deckmaniacs

[deckmaniacs]

Top tips for deck building

By Lee White

Deck building is one of the most important aspects of Magic the gathering and everyone has an opinion on it. From watching videos, reading articles, or just getting tips from your fellow gamers, you won't be short on advice. Being fairly new to the game myself I have also undertaken this journey fairly recently so I can relate to the overwhelming feeling of trying to build a deck.

Here are a few basic things to take into account when tackling deck building.

Your style of play

When you’re playing Magic do you like to control the battlefield by sending creatures back to their owners hand, or countering spells? Or do you like to blaze forward with super aggressive creatures? Understanding what works best for you will help you to determine what mana colour to predominately have in your deck.

As general rule here’s how each colour plays

White - Increasing your life total and defending

Blue - Counter spells and tricking your opponent

Black - Dealing damage to your opponent and bringing creatures back from your graveyard

Red - Fast and aggressively attacking your opponent

Green - Increasing the strength of your creatures

These are obviously only very basic descriptions of the colours but very important to consider when deciding to build a mono deck (single colour) or multi coloured deck (2,3+).

Deck size and card types

For a deck in standard play, the minimum number of cards you can have is 60. You can have more than this and your deck can actually be as large as you want (providing you are able to shuffle it single handily) but you are probably going to want to keep it as close to the minimum as possible. 

By having 60 cards in your deck you will be giving yourself the best chance of drawing those game winning cards, or important cards that get your deck going. 

Within this card limit you are going to want a good mixture of creatures, artefacts/spells and lands, again this will all depend on how you want to play. A good rule of thumb to follow is...

25 creatures

17 instants/artifacts/enchantments/sorceries

18 lands

Again, this is not definitive and your card type breakdown is down to how you feel comfortable playing.

Mana curve

Now you know what colours you want to use and how many cards you are going to use, the fun part begins, picking your cards! Although it’s awesome to pick loads of big high numbered creatures, by the time you get to play them you’ll probably have lost the game. This is where the mana curve comes in.

You want to be able to build your way into a game, so you have cards to play in your opening hand and first few draws that you can help you get into a position to play your bombs and game winning cards.

Including a higher frequency of cards that cost 2/3/4 mana, whilst sprinkling in those more expensive cards is a way to ensure that your deck can tackle your opponents threats, then deal game winning damage.

Card combos

When picking your cards you want to be looking at ones that work together to trigger effects. You might have cards that say “Create 2 Zombies” and another that says “Whenever a Zombie enters the battlefield your opponent loses one life”.

Having these sorts of combos will progress your deck and Magic play up a level, and there’s no better feeling than when you pull off an epic combo!

Standard is the format we are basing this on which basically means cards that are currently active and this information can be found online, but it tends to be the most recent sets. There are many other formats of the game, too many to get into any detail here. Standard is the format I play the most of, as well as casual which is just games between friends so rules tend to be more relaxed and its pretty much anything goes, but this depends on your fellow players!

The main thing to keep in mind building your deck is to have fun. It’s nice to win but its not the be all and end all. If you’re just destroying your opponents within a few turns then that's not much fun for you, and your opponent wont be in a rush to play you again.

So there you have a very basic, beginners guide so go spread those cards all over your table/desk/floor and make those tough choices!

[deckmaniacs]

A Magic Journey - FNM

By Lee White

After finally deciding to take try out Magic with some physical cards, I decided that the best thing to do would be to pay a visit to my local gaming store. I entered with a strange feeling of unease and anxiety that seems to accompany me in any situation I feel completely out of my depth in. I explained to the member of staff that I was new to Magic and he recommended I picked up the Amonkhet deck builder toolkit. I purchased the set and went on my way. Now I was to face a somewhat more confusing task than I had anticipated in building my own deck. 

In my head the process had gone along the lines of 

step 1 : choose some colours you like  step 2: choose some cards you like the look of in the said colours  step 3: play with the deck. 

How wrong was I! The intricacies and synergy involved blew my mind and it was impressive with the way so many different cards work in combo with one another.

Read part 1 of my Journey into Magic here

After doing some research I decided to go with a green/black deck with the thoughts of black causing some uncomplicated damage to my opponent and some large green beasts to trample through. 

In my previous article I had mentioned that I’d recently discovered some friends of mine were experienced players, so to get some real face to face experience I headed down to play. The friend I played tends to play with a solo red deck mainly focusing on goblins and within a few turns he had swamped the battlefield with seemingly endless 1/1 goblins, which in, my inexperience , seemed rather unthreatening. How wrong I was (again!). It was then I began to learn about the effects artifacts and instants can play in a battle. Before I knew it he had increased the goblins into much more threatening creatures with numbers increasing each turn. It wasn't long until I was defeated barely laying a finger on my opponent or any of his creatures.

I went away with a feeling of accomplishment (despite my heavy defeat), I had finally conquered my fear of my inexperience and had at last played Magic. I went away to do some more research and to tweak my self made deck to try and give myself a fighting chance, and whilst doing that my other magic veteran friend invited me to a Friday Night Magic at my local gaming store. Again as before panic and fear spread through me, thinking of all the possible ways I would humiliate myself, but I decided to go for it and agreed to attend and went back to tweaking my deck.

Before I knew it Friday night had arrived, I put my kids in bed and set off clutching my deck (which rightly or wrongly I felt extremely proud of). Arriving at the shop I entered with a stomach full of butterflies and after scanning the faces in the shop realised I didn't recognise anyone. Foolishly I didn't introduce myself I wondered around the shop pretending to browse, thankfully before long my friend arrived and it was time to begin. I now realise that I was worried over nothing, in my imagination, I had visions of them all pointing and laughing at me as I try to play a card that I wasn't able to, or something along those lines. Everyone was more than happy to point things out as we played and helped educate me on aspects of the game I hadn't yet encountered. 

It was also an opportunity to try different decks and cards. I used my friends white/black deck which is purely just about giving me life and taking away my opponents which helped me to my first couple of victories. Now feeling confident I decided to try out my own deck, which to my surprise, didn't completely suck, although I lost a couple of close games I managed to pick up a win. As far as I'm concerned I'll take that as a huge positive and that my deck has potential.

After attending Friday night magic, I can't believe how much more I learnt from a couple of hours in the shop and playing compared too many, many hours researching online, I guess there really is nothing better than learning card by card. After seeing how much time and money is spent on building decks I realise that I still have a long way too go but its a journey I can't wait to take!

[deckmaniacs]

The Supreme Kings of Maximum Crisis

By Gareth Webber

Pendulum Summoning will undergo its final evolution with cards from the latest set Maximum Crisis!  It will introduce the highest Pendulum scale we have yet seen, and will open up our duel tables to some devastating plays!

The latest addition to the world of Duel Monsters are the Supreme King cards.  These cards all revolve around one all-powerful boss monster: Supreme King Z-ARC, a Level 12 Fusion Pendulum monster with an ATK and DEF of 4000.  As well as its massive attack points, it also has some pretty amazing card effects, but to summon this all mighty beast you'll need four Dragon-type monsters, with one of each extra deck type: one Fusion, one Synchro, one Xyz, and one Pendulum.  Sounds difficult, right?

But using the two new cards from this set, Supreme King Gate Zero and Supreme King Gate Infinity, summoning extra deck monsters has never been so easy!  Now, let's take a look at both of their effects.

Using Supreme King Gate Infinity's effect, you can target one other face-up card you control; destroy both cards, and when successfully executed, you can Special Summon one Dragon-Type Xyz Monster or Dragon-Type Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck.  However, its ATK and DEF become 0, its effects will be negated, and it cannot be used as a Synchro or Xyz Material for Summon. If this card in the Monster Zone is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can place this card in your Pendulum Zone.

