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By: Paul Leicht, Paul Emerson Leicht
May 07 2010 2:20am
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Magical Tribes: Rise of the OMG*!!
art ©2009 by Paul E. Leicht
by Paul Leicht (May 6th 2010)
(* One Migraine, Gigantic)


Yes! The new set is just around the corner and it is even viewable online now if you un-click "My Cards". I haven't been following the discussions too much as when I first saw the full spoiler I felt nauseous and didn't stop feeling that way until I looked away. Looking again brought back the same feeling. This feeling is overwhelming. It is somewhere between anxiety and dread. Why? Because Rise brings changes. Huge spanking changes. Eldrazi aren't simply timmy bad cards that no one will play. OMG!! What were they thinking? Annihilator? That's going to suck whenever someone cheats something with it into play.


Wait, why cheat? The whole damned set is ramp city. Make spawn tokens that can block if they need to and then if there are still some around sac them all to do horrendous things. Also there is this card: Overgrown Battlement which is just dying for a home in a 'bring in the titans' style deck. Put that and Wall of Blossoms/Omens in and then start making the defenders until you've got enough mana to bring in one of the bad boy legends or perhaps just a common 8 cmc.

Or if walls and spawns don't suit you, how bout the new druid? Level it a few times for fun and profit and then start throwing out the 'timmyesque' nightmare creatures. Yes this idea makes me sick. I do not know why. Revulsion is tough to overcome. On the other hand I also feel this strange sensation I heard is called excitement. This isn't a small easily solved set. This set looks like it could take months to fully explore and crack. There are unforeseen consequences just waiting to happen in every new card. Makes my nerves all ajangle.

Of course my main interest in new cards is how they may impact my favorite format(s). Namely Tribal Wars Classic. (And occasionally Tribal Wars Standard.)

I will skip eldrazi, vampires and elves and talk about one of the weirder tribes like Surrakar instead (Though in my book, eldrazi are plenty weird having practically been lifted right out of At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft.) Surrakar Spellblade to be exact. This card is way overpriced at first glance. 3cmc for a 1 toughness 2 power body is terrible. Making it 1 seems just down right ludicrous. Yet, it is blue. Which means it could be OK if you put it in a deck that likes to recycle instants and sorceries. Add in the other Surrakar which are also just terrible creatures (1 from Zen + 2 from WWK and pick a blue/black changeling) and we see that this tribe is probably not going to do well against Mr Humans (imperial recruiter, etc) with Grindstone/Painter's Servant.deck or Mr I bring Moats. and so is probably not P.R.E. worthy. On the other hand it could be pretty fun to play in casual where your opposition is truly pot-luck.

Firstly we need repetitive instants/sorceries. Rebound sounds interesting. Consuming Vapors is definitely a fun card. And like the rest of this deck is expensive. (No Diabolic/Cruel Edict this card!) Recurring Insight is another interesting idea ...The problem is 6cmc is just awful. Even if you manage to cast it without being slaughtered first, who is going to have a decent number of cards in hand to even justify it's cost? Good question. I am sure it will be killer in Commander instead. Virulent Swipe on the other hand looks like it could be a great way to surprise your opponent into a fatal combat trap. At least the first time around. The 2nd time it both potentially pumps the new Surrakar and threatens to do nasty things if the opponent opts to block. Yet we don't want too many because it is only good circumstantially.

Distortion Strike looks even better with Surrakar Spellblade bringing it to a 3/1 body that is suddenly unblockable and may net you cards not once but 2x. Sounds like a plan. What else? Well that's all for rebound in our colors . So onto general possibilities. I know I could just stop here and toss in staples from the format but I am looking to see what other cards Rise has to offer this horrendous deck.


