Gathering 2.0 – 25/7/2012

Our most recent Magic: The Gathering game took place in the garden, which made a nice change.

For the first game I thought I would go with my “God’s Galore” deck; it wasn’t a bad hand to start with but I still thought it was too slow to act as a big player, but I did take out the Planeswalker of James’ elf deck before it could pull his other elves into play.

I started the second game with my “Not on my Watch” deck; it is a mono black deck which focuses on destroying my opponents creatures, but this would not be a problem for James as he had a creature whom had protection from black...

Once he had attached some power-up equipment, I was easy pickings. Pete ended up being “mana screwed”, so James cleaned up easily.

We were joined by Richard for the third game. He has played “Duels of the Planeswalkers” on the Playstation and as such he knows the rules of the game and the turn structure. The only this he would have to get used to is the speed of the game play and the variety of cards, this is because “Duels of the Planeswalkers” provides you with set decks to use.

I decided to use my “Call for Reinforcements” deck, but it wasn’t long before it was recognised and targeted.

Richard, having no decks of his own, borrowed James’ “Suicidal Goblins”. I feel that it wasn’t the best deck for him to have used on account of the fact that a deck with more aggressive creatures would have been far better suited for the style of play he would be used to.

The game ended with a draw due to Pete and Richard hitting a long running stale mate.

For the last game of the night I had brought my archenemy deck “Bring about the Un-dead Apocalypse”. I think the winner of the game for me was “Avatar of Discord”

as this allowed me to put “Kaerverk the Merciless” into my graveyard 

then bring it into play with “Reanimate”.

With this I have a flyer dealing five damage a turn and “Kaerverk the Merciless” dealing damage with every spell and opponent cast I was set.

I think Pete and James enjoyed the Archenemy game as they were begging for another round but I had to call it a night, so they shall have to wait for next week...

Greeny Meanies

The main intention of this deck is to appear small, as if no threat at all, and then BAM! You power up at the last moment to achieve the final blows of the game.

The majority of the creatures and spells are low costing which enables quick game play; but there are bigger threats should the game turn sour and become long-winded.

 

1/1 tramplers you ask?

Yes, that’s right. 1/1 tramplers have that response from everybody when they first see them played; trample simply means carrying damage over a smaller blocker, thus one damage doesn’t get carried anywhere if it isn’t blocked so what’s the point?

Well, combined with a power-up spell, a 1/1 trample can be better than a 2/2. An opponent will look at the 1/1 and send in at least a 2/2 to block with the utmost confidence it will take out what appears to be a joke of a card. That is until you play “Sudden Strength”.

As a result of this, “Defiant Elf” is a key player within this deck.

“Hungry Spriggan” is another 1/1 trampler until it attacks and boosts to +3/+3, 

and “Slith Predator” is also a 1/1 trampler who can deal combat damage to a player which can get a +1/+1 counter and as such becomes ever-growing, particularly if played at the right time.

Another ability that I have favoured within this deck is the creatures that cannot be blocked by creatures with powers less than their own. The cheapest of its sort in this deck is “Wandering Wolf”. More suited power-up spells are those that have a sense of permanence, for instance “Blessings of Nature”.

                                          

 

Creatures with the ability to power themselves are also a good tool for any deck.

“Darkthicket Wolf”

If in your opening hand you find yourself with the right amount of land, you could be a 4/4 by your third turn. This is never a bad place to be.

Creatures who power others up are often useful too.

“Druid’s Familiar” has ‘soul-bond’ which gives itself and another card +2/+2, which reminds me, where are those 1/1 tramplers...

“Briarpack Alpha” has ‘flash’, so if you’re being attacked and it isn’t looking good, not only have you got an extra 3/3 to block with BUT it will also give a target creature +2/+2.

“Patron of the Wild” has to be played in morph, but when it is turned face up, it gives target creature +3/+3. For one green mana, “Nantuko Disciple” will give +2/+2.

                                              

 

Now with all of these powered up, it would help to have more trample for the other creatures. This is not a problem.

When in the graveyard, “Brawn” will give all of my creatures trample. But because it has to be put into the graveyard, you might find it never gets there. It is a 3/3 trample itself, and if it isn’t being blocked it simple stays in play and you may as well power it up.

I also have a “Primal Rage”.

I think you get the point what with all the spells that are in the deck, so I won’t bother going into details over them because as always the deck list is at the bottom of my blog post.

So what happens if long play kicks in?

I have a couple of cheap Threshold creatures as I will be throwing about a lot of sorceries and instants into the graveyard; because of this I should find hitting the threshold easy enough.

“Metamorphic Wurm” and “Krosan Beast”.

                                             

 

 

This deck is fun and fast to play and that’s all I have to say about it really.

Deck List:

                Green Creatures:

                                Defiant Elf x3

                                Wandering Wolf x3

                                Darkthinket Wolf

                                Young Wolf x2

                                Lone Wolf

                                Nantuko Disciple x2

                                Briarpack Alpha x2

                                Druid’s Familiar x2

                                Hungry Spriggan x2

                                Patron of the Wild x2

                                Slith Predator

                                Branchsnap Lorian

                                Brawn

                                Howlgeist

                                Giant Warthog

                                Krosan Beast

                                Metamorphic Wurm

                Other Green:

                                Travel Preparations x2

                                Incremental Growth

                                Thrive

                                Primal Rage

                                Primal Boost

                                Magnify

                                Vitality Charm x3

                                Ranger’s Guile x2

                                Increasing Savagery

                                Earthbrawn x2

                                Surging Might x2

                                Fistful of Force

                                Blessing of Nature

                                Resize x2

                                Sudden Strength

                Land:

                                Forest x25