I wrote an articlea few months back detailing which cards, in my opinion, were the best to use with the Timeshifted enchantment-from-Hell.  However, the most recent expansion to have been released at the time was Alara Reborn, and so I didn’t include some cards that I would have had I written the article, say, after Zendikar had been released.  This coupled with the fact that I discover new cards from all over time and space every single day makes for a pretty long list of other cards that I feel would work wonders with Pandemonium.  I can’t very well keep quiet about them, now can I?  Nope!  So, I’ve created the Pandemonium Strategy Minute to share my crazy ideas with the world.  Today’s guest: Norin the Wary!

This is a card that I actually neglected to mention in my original article; I was reminded of him by one of my friends and fellow writers and made a note about it in the comment section.  Now, I have finally decided to give him the spotlight he deserves.

The thing about Norin is that he seems to have been designed with Pandemonium in mind; sure, there are other “enter the battlefield” effects that he could work with, but honestly, with Pandemonium he’s essentially a free Shockevery turn (including those of your opponents, unless they decide to purposefully lock themselves out of the game just to avoid him).  He’s also almost completely unkillable; the only way to get him is to target him with an activated ability of a card that’s already on the table, and if it’s a creature ability you just need to get rid of said creature before your opponent can use it.  A Pandemonium deck design that includes Norin should be able to maximize creature output with cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, but the great thing is that even if you aren’t able to get a creature into play on your turn, you can just attack with Norin and still get use out of his ability (since it triggers when he attacks, too).  Your deck can get away with using just one of him; two copies is alright if you want to increase the chance that you’ll draw him, but since he’s basically worthless without a Pandemonium in play, I’d rather be drawing more useful creatures more often than Norin.  I almost always keep an opening hand that includes both Norin and Pandemonium, however; as long as you’ve got a stable mana base early in the game, there aren’t too many better hands to keep.  A Norin blinking in and out can pretty much disable one or more of your opponents’ early-game creature strategies.  I would seriously consider using him as a one-of in most, if not all, Pandemonium deck archetypes.  He’s far too worth it to pass up.

Bonus Creature!

I’m featuring Saltskitter as an added bonus in this article, because it’s a similar card to Norin the Wary.  It’s definitly more expensive, but it’s worth it for the extra power and toughness.  This card only blinks when creatures come into play, making it an even more important combo with Kiki-Jiki than Norin is, but its 4 toughness should be able to ward off most direct damage spells and effects, and he also functions as a good blocker.  If you decide you want to use white in your Pandemonium deck, give this card ample consideration.

Bonus Decklist!

Of course, I have my own Pandemonium deck, the current incarnation of which pretty much just kicks ass.  It’s a bit mana-intensive, but I’ve included enough helpful cards in that regard that it runs relatively smoothly most of the time.  It’s changed quite a bit since I first made it; I don’t see it undergoing too many major changes in the future unless some crazy balls-to-the-wall card comes out of which I might feel the need to insert more than one copy.  Here’s the list as it stands right now:

9 Forest

10 Mountain

2 Swamp

2 Savage Lands

1 Norin the Wary

3 Llanowar Elves

3 Sakura-Tribe Elder

2 Mogg War Marshal

2 Penumbra Bobcat

3 Flametongue Kavu

2 Mycoloth

2 Deus of Calamity

1 Shivan Wurm

3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

1 Rampaging Baloths

2 Dragon Broodmother

3 Broodmate Dragon

2 Kodama’s Reach

4 Pandemonium

3 Heat Shimmer

As always, feel free to comment!  Let me know of any ideas you can come up with for Pandemonium, or how the decklist may be improved (I’m always open to criticism).  See you next time on the Pandemonium Strategy Minute!

This is really a very good card, almost deceptively so.  Haste on a blue creature is virtually unheard of, but Future Sight did a lot of wacky things, and this was certainly one of them; the fact that you can snag a card the turn the Fetch comes into play makes it very worthwile as a utility card in many different types of decks.  I’ve always loved draw-discard abilities (as they appear at a discount; simply drawing a card tends to be more costly); the Looters of the Merfolk and Cephalid persuasions have always been pet cards of mine.  The ability to retool your hand every turn is one that can be taken advantage of in a myriad of situations.  Compared to Merfolk Looter, I feel that this card is better; true, you’re essentially using the Fetch’s ability on the same turn that you would be able to use the Looter’s, but I love the surprise element that haste grants, as well as the extra point of toughness.  With the haste tacked on, your opponent(s) won’t have a turn to decide they’d like to get rid of the creature before you start using it, not to mention the fact that this shouldn’t be a very high-priority target early in the game.  The fact that it has defender (and no power to begin with) should help to divert other players’ attention to other, more pertinent threats, allowing you to slowly but surely begin to gain card advantage.

This card works very well with cards that have the Madness ability, as well as with cards with abilities that trigger when you draw cards (such as Lorescale Coatl and Hoofprints of the Stag).  Also, should you be running a deck with Archmage Ascension (I wouldn’t reccommend it), Bonded Fetch can be one of your better options for getting the enchantment up and running as quickly as possible, and afterwards will allow you to tutor up an extra card each turn.

I hope you enjoyed this article; Bonded Fetch is a great utility card, and you should be able to find a lot of places for it to go.  Until next time!

Now, let’s get down to business!  The business, of course, is this guy:

I decided to do my first Card of the Day article on this creature because I’ve noticed that as good as he is, he’s incredibly underused in my current play group (I seem to remember one of my friends using him in a deck at some point, but he has since graduated and vanished off the face of the Earth, presumably into Toldeo, Ohio); not only that, but I don’t even remember any of us so much as discussing him at any point!  Now, I’m not exactly a walking encyclopedia of Magic, but I would normally hope that I would remember a card as useful and versatile as this one, what with the amount of casual and tournament play he sees on a still-regular basis (he was a hell of a weapon when Time Spiral block was in Standard).  Be that as it may, he’s on my mind today, and I would be loathe not to rave about him now.

I’ve always liked Morph cards; they provided for a host of neat little combat tricks before Wizards pussed out and stopped combat damage from using the stack (yeah, it was a good move flavor-wise, but come on!  So many cool interactions gone because the idea didn’t make real-world sense!  Hello!  This is a game about mighty wizards summoning random creatures out of the blue to throw at each other to see who’s better at being a wizard… it doesn’t even come close to making real-world sense!  Okay, I’ll stop now.).  Still, the ability to lay a mysterious 2/2 creature for 3 that could become anything at any time is pretty freaking awesome.  Granted, there were some crappy Morphs out there, but for the most part I was happy that they brought the ability back for Time Spiral block.  Vesuvan Shapeshifter is essentially the flagbearer for the Morph cards from those sets, and he really lives up to the title!  For a tawdry 3 colorless mana, you can get him on the board face-down; if it’s turn 5 he can just come down as anything already on the board, with the option of changing continuously at your whim.  Basically, you have a Clone that technically hits the table a turn earlier than the actual card Clone would, as you can play it face-down on turn 3 and morph it on turn 4, but it amps up the tricky factor to a whole new level.  If your opponents try to target it with something, if you happen to block with it, if it becomes blocked, or if it’s let through for damage, you can suddenly turn it into any other creature on the table for the nifty (gorgeous) price of 1U.  You can also use him as a surprise Legendary creature-slayer; it’ll be harder for your opponents to counter the effect, since you’re not just playing a Clone from your hand.

