Magic, Cel y Laptop  (falto la cena y todo seria perfecto…)

Asi es una entrada mas parece que ya podre tomar un poco el rumbo en lo que escriba ah en esta ocasion pues les traigo una foto de lo que nunca falta en las reuniones de los viernes sabado incluso en dias no programados todo sea por una compra una deuda o una subasta, jajaja como la que se ha de estar llevando acabo en este momento; una subasta de recuperacion  monetaria, espero que todo salga bien para ambas partes.

Como podremos ver no puede faltar un deck, cartas de cambio o incluso tus cartas para presumir lo que tienes y los demas no tienen aun (gino tengo Liliana Vess arte alterno y tu no… ), claro siempre acompañado de nuestro celular para chingar a los que no llegan para avisar que vengan  para encargar  ciertas carta no se para lo que se ofresca escuchar musica presumir tus fotos  que se yo, incluso un buen cel con camara para tomar fotos de cualquier tonteria que se haga y tenemos nuestra fiel acompañante Laptop, que nos sirve para los momentos de ocio un buen  video compartir informacion pero lo mas importante para visitar  las paginas para ver los precios de las cartas jajaja XD

Son las principales cosas que no pueden faltar en nuestras reuniones, aunque tenemos que agregar la cena y las chucherias, los cigarros y  algunas que otras cosillas por ahi pero  estas 3 son las mas importantes las cuales nunca deben de faltar

Bueno me despido en esta ocasion esperando verlos el viernes o sabado ya ni se pero por ahi nos vemos

]]> http://99edhproblems.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/learning-how-to-play-edh/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:00:21 +0000 MtGColorPie http://99edhproblems.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/learning-how-to-play-edh/

Insert opponent here. (Via @Metaknightmare)

Editor’s Note: This post is going to teach you how to play EDH. It will not teach you how to play Magic: the Gathering. Basic knowledge of Magic is required to understand how EDH works. If you want to learn how to play Magic, please visit playmagic.com.

I know you’re interested.

You’ve heard your friends say you should build a deck. You’ve seen games of players laughing as they do something you’ve never done in your FNM matches. You’ve read articles about EDH and now, you’ve decided to take the plunge.

Welcome to the best format in Magic.

Welcome to Elder Dragon Highlander.

This post will show you all you need to do when putting together an EDH deck and playing in this format. I’ll try and make it exciting but it’s rules people; sometimes it helps to be a little dry.

Deck Construction:

Your deck consists of two parts: your library and your General. The General has to be a Legendary Creature; there is no way to skirt this issue (No planeswalkers or Genju of the Realm). The library has to be 99 cards to make the complete deck 100 cards exactly (this rule gives this blog its title).

But here’s the fun/tricky part: See the mana cost on the upper right corner of your General? You can only use cards that share one or any of those colors in your deck. If a card has a mana symbol that does not match one your General’s mana cost anywhere on the card, it cannot be used in the deck.

Example:

Karrthus’ mana cost is 4BRG. Only Black, Red, and/or Green cards can be put into the deck (Colorless and lands as well). Lightning Bolt can be included, but not Lightning Helix, since it is also White. Cavern Thoctar can go in the deck but Puppet Conjurer cannot (because of the Blue mana symbol in the textbox). This works for hybrid cards as well: Murderous Recap can go in but Scarscale Ritual cannot.

This rule also applies to lands and artifacts; though if a card states a color or basic land without the mana symbol, then it can go in any legal deck it could fit in (See: Arid Mesa or Mirror-Sigil Sergent). If a card would generate mana that’s a different color then the General’s colors, it generates colorless mana instead. You can still use a City of Brass in the Karrthus deck to create only B/R/G mana even though it could produce all 5 colors.

The other unique aspect of this format is the fact that it’s “Singleton.” Singleton or Highlander (named because of the 1986 film that proclaimed: There can only be one!) states that except for basic lands, there can only be one copy of each card with its given English name. The current banned list is found here (remember, everything but basic lands are restricted, so it’s either allowed or it’s banned). Only Vintage legal cards in addition to the banned list are allowed (i.e. no Un-Cards), but with two exceptions: cards are legal as soon as the Prerelease and Shahrazad is legal (don’t ask me why, but it is).

Format Structure/About Generals

- Each player starts out with 40 life.

