With All This Naya on My Brain, Tokens are the Game

Hi Everyone! I know it has been a while since I wrote anything but I have decided to try to write an article every week. Most of the decks that I talk about can be found on my Imgur page, here. Anyway let's get down to business.

For those of you that watch my Magic stream, this article probably won't contain anything you haven't seen or heard. For those of you who don't watch my Magic stream, I would like to inform you that I have an obsession with playing Naya colored decks in the current Standard format. It all started with the list I wrote about for my very first article and I haven't stopped playing Naya since! Actually, that's a lie. After BNG was released online, my win percentage with Naya Midrange dropped off the planet. I moved on to playing Bant, which I finished okay with at a PTQ in Springfield, IL and then Jund Monsters, which led me to a 6-3 finish at GP Cincinnati, a very good run seeing as I came in with zero byes!

After that tournament, I decided to go back to the drawing board and work on different versions of Naya that basically all sucked. I couldn't beat anything and I felt pretty miserable about playing anything in Standard. Luckily, I was pulled out of my slump by a friend of mine, Wyatt, that shipped me a pretty cool Junk Aggro list. I played it for a bit both on and off stream and actually started winning again!

From there, I moved on to various other decks, one of the coolest being the Junk Reanimator list written about by Brian Braun-Duin on StarCityGames. The deck was actually insane in the few matches that I played with it but it felt like it was missing something. Turns out it wasn't the deck but more the fact that it really didn't fit my style. It was after that that I decided to return back to the lovely colors of Green, Red, and White!

I searched the net, mainly mtggoldfish.com, for any spicy Naya brews that could get me back home, where I belong. I actually found a couple but they didn't really excite me. These Naya decks were very similar to the previous builds of Naya Midrange/Control deck I worked on before but I was looking for something with a little more spice. After searching a bit more, I stumbled upon this thing of beauty:

Naya Tokens

This list is very close to the 75 Mtgo user, HeroesofKern, piloted to a 6-0 finish in a Standard event, which can be found here. I only made two changes: I cut 2 Scion for 2 Assembles and 1 Brimaz for a Xenagos. I can honestly say that the assemble has been insane for me on Mtgo. Mono Black makes up about 30% of the online meta-game and just being able to slam this down as early as turn 3 with the help of the mana dorks is just backbreaking. Domri's -2 ability is clearly not at his best here but being able to find a Purphoros is just too good to pass up. The one card in the maindeck that I constantly get questions about is the big, bird making elemental himself, Scion. I can see exactly what the deck creator was going for with this guy! Putting at least 6 power into play for 5 mana is okay but the card truly shines with a Purphoros on the battlefield. 6 power and 6 damage to the opponent and/or Planeswalkers is just so much value! The birds this guy brings to the party aren't anything to scoff at either since they can chump those silly Nightveil Specters or Cloudfin Raptors for a bit or they can go at your enemy's face with quite sharp claws using a few Purphoros pumps!

Moving on from the main-deck, I have not changed any of the sideboard cards. Many of the cards are self explanatory though the Ragebeast seems questionable. I can see the card coming in against other mid-range decks to fight things like Stormbreath Dragon or Polukranos. Once in play, it can sort of  machine gun things down with an active Assemble, Xenagos, or Elspeth in play. After playing the deck quite a bit (go check out my Twitch channel to see the deck in action), I don't think the beast is good enough. Possible replacements could be something like Warleader's Helix or maybe Polukranos.
 

I haven't given much thought about what I would change since Journey of the Nyx is right around the corner, but expect to see an update to this list and/or my old Naya list sometime in the future. I hope you enjoyed the article and feel free to join me in the amazing world of Naya!

Dech Tech: Post Grand Prix Cincinnati with Jund Monsters

After the Grand Prix, I still wanted to play with Jund Monsters in standard.  But after analyzing what happened in my matches and the shifting metagame in the format and everyone either playing the Esper Control or BW Midrange,  Some changes to the deck needed to made.  The top image is the deck that I ran at the Grand Prix and the bottom image is the current list with I have been running that is up to date.





Grand Prix List

Post Grand Prix List

When playing this deck against a control list, you have to expect that you are going to lose game one.  But after sideboard cards are in, Sire of Insanity, Dreadbore, Rakdos's Return, Deadbridge Chant, and Abrupt Decay, then the matchup will help but you still have to have good draws.

The one, dumb, OP (over powered) card that we couldn't handle was Obzedat, Ghost Council. We originally had one Putrefy in the sideboard for this, but it turned out to be a bigger problem.  Another card that the extra Putrefy helped could of helped is Lotleth Troll, just because of the regeneration.  With the uprising of the new GB Dredge deck that hit the floor, Putrefy makes this match a lot easier and our win percentage would increase exponentially.

