After a few days of working on how the Commander deck would play (and starting to design a standard deck once Innistrad is here) I'm focusing on using beefy creatures, but I'm not even close to being done. However, I've got the start of a decklist here:
40 Lands (Not sure about proper ratios)
1 Darigaaz, the Igniter
1 Nature's Revolt
1 Aggrevated Assault
1 Madrush Cyclops
1 Crypt Champion
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Violent Ultimatum
1 Barter in Blood
1 Gratuitous Violence
1 Jund Charm
1 Thunder Dragon
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
1 Skaargan Skybreaker
1 Reckless Wurm
1 Roar of the Wurm
1 Incinerate
1 Crush of Wurms(?)
1 Blaze
1 Disintigrate
1 Fireball
1 Comet Strike
1 Dragon Roost
1 Terminate
1 Putrefy
1 Sign in Blood
1 Skulltap
1 Harmonize
1 Earthquake
1 Heartless Hidetsugu
1 Vampiric Link
Obviously this is only the beginning. Much more work is needed, but I'm open to more suggestions on here. As I said, I'm working more on the new Standard block and designing a deck for competition. Whether that works or not, we'll soon find out.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Winner of the Contest Second Try
Greetings All-
For some reason I wrote out the post, but the blog didn't post my message declaring the winner. I apologize for making you guys wait, but the winner is...
(insert drumroll)
KYLE KRICK!
(insert applause)
As the winner Kyle, you'll be receiving a FREE Innistrad Fat Pack! And for any others that participated, I'd like to send you a FREE Innistrad pack of cards for your time and to keep you visiting the blog.
Follow me on Twitter and click the ads - it's how this blog stays active.
-The Gambler.
For some reason I wrote out the post, but the blog didn't post my message declaring the winner. I apologize for making you guys wait, but the winner is...
(insert drumroll)
KYLE KRICK!
(insert applause)
As the winner Kyle, you'll be receiving a FREE Innistrad Fat Pack! And for any others that participated, I'd like to send you a FREE Innistrad pack of cards for your time and to keep you visiting the blog.
Follow me on Twitter and click the ads - it's how this blog stays active.
-The Gambler.
A New Commander Deck Challenge
All right friends-
Now I've got an interesting challenge for each of you today to help me out on. My original commander deck...leaves a lot to be desired. So, I want to build a new one. In doing so, I desire to build this deck with the commander being focused on the great Darigaaz the Igniter. This Dragon here is the reason I got interested in Magic because of the intricate, detailed artwork. He's still a very powerful dragon, so let's see what the good people can do. Obviously under the commander format, my colors will be B/R/G, and only a single card with the exception of basic lands. Either comment or email me your thoughts at mtggambler@gmail.com or follow me on salvation forums.
Remember to follow me on Twitter, and click on the ads so that I can keep this blog running!
Until next time
The Gambler
Now I've got an interesting challenge for each of you today to help me out on. My original commander deck...leaves a lot to be desired. So, I want to build a new one. In doing so, I desire to build this deck with the commander being focused on the great Darigaaz the Igniter. This Dragon here is the reason I got interested in Magic because of the intricate, detailed artwork. He's still a very powerful dragon, so let's see what the good people can do. Obviously under the commander format, my colors will be B/R/G, and only a single card with the exception of basic lands. Either comment or email me your thoughts at mtggambler@gmail.com or follow me on salvation forums.
Remember to follow me on Twitter, and click on the ads so that I can keep this blog running!
Until next time
The Gambler
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas Product Review
After the disappointment of the Knight vs. Dragons deck released a few months ago, I was wary with this duel deck release. However, I REALLY wanted a Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and an Ajani Vengeant. This was likely the cheapest way to get them, along with some other potentially useful cards. My friend JR was willing to playtest along with me so that we could get an idea of how the decks worked, and where they'd need improvement. Let me start that I don't like the fact so many of these duel decks won't have more than two copies of a card in them. Anyhow, here's a turn-by-turn review of our duel:
Turn 1: G: Wins dice roll, played Evolving Wilds, searched for a Forest during JR's turn. JR: Terramorfic Expanse, searched for a Swamp during my second turn.
Turn 2: G: Vitu-Ghazi, The City-Tree, Sylvan Ranger =>searched for a Plains. JR: Island.
Turn 3: G: Ajani's Mantra, attack with Ranger for 1. JR: Mountain.
Turn 4: G: Plains, Loxodon Hierarch, attack with Ranger for 1. JR: Swamp, Fire-Field Ogre.
Turn 5: G: Jungle Shrine, Jade Mage. JR: Crumbling Necropolis, Pain//Suffering (Suffering) on Jungle Shrine, attacked with Fire-Field Ogre, blocked by my Sylvan Ranger.
