Random decks

So with Ahmonket out, I was super excited to brew up all the decks but whats funny is that every deck that i was excited to brew up weren't very good. It wast until I decided to take a step back and look at the cards did I see potential in other cards. I knew i wanted to play with Regal Caracal because why wouldn't you want to play a deck with a Cat version of Cloudgoat Ranger. I knew I wanted to play with Plague Belcher because a 5/4 Menace for three is just too powerful to pass up and Approach of the Second Sun was just too awesome not to try. Its a reasonable alt Win-Con and you an easily set yourself up with draw cards in blue

So this first deck was probably the most frustrating to play. I just looks decent on paper...screen...whatever. It looks fine on paper and it just never did what it was suppose to do. I tried to include Channeler Initiate and it was just so underwhelming.  Before you look at Blisterpod and dismiss it, it was actually really really important to the deck. Having a turn 1 play was actually really important, It adds push back against Mardu and gives you some points of damage against control decks. I added Festering Mummy because I was running into a lot of Mono White aggro decks/ RW human decks that would overwhelm the board so i did my best slow them down when i could.

Hapatra was very, very good. So good that she was a lightening rod to removal every single time that she hit the board and if gone unchecked against midrange decks, she would be able to slow them down with Deathtouch snakes.

Nest of Scarabs was pretty much got the deck the wins when I won. I would overwhelm the board and force my opponent to make unfavorable blocks by attacking with tokens and cards like Plague Belcher.

Overall the deck didn't feel too great. It looks like you have the potential to get some really good sized creatures out for cheap and minimal disadvantage but it never happened for me

4x Festering Mummy

4xBlisterpod

4x Exlempar of Strength

4x Nest of Scarabs 

4x Crocodile of the Crossing

3x Hapatra's Mask

3x Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons

3x Plague Belcher

2x Grasp of Darkness

2x Splendid Agony

2x Ruinous Path

1x Decimator Beetle

This is probably my favorite deck that I was playing after the release of Amonkhet and how could it not be the most fun. I won all of my games in the 1v1 Ques and I had a blast doing it. The deck is pretty straight forward. Survive, draw cards, play Second Sun and that's it. The only deck that gave me a little bit of trouble was a BW Gideon Tribal deck that ended up exiling all of the Second Sun copies I had and forced me to rely on the Outburst token and Curators to win. It was annoying but i got there. I have 3 copies of Regal Caracal in the board but i didn't have an issue with exiling my cards in game one. Dovin Bann got some decent play and did a lot of work if he was played early. Had a game where my opponent would rather attack Dovin instead of hitting my life total and I was able to stall enough to get the win. 

PSully said that the appropriate number of Second Suns in the deck is 3 and while PSully has more wins and knowledge about the game than I do, I respectfully disagree. Every time I cast the first Second Sun, i always wanted to draw another one instead of waiting X turns to draw it. Sometimes having to wait X turns isn't good enough and you cant wait that long or you will die. There were several times where if i hadn't had the second or third copy in my hand, I would have died the very next turn. Having a 4th to me feels almost crucial to the deck. 

There are a bunch of cards that I actually really wanted to try in this deck, like new Gideon, Fumigate and Jace, but i didn't want to disrupt the structure of the deck.Also, out of all the new cards that I i managed to get a hold of and try, Drake Haven was actually the most lackluster of all the new cards. And when I say that I mean in this particular deck, not as a card in general. The card is fantastic, just not here. You will be spending your time cycling when you should be or could be digging for Second Sun.

Overall, I had a blast playing this deck. I am always trying to make a control deck work when new sets are introduced into standard and I am really glad i gave Approach of the Second Sun another look at.I was a delight to play

3x Immolating Glare

4x Anticipate

4x Renewed Faith

3x Cast Out

2x Glimmer of Genius

4x Hieroglyphic Illumination

1x Trial of Knowledge 

4x Curator of Mysteries

3x Dovin Baan

2x Planar Outburst

2x Descend upon the Sinful

4x Approach of the Second Sun

This tokens deck was fun, seemed kind of slow, didn't really do much when i needed it. I messed up with the Cartouche and Oketra making 1/1 vigilance creatures which doesn't work with Throne of the God-Pharaoh... yeah oops. 

Also, having Procession at 4cmc really sucks. if it was at 3cmc, the card would be good...great and i probably would have won more games than i did. at 4cmc you are deciding to either cast Procession or play the Expertise and combo it with Collective Effort or play a Trail of Strength. now Trial of Strength might actually be the 2nd best card in the deck. Combine it with the Cartouche and it was very hard to remove from the board. 

I'm not sure how many Oaths is the right amount. Sometimes id draw too many and more than too many times i wouldn't draw it when i needed it. There were times where i thought i should cut it out entirely but i liked pumping the whole team for 2 mana and was too lazy to find a replacement 

4x Cartouche of Solidarity

3x Immolating Glare

4x Sero Exhibition

2x Oath of Ajani

3x Throne of the God-Pharaoh 

3x Collective Effort

3x Trial of Strength

2x Anointed Procession

1x Oketra the True

4x Sram;s Expertise

3x Regal Caracal 

Yeah, so these were some of the decks that I was playing the first week or so after the set came out. It was a nice run through of some cards that caught my eye and out of all the decks i played, Second Sun won the most and was the most fun deck to play. I really feel like there is a Tokens deck that doesn't just have Gideon and Nissa as the token makers. Also, i realize that Gideon and Nissa make tokens, but i didn't have either of them soooo that was kind of out of the picture. 

Gotta keep'em short

I've noticed that I start to write these big long posts and get bored half way through and stop writing them. There are about 5 of these and they'll felt like a waste of time so I think I'm just going to keep them short like I originally did when I started writing this. Just quick blurbs about stuff that's going on thats going to take more than 140 characters a la Twitter and I think ill do some Hearthstone as well since the new set is nutty and fun and it's gotten my attention again. Not to say that I still don't really really want to play magic, I just am having so much fun with Hearthstone right now. I guess these will be like when I was taking the train to my now ex's place in the city and had about an hour to write down some thoughts on the way.
It's funny,  I actually considered doing blogs to kind of get a YouTube page going. It would be easier for me to put myself out there and explain a little bit better and people could grasp my tone s little better. Apperently my tone through text is a little much for people (QQ little lamb) so maybe seeing a face, a smile and matching a voice would help. I'm not 100 in on that yet bc I don't think people would watch to be honest. It's floating around in my head still.

WHERE I AM AT:
Well currently I'm working at some shit job bc my contract at the other super sweet kick ass job ended. I loved that job and the money and it's something that I really want to do again.  So until I get another contract, shitty job it will be
At this point it's super disheartening bc I have been wanting to be in the tech world for years now but it just seems to elude me ever so slightly. And it feels like I'll be working these shitty jobs forever and it's really heartbreaking.
WHAT I AM PLAYING
I'm playing lots and lots of mtg, hearthstone and overwatch. While i was at Google I was building my computer to potentially stream in the future and I was gearing up to go ham into mtg and as of two weeks ago, hearthstone.  I really feel like i have the discipline to succeed in both of those games at a higher level than most. I just need money to get better cards and time so I can play in events.

