All Categories - Life... Successfully

Foucault’s Cannon – A Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review

8/28/2018

by Phoenix A. Desertsong, Staff Writer, Healer & Advocate

Foucault’s Cannon is a Normal Pendulum Monster from the Duelist Alliance expansion set for the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game. This is a Level 5, DARK-attribute Spellcaster-type monster, meaning it also requires a Tribute to be Normal Summoned. While 2200 ATK isn't great for a Level 5 Monster, it's at least respectable. It was one of the first of a few Pendulum Normal Monsters released, along with Flash Knight and Dragon Horn Hunter.

It's also a Normal monster that has a Pendulum effect, something that had never been seen before! During the End phase that this card is played in a Pendulum zone, you can target one face-up Spell/Trap Card on the field and destroy it. This, of course, includes other Pendulum Monsters. When this card was released, there were also tons of relevant face-up Spell and Trap cards in play in the metagame. Overall, this is a fairly good effect.

With Spellcasters a fairly viable archetype all of their own, it seemed this monster might have some potential. But, as more of the ARC-V sets were released, it quickly became outclasses. Still, in a vacuum, this isn't a bad monster at all. Spell & Trap destruction is certainly very splash-able and Pendulum Normal Monsters certainly would get better and better. Foucault’s Cannon also has a Pendulum Scale of 2, making it a great lower-end scale in a Pendulum-heavy deck.

Due to seeing basically zero competitive play, it’s a very inexpensive super rare card. Still, it's worth looking at for its place in the early history of Pendulum monsters. It's certainly not the worst monster out there.

~ Phoenix <3

Dragon Horn Hunter – A Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Card Review

8/28/2018

by Phoenix A. Desertsong, Staff Writer, Healer & Advocate

The first of the Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V expansion sets, Duelist Alliance, introduced a brand new card type to the card game: Pendulum Monsters. After players were introduced to the Pendulum Summoning mechanic with the Space Time Showdown Super Starter Deck, we got to see the mechanic in full force in the Duelist Alliance set. Here we’ll take a look at the Sneak Peek Participation Promo, Dragon Horn Hunter. It would turn out to actually be a decent monster!

What’s particularly interesting about Dragon Horn Hunter is the fact that he’s a normal Monster, a Level 6 DARK-Attribute Warrior with 2300 ATK and 1000 DEF. These stats are nothing special. However, as a Pendulum Monster, when he lives in one of your two Pendulum Zones he has a Pendulum Scale of 3 and gains this effect: “All Normal Monsters gain 200 ATK. You take no battle damage from battles involving Normal Monsters you control.” That’s a very good effect.

Dragon Horn Hunter really pushes you to play Normal Monsters. As it turns out, there’s an easy way to search out this card: Summoner’s Art from Tactical Evolution. Also, being a DARK-type monster is good, as it can provide the necessary DARK component for many other cards. It also means that playing classic Normal Monsters such as Summoned Skull - also a potential target for Summoner’s Art - becomes far more plausible.

The greatest con to this card is obviously the fact that he relies quite heavily on the Pendulum mechanic. You’re going to need to push out high-level Normal Monsters to simply overpower your opponent if this guy is going to make much of a difference. The ATK boost he gives isn’t much, but taking no battle damage from battles involving your Normal Monsters could make a Normal Monster based Pendulum Summoning deck a realistic option.

As it turned out, Pendulum decks with Normal Pendulum Monsters would turn out to be competitive. As we saw with the Space Time Showdown Starter Deck, Normal Monsters were being pushed with the advent of the Pendulum Summoning mechanic. In 2016, this card was good enough to appear in some competitive Pendulum Magicians decks at a single copy.

While it didn’t stay relevant in competitive play for long, as it would become outclassed with future sets, there were a couple of lists that took full advantage of this creature’s power. Overall, Dragon Horn Hunter was a good role player for a time in some builds of Pendulum Magicians, a deck that would go on to evolve into one of the better deck archetypes in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! For a Sneak Peek promo, that was a pretty good time in the spotlight.

~ Phoenix <3

Path of Bravery - A Magic the Gathering Card Review

8/21/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

The Magic 2014 Core Set is definitely an enchantment-happy set. Of the many interesting Enchantments, Path of Bravery is definitely a good card. It would later be reprinted in Iconic Masters. As long as you have more life than you started with (or even the same number you started with, in fact), all of your creatures gain +1/+1. Then, whenever your creatures attack, you gain life equal to the number of creatures that you have attacking. It can be one or a thousand. In any case, this life-gain can be quite substantial

The starting life total bit is clearly intended to make it not break Commander - where you start at 40 life in a multi-player setting) In Constructed, White Weenie was needing a card like Path of Bravery for awhile. The first half of this card already makes this card a variant of Honor of the Pure, but one that doesn’t restrict itself to white creatures. But the second half of this card is what makes it so powerful. Having lots of little creatures consistently gaining you life not only keeps you in the game, but it makes it pretty much impossible for burn decks to race you.

The best part of Path of Bravery is that it costs 2 colorless and a White mana. This means that it’s easy to splash in green-white, red-white, or blue-white creature-based decks. With Soulmender and Fiendslayer Paladin already a part of Magic 2014, plus creatures with Extort from Gatecrash, life-gain was suddenly looking like a valid mechanic again!

Despite this being a darn good card, it saw fairly limited play in Standard. You’d find three copies of Path of Bravery in the occasional White Weenie deck. It was also a pretty strong card in Limited, especially at Grand Prix Prague 2013. The deck that Path of Bravery most shined in was Martyr Life in Modern, a variant of Martyr Proc. Like the older Soul Sisters decks before it, it relied on Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, and Spectral Procession to flood the board with a bunch of creatures. It was called Martyr Life due to playing Martyr of Sands, which could gain you a ton of life, plus the one copy of Path of Bravery in the main deck and one copy of Chalice of Life in the sideboard This was actually a fairly successful deck from 2013 well into 2014.

Since late 2014, Path of Bravery pretty much disappeared from competitive play, but not from play entirely. It still sees a fair amount of play in Commander across a wide variety of decks, including Darien, King of Kjeldor, Karlov of the Ghost Council, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, and other decks with either a weenie creature or lifegain theme. While Path of Bravery isn’t quite as good in Commander due to having to stay over 40 life, it’s still a solid Enchantment.

Could Path of Bravery re-emerge in Modern someday? It’s certainly possible. As a card that did have its day in the competitive spotlight, you never know.

Flash Knight – A Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Card Review

8/17/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

While Flash Knight may simply be a rare card from Yu-Gi-Oh’s Duelist Alliance expansion set, this Pendulum Monster would prove himself to be rather useful. He’s a Level 4 Light-Attribute Normal Monster with 1800 ATK and 600 DEF, easily search-able with Reinforcement of the Army. The most important part about the Flash Knight is the fact that he has a Pendulum Scale of 7. Combined with a creature like Dragon Horn Hunter in your opposite Pendulum Zone, you then have the ability to summon Level 4 to Level 6 monsters with ease at the beginning of each of your turns.

Was Flash Knight going to be a good option for a deck based around Pendulum Summoning high-level Normal Monsters? While the range is a bit limited, topping out at Level 6 as previously mentioned, there are plenty of strong Normal Monsters that fall in between those levels. In fact, the Knight did see some competitive play, including some Regional Top 8 Draco Performapals decks like this one.

For only a mere rare, the Flash Knight actually proved himself to be a fairly useful monster. He was useful enough just as a scale, and having 1800 ATK isn't too shabby, either! As one of the first ever Pendulum monsters, the Knight held his own for awhile before being outclassed by flashier, badder Pendulum monsters. But let us never forget the exploits of this brave Level 4 Knight!

Gaming Gems - Wolfenstein 3D!

8/13/2018

by Phoenix A. Desertsong, Staff Writer, Healer & Advocate

Newer gamers are likely familiar with the Castle Wolfenstein games, but the legend began way back in 1992 with Wolfenstein 3D! The adventures of B.J. Blazkowicz infiltrating Nazi strongholds and taking down their bosses became such a huge hit that the game spawned console ports as well as a sequel in Spear of Destiny!

I probably shouldn’t have been playing this game as a kid, but it was fun! After all, this game has a MATURE rating for a reason, with all the blood and whatnot - pixelated as it may be. Still, for a game as old as it is, it’s actually held up really well!

Pros of Wolfenstein 3D

I’m one of those 100% gamers who try to do absolutely everything. And this game is great for that! In addition to tons of secret rooms that you can find by pushing walls, there’s also a secret level for each of the six episodes! Really, you can play this game for years and never find everything. The level design is that deep!

Over the years, there have even been mods made for Wolfenstein 3D that allow for endless extra hours of gameplay, testing the limits of the original game engine! So, the replayability of this game is pretty crazy high!

Also, you get to be the “good guy” and help take down some pretty evil baddies!

Cons of Wolfenstein 3D?

Are there any? Perhaps the biggest knock you could have against the game is that the entirety of the game’s six episodes can technically be completed within half an hour if you know what you’re doing.

Observe this speed-run:

Of course, this particular speed run is actually a bunch of separate segments and not really a “true” speed-run. But it shows you how a lot of the floors can be beat within 15-30 seconds if you know how to take advantage of guys walking through otherwise locked doors, etc. But I don’t think this is a bad thing. Obviously, you have to run through the levels umpteen times to get this good at it.

And yeah, it’s really dated. But for a game that’s over 25 years old, what can you really expect?

It’s pretty hard to come across a copy of this game that you can buy these days. So I won’t be linking to any, but you can certainly find it online if you really want to play it! Of course, there are tons of people on YouTube that have played it, so if you want the full experience, there’s this 100% walkthrough by Big Mac Davis!

What awesome classic games did you play as a kid? Whether they be on PC or any console, I’d love to hear about them?

Gaming Gems - Raptor: Call of the Shadows

8/12/2018

by Phoenix A. Desertsong, Staff Writer, Healer & Advocate

Raptor: Call of the Shadows was one of my favorite PC games growing up! It was a top-down vertical-scroller shooter by Apogee Software & Cygnus Studios from 1994 that I probably wasted far too many hours playing, but oh man, it was fun! It’s similar to another classic game called Major Stryker, but for whatever reason Raptor has really lived on. Heck, there are streamers who even STILL PLAY IT LIVE ON STREAM!

This longplay on stream by cs188creations is super awesome. It’s 2 and a half hours long, so don’t feel pressured to watch the whole thing. But, you can get the whole experience by watching it. And he played it on max difficulty WITHOUT SAVING! Yeah, he died a couple of times, but that’s what you get from going hardcore!

Like a lot of older games there were some cheats that made the game easier, like skipping levels and a “god mode.” But I always preferred to play the old fashioned way. I pretty much only played on MAX difficulty - Elite - but I always saved after every wave!

Pros of Raptor

The soundtrack of this game was so good that I’d find myself humming tracks from it all of the time! There’s even a playlist or two of the Raptor: Call of the Shadows OST on YouTube! Despite there only being three sectors with nine waves each, the game has surprising amounts of replay value. There are also some cool easter eggs that I forget how to get at now.

The selection of weapons and equipment is also pretty expansive for such an old game, although there are a few that are clearly better than others, like the Auto-Track Minigun and the Twin Lasers. The graphics were superb at the time and it was critically liked.

Really, Raptor’s a great game to play when you just want something straightforward where you blow stuff up!

Cons of Raptor

Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything I dislike about Raptor Call of the Shadows. I will say that there’s a Windows version from 1999 that had some serious control issues. But since then there’s been a version released on Steam which is fine and an iOS version of the game, as well.

The only other knock I’d really have against the game is that it’s not packed with quite as many levels as other similar games. But the quality of its 27 levels makes up for whatever replayability value it loses from having such a small number of stages.

Overall, it’s really fun to watch other people play Raptor that have such a nostalgic fondness for it like myself! If you’re looking for a classic game to fire up, this is definitely one that’s worth a couple hours of time for the serious retro PC gamer!

You can find the DOTEmu 2010 version available for download on Amazon or the newer 2015 release on Steam.

Games similar to Raptor: Star Defender 4 & Alien Stars by Awem Studios

Burning Anger – A Magic the Gathering Card Review

8/3/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Burning Anger (no relation to the Glyph of Burning Anger from World of Warcraft) is an Enchant Creature card - more popularly known as an Aura - from the Magic 2015 Core Set. Unlike many of the Auras from the Theros block, however, Burning Anger wasn't really a viable option for the popular Heroic deck archetype.

This Enchantment costs 4 and a Red mana to cast. Auras with a Converted Mana Cost of five need to be something special. They do exist, but is this one? To be honest, Burning Anger does give the Enchanted creature a decent effect: it gains the ability to deal damage equal to its power to target creature or player. The fact that it's creature or player is definitely important. Put on a 7-power creature card like Phytotitan, that's a pretty powerful card.

Unfortunately, this card is a bit mana-intensive to fit into the mana curve of most decks that would play Auras. It was useful in Limited, sure, if big creatures are already in the game-plan. It's going to be a fringe card even in the Aura-happy Commander environment, as it's in the wrong colors for the most popular Aura-friendly Commanders: Bruna, Light of Alabaster, Krond the Dawn-Clad, Zur the Enchanter, etc.) However, some other Commanders that make the use of auras, such as Uril the Miststalker, and even Kresh the Bloodbraided and Zurgo Helmsmasher, have made limited use of this five-mana Aura.

Burning Anger has a good design, and it's probably properly costed. But, it's just another bulk Core Set rare when all is said and done.

Preeminent Captain – A Magic the Gathering Modern Card Review

7/27/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

As someone who started playing Magic the Gathering during the Lorwyn set block, I was very familiar with the Kithkin Soldier Preeminent Captain when he was reprinted in the Magic 2015 Core Set. Kithkins were a competitive tribal deck back in those days. I've always been a huge fan of Soldiers, in general. After all, my favorite planeswalker is Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

Today, Preeminent Captain only really sees play in Commander decks which revolve around a Soldier Tribal theme. Despite a lack of competitive play, before the reprint, he was still a pretty valuable card from Morningtide. The reason for this lies in the power of his ability.