Aura Finesse comes to mind in combo with Umbras. What Umbras would be worthy? Strangely there are no black umbras in the set. Blue offers three possibilities. Drake Umbra is insanely priced like the rest of the deck but makes gigantic flying fatties that are hard to kill by normal means Toss it on something, attack, pass with a blue up and bam! it moves to a blocker during combat and you get a card. OK Eel Umbra pumps a creature at instant speed but it only gives +1/+1 so it isn't all that interesting. On the other hand flashing auras does add to the sub theme of this deck.

Crab Umbra is the last one in our colors and it is the cheapest to cast but the most costly in maintenance and has no really good targets. At best it is a combat trick that everyone can see and while it does the same thing all the other umbras do it doesn't really justify it's actual cost (4 mana at least two of which are .)

So skip that card. Next up Induce Despair. This card avoids the problem most black removal has: 'Nonblack creatures only', but replaces it with 'What am I holding?' I don't think it is a terrible card but perhaps it is a bit weak for this deck. Here is a partial deck list though:

3 Drake Umbra
4 Consuming Vapors
4 Surrakar Marauder
4 Distortion Strike
4 Cairn Wanderer
4 Shoreline Salvager
2 Virulent Swipe
4 Surrakar Spellblade
3 Aura Finesse
4 Surrakar Banisher

As of now none of the ROE cards are working in Jamuraa's utility so no fancy deck list.  Also since this is really a discussion about the idea of the deck rather than being an actual test run of it the lands seem irrelevant except to note that we want the full 24 and they should be a mix of swamps, islands and other black/blue producers.

I chose to go with less than 4x Virulent Swipe because while it can be situationally important it is the weakest of the instants I am running. Consuming Vapors x4 is a no-brainer though it is expensive. I opted not to go with Induce Despair for now because it seems too weak. Distortion Strike is also worthy of 4 slots as our big hulking brutes love to hit unblocked players, and even the weenies kind of love it to. In particular the interaction between Spellblade and that card was the initial inspiration for this deck idea.

Seems to be another fulfillment of my yen for bruise decks which I have been playing a lot lately. Recently I brought Sphinges to the PRE and also built this Allies deck:

 

As you should expect, this deck did so poorly in casual I didn't even consider bringing it for the PRE. No mill wins did I achieve. To say the least people did concede often vs Sadistic Sacrament which seems so silly to me. It is clearly a junk rare even if it fits with the theme of this deck. Why give up prematurely when I rarely can even kick it? This card breaks the unwritten rule somehow. Lobotomy seems to be ok though inexplicably and people laugh at the excavator. Also note this list does not run the ever present Rite of Replication because while I love that card in combination with Hagra Diabolist it really seems unnecessary here. On the other hand the deck's only wins were of the concession variety.

I am not a huge fan of mill. In fact I hate being milled. It is something that is hard to control if you aren't the mill player and can get out of hand taking away crucial answers/threats. Perhaps that is why I haven't bothered tweaking this to be more idiosyncratic as my decks usually end up being. It isn't all that much fun. And I hate seeing people concede in frustration. I feel both bad and frustrated myself when that happens. So I scrapped the deck.

More fun with Sphinges!

Shard Fenix brought Sphinges with this article and I have since then obtained a few new members of my favorite feathered feline tribe. +2 summoners, +1 sovereign (which incidentally is very cheap for a mythic), Sharuum the Hegemon, and +1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle which incidentally is a lot better than I initially gave it credit for. Without any memory of it, I inexplicably traded for a Goliath Sphinx recently, but I am loath to bring generic vanillas to my decks unless there is a compelling reason even if it does have flying. I played with Sphinges some more and tweaked it a bit...

Then I saw something Flippers_Giraffe was doing and it intrigued me. He mixed various tribes together with Changelings to make a kind of melting pot. I congruently also noticed mention of "Good Stuff" decks in various articles and considered possible builds of this. Here is the list I finally came up with:

 

The main gist of this deck is draw power in the form of Sphinx of Lost Truths and Mulldrifter (two of my favorite blue cards) and the ability to do weird things with creatures. Endemic plague fits nicely with changelings as a global wrath effect and the chalices make the deck just a little faster. Three colors mana management is tough, particularly without Master's Edition duals but so far the Ravnica lands have been fine. This deck is fun to play and can be surprisingly competent if you don't die to the rush. That is the purpose of the little changelings. They slow the rush.

