Monday Night Magic #153 – Galapagos Giveaways!
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This Week in Magic
Conley Woods joins Tom this week for a great show! Some more in-depth discussion of Alara Reborn impact on Limited, Standard, Block Constructed. Conley gives some great insight and tips on the preparation for Pro Tour Honolulu. Tom discusses the lack of release announcement for Duels of the Planeswalkers. We also point out the upcoming Path of the Planeswalker graphic novel release in October. And we also talk about the unconfirmed WPN promo Marisi’s Twinclaws.
What Have We Been Playing?
Tom is starting to put together his limited EDH deck using Teneb, the Harvester as his general backed up by the awesome Platinum Angel. Here is the fantastic review article of top MTGO pauper decks by SpikeBoyM on Puremtgo.com. Conley talks about a weekend of intense Standard testing and prepping for the upcoming Standard GP Seattle and then Block / Limited Pro Tour Honolulu.
Listener Emails
Email Tom at pitimp@mtgcast.com and Conley at conley@mtgcast.com. Everyone answered the call for the emails this week and it rocked! We talk about Alara Reborn picks, fun pre-release stories and combos, Extended Cascade, how to sort these crazy mana costs and more.
MTGCast News
Conley tells a very cool story about the generosity of WoTC arranging plane travel to PT Honolulu. Tom gives a shout out to James for an awesome custom art package in the mail including a customized “Booze” token! Last, but not least, we have another giveaway! We are giving away three prize packages (3x Alara Reborn booster, Divine vs Demonic Duel Deck, Alara Reborn Intro pack) and all you need to do is post your favorite Alara Reborn card and why on the comment thread for ep 153 on mtgcast.com (direct link to article)!
Giveaway quick details:
What: Favorite Alara Reborn card and why
Prizes: 3x Alara Reborn booster, Divine vs Demonic Duel Deck, Alara Reborn Intro pack
Where: Post your story in the comment section for this episode on mtgast.com (direct link)
Leave a voice mail on our phone line – 469-277-2278
So why wait? Call in with any questions, news items, hints, tricks, combos, or anything!
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Tom & Gavin & Jack & Eric – Your Monday Night Magic news team!
Favorite Alara Reborn Card: Jenara, Asura of War
3 mana for a 3 drop that continuously gets bigger along with bonus from exalted cards makes this too hard to pass up
*Quick note: I’ve been listening to mtgcast since episode 7 (about) and this is the first topic that I felt compelled to respond to.*
My favorite card, hands down, is the Thraximundar. I mean, come on, his name is so wonderfully stupid, so much so that my local play group has decided to refer to the winner of our drafts as the undisputed Thraximundar. The Thraximundar’s name is so dumb, in fact, that it has to be glossed in his flavor text. If I were Thraximundar I would be more concerned with killing people than painting the earth. Come to think of it, the earth is a very silly thing to go about painting. Anyway, it’s all of these reasons and more that I love the Thraximundar.
“When the going gets Thrax, the tough get Mundar.”
-Voltaire
the card i pick is Rhox Brute, the reason is because he has taken a place in one of my favorite decks, and has really made it so that deck is a little more consistent. the deck uses Nacatl War-Pride, and Relentless Assault to win most games. and the big reason why Rhox brute works so well in the deck is that Brighthearth Banneret makes him cheaper while Bramblewood Paragon makes him bigger and have trample. i have had this guy come out as a 4/4 with 2 +1/+1 counters on it for 2 mana, and then people honestly have no answer for him.
Lets be honest…There alot of great cards in ARB….Behemoth Sledge,putrid leech,Bloodbraid Elf,Qasali Pridemage,terminate,borderpost’s…etc.. All well and good…
But I think one particular card is being overshadowed,when it truly deserves just as much,if not more,praise than the rest.
Zealous Persecution.
Another jab at faeries. =P
When people see this card..nine times out of ten..their mind shifts directly to the standard BW tokens build..and come to the same conclusion..”this would be great in the mirror!”…well,yes it would.
