Starstreak: Journey of the Ancients Deck Building Game

In about two weeks, Starstreak Entertainment will start a kickstarter campaign for our very first product. Starstreak: Journey of the Ancients is a Space-Based Deck Building Game for 2-4 Players.  Further updates are to come.

Turn By Turn - Avengers Assemble

Earlier yesterday, I posted the list to my newest standard deck, "The Avengers".  However, I have received many request to explain in more detail how a typical game goes and how I set up my win conditions.  I felt those were good questions.  So today, I would like to take a few sample hands and break down the average game.

Lets assume we are on the play for this game.  Lets draw our opening hand.

Opening Hand:

• Caves of Koilos
• Forest
• Nomad Outpost
• Jace, the Living Guildpact
• Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• Sylvan Caryatid
• End Hostilities

This hand has some potential.  We can play a turn two Caryatid into a possible turn three Jace and turn four Sarkhan.

Turn One:

• Nomad Outpost onto the battlefield tapped

Turn Two:

• Draw Divination
• Play Forest 
• Cast Caryatid

Turn Three:

• Draw Battlefield Forge
• Cast Divination - Draws Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Krupix
• Play Caves of Koilos

Turn Four:

• Draw Xenagos, the Reveler
• Play Battlefield Forge
• Cast Xenagos and make a Saytr token

Turn Five:

• Draw Nissa, Worldwaker
• Cast Courser of Kruphix revealing Divination
• +1 Xenagos and add RRR to mana pool
• Cast Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• +1 Sarkhan and attack for 4 damage

Turn Six

• Draw Divination and reveal End Hostilities
• Cast Divination - Draws End Hostilities and Garruk, Apex Predator
• Reveal Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• Play Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth revealing Sultai Charm
• +1 Sarhkan
• +1 Xenagos adding GGGG to your mana pool
• Cast Garruk, Apex Predator
• +1 Garruk and destroy their Planeswalker or make a deathly beast. (We will make a beast.)
• Attack with Sarkhan

Turn Seven

• Draw Sultai Charm revealing Jace, the Living Guildpact
• +1 Sarkhan
• +1 Xenagos adding GGGGG to your mana pool
• Cast Nissa, Worldwaker
• +1 Nissa making Caves of Koilos into a 4/4 trampler
• -3 Garruk to destory their pesky creature and gain some life
• Attack with the team

From this point, your opponent is unlikely to come back.  This game saw a serious lack of blue mana production in the form of lands, but that didn't deter us from continuing with other options.  Xenagos is a powerful planeswalker that can give you large amounts of mana.  Because of the defensive nature of our main board creatures, they can live long enought so that Xenagos can add two to four green mana with his +1 ability.

Lets move on to Game two and this time we are on the draw.

Opening Hand:

• Forest
• Temple of Mystery
• Temple of Plenty
• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
• Garruk, Apex Predator
• Nissa, Worldwaker

This hand is a bit tricky.  The temples seem like they are going to be helpful.  Lets keep the hand and see where it goes.  

Turn One:

• Draw Jace, the Living Guildpact
• Play Temple of Plenty and take a peek at Sylvan Caryatid. Lets keep that right there.

Turn Two:

• Draw Sylvan Caryatid
• Play Forest
• Cast Sylvan Caryatid

Turn 3: 

• Draw End Hostilities
• Play Urborg
• Cast Jace, the Living Guildpact
• +1 Jace - Seeing Cave of Koilos and Battlefield Forge. Pitch the Caves.

Turn 4:

• Draw Battlefield Forge
• Play Forge
• Cast Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
• -3 Jace to bounce opponents threat
• +1 Ajani seeing Utter End, 2x End Hostilities, and Xenagos, the Reveler.  Take Xenagos.

Turn 5:

• Draw Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• Play Temple of Plenty peeking at Sultai Charm. (We're keeping that)
• Cast Xenagos and make a Satyr token
• +1 Ajani to give three +1/+1 counters to the Satyr token.
• Attack with Satyr token for 5 damage
• +1 Jace seeing Temple of Plenty and Sultai Charm.  Pitch the Temple.

