xcblaze MtG

I love Magic: the Gathering. Anyone out there who claims to love this game, and be as driven to win at it, as much as I? If so, please reach out - would love to talk :) To the pros and testing teams - if you should happen to want a deep analyst who literally never stops talking and thinking MtG (and is, if I say so myself, not too shabby at all), I'm here :) Because I am, in addition to being a ridiculously passionate MtG lover, also a ridiculously competitive person. The natural extension of loving this game, combined with a desire to win the game, is to be the best, the very, very best, the tippy top best at the game - or to be a part of a teammate and friend's climb towards that same mountaintop. Let the portfolio below (and further conversation) serve as your judge of whether connecting with me is worth your time. This Drive folder contains a curated selection of some of my Magic work, spanning hundreds of pages, written and drafted without consideration of the whys and hows and who-fors and the M-word that ends with "onetisation". It has guides, deck analyses, evidence of iterative processes in deckbuilding, essays exploring metas and meta-breaking strategies, and most recently, an ongoing Limited set review. Sort of my love letter to Magic, but the letter is actually a collection of analytic essays and philosophical expositions on gameplay and game design, plus there are a whole bunch of spreadsheets and weighted averages with a sprinkle of decision mathematics. There is no paywall, because who on earth puts love compendia behind paywalls? drive.google.com/drive/folders/… For all the time spent complaining about variance, state of the format, etc. Magic players too often forget why and how they play this game in the first place. I have not had that particular issue. Every moment strikes anew, with the beauty, the complexity, the sheer joy and wonder and awe of Magic's world (even if the worldbuilding and lore at times could have used help, heh). Variance can be accounted for, and it is worth accounting for, if it means you can - with your identity, your capacity, your disposition - be a wizard or a god or an army commander or a lich or a spellsplinging maniac with a sword and stand on top of the world, the summit that demands sacrifice, resilience, and unforgiving consistency. But perhaps what sets Magic apart from other fantasy games in terms of lore is the opportunity for identity formation and expression. Whether it is the shadows of Lorwyn or the metal of Mirrodin or the all-consuming Eldrazi or the guilds of Ravnica or the isolated outcrops of Innistrad or the rich lushness of Shandalar or the constellations of Theros or - I could go on, but the point is, there is a place for everyone in Magic. And with colour identity and diverse mechanics and themes and synergies, there is a deck and a playstyle for everyone, in worlds as gorgeous as and more gorgeous than and as crazy as and crazier than our own. I love Magic: the Gathering. There's not much I wouldn't do for this game. Do you love Magic like I do? You will always have a friend in me to talk to, for whatever Magical purpose. @fireshoes dear sir, would you be so good as to repost, so possibly the right people end up seeing this?

This is one of the collection of cards of all time

through two pieces of interaction, too. Badgermole Cub has to go

just how we drew it up

@SylvieMayMTG Legitimately one of the best balanced decks in the format, with game against everything. At least it tries to interact with me instead of Solitairing up to 20 or City's Blessing

5-0'd my first lcq bullet of the day and submitted the same 75 for tomorrow. Deck has been feeling great, I've been in my element, ready to play some wizard squares tomorrow

@NEO_MTG Adventurous Eater in sideboard is certainly wrong with Necroscribe plus double Thornfist. Agree with Snarl inconsistency. Cheerful Osteomancer is ridiculous with Cauldron. Splashing Render Speechless seems not worthwhile.

P1p1 Snarl Song, but ended up with it in the sb despite playing green, which I COULD still see being wrong. I expect I'm not good enough at getting the 3rd colour and no chance at 4+ means this was somewhere close to the correct build, but interested in opinions. Cauldron was op

@InsayneHayne @AstroTCG Anything but the metric system moment confirmed

@AstroTCG You’d prefer measuring it in beef?

When the prize support of my game doesn’t keep up with a finite resource market one of the most vastly used minerals

@JessyEHefner3 @sakage1415 I've been yelling about Azorius control for a while to anyone who'll listen, including the need for Ultima and the criminal lack of lifegain in these colours. Posted a list with similar numbers to yours and solid results on ladder. Best of luck! Show Steam Vents who's boss

I'm a man of my word 🤷‍♂️ RC list submitted, not playing a game of magic until Saturday morning. See you there 🫡

@B_Jones_NZ Sorry sir I don't really link decks in any of my posts 😅 Perhaps I can work on that for future reference

