Hello everyone!
At the beginning of the year I posted a short piece on Magic streaming. It wasn't very much, but I wrote right as I was discovering the world of streaming, and how awesome and fun it can be. Since then I have come across a lot more streamers, and the whole thing has gotten far more popular. I used to have an issue where I wanted to watch high quality magic play out, but there's actually nothing great out there. YouTube doesn't really have any fantastic players posting up videos (and usually that leads me thinking angrily at the screen for poor deck/play choices), and watching SCG open archives, GP archives, or PT archives isn't really helpful either because you can't see the player's hands and therefor it's a lot harder to really know their line of thinking. Videos posted on websites like ChannelFireball and SCG are awesome, but they don't show up nearly as much as I would like.
[Streaming enters from stage right]
Streaming is perfect for everyone! For the people who run the streams, it requires a lot less work for them because they don't need to compile any files, ship any files online to either their website or YouTube, and they aren't under as much pressure to have a perfect series of games to be archived for eternity. Also when you're streaming you can relax a little more, put on awesome music, talk to the viewers on the chat, and have a little more fun in the process. Also, some streamers have a donate button set up so they can make a little money in the process.
For the viewers it's also awesome because now that there are so many streamers out there you have the luxury of selecting who and what you want to see whenever you sign on. Sure, when I'm up at 3am there's not a lot of choices, but there's other things to be worrying about at that point. When you're watching someone stream, the chat is there so you can joke around with players, argue different lines of play, discuss draft picks/card choices in a deck, or ask the player questions. If you don't have a Twitch.tv account, I highly recommend you make one, because every once in a while getting to chat is a very cool experience, especially when they have a great discussion with you!
Streaming is getting more and more popular with lots of top level players making streams. Just before Christmas we all received a free gift when Jon Finkel announced his new channel. This afternoon there will be a major event completely revolving around streaming that will be awesome! The MTGO Streamer's Championship is taking place today, and it's going to be awesome! 8 high quality players streaming an insane amount of magic is very exciting, and I look forward to watching 2 or 3 angles. My favorite players for the event are Tom Martell, Sam Black, and Cedric Phillips in that order.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to get an announcement up sooner, but I just got my wisdom teeth out 2 days ago, so I haven't been able to do much for the past few days. I'm looking forward to a day of relaxation and streaming, and hopefully I'm alive and well again to actually play some magic of my own IRL! My friend is lending me this sweet GW aggro deck for standard:
2x Arbor Elf
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
2x Ulvenwald Tracker
3x Strangelroot Geist
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Silverblade Paladin
4x Sublime Archangel
2x Wolfir Silverheart
4x Rancor
2x Faith's Shield
3x Selesnya Charm
7x Forest
2x Gavony Township
6x Plains
4x Sunpetal Grove
4x Temple Garden
Sideboard:
3x Centaur Healer
2x Intrepid Hero
1x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1x Nevermore
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Rest in Peace
1x Triumph of Ferocity
2x Rootborn Defenses
1x Garruk Relentless
I haven't played a single game of live standard since rotation because of school, so I'm hoping to get 2 or 3 FNMs in this break and get back into it! This deck has been doing very well on Cockatrice, and the Silverblade-Sublime interaction is absolutely brutal! This deck is fairly cheap, with just Sublime Archangel holding a big price tag, so I think it's actually a very good choice right now if you like punching people's teeth in, and winning out of nowhere!
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Friday, December 28, 2012
All the Gatecrash Mechanics!
Hello Everyone!
The other day I posted about the first released mechanic from Gatecrash, Evolve, and since then we have also had this card spoiled with that mechanic on Monday:
However we both know this card is pretty terrible. It does do a good job showcasing the cool things we can expect to do with Evolve, and with this card in particular it does draw you a card for any reason so Scavenge or Increasing Savagery is pretty ballin value (and yes, Increasing Savagery will draw you 5 cards). When it comes down to it though, a 4 mana 1/1 with no self-protection isn't very playable. If you do want to force the deck, play black for Undying Evil. When the Fathom Mage undies it will draw a card because of the +1/+1 counter it returns with so it's protection and more value.
Fathom Mage was spoiled on Monday, and on Tuesday, WotC released this guy to the world:
Bloodrush doesn't seem to be the most exciting Mechanic at first, but I think it's actually awesome! Pump spells and combat tricks have always just a little short of being playable because while they play as removal, an actual removal spell is just better. However, when Selesnya Charm came out, all of a sudden we had a pump spell that had the flexibility to be anything you want it to be depending on the situation. Low and behold, I use it as a pump spell 70% of the time (removal 25%, dude 5%), and it's always awesome!
So coming back to Bloodrush, we have an ability that holds an incredible amount of value for no cost! Like Scavenge, it is simply an upside ability, so we have to evaluate any card with Bloodrush as if it didn't, and if it's a good rate, then Bloodrush is just the icing on the cake. It's a little hard to discern which way the machanic will go, but I think the cost will be variable from card to card and the pump will be based off the discarded creature's P/T. Here's two simple cards I would be interested in seeing printed:
~Name 1
RG
Bloodrush - 1RG
2/2
~Name 2
{R/G}
Bloodrush - 0
1/1
No, I don't think either are constructed playable, but they are both very limited playable. A turn 1 or 2 play in the early game to build a presence, but in the later game when they really no longer matter, they become a pump spell to trick the opponent and add more tension to game play. I really like this mechanic and hope we get a couple cards that become playable in constructed, but it will add a sweet new dimension to standard. If the bear has a Bloodrush of 1 mana I would legitimately consider it for constructed.
On Wednesday, We were graced with the Legion's Battalion:
This card has caused the most conversation in the online facebook group I'm in, and for good reason! Lightning Helix has basically never stopped seeing play since it was first released, and getting a free one for free every turn is insane (2 a turn if you go real deep with Aurelia, the Warleader). At first I didn't like this ability because it required investing too much to the board to make it active, and another guy made the comparison to Odric, Master Tactition and how he is completely unplayable. But then I started thinking about a Naya aggro deck and if you play this card turn 3 off an Arbor Elf. As the control player looking across the board from 3 lands, Avenger, Elf, and a couple cards in hand, do you Wrath? If you do, you didn't really gain much value off that Wrath, and they have a good size hand to put up a second round of threats, but if you don't then they can play something like Strangelroot Geist and swing for 9+.
This is a very high-risk, high-reward mechanic. The key is finding ways to reduce the risk such as Strangelroot Geist - he is haste so you can play him as the third creature to get at least one Battalion activation in, also when your opponent does wrath he can undie and continue the fight. Another card that I feel will see play along with Battalion is Lingering Souls. It creates the 2 other creatures at the price of only 1/2 a card, so if you have 2 sounds and a Firemane Avenger a wrath is trading 1 for 1.5, neutering the value on the wrath. This card and the mechanic as a whole definitely holds a lot of potential! One thing that is absolutely relevant with Firemane Avenger is acknowledging the existence of Restoration Angel. Even if that's enough to hold back Firemane for this current standard season, if things change going into next year's standard format, I can see this guy completely dominating creature matchups!
Outside of Firemane specifically I really like this mechanic and can see WRB tokens becoming a legitimate deck off the back of Battalion, especially if we get a decent cheap Battalion guy (guys gain +1/+0?) along with Midnight Haunting, Sorin, etc. This is mechanic we will be seeing a lot of going forward!
Thursday released what is probably my favorite mechanic in the entire set: Extort! When I first read it, I thought it was basically kicker where that spell could drain for 1, however after another reading I realized it makes ALL spells gain that kicker, it's value went up a lot. For the sake of arguing how good the mechanic is (because this card is bulk), I proposed this card:
~Name
{W/B}
Enchantment
Extort
To which everyone said that they would play. I always try to talk down how good cards are and shut down hype in our group, but I think Extort is a powerful enough mechanic that I too would play that card in constructed, given the right shell. A lot of discussion about which archaetype it would best fit in, and I thnk the answer is Combo/Control. In an aggro deck you want to build tempo on your opponent, and casting a bunch of Death of a Thousands Stings isn't how you get there, it just sets your entire deck 1 or more turns behind. Sure, if a good on-curve creature has Extort, you can play it as a bonus for additional reach going late, but you wouldn't play a below the curve guy because he has Extort.
Combo and Control is a different story. There is no combo deck right now that wants Extort (there really aren't any combo decks in general) but the comparisons to Tendrils of Agony can't be ignored, so keep your eyes open. In control decks, Extort is simply awesome! Imagine this cheap Extort enchantment exists, it's legitimately possible to have that be your win condition! The fact that standard has infinite life with all these Thragtusks, Centaur Healers, and Sphinx's Revelations makes this plan less effective, but it's still good to think about - a deck with lots of answers, some flashback spells like Think Twice, and cheap Extort cards. You can just contain your opponent as you slowly ping at their life total while also keeping your head above water. Because your deck has such a high density of counterspells and removal, your opponent will never be able to out-threat you and you can grind them until they're thoroughly dead.
Take note that Extort is a triggered ability which can be triggered multiple times off one spell if your have multiple permanents with Extort. Going late when you're completely flooded out, having 2 or 3 Extort cards + Think Twice makes for an incredibly short clock! Extort looks sweet, and while it's not flashy, it will be a major player in the future of standard control!
Last but not least, today we finished off with an interesting Dimir mechanic:
Cipher is a bizarre name for the ability, but regardless it's pretty cool. An instant/sorcery version of Haunt that like basically all other Instant/Sorcery based mechanics finds a way to cast it multiple times for cheap. However here it simply feels awkward. Blue and black have the least and second least amount of creatures respectively (though red is very close in the 3/4 slot with black), so having an entire mechanic designed around gaining advantage through your creatures feels wrong to me. That being said, there is a certain guy named Invisible Stalker that saw a ton of play last year which will jump right back into the center stage if there are any good Cipher cards, so we can't turn a blind eye to the mechanic.
I think one thing to really look out for when new Cipher cards are spoiled is to see if there are any playable instants. If you attack with a creature or two and they aren't blocked, then you can cast a Cipher spell before damage, Cipher it onto the unblocked creature and gain immediate value off it.
Thinking about potential Cipher cards actually has my head scratching. Blue is most known for drawing cards, bouncing things, and countering spells. We have Whispering Madness which draws cards, and we will surely get a Reach Through Mists (read: Curiosity), which leaves bouncing things and countering spells. Countering spells doesn't work with Cipher because damage is sorcery speed, which only leaving bouncing things. Maybe 2U Unsummon, Cipher or 2UU Eye of Nowhere, Cipher? Looking at black they have creature kill, hand disruption, and paying life for card advantage. So maybe we get a 4 mana Doom Blade, 2 mana Duress, and a Divination that shocks yourself?
The overall problem is UB decks have next to no creatures (besides UB fish which is all dudes), so having a mechanic that requires creatures that you think will survive is so awkward. I'm sure there will be a good few printed that see play, but I really don't know what to expect here.
Overall, I am very excited for Gatecrash and I'm already thinking about and preparing myself for all the sweet brews that will come out of the sweet cards and especially the mechanics! Here's my ranking from most awesome to least awesome for these 5:
5. Cipher (Dimir)
4. Bloodrush (Gruul)
3. Evolve (Simic)
2. Battalion (Boros)
1. Extort (Orzhov)
I think it's worth noting how 4 of the 5 mechanics revolve around creatures, which feels very high to me. RTR had 3 as well, but 4 is just overwhelming. It doesn't feel like there will be many options outside of lots of creatures and lots of combat math.
That's all I have for today! I'm really excited for GTC now that we had our first taste of the treats to be offered, and I can't wait for 1 more month to go by when we can start cracking packs! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
The other day I posted about the first released mechanic from Gatecrash, Evolve, and since then we have also had this card spoiled with that mechanic on Monday:
However we both know this card is pretty terrible. It does do a good job showcasing the cool things we can expect to do with Evolve, and with this card in particular it does draw you a card for any reason so Scavenge or Increasing Savagery is pretty ballin value (and yes, Increasing Savagery will draw you 5 cards). When it comes down to it though, a 4 mana 1/1 with no self-protection isn't very playable. If you do want to force the deck, play black for Undying Evil. When the Fathom Mage undies it will draw a card because of the +1/+1 counter it returns with so it's protection and more value.
Fathom Mage was spoiled on Monday, and on Tuesday, WotC released this guy to the world:
Bloodrush doesn't seem to be the most exciting Mechanic at first, but I think it's actually awesome! Pump spells and combat tricks have always just a little short of being playable because while they play as removal, an actual removal spell is just better. However, when Selesnya Charm came out, all of a sudden we had a pump spell that had the flexibility to be anything you want it to be depending on the situation. Low and behold, I use it as a pump spell 70% of the time (removal 25%, dude 5%), and it's always awesome!
So coming back to Bloodrush, we have an ability that holds an incredible amount of value for no cost! Like Scavenge, it is simply an upside ability, so we have to evaluate any card with Bloodrush as if it didn't, and if it's a good rate, then Bloodrush is just the icing on the cake. It's a little hard to discern which way the machanic will go, but I think the cost will be variable from card to card and the pump will be based off the discarded creature's P/T. Here's two simple cards I would be interested in seeing printed:
~Name 1
RG
Bloodrush - 1RG
2/2
~Name 2
{R/G}
Bloodrush - 0
1/1
No, I don't think either are constructed playable, but they are both very limited playable. A turn 1 or 2 play in the early game to build a presence, but in the later game when they really no longer matter, they become a pump spell to trick the opponent and add more tension to game play. I really like this mechanic and hope we get a couple cards that become playable in constructed, but it will add a sweet new dimension to standard. If the bear has a Bloodrush of 1 mana I would legitimately consider it for constructed.
On Wednesday, We were graced with the Legion's Battalion:
This card has caused the most conversation in the online facebook group I'm in, and for good reason! Lightning Helix has basically never stopped seeing play since it was first released, and getting a free one for free every turn is insane (2 a turn if you go real deep with Aurelia, the Warleader). At first I didn't like this ability because it required investing too much to the board to make it active, and another guy made the comparison to Odric, Master Tactition and how he is completely unplayable. But then I started thinking about a Naya aggro deck and if you play this card turn 3 off an Arbor Elf. As the control player looking across the board from 3 lands, Avenger, Elf, and a couple cards in hand, do you Wrath? If you do, you didn't really gain much value off that Wrath, and they have a good size hand to put up a second round of threats, but if you don't then they can play something like Strangelroot Geist and swing for 9+.
This is a very high-risk, high-reward mechanic. The key is finding ways to reduce the risk such as Strangelroot Geist - he is haste so you can play him as the third creature to get at least one Battalion activation in, also when your opponent does wrath he can undie and continue the fight. Another card that I feel will see play along with Battalion is Lingering Souls. It creates the 2 other creatures at the price of only 1/2 a card, so if you have 2 sounds and a Firemane Avenger a wrath is trading 1 for 1.5, neutering the value on the wrath. This card and the mechanic as a whole definitely holds a lot of potential! One thing that is absolutely relevant with Firemane Avenger is acknowledging the existence of Restoration Angel. Even if that's enough to hold back Firemane for this current standard season, if things change going into next year's standard format, I can see this guy completely dominating creature matchups!
Outside of Firemane specifically I really like this mechanic and can see WRB tokens becoming a legitimate deck off the back of Battalion, especially if we get a decent cheap Battalion guy (guys gain +1/+0?) along with Midnight Haunting, Sorin, etc. This is mechanic we will be seeing a lot of going forward!
