#felidar retreat

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Felidar Retreat

Artist: Ralph Horsley TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtgfantokens]

MtG Token: 2/2 white Cats

Magic: the Gathering has been around for 30 years. There are 27,000 unique cards and growing. And a lot of them create tokens. While the official tokens are great, I have a need to celebrate the artwork of our (mtg) ancestors. Let's celebrate older artwork with a new coat of paint.

Token: 2/2 white Cat token

As seen on White Sun's Zenith and Felidar Retreat

We have Savannah Lions from Alpha by Daniel Gelon and Qasali Pridgemage from Alara Reborn by Chris Rahn

The literal and graphical information presented on this site about Magic: The Gathering, including card images and mana symbols, is copyright Wizards of the Coast, LLC.

[niuttuc]

Today’s recent budget commander sleeper is one that made a bit of noise on release with the latest set precons, but ended up drowned in the constant noise of magic these days.

Ramp is good in commander. That’s not news. And it’s hard to come by in white, at least cheaply. Knight of the White Orchid is still the gold standard of white (catch up) ramp, able to fetch nonbasics, and coming on a solid body on turn 2, it’s a white Rampant Growth that sometimes doesn’t work.

This is similar. It’s a turn slower, because it has a tap ability, the land enters tapped and the body it’ll leave behind will end up being a 1/1. However, that’s where the downsides end and the upsides start. Just like Knight of the White Orchid, it can fetch nonbasic Plains, which is even important on a budget nowadays with the two cycles of common typed duals in Kaldheim and Dominaria United.

Scholar of New Horizons also works even if you’re not behind. Granted, it only tutors to hand and doesn’t ramp you then, but hitting every land drop is oftentimes more important than ramping, since you don’t have to spend resources on it. It can also be used cheekily with this with the cycling typed duals (and triomes) to draw a different card. Oh, and the ability can be activated at instant speed which most of the time won’t matter, but will be very appreciated when it comes up that you’re going first and an opponent ramped on turn 3 and suddenly unlocks your own ramp instead of the land draw you’d resigned yourself to.

Beyond that, Scholar, by itself, can be used multiple times for no extra cost, as long as you have counters in your deck, which most decks do, even if incidentally. Have a cathar’s crusade? A Felidar retreat? A luminarch ascension? You’ll have a plentiful supply of counters to feed this turn after turn then, and those are just for mono-white.

In some cases, removing counters might even be an upside, if you expect -1/-1 counters, or, much more importantly, have any saga in your deck. Having the scholar out with the saga allow you to not only keep ramping or making your land drops and keep the saga forever, it also allows you to repeat any chapter from that saga every turn, even the last one should you so wish. It gets absurd with many of them, from Urza’s Saga tutoring every turn and sticking around to the Cruelty of Gix being a free tutor or reanimation every turn. With a Luminous Broodmoth, it’ll make any creature be able to die every single turn and come back.

Don’t get me wrong, this card doesn’t NEED synergies to be good. I’d play it in any white deck as ramp even if no other card in the deck ever had counters, right behind Knight of the White Orchid and in front of Loyal Warhound. On a budget or not. But it does much more than it would in a vacuum, and basically any deck will have some tools to synergize with it. It might actively up the number of incidental sagas I include in white decks just by existing. (But I’m mostly looking for an excuse, I love sagas.)

The card currently retails for under $1 (with the extended art version where you can read the name and artist for half of that), and I’d encourage you to snag one as soon as you find the occasion, in case this doesn’t get reprinted. It’s just staple-level good, much more than any other card that has been featured on here so far.

[nehebthewordy]

Breena, the Demagogue

Hey everyone! Though it's been a while, I'm back today with another top-15 commander list. This time we're building Commander 2021's Breena, the Demagogue. This eloquent warlock serves as a solid political piece, card-draw engine, and beater, able to both keep you stocked for the long game and threaten commander damage.

My own take on this commander in particular started as an aggro deck helmed by Baldur's Gate's Lae'zel; after some playtesting, I eventually found that Breena can lead the same strategy with much greater reliability. In particular, I've had many games where opponents who haven't played with her before underestimate just how big she can become when they take her deal. Today we're going to look at 15 of my favorite cards to run with her, though the numbered list is entirely arbitrary: each of these is as good as another in the appropriate circumstances.

