"The Waiting Patient."

"The Waiting Patient."

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

It has been awhile since I wrote about Ghost stories but I just had to write about my first one here in HP Eton Centris now formally known as DXC. I have been here for over a year now , alone in the GY shift but had nothing much to see or feel(except for the talking scale thing.) Tonight was different though.

I had just come in and was opening the door to the clinic and as I was putting in the keys I noticed a patient who walked right behind me but said nothing. Probably noting that I just arrived they were respectfully waiting for me to put down my bags before He(It looked like a dude) would either ask me for a consult or ask for medications. 

A familiar janitor passed by the corridor behind me as I went in and waved at me.I smiled and waved back a bit hurriedly because I wanted to see to what my patient needed. 

So as I stepped into the Doctors office and put my things down I waited for this patient to come in. 

1 minute. 2 minutes.3 minutes. I stepped out and looked into the corridor.No one was there. He probably had gone somewhere else and normally would be back some other time.

The janitor who I saw earlier went by a couple of minutes later for their routine clean up of the clinic. And I just simply had to ask.

"Sir , may nakita ba kayong pasyente sa likod ko kanina nung pumasok ako?"

"Doc?" The Janitor was puzzled. "Wala naman po."

"Sure po kayo ha?"

"Opo."

Oh well. If any patient comes in tonight I should probably use my trusty pulse oximeter to see if they have that oh so trust worthy pulse then. November 1 2017 is surely interesting. And here I thought I was going to have a quiet night.

"Huatli , Dinosaur Knight:Adding Aggression to the Aggressive."

"Huatli , Dinosaur Knight:Adding Aggression to the Aggressive."

by:

Virgilio F.De leon Jr.MD

Before you continue please consider the following questions:

1) Do you love planeswalkers?

2) Are you playing a dino deck?

3) Are you playing an aggressive dino deck?

4) What the heck are you waiting for , buy the Huatli , Dinosaur Knight and add her to your Dino deck now.

All I can say is that you if you said yes to the first 3 questions then there should be no hindrance in adding this other version of Huatli in your decks. The fastest way to acquire her is to by the Ixalan planeswalker deck.

Granted that Huatli , Dinosaur Knight can only be valuable in dino decks or Changeling decks(which are also Dinosaurs) so I don't really expect her to raise in value as time goes on so if you are "willing to wait" then you can get her for a much cheaper price but if you are like me who is already running a Gishath EDH deck and still have a lot of dinos to spare to make another Dino deck then you might want to buy her now to complete your dino aggro EDH deck.

The great thing about Huatli is that she can be fetched by Sun-Blessed Mount and be cast on the following turn. Sun-blessed Mount is 5 mana and Huatli , Dinosaur Knight cost 6. All you need to do is not to miss a land drop and you will be able to play her. 

So why play Huatli , Dinosaur Knight?

Her first ability makes a Dinosaur you control bigger by giving it 2 +1/+1 counters like on Huatli's Snubhorn  for example which is also included in her planeswalker deck. So what would happen if you do not have a dino in play? That is ok too as you can target up to one dino , if you don't have anything to put the counters on you could still activate it.

Her second ability also comes in handy in a pinch as removal. All you need to do is have a dino handy to target. Let us say that your 8/8 Sun-blessed Mount can't attack due to another creature blocking the way? Use this -3 ability and it deals its power to a creature you do not control. The path is clear. Attack!

And the ultimate skill is the final attack skill which gives all dinos you control a 4/4 stat pump! All it needs now is trample and you are set but Huatli , Dinosaur Knight is just missing that green mana to pull that off. Who knows she might become a Naya aligned planeswalker in Rivals of Ixalan. Interesting.

So go and buy Huatli , Dinosaur Knight for that added aggression value. Thank you for reading and keep on brewing.

"Admiral Beckett Brass: Becky's gonna get ya!"

"Admiral Beckett Brass: Becky's gonna get ya!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

"Do they teach catechism?" my friend  Ram asked me and this is in reference to that Pirate Educational film starring Jessie Jane where the response was, "I am not sure all I keep on hearing is Oh God , Oh God."

Well now that we have started on that note Admiral Beckett Brass or Becky as I would love to call her is all about getting what she wants and with the right amount of attacking pirates and combat damage she can get any opponents non-land permanent and keep it forever(or at least until the game ends). Talk about wanting something and getting it.

Admiral Becky comes in the Grixis colors and an extra colorless mana. The 4 mana cost and mix of colors is great in EDH as it allows you access to counters and great removal spells in blue and black as well as other good creature capturing or permanent capturing cards in Red like Hijack.