- A new win condition is in effect: if any General does 21 points of combat damage to a single player player loses. From the official EDH website:

• This is an additional state based effect.
• General Damage is cummulative throughout the game; nothing can reduce the amount of damage a General has previously done to a player.
• Because it is a property of the card and not a characteristic of the game object, a card is still the same General even if it leaves the field and returns.
• While effects can raise a player’s life total, it doesn’t reduce the amount of damage previously taken from a General. (eg: Beacon of Immortality)
• Conversely, combat damage can be reduced, prevented, or replaced as it is taken, in which case it was never dealt and doesn’t count towards the total taken from that General. (eg: Fog or Captain’s Maneuver)
• General Damage is specific to each General/Player pairing, not combined across all Generals.
• A player can lose if he or she is dealt 21 points of combat damage by his or her own General (ie: under someone else’s control).

-  Your General starts the game removed from your deck face up and set aside in the Command Zone (changed as of here), which is like the Exile Zone, but for Generals. While it is in the Command Zone, anytime you could cast your General you may do so (Most of the time it’s during your turn, though if it has Flash or a card allows you to do so, you may). You have to pay an additional 2 (colorless) mana each time your General has been cast from this zone this game. *

- If your General would be put into the graveyard or exiled, you may move it to the Command Zone instead. If you do so, it does not go to the graveyard and trigger such abilities (this is the opposite of tokens). If your General goes to your hand or library instead (either by Unsummon or Condemn), it does so normally.

- Generals do fall under the “Legend rule” (This has changed). Generals are always Generals and nothing can copy or change it. If a spell or ability copies a General, it copies everything but “Being a General.” The same is true if the General was changed into something else (Humble, Mirrorweave)

Partial Paris Mulligan

This is the new Mulligan rule that the official EDH rules have. Personally, I  am not a fan of it (and stick with 1 free mulligan then Paris  mulligan from there), but here they are as written on the official EDH website :

• In turn order, players may exile (face down) some or all of the cards in their hand.
• Each player then draws one less card from their deck than the number they exiled.
• Players who exiled at least one card may return to step 1 and repeat the process, drawing one less card each time.
• Players shuffle all exiled cards into their deck.

For those that aren’t familiar, Paris Mulligan is what you do during a tournament: shuffle your hand and draw one less (history of it here).

That’s it. You’ve got the general gist of how to play EDH. Most people tend to build around their Generals (which is why we focus on them in our articles) so a good place would be to start with what Legendary Creatures you do have. It’s ok if your collection is small and you don’t have every card known in Magic; build with what you have. Experiment, take chances, make mistakes, get messy. Try a few games with your friends to see what they’ve done with their decks.

Welcome to the best format in Magic.

Welcome to Elder Dragon Highlander.

Post any questions below.

—

* If you’re a little confused about the 2 extra mana rule, it’s pretty simple. Let me give you an example:

If you play Karrthus for the first time this game, he costs 4BRG. If someone plays Wrath of God, you can elect to put him in the Command Zone. Most players put a counter on their General to denote that they’re been cast once. Now, to play Karrthus a second time, it costs 6BRG (4BRG + 2(1 time having already been cast)). You play Damnation and move Karrthus to the Command Zone again (and put two counters on him). Now, he costs 8BRG to cast (4BRG + (2(2 times)).

If an opponent played Evacuation to return Karrthus to your hand,  you can cast him for 4BRG since he’s not coming from your Command Zone. Then an opponent plays Path to Exile on him and you put him in the Command Zone with three counters on it. Guess how much it will cost to play him next time? That’s right, 10BRG.

Cards like Dragonspeaker Shaman can help lower the cost for Karrthus since they affect casting the creature including the Command Zone. But cards like Dramatic Entrance and Dragon Arch can’t since the Generals aren’t in your hand.

This is more of a memory than a typical fantasy.

Within a few months of meeting my future husband, I arranged my work schedule so I could have three to four days a week off. Since he lived 150 miles away, this allowed me to visit him for half the week.

During these visits we played games (among other things). One of these games was Magic: the Gathering, a collectible card game in which each player uses their cards to try to reduce the opponent’s life score from twenty to zero. Being horny, we soon began playing strip Magic. I forget the rules, but I suspect whoever lost a match lost a garment. Once naked, a player could then wager a forfeit, meaning the winner got the loser to perform a sexual favor. Now that’s the kind of game everyone wins!

Tags: Ada, MfM, games, Magic, MtG, Magic the Gathering, CCG, stripping

Wizard’s announced the next set in the Zendikar block’s name as you can see in the large logo above.  It’s scheduled release date is April 23rd, 2010 with pre-release event dates of April 17th – 18th, 2010 and the launch party dates of April 23rd – 25th, 2010.  Previews should start going up on MagicTheGathering.com on April 5th, 2010.  You can find more information in the official Rise of the Eldrazi press release.  Hit the jump to see the Rise of Eldrazi symbol and some artwork.

