Nahiri, the Harbinger Bonus Episode!

Nahiri, the Harbinger

“Nahiri, the Harbinger is not obviously super powerful.”
-Mike

“I think Nahiri, the Harbinger is obviously super powerful.”
-Patrick

Well then.

What’s going on with this new Shadows Over Innistrad Planeswalker?

[+2]: You may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.

Nahiri’s [+2] is great because it helps her reach her [-8] so quickly. Note: You don’t even have to discard a card! You can “just” give Nahiri two additional loyalty if you want to.

That said, Nahiri is actively great with cards like Fiery Temper. Nahiri is “actively great” with Madness!

Patrick notes that if you want to play a gigantic (if hard-to-cast) monster for Nahiri’s [-8] ability you might accidentally draw it. Luckily Nahiri’s [+2] ability lets you discard the aforementioned uncastable monster, cashing it in for an action card.

[-2]: Exile target enchantment, tapped artifact, or tapped creature.

Nahiri’s middle ability is actually her bread and butter. The obvious thing here is that Nahiri can act basically as two Utter Ends for the cost of one. Nahiri gives players the ability to deal with enchantments and artifacts without having to dedicate specific slots.

Of course, you can just play Nahiri, use her [-2] the first time, and be left with a powerful Planeswalker!

[-8]: Search your library for an artifact or creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. It gains haste. Return it to your hand at the beginning of the next end step.

Nahiri’s “ultimate” is not the kind of ability that automatically wins the game. However there is a lot of play here. Nahiri can level up very quickly due to her [+2] ability. This can let you cash in your four mana planeswalker for a much more powerful finisher… While saving mana.

Nahiri’s most obvious playmate at this point might be Dragonlord Atarka. She drops Atarka the first time (letting you get that trigger), lets you slam in for 8 (i.e. “infinity” on its side) and then even bounces Atarka back to your hand so you can re-play it for additional 187 action!

Powerful, certainly… But obviously super powerful, or not obviously super powerful?

Check out where Patrick and Michael land on this Planeswalker (and several new Shadows Over Innistrad cards) on “Nahiri, the Harbinger Bonus Episode!”

Direct Download

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
, , ,
Posted on

Epiphany at the Drownyard

“It isn’t the way you draw seven cards most of the time, but for six mana, Epiphany at the Drownyard draws the same number of cards as Sphinx’s Revelation.”
-Patrick

Epiphany at the Drownyard
Epiphany at the Drownyard is our exclusive Shadows Over Innistrad preview card!

Epiphany at the Drownyard is a powerful and flexible new way to draw cards come Shadows Over Innistrad. It has great flexibility because you can burn it for two (or even just one) mana… Or tap tons of lands into it for a tremendous long game impact.

… But how much mana should you pour into your Epiphany at the Drownyard?

  • x=0 : You’re not going to be doing this very often, but when x=0 Epiphany at the Drownyard costs exactly U. This off-label tactic might be exactly how you use your last mana to flip over your Thing in the Ice on the cheap. This is not “card disadvantage” when Awoken Horror sends a ton of token creatures home, and the tactical advantage might be worth more than a card anyway, depending on board position.
  • x=1 : You’re basically cycling the card for two mana. When x=1 you can put one card into each of the two piles; so you’re basically trading Epiphany at the Drownyard for one of the next two cards in your deck (it replaces itself) but you are also putting two cards into the graveyard, which can be helpful with Jace, delve cards, etc.
  • x=2 : When x=2 you are flipping over three total cards. All other things being held equal you will put one card in one pile and two cards in the other. Most of the time you will be getting the same number of cards as when x=1, but you will have more control. For example, say there is a card you really want… If you put it against two cards the opponent will have to evaluate whether one good card is worth two other cards.
  • x=3 : When x=3 Epiphany at the Drownyard costs the same as Inpsiration, Fact or Fiction, and of course Steam Augury. It is very comparable to Steam Augury at this point… You will end up with two cards for four mana in most cases; the difference here is that you will be putting only two additional cards into the graveyard instead of three.
  • x=4 : This iteration of Epiphany at the Drownyard will be a relatively weak step up from when x=3. You will probably only get two cards (still); and Epiphany at the Drownyard will be exactly a Steam Augury but for one more mana.
  • x=5 : As Patrick said, at six mana you will get the same number of cards as when the mighty Sphinx’s Revelation cost six. That’s kind of a big deal! At any point after this Epiphany at the Drownyard will look increasingly potent.

