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So, I decided to build ten Commander decks. Just for fun. All using the Maze Runners as the commanders. But as everybody knows, the obvous inclusions in the Varolz deck would be Death's Shadow , Phyrexian Dreadnought , and other ridiculously large low-cost creatures...so to make it more challenging, I limited my cardpool to only nonland cards from the original Ravnica block and Return to Ravnica block. As such, all of these decklists are arbitrarily pieced together based on my own whims and what I considered to be flavorful inclusions for each guild. I should note that I broke my limitation for one deck, but I'll get to that when I get to it.

Lavinia's Deck Show

Teysa's Deck Show

Mirko's Deck Show

Melek's Deck Show

Exava's Deck Show

Varolz's Deck Show

Ruric Thar's Deck Show

Tajic's Deck Show

Emmara's Deck Show

Vorel's Deck Show

Footnote: If you actually looked through all the decklists, you may have noticed some included Alpha/Beta/Revised duals and others don't. These are the decklists that I actually use on MTGO, and I don't have money to spend willy-nilly on dual lands. The few duals I do have are ones I've opened in Master's Edition packs (of which I haven't bought a whole lot of; just a few sealed events here and there). Except the shocklands, which I bought 3 of each when the bots started selling the RTR block versions for about 3 bucks each (which is loads better than the 10 bucks each they wanted for the original Ravnica block shocklands).

Follow-up to last blog. Updating idea with Dragon's Maze cards and moving into Modern (which means no more Edgewalker; come on Wizards, reprint that sucker!).

3 x Heartless Summoning
3 x Battletide Alchemist
3 x Orzhov Pontiff
3 x Vizkopa Confessor
3 x Adaptive Automaton
3 x Pontiff of Blight
3 x Sin Collector
3 x Blind Obedience
3 x Crypt Ghast
3 x Temporal Extortion
3 x Obzedat's Aid
3 x Defy Death

4 x Godless Shrine
4 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Orzhov Guildgate
8 x Swamp
6 x Plains

So yeah, haven't been doing blogs like I said I would. Nothing to talk about.

Until now.

So, anybody who has been following the spoilers knows there have been quite a few cards spoiled so far. And I have to say, I'm pretty excited. I intend to go Simic at the prerelease, and if I can make it to multiple prereleases (like I did for RTR), the order after Simic will most likely be Dimir, Boros, Gruul, Orzhov. But I'm not here to talk about that.

I'm here to talk about the Orzhov cards that have been spoiled so far. Yeah, I know it seems like I'm not very excited about them since they're dead last on my list of "multiple prerelease" picks, but that's only because I don't think they'd be that great in Sealed Limited. In constructed, however, I expect them to do very well. Especially in my black-white Cleric deck.

One of the very first decks I fell in love with was black-white Clerics, back in the days of Odyssey and Onslaught. As such, I tend to update the deck from time to time when new Clerics with really nice abilities are added. And Orzhov has already spoiled two very nice Clerics I can't wait to tweak my Cleric deck around. And also the Boros have added another Cleric that would have room, as well.

The Orzhov Clerics I speak of are Syndic of Tithes and Vizkopa Confessor . Both have Extort, and in my Cleric.dec build they both cost very little. "How is that?" you may ask. I shall tell you: Heartless Summoning and Edgewalker . The Syndic becomes free to cast, and the Confessor costs . Which leaves so much mana open for me to be paying for Extort.

However, I'd want to identify this deck as something else. In fact, I'd like to make it a theme, of sorts: Church of Deals. Which would take the deck in a different direction than the one I've been playing on MTGO (whenever I log on). The most recent incarnation of my black-white Cleric deck focuses heavily on supporting Cleric tribal. This deck would focus mainly on politics and "group hug"ness.

So, cards that get to stick around from the current incarnation: Battletide Alchemist , Doubtless One , Heartless Summoning , Edgewalker , and Shields of Velis Vel . That's 15 cards right there, plus the 9 from GTC that will be in this deck, making 24 card slots filled. That leaves 12 slots minimum. Since this deck is named Church of Deals, I'm thinking I should include some Clerics from the original Ravnica block. But there aren't a lot of good choices. Orzhov Pontiff is pretty much the only one worth taking. Then there's Entomber Exarch and Inquisitor Exarch which both fit nicely in the deck. But now I need something that keeps the 1/1s I want to keep out from dieing to the Summoning...I suppose Adaptive Automaton will do. Oh, what the heck, make it a 21 land deck and add the Orzhov Charm that they haven't spoiled as of yet. It can't be that bad, right? If it turns out to be bad, I'll replace it with Zealous Persecution .

