Eldritch Moon Highlander Set Review (very late)

Wussup,

Man, I'm sooo far behind on set reviews.

Here's my previous one for Shadows over Innistrad if you missed it.

It's 11:12pm. I tried to go to sleep but no, mind had other ideas and I couldn't stop thinking about how I would build a cube when I eventually get round to doing it.
Anyway, couldn't sleep so thought I'd slink out of bed, pour myself a glass of milk (underrated) and try catch up on my Highlander set reviews.
As of this article, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, wipe the brown, has come out, so that's next after this. Kaladesh prerelease is this weekend, so I'm behind on that one too.

Apologies that I won't be having hyperlinks on cards for this article. There's just too many to do and this article is going to be long as fuck.

*sips milk*

"Rekt"

Shines brightest in aggro decks where you can make use of your opponent's creatures entering tapped.

Thalia can go in any deck except combo and control decks with sweepers.

Three-power first strike works great with and against Jitte. Also good with and against Rancor.

Durrr.

God damn this card is too good. Can't believe they made it this good. Spell Queller doesn't require any support but some protection will make it even better: Duress, Thoughtseize, Inquistion of Kozilek, Mental Misstep and Mother of Runes. I even like Spellskite.

When I'm evaluating creatures in Highlander I always consider how well they hold equipment. Spell Queller comes down the turn before you would Jitte + equip, and the flying will probably keep it alive after damage.

Eventually there may be a spirit tribal deck but not yet. Here are the only decent spirit payoffs that I found:

Drogskol Captain

Tallowisp

annnnd...

I mentioned Mausoleum Wanderer before. Cloud Pirates have come a long way. "Mausoleum", such a weird word. Sounds Hebrew.

But yeah, Skullclamp, Jitte, and Sword of X and Y, all good with this guy.
Even a nice one-drop for a blue devotion deck.

Speaking of equipment...

To make Sigarda's Aid worth it you'll need to play more equipment than the usual two or three. All the Sword of X and Y's are great. Jitte, Batterskull and Skullclamp are obviously great. That should be plenty of equipment. For fun I had a search for some less loved equipment that would be particularly good with Sigarda's Aid. Here they are:

Argentum Armor

Moonsilver Spear

Scythe of the Wretched

With such expensive equip costs these are very risky if you haven't got Siggy's Aid. If you were also playing Quest for the Holy Relic, then you could justify them.
I totally overlooked the Aura clause, don't think it's relevant though. Maybe be Wheel of Sun and Moon post-board.

Fuckin...Tree!....Fuckin..getchya!

I can imagine this being a sweet random card in control decks; They lay the tree, stabalise and turn the corner reeeal fast. Also, if you activate the ability (abili-tree) and then morbid Tragic Slip on it they're dead! Tree slip. 

Twisted Image and Inside Out would also work.

What am I saying??? This is a terrible idea and you should not play this card....giving haste would be nice. Also very cool with Necrotic Ooze...so tempting but so bad...but maybe not...

Bet you weren't expecting this card to be on my list!...you probably weren't expecting Tree of Perdition either I suppose.

ALL LANDS. That has to be breakable. Just add all the looting and dredge cards that you can find and a few lands with mana sink abilities. Bake for 20-30 minutes, sit uncovered to cool for 5 minutes and serve. Splendid.

This one's a sideboard only card for Mishra's Workshop decks. Good against control as a hard-to-deal-with threat, mana fixer and accelerator.

I reckon this card has a home. It's best in creature heavy metagames since the last ability is by far the best. Kills a True-name Nemesis, which is nice.

In the right conditions you could make them sac a creature AND untap a big blocker for a two-for-one.

There a plenty of decks which won't attack you with creatures often, so I would only use this card in a deck which can make use of the "untap two creatures" mode. I'm thinking of a green heavy Bant ramp deck with:

• Knight of the Reliquary
• Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• Roffelos, Llanowar Emissary
• Dragonlord Ojutai
• Joraga Treespeaker

Good in reanimator and dredge decks. Also excellent in the Turbo Walk deck which some of the East Melbourners may have lost to at the hands of Brett Hughes:

Time Walk***

Jace, the Mind Sculptor*

Muddle the Mixture*

Mana Drain*

Force of Will*

Emrakul, the Aeon’s Torn

Capture of Jinghou

Temporal Manipulation

Time Warp

Part the Waterveil

Walk the Aeons

Temporal Mastery

Temporal Trespass

Anvil of Bogardan

Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

Howling Mine

Kami of the Crescent Moon

Dictate of Kruphix

Jace Beleren

Temple Bell

Noxious Revival

Call to Mind

Relearn

Brainstorm

Ponder

Preordain

Serum Visions

Sleight of Hand

Impulse

Mental Misstep

Spell Snare

Boomerang

Counterspell

Remand

Shadow of Doubt

Spreading Seas

Cryptic Command

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

Minamo, School at Water's Edge

Flooded Strand

Misty Rainforest

Polluted Delta

Scalding Tarn

Geier Reach Sanitarium

16 Island

SIDEBOARD

Laboratory Maniac

Spellskite

Null Rod

Ratchet Bomb

Back to Basics

Extract

Gigadrowse

Dispel

Negate

Repeal

Propaganda

Ætherize

Whelming Wave

Jace, Architect of Thought

Jace, Memory Adept

A good aggressive creature in equipment decks. A bad blocker by itself, but you can block and sac' if you have other blockers, so it's not useless in defense.

