That was a fun time! The set broke the pattern of each set comming out being better than the last. It has alot of “Good” cards in it but most of them don’t work 100% with each other. There is a giant gap inbetween the Mythics/Rares and the commons and uncommons.

Well I got 2/3 with a Green Blue deck because I got an Avenger of Zendikar, Sphinx of Jwae Isle and Goliath Sphinx. I then played a booster draft where I lost on the 1st game because I’m bad at booster drafts but the others helped me (After I lost of course) to show me why they choose there cards and why. I incorporated them into a list with others on the bottom.

Calvin got 1/4 and I don’t know what he oppened I do know the only mythic he opened was Eldrazi Monument which is terrible in standard and this set. You want to know why?????

CREATURES ARE EVERYTHING in this set. There is not enough good removal you must protect your creatures at all costs. Its a giant creature show off. You must also make your deck off your rares then through uncommons and commons in that are good for that color. I played every game that I won with a giant creature and Lost to a giant creature (or mana screw which is really hard to get I drew 13 out of 15 lands in one game!).

Heres a list of good uncommons and Commons that are nice to have in a deck (All WorldWake):

Guardian Zendikon (W)

Iona’s Judgement (W)

Apex Hawks (W)

Dispel (U)

Mysteries of the Deep (U)

AEther Tadewins (U)

Horizon Drake (U)

Corrupted Zendikon (B)

Smother (B)

Pulse Traker (B)

Gnarlid Pack (G)

LeatherBack Baloth (G)

Bestial Menace (G)
Vastwood Zendikon (G)

Everflowing Chalice (A)

Pilgrim’s Eye (A)

Razor Boomerang (A) -Good for Sideboarding if the opponent has alot of small creatures

Quicksand (L) – Great with a Zendikon

Thies are all cards I found helpful or Hurtful (agianst me). There are others some Red but I didn’t play anyone that used Red correctly so I cannot tell.

If you have any other cards Comment or Email czmtgblog@gmail.com

Sorry about not posting more, Calvin seems to not want to post? Well where going to the prerelease tommorow and I hope to see a few of you there. It seems to be a nice new set comming around….(which you wouldn’t know because calvin hasn’t posted the spoilers….)

Thanks to Lydios for the two new formats!

1: First is something we call Cross-Fire (two-headed giant variant)

-Two persons per team sitting diagonal from one another: Team A(2) Team B(2)
Team B(1) Team A(1)

– The players turns are taken individually in clockwise rotation.

– There is an attack direction stipulation also. The direction is determined by the player who deals combat damage to a player or when lethal combat damage is dealt to a creature and it is sent to the graveyard (regeneration counts as going to graveyard).

-As for direction all players must follow the attack direction set by the player who deals combat damage first (*Burn spells can not set direction*). If a player A(1) attacks B(2) and damage is dealt of something goes to the graveyard, then the attack direction is counter-clock wise. If A(1) had attacked and done damage to B(1) then the attack direction is set to be clockwise. Once the direction is set, it can not be change.

– Players on the same team can not see the other team member’s hand. If one member wishes to show a card, he/she must reveal the card to all players in the game. So, A(1) can not show A(2) a card in his/her hand without revealing it to both members of Team B as well.

– Like two-headed giant, the players on the same team share life (30). We have tried playing with each player starts at 20 life, but then it becomes more of a free-for-all than team play. However, in the 20 life games the individual members can be eliminated making it a 2-on-1 game. So if A(1) is eliminated, it is left to A(2) to try and win, however, both players from B can attack A(2) on their individual turns. We called the 20 life games “Knock-Out”.

– To win, one team’s life total must become zero or both team member’s life totals must become zero, depending on the format.

2: The next format is Called Peasant EDH:

-Player’s decks are constructed using the 100 card rule from normal EDH

-No multiple cards, only one of each in a single deck.

-The restrictions are based on the rarity of the cards themselves. In the Deck there can only be, at most, 5 rare/mythic rare cards, 10 uncommon, and the rest are common cards. Rares can be downgraded to become uncommon cards but not the other way around, and similarly, uncommon can become commons, etc. (i.e. you can make a deck with 3 rare/mythic, 12 uncommon, and 85 commons…. NOT 8 rare/mythic, 7 uncommon and 85 common)

– There is also no general in this format. Which means there are no color restrictions in the deck’s colors. There can be a Figure of Destiny in a mono-red deck, and it would be fine, etc.

-The win condition is the same, except for the general damage rule. Players start with 30-40 life,depending on preference, and play as normal.

If anyone else has any more costom formats please send them to czmtgblog@gmail.com!

Thats it NEW YEAR! I hope you all have a happy new year and I left this poll open because of last months messup. I though it deserves 3 weeks insted of 2.

Now for the card we had a verry close game. So close actually:

By one vote!

This card wasn’t celebrated for being good until just recently when poeple started figuring out how to use it in some decks.

Eldrazi Monument was about $5

Now it is $7.75

It is obviously great in a token deck but some poeple don’t look to deep into it. If your playing standard you could use Bloodghast in a landfall deck with this.

Eldrazi won over Emeris because the monument  won a couple of tornements increasing its popularity just enough to have in win over shields.

And in my opinion Eldrazi Monument is better than Akroma’s memorial:

Mainly for the fact that Eldrazi makes all your creatures indestructable and costs 2 less. Even though Eldrazi has its obviously bad effect if the deck is built around it or thrown into a good token deck its effect can be negated.

Also if you dont already know Eldrazi is in the name of the Zendikar block’s 3rd set. Rise of Eldrazi and the possible return of merit lage. Look here to read more.

