by Johnny Cycles, October 2nd, 2024
I love Halloween! And I’m super excited about Duskmourn: House of Horror and the new mechanics and horror-themed art it brings to the game. I’d like to make all of my articles Halloween-themed this month, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to swing that. In my limited testing, I haven’t settled on a deck in Modern that I think is worth sharing yet. Furthermore, the one I’m most interested in right now isn’t very Halloween-related, despite using cards from the latest set.
How best can we abuse the new enchantment creatures that return after death? Well, I plan on making a deck full of hexproof, trampling fatties and ways to cheat them into play on the backs of these new Glimmers. Will it work? I can’t wait to find out!
Meanwhile, in Commander, I’m torn between a couple of decks. But first, you may have noticed that I’ve yet to write an article on a Mono Black deck, while I’ve done one for Blue and Green and two for Red and White. Well, it’s not because I don’t have one. In fact, I started writing up an article on my Mono Black Demon Tribal deck with Demonlord Belzenlok last year. Then I ran it through a gauntlet of different decks and was sorely disappointed with its performance. It was clunky and unimpressive. The synergies didn’t come together and the Demons all felt overcosted and underwhelming.
But Duskmourn has so many sweet cards to support a Demon Tribal deck that I’ve already rebuilt my Mono Black Commander deck….I just haven’t had a chance to test it yet. So, as far as Halloween-themed Commander decks I could write about, I have Gruul Werewolves, which isn’t too exciting, as there aren’t very many Werewolves to choose from; Dimir Zombies, about which I’ve already written; and an untested Demon Tribal deck.
Or, I could write about my budget Mono Green Elf deck with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
Here’s a picture from a recent test match. I’m building the deck for a friend who has played just one game of Magic. Right now, I’ll leave the Commander article TBD, but let me know in the comments which deck you’d like to read more about!
Finally, my family and I are traveling some this month, which will cut into the time I have to work on this site. For that reason, I’ll be skipping next week. My plan is to test and write about a Modern deck for this Friday, then take the next two weeks to work on my Commander article. I’ll finish the month with a Pioneer deck, unless something in Modern catches my fancy. I love Pioneer, but not too many people seem to be interested in watching my content in that format.
As always, I’m open to suggestions and requests! Just let me know in the comments or via email: johnnycycles16@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!
Schedule
October 4th – Keeping Modern Janky – Gruul Glimmers
October 11th – Off
October 18th – Commander – TBD: Budget Mono Green Elves or Mono Black Demon Tribal or Gruul Werewolves??? You decide!
October 25th – Pioneer Curious – Abhorrent Oculus and Friends
The Usual Blurb
My goal is to publish an article between Wednesday and Friday every week. I am a stay-at-home dad of three with a part-time job, though, so there may be weeks that life gets in the way. I’ll rotate the topics each week in the following order: Modern-Commander-Pioneer-Fiction. Whenever possible, I’ll publish articles and videos when they’re ready. Now that I am making videos, I hope to upload gameplay of each of the Modern decks I’ve already written about, as well as new ones I’m testing. For these reasons, there will be weeks when more than one article and/or video gets posted. Published articles are pretty time-intensive, hence the once-a-week-schedule, but the matches I play along the way will get posted to my YouTube channel as I go. Be sure to check there if you’re looking for a match but it isn’t yet on the site.
If there is a topic you want me to write about, a deck you want me to try out, or if you want less of one thing and more of another, let me know in the comments or email me: johnnycycles16@gmail.com. If you enjoy the site, please let your friends know via word of mouth or social media or messenger pigeon, if that’s your preference. This is a new site that needs all the clicks it can get! Also, be sure to check out my Facebook page and YouTube Channel!
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