Its also great in the Dark Bant and Esperlark mirror. But what about limited? Pretty much every ARB sealed or draft comes down to a “battle of the blades” where flying,shroud,first strike,haste and deathtouch are in abundance on both sides of the table. The blades are cheap,can become a real threat in just one turn,are common so everyone is going to get a few at least…and I dont recall anyone ever passing them up.It all comes down to who has the most and who can draw the most…
You cant always rely on that wall of denial….or the terminate,or crystallization or that Qasali Pridemage to take care of mr. Esper Stormblade.Not to mention,with all the cheap exalted guys being thrown in as well..limited gets bloody. Well,Zealous Persecution has come to save us. It can almost always be splashed in,they almost always pass it in a draft,or if you pull one or two in a sealed…your golden! There are so many uses for this card..and thats what makes a great single card strategy..versatility.I have used this card to remove,chump,destroy and swing for the win. The next time you open one in a sealed…dont just shrug at it and think “well its good,but not great”…friggin’ use it!
Zealous Persecution FTW!
I have a huge card crush on Marisi’s Twinclaws. The raw power of double strike romanced me into Naya despite my rars being mostly in Grixis.
My top play was with the Twinclaws on the board, drawing a Behemoth Sledge, which I played, equipped and attack. He’s at 20 and I’m at 8 from some his Blades, so he lets it though. I Colossal Might, the Twinclaws hitting him for 16, gaining 16 life, and finishing him off next turn with the Twinclaws.
Like most loves, the Twinclaws can break your heart as easily as the make it as I learned 3rd round when an opponent dropped one and followed it up with Sigil of Distinction for 9. I was dead in one fateful stroke…
My favorite card of AR is probably Stun Sniper. I’m a big fan of pacifism abilities, particularly when they are dynamic and are coupled with a pinger for under 3 mana. Ever since Gelectrode, if I see a three mana pinger that does anything less, I get sad and grumpy. The manafixing demands for the 2 casting cost is well made up for by the flexible colorless activation cost. Throwback to that ol’ ravnica red-white tapper for two…but it pings! It’s just a fun, flexible play. After terrorizing my opponent with it at my Prerelease for a good 4 turns, he dropped a foil sarkhan vol, stole my stun sniper, and promptly made it target itself.
I love spellbreaker behemoth. When I first started playing Magic, I loved playing big fatty green creatures. Unfortunately, when I started going to FNM and other events, I realized that it wasn’t going to cut it anymore (counter spells and terror used to always ruin my day), but to this day the forest symbol brings me back to my kitchen table days. I just want to make a deck with this guy and a bunch of naya fatties. That would just tickle my fancy and bring me back to my childhood.
My favorite card by far, must be Slave of Bolas.
At my local prerelease, I personally had a bad sealed pool [3 SOA, 3 ARB] in which my rares were Cradle of Vitality, Nemesis of Reason, Mindlock Orb, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Invincible Hymn, and Filigree Angel. Nemesis of Reason was really the only one useful out of my rares but I managed to pop some decent uncommons and 2x Slave of Bolas! In my last round going in 2-1 (really lucky top decking), my opponent land screwed 1st game and I lost the second. In the final match, my opponent brought out Sarkhan Vol, woolly thoctar, broodmate dragon, rakeclaw gargantuan, and Lord of Extinction!!! I flipped, in retrospect. Starting from t5, he brings out Vol, I have to burn it to death. Next he summons woolly thoctar, swings me for 5 next turn. I cast Necrogenesis and barely hang on for the next few turns while the dying tokens pump my Rockslide Elemental. And so on t8 he summons broodmate but I manage to cancel it. He swings again with thoctar then activates colossal might and I’m down to 8, he’s at 13. Next turn, he drops Lord of Extinction and I just curse under my breath as the next swing is lethal (14 Cards in the both graveyards). I’m about to scoop until I topdeck Slave of Bolas, control LoE, and swing for the win to get 5 boosters/ 2nd place
Mind Funeral
For some reason, ever since I started playing Magic (Beta), I have loved deck destruction. I used to play a 5 color millstone deck that noone in my circle of friends could seem to beat. 3 mana for the possibility of having the opponent discard ALOT of cars from top of his deck just seems godlike.
