Kizan is very straightforward. If you control another Six Samurai monster other than Kizan, you can special summon Kizan from your hand. If you control two other Six Samurai monsters, he gains 300 ATK and DEF. He’s been a staple in Six Samurai decks since his release in Storm of Ragnarok.

With Spirit Warriors releasing new Secret Six Samurai monsters, I’m excited to see a classic Yu-Gi-Oh deck get some new blood!

Training Grounds has other applications, as well, including reducing Level Up costs – which makes sense because of its inclusion in Rise of Eldrazi, the last set of a block that had plenty of Level Up creatures. It’s a nice little card to build around, and has been a mainstay in a variety of decks, especially in Commander, that rely on the activated abilities of creatures.

The most popular use of Training Grounds in Commander is in Sliver Overlord decks. This is because the Overlord has two 3 mana abilities - one which adds a Sliver from your deck to your hand and the other which lets you gain control of target Sliver! Training Grounds makes each of these abilities cost only a single mana. It also makes Sliver Queen's 2-mana Sliver token creation ability only 1 mana, as well.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang and most recently The Scarab God also take advantage of Training Grounds, seeing their own activated abilities cost half as much. This is an Enchantment that gets better with every good creature with activated abilities that gets printed. It became nearly $20 a copy for a reason and has remained over $10 for some time. It's likely that it should see a reprint in a Commander-related product one day.

But nowadays, Bestiari is unlimited. So why has no one seemed to notice that there’s a chance for Gladiator Beast decks to be competitive again in 2019 and beyond?

What made Bestiari so good? Gladiator Beasts have this crazy ability that allows them to swap out with other Gladiator Beasts from the deck at the end of the damage step of a combat that monster has been involved in. While there are bigger Beasts and other very useful Beasts, Bestiari was the primary engine of the deck. Not only can he destroy a Spell or Trap card on the field (face-down or face-up) when he’s tagged in from the deck, but he’s the necessary piece for a Contact Fusion into Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. Not only does he have 2400 ATK, but he destroys 2 cards on the field when he enters! Then, he can tag back out after combat and get you two other Gladiator Beasts!

Gladiator Beasts really were a cool archetype because there is actually a lot of important decision-making and strategy to playing the deck properly. But as new and quicker decks hit the scene (Blackwings FTK for example), Gladiator Beast decks sort of took a back seat. So, in the world of Xyz overlays and Pendulum monster insanity, could they still be competitive?

The last time a Gladiator Beast deck won a major tournament was 2014. Check out this list that won the Bulgaria National Championship in June 2014.


Main Deck (40 Cards)

Monsters

2x Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear
1x Coach Soldier Wolfbark
1x Gladiator Beast Bestiari
2x Gladiator Beast Darius
2x Gladiator Beast Equeste
2x Gladiator Beast Laquari
1x Thunder King Rai-Oh


Spells

1x Book of Moon
1x Dark Hole
3x Fire Formation - Tenki
3x Forbidden Lance
3x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Shrink


Traps

2x Black Horn of Heaven
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
2x Dimensional Prison
3x Gladiator Beast War Chariot
2x Mirror Force
1x Needle Ceiling
1x Solemn Warning
1x Torrential Tribute
2x Vanity's Emptiness
1x Wiretap


Extra Deck (15 Cards)

Fusion

1x Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1x Gladiator Beast Essedarii
2x Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
1x Gladiator Beast Heraklinos


Xyz

1x Abyss Dweller
2x Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King
1x Daigusto Emeral
1x Diamond Dire Wolf
1x Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1x Gagaga Cowboy
1x Gem-Knight Pearl
1x Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1x Number 101: Silent Honor ARK


This deck isn’t even playable as constructed anymore, as the banned & restricted list has changed a bunch, I didn’t recall Brotherhood of  the Fire Fist - Bear joining the deck along with Fire Formation - Tenki. But I was pretty much gone from Duel Monsters at that point.

Using input from another top 8 list from a Lisbon, Portugal Regional tournament earlier that year, I’ve come up with this revised list


Main Deck (40 Cards)

Monsters

1x Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear
3x Gladiator Beast Bestiari
2x Gladiator Beast Darius
2x Gladiator Beast Equeste
3x Gladiator Beast Laquari
1x Gladiator Beast Retiari
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh


Spells

1x Book of Moon
2x Fire Formation - Tenki
3x Forbidden Lance
3x Gladiator Proving Ground
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Pot of Duality
1x Raigeki / Dark Hole


Traps

1x Black Horn of Heaven
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Fiendish Chain
3x Gladiator Beast War Chariot
1x Mirror Force
1x Solemn Warning
1x Torrential Tribute


Extra Deck (15 Cards)

Fusion Monsters

2x Gladiator Beast Essedarii
3x Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
1x Gladiator Beast Heraklinos


XYZ Monsters

1x Abyss Dweller
1x Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King
1x Bujintei Kagutsuchi
1x Diamond Dire Wolf
1x Gagaga Cowboy
1x Gem-Knight Pearl
1x Lightning Chidori
1x Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1x Steelswarm Roach

Or really whatever XYZ Monsters you want really.

This revised deck-list is just a starting point, but right away, you can see it is considerably different than the last world-beating list that Gladiator Beasts enjoyed.

Let’s go through what makes this deck tick.

The Fire Fist package is cute but is actually a nice little addition to the deck. Gladiator Beast Darius and Gladiator Beast Laquari are Beast-Warriors, so Fire Formation - Tenki is a really nice card to have. The extra 100 ATK is something, but adding one of your Darius or Laquari to your hand is even better. The Tiger King is a useful Xyz monster to have around, too.


Having 3 copies of Bestiari means that we can run the three copies of Gyzarus in the Extra Deck. Really, what made this deck so blasted good is something you can do again.

