Cutting EDH

Yeah. So, I have to have, what, 99 cards?

Oops.









































































Hint: The pile of basic lands has 28 lands.

Ouch.

More SHA Drafting

This deck needs no introduction except "lol". So Many Insane Plays, mirite?

Chunk 1:
2 x Pili-Pala
2 x Power of Fire
2 x Presence of Gond
2 x Rustrazor Butcher
1 x Leechbonder

Chunk 2:
1 x Reaper King
3 x Blazethorn Scarecrow
1 x Rattleblaze Scarecrow

Removal and Fixin's and Other:
1 x Consign to a Dream
2 x Curse of Chains
1 x Burn Trail
1 x Farhaven Elf
1 x Manamorphose
1 x Safewright Quest
1 x Mirrorweave
1 x Elsewhere Flask
1 x Mossbridge Troll

Lands
1 x Plains
2 x Island
13 x Forest/Mountain

Yeah, I had a Turn 4 Reaper King, Turn 5 two Pili-Pala. wut

It took first, and I won a shiny new Fulminator Mage, Hearmender, and 3 Kitchen Finkses. And a Flame Javelin.

My other deck was MonoWhite Hope-To-Draw-Armored-Ascension-Or-Kithkin-Rabble-Or-Steel-Of-The-Godhead. Otherwise, I hoped for mana screw. I got 3rd Place. I'm so good at Magic I don't even know. Painter's Servant and Oona and stuff from my loot.

Did some EDH and got decked. Decked. In EDH. No from mill. From drawing.

Mono U lol. Meloku was my General... I regretted that about 0 turns in. Oona gets that job, soon, and with that comes Terror & co.. What co., I dunno yet. But they will happen.

I think I'm going to convert Proteus Staff.dec to be all Tidespout Tyrants. I might cut black, add more combo pieces, and let myself Gush to victory. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewait -

Quick, Q and A:

Q: Have you seen the eyes on Quirion Dryad's old art?
A: No. Let me see. F***.
A2: Yes. F***.
A3: I am dead so I don't have the above 2 opinions.
A1 to A3: Well then how do you walk?!
A3: Not 10 Pound balls. Dead.

Can't walk in either situation, I'm afraid. Quirion Dryad shouldn't be allowed to walk with that art, either. I may cuff her, knock her out, sharpie her over the eyes, and not call back in the morning.

Cos GAT do what GAT wanna do.

This Is The 4th Title I Thought Of

So today, I built 5 decks in 2 hours. Yay, new material. Can it be list tiem nao?

Proteus Staff
4 x Gemstone Mine
3 x Forbidden Orchard
4 x Terramorphic Expanse
2 x Plains
3 x Island
4 x Swamp

1 x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 x Tidespout Tyrant
1 x Herald of Leshrac
1 x Hamletback Goliath
1 x Verdant Force
1 x Platinum Angel

3 x Proteus Staff
4 x Brainstorm
3 x Raise the Alarm
2 x Nuisance Engine
4 x Swords to Plowshares
4 x Rune Snag

4 x Beseech the Queen
2 x Enlightened Tutor
1 x Vampiric Tutor
1 x Mystical Tutor
1 x Demonic Tutor

1 x Seal of Doom
1 x Prison Term
1 x Disenchant
1 x Innocent Blood
1 x Breath of Life

It's like a witty-bitty baby Oath! GOOD TIMES. Goldfishing and text forum goodness.

Artifact Stuffs

4 x Great Furnace
4 x Seat of the Synod
4 x Darksteel Citadel
4 x Glimmervoid
3 x Island
1 x Academy Ruins

3 x Trinket Mage
4 x Frogmite
4 x Myr Enforcer
2 x Arcbound Ravager
4 x Epochrasite
1 x Darksteel Colossus
1 x Sundering Titan
4 x Goblin Welder

1 x Tinker
4 x Thirst for Knowledge
4 x Thoughtcast
1 x Darksteel Forge
1 x Welding Jar
1 x Lightning Greeves
1 x Fabricate
1 x Gilded Lotus
3 x Lotus Bloom

Nuff said.

Standard Legal MBC

21 x Swamp
3 x Leechridden Swamp

4 x Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
4 x Shriekmaw
3 x Epochrasite

4 x Nameless Inversion
4 x Tendrills of Corruption
3 x Corrupt
3 x Damnation
4 x Beseech the Queen

1 x Loxodon Warhammer
1 x Faerie Macabre
1 x Profane Command
1 x Haunting Hymn
1 x Rain of Tears
1 x Slaughter Pact
1 x Dread Return

Because I want a standard deck thats not hated out of the meta.

MRC

18 x Mountain
2 x Thawing Glaciers

2 x Scourge of Kher Ridges
2 x Spitebellows
2 x Torchling
2 x Kumano, Master Yamabushi
2 x Angel of Fury
1 x Taurean Mauler
1 x Hostility
3 x Bogardan Hellkite

1 x Wheel of Fortune
2 x Urza's Rage
4 x Lightning Bolt
4 x Flame Javelin
2 x Incinerate
4 x Jaws of Stone
2 x Molten Disaster
3 x Pyroclasm
1 x Flamebreak
2 x Chandra Nalaar

Whaa?! Sheet.