Thursday released what is probably my favorite mechanic in the entire set: Extort! When I first read it, I thought it was basically kicker where that spell could drain for 1, however after another reading I realized it makes ALL spells gain that kicker, it's value went up a lot. For the sake of arguing how good the mechanic is (because this card is bulk), I proposed this card:
~Name
{W/B}
Enchantment
Extort
To which everyone said that they would play. I always try to talk down how good cards are and shut down hype in our group, but I think Extort is a powerful enough mechanic that I too would play that card in constructed, given the right shell. A lot of discussion about which archaetype it would best fit in, and I thnk the answer is Combo/Control. In an aggro deck you want to build tempo on your opponent, and casting a bunch of Death of a Thousands Stings isn't how you get there, it just sets your entire deck 1 or more turns behind. Sure, if a good on-curve creature has Extort, you can play it as a bonus for additional reach going late, but you wouldn't play a below the curve guy because he has Extort.
Combo and Control is a different story. There is no combo deck right now that wants Extort (there really aren't any combo decks in general) but the comparisons to Tendrils of Agony can't be ignored, so keep your eyes open. In control decks, Extort is simply awesome! Imagine this cheap Extort enchantment exists, it's legitimately possible to have that be your win condition! The fact that standard has infinite life with all these Thragtusks, Centaur Healers, and Sphinx's Revelations makes this plan less effective, but it's still good to think about - a deck with lots of answers, some flashback spells like Think Twice, and cheap Extort cards. You can just contain your opponent as you slowly ping at their life total while also keeping your head above water. Because your deck has such a high density of counterspells and removal, your opponent will never be able to out-threat you and you can grind them until they're thoroughly dead.
Take note that Extort is a triggered ability which can be triggered multiple times off one spell if your have multiple permanents with Extort. Going late when you're completely flooded out, having 2 or 3 Extort cards + Think Twice makes for an incredibly short clock! Extort looks sweet, and while it's not flashy, it will be a major player in the future of standard control!
Last but not least, today we finished off with an interesting Dimir mechanic:
Cipher is a bizarre name for the ability, but regardless it's pretty cool. An instant/sorcery version of Haunt that like basically all other Instant/Sorcery based mechanics finds a way to cast it multiple times for cheap. However here it simply feels awkward. Blue and black have the least and second least amount of creatures respectively (though red is very close in the 3/4 slot with black), so having an entire mechanic designed around gaining advantage through your creatures feels wrong to me. That being said, there is a certain guy named Invisible Stalker that saw a ton of play last year which will jump right back into the center stage if there are any good Cipher cards, so we can't turn a blind eye to the mechanic.
I think one thing to really look out for when new Cipher cards are spoiled is to see if there are any playable instants. If you attack with a creature or two and they aren't blocked, then you can cast a Cipher spell before damage, Cipher it onto the unblocked creature and gain immediate value off it.
Thinking about potential Cipher cards actually has my head scratching. Blue is most known for drawing cards, bouncing things, and countering spells. We have Whispering Madness which draws cards, and we will surely get a Reach Through Mists (read: Curiosity), which leaves bouncing things and countering spells. Countering spells doesn't work with Cipher because damage is sorcery speed, which only leaving bouncing things. Maybe 2U Unsummon, Cipher or 2UU Eye of Nowhere, Cipher? Looking at black they have creature kill, hand disruption, and paying life for card advantage. So maybe we get a 4 mana Doom Blade, 2 mana Duress, and a Divination that shocks yourself?
The overall problem is UB decks have next to no creatures (besides UB fish which is all dudes), so having a mechanic that requires creatures that you think will survive is so awkward. I'm sure there will be a good few printed that see play, but I really don't know what to expect here.
Overall, I am very excited for Gatecrash and I'm already thinking about and preparing myself for all the sweet brews that will come out of the sweet cards and especially the mechanics! Here's my ranking from most awesome to least awesome for these 5:
5. Cipher (Dimir)
4. Bloodrush (Gruul)
3. Evolve (Simic)
2. Battalion (Boros)
1. Extort (Orzhov)
I think it's worth noting how 4 of the 5 mechanics revolve around creatures, which feels very high to me. RTR had 3 as well, but 4 is just overwhelming. It doesn't feel like there will be many options outside of lots of creatures and lots of combat math.
That's all I have for today! I'm really excited for GTC now that we had our first taste of the treats to be offered, and I can't wait for 1 more month to go by when we can start cracking packs! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Friday, December 21, 2012
The Newest Evolution to Magic
Hello everyone!
Twitter is a wonderful way to keep in touch with the greater Magic community. People like Gavin Verhey, Mark Rosewater, and Aaron Forsythe bridge the gap between Wizards of the Coast and their consumers. They send out cool insights to the company, Rosewater has a daily comic called Tales from the Pit, and they all will frequently poll their followers on cool mtg related things. I also follow professional players like LSV, PVDDR, Chapin, etc who sometimes offer insights into current formats, and the behind the scenes of the pro life. Naturally financial writers like Corbin Holster, Paul Feudo, and Chas Andres can keep you up to the moment on the latest spiking cards.
Beyond the everyday things like that, whenever a story or event happens, Twitter can keep you up to the second on it. For example, this picture has been getting retweeted a ton in the past 30 minutes:
Simic Fluxmage
2U
Evolve
1U, tap: Move a +1/+1 counter from Simic Fluxmage onto target creature
1/2
Our first mechanic spoiler from Gatecrash! In case you can't read it, this is the Simic mechanic called Evolve. Evolve reads, "Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if that creature has greater power or toughness than this creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature." This is a sweet mechanic!
The old Simic Mechanic was called Graft, which meant that a creature with graft would enter the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters (X determined by the number next to Graft) and that whenever another creature entered the battlefield you could pass 1 +1/+1 counter over to it. Evolve is basically reverse Graft. Just like how with Graft you can do things based on creatures having +1/+1 counters on them, in the same way Evolve can manipulate +1/+1 counters as well. As we can see with the Simic Fluxmage he can graft out a +1/+1 counter every turn so he will remain small, keep on accumulating +1/+1 counters, and distributes those counters to the rest of your team.
This actually makes me excited to see what other cards may come. Obviously Simic Fluxmage isn't constructed playable (random sidenote, you can pass a +1/+1 counter to your opponent's Undying/Unleash creature to turn them off), but consider this card:
Evolving Dude
G
Evolve
1/1
This card is insane! Think back to the Fervor Jund deck I made back when Domri Rade was spoiled. If we were playing that deck with this guy on the 1-drop slot we can go:
1 - Evolving Dude
2 - Strangelroot Geist, swing for 4
3 - Dreg Mangler/Flinthoof Boar, swing for 8
At the end of turn 3 we have our opponent at 8 life, and we have two 3/3s and a 2/1 Undying. That is a completely dominant board, and even if we get hit with a Supreme Verdict we have a 3/2 swinging our opponent down to 5 with the rest of our deck designed to beat down. This card has so much potential it's impressive. Even as a 0/1, it would still be able to pack a solid punch, though that would be noticeably worse.
I think the Evolve mechanic is a very exciting mechanic for constructed purposes if we get solid cheap guys. Even in limited it will be a very important mechanic to help build up a strong board against any opponent. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
2 Man Drafts
Hello everyone!
It's been a while since I last posted, but since then I have entered into, and successfully escaped alive, from finals. It was a lot more pain and suffering than it was fun and joy, but there was one especially shameful moment - Sociology. I already hated the class and thought the professor was a complete joke, but then his final permanently cemented that for me. It was a true work of art how he managed to embarrass himself:
1 - First he registered the wrong day, time, and location of our final on the school website, telling us a completely different (and earlier) time in class.
2 - The final was held in the same room where we normally have class, which is completely full for his lectures. He decided to combine 2 classes together for the final pushing us all so close together you couldn't get up to walk around, and people were fully pressed against all four walls.
3 - The professor showed up 30 minutes late to tell us he forgot to print out the test and that's what he was working on now (100+ students in room, 10 page test)
4 - The test was all multiple choice with many questions having a blank being filled from the choices. Many of the questions didn't make complete sentences with any of the choices, and one question didn't even have enough choices to fill all the blanks on any choice. I asked the professor about one, and he couldn't figure it out either
So with that fabulous display of leadership, Arturo Ramos-Dalmau proved himself to be a true american hero, and a leader to us all!
On a more serious note, I am now back home and naturally celebrated with a 3 hour nap immediately followed up with a 14 hour nap, followed by a two-man draft. No one showed up for the scheduled 8-man, so myself and Nick decided to do a heads up draft which was actually incredibly fun!
I had done two-person drafts before during the Innistrad-Dark Ascension draft format. The way we did it then was with three piles (I don't know if there are any names for 2-man draft styles). First you have both players open the packs face down, take out the tokens, and then shuffle all 6 packs together. After shuffling, take the 6 packs and place them in a single pile on the table, then from that stack make 3 single card stacks in a line going away from the original stack. The three piles are numbered with the closest to the original stack being pile 1 and the furthest being pile 3.
The first player (determined by rolling) looks at pile 1 and can either keep it or pass. If they keep, they put all cards in that pile into their hand, take the top card of the stack, put it on the pile, and then pass to the other player. If they choose to not take the pile, then they take the top card from the stack, put it on top of the skipped pile, and then move to the next pile, repeating this process. If the player chooses they don't want the third pile they take the top card of the stack, put it on the third pile, and then take the top card of the original stack and put it into their hand. This process repeats until all cards have been used.
When I drafted against Nick though, we tried something new. This played out far more like a Rochester draft, and in the end I liked it a whole lot more. Both players start by opening their 3 packs face down, but this time you don't combine them. Instead each player shuffles their own 3 packs together separately, then makes two face-up piles next to their original stack and places one card in each. The first player can then pick any of the four piles and pull all cards in that piles into their hand, and pass to the other person. After each player takes a pile each pile gets one additional card from each player's respective stacks.
As I said, I liked this rochester-esque style of drafting much better. I won the roll and decided to go second. Nick and I were both in Golgari after the first 4 rounds of picks when Nick snagged a Vraska, the Unseen, so I knew I would have to get out of it quickly. A few picks later I was graced with a Supreme Verdict, and in combination with my Horncaller's Chant, I knew I was going down a much slower road. My deck wound up being a four color monstrocity being primarily Bant but splashing a Goblin Electromancer and Essence Backlash off a single Izzet Guildgate because of a lack of playables in my primary three. I had a lot of proliferate cards like Eyes in the Sky so my game plan was to invest as few cards as possible to build a board presence, gain card advantage through Supreme Verdict, and then go over the top to win. The plan worked worked very well as I was able to beat Nick's BRg deck 2-0.
If you're looking to try something new for drafting, but only have 1 other person to play with, I highly recommend trying the Rochester 1vs1 draft! I had tons of fun, and like a real Rochester there are tons of decisions to be made while picking your cards. I'm looking forward to playing tons of magic over the course of this next month, and bringing tons of reports and technology back to the blog! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
It's been a while since I last posted, but since then I have entered into, and successfully escaped alive, from finals. It was a lot more pain and suffering than it was fun and joy, but there was one especially shameful moment - Sociology. I already hated the class and thought the professor was a complete joke, but then his final permanently cemented that for me. It was a true work of art how he managed to embarrass himself:
1 - First he registered the wrong day, time, and location of our final on the school website, telling us a completely different (and earlier) time in class.
2 - The final was held in the same room where we normally have class, which is completely full for his lectures. He decided to combine 2 classes together for the final pushing us all so close together you couldn't get up to walk around, and people were fully pressed against all four walls.
3 - The professor showed up 30 minutes late to tell us he forgot to print out the test and that's what he was working on now (100+ students in room, 10 page test)
4 - The test was all multiple choice with many questions having a blank being filled from the choices. Many of the questions didn't make complete sentences with any of the choices, and one question didn't even have enough choices to fill all the blanks on any choice. I asked the professor about one, and he couldn't figure it out either
So with that fabulous display of leadership, Arturo Ramos-Dalmau proved himself to be a true american hero, and a leader to us all!
On a more serious note, I am now back home and naturally celebrated with a 3 hour nap immediately followed up with a 14 hour nap, followed by a two-man draft. No one showed up for the scheduled 8-man, so myself and Nick decided to do a heads up draft which was actually incredibly fun!
I had done two-person drafts before during the Innistrad-Dark Ascension draft format. The way we did it then was with three piles (I don't know if there are any names for 2-man draft styles). First you have both players open the packs face down, take out the tokens, and then shuffle all 6 packs together. After shuffling, take the 6 packs and place them in a single pile on the table, then from that stack make 3 single card stacks in a line going away from the original stack. The three piles are numbered with the closest to the original stack being pile 1 and the furthest being pile 3.
The first player (determined by rolling) looks at pile 1 and can either keep it or pass. If they keep, they put all cards in that pile into their hand, take the top card of the stack, put it on the pile, and then pass to the other player. If they choose to not take the pile, then they take the top card from the stack, put it on top of the skipped pile, and then move to the next pile, repeating this process. If the player chooses they don't want the third pile they take the top card of the stack, put it on the third pile, and then take the top card of the original stack and put it into their hand. This process repeats until all cards have been used.
When I drafted against Nick though, we tried something new. This played out far more like a Rochester draft, and in the end I liked it a whole lot more. Both players start by opening their 3 packs face down, but this time you don't combine them. Instead each player shuffles their own 3 packs together separately, then makes two face-up piles next to their original stack and places one card in each. The first player can then pick any of the four piles and pull all cards in that piles into their hand, and pass to the other person. After each player takes a pile each pile gets one additional card from each player's respective stacks.
As I said, I liked this rochester-esque style of drafting much better. I won the roll and decided to go second. Nick and I were both in Golgari after the first 4 rounds of picks when Nick snagged a Vraska, the Unseen, so I knew I would have to get out of it quickly. A few picks later I was graced with a Supreme Verdict, and in combination with my Horncaller's Chant, I knew I was going down a much slower road. My deck wound up being a four color monstrocity being primarily Bant but splashing a Goblin Electromancer and Essence Backlash off a single Izzet Guildgate because of a lack of playables in my primary three. I had a lot of proliferate cards like Eyes in the Sky so my game plan was to invest as few cards as possible to build a board presence, gain card advantage through Supreme Verdict, and then go over the top to win. The plan worked worked very well as I was able to beat Nick's BRg deck 2-0.
If you're looking to try something new for drafting, but only have 1 other person to play with, I highly recommend trying the Rochester 1vs1 draft! I had tons of fun, and like a real Rochester there are tons of decisions to be made while picking your cards. I'm looking forward to playing tons of magic over the course of this next month, and bringing tons of reports and technology back to the blog! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Friday, December 7, 2012
Counting to 10 in Legacy
Hello everyone!
Legacy infect is a deck that has been talked about a lot, but has never really become a thing. As a part of my quest to make everything playable, I have decided to turn my lens over to infect. Recently I have been giving lessons to some guys on my floor, and one of the things I start with is consistency and power. Power is basically, "what is the most powerful things your deck can do?" For infect that's a mulligan to 4 that wins on turn 2. Then the second part asks about consistency. Can your deck reliably get all the pieces together quickly enough? Can your deck fight through disruption? I think infect may actually be able to do those things too! Here's the list I'm currently on:
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Blighted Agent
4x Glistener Elf
1x Crop Rotation
4x Brainstorm
4x Gitaxian Probe
3x Ponder
4x Daze
3x Vines of Vastwood
4x Might of Old Krosa
3x Berserk
4x Invigorate
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Polluted Delta
4x Tropical Island
2x Pendelhaven
3x Centaur Garden
Sideboard:
3x Tormod's Crypt
4x Chain of Vapor
3x Tezzeret's Gambit
3x Force of Will
2x Ranger's Guile
I took this deck (-3 Tezzeret's Gambit +3 Leyline of Sactity) into an online Legacy 8-man, and by golly I won the whole thing! It was a legitimate win too, I wasn't playing against something like Kobolds combo anywhere. I played against Bant, BUG Deathrite, and Junk in that order, so there was A LOT of Tarmogoyf! It's a good thing this deck doesn't care about Tarmogoyf, otherwise I would have been bringing a knife to the gun fight as I saw 2 or 3 other Tarmogoyf decks while watching other games!
