Long Weekend? Spend on Magic the Gathering

Tis another long weekend here in Australia and I'll be off to my neighbouring city to visit my long suffering girlfriend and visit the local gaming shop to stock up on Magic The Gathering items.  Unfortunately Journey into the Nyx won't be out by the time I get there, so I'll more than likely just pick up a few booster packs from Theros/Born of the Gods and try and finish off this Mono Blue deck I am trying to build...

A small update on my Aggro Mono Black Deck - I have acquired Erebos, God of the Dead to throw in there somewhere... interesting times, any opinions on Erebos?

Once Journey into the Nyx comes out however, I'll more than likely just pick up a Fat Pack, or if some of my Magic the Gathering friends would split a booster box with me that'd be great!, haha.

What kind of Mono Blue?  I haven't decided yet, but was quite impressed with the Fire Surge Magic 2014 Intro Deck (that I mentioned in brief here) so that I may add a bit of Red spice in there for good measure.
Yes, I do realise it was only an Intro deck, but I rarely play Blue or Red for that matter, but how it measured up to a Devotion Black Blue decks astounded me.

I also hopefully want to get back to the 2nd hand/pawn stores as well and try and find me some retro gear, there has to be some somewhere!  If not, I've hatched a plan to strip out a PS2, Nintendo Wii and possibly a PS1 and combine them in one enclosure, I have a frame made up out of angle iron ready to go but just need to find the time to actually figure out how it's all going to go together.

Check back often for updates, with photos, of course...

Fire Surge Magic 2014 Intro Deck

Ok, Tuesday nights are now becoming a staple night of playing Magic the Gathering with my friends, so I should be updating this blog with Magic info more often now (yay!)

Tonight I played and played my Mono Black Aggro deck (correct me if I am wrong please) which can be found here.  I found I am thinking of adding Read The Bones to it to add a scry 2 feature to add some more control to my draw, especially if I am getting a shitty draw, and possibly add 2 more Pharikas Cure to counteract the 2 life lost using Read The Bones.  Anyways!

I recently bought another Intro Deck, this in particular as the title suggests Fire Surge Magic 2014 Core Set Intro Deck.  Red/Blue being its colours and it really surprised me as it come into its own against a Blue/Black devotion deck.  I won't go into too much detail but if I had played a Chandra's Outrage appropriately I would not lost by one life as that's what it came down too.  I elected to do deal three damage to a two toughness creature, rather than dole out that extra one damage to the player thus losing me the game.

That's all I wanted to say, if you're new to Magic the Gathering, (like me) pickup the Magic 2014 Fire Surge Intro Deck, I picked it up discounted as the new Magic the Gathering stuff is gearing up to be released and I really like it as an intro deck.

Hearthstone Basick Build - Mage

 Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

Magic Basic Build.

This build is great for new players, who haven't acquired or bought many cards or just for the casual player who'd like to start out with a solid deck early on.  This basic mage build is a good all rounder and can handle most situations. E.g. Removal with Polymorph, Flamestrike.  Ranged damage with Fireball, card draw with Novice Engineer, Gnomish Inventor + Arcane Intellect. And a little bit of aggro with the Elven Archer and Gurubashi Berserker (The Gurubashi Berserker can also be set off by your hero power too)

An alternative could be to trade out the Chillwind Yeti for an Ogre Magi.
You get +1 spell damage for 1 health.

Noob MTG Mono Black Deck Build

Here we go at building a limited mono black deck from fifty six black cards from the Theros and Born of the Gods sets.  I am yet to test this out against anyone as I only threw this together not long ago. I will test it out shortly and submit a battle report here to let you all know how it went.

The deck in its current state -

60 Cards Total -

I have one Night Howler (not used currently), used in conjunction with the Forsaken Drifters penchant for expanding your graveyard, it could be potentially be a last ditch game changer, if you're lucky to not throw out Night Howler in the process. To somehow control this, the March of the Returned sorcery card can return up to 2 cards from your graveyard back to your hand. So maybe get some more Night Howlers and March of the Returned sorcery cards to maximise your potential for a game ending Night Howler or two.


Creatures - x19

4x Forsaken Drifters - Zombie - 4 drop(tricky one, when they die they take four cards from the top of your library with them)

4x Servant of Tymaret - Zombie - 3 drop

2x Felhide Brawler - Minotaur - 2 drop

2x Warchanter of Mogis - Minotaur - 5 drop

2x Marshmist Titan - Giant - 7 drop

1x Felhide Minotaur - Minotaur - 3 drop

1x Sengir Vampire - Vampire - 5 drop

1x Eater of Hope - Demon - 7 drop

1x Tormented Hero - Human Warrior - 1 drop

1x Disciple of Phenax - Human Cleric - 4 drop


Enchantment Creature - x4

2x Nyxborn Eidolon - Spirit - 2 drop

1x Spiteful Returned - Zombie - 2 drop

1x Archetype of Finality - Gorgon - 6 drop


Sorcery - x7

4x Asphyxiate - 4 drop

1x Sip of Hemlock - 6 drop

1x Gild - 4 drop

1x March of the Returned - 4 drop


Enchantment - Aura - x3

2x Weight of the Underworld - 4 drop

1x Claim of Erebos - 2 drop


Instant - x4

2x Eye Gouge - 1 drop

1x Wring Flesh - 1 drop

1x Pharikas Curse - 2 drop


Lands - x23

23x Swamp Lands


--Unused Cards--


1x Night Howler

1x Blood Bairn

1x Loathsome Catoblepas

1x Champion of Stray Souls

1x Minotaur Abomination

1x Rescue of the Underworld

1x Keepsake Gorgon

2x Sanguinmancy

3x Returned Centaur

1x Grisly Transformation

1x Necrobite

1x Shrivel

1x Asphyxiate

2x Forsaken Drifters

Link to the original Squidoo lense

This weekend haul!

