When Innistrad was released, a lot of new decks were being tested.  None were more interesting and varying than the Burning Vengeance builds.  Ranging from 2 to all 5 colors deck builders tried, and ultimately failed in making Burning Vengeance a tier 1 deck.  However with Dark Ascension releasing in this week it is time to once again look into the potential this deck once showed.  There is very good cards that could push this deck to the forefront. The basic strategy of Burning Vengeance is to use counter magic and dig spells to buy time in order for you to land a Burning Vengeance.  While not all that threatening on its own, it will steadily shock your opponent to death.  While obviously it doesn’t sound as thrilling as slamming a new Sorin, or flipping a Delver, the basic strategy of the deck is very solid and been working in various builds for years.

The backbone of the deck:

4x Burning Vengeance

Counter Magic:

4x Mana Leak – The best counter spell in the format.

4x Dissipate – A great supplement to Mana Leak.  While clearly not as good, you will need some back up in order to disrupt your opponent and buy time.

The enablers:

4x Faithless Looting- What can you say about this card, other than it is amazing in this deck.

4x Forbidden Alchemy- While much slower than looting, it is still solid in filling up the graveyard.  Plus it is an instant that replaces itself, unlike looting.

The removal:

4x Geistflame – While Gut shot is better overall, Geistflame is better in this particular deck.  Flashing back Geistflame with an active Burning Vengeance is devastating.  And Geisftlame is $0.10, while Gut Shot is a few bucks.

4x Whipflare- I remember writing an article not to long about that said  Whipflare is good. Well now Whipflare is everywhere.  You need to pack a few to deal with tokens and pesky hex proof menaces.  Four might not be the ideal number, but you need to have at least two until you see exactly the type of decks you will be playing.

That is 28 core cards, and with roughly 24 lands, that is 52 total cards.  So we need to find 8 more.  We could just jam 4x Dream Twist, 4x Desperate Ravings, 4x Think Twice, or 4x Thought Scour in the deck and call it a day.  However I would like to examine other options if you want to go three colors.  With Shimmering Grotto and Evolving Wilds being very cheap, you can comfortably go three colors if you choose.

White:

Ray of Revelation ( with green)

Lingering Souls (with black)

Increasing Devotion

Oblivion Ring

Green:

Ancient Grudge

Gnaw to the Bone

Black:

Doom Blade

Bump in the Night

Sever the Bloodline

Tragic Slip

Nihil Spellbomb

White doesn’t add much on its own.  Increasing Devotion is too gimmicky, and will get blown out by Ratchet Bomb, and Slagstorm effects.

With Green you get Grudge and Gnaw to the bone.  Not great, but both are playable, and good in a very particular type of field.  I wouldn’t recommend adding Green just for these though.

Black has some very good spells, which include the best kill spells.  I don’t think this deck wants to run Tragic Slip, that card is for a very particular type of build and this is not one of them.  However Doom Blade is still solid, and Server will gain in value when battling tokens.   You can also main board Nihil Spellbomb.  Nihil spellbomb with black for the cantrip, is very good mainboard.  Without black now it’s just mediocre, maybe a kinda bad.  Nihil Spellbomb is what makes black very good right now, and I expect standard players to adopt this card more often than Grafdigger’s Cage since you can run it in the mainboard.

This is now where I usually discuss sideboard, but with a ton of new decks about to be released, I expect my list to be obsolete quickly.  I will simply list a handful of cards that I would strongly consider with what I perceive to be decks to beat.

Nihil Spellbomb- you are only mainboarding 2, and this card is great against control and esper tokens if you can draw off of it.

Mental Misstep – Solid against Delver and Humans.  Stopping a turn one drop will really slow things down.

Memoricide- Good for the mirror ( very good!),  Wolf Ramp, and Birthing Pod.

Combust- Always great sideboard removal

Ratchet Bomb- Expensive for a budget deck but would recommend one if you can get your hands on one.

Circle of Flame – While most people will dismiss this as bad.  I kind of feel it can be solid as a sideboard card.  Give it a whirl.

Curse of Death’s Hold – As I am writing this, it still is cheap.  I don’t think that will be soon, since it is a great answer against so many decks.

Ancient Grudge – With 4 shimmer grottos, I think this can still be worth a sideboard slot.

Anyways, here is what the final product looks like:

4x Burning Vengeance

4x Mana Leak

4x Dissipate

4x Faithless Looting

4x Forbidden Alchemy

4x Geistflame

4x Whipflare

4x Dom Blade

2x Nihil Spellbomb

2x Sever the Bloodline

Lands:

4 Shimmering Grotto

3 Evolving Wilds

4 Swamps

7 Mountains

6 Islands

Let me know what you think, and feel free to comment below.  Also make sure to check out Eye of the Vortex Online, where other Magic the Gathering and gaming articles can be found.

We would like to start featuring Magic the Gathering card alters, but before we get into that we need a basic introduction of what card altering is all about.  To get us started with that, we have received a great altered card from Alan Rozen, aka WarPigmtg.  The video will show in fast time how a basic card can be entirely transformed.

Altered Art Steel Hellkite

For more information on alters, we asked Alan to answer a few questions on how he got into altering and how you can as well.

Magic on a Budget: Alan, how did you get started altering magic cards?

Alan: I got started by always loving the altered and promotional arts on various magic cards. They seemed to make a player’s deck more unique from every other player out there. Since these cards were often expensive and hard to get a hold of, I decided to do some research into creating them myself and thus this hobby of mine was born.

M: How long have you been doing this for?

A: I have been altering and extending cards for roughly five months.
M: Well do you have any other advice for the readers looking to get into card altering?

A: Start off small and slowly work your way up to more advanced styles and more sought-after cards. Grabbing one of your lands to paint on is a great place to start. I recommend using basic acrylic paints and small, stiff brushes to produce your creation.

M: Alan, any other important pointers or tips you would like to share?

A: Yea a few quick pointers,

1) Always have confidence in your art and try not to turn down altering a card for the fear of “messing it up”.