Darius is really cool because he can Special Summon a Gladiator Beast from your graveyard when he enters the field from the deck! While the effect is negated, you can easily grab a dead Bestiari for a quick Gyzarus summon. Really it’s just a great way to recycle Gladiator Beasts that were destroyed back into the deck. With 3 Bestiari, Darius becomes more important than he has been in years.

Equeste is similar to Darius, except that the Beast goes to your hand, not the field. In some cases, this is even better.

Laquari is the big beater of the deck, as he becomes a 2100 ATK beater when he’s summoned from the deck. He’s also the primary piece of contact fusion summoning Heraklinos.

One Retiari has been a staple in Gladiator Beasts decks for a long time. His ability when summoned from the Deck is to remove 1 card from your opponent’s Graveyard. While this isn’t always relevant, it can mess up a lot of strategies. It’s the most expendable of the Gladiator Beasts, but having one is necessary so that you can have enough different Gladiator Beasts with different names in the deck.


Thunder King Rai-Oh was limited to a single copy for a time, but now he’s back to two copies allowed per deck. What makes him so good in Gladiator Beasts is that he shuts down players being able to add cards from their deck to their hand. While this seems really bad with Gladiator Proving Ground in the deck, Gladiator Beasts decks have been playing Rai-Oh for years due to his other ability: you can sacrifice him to negate a Special Summoning. So while you may have a dead Gladiator Proving Ground or Fire Formation - Tenki in hand sometimes with Rai-Oh on board, that ability to stop a special summon is too big not to play!

Onto the spells, Book of Moon is a staple. In Gladiator Beasts though, it’s even better as it can allow you to flip a monster into face-down defense position so you can survive a combat with a bigger guy. Gladiator Beasts are one of those unusual decks with which it’s sometimes advantageous to deal damage to yourself during combat. Being able to tag out is how this deck functions, after all.

We’ve already gone into Tenki, so let’s discuss another staple in Forbidden Lance. Having had the chance to play with Lance years ago, I’ll say it’s probably the most important combat trick in the deck. Having a monster lose 800 ATK is huge. But it can also save your creature from a Spell or Trap card, too. It’s one of the most versatile quick-play spells in Yu-Gi-Oh. Awesome card!

Gladiator Proving Ground is really bad with a face-up Rai-Oh on board, but the rest of the time, it gets any of your Gladiator Beasts to your hand.

Usually, Gladiator Beasts decks play 3 copies of Mystical Space Typhoon. But since we have 3 Bestiari and so many other important spells and traps, we had to cut down to 1. Two more copies could be put in the side deck for certain match-ups.

While Pot of Duality is no longer limited, two copies in Gladiator Beasts are enough. It’s such a Special Summon happy deck that Duality can cost you a turn. But the card selection Duality provides is worth running it. After all, you don’t have to tag out every turn. However, in today’s game, I could see replacing these with the two MST we cut. I’d have to playtest this build a ton in order to answer that question.

The trap cards are pretty much all classic Yu-Gi-Oh staples. Gladiator Beast War Chariot is the only one that needs special explanation. This card has always been powerful, but negating the activation of an Effect Monster’s effect is activated AND destroying that monster is very powerful. The only drawback? You have to have a face-up Gladiator Beast on the field. Seems fine and better than ever.


What About the Other Gladiator Beasts?

There are other Gladiator Beasts that used to see a lot of play, but aren’t in this deck. Let’s see if they still might belong, at least out of the Side Deck.

Gladiator Beast Hoplomus. A base DEF of 2100 is nothing to sneeze at, and when he’s summoned from the deck, it’s 2400 DEF. He’s basically just a wall, but there are still plenty of monsters that can’t beat 2400 DEF. Still, he’s not as good now as he was in the Gladiator Assault days.

Gladiator Beast Murmillo. This little fish has a powerful effect: destroy 1 face-up monster. With only 800 DEF and 400 ATK, and being Level 3, he’s just not the best main deck option anymore. Still, he blows a guy up, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Gladiator Beast Samnite. Being Level 3 is what hurts Samnite these days. He also brings a Gladiator Beast from your Deck to your hand, which while good, is just another bad combination with Rai-Oh. He requires the deck to be built differently than what we have right now.

Gladiator Beast Secutor. This little guy can actually summon TWO Gladiator Beast monsters. It’s a shame that he hasn’t seen play in years. But, with only 400 ATK and 300 DEF, he's really weak. The payoff can be worth it, though. Still, he may be worth a shot in place of Retiari in some match-ups.

The primary issue with these 4 guys is that none of them are Beast-Warriors. If we were to eliminate the Fire Formation Package and a Proving Ground, they may all fit. But would the deck be as good without the added card advantage? Maybe, maybe not. Only playtesting can tell us.


Can Gladiator Beasts Compete in 2018 and Beyond?

Since 2014, I have seen Gladiator Beasts decks occasionally win an odd tournament here and there. Nothing major, though. I really feel as bigger and more explosive archetypes have been released, Gladiator Beasts just sort of got left behind. But there’s still a lot of power in this deck.

Also, it’s possible that the Fire Formation package isn’t even necessary. Perhaps our old Gladiator Beast friends that we haven’t included - Hoplomus, Murmillo, Samnite, and Secutor, in particular - actually belong instead. My feeling is to include them in the side deck, along with other meta-busting cards and see what the best build shapes up to be.

While I won’t be building this deck anytime soon for myself, I feel like there are plenty of duelists out there who’d love to give the old Gladiator Beast toolbox a spin again. The deck is extremely inexpensive to build nowadays. Why not?

Did you ever play Gladiator Beasts at any point? Is this a deck you would ever build again, just to play it for fun? Let us know in the comments!


