From station to station

I've found some time and built 2 new highlander budget decks. the first one is about the different stations from fifth dawn with a lot of artifacts and acceleration (blinkmoth urn anyone?) and door to nothingness as well as goblin canon as alternate win conditions. It works quite well, at least it worked well on monday, were I had the time to test it. One game I actually won with the allmighty stations, but a returning goblin canon was much stronger than this silly 3-card-combo. All I need is time, because I'm extremely vulnerable the first 10 turns or so... oh, and one game I lost to ivory mask - now I'm playing elf + goblin replica.

The 2nd deck is a red-black aggro-control. Basically, I just want to play kaervek, the merciless and the first thought was, that an aggro-control shell would be the best place for him. While playing I lost one game after the other. Once I got him out with no destructive decks around and he dealt over 20 points of damage. I'm still sure, that this guy can be a gamebreaker, but the deck needs some improvement. Should I build a more controlish deck?

Magus Rule

from magiccards.info concerning Magus of the Arena:

+ A tapped creature can be targeted. Tapping them again will do nothing, but they will still deal damage. [Planar Chaos FAQ 2006/12/13]

I'll put him in again and test him.

Unfortunately, I have really a lot to do for school - It's the last year and the final examinations will start on monday (at least the written part), I'll post more frequently after the exams - I promise.

Squee's embrace + Magus of the Arena + Avalanche Rider

I'm not very confident with this 3 cards in my R/W control. We were playing some multiplayer games this afternoon when I decided to go over the whole deck to kick out the weakest links. I haven't done this for a while but changed a card from time to time (e.g. I put in the avalanche rider because he's so shiny in foil).

out:

Squee's embrace
To kick this one out was an easy decision. back when I build this deck it was more like a Boros deck wins with some controlish elements. I played Skyknight Legionnaire and Boros Swiftblade among others and the 3 balances weren't even part of my collection. After I built in some control elements, it brought my fatties back and had some senergy with balance - thats probably the reason why it stayed so long in my deck. Now it's time to replace it.

Magus of the Arena
I opened a Planar Chaos booster last week, and he was the rare card. I looked at him and thougt: "wow, this guy will be fun - a 6mana 5/5, 3 mana, tap, let him fight against any anoying creature!" I put him into my deck immediately. Well I should have read the card more accurately. The Problem with this guy is, that you have to tap him for the ability and then tap another creature for the effect, so he won't ever stay in the arena himself. Long story short: I have just not enough creatures to support him.

Avalanche Rider
This was a though decision and I'm still not sure about it (Did I mentioned that he's foil?). He's pretty strong after a balance or against some random lands. However, More often than not he's just a 2/2 beater (which probably can't attack anyway) and you don't want him to play pre-balance. This anti-sinergy was in the end the reason why I dismissed him.

Now the cards I test in these slots;
In:

Riftmarked Knight
You'll get 2 2/2 creatures with protection black /white, flanking and haste for 3 mana. Okay, you have to wait some turns, but I think thats worth it. I wont mention the singergy with balance here.

Keldon Marauders
On the first sight, this guy doesn't look to impressive. but he's a 2 mana 3/3 and you'll like to see him after a balance for some cheap action on the table if you haven't got a game-winning gargadon. you may even like to see him pre-balance: he blocks for a turn or two, makes some damage and helps to stall the game until you can play the balance with zero creatures on your side.

Pyroclasm
At the moment utility creatures are quite popular in our meta and mass-removal is always a good choice. I'll test it, but I think this card has deserved a slot.

Ketchup-Mayo

Welcome to another post ;)

I'd like to show you my favourite Multiplayer/Highlander deck: Ketchup-Mayo! When you play highlander (if you're not familiar with it) you're allowed to play only one copy of each card except basic lands. You play only one game, so a sideboard isn't necessary - but that means that artifact and enchantment hate should be packed in the maindeck. In a multiplayer game, aggro decks are a bad choice, because you'll probably die to your 2nd enemy after you've killed your first one. At least if you're not playing an all-vs-all, with this type of multiplayer I'm not that familiar. so, our playgroup sees rarely an aggro deck, but Aggro-control isn't that uncommon - all you need is a backup plan for the late-game, e.g. a genesis in the grave.

