It’s in!!!

Sweet jesus!


I’m very happy to see this card reprinted. The first aggro deck I ever played was Deadguy red, a focused burn/creature mono-red deck. And I look forward to doing something similar in the future. More likely this guy will just slide into some Red/Green Bloodbraid Elf aggro deck. But I am very very very excited!!! I’ve seen a lot of comments about the power level of limited, and I’m interested to see some of the other commons in the set.

The thing that I’m really interested in is whether or not they’re going to reprint Wrath of God. I’m kindof surprised that nobody is talking about this much. I mean, the list of reprints that’s been in every core set is this:

Air Elemental
Bog Wraith
Drudge Skeletons—IN
Fear—OUT
Giant Growth—IN
Giant Spider
Goblin King
Grizzly Bears
Howling Mine
Nightmare—IN
Orcish Artillery
Regeneration
Rod of Ruin
Samite Healer
Scathe Zombies
Wrath of God

I could see why they wouldn’t reprint a lot of these cards, sure some of them have mad flavor (Goblin King) but they’re not relevent in constructed Magic at all. When was the last time you played Giant Growth in standard? or Nightmare for that matter. But Wrath…? Not only has it always been reprinted, but it has also always seen play in control decks since the dawn of the game. I remember some years back when they didn’t reprint Armageddon and people literally lost their minds. Could you imagine a Wrathless standard? /gasp!

G/B Elves Testing

So last night, after wrangling my daughter to sleep I decided to do a little testing on MtGO. I didn’t have a ton of time and I was pretty tired, so I didn’t jump in an 8-man Standard queue and opted for the wonky Tournament Practice room instead. I’m now weilding the Green/Black elves build that I previously posted. The only difference is: -2 Twilight Mire, +1 Forest, +1 Swamp (because I don’t want to pay 14 tix for Mires thank you very much). So here’s a few matches (a couple of which were actually tournament worthy decks).

Match #1 – vs. Mirror
game 1 – My Profane Commands get full value at -X/-X and returning Putrid Leeches to play. I drew 2 of the 3 Profanes in the deck and let me tell you, that’s the card that really swings the mirror (outside of Chameleon Colossus, obv). Garruk comes down and lets me plays Colossus + Wren’s Run Vanquisher (heretofore known as WRV). He attacks Garruk to 1 in an all-out assault. I use Garruk to untap lands, then make a beast the following turn, then do a 2nd beast the turn after that and play the fresh Garruk I drew to untap lands and overrun the following turn. I really like Garruk when he turns into Overrun. He should make 4/4 Beast tokens though, IMO.

boarding: +3 hammer, +1 colossus, +3 deathmark (7)
-1 WRV, -1 perfect, -1 wayfinder, -2 LLelf, -1 thoughtseize, -1 leech (7)

game 2 – He was land light with 2x LLelf. Turn 2 I drop a Leech and turn 3 I Pulsed the LLelfs away and dropped a Perfect (my Leech was already down). He played WRV so I Pulsed that too. Then I played warhammer and he concedes on my next attack, which was lethal.

Matches 1-0, Games 2-0

Match #2 – vs. Bant
game 1 – I kept a 5land llelf/colossus hand. He has Bant Charm on my Collossus after one attack that takes him to 10 (pumped to 8/8). i have Llelf/Village/Mutavault available to me. He then plays Augury Adept… wtf? He then concedes match when I untap. LAME.