Here's a breakdown of the deck:
Dudes:
Glistener Elf - This is actually your worst infect dude because she doesn't have any evasion. It does only cost 1 mana though, and gives you a ton of game against the likes of Show and Tell or Storm by allowing the turn 2 kills to happen.
Blighted Agent - This is fantastic because your mana isn't tied up every turn and he will not be blocked. However, this guy dies to all kinds of removal including things like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Supreme Verdict
Inkmoth Nexus - While not completely unblockable, the lack of playable flying creatures (Delver, Vendilion, ...?) effectively makes this so. Abrupt Decay has seen a spike in play recently, especially in the BUG Deathrite Shaman deck, but Abrupt Decay can't hit lands so Inkmoth gains a lot of value. Dodging sorcery speed removal is awesome too, but the tradeoff is it can die to Wasteland, and it can tie up your mana a lot.
Noble Hierarch - When I saw this in Ari Lax's modern infect deck from the Pro Tour, I was skeptical, but in testing Hierarch is insane! This deck is so fast that it doesn't have enough time to hit enough lands drops to play out the whole hand, so doubling up on mana turn 1 is a huge help! The Exalted is another major boost as it allows you to play fair much better.
Pump:
Invigorate - This is your best pump spell. Life doesn't matter when you're killing in poison counters, so this is a 0 mana +4/+4. Simple, clean, elegant.
Might of Old Krosa - This is usually the first card to get sideboarded out in any matchup that plays creatures. Showing your hand and committing a creature to a pump spell during your main phase has a significant cost attached, but it very good on the Blighted Agent and Inkmoth Nexus
Berserk - Playing Berserk after an Invigorate or a Might of Old Krosa makes a perfect 10. Besides that, the card is fairly bad which is why we only play 3. Having to sacrifice your guy at the end of turn is a significant disadvantage to the card, so use it only when winning.
Pendalhaven - This card is awesome! Like Noble Hierarch, it helps you push through incremental damage over the course of a couple turns and apply significant pressure on the opponent.
Centaur Garden - In an effort to stuff as much possible value in the deck as we can, we take a page out of Dredge's book. In my experience I find it is actually relatively difficult to accumulate 7 cards in your graveyard to activate the Garden, but it has also been integral for a couple grindy wins, so overall I have been pleased with it.
Other Spells:
Crop Rotation - This card has always been decent for me, but never insane. It offers you some Wasteland protection, it helps you get Threshold for Centaur Garden, it shuffles post-Brainstorm, and can tutor for an Inkmoth when in need. It's important to remember with Crop Rotation that you sacrifice the land before putting the spell on the stack so counterspells REALLY ruin your day!
Brainstorm - We're a blue combo deck with 7 fetch lands and Crop Rotation, obv playing best card in Legacy
Ponder - Like Brainstorm, we just want to find combo pieces and get there
Gitaxian Probe - Every combo player's best friend! This simply leaves nothing to the imagination and allow you to sculpt your game plan based on what they have.
Daze - A common mistake people make when building combo decks is to not have enough interaction with the opponent. That's why Belcher has never won anything and probably never will. We too are trying to ignore the opponent as much as possible, but Daze is simply to good to not have. Dazing your opponent's game plan, be it a Tarmogoyf or Jace is sweet, but Daze will also help you push pump spells through your opponent's disruption.
Vines of Vastwood - The primary responsibility of this card is to make a creature Hexproof and save it from a Swords to Plowshares/Abrupt Decay. The kicker is just gravy, but essential to remember. In the final game of the 8 man I was down to just a Vines in Hand because he had a Liliana of the Veil. He was at 1 Infect and I had a Blighted Agent in play. I topdecked a second Vines and was able to kick two of them to get in for the game!
Lands:
I decided that I really didn't want to have any basic lands in the deck because I felt there simply wasn't space or need. Usually people will try to save their Wastelands for your Inkmoth Nexus, which allow us to cast our cantrips and ignore the Waste.
Sideboard:
Tormod's Crypt - because Dredge is a bitch
Chain of Vapor - This is designed to be a catch-all for cards like Moat, Umezawa's Jitte, and other random goodies.Simple and straightforward, but I have been very pleased with it
Tezzeret's Gambit - This isn't tested, but it feels decent in theory. Basically I want to answer Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach by ignoring them, recouping my hand, and then just killing them anyways. I played Leyline of Sanctity in the 8-man, but never wanted to bring it in.
Force of Will - We have a very low blue count (19 in the main) so Force isn't the most reliable spell however in the matchups we want it, we want it BAD
Ranger's Guile - This is to back up Vines of Vastwood to help grind through a wall of removal. I went with a second Ranger's Guile over a fourth Vines because games with tons of removal are far grindier and we may only have 1 mana, so I want to get the extra point of power when I can.
I have been very pleased with this deck in testing, and reccommend it if you're looking for a combo deck no one is prepared for. Like I said, the decks I beat in the 8 man were Bant, BUG, and Junk all of which pack tons of disruption. Cards I had to fight through include: Swords to Plowshares, Daze, Force of Will, Abrupt Decay, Darkblast, Inquisition of Kozelik, and Liliana of the Veil. I feel this is a perfect sample to show the resiliency and power of the deck, two essential qualities of a good deck for Legacy.
When it comes to playing the deck, I find the best approach is to be slightly conservative. Obviously when your opponent plays a turn 1 Aether Vial off a mountain you can just dump your hand and go all-in, but unless you know exactly what you're up against, there's no need to get blown out. The deck can kill out of nowhere so feel free to take the extra turn and make sure you actually have a window of opportunity. In general a turn 1 Noble Hierarch is better than a turn 1 Glistener Elf, and a hand without an infect guy is basically unkeepable.
This has been a very fun deck to play, and I think it may have legs to be a fully competitive deck in the metagame! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Legacy infect is a deck that has been talked about a lot, but has never really become a thing. As a part of my quest to make everything playable, I have decided to turn my lens over to infect. Recently I have been giving lessons to some guys on my floor, and one of the things I start with is consistency and power. Power is basically, "what is the most powerful things your deck can do?" For infect that's a mulligan to 4 that wins on turn 2. Then the second part asks about consistency. Can your deck reliably get all the pieces together quickly enough? Can your deck fight through disruption? I think infect may actually be able to do those things too! Here's the list I'm currently on:
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Blighted Agent
4x Glistener Elf
1x Crop Rotation
4x Brainstorm
4x Gitaxian Probe
3x Ponder
4x Daze
3x Vines of Vastwood
4x Might of Old Krosa
3x Berserk
4x Invigorate
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Polluted Delta
4x Tropical Island
2x Pendelhaven
3x Centaur Garden
Sideboard:
3x Tormod's Crypt
4x Chain of Vapor
3x Tezzeret's Gambit
3x Force of Will
2x Ranger's Guile
I took this deck (-3 Tezzeret's Gambit +3 Leyline of Sactity) into an online Legacy 8-man, and by golly I won the whole thing! It was a legitimate win too, I wasn't playing against something like Kobolds combo anywhere. I played against Bant, BUG Deathrite, and Junk in that order, so there was A LOT of Tarmogoyf! It's a good thing this deck doesn't care about Tarmogoyf, otherwise I would have been bringing a knife to the gun fight as I saw 2 or 3 other Tarmogoyf decks while watching other games!
Here's a breakdown of the deck:
Dudes:
Glistener Elf - This is actually your worst infect dude because she doesn't have any evasion. It does only cost 1 mana though, and gives you a ton of game against the likes of Show and Tell or Storm by allowing the turn 2 kills to happen.
Blighted Agent - This is fantastic because your mana isn't tied up every turn and he will not be blocked. However, this guy dies to all kinds of removal including things like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Supreme Verdict
Inkmoth Nexus - While not completely unblockable, the lack of playable flying creatures (Delver, Vendilion, ...?) effectively makes this so. Abrupt Decay has seen a spike in play recently, especially in the BUG Deathrite Shaman deck, but Abrupt Decay can't hit lands so Inkmoth gains a lot of value. Dodging sorcery speed removal is awesome too, but the tradeoff is it can die to Wasteland, and it can tie up your mana a lot.
Noble Hierarch - When I saw this in Ari Lax's modern infect deck from the Pro Tour, I was skeptical, but in testing Hierarch is insane! This deck is so fast that it doesn't have enough time to hit enough lands drops to play out the whole hand, so doubling up on mana turn 1 is a huge help! The Exalted is another major boost as it allows you to play fair much better.
Pump:
Invigorate - This is your best pump spell. Life doesn't matter when you're killing in poison counters, so this is a 0 mana +4/+4. Simple, clean, elegant.
Might of Old Krosa - This is usually the first card to get sideboarded out in any matchup that plays creatures. Showing your hand and committing a creature to a pump spell during your main phase has a significant cost attached, but it very good on the Blighted Agent and Inkmoth Nexus
Berserk - Playing Berserk after an Invigorate or a Might of Old Krosa makes a perfect 10. Besides that, the card is fairly bad which is why we only play 3. Having to sacrifice your guy at the end of turn is a significant disadvantage to the card, so use it only when winning.
Pendalhaven - This card is awesome! Like Noble Hierarch, it helps you push through incremental damage over the course of a couple turns and apply significant pressure on the opponent.
Centaur Garden - In an effort to stuff as much possible value in the deck as we can, we take a page out of Dredge's book. In my experience I find it is actually relatively difficult to accumulate 7 cards in your graveyard to activate the Garden, but it has also been integral for a couple grindy wins, so overall I have been pleased with it.
Other Spells:
Crop Rotation - This card has always been decent for me, but never insane. It offers you some Wasteland protection, it helps you get Threshold for Centaur Garden, it shuffles post-Brainstorm, and can tutor for an Inkmoth when in need. It's important to remember with Crop Rotation that you sacrifice the land before putting the spell on the stack so counterspells REALLY ruin your day!
Brainstorm - We're a blue combo deck with 7 fetch lands and Crop Rotation, obv playing best card in Legacy
Ponder - Like Brainstorm, we just want to find combo pieces and get there
Gitaxian Probe - Every combo player's best friend! This simply leaves nothing to the imagination and allow you to sculpt your game plan based on what they have.
Daze - A common mistake people make when building combo decks is to not have enough interaction with the opponent. That's why Belcher has never won anything and probably never will. We too are trying to ignore the opponent as much as possible, but Daze is simply to good to not have. Dazing your opponent's game plan, be it a Tarmogoyf or Jace is sweet, but Daze will also help you push pump spells through your opponent's disruption.
Vines of Vastwood - The primary responsibility of this card is to make a creature Hexproof and save it from a Swords to Plowshares/Abrupt Decay. The kicker is just gravy, but essential to remember. In the final game of the 8 man I was down to just a Vines in Hand because he had a Liliana of the Veil. He was at 1 Infect and I had a Blighted Agent in play. I topdecked a second Vines and was able to kick two of them to get in for the game!
Lands:
I decided that I really didn't want to have any basic lands in the deck because I felt there simply wasn't space or need. Usually people will try to save their Wastelands for your Inkmoth Nexus, which allow us to cast our cantrips and ignore the Waste.
Sideboard:
Tormod's Crypt - because Dredge is a bitch
Chain of Vapor - This is designed to be a catch-all for cards like Moat, Umezawa's Jitte, and other random goodies.Simple and straightforward, but I have been very pleased with it
Tezzeret's Gambit - This isn't tested, but it feels decent in theory. Basically I want to answer Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach by ignoring them, recouping my hand, and then just killing them anyways. I played Leyline of Sanctity in the 8-man, but never wanted to bring it in.
Force of Will - We have a very low blue count (19 in the main) so Force isn't the most reliable spell however in the matchups we want it, we want it BAD
Ranger's Guile - This is to back up Vines of Vastwood to help grind through a wall of removal. I went with a second Ranger's Guile over a fourth Vines because games with tons of removal are far grindier and we may only have 1 mana, so I want to get the extra point of power when I can.
I have been very pleased with this deck in testing, and reccommend it if you're looking for a combo deck no one is prepared for. Like I said, the decks I beat in the 8 man were Bant, BUG, and Junk all of which pack tons of disruption. Cards I had to fight through include: Swords to Plowshares, Daze, Force of Will, Abrupt Decay, Darkblast, Inquisition of Kozelik, and Liliana of the Veil. I feel this is a perfect sample to show the resiliency and power of the deck, two essential qualities of a good deck for Legacy.
When it comes to playing the deck, I find the best approach is to be slightly conservative. Obviously when your opponent plays a turn 1 Aether Vial off a mountain you can just dump your hand and go all-in, but unless you know exactly what you're up against, there's no need to get blown out. The deck can kill out of nowhere so feel free to take the extra turn and make sure you actually have a window of opportunity. In general a turn 1 Noble Hierarch is better than a turn 1 Glistener Elf, and a hand without an infect guy is basically unkeepable.
This has been a very fun deck to play, and I think it may have legs to be a fully competitive deck in the metagame! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Unbanning Legacy
Hello everyone!
As we approach the time of potential bannings and unbannings, everyone is getting speculative as to what may come or go next. I figured, hey I can play this game too! Looking at the Legacy banned list though, there really aren't many cards that can possibly be unbanned! I think that really speaks to the health of Legacy that there are so many cards and so many answers that it really isn't possible for a deck to be degenerate enough that it simply can't be dealt with! Here is the current Legacy banned list. Of the 60 cards that are on the banned list, 9 are ante cards (back in the day, magic was played with your friends for ante and a couple cards referenced the ante cards). The other 51 cards are all banned for various reasons, and offer a window of insight to what types of effects are overpowered in Magic.
Tutors (9):
One thing that the DCI has been trying to increase in legacy is variance by way of banning tutors. The most recent examples of this in 2010 was the bannings of Survival of the Fittest and Mystical Tutor. The tutors on the list include:
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Tutor
Goblin Recruiter - This card would let you stack your entire deck, which with Ringleader and Food Chain would allow you to go infinite and consistently kill your opponent on turn 3
Imperial Seal
Mystical Tutor - Storm, Reanimator, and other combo decks were terrifyingly consistent with this card
Oath of Druids - A 2 mana one-sided Show and Tell that also tutors for the fatty? Geez!
Survival of the Fittest - A Survival sitting in play for 2 turns by itself lets you tutor all your Vangevines and Rootwallas for an overly consistent 1 card combo deck
Tinker - 3 mana Blightsteel Colossus, go
Vampiric Tutor
Degenerate Card Draw (12):
Having card advantage is a good and healthy thing. However, there are some cards that do it too easily and efficiently, and those are terrifying! The degenerate card draw on the list include:
Ancestral Recall
Bazaar of Baghdad
Frantic Search - Sure, this nets you -1 card, but it also costs 0 mana
Gush - Another 0 mana card draw spell, this one can also save you from Wastelands and can make you "hit every land drop"
Library of Alexandria
Memory Jar
Necropotence
Skullclamp
Timetwister
Wheel of Fortune
Windfall
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Degenerate Mana Production (15):
Mana is the limiting resource in Magic. The entire game is designed around the fact that you can only play 1 land a turn and lands only produce 1 mana each. This is what allows there to be fast beatdown decks using a ton of quick little guys, and control decks that are slower but bigger. When something disturbs this peace too much, the game is broken. The degenerate mana production on the list includes:
Black Lotus
Channel
Earthcraft - Not completely obvious, but in a deck like Elves Earthcraft turns every creature into a haste Llanowar Elves and allows for other infinite combos
Fastbond - Fetchlands + Crucible lets you play every land in your deck, and that's only the beginning
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Mishra's Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Sol Ring
Tolarian Academy
Other (15):
The last 15 cards on the banned list are made up of cards that are individually too powerful, but can't really be grouped with one another. They offer insights as to what kind of effects are too powerful for print, which kinds of cards will be powerful when looking at new spoilers, and ideas for deckbuilding.