I’ve gotta say, my favorite card so far out of Alara Reborn is Arsenal Thresher. Yes, a commmon. There’s some very cool cards in the set I want to get my hands on very badly, such as Finest Hour, but Arsenal Thresher is the card that has impressed me the most, defying my first impressions of it.
Arsenal Thresher was my MVP at the prerelease. I was playing blue-black so I had a very strong artifact base with Architects of will, Mistvein borderpost, mask of riddles and others. So I would draw the Thresher, reveal an artifact or two from my hand and drop it. It was very powerful, winning me several games, generally equipped with the mask of riddles. My favorite play with it was when I had two of them, a mistvein, an obelisk, a mask of riddles and an architects of will in my hand, as well as a land. I had 8 land out, and this is what I did. I played both of my arsenal threshers and proceeded to reveal 5 artifacts for each of them, since the FAQ I had read that morning said that they can be revealed for each other, and that gave me TWO 7/7s and, next turn, a mask of riddles. Boy, was that game over in a hurry. So yeah, for a common, Arsenal Thresher is a beating in a limited deck lush with artifacts.
Favorite card: = Uril, the Miststalker AKA Uranl
This card is not only a 5/5 for 5 CMC it has Super shroud, Cannot be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control, But it gets +2/+2 for each aura attached to it… Think about it. Because of its colors R/G/W There is an enchantment card called Sheild of the Oversoul… You now have a 9/9 flyer thats is literally UNKILLABLE. This Card brings me back to the good old ravnica block days where you could win with a Silihana Ledge walker enchanted with a Moldervine cloak AHH the good ole days.
My favorite card so far has been Mind Funeral. I have been only on the receiving side of this. Each time has been so incredibly tense! The first time I saw it was in the last round of the prerelease. In that event, I had gone 0-2, rebuilt my deck, and then proceeded to win every game on, up to the last (5th) round. I won the first game of the match. In game 2, my opponent played a Mind Funeral for something like 9 cards. Two turns later, he played a second for about 7 cards or so. (I feel pretty lucky compared to other Mind Funerals I’ve seen.) The following turn he drops a Lord of Extinction! It was a 19/19! Then he slapped a Behemoth Sledge on it! 21/21 lifelinked trampler! So, I’m finished right? On to game 3? Nope! He scoops to me right there, because they’re calling the start of the draft he signed up for. Who knows what game three would have been like?
The following Friday, my first FNM SOA/CON/ARB draft. Round 2, game 3. I get Mind Funeral’d for 12-15 cards, my opponent has a Valeron Outlander, and Finest Hour out. Bad news for my mostly black Jund deck. Then comes the Fusion Elemental. I’d be in trouble, if not for the Necrogenesis I’d been holding! That Mind Funeral filled my bin with lots of Necro targets, and allowed me to block correctly and run him over with Saproling tokens. The best part was that he is one of the top players at the shop, and one of the highest ranked players in the state (NH)! So, Mind funeral has been used against me on a few occasions, but has always created an exciting game state! I love those kinds of moments! It’s why I play Magic.
58 comments, woooow! thats what offering carrots will do, i suppose
My two favourite cards are:
Finest Hour
I had this enchantment in foil in my second pool, and I almost left it out, but I would have been crazy to do so. This card is similar in impact to Rafiq of the Many, a card it just so happens it combos very well with. With just this card and a Talon Trooper you can swing for 7 flying damage a turn, because Exalted triggers twice – a fact I had to explain to confused opponents every time I played it. The only time I got it down and lost was when my opponent played Scourglass, wiped my board, and then played Sharuum the Hegemon getting back Scourglass – did I mention this was a bomby format? The best play with it was following it with a Bull Cerodon the next turn, swinging for 13 with just one guy who was ready to be a fat blocker on my opponent’s turn
In constructed I want to try Finest Hour with Knotvine Paladin and Hungry Spriggan, since they get an extra bonus for attacking multiple times a turn – with just Finest Hour and the spriggan, he will attack for 14 damage! Throw in Battlegrace Angel and Behemoth Sledge and it should make a fun casual block bant deck.