Well, that's a fairly quick decklist making:

Church of Deals
3 x Heartless Summoning
3 x Edgewalker
3 x Adaptive Automaton
3 x Battletide Alchemist
3 x Doubtless One
3 x Shields of Velis Vel
3 x Orzhov Pontiff
3 x Inquisitor Exarch
3 x Entomber Exarch
3 x Orzhov Charm
3 x Vizkopa Confessor
3 x Syndic of Tithes
3 x Frontline Medic

3 x Isolated Chapel
3 x Godless Shrine
1 x Vault of the Archangel
4 x Swamp
6 x Plains
4 x Orzhov Guildgate

I'll probably eventually find that this doesn't hold up as well as I'd like and might expand it to a 75 card deck, as I tend to do when playing outside of Modern or Standard.

I actually have something to talk about, and it's been a little over a week since my last post. The thing I have to talk about is...well, not necessarily a new format, but certainly a new way of approaching deck design. And something I practice sporadically on MTGO.

I call it Naturalist. The idea is to build a deck using only lands and creatures. No instants, sorceries, enchantments ( one exception ), noncreature artifacts, or planeswalkers. "Summoner War" could possibly fit better, but in my opinion such a "format" would allow instants and sorceries that produce creature tokens.

You may be asking "Why would anybody want to do this?" I would retort with my own question: Why wouldn't they want to do this?

Over the years, creatures have steadily been gaining more and more ETB (enters the battlefield) effects and/or LTB (leaves the battlefield) effects. Which basically makes them like sorcery spells. Simply entering a query into Gatherer for creatures only with the phrase "enters the battlefield" yields 1187 hits, although not all of those hits are for effects one might want (and includes such phrases as "enters the battlefield tapped" or "enters the battlefield with N {type} counters"). But that's only a taste of what creatures have to offer. Search for the phrase "leaves the battlefield" and you get 84 hits, search for "dies" and you get 345. If you do just a flat search for creatures, it returns 6743 hits (although several of those are double hits due to DFCs and/or flip cards, and includes Un-sets).

There are more than enough creatures to choose from and make a decent deck. I have a few decks saved on my MTGO account which are all Naturalist decks in Modern format which use only creatures with Flash. I've actually played a few games where my opponent quit simply because I was waiting until his or her end step to cast my creatures. I'm guessing they only had sorcery speed removal, and since a set of my favorite flash creatures are all from Time Spiral block ...I can see where a ragequit may have happened.

But I really can't explain much else about the Naturalist "format" or the interesting gameplay it presents. All I can really tell you is that I've used the idea to build Sliver decks, Flash decks, Haste decks...What can I say? I build theme decks, and Naturalist is a really nice theme to play around.

So yeah, turns out weekly blogs were kind of boring to me. I'm still going to try to do these on a somewhat regular basis, but weekly just doesn't allow me time to come up with an idea for new decks or notice new interactions.

Anyway, new deck idea (only in concept stage) so we're going to have another process blog. The basic premise behind this deck is to utilize detain and token manipulation ( Cackling Counterpart , Parallel Lives ) to lock your opponent out of doing anything other than casting spells. And I feel that Archon of the Triumvirate is the best detain candidate, since it detains 2 permanents per attack. The only problem is its high mana cost, and then you have to wait a turn to attack. Or do you? I've already titled this "4-color" because I intend to include Fervor in the deck. Not many, though, as I could use the space for other cards that might help me get things out faster.

So the premise we have so far is to build around these four cards with an initial count of:
3x Cackling Counterpart
2x Parallel Lives
3x Archon of the Triumvirate
2x Fervor

Since I plan on utilizing four colors of mana, I think I'll run a 26 land deck, and with an initial concept of 10 cards that leaves us with 24 nonland cards to work out.

Obviously we can't depend solely on the Archon as our detain creature. And I'd really like to keep the option of nonland detainment. So we'll also add Lyev Skyknight to the deck. And I'd really like some more red in the deck since we're starting to get blue and white heavy already. Desperate Ravings and Faithless Looting are nice draw spells in red, or we can go with cards like Traitorous Blood and Traitorous Instinct to steal the opponent's creatures and make copies of them for ourselves. In fact, I think of those four, whichever two I don't go with will go in sideboard. For green, I think I'll just focus on mana fixing with Farseek .

