about the game differently, when a friend asked me how it would work. I became more about 'what do you want to do' than 'that can't be done'. 

The Lieges. I love the elegance of these designs. I can't say they're overly powerful, but I built decks for each one and they get better as they age and new cards come out that get boosted by the Liege.

Anje's Ravager-The R/B Madness deck I have is and may always be one of my favorites. I enjoy the synergies and am always looking for the stealth pieces that help it get juuust a little better-like Tersa Lightshatter. The Ravager is a key piece to it, as well as being a neat way to enable the deck. 

Zephyr Falcon- This card helped inspire the first or second deck I ever built, a White/Blue fliers deck. While this is a thing most new players do when they find a powerful theme, I was (and am) no different! I still have the deck, updated and occasionally doing great things. 

Recurring Nightmare-another card that I still have in a deck, one that is probably too dang slow for Magic now. Still, it embodies Black in such a fantastic way that I can't let myself let go of it. 

Tarkir-Dragonstorm Pre-Release 1-2

Starting off with a thank you to Red Castle Games; a great event as always. 

Rebecca and I picked Abzan (GWB) and Mardu (BRW) as our respective decks and both of us planned well, I thought, making sure we were higher-end of the land count, at 17. I admit there was a little disappointment in my packs, as the rare for my Mardu pack was Marang River Regent, and the rares in two other packs were Mistrise Village and Cori Mountain Monastery. 

But Rebecca had a solid suite of removal, and I had a Stormscale Scion to build around so here we go!

Rd 1 vs Vin & Riley

They were playing Jeskai and Sultai, and while we had a fairly good start, including a Scavenger Regent, Vin had removal spell after removal spell. Eventually we started topdecking lands, and Riley was able to surmount a sizable board presence that we couldn’t get over.

I think I made a critical error, waiting on my own spells to use the Stormscale Scion, and it was only after the match that we realized that I could’ve done it after any of our combat steps when they used removal spells.

Next time!

Round 2 vs Fry and John

They were playing Mardu and Jeskai decks but Fry found himself mana starved, and we pushed on that while John made tokens. While they got us down to 19, we had a massive turn where Rebecca cast a Worthy Cost, then a Kin-Tree Severance, that I followed up with the Stormscale Scion. With three 7/7 dragons, the pressure was just too much and they conceded shortly after.

Round 3 Liz & John

Our opponents were playing Jeskai and Sultai decks that were VERY strong. Rebecca had a great start, playing out her hand on curve, including a Delta Bloodflies, Trade Route Envoy, and Riling Dawnbreaker.  

However, they played and Elspeth Storm Slayer (which we used a LOT of resources to get off the table-but it had to be done), Fangkeeper's Familiar, a Flamehold Grappler followed up by a Riverwheel Sweep, locking down our two best creatures and leading to a Magmatic Hellkite, Kotis, the Fangkeeper, and Dalkovan Encampment. We just couldn’t find the answers to those questions. It was too much to keep up with.

That said; we made them work for it! We just couldn't find removal of our own to keep up with their resources. 

All in all though we felt we had opportunities in each game to do things and felt like our decks played fairly well! We both are looking forward to playing more sealed and seeing what the set can do for us, so I feel like this is one is a win. 

Tarkir: Dragonstorm - Set Review

Alright: we've got the official spoiler list here,  what I feel is a readable list here, and the mechanics article, in case you haven't seen that.  

No sense in burying the lede here; so far I'm a fan of Dragonstorm! I think there's some neat cards, I really like how the mechanics create identity and distinction for the clans of Tarkir, and I think the execution of the shard aspect of the set is handled well. 

There's a couple silly cards but maybe they aren't as bad as I think? Let's talk.

White
One important note is that while Clarion Conqueror is a damn good body at the price, it shuts down everything, including your stuff. Important to keep that in mind during pre-release weekend. But I haven't seen an ability like that in awhile, so I'm glad it's there. 

The Devotees-we'll start with Mardu since it's first-are a VERY smart way to help fix colors in this set. I feel like these are smart design choices that will help people enjoy Dragonstorm and I was very glad to see each one. 

The Flurry ability reminds me that this set looks to be fairly mana hungry-at least in Limited. I'm already wondering if 17 mana sources is correct. But in constructed, I just want to start looking for any spell I can play without paying mana to try and maximize cards like Sage of the Skies as early as possible. That could easily come out turn one with a Lotus Petal, City of Traitors start, and having two of those that early? YIKES.

