MtG | Of Dice and Pens

Competitive Playing in Casual Games (Opinion Piece)

November 8, 2015July 9, 2016 Caoimhín Lester 1 Comment

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Winning gives a great feeling. I’m sure we all can agree on that. However, does that feeling warrant potentially ruining the fun of others in a casual game format? For example: in Magic the Gathering, do you play using a deck that may not be certain to win, but will be a challenge for your opponent? Or do you play the deck that locks other players into a one sided game? Is it worth the possibility of annoying other players, just to rack up a “W” in games where the only thing that may be on the line is your dignity? Or choosing to take advantage of an in game exploit in a video game that will undoubtedly result in other players complaining about what you are doing, just so you can say you won?

One should always take into consideration who you are playing and whether or not there is a reason to win besides doing so. The adage “Winning isn’t everything” comes to mind in such instances. Perhaps if something is on the line (i.e. prizes, respect, your grandpa’s soul), then by all means, go all out. However, if you are playing against people who only want to have fun, maybe you should reconsider bringing your gun to the knife fight.

Abzan Tokens, or Dark Mentor’s Spirits! (Modern)

October 29, 2015October 30, 2015 Mike Levitt Leave a comment

Main Deck

Creatures (7)
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Dark Confidant

Sorcery (11)
4 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
3 Maelstrom Pulse

Instant (13)
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Path to Exile
1 Surgical Extraction

Enchantment (2)
2 Intangible Virtue

Planeswalkers (3)
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Lands (24)
2 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Godless Shrine
3 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Murmuring Bosk
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Woodland Cemetary
1 Vault of the Archangel

When I first started getting into Modern this is the deck I came up with. This was a Standard deck during Innistrad block and I was absolutely blown away by the new Sorin. He was my favorite character in the lore at the time, and I really wanted a BW Planeswalker for my Teysa, Orzhov Scion EDH deck. He was perfect for me. I made a deck using him and Lingering Souls to swarm the board. I had Garruk Relentless backing them up with spot removal and death touch wolves. It was a lot of fun to play, and this deck is similar. It is much more of a control deck though. When Monastery Mentor was printed I wanted to abuse the crap out of it. This shell was still around, so I stuck him in there and have never been happier with how it turned out.

Sideboard

(15)
4 Timely Reinforcements
3 Rootborn Defenses
2 Sundering Growth
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Intangible Virtue
3 Beast Within

The sideboard kinda sucks unfortunately. I really like Timely Reinforcements against aggro and burn decks. Taping three in this deck makes people assume it’s Lingering Souls but then to get three creatures off the bat plus a huge life swing feels great. With Thoughtseize, Surgical Extraction, and fetch lands it can be fairly easy to get 1 or 2 points below your opponent to trigger the life gain. The rest of the Sideboard is not terribly exciting to me. I don’t use this deck in tournaments very often, so I don’t get to test out different cards.

GW Hatebears (Modern)

October 29, 2015October 30, 2015 Mike Levitt Leave a comment

Main Deck

Creatures (27)
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Mirran Crusader
3 Loxodon Smiter
3 Aven Mindcensor

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Elspeth Knight Errant

Artifacts (2)
2 Sword of War and Peace

Instants (4)
4 Path to Exile

Lands (25)
6 Forest
4 Plains
4 Temple Guarden
1 Canopy Vista
3 Razorverge Thicket
2 Windswept Heath
2 Gavony Township
3 Ghost Quarter

This is my primary competitive Modern deck. While I don’t get to tournaments very often, this is usually what I pilot. I built the deck over the course of a year and some change. Trading for bits and pieces at a time. I wrote the list myself, but I used This article to find which cards I wanted to use. The list went through many versions before I decided on this particular build. The one before this actually ran Sun Titan and a fourth copy of Ghost Quarter as a land destruction package. I took it out because it was super slow and not terribly effective. If I could cast a 6 drop and have an untapped land ready to go, then chances are either destroying their mana base won’t do much or I’m already ahead and it is just rubbing salt in the wounds.

