For this article we are going cover one of the most powerful abilities in Magic that took a big increase in printing and use this year. Play spells for free!
We've had a new ability join the something for free game, "Discover X". With Discover ability you reveal from the top of your library until you find a spell that cost X, cast it or just put it in your hand if now is now the time to flip that board wipe. Dinosaurs have taken hold of this ability for now but I believe it will be a thing we see creeping it's way into many tribal themes. Possibly replacing Convoke. Pantlaza, Sun-Favored is a great example of a Commander that can really take off using this ability.
Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant gets a quick shout out here. I had an opponent try to king maker me and forced another opponent to draw 20 cards taking 20 damage from Underworld Dreams, helpful almost had them to lethal unfortunately on their turn they had Ghalta aaaannnd a haste key. 15 Dinosaurs on the battlefield later and we were all dead! Be careful who you leave limping and not dead in a game. A wounded Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant is still a deck you do not want to go against when their mana production hits 8.
Jodah the Unifier is taking an old trick and giving it a legendary twist. Cascade has been around for a while but with Jodah, you skip all those mana rocks and instants that get in your way and only gives you the good stuff. Legendary tribal is crazy powerful and getting two for one on every legend is busted fun. Cast a Shadowspear and slap it on the Rograhk, Son of Rohgahh you get for free. now we're getting that +X/+X ability to it's max.
Etali, Primal Conqueror . This baddy new Dinosaur has already found it's home on the watch list for banning in my opinion. You get one free spell per player every time this dinosaur hits the battlefield. Sounds fun, until someone kicks it with a Rites of Replication and has Panharmonicon on the battlefield. Now we're talking 8 or more free spells with every flicker and you should flick it!
Never ever cheat at Magic. Unless the rules lets you! Then get something for free, cast it without paying it's mana value, take it from the top of your opponents' decks. Take any advantage you can get and snag the win.
Staxx
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Elesh Norn, Any and All of Her
The Great Mother has taken over Phyrexia and in Karn's absence she is pulling all the strings. This Praetor likes to be in charge of a lot of soldiers. Get out the Myrs. Get your soldiers on. Make the tokens by the double then send them in swinging with a boost on your side and the will of your enemy weakened.
Whichever Norn you choose, add the others if you've got them. New hot add in is of course, Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation and White Sun's Twilight. Also get your hands on Adeline, Resplendent Cathar to pour tokens onto the battlefield and Defiler of Faith to use that life as a resource.
Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Anointed Procession gets you double the tokens then drop the OG Elesh Norn to pump them +2 / +2 and swing away.
The Angels have themselves a new girl to lead the party. I know there are plenty of great, powerful, game winning, board changing white spells but forget about some of those for a second and just think of the angels in this game? There are hundreds of them and one by one they add up. No one angel is immune but when they arrive in groups, they rule the skies.
First few angels you want to find are the ones that keep your board protected. Angels such as, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sephara, Sky's Blade, Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Archangel of Tithes Will help reduce your opponents options and keep your angels from getting cut down early.
Anthem and angel boost is next up with cards like Cathars' Crusade, Archangel of Thune and Lyra Dawnbringer to increase the punching power and knock anything else out of the skies.
When you're ready for the offense consider Baneslayer Angel, Serra Ascendant and Angelic Skirmisher to take their life and end the game.
Staxx
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Naya is Red, Green and White and in the we may not have many counters or kill spells, but we've got just about everything else you could be looking for.
Gishath, Sun's Avatar / Zacama, Primal Calamity / Pantlaza, Sun-Favored
We got a Triple for the start of our top three this week. Just do your best to ignore the top 3 part this week. Dinos. Big. Big. Dinos. Whichever two you don't choose put them in the deck.
The only other consideration for this build is your mana. Mirari's Wake, Zendikar Resurgent and Mana Reflection help push you over the edge and with a Temur Sabertooth, one of these decks goes infinite but I wont tell you which one. Oh and get Garruk's Uprising and Elemental Bond and Rhythm of the Wild for draw and haste.
Rin and Seri is one of the most built "Pet" decks and not the fact that is contains the Puppies and Kitties but one that is often built for a friend or loved one to get them into the idea of magic and let them have a little fun with their first Commander Deck. Your choice of pets in this deck is quite wide and many are found under the $3 line so easily affordable to get this deck up and running.
