Missing Planeswalkers Part 2

The design space that planeswalkers allow is as tremendous as the concept of snow mana . The latter has yet to be explored as far as anyone knows. Imagine it applied to a guild, shard, or a tribe of sorts, instead of a blanketing concurrence of flavor across the cards.

I really liked Nissa. At least I tried to.

She was so disappointing to many players that just wanted to play with something new. The best way I can describe it? You ask for a Transformers toy and get a Go-Bot toy instead. Pretty much a miserable experience if cracked in a pack. Go-Bots....

After seeing Jace, Elspeth, Garruk, and now Tamiyo jump across several worlds. I started to wonder "what if Nissa found Ravnica?" It's the perfect spot for her.

At first I thought it'd be cool to transpose her name ala Niv-Mizzet, but I forgot that people hate too much change. They love a comeback and being able to identify with it. Besides, you can't cast black magic spells in R/U/G.


Nissa Rivane, Lich Queen
2BG
3 Loyalty
+1: Put 1/1 zombie elf token into play
-4, sacrifice a creature: destroy target non-land permanent.
-8: reveal any number of creature cards in your hand, for each creature revealed this way, return a creature card from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control, then put the revealed creatures on the bottom of your library.

Not wanting to go into depth too much, I wanted this to explore what Nissa was aiming to do for some time. Please feel free to message me if the flavor is off, numbers are wrong, or the casting cost is even questionable. This is all in fun, so please add some flavor ideas anyone may have!

-amos

Snodhabbickkity contortmanship doth fondle me!

Have been fighting a chest cold past few days. My brain has been uselessly dead. Everything is cobblywog  after just 1 pill and another only 6 hours ago  AND a "nerd-mist" sprayer : /

Anyway, upon reading Mike Flores' article I realized something sort of sad. We have three Garooooooks, two EL S. Beth, 2 Ajani, 2 Sorin, 2 Liliana, 3 Chandra, 3 Jace, 2 Tezz, and the rest are one-of's. Which kinda sucks. I thought Nissa was gonna be made more of than Garruk. SHE'S an elf!! : /

To alleviate this I've taken it upon myself to present the sequels to our loneliest friends. So much sadness a dinkytob with a string still attached couldn't cheer me up if I didn't so such a thing.

Gideon, the control players shield of duty and man-at-arms, is dead. Or from what I know is that he had squashed the habbickk in a miserable fashion. But white has always had the flavor of spirits (and ghosts!), coming back to life, and has a certain "holyshiz" about it. What if Gideon never really died, but has one foot in the grave? Sort of yanking a fast one over our eyes and still hanging on the side of the cliff.

So giving him a hybrid mana cost would be reeaally cool. A children's brain is all I have so bollocks to you if you care so much.
3 W/b W/b

I think any higher starting brothermanship would be a tad much. So two it is.
2 Loyalty  (check!)

He'd have to not be a Sorin copycat, but still able to pull flavor from both colors and their respective mechanics. I don't know the numbers behind planeswalkers per se, so what if they're just arbitrary Foosball scores Lauer could only muster vs MaRo. So with a hunch I go...

+2: Each player skips their next attack step.

-3: Exile target creature and put a copy of it into play. This copy counts as a spirit. When Gideon leaves play return the exiled creatures back under their owners control.

-9: Destroy all non-land permanents. For each permanent destroyed in this way put a copy of it onto the battlefield under your control.


I really thought Nissa was going to see more print and really felt the original Nissa should have been 1GG to cast. Plus, since this is magic xmas land, I do what I want lol!

Nizza Elf-Dragoness
1GRU


Well...why don't we get to her in the next blog..

-amos

Sorry - was AFK

Yea, it's been a while since my last post. I have no excuse except life has been.....a blur. On Acid.

This past Saturday, out local store, Comic Town, ran it's second Modern "Warfare" tournament. My friend Tony and I decided to go. He couldn't find a deck in time, so he just durdled around while I played a pet deck of mine. What should have happened was I should have gave the deck to Tony to play and I durdle the trade tables or help Ryan or Kranstuber with the event. My heart really wasn't into playing and I tossed back and forth the idea of not playing the entire week. I think this was the main contributor to me playing like an old dementia riddled fogy. Stress can really rape the mind.

The real reason I wanted to write this morning was that a few people seemed interested in my deck at the event. And since I was about as social as Hitler at a barmitzva, I figure this could redeem some societal backlash. 

I didn't have all of the cards for it when I got there except for Vengvines, fetches, BOP's, and Splinterfrights. I scrambled for the rest. Unbeknownst to me, I had dropped a Misty Rainforest on my dinning room floor at home. It wasn't actually detrimental to me when playing, but it did come up one time while I was playing. I also couldn't find an Overgrown Tomb, which is needed. Anyway, this isn't the list I really wanted, but I did what I could to get everything the way I'd been testing it.