Preeminent Captain is a 2/2 Kithkin Soldier that costs 2W to cast. Not only does he have First Strike, but whenever he declares an attack, you may put a Soldier creature card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. This could even be an additional Preeminent Captain, although you won't get the ability from the second Captain until he next declares an attack himself. Still, this is an extremely powerful free summon. On a three mana creature, that's pretty absurd value.

Let's see what a Top 8 Standard deck from 2008 with Preeminent Captain looked like:

Lands (23)

4 Brushland
4 Horizon Canopy
3 Mutavault
8 Plains
4 Rustic Clachan

Creatures (30)

4 Cenn's Tactician
2 Field Marshal
4 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
3 Kinsbaile Borderguard
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
2 Mirror Entity
3 Preeminent Captain
4 Wizened Cenn

Non Creature Spells (7)

4 Sunlance
3 Oblivion Ring

SIDEBOARD

3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Hurricane
2 Patrician's Scorn
4 Tormod's Crypt

Obviously, this White Weenie Kithkin deck runs a lot of Soldier creatures, the only exceptions being Knight of Meadowgrain and Wizened Cenn in the mainboard. Kithkin decks often ran two copies, if not three, of Preeminent Captain to speed up the assault of an already pretty effective aggro deck. While he was a complementary piece, he allowed the deck to have some very explosive turns, especially when you got two or even all three on the battlefield at once.

So, considering he was pretty good in this and pretty much every kitchen table deck that was focused on Soldiers, how would he fare in the future?

Preeminent Captain and Captain of the Watch

While they were never in Standard together, Preeminent Captain and Captain of the Watch have been linked ever since the latter Soldier was printed in the Magic 2010 Core Set. She'd be printed again in the Magic 2013 Core Set and also in the Duel Decks: Elspeth vs Kiora. Even though they rarely saw competitive play together, they have obvious synergy that has made them fine pals.

Captain of the Watch is a whopping six mana to cast (4WW) but her abilities are worth the cost. She's only a 3/3 herself, but this Human Soldier gives all other soldiers you control +1/+1 and vigilance. Vigilance means that your Soldier creatures don't have to tap when they attack, meaning they can stay open to block or tap for abilities. She also brings three 1/1 Soldier tokens into play when she enters the battlefield.

While Preeminent Captain's ability brings the Captain of the Watch into play tapped and attacking, this is OK. We're bringing in a six-mana creature into play for FREE after all, along with her tokens and a +1/+1 boost to Preeminent Captain and any other soldiers you control. The vigilance won't be a factor until the next combat, but that's OK. Cheating Captain of the Watch into play is enough reason to run her, after all.

Even though Captain of the Watch barely saw any Standard play, she DID see Legacy play. Albeit, it was limited, but as you can see from this 2014 Magic Online Legacy Daily list, she did so with her partner in crime, Preeminent Captain!

Legacy White Weenie – DaPokPok – 11/11/2014 - MTGO Legacy Daily

Lands (22)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
1 City of Traitors
2 Karakas
9 Plains
2 Wasteland

Creatures (26)
3 Aven Mindcensor
4 Captain of the Watch
1 Commander Eesha
3 Daru Warchief
4 Enlistment Officer
1 Gustcloak Savior
2 Longbow Archer
4 Preeminent Captain
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Non-Creature Spells (12)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
4 Suppression Field

SIDEBOARD
1 Aven Cloudchaser
2 Dawnbringer Charioteers
3 Holy Light
1 Null Rod
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Rest in Peace
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Wasteland

Only Aven Mindcensor was not a Soldier in this deck, and you weren't going to want to put Mindcensor into play tapped and attacking anyway. This deck takes Preeminent Captain to the best of his ability, giving you lots of card advantage. Enlistment Officer comes into play searching up another Soldier. Daru Warchief pumps your Soldiers and makes them cheaper to cast. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben slows down your opponent's non-creature spells. And even in Legacy, putting a six-mana Soldier into play along with three tokens is just extremely powerful, not to mention those tokens are 2/2 with just the Captain of the Watch on board.

While this deck is pretty great on paper, it never really took off into major tournaments. It was a well-built deck, though, and it really displays the true power of the combo between Preeminent Captain and Captain of the Watch.

Preeminent Captain in Magic 2015 Standard

With his reprint in Magic 2015, Preeminent Captain came into a Standard environment where it seemed he should play a role. There were a ton of playable Soldiers in Standard right then. Granted some of the best Soldiers available at that time, Precinct Captain and Loxodon Smiter, were soon rotating out of Standard. Still, Theros block is chock full of them, especially those with Heroic. As it would turn out, Heroic decks would still be good for awhile.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos was the best Soldier in Standard, by far. Along with him, there were a bevy of other playable White Soldiers which included: Akroan Skyguard, Archetype of Courage, Boros Elite, Favored Hoplite, Hero of Iroas, Soldier of the Pantheon, and Vanguard of Brimaz. If you wanted to go Red/White, there were also Akroan Crusader, Akroan Hoplite, and Battlewise Hoplite as solid Heroic Soldiers.

Also, for a short time before his Standard rotation, Spark Trooper was be a nice little 6/1 surprise with trample and lifelink to throw into play. Yeah, he's a soldier! There were also a couple of interesting Legendary Creatures, Anax and Cymede and Daxos of Meletis, who also appeared to be Soldiers that would benefit from having Preeminent Captain around.

White Weenie and Boros Aggro decks were already pretty good, and having a tool like Preeminent Captain to accelerate the board state seemed like it could push these decks even further up the competitive ladder., With all of the pump spells available in Standard to keep your Captains alive, you were going to potentially get a few free creature summons out of this guy.

Pro player Melissa DeTora offered up a couple of pretty solid decklists that featured Preeminent Captain on TCGPlayer back in 2014. There was a Red/White Heroic list and a Red/White Aggro list which is featured below.

R/W Aggro – Melissa DeTora

Creatures (27)
4 Boros Elite
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Dryad Militant
4 Precinct Captain
4 Preeminent Captain
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Spark Trooper

Non Creature Spells (12)
4 Boros Charm
4 Brave the Elements
2 Hall of Triumph
2 Spear of Heliod

Lands (21)
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Mana Confluence
4 Mutavault
7 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry

Oh, yeah, Dryad Militant is a Soldier, too. This is a great list. Unfortunately, while Red/White Aggro decks, both Heroic and not, enjoyed competitive success, they left Preeminent captain behind. Why is that?

There are a couple of fairly easy explanations. The Standard rotation did knock out a lot of great Soldiers from Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash. Even then, though, there were still plenty of Soldiers left for Preeminent Captain to throw into play. But, were any of them worth it? Unlike in the old days, there wasn't a tribal deck like Kithkins that Preeminent Captain could accelerate with explosive plays.

The best thing that Preeminent Captain could put into play after the rotation of Spark Trooper was Brimaz, King of Oreskos. One of the best parts of Brimaz is that he brings a 1/1 token with vigilance with him when he attacks. Since he comes into play without declaring an attack off of Preeminent Captain, he was basically a 3/4 vanilla when he first entered play. Sure, it's worth putting him into play, but without the token, he becomes considerably less valuable.

Also, because he didn't really benefit Heroic decks, most players didn't see a benefit to including him. Boros Aggro was definitely a deck, too, but people decided they'd rather play a double strike creature like Fabled Hero in the three-drop slot rather than Preeminent Captain who, while a fine creature, didn't really fit into that Standard environment. He proved to just be a bit too slow and his payoff just wasn't enough.

It's too bad, because Preeminent Captain is a great card that needed a reprint for quite a long time. Of course, people played him Standard, but not with great success. He simply didn't find a chance to play a competitive role.

But with the Modern format becoming a thing, would he find his way into a deck into the relatively new Modern metagame?

Preeminent Captain in Modern

The short answer when it comes to Preeminent Captain in Modern is no. Preeminent Captain doesn't see competitive play in Modern. At least, not yet.

Soldiers are a tribe that continue to get support set after set. Knights are the better tribe in Modern, though, since they have the powerful Knight Exemplar as a Lord. Soldiers don't really have anything like that. But, a Soldier deck in Modern is certainly playable, if not super competitive.

In Modern, Preeminent Captain has powerful allies in Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Brimaz, King of Orekos, and even Precinct Captain (who creates a token when he deals combat damage to a player, so he works well with Preeminent Captain.) Of course, you have the old standby of Captain of the Watch. Even in the fairly quick Modern format, if you manage to declare an attack with Preeminent Captain putting Captain of the Watch into play, that's pretty tough to answer.

The reason a deck that centers around abusing Preeminent Captain is so difficult to build in Modern is that Lightning Bolt and Anger of the Gods are around. He simply won't last long enough to really do a lot. Captain of the Watch has a similar problem, being a 3/3, and she had to deal with Lightning Bolt when it was in Standard with her in Magic 2010. The only way that you can make this deck work is to have lots of +1/+1 buffs. It's doable, certainly, but Field Marshal certainly isn't enough and the other best Soldier lords aren't Modern-playable.

If there's a really good Soldier Lord printed in the future, then yes, a deck with Preeminent Captain could at least be a fun deck that could win at some local Modern tournaments.

Overall, Preeminent Captain is a primarily casual card. In that capacity, he's plenty good. He serves a role in Commander decks like Darien, King of Kjeldor and Odric, Master Tactician, who play a lot of Soldiers that Preeminent Captain can accelerate into play. He's a pretty good creature who can do some fairly unfair things if the right creature is printed. He'll need to have a better play than Captain of the Watch to make it in today's Magic, but for what he is, Preeminent Captain is a darn good Soldier who's already enjoyed his day in the sun.

Will he rise again? Only time, and the printing of more cards, will tell.

How would you use Preeminent Captain?

Endless Obedience – A Magic the Gathering Card Review

7/24/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

In Magic the Gathering's 2015 Core Set, the Convoke mechanic first introduced during Ravnica block was alive and well. Spells with Convoke allow you to tap creatures in order to pay the mana cost of that spell. The cool thing about Convoke is that you could actually tap creatures for colored mana if that creature was the same color as the spell. Endless Obedience is one such spell from Magic 2015 with Convoke.

Endless Obedience is an uncommon Sorcery that costs 4BB to cast and it puts target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. However, because it has Convoke, you can pay 1 less for each creature you tap. It could actually become a free reanimation spell if you had six creatures to tap, including at least two black creatures. Free Reanimator spells are pretty good, and there really aren't any. Plus, Endless Obedience has beautiful artwork featuring the popular planeswalker Liliana Vess. It's a pretty decent uncommon all around.

Being that it could be cast for a greatly reduced cost, it wasn't surprising that it did see some Standard play. While it was never part of a dominant deck, there were a few decks that managed to get Top 8 finishes during Theros/Khans of Tarkir Standard It also found a home in a few Commander decks such as Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Liliana, Heretical Healer. However, with so many reanimation spells available in Commander, it hasn't really seen play in that format

Endless Obedience in Standard

Endless Obedience did see some Standard play, but it only had a handful of appearances in top decks. The highest profile deck that ran Endless Obedience was an Abzan Midrange deck that featured Satyr Wayfinder and Commune with the Gods to dump creatures in the graveyard. The deck could reanimate things like Ashen Rider, Siege Rhino, and Hornet Queen from the grave. Hornet Queen and her tokens also could help cast Endless Obedience. There were two copies of Obedience in the deck. It made for a 3rd place finish in the 2014 Nebraska State Championships. Someone ran a similar deck to a Top 8 finish on Magic Online with only one copy of Endless Obedience.

My favorite deck that ran Endless Obedience in Standard, though, was a somewhat unique version of Sultai Whip, a deck based around Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Whip of Erebos. It topped a Daily event on Magic Online back in October 2014.

LANDS (24)
5 Forest
1 Island
4 Opulent Palace
3 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
3 Temple of Malady
4 Temple of Mystery

CREATURES (22)
2 Elvish Mystic
4 Hornet Queen
1 Sagu Mauler
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1 Soul of Innistrad
2 Sultai Soothsayer
4 Sylvan Caryatid

NON CREATURE SPELLS (14)
3 Endless Obedience
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Murderous Cut
3 Sultai Charm
3 Whip of Erebos

SIDEBOARD
1 Endless Obedience
4 Negate
3 Nylea's Disciple
2 Pearl Lake Ancient
3 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Sultai Charm
1 Whip of Erebos

While Endless Obedience is much too resource intensive for Eternal formats like Modern, it's a pretty cool card nonetheless. It's really never going to be worth much, but it's still a fun card to have in your collection.

Have you ever played with Endless Obedience?

Larger Than Life - A Magic the Gathering Card Review

7/22/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Whenever you see a common on TCGPlayer best-seller lists, you want to pay attention. Larger Than Life from Kaladesh has been a best-seller in late June 2018. It’s not incredibly surprising to see people want to pick up their playsets of this card. It’s seen play in some Modern infect lists and Green/Black Pummeler lists in Standard. But why the sudden interest?

This is a common that could make an impact in Pauper, and I’m not sure why it hasn’t. Two mana for +4/+4 at instant speed isn’t bad, but the trample is huge. Pauper Infect can be a thing, after all. There’s also Mono-Green Stompy, one of the oldest deck archetypes in Magic. You don’t have access to the premier pump spells like Blossoming Defense, Might of Old Krosa, and Mutagenic Growth in Pauper.

Larger Than Life is a decent pump spell that had a spike in interest. While it hasn’t shown up in any other top lists besides those mentioned, it certainly could pop up in some future Pauper lists in addition to things like Rancor, Hunger of the Howlpack, and Vines of Vastwood. Whether it will ever be more than a one or two of in lists like those, though, remains to be seen.

Retro Magic: Hold the Line - Innistrad Event Deck Review

7/20/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Of the two Innistrad Event Decks, Hold the Line clearly has more bang for your buck than its green/black counterpart, Deathfed. While Deathfed has some fine rares to add to your collection, Hold the Line is a more playable deck right out of the box. Plus, it has more cards that have held up in value over time.

Let’s take a look at how playable Hold the Line is and just how much it’s worth today.

