Magic: the gathering T2

Rogue Deck Contest Winner!

2006-06-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, Hi everyone well, this is the deck I have picked to be the contest winner ( sorry David), and to start off I'd like to say congrats to the winner and his hard work. but the contest was lack luster and not many participated, so next time I would appreciate more of you to put forth an effort like here!!!!

Hello everyone. I’ve always liked rogue decks and I’ve always had a Timmy in me, who didn’t? So when I saw the Rogue Contest, I decided I would go for mono-green aggro. Green is one of the best colors for creatures and I found quite a few worthy of my deck. The main idea while making the deck was cheap, solid, aggressive creatures with some evasion. So, with without further adieu, here is the decklist...

Green Beatdown
Lands
18 Forest
1 Miren, the Moaning Well

Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Dryad Sophisticate
3 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Gristleback
3 Iwamori of the Open Fist
3 Kodama of the North Tree

Other Spells
4 Blanchwood Armor
4 Moldervine Cloak
1 Wurmweaver Coil
4 Umezawa’s Jitte

Sideboard
3 Carven Caryatid
3 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
3 Indrik Stomphowler
3 Genju of the Cedars
3 Sheilding Plax

I’ll explain my card choices.

Miren, the Moaning Well: Everyone hates seeing their board whiped due to Wrath of God or, in the case of my deck, Pyroclasm or Wildfire, all which are very popular in Standard right now...go figure. With Miren, at least one creature doesn’t go to waist for no reason.

Birds of Paradise: The reason there are more birds than elves in this mono-green deck is that the birds fly. Evasion is what this deck needs. A BoP with a Blanchwood Armor can hurt alot.

Llanowar Elves: I choose to include these because I wanted to fit as many threats in the deck as possible. To do so, I had to keep the land count low. Elves fill both roles.

Dryad Sophisticate: Awsome evasion on a 2/1 body is good. Most decks out there play non-basic lands in any shapes and forms, however, if this is not the case, she can easily be sided out for game 2.

Sakura-Tribe Elder: Rampant Growth on legs, what’s not to like? He is needed to get the lands in case of mana shortage.

Silhana Ledgewalker: The star of the deck! Ledgewalker has great evasion and has stealth! One of these babies with a Jitte or a Cloak can win you the game very fast.

Gristleback: Many might argue about this one, but I like him. He will usually come as a 3/3 for 2G. His ability is nothing to get excited about, but it helps dodge board cleaners and when he’s enchanted by Cloak, Coil or Armor, it’s that much better.

Iwamori of the Open Fist: Though not the best guy around, but 5/5 for 2GG is nothing to scoff at. The only legends are can think of being played heavily right now are Keiga, Yosei and the occasional Grand Arbiter Augustin IV.

Kodama of the North Tree: He’s got stealth and he has trample. All that on a 6/4 body for the affordable price of 2GGG, hey, why not?!
Blanchwood Armor: One of my favorite aura’s of all time! It’s no Rancor, but it can make even the weakest creature into a game winner.

Moldervine Cloak: Recurring pump aura? Sign me up!

Wurmweaver Coil: Though this may seem the random card of the deck, it’s another pump aura with an OK second ability. I only inluded this for an extra UMPH! In the deck. It can definately strike the winning blow.
Now for the sideboard:

Carven Caryatid: This is present to stop aggro as much as possible. It’s out of Char range and can stop most fatties, excluding fliers.
Indrik Stomphowler: Naturalize on a beater? Sure, though it can only be played as a sorcery, it comes with a 4/4.

Arashi, the Sky Asunder: The deck has a hard time against fliers. He also clears the way for Ledgewalker and otherwise he’s just beef; 5/5 for 3GG with flying spot removal.
Genju of the Cedars: Another card to stop aggro, but can also be sided in for control. Plus he dodges WoG.

Sheilding Plax: Just in case I face a lot of spot removal. It pays for itself when it comes into play and protects my creature.

Playing the deck is pretty straitforward. Play some lands, drop creatures, pump them, attack, win. It’s the typical Timmy build and can give a hard time to decks people spent a fortune on.
“Oh nice foil Temple Garden, I tap two Forests and play Dryad Sophisticate. Your turn.”
Against aggro, you’ll want to side in the Caryatids, the Genjus and possibly the Arashis. For control, Genju and most likely Sheilding Plax. The choices mostly depend on the other deck however.
Well that’s it, I hope you like the deck, it may not win the next PTQ but it’s fun to play.

Rogue Deck builder contest

2006-06-04T06:09:00.000-07:00

Okay this is a deck building competition for any one who has a rogue deck.

Rogue deck- A standard deck that isn't tier system, and is creative EX.( don't change three cards in a tier 1 deck or add a color, it isn't rogue enough). the deck also should be fairly good.

this is how it works, the winner will have their decks posted on one of my articles and they will receive there own article on the page, its a friendly, fun competition and isn't for a real prize, except glory.

