Transcript
Zachary Jeblonski: Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of Midlife's Crisis. I'm Zach. I'm joined again by Charles. How you doing, Charles?
ciderspence: Good Zach, how you doing?
Zachary Jeblonski: I've never been better than I am right now. Uh, what do you have any you have any favorite sick uh Uh, remedies that you employ when you're sick, anything that that brings you some comfort when you're sick.
ciderspence: Uh, No, I mean, I like to try to get sleep, but I also... like to tell myself that it doesn't really matter if i'm sick i got stuff to do so Usually the sickness just gets bored. and leaves on its own.
Zachary Jeblonski: Spoken like a true family man. Yeah, I mean, starting tomorrow, regardless if I'm sick, I have too much to get done this weekend. So we're just going to do it sick, as we would say, you know, so.
Zachary Jeblonski: I am. I'm a big fan. One thing I've learned, this is a hot tip. Well, number one, get your flu shots, guys, if you haven't gotten your flu shots. Uh, Two, banana is pretty legit on a sore throat. So that's my that's my other hot take.
ciderspence: Interesting. I never heard that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, i never I never tried it, but I i had a banana today, and I was like, wow. i like My throat feels great after this. so I don't know if that's placebo or whatever, but I'll take it.
ciderspence: Yeah, placebo gets a bad rap if that works it works
Zachary Jeblonski: I know like what this placebo drug must be amazing because it just works constantly.
Zachary Jeblonski: Speaking of placebos, let's talk about the happiness that magic brings us. Oh, wait, that's, I don't know.
ciderspence: ouch
Zachary Jeblonski: No, that came off as cooler than I meant to be. and I really like magic. Unfortunately. I didn't get to play. this week. I was just too busy.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I did play the previous week. Did you get a chance to play this week?
ciderspence: No, I also didn't play this week. so I'm also living off the week before.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh boy. Okay, so this will be a good episode because this will be both of us remembering what happened two weeks ago. So we we're going to get. Excuse me. We're going to get there.
Zachary Jeblonski: Do you want to kick us off? Or I will kick us off based on... the best recollection I can have of my game.
ciderspence: Yeah, either way I think I remember mine pretty well
Zachary Jeblonski: Alright. All right. I think. All right. So I know I got like three games in two weeks ago. And I guess I'll just cut to the one that has my car of the week in it just because it's on the forefront of my mind.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I played my Italian Dimir deck. It's the one where I make clones of Talion. and claim more and more numbers too. It kind of stacks out my opponents. I ended up losing this game.
Zachary Jeblonski: Because my opponent was playing the... Azorius flip Heliod. And I should have brought that up ahead of time, but basically it's a deck that...
Zachary Jeblonski: Once your opponent's to... draw cards because based on the number of cards that your opponents have drawn. your spells become... she that much cheaper and it's a flip once you have to cast on the front but once you get to the back side It's a 4 -6, and you may cast spells as though they have flash.
Zachary Jeblonski: I suppose as your cast costs one less to cast for each card your opponents have drawn this turn. So this kind of. Kind of abuses the tallying deck a little bit because I draw a ton of cards anyway And then he had a bunch of card draw effects on the board.
Zachary Jeblonski: So he just had a big stormy turn at the end. That kind of took everybody out. But prior to that, I had a good showing in... By car of the week. that when it was revealed, i put a but I bought a bunch of them and I kind of put them in several decks.
Zachary Jeblonski: but I've never had an opportunity to play it. And this time I had an opportunity because I was off to a slow start and I didn't really want to like. Try to get my Italians going because. the boards were already huge and I thought maybe a board would become or something like that.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I played a Dream Harvest. And it's... Five Hybrid Dimir, Hybrid Dimir. And it's a sorcery, and each opponent exiles cards from the top of the library until they've exileed exiled cards.
Zachary Jeblonski: The total amount of five are greater this way. And then I can cast those spells. without paying the amount it costs. So when I was deciding to cast a spell, I was deciding between this and casting a board wipe.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I flipped right into a board with this. So it was a great moment. So I got to. really reset the board and then get a huge board presence off the spell so really It put me in a commanding position.
Zachary Jeblonski: all the way up until the ending end of the game when I lost. to the big storm turn. But I had a great time, and this was a great sharing for this card. So yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: have you had chance to Have you messed with Dream Harvest or anything like that yet?
ciderspence: No, I think I've heard of this card, but I've never considered putting it in a deck. It it just like wasn't really... much on my radar as a Builder? But looks pretty cool
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it is cool. I should have... Slow down a little bit. because I didn't quite explain it properly when I casted it. And one of the guys. flipped. He thought he had to flip until he hit something matter value five or greater.
Zachary Jeblonski: But it's not that you just have to flip until you have a total amount of value of five or greater. So if you flip a. a two cost and then you flip a four cost you stop because now you flip six worth of Mount Matacross.
Zachary Jeblonski: So we had to do a little bit of resetting and stuff like that, but we got it all hammered out, but it is really cool. I mean, it doesn't synergize directly with Talion. but one of the things I'm trying to do a little bit differently in some of my decks. recently is I want to have some cards in there where.
Zachary Jeblonski: If my game plan is shut down or my commander is shut down, I have some bombs in my decks that can kind of exist on their own and do work on their own. And this is one of those things where like, even if Talion himself gets shut down and I never get all my clone stuff going.
