Blog the Magic Gathering

A poor man's blog for Magic the Gathering (MtG), Wizards of the Coast (WoTC), deck construction, cards, combos, game play, MtG podcasts, etc.

What is "Magic: the Gathering"? Magic is a collectible fantasy-themed playing card game kinda combining Uno, War, Chess, and art dealing: match colors, draw 4, high card beat low card, different cards attack in different ways while you ogle hot chicks and dragons drawn by your favorite artists on cards you can sometimes sell for big money.
It's Pokimon for grown ups. Srsly, get your Pokimon player a Magic deck and they'll instantly sprout pubes and consider a career as a mathmatician.

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Saturday, February 28, 2009:

 

The Worst Magic Cards Ever: Reliquary Tower


People hate it. Here it is...

Reliquary Tower - Conflux uncommon - Land
You have no maximum hand size.
Tap: Add 1 to your mana pool.




Just about everybody is bashing this card.
...so...
I'll see if it can kick your ass. :)


Since everyone hates Reliquary Tower so much, I have to put 4 of them in this deck. Thus I want to run alot of low cost artifacts in case Reliquary Tower is one or all of my early land drops, because it only gives colorless mana. Let's see what low cost artifacts Wizards has given us the option of using from Conflux...

Mana Cyclix 1 - 1Tap: Add one mana of any color to your pool. Well well, goes very nicely with a land that gives you colorless mana, doesn't it?
Armillary Sphere 2 - Fetch 2 lands for your hand. Look at that, 2 for 2. Isn't that convenient to go with a land which gives you unlimited hand size? [Big hands, I know you're the one.]
Kaleidostone 2 - Draw a card - 5,Tap,Sac Kaleidostone: Add WUBRG to your pool. [Hurkyl's Recall?]
Bonesaw: I have no idea why anyone would use this in Standard. Maybe someday I'll write an IN MY FACE! article.

That's ALOT of mana fixing. I could cast the funkiest color combinations available and have a hand full of lands, until I bring out...

Knight of the Reliquary 1GW - Conflux rare Creature - Human Knight 2/2 Knight of the Reliquary gets +1/+1 for each land card in your graveyard. Tap: Sacrifice a Forest or Plains: Search your library for a land card, put it into play, then shuffle your library.

Play Knight of the Reliquary, sac a land you tapped to play it, thus gaining +1/+1, replace the land with an untapped land, then tap that fresh land for Raven's Crime, Raven's Crime yourself, give your Knight +1/+1 to help it survive til the next turn when you achieve WUBRG Domain (all 5 land types and nasty things start happening.

Retracers:
Raven's Crime B Sorcery
Flame Jab R Sorcery
Glamerdye 1U Instant
Oona's Grace 2U Instant
Syphon Life 1BB Sorcery
Cenn's Enlistment 3W Sorcery
Monstrify 3G Sorcery
Waves of Aggression 3R/wR/w Sorcery
Savage Conception 3GG Sorcery
Worm Harvest 2B/gB/gB/g Sorcery
Spitting Image 4G/uG/u Sorcery
Call the Skybreaker 5U/rU/r Sorcery

WUBRGers:
Child of Alara Legendary Creature - Avatar 6 6
Fusion Elemental Creature - Elemental 8 8
Maelstrom Archangel Creature - Angel 5 5
Horde of Notions Legendary Creature - Elemental 5 5
Reaper King Legendary Artifact Creature - Scarecrow 6 6

Domains:
Might of Alara G Instant +5/+5
Worldly Counsel 1U Instant Sift 5 cards into library, draw one, and say the Magic words, "Ala ala peanut butter Combos!")
Aven Trailblazer 2W Creature - Bird Soldier 2/X where X is your Domain strength. (Does anyone see why this should be my favorite card? I don't.)
Drag Down 2B Instant -5/-5 to target creature
Wandering Goblins 2R Creature - Goblin Warrior 0 3 3Colorless: +5/+0. Repeat. ...Wandering Banefire?
Matca Rioters 2G Creature - Human Warrior X/X where X is your Domain = 5/5. Decent, but not as good as the hype, IMO, except that it is a Warrior, so it made it into my warriors deck, barely.
Manaforce Mace 4 Artifact - Equipment (Equip 4: +5/+5)
Spore Burst 3G Sorcery 5 Saprolings
Exploding Borders 2GR Sorcery Search your library for a basic land card, put that card into play tapped, then shuffle your library. Exploding Borders deals X damage to target player, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control. = 5 damage and a land.
Voices from the Void 4B Sorcery Target player discards a card for each basic land type among lands you control.

We probably don't have many creatures in play at that point, so Child of Alara might be a good pick to sweep the board:

Child of Alara WUBRG Conflux mythic rare Legendary Creature - Avatar 6/6 Trample. When Child of Alara is put into a graveyard from play, destroy all nonland permanents. They can't be regenerated.