Ok, so I ended up stopping this and now im going to finish and post it. Its been about three weeks since I started this and a few things changed, like the decks and Where I Am At portion but when stuff is more concrete ill go ahead and post about it

My thoughts on Standard and bannings

 Well i guess its on the lack of banning this time around. And well, i guess all i have to say is just stop being lazy. Magic players have been lazys for years and i guess i should clarify. When i say Magic players, i mean non pro Magic players. NonPro magic players are so fucking lazy and while its OBVIOUSLY not all magic players a majority of them are complaining about something they could very well fix themselves.
I get that winning is great but if everyone if on the "if you cant beat them join them"train get ready to have a bad time. Instead of  complaining, how about you try something else? how about you try something new? you can still play powerful cards but how about you try out an esper or UW control build? how about you see if UR burn works again? Is mono white humans viable? is there a new color combo that could rise above? we have a vindicate at instant speed...there is a wheel of fortune that deals damage. there are endless possibilities out there and nobody wants to take the time to try something new and if thats the case, have fun complaining about there being 3 decks in the format and playing one of those decks.
Go out there, play and try new things.There are lots of possibilities and stop being fucking lazy about it
also, unban jace, BBE

add it to the pile that says mental illness

I dont think i have been this depressed in a really long time. I am just sad, i feel defeated, i feel alone and worthless and nobody wants me. nobody wants to be around me or hang out with me, nobody wants to be WITH ME. i just want someone to love me, i just want to love someone, i want to hold someone and be that someones special something...but i dont think i am good enough for that. Its the feeling like i am defeated part of me that feels that way. I just want to love someone like i used to love someone. My last relationship, i would travel 2 hours, spend 200 a month on travel and it would all be worth it but now, like right now right now... i dont feel like i am ever going to be capable of loving someone that much again.
Today, Co-dependent issues popped in my head on the way home. I never looked into that, i didnt know what it was or what the symptoms are or were, nothing. Well today i looked it up and it sounds like i have a co-depended issue. A lot of what triggers it or symptoms of it are there for me...like a lot. Mostly abandonment issues and feeling alone. Ive been abandoned by my father twice, once when i was younger, baby like and then again when i was 15-16 when i decided it was time to give him a chance. Then i had an emotionally abusive relationship like years ago, where she just grabbed all of her stuff and just disappeared. no goodbye, no reason, no nothing. like that whole year of a relationship was nothing. like it meant nothing, like i didnt matter and the things we did were just a dream. Then I had my last relationship that ended 2 days after my fucking birthday and 2 days before our year together, just end. like...all the struggle and the fighting and the talking and the me changing for her and the me showing her and telling her how much i loved her. me expanding my boundaries and trying new things and getting along with her shitty dysfunctional family and me supporting her and what she wants to do and me trying to help her get herself back on the right track health wise or me trying to get her to get back into her art by constantly reminder that she needed to get up an be creative instead of watching House all the fucking time or getting her to go try a new place to eat with me or even watching something thats out of her comfort zone...that was so fucking stupid, Fargo is an amazing film adventure, why wouldnt you want to watch that.
I poured my heart out to her to let her know about my abandonment issues and just only slightly understood.
People leave me, they just go, no words, no explanations, they just leave.So thats why when im on twitter and i DM or i tweet or i text someone on their phone and they dont respond and i get pissed... its because why am i not good enough to respond to? why can you take the time to hit a fucking like but you can take the fucking time to write 140 characters to me....i take every form of friendship seriously bc its all i have got.if i didnt want to be friends with people i wouldnt engage them or try to build a relationship but there are those that i do try to make something with and its not always good but i feel like they are worth it. but fuck me right, its not always what it seems.
 I am sure there is way more but venting out like this has made me feel a little better, i guess i should write magic stuff on here huh

Lizzy Constance/Kassen, Im so fucking sorry

I loved you. i loved you so much, so very very much and i fucked up twice. BIG TIME twice. Seeing that you are married now, it really brings up old feelings and it makes me realize that i could have had something you with and we could and would have been happy. not telling you was my lifes biggest regret, number 1, right at the top. Elizabeth "lizzy" Contance, i loved you from the moment i met you and i didnt tell you till it was too late and i had already messed up.
I am writing this, hoping that i can just write up my feelings and i can just stop thinking about about this. it isnt agonizing or life ruining but it doesnt make me feel good about not telling her until it was too late. sooo its going to be unedited, sans good grammer and maybe some run ons. its just right from the heart and raw so im just gonna go.
I loved her from the first day i met her and even though high school all over the place, stupid, pressurefilled and just hell to begin with, you made me realize my mistakes, how to care about someone and that i could actually just love someone and they care about me for who i was . Liz was far from the most popular person in school, she was a fucking BRAIN, quiet, and shy but she was open to me. she would ask me to have lunch with her, she would rest her head on my shoulder, she would let me walk her to classes, she would sit next to me in almost every class we had together, she would have me be in her group when we had class projects together. she would share her food with me and vice versa, she would keep me in check from being a jerk and still love me for it and i wouldnt bite back.she would be honest with me...she cared about me. No matter what phase i was in, Jocks, band kids, MTG groups. no matter how many girls i hooked up with, she was there. sure she made fun and called me a man whore but the smile that followed up with it,i always knew she was messing with me and she knew i could take it and that she was right.

I asked her to a dance, i didnt think it was a serious thing, just two friends going to a dance. it was just a casual thing, to me at least. we danced a bit, they stood around and this girl i knew wanted to dance with me so i went to go dance with her and it was for awhile. Liz and her friends, we kinda wandering around and not dancing and i think they were thinking about leaving. The girl i was dancing with, i thought she was DTF and i was like yeah, i should try to get my D wet, she made plans, she left and Liz was pissed at me. MY ultimate fuck up, i should have stayed with her all night and just danced with her, we could have had a moment and i ruined it. i fucked up so bad.Fromthat moment on she never, ever let me forget that i did that to her which influenced my decision on who to go to prom with. I would have loved to take her but i was afraid she was going to say no and i was going to end up going alone i mean i totally fucked up and bent her trust. SECOND major regret in my life. the first two involve her.


So thats the first one, fucking up and not staying with her at the dance. I didnt realize it was that important to her. she never made a fuss about going to dances and bc it was senior year she decided why not just fucking go to one. and i fucked that up.
The other one is me never telling her how i felt about her...i think as the months of going to school wound down, i was realizing that i might not ever see her again and it was killing me. i cared about her, i figured we would be close forever and that even though she was going to leave, we would stay close. well we didnt, and i hate myself for not sticking with her. During our time writing in our yearbooks, i spilled my guts out everywhere and told her how sorry i was for the dance and that i loved her and that i always would love her and that i hope she was going to have a good time traveling, i think that was it, during the summer and that i hope to hear from here when she was settled in. well School started for the both of us and we drifted apart, we talked on and off for a while and some times not at all. at the point i was was this really hot yet incredibly crazy girl and we had been dating for about a year and a half when stuff started to fall apart.There was a weekend where i went to LA with friends and realized that i fucking missed liz so much and that i really needed to see her and talk to her. so i messaged her on FB and we started to chat and we got our friendship a little back on track. At that point my gf had become my ex and i thought to myself, fantastic i am gonna go up to see liz for the weekend at UC davis and see what happens. sweet, i bought a train ticket up there and we had planned for me to stay with her and that was going on. I mentioned that i wanted to have a nice quiet dinner just the two of us and talk about us and whats up with her schooling and stuff. But then she told me she had been seeing someone and that she didnt think it was a good idea that i go up there... and that was the last time i talked to her. i am sure i texted her a few times but after that, we just stopped talking. I guess it was too late for us and we were both moving on with our lives. yeah it sucked but i had 4 years to be with her and it was my fault for not saying anything to her or showing her how much she ment to me. when i saw that she was this one guy a few months later i just removed her from my TL notifications and just assumed that they would break up and we would or wouldnt talk again. well my life went on, she stayed with that guy and two weeks ago i found out they got married. She married her first boyfriend... I think this will stick unless one of them  becomes unhappy.
Well i feel a little bit better now. There are a lot of details in there that i missed but i just skimmed over me fucking up and not maning up and telling her how i felt...I loved you so much Liz and im sorry i didnt do better and that i was a stupid idiot kid that just let someone amazing slip by. I would have given you the whole fucking world, thats how much you ment to me

