Building Blocks

Land Destruction is one of the most storied aspects of early Magic.  Players from that era will beguile you with stories of Sinkhole and Strip Mine, but we're here to talk about possibly the most iconic card with that text - Stone Rain.  Featuring one of the best origin stories for a name, Ponza took full advantage of Stone Rain and Pillage, then got access to almost the perfect card for the deck.

What does a non-aggressive mono red deck look like?  That's the topic of discussion this episode.  Both Jason and I aren't exactly masters of this archetype, so we called in a ringer to talk us through the different iterations of Big Red.  Thompson joins us to extol the virtues of large red creatures and efficient removal spells!

This week, we've got a fan favorite on tap.  It's pretty easy to see why - the combination of kinda dorky creatures and incidental life gain endears itself to players.  Soul Warden has been in existence since Exodus, so why did it take until 2010 for it to finally show up in a competitive event?  You can thank Magic 2011 for that.

This week's deck has a reputation.  Specifically, a bad one.  More specifically, one of the worst decks that has been played at a Pro Tour.  Looking at the decklist, that totally makes sense.  Putting playsets of both Mind Stone and Figure of Destiny in the main is almost an anti-combo.  Playing Windbrisk Heights and only nine creatures that cost less than three mana doesn't exactly scream synergy. However, it fit a specific niche.  Reveillark is more than good enough to carry an entire archetype, and Ajani Vengeant never had a better home.  From the mind of Brian Kowal (and the Magic Cruise) comes Boat Brew!

This is by far the most recent topic we've ever covered.  Debuting only six years ago, Smuggler's Copter was immediately pegged as the best card in Kaladesh, and did not disappoint.  In the first tournament after release, it had tremendous representation at the top tables.  We're talking seven of the top eight, and thirteen of the top sixteen.  With that introduction, how long did it take for the premier vehicle to be taken off the road?

The keyword Epic from Saviors of Kamigawa has a bad reputation.  Once you cast a card that has the keyword on it, that's the only spell you can cast for the rest of the game.  With that restriction, the card you play has to win the game.  Four of the five cards definitely don't do that.  The other one, however, does.  It just needs a little help.

It's time for more questions!  The slate today includes the most nostalgic two card combination, card association with each guild, and some very large questions about the future of competitive Magic.

There's no denying the philosophy of Standard bannings has changed.  How else does the format go from no bans in ten years to more than fifteen in the last five?  So this week, we're talking about some cards in older Standard formats that could have been hit by the ban hammer if looked at through a 2022 lens. Reference article: "What Should Have Been Banned in the History of Standard?" by Ari Lax https://armlx.blogspot.com/2020/08/what-should-have-been-banned-in-history.html

We're going all the way back to 2000 this episode to discuss what could be the first true graveyard-centric combo deck.  Combining some enchantments that still of comparable power level in 2022 with the namesake sorcery, this archetype managed to compete with Tinker and Gaea's Cradle at the height of their powers.

We're not quite sure how it took this long to finally talk about this card, but here we are: Baneslayer Angel.  Quite possibly the most hyped preview card of all time, how did she fare once finally released?  Short answer, very well.

Nine archetypes, alike in legality, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene... Jumping back to 2013, we're taking a look at a GP that featured the best of the best when it came to Innistrad/Gatecrash standard.  On tap for this episode - Bonfire of the Damned, Angel of Serenity, and Geralf's Messenger!

Sometimes when a two card combo presents itself, it's simultaneously powerful enough to be the centerpiece of a deck and odd enough to be completely off the wall.  This is one of those scenarios.  Seismic Assault is certainly a unique card - excess lands can be turned into damage, but when combined with Swans of Bryn Argoll, it turns into quite the concoction.

Gaining life as a competitive endeavor is a common trap a lot of newer players fall into.  Typically, this style of deck has issues converting the life advantage into game winning scenarios.  This deck, however, shucks that trend.  When the metagame is overly saturated by aggro decks, this strategy becomes much more appealing.  Even if it does take absolutely forever to win.

Our last question and answer episode was all the way back in July, and it's long past time we did another one.  On the docket today, our biggest white whale for deckbuilding, the best underrepresented tribe, most memorable organized play moment, and a couple more that I won't spoil here.  Enjoy!