Creature Spells

1     Champion of the Parish
4     Doomed Traveler
2     Elite Vanguard
4     Gideon’s Lawkeeper
4     Accorder Paladin
1     Elite Inquisitor
4     Fiend Hunter
2     Mirran Crusader

Non-Creature Spells

2     Silver-Inlaid Dagger
4     Bonds of Faith
2     Honor of the Pure
2     Butcher’s Cleaver
4     Oblivion Ring

Lands

24     Plains

Creatures Breakdown

Champion of the Parish, Elite Inquisitor, and a pair of Mirran Crusaders were worth a good chunk of the value in this deck. The Champion gets a +1/+1 counter each time you have a Human enter the battlefield under your control. It’s the best card in the deck. Being that this is an all Human deck, he’s very powerful.

Elite Inquisitor’s value hasn’t held up, but they were about $1.50 at the time because they were efficient 2/2 creatures with first strike and vigilance. They also have protection from Vampires, Zombies, and Werewolves - all important creature types at the time.

Mirran Crusader is the other really good creature in this deck. Not only is he a 2/2 with double strike for three mana, but he has protection from black and green. Most removal couldn’t touch him, and neither could a lot of creatures at the time.

Their support troops are also quite solid, especially a full play set of Fiend Hunter. The Fiend Hunter was great in dealing with problem creatures, and was a staple of a lot of decks at that time. Doomed Traveler is a great value creature, because when he dies, you get a flying 1/1 spirit. Elite Vanguard is a vanilla 2/1, but he’s only one mana.

Gideon’s Lawkeeper helps you tap down opponent’s creatures, which is very handy. Accorder Paladin is a cute 3/1 with battle cry, which gives your other creatures +1/+0 when he attacks. We think of Signal Pest and Hero of Bladehold for this ability, but Accorder Paladin has it, too. Not bad for a 2-mana creature.

Non-Creature Spell Breakdown

Silver-Inlaid Dagger and Butcher’s Cleaver are solid Innistrad equipments. There are two of each in the deck. The Dagger gives +2/+0, but it gives an additional +1/+0 if the equipped creature is a human. It’s only 1 mana to cast and the equip cost is 2, so it’s well-costed. The funny thing is that you’d most likely want to stick this on the flying tokens left over from Doomed Traveler, but it’s pretty effective on a Human.

Butcher’s Cleaver costs 3 to cast and 3 to equip, which is fairly hefty. It does give the equipped creature +3/+0, and if it’s a Human, it also grants lifelink. While that’s pretty good, that’s 6 mana to invest. I’m not really a fan of this equipment in this deck. It’s properly costed, but it’s just a bit too mana-intensive to be worth it most of the time.

Bonds of Faith, on the other hand, is a pretty cool Aura. For 2 mana, it gives the enchanted creature +2/+2 if it’s a Human. If it’s not, then that creature can’t attack or block. Basically, it’s a pump spell that could alternatively be a Pacifism. It’s actually a sweet little card. It saw sideboard play in Naya Humans.

Honor of the Pure is a must in any mono-white deck. Two copies isn’t bad, although adding a third could be helpful. A playset of Oblivion Ring allows you to answer most serious threats that will be posed against this deck. At the time, Titans were quite popular, so you needed an answer for the 6/6 Giants.

Plus, you get 24 Plains. Nothing special there.

Sideboard Breakdown

3     Nihil Spellbomb
3    Suture Priest
4     Leonin Relic-Warder
4     Celestial Purge
1     Nevermore

This is a very good sideboard. Every card in here is pretty self-explanatory. Nevermore is still a great card in Eternal formats. Back then, you would name top cards like “Liliana of the Veil” or “Koth of the Hammer” or perhaps even “Birthing Pod.”

Deck Strategy

Depending on how competitive your local environment was, this was a pretty solid deck that with minor adjustments could perform well at a local tournament, especially a Friday Night Magic event. That’s what these Event Decks were designed to do. This mono-white deck that focuses on swarming the board and deals with threats pretty well. Deathfed’s problem is that it was too focused on filling the graveyard to power up certain creatures. This deck is just a lot more versatile.

To make this a truly playable deck in tournaments, you’d want to get 3 more Champion of the Parish and 2 more Mirran Crusaders. You’d cut the Elite Inquisitor and the Gideon’s Lawkeepers. While Lawkeeper isn’t a bad creature, really, you want to be aggressive, and those guys are a lot more aggressive.

Is it Worth Buying the Hold the Line Event Deck Today?

Like the Deathfed deck, the Hold the Line deck has a lot of cards that still see play even in 2018. However, the value between the two decks is actually pretty similar. Still, you can find this deck for as little as $25. What’s worth something in here?

Champion of the Parish is $5, due to strong Modern playability. Mirran Crusaders are worth $4 a piece, so that’s another $8. Honor of the Pure is a $2+ card, and there’s two in here. But after that, you really only have Nevermore at $1 and a bunch of decent spare parts. This was a better deck as far as resale value back in the day, certainly.

You’d want to get this deck closer to $20 to make your money back. However, the difference with Hold the Line is that this is a more playable deck out of the box. So, for that reason alone, it would be worth picking up for the $25.

Battle Fader - YuGiOh Old School Duelist Card Review

7/17/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Battle Fader is a monster that’s been around since the days of Absolute Powerforce. It was a monster that was still being played a great deal when I was still playing competitive Yu-Gi-Oh. Since then, Battle Fader has been reprinted a great many times, including in ultra rare and secret rare! Even with so many reprints, the foil versions of Battle Fader are still sought after enough to keep their price from falling too low.

While Battle Fader hasn’t seen consistent competitive play since 2016, it does see the occasional play in Domain Monarch and even Cubic decks. Of course, it still sees play in local tournaments, as well, as a card that can play many different roles.


How does Battle Fader work?

Here’s what Battle Fader does, using the latest errata:

When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then end the Battle Phase. If Summoned this way, banish it when it leaves the field.

Not only does Battle Fader negate the attack, but it ends the battle phase altogether. It also doesn’t target, so it gets around monsters that can’t be targeted with abilities or effects of cards. Unfortunately, if it leaves the battlefield in any way after being summoned this way, such as effects that would return to hand, it gets banished. This is to prevent players from simply recycling Battle Fader to continuously negate attack after attack.

However, one of the coolest things you can do with Battle Fader is to play a deck that plays Imperial Iron Wall. This continuous trap card prevents cards from being removed from play. This means that it will instead go to your graveyard or your hand, meaning you can reuse it. Iron Wall was pretty popular when this card was first released, and actually still sees play in True Draco decks in 2018.

Can Battle Fader be negated?

Let’s cover some common spells and traps that could interact with Battle Fader. One common question is how Book of Moon works against Battle Fader. Really, it doesn’t, because Battle Fader’s ability to negate the attack and end the battle phase resolves before it’s actually face-up on the field. So, Book of Moon doesn’t negate Battle Fader, only puts it face down. The same is true for Forbidden Chalice.

It’s also important to note that Skill Drain, which is an extremely popular way to shut down effect monsters, can’t stop Battle Fader’s ability. Other trap cards that miss the timing to stop Battle Fader include Breakthrough Skill and Solemn Judgment. However, Solemn Warning, which negates the Summon entirely, can prevent Battle Fader’s ability to end the Battle Phase.

Besides Solemn Warning, the best ways to stop Battle Fader are Majesty Fiend and Vanity’s Emptiness. Majesty’s Fiend stops effects no matter where they are, so Battle Fader can’t be Special Summoned from the hand at all. Vanity’s Emptiness negates any Special Summons, but as of this writing, it’s forbidden in tournament play. So, in official tournaments, Solemn Warning and Majesty’s Fiend are really the best ways to stop Battle Fader.

Which is Better? Battle Fader VS Swift Scarecrow

Swift Scarecrow is a nice little hand trap monster that gives you the same effect as Battle Fader. However, since Battle Fader is a level 1 monster that you can Special Summon and use as material or tribute fodder to Summon a better monster, Battle Fader is going to typically be the superior card.

Other Similar Cards to Battle Fader

If you’re looking for a Battle Fader alternative    besides Swift Scarecrow, there are a couple of other monsters that do something similar.

There’s Speedroid Menko, which lets you Special Summon it in Attack Position when an opponent declares an attack. While it doesn’t negate the attack or end the battle phase, it does put all of your opponent’s monsters in Defense Position… except for Link Monsters, of course… So, against Links it’s pretty bad, because it’s only 100 ATK. Still it’s a cool card and it’s Level 4 and 2000 DEF.

Construction Train Signal Red can be Special Summoned by his effect when an opponent’s monster attacks. But, if you do, you change the attack target to this card and proceed to damage calculation. While he can’t be destroyed by that battle, you can still take damage. However, he can be Special Summoned in Defense Position, and he has 1000 ATK and 1400 DEF. Also, he’s a Level 3 Earth monster. So, there are some cool things you can do with him.

If you want to just stop attacks, there are the Kuriboh monsters! There’s Kuriphoton that lets you take no damage if you send it from the hand to the Graveyard, if you pay 2000 LP to do so. Of course, there’s also the old school Kuriboh cards that can negate attacks or prevent battle damage… Kuriboh only lets you not take battle damage. Winged Kuriboh lets you take no battle damage the turn that he’s sent from the field to the graveyard. But none of these guys get you a Special Summon, although there is The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh! Also, there’s the Link Monster Linkuriboh (which can actually use Battle Fader as material.)

What Decks Play Battle Fader?

Because it’s essentially a free Summon, Battle Fader makes awesome Tribute fodder in Monarch decks and is also great material for Ritual Monsters, Synchro Summons, Rank 1 Xyz Monsters, and even Link Summoning! (Linkuriboh, anyone?)

Battle Fader has seen competitive play since 2010, way back to Shonen Jump Championship Edison in Gravekeeper Burn and Quickdraw Dandywarrior. In both those decks it helped set up Synchro plays. It saw play in Frog Monarchs as Tribute fodder. Over the years, it’s seen play in Chain Burn, Chaos Dragons, Dragon Rulers, Hieratic Dragons, Mythic Rulers, and a wide variety of other Monarch decks, plus others. It’s just a really versatile card.

How would you play Battle Fader?

The Magic Card Investor #5: Mutavault!

7/17/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

In this week’s episode of Magic Card Investor, we look at a card that’s very different from the first four we’ve considered. We’ve covered a control deck finisher, a Modern combo deck staple, a casual card that’s quite good in Pauper and Commander, and a Core Set 2019 card that may be greatly undervalued in the early going. All are still solid investments.

But now, we look at a card that’s actually bottomed out. If you’ve been playing Magic the Gathering for awhile, you may be surprised at the card.

MUTAVAULT!?

So, here’s an interesting graph of Mutavault from MTGStocks. I really like that they added TCGPlayer Market Price to their stock charts because it gives you a better feel of what people are actually doing with a particular card. The reason I show you this graph is to illustrate what it looks like when a card’s market bottoms out.

But we’re talking about it because it’s simply not going to go lower. I mean, it’s freaking Mutavault.

So, when I looked on Monday, its market price was $9.40. That’s compared to a TCGPlayer Mid price of $12. The mid price is usually what a lot of people use when valuing a card, but people are shifting towards market price for a good reason. It reflects the actual sales of a card.

What’s more interesting is at the time of this writing, you can get lightly played foils of Mutavault for $12! For a card that sees as much Modern play as this guy does, you won’t care if it’s in near-mint condition if you’re looking to play with it.

What’s so great about Mutavault? Well, it’s a generically good nonbasic land. Not only does it tap for colorless mana, but for a single mana you can turn it into a 2/2 creature with all creature types until end of turn. This makes Mutavault particularly awesome in Tribal decks, especially Elves, Faeries, Merfolk, and Spirits. A lot of tribal decks still play as many as four copies of the “man-land.”

Originally printed in Morningtide, this was once an extremely expensive card. The reprinting in Magic 2014 greatly diminished this card’s value, although full art Champ Promos are still among the most expensive cards in Magic ($600!). But lately, even with more tribal support being released in Dominaria and Magic 2019, Mutavault has actually been on a downward slide.What’s going on here?

Well, a big reason for the card’s sudden slide is a Grand Prix foil promo that has the same artwork. It’s selling for between $10-12. Because of that, the nonfoil printings are taking a hit. Why buy a nonfoil M14 copy when you can just buy a foil promo copy that looks just as good as a foil M14 one?

Also, cards fall in and out of favor with players. Mutavault is a card that’s always up and down. As you can see from the chart, the market price and mid price often meet, then diverge, then meet again, then diverge. Recently, the divergence has been striking, and that’s because people just aren’t buying them for over $10. That’s especially true when the Grand Prix promo foil is selling around that price, too.

This is why it’s important to actually watch a card’s market price trend, which is far more accurate than seeing what people list cards for and hope to get. It’s much like watching eBay completed listings, but a lot easier to track.

Speaking of eBay… there’s lots of listings for $12 that simply aren’t selling or are taking best offers. That’s for both the Grand Prix foil AND the M14 version. The Morningtide version, long the more expensive printing, is sharing a similar fate.

So, what should you do? I’d be picking up the Grand Prix foils at the lowest price that you can. With the M14 foils selling for little more than $20, there’s no reason not to get the cheaper premium version. Also, if you happen upon nonfoils under $10 and M14 foils around $12 you should jump on them.

All it would take for Mutavault to hit $20 again is a deck with a Top 8 Modern finish with 4 copies in the main. This card was $35 or more at its M14 Standard peak. And if you watch the long term chart, this is a card that sees lots of ebbs and flows as sets with lots of tribal support get released. Commander drives a bit of the sales, as well as just casual sales, which are always going to be higher than competitive sales. Most players want four of these if they plan on playing most tribal strategies.

Also, Grand Prix promos tend to recover pretty well. Look at Stoneforge Mystic who hit a low of about $15 before being $35 market price today. Primeval Titan got as low as $10 before recovering to around $20. Batterskull recovered from a low of $13 to $25. Other cards haven’t been quite as lucky after getting the Grand Prix Promo treatment, like Griselbrand.. Also, this one has the same artwork as the original card. Still, being a card you really want four-of, like the Mystic and Titan, getting back to $20 isn’t out of the question.

