Black Magic revealed

As an Old School Magic Player, I have wandered the planes of Dominaria ever since its birth. Many years has passed, and extremely powerful magic which only the ancients knew about has been lost for ages. Today, only few posses the knowledge of this ancient magic, of which some are so powerful that it is forbidden…

However –some Old School Wizards- such as myself, still posses some of this knowledge.

I must emphasize, that I have never practiced this magic myself, as it is strictly forbidden.

If you are a newcomer, you have probably heard about the law of Black Magic: GREATNESS AT ANY COST!

Black Magic should be used very carefully, and some Black Magic, should never be used at all.

But do you really know the power of Black Magic? The REAL POWER of Black Magic?

Watch the video below, and it will reveal to you, some of the ancient forbidden black magic, which should never be spoken, but of which all newcomers should be aware of, should they ever cross a Black Mage on the planes of Dominaria.

But beware! The video is NOT for the faint of heart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOUP-LvIssQ



For those of you who didnt got scared away wathcing part 1, you can now watch part 2 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc9TWDhrwlI




-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School

I have Baneslayer and Qasali Pridemage in play.

My opponent has Cunning Sparkmage.

During his turn, he plays Basilisk Collar.

In response I destroy the collar by sacrificing Pridemage.

He then respond attaching collar to Sparkmage and shoots my Baneslayer.

I tell him he cant do that because attaching happens at sorcery speed, while Sac´ing Pridemage happens at instant speed, so the Collar will be destroyed before he can use it.

He says he can do so because he has priority.

So who is right? Me or him?

To policehq: I know its that thread you refer to. But just because Ive traded many duallands away, doesnt mean I made bad trades, nor that I regret trading them away.

I wanted ALL those cards I traded for, and I´m never gonna trade them away again. Even those who aint tournament-competitive like my foil Shivan-Dragon-deck.
That was a deck I made cause the Shivan Dragon has sentimental value for me, and I enjoy playing it. And I think I payed like 2 duallands to complete that deck. Ofcourse many would prefer the 2 duals, but since it has sentimental value for me, I do not really care paying 2 duals out of the 160+ I had.

And I now have an extreme variety of magic cards to choose from. I have all cards needed to build Reanimator, ANT, Zoo and most other TIER-decks dominating both Legacy and Standard. And wtf would I need 160 duallands for, if I do not have the other cards to build these decks?

I could, ofcourse, choose to BUY the cards, and spend like 10.000 dollars. But I prefer spending 0 dollars, and have 80 duals less, since I still have about 80 duals left.
Cause I do not really need more than 80 duals... Actually I do not need more than 40... Which means I still have 40 left to trade away...

Envy is a bad thing BC...

Answer to policehq: I traded 2 duallands (2 x Savannah for a playset of Jace) while Jace the Gay Sculptor was 29,95 USD.

Now Gay Sculptor is 75 USD. Is that a bad investment, and why whould that make me angry?

I rarely buy magic cards, and when I do, its only cheap foil cards.

Cause the kids think they can get like a fetchland for a foil Sprouting Thrinax or something like that, just because Sprouting Thrinax is commonly played.

And instead of trading a fetchland for a foil Thrinax, I prefer paying 1 USD for a foil Thrinax instead.

All expensive cards I trade for.

While noobs like you have to either crack 300 Worldwake booster packs or pay 300 USD on SCG to get a playset of Jace, I get a playset for 2 duals, which has costed me a Mahamoti Djinn or sometinhg like that 15 years ago.

3 months ago Jund dominated standard.

Now I´ve had a break from magic over the summer.

But Im planning starting up again now.

Does anyone know which decks that dominate standard now?

Decklists are welcome, so that I can figure out what to put in sideboard.

Im planning on playing this deck, but do you think it will be competitive?


4 x Sovereigns of Lost Alara
2 x Eldrazi Conscription
4 x Baneslayer Angel
4 x Knight of the Reliquary
2 x Gideon Jura
3 x Jace, the Gay Sculptor (hate him, but he is a must-include in decks which plays blue)
2 x Garruk Wildspeaker
2 x Master of the Wild Hunt
4 x Noble Hierarch
4 x Birds of Paradise
4 x Lotus Cobra
4 x Misty Rainforest
2 x Verdant Catacombs
1 x Arid Mesa
2 x Celestial Colonnade
2 x Stirring Wildwood
1 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Sunpetal Grove
2 x Sejiri Steppe
4 x Forest
3 x Plains
2 x Island

Suggestions are welcome, especially suggestions for sideboard, and for what reason they should be included.

God damn am I tired of all the self-announced magic experts who writes articles on SCG? They are nothing but non-independent ass-licking amateurs. How heavy do they get paid for all this ass-licking? They got their tongues up so deep in the asses of WotC,that it disgusts me to imagine with what taste they fall asleep at night.

There are no criticism at all. Only pure ass-licking. M10 is this good. M11 is that good. ROE is sooo awesome. The Titans  -what a great idea! Jesus Christ… It makes me puke.

