Blog Posts!
Anikthea, Hand of Erebos - Enchantress
January 27, 2025
About
Finally an Abzan Enchantress Deck. I have been wanting a good Enchantress commander in the Abzan colors for a while.
Goal
The goal of this deck is overrun this board with enchantments and tokens. Most of the enchantments are either there for value, I opted for saga's or other enchantments that remove themselves, so that they can be brought back as tokens by Anikthea.
Thrasios & Vial Smasher - Extra Turns
January 17, 2025
About
This deck was my first attempt at a deck that doesn't really have a plan or strategy. I decided I like Valgavoth better as heading up that idea of a deck. This deck then became how many turns can I take in a row and getting all those juicy vial smasher triggers.
Goal
The goal of the deck like previously stated is to take as many turns in a row as possible, and to get as many Vial Smasher triggers as possible in a turn. This can be done through cloning Vial Smasher, and casting some of the many extra turn spells in the deck. It is possible to go infinite using Charnelhoard Wurm to getting the Extra Turn spells out of the graveyard, or God-Eternal Kefnet and Scroll Rack to keep casting copies of extra turn spells.
Disa the Restless - Goyfs
January 7, 2025
About
This deck was made when I bought the Modern Horizons 3 Jund deck and was unable to decide which Commander to choose so I desided to split the deck in half and build Two Jund Decks. This is the Goyf kindred half of the deck.
Goal
The Goal of this deck is to create as many Tarmogoyf tokens as possible and to cheat as many other goyfs in the deck into play as possible. This deck is modeled after the class Jund modern deck.
New Year New Blog
January 1, 2025
Past Entries
Everything before this post was imported to the best of my ability from the old blog. Because of the way timestamps are stored and how document ids are generated in the Firebase database not everything was converted one-to-one but instead estimated to the date.
Going Forward
Everything going forward should be much easier to interface with, and should convert to other databases better because I have switch to SQL to store the server.
Pir & Toothy - +1/+1 Counters
December 23, 2024
About
This is a typical simic (blue/green) deck that wants to abuse the +1/+1 counters on toothy. This deck relies on the unique interaction Toothy has with blink spells to draw large amounts of cards.
Goal
The goal of this deck is to get Pir or another card the boosts tokens out as early as possible. Then once Toothy is on the battlefield and has some +1/+1 tokens on him, blink Toothy to draw a bunch of card. But because Toothy will be back on the battlefield before we are able to draw any cards off his own ability, he will (hopefully) end up with more counters than he did before being blinked.
Tymna & Tana - Rector Combo
December 13, 2024
About
This deck was built to fill the 32-deck constraint hole that was created when my Persist Deck was moved up to 5 colors. This deck is based heavily on cEDH deck of the same name.
Goal
The goal of this deck is to win with one of the different combos listed bellow:
- Splinter Twin & Goblin Sharpshooter: Tap Sharpshooter to create a token copy, kill a creature with the copy untapping both. You can than Tap the original Sharpshooter to make a new copy and than use one copy to hit an opponent for one and the other to kill the first copy. Untaping the original and clone again.
- The Jolly Balloon Man & Village Bell-Ringer + Any Mana Dork: Activate the jolly balloon man targeting the bell-ringer and paying the cost with the dork. The token copy will untap everything and allow you to make infinite 1/1 flying hast creatures.
- Kiki-Jiki & Any Untapper: Tap Kiki-Jiki to make a copy of the Untapper. When the Untapper enters untap Kiki-Jiki. Repeat with infinite tokens with haste.
The easiest route to a combo is to use Felidar Guardian and Karmic Guide to keep bouncing Vivien on the Hunt to tutor for anything we need. Or use a sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer to trigger Pattern of Rebirth to get Protean Hulk. Which can than also be sacrificed to get the Balloon Man combo.
Azami, Lady of Scrolls - Wizards
December 9, 2024
About
This was once upon a time going to be the mono-blue deck for my 32 deck challenge, but I couldn't keep it apart so here it is.
Goal
The goal of this deck is to get as many wizards onto the battlefield as possible, but instead of using them to overrun my opponents I use them to continually draw more cards and use one of the alt-win cons in the deck like Triskaidekaphile. There is an infinate combo in the deck involving Mind over Matter that draws you as many cards as you need with Azami on the battlefield.