@xcblazeMtG All those words and no link to the deck😞

A more balanced approach to #Golgari #Superfriends in #MtG #Strixhaven #Standard. #BGControl has long been one of my favourite archetypes, and after some preliminary testing, this is where I am. The fundamental idea behind this list is simple and can be summarised as, "Yo dawg, I heard you liked card draw so I put removal in your lifegain in your card draw", epitomised by Dellian Fel & Ugin (with an active Dellian emblem, Ugin also becomes a clock, mitigating one of its primary weaknesses in not being able to close out the game; multiple other cards also take advantage of the Dellian ult to help end the game). Every good control shell requires sweepers, and both planeswalkers do not cleanly answer wide boards - the best sweeper available to Black right now is Deadly Cover-Up. Why this, over Day of Black Sun or Withering Curse (which Dellian & Ugin both empower)? Because Deadly Cover-Up unconditionally destroys everything at 5 mana. It devastates landfall, by extracting every basic land from their deck. It double-times as combo disruption and incidental graveyard hate, with applications against Prowess (extracting Boomerang Basics or a destroyed Talent) and not being an entirely dead card G1 against creature-light decks (where it is an expensive Memoricide). Once Deadly Cover-Up is chosen as the sweeper of choice, the rest of this shell snaps into place. 8 copies of instant speed, cheap removal to smooth over the early game and to deal with flash threats / manlands (not counting Ba Sing Se - what were they thinking?!). You need to reliably turn on Collect Evidence, so finding ways to dump things into the graveyard (preferably high-mv things) is urgent (Cease // Desist is an easy and effective way, that also provides much needed instant speed graveyard interaction and funnily enough, randomly nukes Lessons or Synthesizer lists). You also need ways to destroy problematic non-creature permanents before you get to Ugin, which in BG means Maelstrom Pulse (sorcery speed, doesn't hit lands) and Urgent Necropsy (instant speed, expensive, gy-dependent). And every good control deck also needs some card draw to smooth things over into the lategame ... so welcome back Read the Bones my beloved (I mean Diresight, sorry, force of habit). Surveil is excellent for yard filling, lose 2 life matters little with all the lifegain ... all the lifegain? Ugin wants something colourless to cast to continue exiling things. We also need mana acceleration to keep up with the pace of the format. Withering Curse, as mentioned above, is a strong secondary sweeper. Enter Potioner's Trove, the glue that ties this whole deck together. Fixing, acceleration, lifegain, and lategame exile triggers for the low price of 3 mana and no board impact for a turn (unless you cast Requiting Hex the turn you play it). Something I would love to find space for, given the Potioner's Troves, are two copies of Decorum Dissertation as additional card draw (though that card is significantly stronger in proactive lists). Trove can turn it into a life-neutral source of card draw every turn, while multiple Troves can actively gain life off it, creating the ultimate card-advantage engine. Perhaps something in the sideboard can go to make space, or the maindeck can lose the Diresight, go harder on Cease, and trim one of something ... ? That would also allow us to perhaps move away from the Keen-Eyed in the sideboard ... Analyze the Pollen + 26 lands (or some other way to guarantee 28 land drops) is high priority for this deck, since you never want to miss an early land drop. Analyze is the land smoother of choice because it plays well with the making use of gy theme, and can find one of the three following high-value lands: Ba Sing Se, Restless Cottage (fantastic synergy with Ba Sing Se, as with all manlands), and Petrified Hamlet, which answers opposing problematic lands which our deck is otherwise soft to. Current sideboard is pretty straightforward: hand-disruption, gy hate, value creature-based threats to apply early pressure when the deck needs to become more proactive (such as against opposing control decks where creature removal is weak), and some additional boardwipes into the creature matchups (Withering Curse is great because it plays well with the lifegain, including Trove, which can gain life before Curse resolves, and can also just kill some little guys on turn 3). Plenty of space for tuning and adjustment. All of this goes back to that early choice of Deadly Cover-Up as the sweeper of choice, and Ugin as the supplementary win condition to Dellian. If you want to build Dellian control outside of this shell, those are the choices you must undo. Good luck and have fun, all ye fair mages; don't let the Otters bite.

Update: currently +2 Cease // Desist, +2 Decorum Dissertation main; -1 Ugin, -3 Diresight. Going harder on synergy and power rather than midgame consistency, and I think that's the right call. Dissertation is too sweet, and randomly breaks games. In the sideboard, -2 Curator +2 Cruelclaw's, given extra maindeck gy hate, plus Analyze can search up Curator. Also considering adding some haymaking creatures that can be tutored up off Analyze for the side.

Badgermole Cub is ramp, however. It is also two bodies. It does something fundamentally different from Environmental Scientist, which immediately generates card advantage and guarantees a land drop, but does not ramp or produce an extra body. Besides, Emeritii is cute but I'm not sure it's actively able to consistently take down the meta; plus the blue and green Emeritii actually work against each other.

@xcblazeMtG Run Environmental Scientist instead :) Just want a 2 drop for Mind into Matter that helps with mana.

Dissertation vs Dellian emblem, who wins?

@travishall456 But it has Badgermole Cub in it

@xcblazeMtG Give this a try sometime: #paper" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mtggoldfish.com/deck/7779107#p…

Bold choice, opponent. Bold choice. This presumably means they have an Avarice in hand? But does that beat Dissertation?

@travishall456 And it was not particularly close. Closed out the game by pointing a couple of Dissertations at them + Dellian ult. Potioners' Trove + Dellian ult was also quite something.

@xcblazeMtG From those life totals, Dissertation

@InsayneHayne @HeezyGame Even our love handles are subject to shrinkflation😭

@HeezyGame Thanks, but I’m pretty fat, might be only 900x these days

In 2006, first place at a PT was 57 ounces of gold In 2026 it’s less than 11 ounces. It’s a Commander world, you’re all just living in it with whatever crumbs fall off the table

@JessyEHefner3 You have no idea how hard I'm rooting for you. Elspeth is one of my favourite planeswalkers in recent memory (though Dellian's giving her a run for her money), and Hallowed Foundation is SO MUCH MORE a respectable dual land than Steam Vents.

Since it's open decklist anyway, my testing has concluded. I'm at peace with my decision. To the surprise of probably no one I'm playing these cards at the RC

This is also a good matchup because: Cease // Desist for 6 destroys their whole gameplan; for 2 it slows down their Ancestral Recall Maelstrom Pulse is a clean answer to the multiple Monument gameplay Urgent Necropsy can kill Talent + Monument + Ral They have no direct destroy planeswalker removal Ba Sing Se is one of our main win-cons, and they struggle badly into it Ugin is a cast trigger Postboard, they HAVE to side out creature removal, but then we get access to Mosswood Dreadknight & Keen-Eyed Curator + Duress, while taking out our own dead creature removal.

@xcblazeMtG This is a good matchup because half their deck is blanked by not playing creatures.

My kingdom for an untapped land BG Control vs. Lessons

A joy and a pleasure

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? I AM THE TRUE LANDFALL, NO LANDS FOR YOU