Thanks for ready and remember to vote for this months CoM

Happy New Year! It is now 2010. I have 3 more holiday-themed cards to show now:

Merry Christmas.

This year, I’ve made a Christmas themed card. I’m planning on making more holiday cards soon, so look out for them. Here’s the first, Santa Claus:

Wow totally didn’t see that I thought calvin did the card of the month but here it goes…

The card of the month was Sorin Markov!!!!

Yes good old Sorin

Many many poeple love this card while a few think it is terrible for Vampire decks because it costs 6 mana but my opinion is if you have one you might as well put it in I wouldnt put more than 1 in maybe 2.

Its first ability is good because…well do I even need to say it? It’s deal alittle more damage to a creature to kill it or steal some of your oponents life. Its minus ability is great in a vampire deck because a bunch of vampire abilities go off. Its last one is just amazing you can totally have some fun with it make you oponent attack and loose all its creatures or play all there cards in there hand agenst themselfves or anyhting the posabilities are endless!

It has a good chance of surviving becuase it starts off at 4 and probobly goes to 6 loyalty on turn it comes but like all plainswalkers its just a walking target.

This card is good in alot of black decks if on turn 6 you can spare the mana otherwise dont put it in.

Sorin Markov has gone up..alot it used to be a $7 mythic now it is $16!

Its foil has gone up alittle bit form $25 to $34.

And yes Sorin Markovs ability counts as loose of life so Wound Reflection the card is just fun.

Sorry thats all I have for Sorin Markov theres not really alot to talk about but please vote for CoM for Dec 2009! Have a happy Halidays!

Are you having trouble making your deck work? Keep getting mana screwed, or mana flooded? Well I have come up with a calculation that gives you the perfect % of lands for each color you need in a nonmonocolored deck. I have also made a calculation that tells you the perfect % of lands you need for your deck based on the mana costs of the cards.

First Calculation # of lands:

1) Count the # of cards in your deck then times that by .4

X= # of cards

Y= 40% of cards in your deck

X*.4=Y

For a 60 card deck Y is 24.

Fora 40 card deck Y is 16.

If you have a premade deck Skip this part and make Y= to the # of lands already in your deck.

2) Now minus X(# of cards in deck) by Y(# of lands in deck/calculation above) then times that by 4.

Z= Avrage overall mana in your deck.

(X-Y)4=Z

Z is 144 in a 60 card deck (with Y as 24)

Z is 96 in a 40 card deck (with Y as 16)

3) Now add up all your cards in your deck’s converted mana cost and let the # be A. Now minus Z by A

Z-A=#

Now if your number is a posative and less than ten (Ex. 8). Than you are fine but if it is over posative 10 than you need to minus a land from your deck and add a new card per 10. (Like if you got 25 then you will need to minus two land and add 2 new cards, if its 11 then you will need to minus 1 land ect). Now if you get a negative number less than ten (-8) than your fine. Now if you get like with posotive, if you have -10 then you need to insted take out a card and add a land. And like above per 10 like if you have a -22 then you need to minus two cards and add 2 lands. After this redo this problem and adjust accordingly until you do not have anything <-10 or >10.

This equasion is experimental so please try it out for me and tell me what I need to adjust accouringly. (Use Comments)

Now the Second equasion: How to choose how mana lands of each color.

1) “Catagorize” how mana points of each color gets.

Rules:

A monocolored card gives 1 point to its color (including artifacts)

A gold card counts as 1 for each of its colors unless it is 1 of each color in the deck then put it off to the side well deal with it later.(including artifacts)

A hybrid card counts as 1 to each of its colors or if it has 1 of evry color in deck then count it as 0

A colorless artifact counts as 0 if it is colored look above.

2) Now add up all of the color points and divid 100 by it (round to nerest whole #).

Ex. 2 W +14 U= 16   then 100/16 =6.25 rounded =6.

Now times the number you just got (my ex is 6) by the origional number then at a % sign to the back.

Ex. 2 (W) *6=12 add a % to make it 12%

       14 (U) *6=84 add a % to make it 84%

(It might not come out to 100% so add the extra evenly to all %s

Ex. 12+84= 96. 100-96=4 so add 2 to all % making 14% and 86%

3) Almost done now you need to make all percents a decimal (move decimal point two spaces over to the left).  Then times the amount of lands in your deck by that amount. Round to the nerest whole number.

W 14% and U 86%

20 lands in the deck so 20*.14=2.8 -> 3

20*.86=17.2 -> 17

4)Now for the last step remember the gold cards before well I had 15 that were evry color so divid that number by 3 and round to the nearest whole number.

15/3=5

Lastly take that number and subtract it from the most amount of lands and add it to the least.

17-5=12 islands

3+5=8 plains

Note: If your most becomes tied take from the one you havnt taken lands from yet. If the least amount becomes tied with the second least amount add to the one you havnt added to yet.

Thank you for reading this long  LONG equasion of mine the Color one worked for me perfectly but the top one is untried please comment on how this works or how i can make it similer. You may also e-mail me and calvin at czmtgblog@gmail.com

Ok sorry I havn’t been posting alot ( I dont know why calvin has not) but I just got my new laptop today and after I’m done fadditleing around and setting evrything right I will start posting agian. (If you didnt know my old laptop died…)

I have a nice way I figured out to tell how many lands and what colors they should be. I wil probobly post later today or tommorow… and YES! this is the first time I’m using the keyboard!

The title is from the MTG website but I think evryone should read it. It explains plenty things that you would never gess about MTG. It also isnt boring so it isnt hard to read.

Here is the link to the page:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/66