So, for sure, we're looking at:
3 x Cackling Counterpart
3 x Archon of the Triumvirate
3 x Lyev Skyknight
4 x Farseek
2 x Parallel Lives
2 x Fervor

We could probably use a bit more white and green...focusing on populate. Growing Ranks is a great card, especially in conjunction with Fervor and Parallel Lives. And Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage allows me to use my free mana to populate every turn I don't have something big to cast. And makes tokens for more. But then there's also Wayfaring Temple which populates on contact with the opponent, and if we're locking down their stuff with detain that should be quite easy. Starting to focus mostly on having creatures, Seance might be a good choice, too. If nothing else, it could be a method of "cheating" out an Archon before turn 7 if we combine it with Faithless Looting. But wait...there's been a deck recently that featured Seance on the Daily MTG Daily Deck feature...am I copying it?

Just got back from checking. Not copying it in the slightest (other than the Seance+Faithless Looting combo). That deck was , we're going . Continuing on.

Deck so far:
3 x Cackling Counterpart
3 x Archon of the Triumvirate
3 x Lyev Skyknight
2 x Seance
2 x Growing Ranks
4 x Wayfaring Temple
4 x Farseek
2 x Parallel Lives
2 x Fervor
3 x Faithless Looting
3 x Desperate Ravings

I believe we're down to 3 nonland cards left to add to the deck...I'd like to try to keep this deck somewhat balanced in color, so let's count the mana symbols so far:

=11
=14
=18
=15

Red and blue could both use some more representation...so perhaps I'll run Nivix Guildmage to give access to some more deck cycling.

Now to figure out the land base. We want Temple Garden , Hallowed Fountain and Steam Vents in the deck for Farseek to catch, and once Gatecrash releases we'll also have Stomping Grounds , Sacred Foundry , and Breeding Pool . For now, those will be replaced with Rootbound Crag , Clifftop Retreat , and Hinterland Harbor . We want to run some basic lands so that Ghost Quarter doesn't completely screw us over. And a 1-of Alchemist's Refuge might come in handy for a few sneak attacks. I'm thinking 3 each of the shocklands and 2 each of the EBT duals, which leaves us with 10 slots for basic lands. After consulting my spreadsheet, the finished build looks like so:

4-color Token Menipulation
3 x Temple Garden
3 x Hallowed Fountain
3 x Steam Vents
2 x Rootbound Crag
2 x Clifftop Retreat
2 x Hinterland Harbor
1 x Alchemist's Refuge
3 x Plains
3 x Island
2 x Forest
2 x Mountain

3 x Archon of the Triumvirate
3 x Lyev Skyknight
4 x Wayfaring Temple
3 x Nivix Guildmage

4 x Farseek
2 x Seance
2 x Growing Ranks
2 x Parallel Lives
2 x Fervor
3 x Faithless Looting
3 x Desperate Ravings
3 x Cackling Counterpart

And I totally forgot to cook up a sideboard. Well, I did say whichever of the mentioned red cards didn't get used in main deck would end up in sideboard, so we have that. And I think the Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage could be included in the sideboard. Maybe possibly add some counterspells in the form of instant hexproof and Dissipate . Of course, this will alter my spreadsheet a little bit...but only because I calculate for "main deck only" and "both sideboard and main deck". I'll leave the above build as it is. For those curious: sideboard adds a Mountain and takes away a Plains.

Sideboard
3 x Traitorous Blood
3 x Traitorous Instinct
3 x Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
3 x Ranger's Guile
3 x Dissipate

So this week, I have a deck that I think would be interesting to run. I don't yet own all of these cards (missing the Abrupt Decays, and I really don't feel like shelling out 16 bucks a piece for them), but that's okay because...well, we'll discuss that when we get to it.

Decklist:

Jund Guardians
3 x Golgari Guildgate
3 x Rakdos Guildgate
4 x Transguild Promenade
6 x Swamp
4 x Forest
4 x Mountain

3 x Axebane Guardian
3 x Gatecreeper Vine
3 x Trestle Troll
3 x Ogre Jailbreaker
3 x Xathrid Gorgon
3 x Hanweir Watchkeep
3 x Lobber Crew

3 x Essence Backlash
3 x Dreadbore
3 x Auger Spree
3 x Abrupt Decay
3 x Golgari Charm

No sideboard decided for it just yet, but I would want it to contain only multicolored spells.

