Tag Archives: mtg

Mirrodin Tournament-Ready Event Decks are Awesome

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So last night I took a break from WoW and played an unhealthy amount of Magic: The Gathering with Eric and Jon.  I hadn’t played in a couple months and it was awesome getting back to it again.  I think Cataclysm was a huge reason I hadn’t checked it out much and also the Mirrodin block so far isn’t overly impressive to me.  I think infect is a neat mechanic, but the whole poison counter thing is kind of a drag to me.  Sure you could obliterate opponents earlier on with 10 counters, but I guess I don’t like my games to go that quickly.  While we mainly played decks of our own design (save for my Jund in the picture up there), it was a great time.

However, especially cool was that Jon picked up both of the new Mirrodin Event decks, which were dastardly.  I didn’t even know these existed but apparently they just came out.  You can check out the decklist and a post from Wizards of the Coast here, but suffice it to say every card in each deck is low cost, destructive, and engineered to be tournament-ready.  Each include a 60-card standard-ready deck with 15 card sideboard and a 20-sided die to boot.

Sure not building your own takes away from the appeal of MTG a bit, but if you’ve always been afraid to step into tournament territory with a pre-made, these might be worth checking out.  Below are amazon links to each if you’d like to purchase!

Into the Breach


Infect and Defile

Why I’m Meh About Scars of Mirrodin

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While I’ve had a blast exploring the 2011 Core Set, I can’t say I’m anywhere near as excited about the latest MTG expansion, Scars of Mirrodin.  I’m sure JB would be disappointed, but I just can’t help it.

I’ve browsed the visual spoiler and while there are certainly a few stand outs for me, the set as a whole isn’t ringing my bell.  Why?  For starters it’s a throwback to the original Mirrodin block it would seem- a set I’m completely unfamiliar with as a relative noob in Magic.  I’m sure that set must’ve had a pretty big impact on players at the time for them to revisit it here, but sadly, I wasn’t one of them.

Lacking the ability to connect with the nostalgic aside, I have at least gathered that the set is centered highly around artifacts.  There are definitely some artifacts I’ve enjoyed success with, but not to the point that I’ve gotten around to building an entire deck around them.  I’ll admit I picked up the new duel deck, Elspeth vs. Tezzeret but I haven’t had a chance to play with them. It’s possible they may yet change my opinion on artifact-heavy decks but we’ll have to see.

I’m also not particularly fond of having poison counters featured so prominently.  I understand that when you’ve got a TCG that’s maintained the kind of popularity that Magic has for 15 years you might need to revisit a safe mechanic if only for a breather before the next big thing, but poison counters always seemed kind of cheap to me.  Unless the rules have changed, if you can put 10 poison counters on an opponent they lose, which is almost like reducing their life to 10 from the onset of the game in my book and believe me, there’s no shortage of creatures dealing poison counters in Scars of Mirrodin.

Maybe I’m just getting elitest after being spoiled by so many wonderful cards from Zendikar, but I just don’t seem to be getting into this one.  I’ll probably still do some drafts just to see if I eat my words and maybe get the fat pack, but I can’t see myself splitting boxes of the set with friends either.

How do you feel about Scars of Mirrodin?

Studies Into Standard – Time for Action

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Welcome one and all to another exciting episode of Studies into Standard. First of all, let me just say sorry for the delay. I’ve had a rough week. First, my laptop breaks. Then my car breaks down. Then I have to work a 60 hour week this week at the warehouse… anyways, I finally got it finished! So in this episode, I take my U/W Control deck that I built in my original article, and play at my local FNM. For those of you who don’t remember, here is the decklist that I posted:

U/W Control by JB Martin

Planeswalkers

2 Jace Beleren
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Gideon Jura

Instants
2 Jace’s Ingenuity
2 Condemn
2 Deprive

Enchantments

3 Oblivion Ring
2 Cancel
4 Mana Leak

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Studies into Standard – Budget Decks

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Greetings to everyone out there reading this, and welcome to another exciting episode of Studies into Standard. During the entirety of this article, it is my mission to give a few standard decklists that don’t break the bank. Now, (and I know this is obvious) I want to mention that these decks are not the best decks in standard, nor can they beat the popular decks in standard, and in fact might not even include the best cards that do the things you are trying to accomplish. My goal is to give you, the reader, a few decklists that you can take to your local FNM, participate, have fun, and maybe, maybe win with.

