Hello everyone! Yesterday I went to the weekly Legacy event down at toys, as I always try to every week, and for the second week strait we had 8 people! 6 of the 8 were repeats from last week, so it be early to say this, but I think we have a good legacy core built that we can expand around. Back even just 1 month ago I was the only local player in the events besides Benzo, who would play if there was an odd number, but this week we had myself, Henry, Tron, Joe, and Benzo as the frequest Toys players popping in for the night.
I actually wasn’t sure if I would be able to spin some tops this week because I was at an Eagle Court of Honor that afternoon in another town completely opposite from toys, but just as I left I got a text from Joe saying there were 6 or 7, and they were all ready to go. Another 8 man!!??!! I almost didn’t even take off my Boy Scout Uniform just to make it to the event faster. There was a bit of communication error between myself and Joe, and the event started without me, but only by a couple minutes. Benzo wasn’t playing in it, so I just pulled up a chair across from him and dived right in! (For reference, I am playing the exact same 75 as last week)
Round 1: Benzo, MB Skrew You
I was late to the event, and despite my rushing, I was soon found sitting around with nothing to do. I have played against Benzo’s mono-black deck before, and it’s always to no avail. His deck combines mana ramp thanks to Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and card advantage from Bob Maher and Phyrexian Arena to put himself in a position where we can crush you with the power of his cards, and his Nantuko Husk is a 51/50. His deck was simply too fast for mine, and I lost 0-2 probably 10 minutes in.
0-2
0-1
Round 2: Crazy Infi-Artifact Combo
I was against a gent named Keith who I had played against last week. He was piloting Belcher last week, but Keith is to Legacy as I am to Standard: one who can never play the same deck twice. This week he had a pseudo Countertop control deck (although I never saw Countrbalance, someone else said it was in there though) that had an infinite combo kill. Here is how the kill went:
{
Start with Auriok Salvagers in play, play and pop Lion's Eye Diamond floating 3 white.
Use 2 of the 3 white to return LED to hand, play for free, add white, return infinitely.
Using this infinite mana loop, start looping aether spellbomb's draw ability until you draw Pyrite Spellbomb.
Recurse Pyrite Spellbomb infinitely, shooting your opponent for 2 each time.
Sounds simple, right? Take a moment using those instructions and write down what you have to do to kill your opponent who is at 20 life, assuming yoy have Salvagers in play, with LED and Pyrite Spellbomb in hand..... How many actions are involved to kill your opponent?
I didn't do it out completely, but after 15 steps, you will have your opponent at 18 life instead of 20, Lion's Eye Diamond will be back in your hand, Pyrite Spellbomb will be in the graveyard, and there will be a single red mana floating in your pool. Because of that floating red, every 3 times we run through this cycle, we can reduce 3 steps from the next cycle.
20 life / 2 per cycle = 10 cycles required
10 cycles = 7 cycles without discount + 3 cycles with discount (4, 7, 10)
10 cycles = (7 * 45 steps) + (3 * 42 steps)
10 cycles = 315 + 126
10 cycles = 441 steps
So all in all, if your opponent asks you to play out this entire combo, you are going to have to walk them through 441 different actions that will ultimately lead to them being dead.
}
WOW! That's complicated! So you can see why my opponent really groaned when I asked him to play out the combo during our game 1. I understood how it worked, but I had a Counterbalance in play, and I was hoping to disrupt him. I had Misty Rainforest on top, so I was able to counter his Lion's Eye Diamond when he tried to cast it after popping it for WWW, which turned off his entire combo kill. That game 1 I was beaten down to 10 before getting Thopter-Sword popping and came back to kill him.
Game 2 was rather rough for me as he had answers to everything and I wound getting beaten down by 2 Trinket Mages that was joined by a third for the final blow.
Game 3 was a test of pure willpower, endurence, and overall who has more outs. This game went so long that we both had only about 20 cards left in our library by the time it ended. As it turns out, Engineered Explosives on 2 is quite good against me. He dropped one of those rather early and waited as long as he could before popping it off. My Top survived, which triples the speed of my topdecking, and my Sword was in the graveyard, which is where it wants to be, so it wasn't long until I draw a Counterbalance, tutored a Foundry, and got back to work. He had more Explosives, I had Krosan Grip. He had more Explosives, I had Force of Will. He had Acamy Ruins. Now he can never run out of Explosives!! Through some tricky counter-top action I was able to start bashing him profitably (of course he had Explosives on 0 to ruin my day!). However, the getting in eachother's way didn't stop there: he had Goblin Welder! Another card that he uses to help recurse his Explosives, it can also be used to target me. I used Thopter Foundry, sacrificing Sword. In response to the activated ability resolving, he tapped Welder to kill the Foundry and bring back the Sword. Now we can rinse and repeat this a couple times and soon all of my Thopter Foundrys are in the bin. I was able to remove to Welder eventually, and bashed him down to 7 with 6 tokens in play, one equipped to the Sword (7 power) on board, and he scooped. Thankfully for me he didn't see that he could Acadamy Ruins the Engineered Explosives to the top of my deck at the end of my turn, so he scooped.
If that took you a long time to read, it should resemble how long it took to play. I didn't check the time the round started, but it ended at 8. Considering the event started at 5:30, I think our match went 90 to 100 minutes!
2-1
1-1
Round 3: Henry, Zombies
Henry sat down and immediatly said how he felt bad about this matchup. I agreed with him, although I wasn't going to announce it. My infinite thopter combo should be able to stop him, and the lifegain is a nice treat. Game 1 came with a flurry of pain for me as I was very quickly dropped down to 2 life before I could assemble the combo. Slowly yet surely my life total creeped back up. I was gaining 6 life then losing 5. Gain 6, lose 5. It worked out in the end though as I crawled up to 10 life before dropping him to 0. Game 2 I wasn't able to put together the combo as quickly, but an on-curve Humility was my lifeline. Without it I was dead in just 2 turns, but with it I stabelized at 6 life and quickly went up to 16 and dropped him to 0. Thanks to Humility I can trade his cards with my free tokens, which is huge for card advantage reasons.
2-0
2-1
At this point, I thought we were all done because normal 8-mans should only have 3 rounds, but the powers that be decided a cut to top 4 was necessary. The top 4 was myself, Joe, Tony (3-0), and Matt. I was the 4th seed and was placed against Tony, who was playing the same infect deck the 4-0-1ed with at FNM, but with a few legacy toys like Hymn to Torach, Dark Ritual, and Extirpate.
Round 4: Tony, Infect
I though thanks to his Rituals I would lose fast, but he had a very slow start. I was able to assemble the Thopter-Sword combo, which allowed me infinite blockers, and an eventual counter-attack. The same thing happened game 2, except he attacked with an Inkmoth and double Vampire's Bited it to bring me to 7 poison, but that was the last strike he got in, and I came back with Thopters.
2-0
3-1
Round 5: Matt, MUD Control
Matt was playing the same deck as last week, using mana ramp from City of Traitors/Ancient Tomb plus lockdown cards like Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, and Lodestone Golem to prevent me from being able to play any spells. I got lucky when I beat him last week, but this week I just folded 0-2.
0-2
3-2
Overall I had a great time and won $10 for my perils. I used that $10, and immediatly turned around and did a 4-man BSS draft. I drafted a RG Dinosaurs deck, which I have grown to really enjoy with some interesting Synergies coming from Ferravore/Barrage Ogre/Heavy Arbalist + Myr Propagator. I went 2-0 with it, and my bomb first pick: Blackcleave Cliffs! Yeah, it was that bad... Regardless, I really enjoy drafting the Dinosaurs deck, and it's always good to see how having Beseiged first (it really does!).
That's all for today, until next time, stay classy!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
TNT FNM *4-1 3rd* 2/25/11
Hello everyone! For the first time since I started this blog I played the same deck at FNM 2 weeks strait. And yes, I did go back and double check all my FNM reports. You can too if you feel so inclined. I played the same archetype, USA Allies, but I was playtesting and tweaking the deck all week, and this is what I came up with:
4x Kabira Evangel
4x Kazandu Blademaster
2x Hero of Oxid Ridge
4x Akoum Battlesinger
4x Hada Freeblade
2x Sphere of the Suns
2x Venser, the Sojouner
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Spell Pierce
2x Mana Leak
3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Preordain
4x Seachrome Coast
3x Glacial Fortress
3x Plains
3x Island
3x Mountain
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Arid Mesa
Sideboard:
3x Talus Paladin
3x Spreading Seas
4x Arc Trail
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Journey to Nowhere
3x Tuktuk Scrapper
Round 1: MW Lifegain
Game 1 started off with him getting the nuttiest of draws that included a Soul's Attendant and 3 Serra Ascendants. His life total went up all game, and mine went down, including a 12 point drop when he swung in with 2 6/6s. I can't exactly what the situation was, but I know he was at 28 life with his 3 Serra Ascendats in play who couldn't block because of my Kazandu Blademasters, and I had a Lightning Bolt in hand with Sphere of the Suns up. I was planning on blowing him out by Bolting him if he gained another 2 life and then attacked with 6/6 flyers, but for whatever reason I was unable to do that, and I lost because of it.
Game 2 started in much the same fashion when I quickly found myself down to 3 life and he had a 1/1 in play. Big papa Jace came through for me though as he let me do some unsummoning anough times to stabelize at 1 life and take him from 20 down to nothing.
Game 3 was simply a blowout as I easily won the game at 38 life thanks to strongly curving out. There really isn't much to say except that when allies curve out, there are almost no decks that can beat it.
2-1
1-0
Round 2: vs Charlotte, Elves
For this round I was against Charlotte, who always plays elves, which is an incredibly good matchup for me thanks to Talus Paladin and Kabira Evangel. Game 1 I kept a 1-lander that I couldn't resist thanks to a pair each of Hada Freeblades and Akoum Battlesingers. My next 2 draws were land, and I killed her in just 3 swings.
Game 2 was much more interesting as we both were able to set up decent board positions, and she blanked by Arc Trail in hand by having Ezuri and Elvish Archdruid in play together (Ezuri is a 3/3, so I can't kill him, but Archdruid can be regenerated). I was able to break through at one point to hit for 10 lifelink damage to bring the scores to 28-11. She then effictively conceided but decided to go down swinging, hitting me for 23 damage! I felt very lucky because I didn't calculate the swingback when I bashed, and it could have been lethal.
2-0
2-0
Round 3: vs ADB, Caw-Blade
I always get a big rush of adrenaline when I am paired against a member of Team Toys, and most would consider ADB the overall best player in the store. I quickly discovered he was playing Caw-Blade, which is supposed to be what the deck is designed to beat, but this is my first time playing against it. Game 1 was a heartbreaking loss as I bashed him down to 3, and I needed just 1 decent spell to close the books on it, but I drew 2 strait lands and was shipping right off to game 2.
I won games 2 and 3, through a ton of attacking (game 2 ended 20-0, game 3 ended 18-0) but over the course of the 2 games a couple significant plays of note happened (although I can't remember which game these all happened in):
On 2 seperate occasions (maybe once per game, maybe the same game, I can't remember...) I had Spell Pierce for Day of Judgement and Mana Leak for Day of Judegement and he didn't have the counter backup. The major reason for those counterspells is to crush players who try to take games back by tapping out for DoJ, and when it works it's seriously backbreaking.
Another significant play was my decision to bring in Tuktuk Scrapper to destroy his equipment. I played the Scrapper on turn 4 when he only had 1 mana up, and destroyed his Sword of Feast & Famine. He didn't realize how the Scrapper worked, so he played and equipped Sylvok Lifestaff to his Stoneforge. I played another Ally, destroyed the Lifestaff, Arc Trailed the Stoneforge, then swung in for a bunch. He commented afterwards how his only other play there was Squack Hawk, but it wouldn't have changed anything becuase I would have just Arc Trailed the bird too.
ADB was a ringer for the night, so by beating him I won a free pack and opened..... Mitotic Manipulation.... I'm pretty sure I just left it on the table and didn't even bother putting it in my bulk rares box.
2-1
3-0
Round 4: Tron, MB Infect
This was one of the fastest rounds I have ever played in my life. Tron and I have been working together on eachother's decks all last week, and so we both really knew eachother's decks, and we also both knew the match rested on whether or not Phyrexian Crusader made an appearance. Game 1 he did not and I killed him on turn 4. Game 2 he didn't show up either, but a turn 1 Inquisition of Kozelik stripped me of my Lightning Bolt, and he won by equipping his Plague Stinger with 2 Piston Sledges and bashing. Game 3 the Crusader finally made appearance and I couldn't find my 1 out - Jace TMS. Crusader swung, and I had to take, but instead of just grinding out a 5 turn victory Tron just double Vampire's Bite-d the Crusader, putting me to 8, and then killed me on the next swing.
1-2
3-1
Round 5: Jimbo, UB Forgemaster
Game 1 was dominated by Tezzeret, who animated a pair of artifacts and quickly killed me, while my board was held down by a Tumble Magnet. I felt good about my post-board chances though as I brought in the 3 Tuktuks. I can't remember what happened in game 2 specifically, but I won 19-0. Game 3 was blazingly fast though, and progressed like this:
Him: Creeping Tar Pit
Me: Plains, Hada Freeblade
Him: Swamp, Sphere of the Suns
Me: Mountain, Battlesinger, swing for 5 (15)
Him: Tezzeret, +1 grab Forgemaster
Me: Kazandu Blademaster, swing for 4 at Tezz, 2 at face (13)
Him: Kuldotha Forgemaster
Me: Tuktuk Scrapper, destroy Forgemaster, ping for 4 (9), swing for 11, GG
2-1
4-1
I wound up finishing 3rd behind Tron and the guy who I beat in round 6 last week. I'm pretty sure it was Tron's first time winning an FNM, which is awesome for him! His deck was simply nutty. Another notable finish was Charlotte finishing 4th, which is the first time she has prized.
Immediatly after the FNM ended I cut the 2 Sphere of the Suns and the 2 Vensers for a pair each of Jwari Shapeshifter and Umara Raptor. I have found that when this deck curves out it is simply unbeatable! So here is how our curve looks now:
1 - Hada Freeblade
2 - Jwari Shapeshifter, Kazandu Blademaster, Akoum Battlesinger
3 - Umara Raptor, Kabira Evangel
4 - Talus Paladin, Tuktuk Scrapper, Hero of Oxid Ridge (although I usually only have 1 of these in the main at a time depending on what I'm playing)
Someone suggested to me I try Kazuul Warlord, and I think it would be an insane card, and I may add 1 to try out with evenually, because he can make everything go nuts!
I really like this deck still and I will probably keep on playing it in FNM for the next couple weeks. Of the deck does well enough consistantly I may consider bringing it to an SCG Open or other large events where I can take the suprise factor of the deck back. If the meta becomes more artifact-centric, then I may move the Scrappers to the main, which can only make the deck even better!
Until next time, stay classy!
4x Kabira Evangel
4x Kazandu Blademaster
2x Hero of Oxid Ridge
4x Akoum Battlesinger
4x Hada Freeblade
2x Sphere of the Suns
2x Venser, the Sojouner
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Spell Pierce
2x Mana Leak
3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Preordain
4x Seachrome Coast
3x Glacial Fortress
3x Plains
3x Island
3x Mountain
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Arid Mesa
Sideboard:
3x Talus Paladin
3x Spreading Seas
4x Arc Trail
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Journey to Nowhere
3x Tuktuk Scrapper
Round 1: MW Lifegain
Game 1 started off with him getting the nuttiest of draws that included a Soul's Attendant and 3 Serra Ascendants. His life total went up all game, and mine went down, including a 12 point drop when he swung in with 2 6/6s. I can't exactly what the situation was, but I know he was at 28 life with his 3 Serra Ascendats in play who couldn't block because of my Kazandu Blademasters, and I had a Lightning Bolt in hand with Sphere of the Suns up. I was planning on blowing him out by Bolting him if he gained another 2 life and then attacked with 6/6 flyers, but for whatever reason I was unable to do that, and I lost because of it.
Game 2 started in much the same fashion when I quickly found myself down to 3 life and he had a 1/1 in play. Big papa Jace came through for me though as he let me do some unsummoning anough times to stabelize at 1 life and take him from 20 down to nothing.
Game 3 was simply a blowout as I easily won the game at 38 life thanks to strongly curving out. There really isn't much to say except that when allies curve out, there are almost no decks that can beat it.
2-1
1-0
Round 2: vs Charlotte, Elves
For this round I was against Charlotte, who always plays elves, which is an incredibly good matchup for me thanks to Talus Paladin and Kabira Evangel. Game 1 I kept a 1-lander that I couldn't resist thanks to a pair each of Hada Freeblades and Akoum Battlesingers. My next 2 draws were land, and I killed her in just 3 swings.