Here's the list you impatient prick.

1 Swamp

1 Watery Grave

1 Breeding Pool

4 Forest

4 Island

1 Tectonic Edge

1 Treetop village

2 Hinterland Harbor

3 Misty Rainforest

4 Verdant Catacombs

1 Life from the loam

4 Splinterfright

1 Boneyard wurm

2 Gnaw to the Bone

2 Elves of Deep Shadow

4 Vengevine

4 Drowned Rasulka

4 Bird of Paradise

3 Golgari Thug

2 Stinkweed Imp

4 Hedron Crab

3 Armored Skaab

4 Extractor Demon

SB

2 Gnaw to the Bone

4 Duress

3 Torpor Orb

3 Trickbind

2 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Doomblade

One notable MIA action star is Fauna Shaman. In testing, she was too slow. But that was because I only tested against Zoo and control. Against combo I'm sure she is fine. But in other match-ups Armored Skaab is amazing. I wanted it every time in my opening grip. The version above is far from where I want the deck to be. And yes, combo is it's worst match-up, blah blah. Sideboards motherfuckers.

Let's roll down each card of the deck starting with lands.

1 Swamp

1 Watery Grave

1 Breeding Pool

1 Overgrown Tomb

3 Forest

4 Island

1 Stomping Ground

1 Treetop village

1 Woodland Cemetary

1 Hinterland Harbor

4 Misty Rainforest

3 Verdant Catacombs

That's what it should look like. You absolutely need the extra black sources. I skimped on them when making the deck for the event and it came up several times to make turns as awkward as a high school dance. It is possible to play less lands, so I wouldn't fault anyone for cutting that deep. I also added a Stomping Ground and cut Tectonic Edge, although, I can still see Edge being relevant if there is a lot of Tron, but I'm not sure now relevant.

The main deck...

2 Life from the loam

1 Tombstalker

3 Gnaw to the Bone

2 Elves of Deep Shadow

4 Vengevine

4 Drowned Rasulka

4 Bird of Paradise

3 Golgari Thug

2 Stinkweed Imp

4 Hedron Crab

3 Armored Skaab

4 Extractor Demon

2 Fauna Shaman

After the event and during smoke breaks, Tony and I discussed the deck more. I really liked the idea of Tombstalker to fight spellbombs and rest of it's ilk (obv. not Leyline). I also was more impressed with Gnaw to the Bone than I was in testing. I added a third to the main to reflect that, but it could possibly be another Tombstalker, which I'd be fine with. I also added a second Life from the Loam. The card is 100% a tutor in the deck. I would consider running four and cutting the Stinkweed Imp's if more control decks were around, but Stinky is necessary for so many scenarios. I loathe and love Stinky :(

The two Fauna Shaman are a concession that people actually don't have the money to afford Tarmogoyf's or 600 dollar mana bases (okay maybe that's a little exaggeration), and they will play whatever they can manufacture from their binders, collections, friends binders and collections, and what they can rip off of little kids in the back ally. 

Speaking of Tarmogoyf. Fuck that card up it's stupid ass. 

The sideboard.....what a goddamn mess.

1 Gnaw to the Bone

2 Ancient Grudge 

3 Torpor Orb

1 Tombstalker

4 Raven's Crime

4 Nihil Spellbomb

So...the sideboard needs some 'splaining to do. One of the Gnaw's was moved to the main and I dropped Trickbind, Doomblade, and Duress. I originally had Ancient Grudges in the side, but for the event, I actually,  some-fucking-how, decided no one in their right fucking mind would play Affinity. But nay, there was probably just as much Affinity in the room as there was Storm Combo. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Anyway, I also added four Raven's Crime and maxed on my Nihil Spellbombs. I week before the event I bought four Raven's Crime for my online version of this deck, but ended up not playing them, or MTGO that much for that matter. I had forgotten about it till I saw Doug Linn running it like a boss. 

THANKS DOUG LINN!

IMO, the card is sicker in this deck vs the decks you want Duress in. This card could be what you want with style and feed the Loam (nom).

About Spellbomb: the card is good enough where I'm considering running some in my main. Against Storm Combo, just bring in these and Raven's Crime. Leave in the Gnaw to the Bones.

Tombstalker - This guy just seems so good at fighting hate. I kinda want more somewhere. Maybe cut an Extractor?

So there you have it. I went 2-3 with the deck. Made some shitty plays, got outplayed, and got unlucky a few times. Maybe you can pilot it better!

Thanks for reading and take care!

+1