When talking about the best Standard combo decks of all time, any list that doesn't include this one is incomplete.  In all likelihood, it was the first one to truly dominate a format, so much so that even 25 years later, we can still talk about it with reverence.  How did it work?  Well, a bunch of mana generation, and exploiting some very old school rules.

With Neon Genesis releasing this weekend, we're going to step back to 2006 to talk about one of the best Standard decks the last time a Kamigawa set was legal!  Featuring an assortment of value creatures along with the eponymous Ghost Council of Orzhova, Ghost Dad filled a spot in a truly wild metagame.

With Alrund's Epiphany recently hitting the ban list, we're taking a walk back through Standard history to look at the other turn spells that have graced the format.  Why was Epiphany only the second turn spell to feel the wrath of WOTC's hammer, and how does it compare to its predecessors?  Spoiler alert, pretty well.

Hello everyone!  Jason's still feeling under the weather, so I decided to do this one solo.  When I was thinking of a solo topic to cover this week, I had a couple ideas - most underrated Elves of all time, best non-evergreen mechanics, how to build Aristocrats in any given metagame, but the one I decided to go with was to chart the journey of one of my favorite cards of all time.  Trading Post didn't quite get the recognition it deserved upon initial release (easy to do when Thragtusk, Rancor, and Thundermaw Hellkite are all in the same set) but it endeared itself to many people, myself included.

If there was one card we'd use to describe our collective Magic interests, it'd be Life from the Loam.  On the surface, it looks like a card you'd never play.  A two mana sorcery that requires lands in your yard and doesn't directly impact the board doesn't blow you away with pure power.  The key, however, is to turn those lands into actual advantage using a very odd keyword from Eventide.  Join us all the way back in 2012 for the first Modern GP, and the myriad ways that people have taken full advantage of Loam.

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is a very powerful card.  So powerful, in fact, that it was on the initial ban list for Modern.  Why was it so feared as to be on the same list as Hypergenesis, Skullclamp, Umezawa's Jitte, and Golgari Grave-Troll?  The answer is Scapeshift.  When you combine the two cards, it creates a very consistent win condition.  But how to tie the deck together, that is the question.  Easy, Cryptic Command!

It's been a while since we've talked about a single card's journey through Standard.  Let's remedy that.  When's the last time you were terrified of a white creature with flash?  Archangel Avacyn?  Spell Queller?  Heron's Grace Champion?  Well, the card on the table today might be the best of the bunch.  Hailing from Avacyn Restored, this angel came out of the gate swinging and only stopped when it rotated.  Time to be scared of four open mana again, Restoration Angel is the topic of discussion!

It's been a while since we've talked about one tournament in depth, so we've decided to cover the last tournament in the biggest standard environment of all time - GP Copenhagen 2008.  The format?  Time Spiral/Coldsnap/Lorwyn/Shadowmoor.  The decks?  Surprisingly, not a Spellstutter Sprite to be seen. Travel back over a decade into a standard metagame that we really couldn't find information on!

We're headed back to the Time Spiral block to talk about how a single card created an archetype.  Mystical Teachings doesn't look like it should be incredible.  Four mana instants that don't directly impact the board typically aren't even good, let alone format defining.  This, however, is the exception.

Coleman still won't let me do Thepths, so instead you get to listen to us blather on about a Tier 2 deck that deserved better.  Vampires are here!

One of the most important things Wizards does to attract new people to Magic is the prevalence of pre constructed decks.  This idea has been around for practically all of Magic history in various forms - starter decks, tournament decks, duel decks, the list goes on.  We're going to talk about one of the later iterations of this idea, the Event decks from Mirrodin Beseiged to Battle for Zendikar.  There's as many hits as there are misses, but definitely all interesting!

One of the oldest adages for deckbuilding is to split the types of spells into thirds - twenty creatures, twenty spells, and twenty lands.  What if you just cut out almost all of the spells and put more creatures in?  You'd probably end up with a deck looking like the one this episode.  Long before terrorizing Modern players, Champion of the Parish had a more than respectable run in Standard at the helm of a different human-centric aggro deck.  Hold on to your life total, it's probably running away from you soon, Naya Blitz up to the plate!

