Goblins Vs. Merfolk Duel Decks…SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

November 12, 2017 by spartannerd

At this point, my favorite sealed MTG product seems to be Duel Decks. I own a ton of them. And the only ones that I haven’t purchased since I began getting serious about the game are Mind vs. Might, the one released earlier this year. That one was widely panned, and I couldn’t get excited about a Storm deck vs. a Beatdown deck.***

But Merfold vs. Goblins. That’s different. First of all, Elves vs. Goblins is incredible fun. What made that so successful was not only the intense tribal flavor, but also the gameply, where you really felt like you were piloting an army of elves vs an army of goblins. Merfolk Vs. Goblins seemed positioned to do the same thing. Does it? Keep reading for my full review!

PACKAGING.

The box comes in the same kind of box that Duel Decks have been released in for awhile. It makes a nice display. (pictured above) Not sure why you would keep it MIB, but it looks like a sell-able product. This box shows off the flashy foil rares. The back of the box has good information. I think this is to really sell the product to new players.

The box isn’t easy to open and get the product out. (unlike Commander boxes.)

I opened mine before a draft tournament. So I took hasty pictures on the Tangled Web table sized playmats

Here’s what’s in that package.

The main product is sealed in two trays that make up the bulk of the box. THis is covered by a plastic blister that shows off the foil rares. Behind the tray is the Quick Reference, a guide to playing the decks, and the two new boxes intended for each deck.

Here are those deck boxes assembled. Notably, these boxes are big enough to hold SLEEVED CARDS. (Can you hear the SpartanNerd crying tears of joy?) Virtually all of the other duel decks we have ever gotten have come with pretty “poker card” type of boxes. The exception was the Duel Decks anthology.

These boxes still leave a little to be desired, but that they can hold sleeved cards is BIG. The wizards apparently took cues from the design of the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set. These are also side loaders, but they have the janky folding flap that tucks into the main box. However, there is a slot for easy opening. The boxes have art on them reflecting what they are intended to hold, and they also feature the set symbol on the other side, which the SpartanKid pointed out is a trident and an axe head combined. After saying all of this, these boxes are still made of thin cardboard…thinner and cheaper than what the actual cards are made of. And they couldn’t possibly stand up to heavy use if a person decided to say, carry around this box to alot of tournaments. (Sleeving out the cards fills them to the max. There is enough room for 60 cards plus the tokens in Dragon Shields, but you wouldn’t be able to carry a full sideboard.)

But if you are like me, and your duel decks stay together resting in an organized fashion, waiting to see some light play, then these boxes are just fine.

The other things…the quick reference guide is a must include, as this product will definitely find its way into the hands of beginning players. This isn’t an intro deck, but new players are bound to be drawn into purchasing these at the low price point. (Mine was $19.99 at the Tangled Web.)

The poster features nice artwork, and importantly, a DECKLIST. (The last sealed product I opened for the SpartanNerd blog didn’t include a decklist. BOO.) I keep my decklists all in one place for when I inventory my cards about three times a year. (Occasionally I might borrow a card from a pre-con deck for Standard, Modern, or Commander.)

You get two life counter dice, and that’s about it for the packaging.

THE DECKS.

Longtime Hub City Geeks will know that that SpartanNerd is running out of photo space on WordPress. So I have minimized my pictures a little. Here are the decks with the flashy rare cards.

Warren Instigator. This one wasn’t on my radar. This is how you get alot of Goblins on the field, and trigger Enters the Battlefield effects. Oh yeah. DOUBLE STRIKE. You Get TWO triggers. Sick. This is one of the sets money cards. This foil printing is already worth around $5.

Goblin Diplomats. This showcases the funnyness of the Goblin deck. And they are hilarious.

Master of Waves. Here is one from my favorite THEROS BLOCK. Master of Waves is a BEAST. in the Merfolk deck, you will definitely have a ton of devotion to blue, and so will get a bunch of elementals when he enters the battlefield. And this new art makes it look like he’s been working out!

Harbinger of the Tides. And iconic merfolk that is removal on a stick. Amazing.

So I am going to show you a mat full of the strategy of each deck, starting with Merfolk.

MERFOLK

Merfolk in Modern is a strategy that depends on lords, which are creatures that give others of the same type +1/+1, and Islandwalk, which is a type of evasion.

The Merfolk deck here highlights this by including three merfolk lords. If you get all three out, you win. (But the odds are against you.) The evasion piece here is Aquatech’s Will, which is a busted spell that makes an opponent’s land into an island (in addition to its other types) and also lets you draw a card. There are FOUR COPIES in this deck! That’s how important it is. One of our lords, Master of the Pearl Trident, gives all merfolk you control islandwalk.

What else is here? Some iconic merfolk. In addition to Master of Waves, we also get Cold Eyed Selkie, who is big in Commander. We get Scroll Thief, who would be an automatic inclusion into any merfolk deck, and is an important core set type of MTG card. Harbinger of the Tides. And Tidebinder Mage, who was important a few years ago in standard. (M13-Innistraad-Return to Ravnica-M14 Standard).

Then this is a blue deck, so it also has plenty of control. Notably here is Essence Scatter, because you KNOW your opponent is going to cast creature spells in this duel deck environment. Concentrate and Misdirection, which are classics. Tidal Wave, which gives you a quick, big blocker, and Engulf the Shore which is a sweeper.

GOBLINS

It’s hard to put your finger on the strategy of goblins. There is a randomness to it, that finds success anyway. And they are also always pretty much hilarious. In this deck, you want to build up a critical mass of goblins before the merfolk are able to get out their evasive lords. So board presence is the key, rather than evasion.