Wolves

This is the werewolves deck that i have been playing with the last few days. Right off the bat you will see that i am playing with 4 copies of the Meld card Hanwier Garrison and its a good thing I do bc it adds tons of power to the deck. its like a mini hero of bladehold that gets bigger if it survives until you meld it. Playing the deck is solid but it feels like its missing 2-3 cards and one of this might be Collected company, go fucking figure. i also think that perhaps adding Collective Defiance will give the deck a little more reach. The spot removal and player damage is valuable when you cant quite get there with creature damage but at this point in time you dont really have that problem.i have had turn 4 and turn 5 wins with lots of damage going through.
Arlin hasnt proved herself as much as i thought she would have but then again the games end so fast that she hasnt really gotten a chance to shine. Maybe shes a win more, maybe shes a dud, ill find out when i add one more copy to the deck. Ulrich has been more hit than miss. hes usually the nail in the coffin by adding the +4/+4. At the same time when i have gotten him to transform, its been mediocre at best as i have been wanting a creature thats uncontested to be bigger than a 6/6. if you are going to be uncontested at least have first strike or trample...something. i had to trick my opponent into blocking with his Dromoka just to be able to fight
There are 3 all stars so far with the deck that arent Garrison or Ulrich
1. Incendiary Flow.
yeah we needed this spell, unfortunatly its a sorcery speed but i will take it. I have won a bunch of games with three to the face thanks to this card. Totally happy that this was printed and i am looking forward to burning shit in standard.
2.Spirit of the Hunt
Great card, Gnarled Mass at instant speed that saves your crew from languish, Radiant Flames and Flaying Tendrils. And while you are able to save your team from board sweepers..kinda of, you are also able to stop Grasp of Darkness, Incendiary flow and most of the 2-3 damage spells in standard right now. The 3/3 body is awesome as well as the flash addition to the card. if you play Wolves, you have to play this card with it.
3.Geier Reach Bandit
the real threat from this card is the haste aspect. against control decks, they have nothing on you, you get you 3 in, if you are luck you can transform him and start hitting for 4. turn five with Ulrich is savage as you get to pump and transform clearing the way for lots of damage and at that point you should be close to closing out the game.
The deck seems solid, like i said, its probably missing a few cards, Sylvan advocate, Collective Defiance and something else...but im not sure what. I have beating almost every match up but company and thats because i havent played against it. honestly the grindiest game i have had is against the new burn deck and thats only becuase of the 0/3 ping guy. against humans you have enough firepower to kill their good stuff and you can out scale them with transforming AND spirit of the hunt is invaluable in that match up. they want to trade in thier favor and end up losing more than theyd like leaving you with more creatures on boad

Ranting

So a lot has happened. Girlfriend decided that she didnt want to be in a relationship anymore and just quit. Which has resulted in me not doing my writing twice a week during my traveling to San Fransisco. I just listened to the most recent eh team with Scotty Mac and it made me really question if I still want to do this magic thing much longer. I like playing the game and meeting some people but the community at large is just a huge pile of shit and it really makes me not want to be a part of it along side me thinking financially this is just a sink hole. I don't play in events, I'm always changing decks and I asked fucking Frank lepore, someone who I was incredibly excited to meet out of the community. Someone who I really looked up to in this fucking game for advice and not only did I get zero response from him, but after meeting him and hanging out with he and melissa, just doesn't even fucking care to say hey when I do during streams streams anymore or even acknowledge the fact that I exist. There are a handful of people I respect in this game as far as game play wise and strategy wise and he was one of them and...its just disappointing. It would be different if i was some random that was like "oh hey I like your articles and I'm a big fan, look over this deck and tell me what you think thanks" hung out at the go, been on podcasts together a few times, back and forth tweets and I get it... He doesn't owe me anything and I'm not saying he does or that he must answer me as fast as possible BC  a fan... I just thought there was a little more history than with most people that critic or ask him.for shit...
And as for the ex...my brother asked Mr how I was doing and how i felt about the breakup. Last the this happened... It happened three times before, the breaking up and getting back together bullshit, I told her I wasn't going to fight for her if it came to this. I don't quit on relationships, I work and fight for thmr until there is no hope left and we both can't do it anymore. Anyways, he asked Mr if I was upset, last time I was in tears and trying g to figure out what could be done about this relationship and how to work it out. But this time, I honestly felt like the whole year was a waste of time
I changed as much as I could about the relationship to make it work and even though I asked her to change very little, she couldn't even try to make it work and so this didn't work. I made huge strides in our relationship yo accommodate her but it was never reciprocated and that's what the main factor was... Her family has zero chill but to. And when they get overwhelmed they take it out on each other or the nearest person and they get it instead
Her parents are aggressive to one another so I can see where she got it from. But overall I learned and gained a bunch of stuff for me but it was kind of a waste of time. It was never worth fighting for and for some reason I didn't see it. He also asked me of she apogized and asked to get back together, would I do it and I actually had to think about it but in the end its probably for the best. I am flawed, I have anxiety issues and u work at a shit grocery store job when I am qualified to lead people in a management position... Anyways, so now I have free time and I'll probably go back to the gym. I've gotten. Soft and if I am in shape again I'll find a cuddle buddy sooner..I like cudding... And making out yeeeeah :3
So yeah thats me and until I decide on if this magic the gathering is bad for me financially probably keep playing
..oh and I'm playing trash for treasure in modern. Its really fun and consistent for turn three shinanigains.if I keep doing well I'll probably go to the scg event in pacifica in april. Oh I'd probably see ashlen the cosplayer playing rg tron. Shes so fucking dreamy :3 le sigh.
End rant

Heeeeeey pro tour oath of the gatewatch

How exciting was this pro tour eh? LSV made the top eight! Frank Lepore crushed his way to the top 8( it was a close one) a new challenger and his variety of friends have taken the field and completely dominated the modern format(for now at least) but its OK everyone eye of ugin will be banned in a few months and everything will go back to normal, right?
Wrong! To have an opinion such as that is very foolish and I don't think you understand how things work. Yeah eldrazi was the grand champion and tool the field by storm but it wasn't the only deck played with a sprinkle of other decks here and there. If you really think about it, face to face games, CFB and east yo west bowl are huge teams and they did excetionaly well durmg the tournament, its clear that face to face carried the erhem... Mutherfuckinshiiiiiiiet out of CFB by sharing the deck with them, and east and west had several different pilots on different variations of eldrazi.
Let's talk about why people may want to ban eye of ugin. Yeah the card is an ancient tomb with zero draw back and even taps for black mana when tomb hits play. But why ban it? Well I can't have one now, it's a million dollars and that's not OK because people have it and I want it. Yeah I am sure a lot of people feel that way. Friday morning before coverage I had eyes in my shopping not on mtgo and decided I want to go into standard instead. They were around ten at that point and I'm sure they are much more now. Ban because I can't think outside the box! Yes magic players are horrendous complainers and are so good at netdecking and not doing work to try to break the meta. They pretty much rely on event results and just copy those decks and when they are caught off gaurd because they can't buy the new hotness its time to ban that shit so they don't have to adapt to the new hotness.  Yeah right now eldrazi temple and eye of ugin are great but what happens when people want to try to beat those decks and want to try new things? Oh my oh my where will we be.
They are still sad because twin is banned and eldrazi dominated this event... Yeah I mean magic players are salty as fuck so I can see this being a legit factor. My twitter feed and the chat seem to support me on this
       Now I am sure you are saying "oh em gee WillieG, you master brewer and all around awesome guy, what the effffff dew I deeeeeeeeew!?" * sad face emoji. Well there were and are a few things you could have done. 1st you should have read my blog a few weeks ago on how modern will now be a game of mana resources and that you should prepare for an eldrazi deck. If you didn't then shame on you. Mana bases are super critical to making a top tier deck...top...tier. With out the essential lands in play to play whatever you want when you want, decks fall apart and that's no different for these eldrazi decks. You take away eyes and temples with cards like...
SPREADING FUCKING SEAS LIKE I SAID LAST WEEK and you stop them from progressing and dominating the board. Even better is that there is a one mana version that costs a single blue  and doesn't draw you a card but I tell ya what, I'd rather have an answer to a turn 1 temple then not.
I noticed something interesting during the top 8 this morning and that that nobody had path to exile. Yeah they have what...2 wastes in the deck? Path removes every threat with zero effort and low loss. So yeah I am thinking path to exile, kinda good. Kinda reeeeeally good.
I asked MTG goldfish badass and all around super nice guy @safferonolive about the troll worship deck he build a few weeks ago and that seems really solid. Eldrazi decks play very very very low amounts of spells and removal so assembling the combo would be no issue at all.
Oh geez almost at my stop. Uhhh check out my post from a few weeks ago, I talk about this stuff and what you can do about it. Until next time, stop bitching and start brewing lolololol ahh taps. Go panthers!