Hello everyone,

I have returned from a massive weekend of hunting around 2nd hand shops and came up empty handed in finding an Nintendo Entertainment System to convert into a PC.  After finally giving in I went to the local games store and picked up this lot to dry my tears with.

Magic the Gathering Born of the Gods Fat Pack, Battle the Horde solitaire deck, matte black protective sleeves. some spare D20's and my awesome girlfriend got me for our Anniversary a Magic The Gathering hand made blue / black deck box!

Truly Epic!

So I didn't come up empty handed after all!, thanks for reading and will get another post on what I got in the Born of the Gods Fat Pack!

You like Magic The Gathering? Watch Top Decking.

I've discovered a nice web series called Top Decking from the Webisodes network.  The show revolves around a handful of characters working in a Magic The Gathering store.  It has a nice smattering of cliches, rivalries, stereotypes and Magic The Gathering game play throughout to keep it fresh and interesting.

Excellent writing and superb acting makes Top Decking, to me exceptionally addictive show.  Ten minute episodes make the show really accessible and bit size to consume just about any time of day whilst at work on your phone or at home when in between doing laundry loads (or what ever it is you do at home).  The added bonus is it has the element of Magic The Gathering throughout making Top Decking a must watch show for Magic The Gathering players.  Hell it even touches upon League of Legends and you'll may also notice some other Youtube Celebrities amongst the cast.

Magic The Gathering is awesome, Top Decking is superb I suggest you check it out!

Youtube - Top Decking playlist
Host Site - Webisodes Network

Magic 2014 - Sealed Play - Red/Green Test Deck part 2

The card list is as follows.

• Red - Striking Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Green - Predatory Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Red - Blur Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Green - Fog - Instant
• Green - Deadly Recluse - Creature
• Green - Plummet - Instant
• Red - Regathan Fire Cat - Creature
• Green - Advocate of the Beast - Creature
• Green - Oaken Form - Sorcery
• Red - Slaughter Cry - Instant
• Red - Moltern Birth - Sorcery
• Red - Firewing Phoenix - Creature
• Red - Marauding Maulhorn - Creature Beast
• Green - Rumbling Baloth - Creature Beast
• Red - Awaking the Ancient - Enchantment Aura
• Red - Bonebreaker Giant - Creature
• Red - Cleaver Riot - Sorcery
• Red - Turn to Slag - Sorcery
• Green - Enlarge - Sorcery
• Green - Yavimaya Wurm - Creature

Me and Magic: The Gathering (A quick look)

I've recently started playing Magic: The Gathering.  A game I had seen advertised back in the day when I used to play Warhammer 40k, but being young I never really had the funds or was in the right location to check it out.  (The dilemmas of a nerdy kid living in a small country town)

So what got me into MTG, Apart from the general interest gained from when I was a kid?  What pushed me over the edge after literally hand over fist with cash (fist over hand?) on board games? This is what did it

The MTG From The Vault Twenty Boxset
Yes that is me :o)

That bloody MTG box set, I had won it over last Xmas via a competition held by Australian Tabletop Gaming Network.  Thus sparking me to embark on a MTG journey and enjoying every minute of it.
What's in the MTG From The Vault Twenty?  20 rare cards such as Jace, The Mind Sculptor apparently worth $120.00 aud on Ebay (the most expensive in this box set).  However, I won't be opening it anytime soon, lets just say I am hoping it will appreciate in value over time.

I haven't played many games and I ended up buying the Magic 2014 game from Steam which helped me along with the rules and nuances of the different coloured decks White, Blue, Black, Red and Green.  White being protection and order, Blue being manipulation and illusion, Black is death and darkness, Red being freedom and impulse, Green is growth and instinct.  Build your decks up purchasing pre-built decks such as Heroes Vs Monsters which give you two playable decks of 60 cards each to get you going straight away for a minimal cost.

Heroes Vs Monsters Duel Decks

You can scour ebay for singles of rare/mythic rare cards to bolster your ranks but be prepared to pay a small fortune for the rarities (some well into the thousands of dollars).  Or you can literally buy hundreds of common cards of multiple colours to build your decks with.  There are intro decks to get you into the fray immediately with a core set of 60 cards and 2 booster packs, booster packs consist of 15 cards at random which if you're lucky may get a rare or mythic rare card.

It really is an easy game to learn and quite a lot of fun, it isn't really an expensive or time consuming hobby as compared to say Warhammer 40k, no assembly or painting required either and easier to find opponents as you could teach the basics in an afternoon.  You can make it as expensive as you like depending on how serious you take it or even make money off it if you get lucky in a few booster pack openings or make some good trades.  Websites such as MTG Price will help you keep track of how much your collection is worth.

All in all, I don't regret stepping into the realm of Magic: The Gathering with rich art work and lore it'll keep me entertained for years to come and possibly retire on my MTG: From the Vault: Twenty box set... dream on dreamer.