In memory

My mother passed away last Friday. She had been fighting a battle with breast cancer for over three years and finally reached a point where even she couldn't fight back any longer.

I knew when she was diagnosed that she was eventually going to die from this cancer. She was too far along when it was discovered for there to ever really be a chance at remission. But she was such a fighter, and such an optimist, that I truly think she always believed that she would beat it. I am thankful that she lived long enough to see her grandson be born, and to see pictures and video of the birth, even if I never got to place him in her arms.

I didn't always like my Mom growing up, but I think that is pretty normal. Once I got older, I came to discover just how much she sacrificed and how good a Mom I actually had. She taught me kindness, forgiveness, responsibility and honesty. I came to realize that those very lessons that made me not like her when I was young were the very things that made me who I am today. It is a debt I can never repay. I am thankful that I got a chance to tell her how much she meant to me before she was taken away.

I love you Mom. You will always be missed. Thank you for everything you did for me, and goodbye.

The new 'Standard' in MTGO

I sure do seem to write a lot about Magic. The new set, Betrayers of Kamigawa has recently been released online, and bannings are about to basically remove Affinity as the 'deck to beat'. This means that there is going to be a period of time when people are evaluating different types of decks and combos in search of the 'next big thing'. As I go through the process of creating decks, I will post the ones that I really like here. Note: I don't play in tournaments, so my decks are always of the 'casual' variety.

I am currently experimenting with a card I like, Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker.

Shirei make me giddy with excitement over the possibilities. Any creature with a power of 1 or less can die and come back each turn. So all I need is a bunch of 1 power creatures that do something either when they leave play or when they come back and some method of killing them every turn. Here is my first pass:

'Meek Shall Survive'
Standard

Creatures
4x Bottle Gnomes
4x Phyrexian Plaguelord
4x Ashen-Skin Zubera
4x Dripping-Tongue Zubera
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
4x Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
24 creatures

Other Spells
4x Diabolic Tutor
4x Lightning Greaves
3x Spawning Pit
3x Grave Pact
14 other spells

Land
11x Forest
11x Swamp

Once the pieces are in play, this deck is brutal. The Zubera are awesome, creating waves of creatures and making sure that your opponent never gets another card. The Grave Pact and Plague Lord make sure that any creatures that your opponent plays never last longer than a turn. The Tribe Elders give you land every turn. Bottle Gnomes are constant healing. And Shirei makes it all possible. The only real problem with this deck is that the combo is fragile, and it is slow to finish your opponent off. You can get a lock by Turn 6, but one Shock can ruin your day.