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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Main Deck (40 Cards)

Monsters

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


Spells

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


Traps

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


Extra Deck (15 Cards)

Fusion

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


Xyz

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


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

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


Main Deck (40 Cards)

Monsters

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


Spells

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


Traps

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


Extra Deck (15 Cards)

Fusion Monsters

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


XYZ Monsters

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

Or really whatever XYZ Monsters you want really.

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

Let’s go through what makes this deck tick.

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


What About the Other Gladiator Beasts?

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

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

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

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

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

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


Can Gladiator Beasts Compete in 2018 and Beyond?

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

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

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

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


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

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

Already new to the world of paying mana to cast spells, hybrid mana was this really amazing thing to me. I didn’t know this wasn’t a regular thing. But, right away, I could tell this card could be played in a variety of decks.

Kithkins were a really good tribe in Magic back then. So,  Figure of Destiny was a big deal. You’d pump mana into him and he’d get bigger. I actually got him leveled up a couple of times during the draft. I ended up not even playing my Necroskitter, although I thought he was cool, too.

In my early days of Magic, aggro was my thing. Elves and Goblins were among my favorite decks to play. I didn’t really get into competitive play at that point, and actually went back to Yu-Gi-Oh until the Magic 2010 Core Set was released. I ended up selling my Figure of Destiny to the game store for a few dollars.

Had I kept playing, this Red/Green Aggro deck or something like it would have been my jam in Standard in ‘08:


LANDS

4x Fire-Lit Thicket
3x Grove of the Burnwillows
4x Karplusan Forest
8x Mountain
3x Mutavault


CREATURES

4x Figure of Destiny
4x Kavu Predator
4x Keldon Marauders
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Tarmogoyf

INSTANTS/SORCERIES

3x Flame Javelin
4x Incinerate
4x Rift Bolt
3x Shard Volley
4x Tarfire


SIDEBOARD

3x Dragon's Claw
3x Firespout
3x Krosan Grip
4x Magus of the Moon
2x Unwilling Recruit


Yes, Goyf was still in Standard. Had I known then this deck had in it cards that would be worth a total of about $600 now… Hindsight is 20/20.

But, yeah, Figure of Destiny was really, really good. It was still seeing play in Extended 3 to 4 years later in top decks. It could have been a sign that Magic was the game I should’ve spent thousands of bucks on instead of Yu-Gi-Oh!

Again, hindsight is 20/20. But I was right that Figure of Destiny was an awesome card.

And he still sees play in 1V1 Commander decks in 2017…


Have any great Magic card stories you’d like to share? Tell us about them in the comments!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hurray for synergy!

But wait... THERE'S MORE!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You’d want to start with a deck list  like this:

Monsters (16)

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

Spells (17)

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

Traps (7)

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

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

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

Answering Great Reader Feedback About Building a Toon Kingdom Deck

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Updated 10/21/2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life Begins at 20 is a Magic the Gathering Youtuber that talks MTG Cube, Limited, and Sealed. His channel also features Product Openings and more! (YouTube.com/LifeBeginsAt20). Also, check out his website at LifeBeginsAt20.co.uk.


Q1. How did the Life Begins at 20 channel begin?

LB20: Originally, I was getting invested in MTG and like many people I don't do things with half effort. I watched as much content as I could about magic and found cube with Milo's channel. The downside was he was leaving the hobby at the time and with not much other cube content out there I thought, well I edit for a living and I know how to make content, this wouldn't be so hard to create videos. I couldn't have been any more misinformed! There is so much to learn behind the scenes with YouTube alongside the video creation so after time I got to a point where I felt I knew a little bit, but the overall goal was to help newer players, like myself, get into the amazing format that is cube!

GS: Milo was one of my favorite YouTubers for a long time. I’m glad he came back!

LB20: For sure! He's amazing.

Q2. What attracted you to the cube format? what do you like the most about it?

LB20: I think it was Milo's infectious personality that really sold to the format and seeing his holiday cube game videos with the exciting gameplay and amazing cards, I thought that this was for me. I'm not the biggest constructed player but I loved limited and this was the perfect way to create the limited environment I wanted to give other players. Being able to play with the best and most iconic cards throughout Magic wasn't a tough sell!

GS: Cube is an awesome format, and I’ve always wanted to build one myself. It allows you to build a collection in a really fun way.


Q3. Do you think cube is a format that Wizards should recognize and support?

