In EDH red and black lose a little bit of that quick mana acceleration. Without the redundancy of being able to run multiple copies of the various ritual effects explosive mana simply isn’t as explosive as we want it to be. Fortunately, blowing things up and sending burn to faces never really goes out of style. When coupled with some discard and great multiplayer effects and red and black actually end up bringing quite a bit to the group game. Let’s take a look at the staple cards if you want to run a machinehead EDH list.

Red has fewer staple cards than black, so that’s where I’d like to begin. Red creatures don’t often fit the bill of being terrifying the way other colors do. There are precious few exceptions and we’re going to list them here. The biggest, baddest creature in the red lexicon must be Akroma, Angle of Fury. She can’t be countered and targeted by most of the relevant removal in the format and even better, she morphs! The next biggest creature, and one who spreads the love around the table is Bogardan Hellkite. Hellkite gets flashed into play, rips apart board positions, sometimes sending damage straight to the face, and then might even get a swing in! Next up we have the precursor to Bogardan Hellkite, Flametongue Kavu. Oh FTK, how I’ve missed you picking my opponents fliers out of the sky! Flametongue Kavu is one of the most efficient and feared creatures of all time and needs to be included in our list. Next up we have the creature that happens to play very nicely with FTK and Hellkite, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Kiki-Jiki clones every turn and hastily too! He makes every creature we have literally twice as efficient.

Up next we have a pair of goblins that love to work with others. Siege-Gang Commander pairs nicely with Kiki-Jiki and any other goblin you can find. This means he also goes hand in hand with Squee, Goblin Nabob, making for some expensive, but reusable damage. Additionally, Squee is great to use with the tutor package green has to offer (if you should decide to head that direction). On the topic of reusable creatures, Anger thrives from being in the graveyard and Skarrgan Firebird can make for a large headache (as can his newer comrade, Magma Phoenix). Finally, we round out the list with some fantastic tutoring/multiplayer cards, Godo, Bandit Warlord, Heartless Hidetsugu, and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs.

The next section is removal. Red has quite a bit of removal/disruption, in fact that’s probably red’s biggest strength. Earthquake and Shattering Spree are both fantastic at getting rid of massive amounts of permanents for little mana investment. The same goes for Chain Reaction (take that tokens!) and Starstorm, with the storm having the added bonus of being an instant. If you still need to get rid of some pesky permanents then there’s always Jiwari, the Earth Aflame who can even bring a modest beatdown if need be. Finally, if you’re looking for removal that can also act as a finisher there’s Comet Storm, the newest, sauciest fireball variant.

If you’re in the mood to just be a jerk then there are two options we should explore, but I don’t necessarily endorse. The first is Wildfire. Wildfire has a nice symmetric effect, angering all of your opponents equally. It’s good for getting rid of most creatures, and a few problematic lands as well. Like I said, you have to be careful though, you’re probably going to have a nice target on your head. The same goes for Destructive Force. The force is the new kid on the block, but it’s all been done before.

Next I’d like to mention some fun utility cards. Fork, Wild Ricochet and Reiterate are all staples when I play EDH. There’s nothing quite as fun as copying something devastating and sending it right back at my opponent. That being said, Reverberate needs to be included now too. Nothing like a functional reprint to make things more fun. Speaking of utility, it’s often overshadowed by the more effective commands, but Incendiary Command is nothing but fun and effective. While I’m at it, there’s nothing more efficient than being able to get multiple uses out of your cards and Recoup lets you do just that. Finally, Wild Evocation seems like a random fun card to pile into red decks from here on out.

There are three final cards I want to add to the list, but don’t seem to fit appropriately anywhere else, so they can have their own category. I have the firm belief that Chandra Nalaar should go in every red EDH deck. Her abilities are always relevant and if her ultimate occurs then she completely decimates someone’s board position. The next two cards go together but they’re extremely problematic. Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon are great mono red EDH cards, but if you plan on splashing another color they can severely impair your ability to do so. Again, you risk putting a target on your head when you run cards like those in your deck, but sometimes they’re just too powerful not to be used.

Black is a mainstay in my EDH decks. It does so many things so effectively that it’s hard for me to justify not running it. In fact, I’ve shown my love of black EDH cards on several occasions (Maga!) The first and best thing that black brings to the table is an unparalleled ability to tutor up cards. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Tutor, and Beseech the Queen are all automatic inclusions. They have all been printed multiple times and in the case of Demonic was also in a duel deck, making it even more readily available. Two tutors that are often overlooked are Cruel Tutor (not the one from starter), and Demonic Collusion. Collusion has buyback so it can be a fantastic outlet for those excess lands late game, and Cruel Tutor is just another vampiric variant at a smaller dollar investment. For what it’s worth I also run Grim Tutor, though I’m not sure if I would necessarily call it a staple as the price can be a pretty severe cost of entry barrier.

Once we’ve gone past the tutors we come to the next thing black does well, draw cards. Blue is the undisputed king of card draw, but black is a good second. Sign in Blood is a great standard for card drawing as it also has the ability to finish off low life opponents. Night’s Whisper should also be mentioned as it’s a slightly more splashable version of Sign in Blood. There is something to be said for Necropotence, but be aware that it is another of those cards which will put a target on you quickly. Ambition’s Cost and Ancient Craving continue the trend of one life for one card at a reasonable mana cost, though neither does it quite as effectively as Promise of Power, which has the added benefit of being able to put an extra beater on the battlefield. As my last recommendation for card drawing we have the fairly innocent seeming Phyrexian Arena. The arena is just as effective in the long run as necro, but seems to avoid that whole instant destroy/target syndrome.

Next we have black’s other staple, creature destruction. While white has mostly cornered the market for mass destruction black has made strides along the way. Mutilate and Damnation are certainly fantastic at destroying entire fields full of creatures. Coupled with Plague Wind and the devastating Decree of Pain, black as more than a few ways to destroy mass creatures. If less destruction is more to your liking then black also has Barter in Blood and Innocent Blood, both of which happen to be the ever important sacrifice instead of destroy. Finally, black has some great cheap removal in the form of Shriekmaw and Hero’s Demise. There’s nothing more effective at killing generals than Hero’s Demise!

Wrapping up our black staples we have two powerful planeswalkers and a few fun utility pieces. Liliana Vess and Sorin Markov are both absolutely absurd sources of powerful reusable card advantage. If either manages to use their ultimate ability then the game is going to end in very short order. We also have Syphon Mind and Myojin of Night’s Reach. Both are fantastic card advantage items, simultaneously destroying hands while maintaining, or in some cases rebuilding yours. Last but not least we have three great utility creatures. Kagemaro, First to Suffer is a walking Mutilate and that’s just too good for us not to run. Helping Kagemaro out in the beater arena we also have Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni. She’s one of my favorite cards and I love reanimating and ninjitsuing her into play. Finally, we have Undead Gladiator. The gladiator gives us a reliable three damage per turn and an excellent use for any excess lands in the late game.

And with that we’ve come to the end of our red and black staples for EDH. There are a few more cards that could be noted for each color, but just don’t feel like they go in every deck. Some of the favorites (Greater Gargadon, Insurrection, Meltdown) were just a little too single minded for my liking. However, don’t let this list fool you, if your metagame is different/silly then those cards might be just what you need in every deck!

Join me next week when we take a look at the blue and artifact staples. I’ll try (it’s a big list!) to cut it down to the bare essentials. Until next time this is Ben McDole giving you a hundred reasons to play magic!

Like discussing religion, politics, and other hot-button items, even among close friends you’ll find topics of conflict amid the world of Magic players. One topic that always becomes a muddled world of views, opinions, and personal decisions is that of using proxy cards in Magic.

Based on the feedback I’ve received over the years (yes, years) you’re probably not going to like where I go.

It Was A Beautiful Lie
Are you familiar with the game of chess? One of the most overused – if for good reason – analogies comparing Magic to a more common game is that “Magic is like chess with over 11,000 different pieces.” I think chess compares well for Magic.

I had a plastic chess set growing up. Like most kids, however, I also lost a few pieces that replaced with whatever I had lying around. I could keep playing chess but I noticed some interesting things:

• I’d sometimes forget which rock was what piece – pawn, knight or queen.
• Other friends couldn’t keep track properly either
• I never thought to actually replace the set (A whole buck or two)
• I didn’t appreciate the really nice chess sets – they were expensive and I didn’t see why anyone would pay that much for chess

At the time I didn’t really think of these things. I eventually moved away from chess but picked up this card game called Magic: The Gathering.

Playing with something other than the intended piece in chess may not be the best analogy for proxy cards in Magic but the feelings and situations that resulted do compare. I shared my thoughts on proxy cards in this post from a Magic forum (that I no longer post at) quite a while ago, but what I really want to do here is to look back at those ideas – with fresh eyes and a little more experience with even more players. Opinions of proxy cards can vary but they still fall into three clear groupings:

1. Proxies are not to be used at all. Testing or experimentation may be fine but legitimate Magic should use legitimate cards.
2. Proxies can be acceptable but must be limited. Truly expensive cards, such as the original dual lands, moxen, and other valuable cards are reasonable, especially when considering “public” ways of playing like cube drafting.
3. Proxies are an acceptable part of Magic. Few players have access to every card, therefore using proxy cards gives all players a chance to experience any part of Magic.

Let’s look at these in reverse order.

Proxies are Acceptable
Let’s assume that you may proxy any number of cards in any deck for any event, casual or not. It’s an open door to Vintage and Legacy, no EDH deck is without its most powerful cards available, and cube everywhere have any card needed at any time. Sounds amazing, right?

There’s a small catch of course: Magic as we know it is dead. I’m not suggesting that Wizards would fold up overnight (or even at all) but let’s follow the line of logic out from this new world.

1) Sales of randomized booster packs evaporate.

I saw many of the “semi-professional” players on M11 release day: they cracked boxes for the foils, rares, and a few select uncommon then used the remaining chaff as poker chips.

While I was fortunate enough to scoop up the chaff cards to recycle into common/uncommon playsets what if these guys didn’t need rares at all? To make a deck you just write some information onto a blanked card, print it on a sticker, or slip it into a sleeve on a piece of paper. The hottest new rares, like Grave Titan and Fauna Shaman, are just a moment away.

New product sales would likely fall to purists (the few who would still want “real” cards) and those who want Limited. Why bother cracking packs when you don’t need to anymore?

When unknown contents aren’t required we could guess that Magic would be more like the game Dominion. There are expansions but you know what’s inside – the mystery is gone, replaced by known quantities.

2) The monetary system plunges with deflation.