In the same turn you can also use Supreme King Gate Zero's effect that allows you to target one other face-up card you control; destroy both cards, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Dragon-Type Fusion Monster or Dragon-Type Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck.  Its ATK and DEF will also become 0, its effects will be negated, and it cannot be used as a Synchro or Xyz Material for Summon. If this card in the Monster Zone is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can place this card in your Pendulum Zone.

Once you've used these effects and have all four of the Fusion materials needed, use cards such as Polymerization – alternatively, if you are using these cards in an Odd-Eyes deck, use Odd-Eyes Fusion to summon the almighty Supreme King Z-ARC.  Once Supreme King Z-ARC is summoned, you can use its all-powerful effect, so let's take a look at it…

If this card is Special Summoned, destroy all cards your opponent controls.  It cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects. When this card destroys an opponent's monster in battle, you can Special Summon one Supreme King Servant Dragon monster from your Main Deck or Extra Deck. If this card in the Monster Zone is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can place this card in your Pendulum Zone.

This powerhouse of a monster not only destroys every card on your opponent’s side of the field, but it also cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects, making it a near-immovable object on the field, and a nigh-unstoppable force to be reckoned with!

With support cards for all the latest meta decks, including our last set of Performapal cards, this boosters are the perfect ending to the ARC-V era!

[deckmaniacs]

Amonkhet Deck Ideas

By Ben Williams

The release of the Amonkhet set is now imminent, the spoilers are out in the wild already meaning it’s time to start thinking builds and combos based on the new cards. Whilst it can be a little daunting to build a deck without it being live, there can be no interplay with others for minor tweaking or evaluation of the new meta, some pre-release build ideas and combos are ideal for building excitement and bedding in the new keywords.

As always these are just some of the ideas I feel work best or adaptations found by other users suited more to my play style, feel free to leave any comments you feel would improve these. Do remember these are first drafts to just get a feel for the new cards.

New Cards, New Style!

With the introduction of this new set is a whole host of keyword abilities that work around the theme of Gods, the living and the dead. The dead are breathed new life (excuse the pun) in Amonkeht with Embalm, an ability which is activated when the card is in the graveyard which will bring them back to life as a zombie.

Looking at the living, we have Exert, where the card makes full use of being alive. Exert allows your creature to put in that extra bit of effort for an extra bonus, the downside being that the card won’t untap on your next turn, extra effort is tiring after all!

Finally, Aftermath brings back the fantastic split cards, with a whole new twist. The card is effectively two in one, which lets instants and sorceries in on the graveyard party with a new twist on split cards. For instance, here you play Destined and it resolves in the usual way and ends in the graveyard like any other instant. 

Then, from the graveyard you can play Lead, which again resolves in the usual way and becomes exiled. What’s useful is you can play both the same turn, or space them out depending on how you want to play it. What I particualrly like is the 90 degree orientation, which means that you can have the castable half poking out waiting for you to play it.

Mono-Black Zombie

With the introduction of Amonkhet it looks like a mono-black zombie deck may be creeping its way back into play, it will likely be something seen more frequently in standard play going forward.

4 Cryptbreaker

4 Diregraf Colossus

4 Doomed Dissenter

4 Dread Wanderer

4 Fatal Push

4 Grasp of Darkness

1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

4 Lord of the Accursed

4 Metallic Mimic

4 Relentless Dead

23 Swamp

Now, I appreciate there’s nothing particularly jaw-droppingly amazing about the above deck but it’s a solid curve, with some removal and a good build of power. Cryptbreaker is discarding your cards and filling the graveyard with Zombies, Diregraf Colossus then feeds on these to buff it up and then to buff your ranks you can return Dread Wanderer to the game, even if Cryptbreaker sent him to the graveyard, finally Lord of The Accursed is there to buff any Zombies you own in play. 

If Mono-Black is not your thing, it’s easy to move from this deck to a more uB (Minor Blue-Black) Zombies deck, swapping out the Doomed Dissenter for Prized Amalgram and Gisa and Geralf for example.

Mono-Red Aggro

With Amonkhet there’s now potential for some great pure beat down decks with some aggressive haste creatures and vicious curve without worrying about having to build a multi-colour mana base.

4 Bomat Courier

4 Flameblade Adept

4 Furyblade Vampire

3 Hazoret the Fervent

4 Incorrigible Youths

4 Insolent Neonate

2 Ravenous Bloodseeker

2 Stromkirk Occultist

2 Avacyn's Judgment

4 Fiery Temper

2 Incendiary Flow

2 Lightning Axe

3 Looming Spires

20 Mountain

This deck tries to play on existing red synergy cards with a couple of new cards from Amonkhet that work well here. Hazoret is going to be at its best in a deck that can dump its hand quickly, and landing the god as a creature on turn four is pretty great. Beyond that, Hazoret the Fervent is a way to deal those last couple points of damage. It is going to be crazy good in this type of deck, so players will have to try to play more removal that exiles creatures. Gods have a high ceiling, because they take a little work to turn into a creature, but the indestructibility makes them difficult to remove from play. A four-mana, five-power creature with haste and indestructibility is a force to be reckoned with. This is the type of card that works well with cheap spells. You you can cast them early and play Hazoret the Fervent at the top of the curve when your hand doesn't have much left in it. Hazoret also works well as a way to discard cards at will to make sure your hand size is low.

The other new card here is Flameblade Adept, which also happens to work great alongside discard cards! This creature can be pumped up a significant amount in a single turn alongside a card like Ravenous Bloodseeker. The other factor is that Flameblade Adept is a one-mana spell, which works alongside the concept of having lots of cheap spells with Hazoret as a top end. It is possible you could add some of the cycle lands, like Smoldering Crater to this deck as another way to pump Flameblade Adept.

This is just a brief look at a few potential decks using the new cards from Amonkhet. What did you think of these decks and what are you excited to be building over the next few weeks?

[deckmaniacs]

What's The Ruckus with Code Of The Duelist?

By Jaden Bishop

I stare at my calendar, seeing the dreaded date of the Link format drawing ever closer. I fear the limitations to lots of old decks. Old Synchrons, Plant Synchro and that one kid who tried to make Karakuri Turbo at your locals are going to be held in a choke by the new filed and edits to the master rule. Sure, the decks aren’t dead, but they certainly will require more resources to make the same plays they used to.

However, that isn’t the point of this. The point is to look forward, to the first set in the VRAINS era, Code Of The Duelist. While nothing truly meta-defining has arisen from this new set, we shall take a look at the new forces coming to clash in the arena are.

Gouki

Gouki is, perhaps the return to ‘caveman’ Yu-Gi-Oh!, with beatdown being the primary option they possess. A look at the statlines of their monsters prove this further. 0 Defense between them. Not only that, but effects that both bring multiple to the field. The big bad of the deck is Gouki The Great Ogre, which is a powerful Link monster that reduces the attack of all monsters by their defense. Along with the ability for all Goukis to replace themselves, and the powerful Gouki Rematch summoning them back from defeat, it seems that Goukis certainly pack the power to win the title.

Trickstars

The second new archetype for the set, Tricksters are complete polar opposites to Gouki, avoiding the beatdown tactics in favour of something I greatly enjoy, burn damage. The monsters combo together, damaging for small increments possibly multiple times in a turn, leading to the opponent having taken massive damage just getting their plays started. 

Perhaps the card I’m most excited for, however, isn’t a Trickstar monster. Trickstar Reincarnation is a trap card that is blatantly disgusting with certain plays. Forcing your opponent to banish their entire hand is unheard of, especially when it can be done before they can even react to it. By combining this with certain cards like Protector of the Sanctuary, it can lock your opponent with 0 cards in hand on their first turn. While perhaps not meta defining, I think Trickstars will have their niche.

Star Grails

Star Grails are perhaps the deck Konami is pushing the most. A collection of normal monsters of varying types and attributes linked only by name may not seem that good, but the multitude of Link Monsters can easily swarm the field and create a powerful presence for their wielders. The boss monster, Ningirsu may be slightly tricky to get out, but being able to send cards to the grave without targeting or destroying is a powerful tool for any duelist. Many cards cannot be destroyed or targeted, and this is an efficient way of removing them.