I luv Liliana Vess (no mas que Jace )

Bueno no pude aguantar a poner a la hermosa de la Liliana Vess, me encanta  ella me encanta este arte alterno de la carta se ve mejor, me agrada mucho sus tatoos son hermosas ella es hermosa (aunque no le gana al papito de Jace) pero tiene la suyo ella hace poco me hicieron llegar estar hermosas cartas que a decir verdad bote a la basura al garruck y lo demas si me lo quede no falto mas de uno que corrio por el, pero a mi no me gusta jajaj xD.

Ah bueno estos deck de Garruck Vs Liliana estan mas o menos justo para reforzar algunas cositas por aca  y otras cositas por haya en si lo mejor Liliana Vess

Ok time for some clearing up of the rulings with the m10 magic ruling as well.
Let’s Go,
With the new magic ruling, damage no longer uses the stack making a lot of games more confusing.  Damage has changed, where the attacker chooses order of blocker during a gang blocking and must assign lethal damage or more to the 1st creature and move on to the next assigning lethal damage until all damage has been assigned.  What’s happened with deathtouch and lifelink? How does this effect regeneration and trample?  Do trample and regeneration counter each other now?  Lets start with definitions then.

Declare Attacker Step – Nothing special here, i declare my attackers and do my things
Declare blocker Step - My opponent blocks, gang blocking or whatever they want, I Must Choose their orders which i will assign damage at this point in time.
Combat Damage Step - Here it is, the major change.  I choose damage assignment here and it is all dealt instantly without any chance to play any spells, or activate any abilities in between assignment of damage and damage being dealt.  All redirecting effects do their thing as usual.

Lethal damage or more must be assigned to each blocking creature, so lethal damage is defined as damage that would destroy a creature.  If a creature has damage on it, then lethal damage would be its toughness minus the damage on it.
If a creatures toughness changes then the lethal damage must also change on it.
If a creature has protection from the attacker, lethal damage is still the same.
If there is damage prevention on the creature, lethal damage is still the same amount.
If a creature is blocking multiple creatures, lethal damage is assigned with the combination of the attacking creatures.  Eg i can assign 1 and 1 from 2  creatures attacking to give lethal damage of 2 to a 2/2.

Time to talk about the abilities.
Trample - defined as a change in the rulings of damage assignment, if there is enough damage that would be lethal to all creatures blocking it, the remainder of the damage can be dealt directly to the player/planeswalker
Regeneration – Prevent next destruction of the creature till end of turn, and tap that creature and remove it from combat.
Deathtouch – Static ability able to make damage of 1 become lethal damage from this creature.  Does not use the stack.
Lifelink - Static ability, damage dealt by this creature gains the controller that much life instantly.  Does not use the stack, cannot stack on top of each other.

So that makes each of the abilities different from each other AND they should not contradict each other.  Lets use some exmaples.

Regen and deathtouch,
Only 1 shield of Regeneration is needed to protect a creature from a deathtoucher dealing leathal damage, as deathtouch now does not use the stack and its all one damage effect.

Regen and Trample.
If i block with a regenerating River Boa 2/1  against a 7/7 Trampling thing.  Play moves onto the Combat Damage Step, and 1 lethal damage is assigned to the Boa and 6 assigned to me, while i assign 2 damage to the 7/7.  Then the damage is dealt instantly without regen protecting me forcing me to lose 6 life.  Boa then regens itself and removes itself from combat.
It would be slightly different if boa were to regen sometime during the declare blocker step.  Say I cast Lightning Bolt on the Boa and force it to regen during the declare blocker step, then the Boa is forced to be removed from combat and tapping thus there is no damage dealt by the 7/7 or the Boa.
Ahaha thats actually wrong lol,
702.17c If an attacking creature with trample is blocked, but there are no creatures blocking it when damage is assigned, all its damage is assigned to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking. Tada!

Deathtouch and Trample
If a single creature has deathtouch and trample, it only needs to deal 1 damage to its blockers and the rest of its damage can be assigned to the player/planeswalker.

So the important things to pick up here are, Regen will work only during After damage dealing if that is where the destruction would occur, and deathtouch now is a static ability allowing the damage of 1 to be lethal.  Trample is a change in the damage assignment ruling, and lifelink works like it should.

Enough of this Magic,
Andrew Chin,

Feed Me!