There is one card that we added two of to the main board to help go faster or get more creatures out onto the battlefield, Xenagos, the Reveler.  This planeswalker did exactly that.  It got creatures out in the control matchup while having creatures that can block and destroy Blood Baron of Viskopa in the BW Midrange matchup.

We took out two Polukranos, World Eater, for a couple of reasons.  One, it is actually one of the most easiest creatures to destroy in this format. Another reason is that it Polukranos, World Eater also one of the most easiest creatures to exile due to the uprising of Lifebane Zombie and Selesnya Charm.  While Reaper of the Wilds could be exiled, when it is on the field, he has the potential to protect it self with the hexproof ability.

Hope this gives you incentive to play this deck in the future.  Let me know if there are any other changes that you would probably make with this deck and would tell me your results of your matches.

See you later!

Grand Prix Trials as a Judge

This past Saturday,  I had the privilege to be the head judge of a Grand Prix Trial tournament for GP Minneapolis.  It was an amazing experience. You have to be the one who can answer questions, fix situations, etc.  But there are some things that can be stressful about certain situations that need to be addressed.

For one,  you have to take yourself out of your comfort zone.  A friend my call you over to fix a situation or answer a question.  But when that happens, you have to be completely but yourself in a neutral state and be unbiased to the situation at hand. The tournament should be run by unbiased leader and you have to be that.

It can be a strain on someone to know everything, but thats not possible to do.  Thats why we have applications on smart phones that can aid us in situations.  It helps that we have the internet to so that we can look at forums and other judge websites too.

To become a judge if you think that you are ready, you can go to the judges website which the link will be on the bottom.  There are also other websites like wiki and such that can help you prepare for the exams, if those don't work, ask your local judge to help you out or shadow a tournament to view hands on experience.

Once you have taken you practice exams and passed all of those, contact your level two judge in the area.  They will be the one to administer your actual level one exam.  If you pass, congrats and welcome to the judging community, if not, then you need to work on some things or need to study more.  But I believe that you can do it.

DCI Homepage

Dech Tech: Modern Affinity

Well, it's that time to get ready for modern season.  As I am not going to be able to attend the Grand Prix in Minneapolis, I will be piloting Affinity for those that need playtesting, and also to grind some PTQs with, there is the current list that got 2nd at Grand Prix Richmond.

After I play with this list for a while, I will probably make some modifications due to MTGO meta and what I will probably see out there at the tournaments.

Caleb's fun with magic!

Hey everyone this is my first article ever. My name is Caleb VanVacter a little about me. I have been playing Magic for 15ish years most of them have been in the casual side. After moving to Cedar Falls I became more competitive and have a single PTQ top 8 as the highlight of my magic career.

Now I’m here for an experiment of sorts for people looking to become competitive but don’t have the initial funds to immediately buy in as it can be expensive. This series will be similar to the John Medina style FNM hero, but with slightly different rules in order to make it, what I feel is, more realistic. I am going to be the Event Deck Hero. The rules are as follows and if you have comments, complaints, or suggestions leave them in the comment section.

The Rules


1. Starting funds $100 (this is for initial buy-in costs deck, sleeve and tournament entry)
2. Add $5 a week to spend
3. Can only trade cards I open as the Event Deck Hero.
4. No freebies besides non-foil basic lands
5. End Game is a current Tier 1 deck and getting consistent 1st or 2nd at local tournament.

So those are the rules pretty straight forward. The initial $100 is a standard for what others have done with this type of challenge. The $5 a week is to ensure I can enter a tournament or try to make my deck better my LGS does not sell singles and doesn’t do store credit we get prize packs for $5 entry fee and luckily since singles aren’t available the packs in the store are $2.49 each plus 20% off things like event decks and sleeves. The cards can only come from what I open in prize packs or packs I buy to help my deck. I don’t want this challenge to just be someone handing me a tier 1 deck at every local standard tournament to win packs until I have a good deck, but if I open the cards for a good black/blue deck at most LGS’s including my own someone would give you the basics. The end game seems reasonable as that means I am in the prizes at every tournament.

Now to begin I decided to go with the newest event deck the Theros deck, I don’t know how long this will take but this gives me the most mileage on my cards. My first purchase was the event deck, sleeves, 5 booster packs and the tournament entry for a total of $41.52 leaving my with $58.48. The deck list I am starting with:

4 Azorius Guildgate
1 Hallowed Fountain
5 Island
14 Plains

2 Ascended Lawmage
2 Banisher Priest
3 Battlewise Hoplite
3 Dryad Militant
1 Fabled Hero
1 Frontline Medic
3 Hopeful Eidolon
2 Imposing Sovereign
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
3 Lyev Skyknight
1 New Prahv Guildmage
1 Precinct Captain
1 Skymark Roc
1 Soldier of the Pantheon

2 Dauntless Onslaught
2 Detention Sphere
2 Gods Willing
1 Ordeal of Heliod
2 Ordeal of Thassa
2 Pacifism

Sideboard
2 Arrest
2 Gainsay
2 Gift of Orzhova
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Negate
3 Solemn Offering
2 Triton Tactics

In my booster packs I opened Desecration Demon, Gyre Sage, Steam Augury, Renegade Krasis, Ring of Three Wishes, and a foil Treasury Thrull. I also opened a few other cards to adjust the deck but it wasn’t much and I forgot to write it down (try not to let it happen after this article). The tournament had 8 people for three rounds.