Zaxara, the Exemplary - X spells
November 25, 2024
About
This is a fun deck that I wanted to put together as soon as I saw the commander previewed because I wanted to abuse its ability to produce two mana with untap effects like Pemmin's Aua. At first I was going to fill the deck with Hydra's but figured out it was better to rely on Zaxara's tokens for creatures and fill the deck with interaction that have X in their mana cost.
Goal
The goal of the deck is stall out the game long enough to draw into one of the untap effects that goes infinate. Once you have infinate mana you can than kill your opponents with a finisher spell of your choice like Torment of Hailfire.
Hakbal of the Surging Soul - Merfolk
November 15, 2024
About
This is a merfolk kindred deck that borders on the edge of a cEDH power level. Easily the strongest kindered deck that I have.
Goal
The goal of this deck is like every kindered deck, get as many whatever (merfolk) onto the battlefield as possible. What makes this deck so powerful is that Hakbal turns every merfolk into a value engine ontop of whatever else they do.
Pokemon Scarlet
November 15, 2024
I played this game on the cartridge that my wife got to play the game, but ended up not being interested in. The team was put together on my violet save by hatching them and giving them the desired Terra Types and abilities before transferring them to the Scarlet save through home.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
As stated above this team was put together mostly in the Violet DLC area and then transferred to the Scarlet save. This team is built mostly of Pokemon that I wanted to use in past games and didn't for one reason or another.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa - Phyrxians / Toxic
November 4, 2024
About
This deck is my attempt at an infect / toxic deck. I opted to go the toxic route (slowly build toxic counters among everyone) instead of the infect route (single person getting lethal infect counters in one hit) to prevent feel bad moments. The main problem with this deck is that people in my playgroup are still terrified of infect counters and will not let anything with toxic or infect to stay on the board long enough to matter.
Goal
As stated above the goal of this deck is to slowly kill everyone with infect counters by hitting them for small amounts and using proliferate effect to hopefully get them all to 10 infect counters. This deck also has a sub phyrexian kindred theme because all the cards with infect or toxic also have the phyrexian creature type.
Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter - Colorless
October 21, 2024
About
This is the colorless deck in my 32 deck challenge. This was probably the hardest deck to build as it is more battle-cruiser styled deck which is hard for me to play. Usually I play more interactive and combo-y decks.
Goal
The goal of the deck is to beat my opponents into submission with either my commander or one of the many large eldrazis in the deck. The trick of this deck is to play the eldrazis as late as possible in the turn order so that people don't see them coming.
Codie, Vociferous Codex - Turbo Naus
October 18, 2024
About
This is my whale of a cEDH deck, where as many cards as possible in the deck are either full art or Secret Lair cards.
Goal
The goal of the deck is "cascade" into Profane Tutor with Codie and a cantrip. Profane Tutor can find either Ad Nauseam or any missing combo pieces. The main combo of the deck is the classic Demonic Thorical.
Pokemon Legends Arceus
October 15, 2024
New Mechanics
Legends Arceus brought new mechanics to the Pokemon games. The Agile & Strong attack variants were a cool new layer to combat that I rather enjoyed. The other big mechanic is interacting with Pokemon in the wild to catch them rather than having to fight them to catch them. Lastly I prefer to grit mechanic to having to figure out which Pokemon to fight to increase the Pokemon's effort values.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
This team was built before I started my play through of the other games, so there wasn't much thought put into the team besides I thought they looked cool or Pokemon that were new to me.
Final Thoughts
Legends Arceus is a cool change of price that they keep up in other games. The open world areas were fun to explore is probably my favorite Pokemon game on the switch.
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King - Goblins
October 7, 2024
About
This deck once upon a time had the Shattergang Brothers as the commadner but it is hard to pass up on the amazing value and versatility that Korvold brings to the table.
Goal
The goal of the deck, like most goblin decks, is to flood the board with as many goblins as possible. If that fails, Korvold will eat any goblins that are left and we piviot from a wide strategy to a tall strategy.
