Magic Deck Vortex Blog

~ Chris Newton (Tynion)

I received only three decks, which is disappointing, but in retrospect, the guys who did not participate get their just rewards as the person who placed second and third in this contest will receive ten points instead of one and two respectively. Also, the winner will get a whopping 15 points.

Needless to say this contest has become a side event due to lack of interest.

Onto the contest results…

Unlike other contest admins who look at their contest for flavor and theme, I look at the decks for what they can do, but most importantly, I like ‘bling’. I like to see a NICE mana base full of top lands. I like to see cards that bring the end of the game. I like to see awe inspiring nasty cards that just shimmer in their own goodness. Those cards just reek of awesomeness.

A quick reminder here that I did specify the use of the Vintage card pool and did reference the Restricted and Banned list use. I didn’t think the use of Moxen and Lotus would be very high so I will be surprised if I see any used, but I think that any of us can get a hold of a Sol Ring ($6.50 on ebay), Demonic Tutor ($8.00 on ebay), and Balance ($ 0.50 on ebay) fairly easily, so these would also count as ‘bling’.

Since I didn’t really supply what I will be looking for in these three decks, I feel that I can score them according to a ‘bling’ rating. That ‘bling’ is pretty much subject to the interpretation to whomever is reading at the time, but hopefully the weight I put on a card is relatively in the ballpark of what you would put weight into it.

Finally, the one major thing that I did put on the deck is that it had to be vicious. If it is not, there is not point in counting the ‘bling’ and scoring the deck. Let’s see what we have for decks then:

(* = 1 Bling)

Maleficent:

Touch of the Jarmind

Lands (24)
8 Island
4 Volcanic Island ***
4 Tropical Island ***
4 Steam Vents **
4 Breeding Pool **

Creatures (12)
4 Vedalken Aethermage
4 Magus of the Jar *
2 Jushi Apprentice *
2 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind **

Other Spells (24)
4 High Tide *
4 Isochron Scepter ***
4 Counterspell **
4 Rings of Brighthearth *
4 Heartbeat of Spring *
3 Cerebral Vortex
1 Windfall ***

Look at those lands. Those are some beauties! Except that he left something out! All of those duals are Islands! He could have used Flooded Strand and Polluted Delta to put the Duals directly into play. Nasty!

Alright, so he meets the requirements of beating people’s skull in, mainly by Niv-Mizzet getting angry when you draw cards off the Magus.

Tallying the ‘bling’ points, Mal has a score of 25 points.

Next up is Aladdin:

Aladdin:

Jar Academy

Prime Time Pieces (8)
3 Magus of the Jar *
3 Underworld Dreams **
1 Megrim **
1 Forced Fruition *

Inside the Academy Pieces (13)
2 Academy Rector ***
3 Zur the Enchanter *
4 Lim-Dul’s Vault
4 Careful Study

Live For Ever Pieces (10)
3 Swords to Plowshare ***
1 Genju of the Fields
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ghostly Prison *
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Damnation **

What’s-the-Trick? Pieces (7)
4 Shallow Grave **
1 Corpse Dance *
2 Cabal Therapy **

The Way We Dance Pieces (23)
3 Swamp
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand ***
4 Underground Sea ***
3 Scrubland ***
3 Tundra ***
3 High Market *

First off, thank you Aladdin for the humor categories. I enjoyed reading them. Now, on to the review of the deck.

Nice mana base; probably could have spruced it up with the Rav-Duals and eliminated boring basic lands, but I guess the old art of Island and Swamp could be looked at with a glimmer of the old man’s eye.

Ow, crap does Underworld Dreams and Forced Fruition suck together!! Talk about getting a stinger. Also, I guess the Jar works pretty well with the Dreams. Nice combo set you have there. “Here are seven brand spanking new cards (take seven by the way), please feel free to cast any and / or all of them!”

If you can not see the combo, he is letting the Rector fetch the Dreams or Fruition and then using Corpse Dance and Shallow Grave to recur the Rector and Magus to get his combo pieces and then throws your library at you.

A very nice deck Aladdin, let’s see how much ‘bling’ you have: 34 piece! *studio audience applauds*

Next up, Azreal, can he beat out 34 ‘bling’ points?

