The Magicology of Combo

I've just been informed (by Monday Night Magic) as to the existence of Magicology.

The first two awesomest combos I found:

1. Library of Leng and Psychic Vortex
Do you like drawing cards? Psychic Vortex makes you draw cards and discard cards. Discarding cards back onto the top of your library lets you up the quality of your following draws immeasurably, and prevents that always-annoying decking hazard. Will perhaps try using this in my Words of War deck.

2. Anthem of Rakdos, Megrim and Pain Magnification
My Malfegor deck runs both the Anthem and Pain Magnification already, so why not throw in Megrim? Then set off your repeatable free Mind Twist using any attack or, for maximum entertainment, a spell along the lines of Burning Inquiry.

Hopefully I can come up with some stuff to add to this amazingly valuable resource. Go ahead and put your favorite card in and see what comes up!

Prerelease Aquisitions, On the March

In ancient times, I posted my best guesses on what cards I would hope to get (and benefit from!) at Scars of Mirrodin prerelease.

The randomness of pack distribution made my speculation and predictions useless. Especially in a larger set, we must face the eternal truth…you just don't know what you're going to get.

There are many kinds of shrimp, and all of them are MINE!

I'm not a big fan of buying packs. I spent too many years (what?) opening Homelands boosters in search of another Serrated Arrows. Prerelease is one of my only times to let the compulsive portion of my personality get ahold of my wallet. The two exceptions:

1) I used to get a lot of Amazon gift certificates. Then I tend to hunt things down like this Scars of Mirrodin Fat Pack. (who am I kidding, I'd still buy the Guildpact one).

2) I am constantly tormented by an imp more commonly known as the dreaded Target Extreme Value Pack. Never fall for their cleverly packaged delusion, folks.

3) Other random moments of weak will?

But at prerelease, I always get satisfaction. Having a venue to actually USE all the cards, even the "limited" fodder in a no-holds-barred contest of pure skill makes opening the packs much more worthwhile.

Unfortunately, this release's distribution was stymied due to a shared Two Headed Giant sealed pool, untouched for two weeks due to my own Howard Hughes-esque unavailability. If there are any young adults reading this, let it be known that you have more time now than you will at any other point in your life, use it well! Of course I'm pretty sure I have a better deal overall…just ask my son.

Off to school!

So what did I finally get? A big pile of cards, pulled from a stack of 8 randomly assorted Scars of Mirrodin Packs. If I had to call out 4 notables…here's what I'm seeing now.

Chimeric Mass

Better than the Coils. Better than the Egg. And most of the time, better than the Staff. No matter what time you draw Chimeric Mass, it offers up a way to maximize your existing mana for the turn. He might be a 4/4, a 6/6, an 8/8 or even a 10/10. Who knows, especially if there's a Sol Ring in the mix somewhere.

I've had a high-than-average opinion of Chimeric Staff, and now the Mass seems to offer almost the same results in a less mana-intensive package. You might dump a lot of investment into it at the beginning, but the recuring 1 mana activation is akin to free in turns going forward.


Lux Cannon

Misunderstood genius Charles Morrison piloted a Lux Cannon-themed control deck in the Indiana 2010 States Championship. Even without the use of proliferate, he was able to ramp up his superweapon for amazing destructive capability, taking him all the way to 3rd place.

Me, I'm thinking how great it will be to vaporize troublesome enchantments, planeswalkers and utility land in EDH. Lux Cannon + Filigree Sages should eliminate normally hard-to-kill targets on a fairly regular basis. In a pinch, Voltaic Key will also help.

Dopo mee gusha, peedunkey? BWAH HA HAW!

Let's continue:

Strata is the plural form of Stratum, which means a layer of rock or series of rocks in the ground. So does "Strata" mean a "series of series"? Just how much rock does Strata Scythe hope to dig up?

In Two-Headed Giant, it gave me a 12/12 Insect token at one point (only to be destroyed by Turn to Slag). In EDH there are complications…the number of non-basic land.

Say I pick "Island". There will certainly be other Islands spread out over a random number of multiplayer opponents, but how many? Could be a lot, or it could be very tiny…diluted by everyone's Minamos, Breeding Pools and Creeping Tar Pits. Unfortunately the lands it counts must all have the same name, not the same type.

