Spoils of Victory #1: Liliana

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

It have been dire times, I haven't had the inspiration to write something on here, neither magic-related nor anything regarding veganism. But I'm back again, emerging from the darkness to bring you my take on one of the two cards that have been spoiled from the upcoming set Magic Origins so far:

Quite the start I'd say, so let's start with our new black commander option:

Liliana, Heretical Healer

Exciting things first: She is the first of the Innistrad-style flip-cards that you can play as a commander if I recall correctly! There were some Kamigawa ones that you can play, and some of them are quite playable but correct me if I'm wrong the only card that was legendary on both sides from Innistrad-block was Elbrus, the Binding Blade which isn't a creature on the front unfortunately. In addition to that she also is the first Planeswalker that can be played as a commander that wasn't printed in a commander-specific set. So you can say she's quite the pioneer in necroman... ehhh special card types as a commander. But enough of interesting facts and magic-card-history, we're here to pose a simple question: "Can one break Liliana, and if so how?"

While I can't think of a way to completely go nuts with her, the value she has to offer is quite huge. The thing is: To make her flip consitently you need to somehow incorporate a sacrifice theme into your deck, but to use the planeswalker-side effectively a reanimator style of deck would suit best. On a sidenote, as long as you have a way to sacrifice a creature at instantspeed, you'll have a way to dodge almost every removal-spell since she blinks herself while flipping which can come in very handy. 

So let's look at some of the cards one could run with her at the helm, that fit both of her sides:

Imagine a line as follows: You have a nice reanimation target in hand and Liliana in play. Play Sidisi, exploit herself, search your library for a reanimation spell, flip Liliana, +2-Ability and discard said reanimate-target, play reanimation spell. And the funpart is: If you sacrificed Sidisi for her own Exploit-Trigger, she will be sitting in your graveyard waiting for you to reanimate her, which should not be too unrealistic since the deck is built for reanimating things. The only thing that would be even nicer is her not being legendary since that would mean you can reanimate her with Liliana, but hey... can't have it all.

Basically Shriekmaw, and Vulturous Aven work the same way, you play them to die immediately making your Liliana flip while also providing a neat effect. And the upside over Sidisi is, that they'll sit in the graveyard waiting to get revived by Liliana herself someday, providing another trigger.
And if you ever manage to hit her Ultimate, all these creatures get so insanely good, I can't even put it into words. Especially Sidisi, which turns into a "At the beginning of each end step, Demonic Tutor". 

Moving on. Since Liliana offers a nice 2/2 Zombie when flipping, why not fully take advantage of that:

A really impactful reanimation spell, some card draw to counteract the discard ability, or a free creature when discarding it (that you might use then to draw even more cards with Carnage Altar). Speaking of Greavecrawler, I can see incorporating a Zombie-subtheme into the deck since they have the tendency to come back from the graveyard which works really well with both the needed dying for Liliana to flip and the discard ability of her planeswalker form.

Speaking of her discard ability. Since this is focused towards multiplayer, the ability is already better than normal because even though you loose a card to it, ALL your opponents do aswell. Of course that is by no means comparable to a 1 for 4/5/6/... in 1v1 but still it is better than a 1 for 1 for sure. But why not take it to the extremes, not only using it as a discard outlet for reanimation targets but other means to cheat in cards and gain card advantage aswell:

All the keywords you'd ever want: Madness, Flashback, Unearth. I admit, playing Increasing Ambition for 5 first and then for 8 is the better line in the long run, but let's say you draw the card late and need excactly two specific cards right now... A quick +2 later and you're ready to flashback it for 2 cards not having to cast it normally first while also making your opponents loose a card. Oh and Corpse Connoisseur is basically a placeholder for any reanimation target you'd like... Discard like you would do with your target, unearth and here we go, the desired card is waiting in your graveyard to get put into play. And yeah, your opponents lost a card as well...

There are many other cards out there that will work really well with more than one aspect of Liliana, but let's not forget how well EDH-All-Stars work:

Sacrifice Solemn to trigger her flip, draw a card, and the next turn revive it with -4 to gain yet another land and most likely another draw at some point. Play Fleshbag to flip and revive if you need a second creature gone immediately by -3ing, which does kill Liliana, but hey desperate times and stuff. And to be honest I can imagine letting her go to the graveyard isn't that uncommon in the deck as well. And then there is Disciple of Bolas. Triggers her flip while probably drawing 3 cards or more which will help finding cards to discard later on. And after a while he will probably hit the bin and sit there until you feel the need for cards and lifepoints again.

