Helly everybody!
A couple days ago, we had christmas, and as is tradition all of the family gets together for christmas parties which in my family includes a lot of games being played. While no one else plays Magic in my family, we did have a wide array of other games played, which embellished a point that I have been considered writing about for over a month: You don't have to play magic to get better at it. I call this Magic Cross-Training.
In high school I was a pretty avid runner, including becoming the cross country captain, and one of the thing that we often did as a team was cross training. In cross country, the race is 5,000 meters, or approximately 3.1 miles. The most natural way to train for this race would be to run 3.1 miles every day, right? However, as it turned out a 3 mile day was our easy day before a race. Instead, this is how our week normally went:
Monday - 6-8 miles
Tuesday - 2-3 miles
Wednesday - Race Day
Thursday - 3-4 miles
Friday - Track workout (sprints)
Saturday - 5-6 miles
Sunday - Rest
By doing extra distance monday and saturday, we were building up our endurance to do over the race miles, which in turn would give us more strength during the race when we input more energy per mile. Also, on Friday we would do sprint workouts, which were anywhere from 200-800 meters, depending on the week (for reference, a mile is 1600 meters). In these sprint workouts, we would go balls to the wall, and make it such that we could keel over and die on the spot. Then repeat it 11 more times. We pushed ourselves to our limits, regardless of the distance or speed we were supposed to go (there is a thing to forcing yourself to calm down, but that's another topic for another day). In fact, when the XC season ended, and Winter Track started, the distance team was so good at sprinting in addition to our own events, that 75% of our D team could out-sprint 90% of the sprinters. While at the time, we just blamed it on sprinters being lazy, and us being god's gift to humanity (we were humble, i swear), in hindsight I realize it was because we cross-trained and they didn't. We did everything, they only did sprinting. While we would all be the same speed on the first 200, by the time we were on the 6th rep of 12, they were crawling on the ground while we weren't breaking a sweat because we were used to never stopping, while their bodies had never been prepared to run so fast for so long. In addition, the distance team did weights together, including tons with the upper-body despite it seemingly useless for running, but I think by point has already been made...
So what does this have to do with magic? Just like how I cross-trained my body for running long-distance, in the same way we can cross-train our brain to perform at a higher level for magic. To cross train for sports we play different sports, so to cross train for magic we play other games! Playing a variety of non-magic games makes you think in ways that you don't exercise in magic directly, and a change in atmosphere is always welcome when magic becomes a drag from excessive grinding. I play a TON of different games! Here are some of them, and why you should consider playing them:
Chess
Chess has a board that is always the same when it starts, and has very few viable openings possible, so it's possible to simply memorize a million openings and have a flowchart of how games always go. But then how come no two games are ever alike? Why do we have a unique shorthand language designed to record and replay games? Playing chess has the standard expected moves, but the great players are able to break the traditional mold and capitalize on this new unique unknown board position. For example, heres one of my favorite openings as the black player:
1. e4 g6
2. d4 Bh6
3. ... Nf6
4. ... 0-0 or Nc6
In basic theory this is a weaker opening, however I like it because it's not traditional, and most players don't know how to respond to it. This gives the the opening to play more aggressively because I already have a castled king with staggered pawns in front of him, so he is very well protected. Playing chess forces us to analyze unique board positions, play as our opponent, look forward several turns to see how a specific play will end, and use deception on the opponent (revealed/discovered check). Playing rogue is essential to break the mold of chess and move leverage to your side of the board, assuming it isn't just a horrific misplay. In the same way because chess in an open-information game, we can see everything both players can do which means we can play out 10 turns in our head before we make any given move. Mind games involving hidden information are useless here.
Absorb Chess
Absorb chess is a fun chess variant I occasionally play with my friends that takes basic dynamics of chess and flips it on its head. Everything is the exact same except one thing: Whenever a piece is captured, the piece that dies has it's motion abilities granted to the piece that killed it. For example, lets say a Knight captured a pawn. The knight could move as it normally did, but it can also move/capture like a pawn does by sliding forward once or capturing diagonally. The most powerful piece in the game is a Queen-Knight, and the most terrifying thing is a King-Queen (or really King + anything not pawn). This makes unopposed captures VERY dangerous, and many games are dominated in the middle of the board as both players scramble to gain an advantage over a series of captures that happen on one square until 1 player is left with a super piece. All the same attributes of chess apply here.
Dominion
A year ago yesterday I wrote a fantastic piece on Dominion which is my 2nd most read post all time. That article does a great job explaining dominion and its relevance to magic, but as a short synopsis Dominion is a deck-building game where understanding how cards get better or worse based on its context is massively important. This game is essential to play if you want to become a better deck builder because context is everything. We have Unsummon being played in standard right now!
Poker
How to win at poker: don't play the cards, play the other players. When I started getting into poker, I received some great advice: don't play the first 3-5 hands you're dealt. Allow yourself to take the time and analyze who you're playing against. Try to understand the tells people give. As you get higher and higher up into the professional poker field, it becomes increasingly difficult to read opponents, but the same is true for magic. In poker, the odds are always against you, so it's not a great strategy to bet on those percentages. Let's say there are 8 players at the table, so 16 cards are dealt (Texas Hold 'Em). Burn and Flop: 20 cards on the table, Burn and Turn: 22, Burn and River: 24/52 cards or 46% of the cards have moved from the deck. Even if you are bad at reading others, playing poker is still a great way to control how you maintain your own composure. Next time you play poker, pay attention to your body at all times: do you perk up after reeling in a huge pot? Do you slump after folding? Do you smile a little after being dealt pocket Kings? Some players go for the no tells style of play, where they literally poker face everything. I sometimes like to have fun and give easy tells for 30 minutes before controlling my body and making my bluffs become better and my nut draws more concealed. Unfortunately, this style of play has very quick diminishing returns. The correlations between poker and magic are blatantly evident.
Scrabble/Words with Friends
Once again, this game seems pretty basic, but the real way to win this game is aactually not completely obvious. You need to play the board and the multipliers, which often means playing words that are, at raw value, smaller than other choices in your hand. Also to go another layer deep, you can not add prefixes or suffixes to words to prevent your opponent form being able to play off those words and hit something like the 3x Word multiplier. Whether it was by design or dumb luck, last week I was playing against my girlfriend and she chained "qua" into "quart" into "quarter" across 3 successive turns and did a good job catching up. However I am good at maximizing multipliers and played "palm" for 33 points of a 3x word multiplier. She consistently plays words that are better in a void, but because I play the board and not the words, I am able to score more points off the multipliers. Here's 3 good videos. This relates to overextending - If I DON'T play this creature, I can kill him in 3 turns, but playing this creature taps me out and kills him in 2 turns. Is it worth it? If you're holding mana leak, almost always the answer is no.
Bananagrams
This game is a Scrabble varient where multiple players play solitare scrabble with 21 tiles, and when they have every piece used they yell "peel!" and everyone has to take 1 tile form a pile in the middle. First player to use every tile when there are no more in the middle wins. The inherent difference between bananagrams and scrabble is that in bananagrams you can break up your puzzle as you need to form new words. Sometimes I have had games where I blow up half the board because it was a bunch of dead ends I couldn't work with. Small words are useful, but too many small words leads to a board that can't be added to. This game makes you think very quickly and on many different fronts. Often the first thing you think of isn't the best way to approach a puzzle. This game helps me think about combo decks facing down certain kinds of hate: you have to very quickly come up with a plan B that is just as effective, such as narcomeba aggro vs leyline of sanctity. Being able to mentally destroy everything that you were working on and focusing on only what matters is also another important lesson to be gained from bananagrams.
Quiddler
And finally one more words game! This one is more like rummy in that you get dealt a hand of cards which feature letters that you try to form into words. I'm personally not a fan of this game as 9 times out of 10 each round is only 1 turn long. Almost any hand containing both vowels and consonants can dump its hand on the table as long as you're creative enough. Some great words I have learned from Quiddler:
Qua
Qi
Xi
Jo
Zin
Xu
Quiddler makes you always second-guess yourself if you say you can't possibly go out this turn. I was playing just 2 days ago, and my dad put his cards on the table saying "I have 3 words, and these 2 letters are negative points" (when someone goes out, everyone gets 1 turn to accumulate as many points as possible, and any letters not used are negative points). I looked at his cards suspiciously, and after his points were recorded I took his cards and rearranged them for 2 minutes, finally showing him how he had to make 4 smaller words to use everything he had available to him. This is the as in magic when we anticipate making play X, but then after long thought we realize that a different plan is actually far more profitable.
There were actually another half-dozen games that I had qued up to talk about, but I think this post is long enough as is. But ultimately, to get better at magic, it is often the best idea to play other games that stretch your brain in ways magic doesn't always do to increase your overall brain power. As the saying goes: knowledge is power. If you go to the channel where the Words with Friends theory videos came from, you will see he has a long series of videos about game theory basics. Every game is beatable, but you have to attack them from a variety of angles to do so, including magic. It is very possible that you have never practiced a certain angle of thinking, but that's exactly what you need in a tournament! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
@ThingsILack
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Post #200!
Hello everybody!
I can remember earlier this year writing post #100, and now, just under a year later I have written yet another hundred! While originally this blog was made as a dump for all my ideas as they come to me as archivable evidence of when I came up with awesome ideas that came to fruition months later, I feel it has since matured and grown into a more thought out presentation of decks, interesting tech, finances, and general theory. As of the writing of this article, there is about 19,750 lifetime hits on this blog! I remember when I first crossed 1,000 how euphoric I was! But that's old news now.
So we're almost 2 years in, where do we go from here? Since this blog's inception (awesome movie I just saw for the first time 2 days ago!), I have gone from a hole in the wall player to one who is actively involved in building and testing decks always looking to gain an edge and attack the current metagame from a fresh angle. I don't typically netdeck, and by I don't typically I really mean I never do for standard and only do for legacy until I thoroughly understand the deck, at which point I throw in some spice. As such, I don't feel naming the blog "Casual MTG Creations" is applicable because I'm not a casual player anymore - I'm planning on rocking this upcoming modern PTQ season! So if you have any awesome ideas, please let me know! (The punnier, the better)
So as I previously mentioned I am currently around 19,750 hits, and I feel like I should be awesome and give something away to a lucky reader, so here is my brilliant plan: Whoever is reader #22,222 I will send 222 2 mana 2/2s with no abilites straight to your door. I am serious, I already have a list of the 12 (11 if you don't count Woodland Changeling, which I do) 2 mana 2/2s with no abilities ever printed, along with all sets they have been printed in. I don't expect to have 22,222 hits in the very near future, so I will have a reminder up (hopefully on post #222 XD). The lifetime hits should be visible in the right column in blue under the "About Me" section. Just send me a screenshot, name, and address, and I will get you your one of a kind collection!
Going forward, I am excited to keep on posting frequently. Before the summer I was able to consistently post every-other day, but now in my infinite sloth I have to slow all the way down to... every 3 days, or about 10 posts a month. Obviously it's really easy to post every day in spoiler season, so aside from those times, I will try to keep to a regular 10 a month schedule.
So enough basking, let's talk for a minute about standard. You know what card I feel is the most significant card of standard right now? Day of Judgement. The best aggro decks - Haunted Humans, Illusions, and Red Deck all have plans to beat Day of Judgement, with the UW decks grinding out with moorland haunt and with Red Deck relying upon Shrine and Koth, and that is why they are successful. Compare this to GW which does not offer that resiliency, and you will see a more poorly performing deck. Obviously control decks circumvent day, and that leaves us with Wolf Run which laughs at the sorcery-speed aspect of Day with Inkmoth - pump - gg. This is why in my new version of Burning Vengeance, I am playing white mainly for Day of Judgement:
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Inferno Titan
1x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Devil's Play
4x Geistflame
4x Desperate Ravings
2x Timely Reinforcements
4x Mana Leak
4x Think Twice
2x Feeling of Dread
2x Forbidden Alchemy
1x Slagstorm
3x Day of Judgement
4x Burning Vengeance
4x Clifftop Retreat
4x Sulfur Falls
1x Blackcleave Cliffs
3x Glacial Fortress
3x Island
4x Mountain
2x Plains
3x Seachrome Coast
1x Shimmering Grotto
Sideboard:
2x Flashfreeze
2x Phantasmal Image
2x Dissipate
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Slagstorm
1x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Will it work? I think so... but that's what FNM is for! After this FNM I want to delve into the intricities of my opinions of Vengeance overall, and how I implemented that here... But we have to see if I'm even on the right track or not first!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
I can remember earlier this year writing post #100, and now, just under a year later I have written yet another hundred! While originally this blog was made as a dump for all my ideas as they come to me as archivable evidence of when I came up with awesome ideas that came to fruition months later, I feel it has since matured and grown into a more thought out presentation of decks, interesting tech, finances, and general theory. As of the writing of this article, there is about 19,750 lifetime hits on this blog! I remember when I first crossed 1,000 how euphoric I was! But that's old news now.
So we're almost 2 years in, where do we go from here? Since this blog's inception (awesome movie I just saw for the first time 2 days ago!), I have gone from a hole in the wall player to one who is actively involved in building and testing decks always looking to gain an edge and attack the current metagame from a fresh angle. I don't typically netdeck, and by I don't typically I really mean I never do for standard and only do for legacy until I thoroughly understand the deck, at which point I throw in some spice. As such, I don't feel naming the blog "Casual MTG Creations" is applicable because I'm not a casual player anymore - I'm planning on rocking this upcoming modern PTQ season! So if you have any awesome ideas, please let me know! (The punnier, the better)
So as I previously mentioned I am currently around 19,750 hits, and I feel like I should be awesome and give something away to a lucky reader, so here is my brilliant plan: Whoever is reader #22,222 I will send 222 2 mana 2/2s with no abilites straight to your door. I am serious, I already have a list of the 12 (11 if you don't count Woodland Changeling, which I do) 2 mana 2/2s with no abilities ever printed, along with all sets they have been printed in. I don't expect to have 22,222 hits in the very near future, so I will have a reminder up (hopefully on post #222 XD). The lifetime hits should be visible in the right column in blue under the "About Me" section. Just send me a screenshot, name, and address, and I will get you your one of a kind collection!
Going forward, I am excited to keep on posting frequently. Before the summer I was able to consistently post every-other day, but now in my infinite sloth I have to slow all the way down to... every 3 days, or about 10 posts a month. Obviously it's really easy to post every day in spoiler season, so aside from those times, I will try to keep to a regular 10 a month schedule.
So enough basking, let's talk for a minute about standard. You know what card I feel is the most significant card of standard right now? Day of Judgement. The best aggro decks - Haunted Humans, Illusions, and Red Deck all have plans to beat Day of Judgement, with the UW decks grinding out with moorland haunt and with Red Deck relying upon Shrine and Koth, and that is why they are successful. Compare this to GW which does not offer that resiliency, and you will see a more poorly performing deck. Obviously control decks circumvent day, and that leaves us with Wolf Run which laughs at the sorcery-speed aspect of Day with Inkmoth - pump - gg. This is why in my new version of Burning Vengeance, I am playing white mainly for Day of Judgement:
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Inferno Titan
1x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Devil's Play
4x Geistflame
4x Desperate Ravings
2x Timely Reinforcements
4x Mana Leak
4x Think Twice
2x Feeling of Dread
2x Forbidden Alchemy
1x Slagstorm
3x Day of Judgement
4x Burning Vengeance
4x Clifftop Retreat
4x Sulfur Falls
1x Blackcleave Cliffs
3x Glacial Fortress
3x Island
4x Mountain
2x Plains
3x Seachrome Coast
1x Shimmering Grotto
Sideboard:
2x Flashfreeze
2x Phantasmal Image
2x Dissipate
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Slagstorm
1x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Will it work? I think so... but that's what FNM is for! After this FNM I want to delve into the intricities of my opinions of Vengeance overall, and how I implemented that here... But we have to see if I'm even on the right track or not first!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Modern Bannings!
Hello Everybody!
Just a couple hours ago, the December B&R announcement went up on the Mothership, which you can find here, and Erik Lauer explains the bans here. For those of you who don't feel like following the link, here's the beef:
Modern:
Wild Nacatl is banned
Punishing Fire is banned
If you follow Patrick Chapin at all, then this is old news to you and you already have decklists lined up ready to spring at the moment the curtain fell. Chapin has been an advocate for these specific bannings for about a month by now. Back on December 6th, I posted my Dredge decklist on Chapin's FB page to which he responded: "Interesting build. Is Mulch worth considering? What about Jace's Archivist? This build gets a LOT more exciting if Punishing Fires and Wild Nacatl were to get banned." Well Mr. Chapin, the time has come! Obviously this is where I am starting leading into the modern PTQ season, but there are definitely other options. Another sweet deck that comes to mind as an opportunity is Doran:
4x Treefolk Harbringer
4x Loam Lion
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Dark Confidant
4x Doran, the Siege Tower
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Duress
2x Thoughtseize
3x Path to Exile
4x Maelstrom Pulse
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Murmuring Bosk
2x Temple Garden
2x Overgrown Tomb
3x Treetop Village
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Forest
1x Swamp
This is a fairly rough list, but it is certainly a strong possibility now that Zoo has been slightly neutered and essential cards like Dark Confidant are no longer restrained by Punishing Fire. One quick note on this list specifically: One card that seems like it could be very good (though probably in a version with 2-3 more removal spells) is Sheltering Ancient. That card feels like it can simply lend itself to some free wins:
T1: Murmuring Bosk, Treefolk Harbringer
T2: Sheltering Ancient
T3: Doran, attack for 8
T4: Path blocker, attack for 13
If that nuts draw doesn't work out, then maybe something a little slower:
T1: Loam Lion
T2: Tarmogoyf
T3: Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant
After reading that second line of play, you may realize that this Doran deck is a slightly more disruptive version of Zoo. So going back to Sheltering Ancient, that card seems like it can be crazy good, but right now I have Dungrove in its place, which can provide more long-term value, which may be all this deck really wants thanks to the slower nature of the deck, and the inevitably slower nature of Modern.