Spellbound Dragon
This is my other favourite guy, since like Conley I have a fetish for RU. I managed to get one in my first prerelease pool and a second in prize packs, so I’m definitely going to build a deck around him, discarding fat guys and bringing them back with Sedris is one idea that occurs to me. The art on this card is really great as well, just looking at it you know it’s going on a red/blue spell.
Oh, and my pro tips for sealed with ARB: Open Broodmate Dragon, Lavalanche, Empyrial Archangel, Spellbound Dragon, Wall of Denial, Terminate and loads of fixing in your pool, it’s really hard to lose!
So many good cards to choose from, and the shininess of the gold frames isn’t helping me decide. Alas, I’m going to have to go with Behemoth Sledge.
Don’t get me wrong, Mage Slayer served me absolutely beautifully at the launch party, and it will always be my first love…but there’s something so appealing about seeing an enormous sledgehammer on the table. I was winning when I found myself head-to-head with it with my Mage Slayer, and the lifelink/trample triumphed.
(I don’t suppose anyone would understand the reference if I said, “The hammer is my penis”?)
Lost to a Vengeful Rebirth-ed gleemax. “take a million?”
My favorite Alara Reborn card is retaliator griffin because of the conundrum/headache it gives your opponent. If they can’t remove it, then they have to either attack into it (and get cracked backed for that amount themselves next turn), or wait for it to slowly kill them. I swear I’ve made opponents scream with frustration inside, especially the draft I got two of them (ARBx3).
My favorite card is Sigil Captain, because it took me a while to realize exactly how good it can be in limited. At first I was thinking about its uses in a Naya deck where it enhances Draggon Fodder, Elvish Visionary, and Aven Squire. However, it wasn’t until it was played against me in a Bant deck and they used it with Flurry of Wings and a cycled Bant Sojourners that I started to understand how powerful it can be. Now when I draft triple Reborn, even though I like Jund the most, if I open up Sigil Captain, I’m going to try and force the arctype and draft Bant to take advantage of Winged Coatl along with the aforementioned Flurry of Wings and Cycling Bant Sojourners.
I was just teasing you, Mr. Woods.
*pokepoke*
And yes, even eternal formats play 2-3 basics just for all the hosers.
Mana screwing your opponent is fun, getting mana screwed is not.
Aren’t we just all Scornful Egotists?
My card choice for Alara Reborn, would have to be Sen Triplets. I mean I know that it isn’t likely to be broken but I want it to be so bad. I really enjoy playing with other peoples cards, so that is the part that draws me to it the most. I hope some day I’ll get one to exercise these Exotic Orchards
There are plenty of cards in Alara Reborn that I can see myself loving (Nemesis of Reason, Mind Funeral, Enigma Sphinx, Time Sieve) but the one I’ve had the pleasure to play, and it’s amazing every time I cast it, is Maelstorm Pulse.
In the Alara Release event, I thought my draft was going awry. I ended up drafting what I thought was going to be a combo deck, relying on the land cyclers (Valley Rannet, Igneous Pouncer) to get dudes in my graveyard for Necrogenesis to pick them up and make tokens as well as Vengeful Rebirth to do six to the dome. However, most of the time I would aggressively run out Putrid Leeches (the best two drop in the set, seriously) and make it so that my opponent had bad trades all day. However, the moment they drop something my leeches would suffer from, Maelstrom Pulse was there.
My favorite moment though came against my round 2 opponent who had a much stronger deck than mine, sporting Bloodbraid Elf, multiple Singe-Mind Ogre (a beating every time it was cast! I always had a landcycler in hand) as well as Slave of Bolas. I was completely blown out game 1, however came back games 2 and 3 thanks to Maelstorm Pulse playing the role of Stone Rain, destroying early Borderposts and allowing my leeches to get around silly 3-power guys.
Creatures, Equipment, Bombs, and even “lands”, Maelstorm Pulse does it all!
My favourite card far and away is Sovereigns of Lost Alara.
