Back to the Boros?

Boros. The one deck that I still believe can be a home for Phyrexian Metamorph. The ChannelFireball crew put Boros through the gauntlet months ago and LSV became so enamored with the results that he "tricked PV into playing it at GP Dallas".

The last successful Boros list was ran by Chikara Nakajima right before Jace and Stoneforge got the hook.

Mirran Crusader and Koth of the Hammer seem to have both had their moments in the sun, but the new Chandra, the Firebrand and maybe even Puresteel Paladin are worth exploring. Can you imagine Boros with an Enchantress-type twist to really give full value to those Adventuring Gears people traded in for Swords? What about Emeria Angel? Didn't the Angel see some play before the ban in Darkblade?

Perhaps it's not really a valid deck anymore, but I tend to explore any idea that seems to have some merit. Boros was a deck and didn't suffer as much as other decks using Stoneforge Mystic when the hammer came down. PureBoros anyone?

I still want to animate a Inkmoth Nexus and cast Phyrexian Metamorph targeting the flying infectious land. A man can dream right?!

M12 Pre-Release!

Amazing, amazing, amazing is all I have to say about this set guys! I competed in two sealed tourney's and even placed in one with a red-black removal setup.

There are quite few simple ramps in this next set due mainly to blood thirst and all the new ways to gain life!

One of the main cards I wanted to introduce was called Sundial of the Infinite!

End the turn! Without triggering End of Turn effects! So your little act of treason becomes an evil mind control and sacking a small creature to buff another isnt quite as daunting! The best i've seen yet is Putrefax! 5/5 trample infect for more than one turn!

Just think of the posibilities!

Xhypher's M12 Hot List - Part 1

My name is Xhypher, and I am about to ramble.

Today marks the paper version of the M12 prerelease, so in honor of such, and since the set is fully spoiled, I wanted to take a minute and share with you, what cards, in my humble opinion, wil be fetching the highest tix prices in just a few short weeks. I've got a lot to talk about so I'll try to make it as concise as possible.

1. New Planeswalkers

M10 may have been the first core set to give us new cards, but M12 is the first to give us new 'walkers. The new Garruk, Primal Hunter seems like it would slide well into the current Valakut decks, but even without Valakut, in a format with Rites of Flourishing and Primeval Titan, unleashing a horde of wurm tokens will be child's play. Chandra, the Firebrand's twining ability has me excited, but the applications go far beyond just double shocks. With the easily-splashable single red in her mana cost, I'm far more interested to see what she can do with other color's spells. Distress suddenly becomes an even better Hymn to Tourach. Visions of Beyond, (another of my picks, but I'll get to that more in a later installment) under the right circumstances, suddeny becomes a whopping six cards for the price of a single blue and two loyalty. And of course that's only the tip of the iceberg. Sadly though, I'm not certain what to make of Jace, Memory Adept. Blue mages want their card advantage early, and that 5 converted mana cost can make that quite difficult, especially if you're playing control and trying to keep mana open for a counterspell. So, once again, I'm reserving my opinion on this one.

Cemetery Reaper, Lord of the Unreal

I'm calling plug on both these cards. With Innistrad right around the corner and the current consensus pointing towards a gothic-graveyard theme, I find it rather suspicious that Cemetery Reaper would reappear as the figurehead black lord, ousting Beguiling Vampire after Wizard's proclamations of vampires being the new black tribe. And illusions have always been blue creatures, but since when have they ever been a tribe? To be honest, I'd expect ninjas or cephalids to replace merfolk before illusions. But, I suppose illusions do fit with a gothic-horror theme, so I'd expect zombies and illusions to both be supported creature types once INN rolls around this fall.

Okay, so, not exactly earth-shattering revalations, but I'm just getting warmed up. Join me next week when I discuss the less obvious, less fanfared cards. Until then, just keep pretending i'm insightful and we'll get along great. ;) -X