Modern as a whole is going to be completely changed. Up until now, the format was completely warped around Zoo, which is now at least 1 full turn slower, which gives a ton of decks just enough time to breath and actually play out their game plan too. I am very intruiged to see where things go from here. I don't know much about the deck, but I feel like with a slower format, Ad Nauseum is another deck that could get big now it has time to draw into the necessary pieces....
But that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
@ThingsILack
Just a couple hours ago, the December B&R announcement went up on the Mothership, which you can find here, and Erik Lauer explains the bans here. For those of you who don't feel like following the link, here's the beef:
Modern:
Wild Nacatl is banned
Punishing Fire is banned
If you follow Patrick Chapin at all, then this is old news to you and you already have decklists lined up ready to spring at the moment the curtain fell. Chapin has been an advocate for these specific bannings for about a month by now. Back on December 6th, I posted my Dredge decklist on Chapin's FB page to which he responded: "Interesting build. Is Mulch worth considering? What about Jace's Archivist? This build gets a LOT more exciting if Punishing Fires and Wild Nacatl were to get banned." Well Mr. Chapin, the time has come! Obviously this is where I am starting leading into the modern PTQ season, but there are definitely other options. Another sweet deck that comes to mind as an opportunity is Doran:
4x Treefolk Harbringer
4x Loam Lion
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Dark Confidant
4x Doran, the Siege Tower
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Duress
2x Thoughtseize
3x Path to Exile
4x Maelstrom Pulse
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Murmuring Bosk
2x Temple Garden
2x Overgrown Tomb
3x Treetop Village
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Forest
1x Swamp
This is a fairly rough list, but it is certainly a strong possibility now that Zoo has been slightly neutered and essential cards like Dark Confidant are no longer restrained by Punishing Fire. One quick note on this list specifically: One card that seems like it could be very good (though probably in a version with 2-3 more removal spells) is Sheltering Ancient. That card feels like it can simply lend itself to some free wins:
T1: Murmuring Bosk, Treefolk Harbringer
T2: Sheltering Ancient
T3: Doran, attack for 8
T4: Path blocker, attack for 13
If that nuts draw doesn't work out, then maybe something a little slower:
T1: Loam Lion
T2: Tarmogoyf
T3: Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant
After reading that second line of play, you may realize that this Doran deck is a slightly more disruptive version of Zoo. So going back to Sheltering Ancient, that card seems like it can be crazy good, but right now I have Dungrove in its place, which can provide more long-term value, which may be all this deck really wants thanks to the slower nature of the deck, and the inevitably slower nature of Modern.
Modern as a whole is going to be completely changed. Up until now, the format was completely warped around Zoo, which is now at least 1 full turn slower, which gives a ton of decks just enough time to breath and actually play out their game plan too. I am very intruiged to see where things go from here. I don't know much about the deck, but I feel like with a slower format, Ad Nauseum is another deck that could get big now it has time to draw into the necessary pieces....
But that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
@ThingsILack
Scenic Magic
Hello Everyone! Earlier this week, one of my friends picked me up, and we drove out to Mark's college to hang out for the evening. While we were there Nick and Defo both joined us for a short time, and we hung out, relaxed, and of course played a lot of magic. After a couple hours, I expressed interest in checking out their local game shop called That's Entertainment! (TE!).
TE! is a small store that also sells everything geeky like comic books, collectables, and other TCGs in addition to Magic. They also have a very nice collection of Legacy cards that was very exciting to see. What was especially interesting is how they had all of their cards in glass cases like a museum. Naturally they had a ton of cards I was interested in, like Show and Tell and Argothian Enchantress. So I went to the man behind the counter (they had ~6 people working, which gos to show how big TE! is!) and handed him my binders, hoping to scrape maybe $30 and get a Show and Tell for my efforts. 15 minutes later, I got the binders back, and a very nicely printed out chart came with them that pointed out every card in my binders they wanted and what they would give me for straight cash and store credit. As it turned out, they pay REALLY nice! One that sticks out in my mind is they gave me $10.50 in store credit for my Olivia Voldaren!
So because they were giving me 70% in store credit on many of my cards, including Geist of Saint Traft, Jace Memory Adept, Godless Shrine, and Sacred Foundry. So after I crossed off the 2 or 3 cards I didn't want to sell, I was sitting on $80 credit! I immediately snagged 2 Show and Tells and an Argothian Enchantress. But then I found out that the slight whitening on the back of one of the Show and Tells dropped its value by $7, and I was able to get a second Argothian Enchantress for a whopping green Lincoln.
Unfortunately, there weren't any players there at the time, so I wasn't able to get any real trading in, although I was getting such good rates at the store that it felt like I was trading anyways. It's simply great when you don't even feel like you're getting a bad deal when you're selling into a store. I had that experience once before during a PTQ at TJ Collectables where I traded jank into 3 Burning Wish. Also, whenever I go to Star City Opens, it is very easy to sell out to dealers and get rid of all the jank and bulk and turn it into either cash or store credit.
So what's the common denominator between all of these examples?
These aren't my local store.
Time and time again I rediscover how important it is to have variety in your atmosphere when it comes especially to your trade binder, but also your play testing. Regarding your binder; it can be very difficult to grow your trade stock when you look at the same collection of cards week in and week out. By taking a day and going to a far off land exclusively for trading is how I have gained some of my greatest assets, including 2 Tarmogoyfs, 3 Glimpse of Natures, Gaea's Cradle, 2 Serra's Sanctum, my Belcher deck, my Enchantress deck, 4 Dark Confidant, etc etc etc... Also, by going to far off lands, I can also move stock I no longer want that I can't move at home.
In terms of play testing, determining how good your deck REALLY is is very important, especially in Legacy where you may have subconsciously tuned to your local meta, but the deck itself isn't actually that good. Taking a random day with your tuned decklist and jamming it in other stores' Legacy events can be crucial, especially if there are major popular decks, like Goblins, that aren't accounted for in your local meta. And worst comes to worst, you have fun, make more friends, and expand your network.
I find the best ways to get out beyond your local store is in 2 ways: bigger events, and through friends. Bigger events are awesome, as things like SCG Opens, PTQs, GPs, and States bring in players from the large local area and are tons of fun with plenty of trading and gaming. On the other hand, visiting all of your friend's local stores is another simple way to expand your horizons, similar to how I visited TE!.
Overall, I would say the best way to accelerate yourself in your binder, play skill, and network is to constantly expand your horizons to many new local stores and events. In the same way how when a new player comes to your store, they bring a mass of fresh cards to liven the local trading, the same is especially the case when you go somewhere new yourself. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
@ThingsILack
TE! is a small store that also sells everything geeky like comic books, collectables, and other TCGs in addition to Magic. They also have a very nice collection of Legacy cards that was very exciting to see. What was especially interesting is how they had all of their cards in glass cases like a museum. Naturally they had a ton of cards I was interested in, like Show and Tell and Argothian Enchantress. So I went to the man behind the counter (they had ~6 people working, which gos to show how big TE! is!) and handed him my binders, hoping to scrape maybe $30 and get a Show and Tell for my efforts. 15 minutes later, I got the binders back, and a very nicely printed out chart came with them that pointed out every card in my binders they wanted and what they would give me for straight cash and store credit. As it turned out, they pay REALLY nice! One that sticks out in my mind is they gave me $10.50 in store credit for my Olivia Voldaren!
So because they were giving me 70% in store credit on many of my cards, including Geist of Saint Traft, Jace Memory Adept, Godless Shrine, and Sacred Foundry. So after I crossed off the 2 or 3 cards I didn't want to sell, I was sitting on $80 credit! I immediately snagged 2 Show and Tells and an Argothian Enchantress. But then I found out that the slight whitening on the back of one of the Show and Tells dropped its value by $7, and I was able to get a second Argothian Enchantress for a whopping green Lincoln.
Unfortunately, there weren't any players there at the time, so I wasn't able to get any real trading in, although I was getting such good rates at the store that it felt like I was trading anyways. It's simply great when you don't even feel like you're getting a bad deal when you're selling into a store. I had that experience once before during a PTQ at TJ Collectables where I traded jank into 3 Burning Wish. Also, whenever I go to Star City Opens, it is very easy to sell out to dealers and get rid of all the jank and bulk and turn it into either cash or store credit.
So what's the common denominator between all of these examples?
These aren't my local store.
Time and time again I rediscover how important it is to have variety in your atmosphere when it comes especially to your trade binder, but also your play testing. Regarding your binder; it can be very difficult to grow your trade stock when you look at the same collection of cards week in and week out. By taking a day and going to a far off land exclusively for trading is how I have gained some of my greatest assets, including 2 Tarmogoyfs, 3 Glimpse of Natures, Gaea's Cradle, 2 Serra's Sanctum, my Belcher deck, my Enchantress deck, 4 Dark Confidant, etc etc etc... Also, by going to far off lands, I can also move stock I no longer want that I can't move at home.
In terms of play testing, determining how good your deck REALLY is is very important, especially in Legacy where you may have subconsciously tuned to your local meta, but the deck itself isn't actually that good. Taking a random day with your tuned decklist and jamming it in other stores' Legacy events can be crucial, especially if there are major popular decks, like Goblins, that aren't accounted for in your local meta. And worst comes to worst, you have fun, make more friends, and expand your network.
I find the best ways to get out beyond your local store is in 2 ways: bigger events, and through friends. Bigger events are awesome, as things like SCG Opens, PTQs, GPs, and States bring in players from the large local area and are tons of fun with plenty of trading and gaming. On the other hand, visiting all of your friend's local stores is another simple way to expand your horizons, similar to how I visited TE!.
Overall, I would say the best way to accelerate yourself in your binder, play skill, and network is to constantly expand your horizons to many new local stores and events. In the same way how when a new player comes to your store, they bring a mass of fresh cards to liven the local trading, the same is especially the case when you go somewhere new yourself. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
@ThingsILack
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Avacyn is finally Restored!
Even though the dark hasn't ascended yet....
Hello Everybody! Today on the Mothership, the 3rd set of the Innistrad block was announced, which you can find here. As awesome as it is to learn about the third set, I almost feel it's coming out a little too early, but maybe I'm just spoiled by last year's Mirran vs Phyrexian drama (which ironically enough people felt thy slow-rolled too much). I have only been playing magic for 2 years, so the only other time I have seen the announcement of a final set was for Rise of the Eldrazi, for which I literally jumped out of my chair in euphoria over. I guess my little inner naive chile has forgone me, and now I'm a grumpy old man.
Regardless, let's talk about this set and what it means for the rest of time and space. Avacyn Restored (AVR) is going to be a Large set, so that means it's going to follow the Large-Small-Large structure that Zendikar block followed. In Zendikar block, Rise of the Eldrazi has a completely unique mechanical identity vs Zendikar and Worldwake, and I expect AVR to work the same way. Also, just like ROE, AVR is going to be drafted by itself. So our next 2 draft formats are going to be DKA-INN-INN after Dark Ascension comes out and AVR-AVR-AVR after Avacyn Restored is released.
Now I have to point out, that this is a glorious job of terrible set naming. What do all of these have in common:
Alara Reborn
Rise of the Eldrazi
New Phyrexia
Avacyn Restored
These are the 3rd set from our current block and the past 3 years. All 4 follow a very basic naming structure that is a very blatantly obvious tell as to how the flavor of the block progresses. The only other time that this sort of giveaway set name happened is Saviors of Kamigawa, so it's clearly the cool new thing. I understand how it's good for your story to have a beginning, middle, and end, but you don't need to spell it out with the set names...
Annoying observation aside, because the 3rd set of Innistrad block is going to be a large stand-alone set, we can gain some financial insight. Just like in Zendikar block, the second set it going to be opened relatively little compared to the first and third because of how drafting works. Let's say you draft 100 times a year, 25 times between each set's release. From Scars block - M12 you would have opened:
150 Scars of Mirrodin packs
50 Mirrodin Beseiged packs
25 New Phyrexia packs
75 Magic 2012 packs
Now let's compare this to how this block will shape up (assuming the core set is called Magic 2013):
125 Innistrad packs
25 Dark Ascension packs
75 Avacyn Restored packs
75 Magic 2013 packs
So you can say at first, "Dark Ascension will be opened as frequently as New Phyrexia!" and that is absolutely true. The 3rd set in a traditional block is known for having breakout cards because of this (Tarmogoyf), unless of course you're Saviors of Kamigawa. But one other interesting thing to point out is how Scars block has the numbers all over the place, but Innistrad block has 3 sets at similar levels, but one set dramatically lower. Because of this, the financials of Dark Ascension are going to be very unique. I can't quite say it's going to be similar to Worldwake though, because Jace, the Mind Sculptor did a good job turning the finance world on its head. I think there will be many opportunities for breakout cards from this set, so be prepared to trade accordingly. One last note - Innistrad won't be affected too much by this change as it only loses 17% of it's packs vs 50%.
A couple random thoughts regarding AVR:
-If it has new mechanical identity, then flashback won't return, which makes Burning Vengeance suck. If there isn't enough to warrent a deck after DKA comes out, then don't invest in it
-I don't know if this is new or if I'm oblivious, but it seems they are naming the Pro Tours after the sets now... Pro Tour Avacyn Restored will be block constructed in Spain
-That angel looks really dark compared to other angels with the same lighting (Deathless Angel), maybe it's Avacyn herself, but she has been tainted by demons?
-Does Liliana's quest to kill the demons she is indebted to have any correlation to this?
-What role will Sorin and Garruk play?
Anyways, that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
**UPDATE** It was announced on twitter today that there will be no Double Faced Cards in AVR
Hello Everybody! Today on the Mothership, the 3rd set of the Innistrad block was announced, which you can find here. As awesome as it is to learn about the third set, I almost feel it's coming out a little too early, but maybe I'm just spoiled by last year's Mirran vs Phyrexian drama (which ironically enough people felt thy slow-rolled too much). I have only been playing magic for 2 years, so the only other time I have seen the announcement of a final set was for Rise of the Eldrazi, for which I literally jumped out of my chair in euphoria over. I guess my little inner naive chile has forgone me, and now I'm a grumpy old man.
Regardless, let's talk about this set and what it means for the rest of time and space. Avacyn Restored (AVR) is going to be a Large set, so that means it's going to follow the Large-Small-Large structure that Zendikar block followed. In Zendikar block, Rise of the Eldrazi has a completely unique mechanical identity vs Zendikar and Worldwake, and I expect AVR to work the same way. Also, just like ROE, AVR is going to be drafted by itself. So our next 2 draft formats are going to be DKA-INN-INN after Dark Ascension comes out and AVR-AVR-AVR after Avacyn Restored is released.
Now I have to point out, that this is a glorious job of terrible set naming. What do all of these have in common:
Alara Reborn
Rise of the Eldrazi
New Phyrexia
Avacyn Restored
These are the 3rd set from our current block and the past 3 years. All 4 follow a very basic naming structure that is a very blatantly obvious tell as to how the flavor of the block progresses. The only other time that this sort of giveaway set name happened is Saviors of Kamigawa, so it's clearly the cool new thing. I understand how it's good for your story to have a beginning, middle, and end, but you don't need to spell it out with the set names...
Annoying observation aside, because the 3rd set of Innistrad block is going to be a large stand-alone set, we can gain some financial insight. Just like in Zendikar block, the second set it going to be opened relatively little compared to the first and third because of how drafting works. Let's say you draft 100 times a year, 25 times between each set's release. From Scars block - M12 you would have opened:
150 Scars of Mirrodin packs
50 Mirrodin Beseiged packs
25 New Phyrexia packs
75 Magic 2012 packs
Now let's compare this to how this block will shape up (assuming the core set is called Magic 2013):
125 Innistrad packs
25 Dark Ascension packs
75 Avacyn Restored packs
75 Magic 2013 packs
So you can say at first, "Dark Ascension will be opened as frequently as New Phyrexia!" and that is absolutely true. The 3rd set in a traditional block is known for having breakout cards because of this (Tarmogoyf), unless of course you're Saviors of Kamigawa. But one other interesting thing to point out is how Scars block has the numbers all over the place, but Innistrad block has 3 sets at similar levels, but one set dramatically lower. Because of this, the financials of Dark Ascension are going to be very unique. I can't quite say it's going to be similar to Worldwake though, because Jace, the Mind Sculptor did a good job turning the finance world on its head. I think there will be many opportunities for breakout cards from this set, so be prepared to trade accordingly. One last note - Innistrad won't be affected too much by this change as it only loses 17% of it's packs vs 50%.