#1: Fetid Gargantua 4B, 4/4 Horror. "2B: Adapt 2 (If it had no +1 counters, give it two +1 counters.)" and "Whenever one or more +1 counters are put on it, you may draw 2 cards and lose 2 life." Modern Horizons 3 brought a number of high-power commons and uncommons to Magic, and Fetid Gargantua is an underrated but equally-powerful one. Though often overshadowed by it's green kin Evolutionary Witness, the Gargantua offers another strong benefit using the same method. Every time it gets one or more counters, you have the option of drawing two cards. (The life loss is irrelevant.) With Breena alone on board, if you can trigger her ability this sleeper common can immediately draw you three additional cards during combat (one for Breena's ability and two for itself.) Once you put other cards on board that distribute counters, it can draw you far more cards, and if an opponent chooses to trigger Breena to draw for themselves you have the option of drawing two additional cards by putting counters on the Gargantua.

#2: Elite Scaleguard 4W, 2/3 Human Soldier. "When it enters the battlefield, put two +1 counters on a creature you control with the least toughness." and "Whenever a creature you control with a +1 counter attacks, tap target creature defending player controls." This uncommon from Tarkir block lives again in Breena. While it's effect on an empty board is minimal, it offers you the ability to tap down creatures before they can be declared as blockers. Though a simple effect, it can be a devastating way to force damage through.

#3: Felidar Retreat 3W, Enchantment. "Whenever a land enters under your control, choose one: Create a 2/2 creature token, or put a +1 counter on each of your creatures and give them vigilance this turn. Felidar Retreat performed well for a while after its release in Zendikar Rising, but has largely been forgotten in favor of newer, more versatile cards (notably, cards that don't require either a tokens deck or a counters deck to function.) In Breena, however, the second option for its landfall ability provides immense utility: For every land drop, you can buff your entire board (potentially even triggering the ability on Fetid Gargantua, seen earlier on this list.) As an added bonus, vigilance will allow you to swing with impunity, keeping blockers available while getting your Breena triggers.

#4: Together Forever WW, Enchantment. "When it enters, put a +1 counter on each of up to two target creatures." and "1: When target creature with a counter on it dies this turn, return it to its owner's hand." Battlebond was perhaps one of my favorite sets of all time, and this enchantment showcases some of the set's greatest strengths. While Together Forever's first ability really only enables other effects, the latter is immensely valuable. For only a single mana per creature, you can protect it from standard removal, returning it to your hand to recast later. Though I haven't yet had the occasion pop up, you can also use it politically on your opponents' creatures, allowing them to more easily rebuild their boards.

#5: Promise of Loyalty 4W, Sorcery. "Each player puts a vow counter on one of their creatures and sacrifices the rest. Those creatures can't attack you for as long as they have vow counters." Promise of Loyalty (from Strixhaven Commander, like Breena) is perhaps one of my favorite board wipes. Rather than simply destroying the whole board, you let each player choose a creature to keep: unlike other similar effects however, Promise keeps those creatures pointed away from you. This not only allows the political angle of everyone keeping their best creature, you also get to choose a creature to keep. Most often this will be Breena, but many occasions may arise where another creature is overall more relevant to your game plan.

#6: Hagra Constrictor 2B, 0/0 Snake. "It enters with 2 +1 counters." and "Each creature you control with a +1 counter has menace." While you'll likely have many such creatures that benefit your creatures with counters, Hagra Constrictor has two main advantages that set it apart from the rest: It is one of two black cards that interact with your creatures in this way (the other is Mer-Ek Nightblade for deathtouch), and it is the only one that grants menace. On its own it makes blocking choices much more difficult, since Breena will often be huge (and naturally flies), but paired with Elite Scaleguard you can easily use it to make blocking completely impossible.

#7: Sparring Regimen 2W, Enchantment. "When it enters, you may discard a card to draw a card." and "Whenever you attack, put a +1 counter on target attacking creature and untap it." Sparring Regimen is often a silent bomb with Breena. Usually, other players won't even register it as a threat (making it much more likely to both resolve and dodge removal.) Once you start swinging however many change their tune, as the single-target pseudo-vigilance can keep Breena or whatever choice attacker you have also functioning as a reliable blocker. As a small added benefit, rummage-on-entry can help you dig through bad draws into the meat of your deck.

