Post Theros FNM

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Tonight we here at MTG Realm along with thousands of other Magic: the Gathering players will be heading out to local gaming stores to take part in a Friday Night Magic event.  We'll be at OMG! Games (best card shop in central Ontario) will be our first time to the store since Theros, the latest MTG set hit shelves worldwide.  Tonight was particularly difficult to prepare a new standard constructed stack to play since a number of our fav cards from Innistrad block rotated out of the format.

We received our big pile of MTG Theros singles pre-ordered from MTG Mint Card and it sat on the table for a few days while we attempted to come up with a 60-card strategy.  Where we finally began to make progress was with which decks were performing good in Return to Ravnica block constructed and decided to go with a Green / White Selesnya aggro build - aggro is a good default choice in the first few weeks of the new metagame.  There are a lot of powerful creatures in these colours and building it is fairly straightforward.  We'll eventually move on to some other build latter but here's what we have . . .

CREATURES
4 Elvish Mystic
3 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Experiment One
3 Fleecemane Lion
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Witchstalker
3 Fiendslayer Paladin

SPELLS
4 Advent of the Wurm
3 Selesnya Charm

LAND
10 Forest
5 Plains
4 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple Garden
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Some of the decisions here was based upon the local metagame, our budget, as well as what cards we actually own.  The new Theros cards now in the Selesnya vehicle are Soldier of the Panteon (solid choice after a 'gold' multi-colour block like Return to Ravnica), and Fleecemane Lion (hexproof / indestructibly after monstrous is pretty sweet - especially if we encounter any of the new 'god' cards).  We'll continue to work tweaks on this over the next few weeks (considering adding Boon Satyr) until the games shifts again after which we really want to brew something up with B/W control or R/W aggro.

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Theros Fat Pack

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We've been collecting Fat Packs from each Magic: the Gathering set for quite some time now.  There are of course several reasons for this - firstly, we get a decent card box to store all our new cardboard awesomeness but we also deeply appreciate the player's guide as well as it contains a solid helping of set flavor / storyline.  Call us old-fashioned but often when we're brewing up some crazy builds, we'll often forgo our tab and have several of the guides open.

Anywhoos - As is our custom, we've dropped over to OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario (our fav card shop like evar), and picked up our Theros Fat Pack at approximately five minutes after midnight on the 27th.  There was a HUGE line of other players getting in very early to buy the very latest cards.  Anywhoos - for a suggested reatail price of only $40, you get the following -
• 9 Theros booster packs 
• 1 card box
• 1 player’s guide
• 1 80-card land pack
• 1 learn-to-play insert
• 1 Spindown™ life counter
• 2 deck boxes

By half-past midnight, we had the Fat Pack on our kitchen table and started cracking.  Here's what we were able to pull . . .

Spear of Heloid
Thoughtseize
Abhorrent Overlord
Whip of Erebos
Firedrinker Satyr
Labyrinth Champion
Hammer of Purphoros
Reverent Hunter
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

No mythics (Gods), but  we've gotta say, we're rather happy.  Now have a few extra cards and our MTG Mint Card singles pre-order should be in by day's end, our friends will either (a) not see us for a few days, or (b) join us in the MTG Realm Lair as we build for the next Friday Night Magic event.
 
Happy Brewing to all !

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M14 Fav Non-Rares

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

For today's post, we wanted to yatter a bit about our favourite non-rare cards from the latest Magic: the Gathering set, Magic 2014.  If you are new to this great game, here's the low-down - Each year, Wizards of the Coast publishes a Core Set. There is a blend of new cards as well as a few returning favorites.  For players who love to brew up new ideas and strategies, this may very well be the best time of year as it contains the largest set of cards with which to build until the fall rotation.