Cats. We got lots of Cats. Feline Sovereign to blow up their artifacts and enchantments. Keeper of the Fables for some added card draw and the Lieutenant of the deck, Jetmir, Nexus of Revels. This cool cat loves to party and the bigger the board the better the party.
Doggos. For the good boys there's a few key you'll want to add in. Pack Leader gives you an Anthem boost and helps protect your dogs when you swing for combat damage. Mowu, Loyal Companion and Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful are Legendary dogs that get lots of counters and their size can get out of control for your opponents.
Remember a key in this build is to keep your kennel together turn after turn. They only really work once 5 or more creatures are on the board together, so get yourself Heroic Intervention, Unbreakable Formation and a Boros Charm for when the board wipes happen.
This section is about a pet deck I have used to surprise many opponents. Infect does not have to contain black! With Gahiji and a few friends you can take the board by storm and even use it to convince the opponents to attack someone other than you while playing infect is a big advantage.
Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer is the second card to add to the deck. Once you have achieved metalcraft and you have your commander out, your swinging creatures get a +5 power boost and can turn even the smallest infection into a near lethal attack. Stock up on all of the infect artifact creatures and Swing away. If you build plains heavy add in an Armored Ascension to give your creature a big boost and give it flying.
You also get all the ramp and all the removal in these colours, so add in your cultivate like cards and throw a Swords to Plowshares, Path to exile, Chaos Warp and Beast Within to give yourself some protection.
Staxx
]]>We going wild and calling in the big boys for back up. Planeswalkers have a history in the lore of being the biggest of game changers. Let's see if you can put them to good use.
]]>Do you like artifacts? How about busted Izzet spells? Well then, Saheeli is the Commander for you. The good +1 ability is to make your next spell cost X less equal to your artifact count. Consider Omniscience for 7 mana less.
If you want to take the "go wide" strategy for your artifacts, the -7 ability lets you clone all of your artifacts for a turn and this can be enough to token over the board, get out a power boost on your creatures and swing for the win. Additionally having another copy of Mindslaver for you to abuse is never a bad thing.
Have a few five colour creatures kicking around but not sure which deck they could fit in? Jared is the buddy for those multi-coloured monsters you have waiting in the wings.
Jared's abilities can make you a little five colour Kavu with trample or if you have a better creature or two on board, the -3 ability lets you add up to five counters onto two multi-coloured creatures you control and if one is something like The Ur-Dragon it gets to swing for even bigger damage.
The first real planeswalker commander designed to be a Commander of a planeswalker deck. At the end of each of your turns you get a free loyalty counter on one of your walkers and the +1 ability gives you a nice little chump blocker which also taps for mana for your future walkers.
In Addition the -3 Ability can really give you a boost, drawing you X and each opponent losing X equal to your planewalker count. This ability keeps the balance on the life totals and gives you more fuel for the future turns.
Staxx
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Have you ever wanted to scroll through your entire deck in 3 turns? Pick only the best of the cards you find and put the rest on the bottom for another time? Well then Atraxa is the Commander for you.
a 7/7 legendary who's colours fall in, white, blue, black and green giving you some very tricky decisions on how to take the deck. For me it's all about that flicker with Atraxa and getting the most bang for your buck on the cards you keep in your hand.
Starting off to maximize the ETB effect when she arrives you will want to double that trigger. Panharmonicon, Yarok, the Desecrated and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines all double the Atraxa trigger so slip them in the deck to help double the ETB and filter through your deck faster.
If you are looking to get more of Atraxa entering the battlefield, don't worry you wont have to cast it again, you can just flicker it. Removing it from the battlefield and returning it immediately or at the end of the turn. With instant and sorcery solutions we have, Ghostly Flicker, Ephemerate and Cloudshift will get her bouncing. For permanents that get it moving would be singles like, Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, Brago,King Eternal and Displacer Kitten are creatures that no only can flicker Atraxa but can keep doing it, turn after turn.
Now the other payoffs, the win cons. With a commander so dedicated to ETB triggers, lets continue the focus of the deck on that ability. Avenger of Zendikar, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Agent of Treachery and of course the new and improved Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant.