We're joined by a special guest this episode - Melvin the Muppet from the Ponder Podcast!  He's here to talk about the most important cards in any Standard format, lands.  Lands really do impact how a format is shaped.  We're covering the last five years of Standard and giving a brief overview of the ways that those particular formats were shaped by the lands available.

Stop us if you've heard this before.  Cheap artifact creatures benefiting from a powerful two mana artifact practically takes over a tournament, sending four people into the final day of Worlds.  We've already covered the most famous instance of this scenario, but this is one we enjoy more.  How powerful can an anthem really be?  When there's a bunch of two power creatures attacking, the answer is quite powerful indeed.

About six months ago, we took a break from our normal programming to refresh our brains by asking some questions about the other person's Magic career.  We're taking another one this week, the topics of discussion include the worst punt in a PTQ, what song is playing when brewing, and what decks shaped our early Magic memories.  Enjoy!

What do you do against Jund?  That was the question on the mind of the players at Worlds 2009.  Play Mono Red and try to sneak under Sprouting Thrinax?  Play some kind of Spreading Seas deck to attack the manabase?  The mirror?  All of these options have their strengths and weaknesses, but none of them won the tournament.  That honor belongs to the subject of this episode, a Mike Flores designed Naya deck featuring some of the more overlooked creatures in the format.  Baneslayer Angel and Bloodbraid Elf on the same side of the field?  Sure thing.  Lightsaber is here to slice up Jund!

How can a card like Prism Ring possibly be good?  Life gain artifacts basically never are, especially post-new world order card design.  On first look, it doesn't look like that much of an upgrade - only one mana, but it doesn't count your opponent's spells.  However, when you combine it with a high velocity deck and a slower paced format, the potential of the deck can shine.  It may have been a flash in the pan, but what an odd flash it was.

We're finishing up our discussion on Modern Horizons 2, focusing on the rest of the notable cards in the set.  From Cursed Scroll to Quirion Ranger, we've got hot takes and lightning rounds a plenty!  If you haven't listened to the first part, we highly recommend you do so, as that's where the mythics are discussed.  Enjoy, and have a happy prerelease!

Just about the whole Magic world is excited about Modern Horizons 2, and we're no different.  With the prerelease this weekend, it's the perfect time to gather our thoughts about the set.  We have a fair bit of them, as this episode is going to be split into two parts.  This first part is mostly focused on how the Mythics might impact the Modern metagame.  The second part of the discussion will be coming out later in the week!

Following up on our last episode, we're taking a look at the time when the inspiration for Fauna Shaman was Standard legal.  We're jumping all the way back to before the dawn of the millennium to talk about the combination of Survival of the Fittest and Recurring Nightmare that won the 1998 World Championships in the hands of Brian Selden.  These two enchantments obviously are a phenomenal pair, but how well did the rest of the cards age?  That's what's in stock this week!

A creature with an ability banned in Legacy has to be good in Standard, right?  The answer to that question is a combination of multiple factors.  Fauna Shaman got both an injection of great cards and awful luck.  Having access to Vengevine and Stoneforge Mystic is fantastic, but the format it was in was truly unfortunate. We're also premiering a new, as of yet unnamed segment where one of the hosts asks the other to name an obscure card with some kind of nonsense ability from the format.  Feel free to play along!

With the latest Invitational card being printed in Strixhaven, we thought it would be a great time to talk about the cards that previous versions of the tournament gave us.  For ten years, the winner of the event would be able to design a card that would be printed in an upcoming set.  The catch?  You had to beat the best players in the world in some...unique formats.  From Sylvan Safekeeper to Snapcaster Mage, we're going to talk about all the cards that came out of this tournament! Credit to @MTGHistory for the artwork.

What was the first tournament you attended?  What cards were played?  This episode, we're tackling the first time players sleeved up some Standard decks.  Taking place later in Magic's history than expected, some of the deck choices stand out for how well they've aged.  Some, however, stand out for the opposite reason.  Madness and Psychatog aren't the only decks alive at GP Milwaukee 2002!

Back in 1998, Urza's Saga was released, centering around artifacts.  It contained some powerful cards, to say the least.  Somehow, Gaea's Cradle and Serra's Sanctum aren't the best lands to come out of the set, let alone their own cycle.  That honor belongs to the topic of this episode - Tolarian Academy, a card so good it's banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage.  So how'd it do in Standard?