There aren’t that many goblin lords, but they are still about spiritually the same. Goblin Wardriver has Battle Cry, which means whenever he attacks, other attacking cratures get +1/+0. Goblin Chieftain is a goblin lord. Goblin Rabblemaster makes goblin tokens with haste everytime you get a combat stage. (Rabblemaster was important in Khans block).

Other ways to get out tokens? Krenko, Mob boss makes a ton of goblins if left unchecked. Goblin Ringleader lets you get goblin cards in your hand. (Tribal instants and sorceries count as goblins!) Also, when paired with Warren Instigator, this is just incredible.

Blue has control, but red has burn of course! Very notable here is Goblin Grenade. (This card wasn’t in the first Goblin Duel Deck. It wasn’t a thing yet.) Goblin Diplomats makes the merfolks swing into a bunch of goblins that can black and eat them up. Tarfire, the aforementioned tribal instant which was in the previous duel deck, as was Gempalm Incinerator. I haven’t got to see the Goblin Razerunners do his thing yet. (I have played seven matches. He seems busted though, as a goblin burn spell on a stick.) Tokens are so important here that we have four token producing spells. (Three copies of Krenko’s COmmand and one copy of Hordeling Outburst.)

Goblin Charbelcher. Ahh. The Eternal Masters art. With Black Lotus among other things flying out of the cannon. The way this works is, you pay to activate it, then reveal your cards until you hit a land. The number of card revealedis the amount of damage assigned to target creature of player. Now out there in the world, there is a Modern and a Legacy version of this strategy as a whole deck. Basically, you will build a deck with only a single land, probably Stomping Ground. You build up your mana base using Simian Spirit Guides and borderposts, or other fast mana tricks, and then you activate the cannon and reveal all of your cards. Hopefully at least twenty damage is sent to your opponents face! But here, you will probably only get a few damage ponts in as the deck has a bunch of lands. But it is a flavorful and important inclusion. This is reliable removal that the merfolk deck can’t stop.

Ghostfire. A colorless burn spell that costs two generic and a mountain. Why? I think the wizards just wanted to reprint it. But it is handy against something like Master of Waves, which has protection from red. This card is important also historically, as it gave the wizards inspiration for the cards with DEVOID in the recent Battle for Innistraad block.

HOW THE DECKS PLAY OUT.

So far, the Goblins beat the Merfolk most of the time. These decks are INCREDIBLY balanced against one another if both players hit a land drop every turn and play a spell every turn. The experience here is not unlike Elves Vs. Goblins. You just about have the same experience. While the Elves work differently, trying to power out big green monsters, the Merfolk work organically together to create evasion and hit the opponent hard. The Goblins work about the same as the previous decks, with the new tricks of Goblin Charbelcher, Goblin Grenade, and Goblin Rabblemaster. DIfferent bosses, with the same strategy of go wide and do whatever it takes to damage the opponent.

It is pretty much hilarious when someone gets Master of Waves out and gets a huge board presence, only to suddenly lose it to Ghostfire or Goblin Charbelcher. On the other hand, it is humorous to make the Goblins have a Mountain Island and then hit them hard with islandwalkers. Also, the Merfolk get that sweeper spell, which does away with the tokens. It also wipes their board, but they don’t rely on creature tokens as a base strategy the way Goblins do. (I really think Master of Waves is here for the new players. He is splashy and flashy and fun. But another merfolk lord would have been better. Or a devastating artifact along the lines of the charbelcher.)

THE SPARTANNERD’S RATING OF DUEL DECKS: MEFOLK VS. GOBLINS.

Maybe you think I’m a fanboy. But I’m giving this a 5/5. The WIzards must be listening. They improved the deckboxes and included a decklist. Mind Vs. Might was poorly received because it was considered unbalanced, and therefore unfun. This set is the opposite. So the Wizards ARE LISTENING.

The SpartanNerd rates Merfolk Vs. Goblins a 5/5. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments, oh Hub City Geeks!.

***I eventually DID pick up the “Mind Vs. Might” Duel Decjs. As told by everyone else, one there is no balance at all. One deck gets early advantage and then pancakes the other. However, notable that each deck contained ten rares, and also the storage boxes are of the same design we have with Merfolk Vs. Goblins. Incidentally, I got mine for $8 off of TCGplayer! I am going to piece these out, and am excited about making a commander deck with the blue/red legendary.

The SpartanNerd’s collection of Liliana cards…Commentary on Amonkhet Liliana(s)

April 30, 2017 by spartannerd

(nicknames for Liliana…..

Liliana Vess- (Why would you give this a nickname?)

Duel-iana (Alternate art Liliana Vess vs Garruk)

Pricey-ana (Liliana of the Veil)

Swamp-iana (Liliana of the Dark Realms)

Flip-iana (Liliana, Heretical Healer//Liliana, Defiant Necromancer)

Hope-iana (Liliana, the Last Hope)

Zombie-ana (Liliana, Death’s Majesty)

Slow-iana (Liliana, Death Wielder)

So with the release of AMONKHET, we now have not just one, but two new Liliana cards!

Liliana has long been my favorite planeswalker, as I owned Liliana Vess way back when I opened her in a core set pack that I purchased as I started to get into the game. Liliana Vess plus Grave Titan was just AWESOME!

I continued a legacy of loving the cards as I drafted a Liliana Vess back in M15…and I remember when I began to get into standard heavily main-decking Liliana of the Dark Realms and I remember getting the emblem, and then spectacularly topdecking Rakdos Return for a win…everone in the room made a noise when I did that! (Wow! AHHH! Ugh!) Topdecking stuff like that is one reason why I love playing black.