Ooooh ooooh look, he's written!

Don't wanna run out of time like last time so I'm going to get right to it.
Spreading seas!
I love this card. Overall I am a huge fan of blue non red control decks. Sooo bant, esper, uw, UB, decks and with every base of a control deck, I start with spreading seas.
Mana bases are huuuuuge in modern and it never changes and with the super fast eldrazi deck, that statement holds lots of water. 3 or more color decks rely on being able to fetch up the exact mana they need and when they need that double green for eternal witness or they are hoping to play orzhov pontiff, they cant because you lock them out of a color. Now imagine shoving them completly out of green or shoving red right out of well...red. What do they have now? Nothing, zero,Nada, ziiiiip. They are now looking to top deck that temple garden for their knight of the reliquary or  looking for their 3rd red for kiki jiki, you can't chord for that shit sucka.
And I am sure you are asking, willieg, my nigga, why not use the one mana land hosers instead? Well good sir or Madame, its because spreading seas draws you a card and in blue based decks, drawing cards only let's you go deeper into what you need to control the mid to late game. A great situation of spreading seas with two mana up and you draw a remand. Shit, now you are denying them mana, drawing a card and now you have a counter spell that draws you a card and shuts off a key play for their turn while drawing a card. MYGODTHEFUCKINGVALUE. Spreading seas,just do it
The eldrazi deck!
I wqs a huge fan of just banning eldrazi temple before the twin ban. I had been grinding mtgo in modern and holy shit, playing against that deck was rather tough. Being able to temple into map into temple or ugin then turn three drop oblivion sower is powerful. With the UB version you could turn 1 temple map,turn 2 tomb into heartless summoning turn 3 UB land sire of stagnation watch tears from opponents eyes. I mean I had fun doing that you could play other stuff lol. Its a powerful deck and having access to thoughtseize and IoK puts it ahead of so man other decks in the first two turns. I  hoping to see this deck at the pt...and then lose In the top 8 so it doesn't get banned
 Oath of Nissa and sire of stagnation
I love sire and as I mentioned before, I think he's very powerful in a UB eldrazi deck. Not so much in standard unless there is a UB control deck that can ramp him out sooner. Standard is an aggressive creature format right now so a turn 6 creature that benefits from your opp...
Had to stop writing because of a bomb threat on my train and in my cabin. Guess I'll finish with a part three. Thanks for reading

Hello again. If you are reading this, that means I am on the train home from my girlfriends place so I have about 45mins to write down a few things about magic the gathering.
So! Since last time I wrote some stuff down, several land important cards have gone up in price. Fulminator mage, flagstones and most Importantly, crucible of worlds. Huzzaaaah add another to the list. Without going into too much detail, crucible is Important because of the tech edges, ghost quarters and boom busts going around on mtgo ATM. Crucible being colorless allows every deck with and Important mana base recover very nicely. Honestly, I just like being right about calls but only time will tell and the pt will confirm if I was wrong or not.
So there are a few things I want to touch on in standard and modern.I love modern and I am always trying to figure out what I can do with such a large card pool. Standard is OK and ATM you cab play whatever you want so I'll probably so more standard stuff when the next set rotates to make room for the new one. But while I am mentioning standard I did see a deck with herald of the pantheon and the oaths which I thought was really cool. Its cute but not good enough for the standard meta imo. You are either gonna a get pooped on by large creatures or quickly take apart by red based aggro decks. Anyways standard, that's a thing, little disappointed by the lack of innovation at the latest scg event but I guess safe gets you wins.  I was very happy to see world breaker being played. Chaining them seems ridiculous
MODERN
So I'm gonna mention a few things I love about modern. Decks and cards that don't get enough love
UW control
I love this deck in modern. I am sure there is a list out there that splashes red for bolt and kerenos and other stuff but I'm talking about plain solid uw control. Cards like spreading seas, secure the wastes, Casino Royale villain jace, Gideons, new jace, sphinxs revelation? Yeeeah! Logic knots!! Yeeeah!!!..wait what? Yeah logic knots. Counter spell with delve, nice art. Last year I heard wrapter and matt bass talking about if logic knot was going to make the cut in a uw(r?) control deck that was being created and it was 50/50. So I go online test out a uw control deck with the knots and its awesome, its great and its never seen coming. Sure it could be a remand with two mana left up or a negate but I'm playing a tasigur so it wont matter except it doesn't matter what it is, because it's now countered by logic knot. I played the full four but I think where you want to be with that is 2-3 max. I also mentioned Sphinx's revelation and that card is still a house, it gets countered you are fine eot if it doesn't, you are now very far ahead and potentially back in the game again. Yes, modern is a very fast format with powerful things going on, so you will need to actually play a control game and not just try to win asap. My finisher of choice is Gideon, consecrated sphinx and secure the wastes.
Oh man! I'm not gonna finish! Guess I'll have to finish up next time. Really quick before I take off, I have been thinking and oath of nissa seems very powerful. Trickbind is superb with he testing I have been doing in my endless whispers/phage deck. Gah! I'll finish next time, thanks for reading even if it was rambling about uw control.

So bannings... Those happened and I guess 1 of 2 is kind of surprising. If you would have asked me last year if I thought twin was making modern less fun, I would have agreed with you. But in the recent months, twin hasn't really been a problem. Yeah it does great at events with the right pilot, it plays very strong cards on top of having a combo and unless you are playing a top tier deck, its hard to beat. While twin is annoying, bloom might be the best at being a pain in the ass or was the best. Being able to win on turn two is kind of shitty and there are so many cards that thrust you into being able to win by turn three it was bound to get banned out. I don't have many opinions on the bannings. Great for getting rid of a degenerate turn two kill but twin probably could have hung out for a while, it was oppressing the format as much as it was  six to eight months ago.
For me, the issue is that nothing was unbanned, what's up with that? Enough strong cards have emerged and lots of decks have changed the way modern is played that unbanning powerful cards seems OK. I'm not saying "hey! You should unban hypergenesis! I know I wooould" but sword of the meek or stoneforge seem really OK. As for the case for stoneforge, what creatures with butts smaller than 4 live past the turn they are played? Very few and in fact turn three has lots of powerful things going on that getting a sword or batterskull doesn't seem that powerful right now. I'm also in the camp that thinks unbanning jace and bloodbraid would totally be fine. Yes powerful cards. Yes blue MIGHT get played more (UB faeries :3) and Jund might become a tier one deck again if it wasn't for 1 big issue for both cards. The main issue is that a 4cc in modern is a lot. Scapeshift, goryos vengeance and eldrazi decks are very powerful and are at their peak at around turns 3-4, so does a single cascade or a single brainstorm really make that difference If you are staring down eldrazi or you are facing down an online pyromancers Ascension? I'll leave it at that.
 One more thing before I get off my train. In the last few days, there have been a lot of decks that control mana bases. Hate bears, boombust,rain of years in eldrazi decks, spreading seas in more blue decks, ghost quarters, fulminator mages. Lots of those have been floating around in the games I have been playing and while I agreed that a B/x eldrazi varient is possibly the culprit, it looks like the future of modern will be a fight to control resources. I feel crucible of worlds might be important at some point, it really depends of the PT. Also, hands down I think the eldrazi is the strongest deck out there. Its fast and powerful. Hoping sire of stagnation works out in that deck: 3
Oh! And blood moons and Magus of the moons. Every online and very very powerful
Thanks for reading :3