Time for the decklist:

RW control a.k.a. Ketchup-Mayo

// Lands
7 [CHK] Mountain
1 [RAV] Boros Garrison
1 [TSP] Flagstones of Trokair
1 [BOK] Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai
1 [RAV] Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
8 [7E] Plains
2 [UNH] Plains

// Creatures
1 [PLC] Magus of the Arena
1 [AP] Goblin Legionnaire
1 [RAV] Firemane Angel
1 [FD] Silent Arbiter
1 [MR] Duplicant
1 [TSP] Greater Gargadon
1 [TSB] Avalanche Riders
1 [LE] Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 [ON] Exalted Angel
1 [CHK] Kami of Ancient Law

// Spells
1 [FD] Beacon of Destruction
1 [JU] Browbeat
1 [TSP] Rift Bolt
1 [CHK] Hanabi Blast
1 [DIS] Seal of Fire
1 [FD] Magma Jet
1 [TSP] Sulfurous Blast
1 [OD] Balancing Act
1 [RAV] Boros Fury-Shield
1 [MR] Awe Strike

1 [TSP] Restore Balance
1 [4E] Swords to Plowshares
1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
1 [DS] Darksteel Pendant
1 [IA] Zuran Orb
1 [RAV] Boros Signet
1 [TSP] Word of Seizing
1 [AP] Squee's Embrace
1 [RAV] Lightning Helix

1 [TSP] Wheel of Fate
1 [TSP] Sudden Shock
1 [CHK] Yamabushi's Flame
1 [8E] Wrath of God
1 [6E] Disenchant
1 [CHK] Ghostly Prison
1 [RAV] Faith's Fetters
1 [4E] Balance
1 [PLC] Dawn Charm
1 [BOK] Terashi's Grasp

[Gameplan I]
Stall the game, play a fatty, win.

[Gameplan II]
stall the game, suspend a gargadon, play one of the 3 balances, sac everything, win.

[Gameplan III]
Burn the sh*t out your opponents. Works at its best if your opponents fighting each other.

As you see, I have 3 different ways to win and even if my [gameplan I] looks solid, my fatty often dies quite fast. most of the time I win with the gargadon-combo. Our games take a lot of time, so I can wait for my combo pieces to wreck my opps afterwards.

But of course, there are some problems:
Problem I
Counterspell. "I sac everything to gargadon and play with the mana in pool a balance -", "counterspell". Thats the worstcase, but it happens seldomly and I'm always aware of untapped islands*. Of course counterspell wrecks all my fatties too. But hey, they can't counter everything... or can they?

Problem II
Graveyard-strategies. This is really a problem of ketchup-mayo. With the current deck, I'm unable to hate they're grave and a glory or genesis in the yard is back-breaking. GY-recursion is extremely strong in multiplayer and I feel that my deck need some cards to abuse this as well. suggestions?

Problem III
Bounce. This is just a problem of the gargadon gameplan. I play only 21 lands, and sometimes a bouncespell could kill me.

Problem IIII
A 2/1 shadow pro-red creature. quite hard to handle, but possible *sigh*

Now it's your turn, do you like the deck?

Lastly I want to add a marvellous finishing move in a highlander-duel against my old friend alex:
We seesaw some turns until he turns a stronghold overseer and a morph sideways, with me at about 13 life while he's at 11. The overseer alone couldn't kill, so he morphs up a liege of the pit. that's right, a 7/7. and I haven't got anything on the table. Luckily, I've got the perfect answer and enough mana. I tap my Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion and give his liege doublestrike. And I'm smiling.

think about it, why should I do that?



right,

I've got Boros Fury Shield in Hand.
Man, that game was fun.

Thats enough for today,

/wave




*now