How did I get Liliana of the Veil…such an expensive and rare card? A friend gave me a booster pack of Battle for Zendikar, and I opened a Zendikar Expedition Marsh Flats, which I traded for Liliana of the Veil. Pricey-ana is an important piece of “the rack” deck, as well as an enabler for re-animation in the “Gifts Ungiven” deck.

My pet commander deck is Liliana, Heretical Healer. And all of the Liliana cards I have had up until recently are in that deck…which brings us to the recent two versions of the cards. (Oh yes. You might be wondering if I marked on my cards…the little “ZZZ’s” are meant to remind me to get a Zombie when she flips! Don’t worry, I wrote on the inner sleeve. double sleeved)

LILIANA, DEATH’S MAJESTY

A five-drop Liliana. But this is where the similarities to Liliana Vess end. I think they costed her out at five though, because her top two abilities are absolutely use-able very relevant abilities that are worth five mana. If she gets removed next turn, your investment was not in vain! The art on this one is also some of the best art depicting the character. I really do like how snobby and in-charge she appears. Liliana is the ultimate “mean girl.” Maybe I like the art on Heretical Healer//Defiant Necromancer better? The -7 ability on this card is a sweeper. But the problem is that little word, “destroy.” There are a lot of indestructible creatures out there in standard, especially the new “god” cards. But also Gideon. Also that she only gets non-zombies can’t be ignored. There are and will be mirror decks, as well as emergent zombie decks.

I wish I had a foil!

LILIANA, DEATH WIELDER

It hurts me to say this…this is one of the JANK-IEST CARDS ever printed. (Janky-ana?)

You know those lists of bad cards that people sometimes make? Liliana of the Dark Realms makes that list occasionally. Yeah, yeah. The flavor is a little off. It takes a while to ultimate. You have to play mono black pretty much. And what’s with the hair?

But this card just bumped that Liliana off the list. Why?

OK. Seven Drop. In a mono-black deck, it’s going to be at least a full seven turns before you play this, if you aren’t doing DARK RITUAL, or some other crazy acceleration trick. Which most of the time you won’t be doing. If you wanted ramp, your color would be green….

What else? +2, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature. By turn 7, your green opponent could have any number of gigantic threats. Even White and Blue will have bigger creatures by turn seven. What about red? By turn seven, red already killed you if you were counting on this card to win you the game. So let’s say you DO get a -1/-1 counter on a creature…

-3 Destroy target creature with a -1/-1 counter on it.

Let’s math for a minute. 3>2. So. you just lost that progress you made last turn, PLUS ANOTHER LOYALTY POINT.

How about her ultimate….

-10 Return all creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield.

How is this ultimate not strictly, strictly, strictly worse than the original Liliana Vess’ ultimate ability, that takes all creatures from all graveyards and puts them on the battlefield under your control?

Now I’m quite aware why this card is the way it is.

The art is big and splashy. A nice foil. And new players will be attracted to the looks of this card. Which is exactly the point.

Liliana, Death Wielder can only be gotten in a Planeswalker Deck, the equivalent of an intro pack, (which the Wizards don’t make any more.) I can see a kid really digging this card.

But I think I am going to keep her in the Planeswalker Pack with the rest of her deck. She’s just too bad for my special commander deck. I have played this card against the SpartanKid a couple of times, and found it to be lacking in every department except for the art and flavor departments. I have yet to try it out against the Gideon Planeswalker deck, but all accounts out there on the internet say that his deck is better, and partly because his Planeswalker card is better.

Review of the Liliana Planeswalker Pack will be coming soon!

Planechase Anthology…SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

November 26, 2016 by spartannerd

From now on, I am going to title what product I am reviewing before the ever prevalent “SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review”. I fear people can’t see what I am unboxing on the index page…One more thing…this is my 300th post! (I have deleted 13 posts in the past. Making #287 actually #300!)

I have heaped praises on the “Duel Decks Anthology.” Rightly so. Of all of the decks I own, I get more use out of having those decks just ready made, ready to play, and having them handy in that box. It plays like its own board game. It was a reprint of valuable cards, Demonic Tutor and Ancestral Vision, AND Akroma Angel of Wrath, among many others. I also just enjoy Duel Decks, and have collected many of them apart from what is in the Anthology.

The Planechase Anthology aims to do the same things, but bring Planechase back into the front of the public again. Planechase is a CASUAL FORMAT. Like Commander and Duel Decks. I have owned one Planechase deck already, “Primordial Hunger,” featuring Thromok the Insatiable. That deck was the cheapest at an MTG store way out of town somewhere, that had alot of old sealed product. (You can read my review here. Sadly, I have removed the pictures.) And so I have limited exposure to Planechase. The Planechase Anthology is going to bring all kinds of MTG goodness to the SpartanNerd kitchen table.

Let me say right now, the old decks cost around $50 after market, give or take sealed. The $149.99 price tag on the Planechase Anthology is automatically a good deal. Besides that, each plane card individually costs about $5 on TCGplayer. But the six promotional cards included cost more…BUT I do have a complaint. This set only comes with Planechase 2012 theme decks. The original decks should be included…they could have been included. (The original decks are worth way more money. One of them is an affinity deck, pushing it up to around $150 after market value. THe zOmbie Empire deck is about $100 to piece together!)