A couple random thoughts regarding AVR:
-If it has new mechanical identity, then flashback won't return, which makes Burning Vengeance suck. If there isn't enough to warrent a deck after DKA comes out, then don't invest in it
-I don't know if this is new or if I'm oblivious, but it seems they are naming the Pro Tours after the sets now... Pro Tour Avacyn Restored will be block constructed in Spain
-That angel looks really dark compared to other angels with the same lighting (Deathless Angel), maybe it's Avacyn herself, but she has been tainted by demons?
-Does Liliana's quest to kill the demons she is indebted to have any correlation to this?
-What role will Sorin and Garruk play?
Anyways, that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
**UPDATE** It was announced on twitter today that there will be no Double Faced Cards in AVR
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Networking
Hello Everybody!
Last week, I went into Boston with my uncle and cousin, and they showed me a really cool building on Broadway called the Venture Cafe. Basically, it's a place designed to create networking opportunities for aspiring business people. Networking, in case you don's know, is basically creating a web of connections of people that you can learn on for future endeavors. In this business world, this can be things like potential employees/employers, or maybe it can be someone who is looking to invest in a good business. As it is said, "It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know".
In Magic, this is also significantly important. In Standard, I am playing UW Geist Aggro. However, I am borrowing these cards for the deck:
3x Hero of Bladehold (16, 48)
1x Sword of Feast and Famine (38)
1x Sword of War and Peace (19)
1x Dismember (3.5)
That's $108.5 in cards! Without borrowing these cards from 2 different people, I probably wouldn't be playing anything remotely good in Standard right now! How am I able to convince someone to give me over $100 in cards for a long-term borrow?? Simply put, networking!
A major part of networking is the simple clause of "if you do something good for me, I will do something good for you." I am borrowing all the above cards minus Feast and Famine from one guy, who I had lent Consecrated Sphinx for a couple months over the summer (which rose form 3 to 16 in that time). While there's a significant difference in value, there's still the symbol of trust and camaraderie between us. We are also very friendly, and I have once used his couch as my crash pad before a PTQ.
This is especially potent in Legacy where cards are rarer and more expensive. Having someone lend you just 1 Underground Sea is already more financially then all the cards I listed above! Never mind when you need the full set... I personally am lucky enough to have invested hard into legacy just before everything exploded in value, so I don't have to borrow as heavily, but I still had a moment recently where my connections and friends helped me out.
I was trading with a guy who came from a far off land, who probably wouldn't be back to the store for months, and we had finally come to an agreement. I felt like I was slightly ahead, and part of the trade included me pulling 1 Misty Rainforest and 1 Verdant Catacombs from my decks. We shook hands, and he went to the bathroom while I went to find those 2 fetches. As I discovered 5 minutes later, I didn't actually have any Mistys or Verdants in any of my decks! I muttered that under my breath which was overheard by one of the local Legacy players named Matt. I explained to him my epidemic, to which he responded, "I can lend you some, just as long as you can replace them next week". So he gave me the fetch lands, I finished that trade, and once I grabbed the fetch lands from my house and returned them to Matt, the world was at peace again.
I have been playing Matt for months at the weekly Legacy events, and we have lent cards to each other in the past, including him lending me Savannah and $30 in other cards so I could try playing Enchantress at one of the weekly events when I didn't meet the 15 proxy Threshold. I am the only one that I have seen indulge in his 300 card decks, and have taken the time to really learn how the my deck (storm) works, and have helped update the list to improve effectiveness.
With Matt, there's not a lot I can offer him as his collection vastly outclasses mine, so being able to form a comradery has to be through friendly means as opposed to "if you do something good for me, I will do something good for you." As much as I don't think I should have to say this, it is incredibly important to be a friendly person at all times!
What do you gain by being an asshole? Some sort of pride, convincing yourself that you are the best player because everyone else sucks? I personally never feel I am the best player in the room, even if I win the whole event. I know some people who are reliably assholes every time you meet them. I never see these players ever get help from anyone (unless of course it's something VERY minute). It simply blows my mind how some people act! Actively going around telling other people how much they suck, how much their deck sucks, how bad they just misplayed, how much their binder sucks, and how much better you are than them in every form of the game possible GUARANTEES that person will not like you! Why even start then?
On the contrary, if we all start being nice to each other, then everyone wins. For example, I was playing at FNM last week, and I was paired against a kid about 15 years old who was very new, and played faster than a turn 1 Belcher kill. At one point, I attacked with 6 creatures, and he did what new players tend to do: make each block and resolve them one at a time ["I block here, we trade" (moves cards off table) "I block here, your guy dies" (moves your card off table)]. I slowed him down calmly and told him to make all his blocks at the same time. By slowing him down, I prevented him from losing that turn because my Mirran Crusader was lethal, and he only had 1 blocker that could stop it (Solemn Simulacrum) and it was previously blocking my Hero of Bladehold when he was playing at 500 mph. Later that same game, I attacked and only would have won if he forgot about Inkmoth Nexus, otherwise I die on the back swing. He forgot and I won, but immediately explained to him the error, and we shuffled up for game 2.
Normally, you don't explain those plays until after the whole match is over, but I felt that the risk of him playing all his cards correctly and beating me was worth the potential gain of a new friend that may be able to help me down the road. Maybe he can never help me, but it doesn't cost me anything to add him to my network. He played like crap, but instead of attacking him, I said "Good job, you played well, except you missed this one play, which would have won you the game." He was appreciative and I felt good too for helping him learn more about this overly complicated game the easy way.
You may not realize it, but you do have a very large network of people you play/trade with and against. One last vignette: There is a player named Rion who lives in New York, which is a 4+ hour drive for me. I have met him only 3 times in my life, but I vividly remember him each time (1st time was round 7 at an SCG Open, next 2 were over trade binders). Unfortunately for him, I have come to know him as a trading shark who overprices all his foils by 5-10 a piece, and aggressively downgrades your cards. Also, about a year ago he was name-dropped in a ChannelFireball article as a jerk who played dumb saying he didn't know how a card worked (I think it was Jace, TMS or something obvious like that). Because of my personal experience with him, and based off the forewarning from CFB, next time I see him, I will have my guard up and be extra vigilant, because I have come to EXPECT him to try and skrew me over.
That's all I have for today! I feel it's incredibly important for everyone to acknowledge that everything we do adds to everyone else's network in a positive or negative manner. And besides, what can go wrong if everyone is overly pleasant to each other? Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Last week, I went into Boston with my uncle and cousin, and they showed me a really cool building on Broadway called the Venture Cafe. Basically, it's a place designed to create networking opportunities for aspiring business people. Networking, in case you don's know, is basically creating a web of connections of people that you can learn on for future endeavors. In this business world, this can be things like potential employees/employers, or maybe it can be someone who is looking to invest in a good business. As it is said, "It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know".
In Magic, this is also significantly important. In Standard, I am playing UW Geist Aggro. However, I am borrowing these cards for the deck:
3x Hero of Bladehold (16, 48)
1x Sword of Feast and Famine (38)
1x Sword of War and Peace (19)
1x Dismember (3.5)
That's $108.5 in cards! Without borrowing these cards from 2 different people, I probably wouldn't be playing anything remotely good in Standard right now! How am I able to convince someone to give me over $100 in cards for a long-term borrow?? Simply put, networking!
A major part of networking is the simple clause of "if you do something good for me, I will do something good for you." I am borrowing all the above cards minus Feast and Famine from one guy, who I had lent Consecrated Sphinx for a couple months over the summer (which rose form 3 to 16 in that time). While there's a significant difference in value, there's still the symbol of trust and camaraderie between us. We are also very friendly, and I have once used his couch as my crash pad before a PTQ.
This is especially potent in Legacy where cards are rarer and more expensive. Having someone lend you just 1 Underground Sea is already more financially then all the cards I listed above! Never mind when you need the full set... I personally am lucky enough to have invested hard into legacy just before everything exploded in value, so I don't have to borrow as heavily, but I still had a moment recently where my connections and friends helped me out.
I was trading with a guy who came from a far off land, who probably wouldn't be back to the store for months, and we had finally come to an agreement. I felt like I was slightly ahead, and part of the trade included me pulling 1 Misty Rainforest and 1 Verdant Catacombs from my decks. We shook hands, and he went to the bathroom while I went to find those 2 fetches. As I discovered 5 minutes later, I didn't actually have any Mistys or Verdants in any of my decks! I muttered that under my breath which was overheard by one of the local Legacy players named Matt. I explained to him my epidemic, to which he responded, "I can lend you some, just as long as you can replace them next week". So he gave me the fetch lands, I finished that trade, and once I grabbed the fetch lands from my house and returned them to Matt, the world was at peace again.
I have been playing Matt for months at the weekly Legacy events, and we have lent cards to each other in the past, including him lending me Savannah and $30 in other cards so I could try playing Enchantress at one of the weekly events when I didn't meet the 15 proxy Threshold. I am the only one that I have seen indulge in his 300 card decks, and have taken the time to really learn how the my deck (storm) works, and have helped update the list to improve effectiveness.
With Matt, there's not a lot I can offer him as his collection vastly outclasses mine, so being able to form a comradery has to be through friendly means as opposed to "if you do something good for me, I will do something good for you." As much as I don't think I should have to say this, it is incredibly important to be a friendly person at all times!
What do you gain by being an asshole? Some sort of pride, convincing yourself that you are the best player because everyone else sucks? I personally never feel I am the best player in the room, even if I win the whole event. I know some people who are reliably assholes every time you meet them. I never see these players ever get help from anyone (unless of course it's something VERY minute). It simply blows my mind how some people act! Actively going around telling other people how much they suck, how much their deck sucks, how bad they just misplayed, how much their binder sucks, and how much better you are than them in every form of the game possible GUARANTEES that person will not like you! Why even start then?
On the contrary, if we all start being nice to each other, then everyone wins. For example, I was playing at FNM last week, and I was paired against a kid about 15 years old who was very new, and played faster than a turn 1 Belcher kill. At one point, I attacked with 6 creatures, and he did what new players tend to do: make each block and resolve them one at a time ["I block here, we trade" (moves cards off table) "I block here, your guy dies" (moves your card off table)]. I slowed him down calmly and told him to make all his blocks at the same time. By slowing him down, I prevented him from losing that turn because my Mirran Crusader was lethal, and he only had 1 blocker that could stop it (Solemn Simulacrum) and it was previously blocking my Hero of Bladehold when he was playing at 500 mph. Later that same game, I attacked and only would have won if he forgot about Inkmoth Nexus, otherwise I die on the back swing. He forgot and I won, but immediately explained to him the error, and we shuffled up for game 2.
Normally, you don't explain those plays until after the whole match is over, but I felt that the risk of him playing all his cards correctly and beating me was worth the potential gain of a new friend that may be able to help me down the road. Maybe he can never help me, but it doesn't cost me anything to add him to my network. He played like crap, but instead of attacking him, I said "Good job, you played well, except you missed this one play, which would have won you the game." He was appreciative and I felt good too for helping him learn more about this overly complicated game the easy way.
You may not realize it, but you do have a very large network of people you play/trade with and against. One last vignette: There is a player named Rion who lives in New York, which is a 4+ hour drive for me. I have met him only 3 times in my life, but I vividly remember him each time (1st time was round 7 at an SCG Open, next 2 were over trade binders). Unfortunately for him, I have come to know him as a trading shark who overprices all his foils by 5-10 a piece, and aggressively downgrades your cards. Also, about a year ago he was name-dropped in a ChannelFireball article as a jerk who played dumb saying he didn't know how a card worked (I think it was Jace, TMS or something obvious like that). Because of my personal experience with him, and based off the forewarning from CFB, next time I see him, I will have my guard up and be extra vigilant, because I have come to EXPECT him to try and skrew me over.
That's all I have for today! I feel it's incredibly important for everyone to acknowledge that everything we do adds to everyone else's network in a positive or negative manner. And besides, what can go wrong if everyone is overly pleasant to each other? Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
If you can Dodge a Wrench...
...you can probably make it through until the late rounds of a magic tournament
As "fun" as it would be, this isn't you're everyday magic tournament:
I am known for always have a strange deck idea in every format, and while that makes some people never want to test against me, as they feel their precious time is being wasted on these shotty decks, I do manage to get significant play testing in with certain people. I have noticed over the course of the 2.5 years that I have been playing Magic (started approximately M10 pre-release), I have been getting slowly better and better at making decks. As I approach post #200 (this is #195), I looked back over my past and all the decklists I posted up. Some of them used to be REALLY bad.
One example of an old deck I though was insane was UB Shape Anew. Basically, it was a Shape Anew combo deck with an Everflowing Chalice and 4 Trinket Mage in addition to Duress, Inquisition of Kozelik, Mana Leak, and of course 4 Shape Anew and 1 Blightsteel Colossus. Sounds like a good deck, right? Well the problem with the deck, and why it never did too well, is that I never had anyone "throw wrenches" at it (a term not coined by me, but instead by ADB).
What does it mean to "throw wrenches"? Force yourself to explain realistic answers to any amount of problem cards. Some decks, like Tempered Steel, don't do very well when facing down certain cards, like Ancient Grudge. Sure Tempered Steel did good at worlds, but how much success has it had since? It's a great 1 tournament deck, but it can't answer certain wrenches well enough to have lasting success. On the other hand, dealing with wrenches is like Timely Reinforcements against Red Deck: card like Shrine and Stormblood Berserker can get around those cards (Stormblood Berserker can eat all 3 soldiers and pave the way for the rest of the army).
In the case of the Shape Anew deck, Shape Anew wasn't quite fast enough to be able to compete. Shape Anew cost 4, the same as Jace, the Mind Sculptor which was getting huge in UB Control and RUG Tempo back then. In the games where I had Everflowing Chalice in my opening hand and Shape Anew on turn 3, I never lost once because it was simply 1 turn too fast. However, because it costs 4, now we have a by definition "slow combo" that needs extra protection. At the time my out was a 2x Not of the World, which was definitely hot tech, but as a 2-of I only ever used it once (though it was all I needed). Because of how much I bent my deck around the combo, I had no plan B. Just cutting the 4 Shape Anews and 1 Blightsteel for 3 Grave Titan and 2 Frost Titan would have made the deck 1 turn slower, but the cards were individually powerful and were all a backup plan for each other. If my opponent exiles that Blightsteel (Revoke Existence), then my only win condition is 3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor and 4x Trinket Mage.... Not ideal for a control deck...
Compare that to this post from 2 days before Innistrad was released (3 days after the pre-release), when all the decks were still mainly all theory. The lists were rough, but looking back I realize I almost had mono-U illusions and UR Tempo! Unfortunately for me, I misunderstood where the deck should go, and I pitched the project. I thought I was making standard counter-burn instead of UR fish. I was actually prepping the deck for states, and because I couldn't consistently beat ADB (arguably the best player at Toys) I audibled to a Chapin deck with no testing and scrubbed out.
Since then, I have ramped up my playtesting more on brews, and ones that show promise I work on for longer, tweaking a card here and there, and reminding myself there are no sacred cows. One thing I look forward to now is getting wrenches thrown at my decks. The deck I'm workshopping right now is Modern Dredge. The big problem sometimes is lacking an enabler. For that, I cut cards like Tarmogoyf and Visions of Beyond and lieu of cards like Oona's Prowler and Glimpse of the Unthinkable. As I practice more and more with the deck, I notice suble things like how one of the weakest cards in the deck is the only Dredge creature (Stinkweed Imp) and maybe I play a dredge deck with no dredge cards?
I have been posting the deck on a few pro player's FB page looking for varied opinions, and I will do here too. If you have any wrenches to throw at the deck, please do (comments, E-mail, Twitter), and I will force myself to logical answers:
4x Hedron Crab
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Enclave Cryptologist
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Oona's Prowler
4x Vengevine
4x Extractor Demon
2x Skaab Ruinator
2x Sedraxis Specter
4x Stinkweed Imp
2x Glimpse of the Unthinkable
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Scalding Tarn
3x Breeding Pool
2x Watery Grave
3x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Forest
2x Island
1x Swamp
Sideboard:
4x Maelstrom Pulse
4x Spell Pierce
3x Pithing Needle
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Doom Blade
If you have any wrenches to throw, please do so! Also, the sideboard is a little loose, so I am still working on what can go there. But that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
As "fun" as it would be, this isn't you're everyday magic tournament:
I am known for always have a strange deck idea in every format, and while that makes some people never want to test against me, as they feel their precious time is being wasted on these shotty decks, I do manage to get significant play testing in with certain people. I have noticed over the course of the 2.5 years that I have been playing Magic (started approximately M10 pre-release), I have been getting slowly better and better at making decks. As I approach post #200 (this is #195), I looked back over my past and all the decklists I posted up. Some of them used to be REALLY bad.
One example of an old deck I though was insane was UB Shape Anew. Basically, it was a Shape Anew combo deck with an Everflowing Chalice and 4 Trinket Mage in addition to Duress, Inquisition of Kozelik, Mana Leak, and of course 4 Shape Anew and 1 Blightsteel Colossus. Sounds like a good deck, right? Well the problem with the deck, and why it never did too well, is that I never had anyone "throw wrenches" at it (a term not coined by me, but instead by ADB).
