Magic the Gathering

Well, it`s pretty hard to abuse Hexproof because of Glaring Spotlight which is just 1 colorless.
Yeah, Sometimes Obzedat can be challenging to play because of his BBWW cost. But I don`t use him that often unless I want him to get all my opponent`s attention, which usually works because they really try to remove Obzy.

Are there any white draw cards for standard?

Funny story about Glaring Spotlight: No one seems to be using it. At least, I haven't seen it make a splash.
It isn't relevant enough, apparently. Only the all-in Enchantment deck heavily abuses the Hexproof ability.

No white card draw in standard that I know of, but black has options: Sign in Blood, Underworld Connections.

EDIT: GEEZ, the mana bases of the standard decks in the Pro Tour are so greedy. No basic lands, four color everywhere.

But some exciting decks. Love Sam Black's "Aristocrats!" deck, love Connely Woods Mono-Black-splash-Red control.
And then there's Red Deck Wins splash Green which I thought was hilarious, since the player is the one who thought up his team's 4-color control. He went in a completely different direction.

EDIT2: Wow, the control decks are feasting on aggro decks today. "Wolf Run Bant" is the current 8-0 deck right now in the Pro Tour.

Everyone was expecting aggro decks to be very good, too, so people are metagaming, playing a ton of lifegain cards. The most recent match I watched, the first ten turns, the players only gained life before anyone even dealt damage.

Which deck do you like the most as of now?
I can't really watch the protour so I have no idea what's happening.




Thank you for giving me an idea. I'm gonna start building a blue/white enchantment standard revolving around Sphere of Safety and Azor's Elocutors.

The "Aristocrats!" deck is easily the most interesting deck. I think at least one player will be using that in the Top 8, so I'm rooting for that one. Unfortunately, the Mono-Black deck didn't make the Top 8, which was my biggest vote.

The Aristocrats deck is quite interesting. It's a 4-color humans deck that revolves around sacrificing it's own creatures to Cartel Aristocrat and Falkenrath Aristocrat. Designed by Sam Black, a renowned deckbuilder who plays for Star City Games, and his belief is that sacrificing your own creatures is one of the most powerful abilities in Magic. His decks are usually odd, but always good.

EDIT: Wooooooooo! The Aristocrats gets there. Tom Martell is Pro Tour Gatecrash's champion with the most interesting deck there. Very solid play.
Btw, made a mistake describing the deck. It's actually only 3-color: Red-White-Black.

Question :

So, I was just wondering, if I give Hero of the Bladehold Double Strike, does that mean I get 4 tokens with Battlecry? Just wondering because I had a friend that tried to do that to that to me and he was trying to explain that Hero attacks twice because of Double Strike so he gets 4 tokens, but due to the fact that Double Strike works off during the damage portion of the Battle Phase, she only does First Strike Damage, then Regular Damage. Not sure which one is right here, any help?

Hero of Bladehold says "when attacks", so that ability would go off before blocks, and Hero can only be declared as an attacker once (unless you have something nutty like Aurelia). Double Strike only applies to the damage step, so you'd be the correct one.

Anyone here planning to buy From the Vault: Twenty?
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1171

I plan on trying to win myself a set.
Anytime a "From the Vault" is released, the shop I go to holds a tournament for one of the very few boxes they get.

They'll sell the FTV sets later. I don't get 'em, since they're quite expensive otherwise. I think Legends or Exiled is over 100 bucks. And besides, in this case, I've no idea what's in it, so far.

Just hit someone for 14 (as well as for game) using one little Markov Blademaster.



God I love Double Strike.

Aha, nice. Fun card, that is.
My friend's casual vampire deck can only ever get it to a 3/3 usually, since it really needs to be killed before it gets out of hand.

I'm just curious, what do you guys actually think about Sphinx's Revelation?
I can't make up my mind if I should use it or not.

Like all cards with an X, it's really really strong late game. If you topdeck this, awesome. Also, unlike Think Twice or Sign in Blood (2 damage), it can completely refill your hand and give you a buttload of life provided you have enough resources X=4+ (at least) and it is an instant.

