Post 4.

So I'm sitting here, waiting for the 4th round to be announced in a Zen block sealed tournament I'm playing on MTGO (My account name is Borgin, go ahead and add me as a friend) with nothing to do. So I figured I'd blog about my favorite card game.

Recently, with all this Jund bullshit flying around, I decided to get back to my roots and play the first deck most new players use: monogreen beats. Ramp and fatties. Accel and bombs. Whatever you want to call it.

My main inspiration for the deck was a blue/green deck my friend Ethan used, and the card that stood out as SICK is Vines of the Vastwood.

I don't know if anybody else agrees with me, but this card is one of my favorite commons in Zendikar (for Constructed). Most people will first think of it as a decent Giant Growth... but I think of it as a green Cancel for one mana.

It blocks Terminate. It blocks Journey to Nowhere and Oblivion Ring. It blocks most removal, and virtually everything in Standard. This thing is, in my opinion, almost strictly better than Burst Lightning (card for card... I realize Burst Lightning is sick because red in Zendikar is pretty good, and fantastic for draft).

And for the 2-mana route, you've got a Monstrous Growth at instant speed with the added benefit of "hostile-shroud" (Note that you can still target your own guy after you Vines him, which is a nice bonus).

So I hope I've convinced you that this card is sick. But that's not the only gem I think monogreen has to offer. Direct yourself to my second-favorite Standard-legal green card- Thornling.

Now this guy is just as sick as Vines is. I almost always consider him to cost 6 mana, so if they try to Terminate him, I can just make him indestructible. It works, trust me, and you'll find a lot of people waste their removal on him game one. Hell, some people don't even know he has the indestructible ability (and most people forget). If you're going on the offensive, you can turn him into a Ball Lightning for another handful of mana, or you can just sit there and chump Inkwell Leviathans to kingdom come. Thornling simply can not die. Okay, okay, he can be Journeyed (and Pathed), but you have Naturalize sideboarded for exactly that sort of bullshit. And you have Vines of the Vastwood. So you have answers.

Let's not forget two amazing fatties: Terra Stomper and Kalonian Behemoth.


Nobody uses either of these cards, and to be honest, I'm not sure why. These are ridiculously undercosted fatties, and had they been printed in, say, Ravnica block, people would've pooped themselves. Stomper is undercosted by 2 or 3, and the Behemoth is undercosted by 3. Plus, I love the fact that the Behemoth again avoids removal, and the Stomper has two very nice abilities.

Basically, the idea is this: you play cheap ramp and drop these two fatties along with some big Landfall guys. Khalni Heart, Harrow, and Rampant Growth are really all you need for accel, and maybe some Mana Elves (Llanowar). Then it's fatties, Vines, and a handful of other spells.

What is especially great about the deck is that it is so cheap to put together. Sure, I'm running something like 20 rares, but it cost me about five bucks to get them all (the exception being Rampaging Baloths, but since that was a prerelease card, people tend to not care too much).

The point is, monogreen isn't really the "noob" color. Frankly, I think monoblack Vampires (when you actually go tribal with it) is more "noob"-ish than my monogreen deck. But hey, that's just me.

Thanks for reading, hope to get another one posted soon. Er than last time.

--Borgin

Post 3.

Over the years, I've seen websites dedicated to mtg rise and fall. I had want/have lists on nearly a dozen different sites, I bought cards from another half dozen, and I used another handful to just search the database.

The one site I've used the most, however, is MTGFanatic. I was actually one of the first "members" on the site after they started a user base, and for over a year I had the largest have/want list along with the highest number of successful trades (six or seven dozen, the thread had something like 180 replies). The two guys who started the site- Chris and his brother (I can't recall his name)- and I actually had a couple of email conversations, and I wound up creating a website image for them (although they decided not to use it, as another user created a different one for them!). Since then, the site has undergone three major reworks (that I have witnessed- there may have been more as I stopped playing mtg for about two years), some heavy forum facelifts, and to my understanding has exploded into one of the largest mtg websites out there.

I generally use the site mostly just for a database search- the interface is simple, and when I need to do an "advanced" search, it's easy to do. I can search by converted mana cost, rarity, value of the card, creature (or card) type, color, name, text that's included in the card, what set it's from... I just find it incredibly useful, and really fast when I'm looking for a quick bit of information (my first blog post was written almost entirely using information from MTGFanatic).