What does it mean to "throw wrenches"? Force yourself to explain realistic answers to any amount of problem cards. Some decks, like Tempered Steel, don't do very well when facing down certain cards, like Ancient Grudge. Sure Tempered Steel did good at worlds, but how much success has it had since? It's a great 1 tournament deck, but it can't answer certain wrenches well enough to have lasting success. On the other hand, dealing with wrenches is like Timely Reinforcements against Red Deck: card like Shrine and Stormblood Berserker can get around those cards (Stormblood Berserker can eat all 3 soldiers and pave the way for the rest of the army).
In the case of the Shape Anew deck, Shape Anew wasn't quite fast enough to be able to compete. Shape Anew cost 4, the same as Jace, the Mind Sculptor which was getting huge in UB Control and RUG Tempo back then. In the games where I had Everflowing Chalice in my opening hand and Shape Anew on turn 3, I never lost once because it was simply 1 turn too fast. However, because it costs 4, now we have a by definition "slow combo" that needs extra protection. At the time my out was a 2x Not of the World, which was definitely hot tech, but as a 2-of I only ever used it once (though it was all I needed). Because of how much I bent my deck around the combo, I had no plan B. Just cutting the 4 Shape Anews and 1 Blightsteel for 3 Grave Titan and 2 Frost Titan would have made the deck 1 turn slower, but the cards were individually powerful and were all a backup plan for each other. If my opponent exiles that Blightsteel (Revoke Existence), then my only win condition is 3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor and 4x Trinket Mage.... Not ideal for a control deck...
Compare that to this post from 2 days before Innistrad was released (3 days after the pre-release), when all the decks were still mainly all theory. The lists were rough, but looking back I realize I almost had mono-U illusions and UR Tempo! Unfortunately for me, I misunderstood where the deck should go, and I pitched the project. I thought I was making standard counter-burn instead of UR fish. I was actually prepping the deck for states, and because I couldn't consistently beat ADB (arguably the best player at Toys) I audibled to a Chapin deck with no testing and scrubbed out.
Since then, I have ramped up my playtesting more on brews, and ones that show promise I work on for longer, tweaking a card here and there, and reminding myself there are no sacred cows. One thing I look forward to now is getting wrenches thrown at my decks. The deck I'm workshopping right now is Modern Dredge. The big problem sometimes is lacking an enabler. For that, I cut cards like Tarmogoyf and Visions of Beyond and lieu of cards like Oona's Prowler and Glimpse of the Unthinkable. As I practice more and more with the deck, I notice suble things like how one of the weakest cards in the deck is the only Dredge creature (Stinkweed Imp) and maybe I play a dredge deck with no dredge cards?
I have been posting the deck on a few pro player's FB page looking for varied opinions, and I will do here too. If you have any wrenches to throw at the deck, please do (comments, E-mail, Twitter), and I will force myself to logical answers:
4x Hedron Crab
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Enclave Cryptologist
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Oona's Prowler
4x Vengevine
4x Extractor Demon
2x Skaab Ruinator
2x Sedraxis Specter
4x Stinkweed Imp
2x Glimpse of the Unthinkable
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Scalding Tarn
3x Breeding Pool
2x Watery Grave
3x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Forest
2x Island
1x Swamp
Sideboard:
4x Maelstrom Pulse
4x Spell Pierce
3x Pithing Needle
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Doom Blade
If you have any wrenches to throw, please do so! Also, the sideboard is a little loose, so I am still working on what can go there. But that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Monday, December 5, 2011
The Game isn't Over....
...Until you're at 0 life
...Until you're at 10 poison
...Until you try to draw a card with no cards left in your library
...Until another effect causes the game to end
If none of these conditions are met, you HAVE NOT LOST. One thing that I see happen far too often is scooping up their cards before they should. As long as you are still able to untap and draw, you are still capable of winning the game. Even if the stars must align, you have to draw like a god, and your opponent has to drop his IQ down to 1, you still haven't technically lost yet! In fact, even when you know there are 0 cards left in your deck that can get you out of the situation, still don't scoop. Not scooping gives you the greatest chance of winning, obviously by definition, but also for psychological reasons. Your opponent may have to ask themselves, "why have they NOT scooped yet? What could get them back in this game?" Then they start thinking of all the cards that can beat them, and may even start playing around some of them, giving you a window to pull out the win from!
There are 2 obvious exceptions to this rule of course: When the clock is winding down and you want to ensure you have time to win game 3, and if you and your opponent both have each other's deck lists, and you can't actually bluff anything. This has recently been a recurring theme as the more I have thought about this topic, the more I have seen examples in real life. These first 2 examples are from 2 different matches in the same draft. The active player is Andrew Black, who was my teammate from this triple Innistrad Draft. Andrew has a GW deck, splashing red for Geistflame and Charmbreaker Devils. He also has notable cards like Garruk Relentless and Spidery Grasp.
I won my match, and I'm watching Andrew draw his opener for game 3 vs UW fliers with cards like Murder of Crows and Angel of Flight Alabastar. His opening hand is 5 lands, Avacin's Pilgrim, and Spidery Grasp. Andrew snap-mulligans into 5 lands, Spidery Grasp. Andrew loudly complains and shows Pete, his opponent. He then mulligans into: Plains, Geistflame, Blazing Torch, and Spidery Grasp (he had just 1 Spidery Grasp, it really like him!). Clearly we find ourselves in a position where many would say we are already dead: we can keep a horrifying mul to 5, or go to 4, and be forced to keep whatever it is. How much are we willing to sacrifice to even try staying in this game before it has even begun? Pete kept his opening 7, so we are severely down on cards no matter what happens. Now this sad bad beats story has a happy ending, but it takes some serious focus on what matters. How can we possibly plan on winning with this hand? Is it even possible to win with a 4 card hand? Yes. I joked out loud, "how sick would it be to mulligan into 3 lands, Garruk?" Andrew dramatically drew one card at a time... Plains..... Mountain..... Plains...... Garruk Relentless!!! Andrew threw his hand at the table jumped out of his seat and we shared a good half-dozen high fives. First topdeck: Forest! Andrew then proceeded to not draw a land for 6 turns, and was able to prevent Garruk from being taken off the table. Andrew played one of the tightest limited games I have ever seen and was able to pull out the victory, which naturally tilted Peter and he threw his cards across the table and made a B-line straight outside.
Later on in that draft, the teams were tied, so both teams picked a player to do the showdown, and we deemed Andrew's deck was a little better than my mono 3-drop BR aggro deck. Unfortunately, in one of the games, Andrew's position was slowly slipping away turn by turn. Eventually, the life totals were 13-16 with Andrew at 13. Andrew had 9 power on board that was being held back by a Murder of Crows that was joined by a Stitched Drake. The math came out that that Andrew would lose the race as he took 7 to the face in the air. Andrew drew up to 3 cards in hand, and had absolutely nothing in hand. He went into the tank instinctively, and after about 90 seconds he looks up and asks, "what are you at? 16?" After confirmation, he lit up dramatically and immediately swung with the team.
Let's take a moment and evaluate the situation. Andrew is at 6 life and is facing down 7 power of fliers with no blockers, however he didn't scoop. The only way that he can win this game is if Peter doesn't attack with both his creatures, and he is able to get in there for the last 7 damage. The only way he can do that is if he can convince his opponent that attacking is a bad idea. His opponent, Brendan, knows about the Spidery Grasp that Andrew could use to block the Murder of Crows. Brendan's choices is to attack with both, 1 or neither of his creatures. If he attacks with 1 or 0, Andrew will most likely win. If Brendan attacks with both, than he loses to Spidery Grasp, but otherwise wins. Brendan ultimately called the bluff and won the game, but it was a fantastic example of playing to your outs. While it could be argued that the mind game felt a little forced, its the only thing that could have possibly lead to a victory. Scooping is a 100% loss, playing that 1 last turn is a 90% loss, 10% victory. I like those odds so much better!
I have one last example of this happening from last night's Legacy event. I was playing a new deck called "Four Horseman" that I learned through a old Patrick Chapin article. I'm playing against a player who I have seen play mono-white Stax and Reanimator consistently. Game 1 I brick all game without any relevant plays towards the combo while he puts an Orim's Chant under an Isochron Scepter. Game 2, I am able to combo out on turn 4.
Quick Aside
{
Spoiler Alert: Rant
This guy could very well be one of the worst players I have ever played against. His brainstorms would be better if they were Preordains, and his Force of Wills would be better if they were Traumatic Visions so that he couldn't blow it off on completely irrelevant spells like when I cast Cabal Therapy turn 1 on the play game 1 just to do a non-cycling Gitaxian Probe mock-up. I felt I was playing as tight as I possibly could have, and he was playing stupidly loose, but he simply had all the answers! When I was comboing off game 2, said "so you're going to Dread Return Emrakul right?" I thought he was kidding, so I jokingly responded "Haha, yeah...." to which he said "Damn... I don't think I can beat an Emrakul with this hand, game 2?" Really!!?? Does he not understand Emrakul is specifically designed so you CAN'T do that!!??
}
So after I "combo killed" him game 2, I saw him emphatically reached for his sideboard and threw 4 cards on the table. I stupidly didn't switch plans, kept a sweet hand, and he plays a turn 0 Leyline of the Void! I have 0 outs to that card in my deck! Never mind he isn't even playing black in his deck in case he happens to draw it turn 4! However, I technically was not dead yet, I just had to play the tightest game of magic ever! I am not at 0 life yet, so I still have time. I cast a Narcomeba from my hand turn 2 which got hit by a Swords to Plowshares. I play another Narcomeba turn 3 and 4 (I happened to draw all of them) and swung into the red zone every turn while he sat there with no resources (he cast Brainstorm turn 1, and Forced my turn 1 Cabal Therapy leaving him with 3 cards in hand). I managed to attack him all the way down to 8 before things that getting awkward. He casts Baneslayer Angel, and I don't have the Force of Will. I do, however have 2 Brainstorms. Brainstorm, brick, crack fetchland, brainstorm, brick. Baneslayer resolves. How do I beat a Baneslayer with a pair of 1/1s!!?? I play a Blasting Station from hand, and start relying on the top of my deck. He swung in with the Angel, and I block and sacrifice my Narcomeba to push him down to 7. . Another turn of block-sac so he doesn't gain life, and I find myself with no creatures in play and he has a Baneslayer in play, and he is at 6 life. The only creature left in my deck is a 1-of Sharuum the Hegemon. Even if I draw and cast it, I still lose because of 1st Strike and Lifelink, so I can't even race it! However I felt he played so bad this entire match that I DESERVED to win! Sure I killed myself in sideboarding wrong, but still I played to my outs while he played like complete crap.
I top deck the Sharuum! Immediatly I slam it down and give him the look of "yeah, try and beat THIS". He untaps, and then chooses to not attack with the Banslayer! I top deck my 4th Narcomeba, and cast the Narcomeba, knowing that I now can eat the Baneslayer attack and swing for lethal. Once again my opponent doesn't attack, but casts a Batterskull, which I reluctantly let resolve. He passes back to me, and I play draw-go. He draws and decides to attack, tapping his Baneslayer and Batterskull. I block the Batterskull with Sharuum, and Baneslayer with Narcomeba, sacrificing it to Blasting Station before damage. He forgets about the Batterskull lifelink and passes turn saying "Sharuum is a 5/5 right?" Of course I confirm, and he goes "F#*@!" and scoops up his cards and reaches out the hand! While I knew he was really at 9 and not 5, he never asked for a confirmation of life totals, so I could not be held accountable for cheating. Afterwards I explained to him that Batterskull has Vigilance and he should have just equipped the Baneslayer and swung for Vigilance Lifelink damage and dominated the game, to which he muttered about how he misplayed that 1 last turn, even after I tried being the nice guy explaining why he sucks at Brainstorming.
I never should have won that last game. I sideboarded completely wrong, and was punished for it. However, I didn't throw away the game, and crawled for every point of damage to the face. At various points I had cast Spell Pierces just to be burn spells, forcing him to crack fetchlands to pay the 2 mana. Every turn he cracked a fetch was one less turn to draw an answer. He had 5 mana anyways, so that Spell Pierce was useless otherwise (he cast Batterskull with 9 mana). The most important thing that I learned from this game is that even if you don't know the plan B on hand, you have to be capable of writing one on the fly. Sure I'm a "graveyard combo deck", but a feature of the deck is that I can actually cast all of the cards I would be combo-ing with. I leaned on every single card in my deck at some point to gain an extra opportunity, including leaning on the fact that sometimes your opponent simply misplays.
That's all I have for today! I will talk more in detail about the four horseman deck next week, when I bring my updates to the field. But regardless if you're playing constructed or limited, sometimes the simplest way to win is to simply not lose! (The only time I ever scoop is when I'm playing online and my opponent plays 15 Armageddon effects, and his only win condition is Solemn Simulacrum..... That's not even worth trying to fight through.... ) Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
...Until you're at 10 poison
...Until you try to draw a card with no cards left in your library
...Until another effect causes the game to end
If none of these conditions are met, you HAVE NOT LOST. One thing that I see happen far too often is scooping up their cards before they should. As long as you are still able to untap and draw, you are still capable of winning the game. Even if the stars must align, you have to draw like a god, and your opponent has to drop his IQ down to 1, you still haven't technically lost yet! In fact, even when you know there are 0 cards left in your deck that can get you out of the situation, still don't scoop. Not scooping gives you the greatest chance of winning, obviously by definition, but also for psychological reasons. Your opponent may have to ask themselves, "why have they NOT scooped yet? What could get them back in this game?" Then they start thinking of all the cards that can beat them, and may even start playing around some of them, giving you a window to pull out the win from!
There are 2 obvious exceptions to this rule of course: When the clock is winding down and you want to ensure you have time to win game 3, and if you and your opponent both have each other's deck lists, and you can't actually bluff anything. This has recently been a recurring theme as the more I have thought about this topic, the more I have seen examples in real life. These first 2 examples are from 2 different matches in the same draft. The active player is Andrew Black, who was my teammate from this triple Innistrad Draft. Andrew has a GW deck, splashing red for Geistflame and Charmbreaker Devils. He also has notable cards like Garruk Relentless and Spidery Grasp.
I won my match, and I'm watching Andrew draw his opener for game 3 vs UW fliers with cards like Murder of Crows and Angel of Flight Alabastar. His opening hand is 5 lands, Avacin's Pilgrim, and Spidery Grasp. Andrew snap-mulligans into 5 lands, Spidery Grasp. Andrew loudly complains and shows Pete, his opponent. He then mulligans into: Plains, Geistflame, Blazing Torch, and Spidery Grasp (he had just 1 Spidery Grasp, it really like him!). Clearly we find ourselves in a position where many would say we are already dead: we can keep a horrifying mul to 5, or go to 4, and be forced to keep whatever it is. How much are we willing to sacrifice to even try staying in this game before it has even begun? Pete kept his opening 7, so we are severely down on cards no matter what happens. Now this sad bad beats story has a happy ending, but it takes some serious focus on what matters. How can we possibly plan on winning with this hand? Is it even possible to win with a 4 card hand? Yes. I joked out loud, "how sick would it be to mulligan into 3 lands, Garruk?" Andrew dramatically drew one card at a time... Plains..... Mountain..... Plains...... Garruk Relentless!!! Andrew threw his hand at the table jumped out of his seat and we shared a good half-dozen high fives. First topdeck: Forest! Andrew then proceeded to not draw a land for 6 turns, and was able to prevent Garruk from being taken off the table. Andrew played one of the tightest limited games I have ever seen and was able to pull out the victory, which naturally tilted Peter and he threw his cards across the table and made a B-line straight outside.
Later on in that draft, the teams were tied, so both teams picked a player to do the showdown, and we deemed Andrew's deck was a little better than my mono 3-drop BR aggro deck. Unfortunately, in one of the games, Andrew's position was slowly slipping away turn by turn. Eventually, the life totals were 13-16 with Andrew at 13. Andrew had 9 power on board that was being held back by a Murder of Crows that was joined by a Stitched Drake. The math came out that that Andrew would lose the race as he took 7 to the face in the air. Andrew drew up to 3 cards in hand, and had absolutely nothing in hand. He went into the tank instinctively, and after about 90 seconds he looks up and asks, "what are you at? 16?" After confirmation, he lit up dramatically and immediately swung with the team.
Let's take a moment and evaluate the situation. Andrew is at 6 life and is facing down 7 power of fliers with no blockers, however he didn't scoop. The only way that he can win this game is if Peter doesn't attack with both his creatures, and he is able to get in there for the last 7 damage. The only way he can do that is if he can convince his opponent that attacking is a bad idea. His opponent, Brendan, knows about the Spidery Grasp that Andrew could use to block the Murder of Crows. Brendan's choices is to attack with both, 1 or neither of his creatures. If he attacks with 1 or 0, Andrew will most likely win. If Brendan attacks with both, than he loses to Spidery Grasp, but otherwise wins. Brendan ultimately called the bluff and won the game, but it was a fantastic example of playing to your outs. While it could be argued that the mind game felt a little forced, its the only thing that could have possibly lead to a victory. Scooping is a 100% loss, playing that 1 last turn is a 90% loss, 10% victory. I like those odds so much better!
I have one last example of this happening from last night's Legacy event. I was playing a new deck called "Four Horseman" that I learned through a old Patrick Chapin article. I'm playing against a player who I have seen play mono-white Stax and Reanimator consistently. Game 1 I brick all game without any relevant plays towards the combo while he puts an Orim's Chant under an Isochron Scepter. Game 2, I am able to combo out on turn 4.