One neat little combo that I would like to mention involves Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Aphetto Runecaster, and/or Unblinking Bleb.  With these three cards out at once, you can keep morphing the Shapeshifter every turn and stack the Runecaster and Bleb triggers so that you can Scry 2 and then draw a card.  Constant library manipulation = awesome card advantage, and that usually leads to multiple games won.  The Runecaster in particular is a great card to use with the Shapeshifter, as you’re guaranteed an extra card every turn; this is a good way to get the usually clunky Archmage Ascension moving in the right direction, and of course will allow you to tutor up an extra card per turn once the Ascension kicks off.

I hope you enjoyed my little commentary on one of the best cards that I never see used; I’m certainly planning to get my hands on some in the near future.  They’re pretty cheap, and easy to get your hands on, so if you haven’t thought about giving this guy any use, think again!  If you get any cool deck ideas for him, feel free to put them in the Comments section; I’d love to see what you can come up with!

At the time of it’s printing, Dark Depths was already one of the most popular cards in the Coldsnap expansion. For 3 mana (or more) per turn, you could slowly pick the ice away on this card to eventually, after a net cost of 30 mana, dump a HUGE 20/20 creature into play.

Artist Stephan Martiniere did a good job of depicting the hugest creature in Magic’s existence trapped in a giant ice cube. Marit Lage is so big it is nearly faceless. The soldier in the picture is great reference to how large this monster really is. I’d really like to know what the little guy is thinking. The flavor of this card is truly genuine. Everything about it links it back to the good ol’ Ice Age block.

Marit Lage is, to this day, the largest individual creature available in the game. a 20/20 can take out an opponent in one turn! The problem with this card at the time of its printing was that 30 mana was a big cost and often this card hit the table and did nothing all game. It could be picked up at the corner store for the small price of 3-5 dollars… until recently…

With the release of the Zendikar expansion in mid 2009 came a card that changed the face of Dark Depths forever. Who knows if It slipped through during play testing or if Magic just wanted it’s baddest land to see more play. Either way, a playset of Dark Depths will cost you a pretty penny now, and it’s all thanks to this little guy:

Yikes. Vampire Hexmage turns Dark Depths into a third turn play. It spares you the cost to removing the ice counters. How is that for a combo? Dark Depths is now dominating tournaments around the world and is right up there with some of the most expensive lands in the game (Tolarian Academy, Fetch lands, Mutavault). Dark Depths is awesome. Even before the Hexmage came along and made it unreal, it was one of the most BA cards in the game! Check out the Coldsnap Pre-release participation bonus…

Its safe to say that Marit Lage is one of the scariest creatures in the game. Dark Depths is a one of kind card that shall continue to steal the show for years to come!

Image via Wikipedia

When choosing your conker here are some things to keep in mind.

• It is best to collect your conkers after they have already dropped to the ground (between September and October). With luck, the fall will have broken the outer husk and the brown nut will already be exposed.
• The ideal size for your conker is 30-35mm in diameter, it should be big, round, rich brown and glossy (apart from the dull ‘eye’ at the top where it was joined to the husk).
• The denser the conker, the better it will be for battling purposes. Drop the ones you have collected into a bucket of water, those that float get rid of them; the ones that sink will be the ones that are more dense and more fit for purpose.
• Drill a hole through the centre of the ‘eye’ of the conker, the hole should be big enough to thread a piece of string through.
• The best type of ’string’ to use is a shoelace (better to make it from an old pair of shoes, don’t want you tripping over yourself). It should be long enough to go round your clenched fist with 25cm still to spare.

• Once you have the string threaded through the conker, tie a knot (or two) to secure it. Now you are ready to play conkers.

Rules of the game.

The game is played between two players who each are armed with a conker. The aim of the game is to be the first to smash the opponents conker.

• The player that is being targeted first must ‘dangle’ their conker at arms length at a height chosen by the other. It must be held straight and perfectly still.
• The ’striker’ has three attempts to smash his opponents conker before the turns are reversed.

• The game continues until one of the players conkers is smashed.

Image via Wikipedia

Cheating is not an option.

Or is it? Although cheating should never be encouraged there are a few things you can do to help your conkers chances of winning.

Leaving a conker in an airing cupboard for a whole year (with the hole already drilled into it) will help harden it up and strengthen it. A conker is predominantly carbohydrate but by drying it out can reduce th water content (3%). Be warned though, conkers that have been in an airing cupboard for a year are not allowed to be used in the World Championship Conkers competition, held in Northamptonshire annually.

If you can’t wait a whole year to strengthen your conker there is a quicker way to get similar results. Soaking the conker in vinegar over night and then baking it in a cool oven for an hour can have similar results to the one year drying out process.

As an aside; conkers are often used in animal fodder and have been medicinally used to treat ailments such as arthritis, neuralgia, haemorrhoids and other rectal complaints!

Before I begin, I’d like to explain a little about Limited to those of you who are not quite familiar with the way the format works (as I was not more than a year ago).  Basically, your card pool is restricted to a particular expansion or block (depending on what time of the year it is).  For example, a Zendikar Limited tournament would be using Zendikar cards only.  A Worldwake tournament would incorporate cards from both that expansion and Zendikar (the one before it).  Tournaments for the third expansion in the block would be restricted to cards from only the three expansions of that particular block; the third expansion in Zendikar block, however, is meant to be drafted separately, which should be nothing short of confusing for everyone involved.  Anyways, you can build your Limited deck either by taking part in a booster draft or in a Sealed Deck tournament.  A booster draft basically starts eight people off with three boosters apiece.  Each player opens one booster, picks one card, and passes the rest to the person on their left.  Once everyone’s first pack is gone, the second pack is opened and passed right.  The third is passed left again.  Basically you wind up with a pile of cards, some of which you were lucky enough to snag right away, and others which you were forced to pick because there was nothing better left for you.  A Sealed Deck tournament involves boosters as well, but instead of drafting, you are simply given a number of packs to open and must craft a deck out of what you wind up with (termed your “card pool”).  The deck must be a minimum of 40 cards, which most people stick to, although it’s not entirely unorthodox to go with more.  Limited, then, works differently than Constructed (60-card minimum decks) in that the decks will be faster but a bit less fine-tuned.  You won’t have many copies of any one card (except for basic land), and you’ll want to make sure you have plenty of removal spells and solid creatures, because that’s basically the way you win in Limited.  This article will go over the ten most powerful creatures, spells, and even lands that show up in Zendikar.  By making sure your deck has the right combinations of these cards, you should have no problem doing well in whatever tournament in which you wish to participate.

Honorable Mentions

Some cards just didn’t quite make the cut for the top 10, but are worth the discussion nonetheless.  Windrider Eel and Plated Geopede are both pretty solid by themselves, but throw that Landfall ability on them and they become more worthy of being added to your deck than many of the other creatures in the set.  Plated Geopede is the better of the two, simply because of the fact that you can be swinging with a 3/3 first striker on turn 3, but if you’re at all playing blue, you’d better throw in your Eels, if you have them.  Adventuring gear grants that same Landfall ability to any creature you control, for a very nice discount price of 2 mana.  Grazing Gladehart is just a fantastic card; as long as you keep up with your land drops and have a reliable creature base, you’ll be able to outrun your opponent almost every time with this guy on the board.  Finally, Hideous End is great spot removal that can also help you finish off your opponent; the double-black mana cost makes it slightly less appealing than some of the other removal in the set, but still, the ability to off a creature and stabbing your opponent at the same time is not to be taken lightly.  Try to run these, especially if you’re concentrated in black.