Breeches & Malcolm: Storm
September 23, 2024
About
Can't stop with the meme decks this month. This deck is another meme because it is a Pirate kindred deck, with no pirates in the main deck. This deck came about when I was looking for a combat tricks deck to build and came across a reedit post, showing that the best pirates aren't the ones that attack but the ones that can ping your opponents for incremental damage.
Goals
The goal of the deck is to have both of the commanders on the battlefield and something like Guttersnipe turned into a pirate with something like Captain's Hook. Ideally every cantrip you play like opt nets more treasures and exiled card off the top of your library to keep playing more.
Rograkh & Thrasios: Polymorph
September 20, 2024
About
This deck is a bit of meme cEDH deck and also probably my favorite cEDH deck to play currently. The meme is that the only creatures in the deck (besides the commanders) are Hullbreaker Horror and Tidespout Tyrant.
Goal
The goal of the deck is to use one of the many polymorph effects in the deck to turn Rograkh or Thrasios into Hullbreaker Horror or Tidespout Tyrant. Once they are on the battlefield you can bounce any of the zero drop mana rocks and rograkh to your hand in a loop, creating infinite mana. You can than dump that mana into Thrasios to draw into either Brain Freeze or Grapeshot and kill your opponents with an infinite storm count.
Pokemon Violet
September 15, 2024
Gen 9
Full OPEN WORLD Pokemon game. I really enjoyed the open world concept of this game. I also liked that they kept the raids from Gen 8. I also think Terastilization is the best Pokemon gimmick so far.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
This team was build from before I started, but inspired my full play through. The same as my brilliant diamond team, this team was picked completely based on what I thought looked cool.
Final Thoughts
Gen 9 is a cool change to the Pokemon games, and it is what really brought be back to the games. It is also the generation the inspired me to replay all the past games that I missed. I will be playing/recording it a second time after completing all the other games.
Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim - Shdaowborn Apostles
September 9, 2024
About
This is a bit of meme deck that was featured on the Command Zone years ago. It just wants to put all the Shadowborn Apostles onto the battlefield.
Goals
The deck wins by slowly whittling away my opponents life with Elas il-Kor as a sacrifice and bring back all the different Apostles.
Brago, King Eternal - Blink
August 26, 2024
About
There isn't much to say about this deck other than it fits the Azorious(white/blue) requirements of the 32 Deck challenge.
Goals
The goal of this deck is to win by casting Approach of the Second Sun twice. It isn't the most original nor is it the most exciting deck, but it gets the job done. Also blinking Reality Acid can get pretty nasty.
Tom Bombadil - Divine Intervention
August 16, 2024
About
This deck has taken two forms. When the deck was first created it was headed by Ghen, Arcanum Weaver where it tried to cheat Divine Intervention from the graveyard.
Goal
The goal of this deck is not to win, but instead end the game in a Draw by using Divine Intervention. The deck is padded with saga's because removing counters from saga's is just good value until I can remove all the counters from Divine Intervention.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond
August 15, 2024
Brilliant Diamond was my second game back, and found it fun enough the first time. Nearing the end of the play through I felt no need to replay the game again.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
I chose Infernape as my starter because it looked cool, went with Gyarados because I remembered it being cool. Jirachi was free from having another game save file, and it was gen 3 mythic and cool. Everything on my team was chosen simply becasue I thought it is/was/or looked cool.
Isu the Abominable - Snow
August 12, 2024
About
The main goal of this deck was to build the strongest snow themed deck that I could. Isu seemed like a good option because it is a Snow permanent (on theme), cares about other snow permanents (nice) and also lets me play snow cards from the top of my library (value).
Goal
The goal of this deck is to just play as many snow permanents as I can to power up Isu as best I can. There is a sub theme of +1/+1 counters to help power up Isu faster as he does tend to get removed often.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician - Aristorcrats
July 29, 2024
About
This deck is kind of a streamlined version of the Persist Deck that tries to do what black does best. Sacrifice my creates and life to get the most value.
Goals
There are a bunch of cheap creatures and token generators to create fodder to be sacrificed to Yawgmoth, allowing me to draw cards.
There are 3 infinate combos, and 1 backup bomb, that this deck tries to use to win:
- Putting -1/-1 counters of Geralf's Messenger to counteract its Undying ability, this requires a token generator like Blight Mound to work.