Quick Aside
{
Spoiler Alert: Rant
This guy could very well be one of the worst players I have ever played against. His brainstorms would be better if they were Preordains, and his Force of Wills would be better if they were Traumatic Visions so that he couldn't blow it off on completely irrelevant spells like when I cast Cabal Therapy turn 1 on the play game 1 just to do a non-cycling Gitaxian Probe mock-up. I felt I was playing as tight as I possibly could have, and he was playing stupidly loose, but he simply had all the answers! When I was comboing off game 2, said "so you're going to Dread Return Emrakul right?" I thought he was kidding, so I jokingly responded "Haha, yeah...." to which he said "Damn... I don't think I can beat an Emrakul with this hand, game 2?" Really!!?? Does he not understand Emrakul is specifically designed so you CAN'T do that!!??
}
So after I "combo killed" him game 2, I saw him emphatically reached for his sideboard and threw 4 cards on the table. I stupidly didn't switch plans, kept a sweet hand, and he plays a turn 0 Leyline of the Void! I have 0 outs to that card in my deck! Never mind he isn't even playing black in his deck in case he happens to draw it turn 4! However, I technically was not dead yet, I just had to play the tightest game of magic ever! I am not at 0 life yet, so I still have time. I cast a Narcomeba from my hand turn 2 which got hit by a Swords to Plowshares. I play another Narcomeba turn 3 and 4 (I happened to draw all of them) and swung into the red zone every turn while he sat there with no resources (he cast Brainstorm turn 1, and Forced my turn 1 Cabal Therapy leaving him with 3 cards in hand). I managed to attack him all the way down to 8 before things that getting awkward. He casts Baneslayer Angel, and I don't have the Force of Will. I do, however have 2 Brainstorms. Brainstorm, brick, crack fetchland, brainstorm, brick. Baneslayer resolves. How do I beat a Baneslayer with a pair of 1/1s!!?? I play a Blasting Station from hand, and start relying on the top of my deck. He swung in with the Angel, and I block and sacrifice my Narcomeba to push him down to 7. . Another turn of block-sac so he doesn't gain life, and I find myself with no creatures in play and he has a Baneslayer in play, and he is at 6 life. The only creature left in my deck is a 1-of Sharuum the Hegemon. Even if I draw and cast it, I still lose because of 1st Strike and Lifelink, so I can't even race it! However I felt he played so bad this entire match that I DESERVED to win! Sure I killed myself in sideboarding wrong, but still I played to my outs while he played like complete crap.
I top deck the Sharuum! Immediatly I slam it down and give him the look of "yeah, try and beat THIS". He untaps, and then chooses to not attack with the Banslayer! I top deck my 4th Narcomeba, and cast the Narcomeba, knowing that I now can eat the Baneslayer attack and swing for lethal. Once again my opponent doesn't attack, but casts a Batterskull, which I reluctantly let resolve. He passes back to me, and I play draw-go. He draws and decides to attack, tapping his Baneslayer and Batterskull. I block the Batterskull with Sharuum, and Baneslayer with Narcomeba, sacrificing it to Blasting Station before damage. He forgets about the Batterskull lifelink and passes turn saying "Sharuum is a 5/5 right?" Of course I confirm, and he goes "F#*@!" and scoops up his cards and reaches out the hand! While I knew he was really at 9 and not 5, he never asked for a confirmation of life totals, so I could not be held accountable for cheating. Afterwards I explained to him that Batterskull has Vigilance and he should have just equipped the Baneslayer and swung for Vigilance Lifelink damage and dominated the game, to which he muttered about how he misplayed that 1 last turn, even after I tried being the nice guy explaining why he sucks at Brainstorming.
I never should have won that last game. I sideboarded completely wrong, and was punished for it. However, I didn't throw away the game, and crawled for every point of damage to the face. At various points I had cast Spell Pierces just to be burn spells, forcing him to crack fetchlands to pay the 2 mana. Every turn he cracked a fetch was one less turn to draw an answer. He had 5 mana anyways, so that Spell Pierce was useless otherwise (he cast Batterskull with 9 mana). The most important thing that I learned from this game is that even if you don't know the plan B on hand, you have to be capable of writing one on the fly. Sure I'm a "graveyard combo deck", but a feature of the deck is that I can actually cast all of the cards I would be combo-ing with. I leaned on every single card in my deck at some point to gain an extra opportunity, including leaning on the fact that sometimes your opponent simply misplays.
That's all I have for today! I will talk more in detail about the four horseman deck next week, when I bring my updates to the field. But regardless if you're playing constructed or limited, sometimes the simplest way to win is to simply not lose! (The only time I ever scoop is when I'm playing online and my opponent plays 15 Armageddon effects, and his only win condition is Solemn Simulacrum..... That's not even worth trying to fight through.... ) Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Playing a ZEN draft in Legacy
Hello everybody!
I normally make my first article of each month a financial update article, when I talk about prices and trends, however I feel I have to discontinue that... Normally a normal article will take me 30-90 minutes to write and post up. However, the financial articles take me 6-8 hours to do, which is simply a time investment I cannot commit. Also, I often feel not much changes month-to-month for most standard cards, and the most volatile time, when financial insight is most important is over very short periods, most notably right after a pro tour and right after a set release. So basically, the update is always late. I will do market updates, but in a more specific manner, and more randomly.
That aside, I'm watching the legacy coverage on SCGlive all day today (because legacy is mono-awesome), and one deck in particular absolutely blew my mind! I don't have the deck list (and this article will be casually edited and updated if the deck list is officially released) but I saw enough cards that the majority of the main deck can be inferred. Basically, Dennis Taylor is playing a standard deck from Shards-Zendikar standard, adding a few good legacy cards, and as of this posting is 2-0-1. Check it out:
4x Goblin Guide
4x Steppe Lynx
4x Figure of Destiny
4x Zektar Shrine Expedition
4x Reckless Charge
4x Shard Volley
4x Chain Lightning
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Ranger of Eos
4x Plated Geopede
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Plateau
4x Arid Mesa
3x Mountain3x Plains
4x Flagstones of Trokair
Ghost Quarter in Legacy!!?? Yeah, that's not designed to attack your opponent's manabase, that's for the landfall triggers! A sweet card that also helps the landfall triggers is Flagstones of Trokair. Playing a second Flagstones is a triple landfall-turn. Also, with Shard Volley you get a landfall trigger in addition to a lightning bolt! This card is simply the stone cold nuts in a landfall boros deck! Consider:
T1 - Flagstones of Trokair, Steppe Linx
T2 - Mountain, Zektar Shrine Expedition, swing for 2 (4 if it was a fetchland)
T3 - Anything.... Flagstones of Trokair/Ghost Quarter, swing for 13+
T4 - IF the game goes this long, throw burn at face
Sounds like a good deck! The fact that Figure of Destiny is the WORST 1-drop in the deck is a good sign! Even Goblin Guide is outclassed by Steppe Lynx in this deck, and Goblin Guide is considered the best red 1-drop creature ever printed!
I'm watching the SCG Open coverage, and I'm really hoping this deck top-8s, because it very well could be the coolest deck to ever make Plateau actually relevant! This deck is VERY inexpensive (Plateau is the cheapest dual land at $50 a piece), and it looks to be VERY powerful and fast! Once you get past the Plateaus, here's how the deck prices out:
Goblin Guide (4, 16)
Flagstones of Trokair (4, 16)
Chain Lightning (12, 48)
Ranger of Eos (3, 6)
Arid Mesa (11, 44)
Figure of Destiny (7, 28)
So in total, the deck costs $342 from the ground up (without commons), and 200 of that comes from the 4 Plateau, which is a very easy dual land to trade for, because no one really wants it. Also, $50 of the deck comes from Chain Lightning, but you can cut $10 of that by going for the Fire & Lightning version. And even then, chain lightning isn't even THAT good. It is a fairly replaceable card by Lava Spike, if nothing else. The other expensive card is Arid Mesa, but that's a very recent card that frankly everyone should have still on hand. It was great in Standard, and is a staple in all eternal formats. So then, once we handle that $300 bundle, we have $50 left for this deck.... and they are all recent cards that most people will still have....
If you are looking to break into legacy and enjoy the red zone, then I highly suggest looking at Legacy Landfall Boros! That's all the time I have for now, until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
I normally make my first article of each month a financial update article, when I talk about prices and trends, however I feel I have to discontinue that... Normally a normal article will take me 30-90 minutes to write and post up. However, the financial articles take me 6-8 hours to do, which is simply a time investment I cannot commit. Also, I often feel not much changes month-to-month for most standard cards, and the most volatile time, when financial insight is most important is over very short periods, most notably right after a pro tour and right after a set release. So basically, the update is always late. I will do market updates, but in a more specific manner, and more randomly.
That aside, I'm watching the legacy coverage on SCGlive all day today (because legacy is mono-awesome), and one deck in particular absolutely blew my mind! I don't have the deck list (and this article will be casually edited and updated if the deck list is officially released) but I saw enough cards that the majority of the main deck can be inferred. Basically, Dennis Taylor is playing a standard deck from Shards-Zendikar standard, adding a few good legacy cards, and as of this posting is 2-0-1. Check it out:
4x Goblin Guide
4x Steppe Lynx
4x Figure of Destiny
4x Zektar Shrine Expedition
4x Reckless Charge
4x Shard Volley
4x Chain Lightning
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Ranger of Eos
4x Plated Geopede
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Plateau
4x Arid Mesa
3x Mountain3x Plains
4x Flagstones of Trokair
Ghost Quarter in Legacy!!?? Yeah, that's not designed to attack your opponent's manabase, that's for the landfall triggers! A sweet card that also helps the landfall triggers is Flagstones of Trokair. Playing a second Flagstones is a triple landfall-turn. Also, with Shard Volley you get a landfall trigger in addition to a lightning bolt! This card is simply the stone cold nuts in a landfall boros deck! Consider:
T1 - Flagstones of Trokair, Steppe Linx
T2 - Mountain, Zektar Shrine Expedition, swing for 2 (4 if it was a fetchland)
T3 - Anything.... Flagstones of Trokair/Ghost Quarter, swing for 13+
T4 - IF the game goes this long, throw burn at face
Sounds like a good deck! The fact that Figure of Destiny is the WORST 1-drop in the deck is a good sign! Even Goblin Guide is outclassed by Steppe Lynx in this deck, and Goblin Guide is considered the best red 1-drop creature ever printed!
I'm watching the SCG Open coverage, and I'm really hoping this deck top-8s, because it very well could be the coolest deck to ever make Plateau actually relevant! This deck is VERY inexpensive (Plateau is the cheapest dual land at $50 a piece), and it looks to be VERY powerful and fast! Once you get past the Plateaus, here's how the deck prices out:
Goblin Guide (4, 16)
Flagstones of Trokair (4, 16)
Chain Lightning (12, 48)
Ranger of Eos (3, 6)
Arid Mesa (11, 44)
Figure of Destiny (7, 28)
So in total, the deck costs $342 from the ground up (without commons), and 200 of that comes from the 4 Plateau, which is a very easy dual land to trade for, because no one really wants it. Also, $50 of the deck comes from Chain Lightning, but you can cut $10 of that by going for the Fire & Lightning version. And even then, chain lightning isn't even THAT good. It is a fairly replaceable card by Lava Spike, if nothing else. The other expensive card is Arid Mesa, but that's a very recent card that frankly everyone should have still on hand. It was great in Standard, and is a staple in all eternal formats. So then, once we handle that $300 bundle, we have $50 left for this deck.... and they are all recent cards that most people will still have....
If you are looking to break into legacy and enjoy the red zone, then I highly suggest looking at Legacy Landfall Boros! That's all the time I have for now, until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Online Innovating
Hello everyone!
I have been playing a ton on Magic Workstation this past week, which does great for deck building solo, but often lacks in collaborating with others. Usually a lot of the people you meet online are hotheaded, n00bs, or just manage to annoy you (I had one guy who would try to pass phases for me, including passing turn despite me clicking "Thinking" a million times over). However, occasionally you run across someone who is legitimately cool (whether I fall into this category is up to your discretion). A few times I have run across people playing powerful rogue decks that were simply enjoyable to see happen. I too have been playing an interesting rogue deck:
4x Memnite
4x Signal Pest
4x Kuldotha Rebirth
4x Intangible Virtue
4x Galvanic Blast
4x Midnight Haunting
3x Master's Call
2x Chimeric Mass
3x Rally the Peasants
2x Vault Skirge
4x Flayer Husk
2x Mox Opal
7x Plains
7x Mountain
4x Clifftop Retreat
2x Contested Warzone
Sideboard:
4x Shrine of Loyal Legions
4x Mirran Crusader
3x Brimstone Volley
4x Arc Trail
This deck has been testing fairly well, and can be incredibly explosive. HOWEVER, it can also sit there and do a whole lot of nothing. Theres a large split in this deck between token makers and token enablers. Usually drawing infinite token makers isn't the problem, but instead drawing all the enablers. In the sideboard, we have Shrine of Loyal Legions against control decks, and W/x human decks. Mirran Crusader is awesome against UB Control and Solar Flare. Brimstone Valley is good against Red Deck as removal and a racing tool, and finally Arc Trail helps you against this weenie infested Meta.
However today I am not talking about my innovations, but instead cool decks i have on the other side of the battlefield. Since I was just talking about standard, lets talk about a sweet combination of two very powerful decks: Wolf Run Ramp and Chapin Grixis Control. I have been thinking about trying out Olivia in a Jund list since worlds, but I was beat to it. Wolf Run Jund was a small deck during states as a way to beat the mirror (Memoricide, just like in Valakut), but this deck goes a step further and plays Olivia Voldaren to much profit as well! Olivia Voldaren has this thing for a man with tons of mana.... (MTG drama! Lotus Cobra, "you're leaving me??" never mind, I'm not going to let myself get carried away....)
1x Birds of Paradise
3x Olivia Voldaren
4x Primeval Titan
4x Solemn Simulcrum
1x Viridian Emissary
3x BSZ
1x Army of Damned
3x Curse of Death's Hold
3x Doom Blade
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Rampant Growth
4x Sphere of the Suns
6x Swamp
4x Inkmoth Nexus
2x Kessig Wolf Run
1x Mountain
1x Dragonskull Summit
3x Copperline Gorge
5x Forest
4x Woodland Cemetery
There was no sideboard for this deck. After the match we discussed the deck a little, and it was quickly agreed upon that the Army of the Damned should be cut for an Inferno Titan. Also, I suggested running Slagstorm instead of Black Sun's Zenith. This does lead to an interesting discussion though: Black Sun's Zenith vs Slagstorm. I think Slagstorm is better right now because it's faster and more efficient. However, it is important to note the merits of Black Sun's Zenith: it can kill bigger threats like Hero of Bladehold, Phyrexian Obliterator, and Thrun, the Last Troll. However, we have Doom Blade, can outrace Obliterator, and we frankly don't care about Thrun (also he is probably in our SB as well!). One last reason that we may not want to run Slagstorm is the mana. This deck is primarily GB, only splashing red for Kessig Wolf Run and Olivia Voldaren. However between Rampant Growth, Sphere of the Suns, Solemn Similacrum, and Primeval Titan (never mind Birds of Paradise and Viridian Emissary) the mana in this deck is VERY consistent.
Some notable omissions from traditional Wolf Run Ramp is Garruk (big and small), Devil's Play, and Beast Within. Obviously in terms of creatures Doom Blade is far superior to Beast Within, and frankly there's not a lot of artifacts and Planeswalkers going on right now, however I feel adding in 1 Acidic Slime as a Zenith target isn't a bad idea. Devil's Play is the get out of jail free card, but I don't think that's the type of effect we're looking for here. And finally, Garruk. He is very powerful, and it might even be a replacement for the Curse of Death Holds (-3 Curse, +2 Garruk Primal Hunter, +1 Garruk Relentless). Curse is only good against the aggro decks, but doesn't do anything against control and the mirror. However, the way things are right now, it's kinda like when Flashfreeze was main deckable because of the dominance of Jund, so either choice is defensible (though Curse has to at least go in the board).
But that's just Standard! I want to touch upon Modern quickly with 2 decks I played against recently: Enchantress and Enduring Ideal.
4x Mesa Enchantress
4x Verduran Enchantress
1x Cage of Hands
2x Faith Fetters
3x Fertile Ground
3x Ghostly Prison
3x Journey to Nowhere
2x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Oblivion Ring
3x Sigil of the Empty Throne
3x Trace of Abundance
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Harmonize
8x Forest
4x Horizon Canopy
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Plains
1x Stomping Ground
2x Temple Garden
SB
2x Torpor Orb
2x Wheel Sun and Moon
2x Circle of Protection: Red
2x Choke
3x Blood Moon
1x Emrakul
1x Ghostly Prison
2x Leyline of Sanctity
I have been playing a bunch of Legacy Enchantress recently, and this list made me very excited! I hadn't put any time or thought into a Modern Enchantress list, but this one is fairly solid. We took plenty of time to throw wrenches at each other's deck lists (I was playing Dredge and got destroyed by Ghostly Prison). This list seems tuned for the meta as I currently understand it right now (which is everything based on creatures or Storm/Ad Nauseum). The only real change I could suggest was a 1-of Idyllic Tutor, but that's a pretty bad card. This deck definitely is in a race from the first turn, as there is no Solitary Confinement 100% lock, which is why we need 3 Sigil of the Empty Throne to build up a board presence faster. Double Sigil, Journey you're dude, GG?