Azreal Subnuci

Jar of Whoopass

Creatures: 25
3 Orcish Lumberjack *
3 Tinder Wall *
4 Boartusk Liege
4 Clone *
4 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker **
4 Magus of the Jar *
1 Deadwood Treefolk *
2 Protean Beast *

Other Spells: 14
1 Black Lotus ****
1 Mox Ruby ****
4 Brainstorm **
2 Altar of Dementia **
1 Wheel of Fortune ***
1 Windfall ***
4 Sneak Attack **

Lands: 21
4 Steam Vents **
4 Stomping Ground **
4 Taiga ***
1 Tropical Island ***

4 Volcanic Island ***
4 Wooded Foothills ***

Well, it almost seems like Azreal was inside of my head while I was brainstorming the scoring of the contest. He is playing pretty much every ‘bling’ card in existence. Do I even need to count the bling? I think he has 65 points in lands alone!

Well, let’s just make it official and see if he has more points than the 34 Aladdin accumulated: Just so you know, I am at 28 points before getting to the land base… final count is 48 ‘bling’ points.

I don’t even know where to start with his deck, so let’s just let Azreal tell us in his own words:

“It’s a monstrosity, I know, but somehow it works. You build up a mana base with lumberjacks and tinder walls in play, and try to find a Sneak Attack. Then the fun begins.

Sneak Attack + Magus = Fills hand with Sneak Attackables.
Sneak Attack + Clone = An extra Magus to refill hand, or extra Boartusk Liege.
Sneak Attack + Kiki-Jiki = See above.
Sneak Attack + Protean Hulk = Fetches a Magus and Tinder Wall, or other fun combination.
Boartusk Liege + Boartusk Liege + Clone + Kiki-Jiki = Owies?

Brainstorm helps fetch the cards you need to go off, Deadwood Treefolk can get back Magus, or other dead cards, and Altar of Dementia turns all those creatures that are gonna die into an alternative win condition, if they fail to connect. Boartusk Liege acts like a huge, trampling, Relentless Rats or something. It’s far from perfect, and takes a lot of precision to play, but it’s fun as hell.”

I bet it is.

I think I like Aladdin’s deck the best of the three, but I did say that the outcome was based on the ‘bling’ factor. Therefore your winner is Azreal, followed by Aladdin, and bringing up the back end is Mal.

Thanks for playing guys, and enjoy your points boost.

Although it is not Wednesday, I will not be around the computer and so I need to post this weeks a day early.

Here we go!

1.) What was your most embarrassing moment?

2.) What country do you live in?

3.) When you decide to check out MDV, what do you look at first?

4.) Do you have a suggestion for improving the articles on the site?

5.) Is there a topic you would like to see covered by a certain writer?

~ Chris Newton (Tynion)

This is your notice that I have posted three article assignments for the June Issue of Eye of the Vortex.

Please take a look here and see if you have what it takes to write one of these articles. Please submit your article to me either in the forums or through email.

The deadline for these articles is May 16th. This gives you two weeks.

One of the fellas in the forums mentioned that he did not have the patch for Shadowmoor in his MWS. I found this peculiar, as I normally have the sets a few days after the spoiler is launched.

So to help my fellow MDV brother out, I have found the file and “Tada!” HERE it is.

Put the winrar file in a safe place and unzip it. You will need to put the Master.mwBase and History.html in the main directory of MWS and then the file in the data folder (you got it) in the data file in the same directory. Then you are ready to rock and roll with your buddies.

Also not that this update corrects your Standard filter.

Enjoy.

It is Wednesday, it’s time for another survey, let’s get some answers!

Drum Roll please…

1.) What was your high school mascot?

2.) What color of Magic do you like least?

3.) What Magic card would you vote off the island?

4.) If you could erase one Magic set from the minds of everyone, which would it be?

5.) What is your first thought when your opponent plays his first land, and it is an Island?

It is Survey Time again.

With the release of Shadowmoor, I guess it is only fitting to ask you a few questions regarding the new set, but I also want to toss a few nuggets out there about MDV in general.

Don’t forget to discuss your surveys, as these are intended for discussion as well as data collection.

1.) What is your Favorite Shadowmoor Card?

2.) Which Color benefited the most from Shadowmoor?

3.) What is your Favorite Shadowmoor combo?

4.) Have you read the new MDV Newsletter, the Eye of the Vortex?

5.) What originally attracted you to MDV?