Game 2 was much more interesting as we both were able to set up decent board positions, and she blanked by Arc Trail in hand by having Ezuri and Elvish Archdruid in play together (Ezuri is a 3/3, so I can't kill him, but Archdruid can be regenerated). I was able to break through at one point to hit for 10 lifelink damage to bring the scores to 28-11. She then effictively conceided but decided to go down swinging, hitting me for 23 damage! I felt very lucky because I didn't calculate the swingback when I bashed, and it could have been lethal.
2-0
2-0
Round 3: vs ADB, Caw-Blade
I always get a big rush of adrenaline when I am paired against a member of Team Toys, and most would consider ADB the overall best player in the store. I quickly discovered he was playing Caw-Blade, which is supposed to be what the deck is designed to beat, but this is my first time playing against it. Game 1 was a heartbreaking loss as I bashed him down to 3, and I needed just 1 decent spell to close the books on it, but I drew 2 strait lands and was shipping right off to game 2.
I won games 2 and 3, through a ton of attacking (game 2 ended 20-0, game 3 ended 18-0) but over the course of the 2 games a couple significant plays of note happened (although I can't remember which game these all happened in):
On 2 seperate occasions (maybe once per game, maybe the same game, I can't remember...) I had Spell Pierce for Day of Judgement and Mana Leak for Day of Judegement and he didn't have the counter backup. The major reason for those counterspells is to crush players who try to take games back by tapping out for DoJ, and when it works it's seriously backbreaking.
Another significant play was my decision to bring in Tuktuk Scrapper to destroy his equipment. I played the Scrapper on turn 4 when he only had 1 mana up, and destroyed his Sword of Feast & Famine. He didn't realize how the Scrapper worked, so he played and equipped Sylvok Lifestaff to his Stoneforge. I played another Ally, destroyed the Lifestaff, Arc Trailed the Stoneforge, then swung in for a bunch. He commented afterwards how his only other play there was Squack Hawk, but it wouldn't have changed anything becuase I would have just Arc Trailed the bird too.
ADB was a ringer for the night, so by beating him I won a free pack and opened..... Mitotic Manipulation.... I'm pretty sure I just left it on the table and didn't even bother putting it in my bulk rares box.
2-1
3-0
Round 4: Tron, MB Infect
This was one of the fastest rounds I have ever played in my life. Tron and I have been working together on eachother's decks all last week, and so we both really knew eachother's decks, and we also both knew the match rested on whether or not Phyrexian Crusader made an appearance. Game 1 he did not and I killed him on turn 4. Game 2 he didn't show up either, but a turn 1 Inquisition of Kozelik stripped me of my Lightning Bolt, and he won by equipping his Plague Stinger with 2 Piston Sledges and bashing. Game 3 the Crusader finally made appearance and I couldn't find my 1 out - Jace TMS. Crusader swung, and I had to take, but instead of just grinding out a 5 turn victory Tron just double Vampire's Bite-d the Crusader, putting me to 8, and then killed me on the next swing.
1-2
3-1
Round 5: Jimbo, UB Forgemaster
Game 1 was dominated by Tezzeret, who animated a pair of artifacts and quickly killed me, while my board was held down by a Tumble Magnet. I felt good about my post-board chances though as I brought in the 3 Tuktuks. I can't remember what happened in game 2 specifically, but I won 19-0. Game 3 was blazingly fast though, and progressed like this:
Him: Creeping Tar Pit
Me: Plains, Hada Freeblade
Him: Swamp, Sphere of the Suns
Me: Mountain, Battlesinger, swing for 5 (15)
Him: Tezzeret, +1 grab Forgemaster
Me: Kazandu Blademaster, swing for 4 at Tezz, 2 at face (13)
Him: Kuldotha Forgemaster
Me: Tuktuk Scrapper, destroy Forgemaster, ping for 4 (9), swing for 11, GG
2-1
4-1
I wound up finishing 3rd behind Tron and the guy who I beat in round 6 last week. I'm pretty sure it was Tron's first time winning an FNM, which is awesome for him! His deck was simply nutty. Another notable finish was Charlotte finishing 4th, which is the first time she has prized.
Immediatly after the FNM ended I cut the 2 Sphere of the Suns and the 2 Vensers for a pair each of Jwari Shapeshifter and Umara Raptor. I have found that when this deck curves out it is simply unbeatable! So here is how our curve looks now:
1 - Hada Freeblade
2 - Jwari Shapeshifter, Kazandu Blademaster, Akoum Battlesinger
3 - Umara Raptor, Kabira Evangel
4 - Talus Paladin, Tuktuk Scrapper, Hero of Oxid Ridge (although I usually only have 1 of these in the main at a time depending on what I'm playing)
Someone suggested to me I try Kazuul Warlord, and I think it would be an insane card, and I may add 1 to try out with evenually, because he can make everything go nuts!
I really like this deck still and I will probably keep on playing it in FNM for the next couple weeks. Of the deck does well enough consistantly I may consider bringing it to an SCG Open or other large events where I can take the suprise factor of the deck back. If the meta becomes more artifact-centric, then I may move the Scrappers to the main, which can only make the deck even better!
Until next time, stay classy!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Beyond the Booster
Hello everyone! I am still sick, so I am home from work today. As awesome as not having to go to work is, it sucks sitting around/lying down by yourself all day. As I was lying, I realized I have managed to avoid talking about the Duel Decks and the FTV: Legends that Wizards has announced!
For a while now, there have been rumors of the next Planeswalker battle being between Ajani and Nicol Bolas thanks to some people following what WotC has been trademarking, but it was officially announced the other day. Obviously Nicol Bolas is going to rock a full Grixis-colored deck, which I expect will be more on the controlling side, it is unknown whether Ajani will be Boros or just mono-white. I think he will be Boros for a couple reasons. First, during Alara block the Ajani we knew was Ajani Vengent who was WR. Secondly, and more importantly, these pre-cons have been almost exclusively mono-colored except for the 5-color Coalition deck and the 5-color Slivers deck. I think WotC is going to break that mold and start having more colorful duel decks come out, which I'm sure everyone woul like to see.
Coming up much sooner is the other Duel Decks to be released this year: Knights vs Dragons. WotC released yesterday some ugly art that is going on the new Knight of the Reliquary:
That just doesn't that good at all.... But aside from that, the fact that Knight of the Reliquary is in the Knights deck obvously opens up having other green cards in the deck as well. I did a gatherer search for Knights, and there weren't very many green knights, but there were a healthy few. Here are some cards I might expect to see in the Knights deck:
Benalish Cavalery
Benalish Knight
Juniper Order Ranger
Kinsbaile Cavalier
Knight Exemplar
Knight of Meadowgrain
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Paladin en-Vec
Silver Knight
Southern Paladin
Steward of Valeron
Wilt-Leaf Liege
I don't have any guesses as to which will be the Mythic, but it won't be Knight of the Reliquary or Knight Exemplar.
On the other side of the battle we have the Dragons. I couldn't find where I had originally written about them in my 5 minutes of skimming through old reports, but there was some art released that started rumors of Bogordan Hellkite being the Dragon Mythic.
I would expect this deck to be mono-red, although a splash of black or green (or maybe both) is possible, considering Jund was the Dragon empire.
Moving forwards, the next From the Vault series was announced, and it is FTV: Legends! This will be 15 legendary creatures that span the history of Magic. The art that came with the announcement is very cleary of Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, who is abolutely epic to say the least. While I always get the Duel Decks, I have never gotten a FTV box because I didn't want to spend $100 on 15 cards I'm probably not going to use.
There is something very interesting about the announcement though, and it is how it conveniently matches up with the multi-player release this year being Commander. All Commander decks need a general, and now you're offered 15 generals that all have super-cool foiling. Also, M12's tagline is something to the degree of "gather your allies" so it can be assumed that Wizards is pushing this multi-player theme. Maybe we can expect to see Imperial Mask reprinted? That would be cool.
Anyways, that's all from me today. Hopefully I get better so I can FNM, I think Sphere of the Suns is my answer to color-skrew that often happens when playing 3-colors as well as it being nice ramp. Until next time, stay classy!
For a while now, there have been rumors of the next Planeswalker battle being between Ajani and Nicol Bolas thanks to some people following what WotC has been trademarking, but it was officially announced the other day. Obviously Nicol Bolas is going to rock a full Grixis-colored deck, which I expect will be more on the controlling side, it is unknown whether Ajani will be Boros or just mono-white. I think he will be Boros for a couple reasons. First, during Alara block the Ajani we knew was Ajani Vengent who was WR. Secondly, and more importantly, these pre-cons have been almost exclusively mono-colored except for the 5-color Coalition deck and the 5-color Slivers deck. I think WotC is going to break that mold and start having more colorful duel decks come out, which I'm sure everyone woul like to see.
Coming up much sooner is the other Duel Decks to be released this year: Knights vs Dragons. WotC released yesterday some ugly art that is going on the new Knight of the Reliquary:
That just doesn't that good at all.... But aside from that, the fact that Knight of the Reliquary is in the Knights deck obvously opens up having other green cards in the deck as well. I did a gatherer search for Knights, and there weren't very many green knights, but there were a healthy few. Here are some cards I might expect to see in the Knights deck:
Benalish Cavalery
Benalish Knight
Juniper Order Ranger
Kinsbaile Cavalier
Knight Exemplar
Knight of Meadowgrain
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Paladin en-Vec
Silver Knight
Southern Paladin
Steward of Valeron
Wilt-Leaf Liege
I don't have any guesses as to which will be the Mythic, but it won't be Knight of the Reliquary or Knight Exemplar.
On the other side of the battle we have the Dragons. I couldn't find where I had originally written about them in my 5 minutes of skimming through old reports, but there was some art released that started rumors of Bogordan Hellkite being the Dragon Mythic.
I would expect this deck to be mono-red, although a splash of black or green (or maybe both) is possible, considering Jund was the Dragon empire.
Moving forwards, the next From the Vault series was announced, and it is FTV: Legends! This will be 15 legendary creatures that span the history of Magic. The art that came with the announcement is very cleary of Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, who is abolutely epic to say the least. While I always get the Duel Decks, I have never gotten a FTV box because I didn't want to spend $100 on 15 cards I'm probably not going to use.
There is something very interesting about the announcement though, and it is how it conveniently matches up with the multi-player release this year being Commander. All Commander decks need a general, and now you're offered 15 generals that all have super-cool foiling. Also, M12's tagline is something to the degree of "gather your allies" so it can be assumed that Wizards is pushing this multi-player theme. Maybe we can expect to see Imperial Mask reprinted? That would be cool.
Anyways, that's all from me today. Hopefully I get better so I can FNM, I think Sphere of the Suns is my answer to color-skrew that often happens when playing 3-colors as well as it being nice ramp. Until next time, stay classy!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Standard Ponza
Hello Everyone!
It feels like I haven't been around the blog all week, but that's thanks to me getting a cold but not realizing it until I was falling asleep during work because I was so physically exhausted from.... nothing. I almost never get sick (I can't remember being sick for the past year, maybe 2) and it's suprising how draining it is. I got home from work today and just lay down for 3 hours, but now I'm bumping my Jesus beats (right now: "Our God" by The Cross Movement) while writing this.
So during my lunch break at work today, Mike and Brendan from Toys showed up and we naturally started talking about new deck ideas. Mike is working on a UB Tezzeret List that runs Frost Titan, Grave Titan, AND Wurmcoil Engine. He is also running Memnites, which didn't make sense at first, but seing as they can be made 5/5s with Tezzeret that can be defended, although I still wouldn't do it.
("New Shalom" Lecrae)
Brendan had mentioned to me previously that he made a RG Ponza list, but when I first heard it just didn't make sense to me. After all, Conley Woods did that using Chandra Ablaze as a way to Ultimate and completely destroy the opponent's mana base, and Conley is still made fun of that deck to this day. I don't have Conley's list, and I'm not too inspired to search for it, but there are some very significant cards from M11 and Scars block that Conley didn't have access to (he made the deck for the ZEN block Pro Tour). Notably: Inferno Titan, Destructive Force, Melting Terrain, Pyroclasm, and Lightning Bolt.
("Children of the Light" Lecrae)
But wait! Stone Rain and Pillage cost 3, and Melting Terrain costs 4! Yes, that is true, and it is incredibly relevant. Especially in the current Standard Meta, which offers many decks that like to play tons of early spells, every mana matters, and turn 4 could just be too late. This is where green comes in. Just like Valakut wins through mountains but only works because of the green, this decks goes from meh to pretty hot once we add the green ramp. All we need to do is get to 4 mana on turn 3. Lotus Cobra? Explore? Yeah, those work.
("Superstar" Trip Lee)
Maybe it's because this deck needs to work like a well-oiled machine, or maybe it's because I'm sick, but I need to lay this out in text:
LD:
Acidic Slime
Roiling Terrain
Melt Terrain
Tectonic Edge
Ramp:
Lotus Cobra
Explore
Nest Invader
Finishers:
Inferno Titan
Removal:
Lightning Bolt
Pyroclasm
Now one thing I noticed is how Pyroclasm hits both our Lotus Cobra and Acidic Slime. I think that card might wind up being a sideboard card to use against the beatdown decks, as obciously it does next to nothing against Valakut and Caw-Blade (once their equipped only LB works, but that's what we wanted anyways).
("Funky Jesus Music" TobyMac)
One card that I was thinking about was Destructive Force. That card has been seen in Standard Past as a finisher for UR Control and RUG Control, but has since been labeled as beeing too slow, however in this deck it could be exactly what we are looking for to put the nail in the coffin. Of course at the same time it sucks to have it in hand when you don't have a Titan in play, so maybe it would be a nice 1-of.
Here is how the list looks light now:
4x Lotus Cobra
4x Acidic Slime
4x Inferno Titan
4x Nest Invader
4x Explore
4x Roiling Terrain
4x Melt Terrain
1x Destructive Force
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Nature's Claim
4x Tectonic Edge
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Rootbound Crag
3x Raging Ravine
3x Mountain
3x Forest
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Misty Rainforest
("No Plan B" Manafest)
The only odd card in the deck at first is the 2 Nature's Claim. Like I have mentioned before, almost every single deck plays artifacts, and the only exception is really Valakut, Vampires, and Elves. However, all of those run Enchantments if they don't run artifacts like Khalni Heart Expedition or Dark Tutalege so the Nature's Claim isn't ever completely dead (ok, maybe against elves it is... but who plays elves besides Matt Nass?)
So that is all for today, like I said I'm feeling sick, so I can hardly think. Hey Brendan, how did I do analyzing the deck? Considering I have never seen the list, only talked about it, this feels like a decent place to start.
If you aren't a fan of the Hip-Hop I have been linking to throughout this post, I will leave you with some Christian Hardcore Metal =D ("The World Is A Thorn" Demon Hunter)
^^This is what I put on when I offer my opponent my other headphone during a match^^
Anyways, that is all from me for today, until next time, stay classy!
It feels like I haven't been around the blog all week, but that's thanks to me getting a cold but not realizing it until I was falling asleep during work because I was so physically exhausted from.... nothing. I almost never get sick (I can't remember being sick for the past year, maybe 2) and it's suprising how draining it is. I got home from work today and just lay down for 3 hours, but now I'm bumping my Jesus beats (right now: "Our God" by The Cross Movement) while writing this.
So during my lunch break at work today, Mike and Brendan from Toys showed up and we naturally started talking about new deck ideas. Mike is working on a UB Tezzeret List that runs Frost Titan, Grave Titan, AND Wurmcoil Engine. He is also running Memnites, which didn't make sense at first, but seing as they can be made 5/5s with Tezzeret that can be defended, although I still wouldn't do it.
("New Shalom" Lecrae)
Brendan had mentioned to me previously that he made a RG Ponza list, but when I first heard it just didn't make sense to me. After all, Conley Woods did that using Chandra Ablaze as a way to Ultimate and completely destroy the opponent's mana base, and Conley is still made fun of that deck to this day. I don't have Conley's list, and I'm not too inspired to search for it, but there are some very significant cards from M11 and Scars block that Conley didn't have access to (he made the deck for the ZEN block Pro Tour). Notably: Inferno Titan, Destructive Force, Melting Terrain, Pyroclasm, and Lightning Bolt.
("Children of the Light" Lecrae)
But wait! Stone Rain and Pillage cost 3, and Melting Terrain costs 4! Yes, that is true, and it is incredibly relevant. Especially in the current Standard Meta, which offers many decks that like to play tons of early spells, every mana matters, and turn 4 could just be too late. This is where green comes in. Just like Valakut wins through mountains but only works because of the green, this decks goes from meh to pretty hot once we add the green ramp. All we need to do is get to 4 mana on turn 3. Lotus Cobra? Explore? Yeah, those work.