Black has various ways to ramp up mana. However it is relatively difficult to find ways to ramp lands. However this task is not all together impossible. One of the most fun decks I have come across to date, at least for multi-player, is a deck whose General is the only General at the current time with the Landfall mechanic.

Building around the Landfall mechanic in mono-black is extremely difficult to do. You have to be willing to add in cards that may be sub par in many other decks. However these additional cards are generally what make the deck run extremely smoothly. It isn’t at all unlikely in this deck to see the General on exactly turn 4 or 5, and then to proceed to kill not just one, but two players simultaneously with the General thanks to his ability which has an interesting ability which I will get to in a moment. First however I need to cover a special note about General Damage: General Damage can only be caused by Combat Damage. As such this General’s ability, which causes life loss cannot cause General Damage as it is neither damage, nor combat damage. Now as for that ability, it reads as follows:

Landfall – Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may have target player lose 3 life. If you do, put three +1/+1 counters on Ob Nixilis, the Fallen.

The beauty of this ability is that if you can find a way to make Ob Nixilis unblockable, he can easily become a 12/12 creature in less than two turns. Further, even on the first trigger, if an opponent burns out Ob Nixilis with something like a Lightning Bolt, the primary trigger still occurs. That opponent will still lose three life before Ob Nixilis is killed. However the +1/+1 counters do not get put onto Ob Nixilis until after the Lightning Bolt has resolved, thus it is impossible for the creature to survive the Bolt that way. Alternatively, if an opponent goes to burn out Ob Nixilis, and you respond by using something such as a fetchland to trigger his Landfall ability, he will survive the bolt due to the way the stack resolves.

Now, Landfall is a mechanic that requires a very specific category of mana ramp. That is ramp that instead of generating as much mana as possible, instead puts as many lands as possible into play from either the deck or your hand in either a single turn or over the course of multiple turns. So… lets take a look at some of the better cards that generate such forms of land acceleration available to Black:

Ghost Quarter — This card has traditionally been used as land destruction. And while it can be used as such in this deck, it can also be used as a Landfall enabler. In this capacity what you do is use it on one of your own lands that you no longer want, in order to search out a basic land. You can potentially trigger Landfall up to twice in a single turn with this card. One needs to remember however that the land you get with Ghost Quarter comes into play untapped. So make sure to use this to the largest advantage you can get from it.

Journeyer’s Kite — Essentially it lets you take lands from your library and put them into your hand. Thus making sure that you never run out of landfall triggers (at least for as long as you still have basic lands in your library anyways).

Terrain Generator — This card combo’s really nicely with Journeyer’s Kite, enabling you to immediately put the cards you searched for with the Kite directly into play. This combo is a tad expensive, but is definitely worth it.

Solemn Simulacrum — Solemn enables you to put a land directly into play when the simulacrum enters play. Then when the simulacrum leaves play it lets you draw a card. This is among the best card advantage engines available in MTG.

Thawing Glaciers — Allowing you to search for any basic land you want, this card is a really nice enabler of Landfall. Not to mention that when used Thawing Glaciers returns itself to your hand, and happens to be a land itself, thus ensuring constant landfall triggers.

Panorama’s — These cards search for any basic land. They do not bounce to your hand after use the way that Thawing Glaciers does. However, they are available for use immediately after you play them, enabling you to get 2 landfall triggers in a turn. The problem is that they cost mana to use. The advantage to these over Fetchlands is that they tap for mana themselves, thus allowing you to use them while you are preparing to summon your General.

Terramorphic Expanse — Only searches for basics, does not tap for mana. However this card is available for use immediately after you play it, allowing for two triggers of landfall in a turn.

Fetch Lands — These enable you to fetch for any basic land type. That means you can fetch non-basic lands that have a basic land type. However not many such lands are available to Mono-Black (I think Leechridden Swamp is the only one (Except basics, it is – MtGCP)). Unlike with Panorama’s and the Expanse, the lands you fetch with these come into play untapped meaning you can use those lands immediately.

Crucible of Worlds — You remember all those cards you just sacrificed to thin out your deck? Do you want to keep doing it? Of course you do. This allows you to do that. Not to mention it allows you to continue triggering Landfall which isn’t that bad at all. Further it helps protect you against land destruction.

Twisted Abomination — Swampcycling is one of the best friends to Landfall available. Especially when it is coupled with a creature with a huge body and regeneration. The reason for the huge body is that there is a large amount of recursion available in Black that makes using that body extremely likely. Add to that the card Oversold Cemetery and you have a near infinite Swampcycling engine.