Round 1: Esper Midrange/Humans
Once again notes were not great for this first article but I lost this round. My deck is trying its hardest to make one guy hard to kill and my opponent had removal for all of my creatures.

Loss

Round 2: G/R Monsters
In game one of this round I was able to get up to 60 life and my opponent was down as low as 6, but in the end this game lack a reach and ways to get through a stabilized board and after many more turns my opponent finished me off.

Loss

Round 3: Mono Red
This round I was able to get a guy life link or pump up a life linker and my opponent could not keep up and I was able to take the round down.

Win

This tournament was able to give me an idea what the deck can do. The all in strategy was not what you want most of the time and I learned that in round one as he killed all of the creatures. I was also able to learn from round 2 that I need a way to push through a little more damage with evasion. After the tournament I was able to make a trade to improve my deck the trade was my Desecration Demon and Gyre Sage for their 2x Spear of Heliod, Hallowed Fountain, and Daxos of Meletis.

I went to another tournament 2 weeks later so I was +$10 for a total of $68.58 with the packs I bought 2 Theros and 1 Dragon’s Maze plus the entry fee I went - $13 now at $55.58 I was able to open a 3rd Spear of Heliod and another God’s Willing to add to the deck. After the tournament I was able to trade off a newly opened Sire of Insanity for a Seacoast Drake, Bone Scythe Sliver, Gruul Ragebeast, and Trait Doctoring.

Round 1: Mono Red
This was against the same opponent as last time with the same result I was able to race by getting lifelink on one of my creatures and I was off to a good start.

Win

Round 2: Esper Midrange
Once again the same opponent as last time and same results, he was able to remove the creatures that I was able to put out.

Loss

Round 3: BW Midrange
These games were very close and fun, but in the end I feel as though I lost to variance which will happen in Magic. Game one I was able to land a creature on the play early he promptly doom bladed it. I laid another creature he attempted a doom blade, I God’s Willing pro Black, he doom blades again I God’s Willing again, and then he doom blades again to kill it all 4 doom blades in the top 11-12 cards of his deck. After that we are off to the races but Blood Baron in the end wins it for him. Game 2 I was able to suit up a creature and beat him in a race as he was unable to land a Blood Baron. On to Game 3 again variance strikes we are racing and its close then he hits gray merchant, and swing it’s a little but I’m still winning the race. Then another gray merchant now I’m behind in life but might still be able to race. Then incomes a third gray merchant and I’m dead.

Overall this tournament wasn’t as bad as the first I was able to hang with the other decks. The spears where good for me all day, but still no packs. So far I am 2-4 with the deck but could easily be 3-3 which I’m happy with all things considered.

I was unable to make it to a tournament the next week but with the release of Born of the Gods I have more cards to try to find. I was able to make it to the shop though after a couple weeks so I was +$10 to $65.58 then I purchased 12 packs 3 Return to Ravnica, 3 Theros, and 6 Born of the Gods for a total of $31.97 and down to $33.61. While I didn’t open any rares for my deck I was able to open a few commons and uncommons that should help. Also my rares weren’t bad and could make nice trade stock:

My thoughts on where to go with the deck is a white weenie splashing blue for a few cards like detention sphere and skyknight. My current deck list is:

Creatures:
3 Hopeful Eidolon
3 Dryad Militant
1 Soldier of Pantheon
1 Judge’s Familiar
1 Vanguard of Brimaz
1 Battlewise Hoplite
1 Akroan Skyguard
1 Precinct Captain
2 Imposing Sovereign
1 Daxos of Meletis
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Fabled Hero
1 Wingsteed Rider
2 Banisher Priest
3 Lyev Skyknight

Spells:
3 Gods Willing
2 Ethereal Armor
2 Ordeal of Thassa
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Dauntless Onslaught
2 Detention Sphere
3 Spear of Heliod

Lands:
12 Plains
5 Island
4 AzoriusGuildgate
2 Hallowed Fountain

Sideboard:
1 Frontline Medic
1 Triton Tactics
1 Last Breath
2 Dauntless Onslaught
2 Revoke Existence
2 Arrest
2 Pacifism
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Gift of Orzhova

Hope you enjoyed the article I am excited to see how this will turn out and how fast it will go. If you have any comments or questions remember to post in the comment section. Thanks for reading and hope you continue.