I have always been a sucker for auras, and this guy has an amazing combo that I pulled off in a horrible 4CC sealed deck countless times. The beauty of this combo is that it isn’t random like cascade is, although the 2 Bituminous Blasts I had saved me countless times. The go is drop Sovereigns turn 6 and your opponent looks at you like you are strange. “What auras are worth running?” Was a question I heard countless times…
It was so hard to keep a straight face as the follow up turn is Lightning Reaver! So I attack, exalted resollves first making him a 4/4, then the search resolves and I fetch Elder Mastery! The looks on my opponents faces as they are staring down Nicol Bolas is phenomenal. A 7/7, flying, fear, haste if it hits you discard 2 is absurd. and the best bit is when my end of turn triggers, they take 1 more damage from him and have to discard a further 2 cards!
This combo won me so many games it was disgusting.
Colossal Might FTW say! I love me some aggro and there is no better feeling than giving your fatty trample to make their chump block look oh so foolish
I also enjoy how it turns what would normally be a trade into creature removal plus getting some damage in and your dude surviving, talk about a swing in momentum from an instant for 2 mana! It is also a great one of in a constructed deck to keep them thinking twice everytime they make their blocks. So Colossal Might is my favorite card from alara Reborn.
my best play in Reborn pre-release:
i played Singe-Mind Ogre.
opponent laid his cards on the table (face down)
we rolled a die: 3
he turned face up the 3rd card
and it was
nothing else
than
Godsire
take 8, ty, next game
Jenara, Asura of War FTW ! ! -
Fav card in this set and what a mythic rare should be.
If your opponent does not identify this as a threat (some players don’t !!) when it hits the table, it will be a short game.
Just imagine . . .
T1: Land, Cast Noble Hierarch.
T2: Land, Cast Jenara, Asura of War
T3: Land, Throw 2 counters on Jenara, and then take to the air for 7 (with exalted)
T4: Cast Rafiq of the Many, swing for 14.
> OUCH . . Game Over (!)
My favorite card for Alara Reborn?
This is far and away Dragon Broodmother. This card is simply Timmie-tastic. This card is a great built in combo, devouring it’s own tokens to get bigger dragons.
Hooray for big dragons!
I play a lot of multi-player, gmaes of 6 and more players, so these dragons can get pretty big. The first time I played this card I created a twenty something dragon token, by devouring it’s prothers, plus some elf tokens. I did this the upkeep just prior to my own, so the little fellow was ready to swing on my turn.
BTW, thanks for putting on a great show, week after week. It is really nice the way multi-media contemt has started to show up for the Magic community.
nice car analogy
My favorite card (so far) is Vengeful Rebirth.
I should preface my story by saying I’ve only been playing again since December after taking a break since Exodus.
I have been fairly bad at limited events, my rating before the ARB prerelease was 1584 with 3 events played (2 sealed FNMS and the Conflux Prerelease) so I went to the ARB prerelease mainly to take a Sunday off studying for my property law final and to get some of the new cards. Little did I know that getting my butt kicked in MTG:O drafts would finally pay off.
It was 3SoA, 3ARB sealed and I opened some really really bad rares. Ad Naseum was probably the best one, but I didn’t have a Seismic Assault to go with it so I probably wouldn’t use it. I did, however, have a lot of fatties, a drumhunter, and some mana fixers, so I decided to go Jund/Naya Ramp. I won my first match and then a buddy of mine, who happened to be a very high level tournament player and judge, came up to me and asked to look at my deck. After he looked through it he made some comments and then said “Vengeful Rebirth? I’d take that out first.”
I replied that the card had one me game 2 of the first round and I liked it for its dual purposes and synergy with the giant land-cyclers in ARB. I told him I was going to keep it in because I thought it worked really well with the deck.
Fast forward to round 3. I’m 2-0 and I haven’t lost a game. I’ve now won 3 games with Vengeful Rebirth. And when I say win, I don’t mean it set up the win, I mean 5 or 6 damage to the face won the game.
Who is my round 3 opponent? My buddy who suggested I take VR out of the deck. Game 1 I win fairly easily because he doesn’t have any mana. Game 2 it’s pretty even, but he’s going to kill me the next turn, then I cycle a card…I get one of the hybrid cyclers. I cycle it and get my singleton VR I’ve been digging for (not that hard in a 40 card deck). I notice that turn 2 I cycled a 6cc land cycler and my buddy is at 6 life (but with a ton of creatures).
