Trading Post was one of the sleeper cards when M13 came out. It was also one of the cards that I’ve noticed that had potential for Standard, and my gut feel was not wrong. A new archetype had risen on the last two weeks which was nicknamed “Black Market”. It is actually a Mono Black Control deck which utilizes Trading Post for a lot of uses. The deck plays Wellsprings to setup the board, sweep critters with Mutilate and Black Sun Zenith, and end the game with Wurmcoils. It has a similar list with the recent Tezzeret artifact build.

The recent Black Market decks online has the same lineup of card components, but we think there are some flaws on their list. So, we came up with our own version:

Black Market by Mark Ian Alloso (co-edited with Oliver Mastilero)
Maindeck
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Karn Liberated
2 Liliana of the Veil

1 Batterskull
3 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Dismember
2 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
4 Ichor Wellspring
1 Mimic Vat
4 Mutilate
3 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Pristine Talisman
4 Sign in Blood
3 Trading Post

2 Buried Ruin
1 Phyrexia’s Core
21 Swamp

Sideboard
2 Curse of Death’s Hold
2 Deathmark
1 Despise
3 Duress
1 Massacre Wurm
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
1 Spine of Ish Sah

The Card Choices

Sign in Blood – the slot for these are the Simulacrums from the other lists. We find the sad robot slow enough to gain card advantage, plus it clumps the fourth turn for Trading Post. It is either turn two Wellspring or SIB.

Massacre Wurm – current meta is flooded with Naya Pod, RG Aggro, Delver and other decks with probably x/2 toughness critters. It is both a sweeper and a finisher, and its awkward target for Phantasmal Image or Metamorph (unlike Wurmcoil or the Titans).

Karn Liberated – Planeswalkers are the deck’s major problem and we’ll be dealing with them with another Planeswalker in the form of Karn. Karn’s just awesome against control, just add a timely play.
 

The Sideboard Plan

Here is a quick in and outs of cards on the sideboard:

Vs Pod Variants / RG Aggro / GW Aggro/ Dungrove Green

-1 Trading Post, -4 Ichor Wellspring, -1 Karn, -1 Liliana of Veil, -1 Nihil Spellbomb

+2 Curse of Death’s Hold, +2 Deathmark, + 1 Massacre Wurm, + 3 Phyrexian Obliterator

This sideboarding is quite tricky though, esp. for white based aggro as they’ll probably bringing in Celestial Purges. Most likely it will be artifact hate so the Obliterators will trump them.

VS Delver Variants

-2 Trading Post, -4 Ichor Wellspring, -1 Karn

+2 Curse of Death’s Hold, + 1 Massacre Wurm, +3 Duress, +1 Phyrexian Metamorph

Delver will possible bring in Negates so you’d to timing the casting of Duress on them. Metamorph is to help fend off Geist of St Traft and Talrand. They are dangerous with a pile of graveyard so you badly needed the spellbombs in this matchup. You might add a fourth one if Delver is popular in your area.

VS Mirror/Solar Flare

-2 Black Sun’s Zenith, -1 Dismember, -4 Mutilate, -1 Gftt, -1 Massacre Wurm

+1 Despise , +3 Duress, +3 Phyrexian Obliterator, +1 Spine of Ish Sah, +1 Phyrexian Metamorph

If Solar Flare is running a few Blade Splicers, switch some spot removals into Black Sun Zenith.

For deck suggestions and changes on the cards or whatever stuff, just hit the comment box below.

I guess that’s about it. Have fun with the deck & until next post!

With the current diversified MTG Standard, you can combine just any allied colors and build an archetype. Well, Delver is still the deck to beat, but it is also a good thing to explore other color archetypes. One in particular is the Green White Aggro with ‘blink’ effects courtesy of Restoration Angel and Cloudshift.

M13 has offered another critter to benefit these blink effects, in the form of the beastly Thragtusk. It is currently the most expensive Rare of the set, reaching as high as 20 usd.

Here is my proposed decklist:

GW Blink Aggro by Mark Ian Alloso
Maindeck
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Blade Splicer
1 Champion of Lambholt
2 Elvish Visionary
2 Fiend Hunter
1 Hero of Bladehold
4 Restoration Angel
3 Silverblade Paladin
1 Thragtusk
2 Wolfir Silverheart

2 Cloudshift
2 Dismember
1 Green Sun’s Zenith
2 Overrun
2 Rancor

2 Cavern of Souls
7 Forest
4 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
2 Gavony Township

Sticking with the deck’s game plan of overwhelming your opponent with creature advantage, you can combine Doublestrike and pump Soulbond critters to finish the game early. Also, having Overrun as a surprise kill is very essential. Rancor also benefits the blink, as you’d just recast it.

Sideboard would probably include Oblivion Rings, additional Dismembers, Celestial Purges, Naturalize, maybe Sword of Feast and Famine against Dungrove Green, and maybe Faith’s Reward & Garruk Relentless for control decks.

Maybe I’d give the deck a shot for this Friday’s FNM once I finalize the sideboard for local metagame.

Until next post.

