Legacy WastePox

It seems that I'm on a roll with decklists this week, and one for every format no less! We have already discussed the card that I'm trying to implement into Legacy - Waste Not. As I mentioned in the article last week, this was the community-created card that the MTG community created last year. Without further ado, here's a decklist featuring Waste Not:

Mono Black Waste Not/Pox

Creatures - 3

3 Bloodghast

Spells - 30

3 Waste Not

4 Dark Ritual

4 Hymn to Tourach

3 Inquisition of Kozilek

3 Thoughtseize

4 Smallpox

3 Cabal Therapy

4 Sinkhole

2 Innocent Blood

Planeswalkers - 4

4 Liliana of the Veil

Lands - 23

4 Wasteland

4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Marsh Flats

11 Swamp

This list heavily relies on Waste Not, so I'm not sure how well overall it will function. However, if you can get a nut hand of Dark Ritual into Waste Not + a discard spell, you could potentially empty your hand on turn 1 and leave your opponent with nothing relevant in their hand. For example, let's say you draw the following 7-card hand:

Swamp

Wasteland

Dark Ritual

Waste Not

Thoughtseize

Hymn to Tourach

Innocent Blood

If your opponent does not counter the initial Dark Ritual or the Waste Not, it's going to be very hard to come back from the beating your hand will take. That line of play would go something like:

Swamp > Dark Ritual > Waste Not > Thoughtseize > Draw a Card. 

Next turn, you Hymn to Tourach and just go off.

Now like most Pox lists it will suffer heavily from lack of countermagic, especially in the recent Delver-heavy meta. Like the other lists I posted this week though, it is just a cool idea that came to mind after Waste Not was spoiled.

Let me know what you think about this list in the comments below!

M15 Planewalkers - Part 2

Oh hey! Welcome back. Yesterday we talked about Ajani Steadfast and Jace, the Living Guildpact. Today, we will be talking about a few other new planeswalkers and my thoughts on them!

Nissa, Worldwaker

Now THIS Nissa I like. If you're familiar at all with the original Nissa, you can clearly see that this variant is on a whole new level of power. While not bad, the original Nissa was very tribe-driven, and this new one allows really any green deck to benefit from running her. This is particularly evident for Mono-green lists, since her other second +1 ability allows you to have paid effectively 1 mana for a 4 loyalty walker. 

It is also important to note that her first +1 ability does not say "until end of turn", meaning that you can make an army of 4/4s without investing any spells into it. Similar to most other Green walkers, her ultimate is pretty insane in the right deck, particularly the mono-green strategy.

Garruk, Apex Predator

This might be the only planeswalker with 4 abilities that isn't totally broken. The 7 CMC kind of makes that happen, but even at 7 mana this card is insanely powerful. It's Bolas-like +1 that will wreck other walker decks seems crazy, and if your opponent doesn't have a planeswalker of their own, you can just make a 3/3 deathtouch beast. SEEMS. GOOD.

Like all good black cards, it also has built-in removal. At -3, it's nice that you also gain life when you kill an opponent's creature. As mentioned with Nissa, like most walkers, the ultimate just wins you the game, or lets you gang up on one opponent in multiplayer game types like Commander.

Those are my thoughts and views on the new walkers! Let me know what you think in the comments below!

M15 Planeswalkers - Part 1

Let's talk M15 Spoilers. Particularly, new planeswalkers. There are plenty of sweet new cards and reprints to talk about, but I want to talk about planeswalkers specifically. Let's dive right in:

Ajani Steadfast

HO-LY CRAAAAAP. I really love this card. Seriously. It's great. Splashable in many types of decks, great that it helps other walkers you control, and it's +1 ability is devastating against most decks. Unlike previous variants of Ajani that put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control or on each, this version does both, but just better. It's ultimate ability is also a good-game button. I don't know how well it will help against aggro strategies, but with the abundance of midrange decks in the current meta it will help against the big dumb animals they generally run.

Jace, the Living Guildpact

People be hating on new Jace like crazy, and honestly, I don't know why. The card is actually quite good. Here are 3 important things to note:

1.  4 CMC walkers will always get some level of play because their cost is aggressive enough to warrant it.
2. He effectively ETB with 6 loyalty counters, and a freebie pseudo Sleight of Hand. 
3. If you ultimate him, I don't know how you lose. Not only do you remove all utility your opponent may have in their graveyard, but you also get to play the game with 7 more card than them. Seriously, how do you lose at that point?

Join me again tomorrow for some more new planeswalker talk! 

Until then, let me know what you think about the new Ajani and Jace!