#8: Necropolis Regent 3BBB, 6/5 Vampire. Flying and "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, put that many +1 counters on it." This is an amazing top-end card for Breena to win games with. As a finisher, a triple-black mana cost is barely enough to blink at in this two-color deck, and it essentially doubles the size of your creatures every time they get through for damage. Breena will usually hit for between 5 and 8 damage before Regent comes into play every turn in most late games; this can easily threaten death to any player foolish enough to ignore it.

#9: Noble Heritage (Honorable Mention: Orzhov Advokist) 1W, Enchantment. "Commander creatures you own have 'When this creature enters or at your upkeep, each player may put two +1 counters on a creature they control. You gain protection from each opponent who does until your next turn.'" (Honorable Mention): 2W, 1/4 Human Advisor. "At your upkeep, each player may put two +1 counters on a creature they control. Players who do can't attack you or your planeswalkers until your next turn." While both of these cards function extremely similarly, Noble Heritage gives you a slightly more powerful effect at a slightly lower mana cost, at the price of requiring Breena to be in play to function. Either protects you from players who take the deal for a turn, and you can do the effect at no penalty regardless of whether they do.

#10: Lethal Scheme (Honorable Mention: Closing Statement) 2BB, Instant. "Convoke (You can tap creatures to pay for this spell, counting each creature as either 1 generic mana or 1 mana of that creature's color.)" and "Destroy target creature. Each creature that convoked this connives. (For each of those creatures, draw then discard. Put a +1 counter on that creature if you discarded a nonland card." (Honorable Mention): 3WB, Instant. "It costs 2 less to cast during your end step." and "Destroy target creature or planeswalker, then put a +1 counter on up to one target creature you don't control." These cards both give you a strong benefit, even at their high cost: instant-speed removal that can also put counters on your creatures. Lethal Scheme is the better of the two, being able to convoke it and potentially throwing more counters around, but Closing Statement can easily be only 3 mana and hit planeswalkers as well.

#11: Citadel Siege 2WW, Enchantment. "As it enters, choose Khans or Dragons. As Khans, when you go to combat put two +1 counters on a creature you control. As Dragons, when an opponent goes to combat tap one of their creatures." I've always liked Fate Reforged's Siege cycle of enchantments, which in turn had a later pseudo-addition in the original Modern Horizons. Most important of them to this deck is Citadel Siege. Either mode can function well in the right situation, though for Breena I usually choose Khans. As with your other counter-distributing functions, Citadel Siege is just a reliable part of a hard-hitting engine, one made all the better for its presence.

#12: Mikaeus, the Lunarch XW, 0/0 Human Cleric. "It enters with X +1 counters", "Tap: Put a +1 counter on it", and "Tap, Remove a +1 counter from it: Put a +1 counter on each of your other creatures." Mikaeus gets more flexibility in Breena than most decks, many of which gladly run him regardless. Breena, however, can make his final ability only upside, as the deck has plenty of ways to replace those counters. With even a two-mana investment you can play Mikaeus as a 1/1, attack with anything to give him two counters, then shrink him down to buff your board. Each turn you can repeat this, quickly growing everything else to threatening proportions.

#13: Guardian Scalelord 4W, 3/4 Dragon. "Backup 1 (When it enters, put a +1 counter on a creature. If that creature isn't itself, that creature gets its non-backup abilities until end of turn", "Flying", and "Whenever this creature attacks, return target nonland permanent card that costs less than or equal to its power from your graveyard to play." While Guardian Scalelord's flying is redundant on Breena, it does offer consistent recursion for some of your best permanents. Though affected by summoning sickness like most other creatures, the Scalelord's backup ability can grant this recursion to another creature for a turn, giving you additional use even if the dragon never survives long enough to attack.

#14: Cauldron of Souls 5, Artifact. "Tap: Any number of target creatures gain persist until end of turn (When they die, if they had no -1 counters, they come back with a -1 counter.)" Cauldron of Souls has seen extensive commander use for years in any number of decks. With Breena, however, you have easy means to put +1 counters on your creatures, dispelling the -1 counters from Cauldron. At worst this will make Breena much harder to remove, since she can usually guarantee counters on herself (or another choice creature), but late game this can keep most of your board alive even through wraths every round.

