Magic Monday! Episode 1, part 1.

I've been playing Magic: The Gathering for about four and a half years.  I was introduced to the game as a concept (and the players as a stereotype) back in university, where (as you can see through my old post history) I studied for my Masters in Games Design.

Now as a concept seems straightforward - I heard about the game, knew it was a game, etc.  Nothing more, for me, was attached to that idea.  It's a nerdy game for nerds.

As a stereotype player, that image was not one of the unwashed masses, but of those who could more readily suspend their disbelief - a key part of getting passionate about games like this.

Now as time has gone on, I am far more at home with being a nerd.  I'm fine with talking about stats and characters and all of that (still way out of touch with MtG lore).  The reason is fairly easy.  Friends of mine who are not nerds - indeed; friends who are closer to jocks, for a more American comparison - can talk at length about the reason they pick a particular player for their NFL fantasy league draft.  And no-one really says much about it.  But let me tell you why a particular Hydra works well in a Green/Red deck - or why Neheb, the Eternal would make a sound Commander deck choice - then there's an ineffable stigma attached that leaves somewhat of a sour taste in the mouth.  As if I could be doing something better with my time.

Anyway.  I'm a nerd and that's ok.

What I want to do with this series is just introduce and catalogue my decks here, one a month, and talk about why I have the cards I do.  I have passed through the new player phase of wanting to put everything in every deck, and I've whittled my decks down to as close to 60 cards in every deck.

Some decks are exempt from this limitation, but it's not because I want as much a possible in them, but I have crafted them for fun and function; not just strictly performance.

For the sake of space, I'm going to work through the deck grouping the cost of cards together, and for the sake of time, both reading through this and typing it all up, I'm going to have this split into two parts.  At least for this episode.  This post is going to be looking at the Artifacts, Instants, Sorceries, and Enchantments in the deck.  The next post will consist of the Minotaurs themselves and I'll go through them in the same way I've gone through these ones.

So here we go:

This deck is Red/Black; so I run with 14 red and 13 black lands.

For two-cost artifacts, I run one Throne of the God-Pharaoh and two Prowler's Helms.  If I'm attacking as much as I can, I want to see some benefits - taking life from the opponent and/or their creatures with these cards is nice.

Three-cost artifacts next - one of each.  My two-costs give me some pros to attacking, and my three-cost give me some boosts for playing red and black spells period.  Take life from them, give life to me, etc.

Non-creature, non-artifacts.  One-cost.  I run with two Viper's Kiss, Two Muggings, and one of each of Riot Spikes and Furious Resistance.  Easy boosts to plays that I can pop on with no real worry of not having the mana to spend on them.

My only two-cost; Lightning Strike.  And I go with two of these.  Cheap damage to the opposition.

My three-cost; boosting already-enchanted creatures - particularly good if there's a general "Enchant Creatures" card in play, since the means all of the creatures down will benefit from this one card.

Four-cost, and one that I am still wrestling with when it comes to actually keeping in the deck.  I have a few copies of the cards I really don't want to lose, so this card is only focused on one or two cards that I'd want back.  So It would sit in my hand for a long time before I'd really need to use it.  Which isn't all too good in the long run.  One in the deck.

Five-costs:  Shadow Slice (one in the deck).  Very nice if I can cipher it and make use of it more than once, but a relatively late-game card in this deck.  And Flurry of Horns (two in the deck) - not the worst cost for a quick two creature tokens with haste.  More Minotaurs is always good.

And the six-cost.  By the time I play these, either the opponent has a big enough creature that warrants me destroying, or I have lost a big enough guy to merit bringing back and also dealing damage to the other player.

So there are the non-creature spells I have loaded up and ready to go in the deck.  It's highly likely that I'll see something as I record these cards and find that I want to take them out, but for now, I'm super happy with the way this deck plays, casually.  It's a lot of fun to see what I can make work.

Part two will be up soon.  I'll be piecing it together through the next week and I'll probably get it posted on the second Monday of the month.

Ask someone about this game.  It's a lot of fun.

Peace.