2) No matter how it turns out, someone will always like the card just for the fact that it is different from all the other copies out there.

3) Planning what changes you will make to the card before you even touch the paintbrush can easily determine the outcome of how the card turns out.

4) Acrylic paints are by far the best medium to use on magic cards if you want to try this yourself.

5) When painting over the original art of the card, make sure to use as little water as possible to prevent the colors from running, smearing, or becoming too see-through.

6) You can use a small, sharp object such as a small knife or box cutter to gently scrape the original layer of ink off of the card to obtain a more acrylic-friendly surface. This will also make it so that the original card art cannot be seen under your paint.

M: Anything else you would like to say

A: Anyone can do it and I highly recommend that magic-fans try this. It’s cheap, easy, and the satisfaction that you get from playing cards that you worked on is great.

M:  Thank you Alan, and thanks for taking the time to answer some questions with us.

In the upcoming weeks, we will be looking to feature more artists, and have the chance to purchase some of their works.  Until next time, feel free to check out some of Alan’s other very talented works at his channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/WarPigmtg

This list will look at the ten best cards coming out of Dark Ascension. We all know Sorrin will be great, so I decided to just leave out all Mythics and focus on the cards not getting all the hype.  That being said, here is the list :

10) Stormbound Geist -   A 2/2 with flying for 3 mana is pretty average.  Adding undying and the  spirit creature type really adds value, and makes it not just playable, but a good card.  As for not being able to block flying creatures, I don’t see that as being a big downside.  It will likely find a home in agro deck, such as delver or a new life gaining spirit deck.   If boardwipes and spot removal become more popular, this card will for sure find a home.

9) Strangleroot Geist- A 2/1 with hast and undying.  This card defiantly has potential, and will likely see play in Modern.  However with the current meta, there is no agro Green builds, and might not see play right away.  Review this card once Primeval rotates, since it has a lot of potential to be a solid two drop in any green creature build.

8 ) Thought Scour – A very solid card for solar flare, burning vengeance, counter burn, and possibly zombies.  It is much better than think twice and people are already playing that.   It also works relatively well with Ponder.  Expect people to throw 2-4 copies into a build to smooth out draws and thin a deck.

7) Thalia, Guardian of Thraben – I have a feeling this will not see serious play in standard.  Maybe a white, green agro deck, but Dungrove Elder will have to rotate first.  I do see this seeing alot of playing Modern and Legacy.  This is a agro card that fights storm and combo, which a lot of decks won’t have answers for.

6) Vault of the Archangel – I keep hearing how Black/White tokens are going to be good.  With Sorrin, and now this land, I tend to agree.  I see Vault as similar to Gavony Township as a great late game land that can take over a game.  This land will see some serious play in standard, but only standard.

5) Undying Evil- This card if used correctly can be great.  For one black mana you can survive a kill spell and retrigger a come into play trigger.  I don’t think this card can be thrown into everything, but once the Vapor Snag craze fades, undying evil will be a great card to fade kill spells.  I can see this finding a home in G/B Wolf Run decks, as they have some of the best come into play triggers in the format.

4) Secrets of the Dead- This surely will go in a Burning Vengeance deck.  But what other deck will it go into is the real question.  This card has so much potential, being printed in the same block as Snapcaster and Faithless looting, but might find other decks as a combo enabler.   I rate this card high based on the massive potential this card has and since it is an enchantment, it is hard to remove once it resolves.

3) Lingering Souls- This card is going to see a lot of play.  It will be the pinnacle of the Black/White agro decks, and is on color with Sorrin.  It is just a great card for token builds, four Flying 1/1s for five mana.  Dust off those ratchet bombs and Spirit tokens, because this card is for real.

2) Gravecrawler – One of the most unique creature cards printed in a long time.  The reason I say unique, is because you actually cast Gravecrawler from the graveyard.  Vengevine, Bloodghast, Kuldotha Phoenix, Reassembling Skeleton, those all return to the battlefield, while you actually cast Gravecrawler.  A big difference when you look at cards like Secrets of the Dead, or trying to build up a storm count.  This card will be played in a number of decks, including tons of black agro decks with one drop options of Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul.

1)  Faithless Looting – I think this is one of the best red cards ever printed.   It isn’t necessarily burn or aggro, but an enabler.  It enables combo, agro, storm, and to a lesser extent pure burn in a color that doesn’t ever get this kind of help.  It will most certainly see play in standard, extended, modern, and legacy.  This card is just fantastic, and if you have any graveyard shenanigans, you can gain cards by discarding them.  I would rate this card higher than Sorin, as it is just so versatile and powerful.  Quite simply a great card.

Also make sure to check out Eye of the Vortex Online, where other Magic the Gathering and gaming articles can be found.

Since Innistrad came out a few months ago, lots of new decks have come and gone.  This is great for standard as it is not being dominated by any one particular deck.  Many archetypes can do well and helps open the door for more unique and rogue decks.  This article addresses just one of those builds called Liquimetal Coating.  While it was largely ignored during and since states, it did manage a very respectable finish in Colorado where it barely missed the top 8.  The lack of results is not a reflection of how good or bad it is, but simply the amount of play it sees. Here is Tommy Luke’s variant from the tournament that top 16thed at States in Colorado.

Creatures [13]

3 Inferno Titan

4 Kuldotha Phoenix

4 Manic Vandal

1 Oxidda Scrapmelter

1 Wurmcoil Engine

Spells [22]

4 Ancient Grudge

4 Galvanic Blast

2 Ichor Wellspring

1 Incinerate

4 Liquimetal Coating

3 Mycosynth Wellspring

4 Slagstorm

Lands [25]

3 Copperline Gorge

4 Inkmoth Nexus

12 Mountain

2 Phyrexia’s Core

4 Rootbound Crag

SIDEBOARD

1 Contagion Clasp

1 Dismember

4 Perilous Myr

2 Phyrexian Metamorph

2 Ratchet Bomb

3 Traitorous Blood

1 Vulshok Refugee

1 Whipflare

In case you are not familiar with the deck, it is centered on finding Liquimetal Coating and abusing it with artifact destruction spells.  An ideal hand would be something like this:

Turn 1: Land. Galvanic Blast

Turn 2: Land, Liquimetal Coating

Turn 3: Land, Manic Vandal, having Liquimetal coating targeting a land.