#10: Sphinx of Lost Truths

If you decide to run blue, and you have this card, BY GOD USE IT.  I would even splash for it, if possible; there’s plenty of ways to get the right mana out for this guy, and he is so worth it.  A 3/5 flier is invaluable in Limited; the added card draw ability is essentially the super icing on the awesome cake.  Even if you can’t kick it, I would get this on the table as soon as possible.  Black has some recursion going on in this set, so if you’re playing blue-black you should have no problem discarding three cards in order to fine-tune your hand for the challenges ahead.  Kicked, this thing is atrociously good.  Zendikar also provides its disciples with other card-drawing spells and plenty of land fetch, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble having seven lands on the table if you draw the Sphinx late in the game.

#9: Bloodghast

This guy is seeing play all over the place right now, and it’s little wonder.  Especially in Limited, a creature that keeps coming back can all too often be a death knell for your opponent.  If it comes back in an insanely easy way (like as a result of you playing a land), well, that’s just not fair.  It’s going to die a lot, for sure; your opponent isn’t going to want to take two damage a turn, so they’ll probably be spending a blocker on this guy more often than not.  That’s good for you–it gives your other creatures a greater chance of getting through.  He’s not quite as great until your opponent is at half their life, but getting to that point isn’t really that hard if you have the right cards.  Black and red offer a myriad of life loss and direct damage options (a couple of which will be discussed at later points in this very article), and blue and green have plenty of creatures that can easily do lots of damage at once if your opponent isn’t careful.  You just need to make sure that your deck has the kind of speed that will make Bloodghast live up to its potential; the fact that it can’t block means that it won’t be of much help if you’re trying to stave off an assault rather than lead one.

#8: Explorer’s Scope

This is one of the best utility cards in the set, especially in Limited.  For a very low price of 2 mana (I love the cheap Equipment in this expansion), you allow yourself the opportunity to either see what you’re going to be getting next turn, or to thin your deck and activate all of your Landfall abilities at the same time.  There’s no real reason not to use this card if you have it; pretty much every Landfall ability in the set is worthwhile anyways, so chances are you’ll have plenty of opportunities in your deck for this card to be great.  The best part is that it’s colorless, so it will fit into any deck you build!  Even if you don’t have many Landfall cards to work with, the card advantage that the Scope offers should be enough to convince you to run at least one.

#7: Harrow

The best land-fetching card to be released in a long time (actually, reprinted, since it originally popped up in Invasion), Harrow just plain makes your deck better.  It essentially allows you to splash for pretty much anything; don’t go crazy and build a spectrum deck or something and expect to win, but if you’re running two main colors and a third minor one, this card will help you really get things going.  Although you have to sacrifice a land to it, it replaces that land and gives you another one while double-activating all of your Landfall abilities.  At the same time, it fixes your mana so that you should pretty much be able to play anything you draw into.  This card is awesome in Limited and should be just as awesome, if not more so, in all forms of competitive and casual play.

#6: Burst Lightning

Hands-down the best removal card in the set.  At its worst, it’s a Shock (classic, cheap direct damage), and at its best it’s cheaper than playing Flame Javelin for all colorless mana.  This card is a fine example of why Kicker is so great; no matter when you draw it, it’s good, and later in the game it can be a winner.

#5: The Fetchlands

If you know at least one of the colors you’re going to be running, and you open a matching Fetchland, you’d better damn well use it.  These cards are just awesome, no matter when you draw them.  Early in the game they fix your mana, and later in the game they can serve as an extra Landfall activation.  Life is precious in Limited, but you won’t regret paying 1 to activate these cards.  In a booster draft, I would try to pick one of these early, if you’re lucky enough to get one passed to you.  I would especially advise you to pick one if it fetches Swamps, because black is the most powerful color in the set.

#4: Bloodseeker

One of the best Vampires ever printed, and one of the best black cards in the set, Blood Seeker is a force to be reckoned with no matter when he hits the table.  These are incredibly frustrating to play against; as I’ve mentioned, life is precious, and while 1 per creature may not sound so bad at first, trust me, it’s BAD.  The fact that these things are cheap enough to get multiples out early in the game makes them a must-have for any deck running black, even if it’s just splashing.  You’ll find that this card will simply win games for you; even if it just serves as a lightning rod for your opponent’s removal spells, it means that they’ll have one less option for dealing with your other creatures.

#3: Lotus Cobra

Some people may want to argue that this card deserves to be higher on the list, but I just feel that this thing is going to be removal fodder as soon as it hits the board, so it’s at #3.  Still, this is an astoundingly good card.  It will speed up your game like crazy, especially if you’re able to utilize one of the many methods to get multiple land drops in one turn.  At the very least, you’ll be able to play all of your spells a turn or two earlier than you would otherwise.  This card is especially good when you consider the fact that it essentially cheapens kicker costs.  I feel that this card will be more highly utilized in Constructed, as there will be more ways available to protect it, but it’s still damn scary in Limited.  If you get your hands on one, use it.  You won’t be disappointed.

#2: Ob Nixilis, the Fallen

This guy pretty much ruined my day at the Prerelease.  He is scary, scary, scary good.  I’m shocked that a bomb like this only costs 5 to play, especially since you can wait for your land drop until after you play him, essentially paying 5 for a 6/6 that sucks 3 life from your opponent right away.  There are barely any ways to deal with this guy; granted, you’re not going to draw into him all the time, and since he’s a Mythic your chances of pulling him are slightly diminished, but if you see one of these among your card pool, run black.  I shouldn’t have to tell you twice.

#1: Vampire Nighthawk

This is probably the only card that I would even consider picking over Ob Nixilis, and depending on the situation I might just do that.  Besides that awesome converted mana cost, what truly makes this card awesome is the three toughness.  All of a sudden it’s going to take more than a Burst Lightning to knock this guy out of the air.  His three keyword abilities are the perfect combination for a game-winning or game-saving card.  If you can pump him up (and there are more than a few ways to do that in Zendikar), the Nighthawk might win you the game all by himself.  Basically, if this in a pack, you ARE going to run black, just like you would with Ob Nixilis.  Except if you pass up this card, I will actually send goons after you to make sure you reconsider.

Afterword

Well, that’s it for the list!  I know it’s a little late getting out there, but I hope that most of you will still find this helpful.  I would imagine that this list would retain at least two or three of these cards once Worldwake comes out.  Zendikar is one of the best sets for Limited that I’ve seen in a while, offering a wealth of opportunities.  Get out there and grab ‘em!

Anyhow, as I said, Zendikar has offered a wealth of topics to discuss, and I’d like to kick things off with a piece about what is possibly my favorite element of the game: card cycles.  I love the idea of each color having a card that is similar mechanically to each other one, but at the same time tooled to fit its color in flavor and ability.  It’s always exciting to see a couple of cards get previewed that look very similar, realize they’re part of a cycle, and then anxiously await the unveiling of the rest of the group.  Inevitably, some of the cards in the cycle will turn out to be better than others; the best cycles, of course, are ones that, while there may be one or two standouts, have a solid card in each color.

One of the awesome things about Zendikar is that it contains a wealth of different card cycles, each with their own theme.  Of these cycles, there are three different rare cycles which I believe are the absolute coolest and the best representations of what the set is trying to do.  We’re going to go through each of these cycles one at a time, taking a look at the good, the not-so-good, the bad (gasp! Yes, there are a couple) and the freakin’ sweet.  Yeah, that’s not the order in which those four categories should logically be presented, but hell, we’re in Zendikar!  There’s floating rocks in the sky, for heaven’s sake.  What’s logical about that?  Seriously, though, I think most of these cards should fall in the Good or Not-So-Good areas of the spectrum, with only a few landing in the other two.  Want to find out which ones those will be?  Then take my hand!  …Or not; that’s a little creepy.  Just follow me to the Ascensions.