Morophon, the Boundless is one card that is true to it's name. The king of tribal decks. This shapeshifter is the ultimate for any of your, satyr, monkey, human, dog, pirate, hippogriff and turtle tribal decks. Also effective with good decks. Pick your tribe, then consider the following bombs to take the tribe over the edge.
Coat of Arms is always the first add for tribal decks giving you a +1+1 for all creatures that share a type. Just keep an eye on your opponent's boards if they are running tribal as well. Door of Destinies is another must add. It gives you +1+1 for every creature of your tribe you cast.
To take advantage to the max for Morophon remember to get Jodah, Archmage Eternal and Fist of Suns. These two cards make it so all of your spells cost WUBRG to cast and Morophon makes all of your tribe WUBRG reduced, letting you cast them all for free!
Muldrotha, the Gravetide
Muldrotha, the Gravetide is a very fun every complex deck to build and even more fun to pilot. The advantage with Muldrotha is when you have no cards left in your hand just look to the right and you'll find your graveyard, where the Gravetide comes truly alive
To fill up the graveyard get your hands on the tutor to graveyard cards such as, Gravebreaker Lamia, Buried Alive and Unmarked Grave. These will let you put a creature in the graveyard and get lined up for the next chance to cast.
Some top creatures to search and put in your graveyard and, Spore frog aka FOG FROG, Ravenous Chupacabra, Reclamation Sage aka Wreck Sage and Eternal Witness because Muldrotha can't bring everything back from the grave.
Writing this I noticed that a 6 Power or higher Commander is rarer then expected. I hope this challenge gives you a few new BIG ideas for possible builds of your decks.
Staxx
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Krenko, Mob Boss. Of course Krenko makes this list and has to be first. One of the earliest builds in Red Commander. So for this I'll Just list off the cards that every Krenko has played for soo long but they are the best to play. Remember, you want hundreds of goblins but you don't want them around for long.
To Go Infinite is as easy as getting Ashnod's Altar, Skirk Prospector, or Phyrexian Altar to sacrifice the tokens to make the mana, then use the mana on artifacts such as, Umbral Mantle, Thornbite Staff and Staff of Domination on your Krenko and boom, everyone's dead.
Goblin Bombardment, Throne of the God Pharaohs, Impact Tremors, Goblin SharpShooter and Raid Bombardment are the damage killers in this one. Get all the goblins then turn them sideways and kill the opponent whether of not they block.
Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might So this deck used to have one and only one Commander in mind and some of you will call me crazy but I believe Purphoros, God of the Forge has been pushed into the 99.
First Card on the list is of course, Purphoros, God of the Forge but what you're looking for is all those little ping cards that used to do one or two damage that now does four or more depending on what tricks you can use to boost the Ojer.
Focus on the making the damage and not the power boost and i believe you will get more out of the ability. Many of the same cards from Krenko belong in here. Impact Tremors, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, Fiery Emancipation and yes, in this deck, this one time, you can run Blood Moon.
Magda, Brazen Outlaw is an underdog with an amazing set of pay outs is you can make the treasures happen. Sacrifice five treasures and tutor for a dragon to the battlefield.
For the Treasure you will want to get your hands on a few key generators. Academy Manufactor, Xorn and Goldspan Dragon can start the treasure party for you and get the dragons flying.
For the dragons You get them in this order. Terror of the Peaks, Utvara Hellkite, Goldspan Dragon and Scourge of Valkas. Make the Dragons. Make the Treasures. Bring the pain.
Staxx
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Little is known of the actual game itself as of yet, but you can bet that after nearly three years in development by two experienced game designers - Ryan Miller and Steve Warner - that the game play is going to be approachable, fun, engaging, yet still challenging for those looking for a game with depth. Both of these guys worked with WOTC for years and Miller also designed the Digimon game and was a head designer on both Duel Masters and Kaijudo.
In an interview, Miller said that they “designed the game to be easy to learn so that folks that haven’t played a TCG before should be able to pick it up, but also have enough strategic depth to attract the seasoned TCG player. This approach has informed our design and development process, as all the play testing and stress testing of the cards has been done by veteran TCG players to make sure there are lots of combos, synergies, and decks to find in each set.”