Remember: You can always do weird things like putting all the cards in one pile. The opponent will have to choose between giving you a ton of cards in hand… Or a ton of cards in graveyard (which might be what you want).

Epiphany at the Drownyard is actually a pretty cool Dragon tutor. Try putting Dragonloard Silumgar in one pile and Haven of the Spirit Dragon in the other. End result: You get your Dragonlord 😉

Lots and lots more from Michael and Patrick on this new card (and other topics) in “Epiphany at the Drownyard”!

Direct Download

Want to hear more from Top Level Podcast?

Patrick’s Magic: The Gathering Books

Michael’s Magic: The Gathering Books

, , ,
Posted on

Archangel Avacyn and Thing in the Ice

To begin with, let us all bend the knee to friend of the ‘cast Christine Sprankle as a blood soaked Archangel Avacyn:

Well, at least Patrick is bending the knee 🙂

Okay!

Serious Business!

Here are some sweet Transform cards from Shadows Over Innistrad:

Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier

Archangel Avacyn

In its natural form, Archangel Avacyn is like a Serra Angel with upside.

In addition to its natural state as a 4/4 vigilant flyer for five mana, this hot new card has flash. That means that if you are a Draw-Go style Control player, you will not be required to risk mana on your own turn to play your endgame threat. You can sit back with permission mana open and wait and see.

But wait, there’s more!

Any flash creature has the ability to Simian Grunts the opponent during combat. We have talked for several weeks now how 2/3 and 3/3 creatures are collectively the dominant tempo-oriented force in Standard… Archangel Avacyn dropping by during combat is great for eating those kinds of creatures. Except…

She and all your other creatures become indestructible, too! Now you can talk about fighting 4/4 creatures successfully, too.

How about the Christine Sprankle flip-side?

Avacyn, the Purifier

Remember what we said just a paragraph or so ago about 2/3 and 3/3 creatures? Sorry Reflector Mage! Avacyn, the Purifier is going to be an amazing, possibly format-warping, new card!

At the very least, think about ticking up your Gideon to five loyalty against five open mana. Otherwise, Avacyn might just purify him.

Thing in the Ice // Awoken Horror

Thing in the Ice

Mike’s favorite card (so far) from Shadows Over Innistrad is Thing in the Ice. A 0/4 creature for two mana is eminently serviceable for self-defense… And this one becomes, in Patrick’s parlance “a blue Tarmogoyf”:

Awoken Horror

… As if a Tarmogoyf can reasonably expect to be 7/8 like Awoken Horror.

These sweet flip cards are joined by red and Rakdos beatdown; and the return of the Madness mechanic in “Archangel Avacyn and Thing in the Ice”:

Direct Download

, , , ,
Posted on

Hardened Scales is Deceptively Explosive

Hardened Scales
Hardened Scales may be the new boogeyman

Number One Owen Turtenwald may have won Grand Prix Houston (with his Rally the Ancestors variant) but the hot new deck in Standard has to be Hardened Scales!

The new version of Hardened Scales takes advantage of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar as a source of +1/+1 counters. Faster than Undergrowth Champion (as Undergrowth Champion is essentially a four drop), the newest Nissa synergizes with namesake Hardened Scales itself, buffs any and all creatures on your side… And even gives the Rally deck fits.

I mean, once you start ticking up Nissa’s [+1] what is the Rally player supposed to do? Their creatures are relatively dorky, so they might have problems getting through the seemingly innocuous 0/1 Plant tokens (believe it or not). They can’t let this go on for very long before, you know, Nissa just goes Ultimate!

