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

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

It’s Zach in the new set alot of creatures gain haste!

#5 is

Igneous Pouncer. It is great to throw one or two into the deck so when the opponent is tapped out or has no creatures just pop this guy into play and swing for 5 OR the more likly just cycle him to get yourself a despratly needed land. This guy is great for limited even though he costs a bit much…

Next for #4 is

Alot of poeple are going to be annoyed that I put this in as #4 because its a screwed up akroma angel of wrath! The this is its a 6/6 for a messed up 8 and doent have protection from the main removal color black. Dont get me wronge this is great for playing limited but if your not I’d seggest you go get an angel of wrath.

#3 in the countdown is:

Just plainly who doesnt like a 3/4 that gives evrything haste? Its a 3/4 for 4 mana=good its not monocolored=not so good But it gives your apoclyps hydra haste and all your other goody good jund cards like your dragons haste. It makes for a fun combonation!

#2 is

No matter what this card will do a great deal of damage to your opponent and lets say it gets into a decking battle this card really holds itself up to high expectations….

Now for #1————-

Most people are probobly saying wait? WHAT? but heres the thing, who doesnt like attacking with a 3/2 on turn four and getting a free extra spell. lets say this could be a collosal might? 7 damage turn 4?  is someone else smelling victory or is it just me? (yes this is a great combo for limited yes I used it and Yes I won the games I used it in)

Collossal might:

Not surprisingly exploding into #1 on the poll is BANEFIRE!

If you dont know what banefire is well… Just look at the picture:

Banefire is one of thoes $10 rares that you just have so much fun playing. It is in a combonation with Appocolypse Hydra and  Martial Coup. All three cards have X abilities and if they pay 5 or more they get a great effect! Here are the other two:

Ok back to banefire. Banefire is a great card and works well in any red deck. You can play it for 3 to kill a creature (not recommended) or you can pay it for 6 and smash that big naya creature or the oppoenent with it. Counter deck have absolutly no effect on it which is verry nice. Also it is just deadly in a stale mate game when you have 10 mana out adleast and send it shooting at your oppoent for 9 and the win…

Vertually Banefire is an upgrade from Blaze:

Dont get me wronge Blaze in nice but it might get dropped out of standard if not reprinted in 11th. Sure Blaze is only worth about $1 but it can still be used to annoy your oppoenent. Just if your agenst a counter deck which has strengthend in Alara reborn you really cant do much.

Also Banefire goes great with double the damage cards like Wound Reflection.

That makes the banefire become a nice 10 damage that cannot be prevented or counterd.

Banefire doesnt have the dividing ability like Fire ball but then agian Fireball can easily be counterd… (like in Jace Vs Chandra)

If you open a Banefire in a pack you are crazy not to put it into a deck that has red that you own… Unless of corse you trading it for an Appocolypse Hydra. Ok DONT BE LIKE CALVIN DO NOT TRADE IT FOR AN APPOCOLYPSE HYDRA_BAD BAD TRADE!

-And I will post about the release tommorow I have a feeling I will get somewhat lucky!

Calvin and I were playing a game and I was going to win, I was using my plainswalker deck that has evry plainswalker exept for elspeth. So I said can we play and let me get all my plainswalkers out and use thier best – effects. So after a few turns I get the other 4 plainswalkers I didnt need out and this is what I did:  -Note- I say 8 plainswalkers because If you have two plainswalkers with the same name in the typebox they are both destroyed. Hence Agani vengent and goldmane. During this I used goldmane:

Now if you had these 8 plainswalkers:

Jace-

Chandra-

Ajani goldmane-

Guruk-

Liliana-

Tezzeret-

Nicol Bolas plainswalker DUN DUN DUN…..-

 Sharken Vol (fav its just so much fun!)-

Lastly lovly Elspeth I did not use her but this is the card and what I would have done anyway:-

 and you could use all thier best – effects you should do them in this order.