Balance - By playing only artifact permanents before casting Balance, you will make your opponent discard their entire hand and sacrifice all their lands and creatures. I remember I read a Vintage article once where the author was on a mul to 4 and had Mox Sapphire, Mox Pearl, Balance, Ancestral Recall on the play. His opponent kept a hand with no Force of Will, and the game was pretty embarrasing from there. In Legacy we have cards like Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, and Mox Opal that would help us recreate that scenario.
Black Vise - This card can lead to some brutal blowouts! Turn 1 Ancient Tomb Black Vise, Black Vise will deal your opponent 8 before they take their first turn! If they play something like Land, Sensei's Divining Top, they will take 6 going into turn 2, going down to 6 life.
Chaos Orb - This is banned simply because of how it plays out. This card is not objectively judgable, and causes too many issues in play.
Falling Star - Banned for the same reason as Chaos Orb. Falling Star and Chaos Orb are 2 of 3 banned Vintage cards that aren't related to ante.
Flash - Flashing in Protein Hulk is a combo deck that can win on your opponent's first upkeep when you're on the draw. Even if you didn't get the nuts turn 0 kill, the deck is still a 2 card instant-speed combo for only 2 mana which kills immediately. This deck completely ravaged GP Columbus in 2007, and was promptly banned after. In case you are unaware of the combo, you flash in Protein Hulk and let it die, searching your library for 4 Disciple of the Vault and 5+ Shifting Wall/Phyrexian Marauder which instantly kills your opponent!
Hermit Druid - If your deck has no basic lands you can pay 1 mana to mill your entire deck. It's like your entire dredge deck or cephalid breakfast, but just as 1 card.
Mental Misstep - This was only legal in legacy for about 4 months before being banned to no one's surprise. Legacy is a fast format, and this counters every single card in the format, stripping away it's entire identity. GP Mental Misstep (Providence) was insanely slow, and the CFB crew brought a deck whose only win condition was Jace, the Mind Sculptor!
Mind Twist - A couple quick rituals and this can make you lose your entire hand, leading to a terrible 1 sided game.
Mind's Desire - If you could get yourself up to storm 5 or so, Mind's Desire would do all the work for you from there! Sometimes you reveal one Mind's Desire to another and things just go for infinite.
Shahrazad - This is the 3rd non-ante card banned in Vintage. Playing subgames of Magic causes tons of problems, including time. It's hard enough to finish a match in 50 minutes, never mind when there are sub games within those games! (Don't even get me started on when you cast Shahrazad during a sub-game)
Strip Mine - Basic lands are a safe haven in Legacy. The fact that there is almost no basic land hate makes decks like High Tide and Miracles solid choices because they won't get their mana disrupted. Adding Strip Mine will completely ruin this balance.
Time Vault - This + Voltaic Key = take every turn for the rest of the game
Time Walk - With the printing of Temporal Mastery, we have really learned how little of a deal taking an extra turn can be. But that's when you can't control it. When you can control your extra turn, simple turns become devastating blowouts, and there is too much opportunity for something degerate.
Worldgorger Dragon - I mentioned this card in my infinite mana article, in addition to being infinite mana, that combo can create an infinitely repeating game state that immediately result in a draw
Yawgmoth's Will - This card makes storm go from 0 to insanity all by itself. Being able to recurse all of your Lotus Petals, LEDs, even a fetch land makes this simply too good. Turn 1 Swamp, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor is 10 storm with Yawgmoth's Will.
Of all the cards on the legacy banned list, I feel there are 2 that are worth considering for an unbanning. Those 2 are Black Vise and Mind Twist. I feel that Black Vise is safer than Mind Twist to happen, but I will present for both:
Black Vise - Yes, having 2 on turn 1 is sweet, but that's not very consistent or likely to happen. Having 1 on turn 1 on the play will deal probably 4 than 3 damage - not bad. However, let's say our opponent mulligans to 6 or 5, then we're dealing 3, 2 or 2, 1. The range of power there is quite dramatic! Now, let's say we're on the draw, that's the same as our opponent mulliganing as far as Black Vise is concerned. Let's Say our opponent keeps their opening 7 and plays Island, Sensei's Divining Top, go. Now you play Ancient Tomb, 2x Black Vise. On your opponent's upkeep they take 2 damage. 4 if that was a ponder instead of a Top. Nice nut draw. Now, lets say they mulligan to 6 on the play, and go Mountain, Aether Vial, go. You can play all 4 Black Vise on turn 1, they're still taking 0. Yes, Black Vise CAN be powerful, but its such an unlikely scenario and such an inconsistent turn 1 that I doubt it will even see play.
Mind Twist - When examining this card I look at Mind Shatter and Hymn to Tourach. Mind Shatter has never been playable, but Hymn to Tourach has been a good card for a very long time. What makes Mind Twist better than Hymn to Tourach is that it can hit more cards when more mana is invested in it. At 4 mana or more Mind Twist gains value. The best way to gain fast mana is Dark Ritual, so we could have an opening such as Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Mind Twist for 4. Ironically enough this hits the same number of cards as if we had 2 Hymn to Tourachs.
Obviously when it comes to discussing potential unbannings, there is always the fear that we may make a terrible mistake and allow a degenerate beast to come back from the pit and ravage constructed. Mind Twist has a lot more potential to be degenerate than Black Vise, but I feel that it may be too slow to be a significant player. Black Vise too is a very powerful card, which may make people become very worried, but as I explained I feel it isn't actually consistent enough to be playable
As for cards that need to be banned? Nothing right now is actually too degenerate. People were saying over the summer that Show and Tell needs to be banned, but that card has hardly been doing anything recently, and it doesn't do too well vs a Duress or Thoughtseize.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
As we approach the time of potential bannings and unbannings, everyone is getting speculative as to what may come or go next. I figured, hey I can play this game too! Looking at the Legacy banned list though, there really aren't many cards that can possibly be unbanned! I think that really speaks to the health of Legacy that there are so many cards and so many answers that it really isn't possible for a deck to be degenerate enough that it simply can't be dealt with! Here is the current Legacy banned list. Of the 60 cards that are on the banned list, 9 are ante cards (back in the day, magic was played with your friends for ante and a couple cards referenced the ante cards). The other 51 cards are all banned for various reasons, and offer a window of insight to what types of effects are overpowered in Magic.
Tutors (9):
One thing that the DCI has been trying to increase in legacy is variance by way of banning tutors. The most recent examples of this in 2010 was the bannings of Survival of the Fittest and Mystical Tutor. The tutors on the list include:
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Tutor
Goblin Recruiter - This card would let you stack your entire deck, which with Ringleader and Food Chain would allow you to go infinite and consistently kill your opponent on turn 3
Imperial Seal
Mystical Tutor - Storm, Reanimator, and other combo decks were terrifyingly consistent with this card
Oath of Druids - A 2 mana one-sided Show and Tell that also tutors for the fatty? Geez!
Survival of the Fittest - A Survival sitting in play for 2 turns by itself lets you tutor all your Vangevines and Rootwallas for an overly consistent 1 card combo deck
Tinker - 3 mana Blightsteel Colossus, go
Vampiric Tutor
Degenerate Card Draw (12):
Having card advantage is a good and healthy thing. However, there are some cards that do it too easily and efficiently, and those are terrifying! The degenerate card draw on the list include:
Ancestral Recall
Bazaar of Baghdad
Frantic Search - Sure, this nets you -1 card, but it also costs 0 mana
Gush - Another 0 mana card draw spell, this one can also save you from Wastelands and can make you "hit every land drop"
Library of Alexandria
Memory Jar
Necropotence
Skullclamp
Timetwister
Wheel of Fortune
Windfall
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Degenerate Mana Production (15):
Mana is the limiting resource in Magic. The entire game is designed around the fact that you can only play 1 land a turn and lands only produce 1 mana each. This is what allows there to be fast beatdown decks using a ton of quick little guys, and control decks that are slower but bigger. When something disturbs this peace too much, the game is broken. The degenerate mana production on the list includes:
Black Lotus
Channel
Earthcraft - Not completely obvious, but in a deck like Elves Earthcraft turns every creature into a haste Llanowar Elves and allows for other infinite combos
Fastbond - Fetchlands + Crucible lets you play every land in your deck, and that's only the beginning
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Mishra's Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Sol Ring
Tolarian Academy
Other (15):
The last 15 cards on the banned list are made up of cards that are individually too powerful, but can't really be grouped with one another. They offer insights as to what kind of effects are too powerful for print, which kinds of cards will be powerful when looking at new spoilers, and ideas for deckbuilding.
Balance - By playing only artifact permanents before casting Balance, you will make your opponent discard their entire hand and sacrifice all their lands and creatures. I remember I read a Vintage article once where the author was on a mul to 4 and had Mox Sapphire, Mox Pearl, Balance, Ancestral Recall on the play. His opponent kept a hand with no Force of Will, and the game was pretty embarrasing from there. In Legacy we have cards like Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, and Mox Opal that would help us recreate that scenario.
Black Vise - This card can lead to some brutal blowouts! Turn 1 Ancient Tomb Black Vise, Black Vise will deal your opponent 8 before they take their first turn! If they play something like Land, Sensei's Divining Top, they will take 6 going into turn 2, going down to 6 life.
Chaos Orb - This is banned simply because of how it plays out. This card is not objectively judgable, and causes too many issues in play.
Falling Star - Banned for the same reason as Chaos Orb. Falling Star and Chaos Orb are 2 of 3 banned Vintage cards that aren't related to ante.
Flash - Flashing in Protein Hulk is a combo deck that can win on your opponent's first upkeep when you're on the draw. Even if you didn't get the nuts turn 0 kill, the deck is still a 2 card instant-speed combo for only 2 mana which kills immediately. This deck completely ravaged GP Columbus in 2007, and was promptly banned after. In case you are unaware of the combo, you flash in Protein Hulk and let it die, searching your library for 4 Disciple of the Vault and 5+ Shifting Wall/Phyrexian Marauder which instantly kills your opponent!
Hermit Druid - If your deck has no basic lands you can pay 1 mana to mill your entire deck. It's like your entire dredge deck or cephalid breakfast, but just as 1 card.
Mental Misstep - This was only legal in legacy for about 4 months before being banned to no one's surprise. Legacy is a fast format, and this counters every single card in the format, stripping away it's entire identity. GP Mental Misstep (Providence) was insanely slow, and the CFB crew brought a deck whose only win condition was Jace, the Mind Sculptor!
Mind Twist - A couple quick rituals and this can make you lose your entire hand, leading to a terrible 1 sided game.
Mind's Desire - If you could get yourself up to storm 5 or so, Mind's Desire would do all the work for you from there! Sometimes you reveal one Mind's Desire to another and things just go for infinite.
Shahrazad - This is the 3rd non-ante card banned in Vintage. Playing subgames of Magic causes tons of problems, including time. It's hard enough to finish a match in 50 minutes, never mind when there are sub games within those games! (Don't even get me started on when you cast Shahrazad during a sub-game)
Strip Mine - Basic lands are a safe haven in Legacy. The fact that there is almost no basic land hate makes decks like High Tide and Miracles solid choices because they won't get their mana disrupted. Adding Strip Mine will completely ruin this balance.
Time Vault - This + Voltaic Key = take every turn for the rest of the game
Time Walk - With the printing of Temporal Mastery, we have really learned how little of a deal taking an extra turn can be. But that's when you can't control it. When you can control your extra turn, simple turns become devastating blowouts, and there is too much opportunity for something degerate.
Worldgorger Dragon - I mentioned this card in my infinite mana article, in addition to being infinite mana, that combo can create an infinitely repeating game state that immediately result in a draw
Yawgmoth's Will - This card makes storm go from 0 to insanity all by itself. Being able to recurse all of your Lotus Petals, LEDs, even a fetch land makes this simply too good. Turn 1 Swamp, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor is 10 storm with Yawgmoth's Will.
Of all the cards on the legacy banned list, I feel there are 2 that are worth considering for an unbanning. Those 2 are Black Vise and Mind Twist. I feel that Black Vise is safer than Mind Twist to happen, but I will present for both:
Black Vise - Yes, having 2 on turn 1 is sweet, but that's not very consistent or likely to happen. Having 1 on turn 1 on the play will deal probably 4 than 3 damage - not bad. However, let's say our opponent mulligans to 6 or 5, then we're dealing 3, 2 or 2, 1. The range of power there is quite dramatic! Now, let's say we're on the draw, that's the same as our opponent mulliganing as far as Black Vise is concerned. Let's Say our opponent keeps their opening 7 and plays Island, Sensei's Divining Top, go. Now you play Ancient Tomb, 2x Black Vise. On your opponent's upkeep they take 2 damage. 4 if that was a ponder instead of a Top. Nice nut draw. Now, lets say they mulligan to 6 on the play, and go Mountain, Aether Vial, go. You can play all 4 Black Vise on turn 1, they're still taking 0. Yes, Black Vise CAN be powerful, but its such an unlikely scenario and such an inconsistent turn 1 that I doubt it will even see play.
Mind Twist - When examining this card I look at Mind Shatter and Hymn to Tourach. Mind Shatter has never been playable, but Hymn to Tourach has been a good card for a very long time. What makes Mind Twist better than Hymn to Tourach is that it can hit more cards when more mana is invested in it. At 4 mana or more Mind Twist gains value. The best way to gain fast mana is Dark Ritual, so we could have an opening such as Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Mind Twist for 4. Ironically enough this hits the same number of cards as if we had 2 Hymn to Tourachs.
Obviously when it comes to discussing potential unbannings, there is always the fear that we may make a terrible mistake and allow a degenerate beast to come back from the pit and ravage constructed. Mind Twist has a lot more potential to be degenerate than Black Vise, but I feel that it may be too slow to be a significant player. Black Vise too is a very powerful card, which may make people become very worried, but as I explained I feel it isn't actually consistent enough to be playable
As for cards that need to be banned? Nothing right now is actually too degenerate. People were saying over the summer that Show and Tell needs to be banned, but that card has hardly been doing anything recently, and it doesn't do too well vs a Duress or Thoughtseize.
That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Monday, December 3, 2012
STOP...... Goblins Time!
Hello everyone!
Making updates to an established deck is a very touchy subject, especially when the deck were updating is the historically most significant deck in legacy - Goblins. Goblins has been up and down many roads and colors. I'm not thoroughly literate in goblin history, but here's some flavors I do know:
Onslaught Block Goblins:
This is basically the legacy goblins deck without Goblin Lackey. Piledriver, Warchief, Siege-Gang, Gempalm Incinerator, the works. Easily the most dominant deck in the format, it was a simple if you can't beat them, join them. Patriarch's Bidding make the deck go from 1 to insanity.
Mono-Red:
This version of goblins has a heavy mana denial plan, and is a very straightforward deck. No bells or whistles, but a consistent mana base and a consistent game plan.
