Infect: Too Good? or Too Dumb?

Recently, a new mechanic has been added to the Magic: The Gathering rulebook. It is a little thing called "Infect."

What is Infect?
Infect is a creature ability (like Deathtouch or First Strike.) What Infect does is it makes the creature with infect deal damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters, and to players in poison counters.

Creatures
Lets say that your opponent is attacking with an Ichorclaw Myr. Ichoclaw Myr is only a 1/1, so if you defend with your 2/2, then you'll kill it right? Wrong. Ichorclaw's ability states, "Whenever Ichorclaw Mry gets blocked, it gains +2/+2 until end of the turn." Well now your 2/2 is dead. Well what if you blocked with a 4/4? That would be fine! Wrong again. Ichorclaw Myr would be killed, but your 4/4 would be degraded to a 1/1. -1/-1 counters are permanent.

Players
Now players get dealt damage in Poison Counters. This is even worse. It only takes 10 poison counters to lose a game. Yes, 10. And since Poison Counters are dealt out for every 1 damage (so 3 damage would result in 3 Poison Counters), you're basically cutting your life in half from the get go. Pretty dumb right? Well, if I mass an army quick enough, I could just block, and everything would be alright! Nope. Listen to this combo. Let's say that your opponent played a land this turn, he has 2 Green mana and 1 Blue mana. On his Ichorclaw Myr, he puts 2 Groundswells and a Distortion Strike. Now the Ichorclaw Myr is a 10/9 unblockable. That is game over on turn 3.

Two More Creatures That Explain Why Infect is Dumb
Skitheryx, the Blight Dragon- Skitheryx is a 4/4 with flying and infect. First off flying is hard enough to block, but that thing is dealing out 4 poison counters per turn! That's devastating!

Blightsteel Colossus- Blightsteel is a Mythic Rare in the new set of Mirrodin Besieged. 11/11 with Trample, Indestructable, and Infect. Possibly the dumbest card I have ever seen. That is an one attack win. And with trample, it can take out numerous creatures that multi-block it.

Links were attributed by www.mtgfanatic.com and www.mtgmintcard.com.

Magic: The Gathering/ Life Gain Deck

In Magic: The gathering, a good way to win games is to keep your life high or at a constant number. For a life gaining deck, it's to keep your life high. The concept is self explanatory, gain life.

Tip #1- Have low mana cost creatures.
Being able to play early defenders is key for any deck, especially a deck that can't hold up too much defense for long.
Goldenglow Moth- It's a 0/1 for 1 mana, and whenever it blocks you gain 4 life.
Soul Warden- It's a 1/1 for 1 mana and you gain a life for each creature that enters the battlefield
Serra Ascendant- It starts off as a 1/1 with lifelink for 1 mana, but if you have over 30 life (which is pretty easy in a life gain deck) then you have yourself a 6/6 with lifelink and flying for 1 mana. Pretty darn good!
Kemba's Skyguard- Kemba is alright. 2/2 with flying for 3 mana. Whenever he enters the battlefield you gain 2 life!
Ajani's Pridemate- It's a 2/2 for 2 mana, and whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on it. In a life gaining deck, he can get massive and become your greatest ally.

Tip #2- Mass Life Gaining.
There are a few cards and combos that I have for mass life gaining. If you can constantly use their abiliies, you'll see your life soar into the hundreds.
Beacon of Immortality- Double your life total. That is amazing. Enough said.
Combo!
Ajani Goldmane +True Conviction+Wall of Reverence- First off you would use Ajani's +1 ability to gain 2 life. When you have enough loyalty counters on Ajani, then use his -6 ability to make a creature with its power and toughness equal to your life total. Then you play True Conviction, which gives your creatures double strike and lifelink. Then you play Wall of Reverence, which allows you to gain life equal to target creature's toughness every turn. So attack with Ajani's creature (let's say he is a 40/40) with double strike he will be dealing 80 damage, so you'll gain 80 life, and Ajani's creature becomes a 120/120. Then using Wall of Reverence's ability, you gain 120 life, and Ajani's creature is now a 240/240. You can do this infinitely until either you win, or your opponent concedes defeat due to such a gap in life.

Links were contributed by www.mtgfanatic.com

C-c-c-combo Breaker! The Infinite Myr/Infinite Mana Combo

Now this is what I call a combo! There are actually two combos here that I will explain. First off, you need to have a deck, preferably an artifact deck with mana producing Myrs.

I will explain the Infinite Mana Combo first. First off, you need to have either two single mana producing myrs (such as a Silver Myr and a Copper Myr) or a single Palladium Myr. Next, you need to have two Myr Galvanizers. Myr Galvanizers not only give all of your other myrs +1/+1 counters, but at the cost of one mana, you can untap every other myr you control. To get the infinite mana, here are the steps:

1) Tap your mana producing myrs, this will add mana to your mana pool.
2) Use one mama from your mana pool to activate one of your Galvanizer's ability to untap all the myrs you just tapped for mana.
3) Tap all of your mana producing myrs again to add the same amount of mana to your mana pool.
4) Repeat step 2 to untap all your mana myrs and your first Myr Galvanizer.
5) Keep repeating until you get as much mana as you want, there is no limit!