abzan red

this will have to do until I get to my gfs house and use my computer.
2 Dromoka
4 Warden of the first tree
2 greenwarden
4 Siege Rhino
2 kolaghans command
2 dromokas command
3 Abzan charm
1 Utter end
4 duress
1 Ruinous path
2 languish
1 radiant flames
2 read the bones
2 cackling doom
2 Ob Nixils
SB
2 despise
2 ultimate price
3 3R land exile
1 crackling doom
1 languish
2 silkwrap
2 infinite obliteration
1 utter end
1 Read the bones


forgive me as I dont remember the name of the spell that exiles target lands and takes them from deck and hands. This is just something that I have had floating around in my heard for the last two days and with the GP around the corner, I have been putting lots of thought into what I am going to be playing. Originally I was going to splash blue because negate is pretty strong right now and having distainful stroke is pretty useful with all the ramp decks coming up. Yeah Jace is great buy realistically, I'm not going to be able to get 4 Jace by the gp without neglecting financial priorities and the girlfriend and I simply don't do those.
 I figured red would be because i would be able to exile the ugin land, id have more direct to creature damage spells and id get to play kolaghans command which I personally think has been amazing since its reveal. I am also a very big fan of radiant flames in the format. The deck has languish, another one of my favorite cards in standard, but id like a turn earlier sweeper to avoid getting pummeled in the early game. There is the sweeper for 2 damage but it doesn't fit fliers and while hangerback has taken a back seat and is no longer the best card in standard, I want to make sure I can still hit the tokens.
anyways, this was a thing I had been wanting to put up for a while since I have been doing a lot of testing of lots of decks on mtgo. I am not going to proof read this on my phone because its almost impossible , so take it for what it is. And besides you probably aren't an idiot so you'll understand what I'm trying to say....hopefully you aren't an idiot

i am tired, so this probably reads like shit

I had a similar concept during Shards Block where i would just throw out an Emerkul at the end of my opponents turn and yeah sometimes it wasnt an Emerkul but it was a Terastodon or Pekkula Wurm. Whatever it was, it was a fat creature and it would always present an issue for the dominant Jund deck at the time And now is no different.
there are tons of decks that take off from the beginning of the match and most games end between around turn 3-5 in Modern so why not be one of those decks that races out of the gates. With this deck you have a few options, you can A. summoning trap a fatty into play after they attempt to Remand or Cryptic one of your spells B.Turn 3 Dramatic Entrance a Progenitus into play using Radha during combat phase C. Ramp into either Dramatic Entrance or Summoning Trap or Elvish Piper to get your fatties out. There are plenty of lines you can take with the deck.
 and yeah there are tons of things i still need to add to the deck, Obviously Emerkul and Stomping grounds seem like a good idea. the mana for the deck isnt the best at this point but it still produces positive results and can get those kills when you need them to. Temple of Abandon does a lot of work for the deck, so while it looks like it can be slow, at some points its ok because it lets you look past the bad stuff and put it on the bottom.
ill probably have more in the next few weeks as i am going to put more time and cards into the deck, so we will see what happens.

3 Elvish mystic
2 Llanowar elves
2 Elvish Piper
2 Arc Trail
4 Explore
4 Time of Need
1 Manamorphose
3 Radha, Heir to Keld
3 Dramatic Enterence
4 Thragtusk
4 Summoning Trap
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
3 Progentitus

3 Copperline Gorge
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Temple of Abandon
2 Mountain
4 Forest
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits.

Sideboard
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Blastphomus Act
2 Boil
3 Char
1 Dramatic Enterance
3 Eyes of the Wisent
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Terastodon

 What Conley woods currently has this deck sleeved up as is completely different from what it originally was. It was an awesome graveyard games deck that not only let you dig through your deck and find the answer or fatty that you are looking for but also rendered your opponents thought seizes, counterspells and creature removal useless And that was the main appeal to me. Your graveyard is just as important as the cards you draw from the main deck and in some cases much more important. You were able to put creatures into play Via mana dorks and cheaper mana costs and if they were killed off or countered, you were able to whip them back into play the very next turn and they would still be a threat even if just for a turn. And if Whipping a creature back into play wasn't good enough, let us not forget the fun part of the deck, the part where we launch fatties with Jarad for a tiny cost. One of my favorite parts honestly, but this deck has so many layers and that’s what most people miss.

As I said, this deck renders your opponents answers to your threats quite useless for two reasons. 1! Whip of Erebos is I think the most important card in the deck. It keeps you in the race with fast decks like White Weenie, Red Deck Wins and Mono Red Akoran Crusader decks and it also lets you have answers late game by gaining a life advantage from a very large Nighthowler or Jarad, or in the late game just throwing out a Nemesis of Mortals with a very cheap Monstrosity cost of GG. Ten life and the potential to get in that lethal damage sounds good no? And 2! honestly ask yourself, if you had never seen this deck before and had planned for lets say Mono Black and White Weenie, how are you going to side against this? You have the upper hand playing a relatively unknown deck with many powerful angles to attack your enemy with while they are stuck thinking of how to stop your larger creatures or stopping Jarad from doing a sweet sweet launch at them while forgetting that Whip brings back duders or that Nemesis of Mortals can come down on turn three... and Four... and Five, it happens and its awesome and oh the amount of pressure you opponent is under when they don’t have board wipes. And while your opponent may have heard about this deck, there is a very very slim chance that they have actually played against it enough times to know how to strike you or make you struggle to win the match.

So while Conley has slowly but surely strayed away from the whip plan into the “hey! Look I can make fat guys over time” this is what I am currently working with

Der Land

4 Golgari Guildgate

4 Overgrown Tomb

5 Forest

6 Swamp

The dudes

4 Nighthowler

4 Lotleth Troll

4 Herald of Torment

4 Nemesis of Mortals

4 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Elvish Mystic

3 Shadowborn Demon

2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

Non-Creature spells

3 Whip of Erebos

4 Grisly Salvage

4 Commune with the Gods

I am currently tweaking the sideboard so that’s why I didn’t post it but uhhhh Thats dope right? I know right, thanks. As you can see the dynamic of the deck is a little different but I am keeping a lot of what makes the deck awesome...well awesome and I am testing out a new way to attack your opponent when there is a stalemate or you just want to get ahead on life while taking away your opponents.

On a recent Top 8 Magic podcast, Mike Flores brings forth an interesting question about the future of black decks and questions whether black decks could just become Heralds, Merchants, Specters and Whips for maximum devotion damage. While the idea didn’t stem too far( it was a set break down and obv there are tons of cards to go over) it got me thinking about how I could just use Merchant to hit along side Jarad. While having 3 Jarads main deck, there are many ways to get him into your hand or graveyard you are only allowed to have one in play at a time and yes you can make them fodder for the Troll, you could also just change them into Merchants for an automatic 4 ticks of life loss with Whip in play.