The truth is. The new sets SUCKS and so do WotC. They (Wotc) have totally lost grip of how to balance a set. And especially with the introduction of Mythic Rares, which has really fucked up the balancing of cards  and gameplay.

I wont waste my time going deep into details in this article, because with the lousy work of Wizards, they do actually not deserve my -or for that matter, anybody elses-  time at all. And btw that wont be necessary because the superficial overall-impression pretty much reflects the details.

Now look at the sucky Worldwake expansion. There is no fun in cracking a WW-booster. Cause there is only 1 card that really counts. The totally imbalanced you-know-who, who -as the only one of his already totally overpowered kin- happens to have not only 3, but fucking 4 abilities to choose from. You can crack 20 manlands, and only feel good if your out of lightning briquettes, and maybe a couple of Persecutors in case your out of toiletpaper. But do  you care? You can crack a whole WW booster Display, but if that one single increase-your-win-percentage-by-40%-in-any-deck-no-matter-how-stupid-you-play card  aint there… u just got yourself another pile of bulks. And even if he is there... You’re still stuck with another 500 bulks, that no one gives a shit about.

Do you feel proud Wizards? Do you really feel proud of making such a fucked up imbalanced totally crapshit expansion? A set that bores the shit out of your ass so hard, that the only advantage is that you wont suffer from any future diarrhea.

Same goes for Rise of the Eldrazi. Another crap set of bulks except for this Edward Scissorhand clone who looks like he had more unfortunate facelifts than Michael Jackson, and who –surprise surprise- happens to be a superfriend of you-know-who. Oh yes... there is this annoying creep which will bug you over and over in case you leave a shred of root. But that’s about it. A full large set of 248 cards… With only 2 worth keeping.

Do you feel proud Wizards? Do you really feel proud of making another fucked up totally imbalanced crapshit expansion?

After two disastrous sets, you start to think, well… At least it can only move forward from now on. So you turn your aspirations towards M2011. But… what do you get? A set of titans, a set of leylines, a reminder  of Darwins evolution theory and a reprint of Timetwister. 1-for-each-color-sets like the titans and the leylines are a clear proof that WotC are running short of ideas. And wtf is the big hype about Primeval titan? Is further mana ramp needed in an environment that are already flooding with green mana ramp. And at a point where you already got 6 mana available? There are much better solutions for a 6-mana-slot.

Another  sad thing is… WW and ROE could be nice sets, if it wasn’t destroyed by totally imbalanced mythic rares, which has been invented only to heavily increase sales. It is obvious that WotC now has chosen the path of profit and greediness for the sacrifice of fun, fair and balanced gameplay.

Lets have a look at good ol’  days. Fx around revised edition, which was one of the best balanced sets. You felt happy or at least you felt you had a nice card when cracking Shivan Dragon,  Mahamoti Djinn, Bad Moon, Balance, BoP, Braingeyser, Crusade, Elvish Archers, Eye for an Eye, Fastbond, Force of Nature, Fork, Gaeas Liege, Goblin King, Howling Mine, Ivory Tower, Lord of the Pit, Millstone, Mindtwist, Nevinyrrals Disk, Nightmare, Personal Incarnation, Rock Hydra, Royal Assassin, Savannah Lions, Serendib Efreet, Sorceress Queen, Vesuvan Doppelganger, Veteran Bodygard, Wheel of Fortune, Will-O-the-Wisp, Winter Orb, Wrath of God not to mention the duallands. And besides that, there were a ton of nice commons and uncommons too.

All because this set was balanced.

Today you crack a WW, ROE, M2010 or 2011 booster, and there are only 3-4 cards you care about in a pool of like 700 different cards. Is that supposed to be a fun game? Would you buy a box of mixed, assorted chocolates, if there were only 4 of them you liked? Of course there is more to it, depending on whether you play sealed, constructed, Vintage, Legacy, Standard, EDH or whatever… But that does not change the overall picture, that the recent sets sucks hard. And as said earlier, I wont waste anymore of my time going into details, considering how little effort Wizards put into the last sets.

Wizards, you better start shape up! Cause these last crapsets pisses me off. And you lousy reviewers out there, whose only purpose is to lick ass on Wizards, better start finding the critical glasses. Because as long as you shit-reviewers continue praising those crap-sets, Wizards will keep spamming crap-sets.

-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School

Scenario 1: My opponent has Standstill in play and 2 lifes left. I cast lightning bolt, my opponent draws 3 cards due to Standstill, draws a counterspell and counters my lightning bolt.


Scenario 2: I have 1 life left and my opponent has 3 lifes left. My opponent cast "Sign in blood" and forces me to draw 2 cards and take 2 damage. I draw a lightning bolt. But I die before I can bolt him.


How come I die in scenario 2 before I can bolt, when my opponent can use counterspell to counter my bolt in scenario 1?

I now have a playset of all planeswalkers, cept the Mind-Sculptor, the Mad and Gideon. And looking around, I see many other people in the same situation. But as we all know, we usually prefer to play with only 2 or 3 of them in a deck, because we don’t want to end up with 2 of the same Planeswalkers in the opening hand. So what to do with the left-overs? Well,  why not put together a Planeswalkers deck? I have chosen to do so.