The Ascensions

THE GOOD:  Pyromancer Ascension

THE NOT-SO-GOOD: Archmage Ascension

THE BAD: N/A

THE FREAKIN’ SWEET: Luminarch Ascension; Beastmaster Ascension; Bloodchief Ascension

Pyromancer Ascension is just dying to be slipped into a combo deck of some sort.  The best thing about the card is that you can play it pretty much whenever you draw it and still get use out of it.  Its ability requires you to be slinging spells pretty much every turn, so you’d want to use this in a more agressive sort of deck.  Playing out your hand wouldn’t be too bad if you were using cards with the Hellbent ability along with the Ascension, so that’s one way to go; Madness cards would also be an option coupled with some sort of discard aimed at yourself.  The best card for this, of course, would be Chandra Ablaze, who is just amazing in combination with the Ascension, giving you doubles of every red instant and sorcery in your graveyard with her ultimate.

Archmage Ascension falls into the Not-So-Good category because of the fact that it’s hard to get quest counters on it in the first place, and you need six of them to kick off its ability.  However, the ability itself is good enough to keep it out of the Bad category.  A converted mana cost of 3 (with no double-color requirements) means that you can get it out early enough to start getting quest counters on it before its ability becomes worthless (the later it is in the game, the less likely you’ll actually need to be searching your library for too many cards, as you’ll probably have drawn most of them already).  You’ll want to have a LOT of draw in a deck with this card, because going a couple turns in between putting counters on the Ascension is pretty much a pure waste.  It seems that this card would be best in a deck with some of the Lorwyn/Morningtide/Shadowmoor/Eventide Merfolk, like Fallowsage, Sage of Fables, or Sygg, River Cutthroat.  I would love to see how this works with Sea Gate Loremaster, as well; not only would this card help get counters on the Ascension, but once the Ascension ability goes off, you’ll be able to use the Loremaster to search your library for a card for each Ally you control.  Sweet!

Luminarch Ascension is just amazing; there’s so many ways in white to keep yourself from losing life that you’d be sure to be pumping Angels out in no time; plus, in multiplayer, you have a ton more opportunities to get counters on this card right out of the gate.  Its converted mana cost is amazing, its screw-you-Sarkhan Vol ability is, in my opinion, the best of the Ascensions, and to top it off, the art is kick-ass!  One thing that you must remember about this card is that life gain does not cancel out life loss in the same turn, so don’t expect to load up on counters simply because you have a Soul Warden out.  If you’re packing lots of Holy Days, you should be fine; other cards that would work would be ones that work to prevent attacks turn after turn, such as Ghostly Prison.  You might also consider the Clerics from the Odyssey and Onslaught blocks that can go nuts with damage prevention.  Another route would be to run an entirely creatureless deck that uses Luminarch Ascension and Sigil of the Empty Throne alongside Pacifism and other slow-the-game-down enchantments in order to quickly flood the board with Angels.  I would splash blue into this type of deck for some countermagic to prevent your opponents from wrecking your enchantments or board-wiping your Angels.

The first thing I thought when I saw Beastmaster Ascension was, “Wow!  That artist must be a serious Cincinnatti Bengals fan!”  Okay, no, actually, I found it to be the third-best of this enchantment cycle (second being Luminarch Ascension; we’ll get to #1 in a moment).  The only reason for this is the fact that you’ll need to be attacking pretty much every turn in order to really maximize this card’s early-game potential.  With an aggressive deck, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem; the only other real issue I have with this card is the fact that it costs one more mana to play than its Luminarch and Bloodchief cousins, so it’ll take a tad longer to really get going with it.  Drakdrium13 (who also writes for this site) mentioned to me the other day that he would rather just play it the turn he was going to attack with 7 creatures at once, and have them all get +5/+5 immediately.  That sounds like a fine plan to me!  I feel that the deck archetype that could benefit the most from this would be Elves (cheap, quick, aggressive creatures with mana accelleration), but you shouldn’t have any problem using this card in all sorts of fast mono-green or part-green decks.  Awesome combo alert: Beastmaster Ascension (with enough counters) + Mycoloth + Pandemonium!  20+ damage worth of creatures per turn?  Whoopah!  (If any of you are Friends fans, you’ll get that).

That leaves the best Ascension for last, namely, Bloodchief Ascension.  The converted mana cost of 1 pretty much seals the deal for me; the fact that, like Luminarch Ascension, it actually becomes far better in multiplayer is just the icing on the cake.  In certain types of decks, you should have no problem getting your opponents to lose 2 life here and there, and the great thing about this card is that it can let you sit back and watch your opponents smack each other around and still get quest counters (that is, if your opponents are just that stupid).  Plus, it only needs three quest counters before its ability goes off!  This card is dying to be used in a bleed deck; a deck that could do that and mill cards at the same time might very well wind up being virtually unbeatable.  And I don’t think I have to tell you to use Sanguine Bond alongside this card.  Bloodchief Ascension is going to piss a lot of people off, so make sure to get your hands on some, because there’s nothing more fun in Magic than pissing off multiple people just by laying one card on the table!  Just make sure that you have lots of removal up your sleeves–this card is going to make you a target, and fast.

The Kicker Spells

THE GOOD: N/A

THE NOT-SO-GOOD: Conqueror’s Pledge

THE BAD: Gigantiform

THE FREAKIN’ SWEET: Rite of Replication, Elemental Appeal, Sadistic Sacrament

Conqueror’s Pledge is not in the Not-So-Good category because of its mana cost; as you will have noticed, every one of these spells is heavily mana-intensive with an expensive kicker.  No, Conqueror’s Pledge missed the Good category simply because of what it does.  Although 12 1/1’s for 11 mana seems like a good investment, there are a lot of cards out these days that can handle that sort of threat rather easily.  Pyroclasm just got reprinted in M10, for example, and that only scratches the surface of the different types of mass removal that are around these days.  A white weenie deck would certainly benefit from this card, but just make sure that if you’re planning on using it you know that you don’t have anything in your deck in which it would be more worth investing 11 mana in one turn.  A good situation would be to have a Glorious Anthem or two on the table when you play this card.  A final note: Just recently, Jacob van Lunen wrote an article for magicthegathering.com about a white weenie deck that he built involving the Pledge alongside lots of cheap soldiers, including Veterans Armorsmith and Swordsmith, among others.  As I recall, he did relatively well with the deck, winning about half of his matches, but one thing he seemed to gloss over was the fact that he barely played Conqueror’s Pledge at all, and the one or two times he did, it didn’t help him in the slightest.  Every match he won, he did so without so much as considering playing a Pledge.  With that information, I wouldn’t consider building a deck around this card; rather, think about throwing it in as a two-of so that you can have another finisher in a deck that needs one.

Curiously enough, Gigantiform is the only spell out of this cycle that isn’t a Sorcery.  Specifically, it’s an Aura, which only serves to bury it deeper in the Bad category.  For 9 mana, I would want to do a hell of a lot more than turning two of my creatures into 8/8 tramples, not to mention the fact that, since it’s an Aura, your opponent could easily two-for-one your creature and your Gigantiform and you would be back to square one.  There are so many other ways to beef up your creatures in green (or just play beefy creatures in the first place) that the idea of running one of these, much less more than one, seems bad from the start.  Maybe it would be better if it gave your creature a power boost instead of just changing its power and toughness to new base numbers.  As it stands, though, I can think of a myriad of other cards that would be more worth using in a green deck than Gigantiform (Epic Proportions, for one; if you really want to use Auras, at least use good ones).  Don’t feel bad, though, green… you got Lotus Cobra.  Lucky bastard.