OK, more information about the format. Planechase is a special Magic the Gathering variant where oversized “planes” cards are added to the game creating an additional layer of complexity. You roll the cubic planar dice, and change which plane you are on. (Planes are analogous to stadium cards in Pokemon TCG). Originally, the Wizards envisioned each person brings their own planes to the game…making it possible to play against another players constructed planar deck. (No one plays this way anymore.) What really happened was people found it more fun to put all the planes in a single deck, and then just see the craziness that resulted. Planechse is super fun when paired with Commander…

What’s this? The SpartanCat really enjoyed the new shipping box before I removed the product! For my unboxing and review today, you will be seeing some of my kitchen table. Apologies. But Planechase IS a kitchen table format…(Really, the box is very large.)

Here the box is, in all its cellophane sealed glory. I love the shiny foil treatment the Wizards gave it. This time it is purple and gold…a color that is difficult for me to describe…It isn’t brown at all. it is … shiny purplish purple-and-gold.

The back of the box displays a poster, which might find its way on my office wall at work…

The bottom picture shows you that the box is exactly the same size as the Duel Decks Anthology.

This box is important because it helps give this set the feeling of a premium board game. Want to quickly set up a game of Magic with some friends…just break out the Planechase Anthology. It also will make for nifty storage.

Now for the opening…(cue the angelic choir!)

Notable, five spots for the dice, ordered in the same way as the decks…and what was that?

The Planar die is twice the size of the conventional Planar die! (pictured on the right is a comparison shot.)

These dice are life-counters. I wiI will keep these in the box and not take them out to tournaments. I am partial to the green one and the orange one because I can see them more easily. (I was partial to one of the dice in the Duel Decks Anthology for the same reason.)

Lets open some cards!

Not quite yet. It looks like there is some propaganda hiding under the planar deck.

The poster features some of the planes…why these? They chose these because they are the planes that are best seated in the minds of players. Really new players are probably aware of the “Origins” stories. Zendikar and Innistrad are currently in Standard. Bolas’s Meditation Chamber is important because he IS the villain in MTG. But I think also the Wizards wanted to include something that is going to be important in upcoming sets. Amonkhet is the next big set, and is going to be all about Bolas according to the Wizards’ press releases.

The back of that insert tells you how to play. And remember what I told you about the way the Wizards originally intended players would play? This rules insert doesn’t mention that at all, which I suppose means that style is just about officially dead. There are some suggestions for playing in a variety of ways. Drafting the planes as a cube…that is an idea I hadn’t considered!

CARDS! CARDS! CARDS! CARDS!

“Slide Deck Box” eluded me…you have to experience it to get it. Turns out that it is exactly what it says it is. Notice the slanted top of the inner box. This is reminiscent of the “Bundle Box” design that is replacing “fat packs.” This makes it easier in THAT product to open the box. In this case, it makes it easier to grip the cards in order to remove them.

Without question, this deck box can’t hold sleeved planar cards. It’s a good thing I didn’t purchase sleeves for them in anticipation. (I really did mull it over, but decided to wait. Wise decision, SpartanNerd!)

After breaking the cellophane seal, you can see that the “phenomenon” cards are on top. These function as powerful effects that change the game. Chaotic Aether can really shake up the game if people are willing to pay the tax to roll the Planar die (to roll the die at any time, a player must pay a land at first, then two lands for a second roll, then three for a third, etc.) Morphic Tide can be devastating! And it can totally turn the tables in a game of Magic.

After the Phenomenon cards come the planes.

Onnake Catacomb…this is the place where Liliana got the Chain Veil!

Llanowar is funny…it makes all of your creatures into “better-than” Llanowar Elves. (Lannowar Elves taps to add one green mana to your mana pool.)

There are over 70 different planes! I haven’t heard of most of them.

The thing about this set…it is all about FLAVOR. A person might not know anything about MTG. Having them sit down and play the game this way will immerse them in the basic lore and the basic “What is this game Magic the Gathering all about?” The game becomes more than just fun decks to play with cool art. It becomes a story. And that is very good because the flavor or MTG is really awesome.

A little rant. It has been said that Mortal Kombat (and its associated video games) isn’t that great as far as fighting games go. But it is so cool in flavor that it remains appealing, even though it is trumped by the mechanics of other games in its genre. MTG has the opposite problem sometimes. The game is so cool and fun, but people don’t have to be aware of the story surrounding it for the game to work. How many times have I seen new players ask about the flavor text of a card, and what purpose does it serve? It serves no mechanical purpose…it is only there for extra fun. Extra flavor. Extra points in the coolness department. At one time I didn’t care about the story. Over the years, I have picked up on some of it, and even read through some of it, like the Battle for Zendikar story and the way Nissa and Chandra drew up a “Channel-Fireball” combo to kill the titans. I still have a lot to learn about the story. The Planechase Anthology is without a doubt going to inspire me to look up information about the different planes and locations in MTG.

Onto the rest of the decks. Each one comes with its own “slide deck box.” The colored “Planeswalker Symbol” is the only indication of which deck is inside besides the label on the flat side of the inside box. Notice the one of the far left…the “orange” symbol. That box has extra items inside.

One of those items is the basic guide to playing Magic (quick reference card). Which is not a guide to playing Planechase. So I’m not sure if including it was a good idea. (I just threw it away, as usual.)

The other item is the tokens. Double Sided.

I am showing you one side, then flipping them. Notice a ton of Goblin tokens, and Saproling tokens. If you have ever played decks that produce these kinds of token creatures, then you know you might just need this many. Saproling token decks can get out of control!

NOW FOR THE INDIVIDUAL DECKS.

