March of the Machine

Easy come, easy go for the monkeys!

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

It was Outlaws of Thunder Junction pre-release time yesterday. As per tradition, we headed off to play at Face to Face (no more pre-releases in the North now that North of Exile has permanently closed). Christian went 2-1 with a bye while Noah and I went 1-2 but we did have fun as usual. Maybe a story for another time but Noah was somewhat annoyed when one of the players he faced did not want to split the two packs as most people do (especially as he lost).

Christian also took the opportunity to sell a few cards as he is building a new Commander deck who will be fronted by Rakdos, the Muscle. Definitely a Commander suited for the type of games that he likes with his ability to sacrifice another creature to go exile cards equal to its mana value from the top of target player’s library so that you can play them until your next end step.

Unfortunately for him, he did not pull Rakdos, the Muscle at the pre-release or from the box that we always crack open. But it so happens that Noah did, even pulling the Showcase version. I expect that there will be some intense negotiations in the next few days.

Rakdos, the Muscle

To build up his deck, Christian sold some cards while at F2F. Among them were two monkey pirates that caused some grief about a year ago. Yes, Christian sold his two Ragavan, Nimble Pilferers! He got a price that he was satisfied with as well. And with the way WOTC seems to be reprinting most good cards with wild abandon, I expect that the price may continue to drop as it reappears in some future sets (perhaps in Modern Horizons 3 later this summer?).

I’ve always told the boys that these are their cards and that they can do what they want with them. This is even more relevant now that one of them is an adult. But I wish he had said he would sell them and given Noah a chance to get his hands on one after last year’s drama.

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

Noah now has a part-time job and could easily have either traded some other cards for one or bought it off his brother. Fortunately, time has rubbed some of the sting out and Noah did not look too upset to hear that the monkeys had left the building.

Especially after the Curse of the Box Opening turned to Christian this time around. While Noah pulled seven Mythics and I another five, Christian only pulled two. I pulled what is at the moment the most valuable, a Terror the Peaks (my second as I also have the one from Core Set 2021. Almost enough to take the sting out of the fact that there are no Clerics in this set.

Anyways, all this to basically say that the monkeys came, they spent a bit of time with us and have now left for some new adventures. They leave behind a very angry-looking Demon Mercenary that I do not look forward to facing in one of our future Commander games.

Orzhov Cleric Tribal in March of the Machine

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

A new Magic TCG set is always an opportunity to see what opportunities there are to improve my Orzhov Cleric Tribal for Arena B01 Standard. I’m later posting this than I would have liked but once you see how March of the Machine influences the deck, I expect that you’ll understand.

If you’ll recall, Phyrexia: All Will Be One introduced 10 new cleric cards, with seven of them possibilities for an Orzhov deck. March of the Machine only brings five new Clerics, of which four are possible candidates for my purposes. It did not bode well if only based on the quantity of cards.

Let’s have a closer look at those five cards:

Alabaster Host Sanctifier: A 2/2 with Lifelink and no other upside does not offer enough to warrant putting it in the deck at the expense of one of the cards currently in the deck.

Progenitor Cat Cleric: I like Incubate as a mechanic. You can go with a simple artifacts matter strategy or convert them to artifact creatures for a more aggressive strategy). The choice is yours. Unfortunately, it is not cheap, especially if you want to go with the latter. At its cheapest, you get a 1/2 for 1 with no upside (unless you have other Incubate cards). Each Incubate token costs an additional 2 when casting and an additional 2 later to turn each into a creature. Frankly, my deck is slow enough as it is.

Sun-Blessed Guardian is an interesting card. A 2/2 that can transform into a 3/3 and generate an attacking token is certainly worthy of consideration. Except for that cost. 5 mana and two life (given the lack of red mana) is not cheap. And it remains prone to removal. Too expensive for too little.

Quintorius, Loremaster is out simply due to it being Boros rather than Orzhov.

Seedpod Caretaker comes with two ETB options to chose from. The first certainly could work but the second requires at least one source of Incubator tokens. As you saw above, from a Cleric standpoint, pickings are pretty slim.

If I was to consider some substitutions, I think I would need to pull into the deck Progenitor Cat Cleric, Sun Blessed Guardian and Seedpod Caretaker to leverage the synergy between them. But then, what do I pull? I may try it but I have a feeling that it will not work. I’m better off to try to build an Incubate deck instead.

For now, let’s leave the deck as is:

  • 3 Infernal Grasp (MID) 107
  • 2 Anointed Peacekeeper (DMU) 2
  • 2 Valorous Stance (VOW) 42
  • 3 Evolved Sleeper (DMU) 93
  • 9 Plains (THB) 250
  • 7 Swamp (THB) 252
  • 3 Shadow-Rite Priest (DMU) 106
  • 2 Voice of the Blessed (VOW) 44
  • 3 Shattered Sanctum (VOW) 264
  • 4 Lunarch Veteran (MID) 27
  • 2 Scoured Barrens (NEO) 274
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (NEO) 278
  • 2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (NEO) 268
  • 2 Loran’s Escape (BRO) 14
  • 4 Markov Purifier (VOW) 241
  • 2 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim (DMU) 198
  • 2 Phyrexian Missionary (DMU) 27
  • 2 Liliana of the Veil (DMU) 97
  • 3 Yotian Medic (BRO) 33
  • 2 Annex Sentry (ONE) 2

Sideboard:

  • 2 Farewell (NEO) 13
  • 1 Cut Down (DMU) 89
  • 2 Chaplain of Alms (MID) 13
  • 1 Voice of the Blessed (VOW) 44
  • 1 Intercessor’s Arrest (NEO) 20

As always, feel free to drop in a comment with your thoughts and suggestions for this deck.