Turn Six:

• Draw Sultai Charm
• Cast Elspeth
• +1 Elspeth and make three Soldier tokens
• Xenagos makes a Saytr token
• +1 Ajani to give new Satyr token three +1/+1 counters
• Attack with both Satyrs for 10 damage
• +1 Jace seeing Kiora, the Crashing Wave and Divination. Pitching Divination

Turn Seven:

• Draw Kiora, the Crashing Wave
• +1 Jace seeing Ajani, Mentor of Heroes and Temple of Enlightenment. Pitching Ajani.
• +1 Elspeth to make three Soldier tokens
• +1 Xenagos adding GGGGGGGGG to your mana pool
• Cast Garruk, Apex Predator
• -3 Garruk to clear the way
• Cast Nissa, Worldwaker
• +1 Nissa to make the Forest into a 4/4 Trampler
• +1 Ajani to put three +1/+1 counters on the Creature Land
• Swing with the team for 17 damage

This game seem to similar path as the previous game at the end.  Xenagos continued to demonstrate the great amounts of mana he can generate that can lead to playing multiple threats each turn.

When playing the deck, I have found that players tend to become uneasy when multiple Planeswalkers are on the field.  It gives them extra thinking to do and puts them in a panic.  Questions of "Who should I attack?" and "Can I kill the player before the walker kills me?" arise.  I cannot tell you how many times that my Planeswalkers have acted as life gain spells for me.  The more I put down, it becomes more and more likely that my life total will not move down again.

Keep in mind that these test games are played with no interaction from the opponent.  In the control match-up, your first couple of walkers may become countered.  However, with the saturation of Planewalkers in the deck, your opponent will often times cast nothing on your turn so they can counter your next spell.  This is where having early game Coursers are great.  They can get in most often unchallenged.  

When sideboarding for game two, I usually bring in Chandra, Liliana, and Sorin along with Unravel the AEther (Keranos is a thing).  While taking out the mass removal that is unneeded for the control.  Upping the count of walkers insures that a number of them will resolve and apply even more pressure on your opponent.

In the aggro match-up, having early game Caryatids and Coursers and protect you from unwanted company. Typically, most aggro decks don't have the tools to flat out deal with planeswalkers.  So, they must use their creatures  and hope to connect.  End Hostilities often times can solidify my control of the game by turn four or five, and then walkers come down and shut them out.

For game two, the cards I sideboard can differ.  For the RDW match-up, Anger of the Gods makes an appearance.  If the majority of the creatures I saw were X/1's, the I bring in Chandra.  Hornet Nest can also make an appearance in this match because of its ability to just stop combat.  In my game against RDW at FNM this last week, I brought in Sorin to give my blockers that extra edge.

In the Mid-range match-up, the decks have similar beginning turns like mine.  They play their Caryatids and Coursers hoping to gain advantage with early mana.  Unlike those decks, our threats are harder to kill and have repeatable effects,  Kiora and Jace can delay opponets plans and sculpting draws. 

I feel that the deck is generally set up to battle mid-range decks.  So, when sideboarding against these types of decks, I bring in Abzan Charms and Banishing Light to deal with their creatures.  To make room for these cards, I usually take out Divinations and Jaces.  Jace seems like a bad plan when battling Siege Rhinos.  Abzan Charms have a similar role as the Divinations but have that little added bonus to exile their beaters.

The deck is really fun to play and can make for a very interesting experience each game you play.  I am currently testing a few changes that I have made for the deck.  However, I will report on those changes next time.

Have a wonderful day spellslingers!

FNM Warrior - Avengers Assemble

Happy Saturday Magic Players!  Today, I would like to talk about the deck I took to FNM this week.  Many players would refer to this deck as "Super Friends".  However, I prefer to use the name "The Avengers", because it seems better suited in terms of power and flavor.

"As a planeswalker, I have traveled the multiverse far and wide.  My adventures have allowed me to forge friendships, but at the same time have uncovered ancient evils hellbent on my annihilation.  Every Friday night, I encounter many of these foes and must fight to keep my spark from being extinguished.  It is here that I call upon my my friends and allies to join me in battle, and save the countless innocent worlds where we find these evils.  Maybe they unleash their hordes and maybe its too much for us, but we will not cower.  Because, if we can't protect this plane, you can be damn well sure we will avenge it."  - Jatal Fendal, Planeswalker

Hope you enjoyed that tiny bit of flavor.  Now, lets take a look at the actual decklist.

