A Veiled Hunter.

Good Afternoon Readers,

  Many people have undoubtedly seen the cards spoiled this morning and have already formed their opinions of the cards especially of the new planeswalker. I will try to view it as an uninformed observer and try to find a home for our new pretty. For those who haven't seen feast your eyes on Liliana of the Veil

3 mana... She is only the second 3 mana planewalker printed, the other one being the original flavour Jace. Now, Jace Beleren was originally dismissed as a planeswalker but later saw some serious action in all manner of controlling deck from Faeries to 5CC colour control. His play dropped off after Big Jace was printed but more and more, he snuck his way back into the metagame because he was able to off big daddy Jace but I digress.

Liliana abilites are interesting. Her +1 ability is the one most people have been talking about. Looking at it purely as a loyalty ability, I think it is an inherently bad ability because of the card disadvantage it gives you if you activate it when Liliana enters play. You are down 2 cards to you opponents 1. You need to view this card in terms of the set she is in. In a set which is going to use the graveyard as an additional resource, making yourself discard cards to set a combo up is not so bad really. The presence of flashback cards really reduces the impact Liliana's first ability has on your card advantage over the course of the game.

Liliana second ability is more of what we expect from our planeswalkers. A repeatable cruel edict is a fantastic ability, and one I am sure will be used over and over again. In order to get 2 edict you must first +1 but that is a small price to pay for what is a strong ability. I do not think any more needs to said about her second ability.

Her "ultimate" is an expanded Do or Die. On a big bored you either Plague Wind, or Armageddon you opponent. A fair trade if you ask me. Even better if you consider black has both Life's Finale and Black Sun's Zenith as sweepers, plus whatever Innistrad hold in the way of mass creature removal. Remove all of their creatures first then use the ultimate to destroy half of your opponents lands. Either way, her last ability is very powerful and well worth discarding some cards for.

Time. Time will only tell if Liliana is good enough. She needs cards to help support her first ability, but I think with some help she can be very very good, and a major player in the upcoming standard format.

Another card I want to talk about today is Fiend Hunter. Again if you have not seen it, see below

This is a fantastic card. A journey to nowhere on a creature. A newer lower costed, slightly more resilient faceless butcher, if white is good, then this will be an integral part of it. It removes problem creatures, at the end of the game such as Titans (although that is not such a good idea if you opponent has a removal spell). I think where it will be most effective is in white weenie. Removing blocking creatures so you are forcing through extra damage is want to be doing, and this achieves this most admirably. Limited wise, unless white is absolute gash in Innistrad limited, this will be a high pick and rivalling most rares as first pick material.

Till Next Time...

Innistrad Episode 4: A New Hope

"All is not lost in the darkness. There must be someone who will teach, who will train us to overcome our adversaries, and allow us to drift into the restful sleep"


"I think I can help with that"

Now here is a powerful card. Probably the most exciting card spoiled thus far. Do not underestimate this card for it absurdly powerful. The deck you would think of straight away would I think be White Weenie.

23 Plains
3 Dismember
2 Sword of War and Peace
3 Inquisitor Exarch
4 Mentor of the Meek
4 Hero of Bladehold
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Elite Vanguard
4 Stormfront Pegasus
2 Signal Pest
2 Mirran Crusader
4 Leonin Skyhunter

4 Gideon's Lawkeeper

Something like this, I think might be a powerful and viable deck. Now notice without the Mentor, there is no inherent problem with this deck....Card advantage. The hero provides its own mini army when attacking but aside from that you have creatures. If you don't draw enough during you draw steps then you lose. If you draw to many and throw them all on the board, then you are asking to get blown out by Day of Judgment.

Mentor of the Meek gives this deck a draw engine. It allows you to play your Exarch's, Pest's, and Skyhunter's with the additional text 

"When ~ enter the battlefield you may pay 1. If you do draw a card"

That is a very powerful ability, and white weenie is not the only deck it could go in. Check these bad boys out