Newly launched DoublingSeason.com is all about the money aspect of cards. In the world of “all proxies all the time” what does it mean for a card to be valuable? The primary drivers behind card prices are demand and scarcity.

Demand for cards all but evaporates because it would much cheaper to simply proxy the one (or many) needed. While scarcity would still play into assigning value to cards would anyone pay (again, aside from purists) $35 (or $10, or $5, or $70!) for an individual card?

The value proposition of a booster pack relies on unknown contents that could be extraordinary value. With Future Sight you played the Tarmogoyf lottery. Worldwake has the Jace lottery. M10 (and now M11) have the Baneslayer Angel lottery. You could win big with just a $4 ticket – plus runner ups like in-demand rares and premium foil cards. In our new proxy world there is certainly no way that pricing could hold water.

The Kelly Reids and Jon Medinas of the world would cease to exist. There simply wouldn’t be a large, stable market to move cards in. Prices are deflated on items players don’t really need. Trying to turn a buck with the game just because impossible.

3) MTGO really does die.

With proxy cards being legal why would anyone pay retail for digital versions of cards? Alternative software, like those already being used, would suffice for those looking to practice and play competitively. I hear a lot of grumbling about buying packs or drafting on MTGO due to the flat retail cost (you can’t “free draft” with winnings with friends like in the real world) and the singles market is already fairly cheap compared to physical cards.

Imagine when the volume of packs being opened drops to critically low levels. With scarcity at an all time high the singles market is not reflective of what would be acceptable for pricing. Part of the appeal of MTGO is that you can assemble a deck with significantly less cash investment than physical cards when you’re buying it outright. That model is reversed in the proxy world – and MTGO loses to the economic model of “free cards.”

I’m sure some of you will view things slightly different but the ultimate conclusion that the Magic we know, in the forms we know, would change completely is apparent. Specifics are minor details compared to the evident collapse of many of the current systems and checks in place.

Limited Proxies Are Acceptable

Here is where we find a lot of players. If you already own or have the cash on hand for a playset of Underground Seas you are in the minority – by far. Vintage, and to a lesser but still very steep extent Legacy, carries an incredible barrier to entry. The global number of true players with the correct pool to cards to construct any viable Vintage deck is small. It’s an exclusive group that includes both notable writers and those who feel it’s the only form of “real” Magic.

There already exist many unsanctioned Vintage and Legacy events that “allow” a five or ten proxy maximum. There are even events that just apply an entry fee surcharge for each proxied charged over the given max.

Think about that again: a surcharge for using more than X number of proxy cards. Who’s gaining from this? The store running the event isn’t turning their inventory so instead they apply what amounts to a fine to players who aren’t buying the cards to allow them to play in an event that isn’t sanctioned to begin with.

The store may be providing prizes but that should be covered by the baseline entry, not additional proxy surcharges. While it’s obvious I don’t join these types of events it feels very much like a form of “poor tax” on players. Proxy five for cards a $1 each or buy anywhere from $40 to $400 in cards? It isn’t a tough choice when costs are your constraint.

And that’s what this view is really all about: opening up some doors. It’s not a flood of “every deck with every card for everything” but a trickle of “I have these cards but I’m dual lands short for Legacy.” players that provide growth for deep card pool formats. Knowing there is only a limited number of dual lands physically available is just one of the powerful restrictions on the format. Even if every card legal in Legacy was available on MTGO (there are a few exceptions) two facts keep Legacy MTGO from being the tool Legacy players want:

1) You can’t turn digital sets of Master’s Editions for physical cards.

This means that you can’t use Legacy MTGO to qualify for real world events then cash in cards for the deck you need. The real world number of cards needed in Legacy that still exist on the Reserved List will continue to pin down Legacy growth.

2) MTGO Legacy investment is a completely new addition to real world Legacy investment.

Even after acquiring all of the dual lands, copies of Force of Will, and other high value staples from the real world, many of those cards are still the most valuable cards available on MTGO. The costs are not comparable, but the scale in regard to pricing over “normal” decks still exists. Legacy is one of the priciest formats regardless of where you play.

Non-trivial cost is the big component to accepting proxies. Those who build cubes and worry about card theft love that proxy cards are both insurance against direct theft as well as instant availability. Need a Black Lotus? You have it and more with simple scraps of paper (or a nice printed version). Lose to Lotus? It wasn’t one to begin with.

And that’s the real crux of the issue: no matter how good or positive the use of proxy cards they are not actually Magic cards. I’ve seen amazing proxy cards that would probably pass closer inspection in sleeves. I’ve even seen Collector’s Edition versions of dual lands and more in cubes and EDH decks. They are certainly close enough to Magic cards to look the part but are still not real Magic cards.

It’s just an illusion.

And once you have a proxy, especially when actually owning and using the card is a concern (due to cost or scarcity or whatever have you), where is the incentive to ever replace it with a legitimate copy? Why “ruin a good thing” by exposing the core vulnerability you’re avoiding in the first place?

Proxies Are For Limited Transitory Testing

Finally I come to the last option: avoidance. I’m sure we’ve all roughed out sketches for decks, wondering if they could work. When new sets roll around our creative juices get amped and we jump onto the brewing bandwagon for some good times. Making a few proxies for a deck makes sense when the cards aren’t even available.

What about when cards are on order? You have a few more days until delivery but, until then, is it so unreasonable to get acquainted with your deck? Why not run a few games out to see if everything is clicking?

At the highest levels playtest stickers on cards effectively create proxies of cards that don’t even exist yet! It’s the only way to move forward without resorting to sometimes very abridged card text. There is even an article at Wizards.com all about how this works for those interested.

But that’s it – testing. Proxy cards serve as a quick and dirty replacement for something that doesn’t yet physically exist.

For those of us not in R&D (which is to say virtually the entire magic playing population) we have little reason to really use proxy cards. While there are obvious disadvantages, as discussed above, there are several clear issues that often get glossed over.

1) Proxy cards are a cop out.

You don’t have a playset of Primeval Titan. In fact you may never have a playset of Primeval Titan. Why do you build a deck and force it to have four copies of Primeval Titan? The odds are you’re looking at “getting the optimal amount” or “maximizing your chances of drawing it” but the fact is you’re running away from the real problem: you don’t want to build a deck without them.

When you first start Magic the experience is likely very similar to a Sealed event: a few booster packs, limited variety, and suboptimal choices must be made. Your decks aren’t “good” in the constructed sense but Sealed forces you to work within a constrained environment. It’s why it’s called Limited.

Your collection in sum is a growing pile of cards that can be characterized as a giant Sealed pool. You may have more than a few playsets of certain cards but, ultimately, you don’t have them all. It’s a simple, true fact and no one should be ashamed when they say “You know, I just don’t have four Baneslayer Angels.” or “I wish I had three more Jace, the Mind Scupltors for a playset.” Really, there isn’t a rule that if you don’t physically own a playset of Standard you can’t build decks for the format. I checked.(As a reminder, the rule is you can’t use more than four, not less.)

2) Restrictions breed creativity.

It’s something Mark Rosewater has shared so numerously I’m not going to cite it: it’s common knowledge. When you’re penned into a small box, with limited resources and options, suddenly things start to look a little different. Assuming access to everything, as well as your ability process and parse it efficiently and effectively, is an easy road to being overwhelmed.

If you want to break something you must understand it at a level others don’t. I’ve noticed that the more I play wildly different formats – Standard, Planechase, EDH, Sealed, and Draft, as well as build and discuss my cube – the way I look at cards has changed.

In just a few minutes (less than normal time allotted for deck construction) I built a Sealed deck for M11 that played extremely well. At first I thought it was a fluke, then I thought it was solely in random input I had while building it. Finally I realized: I had disagreed with much of the input and built from my gut. Fast, consistent aggro with a touch of control. I didn’t need a “must answer” bomb, or even a stack of the powerful uncommons: I rode to victory strictly on playing a consistent deck well.

I built a Sealed pool correctly.

If it wasn’t for the weekly practice with cube Sealed, experimenting and discussing cards in EDH, and reviewing the new brews budding for Standard I would have built the same type of slower, inconsistent deck that I used to.

My restricted card pool made it easier for be to determine what belonged and what didn’t, and that theory holds true to bigger cardpools. When was the last time you sat down and tried to build a deck from random one-of’s and other “good stuff” for a semi-competitive event? The guy who showed me the cube would make a Standard legal deck from his cube then play it in FNM – and win more matches than not. The cards force your options, but they also force your play.

Restriction breeds creativity. I firmly believe exploring creativity breeds experience.

I’ve Had it With These Monkey-Fighting Proxies

I don’t believe I can change your outlook or use of proxies. I don’t even believe many of you agree with me. But the fact remains: proxies are not real cards. No matter the reason, no matter the justifications, your fake card is fake and I won’t like it.

To ignore or trivialize the long term damage significant caused by the abuse of proxy cards is the same as ignoring our incremental contributions to pollution. While I won’t suggest that unless we abandon all proxy cards Magic will end (though it surely will if we proxy all!) if we curb our individual use and apply general social force towards “Using what we got, brewing with what we can.” we’ll not only help ensure that the health of the game stays higher than ever before but we’ll grow as individual players.

Shout Outs
I want to give a shout out to the guys over at MTGO Academy. They are doing the digital equivalent of what we are doing but instead they are trading up to a Foil Force of Will. A Foil Force is the most expensive card on MTGO and power is currently not available on MTGO. This is an interesting read for those who are trying to build an digital MTG collection. Check it out if when you get a chance.

Trades
Sunshine and rainbows are forever stuck in the world of fairy tales. I took a chance last week with some high risk trades and this has clogged the trade engine. I have cards sitting in my binder that do not interest most people, namely Nirkana Revenant. This not a problem in my normal trade binder. I am a firm believer in opportunity and I don’t mind holding mediocre cards until the guy, opportunity, who “needs” them arrives. The problem with this strategy in my Pack to Power quest is that I can’t afford to wait. It’s working in the opposite direction, instead of extending my availability for opportunity, I am locking myself out of trade opportunities by having cards that very few people want. Every time someone opens the Pack to Power binder and doesn’t trade with me is an opportunity lost. The question is, will the eventual payout for my mythics justify the loss of opportunity?