Zachary Jeblonski: i can still cast a dream harvest and probably get some good value off of it so it's Kind of the idea behind it.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: So, yeah. Why don't you hit me up with one of the... the games that you played.
ciderspence: So I got in two games. The first game was with my new... Lyra Tolarian Archangel deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Ooh, the blue one, right?
ciderspence: So we talked about her before. I'll just read her. So One Blue Blue. Legendary creature angel angel wizard was flying at the beginning of each gun step. If you've drawn three or more cards this turn, create a 3 -3 blue angel creature token with flying.
ciderspence: And then she has an activated ability, three blue blue. until end of turn whenever she deals combat damage to a player draw two cards So. she kind of has The whole...
ciderspence: Arsenal on her text, but the ability is pretty expensive. So it wasn't the most efficient way to get her to trigger
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But this was, so both my games were in the same three pod. And I've kind of talked before about. my thoughts about three pods it's like I... it's like slightly souped up goldfishing where It's pretty easy to win. I mean, I guess you have a one third chance as opposed to a one. and 4 chance normally.
ciderspence: but it just feels like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, what's the...
ciderspence: your chances are even better. like Maybe everybody feels that way, so it doesn't work out.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, somewhere there's a math major that's like...
ciderspence: I was a math major.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, somebody there's a math major of like, you're a math major. Okay, so.
ciderspence: I was, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it's a 33 % of over 25%.
ciderspence: Yeah, I mean, that's probably enough. I mean, that's what, 4 12ths over 3 12ths? Yeah, I mean it feels 33 % more.
Zachary Jeblonski: but but i But I get what you're saying, though.
ciderspence: That's what it feels like.
Zachary Jeblonski: like it
ciderspence: so
Zachary Jeblonski: It feels more. skewed than that. Which is ironic to say in a way, but yeah.
ciderspence: So I was playing against that. So this was... this was a self -identified bracket 2 pod which i think is approximately where this deck is I did win, but it didn't feel like I ran away with it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: I was playing a laughless. pre -con deck And... Oh, and the metal top, the first metal bender. Homebrew.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: So I was pretty scared of the Toph. It turned out that... top player didn't wind up doing a whole lot. But. i've seen that deck do a whole lot so i was i was nervous i wasn't even sure it could be a bracket too
Zachary Jeblonski: there.
ciderspence: because of the way I'd seen it be used. But this deck...
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm very scared when that's off. sits down.
ciderspence: Yeah, I don't know whether the build was that different or whether he just had a had a rough go of it with the cards he saw but He wasn't much of a factor. It was basically me and the dragon guy. He pulled out a couple of... What's the Burn whenever a dragon enters.
ciderspence: i guess laughless makes you dragon yeah like dragon tempest and there's one on on a body
Zachary Jeblonski: Dragon's Tempest.
ciderspence: he He got... but Well, maybe he just got the dragon. version out. So he's kind of throwing damage around. The Toph player wasn't able to put get any blockers down. So we both had flyers and the Toph player had no flyers and didn't really have creatures for a good stretch of it except for Toph.
ciderspence: So they were just taking whatever damage we wanted to throw at them. so me and the dragon player were kind of duking it out trying to keep Keep the metal bender in the game But I thought that was that actually probably helped me because I think that game went maybe 7 to 10 turns. and had the dragon player focused me or knocked out the other player and then really focused on me Maybe he would have been able to outrace me.
ciderspence: But. As it was, I was able to... have enough turns i i found out that i found that i basically only triggered my commander on my own term but I was able to find some of the...
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay. Yeah.
ciderspence: Some of the card draw kindred pieces Lila Holographic Assistant. is a commander that I run. So she... puts a one -one counter on a creature every time you draw a card.
ciderspence: And. Also my card of the week wizard class. Level 1, you have no maximum hand size. Level up for... two and a blue and draw two cards leveled up for four and a blue and whenever you draw a card put a one one counter on target creature you control So basically, once I got...
ciderspence: Those cards down and I think I had the leader something genius but he says whenever a creature would connive, instead that creature draws a card and connives. And then at the beginning of combat.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: target creature you control connives. Which is actually a pretty sick effect in this deck. and and most I need multiple. card draws per turn because the connive you know gets you one and it he draws you your card on top of that so he fulfills the commander just by himself. But I had him down.
ciderspence: And then I had the counter. the counter buffs for card drawdown. And I was able to. All right. I went wide but slowly. Like over the course of three or four turns, I went from...
ciderspence: my commander to my commander and a few angels and a few fairies So once I had blockers for the dragons, I was able to make my creatures big enough. to swing in for lethal. i did i think my highlight of the game which was my car of the week because it didn't wind up doing much but I got to cast Lord of the Eagles for Blue Blue because I had a lot of fires out.
Zachary Jeblonski: Ooh.
ciderspence: So that was pretty exciting.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah that's cool.
ciderspence: he He participated in the last attack. uh but yeah so that was there was a fun showing for that deck and i'm excited to put in a few new pieces and try to Buff it up to bracket three.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay. No, I really like that. i Wizard class is one of my go -tos. I think most of my blue decks have wizard wizard class in it. And I often find myself. Getting to level two in wizard class, you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: Four mana draw two is not a great rate, but it it gets the job done when you're desperate, which is what I like. How often do you get to that third level in Wizard Class?
ciderspence: I think it's... Typically at... Question about what the game is like. So if I have...