THE RULES
1. Must qualify as a rogue deck
2. must have a deck list and a explanation of deck and how to play it.
3. you must have fun writing it!!!

send your decks to my email ( charles_magnum@yahoo.com ), this contest is for true rogue deckers and people who love thier decks, when I thought of this idea, I instantly fell in love with it. I would enter my own decks but that would be biased.

you may email me any of your articles in between these dates,
6/4/06
6/20/06

sincerely,

Eugene Hamrick

George's Garage

2006-06-01T02:54:00.000-07:00

As you can tell I lie to build decks,it's kind of like building models,but with magic. This article I take one of my friends decks and make it better with cards that fit there budget, and I called it a garage so it would kind of sound like orange county choppers, or something like that.

Okay this week's pal is george. george has always had a big trouble for some reason making decks that work right he gets all this stuff only to find they don't work, so I will try to make him a thats solid enough to play around with, hey all decks started small, my nantukovore deck started as my friend RJ's GB Husk sac deck.

George's grb list.

1 mortipede
1 rakdos spitter
3 brownscale
1 loaming shaman
3 shambling shell
2 gobhobbler rats
2 stinkweed imp
3 golgari rot wurm
3 seal of fire
1 seal of doom
3 wrecking ball
1 hit/ run
4 disemboel
1 pain magnification
2 golgari signet
1 rakdos signet
6 forest
6 swamp
6 mountain
1 rix maadi
1 rakdos earnarium

I saw that the main problem with his deck was consistency, one's, two's, how do you rely on cards that you have a 1/60 chance of drawing. so we decided golgari and rakdos would be the way to go with shell, stinky, and troll. puetrefy definetly is better than recking ball, and disemboel is good because it kills all and is moncolored. rakdos entered with the rakdos guildmage and taste of meyham. for speed will throw in llanowars and deep shadow.

George's garage

4 shambling shell
2 stink weed inp
3 golgari grave troll
4 rakdos guildmage
4 llanowar
3 elves of deep shadow

4 seal of fire
3 taste of meyham
4 puetrefy
4 disemboel
3 rakdos signet

8 swamp
8 forest
6 mountain

playing the deck
you want to start with a llanowar or other guy for mana accel. either go on offense or defense, meaning O= shell D= imp, and of corse let them die. you will easily dredge the troll out for the win in the midgame. rakdos gm is awsome he can kill and make blockers. taste of meyham makes some pretty big creatures, and with all the kill spells in this deck you don't need trample for your troll.

estimated cost www.findmagiccards.com

$28.90

Building on a Budget: Boros Deck Wins

2006-05-28T04:07:00.000-07:00

My friend david recently decided he wanted to make one solid, good deck. His problem was he's a P.A.M.F. ( poor @$$ mfer), so I decided to help himmake a budget deck and from what he wanted and the research I did from sets I've come up with this.

Boros Deck Wins

Creatures
4 Mistral Charger
4 Veteran Armorer
4 Sky knight legionarre
4 Scorched rusalka
3 blood scale prowler
3 kami of ancient law

spells
2 Bathe in light
4 lightning helix
3 flames of the blood hand
4 seal of fire
3 taste of mayhem

lands
11 mountain
11 plains

Okay first thing is about david. He doesn't like kimagawa because it's going out of standard, so therefore we lack any kimagawa cards.

How to play the Deck

Well the thing to relize with all BDW's is your burn is there to finish the job, and the creatures start that job, taking life points away as much and as soon as possible. This doesn't mean don't use helix on a watch wolf, it means helix it if necessary to swing for 2.

Early game you want to start with a rusalka or seal of fire. follow up with any of the 11 two drops available, veteran can save you from annoying pyroclasms that kill normal BDWs.
Bathe in light is great as a counter spell or a sneak attack to finish a game. Three drops would be legionarre with haste, and The Prowler. Blood scale prowler is often over looked in my opinion, especially when you can use rusalka and seal of fire to make him a 4/2 no problem, and even with out that he's a 3/1 for three. When I thought about a deck without jitte I was worried what to fill it with, no warhammer's and sun forger is lackluster without many burn spells and its equip cost. so I decided on Taste of Mayhem, with it's low cost, it's chance for hell bent, and it's acess to flyers itfit perfectly into the deck. Falmes are in this deck because, well do think CHAR IS A BUDGET CARD!!.

David I hope you like the deck and have fun playing it as much as I had making it, and for anyone looking for a cheap good T2 deck, I hope you enjoy it too.

sincerely,

Eugne Charles Hamrick

Top ten cards from Ravnica block in standard

2006-05-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

Okay the rules for this were as follows

1. no recurring cards EX. birds, wrath
2. no lands

top ten list

10. Lightning helix- it's a bolt with a gain 3 life attached, basically any spell that can hit a player or creature for 3 and gives yuo 3 life for 2 is automatically in a top ten list.

9. Dark Confidant- to explain confidant I will use a quote from mark justice, " magic is a game of numbers, and the person with the highest card advantage wins". Confidant found his place in standard once he was used in aggro, he's perfect for 1,2, and 3 drops.

8. Ghost council of Orzhova- Whenever you can cast a 4/4 for 4, it's good. When it's unkillable by wrath or any single kill spell, and bleeds for life, its a phenomenom.