("Superstar" Trip Lee)
Maybe it's because this deck needs to work like a well-oiled machine, or maybe it's because I'm sick, but I need to lay this out in text:
LD:
Acidic Slime
Roiling Terrain
Melt Terrain
Tectonic Edge
Ramp:
Lotus Cobra
Explore
Nest Invader
Finishers:
Inferno Titan
Removal:
Lightning Bolt
Pyroclasm
Now one thing I noticed is how Pyroclasm hits both our Lotus Cobra and Acidic Slime. I think that card might wind up being a sideboard card to use against the beatdown decks, as obciously it does next to nothing against Valakut and Caw-Blade (once their equipped only LB works, but that's what we wanted anyways).
("Funky Jesus Music" TobyMac)
One card that I was thinking about was Destructive Force. That card has been seen in Standard Past as a finisher for UR Control and RUG Control, but has since been labeled as beeing too slow, however in this deck it could be exactly what we are looking for to put the nail in the coffin. Of course at the same time it sucks to have it in hand when you don't have a Titan in play, so maybe it would be a nice 1-of.
Here is how the list looks light now:
4x Lotus Cobra
4x Acidic Slime
4x Inferno Titan
4x Nest Invader
4x Explore
4x Roiling Terrain
4x Melt Terrain
1x Destructive Force
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Nature's Claim
4x Tectonic Edge
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Rootbound Crag
3x Raging Ravine
3x Mountain
3x Forest
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Misty Rainforest
("No Plan B" Manafest)
The only odd card in the deck at first is the 2 Nature's Claim. Like I have mentioned before, almost every single deck plays artifacts, and the only exception is really Valakut, Vampires, and Elves. However, all of those run Enchantments if they don't run artifacts like Khalni Heart Expedition or Dark Tutalege so the Nature's Claim isn't ever completely dead (ok, maybe against elves it is... but who plays elves besides Matt Nass?)
So that is all for today, like I said I'm feeling sick, so I can hardly think. Hey Brendan, how did I do analyzing the deck? Considering I have never seen the list, only talked about it, this feels like a decent place to start.
If you aren't a fan of the Hip-Hop I have been linking to throughout this post, I will leave you with some Christian Hardcore Metal =D ("The World Is A Thorn" Demon Hunter)
^^This is what I put on when I offer my opponent my other headphone during a match^^
Anyways, that is all from me for today, until next time, stay classy!
Monday, February 21, 2011
TNT Legacy *1-2*
Hello everyone! Last night I was hanging out at my house writing yesterday's post, when I got a txt from Joe saying there were 2 people at Toys for legacy including him. WOO! YEAH! 2 PEOPLE! I'm actually not being sarcastic either. Normally a group of 3-5 people would come down from Worcester every weekend to play legacy, and they pretty much made up the whole event as it was them + me + Benzo (the TO) if needed to create an even number of players. So if there were 2 players there already, then me + Benzo = 4 players so we could do a small event. I got there, and pretty soon a group of 4 more players from somewhere not Worcester came as well. Benzo hopped in, and we had an 8-man event kicking off! I decided to run my new Countertop-Humility deck:
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Counterbalance
4x Thopter Foundry
3x Sword of the Meek
3x Spell Pierce
4x Force of Will
3x Swords to Plowshares
2x Humility
2x Krosan Grip
4x Brainstorm
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3x Island
2x Underground Sea
2x Tropical Island
2x Plains
4x Marsh Flats
4x Tundra
4x Misty Rainforest
Sideboard:
3x Engineered Plague
3x Mindbreak Trap
2x Pithing Needle
2x Krosan Grip
3x Submerge
2x Tormod's Crypt
The first thing I want to mention is that the mana base is incredibly tight, except the Marsh Flats needs to be changed out for Scalding Tarn, or one of the U/x Onslaught fetches. All the dual lands are U/x, so the Misty Rainforest can get me any color I need.
When the Worcester group was always coming down, the meta was very expected. One person always played Tooth & Nail, there was one guy who was either mill or Zoo, etc. However, with the only person of this 8-man that I have played with before being Benzo, it was a much more realistic event. The 8 decks were:
Countertop-Humility (me)
UW Countertop-Jace (won with Jace -12)
Charbelcher
Zoo
Mono-blue Mud (lots of counterspells, won with mana denial and Lodestone Golem)
Mono-black control
Mono-blue stall (tubo-fog style mill deck)
Goblins
Round 1: Zoo
I lose the Rock-Paper-Scissors (using the unglued cards), and he starts off with a Taiga into Wild Nacatl. Ok, I should do well here, as my Thopter-Sword combo should overwhelm him. Unforunately, the combo never really come together until it was too late, at which point you can see my life total going 4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 0. I said afterwards if I had started at 25 life instead of 20 I would have come back completely. But hey, that's Magic. Game 2 went a lot better for me as I had Thopter Assembly and Enlightened Tutor in my opening hand, so I didn't even drop below 16 life all game before hitting him for 7, then 12. Game 3 started off really bad for me. My opening 7 was a really loose hand that had just 1 land, 2 brainstorms, and some decent stuff after that. I decided to mulligan, and had to go down to 4 to get lands in my hand. I had a land, 2 brainstorms, and a Thopter assembly. Sounds like that original 7.... despite my initial disadvantage, I top decked like a champ and got together the countertop combo, but the Thopter-Sword combo was eluding me. He had a turn 2 Sylvan Library, and it was good beats from there, as I was hit for 5 a turn from Wild Nacatl + Quasali Pridemage. At one point in the game, he tried to Krosan grip my Counterbalance, but I revealed an Engineered Plague off the top BOOM!
1-2
0-1
Round 2: Mono-blue Mud
I had been playtesting against this guy with a bunch of game 1s before the event started and I just couldn't win. This game started off in a similar manner when he got his Wastelands + Crucible of the Worlds combo together and running turn 2. However, his super-fast mana got the best of him. His Ancient Tombs dealt him 10 damage that game, so by the time I started bringing the beats, half my work was already done. For game 2 I brought in all my Krosan Grips and nothing else because I still didn't know what was going on with this deck. I still couldn't figure it out by the end of game 2 because I got a fast Topter-Sword combo off without dropping below 17 life. By the end of it all, I put him on having no counterspells because he didn't play any during the 6 or 7 games I had against him all day, and when I asked to peruse his deck he smiled and said no. Interesting....
I was wondering if he was running Grim Monoths. T1 Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors into Grim Monolith is 5 mana on turn 2, which could land you Lodestone Golem. I think I will come up with a cool deck utilizing that mana ramp in my spare time some day.
2-0
1-1
After this round, I started trading with my round 1 opponent, and pulled Copperline Gorge, foil Razorverge Thicket, Mind's Eye, and City of Brass out of his binder. He put the first 3 cards at 2 each and the City of Brass at 4. Now without looking it up, what do you think Mind's Eye is selling for online? Or in light of yesterday's post, what would YOU put it at?
I got a Mind's Eye off Defo last year as a crap rare throw-in for another trade last year. I moved to someone else as a crap rare throw-in over the summer. What's it selling for though?
$4.32
Really?!?! The main reason it sells so high is because of Commander, where you are supposed to have insane multi-player games. With Mind's Eye and a couple mana, you can seriously out-draw all of your opponents. I learned about its price 2 months ago, and the sole reason I asked for it was because I expected him to put it really low, like he did.
Anyways, I coughed up a Terastadon and a Krosan Grip for those 2 cards (Krosan Grip = Copperline Gorge, so I traded a 50 cent Terastadon for a $4 Mind's Eye. profit!)
Round 3: Charbelcher
I knew my opponent was playing Charbelcher, and very thankfully I won our game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, so there was a chance I could counter him mid-combo and cause the deck to fall apart. What's that I see in my opening hand? Spell Pierce! So I play and Island as pass, and very carefully moniter all of his resources to see when I can get optimal value out of this Pierce. I ultimately wait until I'm 4 spells in, and he is casting Rite of Flame while he has a Tinder Wall in play. He lets the spell get countered, then ships it back to me. I try to develop my board/find a counterspell as fast as I can, but he sticks a Charbelcher next turn, and then hits me for 56 damage. Life totals didn't even need to be written down. Game 2, I have Mindbreak in my opener, but it doesn't matter as he resolves the relevant spell first: Goblin Welder, then waits until next turn before playing a Lion's Eye Diamond, sacrificing it to discard a Belcher, then bringing the Belcher back from the grave with the Welder, and using the 3 floating mana to hit me for 100 damage.
It kinda sucks to lose to a non-interactive combo deck, but that's legacy. Decks like those can tear you apart, or can lose to themselves. Either way, if you want to get an adrenaline rush every time you sit down for a game, play Belcher, Dredge, or Tendrils Storm. Turn 1 insanity is always fun =D
0-2
1-2
I went out for food, and when I came back I learned that they had cut to top 4, and because Benzo was in the top 4 (he was playing for the store), there was a slot open that I could have taken. I had a nice Chicken Parm sub though....
Anyways, I wan't too sad about not prizing, there's always next week! As I mentioned above, the Marsh Flats have already been replaced for Scalding Tarns, but I am thinking I may also cut the Swords to Plowshares for Preordains. This deck relies on 2, potentially 3, 2-card combos between Counterbalance-Top, Thopter-Sword, and potentially Humiliate-Plague. While Enlightened Tutor can grab any of these, it's not enough by itself. Maybe cutting 3 Swords to Plowshares for 3 Preordains would be good. When you have both combos going side-by-side, the game feels unlosable!
Anyways, that's all for me today! Until next time, stay classy!
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Counterbalance
4x Thopter Foundry
3x Sword of the Meek
3x Spell Pierce
4x Force of Will
3x Swords to Plowshares
2x Humility
2x Krosan Grip
4x Brainstorm
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3x Island
2x Underground Sea
2x Tropical Island
2x Plains
4x Marsh Flats
4x Tundra
4x Misty Rainforest
Sideboard:
3x Engineered Plague
3x Mindbreak Trap
2x Pithing Needle
2x Krosan Grip
3x Submerge
2x Tormod's Crypt
The first thing I want to mention is that the mana base is incredibly tight, except the Marsh Flats needs to be changed out for Scalding Tarn, or one of the U/x Onslaught fetches. All the dual lands are U/x, so the Misty Rainforest can get me any color I need.
When the Worcester group was always coming down, the meta was very expected. One person always played Tooth & Nail, there was one guy who was either mill or Zoo, etc. However, with the only person of this 8-man that I have played with before being Benzo, it was a much more realistic event. The 8 decks were:
Countertop-Humility (me)
UW Countertop-Jace (won with Jace -12)
Charbelcher
Zoo
Mono-blue Mud (lots of counterspells, won with mana denial and Lodestone Golem)
Mono-black control
Mono-blue stall (tubo-fog style mill deck)
Goblins
Round 1: Zoo
I lose the Rock-Paper-Scissors (using the unglued cards), and he starts off with a Taiga into Wild Nacatl. Ok, I should do well here, as my Thopter-Sword combo should overwhelm him. Unforunately, the combo never really come together until it was too late, at which point you can see my life total going 4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 0. I said afterwards if I had started at 25 life instead of 20 I would have come back completely. But hey, that's Magic. Game 2 went a lot better for me as I had Thopter Assembly and Enlightened Tutor in my opening hand, so I didn't even drop below 16 life all game before hitting him for 7, then 12. Game 3 started off really bad for me. My opening 7 was a really loose hand that had just 1 land, 2 brainstorms, and some decent stuff after that. I decided to mulligan, and had to go down to 4 to get lands in my hand. I had a land, 2 brainstorms, and a Thopter assembly. Sounds like that original 7.... despite my initial disadvantage, I top decked like a champ and got together the countertop combo, but the Thopter-Sword combo was eluding me. He had a turn 2 Sylvan Library, and it was good beats from there, as I was hit for 5 a turn from Wild Nacatl + Quasali Pridemage. At one point in the game, he tried to Krosan grip my Counterbalance, but I revealed an Engineered Plague off the top BOOM!
1-2
0-1
Round 2: Mono-blue Mud
I had been playtesting against this guy with a bunch of game 1s before the event started and I just couldn't win. This game started off in a similar manner when he got his Wastelands + Crucible of the Worlds combo together and running turn 2. However, his super-fast mana got the best of him. His Ancient Tombs dealt him 10 damage that game, so by the time I started bringing the beats, half my work was already done. For game 2 I brought in all my Krosan Grips and nothing else because I still didn't know what was going on with this deck. I still couldn't figure it out by the end of game 2 because I got a fast Topter-Sword combo off without dropping below 17 life. By the end of it all, I put him on having no counterspells because he didn't play any during the 6 or 7 games I had against him all day, and when I asked to peruse his deck he smiled and said no. Interesting....
I was wondering if he was running Grim Monoths. T1 Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors into Grim Monolith is 5 mana on turn 2, which could land you Lodestone Golem. I think I will come up with a cool deck utilizing that mana ramp in my spare time some day.
2-0
1-1
After this round, I started trading with my round 1 opponent, and pulled Copperline Gorge, foil Razorverge Thicket, Mind's Eye, and City of Brass out of his binder. He put the first 3 cards at 2 each and the City of Brass at 4. Now without looking it up, what do you think Mind's Eye is selling for online? Or in light of yesterday's post, what would YOU put it at?
I got a Mind's Eye off Defo last year as a crap rare throw-in for another trade last year. I moved to someone else as a crap rare throw-in over the summer. What's it selling for though?
$4.32
Really?!?! The main reason it sells so high is because of Commander, where you are supposed to have insane multi-player games. With Mind's Eye and a couple mana, you can seriously out-draw all of your opponents. I learned about its price 2 months ago, and the sole reason I asked for it was because I expected him to put it really low, like he did.
Anyways, I coughed up a Terastadon and a Krosan Grip for those 2 cards (Krosan Grip = Copperline Gorge, so I traded a 50 cent Terastadon for a $4 Mind's Eye. profit!)
Round 3: Charbelcher
I knew my opponent was playing Charbelcher, and very thankfully I won our game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, so there was a chance I could counter him mid-combo and cause the deck to fall apart. What's that I see in my opening hand? Spell Pierce! So I play and Island as pass, and very carefully moniter all of his resources to see when I can get optimal value out of this Pierce. I ultimately wait until I'm 4 spells in, and he is casting Rite of Flame while he has a Tinder Wall in play. He lets the spell get countered, then ships it back to me. I try to develop my board/find a counterspell as fast as I can, but he sticks a Charbelcher next turn, and then hits me for 56 damage. Life totals didn't even need to be written down. Game 2, I have Mindbreak in my opener, but it doesn't matter as he resolves the relevant spell first: Goblin Welder, then waits until next turn before playing a Lion's Eye Diamond, sacrificing it to discard a Belcher, then bringing the Belcher back from the grave with the Welder, and using the 3 floating mana to hit me for 100 damage.
It kinda sucks to lose to a non-interactive combo deck, but that's legacy. Decks like those can tear you apart, or can lose to themselves. Either way, if you want to get an adrenaline rush every time you sit down for a game, play Belcher, Dredge, or Tendrils Storm. Turn 1 insanity is always fun =D
0-2
1-2
I went out for food, and when I came back I learned that they had cut to top 4, and because Benzo was in the top 4 (he was playing for the store), there was a slot open that I could have taken. I had a nice Chicken Parm sub though....
Anyways, I wan't too sad about not prizing, there's always next week! As I mentioned above, the Marsh Flats have already been replaced for Scalding Tarns, but I am thinking I may also cut the Swords to Plowshares for Preordains. This deck relies on 2, potentially 3, 2-card combos between Counterbalance-Top, Thopter-Sword, and potentially Humiliate-Plague. While Enlightened Tutor can grab any of these, it's not enough by itself. Maybe cutting 3 Swords to Plowshares for 3 Preordains would be good. When you have both combos going side-by-side, the game feels unlosable!
Anyways, that's all for me today! Until next time, stay classy!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
What do YOU value this at?
Hello Everyone!
You may realize by now I really enjoy writing about trading. Well, not only do I enjoy writing about it, but I also am a very active trader. Usually of course, I go for cards, but I remember one time I basically traded for dinner, and this past FNM, I also traded for a playmat. In fact, this playmat (24" x 14"):
What do you value this at?
Also, I have found myself trading for a lot of pimped out cards recently, ranging from chinese/japanese cards, to foil cards, to those signed by the artist. One in particular was a foil M11 Rootbound Crag signed by the artist.
What would you value that at?