My Planeswalkers Deck looks like this atm:

Planeswalkers:
1 x Ajani Goldmane
1 x Ajani Vengeant
2 x Chandra Nalaar
2 x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 x Garruk Wildspeaker
2 x Jace Beleren
2 x Liliana Vess
1 x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 x Sarkhan Vol
2 x Sorin Markov
1 x Jace, the Mind-Sculptor
1 x Gideon Jura
1 x Sarkhan the Mad
Total: 17

Mana:
4 x Birds of Paradise
4 x Seaside Citadel
4 x Acane Sanctum
4 x Crumbling Necropolis
4 x Savage Lands
4 x Jungle Shrine
4 x Rupture Spire
Total: 28

Others:
3 x Wall of Omen
3 x Wall of Denial
4 x Day of Judgment
4 x Valeron Outlander
15


Some Planeswalkers are simply not usuable in a Planeswalkers Deck. Those are:
Chandra Ablaze (You don’t have any instants to cast)
Nissa Revane (You don’t have any Elfs to search)
Tezzeret the Seeker (You don’t have any artifacts)
Thus those are left out.

But some are more usable than the average, thus I have added 2 of those:
Chandra Nalaar. A Day of Judgment hitting only opponents creatures and/ or kill a Planeswalker.
Elspeth, Knight Errant. Grants nice expendable blockers and flying attackers.
Garruk Wildspeaker. Use his mana ramp to cast heavy-cost Planeswalkers.
Jace Beleren. Use him to draw cards.
Liliana Vess. Use her to Fetch the Planeswalkers you need and have mana for.
Thus, there are 2 of those.

Of course the deck is slow, as all lands comes into play tapped. But using the lands above along with Birds of Paradise, you are almost sure you always have the mana you need. And with most people playing the Worldwake creature lands and other “comes-tapped-into-play”-lands, many standard decks are slow today. This gives you a fair chance to catch up and get ahead of game, once you start to drop the powerful Planeswalkers.

Anyway, you still need creatures to defend your planeswalkers and resist fast creature drops in early game, until you get to cast a Day of Judgment or resolve a Chandra Ulti. Looking at the mana cost, I think the Wall of Omen, Wall of Denial and Valeron Outlander are best for this. Why Valeron Outlander? Because “Protection from Black” is really powerful in Standard matches. “Protection from Black” deals with vampires, Thrinax, Putrid and cant be targeted by Terminate, Pulse or Doomblade. And if you choose to add White Knight instead, it even deals with Bloodbraid. Wall of Omen is a nice 0/4 blocker for the cost of only 2 mana. And in early game, you don’t have anything else to use 2 mana for. Wall of Denial is excellent vs Sphinx,  Persecutor and other flying fatties.

With Garruk, it is actually easy to get Nicol Bolas in play. And you can use Liliana to tutor him, once you have the mana.

Do not expect to win tournaments with this deck. But its really funny to play.

-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School

I fetch for a basic land/ dual land, but has no legal targets left in library.

What happens then?

1. Do I lose?
2. Can opponent claim to look my library to make sure I speak the truth?
3. Do I get to shuffle my library?
Or does it simply resolve without effect?

If I have Platinum Angel in play, and I play Final Fortune and do NOT win game within next round, what happens then?

Do I lose the game?

And if I do not, will the spell "stay in play" so that the second my Platinum Angel leaves play (like fx. 3 rounds later), I lose game?

Lets say my opponent has Garruk in play.

Then I play Garruk myself, to remove his Garruk.

Can I use my Garruks ability to either untap two of my lands or make a 3/3 creature before he goes to the graveyard, or do they both go to the graveyard, before I can use it?

I got the Overrun in Garruk.

There are several reasons I dont use Coat of Arms:
1: When I make "for fun" creature decks, I strive to have no artifacts, enchantments, instants and sorceries, because I go for... A creature deck. For the same reason I have left out Æther Vial and counterspells in my Sliver deck.
2: I wanted as many cards in the deck as possible to be ELFS. No doubt Coat of Arms would fit in this deck, but.. Coat of Arms has one probolem: It aint an Elf
The only non-Elf cards in this deck are the Planeswalkers. But I like playing with the Planeswalkers, cause it adds an aspect to the game, making it more various and fun to play. And since Nissa searches for Elfs, and her Life-giving ability also depends on Elfs, she is a perfect Planeswalker for an Elf deck. Garruk I' ve added for 2 reasons: First, the Overrun that you ask for, and second because I just like playing with Garruk. He is a cool planeswalker. Its a shame he aint making 3/3 Elves instead of beasts though. However the Beasts are still able to boost Drove of Elves.

You might be right about Ambush Commander, but I just like the fact he turns even the forests into Elves. This somehow "completes" the Elf theme, being able to have absolutely ALL permanents on the battlefield being Elves, cept the Planeswalkers. Also, once the Forests are Elfs, they boost/ gets boosted by both Joraga, Imperious, Jagged, Archdruid, Nissa Revane and Drove of Elves.