What is particularly unusual about the current incarnation of Hardened Scales is how homogenous the deck is. The reality is… There just aren’t that many cards outside a core number that anyone wants to play! So even people who haven’t worked with one another will often end up with seemingly related or even identical lists. This is a representative Hardened Scales list:

Chapman Sim

4 Endless One
4 Hangarback Walker

4 Dromoka’s Command

4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Hardened Scales
4 Managorger Hydra
4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4 Servant of the Scale

4 Abzan Falconer

2 Canopy Vista
2 Flooded Strand
10 Forest
2 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

sideboard:
2 Evolutionary Leap
2 Abzan Battle Priest
3 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 High Sentinels of Arashin
2 Silkwrap
2 Valorous Stance

Patrick and Michael talk about tons of new and reinvigorated Standard decks in this one, including Jeskai Black, Rally the Ancestors, Standard Eldrazi… And even a Grixis Dragons build! Check them all out in “Hardened Scales is Deceptively Explosive”

Direct Download

, ,
Posted on

Pulse of Murasa is Still Misunderstood

Pulse of Murasa
Pulse of Murasa is a card with a bright future. It is not yet fully understood, or widely enough played.

Patrick and Michael start in a strange place… A Grixis deck that won a recent PPTQ in the hands of Zak Elisk:

Zak Elisk Grixis

2 Duress
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Murderous Cut
3 Painful Truths
2 Rakshasa’s Secret
2 Ruinous Path
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

1 Dig Through Time
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

2 Kolaghan’s Command

1 Pulse of Murasa

2 Chandra, Flamecaller
4 Fiery Impulse
2 Goblin Murk Dwellers
2 Roast

4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cinder Glade
1 Island
2 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
2 Smoldering Marsh
2 Sunken Hollow
2 Swamp
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Wooded Foothills

sideboard:
2 Rakshasa’s Secret
1 Transgress the Mind
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Dispel
1 Exert Influence
2 Pulse of Murasa
2 Kozilek’s Return
1 Roast
1 Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker

It turns out this is a Gerry Thompson deck from a recent article! (which is probably part of the reason Mike likes it so much to begin with)

… But they end up in an unanticipated place.

Pulse of Murasa is sweet, right?

Pulse of Murasa v. Renewed Faith

Renewed Faith
Renewed Faith

Renewed Faith was, once upon a time, a tournament Staple. It was awesome and flexible. It could cycle you into a land, or get your six life. It did everything a control deck might want…

Pulse of Murasa is kind of like both halves of Renewed Faith. For one more mana than a cycled Renewed Faith, Pulse of Murasa is both halves. You get six life, and keep the land!

One of Mike’s ideas is to run Pulse of Murasa in a conjectural sixty-four card deck. Keying in on the Ben Rubin strategy of playing a bigger deck in order to accommodate more fetch lands as tutors, Mike posits hybridizing with a further [real] tutor engine of Bring to Light. An additional tutor theme will further pay off a larger deck size.

Patrick responds with an interesting question:

Why not sixty-eight cards?

If you’re going to play Five-color Bring to Light anyway… What about 20 + 5 + 5?

Patrick points out that by playing even more cards than BR did you can play all five colors but have better mana than a sixty card deck with twenty-seven lands!

Patrick presents a hypothetical mana base of:
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Canopy Vista
1 Cinder Glade
1 Prairie Stream
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow

… THIRTY lands [in a sixty-six card deck]

Each of the fetch lands is effectively a “quad land”. You will draw a lower percentage of battle lands and a lower percentage of basics; and a greater percentage of the fetch lands that can each get four of the five colors!

This is a mana base that maximizes the ability to hit more, different, colors and a huge percentage of your lands will enter the battlefield untapped!