Elemental Appeal is heavily red-intensive, so I probably wouldn’t bother using it anywhere other than a mono-red deck (or a two-color deck with a crapload of mana-fixing).  However, 9 mana for a 14/1 trample haste is just gorgeous!  This card will win you games, it will win you games, it will WIN YOU GAMES.  It really shines in one-on-one, because it will basically swing the game in your favor (or, if it was already in your favor, put it out of reach).  Your opponent is probably not going to want to take 14 damage, so they’re going to have to lose some creatures to take out your crazy-big token.  Even if you can’t kick the spell, you’re still getting a 7/1 with the same abilities for four mana (albeit all red mana), so it’s still a great play.  Yeah, the token is just as killable as the Kor tokens I mentioned when discussing Conqueror’s Pledge, but the fact is that this card is so much more dangerous than the aforementioned white sorcery because it forces your opponent to act as soon as you play it, as opposed to giving them a turn to figure out what they’re going to do.  Unless they happen to be holding a timely kill spell or direct damage, they’re basically going to have to gang-block or die.  This card would be fantastic with Chandra Ablaze and/or Pyromancer Ascension (see above).

Sadistic Sacrament is hands-down the best card in the cycle.  For three black mana, you get to look through your opponent’s library and rip out three cards.  Kicked, this spell basically hamstrings an opponent’s deck.  Losing fifteen cards is bad enough, but losing what will essentially be your fifteen best is hard if not impossible to recuperate from.  The fact that this card only takes 10 mana to perform at full capacity is almost too good to be true.  It’s basically a Denying Wind on crack, and essentially puts the old Prophecy powerhouse to shame.  You can’t find anything nearly as good from recent sets except for Future Sight’s Bitter Ordeal, and that requires a lot of cards going to the graveyard to really be powerful, whereas with Sadistic Sacrament, what you see is what you get, and what you get is a whole lot of AWESOME.  I would love to see a mono-black mill deck utilizing this card, with a good creature base, plenty of removal, Memory Sluice (and other mill cards), and hell, if you can wrangle it, the aforementioned Bitter Ordeal.  It seems like it would be a blast to play, especially since black gives you cards like Bubbling Muck and Dark Ritual to help you play the Sacrament as soon as you can.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Sadistic Sacrament is so unbelieveably good, Rite of Replication would be my pick for best card in the cycle.  Granted, I only rated it Freakin’ Sweet because of what it does when it’s kicked; just playing it normally is essentially playing a Cloneat rip-off pricing.  Still, getting a copy of any creature on the battlefield for four mana isn’t much of anything to sneeze at, not to mention the fact that you can use this card to kill off other players’ Legendary creatures.  However, by paying an extra five mana, you are essentially grabbing control of the board right then and there.  By the time you are able to play this card, there should be a few different creatures out there that you wouldn’t mind having five of; this ability gets astronomically better in multiplayer games.  Depending on what creature you wind up copying, this card could potentially win you the game.  It is a lovely play alongside any number of different comes-into-play effects, such as In the Web of War or Pandemonium (and hey, having both out at the same time couldn’t hurt!).

The Rare Lands (no, not the fetchlands)

THE GOOD: Emeria, the Sky Ruin; Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

THE NOT-SO-GOOD: Magosi, the Waterveil

THE BAD: Crypt of Agadeem

THE FREAKIN’ SWEET: Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

You’ll notice that I took the time to mention that I’m not speaking about the Fetchlands.  Yeah, they’re amazing cards, and they’re technically a cycle, but there’s not much else I can say about them since they’re not very unique individually or as a group (there’s been an allied-color cycle of those already).  Therefore, I can’t really count that cycle as one of the best in Zendikar.

We’ll get the bad one out of the way first, so I can end the article on a good note.  Crypt of Agadeem is pretty terrible.  Sure, it’s the best black mana battery in Standard, but that’s only because all the good ones have been phased out.  For casual players, there is a wealth of other cards that are far better than this piece of crap.  Try the infamous Dark Ritual or Cabal Coffers on for size, and if you’re using the Coffers, you might want to check out their Magus, as well.  That’s not to mention the gabillion other cards out there that provide lots of black mana at a time.  If you really do want to use this card, you’d better have a hell of a good reason for putting enough creatures in your graveyard (and keeping them there) to make it worthwile.  Perhaps Umbra Stalkeror something of the like would be cool, but again, there are plenty of ways to play that guy that don’t involve a card that comes into play tapped, requires 2 mana to activate, and probably only gives you 4 or 5 black mana in return on average (for a net result, mind you, of 2 or 3).  My best advice to you would be to use this card as a coaster.

Magosi, the Waterveil would be good if design had forgotten to add the “return to your hand” clause into the cost of its second non-mana-producing ability.  If that had happened, there would be a ton of ways to get lots and lots of extra turns out of this card at no cost to you.  Unfortunately, that’s not how it happened, and so all you have left is something that probably will hurt you just as much as it could help.  I’ve never liked cards that made you skip turns (I have no idea why Chronatog is such an iconic card), and this one is no exception.  It’s not necessarily a bad card–it gives you an extra turn, after all, but that’s only after a lot of screwing around.  I don’t think I would want to put the effort into using it more than once (after all, it essentially gives your opponent(s) an extra turn as well) unless I had some sort of ridiculously awesome plan up my sleeve that wouldn’t be harmed by one or more opponents who decide that they want to kick my ass during their extra turn.  There is one card that combos rather nicely with this one, though:  Rings of Brighthearth and enough mana should allow you to take a few turns in a row all by yourself, which, with the right deck, should be enough to win the game.  Unfortunately, that’s the only way I know that this card will work better than it does on its own, and it’s not in Standard.  Lucky for us casual types, Rings is a rather cheap card money-wise, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some decks spring up here and there using this combo.  For the rest of you, be happy that Magosi’s ability at least lets you utilize Landfall to a greater extent.

Emeria, the Sky Ruin is a land saddled with Reya Dawnbringer’s ability, which would normally make it amazing, except for the little catch that you need to have seven Plains under your control before it starts working.  That’s not as bad as it sounds; this land is still a mana-producer, so it’s good to have in your opening hand, but it’s not a dead draw late in the game, either; as a matter of fact, it might turn out to be a game-winner in certain situations.  Getting your choice of creature back from your graveyard every turn is certainly nothing to sneeze at!  This card can work well in either mono-white or multicolor decks; in a multicolor deck I would strongly suggest including Endless Horizons.  This card will thin your deck out, allowing you to draw more of what you need when you need it, and at the same time will pretty much guarantee a timely activation of Emeria’s ability.  You could do this with a mono-white deck as well; that way, you’ll be guaranteed a land per turn while at the same time having immediate access to the entire non-land portion of your deck on every draw step.  Other recent cards to consider would be Harrow (sac a Forest for two Plains, for instance) and Kor Cartographer.  As for what to grab out of your graveyard… well, get creative!  (I shouldn’t have to mention Pandemonium again, but I will anyway; I’m obsessed with that damn card).

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is very similar to Emeria in that it requires you to have multiples of the same basic land type in play before it starts working to its full potential.  The problem with mono-red is that it basically has no land fetch, so you’ll probably have to run this land in a red-green deck to ensure that you’ll get enough Mountains into play early enough for this card to work to its full potential.  A Lightning Bolt for every Mountain you play is better than awesome, so make sure you get this baby working as soon as you can.  I would play this card in a red-green deck for access to cards like Harrow and Exploding Borders, which can build up your Mountain count rather quickly.  Imagine this (as a late-game play): Valakut and five other Mountains and a Forest under your control.  Play Harrow, sacrifice the Forest, get two Mountains onto the battlefield, and play another from your hand.  That activates Valakut three times at once!  Nice.  And since you’re using all the land fetch, you might as well utilize some of the Landfall effects found in Zendikar while you’re at it.