Turn 4: Land, Oxidda Scrapmelter, having Liquimetal coating targeting a land

Hands like these are very difficult to beat for any deck.  If your opponent kept a hand with 2 or 3 lands, it could even blow out your opponent out before the game begins.  However even without a powerful opening hand this deck is well versed, and is capable of beating any deck in the field.  It does amazingly well against tempered steel, and is well positioned to beat illusions with direct removal, and Liquimetal Coating can kill any illusion on its own.  It also is a pretty decent size favorite against tokens, as it can simply grind away on them and remove all necessary threats.  The harder match ups are going to be control and burn.  Control can be beaten with a good opening hand, but Kudoltha Phoenix really shrines in this matchup.  The creature’s ability to come back will make it a game winner.  The burn matchup really comes down to who can put up more damage faster.  You are going to be a small dog most matchups, but if you can attack a mana base, they usually run few lands and could cripple them out of the game.

What I want to do next is just look at each card choice, and provide budget alternatives that are also effective.  Let’s start this process by looking at the creature base first.

Inferno Titan – $3.95

Kuldotha Phoenix – $0.50

Manic Vandal – $0.10

Oxidda Scrapmelter – $0.20

Wurmcoil Engine – $19.95

The Phoenix, Vandal, and Scrapmelter budget wise should be fine.  It is the Wurmcoil and Inferno Titan that are real issues.  Dropping them would leave us with four open spots that need to be filled.  I think an easy way to fill some of the spots is to bump up the amount of Scrapmelters.  They are very good in this deck and hit the curve well, so moving up to around 3 sounds reasonable.  However that still leaves two spots open.  The natural fit is the Hoard-Smelter Dragon.  It is a 6 drop that flies and blows up artifacts.  It is much more dependent on the combo aspect of the deck, which is bad, but is still a good finisher and has a powerful ability.

As for the spells it a little more straight forward.  Most spells are against already budget ready, so don’t need much changing.

4 Ancient Grudge – $0.30

4 Galvanic Blast – $0.20

2 Ichor Wellspring – $0.20

1 Incinerate – $0.20

4 Liquimetal Coating – $0.20

3 Mycosynth Wellspring – $0.20

4 Slagstorm – $3.50

The only card that really stands out is Slagstorm but as it turns out, it is surprisingly easy to replace.  Slagstorm is mainboard in most decks, because it deals with tokens and aggro based creature decks like tempered steel very well.  But there is another replacement that does it better in this deck, can you find it?

Rolling Temblor

Devil’s Play

Whipflare

Ratchet Bomb

After looking into the card, and analyzing it I like Whipflare even better than Slagstorm for this deck.  That’s pretty bold, since slagstorm is so dominant, but let me explain.  Whipflare won’t affect artifacts, so it is useless against Tempered Steel.  Here is the thing though, you already are a monster favorite against tempered steel, and game 2 and 3 you can simply side it out.  It kills everything that slagstorm kills:

Acidic Slime

Solemn Simulacrum

Emissary

Blade Splicer

Snap Caster

Phyrexian Crusader

Mirran Crusader

Plague Stinger

Whispering Specter

Doomed Traveler

Gideon’s Lawkeeper

Grand Abolisher

Leonin Relic-Warder

Gesist of Saint Traft

Geist-Honored Monk

Avacyn’s Pilgrim

Birds of Paradise

The only target it misses is the Blade Splicer token, Fiend Hunter, and Bloodstorm Berserker.  Of which, fiend hunter will almost certainly be sided out.  This leads me back to my previous statement that Whipflare is strictly better than Slagstorm in this deck.

Moving onto the lands we come up with:

3 Copperline Gorge – $7.95

4 Inkmoth Nexus – $16.95

12 Mountain – $0.10

2 Phyrexia’s Core – $0.30

4 Rootbound Crag – $2.50

I believe Rootbound Crags are pretty essential here.  One of the best spells, Ancient Grudge needs the green source to be available.  That being said, budget wise Copperline Gorge and Inkmoth Nexus are what needs to go.  Loosing the Inkmoth Nexus might be rough, since they can activate metal craft on the Phoenix and with Galvanic Blast, but with those four open slots from Inkmoth means you can slide in Buried Ruin.  This land will help return artifacts into your hand.  While not as useful as Inkmoth, you will find that this deck grinds out matches, and this ability will be relevant more often than one would imagine.  Now the 3 copperline gorges can simply be replaced by one forest, incase of Ghost Quarter and two mountains.  I have tried Shimmering Grotto in this spot, and found the mountains to simply be better.

Onto the sideboard:

1x Contagion Clasp – $0.50

1x Dismember – $3.95

4x Perilous Myr – $0.20

2x Phyrexian Metamorph – $5.95

2x Ratchet Bomb – $3.50

3x Traitorous Blood – $0.10

1x Vulshok Refugee – $0.20

1x Whipflare – $0.20

My first thoughts are that this sideboard is outdated.  Even though this wasn’t played too long ago, many of the choices don’t make sense anymore.  Contagion Clasp helps trigger metalcraft, but Gut Shot has proven that it deserves the spot more.  Ratchet bomb just isn’t seeing that much play anymore and the token decks that were rampart are using less token generators.  As for budget concerns, I would just throw out Phyrexian Metamorph, and Dismember.  There will be other good cards we can choose.  Out of the original sideboard list the only cards that I still like are:

4x Perilous Myr

3x Traitorous Blood

1x Vulshok Refugee

That leaves us with seven choices to make.  Like the last burn deck we discussed two weeks ago, I feel Combust needs to be added.  Running two seems about right.  Adding a Gutshot or two would also help against the very aggressive decks, and helps replace the Clasp.  Those leave us with only a few card choices left and feel we should visit Mimic Vat.  I have tried this card out a few times, and will be equally effective against Ramp and some of our bad match ups.  Overall I think running a few of these, will really help win some games.