What more could we ask for? A game that is both accessible to all ages, and challenging enough to keep seasoned players looking for combos and winning interactions. Well, I guess we could want great art, fun characters, good card stock, quality control, and a great distribution system. And all of that seems to already be in place. Disney has paired with Ravensburger to produce this game. A company synonymous with quality. They make some of the best board games and have been arguably the best puzzle making company in the world since their inception in 1883. These guys know their way around cardboard.
As far as we can tell, Disney wants to work with LGSs to help push their game. A partnership that we are chomping at the bit to be a part of. We can’t wait for the anticipated organized play program that we know is coming and we hope and expect to be one of the biggest Canadian ambassadors for Lorcana. Miller has already committed in an interview to the upcoming program when he explained that he “is actually working on [an organized play] program right now with an old friend of mine who worked at Wizards on organized play. It’s very near and dear to me. I think it’s absolutely critical to a trading card game’s success because it brings the people together so they can geek out, they can play, they can trade, they find these awesome retail stores and hobby shops. It’s just a wonderful partnership and it’s a wonderful experience for them to come together. I’m absolutely passionate about organized play.” And we at ETB couldn’t agree more.
And with all the Disney history available to them, who isn’t looking forward to having Mickey sling spells at Captain Hook or Elsa lob some snowballs at Maleficent. Those are some of the already spoiled cards, so we know that we can battle with them, but I’m hoping that all the Studio Ghibli characters get brought in as well. Certainly not out of the question since Disney has the rights to the Ghibli archive. I’m looking forward to playing my Kiki or Princess Mononoke or maybe even some of the Grave of the Fireflies characters. The possibilities are endless (not to mention the entire Marvel universe). Who knows what direction the game is going.
What we do know is that Miller isn’t trying to break the mould with this game. It will be made of 60 card decks with regular sized cards (so no need for different sized sleeves) and from what I’ve seen there are a few other similarities to Magic such as the use of keywords, tokens, flavour text and more.
As far as releases, Lorcana is not trying to overwhelm us with product. There is a wallet-manageable four releases a year with the usual booster boxes, pre-con decks, playmats, deckboxes and sleeves. And they have promised out of the gate to not release cards that aren’t accessible to all. In Miller’s own words “I don’t like to say ‘never’ when working on a trading card game, but here I go: We’ll never do a promo card or collection that you can’t also get out of the regular product,” This means that although you might not have access to the most expensive treatment of a card, at least you will be able play a version of it with the same playability.
We look forward to the August release in both our stores and will likely have it up for pre-order as soon as we get our allotment and price structure. Until then, we, like you, have to wait and see what’s in store for this highly anticipated new TCG.
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Although there are a few that can perform the task of mana fixing, Chromatic Lantern is the first and foremost card you will be looking for. Not only does it tap for one mana of any colour. It allows to you tap your lands for any mana. Getting that colour fix fast and early is the must for a 5 colour commander.
Another three drop but this time it's a creature! Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is the man in any deck with three or more colours in it's build. For a simple start, it comes in as a 2/4 on turn 3, letting you block many of the early little nippers that could be coming your way. Also it lets you play an additional land on each of your turns, bringing you on turn 4 to a healthy 6 land potential. Additionally, this little forest nymph has the Chromatic's ability of fixing your mana. Letting you tap ahead of the curve and for any colour of mana you may need.
The World Tree is next up on this list. Comes in tapped, bad. Only taps for green at the start, not great. However, once you have it and five other lands on the battlefield it has the added text advantage to let you tap your land for any colour of mana. Since Golos's ban we lost the best way to find our tree but there are a dozen more spells that can get this out early and let you take full advantage of it's mana fixing potential.
Speaking of ways to find your lands. Expedition map is a great little artifact that for 1 cost and 2 to activate lets you find any land you need at the time and get it in your hand. A quick shout out to Sylvan Scrying a two cost sorcery that can also pull the lands and get it in your hand.
Finishing off the list and a little down the cuts are the basic fetch lands. Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse and Fabled Passage. These lands will let you get a basic out on the battlefield, usually tapped, but it helps the fix and thins the deck. Simple cards for a simple advantage when running multicoloured commanders.
That's the list. Your mana is full and fixed and you're ready to cast any colour any time.