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood is certainly the best card out of this cycle.  I’m sure some people would argue with me over this, but the fact that this card doesn’t have any prerequisites for using its ability makes it fantastic in my eyes.  In an aggro green or green-red deck, this card is just spectacular.  Utilizing cards like Bloodbraid Elf in conjunction with this card sounds like a fine idea to me!  Any sort of mono-green Elf deck would also benefit greatly from this card; it’s a land, so it wouldn’t be taking up the space that, say, an Imperious Perfect could be filling (and it would work great with the Perfect, too!).  Warrior decks would get a kick out of Oran-Rief + Bramblewood Paragon.  It would be kick-ass in team games too, since it pumps up every green creature that enters the battlefield, including your teammate’s!  This card seems to be underrated in my play group as of right now, but I feel that it is highly useable and will start to see a lot of play all over the place.  Actually, I might go so far as to say it’s one of the best non-basic lands that has come around in a while.  Count it!

The End

Well, that about wraps it up for this article!  Feel free to comment about any combos or deck ideas you can think of that use any of these cards.  I would love to see your ideas, and I’m sure other readers would, too!  Until next time!

www.timdoesdesign.com/blog/?cat=3

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/lifemazesweb_1.jpg

In 1950 Canon Harry Cheales, parish priest of Wyck Rissington, a small village in the south of England, had a curious dream. In it, he was looking out of window of the rectory while below him, in the garden, he could see people walking around a maze. A shadowy figure behind him was describing the scene.

Image via Wikipedia

The dream was so vivid that, on walking, the rector felt compelled to build a real-life version of the maze he had seen. The newly constructed maze was modeled on a set of religious carvings in the village church and the design was symbolic. The winding pathways represented the journey of life. The wrong turnings and culs-de-sac symbolized the sins that people commit before death, obstacles on the way to paradise and heaven.

soekershoflandart.wordpress.com/…/

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/cactus_1.jpg

Patterns and Puzzles

www.thenetworkm.net/core/content/view/246/91/

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/labyrinthwhole_1.jpg

Throughout history mazes, or labyrinths, have been found all over the world, both as real constructions and as symbolic representations in art. There is even evidence that mazelike patterns were used by the ancients. They are found on Sumerian seals, Babylonian tablets, Etruscan wine jars, Roman mosaic pavements, on a pillar at Pompeii, even on the magnificent carved entrance stone to one of the oldest buildings in the world, the 5,00o-year-old Newgrange Tomb in Ireland.

www.blisstree.com/…/

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/severscornmaze_1.jpg

But despite the frequency with which they have appeared, there is still remarkably little understanding of the real significance of mazes or why they were built. To some people they have always been places of amusement; to others, they are puzzles or mental teasers. And some people regard them as symbols with a hidden meaning.

Image by Jorge-11 via Flickr

The most famous labyrinth of ancient times is said to have been constructed at Knossos in Crete by the famed architect and sculptor Daedalus, under the orders of King Minos. According to legend, its innermost sanctum was the lair of the fearful Minotaur. A monstrous creature that was half man, half bull, the Minotaur devoured the seven young men and seven maidens whom the people of Athens were forced to send annually to Minos. Minos demanded this compensation for the death of his son at the hands of the Athenians. Finally Theseus – with the help of Ariadne, the beautiful daughter of Minos – slew the Minotaur and escaped the winding passageways.

Image by gbaku via Flickr

Despite the popularity of the legend, the actual form of the Cretan labyrinth is unknown. It may have been no more than a decorated pavement for ritual dances, or the legend may refer to a network of caverns today known as the Gortyna Caves; they are linked by winding tunnels near the Palace of Minos at Knossos.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Some experts believe that the labyrinth never existed at all, that the word is derived from the Greek word labrys, meaning “double ax.” Crete and Knossos in particular, was well known for a bull cult that flourished in classical times. Double-headed axes were used to slaughter sacrificial bulls, and the palace of Minos may simply have been called the Labyrinth because it was “the place of the double axes.” So far, at least, the archeologist’s spade has revealed at Knossos no trace of the kind of labyrinth described in the legend.

www.photoseek.com/greece/SantoriniCrete.html

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/01gre1634minoandolphinfrescoknossos_1.jpg

Rituals and Games

redtory.blogspot.com/2008_05_25_archive.html

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/maze_1.jpg

In medieval times, mazes were drawn on the floors and walls of some of the great churches and cathedrals built in Europe. Some of these were known as the Chemin of Jerusalem. The idea seems to have been that people who were unable to make an actual pilgrimage to the Holy Land could make a symbolic one, either by tracing the paths of a maze on the church wall with a finger or, on their knees, shuffling uncomfortably along the pathway of a floor maze. Other mazes were thought to represent Christ’s final journey from the house of Pontius Pilate to Calvary.

snooway.wordpress.com/…/english-garden-mazes/

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/dscf1904_1.jpg

In Britain mazes specifically designed for pagan games were cut in the fields; probably hundreds of such turf mazes existed in ancient times. They had different local names, such as Mizmaze, the Shepherd’s Race, or Julian’s Bower, and the country people played games such as the Game of Troy or Treading the Maze on them. Unfortunately, the rules have long been lost. Today there are only nine turf mazes left in Britain.

gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/maze/turf/index.htm

Or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/whitchurch_1.jpg

Spiral Motifs – Mazes throughout the world take many shapes and forms. The Mizmaze in Hampshire, England (above) is a turf-cut variety.

After the 14th century, hedge mazes were built in the gardens of grand homes to entertain visitors. Louis XIV of France built a spectacular one at Versailles; it was destroyed in 1775. The most famous hedge maze is probably the one laid out in 1690 at Hampton Court in London.

www.stuff.co.nz/…/210529/Mazed-and-confused

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/210587_1.gif

In less verdant areas of Europe, such as the coastline of Scandinavia, mazes have been constructed from the most abundant available material: stones, ranging in size from pebbles to boulders. Yet once again their purpose is in dispute. For example, at Visby on the island of Gotland off Sweden, a historian making inquiries in the 19th century was told that the local maze was used for children’s games, but other evidence suggests that they may have been ritual sites where sailors danced for luck before a voyage.

www.carpediemhealingcreations.ca/products_cdh…

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/fingerlab_1.jpg

More recent times have seen a revival of maze building in places as diverse as Varmland in Sweden, the Château de Beloeil in Belgium, and Floors Castle in Scotland. In 1968 the sculptor Michael Ayrton constructed a 1,680-foot-long “Cretan labyrinth” at Arkville in New York State, using stone and 200,000 bricks.

www.pxleyes.com/…/Maze-of-Love.html

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/18/mazes4a5cdf7e0a5d4hires_1.jpg

New mazes and labyrinths will continue to be built. Whether they are symbols, places of ritual, or for entertainment, mazes are testaments to human ingenuity and to a love of puzzles as old as time.

If there’s one thing that the Johnny in me hates to see (for those of you unfamiliar with the semi-official Magic: the Gathering player profile designations, look up “Timmy, Johnny, Spike, and Vorthos” on www.magicthegathering.com), it’s a good card that sees little to no use.  Unfortunately, this happens quite often in the world of Magic, which results in a lot of poor little cards wandering about the streets, picking fish skeletons out of garbage bins.  I like to think of myself as that reclusive but ultimately kind and grandfatherly rich gentleman who graciously takes these foundling waifs in under his wing and gives them the care they could never have hoped to have found out in the big, big world.  Being rich is the important part, because I’d need a damn big house if I wanted to fit this guy under the eaves:

He’s a lot nicer than he looks, I’m sure.  I’d just have to keep him away from my Dachsund…

Anyway, this guy is a lot better than many people might think.  The fact that he costs only 4 to play is absolutely sick, but that’s not even the best part.  In the right sort of deck, his activated ability can facilitate all sorts of combos that, if they don’t automatically win the game, will at least result in massive amounts of damage.  That coupled with the fact that his triggered ability will, with the right cards in play, probably make him come out as a 5/5 on turn 4 (thus laying plenty of groundwork for his second ability) makes for one hell of a good card.

