The Last… I knew You Were the Last! (Troll, that is)

PLEASE tell me that you’ve seen the movie: “The Last Unicorn”! Back in the day, this used to be one of my favorites… I had SUCH a crush on the “unicorn-girl” (Amalthea)… what a hottie!! <3

While she may have been the last Unicorn, our good buddy Thrun is the last Troll. He may not be giving little 6 year old girls giddy dreams about horsies and lollipops, but he’s def giving blue / black mages nightmares about hexproof and un-counterability (<- new word! Score!). He’s so popular right now, that I wanted to find a way to mix him in with the other “cool kids” so they can have a play along to taunt and tease all the less fortunate chumps who shop at Giant Tiger instead of The Gap.

There is a Jumanji style deck going around which accomplishes this, and I like it! Here’s my take on the deck:

4x Birds of Paradise

3x Avacyn’s Pilgrim

4x Mirran Crusader

3x Blade Splicer

4x Hero of Bladehome

2x Thrun, the Last Troll

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3x Oblivion Ring

3

3x Garruk Relentless

2x Elspeth OR Gideon OR Garruk?

5

3x Sword of Feast and Famine

1x Sword of War and Peace

2x Angelic Destiny

2x Mortarpod

8

9x Forest

4x Plains

3x Gavony Township

4x Razorverge Thicket

4x Sunpetal Grove

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It’s up in the air as to which planeswalker would best fit my 5cc slot, so I’ll have to debate it a little more before finalizing the deck. I’m leaning towards Elspeth as she plays nice with Mortarpod in a pinch! Two of the BEST creatures right now are Hero & Crusader, so mixing them up with Thrun seems like a good plan! Being able to spit out T2 crusaders and T3 Hero’s seems insane, and when you give them swords they’re even better. This list uses the Blade Splicers (which have been falling out of favor it seems) to ensure we’ll always have something kicking around to equip a sword to since it makes 2x bodies.

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Another note on our favorite subject: PLANESWALKER POINTS!

How have they been treating you? Are you still impressed with the program and how Wizards / Hasbro has been handling things?

I had a nice discussion with Chris Tomelin about this on Friday when I once again went to trade, but not play at my LGS. Chris was there and he ALSO was not playing. I asked him why he wasn’t slinging spells and he informed me that he’d lost a lot of interest in the game because of PWP’s and the fact that now he will have almost NO shot to qualify for anything, so why should he? I feel the same way, and haven’t been playing very much recently either as a result. So is the PWP system REALLY getting more people to play, or is it just getting certain people who WERE playing to play MORE?

As a member of society who has to WORK for a living, I know it’s impossible for ME to have any success in the game without quitting my job and breaking up w / my Girlfriend… Two things that just aren’t gonna happen!

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Things with www.quietspeculation.com are moving quite a bit slower than I’d originally anticipated. I think there may be a lot of red tape or something? As such while they’ve had my article for a while, it still hasn’t been published… which is a shame as it’s an article on the potential sleepers in Innistrad and every day that goes by is another day of speculating lost! Lol

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And a few quick stock tips:

1)      Hero of Bladehome is the card that has the MOST demand right now! I had 18 of them on Friday, and am down to only 10 remaining! They were trading at > $15 each, and I think a lot of people who got them out of me for $16-17 were probably “laughing all the way to the bank”.

2)      W/U and U/B lands are HOT right now! I can’t keep any in my trade stock, whether they’re Drowned Catacombs, Glacial Fortresses, Shores or Cliffs, everyone wants them and no one seems to have them.

3)      Wurmcoil Engine is worth $20 at the trading tables. People want him. It was pure luck that I was able to inform Dobbs that “no, they aren’t worth $8 anymore” before he traded them away at a loss! (I stole a Visions of Beyond off his kitchen table as payment for my knowledge! :P)

4)      Champion of the Parish / Stromkirk Noble BOTH trade for MUCH more than they sell for. Peeps are valuing them AT $6 / $8 respectively and they SELL for $3 / $5. Good potential to profit here!

That’s it for today! I’m hoping to have a “trade or no trade” up later this week!

Cheers,

Carl Szalich