I dont know what Timmy-ish is. Nor MWS. Maybe you can explain?

-Carnac

Okay, Ive been away from magic from Urza-block - M2010 Block.
I know why cards like Memory Jar, Tinker, Hermit Druid, Oath of Druids etc are banned, since they are from Urza or earlier.

But can anyone tell me why these cards are banned:

Flash, Gush, Mind's Desire, Worldgorger Dragon, Goblin Recruiter

What makes them so powerful they need a ban?

Funny how 1 card can influent a whole set.

Now all powercreeps that is put into a graveyard, is instantly shuffled into library.

All because of Entomb.

Hi the42up!

Here is my Sliver Deck:

4 x Sidewinder Sliver
3 x Plated Sliver
4 x Talon Sliver
4 x Sinew Sliver
4 x Essence Sliver
2 x Winged Sliver
2 x Shifting Sliver
2 x Synchronous Sliver
4 x Muscle Sliver
4 x Gemhide Sliver
4 x Crystalline Sliver
3 x Harmonic Sliver
2 x Necrotic Sliver
4 x Tundra
4 x Tropical Island
4 x Savannah
4 x Ancient Ziggurat
1 x Plains
1 x Forest

My Sliver Deck does not have tournament potential. But if you put in Æther Vial, some Counterspells (Force of Will is perfect, as you will have plenty of blue slivers to discard, and also you only need counterspells to counter main threats like Wrath of God, Powder Keg etc.) and optimize the mana base balancing it with Fetchlands, Im sure this sliver deck will be tournament competitive. I just havent done it, cause I use this deck as a "playing-for-fun"-deck. As you might have noticed, Ive added 2 Necrotic Slivers. These can be cast only with Ancient Ziggurat or having Gemhide Sliver in play. However they are only added to get rid of a few annoying threats like Propaganda, Tabernacle or the like. You can choose to add 2 Ward Slivers instead of the Necrotic Slivers, as Ward Sliver is also very powerful. The Harmonic Sliver is perfect as this deck has no artifacts/ enchantments at all. So you will always only target an artifact or enchantment of your opponent. Once you get to cast either Essence Sliver, Shifting Sliver or Synchronous Sliver, your opponent is usually screwed.

It should seriously be considered to add Heart Sliver for the Haste effect, cause this is really lethal in a Sliver Deck. But Im not sure its worth adding a fourth color for this only.

A few comments on your Sliver Deck:
Why do you want Virulent Sliver? Think about it! Once you eventually get to deal your opponent 10 poison counters, you would already have killed him by damage. So leave that crap sliver out. Homing Sliver? Cycling in a Sliver deck sucks, as does Survival of the Fittest. And it aint really worth adding a fourth colour with the risk of being mana screwed just because of Homing Sliver. Also leave out Sliver Queen, Sliver Legion and Sliver Overlord. They aint worth it. At the time you get to play these, game has ended. Only purpose they serve, is to screw up your opening hand.


-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School

To those who doubt the power of this deck, here is a typical start:

Round 1: Play Forest, Tap Forest for  , Play Fyndhorn Elves
Round 2: Play Forest, Tap 2 Forest and Fynhorn for  , Play Elvish Archdruid
Round 3: Play Forest, Tap 3 Forest and Fyndhorn for  , Play Nissa's Chosen and Viridian Zealot.
             Tap Elvish Archdruid for 4x , Play Nissa Revane, use Nissa Revane to fetch another Nissa's Chosen
Round 4: Tap 3 forest + Fyndhorn Elves for  , play Drove of Elves
Tap Elvish Archdruid for  play Ambush Commander.

You now, -IN ROUND 4- have a 11/11 Drove of Elves, and you can still choose to use Nissa Revane to either fetch another Nissas Chosen to make Drove of Elves 12/12 or you can simply get 20 life from Nissa Revane. A 11/11 Elf and +20 life on round 4... that aint bad huh?
And its not that the example above is a perfect start happening in only 1 out of 100 games. There is actually a fair chance to get a start like that.

Yes I know, there should probably be 4 Elvish Archdruids in the deck, but I like the deck this way.

-Carnac

Well, I really like my Sliver Deck. It’s a pure creature deck. No Æther Vials, no Counterspells, just pure Slivers, but still extremely lethal and funny to play. And I didn’t thought I would find a creature deck funnier than this. Usually I relate funny decks to combo-decks, rather than "Throw-down-creatures-and-attack"-decks. But now Ive finished my Elvish Deck. Almost all foiled out except for a few ones. And god damn… I can’t believe how funny this deck is. I played it for the first time today.

And what makes my Elvish Deck so funny?