Bloodstained Mire

  • Cannot get white
  • Can get black via any Swamp
  • Can get blue via Sunken Hollow
  • Can get red via any Mountain
  • Can get green via Cinder Glade

Flooded Strand

  • Can get white via any Plains
  • Can get black via Sunken Hollow
  • Can get blue via any Island
  • Cannot get red
  • Can get green via Canopy Vista

Polluted Delta

  • Can get white via Prairie Stream
  • Can get black via any Swamp
  • Can get blue via any Island
  • Can get red via Smoldering Marsh
  • Cannot get green

Windswept Heath

  • Can get white via any Plains
  • Cannot get black
  • Can get blue via Prairie Stream
  • Can get red via Cinder Glade
  • Can get green via any Forest

Wooded Foothills

  • Can get white via Canopy Vista
  • Can get black via Smoldering Marsh
  • Cannot get blue
  • Can get red via any Mountain
  • Can get green via any Forest

What follows is a truly Innovative discussion of a new approach to deck design, plus a rundown of all the current top Standard archetypes.

You simply can’t miss “Pulse of Murasa is Still Misunderstood”

Direct Download

, ,
,
Posted on

MOCS to the Max!

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar was just one of the surprising innovations to appear in the MOCS Top Decks.

Pro Tour Champion and Pro Tour Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin joins MichaelJ in a discussion of the Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS) Standard decks.

Our intrepid duo hits all the MOCS decks in the Top 8 (and some of the sweet Top 16 ) but each of them has a favorite…

Mike’s Favorite:

Atarka Red by wrapter*

4 Atarka’s Command

4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Fiery Impulse
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Outnumber
3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
3 Zurgo Bellstriker

4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Cinder Glade
1 Forest
11 Mountain
1 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

sb:
3 Den Protector
4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Yasova Dragonclaw
2 Arc Lightning
3 Windswept Heath
1 Cinder Glade

What’s so great — and what’s so different — about wrapter’s take?

First of all, wrapter went heavier on the tokens theme than most Atarka Red decks, main deck. In addition to Dragon Fodder and Hordeling Outburst (which aren’t always played as four-ofs, each), wrapter ran Pia and Kiran Nalaar in his MOCS main deck.

Keying off the likelihood of having a ton of small token creatures in play… wrapter played Outnumber as a main deck removal spell! This might be the first appearance of Outnumber in a serious Constructed deck, let alone in an offense-oriented red beatdown deck.

What makes this deck really interesting, though, is wrapter’s sideboard.

Check out those four copies of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar!

In order to hit the GG in Nissa’s top-right corner, wrapter bolstered his mana base with an additional Cinder Glade and not one, not two, but three additional copies of Windswept Heath out of the sideboard! Presumably those eight cards all come in together (Nissa actually needs a little help hitting GG). Even if wrapter sides out some basic Mountains, with 4 Bloodstained Mire (which can get Cinder Glade), 3 Cinder Glade, 1 Forest, 4 Windswept Heath, and 4 Wooded Foothills he has a fat sixteen sources of green, making GG reliable and possibly even on-curve in a largely mono-red deck.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar can make tokens of her own, build to a Control-esque advantage, or go Crusade style for all of wrapter’s other token creatures. This is a truly inventive and exciting innovation in terms of Red Decks.

Patrick’s Favorite:

Jeskai Black by beena**

4 Duress
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Murderous Cut
4 Painful Truths

2 Dig Through Time
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

4 Crackling Doom

3 Fiery Impulse
2 Roast

2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Soulfire Grand Master

1 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Needle Spires
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
2 Prairie Stream
2 Shambling Vent
2 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp

sb:
1 Transgress the Mind
3 Disdainful Stroke
1 Exert Influence
1 Negate
1 Ojutai’s Command
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Radiant Flames
1 Roast
2 Arashin Cleric
1 Mastery of the Unseen
1 Surge of Righteousness

Patrick loves not only Jeskai Black, but this style of Jeskai Black!

He is currently enamored of decks that play Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet; the graveyard-hosing on Kalitas is appropriate for a world full of Rally the Ancestors, but the lifelink is also relevant for a deck that is planning to get ahead with Painful Truths.

Speaking of Painful Truths, all that card drawing makes a ton of sense with so many quick interaction cards like Duress, Fiery Impulse, and so on… And all of those cards of course work beautifully with Monastery Mentor. Anyone who has been listening to the podcast for the past several months knows how Patrick feels about Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy; Monastery Mentor; Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet; Painful Truths; and of course Dig Through Time.