Zachary Jeblonski: m
ciderspence: Car draw on board. I guess the question is like, Do I have creatures that buffing them would make a material difference on this turn? If so, it's typically like. I would say I've cast it. I've seen it maybe four or five times in game.
ciderspence: And I've leveled it up. At least twice, maybe three times.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But I feel like it's it's only worth doing once your board is worth. Buffing. So it's nice that it only cost one mana to come down. And like you said, you can pay three additional mana to draw two cards if you're kind of stuck on cards.
ciderspence: But that last mode is really only there if you need it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: so In my case, it was. pretty beneficial because My Lila got taken out. So that's one of my. Counter buff's gone. I also had out a prosthetic memory.
ciderspence: which does something pretty similar. But I basically just needed to make... dragons that could or i needed to make angels or big flyers that couldn't be stopped by the dragons So.
ciderspence: i basically had you know the threat of you have to block this and lose one of your good creatures or you're going to take lethal. pretty soon.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: and i And I needed wizard class as a backup to that once Lila got taken out. so Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: No, yeah, like I said, i really it's probably my favorite of the classes. And I run it in pretty much every blue deck because. I activate level two. Somewhat regularly, you know, and then of course the main reason it's in there is because I like my no night max on my hand size So, yeah, i'm glad I'm glad you featured that as Cloud Car of the Week because it's... I don't think I've ever done it, and it's it's a it's a secret. Not a secret, but it's a... uh like a dark horse candidate like it doesn't doesn't do anything crazy but it it gets the job done which is nice
ciderspence: Yeah, I like it.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. Let's see here. Let's see what I can remember. I'm active. I am. Oh, okay. Then I got another game in after... I. I fiddled again a little bit with my Zerzoth deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Made a few more changes and got another game in with that. And it's in a pretty good spot. where I want it to be. I don't think there's gonna be that many more changes. I have. 20 now pieces of... Card advantage in that deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: because I run out of cards so much. You know, I didn't win, but it did it did well. Like, I had a good game. So I'm going to keep playing with it and see.
Zachary Jeblonski: And see if... because i think I think it has the potential to win. I think it has the potential to be good. I just don't think in the games I've played it thus far. It's really kind of had the opportunity to really shine. So I'm gonna try to come more times I think probably the standout I had of that is.
Zachary Jeblonski: i'm kind of I've kind of become more of a fan of... Planeswalkers that... Especially in non -green decks, they put a land into your hand from your library.
Zachary Jeblonski: And specifically red and black, each have one. Red, it's Koth Fire Resistance.
ciderspence: Mm hmm.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's not too red, red. He does other things, but really the main thing is... Plus two, you search for a basic mountain to put in your hand. And then there's a Liliana that has the same thing. I think it's like plus two, put a swap. when elaborating your hand.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I'm a big fan of these planeswalkers because I had Koth out. And I probably kept them for. Three or four turns. So I got four lands into my hand You know.
Zachary Jeblonski: And it's like one of those things where like, you know, my my opponents were threatening to kill it. But I promise I'm like, look, I will never minus this guy. You can kill it if you want. I'm not going to say you can't, but I'm saying if it changes your trajectory, I'm never going to mind.
Zachary Jeblonski: And for the most part, I found that most people are pretty. chill with that they're like okay if you're never gonna mind some all right i'll leave them all right Because all I really want them there for is the fetch the lands. So I had him out and I had. You know my old standby out walking Alice So I was dropping like two lands a turn for a large chunk of that game.
Zachary Jeblonski: It wasn't enough to prevail, but it was still... Still a good time. I don't remember Who was. playing against at the time. by what what commanders are playing at the time. but That was also an evening where there was a gentleman at the store.
Zachary Jeblonski: who wanted to play bracket four play like high -end stuff So I did my best to kind of comply. I felt bad for him. There was nobody else to store that. you know want to play at that level so we kind of did the best we could
Zachary Jeblonski: And that that kind of explains why that Heliod game went the way it did, which was, you know, Storm win. all for the same turn kind of thing. But yeah, that was my Xer 'zoth game.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: And. And you, do you, Do you have stolen your memory banks? One of your other three pod games.
ciderspence: Yeah, I only played one more, so I remember who I was running.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: So this was the... debut of my iroh dragon of the west deck so he's two red red
Zachary Jeblonski: Mmm. Okay.
ciderspence: Legendary creature, a human noble ally with haste and mentor. So Mentor is whenever it attacks, put a 1 -1 counter on target attacking creature with lesser power. and at the beginning of combat on your turn, each creature you control with a counter on it gains firebending 2 until end of turn.
ciderspence: So. This deck. It was fun to play. It was a little unfocused. I was able to get a couple of pieces that should have been pretty high value for me that didn't wind up doing a whole lot. so i think My thought with the deck was I want to build it Uh, kind of as a mono -red modular type deck.
ciderspence: So it's filled with little... artifact creatures that Can give themselves counters, enter with counters, can give other things counters. And then a couple of the standouts are like Iron Spider and... steel overseer which can put a 1 -1 counter on each artifact creature you control And I actually got Steel Overseer out pretty early.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: and i got out one of the there's like a marvel card that lets you make a copy of an artifact that you cast. I think it's one of the Ultrons. I had him down as well. uh so i got to a point where i could swing and make a bunch of red mana and i guess the The hope for using it is I've got a couple of...
ciderspence: dragon mantle type effects where you Give a creature hopefully some sort form of evasion and then you can pump it dynamically for red mana
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: And then I've got... like electro dominance and comet storm, I think would be. My favorite. demis sure because it's flavorful. But after a board wipe, I...
