Elspeth for the Win

  If you've been playing Magic the Gathering for a long time, you might look at Mana Confluence   and think: "Wait, isn't this City of Brass ?" You would be mostly correct. However, this "pain" land is actually slightly better than the classic City of Brass.     City of Brass VS Mana Confluence   With City of Brass , anytime it became tapped, you took one damage. However, with Mana Confluence, you only take damage when you actually tap it for mana. While this is a very minor difference, it does technically make it very slightly better. It also means that there are now functionally two Cities of Brass in existence. This means you can essentially run 8 copies of the same card in one Constructed deck.   While paying 1 life to color-fix can sound like a lot, keep in mind that   City of Brass has been used for a very long time in multiple formats. It's still used in some fringe Modern decks. Also, anything that would tap down lands would forc...

    Tigers great Alan Trammell was a great shortstop. Yet, the Tigers great was still in the conversation for the Hall-of-Fame until 2018 when he was finally inducted by the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee.   Meanwhile, his double-play partner, second baseman Lou Whitaker, was no longer eligible to be voted in traditionally due to a lack of support from the Baseball Writers Association voters.   Not only is this sad for Tigers fans, but he is more deserving of being in the Hall-of-Fame than most of his second base peers, including 2011 inductee Roberto Alomar. While he could still enter the Hall through a Veterans Committee decision, it's clear that he's been snubbed for too long.   W as Lou Whitaker Unfairly Snubbed in the Hall of Fame Voting?   A sponsor of Lou Whitaker’s Baseball-Reference page brings up an excellent point. Alomar had an adjusted OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of 116 over his career with 7 teams. Whitaker also h...

    Dwarves fans in Magic the Gathering may be able to live the dream of playing Dwarf Tribal in Standard with Magda, Brazen Outlaw from the Kaldheim set. This Legendary Creature is just two mana to play (1 colorless, 1 Red) and gives all other Dwarves +1/+1. Also, whenever a Dwarf you control becomes tapped you create a Treasure token.   Treasure tokens are neat enough, giving you an artifact that allows you to sacrifice it for one of any color of mana. It gets better with Magda, though, as you can sacrifice five Treasure tokens in order to search your deck for any artifact or Dragon card and put it onto the battlefield!   Already, the wheels are turning for Commander players eager to brew a mono-Red Dwarf deck. The problem in Standard is that before any other Dwarves are revealed in Kaldheim, only four Dwarves exist in Standard. They are Rimrock Knight, Seven Dwarves, Staunch Shieldmate, and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. The good news is all four of these...

    October First was the day that the knuckleball died. On this date in the year 2023 the world lost a great man in Tim Wakefield, one whom baseball purists should remember forever. The modern sorcerer of this elusive pitch, Tim left us too soon at 57, taken by an aggressive brain cancer that was only publicly revealed three days before his death. It seems a cruel twist of fate that a man who had mastered the unpredictable was taken by something so unforeseen.   Today I want to mourn the loss of an athlete whose talent revolved around the game's most unpredictable pitch: the knuckleball. Starting as a first baseman and later evolving into a knuckleball specialist, Wakefield's story is a testament to reinvention, resilience, and longevity. While his stats might not scream "Hall of Famer" at first glance, there's more to Wakefield than the numbers. His knuckleball was a metaphor for a career that danced on its own terms, never swayed by the fast-paced, powe...

  It’s no secret that Wizards of the Coast’s decision to replace the often-maligned Intro Packs with Planeswalker Decks was a success, even if it was short-lived. Sure, the exclusive planeswalkers featured with the decks are vastly under-powered compared to their expansion set counterparts. But, they are certainly interesting and still sought after by many players just for their exclusivity.   Amonkhet’s two Planeswalker decks feature Liliana, Death Wielder and Gideon, Martial Paragon . While you won’t see th ese Liliana and Gideon planeswalkers tearing it up at top tournament tables, they have their own merits to be appreciated.   Today, we’ll take a look at Liliana, Death Wielder and th is black & green deck build to support her, including three other cards exclusive to this deck. This Liliana walker and the other cards would be Standard-legal for as long as Amonkhet is in the format, so it’s worth taking a look at them all to see if any were actuall...

    In my initial quest to profile every Boston Red Sox player ever, Aardsma was one of the first I ever wrote about. Aardsma was a guy that the Sox probably gave up too quickly on, and considering he was a relief pitcher, that’s saying just how good David really was at his peak. On January 28, 2008, the Boston Red Sox traded Willy Mota and Miguel Socolovich to the Chicago White Sox for relief pitcher David Aardsma . The Red Sox wouldn't miss either of those guys. Mota never made the Majors. Socolovich would have a few appearances in the majors, but never have much of an MLB career. It makes sense why the Red Sox wanted Aardsma. Despite inconsistent results and some problems with walks, Aardsma had strikeout stuff. Despite an ugly 6.40 ERA in 2007 with the White Sox, his FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) was just 4.29, a mediocre, but OK number, especially for a middle relief pitcher. He was also just a year removed from his 2006 Chicago Cubs season, where he had oka...

    When some Magic the Gathering players first saw Liliana, Dreadhorde General , they saw a 6-mana planeswalker that may not have much of an impact in Standard. However, this Liliana planeswalker card should not be overlooked. Not only does she have three loyalty abilities, but a static ability, as well.   Six-mana planeswalkers have made an impact in Standard – and even Modern – before such as Elspeth, Sun’s Champion and Vraska, Relic Seeker . So, let’s see how this Liliana planeswalker from War of the Spark is stronger than she appears on the surface.   She Draws Cards   The first ability on Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a static ability which draws you a card whenever a creature dies. This ability is extremely important because unlike many “when it dies” effects, it doesn’t specify nontoken creatures. So, the incremental advantage of this Liliana planeswalker is fairly obvious right away and can find a home in a.   She Makes Zombie...

    Hey, baseball fans; here’s some Boston Red Sox trivia: who was the best Sox player in 1993 by Wins Above Replacement? If you guessed Roger Clemens, you’d be wrong. Heck, even if you’d guessed young shortstop John Valentin you still won’t be correct. It was a 37-year old starting pitcher by the name of Danny Darwin, leading with 5.7 WAR.   No one knew this at the time, as the WAR statistic wouldn’t be invented for over a decade, but Darwin really was the best player on the team. By traditional stats, Darwin would compile 15 wins with a 3.26 ERA, very good numbers, but certainly not ace level, and not what you’d expect from a “best” player.   Still, along with veteran Frank Viola and a young Aaron Sele, Danny Darwin helped pick up the Boston pitching staff from an unusually poor season from Roger Clemens. Yes, Clemens was about merely average in 1993. Unfortunately, despite a pretty good starting staff, Paul Quantrill kept losing games, despite actually...

    Life's Legacy is a potentially very powerful Green draw spell from the Magic 2015 Core Set. At first, Life's Legacy looks like a Sorcery version of an older card called Greater Good without the drawback of discarding three cards. But, as Greater Good is an Enchantment, very popular in Commander, this is a two-mana Sorcery.   Yes, this is an extremely powerful effect. Being able to sacrifice a creature and draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power, especially in Green, is a super nifty effect. With Greater Good, you could sacrifice a creature at any time for no cost and draw cards equal to the creature's power. However, you then had to discard three cards, which is a substantial cost. But for a 4-drop enchantment (2GG) that could be used multiple times at instant speed, it's very good.   The problem with having an effect like Life's Legacy at Sorcery speed and having to sacrifice a creature as a cost to cast it, you can set yourself...