Turn 6: G: Forest, Pride of Lions, attack with Mage and Hierarch for 6. JR: Island, attack with Ogre for 4, played Icy Manipulator.
Turn 7: G: Attacked with Pride, Mage, and Hierarch, JR responded by tapping Pride with Icy Manipulator, and was dealt 6 damage. JR: Island, Slave of Bolas on Pride of Lions, dealt 4 damage to me. Basic Landcycled Sylvan Bounty before end of JR's turn.
Turn 8: G: Mountain, Ajani Vengeant, JR tapped Hierarch. JR: Blazing Specter attacked and dealt the damage to Ajani for 2, played Blackwater Elemental during second main phase.
Turn 9: G: Spitemare, JR tapped Hierarch. Used Ajani to make Specter unable to untap. JR: Tapped Spitemare with Icy Manipulator, Ogre attacked, dealing damage to Ajani and destroying it, Hellfire Mongrel and an Elemental.
Turn 10: G: Behemoth Sledge, pay and equip to Spitemare, attack for 5. JR: Terromorphic Expanse.
Turn 11: G: JR tapped Spitemare after my untap step, two damage from the Mongrel, attached Hammer to Hierarch, blocked all of the damage and killed Hierarch. JR: Another Hellfire Mongrel, unearthed Blackwater Elemental and attacked, I used Vitu-Ghazi to produce a token and block the Elemental.
Turn 12: G: Used Vitu-Ghazi for a token and attached Sledge to it, JR tapped Spitemare during attack phase. JR: Mountain, unearthed Ogre, blocked with Saproling token.
Turn 13: G: Forest, Vitu-Ghazi for another token, Spitemare was tapped, attached Sledge to token. JR used Terramorphic Expanse for a Mountain at the end of my turn. JR: Crumbling Necropolis.
Turn 14: G: Essence Warden, Vitu-Ghazi for token, JR tapped my Sledged Saproling, attacked with Spitemare which was blocked, but the damage dealt to the Spitemare was dealt to JR for the win.
After the battle, JR and I talked briefly about how the decks played. JR used the Bolas deck and he believed that the deck was actually TOO slow, even for a control deck. I liked the Ajani deck since I don't think it would really take much to edit the deck and make it really playable. Would I say it's worth wha t I paid for it? Yea I'd say so since you get two awesome planeswalkers and a decent number of good rares...a couple of which haven't been seen since Invasion, which are primarily in the Bolas deck. I would love more of the Kird Apes and Loam Lions...I just wish Wizards would stop being afraid to add more than two copies of a card in their pre-made decks.
JR's rating: 3 outta 5.
Gambler's rating: 3 strips of Bacon in my BLT sandwich (meaning you can taste the bacon, but not quite enough to satisfy).
Turn 1: G: Wins dice roll, played Evolving Wilds, searched for a Forest during JR's turn. JR: Terramorfic Expanse, searched for a Swamp during my second turn.
Turn 2: G: Vitu-Ghazi, The City-Tree, Sylvan Ranger =>searched for a Plains. JR: Island.
Turn 3: G: Ajani's Mantra, attack with Ranger for 1. JR: Mountain.
Turn 4: G: Plains, Loxodon Hierarch, attack with Ranger for 1. JR: Swamp, Fire-Field Ogre.
Turn 5: G: Jungle Shrine, Jade Mage. JR: Crumbling Necropolis, Pain//Suffering (Suffering) on Jungle Shrine, attacked with Fire-Field Ogre, blocked by my Sylvan Ranger.
Turn 6: G: Forest, Pride of Lions, attack with Mage and Hierarch for 6. JR: Island, attack with Ogre for 4, played Icy Manipulator.
Turn 7: G: Attacked with Pride, Mage, and Hierarch, JR responded by tapping Pride with Icy Manipulator, and was dealt 6 damage. JR: Island, Slave of Bolas on Pride of Lions, dealt 4 damage to me. Basic Landcycled Sylvan Bounty before end of JR's turn.
Turn 8: G: Mountain, Ajani Vengeant, JR tapped Hierarch. JR: Blazing Specter attacked and dealt the damage to Ajani for 2, played Blackwater Elemental during second main phase.
Turn 9: G: Spitemare, JR tapped Hierarch. Used Ajani to make Specter unable to untap. JR: Tapped Spitemare with Icy Manipulator, Ogre attacked, dealing damage to Ajani and destroying it, Hellfire Mongrel and an Elemental.
Turn 10: G: Behemoth Sledge, pay and equip to Spitemare, attack for 5. JR: Terromorphic Expanse.