Starting the Deck

You’ll obviously want to be playing Ulasht in a red-green deck to maximize his potential.  Luckily, red-green is probably the most powerful color combination in the game in terms of speed and aggressiveness (rivaled only by red-white, in my opinion).  There are lots of cheap red, green, and red-green creatures out there that still give you the power you need to really kick this deck into high gear.  The Guildpact and Shadowmoor expansions provide us with the bulk of the good red-green multicolor cards, so those would be a good place to start looking when you decide to build this type of deck.  I will, of course, be featuring cards from all over the place in this article, so that should save you the trouble of some extra searching.

This deck can have a few variations, mostly based on what you plan to do late in the game.  If your aim is to throw down big bomb creatures (a few of which I will be discussing shortly), you might need to up your land count a bit.  If you plan to do something more along the lines of the deck that I’m actually building while writing this article, you won’t need to have a ton of lands.  Either way, though, you want to make sure that you avoid early mana screw, because you want to play as many creatures as you can, and have enough mana for a burn spell if you need it.  I wouldn’t recommend going any lower than 23 land, although if you choose to use Alara Reborn’s Firewild Borderpost, you could go lower than that.  However, I wouldn’t use the Borderposts in this case, as the room is needed for other spells.  Stick with dual lands if you can; some may be more difficult than others to get your hands on.  Gruul Turf, Stomping Ground, and Fire-Lit Thicket come to mind most readily, but just be aware that the latter two may be rather expensive if you don’t have them already.  If you need other methods of mana-fixing, I would first look to Wild Cantor, Sakura-Tribe Elder, or Llanowar Elves.

Although these fit the colors of the deck quite nicely, I would recommend these only if you had no other way of fixing your mana.  I have a better one in mind which I will discuss shortly.

Basically, the aim of the deck as I am building it is to combine Ulasht with various utility enchantments and spells to generate tons of Saproling tokens and then lay waste to the board with them.  There should be enough different ways to win in here that you won’t wind up being stuck with a big Ulasht that can’t really do anything spectacular.  A minor theme of the deck will revolve around seriously ramping up the power of Ulasht and / or other creatures and then using Mage Masher or Soul’s Fire for the one-hit kill.  We’ll start the deckbuilding with the creature element, which will be the easiest to figure out.

Creatures

Besides the obvious inclusion of four Ulasht, the Hate Seed (you can knock it down to three if you really want to, but I don’t see a good reason for that), there are a number of creatures that you could consider adding to this deck.  It’s going to need to be a little heavy on creatures for the early game, but mid- to late-game you should be able to generate enough tokens that having more expensive creatures won’t really be necessary (unless of course you want to add them anyway, in which case be my guest).

Tattermunge Maniac

The first guy I think I should talk about is one of whom you should definitely add three or four to your deck:

You’re going to need to jump on the combat wagon as soon as possible, and I see no reason why a 2/1 for one hybrid mana shouldn’t help you do that.  This is a guaranteed first-turn play, because unless you get a hand with no land, you’re going to have the right type whether it be Forest or Mountain.  The drawback isn’t much of one, because at this point in the game you’re going to want to be flinging creatures in your opponent’s direction anyways.  Toss in the fact that he’s got both colors that Ulasht looks for when he comes into play, and I’d call it an exceptional one-drop.

Boggart Ram-Gang

Again, you want to keep the deck’s aggressive element trucking through the early parts of the game, and this is another solid creature that will help you with that.  He can pop out on turn 3 (or faster, if you’re using acceleration) and bash your opponent or waste one of their creatures at the same time.  He’s a formidable attacker or blocker even after the other pieces of the deck start falling into place, and of course he provides two lovely +1/+1 counters for our buddy Ulasht.  I’m probably going to use three of these at least; four might take up space for other useful spells.  If you find that you’d like to use four of a creature besides the Maniac, though, this would be the one to pick.

Utopia Mycon

Another great one-drop, Utopia Mycon will provide some extra Saprolings over and above the ones that Ulasht can make, and can utilize all of your Saprolings to a rather destructive extent.  You can sacrifice your Saprolings to provide mana to feed Ulasht’s damage ability, or simply pour them all into a Fireball.  This card also works exceptionally well with some of the other spells that I’ll be mentioning in a bit.  Make room for at least three of these guys; if you can get one out early enough, you’ll have been able to kick the deck’s main engine into gear much sooner.

Goblin Razerunners

This is the last guy on my list of creatures that I feel the deck really needs.  As I mentioned earlier, the deck should run about 23 to 24 land to really be able to get going as quickly as it needs to, but once you get a Utopia Mycon into play (and are able to churn out enough Saprolings), extra land becomes rather redundant.  With the exception of Fireball, there’s not much else you’re going to be able to use it for (at least, not in the deck I’d suggest you build).  The Razerunners solve this problem by eating your excess lands and turning them into a bit of damage each round.  In my playtesting of this deck, I’ve actually won a game or two simply through my use of this card; I didn’t even have to play Ulasht!  However, this type of occurrence should be rare in this deck; after all, we’re trying to build around Ulasht.  Don’t put any more than two Razerunners in your deck, because although it’s a great utility card that you should definitely use, it’s not going to be your main win condition.

Other Creatures

I don’t have any other creatures in my deck besides the ones I just talked about.  However, you may want to add a few different ones to taste, depending on how you’ll want to actually win.  If you’re looking for big guns, try out Borborygmos, who can replace Ulasht’s counters (although only one at a time) and beef up your Saproling swarm.  If you really want people to hate you, add a copy of Furystoke Giant, who turns each of your creatures into a Shock when he comes into play (and he has Persist, so he does it twice!).  If you feel you need slightly thicker skin (and admittedly, the deck’s defensive presence isn’t all that imposing early in the game), try Essence Warden, who just goes nuts once Ulasht and your other Saproling generators start cranking.  And finally, there’s always Mycoloth if you want to ramp up your Saproling production to the next level.  Try out different combinations of creatures and see which one you like best.

Artifacts / Enchantments / Instants / Sorceries

The crux of this deck idea is utilizing a number of different non-creature spells to amplify and overload your side of the board with pure creature power.  Although it’s not a deck that’s heavy on creature cards, it can use other spells to generate a multitude of Saprolings (and other creatures) and use them to take over the game.

Fireball

This is the most basic kill spell in the deck.  It works best with a Utopia Mycon and a lot of Saprolings in play, but if you’re desperate you can use it early in the game to eliminate problem creatures should you (God forbid) have a slow start.  There are other creature removal cards in the deck, however, and so I would relegate Fireball to use as player removal most of the time.  Make sure you have three of these (four might be too many, but two is definitely too few).

Volcanic Fallout / Firespout

These two cards are going to be your best friends in all stages of the game.  Each one is useful in different situations, and oftentimes the game will swing in your favor if you time these well enough.  Be warned that these cards will hurt your creature presence as well as your opponent’s, so if you already seem to be going strong with lots of Saprolings in play, I wouldn’t play these.  Don’t be afraid to blow everything up if you really need to, though; there are cards in this deck that will make losing your tokens far less painful, and after all, if you have a big enough Ulasht out, you’ll still have him on the board when all’s said and done.  I’m using two of each.