Ok, confession time. I had the opportunity to trade one Nirkana Revenant, but I blew it. There was a casual player who wandered into the shop. You can always tell who the casual players are because they refer to their decks based on the color. I asked him if he wanted to trade and he obliged but warned me that he didn’t have any trade stuff on him. He opened the binder and his eyes lit up when he seen my Nirkana, “I could really use that for my Black deck!” He handed me a deck and said, “Most of this is for trade.” I said that Nirkana was worth about $7-8 and I pulled some rares out of his trade deck; 2x Sanguine Bond, 2x Open The Vaults and a Talus Paladin. He looked over as I called out prices, “Aren’t those Sanguine Bonds going for more?” he responded to my $2 price tag. I said, “I take ‘em at two, I cant give more on ‘em.” He looked at the trade and then resisted. This is the issues with trading with casual players, he is seeing five cards for one and it’s not worth it to him.

Tournament players view cards more like currency instead of property. In the end he didn’t take the trade, because I used the wrong approach. I had tunnel vision on diversifying, but I should have tried to trade two Nirkana Revenant for his Sorin Markov, I think that might have been more attractive to him.

Strategy
This coming week, I have to make up for lost time. I’ve made a list of low priced cards that I expect to rise in value over the next couple of weeks and I will be focusing on the short term turn over, as opposed to last week’s strategy. Here are the list:

Sovereigns of Lost Alara: This card is in the fuzz, not everyone knows that it actually went up. If I can find a couple I will snatch them up before everyone realizes.

Eldrazi Conscription: This goes hand in hand with the card above, incase you’ve had your head in the ground for the last couple of weeks the Mythic Conscription deck is good.

Devastating Summons: RDW Chapin style is seeing some love. These are bound to see a small bump.

Hellcarver Demon: This was one of Ben Bleiweiss’ picks for the set. He is seeing play in the Brilliant Ultimatum Deck and he has a lot of build-around-me potential. Not to mention he has mythic status going for him.

Kor Spiritdancer: The name is pretty lame, but I am hearing rumblings about an enchantress deck that makes this dancer into a killer. It’s probably just internet buzz but the buzz is creating enough demand for me to pick these up.

That’s all for this week kiddies. I hope you have a rocking weekend. Good luck for those of you going to National Qualifiers. If you want the sick tech, I’ll tell you now that it’s UG Polymorph. See you next week.

Bonus: Deck List

2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 4 Ponder 4 Rampant Growth 4 Spreading Seas 4 Deprive 3 Into the Roil 3 Negate 4 Awakening Zone 4 Jace the Mind Sculptor 1 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Polymorph 4 Khalni Garden 4 Halimar Depths 4 Misty Rainforest 5 Forest 6 Island Sideboard 4 Fog 4 Vines of Vastwood 3 Narcolepsy 2 Iona, Shield of Emeria 2 Reality Spasm

Man, I hate chores, but as a grown-up your life is littered with them. This week I have been watering the straw in my backyard in hope that grass will grow. I also had to prepare the guest room for my mother-in-law who will be visiting next week. Needless to say between working a full time job and manning a hose, there hasn’t been much time for magic.

When I actually do get to enter the world of magical cards, I have so many priorities that it’s hard to find time to bust out the ole “Pack to Power” binder. Now with the new deadline and the removal of Time Twister from the list of legal targets, the pressure is on. Hopefully in the coming weeks my trade reports will host more than these meager trade numbers. Before we get to the trades let’s do some shout-outs.

Shout-Outs

I want to thank those of you who have been getting the word out. We were on episode #204 of Monday Night Magic, and even though Conley Woods said that these articles would probably be boring, we still appreciate the plug. We also received some podcast love from the guys at Draw Go Radio; I want to thank them for the plug and the invite to be on the show. For those of you who want to report on the progress be sure to check the link at the end of each trading report. Trick has done a great job of keeping track of the dollar amount. Speaking of dollar amount, let’s talk trade.

Trades

My first trade of the week was a no-brainer. They offered me a Foil Full Art Zendikar Mountain for my Pack Mountain, signed by me, of course. I knew my signature would be worth something some day, approximately the difference between a ROE basic and a Zen foil mountain. Yeah, I know the trade was lopsided, deal with it folks. I am not going to walk on egg shells for this whole project. The purpose is to have fun by doing the seemingly undoable.

The next trade that I did was a bit insane. My trade partner was looking for a Liliana Vess for his cube. The strategy here was to trade for some cards that aren’t necessary seeing tournament play but are desirable to certain audiences; you can usually get this kind of card dirt cheap, no cards on my side of the trade were valued over $2. I knew that It That Betrays is popular with the EDH folk, the Paladin goes in the Naya Ally deck and the Nirkana Revenants could trade well. The Nirkanas have two things going for them; they are Mythic and they are Vampires. I am hoping to find a casual player who wants these. This trade turned out to be a huge surprise, as he and I both undervalued the cards involved. Anyways, it’s not the safest bet but I need to diversify if I plan to get this done. Speaking of diversifying lets take a look at my last trade.

I traded my Swords for a set of Wall of Omens. Wall of Omens is really hot in standard right now. I see it being kind of like Kitchen Finks for 2010, not in a functional way, but in a trading sense. You can trade Wall of Omens for two dollars and up. It’s an uncommon so people who have extra don’t really care about them but people who need them really need them. The Walls will trade faster than Swords so I think it was the right move to trade the Swords at my first opportunity.

Here are pictures of the current trade binder. I am hoping to by a camera soon so I don’t have to keep using my crappy blackberry to get shots of trades. I hope you guys enjoyed the trade report. Have a rockin day!

[Editor's Note: State of the Trade Binder updated as of this post. Week 2 -- Trick]

So as you can see, the object is to have as many players sacrifice as many creatures as possible, pump Thraximundar, and get in there for 21.

This land base is pretty darn good. Grixis has a wide variety of great lands that should keep you in your colors easily. You could add a few Shocks and Duals if you have them, or you could replace some of the more expensive lands with come into play tapped lands to go more budget. Don’t forget High Market and Phyrexian Tower, which have sacrifice effects to pump Thraximundar!

I add in 5 Artifact mana producers for a little acceleration, including the indestructible Darksteel Ingot, which can be important with Obliterate in the deck.

You have 5 Planeswalkers, which are always big time good stuff in EDH. Besides just being too awesome, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, also fits the deck them with his ultimate ability.

Blood Tyrant is -the- multiplayer card. I get this guy in any EDH deck where he fits the colors. He starts out as a 5/5 Flying Trampler, and just never stops getting bigger. He’s hard to remove being black and starting at 5 toughness. You just have to love a guy who grows every time a player loses the game!

Rhystic Study is one of my all time favorite EDH cards. The card advantage Rhystic Study can net you is incredible, and Enchantments are, of course, the hardest cards to remove.

Sengir Nosferatu wins the award for the most flavorful card in Magic. It’s a Vampire, which turns into a bat, which turns into a Vampire. It fits this deck so well since you can have infi blockers that fly, and continue that sacrifice effect over and over.

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Skeletal Vampire, Promise of Power, Goblin Assault and Diamond Kaleidoscope are great token generators, which can give you extra creatures for all of those sacrifice effects.

Pestilence is just the best removal ever. While it’s not a sacrifice, so it’s not pumping Thraximundar, you can kill off pretty much everything over and over and over. Keep Thraximundar bigger than all the other creatures and you can keep everything off the board, leaving Thraximundar to continue his quest for 21 damage.

Vampire Hexmage is a great way to kill off a Planeswalker, pumping Thraximundar at the same time, yep, it’s a sacrifice effect!

Pyre Zombie is a superstar in the Thraximundar deck. Return it to your hand from the yard during your upkeep for {1}{B}{B}, play it out, then sacrifice it to do 2 damage to a player or creature, pumping Thraximundar at the same time.

Dimir Doppelganger and Withered Wretch should help you keep other graveyards empty of anything you don’t like. These guys are targeted and don’t mess with your graveyard unless you want them to. I dig these over Relic of Progenitus and the like.

Some important sacrifice effects that you may not have realized were sacrifice effects; Mulldrifter, the Evoke ability includes sacrificing the creature. Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is sacrificed when control seven or more Thrulls. Greater Gargadon when suspended allows you to sacrifice any creature you control. Glen Elendra, Archmage’s counter noncreature spell effect is also a sacrifice.

Slave of Bolas and Grab the Reins allow you steal someone else’s creature then, you guessed it, sacrifice their creature!

Butcher of Malakir, Magus of the Abyss and Grave Pact are all great ways to continue forcing your opponents to sacrifice creatures. An actual Abyss would be great in this deck, but I don’t have one!

Savage Beating has won me a ton of games! Send Thraximundar in against anyone with only one creature in play. They sacrifice the creature making Thraximundar a 7/7. Before damage cast Savage Beating with Entwine. Now Thraximundar is double strike and does 14 General damage. Untap Thraximundar and do it all again, now you’ve done a total of 28 General damage. Good day sir!

An alternate win condition is an Obliterate with any Planeswalker in play, with the possible exception of Jace. Should you happen to have Darksteel Ingot and Sensei’s Divining Top in play when Obliterate goes off then you are looking really good! Liliana is best for this play, since you can play Liliana and use her to tutor for the Obliterate. Then your opponents have 5 turns to get rid of Liliana, or have all creatures in all graveyards go to you. After an Obliterate/Liliana play I will occasionally use her discard ability on myself if I have a fatty I can put in my yard, knowing it will be coming into play soon. Nicol Bolas is also pretty awesome after an Obliterate as well since you can blow up any lands that come into play.

Lots of good board sweepers and board control and a ton of sacrifice effects, all giving the Zombie Assassin the support he needs to get in for 21! Until next week, this is Dale Lovelace telling you there is more than one way to play!

Once we had 5 willing players, we drew from a stack of 5 basic lands to decide who played which color. The line up was:
Ken Pilcher: White
Marlana Moore: Blue
Dale Lovelace: Black
Simon Rostas: Red
Robert Heisler: Green

Ken mentioned that Marlana probably didn’t know how to play the Blue deck, and they should switch. The rest of us decided that Ken just wanted to play Blue and we should keep everything as is. Multiplayer… Sheesh.

We all sit down, shuffle up and draw 7. It’s Multiplayer, so you get one free mulligan, which Marlana, Rob, and Simon all take advantage of. Ken and I keep our 7. The first few turns are nothing but lands. I’m tracking the play by play on my laptop.

Rob casts the first creature of the game with a Whirling Dervish. That doesn’t look good for me!

After another round of lands for everyone, I cast Demonic Tutor and Ken tells Marlana she should cast Twincast on my Demonic Tutor, which she does. They are allies and Ken has decided to help Marlana with the tricksy tricksy Blue deck. I get Nevinyrral’s Disk with my Demonic Tutor, I need an answer to Whirling Dervish!