That would be about it for the really good land acceleration. However land acceleration in and of itself is not enough for most EDH decks. You also want to be utilizing mana acceleration. Mana acceleration differs from land acceleration in that mana acceleration seeks to add more mana to your mana pool than you would have from your current allotment of lands. Where as land acceleration simply seeks to get as many lands as possible into play. To that end you should also run following cards to help accelerate your mana:

Ancient Tomb — This card along with Temple of the False God, Sol Ring, and Mana Crypt are 2 for 1’s as far as mana acceleration is concerned. In essence they give you 2 mana for 1 card. Further these cards are all essentially permanent until destroyed in some way. The real benefit of playing Ancient Tomb in this deck however is that you really do not care about the life loss as you have got Ob Nixilis and various other means of gaining your life back.

Lake of the Dead — This is an interesting card. While it can provide you with a boost of 4 black mana, it costs you a land each and every time it does that. Not to mention it costs you a land when it comes into play. The best scenario for the use of this card is when you have not only an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play, but also a Crucible of Worlds in play there by negating the card disadvantage that you net with this card.

Cabal Coffers — Does not provide any mana on its own (unless you have an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play). However when coupled with 2 other lands (or an Ancient Tomb or other 2 for 1 mana producer) this card can create obscene amounts of mana so long as you have more swamps in play than you are using to activate this card.

Crypt of Agadeem — Like Cabal Coffers, it is possible for this card to produce obscene amounts of mana. Unlike Cabal Coffers this card relies on creature cards in your graveyard to power its obscene amounts of mana (where as Cabal Coffers relies on swamps) and the Crypt also produces black mana on its own without the aid of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

Jet Medallion — Not truly a form of mana acceleration, instead this card lowers the cost of your black spells by a single colorless mana. Thus making it easier to ramp into big spells by a tad bit.

Extraplanar Lens — One of the best ramping spells ever created. The only problems with this card is that it requires you to exile a land to use it, and it affects your opponents lands as well as your own. This however could be offset if you use Snow-Covered Lands and your opponent does not, simply because of the fact that your Lens requires that the lands being tapped for extra mana be of all the same name as the land that was exiled when the lens was played.

Gauntlet of Power — Similar to the Lens, except that it pumps your creatures, and pumps your mana. It like the lens also affects your opponents. However unlike the Lens it doesn’t specify based on name of a land. It instead specifies based on whether the land tapped was a basic or not as well as the color of the creatures in play.

Now your land acceleration and mana acceleration lists may differ from the examples listed above, as there are plenty of options available to black decks. However the lists above are very solid examples that can be used to establish the base of an Ob Nixilis EDH deck.

Ultimately some of you may be asking, “Well how does Ob Nixilis connect if your opponent has creatures on the field?” which is a very good question. This question can be answered by using some or all of the following cards:

Sword of Fire and Ice & Sword of Light and Shadow — These two allow you to get past most of the creatures in at least 2 to 4 of the colors of Magic. The only color that these do not help you with is Green, the fifth and final color of the game. Maybe some day their will be an Equipment similar to these Swords that helps against Green, but that day is not now.

Loxodon Warhammer — What is better than a 12/9 creature with trample? One with lifelink! This hammer will not only give your General (or any other creature it is equipped to) a boost in the face, but it will give it trample, and lifelink at the same time, making him into a force to be reckoned with against most EDH decks. Add to the fact that this, the Sword of Light and Shadow, and the decks General all gain life, and you can assume you are going to have quite the edge unless your opponent is able to push through 21 General Damage before you are able to.

Profane Command — The advantage of this card is that it is a modal card that lets you choose two options when it is successfully cast. One of those options is to give X creatures fear where X is the mana you pumped into it when you cast it. This can bypass many of the blockers in EDH.

Shizo, Death’s Storehouse — This card like the Profane Command allows you to give a creature fear. Unlike the Profane Command it is limited to Legendary Creatures. Fortunately Black has a huge surplus of really good Legendary Creatures from which to choose, many of which have a decent synergy with this deck. This includes your General, whom you continually are making larger with the landfall mechanic. Additionally, if worse comes to worse, you can always just use this card as land destruction against another players Shizo, Death’s Storehouse.

Filth — Giving all of your creatures Swampwalk is really nice. Especially if there is an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play as that means that you can in effect attack all of your opponents unhindered unless they too have a Filth in the Graveyard or other swampwalking creature in play.

Thrashing Wumpus / Bane of the Living — As a means to deal with Tokens and other small creatures, Bane of the Living is incredibly useful as a surprise tactic. However Thrashing Wumpus has the advantage of being reusable over the course of a game, which is something Bane of the Living usually cannot do without the aid of something like Oversold Cemetery.