If you haven't noticed, every creature is a defender, except the Gorgon and Hanweir's other face. The Gorgon is not only for lockdown, but also to turn the Hanweir's other face into a defender if the oppoennt has a creature that could dispose of it, and to keep the defender count high for Axebane Guardian. The attackers are meant to be the Hanweir and Jailbreaker. Other than that, the secondary method of defeating my opponent is to use the Lobber Crew, which is why all noncreature spells are multicolored: to untap the Lobber Crew. And they're all focused on removal of some degree to get rid of problem attackers and menacing blockers.

Why a defender deck? Because it's a fun and challenging deck to play with. Sure, okay, I technically have three attackers, but at least one of them retains the defender ability for its entire lifespan.

As will be with many of the deck ideas I share on here, this has not yet been tested. But then, you never really have to test a deck if the only purpose is to have fun with it. And what's more fun than an opponent being unable to swing for damage and staring down a bunch of defenders?

As for why it's okay that I don't own all the cards yet: I can just replace the spells I don't own with any multicolored spells I do own that offers some form of removal. As long as I manage to keep at least one Axebane Guardian alive, I have access to all colors of mana and in high quantities, provided I draw enough defender creatures.

Well, I don't have a deck idea already cooked up just yet, but I might as well let people see how I come up with deck ideas (usually). So, for this week's blog (for I will be trying to keep them weekly, but I can't promise it'll stay that way), I will think up a decklist.

How do I decide on what kind of deck to build? It actually depends a lot on what kind of mood I'm in. Am I in a themeing mood? Are there a few cards I just absolutely must build around? Did I find a new interaction I hadn't noticed before? As it turns out, right now I'm in a mood that is a mix between themeing and building around. In this case, the theme is +1/+1 counters and the build-arounds are Corpsejack Menace and Heartless Summoning . As for the format in which I'm building...I think I'd like to keep it Standard.

Now, usually I only build decklists using cards I own, but since RtR has only just been released, I really don't have that many cards from the set yet. So, most of the cards I include will unlikely be in my possession.

Before I build, I generally come up with a name to help me keep the "build philosphy" in mind. Keeping that in mind, I'm going to call this deck Heartless Menace, which definitely helps me remember to put Heartless Summoning and Corpsejack Menace in the deck.

Work-in-progress deck name: Heartless Menace
Deck in progress so far: 3 x Heartless Summoning
3 x Corpsejack Menace

You might be asking "How did you come up with 3 of each?" I don't like the general idea that a deck should have 4 of every card you want to see. Assuming you build a 60-card deck with 24 lands, if you run 4 of every nonland card you want to see, and you want to see every nonland card in your deck, that 9 unique spells. That doesn't cut it for me. So I run 3 of every nonland card I really want to see. Which yields 12 unique spells, if I want to see every nonland card I run. Which does cut it for me.

Anyways, getting back to deckbuilding: if this were being built from cards I owned only, then I would pull out every card I own that can do something with +1/+1 counters. Especially in black and green. But, since this is using cards that have just been released, I would be more likely to use Gatherer. Which yields this list.

Note: At the time of this writing, the list includes M12 cards, which it really shouldn't since M12 is supposed to rotate out with Scars of Mirrodin. But they usually get such things fixed within the first week (usually).

From this list, the cards that catch my interest the best are:
1 x Blessings of Nature
1 x Bloodflow Connoisseur
1 x Bond Beetle
1 x Butcher Ghoul
1 x Champion of Lambholt
1 x Dead Reveler
1 x Deadbridge Goliath
1 x Demonlord of Ashmouth
1 x Desecration Demon
1 x Dreg Mangler
1 x Drudge Beetle
1 x Festerhide Boar
1 x Gobbling Ooze
1 x Gravetiller Wurm
1 x Grim Roustabout
1 x Hunger of the Howlpack
1 x Korozda Monitor
1 x Lotleth Troll
1 x Lumberknot
1 x Primordial Hydra
1 x Sewer Shambler
1 x Slitherhead
1 x Sluiceway Scorpion
1 x Strangleroot Geist
1 x Timberland Guide
1 x Ulvenwald Bear
1 x Undying Evil
1 x Young Wolf
1 x Zanikev Locust

Obviously I can't use all of those cards, so I have to wittle down the list. But this will be the basis from which I pick the theme cards. I already have 2 unique spells picked out, so that leaves 10 slots to fill.