7. Voidslime- UU counterspell in standard left in 7th edition. this is the first counter spell that doesn't say pay 3 or place a card on the bottom or in a hand, that is relatively close to the cost of counterspell. to top it off the card can counter abilities.

6. Simis sky Swallower- A 6/6 flying, trampling, untargetable for 7. this is the type of card that a control deck will paly 4 of anjd no other creatures, it's that good. this card is so pwerful that it even cured the weaknesses of kodama of the north tree.

5. Burning tree shaman- rarely is there a card that can single handedly affect almost every card that is played in a game. B.T. shaman is that card , almost any card in play with an ability can change the sway of the game. and to top this card off its a 3/4 for 3!!!.

4. Char- we've seen 3 damage for 3, three for 2, even 3 for 1. But in current standard three doesn't cut it, almost everything is x/4. Char ends them for a cheap mana cost and a little discharge.

3. Mortify/ Puetrefy- Any time a card says flatout kill a creature with no limitations for three, every one will use it.adding anti artifact and enchant to the card makes color splashing for it a necessary drawback.

2. giant solifuge- a creature that can be played in a mono red and mono green deck no problem, with 4/1 will get a few fans. When you add the speed of a burn spell, the damage power of char, untargetability, and trample for 4, you get a temple of worship.

1. Loxodon Hierarch- you probably think if Hierarchs good enough for #1 were's the ghost council, there 4/4's for 4, ghost council gains life, ghost council doesn't die. Well Hierarch gains for off the bat so he can die when he wants he's done his job, he doesn't relie on 1/1's to protect him from death, he protects them. He's more versetile with all mana bases and has single handedly caused flames of the blood hand and rain of gore to be in main decks and side boards. Loxodon Hierarch is the number one card from ravnica block because he is the best card for card of any card in the set.

regionals ' 06, a deck that stood tall in the rogue

2006-05-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Recntly I went to regionals in the Batlimore, Maryland area, for any of you there who saw me I was the one you saw playing the Mortivore card all day. I' ve written this article to explain the deck for any of you who care, The name's Nantukovore.

my deck was originally the nantuko husk deck with gb golgari in it, nantukovore v1, then I steadily progressed to mortivore the creature that truley made this a good deck, once I lost most of the dredge I created Nantukovore V2. For regionals I planned to make a bwg deck based around husk with promise of bunrei and fist of ironwood, with mortivore in for support. I slowly relized the husk was a one man show once gone the show and game was over, so
Nantukovore V3 became the deck list below.

Nantukovore V3

creatures
3 nantuko husk
4 moritvore
2 golgari grave troll
3 shambling shell
2 stinkweed imp
3 plagued rusalka
3 birds of paradise
4 llanowar elves
3 dark confidant

spells
4 puetrefy
3 fists of ironwood
4 loxodon warhemmer

lands
4 overgrown tomb
2 svogthos, the relentless tomb
8 swamp
8 forest

side board
2 crime// punishment
2 loaming shaman
3 gravepact
4 naturalize
2 roilling spoil
2 leyline of lifeforce

The basic thing I started to relize was the husk isn't the main show the husk is he's a monster the husk is his little brother who let's morti out of his cage. to start off in the deck shambling shell looks like a weak s.o.b., but to tell the truth even in death he will take a watchwolf with him you want him to die to start dredge for troll. control flyers have nothing on stink weed imp he recures infinite times.

the husk and his fist of iron wood warm up the creature kill as they block what they think is your biggest threat, rusalka aids him in killing your creatures and your opponnets. Mr. bob or dark confidant is just pure card advantage, ( plus my world geography teacher is one of his friends, her husband is Don Gallitz.) birds of paradise and llanowar are accelorators and also can swing for a quick hammer.

Troll can be used to die to get bigger he often enjoys dying for a worthy cause. hers the secret tech, warhammer its two jitte effects at once life, +3, and to top it off trample. Mortivore no longer is annoyed by 1/1 tokens, he now smashes through them to gain on average 10 life or more. Also the svogthos is awsome no one ever notices until hes some massive 10/10 aimed at the life counter of an opponent.

What makes the mortivore so good in type 2 is his resiliance of death, YOU CAN'T KILL HIM.
you can't burn him out you can't, mortify, or puetrefy, or do anything unless its wrath or say's can't be regenerated. The decks color combor gives it an awsome match up with its sideboard.

Naturalize is the basic arti and enchant killer. The gravepact with mortivore and friends is an instant win against aggro. shaman can stop your opponent from playing decks like magnivore and can dig back cards lost from dredge. leyline can destroy counter spell control completely, and spoil nukes 1/1's . most importantly punishment can wipe off an anteire run of an aggro or control deck meloku's 1/1's, gruuls jitte and dryads, or any face of same converted mana drops.

most importantly this deck is fun to play in my next post I will talk about my run thruogh in regionals and how things went, for those of you who would like to play the deck and need some more pointer's email me at charles_magnum@yahoo.com

sincerely Eugene Cahrles Hamrick.