Some other cards I have been trading for are the full art promos, most recently a full art Bituminous Blast for EDH Commander, but I also just filled out my set of full art Day of Judgement, and I got 2 full art Sign in Bloods, and a full art Doom Blade.
What would you value all those at?
You see, the problem with all those things I just listed are that there is no easy answer. You can't just hop onto TCGPlayer.com and check what the promos are going for.
That being said, just because that's the price TCG Player says it is doesn't mean it's actually worth that much. Consider when Beseiged was getting spoiled, Knight Exemplar was still a $2 card, but everyone I was trading with wouldn't move it at less than 5 because in the coming weeks it would go that high (it actually went up to 7, but has since fallen back to 6.
Guess what? It doesn't matter what TCG Player says the prices are, because they are merely a database of what online stores are selling various cards at, then averaging them out. Here's an example from my binder: I recently took apart my Reanimator, and I have built a Countertop-Humility control deck. I moved all the pieces of Reanimator from my deck to my binder including 4x Entomb (1 Chinese), 4x Reanimate, 3x Personal Tutor, and 4x Lim-Dul's Vault. According to TCGPlayer, their prices are:
Entomb - 31.51
Reanimate - 6.13
Personal Tutor - 20.65
Lim-Dul's Vault - 4.69
However, if you ask me what I value them in trade, I would say:
Entomb - 38
Reanimate - 8
Personal Tutor - 24
Lim-Dul's Vault - 6
Now, if the person I'm trading with is savvy, they will call me out on jacking the price up (which has already happened). Here's the thing though: If I am the only person there with Entomb and they want it without having to pay cash, they will have to pay my price. I don't WANT to move the card, but should a good enough deal come my way, I will not take "I like that deck and I might make it again" as an excuse to prevent something really good from happening. Because I price jacked a little, I am garunteed on gaining value, so I really can't complain.
Now that's great in theory, but does that actually work? There are 2 gas stations across the street from eachother about a block away from Toys. They are both self-serve gas stations, but their gas prices yesterday for regular unleaded gasoline were 3.03 and 3.17. Both are fairly easy to get into and out of, but one of them is now shut down and getting the underground gas tanks removed. Guess which one it was? The one charging 3.03 for gas. Why? They had the most awkward pumps I have ever used. They were the kind were you had to apply pressure from a really weird angle to make work, and the only employee there sat in this 5ft x 5ft office that looked more like a stereotypical telephone booth, and he was quite unhelpful. Compare this to the place across the street, which charged 14 more cents on the gallon, but had pumps you don't need to focus all your attention on to make work plus they had a full convenience store attached. People are willing to pay more for convenience and service.
So bringing this back to Magic, I know some people who say they absolutely refuse to buy singles. They buy packs (and I have seen them whiff enough time to have paid for 2 of the card they were looking for) and they trade for singles, but they won't buy singles.
Quick Aside
{
Buying packs until you get a single card is the most ineficient way to get what you're looking for. Let's take the granddaddy of them all for an example: Worldwake. Obviously if you open a Worldwake pack, you're looking for a Jace. There were 35 rares and 10 mythics in Worldwake. There are 2 rares printed for every mythic, which means there are effectively 70 rares and 10 mythics (remember, there's 1 mythic per 8 packs, which is 4.5 mythics per box). 80 packs x $3-4 a pack (depending where you go) = $240-320 in packs in the hope of opening a single Jace, the Mind Scultptor, who can be purchased as a single for as low as $90.77. AKA You bought 80 packs, but you could have bought 2.66 Jaces with that money. Yes I know there are other money cards besides Jace, but adding it all up, you barely get over (at 3 a pack) or lose 50 or so dollars (at 4 a pack), and much of that is due to the explosion in price that Stoneforge has just received, although Creeping Tar Pit is currently 7-8!
}
End Aside
It's those kind of people that are willing to go ahead and play into my higher price for my card. It's not manipulative, it's business. I really enjoy reading Jon Medina's articles on SCG because he includes a ton of stories with his articles. One of those stories included someone who put his Watery Grave at $45 despite Jon telling him how SCG sells it for 10. The guy trading with Jon decided he values his Watery Grave at 45, and that's what he is going to sell it at, and here is where we get to some really interesting basic concepts; that of supply and demand. I have always enjoyed the concept of supply and demand, because I really like thinking about human psycology and how people will interact with eachother about various things.
Quick Aside
{
One of my girlfriends of old also enjoyed seing how people would react to various situations as well. Naturally, after about 5 or 6 months of dating, we decided to mess around to how people reacted, so we broke up over facebook, which was a very common and visual medium for us to communicate. We changed relationship statuses, posted those sad emo-like statuses, changed profile pictures if we were in eachother's, etc. The reactions were very interesting ranging from the ditzy OMG NO WAY!!!!?!?!?! to the skeptical "dude, you didn't seem like anything was wrong yesterday". It was a ton of fun and we "got back together" 3 days later.
}
End Aside
If a store had Stoneforge Mystic in stock at $15, would you buy it? I'm sure most of you would say YES!! but what if that store hadn't changed its price for the past year, and has been selling the card for $15 since it was released? When Stoneforge was released, it started at 1-2, then crawled up to 5-6, then LSV went 16-0 with it in his deck and it jumped to 10-12, then slowly settled back down to 6-7 again. Now at PT Paris, several pros have likened this card to Bitterblossom and it tripled in price from 7 to 21 overnight. That store may have looked like fools selling this $1-2 crap rare for 15 back in the day, but they would have competely sold out over the PT weekend. Maybe that store owner knew all along this card was nuts, but no one would take his word for it because "it's not in any top decks"
Quick Aside
{
Just because a card isn't played in a current overwhelmingly powerful deck doesn't mean it's bad. 2 months ago a guy told me GW Quest sucked becuase it wan't a deck pros were advocating. What just Top 8'd Paris?
}
End Aside
There are so many ways we can value cards, it's crazy! I'm going to go back to the Watery Grave Example for a minute. SCG has many languages of this card in stock:
English - 10
English (foil) - 25
German - 14
Italian - 11
Japanese - 13
Russian - 11
Interesting....
So where can we go from here? Am I just ranting? No, I'm saying as the one who owns the cards, you can move the cards at whatever price you want. You're the shop owner of your own trade binder. While this is obviously terrible timing on my part, you can use this mindset during preview season for a new set. From time to time, when I saw a new card, I told myself what I would buy that card at. I don't remember most because I would see half a dozen new cards at a time, but I do remember Thrun. I said to myself, "That looks like a solid $8-10 card." You know the rest of the story. But I haven't purchased any, I have only back drafted one, which I moved at 20 (he is currently at 17).
Anyways, that's all for me today! Until next time, stay classy!
You may realize by now I really enjoy writing about trading. Well, not only do I enjoy writing about it, but I also am a very active trader. Usually of course, I go for cards, but I remember one time I basically traded for dinner, and this past FNM, I also traded for a playmat. In fact, this playmat (24" x 14"):
What do you value this at?
Also, I have found myself trading for a lot of pimped out cards recently, ranging from chinese/japanese cards, to foil cards, to those signed by the artist. One in particular was a foil M11 Rootbound Crag signed by the artist.
What would you value that at?
Some other cards I have been trading for are the full art promos, most recently a full art Bituminous Blast for
What would you value all those at?
You see, the problem with all those things I just listed are that there is no easy answer. You can't just hop onto TCGPlayer.com and check what the promos are going for.
That being said, just because that's the price TCG Player says it is doesn't mean it's actually worth that much. Consider when Beseiged was getting spoiled, Knight Exemplar was still a $2 card, but everyone I was trading with wouldn't move it at less than 5 because in the coming weeks it would go that high (it actually went up to 7, but has since fallen back to 6.
Guess what? It doesn't matter what TCG Player says the prices are, because they are merely a database of what online stores are selling various cards at, then averaging them out. Here's an example from my binder: I recently took apart my Reanimator, and I have built a Countertop-Humility control deck. I moved all the pieces of Reanimator from my deck to my binder including 4x Entomb (1 Chinese), 4x Reanimate, 3x Personal Tutor, and 4x Lim-Dul's Vault. According to TCGPlayer, their prices are:
Entomb - 31.51
Reanimate - 6.13
Personal Tutor - 20.65
Lim-Dul's Vault - 4.69
However, if you ask me what I value them in trade, I would say:
Entomb - 38
Reanimate - 8
Personal Tutor - 24
Lim-Dul's Vault - 6
Now, if the person I'm trading with is savvy, they will call me out on jacking the price up (which has already happened). Here's the thing though: If I am the only person there with Entomb and they want it without having to pay cash, they will have to pay my price. I don't WANT to move the card, but should a good enough deal come my way, I will not take "I like that deck and I might make it again" as an excuse to prevent something really good from happening. Because I price jacked a little, I am garunteed on gaining value, so I really can't complain.
Now that's great in theory, but does that actually work? There are 2 gas stations across the street from eachother about a block away from Toys. They are both self-serve gas stations, but their gas prices yesterday for regular unleaded gasoline were 3.03 and 3.17. Both are fairly easy to get into and out of, but one of them is now shut down and getting the underground gas tanks removed. Guess which one it was? The one charging 3.03 for gas. Why? They had the most awkward pumps I have ever used. They were the kind were you had to apply pressure from a really weird angle to make work, and the only employee there sat in this 5ft x 5ft office that looked more like a stereotypical telephone booth, and he was quite unhelpful. Compare this to the place across the street, which charged 14 more cents on the gallon, but had pumps you don't need to focus all your attention on to make work plus they had a full convenience store attached. People are willing to pay more for convenience and service.
So bringing this back to Magic, I know some people who say they absolutely refuse to buy singles. They buy packs (and I have seen them whiff enough time to have paid for 2 of the card they were looking for) and they trade for singles, but they won't buy singles.
Quick Aside
{
Buying packs until you get a single card is the most ineficient way to get what you're looking for. Let's take the granddaddy of them all for an example: Worldwake. Obviously if you open a Worldwake pack, you're looking for a Jace. There were 35 rares and 10 mythics in Worldwake. There are 2 rares printed for every mythic, which means there are effectively 70 rares and 10 mythics (remember, there's 1 mythic per 8 packs, which is 4.5 mythics per box). 80 packs x $3-4 a pack (depending where you go) = $240-320 in packs in the hope of opening a single Jace, the Mind Scultptor, who can be purchased as a single for as low as $90.77. AKA You bought 80 packs, but you could have bought 2.66 Jaces with that money. Yes I know there are other money cards besides Jace, but adding it all up, you barely get over (at 3 a pack) or lose 50 or so dollars (at 4 a pack), and much of that is due to the explosion in price that Stoneforge has just received, although Creeping Tar Pit is currently 7-8!
}
End Aside
It's those kind of people that are willing to go ahead and play into my higher price for my card. It's not manipulative, it's business. I really enjoy reading Jon Medina's articles on SCG because he includes a ton of stories with his articles. One of those stories included someone who put his Watery Grave at $45 despite Jon telling him how SCG sells it for 10. The guy trading with Jon decided he values his Watery Grave at 45, and that's what he is going to sell it at, and here is where we get to some really interesting basic concepts; that of supply and demand. I have always enjoyed the concept of supply and demand, because I really like thinking about human psycology and how people will interact with eachother about various things.
Quick Aside
{
One of my girlfriends of old also enjoyed seing how people would react to various situations as well. Naturally, after about 5 or 6 months of dating, we decided to mess around to how people reacted, so we broke up over facebook, which was a very common and visual medium for us to communicate. We changed relationship statuses, posted those sad emo-like statuses, changed profile pictures if we were in eachother's, etc. The reactions were very interesting ranging from the ditzy OMG NO WAY!!!!?!?!?! to the skeptical "dude, you didn't seem like anything was wrong yesterday". It was a ton of fun and we "got back together" 3 days later.
}
End Aside
If a store had Stoneforge Mystic in stock at $15, would you buy it? I'm sure most of you would say YES!! but what if that store hadn't changed its price for the past year, and has been selling the card for $15 since it was released? When Stoneforge was released, it started at 1-2, then crawled up to 5-6, then LSV went 16-0 with it in his deck and it jumped to 10-12, then slowly settled back down to 6-7 again. Now at PT Paris, several pros have likened this card to Bitterblossom and it tripled in price from 7 to 21 overnight. That store may have looked like fools selling this $1-2 crap rare for 15 back in the day, but they would have competely sold out over the PT weekend. Maybe that store owner knew all along this card was nuts, but no one would take his word for it because "it's not in any top decks"
Quick Aside
{
Just because a card isn't played in a current overwhelmingly powerful deck doesn't mean it's bad. 2 months ago a guy told me GW Quest sucked becuase it wan't a deck pros were advocating. What just Top 8'd Paris?
}
End Aside
There are so many ways we can value cards, it's crazy! I'm going to go back to the Watery Grave Example for a minute. SCG has many languages of this card in stock:
English - 10
English (foil) - 25
German - 14
Italian - 11
Japanese - 13
Russian - 11
Interesting....
So where can we go from here? Am I just ranting? No, I'm saying as the one who owns the cards, you can move the cards at whatever price you want. You're the shop owner of your own trade binder. While this is obviously terrible timing on my part, you can use this mindset during preview season for a new set. From time to time, when I saw a new card, I told myself what I would buy that card at. I don't remember most because I would see half a dozen new cards at a time, but I do remember Thrun. I said to myself, "That looks like a solid $8-10 card." You know the rest of the story. But I haven't purchased any, I have only back drafted one, which I moved at 20 (he is currently at 17).
Anyways, that's all for me today! Until next time, stay classy!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
TNT FNM *5-1 3rd* 2/18/11
AMERICA!! F!$# YEAH!!
For the FNM this week, I ran All American Heroes, a deck that I kinda mentioned a long time ago on this blog (I named the article after it, then only talked about Allies for 1 paragraph.... what was I thinking?). Anyways, here is the decklist I ran:
4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
1x Jwari Shapeshifter
4x Akoum Battlesinger
4x Kabira Evangel
3x Talus Paladin
2x Molten-Tail Masticore
3x Mimic Vat
4x Preordain
2x Spell Pierce
2x Unified Will
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Lightning Bolt
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Arid Mesa
4x Plains
2x Mountain
2x Island
4x Seachrome Coast
3x Glacial Fortress
1x Celestial Colonnade
Sideboard:
2x Spell Pierce
3x Tuktuk Scrapper
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Arc Trail
2x Mark of Mutiny
1x Jwari Shapeshifter
When I came into the event, I had 0 cards non-proxied in my sideboard, so after running around the room 5 times, I was able to assemble all the cards I needed, which is when I realized I didn't have a notepad and paper to record life and take game notes on. Thankfully, one of the guys wanted to go to the CVS down the street anyways, so we raced to it (who won was up to discretion. He got a moment's head start, but then stopped earlier than I did, but I was about to pass him if it went another 15 feet. I haven't run in 15 months, and I was wearing steel toe boots, and I still got the speed =D). After getting shafted by the price of pen and paper ($8.14 for 4 pens and a pad of paper???) I was finally all prepared to play. I paid for the event, then found the first person I could who wasn't playing anyone to warm up against. He was playing Kuldotha Red for the night, and we played 5 game 1's. I was 1-4. That really sucked... But I was against K-red, nothing close to a normal or fair deck, and I felt like I would crush post board by running 4 Bolts and 4 Arc Trails. But red deck always takes game 1...
Round 1: Brian (Kuldotha Red)
As it turned out, my round 1 opponent was the same guy who I had just been playtesting against. Great.... You know what's better than having a bad game 1 matchup? Losing the die roll to K-red.... He had a modest start, but I had some dudes to get in the way, including my 1-of Lightning Bolt to nail his T2 Signal Pest when he had Ornithopters and Memnites out besides that. I was able to play some dudes, and pretty soon his Contested Warzone was getting passed back and forth every turn, until finally I was threatening a TON of damage so he had to leave everyone back to block. I absolutely capitalized on the moment dropping more allies and using his Contested Warzone against him to close out the game at 3 life!
Sideboard:
Out:
2x Unified Will
3x Mimic Vat
Spell Pierce
2x Masticore
In:
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Arc Trail
Jwari Shapeshifter
Game 2 I had the abolute nuts against him, containing 2x Arc Trail, 2x Hada Freeblade, Kazandu Blademaster, Arid Mesa, and Glacial Fortress. Now that may be good, going T1 Fortress, T2 Mesa --> Mountain, Arc Trail, but things got better: my first top deck was another Arid Mesa! So I went T1 Mesa -> Plains, Hada Freeblade. T2 Mesa -> Mountain, Arc Trail, and the game anded very quickly after that.