No matter what plane we're in, it seems like the Vedalken are always causing trouble. To my eyes Vedalken Certach is a 1 mana 1/1 drop with a very relevant "Wizard" tribal type. Late game, he must either be destroyed (using up an effect) or threaten opponents as another Icy Manipulator. Will I have 3 artifacts on the field? I sure hope so.

The receiving of these Scars cards is a tipping point of sorts. I've had a lot of ideas come and go during my day-to-day activities. My glorious EDH decks have mutated, and now they only vaguely resemble the decks I originally listed here.

The time has come to tear down and forge anew! First up will be my Niv-Mizzet deck. I will tear it apart until not a single card sits atop another. Then I will put them together and post the contents.

why are sleeves so shiny?

When will I do this? Try Friday of next week. Between now and then, I predict more inane ramblings. See you THEN.

More than one Mage was Driven Insane…

An idea began to form earlier this week. A very bad idea, indeed.

I had just read an article, or a forum post, or some such thing. The topic being the relative inevitability (or even in-escapability) of Sensei's Divining Top in the EDH format.

The "SDT" as some people call it. The "Top."

The Top provides 2 important benefits:

1. It provides constant improvement for your draws, combining especially with shuffle effects (like fetchlands) to make sure you only draw the cards you want.

2. It's almost impossible to get rid of, since in reaction to most destruction you can simply stick it on top of your deck.

The top of your deck. Somewhat of a extra-ordinary place when you think about it. Smart EDH players have slaved endlessly to manipulate this one single card.

There's the whole cycle of Mirage (and Visions) Tutors. The Lorwyn Harbingers.

Tutors breed efficiency and deck consistency. Sensei's Divining Top is a subtle tutor of sorts that works over long stretches of time. Always spinning away.

Obviously, the right play here would be to stick a copy of Sensei's Divining Top in my deck. That's what a rational person would do. Pick the good card, the one everyone says is good.

But I've learned something about myself in the 15 years or so I've been playing this game.

I'm far from rational. And I instinctively avoid any perceived "bandwagons". It takes a great deal of effort for me to accept an obvious, definitive advantage when I can have a questionable, obscure advantage instead.

Especially if its a card I don't own, and that other people want to pay crazy-money for.

I'll take the secret tunnel over the main entrance any day of the week.

So I plotted from my lair at the top of Who Mountain, trying to name the nameless "element" my mind was searching for. That certain "something something."

And then I found it.

For reference…My Demonic Tutor looks like it spent a few years hiding under a desk. My Sol Ring looks like it took a ride under the leg of a cafeteria chair.

The card I now hold in my hand…the borders hold the same pristine white as when I first opened it in a pack on the sidewalk outside the local Hobbytown, U.S.A.

But the grinding in my mind was relentless. Perhaps we are all moving in a circle, destined to end up in the spot we've been trying to escape all along.

The card is in a sleeve for the first time ever. And the card is Millstone.

If you think I'm crazy at this point, there's probably little I can do to change your mind. But let me point out the various interactions.

The above mentioned Tutors are in trouble, unless you tutor for a card you DON'T want to draw, in which case…well played.

Let's look at another set of cards: 2/3 of "The Unholy Trinity of Land."

It's hard to imagine any black deck that doesn't run Volrath's Stronghold. It's also hard to imagine a blue deck that doesn't run Academy Ruins (except for mine).

I've come across them fairly often, and you probably have too. Tell me, what does a repeatable mill of two do to the recursive powers of Academy Ruins? It barfs on it. It barfs all over it like an ill-tempered Garbage Pail Kid.

barf. barf.

Yeah, I could play good cards………OR I could barf on good cards. What would YOU do?

As for Sensei's Divining Top, things get a little more complicated.

The Top has 2 independent abilities:

1. Pay 1 and rearrange the top 3 cards of your library.
2. Tap the Top: draw 1 card and put the Top on top of your library.

If you stack the activations, technically you can draw a card and then put the Top third card down. 1 card away from my millstone barfing action.

In this case, I can wait a turn for my opponent to draw. And then mill his Top right into the grumper. Unless he has some sort of extra draw to bring all three cards off the top in one go. My success is certainly not assured.

But let's look at it from another direction.

IF…and this is a big IF…you are burying your "Top" 3 cards down to duck my Millstone…I've already won. There is nothing further you could possibly do to reduce my level of enjoyment of the current game.

So I'm going to be running the Millstone. Watch out! The magic of EDH is that I will probably never draw this card in a situation where I can use it. But if it happens, get ready to barf.