Here are some other Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game articles you may enjoy:

- Yu-Gi-Oh Blackwings Deck 2018 Profile
-  Is a Toon Deck Now Competitive with Toon Kingdom?
- GOAT FORMAT! - Intro to the Format and Original Aggro Control Deck
- Fire Princess Burn - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Profile!
- The Legendary Fisherman - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh Deck Profile

Archfiend of Depravity is an interesting creature card from Fate Reforged. He would later have a promotional printing as well as a reprint in  Archenemy: Nicol Bolas. Besides being a decent sideboard card during his time in Standard, the Demon has become a favorite of casual and Commander players. He has decent stats as a 5/4 flyer for 3BB. But it's his ability that makes him so good.

During each of your opponent's end steps, that player has to choose two creatures he or she controls, then sacrifice the rest. Against aggressive strategies, this is absolutely devastating. While not every deck focuses on having lots of creatures out at one time, the Archfiend can turn up whenever an opponent is trying to win by just turning a bunch of creatures sideways.

There are quite a few decks that rely on creating lots of tokens or casting tons small creatures in order to simply overwhelm opponents. The Archfiend can absolutely punish these strategies. With Fate Reforged introducing the Manifest mechanic and Elves becoming more of a force due to cards like Collected Company and Shaman of the Pack, the Archfiend would drop in from time to time out of the sideboard  to say hello.

Why didn't he see more play in Standard, though? Having a 5/4 body is cool, but that means it died to things like Stoke the Flames and Languish in the Standard of the day. In Modern, there's Path to Exile, Dismember, and Fatal Push. Still, the Archfiend only has to survive one turn with your opponent having to sacrifice a bunch of creatures to it for it to be worth casting. Best of all, the Archfiend never hurts you at all.

In Commander, the Archfiend of Depravity is a killer. Not only are Demons a popular tribe, but Black decks love things to die. The Archfiend makes even more things die, as his effect is extremely powerful in a multi-player setting.  It's not surprising that the Archfiend is at home in many Commander decks.

Archfiend of Depravity may never be a main deck play outside of casual "kitchen table" Magic and Commander. But, if you're in a metagame where aggressive creature-based strategies are taking over,  you may see him drop in. Decks that depend on their board states being filled by armies are sad if the Archfiend of Depravity says hello.

I'm always on the lookout for Magic cards flying under the radar. Sometimes those cards are even common or uncommon. Here we have Trove of Temptation, an uncommon Enchantment from Ixalan that immediately got attention from deck builders.

The primary home for Trove of Temptation has been in Commander. It's pretty much an auto-include in Admiral Beckett Brass Pirate Tribal decks, due to the Treasure token synergy. It's also popped up in some O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami EDH lists, as well, as a sweet piece of tech. But people tried to build Standard decks with it, too. Let's see what this card does.

Trove of Temptation is one of my favorite kinds of cards. They sit there and give you incremental value. It's also very flavorful, so it's a win-win for me. The first effect is very straightforward.

Each opponent must attack you or a planeswalker you control with at least one creature each combat if able.

The whole Temptation aspect of this card  is admittedly rather cute. But it's also effective. This effect can lead to some very unfavorable combat steps for your opponents, especially in multiplayer situations. Given a fairly developed board-state and substantial creature on your corner of the battlefield, you're forcing opponents to potentially choose which of their creatures will walk the plank each combat. This is a pretty useful to slowly grind out value through forced attrition.

This is also a very good effect to have in O-Kagachi decks because the Legendary Spirit has a relevant ability:

Whenever O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami deals combat damage to a player, if that player attacked you during his or her last turn, exile target nonland permanent that player controls.

Hurray for synergy!

But wait... THERE'S MORE!

At the beginning of your end step, create a colorless Treasure artifact token with "T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."

This is the Trove aspect of the card. After 4 turns, the Trove of Temptation essentially pays for itself through Treasure tokens. Not only is this a nice way to grind out Treasures to satisfy the alternate win condition of Revel in Riches, it also provides some mana fixing and additional resources at a fair investment.

This is such a grindy card. It seems best suited for the multiplayer Commander world or the kitchen table. But this doesn't stop players from stuffing 2 or more copies into brews. While the first ability doesn't stack, the Treasure token creation does. So, in decks that play lots of grindy value-generating stuff like Aid From the Cowl and other Enchantments with Revolt, it's a nice way to generate some extra mana to be able to stay competitive on the mana curve. (In other words, the Treasures keep you in the game.)

Trove of Temptation is a mere nickel or so, and it's hardly a target for speculation. Still, it's a nice little under-the-radar uncommon that you shouldn't be giving away for free. It might buylist for a nickel or so eventually. But more importantly, it's just another little nugget of value from Ixalan that deserves to not be overlooked.

Dragons of Legend 2 isn't the only newer set to provide good Toon cards, though. With the Shining Victories set, in came a powerful new Toon monster:  Red-Eyes Toon Dragon. Yu-Gi-Oh players know how busted Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon became. This is a pretty strong Red-Eyes Dragon, too, letting you Special Summon any Toon monster other than another "Red-Eyes Toon Dragon" from your hand once per turn.

 And with the Dark Illusion set, Toons keep getting better. Toon Dark Magician may be the best of the Toon monsters printed so far! The best part about this Dark Magician is that he can summon a Toon monster directly from your deck!  He also has the ability to search out a Toon Spell or Trap card from your deck, including Toon Kingdom! It also doesn't hurt that he can attack your opponent directly for 2500 !

In particular, you're going to want to get a Red-Eyes Toon Dragon. You can then use the Toon Dragon's ability to summon yet another Toon Dark Magician from your hand and repeat the process! In effect, you can combo off a bunch of summons in one turn just like the classic Six Samurai decks and many other competitive decks today.

