Swamp Gas

 Hello my fellow swamp enjoyers! Bloomburrow is upon us, and so far it really does seem like the new set and rotation have blown the format wide open. Brews are flowing all up and down the ladder, and I couldn't be happier. The matches are interesting, the cards seem strong but not ubiquitous or bonkers like some of the cards that rotated, and it's been a wonderful return to form after our stagnant meta previously. While Midrange is always going to be my baby, and I'm going to continue tuning it, I wanted to get down my thoughts today on an absolute abomination of a deck that I brewed up on a whim the other day that... honestly works. It works really, really well, especially in a meta in flux where people aren't ready for you but you can basically be ready for anything. Presenting... Mono Black (Token?) Control! Since this is a control deck, talking about cards on the curve doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense. Instead, I'm going to talk about groupings of ca...

 Hello there swamp creatures! It's been a while since my last post, I know. Life's been coming at me a bit, and with a stagnating Standard format there wasn't really much call for Magic from me. But with both rotation and a new set on the horizon, it's high time we start brewin'! I'll have some brews up in the coming weeks now that all the cards have been spoiled, but in the meantime, I wanted to give you my Top 5 Cards for Mono-Black from Bloomburrow! (Note: I didn't say "the top 5 black cards", I said "the top 5 cards for Mono-Black". While this will usually mean black cards in general, there may be a sneaky pick in there. Stay tuned!) Honorable Mention: Rottenmouth Viper I've seen a lot of hype for this card online, and rightly so--this is a bonkers good card. Cost reductions on strong creatures, especially with ETBs, should not be ignored lightly, and this is no exception. We already had a ETB focused deck in standard before (aka ...

Whenever I'm in a Magic community or social gathering place and I start explaining Mono-Black card choices or deckbuilding strategies or its place in the meta, I always get asked the same question: "Why do you willingly choose to play Mono-Black when it seems like there's so many better options?" It's a valid question, and one I often forget I need to answer. I forget that people usually look at a deck with a strict lens of power-level: if it's not top tier, that must mean it's bad for some reason. Competitive players should only play the strongest deck, right? But things are rarely that black and white (pun intended). There's a reason we have tiers beyond S (or 1, depending on your ranking structures). There's a reason--many reasons, actually--that despite the fact that some deck may be the strongest in any given meta, not everyone's playing it. In fact, most format-health metrics tend to suggest that, if any given deck is being played too muc...

Welcome back to the Swamp! We had our first local tournament last week, which is always really fun when there's a new format. This is store is definitely a far cry from the 30+ crowds of Endangered Hobbies in Natick, MA, but Baxter's is a delightful store with a good community. There's not very much solid jank, so the players usually separate themselves into the very casual players and the more competitive players--and, given who we are, that means we actually face meta 90% of the time because our deck eats jank alive. On the to the updated list! ` I will come out and say that, given the current meta, this is the optimized version of this list. I've done a lot of iterations with some questionable card choices, but I've settled on this list after it all and I think it has the best chance. You can find my Untapped record here . The Cards Hopeless Nightmare Likely our best possible synergy with Braids, Hopeless Nightmare is a world of value and mana efficiency all wrap...

I have an apology to make, specifically to Rankle. This card is truly bananas. I should never have ignored it. Welcome back to Swamp Gas, where we continue to refine our Mono-Black Bargain list as we fight for our right to exist on the high mythic ladder. We dropped a fair amount since our apex of #319 due to excessive tinkering on my part, but with some actual real changes we've been on a 11-1 tear from about #1200 Mythic to top 350. And, really, it's all thank to this fellow. I'll talk about it in the notable changes to the list some more, but this card needs some more respect. The Updated List Only 2 Sheoldred? Heresy! you say. But not so, reader.  The Changes Cuts: Virus Beetle, Gumdrop Poisoner, a few copies of Sheoldred and Cut Down Adds: Rankle's Prank, Liliana of the Veil, Virtue of Persistence, Razorlash Transmogrant The Reasoning Let's start with the obvious: we're down to two copies of Sheoldred from our previous four, and the simple reason for that i...

 Ladies and gentlemen, we've done it again. Welcome to day 4 of Wilds of Eldraine Standard, and boy howdy is it a cool place to be. Contrary to what some of the doomsayers may have said, this format is incredibly diverse so far. While the first few days were dominated by Faeries and Dimir midrange, the final steps of my climb were against a vast array of colors and deck choices, and we had some crazy games. The final boss to Mythic, for example, was an absolute nailbiter against Mono-Blue Delver where we both had lethal attacks if opponent could topdeck the right card (not only did he fail to do that, he drew the worst possible: Flow of Knowledge with my Sheoldred on board). But we'll get to that in a bit. Here's the final version of the deck! Deck Overview:     Main Deck: 4 Hopeless Nightmare 3 Cut Down 3 Go For The Throat 3 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia, 3 Virus Beetle 2 The Witch's Vanity 4 Gumdrop Poisoner 3 Braids, Arisen Nightmare 2 Lord Skitter, Sewer King 4 She...