Magic: The Gathering (Spoiler-free)

I thought about Titan's Strength but I agree with Saiga on Defiant Strike.

Instead of scrying 1 a bunch of times, I'd rather just draw all the cards.

Titan's Strength provides a much larger buff though. I'd run both if I had the room, personally.

I'd also run both. Titan's Strength and Zada will be a reliable finisher in your deck, either by itself or in combination with Temur Battle rage (since it will make each creature strong enough to trigger Ferocious and gain Trample). I definitely think you want to be able to pump kill here.

The issue with Titan's Strength is that stacking "Scry 1" doesn't work very well. As soon as you decide to keep, the remaining triggers are useless. But I think it's still worth it to have a 1 mana +3/+1 on all your minions.

Other recommendations:

• Temur Battle Rage - I'm not totally sold on that since it will almost certainly need to be used with one of your other pumps, but it would be very powerful if it is.
• Ruthless Instincts - Another way to gain Trample without relying on other pump cards. Will also give +2/+2 by itself, so even though it costs three mana it can be a reliable finisher. The first mode is always there as a good defensive option, it would be devastating to your opponent if combined with Sure Strike.
• Become Immense - Oh god yes. +6/+6 for everyone! It will be easy to feed the delve for this card, and it's a brutal finisher.
• Valorous Stance - Board wipe protection, and also a removal option. You might choose simply to run a better removal spell, or keep this as a sideboard card.
• Dromoka's Command - The fact that copies can't change modes, or that using the fight ability prevents Zada from copying it really hurts this card. However, I recommend this as one of the few cards you don't intend to use with Zada - you would be very vulnerable to Radiant Flames, and this can remove either creatures of enchantments. It can be combined with Zada to give everyone a +1/+1 counter at minimum, so it won't be a dead card.

If you can afford the lands, I think Naya is the best way to go with this. Get access to the best spells to play with Zada and shards are very consistent right now.

I've been getting some decent mileage out of Swift Maneuver. The two Prowess triggers do a lot of work even though I don't have the budget for Monastery Mentor.

Both Jeskai and Mardu Charm are great even if they don't trigger Zada because Lifelink/tokens paired with removal.

Aw, man. For a moment I thought that the "fight" mode of Dromoka's command would make all of your creatures dogpile the target creature your opponent controls. (Probably wouldn't be an ideal move, but it's funny to imagine her yelling, "Get 'im!")

Fixed it for you.

"Dragonpile" sounds strangely adorable.

So I've been fiddling with Duels 2014 again and managed possibly the most insane 2HG game that's possible in it with the mono-green Eldrazi ramp deck.

Among other things, I tutored every single land out of my deck, stole an additional five by way of It That Betrays, eradicated every single permanent belonging to the specific enemy I could attack and had every Eldrazi creature in the deck on the field at once.

Dragonpile◊.

While searching for that, I think I found next year's Halloween avatar.◊

Heading to a special Commander Friday Night Magic on...Friday >.>

We're only gonna be using the new Commander decks straight from the box.

Which one should I pick up?

Uncharted Realms: Family Values

Would anyone like a game?

Completed the No-rares challenge. 3-0 in BFZ draft, not a single rare in main-deck or sideboard.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-11-15-bfz-draft-5/

edited 14th Nov '15 10:00:14 PM by MrShine

Count's already offline when I wake up, always. LOL

I had a dream last night involving an unreleased Magic set akin to Future Sight or Magic Origins, hinting at planes the game hadn't visited yet.

The only card I remember was a "reprint" called Phantasmal Mask, which I think I only learned about through an interview with the artist. The artist said it was from a plane inspired by the works of Italo Calvino (!), and talked about the difficulty of illustrating a mask whose only existence was "propositional".

^ !!!!!!!!

I need that to exist.

I knew that would get your attention. :D

Uncharted Realms:Hedron Alignment

The Battle for Zendikar story continues.

Scried 11 off of Ugin's insight with Ulamog in play in the corny new legendary cube. Achievement unlocked, but it's a little too full of goofy stuff to make me interested in playing it more. They have done a decent job of their goal of building a cube that brings commander-level shenanigans to draft.

edited 20th Nov '15 7:47:02 AM by MrShine

The Battle for Zendikar expansion to Magic Duels is out now. I just played through the campaign. It takes a few liberties with the details of the story as told through Uncharted Realms (mainly some of the verbal battles being actual fights), but I enjoyed it. There were a few battles I needed multiple tries to win, but I managed to pull through.

And there are new cards from Battle for Zendikar. You unlock some of them when you beat the campaign, and you can buy Battle for Zendikar boosters with your coins.

Disappointing that the new story mode amounts to about 15 minutes of gameplay. I bought 32 boosters since I had some gold saved up, got all 3 planeswalkers from bfz so that's not bad.

Welp. Ob dethroning Bolas as "biggest asshole in Magic"?

I'm sure Bolas will take it back soon enough if you just give him a little time.

Ob dismantled the last hope of a dying world in order to empower himself and released one Eldrazi from containment. Bolas crashed five worlds into each other in order to empower himself and released all three. Bolas still wears the crown.

edited 25th Nov '15 9:32:57 AM by TobiasDrake

Bolas had some sort of greater plan in everything he did. With Ob, the hedron network was still stable after he'd re-powered himself; dismantling it had no purpose other than "fuck you".