You’d want to start with something  like this:

Monsters (16)

3x Toon Cannon Soldier
3x Toon Gemini Elf
3x Toon Masked Sorcerer
2x Toon Mermaid
2x Toon Cyber Dragon
3x Toon Dark Magician
3x Red-Eyes Toon Dragon

Spells (17)

2x Comic Hand
3x Mimicat
3x Pot of Duality
3x Toon Kingdom
3x Toon Table of Contents

Traps (7)

1x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Call of the Haunted
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Toon Briefcase

Toon Summoned Skull is a classic Toon monster that usually sees play in Toons, but Toon Cyber Dragon is a newer option you can play instead. The Cyber Dragon is probably better, though, since you can Special Summon it in the same way you could a regular Cyber Dragon.

The monster line-up doesn’t look overwhelming, but since they can all attack directly if your opponent doesn’t control a Toon, they don’t have to be overwhelming on power. Also, remember that you can just banish a card face-down if they would be destroyed. There’s enough defensive cards in the deck to deal with any major offensive threats from your opponent.

Answering Great Reader Feedback About Building a Toon Kingdom Deck

Over time, I’ve received some great reader comments about building their own Toon Kingdom decks. One reader suggestion is to use the continuous Spell card Field Barrier to protect your Toon Kingdoms. I feel this would be a good card to consider for the sideboard, especially against decks with enough firepower to continuously blow away cards in your Spell & Trap Zones.

Another reader suggestion is to use a different draw card in place of Pot of Duality. This is because you can’t Special Summon monsters in the same turn as playing Pot of Duality. However, this wouldn’t be the first Special Summon happy deck to play Duality. This is because Duality lets you choose one card from among the next three.

You could use Upstart Goblin instead of Pot of Duality, which gifts your opponent 1000 LP to draw you a card. This isn’t my favorite option, but Upstart Goblin has been used for years with much success. There are other options, such as Jar of Greed. But since you can unleash some powerful direct attacks with Toon monsters, the life gain for your opponent may be a moot point.


Will a Toon Kingdom Deck Be Able to Win at Local Tournaments?

While this isn’t a competitively optimized list, it is a place to start your Toon Kingdom deck. You can substitute whatever Toon monsters you find most useful. Also, keep in mind you have your XYZ monsters at your disposal, something that Toons never had before. As an archetype, Toons are continuing to look a lot scarier with each new set release that includes them.

Will Toons ever again become consistent enough to actually win tournaments as they could in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh? That’s quite hard to say, considering you could end up banishing all of your Toon Kingdoms by accident. That is unlikely, though, with how many ways you have to tutor them out. Also, there's enough copies of your monsters and support cards to keep from burning through all of them.

While I don’t plan on just building Toons myself and playing Yu-Gi-Oh again, it’s been a lot of fun to watch Konami continue to give one of the original Yu-Gi-Oh deck archetypes new life. Let’s see what other tricks they have up their sleeve in the future. You never know what they’ll reprint or support next.

Updated 10/21/2018

Here are some other Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game articles you may enjoy:

- Yu-Gi-Oh Blackwings Deck 2018 Profile
- Can a Gladiator Beast Deck Still Be Competitive in 2019?
- GOAT FORMAT! - Intro to the Format and Original Aggro Control Deck
- Fire Princess Burn - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Profile!
- The Legendary Fisherman - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh Deck Profile

Ever since he was released, I've been a big fan of Bontu the Glorified. Oketra the True is probably my favorite, but clearly Hazoret the Fervent and Rhonas the Indomitable are the true powerhouses. Rhonas sees tons of play in Standard and has crept into Modern. Hazoret is in not only Standard and some Modern decks, he even pops up in Legacy Dragon Stompy decks! Even Kefnet the Mindful has made some cameos in Control decks in Standard.

But Bontu seems to be vastly underappreciated at the moment, and it's because of how you have to build around him. He can only attack or block if a creature under YOUR control has died in a turn. The best way to do this is to use his ability, which costs 1B - you sacrifice a creature, get to scry 1, then you gain 1 life and each opponent loses one life.

As a 4/6, he can be quite a powerhouse for only 3 mana. But what deck can consistently sacrifice creatures like this? The best example is a Mono-Black Aggro deck like this one at Pro Tour Ixalan. As a one-of, it's not bad in an aggro deck. Since you can use the sacrifice ability at instant speed, you can sacrifice creatures that would have otherwise died to removal or in combat, anyway. Bontu also has great synergies with creatures like Bone Picker, Dread Wanderer, Scrapheap Scrounger and Yahenni, Undying Partisan.

I was able to pick up a copy of Bontu the Glorified on CardSphere for $1.36, which is roughly $0.35 less than his TCGPlayer market price at the time. This sounds cheap, but Bontu's stock is relatively low at the moment. But with his price bottoming out at $2, as a useful mythic rare from a good set, this is a reasonable floor. It's possible for him to hit $4 again during his time in Standard. But, $6 or even $8 is possible if Bontu lands in a top 8 Standard list.

There's so little risk with Bontu, especially as he sees a fair amount of play in EDH; the popular Meren of Clan Nel Toth likes to have him. If he even hits $3, I'm more than happy. You can be happy to be a buyer at $2 and below, as his price is trending in the right direction.

Nimbus Maze is one of those cards that people expected to hit a $20 price for a long time. Why is that? It’s a decent dual land that can give you White mana if you control an Island, and Blue mana if you control a Plains. That sounds kind of backwards, but it is what it is.

The Maze is actually rather similar to the dual lands from Battle for Zendikar in that it cares about what basic land types you already control. But it’s a unique land in that it was one of those one-of oddities from Future Sight. Another land from that set, Grove of the Burnwillows, became widely successful and very expensive. So why not Nimbus Maze?

Why not, indeed? It’s a valuable land in EDH, where people play Hallowed Fountain, Prairie Stream, and other lands with the basic land types Plains and/or Island. But as far as competitive play is concerned, especially Modern, you just never really see it. So why did this once $5 land slowly creep up to $8 over the course of 2016, and suddenly spike to nearly $40 (before settling around $25 for a bit) in late June of 2016?