What worries me is what if I get this in my opening hand and I'm against an aggro deck. Won't it be useless if my opponent can somehow bring me to 5 or so at turn 5? As much as I find Standard slow (compared to Modern, Legacy or Vintage), I find this card too slow for most decks. I've been hit by this card quite a few times, usually 5+, but the number of times I've seen this become a burden or a turn late is really high.
Isn't it better to have a card that's relevant more often than not and if possible, can be cast before I go belly up?

Sphinx's Revelation is used in threes or fours in EVERY deck in it's colors. It's considered to be one of the best cards in Standard right now. All control mirrors are determined by who casts the better Sphinx's Revelations. Even faster Raka (Red-White-Blue) decks use it in threes and fours. It's that good.

EDIT: You mentioned relevancy... It's ALWAYS relevant. If you topdeck it "late" as you called it, one strategy is just to tap out for it, gain as much life as possible and draw as many cards as possible. People don't use maindeck Skullcrack (which shocks me, I use four maindeck. At least no one sees it coming), so you should be safe that turn, and on your opponents next turn, just make the best plan to survive, and then you'll be able to use all those cards to your advantage. Remember, you just gained X life.

You are still overestimating aggro. Rhox Faithmender, Centaur Healer, Lingering Souls, Augur of Bolas, Azorius Charm, Mizzium Mortars, Searing Spear, Huntmaster of the Fells, Supreme Verdict, Rolling Temblor (a sideboard card), Blind Obedience (sometimes maindeck), and many more cards are things available that can slow down, or sometimes completely halt aggro, as early as turn 3 (the four mana stuff can be cast turn three because control decks using Green always use 4 copies of Farseek).

And once you get to the point where you can cast a Thragtusk or a Sphinx's Revelation, the game's over for aggro. They can't win. I play aggro, I know that the first Thragtusk or Sphinx's is annoying, and if my opponent literally does ANYTHING similar after that (and they have the time to do so with those cards, since Thragtusk is two bodies I need to get through, and Sphinx's just gave them uber card advantage), there's no outs. Aggro simply cannot deal that much damage. Aggro decks are designed to do about 25-30 damage as quickly as possible, so if a control player is able to gain 10 life in a game, or at least gain some life and slow the game past turn 5, it's nearly impossible for the aggro deck to win.

EDIT: Here's probably a good example. It's a video from the latest Gatecrash tournament. The format was Standard. On the left is an aggro player with RG Saito Aggro, on the right is a control player with Bant (White-Green-Blue) control using 3 Sphinx's Revelation. The aggro player wins game one, sure, but after sideboarding, and now knowing what his opponent's playing so he knows what to do, the control player finishes each game with more than 20 life.

Is Thragtusk really that big of a threat? I've played against a lot of those bulls and I don't really have that much of a problem. If my opponent is playing Blue, White or Green, I always play Skullcrack. Also, I just usually let Frontline Medic handle Sphinx's Revelation or anything with X that can be devastating since they usually tap everything out. Boros charm usually handles those damage or destroy all. Terminus is well, annoying. I think I'm the only one in my shop that uses Nevermore against it. (I'm not a pro so I might be doing it wrong)
I don't really overestimate aggro, since I only have one aggro standard, it's just I find fewer things that can go wrong with their opening hand especially if they are filled with creatures.
By the way, before you told me to make Thalia 3 in my deck and I did. It works wonders. Thanks

I am going to watch the video when I go home.

Thragtusk is a huge problem for aggro because 5 life is a lot, and it's two creatures that are both big enough to deter attacks.
Boros Charm is just insane. Easily the best charm.
Skullcrack actually is one of the best burn spells, I dare say, ever. I have no idea why people think it should be sideboard. I use 4 mainboard. It just messes up everything that messes up aggro.
Frontline Medic doesn't see enough play. My friend's aggro uses it, and it's tricky to beat. On another note, people don't tap out for Sphinx's Revelation unless they really need to, or their opponent is tapped out, so that they can keep up counterspell mana, so Frontline Medic isn't as insane against it, but it does make it harder for your opponent.
Nevermore is a good card, but it's always sideboard, because you can't know what's in your opponent's deck. I'm suprised actually that people don't seem to use it, when it's practically a white Slaughter Games.