The last deck I want to spotlight on I wasn't able to get a list for, but it's a combo that I finally learned after hearing about it in passing once or twice: Enduring Ideal. Enduring Ideal was part of a 5-piece cycle from Saviors of Kamigawa, which really sucked as a set. The other cards in the cycle were all mediocre, but Enduring Ideal wound up being the only one that made an impact. Here's the combo:
Enduring Ideal --> Dovescape
Enduring Ideal --> Meishin, the Mind Cage
Enduring Ideal --> Form of the Dragon
If your opponent has a huge board position, you can switch Meishin and Dovescape. Because you are creating a copy of Enduring Ideal and not casting it, it curcumvents Dovescape from preventing it from being cast. This way, you have protection from spells and creatures (well.... not Emrakul) while having your opponent on a 4-turn clock. The rest of the deck plays control like Remand and ramp like Lotus Bloom and Seething Song. It's not a deck I am particularly interested in playing, but it does seem cool and different. It's just a big old 1-card combo kill!
That's all I have for today! It's really great to see others innovating in all the formats, beyond what is being featured in SCG opens and the GP/PT circuit. Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
rLack on MWS
I have been playing a ton on Magic Workstation this past week, which does great for deck building solo, but often lacks in collaborating with others. Usually a lot of the people you meet online are hotheaded, n00bs, or just manage to annoy you (I had one guy who would try to pass phases for me, including passing turn despite me clicking "Thinking" a million times over). However, occasionally you run across someone who is legitimately cool (whether I fall into this category is up to your discretion). A few times I have run across people playing powerful rogue decks that were simply enjoyable to see happen. I too have been playing an interesting rogue deck:
4x Memnite
4x Signal Pest
4x Kuldotha Rebirth
4x Intangible Virtue
4x Galvanic Blast
4x Midnight Haunting
3x Master's Call
2x Chimeric Mass
3x Rally the Peasants
2x Vault Skirge
4x Flayer Husk
2x Mox Opal
7x Plains
7x Mountain
4x Clifftop Retreat
2x Contested Warzone
Sideboard:
4x Shrine of Loyal Legions
4x Mirran Crusader
3x Brimstone Volley
4x Arc Trail
This deck has been testing fairly well, and can be incredibly explosive. HOWEVER, it can also sit there and do a whole lot of nothing. Theres a large split in this deck between token makers and token enablers. Usually drawing infinite token makers isn't the problem, but instead drawing all the enablers. In the sideboard, we have Shrine of Loyal Legions against control decks, and W/x human decks. Mirran Crusader is awesome against UB Control and Solar Flare. Brimstone Valley is good against Red Deck as removal and a racing tool, and finally Arc Trail helps you against this weenie infested Meta.
However today I am not talking about my innovations, but instead cool decks i have on the other side of the battlefield. Since I was just talking about standard, lets talk about a sweet combination of two very powerful decks: Wolf Run Ramp and Chapin Grixis Control. I have been thinking about trying out Olivia in a Jund list since worlds, but I was beat to it. Wolf Run Jund was a small deck during states as a way to beat the mirror (Memoricide, just like in Valakut), but this deck goes a step further and plays Olivia Voldaren to much profit as well! Olivia Voldaren has this thing for a man with tons of mana.... (MTG drama! Lotus Cobra, "you're leaving me??" never mind, I'm not going to let myself get carried away....)
1x Birds of Paradise
3x Olivia Voldaren
4x Primeval Titan
4x Solemn Simulcrum
1x Viridian Emissary
3x BSZ
1x Army of Damned
3x Curse of Death's Hold
3x Doom Blade
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Rampant Growth
4x Sphere of the Suns
6x Swamp
4x Inkmoth Nexus
2x Kessig Wolf Run
1x Mountain
1x Dragonskull Summit
3x Copperline Gorge
5x Forest
4x Woodland Cemetery
There was no sideboard for this deck. After the match we discussed the deck a little, and it was quickly agreed upon that the Army of the Damned should be cut for an Inferno Titan. Also, I suggested running Slagstorm instead of Black Sun's Zenith. This does lead to an interesting discussion though: Black Sun's Zenith vs Slagstorm. I think Slagstorm is better right now because it's faster and more efficient. However, it is important to note the merits of Black Sun's Zenith: it can kill bigger threats like Hero of Bladehold, Phyrexian Obliterator, and Thrun, the Last Troll. However, we have Doom Blade, can outrace Obliterator, and we frankly don't care about Thrun (also he is probably in our SB as well!). One last reason that we may not want to run Slagstorm is the mana. This deck is primarily GB, only splashing red for Kessig Wolf Run and Olivia Voldaren. However between Rampant Growth, Sphere of the Suns, Solemn Similacrum, and Primeval Titan (never mind Birds of Paradise and Viridian Emissary) the mana in this deck is VERY consistent.
Some notable omissions from traditional Wolf Run Ramp is Garruk (big and small), Devil's Play, and Beast Within. Obviously in terms of creatures Doom Blade is far superior to Beast Within, and frankly there's not a lot of artifacts and Planeswalkers going on right now, however I feel adding in 1 Acidic Slime as a Zenith target isn't a bad idea. Devil's Play is the get out of jail free card, but I don't think that's the type of effect we're looking for here. And finally, Garruk. He is very powerful, and it might even be a replacement for the Curse of Death Holds (-3 Curse, +2 Garruk Primal Hunter, +1 Garruk Relentless). Curse is only good against the aggro decks, but doesn't do anything against control and the mirror. However, the way things are right now, it's kinda like when Flashfreeze was main deckable because of the dominance of Jund, so either choice is defensible (though Curse has to at least go in the board).
But that's just Standard! I want to touch upon Modern quickly with 2 decks I played against recently: Enchantress and Enduring Ideal.
4x Mesa Enchantress
4x Verduran Enchantress
1x Cage of Hands
2x Faith Fetters
3x Fertile Ground
3x Ghostly Prison
3x Journey to Nowhere
2x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Oblivion Ring
3x Sigil of the Empty Throne
3x Trace of Abundance
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Harmonize
8x Forest
4x Horizon Canopy
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Plains
1x Stomping Ground
2x Temple Garden
SB
2x Torpor Orb
2x Wheel Sun and Moon
2x Circle of Protection: Red
2x Choke
3x Blood Moon
1x Emrakul
1x Ghostly Prison
2x Leyline of Sanctity
I have been playing a bunch of Legacy Enchantress recently, and this list made me very excited! I hadn't put any time or thought into a Modern Enchantress list, but this one is fairly solid. We took plenty of time to throw wrenches at each other's deck lists (I was playing Dredge and got destroyed by Ghostly Prison). This list seems tuned for the meta as I currently understand it right now (which is everything based on creatures or Storm/Ad Nauseum). The only real change I could suggest was a 1-of Idyllic Tutor, but that's a pretty bad card. This deck definitely is in a race from the first turn, as there is no Solitary Confinement 100% lock, which is why we need 3 Sigil of the Empty Throne to build up a board presence faster. Double Sigil, Journey you're dude, GG?
The last deck I want to spotlight on I wasn't able to get a list for, but it's a combo that I finally learned after hearing about it in passing once or twice: Enduring Ideal. Enduring Ideal was part of a 5-piece cycle from Saviors of Kamigawa, which really sucked as a set. The other cards in the cycle were all mediocre, but Enduring Ideal wound up being the only one that made an impact. Here's the combo:
Enduring Ideal --> Dovescape
Enduring Ideal --> Meishin, the Mind Cage
Enduring Ideal --> Form of the Dragon
If your opponent has a huge board position, you can switch Meishin and Dovescape. Because you are creating a copy of Enduring Ideal and not casting it, it curcumvents Dovescape from preventing it from being cast. This way, you have protection from spells and creatures (well.... not Emrakul) while having your opponent on a 4-turn clock. The rest of the deck plays control like Remand and ramp like Lotus Bloom and Seething Song. It's not a deck I am particularly interested in playing, but it does seem cool and different. It's just a big old 1-card combo kill!
That's all I have for today! It's really great to see others innovating in all the formats, beyond what is being featured in SCG opens and the GP/PT circuit. Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
rLack on MWS
Monday, November 28, 2011
5 Color Epic!
Hello Everybody!
I exclusively talk about Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Limited in this blog, but today is going to be different. One of the Legacy guys, Matt, has a pair of decks in a format that I had never heard of before: Prismatic. The premise of the format is that you have 500 card decks that require a minimum of 25 cards of each color.
Matt has 2 decks: a control deck and a Storm deck. Naturally I took the storm deck. Because of the unique deck building restrictions, there are some busted cards that are legal as 4-ofs like Channel and Mind's Desire! Also, cool 1-ofs like Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall make a cameo, so you may just be lucky enough to break the 1/300 odds and draw that bomby card! A really cool card that Matt tossed in both decks is Future Sight. This card is INSANE when trying to combo off and you cast cards that shuffle library! Every shuffle becomes another card just drawn!
We have been playing for 2 weeks now, and in our first week I simply couldn't lose! But maybe that's because I was consistently hitting Mind's Desire off other Mind's Desires (We lost the storm count at 50, and we stopped caring enough to actually shuffle and take the top card for each Mind's Desire trigger. Instead I just grabbed a chunk of library and flipped it over and played everything there). However, week 2 was a whole lot of me not drawing lands and getting everything relevant countered while getting beat down by 1/x and 2/x creatures.
As I was talking to Matt, he told me there was actually a small following for Prismatic, and there was even a few "known meta decks". The most annoying of these of course is known as Cheaty Red. Cheaty Red abuses Hybrid mana featured in Ravnica block and Shadowmoore block. Some awesome standout cycles are the Guildmage cycle, Liege cycle, and the Spirit Avatar cycle (Deus of Calamity, Demigod of Revenge). Abusing those cards lets the deck meet the "25 cards in each color" requirement while still just playing 115 mountains (which is just the equivalent of 23 lands in a 60 card deck).
While I don't think I will actually get into this format, nor will I think it will gain a major following, it is a cool format to borrow a friend's deck for and casually think about. The problem with the format is that is requires a TON of cards, and the deck building requirements can be enough to scare people away. Also, I fear people will try to make more consistent decks mana-wise and start dropping colors in the same way that Cheaty Red does, which then takes the essence of the format and pulls it out beneath its own feet.
If you're looking for a really nutty format that is even MORE random than commander, look no further than Prismatic! From mana-skrew every game (but for a different color each time all round the wheel), to piling on all the epic spells every turn (sidenote: imagine if the Epic Spells from Saviors of Kamigawa were actually epic?), Prismatic is a format with incredibly high replay value!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
I exclusively talk about Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Limited in this blog, but today is going to be different. One of the Legacy guys, Matt, has a pair of decks in a format that I had never heard of before: Prismatic. The premise of the format is that you have 500 card decks that require a minimum of 25 cards of each color.
Matt has 2 decks: a control deck and a Storm deck. Naturally I took the storm deck. Because of the unique deck building restrictions, there are some busted cards that are legal as 4-ofs like Channel and Mind's Desire! Also, cool 1-ofs like Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall make a cameo, so you may just be lucky enough to break the 1/300 odds and draw that bomby card! A really cool card that Matt tossed in both decks is Future Sight. This card is INSANE when trying to combo off and you cast cards that shuffle library! Every shuffle becomes another card just drawn!
We have been playing for 2 weeks now, and in our first week I simply couldn't lose! But maybe that's because I was consistently hitting Mind's Desire off other Mind's Desires (We lost the storm count at 50, and we stopped caring enough to actually shuffle and take the top card for each Mind's Desire trigger. Instead I just grabbed a chunk of library and flipped it over and played everything there). However, week 2 was a whole lot of me not drawing lands and getting everything relevant countered while getting beat down by 1/x and 2/x creatures.
As I was talking to Matt, he told me there was actually a small following for Prismatic, and there was even a few "known meta decks". The most annoying of these of course is known as Cheaty Red. Cheaty Red abuses Hybrid mana featured in Ravnica block and Shadowmoore block. Some awesome standout cycles are the Guildmage cycle, Liege cycle, and the Spirit Avatar cycle (Deus of Calamity, Demigod of Revenge). Abusing those cards lets the deck meet the "25 cards in each color" requirement while still just playing 115 mountains (which is just the equivalent of 23 lands in a 60 card deck).
While I don't think I will actually get into this format, nor will I think it will gain a major following, it is a cool format to borrow a friend's deck for and casually think about. The problem with the format is that is requires a TON of cards, and the deck building requirements can be enough to scare people away. Also, I fear people will try to make more consistent decks mana-wise and start dropping colors in the same way that Cheaty Red does, which then takes the essence of the format and pulls it out beneath its own feet.
If you're looking for a really nutty format that is even MORE random than commander, look no further than Prismatic! From mana-skrew every game (but for a different color each time all round the wheel), to piling on all the epic spells every turn (sidenote: imagine if the Epic Spells from Saviors of Kamigawa were actually epic?), Prismatic is a format with incredibly high replay value!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Musing Modern
Hello everybody! Recently I downloaded Magic Workstation (MWS), which in case you don't know is like Magic Online except free, and so I have been testing a couple decks online that I wouldn't conveniently have the means to do IRL. Mainly I have been testing Legacy and Modern. In Legacy I have been rocking Enchantress and Aluren, but Modern is where I have been spending all of my time recently, slowly touching up and improving my Dredge deck. Right now I feel the deck is doing well overall, but there is definitely room for improvements. Here's how it looks right now:
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Vengevine
4x Hedron Crab
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Enclave Cryptologist
4x Extractor Demon
2x Sedraxis Specter
2x Skaab Ruinator
4x Oona's Prowler
4x Stinkweed Imp
3x Visions of Beyond
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Forest
2x Island
3x Creepig Tar Pit
2x Watery Grave
3x Breeding Pool
Sideboard:
2x Nature's Claim
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Doom Blade
1x Go for the Throat
4x Maelstrom Puse
4x Spell Pierce
For a while I was trying a snapcaster package sideboard, but it was way too clunky to actually do anything. The sideboard is always where I am shakiest... However, I think this one has a few good ones with Obstinate Baloth and Doom Blade/GftT against Zoo and Red Deck, Spell Pierce against Control, and Maelstrom Pulse against anything I may need it against. I would consider cutting 2 nature's claims and a Pulse if I found something better that I wanted.
Oona's Prowler is something very new that I am trying out, but I really like it so far, replacing it 1-for-1 with Tarmogoyf. In this deck by itself goyf is usually a 2/3 and sometimes a 3/4, so I have to have opponents cast sorceries and planeswalkers and artifacts for him to get any better. Whereas Prowler offers the same amount of power, but has evasion as well and provides a 0 mana discard outlet for your 6 unearth cards and Vengevine. Yes, your opponent can discard cards to knock its power down, but I am perfectly fine with that. Because of Prowler, we don't need to run cards like City of Brass to make Sedraxis Specter better.
One thing this deck lacks right now is a powerful redundant mill engine. Right now the only self mill cards are Stinkweed Imp and Hedron Crab. However, that's what is awesome about this deck, is that it is not solely reliant upon the graveyard. With Oona's Prowler and Fauna Shaman we can still punch them in the face without worry. That's 16 cards we want in our opener, which is very good odds.
But that's not all there is in modern. There's the traditional offenders like Zoo and Red Deck and Twin, but there are some other awesome decks that I have been seeing online. Some of these include Enchantress, Burning Vengeance, Merfolk, and Soul Sisters! Modern seems to be an awesome format right now, and I plan on looking into the data from the upcoming PTQ season!
Thats all I have for today! Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Vengevine
4x Hedron Crab
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Enclave Cryptologist
4x Extractor Demon
2x Sedraxis Specter
2x Skaab Ruinator
4x Oona's Prowler
4x Stinkweed Imp
3x Visions of Beyond
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Forest
2x Island
3x Creepig Tar Pit
2x Watery Grave
3x Breeding Pool
Sideboard:
2x Nature's Claim
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Doom Blade
1x Go for the Throat
4x Maelstrom Puse
4x Spell Pierce
For a while I was trying a snapcaster package sideboard, but it was way too clunky to actually do anything. The sideboard is always where I am shakiest... However, I think this one has a few good ones with Obstinate Baloth and Doom Blade/GftT against Zoo and Red Deck, Spell Pierce against Control, and Maelstrom Pulse against anything I may need it against. I would consider cutting 2 nature's claims and a Pulse if I found something better that I wanted.
Oona's Prowler is something very new that I am trying out, but I really like it so far, replacing it 1-for-1 with Tarmogoyf. In this deck by itself goyf is usually a 2/3 and sometimes a 3/4, so I have to have opponents cast sorceries and planeswalkers and artifacts for him to get any better. Whereas Prowler offers the same amount of power, but has evasion as well and provides a 0 mana discard outlet for your 6 unearth cards and Vengevine. Yes, your opponent can discard cards to knock its power down, but I am perfectly fine with that. Because of Prowler, we don't need to run cards like City of Brass to make Sedraxis Specter better.
One thing this deck lacks right now is a powerful redundant mill engine. Right now the only self mill cards are Stinkweed Imp and Hedron Crab. However, that's what is awesome about this deck, is that it is not solely reliant upon the graveyard. With Oona's Prowler and Fauna Shaman we can still punch them in the face without worry. That's 16 cards we want in our opener, which is very good odds.