Copies of Nimbus Maze were slowly trickling off of the internet for some time. Usually it’s one at a time, which is why the price increase has been so slow, but steady. A few speculators have bought multiple copies over the past few years, which has eaten up some of the supply. But these sales are rare enough that it’s made the card widely unavailable. It’s not a card that’s in high demand. Still, there is enough of a desire to have it available for Commander decks that people have been hoarding their copies.

What is a fair price for Nimbus Maze? Clearly, $25 is most certainly not. This simply isn’t a sustainable price for this card. The race to the bottom on TCGPlayer would be fairly quick. By “race to the bottom,” I mean sellers continuously undercutting each other until a price equilibrium is found.

At best, Nimbus Maze is probably a $10 card long-term. We saw the market price of this card fall to around $8-12 by June 2017, depending on condition. What made this a fair price is based mostly on the card’s overall scarcity. It was doubtful that this land would be reprinted as there is really no expansion set that it makes sense to include within. There was once speculation that it would be included as part of a new land cycle in Theros. But nothing ever came of that.

However, it would be reprinted in Iconic Masters, a set that sort of came out of nowhere... and that spelled the end of this card's steady rise...

Still, if Wizards of the Coast decides to create a cycle of lands similar to it, which is totally possible, Nimbus Maze would definitely become a lot more valuable. Vendor buylists weren’t willing to pay much more than $4 to $5 after the spike, with the outlier being high as $7. In mid-2017, the buylist price was closer to $8, which was a good sign for the future of this card.

While the market did regain some sanity in regards to Nimbus Maze, and there was a fairly substantial reprint, there may yet be another spike in its future. For quite some time,  there weren't a bunch of near-mint copies left on the open market. The reprinting led to quite a sell-off, though. Still, with this spike in its price history, we can take away a few things from  this event which can tell us a lot about what people think about this card.

Clearly, lands that are unique in some way are going to be worth something. White & Blue is a popular color combination, especially in Control-type decks. It’s actually a bit surprising that we don’t see Nimbus Maze more often in Modern. This may be due to the fact that the filter land, Mystic Gate, is much more playable in Modern. Being able to fix your mana by filtering the color you don’t need is very, very valuable when you need to cast cards that require 3 White or 3 Blue or some other tricky combination of colors.

Another factor that's still holding back this card is Mystic Gate. That’s about a $20 card as of November 2017, about the same price as Nimbus Maze was post-spike. So if you want to put your $20 into a good dual land, I’d put it on the "strictly better" Mystic Gate. It’s already been reprinted as a foil Expedition in Oath of the Gatewatch, and it’s unlikely we’ll see these filter lands reprinted again soon. Filter lands in general seem to be a pretty solid investment. Nimbus Maze is a cool land, but the reprint really cratered it as an investment.

Clearly, Nimbus Maze’s price spike was due to a buyout. Yes, it was due to hit $10 eventually. But as the market sometimes does, there’s an opportunity seen by a few people who have the cash to buy out a ton of copies at once. Oddly enough, this usually benefits those who are holding onto single copies more than it does those that actually initiate the buyout. It also benefits those who had the foresight to stash away copies in anticipation of a price jump. There are a lot of happy people right now, and you have to give them credit for their foresight.

This is a card that simply wasn’t widely available any more. Anytime that happens, silly price spikes can occur. While the story of this Nimbus Maze price spike has come to an end, it may not be the last for this unique land. However, having been reprinted in Iconic Masters has really put a damper on this card's price ceiling.

But for all those that have called this card a great investment over the past few years, it wasn't a bad idea. Congratulations on your crazy gains if you sold out at the right time and bought back in when it came back to earth. If you wait to let the Iconic Masters versions bottom out, you may have a chance to make a bunch of money again eventually.

Even if this card never enjoys a second spike, Nimbus Maze was definitely worth a $10 price tag before it was reprinted. Maybe it will get there again one day.

Despite my failings with Standard specs so far, we’re definitely ahead in the MTGO 1 Event Ticket Collection Challenge. We cashed out an Event Ticket fairly early and only had to reinvest it for my latest spec, which was successful. I’ll get to it in a moment.

Captain Lannery Storm was a risky spec that I was able to break even on. Deadeye Tracker, which I though much safer, has been a total bust. The best chance I’ve had to cash out was still a loss of about 0.4 tix so I’m banking on this one-drop blowing up with Rivals of Ixalan.

Arbitrage has been a black hole lately, so I had to make a good spec to keep this challenge from stalling out indefinitely. I found it with Chromatic Star, specifically the Time Spiral version.

Looking for a new, active Magic the Gathering blog, forum, podcast, or YouTube Channel to follow? There are tons of good MTG content creators out on the internet. Here are some of the top blogs and other content creators that we at Gaming Successfully have found.

The list is in alphabetical order, as we think that ranking them isn't fair. This is because that we believe that each blog, as long as it is well-presented and well-written enough to enjoy, has its own flavor and value to add to the Magic the Gathering community.
 
We will be adding to this best MTG blogs list on a fairly regular basis. We will also be revising it to remove those sadly no longer kept current. If you have a blog that you'd like to see added to our list, let us know in the comments!
 
(Note: Some great Magic resources such as Deckbox, MTG Stocks, and Tappedout are not listed here because they are not technically blogs. Those are for another article! However, I AM including forums, podcasts, and video series that are still active.)
 
So without further ado, here is our list.
 
Updated 7/3/2018


AlbyMTG (YouTube Channel)

A YouTube channel about talking about playing with cardboard. Gotta love that! Better check out this video about the Top 5 Rabbits in Magic the Gathering!

 
Blogatog (markrosewater.tumblr.com)

 Magic the Gathering designer Mark Rosewater is extremely active on social media connecting with MTG fans all the time. His Tumblr blog Blogatog is full of fan Q&A, his famous little comic Tales From the Pit, among other MTG related things. Even if you're not really a Tumblr user, it's still worth looking at.