Living Death brings it all home. Vorosh is in there mainly because he is on color, a dragon and flies. I am not a huge fan but he is a scary fatty for sure. I believe I tossed in the Lotus bloom to fix the blue a bit and to add acceleration, replacing one of the Chalices. Spitting Image is just fun times over and over until your opponent drops the bog. Of course this deck needs to evolve and it has already. My initial version was with red instead of black and brought Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind to the mix. I decided however I liked black better in this because I don't own 4x Taurean Mauler. I also don't own any Chameleon Colossus cards which would be included if I did as a 2 of replacing the Game-Trail Changelings.


A new PRE? Tell me what you guys think of this:


Something Flips and I have been discussing is a new casual format called 'Extended Budget'. The idea here is to run decks that cost under 3 tickets per card. I am even thinking it could be under 2 tickets and still be interesting without just turning into pauper. There are tons of cards that are uncommon or rare that never see play because they are overshadowed by expensive counter parts and this could be a way to expand their use and have some fun. I look forward to hearing thoughts on this. Rene Cueva and I discussed a similar idea and I have been waiting to see if he managed to pull it off but in the meantime I figured maybe I should get the ball rolling with a push (aka suggestion).  I know there are like-minded players and am curious to hear what you think. I am looking forward to seeing something fun come out of this.

The theme decks...a good bargain?

To reiterate what others have said recently (including Flips): The theme decks (notably, Garruk Vs Liliana, Phyrexia Vs Coalition and the two commander decks) are really good bargains. Why? Because if you don't have the staples already these provide them for you. The valuation of the individual cards would cost you a lot more to buy them one by one. Some cards are not even available outside of these decks. Yavimaya Elder will be arriving when Urza's Destiny comes along in 2011 but till then it is only available in two of the theme decks. That's a good part of the year to wait for it. Yes eventually the value of the card will plummet but in the mean time it is a great card for any number of formats. I'd love to have a full play set.

Rancor is another rocking staple but it is coming out in June when Urza's Legacy arrives so that one is perhaps not so great a deal. However, I am positive that it will still be a hot common and probably hit the 2 ticket mark fairly quickly (if not immediately since MTGOtraders.com is listing it at an incredibly generous .05 for now.) So the GvsL versions will likely be worth more than 2 (They list at 4.5 on traders now.) I highly recommend investing in the theme decks not simply for the resale potential but also for the ability to stock up on cards you might not otherwise obtain but still really want. $20 may be a lot to come up with at a time (I have to buy second hand via tickets/credit) but it is really worth it.

One last thing in the same vein...

The Force of Wills price spike and Dual Lands rising dramatically since the Legacy Format was announced online are becoming an issue for some of us. In fact it sparked a huge discussion about haves/haves nots in DangerLinto's article. If only because facing dual lands when you have painlands is not simply jealousy inducing but also an extreme disadvantage you need them for any Eternal format. If you buy nothing else, buy dual lands. Speaking of good investments, I doubt these will ever crash. They might dip a little now and then but they are relatively small in numbers and high in demand. I don't see that demand slacking off any time soon, though the nix tix draft queues coming up should satisfy some of it.

Until next time have fun,
Magickly,
Paul Emerson Leicht aka Winter.Wolf on modo.