Twilightsworns

Of course, it isn’t just new decks here. Lightsworns have been around for nearly a decade now, since Light of Destruction in 2008. While they’ve gotten support over the years, most recently being the XYZ monster Minerva, now they appear to have fallen to the dark, with the rise of the Twilightsworns. Jain, Ryko, Lyla and Lumina so far have had the dark treatment, along with a new dragon, alongside the powerful Judgment Dragon, in Punishment Dragon. Instead of sending the top cards of the deck to the graveyard, they instead banish from the graveyard, and only send cards to the graveyard in response to other lightsworn effects. I don’t see the Twilightsworns being widely used, considering that pure Lightsworns are still playable, and that Judgment Dragon is still incredibly powerful. Still, they have interesting effects, and may find their ways into other decks.

Naturally, other cards supporting other archetypes are coming as well, including servants for ZARC, A new tricky Traptrix, and another member of the Rescue Animals. 

Code Of The Duelist will be coming to the UK in August.

[deckmaniacs]

A Magic Journey - Discovery

By Lee White

Magic The Gathering is a game that has been on my radar for a long time, everything about it screamed that it would be something I would be interested in. I'm a married father of four currently studying to become a primary school teacher with interests in a whole host of geeky interest ranging from comic books to collectibles. Up until recently I hadn't ventured into the world of gaming but as I previously mentioned I was very aware of Magic. The gorgeous artwork on the cards and the idea of fighting fantasy battles was to much for me to resist and I began to delve into this magical world.

In my youth I had collected Pokemon cards but had never had an interest in playing the game, but this was most definitely not the case with magic. I began looking online for a gateway into the realm of Magic and I won't lie, I felt overwhelmed. A game with such history and from an outsider extremely complexed rules I hadn't a clue where to begin. With four young children and a list of other hobbies I found myself asking “Do I really have time to not only start learning about this game but playing it as well?” I decided to walk away from the game. But I just couldn't get away, I found myself imagining battles of monsters, magic and mystical beasts and decided I would have to find the time.

My first introduction into the game was by watching videos on YouTube and trying to grasp the concept of the game. I quickly manage to get my head around the basic and decided to leave the more complicated rules once I had mastered the basics. The next step I took was downloading the app on my tablet and began battling and building a deck.

I found myself drawn to green and white cards, I wish I could tell you a particular tactical reason for this but it was purely for the fact I liked the look of the cards! Now this may well come back to bite me once I start to play against real competitors but for the use of the app it seemed to work fairly well. 

At this point there was no turning back I found myself playing every chance I got, in bed, on lunch break and on the bus. I literally couldn't get enough. I found myself still bumbling my way to victory as there were times I was trying to perform some type of action and it wouldn't allow me and I have no clue as too why! I decided that the obvious next step would be to actually buy myself some physical cards and I got myself an old Deck Builder set (at this point I wasn't aware that there were so many different editions) and found myself mesmerised by the depth of choice of characters and creatures. Using the the inserts I attempted to play out a few games against myself but found this extremely confusing and over complicated so I just stuck to building decks and trying to get my head around what makes a good deck. As I thumbed through the cards trying to make the best choices possible (again favouring green and white cards) I found a large part of my childhood returning to me the feeling of excited from opening a pack of Pokemon cards or football stickers with such excited to see what I had got.

I found myself playing every chance I got, in bed, on lunch break and on the bus. I literally couldn't get enough.

At this point I am still yet to ever play Magic the Gathering against another human being, for three main reasons, the first my wife doesn't enjoy playing games with me, the second I don't actually know anyone who plays magic ( or I didn't until very recently) and third is the fear of my lack of knowledge of the game. 

After browsing some of the forums I have discovered how deep the knowledge goes and the planning and intense tactics and combinations that are used in the game and as a complete noob I'm nowhere near that level and don't want to annoy a more experienced player with my inexperience. I have recently discovered a close friend of mine actually plays Magic but the subject somehow had just never occurred so I am currently in the midst of planning to play against him, and I also intend to take the the plunge and attend a Friday Night Magic evening at my local game shop. 

As I learn more about this incredible game that so many of us love I will share my opinions and views on what the game is like for a new comer!

[deckmaniacs]

A guide to keyword abilities

By Ben Williams

In an attempt at an almost beginners guide (or just a refresher for those who’ve been away too long) we will be taking a look at some of the keyword abilities that have been in the game for a long time, and some that have been introduced with Aether Revolt this year.

A keyword ability is the term that refers to the piece of text below the image that explains what the card can do, the other text is usually called flavour text, and add a little story to the card. 

Since its release in 1993(!) Magic the Gathering has continued to expand on what cards can do, even adjusting older ones to better meet the terms of the game or the theme of certain expansions. For example, when I first started playing, over half my lifetime ago, we had Walls as a creature type, and a bit of text that said Walls can’t attack. However, as it was a creature there was all sorts of rules that governed how it could be played making it significantly more complicated. In 2004, the Kamigawa expansions came out and Wall creature types all changed to a keyword ability, in this instance defender, the ability simply states this creature cannot attack. Now, every Wall from before Kamigawa just has defender and the rules associated with it.

There is a long list of keyword abilities and to avoid rambling, we will just look at a few found on some of my favourite cards. The first few abilities are “Evergreen” which means they can appear in any core sets.

Trample

This ability allows any creature with trample to deal "excess" damage to the defending player if they are blocked. For example, under normal circumstances, if a 6/3 attacker is blocked by a 1/1 creature, the attacker's 6 damage is all directed at the defending creature, despite it being only able to take 1 damage before being killed. If, however, the attacker has trample, the attacking player may choose to have the difference (in this case, 5) between the attacker's power and the defender’s total toughness "trample over" and can be assigned to the defending player. It’s an ability usually found in green or red decks and conveys a sense of size of the creature, like Force of Nature.

Vigilance

This keyword can be found on one of my favourite white cards (mostly for the artwork and flavour text) Serra Angel.

Creatures with vigilance do not tap when attacking meaning they can still be used during the opponent's turn to block. It’s mainly used on white cards, and I’ve always felt the feel of the ability fits well with the structure of white decks i.e. peace, law, structured, selflessness and equality.

Deathtouch

Another old favourite of mine is deathtouch, an ability that causes a creature to be destroyed as a result of having been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch. It appears mostly on black cards and green cards. Prior to the introduction of the keyword, similar abilities have appeared mostly on green and black cards and effectively means If a 15/15 was blocked by a 1/1 with deathtouch, both would die. A truly devastating way I feel to clear the playing area of a big threat, without sacrificing your own heavy hitters. 

Revolt

Finally, a look at what Aether Revolt brings us. In keeping with its back story of the people on Kaladesh revolting against an oppressive regime, unsurprisingly we have the ability revolt.

Revolt abilities simply look back throughout the current turn and see if a permanent left the battlefield while under your control. If they did, then you can activate the ability in the text. It doesn't matter where that permanent went or even who owns it. Did a creature die while under your control? Revolt! It doesn't really take much to rile up the inhabitants of Kaladesh.

Improvise

We also have improvise, working closely with the current meta for artifacts, and more specifically vehicles. Cards with improvise allow you to help pay for the card by tapping artifacts to act as a colourless mana. So for example Sweatworks Brawler is a 3 colourless and 1 red cost, if you tap three artifacts, you would only need to pay the 1 red. However, if you get a card with improvise with only colourless mana, you can use artifacts to pay its entire cost..

There we go, a brief and simple (-ish) look at some of the keyword abilities  both old and new. Depending on your preferred builds, you may have your own favourites, if so let me know, I’d love to see how others play and what abilities and preferences you’ve built your decks around.