… And this deck even makes room for a copy of Chandra, Flamecaller.

It hits a lot of bases for Patrick; so beena’s MOCS build might be one you might want to take a closer look at.

For our commentary of the entire MOCS Top 8 (and more), check out “MOCS to the Max!”:

Direct Download

* wrapter = Josh Utter-Leyton

** beena = Yuuya Watanabe

, ,
Posted on

Reality Smasher Solutions!

Reality Smasher
Reality Smasher is a key threat in all versions of Modern Eldrazi Aggro

“Sometimes you smash reality. Sometimes reality smashes you.”
-Frank Lepore

What is the “core” of the Modern Eldrazi deck? Is it Eldrazi Mimic, Matter Reshaper, Thought-Knot Seer, and Reality Smasher?

Or is it, like Mike and Patrick agree… Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin?

What’s the best draw you can get with an Eldrazi Aggro deck?

Turn one: Eye of Ugin + three Eldrazi Mimics
Turn two: Eldrazi Temple, Simian Spirit Guide, and Reality Smasher… Swing for 20!

“The capabilities of each and every deck that exists, that has ever existed in any format, eminates from its mana base. The deck itself is a product of what the mana base can produce.”
-Mike, paraphrasing Mike Long

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Modern format has been turned on its ear by Oath of the Gatewatch. There is a new Tier One strategy and it is largely defined by the powerful threats from the newest set (with some mana base help from the last time we encountered the Eldrazi).

Patrick’s “buddy”, office-mate, and collaborator on Eternal Luis Scott-Vargas added yet another feather to his much-decorated hat with another Top 8:

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
2 Ratchet Bomb
4 Reality Smasher
2 Spellskite
4 Thought-Knot Seer

4 Dismember

4 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Mutavault
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Wastes

sb:
3 Oblivion Sower
2 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
1 Warping Wail
2 Gut Shot

Mike like LSV’s take on Reality Smasher best… But it wasn’t even the most successful build!

Jiachen Tao actually won the event with Izzet Eldrazi:

4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer

3 Dismember

4 Drowner of Hope
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
2 Ruination Guide

3 Eldrazi Obligator
4 Vile Aggregate

3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
1 Gemstone Caverns
2 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Shivan Reef
2 Steam Vents

sb:
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
3 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Gut Shot
1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon

“This is a deck that has lots of different ways to do great things. Its turn three is consistently glorious.”
-Patrick

“This is, I think, a deck where you should know what your cards do.”
-Mike

“This deck is going to require a lot more practice, no question.”
-Patrick

Rounding out the different Reality Smasher decks in the Top 8 is Frank Lepore (in his very first Pro Tour!)

Frank played a Sultai Processor Eldrazi Aggro:

4 Blight Herder
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Scrabbling Claws
4 Thought-Knot Seer

4 Wasteland Strangler

4 Drowner of Hope

1 World Breaker

4 Cavern of Souls
4 Corrupted Crossroads
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

sb:
2 Ratchet Bomb
4 Spatial Contortion
2 Spellskite
3 Sun Droplet
2 Warping Wail
2 Surgical Extraction

4 Relic of Progenitus and 2 Scrabbling Claws main deck? Frank Lepore is prepared for Living End!

While it’s all fun to celebrate the Eldrazi bad guys, Emily Lense pinged us on our Facebook Page and asked a pretty compelling question:

Emily Lense

So how do you fight the Eldrazi in Modern?

Patrick has a hell of an answer that you’ll really want to hear. Find out what it is in “Reality Smasher Solutions!”

Direct Download

, ,
Posted on

Thopter Engineer Secrets

Thopter Engineer
Thopter Engineer was a surprising addition to Tom Ross’s Top 8 deck

While Collected Company and Rally the Ancestors won the Star City Open in Columbus, OH last weekend, one of the best performing decks — played by good friend of Mike and Patrick — was B/R Dragons played by Tom “the Boss” Ross:

B/R Dragons by Tom Ross

4 Hangarback Walker

2 Duress
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 Murderous Cut

4 Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury

4 Draconic Roar
2 Fiery Impulse
3 Flamewake Phoenix
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Thopter Engineer
4 Thunderbreak Regent

4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
3 Smoldering Marsh
4 Swamp
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
1 Crux of Fate
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Transgress the Mind
2 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Kozilek’s Return

And in typical Tom Ross style, there was a little something extra going on in The Boss’s deck.