The deck utilizes all five colors using an assortment of eleven unique planeswalkers.  The mana cost of our spells does not make for an easy mana base.

By making the deck based in green, it allowed the use of Sylvan Caryatids and Coursers of Kruphix.  Not only do both of these creatures help fix our mana, but also stop the early onslaught of creatures from aggro players.  In the control match up, they allowed us to ramp into our control cards quicker and Courser provides pressure on the opponent as well.

At my last FNM, I managed to go 4-0-0 after a few skill intensive games.

Round 1 - UR Aggro/Combo

From what I gathered during my games, this deck uses Spellheart Chimeras and Chasm Skulkers to beat down their opponent while casting spells that help pump the creatures for extra value.  The deck, being a neat concept proved not to be quick enough to end the game before I gained control.  I was able to get the match 2-0.

Round 2 - Bant Monsters

Much like its Mono-Green cousin, this deck utilizes blue mana to flash out their beaters during the end step.  With Kiora main boarded, the player has the ability to quickly ramp or prevent early damage.  White gives them access to Banishing Light and Elspeth, Sun's Champion.  Encountering a turn four Elspeth is no joke and is hard to deal with.  After a skill intensive third game, I got the match 2-1.

Round 3 - Grixis

Not quite sure how to categorize this deck.  Having played against this deck in previous weeks, I am still unsure how this deck functions.  In earlier weeks, this deck played Ashiok and ran heavy on counter magic.  Though with early creature plays, I managed to get a Courser and a Nissa resolved to beat in some damage.  However, this week, he didn't seem to have any early spells, but managed to land double Stormbreath Dragons during game one.  With him tapped out, I was able to resolve an Elspeth to quickly deal with the pesky reptiles.  Game two ended with Nissa waking the world and Xenagos summoning his followers.  After 40 minutes of play, I got the match 2-0.

Round 4 - Mono-Red Aggro

Mono-Red is a archetype that I feel is a favorable match-up for me.  Caryatids and Coursers gum up the ground enough to extend the game and give me time to stabilize.

During game one, with a combination of Monastery Swiftspears and Titan Strengths, my opponent managed to get me to 2 life.  On my next turn, I was able to gain life with my Courser, then cast Garruk to sacrifice my Courser to gain 4 more life to get out of range of any burn spell he might topdeck.  After stabilizing, Nissa and Elspeth managed get me the game.

Game two was less to be desired.  I kept a slow hand that cost my dearly.  I opponent managed to turn one Swiftspear, then turn two swiftspear.  This then lead to a turn four kill.  I kept a triple Temple hand with a Caryatid and Courser.  I needed the ability to cast the Caryatid on turn 2 and courser on turn 3.  Being a turn slower managed to break me.  He got game two.

Game three started with me on the play.  Being on the play allowed me to get a turn ahead and land a Hornet Nest to deter incoming attacks.  On following turns, I resolved a Courser and a Caryatid to cement my control of the game.  From there, Sorin joined the party and started my climb to victory with his +1 ability.  I get game three.

After four hard fought rounds at FNM, I now have some more insight into my decks strengths and weaknesses.  Over the next week, I am going to try a few changes.  If they prove to be better, I will run the new build next Friday night.

Have a wonderful day spellslingers!

Thassa's Crusade

Looking for a deck to play at FNM this evening?  How about Mono-Blue Devotion?  Check out the decklist below.

Creatures
4x Hypnotic Siren
4x Embodiment of Spring
4x Jeskai Elder
4x Thassa, God of the Sea
4x Master of Waves
3x Riptide Chimera
2x Sagu Mauler

Enchantments
4x Ensoul Artifact
3x Military Intelligence
4x Fate Foretold

Land
4x Darksteel Citadel
4x Temple of Mystery
4x Yavimaya Coast
8x Island
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Mono-Blue Devotion was a pillar of Standard for most of the past year, and the rotation has made that deck disappear.  However, I feel that Devotion is a mechanic that can still be good even when the hybrid cards from Ravnica Block are gone.  Sleeve it up and give it a try.