[deckmaniacs]

The good and the bad of Modern Masters 2017

By Sean Bartlett

Once again Wizard's fling open the concert hall doors, rolling out the red carpet for the latest star of the Magic world to strut in its heels and make the paparazzi fight for the best shots. Modern Masters 2017 is undeniably a powerful set, with genuinely excellent reprints and far less chaff that previous instalments (looking at you Modern Masters 2015). Rather than explaining to you all why a reprint of Liliana of the Veil is a great thing or how reprinting Tarmogoyf will do absolutely nothing to its price in the long term whilst Magic players continue the tradition of price knowledge that infests the majority of high value modern and legacy cards, I would rather discuss two positives and two negatives this set and all sets like it will offer to the FNM level player.

Reprinting Uncommon Staples

Every store needs its employees to actually make the business run. We can herald the store as a whole (this would be your mythic reprints) for opening more stores to help with demand but it's the workforce behind those stores that keep them truly afloat. Modern Masters 2017 reprints for uncommons are a slew of quality and needed staples for a vast majority of decks:

These types of cards are the glue that holds decks together. Playing white in Modern without a playset of Path to Exile for example just isn't possible as there aren't any replacements for cards like these. Inquisition of Kozilek is one of the premium hand disruption spells alongside Thoughtseize and continues to be heavily used black staple. Token builds (if they still exist) need Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls to even be remotely competitive, with certain Abzan lists even needing the latter.

Whether sideboard cards or main deck four-ofs, spells like these are important role-players and many decks cannot function without them. If my money has to go anywhere in this set, it will be picking up playsets of cards like these to expand my deck building potential in the future. Uncommons can be surprisingly difficult to find, as rares tend to be jammed into every trade binder you find, and most commons are usually filler cards for drafting purposes with a low price tag. Some of these uncommons push more than £10 a single, which is ludicrous for a card that is used just for filling a typical role in that colour. Knowing that some of these cards will lower in value definitely helps newer modern players take the plunge and pick up playsets at their cheapest, which can only be seen as a good thing.

Help the Inevitable Modern Summer Push

Those who are no strangers to Modern know the inevitable increase in prices of Modern cards that take place towards the Summer holidays, with huge tournaments in Las Vegas celebrating the format annually (with this Summer being no exception). Many seasoned players will be looking to compete in various modern events over the Summer and will be buying cards to finish their decks. This means that prices for Modern cards tend to rise during this period with the increase of demand. If this set does its job well, we should be seeing some of these price hikes for many staples not be so restricting to those on a budget. With additional cards in circulation the benefits are obvious; more players can get these cards and therefore increase the popularity of the format. Simple and concise design.

The health of Modern as a format continues to be a incredibly subjective topic for a variety of players, with genuine concerns about the stability and growth for a format that fluctuates so much. Modern Masters continues to be a step in the right direction.

Eternal Reprint Sets Are Too Damn Expensive

There is no way to sugar coat this Wizards; why on earth are we expected to pay nearly £10 for a single booster pack when Modern Masters by design is suppose to give newer and more budget oriented players the chance to take part in an otherwise financially restrictive format. I get that the majority of these reprints maintain a secondary market value and you don't want to upset a portion of your player base by making their Scalding Tarns worth far less than before the reprint, but surely the secondary market is irrelevant unless it's directly affecting the Reserved List. I at least understand why that list exists because those cards are the collector 'staples' and owning them is the dream by many players. These cards are not on that list however; every single player getting into a new format is expected to buy 4-12 Fetchlands in order to compete realistically. How on earth does a recommended retail price of £10 in any circumstance help these players you're trying to draw in.  If someone already knows the Modern format and already knows what cards they need, surely they'll be using the secondary market to purchase those cards regardless. Outside of booster boxes with the intention of opening a ton of packs in the hopes of breaking even or simply to draft a new and exciting set.

Take a look at a previous example of pushing high value reprints; Fetchlands in Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged. Absolutely nothing negative came out reprinting those cards and Khans was sold so heavily because of them that these Fetchlands are relatively cheap to get playsets of. There are a multitude of players who play modern now that we’re able to because of this reprint, and the format was wonderfully diverse in Standard because of them (until Collected Company ruined everything anyway).

I get that regardless of my rantings, Modern Masters 2017 will sell exceptionally well, especially being a print-to-demand set unlike previous instalments. The card quality is going to draw people in and people will pay the premium, I just personally don't believe a counterproductive price tag like this does the playerbase (something you really should be listening to Wizards) any favours. Cut down the price set by at least half and then you'll see the format grow like it deserves too.

Affecting Standard's Place as the Introductory Format

This criticism is more based on the importance of introducing new players into the game over the long term. Wizards claim on their website that:

'Standard is a dynamic format where you build decks and play using cards in your collection from recently released Magic sets. Evolving gameplay and fresh strategies make it one of the most fun and popular ways to play Magic.'

So how we prove or disprove this claim? Well, all I have to show you is this:

Standard's diversity right now is pathetic. I've never seen so many FNM players be so drained about how the format is shaping out right now (this includes those even playing one of the top tier lists). Modern Masters may have come out at the worst possible time for new players, as both formats to a new player are about as restrictive as it gets. Adding to the already monumental difficulty of getting someone new invested in Magic based on the current Standard metagame, we have a Modern focused set pushing established players away from Standard, therefore widening the gap between newer and older players (Pretty good for sales though Wizards!). Banning cards is all well and good for diversity but it continues to make veteran players unsure of their purchases, nobody wants to spend £200 on a popular tier 1 deck if the risk of banning is always looming, especially in a format with rotation. Don't let this game fall victim to power creep Wizards, print solid answers to solid threats and we will all enjoy Standard more. We haven't had any decent graveyard hate this season, why?

Final thoughts

Look, I may be incredibly cynical in my writing, but these are long term problems. Newer players and older players should always be able to able to access this amazing game and interact with each other, it is the most important foundation for any community. I love the usual 'Standard VS Modern' comments we see on article sites on a  daily basis because that diversity is a healthy medium for both formats. As of writing, there is no competition: Modern is by far more interesting but its financial constraints are all that hold it back. Though Modern Masters 2017 is another small step forward, there are still issues that need ironing out. Magic is a great game because it frustrates me when I try to comprehend some decisions that are made for it, but that's how you truly love a game; you see its flaws and should always criticize them, because without criticism how can we expect things to get better.

Modern Masters is a great set full of important reprints that is far too expensive to buy at retail. It detracts interest from Standard which by far continues to be the most important format in the growth and develop of Magic. Taking more time to restructure the price of eternal sets and sort out the mess that is the Standard metagame can only have positive effects on the game as a whole.

[deckmaniacs]

Yu-Gi-Oh The Dark Side of Dimensions - Movie review

Written by Kieran Harris

If you’re a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh, which you probably are to be reading this, you must see this film. It takes only a couple of minutes to take us back to our childhoods. The familiar smug face of Kaiba opens the movie which is shortly followed by the gang. It feels like a reunion with our little card crazy family and oh has it been too long.

The movie centres around Kaiba’s obsession with defeating the pharaoh Atem, whom you may remember (spoiler from the original tv series coming up) Yugi defeats in a duel before he says his permanent goodbye now that he had proved his duelling ability without the Pharoah’s help. Kaiba is intent on reassembling the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle to hopefully conjure up Atem from his spiritual sleep for one last duel.

The story doesn’t in any way feel forced into what’s happened before and that’s important. The Millennium items once again feature heavily in the story but are used in an interesting and refreshing way, rather than just rehashing old ideas. They still have their powers but they serve a much deeper purpose this time around. The new duel disk used by Kaiba is pretty awesome too, making for some fantastic new animations and genuinely terrifying monsters.

Most of the screen time is devoted to Kaiba and the new and charismatic Aigami. He’s an interesting character with a back story that blends nicely into the wider arc of Yu-Gi-Oh. Kaiba is his usual arrogant and unrelenting self which makes him a character we love to hate but he remains important because of that respectful rivalry that has developed since THAT duel where Exodia was summoned. It’s nice to see that even he too has some pretty humorous lines too; being so straight forward in the way he assuredly insults people!

