The Planeswalker's Stronghold

So after a strikingly unimpressive, and bordering on humiliating showing at FNM a few weeks ago, I tuned my deck up again, and decided to make another run at it. Special props to my little Mage for cracking a Batterskull and a Mental Misstep from a a pack during packwars. Hooray for $30 packs! I made some last minute tweaks to the manabase which I hadn't talked about yet, so let me start with a full list. 19 Plains 2 Mox Opal 4 Signal Pests 4 Ornnithopter 4 Memnite 4 Steel Overseer 4 Porcelain Legionaire 3 Stoneforge Mystic 2 Etched Champion Hex Parasite Darksteel Juggernaut Triskelion Wurmcoil Engine Myr Battlsphere Vault Skirge 4 Tempered Steel Sword of Vengence Sword of Body and Mind Sword of Feast and Famine Batterskull This build did so much better. It had less explosive potential, but far higher consistency. The multiple Tempered Steels were crushing when backing multiple affected creatures. The combination of Stoneforge, and Batterskull was nothing sho...

I tried folks, I really tried. I found myself with no plans for a friday night, and a desire not to sit at home. So I decided to play constructed FNM. After a bit of research, and a quick glance through my meager Standard collection, I found that I could put something together drawing on the affinity concepts, and throw in a blade package for a certain leg up. The synergy between certain low cost artifact creatures, Signal Pest, and Steel Overseer is simply too strong to be denied. Toss in some singleton cards I wanted to test out like Tempered Steel, and a variety of high end threats, and I felt like I had a deck worth plopping down 5 bucks and trying to make a run at it. Turns out I was on the right track, but still falling short. The deck was capable of some explosive starts, often having 3+ power on the aggro available to swing on turn2. I was very often able to put my opponent on their back foot right out of the gate, but lacked the ability to finish out the game, no matter ho...