This Friday, hopefully I will talk about my award-winning draft picks from my shared Two-Headed Giant pool. Yes, from prerelease.

See you then.

EDIT: People more versed than me in classic Magic note that Millstone was used plenty for disruption. Even back in Ice Age, Millstone + Elemental Augury means your opponent never draws another land!

Duel Decks: Color Hosers

I was going to launch into a brand new initiative (actually, probably not) today, but then I found out about the upcoming new Duel Deck.'

RAWR!!!

My thought processes went through a couple different stages when I read this.

1. Disbelief. The last Duel Deck published not more than a moment ago was Elspeth vs. Tezzeret. The Elspeth deck is a mono-white soldier deck. Knights, on the other hand, are almost assuredly going to be mono-white as well. Because the non-white ones probably aren't out slaying dragons. My best guess, at least.

2. Further Disbelief. Another fairly recent Duel Deck was Divine Vs. Demonic. Featuring a mono-white angel deck. So we have soldiers, angels and now apparently knights. Seems pretty heavy on mono-white tribal, doesn't it?

3. Even Further Disbelief. Another fairly recent pre-constructed release was Archenemy: Scorch the World with Dragonfire.

4. Grudging Interest. So then I tried to figure these decks out. I looked again at what little information I had to go on.

For Knights: Holy Paladins, Noble Cavaliers and Swift Sky Hunters
For Dragons: Enraged Goblin Minions, Majestic Hellkites


To me, the Dragon side sounds a lot like Jund. Not the deck archtype, of course. The namesake shattered fragment of Alara home to black, green and red mana. Here, goblins and dragons worked together using the "devour" mechanic, with goblins more often then not being the "inside man" of the operation. Inside being inside of a stomach. Because the dragons eat them. The dragons eat the goblins.

the food is goblins

Would the Knights then be White/Blue? I don't think so. I really don't. Because Knights don't show up in the blue color pie. Except for Court Hussar.

Oh. Crap.

If you look at it from the right direction, this Knight Deck might very well be white/blue, since these guys are supposed to be defending the realm from the unstoppable dragon horde. Law and Order are usually White, and when they go multicolor that color is almost always Blue.

But probably not…my best guess is that we are looking at yet another monowhite deck.

What else do we know?

Swift Sky Hunters? Boring Stuff.

Noble Cavaliers? Getting More Interesting. Kinsbaile Cavalier is one of the few "Knight Lords" that would properly serve a full-on Knight tribal deck. Gustcloak Cavalier is a pretty fun card I managed to completely miss out on the first time around. This guy seems like a real monster to get rid of in the attack phase.

Holy Paladins? Now We're Talking. Paladins have always been my favorite Knight. Rather than being a simple tool of hard-to-get-rid-of combat damage, most Paladins have 1 thing in common.

They blow up permanents. Northern Paladin. Southern Paladin. Pentarch Paladin.

While the Dragons may have numerically superior Goblins and powerfully superior Dragons, I think the Knights are going to be able to destroy permanents on a grand scale.

Problems? PUSH THE BUTTON.

While Elspeth used the well-worn "white weenie" technology, and Divine used the well-worn…uh…"find Akroma and cast it" strategy, I think the future Knights deck will use a slow-rolling "Rock" strategy to slowly gain advantage and remove hard-to-deal-with threats. While being hard-to-deal with themselves. There will almost certainly be some guys with various "protection froms" ready for deployment.

Of course this is all a guess based on about 2 lines of text. So worthless!

But if you were looking for worth-while content, you'd probably be reading a different blog. Snap!

Tune in on Wednesday (at some point) when I make some grand statements about some sub-optimal card selections.

Sub-optimal like three-legged foxes. Who are still pretty smart!

The Importance of Hating Land

Today, Sam Black takes a look at making a couple different EDH decks.

But first, he makes sure to note his unique difficulty: "the idea of building a 'fun deck' rather than a deck designed to work well is very difficult for me to wrap my head around."

Caveat: Sam Black possesses a brain many times the size of my own. At various times when he has decreed to make the odious journey from Madison up to the Twin Cities to play guest at the regional prerelease, I have had the rare sight of seeing his presence in manifest, his thread-bare mortal shell barely restraining the glistening, pulsating OVERSOUL of pure mental energy contained within.

Never the less, perhaps I can write some things here without making myself sound like a total idiot in the process. (Not a chance!)