LB20: I think there needs to be more, possibly in terms of just MTGO, where having more cube events would be great. I'm not asking for the same Vintage cube or Modern cube all the time, but possibly different community player's cubes available or pauper and so on. This way it becomes a little more visible and easier to access to players all over the world, rather than hoping you know someone at your LGS that has one. This I think would be the best way to introduce more people to the format. I'd also love to see a cube event held by wizards or scg with commentary and so on which would give the format the much needed publicity as there are so many people that don't know anything about it at all. It is, at least in my biased opinion, the best way to play magic.

GS: If you could build your own cubes on MTGO, I’d be playing them all the time.

LB20: I think community cubes would be cool. They did way back with the cube where no colour acted the way it should.



Q4. With all the demonetizing of YouTube videos going on, where do you see the future of Magic on YouTube?

LB20: The demonetization is frustrating, but having looked further into it, it doesn't mean that no advertisers are going to appear on your videos but potentially (being the key word here) advertisers that suit your content will still. It's not a great atmosphere at the moment and is causing problems, but I can't see it affecting MTG on youtube much, purely because Patreon can and does far more than Ad-Revenue can ever do for MTG creators. The money the big creators brings in through ad revenue, while still noticeable, won't ever be as much as the big gaming or vlogging channels, but the Patreons keep everything going. I don't think we will ever see a 1 million plus subscriber channel with this niche, but as long as we all help one another in terms of promoting content and channels and creating high quality videos it can only benefit the community.

GS: Patreon is pretty amazing in what it can do for content creators.

Q5. If there is one thing you could change about magic, what would it be?

LB20: Hmmm, this is a tough one, for a lot of people I'd imagine it would be reprinting a lot of the reserved list cards, but for me I'd probably say I'd want to improve the print quality of sets. Too many times now since I'd say kaladesh have sets come out with worse and worse card stock or printing defects. Conspiracy 2 was awful for print quality and the most recent standard sets have been bending far too quickly. I get that inflation kicks in for a business with the card and ink and so on, but I'd like my cards to look like they're worth something or have the price is reduced for the packs. I can't believe it's that difficult a fix in all honesty and it's certainly putting me off purchasing cards at this moment in time.

GS: As someone who hasn’t purchased many recent cards, I didn’t realize this was a growing problem. But it comes up all the time now. They just need to fix it. Magic cards have always been such high quality and they need to get back to maintaining that status.

LB20: Indeed, it shouldn't be like this. The double sided cards from ixalan in the light are translucent. At least the early print runs, they may have fixed that now.

Double faced cards are expensive to print compared to regular ones, but yeah, that's unacceptable. I sure hope they fix these issues soon!

I'm sure they will but for Now, bar the couple packs of iconic masters I've pre ordered, I'm sticking to pauper as I don't mind cheap cards being lesser

GS:  What do you think of Iconic Masters? The sheer number of important reprints is blowing my mind!

For cube players this is probably the best set of reprints I've seen, plus my upcoming pauper cube have certainly had some great downshifts too

GS: The new cards for pauper are amazing. I think Mind Stone is one of them. Wight of Precinct Six, Virulent Strike, Thrill-Kill Assassin, lots of cube worthy cards! There’s a whole list of Iconic Masters rarity shifts on Epicstream.

LB20: Yup and others I've purchased were Seeker of the Way, Thrill-Kill Assassin and more.

GS: Seeker is amazing for pauper.

LB20: I think pauper is a format I might get more into, cheap and still exciting. But the pauper cube will be my first focus. Ordered so many cards for it!

GS: Yeah I saw your status about it. Looking forward to that!

Anything you'd like to share before we wrap up?

LB20: The only thing I'd add is to the end of question 4. And that's mainly a message to anyone viewing content, whether it's mine or anyone else. Subscribing and commenting is free and makes a huge difference to the creators that make the content for you. Just simply click and hit the bell notification icon, it honestly means a lot to any small or big creator. Definitely don't be afraid to say hi, we don't bite!

GS: That's a great point. As content creators, we like to be reminded that people care :-P

Yup, it does help motivate us all :)

Good luck with your pauper cube and the channel! Cheers!

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** Disclaimer: I was compensated in absolutely no form for this interview. It was done purely for the good of the Magic the Gathering community and the goodness of my own heart ;)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nissa, Vital Force is one of two Nissa planeswalkers in Kaladesh. This 5-mana planeswalker is included in the set itself, whereas the other Nissa, Nature’s Artisan, is included in the Planeswalker decks for this set. How good is Nissa, Vital Force when compared to past Nissa planeswalkers? From the looks of it, pretty darn good. Players  pointed out early on that her ultimate ability can be used after only a single turn. So, how well do all of her abilities stack up?

