#duel decks: garruk vs. liliana

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Fleshbag Marauder

Grixis is a world where the only things found in abundance are death and decay. Corpses, whole or in part, are the standard currency among necromancers and demons.

Artist: Pete Venters TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[thecornwall]

Cornwall's Random Card of the Day #1031: Ichor Slick

Ichor Slick is a common from Future Sight, shown here in its Duel Decks: Garruk vs Liliana printing.

This is a cool design. Future Sight did a lot of "mix and match" cards with two keywords never before featured on the same card. Here is the intuitively paired Cycling and Madness. Madness lets you play the card if you discard it, Cycling lets you discard it to draw a card. Playing for Cycling and Madness gets you the effect AND cantrip. Which might not be that great at 6 mana, but late in the game, this kind of effect is pretty damn neat!

[rosencrypt]

Magic Prediction Time!!

So, the next 3 sets after M19 are Ravnica. We know the first two are scene-setting/Guild politics, and that Ravnica Act 3 Act 3 is also Bolas Smackdown Round 2. We also know that there are lots of planeswalkers involved.

My predictions for the planeswalkers and planeswalker decks are:

Guilds: - Jace (bc come on) - Vraska - Ral (these two are both story important, both have history with Jace, and both of their guilds are featured in the set) Planeswalker decks: Ral and Vraska. This mirrors the Izzert vs Golgari duel decks from RtR, and combines the draw of planeswalker decks with the appeal of guilds for a perfect introductory product.

Towards the start of the story, Jace will confront Ugin and let him know about the upcoming battle. Ugin will be mysterious. About 3/4 of the Guilds story will take place simultaneously with the last few chapters of Dominaria. Towards the end of the story, Gideon, Chandra, and Teferi will appear (possibly after having stopped off to check in with Nissa. Depending on whether or not Chandra has gotten in touch with her true feelings yet, Nissa may or may not come with them) and update Jace on Teferi’s oath and Liliana’s capture.

Allegiance: - Gideon (when Kaladesh/Amonkhet rotate out, there will be no Gideon cards in Standard. Gideon is an important enough character that he should be represented on the cards. He also has ties to Ravnica) - Liliana (? quite probably a new character/other agent of Bolas. If someone else takes Ral’s slot for Guilds, he’ll be here instead) - Chandra (Gideon’s here, so why not? Also, it will have been over 2 years since her last non-planeswalker card) Planeswalker decks: Jace (this set includes Azorius cards, so he’s a perfect fit), Liliana (WB. She fits the Orzhov flavour well and she has flavour with Jace. If someone else has a card in the main set, she’ll still get the Planeswalker deck)

During the Allegiances story, the guilds will split into pro-Bolas (Orzhov, Rakdos, Dimir, Golgari) and anti-Bolas (Izzet, Azorius, Selesnya, Boros, Gruul, Simic) factions. Niv-Mizzet will start out heading the anti-Bolas group along with Jace, but over the course of the story he’ll be killed and Ral will become the Izzet Guildmaster, making it a straight 50/50 split. I could also see Simic on the Bolas side - they’re making super soldiers, and anyone doing that is definitely preparing for battle and probably up to no good.

Ravnica III.3: - Bolas (it’s his set. He has to be there) - Ajani (making his appearance just in time for the fight) - Ugin (Bolas is going to lose, but the arc revolving around him can’t end without a confrontation with his old nemesis) Planeswalker decks: Ajani, Bolas (it’s another pair of characters who Have A History! And between them they make up all 5 colours)

I could see Ugin’s card slot being taken by another of Ajani’s recruited allies. Not Tamiyo; she doesn’t like fighting. Narset? Maybe Sarkhan, contacted through Narset? Or Garruk, as a completely random choice?

During Ravnica Episode IX, Teysa will overthrow the Obzedat (like the story has been telling us she’s going to do for...about 13 years at this point) and ally with the anti-Bolas faction. Ral will be defeated and routed, and Mizzix will take his place as Guildmaster. Bolas will be winning, despite Ajani’s help, but Vraska’s remembrance and Ugin’s unexpected appearance will result in his defeat. He’ll be reduced to a formless ghost, as he was before Time Spiral. Tezzeret will flee to New Phyrexia, helping to set up the next arc.

Neither Tezzeret nor Teferi will get cards. None of the Ravnica guilds care about artifacts, so Tezzeret is out of place, and he will have just had a new card in M19 anyway. Teferi has also just had a (very strong) card, so there’s no need for him to compete with all the other blue mages for another one.

...THEN the 2019 October set will be either Theros or New Phyrexia. It’s looking like New Phyrexia, with a new Karn, Koth, and Tezzeret, but personally I’m hoping for Theros first. That way, Elspeth can return from the dead just in time to play a major role in the Phyrexian storyline.

[edh-a-to-z]

Product Review - Merfolk vs Goblins

Hi campers!

Wizards puts out a Duel Deck every ~6 months-ish. Sometimes they relate to a cool fight that happened in MTG history (like Garruk v Liliana), or have some traditional animosity thing going on (like Knights vs Dragons), or are made of spare parts WOTC had lying around (Speed vs Cunning, with Zurgo Helmsmasher vs Arcanis the Omnipotent)

Next on the glorious (or ignoble, depending how you like them) list is MERFOLK VS GOBLINS! And here on EDH A to Z we ask the question:

Should the average EDH player pick this up?

First, what reprints are we seeing? And are we seeing any new cards? Do these appeal to EDH players as parts for a new or existing tribal deck?

First, the decks are all reprints, a mono blue merfolk deck pitched against a mono red Goblin deck.

Nix on the second.

And now we go to an in depth analysis to evaluate the third question.

