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The mages squared off in an epic battle to determine the true champion of games. Mashushakai, the grizzled veteran, was ready for an all-out battle opposite his arch-nemesis, Bob. Both mages had fierce decks and the determination to conquer the other, but only time will tell the true winner in a battle of...

Magic! Gotta Gather 'Em All!

"I choose you... Tarmochu!" Bob screamed at the top of his lungs, stood in his neatly pressed designer jeans with curvy graphics stitched happily about the shifting shades of denim.

With no immediate answer to the 0/1, all Mashushakai could muster was a measly Millikin to match monsters. He took a moment to spray a thick helping of hairspray in his jagged lightning blond hair (with red and black streaks forming dragon images across his tattered scalp).

On Bob's turn he drew and played the Goblin tribal instant Tarfire! This vanquished the Millikin, while boosting his Tarmochu to a tremendous 4/5.

“Tarmochu! Use your bite attack!”

Tarmochu ran rapidly through the red zone, launching himself at Mashushakai, who was soon missing the lobe of his left ear, dropping him to 16 hit points.

But Mashushakai recovered on his next turn with a timely Glacial Wall to buy him some time.

Bob was not impressed, and quickly used his trap card Terror to remove the unsightly wall, which cleared the path for another bite attack from Tarmochu, putting Mashushakai to 12. After combat, Bob extended his lead on the game by resolving the Shadow Guildmage.

Mashushakai was in trouble, and with no help on top of his deck he had to resort to amplifying his recourses with an Explosive Vegetation.

A bite, a prick, and Bob's army had reduced Mashushakai to seven, while adding a Chameleon Colossus to the field.

With few options, Mashushakai relied in the heart of the cards... and when he opened his eyes and saw the card he had drawn, he was starring down his rare Mythic spell: FYOUUP! He used it to destroy all of his Bob's monsters, and forced the discard of Bob's entire hand. He then dropped Morselhoarder to start a much-needed offense.

Unfortunately, Bob also had the heart of the cards on his side, and ripped a Thorn Elemental off the top to put Mashushakai on a one-turn clock.

A sinking feeling began to set in when Mashushakai drew Sinking Feeling for his turn, and with only Power of Fire in his hand to accompany it he saw no route that would deal with the massive Thorn Elemental. Half-heartedly he tossed both enchantments on his Morselhoarder, and prepared to lose the game.

"Thorn Elemental! Use your unstoppable prickly thorn attack!" Bob yelped from the sidelines, directing his enormous monster.

But Mashushakai finally realized his manifest destiny, and used Morselhoarder's new ability courtesy of Power of Fire to ping master Bob. He then used Sinking Feeling to untap Morselhoarder, tapped to use Power of Fire again, then removed the -1/-1 counter to add a mana while also untapping him. He repeated this rotation nineteen times, and Bob jumped off the elevated gaming platform to an unexpected death in a pit of sharpened spears with poisonous tips, where gremlins and maggots feasted on his corpse.

...

The secret lair of the DCI...

“So guys? What should we ban come June 1st in the Vintage World?”

“Vintage... Do people even still play that?”

“Maybe...? How about we make a Vintage GP to make it look like we care?”

“Nah... let’s just spin this color wheel, then we'll spin this card-type wheel, and we can just ban some cards of that color and card type.”

“But we always do that!”

“And in fifteen years it hasn't failed yet... except for that whole Hulk-Flash nonsense. And Necro. And Urza block. And Masques block. And Mirrodin block.”

*Spins color wheel*

“Huh... Blue. Should we re-spin? I mean, banning Blue cards is bad for the game.”

“Nah, I'm sure we can find some Blue cards to peel back.”

*Spins card-type wheel*

“Artifact? That won't do. Sarcomite Myr is hardly worth banning.”

*Spins card-type wheel again*

“Hmm... Instant it is...”

...

With Grand Prix: Indianapolis on the horizon, I'm going to do my best to prepare by participating in numerous drafts and building Sealed Decks from now until then, so I thought I'd tack on a Sealed cardpool to each of my articles for the next couple of weeks.

Shadowmoor Sealed is a beast of format. It has more options than the days of Ravnica Sealed, with what feels like much less removal. Given the removal-free nature of this format, it feels like a lot of the games have come down to Auras. Power of Fire, Armored Ascension, all of the color bonus auras... they are all insanely strong and, without ways to counter them, many Limited games are all but finished on turn 4 or 5 when the enchantments resolve.

Whenever I first open a Shadowmoor tournament pack I separate by color and guild, meaning U/W hybrid cards and straight Blue cards don't go in the same pile. I make a star-like formation with the five base colors, then branch off the hybrid cards from their matching colors.