 
Brainstorm Brewery (http://brainstormbrewery.com/category/articles/) - PODCAST

 While most famous for their podcasts, Brainstorm Brewery does publish articles on occasion, although it's been a bit. Their podcast is great, though, too. So if you're into Magic podcast banter, this is a must-listen.


Breakfast with Nerds (YouTube Channel)

 This YouTube channel has both Magic: the Gathering and Pokemon Trading Card Game content. New episodes on Wednesdays & Saturdays. Check them out!


The Card Bazaar (YouTube Channel)

Most famous for their Magic the Gathering History series, Card Anthology!


 
Channel Fireball (www.channelfireball.com/articles)

 One of the bigger MTG retailers, Channel Fireball has a lot of great Magic strategy and decklist articles. They have some of the best players in the game writing for them, including co-founder Luis Scott-Vargas, better known as LSV. Their YouTube Channel features pros blowing up the world with all kinds of decks, including LSV himself. But the content is accessible for every level of Magic player.


 Chuck Wagon MTG (YouTube Channel)

An up and coming YouTube channel who is "Making the world a better place, one booster pack at a time..."


Commanders Brew (Podcast)

Just discovered this great MtG Commander-related podcast. They have a great series called "Achievement Unlocked" which refers to trying to win a game of Commander in particular ways. Good stuff.


Daily MTG (http://magic.wizards.com/en/content/articles)

 No list of MTG blogs would be complete without Daily MTG, which is Wizards of the Coast's official blog. It's pretty good, too. Mark Rosewater's Making Magic articles are among the most popular on there, and for good reason!


Dijital Llama (YouTube)

Tim of Dijital Llama is an amateur MtG content creator, lover of jank, tribal decks, commander, and all things casual. Still got a foot in the door with Games Workshop too!


EDHREC Articles (articles.edhrec.com)
 
The premier resource for EDH deck lists and deck building resources now has articles! It's great to see quality blogging being done on one of my favorite Magic the Gathering sites ever.


Gathering Magic (www.gatheringmagic.com)

 Once known as Mana Nation, Gathering Magic is one of the premier Magic the Gathering blogs on the internet. Owned by CoolStuff Inc, it has some of the best Magic writers around. The sheer diversity of content on their site is what makes them so good. They cover pretty much any format you can think of.


Haus of Magic (YouTube Channel)

Haus of Magic is a YouTube channel created by a married Magic: the Gathering couple just living their life and fighting with cards. (We were really happy to have Erik and Cassie join us for an interview!)


Hipsters of the Coast (www.hipstersofthecoast.com)

 A fun Magic blog that's been starting to get more Hearthstone content, if you're into that sort of thing. Still a good MTG blog regardless.

 

If Lands Could Kill (http://mtgcast.com/author/knifecityalchemist) - PODCAST

 This podcast was suggested to us. Their byline reads: "Magic: the Gathering for novices, by novices. Weekly comedy MTG podcast and not-so-weekly Versus videos." Good stuff.


Jake and Joel are Magic (YouTube Channel)

Another great YouTube channel. Jake and Joel are Magic is a Comedy MtG YouTube channel. Their tagline is: Real. Funny. Magic. Subscribe to them on YouTube for silliness. Jake and Joel's 8 minute deck techs are Magic! (Interviewed J&J here.)


King of Jank (YouTube Channel)

Do you like (really bad) jokes and MTG? You came to the right place! XD


Kitchen Table MTG Forum (www.kitchentablemtg.com/forum/)

While technically not a blog itself, the Kitchen Table MTG forum has some great discussion threads going on a regular basis. It's definitely worth checking out. And  they do have some blogs. Also, they are the creators of #FridayMTG on Twitter, which is an awesome way to discover some great MtG content!


Quiet Speculation (www.quietspeculation.com)

 While this MTG finance oriented blog is mostly subscription-based, there is some free content on here occasionally that's worth reading. Also, some of the free Trader Tools are good if you like to watch price trends.

 

LegitMTG (www.legitmtg.com)

 While first and foremost a MTG card store, their blog has been taking a lot of content submissions recently. The writing there is pretty good, and they feature Magic with Zuby's podcast there, as well.

 

Life Begins at 20 - YouTube Channel

 This UK MTG YouTuber has taken off pretty fast. He has a lot of Cube-related content, among other things. (Check out our interview!)

 
 Magic at TCGPlayer  (magic.tcgplayer.com)

 It's no secret that Magic the Gathering is one of TCGPlayer's top sellers. So it's not surprising that they pay people to write articles for them. They actually have one of the oldest Magic blogs out there. It's still one of the better ones.


Magic the Gathering Adventures (http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/)

 What I especially like about this MTG blog is the unique deck builds found here. This blog has been around a long time, too. It has lots of pictures!

 

Magic with Zuby (http://magicwithzuby.com/) - PODCAST

 Great podcast for Magic the Gathering fans to definitely listen to on a regular basis. Also, check out his YouTube channel, Gaming with Zuby, for occasional MTG content.

 
Mana Leak (http://www.manaleak.com/mtguk/)

 A tabletop gaming website from the UK, they have a huge Magic the Gathering section. It does feature other games, as well, but there's plenty of Magic content published all the time.


Master of Magics (www.masterofmagics.co.uk)

Community, creativity, and cards. Abbie has built a great MTG site with several regular content creators. Definitely worth checking this one out!


Milo: the Gathering (YouTube Channel)

Milo: the Gathering is a YouTube Channel “dedicated to talkin' about the best game ever created - Magic: The Gathering.” Milo has new videos every Wednesday and Sunday. His focus is on the Cube format. Check out his channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8bdXOnQR6aIhb90HiIhZYg

 
 Modern Nexus (www.modernnexus.com)

 A blog purely about Magic's Modern format. It's one of the best Modern format blogs out there for sure.