With all of that Said, here is my purposed list:

Creatures [13]

4 Kuldotha Phoenix

4 Manic Vandal

3 Oxidda Scrapmelter

2 Hoard-Smelter Dragon

Spells [22]

4 Ancient Grudge

4 Galvanic Blast

2 Ichor Wellspring

1 Incinerate

4 Liquimetal Coating

3 Mycosynth Wellspring

4 Whipflare

Lands [25]

1 Forest

4 Buried Ruin

14 Mountain

2 Phyrexia’s Core

4 Rootbound Crag

SIDEBOARD

1 Gut Shot

4 Perilous Myr

3 Mimic Vat

2 Combust

3 Traitorous Blood

2 Vulshok Refugee

I tried it out locally at a FNM, and was very surprised how effective the deck can be against competitive decks.  With a good draw, this deck can win lots of games, so enjoy.

Also make sure to check out Eye of the Vortex Online, where other Magic the Gathering and gaming articles can be found.

Drafting is one of the most enjoyable ways to play Magic, but with many formats of magic it can become expensive.  This article is going to examine the impact money can have on drafting.

Let’s say through the first two packs of a draft you decided to go mono green, and when you open your third pack you open a foil Snapcaster.  Barring you are playing a PTQ or a large tournament, where lots of money is on the line, you are going to happily draft the Snapcaster.  It’s fair to say you would draft this card even if you 100% certain you wouldn’t play it.  The reason being, is this one card will net you more money than winning the entire draft.  Even in the most top heavy draft payout structure 8-4 payout (with 8 packs going to 1st and 4 packs going to 2nd) the foil Snapcaster will net you significantly more money (Foil Snapcaster retails for about $65  and 1st place payout 8 packs x $3 a pack is only $24).  But what do we do if the card we open isn’t a foil Snapcaster, but a $20 rare?  How about $10, $5, or even a $2 card?  This article is going to look at drafting from a straight finical aspect, and try evaluate when drafting a card strictly for it’s retail value is correct over a card that has the potential to help you win the draft.

The question this article looks to answer is:  If you are passed a pack with a card, we will call it Card(A), worth $X.  How much money does Card(A) have to be worth for you to draft it over a different card, we’ll call this card Card(X), that will help you win games?  To start we need to set some parameters for how we are going to look at this problem.

Value:

The term value gets thrown around quite a bit in magic.  I’m going to refer to value in terms of money, but even this can get confusing.  For example if you draft that Foil Snapcaster do you have $65 in retail value or do you have $35 since this all your local magic store will give you for it?  To simplify things I am going to talk in terms of retail dollars.

Format:

I’m going to be using 8 man Swiss format for my analysis.  In this format each player plays 3 games and for each win he/she gets a pack.  I’ll discuss some of the implications in playing different formats at the end of the article.

Impact of Win % increase:

The first important step to analyzing this problem is understanding the impact your win% has on your money won.

The first column is your single match win %.  The second column is your Best of 3 win percentage based off your single match win %.  As you can see playing a best of 3 increases the likely hood of you winning.  I have included the math below for those that are interested:

            There are 6 possible outcomes of you winning a Best of 3 Match:

Winning Conditions:

WW

WLW

LWW

Losing Conditions:

LL

LWL

WLL

Now to find out your best of 3 win% plug in your in single match win % for W and (1-Single match win %) for L.  If we won .60 here would be the results:

(.60)*(.60) = .36

(.60)*(.40)*(.60) = .144

(.40)*(.60)*(.60) = .144

When you add these up you get 64.8% win percentage for a best of match. 

Column 3 is packs won per Best of 3.  This is your Best of 3 win % multiplied by the 1 pack awarded to the winner.  Using our 60% win rate that means we win .648 packs per match.  Column 4 takes our pack won per match and multiplies it by 3 (Since you play 3 matches in the Swiss format) and then multiplies by $3 since that is what we are saying a retail pack is worth.  Do these calculations and we get $5.83.  This means that if we have a 60% single game win percentage we should expect to win $5.83 worth of packs (this doesn’t include the value of the cards you open).

With this table we can now assign a retail value to improving your win %.  Lets say we are an average player and win 50% of our games, but in our last pack we open a card, Card (X), that increases our win % to 60% per game.  Using the above table this translates to Card (X) being worth $1.33 (plus it’s retail value).

Let’s take a closer look at a cards affect on your single match win rate.  There are two things to consider when evaluating this effect.

1.  What is the impact of the card on our win %?

2.  How often will get this card?

I like to approach this problem by looking at an extreme example.  Let’s say there was a card that said you win the game when you draw this card.  You may think you would win the game every time you play, but that wouldn’t be the case since you aren’t guaranteed to get this card every game.  To estimate how often you will draw this card you need an estimate of how long games go.  A quick survey of games on MTGO provided me game length of 9 turns.  Barring mulligans, you get to see 16 of your 40 cards each game.  I decided to round this up to 20 cards a game for simplicity sake and for card drawing effects  So here is the math on your new win percentage when you play a deck with a card that reads “You get this card you win the game”

(20/40) times you win the game 100% of the time

(20/40) times you win 50% of the time (average win rate)

Your new win percent is 75%.  Using the above table you see that the card “You win every time” card gives you an extra $3.09 in value, or $7.59- $4.50

Let’s try and really put a more realistic win percentage increase on this mysterious Card(X).  Cards like Murder of Crows, Brimstone Volley, or Bonds of Faith are very good in limited, but these cards don’t guarantee you a win when you draw them.  Removal, board position, lack of mana, counters, and discard spells are just a few of the problems you run into.  When you take all these factors in to account it is tough for me to give any these cards higher than 5-7% bump in win %.  I know there are other cards stronger in constructed such as Olivia Voldaren or Bloodline Keeper.  But how often will any these cards be in a pack with another high retail card?  Unless it is a double rare pack or a foil pack this very unlikely to happen. So I’m going to look at the common and uncommon “bomb’s” for our estimates.  I’m going to error on the side of extreme caution and use 15% as our percentage win increase.