The Legacy Archive

After writing my full-length article titled Breaking Into Legacy: A How-To, it dawned on me that it would be nice for my readers to see all the Legacy content that I have posted since this blog started. There have been Top 5 posts, deck construction posts, and much more, and as always there is more to come.

Today, I just wanted to give you links and brief descriptions of each of the most relevant Legacy-related posts I have put up since the inception of this blog.

To Ban or Not To Ban? Brainstorm

This post relates to the recent SCG Top-8 in Columbus where 6 of the top 8 decks featured Delver, and 7 out of the 8 decks featured 4 copies of Brainstorm. The internet was in a kind of uproar that week, and thoughts about banning Brainstorm in Legacy ran rampant. This article goes over my opinions on whether or not it should happen, and why.

Top 5 Cards in Legacy

Not sure which cards to be playing in Legacy right now? This post goes over what I believe to be the 5 most powerful spells in the format right now, and rationale behind each of them. Brainstorm was not included in this list however, for obvious reasons.

Shardless Order vs other BUG Variants

Gerry Thompson, the innovator of the Shardless BUG archetype, goes into detail in his article for StarCityGames about a new BUG-colored deck he wants to try in Legacy. This post goes over my thoughts on the deck, and whether or not it would be a good call in the meta right now.


So there you have it, as time goes on I will add more posts to the Legacy archive, but hopefully this list will keep your cravings for content at bay for now!


[Class Purpose: Sneeze post]

Shield of the Dragon

Yes, I'm talking about sleeves today.

Like any collectible card game (CCG), Magic cards can be expensive and worth protecting. I don't know of many players that don't use sleeves (unless they are either a brand-new player), but those who choose not to are making a horrible mistake.

That being said, there are many kinds of sleeves you can use. Ultra Pros, Legions, Dragon Shields, you know it. Personally, I am an advocate for Dragon Shield (Silver, to be specific)

There are a few reasons I use them, particularly because they just feel so slick and sleek when you are shuffling. I've noticed over the years that Ultra Pros and Legions tend to break very easily, particularly along the outside edges. For a long while I actually used KMC Hyper Mat sleeves, but I ran into the same issues. I've actually been using Dragon Shields pretty religiously for about 3 years now, so much so that I bought a case of them to sleeve the Cube I recently built. 

Some people argue that Dragon Shields get too dirty too quickly, and in some situations they would b right. The Black, Blue, and Green sleeves made by Dragon Shield get incredibly dirty and look like crap in only a few weeks of play. The only colors I've had particularly good luck with are Silver and, surprisingly, Pink. 

Yup, you heard me right. Pink. 

The ONLY reason I don't use the Pink ones is because the Silvers hold up just as well, and let's be honest, Pink would probably bring a lot of unwanted criticism. Regardless, I still endorse them as being a quality product.

So there you have it, I love Dragon Shield sleeves and they're the only ones I use when I play magic. I am also an advocate for using Ultra Pro Perfect Fit sleeves in tandem with Dragon Shields when sleeving an expensive deck, just to keep them super safe.

Here are links to each of my favorite sleeves, in case you're interested in buying some! It's important to note that each of these products comes with 100 sleeves, great for sleeving any 75-card constructed deck or even a 100-card EDH/Commander deck!

Silver Dragon Shields

Pink Dragon Shields

Ultra Pro Perfect Fits

What are your favorite kind of sleeves? Let me know in the comments below!

[Channel Review] Gathering Magic on YouTube

Ever wondered exactly how specific abilities work? Curious about learning the rules of the game? Thankfully, I plan to write quite a few posts about both of these topics and much more, but in the mean time I've found a great resource that is incredibly helpful for all players.


Cool Stuff Inc. is a LGS (local game store) located in Florida that has a wide variety of board games, cards games, and other great products. They have also started a YouTube Channel called "Gathering Magic", which hosts videos every week.

My personal favorite segment is titled "Judge's Corner", where David Greene (a level 2 judge) talks about the ins and outs of the various rules the game presents. While this may seem like a silly thing if you are unfamiliar with the game, it is actually a phenomenal resource as the intricacies and specifics to the rules leave even veteran players stumped on occasion.

In addition to Judge's Corner, the channel hosts many budget deck construction videos, how-to videos, and draft videos. They even have full playlists dedicated to specific decks across all the formats, which allow newer players to understand the different lines of play each deck has to offer.

It is also very cool to note that they often have guests on the show, typically pro players that they sit down with to discuss the game or a deck they might be working on. It is always interesting to hear professional players talk about their mindset when playing the game because it helps other players develop their own skills.

Here is an example video about The Stack, one of the most elementary concepts used while playing Magic:

If you want more content like this, I highly suggest you visit Gathering Magic's channel on YouTube. 

