Mail Magic #2

I've got a bunch of cards to look through thanks to plenty of trades. If you don't know what I do here, by all means check out my first post on Mail Magic, but I share with you guys all my recent cards acquired through Puca Trade. I take a look at some strategies with these cards as well or reasons on why I wanted a specific card. With that said let's get going!

Spelltwine (Jace vs Vraska): Something you should know about the way I play Magic, I love me some spells! The game typically wants to create a more creature versus creature battleground, but I am a classic Wizard kind of guy and love to casts all sorts of spells. So yeah, I am a Blue/Red Planeswalker all over and Spelltwine is an absolutely wonderful spell for many reasons. Not only do you get to reuse any spell in your graveyard, you can casts any spell from your one of your opponents graveyard. So if you want to use a board wipe from a the White mage, you can do that and play that Blue spells that gives you a turn or two. You can play your opponents spells against them and bring back another one of yours, two spells for the price of one. Sign me up! 

This is a Blue Commander staple in my books, if you have Blue in your deck then you should really consider a Spelltwine. Great for Mizzix, Melek, Talrand, Yidris and Riku of Two Reflections! Hell in this trade alone I got four sent to me, and I plan on using one in each and every single Blue deck I play. 

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard (M15): A sort of banned Commander depending on your play group, I had no idea he had already many decks that made him go sideways. I figured Green players were playing mostly Ezuri Elves or Titania Lands decks. I got him because his ability got me curious to try and build something around him, But since he can't be the Commander doesn't mean he can't be an incredible force in a lot of decks as part of the 99. Any Simic based Proliferate decks can totally abuse his ability for sure. 

Oh, and Atraxa. Yah. 

Serra Avatar (Commander 2014): A classic powerhouse, I remember when I first was playing MTG and my brother showed me this card for his UW Control deck. I couldn't believe it, this was at worst a 15/15 creature a lot of the times, but since it was in White you could gain as much life as you wanted or add a Spirit Link for absolute insanity. And over the years a lot of crazy big creatures have come and gone, you forget some cards after awhile. But as you guys know I've got Brion Stoutarm deck, a WR deck with an Equipment sub theme. So you can image my reaction to the idea of throwing a 40/40 Serra Avatar at one of my opponents, I had to get this monster in my deck. 

But Serra Avatar works really well in a lot of other Commander strategies like Trostani, Selesnya's Voice or Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim.

Temple of Abandon (Theros): Kids, something you are going to learn in Magic is that dual lands are important in every single format you play, the ability to play the game depends on the mana. If you can't play it, you aren't gonna win a lot of games. So take it from me, take what you can get in terms of dual lands, especially in Commander. The Theros block had a collection of lands that while they do come into play tapped, add two colors and let you Scry 1 when they hit the board, which lets you fix your next draw, a small scry goes a long way especially in colors that don't have as much card drawing power as Blue or Black.

The "Temple" cycle is a pretty underrated set in my opinion, I would recommend this for a lot of players on a budget. I got three alone from this trade and I have all the combinations on my trade list, you can can't go wrong with a little mana fixing.

Chandra, Pyromaster (M15): So I wanted to take a little longer look here at this Chandra. By no means the best Chandra available but I think there is a lot more to her if we take a closer look. Off the bat, all Planeswalkers are extremely powerful cards, even Tibalt can be used to some effect. At worst they take attention off you and some possibly strategies you are trying to brew. They can give you a slight edge every turn, drawing a card or even untap a permanent per turn can go a long way. So let's take a look at Pyromasters abilities here...

+1: Chandra, Pyromaster deals 1 damage to target player and 1 damage to up to one target creature that player controls. That creature can't block this turn.

So this ability is really good if you pair it with creatures you need to get through to your opponents, especially if the board has limited blockers available, playing Red you should be burning and removing any opposition in your way. You can even combined this with Gruul or Vampire cards that have the Bloodthrist ability, all it takes is one damage to make it trigger. I really like this ability in creature based strategies.

0: Exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn.

So this ability is a sudo card draw of sorts, you have to try and control the situation as best as possible. You can know and be ready if you had a Scry lined up, maybe from a Temple land perhaps. This ability also works really well in Rakdos Hellbent strategies, the card is technically not in your hand. You don't gain any loyalty from using the ability which is a bit of a drawback but when you need a last resort answer, Chandra can do that for you.

-7: Exile the top ten cards of your library. Choose an instant or sorcery card exiled this way and copy it three times. You may cast the copies without paying their mana costs.

Yes. So you remember at the top of the post, I was saying how much I love spells, this is the ultimate ability that Izzet Mages dream of! The possibilities are endless, you could take six turns with a Time Stretch or steal three creatures with a Bribery. Or even casts a Spelltwine three times for a potential of six spells from the graves! So many possibilities! Though some things to keep in mind, if you don't have a lot of spells, you could end up with nothing to show and that would be a big bag of not fun. I would say make sure you trust your deck to have the spells ready for the onslaught.

So one think to see here in her design, she fits a lot of different strategies, which is a good and bad thing. When you are a jack of all trades, you are a master of none. While her ultimate is great for spell based decks, can you take advantage of her +1 at all, spell deck creatures are support or defensive cards for the most part. Though I don't doubt players finding a deck that is perfect for her, I worry that her better designed incarnations will find more playtime in various different strategies. But if you got big dreams for spells, I highly encourage the Pyromaster in your decks.

So there you have it, a new batch of cards from trades and ready to be used in my Commander decks. What do you guys think of these cards, do you use any of these in your decks? Any strategies you want to share, by all means leave a comment below or you can reach me over on Twitter @ChileanStorm and on Instagram as well. And also a big thanks goes to fellow trader CRONUS TITAN for these awesome cards. If you are interested in joining Puca Trade as well and maybe trade some cards with yours truly, you can join here and start your trades. Until then guys, I got more cards to look at and maybe a Commander deck tech in mind as well, until then keep chasing the storm!