Noah and I tend to make sure we have a Magic deck or two when we travel. So, when it was time to visit a few universities to help decide which one to apply to, we settled on Commander decks. My wife still does not play (nor do I expect that she ever will or if she does, it will be one of those Hell has frozen over scenarios!) so it was 1v1.
We settled in and revealed our decks to each other. He brought his Chatterfang, Squirrel General deck and I brought my Ruhan of the Fomori deck. Let’s just say that it was not a fair matchup! Tokens everywhere against lumbering giants looking to get equipped before heading off to battle. It was not pretty.
You know that meme, perfectly illustrated by Cardboard Crack, about 15 squirrels taking on Emrakul? Well, you even fewer to take on Ruhan!
We played three games. Not only did I lose all three but none were even close. In fact, all three games took less than hour. And then Noah simply asked, “Do you want to switch decks?” I turned the offer down, knowing that it would just be as one-sided.
Next time, a bit more planning may be required to avoid these kinds of matches! Or do I try for an outright Squirrel ban in the house?
With Wizards’ announcement this week that Universes Beyond sets would be Standard Legal starting in 2025, I give you a glimpse at the future of Magic (courtesy of the very funny @Cardboard_Crack):
This little strip captures everything that I think is wrong with this move and does a much better job of explaining exactly why than I ever could.
Wizards did add that the change only applies to sets releasing in 2025 and later. This means that existing sets, including the recent The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and Assassin’s Creed will not become legal for Standard. In the grand scheme of things, this is completely irrelevant and does little to change what I think is an extremely disappointing development.
When Bloomburrow previews began, I got excited about building some kind of mustelid typal deck. To save you a click back to the original article, mustelids are a family of small carnivorous mammals. It includes weasels, otters, badgers. minks and the fearsome wolverines.
I realized that I have not shared any mustelid decks since then. I’ll remedy that today.
A quick search reveals that there are 22 mustelid cards in Standard. Not much has changed since my last article with these being mostly otters with a sprinkle of badgers and weasels. The entire colour wheel is represented but most cards fall in Blue and Red. So no big surprise, I built on my original idea, an Izzet Otter Prowess deck. It’s gone through a few iterations and this is what the current deck looks like:
Deck
3 Seize the Secrets (OTJ) 64
3 Bria, Riptide Rogue (BLB) 379
1 Tempest Angler (BLB) 235
4 Stormcatch Mentor (BLB) 234
2 Ral, Crackling Wit (BLB) 230
4 Coruscation Mage (BLB) 131
3 Stormchaser’s Talent (BLB) 75
2 Pearl of Wisdom (BLB) 64
3 Valley Floodcaller (BLB) 79
3 Shore Up (DMU) 64
3 Stasis Field (MOM) 79
2 Into the Flood Maw (BLB) 52
2 Long River’s Pull (BLB) 58
2 Demonic Ruckus (OTJ) 120
10 Island (THB) 251
1 Lilypad Village (BLB) 255
6 Mountain (THB) 253
1 Restless Spire (WOE) 260
2 Spirebluff Canal (OTJ) 270
3 Swiftwater Cliffs (NEO) 277
Sideboard
2 Kitsa, Otterball Elite (BLB) 54
2 Stormsplitter (BLB) 154
3 Meeting of Minds (MOM) 66
2 Freeze in Place (WOE) 50
Now, the big question: How does it play? Let’s start by saying that this is far from a Tier 1 or Tier 2 deck. As it stands today, it has only won 35% of the time with an 18-33 record. The deck can be quite explosive but can also be frustrating when you either don’t get your creatures onto the battlefield or they don’t last long enough for Prowess to kick in.
There are a couple of potential improvements:
Make the deck more aggressive by dropping the Stasis Fields in favour of Monstrous Age
Drop Bria, Riptide Rogue in favour of a couple of creatures (Elusive Otter perhaps) and a couple of spells
Cut a land more and add an additional spell
As for next steps, I’m going to play with the recommendations above and add this deck to my deck portfolio here on the site where I can easily update it as I make changes.
If you’re playing an Izzet Otter deck, drop me a note below and let me know what has worked for you.
So, September has comfortably settled in which means that summer is winding down (where did it go?) and school season is upon us again. It also means that a new Arena season has kicked off with me finding my way back into the Silver tier in Standard.
Let’s just say it’s not been a great run. Granted, I’ve been playing decks that are not top meta but that has translated to an absolutely abysmal track record. At the time of this post, I’m holding a 8-28 record for the current season. Yep, that’s not a typo! How bad is it? I’ve fallen from Silver 1 to Silver 3!
Three decks in particular have contributed to this less than stellar run:
Green Stomping deck – 3 and 9
Black Crime Pays deck (an evolution of an earlier version) – 2 and 7
Red Prowess deck – 2 and 7
Boros Convoke – 1 and 3
I’ve deliberately tried to stay away from the top meta with Boros Convoke being my sole attempt at something looking more like a higher tier deck. Instead, I’ve played some mono-coloured decks in Best of 1 as well as playing more Best of 3.