Splash Green:
In order to beat artifacts, adding 1 Taiga to the deck allows you to play Tin-Street Hooligan
Splash Black:
Warren Weirding in the maindeck with Perish and Cabal Therapy in the sideboard gives you more game against a wider range of the field.
Splash White:
This version of Goblins came and went very quickly, but the theory is that Thalia would allow you to slow down combo decks enough to kill your opponent with all your pressure. While the green and black versions have been around for a while, the white version came and went very quickly.
Now the only thing missing from this list is a blue splash. A quick search on gatherer shows that there is really no playable blue goblins. Razorfin Hunter is just worse than Goblin Sharpshooter, while Goblin Electromancer and Goblin Flectomancer are quite useless. Force of Will is pretty terrible with no other blue cards, and other non-goblin cards dilute your deck too much for Goblin Ringleader to be effective. So what reason would we want to play blue goblins?
Standstill
Standstill is an interesting card - how can we push our advantage without casting spells? There's a couple ways to do this. In Merfolk Aether Vial can keep your threats coming (when everything costs 2 mana, Aether Vial is gold), while drawing Wastelands and Mutavaults can slow down the opponent and increase your threat density. In landstill decks, usually they will go aggressive with Mishra's Factories until the opponent can't take it any more. In control decks, you may have a planeswalker in play or Deathrite Shaman and slowly gain an advantage. Basically, if you're going to play Standstill in your deck, you have to have a plan.
Sidenote
{
If you want to learn more about how to fight against a Standstill, here is a fantastic piece by AJ Sacher I recommend watching.
}
End Aside
I think Goblins is actually the deck that can best use Standstill. While not a goblin, it is high impact enough that we can mise 1 and lock out a game, but if we never draw it, our game plan is strong enough without it that we're fine. How can we gain an advantage while under a Standstill? Eh, not too many...
Wasteland
Rishaden Port
Goblin Lackey
Aether Vial
Warren Instigator
Gempalm Incinerator
Krenko, Mob Boss
Siege-Gang Commander
Also, we have a deck that beats down very hard and puts a ton of pressure on the opponent very quickly. This creates the perfect storm where Standstill can shine. If we're winning, then we just can't lose. If we're in a stable board state with an effect that can gain us an advantage, then as the turns pass we can crawl ahead. As we pressure our opponent, we force them to do something, which makes us win.
A lot of people don't know how to play through a Standstill, and it can cause a ton of misplays that give free wins. As AJ says, it's like an Ancestral Recall Spliced onto several Time Walks. Against someone who does know how to beat a Standstill, it is either an Ancestral Recall or a couple Time Walks. Man... that's SO terrible....
So how can we make use of blue while not neutering our Ringleaders?
4 Goblin Lackey
3 Warren Instigator
2 Stingscourger
2 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
4 AEther Vial
3 Standstill
3 Mountain
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wasteland
3 Rishadan Port
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Arid Mesa
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Volcanic Island
Sideboard
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Daze
3 Flusterstorm
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
Making updates to an established deck is a very touchy subject, especially when the deck were updating is the historically most significant deck in legacy - Goblins. Goblins has been up and down many roads and colors. I'm not thoroughly literate in goblin history, but here's some flavors I do know:
Onslaught Block Goblins:
This is basically the legacy goblins deck without Goblin Lackey. Piledriver, Warchief, Siege-Gang, Gempalm Incinerator, the works. Easily the most dominant deck in the format, it was a simple if you can't beat them, join them. Patriarch's Bidding make the deck go from 1 to insanity.
Mono-Red:
This version of goblins has a heavy mana denial plan, and is a very straightforward deck. No bells or whistles, but a consistent mana base and a consistent game plan.
Splash Green:
In order to beat artifacts, adding 1 Taiga to the deck allows you to play Tin-Street Hooligan
Splash Black:
Warren Weirding in the maindeck with Perish and Cabal Therapy in the sideboard gives you more game against a wider range of the field.
Splash White:
This version of Goblins came and went very quickly, but the theory is that Thalia would allow you to slow down combo decks enough to kill your opponent with all your pressure. While the green and black versions have been around for a while, the white version came and went very quickly.
Now the only thing missing from this list is a blue splash. A quick search on gatherer shows that there is really no playable blue goblins. Razorfin Hunter is just worse than Goblin Sharpshooter, while Goblin Electromancer and Goblin Flectomancer are quite useless. Force of Will is pretty terrible with no other blue cards, and other non-goblin cards dilute your deck too much for Goblin Ringleader to be effective. So what reason would we want to play blue goblins?
Standstill
Standstill is an interesting card - how can we push our advantage without casting spells? There's a couple ways to do this. In Merfolk Aether Vial can keep your threats coming (when everything costs 2 mana, Aether Vial is gold), while drawing Wastelands and Mutavaults can slow down the opponent and increase your threat density. In landstill decks, usually they will go aggressive with Mishra's Factories until the opponent can't take it any more. In control decks, you may have a planeswalker in play or Deathrite Shaman and slowly gain an advantage. Basically, if you're going to play Standstill in your deck, you have to have a plan.
Sidenote
{
If you want to learn more about how to fight against a Standstill, here is a fantastic piece by AJ Sacher I recommend watching.
}
End Aside
I think Goblins is actually the deck that can best use Standstill. While not a goblin, it is high impact enough that we can mise 1 and lock out a game, but if we never draw it, our game plan is strong enough without it that we're fine. How can we gain an advantage while under a Standstill? Eh, not too many...
Wasteland
Rishaden Port
Goblin Lackey
Aether Vial
Warren Instigator
Gempalm Incinerator
Krenko, Mob Boss
Siege-Gang Commander
Also, we have a deck that beats down very hard and puts a ton of pressure on the opponent very quickly. This creates the perfect storm where Standstill can shine. If we're winning, then we just can't lose. If we're in a stable board state with an effect that can gain us an advantage, then as the turns pass we can crawl ahead. As we pressure our opponent, we force them to do something, which makes us win.
A lot of people don't know how to play through a Standstill, and it can cause a ton of misplays that give free wins. As AJ says, it's like an Ancestral Recall Spliced onto several Time Walks. Against someone who does know how to beat a Standstill, it is either an Ancestral Recall or a couple Time Walks. Man... that's SO terrible....
So how can we make use of blue while not neutering our Ringleaders?
4 Goblin Lackey
3 Warren Instigator
2 Stingscourger
2 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Siege-Gang Commander
4 AEther Vial
3 Standstill
3 Mountain
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wasteland
3 Rishadan Port
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Arid Mesa
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Volcanic Island
Sideboard
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Daze
3 Flusterstorm
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
Yes, this is basically a stock Goblins list, but I feel it's very elegant. A straightforward aggressive deck with Standstill for value. One card that I did not include in this deck is Mutavault. Mutavault is insane in Merfolk because it's a mono-lords deck. Goblins only have Goblin Chieftan, so Mutavault is very unimpressive. It's only mediocre under a standstill. Rishaden Port gives you a lot more action and can help you drag out into the longer game where Ringleader chains do what they have always done - crush your opponent under the sheer weight of card advantage. In the sideboard I decided to include some counterspells that can help the famously dreadful combo matchup. Against combo decks, I usually board:
+4 Daze
+3 Flusterstorm
-3 Standstill
-1 Tuktuk Scrapper
-2 Stingscourger
-1 Gempalm Incinerator
Interestingly enough, removing 4 goblins from our deck hardly makes Ringleader any worse as the goblins we're removing are usually pretty terrible against combo anyways! The one card in the sideboard that I'm not too sure of is Red Elemental Blast. I feel like we're generally pretty good vs blue. The only card that can matter is Terminus, but that's white. I think we're fine vs creatures between Sharpshooter and Gempalm, so I don't think Pyrokinesis is where we want to be either. I want to find something that helps slog through fair decks better (if we were playing green I would recommend Horned Kavu to bounce Ringleader).
Obviously no deck is ever done testing, and soon I will have another update. In fact, I have a lot of minor updates on a lot of decks that I think is worth just piling together in an article together soon. Online, this goblins list has been doing very well for me, and Standstill has absolutely been pulling its weight! Turn 1 Aether Vial, turn 2 Standstill is as fantastic as it sounds! EOT drop in a Goblin Lackey, and you have the stone cold nuts.
That's all I have for today! I know I have hardly been posting recently, but that's because we're getting close to the end of the semester and there's a lot of tests and finals coming up. My time playing magic is basically all online and I have been tuning decks. I think my next piece will chronicle all these changes. Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Saturday, November 17, 2012
A Handful of Gatecrash Mythics
Hello everyone!
At 2:04 am this morning a post went up on an MTG Salvation forum that includes pictures of 5 foil Mythic Rares from Gatecrash! There is some really exciting new options for us on the table, so let's get right to it!
Starting things off we have the obligatory dragon of the set. With the exception of Lorwyn, Morningtide, Eventide, Rise of the Eldrazi, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Saviors of Kamigawa every single set in Modern has a Dragon in it. They usually aren't exciting or good, and this isn't much of an exception. Unlike most dragons this isn't grossly overcosted and a 6/5 trample flying body is fine, but this isn't going to win you anything significant. If it's in your limited pool or you open one in a pack snap pick it, but that is where its dominance comes to a close. One thing to know about this card is that it will be very popular in the casual realm. Dragons already hold a little allure, but any time a card says "........you win the game" immediately it's value goes up. Even a card like Darksteel Reactor, which I feel is one of the worst "you win the game" cards has people building decks entirely around!
Moving up the ranks of playability we have the new Gruul guild leader! For a measly.... holy crap this costs 8 mana! The last Borborygmos cost 7 mana, but this one is clearly better. In fact, he might even be playable. This guy has an immediate effect when he comes into play and can completely dominate the board after a single untap. Sadly we don't have Life from the Loam in standard, but there are other ways to get lands into you hand. In standard we have Borderland Ranger, Gatecreeper Vine, Lair Delve, Mulch, and Seek the Horizon. Seek and Delve really aren't playable, but the others could be used in conjunction with the rest of the ramp deck to make Borborygmos Enraged playable. The only thing holding this guy back is that he costs 8 mana.
Next we have the Boros guild leader who is actually rather exciting. At first a 3/4 body on a 6 mana creature looks really weak, but after considering how it grants extra attack phases it's more like a 6/4, which is far more respectable. Unfortunately, unlike Borborygmos I don't think Aurelia has any hope of getting cast. She is really only good in a beatdown deck, which usually wants to curve out at 3 or 4. Costing 6 mana, no matter how spicy, is usually not in the cards. In limited though, this is simply insane! When you're ahead of your opponent on board you can immediately end the game. When you want to get damage in but can't afford tapping your creatures Aurelia untaps all your creatures at the end of combat so they effectively gain vigilance. As a 3/4 vigilance body herself, she is a respectable force while in play.
WOW! This card is absolutely INSANE! Sure it costs 12 mana, it wins you the game on the spot! Well... It SHOULD win you the game on the spot. At 12 mana we can't just casually toss this into any old deck, so we have to have a plan. My initial idea was to play this in High Tide. High Tide can often get up to ridiculously high amounts of mana quickly, and drawing your entire deck (putting back land) guarantees that you won't fizzle. 14 cards in the deck draw more cards, there are about 19 lands and 4 Time Spirals which are useless, so we have about 23 cards in the deck that we can actually cast to build up storm. Another place I thought about the card was in the sideboard of Omniscience to Burning Wish for. However, Petals of Insight already auto-wins the game, so Enter the Infinite doesn't actually get us anywhere.
Omniscience pushed Dream Halls out of the format, but this could be the card that brings Dream halls back! One of the things that makes Dream Halls a better choice than Omniscience is that Dream Halls is reasonably castable whereas Omniscience is 100% reliant on Show and Tell. When we use Enter the Infinite as a direct replacement of Conflux, we no longer have to play 4 Progenitus (we would still play 1 so we can use it to cast the False Cure, then Ponder to get it back, then use it to cast the Beacon). One of the problems before with Dream Halls is that Show and Telling in a Progenitus was a 2-3 turn clock that didn't disrupt the opponent , so it usually never won you the game. Now we can play other sexy Show targets like Emrakul and Griselbrand!
I think that High Tide is already a powerful enough deck that Enter the Infinite won't do much to improve it. Dream Halls is the real winner here!
Wrapping things up we have a new incredible planeswalker! At 3 mana this card is absolutely bonkers! A 3 mana planeswalker that has a +1 to draw a card? Sounds fair... Then we have a -2 that generally reads "Destroy target creature" so it protects itself.... Then we have an ultimate that is just stupidly good! Did I mention it only costs 3 mana?!?!?! Turn 1 Stomping Grounds, pay 2 life, Arbor Elf go. Turn 2 Forest Domri Rade +1 go. How do you plan on winning this game??? At first I thought about playing this guy in the sideboard to grind out against control, but the more I think about it, the more I think he can be an easy 4-of in the maindeck. Ferver Jund is a deck that hasn't gained a huge following, but with the printing of Stomping Grounds Flinthoof Boar will be insane and I think this planeswalker will really help pull it all together. Consider this deck:
4x Arbor Elf
4x Strangelroot Geist
4x Flinthoof Boar
2x Ash Zealot
4x Dreg Mangler
4x Falkenrath Aristocrat
4x Hellrider
2x Thundermaw Hellkite
4x Domri Rade
4x Searing Spear
4x Stomping Grounds
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Blood Crypt
4x Rootbound Crag
2x Woodland Cemetery
2x Dragonskull Summit
2x Forest
2x Mountain
With 28 creatures Domri Rade has a 47% chance of hitting a creature on the +1. A lot of these creatures have very reasonably sized bodies so the -2 will be able to kill just about anything. The one thing that I'm not sure about with this deck is Strangelroot Geist and Ash Zealot. They are both very good, but they are both very hard to cost. Arbor Elf may be able to clean up that problem by itself, but it's definitely something to consider. Every single creature (besides the Elf) has haste, so this almost plays out like a mono-red burn deck! Strangelroot Geist, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Dreg Mangler all have resistance to Supreme Verdict as well, so there is some resiliancy. If you do manage to ultimate Domri Rade the haste doesn't matter but Double Strike, Hexproof, and Trample basically wins you the game by itself!
These cards are clearly awesome! Especially those last 2! However, it is important to remember that these are not necessarily real cards. If they're not, then we had an exercise in mental deck building which is always good to have too. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
At 2:04 am this morning a post went up on an MTG Salvation forum that includes pictures of 5 foil Mythic Rares from Gatecrash! There is some really exciting new options for us on the table, so let's get right to it!
Starting things off we have the obligatory dragon of the set. With the exception of Lorwyn, Morningtide, Eventide, Rise of the Eldrazi, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Saviors of Kamigawa every single set in Modern has a Dragon in it. They usually aren't exciting or good, and this isn't much of an exception. Unlike most dragons this isn't grossly overcosted and a 6/5 trample flying body is fine, but this isn't going to win you anything significant. If it's in your limited pool or you open one in a pack snap pick it, but that is where its dominance comes to a close. One thing to know about this card is that it will be very popular in the casual realm. Dragons already hold a little allure, but any time a card says "........you win the game" immediately it's value goes up. Even a card like Darksteel Reactor, which I feel is one of the worst "you win the game" cards has people building decks entirely around!