+15%.  Using this value we get the new win percentage:

20/40 Draw Card (X) and win .65

20/40 Don’t’ draw Card(X) and win .50

This gives us a new win percentage of .575.  Using the table above this gives us a value of Card (X) of only $1.07.   From here is a simple math problem.  If the Value of Card(A) > Value of Card(X) + Retail Value of Card(X) we should draft Card (A).

Conclusion:

Estimating the value of every single draft pick is near impossible, but hopefully you will see that drafting cards that have significant retail value can dramatically increase the money you win during a draft.  The fact of the matter is, not many cards dramatically increase your single match win %.  This means when drafting, we should look at every single card as potential value and be much more willing to ‘rare draft.’  I estimate that picks around $1.00 or more should be considered draftable, in a Swiss format, where around a $2.00 card should be considered draftable in a 8-4 format. Just $1 or $2 dollars!  Now I wouldn’t recommend running around drafting every single card for value, but any valuable or playable rare should be considered.  Just keep this article in mind next turn someone passes you an Innistrad dual land, or when Heartless Summoning cycles the table.  There is value everywhere in Magic, and understanding how to pick up a few bucks adds up quickly.

Draft Format:

Below is the payout charts for the 8-4 and 4-3-2-2.  As you can see from both charts drafts that have a more top heavy pay structure require that place a little more value on drafting to win rather than drafting for value.  Especially when playing in a 8-4 format.  It should be noted that all the charts operate under the assumption that a player’s win rate will stay constant throughout the draft.  In reality I don’t think this is the case.  Both from the perspective that better decks tend to advance as well as better opponents. How much your win rate decreases as you advance in a draft is for another article, but I do believe your win rate will decease as you advance in the draft.  It also should be noted this drop in win % would affect the 8-4 pay structure the most since the final match is where all the prizes are awarded. The Swiss chart would be affected the least.

If you’re a fan of magic and standard I am sure you were following Worlds this month.  There were a ton of excellent players and new exciting decks that were being piloted.  Tempered steel prevailed as the big surprise, being played by many of the games best.  However for me there is one deck that stands out as the most surprising and that deck is the undefeated mono red deck built and played by David Caplan.  Not only did it do fantastic, it continues to do well online and is much cheaper then other competitive decks in the format. By cutting the four drops from the mainboard Caplan has inadvertently also cut most of the expensive cards.  Here is the exact deck list from Worlds.

Creatures (20)
* 1 Spikeshot Elder
* 3 Grim Lavamancer
* 4 Chandra’s Phoenix
* 4 Goblin Fireslinger
* 4 Stormblood Berserker
* 4 Stromkirk Noble
Spells (19)
* 2 Incinerate
* 3 Galvanic Blast
* 4 Gut Shot
* 4 Volt Charge
* 2 Arc Trail
* 4 Shrine of Burning Rage
Lands (21)
* 21 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
* 1 Manic Vandal
* 4 Vulshok Refugee
* 2 Koth of the Hammer
* 4 Dismember
* 2 Arc Trail
* 2 Traitorous Instinct

Budget wise the entire mainboard comes in right under $70, with every single card under $5 except Stromkirk Noble.  As for the sideboard, it is proportionally more expensive at around $55, but most of that is coming from Koth.  What I would like to do is just examine the more expensive card choices, and decipher what is necessary in order to make the deck even cheaper.

First up, the one drop creatures
Goblin Fireslinger – $0.10
Spikeshot Elder- $1.50
Grim Lavamancer – $3.50
Stromkirk Noble – $6.95

We can ignore the Fireslinger and the one Spikeshot Elder, as they are going to cheap enough for this deck.  However there is a lot of the money going into the Stromkirk noble and Grim Lavamancer and that simply can’t be ignored.  They are effective for early damage and bloodlust triggers, but they have the added bonus of being effective late game.  However budget being a concern, we should look for alternatives.  Flat out cutting these creatures and other choices later on for a budget version causes some problems.  They will need to be replaced by equally casting creatures, or the mana curve will be altered.  So we should begin by examine other one drops to not offset the mana base.

Furnace Scamp
Goblin Arsonist
Geistflame
Goblin Grenade
Reckless Waif
Shock

When trying to evaluate which cards to choose it is best to determine what other decks you are most likely facing.  While this is very difficult to do, I always follow the rule that the most popular decks for a local FNM format are aggro decks.  This makes Reckless Waif and Furnace Scamp much less attractive choices since they are much better when there are fewer creatures and early game.  However Goblin Arsonists will remain a good substitution, and will almost always get in for at least some damage.  Also by adding to the goblin count, Goblin Grenade becomes playable.  This is a very powerful card which the original deck doesn’t have access to, and is a very good damage spells.  Now lets look at the other creatures in the deck:

Stormblood Berserker – $0.30
Chandra’s Phoenix – $4.50

The Phoenix’s are the life blood of the deck.  They are good against every single matchup, especially control.  That being said, if you had to drop them, or run fewer then four here are some options.