But which cards from above should I pick? Well, since I'm planning on running Heartless Summoning, I'm going to have to eliminate any creature which would die immediately after it hits the battlefield without contributing to the deck in some manner. This immediately alters the above list to the following list:
Blessings of Nature
Bloodflow Connoisseur
Bond Beetle
Butcher Ghoul
Dead Reveler
Deadbridge Goliath
Demonlord of Ashmouth
Desecration Demon
Dreg Mangler
Drudge Beetle
Festerhide Boar
Gobbling Ooze
Gravetiller Wurm
Grim Roustabout
Hunger of the Howlpack
Korozda Monitor
Lotleth Troll
Primordial Hydra
Slitherhead
Sluiceway Scorpion
Strangleroot Geist
Timberland Guide
Ulvenwald Bear
Undying Evil
Young Wolf
Zanikev Locust

Not a whole lot of change. You may have noticed that I took off Lumberknot but left the Connoisseur. This is because I know I'm not always going to see the Summoning in my first two or three turns, and if the Connoisseur makes it to the battlefield before the Summoning, it serves as a sacrifice outlet for the cards that have Scavenge. I also left the Timberland Guide, Bond Beetle, and Slitherhead, as they all become essentially the same as a non-Morbid Hunger of the Howlpack with a Summoning on the battlefield. And serve to activate Morbid on the Howlpack. And all four work very well together with the Menace. This alone makes me want to insta-include them, but I shouldn't include all of them. This deck won't do very well without good one-drops, but it also won't do very well if all it has is one-drops (before or after a Summoning). So, we'll take two of the creatures, and eliminate the Howlpack and unchosen creature. Which shall be the Bond Beetle.

Deck in progress: 3 x Heartless Summoning
3 x Corpsejack Menace
3 x Bloodflow Connoisseur
3 x Slitherhead
3 x Timberland Guide

We now have 7 slots left to fill. But I don't want to fill all of them with cards that deal only with +1/+1 counters, cause we need removal of some sort in the deck. So 2 or 3 more slots filled from the list should be good, for now. And I've decided I want my +1/+1 counter effects to come only from creatures, so that eliminates the Blessings of Nature. I do like, however, that the Ulvenwald Bear gives two +1/+1 counters, supposing a creature died earlier in the turn. Which should be easy to accomplish as it is. So, it makes it in too. With a Summoning on the field, it's basically a 1/1 for 1 that can either become a 3/3, give something else two counters, or if a Menace is out, it becomes a 5/5, or puts four counters on something else. So I think I'll count it as a one-drop, and say we have enough of them for now. So that eliminates the rest of the cards on the list which can be dropped for 1 at any point in time, but we won't rule them completely out just yet.

What we really need are some big hitters, and with only 2 more slots max to fill with non-removal oriented creatures, we need to ignore everything with a power less than 4. This makes our list to choose from look like this:
Deadbridge Goliath
Demonlord of Ashmouth
Desecration Demon
Gravetiller Wurm
Primordial Hydra

It would really help for our big hitters to either have evasion or trample (which some schools of thought consider to be evasion anyways). So, Deadbridge is left on the sidelines for now. I really like how the Desecration Demon serves as both a heavy hitter AND removal, so it makes the cut. And while I'd really like to include the Primordial Hydra for a chance to play it for and get a 1/1 or 3/3 out of the deal, that becomes ridiculously huge if you can keep your Menace out...I have to go with the Gravetiller Wurm.

Deck in Progress: 3 x Heartless Summoning
3 x Corpsejack Menace
3 x Bloodflow Connoisseur
3 x Slitherhead
3 x Timberland Guide
3 x Ulvenwald Bear
3 x Desecration Demon
3 x Gravetiller Wurm