- Using Nest of Scarabs to continuously put -1/-1 counters on your opponents creatures to kill them off and using Blood Artist to keep your life up and your opponent's life down.
- Keep casting Sensei's Top off the top of your library with Bolas's Citadel and Aetherflux Reservoir to gain a bunch of life and blast your opponents to death.
- The big bomb of the deck is to bring play or bring back Phyrexian Delver bringing back Mike, immediately sacrificing the Delver so that when Mike brings it back it can bring back Gary (twice with Mike) to deal at least 14 damage to each opponent, hopefully more with more devotion to black on the battlefield.
Godo, Bandit Warlord - Helm of the Host
July 19, 2024
About
This deck doesn't have much of history other than I like to do degenerate combos, and was looking for a mono-red deck to construct for the 32 deck challenge.
Goal
This is another deck with a simple goal, get Helm of the Host onto Godo. There are a verity of methods in the deck to shortcut the mana costs of doing this like using clones to get Hammer of Nazahn and Helm in a single turn and attach it immediately.
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
July 15, 2024
About
This deck started out as an early cedh deck that had Arcum Dagsson as its commander. It was slowly getting power crept and was eventually refreshed into Emry. For a short while I had it as my mono-white deck with Teshar as the commander. I decided that wasn't for me and brought it back to where it belongs in mono-blue.
Goals
This is another deck with a simple goal, fill the graveyard with artifacts, bring them back to go infinite. The execution of that plan is not as simple, relying on non artifact cards like Mirran Spy to untap Emry to go infinite.
Pokemon Shield
July 15, 2024
Gen 8
This is my first Pokemon game back after not playing since the GameBoy. I liked the mix of open fields and classic routes with trainers. I also really liked being able to play Pokemon on my TV and in bed because of the cool abilities of the switch. I also enjoyed participating in the raids in the open fields on and off again.
After playing all the other games, I reset and restarted this game and also picked up the DLC's for the game.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
Similar to Unova, none of the starters really called out to me, and I choose the fire starter because I hadn't used one recently. For the rest of my team I was excited to use Toxtricity and Dragapult again because I had acquired them on my first play through. I also excitedly brought in my Beldom from Alpha Sapphire to evolve into a Metagross thanks to the DLC being added.
Final Thoughts
Gen 8 was my first game back, and I didn't like the Dynamaxing at first. After playing the other games, I liked how Dynamaxing affected the multiplayer aspect of the game but felt about it similarly to Mega-evolution's as only okay in the main game.
Myrel, Shield of Argive - Stax
July 1, 2024
About
White was the last color that I was able to settle on when working on my mono-colored decks. I tried multiple different things, including equipment's fronted by Sram, and cheerios fronted by Teshar. But in the end, I decided to go with a stax deck and just let white do what it does best.
Goal
The goal of the deck is simple, slow down or even stop my opponents from doing what they want to do, and continually hit them hard with my commander and the many tokens she creates. Play as many stax pieces as early as you can, in my experience people will target those more with removal in the early game leaving your deck to do what it wants to do with Myrel.
Pokemon Ultra Sun
June 30, 2024
Gen 7
This generation, or rather region, comes with more changes to the main Pokemon routine. I am excitedly finally done with the requirement of HM's. I both enjoy the challenges instead of Gyms, but missed fighting with a gym leader at the end of the challenge. I also felt that the requirement of the Z-move item take the Pokemon held item slot took away from the game more than it added, with the Z-moves themselves kind of underwhelming.
I jumped right to the utlra version of this game to play the additional content without having to replay essentially the same game twice.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
My team building this generation was kind of lazy, not really sure of what to go with at the start of the game. I ended up going back and grinding for a female salandit so that I could evolve it; after playing with a male for while and not realizing it couldn't evolve. I also played with a furfrou for a good chunk of the game, and eventually swapped it for an Alolan form Pokemon (Ninetales).
I also found the power jump to fight Necrozma to be a bit steep and not as fun as the power jump for Cynthia in Platinum. I ended up wining by using Zorua that used toxic because it could survive the first attack and just waited for the poison to work.
