My Experience at the Midnight Pre-Release and the Top 4 Black Cards in Theros!

The midnight pre-release last weekend went great! At Gamezilla, here in Moncton, we only had 15-16 people, but that was enough to make it a blast! The Players were smart, friendly and enthusiastic with their passion for Magic: the Gathering. I ran a 3 color deck but I would consider it highly focused on green.
I chose the path of might as my release box and I found myself jumping up and down in my seat when I opened my Elspeth in my very first pack!

And in my second pack I got a Mistcutter Hydra. And another one in the "Path of Might color specific booster pack".

 I wound up running a "Junk" deck. (Black/White/Green). Like I said, I mostly focused on using green. I also pulled an Arbor Colossus and the promo Anthousa. I used white for the Elspeth and black for "Read the Bones".

Pretty good common if you ask me.


I happily ended up in 3rd place, winning about 11 or 12 booster packs. I wound up pulling Heliod, another Mistcutter Hydra, a Hammer of Purphoros, and a Whip of Erebos. I cant remember the rest, but I did pretty good!

Okay, enough of how much fun I had.

Top Four: Black

4. Nighthowler

Great card for mill. Just not that great against any deck that contains Scavenging ooze. Keep it in the sideboard, play against any deck with a lot of creatures, as long as it isn't scavenging ooze. Great against Boros Aggro/Burn. One of the better rares in black

Rating: 6.5/10











3. Hythonia the Cruel

 Some people would disagree when I say this, but this would be brutal in Golgari decks. Get some ramp off, get this dude out, make it monstrous, kill everything, drop the Scavenging Ooze, a good amount of mana left to exile some creatures! Sure.. the mystics are dead, but so what! This works. I'd try playing this in Orzhov control with Obzedat. Kill everything else after Obzedat blinks out! There you go!

Rating: 6.8/10









2.Hero's Downfall

Dreadbore at instant speed! And you don't need red! Great to play when a Elspeth enters the field... about to kill all the creatures you own! The printing of this card fixed a lot in my opinion. I don't want to use red to kill a planewalker. In fact, red with anything but blue or green, I don't like. Especially black. Great card and great card to bluff with. Pass the turn, leave 3 mana open and watch your opponent drop an Elspeth. Remember, don't forget to wink!
Rating: 7.7/10









1.Agent of Fates

This guy is SO annoying. Just enchant the crap out of him, over and over again. Flash in Boon Satyrs. I don't care, just do something. This guy is awesome, better than 2.00$. I dont want him to go up in price... but he deserves to. I wouldn't revolve a deck around him, but he provides a strong addition to removal and control over your opponents side of the field. Probably really good with red pump spells at instant speed.
Rating: 8.1/10










If you didn't know already, today, Theros is officially available and released! Happy birthday Theros!

Thanks for reading. By next week, I will have reviewed some decks and I will return with a review of the top 4 Blue cards! Along with another random topic!

Scry lands in Theros and my Pauper deck!

Welcome back! This is the second issue of my weekly posts!

Before I start, just recently, all Theros cards have been spoiled! I look at Mythic spoiler like a hawk. I hope all of you readers (none) are going to the prerelease this weekend... especially the midnight madness!

Check out Mythicspoiler to see all of the Theros set: mythicspoiler.com

NOW, today I'm going to look at Scry Lands and limit they're potential uses to how I would like to use them.

Here is an example:

 

 

I'll start off with standard format. Nivix Cyclops is my best friend... in standard... I actually preffer Kiln Fiend due to speed. For Nivix Cyclops, whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, he gets a +3/0. Now, think of that ability on another creature, only thing it was whenever you SCRY. Just decrease it's power by 1 for every bonus..

 

 

Look at this:

 

 

Good opportunity is Izzet Blitz decks along with nivix cyclops, along with all of the scry spells and magma jet too. Maybe in Boros Aggro. I dont know, this creature is just good with scry lands. Her and Magma Jet too...........................

 

Scry lands are an awesome idea in my opinion, it just adds to the scry flavour of this upcoming set. It also seems, from my research on TCG player, that these lands will be somewhere floating around and under 5 bucks a piece. A dual land collection for a deck will be slightly less expensive now!(you poor 3 and 4 colour decks).

 

My pauper deck:

 

My pauper deck is mainly inspired by Travis Woo's "Izzet Blitz" deck. When I have first heard or it, I have found that you don't really need an expensive deck! Seeing as theros was coming around, I and many others began to plan what their current deck will do for them when most of it consists of cards from the Innistrad block.

 

I didn't want to update my deck! It would have not been as fast with Teleportals! It was truly thought that my best friend "Artful Dodge", would leave! Instead, I just made a pauper deck.

 

x4 Nivix Cyclops

x4 Kiln Fiend

x4 Delver of Secrets

x4 Artful Dodge

x4 Brute Force

x4 Gitaxian Probe

x4 Assault Strobe

x2 Thought Scour

x4 Lightning Bolt

x4 Vapor Snag

x1 Mana Leak

x11 mountains

x10 Islands

 

T1 - land

T2 - land, Kiln. Maybe do on turn three to avoid burn with brute force

T3 - land, Artful Dodge, Assault Strobe, Brute Force

...

With turn 3 alone.. lets do the math

Artful + kiln = 4/2

Brute force + Kiln = 10/5 UNBLOCKABLE

Assault Strobe + Kiln = 13/5 unblockable double strike = 26 dmg

now now I'm not done. Depending on how many Gitaxian probes you get, you can keep paying 2 to pump

so...