And that something was Thopter Engineer!

Thopter Engineer what the?!?

Thopter Engineer might just look like a random draft uncommon from Magic Origins, but it is actually quite well positioned in a deck like Tom’s. Consider…

Thopter Engineer v. Hordeling Outburst

Thopter Engineer essentially takes the “Hordeling Outburst” slot in this deck. Hordeling Outburst makes three points of power and three points of toughness “3/3” for three mana… Thopter Engineer is not much worse; its two points of power and four points of toughness “2/4” are spread over only two bodies but the two cards are at least somewhat comparable. On balance, the 1/1 token on Thopter Engineer both can fly and has haste, which are advantages relative to Hordeling Outburst.

It probably goes without saying that Thopter Engineer can be a superior card defensively, given the additional two points of toughness when leaving a body back.

Thopter Engineer with Hangarback Walker

Thopter Engineer gives artifact creatures haste. Hangarback Walker — a card that Tom plays four of main deck — happens to be an artifact creature! Playing Thopter Engineer allows Tom to save a mana later in the game whenever he topdecks or plays a Hangarback Walker. Instead of spending four mana, say, for a 2/2 Hangarback Walker he can pay only two mana (1/1) and then tap it with one mana (three mana total) for the same 2/2 size.

A dying Hangarback Walker can attack immediately with all of its tokens thanks to the Thopter Engineer’s haste; and Thopter Engineer into Pia and Kiran Nalaar three-into-four is also offensively effective.

Interested in a visit to Magical Christmas Land? How about playing a Hangarback Walker, adding a counter at a discount (with haste), sacrificing it to Pia and Kiran Nalaar for two… And then attacking with all your Thopters? Like you do.

Thopter Engineer and… Haven of the Spirit Dragon?

Tom’s deck — perhaps unsurprisingly with eight main-deck Dragons + Draconic Roar — plays three copies of Haven of the Spirit Dragon. What does that have to do with Thopter Engineer.

Hordeling Outburst costs 1RR.

Thopter Egineer costs 2R.

Just cutting one red mana off of the three mana cost makes it much more convenient to cast in even a two-color deck with nineteen sources of red mana (not counting Dragon-red). Imagine you open with Duress and follow up with Grasp of Darkness; that’s Swamp and then Swamp-Swamp. You wouldn’t even be able to cast Hordeling Outburst from that spot, but Thopter Engineer is cake!

Mike and Patrick talk tons and tons about Thopter Engineeer and B/R Dragons, but also Rally the Ancestors, Reflector Mage, and Collected Company decks various and more in “Thopter Engineer Secrets”

Direct Download

Check out Patrick’s new card game, Eternal!

, ,
Posted on

Reckless Bushwhacker – Immediate Impact

Reckless Bushwhacker
Reckelss Bushwhacker is like Atarka’s Command five, six, and seven…
But you also have a 2/1 to show for it, and if you give any creatures haste…

Mike: I don’t know if I told you this but at the last Pro Tour I was kind of sort of cheering for PV over Jon in that Top 8 match because I just wanted to see Mono-Red win another Pro Tour consecutively.

Patrick: I’m totally telling Jon that.

Mike: Oh I told Jon. Are you kidding?

Another format, another super successful Mono-Red (or R/g) aggro deck!

Korey McDuffie opened up the first StarCityGames.com Standard Open with his new version of Atarka Red:

4 Atarka’s Command

2 Become Immense

4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Dragon Fodder
3 Fiery Impulse
3 Hordeling Outburst
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Titan’s Strength
4 Wild Slash
3 Zurgo Bellstriker

4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Cinder Glade
1 Forest
11 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
2 Painful Truths
4 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Den Protector
3 Arc Lightning
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Smoldering Marsh

Korey’s deck starts as a Red Aggro deck that essentially swaps out Temur Battle Rage for the brand new Reckless Bushwhacker. This makes his Red Aggro deck less of a combo kill-oriented deck and more one that builds on the advantages of going wide with Dragon Fodder or Hordeling Outburst.