Final Thoughts
The seem to be running thin on ideas to refresh Pokemon, and it hinders the game in my opinion. Overall this or Pokemon White might be my least favorite from the DS era of games, Platinum still being my favorite of all the Pokemon Games, and Alpha Sapphire being a close second.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - Tutor on a Stick
June 28, 2024
About
This deck is what I decided to make for mono-green when completing the 32 Deck challenge. When working on the challenge I decided to make the decks for the mono-color use old bordered cards as much as possible.
Goal
This deck revolves around being able to untap Yisan with its ability on the stack and tap it agian to search for two cards at the same time with a mana value of 4. The cards in question are Karametra's Acolyte and Temur Sabertooth. You can then untap Karametra and Yisan using effects like Wirewood Symbiote and bouncing the untapers making infinate mana. Than Yisan can be bounced to your hand to cast again alowing you to search for anything in your deck and then overruning with cards like End-Raze Forerunners.
Smeagol, Helpful Guild
June 17, 2024
About
This deck is based around "the ring tempts you" effect from the Lord of the Rings set.
Goal
The goal of the deck is to get tempted by the ring as much as possible to steal lands off the top of my opponents library.
There is an infinite combos in the deck based around Dunedain Rangers where when a land enters the battlefield creates a creature with a card like Scute Swarm and triggering the Dunedain Rangers. Make the new token your ring bearer, triggering Smeagol to steal a land. With that ability on the stack sacrifice the token to something like Viscera Seer so that the Dunedain Rangers can trigger again, and keep the ball rolling.
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire
June 15, 2024
This game is my favorite of the remakes so far (including Brilliant Diamond). This might be because the original ruby/sapphire games, the games I played the most as a kid, are some of the most nostalgic games for me. I also really enjoyed the additional Delta post game content that was added.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
Similarly to Heart Gold, I chose my started based on the fact that I did not use it on the original play through. In fact I choose all my Pokemon from Pokemon that I had not yet used in other games. I couldn't pass up on using the shiny ralts.
Marchesa, the Black Rose - Arcbound
June 3, 2024
About
This deck is another deck with a build constraint. It could easily just turned into another aristocrats deck, but instead it focuses specifically on artifacts. All the arc bound creatures already enter with +1/+1 counters making them an easy add for Marchesa. But i decided to focus on effects that cared about sacrificing artifacts or triggering when artifacts die, instead of the traditional aristocrat spells.
Goal
As stated previously the goal of this deck is to have the arcbound creates power each other up by dieing and coming back at the end of the turn.
Pokemon Heart Gold
May 30, 2024
This game was a good mix of challenging and revisiting the same game. I found the pacing of the base game to be great, and found the post game to be challenging without needing to grind to much for Red.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
I got the shiney eevee from the mystery gift events
My team from the start was designed to fight red, cutting down on the grinding needed to get to the fight against red. I choose totodile/feraligatr as my started because I had already chosen cyndaquil/typhlosion as my starter in my crystal play through. I also choose umbreon as my eeveelution because I had already used espeon in crystal.
I was not execting reds team to change between the two games, and wasn't exactly ready for the lapras that had blizzard that couln't miss, but Ampharos made quick work of it, and didn't have much need of Umbreon. Other than that, I had a counter for everything on his team.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - Pox
May 20, 2024
About
This deck started out as a blind discard set, and just shutting my opponents out of playing the game, with no end goal. The deck never won because someone would draw some removal and you where left with nothing just like everyone else.
Goal
The end goal of the deck is to use Worldgorger Dragon with a reanimate effect like Animate Dead to create in infinate bounce loop with Kroxa on the battlefield.
The Gitrog Monster - Dredge
May 17, 2024
About
This is one of my first attempts at a cEDH deck.
Goal
The goal of this deck is to go infinite by discarding or sacrificing land cards and triggering Gitrogs draw ability. Possibly replacing that with dredge cards in the graveyard, ideally Dakmor Salvage to discard it again, and keep the loop going. The deck wins by putting the graveyard back into the library with the Eldrazi titans and casting Ebony Charm every time you go through the library.
