About the Author

Hi, I'm Nate.

I grew up with Magic: the Gathering starting with Revised and The Dark in my teens, then quit for almost 15 years, then returned. I am a Johnny and a Melvin, and that's why I like the idea of sharing some different ideas about the game.

All opinions on this blog are my own, and I do not intend to infringe upon the intellectual property rights of Hasbro or any other cited or referenced person or entity. My thoughts are shared freely and with no intent to cause change in secondary card markets or to profit personally from any effect they may have on markets.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Ravnica Allegiance -- New Budget Standard Deck Upgrade

So for the last bit, I've been playing my Traxos Historic deck in Standard.  Not a lot, but on occasion.  And it's fun.  But I found something new I want to try.

Here's the Traxos deck in its current form:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1577774#paper

The main idea is to use hand disruption to get rid of anything that would kill your win conditions (Traxos, Doom Whisperer, etc.), and Phyrexian Scriptures to kill everything else (while conveniently not killing most of your own creatures).  It was mostly a budget deck, but I managed to trade for the Treasure Maps and Isolated Chapels, and I was super lucky in drafting Doom Whisperers and a Vraska's Contempt.

Anyway, I was puzzling over the new cards in Ravnica Allegiance, and I came up with another deck that's basically just a really cheap conversion of the deck I already have.  I'm not sure that all the numbers are exactly balanced right, but I'm going to try it out:

WB Life Swap featuring Axis of Mortality, Lich's Mastery, and the new Font of Agonies:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1573929#paper

The deck description is in the link, so I won't go into detail here.  I will say that I think Mortify is a card worth buying early if you want it for Standard.  If it catches on, I would expect it to jump to about the $1 range like good uncommon removal often does.  It has several previous printings, all at uncommon or as part of preconstructed decks, and you can find it for 20 - 30 cents now.  When Grasp of Darkness was printed in Oath of the Gatewatch, it had one previous printing, at common, and it rose as high as $2 before rotating.  I'm not sure if Mortify is quite as good, but it is flexible and enchantments are an important permanent type in Standard right now.

Anyhow, if you have any thoughts about the Life Swap deck, please feel free to comment.

Thanks for reading!

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