Zachary Jeblonski: Do you have a horizon stone?
ciderspence: No, what's that?
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, it's a five mana artifact, Kaholas. If you would lose unspent mana. uh it becomes Kalos instead.
ciderspence: Ooh.
Zachary Jeblonski: So you can keep all your firebending mana into your next main phase.
ciderspence: That sounds good. Yeah, just put that in there.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that'd be kind of a cheeky thing.
ciderspence: But yeah, i mean it was I had a good time. I fell down pretty hard to a board wipe and never really got back into it. but that's fine i i feel like this deck needs a little bit more work before i can Credibly play it in a...
ciderspence: I mean, where's bracket two? So I feel like it's... I don't know It's around the unfocused bottom end of a bracket two deck but i think it was appropriate for the pod it's pretty fun to play i just need to tweak it there there are a couple of other like non -artifact creatures cards in here that I probably just need to replace with...
ciderspence: worse maybe artifact creatures and just buff up the artifact synergies in it.
Zachary Jeblonski: and
ciderspence: Just because artifacts you can make good. doing pretty much anything i think
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, artifacts kind of roll out of bed good. i'm i'm I'm excited to see how that deck develops. I think it's a... What's up? It's a cool deck, and I haven't really seen him in the stores at all.
ciderspence: Yep. What was your last game?
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, so... My go -to deck kind of for... When somebody wants to pay high powered, I don't really have anything that can kind of like I didn't have my life hack stack. With me, which is probably closest to bracket four that I have right now is my valgavalt deck my red black deck and it's not because valgavalt itself is red is as bracket four is that a lot of the cards in the deck punish bracket four decks.
Zachary Jeblonski: A lot of draw punishers, a lot of like free spell punishers, a lot of like. Storm Punishers. So I played Valkovoth against him. Adam. And I cannot remember what he played. Opposite But I really just had like the worst draws of all time.
Zachary Jeblonski: like i just could not get like any sort of ramp going I really just get any sort of board presence. So I didn't really. Get. very far. I'm looking at, excuse me.
Zachary Jeblonski: Probably my best moment was. The gentleman that was playing a cross for me, that're not the one that was... trying to play high powered. I was playing the new mono black Avacyn.
Zachary Jeblonski: And he's a big Avacyn fan. He has Avacyn. The White Epson deck, I think he just likes the character. So I'm very happy for him to have a new absence to play with, you know.
ciderspence: that's cool
Zachary Jeblonski: And this commander is... much nuttier than I originally thought it was. So if if for anybody who doesn't know, it's. Avacyn, Angel of Horror 5, Black Black Black.
Zachary Jeblonski: So eight mana, so it's a lot. Flying Detach. And whenever Avacyn or another non -token creature you control dies, return that card to the battlefield under your control. At the beginning of the next end step.
Zachary Jeblonski: And it's an 8 .8. So that includes itself. So it's really, really, really hard to get rid of an Avacyn. if he If they have a SAC outlet on board, which he did.
Zachary Jeblonski: So if you try to Swords Avacyn, he just sacks it and it comes back at the next end step. you know kind of thing so unless you have graveyard aid it's really It's really hard. but But in a good way, I thought it was really cool.
Zachary Jeblonski: to see that. And he did, it but he did pretty good. He pretty did pretty good work. But like I said, i unfortunately I just didn't draw well. I didn't really. Get to do much in that game But I did get to see another cool commander kind of come around, another cool deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: really kind of show off so Avacyn continues her reign of terror, except in a different color now.
ciderspence: Yeah, Model Black seems like a good place for her. Even as a good guy, she was.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that.
ciderspence: pretty scary so i feel like This is a villain turn we all saw coming.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. and And, you know, it's it's every end step. So. You know, if you have a sack out on board and you have sack effects. You know, you sack your whole board. Good end step. Everything goes back.
Zachary Jeblonski: Next time you do it again, next time you do it again, like. So very quickly, she will end the game because all it takes is like. he had at one point he had a cuckoo show you know. So that's, you know, every turn he's going to sack a Cuckoo show.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nah. Yeah. See if I can remember how to spell cuckoo show. Nope, that's not how you spell it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Well, anyways, when you sack Kakushko... He does, I believe. Five damage to each opponent and you gain that much life. You know, so that's. Five to everybody, 15 to him. Five to everybody, 15 to him. Five to everybody, 15 to him.