They are also a fantastic site to sell to or buy from. While I never like buying commons or uncommons, MTGF's prices are well below what my local card shop charges, and for almost everything besides tournament staples, the prices are some of the lowest I've found. But honestly, I've done business with them before, and Chris has set some incredibly high standards for cards. I sold cards to him once, and a large chunk of the cards were returned because they were not up to his standards. I was insulted for a while, but when I realized that it was because he had only the highest expectations and wanted to deliver only the highest quality to his customers, I let it go and have been pretty impressed ever since. The cards I have bought from him have never taken more than a week to get here from the minute I pay, and nothing has EVER been in less than NM condition. Suffice to say, you won't be able to get NM Ice Age Painlands too many places on the internet nowadays...

That's all for now- a shameless plug post for the guys at MTGFanatic. While you're there, check and see if you can find a tradelist of mine- I'll probably link to it in my next blog post! :)

Post 2.

I spent a little time on eBay today looking to snag some cheap playsets of rares from the upcoming set Zendikar, and came across an interesting card-


Now, as you can probably tell from my previous post, I'm currently smitten with Auras. One of my favorites has always been Mythic Proportions, and this new card is basically a better version of my old favorite. For a mere 9 mana (many green decks could pull this off turn 6!), you can turn your "Ping for 2" into a "Smash for 16".

However, I'm not just drooling because Gigantiform is a massive creature buff. I'm drooling because of what Gigantiform enables.

I started thinking of what cards would really turn Gigantiform into a powerhouse card. I wound up thinking U/G would work best, thanks to the number of blue creatures out there that would benefit so hugely from being 8/8 Tramplers- cards like Phantom Warrior, Cephalid Constable, Cold-Eyed Selkie, and the like. Who wouldn't want an unblockable 8/8, or a creature that bounces 8 of your opponents permanents, or a fattie that gives you a potential quad-Inspiration when it attacks? Even more off-the-wall things like Glint-Eye Nephilim or Electryte would make for some chaotically interesting matches. Needle Specter becomes an instant mass discard. There are lots of possibilities, but I have to say the two best Gigantiform magnets are Cephalid Constable and Cold-Eyed Selkie.

There are really two ways to play a U/G deck with this theme- either rely on Blue to stall until you can drop a Gigantiform, or rely on Green for accel and drop the Gigantiform as soon as possible. I prefer to lean heavy on Green, simply because a turn 5 or 6 Gigantiform on an attack-ready Constable is pretty much going to sweep your opponent's board. A clever deck might also have multicolor mana sources (Utopia Tree, Lotus Cobra, Birds of Paradise) to drop Needle Specters to basically destroy every permanent your opponent controls: the Cephalid Constable bounces, and the Needle Specter makes them discard. And since you control the permanents, you control which order the abilities trigger- naturally, the return comes first and then the discard. This particular strategy is absurdly effective if you can Kick the Gigantiform and swing with both the Constable and the Specter in the same turn. The problem might be in drawing the creatures- however, Green has a wonderful little tool at its disposal:

Yup, the old Platinum Angel/Leonin Abunas enabler. Tooth and Nail is a great card, and honestly I think it fits really well with Gigantiform- you fetch two creatures, and then next turn, fetch two Gigantiforms (note that the total cost of the two cards is both 9, so you can do it two consecutive turns without any additional accel), and instantly clear the board and your opponent's options.

This is actually really similar to a deck I used to use a while back, and I think it was actually Standard legal for a while. It revolved around Mythic Proportions and other sources of pump (Giant Growth, cards that generated +1/+1 counters, et cetera) along with Cephalid Constable. I'd say it fares much better now with the advent of Gigantiform.

Post 1.

And thus begins my new blog- or better said, my old one that I just reinvented.

FSTH is intended, quite obviously, to be a Magic: the Gathering blog. I'm a player at heart, although not competitively. I've collected (and played, off and on) for about seven years now, and have a pretty good idea of how the game works. I'm currently trying to get into the tournament scene, and this blog will basically chronicle my MtG "life". I'll be posting tournament happenings (basically just FNM stuff for now), deck ideas, and "Card of the Day" type stuff.

So let's begin.

A few weeks back, I found myself hungry for some Magic. I hadn't played in years. So I found a local card shop that hosted FNM (Friday Night Magic, for the less nerd-inclined) and found myself going the next Friday.

Turns out I was going to be playing a draft tournament, something I had never done before. It was supposed to be an M10 draft, but the boxes hadn't shipped yet, so we were stuck doing an Alara block draft. I wound up pulling Sovereigns of Lost Alara in my first pack, and I decided I was going to go for an Exalted deck. I wound up pulling a Battlegrace Angel in my second pack, and got two Angelic Benedictions. Sovereign fuel came in the form of Sigil of the Nayan Gods (two of them, even), which helped enormously.