Moving up the ranks of playability we have the new Gruul guild leader! For a measly.... holy crap this costs 8 mana! The last Borborygmos cost 7 mana, but this one is clearly better. In fact, he might even be playable. This guy has an immediate effect when he comes into play and can completely dominate the board after a single untap. Sadly we don't have Life from the Loam in standard, but there are other ways to get lands into you hand. In standard we have Borderland Ranger, Gatecreeper Vine, Lair Delve, Mulch, and Seek the Horizon. Seek and Delve really aren't playable, but the others could be used in conjunction with the rest of the ramp deck to make Borborygmos Enraged playable. The only thing holding this guy back is that he costs 8 mana.
Next we have the Boros guild leader who is actually rather exciting. At first a 3/4 body on a 6 mana creature looks really weak, but after considering how it grants extra attack phases it's more like a 6/4, which is far more respectable. Unfortunately, unlike Borborygmos I don't think Aurelia has any hope of getting cast. She is really only good in a beatdown deck, which usually wants to curve out at 3 or 4. Costing 6 mana, no matter how spicy, is usually not in the cards. In limited though, this is simply insane! When you're ahead of your opponent on board you can immediately end the game. When you want to get damage in but can't afford tapping your creatures Aurelia untaps all your creatures at the end of combat so they effectively gain vigilance. As a 3/4 vigilance body herself, she is a respectable force while in play.
WOW! This card is absolutely INSANE! Sure it costs 12 mana, it wins you the game on the spot! Well... It SHOULD win you the game on the spot. At 12 mana we can't just casually toss this into any old deck, so we have to have a plan. My initial idea was to play this in High Tide. High Tide can often get up to ridiculously high amounts of mana quickly, and drawing your entire deck (putting back land) guarantees that you won't fizzle. 14 cards in the deck draw more cards, there are about 19 lands and 4 Time Spirals which are useless, so we have about 23 cards in the deck that we can actually cast to build up storm. Another place I thought about the card was in the sideboard of Omniscience to Burning Wish for. However, Petals of Insight already auto-wins the game, so Enter the Infinite doesn't actually get us anywhere.
Omniscience pushed Dream Halls out of the format, but this could be the card that brings Dream halls back! One of the things that makes Dream Halls a better choice than Omniscience is that Dream Halls is reasonably castable whereas Omniscience is 100% reliant on Show and Tell. When we use Enter the Infinite as a direct replacement of Conflux, we no longer have to play 4 Progenitus (we would still play 1 so we can use it to cast the False Cure, then Ponder to get it back, then use it to cast the Beacon). One of the problems before with Dream Halls is that Show and Telling in a Progenitus was a 2-3 turn clock that didn't disrupt the opponent , so it usually never won you the game. Now we can play other sexy Show targets like Emrakul and Griselbrand!
I think that High Tide is already a powerful enough deck that Enter the Infinite won't do much to improve it. Dream Halls is the real winner here!
Wrapping things up we have a new incredible planeswalker! At 3 mana this card is absolutely bonkers! A 3 mana planeswalker that has a +1 to draw a card? Sounds fair... Then we have a -2 that generally reads "Destroy target creature" so it protects itself.... Then we have an ultimate that is just stupidly good! Did I mention it only costs 3 mana?!?!?! Turn 1 Stomping Grounds, pay 2 life, Arbor Elf go. Turn 2 Forest Domri Rade +1 go. How do you plan on winning this game??? At first I thought about playing this guy in the sideboard to grind out against control, but the more I think about it, the more I think he can be an easy 4-of in the maindeck. Ferver Jund is a deck that hasn't gained a huge following, but with the printing of Stomping Grounds Flinthoof Boar will be insane and I think this planeswalker will really help pull it all together. Consider this deck:
4x Arbor Elf
4x Strangelroot Geist
4x Flinthoof Boar
2x Ash Zealot
4x Dreg Mangler
4x Falkenrath Aristocrat
4x Hellrider
2x Thundermaw Hellkite
4x Domri Rade
4x Searing Spear
4x Stomping Grounds
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Blood Crypt
4x Rootbound Crag
2x Woodland Cemetery
2x Dragonskull Summit
2x Forest
2x Mountain
With 28 creatures Domri Rade has a 47% chance of hitting a creature on the +1. A lot of these creatures have very reasonably sized bodies so the -2 will be able to kill just about anything. The one thing that I'm not sure about with this deck is Strangelroot Geist and Ash Zealot. They are both very good, but they are both very hard to cost. Arbor Elf may be able to clean up that problem by itself, but it's definitely something to consider. Every single creature (besides the Elf) has haste, so this almost plays out like a mono-red burn deck! Strangelroot Geist, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Dreg Mangler all have resistance to Supreme Verdict as well, so there is some resiliancy. If you do manage to ultimate Domri Rade the haste doesn't matter but Double Strike, Hexproof, and Trample basically wins you the game by itself!
These cards are clearly awesome! Especially those last 2! However, it is important to remember that these are not necessarily real cards. If they're not, then we had an exercise in mental deck building which is always good to have too. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
I Play MUDdy
Hello everyone!
As I previously mentioned I haven't been able to play much paper magic since I got to school, so I have been playing a ton on Cockatrice. One deck I have been working on in particular a lot is MUD or Mono-Brown Control. The deck is very interesting to say the least. On one hand the deck has a strong mana-denial plan that can completely lock opponents out of the game. On the other hand it can attack with Blightsteel Colossus on turn 2 and win out of completely nowhere! Yes, the deck is as bizarre as it sounds! Here's my current list:
1x Blightsteel Colossus
1x Duplicant
4x Goblin Welder
4x Kuldotha Forgemaster
4x Lodestone Golem
4x Metalworker
1x Platinum Emporian
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Sundering Titan
3x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Chalice of the Void
1x Crucible of Worlds
4x Grim Monolith
2x Lightning Greaves
1x Staff of Domination
1x Staff of Nin
3x Trinisphere
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Cavern of Souls
4x City of Traitors
4x Great Furnace
4x Wasteland
Sideboard:
3x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Tormod's Crypt
1x Trinisphere
4x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Silent Arbiter
1x Wurmcoil Engine
Woah, what is going on here? This is easily the most fun deck you will get to play if youre looking for a competetive deck that offers amazing stories. This deck has some pretty simple parts: Mana ramp, Fatty Boom-Booms, and disruption.
Mana Ramp:
Ancient Tomb + City of Traitors
Grim Monolith
Metalworker
Fatty Boom-Booms:
Blightsteel Colossus
Kuldotha Forgemaster
Lodestone Golem
Platinum Emporion
Steel Hellkite
Wurmcoil Engine
Disruption:
Wasteland
Chalice of the Void
Trinisphere
Staff of Nin
Duplicant
Sundering Titan
Well.... These grouping aren't completely correct. See, the Fatty Boom-Booms all happen to double as either more Mana Ramp or Disruption. Blightsteel Colossus is an exception, but we have him because flying Tentacle Monsters are dumb and overrated. But Kuldotha Forgemaster can easily be put in the mana ramp section as it cheats on mana costs of cards (usually grabbing Blightsteel). The other guys can be put into the Disruption section because they attack the opponent's mana or board. Lodestone in addition to the other disruption can prevent the opponent from casting any spells. Platinum Emporion stops any attack cold. Steel Hellkite completely overtakes the board, even after just one hit! Sundering Titan can lead to some complete blowouts when you do a one-sided Armageddon. Wurmcoil isn't disruption, however unless if you're playing Swords to Plowshares, there really aren't any good ways to deal with this Phyrexian Wurm in legacy!
There are other cards in the deck too that I did not list, but those are mainly support cards. The central piece of the deck is the fatties, ramp, and disruption that I just listed above. Slow the game down, prevent your opponent from casting many spells, land a fatty, go to game 2. Sounds pretty easy to me!
Now there is a bit of a combo element of this deck too! With one of the support cards - Lightning Greaves - you can kill your opponent as early as turn 2! Check this line out:
T1 - Ancient Tomb, Lightning Greaves
T2 - Cavern of Souls, Metalworker. Equip Metalworker with Lightning Greaves. Tap Metalworker revealing 3-4 Artifacts. Cast Kuldotha Forgemaster + 1 other artifact. Equip Kuldotha Forgemaster with Lightning Greaves. Use Forgemaster's tinker ability sacrificing Forgemaster, Metalworker, and the other artifact you cast tutoring up Blightsteel Colossus. Equip Blightsteel with Lightning Greaves. Attack for 11 infect trample. GG
No, this isn't likely to happen every game. However, knowing you have that kind of raw power feels great! Using Metalworker, you can also combo it with Staff of Domination to produce infinite mana like I explained in the first infinite mana article. From there you gain enough life to make your life equal to your birthdate then draw the the deck until you have Lightning Greaves + Blightsteel. Cast both + profit. The icing on the cake is that if your opponent has 3000 blockers, Staff of Domination proves why it's named as such and taps down your opponent's entire board, clearing the way for the kill.
Sometimes you don't get those rediculous openers. Sometimes it's a lot more tame, like this one game I had:
T1: Ancient Tomb, Chalice of the Void X=1
T2: City of Traitors, Metalworker
T3: Reveal 5 artifacts in hand, cast Blightsteel Colossus
Turn 3 Blightsteel? Sounds fair to me!
If you don't get the turn 3 Blightsteel, it's far more reasonable to expect something simple and plausible like double Wurmcoil Engine. Or Wurmcoil + Lodestone Golem. Or basically any mix of fatties and you win!
Ok, so that's the combo side of the deck, now lets take a look at the mana denial portion. Chalice of the Void is one of the most powerful cards in Legacy because the rest of the format is so quick. Remember that card Mental Misstep that got banned because it completely warped the format? This is an infinite amount of Mental Missteps and can completely lock some opponents right out of the game before they take a first turn! RUG Delver, for example, can only play Tarmogoyf, Daze, and Force of Will. While those are good cards, thats simply going to lose to a full deck of robots.
Trinisphere is another card that many decks simply can't beat. Trinisphere + Wasteland can completely lock opponents out from casting spells, and provides free wins against most combo decks. I remember one crazy game I had against Dredge when I curved a turn 1 Tormod's Crypt into a turn 2 Trinisphere and he found himself completely locked out of the game. He couldn't cast any spells because he only has 13 lands in his deck (and I wastelanded one), and he couldn't just draw-discard-dredge because of the Crypt. 2 turns later I was swinging in with a Wurmcoil Engine and he quickly scooped it up.
Lodestone Golem is actually one of your best pieces of disruption because he is also a completely legitimate win condition. With 2 Sol Lands you can play him on turn 2 and push your opponent's entire game plan back a full turn. How good is a difference of one turn? How good is Remand?
Bringing everything together we have Goblin Welder. Talk about an insane card! A turn 1 unmolested Goblin Welder can completely take over a game! Thoughtseize goes from game breaking to laughably bad. Counterspells don't matter any more. Disenchant is pretty shameful. But besides making those cards worse, there are lots of other interesting uses:
Exiling lots of creatures with Duplicant
Destroying tons of lands with Sundering Titan (triggers when it dies too!)
Tons of value with Wurmcoil Engine
Shoot for 2 a turn with Staff of Nin (when you have 2 Welders)
Rebuying Tormod's Crypt
Manipulating combat by getting rid of Silent Arbiter/Ensnaring Bridge then putting it back (when you have 2 Welders)
Changing the target for Phyrexian Revoker
Saving creatures from removal spells or Swords to Plowshares
Basically the guy is the stone cold nuts! I have so many great stories with Goblin Welder I don't even know where to start! I remember I was playing against Reanimator with Show and Tell, so game 2 I played a first turn Tormod's Crypt and Goblin Welder. 3 turns later her cast Show and Tell so I dropped in a Duplicant. Then for the rest of the game I was able to exile every creature he had as I flip flopped between Duplicant and Crypt with the Welder without investing any cards! One thing that is worth pointing out is that he is a 1-drop so he doesn't play well with Chalice of the Void on 1. However if you cast Welder with a Cavern of Souls it can't be countered so it does right through.
In the sideboard we have a couple interesting cards that are with noting. Obviously Tormod's Crypt is to stop any graveyard strategies. The extra trinisphere is there for combo decks (it makes any spell cast off Omniscience cost 3 colorless, so it shuts down that deck). The extra Wurmcoil Engine is there for deck tuning. In matchups with lots of creatures or burn Wurmcoil completely shuts down their game plan. Phyrexian Revoker is there as a tool whenever you need to beat certain cards. For example there is the Death and Taxes deck which is reasonably popular. Naming Mangara of Corondor removes their only viable manner of them beating you because you go so much bigger (If you get multiple Phyrexian Revokers it's usually right to have them all name Managara of Corondor in case of Flickerwisp or Swords to Plowshares). Finally the sideboard rounds out with 3 Ensnaring Bridge and 2 Silent Arbiters. These are both used to beat creatures, but of different varieties. Silent Arbiter beats Goblins, Merfolk, Zoo. Enscaring Bridge can also beat those decks, but is also good vs reanimator where Silent Arbiter is pretty poor.
Overall this deck has been really good to me, and I have been very impressed with it! I am currently working on acquiring the cards to actually construct it for myself, and when I do hopefully I can win some money IRL. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
As I previously mentioned I haven't been able to play much paper magic since I got to school, so I have been playing a ton on Cockatrice. One deck I have been working on in particular a lot is MUD or Mono-Brown Control. The deck is very interesting to say the least. On one hand the deck has a strong mana-denial plan that can completely lock opponents out of the game. On the other hand it can attack with Blightsteel Colossus on turn 2 and win out of completely nowhere! Yes, the deck is as bizarre as it sounds! Here's my current list:
1x Blightsteel Colossus
1x Duplicant
4x Goblin Welder
4x Kuldotha Forgemaster
4x Lodestone Golem
4x Metalworker
1x Platinum Emporian
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Sundering Titan
3x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Chalice of the Void
1x Crucible of Worlds
4x Grim Monolith
2x Lightning Greaves
1x Staff of Domination
1x Staff of Nin
3x Trinisphere
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Cavern of Souls
4x City of Traitors
4x Great Furnace
4x Wasteland
Sideboard:
3x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Tormod's Crypt
1x Trinisphere
4x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Silent Arbiter
1x Wurmcoil Engine
Woah, what is going on here? This is easily the most fun deck you will get to play if youre looking for a competetive deck that offers amazing stories. This deck has some pretty simple parts: Mana ramp, Fatty Boom-Booms, and disruption.
Mana Ramp:
Ancient Tomb + City of Traitors
Grim Monolith
Metalworker
Fatty Boom-Booms:
Blightsteel Colossus
Kuldotha Forgemaster
Lodestone Golem
Platinum Emporion
Steel Hellkite
Wurmcoil Engine
Disruption:
Wasteland
Chalice of the Void
Trinisphere
Staff of Nin
Duplicant
Sundering Titan
Well.... These grouping aren't completely correct. See, the Fatty Boom-Booms all happen to double as either more Mana Ramp or Disruption. Blightsteel Colossus is an exception, but we have him because flying Tentacle Monsters are dumb and overrated. But Kuldotha Forgemaster can easily be put in the mana ramp section as it cheats on mana costs of cards (usually grabbing Blightsteel). The other guys can be put into the Disruption section because they attack the opponent's mana or board. Lodestone in addition to the other disruption can prevent the opponent from casting any spells. Platinum Emporion stops any attack cold. Steel Hellkite completely overtakes the board, even after just one hit! Sundering Titan can lead to some complete blowouts when you do a one-sided Armageddon. Wurmcoil isn't disruption, however unless if you're playing Swords to Plowshares, there really aren't any good ways to deal with this Phyrexian Wurm in legacy!
There are other cards in the deck too that I did not list, but those are mainly support cards. The central piece of the deck is the fatties, ramp, and disruption that I just listed above. Slow the game down, prevent your opponent from casting many spells, land a fatty, go to game 2. Sounds pretty easy to me!
