Death’s Encroach!
Death’s Encroach is the other Event Deck for Avacyn Restored and it is much better in my opinion than Humanity’s Vengeance. It is a good deck with good cards and it is well worth the money to buy it! Humanity’s vengeance topped out somewhere around the $25.00 range in value but this one is a bit more! For Death’s Encroach, we approach the $30.00+ value range. It has a lot of expensive cards in it like Geralf’s Messenger and Gravecrawler, it also sports a Surgical Extraction in the sideboard. I am a fan of zombies and with all this new flickering going on I see lots of bouncing shenanigans! Though I am confused on a card they added to the pure zombie deck, for some odd reason they put in a Gloom Surgeon which doesn’t really help because instead of adding to your graveyard it exiles cards from your library instead. Any who let’s get to the entire deck lists!
DEATH’S ENCROACH
Total cards : 60
LANDS : 24
Swamp x 24
CREATURES : 21
Cemetery Reaper x 1
Crypt Creeper x 2
Diregraf Ghoul x 4
Ghoulraiser x 3
Gloom Surgeon x 1
Gravecrawler x 1
Highborn Ghoul x 4
Skinrender x 4
OTHER SPELLS : 15
Altar’s Reap x 3
Despise x 3
Dismember x 2
Doom Blade x 2
Lashwrithe x 2
SIDEBOARD : 15
Crypt Creeper x 2
Deathmark x 3
Despise x 1
Distress x 2
Ghoulraiser x 1
Avacyn Restored Event Decks!!
Hey it’s Tuesday! Today Wizards of the Coast released the new event decks for Avacyn restored! Now I am not as impressed with them as I was with the ones for Dark Ascension, but they are still pretty good with some really decent cards in them. The First one is called Humanity’s Vengeance, now this one is ok and focuses on humans and is Blue and White. The second is Mono Black and focuses on zombies it is called Death’s Encroach, the money in this one is there!
Now I know most of you don’t care about the money value in these event decks, but some people do! They want to make sure that the MSRP of $24.99 is worth what is actually in the box. Otherwise they could just buy all the cards separately and save a bundle! In the dark Ascension Event decks they sported not only one but two Inkmoth Nexus, those alone are worth $12-14.00 a piece so they paid for the deck right there. And that is not even including the rest of the money cards, who ever bought one of those event decks was smart and it was well worth the investment. Now I had someone price out these new decks and the conclusion is meh. The human deck falls short of its $24.99 price tag and prices out at about $22.00 but that is not including the rest of the commons and uncommons. The big money card in Humanity’s Vengeance is Phyrexian Metamorph coming to around $7.00.
Monday Stuffs!!
So, on Friday I tried a Boros build that didn’t do so hot for me. I built a red / white human burn type deck and I was really disappointed. It’s not that the deck was bad, it’s that I tried to do something when I knew I didn’t have the proper cards for it. I knew what should have been in it but since they were new Avacyn Restored cards I didn’t have most of them. The end result was a mediocre build that went 1-3 the entire night. Since I didn’t have the cards I knew should go in it I should not have played it, but I did and lost horribly.
The key to making decks is to make sure you have the proper cards, don’t just throw something together just because. I was bad and in a rush so I deserved to lose to sub-par players. Anyway enough of that, let’s discuss a deck that was what I was trying to go for. Second round of the night I went up against another Red/White human deck and this one rocked my face. The deck I made was cute and some nifty tricks but this one, this was a real deck. After he crushed me 2-0 I looked over his deck, and it wasn’t horribly expensive or anything, it had a lot of synergy that just worked well together.
From what I remember he was running a simple build with a lot of 4 and 3 of’s. Now I am not sure of how many lands and what not but I do know he had some clifftop retreats and some of the new slayers’ stronghold he also had some Cavern of souls. I am going to attempt to piece together his deck let’s see how this works!
4 x Lightning Mauler
2 x Kruin Outlaw
Now I am not sure what else he had in the deck but I know for a fact all the creatures were humans. I am pretty sure he had some burn spells in there and maybe some Oblivion Rings. But the deck was good really good. I will have to think up something for the upcoming FNM that will stand a competitive chance against some of the new meta that is rising up. An Idea I had was a red / green agro build with graveyard retrieval and vexing devil, anyway it is just a thought. Well that is all I have for you today, thank you for reading and hope you tune in next time!