As is our custom here at MTG Realm, we've picked up from MTG Mint Card, a 4x Uncommon and Common set.  As there is 101 commons and 60 uncommons, that's a grand total of 644 cards - and for just $42.99 - not to shabby!  Here's our video run down of our play group's Top Five favorite M14 commons and uncommons (weighted for constructed play).  Mind you, this may not reflect one could expect to see these in a decklist at a professional level tournament - these are just what we liked at our kitchen table.  
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Favorite Uncommons
#5 - Sentinel Sliver
#4 - Striking Sliver
#3 - Predatory Sliver
#2 - Elvish Mystic
#1 - Shadowborn Apostle

Favourite Commons
#5 - Doom Blade
#4 - Kalonian Tusker
#3 - Panisher Preist
#2 - Manaweft Sliver
#1 - Young Pyromancer
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We had a tough time to reach a consensus with these lists - the only two 'shoo - ins' were Elvish Mystic and Young Pyromancer.  Oddly enough when the dust settled, we were surprised how many Slivers made it onto the list - odd we say as only one out of the four of us here at MTG Realm is even thinking about building a Sliver deck.
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Dragon's Maze Top Non-Rares

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

On Monday we received our Dragon's Maze preorders from MTG Mint Card, which included our usual decksets (four of each card) of new Commons and Uncommons.  Tracking down an extra card or two of a popular staple is irritating and sometimes costly so the most inexpensive way of nailing this is grabbing a bulk lot.  The order got here in record time again . . . Packaged and dropped off at the courier (UPS) just shortly after midnight early Friday morning, our cards traveled by boat, air, and truck approximately 7,900 miles (~12,7000 kilometers) to our front step on Monday afternoon (yep - just about 4 days).

Anywhoos - as we now have all our Dragon's Maze Commons and Uncommons, it's time for us here at MTG Realm to sit down and give our opinion of the Top 5 cards in each rarity.  We've come to this order by the four of us voting on a variety of aspects including how popular we think the card will be in Modern and Standard format, and evene including card art. 

Righto - Here's the unboxing video and our picks -
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Top 5 Uncommons 
#1 - Putrefy 
#2 - Far • Away
#3 - Turn • Burn
#4 - Unflinching Courage
#5 - Sin Collector

Top 5 Commons 

#1 - Zhur-Taa Druid 
#2 - Tithe Drinker
#3 - Crypt Incursion
#4 - Nivix Cyclops
#5 - Pilfered Plans

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We might as well provide some points on each card as well . . .

Uncommons

#1 - Putrefy - This is a solid reprint and the art is great. Sort of a poor man's Abrupt Decay (which we really can't afford).  Great against some Golgari critters which can regenerate.


#2 - Far • Away - A nice Dimir Control card. Both sides are relevant and the Fuse tech makes it a good choice against creature based decks.

#3 - Turn • Burn - We love that the burn spell is called . . 'burn'. Presents choices and potentially a two critter removal.  This looks good against cards (like Bloodbaron) who disapparate after their turn.


#4 - Unflinching Courage - We really loved Armadillo Cloak, and this card certainly floats our boat.  We feel auras and lifelink are relevant in today's metagame, trample is awesome icing.

#5 - Sin Collector - Good control choice.  You definitely want a turn three card like this to removal a potential threat on their turn four when the game typically heats up.  If you're greedy, we suggest a Cloudshift for full effect.

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Commons

#1 - Zhur-Taa Druid - This two-drop taps for green and pings each opponent every time you tank up on green - what's there not to like? This is a much needed mana dork.

#2 - Tithe Drinker - For two mana, this Orzhov 2/1 provides lifelink along with that's Guild's extort tech. In Modern, this is a perfect target for and Edge of Divinity.


#3 - Crypt Incursion - In our local metgame, about 1/3 to 1/4 of the decks are using graveyard shenanigans (like Junk Rites). This common instant is not the best card to address this but still well placed.

#4 - Nivix Cyclops - The art here shows that Izzet Cyclops before that Abrupt Decay came down. Modern players are considering this in a build with Kiln Fiend, Teleportal and / or Wee Dragonauts.


#5 - Pilfered Plans - Super value mill card. Card draw usually means card advantage.  Most will likely choose this over Divination.
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Superfriends

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

For today's post, we want to talk about an interesting deck archtype which has been around for a while but not really discussed yet here on MTG Realm. As the post title suggests, we'll look at the Superfriends build. After the main article (scroll waaay down to the bottom), there is some upcoming MTG news - specifically, the DCI Banned and Restricted List update expected out tomorrow.

