Monthly Archives: April 2014

SpartanNerd Scoop…Journey Into Nyx Starter Deck Unboxing and Review

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I got a freebie at the Tangled Web Journey Into Nyx Pre-release tournament…”The Wilds and the Deep” starter deck from the new Journey Into Nyx expansion of the Theros Block in Magic the Gathering.

Here is my unboxing and review!

I like this color scheme. My color blinded self originally thought this was blue...then after studying it...I saw it as purple! The box showcases a foil promo version of "Heroe's Bane," a Hydra card that I knew SpartanSmurf #2 would love!

I like this color scheme. My color blinded self originally thought this was blue…then after studying it…I saw it as purple! The box showcases a foil promo version of “Heroe’s Bane,” a Hydra card that I knew SpartanSmurf #2 would love!

 

The back of the box...

The back of the box…

Let’s dig in!

When you open the box and remove the contents, this is what you see. Two pieces of paper, the main deck with cellophane wrap, and two booster packs. I decided to save the booster packs for last...You all can share in my excitement about getting the new cards!

When you open the box and remove the contents, this is what you see. Two pieces of paper, the main deck with cellophane wrap, and two booster packs. I decided to save the booster packs for last…You all can share in my excitement about getting the new cards!

If you have been reading the SpartanNerd Blog regularly, then you know that I threw that blue paper in the trash right away. But this paper is the important one. I really dig the art from this set so far. The art on the pre-release pack was cool, and the art in the whole set is generally good. This poster thing shows off some of the best art from the set.

If you have been reading the SpartanNerd Blog regularly, then you know that I threw that blue paper in the trash right away. But this paper is the important one. I really dig the art from this set so far. The art on the pre-release pack was cool, and the art in the whole set is generally good. This poster thing shows off some of the best art from the set.

 

Flipping that poster over reveals the deck lists from all five starter decks. Here is a closeup of "The Wilds and the Deep" deck list. Basically a green and blue strategy that is neither aggro nor Simic. These starter decks in general just show off the cards, but don't make a deck archetype well. (I find this to be the case anyway.)

Flipping that poster over reveals the deck lists from all five starter decks. Here is a closeup of “The Wilds and the Deep” deck list. Basically a green and blue strategy that is neither aggro nor Simic. These starter decks in general just show off the cards, but don’t make a deck archetype well. (I find this to be the case anyway.)

Now for a look at the cards.

6 creatures

Here are the creatures and the lands.

7 notable creatures

Here are the notable creatures. Golden Hind is a mana chump, Bassara Tower Archer has hex proof, Ravenous Luerocota has Monstrosity, Swarmborn Giant is basically a green Desecration Demon, Fleetfeathered Cocatrice is the oddball of the group. And then Heroe’s Bane, with its exploding counters song and dance.

Here are the other spells in the deck. (meh...)

Here are the other spells in the deck. (meh…)

This is a pretty good deck all around.  I mean, it certainly can be improved…but that is the point, isn’t it?  It is a deck archetype that the wizards suggest and serves as a starting point, especially for a beginner.  So I gave the deck to SpartanSmurf #2, knowing that he was going to LOVE casting that Hero’s Bane Hydra and making him huge!

Now for something I have never done before.  I am going to open my booster packs and slowly reveal the contents to you, Oh Hub City Geeks!

9 booster 1a 10 booster 1b 11 booster 1c

Of these, I would like to point out Satyr Gravedancer, one of my new favorites simply because once I wrote a song called “Gravedancer”!  My opponents played Sigiled Skink against me during the Pre-Release.  I personally don’t think the Font cards are that good, at least for the most part.  You are generally paying more in the long run for something other cards can do faster and better.  I guess since Constellation is a big deal, it is good to have access to those abilities as enchantments.

This pack had a Rare and a Foil…

12 notable cards from this booster

The Eidolon of Blossoms is touted as a new Enchantress type of card.  I’m glad to own her!  And I guess Triton Cavalry is alright too.  (I don’t generally play the Merfolk.)

Time for pack two….

13 booster 2a 14 booster 2b 15 booster 2c

The cards in this pack “speak to me” a little more.  The white cards really got a boost this time.  This pack has a few things with Strive, and also Heroic, two mechanics born for each other.  I like the Golden Hind, though it’s no Elvish Mystic, and also the Cloaked Siren, who can flash in.

The rare in this deck is “Bearer of the Heavens.”  A totally unplayable card in Standard.  This pack came with a Spider token.  What I need is a Snake token!

16 notable cards from this pack

All around I was happy to be one of the first to unbox one of these starter decks for the whole internet to see.  I grade this deck as a 2/5 as far as playable in standard right out of the box.  But as a product as a whole, it gets 5/5, because it does what it says it does well.  And I was glad to give the cards to my son.  (I gave the Booster Pack cards to my other son.)

 

What would you rate “The Wilds and the Deep?”  Let me know in the comments!

The Next Big Thing in Magic…”Amulet of Vigor” combos!

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I recently had a rare moment of dumb luck…(two months ago.)

I wanted to play The Mazes End deck in a modern tournament, and so I went to research ways to turn the GuildGate cards (read bad common cards) into something playable.  (Why try this strategy?  I have four copies of “Mazes End.”  One is foil.  One is Japanese.  I guess just for vanity.  I also wanted to play the new card, “Chromanticore”)

The reason why the guild gates are so bad is because though they are dual lands, they enter the battlefield tapped.  And that’s it.  In Modern,  at least locally, here’s what can happen…

  • Turn one.  You won the dice roll!  You play a GuildGate.  It is a tapped dual land that lets you do NOTHING until your next turn.
  • Turn one for your opponent.  He does something you figured impossible.  He gets out Griselbrand!  You lose.
  • And you never produced one mana.