Rob attacks me with the Whirling Dervish and uses a Pendalhaven to make it a 2/3, I go to 18. Rob casts Elvish Archers.

Marlana casts a Jace Beleren, and everyone cheers as we all draw a card.

Simon plays a land and discards a land. He must not have anything to play?

Ken plays a land and follows it with a Mistmeadow Skulk.

I play a land and cast Nevinyrral’s Disk. Although it is currently tapped, I should have an answer to that darn Whirling Dervish now!

Rob feels the Disk coming and attacks me with Whirling Dervish and Elvish Archers taking me to 14.

Cheers erupt again as Marlana has Jace Beleren let everyone draw!

Simon eyes the Disk, laughs a bit and plays Squee, Goblin Nabob.

Ken swings his Mistmeadow Skulk at Simon, taking him to 19.

I just go ahead and pop the Disk, and discard Dakmor Salvage, that Jace draw isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

With the Disk gone, everyone starts casting. Rob casts Wild Mongrel.

Marlana plays a Morphed creature.

Simon plays Lightning Dragon, I think he forgot that Squee was in the Yard.

Ken casts Preacher. Uh Oh…

Now we have my bonehead play of the day. I’m keeping notes on everything, so you would think I would know everything on the board, but I overlooked Rob’s Yavimaya Hollow. I cast Corrupt targeting Rob’s Wild Mongrel, but he simply regenerates it with the Yavimaya Hollow that I completely forgot about! I still gain the life so I am back to 20.

I don’t stay at 20 long though, and Rob swings in with Wild Mongrel at me taking me to 18. At the end of my turn, Simon realizes that with Lightning Dragon out Ken can take it away every turn with Preacher then give it back to him making him either pay the echo every turn or lose Lightning Dragon, so he casts Lightning Bolt targeting Preacher. Showing some ally helpfulness, Rob decides to regenerate Preacher with Yavimaya Hollow.

Marlana isn’t feeling quite so giving anymore as she draws herself with Jace Beleren, and casts Morphling.

Simon doesn’t pay the echo on Lightning Dragon, brings Squee back to his hand, casts Chandra Nalaar and shoots Preacher. He didn’t have enough mana to play Lightning Dragon’s echo and cast Chandra Nalaar.

Ken casts Faith’s Fetters targeting Chandra Nalaar taking Ken to 25 life.

I cast Lilliana Vess, use her discard ability targeting Rob and I cast Black Knight.

Rob attacks me with Wild Mongrel. I have a first striker to block with, so I wonder if Rob has tricks or is he just planning to discard to pump Wild Mongrel. I take a chance that he doesn’t have anything he wants discard to pump Wild Mongrel, and just forgot Black Knight was first strike as some karmic payback for me forgetting he had Yavimaya Hollow, so I block with Black Knight. It turns out Rob has no tricks, and doesn’t discard, but he does regenerate with Yavimaya Hollow. Rob plays Imperious Perfect.

Marlana thinks she has enough counters on Jace Beleren, so she takes the draw herself. Marlana attacks Rob with Morphling and adds 1 pump taking Rob to 16.

Simon casts Ball Lightning swinging it at Marlana taking her to 14 then casts Squee.

Ken does nothing. (I promised I would put this in every time someone did nothing)

I decide things could get out of hand now that creatures are hitting the board, so I use Liliana Vess to tutor for Decree of Pain. I cast Nekrataal and with his come into play ability target Imperious Perfect.

Rob casts Tarmogoyf. Rob attacks Lilliana Vess with Wild Mongrel, feeling a Decree of Pain coming I go ahead and block with Nekretaal, so Rob discards a forest to pump Wild Mongrel.

Marlana casts Capsize with buyback targeting ‘Goyf, then attacks Rob with Morphling taking Rob to 13. Marlana has Capsize and Morphling now, she’s looking pretty good.

Simon casts Shivan Dragon and Marlana counters it with Power Sink.

Ken once again does nothing. What is going on? He’s obviously not drawing only lands, or at least he makes us think he isn’t drawing all land since he’s not playing them…

I cast Decree of Pain and Marlana casts Capsize with Buyback targeting Morphling. I forget to use Liliana.

Rob casts Tarmogoyf. Why didn’t I hold onto Decree of Pain knowing Rob had Tarmogoyf?

Marlana now has the nuts, she draws Stasis. With Capsize already online she can sow this thing up. I ask her to hold onto Stasis and I’ll get rid of Tarmogoyf first, she obliges.

Simon casts Wheel of Fortune and Marlana counters it with Counterspell, She doesn’t want to discard Capsize and Stasis!

K: Once again does nothing!

I cast Word of Command targeting Rob, so he Regenerates Tarmogoyf in response. I force Rob to play Fog. I Dance of the Dead targeting Nekretaal and use his come into play trigger targeting Tarmogoyf. The earlier regeneration field takes effect, so I cast Dark Banishing targeting Tarmogoyf. Finally got rid of that beast!

Rob casts Weathered Treefolk, at the end of his turn Marlana casts Capsize with Buyback targeting Weathered Treefolk.

Marlana throws down the lock and casts Stasis. Boo Hiss.

Simon is tapped out, so he does nothing.

Ken has plenty of untapped lands since he has done nothing for several turns. He casts Beacon of Tomorrows taking his life total to 50.

Since I have Nekrataal in play with Dance of the Dead, I am able to pay 2 and untap it.. So I do!

Rob does nothing. At the end of his turn Marlana casts Capsize with Buyback targeting Stasis.

Marlana casts Brainstorm and thinks very hard about casting Stasis. I tell her that if she doesn’t play Stasis I believe I can take Rob out of the game, then she only has to eliminate Simon to win. Ken tells her she should play Stasis and he will help her take me Rob and Simon out and they can have a shared victory. She doesn’t play Stasis. Yay, we get to play Magic for one more turn!

Simon casts Squee, Goblin Nabob

Ken, upset that there is no Stasis, talks a lot then casts Cage of Hands targeting Nekrataal.

True to my word of attempting to take out Rob, I cast Nether Traitor and attack Rob with my hasty Shadow creature, then Ninjitsu in Ink-eyes, Servant of Oni, Taking Tarmogoyf from Rob’s yard then cast Recurring Nightmare

Rob casts Weathered Treefolk, which Marlana promptly Capsizes with Buyback.

Marlana Draws with Jace Beleren, casts Stasis and Merfolk Looter.

Simon casts Mogg Fanatic.

Ken plays a land. At least he’s doing something!

I attack Rob with Tarmogoyf which would take him out of the game, so Ken saves him by casting Exile targeting Tarmogoyf. Bye bye Goyf.

Rob does nothing and Marlana casts Capsize with Buyback targeting Stasis at the end of his turn.

Marlana plays a land and now has enough land to cast Morphling and Stasis and still have enough to Capsize Buyback Stasis.

Simon attacks Ken with Squee.

Ken casts Ajani Goldmane gaining more life.

I do nothing.

Rob plays a land, Marlana does the old familiar Capsize with Buyback targeting Stasis at the end of his turn.

Marlana casts Clone targeting Morphling. What? Now she has two! She casts Stasis, and attacks Rob with Morphling.

Simon, Ken, I and Rob all do nothing with, you guessed it, Marlana casting Capsize with Buyback targeting Stasis at the end of Rob’s turn.

Marlana attacks Simon with both of her Morphlings, and Rob just wants this game to be over since the winner is becoming painfully obvious, so he casts Berzerk targeting Morphling which makes it a 10/1 and leaves Simon at 1 life. Marlana casts Stasis yet again.

After another round of nothing followed by a Capsize Buyback on Stasis, Marlana swings at Simon with Merfolk Looter and at Rob with Morphling pumped enough to eliminate both of them and win the game!

So that is a pretty epic game of Pentagram. I would love to hear about anyone out there playing this great format, leave me a comment in the fields below. Until next week this is Dale Lovelace telling you there is more than one way to play.

Today we’ll be taking a look at Pentagram, the exciting game where 5 players pit their favorite color against one another for fame and fortune. Ok, no fortune, and the fame will only extend to your playgroup, but it is fun!

Pick up a Magic card, any card at all, turn it over and take a look at the back. Ever notice the 5 colored circles in the shape of a pentagram, and the order they are in? This order is very important to Magic: The Gathering. Each color has two allies, which are located just to the left and right of the color, and two enemies, located directly across from the color. For example, white’s allies are blue and green, and white’s enemies are black and red. This order is also very important to the Pentagram format!

In the Pentagram format you will need exactly 5 players, one for each of those 5 colored circles. Each player should have a mono colored deck, one from each of the five colors. Ideally this would be a set of decks constructed by the local community for the purpose of playing Pentagram, more on deck construction later.

Each players color should be determined randomly, drawing from a random stack of one of each lands works wonderfully. Players sit in the order of the pentagram on the back of every Magic card, white, blue, black, red, green. Turns go in star order, white, black, green, blue, red, so an enemy color always plays just after you! The object of the game is to eliminate both of your enemy colors, so if you are playing white you would win by eliminating both black and red. It is possible for you and an ally to have a shared victory by eliminating all three of your enemies. White and blue could have a shared victory by first eliminating green and black then eliminating red.

You may target any legal target with spells and effects. Both of your enemies are “opponents” for purposes of a card that asks for an opponent, so no Archive Trap on your allies, and Avatar of Will only look at your enemies hands.

Since your allied colors aren’t your opponents, you also can’t attack them. You may only attack your enemies and their Planeswalkers.

Deck Construction

In a pinch you can use just any 5 decks to play Pentagram, but building 5 mono colored decks and keeping those around just for Pentagram can be a lot of fun!

Anthem Games in Tampa, Florida has a set of these decks that has evolved over the years by the local community. You can stop by Anthem any time and play these. Each deck is designed with cards that are trademarks of the respective colors. Reset buttons abound to keep the game in check. They each have 24 lands, 20 of which are basic. Each color gets a Lorwyn Planeswalker as well. One colorless artifact per color, and each deck gets a few hate cards specifically for its enemies!

White is all about control and life gain. With plenty of removal and plenty of life gain you can advance your life total enough to keep yourself out of the range of both your enemies, then lay down a fatty and commence the beat down. Land Tax makes for a great comeback after an Armageddon. Mass removal makes for some serious card advantage. White’s artifact of choice, Jade Statue, is a great sort-of creature after a Wrath. Ajani Goldmane can gain you lots of life, and make one seriously big Avatar token after gaining all that life!