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You can leave your survey answers here.

The MDV Blog is slowly being taken over by the admin. Have you noticed? The bloggers have all but died away and seeming are no where to be seen.

Although Streetz and I have not formally talked about it, you can see that we are on the same page with our intention. From my perspective, I can discuss with you the Writer’s Guild and MDV Newsletter information without taking up value article space on the main page, and Streetz can provoke interesting conversation out of you with his editorials about concepts on his end (Deck Database, Art Archive, etc.)

In this editorial, I am bringing you the long awaited April Issue of the Newsletter. *Drum roll please*

I also have an announcement to make regarding the Newletter. I have expanded the staff. That’s right, you may be surprised to see who has been included. *Drum roll again please*

Your favorite evil incarnate guy… Yawgmoth! What you may or may not know about him is that he has a really great skill of doing comics. Talking with him a bit, I discovered that he prefers to call it Sequential Art. So be it!

I present to you Yawgmoth, the Eye of the Vortex Sequential Artist. But wait, there is more. Not only is he the Sequential Artist, but he has accepted the role of Art Director. Meaning… he is going to organize the art so my art impaired me doesn’t have to do it. While I can make words sing, I can’t make a pencil do anything more than snap. Thank God for keyboards!

Congratulations Yawgmoth on your new role, and thank you, from the bottom of my heart for offering to help me out. Although it is a labor of love, it requires a lot of love.

~ Chris Newton (Tynion)

by Streetz

This is just a quick blog to welcome you all to Evil Combo Week here at Magic Deck Vortex.  

There will be plenty of content and features throughout the week, but to start I think I should open this up to a question.  Feel free to post your response to this question here in the blog comments or in the forum.  Here’s the question:

How would you define an “EVIL COMBO”? 

Is it a combo that wins in one turn?  A combo that strips you of all cards in your hand or all creatures on the board?  Is it a combo that wins a game late game? 

The vB forum discussion thread can be found here.

While you ponder that question be sure to go to the main site and check out this week’s content.

Thanks for visiting Magic Deck Vortex and I truly hope you enjoy this week!

John Streetz

This weekend is the Pre-Release of Shadowmoor, which means that the spoiler lists will be available in their full and final forms. This means that you can expect next week to be the Shadowmoor First Impressions week right?

Well, no… but it is the week afterwards. (We are good, but we still need time to actually write the articles.)

Next week is the beginning of the coming of the Dark Side. All throughout May, we will be getting into touch with our other side. In harmony with Shadowmoor, MDV will launch its first Theme Week of the year, Evil Combo Week. The following week will be First Impressions: Shadowmoor Week. Finally, not to spoil it, but we are having a special Flavor Theme Week. What is that Flavor’s theme? You just have to wait.

While you are busy waiting, why don’t you submit your First Impressions of Shadowmoor? The set is spoiled completely on MTG Salvation, and will be soon here on MDV (as soon as Streetz get a minute to breath that is). During the last set, Morningtide, we had three people submit their Impressions. Two of those people are now card toting members of the Writer’s Guild.

Could you be the next one? Certainly not if you do not submit your First Impressions.

If you send in an article, it will be published soon after the Flavor Theme Week. I’ll be checking my Private Message box, looking for your article. You can write your impressions of an entire color like the Writer’s Guild does. You could single out your favorite cards. You could compare cards in the set. You could even give us your top ten lists of best and worst cards. If you send them in, we will use them.

~ Chris Newton (Tynion )

Whenever we accept a new writer into the Guild, eventually I will have to have a conversation with that new writer in which I tell them that they need to understand their audience. How exactly do I tell them who the audience is? Well… umm…

Why don’t you just tell them yourselves?

I am beginning this survey as a way get a gage on who exactly is reading the articles. Not numbers, but who is really reading. I will attempt to keep this going as long as there is interest, but you can help us out by chiming in with your answers. I will mix it up with serious questions and humorous questions. The only thing I ask is this, please don’t answer all the questions with wise cracks. You should be able to tell the serious questions from the roll in the grass questions.

So without further ado, I offer your first survey.

1.) Are you a male or female?

2.) What format of Magic do you prefer to play?

3.) Do you play any other games besides Magic?

4.) What song best describes you?

5.) What is your favorite MDV article series?

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You can answer the survey by heading over here…