#15: Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher 3WB, 2/2 Vampire Soldier. "Flying", "Whenever anybody sacrifices a permanent, you gain 1 life and put a +1 counter on her", and "Whenever she attacks, put up to one target permanent that costs less than or equal to her power from your graveyard into play." One of the alternate commanders for the somewhat-recent Ixalan Commander decks, Carmen is usually seen in heavy aristocrats and treasure-synergy decks. While we won't be using this aspect of her in Breena, she still flies. As an added bonus, Breena can easily buff her such that she can grab bigger things from your bin every turn.

While the newest of my pet decks, Breena has quickly earned her place. She's powerful, aggressive, and most of all fun, offering both individual strength and political power to colors which can often struggle to branch out from generic aristocrats strategies. Though she falls apart quickly when the game comes down to 1v1, you'll have a blast up until then, and with enough momentum you may yet claim victory. Win or lose, I hope to see you all on the battlefield.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Felidar Retreat by Ralph Horsley

[markrosewater]

"White would count plains not lands, but most of it is doable in white" Why is that? White has a number of counter based anthems that can keep triggering. It is a staple Ajani effect and Zendikar Rising has Felidar Retreat with gives +1/+1 counters to your creatures as a landfall trigger on top of vigilance a second mode that makes 2/2s.

White can get landfall triggers (in a set with landfall), but it doesn’t get scaling effects based on the numbers of lands you have. When it does that, it counts plains.

[overgrown-estate]

This is an example of Wizards of the Coast losing touch with the game. I love this card for its second ability but the first is a fail. While every other color and combo has multiple ways to create multiple tokens at one time, this only gives you one token once. It could have been given token creation at the beginning of the turn or the beginning of the end step or some other condition. One token is not enough especially considering what's going on in the other colors. And no, I don't want to run Felidar Retreat because that's not in theme with my deck. With 'Rampage of the Valkyries', this enchantment doesn't do anything after its token is destroyed, unless there are other Angels on the battlefield. Why should other colors get multiple tokens of whatever creature or spell is cast and this falls flat with producing one token? The second ability is great if there's an Angel to lose, however, a 'Rampage' this is not.

[mtg-realm]

Magic: the Caturing - The Felidar

A proper Felidar Retreat would be equipped with an automatic laser pointer toy.

Zendikar Rising, Felidar Retreat, illustrated by Ralph Horsley

[razieltwelve]

First 7 Win Draft! (MTG Arena)

In Magic: The Gathering, I’ve generally been better at constructed than draft. However, with the way MTG Arena is structured, getting better at draft was something I wanted to do.

So, over the past couple of months, I’ve been saving coins and even using gems to do drafts to try to improve. The first month was pretty awful. I’m not going to lie. The fact that I was also rare-drafting to help fill out my collection didn’t help either. It was also a way of mitigating my losses since I tended to be awful, so at least I’d walk away with some rare cards even if I bombed out. And there were most definitely drafts where I bombed out.

But I kept at it, and I started studying more. I read draft guides; I looked at tier lists; I practiced on Draftsim; and I watched a lot of more skilled drafters in action. I found the videos by Nizzahon Magic to be especially useful since he talks a lot about why he drafts the things he does or makes the plays he does, and I felt we had a similar approach to the game in general.

I also had to get used to the different rhythm of draft. When you’re playing constructed, just killing everything is an option because you can build a deck with enough removal to do that. In draft, you’ll basically never have more than a few pieces of removal, so you have to use them sparingly. Likewise, your threat density in draft is so much thinner than in constructed, so you have to be much more aware of how you manage your creatures. That 2/1 or 1/3 isn’t something you can throw away, and you’ve got to really shepherd your fliers and other evasion critters because they might be the only way you can get damage through later.

Today, I finally managed to get to 7 wins in premier Zendikar draft. 7 wins is special because once you get to 7 wins, the draft ends, and you get the highest level of rewards possible. I’ve never done it before. I’ve gone 6-3 a couple of times, but each time I stumbled on the final match. Not this time.

But let me set the stage...

I started off by doing a Theros quick draft since I wanted to get some drafting in, but I didn’t want to spend any gems. After drafting what I felt was a very solid deck with plenty of playable and more removal than I ever thought possible, I proceeded to go 2-3 after getting horribly mana screwed twice and getting run over by someone with a playset of Iroas’s Blessing and the sort of hyper aggressive B/R deck that you dream of drafting. Seriously, that deck was incredible. Looking at my deck, I thought it would go at least 4-3, but it just wasn’t to be.