Zachary Jeblonski: So in it's in a full turn cycle, that's... you know close to 60 health and and 20 damage to his opponent so It's really cool. Really cool effect. Really cool commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I think it's well balanced. Like I didn't think. you know, eight man is a lot as somebody who has a nine man, a black commander. you know, it feel it felt all right.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I think that's all the games I had. And was there any other games? I think you mentioned no, but I just wanted to double check.
ciderspence: Yep. No, those are my only two.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. Ready to go on decks on deck.
ciderspence: Yes, I am.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. Do you want to kick us off or do you want me to kick us off?
ciderspence: Sure, i'll I'll... Do mine. so I'm working actively on
Zachary Jeblonski: Alright.
ciderspence: I think three decks. And. It would be great if I had them finished by tomorrow, but... Uh, Odds are against that. But this weekend is New York Comic Con in the...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh.
ciderspence: kind of tri -state area. So I am hoping to go there tomorrow. And i've never I've been to the convention a bunch of times. I'm a big fan. Comic. uh, Comic.
ciderspence: fan person. So I've been going to. comic -con probably for 15 or 20 years at this point.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But I've never been to the gaming area. So my hope tomorrow is to go. and actually go to the gaming area and spend a few hours there get in as many games as I can. Hopefully I'll be back on Saturday and I can kind of check out more of the comic scene and stuff. But I really wanted to.
ciderspence: Go in to vote. a full few hours to just... Try me. Play pickup games like I do at MagicCon, so... hopefully i'll have Far more games to talk about. next week.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, cool.
ciderspence: But the decks I'm working on now are... So one of them is... You mentioned the Koth Planeswalker. has a uh
ciderspence: has a fracture pair in reality fracture. So I'm playing, I'm building the mono white Koth, Koth of the Homestead, two and a white. legendary creature human citizen he's got landfall whenever land you control enters you gain a life and whenever a plane view control enters but a 1 -1 counter on target creature.
ciderspence: He's a 2 -3. So this card's not good. But I really like the art. And I... I'm excited to build it. Uh, and see if I can... build it up to be.
ciderspence: able to do something at a bracket three table so that's my hope for it for cost. Probably won't get there, but it will be fun. Another one.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I like him. I think he yeah i think he's... Yeah, he's he's okay. He's good. I mean, I wouldn't say he's bad. It's just... It's hard in Mono White, right, to like... Really get that going.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm trying to think of like...
ciderspence: Yeah, I mean, I think it's just, it's... It's okay. I mean, I guess. I'm going to try to build it. as much around both 1 -1 counters and life gain as I can so that Maybe there's...
ciderspence: there might be In white, there might be enough things that synergize with both of those things to make it. reasonable because it doesn't do a lot on either front. but the fact that it does do some on both fronts. and the fact that there are a lot of white cards that Half counter is just not... you know there aren't the green staples that make getting a single counter. overwhelming.
ciderspence: But there are a lot of things with counters. and I can play. you know, Contagion Engine and Contagion Class and stuff like that. and just get some proliferate synergies hopefully this deck will wind up with me having a bunch of lands in play.
ciderspence: So. Hopefully I should be able to. pay for expensive effects and just do that. to advance my board state. So we'll see.
Zachary Jeblonski: And you can always run. Al Schnorr and Mother Machines get those double triggers.
ciderspence: Oh, I could actually. do i have i might I might have a copy of her. Yeah, I'll take a look. I'm not huge on Phyrexians, but this might be a special case. We'll see.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Because I'm like, if you can get double triggers going and it's like. A plane comes in, you gain two or four life. And put 411s. I can see that getting out of control a little bit.
ciderspence: Yeah, I guess I could use Delney as long as I never put the counters on my commander, right? It's power two or less.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's another idea. yeah
ciderspence: Yeah, maybe maybe I do that. Yeah. But yeah, so that one's... I... That deck is sleeved, I think, but I'm still... i just brought home a bunch of singles that i'm hoping to swap in for some other stuff so that one should be some ready in some version another one from reality fracture i want to finish with is Jang Yang -gu alone?
ciderspence: So four in a red legendary creature, human berserker. So he's like, This one's a all little weird. So... the The green one is Jang Yang -gu, Never Alone, and it's him with his dog.
ciderspence: I think his dog is Mowu.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And this was.
Zachary Jeblonski: That true?
ciderspence: Jiang Yanggu alone. So this is like John Wick. it's like somebody killed his dog in the echo verse and he's just pissed about it so he's got menace
Zachary Jeblonski: The flavor text is...
ciderspence: He's a 4 -4.
Zachary Jeblonski: His best friend was gone. Someone had to pay.
ciderspence: There you go.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's so John Wick. There you go.
ciderspence: Yeah. Whenever a creature you control attacks a player alone, discard a card, then draw a card, then put a 1 -1 counter on that creature for each card you've discarded this turn. So. it's interesting like i felt like with the Lyra deck.
ciderspence: It was mono blue. card draw matters and i have a few of those decks so It was. kind of easy to pilot and fun to play because i was just kind of familiar with that as an archetype.
ciderspence: I feel. pretty much the same way about red discard mono red discard Like I had. like two or three years ago right when foundations came out i had a ivora insatiable air deck Where whenever you discard a card...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: uh you put a one one counter on her and she's like a i don't know a one one or a three three trample or something but she just gets huge really fast oh and you make a Blyde token.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm looking at her now, yeah.
ciderspence: But yeah, I really enjoyed that deck. And then I have the Misty Knight deck that I built for Marvel. where you can Uh... Pay two and tap her. and discard a card and then draw a card for each card you've discarded this turn So.
ciderspence: Hi. I do have a bunch of those pieces, so I put in a few of the... the burn card draw people are the burn on discard people uh brilliance uh Braylon the Skyshark Rider?
ciderspence: Is Braylon the writer? I think Braylon is the person.