But that's not all there is in modern. There's the traditional offenders like Zoo and Red Deck and Twin, but there are some other awesome decks that I have been seeing online. Some of these include Enchantress, Burning Vengeance, Merfolk, and Soul Sisters! Modern seems to be an awesome format right now, and I plan on looking into the data from the upcoming PTQ season!
Thats all I have for today! Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Looting Faith
Hello Everybody! Dark Ascension is still 2 months away, but today we got our first preview card from WotC! Its a common, but it is going to be a staple in every format! I present Faithless Looting:
Does card seem familiar to you? It's an almost strictly better version of Careful Study, with the only downside being the color shift. However, that's not really a downside because the only format Careful Study is legal in is Legacy, where you can play any colors you want, and players like Caleb Durward play Wild Nacatl and Jace, the Mind Sculptor in the same deck!
In fact, the deck that best abuses Careful Study is Dredge, which already plays 5 colors with its City of Brass, Undiscovered Paradise, and Gemstone Mine (If you are playing Tarnished Citadel in your dredge deck, come over here so I can smack you). An opening hand with Careful Study and a Dredger was good enough by itself because of the sheer power of the Dredge engine, but adding Flashback to it is nuts!!!! I can think of tons of games playing Dredge where I get flooded and have 3 or 4 lands in play. In those situations, flashing back a Faithless Looting can be completely game breaking! By the way.... you can dredge into more of them! What if you don't have 3 lands in play, and never will? Then you have a red Careful Study in your graveyard..... Same exact value that Careful Study was previously providing. Normally with a new card I would post a sample decklist, but all you have to do to update Dredge is: -4 Careful Study, +4 Faithless Looting. Another deck to note that plays Careful Study is Reanimator, which I can see having them add in 1 Volcanic Island and 1 Mountain and cutting the Careful Studys for Faithless Looting.
So that's legacy in a wrap: this card is strictly better so replace them 1-for-1, but where can this go in Standard? It is incredibly important to note the difference between this card and Desperate Raving:
Desperate Ravings:
7 cards in hand
cast Desperate Ravings
6 cards in hand
Draw 2 cards
8 cards in hand
Discard 1
7 cards in hand
Net: 0
Faithless Looting:
7 cards in hand
cast Faithless Looting
6 cards in hand
Draw 2 cards
8 cards in hand
Discard 2 cards
6 cards in hand
Net: -1
By casting Faithless Looting, we go down a card in hand, but we get to chose what we discard, which makes for some interesting decisions. What is also important to note, however is that Desperate Raving nets +1 card when flashed back, and Faithless Looting produces net 0. Naturally, the first deck that came to my mind for this card was Burning Vengeance. Imagine:
T1: Faithless Looting
T2: Mana Leak
T3: Burning Vengeance
With Faithless Looting, we're probably discarding things like Think Twice and keeping cards like Snapcaster Mage and Doom Blade in hand. I feel that any control deck playing red will want this card, but no deck will splash red for it. However, another thought is that RDW may pick up this card card and want it really bad as a 2-of. The worst thing that happens to a Red Deck player is flooding or simply topdecking cards that suck late-game like Shrine of Burning Rage. Playing a Faithless Looting could draw them into the lethal Incinerate and pitch crap like.... basic Mountain. In fact, as I mentioned on Facebook, you can play all basic mountains alongside Bump In the Night and never have any problems! Obviously we would play Blackcleave Cliffs and Dragonskull Summit, but it's good to think about. Maybe we have a deck like this:
4x Goblin Fireslinger
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Stormblood Berserker
3x Chandra's Phoenix
2x Faithless Looting
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
4x Galvanic Blast
4x Bump in the Night
4x Incinerate
3x Brimstone Volley
4x Dragonskull Summit
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
12x Mountain
This is a very burn-heavy style of Red Deck, but Grim Lavamancer seems WAY too good with Faithless Looting, as even dumping 2 lands is equivilent to another shock. Furnace Scamp is a card I was considering for the deck, along with Arc Trail. Depending on how things go when Dark Ascension rolls around, maybe a "mono-Bolt" style deck will be viable, where the goal of each card is simply to deal 3 or more damage. The inherent problem with those decks is that they don't interact with the board, but then again, they do suck to fight against as they get tons of free wins.
That's all I have for today! This innocuous common is secretly a bomb to be had from Dark Ascension, and I'm already excited! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Does card seem familiar to you? It's an almost strictly better version of Careful Study, with the only downside being the color shift. However, that's not really a downside because the only format Careful Study is legal in is Legacy, where you can play any colors you want, and players like Caleb Durward play Wild Nacatl and Jace, the Mind Sculptor in the same deck!
In fact, the deck that best abuses Careful Study is Dredge, which already plays 5 colors with its City of Brass, Undiscovered Paradise, and Gemstone Mine (If you are playing Tarnished Citadel in your dredge deck, come over here so I can smack you). An opening hand with Careful Study and a Dredger was good enough by itself because of the sheer power of the Dredge engine, but adding Flashback to it is nuts!!!! I can think of tons of games playing Dredge where I get flooded and have 3 or 4 lands in play. In those situations, flashing back a Faithless Looting can be completely game breaking! By the way.... you can dredge into more of them! What if you don't have 3 lands in play, and never will? Then you have a red Careful Study in your graveyard..... Same exact value that Careful Study was previously providing. Normally with a new card I would post a sample decklist, but all you have to do to update Dredge is: -4 Careful Study, +4 Faithless Looting. Another deck to note that plays Careful Study is Reanimator, which I can see having them add in 1 Volcanic Island and 1 Mountain and cutting the Careful Studys for Faithless Looting.
So that's legacy in a wrap: this card is strictly better so replace them 1-for-1, but where can this go in Standard? It is incredibly important to note the difference between this card and Desperate Raving:
Desperate Ravings:
7 cards in hand
cast Desperate Ravings
6 cards in hand
Draw 2 cards
8 cards in hand
Discard 1
7 cards in hand
Net: 0
Faithless Looting:
7 cards in hand
cast Faithless Looting
6 cards in hand
Draw 2 cards
8 cards in hand
Discard 2 cards
6 cards in hand
Net: -1
By casting Faithless Looting, we go down a card in hand, but we get to chose what we discard, which makes for some interesting decisions. What is also important to note, however is that Desperate Raving nets +1 card when flashed back, and Faithless Looting produces net 0. Naturally, the first deck that came to my mind for this card was Burning Vengeance. Imagine:
T1: Faithless Looting
T2: Mana Leak
T3: Burning Vengeance
With Faithless Looting, we're probably discarding things like Think Twice and keeping cards like Snapcaster Mage and Doom Blade in hand. I feel that any control deck playing red will want this card, but no deck will splash red for it. However, another thought is that RDW may pick up this card card and want it really bad as a 2-of. The worst thing that happens to a Red Deck player is flooding or simply topdecking cards that suck late-game like Shrine of Burning Rage. Playing a Faithless Looting could draw them into the lethal Incinerate and pitch crap like.... basic Mountain. In fact, as I mentioned on Facebook, you can play all basic mountains alongside Bump In the Night and never have any problems! Obviously we would play Blackcleave Cliffs and Dragonskull Summit, but it's good to think about. Maybe we have a deck like this:
4x Goblin Fireslinger
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Stormblood Berserker
3x Chandra's Phoenix
2x Faithless Looting
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
4x Galvanic Blast
4x Bump in the Night
4x Incinerate
3x Brimstone Volley
4x Dragonskull Summit
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
12x Mountain
This is a very burn-heavy style of Red Deck, but Grim Lavamancer seems WAY too good with Faithless Looting, as even dumping 2 lands is equivilent to another shock. Furnace Scamp is a card I was considering for the deck, along with Arc Trail. Depending on how things go when Dark Ascension rolls around, maybe a "mono-Bolt" style deck will be viable, where the goal of each card is simply to deal 3 or more damage. The inherent problem with those decks is that they don't interact with the board, but then again, they do suck to fight against as they get tons of free wins.
That's all I have for today! This innocuous common is secretly a bomb to be had from Dark Ascension, and I'm already excited! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Monday, November 21, 2011
Its a ChannelFireball World, We Just Live Here
Conley Woods - 1st
Paulo Vitor Dama Da Rosa - 2nd
Luis Scott Vargas - 3rd
Josh Utter-Leyton - 5th
Ben Stark - 14th
Shuuhei Nakamura - 16th
Owen Turtenwald - 33rd
David Ochoa - 37th
Brian Kibler - 54th
Martin Juza - 90th
Player of the Year: Owen Turtenwald
If that isn't a dominating team, I don't know what is! This past weekend, the last World Championships occurred in San Francisco. To absolutely no one's surprise, team Fireball dominated once again. In case you haven't noticed..... they win everything! Or at least if they don't win, they put a couple people in the top 8 in every single Pro Tour and most GPs. As you can see above HALF of the world's top 8 was Channel Fireball players! Conley Woods went 6-0 in Standard, 6-0 in Draft, and 4-2 in Modern, though his 2 losses were intentional scoops to PV and LSV to help them both get into the top 8 themselves. Unfortunately, team Fireball was playing arguably the worst deck possible for a best of 5 series, and so they all made quick departures from the top 8. Regardless, their domination can't go unnoticed!
So one of the important things to us commoners from worlds is how the results can affect the financial market. What's the big story of the weekend? Olivia Voldaren!
November 16th: 5.71
November 17th: 10.58
November 18th: 18.50
November 19th: 17.14
November 20th: 16.74
The card rose 324% in just 2 days! However, that being said: it has already dropped $2 in as many days, so the initial buzz is over, and we need to figure out where this card will reside. My guess is 13. I think Olivia is absolutely legitimate, as I played her at States to much satisfaction. This card has nothing but potential as people have already been musing about maybe putting her in a Jund control deck using other bombs like Daybreak Ranger to gain advantage on the board without investing more cards, and ultimately overwhelm the board and drop bombs. These are both decks that prey upon the current all-aggro metagame (called it last year!), and while I can't see that changing in the next two months, if amazing control cards come out of Dark Ascension (releases Feb 3) then we can see this deck disappear overnight, and in turn Olivia goes too.
So if Olivia is going up, something has to go down to balance the price of the pack, right? Well here are the other staple Innistrad prices:
Liliana: 38
Snapcaster: 27
Geist of Saint Traft: 16.5
Garruk Relentless: 26.5
Skaab Ruinator: 6.5
Isolated Chapel: 7
Clifftop Retreat: 3.5
Sulfur Falls: 5
Hinterland Harbor: 5
Woodland Cemetery: 5
Stromkirk Noble: 7
The few premium cards up top haven't shifted much, but notice how almost all of the dual lands have sunk about $2 (BW not moving and RW making up the difference). Skaab Ruinator has dropped off the face of financial relevancy though, as it is only a 1-of in any deck that wants to play it.
The next place we can attack financial scenes is through modern. However, there hasn't been too much coverage of modern. In fact, there are hardly any obvious dominating decks! Here is the majority of the data I have found, and clearly there is just a mess of random numbers and hardly helpful deck names. For Example: UR Faeries went 4-1. That sounds like a fantastic idea for a deck, but I have NO CLUE how I would start to implement that in practice.
This next PTQ season is Modern, so there will be tons of data rolling in soon, at which point random cards start exploding in price. But at the very least Shock Lands aren't a bad thing to be trading for right now....
Worlds was amazing! Congrats to Conley for his 17-3 run, congrats to Iyanaga for winning individual Worlds, and congrats to team Japan for winning the team event! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Paulo Vitor Dama Da Rosa - 2nd
Luis Scott Vargas - 3rd
Josh Utter-Leyton - 5th
Ben Stark - 14th
Shuuhei Nakamura - 16th
Owen Turtenwald - 33rd
David Ochoa - 37th
Brian Kibler - 54th
Martin Juza - 90th
Player of the Year: Owen Turtenwald
If that isn't a dominating team, I don't know what is! This past weekend, the last World Championships occurred in San Francisco. To absolutely no one's surprise, team Fireball dominated once again. In case you haven't noticed..... they win everything! Or at least if they don't win, they put a couple people in the top 8 in every single Pro Tour and most GPs. As you can see above HALF of the world's top 8 was Channel Fireball players! Conley Woods went 6-0 in Standard, 6-0 in Draft, and 4-2 in Modern, though his 2 losses were intentional scoops to PV and LSV to help them both get into the top 8 themselves. Unfortunately, team Fireball was playing arguably the worst deck possible for a best of 5 series, and so they all made quick departures from the top 8. Regardless, their domination can't go unnoticed!
So one of the important things to us commoners from worlds is how the results can affect the financial market. What's the big story of the weekend? Olivia Voldaren!
November 16th: 5.71
November 17th: 10.58
November 18th: 18.50
November 19th: 17.14
November 20th: 16.74
The card rose 324% in just 2 days! However, that being said: it has already dropped $2 in as many days, so the initial buzz is over, and we need to figure out where this card will reside. My guess is 13. I think Olivia is absolutely legitimate, as I played her at States to much satisfaction. This card has nothing but potential as people have already been musing about maybe putting her in a Jund control deck using other bombs like Daybreak Ranger to gain advantage on the board without investing more cards, and ultimately overwhelm the board and drop bombs. These are both decks that prey upon the current all-aggro metagame (called it last year!), and while I can't see that changing in the next two months, if amazing control cards come out of Dark Ascension (releases Feb 3) then we can see this deck disappear overnight, and in turn Olivia goes too.
So if Olivia is going up, something has to go down to balance the price of the pack, right? Well here are the other staple Innistrad prices:
Liliana: 38
Snapcaster: 27
Geist of Saint Traft: 16.5
Garruk Relentless: 26.5
Skaab Ruinator: 6.5
Isolated Chapel: 7
Clifftop Retreat: 3.5
Sulfur Falls: 5
Hinterland Harbor: 5
Woodland Cemetery: 5
Stromkirk Noble: 7
The few premium cards up top haven't shifted much, but notice how almost all of the dual lands have sunk about $2 (BW not moving and RW making up the difference). Skaab Ruinator has dropped off the face of financial relevancy though, as it is only a 1-of in any deck that wants to play it.
The next place we can attack financial scenes is through modern. However, there hasn't been too much coverage of modern. In fact, there are hardly any obvious dominating decks! Here is the majority of the data I have found, and clearly there is just a mess of random numbers and hardly helpful deck names. For Example: UR Faeries went 4-1. That sounds like a fantastic idea for a deck, but I have NO CLUE how I would start to implement that in practice.
This next PTQ season is Modern, so there will be tons of data rolling in soon, at which point random cards start exploding in price. But at the very least Shock Lands aren't a bad thing to be trading for right now....
Worlds was amazing! Congrats to Conley for his 17-3 run, congrats to Iyanaga for winning individual Worlds, and congrats to team Japan for winning the team event! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
TNT Legacy *1-2*
Hello everybody!
This past sunday, we once again had our usual Legacy Tournament, and I was really hoping to be able to play Enchantress this week. I had about 25 proxies and just a 5 card sideboard, but I was able to pull it off with 13 proxies across the main and board! Fetchlands went from being Onslaught fetches to ZEN fetches (6 total) and I was able to borrow a Savannah and a couple other cards in niche time.
So how does Enchantress play out?
Well, hopefully you keep a hand with at least 1 piece of acceleration (Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl), a card draw engine, and basically any other enchantment. We only ever lose to a fast non-interactive combo deck with this kind of hand. From there you ramp up and start drawing extra cards. The power from this comes by the fact that all your disruption is proactive, and then you get to draw a ton of extra cards in the process. Unlike Standard Burning Vengeance where an early Burning Vengeance is often what helps you win games through a slow bleed of damage, Enchantress wins almost completely in one turn whether its through stacking a ton of draw triggers and burning face with Words of War or making an instant army with Sigil of the Empty Throne, so not losing is priority #1.
Round 1: vs Benzo (MB epic)
I don't remember how any of our games went specifically, but I know his deck can often be a little tricky. With heavy hand disruption, Phyrexian Arena, and Bob, he usually has more cards in hand, and with guys like Nantuko Shade and Korlash Heir to Blackblade he can close the game out fast. However, I felt I had a very good matchup thanks to the fact that black doesn't get Enchantment removal and I had Elephant Grass. Game 1 was a breeze, but game 2 got awkward when he played Nevinyrral's Disk. I had another Enchantress's Presence in hand, so I stockpiled a hand and after he blew the disk, I dumped my hand again. However, I still lost that game when he attacked me down to 5 and played Obliterator, which made him have exactly 1 more guy than I could deal with, and my Mirri's Guile didn't get me the Grass. Game 3 was textbook though, and I was feeling great about the deck!
2-1
1-0
Round 2: vs Matt, Transmuter Combo
This matchup was very hard for me, as Matt loves his Chalice of the Voids on 1, which he naturally got on turn 1. I was able to land a Mirri's Guile before that though, and then an Argothian on turn 2. So on turn 3 I looked with my Mirri's Guile and saw another Guile, and 2 Wild Growths. I just used them as G: cycling to start drawing through the deck until I found action. And by action I mean Replenish, which game me an instantly huge board position. However, on the other side of the table, Matt played a Master Transmuter and dropped a Sundering Titan into play triple stone raining me, as my only Taiga was in play. He then would bounce Sundering Titan back to his hand (it blows up land when it leaves play too!) and dropped in Steel Hellkite, which did a nice job mocking my Moat that I had in play. Steel Hellkite is awesome when it works, and we were off to the boards. Naturally I brought in Stoney Silences (2), and they did well game 2, but then game 3 Triskelion beats got there.