2-0
1-0
Round 2: WW Quest
Keeping with the theme of playing against people you were already against, my next opponent was the guy who was sitting right next to me during round 1. I knew exactly What he had going on, and he knew what I was packing. I lost the die roll, and game 1 was stupid. He drops 2 Quest for the Holy Relic strait and immediatly pumps them up to 4. He then fails to draw dudes for 2 turns, then he gets there, double Argentum Armor, off to game 2...
Sideboard:
Out:
Spell Pierce
3x Mimic Vat
2x Unified Will
2x Masticore
In:
3x Arc Trail
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Tuktuk Scrapper
Game 2 he did not have any quests, and after holding back a bunch of 0 drops for 3 turns, he was forced to use them as blockers. Naturally, WW Quest without the Quest is just White Weenie. Which is bad. Going into game 3, not only did he not have Quest, but he didn't have a second land either, so it was a very quick round, and I found myself undefeated with half an hour on the round clock, so what do I do? TRADE!!
2-1
2-0
Round 3: Esper Control
For the third round strait, I was lost the roll, and I proceeded to do bad. I really just wasn't satisfied with my performance, ranging from forgetting to play a land on turn 2 when I had 2 in hand to forgetting to discard to Masticore. I could have blown up both of his Wall of Omens, and then swung in for 6, but instead, I missed the trigger, and just blew one up (7 lands in play, 1 in hand). Yeah, I deserved to lose game 1. I got smashed by a Grave Titan AND Persecutor when he had big papa Jace in play.
Sideboard:
Out:
Lightning Bolt
Kabira Evangel
2x Talus Paladin
In:
2x Spell Pierce
2x Mark of Mutiny
It was in this moment I realized I don't have a sideboard for anti-control. I guess I figured I could dump dudes, then Spell Pierce their Day of Judgement, then swing for lethal, but hat actually happened is I flat out lost to Gideon Jura and Espeth tag teaming. I disliked how I played overall, so I deserved to lose...
0-2
2-1
Round 4: Brendan (WW Quest)
Once again, I lose the die roll (noticing a trend here?) but this time it was in really cool fashion. Brendan is a big Warhammer player, so he has a ton of dice of every variety, so we rolled 8 dice to pick, including a 6-sided, 10-sided, 4-sided, 12-sided, 20-sided, and 30-sided die. The 30 sided die rolls around like a sphere until it hits something. I rolled something like a 35 across my dice, and he got a 28 on the 30-sided die.... After that sadness passed, I promptly lost game 1, but then brought in 12 cards off the board, because I forgot to de-sideboard after last round. I decided to bring in the full set of Tuktuk Scrappers, and it seriously paid off! He got a quest online and I had 2 Scrapper in hand, with sifficient mana to play one of them. Slow-roll it, blow the equipment up, shoot for 3, rinse and repeat. I got Tuktuk in my opener for G3 as well, with 3 lands and other good action, so I quickly closed that game down as well. I was lucky enough to hit Argentum Armor with Tuktuk Game 3, which was a nice touch.
2-1
3-1
Round 5: Jason (UW Shape Anew)
Guess what? I lose the roll again!!! It wound up not mattering though as he played 2 islands, Inkmoth Nexus, Tectonic Edge, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor all of game 1 while I was vomiting dudes into play and bashing for 9 turn 3 and 13 turn 4. I had no idea what I was against, but I hedged my bets on a Shape Anew deck because he had Inkmoth Nexus.
Board:
Out:
2x Mimic Vat
In:
2x Spell Pierce
Game 2 was a trouncing as well, where I puked guys on the table, countered the first Day of Judgement, got hit by another, recovered, and kept on going. I got hit my Inkmoth 3 times all game, and it really just didn't last too long.
2-0
4-1
Round 6: Seth (WW Quest)
I finally won the roll, and I quickly won 2 straight games as he had no quests played all match. Game 1 he beat me down to 14, but I played Talus Paladin and lifelinked back up to 20. Game 2 was very different as I was smashed down to 7, but in the end, Tuktuk Scrapper continued to prove his excelence as I destroyed 4 or 5 artifacts with him, shooting for 3-4 each time.
2-0
5-1
Yes, If you double check my matchups, I played 3 White Weenie Quest decks on rounds 2, 4, and 6. I think there were only 4 WW Quest pilots in the entire FNM! But as you should expect from me by now, I had a ton of trading going on all night. Here were some notable pickups:
Grave Titan
Bitterblossom
2x Green Sun's Zenith
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Body and Mind
Arid Mesa
3x Inkmoth Nexus (1 Chinese!!)
Foil Silence (only 5 more to go....)
Demonic Tutor
2x FNM promo Krosan Grip
3x Great Sable Stag
FNM Isochron Scepter
Also important is noting what cards you got rid of, for me that's:
Show & Tell
3x Frost Titan
The Frost Titans were especially big for me as they have been dead space that no one has wanted to trade for at all. I actually wound up getting the Bitterblossom and Great Sable Stags through that trade. Hopefully I can move those and my Thoughtseizes very soon. Maybe I should go to a PTQ just to get some good trading in, those types of events are always packed with traders.
If you're looking for a really cool aggressive deck to try out, I highly reccomend this deck. If I were to play it again, I would probably cut blue for green because having access to Harabaz Druid makes Masticore insanely good! Also, Lead the Stampede feels like it can be a 3 mana draw 3 card, which Masticore greatly appreciates. I didn't find myself ever leavign back counter mana except against control, but that was only for Day of Judgement. With the likes of Lead the Stampede, comign back from Day of Judgement shouldn't be too hard, especially with how good the allies actually are!
That's all for me, until next time, stay classy!
For the FNM this week, I ran All American Heroes, a deck that I kinda mentioned a long time ago on this blog (I named the article after it, then only talked about Allies for 1 paragraph.... what was I thinking?). Anyways, here is the decklist I ran:
4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
1x Jwari Shapeshifter
4x Akoum Battlesinger
4x Kabira Evangel
3x Talus Paladin
2x Molten-Tail Masticore
3x Mimic Vat
4x Preordain
2x Spell Pierce
2x Unified Will
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Lightning Bolt
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Arid Mesa
4x Plains
2x Mountain
2x Island
4x Seachrome Coast
3x Glacial Fortress
1x Celestial Colonnade
Sideboard:
2x Spell Pierce
3x Tuktuk Scrapper
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Arc Trail
2x Mark of Mutiny
1x Jwari Shapeshifter
When I came into the event, I had 0 cards non-proxied in my sideboard, so after running around the room 5 times, I was able to assemble all the cards I needed, which is when I realized I didn't have a notepad and paper to record life and take game notes on. Thankfully, one of the guys wanted to go to the CVS down the street anyways, so we raced to it (who won was up to discretion. He got a moment's head start, but then stopped earlier than I did, but I was about to pass him if it went another 15 feet. I haven't run in 15 months, and I was wearing steel toe boots, and I still got the speed =D). After getting shafted by the price of pen and paper ($8.14 for 4 pens and a pad of paper???) I was finally all prepared to play. I paid for the event, then found the first person I could who wasn't playing anyone to warm up against. He was playing Kuldotha Red for the night, and we played 5 game 1's. I was 1-4. That really sucked... But I was against K-red, nothing close to a normal or fair deck, and I felt like I would crush post board by running 4 Bolts and 4 Arc Trails. But red deck always takes game 1...
Round 1: Brian (Kuldotha Red)
As it turned out, my round 1 opponent was the same guy who I had just been playtesting against. Great.... You know what's better than having a bad game 1 matchup? Losing the die roll to K-red.... He had a modest start, but I had some dudes to get in the way, including my 1-of Lightning Bolt to nail his T2 Signal Pest when he had Ornithopters and Memnites out besides that. I was able to play some dudes, and pretty soon his Contested Warzone was getting passed back and forth every turn, until finally I was threatening a TON of damage so he had to leave everyone back to block. I absolutely capitalized on the moment dropping more allies and using his Contested Warzone against him to close out the game at 3 life!
Sideboard:
Out:
2x Unified Will
3x Mimic Vat
Spell Pierce
2x Masticore
In:
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Arc Trail
Jwari Shapeshifter
Game 2 I had the abolute nuts against him, containing 2x Arc Trail, 2x Hada Freeblade, Kazandu Blademaster, Arid Mesa, and Glacial Fortress. Now that may be good, going T1 Fortress, T2 Mesa --> Mountain, Arc Trail, but things got better: my first top deck was another Arid Mesa! So I went T1 Mesa -> Plains, Hada Freeblade. T2 Mesa -> Mountain, Arc Trail, and the game anded very quickly after that.
2-0
1-0
Round 2: WW Quest
Keeping with the theme of playing against people you were already against, my next opponent was the guy who was sitting right next to me during round 1. I knew exactly What he had going on, and he knew what I was packing. I lost the die roll, and game 1 was stupid. He drops 2 Quest for the Holy Relic strait and immediatly pumps them up to 4. He then fails to draw dudes for 2 turns, then he gets there, double Argentum Armor, off to game 2...
Sideboard:
Out:
Spell Pierce
3x Mimic Vat
2x Unified Will
2x Masticore
In:
3x Arc Trail
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Tuktuk Scrapper
Game 2 he did not have any quests, and after holding back a bunch of 0 drops for 3 turns, he was forced to use them as blockers. Naturally, WW Quest without the Quest is just White Weenie. Which is bad. Going into game 3, not only did he not have Quest, but he didn't have a second land either, so it was a very quick round, and I found myself undefeated with half an hour on the round clock, so what do I do? TRADE!!
2-1
2-0
Round 3: Esper Control
For the third round strait, I was lost the roll, and I proceeded to do bad. I really just wasn't satisfied with my performance, ranging from forgetting to play a land on turn 2 when I had 2 in hand to forgetting to discard to Masticore. I could have blown up both of his Wall of Omens, and then swung in for 6, but instead, I missed the trigger, and just blew one up (7 lands in play, 1 in hand). Yeah, I deserved to lose game 1. I got smashed by a Grave Titan AND Persecutor when he had big papa Jace in play.
Sideboard:
Out:
Lightning Bolt
Kabira Evangel
2x Talus Paladin
In:
2x Spell Pierce
2x Mark of Mutiny
It was in this moment I realized I don't have a sideboard for anti-control. I guess I figured I could dump dudes, then Spell Pierce their Day of Judgement, then swing for lethal, but hat actually happened is I flat out lost to Gideon Jura and Espeth tag teaming. I disliked how I played overall, so I deserved to lose...
0-2
2-1
Round 4: Brendan (WW Quest)
Once again, I lose the die roll (noticing a trend here?) but this time it was in really cool fashion. Brendan is a big Warhammer player, so he has a ton of dice of every variety, so we rolled 8 dice to pick, including a 6-sided, 10-sided, 4-sided, 12-sided, 20-sided, and 30-sided die. The 30 sided die rolls around like a sphere until it hits something. I rolled something like a 35 across my dice, and he got a 28 on the 30-sided die.... After that sadness passed, I promptly lost game 1, but then brought in 12 cards off the board, because I forgot to de-sideboard after last round. I decided to bring in the full set of Tuktuk Scrappers, and it seriously paid off! He got a quest online and I had 2 Scrapper in hand, with sifficient mana to play one of them. Slow-roll it, blow the equipment up, shoot for 3, rinse and repeat. I got Tuktuk in my opener for G3 as well, with 3 lands and other good action, so I quickly closed that game down as well. I was lucky enough to hit Argentum Armor with Tuktuk Game 3, which was a nice touch.
2-1
3-1
Round 5: Jason (UW Shape Anew)
Guess what? I lose the roll again!!! It wound up not mattering though as he played 2 islands, Inkmoth Nexus, Tectonic Edge, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor all of game 1 while I was vomiting dudes into play and bashing for 9 turn 3 and 13 turn 4. I had no idea what I was against, but I hedged my bets on a Shape Anew deck because he had Inkmoth Nexus.
Board:
Out:
2x Mimic Vat
In:
2x Spell Pierce
Game 2 was a trouncing as well, where I puked guys on the table, countered the first Day of Judgement, got hit by another, recovered, and kept on going. I got hit my Inkmoth 3 times all game, and it really just didn't last too long.
2-0
4-1
Round 6: Seth (WW Quest)
I finally won the roll, and I quickly won 2 straight games as he had no quests played all match. Game 1 he beat me down to 14, but I played Talus Paladin and lifelinked back up to 20. Game 2 was very different as I was smashed down to 7, but in the end, Tuktuk Scrapper continued to prove his excelence as I destroyed 4 or 5 artifacts with him, shooting for 3-4 each time.
2-0
5-1
Yes, If you double check my matchups, I played 3 White Weenie Quest decks on rounds 2, 4, and 6. I think there were only 4 WW Quest pilots in the entire FNM! But as you should expect from me by now, I had a ton of trading going on all night. Here were some notable pickups:
Grave Titan
Bitterblossom
2x Green Sun's Zenith
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Body and Mind
Arid Mesa
3x Inkmoth Nexus (1 Chinese!!)
Foil Silence (only 5 more to go....)
Demonic Tutor
2x FNM promo Krosan Grip
3x Great Sable Stag
FNM Isochron Scepter
Also important is noting what cards you got rid of, for me that's:
Show & Tell
3x Frost Titan
The Frost Titans were especially big for me as they have been dead space that no one has wanted to trade for at all. I actually wound up getting the Bitterblossom and Great Sable Stags through that trade. Hopefully I can move those and my Thoughtseizes very soon. Maybe I should go to a PTQ just to get some good trading in, those types of events are always packed with traders.
If you're looking for a really cool aggressive deck to try out, I highly reccomend this deck. If I were to play it again, I would probably cut blue for green because having access to Harabaz Druid makes Masticore insanely good! Also, Lead the Stampede feels like it can be a 3 mana draw 3 card, which Masticore greatly appreciates. I didn't find myself ever leavign back counter mana except against control, but that was only for Day of Judgement. With the likes of Lead the Stampede, comign back from Day of Judgement shouldn't be too hard, especially with how good the allies actually are!
That's all for me, until next time, stay classy!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Such a Humiliating Deck...
Hello Everyone! This post is going to be like that really awkward feeling you have went you want to snack on a bunch of completely unrelated things. Like being hungry for a cheesburger, chips & salsa, and chocolate fudge all at the same time, when any combination of the 2 don't go great together, all 3 is just awkward. Like breaking up with your girlfriend at her family's reunion (no I have never done that, nor has it happened to me. I also don't ever condone doing it, but I digress...). Random like.... okay, I will stop.
I recently posted up an Esper Countertop list for legacy, but after 2 games I realized Tezzeret simply wasn't cutting it. With only 13 artifacts in the deck, there's a great chance he will miss (which he often did) and his ultimate was useless because it would only kill your opponent if you had a million Thopter tokens, but when that happens you're winning anyways. That left the only thing in black Thoughseize, which isn't required by any means (although it is awesome to make sure your spell doesn't get countered by stripping Force). On the other end of the I-actually-can't play-this spectrum is that it's really hard to justify paying $270 to buy a 4 mana enchantment that stops some decks. Reanimator has Iona, which will still kill you in 3 turns. Show & Tell still has Emrakul, which kills by itself.
But fear not! I found a $9 card that solves all those problems! In fect, with a little bit of sideboard tech, this card is far better than Moat. This card is.... HUMILITY
My thopter tokens are 1/1 flying creatures without this in play. With this in play, they just lose flying. Before I discovered this card, I was planning on just chump blocking Zoo all day slowing netting at least 1 thopter to attack with each turn, and slowing swinging back. However, with this card, I can trade all day and my Thopter-Sword combo goes from 1: prevent all damage target creature would deal you this turn, you gain one life, to 1: destroy target attacking creature, you gain 1 life. Oh, all creatures lose all abilities? Nice 15 mana legendary 1/1 with no abilities... So what super awesome card combos to trash some decks? Engineered Plague!
The aggro decks of choice right now are all tribal (Goblins, Elves, Merfolk, Allies) so having either piece of the combo is awesome, but together is just a genocide! Please note, Allies isn't a complete blowout to this combo, just the new ones that come into play. All the allies that are already in play should have a bunch of +1/+1 counters on them, but Humility will prevent them from getting any bigger, and will also prevent the new guys from getting big (and with Engineered Plague just kills them as they come into play). So these are a ton of edits, and I don't have an updated list yet, but right now I'm using 2 Humility and keeping the Plagues in the board. Legacy is awesome, because I'm splashing black with 2 Underground Seas and a Scrubland, so my mana is hardly harmed.