In any case, it’s great to see such a versatile and competitively relevant card available for such a low price. It’s really not hard to see Mutavault doubling in price in the near future, but it’s also a card to take some caution with. But unlike a lot of the other Grand Prix promos like Mystic, Prime Time, and Griselbrand, Mutavault isn’t a card that anyone is thinking about banning in any format. So, it’s a pretty safe bet to pick these up as you see them in the $10 range and hold them long-term.

Any other cards you see bottoming out and being great long-term holds? Let us know in the comments!

Life's Legacy - A Magic the Gathering Card Review

7/16/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Life's Legacy is a potentially very powerful Green draw spell from the Magic 2015 Core Set. At first, Life's Legacy looks like a Sorcery version of an older card called Greater Good, without the drawback of discarding three cards. But as Greater Good is an Enchantment, very popular in Commander, this is a two-mana Sorcery.

Yes, this is an extremely powerful effect. Being able to sacrifice a creature and draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power, especially in Green, is a super nifty effect. With Greater Good, you could sacrifice a creature at any time for no cost and draw cards equal to the creature's power. However, you then had to discard three cards, which is a substantial cost. But for a 4-drop enchantment (2GG) that could be used multiple times at instant speed, it's very good.

The problem with having an effect like Life's Legacy at Sorcery speed and having to sacrifice a creature as a cost to cast it, you can set yourself up for a two-for-one if it gets countered. However, if you do successfully cast this and get the effect out of it, 1G to draw three, four, or even more cards is extremely good. Even at the cost of a creature, that's definitely card advantage.

This card would've been extremely good in Standard had the very popular Thragtusk still been hanging around. Imagine playing Thragtusk for 4G, gaining 5 life, then paying 1G for Life's Legacy, drawing 5 cards and getting a 3/3 beast to replace it. Seven mana for all that value seems well worth it. Alas, that never happened, although it still could in Commander…

Life's Legacy is also similar to a card called Momentous Fall, an instant from Rise of the Eldrazi. That card also required you to sacrifice a creature, but it drew you cards in the same way and also gained you life equal to that creature's toughness. So, Life's Legacy is basically half of a Momentous Fall at Sorcery speed. But, being half the mana cost at only 2 mana, it can net you some serious advantage.

Were Life's Legacy at Instant speed like Momentous Fall, this card would be super powerful. As it is, it's a pretty cool effect. Card draw in Green is rare and precious.

Life's Legacy in Standard

There seemed to be room for Life's Legacy in the Standard metagame at the time. Several potential targets were identified early on by speculators. One popular potential target for Life's Legacy was Phytotitan, a 7/2 creature from Magic 2015 that actually comes back at the end of the turn tapped. That guy never really saw much play, unfortunately, although it was a pretty cool idea. It was also speculated that Reanimator decks at the time would sacrifice big creatures like Shadowborn Demon after using their effects to draw some cards, then bring them back later. The Demon did see some play, but Life's Legacy didn't see play in these kinds of decks.

Life's Legacy did make some competitive appearances, however. There were some Selesnya Aggro decks like this one that ran two copies of the Sorcery. These kinds of decks would use Collected Company to summon value creatures like Reverent Hunter, which could get pretty big based on your devotion to Green (how many Green mana symbols you had on permanents you controlled). Life's Legacy was a decent draw spell that could help reload your hand. It was useful tech.

Another deck that would make use of Life's Legacy was Devotion to Green, and one Green Devotion deck ran a single copy of the sorcery. It was nice tech to sacrifice a monstrous Polukranos, World Eater, a Soul of New Phyrexia, or huge Genesis Hydra. This was back when you had Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to generate a ton of Green mana, so you could summon these guys well ahead of the curve. Being able to create massive card advantage by cashing in a big creature and drawing a ton of cards was a nice tool to have.

While it was a decent card in those decks, it wasn't absolutely necessary to run. Still, it's hard to overlook how could this card could be in refilling your hand. A big creature is great, but in Magic, and most card games, drawing cards is usually better.

While it's a good card, it just wasn't a consistent enough draw engine to see much competitive play. The good news for Life's Legacy, though, is that it did have another format for players to use.

Life's Legacy in EDH / Commander

It was clear from the get-go that plenty of Commander decks will be able to utilize Life's Legacy quite effectively. While it hasn't become a staple in any one deck, there are plenty of Commander decks that will run a copy. The most popular choice has been Omnath, Locus of Rage, in which you can sacrifice a sizeable Elemental to draw some cards and deal 3 damage to something with Omnath's ability.

Another Commander that makes use of Life's Legacy is Yasova Dragonclaw. Essentially Act of Treason on a creature, you can steal a creature, attack with it, then sacrifice it for some cards. Life's Legacy sees play in roughly half of Yasova decks, so while it's not a staple, it's a part of the strategy for many who run her as their Commander.

Xenagos, God of Revels has a lot of big creatures, and creatures that double in size with "Xena-God's" combat ability. When your hand is depleted, Life's Legacy is a nice way to get in a sizeable attack, then draw a ton of cards.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is a Commander who already draws a lot of cards for everyone at the table. So, why not use Life's Legacy to draw even more cards and stay ahead of the rest of the table? It's an idea many Selvala players have had, in fact.

Other Commanders that make use of Life's Legacy on a semi-regular basis include Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Omnath, Locus of Mana, Titania, Protector of Argoth, and more.

How would you play Life's Legacy?

Yu-Gi-Oh Build Around Me! - Pacifis, the Phantasm City & Phantasm Spirals!

7/16/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Once in a while, we’ll pick a random card with YGOProDeck’s database to build around for fun. Today, it’s Pacifis, the Phantasm City! This isn’t bad at all, since it’s part of the Phantasm Spiral archetype! This Field Spell is pretty sweet! And there’s a deck out there we can tech!

First, we’ll look at Pacifis itself. It’s a field spell that counts as “Umi” while it’s face up on the field. For our purposes, though, this won’t matter so much.

“You cannot Normal or Special Summon Effect Monsters the turn you activate either of this card's effects (even if this card leaves the field). Once per turn, if you Normal or Special Summon exactly 1 Normal Monster (and no other cards): Add 1 "Phantasm Spiral" card from your Deck to your hand. If your opponent activates a card or effect (except during the Damage Step), and you control no Tokens: You can Special Summon 1 "Phantasm Spiral Token" (Wyrm-Type/WATER/Level 8/ATK 2000/DEF 2000).”

This is a really powerful card. As we’ll see, we’re really only going to be Special Summoning Normal monsters a lot of the time. So, this isn’t really an issue. The Phantasm Spiral support cards are actually quite good, too, so that first effect is actually extremely important. The second ability is also particularly awesome. I mean, who doesn’t want a free 2000 ATK and 2000 DEF monster that’s level 8?

So, how do we build around this? Let’s take a look at a June 2017 regional Phantasm Spiral deck that actually fared quite well. Except… we’re going to make a couple of quick changes for it to be legal with the May 2018 Forbidden and Limited List. The changes are actually in our favor.

Monsters
2x Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
3x Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
3x Kabazauls
3x Megalosmasher X
3x Phantasm Spiral Dragon
3x Rescue Rabbit

Spells
1x Dark Hole
3x Fossil Dig
3x Heat Wave
3x Pacifis, the Phantasm City
1x Phantasm Spiral Crash
2x Phantasm Spiral Grip
1x Phantasm Spiral Wave
2x Pot of Desires
1x Raigeki
3x Terraforming
2x Unexpected Dai

Traps
3x Phantasm Spiral Battle
1x Phantasm Spiral Power
3x Quaking Mirror Force
1x Skill Drain
2x Solemn Strike
1x Solemn Warning

Extra Deck

Xyz
1x Abyss Dweller
2x Bahamut Shark
1x Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1x Evolzar Dolkka
1x Evolzar Laggia
1x Gem-Knight Pearl
1x Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy
1x Number 39: Utopia
1x Number S39: Utopia the Lightning
1x Steelswarm Roach
2x Toadally Awesome
1x Tornado Dragon

In the original list piloted by Michael Craig at the Seattle, Washington Regionals, he ran one copy of Maxx “C” and 2 Dark Holes. At the time, Rescue Rabbit was limited, as well. We gotta cut the Maxx “C” and the 2nd Dark Hole. But, Rescue Rabbit is unlimited! As it turns out, triple bunnies is actually a huge improvement for this deck! Let’s break it down.

Creatures Breakdown

A lot of this deck focuses around Phantasm Spiral Dragon, as we’ll see. There are a ton of ways to Special Summon him with the Phantasm Spiral Spells and Traps. He has 2900 ATK, which is PLENTY good! He also has 2900 DEF, which is actually pretty above average. He’s going to be one of your main beatstick monsters in this deck, obviously, as well as a way to Xyz into some Rank 8 Xyz monsters, especially Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy.

We have five hand-traps in the form of two Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and three Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. With these we can shut down shenanigans from the deck and effects on the field. Ash Blossom is the one most people play, but both are great.

Rescue Rabbit is really awesome in this deck because he grabs our level 4 Normal Monsters in Kabazauls and Megalosmasher X. Being Water attribute and Dinosaur type, these monsters help us access some great Rank 4 Xyz monsters. Kabazauls is a pretty ancient 1700 ATK monster while Megalosmasher is a far more recent 2000 ATK level 4 beatstick. Really, they exist for Xyz summons, but they can do damage if you need them to. Playing 3 Rabbits gives us more consistency, which is cool.

Spells Breakdown

Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way. Dark Hole and Raigeki help us keep the board clear. Terraforming is obviously to get our Field Spell. Pot of Desires helps us draw out of bad hands, even with that steep 10 card banishment cost. The rest we need to look at more closely.

Three copies of Fossil Dig help us dig out our Dino monsters. With three Rabbits, we may able to trim a copy, but we can always grab that third Kabazauls or Megalosmasher X. Heat Wave is actually one of the better spells in the deck. This card can only be activated at the start of Main Phase 1, but that’s OK. When you play it, neither player can Normal or Special Summon an Effect Monster, until your next Draw Phase. That’s actually extremely brutal for most decks, but not this one.

Unexpected Dai is another way to Special Summon one of our Level 4 Dinos to play. It’s another consistency card, but this one is only good if you control no monsters. Still, it’s going to be good in a lot of situations.

Now we’ll get into the Phantasm Spiral spells. We already covered the field spell in Pacifis. Phantasm Spiral Crash is an Equip Spell that gives the equipped Normal Monster the ability to inflict piercing battle damage. Then, when that monster deals battle damage to an opponent, you can Special Summon a Phantasm Spiral Dragon from your hand, deck, or graveyard and equip it with this card. If that wasn’t good enough, you can then switch an opponent’s monster from Attack to Defense position. You can only use this effect once per turn, because otherwise that would be pretty silly.

Phantasm Spiral Grip is similar to Crash, except this deck runs two copies instead of one. Grip gives the monster 500 ATK and if that monster destroys a creature by battle, you can Special Summon a Spiral Dragon and inflict 1000 damage to your opponent. This one may actually be better in some cases as you will likely run over a lot of things.

The last one is Phantasm Spiral Wave. This one is particularly strong because it makes the equipped Normal Monster unable to be destroyed once per turn. If it’s battled that turn, at the end of the Battle Phase, you can do the Spiral Dragon summoning thing. While that Dragon can’t then attack like with the other two, your opponent then has to discard a card. So, it’s still a decent card.

Traps Breakdown

First, we’ll get the staples out of the way. Two copies of Solemn Strike and one copy of Solemn Warning deal with summons that need to be nipped in the bud right away, and with Strike, problematic monster effects. Skill Drain is really good in this deck, and it’s too bad we can only run one. It hoses so many decks.

We also run three copies of Quaking Mirror Force. If you don’t know what it does, this is how it reads:

“When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Change all your opponent's Attack Position monsters to face-down Defense Position. Monsters changed to face-down Defense Position by this effect cannot change their battle positions.”

This is fine because we actually want to beat on opponent’s monsters with our Phantasmal Spiral support. It’s bad against Link monsters, though, who are immune to it. Still, it’s a strong card.

Phantasm Spiral Battle is a pretty awesome Trap card, as it can be activated from your hand if you control an “Umi” field spell, which Pacifis just happens to be! If you control only Normal Monsters, you can blow up one card on the field. Then, you can banish this card from your Graveyard, you can target one Normal Monster on the field and equip all Phantasm Spiral Equip cards you control to it. While very situational, it can help you live the dream of summoning all three Phantasm Spiral Dragons in one turn.

The last card is Phantasm Spiral Power. Here’s what it does:

“If all monsters you control are Normal Monsters (min. 1): Target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; until the end of this turn, it loses 1000 ATK and DEF, also it has its effects negated. If "Umi" is on the field, you can activate this card from your hand. You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 Normal Monster you control; equip 1 "Phantasm Spiral" Equip Spell Card from your hand or Graveyard to that Normal Monster.”

Being able to deal with a bigger Effect Monster is great, being a hand trap is better, and recycling an Equip Spell is awesome! You only need one, but it’s great!

How Competitive Are Phantasm Spirals?

Before Link Summoning, this deck could be pretty good. It has a nice little Xyz Summoning engine and really messes with other decks’ strategies. That being said, it’s extremely reliant on its engine. But, when it works, it’s really tough to stop. If you tweak the Extra deck to include Links, though, it’s probably going to hold its own.

Outside of the meta hand trap creatures, this deck is very cheap to build. Would you build Phantasm Spirals?

Kaiser Glider - Yu-Gi-Oh Old School Duelist Stories

7/14/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Kaiser Glider is one of, if not the first ever Yu-GI-Oh cards that I bought on eBay. It was actually the ultra rare reprint in Dark Revelations 1 that I bought, and not the original Dark Crisis ultra rare printing. It’s been reprinted multiple times since, once at rare, and several times at common. While Kaiser Glider was never a top-level monster, he was one of my favorites for a long time for what he can do.