Anywhoos, onto our look at Superfriends.
You may recall our previous post last month where we had taken a more detailed look at one of our Friday Night Magic events with a view to the ever-evolving metagame. Today we'll take a closer look at Superfriends - which, depending upon the specific build may also be known as Junk Walkers, Esper Walkers (or another tri-colour arrangement), or something similar but with a snappy / witty name such as Super Friends with Benefits.

In last month's post we had mentioned, we had played in our third match against Dan Langan, a well known player at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario. As we had mentioned, we gaming with Dan as he is not one to build and play the popular 'flavour of the month' but has a preference for unique / interesting rogue builds which are also exploring and exploiting the potential weaknesses of the metagame.

The deck he ran was his take on Superfiends. This deck's main purpose is to utilize the efficiency and board presence of a variety of planeswalkers to gain, maintain a board presence and push for a win condition. Dan has a whopping 9 planeswalkers in White, Blue and Black (the 'Esper' colours), and an aggressive control profile. Here's Dan's decklist :

27 Lands : 6 Swamp, 5 Plain, 4 Island, 4 Evolving wilds, 3 Isolated Chapel, 2 Glacial Fortress, 2 Drowned Catacomb, 1 Darlslick shores

12 Instants : 4 Mana Leak, 2 Think Twice, 2 Go for the Throat, 2 Doomblade, 2 Forbidden Alchemy

7 Creatures: 2 Doomed Traveler, 2 Phantasmal Image, 2 Spellskite, 1 Consecrated Sphinx

9 Planeswalkers : 2 Liliana of the Veil, 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, 1 Elspeth Tirel, 2 Gideon Jura, 2 Venser, the Sojourner

3 Sorcery : 3 Day of Judgment

2 Enchantments : 2 Curse of Death's Hold

Side Baord : 2 Celestial Purge, 2 Negate, 2 Havengal Lich, 2 Rachet Bomb, 1 Black Sun Zenith, 1 Day of Judgment, 3 Flash Freeze

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This deck looks to pack a big 'fun' factor into play as well as presenting a number of choices and strategies to carefully consider giving the opponent's build and game state. In our opinion, we would say that Gideon Jura is one of the more important Planeswalkers in the mix here giving his ability to be able to protect the other Planeswalkers as well as his higher loyalty counter stats. Gideon also potentially presents a board where opponent's creatures are tapped down allowing you to swing in for an alpha strike. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad as well as Elspeth Tirel provides defensive tokens in which to chump block. Liliana of the Veil provides discard and spot removal, Venser is able to reset PW loyalty counters and an exile stick. We think that it would take some time to be able to weild this build effecitently and effectively - somewhat akin to being able to conduct a full orchestra, but once mastered, this deck should do an excellent job of kicking butts and taking names.

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Next up -
Tomorrow (Tuesday, 20th March 2012) we should expect the DCI Banned and Restricted List updates to be published on the mothership. Based on suggestive evidence, it is anticipated that Intangible Virtue (one of our fav cards at the moment) will get the ban-hammer in block-constructed format. This card has been dominating block constructed format recently and it seems that the only difference between a first and second place finish is who is able to field more Intangible Virtue enchantments quicker. As we don't really play block constructed, we really don't have an opinion but should this card get a ban or restriction for standard constructed (very unlikely) we think we will cry.
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Lastly,

If you thought that MTG Mint Card only sells Magic the the Gathering products, you should check again. They also have a host of other items of interest including World of Warcraft singles including the latest set 'Crown of the Heavens'.
Check 'em out.
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GP Indy Playmat

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Wow do we have a hot topic today - or hot potatoe. It is this kind of post that we here at MTG Realm really do not want to touch with a ten foot pole because no matter which opinion you may make, you will definitely make some people upset. So to this end, we will attempt to maintain an unbiased neutrality like the Swiss.

The blog topic today regards a risqué playmat which was planned to be given out to first 500 Magic the Gathering players to register for the main event at Grand Prix Indianapolis (March 10-11, 2012). It is believed that the tournament organiser, Pastimes had posted an image of said playmat on their Facebook or Tumblr page. Shortly after Megan of MTG Mom, (whom we're fans of) had posted this to her twitter -

The playmat for #gpindy makes me not even want to go anymore :/ yfrog.com/h7rlhxxrj

— Megan (@LifeOnAuto) February 17, 2012

Within twenty-four hours, Elaine Chase, Brand Manager with Wizards of the Coast had provided this reponse . . .