Obviously great against sweepers, except for Toxic Deluge, which is probably the most popular sweeper.
The sacrifice ability is pseudo protection against removal. About half of Highlander removal is 'exile' though. If you're investing mana into expensive powerful creatures or equipping a creature or assembling a creature combo (Splinter Twin + Pestermite or Grindstone + Painter's Servant), then Selfless Spirit's indestructible could win you the game.

Brutal

That show sucks by the way. This card however, is pretty nice. It will always to something. For it to be really good though, the -2/-2 needs to relevant in the matchup, which you can't count on. Even aggro decks play a lot of Kird Apes and equipment.

I like this most in Reanimator decks which really want to discard their fatties and duress their opponent's removal spells.

Almost unbeatable if she lives and they don't combo off. I can imagine a black white control deck with some unbeatable angels, some of discard and creature protection, such as the previous two cards!

Very weird creature with a unique ability. Tried it out in my colourless deck but the risk of my opponent having a 'target at will' ability was too scary. Tower of the Magistrate or Elspeth, Knight Errant... Those aren't super common but the power level of Eternal Scourge isn't that high.

I still like this card against control decks if your deck has a bunch of ways to exile Scourge from your graveyard, e.g. Relic of Progentius, Scrabbling Claws, Deathrite Shaman, Scavenging Ooze and Moorland Haunt.

 The cat's face gets me everytime.

So what permanents do we want to give our opponent's? Illusions of Grandeur, Demonic Pact...that's it, but both of those are pretty sweet. Don't know if the deck could stretch it's mana base to add white for all the enchantment tutors; yeahhh it's Highlander, the mana would work.

Obviously the deck would play Donate and Puca's Mischief as well.
I've decided there aren't enough of each effect for the deck to work but I'll keep it in mind.

Is a planeswalker deck doable? My first thought was the rest of the deck would need to be disruption. Let's see if we can fit enough disruption in with the minimum number of walkers for Deploy the Gatewatch. I would be happy with hitting two planeswalkers 70% of the time. Using stat trek, that means we need ≥19 walkers. Here we go!

DEPLOY CHRISTOPHER WALKEN!

Deploy the Gatewatch

Doubling Season

Mana Vault*

Black Lotus****

Enlightened Tutor*

Mana Drain*

Oath of Liliana

Oath of Nissa

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

Liliana of the Veil

Liliana, the Last Hope

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

Elspeth, Knight Errant

Garruk Relentless

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Jace, Architect of Thought

Garruk Wildspeaker

Kiora, the Crashing Wave

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Elspeth Tirel

Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

Garruk, Primal Hunter

Gideon Jura

Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Duress

Inquisition of Kozilek

Thoughtseize

Mental Misstep

Collective Brutality

Castigate

Deathrite Shaman

Preordain

Ponder

Serum Visions

Ancient Tomb

Tundra

Hallowed Fountain

Bayou

Overgrown Tomb

Underground Sea

Watery Grave

Tropical Island

Breeding Pool

Savannah

Temple Garden

Scrubland

Godless Shrine

Wooded Foothills

Windswept Heath

Misty Rainforest

Verdant Catacombs

Marsh Flats

Bloodtained Mire

Polluted Delta

Flooded Strand

Scalding Tarn

Arid Mesa

SIDEBOARD

Gemstone Caverns

Mindbreak Trap

Rest in Peace

Moat

Ethersworn Canonist

Extract

Nullrod

Stoney Silence

Defense Grid

Massacre

Submerge

Swords to Plowshares

Chains of Mephistopheles

Wheel of Sun and Moon

Leyline of the Void

Man it's a pain in the arse trying to remember which planeswalkers have commas in their name and which don't.

With only ~eight pieces of disruption main, I don't know how this will go against combo. The curve is complete garbage and the deck plays a lot of shocklands (this could be fixed with some work). I presume the deck is not great against aggro either.

"Welcome to my zombie wonderland"

Liliana is amazing. She basically goes in any deck except combo.

Her +1 wrecks Skullclamp decks due to their high density of one-toughness creatures. 

You don't even need to be playing creatures for her to be good. Provided you have other stuff to support her, you can just +1 every turn and eventually ultimate. 

This Liliana is surprisingly similar to Nissa, Voice of Zendikar.

Liliana is alluring but I get creeped out imagining her age-defying magic running out and her turning all granny in seconds.