Consider how much damage (and haste) Korey can generate with, say, “just” a turn three Hordeling Outburst followed by a Dragon Fodder + Surge’d Reckless Bushwhacker! With haste, that’s more than half of the opponent’s life total.

Korey’s sideboard is quite inventive, a semi-transformational sideboard.

In Game One this is a Red Aggro deck. In fact it is exactly the kind of deck that opponents will side Arashin Cleric in against. But that kind of sideboarding could be disastrous against Korey!

After sideboarding Korey adds more mana — black mana actually — that allows him to not only add black advantage cards like Painful Truths and Self-Inflicted Wound; but more lands in general, allowing him to go slightly more expensive with cards like Pia and Kiran Nalaar. His opponents may be aiming for a fast combo-kill deck… When in fact they are facing a Jund Midrange deck after sideboarding.

What’s really cool about this sideboard is how Painful Truths can allow it to keep pace with the card advantage of, say, an Esper Dragons deck; while Self-Inflicted Wound (coming in over, say, Fiery Impulse) can give it easy ways to take out Dragonlord Ojutai.

All-in-all… Sweet deck, and also sweet to see Oath of the Gatewatch making such a swift waves!

Over the course of “Reckless Bushwhacker – Immediate Impact” Patrick and Michael discuss all the Top 8 decks from the Atlanta Open, as well as four different archetypes (including, not surprisingly, Red Aggro) that outperformed the rest of the field. What are they?

Find out in “Reckless Bushwhacker – Immediate Impact”

Direct Download

P.S. In San Antonio, TX this weekend? Check out Patrick (and some guy Luis Scott-Vargas) at PAX South

, , ,
Posted on

Oath of Chandra and Five Friends

Oath of Chandra
Oath of Chandra is a potential Role Player from Oath of the Gatewatch

In this episode of Top Level Podcast, Mike (Resident Genius Michael J. Flores) and Patrick (Pro Tour Champion and Pro Tour Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin) shake up the usual format… Mike asks Patrick about some new cards from the new set and Patrick tells him what he thinks!

Hmmm… Well, maybe that’s not so much of a divergence from our usual show; but we think you’ll like it 🙂

Oath of Chandra is one of the centerpiece cards in this podcast.

Arguably the weakest of the Oath of the Gatewatch namesakes, Oath of Chandra still has some interesting applications as a Constructed playable spell; possibly as a Role Player; possibly (as Mike suggests) as a sideboard card a la Volcanic Hammer in Patrick’s Regional Championships Korlash deck from close to a decade ago.

Oath of Chandra is kind of a more restrictive Volcanic Hammer on its face. Like Volcanic Hammer, it can deal three damage to a creature for two mana… But unlike Volcanic Hammer, it can’t (immediately) be pointed straight at the opponent’s dome.

However!

Oath of Chandra has additional text:

At the beginning of each end step, if a planeswalker entered the battlefield under your control this turn, Oath of Chandra deals 2 damage to each opponent.

Because of this, if you get even one Planeswalker trigger, Oath of Chandra moves from a kind of bad (but possibly still applicable) Volcanic Hammer to Searing Blood range. Like Searing Blood this card will now deal five damage over one creature and one player for two mana, making it pretty good on rate. If you get any additional triggers from Oath of Chandra (i.e. from any future Planeswalker triggers) the rate payback on that two mana only gets better and better.

Like the other Oaths we’ve discussed, Oath of Chandra is a Legendary Enchantment, so a second copy hitting the battlefield will put one into the graveyard. But that may or may not be a strict disadvantage given a pretty cool interaction Patrick points out in this podcast.

What is it?

You’ll have to listen to “Oath of Chandra and Five Friends” to find out!

Direct Download

, , , ,
Posted on