Now everytime you build a deck around a versitile card like Liliana you should check if the cards will also work together if you - for some reason - have no access to your commander for some amount of turns (due to the table realizing how broken your deck is if you untap with it for example).
What you will see is that the cards synergize really, really well! Solemn Simulacrum is quite the card with Carnage Altar, Fleshbag Marauder and Sidisi love Gravecrawler, Sidisi tutoring for Disciple then playing said Disciple sacrificing Sidisi is a respectable line and Corpse Connoisseur has been the businesspartner of various reanimation spells for decades. And Increasing Ambition or Shriekmaw are pretty much standalone cards anyway.

Bottom line: If you're looking for an opportunity to build a mono-black EDH but don't know what commander to choose, wait a few weeks and preorder a copy of Liliana because the deck matches the three Vs of important deck criterias:

1. Variety in playstyle and gameplan
2. Value as a playstyle and gameplan
3. Vun because of Variety and Value

That's it for the first card of the current Magic Origins Spoiler, I hope you enjoyed it aaaaand...

See y'all 'round!

FTB Infinity #2.5 - Recording Derp

Archetyping #3: Politics/Punisher

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

As most of us will already be aware of, there is a big political factor in every multiplayer game. For example, sometimes you can let an opposing creature live just because it is not attacking you but one of your opponents. And that's only the top of the iceberg. Maybe you even have an on-board way of dealing with it, so the controller of said creature even gets to know that you're letting it live. Those type of cards are called "rattlesnake"-cards because - just like a real rattlesnake - the card will say openly: "Here I am, but as long as you don't attack me, I won't either!" How about some examples:

In most formats, cards like these never see much play since there's (almost) always a card that does the same but is an instant. And so - with the exception of Pernicious Deed that get's played in Legacy to some degree - they don't see any play for a good reason since information is valuable and being able to maybe see it coming allows you to plan ahead as an opponent. But why are those cards good in multiplayer-EDH now?
The real question you should ask is:What is different? Well, first of all and most importantly you don't have only one but multiple opponents. That allows each player to choose who to attack, a choice you don't get in 1v1 because there it's either attack or not.
And second, as we all might know, sometimes "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". In a perfect scenario you'll never have to commit your own creatures to the battlefield because some amount of rattlesnake-cards will ensure that your opponents kill eachother while you stay untouched.

While pretty useful for any deck in general, you can even build decks that try to use cards like these as their main gameplan along with other categories of political cards which I will show you later down the line. I call them Politics-/Punisher-Decks depending on how they are structured. So let's look at how you could build such a deck.

The Politics-Deck

This is the more controly version of the two that tries to make everyone fight each other over ressources while always getting the most value out of the deal without anyone noticing. This will involve "semi-kingmaker"-cards as I would call them...

...since they benefit you and an opponent of your choice. But what keeps your chosen opponent from attacking you with the newly given ressources? Nothing. The thing is that the rest of the table will most likely start to kill his creatures, attack his lifetotal etc. because he became the most dangerous player. And as always, whenever you draw 2 cards, you will loose 3 creatures, whenever you gain 5 life you will loose 10, etc... So when all is set and done you'll not only have distracted the focus of the table from you but directed it towards one poor soul while you still got value (destroyed an enchantment, hit someone for 4, drew some cards, etc.). 

Talking about controlling, the focus of the table. Besides lifting someone up so the fall will be worse, you can simply "offer" rewards for not attacking you. Let's call them "bounty"-cards (as in setting a bounty on everyone elses heads) for now. What they do is not prevent your opponents attacks but make attacking someone else more appealing.

One thing to be aware of when putting cards like these into your deck, is that once you offer too much value bad things could happen. Especially this gentleman on the left can be a big trap, since more often than not the first player that gets to untap with a bunch of creatures in play will do something along the lines of:

1) He attacks one of your opponents

2) Draws a boatload of cards

3) Plays removal on Edric so noone else gets to draw cards

4) Profit!

Depending on the competitiveness of your playgroup Edric can transform into a semi-kingmaker that way and make said player public enemy #1 but in more competitive environments the player that drew those cards will just be strong enough to fight through it or even got to draw his combo and wins on the spot (which was of course not the plan!). So always be careful and try to keep a balance between offering enough benefits for players to actually do what you want them to, but not so much that they will be able to win with it.