The next combo I will teach you is the Infinite Myr Combo. This combo is a game ending combo if successfully executed. For this combo, you will need once again your mana producing myrs (make sure with myrs you can produce up to 2 mana), only a single Myr Galvanizer, and a red enchantment called Splinter Twin. Here are your steps:

1) Attach Splinter Twin to the Myr Galvanizer.
2) Using Splinter Twin's ability, make a copy of Myr Galvanizer.
3) Since the copy of Myr Galvanizer has haste, you can use it's untap ability to untap all other myrs you control. This includes the mana producing myrs and the original Myr Galvanizer with Splinter Twin attached to it.
4) Tap your mana producing myrs to add mana to your mana pool.
5) Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 until you have as many Myr Galvanizers as you want (I usually just say 1000.)

If you can pull off this combo, the game is over. Your opponent is defenseless against an infinite amount of attacking creatures.

The links to the cards above were provided by www.mtgfanatic.com.

Jund Construction

Magic: The Gathering players construct decks based on the creatures and spells of the fictional realms in the game’s multidimensional setting. One of these dimensions, known as realms in the game, houses a variety of goblins, lizard-men and dragons. The realm of Jund provides a mountainous realm full of lightning and raging power from which players may draw their decks. Jund lends itself well to a fast attack strategy, employing massive dragons to win if the game lasts long enough to require overwhelming force.

1) Choose at least 20 fast attacking monsters. Goblins and Viashino lizard-men fit this spot quite nicely as they have low casting costs and high power. The Goblin Piker offers a two power and one defense creature for two mana, and Goblin Deathraiders possess three power and the trample ability at a similar cost. Other solid choices include the Raging Goblin and Viashino Sandstalker which can attack on the first turn they come into play.

2) Select 10 or more heavy hitting Jund monsters. Players often rely on the Flameblast Dragon and Shivan Dragon for their flying abilities and powerful special powers. Flameblast Dragon casts a direct damage spell each time it attacks and the Shivan Dragon’s power increases by one for every red mana spent on its fire breathing ability. Mycoloth can flood the field with smaller monsters, if it devours a large number of your fast attack troops and it gains two additional power and defense for every monster sacrificed this way.

3) Choose approximately 10 spells to deal with potential threats in the early stages of the game. Jund’s focus on red mana gives it access to powerful, variable casting cost, direct-damage spells such as Fireball and Blaze. The cheap damage spells Shock and Lightning Bolt can quickly remove small monsters cast by your opponent. The Obelisk of Jund artifact doesn’t do any damage, but including this card allows you to pull mana from any of Jund’s three elemental colors: red, black and green.

4) Add at least 12 mountain cards and four swamps and forests to your deck. Basic land cards provide the mana needed to cast your spells and creatures. Mountains produce the red mana for your goblins and dragons, while black and green mana are necessary for multicolored abilities.

The links for the cards were provided by http://www.mtgfanatic.com/.

Shards of Alara Deck: Grixis Domination

The fearsome, powerful land of Grixis of Magic: The Gathering. Led by the Planeswalker, Nicol Bolas, this Black, Red, and Blue deck is not one to be sneezed at. It takes all of the best assets from Black, Red, and Blue and puts them all into one deck. Burning, discarding, creature control, and big creatures is what people should expect when they play a Grixis deck. For Grixis, the main principal of the deck is an ability called "Unearth." Unearth allows the player to resurrect a creature at a very low mana cost. The creature gains haste and is able to attack and use abilities on the turn it was cast. At the end of the turn, you have to exile it. Now people may say that unearth sucks. It's understandable. Why would you want to exile a creature after one turns use when you could get it back some other way? Well there is a card called Kederekt Leviathan that will wipe the field when you play it. Now if you for some reason lose control of the situation and Kederekt Leviathan gets destroyed, then you can unearth him and wipe the field again! Not so bad now, huh?
Another common ability of Grixis creatures is Deathtouch. With Deathtouch, whenever the creature deals combat damage to the other creature, the other creature will die, no matter how strong it is. It's pretty self explanatory how useful Deathtouch can be. But now look at this card, Pestilent Kathari. It has the ability to gain First Strike, along with Deathtouch! A combo like that means that unless the other creature has First/Double Strike too, then your creature is immune to combat damage and will kill anything it touches without dying itself. That makes an amazing defender.

Here is a link to my very own Grixis deck: http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Decks/ViewDeck.aspx?ID=106223&Page=1&PageSize=25.

You can buy these cards at the website I have posted, which is www.mtgfanatic.com.