I finished my milk.

Special mention:

Not what the walker deck wanted. Would be good against midrange in an aggro deck but that's too narrow. You can do better than Tamiyo for a sideboard card too. I don't think she has a home.

Big pig.

Goes in elves as another Craterhoof Behemoth. Also just great in any swarm strategy, which no one has built yet... I think 'swarm of dudes + turn five overrun' could be good.

One shot super Birthing Pod. Turn two Magus of the Moon saccing a mana elf. Allosaurus Rider into Griselbrand or Iona, Shield of Emeria. Eladamri's Call can find Allosaurus Rider. You're probably just better reanimating them though, much faster but obviously bad against Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze.

Saccing a value two-drop on turn three to get an awesome four-drop can be a backup plan if you don't draw the Allosaurus Rider.
Voice of Resurgence/Stoneforge Mystic/Strangleroot Giest

finding

Siege Rhino/True-name Nemesis/Stoneforge Mystic :P/Thought-knot Seer

This card is awesome. Finally there's a playable Homonculus...actually Court Homonculus got a tiny bit of play.

Obviously you need to play it in heavy spell decks but it's awesome. Mental Note, Thoughtscour, Gitaxian Probe, Manamorphose, help it flip fast. You want to play instants and sorceries that require generic mana to get the most from him. 

If the Pro Tour was still Modern, I'd bet the Pros would find a deck for this guy and the following guy:

Treasure Cruise on legs. Treasure Legs, even though he doesn't seem to have legs. What he does have is the same 3/4 Prowess body as Curious Homonculus.

Bedlam Reveler is a little more conditional because you want your instants and sorceries to be proactive: discard spells, token making spells and burn spells are well suited.

There's the 'discard your hand' clause too, so to get max value you need to dump your hand, therefore the cheaper your spells, the better and you don't want to play cards which may get stuck in your hand.

Bedlam Reveler is nuts. Just think of walking on that ceiling: RR, 3/4 prowess, draw three cards, insane.

A couple strong aggro madness vampires. Their non-madness rates aren't terrible but you really want to madness them.

We took a look at madness in my Shadows over Innistrad set review. Here's the list of good madness enablers that we identified:

• Wild Mongrel 
• Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• Frantic Search
• Psychatog
• Dack Fayden
• Careful Study
• Faithless Looting
• Lotleth Troll
• Fauna Shaman
• Survival of the Fittest

Unfortunately a few cards short of critical mass. They also aren't all super aggro cards. Luckily, a few more enablers got printed this set!:

 All of which are aggro. Now we have thirteen good enablers. That's enough for a deck. Here we go!

Basking Rootwalla (One of my favourite artworks of all time)
Ancestral Recall**** (I never play this card. Might get a cleanup step discard)
Mental Misstep
Careful Study
Faithless Looting
Lightning Bolt
Deathrite Shaman
Asylum Visitor
Collective Brutality
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Wild Mongrel
Noose Constrictor
Furyblade Vampire
Stromkirk Condemned
Fauna Shaman
Lotleth Troll
Survival of the Fittest*
Stromkirk Occultist
Bloodmad Vampire
True-name Nemesis*
Bloodhall Priest
Circular Logic
Fiery Temper
Frantic Search
Dack Fayden
Psychatog
Olivia, Mobilized for War
Treasure Cruise*
Violent Eruption
Arrogant Wurn
Reckless Wurm
Incorrigible Youths
Voldaren Pariah
Avacyn's Judgement
Lion's Eye Diamond
Wooded Foothills
Windswept Heath
Misty Rainforest
Verdant Catacombs
Marsh Flats
Bloodtained Mire
Polluted Delta
Flooded Strand
Scalding Tarn
Arid Mesa
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Twilight Mire
Graven Cairns
Sunken Ruins
Underground Sea
Badlands
Bayou
Scrubland
Watery Grave
Overgrown Tomb
Bloodcrypt
Tropical Island
Taiga
Volcanic Island
Swamp

SIDEBOARD
Malicious Affliction
Big Game Hunter
Welcome to the Fold
Necropotence
Just the Wind
Nightshade Assassin
Submerge
Bloodsoaked Champion
Faerie Macabre
Bloodghast
Null Rod
Ancient Grudge
Murderous Compulsion
Disciple of Deceit
Gatekeeper of Malakir

Gnarly dude! Goes into more decks than you'd think. If your deck incidentally gets delirium and you're not a combo deck, this fits.

Control decks can even play this as a removal spell, which beefs up later on.

You'll need to play enough removal to reliably get past their blockers but once he hits, he'll keep finding removal.
I didn't realise he was wearing a cloak made of gloves until recently. Flayers gonna flay I suppose.