Blood Ogre
Brimstone Volley
Goblin Chieftain
Goblin Wardriver
Immolating Souleater
Manic Vandal
Porcelain Legionnaire

My favorite picks of the bunch are Brimstone Volley and Immolating Souleater.  Brimstone Volley for obvious reasons, as it is a powerful spell that can do five damage later in game.  Souleater however is a much trickier creature and can get in for huge damage very early in the game.  With enough burn you can clear a way for Souleater to hit for a lot of damage turn three.  It is also solid against control, since it helps nullify the life gain that Timely Reinforcements can net.  Souleater will never be as reliable as Chandra’s Phoenix, but can be a huge bomb if dropped turn two against a slower opponent, and can lead to much more explosive openings.  Now on to the other spells:

Incinerate – $0.20
Galvanic Blast – $0.20
Gut Shot – $0.30
Volt Charge – $0.20
Arc Trail – $0.95
Shrine of Burning Rage – $1.25

No reason to really change anything out here.  Shrine and Arc Trail are the clear allstars of the group, and fit very well into the deck.  Unless you were on really tight budget or couldn’t find the cards, I wouldn’t substitute any of these cards.  However as a note, cards that could be substituted would be Shock, and Brimstone volley.  An interesting card also to consider would be a fling or two, as it combos well with Arsonist and Souleater.

For land I believe 21 Mountains works fine.  The only other option you could consider is to drop to 17 mountains and run 4 Rootbound Crag for the Ancient Grudge package.  This only seems necessary if you are expecting an abundance of Tempered Steel builds.  Whatever the case 21 Mountains seems perfect and is plenty cheap and effective as is.

Now onto the sideboard.  The only cards we really have any issues with budget wise are Koth of the Hammer and Dismember.

Koth of the Hammer – $17.95
Dismember – $3.95

Dismembers are very good since they are only one to cast, and can destroy pretty much every creature but the titans.  The loss of life will often be irrelevant to casting them.  If you were looking for replacement cards, I think only Brimstone Volley, additional Incinerates, or Combust could fit.  Out of those choices I seem to prefer Combust here, as it is very good against Illusions and Gavony Townsihp decks which are some of the more popular decks in the format.  Combust does the same 5 damage that dismember would do, without the threat of being countered for only one mana more.  As for Koth, it is hard to replace it.  It is very good against control one of the decks weaknesses, but the price means we have to look for cheaper alternatives.  However there is another four drop that is also very good against control.  That card is Manabarbs.  In addition it also has the added benefit of being very good against ramp.  It is overall a solid card and most importantly a cheap rare.  With all these changes, here is the new purposed Mono red
budget version:

Creatures (18)

* 1 Spikeshot Elder
* 1 Goblin Chieftain
* 4 Immolating Souleater
* 4 Goblin Fireslinger
* 4 Stormblood Berserker
* 4 Goblin Arsonist
Spells (21)
* 1 Goblin Grenade
* 1 Brimstone Volley
* 2 Incinerate
* 3 Galvanic Blast
* 4 Gut Shot
* 4 Volt Charge
* 2 Arc Trail
* 4 Shrine of Burning Rage
Lands (21)
* 21 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
* 1 Manic Vandal
* 4 Vulshok Refugee
* 2 Manabarbs
* 3 Combust
* 1 Brimstone Volley
* 2 Arc Trail
* 2 Traitorous Instinct

The new version looks fast, friendly and explosive. I am excited to play this at my local FNM, and feel it will be plenty competitive.  Please feel free to comment on the build or various card choices below.  Thanks.

Also make sure to check out Eye of the Vortex Online, where other Magic the Gathering and gaming articles can be found.

After playing in states, a few 1ks, and some local FNMS I feel that I have a strong grasp on the new standard.  While the Meta is changing every week, the deck archetypes remain the same and the strength of some cards is undeniable.  I have put together a list of ten cards that I think are currently overlooked, or undervalued.

10)  Act of Aggression – A card that is great in lots of sideboards, and a good finisher to the wolf run decks.   As Red decks fade late game, this can be a very solid finisher.  Act of Aggression can steal creatures out of mid combat, or provide a chump blocker for another creature.  The most versatile threaten spell ever printed, is a solid sideboard card to keep your eye on as ramp decks gain in popularity.

9) Precursor Golem- A card that outside of some fringe decks hasn’t seen any play in a while.  This card is just begging to be broken.  As a five drop that produces 9 power, it is shockingly absent from every build.  Golem is a great card for aggro matchups, and could fit nicely into a token build.  It’s just a great card that is often overlooked when building decks.  Not a bad sideboard card, and can be stellar in certain matchups.

8 ) Twisted Image – A fringe card that is often overlooked.  Twisted Image is perfect for counter burn builds, or a burning vengeance decks.  It kills birds, tree of redemptions, spellskites, as well as any illusion.  It is also solid against wolf run, buying you extra time by flipping the power.  A solid card all around and is warranted in many blue decks, at worst used just to draw another card.   The definition of a situational good card that can win games with the card advantage it can provide.

7) Distress – The current format is the slowest constructed format I have ever played in.  Because of that, distress becomes playable.  Not only that, but is actually pretty good. A lot of people have the notion that two drop discard spells are bad, but with the format slowing and Mana leak becoming run less and less, this card is very good.  Combos very well with Snap caster, and can help rip apart an opening hand.  Turn one Despise, turn two Distress is devastating.

6) Spellskite – Not really sure if it is under the radar, but it certainly fell out of competitive play almost entirely during rotation.  It should now be re-examined.  As a great answer to wolf run, it should be making a comeback.  It even fades Slagstrom, and is probably good enough to be main board worthy.  As we all know it is also very good against angelic destiny and various removal spells.  Overall spellskite is a very versatile card that will almost always be relevant.

5) Phyrexian Metamorph – Another card that was played quite a bit pre-rotation but has fell out of every single deck build, mostly because of phantasmal image.  But a three drop clone that is splashable in any deck can’t continue to be overlooked.  This card is a bomb and is a great card to consider for a 3-4 drop looking for one.

4) Primordial Hydra – A limited bomb that never really translated into constructed play.  However with the prevalence of wolf run, mono green, and township tokens this hydra can finally be played. Primordial is an absolute all stars against decks with no removal.  They just win games.  Test this card out, and I feel it at least warrants a spot or two in the side.

