Tibalts are Red and Tamiyos are Blue . . .

As you know, I love using red and blue cards in Magic. I have used my Blue/Red Titan deck for months now, but it’s broken my heart so many times I think it’s time to move on. It isn’t consistent enough against the current monsters of the meta game in Nagoya, Japan, RG Beatdown and RG Kessig Wolf Run.  I think there will be a lot of cards that will use these two colors in Avacyn, but it I believe that it won’t be for the types of effects I would like. So what do I believe is going to be big?

Well for starters, White and Blue Control. Let’s take a look at the first planeswalker previewed for Avacyn Restored, Tamiyo, the Moon sage.

A Frost Titan Walker

+1 – Good bye Kessig Wolf Run, good bye Birthing Pod, good bye Grave Titan . . . you’re out of commission for a turn. This is an amazing +1 ability, and if you follow this turn 5 drop with a turn 6 Frost Titan, you have just effectively shut down your opponent. But wait, I said Blue/White right? There are tons of amazing cards I’d run  in a deck with her. Mana leaks become super effective when they are tapped out on mana. Oblivion Rings will shut down anything nasty like Swords of War and Peace, and I also think that Feeling of Dread ( white card, tap two creatures and has flashback with blue) has good synergy with her. Okay, so we have all of these cards tapped, what now? Well, we could throw down a Sunblast Angel and destroy all of those tapped creatures, and then continue to “flicker” it with new cards like Cloudshift, or since we are using White and Blue, why not throw a Venser in there and just have him do it while building up to his ultimate?

This deck will definitely need some cards to slow down the game early on, like some Gideon’s Lawkeepers, Tumble Magnets, Stonehorn Dignitary, and even Gideon’s Avenger might be great in this type of deck. And course, Gideon himself would be great to have. Make everybody attack and tap, Cloudshift Sunblast Angel and POOF! There goes all of your worries.

Okay, so what’s next? Well, there are 3 other new cards that I wanted to look at: Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, Desolate Lighthouse, and the latest reveal, Reforge the Soul.

The closest thing to a Planeswalker with haste.

Anybody see a combination here? How do you think these would work together? We draw, we discard. We draw, we discard. If you’ve played against a FRITES (Faithless looting/Unburial rites) deck, then you know how dangerous these cards can be. I’m sure you’ll see Reforge the Soul and Tibalt in those types of decks, but what I’m really excited about is doubling the power of my Burning Vengeance deck. Burning Vengeance is a very fun deck to play with, but not many people run it. The first time I played against anybody using it in standard play was yesterday, and they were running a RUG version of it. Pretty interesting and a lot of fun to play against. The green was mostly in there for Ancient Grudge and Memory’s Journey (a great way to stop a player from flashing something back!). We went to 3 rounds and I lost on a misplay (skipped over a Devil’s Play in his graveyard when I Surgically Extracted something and it came back to kill me a few turns later.

Dark Ascension did a so so job with Shattered Perception. It’s a poor man’s Wheel Of Fortune, or Reforge the Soul. In a BV deck it would be great if you could constantly keep cards in your hand, but usually you’re trying to get stuff into the graveyard as fast as possible. Maybe with a few Secrets of the Dead it would be okay, but I think that Reforge the Soul will be much better to have than Shattered Perception. Desolate Light house will be great to get those cards into the graveyard, and Tibalt too (but hopefully after you’ve already played a Burning Vengeance on the field).

Let’s look at a good start for this deck. Turn 1, Mountain, cast a Geistflame on their Birds or Delver, whatever they are using. T2, mountain again and lay down Tibalt and +1 to draw a card (hopefully he won’t accidentally get rid of your Vengeance). T3, mountain or island and lay down a Vengeance, then +1 again to fill that graveyard. There might be a creature in play at this point, but not to worry. T4, land again if you have it, +1 to Tibalt to get to 5, then flashback that Geistflame to deal 3 damage to the creature on the field. After this turn you should be good, as you’ll continue to throw cards into the graveyard, Tibalt will have his ultimate, and the Burning Vengeance will be in play to keep the board clear. Miracling a Reforge the Soul at this point would pretty much put the game in the bag.

I think some great cards that work well in Burning Vengeance are Jace, Memory Adept (by T5, using his +0 to mill yourself for 10 should be fine as long as you have a BV in play), Geralf’s Mindcrusher (works well as a finisher as well as milling you for 5 to get more ammo), and Mirror Mad Phantasm (though this guy can be dangerous if he’s the last card you draw and you mill yourself to death!). And if you’re crazy enough, why not throw in a Laboratory Maniac and just mill yourself to know cards and win the game with him?

Sure Grafdigger’s Cage can shut down Vengeance, and there are also O-rings to worry about, but that’s what Ancient Grudges and Mana Leaks are for! If you have any other ideas about how to use these cards, or can think of any other fun combos, please leave a comment! I hope to see a lot more people playing Vengeance after Avacyn is Restored!