That leaves 4 slots to fill for the deck. So far, we don't have much need for land search because, if we get one Summoning out, we have 4 one-drops, 2 two-drops, and a four-drop. So lets balance the last 4 slots between protection and removal. Protection is easy, since they've been pushing instant hexproof lately, and of the available spells in that regard I find Sheltering Word to be the best for this deck, seeing as it not only protects your creature, but gains you life as well. We could also probably include the new Oak Street Innkeeper , to protect our guys from opponent sorceries (cause who wouldn't swing out with such a large populace of counter-toting creatures?), but I'd rather stick with instants, which leaves us with Ranger's Guile . So what do we have as far as removal goes? Oh my...Well, since we want to include colorless cards as well at this point, I did an Advanced Search and got this page (sorry, the link includes a series of characters that are used to create autocard links, so it won't work here. If you want to view the list of cards I saw, go to Gatherer, click on Advanced, and enter the following: Rules Text: (or) destroy (or) sacrifice (or) exile ; Format: (and) "Standard" ; Colors: (and) "Black" (or) "Green" (or) "Colorless", under More Criteria select Exclude Unselected Terms). It's a jumbled up mess of cards, but the only cards I really think would be usable are:
1 x Tormod's Crypt
1 x Abrupt Decay
1 x Naturalize
1 x Murder
1 x Vampire Nighthawk
1 x Bramblecrush
1 x Launch Party
1 x Sever the Bloodline
1 x Slum Reaper
1 x Reaper from the Abyss

Of the above cards, the only one I really want in the deck is the Abrupt Decay. Vampire Nighthawk might could be useful, too.

Deck in Progress: 3 x Heartless Summoning
3 x Corpsejack Menace
3 x Bloodflow Connoisseur
3 x Slitherhead
3 x Timberland Guide
3 x Ulvenwald Bear
3 x Desecration Demon
3 x Gravetiller Wurm
3 x Sheltering Word
3 x Ranger's Guile
3 x Abrupt Decay
3 x Vampire Nighthawk

The rest of the deckbuilding is just a matter of calculating how many of each basic land to put in it. Which is really easy since I put the equations I use into a spreadsheet calculator. But wait, what about nonbasics? Well, since we're not letting the absence of cards in my ownership be a factor for this decklist, we'll use the staples for a two-color black and green deck: Overgrown Tomb , Woodland Cemetery , and Golgari Guildgate , 4 of each. Which in a 24 land deck leaves 12 basic lands.

The completed decklist (minus sideboard, of course) is:

Heartless Menace
4 x Overgrown Tomb
4 x Woodland Cemetery
4 x Golgari Guildgate
6 x Swamp
6 x Forest

3 x Corpsejack Menace
3 x Desecration Demon
3 x Vampire Nighthawk
3 x Bloodflow Connoisseur
3 x Slitherhead
3 x Timberland Guide
3 x Ulvenwald Bear
3 x Gravetiller Wurm

3 x Heartless Summoning
3 x Abrupt Decay
3 x Sheltering Word
3 x Ranger's Guile

Were I to include a sideboard for this, it would probably be:

Sideboard
3 x Festerhide Boar
3 x Deadbridge Goliath
3 x Demonlord of Ashmouth
3 x Sluiceway Scorpion
3 x Golgari Charm

Well, needless to say, I had fun this weekend. So, as I stated in my previous blog (if indeed these count as blogs), I'm gonna write about it.

First, I should mention that I had work the previous night, and that I had no time to get a nap in before the first prerelease. So, I ended up staying up for over 24 hours. The two "naps" I did have, I'm not sure I was ever asleep. But they were resting enough, whatever they were.

Anyways, the first prerelease event: Local store. I chose to go with the guild I picked for my Planeswalker Points thing, which is Golgari. And luckily, I ended up opening enough stuff to make a decent Golgari deck. Among other rares which weren't as useful (either because they weren't in Golgari colors or I never saw them during matches), I opened a Lotleth Troll and a Worldspine Wurm . I've heard a lot of people complaining about Worldspine Wurm, but I absolutely love the card (and not just because it makes tokens when it dies). And with both of these cards in my arsenal, I found a new reason to love the Wurm: combo material. Granted, it would be better combo material if it was the very last card in my deck, but, it did offer a chance for repeatable discard to the Lotleth Troll (which was handy, since I only got up to 11 lands in one of my games, and that was the game I didn't see the Wurm, go figure). A lot of my opponents had trouble dealing with the Lotleth once I dropped it on the field. The only opponent who didn't was a fellow Golgari guildmember (read: guy who chose Golgari for his prerelease pack) who was lucky enough to open two Abrupt Decay s. There was another opponent who almost got rid of it with a Stab Wound , but I discarded a couple of creatures to keep it alive, especially since the discarded creatures had Scavenge and allowed me to outrace the life loss from the Wound.

