Magic the Gathering

That's it for Modern. In Pauper (I play some of that, it's basically constructed in which you're only allowed to use Commons) one card gone pisses me off a little, but it's otherwise not too bad. The banned cards for Pauper are Grapeshot, Empty the Warrens, and Invigorate (NOOOOO, my Pauper Infect deck.......)

Not a fan of the seething song ban, can only imagine it's preemptive due to something in dragons maze, otherwise, Wizards damaged storm for no other reason because 'storm' (which seemed to be the theme of the day)

Just spent $300 on ordering cards for my Standard Tournament that's coming up soon.... *Sigh*

There goes my wallet again...

I really didn't spend it on my BUG deck too, I spent most of it to another new one that's been running train a lot on Cocktrice as of right now.

It's a RUB deck. Here's the deck list :

I just want to ask, how are you going to handle aggro decks? Like ones that goes really fast? Also, be wary of Thalia, most aggro decks that I see now have very few sorceries and instants.

Gatecrash....
I told everyone that I know that I'm never building a Boros deck.
Orzhov is what I want and what I'm building. Yet, fate decided that I get all the best Boros cards and not a single good Orzhov card...

Getting mana bases are really expensive... But at least now you have lands for every deck you build after that. Snapcaster is an excellent investment, too. Most blue decks I think up start with 4 Snapcaster Mage.

Now to comment on the actual deck:
Yay, Grixis. I love this color combo.
It's a bit creature light, but you've got all-star creatures. No one I know seems to like Dimir Charm at all, but I think it has it's place. Not sure I'd use four, though. If you can afford it, more nonbasics would make your mana base better. I don't know if 3 is the right number for Chandra. If your deck is slow enough, you could use Nephilia Drownyard as a secondary win condition when the games get really long. And finally, Dreadbore is an awesome removal spell.

We should play our versions against each other sometime on Cockatrice. Also built a bunch of decks I think would be good that I can't build because they're too expensive. Most recent is Bant Aggro, Esper Midrange (EDIT: Actually have a nice chunk of this deck, it turns out), and MonoB (the monoB actually may be cheap, save for one of the lands...). I 'll post those later once I polish those up (the MonoB and Esper don't even have sideboards yet).

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I still need to pick up my box of Gatecrash... I hope I open what I want.



He has Searing Spear and Pillar of Flame. You use these as cheap removal.

And, Boros is funnnn. And they made my monored so much better. I'm also thinking up mono-white, just cus I love monowhite.

What specifically did you open, though?

They are the most hard to win against. I try to sideboard stuff like Unsummon to try to slow them down, but it's hard. :\

Other control decks though, I win all the time.

Might as well go Boros though to win that tournament.

Bonfire is a really nice thing to sideboard into against aggressive strategies. If their plan is the run out all their creatures and turn them sideways to beat you, then you topdeck that, they're back to square one.

I'll look into it, thanks for the tip, I forgot about bonfire.

I got 3 Aurelia' s fury, 2 Aurelia 1 of them foil. 4 of those Medic soldiers, 1 of them foil. 6 Boros Charm, 4 of those Boros bull, 3 of the 1 mana goblin soldier rare and almost all common and uncommon Boros cards. Very few of the other guilds. By the way, sorry can't remember their names, I'm at work.
Also, those came from a Booster box and fat pack.
I also got 3 red white shocklands and 1 watery grave.
Darn it, so hard to type using a phone.

Oh wow, three Aurelia's Fury. That's probably the most valuable card in the set right now (haven't checked, it's definitely up there). It's worth 25 bucks right now. Aurelia is also the most expensive guildmaster. The Frontline Medic is sweet, so is the charm, and the Legion Loyalist.

And you can never go wrong with lands.

So if nothing else, you got a lot of valuable trade bait.

Meanwhile, I opened three Watery Graves. So, along with the fourth one I pulled at prerelease, I have a set for my Grixis and any other UB deck I make. Also got Aurelia's Fury, pretty sweet, and a Zegana, the Simic guildmaster. Kinda wish I had opened more Breeding Pools, too. Only got one of those.

The problem is, in my circle of friends, we never trade, we just give them away.
Me and my friends have specific favorites when it comes to standard. So it stands to reason that we should never hoard cards that we won't use.
Like how I gave one of my friend 2 Temple Gardens because he needs it and I don't. I also gave 3 Snapcaster Mages and 2 Bonfires to one of my friends because she needs it and I don't. Aside from fun, I believe Standard Magic should be about who has the skills, not the cash.

However, since I didn't get a single Obzedat (which I really really want) nor Godless Shrine, I'll just probably swallow my pride and build a Boros aggro deck. I'll probably add Fervor, Odric and Champion of the Parish in it to make it a little fast and strong.

So you really are building blue black? How does it work? Also, what is Grixis? I found out what Grixis is. I think that is a bit hard since the chances of getting Mana screwed in standard is high. Casual-Modern it is alright.




If you really are using Bonfire, be really careful of Rootborn Defenses. Many are the times that it screwed my Bonfire.

Our group is okay with borrowing each other's cards, but we don't just give 'em away. We did pay for em after all. It's nice that you guys trust each other so, though.

There are better turn 3 plays you could have than Fervor. Odric is nice, and so is the Champion.