Let’s talk about new cards! The characters have reworked their decks since we last saw them to keep up with the current trends, so as not to simply replay the same duels we’ve had before in the series. Some of the lesser important characters through the series have cameos that are more important than simply showing up for the sake of it. It all feels very fundamental to the overall world and the development of the story through flashbacks is always welcome. I Be sure to keep an eye out and challenge yourself to spot the lesser characters, it’s good to know that they haven’t been forgotten.

The movie isn’t without faults, of course.There are a few aspects which are not fully explained, such as the dimension summons that are used throughout the film. The ending also seemed a little rushed, without going into too much detail, the final battle appeared to be a little… abrupt. There is a lot of build up through flashbacks which are useful and interesting but at times feel like slightly overused and it ruins the pacing a little.

Ultimately though, this really is a great addition to the Yu-Gi-Oh world. There are some genuinely exciting moments and some fantastic laugh out loud moments. The true pull is the nostalgia it brings along with meeting back up with our old friends in Yugi and co, but all the characters have their moments to shine.

Expected to be available on DVD/Blu Ray in the UK on 29th May 2017

[deckmaniacs]

May the Fusion be with you!

By Gaz Webber

Fusions are about to get a concentrated dose of awesome new cards courtesy of Fusion Enforcers!

One of the forgotten arts of Yu-Gi Oh! today is Fusion Summoning.  With Pendulum and XYZ decks becoming some of the most used decks in competitive play, Fusion has some catching up to do... but that will soon change with the release of Fusion Enforcers!

So what can you expect from this exciting new addition to the world of Duel Monsters? Well, first up we have a new archetype called the Invoked. Now all these new Fusion monsters revolve around one core monster card named Aleister the Invoker; Aleister is the only main monster in this deck, making this archetype functional with a lot of other decks. It allows you to run a very small Fusion engine, and lets you change your deck strategy based around the cards your opponent is using.

How do you summon these powerful beasts from the extra deck? You can use the new magic card, Invocation, use it to combine just about anything with Aleister the Invoker to get Invoked beasts out on the field.  If summoning an Invoked monster using Invocation, you can use monster cards on your side of the field, or in either players graveyard by banishing them from the duel, which opens the game up to all sorts of crazy combos depending on whatever lurks in your opponent's or your own graveyard!

The Invoked Fusion monsters themselves need one Aleister the Invoker plus one more monster of the stated attribute - for example, light, dark, or wind - to successfully Fusion summon them. With high attack points and some powerful effects, this is sure to be the new meta deck you'll be seeing at your local tournaments! So here's a few tips on the Invoked and decks they can be utilised in.

Water decks featuring Mermail and Atlantean monsters, for instance, can use Aleister the Invoker and any water monster to Fusion summon Invoked Cocytus without even breaking a sweat.

Invoked Cocytus has 1800 ATK, 2900 DEF, can attack from Defence position, and can't be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects, making it an immovable object on the field!

Since Lightsworn decks send cards from the deck to the graveyard with ease, throw Aliester into the graveyard. Once it's there you can use the effect of Invocation to banish it along with a Lightsworn monster to Fusion summon Invoked Mechaba!

Invoked Mechaba lets you negate the activation of a Spell card, Trap card, or monster effect - and banish the card whose activation was negated - by sending a of the same type from your hand to the graveyard. Once summoned you can make your plays using its effect for some sweet protection!

There's new support for other Fusion decks such as the Predatory Plants seen in Invasion Vengeance, the fluffy but not so cute Frightfur monsters, and all sorts of Fusion magic and trap card support (like Instant Fusion and the new anime version of Polymerization). It's safe to say Fusion Enforcers booster packs will be flying off the shelves, so grab your Fusion fix while you still can!

[deckmaniacs]

August MTG Inventory

Here is the inventory for the August MTG Boost Box, so you can be sure of the great value you get from each box!

9 booster packs @ £3.69 each - £33.21

2 packs UltraPro Matte sleeves @ £2.49 each - £4.98

2 deck boxes @ £1.50 each - £3.00

Total - £41.19

[deckmaniacs]

June box inventories

In a bid to save some trees we have stopped including printed inventories in the monthly boxes. So each month we will post the inventories online.

Magic The Gathering box

10 boosters - £36.90

SOI into deck - £13.99

Total value - £50.89

Pokemon box

7 boosters - £25.13

Pikachu libre and Suicune starter kit - £9.99

Premium boosters - £5.00

Total value - £40.12

[deckmaniacs]

The Eldritch Moon Cards to Get Excited About

Ready? No? Well I understand you. The summer is in full bloom, new magic sets every month, and, now that it’s July, the time is right for some good ol’ fashioned horror! Eldritch Moon is the second set in the Shadows over Innistrad block and comes out July 22. That means spoiler season is in full swing and my oh my is this the weirdest set I have seen in a very long time, shall we dive in into some of the sweetest cards coming to a booster near you? Ready? Yeah? Well me too!

Bruna, Gisela and the Meld mechanic

Lets get rid of the elephant in the room, what is even going on? Two cards makes one? Well flip cards just elevated to the next level. The meld mechanic lets two cards flip into one big card represented on the backside (each card displays half of the large card) and is something we’ve seen in both Yu-Gi-Oh and Duel Masters, but never in Magic. This is the flagship meld card, and a mighty good one at that too, lets check these out!

First of all is Bruna, the Fading Light, a card that is considered the weaker of the two, and that is mainly because of her mana cost. On her own, Bruna isn’t all that exciting, 5/7 Flying Vigilance is a powerful body, and her effect is mighty fine too, but for 7 mana, it’s just a bit too much for standard. What makes her so interesting though is that her ability brings back the next card.

Gisela, the Broken Blade aka “Mini Baneslayer” is on the other hand a real powerhouse, at only four mana, 4/3 with Flying, First Strike AND Lifelink is just beyond good, and with very few 3 damage burn spells running around, this is sure to make huge waves in standard. Also please just think of the card Alway Watching and this… sheesh.

Brisela, Voice of Nightmares is just beyond crazy. If you manage to control both Bruna and Gisela at the same time until an end step, it is almost certainly game over for your opponent, this is where Bruna’s ability becomes relvant too, since you can get back Gisela and then just wait until the end step. Brisela is a 9/10 with Flying, First Strike, Vigilance and Lifelink, need i say more? And the second ability just takes it above and beyond, since almost all removal spells are 3-mana or less, this card is extremely hard to get off the table!

Tree of Perdition

Tree of Perdition is a card I just couldn’t go on without mentioning, the flavour and combo with a very particular card is just too hilarious not to pay notice to! First of, if any of you know anything about the original Innistrad block, you probably know about the card “Tree of Redemption”, well look what happened! 

I just love how these classic cards from the original set return with a twist, the flavour and the nostalgia is crazy! And while this card might not be the “auto include” card in standard, have you heard of a little card called “Triskaidekaphobia”? Well this card plus that card gives your opponent exactly one turn to deal with these cards or they lose the game, hilarious!

Harmless Offering

Alright first of all… this is the cutest card art I’ve ever seen. Second, this plus Demonic Pact is absolutely hilarious. Case closed.

But what happened to the cat’s tail?

Eldritch Evolution

Okay here we have what might just be the best card in the set, it might not look like it at first, but when you think of the now banned in modern card Birthing Pod, the mainstay deck with Collected Company, Survival of the fittest and so on you can start to see how this might end up just like those. The potential for real combos here are amazing, and I can surely see this at least making its way into Abzan coco decks in modern to assemble the Melira combo! But just think about this, Goblin Dark-Dwellers into World Breaker, Kitchen Finks into Baneslayer Angel, this card is disgusting and in no way fair!

Tamiyo, Field Researcher

This card was the last card spoiled for week one and I really like that theme,as opposed to just busting out of the gates with all the planeswalkers immediately. 