16/5 + double strike = 32

19/5 + double strike = 39

22/5 + double strike = 44

25/5 + double strike = 50

 

get a fiend to do "Two-Headed Giant" with you, and ask him to run a counterspell deck. He will protect your creature. there, you win. And the win is easily achievable in Pauper format.

 

There is a downside to this... I have not developed a sideboard. I'm thinking this though, not 15 cards , but a start

x4 Dispel - counter instant spell

x4 Turn Aside - Counter spell that targets a permanent you control

x4 Spell Snare - Counter target spell with CMC 2

 

The main thing here is to do two things..

1. keep my guys alive

2. Prevent preventing damage to your opponent.

 

FOG IS ANNOYING

 

Thank you for reading! I will include a direct link to my Pauper Deck shortly.







The Five "God" Cards Of The Upcoming Set "Theros"

Okay, the reason why "god" is in quotation marks in my title is because, if you didn't already catch on, these god cards are not so godly. In fact, I'm debating day by day on whether I would consider them playable. After days though, I found myself really liking the god Nylea (Green God). I suppose I will count down the best to worse God cards that are coming out in Theros.

1. Nylea

Now, by looking at this new "devotion" trait, it is completely relevant to green considering green sometimes revolves around creatures/permanents. I myself am a fan of ramping. Anyways, her second last ability is great to have in green, it is so relevant in green aggro. Big creatures can kill and get through with more trample damage that is direct. The only thing that kinda poops on me about the card is the mana cost for his last ability. It's one of those abilities that would be about ten times better if it were 2 less mana, or even 1. however, it is relevant in ramp to have a lot of mana, so I believe this card will become very playable, compared to the others, in standard format. let alone you'd have mana Elves, Burning Tree Emisaries, Kalonian Tuskers and hopefully Domri Rade on the field, this guy could come into play as a 6/6 indestructible 4-drop creature.

Rating: 7.1/10



Ah, Nylea. The next card I'm about to show is only slightly behind Nylea, but considering the mechanics of devotion, I doubt this next god will so much play in standard as of now and what I've seen from the theros spoilers.

2. Thassa

Now, this is a 3-drop. That's good. But considering the expected use of devotion, the CMC of 3 will just be less mana to use so that you can use other mana for other things (counterspells, enchantments). The second last ability for scrying on your upkeep is a great ability, and really great if your stuck behind. If you dont want to draw that topdeck, you dont have to with this chick. It's last ability is quite impressive as well. Now, the downside. Let me get this off my chest, this god would have been better with just about any other color. When I think of blue, I think of control, not a ton of permanents that can help you make this sucker a creature. The only flaw to this card, is its color. But I dont know yet, maybe they will release a bunch of Blue creatures that actually do something good for a change. (other than snapcaster, aetherling and auger of course)
As of now, this is my rating.
Rating: 6.5/10

My favorite two gods are chicks and I just realized that. They're the only goddesses in Theros right now. GIRL POWER. Anyways, next up is the red guy.

3.Purphoros

If you can pull of this guy's theme, you will probably win the game if your lucky. But, the true difference between this guy and the other gods is that he doesn't do work for you, you have to work to get his threat off the ground. This card would be really good with Young Pyromancer and Parallel Lives... but that card will be rotating out when Theros comes out. The fact that he is indestructible makes him better, but, all the gods are. I just have to say that you have to play tokens to get this guy working. aside from that, people have disagreed, but I think his last ability is terrible. I say, ignore it until you have no good cards in your hand. Get this guy to become a creature and swing in! Man I wish tokens had CMC's, just there, not like you have to pay it or anything. This card, by the way, is kinda tied with the other.


Rating: 6/10

4. Erebos

Now, "oponents cant gain life" is a seriously good effect, late game. But I would keep this in my sideboard. When I think of a god card, idealy, I would want in maindeck. This guy has a purpose though, as an opponent starver. This card means anti "Heroes Reuinion", "Pelaka Wurm" and, a big jerk in standard format this days, the life gain of "Sphinx's Revalation". As of now, I cant really see much play for this guy unless you're running a Black Devotion. This card does stop things from hapenning, but I dont see a winner here. Compared to Nylea, Erebos is just a wimp sitting in the backround. Nylea works with your board much better and provides ability to stomp over creatures to deal damage to the undernumbered 20 health a player has. Erebos, is good, but only support good. Not the help kind of support, but the support you can have while in a Two-headed Dragon battle. Still, not my aggressive cup of tea.

Rating: 6/10


5. Heliod

 Yay vigilance.
 Yay 4 mana for a Cleric token thats a 2/1
Yay
yay
yey
I'm sorry for my sarcasm if it was noticed. This guy isn't that bad. I can see what white has to offer, I suppose. His vigilance ability is okay... but i mean... 4 mana for a cleric that isn't even a human?
"Tapping four, Heliod." - Jimmy

*oponent begins to laugh*
*oponent tells people in the table behind him*
*people on back table begin to laugh*
*and then more people laugh*
*the store owners come in and laugh*
*store owner tells other store owners*
"I don't get it"- Jimmy
*world laughs*                                                Rating: 4/10

Well, as you can see, this was my first post. I appreciate you taking the time to read... if you did.

Thanks.

 

Next week, I take a look at scry lands and discuss my pauper deck!