Zachary Jeblonski: Uh, Braylon, I think is the red one.
ciderspence: Yeah. So he's in there. I don't have a second copy of the Miles Morales that burns. But anyway, so it's. It's a lot of discard. I'm trying to put the discard on bodies because I also need...
ciderspence: creatures that are good attackers to get these counters. But I'm hoping that I can. Build up to by turn five or six having a board state where I just cast my commander.
ciderspence: have some cheap or free discard stuff. And then. have a pretty big attack. when he gets there so he doesn't have to stay on the board
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Because he's five man out. Seems kind of scary. So. But yeah, hopefully I'll have that one. flushed out as well.
Zachary Jeblonski: and Okay, cool. Now I like it. I need a... I think I need to... Yeah, mean my Mono Red deck is kind of like a discard deck. but i'm like i might go down that road too if i have eventually having a discard commander
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't really have one. Especially since... uh I think. So I'm like, I'm a little broken when it comes to this sort of thing and magic, which is like, I think I've talked about it on the podcast before.
Zachary Jeblonski: But when I see a bunch of people with the same commander that I have, I... don't want to run that commander anymore. and i know this is a me problem and it's just you know there's no logical reason for it But I think I'm getting to that way with Quintorius.
Zachary Jeblonski: I swear I have seen. Five or six different people with this deck now So... I think I'm going to move on from Gontorius.
Zachary Jeblonski: Into a... It just so happened that one of my favorite characters has also got a color shift. and reality fracture. Cannot. Tamiyo Upriser crowned.
Zachary Jeblonski: And she's four red white. Flying double strike haste. When she enters, you become the monarch. And whenever one or more creatures do comma damage to you while you're the monarch.
Zachary Jeblonski: Tap each of those creatures and put a stun counter on each of them. And she's a 3 -5. So... I think I'm gonna transition Quintorius to a Monarch Matters deck. And I've been kind of futzing around with it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Originally, I was going to try and do like kind of a token synergy because there's. A lot of the court enchantments make tokens like Court of Embereth or Court of Grace. But I don't quite think that's where I want to go with it. I think it's actually going to be more of a.
Zachary Jeblonski: A little bit of a Voltron. it's gonna be It's going to have its hands on a lot of things. because She has. some pretty amazing wow Amazing. But she has some very strong stat lines. and that she's flying double strike and haste in the 3 -5.
Zachary Jeblonski: So it doesn't take much for her to be able to one shot or two shot somebody. So, you know, we're going to have like Black Blade for Forge. You know, a little Champion's Helm. fire emancipation, you know stuff like that.
Zachary Jeblonski: So there's going to be a lot of just borrows value pieces. And here a little bit of token synergies just from the courts because I'm going to have all the different courts in there that care if you're a monarch. So it's going to be a little Monarch Matters, a dash of tokens, and a dash of Voltron.
Zachary Jeblonski: And we'll see. I just, I was like, oh. I always liked Tamiyo. I know she got killed off. the one storyline. So it was nice to see her come back. And now she's red -white instead of blue -green.
ciderspence: Yeah, that's cool.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think it's going to be. a good deal less powerful than the Quintorius deck, which is fine. I think it's going to be, it does. open up the door for a lot more I would say like fun.
Zachary Jeblonski: Weird stuff. Like I'm putting super state in there I am putting... Deflecting palm. which is one of my favorite.
Zachary Jeblonski: Boros cards that I never seem to have a home for. And... That's just a red -white instant. The next time a source of your choice would deal damage to you is to prevent that damage. and damage is prevented this way defecting palm deals that much damage to that source's controller and And many years ago, many years ago when I lived in a different place.
Zachary Jeblonski: I can remember one specific game where I won off of that. It was me and another guy left. He swung in with his huge commander. and i deflecting bombed it and won the game off of it so i kind of want to Get it back. and deal It's a little bit of a gotcha, which is kind of cool.
ciderspence: Yeah, that's a really fun story card.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. And I'm also... I don't know if you heard on the goldfish podcast. I'm planning on putting Venser in the deck. Have you looked at Venser at all yet?
ciderspence: i've I've heard people talk about this, Spencer.
Zachary Jeblonski: The new one.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so he's...
ciderspence: And I think those people would tell you that you are brave for putting them into your deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes, yes, yeah. hes So he's poor Red Red Flash. And when he enters... You copy and insert sorcery spell and opponent controls twice. You can choose new targets for the copy. Or you can create two tokens. that are copies of target permanent. and opponent controls.
Zachary Jeblonski: They gain haste. Sacrifice him at the end next end step. So. The reason so Charles is saying I'm brave and the reason is is Because if an opponent has a way to make a token copy of enter They more or less get infinite token copies because they can just keep choosing.
Zachary Jeblonski: the second option and keep making copies off of my copy. And that that would be bad. especially if they have any sort of impact tremors a effect or anything like that.
Zachary Jeblonski: But i'm I'm curious. I want to run them. I want to see what happens. you know If I lose a game off of this, it is what it is. But i'm I'm curious to see see how it performs. But I will let you all know when that time comes.
ciderspence: Yeah, I'm curious to see if it works out. when when he shows up.