Second of all, this card is ba-na-nas, being in Bant colours is sure, a bit hard, but boy is this a powerful planeswalker, let’s break it down!

First of all, Tamiyo only costs four mana and enters the battlefield with four loyalty, being able to go directly up to five, sweet!

+1: This might just be one of the best plus ones we have ever seen, pay attention to that it doesn’t mention your creatures, so worst case scenario, you choose two of your opponents creatures, and when they kill Tamiyo you get to draw two cards, so she replaces herself at least, thats great! Best case you apply the effect to your creatures with Vigilance and since says until your next turn, you can both attack and block and get to draw cards!

-2: Simple but really awesome, protects Tamiyo, protects you, locks down your opponents board. Overall this is great tempo and doesn’t cost you much at all, fantastic!

-7: This is Omniscience + Ancestral recall, need I say more? Easily one of the most powerful ultimates ever printed on a planeswalker ever, and if you have Doubling Season out you can ultimate this immediately and Tamiyo still survives, that’s just not fair, it’s not okay, card.. you are busted!

Thats all the time I have for this article to not make it a Stephen King novel, there are plenty of more cards I could go on about, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Decimator of Provinces, Lone Rider, Thalia’s Lancers and more, this set is shaping up to be terribly exciting, I’m so stoked!

Join me next article where I cover the second week of Eldtrich Moon spoilers and go over some tips and tricks for when this set hits the shelves (or a boost box near you). And if you would like some extra value on sweet Eltrich Moon stuff, be sure to check out the July Deck Maniacs Boost Box before it sells out! Use the code “THIRE” for 15% off your first box, it’s an offer you cannot refuse!

Now head out there and brew people, let me know about all the cool stuff you find out about Eldrich Moon on any of my social media channels, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

Until next time

Thire

[deckmaniacs]

Emrakul or Emra not cool?

Written by ProjectPeanuts

The second set of the Shadows over Innistrad-block, Eldritch Moon, started off with a spoiler card with tentacles. Emrakul, the third and lost Eldrazi titan emerged as the shadow over Innistrad. Discussions and rumors were true, the clues were there, but nobody actually believed or wanted to believe this happening. The response to this supersecret revelation that of course nobody saw coming, was a mixture of “Ah, I knew it! Awesome!” to “Well dang, a third Zendikar :(” Here are my thoughts on it all.

Sigh, more Eldrazi…

Alright, you know, I don’t have anything against the Edrazi. Their lore is quite mysterious and feels perfect for the Magic: the Gathering universe. They remind me of the Tyranid alien race from Warhammer 40,000, who I really love. Mindless, ravaging creatures with a single purpose: carnage and destroying with a hive mind or Eldrazi titan leading the fray.

With that said, I sure had my share of Eldrazi nonsense. They were pretty insane in their own expansion, Rise of the Eldrazi. Sure, they could use some additions, something that they got in Battle for Zendikar. After that, another dose of Eldrazi staples entered the battlefield in Oath of the Gatewatch with the Modern drama of banning Eye of Ugin and so leading to the death of all those overwhelming Eldrazi decklists as a result. 

New titans, gimmicks and different tricks with processing and ingesting. Eldrazi’s had better and more versatile cards than before and, with the addition of Wastes, felt complete. For me, I was kind of done with all those slithering tentacles and floating triangles. It felt great to return to a plane were that immense horror feeling of Magic was so well designed. The return to Innistrad sure changed the setting up again.

And so the clues began. People did not want to believe in the Emrakul theory. Marit Lage, Nicol Bolas and even New Phyrexia all passed among the theories of what it could be. It can’t just be that obvious right? Even I began to lose my mind. S-H-A-D-O-W-S has the same amount of letters as E-M-R-A-K-U-L! Emrakul is secretly Tibalt! Another Master Eldrazi joins the fray called Ulazikul!


Any hardcore story and lore fan of Magic sure knew it could only be Emrakul. All the clues and hinting’s were in the art, the solved Tamiyo puzzle on all those clue cards and the involvement of those old Oath of the Gatewatchers Sorin, Nahiri and Ugin. (Be sure to google that Clue story by the way, that was some serious business!) The expansion symbol of Eldritch Moon was long kept secret. And seeing it now, I can understand why. Seems that the Eldrazi even took the Avacynian logo away…

Next up was the big reveal; the new and redesigned Emrakul in her card frame! Forums exploded with some players being utterly disappointed, whilst others embraced it. It was a bad card (we are spoiled), it’s nowhere near the original (thanks designers!) or simply dies to other-than-instant-removal (because that argument never gets old). 

I guess they didn’t have enough madness in the previous block. But I can understand that ‘off’ feeling and sort of hatred to a spoiled card with this big of an impact. There were going to be more Eldrazi or Eldrazi fusions running around in Eldritch Moon, on the plane of Innistrad were ghouls, zombies, werewolves and humans were residing. Again! Is this plane also forsaken? Who is next? Tarkir? The next spoiler Coax from the Blind Eternities showed that there also will be more Eldrazi related cards, and this basically shows a tutor/Wish for any Eldrazi card.

This sure sounds like Innistrad is bound to have EVEN MORE Eldrazi cards, again! Pff, this is hardly creative, right? Is Eldrazi really getting even more support? What else is left? Booo! Mark Rosewater helped shush the worries on his blog:

“You've acknowledged it was a mistake for BFZ to focus on Eldrazi when it was ZEN as adventure world which helped make it such a popular set. Now we're seeing the Eldrazi muck up another beloved world. Will this apparent contradiction be explained?”

“Innistrad’s core identity is the horror genre. On the return, we focused more on cosmic horror as a way to change things up. Emrakul is playing directly into cosmic horror.

Also, be aware that Eldritch Moon is more about the impact of Emrakul on the plane (aka the cosmic horror) than about Eldrazi.”

Alright, as I’m typing this not much of Eldritch Moon is spoiled yet, but I’m feeling slightly sceptic about that. To come back to my mixed feelings, I actually like the design of the new Emrakul titan. It has some reference to the Shadows over Innistrad with her mega-delirium and weird ability. She felt more fair than any other titan so far and for that I like her the most. If you are used to play all those Ulamogs and Kozileks in your Commander deck, then this maybe looks like a bonafide failure. If it keeps like this, with only a few real Eldrazi cards, it might turn out pretty awesome. Merged angels, walking Eldrazi Ooze towns and who knows what else? That sure sounds pretty cool to me. 

Maybe it still could work out, if only the design does not fail us. Let Innistrad be Innistrad and let those Gatewatchers and Planeswalkers finally close that Eldrazi Chapter. The creation of new horrors on a horror plane fits like a glove. And if we can believe those promised “Eldrazi are on the background” quotes, then yes. I do like this obvious take on the story.

Let me write down a few extra things that are on my mind about this happening in a short list for you.

Likes:

New horrors that truly look gruesome!
+ Finish Emrakul and be done with the Eldrazi!

Intriguing first spoiler.

This INSANE art:

Dislikes:

Even more Eldrazi support…

Can’t we just be done with them?!

Feels like a same sort of scenario as in Battle for Zendikar.

Is there anything left for sidestories with Geralf, Gisa and other things happened on Innistrad besides the Eldrazi onslaught (note: again, maybe this will be clear in future spoilers)?

I’m curious about your point of view on the Eldrazi matter on Innistrad. Was it a bold and amazing move by Wizards? Or was it a lame, uninspired continuation of the Eldrazi madness that we’ve seen already? What do you like or dislike about it? 

Be sure to check out Deck Maniac’s site for more blog posts and articles. Also check out my own MTG video’s or social media platforms for more Magic updates and pictures! Thanks for reading and don’t forget to comment!

[deckmaniacs]

5 Eternal Masters cards to get excited about

Alright let’s take a deep breath people, whether you are ranting about the rarity shift of the cards or experiencing crazy nostalgia for Magic’s old times, this is a set to look out for.