But let's go from Legacy all the way out to the future! The other day, WotC announced that once again they are offering promos from the next set for game day affiliated decks. This is a wonderful window for us prospecters into the next set and whether or Phyrexia will make all one or if Mirrans will endure. I still think the Phyrexians will win after looking at these images. Check out the cards, and look in particular at the background of Suture Priest and the set symbols of both cards. In the background of Suture Priest, we can see Mirroden clouded over and looking like death. That is clearly a new Phyrexia, there's nothing pure and chromey about it. Now look at the set symbols. Neither of them look absolutely perfect, the Phyrexian one looks like it could be slightly bigger, but is very similar to the Zendikar symbol. On the other hand, the Mirran one looks slightly inflated and shifted to the right, similar to the Morningtide symbol. Hmmm...
Regardless of who wins, these are very worthwhile to pick up. No one is going to be excited about these promos, and you should be able to very easily trade for at least a half dozen of each. People will move these bad commons for nothing. But is it really worth nothing? When New Phyrexia is released, Pristine Talisman will be printed with a Phyrexian symbol. All of a sudden, Suture Priest is now just another bad common that might make a splash in limited, but all those Mirran symbol Pristine Talismans are a colector's item, and are much rarer. Imagine if you traded a dollar card for 5 or 6 Pristine Talismans. Now New Phyrexia is released, and al of a sudden those Talismans with Mirran set symbols are worth 1-2 each. That 1 dollar card just became 5-12 bucks in your binder!
Also, assuming New Phyrexia is the next set, imagine what effect that will have on draft! Now that we have New Phyrexia, then Beseiged, then Scars we will go from having a ton of infect to almost none as the packs go. It may be a viable strategy to NOT go infect when there are 5-6 infect playables in the pack because the infect can dry up incredibly fast as all the packs go forward. It would stink if infect was so deep pack one that you and 3 others were in infect and doing very well, then all of a sudden 1 of the 4 gets infect skrewed, then in the last pack everyone is infect skrewed. Maybe by printing more infect for pack 1, infect will become so enticing that everyone will get in eachother's way and infect will not win because the quality of the decks all go down. That would be nice for a change! That being said, if I open Skittles pack 3, I'm still taking it, if only for hate.
Moving away from the battlefield, I have made a simple, yet significant change to how I will be trading from now on. I just purchased a second binder to hold trade cards that will be reserved for premium cards. I consider premium card to be anything worth $10 or more. The ultimate goal with trading to build up a collection of valuable cards, and I guess eventually reach the holy relic of M/NM Alpha Black Lotus. But considering that's not going to happen (currently $3,102.99), lets just go with the gaining value plan. It is much harder to move small cards compared to large cards. You may have heard of trading up or trading down. While in one sense you can be trading up/down in terms of actual value (trading my 35 for your 40, like when I have been offered a Prime Time for my Vengevine 1-for-1 twice, and yes I took it both times), but I want to bring it to a new perspective: how many cards for how many cards?
This past weekend I closed the books on an awesome trade that ended like this in my brain:
My:
playset of Blackcleave Cliffs
Genesis (wow, I never thought I would move that)
3x Chrome Mox (dang, just bought those, but for those cards it's worth it)
a bunch of other stuff I can't remember... I think a Creeping Corrosion was in there somewhere
His:
FRIGGIN AWESOME JAPANESE SET OF ENLIGHTENED TUTORS!!!!!
The only premium card I traded were my 3 Chrome Moxes, and I ended up with a set of sexy Enlightened Tutors. I traded stuff I didn't care about for something I wanted really bad. I traded a bunch of 2-3s plus 3 12s and a 6 for 4 15s. See what I'm getting at? I cumulated the value of all my jank into something very worthwhile and tough to get.
So back to me getting a new binder. I moved all my cards valued at 10 or more into this binder. By having 2 binders I can control my trades a lot more by restricting what the other guy sees. What if I look into his binder and see nothing I'm interested in? He will only see cards that are worth less than 10, so I can make a trade just for the sake of creating a commradery with him without risking too much value by trading down. A single 10 in your binder is more valuable than 5 2s. We can also take this from a new perspective: What if the guy I'm trading with has something like Sword of Feast and Famine, something I'm currently in the market for. I always tell people they can pull out cards they want as they go, because it's easier to assemble trades that way. If I see him pulling out a short stack of cards, I can trade for a Sword without even having to tap into the valuable cards. Trading up as many cards as I can, making the sub-10 binder tiny and the premium binder overflow is definitely something I'm in the market for.
Of course, the premium cards aren't a holy ground I can never trade out of. In fact, I would love to move my 3 Thoughtseizes at 30 each right now. I'm not playing them in my Humiliating deck right now, so as far as I'm concerned it's liquid. If you look in my binder, you will also see my Entombs and Reanimates and all the essential parts of the Reanimator deck. Am I giving up on the deck? No. I am marking those cards up 5-7 each and putting them up for trade. It doesn't matter if the other guy argues, If I want to move Entomb at 40 instead of its normal 33, so be it, I'm the seller and you're the buyer. If no one else has Entomb for trade, your going to wind up back at my binder. I don't want to get rid of Entomb, but if I get a good enough trade, I'm not going to hold it back like some sort of holy relic.
Weird... I started and ended that last paragraph calling premium cards holy....
Anyways, that's all for me today! Until next time, stay classy!
I recently posted up an Esper Countertop list for legacy, but after 2 games I realized Tezzeret simply wasn't cutting it. With only 13 artifacts in the deck, there's a great chance he will miss (which he often did) and his ultimate was useless because it would only kill your opponent if you had a million Thopter tokens, but when that happens you're winning anyways. That left the only thing in black Thoughseize, which isn't required by any means (although it is awesome to make sure your spell doesn't get countered by stripping Force). On the other end of the I-actually-can't play-this spectrum is that it's really hard to justify paying $270 to buy a 4 mana enchantment that stops some decks. Reanimator has Iona, which will still kill you in 3 turns. Show & Tell still has Emrakul, which kills by itself.
But fear not! I found a $9 card that solves all those problems! In fect, with a little bit of sideboard tech, this card is far better than Moat. This card is.... HUMILITY
My thopter tokens are 1/1 flying creatures without this in play. With this in play, they just lose flying. Before I discovered this card, I was planning on just chump blocking Zoo all day slowing netting at least 1 thopter to attack with each turn, and slowing swinging back. However, with this card, I can trade all day and my Thopter-Sword combo goes from 1: prevent all damage target creature would deal you this turn, you gain one life, to 1: destroy target attacking creature, you gain 1 life. Oh, all creatures lose all abilities? Nice 15 mana legendary 1/1 with no abilities... So what super awesome card combos to trash some decks? Engineered Plague!
The aggro decks of choice right now are all tribal (Goblins, Elves, Merfolk, Allies) so having either piece of the combo is awesome, but together is just a genocide! Please note, Allies isn't a complete blowout to this combo, just the new ones that come into play. All the allies that are already in play should have a bunch of +1/+1 counters on them, but Humility will prevent them from getting any bigger, and will also prevent the new guys from getting big (and with Engineered Plague just kills them as they come into play). So these are a ton of edits, and I don't have an updated list yet, but right now I'm using 2 Humility and keeping the Plagues in the board. Legacy is awesome, because I'm splashing black with 2 Underground Seas and a Scrubland, so my mana is hardly harmed.
But let's go from Legacy all the way out to the future! The other day, WotC announced that once again they are offering promos from the next set for game day affiliated decks. This is a wonderful window for us prospecters into the next set and whether or Phyrexia will make all one or if Mirrans will endure. I still think the Phyrexians will win after looking at these images. Check out the cards, and look in particular at the background of Suture Priest and the set symbols of both cards. In the background of Suture Priest, we can see Mirroden clouded over and looking like death. That is clearly a new Phyrexia, there's nothing pure and chromey about it. Now look at the set symbols. Neither of them look absolutely perfect, the Phyrexian one looks like it could be slightly bigger, but is very similar to the Zendikar symbol. On the other hand, the Mirran one looks slightly inflated and shifted to the right, similar to the Morningtide symbol. Hmmm...
Regardless of who wins, these are very worthwhile to pick up. No one is going to be excited about these promos, and you should be able to very easily trade for at least a half dozen of each. People will move these bad commons for nothing. But is it really worth nothing? When New Phyrexia is released, Pristine Talisman will be printed with a Phyrexian symbol. All of a sudden, Suture Priest is now just another bad common that might make a splash in limited, but all those Mirran symbol Pristine Talismans are a colector's item, and are much rarer. Imagine if you traded a dollar card for 5 or 6 Pristine Talismans. Now New Phyrexia is released, and al of a sudden those Talismans with Mirran set symbols are worth 1-2 each. That 1 dollar card just became 5-12 bucks in your binder!
Also, assuming New Phyrexia is the next set, imagine what effect that will have on draft! Now that we have New Phyrexia, then Beseiged, then Scars we will go from having a ton of infect to almost none as the packs go. It may be a viable strategy to NOT go infect when there are 5-6 infect playables in the pack because the infect can dry up incredibly fast as all the packs go forward. It would stink if infect was so deep pack one that you and 3 others were in infect and doing very well, then all of a sudden 1 of the 4 gets infect skrewed, then in the last pack everyone is infect skrewed. Maybe by printing more infect for pack 1, infect will become so enticing that everyone will get in eachother's way and infect will not win because the quality of the decks all go down. That would be nice for a change! That being said, if I open Skittles pack 3, I'm still taking it, if only for hate.
Moving away from the battlefield, I have made a simple, yet significant change to how I will be trading from now on. I just purchased a second binder to hold trade cards that will be reserved for premium cards. I consider premium card to be anything worth $10 or more. The ultimate goal with trading to build up a collection of valuable cards, and I guess eventually reach the holy relic of M/NM Alpha Black Lotus. But considering that's not going to happen (currently $3,102.99), lets just go with the gaining value plan. It is much harder to move small cards compared to large cards. You may have heard of trading up or trading down. While in one sense you can be trading up/down in terms of actual value (trading my 35 for your 40, like when I have been offered a Prime Time for my Vengevine 1-for-1 twice, and yes I took it both times), but I want to bring it to a new perspective: how many cards for how many cards?
This past weekend I closed the books on an awesome trade that ended like this in my brain:
My:
playset of Blackcleave Cliffs
Genesis (wow, I never thought I would move that)
3x Chrome Mox (dang, just bought those, but for those cards it's worth it)
a bunch of other stuff I can't remember... I think a Creeping Corrosion was in there somewhere
His:
FRIGGIN AWESOME JAPANESE SET OF ENLIGHTENED TUTORS!!!!!
The only premium card I traded were my 3 Chrome Moxes, and I ended up with a set of sexy Enlightened Tutors. I traded stuff I didn't care about for something I wanted really bad. I traded a bunch of 2-3s plus 3 12s and a 6 for 4 15s. See what I'm getting at? I cumulated the value of all my jank into something very worthwhile and tough to get.
So back to me getting a new binder. I moved all my cards valued at 10 or more into this binder. By having 2 binders I can control my trades a lot more by restricting what the other guy sees. What if I look into his binder and see nothing I'm interested in? He will only see cards that are worth less than 10, so I can make a trade just for the sake of creating a commradery with him without risking too much value by trading down. A single 10 in your binder is more valuable than 5 2s. We can also take this from a new perspective: What if the guy I'm trading with has something like Sword of Feast and Famine, something I'm currently in the market for. I always tell people they can pull out cards they want as they go, because it's easier to assemble trades that way. If I see him pulling out a short stack of cards, I can trade for a Sword without even having to tap into the valuable cards. Trading up as many cards as I can, making the sub-10 binder tiny and the premium binder overflow is definitely something I'm in the market for.
Of course, the premium cards aren't a holy ground I can never trade out of. In fact, I would love to move my 3 Thoughtseizes at 30 each right now. I'm not playing them in my Humiliating deck right now, so as far as I'm concerned it's liquid. If you look in my binder, you will also see my Entombs and Reanimates and all the essential parts of the Reanimator deck. Am I giving up on the deck? No. I am marking those cards up 5-7 each and putting them up for trade. It doesn't matter if the other guy argues, If I want to move Entomb at 40 instead of its normal 33, so be it, I'm the seller and you're the buyer. If no one else has Entomb for trade, your going to wind up back at my binder. I don't want to get rid of Entomb, but if I get a good enough trade, I'm not going to hold it back like some sort of holy relic.
Weird... I started and ended that last paragraph calling premium cards holy....
Anyways, that's all for me today! Until next time, stay classy!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Shaping a New world: the Next Step
So, as I put over 3200 words into yesterday, I played UW Shape Anew all weekend. I don't like the current build and would much rather be playing White Sun's Zenith if I'm going for a draw-go style UW. A couple times I was stuck with only half the combo available, and other times I simply lost to Journey to Nowhere or Jace, the Mind Sculptor. On the other end of the spectrum, Blightsteel is incredibly powerful and caused people to scoop more than he actually attacked (insert P Chapin's rage here). So the natural transition of what color to pair with blue in our control deck brings us to black.
Here is what white offered us:
Master's Call
Day of Judgement
Condemn
Celestial Colonnade
Perimeter Captain
Oust
Journey to Nowhere
Here is what Black can offer us:
Inquisition of Kozelik
Duress
Doom Blade
Go for the Throat
Black Sun's Zenith
Creeping Tar Pit
Memoricide
Disfigure
So the notable elements we lose by going from white to black are having Master's Call drop in Shape Anew targets, and we lose a early drop wall. However, we gain some seriously significant cards, notably Inquisition of Kozelik, Duress, and Memoricide. This version should have a far higher percentage against control decks because of the hand/library manipulation, and because Creeping Tar Pit is fantastic at killing Planeswalkers. On the other end of the spectrum, we won't lose too much against beatdown because we have a sweet spot removal package with Blades of Doom, Throats that have been gone for, and some Disfigured faces. Also, Black Sun's Zenith is a fantastic piece of mass removal that we can caefully scale to kill all of Boros' creatures and leave us with an 0/1 Sea Gate Oracle. Here's my initial build:
4x Trinket Mage
2x Blightsteel Colossus
1x Everflowing Chalice
4x Shape Anew
2x Black Sun's Zenith
3x Go For the Throat
4x Inquisition of Kozelik
2x Duress
3x Spreading Seas
4x Jace TMS
2x Preordain
3x Mana Leak
2x Spell Pierce
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Creeping Tar Pit
4x Darkslick Shores
3x Drowned Catacombs
3x Tectonic Edge
4x Island
3x Swamp
Sideboard:
3x Grave Titan
2x Disfigure
2x Deprive
1x Elixer of Immortality
3x Memoricide
4x Doom Blade
Game 1 we want to appear like typical UB Control as much as possible. Game 1 Chalice won't get countered because it's just Everflowing Chalice... But after you combo off on them game 1, we have the option of becoming straight UB Control by cutting the Colossus for Grave Titan. I would do that in the UB mirror (makes their Memoricide miss) or against a Boros-type deck, where simply having the Board presence can save your life. I would not switch against a non-interective deck like Elves though, because they can't beat turn 4 Shape Anew anyways (T3 Trinket Mage, T4 Chalice for 0, Shape Anew). When you bring in Grave Titan, you can bing in Elixer of Immortality too so your second Trinket Mage becomes less awkward (although depending on what you're playing against you could cut down to 3).
The reason I feel the UB build is far superior is in the Inquisition/Duress package. Game 1 turn 1 you can scope out your opponent's hand, take out a mana leak or a Plated Geopede and you can also use it the turn on/before you want to go off, ensuring there's no awkward disruption in their hand so you can Infect with ease. That's also why I cut Not of This World from the Board because you can strip the card in question from their hand instead of using the Stifle.
So that's UB, what about UW? I present to you White Sun's Zenith.dec:
4x Jace, TMS
2x Gideon Jura
3x White Sun's Zenith
4x Mana Leak
2x Spell Pierce
2x Deprive
3x Everflowing Chalice
3x Day of Judgement
4x Preordain
3x Condemn
2x Journey to Nowhere
2x Jace's Ingenuity
2x Spreading Seas
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Tectonic Edge
1x Mystifying Maze
3x Plains
3x Island
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
Control decks these days are far more proactive than they used to be, compared to the days where your deck was all counterspells, draw spells, and manlands to win with. Jace, Gideon, and Spreading Seas are all sorcery speed disruption/control elements, but this deck has significantly more instant speed cards than we are used to in modern standard. 2 Jace's Ingenuity is a cool card because it ensures your mana doesn't go to waste when your opponent just plays a land and passes, and having it strip a counterspell is still getting good value! (And if you have a million mana you can cast it in response to another spell to grab a counterspell).