This golden Dragon that Seto Kaiba played in the Yu-Gi-Oh anime has two fairly relevant abilities. The first is that he can’t be destroyed in a battle where both monsters share the same ATK. More often that not, this means that the Glider can ram into other 2400 ATK monsters and actually win. This meant things like Jinzo and later the Monarchs, which is actually pretty relevant.

But the real reason you would play Kaiser Glider was his bounce ability when he’s destroyed. When he’s destroyed and sent to the GY, he lets you send one monster on the field back to its owner’s hand. Important to note is that he must be sent to the grave, which means if he gets banished instead, his effect doesn’t activate. This was less of a problem back in the day, though.

Kaiser Glider is also a Light-attribute Dragon, which made him fairly good in the casual Traditional Chaos decks I built at the time. Traditional is the format where nothing is banned and all forbidden cards are limited to a single copy. There weren’t a ton of good Light-attribute monsters back then, so I actually played this guy a fair amount.

Plus, this was pretty good when someone brought out a Chaos monster that they may not be able to easily re-summon after removing 1 Light and 1 Dark monster from their grave. So, this actually could mess up people’s Chaos Emperor Dragon plays. People could just remove it with Black Luster Soldier’s banish ability, though. Still, it would mean the OG Soldier couldn’t attack that turn. But most of the time, it just meant people couldn’t deal with him UNLESS they brought out a BLS or didn’t have a monster in play when they removed it. It really proved to be a nice monster for me back then, though, even in tournament play.

Was Kaiser Glider ever actually good? Yes, and no. Because he required one tribute to summon, people preferred to play Airknight Parshath who could generate a lot more card advantage and did piercing battle damage. I actually never really liked Parshath back in the day having only 1900 ATK, although he was clearly the better monster when it came to terms of card advantage. But that didn’t mean that Kaiser Glider wasn’t annoying to people, because people really never thought about having to play around it. It was pretty fun to ram him into Jinzo, Mobius and Thestalos - although he was kinda bad against Zaborg… More times than not, he would be helpful and I can’t remember him ever being bad.

Kaiser Glider in Duel Links

Like a lot of older Yu-Gi-Oh cards, Kaiser Glider is fairly decent in Duel Links. There’s a lot of popular ways to summon him fairly easily in that game’s metagame, especially Dragon’s Rebirth. While Dragon’s Rebirth is a good Yu-Gi-Oh card, it’s much stronger in the 20-card Duel Links format where tribute monsters are actually very strong.

While he’s not a top card in the game, his bounce ability is very strong, although his first isn’t nearly as often. He’s also usually 2700 ATK due to Seto Kaiba’s ability to start the game with the Mountain field spell in play. So, while he really never sees competitive play anywhere, he does see a fair share of Duel Links play for Kaiba fans.

Kaiser Glider in Goat Format

There are a number of things that Kaiser Glider has going for him in Goat Format. One is that he’s a Light-Attribute Monster, which is very important in Chaos decks. Also, his ability to not be destroyed by monsters with the same ATK in battle is actually fairly relevant. Here’s a list of meta monsters that he actually wins in battle against:

Granmarg the Rock Monarch
Jinzo
King Dragun
Mobius the Frost Monarch
Ryu Kokki
Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

While that’s not a long list, it means that Kaiser Glider is actually a decent sideboard tech against Monarchs and even Zombies and their boss monster. He also answers Sacred Phoenix, which was actually a pretty popular card at one point. He even deals with the occasional King Dragun play. The funny thing is, if you happen to control one, you can Special Summon Kaiser Glider from your hand.

The bounce ability is pretty good, too, just for tempo purposes. It does mean that you want to summon Kaiser Glider into a situation where his ability will be profitable to you. He’s a bit situational, which is why many people didn’t play him back in the day. But, there are definitely spots in which he’s good. He’s great to toss and bring back with Call of the Haunted or Premature Burial, too. He deals with most of the offensive threats you’re going to face, too.

Is he the best sideboard option in Goat Format? It depends on what decks you plan to face, really. But, he’s worth a shot I think, especially if you play against a lot of Monarch decks. Just remember you don’t want him bouncing Zaborg or other Monarchs. You have to deploy him just right for him to be at his best. But, he’s pretty brutal when he bounces fusion monsters, too, which are obviously rampant due to Metamorphosis.

Kaiser Glider in Modern Yu-Gi-Oh!

One crazy thing about the Glider is how good he actually is against Synchro, Xyz, and Link Monsters. He’s simply outclassed nowadays, but if he dies and hits the Graveyard and he bounces one of those guys, that’s pretty costly. Of course, there are just so many ways to banish things nowadays. While he may not be relevant today in competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, I’m sure many Dragon players found an excuse to jam him. He was never actually a bad monster and could cause some tempo swings on his own.

Did you ever play with or against Kaiser Glider?

Siege Dragon – A Magic the Gathering Card Review

7/14/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Siege Dragon is an interesting Dragon from the Magic 2015 Core Set. It costs 5 colorless mana and 2 Red mana to cast. With a total converted casting cost of 7, it's already on the steep side. It's a 5/5 flyer with an interesting enter the battlefield effect: destroy all Walls your opponent controls. That's pretty flavorful, but it's interesting how specific it is about Walls. Keep in mind that this refers to the creature type of Wall, which can include cards that don't have "Wall" in their name, such as Cathedral Membrane from New Phyrexia.

However, there's much more to Siege Dragon. If your opponent controls no Walls, whenever it attacks, it deals 5 damage to each creature without flying the defending player controls. That's a pretty sweet ability. This is no Balefire Dragon. But at rare, that's still pretty powerful. It was decent in Limited and especially strong in a Sealed pool. Of course, that hasn't mattered in a long time.

Siege Dragon may not have been Standard-playable, but there have been Dragon Tribal Commander decks that found a home for him. It may not be much above a bulk rare, especially when it was competing in Standard with a far superior card in Stormbreath Dragon. If Siege Dragon had haste, though, this would've been a Standard-playable Dragon. Alas, it did not. Still, Siege Dragon does have its uses in obliterating ground troops. It gets the job done.

The Magic Card Investor #4: Demanding Dragon

7/12/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

On the Magic Card Investor, we've looked at several different types of cards as strong investments for your Magic the Gathering collection. We've looked at top-end control finishers like Nezahal, Primal Tide. There's Scrap Trawler that's a four-of in a strong Modern deck and strong play in Commander. Then, we have Stonehorn Dignitary, a very strong card in Pauper. All of these cards are very different, yet they all have strong markets.

Today, we look at a card from the Magic 2019 Core Set that very early on proved to be a #1 TCGPlayer bestseller. That card is Demanding Dragon, a 5/5 dragon for 5 mana that has an ability that may be more powerful than some people realize. Pre-ordering for around $1 on major Magic card retailers like Card Kingdom and Channel Fireball, this rare has had a bit more demand than anticipated, especially when it comes to eBay and Amazon.

Demanding Dragon is definitely a card that more casual players can get very excited about. When he enters the battlefield, he deals 5 damage to target opponent unless he or she sacrifices a creature. That's pretty powerful, either way. Plus, he's 5 power and 5 toughness. While he may be no Thundermaw Hellkite or Stormbreath Dragon, forcing an opponent to sacrifice a creature is always a powerful play. Five damage is no joke, either.

As powerful as he sounds, why is he only $1? Well, this isn't a card that screams competitive play. But this isn't just a Dragon. This is a creature with a generically powerful effect that can slot into a variety of midrange decks. Really, he's very dependent on the meta. If there are decks that can effectively swarm the board, he's going to be a fairly weak play. But he's really strong against decks that play one big finisher or don't play many creatures at all. So, there is room for Demanding Dragon to be very good.

The reason I bring him up as a good Magic card investment is that the buy-in is pretty low. In Standard, he feels more like a sideboard card against particular decks. Magic 2019 is full of cards built to hose certain decks and this is definitely one of those. There are definitely ways to abuse his enter the battlefield ability, such as blinking and reanimating. If those types of decks are viable in Standard, he'd definitely be a player. Also, the recent best Dragon in Standard, Glorybringer, won't be hanging around past October 2018.

We're not expecting a huge price tag on this guy, especially being only a rare. But, since there is so much interest in him, you should be keeping an eye on him. Attaching a Lava Axe to a creature that can at the very least force your opponent to sacrifice something or take a sizeable amount of damage to the face is awesome. Yeah, your opponent can choose not to sacrifice something, but losing a quarter of your starting life total is pretty sizeable.

This should be an interesting card even if it doesn't see a ton of Standard play, simply because it will help shape the Standard meta. But 5-mana Dragons typically do see play. He doesn't have haste, which hurts him a bit, but his abilities make up for that. This could be a $3-4 card very easily, especially with his demand profile early on. He's not going to make you rich, but he's one of those guys that seems like easy money.

Retro Magic: Deathfed - Innistrad Event Deck Review

7/11/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

The Innistrad Event Decks, Deathfed and Hold the Line, were pretty good in terms of value! Today on Retro Magic, let’s take a look at the blue/green deck, Deathfed. Just looking at the list, at the time, you knew this deck was well worth your $20.

Let’s take a look at the deck, how playable it actually is, and how its value has held up today.

Creatures

1     Birds of Paradise
4     Llanowar Elves
4     Boneyard Wurm
3     Viridian Emissary
2     Merfolk Looter
1     Splinterfright
4     Armored Skaab
2     Acidic Slime

Non-Creature Spells

1     Ratchet Bomb
4     Mulch
1     Gnaw to the Bone
4     Forbidden Alchemy
2     Bonehoard
2     Spider Spawning
1     Green Sun’s Zenith

Lands

1     Hinterland Harbor
13     Forest
7     Island
3     Swamp

Creatures Breakdown

There are pretty nice cards here. Obviously, 1 Birds of Paradise seems sort of thrown in, but it’s a welcome addition. Llanowar Elves is classic and shows up in a lot of Standard formats. Viridian Emissary helps you get the lands you need and was a very good common in those days. Merfolk Looter is good for a little draw power and throwing cards you don’t need in the graveyard. More cards in the graveyard really helps several cards in this deck. Two Acidic Slime are pretty basic, destroying lands or key artifacts to hinder your opponent’s progress.

The Innistrad inclusions here are Armored Skaab. Boneyard Wurm, and Splinterfright. Armored Skaab is a blue Zombie common who’s s a 1/4 that when it enters the battlefield, you put the top 4 cards of your deck into the graveyard. Boneyard Wurm is an interesting uncommon from Innistrad; the more creature cards you have in your graveyard, the stronger it becomes. Splinterfright is a rare creature card whose power and toughness is equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard. This is just like Boneyard Wurm, except that at the beginning of each of your upkeep steps, you put the top 2 cards of your deck into the graveyard. So, Splinterfright can get bigger in a hurry.

Non-Creature Spells Breakdown

Ratchet Bomb is a nice little inclusion, as is Green Sun’s Zenith. The Zenith is going to search out Splinterfright, more often than not I think. Ratchet Bomb can help you clear out a bunch of monsters at once. But the most important rare for this deck is actually the two copies of Bonehoard. This equipment is a Living Weapon, and functions pretty much like a Boneyard Wurm. The difference is that you can essentially turn any of your creatures into a Boneyard Wurm after the Germ token that it comes with dies.

Gnaw to the Bomb just gains you tons of life based on how much you have in your graveyard. At one copy, this card probably isn’t too bad. While incidental lifegain is nice in Constructed, typically you don’t want to play a whole ton of cards that only gain you life, especially one that can be a fairly dead card. But as this is a slower deck, you probably want one copy just in case.

Forbidden Alchemy is a great common. You see the top four cards of your deck, add one to your hand, and ditch the other three into the graveyard. Spider Spawning is OK, but at 5 mana, it’s only going to be really good late game. It’s not a card that I’d play in Standard, although it’s a pretty fun card in general.

Mana Base and Sideboard Breakdown

Hinterland Harbor, being the blue/green enemy dual land in Innistrad, was actually the most expensive of the cards in this deck at the time. Otherwise, there’s just basic land in here. The 3 Swamps are included for the flashback costs of a couple cards in the deck.

Let’s peek into the sideboard:

3     Naturalize
4     Flashfreeze
4     Negate
2     Gnaw to the Bone
2     Mind Control

This is a pretty standard sideboard for an event deck, really. I don’t really like Gnaw to the Bones in the sideboard. It’s a card that’s only going to be good late-game, but I understand why it’s in here. It’s for aggro match-ups. This deck, sadly, is a bit slow. Still, one copy in the main-board is probably more than enough, especially with all of the other stuff in here. At the time, I felt these two sideboard copies were best replaced with Beast Within. I still feel that way.

I don’t think you need the Gnaws because you have a lot of other stuff to side in. You have three Naturalize to deal with problem artifacts - especially equipment - and enchantments. Flashfreeze counters red or green spells, so you can slow aggro down considerably. Negate is just good. The Mind Controls are cute because you can steal your opponent’s best creature and either equip your Bonehoard to it or clear the way for you to do lots of damage..

Deck Strategy

Overall, the deck relies on dumping a whole bunch of creature cards into your graveyard and beat people down with Boneyard Wurms. Splinterfright, and Bonehoards. It’s pretty basic, but it’s an interesting fun deck to pick up and play. More importantly, though, it has some very good cards that are played in many other decks - even in 2018. Back then, it was worth your money, although it’s not quite as good as the mono-white deck, Hold the Line.

Is the Deathfed Event Deck Worth Buying Today?

The short answer is: probably not. It would still be worth the $20 today for the cards, were you to get it for that price or less (which I assume is possible). But the deck typically is found for between $25-35, which isn’t really worth it.

In mid-2018, Green Suns’ Zenith and Birds of Paradise are $7 cards. Both see Commander play, and Birds sees Modern and tons of casual play. Those cards aren’t going down anytime soon. The only other semi-valuable card in the deck is Hinterland Harbor, which was reprinted, and is currently worth about $2.50. Ratchet Bomb is at best $1.50. It still sees occasional sideboard play.

The other rares in the deck aren’t worth much, but are playable. Splinterfright sees play in a lot of Sidisi, Brood Tyrant EDH decks. Bonehoard is a useful living weapon in many different EDH decks - but it’s a bulk rare due to being reprinted in four separate Commander products. Also, the commons and uncommons are all useful cards for your collection. So, if you found this deck lying around at a flea market for like $5 or $10 it would actually be a sweet deal.