@LifeOnAuto that is not authorized and will not be given out. Thanks for making us aware!

— Elaine Chase (@ElaineChase) February 18, 2012

Elaine had also following up with this brief explanation -

We keep a standard for Magic art to portray strong female characters. Sexy is OK, submissive or damsels in distress is not.

— Elaine Chase (@ElaineChase) February 18, 2012

So what's all the hub-bub about ?
Here's the (now-banned) playmat -

First of all, we think that it was the correct thing to do for Wizards - to remove the corporate entity from any real or perceived controversy - it's just good business and we would likely do the same.

Secondly, it has MTG players and gamers in general talking about this. Whether they are expressing views in forums and in articles such as here at MTG Realm or over at Legit MTG (by our tweep Heather / RevisedAngel). We think that the most important thing is that people are discussing this and providing arguments for or against such artwork.

Wizards has some very revealing card art which some may insist is hypocritical. Others may suggest that the not-very-modestly clad babes of Comic Con are indicative of the gaming / entertainment genre of today. There are even others who want the playmat as a collectors item anticipating that they will be destroyed.

1920's - Bathing suit inspectors and women being arrested / fined for indecent exposure.

Whereever you may stand on this issue, get talking - this we hope ensures a moderation of our views of and maintenance of our values. Our culture here in North America is constantly evolving and what we collectively thought as outrageous in the 1920's now think as prudish.

Anywhoos - here is the response from Pastimes posted to Facebook regarding the GP Indianapolis Playmat issue :

Hello All,

I would like to make several comments here - and my hope is that this puts some of this to rest. While I love a good debate and discussion as much as the next person, I REALLY do not like how some of this has stooped to name calling etc... At some point people have to agree to disagree. Send whatever comments you want to me... email is below.

1. I appreciate the comments by everyone - and hope folks are mature enough to realize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion about anything and that their opinion on that one item should not be held against them for everything. This is true of both sides of this discussion.

2. I absolutely apologize to anyone this offended. That was obviously not the intention.

3. Pastimes has always been out "for the good of the game." At GenCon we incorporated "beginner" events as a way to grow the game, and we just had a birthday party for 11 year olds at our store at the last Pre-Release. Pastimes has been around since before Magic was printed because of a desire to see unplugged entertainment thrive.

4. The playmat is 100% NOT a Wizards of the Coast project - the mat was to be handed out by the organizer of the event, not by Wizards of the Coast. This may seem confusing, but Wizards had no hand in the playmat.

5. The characters on the mat are NOT Magic characters. When the concept was sent to the artist words like "fantasy", "sexy", "demoness", "goblin","harem", "throne", "vampress" and "angel" were used. I guarantee that "slave" and "submissive" were never uttered. That does not mean that the perception is not there, I am just saying that is not what we were suggesting.

6. We definitely sent the artist (who is does not currently have any Magic card art - he has done art for other TCGs) links to a ton of art we liked - including art from many card games, RPGs and video games. There is no question there are influences here, but these are NOT Magic charachters.

7. We will not be handing this mat out at the GP. We have had numerous questions about whether this will be available for sale. To be honest, I am not making that decision at the moment.

8. It is my great hope that people do not make any real decisions about the game, going to events or judging the community based on this one "discussion." The country is divided about a lot of things, right down the middle, but we have (mostly) figured out how to get along.

9. Please forward comments or questions to gpmat@pastimes.net

As long as we have so much attention on Grand Prix promo items - can I ask what people would like to see given out as promotional items at GPs in the future? (Let's leave specific art aside, please, and focus on the "item", i.e. playmats, deck boxes, storage boxes, sleeves, posters, life counters... etc...) And, more importantly, do they make a difference to you coming to an event? (this playmat aside, please)

Thanks again for listening - and for the opinions.

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The latest Magic the Gathering set ,Dark Ascension, has now been out since February 3rd. MTG Mint Card, has this list of the top ten selling Dark Ascension cards to date in February.

1. Dungeon Geists
2. Geralf's Messenger
3. Predator Ooze
4. Gravecrawler
5. Vault of the Archangel
6. Lingering Souls
7. Increasing Savagery
8. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
9. Drogskol Reaver
10. Drogskol Captain
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