Matches 2-0, Games 3-0

Match #3 – vs. Doran
I kept a questionable hand again. This time no black mana, Perfect, 2x Mutavault, 2x Forest. He has turn 3 Doran. WRV blocks his Doran and he has turn 4 doran. I have turn 4 Colossus, he has turn 5 Path to Exile. A Perfect comes down on my side and I draw a swamp to cast my Thoughtseize taking his Colossus. He’s stuck on 3 lands, 2 Ziggurats and a Bosk. He concedes on turn 8 with Pulse in hand. He probably had a few more turns to draw land but I guess he didn’t want to play it out.

boarding: +3 deathmark, +1 colossus, +3 warhammer
-3 garruk, -1 profane, -1 perfect, -1 llelf, -1 wayfinder

game 2 – Bangin hand! WRV, leech, wayfinder, 4 lands. He has turn 3 Doran and reveals Inversion from Gilt-leaf Palace. This game he has no mana issues. He inversions my Perfect. And it’s at this time I find out he’s 4-color Doran splashing for… *drumroll* Bloodbraid Elf! Big freaking surprise, right? He drops colossus and I’m at like 4 life. I have a wayfinder and go to equip warhammer to stay afloat. He paths it. gg.

game 3 – turn 1 seize reveals:
plains, vivid marsh, gilt-leaf palace, putrid leech, colossus x2
I take colossus. He plays WRV, I play WRV. He plays Leech, I play Leech. I play a Perfect, swing with Leech, he doesn’t block with his Leech. He pulses my Perfect. 😦 He then swings with Leech and I don’t block. I untap and swing for 7 he doesn’t block goes to 5. He has 1 white open after playing colossus. hmmm I WONDER WHY. In the end if he has path on my WRV I lose (i drew a dead pulse). he untaps with colossus and… he only drew a WRV and had to pay 5 for it. woot! i untap activate some villages and get in there for the final 3 points (i did 6 total). Close one there.

Matches 3-0, Games 5-1

Match #4 – jund aggro
game 1 – Turn 1 Thoughtseize reveals:
Graven Cairns x2, Forest, Jund Charm, Mountain, Bloodbraid Elf, Flame Javelin
Momma didn’t raise no fool, take the BB Elf!Tturn 2 leech for me is followed up by Leech for him and another Leech for me. Maelstrom Pulse here = bad. He has played Forest, Swamp, Mountain in perfect succession. Nice. I profane a Leech for -2/-2 and make him lose 2 life, then get in there with my Leeches. He drops to 4 and I drop to 12 on the attack. He drops to 2 on Leech pumping & attacking then drops Sprouting Thrinax. I’m not worried about the Thrinax as I have 2 Pulses in hand. I play a 5-cost WRV then kill his Thrinax on his attack with my 4/4 Leech. I know he has Jund Charm so him getting tokens isn’t that bad for me if he wants to Pyroclasm. He Terrors my WRV then puts 2 +1/+1 coutners on his lone Leech, attacking me to 1 life. But now he’s tapped out… /ponder. I untap, activate a Mutavault and swing for the final 2 points. Odd.

sideboarding:
+3 warhammer, +1 colossus, +3 deathmark
-4 thoughtseize, -3 garruk

game 2 – I get a decent hand, he mulls to 6. My turn 2 WRV gets Flame Javelin’d and he drops a Bloodbraid the following turn cascading into terror on my Imperious Perfect. Just perfect. My Wayfinder comes to find a swamp and I drop a Llelf for a little chumpy goodness. He plays Anathemancer for 2. I tap low for Leech + Warhammer. He plays ANOTHER Bloodbraid Elf, this time cascading into a Magma Spray which he aims at my Leech which I pump in response. He swings and I simply take it. I then untap and swing with a 7/4 trampling lifelink Leech. I have enough mana to re-equip the hammer to my llelf. He untaps in the face of the ferocious 4/1 blocker and concedes.

Matches 4-0, Games 7-1

Well, not too shabby for a quick playtest session. The only notables I played against were the mirror, Doran, and Jund aggro. The bant match was a fluke and the guy was a jackass for conceding match. I’m playing to practice with my deck, not watch you concede like a crybaby because you got beat. If you’re not in the tournament practice room to practice, GTFO. This has been a public service announcement for serious playtesters everywhere. 🙂

So the deck is still looking good. Need to get into some 8-mans and see how it flows. I’ll try to do one tonight if I can but my parents might be visiting, so if they are it’s out of the question. Until next time!