I wouldn’t really buy this deck to play. To me, this deck was really just good for spare parts even at the time. It could be a fun deck to play at the time, but it wasn’t particularly competitive. Still, it’s not bad for what it is, a weaker Event Deck that still has some very playable cards in it.

Starter Deck Yugi - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh Deck List and Review

7/7/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

In North America, Yu-Gi-Oh began in late March 2002 with Starter Deck: Yugi and Starter Deck: Kaiba. Today, we’ll be looking at the Yugi deck! While Starter Deck Yugi didn’t have a monster with quite the power of Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon, there are some sweet cards in this starter deck.

Let’s get right into it!

Monsters
Ancient Elf
Ansatsu
Baron of the Fiend Sword
Beaver Warrior
Celtic Guardian
Claw Reacher
Curse of Dragon
Dark Magician (Ultra Rare)
Doma The Angel of Silence
Dragon Zombie
Feral Imp
Gaia The Fierce Knight
Giant Soldier of Stone
Great White
Magical Ghost
Mammoth Graveyard
Man-Eater Bug
Man-Eating Treasure Chest
Mystic Clown
Mystical Elf
Neo the Magic Swordsman
Silver Fang
Sorcerer of the Doomed
Summoned Skull
The Stern Mystic
Trap Master
Wall of Illusion
Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1
Witty Phantom

Spells
Book of Secret Arts
Card Destruction (Super Rare)
Change of Heart
Dark Hole
De-Spell
Dian Keto the Cure Master
Fissure
Last Will
Monster Reborn
Remove Trap
Soul Exchange (Super Rare)
Sword of Dark Destruction
Yami

Traps
Castle Walls
Dragon Capture Jar
Reinforcements
Reverse Trap
Trap Hole
Two-Pronged Attack
Ultimate Offering
Waboku

Monsters Breakdown

First, we’ll look at the “boss” monsters of the deck: Dark Magician, Summoned Skull, Gaia the Dragon Champion, and Curse of Dragon. Dark Magician is only 2500 ATK for two tributes, but he’s iconic, and would later have a lot more support. There are actually many ways in this deck for him to actually beat Blue-Eyes and his 3000 ATK, too. Meanwhile, Summoned Skull is 2500 ATK for only one tribute. While he has far less defense, you’re not looking to play these guys in defense mode!

Gaia the Fierce Knight (2300 ATK) and Curse of Dragon (2000 ATK) are pretty underwhelming tribute monsters, but if you happen to have Gaia the Dragon Champion and Polymerization, they make a decent Fusion monster. Even with only 2600 ATK, you could summon him with the necessary monsters in hand, not just on the field.

Also, they happen to be pretty sweet ways to get rid of opposing monsters that you steal with Change of Heart or Tribute with Soul Exchange. At this point, they were still very playable monsters, too.

Ancient Elf is a 1450 ATK, 1200 DEF Light Spellcaster, which at the time was pretty average. Ansatsu is a level 5 Earth Warrior with only 1700 ATK and 1200 DEF. He’d be one of the first monsters out of every Yugi deck as I remember. Baron of the Fiend Sword was decent though, a level 4 Fiend with 1550 ATK and 800 DEF.

Beaver Warrior is familiar to many Yu-Gi-Oh anime fans, but with only 1200 ATK and 1500 DEF, this Beast-Warrior had trouble being competitive. Celtic Guardian is also an iconic Yugi monster, with only 1400 ATK and 1200 DEF. Still, a lot of people played him just because of Yugi.

Despite being one of the worst creatures in the deck, Claw Reacher and his 1000 ATK and 800 DEF is actually one of the more sought after creatures from the Yugi deck! It’s because this is his only printing. So, this is a card you may have been pretty quick to toss in the old days, but he’s pretty collectible now, especially in 1st edition

Doma the Angel of Silence isn’t particularly good, but people still collect her in 1st edition. 1600 ATK and 1400 DEF aren’t bad, but she’s a level 5, requiring a Tribute to Normal Summon. That’s not really so good.

Dragon Zombie has a whopping 0 DEF, but with 1600 ATK for a level 3 monster, he was certainly playable at the time. People really loved this guy, I remember.

Feral Imp is yet another iconic Yugi monster, but his stats are pretty mediocre: 1300 ATK and 1400 DEF. He was playable in the LOB days, though.

Giant Soldier of Stone is an iconic Yugi monster that was actually very playable. With 1300 ATK and 2000 DEF, he’d actually get some attacks in sometimes. This big guy actually saw play for quite awhile.

Great White was a pretty fair monster, too, with 1600 ATK. The 800 DEF was bad, but you didn’t play the Shark to be in defense, of course.

Magical Ghost actually has the same stats as Feral Imp, but a Dark Zombie. He’s mediocre

As bad as Mammoth Graveyard is, with only 1200 ATK and 800 DEF, I always really liked the art on this guy. I think a lot of people did.

Man-Eater Bug is one of the really good effect monsters in this deck. There weren’t a bunch back then, and plenty of people would run three of this guy. He’s a flip effect monster that destroys a monster on the field. Just make sure your opponent has something to blow up, or he eats one of your own guys or even himself - which is kind of weird. If you needed an answer for Blue-Eyes, he’s one.

I’ve always loved the flavor of Man-Eating Treasure Chest and with 1600 ATK, he was actually a decent monster at that time.

Mystic Clown has 1500 ATK and 1000 DEF. Those aren’t great stats, but he’d beat a lot of stuff at that time.

Mystical Elf has a lot in common with Giant Soldier of Stone, not only a classic Yugi card, but she also has 2000 DEF. 800 ATK is pretty lousy, but she held down the fort.

Neo the Magic Swordsman was one of my favorite monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh for a long time, and with 1700 ATK, he was playable.

Silver Fang is the Wolf version of Mammoth Graveyard. Great art, and really mediocre stats: 1200 ATK / 800 DEF.

Sorcerer of the Doomed 1450 ATK / 1200 DEF

The Stern Mystic is a Yugi deck exclusive. With 1500 ATK and 1200 DEF, his stats aren’’t that bad, but he’s a flip effect monster. His effect is interesting, in that he turns all face-down cards face-up so you can look at them, then puts them back without any effects activating. It’s actually an interesting card in the context of the time, as he could prevent you from falling into something bad. He’s also better than most of the other monsters in the deck.

Trap Master was actually extremely good at the time this deck was printed. You didn’t have Heavy Storm, which was in Metal Raiders, or Mystical Space Typhoon in Spell Ruler. His 500 / 1100 stats are pretty blah, but his effect was really good at the time. You had to be careful, though, because if your opponent had nothing face-down, you’d have to select one of your own face-down cards when he’s flipped. But that’s usually not going to be an issue.

Wall of Illusion is one of the best monsters in the Yugi deck. With 1850 DEF, he was a really nice wall, but his effect made him even better. Any monster that attacks him returns to the hand. The Wall was a staple stall card for a very long time, I believe until 1900 ATK level 4 monsters with drawbacks came later beginning with Gemini Elf. Sure, most tribute monsters people actually played ran it over, but at a major loss in tempo. One of my favorite Yugi cards and strangely would still be annoying to run into in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! (Some link monsters wouldn’t even kill it, mind you.)

Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1 is Blue and he’s a Dragon. Sure, he only has 1400 ATK and 1200 DEF, but… well, he looks nice in a binder.

The last creature in the deck is Witty Phantom, an OK fiend with 1400 ATK and 1300 DEF. Nothing special

Wow, monsters were pretty underwhelming back then, weren’t they?

Spells Breakdown

Book of Secret Arts was a pretty popular equip spell at the time, as a Spellcaster-Type monster equipped with this card increases its ATK and DEF by 300 points. It made Neo the Magic Swordsman 2000 ATK, which is pretty nuts. Of course, Kaiba’s La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp (the best level 4 beater at the time with 1800 ATK) got up to 2100 ATK. (People stuck this on Maha Vailo later to great effect, too.)

Card Destruction was an awesome spell that would be later semi-limited and then limited to one copy per deck. While it could technically benefit your opponent, discarding your hand and drawing that many cards could be greatly advantageous to you. You had to be careful in trying to hold onto things in your hand because you never knew when this was coming.

Change of Heart was one of the more busted Yu-Gi-Oh cards of all time. And I loved it. You could steal any monster of your opponent’s until the end of turn. It didn’t even matter if it was face-down. This was particularly fun with flip effect monsters. Your opponent’s Man-Eater Bug could eat itself. (Again that’s horrible). Really, though, you basically used this to get a free Tribute monster or to steal your opponent’s boss monster and whack them in the face with it… before turning it into a free Tribute monster.

Dark Hole literally sucks all of the monsters into a black hole and there’s much sadness, usually mostly for your opponent.

I’ve never really liked De-Spell, because it targets Spell Cards on the field. At this point there weren’t many that you’d play face-up other than Equip spells. But before things like Mystical Space Typhoon, this was actually really playable. Heck, I think people played it into Spell Ruler era to get rid of Mage Powers and Axe of Despairs and what not. But in these early days, you were just using it to kill Swords of Revealing Light. That’s really it.

Dian Keto the Cure Master gives you 1000 LP, which is honestly pretty good if you’re stalling. They say life gain doesn’t win games, but as someone who used to play one of these in like every deck ever, it actually does.

Fissure was one of the best removal cards at the time. In fact, it really was the only one besides Dark Hole and Raigeki in spell form. It destroyed the monster with the least ATK that your opponent had, but a lot of times, that was still something you needed gone. Many a Blue-Eyes have fallen to a lowly Fissure.

Last Will is actually an extremely good card. If a monster on your side of the field was sent to your Graveyard this turn, your can Special Summon 1 monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck once during that turn. You could play 3 copies of this for awhile, and it’s been banned forever. While it doesn’t look that bad on the surface, play with three copies of it and you’ll see why it’s so good.

Monster Reborn is one of the most iconic Yu-GI-Oh cards, and it was rightly banned for years. Bringing back a monster from your own graveyard is fine, but from your opponent’s graveyard? In Modern Yu-Gi-Oh, this card was unbanned simply because it’s just not as busted anymore. This was pretty dumb when it wasn’t limited. Fortunately, that was like for a month - if you cared about lists, which most people didn’t.

Soul Exchange is a card that saw play in competitive Yu-GI-Oh for years, especially during the Monarch Control era. I’m pretty sure it was limited to one per deck at one point, because using your opponent’s Monsters to summon Monarchs is pretty mean. Sure, you don’t get a Battle Phase during the turn you use it, but that price is worth paying.

Sword of Destruction is a pretty good Equip spell that gives a Dark monster 400 ATK, but it loses 200 DEF. Who even cares about the DEF?

Yami increases the ATK and DEF of all Fiend and Spellcaster-Type monsters by 200 points. That’s pretty important in this deck. This field spell alo decreases the ATK and DEF of all Fairy-Type monsters by 200 points. That can be relevant, I suppose. Suddenly, a lot of those weaker monsters become incredibly average.

Trap Cards Breakdown

Dragon Capture Jar was specifically made for the Kaiba matchup. This continuous trap card was actually pretty good at keeping the mighty Blue-Eyes White Dragon at bay.

Reinforcements was a pretty sweet combat trick kind of trap. Giving a monster 500 ATK until end of turn was going to win you a lot of battles. It would make Dark Magician trade with Blue-Eyes at the very least.

Remove Trap looks great until you realize that it only destroys face-up trap cards. Bye, bye, Dragon Capture Jar! Although, there’s another really good continuous trap card we’ll get to in a moment.

Reverse Trap is actually a pretty nasty card. I’m not sure how many people played this competitively, but it’s actually really, really mean. It turns all increases into decreases and decreases into increases. It could really screw your opponent over, which is awesome. In this very early meta, this was actually a really good card.

Trap Hole was actually really powerful at this point in Yu-Gi-Oh. Face-down traps were so hard to get rid of that this was a great way to deal with bigger monsters being Normal Summoned. It didn’t hit special summons, but if you happened to have three of these, you could make your opponent miserable.

Ultimate Offering is probably the best trap card in the whole deck, and it got pretty busted later on. It’s been banned for a long time. With a low cost of only 500 LP, you can Normal Summon or Set an additional monster. This card was super busted until it finally got an errata that said you could only use this effect during your own main phase or your opponent’s battle phase. Otherwise you could just use it whenever you felt like, which is pretty stupid. This card would be out of control in today’s Yu-Gi-Oh, which is why it’s going to stay banned. Back then, it wasn’t broken, just really good in the right deck. This card could help you catch up from behind on the field very easily. The cost was just so low.

Waboku is a card that’s still good, actually. It stops all Battle Damage inflicted by opponent’s monsters. However, your monster still does. So, when battling two creatures with equal ATK, you’d actually win the battle. It’s such a good card that’s seen competitive play forever.

Improving the Yugi Starter Deck

For about a month after this and the Kaiba deck were released, you could play 3 of any card. But in May 2002, there was the May 2002 Limited list, which covered these decks and Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Limited were Exodia the Forbidden One and the Exodia pieces, plus Change of Heart, Dark Hole, Monster Reborn, Pot of Greed and Raigeki. Limited to two copies were Card Destruction and Swords of Revealing Light.

So, if you were to improve this deck, what would you do? First, you’d want to bring the deck down to 40 cards. We also really only have LOB to work with. There’s a few ways we could decide to go. We could choose a defensive strategy to stall out until we draw 5 pieces of Exodia, or we can try being more offensive and summon Gaia the Dragon Champion. Thing is, Card Destruction is just going to kill your Exodia pieces. Gaia beats everything but Blue-Eyes, but those two Tribute monsters are going to clog up your hand..

Really. the best way to go is actually to buy 3 copies of the Kaiba deck and get 3 La Jinn and 3 Battle Ox, which were the best level 4 beatstick monsters back then. Make sure you get staples like Raigeki and . Then, buy 2 more copies of the Yugi deck so you can load up on Fissures, Giant Soldiers of Stone, Man-Eater Bugs, Neo the Magic Swordsman, Trap Masters, Trap Holes, and Wabokus. You’ll only play like one Summoned Skull for a tribute monster and just play a grindy game that can stop more complex strategies easily. Believe it or not, Blue-Eyes, great as he is, was pretty easy to stop back then.

