Innistrad Deathfed Event Deck Unboxing

I manage to get my hands on the other Innistrad Event Deck, Deathfed, to complete Innistrad Event Decks. This one actually cost SGD$19.90 now from Comics Connection and for the price of an Intro Pack, it's a steal. The dice is actually green even though it look like blue in the picture. I hope to compete this with the other Innistrad block Event Decks.

Innistrad Hold the Line Event Deck Unboxing

I am curious to see how Hold the Line will do against Dark Ascension Spiraling Doom Event Deck as Ertai's Lament only pits Event Decks from the same set against each other. I think Hold the Line is the best Event Deck so far and will do better than Gleeful Flames against the Birthing Pod deck. Hopefully, I play them stock against each other and record the matches!

Edit: Forgot to add that the price is SGD$32.90 from Comics Connection

Dark Ascension Event Decks unboxing!

I managed to get my hands on both Dark Ascension Event Decks, SGD$39.90 from Comics Connection. It is higher priced than the Innistrad ones, SGD$29.90 (Deathfed) to SGD$32.90 (Hold the Line) and I'm guessing it is due to the pair of good rare-s in both decks: Inkmoth Nexus and Birthing Pods.

I've always wondered how they manage to squeeze a cupboard box into the packaging and it turns out the front of the box is actually just a cover and you slide the box containing all the contents. I've measured the box and it can fit 60 cards with sleeves but there is little space left for the sideboard cards with sleeves. I think you might be able to fit them in but it can get stuck, thus I think they are only useful for storing spare cards and you are better off with a third-party deck box like the ones from UltraPro. The 20-sided dice are nicely made but I think the green one is clearer.

Update: I'm able to fit in all 75 sleeved cards along with the cardboard divider provided and the box will be fully filled.

Dark Ascensions Event Deck List revealed + Pod Strategy Resources

Here for the Event Deck Lists.

Gleeful Flames
I was waiting to see if Stormkirk Noble will be making an appearance but he didn't. You can get him and quite a lot of other good red spells in the various set's Intro Packs. Unless you need the Inkmoth Nexus or want to make a red deck, the other cards in the deck are not very expensive inclusions. Therefore, I'm guessing most people will most likely just buy one of it.

To improve the deck, you will want to add cards used in David Caplan's World 2011 Top 8 Red Deck here. The Torpor Orb is added to hose the other Event Deck just like how Nihil Spellbomb was included against the Spinterfright Graveyard theme Event Deck. Unfortunately, this hose card takes up 3 rare slots out of 7.

Spiraling Doom
This is basically a Black-Green (B/G) Birthing Pod deck that looks fun. Since Dark Ascension introduced undying mechanic which combos well with Birthing Pod, there have been quite a number of articles on the deck:

channelfireball.com's article by Carrie Oliver

Which version of Pod by Mark Ian Alonso

Ramp Pod by Reid Duke, the only top Pod deck in recent times I think, and this one is a combination with Wolf-Run Ramp.

Dark Ascension Review Part 1 and 2 by Chingsung Chang. More in Part 2 than part 1 but overall, a good read about Dark Ascension. Interestingly, he states that Birthing Pod decks will not take off as the offensive is ground-based.

The main idea is to use 187/"Enter the Battlefield" (ETB) effect creatures and Birthing Pod is a great way to tutor them out. Creatures that get an effect when the die also works well and I think Morbid mechanic is going to be good in this deck too.

There are quite a few combination of colors you can take for the Pod decks and it will be fun experimenting. Unfortunately, no B/G enemy dual land here but given the color combination possible for Pod, you might not be playing green with black. This is a deck you will still want to get at least 2-of for the Birthing Pod play-set.

Event Decks SGD price update

I saw the prices for the other Event Decks and they are not as high as the Infect & Defile one that the shop  personnel quoted. $32.90 for Hold the Line, $29.90 for Deathfed.

Before you go buying any MTG Event Decks, read this...

I used to check my Magic card prices from the magazine, Inquest, but that magazine was discontinued from 2007. I stopped reading way before that once I quit Magic long ago. I found another source to check for Magic card price: tcgplayer.com store.

I was actually studying the Event Decks thinking of combining 2 to form a viable deck but then I found the above site which list out the card prices from various sources. You will be shock to find that most of the rare cards in the event deck barely make up the retail price of USD$25 set by Wizards of the Coast.

Hold the Line cost from rare-s: Approx $13
Deathfed cost from rare-s: Approx $11
Illusionary Might cost from rare-s: Approx $12
Vampire Onslaught cost from rare-s: Approx $18
Rot from Within cost from rare-s: Approx $17
War of Attrition cost from rare-s: Approx $17
Into the Breach cost from rare-s: Approx $6
Infect and Defile cost from rare-s: Approx $8

Granted you will also get uncommon and common cards which I did not factor in for the cost, the most expensive cards you can get from the event deck are Inkmoth Nexus($12-13) and Phantasmal Image($9-10). The uncommon and common cards aren't very expensive and if you order everything over the net, the decks are going to be cheaper and you can probably build a stronger deck as you get to pick cards. Buying 2 Event decks suddenly do not seem like such a good idea...

On another note, you will be able to checkout the upcoming Dark Ascension cards at the tcgplayer.com store. Looks like Wolf/Werewolf are going to get a lot of support.

MTG: Holding the Line with Haunted Humans

Huanted Humans is a MTG Worlds 2011 top 8 deck involving White Human Weenies backed by Mana Leak, Hero of Bladehold, Geist of Saint Traft and Moorland Haunt. Those cards alone are threats on their own and provided a better-rounded strategy to White Weenies.

Check out the article by the deck's creator, Craig Wescoe.

A lot of the deck can be built from 2 copies of "Hold the Line" Innistrad Event Decks.

About the Innistrad Event Decks...

Magic's Event Decks are somewhat like Yugioh's Pre-constructed decks. (Priced SGD$45.90 at Comics Connection) I found out about them quite late  and they seem to be pretty competitive out of the box unlike Yugioh. They give the max copies of quite a number of cards (the common rarity ones), about 2 each of the uncommon-s and 1 each of the rare-s, compared to Yugioh's 1 each of most of the cards. To do a little better, you might need to buy up to 2 to get the max copies of the uncommon cards.

For Innistrad set's 2 Event Decks, they are themed around White Weennies, called "Hold the Line" and a Graveyard-based deck, similar theme to Lightsworns, Deathfed. (Magic also has a Flashback spell card mechanic that enables casting of these spells from graveyard which makes it better than Lightsworns) I think White Weenies are pretty straightforward and this deck-type has been around since over 15 years ago when I was playing Magic. The Graveyard-based deck needs a bit of setup and I personally think you should get more fun playing it, out of the two.

Useful links on the 2 decks

Wizards of the Coast Official Page

Ertai's Lament Hold the Line Review 1 & 2

For how to improve Hold the Line, refer to the White Weenies/Human first deck here

Ertai's Lament Deathfed Review 1 & 2

Wizards of the Coast's Article on Splinterfright, main creature of Deathfed