Magic: The Deckbuilding

As you guys know, I'm wild about deckbuilding. If you don't know that, well, I am. Over on the sidebar, you can see a bunch of the decks I've tinkered together over the years. For those of you who've been reading for years, you might remember that I asked for assistance developing them a while back.

Well, I'm back at it. I've got a whole new deck I want to tweak. I've entitled it "Soulcatchers." It is, unsurprisingly, built around Soulcatchers' Aerie. So basically it's a birds tribal deck. Right now, the deck is kind of lacking in non-creature spells. I'm thinking about adding a single copy of Bubbling Cauldron to give myself a beneficial sacrifice outlet, to help make the Soulcatchers' Aerie engine run. I'm open to other ideas as well, of course. I really like Arctic Aven in this deck, but I do see the value of going mono-white as well. Right now, I'm sticking with WU.

Anyways, that's what I've got going on. Sorry I haven't been blogging as frequently as I'd like. I have some other stuff I'm trying to figure out, and the blog gets left by the wayside while that's happening. I'll keep trying to post when I can. In the meantime, decks!

Magic Deck Review - Landfall and Fling (RG), First Pass

As some of you (probably most of you) will remember, I posted not too long ago regarding the first homebrew deck I wanted to retool. It was a Red and Green deck focusing mostly on Landfall boosts, and using Fling to snipe problem creatures or finish off opponents. In case you don't remember, the full deck is here.

Well, I got a bit of feedback in various mediums, and I've got some possibilities as far as additions/replacements for the deck. Here are the brainstorms I received (not Brainstorms)...

Titania, Protector of Argoth - The biggest (and most expensive) possible addition is Titania. She's a big creature with a distinct lean towards land action. Specifically, she makes Evolving Wilds and Harrow absolute monsters. It's a fairly expensive card though ($6.75 average price on TCGPlayer), so it may not be in the cards...pun intended.

Groundswell - I'm pretty sure I have a couple of these in my vast collection. Although truthfully, if I do, I'm not sure why I wouldn't have included them in the first place. They're simple Giant Growth-type cards, but obviously they fit nicely with the deck's theme.

Gatecreeper Vine - This is a card that probably wouldn't make the cut. It's a perfectly fine card, but it doesn't really solve our creature problem, and we've already got plenty of fixing in the deck.

Vinelasher Kudzu - I like a few things about this card. First, it's a creature, which as I said was something this deck is looking for. Second, it's a low drop. This deck spends a lot of time with lands that have entered the battlefield tapped, so having a minimal mana cost is important. And third, obviously, it benefits a lot from all the land drops this deck offers. Should be less than a dollar to acquire as well, so wins all around.

Rampaging Baloths - Baloths is a card that fits with the deck's style, but isn't as clever or exciting as some of the other cards I've mentioned. That said, while it's deliberate, it certainly gets work done. I'm not sure it's considerably better than Baloth Woodcrasher based on how the deck hopes to win, but I'm open to including maybe a one-off of RB.

Scute Mob - I feel like Scute Mob is maybe a card that helps you out when you don't have the action cards like Harrow or Baloth Woodcrasher to make the magic happen. Kind of like an insurance policy for the Landfall blasts. I do have one copy of Scute Mob in one of my other decks, so maybe I'll transition it over to this one.

What do you guys think of the cards I've mentioned? Anything else come to mind? Leave it in the comments below!

Magic Decks for Review - Landfall & Fling Deck (RG)

As I mentioned last week, I was looking for the best way to open up my home-brewed casual decks for comments and suggestions. You spoke, and I basically ignored you. Well, not you. But you, I totally ignored you. Sorry bro.

Anyways, the way I decided to go is using TappedOut to build the decks. The links to all of them are on the sidebar to the right, or you can view them on my profile page on TappedOut. The one downside is that you have to create an free account on TappedOut in order to leave a comment. It's simple, but it is an extra step, and for that I apologize. But I'd definitely appreciate it if you guys would take the time when you have it to review the decks. Some of them need a lot of work; others just need some tweaking.

But, I'm not going to just sit around and hope people chime in on their own. I'll highlight decks over time, asking for pointed feedback at various times with regards to a particular deck. Today's deck is a deck that I think is pretty close to being ready, but has a single definitive weakness.

Deck: Landfall & Fling RG

This deck relies heavily on the Landfall mechanic and Fling (or Soul's Fire, which has a similar effect). The idea is usually to take out the opponent in one huge turn, using cards like Evolving Wilds, Harrow, and Khalni Heart Expedition to provide a bunch of extra land drops. It works a fair amount of the time, but the problem is that the deck, in its current form, only eleven of the sixty cards provide creatures, and that includes those 7/1 Elemental tokens that last only one turn.

So, I'm looking for potential insertions serving that purpose. I could definitely see letting go of the Adventuring Gear in favor of some creatures. And I'm open to any other input you've got.

Go!

How to Frame Upcoming Magic Posts

I've got a series of Magic posts in the works that will (hopefully) provide you readers with the opportunity to share your opinions, correct me where I'm wrong, and help me to refine some personal decks I've created.