This great May 2002 deck list from the Format Library is probably the best deck you could build back when it was just Starter Decks: Yugi and Kaiba and Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Monsters
3 Battle Ox
2 Giant Soldier of Stone
3 La Jinn Mystical Genie of the Lamp
3 Neo the Magic Swordsman
1 Summoned Skull
3 Man-Eater Bug
3 Trap Master
2 Wall of Illusion

Spells
1 Change of Heart
1 Dark Hole
1 De-Spell
3 Fissure
1 Monster Reborn
1 Pot of Greed
1 Raigeki
2 Swords of Revealing Light

Traps
2 Reinforcements
3 Trap Hole
3 Waboku

This deck can pretty much deal with anything you’d run into. Bigger creatures would usually fall into Trap Holes or be done away with by Fissure or Raigeki. It’s actually a really skill-intensive format since people who played competitively were usually playing pretty much the same deck. The game’s early days were actually pretty interesting.

How would you build a place a deck based off of Starter Deck: Yugi?

Heliod's Pilgrim: A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

7/6/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Heliod's Pilgrim is a very interesting Human Cleric from the Magic 2015 Core Set. She costs 2W to cast for a 1/2, and when she enters the battlefield, search your library for an Aura card. Then, add it to your hand and shuffle your library. That's a great tutor effect on a common card! Unsurprisingly, she would find a home in some Standard decks and become a staple in Pauper Aura Hexproof decks, better known as Bogles.

The Pilgrim was a pretty strong competitive card right from its release. Two copies saw play in some Modern Bogles decks like this one. There was a Modern Chord Toolbox deck list that ran one Pilgrim, too In Standard, the Pilgrim worked her way into a variety of Boros decks and the occasional Jeskai Ascendancy list. But the deck that Heliod's Pilgrim was most happy in was Azorius Heroic.

Here's an Azorius Heroic deck list from Grand Prix Denver 2015:

LANDS (22)

4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Mana Confluence
9 Plains
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Tranquil Cove

CREATURES (19)

4 Battlewise Hoplite
1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
4 Favored Hoplite
3 Heliod's Pilgrim
4 Hero of Iroas
3 Seeker of the Way

NON-CREATURES (19)

1 Ajani's Presence
4 Defiant Strike
1 Feat of Resistance
4 Gods Willing
2 Aqueous Form
1 Ordeal of Heliod
4 Ordeal of Thassa
2 Stratus Walk

SIDEBOARD

1 Ajani's Presence
1 Dig Through Time
2 Erase
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
1 Mortal Obstinacy
1 Ordeal of Heliod
3 Stubborn Denial
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Triton Tactics

After Heliod's Pilgrim's rotation from Standard, she fit right into a variety of Commander and Pauper decks. Bruna, Light of Alabaster, Uril, the Miststalker, Brago, King Eternal, Sigarda, Host of Herons, and Sram, Senior Artificer have called on her the most. She even found play in Ascended Lawmage Pauper EDH (PDH) decks!

But, Pauper is her most competitive format. One deck she's a staple in as a four-of is a deck often called "4-Color Value" which is an Enchantress version of Bogles that runs Aura Gnarlid rather than Slippery Bogle. It's a cool deck! There's also Mono-White Heroic, a deck that's been on the rise in the format, that includes the Pilgrim, but often only as a one-of in the sideboard.

Of course, the most popular and powerful of the decks Heliod's Pilgrim sees play in is Aura Hexproof or "Bogles." These days, though, she's pretty much a one-of in the main deck like in this list.

Creatures (13)

4     Gladecover Scout
4     Slippery Bogle
4     Silhana Ledgewalker
1     Heliod's Pilgrim

Enchantments (29)

4     Abundant Growth
3     Cartouche of Solidarity
4     Ethereal Armor
1     Lifelink
4     Rancor
4     Utopia Sprawl
4     Ancestral Mask
4     Armadillo Cloak
1     Cartouche of Strength

Lands (18)

4     Blossoming Sands
2     Crumbling Vestige
10     Forest
2     Khalni Garden

Sideboard (15)

2     Dispel
1     Gorilla Shaman
2     Gut Shot
1     Lifelink
2     Young Wolf
1     Ancient Grudge
2     Flaring Pain
1     Ray of Revelation
2     Standard Bearer
1     Tangle

It's not too often that Magic players get this excited about a common. But as a common and as support for a popular archetype like Bogles, she's proven to be one of the better common tutors out there.

How to Get the Most Out of a Yu-Gi-Oh Booster Pack: Pharaoh's Servant #1

7/2/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

I only have one thing to say about Pharaoh's Servant… JINZO! Also, the card quality of the fourth expansion set for Yugioh is WAY higher than the first three… So, let’s head over to Yu-Gi-Oh Pack Simulator and see what we can pull from this classic set!

7 Completed
Dokuroyaiba
Earthshaker
Bubonic Vermin
Lightforce Sword (rare)
Darkfire Soldier #2
Flame Champion
Type Zero Magic Crusher
Insect Imitation

OK, this pack is pretty bad. Then again, Lightforce Sword was a highly sought-after card because it was one Yugi Moto used on the anime. It may be worth less than $0.25 today but there’s a Super Rare version out there, just because it’s an iconic Yugi card. It also wasn’t a terrible card back in the day. Removing a card from your opponent’s hand at random is super annoying, and it could’ve been your opponent’s best card for all you know. You also had ways to really mess up your opponent’s hand with cards like Confiscation, Delinquent Duo, and The Forceful Sentry that all saw plenty of play at the time. So, Lightforce Sword was pretty good in a deck that just wanted to ruin your opponent’s day and make them hate you.

Fortunately, there are some good commons in this pack. 7 Completed is a pretty sweet equip spell for Machine-type monsters. You could use to have a Machine-type monster gain 700 ATK or 700 DEF. Guardian of the Throne Room from Magic Ruler was a pretty awesome target for this Equip Spell, making him 2350 ATK or 2300 DEF. Even today, this card is worth north of $0.25 and some of its reprints are worth more than $0.50!

Dokuroyaiba is worth $0.05 just for this flavor text: “A boomerang with brains that will pursue a target to the ends of the earth.”

Earthshaker isn’t the most exciting way to blow up monsters. But it’s interesting. You choose 2 Monster attributes and your opponent chooses 1. All Face-Up Monsters on the field with the chosen attribute are destroyed. Timed correctly, though, it could be pretty miserable for your opponent, as they could lose one or more monsters and you may be out nothing. It’s worth somewhere between $0.10 and $0.20 because who would play it now? Back then, though, you could sneak this in and no one would see it coming.

Bubonic Vermin was a cute card back in the day. Still worth roughly $0.25 today, this little guy could flip and give you another Vermin from your deck in face-down Defense Position. These guys were great Tribute fodder back in the day, although they may not really do much now.

Darkfire Soldier #2 was easily one of the best cards in this pack back in the day, as 1700 ATK for a level 4 monster was awesome! I remember people actually playing this card. He’s worth $0.10 today, but back then, I think he was actually a card that people wanted on a regular basis!

Flame Champion is a level 5 monster with 1900 ATK. Meh. Even back then, this isn’t a monster you’d play unless you were going all dedicated Fire monsters or something.

I think people back in the day may have played Type Zero Magic Crusher. It’s worth about nothing now. But a continuous trap card that let you discard a Spell Card to deal 500 damage to your opponent was nothing to sneeze at. Those could be the last few Life Points you needed for the win. Was it a great card? Not really, but it could win you a game here and there.

Insect Imitation is a $0.25 common we may not think much of today, but Insects were a real deck back in the day. This was a good way to get a better monster into play very quickly. The cool thing about this card was that you could summon the monster in attack position or FACE DOWN defense position. It was a cute way to get a Man-Eater Bug into play face down, if you had a level 1 insect to tribute. This is a card that’s actually way better now, but who would play it? Well, it does see play in Duel Links…

This is a pretty garbage pack, unless you like collecting the old sets. Also, back then Lightforce Sword was worth the pack, as well as the 7 Completed and Darkfire Soldier. You can’t win ‘em all!

If you want me to “open” a particular pack that’s available on Yu-Gi-Oh Pack Simulator, let me know in the comments!

The Magic Card Investor #3: Stonehorn Dignitary

7/2/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

In the first couple installments of the Magic Card Investor we looked at Nezahal, Primal Tide and Scrap Trawler. One looks like a top-end control finisher and the other is a staple in some Modern artifact combo decks.

This week, we look at a completely different kind of card, a card picking up steam in Pauper. It’s a common from Magic 2012 called Stonehorn Dignitary! It’s seeing play at four copies in 5-Color Urzatron Control and four copies between the main and sideboards of Sunscape Storm (I think that’s what the deck is called.) While it’s still a $0.25 card at the moment, just looking at people listing playsets for $4 or $5 on eBay tells me that people are expecting this card to move up quickly!

What makes the Dignitary so interesting from an investment perspective is that there are no reprints of it. Also, foil copies have been going bonkers. They’ve been listed as high as $13 on TCGPlayer, although the actual market seems to be between $4 and $7. Since Pauper is an Eternal format, players are quite willing to invest in foil copies for decks they plan to keep built. So, do we want to pick up a playset or two of Stonehorn Dignitary and hope for the best?

Low-Risk, Decent Reward

Because this is a common you can still find in bulk, Stonehorn Dignitary is extremely low risk. Heck, because it sees some Commander play in “blink” decks like Brago, King Eternal and Roon of the Hidden Realm, you can usually sell it to buylists for about a nickel. That’s the absolute worst case scenario, though. This card shouldn’t be going anywhere in Pauper.

The only thing that can hurt the Dignitary is if he gets reprinted. While this guy could fit into a lot of different scenarios, he hasn’t been reprinted yet. As it stands, there’s a good chance that Dignitary is $0.50 before long, and being that people are buying him four at a time for Pauper, $1 isn’t out of the question.

If you buy Stonehorn Dignitary at retail, you’re looking at likely doubling or quadrupling your money. If you already have some laying around, set them aside. This is one of the better commons to keep your eye on right now. If you can get foils on the low-end, that’s probably the better plan to make money quick. But if you’re just looking to grind out some value, keep a playset or two of these around.

A look back at previous Magic Card Investor episodes:

Nezahal, Primal Tide was $1.50 TCGPlayer mid on 6/20 and is $1.64 on 7/2. That’s a 9% gain in a little under two weeks. The market price is $1.74, so the market is still heating up. Getting to $3 in a hurry isn’t out of the question. This is still a buy.

Scrap Trawler was a little under $1 on 6/26 and by 7/2 it’s $1.15. That’s 15% in about a week! It’s slowed down, though. So I still really like this card, and I’d categorize it more as a hold. Still, you can’t turn down picking these up at such a low price.

If there’s a card you believe we should take a look at here on the Magic Card Investor, let us know in the comments!

How to Get the Most Out of a Yu-Gi-Oh Booster Pack: Magic Ruler / Spell Ruler #1

7/1/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Magic Ruler (later known as Spell Ruler) was the third major set release for Yu-Gi-Oh in the TCG. Today we go to the Yu-Gi-Oh Pack Simulator to open a pack of Magic Ruler! Interestingly, Spell Ruler, being the re-release of the set, is actually more valuable. As we open this pack, I’ll go into just what cards from this set are valuable, because a lot of the COMMONS are highly sought after!

Let’s get rippin’!

Guardian of the Throne Room
Psychic Kappa
The Reliable Guardian
Tyhone #2
Hiro's Shadow Scout (rare)
Boar Soldier
Sonic Bird
Final Destiny
Turtle Oath

By today’s standards, this pack looks like steaming garbage. But at the time, this was actually a halfway decent pack. Also, were we opening Spell Ruler, we’re probably making our money back if we only paid a few bucks for it. Let’s see why.

This is an interesting pack, because the rare isn’t the best card in the pack. That’s not to say Hiro’s Shadow Scout was a terrible card back in the day. While making your opponent draw 3 cards sounds horrible, you get to discard any Spell Cards among them to the Graveyard. That’s not bad, at all! Of course, it could backfire and you could give your opponent free cards. But the Scout was more of a sideboard sort of card that you would use against certain decks. Spell cards became really important in this set, of course. This is a $0.25 rare today.

The commons in this pack are actually pretty interesting. The first is Guardian of the Throne Room, a LIGHT Machine monster with 1650 ATK and 1600 DEF. Those are great stats for a Level 4 monster at the time! In fact, the Spell Ruler printing of this card is worth over $0.50! The funny thing about the Guardian of the Throne is his popularity today actually has more to do with the Duel Links game, in which it was still playable for quite some time. Back in the day, this was a good monster that people played. He was a good little Machine in the right deck. The Magic Ruler version isn’t worth much at all,though.

Psychic Kappa may not seem to be a monster we’re interested in, but at $0.50 market price (higher for Spell Ruler), there’s obviously some market for him! Turns out that he’s the “budget” replacement for Frog the Jam, a McDonald’s Promo Card worth close to $4 in some Frog decks. That’s because he’s a level 2 vanilla Aqua monster, meaning he’s actually playable in the right deck. If you told someone you know that this card had a trade value of $1 or so, they’d probably think you were dumb. They would be wrong.

The Reliable Guardian was a solid quick play Spell Card back in its day. It gave a face-up monster 700 extra DEF until the end of the turn. That’s definitely not nothing in old-school Yu-Gi-Oh! People who love the old school stuff have paid as much as $1 for the Spell Ruler version, but the Magic Ruler version is pretty worthless.

Tyhone #2 is worth $0.25 because… level 6 vanilla Dragon? I have no idea.

Boar Soldier is a 2000 ATK level 4 monster… as long as your opponent doesn’t control a monster. You can’t even Normal Summon him. He’s terrible. He wouldn’t be bad with Skill Drain in play, but by the time that awesome Trap Card was released, there were better options to play than this.