Up to this point we've found cards to make players stronger in order for them to become focused, and we've discussed cards that will offer a reward for attacking certain players. So lastly we have "fortress"-cards, the main reason some decks are called "Pillowfort". Those will not say "Attacking XY is more benefitial" but simply "Attacking ME is less benefitial, so better go somewhere else", basically setting an inverted bounty on your head. Let's look at some of them:

Sure, loosing one life or paying 2/3 mana isn't a lot, but why bother when you could attack someone else for free? The only reason one could have to attack you is if you board is that much better than anyone elses but since all our cards seem not very threatening that will hardly be the case.

If you now combine those 4 card-types (Rattlesnake, Semi-Kingmaker, Bounty and Fortress) into one deck - built to utilize them to their maximum efficiency - you should get a deck that will NEVER be the strongest on the table at any situation but will still win a fair amount of matches by avoiding attacks, diverting them somewhere else, indirectly killing people because you "helped" them and then casting a gameending card or simply finishing off the remaining people with your general:

I'm not saying Mind Grind or Debt to the Deathless will always end the game, but they definitely have the potential of being a "one-card-combo" that wins you the game on the spot.

THE PUNISHER-DECK

Now if you're not about that "relying-on-others" kind of life, but still want to use some of the dynamics of political play this might be up your alley a little more: The Punisher-Deck. While the Politics-Deck tries to control the flow of the game via bounties, "helping" people and offering benefits for not attacking it, the Punisher-Deck is going for a more aggressive approach, relying on your own cards to kill people. Basically a Punisher-Deck tries to still make people rather attack someone else, but at the same time try killing people on its own by using their own unfair cards against them...

Opponent drew a bunch of cards (preferrably with Necropotence)? Kiki-Jiki + Restoration Angel threatening the table? Opponent threatening to kill you with a fattie? All of these scenarios will hurt a lot,... but not you. And at the point where people start doing those really broken things they often don't even have enough life to survive these spells.

But since for your deck to function you'll need your opponents to be at a lifetotal where you can burn them dead if they try something fishy. Let's look at what we can come up with:

Now while Sulfuric Vortex and other cards that simply damage every player are an option, they also make you a target because they do hurt after a while and everyone will know where it is coming from. Inferno on the other hand is "just a massremoval" and happens to have this "veeeery unfortunate" side-effect of damaging every player.

Combined with the above mentioned cards that encourage attacking and even help with dealing more damage you should be able to decrease the lifetotals of your opponents to a point where they feel like doing something broken is the only way to still win this game...... while the exact opposite might be the better thing to do.

Now what to choose for a commander for both of these decktypes? For Politics.dec the commander isn't that important for the decks as he/she/it is for my decks normally. Making sure you have all the tools you need for your meta-game and having your general provide the colors is far more important than actually synergizing. Coloridentity and a (big) body to close out the game are the things you'll want to look at first.

While a big body is still nice to have, the Punisher-Deck will be grateful for some synergy if you manage to have all the colors you want.

As mentioned before, these types of decks work best in a well known environment. If you know that noone plays infinite-creature-combos and there are very little Avengers of Zendikar to be expected you might not need to play black for Rakdos Charm and Stronghold Discipline. If your meta is very card-draw heavy, Darigaaz can bring a lot of pain since his colors offer 4 copies of Storm Seeker type cards in addition to his effect. So if you're in a playgroup that plays together regularly and you want to build a deck like this, think about the broken things that come up most, look for cards that can punish them and choose the color combination accordingly.

That's it for now! If you want to know more about one of these deck-types leave a comment or send me a message. And as always I'd love some feedback on the post and on my whole blog.

See y'all 'round!

FTB Infinity #2 - Tinkering

FTB Infinity #1 - A beginning!

Hello Ladi....

well just watch the video!

(And please let me know if there was something in the video you didn't like, for example the audio, or something else.)

Curry!

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

Ever felt like: "Man, I really want to be able to curry heavier stuff!" Well, with that I can't help you... But what I can is provide a really tasty Curry-recipe. And who doesn't like curry...?!