Click here to visit their channel!

What do you think about their channel? Do you like the content provided? Let me know in the comments!

The Scoops Phase - Check out our full-length articles!

If you haven't already checked out our section on full-length articles, you can find it above!

All of the articles linked there are hosted on our parent site, scoopsmagic.webs.com, home of The Scoops Phase. As of right now you can access our newest full-length article on GP Chicago, and in the next week or so you should be able to access our first selection of Vintage Masters draft videos with myself and Anthony Harrison. The segment is called "Drafts and Drafts", where we do a draft of a set MTGO (Magic the Gathering Online) or via CubeTutor.com while drinking a few beers and commentating over it.

In the near future, we also hope to have weekly content for each format. This would include weekly articles for Standard, Modern, and Legacy, with video content like drafts or deck-techs on occasion as well. These articles will be written primarily by myself, but Anthony Harrison and a few other individuals have agreed to write content as well. It seemed that the best way to deliver quality content was to diversify the opinions of those writing the articles, and while I think I have a pretty good grasp on Legacy, there are other people who are much better suited to write about Standard or Modern.

Anthony Harrison and myself have even discussed building Legacy and Vintage decks on MTGO so we can stream the “daily” events that are hosted each day, and optimally we would pick one day a week to stream.

There is a lot coming in the next few weeks, and we hope that you enjoy it all. For now, I recommend  you visit our site and check out the article about GP Chicago.

You can find it by clicking the following link: GP Chicago: A Mishap

If there are any specific kinds of content you are looking to see, please let me know!



(Class Purpose: Promote your own website)

[Legacy] Shardless Order vs other BUG Variants

As a BUG Delver player myself, I have often looked at other BUG variants to see what the optimal choice would be if I were to bring my Underground Seas and Brainstorms to an SCG Open.

Here is my current BUG Delver list, for reference: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bug-delver-04-03-14-1/

Gerry Thompson, who is often known for innovating the "Shardless BUG" archetype, has recently introduced a new decklist that takes the existing shells of both Shardless BUG and Combo Elves and combines them into one crazy deck.

The deck functions by using mana accelerants like Deathrite Shaman and Noble Hierarch to cast an early Shardless Agent, allowing for a more impressive board presence early on. It then ops to cast Natural Order and retrieve Craterhoof Behemoth as soon as it has enough dudes to make a lethal attack against your opponent. In addition to this interaction, the deck packs a hand destruction suite of Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, and Inquisition of Kozilek to ensure your opponent can't deal with your threats after getting that Craterhoof online.

Here is a link to Gerry Thompson's full article on SCG's website: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28649_Daily-Digest-Shardless-Naturally.html


The deck seems solid. I really like to see cards like Scavenging Ooze and Edric, Spymaster of Trest getting Legacy play, as they are both incredibly powerful cards. Edric allows for so much card advantage that if you get 2-3 attacks in your opponents will just fold to the card advantage alone.

Would this deck do well at a large event? I think right now it would probably not be the greatest meta call, particularly because combo elves has been doing some Top-8 work over the past few weeks and most people probably have some hate planned for these types of decks (think Grafdigger's Cage).

Let me know what you think about Gerry's list in the comments below!


(Class purposes: Link Article)

[Analyzing] StarCityGames.com

Today I want to take a look at another blog-type site that is undeniably one of the best sites for quality content on Magic the Gathering. Most people who play Magic are aware of Star City Games (SCG), as they are one of, if not the largest Magic shops in the country. Their popularity stems from their ability to have well-known pro players write articles for them on a frequent basis, as well as players who do well at larger events also hosted by SCG.

There are two distinct areas on their blog that jump out at you: Premium, and Select. Select articles are free for anyone who visits their site, while Premium articles require a membership to read. Thankfully, whenever you sign up and attend a large-scale SCG event (Opens, IQ, etc), they give you 1 free month of SCG Premium just for playing. Not only does this incentivize players who want to read the Premium articles, but it also allows players who are unfamiliar with their site to try it out before paying for it.

I have been a Premium subscriber for almost 2 years, and while I don't read their articles as much as I'd like to these days, I'm still very pleased with the in-depth content they provide on a near-daily basis. They provide content about all the relevant formats (Standard, Modern, Legacy) and are definitely all about providing quality content.

Here is a link to SCG's website, and subsequent links to their Premium and Select areas:

Website:  http://www.starcitygames.com/

Premium Articles: http://www.starcitygames.com/tags/Premium

Select Articles (remember, these are always free!): http://www.starcitygames.com/tags/Select

Let me know in the comments what you think about SCG!


(Class purposes: Analyze top blog in your niche)