Each deck is called a “theme deck.” What this means is, each deck showcases a mechanic, and has cards that support that mechanic.

I will be showing you the eight rares (YES!) from each deck first. And then I will show you notable things about the decks as well.

PRIMORDIAL HUNGER

This is the only deck I already have spent time with playing, and you saw what I had to say if you clicked the link in the top paragraphs. Since I wrote that review, I have played this deck on numerous occasions. The Dragonlair Spider is ALWAYS a winner. Lots of times, people underestimate him. Hellion Eruption is also an amazing win-con. The Devour mechanic, showcased in this deck, requires a little work. You have to sacrifice things…you are giving up board presence in order to make a big creature. This is risky, and sometimes doesn’t pay off. I think it better to “go wide,” load up the board, and then either over run the opponent, or do the Hellion Eruption.

Of the Devour creatures, this one is the most playable. On turn three or four, you can have a fatty that can’t be ignored.

Most of the pre-con decks the Wizards put out contain mana-fixers. This deck has “bounce lands,” and a few other things. Skaarg the Rage Pit can be a really good mana-sink.

These other spells can’t be ignored! Overrun, Fires of Yavimya, and Fling are excellent finishers. Fires of Yavimaya is like a trap…people tend to forget that you can sacrifice it to give all of your creatures +2/+2!

One more incidental thing…Will the deck fit in the “slide deck box” when properly sleeved? (Drum roll)

YES!!!

NIGHT OF THE NINJA

This is the deck the SpartanKid is most excited about. I looked at purchasing this about a year ago for him…he is very interested in Ninjas. After-market, the deck gets about $7o. It came down to either Night of the Ninja or some Mega-Man thing. He went with the Mega-Man…

But now, I own a copy, and he can play it all he wants!

The theme of this deck is Evasion. Virtually every creature in this deck has some form. Flying, Intimidate, Fear, Shroud, Deathtouch, Hexproof, and the feature mechanic, Ninjutsu. With Ninjutsu, you can swap out an attacking creature that doesn’t have a blocker with the creature with Ninjutsu from your hand. Surprise! Throw on a “when this deals combat damage” effect, and you get some cool advantages.

Notable here, is Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni. This guy is the general for a rat-tribal commander deck!

Baleful Strix. One of the best Two-Drop creatures in all of MTG. Flying, Deathtouch, AND card draw. Sick.

Here are the lands. Nothing noteworthy here. (Why didn’t we get Rogue’s Passage? I think it’s because every creature here already can’t be blocked at least without consequences.)

The other spells. Farsight Mask…that’s hilarious! Why would it be tapped unless an opponent tapped it?

CHAOS REIGNS

A little story…The original picture of the eight rares was very blurry, so at 3:00 AM I retook the picture. And this is when I noticed that the “slide deck boxes” all have outline artwork for their featured rare card. So this is why these cards are sleeved, and why I included the inner box.

Maelstrom Wanderer. A Three-Color creature, with “Cascade, cascade.” Yes. This isn’t a typo! Chaos Reigns is aptly named because of the Cascade mechanic. When you cast (important!) a spell with Cascade, you get to reveal cards off the top of your library until you reveal a card with a lower mana cost, and then you cast that card for free. So Maelstrom Wanderer lets you Cascade twice.

(The other use of the Cascade mechanic is to wash your dishes. HA HA HA!)

Cascade is one of the flashiest mechanics in MTG, and also the most unpredictable. It is at the heart of “Restore Balance” decks, as well as “Living Death” decks.

The other thing about the Maelstrom Wanderer. Three color creatures, especially in the combination of BLUE RED GREEN, are rather rare historically. We got a few recently in Khans block. But this guy seemed to stand alone for a long while.

The Shardless Agent…This is a ten-dollar card! In the right deck, it can almost be a Collected Company.

It seems I forgot another important picture…Bloodbraid Elf. (Banned in Modern!)

It was recently brought to my attention that this guy is banned in Pauper. I wonder why? (It’s obvious.)

Here is a notable card. Do you want to know what a vanilla creature is if it takes a mana of every color to cast? Fusion Elemental provides that standard baseline. 8/8.

This is a five color deck. Such a deck has a hard time finding the resources it needs. Shimmering Grotto and Rupture Spire help with this. Vivid Creek and Terramorphic Expanse are also always useful.

But even this wouldn’t be enough.

The five spells on the left also help you fix your mana.

Every other spell is pretty good. Our main plan, though is to smash the opponent with our creatures.

SAVAGE AURAS

This deck is based on enchantment auras, specifically Totem Armor.

The Kor Spiritdancer is important…It is a strong piece of the Hexproof deck in Modern. Maybe I can make my Bogles deck work better now that I own a copy. (I will need three more, of course. Do-able…it is a ten-dollar card.)

Krond, of the Dawn-Clad. If you can get this guy going, you have no business losing. You can exile their permanents all over the place. He is a flying, vigilant threat.

I thought these two notable…Silhana Ledgewalker has the aforementioned Hexproof. If you get a few auras on it, there is little that the opponent can do. It also is hard to block…

Dreampod Druid…remember all of those Saproling tokens?

Nothing spectacular about the lands. The City Tree is a notable inclusion.

You might have noticed that this deck is a little light on creatures. This is because it is heavy on other spells, especially auras…especially totem armor. The deck also generates tokens, helping ensure you aren’t holding unusable “dead” cards. (Totem Armor. If enchanted creature would be destroyed, destroy the aura with Totem Armor instead.)

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS AFTER UNBOXING.