I have seen the dastardly things White Sun's Zenith can do (end of your turn mak 5 cats. Attack for 10, end of your turn make 6 cats), and at 6 mana you get 6/6 total, which is right what we would expect! After that it's nuts! 8/8 for 7? How about 16/16 for 11?
Until next time, stay classy!
Here is what white offered us:
Master's Call
Day of Judgement
Condemn
Celestial Colonnade
Perimeter Captain
Oust
Journey to Nowhere
Here is what Black can offer us:
Inquisition of Kozelik
Duress
Doom Blade
Go for the Throat
Black Sun's Zenith
Creeping Tar Pit
Memoricide
Disfigure
So the notable elements we lose by going from white to black are having Master's Call drop in Shape Anew targets, and we lose a early drop wall. However, we gain some seriously significant cards, notably Inquisition of Kozelik, Duress, and Memoricide. This version should have a far higher percentage against control decks because of the hand/library manipulation, and because Creeping Tar Pit is fantastic at killing Planeswalkers. On the other end of the spectrum, we won't lose too much against beatdown because we have a sweet spot removal package with Blades of Doom, Throats that have been gone for, and some Disfigured faces. Also, Black Sun's Zenith is a fantastic piece of mass removal that we can caefully scale to kill all of Boros' creatures and leave us with an 0/1 Sea Gate Oracle. Here's my initial build:
4x Trinket Mage
2x Blightsteel Colossus
1x Everflowing Chalice
4x Shape Anew
2x Black Sun's Zenith
3x Go For the Throat
4x Inquisition of Kozelik
2x Duress
3x Spreading Seas
4x Jace TMS
2x Preordain
3x Mana Leak
2x Spell Pierce
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Creeping Tar Pit
4x Darkslick Shores
3x Drowned Catacombs
3x Tectonic Edge
4x Island
3x Swamp
Sideboard:
3x Grave Titan
2x Disfigure
2x Deprive
1x Elixer of Immortality
3x Memoricide
4x Doom Blade
Game 1 we want to appear like typical UB Control as much as possible. Game 1 Chalice won't get countered because it's just Everflowing Chalice... But after you combo off on them game 1, we have the option of becoming straight UB Control by cutting the Colossus for Grave Titan. I would do that in the UB mirror (makes their Memoricide miss) or against a Boros-type deck, where simply having the Board presence can save your life. I would not switch against a non-interective deck like Elves though, because they can't beat turn 4 Shape Anew anyways (T3 Trinket Mage, T4 Chalice for 0, Shape Anew). When you bring in Grave Titan, you can bing in Elixer of Immortality too so your second Trinket Mage becomes less awkward (although depending on what you're playing against you could cut down to 3).
The reason I feel the UB build is far superior is in the Inquisition/Duress package. Game 1 turn 1 you can scope out your opponent's hand, take out a mana leak or a Plated Geopede and you can also use it the turn on/before you want to go off, ensuring there's no awkward disruption in their hand so you can Infect with ease. That's also why I cut Not of This World from the Board because you can strip the card in question from their hand instead of using the Stifle.
So that's UB, what about UW? I present to you White Sun's Zenith.dec:
4x Jace, TMS
2x Gideon Jura
3x White Sun's Zenith
4x Mana Leak
2x Spell Pierce
2x Deprive
3x Everflowing Chalice
3x Day of Judgement
4x Preordain
3x Condemn
2x Journey to Nowhere
2x Jace's Ingenuity
2x Spreading Seas
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Tectonic Edge
1x Mystifying Maze
3x Plains
3x Island
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
Control decks these days are far more proactive than they used to be, compared to the days where your deck was all counterspells, draw spells, and manlands to win with. Jace, Gideon, and Spreading Seas are all sorcery speed disruption/control elements, but this deck has significantly more instant speed cards than we are used to in modern standard. 2 Jace's Ingenuity is a cool card because it ensures your mana doesn't go to waste when your opponent just plays a land and passes, and having it strip a counterspell is still getting good value! (And if you have a million mana you can cast it in response to another spell to grab a counterspell).
I have seen the dastardly things White Sun's Zenith can do (end of your turn mak 5 cats. Attack for 10, end of your turn make 6 cats), and at 6 mana you get 6/6 total, which is right what we would expect! After that it's nuts! 8/8 for 7? How about 16/16 for 11?
Until next time, stay classy!
Shaping a New World. TNT FNM 4-2, High Stakes *9th* 3-2
Hello! I hope all you have had a fantastic weekend so far, I know I have! Here is how it has looked up to this point:
Friday
5:30pm - leave work, grab cards from home
6:00 - arrive at toys, borrow some cards, update deck
6:30 - start FNM
Saturday
12:30am - finish 6th and last round of FNM
12:45 - out to Kowloons (chinese restraunt) with the guys
2:00 - back at Toys, start 4-man draft
4:45 - finish in 1st, take a Thrun
5:00 - leave Toys, check decklists and new prices from worlds
5:30 - go to sleep
12:00pm - wake up
12:40 - arrive at Toys for High Stakes
7:00 - tournament ends (5 rounds, cut to top 8, top 4 split)
8:00 - out to Texas Roadhouse (steakhouse) with the guys
11:00 - get back home, lie down and watch TV
Sunday
12:30am - feel obligated to write tournament reports
12:35 - I finish trying this scentence
I'm going to jam all the tournament reports into one long post, so you can skip to whichever you want to read about (FNM, draft, High Stakes) by skipping to the titles.
Friday
5:30pm - leave work, grab cards from home
6:00 - arrive at toys, borrow some cards, update deck
6:30 - start FNM
Saturday
12:30am - finish 6th and last round of FNM
12:45 - out to Kowloons (chinese restraunt) with the guys
2:00 - back at Toys, start 4-man draft
4:45 - finish in 1st, take a Thrun
5:00 - leave Toys, check decklists and new prices from worlds
5:30 - go to sleep
12:00pm - wake up
12:40 - arrive at Toys for High Stakes
7:00 - tournament ends (5 rounds, cut to top 8, top 4 split)
8:00 - out to Texas Roadhouse (steakhouse) with the guys
11:00 - get back home, lie down and watch TV
Sunday
12:30am - feel obligated to write tournament reports
12:35 - I finish trying this scentence
I'm going to jam all the tournament reports into one long post, so you can skip to whichever you want to read about (FNM, draft, High Stakes) by skipping to the titles.
FNM
I was running this Shape Anew deck, except I cut 1 Day of Judgement in the board for an Oust.
Round 1: MW Quest
This was a reallyu bad way to start off the day. Against mono-white quest, I lose the roll and then mulligan to 5. Neither of us had really enticing draws, and our game actually wound up going incredibly long. I had a Shape Anew in my hand all game, but never drew a Master's Call or Inkmoth Nexus to combo off with. Eventually, Mike found a Sword of Body and Mind to break the stall, and I was milled to death. Game 2 was much better though. My game notes show neither of us losing life, a big 7 next to Mike's life total (poison) and "T5 Shape". The game was quicker then the time I took to board. Unfortunately, game 3 was even faster when he goes off on turn 3 with Quest and my life totals go: 20 - 12 - 4. I was annoyed at game 1 when nothing was drawing well, and there was nothing I could really do about a turn 3 Quest, so I just figured it was a fluke and kept on going with high hopes.
1-2
0-1
Round 2: GW Quest
This round sucked. I'm not going to give it any pomp and circumstance. I feel like I got knocked out with a baseball bat and then got robbed. I had 2 condemn in my opener along a couple mana leaks, so I was safe whether I was against beatdown or control. Apparently 2 condemn isn't enough to deal with 2 condemns though, because he had a third that went to town, and brought friends with him. Game 2 wasn't any happier and my life dropped in 6 life increments while his went up in 3s (Oust). Here is the only word I wrote in my notes: Growl
0-2
0-2
Round 3: WR Metalcraft
I actually had the pair up this round, but I was against one of the 10 year olds who are regular FNMers, so that was negligable. Game 1 we both mulliganed down to 5 cards, but I was able to pull out a turn 5 combo to infect his brain. Game 2 neither of us mulliganed, but I was actually slower this game as I had a *ghasp* turn 6 combo!
This, along with every round during the FNM flew by very fast, but I found myself chilling a ton, and trying to trade with others, but over the course of time you dry up the local market and there's not much you're looking for that you haven't gone for yet.
2-0
1-2
Round 4: UB Control
As soon as I sat down across from John he said, "Hey, I'm getting picked up in a couple minutes, so I am going to have to leave during the round. Let's just play, and then I will scoop when I leave." That was cool with me, and we were able to get a single full game in. As is normal with control on control matches, neither of our life totals changed all game, it was just that after a while one person's board had slipt through the other's permission a little too much. There was one awesome serious of plays as I was preparing to go off that looked like this:
Me: Master's Call
Him: Mana leak (draw, go)
Me: Jace, TMS
Him: Jace, TMS (destroy both)
Me: Shape Anew
Him: Jace, TMS, unsummon Blightsteel
Me: Not of this World!
Him: GG
That's right! I actually got to use Not of this World to lock down a game! A we were shuffling and drawing our opening hands, he got the call from his dad and he had to leave, so I took the round.
1-0?
2-2
Round 5: MG Eldrazi Ramp
I am actually really bad at remembering what happened in my games, which is why I can imagine no is reading this statement right now, because you just want to skim through, see the matchups and how I did, then carry on. But game 1 I have no notes for except "win". Ok? Must have been a good game. Game 2 was a grinder though. My condems had pushed him up to 34 life, while I was beat down to 12. I did have an active Jace most of the game though, and I was brainstorming every turn to put together the combo, but I was slowed down because I was floating a Blightsteel Colossus on the top with no Preordains in sight (Preordain makes Brainstorm awesome, like fetch lands do). Eventually I did combo off, with 10 lands in play, and I took the game from there. R&D almost had me there, I was almost affected by the raise in CMC from 11 to 12. Phew! Thankfully that never happened!
2-0
3-2
Round 6: ?????
Round 6 pairings went up, and the only thing that I can say is that the guy must have left and not officially dropped from the event because he was no where to be found.... That's cool?
4-2
After the tournament 8 of us decided to hang out and go to Kowloons, a Chinese food place on Route 1. To say that shenanagry went down would be a bit of an understatement. To start off, there's 8 Magic players chilling together, so drafting jokes start getting thrown around (I may need to ask the waiter for help if i am stuck between 2 cards in a pack). Then they decide to place us on a large circular table. Exactly like the ones the pros will draft on. What's that in the middle? There was a mini-table in the middle that rotated so you could pass something across the table without causing any weird problems. So now we have this wicked cool way to pass packs and identify you are done with your pick so packs never get backed up? That's even better! Unfortunately we never actually wound up drafting. I'm pretty sure the lady who came up to me drunk as a skunk and tried to high-5 me, but completely missed and just started laughing would make a scene about it by just being there. I don't even think we had any packs on us...
Anyways, we all got small dishes because it was really just a midnight snack type hang out session. I opted for boneless ribs because I'm actually not a fan of chinese food (Lo Main, Crab Rangoon, etc) and that is as american as I could get. Over the course of conversation, a couple guys started talking smack to eachother about having a "hots-off". Basically who can eat hotter and spicier food without wimping out. Cue screams of pain and laughter from the other side of the bar. Turns out we weren't the only ones who wanted to go or the hots-off. Another group of people went for it to, going for the most extreme thing the restraunt had. I think it was cumin or curry extract, but Death in a Bottle is far more appropriate. 3 of us 8 were the brave souls/talking smack to eachother and had just a drop of Death on a piece of food. Well, 2 got a drop and BOD got a dollop. "It can't be that bad" said BOD. Those would have been fantastic last words to print on his tombstone. As they quickly discovered, there were no daisys in that dollop, just searing burning pain that would make hell seem like a nice wintery resort that you could have ice artisticly frozen across your windows when you wake up.
In almost no time, all 3 were visibly sweating increbly hard and demanding their water be constantly refilled because they couldn't stop drinking it. Water isn't working, Mythbusters said milk works, so now glasses of milk are getting brought out (th speed that they came out makes me think the waiter had this whole torture planned out). After a dramatic 10-15 minutes of water/milk chugging by 3 and laughing until you get cramps from the other 5, we tried to calm down and pretend like that never happened. Yeah. Right. Every 30 seconds comments on how painful that was were passed around. Soon 1 guy went off to the bathroom! Yeah! We got a puker!
"Guys, I'm lactose intolerant, but that hot sauce was worse"
As it turns out, the real champion came from that first group of guys, one of them decided that 1 drop was for the lightweights and put a whole 'nother drop on. I didn't know if he was drunk or if his tounge had swolen to the point of complete incomprehensibility (probably both), but he was saying something and I just smiled and nodded. He showed off his half-gallon bottle of milk, and we just had to applaud him.
Draft
So was that enough? Nah! All the best players at the store headed out, which left me and 3 others, who all wanted to draft. Sure, why not? Buy packs, open Beseiged, hi Thrun! Windmill slam 1st pick! I wound up drafting a RG Dinosaurs deck that splashed black for a Skinrender, Morbid Plunder, and Moriok Replica. My removal was low, with really just a Turn to Slag, but I had a very nice bomb in the form of Kuldotha Pheonix. Good in Limited, Bad in Contructed: that card won me many games all by itself thanks to the card advantage from its graveyard recursion! Card advantage wound up being my deck's theme. Between a Lead the Stampede, Morbid Plunder, and Moriok Replica I had a good amount of card draw. I may or may not have used all 3 in a row one game to crush my opponent with cards that all bashed for 4-6. Lead the Stampede got me 3 creatures including the Replica. I played replica, equipped with Sylvok Lifestaff, then popped the Replica to game 1 life and draw 2 cards. I cast Morbid Plunder and did it all over again!
To say the least I went 2-0 and took Thrun as my prize. There weren't any other notable picks (as is typical for draft after the first 2-3 players) but one guy just didnt feel like backdrafting, so I got a few extra rares and 2 foils to toss in the binder. I finally got home at 5am and was asleep 30 minutes later.
Jace or Case High Stakes
I woke up at noon, which is when the registration for the High Stakes was, but I had my deck already together, everything semi-packed, and I had a copy of the decklist form that Evan gave me after the draft. While I was showering I decided to make some changes to deck, notably cutting the Not of This World from the main and replacing them with Beleran, and using that slot in the board for Revoke Existance. I filled out the list and headed over to toys expecting to have no room to breathe because last month's High Stakes pulled in 70 people! However, potentially due to Magic Weekend in Paris, there were only 27 when the event started.
Round 1: Boros
This round started awesome! I was fully expecting a very uptight environment where everyone was dead-set on getting Jaces, but my opponent had 3 Unglued cards in front of him: Rock Lobster, Paper Tigers, and Scissors Lizard. Using those 3 card we played some rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go first. It was so cool, I just ordered the Rock-Paper-Scissors cards from Channel Fireball (0.10 each). Things weren't looking too good for the home team game 1 started with Adventuring Gear, Plated Geopede, Equip, Arid Mesa, hit for 9. Then I Shape Anewed on turn 5 only to have it sent on a Journey to Nowhere. As is expected I just lost from there. I came back game 2 though when his draw was slowed down by Terramorphic Expanses I got a turn 4 Shape Anew popping and infecting. Game 3 I got a turn 1 Perimeter Captiain out, which wound up saving me because I got a turn 5 Shape Anew and he told me he had Act of Treason in his hand. That would have sucked....
2-1
1-0
Round 2: GB Elves
This round I was against Zach, who I was honestly suprised to see in the winner's bracket. Regardless, I knew this was a very atypical deck when he went turn 1 Llanowar, turn 2 Quest for the Gemblades. I think he actually had 2 on board, but our creatures never did combat with eachother, so they were completely irrelivent. He knew I had Shape Anew coming, so he started amassing an army to block and then swing back with, but Blightsteel Colossus is indestructable, which works oh so nicely with the follow-up Day of Judgement. You and what army? Game 2 started with him dropping a turn 2 ratchet bomb, and just holding at 0 so he could blow up some tokens. But my deck decided to love me and offered up Inkmoth Nexus. There's abolutely nothing Elves can do against Blighty except race it, but 16 life and 0 are quite far apart.
For the rest of the day, Zach followed me around explaining how he would have won game 1 against me if I didn't counter his Ezuri becuase he would have regenerated his entire team with Elvish Archdruid, and then swung back for lethal thanks to his 2 Quest for the Gemblades, and how his quests were so tech. DUDE! You lost! Get over it! I lose all the time (0-7 in legacy over the course of FNM and high stakes, I just don't want to talk about it) and don't complain about a spell getting countered. That's why I run them!