And glad the 3 maindeck Thalia is working out for you.

When I go first, it's actually funny if I can somehow play someone at turn 1 then Thalia turn 2 and Frontline Medic at turn 3. My control opponents usually frown when I do that, especially if they are playing blue white.
Yeah, Boros Charm is just so gooood. The number of times it saved me from boardwipe and the times where I just use Boros Charms to deal the final damages.
Skullcrack is actually funny. Sometimes my opponents would use their key creatures to block and give it protection then I activate Skullcrack.

So... I went to my first FNM here in Italy because I found a shop that does FNM here. Played Standard Format and did very poorly in my opinion. Went 0-4, with each match going 1-2.

Played my Boros Deck without a sideboard because I wasn't ready for it.

I wish I did better, but at the same time, I wasn't prepared nor was I running something that top tier against a lot of Bant-Midrange and Jund Decks.

Gawd, hopefully all my cards for my Grixis Deck come here soon. I want to see how players react to a different type of control besides the means of Bant, Jund, Esper, and American Midrange decks.

Yeah, if you wanna play aggro in this format, you need to be really fast, even if you need to do some counter-intuitive things. Control decks these days are able to stablize quickly. Not having a sideboard, though, that makes it more difficult, but you can't build a sideboard without knowing the meta. I realized my sideboard was bad when I noticed there was more aggro than I expected at the shop I went to.

Yeah, Grixis is pretty strong. I'm the only one who plays it at the shop I go to, though there was a person who used to run Grixis, too, but he switched to America after Gatecrash, because Boros Reckoner, and because he mentioned something about Grixis not having good board sweepers. We had a pretty fun match against each other for Game Day yesterday. He won, 2-1, but it was a tight match.
My record yesterday wasn't that good, though, 1-2, drop. I would've continued anyways, but I had signed up for another tournament, a team tourney with one of my friends for a different card game, so I dropped to participate in that.

So, for my Grixis Deck, what do you guys think is a good deter for aggro decks? I'd like to choose between Devour Flesh or Killing Wave to use as a sideboard against aggro, but I'm not sure which one to pick. I like Bonfire, but if there is a Reckoner on the field, it deters you from taking damage from your own spell, and using Snapcaster and multiple uses of Dissipates or Dreadbores isn't the most ideal plays.

Devour Flesh is a good and fast 2 drop that makes them sac a creature with them getting a little life gain. Fast and efficient, unlike Killing Wave, but at the same time, a bit limited to who you want dead as well as the drawback of the aggro deck gaining life.

On the other hand, Killing Wave is AoE, in which the opponent is forced to either pay X life to keep a creature that they really want on the field, or to get rid of them, clearing the board for me to start playing my cards out right. It's a bit slower due to the fact that you have to pay X, and usually you want to make them pay a large amount, and it also targets your creatures, especially the ones that you really want to keep out, but you can wipe the board clean as start a new field in which control decks, like mine, want to have against aggro decks.

Killing Wave I found only to be good when making a lose-lose situation such as having a Blood Artist out, or something.
Devour Flesh is pretty good, if you don't mind their lifegain, which you shouldn't, since you're a control deck: if they run out of gas and you're not dead, you probably won. If the lifegain does matter to you, Tribute to Hunger is the better sacrifice card, but is also three mana (basically same effect, except YOU gain the life instead).

For board sweepers, honestly, Blasphemous Act and Bonfire are all you got that are decent. They're bad against Reckoner, sure, but they're the most efficient that's in your colors. This was the reason that guy I talked about switched from Grixis to America, better sweepers.
Haven't tested it, but perhaps Barter in Blood could do work as a semi-sweeper.

Also, it's been found that Gloom Surgeon is a great way in black to halt aggro. It and Vampire Nighthawk are things they must kill in order to push through for damage.
I've seen 3-4 copies of Gloom Surgeon in several black decks. Whether you want the them mainboard depends on the meta. If lots of people are playing aggro, maindeck them, if not sure, then sideboard.

I now dub Thragtusk, "Swag-Tusk", cause he's just so swag in Standard right now.