Sideboard

(15)
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Kataki, War’s Wage
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Spellskite
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Vryn Wingmare

This is the latest iteration of the sideboard. I’m not crazy about the single copy of Vryn Wingmare, but nothing else came to mind for that slot and it was the night before a GPt at a local shop. I may run a fourth Loxodon Smiter to go against control decks, but I’m already fairly well positioned against them. If I can get my hands on a second copy of Sword of Fire and Ice then I think I’d run that instead. The swords work really well with Mirran Crusader, so I may end up putting the one of in the main deck and running additional tech in the sideboard. Spellskite{/mtg_card] is quite good against Twin and Infect, so I may get a third copy of that.

Legendary Samurai Bros Deck List

August 11, 2015October 23, 2015 Mike Levitt Leave a comment

Legendary Samurai Bros

General (1)
1 Iroas, God of Victory

Lands (39)
11 Plains
6 Mountain
1 Arid Mesa
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Boros Guildgate
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Command Tower
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Hammerheim
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Kher Keep
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Keldon Necropolis
1 Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai
1 Shivan Gorge

Artifacts (18)
1 Chrome Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Skullclamp
1 Konda's Banner
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Scroll Rack
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Honor-Worn Shaku
1 Sword of Vengeance
1 Sunforger
1 Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
1 Shell of the Last Kappa
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Heroes' Podium
1 Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang
1 Akroma's Memorial

Sorceries (2)
1 Faithless Looting
1 Wrath of God

Instants (9)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
1 Aurelia's Fury
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Chaos Warp
1 Master Warcraft
1 Comeuppance

Enchantments (6)
1 Legion's Initiative
1 Scourge of the Nobilis
1 Honden of Infinite Rage
1 Honden of Cleansing Fire
1 Day of Destiny
1 True Conviction

Planeswalkers (1)
1 Gideon, Champion of Justice

Creatures (24)
1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Sensei Golden-Tail
1 Kentaro, the Smiling Cat
1 Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Feldon of the Third Path
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Nagao, Bound by Honor
1 Fumiko the Lowblood
1 Jazal Goldmane
1 Diaochan, Artful Beauty
1 Tajic, Blade of the Legion
1 Anger
1 Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran
1 Balefire Liege
1 Heartless Hidesugu
1 Nobilis of War
1 Homura, Human Ascendant
1 Sun Titan
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Konda, Lord of Eiganjo
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight

This deck is one of my favorites. It has amazing come-back potential, great sticking power, and is very tricky for my opponents to deal with. It has come back from single digit life totals many times.

What started as a silly Samurai tribal deck became a more powerful RW agro deck with a legendary sub theme. I went out of my way to find some goofy legendary lands and other permanents to go with that flavor. I made this deck back in Scars of Mirrodin block originally, so I’ve had plenty of time to tweak it. I’ve gone through 4 generals before settling on Iroas (I say ‘settle,’ but really he is way too powerful to ignore). The only one who got cut from the deck entirely was Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer. The previous generals Aurelia, the Warleader, Tajic, Blade of the Legion, and Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran are all still present to lead the army in case of Iroas’ absence.

The deck can maintain a low profile for a while, so in a multiplayer game it want draw attention right away. I’ll play some small creatures and Iroas to slowly increase my devotion. Then play one of the large devotion heavy spells (True Conviction and Nobilis of War come to mind) and swing at someone for a huge amount. It usually doesn’t kill the player, but it makes everyone else at the table switch to me as their main target (archenemy is always fun). Fending off three to four players at once with this deck really feels like a samurai taking on more several soldiers at once, making this deck an absolute blast to play. Even when it doesn’t go my way (which happens frequently) you can some really cool combat scenarios using Master Warcraft and some other combat tricks thanks in large part to Sunforger grabbing any instant I need.

The only downside of this deck is that it can have very slow draws. It is very mana heavy and many of the legendary lands are too ‘durdly’ to be effective. They add to the flavor and fun of the deck, so I won’t be removing any in the forseeable future. I do have a list of silly lands to add though (Rath’s Edge would be a welcome addition).

Hopefully you enjoyed this deck as much as I do.