Perhaps the two biggest changes from my list and Conley’s list are what I consider his biggest mistakes with the deck. He removes the whips completely from the list and making the cards he casts and draws the only resources left. No longer is the graveyard resource and no longer can he catch up in the late game against decks like Mono Black that have fantastic removal and Thoughtseizes while still having creatures that hit hard at your life total. He doesn’t even have them in the sideboard... easily the biggest mistake. And the second mistake he made with the deck is removing Shadowborn demons form the list completely then adding them to the sideboard only. The deck has zero removal main deck and has no way of clearing the way for the fatties to get through other than attacking into your opponents creatures and that’s where Demon comes into play. A hasted flying fatty that takes someone with him seems like a fantastic card to have in the main deck not only that but its reasonably costed. Yes, Mono black does run a Demon of their own but Specter isn’t a demon nor is Merchant and There are targets for the demon to hit and getting a demon of your own to stick is great isn’t too bad either.

As you see I have also added a new card from Born of the Gods, Herald of Torment, into the deck and it was something that involved a ton of thought. You already don’t have a lot of wiggle room to add and remove cards, but I felt that having a cheap flier that stops Specter, Precinct Captain and Pack Rat would improve the match up against aggressive creature based decks. While you do lose a life each turn, you have Whip to counter that ability and he has a reasonable Bestow cost that allows your fatties to fly over and get in that extra damage. So far my favorite interaction is with Nighthowler, Whip of Erebos and Merchant as you are able to stack so much Black Devotion to get in extra damage. As I said earlier you get four points in with Merchant and Whip but with the cheap cost of Herald and Howler you are able to get in more damage.

One creature card I am hesitant to add into the deck Is Satyr Wayfinder. Yes it is a creature that digs into the deck for more lands while pitching threats into the bin, but I have had a few problems with it in testing. The main one is that it is of 2 CMC and that is the same as Caryatid, Commune with the Gods and grisly salvage and potentially putting something down with 3 mana cost. There are just other things id rather be playing to further my board advantage or fill my hand with cards I actually want. Sure its a creature that add to the graveyard count for Jarad and Howler, but I dont think its enough. With the land count already at 19, simply digging for a land will most likely find you a creature you actually want or perhaps throwing away a Whip and yes you could be potentially throwing away a Whip with Grisly Salvage, you can choose to take a creature instead

Well, this is what I have been playing and if I am able to playing at the Large Channel Fireball event in the beginning of march, that is what I will most likely be playing as I know the Mono Black match up very well and feel the deck has a 50-50 chance against it. I have tried to stay as close as I can to the original list because I feel what Conley has turned it into is a different way to approach the “Dredge” and is slightly weaker compared to what it once was. No longer being able to attack from different angles and using your graveyard as another resource is no longer an option in his current build.

Which is this

Main Deck 4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Elvish Mystic 3 Sylvan Caryatid 4 Satyr Wayfinder 4 Lotleth Troll 4 Nighthowler 4 Herald of Torment 2 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord 4 Nemesis of Mortals 4 Commune with the Gods 4 Grisly Salvage 8 Forest 4 Overgrown Tomb 7 Swamp Sideboard 3 Golgari Charm 3 Shadowborn Demon 4 Skylasher 4 Thoughtseize 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

Well, thats all I have for now, thanks for reading :B

oh look, born of the gods stuffs :D

Hey look, cards that stand out from Born of the Gods

Hero of Iroas

I love love love this card! I haven’t fallen in love with a card this much since Kor Spiritdancer and they are kind of similar in a few ways and are both powerful engines once you get them going. Right now we have some awesome Auras including Flinching Courage, Ethereal Armor, Gift of Orzhov and Madcap Skills just to name a few. Those auras definitely give a power boost to the Hero which immediately make him a threat and with his first ability of lowering the cost of auras, you are able to protect him with cards like Gods willing which also trigger Heroic AND lets you scry for 1, awesome right?

I have been coming up with a bunch of lists revolving around auras, Hero and Fabled Hero and so far the best color combination is UW in semi-control shell and along with the hard hitting Heros. There is counter magic, protection spells and strong auras like Gift of Orzhova, Ethereal armor, Ordeal of Thassa and Aqueous Form. While Aqueous form may be the weakest aura in the deck, The Heroic Triggers on the Heros really give them the strength they need to hit hard. Fabled hero is actually...a hero in this deck as he can become a flying or unblockable , lifelink, doublestriker with Gods Willing mana up to protect it. I am really going to be putting some time into seeing if this deck could possibly become something competitive and of course it really depends on how the Standard meta game shifts, if at all.

Can I just say how much I fucking love Gild? Seriously, I think this card is so fucking great. Exiling the creature is what really sells this card for me. I play Elvish Mystic and having a Gild available on turn 3 is fantastic AND you get a Lotus Petal in the process! Yeah you do, not your opponent, you do! All the value from this card! Got a pesky god in your way? Gild that sucka! Opponent getting you down with a fatty Desecration Demon or Strombreath Dragon, Smelt those bad boys down to a gold token for yourself. I love this card and I will be watching and waiting with my sets sitting in my binder.

Nullify

I for one, welcome our new counterspell overlord. I practically shat myself when I first saw that this was a real card, OK maybe not actually shat myself but i got pretty fucking close to it. Right now, its pretty much Counterspell and if you were like me when Counterspell was legal, I fucking hated it and wanted to not play against blue decks fucking ever. And with the way Standard is shaping up, its pretty much Counterspell as there are a great amount of decks that are creature based and have tons of targets. For me, I feel like it should be an auto 4 of in most blue based deck,looking at you UW control and Esper and I guess Grixis if people are still willing to try that.

While there are a shit ton of Creatures out there that you can target, lets not forget about the powerful auras out there too. Detention Sphere, Underworld Connections,Boon Satyr, Chained to the Rocks, Domestication, the ENTIRE Hex-proof deck, Contaminated Ground, and pacifism...yeah pacifism... well maybe not the last two but considering Nullify counters an entire deck that is powerful due to your opponent not being able to interact with you, its a pretty big deal.

So welcome to standard Nullify, I am sure you will be just as annoying as Counterspell was and just as good.

Courser of Kruphix and Kiora, the Crashing Wave

I am seeing a lot of people make a big deal out of Courser of Kruphix and I guess I am not sure why? I see the interaction with Domri Rade and thats pretty cute right? And I also keep hearing the comparison with Oracle of Mul Daya and I just kind of chuckle at how ridiculous that statement is. I actually played with the Oracle and Courser is not that card. Yes, they both reveal the top card of your library. And Yes, they both allow you to play a land from the top but that’s it. Courser does not allow you to play extra lands and yeah she does trigger green devotion, but who really care about that? But let us not forget about the great CC and her awesome badonkadunk shes got going on with 4 toughness.... awww yeah badonkadunk. Yes I expect this card to see some kind of standard play as its easy to cast, the dadonkadunk and its life gain ability and the fact that you can play with the top card revealed...kinds sounds like I like this card doesn’t it? Its a good card don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think its as great as people are claiming it to be.

I love Kiora, the Crashing Wave. The art, the abilities and the casting cost, hell I am even glad that its green and blue and not just blue. I am also glad we all got the Two Explore joke out of our systems quickly, hurr hurr. While the Master Mike Flores didn’t really like the ultimate on her, I think its fantastic as you get a fatty forever. If you were able to watch the first Born of the Gods Standard event on SCGLive, you were able to see BBD place the emblem in play during the coverage and it was pretty much GG after that. You were also able to watch him lock down two creatures with two different Kioras, one after the other, which was really fucking sick. I originally didn’t think much of her other than Explore but after watching her in action I can see that she is going to be quite the handful in the future.