Mutilate — Serves much the same purpose as Bane of the Living. The advantage of Bane of the Living, Mutilate, and Thrashing Wumpus, is that all three of these cards can kill creatures without really risking the loss of your General so long as you have caused a landfall trigger on your General at least once or twice in the game.

Now as this is a ramp deck, there are numerous Black ramp targets that are all very useful to the deck. Some of these are alternate win conditions, others of these are more along the lines of utility cards.

Maga, Traitor to Mortals — This is a major alternate win condition. Maga is often considered one of the best Generals available to Black. However in this deck it serves primarily as a back up win condition for those games where Ob Nixilis is destroyed to many times to make recasting him a viable option.

Korlash, Heir to Blackblade — Another alternate win condition that is able to swing games in your favor quite heavily. The fact that Korlash has regeneration, coupled with the fact that he gets bigger with the more swamps that are in play, makes him quite a potent force to be reckoned with. He plays incredibly well with the Landfall mechanic. The unfortunate part is that in EDH it is impossible to use his Grandeur ability.

Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet — Serving the roles of both an alternative win condition and a targeted removal spell, Kalitas is perhaps one of the most interesting cards available in Zendikar. He isn’t too small, and isn’t too large. He doesn’t have any built in evasion, but his removal is quite potent as it not only removes a creature, but nets you one yourself.

Reiver Demon — Like Kalitas, serves the role of alternative win condition as well as the role of removal spell. The difference is that this card is what one would describe as a mass removal spell. Ramping into this card can be quite game breaking.

Myojin of Night’s Reach — If left unanswered (read uncountered) this card can singlehandedly swing games in your favor in a multi-player environment. It is perhaps one of the best discard engines available in multi-player games. It isn’t nearly as good in 1v1 games, but is still quite potent.

Mind Twist — Another incredible discard spell. This one is banned on the French banned list, and many other 1v1 banned lists (Unoffical 1v1, one day we’ll get to that topic – MtGCP). However in multi-player this card can set another player back so far that he is going to be the victim of all the other players. Either that or it will piss that player off enough to cause political talks to get your deck executed.

Beseech the Queen — An exceptional card to use in conjunction with Landfall. This card makes the Landfall mechanic into something really worth abusing as it in essence means you can fetch just about any card in your deck with a casting cost equal to the number of lands you control or less. Which is quite potent.

Decree of Pain & Plague Wind — These two are mass removal spells that have to be ramped into. Sure the Decree could always be cycled, but to get its full effect you want to be ramping up to hard cast it. The advantage of cycling the Decree is it gives you instant speed mass removal. The advantage of hard casting it is that it gives you mass removal that also serves as massive card advantage. Likewise the Plague Wind only affects the creatures of your opponent, thus it serves as a form of card advantage in and of itself. Both cards are incredibly powerful, but also incredibly expensive mana wise.

Basic Deck Structure:

General:

• Ob Nixilis, the Fallen

Creatures:

• Filth
• Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
• Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
• Maga, Traitor to Mortals
• Myojin of Night’s Reach
• Reiver Demon
• Solemn Simulacrum
• Thrashing Wumpus / Bane of the Living
• Twisted Abomination

Enchantments:

• Oversold Cemetery

Sorceries:

• Beseech the Queen
• Decree of Pain
• Mind Twist
• Mutilate
• Plague Wind
• Profane Command

Artifacts:

• Crucible of Worlds
• Extraplanar Lens
• Gauntlet of Power
• Jet Medallion
• Journeyer’s Kite
• Loxodon Warhammer
• Mana Crypt
• Sol Ring
• Sword of Fire and Ice
• Sword of Light and Shadow

Lands

• Ancient Tomb
• Cabal Coffers
• Crypt of Agadeem
• Fetch Lands / Panorama’s
• Ghost Quarter
• Lake of the Dead
• Temple to the False Gods
• Terrain Generator
• Terramorphic Expanse
• Thawing Glaciers

All told, Ob Nixilis decks are really animals that appeal to a wide swath of the Magic the Gathering community. There are things about this deck type that will appeal to just about all three of the psychographic profiles. Timmy’s will find the deck engenders the play of some of the splashiest cards in the game. Spikes may find that the deck can be streamlined and customized to the point where it is among the most competitive of decks in existence. And Johnny’s are likely to discover an amazing amount of synergies and even possibly combo’s that can be played in this deck. It all depends on what one’s ultimate intentions happen to be as to what one will build.