3) Gnaw to the Bone – Most people haven’t had a chance to see this in play.  If RDW or aggro decks stay popular this an amazing sideboard option.  Often overlooked because of tree of redemption, but when used in conjunction can simply shut down decks.  Usually will gain any where between 6-8 life, and can flash it back for 6-8 more.  An absolute back breaker for aggro, and is easy to splash in any deck.

2) Spirit Mantle – With Angelic Destiny being played everywhere, players are forgetting about its little brother Spirit Mantle.  Mantle can be a bomb against decks with no removal, or decks that rely heavily on creatures.  It is quicker to play then destiny, cant be splashed in other decks, and is often harder to deal with.  In most decks this is a great sideboard card, but in certain Metas and decks can be a very solid  main board enchantment.

1) Painful Quandary- Overlooked for almost an entire year, and viewed as a novelty, it is now around in a much slower format. This time around this card should be viewed much much differently.  It is a perfect fit into solar flare or U/B builds, and is very hard to remove since it’s an enchantment.  Painful Quandry is a  type of card that can be build around, or thrown in current builds.  It is a bomb that is just asking to be included in current control decks.

© Wizards of the Coast

Looking to play with cards from the Magic 2012 Core Set but on a limited budget?  Start  by picking up these must own commons from M12 first then advance onto the must own uncommons and must own rares.   There are several commons from M12 that no Magic: the Gathering player should be without.

There’s simply no excuse for not owning these must have commons from M12.  Not only are their prices very affordable, you’ll also be playing with them for years to come.

Auramancer
Auramancer provides cheap card advantage and a body to boot.  Some of Magic’s most budget friendly cards are enchantments, and Auramancer will let you nab that Pacifism an opponent may have played Demystify on – helping you hopefully turn the tide of the game in your favor.

© Wizards of the Coast

Cancel
Cancel is Standard’s cheapest universal counterspell, and a must have for anyone who wants to build a control deck.  Unless you are playing with a lot of artifiacts to enable metalcraft for Stoic Rebuttal, Cancel is your number one choice and backbone of any permission deck you wish to assemble.

Doom Blade
The ability to destroy your opponent’s creatures for just two mana should not be taken for granted.  Easily run in multicolored decks, Doom Blade’s cheap casting cost helps make it one of the must own rares from M12.

Fling
Fling turns all of your creatures into giant killing machines.  With just two mana open, you can thwart an opponent’s plan to Go for the Throat your Inferno Titan by destroying another of their creatures in response – or simply deliver the final crushing blow at them instead.

Gideon’s Lawkeeper
Gideon’s Lawkeeper is the little creature who could.  Or couldn’t.  You’re opponent won’t be attacking you any time soon, as Gideon’s Lawkeeper will ensure their best creature always stays tapped.  You can then lock down a second creature on your turn to swing in for some significant damage with your (hopefully large) Gideon’s Avenger.

© Wizards of the Coast

Goblin Fireslinger
Goblin Fireslinger makes a great bloodthirst enabler, and also sets your opponent on a slow (but deadly) clock.  One of the things that makes Goblin Firesliner so great is that your opponent might be unwilling to use their removal spells on it, saving them for bigger targets.  This can lead to dealing in excess of four damage with Goblin Fireslinger.  After just five turns in play you can sacrifice Goblin Fireslinger to Goblin Grenade and your opponent will have lost half their life total for just two red mana!

Incinerate
Although Incinerate may cost one more than Lightning Bolt, its ability to deal with creatures that have regeneration make this red removal spell attractive.  Or you could just burn your opponent’s dome for 3.

Llanowar Elves
Mana acceleration, threat, and all around nice guy.  Llanowar Elves has been a staple in green player’s decks since Magic: the Gathering’s first set Alpha.  If you haven’t aready picked up a playset, now is the perfect time.

© Wizards of the Coast

Mana Leak
Mana Leak helps you control the game from an early stage and is easily played in multiplayer decks.  Although Mana Leak may be a conditional counter, when played properly your opponent won’t have the mana to pay for it – or if they do you’ll have drawn a Cancel or another hard counterspell by then.  I personally recommend splurging an extra couple of dollars and nabbing a foil playset – you won’t regret the upgrade.

Manalith
Manalith serves two purposes: Mana acceleration and mana fixing.  The beauty of Manalith is that it can be played in any colored deck.  Manalith also helps you play that three, four, or five colored deck without spending a fortune on your manabase.

Merfolk Looter
This tenacious little merfolk shouldn’t be underestimated.  Merfolk Looter helps you quickly cycle through your hand, turning useless lands or conditional cards into business spells  Merfolk Looter also lets you fill your graveyard with nasty creatures so that you can return them into play with reanimation spells.

© Wizards of the Coast

Naturalize
Even if you are only splashing green, Naturalize is an auto include in your sideboard.  With many dangerous artifacts running around Standard thanks to the Scars of Mirrodin Block, consider running a pair in your main deck.

Ponder
There is a reason why Ponder is restricted in Vintage.  Ponder helps you fix set up your draws and flesh our your mana curve in the early game or simply dig deeper later.  For just one mana Ponder replaces itself with a (usually) better card and helps make your deck more reliable.

Rampant Growth
Rampant Growth pulls triple duty as a mana fixer, accelerator, and deck thinner – allowing you to get the right colors to cast your spells sooner and giving you a better chance to draw more threats the longer a game progresses.

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© Wizards of the Coast

Are you having financial difficulties affording the Magic 2012 Core Set’s Must Own Rares?  Consider investing in these uncommons first.

With the Magic 2012 Core Set comes several uncommons that no Magic: the Gathering player should be without.  Don’t feel guilty purchasing these must own Magic 2012 Core Set uncommons because you’ll be playing with them for years to come.

Oblivion Ring
Oblivion Ring can deal with almost every threat your opponent will play (except lands like Inkmoth Nexus), including planeswalkers such as Chandra, the Firebrand or Garruk, Primal Hunter.

It is because Oblivion Ring can be easily splashed into any colored deck and is so versatile that it makes it onto our Must Own Uncommons from M12.