Pokemon X
May 15, 2024
Gen 6
I loved seeing the full jump to 3D animation instead of the half 3D half 2D that generation 5 had. I also enjoyed messing with the 3ds stereoscopic settings even if it is just a gimmick. Mega evolutions were not nearly as awful as I was expecting, but not amazing either. I get what they were trying to do to change up the game.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
I went with a pretty basic team, and it was fun to get to choose a Kanto starter too near the start of the game. I wasn't really looking for many Pokemon, with the exception of choosing Gardevoir for the new Fairy typing, and instead I just stuck with the ones that the game gave me. I am still annoyed with having to mess around with HM's and I am excited to see them go next generation.
Final Thoughts
X felt very short after playing Black 2. But I really enjoyed the details that went into making the game fully 3D.
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born - Zombies
May 6, 2024
About
This deck is a basic zombies kindred deck.
Goal
A simple deck that wants to play as many zombies as possible to do a bit of overrun or to power Grimgrin.
Pokemon Fire Red
May 1, 2024
This game marks the start of the remake play through. Going back to gen 3 was a change, but this is another game that I have played a lot of. My constraint for this game was to play with only flying types, or Pokemon that would become flying types.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
Beedrill is an honorary flying type so that I could easily have access to cut. I stuck with Butterfree for longer that I thought, and even considered keeping her instead of going with Fearow to the elite four. I also made sure to get Gyarados as early as possible by buying a magikarp from the guy outside of rock tunnel.
Besides the grind for Gyarados and Aerodacty, this game was incredibly easy, probably because I had played it so much previously. Also catching Zapdos was kind of a pain.
Pokemon White & Black 2
April 30, 2024
Gen 5
I can see why people say that generation 5 feels like a soft reboot. There is defiantly a shift in the game that I don't quite know but its different then the previous generations building on the last one. I found the mix of 2D sprites and 3D models to be a bit jarring at first. I wasn't able to play Black 2 immediately after playing white and I think that skews my opinion of the generation.
White was one of my least favorite games on my play through but Black 2 is one of my favorites. My biggest complaint of this generation is that my teams didn't feel complete when I got to the elite four in both games.
White
White felt like an incomplete game to me, and the ending of the story felt rushed. My team was mid to upper 40's when I reached the elite four and felt under powered for what my teams were like in the other games. On top of that, the game is over before I have explored half of the map, and wasn't able to find the TM's for moves that I was missing on my team.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
Like I said above, my team doesn't feel complete. Samurott is missing Ice Beam, Victini is missing Psychic, and the only reason Krookodile learned Earthquake is because I pored all my rare candies into her. Besides the missing moves, I really liked the team I had thrown together. I left my sixth spot open for my HM pokemon, even though it ended up being unnecessary.
Black 2
Black 2 felt much more complete, and finished up the story for white nicely. But I was still unable to get all the moves I wanted again. I also liked the level curve of this game more, making it more challenging then past generations without any large jumps.
My Team
Can be viewed here
While my team was able to reach higher levels this play through, I was still missing Earthquake on Seismitoad and Calm Mind on Gothitelle. I also traded Seismitoad over from White because it was a Pokemon that I wanted to use in White but cut it for more type coverage. This time I had the HM moves on my team, and removed them with the move deleter before taking on the elite four.
Final Thoughts
I feel like gen 5 is over hyped, currently gen 4 is my favorite of the franchise. Together White and Black 2 feel like a mostly complete game but separately left me disappointed.
Missy - Morph
April 22, 2024
About
This is another deck that has had multiple iterations over they years. It started out with Animar, Soul of Elements as the commander of the deck. I was excited to play Krosan Cloudscraper in the deck, which was teh big bad back when I first played the gaem. When Kadina, Slinking Sorcerer came out, I added a black to the deck but it never really ran the way I wanted it too. When Missy came out I was reluctant to remove green and the Cloudscraper but the deck finally ran the way I envisioned.
Goals
The goal of this deck is accrue value by turning face down cards face up with the morph ability. And then to turn those creatures back face down one way or another. Thankfully Missy can turn those creatures back down for me, and when I morph them, they stop being artifacts allowing for Missy to turn them back face down again easily.