By far and away what I have shown here in this article is only one possible way of building an Ob Nixilis deck. I can guarantee you that there are at least five or six different ways if not more of building this deck in a theoretical way. And beyond that the deck is even further customizable to the point where one list while following basic premises will likely have huge amounts of variance from another list.

Click here to see the full decklist.

One quandary (among many) I’ve puzzled over these first couple months is how to introduce Magic: the Gathering to people without them being intimidated by the stories of how expensive the game can be. Well, the best way to approach that is to give it away for FREE! Details below the cut!

Starting this Thursday – and continuing on the third Thursday of every month, barring holidays, nuclear war and the like – we’re going to give away free Magic: the Gathering packs and singles. You might have seen those large stacks of boxes next to the printer in the shop – they’re filled with more than 15,000 cards from every era of Magic! On Thursday, you can pick out enough cards to make a deck from both my land box and those boxes to make a Constructed deck (a total of 60!)

Now, the reason I want to give all these cards out for free is because I want people to play with them. So, if you play against five people on Thursday, you’ll get a FREE booster pack of Magic of any set I carry in the shop! (Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, Magic 2010, Zendikar).

We’ll also have experienced Magic players in the shop Thursday night to help players with deck construction. Please tell your friends about this – I really, really want to see people just sitting down, socializing and playing a great game.

So here we have another post about some Magic the Gathering, with the focus on the drafting of zendikar boosters with 6 people, since i just had one today with a buncha friends, Let’s go!
So what is a draft?  6-8 people all with 3 boosters each, everyone sits around a table makes a circle like shape, or square if you have a square table.  Each person opens their 1st booster, chooses a card amongst them and passed the rest to the left of them, this continues until there are no cards left to pass.  Then the next booster is opened but passed to the right instead, and continues.  The 3rd booster is passed back to the left.
Then when all is done, each player makes a 40 card deck outta their cards they chose and vs each other, in round robin or however you do it to declare a winner.
So whats the point of doing that? Cant i just choose all the rares i get and make an epic wins deck?  Nope it doesnt work that way.  Lets see and example.
When you begin a draft you should have some idea on what cards are going to be good and what ones are not.  This is important as you may want to make a deck outta a lot of the commons, since that is going to be the back bone of any deck in drafting.  But lets also not forget all the uncommons and the rares.  You must know what rares and uncommons are going to be REALLY powerful in the set, with Zendikar, i would prolly label the planeswalkers powerful, but not label lotus cobra as powerful.  You get the idea?
So you have that in mind, the first thing you do is look at the rare in the 1st set you pull, and if its powerful take it if not choose another card that stands out as powerful to you, eg vampire hexmage.

Going the power before the colour?
So you are choosing all the nice cards in the bunch of cards that are being passed to you, but can you actually make a deck outta them?  A deck that contains more that 3 colours is usually outta the question when it comes to limited, but with zendikar there are a lot of land fetching cards that you can use to even up the mana curve, but that means that you are going to have to choose those mana fixes over the “powerful cards”.  Think carefully.

Going the colour before the power?
So while drafting for the first few cards, everything seems to be going good. THEN you find that the set of cards passed to you no longer has any more of the colour that you have been picking in it.  What to do? Get the next colour, as most people would realize this as well and start building up on another colour.  Its ok to have a deck that has more than one colour, but make sure that you actually start building on that colour and not just choosing random colours and making it all even.

HATE DRAFTING.
This is very important in drafting, so you find that someone has passed on a or you have a VERY powerful card that is not in your mana colour, what do you do?  Take it? or choose something that is in your mana pool?  Well this all depends on the other cards you are looking at.  I mean If you are passing on the VERY powerful card eg planeswalker for some common creature, then im pretty sure that its better to take the planeswalker so you know that there is going to be 1 more less threat to face.  But if you can deal with the powerful card or another card that is quite useful as well is in the set then it might be ok to pass that card on to another person.

So I had a draft today, and it was my first and it was a zendikar set which i pretty much know most of the cards in the set and know which ones to go for.  So lets go through a little rundown on my deck that i ended up making, yes its too bad i didnt write down all the cards i drafted/passed etc.

