That picture is Brad Marchand licking the face of an opposing hockey player. They were getting lippy with each other after a play so Brad decided to get all tongue-y instead. That’s not normal behaviour. Not even for hockey players.
I hate*** Brad Marchand. He is an “instigator” type hockey player. Most people hate Brad Marchand. Heck, I think Brad Marchand hates Brad Marchand. Brad Marchand is one of those players that you can’t stand, but you tolerate him on your team because he is actually really effective at what he does – winning hockey games and infuriating opponents.
***I don’t really hate him. I am using it in the sporting sense, where I hate playing against him. Hate some of his antics, but I am sure he is actually a lovely human being off the ice. He does his job perfectly. Too much hate in the world, wanted to clarify.
I have a MTG:A deck like that. Last season I made it to Platinum 2 ranking with semi-casual play and I noticed over the weekend the season is almost over and I was still at Plat 4. I decided to spend some hours grinding back to Plat 2 (I did) and make the run to Plat 1. At that point I just had to put in the games since my deck was wrecking everyone. Doing so, I ended up hitting Diamond 4 with time to spare.
My Brad Marchand deck is a twist on my Green / Black deck with a dash of Blue. It really annoys opponents. Heck, I feel guilty for even playing it because it is frustrating. It’s based around returns, removals and “steals”, which I don’t even think are proper MTG:A terms, but it works. And it’s filthy.
Here is the deck, and I will break it up into groups of “functions:
Land cards:
Most are combo color cards with a dash of a couple fun ones – specifically Memorial to Folly (return creature card from graveyard) and Detection tower (remove hexproof – which is important for my steal card later on). Otherwise a nice cross of green, blue and black mana.
Green Cards: Add mana and health plus explore
I love these cards and have always since I started with MTG:A. Not only do they return health, but grow in power (and give me a “Free” look at the next card). My opponents too, but that is also fun to make them have to save cards to act on the future instead of the present
Removal cards:
I have all sorts of ways to remove every kind of card (include the mass remove of Find // Finality, which also acts as a card return option)
Creature cards that bring it all together:
All of these cards are fun to play, and the Thief and Hostage Taker are complete game changers. Hostage taker takes over ANY card (that isn’t Hexproof) and is a great “steal” tool. The Thief is the ultimate Brad Marchand card – I have had many opponents straight out quit before I was even able to use it.
Planeswalker / Return:
The Journey to Eternity is one of my favorite cards for anti-removal and Vivien allows me to push lands or creatures, whatever I need more.
This deck shines in annoying the hell out of an opponent – returning cards to the playing field that have been removed, but more importantly using their favorite cards against them. There is nothing quite as satisfying when someone plays their “I win” card, and my Hostage Taker takes it and plays it the following round. Even better if I steal it with Thief BEFORE they get to play it, and bring it out later on.
This deck is a blast to play because it’s different with every match (Depending on what cards you steal) and right now has a great win rate for me (well over 60%). The season reset and I get to climb back out of Gold towards Diamond, and I have my eye towards Mythic placement.