Love it or hate it, blue is one of the most powerful colors in the game. This blue deck has all the spellsl a control player would ever need. Lots of counter spells and plenty of card draw. Take some extra turns and bounce anything that gets in your way to victory. Add some great tricksy tricksy creatures and blue has what it takes to control the whole game. Long game plans include a Capsize Stasis lock, and never ever forget “Superman”, Morphling. Blue chooses Icy Manipulator as it’s artifact to keep anything pesky at bay, and Jace Beleren can give you that serious card advantage that blue needs.

Black, victory at any cost. Black will do whatever it takes to win the game, and makes no bones about it. With a little tutoring, some graveyard recursion, plenty of removal, and some of that oh so black life syphon, black will beg borrow or steal to get the job done. Black gets the awesome Nevinyrral’s Disk for an artifact to get rid of permanents that black has no way to deal with, and Liliana Vess discards enemies down to nothing, tutors up that card you need, then returns all those juicy creatures back from black’s favorite zone, the graveyard, just in time for huge win!

Red, if it’s in the way, burn it. If it threatens you, burn it. Jaya Ballard says “Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire.” Needless to say, red is packed with plenty of direct damage. Apocalypse is there get out of the hole red is sure to dig itself into, and Wheel of Fortune gives red some card draw it so desperately needs. Some nice big trademark red dragons, and even the recurring Squee to get in there. Powder Keg helps get rid of those things Red just can’t get rid of, and Chandra Nalaar is one big finisher!

It’s big, it’s huge, no I mean really really big! B.F.M. should have been a green card! This green deck is full of huge fatties, and ways to make them even fatter. Green doesn’t care what you cast, it will just plow right over (or under) it. With a little card draw, and just enough removal to take out your best cards, this green deck will make a dent in your life total in no time at all. Green gets Loxodon Warhammer for an artifact to add green’s trademark Trample with a little lifeline on the side. Garruk gives you a little mana ramp, maybe a few Beast Tokens, and makes for a great Overrun finisher.

So now you’ve seen a great set of Pentagram decks, but what strategies should you use? Politics is a big part of any multiplayer game, and Pentagram is no different. What is different, however, is who you need to be political with. While your allies can’t attack you, they can target you with spells, and help out your enemies. You have two allies, but those allies both have allies who are you enemies! Should you team up with one ally and go for a shared victory? How will your other ally respond to this? The interactions can become complex quickly. Join me next week where I’ll be presenting a play by play of a recent –EPIC- Pentagram game I played an Anthem Games in Tampa, Florida, and perhaps you’ll get a good idea of how a real game of Pentagram goes.

I’m very interested in hearing about other formats people are playing. If you are playing a non-sanctioned format other than EDH or Pentagram I would love to hear about it. Leave me a comment below this story and tell me all about it. Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you. Your format could be featured here soon!

That’s it for this week. I’ll be judging Pro Tour San Diego this weekend, February 18-21, so if you’re around find me and say hi! Until next week this is Dale Lovelace telling you there is more than one way to play!

This week we’ll start up where we left off last week with some of the best cards for EDH in Worldwake. Let’s take a look at the non creature Worldwake spells I think we’ll be seeing in EDH decks everywhere.

Amulet of Vigor just screams combo! Let’s see what goes well with this card… Come into play tapped lands love Amulet of Vigor, especially Selesnya Sanctuary and the other bounce lands. Team this up with Root Maze to insure you are the least popular player at the table. With Azorious Chancery, Ruin Ghost and Tideforce Elemental you have infinite landfall. Add Lotus Cobra for infinite mana.

The Zendikar block seems to have a lot of token generators, and Bestial Menace may be one of the best. 6 power, 3 creatures for 5 mana and one card! I’m busy getting this in every green deck I have.

Is every color going to have a Wrath of God soon? For {2}{R}{R} Chain Reaction should get rid of all those pesky creatures. It’s not quite Wrath, as pro-red gets around it, but I believe Chain Reaction is as close as Red will get these days.

Dead Reckoning offers some good utility in a graveyard tutor with some creature removal as an added bonus.

I have this love/hate relationship with Counterspells. Mostly I love them when I play them and hate them when someone counters my spell! Dispel has a definite place in my EDH decks, if for no other reason than countering Counterspell.

I’m reserving judgment on Treasure Hunt until I’ve tried it a few times. With Sensei’s Divining Top this card could be good. If I ever get around to building the 75 land deck I’ve been considering this will be auto include. Give this one a shot and get back to me, it seems good.

While there were some great Multikick creatures we went over last week, there are also some excellent non-creature Multikick spells in Worldwake.

How can you beat Comet Storm? We just love X spells in EDH, and we just love Multikicker spells in EDH, so how about a Multikicker X spell? Make it an instant as well? Red gets a great late game direct damage spell.

While red is best at direct damage and got that for a Multikick X spell, green’s strength is in big bad creatures, hence Strength of the Tajuru. X +1/+1 counters on the target number of Multikicked creatures. This is also an instant, so makes for some excellent combat tricks. I just love these spells that let you use all of your mana late game.

Zendikar brought us Traps, and Worldwake continues the Trap series of cards with a few beauties.

I just love Ricochet Trap! I’m a big fan of Swerve, and this just one up’s swerve! Don’t forget that you don’t have to target the blue spell if you pay the trap cost.

Slingbow Trap makes the cut for me. Green creature removal is hard to come by. Even ignoring the trap cost I like Slingbow Trap.

Zendikar also introduced Quests, an enchantment with a goal. Worldwake doesn’t disappoint with some great new Quests.

Quest for Renewal is a cheaper Seedborn Muse for creatures that’s harder to remove. Team this with Omnath, Locus of Mana and a few mana elves and get prepared for one big Strength of the Tajaru!

How many creatures does Quest for Ula’s Temple hit? According to Gatherer there are 41 creatures with the creature types Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent. Some of those include Deep-Sea Kraken, Denizen of the Deep, Grozoth, Inkwell Leviathan, Kederekt Leviathan, Lorthos the Tidemaker, Simic Sky Swallower, and even Wrexial, the Risen Deep! I think I can find enough Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, and Serpents to make this quest worth my while.

I’m really excited about Marshal’s Anthem! Give all your creatures +1/+1 plus it lets you bring a creature to your hand for every 1{W} you pay when you cast it. Late game Marshal’s Anthem can net you a ton of cards!

Prior to Worldwake there was only one card that I thought should be in every EDH deck out there, and that was Reliquary Tower. Sol Ring and Sensei’s Divining Top are almost always auto include, but not for every deck. Bojuka Bog should be in every EDH deck that runs black, period. This card is so good. It’s almost too good. Removing graveyards is always a good ability in EDH, and since it only costs a land coming into play tapped, why not?

We love Sol Ring and Mana Vault. Everflowing Chalice is going to cost you more for the same level of production as those guys, but man can you ever make a big Everflowing Chalice! Teamed up with Sol Ring and Mana Vault… Wow!

So short of turning your Chameleon Colossus Colorless, Eye of Ugin is not going to reduce the cost of anything until the next set comes out. For now it can be a great every turn tutor for the many Artifact heavy decks out there. Even paying 7 for a tutor isn’t that outrageous late game. Get a huge Everflowing Chalice out for a little help!

While Halimar Depths, Sejiri Steppe and Smoldering Spires are no Bojuka Bog, if you are playing a deck heavy in their respective colors with no advantages to playing the basic lands, i.e. no High Tide, abilities of these lands should be well worth the cost of a land coming into play tapped.

It’s not Wasteland and it’s definitely not Strip Mine, but with 100 card decks Tectonic Edge can definitely find a place in a deck that runs land destructing lands. This was a really good move from Wizards, and a nice fair piece of LD.

Well, that’s all I got to say about that… Worldwake may not be great for Standard, but this looks like one of the best sets for EDH I’ve seen. I don’t see any cards that will create new archetypes, but plenty of great additions. I don’t think there is a deck out there that can’t be better with a few Worldwake cards.

This Saturday 2/13/2010 I’m starting a new EDH league at Wizards Cupboard in Seminole, Florida [Ed. Note - Not Seminole County as I had previously edited it to say]. Signup begins at noon and the tournament starts at 1:00PM. Be sure to come by and see us!

At the end of my last article I wanted to be able to give a good overview of the rainbow stairwell deck piloted by Aaron Fortino (one of the owners of Armada Games.) Unfortunately Aaron has taken the deck apart and is looking to sleeve up a fresh sixty in the near future. That’s alright though, I’ve been waiting to show my combo deck since the format introduction article.

The first I heard of the format was from Sheldon Menery. As I mentioned it can be difficult to get together enough players for a proper group game of EDH and we needed a diversion before the festivities so to speak. In the interest of full disclosure I was not particularly interested in the idea of rainbow stairwell at first.

The idea of the format seemed more restrictive than I usually enjoy. It’s not that I dislike singleton formats or even limits on converted mana cost, the initial deal breaker for me was the mana. There’s nothing quite so frustrating for me as being unable to cast spells because of mana inconsistency. Obviously with the previous deck we got around that concern, though that deck was not actually my first foray into the format.

The first deck I constructed for Rainbow Stairwell actually came as a challenge from Sheldon. Sheldon challenged me to build a viable combo deck for the format. Challenges like that appeal to me on a number of fronts. I like complex card interactions and the degree of skill it takes to pilot them correctly. Please note that I’m not saying I always have that skill, I just like the interactions!

With the gauntlet having been thrown I set to work. Most combo decks require an unfortunate degree of redundancy. It’s very difficult to get that redundant effect when you can only run one of each card. There simply are not enough functional equivalents of many combo pieces. Since I was not going to be able to build an “old school” combo I had to turn to the most recent trend in combos, Storm. I’ve become convinced that the easiest way to break a card is have it cost two more and give it storm!

Armed with the world’s most unfair mechanic I set out.

Since we want to get as many spells in a single turn as possible it’s very important that spells either kill, provide pretty severe card advantage or act as a one shot “ritual” effect. We can afford to throw a spell away adding nothing but mana to our pool if it’s going to enable our ultimate goal.