United Battlefront seems weird and is probably bad, but I want to mess around with it anyway. 

Blue
The Renew ability on Agent of Kotis just reinforces what I was saying about Flurry: having enough mana in your games is probably going to be a big deal. Assuming there's a payoff, anyway. But getting to four mana and then deciding that you want to spend it putting +1 counters on a creature isn't a bad decision, just one that you don't want to blow your tempo on too much.

Similarly, a card like Bewildering Blizzard feels like it could be backbreaking--but you still have to get to six mana to play it.

Did Winternight Stories need to be a rare? I feel like we've gotten other effects like this at uncommon and they've been fine. What's the upgrade here? It doesn't seem THAT much better.  

Black
Avenger of the Fallen looks bonkers. That is all.

I also really like the design and feel of Hundred-Battle Veteran. 

There's a new legendary enchantment, which is wild! I haven't seen one of those (The Sibsig Ceremony) in a long time. 

Red
Channeled Dragonfire is making me rethink whether or not Harmonize is a good ability. Seven mana to flashback two damage is bad and it doesn't matter how you slice it. Reducing the cost to reasonable by tapping a five power creature? How is THAT good? Firebolt came out in Odyssey and it was fine but nobody was going to mistake it for a format defining card. 

It may be that Harmonize has a similar issue that Vehicles in Aetherdrift had. But we shall see. 

Dracogensis is a stupid card and I hate it. It isn't interesting, it allows for very stupid things to happen, and practically screams "Glory of Cool Things". It's particularly insufferable for Commander, the format it's obviously for. 

Green
I'm very happy to see a Craterhoof reprint; the card is too expensive and a lot of fun. 

Is Dragon Sniper one of the best one drops ever? Certainly one of the best defensive ones and I bet will be an all star in the Limited format due to all the flying creatures. 

Multicolor
Here's where the money is, right? Auroral Procession feels like a color pie shift: I would expect this as a G/B card, not G/U. Perhaps this is allowed because of the philosophy of the color wedge in this set? 

I think all of the Sieges are flavorful and interesting, really like those choices. 

Call the Spirit Dragon; this card is stupid and I hate it. It even says "win the game" on it, but then it makes you jump through  hoops in order to do so. This actually makes it worse, since making all your Dragons indestructible should already win you the game. Another card that is particularly insufferable for Commander, the format it's obviously for. It's unfun, and scuttles interaction. 

Digging a little further; there's a lot of very cool things that start around the five mana slot. Again, making me think that the Limited environment might reward players who plan for a late game and have the mana for it. 

Artifact/Land
Ugin on its face reminds me of Sire of Seven Deaths; if you can cast that, you win. And on one hand: OK, big mana spells should do big things! But on the other, if you've ever played against a Sire of Seven Deaths you know how unfun that is. Crushing to any gamestate it enters into, it flips the game around in ways that don't allow it to be unflipped. 

I'm not a huge fan of these designs, but Ugin might be slower and more interactive. We shall see.

The rest of the artifacts are solid: good role players to help us do cool things in the format. I'm not upset about any of it: Mox Jasper will be broken as soon as someone can utilize a (changeling) Shapeshifter with it, but...I'm actually OK with this. It's conditional and most shapeshifters don't have other abilities that keep players from interacting. 

The common and uncommon lands are known quantities, good mana fixers. No notes. 

The rare cycle of lands, these are cool! They are mostly great mana fixers I think: the abilities on them are neat but not broken by any means. Still; don't sleep on them, they have great utility. 

All in all, I like this set and I'm eager to try it out! Will the Omens be as interesting as they appear? Does this set need good mana planning in Limited? How important will Reach be? 

I'm interested in finding out. Let's go!

Free Pizza: Prehistoric Avengers

 With some challenges this season, I took advantage of a Khonshu meta and got my Free Pizza with this

Why this? Because I can use Mystique to copy Cosmo and shutter the on reveal actions of the discard decks. Blanking two lanes is pretty strong. 

I also used an affliction deck to climb most of the way there and here's what that looked like:

This list isn't ideal but there's potential there to develop. 

What I've found challenging is where to place cards-Laufey, USAgent and Man-Thing all have the potential to dominate their lanes when combined with cards like Diamondback or Spider-Woman but they don't all play nice together. 

Which I suppose is thematically appropriate! But it makes for some pretty wild swings in gameplay.