Pre-Release Over View!!
Hey it is Monday! How was everyone’s Pre-Release? Mine was amazing, I made it into the top 8 and getting 8th place over all! I went 4-2 only losing to the first and 3rd place finisher, so I think I did pretty awesome. I also opened money, not so much in the packs that I won but in the packs that I had to make a deck out of! My deck pool was pretty sweet not going to lie, it was really good. The first pack I opened had a vexing devil in it so I was off to a good start! A few packs went by, nothing special, but on the 4th pack I opened a Tamiyo, Moon Sage!! I knew what colors I was playing that was for sure!
I decided on a Blue / Red humans build with Tamiyo and Vexing Devil. In red it was mostly little burn spells and some crazy humans and for blue it was very control heavy and card draw. I liked my deck because it had synergy, I had a few flicker spells that just made it godly. One of my main win conditions was to have a few humans out and the enchantment Vigilante Justice, play the card Kessig Malcontents to hit my opponent for however many humans I had in play. The enchantment would also ping him for 1 since a human entered, then I would swing with what I could and on my second main phase flicker out 2 lands and 2 creatures. Obviously I would flicker out the Kessig Malcontents to hit him for more damage when he entered again, and if I had enough mana left over just drop another human to try and finish him off.
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Planeswalkers History!!
Today we are going to go over the background histories of both new planeswalkers. Released sometime this week Wizards of the coast explained the dark history of Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, we also have the article on Tamiyo, the moon sage. This was written by a wizards of the coast employee and is in no way shape or form my creation. So please enjoy this excerpt from wizards of the coast!
I like the story behind Tibalt a lot, the one for Tamiyo isn’t that great in explaining anything but it is still an interesting story. The dark history behind Tibalt is very fitting to the whole horror theme of Innistrad.
Flavorful!!
So with the whole set spoiled there isn’t much to report on today, instead we are going to go over some of my favorite flavor texts from Avacyn Restored! The flavor of the whole Innistrad block is amazing, but this set seems to take the cake. The abilities and artwork just come alive and the flavor text on some is to die for! I have heard nothing but praise for Avacyn Restored and I am one of those people singing its’ glories. Even though I really loved the whole dark atmosphere of the first two sets, the somewhat happy ending for the plane of Innistrad is a breath of fresh air. It is always nice to see a story with a happy ending! Any who let’s get on with the flavor texts!
Defang : Once vampires are disarmed, they’re given wooden swords and forced to assist in the training of Midnight Duelists.
Alchemist’s Apprentice : Side Effects may include foul odor, scalding steam, and spontaneous nonexistence.
Amass the Components : I knew I’d find a use for all that newt spittle!
Ghostform : There’s no such thing as ‘Impenetrable’
Nephalia Smuggler : My drivers are trustworthy. I removed their tongues myself. Any other questions?
Rotcrown Ghoul : Don’t look into its eyes. It’s thinking things no dead thing should think. – Captain Eberheart.
Appetite for Brains : Just as with a peach, the first bite is always the juiciest.
Corpse Traders : Those without breath can’t complain.
Descent into Madness : The stairs lead down in both directions.
Homicidal Seclusion : Dammed crows and their endless squawking…blocks out the voices in my head…
Killing Wave : I come looking for demons and I find a plane full of angels. I hate angels – Liliana Vess
Triumph of Cruelty : I’ve seen corpses prettier than you, beastmage – Liliana Vess
Aggravate : Barbarians! They burned my favorite chair! We’ll Kill them all! – Anje Falkenrath
Gang of Devils : Well, how could I know they’d explode? – Gregel, township militia
Vexing Devil : It’s not any fun until someone loses an eye.
Terrifying Presence : Elmut had slaughtered vampires, slain werewolves, and destroyed hordes of zombies. Sadly, he never got over his fear of spiders.