Here is mine,
Deck:
Mana:
10 swamp,
6 plains
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Parana Marsh

Creatures:
Black ones:
Creatures:

Vampire Lacerator
Vampire Nighthawk
Vampire Hexmage
Heartstabber Mosquito x 2
Nimana Sell-Sword
Surrakar Marauder

Tricks:
Vampire’s Bite x2
Soul Stair Expedition
Needlebite Trap
Feast of Blood

Whiteones:
Creatures
Noble Vestige
Kor Hookmaster x2
Kor Aeronaut
Shepherd of the Lost

Tricks:
Narrow Escape
Nimbus Wings

Colourless:
Explorer’s Scope x2

Deck end,
Spares:
Chandra Ablaze (hate drafted)
Hedron Scrabbler x2
Khalni Heart Expedition
Greenweaver Druid
Quest for the Gemblades
Oran-Rief Survivalist
Scythe Tiger
Nissa’s Chosen
Pillarfield Ox
Expedition Map
Mindless Null
Descrated Earth
Ravenous Trap
Paralysing Grasp
Trapfinder’s Trick
Magma Rift
Goblin War Paint
Golblin Shortcutter

Here is a certain other persons
Deck:

Creatures: 13
Kor Cartographer
Cliff Threader
Kazandu Blademaster
Timbermaw Larva
Nissa’s Chosen x2
Grazing Gladehart x2
Khalni Heart Expidition
Territorial Baloth
Giant Scorpion x2
Ob Nixilis the Fallen

Spells: 10
Harrow x3
Cobra Trap
Tanglesap
Savage Silhouette
Marsh Casualties
Hedious End
Disfigure
Surrakar Marauder

Artifacts: 1
Adventuring Gear

Lands: 18
Greypelt Refuge
Kabira Crossroads
Forest x7
Swamp x5
Plains x4

Total: 42

Sideboard:
Shieldmate’s Blessing
Lumanarc acension
Mire Blight x2
Kor Outfitter
Pillarfield Ox
Turntimber Grove x2
Magma Rift
Punishing Fire
Seijiri Refuge
Living Tsunami
Sunspring Expedition
Jwar Isle Refuge
Spire Barrage
Obsidian Fireheart (HATE DRAFTED LOL)

Oh here is another certain other person’s
Deck

//Green
1x Baloth Woodcrasher
1x KHE
1x Frontier Guide
1x Oran-Rief Recluse
1x River Boa
1x Cobra Trap

//Blue
1x Umara Raptor
1x Reckless Scholar
2x Paralyzing Grasp
2x Aether Figment
1x Into the Roil
1x Whiplash Trap
1x Tempest Owl
1x Merfolk Seastalkers

//Black
1x Needlebite Trap
1x Nimana Sell-Sword
1x Soul Stair Expedition

//Artifact
1x Blazing Torch
1x Trusty Machete

//Land
4x Swamp
9x Island
8x Forest

Pool

//Green
1x Baloth Woodcrasher
1x KHE
1x Frontier Guide
1x Oran-Rief Recluse
1x River Boa
2x Cobra Trap
1x Baloth Cage Trap
2x Vastwood Gorger

//Blue
1x Umara Raptor
1x Reckless Scholar
2x Paralyzing Grasp
2x Aether Figment
1x Into the Roil
1x Whiplash Trap
1x Tempest Owl
1x Merfolk Seastalkers
2x Sky Ruin Drake
2x Summoner’s Bane
1x Living Tsunami
1x Trapfinder’s Trick

//Black
1x Needlebite Trap
1x Nimana Sell-Sword
1x Soul Stair Expedition
1x Hideous End
1x Crypt Ripper
1x Ravenous Trap

//White
1x Caravan Hurda
1x Arrow Volley Trap – Hate Draft
2x Landbind Ritual

//Red
1x Goblin War Paint
1x Goblin Bushwhacker

//Artifact
1x Blazing Torch
1x Trusty Machete

//Land
1x Island
1x Plains

Ok thats the boring stuff outta the way
So how did i actually go? 1st , yes that the number for the amount of drafts i played and the position i came in the end.  Quite and interesting number though for someone who has absolutely no experience in drafting.  Was it a fluke? maybe, maybe not.
Lets go through a bit about my deck, its running heavy black with splash of white.  Why is it like so? well black was the main colour i had up first and it seem to keep coming towards me thanks to a certain person, i was able to score 2 heart stabber mosquitoes.  The white in the deck is there for the “tricks” and that angel and the telescope is for the land filtering.  18 lands is always my favourite in Zendikar and its a good number but i also like to have the filter in, cause lands like to bunch up a lot when i dont want em.
Anyway the prize wasnt anything special, everyone just laid out all of their rares AND foils and it just went, 1st to last, order of 1 rare card pick until all the rares were gone.  First and second got to have 1 more rare than everyone else.  All in all a nice experience for the first draft in my life.

Guess thats all for now anyway

Enough of this Magic,
Andrew Chin,

No talk, just comic. (Again, houseofsixten.com to see all of sixten’s work).