Born of the Gods Pre-Release Follow Up

Sorry for the belated news...I was WAY TO TIRED to blog after that tournament!

Well, I didn't make Top 8...

Also, I didn't get any of the cards that I said I wanted...In fact, didn't see anyone with those cards either.  I saw one Mogis all night.  I never saw a Phenax, a Hero of Iroas, or a Brimaz.  Also, I don't think the Planeswalker Kiora made an appearance.

No one played Bile Blight against me.  I saw Searing Blood against me a couple of times, though.

In short, most of the excitement didn't seem to happen at the Tangled Web.  It is all a game of chance, and I guess it wasn't this tournament's turn!

So what did go down?

I pre-ordered Blue, as told in my previous post.  I believe I was right in that decision...Even though I play black.

So...

Here is a picture of all my proud new acquisitions!

What?  An improvement in photo skill!  More on that in a later post!

First of all, These are my proud new cards, either because I have a use for them or they became the most useful new cards during the tournament.  I am only including the Born of the Gods cards...not the Theros cards I got.

Let's get the Elephant out of the room first.  I did NOT play Xenagos.  I wound up with a four color deck...a weak strategy to start with...I didn't get that many good creatures.  Since my box was seeded blue, I tried to focus it in that direction.  But at the end of the day, a little green and a little red did make it into my 40 cards...But Xenagos didn't make it.  He costs so much mana, and his ability didn't really go with what I was doing.

The most successful cards for me were Whelming Wave, and also Floodtide Serpent.  Evanescent Intellect was the card that I targeted Floodtide Serpent with in order to allow him to attack.

I actually considered NOT playing this guy.  He got me some early wins.

My deck was largely Black and Blue, with a small red splash and a small green splash.  Two of my boosters had Temple cards as their rares....This cut down on some of what I could do.  The red was there for Crackling Triton, in order to enable his ability.  The green was there for Kiora's follower, who didn't make a single appearance all night.  I tried to build my deck around card advantage....It was a blue deck after all.  But that didn't really work out so well.

My record as the night panned out became 3 wins, 3 losses.  I believe I was outclassed by the other players, and outclassed by my skills at deck building.  I also feel a little screwed because I had such a poor pool of rares...Xenagos stood above the others, but didn't match the direction I took.

I could have....Could have...Could have.    But I didn't.  And what is done is done.

The success of the night was the new cards, getting my hands on them, playing with them or trying to anyways, and trading also when it was all over.

I traded one of my Herald of War's for Eater of Hope, who is going into my Black devotion deck right away.  And it looks like Xenagos now has a home in that Fencing Ace deck...He can ramp the power of the creatures up REAL HIGH, and in a deck like that, that's what you want.

What am I looking forward to in the big box that I ordered, (Hopefully will get Friday!)  Well, after reading about some decks, it looks like I might make another crack at Azorious, adding Whelming Wave.  If I get a Chromanticore, he is going in my Maze's end deck.  And I will continue to baby the Fencing Ace deck.  So I wlll have to let the world know how that turns out!

Theros Event Deck....Unboxing and Review

AZORIUS!  That white and blue combo that I so identify with!  I expressed my feelings for Azorius already in this post....

Here we have a sparkly new event deck of the same colors...Does it meet the SpartanNerd's standards?  Let's crack it open and see!

I got mine at the Tangled Web...THE comic store in the Hub City.  $24.99...Apparently the average price of event decks these days.

That lion on the front...It's just a pretty sleeve.  You get this nifty cardboard deck box.  In my past experiences with these, the latch goes bad if you are not OH SO Careful...

Upon opening it, this is what you see.  I am going to take out the pieces.

These are the two decks.  The "Hopeful Eidolon" is the sixty card main deck.  "Triton Tactics" is the sideboard of 15 cards.

You get this divider

And some useless propaganda...or is it?   The green one explains how to play the deck....Who knows how many of these kinds of poster-paper inserts I have put in the landfill?  There is a deck list in the green one as well.

Now this is a pretty dice, that screams AZORIUS!  It is a spin down counter.  Not a D20.

The back of the box has the planes walkers symbol.  I only recently learned that was it's official title.

Deck breakdown...

This one has a ton of rares!  (HOORAY!)  I went ahead and bought this because they had a deck list at the Tangled Web, and I new I didn't have some of them, or I wanted more copies.

Imposing Sovereign--Someone beat me down with this guy.  (I should probably tell you that recently I have been playing a three color Fencing Ace deck...It is white red and green...)  So haste is not an issue against this guy.  There are two of them here

Fabled Hero--Fencing Ace's big brother.  He is one of my current faves.  If you can get him out and load his heroic ability, this double striker can be a game ender.

Lavinia of the Tenth--This chick is BAD.  (I mean a good bad)  OK, turn five Lavinia, you just detained all your opponent's creatures...and tokens.  (She detains all permanents with mana cost 4 or less...tokens have a CMC of 0!)

Detention Sphere--I'm not sure why this card is a rare...I have like ten of them.  It is a great card.  I like to hold it and then let my opponent drop a fatty on the board...Then dash their hopes and dreams. Another trick, the Detention Sphere gets permanents of the same name...It is great against token building decks.  There are two copies in this deck.

Soldier of the Pantheon--One of the cards I didn't have before...Maybe haven't even seen.  It seems the Wizards are making cards that are a reaction to the Ravnica block.  This guy is definitely anti-Ravnica.

Frontline Medic--I always wanted one of these.  Now I have one!  (I have 90% of the stuff from Gatecrash.)

In addition to these cards, there are some good uncommons and commons.

Battlewise Hoplite--technically better than Akroan Hoplite, you get to scry whenever his heroic triggers.