Sonic Bird is only worth $0.25 today, but this was an awesome card for a long time. It’s just been reprinted to death. When he’s normal summoned, the Bird searched out a Ritual Spell Card from your deck to your hand. That’s really good because Ritual Monsters were amazing back then. They’re still pretty good, actually, but there are better ways to search out those cards now. This is still an awesome Old School card, though. (I played it in my Pegasus Starter Deck, of course, for Black Illusion Ritual!)

Final Destiny isn’t worth much today and I don’t think it was back then, either. But you could discard 5 cards and blow up everything on the field. That’s such a crazy drawback, but in the rare situation that it was good, it was really good. Talk about a last ditch card!

The last card is Turtle Oath, and at $0.25 for the Magic Ruler version, you probably aren’t too excited. The Spell Ruler version is close to $0.75, though. That’s because this is the card that summoned Crab Turtle, a perfectly decent Level 8 Ritual Monster with 2550 ATK and 2500 DEF. That extra 50 ATK made a BIG difference against things like Summoned Skull and Dark Magician, monsters that were big in the game at the time. So, back in the day, you really wanted this card. Crab Turtle was a common, too, so he wasn’t hard to get! Had we gotten both in this pack, it would’ve been pretty cool.

So, what we’ve learned is that we want to open Spell Ruler more so than Magic Ruler! Pretty much everything is this pack is worth something if you open it from that set - except Psychic Kappa, which is just always worth something. Personally, I’d be trading the Psychic Kappa, since while Frogs are a cool deck, I wouldn’t be using it. I’d rather get a Goat Format staple for it.

Vona, Butcher of Magan Brawl Commander Deck Profile - Magic the Gathering (MTG)

7/1/2018

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

The Brawl Commander is an interesting innovation on the massively popular Commander format of Magic: the Gathering. It allows you to play only Standard-legal cards with either a Legendary Creature or Planeswalker at the helm as a Commander. You also only play 60 cards, instead of the customary 100. One of those cards is your Commander, which sits in the Command Zone rather than in your deck. Also, you start with 30 life rather than 40. The rest of the rules of the format are the same as traditional Commander. It’s an awesome gateway format to traditional Commander with the sort of wide-open metagame that you’d expect from a singleton format.

One of my favorite Brawl decks that I’ve found in the Kaladesh to Dominaria era is Vona, Butcher of Magan. This particular list is sub $60 at time of this writing. It’s due to lose a few cards with the October 2018 rotation, such as Fatal Push and Gifted Aetherborn; so if you want to build this deck, you can leave out the Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, and Hour of Devastation cards, which will make the list under $50 easily.

This Brawl deck list went 5-0 in a Brawl League on June 24, 2018 piloted by Delta.3000.

Commander
1     Vona, Butcher of Magan

Creatures (22)

1     Duskborne Skymarcher
1     Skymarcher Aspirant
1     Vicious Conquistador
1     Adanto Vanguard
1     Bishop's Soldier
1     Dusk Legion Zealot
1     Gifted Aetherborn
1     Legion Lieutenant
1     Martyr of Dusk
1     Oathsworn Vampire
1     Queen's Bay Soldier
1     Forerunner of the Legion
1     Inspiring Cleric
1     Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
1     Sadistic Skymarcher
1     Skymarch Bloodletter
1     Voracious Vampire
1     Bishop of Binding
1     Paladin of the Bloodstained
1     Sanctum Seeker
1     Sanguine Glorifier
1     Champion of Dusk

Spells (6)
1     Duress
1     Fatal Push
1     Cast Down
1     Doomfall
1     Queen's Commission
1     Call to the Feast

Artifacts (2)
1     Vanquisher's Banner
1     The Immortal Sun

Enchantments (5)
1     Legion's Landing
1     Radiant Destiny
1     Squire's Devotion
1     Cast Out
1     Ixalan's Binding

Lands (24)
1     Concealed Courtyard
1     Evolving Wilds
1     Forsaken Sanctuary
1     Ifnir Deadlands
1     Isolated Chapel
1     Memorial to Folly
6     Plains
1     Shefet Dunes
10     Swamp
1     Unclaimed Territory

White/Black Vampires seemed a deck that was poised to be a nice budget strategy in Standard with the release of Ixalan. The deck got better with Rivals of Ixalan, too. But the tribe, good as its cards are in the current Standard cardpool, hasn’t made huge waves in the meta, although with a skilled pilot it can win some duels.

Vona, Butcher of Magan is a really cool Legendary Creature. Already a 4/4 vigilant Vampire Knight with lifelink, Vona also has a powerful tap ability. Pay 7 life and you can destroy a target nonland permanent. While it can only be activated on your turn, you can do so after she attacks. She hasn’t quite caught on in traditional Commander, but I think she will at some point.

This deck is a great starting place for anyone who wants to play Vampires in Commander. Actually, this deck list reads as a who’s who of Vampires in Standard. Indeed, Brawl decks are meant to “feel” a bit like you’re playing a Standard deck. But as singletons, many cards become objectively more powerful, as we’ll see as we delve into this pretty sweet deck list.

Creatures Breakdown

The list begins with three strong Vampire one-drops: Duskborne Marcher, Skymarcher Aspirant, and Vicious Conquistador. The Marcher pumps another attacking Vampire by just +1/+1, but sometimes, that’s all you need. Aspirant is actually playable in decks outside of Vampires, and once you have the City’s Blessing, she’s a 2/1 flyer for one, which is really good. Getting 10 permanents in Brawl is not hard to do. The Conquistador is an above average one drop with a ½ body and the ability to make each opponent lose 1 life. Naturally, the Conquistador is much more powerful in multiplayer games.

The deck has a slew of two-drop creatures: Adanto Vanguard, Bishop’s Soldier, Dusk Legion Zealot, Gifted Aetherborn, Legion Lieutenant, Martyr of Dusk, Oathsworn Vampire, and Queen’s Bay Soldier. The Vanguard is effectively a 3/1 when attacking and you can 4 life to make the Vanguard indestructible. Paying 4 life sounds like a high cost, but when you have a lot of lifelink like you do in this deck, using that ability to win a combat against a good creature is worth the price.

Bishop’s Soldier is a fairly vanilla 2/2 for 2 mana with Lifelink. But Lifelink is an important part of this deck, so you play him with that in mind. Dusk Legion Zealot is a Standard playable so good he got printed in Masters 25. He draws you a card when he enters, so losing that 1 life is no big deal at all. Gifted Aetherborn is just a solid two-mana 2 / 3 with deathtouch and lifelink. The post-October 2018 version of this deck will miss him but not that much.

Legion Lieutenant gives other vampires you control +1/+1. This is important because it makes the already slightly above-average Vampires in this deck very much above average creatures. This is a lord creature that you play when you’re about to have the beatdown to apply extra pressure.

Martyr of Dusk is a 2/1 for 2 mana that makes a 1/1 Vampire token with lifelink when he dies. Creatures that replace themselves are always pretty good, after all. Oathsworn Vampire comes into play tapped, which sounds bad until you see you can cast him from your graveyard if you gained life that turn. Not terrible. Queen’s Bay Soldier is just a vanilla 2/2 Vampire Soldier, but… that’s some sick artwork right there!

Some of the three-drop creatures in this deck are pretty awesome. Forerunner of the Legion is a recruiter for Vampires, putting a Vampire of your choice from your deck on top. But his usefulness doesn’t end there! Whenever another Vampire enters the battlefield under your control, target creature gets +1/+1.

Inspiring Cleric just gives you 4 life when she enters. But a 3/2 body for 3 mana is perfectly acceptable and the lifegain is always welcome.

Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle was one of my favorite creatures in Ixalan. Whenever one or more of your Vampires attack, you create a 1/1 Vampire token with lifelink. It’s too bad you only get one token per combat, but he’s a nice little value engine.

Sadistic Skymarcher is a 3-mana flyer 2/2 with lifelink, which is pretty sweet, but you have to reveal a Vampire card from your hand or pay an extra colorless mana when he enters. Not terrible, and certainly playable. Skymarch Bloodletter is a bit better, a 2/2 flyer for 3 that drains an opponent for 1 life.

Voracious Vampire is the last 3-drop Vampire in the deck, and she’s a 2/2 with menace. When she enters, target Vampire you control gains +1/+1 and menace until end of turn. Forcing your opponent to block with two creatures is pretty good, and in certain circumstances, this gal facilitates 2-for-1 or even 3-for-1 combats.

Bishop of Binding is pretty terrible in regular Standard, BUT in Brawl that’s a whole different story. Only a 1/1 for 3W, his effectiveness depends on the creature that you exile with his enter the battlefield ability. He’s quite fragile, but the power and toughness boost he creates can be given to any Vampire you control, not just him. So, in the context of this deck, he’s both removal and a repeatable pump spell. That’s not bad at all.

Paladin of the Bloodstained is a pretty underwhelming 4-mana Knight that brings a 1/1 vampire token with lifelink when he enters. But what else can you ask from a common? Two bodies out of one card is pretty much always good, and this is pretty average. Likewise, Sanguine Glorifier is a 3/3 that gives a target Vampire a +1/+1 counter when she enters. Not great, but pretty good to throw on Vona.

The best non-Vona creature in the deck is easily Sanctum Seeker. He’s essentially Hellrider for Vampires. Whenever a Vampire attacks, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. Note that it’s for each Vampire that attacks, unlike with Mavren Fein. He’s already good enough in 1v1 Magic. But, in multiplayer, this guy is just absolutely busted and can break the game wide open in your favor. This guy is one of your win conditions.

The last creature in the deck is Champion of Dusk. He’s really straightforward: he enters and you lose X life and draw X cards where X is the number of Vampires you control. Since you’re gaining a lot of life, you don’t care about the lifeloss. This guy helps you get back in the game when you’ve run out of gas. Also, he’s a 4/4, so he works for you on the field, too.

Spells Breakdown

Unsurprisingly, this is a creature-heavy deck, since the Vampire tribe relies so much on its creatures. That’s why you play some underwhelming stuff. So there aren’t many non-creature spells. Duress is pretty basic hand control, but it’s one of the best control spells in the game, so it’s worth including. Fatal Push might be one of the best removal spells ever printed, and it’s gone with October 2018 Standard rotation. Still, it’s worth picking one up just to have, since it’s going to see play forever.

Cast Down destroys a nonlegendary creature. It’s a Dominaria card that’s going to be a Brawl staple for quite some time. Doomfall is a sweet card that’s pretty much a split card since you can choose one of two options. Either your opponent exiles a creature they control or you exile a nonland card from his or her hand. Either option is great for 3 mana, but sadly, it leaves Brawl with Hour of Devastation in 10/18.

The other two noncreature spells are token generators: Queen’s Commission makes two 1/1 vampires with lifelink for 3 mana and Call to the Feast creates three 1/1’s with lifelink for four. Both are great in this deck.

Artifacts and Enchantments

The two artifacts in this deck are extremely strong. Vanquisher’s Banner is a Tribal staple that many traditional Commander players still haven’t adopted, strangely enough. Not only does the Banner pump creatures of the chosen type by +1/+1, but also draws you a card each time you cast a creature of that type. It’s really a key card in this deck.

The Immortal Sun is just a Brawl staple all around, as long as you’re not playing any Planeswalkers. It’s a pretty ridiculous card. Spells you cast cost 1 less to cast, you draw an additional card each draw step, AND creatures you control gain +1/+1. Shutting down planeswalkers’ loyalty abilities is a plus in this deck.

Legion’s Landing is a one-mana Enchantment that brings a 1/1 Vampire token with it. When you attack with three or more creatures, you transform it into a Vampire-token creating machine. It can even tap for White mana. Radiant Destiny is another awesome tribal card, not only giving your Vampires (or any creature type you choose) +1/+1 but it can give you the city’s blessing once you have 10 permanents. With all the little Vampires you have in this deck, that’s pretty easy to do. Once you have the city’s blessing, all of your Vampires gain vigilance. This deck becomes really hard to beat at that point!

Squire’s Devotion is one of the more odd choices in this deck, in my opinion. It’s a 3 mana Enchantment that gives the enchanted creature +1/+1 and lifelink. It also brings a 1/1 Vampire token with lifelink with it. Not a bad card, and it really just feels like another token generator that you might stick on your Sanctum Seeker or Champion of Dusk.

Cast Out and Ixalan’s Binding are standard removal staples that are also Brawl staples. Not much to say about them except that Cast Out won’t be in Brawl much longer.

Not much to say about the mana base except that Concealed Courtyard, Ifnir Deadlands, and Shefet Dunes are all saying goodbye in October ‘18. Save yourself about $6 there, unless you need them for other formats. Memorial to Folly is a nice way to get back a creature card from your grave, like Sanctum Seeker or Champion of Dusk.

Deck Strategy

While many of the cards in this deck wouldn’t ever see Standard or traditional Commander play, in Brawl, they all work synergistically. Honestly, there aren’t any below-average cards in the deck besides maybe the vanilla creatures. But even they are important to this deck’s strategy. You just need to fill the board with Vampires and let your Sanctum Seeker go to work. Vona helps you keep the board clear of problems while leading the charge.

Really, the deck wins on pure Tribal synergy. The tribal boost cards really are what make this deck so deadly. You’re winning by swarming the board with creatures that suddenly become above-average to well above-average with just a couple of support cards. Many of your creatures come with a token attached, so you’re getting card advantage all of the time. Swarm decks have always been one of my favorite strategies and this deck is one that I’d play.

Magic 2019 gives the deck Vampire Sovereign. While a 5-mana 3 / 4 flyer isn’t all that great, the drain ability for 3 life is pretty decent, even if it only affects one opponent. It’s going to replace Gifted Aetherborn in the deck, which does mess the mana curve up only a little. But Magic 2019 also gives the deck Vampire Neonate, a one-drop that can tap to drain all opponents for 1 life for only 2 colorless mana. The Queen’s Bay Soldier can go to make room for it.

This is a great, very competitive deck in the KLD-DOM Brawl meta. M19 is definitely going to shake things up with the Elder Dragons, but this deck is tribal synergy at its finest.