Turn 11: G: JR tapped Spitemare after my untap step, two damage from the Mongrel, attached Hammer to Hierarch, blocked all of the damage and killed Hierarch. JR: Another Hellfire Mongrel, unearthed Blackwater Elemental and attacked, I used Vitu-Ghazi to produce a token and block the Elemental.
Turn 12: G: Used Vitu-Ghazi for a token and attached Sledge to it, JR tapped Spitemare during attack phase. JR: Mountain, unearthed Ogre, blocked with Saproling token.
Turn 13: G: Forest, Vitu-Ghazi for another token, Spitemare was tapped, attached Sledge to token. JR used Terramorphic Expanse for a Mountain at the end of my turn. JR: Crumbling Necropolis.
Turn 14: G: Essence Warden, Vitu-Ghazi for token, JR tapped my Sledged Saproling, attacked with Spitemare which was blocked, but the damage dealt to the Spitemare was dealt to JR for the win.
After the battle, JR and I talked briefly about how the decks played. JR used the Bolas deck and he believed that the deck was actually TOO slow, even for a control deck. I liked the Ajani deck since I don't think it would really take much to edit the deck and make it really playable. Would I say it's worth wha t I paid for it? Yea I'd say so since you get two awesome planeswalkers and a decent number of good rares...a couple of which haven't been seen since Invasion, which are primarily in the Bolas deck. I would love more of the Kird Apes and Loam Lions...I just wish Wizards would stop being afraid to add more than two copies of a card in their pre-made decks.
JR's rating: 3 outta 5.
Gambler's rating: 3 strips of Bacon in my BLT sandwich (meaning you can taste the bacon, but not quite enough to satisfy).
Friday, September 9, 2011
Conclusion of the Contest.
Greetings all-
I was highly impressed over the success of the contest to win a free Innistrad fat pack. There were over 50 entries so far, and I will announce the winner on Monday. With the release of Innistrad nearly here, this is an exciting time for everyone. Officially, the contest ends tonight at midnight, so if you have a desire to place any last minute submissions, feel free to do so. Because of the success, I will likely hold another contest in the near future. In the meantime, please feel free to read and comment on my blog. Also, just because the contest is over, please click on the ads a few times because that's how I'm able to keep this blog going. Thanks to all of you guys for participating, and until next time!
The Gambler
I was highly impressed over the success of the contest to win a free Innistrad fat pack. There were over 50 entries so far, and I will announce the winner on Monday. With the release of Innistrad nearly here, this is an exciting time for everyone. Officially, the contest ends tonight at midnight, so if you have a desire to place any last minute submissions, feel free to do so. Because of the success, I will likely hold another contest in the near future. In the meantime, please feel free to read and comment on my blog. Also, just because the contest is over, please click on the ads a few times because that's how I'm able to keep this blog going. Thanks to all of you guys for participating, and until next time!
The Gambler
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Excitement Building for Innistrad and Vampires...
I must confess that the older I get, the more I love autumn. The air is crisp, I love apple cider (who doesn't?) with doughnuts and the trees explode in color. Now is also the time of year where the new Magic set is released. Innistrad is almost here, and I'm excited. My favorite holiday of the year is Halloween, and since Innistrad is all about the Gothic Horror theme, it's going to fit like a hand into the glove.
I love the articles covering the artwork of Innistrad and it's so eerie and beautiful at the same time. I'm not sure why I love Halloween, most likely a combination of sugar, slutty women costumes, and scaring your friends silly for no good reason. However, it's too early for Halloween talk, and this is a Magic blog.
I've found that I love playing the color Red and it's two "Ally" colors - Black and Green. I certainly don't mind playing Blue and White, but they're not much of my focus. I like blazing/crushing creatures out of my way and bashing my opponent's face in. Naturally, I already love vampires and werewolves. This post will focus more on vampires since there's more of them in Magic already. I'll comment on werewolves once I see the Innistrad spoiler.
Vampires have been steadily creeping into Black's dominion since the release of Zendikar. Granted, a few existed before Zendikar, but they were pretty much few and far between, along with being confined to rares. Sengir Vampire was the most notorious vampire, but didn't make too big of a punch. Enter Zendikar (and a Planeswalker vampire) and we've got a few that're shaking things up in both casual and tournament scenes. Vampire Nighthawk is a worthy 3cc vampire, along with Gatekeeper of Malakir for cheap and effective creature removal. I believe that with the slow removal of zombies as a black creature type over the past few sets, I cannot help but wonder if Vampires are becoming the new Black tribal. I admit that in Innistrad, they're Red as well, which only makes them better for my tastes.