Sprout Swarm

The great thing about this card is that it’s reusable, and if you have enough creatures out when you play it, you’ll get a sizeable mana discount to boot.  It’s never a dead draw, and later in the game you’ll hopefully be able to play it a few times a turn if you want.  I’m using two copies of this as well.

Goblin Bombardment

Once you get a sizeable amount of Saprolings in play, this card becomes invaluable.  It will often be a game-finisher, even in multiplayer.  Plus, having this card out allows you to drop a Firespout and still make use of all your soon-to-die creature tokens.  This card is a must; use at least two.

Rite of Passage

This card is amazing in the ways that it can work with the other cards in this deck.  It makes all of your creatures a bit harder to kill, true, but that’s not where it truly shines.  In conjunction with Goblin Bombardment, you can sacrifice Saprolings (or anything else) to put counters onto your bigger cretaures.  Recharge Ulasht, or turn Goblin Razerunners into a walking slaughterhouse.  It’s your call.  Plus, their abilities stack, so having two out at a time would be just unbelieveably awesome.  Again, use two (three might be pushing it).

Elemental Mastery

Attaching this to an Ulasht or a Razerunners seems like a great idea to me.  Swarm with your tons of new Elementals, or throw them around with Goblin Bombardment.  Use at least two of this one.

Saproling Symbiosis

This card is just sweet.  Who wouldn’t want to double the amount of creatures they have in play?  Use after a timely Elemental Mastery activation to get more bang for your buck.  These are a little harder to get your hands on than other cards in this deck, but if you can get two of them you should be fine.

Soul’s Fire

This one is pretty straightforward.  Target a big Ulasht or Razerunners with this one.  These are pretty much interchangeable with Fireball.

Mage Slayer

Also straightforward.  How do I damage thee?  Let me count the ways…

Other Spells

There are a wealth of options that you can use to your enjoyment besides the ones that I have discussed (and am currently using).  In the Web of War is a great card to use if you want to steer the deck in more of a hyper-aggressive beatdown direction.  Muraganda Petroglyphs can also help with that.  If you favor targeted removal over the global kind, you can use Branching Bolt or Lightning Boltin place of Firespout and / or Volcanic Fallout.  Cloudstone Curiomakes for interesting combos with Ulasht, as you can bounce and replay him every time you make a Saproling.  Doubling Season, of course, makes everything hit the fan, and I don’t even want to think about the havoc that Pandemonium could wreak in a deck like this.

Wrapping Up

I hope that this article has sparked some amazing deck ideas for you.  I know that Ulasht, the Hate Seed is not usually the card that comes to mind when one thinks of a power creature, but that’s hopefully soon to change.  Feel free to leave any comments on cards that you think I should have mentioned, and if you want, add your decklists to the comment section so we can all see what you’ve done with the idea.

Happy building!

NB:  I am writing this section a couple weeks after the publication of this article, so for those of you who haven’t seen this part, I apologize.  I’ve noticed in playtesting that my version of the deck doesn’t work as well as I had intended; it seems to be because the deck has too small of a creature base.  It needs more cheap creatures in the beginning than I thought it did; when the deck does win, it usually does so without Ulasht, which is of course totally the opposite of what I was trying to do.  Make sure that you have a good, strong creature base in this deck before you start adding any supplemental enchantments or other spells; two creatures I didn’t mention before that would work very well here are Naya Hushblade and Jund Hackblade from Alara Reborn.  Good luck!

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The original Dungeon Masters Guides for 4th edition is one of the most praised books in the set of original core books for the advice it gives on running adventures, campaigns and creating encounters. It is also criticised for a general lack of content for the experienced role-player, to whom this content is nothing new, and information commonly found on the internet.

With the Dungeon Masters Guide 2, Wizards will be hoping to answer some of their critics and put together a book with useful advice for all of their players. There are now a number of excerpts they have released from their new product.

Group Storytelling

This chapter looks like more of the same, covering similar material to that found in the DMG. It looks at dream sequences and flashbacks with a look at working with your players to craft a background for their characters and the world.

For many players they want to create a character fast and get playing. A character background is a chore rather than a delight. This chapter will either be loved by your players as they find motivation to invest in their characters, or will be a part of the DMG2 that you never look at.

Companion Characters

This chapter looks at bringing one of the creatures in the adventure into the party as a side-kick. Throughout D&D’s history there have been companions of some sort available and they have never worked very well for the game. Either they were too powerful or so weak that you daren’t let them come within 50 yards of you. Here Wizards of the Coast really have their work cut out to make this viable but not overpowering from your group. Otherwise you just have another figure to put on the map and remove as soon as a dragon deems to breathe fire over you all.  Adding complication for the players and a difficult balancing act for the DM, this is something a lot of groups will ignore.

Advanced Encounters

Here Wizards of the Coast tell the D&D Dungeon Master how to craft a more advanced encounter. Judging from the preview this could be a misleading title, with WotC using the word ‘encounter’ to refer to anything that happens in the game. The chapter, as previewed, seems to focus more on the role playing side of the game, negotiating with NPCs or finding clues in some mystery. If it’s done well it might be quite interesting but there is a danger this will read as a means to bring your players to the next combat.

Terrain

The terrain section is one of the real draws of the DMG2. While the previous three sections don’t really seem to play to the strengths of 4th Edition, new terrains and rules here really do. Dungeons and Dragons in its current version is a combat game, and that’s where its strengths lie. This will let you build more interesting combats and design more varied and challenging battles for your players. This is what the D&D Dungeon Master needs.

Skill Challenges

The Skill Challenges section in the original DMG is a huge disappointment and a confusing mess of rules which give even players well skilled for a challenge a hard time. The rules are often now run using a combination of errata and house rules. A new section on Skill Challenges is very much required from the DMG2 and this might give a solution to the flaws in this game mechanic. If it does, this will be a useful feature in the game.

Customizing Monsters

Here we find more rules to create the monster you want with the skills you want it to have. With more Monster Manuals being released, do we really need a section on customizing them? Even if you want to create a Goblin Rager riding a wild boar that’s particularly adept at squirting lemon juice into its enemy’s eyes, you can just create it without too many problems. This section seems somewhat redundant, especially since similar rules are already found in the first DMG.

Adventures and Rewards

There is an Adventures and Rewards section in the first DMG covering what rewards to give out, depending on the level of your party and the experience gains they are earning. This section then covers similar ground. Does your Dungeons and Dragons game need more information on how to give out rewards? There is relatively little of real interest that this section can bring for most games and this is probably another part of the book which will be referred to little, if at all.

Paragon Campaigns

It is interesting that WotC should deem to need a section specifically aimed at Paragon level campaigns. This must surely focus on the feel of the campaign, emphasising that the players should be facing more daunting tasks and more impressive enemies than they saw in the heroic tier. Ultimately the combat in the game at Paragon level is not so different from the Heroic levels, so there is little that needs to be covered here.

So is the DMG2 an exciting new release for 4th Edition D&D? That, of course, depends on what you are looking for and how you play D&D. With a focus on encounter and campaign design, it seems to offer little to anyone playing the published 4th edition campaigns, focusing on Dungeon Masters running homebrew games instead.

To a large degree it appears to be a very similar book to the 4th Edition DMG. If you felt the DMG lacked substantial rules content, the same is likely to be true of the DMG2. The content covering new rules for the game is likely to be only the terrain and skill challenge sections. Conversely those that loved the DMG for its advice on running a homebrew game and managing a group of players will probably also love the DMG2. It seems to follow a similar path to aid your encounter and campaign design and focus on helping you to run a Dungeons and Dragons game your players will enjoy.