Now there is a bit of a combo element of this deck too! With one of the support cards - Lightning Greaves - you can kill your opponent as early as turn 2! Check this line out:
T1 - Ancient Tomb, Lightning Greaves
T2 - Cavern of Souls, Metalworker. Equip Metalworker with Lightning Greaves. Tap Metalworker revealing 3-4 Artifacts. Cast Kuldotha Forgemaster + 1 other artifact. Equip Kuldotha Forgemaster with Lightning Greaves. Use Forgemaster's tinker ability sacrificing Forgemaster, Metalworker, and the other artifact you cast tutoring up Blightsteel Colossus. Equip Blightsteel with Lightning Greaves. Attack for 11 infect trample. GG
No, this isn't likely to happen every game. However, knowing you have that kind of raw power feels great! Using Metalworker, you can also combo it with Staff of Domination to produce infinite mana like I explained in the first infinite mana article. From there you gain enough life to make your life equal to your birthdate then draw the the deck until you have Lightning Greaves + Blightsteel. Cast both + profit. The icing on the cake is that if your opponent has 3000 blockers, Staff of Domination proves why it's named as such and taps down your opponent's entire board, clearing the way for the kill.
Sometimes you don't get those rediculous openers. Sometimes it's a lot more tame, like this one game I had:
T1: Ancient Tomb, Chalice of the Void X=1
T2: City of Traitors, Metalworker
T3: Reveal 5 artifacts in hand, cast Blightsteel Colossus
Turn 3 Blightsteel? Sounds fair to me!
If you don't get the turn 3 Blightsteel, it's far more reasonable to expect something simple and plausible like double Wurmcoil Engine. Or Wurmcoil + Lodestone Golem. Or basically any mix of fatties and you win!
Ok, so that's the combo side of the deck, now lets take a look at the mana denial portion. Chalice of the Void is one of the most powerful cards in Legacy because the rest of the format is so quick. Remember that card Mental Misstep that got banned because it completely warped the format? This is an infinite amount of Mental Missteps and can completely lock some opponents right out of the game before they take a first turn! RUG Delver, for example, can only play Tarmogoyf, Daze, and Force of Will. While those are good cards, thats simply going to lose to a full deck of robots.
Trinisphere is another card that many decks simply can't beat. Trinisphere + Wasteland can completely lock opponents out from casting spells, and provides free wins against most combo decks. I remember one crazy game I had against Dredge when I curved a turn 1 Tormod's Crypt into a turn 2 Trinisphere and he found himself completely locked out of the game. He couldn't cast any spells because he only has 13 lands in his deck (and I wastelanded one), and he couldn't just draw-discard-dredge because of the Crypt. 2 turns later I was swinging in with a Wurmcoil Engine and he quickly scooped it up.
Lodestone Golem is actually one of your best pieces of disruption because he is also a completely legitimate win condition. With 2 Sol Lands you can play him on turn 2 and push your opponent's entire game plan back a full turn. How good is a difference of one turn? How good is Remand?
Bringing everything together we have Goblin Welder. Talk about an insane card! A turn 1 unmolested Goblin Welder can completely take over a game! Thoughtseize goes from game breaking to laughably bad. Counterspells don't matter any more. Disenchant is pretty shameful. But besides making those cards worse, there are lots of other interesting uses:
Exiling lots of creatures with Duplicant
Destroying tons of lands with Sundering Titan (triggers when it dies too!)
Tons of value with Wurmcoil Engine
Shoot for 2 a turn with Staff of Nin (when you have 2 Welders)
Rebuying Tormod's Crypt
Manipulating combat by getting rid of Silent Arbiter/Ensnaring Bridge then putting it back (when you have 2 Welders)
Changing the target for Phyrexian Revoker
Saving creatures from removal spells or Swords to Plowshares
Basically the guy is the stone cold nuts! I have so many great stories with Goblin Welder I don't even know where to start! I remember I was playing against Reanimator with Show and Tell, so game 2 I played a first turn Tormod's Crypt and Goblin Welder. 3 turns later her cast Show and Tell so I dropped in a Duplicant. Then for the rest of the game I was able to exile every creature he had as I flip flopped between Duplicant and Crypt with the Welder without investing any cards! One thing that is worth pointing out is that he is a 1-drop so he doesn't play well with Chalice of the Void on 1. However if you cast Welder with a Cavern of Souls it can't be countered so it does right through.
In the sideboard we have a couple interesting cards that are with noting. Obviously Tormod's Crypt is to stop any graveyard strategies. The extra trinisphere is there for combo decks (it makes any spell cast off Omniscience cost 3 colorless, so it shuts down that deck). The extra Wurmcoil Engine is there for deck tuning. In matchups with lots of creatures or burn Wurmcoil completely shuts down their game plan. Phyrexian Revoker is there as a tool whenever you need to beat certain cards. For example there is the Death and Taxes deck which is reasonably popular. Naming Mangara of Corondor removes their only viable manner of them beating you because you go so much bigger (If you get multiple Phyrexian Revokers it's usually right to have them all name Managara of Corondor in case of Flickerwisp or Swords to Plowshares). Finally the sideboard rounds out with 3 Ensnaring Bridge and 2 Silent Arbiters. These are both used to beat creatures, but of different varieties. Silent Arbiter beats Goblins, Merfolk, Zoo. Enscaring Bridge can also beat those decks, but is also good vs reanimator where Silent Arbiter is pretty poor.
Overall this deck has been really good to me, and I have been very impressed with it! I am currently working on acquiring the cards to actually construct it for myself, and when I do hopefully I can win some money IRL. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Make All of the Mana! (part 2)
Hello everyone!
I am back once again for part 2 of the infinite mana series! I have a lot more cool combos and interactions that can help you cast your 9001/9001 Phyrexian Marauders and Shifting Walls (it's over 9000!), so let's dive on in!
Part 1
Combo 11: Powerful Artifacts
Cards:
1x Power Artifact (Antiquities)
1x Grim Monolith (Urza's Legacy)
Combo:
1 - Enchant Grim Monolith with Power Artifact
2 - Tap Grim Monolith for 3 mana
o3
3 - Because of Power Artifact, it only costs 2 mana to untap Grim Monolith
o1
Repeat steps 2 - 3 infinitely to produce 1 additional colorless mana each cycle through
Other cards to try:
Basalt Monolith
Combo 12: Aggravated Elves
Cards:
1x Aggravated Assault (Onslaught)
6x Mana Producing creatures
Combo:
1 - Tap creatures for 6 mana
2 - Use Aggravated Assault to untap all your creatures
Repeat steps 1-2 for infinite mana
Combo 13: Izzet Reset Yet?
Cards:
1x Reset (Legends)
1x Izzet Guildmage (Guildpact)
Combo:
1 - On your opponent's turn, cast Reset
2 - Retaining priority on the stack, copy Reset with your Izzet Guildmage, floating mana from your other untapped lands
3 - Let the Guildmage trigger resolve and untap your lands
Repeat steps 2 - 3 for infinite mana
Combo 14: Elder Maze
Cards:
1x Argothian Elder (Urza's Saga)
1x Maze of Ith (The Dark)
Combo:
1 - Declare Argothian Elder as an attacker
2 - Target Elder with your Maze of Ith to untap it. It is still defined as an attacker
3 - Tap Argothian Elder to untap Maze of Ith and a mana-producing land
4 - Float a mana from the non-maze land
Repeat steps 2-4 infinitely to net 1 mana per cycle. Remember that all your mana in the pool will clear at the end of combat
Combo 15: Doubling Sage
Cards:
1x Filigree Sages (Shards of Alara)
1x Doubling Cube (Fifth Dawn)
Combo:
Start with 9U mana in your mana pool and both combo pieces in play untapped
9U
1 - Pay 3 mana to use your Doubling Cube
6U
2 - Resolve Doubling Cube's Ability
12UU
3 - Use Filigree Sages to untap Doubling Cube
10U
Repeat steps 1-3 infinitely to generate exponentially more mana for each repetition
Combo 16: Oooooze
Cards:
1x Necrotic Ooze (Scars of Mirrodin)
1x Devoted Druid (Shadowmoore)
1x Morselhoarder (Shadowmoore)
Combo:
Start with Necrotic Ooze in play without summoning sickness, and have Devoted Druid and Morselhoarder in your graveyard
1 - Tap Necrotic Ooze to add a green to the mana pool
2 - Put a -1/-1 counter on Necrotic Ooze to untap it
3 - Remove a -1/-1 counter from Necrotic Ooze to add a mana of every color to your pool
Repeating steps 1-3 infinitely will produce a Green mana and a mana of any color you want each time through.
Other cards to try:
Grim Poppet, Experiment Kraj
Combo 17: Phyrexian Melira
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Cards:
1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast (New Phyrexia)
1x Creature with Persist (Shadowmoore/Eventide)
1x Phyrexian Altar (Invasion)
Combo:
Start with all 3 cards in play
1 - Sacrifice the Persist creature to Phyrexian Altar to produce a mana of any color
2 - The Persist trigger will go on the stack and return the creature to play
3 - Melira prevents creatures you control from having -1/-1 counters placed on them, so the Persist creature will return to the battlefield without any counters on it
Repeating steps 1-3 infinitely will produce one mana of any color each cycle. Any creature with persist will work for this combo, but undying will not.
Combo 18: Curio... Very Alluren
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Cards:
1x Cloudstone Curio (Ravnica)
1x Aluren (Tempest)
1x Cloud of Faeries (Urza's Legacy)
1x Any creature CMC 3 or less
Combo:
Start with Aluren and Cloudstone Curio in play
1 - Tap two lands and float their mana
2 - Cast Cloud of Faeries without paying its mana cost with Aluren
3 - Cloud of Faeries will untap two of your lands
4 - Play any creature with CMC 3 or less (another Cloud of Faeries works!) for free with Aluren
5 - When that creature enters the battlefield, it will trigger Cloudstone Curio and you can return Cloud of Faeries back to your hand
6 - Tap two lands floating their mana
7 - Cast Cloud of Faeries without paying its mana cost with Aluren
8 - Cloud of Faeries will untap two of your lands
9 - When Cloud of Faeries enters the battlefield, it will trigger Cloudstone Curio and can return the other creature you have in play back to your hand
Repeating steps 4 - 9 infinitely will produce 2 lands worth of mana every cycle through.
Combo 19: Oh Glory Days!
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Cards:
1x Falkenrath Aristocrat (Dark Ascension)
1x Angel of Glory's Rise (Avacyn Restored)
1x Fiend Hunter (Innistrad)
1x Avacyn's Pilgrim (Innistrad)
1x Zealous Conscripts (Avacyn Restored)
Combo:
Start with Falkenrath Aristocrat in play. Fiend Hunter, Avacyn's Pilgrim, and Zealous Conscripts are all in your graveyard. Angel of Glory Rise can either be in your hand or in the Graveyard.
1 - Put Angel of Glory's Rise into play either by casting or reanimating
2 - Angel's trigger will return Avacyn's Pilgrim, Fiend Hunter, and Zealous Conscripts from your graveyard to play
3 - Fiend Hunter's Trigger will target Angel of Glory's Rise
4 - Zealous Conscripts' trigger will target Avacyn's Pilgrim
5 - Tap Avacyn's Pilgrim for a white mana
6 - Sacrifice Zealous Conscripts, Avacyn's Pilgrim, and Fiend Hunter to Falkenrath Aristocrat. Make a point to sacrifice Fiend Hunter last
7 - Fiend Hunter leaving play will return Angel of Glory's Rise to the battlefield
Repeating steps 2-7 infinitely will produce one white mana through every iteration and Falkenrath Aristocrat will get 3 +1/+1 counters. Normally I wouldn't have included this combo because 5 cards is a little too much to be considered consistent however all of these cards are from Innistrad block. Shouta Yasooka played all of these cards together at PT Avacyn Restored, and having access to the infinite combo was very helpful (although in the PT it's more the infinitely sized Falkenrath Aristocrat that matters more than the mana). Another card that works in the combo is Huntmaster of the Fells. If we replaced Avacyn's Pilgrim and Zealous Conscripts with a Huntmaster of the Fells we would gain infinite life and get infinite 2/2 wolves into play instead of infinite white mana.
Combo 20: Infinite Cockroaches!
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Cards:
1x Endless Cockroaches (Portal)
1x Aluren (Tempest)
1x Phyrexian Altar (Invasion)
Combo:
Start wth Aluren and Phyrexian Altar in play
1 - Cast Endless Cockraoches for free with Aluren
2 - Sacrifice Endless Cockroaches to Phyrexian Altar to produce a mana of any color
3 - When Endless Cockroaches dies it will trigger and return back to your hand
Repeating steps 1-3 infinitely will produce a mana of any color each iteration.
There are tons more infinite mana combos out there! I'm sure I will be able to make a third installment to the infinite mana series soon (Misthollow Griffen + Food Chain!). But that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
I am back once again for part 2 of the infinite mana series! I have a lot more cool combos and interactions that can help you cast your 9001/9001 Phyrexian Marauders and Shifting Walls (it's over 9000!), so let's dive on in!
Part 1
Combo 11: Powerful Artifacts
Cards:
1x Power Artifact (Antiquities)
1x Grim Monolith (Urza's Legacy)
Combo:
1 - Enchant Grim Monolith with Power Artifact
2 - Tap Grim Monolith for 3 mana
o3
3 - Because of Power Artifact, it only costs 2 mana to untap Grim Monolith
o1
Repeat steps 2 - 3 infinitely to produce 1 additional colorless mana each cycle through
Other cards to try:
Basalt Monolith
Combo 12: Aggravated Elves
Cards:
1x Aggravated Assault (Onslaught)
6x Mana Producing creatures
Combo:
1 - Tap creatures for 6 mana
2 - Use Aggravated Assault to untap all your creatures
Repeat steps 1-2 for infinite mana
Combo 13: Izzet Reset Yet?
Cards:
1x Reset (Legends)
1x Izzet Guildmage (Guildpact)
Combo:
1 - On your opponent's turn, cast Reset
2 - Retaining priority on the stack, copy Reset with your Izzet Guildmage, floating mana from your other untapped lands
3 - Let the Guildmage trigger resolve and untap your lands
Repeat steps 2 - 3 for infinite mana
Combo 14: Elder Maze
Cards:
1x Argothian Elder (Urza's Saga)
1x Maze of Ith (The Dark)
Combo:
1 - Declare Argothian Elder as an attacker
2 - Target Elder with your Maze of Ith to untap it. It is still defined as an attacker
3 - Tap Argothian Elder to untap Maze of Ith and a mana-producing land
4 - Float a mana from the non-maze land
Repeat steps 2-4 infinitely to net 1 mana per cycle. Remember that all your mana in the pool will clear at the end of combat
Combo 15: Doubling Sage
Cards:
1x Filigree Sages (Shards of Alara)
1x Doubling Cube (Fifth Dawn)
Combo:
Start with 9U mana in your mana pool and both combo pieces in play untapped
9U
1 - Pay 3 mana to use your Doubling Cube
6U
2 - Resolve Doubling Cube's Ability
12UU
3 - Use Filigree Sages to untap Doubling Cube
10U
Repeat steps 1-3 infinitely to generate exponentially more mana for each repetition
Combo 16: Oooooze
Cards:
1x Necrotic Ooze (Scars of Mirrodin)
1x Devoted Druid (Shadowmoore)
1x Morselhoarder (Shadowmoore)
Combo:
Start with Necrotic Ooze in play without summoning sickness, and have Devoted Druid and Morselhoarder in your graveyard
1 - Tap Necrotic Ooze to add a green to the mana pool
2 - Put a -1/-1 counter on Necrotic Ooze to untap it
3 - Remove a -1/-1 counter from Necrotic Ooze to add a mana of every color to your pool
Repeating steps 1-3 infinitely will produce a Green mana and a mana of any color you want each time through.