Much like many voices that have come before him, the article declares the card Emrakul irreclaimably ba-roken. As well as describes the totally unfair combo of Strip Mine and Crucible of Worlds.

Their banning is apparently only averted by the kindness of the EDH player base at large, and their open refusal to pursue the path of the combo to its infinite conclusion.

Now, I'm not going to measure up any of my decks to Black's decks. Both of my EDH decks are ugly, unworkable piles of garbage. Many of their card choices express the exact opposite of synergy. Antagonistic, perhaps? Whatever you call it when you Living Death your Phage, the Untouchable back onto the battlefield.

But I will say I have been utterly crushed by many GOOD EDH decks. Decks where the cards work together. And sometimes, and more importantly, decks where the cards actively HATE OUT your cards!

Any reader of Sheldon Menery's column on Star City Games should be familiar with the two most in-demand effects in your EDH deck. The first is graveyard hate. And the second is land hate.

A few weeks ago, I "played" Brad Nelson in the gunslinging challenge at prerelease. When I dragged my trembling Malfegor deck out of the comfortable darkness of its converted ammo can, his eyes immediately lit up with glee.

He guessed I would have a bit of graveyard recursion, and chose to mulligan until he found Leyline of the Void. The long story short, his booster box remained as full as ever after my departure.

Sheldon Menery, in his article, calls out what he thinks of as "The Unholy Trinity of Land".

1. Academy Ruins

2. Volrath's Stronghold

3. Gaea's Cradle

In a deck like Black's Eldrazi deck, Eye of Ugin could perhaps be added to the list.

If I personally see any land like the above…I try to take it out as quickly as possible. Any player would. Not exactly revolutionary tech, instead these are cards you see all the time (and read about on the Internet!).

In reality there is no deck I have ever played where ultimate victory has not been achieved though at least some timely use of artifact, land and graveyard destruction. Because the combos are everywhere, and people are quite willing to use them.

Black's last deck is a Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper build, and this one looks the most interesting to me. Much like Teysa, Sek'Kuar has any number of ways to sacrifice creatures, generate new creatures, and generally bury your opponents under a pile of tokens. Unlike Teysa, the green element of Sek'Kaar allows crazy amounts of card draw every time a creature is moved into the graveyard.

And he carries some hate in his deck (ok, the Eldrazi deck had Terastodon) in the form of Acidic Slime and Sadistic Hypnotist.

But because he's an accomplished deckbuilder, I can't help but think I'm the one who's not seeing the writing on the wall. My only theory is that these decks must be fast enough to avoid being disrupted. Which seems hard to believe, especially in a multiplayer game where people are going to see who the "problem" is as soon as Survival of the Fittest enters the battlefield.

My many loses have never caused me to complain about the competitive nature of deckbuilding. And I've certainly never felt like anyone has taken it easy on me in their quest to build a "fun" deck. Because about 90% of the population of Magic players gain the greatest "fun" from stomping all over other people's cards. And I am no exception.

Instead, each loss just educates you on what kinds of things to avoid in the future. (Say having Living Death and Phage in the same deck). I would hope no one out there is thinking any less.

I will leave this post with a lovely bit of hate machinery I heard about the other day.

Viashino Heretic
Liquimetal Coating

Nothing could be more fun or necessary in the world of EDH.

More, Possibly Better, Time Elementals

So I got really excited about Time Elemental recently. The card seemed almost unbelievably good, and ready for a go in all my blue-themed EDH decks.


And of course, I was wrong on a couple different points.


In particular, I am bothered by this quote:


"But what an ability! Return target permanent to it's owner's hand. Direct and straightforward, a powerful ability like this would be worth more in a modern set, I guarantee it. But it probably would never come up at all, considering the universal hatred for repeatable land bounce."

Turns out there are actually a FEW permanents that perform exactly this action! Cards doing it BETTER than Time Elemental, for less mana and published more recently than Time Elemental.


There are 2 cards in particular. Let's take a look at them in detail.


Better Than Time Elemental Numero Uno: Temporal Adept. Printed in 9th, 8th, 7th and Urza's Destiny.

3 mana to cast. 3 mana to activate. Requires a bit of commitment to blue, but in EDH it's not too hard to come up with 3 blue mana online after 6 turns or so. And it eliminates the goofy "permanent that's not enchanted" corner case the original designer for Time Elemental so helpfully decided to include.