...and you might want to Worldly Counsel (sift) for Prismatic Omen so each of your lands can produce any kind of mana without needing the other mana fixers, thus making WUBRG Domain great for casting all your favorite Shard spells, Lieges, and Spirit Avatars:

Godhead of Awe Creature - Spirit Avatar 4 4
Divinity of Pride Creature - Spirit Avatar 4 4
Ghastlord of Fugue Creature - Spirit Avatar 4 4
Dominus of Fealty Creature - Spirit Avatar 4 4
Demigod of Revenge Creature - Spirit Avatar 5 4
Deity of Scars Creature - Spirit Avatar 7 7
Nobilis of War Creature - Spirit Avatar 3 4
Deus of Calamity Creature - Spirit Avatar 6 6
Oversoul of Dusk Creature - Spirit Avatar 5 5
Overbeing of Myth Creature - Spirit Avatar * *

Last but not least, eh?

Overbeing of Myth G/uG/uG/uG/uG/u (Green/Blue x5) Creature - Spirit Avatar */* Overbeing of Myth's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand. At the beginning of your draw step, draw an additional card.

Now aren't you glad the only land in your starting hand was a Reliquary Tower?

IN YOUR FACE! ^_^

...but wait, there's more!

For only 2 more mana, you too can have your choice of Ultimatum!

Brilliant Ultimatum
Cruel Ultimatum
Violent Ultimatum
Titanic Ultimatum
Clarion Ultimatum

...but wait! There's more!

For only 8 mana, you can have your choice of MYTHIC RARE BADASS!

Sphinx Sovereign Artifact Creature - Sphinx 6 6
Prince of Thralls Creature - Demon 7 7
Hellkite Overlord Creature - Dragon 8 8
Godsire Creature - Beast 8 8
Empyrial Archangel Creature - Angel 5 8
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker Planeswalker - Bolas 5

...but than again, why not go for a Progenitus.

---

4 Reliquary Tower
4 Armillary Sphere
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Raven's Crime
4 KICKING YOUR ASS :)


Thomas Scott (Where's my Servant?) Painter

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Deck: Obelisk of Dancing


Stoneybrook Banneret makes half your spells cheaper. Shapersharer can be a Banneret and make things even cheaper. Diviner's Wand equips to most creatures for free and gives you card draw so Skill Borrower, and thus Shapesharer, can become Obelisks of Alara once Obelisk hits the hit the top of the library. Then after you draw Obelisk, "cast" it for 1 with Master Transmuter. If your creatures are destroyed, March of the Machines makes your Obelisk a 6/6, which makes the 6cc worth it even if you can't sneak it in with Master Transmuter, and it still keeps it's abilities. Wings of Velis Vel makes any creature Merfolk, so Merrow Commerce can untap them. So you basically have alot of flying Obelisks.

You could just islandwalk with the banneret a few times, pumping it with pseudo-Obelisks, Wands, and Wings. Lots of options, lots of synergies, lots of mana, lots of card draw, just look for it and it's there, but it might be slow unless you keep your Bannerets out to make Wizards and Changelings cheaper, though you can fetch them with Flute, a great card to sink unused mana into before the beginning of your turn.

Proto Decklist:

4 Stoneybrook Banneret 1U Merfolk Wizard 1/1 Islandwalk Merfolk and Wizards spells cost 1 less t play. (reduce cost of Skill Borrower, Shapesharer, Wings of Velis Vel, Diviner's Wand, and Stoneybrook Banneret)
4 Wings of Velis Vel 1U Tribal Instant Changeling (This card is every creature type at all times.) Target creature becomes 4/4, gains all creature types, and gains flying until end of turn. (save your creatures from burn, turn a chump block into a kill, sneak a wienie in for 4, help Shapesharer morph opponent creatures)
2 Shapesharer (AKA: Obelisk Type C) 1U Changeling(Merfolk Wizard) 1/1 2u:Target Shapeshifter becomes a copy of target creature until your next turn.
2 Skill Borrower 2U Artifact Creature Wizard 1/3 2U: Use artifact/creature abilities of card on top of your library. (AKA: Obelisk Type B. Like a turn 3 Obelisk of Alara. Also Shapesharer, Master Transmuter, Diviner's Wand)
2 Master Transmuter 3U Artifact Creature - Human Artificer 1/2 1Tap Trade artifact in play for one in hand. ("Cast" Obelisk for 1 on turn 4. Or a cheap Skill Borrower. Or bounce to save something being destroyed)
3 Obelisk of Alara 6 Artifact
1w,T: You gain 5 life.
1u,T: Draw a card, then discard a card.
1b,T: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
1r,T: Obelisk of Alara deals 3 damage to target player.
1g,T: Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.
(becomes 6/6 with March of the Machines)
2 Citanul Flute 5 Artifact X,Tap: Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. (becomes 5/5 with March of the Machines)
2 Diviner's Wand 3 If you draw a card, wizard gets +1/+1 and flying. Pay 4: Draw a card. If a Wizard comes into play, attach Diviner's Wand for free.
2 March of the Machines (for 6/6 Obelisk of Dancing, 5/5 Citanul Flute, 3/3 Diviner's Wand, 2/2 Armillary Sphere)
2 Merrow Commerce 1U (untap "Obelisks"/SkillBorrowers/Shapesharers/MasterTransmuters)
1 Vedalken Mastermind uu Creature - Vedalken Wizard u,tap: Return target permanent you control to its owner's hand.

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