-Caleb VanVacter
Twitter- @calebvanvacter
E-mail- Cvanvacter77@gmail.com

How not to play Magic: the Gathering

When you are in a competitive level event, there are ways to play the correctly so that you win the game, and there are ways to play that you win and you opponents don't get to have fun.  What I mean is, sure you know how to play the game, but not to be a great big bully about what you are doing.  There was an instance like this that just happened at the Grand Prix that I had attended to this past weekend.

During day one, a friend of mine was playing and he was doing everything correctly with short cuts and communicating with his opponent.  But his opponent was being such bad player by criticizing him by saying in a arrogant voice, "Enter Combat Phase, Enter Combat Step, In Response I do this!" Also, his opponent went, "You need to hurry up, COME ON!".  The opponent proceeded to call, "JUDGE, my opponent is slow playing!" This put my friend on a serious tilt and could not concentrate during his whole entire match.  This player was then frowned upon by the rest of the players because of this and backed up my friend in this situation, because they knew how the game should be played.

Any player, new or pro, should know that this is not how to play the game.  Sure communication is key and we just can't show off that you know what are the steps or try to make the game go in your favor.  If you want to do that, then stick with MTGO and not show your face in a store or event.  All of the attendees came to Cincinnati for a reason, to play magic with our friends and have a great time.  People like my friend's opponent should be take this seriously.

My ending statement is this. Just play and respect your opponent just as you would like to be played against and be respected in the same fashion. The golden rule of playing Magic: the Gathering is to have fun, and I stand by this infinity times, even greater than 100%.

Jund Monsters!

Here is the list that we ran at the Grand Prix:

Creatures:27

4 Elvish Mystic

2 Scavenging Ooze

4 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Courser of Kruphix

4 Polukranos, World Eater

4 Reaper of the Wilds

4 Stormbreath Dragon

1 Xenagos, God of Revels

Spells:9

3 Dreadbore

2 Mizzium Mortars

4 Domri Rade

Lands:24

4 Blood Crypt

4 Forest

1 Mountain

2 Mutavault

4 Overgrown Tomb

4 Stomping Ground

4 Temple of Abandon

1 Temple of Malice

Sideboard:15

2 Abrupt Decay

1 Dreadbore

2 Golgari Charm

1 Mizzium Mortars

2 Rakdos's Return

3 Ultimate Price

1 Putrefy

1 Deadbridge Chant

2 Sire of Insanity

Alex and I started talking about last Wednesday about what deck to play.  When I saw an original list, I knew that I wanted to play it. It was like playing original magic all over again. Playing big creatures and attacking with brute force just seemed right.

We wanted a deck that wanted to resilient to certain match ups; mono black, mono blue, GR monsters, and UW control.  The one deck that we really feared was RW burn and thankfully we didn't have to face that deck a lot but.

Before day one of the Grand Prix, we really felt that the numbers needed to be changed and maybe some cards needed to be added.

The original sideboard had a one of Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and one of Sire of Insanity. After some talk to other players that we met up with, we decided that Sire of Insanity was more powerful than the other, especially in the control matchup, which was proven successful.

The "super secret tech" that we put into the sideboard was Deadbridge Chant.  Why in good graces are we playing this card?  Well, is a great way to get cards back that we can use again. With the Scavenging Oozes that are in the main board, we can filter our graveyard so that we have a higher probability of getting a spell or creature that can secure the match. This card was really useful in getting a Mizzium Mortars and overloading it to kill two Blood Baron of Vizkopa.  Win!!!

The last card we put in the sideboard was a one of Putrefy.  BW midrange/control was probably our worst matchup because of Obzedat, Ghost Council.  By draining us two a turn with no instant speed removal just made the it all but a necessity for this deck.  Plus it's a great way to deal with the legendary weapons too.

The only deck that I lost to for the three losses were to BW midrange / control. But that was to be expected. But the decks that we beat are as follows and in no particular order:

-GW aggro

-Mono Black Devotion

-Mono Black Devotion splash White

-Naya agro / combo

-UW Control

-Bant Control

-Jund Monsters (with plansewalkers)

-Esper Midrange

-Esper Control

Over all, I was completely satisfied and happy I played this list.  I went 7-2 day one of the Grand Prix and 5-1 day two which put me in 24th place. Out of 1734 players, well, that's pretty good!  I will be working more on this deck and trying to improve for future tournaments!

Later!

GP Cincinnati End Report

So here are the stats from the tournament from both Matt and Alex:

Total players: 1734

Matt:

Total record: 12-3-0

Finished 24th

Winnings: $400.00 and 2 pro points

Alex:

Total record 6-3

Finished: 298th

Winnings: none

Congratulations to both of them and especially to Alex for his first Grand Prix appearance.