I accidentally came across an infinite combo with Ruthless Ripper and Heartless Summoning. I turn Ruthless Ripper face up by revealing a black card in my hand, it can't survive the -1/-1 effect and dies instantly, only to be brought back by Missy. Once it is a cyberman I can morph it again and repeat the process.
Pokemon Platinum
April 15, 2024
Gen 4
Generation four really feels like the accumulation of everything that the previous generations wanted to be. Move types and categories are more important now that they aren't correlated. Pokemon feel more unique then they ever have now that you can (for example) have both a physical water type Pokemon and a special water type Pokemon. Instead of having a Physical type attacker that happened to be a water type
My Team
Can be viewed here.
This team is really my first well rounded team, I didn't feel like I didn't have a good answer for any Pokemon, except for Spiritomb but fairy types don't exist yet. Staraptor was a real champion for gyms 2 - 4, I feel almost guilty that it turned into the Pokemon that takes a hit so I can heal my other Pokemon in the elite four. Floatzel was the other champion of the team being able to almost single handily taken on the elite four by himself. I ended up with a whole fleet of Bibarels knowing a variety of HM moves, I recorded just the one I used to get through Victory Road.
Final Thoughts
This game was almost a first for me, its the first Pokemon game that I have not explicitly played. But I have already played brilliant diamond, effecting the starter that I chose. I am also finding that I am starting to get tired of HM's now that Pokemon are able to learn a real variety of moves, I was real reluctant to put fly on Staraptor.
Platinum might be one of my favorite Pokemon games; with a real variety of moves and Pokemon to choose from, good pacing, and a challenging ending/Elite Four.
Arcades, the Strategist - Walls
April 8, 2024
About
This is a basic deck that wants to play as many walls as possible to keep drawing more walls. And then counterintuitively attack with those walls.
Goals
The goal of this deck is to play Arcades as soon as possible, and to keep him safe with boots because he wont be sticking around. Than play as many walls as possible and draw more cards. And finally, attack with the previously mentioned walls.
Ishai & Kraum - Flaying Hatebears
March 18, 2024
About
This is one of the first decks I made that had a different build constraint outside of having the same creature type. The constraint of this deck is that the cards in this deck should be either hatebears that also have flying or cards that support the flying hatebears.
Goals
The goal of this deck is to use hatebear cards like Archon of Emeria to slow my opponents down and then hit them in the sky with all the flying creatures.
Pokemon Ruby
March 15, 2024
Gen 3
I don't remember their being as much of a change between the games as their is between gen 2 and gen 3. There is of course the huge upgrade to the box system. Abilities and Natures are added which add a whole new dynamic to the game. Picking up and planting berries and hideouts were also added to the journey across the region. Tho I never replanted any of the berries that I picked.
There are some difference between physical and non physical attacks that don't seem to line up with physical and special stats. For example using fire punch on a Pikachu with the static ability might leave you paralyzed, but still uses the special attack stat.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
Because I have played this game so much in the past I opted to play in a 'nuzlock style', only catching the first Pokemon I found on each route but opted to kept using them even if they fainted. The only exception was catching both Abra in the same cave after catching Aaron, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to play with Alakazam. There are some short comings for my team again, most notably against ice typing. I also failed to include any fighting type moves, but that is much less punishing in this game.Linoone, Tropius, and Gyarados where used for access to the different HM moves, and pick up on Zigzagoon/Linoone was ridiculous.
Final Thoughts
The end game was also more difficult then I remember, but that might be because I rushed through the ocean part of the game instead of exploring and getting lost like you are supposed to. The game was just as fun as I remembered it being, and it makes me excited to play new generations that I have not yet had the opportunity to play.
Omnath, Locus of Creation - Landfall
March 4, 2024
About
This is a classic landfall deck built during the return to return to Zendikar.
Goals
The deck plans to win by gaining an overwhelming amount of value through the different landfall effects. Because I couldn't help myself there is an infinite combo with Ruin Ghost and Retreat to Coralhelm were one can infinity flicker a land that taps for white, there by creating an infinite number of landfall triers.
Myrkul, Lord of Bones - Slivers
Febuary 19, 2024
About
This is a classic silver deck that instead of using a five color commander uses a commander that keeps them around when they die.
Goal
Say its sliver time and then sliver all over the place.