I just seemed to keep on opening pirates and cards that support them in my packs and so I finally decided that my 37th deck will feature them. Heck I got most of the great cards anyway . Time to make them a permanent EDH home.

Speaking of permanent did you know that once you acquire something with Admiral Becketts ability you don't have to give it back at the end of your turn? Or even if Becky isn't in the battlefield anymore? Just make sure to return any permanents you got this way at the end of each game. Para walang samaan ng loob.

So how do you do it? Make sure that you are attacking with a lot of pirates. You need at least 3 of them to deal combat damage to a player and to have Admiral Becky survive in order for the ability to trigger otherwise the attack is fruitless for stealing things.

At the end of your end step you get to decide which non land permanent you would be acquiring from this hapless opponent who has many good stuff lying around but with not blockers to defend his or herself. In one of my games I was almost able to steal a counter filled Ashiok that could have been used to debilitate my opponent but heck my plan was foiled by a single blocker and a depths of desire in my graveyard that he was able to use to return one of my attacking pirates.

Most people would be frustrated at his and don't have the chance to try and pull it off but for me that is the whole point of the deck , if I get to steal stuff from other players then it would not matter if I won or lost that game. It was part badge of honor and a testament that the deck and its kooky concept is feasible. And being feasible for me is better than being able to win.

I am just beginning my journey with Admiral Becky. All aboard me mateys. Time for us to reap.

"Jace , Cunning Castaway: Kage bunshin no jutso!"

"Jace , Cunning Castaway: Kage bunshin no jutso!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

After the events of Hour of Devastation Jace finds his way planeswalking into the plane of Ixalan and into the Pirates life.Now sing it with me. "It's a pirate life for us , its a pirate life for us , come on now everybody."

Ok.Now that I got that out of my system time to look at this new version of Jace and the possibility that he can play along side the other versions of himself in EDH , Modern or Standard.

Jace , Cunning Castaway is a mono blue 3 CMC planeswalker that comes into play with 3 starting loyalty counters. Make fun of his choice of wardrobe or his tan lines all you want but this Jace will fit in with a lot of decks that have blue splashed in their.

His first ability allows you to draw cards when one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player. The sad part is that after drawing a card you get to discard one in turn. Great if you need to filter your hand . not so good if you want to keep everything already in your hand. So choose wisely. 

In case you don't have a creature to attack with or defend Jace , Cunning Castaway , then you can use his own 2nd ability to create a 2/2 Blue Illusion creature that gets scarified when it becomes the target of an ability.Now some of you might be thinking why you would want to have a creature with such an obvious flaw and the reason is that you might be forcing an opponent to expend a removal on it or maybe a G-growth like effect on it thereby robbing him or her the chance to use it to pump a creature on their side of the board. Illusion creatures are great even if they fold like a Makahiya when you target them with a spell. 

Now on to the main ability which is a -5. Jace , Cunning Castaway does the appropriate hand seals and splits into three , all of these planeswalkers can exist at the same time because they are not legendary. Only the original remains in that state. All this means is that you can then activate the other two to creature 2 2/2 Illusions or use the first ability. The potential for abuse is magnified by Anointed procession that allows you to have twice as many tokens. So that means that his ultimate ability now gives you a total of 4 non-legendary Jace , Cunning Castaways on the battlefield.

My friend ST told me about this particular tech a couple of days after the Ixalan PR and I promised not to write about it until another site spoiled the interaction. I was hoping to pull this off if I get a Jace , Cunning Castaway in my fat bundle but he proved to be elusive and the sole Anointed procession I had have been lost into the vortex of cards that I keep in my car. Some day I may find it. Or if I become impatient just by the combo pieces right away.

Well there you have it  , do you want to pull off a Kage Bunshin No Jutsu with a planeswalker? You might be able to now. 

"Vraska , Relic Seeker:Still up to her old tricks"

"Vraska , Relic Seeker:Still up to her old tricks"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

One look at Vraska , Relic Seeker and you would realize that she is a far cry from the Vraska of old. From fierce assassin to Relic seeking pirate  , Vraska has kept some of her charms and then some.

So this Vraska costs 1 colorless mana more that her predecessor but still comes in Golgari colors. Her first ability is great as she is able to create a 2/2 Black Pirate token with menace. That menace would come in handy for your end game but more of that when we get to her ultimate ability.

Her 2nd ability is a -3 that allows you to destroy a target artifact , creature or enchantment and (there's more!) gives you a shiny treasure that you could use to accelerate your mana count later. While this is a watered down version of destroying non-land permanents it will still come in handy as it does take care of most threats your opponents will throw at you except for other planeswalkers.