Put a bunch of "sac me please" three drops in your deck and each of these monstrosities will do great. Here are some "sac me please":

Kitchen Finks

Blade Splicer

Hallowed Spiritkeeper

Sprouting Thrinax

Tuktuk the Explorer

Geralf's Messenger

Matter Reshaper

Good burn spell. Excellent late game if your deck allows you to bank lands in hand to discard. Also, imagine the wombo combo with Spirit of the Labyrinth.

I got a bit excited and made another deck to showcase some of the new Eldritch Moon cards. The article will end eventually I promise:

Thran Turbine
Expedition Map
Crop Rotation*
Mental Misstep
Deathrite Shaman
Mana Vault*
Ancient Stirrings
Birds of Paradise
Traverse the Ulvenwald
Green Sun's Zenith*
Mox Ruby**
Mox Emerald**
Kessig Prowler
Sensei's Divining Top
Braid of Fire
Spellskite
Radha, Heir to Keld
Sylvan Scrying
Into the North
Duskwatch Recruiter
Tarmogoyf
Grim Monolith
Hanweir Garrison
Tireless Tracker
Den Protector
Seedborn Muse
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Polukranos, World Eater
Ulrich of the Krallenhorde
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Seige-Gang Command
Deranged Hermit
Ishkana, Grafwidow
Primeval Titan
Worldbreaker
Stomping Grounds
Taiga
Snow-covered Forest
Snow-covered Forest
Snow-covered Mountain
Snow-covered Mountain
Bayou
Wooded Foothills
Windswept Heath
Misty Rainforest
Verdant Catacombs
Bloodstained Mire
Scalding Tarn
Khalni Garden
Treetop Village
Raging Ravine
Dark Depths
Westvale Abbey
Thespian's Stage
Kher Keep
Hanweir Battlements
Dust Bowl
Gargoyle Castle
Mouth of Ronom
Kessig Wolfrun

SIDEBOARD
Maze of Ith
Scavenging Ooze
Homeward Path
Seagate Wreckage
Faerie Macabre
Pyrostatic Pillar
Choke
Thrun, the Last Troll
Flametongue Kavu
Akoum Firebird
Gorilla Shaman
Ash Zealot
Viashino Heretic
Phyrexian Revoker
Kitchen Finks

There's a lot going on here. My idea for the deck was to abuse the powerful mana generators that only give you out-of-main-phase mana, i.e. Thran Turbine-Braid of Fire-Radha, Heir to Keld and Seedborn Muse. There's not many of those, so the deck probably isn't good but we'll see.
Thran Turbine is very powerful. I can imagine a Legacy deck doing well with it one day then its price skyrocketing.
To abuse the mana generators I packed the deck full of activated abilities.

Thran Turbine and Braid of Fire can help pay for the meld cost on Battlements. I decided not to go deep on assembling this combination since it is a lot of mana and easily disruptable. As a compromise I added Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage combo and land tutors; That way I can tutor for Battlements if I incidentally draw Garrison.

Note that Into the North tutors for Dark Depths. It also finds Mouth of Ronom, which can use the mana generators.

Outside of this deck Hanweir Garrison is a decent aggro card and could also fit into a swarm strategy. Hanweir Battlements would be nice in a red Eldrazi deck that already wanted the colourless land.

With all the activated abilities in the deck, I figured that Ulrich would be better than usual because taking a turn off to activate some abilities gives you the bonus of flipping him.

Typically five-drops are slow in in Highlander but his pump ability keeps him up to speed. Obviously the pump gets better around lifelink, double strike and infect creatures.

Not sure if Ishkana is playable but I put her in anyway; with my deck's weakness to fliers, her activated ability and the little spiders to help summon Ormendahl, the Profane Prince, I couldn't resist. Coincidentally there are lots of Shadows over Innistrad cards in this deck, a nice flavour touch.

Fine stats on front side and a decent ability to sink mana into. 

Obviously better suited to aggro decks. Flexible one-drops should be noticed.

Last thoughts on the deck:

• It's possible that adding Dryad Arbor is correct due to the combined appeal of Green Sun's Zenith, Westvale Abbey and four green fetches. The deck could also swap Mox Ruby for Skullclamp to support Dryad Arbor.
• The sideboard is creature and land-centric due to the deck having access to land tutors, creature tutors and cards which generate mana for abilities.

Last thoughts on this set review:

• Goddamn that was long, why did I decide to do this?
• Is cereal a soup?
• Am I alcoholic?
• I'm glad to see the eldrazi gone for a while. It's been an awesome year of tentacles but it's been a year of tentacles.

So cool.

Ok, Land, Creature, Instant and Sorcery are all easy so let's focus on the exotics; We don't want to play bad cards just for their card type. Also, the cards need to naturally go to the graveyard.

Artifact

Ratchet Bomb, Powder Keg, Porcelain Legionnaire. That's not many. Probably need to play Mishra's Bauble and Urza's Bauble as well. Looks like we're a control deck. Better to be a control deck anyway so that when we take their turn, they have lots of mana for us to wreck them with their own spells.