Another interesting point…the Adept is a Wizard, which from my experience is a much more synergistic tribe than Elemental in EDH. Azami, Sigil Tracer and Riptide Laboratory are what spring to mind first.


Better than Time Elemental Part Deux: Heidar, Rimewind Master. Printed in Cold Snap.

A very resilient body, than can also perform small feats of blocking and attacking in its down time. And a SWEET 2 generic mana activation cost! For only 2 mana, this is most certainly the way to bounce multiple permanents every turn using stuff like Fatestitcher and Minamo.


Once again, Heidar is also a Wizard. Allowing synergy with all the other nasty wizards out there.


The "twist" with Heidar is, of course, you have to use snow permanents. This isn't really very hard, considering the existence of Snow-Covered Island, Coldsteel Heart and Goblin Rimerunner to beef your decks up with. If only Heidar was snow…but then you only have so much to squeeze into a type line.


Snow may just be the NEXT BIG THING in EDH. Many have used it just to take greater advantage of Extraplanar Lens. But I might just run more Snow for Heidar, Rimewind Taskmage, and even Skred.


I was wrong in so many ways!


Luckily, there are people out there smarter than me, most notably Meritocracy and Snow Monkey from the MTGSalvation boards. That way, at least I get things right the second time.


Hmmmmmm…Skred keeps looking better and better.

Hot Tub Time Elemental

I was watching a TV show, or something, and the main character was talking insincerely about how "back in the 90's" he spent a year dressing like Kurt Cobain. I think it was Glee.

Newsflash: Kurt Cobain dressed in flannels pretty much non-stop. People wear flannels today. Of course, he took the notion to a new level…but the sentiment still falls flat in my mind. Because it's not like it required a lifestyle change or anything. You don't have to do anything crazy with your hair or start wearing makeup or anything.

Here's something else straight from the 90's…a little card I came across in my collection. First off, its in FRENCH. Second off, its TIME ELEMENTAL.

Time Elemental used to be a very powerful card. It was in as a singleton in the winning 1994 World Championship Deck, alongside the moxes, Time Walk, Timetwister and of course Icy Manipulator.

And my theory is that it STILL has some power, at least in EDH.

Why did people stop using Time Elemental? I believe because it was too slow, and too fragile. It takes 3 turns to get it into play, and then 4 mana to use the ability. Not feasible in constructed (or so they think!)

But what an ability! Return "target permanent" to it's owner's hand. Direct and straightforward, a powerful ability like this would be worth more in a modern set, I guarantee it. But it probably would never come up at all, considering the universal hatred for repeatable land bounce.

What did Zach Dolan bounce with Time Elemental back in 1994? He bounced Mishra's Factory.

I would like to bounce Mishra's Factory right here in 2010. And I think you would, too.

The Lorywn block really expanded the world's elemental selection. They were a tribe, for Pete's sake. Elementals got crazy things like Shriekmaw, Mulldrifter and Chameleon Colossus.

Creatures like Æthersnipe and Nevermaker found ways to kick just about anything off the battlefield.

Compare Time Elemental to either of these cards. Interesting? I think I'm going to start calling this guy Clocky.

Now let's get back to the fragile part of the equation. In normal games, people are slinging Lightning Bolts all over the place. In EDH? Clocky is most likely to get the axe from a sweeper like Damnation. So it doesn't really even matter what Clocky's toughness is.

In a pinch, if you're using your Clocky right, you should even be able to return him to your hand in reaction to the sweeper…as long as you're not going crazy aggressive in which case this card probably isn't for you.

But for the folks who sit back and make their EDH game a social event…check out some flashy new tech. What can more ostentatious than having your pinky subtly at rest over the upmost corner of your Clocky…ready to deploy the tapping at a moment's notice? Delightful.

So you have my thoughts. Review them at your leisure. In the meanwhile, here are some more thoughts.

1. It works with Smokebraider mana. Both casting and ability costs. YESSSS!

2. Time Elemental is made out of clocks. Famous fantasy artist Amy Weber really likes gears and clocks. If Time Elemental was printed today,  it would probably be made out of hourglasses. Or a planetarium.

3. It has wings, yet does not fly.

4. It's only weakness…enchanted permanents. Watch me laugh. HAW. HAW. HAW.

5. This is a little worse than Isochron Scepter imprinted with a Boomerang. But it only needs 1 card. And if you bounce it, you don't lose the Boomerang.

6. That is all.

Anyway, hope you like the thoughts. Let me know.