Hello all; my name is Nate Hittomy and I have been playing Magic for two years. I guess in Magic talk, I've been playing"since Apocalypse" lol. I've gotten pretty good, not as good as Kai yet, but definitely better than Finkel. Just kidding, of course.

I have decided to try my hand at writing Limited strategy articles because there aren't really enough written by the common man. A lot of the articles out there are by pros who are trying to mislead you or have lost touch with the public. Sure, cards like White Knight and Sparksmith may be better at the Pro Tour level than, say, Krosan Cloudscraper or my favorite, Dragon Roost, but FNM is a whole different ball game.

Last week, me and my friend Andrew went to Friday Night Magic at Compendium Collectibles in Ohio. I usually do okay at them, I go like 2-2 or whatever, but ever since Scourge came out I've been on a roll. I went 2-1-1 two weeks ago (just missing top 8) and then last week I did the unthinkable - I made the top 4 with a blue/red deck. I lost to some guy named Hot Karl in the top 4 but I think I have this format down. Next week I'm gonna take notes so that I can tell you how I did, good plays I made, bad plays I made, and lots of other stuff.

For now, I will give my official Nate Hittomy appraisal of Scourge blue cards for limited, making occasional comments if a card seems good in Constructed. My constructed rating is only 1566 (a full 132 points lower than my limited rating...LOL) so I may not be able to help you as much there. But I don't know.

Let's start at the beginning.

Aphetto Runecaster
I like this card because it is a 2/3 wizard for four mana. Wizards are really good because of Lava Skillz and Psychic Trance and things. I don't know if the ability is that good since I noticed that decks have less morph creatures now. I guess it's okay since if you get far enough ahead in cards, you just can't lose. You'll probably draw two cards off it in some games and that's good.

Brain Freeze
This was the MVP for me on Friday. It's real cheap and in Limited, people play about forty cards usually, instead of sixty, so you can deck them. I like to play 42, but that's not that much of a difference. I try to make sure to"mill" twelve cards with this, so that they can't come back in time before they run out of cards. Could be good in some sort of combo deck with Mind's Desire. I don't know how early to take this. I think it's good enough to take first but like I got one of these fifth and another seventh on Friday, so I mised them.

Coast Watcher
It flies and it's cheap and it blocks their green monsters. This card is so good. I think it's probably good in constructed too. Them:"Attack you with my Wurm that I spent seven mana on." You:"block with my little 1/1 that only cost two!" It's a little weak in Limited, I guess, since it only attacks for two, but you aren't supposed to attack with it anyway. More of a blocker.

Day of the Dragons
By far the best card in the set, you turn all your guys into 5/5 fliers for seven mana!! What can your opponent do about those? I got a match win a few weeks ago by playing this and removing my Glory Seeker, Daru Lancer, and Bonethorn Valesk from the game, powering them up for three red (not blue) 5/5s. Isn't that funny how the best blue card in Onslaught was red and the best blue card in Scourge makes red creatures!!!

Decree of Silence
This is real expensive but it's worth every point of mana. In this format everything costs a bunch anyway so there's no sense in not playing it. With this card, you just drop it down and counter spells while your Bulvoxes go to work. No more mana after the initial eight!! Trust me; try to avoid cycling this if at all possible but if you have to if they play Visara or something oh well.

Dispersal Shield
I don't like counters too much in this format. This is purely a late game card, since you'll have more expensive stuff out then and can counter anything. In the early game, you never want to leave mana open.... You should be playing guys. I would probably counter the first legal target if I had to play this card, since other options won't be coming along.

Dragon Wings
I shouldn't have to say too much about this card but I will anyway. It's obvious how good this is. You make something fly and let it attack. After awhile, your opponent may kill the flier, and then you play a big dude and the wings come back for another flying creature card!! Here's a special strategy tip: You can put this on one of your opponent's guys if it's in your graveyard and they play a six-mana creature, if you have something like Claws of Wirewood or Silklash Spider. It can cause some card advantage which is good.

Faces of the Past

I'm not sure what this card does. Leave it in your sideboard with Grip of Chaos and Beacon of Destiny.

Frozen Solid
I like this card. I think the most interesting part is that you can put it on one of your opponent's creatures, and then that creature doesn't untap. But I am also intrigued by the other part that reads that if it gets damaged it dies. So if you have an Embermage Goblin or a Sparksmith, you can just kill the guy directly and won't have to worry about it ever again. With the changes to blue in Eighth, cards like this may give the island dwellers a chance to stay on top of the heap.

Hindering Touch
This is better than Dispersal Shield, but I'd still rather keep it in my sideboard. Keep in mind that this auto-makes them spend four mana for their spell not to be countered. Bring this in if they have Silvos or something else you can't handle in any other way.

Long-Term Plans
I like this card very much. It's like having another copy of a bomb in your deck. Any tutors are good since you get whatever you need. It doesn't matter that you have to wait three turns if the card is really good like Silvos or Visara. And sometimes you don't have the mana you need to play this right away anyway so it's just as good as Diabolic Tutor. Well, not quite but close.

Mercurial Kite
If you've read a Limited article before you know that fliers are good. Especially fliers with good abilities. You can block a Glowering Rogon and keep it locked down for an extra turn with this. Or if they don't have anything big, you can just attack with it. If they block it, the same rules apply... Whatever they put in its way gets locked down. This is probably the second-best common in blue in this set.

