Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A closing and a change

Hello readership!

As you have most likely noticed these past few weeks i have been keeping up with my posting rather poorly. The reason for these are numerous and mostly personal. Suffice to say, things are rather difficult. Regardless, that should explain that on to the matter at hand. A while back, i was offered by mtgcolorpie to write for his EDH Blog, and i have decided to accept his offer. I feel this decision is in my best interest, and  so i will no longer be posting here. Maybe i will sometime down the line, but not anytime soon. So in the future if your looking for my posts, check 99edh. :)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Merry Christmas!

No Blog today, enjoy the holidays!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Fury of Bolas V0.3

Hey, hi and hello there! As promised i am back again this week with a new post, and through the past weeks poll you have decided what i am going to do today, and apparently a lot more often. Today’s EDH deck is made up of my 3 favorite colors—Black, Red and Blue. It also has one of my favorite creatures in the mtg universe of all time as it’s General.

Isn’t he awe inspiring? I especially like his effect, i am a sucker for discard, always have been and this is just… the epitome of Discard. His Converted mana Cost(cmc), is a bit steep and the upkeep is also a bit troublesome… But every time he hits the battlefield my opponents shall quiver in fear of his awesome power. Ever since i first started playing EDH, i wanted to build a deck around this guy, not only does he embody my 3 favorite colors and preferred traits of those colors, but he also kicks some serious butt. How many times did you try to siphon the mana out of an entire plane in order to give yourself god like powers? yeah, i didn’t think so. So when i recently finally got my hands on a copy, i naturally set to work…

The Deck

This deck is literally, still in its infancy. As you know, i like to build around a theme—in this case, i am trying to build around the Generals Personality. So when i began to deck build, i took cards which had abilities or effects which Bolas could erhhh… Probably appreciate.

The Cards

Hall of the Bandit Lord – Bolas is Big, and expensive… and when he comes out, i want him to come out swinging really hard. This card, allows me to do just that.

Image.ashx (1)Sorin Markov – i screeched like a school girl watching Jacob take off his shirt in new moon when i pulled this out of my booster, I'm not even joking. I don’t even know what to say, this card should be a no brainer include, when you build a deck Around a powerful, dark, evil and manipulative Planeswalker, those abilities are just swell!

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker – This deck would just not be complete without his Planeswalker incarnation card. To be honest, it was actually surprisingly easy to obtain over at CCGTradepost.

Chandra Ablaze – Another card which i obtained with surprising ease—honestly, making use of sites such as the tradepost was the smartest decision i have made in awhile. Not only did i think her abilities very red, but the last ability is just plain brutal.

Soaring Seacliff – Island, and gives one of my creatures flying temporarily. I’m almost tempted to take it out because it feels kind of gimmicky.

Ob Nixilis, The Fallen – Seriously, i think i have been on a “Lucky” streak. But let’s not Jinx it. He’s small, gets big quick, and really hurts—and I'm sure he would not object serving bolas with the right empty promises either.

Image.ashx

Platinum Angel – I know, i know; playing platinum angel is like walking into a cave of ogre’s—it’s just not going to end well for you. But i really couldn’t resist, despite the huge bulls-eye this card paints on your back, i really enjoy tossing her on the table when i have field advantage—not necessarily because it will help me a lot at that instance, but because of the psychological impact. I like blue for a reason you know.

Toshiro Umezawa – I actually built my first EDH deck around this guy, and i had good experiences with him. i think the ability to play your instants from your graveyard is invaluable, and something which Bolas would not object doing either.

Twist Allegiance – I do not own a Insurrection sadly, and i felt some sort of mass manipulation was required in a Nicol Bolas themed Deck… So i went with Twist Allegiance instead! Surprisingly in the few games i have played, it has come in GREAT handy—especially against my brother’s Karrthus Deck(more on that next week).

Now What?

Well, essentially the idea as i stated before was to Embody Nicol Bolas—and to an extent, i think i am on the right track, but i don’t think i am there just yet.. Really this deck is still in its infancy. Over the coming weeks, this deck is going to change--- more than likely a great deal, as most EDH Decks do as they are being played and, as this process occurs i am going to share it with you. I have shared a lot of EDH Decks, but i have never shared the “Journey” one of my decks makes from inception to it’s ‘perfection’, and i would like to try that. I am most definitely up for Suggestions—in fact, i encourage and would greatly appreciate them. Feel free to hit me up on here, via comments, an e-mail twitter, whatever works for you. I do also want to retain the Bolas feel—when i play this deck, i have to have a certain element of: “–evil cackle- you cannot stop me!” If that’s not there, it’s not right. ;)

The things which i think i need to do is add more manipulation… I feel i have a lot of beat sticks, and nasty spells, but few things which are really manipulative. So please, leave your idea’s thoughts, and suggestions with me and next week—we will take a look at The fury of Bolas V0.X! Until then remember—Knowledge is power, power corrupts, study magic hard and be evil.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

An Ancient Evil…

Alright guys, today i regret to inform you that i will not be posting today—i may do a post later this week but definitely not today. You see i do this annoying thing called college, and i am in my last two weeks right now. So what does that mean?… Well, it means i have Final essay’s do this week, and exams next—but its okay! I promise i won’t skip or postpone next weeks. You have my word, oh loyal subjects! Furthermore, i have added a poll on the sidebar which i would greatly appreciate your participation in. However, i will of course not leave you without Anything~. So here is a picture of one of my favorite magic cards! lucky you huh?

