Courtesy Wizards of the Coast
Meet my new best friend.

It’s been made known that I’m something of a casual gamer. I’ve stopped playing StarCraft 2 on a regular basis in favor of League of Legends for reasons that include a lower stress level. And for a while I thought I’d be content only playing the Commander/EDH variant of Magic: the Gathering, at least until I started picking up Innistrad. The interest I have in this set plus a desire to support my local gaming store had me picking up an intro pack to form the backbone of a deck, tossing in my solitary [mtg_card]Snapcaster Mage[/mtg_card] and seeing if I could win any games with it.

I ended up winning 2 games and losing 2, and had a surprising amount of fun doing it.

I picked up another pack, and lo and behold, another Snapcaster was looking back at me. After I got home I looked over some of my cards from both Innistrad and the previous expansion block. The result is a deck that, while similar to the Eldritch Onslaught starter, has a bit more bite to it.

[mtg_deck title=”Memento Mori”]
Creatures
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sturmgeist
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Scourge of Geier Reach

Spells
4 Silent Departure
4 Dream Twist
3 Think Twice
2 Desperate Ravings
2 Burning Vengeance
2 Rolling Temblor
2 Geistflame
2 Grasp of Phantoms
2 Ponder
2 Dissipate
2 Mana Leak
2 Disperse
1 Fireball
1 Runic Repetition

Land
2 Sulfur Falls
11 Mountain
11 Island

Sideboard
2 Cellar Door
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Ghoulcaller's Bell
2 Into the Maw of Hell
2 Curse of the Bloody Tome
2 Brimstone Volley
1 Isolation Cell
1 Desperate Ravings
1 Delver of Secrets
[/mtg_deck]

The inclusion of more instants and sorceries means my mages will have more targets when they reach my hand, and I have essentially twice as many options for dealing with threats. The Flash mechanic on the Snapcasters combined with the huge pile of Flashback will mean I’ll need to work on my timing.

Another idea that occurred to me, perhaps inspired by a recent viewing of the extended edition of Gladiator, was that there are a lot of Human warriors in Innistrad, and the Scars of Mirrodin block was not shy on them either. I’d been toying with the idea of [mtg_card]Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer[/mtg_card] at the head of a Commander deck, but the more rares I see from Innistrad, the more I feel he’s got a place for now in the Type 2 gameplay arena.

[mtg_deck title=”Felix Legion”]
Creatures
4 Blade-Tribe Berserkers
2 Memnite
2 Auriok Edgewright
2 Serra Angel
2 Brass Squire
1 Elite Inquisitor
1 Champion of the Parish
1 Goblin Wardriver
1 Angelic Overseer
1 Victory's Herald
1 Jor Kadeen, The Prevailer

Spells
4 Galvanic Blast
2 Assault Strobe
2 Bonds of Faith
2 Darksteel Axe
2 Viridian Claw
1 Butcher's Cleaver
1 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Mask of Avacyn
1 Bladed Pinions
1 True Conviction

Land
12 Mountain
12 Plains

Sideboard
3 Avacynian Priest
2 Razor Hippogryph
2 Seize the Initiative
2 Smite the Monstrous
2 Ghostly Possession
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Rebuke
1 Warstorm Surge
[/mtg_deck]

This deck needs work, in terms of more cleavers, inquisitors and champions. I may pick up the Hold The Line event deck to bolster the ranks. But the berzerkers with metalcraft immediately equipped with a cleaver while Jor’s on the field? That’s 12 points of lifelinked damage in one shot. Think about it.

Any thoughts on these decks? Anything to look out for in the current Type 2 meta?