Metamorphose
This card is like Repel, but with a drawback. They get to put something from their hand into play. This would be better if you got to put something from your hand into play instead - but you can't always get what you want. Don't be surprised if you get this 15th.

Mind's Desire
Or as I like to call it, Mise Desire. This is so good in Type 1 that they had to restrict it! This probably means it's good in Type 2 and Limited as well. If you play as little as two spells before it on a turn, then you get three total copies. If you're lucky enough, you'll get three good cards that you play for free. There's no way you lose that game. I raredrafted one of these in a draft with my friends because it's probably money in the bank. Mise.

Mischievous Quanar
This has a great ability and it's a beast so if you have to play it face up you can draw for Wirewood Savage. But you should play it face down and then morph it to copy their Solar Blast or any other spell at all. It's an amazing card. Later on, you can turn it face down to surprise foolish opponents again. In constructed this will be a powerhouse. My friend Aaron told me about how you can go infinite with this and Early Harvest and some other cards that I can't tell you about because I want to keep them secret. Perhaps I've said too much already hehe.

Mistform Warchief

This card is pointless. You can't skill it up because you can't tap it to make it a Wizard and tap to poke something for two points of damage. I would rather have an off-color morph, although I guess it makes some of your guys cost less. I like paying less for things, don't you?

Parallel Thoughts
Wow - I didn't realize how hard this was. There are a lot of cards in this set. Parallel Thoughts will be really good in Type 2, but this isn't a Type 2 article. In draft, this is a sheer bomb. You get your seven best cards and that's all you have to draw for the rest of the game. Watch out for Disenchant, though. You should probably side it out game two if they are green or white as they could destroy it.

Pemmin's Aura
I AM SUPERMAN!!!!! Make any of your creatures a Morphling with this card. I don't need to tell you older players how good this is. I read about Kai winning a Pro Tour with Morphling, and if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me too. And for you. You can attack and block and fly and everything. I'm overwhelmed!

Raven Guild Initiate
With a morph cost like that, why would you ever play it face down? Just play it face up and block their morphs till the cows come home. I guess if you really need a 2/2 attacker you could put it face down. But other than that, you don't want to have to play your Gustcloak Harrier or your Sootfeather Flock twice.

Is it"sutfeather" or"suit-feather?" I've heard it both ways.

Raven Guild Master
There's a reason this is rare and its Initiate is common. Play this face down, and since no one blocks anymore, you can strip away 1/3 of their deck with ease. It compliments Brain Freeze nicely. If you hit a second time, you simply win. Getting through a second time could be tough, since it's just a 1/1... But that's what cards like Choking Tethers, Dirge of Dread, or maybe even Crafty Pathmage are for!! I would actually play a Pathmage if I had one of these. Maybe even a CEPHALID Pathmage lol.

Riptide Survivor
I don't like this card since you have to discard first. If you could draw and then discard the worst cards of your whole hand it would be better since you'd have more options. Plus there's two blue in the morph cost. I don't know if that's really worth it. I don't have a spoiler handy but I think it's a wizard, so at least there's that. That means of course that you can sacrifice it to Kai, tap it to counter something with Trance, remove some cards from the game with Supreme Inquisitor, and so on. Lava skillz of course!!

Rush of Knowledge
Some people think there is a Wizards conspiracy to build people's decks for them in type 2. Well this card is evidence that there is a conspiracy to build our draft decks for us, too, as you'll see when I get to the next card. This card is very good, but I think how many I play depends on how many of a certain other card I get...

Scornful Egotist
I can't believe they made this card! I saw it on the spoiler and thought it was fake. This combos well with all the casting cost cards - or Triple-Cs, as I call them. These are things like Rush of Knowledge and Torrent of Fire... Can you possibly lose if you draw eight?

By the way, never try to play this face-up. That's just foolish. Even I know better than that and I am just a lowly FNMer, not a pro like Kai or Gary Wise.

Shoreline Ranger
I don't get landcycling cards. Why would you trade this in for a lowly land? I guess if you were stuck on two lands in play and you really needed another you could get rid of this. But think about how many lands you have in your deck. I play eighteen lands in a forty-two card deck in most cases...That means you'll probably draw the land you need to play this sooner than later. I guess it depends how bad you need the land. I mean this is a 3/4 flier!!! It's not to be taken lightly.

Stifle
Raredraft this!! That's all I can say about this one since you can do so much with it in constructed. You can stop people from snatching lands with the"snatch lands" from Onslaught, you can let Phage the Untouchable get Zombified, you can make Skinthinner's flip-over fizzle... This card is so versatile that I think you play three to four main or at least one in the sideboard to wish for with Cunning Wish.

Temporal Fissure
This is like Mind's Desire, although not as powerful. You get to bounce something to their hand, then for every other spell played this turn by you or your opponent, you get to bounce something else. This should free up your attackers to swing for a buttload of damage.

Thundercloud Elemental
This card is expensive but good. It costs seven but you get a 3/4 flier. Then you can spend four mana to make everything else lose flying or to tap everything with toughness two or less. This card is good but expensive.

That is all for this week. I welcome feedback and comments. I will see you all next week when I cover red, because you are supposed to write about what you know. And hot karl, I'll see you in the finals."How finals-ful!" LOL.

Until the joy drops again,
Tim Aten
The Scum of the Earth
expirydates1024@yahoo.com