Oracle of Mul Daya is a deceptively powerful card.  Playing additional lands is already a great effect, adding the ability to play them from the top of your library just makes it better.  What if a certain four mana blue planeswalker from Worldwake was added to the mix?  The end result is a deck with such card advantage that it was able to out grind fully powered Jund in its heyday.

With Time Spiral Remastered currently in our minds, we're taking a look one of the possibly the most famous deck from Time Spiral Standard - Dragonstorm!  Initially a blue/red actual storm deck, it evolved into the burn/storm hybrid that led Patrick Chapin and Gabriel Nassif to their famous Game Four at Worlds 2007.  This is certainly a unique deck, and one we're very excited to talk about.

We've threatened it long enough, but it's finally time to talk about one of the first creature combo decks - Project X.  This shell exists because of the interaction between Saffi Erikstodder and Crypt Champion, but how to tie it all together?  A certain green instant with Convoke might be able to help with that. Decklist mentioned at the end: https://old.starcitygames.com/decks/21932

There are some cards that take a while to make their presence known.  Boros Reckoner is not one of them.  At the Pro Tour where it debuted, Magic coverage named it as the breakout card of the tournament.  When twelve copies show up on the final day, including both finals decks, it's a fair accolade.  This episode, we're taking a look at the journey of the lightning cow through Restoration Angel/Thragtusk Standard and beyond!

What does the term "parasitic mechanic" actually mean?  Well, as with most things in this game, it's a double edged sword.  On one side, there's Energy - a mechanic that was so parasitic it got a Lay of the Land reprint banned.  On the other, Snow.  The jury's still out on it, but we doubt that Snow-Covered Forest is getting the axe any time soon.  This episode, Coleman and Jason take a look at how parasitic mechanics have fared throughout Standard history!

Welcome to 2021!  This episode we're talking about some smaller topics - Pyre of Heroes as compared to Birthing Pod, when to play three copies of a card as opposed to four, and 2020 in a nutshell.  In addition, we're answering questions about our Magic backgrounds, favorite cards, and proudest deck accomplishments!

Happy holidays everyone!  We're finishing up our Modern detour by looking at one of the most diverse Modern tournaments in recent history - GP Lille 2016. Eight individual archetypes in the knockout rounds, a top 64 of absolutely wild decklists, Merfolk being a real contender - this has everything that made the format incredible.  Enjoy!

Velocity is an important concept for deckbuilding.  The bare bones of it is "how often do you see a specific card in one game?"  This episode, we're talking about a deck that wants to cast a particular spell every game.  In fact, the deck doesn't really work without it.  Problem is, it doesn't have a mana cost.  How do you get around it?

From its start as the most hated Standard deck of all time all the way until the fall of the traditional version just two years ago, Arcbound Ravager and friends have been the poster child for the Modern format.  Simultaneously a combo deck and an aggro deck, Affinity does it all.  While the Cranial Plating version of the deck has fallen out of favor, the deck is alive and well in a new form.

We're stepping into a different format this episode as we talk about a combo deck from the early days of Modern - Hive Mind!  It started as a hyper focused strategy containing a number of cards that are now banned, but ended as a backup win condition for Amulet Bloom.  Both iterations, however, are built around playing Pacts.  One was significantly better than the other.  We'll leave the answer to that for you to decide.

We'd like to apologize.  It has taken more than a year for us to talk about Elves in a dedicated capacity.  This oversight will not stand, and that's the topic this week.  Specifically, M10 to SOM Elf decks containing either the best or second best Elf lord of all time, Elvish Archdruid!

When players who were around during this deck's peak talk about it, the tone tends to be very nostalgic.  Understandably so, as it might be the perfect specimen of what you would expect a non-blue control deck to be.  Powered by Cabal Coffers and Mutilate, Mono Black rose to the top of a pretty diverse format and stayed there for quite a while.

Lightning Bolt isn't really a card, it's a lifestyle.  Since Coleman and Jason aren't especially versed burn spells, guest TJ Rogers of the Ponder Podcast has come on to extoll the virtues of these very old school red lists.  Going all the way back to 1996 to talk about the original red deck and up to the first true Red Deck Wins, we've got the history of small aggressive creatures up this week!