The cruel tale of two Ragavans

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

The boys and I have for many years bought a booster box when a new Magic set comes out. We split it three ways and open the box together. We each take turns choosing one pack at a time. Once we each have our pile of packs, we open them together, one at a time. A few rules have emerged over time, namely that we must show our Rare and Mythic pulls (someone loved to tease their brother by making various claims and not showing what they had) and that whoever ends with fewest Mythics gets the Buy-a-Box promo (think of it as a consolation prize).

With the new Set Booster boxes, we typically all end up with a few Mythics and generally all come out with a few cards that make us happy. Every once in a while, one of us will pull more than their fair share or someone will end up with less than they were hoping for. The boys and I know that this is all down to luck and we normally just say “Better luck with the next box.” But most cruel is when someone pulls a card that you really want, especially when it’s an expensive card.

Noah has had his eye on Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, since it was first revealed in Modern Horizons 2. I think it has less to do with Ragavan’s abilities (although Noah would certainly put them to good use) and more to do with the fact that Ragavan is a cute monkey. Unfortunately, the card quickly became pricey enough to be out of his league (without incurring the wrath of his mother but that’s another story).

Ragavan was spoiled in March of the Machine, Noah was excited when  Nimble Pilferer. Here was a chance to pull one perhaps at prerelease or in our box. Asked what he wanted to pull, Ragavan was pretty much it.

Prerelease took place last Saturday and Noah did not find the monkey in his pool of cards. None of us did sadly. On a side note, we also had a dismal event where Noah went 1-2 and Christian and I went 0-3. I’m now at an embarrassing 0-9 at the last three events.

I did pull a Sheoldred and a Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger in my prelease as well as both an Elesh Norn and Vorinclex from March of the Machine in the prize packs. As Christian pointed out, when I do poorly at a prerelease, I tend to do well with the prize packs!

Needless to say, we were looking forward to cracking open our box when we got home.

Christian pulled the first Mythic and then pulled a second. Meanwhile, nothing for me or Noah. By the time we were more than halfway through our packs, Noah still had no Mythics while I began to catch up to Christian. And then came the God Pack, at least in the eyes of one of us.

Christian gasped when he pulled a Ragavan in his second last pack. And then an even bigger gasp when he pulled a second one, right after. Two Ragavans next to each other in a single pack! The first deflated Noah but the second was a big blow. We’ve all been disappointed at one point or another by our box pulls but this was the worst I’ve seen Noah. He dejectedly opened his last pack, no Mythic again.

My pulls included a Rashmi and Ragavan and I offered it to him but he turned it down. It’s not the monkey he wanted and I knew that even before giving it to him. I just hated seeing him like that.

“I’m not doing the box again,” he said dejectedly, grabbed his cards and left. He did not even take the Omnath, Locus of All, that was rightfully his.

Along with his two Ragavan monkeys, Christian also pulled Niv-Mizzet Reborn, Sword of Once and Future, and one of the partner cards (I’ll update once I remember the name of it). On my side, I pulled 5 Mythics: Invasion of Shandalar, Rashmi and Ragavan, Yarok the Desecrated, Aurelia, the Warleader and Urabrask the Hidden.

Chrome Host Seedshark: More Flying Sharks come to Magic

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

Previews for the upcoming March of the Machine set are well underway. I’ll be frank; I’m somewhat underwhelmed so far. I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the new Battle mechanic and none of the other mechanics have really captured my interest. The power creep is also frustrating. But we’ll save that for a potential future post. Instead, today, I wanted to call attention to Chrome Host Seedshark.

A flying shark? A flying compleated shark? A flying compleated shark that incubates little tokens that can then turn into potentially not-so-little token creatures (but not sharks). What’s not to like?

I first caught a glimpse of this card yesterday. And what was yesterday but April 1st, better known April Fool’s Day. My first thought was that WOTC might have announced a new Universes Beyond set tied to Sharknado as a prank for the day. But no, the card was previewed earlier in the week and is legitimate.

To be fair, this is not the first flying shark we’ve seen. That honour, I discovered after some investigative work over at Scryfall goes to Shabraz, the Skyshark from Commander 2020. But flying sharks existed even before that. Remember Shark Typhoon from Ikoria? It could create X/X blue Shark creature tokens with flying. Someone at WOTC is a Sharknado fan!

Is Chrome Host Seedshark any good? It’s not an amazing card but I suspect that it might find a home in a few janky decks. If I pull one of these, it will end up in my Talrand Commander deck. And with 11 cards that share Shark as a type, maybe someone will even try to build a Shark tribal deck – Drop us a comment below if you do.

Before I leave you to go look at more March of the Machine previews, let me leave you with this question: Is Chrome Host SeedShark part of a cycle? Among the previews so far, we also have Copper Host Crusher, a Phyrexian Bear Rhino. Can other hosts be far behind?