I am exaggerating a little bit.  The guy I played who was able to do this did it on turn two.  But my GuildGate was useless just the same.

The most common card coming up as a solution was “Amulet of Vigor.”

Anyways.  I went shopping, and found four copies of “Amulet of Vigor” online.  (It wasn’t in any local stores.)  Each copy only cost about $2.50.  To me, not a bad price for a card that can allow the dumb GuildGates to untap when they enter the battlefield, and therefore not be so dang useless.

Well…I didn’t know the amount of POWER I was getting into…

There is this story floating around out there.  In the first ever sanctioned Modern championship tournament, the “Amulet of Vigor” was used with “Cloudpost” so effectively that “Cloudpost” was banned from the format!

With the banning of “Cloudpost,” the amulet fell by the wayside, taking up space in binders everywhere.

But someone recently figured it out.  And now the Amulet is selling for around $20!  (So I could sell mine off now and make a big profit. Not gonna happen!)

Here’s what you can do with an amulet, and a couple of other “bad cards.”

  • Turn One.  You have this in your hand.  A “forest”, “Summer Bloom”, “Simic Growth Chamber,” “Primeval Titan,” “Boros Garrison,” “Summoner’s Pact,” and “Amulet of Vigor”  You play your forest, and the Amulet.
  • Your Opponent does something that you hope isn’t Thoughtsieze or some kind of “Griselbrand Now”
  • Turn two.  You draw “Hive Mind.”  Play “Simic Growth Chamber.”  Here is the trick.  It actually enters the battlefield tapped, but then the Amulet of Vigor ability goes on the stack, which causes it to untap.  Normally you would have to bounce a land.  But you can go ahead and tap the land for its two mana first.  Having used it up, you can bounce it back to your hand!  (Now you have a floating green and a floating blue.)  Use the two floating mana to play “Summer Bloom”.  This card lets you play up to three lands from your hand….Guess what three lands you are going to play?  “Simic Growth Chamber”!  Get its floating mana, and bounce it three times!  This gets you three blue and three green floating mana, which you are now going to use to play “Primeval Titan!”  I suggest getting utility lands for the Titan when he enters the battlefield.  Or maybe “Slayers Stronghold” and “Boros Garrison,” which you can use to give him haste and an extra +2/+0″!  Swing with your Titan, on turn two for 8 my friend, and go get two more lands.  I suggest “Simic Growth Chamber” and “Galgori Rot Farm.”  Return the original “forest” and “Slayers Stonghold” to your hand.  ON TURN TWO YOU ARE SERIOUSLY AHEAD!
  • Your opponent looks sad as he responds on Turn two.  He can’t do anything much.  Maybe he can remove your titan.  But it’s too late.  A new plan is forming….
  • Turn 3.  You draw …. It doesn’t matter, really.  You play down “Hive Mind” by playing, tapping, and bouncing one of your green bounce lands and tapping the other two you had out.  Then play “Summoners Pact.”  The first card is an enchantment that says “players cast copies of instants and sorceries at the same time.  They may choose new targets.”  When you played “Summoner’s Pact,” it was a free card for you.  You get to search your library for a green creature card.  It will probably be another “Primeval Titan,” and put it in your hand.  Your opponent gets to do the same.  He’d better hope he is playing green….The downside to “Summoner’s Pact” is you have to pay two green and two colorless at the beginning of your upkeep, or else you lose the game.  Not a problem for you.  But on turn three can your opponent do that at the beginning of his upkeep.  (before he gets a land drop.)  NOPE.  YOU WIN!

Let me just say that I didn’t invent this.  I read about it.  And then some championship type people started doing it.  Mathias Hunt posted a video about the deck he played at the last championship tournament.  Also, Gerry Thompson out there has a version of this deck.  It is JUST SICK.  And It is the next big thing I expect.

You heard it here from the SpartanNerd first.  I haven’t seen anyone actually play this deck in a tournament.  One guy saw me playing the deck before I had the complete combo, and commented that he was building one too at home.  (I played a hybrid Amulet and Mono Black Devotion Deck at the last modern tournament.  It lost pretty bad.)

But at home I have built a version that doesn’t have as many great lands as I wish it had.  I mean, I don’t have “Gemstone Mine” or any “fetch lands.”  I don’t have “City of Brass”.  I do have “Tolaria West,” which can let me get “Summoner’s Pact” or some other pact card.  (“Slaughter Pact”)  And I have four copies of each bounce land.  So I built this deck on a budget.

I already mentioned I got my amulets for $2.50.  The bounce lands cost around $20 for the whole set, mint condition.  Summer Bloom was like $1.50 apiece.    The pacts cost about $5.  Basically, the Primeval Titans are the most expensive thing.  I might have a total of $120 invested in it so far.  That’s a pretty good deal for a deck that I expect to win at the next Modern Tournament I can make it to!

(As for the Mazes End.  I played the Amulets with it.  In multiples, the Amulet triggers over and over, so you can produce either color of the land that you want. several times on the turn the gate comes out.  Otherwise, it still doesn’t work that good as a strategy.)