Matt and Alex will be writing up reports and prep work for this Grand Prix soon.

Make sure to keep up with these two in there streams and other content.

Hello from Grand Prix Cincinatti!!!

All right ladies and gents, Matt Britten and Alex Sawyer are here at the GP.  They will keep you updated with records, stories, and even photos of the event.  They might be tempted to stream more this weekend so that they can keep up there game with there super secret deck that they are going to be running *cough**cough* Jund Monsters *cough**cough*.  Anyways if you see Ghostlyflow or MTGJehuty, stop by and say hi and even take a picture to be part of the PLAYMATT history!

Bant Midrange - PTQ Springfield, IL 3/2/2014

Here is the list that Alex played at the PTQ in Springfield, IL

Main Deck: 60 Cards

4 Temple Garden
4 Breeding Pool
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple of Plenty
4 Temple Mystery
1 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Forest
1 Plains
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Detention Sphere
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Advent of the Wurm
3 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
3 Archangel of Thune
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Angel of Serenity
2 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard: 15 Cards

3 Last Breath 
2 Negate
1 Unravel the Aether
2 Plummet
3 Supreme Verdict
3 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Angel of Serenity

 

Understanding how we write, talk, and play, (Part 1: Writing)

We have a great article that Alex Sawyer had written for this blog.  When I read it for the first time, it felt like I was reading a professional article written by a great player.  It explained all of his ideas, sideboard strategies and everything you need to pilot a 75 like this (75 meaning 60 cards in the main deck and 15 in the sideboard. 60 + 15 = 75.)

But when new players get into the game, they need to know how to read these articles, listen to how the players talk, and see the lines of play.

So lets start with the beginning, which is the deck title. The other ideas about listening to how the players talk and seeing the lines of play will come later in other articles.

When a player makes a deck, they want to represent the deck colors and deck strategy in the title.  The colors are represent by these annotations:

• W = White
• U = Blue
• B = Black
• R = Red
• G = Green

Now that you understand the colors in a single letter format, now we need to figure out how these letters represent the deck in the title.  When we put these single letter representation in a title, we put them in order by means of how much of each color is represented in the deck.  Lets say that I have a lot of red cards and some white cards in my deck list. I will te represent this in my deck as RW.  The same rule applies when you have more than two colors in the deck.  Again another example of this would be if my deck contains 50 % Red, 30% White, and 20% Blue. This means I would represent this by putting RWU in the deck the title.

So, we got the colors down within the title, now to explain what do the rest of the words mean when being introduced to the deck.  The rest of the title should represent what the deck should do throughout the games that you will see or interact with.  For example of keywords that you will see in the rest of the title:

• Aggro - Aggressive
• Control - Taking control of the game
• Midrange - Having stratagies against all the different time periods throughout the game

These are just some of the different types of deck lists key words that you will see in the title of decks.  Now that we have the basics of how you need to understand what the deck should do within the title

I am going to use a deck list that will be posted after this one.  The deck that you are going to read and see about is called RW Midrange.  Just from the deck title, you should deduce that the deck has mostly red cards and some white cards; maybe a little a little more than some in white and a little less than mostly red.  You will have to find out when the article gets posted! :)

What are some other topics that you want us to talk about or some videos you want to see happen. You can contact us at mtgplaymatt@gmail.com and be sure to follow us on Twitter@mtgPlayMatt and our PlayMatt Facebook site.

Streaming Information: Alex and Matt

Some of you were wondering, who are the guys that stream and gives us content about the game we love to play. Here are a couple of our content providers have active streams and ways to contact them. Here is the information

Alex Sawyer

Twitch
http://www.twitch.tv/ghostlyflow

Youtube 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCThtCjY2bBclHPtPxuSPKsA

Twitter
https://twitter.com/Ghostlyflow

Facebook
                                                                         https://www.facebook.com/alex.sawyer.716?fref=ts

Matt Britten

Twitch
http://twitch.tv/mtgjehuty

Twitter
https://twitter.com/M_Britten

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/mtgMattieB




These two players love the game so much that they write, stream, and record videos about the decks formats and events that you have interest in playing in.  Make sure to follow them to be updated on when and what they are going to play for your enjoyment and learning experience.

If you would like to see different decks play or want to read about different topics contact this blog at:
mtgplaymatt@gmail.com

And make sure to like our facebook page and follow us on twitter at:
www.facebook.com/mtgPlayMatt

https://twitter.com/mtgPlayMatt

To be born of the gods, you must have knowledge of the gods.

Here we are going to talk about some the mechanics that you will see during this weekend.  You should be familiar with the abilities from Theros: Bestow, Monstrosity, and Heroic.  Within Born of the Gods, there are two new mechanics that I feel that need to be explained so that you can play for effective: Inspired and Tribute. So lets begin.