While this is somewhat frustrating, it is to be expected given that I’m deliberately trying to stay away from what has been confirmed to work. Could it lead to a new Tier 1 deck? Sure, but I also know that I’m not that good a deck builder.
More frustrating were today’s games. I’d not played too much but I finally had to pause and walk away. In my last three games, I drew one land to start. Worse, in all three, I had to mulligan down to four cards as I kept drawing one land hands. Needless to say, I notched up three more defeats with those hands. It was time for a break.
The Red Prowess deck that I was playing today only has 18 lands. I know it’s greedy but a mono-coloured deck should let you get away with it with better odds than a multi-coloured one. Then again, maybe I’m too greedy. It might be time for some time with pen, paper and probabilities.
If you play enough Magic, there will come a time where you will run into such a situation. But what are the odds of that. I’ll need someone to help me with the math but I know that it’s going to be pretty rare.
This is part of Magic, I fully recognize that. Much as mana floods can happen (and have happened to me), mana screws happen. I just hope that my run of bad luck has come to an end and that I can get back to at least winning a bit more frequently. Maybe I just need to dust off the old Red Aggro deck!
Many, many years ago, I graduated from university with a Zoology degree. Among my favourite animals are mustelids. For those who are not familiar with this term, it is a family of small carnivorous mammals. It includes weasels, otters, badgers. minks and the fearsome wolverines. Thanks for the lesson, you say, but what does this have to do with Magic, you then ask? Good question, until Bloomburrow previews started, it meant little. But that looks to be about to change.
Previews have just started but we have already seen 11 cards that are related to mustelids. More than half are otters and they are nearly all Wizards. The other creatures are a weasel and a mean-looking badger.
Is there enough to build a deck centered around mustelids? At this point, I’m going to say no unless you ready to go straight into jank territory. Or is there?
These eight creature cards are supported by three additional cards that have good synergy. First up is a sorcery spell, Pearl of Wisdom, that will draw us some cards. Perhaps more interesting is Ral, Crackling Wit. Yes, the Planeswalker from Ravnica appears to have landed in Bloomburrow as an otter.
Finally, the new land Three Tree City, is definitely an auto-include in any typal deck. Unfortunately, its effectiveness is blunted by the fact that the creatures above are not of a single type. Why did Wizards not go as far as assign all of them the mustelid type? I expect we will never know the answer to this question. Three Tree City will still help with Otters but the fact that it’s legendary will prevent using a second to name a second creature type in the same deck.
Ral, Crackling Wit
Looking through these cards, an Izzet build might be possible. Eight cards fit into the deck and could work well enough together to put up a fun deck if nothing else. And let’s not forget that previews are not over yet.
The synergy across these cards lies with Prowess and casting noncreature spells. Ral, Crackling Wit creates counters with Prowess and gains a loyalty counter. Bria, Riptide Rogue and Stormcatch Mentor both have Prowess. And for those creatures that don’t, Bria kindly shares her ability with them. Tempest Angler and Coruscation Mage both also have abilities that trigger when a noncreature spell is cast. Alania, Divergent Storm, also fits into the deck but the random effect can give you a nice upside just as easily as give you nothing or worse give your opponent a card with nothing in return.
Pearl of Wisdom will help keep your hand full of cards, hopefully many being noncreature spells. And given that most of these are Otters, the deck will certainly have a Three Tree City or two in it as well.
Lastly, there are a couple of Otters in the Wilds of Eldraine set. Both could be worthy additions to the deck as well. For the record, there are two other older mustelid cards that will be Standard legal after the release of Bloomburrow but they are both Green. Maybe a Temur build is the way to go, especially as it also allows us to add Hugs, Grisly Guardian, a fearsome looking badger.
Other colour combinations do not appear to have the same number of supporting cards. At this point at least, it looks like the Mustelid typal deck will need to be Izzet or Temur with little other choice otherwise.
I’ll keep an eye on further previews to see how much closer we can get to a functional and hopefully half decent Mustelid deck.
My go-to decks in Standard B01 currently are a Red Prowess deck and a Selesnya Enchantment deck. The former is something I picked up a while back based on the meta. The latter is one that I have been playing for a while and enjoy playing.
It’s time for a little variety. While I do play a few other decks in other formats, I decided to build a new one focused on the new Commit a Crime mechanic introduced in Outlaws of Thunder Junction for Standard B01.
Commit a crime is well represented across Blue, Black, Red and Green. It’s no big surprise that there is only one White card using the mechanic. For my first build, I decided to go with a mono-Black build focused around Tinybones, Vadmir, New Blood, Kaervek, the Punisher and Gisa, the Hellraiser.
From there, I added a few additional cards that should complement these nicely. Among these are Tinybones, the Pickpocket, Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal. I also threw in Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (which is almost an auto-include in Black decks these days).
From there, I filled out the deck with cards to go and commit crimes. It’s the usual mix of removal spells and others that target my opponent.