Other cards to try:
Grim Poppet, Experiment Kraj
Combo 17: Phyrexian Melira
Cards:
1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast (New Phyrexia)
1x Creature with Persist (Shadowmoore/Eventide)
1x Phyrexian Altar (Invasion)
Combo:
Start with all 3 cards in play
1 - Sacrifice the Persist creature to Phyrexian Altar to produce a mana of any color
2 - The Persist trigger will go on the stack and return the creature to play
3 - Melira prevents creatures you control from having -1/-1 counters placed on them, so the Persist creature will return to the battlefield without any counters on it
Repeating steps 1-3 infinitely will produce one mana of any color each cycle. Any creature with persist will work for this combo, but undying will not.
Combo 18: Curio... Very Alluren
Cards:
1x Cloudstone Curio (Ravnica)
1x Aluren (Tempest)
1x Cloud of Faeries (Urza's Legacy)
1x Any creature CMC 3 or less
Combo:
Start with Aluren and Cloudstone Curio in play
1 - Tap two lands and float their mana
2 - Cast Cloud of Faeries without paying its mana cost with Aluren
3 - Cloud of Faeries will untap two of your lands
4 - Play any creature with CMC 3 or less (another Cloud of Faeries works!) for free with Aluren
5 - When that creature enters the battlefield, it will trigger Cloudstone Curio and you can return Cloud of Faeries back to your hand
6 - Tap two lands floating their mana
7 - Cast Cloud of Faeries without paying its mana cost with Aluren
8 - Cloud of Faeries will untap two of your lands
9 - When Cloud of Faeries enters the battlefield, it will trigger Cloudstone Curio and can return the other creature you have in play back to your hand
Repeating steps 4 - 9 infinitely will produce 2 lands worth of mana every cycle through.
Combo 19: Oh Glory Days!
Cards:
1x Falkenrath Aristocrat (Dark Ascension)
1x Angel of Glory's Rise (Avacyn Restored)
1x Fiend Hunter (Innistrad)
1x Avacyn's Pilgrim (Innistrad)
1x Zealous Conscripts (Avacyn Restored)
Combo:
Start with Falkenrath Aristocrat in play. Fiend Hunter, Avacyn's Pilgrim, and Zealous Conscripts are all in your graveyard. Angel of Glory Rise can either be in your hand or in the Graveyard.
1 - Put Angel of Glory's Rise into play either by casting or reanimating
2 - Angel's trigger will return Avacyn's Pilgrim, Fiend Hunter, and Zealous Conscripts from your graveyard to play
3 - Fiend Hunter's Trigger will target Angel of Glory's Rise
4 - Zealous Conscripts' trigger will target Avacyn's Pilgrim
5 - Tap Avacyn's Pilgrim for a white mana
6 - Sacrifice Zealous Conscripts, Avacyn's Pilgrim, and Fiend Hunter to Falkenrath Aristocrat. Make a point to sacrifice Fiend Hunter last
7 - Fiend Hunter leaving play will return Angel of Glory's Rise to the battlefield
Repeating steps 2-7 infinitely will produce one white mana through every iteration and Falkenrath Aristocrat will get 3 +1/+1 counters. Normally I wouldn't have included this combo because 5 cards is a little too much to be considered consistent however all of these cards are from Innistrad block. Shouta Yasooka played all of these cards together at PT Avacyn Restored, and having access to the infinite combo was very helpful (although in the PT it's more the infinitely sized Falkenrath Aristocrat that matters more than the mana). Another card that works in the combo is Huntmaster of the Fells. If we replaced Avacyn's Pilgrim and Zealous Conscripts with a Huntmaster of the Fells we would gain infinite life and get infinite 2/2 wolves into play instead of infinite white mana.
Combo 20: Infinite Cockroaches!
Cards:
1x Endless Cockroaches (Portal)
1x Aluren (Tempest)
1x Phyrexian Altar (Invasion)
Combo:
Start wth Aluren and Phyrexian Altar in play
1 - Cast Endless Cockraoches for free with Aluren
2 - Sacrifice Endless Cockroaches to Phyrexian Altar to produce a mana of any color
3 - When Endless Cockroaches dies it will trigger and return back to your hand
Repeating steps 1-3 infinitely will produce a mana of any color each iteration.
There are tons more infinite mana combos out there! I'm sure I will be able to make a third installment to the infinite mana series soon (Misthollow Griffen + Food Chain!). But that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
How to Win Victoriously
Hello Everyone!
I have a sad confession to make: I have not played a single game of sanctioned Standard since RTR came out. Unfortunately I have been so busy at school that my magic playing has been restricted to mostly just playing on Cockatrice, which naturally lends itself to Legacy because that's my favorite format. I have been playing a huge variety of decks online: UBr Storm, Epic Experiment High Tide, Metalworker, Goblins, RUG Delver, White Merfolk, Goblins, and Zombies. Outside of magic I have my classes, but I have also been playing a bunch of sports - club Ultimate Frisbee, Intramural Ultimate Frisbee, club Underwater Hockey, and Intramural Soccer.
Today I had our second Intramural Soccer game of the season, and it was very thought provoking. We won 12-0, but the game was cut short because of the mercy rule. I spent the whole time jogging, and switched into goalie for almost half the game, but still scored 6 of the team goals.
I try very hard to be a nice person to everyone, even if I REALLY don't want to. While there is the whole "you never know when you may cross paths again" reasoning for never having poor relationships with people (which I have already had that happen numerous times to me!), I feel that it's always better to leave a positive impression on people.
So now we reach our moral dilemma: how do I maintain being a nice person that doesn't boast but still celebrate with my team? I don't want to play in such a way that completely obliterates my opponent, but at the same time I don't want to change my play skill dramatically down so they know I'm going easy on them - that's even more humiliating.
I ultimately played pretty soft over the course of the game, and sent myself back to goalkeeper for as much as I could. While goalkeeping I made a point to never catch the ball but just bounce it back out and I would try to send it to the middle as much as possible to allow for maximum scoring opportunities. When playing on the field I wouldn't attack the ball in between their legs, but instead back up a little bit and just capitalize on a mistake. I kept all celebrating to simple high fives.
I feel like I did the best I could to remain humble and not incite issues over the course of the game. No one likes to play against someone who is a bad sport. I'm sure we have all been there - they beat you and act like douchebags the whole time and rub it in your face. Or they lose and they blame a million irrelevant reasons why they lost and start insulting you for that loss.
The parallel to magic here is pretty obvious as magic is often seen as an intellectual sport by those who play. Sports incite competitiveness, and there can often be a dichotomy where a very competitive person goes against someone who really doesn't know what they're doing. In a tournament, where you are thinking win or bust, this can often lean to some unsportsmanlike conduct, but you can't lose 10 yards in a Magic tournament. I remember a while back I read an article on channelfireball which included this expertly drawn graph:
In case if the picture doesn't go through clearly the axis on the graph are "Niceness" on the Y axis and "Skill at Magic" over the X axis. The dramatic low point is the PTQ grinder that can't quite make it onto the Pro Tour.
This is a very simple, yet amazingly elegant display of how I feel about competitive magic players sometimes. There are obviously always exceptions - one of my friends finally qualified for Pro Tour Return to Ravnica and there was much rejoicing because he is a huge friend to everyone, and is never a douche. He made day 2 and finished with a 7-8-1 record, which is very respectable in my opinion. There are, however, many players I know to be complete assholes. One of them made Pro Tour Avacyn Restored and went 1-7 and I felt vindicated.
So bringing ourselves back full circle - how can we win and make ourselves better at magic while at the same time not dropping ourselves down that trench? There's all kinds of little things that you can do over the course of the game that I feel makes it more pleasant for both players. Here's a couple things I have picked up:
1 - Respect your opponent. Beat them too, but also respect them as a person.
2 - Friendly banter before a match is always a good idea. Don't just try to get a little information about their deck before the match starts
3 - Explain why you're calling a judge before you do so that they aren't suspicious of your motives
4 - Don't be overly dramatic with any play, especially when you topdeck the win. Tricky plays or combos should be done in a friendly manner, but never in a rub-in manner
5 - Be clear in all communication, and avoid shady behavior
6 - At the end of the game, always offer the hand and GG if you lose. If you win, only shake their hand if they offer it first. Some people may see the hand shake as a rub-in if they are angry about their loss
7 - If you want to make fun of your opponent after the game, don't do it in the venue where they or their friend could overhear you
8 - If you want to talk about the game afterwards in the venue, especially if they're within earshot, make them out to be an honorable intelligent player
9 - Don't gloat, brag, or complain. You can get your feeling of victory or frustration out of you, but do so without being too animated and inciting others
Some of this stuff should be intuitive, but I feel that every time I go to an event I see almost every one of these points broken, and people getting pissed and tilted. Aren't you glad you won? No one likes you now. Oh you lost? Now I'm never going to hear the end of it.
I think an amazing example of great sportsmanship is Stanislav Cifka. Here's his finals match vs Yuuya Wantanabe He was playing the most non-interactive possible for the Pro Tour, but did so with a charismatic smile and never gloated. When comboing out, when it is clear the opponent has nothing he played his hand face-up and dramatically increased the speed of his actions. Neither he nor his opponent would have to suffer too long once the combo went off. The biggest thing I want to point out though is when Yuuya disrupts the combo with his Deathrite Shaman in the finals at 1:46:00 Cifka did not get frustrated and angry. Instead he just looked at the life, declared Yuuya was at 1, and then continued as if nothing happened. The players were miced up so you could hear their (limited) conversations, and so we all know there wasn't any aggressive banter between them. After Cifka set himself up to win again Yuuya conceded and Cifka was friendly about the match. That's the right way to win.
It's interesting how winning can actually be so much harder than losing beyond obviously gameplay. Sportsmanship is an essential part of the game, and being able to eliminate that trench is essential to help Magic have a better public reputation. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
I have a sad confession to make: I have not played a single game of sanctioned Standard since RTR came out. Unfortunately I have been so busy at school that my magic playing has been restricted to mostly just playing on Cockatrice, which naturally lends itself to Legacy because that's my favorite format. I have been playing a huge variety of decks online: UBr Storm, Epic Experiment High Tide, Metalworker, Goblins, RUG Delver, White Merfolk, Goblins, and Zombies. Outside of magic I have my classes, but I have also been playing a bunch of sports - club Ultimate Frisbee, Intramural Ultimate Frisbee, club Underwater Hockey, and Intramural Soccer.
Today I had our second Intramural Soccer game of the season, and it was very thought provoking. We won 12-0, but the game was cut short because of the mercy rule. I spent the whole time jogging, and switched into goalie for almost half the game, but still scored 6 of the team goals.
I try very hard to be a nice person to everyone, even if I REALLY don't want to. While there is the whole "you never know when you may cross paths again" reasoning for never having poor relationships with people (which I have already had that happen numerous times to me!), I feel that it's always better to leave a positive impression on people.
So now we reach our moral dilemma: how do I maintain being a nice person that doesn't boast but still celebrate with my team? I don't want to play in such a way that completely obliterates my opponent, but at the same time I don't want to change my play skill dramatically down so they know I'm going easy on them - that's even more humiliating.
I ultimately played pretty soft over the course of the game, and sent myself back to goalkeeper for as much as I could. While goalkeeping I made a point to never catch the ball but just bounce it back out and I would try to send it to the middle as much as possible to allow for maximum scoring opportunities. When playing on the field I wouldn't attack the ball in between their legs, but instead back up a little bit and just capitalize on a mistake. I kept all celebrating to simple high fives.
I feel like I did the best I could to remain humble and not incite issues over the course of the game. No one likes to play against someone who is a bad sport. I'm sure we have all been there - they beat you and act like douchebags the whole time and rub it in your face. Or they lose and they blame a million irrelevant reasons why they lost and start insulting you for that loss.
The parallel to magic here is pretty obvious as magic is often seen as an intellectual sport by those who play. Sports incite competitiveness, and there can often be a dichotomy where a very competitive person goes against someone who really doesn't know what they're doing. In a tournament, where you are thinking win or bust, this can often lean to some unsportsmanlike conduct, but you can't lose 10 yards in a Magic tournament. I remember a while back I read an article on channelfireball which included this expertly drawn graph:
In case if the picture doesn't go through clearly the axis on the graph are "Niceness" on the Y axis and "Skill at Magic" over the X axis. The dramatic low point is the PTQ grinder that can't quite make it onto the Pro Tour.
This is a very simple, yet amazingly elegant display of how I feel about competitive magic players sometimes. There are obviously always exceptions - one of my friends finally qualified for Pro Tour Return to Ravnica and there was much rejoicing because he is a huge friend to everyone, and is never a douche. He made day 2 and finished with a 7-8-1 record, which is very respectable in my opinion. There are, however, many players I know to be complete assholes. One of them made Pro Tour Avacyn Restored and went 1-7 and I felt vindicated.
So bringing ourselves back full circle - how can we win and make ourselves better at magic while at the same time not dropping ourselves down that trench? There's all kinds of little things that you can do over the course of the game that I feel makes it more pleasant for both players. Here's a couple things I have picked up:
1 - Respect your opponent. Beat them too, but also respect them as a person.
2 - Friendly banter before a match is always a good idea. Don't just try to get a little information about their deck before the match starts
3 - Explain why you're calling a judge before you do so that they aren't suspicious of your motives
4 - Don't be overly dramatic with any play, especially when you topdeck the win. Tricky plays or combos should be done in a friendly manner, but never in a rub-in manner
5 - Be clear in all communication, and avoid shady behavior
6 - At the end of the game, always offer the hand and GG if you lose. If you win, only shake their hand if they offer it first. Some people may see the hand shake as a rub-in if they are angry about their loss
7 - If you want to make fun of your opponent after the game, don't do it in the venue where they or their friend could overhear you
8 - If you want to talk about the game afterwards in the venue, especially if they're within earshot, make them out to be an honorable intelligent player
9 - Don't gloat, brag, or complain. You can get your feeling of victory or frustration out of you, but do so without being too animated and inciting others
Some of this stuff should be intuitive, but I feel that every time I go to an event I see almost every one of these points broken, and people getting pissed and tilted. Aren't you glad you won? No one likes you now. Oh you lost? Now I'm never going to hear the end of it.
I think an amazing example of great sportsmanship is Stanislav Cifka. Here's his finals match vs Yuuya Wantanabe He was playing the most non-interactive possible for the Pro Tour, but did so with a charismatic smile and never gloated. When comboing out, when it is clear the opponent has nothing he played his hand face-up and dramatically increased the speed of his actions. Neither he nor his opponent would have to suffer too long once the combo went off. The biggest thing I want to point out though is when Yuuya disrupts the combo with his Deathrite Shaman in the finals at 1:46:00 Cifka did not get frustrated and angry. Instead he just looked at the life, declared Yuuya was at 1, and then continued as if nothing happened. The players were miced up so you could hear their (limited) conversations, and so we all know there wasn't any aggressive banter between them. After Cifka set himself up to win again Yuuya conceded and Cifka was friendly about the match. That's the right way to win.
It's interesting how winning can actually be so much harder than losing beyond obviously gameplay. Sportsmanship is an essential part of the game, and being able to eliminate that trench is essential to help Magic have a better public reputation. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
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