Inspired

Inspired is a new triggered ability that creatures will have in it's card text which contains the words "When *creature* becomes untapped." For example, Pain Seer has the ability Inspired, and when it becomes untapped, you reveal the top card of your deck, lose life to the card's converted mana cost (aka: total cost of the card) and then put that card into your hand.

The ruling that WotC( Wizards of the Coast), the company who created Magic: The Gathering,  has put into place is probably one that will be asked most often. At the beginning of my turn, when do I get to use the ability of inspired?

And the answer is.....at the beginning of your turn, during the untap step, you untap your creatures, if they do possess the Inspired ability, the trigger or triggers off of Inspired will go on the stack at the beginning of upkeep.  If there are multiple triggers of Inspired, you chose which ones go onto the stack first.

This ruling that WotC has put into place does makes sense.  In the game of Magic, at the beginning of the turn, you would first have your "Untap Step".  During this step, the only thing that will happen will be untapping all permanents you control, unless stated otherwise. Thats it!  Nobody gets the right to do anything, get priority, or do some other shenanigans.  The game will recognize the Inspired trigger at the beginning of the next step which we call "Upkeep."  After that is all said and done and both players pass priority, then follow what the text says.

So, just by looking at this ability, you're asking yourself, so the only way to try and get the value of this ability is by attacking right? Yes and no. Sure, the most common way for trying to trigger Inspired is by attacking.But, there are different ways to tap creatures. for example there is a reprint card in this card called Springleaf Drum.  This card states that you can tap an untapped creature to add one mana of any color to your mana pool.  This is just one of many ways to get value of your Inspired abilities without attacking  with the creature.

Tribute

Tribute is a new ability that goes along with the flavor of this set.  This ability states "Tribute X(As this creature enters the battlefield, an opponent of your choice may place X +1/+1 Counters on it.)"  Well, why would WotC give us a card that says that an opponent may place  +1/+1 counters
on my creature? It doesn't make sense at all!  Well read the rest of the card that has this ability on it.

If the opponent you chose can't or don't want to pay the Tribute to that said creatures, some bad things can happen to them for example: Pharagax Giant states that if tribue wasn't paid, deal 5 damage to each opponent.  That can be a big deal!  Like I said, BAD THINGS CAN HAPPEN!  So, be aware of this.  If you can play around it, great, if not, hopefully you don't get to punished and play it out.

These are the new mechanics that are being introduced in Born of the Gods, hopefully by now you have all the knowledge that we have passed down to you to become the champion of your Born of the Gods Prerelease events.

What are some other topics that you want us to talk about or some videos you want to see happen. You can contact us at mtgplaymatt@gmail.com and be sure to follow us on Twitter @mtgPlayMatt and our PlayMatt Facebook site.

Standard Deck Tech: Naya Midrange

Hello everyone! This is my first ever article so I'll give you a little bit of background about myself. I have been playing Magic for about 11 years now, with a couple months of downtime somewhere in there. For the most part, I play MTGO, a.k.a. Magic The Gathering Online, under the name goldfire07. Last year I decided I wanted to become a better player and interact with a ton of people so I started online streaming under the name Ghostlyflow *shameless plug*. Since then, I have traveled to quite a few PTQs in the Midwest, attempting to qualify for a Pro Tour. I am surrounded by some of the best players in the region and hopefully with them continuing to push me, or should i say crush me, I will eventually make it to the big time. That's enough about me, let's just jump right in to what you all came here for, Naya Midrange!!! Here's the list:

Lands - 25

4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
1 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Plains
2 Mountain
1 Forest

Spells - 35

4 Chained to the Rocks
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Magma Jet
3 Selesnya Charm
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Selesnya Keyrune
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Advent of the Wurm
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Sideboard - 15

3 Last Breath
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Assemble the Legion
2 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
2 Destructive Revelry

To get this out of the way, this deck was not designed by me. In fact, it is a mash-up of two different Naya list. I took what I liked best from each list and tuned it until I arrived at what you see above. I know a few of the numbers look a little weird such as only 3 Dragons and 3 Mortars, or the 2 seemingly random Magma Jets, but this is what has been working pretty well for me. Originally, there were 4 Mortars, 3 Angers, and 2 Warleader's Helix main, but after a lot of testing(going 1-2-1 drop in a PTQ due to 3 control matches), I concluded that I had too much removal and not enough threats.