Vintage MUC - 10 Proxy, Budget

1 x Academy ruins
1 x Stripmine
17 x Island
1 x Sol Ring
1 x Black Lotus
3 x Moxen

2 x Spire Golem
2 x Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
2 x Ophidian
1 x Darksteel Colossus

1 x Tinker
1 x Ancestral Recall
1 x Time Walk
3 x Mana Drain
4 x Force of Will
2 x Misdirection
3 x Spellsnare
3 x Repeal
4 x Merchant Scroll
4 x Mystic Remora
1 x Mindslaver
1 x Fact or Fiction
1 x Mystical Tutor

And such is that is such.

wut

Feeling the Squeeze

(Editor's Note [bahahahaha]: This is a rehash of an article[? Bahahahaha] found here. It's being reformatted and un-meaned to be submitted to Voice of All. I know I'm 2 weeks behind schedule. Go die in a fire.)


Alright, so I'm home sick from school, and just woke up. I don't know how the idea came to me, but I was contemplating eating Samoans Caramel Delights for breakfast when it did. I felt like writing a casual article. There're also no obvious outside influences, especially not announcements about places where more than 0 people may read what I type. But, man, it's all been done before in some combination, and I don't exactly cater to a large crowd (i.e., "Competitive Casual" Multiplayer - sometimes). But I knew there were things I could say. And then, post-cookie-temptation, I knew what I'd write about. Building on a budget! And yet, that'd been done before. Folks on many websites show you awesome decks you can build without breaking the bank. What could I do that would be different? Inspiration struck again. I wouldn't showcase decks under some certain dollar mark. I wouldn't go on and list out awesome budget alternatives to great tournament worthy cards. No, I'd teach you how to actually build on a budget. I build things on budget constraints all the time, so I should know how, right? "No," my nonexistent readers cry, "that's a lie! Your decks are full of ugly things like Wrath of Gods and mean Thoughseizes and icky Dark Confidants or Chrome Moxen!"

Well, yeah they are. But it's not like I went out and bought them over night. I do build on a budget, you can see. Look at my mana bases. All basics, with maybe some charge lands and Thawing Glaciers. Look at my creatures. Ravenous Rats in legacy Fish? Ephemeron in UW Control. Scourge of Kher Ridges in R/G Big Mana. My entire merfolk deck. But I ramble.

What I am here to do is to speak to the I-have-no-idea-how-above-or-below-or-right-at-average players: the ones who work off of an allowance (like me) or have little left over from a pay check for Magic. But, there's something I want to say first. Because whining gets us no where: Get over yourself. If that didn't apply to you, ignore it. If it did, thanks for reading, let's get on to what's important. There are 3 very easy ways to circumvent budget problems that I'm going to highlight.

The first is probably the one that'll meet the most friction. It'll hurt some of you to read. Seriously. I'm warning you! ...

Stop buying booster packs and opening them on a whim. "But," my nonexistent readers cry again, "they're so cheap! If I pay 4 dollars for that 10th Edition booster and crack a Wrath of God, it's like I just payed 1/4 of the price!" Yeah, well, you could've also just opened The Hive or Rootwater Matriarch. And I'm sure you don't need another Anaba Bodyguard.

And I know the temptation is going to kill you, it's impossible to resist the urge! That's cool. You don't have to stop completely (even though you should, but who am I kidding?). I usually buy a healthy amount of packs when new sets come out. Heck, do it with some friends and you'll all have the commons and uncommons you want, and can fight and fiercely trade over that new 20 dollar rare land. Just, don't make a habit of it. You'll end up with more jank rares than money rares soon enough, and you'll end up in the same position that you hate: discontent and broke.

Secondly, play limited. Lots and lots of limited. This has multiple advantages to it. First and foremost, it improves your game. This will make you a more successful player, even when faced with budget constraints. Next, you still get the joy of cracking boosters, which is always fun. I'm sure it's going to take a long time for that novelty to wear off (It'll take a much longer time to wear off if you're still saying "Score!" to just about anything you open). And lastly, you can win good, expensive rares/uncommons. And that concerns you! Whether you rare draft, or play a solid game and win packs in the end, you can frequently end up with good rares. Especially if you have one vital skill: the ability to make good trades and negotiate. Lets say you just got off a LLM draft, and won a Murmuring Bosk in your packs/first picked one. Now, you have no plans for a treefolk deck. Or Doran. However, you do have a spicy UB deck in the making. So trade that Bosk off for Underground Rivers! 8 of them. Because Doran players don't know left from right and smell funny, so they'll think it's cool.

Additionally, and most importantly, and I know I've made this point before (elsewhere... elsewhen?), but invest. Get tournament staples over time. It's definitely worth saving up for them in the end. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, and you'll feel the pain in the wallet first, but it's worth it in the end unless you're a Magic hating Bolshie. But you aren't, are you?

Something else I'd like to add, and this may be a bit biased, but I also believe a streamlined control deck is easier to build than blistering aggro decks. Aggro decks are unforgiving if you miss a color. A classic example was Rav/TSP standard Boros Deck Wins. You had to go from R to WW to 1WW to 2RR every game in order to hit your curve and beat the Wrath. And don't even get me started on domain Zoo. With control decks, you can keep a 3 Island, 1 Plains, Akroma hand, because you have the time to draw those other white sources.

I guess you could say my opinion falls between Ben Bleiweiss, as seen on the official website, and Chris Romeo over at SCG.com. It's perfectly cool, recommended, and entirely reasonable to get budget replacements for staple cards that can cost quite a bit. Condemn costs 1/4 of Swords to Plowshares. However, I also feel that some things just can't be replaced. If you want a 3 color deck without Green (say, RWB), and you're going to play cards with RR, WWW, RW, BB, and BR, be prepared for some major color problems if you don't have the appropriate duals. That, or you're clogging your deck up with Signets and Lenses. Dreams get shattered; such is life.

1. Singles, not packs.
2. Draft, draft, and draft some more. Then some sealed.
3. Invest in staples!