21 Comments

I make mention of them in an by JustSin at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 09:03
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I make mention of them in an upcoming article, but I for once cant wait for someone to break Surrakar, I wouldn't even mind getting wrecked by it just to see something creative, but you got two marauders I thinkyou missed Shoreline Salvager

Woops? :( by Paul Leicht at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 09:44
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Woops? :(

3 Drake Umbra
4 Consuming Vapors
4 Surrakar Marauder
4 Distortion Strike
4 Cairn Wanderer
4 Shoreline Salvager <--- notice the salvagers.
2 Virulent Swipe
4 Surrakar Spellblade
3 Aura Finesse
4 Surrakar Banisher

here is the list above....

I've been trying surrakar by StealthBadger at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 11:12
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I've been trying surrakar spellblade with double cleave and/or savage beating. It seemed like a cute idea, but he's just too killable! I like hindering light with him, but he just seems like too much work every time I try to build with him. You end up needing to add ways to keep him alive, ways to get him past blockers and plenty of instants/sorceries to the deck to make him work. Toshiro Umezawa was a guy I think has potential with him.

Still nice to see an attempt to make surrakar tribal! What are surrakar (surrakars? surraki?) meant to be anyway? They just look like obese merfolk to me.

One last thing; Is anyone else getting all sorts of weird formating on this article? The decklists seem to appear on top of the text on my screen, but that might just be my browser making a boo-boo.

Indeed, in IE it seems to be by Paul Leicht at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 11:55
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Indeed, in IE it seems to be pushing the deck lists down about 100px, which makes them overlap with the text. Sadly no fix for it but to use a different browser since I can't go in and fix the css now. Good catch. Works in Chrome and FF.

As for the make up of the Surraki(?) the art all looks similar so far and points to a muscular squat body with a huge maw filled with sharp teeth. The poses look bestial and unintelligent but that might just because they are hungry. They do have some similarity to merfolk but they aren't water dwelling, more like swamp dwelling so maybe they are lizardfolk-kin.

I wanted to keep the deck two colors or I might have branched out into white or red. I was also seeing what synergy is available in the new set. Sadly I didn't find a whole lot but I still think this deck might be fun to pilot in casual.

Looks fine on IE8 to me. by Flippers_Giraffe at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 14:17
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Looks fine on IE8 to me.

Extended Budget by GnomesofZurich at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 12:13
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The Extended Budget format you discuss seems interesting, but I can see some potential problems with it. Given how cards fluctuate in price, what is legal in the format could change on a daily basis. This would make it difficult to test, and would make the metagame fairly random. If a given deck in the format became popular, this could potentially drive up the prices of the cards, which would then make the deck no longer legal in the format...

It's an interesting idea, but the lack of an ability to predict what is in the format could deter people from getting involved in it.

My thinking is that whomever by Paul Leicht at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 13:37
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My thinking is that whomever ran the event would keep an updated banned list every month and post it on the community forums (on the mothership). So if a card went crazy or turned out to be format wrecking we could keep it in check.

I really like this idea of a by onefinemess at Sun, 05/09/2010 - 18:58
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I really like this idea of a format, and have hoped for something similar in the past - I was always surprised that there wasn't a match for pauper that was uncommons or lower only, etc. (I know there's the one with 6 uncommons or whatever, but that always seemed...illogical and silly to me).

$1, 2, 3 any of those are good mark points, as things in that value range can usually be acquired for less in trade anyway.

I can't say I would ever be able to participate in anything that happened with the sun out, but things at night... maybe :).

I think the extended budget by Cruel_Hellraiser at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 12:36
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I think the extended budget is a great idea. And I dont think that the cards that would be used, since they are already under 2.00 are going to sky rocket anytime soon. Maybe I am wrong.

well i already have a legal by ShardFenix at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 12:52
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well i already have a legal deck ready to go for budget extended...so I'm game if its convenient

I've never really liked any by ArchGenius at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 14:05
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I've never really liked any format with rules based on the price of a card. People like to argue about price. It just reminds me of when I used to trade card-for-card with strangers that weren't bots. They would stay in the trade just long enough to realize I had a decent idea of how valuable my cards were, and then they would drop the trade and go try to sucker someone else. I wasted so much time arguing with people that yes, my foil Tarmogoyf is valuable, and no, there is nothing in your collection I would trade for it. (I opened it in a draft btw)

I can just see the arguments now...