G/W Beatdown

4 Jade Mage
4 Skinshifter
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Dismember
4 Sword of War and Peace
4 Mentor of the Meek
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Sunpetal Grove
1 Acidic Slime
4 Mirran Crusader
3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Groves
9 Forest
6 Plains
And it is not only Standard that gets to have all the fun.
G/W Elves
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
2 Regal Force
4 Mentor of the Meek
2 Elvish Archdruid
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Heritage Druid
1 Tangleroot
2 Essence Warden
3 Cloudstone Curio
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Ranger of Eos
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Arbor Elf
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
7 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Temple Gardens
1 Horizon Canopy
This deck uses Mentor as a pseudo Glimpse of nature, and doesn't have any problems paying the cost because of the large amount of mana created. Perhaps it will take a little more thinking when going off, but it is something I think a competent player will have no problems with.
We have just scratched the surface with this cards usage and I expect it to be a player in the upcoming format. 
I will leave you this week think about this cards interaction with Reveillark.
Till Next Time..
P.S. Credit goes to Gavin Verhey for the decklists. read his article which goes a little more in depth into the card at
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/22679_Innistrad_Preview_Mentor_of_the_Meek.html

A Coach Tour of Innistrad

Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen for joining us today on our journey today. A few quick ground rules before we leave
1. Keep all body parts inside the vehicle. We do not want anybody coming back missing something because the werewolves got hungry.
2. Don't feed the animals. (see rule 1)
3.Have a pleasant journey!

Many of you have come from far away to tour the mystic lands of Innistrad and no doubt you came in on the overnight ferry into port

A picturesque and beautiful location by day and it shines brightly in the moonlight. If you have lodgings here this evening then please be careful if you wander the streets after dark. Many being lurk in the harbour mists beyond your drunk and rowdy sailor.

As we travel through the land we are going to be venturing into areas both civilised and wooded, again we would remind to keep yourself to yourself, and everyone will be fine. If you care to look to your left we see the famous house on the cliff. Renowned for it's fantastic views and even tastier wines, distilled from the local slopes, it peers out onto the Great sea and is a vantage point to spot incoming ships and others mechanical objects....

Moving on, we are now travelling through one of the planes many thick wooded areas. These are the hunting grounds for the local whom have a more carnivorous palette. Just up on the right you will the famous Woodland Cemetery, in which lies some of the more skilled hunters. You see, they wished to be buried here so there bodies would become one with earth from which they took. Very sentimental if you ask me, but I would keep your eyes on the Shepherds and Rangers. Hardy folk but they do seem to have some anger issues.

Further along the track you will see a chapel. Strange you might think, that a place of worship resides in such a dark area. It is for the followers of demonic powers. Do not go near it, many have and we have no longer seen them. It is the Restless Sleep for them.

And finally as we head from the wooded hills and slopes up to the more canyon-like mountainous regions, we can see that the world beneath us is still active.

If you know the right spells or are of the demonic flavour then you could pass through the falls into the labyrinth beyond. I heed you this warning though, many creatures of the nigth lurk within the falls. Do not take so lightly your entry into the caves, you may come out a changed person.

"Well, thank you everyone for coming on this journey with us, I hope you have enjoy your day, it is getting close to night fall so everyone should probably head back to your domiciles"

"But we cannot get back, for it seems the horses have disappeared, along with the driver"

"Well, letting one get away is not ideal, but I can work with it. I am so hungry. Who is up for supper?"

Ain't no party, like an Innistrad Spoiler Party

Good Morning, Evening, Whatever to all those who are reading this. The only word to describe what was spoiled last night is "Whhhhhaaaaaatttttt?" I suppose that is more of a sound than a word, but I digress. Lots of tidbits, mechanics, and awesome cards were revealed to the entire world last night. This was not limited to those at the PAX party, but thanks to the social media website many people are able to share there findings.

Before I run down what was spoiled, let me give a little background about the PAX party, and PAX itself.  Penny Arcade Expo or PAX, is a gaming weekend for gamers! Created in 2004, PAX has been hailed as a weekend long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include an insider keynote speech, game industry topics, exhibitor booths from independent and major game developers and publishers, after-hours parties, tournament and freeplay areas. 


There was a lot of anticiptation ahead of last nights party. Speculation forums were awash with threads about a day and night mechanic, about how the Mayor of Avabruck would transfrom. A token card perhaps, or two different cards that interchange with each other....


So therefore Ladies and Gentlemen I give you.....




Double Sided Cards

I wonder what could be in the egg?

"Run away, run away"

Yes that is right, this card has no Magic the Gathering back, both sides are being used. Before people explode at this with things like "Oh people can see my card when I draft" and " I could see it in my deck when  shuffling my deck up" please visit the Magic the Gathering main website for extra information about these exciting new changes!!