Planeswalker

Take your pick from the planeswalker deck earlier in the piece. Can also choose red ones, which weren't in that list; most notably Nahiri, the Harbinger.

Enchantment

Pernicious Deed, Courser of Kruphix, Seal of Fire...those are the good ones. There are some average ones too: Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Seal of Doom, Parallax Wave, Parallax Tide and Parallax Nexus.

Tribal

Tarfire, Nameless Inversion and Warren Weirding. That's it really. We can play the good blue cantrips to increase our chances of drawing these but I wouldn't go further than that.

Naturally play a few ways to tutor for Emrakul and happy tentacles all round a hundred years.com

Cheers and hopefully I'll see you on the glorious field of battle!

In Your Head, In Your Head, Balthor, Balthor

When I was travelling around North America last year, EDH was a great way to kill time in stores where I knew no one. The players I tend to get along with are the ones trying to win PPTQ's. Typically those players don't play pick-up games of EDH in stores with strangers but despite that, it was a good way to just hang and get a feel for local lives. Also, if you don't mind waiting seven minutes until your turn and just let go of your bullshit, EDH is a blast.

I've only ever had one EDH deck and I love it. When I first started playing magic my friends were given their cousin's collection. This collection was comprised mostly of Odyssey, Onslaught and Mirrodin block commons and uncommons. Odyssey and Onslaught block had heaps of cards which read, "play this with other zombie cards". With minimal understanding of the game and little idea of how to build a deck, that was a clear seed to build with. The zombie decks didn't win much but the art was dark and badass.

Those first months of playing Magic with my friends were awesome fun; Sitting cross-legged on rugs, drinking cold milk and milo, watching Big Brother Up Late and playing Tony Hawk's Proskater 2. I wanted to pay homage to those times.

BALTHOR THE DEFILED <<< link to decklist

100 card decks are a lot to take in. I'll break it down:

THE PLAN
Fill your graveyard with as many zombies as you can before you get to seven mana, then bring them all back with Balthor.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel a.k.a Grey Merchant of Ass-phodel or Gary, typically wins the game. This deck was ok before Grey Merchant got printed, now it's great.
I love the feel of the deck. It really feels like you're commanding a horde of relentless zombies. They get obliterated and just get back up again. More, more, more, again, again, again.

I'll categorise the cards:

COMMANDER

Yes, he goes to the command zone after you activate him. No, I don't play minions. I play zombiiiiiieeesss!!!!
Check out that gnarly hat. Dunno what's going on there, two twisted trumpets?
As a rule I never cast Balthor when I haven't got the mana remaining to activate him; otherwise he'll surely die (again) before I can activate him. I almost always activate immediately. If you give your opponents the chance to untap/draw cards then you risk some kind of instant-speed-graveyard-removal-split-second-ability-countering nonsense.

I've never written about an EDH deck before. Adding links to all these cards would take ages, so I'm only going to link the unusual ones, which is still a lot.

GRAVEYARD FILLERS
Note that Balthor brings back EVERYONE'S creatures, therefore I'm playing cards which just fill my graveyard. I'm not playing Mesmeric Orb, for example.
Buried Alive typically finds Stinkweed Imp, Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.
Entomb
Corpse Connoisseur
Putrid Imp: This deck is weird in that you would rather have zombies in your graveyard than your hand. Putrid Imp lets you put all the Zombies you've drawn from Skullclamp and Grave Deflier, into the graveyard. Also great for discarding dredge cards.
Bazaar of Baghdad: Only just added this to the list since I don't like proxying in EDH. However, if I had a Bazaar I would definitely play it.
Sultai Emissary: I think this card would actually be better if the manifest went straight to the graveyard heh.
Stinkweed Imp: One of the key cards in the deck. This is your go-to find with Entomb, Buried Alive and Corpse Connoisseur.
Darkblast
Street Wraith: Notably not a zombie. Just in the deck for Crypt of Agadeem and devotion for Grey Merchant.
Necromancer's Assistant
Necromancer's Stockpile: Insane with Stinkweed Imp. I need to keep zombie tokens in my deckbox just for this card, which is taxing considering it's a 100-card sized deck.
Gempalm Polluter
Undead Gladiator
Viscera Dragger
Twisted Abomination
Returned Centaur
Crow of Dark Tidings
Codex Shredder: When to activate this is interesting. If you suspect someone will be using a 'put on top of library' tutor (including yourself) then you may want hold it up.

MASS-REANIMATION
Your opponents often feel safe thinking that Balthor is seven mana to cast and activate. These sorceries mess with that timing, leading to serious blowouts.
Zombie Apocalypse
Patriarch's Bidding
Living Death

WIN CONDITIONS
Gray Merchant of Asphodel: As mentioned, this guy is the main win condition. Kokusho, the Evening Star is banned as a commander. Grey Merchant is Kokusho on crack in this deck.
Mogis's Marauder; Turns all your Dawn of the Dead zombies into 28 Days zombies.
Shepherd of Rot
Vengeful Dead

SACRIFICERS
Important for preventing your zombies from getting exiled or put back into your library
Nantuko Husk.
Nim Shambler
Phyrexian Ghoul
Carrion Feeder
Corpse Blockade: Lol such a bad card, love that it works in this deck.