MP Numbers (YouTube Channel/Twitch Streamer)

An affiliated streamer who plays MTG, as well as Hearthstone, and the Eternal Card Game. Also, check out his CreaYTors series on YouTube which is a competition between up-and-coming YouTubers to show off their creativity. (Check out our interview with him!)


MTGandMe (YouTube Channel)

This YouTube channel has great old school openings,  crack-a-packs and random buys! Great stuff and worth subscribing to!



MTG Canuck (YouTube Channel)

Cracking open booster boxes and booster packs on his YouTube channel from Ottawa, Ontario.

 
 MTG Card Market (http://articles.mtgcardmarket.com/category/articles/)

 A fairly large MTG and gaming store, MTG Card Market also maintains a pretty good blog worth reading.

 
 MTG Color Pie (mtgcolorpie.com)

 MTG Color Pie advertises itself as "A Magic: The Gathering blog about card design, humor and community." It's mostly about Magic card design, which is awesome!

 
 
MTG Goldfish (www.mtggoldfish.com)

 Goldfish has become one of the top MTG blogs on the planet. A lot of that has to do with Seth, better known as SaffronOlive. One of the best deck brewers around, he's as famous for his butchering card names as he is for his very creative decks, many of which go on to  produce some good tournament results. But everything on the site is good, especially their metagame analysis and various video series.

 
MTG Lion (www.youtube.com/user/mtglion)

 Another channel we've been watching since early on, MTG Lion has been through a couple of name changes. He deals primarily with MTG finance topics, so if that's not your speed, that's OK. But he does some great contests and his opinions on cards are absolutely spot on more often than not.

 
 MTG Price (blog.mtgprice.com)

 While you need a PROTRADER subscription to access a lot of their content, the financial insights into Magic the Gathering available for free are still quite good. While many hate the MTG Finance crowd, there's still good content here nevertheless. And what's available for free is actually pretty good.

 
 MTG Realm (mtg-realm.blogspot.com)

 This blog is focused on community news and spoilers from upcoming Magic sets. It's one of the more popular out on the Web.

 
 MTG Salvation (www.mtgsalvation.com)

 While Salvation is primarily forums now, there are still some good articles to be read on here. Their quality control isn't quite what it was years back, but it's a good community site.


MTG Spotlight (YouTube Channel)

A Teenage Magic: the Gathering YouTuber who likes to make videos for no profit. (Kind of like I used to be with Yu-Gi-Oh, ha, ha!)


Nerd Knowledge Pool (Twitch Streamer)

A twitch.tv gaming extraordinaire, Cody Cockerham runs the Nerd Knowledge Pool stream!  While Magic the Gathering Online isn’t the only thing he streams, it’s a big part of what he does. According to Cody himself, he’s an aspiring author and connoisseur of all things Geek. He may just be the “total package.”


Paper Champion (paperchampion.net)

This blog has a lot of great contributors of both Magic the Gathering articles and YouTube videos. Definitely one worth following.


Path to TCGs (YouTube Channel)

YouTube channel with tons of Magic the Gathering pack openings. Also features some other TCGs, including Pokemon, as well. Definitely worth checking out!

 
 PureMTGO (www.puremtgo.com)

 While technically a Magic the Gathering Online blog, there's a lot of content here that's  still enjoyable for the both paper (traditional) Magic the Gathering.

 
 Star City Games (www.starcitygames.com)

 No MTG blog list could be complete without mentioning the articles of the premier Magic card retailer, Star City Games. While you have to be a Premier member to read a lot of their articles, the Select (free) articles are worth reading, too! As one of the first major MTG content creators, it's no surprise that they're still one of the best MTG blogs around. You should also check out their YouTube Channel.


Sylvan MTG (YouTube Channel)

These guys Standard Throwbacks videos are a must watch. Love watching old Standard decks go head to head!


Sylvan Studies (www.sylvanstudies.com)

"Magic The Gathering news, articles, and forums - all under one roof." That's the mission of one of the newer MTG blogs out there, Sylvan Studies. It's definitely worth following! (I interviewed them here.)


T1 Glistener Elf (YouTube Channel)

Jay Stephens is Host of T1GlistenerElf on YouTube. Infect aficionado, avid deck brewer, and proud parent of a wonderful toddler. He’s also a children’s book author and is currently working on releasing “It’s Time to Sleep: Evangeline’s Lullaby” which is inspired by his daughter. Check out the Kickstarter campaign for more info! (Interviewed Jay here.)

Team Orcs Head (YouTube Channel)

Jordan is the warchief of Team Orcs Head, a team who are striving to be somewhat good at Magic the Gathering. He is a MTG YouTuber from the UK who has been doing the hobby now just under 3 years. His channel does unboxing videos, deck techs and vlogs. (Interviewed Jordan from Team Orcs Head here.)


Temporal MTG (YouTube Channel)

Another up-and-coming MtG YouTuber. Subscribe today!

 
 The Mana Source - YouTube Channel

 Wedge is one of our favorite MTG content creators, so of course, The Mana Source is going to be on this list. He covers a wide variety of topics, so there's a video for everybody!


The Planeswalker Project - YouTube Channel

The Planeswalker Project is a Magic the Gathering based YouTube channel dedicated to helping new and experienced players enjoy the game on a greater level. (Interviewed him here.)


The Praetor  Collector - YouTube Channel (En Espanol)

Our first Spanish YouTube Magic the Gathering channel on the list! Regardless of what language you speak, though, you should check his channel out!