Double Sided Card Rules

For the record, I like what this brings to the game. There are a few mechanical issues which I think playing with the cards will erase, but I am very excited to be playing with these new cards. I am no Vorthos, but I love the flavour of transforming something into something else which is in keeping with the Classic Horror theme of transformation, which is the major design factor for Innistrad. It is displays the cards in ways the original flip cards from Kamigawa, and the split cards from Apocalypse onwards do. Here is another double sided card, one which you choose which side you stay on.

If that isn't classic horror then i don't know what is. The difference between this one and Ludevic's Abomination is that you can change this card back and forth from a bat into a vampire. It gives this card flexibility that not many cards have. A 3 mana 2/2 is nothing to write home about but it gets the job done, but imagine if your opponent has a 3/3 flyer, you bat is not getting through. OK, play 2BB and get a 5/5 that bashing through your opponents monster. Nice...creature. I expect this card to receive a middling grade and garner maybe 4/5 pick status, a solid card to add to your deck, but nothing special. Speaking of special, check out the Mayor of Avabruck

I apologise for the bad picture of the Howlpack Alpha, it reads:
Other Werewolf and Wolves you control get +1/+1.
At the beginning of your end step put a 2/2 Wolf onto the battlefield.
At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player cast two or more spells last turn, transform Howlpack Alpha.

There is a exciting card. Lot of potential but I think the tempo you lose from going from Mayor to Howlpack is a lot early on in the game, but as said previously it has lots of potential that can only get better, if other good werwolves are printed. A solid all round card which I would not mind first picking in a draft.

Remember the last time something had 5 abilities on a White Creature

This creature is obviously based on the legendary monster hunter, Van Helsing. I think he does a great impression of the great man, with some monster abilites. He reminds me of Kazandu Blademaster with regards to the 2/2, First Strike, Vigilance. His other abilites look promising and I see him locking out opponents creatures for the next couple of years. The power of this card will depend on how much play Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies see, although if a mono-W aggro deck arises this will be a role player no question. A very strong card which I think will see a high pick in draft.

In addition to the flip cards we have a new Aura type: Curse. This is the keyword for enchant player previously see on Paradox Haze amongst other things. This card is not very good. In my opinion mill cards are not very good, but there are people who like them and will pick them up. Expect to see this tale wide up around pick 13/14 in most drafts.

 A cheap flyer, with a very weak drawback? Sign me up for a couple.Obviously you do not want to many a deck but looks like a solid creature in the mid to late game.

Sarcomancy, and Carnophage are both amazingly powerful cards, This card has a very high power level, because you play it turn one and it does not matter if it is tapped. Later on in the game perhaps he not that good, because you cannot block. In the decks he is good in, this zombie shines. I think he is an average card at best and we will have to wait and see whether he sees any play.

This neonate is a deceptive card. Many players would dismiss it, however it can and I think will get out of hand very quickly. Play it turn 2 and it spirals out of hand very quickly. 2 hits and it is a 4/3 which is trading some of bigger creatures.

Rare fireball....which can be used twice... Sign me up for two! Also the buy-a-box promo

Here are a set of cards from the werewolf tribe. Both are solid cards for draft decks with the ranger being above average. The arena ability of the Nightfall Predator is very strong on a 4/4, if you see they have made the ability into an evergreen keyword called "fight". The shortened version looks very good on the card, keeping everything neat and tidy but arena abilities are not liked much by the community, so we will see how this card fares. I think the Shepard is a mid to late pick with the Ranger being a high to mid pick.

 A couple more cards to go, and we carrying on by introducing Olivia Voldaron, who has a couple of Memnarch style abilites who is very very powerful, and a windmill slam first pick. She is packing creature removal on a flying 3/3 body. With the ability to steal creatures in the late game as well as putting on the pressure in the early game she is a strong candidate for a first pick in a draft.

and finally after that epic tale we come to these.

Enemy. Colour. Dual. Lands. Finally Wizards have printed enemy colour duals to help fix mana after the sac land and man-lands cycle out of standard with the imminent arrival of Innistrad. The original core duals are popular but the call for enemy colour duals was made by many players to help fix enemy colour mana bases, many of these decks are popular so the printing of these will be welcomed by all.

That was an epic session and I didn't fit all the cards in....Phew!

Well everyone, Till Next Time...

Innistrad!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well it seems that less that 24 hours after the Mayor was circulated, we have this.

Video Link!!

Well that was a thing wasn't it. I would recommend re-watching in a very high definition then you can make out a  few things. First off, we have a new spoiled card.