I was a little bit aggravated by that, but at the same time, I was also very happy with the deck that I drafted. I thought it was super solid. I just didn’t get much help from the shuffler, and I ran into the equivalent of a rocket-propelled freight train. So I thought... why not give premier draft a go? My recent drafting attempts had managed to garner me a decent quantity of gems, and I had a good feeling about it since I feel I’ve got a better grasp of Zendikar draft than Theros.

So I paid up my 1500 gems and gave it a go. Of course, since I’m me, I decided I’d do some rare-drafting as well. 

The first pack wasn’t bad. I opened a Haggra Mauling for a super easy first pick that was also a rare that I wanted. I also picked up some nice playable like Shepherd of Heroes and Malakir Rebirth although I hadn’t settled yet on a colour to pair with black. About halfway through the pack, it became clear to me that black was relatively open since I was able to load up on plenty of mid-range (in quality) stuff to help round out the pack. I also dipped into red after Roil Eruption and Cinderclasm came by while white only had a few playables, but nothing as good as those two cards except the angel.

Pack two began with me picking the Mankindi Throne (yes, I know it’s draft garbage, but I needed it for my collection...) and finding out that red was getting cut by somebody else. I was a bit surprised since the Roil Eruption and Cinderclasm had gotten to me late in pack one, so I’d assumed red wasn’t taken, but I got nothing out of red from pack two. With red cut, I switched fully to white, which seemed to open up as a Canyon Jerboa and Felidar Retreat made their way to me mid-pack. At that point, I was questioning the sanity of some of my fellow drafters because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Felidar Retreat go pick 7 before. That card is completely nuts and requires basically no commitment from your deck other than you have some plains in it. 

Despite only committing properly to white in pack two, I was extremely relieved to be able to pick up some solid playables for it. I even managed to snag a second Shepherd of Heroes, which had me feeling even better about my decision to switch from red to white.

Pack three began with some more good luck. I opened a Squad Commander for an easy pick, and there were suddenly some clerics available to help fill out the party sub-theme I had going. I grabbed a couple, and I must have sent a strong enough signal because a Cleric of Life’s Bond wheeled and made it’s way into my deck. I didn’t have enough for a full on cleric deck, but I had enough clerics + incidental life gain that I thought I could make it work. If nothing else, I did need a two drop to fill out my curve. Getting a Mankindi Stampede in pack three was great too, and I was pretty certain that, at most, only one other person was drafting white because I was getting some goodies in the mid-to-late pack that I wouldn’t be getting if more people were in white.

My deck ended up being a BW mid-range deck that used clerics and a party-sub-theme to get through the early game and put on some aggression before landfall stuff (e.g., Prowling Felidar, Dreadwurm, Canyon Jerboa, and Felidar Retreat) combined with my fliers stabilised and took control of the game.

It did not start well.

In fairly short order, I was 2-2 with my two losses being just brutal and my two wins being close fought. At that point, I was already consoling myself with the fact I’d managed to snag quite a few rare cards during the draft, and at least I’d get some gems back (albeit not many) for winning twice. I told myself that I just had to focus on getting one more win since three wins gets you most of your investment back.

That fifth game was extremely close. It basically came down to me surviving an onslaught of aggression and trading creatures until I finally managed to slam Felidar Retreat onto a basically empty board. Felidar Retreat then did what it does best, and I basically out-valued my opponent the rest of the way.

From there, I played three more close games. Seriously, the games were tight, and I don’t think I’ve ever played better in a a draft. I won all but one of them with barely any life left after always going second (I think I only went first once the whole time), and there were a stack of complex decisions to make about how to use the removal I had and about when to trade and when to just take damage. The only easy game I had was the one in which my opponent got stuck on three mana, and I drew like a boss to just run over them with Canyon Jerboa shenanigans.

The last two games were nerve-wracking. In the game for my sixth win, I was up against this white-green party build. The early game was basically me getting punched in the face over and over again as they curved out like a champ and used three copies of Practiced Tactics to blow me out. After the second one, I thought, there’s no way they can have a third... and they did.

The pivotal moment in the game came when they went in to attack with their entire team, and I was able to engineer a situation that resulted in my team trading for theirs thanks to a Practiced Tactics of my own on a key creature. With the board clear, I was able to find my fliers, and they soared over for the win.