Eternal Masters is the newest addition to the ‘Masters’ set cycle which sees the best cards from different formats clumped together in one limited print run, powerful and expensive set. This time around we have the set focusing on the formats Legacy, Vintage, Commander and Cube.

Formats like Legacy and Vintage are often times extremely complicated and the cards used span from the sets released now, to the very first MTG sets released over 20 years ago! Many of the cards are ridiculously expensive and have no foil printings whatsoever. So much has changed since the dawn of magic, but now is the time for some of these cards to make a comeback! In this article I will go over some of my favorite cards spoiled from the set, and also give you a little inside look on the history of the card!

Mana Crypt

I couldn’t start this spoiler article of without mentioning that my number one card on the “Top 5 cards that should be reprinted in Eternal Masters” article turned out to be true! So far three out of five cards being mentioned there has been confirmed reprints in Eternal Masters! That’s what I call a success! The coolest one of them all is Mana Crypt (which was my number one pick) and I couldn’t be more excited!

Having seen print only two times before and never in a normal set (one being a media promo and the other a judge promo) this card boasts a healthy $170 price tag, sheesh. Not  only that, but this time around we actually have the chance to get this as a normal foil, which looks super pretty! This card sees heavy play in several different Vintage decks, being paired with cards such as Tolarian Academy and the Moxes! It is also a Commander and Cube allstar, being heavily featured in both.

Vampiric Tutor

Here’s another spicy mythic for you! Could it be the next best tutor of all time, or perhaps the third? Why yes it could! Vampiric Tutor has been a beloved card from it’s original printing in Visions until now, never falling out of favor and always a safe bet for many formats. Being an almost auto include in all U/B decks in Vintage, being fantastic with Miracle cards and one of the best black cards in Commander this card has seen heavy play but also hasn’t seen a reprint since Classic Sixth Edition released in 1999, so now is the perfect time! This card has once seen printing as a judge promo but other than that, no normal foil set copies exist, so this without question can be a real chase foil!

Nimble Mongoose

But we cannot go on just mentioning mythics, we also need to focus on other cards for other formats. Nimble Mongoose is a nimble little creature, and with Eternal Masters comes the first printing of it as a common. Back in Odyssey this was an uncommon to be reckoned with, and since then it has seen play in many places. Nowadays we mostly see Nimble Mongoose being played in RUG Delver lists in Legacy, but when Eternal Masters releases, the common rarity shift makes this playable in pauper, and boy do I believe it will shine! Many pauper decks will make use of this cheap and efficient threat and it is a great addition!

Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor

The tutors are back baby! Not only do we get the Vampiric Tutor, but also the heavily played and fantastic Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor. These two cards are currently sporting a pretty hefty price tag and is a mega hit in both Commander and Cube. Both cards haven’t seen print in a real set since the late 90’s and look, Enlightened Tutor even has a nice callback to the card Idyllic Tutor in the book cover!

Eternal Masters is filled with everything you need as a Magic player, if you like crazy combos, powerful decks, expensive cards, Magic history or one of several different Eternal formats, this is the set for you. 

The set, much like most other draft sets are designed with a specific theme for each of the ten color combinations, but this time around, compared to the somewhat of a failure Modern Masters 2015 was we have ten combinations which are easily intertwined. Developers have called this draft format “like drating a cube” and that makes me extremely excited, because that means almost no cards are without any sort of use!

Hope you enjoyed reading through my little walk of previews, if you manage to get your hands on some Eternal Masters, let me know of your experiences! Any crazy combos you pulled off? An amazing draft session? Opening a sweet card? I’m eager to hear of what this set can create in terms of stories! As always you can check me out on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. I will be opening up a box of Eternal Masters on the YoreMTG Youtube channel soon!

Until next time

Thire

[deckmaniacs]

How to get started with Magic The Gathering - Part 1, The Basics

Hello and welcome everyone! With the stream of many new fans of Deck Maniacs coming up, I realized that I cannot take for granted that everyone knows about the modern meta, or the power level of certain cards in standard. Sometimes we gotta take it back a notch. Therefore, here is the first part of a guide on how to start playing the game we all know and love.

First of all, you must know that Magic the Gathering is a multiplayer game, so talk a friend into trying it out with you, the easiest and most fun way to learn is with a friend or several! So, now you have a friend and you are both ready to start playing some Magic! But where do you actually start? To answer this question, I have decided to include two simple steps that not only ensures the basic knowledge on how to play, but also a cheap way of getting into the game.

Sample Decks

The first and best thing you should do is visit your local card or game store and ask for a “Sample Deck”. Grab two so that you can play with a friend. This is a 30 card deck ready made with simple cards included, all to make you learn the basic mechanics of the game. The deck also comes with a rules reference card, which is a little insert on some of the basic rules, so that you know everything you need to get started!

Once you’ve each got one of these decks you are ready to begin. Note that these decks should be entirely free of charge and if for some reason your card store has them with a price tag then you could try asking to borrow them instead. These decks include no random cards and no cards of real value, therefore are useless to more experienced players. 

Also note that if you have to pay for them, never pay more than £1 or $2 for them, it’s really not worth it. Another way to get free cards is just to ask your store if they have any leftover bulk, most experienced players just leave their commons and uncommons at the table for new players to pick up, so don’t be afraid to just grab a pile of cards!

Now that you feel comfortable with the basic rules of the game, it’s time to move on to the second step. One of the most exciting things about Magic the Gathering in my opinion is to open booster packs; that fresh new card smell mixed with the anticipation of what cool cards could be included is an experience in of itself! Magic the Gathering’s secondary market is huge, and with that comes high money value of certain cards, therefore buying a booster pack is a bit like scratching a lottery ticket! With opening booster packs also comes the ability to start building decks, which is actually the most fun you can have with Magic the Gathering, and we’ll cover that topic in a later article! Before that though, we’ll look at sealed decks.

Sealed Deck

When you are familiar with the basic rules of the game, now is the time to grab a friend and head down to whatever store sells MTG and pick up six booster packs each. With these six booster packs you will then go ahead and open up and from the 90 cards provided, you will each build a 40-card deck to play against each other. This will not only ensure that you have the chance of opening up some sweet cards, but you’ll actually learn how to build a new deck and play with something you can consider your creation! 

Whenever you feel like switching things up, try building a different deck with your sealed pool! If you follow these two steps you should have learned to play and learned to love the game already! Good luck!

These are some sweet tips on how to get into Magic, if you have another great tip or maybe need some help getting into the game, be sure to let me know on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram! Also be sure to check out Deck Maniacs and their subscription box which provides you with endless possibilities of play every month! Use the code “THIRE” for 15% off your first box!

[deckmaniacs]

Which Shadows Over Innistrad intro pack is best?

Magic: The Gathering recently welcomed in the new set, Shadows Over Innistrad, and with this new release we have the ever present intro packs. Time and again people always ask which intro pacck is best, so I cracked open every deck, grabbed a friend and played tonnes of matches to see which one would be victorious!

Ghostly Tide (White-Blue)

Ghostly Tide is the white centered intro pack with spirits as its theme. The deck features many, many flyers and is still surprisingly quick out of the gates with at least a turn two play every match I played with the deck. Featuring six removal spells this deck also somewhat easily took care of most bigger threats. 

The weakness of the deck is most certainly the late game. With no real heavy hitters, mana dumps and scaleable creatures you really had to apply heavy pressure early on to actually win. If you go too deep into the game you’ll have almost no removal against your opponents bigger creatures.

Because of how slow most of the other intro decks are, you almost never need to rush out everything you have, and therefore I very much like ‘Vessel of Ephemera’ on turn two followed by a crack on turn three, then on turn four an ‘Apotechary Geist’ or a ‘Nearheath Chaplain’. Most decks just can't handle this curve very well and you can often times easily sacrifice your own creatures since many of them has an “exile from graveyard” effect. 

