So, all this pack will really do, is slowly reinforce that black may be a color to move into, but there’s not enough yet. I’ll be incorporating the mana base elements (because those strongly assist in my existing build)
Starting this Sunday, a group of my friends and acquaintances will be starting up our own casual Booster League competition.
The concept of a casual Booster League is quite simple. We will be taking a booster of +
+
+
and building a 60 card deck with the contents. We will then meetup at a local haunt, and duel until everyone has played a full 2-of-3 round of games with all attendees. With six people (our initial league), this means there will be a lot of Magic to complete.
The league events will be taking place each Sunday for four weeks. Mr. Gentleman Villain has creatively given each event a title:
After a hunt around Portland to find an Innistrad booster, I settled into my futon and started reviewing what fate had in store for me:
There were only three standout cards for me here: Flinthoof Boar, Elvish Archdruid, and Attended Knight. The casting cost on the Elvish Archdruid was(is) a concern though, as I’m pretty confident that I will be running 3 colors in this deck, at a minimum. 60 is a lot of cards when there are only 4 packs to choose from.
This pack ended up pushing me into a solid decision for as a primary color. Kessig Gatecrashers is just a solid card in sealed and draft. With Ranger’s Guile backup, and the late game creepy Spider Spawning, it was decided. My eyes did see that Spectral Flight, and as a splash it was something to consider.
Note, that in my opinion, the best sealed cards in this pack are: Kessig Cagebreakers, Morkrut Banshee, and Galvanic Juggernaut.
I will say, at this point, I was thinking that I should be solidly in &
, primarily because of the Flinthoof Boar‘s haste activated ability, and seeing the Hanweir Watchkeep//Bane of Hanweir had me considering it further, though it’s a poor card.
The top three cards, that I could see were Elbrus, the Binding Blade//Withengar Unbound, Niblis of the Breath, and Nephalia Seakite. Increasing Vengeance is just a whimper of a card outside of constructed, and there was a lot of narrow spells here. Plus, the only two good creatures were ! *sigh*, as a splash, I was willing to go into
, but were these two creatures enough? Niblis of the Breath is great disruption/”removal”, and so is Nephalia Seakite. The sheer value of these two cards had me thinking, even though I wasn’t pleased with the thoughts.
But, Elbrus, the Binding Blade//Withengar Unbound?! Just a very very conditional WIN MORE card, IMHO. One must consider that you might only ever play this card as: , Creature gets +1/+0. That all being said, I was pretty confident I would slot it in for LULZ.
What a kick in the nuts this pack was. Oof. Lunar Mystic and Stern Mentor?! *frowny face* The only good card in this pack is the Goldnight Commander. I end up pulling some of the white removal and blue card draw from this pack, but was utilized simply for the “how do I fill out the final 7 cards?” phase of the build.
For what this is, and the cards I had available to me, I think this is an okay deck. I am concerned with the splash, but those two creatures were better than the alternatives with
.
The biggest struggle I had was:
The color requirement on Elvish Archdruid was a pain, will be a pain, and I only have 1 other elf in Yeva’s Forcemage. The Guardian Lions are not as brutal on the color requirement, but out on the end of the curve. I chose the Archdruid, simply because of the slim chance that I may be able use his ramp value of at some point, and if something aligns, possibly even
! *yea, right*
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