Long story long, I beat him with the card he said I shouldn’t play. Then I went on to go 2-1 in round 4 to finish the day in 1st place.
Grizzled Leotau
It may not be one of the strongest cards in the set but it did save my butt a lot of times during the Pre-release. Nothing like a turn 2 wall to impede those aggro 2/2s. From top to bottom, it’s a pretty solid and flavorful card.
Quasali Pridemage
1.Exalted (attacks alone, its a 3/3 or can pump up other creatures)
2.Destroys Artifact (Goodbye Behemoth Sledge!)
3.Destroys Enchantment (Goodnight Bitterblossoms and Oblivion rings!)
4.Its a common!! Can get a play set easily and pass to friends extras too!
5.Cool Art! (The Great Wall of China is in it!)
okay my cards: lavalanche and banefire
my story: game 1 match 1, i play bloodbrid elf. i cascade, and flip lavalanche off the top of my deck. lose that game
game 2: play bloodbraidelf, cascade into borderpost. play deny reality, returning my bloodbraid elf and cascade into banefire. play my bloodbraid elf and cascade into lavalance. lose the game
i hate myself
Spellbreaker Behemoth
because i hate control magic with a passion and i love fatties
Wow, there are a hella lotta comments…
You should do a contest on what are people favorite artwork, cause this set is just beautiful, I love a majority of the pieces in Alara Reborn.
I’m give my list of cards, one from each rarity; if I had to pick one it would be the rare. While maybe not the most powerful cards, they are the best!
Mythic
Lord of Extinction – BG loves to put stuff in the graveyard and he just feeds off of that. Great flavor, plus it’s constructed playable.
Rare
Mayael’s Aria – I’m one of many that love cards with alternative win conditions. Add versatility to the card, with two other abilities that can impact the game and I’m in love!!!!
Uncommon
Enlisted Wurm – I always feel good casting this card, euphoric feelings of warm and fuzzy all over (atleast in limited). Impacts the board, plus a possible free 5cc spell, who can’t love that.
Common
Soul Manipulation – Sure it’s a little pricey, but it gives you options and potential card advantage. I love versatility, cards like the commands and the charms turn me on. I can imagine my opponent cringe as I counter whatever they played and get a muldrift back from the grave, mmmmmmm.
My favorite card of this new set has to be Lavalanche. I received this card as part of my sealed during the pre-release flight I participated in and it was insane how many times this one card would make games easier to win. The card is completely one sided and always in your favor! If the opponent had weaker creatures, this card just completely cleared the board and allowed me to deal the last points of damage needed. If the opponent had a better board position and overcommitted to bring the game to an end, this card immediately removed all their threats and left me with the opening to take down the last few remaining cards in their hand and life. I became a huge fan of the card when I first was able to played it, but it became my favorite overall after I received my free packs! =)
Quasali Pridemage is my favorite…I mean he’s got some broken math:
Watchwolf (uncommon) + Viridian Zealot (rare) = Quasali Pridemage (common)
You just can’t beat that sort of value! He’s the elderly posterboy for utility cards everywhere!
My favorite card from Alara Reborn is Deny Reality.
At first glance, it does not seem very powerful or flavorful, but those would be sour misjudgments.
At a cost of 3UB, the spell is able to cascade into 4-cost spells, making it less susceptible to the ubiquitous cascade, hit borderpost sequence.
Alara block limited is a very tempo oriented format, given the numerous 2 and 3 cost creatures and efficient removal spells. A bounce spell that isn’t card disadvantage quite good in this format.
And of course, the story of what made this card catch my eye. At the prerelease, a friend of mine was playing a match to get into top 8. His only creature in play a gloryscale viashino with a feather counter. His opponent is at 15, has no fliers in play, and is tapped out. Though with way more than enough for lethal next turn.