In the game for my seventh win, I was again on the back foot early. I went second, and the opponent was playing this awesome three colour landfall build with a party sub-theme. I was knocked down to 10 life in a real hurry as his landfall creatures outclassed mine, and I couldn’t find good spots to trade. I even got stuck on four mana for a bit. Finally, though, I found a Shepherd of Heroes and Felidar Retreat to stabilise with the lands to make them work. Unfortunately, they had a Territorial Scythecat, a Canyon Jerboa, and a bunch of creatures on their side with a Seagte Banneret threatening to pump their team. 

The game stalled out, but the biggest moment came when I could have played a spell on my turn but elected not to because I wanted to bluff a trick after showing him a combat trick earlier. I didn’t have anything, but the game was so close that I felt sure they wouldn’t attack into five open mana with three cards in my hand.

They played Mind Drain. In my hand were two cards that I didn’t super need... and my one copy of Mankindi Stampede. If I had played a spell, I would have been forced to discard it since I’d be left with only two cards in hand. Instead, I got to keep it, and I was able to gradually add to my board even as he forced through damage using Angelheart Protector to make his gigantic Scythecat indestructible. 

Since they weren’t in blue (they were running BWG), I knew that if I could just get enough creatures on the board, then my Stampede would win me the game. Unfortunately, I stopped drawing lands, so I couldn’t keep using Felidar Retreat to go wide, but I did draw a few creatures. However, they were drawing plenty of creatures themselves, and that Scythecat just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

At this point, with the board basically stalled out, I had a slight edge since I had the only flier on the board. I was slowly but surely chipping away at their life total, but then they made their move. They had played a Tajuru Blightblade earlier, but they’d kept it back to dissuade my reasonably large Prowling Felidar from cracking back at them. That’s when they drew a Taunting Arbormage.

I knew exactly what they were thinking. The kicked Taunting Arbormage would force everything to block the Blightblade, so that when they swung with the rest of their team, I wouldn’t be able to block, and I’d be dead.

There was just one problem: I was holding my Practiced Tactics in hand.

I blew up the Blightblade and started assigning blockers. The end result was me being alive and them without any blockers left to stop my counter swing for lethal. Once the dust cleared, they conceded, and I had my seventh win.

I might have done a little dance around the room when I realised that I’d finally gotten it.

7-2. 

Not bad. And the six packs I got as part of the prize? Solid hits on all of them.

Best night on Arena ever.

[magusofthefork]

Zendikar Sealed

I decided to try out Sealed on Arena. See how it compares to Draft. As with most formats sealed is basically just Draft but a little worse.

First Pool I got this

So I pretty much knew straight away what colours I was going to be in. Even if the rest of the pool for the colour sucks I was 100% going to be playing white. Looking over the commons/uncommons blue sucked, red had a lot of good removal but no threats and there were almost no black cards at all. Plenty of decent white and green so I went selesnya and splashed black for Nissa and a Feed the Swarm (may as well).

The decK:

So this is the deck I ended up with. This is one of the reasons I prefer draft over sealed. I had a mix of +1/+1 counter synergies, party synergies and landfall synergies. So building the deck was fairly difficult as I didn’t have one dominant strategy to focus on. I leaned towards landfall in the end because my best rares use it. (ooze usually just dies anyway).

I did okay, I went 4-3 (sorry for no screenshot I accidentally clicked through). Nissa was actually surprisingly weak as bombs go which surprised me. If you can’t get her loyalty up she doesn’t do an awful lot. Which I actually like. I don’t think planeswalkers should be super bombs. I assume Jace is weak in limited too, though I know nahiri is insane with the right equipment.

Felidar Retreat was as insane as you’d imagine. I don’t think I lost a game with it in play. The flexibility of turning land into 2/2s or +1/+1 counters for the entire board is exceptionally strong and as a bonus it just gives you creatures vigilance when it buffs them.

My last opponent the game was really close and I screwed up. They had Zargas and the 3/3 ping wizard in play which is a disfustingly good combination but they were at 4 with a single blocker. I had nissa in hand and the 1/1 that puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature. I played the creature and then Nissa and then realised my mistake. I assumed I was dead and it didn’t matter. I had forgotten Nissa gives lands Menace! If I had used Nissa on a land and then played the creature and gave the land a +1/+1 counter I would have hit the opponent for 4. It was a big msitake that meant I went 4 wins instead of 5 or higher. It happens, just gotta make sure I learn from it and do better next time.