Exalted seems to be a keyword that is somewhat overlooked. Now I realize that some "Exalted" cards actually get played (Noble Heirarch, I'm looking at you), but the majority of the cards are ignored. The one I think deserves a lot more attention than it got is Sovereigns of Lost Alara.


Most people don't look twice at Sovereigns of Lost Alara. It's a fifty cent rare, which basically means it sucks. But a LOT of really interesting decks are possible with it, and my favorite uses the Sovereigns as a sort of "situational filter"- attack with one creature, and fish for an Aura that you need at that moment. I wound up building a deck with cards like Epic Proportions, for some pure beatdown, Elder Mastery for both a bit of creature pumping and hand control, Asha's Favor to help either get damage through (flying) or keep damage from getting to me (first strike), and Battle Mastery for a kill-condition when Battlegrace Angel hits the battlefield. The best part about this deck was that it was still standard legal. Basically, the strategy was to keep yourself alive as long as possible, until you could drop either a Battlegrace Angel or a Sovereigns of Lost Alara. Once either of those hit the table, you just need to attack with another creature and you're pretty much set. Cards like Angelic Benediction and Ardent Plea helped fuel the Exalted theme. I even tried to trade for some Finest Hours but couldn't actually get my hands on any.



The resulting deck was pretty damn potent, even moreso than I expected from a Bant-based standard deck. If I would've had more ridiculous power cards like Noble Heirarch or Rafiq of the Many, I can only imagine what the deck could've been like. Even without them, I frequently pulled of sixth-turn kills, which is pretty impressive for BGU in standard- many times, as soon as a Sovereigns of Lost Alara hit the table, the game was over- I'd search for whatever Aura I needed and swing with something like Aven Squire. Searching for Epic Proportions was usually game over- turning my measly 1/1 Flyer into a whopping 9/9 Trample Flyer was a move most opponents simply couldn't have anticipated.

I realized a few days ago that I loved this deck theme- drop a Sovereigns of Lost Alara onto the table and fish for whatever Aura you wanted. I decided it'd be fun to switch the deck to Extended, which gave me dozens of drool-worthy options to pick from in terms of new Auras for the deck. Ridiculous Auras (or for older cards, Enchant Creatures) like Followed Footsteps, Elemental Resonance, Daybreak Coronet, Breath of Fury, Pariah, Pemmin's Aura, Mythic Proportions... even less powerful ones like One with Nature (one of my personal favorite Auras, the cycle of Dragon ____ Auras from Scourge (Breath/Fangs/Scales/Shadow/Wings), Curiosity...

I decided that the best way to build the deck was to have it be BW with a couple dual lands to play green solely for the ability to play early One with Natures (and Birds of Paradise, if I ever get a playset...). Here is what I eventually came up with- mind you, I actually own all the cards, which is why it's so sketchy right now.

4x Adarkar Wastes
4x Brushland
2x Mystic Gate
2x Wooded Bastion
1x Flooded Grove
2x Forest
3x Island
4x Plains

4x Talisman of Progress

4x One with Nature
1x Battle Mastery
2x Asha's Favor
2x Elder Mastery
2x Mythic Proportions
1x Pariah
1x Followed Footsteps
1x Breath of Fury

2x Angelic Benediction

4x Sovereigns of Lost Alara
3x Battlegrace Angel
4x Akrasan Squire
4x Aven Squire
2x Qasali Pridemage
1x Cho-Manno, Revolutionary

Basically, it's pretty straight forward- play cheap Exalted creatures to get a steady Exalted base, then drop a Sovereigns of Lost Alara, fetch a big Aura (Mythic Proportions is almost always my first choice unless another one is REALLY necessary), and profit. Cho-Manno exists solely as a Pariah magnet. Breath of Fury is there if you can win in two back-to-back combat phases (and you often can). Followed Footsteps is pretty awesome on Sovereigns of Lost Alara (the Aura fetches of multiple copies stacks, just like Exalted does), but is also perfectly good on any of your creatures, giving you a steady supply of Exalted sources.

Hell, the deck can be based around virtually any combination of creatures or Auras. Luminous Angel, Verdant Embrace, and Followed Footsteps make a great trio, or you can just stick with things like Silvos, Rogue Elemental with Mythic Proportions on him. Either way, as soon as that Sovereigns of Lost Alara hits the table, you've suddenly swung things in your favor. Keep your library full of Auras that will allow you to solve any problem your opponent can throw at you, and you simply can't lose.