M13 Core set has stirred the Standard metagame with its addition of components on existing archetypes and even creating new ones, like Talrand Mono Blue from the recent SCG tournament. Our topic today though will discuss an old but one of the favorite aggro archetypes in Magic.

What got me excited to discuss this archetype was the return of this card:

It felt like Urza block Standard again. Plus, the addition of these two new Goblin cards, Krenko and Krenko’s Command, made the deck worthy of playing in Standard.

Here is my list:

RR Goblins by Mark Ian Alloso
M13 Standard
Lands
16 Mountain
2 Hellion Crucible
4 Rootbound Crag

Creatures
2 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Fireslinger
2 Goblin Wardriver
4 Mogg Flunkies
2 Hellrider
2 Krenko, Mob Boss

Spells
1 Arc Trail
2 Brimstone Volley
4 Goblin Grenade
3 Krenko’s Command
3 Pillar of Flame
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Wild Guess

The grenade looks almost effective all the time because of the high count of Goblins in the deck. The rest of the burn removals are specifically chosen to match the current metagame. I also think Shrine is very much needed main deck for long game scenarios. The two Hellion Crucibles serve the same purpose.

Hellrider may not work that much against Restoration Angel but with the Krenko Goblin tokens, it can be a nightmare. The single Wild Guess is a support card draw that at times can help you get the needed spells to finish the game.

The sideboard plan are as follows:

1 Combust, 2 Dismember – to use against jumping Angels and other X/5 critters.

2 Mark of Mutiny – those who can’t be killed by Dismember gets to be eslaved by this Sorcery. Wurmcoil Engine come to Papa.

2 Ancient Grudge, 1 Manic Vandal, 1 Smelt – against Artifact matchups, destroys Birthing Pods, Golem tokens, Spheres of the Sun, Swords, etc.

2 Arc Trail, 1 Pillar of Flame – support removals versus Red Green and Naya Aggro. The pillars are also for (obviously) Zombie matchups.

3 Torpor Orb – this is a tricky sideboard which is getting popular recently. It handles blink shenanigans which is your worst situation to get into. Also yeah, Thragtusk is your big problem. You can replace the Hellriders and Wild Guess for these three vs Delver and Pod.

I guess that’s about it. Let me know what you think of the deck, and suggestions please. Hit the comments!

As the usual routine for each new set released, a patch is also posted for the Magic Workstation (MWS) software. This is to update the database of the software, fix the filters and add the new card set. Here are the patching directions on updating to Magic 2013.

1. Get a Back-Up Master Base.
2. Put MWS in Deck Edit Mode.
3a. Click on the Library (Top Panel or Left Panel), save.
3b. Analyze/Add/Remove Sets
4. Add Magic 2013 with key M13.
5. This should say added 1-249 cards.
6. Click a card in the left hand column (top), from the library, then go to File, Save Deck/Library.

You can download the Magic 2013 Patch text file here.

As an added bonus, here is the download link for the low-resolution card pics of Magic 2013 coreset. Big thanks to Zanam of Mtg Salvation forums. Click here

Wizards unveiled today the complete list of the latest set release, the Magic: The Gathering 2013 Coreset. As I’ve expected, the remaining of card previews are just so-so inclusion for constructed play. As I am looking at each card, there are a few that I am glad are back, like Mogg Flunkies and also a few that I find unnecessary to be included in the set.

Whether its a good card or not, the new set will once again test our brewing skills as to what archetype will rise or greatly improve a previous deck strategy.

Here is the link for Magic 2013 Complete Card Image Gallery.

To end this post, here are my current two favorite common cards from the set:

Until next time.

As the M13 Spoiler nears completion, I can say that there are only a handful of cards in the set that are Standard-constructed worthy. The rest, just like the previous core sets, are for limited play. One good thing, though, about new sets is the brewing phase for deck archetypes.

One in particular I’d discuss in this post is the Green Infect deck. The current standard has a Blue-Green version of the deck that features Blighted Agent and utilizes Wild Defiance and a lot of instant pump spells. My version focuses on the mono Green aspect as M13 offered two key cards for the deck’s consistency. Here is my list:

Maindeck
Creatures (8)
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr

Spells (30)
4 Apostle’s Blessing
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Livewire Lash
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Ranger’s Guile
1 Runechanter’s Pike
3 Titanic Growth
4 Wild Defiance
4 Rancor

Lands (22)
4 Cathedral of War
4 Inkmoth Nexus
14 Forest

Rancor is pretty much a good reminiscing card, not to include in the deck. It was a powerhouse card in its Urza’s Legacy years and surely will be popular again with its reprint. It acts like a repeated pump spell for Inkmoth Nexus, and enchanting Ichorclaw Myr with it can be troublesome.

Cathedral of War is another inclusion with the benefit of Exalted. I am looking forward to pre-ordering this land while it’s still cheap, and hopefully not hyped yet.

Anyhow, the sideboard plan for the deck is not finished yet, but I am thinking of a game plan shift on the board with bigger Infect critters to avoid the one toughness hate.

Until the next post!