And three-color decks have been the norm for a long time in Standard. Especially now that we have shocklands, the mana is extremely good. Some of the best decks are 4 or 5-color, and, at least before Gatecrash, most three color decks splashed a fourth color for something. As long as you have enough fixing, you won't get screwed out of colors. It does, however, make mana bases expensive, since the mana base will consist of mostly, if not entirely, nonbasics.

My Grixis is midrange. It gets threats down more quickly than control, and wants to be ahead on creatures.

My list right now.... It's unrefined, all I've really added was Duskmantle Seer and Watery Grave, and these new additions are fairly untested. Before the Seer took its place, I had the Evil Twins mainboard.



Sideboard:




Also, Rootborn Defenses is also a sideboard card in some white decks, so there's the chance they won't bring it in when you bring in Bonfires, if they feel they don't need it.

Ahh so that's how you make it work. Almost all of those cards have low casting cost. Interesting. Control while trying to take health a little bit with your creatures. However, you have a lot of shocklands. Doesn't a lot of them really hurt? If you don't pay 2 life, they actually slow a deck's tempo.

On the other hand, my Boros aggro deck is now done.

2 Odric
2 Skyknight Legionnaire
2 Bomber Corps
2 Daring Skyjek
4 Boros Elite
4 Wojek Halberdiers
4 Frontline Medic
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Ash Zealot
4 Champion of the Parish
_____________________
32 Creatures

4 Fervor
4 Boros Charm
_____________________
8 Other Spells

4 Sacred Foundry
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Cavern Of Souls
2 Plains
2 Mountain
_____________________
20 Lands
= 60 in total

I'm actually thinking of replacing Fervor with Hellraiser Goblin but I don't wanna attack when I don't wanna attack.

Sideboard would be
4 Thalia
4 Erase
2 Odric
Well, I'm still not sure about the sideboard.

Normally, yes, too many shocklands is puts a damper on my life total, but if you notice, I have no turn one plays besides Duress. I'll usually not gonna pay two life early game, and late game, I won't need to pay it, since by then, I have plenty of mana. The reason I do though is because having the option to at any time I need it untapped is nice, whereas the other lands that require me to have a basic land type to enter untapped might not enter untapped when I need it. And plus, putting the shocklands will allow those lands to enter untapped, too.

Thalia's actually good enough to be maindeck, since it can just ruin some decks' strategies, though since she's legendary, four is too much. I often see her in threes, however. As much as I like a bunch of your creatures, I'd think you want some other spells to protect your creatures, and have some removal. Erase is nice sideboard tech because of the All-In Enchantments deck, but I don't think you would need four. 2 is the maximum amount of Odric I'd use, so you don't need extra copies in the sideboard. You're a fast deck, so I wouldn't use Evolving Wilds in this. And because you're playing Boros, Slayer's Stronghold sounds good in your deck. Normally, I'd disagree with a full four Cavern of Souls, but your deck largely creature based anyways. I still think cutting one would be alright if you added more noncreature spells to it.

Hmm, I'm actually thinking, do you think Legion Loyalist is actually good?
He is really weak, and too much of him doesn't really do anything. Yet, he is very good for triggering Battalion.

Yes. If nothing else, he's a one-drop haste. In a RDW, for example, every point of damage counts. You want to do as much damage early game before your opponent can do anything, then get 'em with your reach cards (your burn spells) before they completely stablize.

And his battallion ability is certainly relevant. First strike makes your small, aggresive creatures eat chump blockers rather than trade. Trample let's your bigger threats simply stomp over your opponent. And token decks cry if the Battalion goes off.

To be fair, though, I do think he isn't as good in Boros aggro than he is in RDW, since I think Boros aggro wants more quality creatures, instead of just fast damage. For example, Boros Elite is probably a way better turn one play than Legion Loyalist in Boros, while (at least I think that) Legion Loyalist you always wanna bash in with first turn in RDW.

EDIT: My wording in the last paragraph made the point I was trying to make awkward. Just changed it.

I walked from my house to Wal-mart.
2 hour long walk, down a highway. Just to buy an Orzhov intro pack.
No regrets.

Determination, I like it.

It's like impulse buying staples, except you don't feel nearly as dirty afterwards.

Darn it, I forgot Precinct Captain.
Now I have to change my Deck a bit. Maybe 2 Ash Zealot and 2 Precinct Captain? Actually, I'm starting to think 2 Cards of creatures is not a good idea. Now I still have to think of who to remove or reduce for Thalia.

EDIT
The Event deck for Gatecrash called Rally and Rout is totally worth it. There are a lot of good cards in it.

The other one, Thrive and Thrash, has Thragtusk and Wolfir Silverheart. That has me sold. Especially, if it does anything to drive down the price, since I need some copies of Thragtusk (probably won't, but I can hope). Besides, I already have a bunch of the rares in the other one, lol.

I don't like the number two for either of those creatures, Precinct Captain and Ash Zealot are really good, I wouldn't wanna go to less than three copies. The problem, though, is that they both have restictive mana costs. Maybe go up to three each, then cut those other two-drop battalion guys: The Daring Skyjek and Bomber Corps.
That oughta free up some slots for some copies of Thalia, too.