My friend casts deny reality targetting his opponent’s Madrush Cyclops. Cascade shows land, sangrite backlash. My friend backlashes his viashino, but alas can only hit for 12. 2 +3/+3 triggers and the +3/-3 from the backlash. Handshaking follows and the exciting match is over.
Then, out of nowhere, a spectator/friend announces “you should’ve bounced your own borderpost!!” We examine the still laid out board, and realize that wow, the borderpost was indeed the correct target. Allowing the replay to give viashino the last +3/+3 to swing in for 15.
Knowing he had a knight of new alara in his deck as well, my friend had a 2-outer to hit for precisely lethal with his 3/1 flier.
Deny reality – skill-testing since 2009.
Favorite Card: Nemesis of Reason
2nd Favorite Card: Mind Funeral
Story: It was Saturday morning and there’s a big pre-release in Philly. I’m extremely exhausted from playing in a midnight pre-release with 5 rounds, starting at midnight. I don’t even bother sleeping for the few hours and make it over to the pre-release in Philly. I open my sealed set and I get a Nemesis of Reason and a Mind Funeral and I say to myself, “I can get there”. My deck is comprised of these cards plus 2 Terminate and 2 Bant Charm with a decent amount of mana fix. I get trounced by Sarkhan Vol the first round. Win the 2nd round with Terminate and Bant Charm. 3rd round is the most epic. Our first game I won with attackers and removal. The 2nd game he wins with unblockable and behemoth sledge. The 3rd game we play an extremely drawn out match. He gets out the unblockable and the sledge out again. He swings in a few times and puts me at 2, while I get out Nemesis of Reason and swing in to mill out 10 cards. I’m at 2 and the game is over. I rip off the top Mind Funeral. I swing in with the Nemesis of Reason and mill 10 cards. 2nd main phase, I play Mind Funeral and mill out the rest of his deck and then the judge comes over and says we DRAW. Our match went to turns and I had turn 5. It was the most fun I’ve had with a sealed deck without winning the match. 4th round I steam roll the other player with removal and Nemesis of Reason.
I love Lorescale Coatl: who knew cycling Glassdust Hulk was a combat trick?
The illustrious history of the “0/2″ creature in Magic begins with Verduran Enchantress, Ornithopter and Time Elemental. While each card was never dominant on their own, they all found their way as great support cards in various decks. The tradition continues into the present with Bonded Fetch, Devoted Druid and the white Veduran Enchantress: Mesa Enchantress and now leads up to an intriguing addition from Alara Reborn: Vectis Dominator.
In Magic, a lot of powerful cards are considered powerful because they have your opponent agonize over a difficult decision: Gifts Ungiven is a great example of this. Either outcome is unfavorable, however it is up to your opponent to be able to decide what outcome is less detrimental to his ability to win the game. Vectis Dominator does this on a smaller scale, but still in a lucid and simple way: lose an attacker/blocker or pay 2 life. This is a win/win everytime. More importantly, because it is an “0/2″ creature, your opponent will think it innocuous and not waste a removal spell on it. If your opponent leaves Vectis Dominator on board they will loathe that decision, especially in the late game where Vectis Dominator chips away at your opponent’s life total and/or gives you the clearence to send your creatures through the red-zone unscathed.
Sure, this card would easily be usurped by Vindicate or Mortify in a tournament-level deck, but consider the following, especially when we talk about a common like Vectis Dominator: not only does is stay consistant with the themes in Alara Reborn, but it also stays consistant with the “0/2″ creature tradition in Magic. These characteristics combined make Vectis Dominator not only a well-designed card, but one that is also fun card to play.
My favorite card so far has to be Nemesis of Reason. Finally!!! A way to mill someone quickly without using a degenerate combo! And in the same set as mind funeral. I really like the theme. Also, anethemancer is great because there is finally a card since price of progress or wasteland that punishes all of these control decks that just run whatever lands they want so they can fit as many broken cards as possible without completely ending the game (like magus of the moon or blood moon.) I like hating on those decks and even winning with those cards, but for casual games I’d much rather enjoy the interaction!