© Wizards of the Coast

Hunter’s Insight
Hunter’s Insight currently isn’t receiving the hype that it should be.  Hunter’s Insight provides green players card draw – something they rarely receive.  As an aggro player, your creatures are certainly going to be crossing the red zone to hit your opponent.

A well timed Hunter’s Insight will refill your hand when your Primeval Titan deals damage so that you continue your onslaught a threats.  Just watch out for a Day of Judgment.

Mind Control
Mind Control serves as both a removal spell and a threat.  There’s nothing better than stealing a Phyrexian Obliterator or another amazing creature that your opponent might be packing in their deck.

© Wizards of the Coast

Acidic Slme
With so many artifacts in the Scars of Mirrodin Block, Acid Slime will almost always have a nonland target.  From powerful equipment spells like Sword of War and Peace to fantastic enchantments such as Tempered Steel, Acidic Slime helps provide you with an answer while also giving you a body.

Overrun
If you’re playing a creature based deck that runs green, there is no better game finisher than Overrun.  Overrun make your harmless 0/1 Birds of Paradise and puny 1/1 Llanowar Elves into game ending threats.

Swiftfoot Boots
For just a very small investment of mana, M12′s Swiftfoot Boots makes your creatures immune to removal spells and allows them to attack the turn you play them.  Need I really say more?

Diabolic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor lets you play with an effective eight copies of any card in your deck and allows you to find silver bullet answers.

Has the game dragged on and just a Fireball will let you win?  Check.  Desperately need a Life’s Finale to clear the board?  Check.

No matter what the situation may be, with Diabolic Tutor you’ll be able to solve your problems – which is why it makes our list of Must Own Uncommons from M12.

© Wizards of the Coast

Timely Reinforcements
Timely Reinforcements is a tool that when played right can stall an opponent and when mixed with mass removal spells can help cause overwhelming card advantage in your favor.

Timely Reinforcements helps put up a barrier between your planeswalkers like Gideon Jura or Jace, Memory Adept and your opponent’s creatures – ensuring that they’ll survive long enough for you to abuse them.

Autumn’s Veil, Celestial Purge, Combust, Deathmark, Flashfreeze
What do each of the above cards have in common with eachother?  They all make efficient sideboard cards for decks that are on color.

Playing with color hosing sideboard cards can help to give you an added edge in an otherwise unfavorable matchup, which is why round off our list of Must Own Uncommons from M12.

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© Wizards of the Coast

It doesn’t matter if you’re a new Magic: the Gathering player or have been playing for years; the Magic 2012 Core Set boasts a surprising amount of versatile cards that should be in every Magic player’s collection.

While a couple of these rares might be a little on the expensive side, these Magic 2012 Core Set rares are cards that you’ll keep finding yourself using time and again in future decks for years to come.

Dragonskull Summit /Drowned Catacomb / Glacial Fortress / Rootbound Crag / Sunpetal Grove
What good is it to buy or trade for other expensive Magic: the Gathering cards if you can’t reliably have access to the right mana to play them? The M12 lands have proven to be an auto include in every multicolored deck in Standard over the past couple years.

With their numerous printings, the secondary market value on each of the M12 tap lands are so low that there’s absolutely no excuse for you not to pick up your play set of each if you haven’t already, which is why they make the top of our list of Must Own Rares from M12.

© Wizards of the Coast

Birds of Paradise / Day of Judgment / Visions of Beyond / Grim Lavamancer / Vengeful Pharoah
What do each of the above rares all have in common with each other?  They all can provide an amazing amount of tempo and card advantage in their colors.

Birds of Paradise ramps your mana and helps make multicolored decks more feasible.   Day of Judgment’s awesome power to wipe the battlefield turns the tide in your favor.  Visions of Beyond will help you draw answers and other game winning threats.  Grim Lavamancer just keeps dealing damage.  Vengeful Pharoah keeps your opponent’s creatures in check

Another thing that’s great about these cards is that they also see use in other formats too – which mean’s you’ll get more than your money’s worth of play out of them.

Solemn Simulacrum
Casual favorite and Commander must have, Solemn Simulacrum can be added into any colored deck, helps you ramp mana, and replaces itself when it dies.

There are few to no other creatures available in Magic that are as versatile, which is why Solemn Simulacrum makes our list of Must Own Rares from M12.

© Wizards of the Coast

Frost Titan / Grave Titan / Inferno Titan / Primeval Titan / Sun Titan
There are simply no other creatures in Standard that produce the same raw power and card advantage as each of M12′s Titans. For proof just look at the top eight deck lists from the past year. Each of M12′s Titans can be abused in the right deck.

Thanks to their recent reprinting in M12 the Titans have become a lot more affordable to Magic players who may be on a limited budget – making the financial decision to invest in a play set for your pet deck a wise one.

Adaptive Automaton
Adaptive Automaton deserves a special spotlight because it makes many creature strategies more viable. It doesn’t matter if you have a love for Squirrels, Angels, or Zombies – Adaptive Automaton has you covered.  Because Adaptive Automaton will always be useful it is one of the Must Own Rares from M12.

Quicksilver Amulet
Quicksilver Amulet might be one of M12′s most underestimated cards.  With mana acceration, you’re able to drop Quicksilver Amulet on turn three and lay down an Emrakul or another Eldrazi on turn four.

© Wizards of the Coast

Chandra, the Firebrand / Garruk, Primal Hunter / Gideon Jura / Jace, Memory Adept / Sorin Markov
There’s a reason why the five planeswalkers are the most valuable cards in M12. The flag bearers for each of their respective colors, there’s just no matching the awesome game changing effects that each of five planeswalkers in the Magic 2012 Core set provide – which is why they round off our list of Must Own Rares from M12

Something For Everyone
No matter what your budget may be, the Magic 2012 Core set has something for everyone.

These Must Own Rares from M12 are sure to see some serious play in casual and competitive Magic: the Gathering decks, perhaps even yours.

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