Let me backtrack a little.

Several years ago (back before The Good Point Bros were even a thing), I bought a big lot of random Magic cards on eBay. I used to collect baseball cards when I was little, and it was fun to sort through everything, looking for rares and interesting cards.

Since that first batch, I've bought several more, sometimes the same amalgamation of cards from random sets, sometimes repacks of one set or another, and sometimes something in between. One that was really fun was a box of 24 packs from the entire history of Magic. It was neat to see Fire Whip and Evil Twin in the same pack, and it made for a really interesting draft one summer when James was stateside.

Anyways, as I perused cards from throughout Magic's history, I became more and more interested in thinking about how cards from different eras worked together. A natural follow-up to that was that I started to build my own decks. I remember the first one was a tribal Merfolk & Wizard deck, and I remember the first two cards in it were Streambed Aquitects and Sage's Dousing. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of researching possible additions/swaps, checking mana curves, and assessing a deck's win conditions to build as strong a deck as I could.

And of course, through all this work, I'd come across some other card that begged to be highlighted. So I made a red equipment deck featuring Bloodshot Trainee, a green/white enchantments deck featuring Primal Huntbeast and Armadillo Cloak, and a black/white lifegain deck with cards like Suture Priest.

I love the whole process, but there are two hurdles that I have to deal with.

The first is a simple matter of availability. I don't have planeswalkers or Moxes; most of my cards are common or uncommon, and not terribly many of them are new. So a lot of my decks feature pedestrian cards from Zendikar or Lorwyn or 8th Edition. I actually have no problem with this limitation; I feel like it's the same level of challenge as building a deck with boss cards, and since I really only play my decks among the other decks, there's no concern about a wild advantage by one deck because of raw card power.

The second hurdle is what I'm hoping you'll be able to help me with. While I've done my share of research and discussion, I'm still a long way from being fluent in Magic's history. But between me, and James, and Nick, and talbott_matt, and PuresteelPally, and Kouseband, and 0utlier, and Rekanos, maybe we've got it all covered. So what I'd like to do is to provide you guys with decklists, and welcome your input on how to improve the decks, either by incorporating generally better cards, or refining the mana curve, or swapping in cards that better fit the particular intentions of the decks.

The problem I have is this: I don't know how best to share with you the current state of the decks. I have a couple of options, but I'm open to other ideas if you've got them.

First, the simplest option, though it'll probably take the most work: I can just list each card with the quantity in the deck, along with a link to its Gatherer page. This would be easiest for phone browsing, but isn't really intuitive at all, and doesn't take advantage of any particular resources available.

A second option would be to create the decks with the deck editor in Magic The Gathering Online, then upload the deck file and invite readers to download the file to view the deck. This would make for easy manipulation of the current deck and searches of potential alternatives. But it would require that you have MODO available; not exactly going to work for people browsing on their Samsung Galaxies.

A third option would be to create and save the decks using TappedOut.net. This would be similar to the first option, except that the list would be hosted on another site, forcing you to navigate back to the blog to comment on its related post. But, for decks that have several updates (which will probably be all of them), you'll be able to see the process as it evolves, and respond only to the most recent iteration of the deck.

So my question is, to those of you who think you might be up for helping me out, which method sounds the most appealing to you? Or is there something I haven't thought of/am unaware of that would fit the bill even better than what I've mentioned? Leave feedback in the comments, por favor.

Decks I built...sort of (Joe)

 

So I go through a phase every couple years where I buy all kinds of Magic cards on eBay. I almost exclusively buy bulk lots, generally those that have been picked through and lack any meaningful cards. I bought a repacked box of Innistrad that lacked most removal, presumably because whoever the guy was who bought the box took out all the removal. Plenty of decent cards, but a lot of the good stuff is missing.

Anyways, I like just looking through cards and putting together decks, so I started doing that. Instead of trying to put together the "best" decks though, I put together decks that would be appropriate for the Duels of the Planeswalkers games; they have some rares, some commons, some uncommons, and they focus more on being varied and interesting than on being "perfect" decks. This was partly because I enjoyed the DotP games a lot, and partly because I don't have all that many rares to work with, so I'm often limited by inventory.

I eventually put together seven different decks (so far), and I posted them on TappedOut.net to be able to share. You can see the list of them here.

What I'm asking for from you, the community at large, is twofold.

First, I do want feedback. If you see a card that has one of those "strictly better" alternatives, let me know. While I might not have the replacement card handy, it's good to know what the decks could use. For example, I know Myr Superion would be a great addition to my Poor Man's Myr deck, but I don't have any of them in my possession, so it didn't go into the list.

Second, if you're feeling generous, why not donate some of the cards I need to make these decks on Magic: Online? The vast majority of the cards are no longer eligible for Standard use, so I can't imagine they have much value. Maybe you have a bunch of copies of Fling or Rot Wolf sitting around; I can use them! I have virtually zero cards from these decks, so anything you can provide would be fantastic.

As I get more locked in on the various decks, I'll start making individual posts for them, where we can discuss them at length, and I can make a desperate plea for your cards. Until then, stay classy.