My favorite card from Alara Reborn has to be Naya Hushblade. This turbo-common has won me quite a few matches because of her gained shroudyness. a turn 1 borderpost into turn 2 Hushblade is kinda tough to deal with and sets them on a very short clock, and even if they can “kill” her through combat/wrathing you don’t lose much in the way of investment.
Naturally. Everyone’s trying to win those prizes. I don’t feel as strongly about that…I just love reading these stories.
terminate
its the best friking card ever two mana for kill any creature and it defeats regen like in helikite overlord or metasurgeon. cheapest removal u can get in the prerelease pretty friking awesome. i got 3 terminates in the prerelease and that rocked my games. i keep killing creatures and creatures and using reborn hope to get it back and do it again won me many games. love it definately one of the best cards in limited
my other favorite card is Nulltread Gargantuan, it single-handedly takes care of Predatory Advantage. =P
I’ve got a few favorites from the new set but the one I haven’t seen mentioned yet that I liked was Wall of Denial. I built a bant/exalted deck for the pre-release party and every time this guy dropped my opponent was just like “WTF”. Between Shards and Alara Reborn, I think the only even possible answer to it is Fleshbag Maurader. Definitely helped me win my pre-release.
Another great show guys – nice to hear more from Conley – great job.
My favourite AR card is Slave of Bolas. The most memorable play i made with it at the pre-release was when i was getting pumelled by Sprouting Thrinax equipped with Quietus Spike. The Slave of Bolas comes down, steals the Thrinax, smashes with a couple of other guys for a ton of damage and i got 3 saproling tokens at the end of the turn when i sacced the Thrinax. My opponent scooped after that.
By the way, if you cast Slave of Bolas on an opponent’s Nicol Bolas, does the world end or something?
As many people have stated before there are a ton of very good cards in ARB. That being said, my favorite card is Soul Manipulation. I base this on a memorable play during my local store prerelease. It was late in game 3, and my opponent had a fatty on the table while I had twos Jund Hackblades and one was equipped with the Quietus Spike. His life was about 18 while I was around 11.
I topdeck removal on my turn, take out his fatty and swing. He destroys the Hackblade with the Quietus Spike and takes only two. On my opponent’s turn he drops a Flameblast Dragon and smiles. I smile more as I play both sides of Soul Manipulation, countering the dragon and getting back my Jund Hackblade. On my next turn, I drop the Hackblade I got back, equip the spike and get swingy. I won that one the following turn.
I hate you Paul
Making up an anology on the spot was a bit of a stretch, lol I knew it sucked right away.
When I first saw Igneous Pouncer spoiled in Brian David-Marshall’s column, I knew I had to get someone with that card at some point. I was lucky enough to open one at the pre-release along with a pool that leaned towards R/B. In the first game of the first match, I had the pouncer in my opening hand along with sufficient lands that I did not need to cycle it. I played pretty aggressively and got my opponent to play pretty aggressively. By my sixth turn, I had my opponent at ten life with a 2/2 and 3/2 (one of the blades) out. My opponent had creatures but they were foolishly turned sideways instead of hanging back to block. So I hit my sixth land drop and won right there with the pouncer.
Five damage out of nowhere is pretty nice. That’s my best story so far with the new set. I would have had a better story if my violent outburst had cascaded into one of my removal spells or one of my two drops with haste in another game (opponent was at 1 but I couldn’t punch through fast enough). Instead I hit Druid of the Anima….
Anathemancer created an awesome situation the first day it was legal for me. I have been tinkering with jund agro, and put the zombie right in. I am playing against esperlark, and the only things on the board are my Anathemancer and my opponents untaped Stillmoon Cavalier, it’s laaatttteee game, I have no cards in hand. He has me dead to rites on his turn pumping for at least +4. I draw and ponder my card. I declare Anathemancer as an attacker. He askes to see my ‘yard, and notes that there are only two flame javelins there (and no other Anathemancers…) I only own two Javelins, and he correctly assumes I should be playing 4 since my deck is very base red. He has seem me play ghitu encampment over treetop already. He’s at 6, so he blocks. I drop my 7th land: mountain, unearth, win. He boggled for a second, and then mentioned that he just stopped thinking about unearth after the 1st main phase because of all the other playable ones so far.