Without further delay, let’s take a look at the list I decided on:

Blue

1. 1 Brainstorm
2. 1 Tolarian Winds
3. 1 Timetwister
4. 1 Gifts Ungiven
5. 1 Dream Halls
6. 1 Mind’s Desire

Black

1. 1 Vampiric Tutor
2. 1 Demonic Tutor
3. 1 Yawgmoth’s Will
4. 1 Tendrils of Agony
5. 1 Promise of Power
6. 1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain

Green

1. 1 Fastbond
2. 1 Manamorphose
3. 1 Elvish Spirit Guide
4. 1 Channel the Suns
5. 1 All Suns’ Dawn
6. 1 Recycle

Red

1. 1 Rite of Flame
2. 1 Recoup
3. 1 Wheel of Fortune
4. 1 Empty the Warrens
5. 1 Ignite Memories
6. 1 Nucklavee

White

1. 1 Enlightened Tutor
2. 1 Balance
3. 1 Idyllic Tutor
4. 1 Pursuit of Knowledge
5. 1 Turn the Tables
6. 1 Open the Vaults

Artifact

1. 1 Sol Ring
2. 1 Pentad Prism
3. 1 Coalition Relic
4. 1 Etched Oracle
5. 1 Memory Jar
6. 1 Composite Golemn

Land

• 1 Bayou
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Plateau
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Tundra
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Underground Sea
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Taiga
• 1 Stomping Grounds
• 1 Badlands
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Scrubland
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Tropical Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Volcanic Island
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 City of Traitors
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 City of Brass

There are a few omissions of note. Ad Nauseam draws a lot of cards… sometimes. In a deck like this Ad Nauseam rolls the dice in a way that we really can’t afford on a consistent basis. Another card that feels like a good fit for this deck (or any deck for that matter) is Sensei’s Divining Top. I have opted for the acceleration of Sol Ring over the card advantage generated by the Top, though if you find fewer aggro decks in your area the Top might be the better call for you.

There are a few rules tips and tricks you can use. If you cast Mind’s Desire and hit Recoup you will be able to Recoup the Mind’s Desire itself! Additionally if you Recoup a storm card the card will get storm for all the cards cast that turn including the Recoup. Memory Jar now has a delayed trigger ability that triggers at the beginning of end of turn step. If you wait until all end of turn triggers have occurred on your opponent’s turn you can activate the Memory Jar and keep all the cards until your end step!

There are a few more tricky rules interactions. If you have a Dream Halls in play you cannot cast a card with flashback using both its flashback ability and the ability of Dream Halls. If you have a Pursuit of Knowledge in play and you Brainstorm skipping the draws you would still need to put two cards back (but you would do so before drawing the seven!) A final warning comes from Recycle. Remember that you do get to draw a card from playing a land using recycle but you do not get to draw a card from removing Elvish Spirit Guide since you haven’t played a card!

There are a few suggestions to be made for fixing up the deck if you should want to invest the money. My original list included Ancestral Recall and Timewalk as my blue two and three drop spells. There is nothing wrong with having them and they are certainly brutally effective but do not be surprised if you find yourself without a play group if you use the “unfair” power. It’s also worth considering Death Wish in the five mana slot and Diminishing Returns in the slot over Gift’s Ungiven. The likelihood of losing all your kill conditions as well as Death Wish is exceptionally low.

In addition to Rainbow Stairwell and EDH I find myself playing Pack Wars and Pack War variations quite a bit and so I’d like to discuss them a little bit. Pack Wars is a very simple format and it can be a ton of fun! All you need are two packs and thirty lands. Simply open a pack, shuffle in three of each basic land type, have your opponent do the same and you’re ready to play! Pack Wars offers a great alternative to simply opening a pack and it’s great fun.

As a judge I open a lot of sealed product. At most of the events I work I take my compensation for working in booster pack form because it’s just more fun that way. As such typical pack wars can be time consuming to do when you’re opening three to four boxes. Since I still love to open boxes the local judges and I have come up with a pack wars variant I’d like to describe.

Each player begins with a pack that they open and remove the token. Any foils get windmilled face up and start in play. Note that if the foil is a creature it will have haste since you’ve technically controlled it since the start of the turn. Each player then plays the game like a normal game of magic except you only begin with one card in hand. Additionally each player has infinite mana to use and to make the games more interesting x-spells and x-damage creatures (Nantuko Shade for example) are capped at five. That being said, cards that rely on lands and basic lands themselves cycle. So if you draw a card like Tendrils of Corruption you can cycle it.

That’s it! Go to town!

A few people have their own rules they like to impose and if you think something would be more fun than change away!

That’s all I’ve got for this week. Join me next week when this odyssey of wacky formats continues and takes us to the wacky land of Demon Dice. It’s an odd variation but it’s one of my favorites! Until next time this is Benjamin McDole bringing you a hundred reasons to play magic!

Wizards has announced a new multiplayer variant in the same vein of Planechase called ‘Archenemy.’

It is apparently inspired by the WoW TCG’s Raid decks. Meant to be a multiplayer variant that allows people to face off against any number of enemies. Unfortunately the information is again sparse on this announcement, but we know the following.

Released: June 18th
Decks: Four different 60 card decks each with eight rares, and 20 card oversized deck.
MSRP: Unannounced

Before moving to Tampa I lived in a small town in Florida called Fort Myers where the Magic scene is stagnant at best. From what I understand a few stores are looking to turn things around, and I sincerely hope they’re successful because there are a good number of loyal players there.

That being said, Tampa has a bustling tournament scene. There are multiple good stores to play at but most importantly if you go to Armada games you will find an event running six days a week! Furthermore the events vary in format, everything from a basic draft to legacy.

The great variation in format isn’t just restricted to the common formats. There have been peasant events, pack wars night, and of course EDH league. Rainbow Stairwell is also a format that’s being played at the store, though not quite as heavily. Sheldon brought the format to the owner’s attention and Aaron and Michael (Fortino, the store owners) were immediately onboard.

I hope to showcase Aaron’s deck next week, but in the meantime I’ll just have to make one of my own! One of the biggest issues in rainbow stairwell can be mana consistency. Unless you want to dedicate your entire green suite to mana fixing you’re probably going to have some issues. Even with the ability to run 2 duals (10 original and 10 Ravnica) you still need to draw the right colors. Since fetch lands have an activated ability that’s not a mana ability they’re out as well.

One way around that is to build a mono-colored deck! I’ve had the idea for a mono-black rainbow stairwell list for a while now. Remember that with hybrid mana cards can count as either color. If we use hybrid cards for each color then we can ‘count” them as being of the other color but still cast them however we would like. It’s an interesting way to skirt the mana inconsistencies that usually occur.

There are a few situations here where the card is in a particular spot because it was the only option, though I honestly don’t think that’s happened to the detriment of any particular mana slot. One noticeable omission is Demigod of Revenge in favor of Kulrath Knight. The reason is that aside from someone countering Demigod at the wrong time odds are pretty good he won’t be coming back from his triggered ability. Kulrath Knight just ends up being better in that slot.

Most of the other choices are fairly self explanatory, but I think it is worth detailing the choices I made for black itself and perhaps the artifact slots. Black is a fairly deep color and I will allow that some of the decisions I made might seem odd at first.

Dark Ritual just seems particularly powerful when it excels every card in the deck so it gets the nod (if one were to put Vampiric Tutor there I certainly couldn’t fault you)! Taking some of the persist creatures into account it wouldn’t be out of the question to run innocent blood, or another type of card to answer protection from black creatures.

The two drop is usually the realm of Demonic Tutor but I went a little off the wall for Oversold Cemetary. This deck is rife with enters the battlefield abilities and creatures with persist. Forcing your opponent into a two-for-one situation several times only to have them recur again is just such card advantage that it can often take the game home.

Along that same vein the three drop could easily go to Yawgmoth’s Will but I like Recurring Nightmare instead. Recurring Nightmare plus Murderous Redcap or Grief Tyrant could easily wipe your opponent’s board and if you’re sacrificing the redcap then you’re not down any board position! The nightmare’s good enough to get banned in EDH which means it should probably hit play here.

Nekrataal sits in our four drop because it kills nearly half of every deck you’re going to sit down and play against all the while providing card advantage. Furthermore it has more interaction with your black two and three drops!

Shriekmaw helped dominate standard in mannequin style decks and it falls under the same heading as Nekrataal most of the time. Shriekmaw also provides a little late game evasion and in a pinch can even cheat the mana curve by being evoked! If you don’t feel Shriekmaw is for you by all means try something different (perhaps Liliana Vess).

Last but not least we have our six drop and probably my most controversial choice. In my experience the majority of the games I’ve played ended up being drawn out creature battles. The ability to cast a one sided wrath for just your opponent seemed unfair at best and that’s why I went with Hex. Never be afraid to kill one of your creatures in order to kill five of theirs, especially if you’re killing an evoke creature! There are certainly other avenues for card advantage and Sorin Markov also tested well, though he is considerably less powerful in this format than in EDH.

Having detailed the black slots let’s take a look at the artifacts! I lead things off with Expedition Map instead of Sol Ring or Sensei’s Divining Top and there are a few reasons why. Sol Ring is great but a good portion of the creatures in this deck are heavy into black mana and Sol Ring might not always accel the way we want it to. Top can help smooth clunky draws but Expedition Map can find Cabal Coffers or Urborg, giving us a Sol Ring on steroids!

The two drop artifact is Umezawa’s Jitte, a choice which really shouldn’t surprise anyone! If you played during Kamigawa block it was really hard to lose a draft where you opened a Jitte as long as you could find creatures to charge into battle with it. Jitte + creature was often considered the best two card combo in magic that year. Jitte can be a little pricey but with the announcement that it will be the GP card next year hopefully the prices will go down enough to make them worth running.

The three drop is Grafted Wargear for a few reasons. The first reason is because it makes your creatures a very aggressive early threat. The second reason is because you usually don’t care if your creatures die. The third reason is because it seemed to fit the overall theme of the deck. The last reason is because it gives you a sac outlet if you really want one! There are probably other cards that could go in this slot and I wouldn’t be opposed to suggestions.

The four drop is a card that makes perfect sense to me, Nightmare Lash. The Lash is pretty self explanatory I think, every creature is a threat that needs to be dealt with or it could quickly become lethal.

The last two slots are up for some debate. I opted for Gauntlet of Power and Mindslaver though there are a couple of other fitting choices. Gauntlet of Power ramps us up but that might not really be necessary. The definite upside is that it pumps the team (almost) which is a very solid upside. If you feel like card drawing is needed you could also go with Mind’s Eye, I just decided to keep the pedal to the metal so to speak. As for the six drop if, protection from black creatures start to be a problem then you might want to add a tutor package and include Duplicant. Duplicant combined with Recurring Nightmare can really be headaches on opponents, especially if they had hoped for some sort of recursion.

Without any further delay, let’s take a look at the list I’ve prepared!

There’s one card that sticks out like a sore thumb, Deadwood Treefolk! There is no black/green hybrid that sits at the six mana slot. I chose the Treefolk because he’s easy to splash and has worthwhile enters and leaves the battlefield abilities. Like all the other cards he plays very well with our overall theme!