Travel Preparations      1G
Sorcery                 Common
Put a +1/+1 on up to two target creatures
Flashback 1W

It looks ok on the outside, something you would maybe play as the twenty third card in a draft or sealed deck. Of course we don't know anything about the format yet to speculate as to how good this card may or may not be but my suspicions are that it will be a late pick, and will not be played.

Other cards from the videos are very blurry but from what I can see this is what we have:

Evil Twin     2UB
0/0

This seems to be some sort of clone

Grimoire of the Dead      ?
Legendary Artifact     Mythic

The last card I can make out is the last card, which has the day/night symbol in the top left hand corner.

All of this is weird of course. The source seems to be Russian but then why would Russian have these cards in a collection from his uncle. One more point to note is the book with the symbol of Avacyn of the front of it. It seems like maybe some viral marketing by Wizards just before the PAX party on Saturday evening.

Well that is me for today, Till Next Time

Innistrad Spoiler Season

"I am putting my series about deck archetypes on hold for the Innistrad spoiler season, and I will do my utmost to keep all those who read this up to date with the latest spoiled cards, as they are released into the world of the intertubes"

Well starting next week is the spoiler season for the new Magic expansion titled Innistrad. This is one of the most excited times in the Magic calender as we are seeing the debut of a new plane. A new world for us to experience, flavour to marvel at, and new mechanics to wonder about.

So far it has been revealed to us that INN is a gothic horror themed set, revolving around the classical horror tropes such as werewolves, zombies, geists, vampire and the ever belligerent humans. Each has been given a colour duo which is as follows

Werewolves: Red/Green
Humans: Green/White
Spirits: White/Blue
Zombies: Blue/Black
Vampires: Black/Red

We have seen in the past were creatures such as Werebear with the were prefix, which are classified as human wolves. It seems now wizards are going with werewolf as a creature type this time around which means that we may see some errata to the older werewolf creatures. Zombies and Vampires have also appear in the colour combinations before. As a fan of gothic horror novels, I like the flavour of this set, and the direction that Wizards are going with this set.

Since the set was announce, there has been speculation about a day and night mechanic because of course the abominations only come out at night. There has been nothing until today to suggest as actually mechanic. Behold, the Mayor of Avabruck.

If you care to take a look at the top left hand side of the card there is depicted a moon, and a sun. This would then indicate a day and night mechanic. Now, how this is depicted in the cards is still under question, but many on the rumour mill and speculation forums on mtgsalvation.com believe the back of the card to have the Howlpack alpha on it.

N.B: The text on the Howlpack alpha has also been spoiled as follows
Other Wolves and Were wolves you control get +?/+?
At the beginning of your upkeep put a 2/2 wolf onto the battlefield
At the beginning of an end step if 2 or more spells have been cast do X

If you look closely at the card, especially at the collector number. It has an "a" and a "b" next to the number. This, much in a similar fashion to the zendikar lands had an A and B. The A was the full art version of the B land which was printed in the pre-con decks. Printing an extra couple of cards and putting them in the packs with their respective cards isn't going to work, it makes packs bigger and gives away draft strategies.

This a strange new world we are adventuring into, and one can only hope that the mechanic has been well thought out and plays well in draft and constructed

Well, that is all for today. Look out for more posts about spoilers, as this weekend is the Penny Arcade Expo and there is going to be a Innistrad spoiler party and last year they introduced us to the infect mechanic and the fact the Phyrexians were going to be back in Scars of Mirrodin, so there should be some exciting developments over the weekend going into the official spoiler season.

Till next time

Which Deck Should I Choose??

It has been a while hasn't it...

Life, it seems, has a nasty habit of getting in the way of the best layed plans.
I will keep trudging on through the mire in a very british fashion, head held high
and moaning until the cows are walking around in my kitchen re: come home

Today's topic for discussion is quite large, cue "thats what she said jokes", so
I have chopped it into three manageable segments (That's what she said). Today we are discussing deck types.

Players, both old and new realise that there are a plethora of decks to choose from
, and play. Dispite the variety of decks available they can be broken down into 3
catergories.

1. Aggro
2. Control
3. Combo

This is not to say that every deck has to fit into one of these catergories, because
stratergies such as Merfolk are aggro/control combining the aggro-esque nature of
a beatdown deck with powerful counterspells, indicative of controlling decks and a
great many number of control deck have within in them a combo such as RUG control lists
currently being piloted, which has Deceiver Exarch/Splinter Twin combo slotted nicely
in the shell. As you can see from above the overlap is incredible and in real terms
we cannot classify a deck in the one of the 3 "super" catergories, but I am going to go
over the basics of the each type and have some decklists which personify the deck type

1. AGGRO

Otherwise known as Sligh, this archetype is balls to the wall aggression. Play guys.
Attack with guys. If opponent is not dead, kill with burn!!. This type of deck
requires a great deal of synrergy within the cards of the deck, so tribal deck generally
come into this catergory. The best example I can give is Goblins.