First of all, there’s lot of action. You have to keep count on numerous counters, dices and tokens. Counters on Nissa, Counters on Garruk,  Counters on Joraga, Dice on Drove of Elves, Dice on Jagged-Scar Archers. Tokens for Garruk, Tokens for Imperious Perfect, Tokens for Voice of the Woods and constantly searching library for Nissa’s Chosen. You hardly believe it, but it’s not unusual that you end up with one or two 12/12 Drove of Elves and/ or 12/12 Jagged-Scar Archers in round 6 or 7. And sometimes even 15/15, 17/17 or the like. And in round 6+ you will most likely have a Nissa Revane able to give you 16+ life each round. Think about it! 16+ life every round. That’s insane! In one of the games my opponent had a 10/10 Lord of Extinction drop in round 6 or 7. Something that usually means “game over”, especially if  you are stuck with 1/1 Elves. But he simply had to sacrifice it to block my Drove of Elves which had grown 17/17. When I made this deck, I thought my winning conditions would be either a lot of elves with Garruk Overrun, or a Nissa Ultimate resolving. I had absolutely no idea that in most games I would win by attacking with 15/15-20/20 Elfs. When people mention elves, the picture of a 1/1 Llanowar Elf is usually what comes to my mind. And then a 20/20 Elf… WHAT THE F*CK?

One of the games I had Nissa Ultimate go off. That was really crazy. First, about 30 Elves was entering the battlefield straight from the library. Second, at end of opponents turn, I made like eight 7/7 green elemental creatures with Voice of the Woods and Ambush Commander, then third on my turn, released from summoning sickness, I was attacking with an army so huge, Ive never seen anything like that before in my history of Magic. Somewhere between 45-50 Elves along with eight 7/7 Elementals was attacking, with the Ambush Commander having turned even the Forests into Elfs as well. Unfortunately I did not have Garruk down, to give it all +3/+3 Overrun,that would have been the ultimate attack, but the Elvish army was doing their job pretty well without.

It is obvious that this deck is not tournament competitive, as it is very vulnerable to Wrath of God, Damnation or the like. But if you’re looking for a funny deck, this is absolutely worth trying out. It is for sure one of the funniest decks I’ve tried. And if not for the fun, then just to see your opponent getting totally owned by that 17+/17+ Elf or overrunned by the hugest army ever seen.

Here is setup I’ve chosen for my Elvish Deck:

4 x Fyndhorn Elves
4 x Llanowar Elves
3 x Joraga, Warcaller
4 x Nissa's Chosen
4 x Viridian Zealot
4 x Imperious Perfect
3 x Jagged-Scar Archers
2 x Elvish Archdruid
4 x Drove of Elves
4 x Nissa Revane
2 x Garruk Wildspeaker
2 x Nath's Elite
2 x Ambush Commander
2 x Voice of the Woods
16 x Forests


Try it out! You wont believe how funny this deck is!


-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School

Ever since I saw the Bazaar Trader I’ve been thinking about a combo of how to make use of this card. But I’ve been too busy developing my Vintage, Legacy and Standard tournament decks. But yesterday I found some time reconsidering the Bazaar Trader. And I came up with the Bazaar Trader + Immortal Coil combo. When I was done with the deck, it really surprised me how CHEAP this deck is. It is extremely cheap! No Baneslayers, no Jaces, no Impulses… pure discount cards! I think the most expensive card in this deck is the Vampire Nighthawk, selling for what…. 2 dollars?

Here is the deck I came up with:


4,00 Terminate
4,00 Ponder
4,00 Fabricate
4,00 Duress
4,00 Diabolic Tutor
4,00 Vampire Nighthawk
4,00 Bazaar Trader
4,00 Lightning Bolt
4,00 Immortal Coil
2,00 Relic of Progenitus
4,00 Crumbling Necropolis
4,00 Jwar Isle Refuge
4,00 Akoum Refuge
3,00 Bojuka Bog
2,00 Island
3,00 Swamp
2,00 Mountain

You can ofcourse swap the 4 Jwar, 4 Akoum and 1 Swamp with 3 Scalding Tarn, 3 Dragonskull Summit and 3 Drowned Catacomb or somehow else optimize the mana base, but if you stick to this setup, you got an extremely cheap deck.

Here is how it works: The winning condition of this deck is to handle over Immortal Coil to opponent with Bazaar Trader and then remove his or her graveyard using either Relic of Progenitus or Bojuka Bog. The use of the 2 tutors (Diabolic Tutor and Fabricate) is important. Use Fabricate to search for either Immortal Coil or Relic of Progenitus and use Diabolic Tutor to search for either Bazaar Trader, Immortal Coil or Bojuka Bog. Most of the times you will have to use Diabolic Tutor to search for Bazaar Trader, cause you will usually either draw or Fabricate into Coil or Relic. Take advantage of using Fabricate or Diabolic tutor to shuffle your library after you´ve picked your card with Ponder.

Playing the deck right, the combo usually goes off in round 5-7, therefore the biggest threats to this deck is fast creature decks and counter decks which will mess with your combo. The Vampire Nighthawk and Lightning Bolt is added, cause its great to deal with fast creature decks, and Duress to get rid of cards that will threaten your combo.

I can’t promise this deck will be tournament-competitive, but I think it might surprise even experienced players. And that aint bad, considering that you can build this deck for less than 30 dollars, or half the price of 1 Baneslayer or Jace.