Sealed Cardpool Featured by Kyle Sanchez on 2008-06-08 (Shadowmoor Limited) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15980.html Print this deck!
1 Apothecary Initiate 1 Armored Ascension 1 Ballynock Cohort 1 Kithkin Rabble 2 Kithkin Shielddare 1 Last Breath 1 Resplendent Mentor 1 Crabapple Cohort 2 Gleeful Sabotage 1 Gloomwidow's Feast 1 Juvenile Gloomwidow 1 Raking Canopy 1 Tower Above 1 Wildslayer Elves 1 Blistering Dieflyn 1 Ember Gale 1 Flame Javelin 1 Horde of Boggarts 1 Inescapable Brute 1 Knollspine Invocation 2 Power of Fire 1 Puncture Bolt 1 Pyre Charger 1 Smash to Smithereens	1 Ashenmoor Cohort 1 Corrosive Mentor 1 Corrupt 1 Crowd of Cinders 1 Faerie Macabre 1 Gloomlance 1 Sickle Ripper 2 Smolder Initiate 1 Advice from the Fae 1 Briarberry Cohort 1 Cerulean Wisps 1 Parapet Watchers 1 Prismwake Merrow 1 Put Away 1 Sinking Feeling 1 Whimwader 1 Blight Sickle 1 Chainbreaker 1 Elsewhere Flask 1 Painter's Servant 1 Pili-Pala 1 Tatterkite 1 Trip Noose 1 Plains 1 Wooded Bastion	1 Elvish Hexhunter 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon 1 Barrenton Cragtreads 1 Curse of Chains 2 Steel of the Godhead 2 Thistledown Duo 1 Turn to Mist 1 Morselhoarder 1 Mudbrawler Raiders 1 Valleymaker 1 Emberstrike Duo 1 Poison the Well 1 Sootstoke Kindler 1 Sootwalkers 1 Fate Transfer 2 Gravelgill Axeshark 1 Helm of the Ghastlord 1 Inkfathom Infiltrator 1 Wasp Lancer
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

This pool is a bit overwhelming at first sight.

2 Steel of the Godhead
Valleymaker
Knollspine Invocation
Armored Ascension
Corrupt and Gloomlance
Pili-Pala and Power of Fire

This pool has power spread across every color... except Green, so that’s a quick elimination. I'm just curious if Tower Above is playable at six colorless mana. The effect seems like it would be powerful enough at times, but in the overall consistency department I'm not sure if I'd run it. It’s deck dependent for sure, but those six-colorless cards are so enticing. Let’s look at it through the eyes of the power cards in this pool.

Steel of the Godhead

Given that all seven of the UW hybrid cards are very playable, it’s natural to lean toward them to begin with. The White creatures are somewhat lacking, as all of them are either too expensive for what they do or are too small to make a difference. Armored Ascension, Ballynock Cohort, Elvish Hexhunter, and Last Breath are really the only cards I care about, and they are easily parted with. So I wound up with a mono-Blue deck.

Briarberry Cohort
Chainbreaker
Painter's Servant
Inkfathom Infiltrator
2 Thistledown Duo
Prismwake Merrow
Parapet Watchers
Tatterkite
Wasp Lancer
Barrenton Cragtreads
Whimwader
2 Gravelgill Axeshark

Cerulean Wisps
Trip Noose
Curse of Chains
Turn to Mist
2 Steel of the Godhead
Sinking Feeling
Advice from the Fae
Helm of the Ghastlord

17 Island

I'm generally not a fan of Painter's Servant, since enhancing a few hybrid synergies isn't what I want out of my two-drop with a bad attacking body, but he has a multitude of roles in this deck. For one, a 1/3 body is actually decent considering I'm banking on the evasion route, and stopping early 2/2 damage can save me a bunch down the line. Next, he enhances the performance of Whimwader, Thistledown Duos, Cragtreads, Steel of the Godheads, Helm of the Ghastlord, and Briarberry Cohort, while also being an early drop do give me the bonus on Advice of the Fae. I'm reaching a bit for some of those combos, but having those options while also having the potential to screw up some of the opponent’s synergies makes him worth it.

Looking at this list, there really is no reason not to add black to it for Gloomlance and Corrupt...

Briarberry Cohort
Painter's Servant
Sickle Ripper
Inkfathom Infiltrator
2 Thistledown Duo
Tatterkite
Wasp Lancer
Parapet Watchers
Prismwake Merrow
Barrenton Cragtreads
Whimwader
Gravelgill Axeshark

Elsewhere Flask
Curse of Chains
Trip Noose
Turn to Mist
2 Steel of the Godhead
Advice from the Fae
Helm of the Ghastlord
Gloomlance
Corrupt

9 Island
8 Swamp

The new additions are Elsewhere Flask, Gloomlance, Sickle Ripper, and Corrupt. You could probably lean the mana toward making Corrupt better, but taking Islands out of a deck hurts more than a shot to the ribs by Fedor Emelianenko. Gloomlance is better than Corrupt by a mile, and probably the best common in the format. Every time I cast it I feel like I can't lose the game. And the best part is that almost everyone is playing with at least one Green or White creature in their deck, so it’s about as close as you can get to an automatic two-for-one.