Relatively cheap (Bayou aside), everything counts as a swamp so Cabal Coffers should always hit for a great amount.

If you want a fun Rainbow Stairwell deck without all the mana inconsistencies then you’ve come to the right place! For next week I’m going to showcase a combo deck I’ve been working on that’s also a Rainbow Stairwell concoction. Sheldon challenged me to try and come up with something combo for the format and I think I’ve done it. Until then give this deck a shot and let me know what you think.

Tune in next week for another Stairwell deck and a good description of possibly my favorite format, pack wars (with a fun variation I play with the other judges!)

Until next time this is Benjamin McDole giving you (slightly less) than a hundred reasons to play magic!

But he’s not alone in unique art, at the 2004 World Championships Seishiro Ookubo got a great deal of attention for his artwork that used six of the same Magic card to generate stunning pieces with depth of people’s favorite Magic cards. So sit back and enjoy the unusual art people have created with Magic cards. He seems to have faded out of the public eye, no online posts have popped up since 2008 with the exception of this and a post over at MTG-Realm.

Then there are the crafty people. People like my friend (and ManaNation fan) Renee ‘the Domestic Scientist.’ She’s gotten a bit busy in life, but she does some amazing stuff, look at these three examples.

Do you guys know of other unusual Magic artists? Leave a comment!

The fact that I’m writing about this deck after Progenitus and Phage is fairly ironic since I had been using this deck long before the other two. The name of this deck is Layer 1/Layer 2, and the general is Sakashima, the Imposter. I know that a good portion of the readers here are probably rolling their eyes and glaring at a mono-blue general, but hear me out! There are very few counterspells in this deck, and the ones that are there are just made for amusement.

Before I jump into the deck and it’s subtleties I should probably present the list:

The name of the deck is layer 1/layer 2, which comes from the “layers” for the interaction of continuous effects, something that most judges dislike greatly. Ever wonder what happens when you copy a land that’s been animated then stolen by another player, then had a counter placed on it, then been lignified? Well the interaction of continuous effects solves that riddle for us. Luckily interactions don’t get quite that wacky for this deck, but they can be rough.

As you’ve probably surmised by looking at the list above, layer 1 is the copy layer and layer 2 is the control layer, both of which guided this deck’s construction. Nearly everything in here aims to copy or control someone else’s items and then promptly use it against them. The unwritten rule of our EDH group is that if you steal someone’s permanent you need to use it against them, and if you live by that principle you’ll find this deck to be great fun. We will go over a few of the trickier rules interactions that can come up, but first a few of the card choices.

Being the person at a table playing the blue deck usually means you’ve got a target on your head. Blue is literally a four letter word! Face it, no one likes having their spells countered (or at least not every single spell). Notice the counterspells in this deck, Desertion, Spelljack, Commandeer all steal your opponent’s permanents when they counter the spell. Cryptic Command is the only “pure” counterspell in the deck, and really it’s just there because it’s the swiss army knife of counterspells. Once players see the purpose of your deck they are usually a lot more willing to ease up and let the fun happen.

A big advantage for this deck is also the ability to use everyone else’s creatures at a pretty sweet discount. Why tap out like a sucker to play some giant monster when you can just clone it for four mana? Also, with the recent rules changes and the general no longer being immune to the legend rule this deck is also packed full of strip mines for generals. Just remember to pay it forward! If you take/copy something from someone you need to attack them with it. Killing someone with their own general (yes it is general damage) gets you some serious style points!

I’d like to make a few quick notes on some of the more expensive cards. Timetwister originally was not in the deck. The EDH rules committee banned Gift’s Ungiven and so I dropped Timetwister into the slot. I’m sure there are a few good replacements out there, Roil Elemental definitely being one of them. Additionally, I’m running Mana Crypt because it is absolutely absurd in the early game. There have been several occasions of casting a turn two Bribery using Mana Crypt, which to me makes it worth having. That being said, Coldsteel Heart and Mind Stone are both fine replacements at a more reasonable price.

And now on to a few tricky rules interactions that can come up. If you copy a permanent with an enter the battlefield trigger (example, Solemn Simulacrum), then you will get that triggered ability as well. So Clone, Shapeshifter, etc will all get you that additional land, and better yet, draw you cards when they leave the battlefield. Turning up a Vesuvan Shapeshifter, on the other hand, will not get you the enter the battlefield trigger since the Shapeshifter is already on the battlefield.

I should also note the way permanents are copied. Clone type effects like to use “copiable values,” which means a great many things. Rather than have to memorize all the copiable values, just think of the copy as literally being a Xerox of the card being cloned. So any extra enchantments, counters, bonuses aren’t copied. The only exception (and this one does come up), is that if you make a copy of something that’s already copying something else you get two copies of the samething. So if I clone your Grizzly Bears and then Shapeshifter the Clone I essentially get two copies of Grizzly Bears.

Another unique interaction that can come up is what happens when a player controls another players permanent and then one of the players leaves the game. Well, it really all depends on how the permanent got there in the first place! If I have used Sower of Temptation to control someone’s creature and then I leave the game the control effect ends and they get their creature back. That’s a little different from something like Bribery. If I have someone’s creature through a Bribery type effect and then I leave the game the creature becomes exiled. Notice the difference, one creature was under my control from a control change effect, the other was not.

I’ve selected all the cards for this deck because they’re usually wacky, and they definitely amuse me. That being said, if there are cards in here that genuinely frustrate or annoy your playgroup feel free to remove them. It’s alright to have “house rules” and “house banned lists”, do what makes your group have the most fun.

There was a recent article by Sheldon Menery (the godfather of EDH), on the cards that annoy him, or that he thinks are unfun. As it happens some of those cards have made an appearance in this deck. Sensei’s Divining Top is a big un-fun instigator. You’re playing a casual game with friends, do things out of order. We top during our turn or search during our turn and just reserve the right to change our choices. Taking simple measures like that make tutor effects less annoying and top significantly less time consuming. I think the bottom line is that if people aren’t having fun, then something should change and someone doesn’t know to change unless someone tells them.

With that bit of seriousness out of the way I’d also like to take some time to remind everyone about the contest currently going on! I’ve received a good number of entries but the slogan competition is still wide open! Just remember, send me an e-mail with your name and the slogan you’ve come up with to ben.mcdole@gmail.com and I’ll take care of the rest. In a week someone will be a free judge Demonic Tutor richer and I’ll have an awesome new catch phrase, everyone wins! Until next time, this is Ben reminding you [your catch phrase here]!

My first was Biorhythm. That was a fun win. I used the Symbiotic Elf and his cronies. Mixed with Wrath and Oblivion Stone and just a spice of acceleration mixed in and I had a deck. I once beat 14 opponents at once in a multiplayer game. End of Turn blow up Stone destroy all and put tokens from my Symbiotes into play. My Turn cast Biorhythm and win. That was fun.

That obsession didn’t last long though. Biorhythm just was to straightforward for me. As I grew in the game my inner teacher began to latch onto certain cards. Invariably these cards required an explanation or a teaching of some kind. The first State Championship I ever attended was with a deck that looked to abuse Mind’s Desire. I used Affinity based permanents with Chain of Vapor and a bunch of draw spells. On my critical turn I would dump my whole hand on the table. Use Chain to bounce them back again and then play them for free via Affinity. Cast Mind’s Desire with the floating mana and BOOM a very large Tendrils (or at least a load of Frogmites and friends).

Mind’s Desire lasted forever. I went through the Twiddle/Desire, the Cloud of Faeries/ Desire, and finally the Perfect Storm of TEPS. In fact I still have my TEPS list from Extended last year. I just can’t take it out of its sleeves.

Since this summer I’ve had a new pet. Warp World did well for me all summer long, in Standard anyway. Of course I loved the casting of WW itself but also the games where it just went Ramp/Aggro were great as well. But as rotations go the Warp World has just gone flat. I’ve tried to make it work from multiple angles but have not been successful.

And there is good reason to want it to be successful. When evaluating Warp World you have to consider two factors. What do the non Warp cards do pre-warp? How do they fare coming off of the Warp?

Pre-Warp we want to gather permanents and/or card advantage. This is similar to all decks but the real kicker is Post-warp. How do our cards generate advantage off of the Warp itself?

Let’s look at the Warp ratio for some common decks being played today. The Warp Ratio is a number that is devised by taking the number of permanents deployed divided by the number of cards used. Since Warp World count varies every game and every matchup we’ll just look at the whole deck and develop an average. So now it’s the number of Perms deployed by the whole deck divided by 60. (Decklist found on Deckcheck.net)

• Jund- .72
• Naya Lightsaber – .95 ( I gave Ranger of Eos 3 perms even though the two he fetches aren’t played right away)
• Boros Bushwhacker – .88
• Mono White Tokens – 1.03 (For Emeria Angel I added a very conservative 3 Landfall triggers)
• Borderland Bant – 1.15
• Vampires – .79

Today I want to run you through the adjustments I’ve made and see if anyone out there has an angle that I haven’t tried.

Here is my list that I ran to 17th (of 98) at a PTQ this summer.

First notice that this list has a 1.27 Warp ratio. When you look at this list you would think that it would be an easy transition to Zendikar Standard. But I assure you it is not. In the land department we really aren’t that phased. The Reflecting Pool is not that big of a loss and the Thicket can be replaced as well. Kazandu Refuge can even work here because of our lack of early drops.

The heavy hitters of Warp World, Siege-Gang, and Hellkite are still around. The rest of the deck is all role players. Here is a list of our losses

• Fertile Ground – Adds a permanent and gives extra mana. Replacing it has been extremely difficult. The problem is that most good mana accelerants that are in permanent form are creatures. Every one has creature removal while few decks main enchantment removal. This enchantment was also safe because it was too innocent. Why would you waste a spell to get rid of Fertile Ground?
• Farhaven Elf – I personally ran this elf over Birds in my list. Many people ran Birds for the multi-color aspect but I preferred Farhaven Elf because of the bonus permanent. Both are easily removed but the Elf mana fix keeps on giving.
• Wort, the Raidmother – this card is a gimmick. It’s a gimmick I like but a gimmick none the less. It does make your Warp World almost uncounterable since you place two copies (or more) on the stack. With the proper design double Warpage should never lose. The added benefit of extra permanents was actually more handy than the conspire. In the PTQ I actually took a game loss because of the desire to Double Warp instead of just winning and playing Wort later if needed.
• Murderous Redcap – This is role player that is most missed. With the acceleration suite Redcap is playable on turn 3 and serves the role of early removal. The bonus Synergy with Siege Gang is also incredible. At least half of the games that I won off of Warp came from direct damage from Hellkite, Redcap, and Siege throwing tokens.