But enough gloating about Lotleth Troll, here's the list (as best as I can remember it, as I've since taken it apart to put the cards in my collection):

Prerelease 1--Golgari Scavengers
1 x Lotleth Troll
1 x Corpsejack Menace
1 x Worldspine Wurm
1 x Drainpipe Vermin
1 x Stonefare Crocodile
2 x Sewer Shambler
2 x Drudge Beetle
2 x Korozda Monitor

3 x Urban Burgeoning
3 x Stab Wound
1 x Treasured Find
1 x Aerial Predation
1 x Seek the Horizon
1 x Grisly Salvage
1 x Launch Party
1 x Golgari Keyrune

1 x Transguild Promenade
1 x Golgari Guildgate
8 x Forest
7 x Swamp

I don't remember which place I got, but it was in the Top 8. There were 5 rounds of Swiss, and my record at the end was 3W-2L. When I did run into trouble, I would generally sideboard in the Dreadbore I opened and/or a Rites of Reaping . The Urban Burgeonings were very useful in helping me keep mana open to regenerate my Lotleth on my opponent's turn after scavenging a creature or two on mine. And when I did get the Corpsejack out, my opponents would try their darnedest to get rid of it. But usually not before I got a few counters out of it.

At the second prerelease (which was over an hour away from the first; I carpooled with a couple of friends and two other guys from the first prerelease who asked if they could join us), I went Azorius. As an aside, I had decided once the mechanics for the set were released exactly which order I would choose the guilds for the Prerelease based on how much I liked the mechanics. In this case, the order was Golgari, Azorius, Rakdos, Selesnya, Izzet. This pool wasn't as clear defined as the first prerelease, as I ended up seeing rares from all five colors (including a non-promo Corpsejack Menace). Since I was very reserved about how well the Azorius deck I built would do, I ended up making a second deck in Jund colors to reside in my sideboard, just in case I needed it (and I ended up using it for three games, two matches). Despite my lack of confidence in this cardpool, I ended up going undefeated up until the last round, where I faced the friend who I had carpooled with to this second location. We never had a match though, instead opting to split prize. The decklists for both decks built were as follows (reconstructed as best as I can remember they were):

Prerelease 2a--Azorius Lawkeepers
1 x Archon of the Triumvirate
1 x Azor's Elocutors
1 x Hussar Patrol
1 x Vassal Soul
1 x Tower Drake
1 x Street Sweeper
2 x Azorius Arrester
2 x Trained Caracal
3 x New Prahv Guildmage

1 x Dramatic Rescue
1 x Blustersquall
1 x Chronic Flooding
1 x Inaction Injunction
1 x Martial Law
1 x Azorius Keyrune
2 x Ethereal Armor
2 x Avenging Arrow

1 x Hallowed Fountain
1 x Azorius Guildgate
1 x Transguild Promenade
8 x Plains
6 x Island

Prerelease 2b--Jund Aggressors
1 x Corpsejack Menace
1 x Rakdos Cackler
1 x Axebane Guardian
1 x Gatecreeper Vine
1 x Korozda Guildmage
1 x Rubbleback Rhino
1 x Gobbling Ooze
1 x Splatter Thug
1 x Sewer Shambler
2 x Drudge Beetle
2 x Gore-House Chainwalker
2 x Trestle Troll

1 x Grisly Salvage
1 x Traitorous Instinct
1 x Racecourse Fury
1 x Deviant Glee
1 x Rakdos Keyrune
3 x Auger Spree

1 x Transguild Promenade
5 x Forest
5 x Mountain
6 x Swamp

Between the two decks, the Transguild Promenade was shared (when I sideboarded, the only card removed from either deck was the Promenade to be added to the deck waiting in my sideboard).

Despite staying up for over 24 hours, I had a lot of fun. The only thing I wish I could've done differently was manage my time better for this weekend and managed to attend at least one other prerelease.

So, minor intro here: I'm going to start trying to keep a somewhat steady blog, mostly to post deck ideas I have or card comboes I find interesting. I'd use the forums, but most of the people who frequent those are too competitive in nature and just don't understand why or how I find the certain interactions of the cards to be interesting. And usually try to rework the decklist to include every "meta staple" that's currently legal. While some of these decks may be good in a competitive setting, I create all my decks based around ideas that I find fun.

Of course, to really understand what I find fun, you have to know that I am a Timmy Johnny Vorthos. Which should tell you I like big creatures, comboes, and I admire cards for more than just their gameplay value (in this case, flavor; Vorthos is listed last because it really isn't that predominant).

Anyways, getting to the decklist...It's post-rotation standard legal. Meaning I did not use any cards from M12 or Scars of Mirrodin block to build it. And I'll list both the AVR-M13 version and what I hope to change in it as soon as RTR is released.

