Rant of Valakut: The Planeswalker Problem (part 1) Ben Iverach-Brereton March 1, 2021 Rants of Valakut The most frustrating thing in Magic is losing to a seemingly unbeatable threat. Sometimes that takes the form of a powerful creature, but more often than not it's an unanswered planeswalker. These ma... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: The Betrayer King in Historic Ben Iverach-Brereton February 15, 2021 Decklists, Rants of Valakut While everyone is getting excited over World Tree God combos and two-turn wins with Tibalt's Trickery, I've been focusing my efforts on Historic, with the help of a new uncommon from Kaldheim: If Narfi is a ... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Customized for Cube Ben Iverach-Brereton February 1, 2021 Rants of Valakut Warning! This article contains unsolicited card designs. Members of Wizards R&D should stop reading right away. Might I suggest some music to tide you over instead, or perhaps a fun word puzzle? Rece... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Back to the Basics Ben Iverach-Brereton January 4, 2021 Rants of Valakut The most important* step when building a Commander deck choosing which basic lands to use. They set the tone for your deck, and reinforce your theme. Do you want your deck to have an old-school feeling? Use pre... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Animated Shows #In5Cards Ben Iverach-Brereton December 21, 2020 Rants of Valakut #In5Cards is an annual tradition for the Rants of Valakut. They are short word puzzles that use Magic cards to describe something from pop culture. Each year has a different theme: Christmas Sci-Fi Movi... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Second Sun Ben Iverach-Brereton December 7, 2020 Rants of Valakut Originally published in Rolling Stoneforge Magazine* In 2010, the band Smash Mouth began work on a new batch of songs. They wanted them to be a love letter to their favourite trading card game, and n... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Seven Reflections (Commander) Ben Iverach-Brereton November 23, 2020 Decklists, Rants of Valakut Cards like Relentless Rats, Persistent Petitioners and Shadowborn Apostle break normal deck-building restrictions by allowing any number of them to be in a deck. Seven Dwarves works in a similar way, but instea... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Frantic Overload (Arena Standard) Ben Iverach-Brereton November 9, 2020 Decklists, Rants of Valakut, Standard It's no secret that I enjoy cards like Archaeomancer. I put them to good use in Commander, and the last time we were on Zendikar I had a lot of fun in Standard with Halimar Tidecaller. Whenever a new ... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Rupture the Spire, part 3 Ben Iverach-Brereton October 26, 2020 Rants of Valakut Rupture the Spire is a single-player deck-building game inspired by the video game Slay the Spire. Check out part 1 and part 2 if you haven't read them yet! Same Word, Different Meaning Today we're divi... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Rupture the Spire, part 2 Ben Iverach-Brereton October 12, 2020 Rants of Valakut The Game So Far In my last article I outlined the general plan for "Rupture the Spire": - It's a single-player deck-building game based on Slay the Spire. - You use Magic cards for everything. - Your dec... Read More...