This deck is designed to beat Mono Black, R/W Devotion, and various aggro decks. The control match-ups can be a little rough, but they get much better after sideboard where the creature removal is turned into more threats. Mono Blue is also a problem before side-boarding because even though there is quite a bit of removal main deck, we don't have much that actually kills them. Speaking of sideboards, here is how I sideboard in various match-ups:

Mono Black
-3 Stormbreath Dragon, -1 Magma Jet
+2 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, +2 Assemble the Legion

I feel this is our best match-up. We are already set up really well to deal with the Mono Black menace with the main deck and we get a little bit better after board. The key cards in this match up are the removal spells and most importantly, Assemble the Legion. Until Born of the Gods comes out, Mono Black has no way to deal with this card outside of Thoughtseize and Duress.

Mono Blue
-2 Assemble the Legion, -3 Xenagos, the Reveler, -1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
+3 Last Breath, +3 Mistcutter Hydra

Mono Blue is pretty rough for us. Our early threats are green, which makes them perfect targets for Tidebinder Mage. Thassa, God of the Sea and Master of Waves are both major threats and sadly, we can not rely that heavily on Chained to the Rocks due to the presence of Cyclonic Rift. In this match up, we are the control deck. Keep their devotion as low as possible and try to sneak in heavy hitters when you think the path is clear.

Control

-2 Magma Jet, -4 Chained to the Rocks, -2 Selesnya Charm, -1 Mizzium Mortars
+2 Destructive Revelry, +3 Mistcutter Hydra, +2 Assemble the Legion, +2 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

I am lumping all Blue based control decks together here to make it easier to get the general idea of how to board versus them. Depending on what I see, I sometimes don't cut mortars to be able to handle things like opposing Assemble the Legion or Archangel of Thune. Against these decks, you want to keep pressure on, but not overextend. One of the best cards in these match ups has actually been Destructive Revelry. Being able to get back a Xenagos, the Reveler or another threat at the end of their turn has won me quite a few games.

R/W Devotion
-2 Xenagos, the Reveler, -2 Assemble the Legion, -4 Voice of Resurgence
+3 Last Breath, +3 Anger of the Gods, +2 Destructive Revelry

Against R/W Devotion, we are a control deck. R/W can not do much without devotion and if you can stop it, the match-up is a breeze. It is perfectly fine to Anger of the Gods whenever you see a Boros Reckoner, since it is such an important piece to their deck.

G/R Devotion or GR Monsters

I am 100% sure what we want in these match-ups. Anger of the Gods is really good against both decks as it removes their mana ramp. Last Breath is fine against G/R Devotion, but does nothing against the GR Monsters list since their ramp is usually Sylvan Caryatid. I have not played enough against these decks to have a set plan, but I feel that's a good place to start.

Aggro Decks

-2 Assemble the Legion,  - 4 Voice of Resurgence
+3 Last Breath, +3 Anger of the Gods

I am lumping all aggro decks into this sideboard plan. The plan is to stop their early game and then just win. Our creatures and Planeswalkers are a lot more powerful then anything most of these decks are doing and if you can get to those, the game is most likely over for them.


With Born of the Gods right around the corner, at least in the paper Magic world, there are a couple of cards I'm looking to test in this deck, the most obvious of those being Brimaz, King of Oreskos. This card seems like the perfect fit for this list. It lives through Anger of the Gods and provides constant pressure. I am also looking into adding Xenagos, God of Revels to the list, but I believe that would force me to change the deck significantly to get the most out of him. Lastly, I want to look at Searing Blood over Magma Jet. Magma jet's purpose in this deck is not only early removal, but card filtering with Scry 2. It may be the case that the 3 damage to the creature's controller is just better but who knows, maybe Magma Jet is just what this deck needs!

I hope you enjoyed the article and feel free to tell me what liked/disliked about the article, your feelings about the deck, and just Magic in general! I should have videos of the deck in action up on the blog soon, so look out for those! Your feedback is important to me and I plan to respond and interact with you guys as much as possible.

What are some other topics that you want us to talk about or some videos you want to see happen.  You can contact us at mtgplaymatt@gmail.com and be sure to follow us on Twitter @mtgPlayMatt and our PlayMatt Facebook site.

Struggling with sealed during prerelease. We are here to help!

As I mentioned in my earlier post about prerelease this weekend, the format of this weekend is sealed.  What is sealed you ask well, lets ask my past self what it is.

"Sealed is a format in which you will be given the product to play in these events. The rules of sealed is that whatever you open in your packs can be used in your deck.  A sealed deck should contain 40 cards, 22-24 non-land cards and 16-18 lands, depending on your deck." - Matt Britten of 24 hours ago

*Phew!* That was hard to get that kid back here to describe what sealed is.  Even though you know "what" sealed is doesn't mean you full understand the concept of it. So buckle up and get ready, we are going to explore the format so that you are ready for this weekend.

So in the previous article, you are going to get your seeded prerelease pack from your event location.  The seeded pack comes with: one custom pack which is depended on what color you chose, two Born of the Gods booster packs, three Theros booster packs, and many goodies.