The Whole Box & Dice - YouTube Channel

The Whole Box and Dice is an Australian based Magic The Gathering (MTG), Dragon Ball Super (DBS) & Hearthstone player. The channel is a lot about what Coops loves about TCGs whether that be cracking packs, building decks and assessing meta and finance. On his channel you will likely find set previews/reviews,  “Can we flip it” booster pack series - booster pack, bundles and booster box openings, plus budget, janky and competitive deck builds and deck techs. (Interviewed Coops here.)

 
Tolarian Community College - YouTube Channel

 The "Professor" has become a big hit among the Magic the Gathering community. His product reviews are the best, and his deck tech videos are awesome. We particularly like his box break games, where he tries to make back the value in a box, and keeps breaking them until he doesn't.
 
 
TotalMTG - YouTube Channel

 Lots of great deck techs on this channel! While many of them are based on building them on a budget on Magic the Gathering Online (MTGO) they are still great lists nonetheless!


Transcendent MTG - YouTube Channel

A YouTuber who is, and I quote, "interested in growing and expanding the Magic community on all platforms."


TriHards Podcast @ MTGCast
 
This MTGCast podcast was suggested by a reader. Seems like a good one!

 
Young Mage (www.youngmage.com)

 A really cool website and YouTube channel which features one of the youngest members of the Magic: the Gathering community. But don't let his age fool you. He's a great Magic Player and Teacher. Check out his website and YouTube channel.  (Interviewed Rhino here.)
 
This list is completely subjective, made from personal searches and suggestions. We were not in any way compensated for any listing in this "Best Of" article.

 Magic the Gathering players were pretty happy to see Vraska return as a planeswalker in the Ixalan set. Were they expecting a six-mana casting cost? Perhaps not. But considering the very real power of Vraska, Relic Seeker’s three abilities, this Ixalan planeswalker card is worth the investment.

Entering the battlefield with six loyalty counters, Vraska, Relic Seeker can make an immediate impact on the board. Her first ability adds two loyalty counters and creates a 2/2 Pirate token that has menace. This means that Pirate must be blocked by two or more creatures.

Vraska's second ability costs three loyalty counters, but allows you to destroy an artifact, a creature, or an enchantment. Not only that, but you get a Treasure artifact token. That token can be tapped and sacrificed to give you one mana of any color to your mana pool. Removal that also nets you a free mana for later is pretty powerful. Since you can likely get two shots at using this ability, this makes Vraska’s casting cost already quite worth it.

Vraska, Relic Seeker’s ultimate ability costs ten loyalty counters, but is very worth using if you get the chance. This ultimate ability causes a target player’s life total to become 1. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this can be good. This might as well read, kill your opponent this turn.

The only trouble is, six mana is a lot for a planeswalker in Standard. Granted, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion was a six-mana powerhouse Planeswalker at one time - and she still sees occasional play in Modern. But the major difference with her is that she had a more immediate effect on gameplay. She could bring three tokens into play right away and had the ability to take out multiple creatures at a time. That’s why Sun’s Champion is still an EDH staple.

Plenty of Commander players are happy to add Vraska, Relic Seeker to their decks. She passes the Doubling Season test; she gets twelve loyalty counters upon entering with that Enchantment in play. The targeted removal is very useful, especially as it hits more than just creatures. The token creation is somewhat less important in EDH, but card advantage in any form is good. The ultimate is good in any format, too.

For Vraska, Relic Seeker to stand out in Standard, it seemed she’d have to carve out a niche in some type of mid-range deck. The power level of this Vraska planeswalker from Ixalan is obvious, though. Right away, she found more than a few mid-range homes. Early on in the Ixalan Standard format, Reid Duke tried out the Ixalan Vraska planeswalker in G/B Energy and G/B Midrange decklists.

More recently, Vraska, Relic Seeker became a mainstay in 4-Color Energy, usually with one copy in the main deck, but occasionally two. As Duke initially discovered, the sort of mana ramp that Energy decks can offer make casting a 6-mana walker a lot easier to do.

Unfortunately, with the banning of Attune with Aether and Rogue Refiner in Standard, Energy decks have taken a major hit. However, because Ixalan Vraska's abilities really work within any sort of deck. Many Green/Black (Golgari) Constrictor decks have been main decking one copy of Vraska, Relic Seeker. Even a 5-color Approach of the Second Sun deck can manage to run a couple of copies!

How do you feel about Vraska, Relic Seeker? Did you foresee her strong competitive impact? Do you think her competitive pedigree will one day extend to Modern, as well?

Necropede  is a very solid artifact creature. It’s a 1/1 for 2 colorless mana, but it has an added effect when it dies: allowing you to put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature. It’s not quite as good as Ichorclaw Myr, but it’s a solid Infect creature nonetheless.

Now onto the non-creature spells. There is actually one non-Green card in the deck.

While older lists ran  Ranger’s Guile, the Kaladesh set offered something far more powerful in Blossoming Defense. It's similar to Vines of Vastwood in that your opponent’s spells and abilities can’t target the creature you choose. It also gives that creature +2/+2, which isn’t quite as good as the Vines, but no kicker is involved. You play this card more to protect creatures from removal. The +2/+2 boost is just a nice bonus.

There are the full four copies of it in this deck, taking the place of 2 Ranger's Guile and 2 copies of Might of Old Krosa.

The Magic 2013 Core Set had an interesting sub-theme of Exalted in it. However, there weren’t enough good Exalted cards to make it very useful in Standard. At one time, during the Shards of Alara block, Exalted was a very potent mechanic. It existed on some very popular creatures, including Noble Hierarch, which is still an extremely popular card in Modern and Legacy today. What Exalted does is give a creature that is attacking alone an additional +1/+1 until end of turn.

As there are four copies of Cathedral of War in this deck, that’s a potential additional +4/+4 as long as you have a creature attacking alone, which oftentimes with this deck is not all that unusual. The one downside to this card is that it enters the battlefield tapped, but in a deck like this with such a low mana curve, that’s not a huge drawback.