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

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

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

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

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