Skittles

I'd like to talk about a casual format, particularly my favorite casual format – Skittles. A five color, peasant, highlander format, which requires equal numbers of every color, as well as artifacts. Gold cards and hybrids are handled in a unique way in Skittles - they count as a percentage of each color in their cost. For example, a card like Grixis Charm would count as a third each of Red, Black, and Blue. This creates an interesting challenge to deckbuilders on how to best equalize the color percentages when using cards like these.

Deck building and creation is half the fun of the format, searching for old type two or extended cards which you loved playing but can’t find a place for them anymore. My favorite thing about skittles is how cards in this format are bombs and are trash in every other format, like Ghost-Lit Stalker for example. Since the format is slowpaced, a sorcery speed, discard four cards can often win you the game. Making your opponent discard 3-4 valuable cards is worth the cost. The goal of the format is to keep playing cards that gain you card advantage, being a two for one creature or a Draw spell. The more ways you have for stopping the opponent the better, however, you don’t want to one for one. This is the reason Swords to Plowshares is mediocre in Skittles, it doesn’t net an advantage. The attrition war is everything, from hitting land drops turns one through seven, to accelerating with artifact mana or Kodama’s Reach.

The fundamental turns of skittles are turns six through eight. This is when the bombs are cast that will determine who’s ahead in the attrition war for the mid to late game. Once you lose the card advantage race or attrition war it becomes harder to dig yourself out of the hole, but there’s ways to turn the tides, such as Haunting Hymn and Tidings. These two cards are the type of bombs I mentioned before - others include Slice and Dice, Ghost-Lit Stalker, Jetting Glasskite, Hymn of Rebirth, Harmonize, etc. While a turn five Haunting Hymn won’t win the game instantly, it will put you far ahead for later on. One way to avoid getting bogged down in an attrition war is to play cheap threats; since most of the decks focus so much on two-for-ones, significant threats are something that decks generally lack. Control decks take time to set up and control the game, fast draws often stump these control decks. Most skittles decks are control decks with creatures with strong abilities, because their abilities are powerful and interactive most people opt to play them over one casting cost beaters. The deck I've been playing lately is below. Feel free to use it as a baseline to start feeling the format out for yourself:

Lands

1 Wasteland
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Nantuko Monastery
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Savage Lands
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Mirrodin's Core
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse

Creatures
1 Stonecloaker
1 Phyrexian Gargantua
1 Shriekmaw
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Etched Oracle
1 Jetting Glasskite
1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Ana Battlemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nucklavee
1 Ghost-Lit Stalker
1 Mulldrifter
1 Stormfront Riders
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Ancestor’s Chosen

Spells
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tidings
1 Bant Charm
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Haunting Hymn
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Naya Charm
1 Jund Charm
1 Harmonize
1 Slice and Dice
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Resounding Thunder
1 Spectral Searchlight
1 Dromar's Charm
1 Rise/Fall
1 Wayfarer’s Bauble
1 Momentary Blink
1 Twisted Justice
1 Cone of Flame
1 Opportunity
1 Reap and Sow

Nightmare's Broken EDH deck

I've made reference to this deck in a few places on this here internets before, but I've never had the deck in front of me to put it up card for card.  Occasionally, I'll change a few things around with the list, but its been exactly what it is for some time now.  Here's the list, with a little discussion of cards in the deck to follow.  Remember, 100 card decks.

General:  Azami, Lady of Scrolls

Tidespout Tyrant

Etherium Sculptor

Filigree Sages

Cursecatcher

Magus of the Bazaar

Sigil Tracer

Trinket Mage

Magus of the Jar

Voidmage Prodigy

Patron Wizard

Hapless Researcher

Magus of the Future

Oboro Breezecaller

Stonybrook Banneret

Inspired Sprite

Merrow Levitator

Memnarch

Stroke of Genius

Time Spiral

Prosperity

Thirst for Knowledge

Ponder

Meditate

Gush

Braingeyser

Ideas Unbound

Frantic Search

Mind Spring

Timetwister

Brainstorm

Windfall

High Tide

Rewind

Merchant Scroll

Force of Will

Brain Freeze

Tinker

Repeal

Snapback

Long-Term Plans

Mana Severance

Tezzeret the Seeker

Snap

Mystical Tutor

Mana Drain

Turnabout

Mind's Desire

Future Sight

Pact of Negation

Mind Over Matter

Gauntlet of Power

Goblin Charbelcher

Candelabra of Tawnos

Voltaic Key

Sapphire Medallion

Cloud Key

Memory Jar

Sensei's Divining Top

Helm of Awakening

Mana Vault

Sol Ring

Mana Crypt

Chrome Mox

Mox Diamond

Lotus Petal

Grim Monolith

Gilded Lotus

Eye of Ramos

Coalition Relic

Chronatog Totem

Tolarian Academy

Polluted Delta

Flooded Strand

Tolaria West

Academy Ruins

Minamo, School at Water's Edge

Darksteel Citadel

Seat of the Synod

21 Island

And that's it, in all its glory.  I've added links to the cards in case you're unfamiliar with any of them - and let me say just how much of a pain in the ass that was - but hopefully you can see some of the reasons it's as broken as it is.