Now on to her final ability which is a minus two , since she comes in with a beginning loyalty counter of 6 , this ultimate ability can be used on the 3rd turn that she has come in. And while this does not create creatures that can kill a player with a single point of damage it does reduce an opponents life total to 1. 1. And guess who probably still has 2 Black Pirate tokens with menace? Why you of course since you have been activating Vraska's first ability for two turns now.

And well opponents need to have at least 4 creatures to stop the inevitable. Now smile and steeple your fingers in front of you. And watch as your opponents sweat out an idea of getting out of this predicament. It just goes to show that she might have traded in her assassin clothes for pirate garbs but on the inside Vraska will always be up to her old tricks.

"Pauper Kings: Pirates on a Train"

"Pauper Kings: Pirates on a Train"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

So I got to asking myself how cool it would be if a Pirate raiding party would get their hands on a vehicle and just run amok on Ixalan. Well I got my wish and it might seem that the Kaladesh vehicles would be out of place in Ixalan but since my common pirates do not have access to common ships at the moment I have decided that they could at least get to ride on this sweet common rides.

Again this would be a monoblack deck that focuses on the awesome concept of pirates riding a vehicle for a joy and probably running over a dinosaur or vampire or merfolk or two.So let us look at the deck that I would like to call "Pirates on a train."

22 x Swamps

___________

22 Lands

4 x Desperate Castaways

4 x Direfleet Hoarder

4 x Deadeye Tormentor

4 x Eager Construct

______________________

16 creatures

4 x Mobile Garrison 

4 x Renegade Freighter

2 x Sky Skiff

______________________

10 Vehicles

3 x Metalspinner's Puzzleknot

3 x Vanquish the Weak

3 x Costly Plunder

3 x Contract Killing

______________________

12 Other spells

It seems that when it comes to mass transit systems Kaladesh has gotten Ixalan beat and I would want to cram in as many pirates as possible on a Mobile Garrison or a Renegade Freighter.

All of the vehicles here have very low crewing costs of 2 or 1(for the Sky Skiff). And the pirates that we have along with Robodog Eager Construct is eager to try their hands on these contraptions. All pirates have a power of 2/2 which is perfect.

Desperate Castaways seems like the grumblers in this bunch will not be grumbling anymore and can attack because there are more artifacts than they could count here negating their particular drawback. 

There is card draw in Metalspinner's Puzzleknot and Costly Plunder as well as 6 removal spells that will come in handy in a world such as Ixalan that is teeming with oversiezed critters that want to chomp you up.

I mean when you think about it Ixalan and these vehicles can be a Jurassic park themed placed. The Renegade Freighter brings in the tourists while the Sky skiff and Mobile Garrison are a great way of moving around to enjoy these views.

And you can also use them to attack. So why not right? Excited to try Pirates on a train? This ought to be good.

"Niki - I like U MV reaction: Fine,Fine,Fine"

"Niki - I like U MV reaction: Fine,Fine,Fine"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

While enjoying music from 88rising I came upon one of their new up and coming artists. Niki as she is being packaged now has the voice of an angel that will bring you back to the great age of RnB when it was not all about the whistles and who could reach to the high heavens with their curling notes.

Niki or Nicole Zefanya does not growl or make you wish you had a set of earplugs to drown out the noise. Her song I like U is simple in both story and lyrics. It is pretty straightforward but you should listen to how beautifully she renders this song with sexy low notes in what I can only liken to fine wine or fine chocolate dripping down your ear. If your ear had taste buds or if you could taste sounds like some people do then your ears will surely thank you for listening to her.

In a world where the trapbeats are the main stars and hooks of songs , Niki just makes you want to listen to her voice and nobody has done that for me for a long time. When I asked my daughter to listen to the song someone else in the house noticed and while it already got my daughter declaring that "this will be my jam for the whole week" my wife actually asked me who the singer was and proceeded to buy her music online! Even creating a whole playlist of similar beautifully voiced artists like Shontelle and Jojo of the early 2000's.It is hard to impress my wife who is a singer herself and seldom gives a thumbs up to the singers I suggest she listens to with me. Niki was different though and we ended up with that great soundtrack while driving to and fro around QC.

The MV is actually pretty simple and involves Niki rolling around in bed for about 90 percent of the time. I guess no one can complain when she looks that pretty and sings that beautifully. The song is about a girl falling for a guy while the guy thinks that this is just a physical thing. Yeah it is a typical love song but believe me when I say that Niki just makes it all worth listening to.