In yeterday's preview, MaRo made an interesting point: B/R are not as aggro as one would believe. I have to confess that he's mostly right. At least, not since Invasion. B/R creatures are not that cheap, nor are the kill spells which are used for creature removal. At best, it's a tough control color hybrid, but little else. I pray that we will see a return of B/R aggro with the release of Innistrad, but I'm not holding my breath.
Contest update - Only three more days to enter! Just a few clicks o my ads helps you enter for a chance to win a FREE Innistrad Fat Pack! Don't miss out!
I love the articles covering the artwork of Innistrad and it's so eerie and beautiful at the same time. I'm not sure why I love Halloween, most likely a combination of sugar, slutty women costumes, and scaring your friends silly for no good reason. However, it's too early for Halloween talk, and this is a Magic blog.
I've found that I love playing the color Red and it's two "Ally" colors - Black and Green. I certainly don't mind playing Blue and White, but they're not much of my focus. I like blazing/crushing creatures out of my way and bashing my opponent's face in. Naturally, I already love vampires and werewolves. This post will focus more on vampires since there's more of them in Magic already. I'll comment on werewolves once I see the Innistrad spoiler.
Vampires have been steadily creeping into Black's dominion since the release of Zendikar. Granted, a few existed before Zendikar, but they were pretty much few and far between, along with being confined to rares. Sengir Vampire was the most notorious vampire, but didn't make too big of a punch. Enter Zendikar (and a Planeswalker vampire) and we've got a few that're shaking things up in both casual and tournament scenes. Vampire Nighthawk is a worthy 3cc vampire, along with Gatekeeper of Malakir for cheap and effective creature removal. I believe that with the slow removal of zombies as a black creature type over the past few sets, I cannot help but wonder if Vampires are becoming the new Black tribal. I admit that in Innistrad, they're Red as well, which only makes them better for my tastes.
In yeterday's preview, MaRo made an interesting point: B/R are not as aggro as one would believe. I have to confess that he's mostly right. At least, not since Invasion. B/R creatures are not that cheap, nor are the kill spells which are used for creature removal. At best, it's a tough control color hybrid, but little else. I pray that we will see a return of B/R aggro with the release of Innistrad, but I'm not holding my breath.
Contest update - Only three more days to enter! Just a few clicks o my ads helps you enter for a chance to win a FREE Innistrad Fat Pack! Don't miss out!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Finally a B/R keyword I can live with
Greetings all-
Yesterday's preview card on MTG Daily was what I've been waiting for. The card of the day was called Reaper from the Abyss. His keyword? Morbid. At your end step if a creature died this turn, something happens. Scratch that, something cool happens. In the case of the Reaper, a non-demon creature dies. That's a black keyword for you. Better yet, that's a Black and Red keyword since it's so easy for those colors to kill creatures. I understand with a 3BBB casting cost, it's most useful in a mono black deck, but it's still got a lot of potential. This was the almost exact keyword I believe was needed for the Rakdos Guild during Dissension. Not Hellbent.
I described a keyword that would trigger if a creature died, and I'm NOT in any way claiming that Wizards stole the idea, but I'm very glad to see it's arrival. A bit late, but the way that Innistrad is shaping up, I'm seeing some color combinations in the mix, primarily with Vampires being Black/Red, Werewolves being Green/Red, but I don't know of any others yet guys, sorry. I'm sure there are, and will write about them in the near future. Either way, Wizards, thank you for creating Morbid. It's awesome, I love it, and I'm really anxious to see this as an arrival when it comes to Standard torunaments. I may even build a deck around Morbid...I got some ideas in mind...
Yesterday's preview card on MTG Daily was what I've been waiting for. The card of the day was called Reaper from the Abyss. His keyword? Morbid. At your end step if a creature died this turn, something happens. Scratch that, something cool happens. In the case of the Reaper, a non-demon creature dies. That's a black keyword for you. Better yet, that's a Black and Red keyword since it's so easy for those colors to kill creatures. I understand with a 3BBB casting cost, it's most useful in a mono black deck, but it's still got a lot of potential. This was the almost exact keyword I believe was needed for the Rakdos Guild during Dissension. Not Hellbent.
I described a keyword that would trigger if a creature died, and I'm NOT in any way claiming that Wizards stole the idea, but I'm very glad to see it's arrival. A bit late, but the way that Innistrad is shaping up, I'm seeing some color combinations in the mix, primarily with Vampires being Black/Red, Werewolves being Green/Red, but I don't know of any others yet guys, sorry. I'm sure there are, and will write about them in the near future. Either way, Wizards, thank you for creating Morbid. It's awesome, I love it, and I'm really anxious to see this as an arrival when it comes to Standard torunaments. I may even build a deck around Morbid...I got some ideas in mind...
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