Her +1 is similar to that of Nissa, Worldwaker’s, in that she turns a land into an Elemental creature. However, there are some important differences with Vital Force’s +1. First of all, Worldwaker’s ability makes that land permanently a creature. This +1 only makes that land a creature until your next turn. However, you get a 5/5 with haste instead of a 4/4 with trample. She also un-taps the land, which essentially could give you an extra mana if you decided instead to tap that land for mana instead of attacking. Functionally, this is a similar ability, although the permanency and trample that Worldwaker’s +1 offered is better in some cases.

Then again, when Nissa, Vital Force first entered Standard, the man lands Hissing Quagmire, Lumbering Falls, Needle Spires, Shambling Vent, and Wandering Fumarole were still in Standard. Her +1 ability actually worked well with these manlands, as not only would they become 5/5 lands with haste, but gain any abilities that they would have if they were activated. For example, Lumbering Falls would still gain hexproof, meaning opponent’s couldn’t target it with spells. Hissing Quagmire would still have deathtouch, Needle Spires would still have double strike and Shambling Vent would have lifelink. Wandering Fumarole’s ability to switch power and toughness wouldn’t really matter, though. Those man lands wouldn’t stay in Standard long with Nissa, Vital Force, but when they were, she had fun with them.

Vital Force’s -3 lets you get a permanent card back from your graveyard to your hand. This isn’t a bad ability, but going from 5 to 2 loyalty right away seems like a fairly high price to pay. However, this ability can be useful in certain situations. But paying 5 mana for this Regrowth ability right away doesn’t feel awesome. Still, it’s a mode that will probably be used at certain junctures of the game, so it’s a decent second ability. It’s nowhere as good as untapping up to 4 Forests, however, as Worldwaker could do.

The ultimate ability is the one that has most players excited. Essentially, it’s a Horn of Greed that only benefits you. Drawing a card just by having a land enter the battlefield under your control is really solid. Note that you don’t actually have to play it, meaning that cards like Splendid Reclamation that bring lands into play does the trick, too.

Horn of Greed, an artifact most recently featured in Conspiracy: Take the Crown, actually only draws a player a card when he/she actually plays a land. It also helps all players and not just yourself. For only -6, this is a really good ultimate. With how easy it is in Standard to put land cards into your graveyard to use Splendid Reclamation, Nissa, Vital Force looked like the piece that deck needs to be really good. (That never really happened, but  it could have.)

Nissa, Vital Force is a really solid planeswalker. The ultimate ability is actually quite good, as is the +1 ability. I’m not sure how I feel about the minus ability, although being able to retrieve any permanent card is handy. With 5 loyalty and a CMC (Converted Mana Cost) of 5, it seemed a sure thing this Nissa would see play, perhaps even in Modern.

But, what really happened?

Indeed, Nissa, Vital Force has seen play, notably as a one-of in some Saheeli Rai / Felidar Guardian Copy Cat Combo decks. But most consistently, she's been a one-of in some Temur Energy decks, often in the sideboard. So, while she hasn't enabled decks to succeed in the way that Nissa, Worldwaker once did, she's become a complementary piece of a very good  Standard deck archetype.

However, this is only part of her story! As I predicted, Nissa, Vital Force has sneaked into a few Modern decks as a one-of, mostly in the sideboard. One example is this tournament-winning Titan Breach deck. Other decks that have utilized Nissa, Vital Force include Valakut/Scapeshift combo decks and Elves. In Legacy, she's even made the main boards of some competitive Elves decks!

Beyond her obvious utility in Commander, especially  in Atraxa, Praetor's Voice decks which can always use and abuse planeswalkers, Nissa, Vital Force has become a competitive role player in not just Standard, but Modern and Legacy, as well! Outside of some Lands decks in Legacy and the occasional Tooth and Nail deck in Modern, Nissa, Worldwaker hasn't built nearly the same resume of competitive playability in non-rotating formats!

So to answer the question of how good is Nissa, Vital Force? She's been a bit better than Nissa, Worldwaker in the long run, and that's saying something!

Yet, Nissa, Vital Force has been available as low as $2.00 apiece! While her price has slowly recovered since then, there's little doubt she's been pretty undervalued.