Tag: murderous-cut

Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - October 5, 2014

Abzan Midrange by Samuel Valentine (1st at SCG Indianapolis Standard O...

Champion’s Deck

Abzan Midrange by Samuel Valentine

1st at SCG Indianapolis Standard Open on Sep 27th 2014

And so we have the winner from that other SCG Open happening in Indianapolis. As it wasn’t broadcasting live it would seem that some of the hype was lost in the shuffle, especially with the Jeskai Tempo deck causing financial ripples in the secondary market. But this is not a deck to dismiss as it placed 11 similar decks between both top 32, including the second place at this tournament, and Midrange strategies added another 7 to pull just over 28% of the field. This could be the dawning of the Age of Midrange, or just anomalous opening weekend numbers. Regardless you can be sure that this is a deck you’ll need to beat if you want to be victorious of the next few months at least.

Starting with a base of mana dorks there is both Elvish Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid to quickly advance the game quickly into the mid-game. We also find Satyr Wayfinder which interestingly will help us dig for lands but also fills the graveyard for interactions with Delve and other reanimation effects. Nyx Weaver is another interesting cog in the engine which provides little mills every turn that it can take advantage of by exiling itself to return any one card in your grave, as well it has reach so it can chump a huge attacker then use its ability to keep you churning. Another key piece of the puzzle is Siege Rhino with its 3 point drain when it enters the battlefield that is just as amazing when he is whipped back, not to mention his 4/5 Trample body to boot. To ensure that you can control the air along with having blockers that are just great Hornet Queen brings a squad with her representing 5 Deathtouch blockers and an additional 4 more when she rises back from the grave. We shore up the creatures with Necropolis Fiend which can possibly drop for just two black using Delve for a 4/5 Flying not even taking into account his ability and a misers Ashen Rider to absolutely rid yourself of any troubles you may encounter in your way. One of the key enablers for the deck is Commune with the Gods which allows you to dig into your library for a creature which could be either another mana dork to continue ramping, a necessary offensive weapon, or even a Whip of Erebos. There is additional upside with the remaining four cards being dropped into the graveyard to be either reanimated or delved away. Speaking of Delve our main source of removal lies with Murderous Cut which can be as cheap as just a single Black mana to destroy any creature. There are two copies of the Whip of Erebos that is used to reanimate any creatures that either died already or were communed away, and there’s also Lifelink tacked on to all of you creatures to ensure you last deep into the game. The final card is Empty the Pits which looks to be an amazing top deck going into the late game where you can tap out and empty your graveyard to possibly add a horde of 5-8 Zombies which without a sweeper should definitely spell certain doom for any opponent.

This deck is definitely not to be dismissed. It will certainly be tried with a toolbox of creatures in every combination to see which best design rises to the top. I you are a fan of either Midrange or reanimator strategies then I would recommend this as a great launching pad into the new Standard. We will most certainly be seeing it continue to show these numbers so get your Siege Rhinos now before they’re unreasonable. With its sheer power I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Eric J Seltzer

@ejseltzer on Twitter

Email: ejseltzer@hotmail.com‎

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Three Kings Loot - May 19, 2014

Khans of Tarkir Spoiler – Release notes, Artwork & Card Gal...

Set Name	Khans of Tarkir
Block	Set 1 of 3 in the Khans of Tarkir block
Number of Cards	269
Prerelease Events	September 20-21, 2014
Release Date	September 26, 2014
Launch Weekend	September 26-28, 2014
Game Day	October 18-19, 2014

Magic Online Prerelease Events	October 3-6, 2014
Magic Online Release Date	October 6, 2014
Magic Online Release Events	October 6-22, 2014

Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir	October 10–12, 2014
*Pro Tour Khans of TarkirLocation*	Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
*Pro Tour Khans of TarkirFormats*	Swiss: Standard Khans of Tarkir Draft Top 8: Standard
Official Three-Letter Code	KTK
Twitter Hashtag	#MTGKTK
Initial Concept and Game Design	Mark Rosewater (lead) Mark L. Gottlieb Zac Hill Adam Lee Shawn Main Billy Moreno and Ken Nagle
Final Game Design and Development	Erik Lauer (lead) Doug Beyer David Humpherys Tom LaPille Shawn Main and Adam Prosak with contributions from Matt Tabak
Languages	English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
Available in	Booster Packs, Intro Packs, Event Deck, Fat Pack* (* – Not available in all languages)
	(Magic Online only available in English.)

Khans of Tarkir is going to be a large set—small set—large set block structure (like Innistrad, Dark Ascension, and Avacyn Restored, with a special consideration for Limited and “a time travel element” yet to be revealed.

Tarkir itself is a plane of five warring clans, each worships a different aspect of the plane’s (now extinct) dragons.

The five clans are based around a single color in WUBRG order with one ally and one enemy
Each clan has it’s own mechanic plus morph

Abzan Houses – White Mana Red Mana Green Mana , Aspect: Endurance, Khan: Anafenza, Symbol: Scales, Theme: Control
Jeskai Way – Blue Mana , Aspect: Cunning, Khan: Narset, Symbol: Eye, Theme: Tricks
Mardu Horde – , Aspect: Speed, Khan: Zurgo Helmsmasher, Symbol: Wings, Theme: Aggro
Sultai Brood – , Aspect: Ruthlessness, Khan: Sidisi, Symbol: Fang, Theme: Resource manipulation
Temur Frontier – Green Mana Blue Mana Red Mana , Aspect: Savagery, Khan: Surrak Dragonclaw, Symbol: Claws, Theme: Midrange fatties