Zachary Jeblonski: Any other decks you're working on?
ciderspence: Yeah, another deck that I probably won't have finished by tomorrow. is the Megatron deck. I guess this year was the 25th or 30th anniversary of the Transformers movie.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: And so. I watched that with a buddy. And. Thought to myself self you need to build another transformers deck. So Megatron Tyrant.
ciderspence: he's two -faced on the first side three red white black legendary artifact creature robot more than meets the eye so one red and a white and black you could cast it on the other side i'll read that in a second but your opponents can't cast spells during combat At the beginning of your post combat main phase, you may convert Megatron.
ciderspence: If you do add colorless. For each one life your opponents have lost this turn, he's a 7 -5.
Zachary Jeblonski: No I'm good.
ciderspence: And on the back. He is Megatron destructive force legendary artifact vehicle with living metal so on your turn it's also a creature And then whenever it attacks, I can sacrifice another artifact. When I do, it deals damage equal to the sacrificed artifact's mana value to target creature.
ciderspence: If excess damage would be dealt to that creature this way, Instead that damage is dealt to that creature's controller and you convert Megatron.
Zachary Jeblonski: Interesting.
ciderspence: So I played against a version of this, I think, on Spell Table.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: And.
ciderspence: It was pretty... tough. So basically, if you are a token deck or if someone is a token deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: Uh... the Megatron player is going to be able to basically... wreck them and use Megatron's ability to wreck the rest of the table because of the mana he's able to get off of it.
ciderspence: So. it can definitely be pretty strong i don't think that the version i'm brewing is going to be that strong But it definitely has high end potential. So. I'm still a little uncertain about.
ciderspence: what to round out i'm trying to play the really expensive artifact creatures that leave bodies when they die.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: I probably should put some other... Artifacts in there. One card I'm excited to run in here is Coveted Jewel. So you cast it.
Zachary Jeblonski: oh yeah
ciderspence: You make the mana, you draw the cards, and then you sacrifice it so nobody else gets to take it from you. I like that idea.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm mo planning on putting that in the Tamiyo deck as well. It doesn't have any synergy, but I think it's is just a cool card.
ciderspence: that's Yeah, that's just a fun card.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But yeah, so anyway, that one was also on deck How about you?
Zachary Jeblonski: And if you really if you want to be scuzzy... Ugin's Nexus would be good in that deck.
ciderspence: What does that one do?
Zachary Jeblonski: It's a five mana legendary artifact. If a player would begin an extra turn that player skips that turn instead If Ugin's nexus will be put into the graveyard from the battlefield, instead of exile and take an extra turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: So you just sacrifice Ugin's nexus, ping something for five, and take an extra turn.
ciderspence: Oh, that's funny.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, especially on a non -blue deck, it's very funny. Because you're like, oh.
ciderspence: Well, it's a replacement effect, so i I think if I chose to sacrifice it I guess it doesn't say if it was what does it say if it was sacrificed that way let me see
Zachary Jeblonski: No, it just cares that it went from the gravey it went to the graveyard from the battlefield. That's all it cares about.
ciderspence: But this is a replacement effect, right? So it wouldn't Go to the graveyard
Zachary Jeblonski: Let me see here.
ciderspence: Right.
Zachary Jeblonski: Let's see.
ciderspence: If it would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, instead exile it. I guess that doesn't mean...
Zachary Jeblonski: No, no, no, it still works. It still works. Yeah, because Megatron's just sacrificing. Yeah, and then Ugin's Nexus goes to the graveyard.
ciderspence: Okay, it doesn't care about it going to the graveyard. Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah Yeah, it just it just gets exiled instead, that's all.
ciderspence: Yeah, that's pretty cool. Nice. Yeah, I'll look into that one. i'll put that I'll keep that one outside of the sleeve. and just kind of feel what the table's about.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And if there's somebody that I want to do that to, I'll put it back.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nice. I like that.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, so I've got i've got a couple of dead color combinations that's kind of welcome like decks that are just kind of Not doing anything in their color combinations right now. Jund and team are kind of dead for me
Zachary Jeblonski: So that's kind of what I'm looking at next. John, it might. be i might i i prototyped out the the muk The Muck Slinger Gang.
Zachary Jeblonski: Uh... which I'm having trouble finding yet. Because I didn't put the in it. That's why. And this is one of the commanders coming up in the Mystery Booster set.
Zachary Jeblonski: And so I'll read it. It's one black, red, green. Goblin Lizard Beast. Each other creature you control gets plus three plus three as long as it's not attacking or blocking.
Zachary Jeblonski: And creature spells you control and creature card you own in any zone other than the battlefield or the stack Get. Three plus three plus three. So. Kind of a little funky commander, but it's just a powers matter commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: where you lose those benefits when you go to. when you attack or block. But there's a variety of ways to get around that. If you're if you're really talking about attacking. an unnatural growth will still work because basically what will happen is.
Zachary Jeblonski: At the beam of combat. you'll take those plus threes, turn them into plus sixes. And then it'll lose plus three when it attacks. We still gain the plus three from the natural growth. So there's a lot of things you can do with it.
Zachary Jeblonski: There's a lot of green spells that care about the size of the creature when you sacrifice it to draw cards and things like that. Lots of, lots of shenanigans like that. I think that's what's next on the... chopping block i mean or the next thing on the the the thing I'm not not talking about the next thing coming up, I should say. The card that I'm actually really interested in.