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Studies into Standard: U/W Control

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The following is a guest post by JB Martin, a friend I met at my most recent Friday Night Magic event.  Aside from just being a great guy, his knowledge of Magic makes mine look laughable by comparison so I was overjoyed to have him bring his experience to GeeksPodcast and give us some sound wisdom on how to step up our games in MTG.  Welcome, JB!
-Josh

Greetings and welcome to my first of what I hope to be many posts here at GeeksPodcast. While posting here aboard this wonderful website, I hope to help everyone who reads these in the ways of standard and limited as best I can. For my starting off week, I plan to delve into my personal favorite deck in standard right now: U/W control; But first a little about myself!

I am 19 years old, live in Columbus, Ohio, and have been playing magic since Mirrodin block (2003). I have loved magic since the first moment I started playing, but have only gotten competitive recently. I have been to 2 PTQ’s (Pro Tour Qualifiers), doing fairly well in both. Standard and Limited are the only formats I play currently, not because I don’t like the other formats, but because time and money are major issues.

I work full time 3rd shift at a warehouse fixing and recycling computers. I enjoy my job greatly, and it gives me time to think. A lot of that time is spent thinking about Magic the Gathering and League of Legends, which is a great, free online game for the PC that I highly suggest you check out! And if you do, be sure to send a referral to helidead09 (my in-game name) so I can get some cool rewards. Anyways, since I have so much free time to think about magic, the overflow of ideas will no doubt creep into these posts. Now that you know a little about me, onward!

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My First Friday Night Magic Event

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While I’ve attended prelaunch parties before for The Rise of the Eldrazi and the 2011 Core Set, I’d yet to go to a Friday Night Magic event.  Typically these happen on Friday nights (obviously) at game stores all across the country.  Because I’ve yet to find one in Dublin, I’ve been heading to Magic events over at Comic Town on Morse Road.  While I was a little freaked out to try my hand at a draft tournament, it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  It was a lot better considering I had Jon, Eric, Erin, and Nicole along for the ride. So how did I fare?  Read on…

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What to Bring to a Magic the Gathering Tournament

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This is a guide for people who are entering their first tournament. I realize most of this information is well known to you grizzled, veteran plansewalkers out there, but it’s info I wish somebody would’ve told me before I started so I thought it might be helpful for anyone curious about what to bring. I’ve also provided links to some of these products on Amazon if you feel so inclined. Considering MTG has a lot to keep track of, your number one item should be…

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My 10 Favorite Pulls from the Magic The Gathering 2011 Core Set Fat Pack

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It’s 1:31AM as I write this and I couldn’t be happier to be up and beaming about all of the new cards I picked up.  Courtesy of The Guardtower, I just picked up 2 booster boxes and 2 Fat Packs from the 2011 Core Set.  So what did I do?  Naturally I ripped all of those bad boys open quicker than a Ritalin-dependent child on Christmas.  So shall we take a look at my 10 favorite cards?  Oh yes, let’s do.  Aaaaaand coming in at #10?

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MTG 2011 Core Set Just Around the Corner

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I’ve still been playing Magic: The Gathering fairly regularly with Jon and some of my other friends recently and almost forgot to do a post about this.  The newest Core Set, M11 will be officially launching on July 16th with prerelease events happening at game stores all over the country on July 10-11th.

If you manage to attend one of the prerelease events you get a free promo card of this big, beefy, bruiser right here.  6 mana for a 6/6 might seem high, but considering you can immediately return a card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, I could see him feasibly making it into a nice green/white deck perhaps.

If you’re interested in trying out your skills in an officially sanctioned DCI tournament you can search for one in your area here.

The 2011 Core Set is shaping up to be just as awesome as 2010 and if you’ve never attended a launch or prerelease party you should definitely check it out.  In my experience most of the other players are very welcoming to newcomers and it’s a great way to learn new deck building strategy’s and enhance your game.