1-2
1-1
Round 3: vs .....I just realized I don't know his name....., Reanimator
Games 1 and 2 ended fast when I learned the hard way I can't beat an Iona on White....
0-2
1-2
Overall, I liked the Enchantress deck a ton, and I think there is some potential. This was one of the decks that I said I am on a trading quest for, so I am not allowed to buy any cards that cost more than $1 a piece. Here is my current list, followed by what I need to trade for still:
4x Argothian Enchantress
4x Wild Growth
1x Blood Moon
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
4x Utopia Sprawl
3x Sterling Grove
3x Solitary Confinement
2x Moat
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Words of War
4x Enchantress's Presence
1x Runed Halo
3x Mirri's Guile
4x Elephant Grass
2x Enlightened Tutor
2x Replenish
3x Wooded Foothills
4x Windswept Heath
1x Taiga
2x Savannah
2x Serra's Sanctum
1x Plains
6x Forest
1x Karakas
Sideboard
1x Tormod's Crypt
2x Stony Silence2x Nevermore
1x Oblivion Ring
2x Enlightened Tutor
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
1x Choke
1x Aura of Silence
2x Leyline of Sanctity
1x City of Solitude
1x Journey to Nowhere
Cards I need:
1x Savannah (68)
2x Moat (294, 588)
2x Mirri's Guile (9.5, 19)
1x Sterling Grove (5)
1x Karakas (57)
4x Windswept Heath (29, 116)
2x Wooded Foothills (24, 48)
3x Argothian Enchantress (17, 51)
1x Tormod's Crypt (2.5)
Total: 954.5
Total w/out Moat: 366.5
So I still have a long way to go for this deck, however with just a couple trades I can play this deck without having to borrow any cards from anybody (and I am going to buy a couple <1 cards like Wild Growth). I know people who have at least 1 Windswept, Wooded Foothills (which is just as good as Misty or Verdant, so it's on the very bottom of the priority list), and moats! Also, TNT has an Argothian in stock at 14 (LP), so I might trade cards into the store for 14 credit and pick that up, as I feel that is still technically trading for the card, but it's not as good as trading from another binder because I will be effectively losing 10 or so on the trade.
That's all I have for today! This deck is a ton of fun, but it is expensive. If you can get all these tricky cards, then I highly recommend trying out Enchantress! Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
This past sunday, we once again had our usual Legacy Tournament, and I was really hoping to be able to play Enchantress this week. I had about 25 proxies and just a 5 card sideboard, but I was able to pull it off with 13 proxies across the main and board! Fetchlands went from being Onslaught fetches to ZEN fetches (6 total) and I was able to borrow a Savannah and a couple other cards in niche time.
So how does Enchantress play out?
Well, hopefully you keep a hand with at least 1 piece of acceleration (Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl), a card draw engine, and basically any other enchantment. We only ever lose to a fast non-interactive combo deck with this kind of hand. From there you ramp up and start drawing extra cards. The power from this comes by the fact that all your disruption is proactive, and then you get to draw a ton of extra cards in the process. Unlike Standard Burning Vengeance where an early Burning Vengeance is often what helps you win games through a slow bleed of damage, Enchantress wins almost completely in one turn whether its through stacking a ton of draw triggers and burning face with Words of War or making an instant army with Sigil of the Empty Throne, so not losing is priority #1.
Round 1: vs Benzo (MB epic)
I don't remember how any of our games went specifically, but I know his deck can often be a little tricky. With heavy hand disruption, Phyrexian Arena, and Bob, he usually has more cards in hand, and with guys like Nantuko Shade and Korlash Heir to Blackblade he can close the game out fast. However, I felt I had a very good matchup thanks to the fact that black doesn't get Enchantment removal and I had Elephant Grass. Game 1 was a breeze, but game 2 got awkward when he played Nevinyrral's Disk. I had another Enchantress's Presence in hand, so I stockpiled a hand and after he blew the disk, I dumped my hand again. However, I still lost that game when he attacked me down to 5 and played Obliterator, which made him have exactly 1 more guy than I could deal with, and my Mirri's Guile didn't get me the Grass. Game 3 was textbook though, and I was feeling great about the deck!
2-1
1-0
Round 2: vs Matt, Transmuter Combo
This matchup was very hard for me, as Matt loves his Chalice of the Voids on 1, which he naturally got on turn 1. I was able to land a Mirri's Guile before that though, and then an Argothian on turn 2. So on turn 3 I looked with my Mirri's Guile and saw another Guile, and 2 Wild Growths. I just used them as G: cycling to start drawing through the deck until I found action. And by action I mean Replenish, which game me an instantly huge board position. However, on the other side of the table, Matt played a Master Transmuter and dropped a Sundering Titan into play triple stone raining me, as my only Taiga was in play. He then would bounce Sundering Titan back to his hand (it blows up land when it leaves play too!) and dropped in Steel Hellkite, which did a nice job mocking my Moat that I had in play. Steel Hellkite is awesome when it works, and we were off to the boards. Naturally I brought in Stoney Silences (2), and they did well game 2, but then game 3 Triskelion beats got there.
1-2
1-1
Round 3: vs .....I just realized I don't know his name....., Reanimator
Games 1 and 2 ended fast when I learned the hard way I can't beat an Iona on White....
0-2
1-2
Overall, I liked the Enchantress deck a ton, and I think there is some potential. This was one of the decks that I said I am on a trading quest for, so I am not allowed to buy any cards that cost more than $1 a piece. Here is my current list, followed by what I need to trade for still:
4x Argothian Enchantress
4x Wild Growth
1x Blood Moon
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
4x Utopia Sprawl
3x Sterling Grove
3x Solitary Confinement
2x Moat
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Words of War
4x Enchantress's Presence
1x Runed Halo
3x Mirri's Guile
4x Elephant Grass
2x Enlightened Tutor
2x Replenish
3x Wooded Foothills
4x Windswept Heath
1x Taiga
2x Savannah
2x Serra's Sanctum
1x Plains
6x Forest
1x Karakas
Sideboard
1x Tormod's Crypt
2x Stony Silence2x Nevermore
1x Oblivion Ring
2x Enlightened Tutor
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
1x Choke
1x Aura of Silence
2x Leyline of Sanctity
1x City of Solitude
1x Journey to Nowhere
Cards I need:
1x Savannah (68)
2x Moat (294, 588)
2x Mirri's Guile (9.5, 19)
1x Sterling Grove (5)
1x Karakas (57)
4x Windswept Heath (29, 116)
2x Wooded Foothills (24, 48)
3x Argothian Enchantress (17, 51)
1x Tormod's Crypt (2.5)
Total: 954.5
Total w/out Moat: 366.5
So I still have a long way to go for this deck, however with just a couple trades I can play this deck without having to borrow any cards from anybody (and I am going to buy a couple <1 cards like Wild Growth). I know people who have at least 1 Windswept, Wooded Foothills (which is just as good as Misty or Verdant, so it's on the very bottom of the priority list), and moats! Also, TNT has an Argothian in stock at 14 (LP), so I might trade cards into the store for 14 credit and pick that up, as I feel that is still technically trading for the card, but it's not as good as trading from another binder because I will be effectively losing 10 or so on the trade.
That's all I have for today! This deck is a ton of fun, but it is expensive. If you can get all these tricky cards, then I highly recommend trying out Enchantress! Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Modern Dredge!
Hello Everybody!
So Modern has basically replaced Extended in every form except that Extended is still "technically" a format. However, Modern is being played at Worlds and Modern is replacing Extended as the PTQ format, so basically its the new big thing. Modern s basically intended to be like Legacy except without Dual Lands and Force of Will. However, a huge amount of Strategies are also nuked from Legacy, for example:
Show and Tell
Sneak Attack
Natural Order
Hymn to Tourach
Painted Stone
Aluren
Enchantress
Tendrils Storm
Also, in their banned list they try to attack a variety of archetypes, including one of my favorite Legacy decks: Dredge. However, with a strategy as degenerate as everything coming from the Graveyard for almost free, taking out 2 cards can't kill the deck by itself! David Ochoa got 4th place in the 2010 US Nationals with Dredge-uh-Vine, which is where i pulled inspiration for this deck.
So the first place to begin with a Modern Dredge deck is to compare it to its legacy counterpart. Some notable cards we lose are: Breakthrough, Ichorid, Careful Study, Putrid Imp, Tireless Tribe, Dread Return, Cabal Therapy, and Cephalid Coliseum. After doing a search of flashback spells in Modern, the only ones I could see myself playing are Ancient Grudge, Unburial Rites, Gnaw to the Bone, Purify the Grave, and Dream Twist. None of these cards are really exciting reasons to be dredging ourselves too quickly. The only cards that we can put in our maindeck is Unburial Rites and Dream Twist.
So then we need a different reason to be dredging ourselves, and this is where we go back to Ochoa. He played Vengevine and Extractor Demon to recur from the Graveyard and bring fast beats. So instead of the Combo deck that we see in Legacy, it was a very efficiant beatdown deck. Because were dealing with modern, and not old standard, we have a wide variety of other options available to us, including Skaab Ruinator and Bloodghast (Ochoa had Bloodghast available to him, but didn't use it). I feel that is the direction that this deck will want to go in. In fact, even though Bridge from Below is legal, I don't think we will even want it! Here's a huge list of cards that I am thinking about using:
Enablers:
Glimpse of the Unthinkable
Hedron Crab
Fauna Shaman
Splinterfright
Darkblast
Stinkweed Imp
Golgari Thug
Dudes:
Vengevine
Skaab Ruinator
Extractor Demon
Bloodghast
Avatar of Woe
Tombstalker
Narcomeba
Tarmogoyf
Kessig Cagebreakers
Eternal Witness
Reya Dawnbreaker
Doomed Necromancer
Renegade Doppelganger
Value-town:
Visions of Beyond
The way it looks, everything I am interested in is in the BUG wedge, so that's where I will focus. The first thing I noticed when making this is that this is starting to look like a Zoo deck, and so everything should cost little. Kessig Cage Breakers, while it would probably attack for 50 in this deck, costs 5 mana when everything else costs 1 or 2. I think we have enough undercosted cards that we don't need Reya Dawnbreaker to Reanimate or Doomed Necromancer/Unburial Rites to do it. I do really like Avatar of Woe and Tombstalker though, and they both cost little enough to have them help recur Vengevine.
I think Bloodghast, while nice, is too small compared to the titans surrounding him to really make an impact in this deck. We have already determined we don't have much useful ways to sacrifice dudes, and so Bridge From Below is unnecessary, so Bloodghast just becomes the Goblin Piker that won't stop annoying you. This also makes the think about Narcomeba, a card that normally fits perfects naturally into Dredge decks as a cheap dude that can be utilized to.... well just be sacrificed.... and as I already stated, were not going that route.
And one last cut: Renegade Doppelganger. We want every card in our deck to be incredible on its own, and I don't really see much to be gained from him. Compare him to another 2 drop: Tarmogoyf, and you will see what I'm getting at.
So what does that leave us with?
Glimpse of the Unthinkable
Hedron Crab
Fauna Shaman
Splinterfright
Darkblast
Stinkweed Imp
Golgari Thug
Vengevine
Skaab Ruinator
Extractor Demon
Avatar of Woe
Tombstalker
Tarmogoyf
Eternal Witness
Visions of Beyond
Our deck curves out at 3, so I think just 22 lands should do us fine:
4x Vengevine
1x Skaab Ruinator
4x Extractor Demon
4x Hedron Crab
4x Golgari Thug
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Tombstalker
4x Glimpse of the Unthinkable
3x Darkblast
3x Visions of Beyond
22x Land
Obviously I'm VERY tight for space here, but this is a rough draft of where this deck could go. I'm not going to get into the mana base right now, as I currently have over a dozen and a half lands pulled out that I may use including:
Zen Fetch Lands
Ravnica Shock Lands
Shadowmoore Filter Lands
M10/Inn Duals
City of Brass
Gemstone Mine
Darkslick Shores
Creeping Tar Pit
Nephalia Drownyard
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
So that very well could be a whole post by itself! Anyways, I have talked too much today, so I will hopefully return with a more refined decklist soon along with a full manabase! Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
So Modern has basically replaced Extended in every form except that Extended is still "technically" a format. However, Modern is being played at Worlds and Modern is replacing Extended as the PTQ format, so basically its the new big thing. Modern s basically intended to be like Legacy except without Dual Lands and Force of Will. However, a huge amount of Strategies are also nuked from Legacy, for example:
Show and Tell
Sneak Attack
Natural Order
Hymn to Tourach
Painted Stone
Aluren
Enchantress
Tendrils Storm
Also, in their banned list they try to attack a variety of archetypes, including one of my favorite Legacy decks: Dredge. However, with a strategy as degenerate as everything coming from the Graveyard for almost free, taking out 2 cards can't kill the deck by itself! David Ochoa got 4th place in the 2010 US Nationals with Dredge-uh-Vine, which is where i pulled inspiration for this deck.
So the first place to begin with a Modern Dredge deck is to compare it to its legacy counterpart. Some notable cards we lose are: Breakthrough, Ichorid, Careful Study, Putrid Imp, Tireless Tribe, Dread Return, Cabal Therapy, and Cephalid Coliseum. After doing a search of flashback spells in Modern, the only ones I could see myself playing are Ancient Grudge, Unburial Rites, Gnaw to the Bone, Purify the Grave, and Dream Twist. None of these cards are really exciting reasons to be dredging ourselves too quickly. The only cards that we can put in our maindeck is Unburial Rites and Dream Twist.
So then we need a different reason to be dredging ourselves, and this is where we go back to Ochoa. He played Vengevine and Extractor Demon to recur from the Graveyard and bring fast beats. So instead of the Combo deck that we see in Legacy, it was a very efficiant beatdown deck. Because were dealing with modern, and not old standard, we have a wide variety of other options available to us, including Skaab Ruinator and Bloodghast (Ochoa had Bloodghast available to him, but didn't use it). I feel that is the direction that this deck will want to go in. In fact, even though Bridge from Below is legal, I don't think we will even want it! Here's a huge list of cards that I am thinking about using:
Enablers:
Glimpse of the Unthinkable
Hedron Crab
Fauna Shaman
Splinterfright
Darkblast
Stinkweed Imp
Golgari Thug
Dudes:
Vengevine
Skaab Ruinator
Extractor Demon
Bloodghast
Avatar of Woe
Tombstalker
Narcomeba
Tarmogoyf
Kessig Cagebreakers
Eternal Witness
Reya Dawnbreaker
Doomed Necromancer
Renegade Doppelganger
Value-town:
Visions of Beyond
The way it looks, everything I am interested in is in the BUG wedge, so that's where I will focus. The first thing I noticed when making this is that this is starting to look like a Zoo deck, and so everything should cost little. Kessig Cage Breakers, while it would probably attack for 50 in this deck, costs 5 mana when everything else costs 1 or 2. I think we have enough undercosted cards that we don't need Reya Dawnbreaker to Reanimate or Doomed Necromancer/Unburial Rites to do it. I do really like Avatar of Woe and Tombstalker though, and they both cost little enough to have them help recur Vengevine.
I think Bloodghast, while nice, is too small compared to the titans surrounding him to really make an impact in this deck. We have already determined we don't have much useful ways to sacrifice dudes, and so Bridge From Below is unnecessary, so Bloodghast just becomes the Goblin Piker that won't stop annoying you. This also makes the think about Narcomeba, a card that normally fits perfects naturally into Dredge decks as a cheap dude that can be utilized to.... well just be sacrificed.... and as I already stated, were not going that route.
And one last cut: Renegade Doppelganger. We want every card in our deck to be incredible on its own, and I don't really see much to be gained from him. Compare him to another 2 drop: Tarmogoyf, and you will see what I'm getting at.
So what does that leave us with?
Glimpse of the Unthinkable
Hedron Crab
Fauna Shaman
Splinterfright
Darkblast
Stinkweed Imp
Golgari Thug
Vengevine
Skaab Ruinator
Extractor Demon
Avatar of Woe
Tombstalker
Tarmogoyf
Eternal Witness
Visions of Beyond
Our deck curves out at 3, so I think just 22 lands should do us fine:
4x Vengevine
1x Skaab Ruinator
4x Extractor Demon
4x Hedron Crab
4x Golgari Thug
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Tombstalker
4x Glimpse of the Unthinkable
3x Darkblast
3x Visions of Beyond
22x Land
Obviously I'm VERY tight for space here, but this is a rough draft of where this deck could go. I'm not going to get into the mana base right now, as I currently have over a dozen and a half lands pulled out that I may use including:
Zen Fetch Lands
Ravnica Shock Lands
Shadowmoore Filter Lands
M10/Inn Duals
City of Brass
Gemstone Mine
Darkslick Shores
Creeping Tar Pit
Nephalia Drownyard
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
So that very well could be a whole post by itself! Anyways, I have talked too much today, so I will hopefully return with a more refined decklist soon along with a full manabase! Until next time, Stay Classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
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