Player A: "You can't use Bloodbraid Elf, it's too expensive."
Player B: "No it's not, I bought mine a while ago for 3."
Player A: "Mtgotraders.com has it for 4.5"
Player B: "But I sold one to them for 3 just the other day."
Player A: "We're going by their selling price, not their buying price."
Player B: "huh...?"

and that's just with something that is relatively clear cut with one player who is obviously wrong. Things could get much worse with broken or banned cheap cards such as Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek, storm cards, Skullclamp, Necropotence, etc.

I think something of a more concrete rule base would work better. Such as only commons and uncommons, or a hierarchy 1 mythic, 4 rares, 8 uncommons, the rest commons.

I agree on the clearly by Nik83 at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 18:00
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I agree on the clearly characterized hierarchy. My own clan challenges have clearly defined rules and themes for each challenge, but generally we max out at commons, uncommons, and 4 non-identical rares (with a host of other restrictions).

In regards to having a banned by Flippers_Giraffe at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 14:15
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In regards to having a banned list based on prices this can work. I already have a list of all the cards over $3 which will be updated each month for my rare drafter article.

What can be done is at the start of each month we use the cards from the latest article as a structure for the banned list for that month. Then the following month the banned list is updated and we issue a new banned list.

It should work with out any issues I have thought a lot about how this event could be run over the last few weeks.

There was a PRE a long time ago like ArchGenius suggested which was based on the same rules as the precons you have your commons and so many uncommons and a rare or in our case now it could work out ok to have two rares and a Mythic but Mythic's can be game warping so I would leave them out.

That seems like a lot of work by ArchGenius at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 15:25
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That seems like a lot of work on your part, but it would eliminate most of the problems with the format that I can predict.

That was the whole point of by Paul Leicht at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 17:01
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That was the whole point of doing it this way to begin with. :)

I can suppy the banned list by Flippers_Giraffe at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 19:01
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I can suppy the banned list once a month thats not a problem for me as its an off shoot from my article.

I however dont have time to run the event or take part in it. I only have time for one event a week which for me is Shard's tribal pre.

BYOP! by Lythand at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 18:52
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Build your own precon. Use the rarity of precons and allow only those rarities and build decks. Or you could just use Peasant format instead which I believe allows 3 uncommons and the rest commons.

5 uncommons but yeah by ShardFenix at Fri, 05/07/2010 - 19:34
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5 uncommons but yeah

I never understood the by onefinemess at Sun, 05/09/2010 - 19:05
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I never understood the arbitrary uncommon limit - it seems so close to pauper, anyone familiar with the original reasoning?

if im not mistaken i think by ShardFenix at Sun, 05/09/2010 - 20:31
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if im not mistaken i think peasant was around long before pauper...it was like the father of pauper.

I think your heart is in the by blau at Mon, 05/10/2010 - 10:57
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I think your heart is in the right place, but not only does this sound like a ton of work for the organizers, but it's also a lot of work for the players. Since MTGO doesn't allow you to create your own filter, a player will need to manually check every single deck he owns each month when you update the list. That's really time consuming. I know this sounds bad, but you really can't expect people to check a list more than once. People are not going to be that productive.

I think you should go with Lythand's suggestion. Build your own precon would be a ton of fun. We would just need to pick 40 card or 60 card precon. OMG I am getting super excited just thinking about it. I'm gonna have to add Lythand to my buddy list and try this. Although for a rarity hierachy system, I would prefer to use the ones found in the VS decks, simply because the have usually 3 to 4 rares. Granted this would be yet another format where there is no way to enforce deckbuilding rules, but I think it would still be a lot of fun.

And would we allow sideboards? Precons don't have sideboards, so I don't think there should be.