GREY MERCHANT DOUBLERS
If you mass-reanimate with Grey Merchant, a sacrificer and one of these, you get an extra Merchant trigger, which is game winning. Note that Phyrexian Delver wouldn't work since you can't sacrifice Grey Merchant into the graveyard before you need to target it with Phyrexian Delver.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Gravespawn Sovereign
Apprentice Necromancer: Apologies, in the art it looks like its head is coming out of a vagina.

MANA ACCELARATION
Crypt of Agadeem: Insane in this deck.
Cabal Coffers: Often tutored for. Urborg and Zombie Trailblazer give this a little extra kick
Expedition Map: Finds the above two. Bazaar of Baghdad and Cavern of Souls are also common finds.
Terrain Generator
Myriad Landscape
Thespian's Stage: Copies Cabal Coffers or Crypt of Agadeem.
Vesuva
Undead Warchief: Typically dies before your next turn but often gives you a nice power boost to attack with the one turn it's alive undead.
Temple of the False God
Sol Ring: When will this be banned from EDH?
Mana Crypt: When will this be banned from EDH?

TUTORS
Sidisi, Undead Vizier: hmmm the royal vizier!
Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Intent
Vampiric Tutor: Typically finds Mana Crypt turn one.
Imperial Seal: Typically finds Mana Crypt turn one.

REMOVAL FOR ANAFENZA, THE FOREMOST
I've been wrecked by Anafenza too many times. All these except Fleshbag Marauder and Stronghold Assassin are new additions which I haven't tried yet but I like the safety they provide. The four-cost tap ones will probably be too slow but I'm trying them.
Stronghold Assassin
Tsabo's Assassin
Eastern Paladin
Western Paladin also kills Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, which is another problem creature.
Fleshbag Marauder
Phyrexian Bloodstock

GRAVEYARD HATE
Good to have against scary red and black creatures of your opponents', which Balthor would bring back, e.g. Massacre Wurm.
Withered Wretch
Agent of Erebos
Crypt Creeper

MISCELLANEOUS
Zombie Trailblazer. Surprisingly powerful. Its ability isn't effected by summoning sickness and with enough zombies you can lock all your opponents' mana for the rest of the game.
Vengeful Pharaoh
Gloomdrifter: Kills surprisingly few creatures but I'm keeping it in for now.
Skinrender: Same as above.
Lifebane Zombie: Ability is rarely relevant. Could be cut soon.
Grave Defiler
Noxious Ghoul: Devastating effect. Ignores hexproof and indestructible. Typially kills ALL your opponents' creatures.
Skullclamp: Obv obv
Gravecrawler: Nice with Skullclamp...I should probably play Bloodghast.

Zombie Master: Makes all your zombies unblockable with Urborg or Zombie Trailblazer. Unblockable isn't very good though, since you normally get wrathed before you can attack with all your zombies. Zombie Master was not a zombie until the great creature type overhaul a few years back.
Geralf's Messenger

LANDS
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Cavern of Souls: Good idea to slow roll this until you want to cast Balthor.

28 Swamp

DECK WEAKNESSES

• Graveyard removal. I have a lot success with this deck because I'm not part of a regular EDH playgroup. If I was, they would surely begin to play graveyard hate. Static enchantments and artifacts are especially problematic. It may be worth adding a single Karn Liberated or Ulamog or Oblivion Stone to the deck.
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.
• Fast combo. The deck is low on interactive spells.

OUTRO
Make sure you get up to speed with your zombie movie and pop-culture references before you play this deck. Gotta bust out those quotes with gusto!

Gold mask. Definitely inspired by Grey Merchant of Asphodel

Brains,

Luke Mulcahy

To Brew or not to Brew

When is it correct to bring a deck of your own design to a tournament? That is the question I'll be talking about.

Last weekend I played a local PPTQ and got paired against my friend Tim Hughes. Tim was playing the latest hot deck from the Pro Tour, GW tokens. Tim is an avid brewer and comes up with lots of off-the-wall ideas. It was unusual to see him playing a 'net-deck'. The topic came up in our conversation, basically Tim hasn't had the success he would like and has started net-decking more and more.

Out of the brewery and onto the podium?

This got me thinking, when is it correct to brew? There are world renowned players with reputations for brewing so it must be correct to brew some times. Patrick Chapin is the biggest innovator among the famous players. Conely Woods used to be a much bigger one, physically. Now he likes to dance.
Here's a famous article by Patrick Chapin on the topic of brewing. It made a big enough impression on me that I remembered it when planning this article. I recommend reading it.