Nicol Bolas

Could this be a hint at a possible post to come? Who knows…

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Pyromaniac

Last week Wednesday, Derfington shared his take on a Jaya Ballard EDH Deck over at 99 EDH Problems. That same day i finished working on mine. Originally i was going to can the deck list, however i soon found that there where some very big key differences between his version and mine. So let’s get started then:

JayaJust look at her, isn’t she awesome? If any of your friends are playing blue they will be in for a lot of trouble with her first ability. Her second ability though is one of my favorites, mostly because Incinerate is one of my absolute favorite cards, while her last ability… Is just plain brutal; Inferno anyone? God, this card makes me giddy.

But let’s get on to the decklist. If you read his post over there, you will see a vastly different approach in my version. See, in my EDH deck i wanted to capture the essence of red. I really wanted to make myself feel like a temperamental pyromaniac when i played this deck. I wanted to be able to punish anyone and everyone on the table for just looking at me wrong! … Of course, the thing about fire is that if you play with it… Well, you are likely to get burned yourself from time to time.

"Overkill? This isn't a game of Kick-the-Ouphe!"
—Jaya Ballard, task mage

The Deck

It is a very red deck, and as you can see there is also kind of an elemental theme… Fire elemental’s seemed pretty red. The idea is pretty much to play it like this: Is something a problem? Incinerate it. Can’t turn it into a heap of smoldering dead flesh? Set it on fire anyways. Doesn’t burn? Ignore it. Want some more cards? Flip a coin, can always decide to incinerate your opponent instead. Everything i put in this deck, i did in an attempt to replicate the definition of red in some way while still making a viable deck. But really, just kill it with fire. But let’s inspect some of the finer points.

“Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
Jaya Ballard, task mage

The Cards

Hall of Bandit Lord – This land’s sole purpose is to accelerate your creatures—but specifically Jaya. When she comes into play, you want to start setting things on fire right away! This card allows you to do just that.

Rites of Initiation – This is one of the cards i was referring to that sometimes you hurt yourself—but you hurt your opponent more. Rites of Initiation i really love this card. i feel it is the spiritual successor of Hatred. Personally i really enjoyed Odyssey’s Discard for effect it really eludes as to why most people hated the set. But seriously, i find this card utterly fantastic. Discard some cards, buff all your creatures by +x/+0. trust me, it’s worth it.

Darksteel Colossus – Now some of you may be wondering why i put this card in here… Well, I'm not entirely sure to be honest. I just had this gut feeling that it was the right decision, that Darksteel Colossus could be very red… i think the idea of dropping an Obliterate and this hulking Golem just kind of… walks through the smoke and ashes just as ready to hit you in the face for 11 as before, is very red.

Electropotence – The majority of your creatures have a lot of power when they come into power, so why not making them a little bit more… shocking for your opponent?

Final Fortune Final Fortune – The first final fortune i ever saw i also pulled out of my very first seventh edition booster, and quiet honestly I've always had a weak spot for this card. There is just something about betting absolutely everything on one card, on a single turn Win all or lose all, that just gives me an adrenaline rush.

Obsidian Fireheart – Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Just… Wow. When i pulled this puppy out of a booster, it was a match made in heaven. I knew right away that this little guy here and i would have a long and prosperous journey together. There is simply no better way to make things burn.

Living Inferno – Just look at the name, and don’t question it further.

Mages' Contest – i actually stumbled upon this gem very recently at a place called Game Geeks. I think this card is utterly fantastic and embodies red nicely—it’s also your only counter spell so use it wisely.

Aside from the honorable mentions there is tons of good, red, flametastic stuff in here. Fireball is an obvious classic choice, and in EDH often times you have enough mana to turn it into a makeshift sweeper. Shunt, Reiterate, and Wild Ricochet allows you to wreak a little bit of havoc in the game(beyond what you will already be doing of course).

Krark’s Thumb is there to even the odds for the gambling cards such as Fiery Gambit a bit—because really, even red wouldn’t be so stupid as to not take advantage of a card that was made for its color. Burning Inquiry is another card that allows you to create some rather amusing and chaotic situations(along with getting you a couple of new cards) and firecat blitz is just plain cool to play late game when you have a ton of mana—if of course, your opponents haven’t been burned to a cinder by then.

There are so many cool cards in here and i could just go on and on about them. However, i like to cap myself at a certain word count in order to keep my posts coherent… i passed that roughly 200 words ago. Just, take the deck out for a spin i promise you won’t be disappointed if you enjoy playing red—especially if you enjoy playing red. It does well in both Multiplayer, and 1vs1 games, though after a couple of games my friends caught on to how brutal the deck can be (especially because of the many X mana costed cards) so they started to keep a erh… closer eye on me—should’ve known better from the beginning though heehee. Where it it truly shines though, is in 1vs1, where you will create some serious 3rd degree burns as there are no other players for you to need to worry about.

I hope you will enjoy the deck as much as i have, and please take some important advice with you before you leave;

Some have said there is no subtlety to destruction. You know what? They're dead."
Jaya Ballard, task mage