A note or two on some of the cards:

Merrow Levitator, Inspired Sprite - These are the Nettle Sentinels of the deck.  If you have Azami in play and either of these online, it's pretty difficult to lose.  They allow you to absolutely bury all of your opponents in card advantage.  They are by far the best Wizards in the deck.

Sigil Tracer - He's your number one win condition in multiplayer games, especially if your opponents have Gaea's Blessing in their decks.  He allows you to go infinite with Turnabout if you have enough mana and guys in play, and he lets you Fork (or Twincast, as it were) your Stroke of Genius or Braingeyser to kill multiple opponents at once.

There are two non-Wizard creatures in the deck.  Both are needed, as the Etherium Sculptor provides a third way for you to make the Sensei's Top/Future Sight/Helm of Awakening combo work.  Note that you have access to two Future Sights, as well.  The other creature, Tidespout Tyrant, allows you to go infinite in mana a countless number of ways.  With him active, you generally finish the game with infinite mana, your deck in your hand, and your opponents with no cards in play.  He's bonkers.

Memnarch + Filigree Sages + Tolarian Academy.  Think about it.

Azami has a unique, and unfair, interaction with Mind Over Matter.  If they're both in play, she taps to cycle cards, in effect.  Draw one, don't like it.  Pitch to untap Azami, draw another.  Repeat.

All in all, it's probably one of the two most unfair EDH decks I've seen played, with Bryant's UB Pitchlong-esque monstrosity being the only one in front of it.  I get about one game in with my opponents before they become frustrated and I have to break out a more "fair" deck.  Still, it's enjoyable to occasionally do some things the game really doesn't want you to do, so if you're in the mood, throw it together with your own play group and try it out.  Don't say I didn't warn you!

About Me.

Hello everyone, I’m Bryant Cook. I'm best known for creating and piloting Legacy combo decks - Specifically, The EPIC Storm and EPIC Painter (In collaboration with Colin Chilbert). I also helped innovate the first lists for Legacy's versions of Cephalid Breakfast and Ichorid, both former Tier 1 decks. I’m mainly a Legacy player who dabbles in Limited and loves to play casual formats such as Skittles and Elder Dragon Highlander.

Another Staff Addition

Bryant Cook, most notably the player who's put in all the work making Tendrils of Agony viable in Legacy, has accepted the invitation to contribute here, and should be doing so quite soon.  I'm excited to add him to the staff, even if he only knows how to play combo.

I should be posting real Magic content soon, possibly tonight.  My first real post will be my decklists for the two Elder Dragon Highlander decks I've been building, with some insight into why they are what they are.  They're both a blast to play, so be sure to stay tuned!

Update on Authoring

So far, I've gotten one author comitted to contributing to the blog, and another few who I've extended offers to, but haven't heard back from.

I'm excited about the yes, it's from Colin (Caulyn) Chilbert, the mind behind most of the decklists I've put up on StarCity.  He's never really written regularly before, but all the primers I've seen him write for his various concoctions along the way have been excellent, as have his tournament reports.  This makes me believe that given the outlet of a consistant place to put his thoughts, he'll have no trouble at all getting some things on paper, and on the blog.  Along with that, he's one of the few people I know who does legit testing for Legacy events on MWS, so it would be nice to see some of the results from those sessions to further my own understanding of both the metagame, and Colin as a player.

I'm working on getting Colin's account set up, but once I do, he should be dropping posts in your laps.  I don't know about all of you, but I'm excited.  More to come, as I trick others into working for me for free. 

Welcome to Salt City!

Hello everyone!  Thanks for taking the time to stop by and check us out.

A brief introduction for those of you who've stumbled on us accidentally.  This blog is meant to serve as an outlet for a few Magic: the Gathering players from Syracuse, New York to post whatever ruminations we have about Magic, life, etc.  We've all experienced quite a bit, and have our own list of accomplishments within the game, so if you feel like taking what we have to say seriously, then by all means do it, and thanks for the vote of confidence.

Right now, the roster of contributors is sparse - it is the first hour of this blog's existance, after all - but we should be fleshing out all the authors as the week progresses.  I'll ask each of the authors to throw out a hello within their first blog post or two so you can get aquainted with them.

Thanks again guys and gals, and welcome to Salt City Magic!