If you have suggestions on how to improve this deck expect for adding expensive Fetchlands, please let me know 

-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School

Do I loose the game, if I use Phage the Untouchable with Sneak Attack?

3 months ago I started playing Magic again, after not having played Magic for more than 10 years, and for old school players as well as newcomers, here is a little tale of how it all began.

I left the Magic world of Dominaria more than 10 years ago only a short time after the Ice Age has ended (except for a short return in the Saga). Now, more than a decade has passed, and I am –well, one could say, if not Alara Reborn, then, at least REBORN- into this magic world. Into a new chaos of war, shards and floating diamond shaped stones. A world ruled by even more ferocious creatures, cunning mages struggling for power and eternal planeswalkers fighting by your side given that you earn their loyalty. And it all came back to me… The good old days of magic!

3 months ago I had about 160 duallands, or, like 4 playsets of each dualland. For all these years they have just been collecting dust in a 9-pocket folio on my shelf. Now I find myself left with 80 duallands, or, like 2 playsets, the rest has been traded away. And for what…? A whole bunch of new crap cards… But… How they SHINE! Shine for the long since gone and forgotten legends that once ruled the world of Dominaria!

Now… lets take a look at what I´ve gained in exchange for these 80 duallands:
1: A full foiled out red deck
2: A full foiled out white deck
3: A full foiled out green deck (not quite completed yet, but almost)
And of course a whole bunch of new powercards like 4 x Jitte, 4x Baneslayer, 4 x Vindicate, A playset of each fetchland etc etc. And now, a bit confused, I ask myself: How did I end up with 3 full foiled out decks, that in no way are tournament competitive and maybe wouldn’t even stand a chance in a standard tournament, in case they were standard legal? And for the sacrifice of high-valued duallands?

Analyzing it, I guess it’s all in the story of how it all began.

Back in my younger days I was introduced for Magic the Gathering by a friend. Little did I know, that was he was about to show me, would have such a big influence on my life. From the very second he showed me his cards, and taught me the rules, I was trapped in Dominaria. He gave me a deck of 60 cards for free. A pure black deck. With “powerful” cards like Drudge Skeletons and Wall of Bones… Uhhhh… They could regenerate! Very hard to kill! Unless they got disintegrated! You couldn’t even terrorize them, which would make them able to defeat even the Taliban. Something that George Bush and Obama since 10 years haven’t been able to accomplish yet. However, on a bad day, you could have those swords of your Drudge skeletons turned into plowshares. Which would send them into eternal exile, where they would be doomed to harvest crops forever. But the ultimate creature in my free black deck were the gloomy chilling ghost: The Frozen Shade! Which in spite of his floating body wasn’t able to fly though. But still you wouldn’t want to mess with him! With the poisoned lands spreading to more than eight lands, or maybe aided by a dark ritual, the Frozen Shade was able to overcome even the Force of Nature!

However it was rumoured that even more sinister creatures roamed the misty swamps of Dominaria! Powerful vampires, which would leech on their preys to grow ever stronger! After I was given my free deck, I bought my first boosterpack! A Fallen Empires booster! Whoah! I drew a Thrull Champion in my very first boosterpack ever! Not that I had much use of him, but another wizard was asking his alliance, in exchange for the loyalty of his… Vampire! And that is how the first Sengir Vampire was added to my deck.

The Vampire was a strong ally, but in the mountains of Shiv lurked fouler creatures, with skin hard as dragonscale, which was difficult for a vampire to leech upon, unless he was gifted with unholy strength. But even that would be at the cost of card-disadvantage. And that is how the ultimate quest began. How to tame the firebreathing, undisputed master of the mountains: The Shivan Dragon! After a year or so, roaming the mountains of Shiv, I finally succeeded at taming four Shivan Dragons. And from that very day, the Dragonmasters presence was feared throughout the most of Dominaria! Forget about Nicol Bolas, forget about Rasputin Dreamweaver and forget about Tetsuo Umezawa and his later uncovered relic, the Jitte. The undisputed master of Shiv simply won so many games, battles and tournaments, that the greatest legend of all times is: THE SHIVAN DRAGON. And it tears my heart to see this proud and mighty dragon, degraded to a cheap 1 dollar lizard. I oughtta grap one of my Revised Edition white bordered Shivan Dragons, bring her to the jewelry and have her gold-bordered in true 24-carat gold, cause she has fought, won and ensured countless victories on the battlefield.

And to honor the legendary Shivan Dragon, I simply had to have a full foiled out red deck with four foil Shivan Dragons, though she wouldn’t stand a chance in a tournament. How would she ever be able to match the evolved breed of a 5/5 flier with first strike, lifelink and protection from dragons, which even have a statistical chance to enter the battlefield a turn earlier? But to new comers this might be the new Shivan Dragon. Maybe 10 years from now, people who started Magic recently will be foiling out a deck with Baneslayer, to honor their Queen. To aid the Shivan Dragon, I have supplied the deck with other legendary creatures and spells. Among these, I shall mention the Covetous Dragon which was immortalized by winning the 1999 World Championship. And the legendary Hammer of Bogardan. What a revolutionary spell this was. A Lightning Bolt that would return to your hand like Mjolnir,  to strike your enemies over and over, giving you huge board and card-advantage. And, of course, 4 Lightning Bolts itself. I have acquired 4 of the textless Lightning Bolts, those drawed by artist Veronique Meignaud.