This is a terrific product. Thanks to the SpartanWife for getting it for me on our anniversary. Thanks to the Tangled Web as well, who gave me a discount. A great thing too, because today I have been fighting a Kidney Stone. And the store owner, Daniel Macabee, is a super nice guy. If you ever find yourself in Spartanburg, SC, go by the Tangled Web Comic Book store. You won’t regret it.

As I have been typing into the wee hours of the night/morning, dealing with my problem, I have spent some time thinking about it. There is only one physical problem with the Planechase Anthology. There is nowhere to put the 35 double-sided tokens. I sleeved them in transparent Dragon Shields. But even if I didn’t, the slide deck boxes wouldn’t accomodate them. And besides that, which tokens go with which deck? This is a nit-picking thing, but notable.If the Wizards hadn’t put that giant Magic The Gathering logo on the plastic tray under the dice, but instead gave us another deck box for the tokens, that would have been better. True, I could remove the tray and store the tokens underneath, but that takes away from the convenience of the the thing as a dedicated board game.

The only other negative thing I could say is…we don’t have Planes cards for Tarkir, Kaladesh, or Theros. All of these planes have been introduced to us since these decks were originally printed. The Wizards could have given us some exclusive planes cards featuring those locations just for this set. And that would drive some collectors crazy…crazy enough to purchase this product even if they already owned the rest of it.

But besides those two items, I haven’t got any complaints. I really had to dig for that second one…but maybe its the pain medicine.

I give the Planechase Anthology a 5/5!

It is a terrific box set that promises hours of fun at the kitchen table in the future. It is a great collection of re-prints, including some scarce rares. It is four ready-to-play decks for anytime. It is good Magic. Plain and simple.

THE SPARTANNERD GIVES THE PLANECHASE ANTHOLOGY A 5/5. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review…Guided By Nature Commander Deck

November 21, 2016 by spartannerd

Should I call this a “Vintage Review”? Surely not! I went on a hunt for this deck when I heard the news that the Wizards are going to be re-printing the deck as a part of next Summer’s “Commander Anthology.” That product is to contain four reprinted decks, and by adding Freylise’s “Guided By Nature” deck to my collection, I already own three of the four decks! (The other decks are “Invasive Manuevers,” “Plunder the Graves,” and the money-card loaded “Heavenly Inferno” which is the only deck I don’t have.)

I picked up my copy at Toys-R-Us. Yes. Still on the shelf. I paid $40. MSRP was $35. But this deck is selling on the internet for way more money. And I could piece it out and get well over my $40 worth of cards back if I wanted to.

I owned two of the Commander 2014 decks already, Ob Nixilis and Nahiri the Lithomancer. I truly hadn’t stopped to appreciate Freylise’s deck until the Wizards brought so much attention to it. I have found it to be a thing of beauty, and certainly worthy of a re-print.

“Guided By Nature” came in this traditional window box packaging, showcasing the Planeswalker Freylise, who can also be used as a Commander. We are told it is a 100 card deck, and there are 15 new Magic cards in the deck.

On the back we see some of those new cards. We get lots of propaganda. You can see the names of the other two decks I don’t have, “Built from Scratch” and “Peer Through Time.” This doesn’t really inspire me to get Deretti, Scrap Savant or Tefuri, Temporal Archmage’s decks.

Freylise’s deck didn’t open any differently than the Ob Nixills deck. You get the big splashy oversized card, a cellophane wrapped deck, a piece of poster just for this deck, the guide to playing Magic, and a pretty good deckbox, which has a tray inside that is more useful if you take it out. The Guide to Playing Magic is completely useless for this Commander product, and should be disregarded by new players. That guide only tells you how to play regular Magic, not Commander.

We get even more double sided tokens. (The same cards are featured in both images, just flipped over.)I already expressed that I feel that it is likely more challenging to make double sided cards for the Wizards. While they have access to the factory to do so, (for the main purpose of Origins Planeswalkers and Shadows Over Innistrad block), they have gotten lots of milage printing double sided tokens. These are great! And very useful as you play the game.

Should I show you a picture of plain basic lands…Nope. I’ll skip that.

We get these special lands. Notable is Crystal Vein ad Havenwood Battleground. These a “Sac Lands.” Ghost Quarter, Haunted Fengraf, and Evolving Wilds are also quite useful.

So on with the real cards…

So what does Freylise do? Rolling her up gets you a mana elf. You really want THAT in this deck! Rolling her down will get you Naturalize. And her -6 is important because that green card draw is hard to come by!

We get two more commanders. I have yet to try Titania. But Ezuri is a super “elf lord,” and I couldn’t help but give him a try!

As usual, the rares are on top. And you get an INCREDIBLE amount of them. From Seer’s Sundial to Thunderous Baloth, to Beastmaster Ascencion. The rares in this deck work wonders to bring you a win. You get lots of regular green stuff too…stuff that should be in every green Commander deck, like Silklash Spider and Emerald Medallion.

This deck is TRIBAL ELVES. And that becomes clear when you look at the rest of the cards.

Question: How many mana elves does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

But you need this critical mass of elves to make some of the effects in the deck work. Think by to Ezuri, the alternate commander. Lots of elves means Ezuri wins! It is also great that most of these creatures are small, with low converted-mana-cost. That makes a card like Thunderous Baloth, with its Lieutenant ability, really shine!

And finally we get to some of the usual stuff. Sol Ring has to be in EVERY deck. Commander’s Sphere and Swiftfoot Boots. Also worthy must includes. Overrun. How many times and different ways can you give your creatures +x/+x and trample?

Here is the full decklist from the poster.