Super-Special-Summer-Coconut-Curry

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

• 200g Smoked Tofu
• 2 small red paprikas
• 10cm of thick leek / 15cm of thin leek
• 2 carrots
• 200ml coconut cuisine/cream
• Salt, Curry, Rosemary, Cinnamon
• (Optional: Fresh mint-leaves)
• 1 cup of rice
• 2 cups of water
• some Soy/Coconutmilk
• some Oliveoil

Regarding the fresh mint-leaves: They're totally optional, so if you don't like mint or don't have access to fresh ones just skip them.

Other than that, I think this curry is very well suited for anyone who doesn't have tons of time to cook but tons of hunger. And the ingredients aren't hard to get either these days... Anyway, moving on.

Preparation:

Step #0:

Make rice! (thats what we need the water and rice for)

Step #1:

First thing on the to-do list, like most of time: make everything small! So cut the leek, cut the tofu, ... you know the drill. After a short period of hopefully not loosing any bodyparts you should have something like this in front of you:

Step #2:

The thing with tofu is, it loves getting special treatment. So we give it to him/her/thetofugender! Take out your pan (preferrably one big enough to make the curry in), oil it up and put your tofu-cubes in. Fry them until they show a nice brown crust all around. All the other igrendients have to wait because tofu is sooooo special you know!

And never forget that one piece of carrot that wants to be a tofu when it's big...

Step #3:

Once we've satisfied our tofus needs, we can add all the vegetables that were waiting on the plate. Just throw them all in. You might need to add a little extra oil, just a bit though! After about 3 more minutes of roasting, add a big lacing of your plant-based-milk. Then add some salt, some rosemary, a pinch of cinnamon and a whole lot of curry. Contrary to popular belief, I think adding too much curry is a thing only a handful of people on this planet are able to do unintended, so don't hold back, we're cooking a CURRY afterall. Don't add the mint yet! Stir a bit to spread all the spices and then add another lacing of milk.

Step #4:

We're almost done folks! Only two things left to do... First add the coconut cuisine/cream! Let it boil for a bit and whenever you feel you need more liquid add some milk. Once the carrots are soft enough for your tastes you add the torn mint-leaves, turn off the stove and stir for another minute. Done!

Now all you have to do is get a plate, get some rice, some "oh-so-yummy"-curry and feast away! I sure did after cooking this and I hope you will too...

As always when posting a recipe, I hope you people got hungry reading this and more importantly feel able to cook it with my explanations. If not please leave a comment so I can explain certain parts better as other people will then most likely have the same problem.

See y'all 'round!

Soygulash for everyone!

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

It's been a long long time since I've last posted a recipe for a vegan deliciousness. How come?
Well there are times where I'm working like a berserk in the kitchen and there are times where I seem to cook once a week. But the last couple of days have been full of newfound inspiration so... here I am posting a recipe for you people again:

Soygoulash "Hildmann-Variation"
(as my recipe is derived off of the cookbook "Vegan for Fun" by Attila Hildmann)

Ingredients:

• 150g Soychips (~3cm diameter)
• 2 onions
• 2 red paprikas
• 2 garlic cloves
• 400ml soup (you can use the one from making the soy and add some water if needed)
• 3 tablespoons of soy/oat-cuisine (or any other vegan cuisine)
• 1-1.5 tablespoons agave/maple-syrup
• Paprikapowder, salt, pepper, marjoram
• some olive- or any other plant-based oil

I already mentioned it, the original recipe is from "Vegan for Fun" by Attila Hildmann. All I did was adapt it to "everyday"-use with igrendients I almost always have at home.

Preparation: (~45 minutes)

First task (as always), soak the soychips in soup for about 10 minutes, then get them out and squeeze them while also collecting the soup for later use. While doing so, cut the onions, garilc cloves and paprikas for later use.
Once the soychips are ready for further "instructions", get a pan and some oil and roast them until crisp. Get them out of the pan again, add some oil to the pan once again and start to sauté the onions, garlic and paprika for a couple of minutes. Then add the soy and season it with paprikapowder, marjoram, salt and pepper and sauté it some more. After two more minutes add tomato paste and agave-syrup - let the caramelize a bit - and then deglaze the whole thing with the soup. Let it reduce for about five more minutes, get it of the stove and stir in the cuisine.

The soychips I used were a bit too big as you might be able to tell....... tasted awesome nontheless!

Now there nothing left for me to do other than wishing you "Bon appétit!" and have a nice day!



















See y'all 'round!