1: Ajani goldmane -(or Vengent If being used) you put a insanly big create/Insanly big creature into play (or with vengent you destroy all lands they control and make them helpless)

2:Chandra- Just burn them and thier creatures for 10 so they cannot block or if they have some insanly big guy like Apoclips hydra or Krosan cloud Scrapper out they will be alot easier to kill. Also you get creatures in the graveyard.

3:Nicol bolas plainswalker- Use this after chandra to destroy more creatures/permanents and get more crap into the graveyard and If your opponent is lucky they will be at 3 If not you won so you dont need to keep reading.

4:Jace- Another nice plainswalker deck them for 20 and if thier lucky (again) they will still have cards left. Yes this is another thing to set up for Vess

5:Liliana- It is time redeem all your lost creatures for a last shot at survival It will be nice to see the look on your opponents face when you do this!

6: Tezzeret-  Turn all thoes noncreature artifact creatures and wimpy artifact creatures into 5/5 killing mecs!

7:Guruk- Needless to explain make all those lovly creatures into 3/3 tramplers of death!

8:Elspeth- Use her nice all those huge things become unstoppable effect!

9:Sharken Vol- Lastly for all those who are screaming: ARE YOU AN IDIOT?! WHAT ABOUT THE DRAGONS? I gotcha! Use Sharken’s +1 effect so all those monstrosities can attack this turn and become alittle stronger and If you dont win the game after this… I pitty you!

I did do it this way because I did’nt have Elspeth but I did evrything else so f you some how get out almost all the plainswalkers to date then do it this way you will win, also NOTE: you will have alot of plainswalkers that take up most of the field dont forget one!

There are a few things that you must know if you want to teach someone how to play. Following this advice will make it more likely that that person will like the game and start playing.

1. Give (or lend) the person your best deck. If the person wins, he’ll be more likely to want to get into the game becasue he can beat people who have been playing for a while.

2. Keep it simple. Teach him as few rules as possible while making sure he understands everything. Teaching rules as they come up might be a good idea. If you try to tell someone what each and every ability word means, he’ll probably think “This game is way too complicated. I’m not getting into this!” Get more complex slowly. It took me 2 years to understand most of the rules, and I still come across rules questions often. It happens to everyone. If you really don’t know, you can ask a judge or ask on MTG Salvation.

3. On the other hand, if he asks, tell him. (Would you want to be taught a game where nobody answers questions you have on the rules?)

4. Try not to use a deck with counterspells when playing your first game. (Meaning cards that counter spells, not the card counterspell) Let him learn that later, after he is already interested. I wouldn’t want to play a game in which every time I tried to do anything important, someone said “Nope! I’m not letting you do that!” I would get very annoyed at that game and probably not play it. Counterspells are important parts of a game, though, so maybe after he’s into the game, start using decks that have a few counterspells, and then step it up so he knows that it is possible to go against some decks that won’t let you do much of anything.

5. Don’t use an annoying deck until you are sure he likes the game. If you do, he will probably quit.

6. Let him win a few games every once in a while if you are much better than him. Nobody wants to play a game they can’t ever win. Depending on the person, adjust the amount of times you win. If it’s someone who will quit with the slightest annoyance, let him win often. Of course, that type of person will probably be out of the game soon anyway, but you know what I mean.

7. IF POSSIBLE, BUY HIM CARDS! This can mean packs, intro packs, duel decks, etc… The more cards he’s given, the less he needs to buy. The more cards he has, the more he can make his deck whatever he wants it to be.

8. DO NOT bring him to a tournament until you are confident that he will do very well or doesn’t mind losing. This means any booster draft, any sealed deck compitetion, and any constructed tournament. Play practice games of the type. Buy him six boosters (Or tell him to buy six boosters) and tell him to make a deck out of the cards in them. If it’s a good enough deck, bring him to the next prerelease. Some people, like me, don’t mind losing. Those people can go to tournaments much earlier than people who do mind losing. They probably will lose, but if it doesn’t bother them there’s no problem. (I usually do terribly in tournaments)