The A-B-Sieged of Mirrodin

A couple of days ago MIchael Flores and I sat down and the new Top8Magic.com offices and started talking about the cards in Mirrodin Besieged in anticipation of the coming Prerelease weekend. The podcast is largely traffic and jackhammer free but there is a section toward the end when we go and play in traffic. We wander through the at-the-time spoiled cards and talk about their impact on formats ranging from booster drafts to Standard and even a little Commander (although, to be fair,  that discussion included a lot of MIke saying “What is Commander?”)

Good luck to everyone playing in a Prerelease this weekend and choose your side wisely!

Picking the Scars Part 1

Mike Flores and I sat down to discuss our exclusive preview card, Painsmith, from the soon-to-be-released Scars of Mirrodin. We did manage to talk about this intriguing little two-drop but of course the conversation meandered and we covered a bunch of other cards that have been spoiled thus far. The topic of an old vs. young battle of the Pro Tour All Stars also came up and Koth the Hammer may have been mentioned once or twice in passing as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 5

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 4

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 3

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 2

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post Worlds - Part 1

One last match with BeckerDotDec

Standard Nonsense: Part Seven

Mike and switched decks again…this time to the deck formerly known as Mono Cascade. Apparently Jon Becker was peeved (imagine that) that the deck was not actually “mono-anything” — color, cascade, what-have-you. Mike has taken to calling the deck BeckerDotDec in honor of our curmudgeonly friend. This was definitley my favorite deck that we played on the evening although it felt pretty cumbersome at times with all the do nothing turns and come-into-play tapped lands. Still it was a lot of fun to play and really highlighted for me just how powerful Blightning is against the Planeswalkers strategies we kept seeing on MTGO that evening.

Standard Nonsense: Part Six

Here is the list:

BeckerDotDec
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Captured Sunlight
4 Deny Reality
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Esper Charm
4 Baneslayer Angel
2 Arcane Sanctum
1 Arid Mesa
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Exotic Orchard
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Rupture Spire
4 Savage Lands
2 Seaside Citadel
1 Swamp
Sideboard:
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Lightning Bolt

We switched away from MIke’s decks for a moment to try out the green-white Conqueror’s Pledge deck that Evan Erwin had been twittering about that day. His list seems to have evolved further but this was where it was when he shuffled up for a couple of games with Behemoth Pledge.

Standard Nonsense: Part Five

Here is the decklist we were using:

Behemoth Pledge

8 Forest
8 Plains
1 Behemoth Sledge
3 Dauntless Escort
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Path to Exile
3 Valeron Outlander
3 Ajani Goldmane
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Captain of the Watch
3 Honor of the Pure
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Steward of Valeron
2 Brave the Elements
4 Conqueror’s Pledge
4 Graypelt Refuge
2 Journey to Nowhere
Sideboard:
1 Behemoth Sledge
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Celestial Purge
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Pithing Needle
2 Luminarch Ascension