Randoms

While Karametra is my favorite god in the set, its pretty obvious that Xenagos is the most powerful god we have in Born of the Gods and potentially out of all of them competing with Thassa. While Mogis, God of Slaughter, has a powerful ability, pumping a Dragon or a fatty creature with trample can potentially end the game. The best part of the ability is that it happens the turn it comes into play and you don’t have to wait or pay for the trigger like you would with Ephara or Nylea.

Pain Seer is shit. OK maybe its not in a Black aggressive deck but come on everyone, its time we all stop comparing this card to Dark Confidant. Its not that card, and shouldn’t be treated as such.

Hands down Fanatic of Xenagos is the best Tribute creature in the set. And while I am think Oracle of Bones has some potential to drops some super sick bombs if allowed to, Fanatic is so powerful in both modes. I can see many players in future matches making the wrong choice with whether to give tribute or not.

I also read Satyr Firedancer wrong the first time and thought it was creature OR player and not just creature after you aim something to their face...meh lost complete interest in the card as a 1/1 for 2 with immediate effect doesn’t really do much until later in the game and if you hit your opponent in the face and they have no creatures what does this actually do...besides, doesn’t this card die to that one spell that kills a creature if its a cyclops?

Ummm Brimaz is fucking great Obv

Bile Blight and Drown in Sorrow change everything...like actually changes everything. The removal cards in black are already very powerful and with the addition of these two cards it only makes black based decks stronger, thanks for joining the party Thoughtseize.

Did I mention I love Auras? I am expecting big things from Herald of Torment. The body and casting cost on Herald of Torment is ridiculous. Sure you lose one life a turn but its not enough to not play this card. I think the best part about this card is that its flying and has a reasonable Bestow cost that really makes this creature something else. I know I read an article not too long ago but Owen Turtenwald about how much he liked this card and I share the same respect for the card. Should be fantastic in standard.

Welcome back to Standard, Rout.... or Fated Retribution. Instant speed board wipes are the shit and this one takes Walkers with it.

Good News everyone, we can go back to trying to make Biovisionary work with Fated Infatuation. Lets make some copies brah.

And I cant put my finger on Eidolon of the Countless Battles... I don’t know if hes good or not. Sure he could be put into a WW shell but at the same time he could also be put into the Naya Auras deck or any kind of deck with Hero of Iroas. I want this to be good but its like 70/30 to me.

And last but not least Unravel the Aether and Revoke Existence are...how can I put this lightly...well they are going to fuck shit up. I think it was Josh Silvestri that mentioned those two cards in his top ten cards from Born of the Gods list and I agree with him 100%. Green now has a way to remove pesky Gods and while white has a few options with dealing with them, those resources can now be aimed at creatures and removing game changing auras in play.

My actual sleepers for the set are Hero of Iroas, Herald of Torment, Hero of Lenia Tower, Whelming Wave and Oracle of Bones. As you can tell, I love auras and that explains the first 2 cards as my sleepers. I really enjoy Hero of Lenia Tower and her +X/+X from her heroic trigger, late game you are able to just attach something small and dump mana into her trigger which I think is pretty sick. Whelming wave is a poor mans Global removal card and hopefully we get some reasonably costing Octopuses to have in play and Oracle just maybe one day will let us cast Cruel Ultimatum for free. Its kind of like Browbeat more than anything else and thats not really a bad thing. But anyways, I bought sets and more of them and I am hoping some of these cards will jump up in value.

Well that’s pretty much all that’s going through my head about the noticeable cards in Born of the God's. There is a high chance that you have read something similar on other websites for some of the cards, but it doesn’t hurt to get someone else's opinions does it? Lets hope that Minotaur tribal gains some steam because that would be fucking awesome, eh? We have the cards people! We have the cards to do it!

:D

So willieg what have you been doing?
Well lately I have been playing alot of league of legends. Like alot. Before innistrad I just kinda gave up on standard and was just making joke decks. Then when innistrad came out I started brewing like crazy. At one point I had something like 4 decks? It was good and finding a deck that i have fun with is what is important to me and I'm pretty sure I built something serious and very competitive.
Hmmm I was also considering doing a podcast with one of my friends and it seemed to be a solid idea because of the lack of casts on the west coast but he decided that his band was going to play more shows so he decided to do that instead, no biggy.
Well what's the deck willieg?
Well the deck is a UG control kind of deck. It uses viridian emissaries and mayors of avabruck to apply early pressure while your able to protect them with counter magi. Late game, if it get there, frost Titan, wurmcoil and metamorphs finish the game. If mayor of avabruck stays in play, he applies enough pressure to win you the game as mist decks in the format are numb to armies of 3/3s. I took this to fnm and went 3-1 with it and while I beat wolf run, uw control and infect I couldn't race the mill deck and fell in the last round. The deck is something like
4 mayors
4 emissaries
2 wurmcoil
2 metamorph
1 frost titan
2 acidic slime

4think twice
4 mana leak
3 ponder
2 forbidden alchemy
2 shrine if piercing vision
2 garruk relentless
2 dissipates
2 negates
Add lands USE GHOST QUARTERS

The sideboard has changed alot so there's nothing concrete yet

That's pretty much the deck.

So you still listen to podcasts? You luh da podcasts.
Well yes and no. I love incontention cast. I don't know why i haven't been listening longer. They have fun they break down decks they give well thought out opinions, it's great. Untapped is dead unfortunately. I love the cast and those guys but it's dead. I don't listen to the eh team anymore and I was actually going to give them a shot again but I found out that Jesse is too busy to cast so I decided to not waste my time. Jesse actually helps drive me to build stronger rouge builds and without him on the cast it's just commander, joke plugs about other podcasts and... Scotty Mac doing his thing. Much love to scotty Mac. And know what fuck yourself kyt... Hi jay :) I just started listening to the bridge as I love drunk banter and small amounts of mtg talk in-between. And obv I listen to top8 magic cast. I listen to thier cast at least three times and they have a shit Ton of fantastic things to say. People may not like mike (eat shit dbags) but the man knows his stuff.
So what is willieg going to do now?
Honestly I don't know. I was going to shut this blog down cuz honestly, nobody reads this. It's random unedited there's swearing and I'm not a pro player. If I'm not a pro giblving out decklists, I get a lot less attention. Now for the people that actually read my blog, thank you and I'm not going to shut it down. I was actually considering switching to wordpress but I will probably keep this and wordpress something else.
Ummm for a bit I really wanted to do something like frank lepore does for tcgplayer and dm'ed him of twitter but I think he thought I was trolling him. Which kinda sucks cuz I could have used his advice. Maybe I'll ask trick when we hang out at worlds :D
I think that's about it for now. If i think of anything else I'll just put a part to up oh oh wait everyone remember when Medina top 8'd? Big ups to medina!
Oh oh wait... Remember when other Flores was winning with caw blade? Not so easy now is it? I hear yugimon is still awesome :)

Later peoples

innistrad top 5s...briefly

White

Constructed

angelic overseer

humans are in in M12 and there are plenty in Innistrad. Its a solid 5/3 body at a reasonable cost. Its ability is what really puts it over the top. As if Indestructible wasn’t enough, they gave it hexproof so killing it and bouncing it aren’t going to be enough. The Angel forces the opponent to kill every other human on board while it lays the beats

sleeper pic is Champion of the Parish

with so many white humans in this set and Grand Abolisher, Mesa enchantress, Azure mage etc etc from M12, its kind of hard not to see a Fish deck or a White Weenie deck come out of Innistrad. Dropping the Champion on turn 1 is one of the best things your going to be able to do in innistrad

Fiend Hunter

its great creature removal. This 3 toughness is what gives it the edge and again, its going to have a home in a White Weenie deck or Fish deck.