Warping Landfall

That was the card list that I lost due to rotation and that is where my saga begins. So enter the first spoiled card that I saw Rampaging Baloths. “This Landfall mechanic is going to ROCK!” I thought to myself. Imagine Warping into a Baloth. Every land that hits will be a 4/4 Beast as well! I instantly fell in love with the Landfall Warp. I even went so far as to drop the Bogardan Hellkites. Lotus Cobra slithered his way in easily. I did some Judge questioning and found a disappointment when it came to the Expeditions. Enchantments warp in after lands so the Expeditions would gain no counters from the Warped in lands. If I had a card like Farhaven Elf I would be able to gain a token from that land but not the Warped ones. Khalni Heart Expedition still made the list but Zektar does not. Even when I looked at adding the Hellkites back in I was still short of cards so I looked to the other color. Obnoxious, I mean Ob Nixilis said “put me in coach” and I had to agree.

Final Warp Ratio is 1.33 which is much more potent but it really has harder time getting there. This deck is just to top heavy pre-warp. Admittedly I tested this mostly in a heavy Jund/Vampire environment.

The pre-warp card advantage of Jund was just too much to handle. Basically games came down to can I get a Warp off? Sure I had a couple Snake accelerated Warps that were really cool but not enough to warrant any serious play.

Vampires was a little easier but not a lock. While I was able to Warp more often and his Warp ratio was very low the synergy within the few perms he got to lay was real good. Sometimes good enough to win post warp. Hitting a couple of Bloodwitches off of Warp was just cruel with the number of Vamps also coming into play. One of my students actually started boarding in his own Ob NIxilis as well. By the way, your opponents CIP’s (I mean ETB’s) happen first.

Boros Bushwhacker is also an issue. It’s fast enough to win before Warp and has a decent retaliation attack because the Ranger can grab multiple dudes that come in cheap and become hasty from a kicked Bushwhacker.

There is a very interesting (to me anyway) math dilemma with this deck. You want to use fetches to max the Prewarp potential. But if you use too many in the game then your decrease the lands hit off of a Warp which decreases the power of Landfall thereby decreasing the power of the Warp effect.

Warped Allies

So I started looking for way to make the deck Win directly off of Warp World. That way I wouldn’t have to wait for the win or defend against my opponent’s first swing. Also the occasional DoJ in my opponents hand wouldn’t spell my ruin. Of course raising Hellkite up to 4 was the first move but I still need more. Enter Hagra Diabolist. If we can Warp a Hagra and say 3 other Allies we take 16 life away from our opponent. Add in another Ally or a Hellkite and its game over.

Now we have 8 cards that can do significant damage and potentially win the game off of the ETB’s alone. To make Hagra effective enough we need more Allies. Turntimber Ranger is an easy inclusion since it also generates better Warp and increases our Warp Ration. Others in Green, Red, and Black don’t really stand out but some would be necessary. Oran- Rief Survivalist is playable and Bala Ged Thief affords us some protection.

As many of you could imagine this deck was a step back. While the Warp Ratio is at least 1.2 (that’s assuming no other Allies trigger Turntimber Ranger) it still doesn’t have much game without a Warp and the lack of acceleration just makes it harder to survive long enough. I did enjoy the wins that I pulled out but they were far between.

Warped Now

Realizing that the Warp World will need to be just a casual deck I’ve decided to max our Warp Ratio. That’s were the real fun is anyway. Sure I’ll lose more than I’ll win but when you have that mind set it’s not so bad. It’s almost funny that I say that while the Mothership (Wizards.com) sings the praises of Spike with ‘Spike Week.’

In order to max out the ratio I bring in White. The reason for the inclusion is two cards. Emeria Angel is included for more landfall as well as helping our midgame permanent building. I also brought in Kor Cartographer to serve as a quasi Farhaven Elf. Sure it only gets Plains but it still mana acceleration as well as permanent acceleration.

Let’s do the math. Still going with 3 lands hit off a Warp then my Ratio is 1.67. WOW!! That doubles many of the current decks. Talk about a post-Warp advantage! Sure pre-Warp I’m a little weak but this deck is just for the Warp-age fun that happens. If you play it make sure to pack your tokens. Goblins, Birds, Beasts, and Wolves abound.

Anyway, I can see that class is almost out. Feel free to post any ideas you may have for Warp World. It doesn’t need to be any tech that makes this deck a tournament caliber player. Just looking for fun ideas.

In the interest of full disclosure I find myself firmly entrenched in the pirate camp, but I can see how ninjas might appeal to some players. Ninjas are stealth personified, preferring crafty schemes over brute force, cannons and lusty wenches. That is fine however it takes a completely different mindset to accomplish.

The best way I could find to prepare myself was a combination of watching Ninja Assassin trailers and perusing the original decklist that WotC put forth. Here is the list originally previewed:

As is the problem with most EDH decks we need to come up with a General. Notice that the deck is four colors… again. Pirates were four to five colors by necessity but I don’t think we need to go four colors with ninjas. Green is barely in the original deck, only showing up in the form of a single forest and an Argothian Boars. While I do respect Argothian Boars I think we could easily find an in-color card to serve the same purpose (which if you read the original article was simply subterfuge!)

Having pared the deck down to a mere three colors we now need to find a suitable general. As is the case with Pirates, functionality is really less important than flavor. Though there are a few tempting legends at our disposal, Sol’Kanar the Swamp King for example, I think the ideal legend is Tetsuo Umezawa. Tetsuo has a useful ability, fills the flavor of the general and most importantly the art shows a person with a samurai sword! Though Tetsuo is now a human archer as a creature type I feel he’s still a ninja at heart.

Having selected our general we need to fix a few problems with the main deck. Again “Un” cards are fun to have but we want to abide by the rules of EDH which means they need to go. There are two Ass Whuppin! that need to go and a single copy of Kill! Destroy! that we need to cut as well. Compared to pirates there are considerably fewer un-cards that cause us headaches.

Unfortunately there are a few other cards that need to disappear to preserve format legality. Walker of Secret Ways, Throat Slitter, Skullsnatcher, Okiba-Gang Shinobi, Ninja of the Deep Hours, and Mistblade Shinobi all have multiple copies which need to be dealt with. Additionally, though I love the flavor of five copies of Sudden Death (5 copies!) we need to go ahead and make that a single copy. This almost gives us a legal deck for the format but there’s another problem to be dealt with.

There are currently cards in the deck which are not allowed. With Tetsuo only being three colors any green cards need to be removed as well. With that we bid adieu to Argothian Swine who violates the color restrictions. The single Forest is not a colored card but it also needs to be removed from the deck since it technically has the green mana symbol on the card.

A mere fifteen cards have been removed! That was me being sarcastic, ninjas have been much more difficult to work with than pirates, though maybe it’s their mystical ways. With fifteen cards having been removed and only a single card having been added we have a total of forty-six cards giving a mighty big fifty-four spots to fill. That number might be a bit misleading though, since there are also lands to be added. Since lands are the least fun aspect of the deck (usually) we turn to the rest of the deck first.

Assuming that we want 40 lands we get to add thirty-seven non-land cards. Being forced to cut so many creatures causes things to be a little light on the offensive. Though I know that ninjas received a fair amount of coverage during Kamigawa block, the number of creatures with the actual type of ninja is surprisingly lacking. I’ve decided to offset that void of ninjas with an assassin subtheme. Assassins also thrive on night and trickery and if recent major motion pictures are any indication then they actually go hand in hand.

Fortunately there are a great number of assassins who are also in color. Royal Assassin, Garza’s Assassin, Suq’Ata Assassin, Nightshade Assassin, Stalking Assassin and Silent Assassin all have comparable abilities while keeping scurvy pirates at bay. Additionally, Nekrataal and Orzhov Euthanist are assassins with great enter the battlefield abilities. Murderous Redcap is certainly less reliable than the other two “enter the battlefield” assassins, yet has a more flexible ability. Finally, there are two legendary assassins with very relevant abilities in the form of Kiku, Night’s Flower and Thraximundar.

There are a few non-assassins who will be entering the deck. Nezumi Ronin has a fearsome ninja-esque look and so I’ve added him to the mix. Scarblade Elite certainly plays well with the subtheme and as such is absolutely necessary. Finally, Shadow Guildmage gives us some much needed combat tricks since we are usually happy to have some ninjas in hand. Ok, so Shadow Guildmage isn’t the last creature added. Zodiac Pig gives us an in color alternative to Argothian Swine. Trickery is still alive!

In addition to the large number of creatures added to the deck I’ve tossed in some great flavorful cards. Assassin’s Blade and Doom Blade both get the feel of a great effective killing stroke. There are also a few pieces of equipment that should be in the deck. Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang is a sword! How can you not have a sword in a ninja deck? Same goes for Umezawa’s Jitte, a ninja staple. Now that we’ve appropriately armed our ninja clan we need a place for them to dwell.

Lands are a big issue for every deck and ours is no exception. Having cut the single forest we drop to twenty-three lands, meaning there is room for seventeen more. Most of the great flavorful lands have already been added, but I have found a few more that are both effective and full of flavor.

Shizo, Death’s Storehouse and Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep help give our legends various useful abilities while staying in the whole Oriental theme. Shizo makes ninjas particularly powerful since it enables a great many creatures to attack unblocked. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth also ties in with the whole death and darkness theme with the added benefit of smoothing out any swamp issues. River of Tears smoothes mana issues while providing some art that feels right at home with what we are doing.

The final three non-basic lands being added are of a hiding/treachery theme, Temple of the False God, Ancient Tomb, and City of Traitors. All three lands let us ramp up mana while representing various ninja aspects rather effectively. In order to round out the mana base and finish the deck up we add four Islands, five Mountains and one swamp. It’s worth noting that the reason I went light on the swamp is partially due to the extra non-basic lands tapping for black and partially due to Urborg ideally making the extra swamps irrelevant.

So let’s take a look at our finalized list:

Despite my best efforts the ninja deck is considerably more efficient than the pirates deck. I can’t say it’s too much of a surprise since ninjas were a legitimately supported tribal mechanic, but with any luck we might see some more love for pirates in the future. I felt like it would be a little unfair, but if needed one could add some changeling cards to either deck to play off both themes and subthemes.

That’s it for our exploration of Wizards’ April Fool’s joke. I hope you have fun playing these decks and I encourage you to post your results in the comments section! I want you to tell me who you think should win the ultimate battle: Pirates vs. Ninjas!

Until the next time this is Benjamin McDole giving you a hundred reasons to play Magic!