Pre-RTR GW Tokens
4 x Sunpetal Grove
2 x Gavony Township
10 x Forest
8 x Plains

3 x Champion of Lambholt
3 x Crusader of Odric
3 x Goldnight Commander
3 x Bond Beetle
3 x Elvish Visionary
3 x Attended Knight
3 x Healer of the Pride

3 x Fungal Sprouting
3 x Captain's Call
3 x Parallel Lives
3 x Farseek
3 x Prey Upon

Before I list the Post-RTR list, I'd like to explain a little about this deck. The main combo piece here is Crusader of Odric + Fungal Sprouting. I've pointed out this combo piece to many people I play with IRL, because regardless of how many creatures you have out prior to casting the Sprouting, if you have the Crusader on the field, the Sporuting will double the Crusader's power and toughness. This assuming you haven't played any Parallel Lives, which make the combo that much more crazy. And you can do something similar with the Champion of Lambholt. If it's the largest creature you have out, you can double it's power and toughness, AND make it so that your opponent pretty much can't block any of your creatures. Ever. Add the Goldnight Commander into the mix, it gets even crazier for each creature you have that can attack. In ideal conditions, this deck can get very crazy very fast. And I find that fun.

So, post-RTR, we get an additional creature which would double in size with a Fungal Sprouting: Wayfaring Temple. And even more creatures which create tokens when they enter the battlefield. But of course, I'd have to remove a few cards to add them. Captain's Call would be a definite removal, as would Prey Upon (or at least it would get moved to sideboard, which this deck does not yet have since I haven't played it in a tournament settings and probably won't within the near future).

Post-RTR GW Tokens
4 x Sunpetal Grove
4 x Temple Garden
2 x Gavony Township
2 x Selesnya Guildgate
7 x Forest
5 x Plains

3 x Wayfaring Temple
3 x Champion of Lambholt
3 x Crusader of Odric
3 x Goldnight Commander
3 x Seller of Songbirds
3 x Wild Beastmaster
3 x Bond Beetle
3 x Elvish Visionary

3 x Fungal Sprouting
3 x Parallel Lives
3 x Farseek
3 x Selesnya Charm

The addition of Wild Beastmaster works very well with the Goldnight Commander, since once the Beastmaster attacks, it buffs every other creature by its power. And every other creature that is attacking has also had its power buffed by the Goldnight, so...provided the deck doesn't face a removal-heavy opponent, you could hit for some crazy high damage.

Sure, I could dumb the deck down to just the Temple, Crusader, Commander, Champion, and Beastmaster and throw in a bunch of spells to give protection or hexproof to my guys, but what fun is that? The only time I have fun garenteeing the survival of my creatures is when that's the theme I'm going for, and this deck is going for massive creatures through the use of token generation.

Well, I've rambled on long enough. And I highly doubt anybody's going to read this blog, so...I really shouldn't put so much work into it.

If I get around to it, and provided I have fun, the next blog will be about a sealed deck at one of the prereleases I'm planning on attending (yes, I'm planning on attending more than one; gotta try for at least one of each of the promos).

Here's the deck I ran at a draft at the local Prerelease that took me to first place (in a rather fast but fun method). I had a hard time deciding what to cut to make it 40, so I ended up making it 45.

1 x Cathars' Crusade
1 x Archwing Dragon
1 x Burn at the Stake
1 x Cloudshift
1 x Cathedral Sanctifier
1 x Angelic Wall
1 x Devout Chaplain
1 x Thraben Valiant
2 x Seraph of Dawn
2 x Spectral Gateguards
6 x Voice of the Provinces
1 x Kessig Malcontents
1 x Mad Prophet
1 x Riot Ringleader
1 x Thatcher Revolt
1 x Vigilante Justice
2 x Kruin Striker
2 x Scroll of Avacyn
1 x Seraph Sanctuary
10 x Plains
7 x Mountain

The lowest life total anybody got me to was 1 life. All my rounds were won in 2.

The main combo I went with was to play cheap creatures for blockers, get my Crusade out, and drop a Voice stacking the triggers so that the Crusade trigger was on bottom and the token generation was on top, that way the Human token would trigger the Crusade again and both creatures would get two +1/+1 counters. In addition to whatever else was on my board. The game where someone got me down to 1? I kept a starting hand with the Crusade and a Voice. Rest were lands.