Pokemon Crystal
Febuary 15, 2024
Played on the 3DS virtual console.
Gen 2
There are so many quality of life upgrades that came with gen 2. Things like being able to use HM's without needing to open the menu. The pack being separated into categories. An improvement to the sprites and user interface. There was a huge improvement to the sounds in the game too.
Also held items getting added is a nice feature.
My Team
Can be viewed here.
This is the team that I used to defeat Red. I had a hard counter for everything on his team except for his Snorlax, and ended up relying on the Toxic. My team to defeat the elite four, consisted of only Typhlosion, Victreebel, Gyarados, and Espeon, with Togetic there for Fly.
Similarly to yellow, I wish I had planned a little better and had a fighting type to really close the coverage gap of normal types.Lastly, Bellsprout and Tentacruel are there for the HM moves Cut, Flash, and Whirlpool.
Final Thoughts
Gen 2 had a lot of features that I thought that I remembered being in Gen 1. The game is a huge improvement and a lot of fun to play. Looking back on it, it is impressive how much they were able to fit into the game considering how limited the first games had been.
The Twelfth Doctor & Susan Foreman
Febuary 5, 2024
About
This is a much newer deck that I built around Capaldi's The Twelfth Doctor, who looks super cool riding a tank and playing the guitar.
Goal
The goal of the deck is to demonstrate either a pact spell that my opponents wont be able to pay the cost of, or a glorious end spell that causes them to lose the game. It plays around with a lot of the paradox payoff stuff in the mean time.
Pokemon Game Journey & Pokemon Yellow
January 30, 2024
Pokemon Game Journey
After playing the new Pokemon games after not playing sense generation 3 on the Game Boy advance, I decided that I wanted to go back and play all the past mainline Pokemon games in order.
Pokemon Yellow Version
Played on the 3DS virtual console.
Fun fact: Pokemon yellow was the first Game Boy Color game that I ever had!
Gen 1
Generation one is more rough then I remember, sleep, paralysis, and confusion are much more brutal then they are in later games. Effects like wrap keep you from attacking. And poison and psychic types are overpowered. Also needing to open your Pokemon menu to use an HM is annoying.
My Team
Can be viewed here. I used the glitch at Nugget Bridge to catch Mew. My team could have been a little better if I had planned a little better. (A theme that will continue) Maybe gone with Haunter instead of Nidoking would have given me a better type coverage (looking at you Alakazam). I also think giving Blastoise body slam would have been smarter than giving it to Pikachu. Then Pikachu could have used swift and Mew could have kept tri-attack. For the moves that everyone does have, it is mostly for type coverage or so that I don't have to keep swapping out Pokemon to use HM's. I wanted to make sure I had a psychic type, something that knows earthquake, and swift for when my opponents had minimized into oblivion. I was also hopping to get Venusaur to learn sleep powder, but never got to a high enough level.
Lastly, I used Buterfree for flash in Rock Tunnel and to put Mew to sleep to make it easier to catch.
Final Thoughts
The first generation of Pokemon, while still fun, does not hold up as much as I remembered. The team I assembled was felt classic but was hindered from the lack of move options.
Kenrith, the Returned King - Persist Combo
January 22, 2024
About
This is another one of my earliest decks, it started out as Abzan colors (Black/White/Green) with Karador, Ghost Chieftain as the commander. I was attempting to recreate the old modern Birthing Pod deck. Over time the deck has slowly acquired colors to gain more access to more creates with persist.
Goal
The goal of the deck to combo of by killing creatures that have persist, bringing them back with or hopefully without -1/-1 counters so that I can keep killing them over and over again to gain value or kill my opponents.
Rhys the Redeemed - Elf Ball
January 8, 2024
About
This is my first EDH deck that started out as the Mono Green pre-construted deck from 2014. I eventually changed it over to Green-White with Dragonlord Dromoka where the goal was to use the elves to ramp into big creatures. Eventually I cut out most the big creatures for overrun cards that turned all the small elves into big creatures. That is when Rhys the Redeemed to the helm of the deck.
Goal
The premise of the deck is simple, play as many elves that you can, create as many elf tokens as possible, and then overrun my opponents. Some of the untap effects can go infinite allowing for easy wins.