HOW DOES GUIDED BY NATURE PLAY OUT?

Great. For real! I haven’t seen this deck lose. The mono-green elf strategy is tried and true, and the Wizards have given us one of the finest mono-green decks of this sort.

Can it be improved? Absolutely. Add some more expensive cards. Craterhoof Behemoth. Crucible of Worlds. Gaia’s Cradle. And so on! Allosaurus Rider. Nylea, God of the Hunt.

I see why this deck has elevated to Anthology level. And am proud to own it. I score it a 5/5. I have found that “Evasive Maneuvers” and “Plunder the Graves” are also rated 5/5. I can only imagine that “Heavenly Inferno” would be a 5/5 as well, but I think I can affort to piece that together rather than purchasing it. Either way, I WON’T be getting the Commander Anthology this summer. It would take some serious enticing, like foiling it out for me to change my mind. I mean, I already own the bulk of the product!

The SpartanNerd gives Frealise’s “Guided By Nature” deck a 5/5. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review…Chandra Planeswalker Pack

November 20, 2016 by spartannerd

Now for my second review of the new Planeswalker Packs…Chandra Pyrogenius.

If you read my review of Nissa, Nature’s Artisan Planeswalker Pack, then you know exactly what I am about to unbox! Only this time flavored with Chandra, the reddest of the planeswalkers.

You get a different blurb on the back of this one. It accomplishes the goal of letting you know what the deck is all about. And it mentions the uniqueness of the cards in this deck.

Things were packaged exactly the same. In fact my pictures look eerily similar. Almost like it wasn’t worth wasting WordPress memory…

Here is the Decklist.

So here’s Chandra herself. Take in this Jank! You get a “Shock” as a +2 ability. Or “Flamelash” as a -3 ability. For six mana. The -10 ability is a sweeper, which is of some interest.

The Wizards purposely “nerfed” this card. It isn’t supposed to be big in Standard and Modern, though it is legal in those formats. In other words. They made a janky card on purpose. BUT WHY?

True story. The second time I visited a comic book store to shop for MTG cards, I asked the store owner about planeswalker cards. Not only did he not have any, he said they were expensive to obtain. And he was right. Five or six years ago, when I started playing this game, planeswalkers were relatively new, and there weren’t that many even printed yet. (I started playing in tournaments during Dark Ascension, though I wasn’t really that aware of sets and blocks.) The Wizards are doing a smart thing by printing Dual Decks that contain Planeswalkers, and it is also smart to make Intro Packs that include planeswalkers. It helps new players feel that they have something nice. And she is nice and splashy, and foil. All of the things that the premium cards that were included in the now defunct intro packs generally failed to be. (other than being foil.)

Being a “burn” planeswalker, you would think that Chandra’s deck would be loaded up with Lightning Bolts and similar. Not so much. Instead, she has lots of creatures. Chandra has vehicles, while Nissa didn’t. Some of these cratures are really good. Fleetwheel Cruiser is awesome right away, and might be the most valuable card in this deck as far as tournament play is concerned. Speedway Fanatic has Haste, and Gearshift Ace has First Strike…these guys pretty much force players to learn the rules of combat. Chandra has flyers, something else that Nissa’s deck didn’t have.

Here are the rest of the spells (and lands.)

Flame Lash, Stone Quarry, Liberating Combustion, and Renegade Firebrand can all only be found here in this deck. Liberating Combustion lets you tutor out your Chandra, and as I said in Nissa’s review, it serves an important role. I don’t think Renegade Firebrand is going to matter that much. But what might matter is Flame Lash, a four-drop instant burn spell that does four damage to a creature or player. No, it’s not as good as Lightning Bolt. But this could be an important card in Standard. Recently Stoke the Flames was very relevant, and it had a similar effect.

HOW DOES THE CHANDRA PLANESWALKER PACK PLAY?

Like Nissa, I have tried this against several decks, and it generally wins. A good bit actually. It isn’t anywhere near as good as the Chandra Nalaar Duel Deck that was balanced against Jace. But against other duel decks, intro decks, and challenge decks, this deck usually wins. I think MTG has powered down since the Dual Deck anthology decks were printed. But this deck does fine against anything printed since Return to Ravnica.

I have the opportunity to tell you now that Chandra, Pyromancer has beaten Nissa, Natures Artisan” soundly every time. The two decks feel like they were meant to be a duel deck balanced against each other. Maybe I’m just better with Chandra’s deck. Not sure. But I haven’t seen Nissa get a win yet when playing against Chandra. Partly because there is sufficient creature removal in four copies of Flame Lash and in rolling Chandra down. The first striking and vigilance (and flying) creatures in Chandra’s deck are just better than the tramplers in Nissa’s deck.

So I am going to give Chandra a 75/100 as far as this is a playable deck.

I RATE THIS DECK A 5/5!

The Wizards are doing a good thing by printing this as an entry level product. Planeswalkers have lots of appeal to new players. Especially in foil. The deck works well against most pre-constructed decks. The after-market value of this deck is better than $15 with the inclusion of Fleetwheel Cruiser and Flame Lash.

The SpartanNerd gives Chandra, Pyromaster’s Planeswalker Pack a 5/5.

So do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review- “Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas” Duel Deck (Vintage Review)

October 9, 2016 by spartannerd

If you can call decks this young “vintage,” that is. It has only been about five years since they were first released. That was around the time I was discovering trading card games. Bolas was THE BEAST back then, and he recieved a reprint in M13 when I began playing in tournaments, and I would see him on my opponents side of the table, and be envious. Good times!

