Time
Spiral – Do you want a flake with that?
By Dr.
Chunk
Before I go into the main thing I wish to share my lead up to pre-release weekend. Long weekend from work, out on Thursday night. Lovely meal, get picked up by Mrs. who then rams car into nearest lamppost and writes off £15,000 worth of convertible:
But like the Murphy’s, I’m not bitter!
Anyway. There is something special about
pre-release day. Even more so when it is the dawning of a new
block. It is the first opportunity we get to see, play, taste and feel
the new set. A time of bad card choices, experimentation and telling oneself
you know what the format is all about before you find out how misjudged you
were.
I like to use
new set time to decide which card I think is least likely to have an impact and
then suggest everyone go out and buy four of them:
“Urza’s Rage? – Costs a lot of mana to kicker. Not Likely
to see much play.”
“I
think Kodama of the South Tree is the best of the Kodama’s. Who needs 6/4
trampling untargetability?”
You get the
picture…
For those of
you who do not browse and trawl the rumour boards you will not have noticed the
absolute paucity of sneaky peeks since the renowned Rancored
Elf vs. WotC. The rumour season spoilers are fewer
and further between and more often I now find myself having to wait for Wizards
“official” previews. Not that I have a problem with that and in some respects
not seeing the full spoiler a week before the event is quite good.
So Friday Night
Magic had come and gone. I managed a 3-1 with a straight forward Solar Flare
deck with sneaky Clutch of the Undercity tech. I had
access to the full spoiler by this time but I elected not to pore over every
card and dissect every possible trick. Sometimes it is nice to be a bit
surprised once in a while.
Saturday
morning and I make my way into
My pool arrives
and I cautiously, delicately and purposefully open my boosters and lay them
into nice little colour piles. Part of me wants to rush straight to the rare
and purple and scream like a girl when I open something bomb-tastic…
But I am a
grown man after all…
Moving swiftly
on to the pool:
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White |
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Blue |
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Black |
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Red |
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Green |
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Artifact / Land |
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Auratog |
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Bewilder |
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2x Assassinate |
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Aetherflame Wall |
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Aether
Web |
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Chromatic
Star |
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Benalish Cavalry |
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Brine
Elemental |
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Call to the Netherworld |
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Barbed
Shocker |
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Durkwood Baloth |
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Chronatog
Totem |
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2x
Children of Korlis |
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Fathom
Seer |
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Cyclopean Giant |
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Bonseplitter Sliver |
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Gaea's Blessing |
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Forysian Totem |
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Chronosavant |
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Giant
Oyster |
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Dauthi Slayer |
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2x
Coal Stoker |
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3x
Herd Gnarr |
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Vensers Sliver |
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Detainment
Spell |
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2x
Looter il-kor |
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2x Deathspore Thallid |
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Eron the Relentless |
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2x
Might of Old Krosa |
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Weatherseed Totem |
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Divine
Congregation |
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Magus
fo the Jar |
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Evil Eye of Urborg |
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Ground
Rift |
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Molder |
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Errant
Doomsayers |
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Ophidian
Eye |
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2x Gorgon Recluse |
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Ironclaw Buzzardiers |
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2x
Pendelhaven Elder |
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Saltcrusted Steppe |
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2x
Fortify |
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Psionic Sliver |
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2x Living End |
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Plunder |
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Penumbra
Spider |
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Urza's
Factory |
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Pentarch
Paladin |
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Riftwing
Cloudskate |
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Magus of the Mirror |
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Rift
Bolt |
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Savage
Thallid |
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2x
Spirit |
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Sage
of Epityr |
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Mana Skimmer |
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Tectonic
Fiend |
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Thallid Germinator |
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Watcher
Sliver |
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Screeching
Sliver |
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Pit Keeper |
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Thick-Skinned
Goblin |
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Thallid Shell-Dweller |
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Zealot
il-vec |
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Teferi,
Mage of Zhalfir |
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Premature Burial |
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Undying
Rage |
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Thrill
of the Hunt |
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Temporal
Eddy |
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Sangrophage |
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2x
Viashino Bladescout |
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Think
Twice |
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2x Tendrils of Corruption |
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Wildfire
Emissary |
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Tolarian Sentinel |
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Viscid Lemures |
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It’s peanut-butter-white-space time!
Peanut-butter-white-space time!
…is this really necessary?
…anyone even read this bit?
…let me know on the forum and I’ll stop doing it.
So what did you
come up with? Are you happy? Is it your final answer?
The list that
follows should be very close to my actual deck but in my incredible wisdom I
dismantled the whole thing so I could do the list above. Yay
for brains!
A few notes on
the colours:
White
– Pentarch Paladin is undeniably a bomb. He is also undeniably un-splashable
and give the shallowness of the white we have to
discard him with the rest of the chaff. Chronosavant looks like he could be fun
but there is a difference between fun and good. A bit like
eating a whole tub of Ben & Jerry’s.
Blue
– The
selling point here is double looter man. He is the absolute nuts when it comes
to sifting through the deck and does a good job at running the madness.
Cloudskate is a flying Ogre Savant and Fathom seer is Gush on legs. Teferi is
interesting but 
is rather restrictive. I admit here that I
underestimated the Magus.
Black – Dauthi Slayer gives more shadow
beats and Assassinate and Tendrils are solid removal. I have a personal fetish
with Sangrophage and Magus looks like fun. Evil eye is HUGE although he is a
bit risky as he stops the shadow.
Red –
A good number of creatures, including Eros the Heartbreaker, but the removal is
somewhat lacking.
Green
– Maybe I misunderstand Herd Gnarr. Maybe he is
actually quite good. A good number of beefy men with some
solid combat tricks thrown in for good measure. Thallids
FTW as well!
Artifact/Land/Gold – A selection of Totems are good and the star is very
good at fixing and digging.
And the decklist:
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Let’s
Get Diggin’ by Dr. Chunk //
Creatures 2 Looter il-Kor 1
Riftwing Cloudskate 1
Dauthi Slayer 1
Gorgon Recluse 1
Pit Keeper 1
Sangrophage 1
Brine Elemental 1
Fathom Seer 1
Cyclopean Giant 1
Mana Skimmer 1
Evil Eye of Urborg |