Let's break the topic down by listing the advantages of net-decking and the advantages of brewing; Of course there is a grey area between copying seventy five cards and building a completely new deck with an unusual strategy. For the sake of keeping this article a readable length, I'm going to ignore the grey area.

THE ADVANTAGES OF NET-DECKING

• Guaranteed good deck. You'll always bring a gun to a gun fight. If you design your own deck, you risk bringing a knife.
• It's really fast. Find a list online and assemble it. You can have a top tier deck sleeved in your hands in less than an hour.
• There are articles written online by professional players about your deck for you to learn from: sideboard plans, play tips, etc.
• There will be others in your local area playing the deck who you can discuss it with.
• People will be more willing to practice against you. Say it's the Thursday before your local PPTQ. Jess has invited you around for some beers and testing games. Two of your other friends, Steve and Dave have also come along. Steve has brought a 4c Rite deck to test with. There is going to be several of these decks at the PPTQ. Dave has brought his Assault Formation combo brew. He is the only player in the world playing it. Who would you rather practice against?

THE ADVANTAGES OF BREWING

• You'll never be behind the metagame because you'll be reacting to the popular decks.
• I think it feels better when you win with a brew. I get a huge sense of pride from it. The feeling is so appealing to me that I'm prepared to take a few losses testing out brews rather than going straight for a proven net-deck.
• Most players keep up-to-date with the current successful decks. Your local grinders will have a plan to combat each popular deck. If you brew, your opponents won't be prepared for you and they may make play mistakes or sideboard incorrectly. The advantage you can gain here is increased if you play a deck which is hard to interact with, e.g. a creatureless deck, a combo deck, a deck with narrow 'blowout' cards or a deck with lots of instant speed spells.
• Formats which aren't Standard are much slower to evolve because they don't have every pro in the world dissecting them. For brewers, this presents an opportunity. There are still PPTQ's and GP's which are Modern. Depending on where you live, there may even be large Legacy or Highlander tournaments. Brewing in non-professional formats is far more likely to give you an edge.
• You need to think about a format a lot and understand what's important if you are to make a successful brew. This format knowledge will help you during tournaments. You will be better able to identify key cards and what role your deck plays against the popular decks. You can still develop this amount of knowledge if you net-deck but it is not a forced prerequisite like it is when you brew.
• If you ever qualify for the Pro Tour, being a brewer is a big advantage. The Pro Tour is always the first high-profile event of each Standard rotation. You can't net-deck for a Pro Tour.
• Deck building skills you learn from brewing will improve your limited game, i.e. choosing a good mana curve and mana base.

WHEN SHOULD I BRING A BREW?

This question implies that winning is your highest priority. If it isn't, then you should always bring a brew. If it is, then you should be aware of when brewing will increase your chance of winning. I will list several cases where brews are 'up'. If you're preparing for a tournament and most of these cases are true, then I say it's correct to bring a brew:

• It is early in the format. That is, there has been no more than the Pro Tour and two or three Grand Prix's played since set release. Any longer than that and your brew has probably been tried and discarded by someone else.
• There is no broken deck. The last Standard format was Kahns of Tarkir through to Oath of the Gatewatch. 4c Rally was by far the best deck. No amount of brewing could top it. Ironically, R&D may have suffered more scrutiny over 4c Rally than UW Eldrazi had the Pro Tour been Standard.
• There is no powerful information-gaining cards in the format, e.g. Thoughtseize. You aren't going to get the jump on somebody when they see it coming.
• You have plenty of time to practice and refine.
• The format is not Standard. Pros dedicate all their time to breaking Standard. You alone can't compete with the brewing power of teams of pros. This also used to be the case for Modern but not any more.
• You know what ~75% of the field is playing. In this case you can play hate strats. This often happens at stores where the same guys show up with the same decks. Rarely does it happen at big tournaments. Note that this point can overlap with the point about there being a broken deck, in this case, play the broken deck.

CONCLUSION

Do what makes you happy. If you love to brew, then jam your brews at low stakes events for practice. If one of them performs well and most of my 'When should I bring a brew' points are true, then I recommend jamming it at your next big tournament.

Brewyah!

Mulch

Format filters

Hey humans,

Every time a new standard rotation comes about, I go through every card and create a spreadsheet of deck ideas. This is a lengthy process but I don't mind because I enjoy it. One thing which makes this process much easier is what I call 'filters'. That is, cards which are very powerful relative to the rest of standard. Those few powerful cards will be very popular, so much in fact that any card which matches up against them poorly, is filtered out of the format, or at least into people's sideboards.

You've probably heard someone say "'X' warps the format". That card, 'X' is probably a filter. Examples of filters in the past include: Flametongue Kavu, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Bitterblossom, Siege Rhino, etc.

The current standard format is Dragons of Tarkir through to Shadows over Innistrad. I'm going list the cards which I believe are filters and explain why.