Zachary Jeblonski: Getting to work because I have yet to really have a deck that can... get it to work. is a Monstrous Vortex. And that's three and a green enchantment.
Zachary Jeblonski: whenever you cast a creature spell with power Five or greater, discover X where X is at spells amount of value. So like I said, while that card is in your hand, as long as you have... muck Slinger gang on the battlefield.
Zachary Jeblonski: Those creature spells that are in your hand are getting the plus three.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: So they will trigger the monstrous vortex. even as long as they're base power too right So there's lots of little stuff like that that I'm looking forward to doing. And that's probably the next thing on.
Zachary Jeblonski: I guess the other thing is I'm going to put in. A little bit of fling because I think fling is funny. So an example of that is a card like thud. which is a one red sorcery. As an additional cost to cast the spell, you sacrifice a creature.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then thud deals damage equal to the sacrifice creature's power to any target. You know, so when Muzzlinger's gang's out. there everything's getting plus three so you can thought off a fair amount of damage you know sufferance stuff like that so just a lot of little stuff like that So I'm looking forward to that. And I guess the last thing is just.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know, you got your monogreen package that cares about power. So your risk card is expertise. or your Legend of Kyoshi, that sort of thing. so That's probably next up on the creation block.
Zachary Jeblonski: I think, uh, right now my John deck is that my minotaurs experiment. And it's just too bad to play. Like, minotaurs are just too bad.
ciderspence: Was it there was a new minotaur and it was at reality fracture I feel like one of these recent sets had another minotaur in it
Zachary Jeblonski: Let me see.
ciderspence: But it probably still wasn't good enough to...
Zachary Jeblonski: Probably.
ciderspence: Turn the tide.
Zachary Jeblonski: Let's say sort by real estate. Let's say...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, Okay, so you got Minotaur, the black Minotaur from Marvel Super Hero. Then you have a common minotaur from reality fracture.
ciderspence: Yeah, I guess that's not what I was thinking of.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then Grizzlegom, which is currently my Gruul commander. is also minotaur tell you There's been some Minotaurs recently. But it just hasn't quite gotten there yet.
ciderspence: Yeah.
ciderspence: Tough out there for Minotaurs.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah the best the best minotaurs are ones that don't really care about minotaurs like morog as a An incredibly strong commander. uh but he does it's not it has nothing to do with minotaurs it's just a landfall extra combat thing so That's fine. Our day will come someday. Someday it will come.
Zachary Jeblonski: Do you have anything else you're working on?
ciderspence: I need a... green and or mono green, mono black, or a Golgari. Deck.
ciderspence: from reality fracture, because I like to build out.
Zachary Jeblonski: cool
ciderspence: all five colors.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: Right. sets when I when they have the support for it, and this one does.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: So I was looking at the other Jiang Yangu who lets you untap. all the tokens you control at the end of your turn. I had some ideas for that deck but i didn't build it because i was gonna i thought the mono of red one was more interesting And for black... i Was the new...
ciderspence: who's the Who's the busted? Ninja lady, Yuriko.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yuriko is a white one, right?
ciderspence: I think there's a white. Yeah, there's I think there's a white and a black.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Nope, the other one's blue, so she doesn't count. Yeah, I gotta find a black commander. from Reality Fracture to build as well. again It would be great if that's this was done by tomorrow.
Zachary Jeblonski: black
ciderspence: but I don't think it'll happen.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I don't know. but For reality fracture? Yeah, I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't think there is. there any Black ones from reality?
ciderspence: here
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, yeah. Avacyn that we just talked about. Yeah. joyra might be Joyra is pretty neat.
ciderspence: Oh yeah, the joy would be fantastic.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that would be a neat one And I almost put the new Massacre girl in my Marin deck. She's not bad. Yeah, I didn't even get a chance to talk about it, but I really... Did some work on my Marin deck to avoid that stormy turn. So hopefully that won't happen again, but
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, no, there's some. Oh, you could always do loot. The monoblock loot.
ciderspence: Nah, you know, i I like to build my... decks around Uh...
ciderspence: characters of color. so i don't think i mean loot is a color
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But that's not. that's not how i typically interpret that so I think it probably won't be loot.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think Joyra is your best bet.
ciderspence: Yeah. It's tricky though, because I i think... In the image, Lyra presents as a black woman, so I would ideally... Go for a different color for Uh...
ciderspence: go with like a different identity for my mono black deck but we'll see Like maybe I'll do like Tao. diamond blade mage I don't know I'll figure something out.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, you got options.
ciderspence: I do.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, and I think... I don't have anything too close. I'm still on the lookout for what I want to do for... Teemer. But I'm not sure yet on that.
Zachary Jeblonski: But yeah, I think that's what I got for Dex on Deck.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Do you have anything else you wanted to cover or I don't mind revving up a little early I'm fading a little bit
ciderspence: No, I hear that. Yeah I'm good to go as well.
Zachary Jeblonski: Cool. Well, I'm sorry, folks out there, list for the short short episode. but Hopefully next week I will not be. Uh... The sickest of lads.
Zachary Jeblonski: But yeah, thanks for thanks for joining me, Charles.
ciderspence: Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me and get well soon.
Zachary Jeblonski: Thanks. All right, we'll talk to you next week.
ciderspence: Take it easy everybody.