Ascended Lawmage--Now here's one I haven't given much thought to.  But Flying and Hexproof, for CMC of 4.  This guy should be a beast in all of Theros!  I need to experiment with this more...

Hopeful Eidolon--The strategy guide advises you to hold onto this card and use its Bestow ability.  It gives something a pump, and lifelink!  This is one of the best Bestow cards!  It was a champ in Booster Draft, and is perfect for the fast paced play that standard demands.

Ordeal if Thassa-  This ordeal gives you card draw...

Ordeal of Heliod-  This ordeal gives you a boost of 10 life.  I wish I had more of these...this is my only copy.

You also get a Hallowed Fountain shock land...But there was no scry land for AZORIUS this time.  (I don't think...)

The sideboard doesn't feature any rares.  You get Glare of Heresy and Gainsay, the new spell of choice God's Willing, and ....  That's about it.  There's some more, but it's all just control stuff.

My first match with the deck...

I played against SpartanSmurf #1 during halftime of the Gamecocks vs. Gators game...He was playing a Boros build, which has occasionally been tough for the Fencing Ace deck I already mentioned, but hasn't done much against blue ever....

Right at the beginning, he had out Hopeful Eidolon as a creature.  It seems I had a ton of lands.  But then I drew into two Detention Sphere's, and before you know it I issued a major beatdown with Battlewise Hoplite and Lyev Skynight.  I took damage only from the Eidolon, and shocking in my Hallowed Fountain.

I didn't bother to side in any cards.

Round two...The land wasn't as prevalent.  But I was able to get out Fabled Hero, and that was all she wrote.  Not even SpartanSmurf #1's Stoneshock Giant stood a chance...I Detention Sphere'd that bad-boy.  He blocked with his big flyer (Hellkite Tyrant?)

I wonder what would have happened if I had played this deck today in the standard tournament.  It seems a little slow...And yet it was effective against a pretty aggressive deck on it's opening venture.

I believe I am going to make a few changes...

First I am going to add some more Ascended Lawmages.  I think I am going to remove the detain from this deck, and beef up the heroic.  Detain is temporary, while Heroic is usually forever.  So that means the Lyev Skynights and Lavinia has to go, and in their place more Battlewise Hoplites and Fabled Heros.  The Azorius Guildgates are too slow...I am either going to swap them all for Hallowed Fountains and hope for scry lands in February when Borne of the Gods comes out, or swap out some of the plains for the shock lands.  I haven't yet decided.  I might find a way to put in Tidebinder Mage and more Banisher Priests.

Here is my verdict.

My most recent successes have come from the Red White and Green Fencing Ace Deck, which takes a lot of advantage of heroic and the enchantments in Theros.  In that deck, I would argue that Madcap Skills is the star card, delivering a significant boost and creating scary threats.  The Theros Event deck needs a little more speed.  This deck also needs some more size.  I happen to have a few Medomai the ageless and Isperia Supreme Judge cards.  I also have a few Heliods and a few of his spears...These cards would have lived happy lives if the event deck was build around them.  But the Wizards don't seem to make these decks around Mythic rares.

I am thinking it might have a hard time against aggressive discard strategies, or aggressive burn strategies.  On the other hand, it should be pretty good against token building decks and big creature decks.

i don't feel like it absolutely needs any cards swapped, except for the guild gates and the lawmages.  Only for my picky preferences.  So I give this deck a 3/5.

The big deck nowadays is MONO RED.  This deck will probably not stand against it.

Groovy Dork List (issue II)

Groovy Dork List II

Groovy  I got an extra Aquaman comic in the Mail!  Looks like I might have a give-away soon!

Dork  What's up with the news about a "red clear colored" Hordak figure?  So we can't have filmation colors, but we can have this weird variant, which is being offered as a rare "legendary" type figure?



Groovy  SoundGarden!  Man, I can't get enough of them it seems lately.

Dork  Too bad I can't go to the Carolina Rebellion this weekend and see them.



Groovy  I picked up some recent comics for a quarter a piece at the Edge of the World Public Library!

Dork  I haven't mentioned Free Comic Book Day yet.  Because I didn't get anything good.  They were wiped out at both the Tangled Web and Mad Max's Comics on Saturday by the time I got there.



Groovy  Rumor has it that the MOTUC subscription may be a bit cheaper this time.  I hope so.  Maybe I can subscribe and get in on some of the best stuff in MOTU.  Still to come are "Two Bad" and associated characters "Tuvarr" and "Badra," "Modulok/Multibot/Megabeast," 200x Evil Lynn, "Tongue Lasher," "Blade," "Saurod," and more, which I really want.

Dork  I don't care much for POP.  Not that I don't like it.  But that is not what I am interested in collecting.  But it appears that next year is going to have a ton of POP characters.  I personally think they should offer POP as a separate subscription.  Kind of like the Filmation Sub and the 30th anniversary sub.  And keep it MOTU vintage in the main line.  We already got our She-Ra and Cat-ra. And Bo.  Leave those other guys for the POP fans to buy.  Don't force them on those who don't want them.  Which is part of the reason I've been a cherry picker thus far.



Groovy  Baja Limon chips are SOOO GOOOD.  I picked mine up where all the cheapskates shop.  Big Lots!

Dork  The schools are encouraging Meatless Monday now.  These kids are pasty enough as it is.  Most of them are already iron deficient.  And your going to take away their meat now?  Unwise, people.  Unwise.  AND it would be different if they offered a healthy meatless choice.  Instead….Nacho Cheese?  I thought we were trying to COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY!


"How can you have puddin' if ya don't eat yer meat!"