With the Lightning Bolts and the new Zendikar Basic lands (particularly the Forest, Mountain and Island), I think that Veronique Meignaud starts tangering being one of my new favourite artists. In the past I had favourite artists like Melissa Benson (Shivan Dragon, Nightmare, Fire Elemental), Mark Tedin (Fireball, Timetwister, Time Vault, Sol Ring, City of Brass, Juzan Djinn, Necropotence, Chaos Orb, Leviathan etc.) and Amy Weber (Time Walk, Disenchant, High Tide, Concordant Crossroads). I know many will disagree with me, especially upon Amy Weber, but I just love the painting of Time Walk. It has this ancient aura upon it, which radiates extremely powerful magic. And powerful it is… I can’t think of much greater magic than being able to walk through time, except maybe for immortality. Well done Amy!

After the reign of Shivan Dragon, I started more advanced Magic. But this also included very expensive cards. Like the P9 which had the outrageous set-price of like 200 dollars. I did a lot of combo magic, and ended up inventing the Twist/ Wheel deck ( A powerful combo that was discovered by many others too though, we just hadn’t read the recipe on the internet, as with most powerdecks today). It goes like this: Draw cards, throw artifact, wheel or twist into a new hand, throw more artifacts, eat your lands with Zuran, Armageddon and Wrath your opponent with Balance, only to Timewist your lands into your library again or Fastbond them back to play with Yawgmoth, throw Atog, release it from sickness with a Timewalk and then finish off with an 80/20  forked double berserking Atog, and should that somehow fail, then put mind over matter with Academy to throw a 100+ dam Fireball. I really loved the Balance/ Zuran Orb/ Timetwister/ Fastbond-combo. Though it was a combo requiring four different cards, and all restricted cards, it was a combo that happened in 7 out of 10 games, and sometimes even multiple times in a single game. It really brought despair to the opponent, having all of their lands and creatures swept away with that Balance, while watching opponent gain 10-20 lifes and having all lands brought back to play again.

However, in spite of all these fancy cards and combos, a certain discount deck sometimes did catch me by surprise with its speed. A discount deck, which no deck could really feel safe about: The legendary White Weenie Deck. I really hated this deck, cause I knew, that every time I was facing it, there was a slight risk I might actually loose the game. And there, you had your 500 dollar deck defeated and humiliated by a cheap 50 dollar deck. At the same time I loved the White Weenie deck. It was the poor mans chance to defeat those dollar-pumped decks. Much like Bant vs Jund. Bant people hate Jund because it only cost 1/10 the price of a Bant deck. But I somehow like it, therefore I play both Bant and Jund. And every time you drew a Savannah Lion, White Knight, Armageddon, Disenchant or a Crusade in that boosterpack, you knew you could trade it away for something good. I have never really played that White Weenie deck myself, because I was more curious about the sophisticated combos primarily dominated by blue, but I’ve played against it countless of times. And I knew, that some day I wanted to have a White Weenie deck myself. I just didn’t know it would take more than 10 years. And now I have finally gotten my White Weenie Deck, all foiled out and with a slight change, turning it into a pure Knight deck.

Last, but not least, I have put together an all foil green deck. Why have I done this? In the old days of magic, green has always been an inferior race. They didn’t really have much to offer, in a world dominated by the huge control universe of blue, the furious and everburning fires from red, the faststriking hordes of white and the devastating magic of death and destruction from black. What did green have to offer? Actually I can only come up with 3 green cards from the old days of magic, worth mentioning. The rampant managgrowth of Fastbond and Birds of Paradise and lastly the Regrowth –or my german blackbordered “Neues Leben”- to bring back that Time Walk from your grave. Of course you could make small combos like the Birds / Instill Energy along with Stasis, and the popular Force of Nature / Spirit Link combo. But as a whole, green was an outmatched race. BUT… Deep in the woods… Lives a small people. A people I always found an unexplainable sympathy for. These are the elves of the mysterious forests. Often being the first ones to enter the battlefield, always standing proud in the frontline, ready to oppose the first waves of intruding armies, and later sacrifice their lifes, blocking a huge monstrosity for the greater cause. And I knew, that one day…  I would build an all green Elvish deck. And it’s a joy to see, how the Elves have evolved through the ages, aiding their allies with more and more sophisticated abilities.

Thinking back in general, if there ever was a Hall of Fame, these are cards, that would all deserve a place in there:

1: Shivan Dragon
2: Balance
3: Birds of Paradise
4: Library of Alexandria
5: Crusade

(I could add in Millstone or LD to the list, but that is simply another chapter, so I’ll leave it out for now. And I’m also sure you guys out there has a lot of other cards to add to the list, but let’s stick to these for now).
 
