With the introduction of Avacyn Restored on Magic Online, it seemed that I would be facing a fairly rough weekend for MTGO Hero. Then, I thought about it and realized every weekend was going to be rough, so bring it on.

I still needed to tread softly, as I wasn’t exactly sure what direction I wanted to head with my deck. I decided this would be a great week to respond to feedback from readers and see if I could make use of any of the suggestions I had been given. One of the topics I had been asked to discuss was my buying strategy, and in light of my need for new cards, it was the perfect opportunity.

The Marketplace

When beginning to play on MTGO, it is important to learn where to buy and sell cards. If you are new to MTGO, there are places on the Internet where you may find cards for sale, but often, you will find better prices through the bots actually on MTGO. If you prefer buying direct from a website rather than dealing with bots or traders, I would suggest MTGOTraders.com. They are reasonably competitive and have a solid reputation.

I usually prefer to do business with the card bots online. There is something to be said for trading, but I generally leave that to the financial gurus like Jonathan Medina. My online shopping experience of choice is through the MTGO classifieds located in the Menu tab under the Community–Marketplace section; however, there are many bots to choose from, and finding the best prices can be overwhelming for newer buyers.

MTGO Library is a site dedicated to expediting the search process. The library allows a user to enter a card name, and the site will retrieve a list of bots selling the card along with corresponding prices. It is a great concept in theory, but the execution of the concept doesn’t always meet expectations. The great deals found are seldom available when checking the bots listed, and the time it takes to use the tool is rarely worth the effort.

On the other hand, I have found a set of bots that generally have low prices as well as a fully stocked inventory. Searching for Marlonbot in the classifieds will provide a list of the bots I find most useful. The Marlon bots also share bot credits, so any remaining credits can be used in the other Marlon bots. It is merely a matter of convenience for me. Searching the classifieds may yield better prices, but often at the cost of a great deal of time.

Act of Aggression

Regardless of the direction I choose, I believe it is necessary to make the MTGO Hero deck as aggressive as possible. There have been multiple opinions on where I should take the deck. Pre-Avacyn, I was told W/U Humans or W/B tokens was the way to go.

I wanted to give Adam the credit he deserves for the suggestion he posted in the comments of MTGO Hero – Into the Battlefield. He recommended increasing my number of 1-drops to include four Elite Vanguard and three Gideon's Lawkeeper to increase my early aggression. His idea included moving Oblivion Ring to the board and dropping Gather the Townsfolk because they are awkward when playing Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.

Adam’s deck also included a splash of blue for Moorland Haunt, but he said I should stay mono-white to avoid the cost of the expensive dual lands. This is the only area I disagreed with him, as Moorland Haunt would be very beneficial against removal-heavy decks.

After spending 6 tickets on the gracefully failed tournament last week, I was left with 42 tickets and 0.83 bot credits. With that in mind, I headed to the bots and found what I was looking for. As I expected, I wouldn’t be able to afford Seachrome Coast for a blue splash—they were over 4 tickets a piece—but Glacial Fortress are relatively inexpensive. I would settle for having only four blue mana sources if it gave me access to Moorland Haunt.

Here is a list of my purchases:

This left me with 35 tickets and 0.54 bot credits, and it was time to build:

"MTGOHero2.0.dek"

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Hero of Bladehold
• 2 Loyal Cathar
• 4 Champion of the Parish
• 4 Doomed Traveler
• 4 Elite Vanguard
• 4 Fiend Hunter
• 4 Gideon's Lawkeeper
• 4 Mirran Crusader
• 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

• Spells (7)
• 1 Increasing Devotion
• 4 Honor of the Pure
• 2 Butcher's Cleaver

• Lands (23)
• 23 Plains

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Celestial Purge
• 2 Hero of Bladehold
• 4 Leonin Relic-Warder
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 3 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Timely Reinforcements

Buy This Deck

These changes needed a test run before I spent any more of my rapidly depleting funds. I ran the new version through the usual gauntlet of misfit decks in the Tournament Practice room and won three out of three matches. I wasn’t going to buy into another expensive tournament until I learned more of what Avacyn Restored was bringing to the table, but I wanted to make sure I played in at least one small event for the week. Bring on the two-man queues.

Standard 2-Player (Event #3880885)

This match was against a deck I have lovingly named Grixis Do Absolutely Nothing. I mean no disrespect to my opponent at all by saying that. If his intention was to create a deck that did absolutely nothing, he created a masterpiece, but don’t take my word for it—read on.

That didn’t surprise me nearly as much as the follow-up Surgical Extraction he played to remove the Elite Vanguard from my graveyard and it’s two copies from my deck. That was the end of my opponent’s threats. He never played another spell. A trio of Doomed Travelers joined Thalia and the Vanguard to put the game away.

1–0

Sideboard – No changes. I still had no idea what his deck was supposed to do.

Game 2 – This game, my opponent chose to play first, and then he passed. I was very unsure of what just happened because I was pretty confident that Manaless Dredge still wasn’t legal in Standard.

Besides, if this guy wanted to dump a card into his graveyard, he would have chosen to draw rather than play. Either way, I wanted to take advantage of my opportunity. I led off with Champion of the Parish followed by Thalia. My opponent cast Thunderous Wrath for the miracle cost and used it to kill Thalia.

I played a Loyal Cathar and continued my attack with the Champion. Once again, my opponent completely baffled me with a turn-four Memoricide and named—wait for it—Thalia. He successfully removed Thalia from my graveyard and the remaining two copies from my deck. Once again, that was the last card he played. Good games?

2–0

Wrapping Up

After spending 2 tickets on the event, I was left with 33 tickets and 0.54 bot credits, and I won an Innistrad booster pack from the event. I was able to sell my prize for 3 tickets and 0.63 bot credits, which left me with 37 tickets and 0.17 bot credits.

I walked away from the tournament with more tickets than I entered with and a renewed energy for the upcoming weeks. Did I learn anything from the event? Not really. Except that winning feels really good . . . Who would have thought?

I will be watching how the release of Avacyn Restored affects the MTGO metagame, and I’m looking forward to giving the new version of my deck a real challenge in the very near future.

Until next time,

– Tangent was here . . .