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! 

Mail Magic #1

So as you may or may not know, I love me some Magic:The Gathering. A trading card game I've been playing ever since the Pokemon trading game wasn't filling the void anymore and a very special pass time activity to me, mainly based on how much my big brothers and friends love to play the game as well. So I've recently joined up on Puca Trade, a card trading site which let's you trade cards for points which then other traders use and send you cards you've been looking for, straight to your front door. Nothing makes a bad day great like opening an FNM promo card or that rare card from the set you never got a chance to play. I've been doing this for a little while now, and I think it's a really cool and great system. And sure there have been complaints, but it mostly comes from people who are looking for "value" or something to that degree. Honestly the way I see it, if I have a bunch of cards from Kamigawa and you need them, I will send them. If you've got cards from Shards of Alara, send them this way. That's all there is to it. Not arguing about dual lands for 2 hours and not making a trade at the end, send your cards to players who want them, why not? Anyways, I thought it would be cool to share with my Storm Clouds all the different cards I received and explain why I was looking for these cards, also looking into some strategy in casual formats like Commander and Cube. With that said, let's get started! 

•Immolating Glare (Game Day Promo): This is the full art promo for Oath of the Gatewatch release day tournaments. This is the one you get for participating in the tournament, which I never got a chance to do. So getting this sweet looking uncommon is just too sweet! An amazing art of an Eldrazi getting destroyed.

The card itself is fine overall, for two mana (1W) you can destroy an attacking creature. Great in any format, particularly in the early game since most early attacks won't have the ability to regenerate or even counter the spell. Not really great late game if you are facing Hexproof or Indestructible monsters coming your way. 

I use this in my current Boros Commander deck. 

•Priest of Norn (Mirrodin Bisiege): At a glance a 1/4 Vigilance creature for three mana (2W) doesn't look like much. Does anyone remember Standing Troops? But add a little bit of Phyrexia in the form of Infect and you got one hell of a creature now. With Infect you can casually attack for one in the early game before really big creatures come down. You force your opponent to turn their 3/3 or 2/2 creatures into 2/2 or 1/1 or even have them killed off. The alternative is taking a Poison counter and then start counting to ten until game over.

Infect is an extremely powerful effect in any and every format it is available in and I didn't get a lot of these cards in general, I've got a lot of these Infect cards on my trade list. Going to see if I can work on an Infect deck of sorts for Commander. 

•Fuel for the Cause (Mirrodin Bisiege): When you are paying four mana (2UU) for a Counterspell, it better have a good effect or can tip. Proliferate is a very good effect to have on a card. Especially in decks that use a lot of Planeswalkers, Infect, Energy, Experience or +1/+1 counters as well. 

I've got one of these in my Simic Commander deck, but I needed one for Mizzix deck. 

•Treasure Mage (Mirrodin Bisiege): This card works really well in any Artifact combo strategy. For three mana (2U) you get a 2/2 creature that searches your library for your big bad machines, any artifact card with converted mana cost 6 or greater. And you can par this up with a Show and Tell or even a Sneak Attack. 

You really can't go wrong with Treasure Mage, just be ready to cause some damage as soon as you play him. Watch out for discard and countering cards.

•Unsubstantiate (Game Day Promo): Another full art promo card, this time from the recent trip to Innistrad in Eldritch Moon. What we get is an extremely versatile spell for two mana (1U), which is perfectly paired with Isochron Sceptre. You can choose to return any spell or creature to it's owner's hand. Perhaps the best counter card in Standard at the moment, this card can do so much. It can disrupt early and throw an opponents tempo off and in a pinch it can get rid of a big attacker or blocker that is in your way. 

Very cool art as well, as with all of the full art promo cards. I am probably going to try and have one of these in all my Blue decks in Commander and Cube as well. I love me some Unsubstantiate!

•Incorrigible Youths (Game Day Promo): The last of the three full art promo cards I received in this trade, this one is from Shadows Over Innistrad set. A 4/3 Vampire that can be played for three mana (2R Madness costs) and with Haste, meaning it can attack right away for some early damage. Pretty good. You'll need to be playing with some discard mechanics and/or other Vampires to really get the most out of them, but even in a Cube deck it can do great damage. 

A solid addition to any BR Vampire deck strategy for sure, in Standard or Commander. 

•Into the Core (Mirrodin Bisiege): I honestly didn't even know this card existed, now sure Shatterstorm destroy all artifacts in play and this only targets two, the big difference is in the exile effect. I find in Commanders a lot of permanents and spells have plenty of ways of coming back into the game. Not to mention indestructible effects on a lot of artifacts and you are going to need some strong answers. 

At instant speed as well, you can respond to two darksteel artifacts coming your way. You can take away mana sources or combo pieces, maybe even that Darksteel Foundry. 

I think I am going to place it in one of my Commander decks for sure, possibly Mizzix or Brion.

•Brass Squire (Mirrodin Bisiege): And speaking of Brion! In my current Boros deck, I use a lot of Equipment cards. It's one of the strategies of the deck, a lot of WR cards that benefit from Equipment. And Brass Squire helps the team out a lot, for three Colorless mana you get 1/3 who is able to tap and attach any Equipment you control to any of your creatures. 

This works really well in my kind of deck with all the different Equipment cards and seeing how a lot of creatures will be launched by Brion, Brass Squire helps get the next creature ready for action. 

A pretty low key card, highly suggest it for Equipment based decks. 

•Hedron Archive (Battle for Zendikar): I am going to say this now for every Commander player. Get your Archives now, don't wait until they are gone. I got 4 more copies in this trade and I value you these artifacts very high. For 4 Colorless mana, you get a mana rock that gives you 2 extra Colorless or can be ditch for two cards. 

What deck couldn't use a mana boost or some emergency card drawing? Every single deck needs one of these and that's why I wanted to get them now, before they surge in price. Although I wouldn't be surprised to find them in future Commander products.

•Phyrexian Juggernaut (Mirrodin Bisiege): Holy butts! A 5/5 Infect creature for 6 Colorless mana. Sign me up. The attack every turn if able drawback isn't a big deal at all, you know being 5/5 and having Infect. You can pump this guy up, place Rancor on him or any Equipment you have available and it gets more vicious. Even a 10/10 creature blocking it will be brought all the way down to a 5/5 size, which is brutal! 

Going in my Brion deck for sure, I can't wait to play this against my opponents. It's a wild Phyrexian bull on the loose and no one is safe! 

So there you have it, a whole lot of Game Day promos and plenty of cards from Mirrodin Bisiege, it's nice to get cards from sets you didn't play too much or at all. Which I find is the beauty of Puca Trade, highly suggest you guys check it out here and big thanks to trader ASGARDIAN for sending me these cards in the first place, I am going to make sure these cards find a good home in my decks! 

So what do you guys think, any of these cards caught your attention? Any strategy suggestions you have? Let me know in the comments below or you can reach me over on Twitter @ChileanStorm on Instagram and Tumblr as well. Thanks again guys, and as always keep chasing the Storm!