But these are all cards that already has or are about to descend into nothingness. Abandoned and forgotten, but these are cards, that should always be rembered. Remembered for their huge impact and influence on Magic through a decade. Reflecting upon this article, the Shivan Dragon and Balance pretty much explains itself. The Birds of Paradise… What can I say? Which other creature has survived all the way from Alpha over Beta, Umlimited, Revised, six core sets  and up to M2010, without ever rotating out, still being desired and played? Now they have finally come to rest, with the exalted Noble Hierarch claiming the throne of mana creeps. The Library of Alexandria are as legendary as the tales of a Thousand and One Arabian Nights itself. A Library in your opening hand in a control deck, was almost a sure victory. Now, as with the birds and Hierarch, the Library are put to rest by the Tabernacle. I remember paying just a dualland for my Tabernacle,  and now I can trade my Tabernacle for a Library. Who would ever have thought that? Crusade, well, I might as well had put White Knight or Savannah Lions there, but to represent the White Weenie, I chose the Crusade, cause after all, it is the one that boosts the pack to deliver that final blow. As with the other legends, Crusade are now put to rest by Glorious Anthem, Divine Sacrament, Shared Triumph, Honor of the Pure etc.

So to the newcomers out there, if you ever face an opponent who prefer the Shivan Dragon above the Baneslayer or the Savannah Lions above the Hound of Kondra… You know you are facing a Wizard of the Old School, who has won countless battles with these loyal and legendary creatures fighting by their side.

I hope you all enjoyed this article, thanks for reading
-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School.

I wanted a Honor of the Pure 2010 Core Set Box FOIL card, and I thought it would be in a sealed booster display. Like some kind of "reward" for buying 36 boosterpacks. Thus I bought a full M2010 core set booster display, only to realize there was no Honor of the Pure in it... What is a Core Set Box if not a M2010 booster display!?

How do I get a FOIL Honor of the Pure???

I thought WOTC only released a new expansion 3 times a year / every fourth month.

Worldwake was released on the 5th of february, and now Rise of the Eldrazi is already announced to be released on the 23th of April !?

Thats not even 3 months between the releases. Are WOTC in desperate need of money or are they just beeing extremely greedy?

If WOTC increases the frequency of which they release expansions, Im gonna stop playing magic, because then they have become too greedy for my budget.

Anyone got an answer why next expansion is released this quickly?

Will a creature with "Protection from blue" be unaffected by Propaganda?

Will a creature with "Protection from lands" be unaffected by the Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale?

If I have a Fusion Elemental in play, will that creature fulfill the "a creature of each color" requirement of Coalition Victory? Or do I have to have 5 separate creatures in play?

I just bought 4 FOIL textless Lightning Bolts (the ones painted by artist Veronique something), but it was damn expensive. 15 dollars each, 60 dollars total. How do I get that card without having to pay for it on stores like StarCityGames? And where does StarCityGames get those cards from? I dont think I can get it on Friday Night Magic, so if I want to get one of those special Lightning Bolts, where do I get it?

I am planning on going to a legacy tournament for the first time since more than 10 years. My win condition will be the Dark Depths - Hexmage combo.

But since I last played magic over 10 years ago, rules has changed alot, and it really shocked me, to find out, that a Wasteland in response to sacrificing my Dark Depths will prevent the Marit Lage to succeed. And does this mean that a Fissure in response to sac´ing my Dark Depths will prevent Marit Lage to occur too?
And does anyone know anything else I should be aware of, before I resolve my Dark Depths? Like maybe Stifle...? Or something else?
What happens if someone bounce my Dark Depths in response to me removing the counters with Hexmage, and in response to me sac´ing it?
Also, can someone tell me what will be the hardest deck for a Dark Depths / Hexmage deck to encounter? And what should I put in my sideboard to deal with it?
And what do other people do when they encounter a Dark Depths/ Hexmage deck -I mean, how do they usually get rid of Marit Lage?
Any help will be highly appreciated.

I know this issue should maybe be placed in a deck construction forum, but since the rules about Wasteland is the one that concerns me most, Ive chosen to place it here in Rules Forum.

Though I wont gain life, can I still use the +1 ability on Ajani Goldmane, at least to increase his loyalty?

Can I use "Sleight of Mind" to change the color of spells that cannot be cast, once Iona is on the battlefield, given that blue wasnt the chosen color when she was played?

Can someone explain me the the rules of double strike in the following 3 scenarios?

Scenario 1: My opponent attacks with a 6/6 creature. I block with a 3/3 doublestrike creature. What happens? They both die, or...?

Scenario 2: My opponent attacks with a 6/6 creature. I block with a 3/3 doublestrike + firststrike creature. What happens? The 6/6 dies and 3/3 survives, or...?

Scenario 3: My opponent attacks with a 6/6 firststrike creature. I block with a 3/3 doublestrike + firststrike creature. What happens? They both die, or...?

Thanks in advance...