Monday, December 24, 2012

Bolas does his thing

Okay, okay. So, I lost. But, I lost with style. And that's what really matters. :)

I've been on-and-off with this Grixis deck: Bolas Is Behind It All!

Nicol Bolas

I like making new decks because there's something thrilling about seeing if it "works." Things aren't quite right with the Bolas deck, but I suspect the reason is that I'm not using any cards from my other EDH decks in it. That's right: no duplicates.

Without all the "mana rocks," I'm just not accelerating like I want to. The spells I'm running are on the expensive side, so all too often I'm in the position of holding onto a handful of good stuff but with no way to throw it out there. I may have to bend my rule to put a few staple cards in to boost the mana production around turn 4-5 in most games.

Sol RingWorn PowerstoneThran DynamoGilded Lotus

I had a chance to play a three-player game this weekend with the deck, though. And the core concept actually worked out the way I wanted it to. I lost the game, but it was worth it. Chris was able to infect me out with Glistening Oil, but before he did I had lots of fun stuff out on the table. Heck, Rhystic Study was even working for me!

For one, Kaervek the Merciless totally lives up to his name. Once he drops, I get to start shooting things left and right. At one point, Ben cast Elesh to which Chris responded with Gather Specimens. Blamo.

Kaervek the MercilessElesh Norn, Grand CenobiteGather Specimens


I also had Vicious Shadows out. Talk about scary. Suddenly, everyone starts to get real careful about who attacks who and when. Blamo.

Vicious Shadows

I was grabbing other commanders with Control Magic and Slave of Bolas. I was dropping Planeswalkers as speed bumps. I was drawing fistfulls of cards with Consecrated Sphinx. It was a good ol' time. At one point, Ben cast Congregation at Dawn putting Sun Titan on top of his deck along with a few other creatures. I cast Telemin Performance. Blamo.

Congregation at DawnSun TitanTelemin Performance

Like I said, I may need to bend the rule about not including cards I have in other decks to really make this deck work. But, despite losing, it was one of the best games of Magic I've played in a while.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Spotlight: Rings of Brighthearth

I'm not the only person to sing the praises of Rings of Brighthearth, but if you are looking for a more "technical" line in your deck, check this out:

Rings of Brighthearth

On the surface, this card doesn't look like much. It's a 3-mana artifact with some confusing rules text on it from the Lorwyn set. In reality, it's a card that does cool stuff and fits in a lot of different decks. What can it do?

"Whenever you play an activated ability..."

What's an activated ability, you might ask? Well, activated abilities are all over the place in Magic. Look for things that are formatted like this: {cost}:{effect}. Here's an example.

Polluted Delta

If I tap this card, pay 1 life, and sacrifice this card, then I get to do the stuff after the colon. I have to "activate" this ability.

"...if it isn't a mana ability,"

Just because an ability is on a land, like Polluted Delta, doesn't mean that it's a mana ability. Mana abilities produce mana. Polluted Delta doesn't. So, it's not. So, there.

"...you may pay (2)."

Putting this all together, Rings of Brighthearth so far lets me pay (2) mana whenever I play an activated ability. If that's all it did, it would be pretty unspectacular, but check out the next part.

"If you do, copy that ability. You may choose new targets for the copy."

Woah! Hold the phone.

Copying things in Magic is often very strong. And this is no exception. Note that you can only copy the activated abilities you play, not the ones that your opponents play. But still, there are plenty of those.

The fetch lands, like Polluted Delta, are great to copy. Here's what happens. You drop your fetch land on the table, tap it, pay the 1 life, and then sacrifice it. Now, you pay 2 mana and copy the activated ability. In other words, you are going to get to search your library for a land card... twice... and then put them into play untapped. Not too shabby. But it gets better.

Guess what else has activated abilities that can be copied?

Karn Liberated

Yeah, that's right. Planeswalkers. For a measly 2 mana, you can smack-a-roo two cards from a player's hand. Double-activations of Planeswalker abilities are usually very strong. There are plenty of situations where doubling up makes things quite one-sided. Like with Karn's second ability.

Look closely at how the Planeswalker abilities are formatted. Changing the status of the loyalty counters is part of the cost. Rings of Brighthearth copies the "effect" part of the ability. So, you could activate Karn's "Exile target permanent" ability for -3 loyalty, copy it with the Rings, and exile a second permanent too - all while leaving Karn at 3 loyalty to do it again next turn.

If you put your mind to it (and start searching for {cost}:{effect} cards), you'll see plenty of devious opportunities to apply the Rings and bring the heat. But I'd like to point out one other activated ability where the Rings can really kick things into high gear: Cycling.

Lonely Sandbar

Cycling is an activated ability. See, there's the colon right there on the card. So, if you are holding a Lonely Sandbar and want to get rid of it, just pay U and discard it to activate the Cycling ability as normal. Then, pay 2 to use the Rings on the effect. Now, draw a card. Then, draw a card again. Not bad. 2U for two cards. And it can't be countered.