Depending on what colors, you could do different strategies.  I would recommend going with a strategy that you are most comfortable with: aggro -> mid range -> control. Aggro or "Aggressive" decks want to win with value creatures and destroy your opponent fast. Mid range decks can withstand agro decks to a point where they just run out of gas and you take over the game.  Control decks have cards that we call "permission" cards, this means you are playing cards that tell your opponent what they can or can not do, so in sense, they have to ask permission to play Magic.  The colors that are ordered from aggro to control are as follows and the promo rare that comes with that pack to help you decide:

• Red
• ForgeStoker Dragon
• White
• Silent Sentinel
• Green
• Nessian Wilds Ravager
• Black
• Eater of Hope
• Blue
• Arbiter of the Ideal

So pick the BASE color of what you want to play, then take into consideration what will be your complement color.  Your complement color or colors should be ones that help you along your strategy: aggro -> mid range -> control.  **Be Warned.**  The seeded pack is based off of your original color. There is probably three different seeded packs per color so there are 15 different packs. Some of those packs maybe great, some could be just garbage.  If you do get one of those garbage packs, you will be basically building your deck off of five packs instead of six and probably switch to a strategy that you are not comfortable with.  **End Of Warning** 

After you pick your color and your event organizer says open your packs and start building, it becomes crunch time. So, when you open your packs, organize your cards to six different piles, these piles will represent the five colors of the color wheel: white, blue, black, red, green, and the sixth pile will be multi-color and artifact cards since there are so few of them.

Then, after you spread out your piles, lets take a look at these cards, we need to figure out what cards are bombs, to playables, or just garbage and we can just throw them right in the trash can. NO!! Please don't do that I was joking. :)  If you pull a god out of your packs, congratulations, take a lap around the tables and high-five your friends!

What is considered unplayable?  Cards that cost to much for what you want them to do, or cards that their abilities that will not help you advance the state of the game to help you win.  For example, Nyxborn Shieldmate, a one mana 1/2, yes you can bestow it to give a creature +1/+2 but that is pretty much it, it will most likely be used to "be thrown under the bus"

When actually assembling the 40 card deck, it is very important to have a good curve. A curve is the theory of when you want to play cards based off of the converted mana cost of card.  This is also connected to the synergy of the deck, or how cards interact with each other.  For the hyper aggressive lists that you want to play the highest costing card should cost four mana, control decks can have higher casting spells because they are going to play a lot more lands.  They can not miss a land drop at all.

Couple of the big BOMB rares and mythic rares that you should keep your eye out for, except for the gods: Brimaz, King of Oreskos, an excellent three mana creature that just bring the BEATS on your opponent.  Felhide Spiritbinder, a four mana that just allows you to put copies of any creature you control, even itself! So you are saying for 2 mana, "if it becomes untapped", i get another 3/4? YES SIR!  With the speed of this format, you will be attacking with this card all, day, long.  Also, if you are running a deck with a lot of burn spells, Satyr Firedance is a pretty good card, but can be easily taken care of.  Scourge of Skola Vale, a three mana creature that just gets bigger over time and tramples over.  Herald of Torment, also another three mana 3/3 evasion that can actually help you lock the game in by bestowing it on a creature giving it flying.  Ok the last color bomb is blue and I want to say is just ok but may be considered a board-wipe would be Whelming Wave.

One thing to keep in mind when playing with Born of the Gods, the removal in this set is OFF THE CHAIN!!  Black has removal that is great in sealed and in constructed when playing at home or when you go to an event.  Drown in Sorrow is functional reprint of Infest but with the upside of scry. Red as another sweet card, Searing Blood, a card that you use as removal or trying play it so that there one creature just can't block. Also this card makes combat difficult to calculate for your opponent.  THEY GAVE US A REPRINT THAT I AM JUST WAY TOO OVER EXCITED FOR BUT I'M TALKING ABOUT IT ANYWAYS!  Revoke Existence!  This card is perfect for this set and the entire block.  I'm officially calling the card "The cheap godkiller."  Any white deck will be playing this card mainboard, guaranteed!  With this block having a lot of creatures that are enchantment and having cards that are great equipment, this card will see lots of play both in sealed and constructed Magic.

Well, we went over a lot of information for you to go over before your weekend.  If you have read the previous post about the guide about playing in the tournaments and keep in mind the tips and tricks you learned from this article, you will go far and become the prerelease champion!

What are some other topics that you want us to talk about or some videos you want to see happen.  You can contact us at mtgplaymatt@gmail.com and be sure to follow us on Twitter @mtgPlayMatt and our PlayMatt Facebook site.

Hope to see you around. This is MTGPlayMatt - Bringing the information of Magic to you so that you can enter the battlefield prepared.