To make this deck better I would add some more card engine cards, like card drawing or better use of your graveyard, it’s all to help the late game!

Unearthed Secrets (Blue-Green)

Unearthed Secrets is the blue centered intro deck and has clues at its theme. The deck is somewhat slow out of the gates but when you’re past turn four or so you’ll never ever run out of cards again, and with a constant stream of threats you’ll most likely win. I was personally surprised to see how many clues this deck generates and how hard it is to deal with once its engine has gone off. It's also extremely fun to play when every little move you make pays off in such great numbers and the clues are hilarious!

This deck does play as a combo deck, where if all pieces fit together nicely you’ll gain tremendous amounts of value every time you either make or break a clue. The weakness lies in those cases when your curve is uneven and you stumble early on. The deck doesn’t feature that many flyers and little to no removal whatsoever, which is a problem, so when you play you better have that sweet curve and combo off as fast as possible. 

If I were to add something to the deck to make it better, I would go ahead and add some removal and interaction aswell as a bit more consistency, currently there are only one or two of almost every card.

Vampiric Thirst (Black-Red)

Vampiric Thirst is the black centered intro deck and features vampires as its theme, but you probably already figured that out by now! This is an extremely high tempo aggro deck with massive early life swings, and I mean massive, massive to the level of “this would be good in standard”. The deck revolves around the ‘Madness’ ability and uses its many discard outlets to do all kinds of crazy things, like lightning bolt your opponents creatures, or perhaps just cast a card for a ridiculously low mana cost, it’s all there!

It's important to note that this deck is extremely fast and is able to deal an enormous amount of damage in only a few turns so your opponents creatures will more than likely have to be put on chump duty if they want to survive. This also leads to the deck’s weakness; you run out of cards in no time and then you’re left to top deck your way through the rest of the game. Often times I would run out of cards to play as early as turn four and with my opponent on something like 4 life left I felt that I had to crawl my way to the finish line and really string together an amazing flurry of top decks. 

To make this deck better I woul go ahead and add something more than that one single ‘Macabre Waltz’ to interact with the graveyard, since so many cards end up in your own graveyard it becomes excruciating to watch as all of these cards go to waste with no reason to use them.

Angelic Fury (Red-White)

Angelic Fury is the red centered intro deck and features… well no real theme at all. It’s all a crazy mix of creatures, noncreatures, hound like creatures and despite its name, only one single angel! This fact makes the deck a bit boring compared to the other decks, it doesn’t really embrace the Innistrad theme well, everyone has been playing with vanilla creatures and burn spells before, nothing new there! 

The deck itself is fairly aggressive and surprisingly consistent, out of all of these five intro decks I feel like this is the one you can be most sure of will actually work in almost every game. It also has a nice balance between early and late game and has a nice enough amount of burn spells.

What this deck lacks other than the general fun of playing with Innistrad themed decks is actually quite hard to figure out, but if anything I feel like the deck would perform better late game especially if it had some kind of combo and finesse with the interaction between the different cards. If I had to improve on the deck, the first thing i’d do is give it a theme, maybe something like humans would be a good fit, and would also give it a combo theme since humans is such a strong and thought out theme of this set.

Horrific Visions (Green-Black)

Horrific Visions is the green centered intro deck and has delirium as its theme. With a high average mana cost and such a diverse spread of cards you can expect this to be a powerful late game deck, almost unmatched. Once you get delirium running and a few cards like ‘Tooth Collector’ or ‘Obsessive Skinner’ the hardest part for you will be to remember all of the upkeep/end step triggers. On top of that I really get the horror spooks theme of the deck which is fantastic to me, so a big plus there! 

So if you like late game domination and lots of thinking and remembering, this should be the deck for you. After all, who doesn’t enjoy playing long games of magic?

The weakness of this deck is however fairly big, I feel like delirium is unnecessarily hard to activate. The deck focuses so much on delirium being turned on and therefore when it isn’t, the deck can barely play at all. With such a high overall casting cost of your cards, your opponents can easily tempo you out of the game with no way back, so to have a really enjoyable game you need a perfect hand. So I would say mulligan with this deck is more effective than with the others. 

To make the deck better I would start of by having a more consistent and diverse spread of creatures and non creatues, then lower the overall mana cost a bit, but if you like huge beatdown creatures, this is the one for you!

Let battle commence!

Now that we have gone through all the strengths and weaknesses of the decks as well as potential improvements, it’s time to look at how the decks actually played out! My friend and I locked ourselves in the YoreMTG Studio with some snacks and about 300 sleeves and started sleeving the intro packs up for dueling, our motto was to not leave the stuido until we had tried every available matchup, and then we got to work. After 30 total games we had our results set and our bellies were empty, but before looking at the results, lets walk it all through!

First off I piloted the Ghostly Tide deck against my friend who played with every other one, and boy did it seem to dominate! It took out the Horrific Visions deck with only minor struggles, then beat the Vampiric Thirst one without any real issue. 

The vampire deck got me down to below 10 life each game but always ran out of gas and my spirits did the job well. Then it also went ahead and beat the Angelic Fury deck without much issue at all, the flyers were just too much for the aggro deck to handle, and the 1/5 cards really had their golden time. 

Then suddenly against the Unearthed Secrets deck it got completely smashed, gaining an early advantage but soon failing to get in damage and the Unearthed Secrets deck gaining massive amounts of life with ‘Graf Mole’ and ‘Ongoing Investigation’. The triumph was over after an intense and really fun game!

So after that game, did Unearthed Secrets just smash the other decks? Well.. No not really, after that one game the deck continued on to lose against Vampiric Thirst after two really quick games. It then lost to both Angelic Fury and Horrific Visions after some quick games. It really seems like the clue combo is weak normally and you just need luck and time to assemble it, interesting!

After the fall of Unearthed Secrets we only had about three matches left, which would decide the true victors. So first of, Vampiric Thirst squared off against Horrific Visions and won without any complications (my notes said it was all over in a matter of a few turns and stood no chance with its first creature being played on turn three). 

Then Vampiric Thirst fought against Angelic Fury and after a long and intense game the Vampires lost 1-2. The Angelic Fury deck managed to play out its creatures early and fend off the attacking vampires long enough for the deck to run out of gas, then it could trump its opponent with a flurry of creatures and combat tricks. 

Last game was Angelic Fury vs Horrific Visions, a match in which the Green-Black deck once again couldn’t keep up with the fast pace provided by all the dogs and foxes of the Red-White deck, and after a flurry of removal spells and a big swingy attack the Green-Black deck was once again defeated.

Final standings after ten matches and 30 games:

Ghostly Tide (White-Blue): 3-1 Unearthed Secrets (Blue-Green): 1-3 Vampiric Thirst (Black-Red): 2-2 Angelic Fury (Red-White): 3-1 Horrific Visions (Green-Black): 1-3

So, which deck is best?

So judging by the final results we can see that the Ghostly Tide deck as well as the random pile of aggressive hound animals deck clearly performed the best, but does this mean you should only have to choose between only these two? Well of course not, many factors have to be included. 

First of all we can draw the conclusion that white seems to be a very strong colour, the strongest of the bunch. This is interesting, but I can understand why. White has it all, flyers, aggressive creatures and a bunch of removal.

So, all in all if I had to choose one intro deck for being the funniest to play with, I’d choose Unearthed Secrets, it’s highly flavourful and does so many things that we all love so much, putting things into play, drawing cards, gaining life and so on! 

If I had to pick the overall best deck I’d choose Ghostly Tides, since it has a theme and to me it is a better choice than Angelic Fury, plus I do love me some tempo instead of just some aggro!

Maybe you want to vote for which intro pack you like the most?: http://strawpoll.me/7416642

Thanks for reading this in depth post, let me know what you think in the comments! And remember that you can get 15% off your Deck Maniacs box by using the code “THIRE” in the checkout! Just head to www.deckmaniacs.com to pick up your Magic The Gathering monthly box!

Until next time Thire

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