That last one has to be my favorite one of them all, because I too have an irrational fear of spiders! Well that is all I have for you today! Tomorrow I will whip up some awesome hopeful pre-release combos! Thanks for reading hope you tune in again!
AVR Spoiled in FULL!!!
Today the entire set of Avacyn Restored was released in full! The whole set is just amazing and the art is outstanding! I am really excited to play this set and the pre-release weekend is just around the corner. The contents of the Helvault have been released a while back, but I didn’t want to ruin it for people. I personally am disappointed with what is actually in the Helvault but some people will enjoy it. The power level in this set is ridiculously high compared to Innistrad and Dark Ascension, I can already foresee some wicked combos and deck ideas.
The full set and images can be found HERE. A card whose art I found freaking hilarious was Defang, it shows this poor vampire having his teeth ripped out. The look on his face is just priceless, he is about to cry. My favorite art for the set has to be Ghostform, I am not sure why but I think the card is just plain bad ass looking. Another amazing artwork is Killing wave, the detail is unbelievable.
OMG RED DECK WINZ!!!!
Hello, it is Wednesday here at Planeswalkers.co and over half of the new cards have been spoiled! Today were going to go over a few cards that I think are just WTF cards. The power level of this set compared to the other sets in this block is waaay up there. But there are a few cards that make you just say…really?? The ones we are going to go over today are ALL in red.
The first card I will go over is a red one cost creature card, I am sure you all know which one I am talking about. The card is called Vexing Devil, for one red mana you get a 4/3 devil that when he enters any opponent may pay 4 life to make you sacrifice him. Otherwise they would be taking 4 damage each turn until they can do something about it. Most everyone who plays RDW says this is a definite contender in their decks. There has been a lot of discussion about this card at my local card shop, most people say they will be side boarding 4 mental missteps just to deal with this card. I personally think this card is ridiculous but not impossible to deal with.
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Helvault Stuffs!
Well today I have found out what exactly is needed to be done to open the Helvault at your pre-release! Unfortunately it is nothing special, much like in a few past pre-release events it is just an achievement card. You have to certain menial tasks to break open “seals” on the Helvault, the thing is everyone has to participate in order for this to happen. What I mean is depending on how many people play at your event, will determine how many achievements one must accomplish on his card in order to pop a single seal. There are only 16 achievements per card so one person at most can only break 3 seals (if your play group has 8-16 people), if you have a full house of 55+ a single player can only pop one seal.
Even after all this there are certain rules that the store owner can follow if all the seals have not been broken. Those rules are……He can open it anyway…….really?? It clearly states on the instructions that this is what he must do if all the seals aren’t broken. Most store owners don’t want to deal with all the achievement things anyway so they will most likely just open it after the tournament and have anyone who wants to do the achievement thing do it.
FNM Mono-Green Shenanigans!!!
It is that time of week again, the time all us magic players love, it’s FNM of course! Last week I went in with some planeswalker token generators and it did pretty well, ending the night 3-2. This week I am going to try another outlandish deck, Mono-green hex proof / death touch. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was fiddling with something of the sorts, and I have finally done it! On a side note, I will be trying to get at least 2 dungrove elders when I go to the card shop, they are currently not in the deck.
The point of this deck was to just be annoying with a lot of hex proof and death touch creatures. I also had to throw in a few prey upons to complement the death touch guys. I have play tested this deck and it does really well, until someone slaps a pro green sword on one of their guys then I am pretty much screwed. The deck works really well and the mana is no problem, the highest mana cost I have is 5 for things like Vorapede and Garruk Primal Hunter. I like this deck it really pisses people off that they can’t target half the creatures, and when I side board in Witchbane Orb they can’t target me as well.
I always like to bring rogue decks to standard, just because it throws people off. Someone last week said he was waiting to watch me play because I always bring outlandish decks that are interesting. I usually end the night with a winning record, which is satisfying because everyone always plays the decks that they find off the internet or something. It is good to see some originality when playing magic, because that what this game is about. There are an infinite number of card combinations out there that make this game fun, it wouldn’t be fun if everyone always played the same deck that everyone else was. Sorry to ramble let’s get on to the deck list!