Still, maybe Black isn't the best partner color for Blue here. The Red cards are almost equally as frightening, sporting bombs like Valleymaker and Knollspine Invocation.

Briarberry Cohort
Pili-Pala
Painter's Servant
2 Thistledown Duo
Tatterkite
Parapet Watchers
Barrenton Cragtreads
Sootwalkers
Gravelgill Axeshark
Whimwader
Morselhoarder
Valleymaker

2 Power of Fire
Curse of Chains
Puncture Bolt
Trip Noose
Steel of the Godhead
Flame Javelin
Advice from the Fae
Knollspine Invocation
Sinking Feeling

9 Mountain
8 Island

This deck is awkward as all hell. The curve is meh, the creatures aren't that impressive, but the bombs make it worthwhile. Nick Eisel calls this deck The Gun, and for good reason. Power of Fire does double time here like Tae-bo, providing the illustrious Gun effect with Pili-Pala as well as an infinite damage combo with Morselhoarder and Sinking Feeling.

Knollspine Invocation is an absolute beast, especially in combination with Advice from the Fae and Flame Javelin (six, yeah!). I'm not sure on how many, if any, Steel of the Godhead to run in here. It seems like I'd just have a solid enough deck if I cut them both, but I'm just not sure and don't have enough experience with the format to make that call so I just cut one. I was really hoping to squeeze Smash to Smithereens and Turn to Mist in the deck, but couldn't find cuts to make. Smithers in particular is becoming increasingly acceptable in the Sealed format, as most everyone will have 2-3 artifacts in their deck that you wouldn't mind killing with a Lava Spike attached.

If I were drafting I would probably play the above build, but at a GP I'd be aiming for consistency and would probably go with one of the top two decks, depending on what my peers thought. Splashing for Corrupt and Gloomlance probably isn't the best idea, but they increase the power level of the deck enough that it might be worth the effort.

But perhaps there is another combination to abuse these Red cards...

Nope, there isn't. The RB version is more awkward than UR, needing to cast Infiltrator, Flame Javelin, Wasp Lancer, Corrupt, Invocation, and Valleymaker. Too many bumps in the road and we're riding on three tires. Painter's Servant with Horde of Boggarts and Crowd of Cinders is pretty neat though, so maybe through the obscurity that archetype could take a few games down, but I'd just rather not bother.

Eliminating Green from this pool left it rather shallow, and with only Blue being able to step up as a base color there really aren't very many ways to build this deck. Which is surprising, since this format compares very favorably to Ravnica. And we all remember the headaches involved with figuring out your splashes and whatnot in that format.

...

If I didn't have the luxury of being qualified for Nationals already I'd probably be playing Wizards, with Dragonstorm being a close second.

Dragonstorm Featured by Kyle Sanchez on 2008-06-08 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15980.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Lotus Bloom Creatures 4 Bogardan Hellkite 1 Knollspine Dragon Enchantments 3 Pyromancer's Swath	Instants 3 Shard Volley 4 Shock Sorceries 4 Dragonstorm 3 Grapeshot 4 Rift Bolt 4 Rite of Flame Tribal Instants 1 Tarfire Basic Snow Lands 8 Snow-Covered Mountain Lands 4 Fungal Reaches 4 Molten Slagheap 3 Mutavault 4 Spinerock Knoll 2 Vesuva	Sideboard: 4 Guttural Response 3 Sulfurous Blast 2 Firespout 2 Ignite Memories 4 Wheel of Fate
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

I was considering this deck for Hollywood but never got around to talking about it. The maindeck hasn't changed much since Chapin and friends designed the deck for Worlds, which means it’s just as powerful as it was back then. Thoughtseize is a big enemy for the deck, but one that also costs them two life and a mana for something I've invested nothing into. The Mutavaults are there to be an occasional Shock as well as a critical chump blocker to buy another turn. Vesuva has been really awesome, giving me a second storage land or Mutavault, or drawing another card via Spinerock Knoll. But the maindeck for this deck has been discussed many times over, and not much has changed in five months.

Guttural Response is an excellent answer to the best card in the format, which also happens to be the dagger opposite this deck: Cryptic Command. Firespout would replace Sulfurous Blast if not for the flying Fae, and having five Wrath effects opposite tribal decks to buy time when you need a few more turns is key. Wheel of Fate is sort of like Ancestral Vision against any Black decks, where you also want to board in Ignite Memories to replace Pyromancer's Swath post board. With everyone prepared for Bitterblossom, the Swath half of the deck will usually be boarded out to decrease their sideboarding options.

Kyle

...

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