Mikaeus the luminarch

Luminarch is a solid finisher for white. It pumps itself and other creatures and when dropped late game, hes just a beast. Now your 1/1 tokens you play late game can grow and put on the pressure to your opponent.

midnight haunting

its no spectral procession. And its only going to give you 2 guys instead of 3 but I think you can play it at instant speed makes up for the 1 missing spirit. Its only 1 white source so its splashable in other decks. Should see play in standard.

If Standard sees more Vamps, Wolfs and Zombie decks then Inquisitor will see heavy play. I am hesitant to actually pic these up because if no decks use any of those types, then the card is dead. I am also on the edge about Nevermore. We've had Meddling mage in Shards and it really didn’t do much. And Stoney Silence is something I am keeping my eye out for. People see to think its going to shut down most of the decks that use cards from SoM but Stoney is like Torpor orb, its great when you need it and its terrible when you don’t.

Blue

Snapcaster mage

do I really need to say much about this card that hasn’t already been said. Its great. Bring back ponder, mana leak, day of judgment, doomblade, the list can go on forever. Its surprising that its not a mythic. Probably the best card in the set if Liliana doesn’t pan out.

dissipate

Graveyard denial is going to be critical. The large building group I am in is heavily considering a Reanimator style deck and need need need snapcaster to flashback spells. Countering and removing critical cards shuts down the deck for the most part and I see that everyone is very excited to play flashback again so dissipate is great. Plus, people are wondering what counters are playable and Dissipate is going to be a great tool in control decks

invisible stalker

when I first saw this card I automatically said this would be caws blades squad hawk replacement. I also want to point out that I didn’t see that this card had Hexproof, which makes this card perfect for holding a sword.

think twice

instant draw a card and with flash back. We've all seen how good this card was in Time Spiral and its no different now except that Ponder is here. I would just use maybe a 2-3 of Think twice and full set of ponders. Still a good card no doubt

sturmgiest

kind of remind of me of Aeon Chronicler. Its flies, its X/X is the cards in hand. I like the draw a card when damaged thing. Solid finisher in a WU control deck and even a UB control deck. The only issue that this card might have to face is Consecrated Sphinx as the Sphinx might be a little better because you draw when your opponent draws, the Giest has to deal the damage.

I am on the Edge about Mindshrieker only because if you invest in the ability and you hit a land then your out 2 mana and its just a 1/1 flier. Its also kind of fragile and dies to everythinghink Skaab Ruinator is just bad. The creature itself is great as a 5/6 flier. Dodges Dismembers and that’s great but it forces you to play a creature deck if your not playing a Pod deck with him in it. And its 3 creatures to get him in to play, that’s a lot of creatures you need to be dead. And I think spectral flight is great. Flying and +2/+2 for 2, seems great to me.

Black

bloodgift demon

black loses Sign in blood with rotation and is looking to pick something up in the way of card draw. While this source of card draw is on a 5/4 body that flies, its one of the more effective card drawing abilities. 1 life for 1 card is great as we all saw in Phyrexian arena but how good is this ability going to be in later in the game when you drop him on turn 5? I love this card but I question how good its going to be as people put decks together.

diregraf ghoul

2/2 for 1 with a small draw back. Its aggressive, it stops early transforming cards and unlike most early drop black creatures, this one can actually block. This will definitely be on people radars when building black decks
Liliana of the Veil

same deal at snapcaster. This card is going to be huge in the coming months. The Edict ability is great and I don’t really see myself casting the ult ability unless its late game against a control mirror. I would rather be killing off creature and taking apart their hand. And like I said earlier, if Vess finds the right home to shine in, she'll be the best card in the set.

unburial rites

everyone popped boner when this card was revealed and its going to be great to try to build with. We haven’t gotten a solid reanimator card in standard in some time and this one has flashback which only makes it better.

bump in the night

add some red burn and you have a heavy burn deck that someone is going to try to make. We lost bolt and gained Bump and while you cant target creatures, you do get to play it again for a total of 6 damage for 1 card.

Finding the top 5 cards in this color was kind of a challenge as most of the cards in black are good and if this morbid mechanic is good, then a bunch of these cards become great. Personally I think the mechanic is awful and wont be used as much. Its like the metalcraft of this set, people will dabble but not fully commit. I also really wanted to put either Tribute to hunger or victim of night but if creature decks are everywhere than Tribute is bad and if Vamps, Wolves and Zombies are everywhere then Night is bad. So I just left them both off the list. I think heartless summoning is a trap as you no longer get to drop useful x/1's anymore Snapcaster, Azure mages. And weakening your creatures just seems like a bad idea. Bloodline Keeper is a great card when you have the right amount of Vamps in play and you really need to flip him ASAP. And I personally like curse of deaths hold as it hoses the creature builds.

Red

Desperate ravings

instant speed card draw in red is a great thing. Its got flashback which makes it better.

geistflame

Firebolt saw play back in odyssey and Geistflame will see play with Innistrad. The toughness of creatures seems to have gone down a bit so there are plenty of targets and at instant speed, getting that last bit of damage is always important

reckless waif

someone said Wild Nactal is back so we will have to see about that. A 1 drop Double Face card is pretty cool too.

kruin outlaw

I really like this card as it gives your wolves double strike and they must have more than one guy to block you.

ancient grudge

artifact destruction in R with flashback of G. its cheap, instant and does the job right...twice

I don’t have much to say about red obviously. Red in Innistrad just compliments the red in SoM block. I even told a few people that red is now a powerful color with the addition of a draw card and the potential Demigod of Revenge card, Falkenrath Marauders.

green

Mayor of Avabruk

the WereWolf Lord, decent body, makes a dude, pumps other werewolves. Seems like the backbone of an aggro wolf deck. And even when hes a human he pumps the other humans as well.

bramblecrush

more permanent destruction for green.

moon mist

if there is going to be a wolf deck, that deck should probably have this in it to EoT transform.

creeping renaissance

creature artifacts w/e, just bring them back. And with all the potential mill decks,this card should probably be in green sideboards.

Again, haven’t really looked in to green much.

random

http://www.astrogaming.com/headsets/a40-headsets

planning on getting those. and i dont mind dropping 200 on a set of headphones, i really dont. it something that i have worked hard for and i need an upgrade :]

Part 2 of crazy talk... Sigh

I am just going to come out an say it.part 2 fucking sucked. There was absolutely no reason to split the episode into two parts. All of the build up was in part 1 with the cheating scandal and was just brought all the way down to just boring as fuck after the switch to modern talk. I really did think there was more to say about Alex but apparently that was it. People complain about cast length? So fuckin what, congrats on giving in kyt, I can only assume your the reason the cast was cut in 2. And while medinas star power was able to keep this cast somewhat afloat, the lack of frank input kept it from being a very good part to. More frank means more frank please. Hey and Alex was there :) alOng with kyts laughing at everything schtick, that shit is annoying man. Input, try giving it sometime
As much as I love crazy talk, I didn't love this episode

Congrats to the Eh team

congrats to the Eh Team for making it to 50 casts. it was obvious that they were going to make it to 50 and there is no doubt that they will make it 100 and beyond. they do a great thing for the community by providing a fantastic podcast. so i want to say thanks. thanks for letting me be a part of early life of the Eh team, thanks for being such great guys and thanks for continuing to give everyone a great cast. Happy 50th guys, keep up the great work...except for the commander casts, those sucked :]