Deck
2 Tinybones Joins Up (OTJ) 108
2 Tinybones, the Pickpocket (OTJ) 109
2 Cut Down (DMU) 89
4 Deep-Cavern Bat (LCI) 102
3 Vadmir, New Blood (OTJ) 113
2 Kaervek, the Punisher (OTJ) 92
2 Gisa, the Hellraiser (OTJ) 89
3 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor (BRO) 95
2 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal (LCI) 88
3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (DMU) 107
2 Gix’s Command (BRO) 97
2 Infernal Grasp (MID) 107
3 Bitter Triumph (LCI) 91
2 March of Wretched Sorrow (NEO) 111
2 Liliana of the Veil (DMU) 97
Lands
2 Demolition Field (BRO) 260
2 Mirrex (ONE) 254
2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (NEO) 278
18 Swamp (MH3) 315
I have played 10 games in Standard Play to get a sense of how the deck works. I won 7 times (70% win rate) so far. A good start but it’s time to take it to Ranked and see how it fares against the top decks in the meta.
In the meantime, a few observations from those first 10 games:
The deck feels a little top-heavy with 9 cards costing 4 or more mana. I may lighten it up a bit, perhaps with Preacher of the Schism.
Aclazotz is a great card. It is one of those that needs to be removed quickly or it can put the game away. I don’t like playing against it but I sure do like watch it resolve.
I may add one or two more Instant or Sorcery spells and cut the corresponding number of creatures (21 at the moment).
I might look to make it a Dimir deck to give me a few spell options. On the creature side, perhaps Lazav, Familiar Stranger or Nimble Brigand. Both cost 3 mana and could help with my first point above.
Anyone else playing a Commit a Crime deck? How is it going ?
I bought three Lord of the Rings pre-release kits for our cottage vacation. Magic for a rainy day was the plan. But it almost came not to be.
I packed the kits along with two Commander decks and the usual game supplies (playmat, dice, life counter). Christian similarly brought up two Commander decks while Noah only brought one, worried about some more expensive cards in his other decks.
First crisis (I’m being melodramatic – for effect): I realized early in the trip that we did not have sleeves for our new cards. Fortunately, we found a game store during one of our day trips and was able to remedy that oversight quickly.
On a rainy and windy Thursday morning in the second week of our vacation, we decided that this would be the day to hold our Cottage Pre-Release event. It rained in the morning and remained cloudy and cool into the afternoon. We settled around a coffee table that probably has seen its share of board and card games and cracked our kits (nothing earth-shattering in any of them) and set to building. And that’s when it hit the boys (not their father who was still trying to figure out whether he should go Black Green or Black Red). Second crisis:
“Do you know what we forgot?” asked Christian. “No, what?” I answered, looking up from my pool of cards. “We have the sleeves.” “But we don’t have lands.” Some choice words may have escaped me at that point.
Fortunately, the kids are resourceful. We pulled lands from our Commander decks where we could. Unfortunately, there were not enough. So we complemented those with home made proxy lands. We first thought to use regular playing cards but they’re not the same size. Noah, apparently the self-appointed Judge, ruled these as inadequate. Instead, we settled on using some cards that did not go into our decks with home-made labels.
No style points here but they allowed us to go on our mini pre-release. Noah ended up going 2-0 with a White Green deck featuring Rosie Cotton of South Lane and lots of tokens. Christian and I ended up going 1-1 with him playing a Blue Red deck and I going with a Black Red deck.
Crises averted, rainy day dealt with and more Magic memories made.
Noah is wrapping up Grade 10 and starting to prepare for exams. We squeezed in a game of Commander during a study break. Christian brought his precon Ruinous Powers to the table while Noah brought his slightly modified precon Necrons deck. I brought my Ruhan of the Fomori deck to stand up to the forces of Warhammer.
I immediately mulliganed after drawing a hand without lands. I kept my next one with five lands, one Basalt Ravager and a Farewell. I wasn’t feeling particularly confident with that hand but I liked having that board wipe.
With that hand, I was not a threat and the boys quickly started to establish their board presence. Christian quickly put down a Knight Rampager. The luck of the dice roll meant that I avoided the first few attacks. Noah did not like being targeted, even if it was random, and focused his attacks on his brother in response.
It did not take long for the Necrons to establish themselves and Christian was not able to mount much of a defense. He quickly fell. Noah turned to me and my two giants. It looked like a foregone conclusion. Until I played my Farewell. By then, my mana was in good shape and the big draws started to come my way. Ruhan landed on the board and an Angelfire Ignition helped deal more damage.
It was a quick game after that – Noah’s mana base was not as strong, especially after I removed all those pesky artifacts. His Commander, the fearsome Szarekh, the Fallen King, had already died twice and he could not bring him back out with his depleted mana base. The giants went to town (or should I say space) and clobbered the Necrons. It helped that Ruhan now had only one target and could stay focused on the task at hand.
Family Magic 
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