If Sylvan Advocate didn't have vigilance, I wouldn't consider it a filter. There have been many efficient two-drops in the past, Fleecemane Lion and Strangleroot Geist are two which come to mind (dunno why those two, Fleecy for sure came to mind because of my longing for Nick Watson). When Fleecemane Lion and Strangleroot Geist attack, you can at least attack them back with your two-power two drop. Sylvan Advocate though, blanks any two-drop without evasion or three power. Goodbye Scourge Wolf, goodbye Knight of the White Orchid (Knight of the Quite Awkward), etc.
"But Luke, Knight of the White Orchard does see play". Yep it does, but only because the deck it's in has plenty of cards to give that extra power to overcome Sylvan Advocate. I'd rather not rely on drawing my combo to overcome a staple of the format thank you. I want all my cards to match up decently by themselves.

Here's a list of in-my-opinion the best two-drop creatures in Standard:

Sylvan Advocate
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Stormchaser Mage
Forerunner of Slaughter
Kessig Forgemaster
Avatar of the Resolute
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit

Sylvan Advocate is tier 1 because it rumbles with everything but Ayli early on and later in the game it's a huge 4/5 vigilance.

Ayli is held back by her legendary status and restrictive mana cost.

Stormchaser Mage and Forerunner of Slaughter are underrepresented at the moment, particularly Stormchaser Mage as he survives a friendly Radiant Flames. 

Kessig Forgemaster is, I believe the most underrated card in standard.

Avatar of the Resolute and Anafenza are too restrictive on mana-bases to be worth it.

Here's a list of other two-drop creatures which I consider generally good but don't rumble well with Sylvan Advocate:

Bearer of Silence

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

Skyrider Elf
Snapping Gnarlid
Leaf Gilder
Duskwatch Recruiter
Rattlechains
Deathcap Cultivator
Dimensional Infiltrator
Hangarback Walker
Stratus Dancer
Dragon Whisperer
Zulaport Cutthroat

Elvish Visionary

Filter cards not only filter out creatures, they also filter out removal spells. In current standard, removal spells like Twin Bolt and Avacyn's Judgment don't get there because they can't handle Sylvan Advocate.

The mana cost of a filter card determines which cards it filters out. For example, if a filter card costs five mana to cast, it isn't going to filter out any one-cost 2/1's because they'll get in enough damage to be good before the five-cost gets cast.
The mana cost factor is more relevant for removal, any creature which doesn't give you any value if removed, e.g. Polukranos, World Eater, shouldn't cost more than two mana more than any of the prevalent removal spells of the format. That's my rule at least. Back in Theros, Hero's Downfall was the premier removal spell (filter) and Polukranos passed the two-mana test.
I should put a caveat in here; sometimes a card is SO POWERFUL that even though there is the potential for you to get blown out, if they don't have the removal spell, you pretty much win the game. Baneslayer Angel was one such card. Doom Blade and Terminate were in her format, but sometimes you don't draw the removal and you lose. Cards like that are bad for magic.

Any dude which doesn't provide any 'enters the battlefield' trigger value and costs more than three, get's rekt by Reflector Mage. There's a reason why you don't see Woodland Wanderer wandering around or Endbringer bringing ends.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is kind of an exception. Part of the reason he still sees play despite getting rekt by Reflector Mage (Ref-rekt-or Mage) is that if you have a removal spell like Fiery Impulse on the same turn you cast Kalitas, you'll end up with a zombie. The other part of the reason he still sees play is how much of a Baneslayer he is.

Reflector Mage's 2/3 body matches Sylvan Advocate's, doubling the importance of choosing creatures which fight a 2/3 well.

An ironic thing about cards which act as filters, is that they weaken themselves as the format develops: players adapt and stop playing cards which are poor against filters. If you're in tune with when your local metagame reaches this point, you might be able to get away with leaving your poorly timed filters in the sideboard.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets is a card which I rate highly but his -2 ability isn't very effective in a format where everyone has already adjusted to Reflector Mage. It's like Jace, Unraveller of Secrets was Starbucks and Reflector Mage was Melbourne's well established coffee cafe's...there's a filter coffee joke in there somewhere.

Notice how Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh got no play? I attribute that to Fiery Impulse. Similar to how Anax and Cymede never got any play because Wild Slash was popular.
Fiery Impulse's spell mastery is too hard to turn on by turn three, so X/3's on turn three are safe enough from Fiery Impulse.

Kozilek's Return compliments Fiery Impulse's warding effect on three-cost X/2's. To a lesser degree, so does Flaying Tendrils, Seismic Rupture and Gideon's knight tokens.

This card has single-handedly multi-leggedly pushed every X/1 out of the format since Pro Tour Vancouver last year.

Those are the only filters which come to mind at this stage. If you're brewing a deck for your next tournament, keep these four cards in mind and you should be ok.

Happy brewing,

Mulch