Speaking of next time I decided to do a 2nd Sealed. I felt my first one was a big skewed by opening some absurd rares.

Pool #2

This time all my rares suck (for limited) but I had quite a nice pool to make a deck with. I had a lot of landfall cards including 3x Akoum Hounds.and some decent removal in both red and green to back it up. Plenty of MDFCs too. So I just went all in on Landfall aggro. I made the curve as aggressive as I could.

Despite worse rares (I ran both the green ones) this deck actually did way better (and I didn’t massively screw up this time so that helped.)

This might actually be my best ever sealed run on Arena as I don’t think I’ve ever gotten 7 wins

My losses were to a BW lifegain clerics deck. Pretty much the worst match up, good removal and life gain is how you beat this deck and the other loss was to WU midrange, I got close to winning but I’d had a slow start which let them gum up the board with 3/3s and 3/4s.

Two things I learned from this:

- There are basically no bad top decks in a landfall deck You either get a land which triggers all your landfall cards or you get a spell to use, both are good. If you are in a position where drawing land isn’t good you’ve already lost.

- I should aggressively mulligan for early game with this sort of deck. This might sound bad but the games where I mulliganned for a 1 drop I did really well. The game where I didn’t do that was the 2nd loss and if I had I would have won. 

While it was alright sealed just isn’t as fun as draft (and the rewards are worse too) so I’ll probably not play anymore sealed until kaldheim. Gonna keep playing drafts though.

[foxgirlbutt]

Fun fact, you can’t counter lands. Permission decks don’t work great if you let me have my felidar retreat

[headskerlon]

Quick draft zendikar rising guide

It developed the ongoing Phyrexian story arc as well, by reintroducing the rebelious Phyrexian Praetor Urabrask, who may serve as a major adversary to the rest of the Phyrexians at this story's culmination. Considering Theros: Beyond Death didn't have any sort of written story published for it, finally knowing what happened to Elspeth is awesome. It also has some huge new story elements, such as the return of the demon tyrant Ob Nixilis and Elspeth, the Planeswalker who managed to escape from the underworld in Theros: Beyond Death. Finally, we saw hideaway make a comeback for the first time in Standard since 2007's Lorwyn. It also introduced five new mechanics: shield counters, connive, casualty, blitz, and alliance. The set is split between the five families: the green, white, and blue Brokers the white, blue, and black Obscura the blue, black and red Maestros the black, red, and green Riveteers and the red, green and white Cabaretti. The set has a three-colour-matters focus, like Ikoria and the Tarkir before it, which we didn't see a whole lot of in 2021. Here is everything announced for Magic: The Gathering in 2022. It'll tackle new genres and plenty of crossovers, while also revisiting some pivotal moments of Magic's history. RELATED: Magic The Gathering's Innistrad: Crimson Vow Draft Archetypes ExplainedĢ022 is shaping up be a very, very different year for Magic. Now it's over halfway through 2022, we've just had Double Masters, and it's time to look forward to what the rest of the year will have to offer. The key to the Zendikar Rising draft format is staying open to as many archetypes as possible. Seeing Felidar Retreat at 1 should come as no surprise to anyone who has played against the card, which can be almost unbeatable given a few activations. Get some kind of bonus or discount for each cleric, rogue, warrior, wizard under your control. Listed above are the top 20 cards that players were least likely to pass in Premium Drafts. We had no idea what Strixhaven was, or even the names of what were then called Innistrad: Werewolves and Innistrad: Vampires. The Ultimate Guide to Zendikar Rising Draft Zendikar Rising Mechanics. It doesn't seem five minutes since Magic: The Gathering's Zendikar Rising had just been revealed, when Wizards of the Coast announced the sets that would be coming in 2021. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth – TBA 2023 Welcome to a Zendikar Rising Draft Guide In this Zendikar Rising Draft Guide I discuss the Top 3 Commons for each Color, I rank each Color based on its powe.Pioneer Challenger Decks – October 14, 2022.Game Night: Free-For-All – October 14, 2022.Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 – October 7, 2022.Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate – June 10, 2022.Streets of New Capenna – April 29, 2022.Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty – February 18, 2022.Secret Lair x Street Fighter – February 17, 2022.Innistrad: Double Feature and Commander Collection: Black – January 21, 2022.