Mtgfanatic.com

I feel like I owe www.mtgfanatic.com this blog for all they do for their customers. I mean seriously, what other website allows you to write blogs about Magic: The Gathering for money? It's almost too good to be true. Well, it is true. People at MTG Fanatic really know how to make a customer happy. All of their prices are unbeatable, they have pretty much every magic related product of existence, and their rewards program is like a gift from God. No other website can compare. I honestly would not use another website to buy cards. And it's not just buying either. MTG Fanatic has a friendly community which has posting deck ideas or just simply posting forums about anything magic related. The decks posted can help beginners build their own decks or experts get ideas on combos or stuff like that. You can also create a forum on how much you like a certain deck or if you are confused on some rules about Magic: The Gathering. They also have this thing called a draft simulator, where you can join in on an online draft a create a deck from booster packs that are given to you. You can't actually keep the cards though, that would be too good of a deal! Now what if you don't want to buy cards, but have a pretty large collection gathering dust in the corner of your room? Then you can sell all your cards for cash or store credit! You'll be helping out the website by replenishing their stock, and you get money for it too! How great is that? I plan on using MTG Fanatic for all of my Magic card wants. Everyone else in the Magic community should do the same, because there's no place better to buy cards then there! So for all you readers out there, go to www.mtgfanatic.com and get started!

Three Ways to be Successful in a Two Headed Giant Game

First off, let me explain what a Two Headed Giant, in Magic: The Gathering, is. A Two Headed Giant is a 2v2 game where partners share a life total of 30 and also share blockers. Here are some ways one can be successful at winning these matches.
1) Make sure you choose a deck that can help your teammate out.

A good example of this is a life-gaining deck along with an aggro deck of any type. One teammate can sit back and constantly raise their life total while the other can constantly attack with their multitude of creatures.

A bad example of this is a burn deck along with a weak tribal deck, such as elves or myrs. The person with the weak tribal could be struggling to put out creatures, and may not have a lot of lands. Well the other person with the burn deck is feeling impatient, and your enemy is building a pretty large force, so he decides to cast "Destructive Force" (When this card comes into play, each player sacrifices 5 lands and 5 damage is dealt to every creature.) Congratulations Mr. Pyromaniac! You just killed off all of your partner's elves and now he has a single land that can produce mana. Good luck winning a 2v1 now!

2)If your teammate is struggling, try to divert the attention away from him to yourself.

Here is the situation. Your teammate has been getting no land cards for 13 turns. In his hand is a Damnation (Destroy all creatures on the field) that could come in handy now. One of your opponents have been making him put the top cards of his library into the graveyard and a few of those have been lands, which he needs one more to play Damnation. In your hand, you have a Grave Titan (6/6, Deathtouch. Whenever Grave Titan comes into play or attacks, you may put 2 1/1 zombie tokens onto the battlefield) which would make your opponents forget about your partner. Well sure enough, your opponents do forget about your partner, and he gets his last needed mana to play damnation. You cast Ghostaway on your Grave Titan (exile target creature, return it to the battlefield next turn) so it doesn't perish. You wind up winning the game from behind.

3)Try to combo with your partner to lead to a swift victory.

Combos in decks are hard to pull off. But when with a partner, it becomes easier, so why not try to take advantage of that while you can? If you can coordinate with your partner on when to use cards that work together, you're already one step ahead of your enemy.

Oh and by the way, if you want to buy cards, go to http://www.mtgfanatic.com/ : D

A 'Magical' Beginning

One day,  a nameless boy came up to his friend, John, who was play some card game.
"What is this you're playing, John? Don't tell me you've started to play Yu-gi-oh again?" Nameless said.
"Are you kidding me? This game ain't no Yu-gi-oh! This is Magic: The Gathering." John replied.
Nameless looked puzzled. "Magic? What is that?"
"Well Magic is a game where you, the player, or Planeswalker, wields a deck filled with spells that he or she can cast to defeat their opponent." John said.
"Hmmm sounds pretty cool, can I play one game?" Nameless asks.
"Sure! Here, you can use this deck. It's a Jund deck, which has the colors Black, Red, and Green."
Nameless and John play a game. John, playing with his superior Magnivore deck, easily defeats nameless.
"Man, that is tough!" Nameless exclaimed.
"Don't worry about it, it was your first game. Once you build your own deck, you can start winning more often." John said.
"Well John, where can I go get cards? I'm too lazy to go to Target or Toys R Us." Nameless said.
"I know just the place, it's a website called www.mtgfanatic.com! Here you can buy any Magic related product ranging between Single cards to entire booster boxes! And their prices are unbeatable!"
"Wow really? Could you help me make an account?" Nameless asks.
"No problem, lets go!" John said.
John and Nameless leave the room to go and start their experience with Magic: The Gathering, and it's top website, MTGFanatic.