2-0
2-0
Round 3: UW Zenith
I was against Brendan, and was incredibly dissapointed with performance all game. I was countering the wrong spells and leaving myself far too open. Basically I did everything he would dream about while in Magical Christmasland... In other related news, White Sun Zenith is nuts!
0-2
2-1
Round 4: MB Vampires
This entire match felt like a Bye. Game 1 he got stuck on 3 lands in the form of 2 Tec Edge and a swamp. Everything in Vampires besides the 1 drops cost BB or BBB so he needed some savage rips. Insert 2 Spreading Seas and Tec Edge his Tec Edge and we're off to game 2. Interestingly for game 1, I never pulled the combo and wound up bashing him down to 2 life before I jace -12ed him. I kinda feel like I should have dug hard for the Shape Anew so I could go for the Mill-Damage-Poison trifeca, but he seemed pretty tilted so killing him 2 ways was already pissing him off. Game 2 was a little more interactive until I got stuck on 3 lands with 2 Myr in play and Shape Anew in hand. I wound up getting beat to 10 before drawing the Shape Anew and combo-ing off. I didn't want to ever chump with the other Myr token because I was afraid of Gatekeeper of Malikir.
2-0
3-1
Round 5: UW Control
UW Control Mirror Matches are REALLY LONG!!!! I lost game 1 because I was drawing 2 cards every turn thanks to Jaces and Preordains and I milled myself to death. I got both Blightsteel Journeyed, and then I got hit with a wave of Jaces and Tex Edges from him so I was left with no win conditions lift in the deck. Awkward.... Game 2 wasn't much better, but it came down to him with active Luminarch Ascension and 4 cats and me with Blightsteel. He just pays 6 mana to block Blightsteel and get left with a 1/1. That stinks...
0-2
3-2
It was a great night overall, but I honestly can say the best part wasn't the games, it was the epic trading scene that was going on. While I said earlier in this overly long post that after a while you get bored of trading with the same people because the pool of cards you want dries up, big events don't have that problem. While 27 people doesn't make a big event, 5 coming in from WPI is enough of a foreign invasion for my trading senses to start tingling. Trades were going off incredibly well all day! Here are some cards of note I acquired:
Foil Chinese Serra Ascendant
2 Full Art foil Day of Judgement
1 Buy-a-box promo Day of Judgement
Demonic Tutor (he valued at 6, really at 10)
Foil Massacre Wurm
German Red Elemental Blast (I just checked and it's a 0.30 common, I traded for it at 3...)
Prismatic Omen
Chinese Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
2 Phyrexian Revoker (1 foil)
2 Misty Rainforest
Watery Grave
3 Arid Mesa
1 Foil Signed-by-artist Rootbound Crag
Grave Titan
Abyssal Persecutor
but that's not what I was getting excited about all day. I had to trade with a guy 4 times due to the problems of trying to trade when the next round is starting to get this. Each time through he just picked up more cards he wanted, which ultimately built itself up to....
Playset of Japanese 6th Edition Enlightened Tutor!!!!
He valued it at $60, and I probably had $67 actually go into it, but it is worth it! Nevermind that I needed a set of Enlightened Tutor anyways (normally 11 each), but my inner card pimp had an orgasm when it saw them! As the guy who traded them to me blatently put it, "Oh you want to trade for those? Yeah, they're sexy."
So despite my not winning any prize from events all weekend, I am overly satisfied with what I did trading-wise. Trading up to Vengevine, then 1-for-1 for a Prime Time. Then move that for all sorts of value. How about picking up Stoneforge at 7, then moving it at 13 less than a minute later?
My:
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (56)
Foil Valakut (4)
His:
2x Misty Rainforest (24)
Grave Titan (22)
Abyssal Persecutor (14)
Speaking of that Tezzeret, I bought it from the store at $30 from the store during FNM. I knew it was 50, but the price that's posted is what you pay.
Anyways, that's all for now, until next time, stay classy!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
"My red deck is so fast I cut Koth!" "Oh yeah?! My red deck is so fast I cut Goblin Guide! OH SNAP!!"
YEAH! WHAT'S UP?!?! I cut GOBLIN GUIDE from my red deck! You know I'm good!
Maybe you haven't had this pleasure:
Sitting down in the last round of an FNM where you're X-1 and a win here gets you a prize. You're pumped because you have a home made brew in your hands that all of your friends made fun of you for building. "Oh yeah guys? I'll just go win FNM with it!" you told them. But hey, you didn't win, but 4-1 isn't bad, and maybe the deck needs tuning. You can recall that one awkward moment against UB control where you realized you didn't play around Spell Pierce, but besides that you think you played fine all day. Roll the dice: 5, he gets a 9. Ok, not great, but I won all my die rolls today so losing once isn't the end of the world. Hand is slightly slow, but i'm on the draw, so maybe I can get a little more early action... HOLY CRAP I JUST GOT HIT FOR 5 ON TURN 1!! Draw for turn, Comes into play tapped land, pass. Take a punch of 10 damage to the face, draw for turn, enter scoop phase. Looks like I don't price.
If this has happened to you, you know it's an experience you never want to have again. Mark just wrote a piece on the Kuldotha Red deck over on Deckmaster Central. He has Goblin Guide in his list, but does note that the worst openings with the deck are those that include the Guide. Now let me put this out there: I don't want to play this deck. This is a deck I will probably have on hand in some form simply to grind games against. However, this is a powerful deck and no matter how narrow a deck may seem (puke your entire hand on the table, hope it gets there), there is still plenty of room for innovation.
One thing of note is how this deck curves out at 1, maybe 2 for Goblin Wardriver. However, many decks play 4 Mox Opals and has access to 2 mana on turn 1, so having 3 drops isn't out of question. Note in Mark's sideboard there are 3 Tuk Tuk, the Explorers and 2 Goblin Chieftans. Theres a guy at my store who made his own rendition that runs Raid Bombardment. What do these cards add? A TON!
If Tuk Tuk had a facebook, he could post the same status after every FNM: "The Day of Judgement came, but I returned to pwn face!"
Goblin Chieftan is very dependant on your list, and in Mark's case (running Guide) it is a good choice because there are a ton of Goblins to pump.
Quick Aside
{
You know why Battle Cry is so good? Every creature you have with Battle Cry is a lord. When you're attacking having the extra toughness is less important than the extra power. That's why Contested Warzone is so good. Would you play a land that didn't produce mana, but has Glorious Anthem attached? Would you play Maze of Ith? ($26)
}
End Aside
How many Battle Cry-Esque effects can we get?
Goblin Chieftan
Signal Pest
Goblin Wardriver
Raid Bombardment
Goblin Bushwacker
How can we make the most of our Battle Cry-Esque effect? We need tons of creatures!
Kuldotha Rebirth: 3 creatures
Devastating Summons: 2 creatures
Guess what? You don't need to Devastating Summons for more than 1 land to get value!
So because of all this, our clear strategy is to overwhelm the board full of tiny tokens that hit for 3-4 each when they actually attack.
So that's why Goblin Guide can considered the slowest card in the deck! We don't want to win on turn 1, we want to win on turns 2-3!
Now we're talking about a nutty deck to try and deal with. How can you possibly deal with such an expansive army on turn 1 or 2? Slagstorm is far better than Pyroclasm in terms of what it does for its mana, because for an additional R, we can hit the landfall creatures (Steppe Lynx, Plated Geopede) to blow up Jace. However, it may just be a turn too slow for Kuldotha Red.
Remember when I said we could have a couple of 3's to mix it up? What if we also were too cool to stick it just to red? Read this nice and slow:
Beastmaster Ascension
Dark Tutalege
^^Read that again^^
As if having your creatures bash for 3-4 a piece isn't enough, what if we just tack on another +5/+5? One quick note: If you want Beastmaster Ascension, cut Raid Bombardment. They don't play nice with eachother. But hey, Beastmaster Ascension is a beating! It had its moment of glory in the Zvi deck back in block contructed, but this is the perfect kind of deck that can bring it back. This is a swarm deck, so was Zvi's.
Maybe you don't want to go for the raw power approach. After all, if you don't get your Ascension off, you can still auto-lose to Pyroclasm/Slagstorm. Maybe you want to play Phyrexian Arena, but usually better. Then go for Dark Tutalege. Drawing 2 cards a turn WHILE being the hardcore beatdown deck that makes your opponent gasping for even a single extra life point is brutal.
The splash is easy: we currently have 2 dual lands that can conditionally come into play untapped: Blackcleave Cliffs/Copperline Gorge and Dragonskull Summit/Rootbound Crag. Just play 4 of each, mountains, and a couple Contested Warzone, and we have an instant mana base.
I feel like this is the best version of red deck right now because it doesn't give control decks a moment to make a mistake. Of those 2 splash cards, I would opt for Dark Tutalege simply because the deck already provides good beats, and Dark Tutalege is a far better card to draw after they Day of Judgement. Here is my list:
4x Memnite
4x Ornithopter
4x Goblin Bushwacker
4x Signal Pest
2x Goblin Wardriver
4x Kuldotha Rebirth
3x Devastating Summons
2x Dark Tutalege
3x Raid Bombardment
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Chimeric Mass
2x Jinxed Idol
1x Flayer Husk
4x Mox Opal
3x Dragonskull Summit
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Contested Warzone
8x Mountain
If you are like me, you probably didn't read that list. So let me pull out a couple cards I think I will get crap for from those who do read this: Jinxed Idol and Flayer Husk. This is the swarmiest of swarm decks, so we should always win the Jinxed Idol war, and I can tell you first hand that Jinxed Idol basically halves your life total. Flayer Husk is another atypical card, but a 1/1 for 1 is right on curve, and he acts as another anti-sweeper card by effectively staying alive post wrath.
In the sideboard, I would suggest running Flame Slash. Perimeter Captain is VERY good at stopping this deck. I know because I was able to turn off 3 attackers with a single one in practicing against it with my UW Shape Anew deck. Also, losing the option of hitting the opponent is much less important than losing the option of making profitable attacks. Forked Bolt is also the tech of choice for the Mirror by being able to kill 2 creatures for R.
So, how do we beat this deck? If you don't have a plan, you will get chewed up and spat out in the first 10 minutes. My weapon of choice as a UW control player would be Perimeter Captain, Spell Pierce, and Oust. Yes, Oust is a card I didn't mention before, but it is fantastic if I'm killing with poison, and is even good against RUG (just hit Cobra, and they lose their explosive opening).
He who is not prepared shall be crushed!
Until next time, stay classy!
Maybe you haven't had this pleasure:
Sitting down in the last round of an FNM where you're X-1 and a win here gets you a prize. You're pumped because you have a home made brew in your hands that all of your friends made fun of you for building. "Oh yeah guys? I'll just go win FNM with it!" you told them. But hey, you didn't win, but 4-1 isn't bad, and maybe the deck needs tuning. You can recall that one awkward moment against UB control where you realized you didn't play around Spell Pierce, but besides that you think you played fine all day. Roll the dice: 5, he gets a 9. Ok, not great, but I won all my die rolls today so losing once isn't the end of the world. Hand is slightly slow, but i'm on the draw, so maybe I can get a little more early action... HOLY CRAP I JUST GOT HIT FOR 5 ON TURN 1!! Draw for turn, Comes into play tapped land, pass. Take a punch of 10 damage to the face, draw for turn, enter scoop phase. Looks like I don't price.
If this has happened to you, you know it's an experience you never want to have again. Mark just wrote a piece on the Kuldotha Red deck over on Deckmaster Central. He has Goblin Guide in his list, but does note that the worst openings with the deck are those that include the Guide. Now let me put this out there: I don't want to play this deck. This is a deck I will probably have on hand in some form simply to grind games against. However, this is a powerful deck and no matter how narrow a deck may seem (puke your entire hand on the table, hope it gets there), there is still plenty of room for innovation.
One thing of note is how this deck curves out at 1, maybe 2 for Goblin Wardriver. However, many decks play 4 Mox Opals and has access to 2 mana on turn 1, so having 3 drops isn't out of question. Note in Mark's sideboard there are 3 Tuk Tuk, the Explorers and 2 Goblin Chieftans. Theres a guy at my store who made his own rendition that runs Raid Bombardment. What do these cards add? A TON!
If Tuk Tuk had a facebook, he could post the same status after every FNM: "The Day of Judgement came, but I returned to pwn face!"
Goblin Chieftan is very dependant on your list, and in Mark's case (running Guide) it is a good choice because there are a ton of Goblins to pump.
Quick Aside
{
You know why Battle Cry is so good? Every creature you have with Battle Cry is a lord. When you're attacking having the extra toughness is less important than the extra power. That's why Contested Warzone is so good. Would you play a land that didn't produce mana, but has Glorious Anthem attached? Would you play Maze of Ith? ($26)
}
End Aside
How many Battle Cry-Esque effects can we get?
Goblin Chieftan
Signal Pest
Goblin Wardriver
Raid Bombardment
Goblin Bushwacker
How can we make the most of our Battle Cry-Esque effect? We need tons of creatures!
Kuldotha Rebirth: 3 creatures
Devastating Summons: 2 creatures
Guess what? You don't need to Devastating Summons for more than 1 land to get value!
So because of all this, our clear strategy is to overwhelm the board full of tiny tokens that hit for 3-4 each when they actually attack.
So that's why Goblin Guide can considered the slowest card in the deck! We don't want to win on turn 1, we want to win on turns 2-3!
Now we're talking about a nutty deck to try and deal with. How can you possibly deal with such an expansive army on turn 1 or 2? Slagstorm is far better than Pyroclasm in terms of what it does for its mana, because for an additional R, we can hit the landfall creatures (Steppe Lynx, Plated Geopede) to blow up Jace. However, it may just be a turn too slow for Kuldotha Red.
Remember when I said we could have a couple of 3's to mix it up? What if we also were too cool to stick it just to red? Read this nice and slow:
Beastmaster Ascension
Dark Tutalege
^^Read that again^^
As if having your creatures bash for 3-4 a piece isn't enough, what if we just tack on another +5/+5? One quick note: If you want Beastmaster Ascension, cut Raid Bombardment. They don't play nice with eachother. But hey, Beastmaster Ascension is a beating! It had its moment of glory in the Zvi deck back in block contructed, but this is the perfect kind of deck that can bring it back. This is a swarm deck, so was Zvi's.
Maybe you don't want to go for the raw power approach. After all, if you don't get your Ascension off, you can still auto-lose to Pyroclasm/Slagstorm. Maybe you want to play Phyrexian Arena, but usually better. Then go for Dark Tutalege. Drawing 2 cards a turn WHILE being the hardcore beatdown deck that makes your opponent gasping for even a single extra life point is brutal.
The splash is easy: we currently have 2 dual lands that can conditionally come into play untapped: Blackcleave Cliffs/Copperline Gorge and Dragonskull Summit/Rootbound Crag. Just play 4 of each, mountains, and a couple Contested Warzone, and we have an instant mana base.
I feel like this is the best version of red deck right now because it doesn't give control decks a moment to make a mistake. Of those 2 splash cards, I would opt for Dark Tutalege simply because the deck already provides good beats, and Dark Tutalege is a far better card to draw after they Day of Judgement. Here is my list:
4x Memnite
4x Ornithopter
4x Goblin Bushwacker
4x Signal Pest
2x Goblin Wardriver
4x Kuldotha Rebirth
3x Devastating Summons
2x Dark Tutalege
3x Raid Bombardment
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Chimeric Mass
2x Jinxed Idol
1x Flayer Husk
4x Mox Opal
3x Dragonskull Summit
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Contested Warzone
8x Mountain
If you are like me, you probably didn't read that list. So let me pull out a couple cards I think I will get crap for from those who do read this: Jinxed Idol and Flayer Husk. This is the swarmiest of swarm decks, so we should always win the Jinxed Idol war, and I can tell you first hand that Jinxed Idol basically halves your life total. Flayer Husk is another atypical card, but a 1/1 for 1 is right on curve, and he acts as another anti-sweeper card by effectively staying alive post wrath.
In the sideboard, I would suggest running Flame Slash. Perimeter Captain is VERY good at stopping this deck. I know because I was able to turn off 3 attackers with a single one in practicing against it with my UW Shape Anew deck. Also, losing the option of hitting the opponent is much less important than losing the option of making profitable attacks. Forked Bolt is also the tech of choice for the Mirror by being able to kill 2 creatures for R.
So, how do we beat this deck? If you don't have a plan, you will get chewed up and spat out in the first 10 minutes. My weapon of choice as a UW control player would be Perimeter Captain, Spell Pierce, and Oust. Yes, Oust is a card I didn't mention before, but it is fantastic if I'm killing with poison, and is even good against RUG (just hit Cobra, and they lose their explosive opening).
He who is not prepared shall be crushed!
Until next time, stay classy!
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