[dhb912]

Magic the Gathering Zendikar Rising Nissa Draft Booster 8 Double-faced card marker (I just realized if you get all 9 of these, they become a diorama, isn't that neat?) 292 Felidar Retreat [Rare Showcase] 064 Jwari Disruption // Jwari Ruins [Uncommon] 011 Emeria Captain [Uncommon] (Shouldn't halos be on top of the heads?) 136 Cinderclasm [Uncommon] 042 Smite the Monstrous 048 Cascade Seer 062 Into the Roil 102 Feed the Swarm 105 Hagra Constrictor (Note to self and Jace: Never piss off Vraska) 133 Akoum Hellhound 168 Synchronized Spellcraft 191 Kazandu Stomper 199 Rabid Bite 243 Cliffhaven Kitesail (Wait, you want me to ride it? #nothanksichooselife) 280 Forest Decks for New Age, as well as the versions of #commander and #pauper to that format are coming soon. So stay tuned. #magic #gathering #mtg #tcg #zendikar #zendikarrising #jacebeleren #nissarevane #nahiri #adventuretime #felidar #jwari #emeria #hagra #vraska #akoum #kazandu #cliffhaven #newage #newageformat #mtgnewage #newagemtg https://www.instagram.com/p/CHrK1BsjdGq/?igshid=qh3e1wfm9bpb

[mtgdays]

『ゼンディカーの夜明け』新カード情報：上陸するたびに2/2の猫を出すかクリーチャー全体強化を選べるエンチャント

日本時間の9月8日、One More Manaより9月25日に発売する通常セット『ゼンディカーの夜明け』に収録されるカード《Felidar Retreat》が公開されました。 公開カード 《Felidar Retreat […] Source: イゼ速。：Izzet MTG News Flash

[nehebthewordy]

EDH Budget Picks: Aminatou, the Fateshifter

After nearly two years of fun with Vona, Butcher of Magan, I’ve decided to switch her with a different general. Only question is which one? It didn’t actually occur to me to add in blue until playing with this little lady’s precon for a bit and realizing that I love how she runs.  For clarification, budget in this case will mean no cards above $5 and no more than three above $2. I also won’t include any particularly obvious cards like Panharmonicon and your main combo piece, Felidar Guardian.

As I suggested at the end of the last paragraph, this is a combo deck, so you are going to want to pick up your key pieces as well as looking at this list. In addition to what you see here, though, you can get effective value out of any card with an enter-the-battlefield or leave-the-battlefield effect. While playing the deck, once you get your combo going you can flicker your enter-untapped lands for infinite mana and your enter-draw cards to dig for your win condition.

#1: Cloudblazer  This is one of my favorite cards from Kaladesh and until now I haven’t had a deck to run it in, but Cloudblazer is an outright bomb in Aminatou. Gaining two life and drawing two cards nearly every turn really sets you up for your long game.

#2: Oath of Teferi You were probably going to include this anyway, but Oath can replace Panharmonicon as a core combo piece, adding additional utility to an already strong card.

#3: Vela, the Night-Clad While an already strong card, if Vela sees Felidar leaving play each time, she’s a potential win condition, and since she causes life loss it dodges damage prevention.

#4: Ravenous Chupacabra Removal stapled onto a creature is a solid play in almost any deck, but with Aminatou it becomes repeatable, even at times turning into a one-sided board wipe.

#5: Forbidding Spirit Ghostly Prison on a stick is already strong, but the ability to stack Forbidding Spirit’s effect through flickering turns this into total immunity from nearly any attack.

#6: Debt to the Deathless With unlimited mana through your combo you get endless Debt to the Deathless. Really, and X-drop spell can be added for powerful results.

#7: Restoration Gearsmith Repeatable recursion for both artifacts and creatures. Very simple and very effective.

#8: Agent of Erebos Exile a graveyard every turn. You’ll be the bane of Muldrotha.

#9: Retreat to Coralhelm/Hagra Flicker your lands and scry to the cards in your deck that matter, or flicker them to drain your opponents to death.

#10: Grim Guardian Similar to Vela, flicker it to drain your opponents’ life away. If you have Agent of Erebos in play as well, you can bog your opponents at the same time.

That’s all I’ve got! Some of these are very similar, but they all work toward the same goal. If you don’t have all the cards on this list, just about anything will do. If you want to hear budget picks for a different deck, be sure to send in a request. Until next week, see you on the battlefield.

[art-of-mtg]

Felidar Retreat (Zendikar Rising) - Tyler Smith