First, financial. Are the reprints valuable on their own, in terms of fiscal/trade value? Somewhat.

The prices are based off of the TCGPlayer market price for the cheapest set of the card, but it’s pretty clear that the MSRP (19.99) is a bit under the estimated value of these deck. And that’s not including the value of having a fistful of average quality merfolk and goblins to start off your deck with. All of the prices will take a hit, so that’s to be expected.

There’s some serious tribal value here, which appeals more to EDH than any format. Have single copies of the valuable cards is fine for us, as we don’t need full playsets to get full value.

If one was a new player to EDH, these decks would go a long way to providing that player with some serious tribal value, and if you’re missing more than half of these cards and have the desire to player with some merfolk and goblins in EDH, this Duel Deck makes a nice option.

My only complaint is regarding the lack of a Merfolk Legendary - something like Kopala, fresh from Ixalan or Talrand, who’s a solid option for EDH - to mirror Krenko as a upgradable commander.

So a final score: A

Great reprints, a good option for a player with less than half of these cards that wants them, good for players looking for trade/sale value, even after a price drop. Sure, the commons and uncommons are bulk, but that’s standard at this point.

The sole peeve I have of there being no merfolk commander is easily addressable in acquiring any monoblue Merfolk legendary, all of whom are rather cheap.

[mtg-realm]

Magic: the Gathering - The Collection

With today's face card previews of Duel Decks: Mind vs. Might, we should have a look at this glorious collection of essentially ALL the Duel Decks printed to date.  Incredible image collection posted by Anthony Bavan (online as alpha_yankee_bravo), showing his collection of all 38 Duel Decks with the first four checked off with the Anthology edition.

• Elves vs. Goblins (2007) • Jace vs. Chandra (2008) • Divine vs. Demonic (2009) • Garruk vs. Liliana (2009) • Phyrexia vs. The Coalition (2010) • Elspeth vs. Tezzeret (2010) • Knights vs. Dragons (2011) • Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas (2011) • Venser vs. Koth (2012) • Izzet vs. Golgari (2012) • Sorin vs. Tibalt (2013) • Heroes vs. Monsters (2013) • Jace vs. Vraska (2014) • Speed vs. Cunning (2014) • Duel Decks Anthology (2014)* • Elspeth vs. Kiora (2015) • Zendikar vs. Eldrazi (2015) • Blessed vs. Cursed (2016) • Nissa vs. Ob Nixilis (2016)

* Duel Decks Anthology (2014) had the following reprints Elves vs. Goblins, Jace vs. Chandra, Divine vs. Demonic, and Garruk vs. Liliana.

[filintimus]

Duel Decks Anthology - Part 2 - Garruk vs. Liliana

[womenofmagic]

I had a dream last night with Liliana Garruk. l can't explain exactly what happened but I think Liliana was trying to get to some sort of treasure and along the way she encountered a bunch of posessed people and then Garruk showed up and they were working together to fight of the people who were posessed and once they were defeated they continued on together to get to the treasure. Liliana was planning to betray Garruk once they got to the treasure but then he saved her when something popped out at them so she decided not to betray him but before they got to the treasure shit started going down where they were thrown into and trapped in this mirror world and then I woke up.

Now I want to buy the Garruk Liliana duel deck -__-

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Rancor

Hatred outlives the hateful.

Artist: Kev Walker TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Forest

Artist: Rob Alexander TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Albino Troll

Artist: Paolo Parente TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Swamp

Artist: Stephan Martiniere TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Genju of the Fens

Artist: Tsutomu Kawade TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Wirewood Savage

"She is truly Wirewood's child now." —Elvish refugee

Artist: DiTerlizzi TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[thecornwall]

Cornwall's Random Card of the Day #679: Overrun

Overrun is an uncommon from Tempest, seen here in its Duel Decks Anthology: Garruk vs Liliana printing.

This bad boy is quite the finisher. Fun fact: it was considered overpowered for some time in limited, but never taken out of core sets because it was believed that green needed this card to have a chance to win. Needless to day, quite the sign that green was underpowered back in the day.

[thecornwall]

Cornwall’s Random Card of the Day #438: Beast Attack

Beast Attack is an uncommon from Odyssey, shown here in its Duel Decks Anthology: Garruk vs Liliana printing.

Beast Attack is a generic yet surprisingly awesome name. This card is a good example of Green being able to produce creatures via Flashback in Odyssey block. Just use tokens! I think here was when WotC was becoming more comfortable about using a bunch of tokens in a set. The {G}{G}{G} cost was representative of it being a pretty primo card at the time, and they wanted to encourage players to actually be playing Green to get it, not just splash Green.

[thecornwall]

Cornwall’s Random Card of the Day #67: Indrik Stomphowler

Indrik Stomphowler, first of its name.

Indrik Stomphowler is an uncommon from Guildpact, shown here in... *checks notes*...Duel Decks Garruk vs Liliana. Okay, sure. The Indrik are a bunch of giant cameloids native to Ravnica. This is the first one we get to see, but there are quite a few others printed over the years. I find it weird this isn’t a camel but the Dromads are. Giant cameloids like this used to roam Earth, mostly in North America but I believe they got all over Europe and Asia too before settling after the Ice Age into the more normal, but still quite large, forms of camels, llamas and alpacas you know today.

Indrik Stomphowler is great value for mana, especially for the day and especially for the format. Ravnica block had a bunch of artifacts for {2} which would produce two mana of a guild’s colours, so the stompy boy here had plenty of targets in all games. Just realise that it’s not a “may”. Don’t cast this with a Signet of your own on the board and nothing else to stomp, is all I’m saying.