Creature                       Artifact                 Land
3 Gempalm Incinerator  4 Aether Vial       4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Goblin Chieftain                                   7 Mountain
4 Goblin Lackey                                    3 Rishadan Port
4 Goblin Matron                                     4 Wasteland
4 Goblin Piledriver                                 4 Wooded Foothills
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Warchief
2 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Warren Instigator

Spells
3 Warren Weirding

As you can see, the deck is packed to the rafters will all the best creatures red can buy and all of them
are goblins which means you can play specific spells to power up goblins and do more damage. Overall
this specific stratergy is very powerful but can be easily disrupted with a well timed spells on the fulcrums of the deck.

Another example of this type is the Zoo deck.

Creature                          Other Spells             Land
4 Steppe Lynx                   4 Lightning Bolt          4 Arid Mesa
3 Grim Lavamancer            4 Path to Exile           3 Windswept Heath
4 Qasali Pridemage            2 Umezawa's Jitte      3 Wooded Foothills
4 Wild Nacatl                   2 Sylvan Library         1 Horizon Canopy
4 Tarmogoyf                     4 Chain Lightning        2 Plateau
4 Knight of the Reliquary    1 Fireblast                 2 Savannah
                                                                     2 Taiga
                                                                     1 Treetop Village
                                                                     1 Forest

This is another powerful aggro stratergy. You play all the best and low costed creatures you can with
the best burn spells available, to power yourself to victory. The difference between goblins and zoo
is that in goblins, all the creatures are, well, goblins. This means you can play slightly mediocre cards
that become very powerful in this deck. An example of this would be Goblin Ringleader. Whereas
 in the zoo deck, each one the creatures and spells are powerful on their own, each warrenting
attention in their own right. All you need to power the zoo deck is to play some dual lands and how hard
is it to do that in legacy...

Another powerful and viable archetype, and commonly associated with Aggro deck is the infamous White weenie deck. This basically is a collection of all the small white creatures in the format and slamming them all in the same deck and beating face. Generally in any given format, you will have a global pump effect for white a la Honor of the Pure, so you "weenie" creatures get less weenie, and beat face harder. An example of a good white weenie deck from the past couple of years is the one piloted by Paul Reitzl to victory in PT Amsterdam.

Main Deck 60 cards
4  Arid Mesa 4  Flagstones of Trokair 1  Horizon Canopy 4  Marsh Flats 10  Plains 23 lands 4  Ethersworn Canonist 4  Figure of Destiny 4  Knight of the White Orchid 2  Ranger of Eos 4  Steppe Lynx 4  Student of Warfare 22 creatures	4  Brave the Elements 4  Honor of the Pure 2  Mana Tithe 1  Path to Exile 4  Spectral Procession 15 other spells Sideboard 1  Angel's Grace 3  Burrenton Forge-Tender 1  Celestial Purge 1  Lapse of Certainty 3  Path to Exile 4  Relic of Progenitus 2  Rule of Law

This is a perfect combination of little creatures with powerful abilites, above average attacking power, and although a lot of player spurn this deck archetype, it is a very powerful archetype.

Whilst this is a powerful supertype, because of it's reliance on creatures, it is easily disrupted in
several ways. The first way is mass creature removal. A well timed Wrath/Damnation/DoJ is the end generally
killing many creatures and preventing the deck from working as advertised. Playing creatures with high
toughness is also good plan although if the deck is play searing blaze then this is not such a good idea, but at end of the day, you are playing the most powerful creatures available to you in any given format, and if you opponent falters for a turn, it could very well mean you will be victorious

That is all for today, and I will leave you with what I think will be the best aggro deck of next year, Innistrad
not withstanding.

Creatures                        Spells                   Lands
4 Signal Pest                  4 Dispatch              18 Plains
4 Memnite                     4 Tempered Steel     4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Leonin Relic-Warder   4 Origin Spellbomb
4 Hero of Bladehold       4 Glint Hawk Idol
2 Vault Skirge               2 Mox Opal
2 Blade Splicer

Till next time when we go over control decks....