I saw the Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas” duel deck at the Tangled Web behind the counter, and asked about it. I purchased it for $45…let’s remember this is an item you just don’t see on a shelf anymore….I was looking for stuff like this when I went to the Hickory Con, but just couldn’t find anything, at least that I could afford…

Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas comes in this foil box. We get some information about this story…clearly Ajani is outmatched…but at least you can play him on turn four. Bolas is an EIGHT DROP. Bolas destroyed a plane called Alara, and Ajani is mad. That summarizes it.

For this review, I hope to show some of the older elements that I find.

Here is what you get in the box. The deck boxes are pretty, but once again useless for sleeved cards. This time I am going to cut these up and glue them to Dragon Shields boxes…Ivory for Ajani, and Maroon for Bolas.

The artwork here … we see Bolas from a different angle in this art. We see what might be the size difference between the two characters.

Here is the deck list for each deck.

Here’s one of those old elements I was talking about…the guide to playing magic! This poster gives you a lot of information. In fact, I believe when me and the SpartanChildren began to play this game, we kept this same item on hand for reference.

Nowadays the wizards just use a tiny little card that doesn’t explain much.

OK ALREADY. LETS UNWRAP SOME CARDS!

First, Ajani’s deck.

Kird Ape. The poster boy for red-green decks. I was surprised to see green cards…I guess Ajani held is battle on the shard of Naya. Wild Nacatl, a posterboy for Naya (red-green-white.) Wild Nacatl has a legacy of being banned in modern, but recently was taken off of the banlist.

We’ve seen the pridemate printed a few times it seems.

Qasali Pridemage has been printed a few times as well. He is good…with exalted and a control ability.

Lightning Helix…now we’re talking! a great card.

Here we have useful to rediculous cards. Naya Charm…if it’s a charm, it’s good. Titanic Ultimatum…the opposite of Cruel Ultimatun…a spell of rediculous power, that demands intense color loyalty.

Ajani goes after Bolas with lots of different land options. Notice “Evolving Wilds…” The Jungle Shrine is a Tri-Land, one that I didn’t have. Sapseep Forest…is a FOREST. You can tutor for it with a real fetch. (Not with evolving wilds.) I belive I had Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree already.

Ajani’s deck is a dedicated aggro deck with a few tricks. It yells the colors of Naya. And it does what those colors do. The green makes bigger creatures. The white gains life. The red does damage. All of Ajani’s stuff can impact the game in a big way.

Nicol Bolas’ deck

Bolas’ deck is obviously of Grixis…the shard that represents his evil alignment. From Faerie to Toads to Hounds. Bolas deck looks to be slower right away, and that is because his deck is poised to be a control deck. Each card has a fun controlling effect. The Morgue Toad is a card that scrams “GRIXIS.”

I never owned a Moroii before. Apparently an infamous flyer that hurts you each turn. He has a drawback for all the power he has to offer, similar to the demons in the duel deck with Lord of the Pit. Shriekmaw…this guy belongs in every casual black deck. Blazing Specter unsurpsingly makes someone discard a card. The specter family of cards typically do something with cards in hand.

Vapor Snag. NICE. I have a foil from Modern Masters, and I think I will make my first swap.

More control. Countersquall. Recoil. Undermine. Icy Manipulator. (The manipulator has brought me a few win!) Just more control.

And even more control. Profane Command could only be supplanted by Similagar’s command, which wouldn’t be printed for another five years. Come on guys. Why not Cryptic Command? 🙂 Turn/Burn, Pain/Suffering. Bolas has to cheat. So why not draw two different cards when he was only supposed to draw one!

And then the imfamous Cruel Ultimatum. Wow. The card that won MTG pro finals back in 2011. But like the other Ultimatum in this collection, it is color intensive. You have to have everything lined up just right to get it to work. Cruel is better than Titanic because Titanic is meant to be announced before attackers are declared. Your window of opportunity is wider with Cruel Ultimatum. Take away their life irregardless of blockers. Make them ditch cards, and get one of Bolas’ few but great creatures back from the graveyard.

Bolas doesn’t have as many special lands as Ajani. He gets two Tri-Lands. (That’s only fiar.) He gets two copiews of Terramorphic Expanse (See what they did there. The two cards have opposing flavor but are functional reprints.) And then there’s Rupture Spire, which is a City of Brass with the caveat of entering tapped and having to have a many spent on it. (You don’t have to lose life.)

So who’s better? Playing the decks

I say, Bolas’ deck has a better plan. Deal with whatever Ajani throws at him. That’s what makes this deck fun. But Ajani can “run over” Bolas before he can win. And that means these two are perfectly balanced. So far, I have played eight matches between the two, and both have four wins. GREAT WORK, WIZARDS (Five years later.) The decks are fun. Just remember, AGGRO for Ajani. CONTROL for Bolas. Have small fast creatures in your opeing hand with Ajani. Have fast removal and card draw in Bolas CONTROL deck.

DID THE SPARTANNERD GET A GOOD DEAL.

Here is what some of my readers is asking.

The Duel Deck version of Ajani and of Bolas, in premium foil, are about a $6 value.

Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape get you about $4 (together).

So I’m at $16…

Lightning Helix will get you about $6.00.

So I’m at $21…

Changing tactics. That was TCG player. Lets look at MTGprice.com

Basically, I got a $70 value for about about $45. Not bad!

I rate this great product 5/5. It has wonderful flavor, and I got a great deal. I will happily add this to my Duel Decks collection!

spartannerd

A blog about everything "nerdtainment!"

Category Archives: Magic the Gathering Dual Decks Anthology