-Greg
I'll skip the clever introductions this week and cut right to the chase. At the first Sealed event I did with Zen/Zen/Zen/WWK/WWK/WWK, I opened the following pool:
White
2 Kitesale Apprentice
Steppe Lynx
Apex hawks
Lightkeeper of Emeria
Nimbus Wings
Journey to Nowhere
Arrow Volley Trap
Windborn Charge
Rest for the Weary
Cliff Threader
Ruin Ghost
Brave the Elements
Sheildmate's Blessing
Blue
Mindbreak Trap
Jwar Shapeshifter
Spell Pierce
Dispel
AEther Tradewinds
Spell Contortion
Caller of Gales
Quest for Ancient Secrets
Shoal Serpent
2 Twitch
Kraken Hatchling
Calcite Snapper
Sejiri Merfolk
Gomozoa
Windrider Eel
Horizon Drake
Wind Zendikon
Paralyzing Grasp
Black
Abyssal Persecutor
Needlebite Trap
Urge to Feed
Dead Reckoning
Quag Vampires
Corrupted Zendikon
Soul Stair Expedition
Mindles Null
Disfigure
Heartstabber Mosquito
Red
Pyromancer Ascension
2 Skitter of Lizards
Spire Barage
Magma Rift
Molten Ravager
Shatterskull Giant
2 Cosi's Ravager
Torchslinger
Bladetusk Boar
Plated Geopede
Green
Timbermaw Larva
Relic Crush
Nature's Claim
Leatherback Baloth
Gnarlid Pack
Arbor Elf
Snapping Creeper
Grappler Spider
2 Slingbow Trap
Oran-Rief Recluse
Khalni-Heart Expedition
Baloth Cage Trap
Oran-Rief Survivalist
Nature's Claim
Graypelt Hunter
Land
Sejiri Refuge
Aride Mesa
Quicksand
Halimar Depths
Greypelt Refuge
Khalni Garden
Bojuka Bog
Piranha Marsh
Artifact
Amulet of Vigor
Expedition Map
Explorer's Scope
Kitesail
Pilgrim's Eye
Evaluating the bombs
Normally when opening a sealed pool, I start by figuring out which, if any, of my cards are truly "bombs." That is, which of these cards will create an amazing board presence for me, and will reliably help me win any game in which it's cast? Sadly, this pool was a little short on bombs. Abyssal Persecutor is a face-smashing machine, but there was no way I was going to be able to play him and remove him with any consistency. Pyromancer's Ascension is worthless, as there is no way you can open a bunch of the same, good instants and sorceries. Since Amulet of Vigor, Jwar Shapeshifter, and Mindbreak Trap were all equally worthless, I pretty much had to rely on the power of my commons and uncommons to get there every game.
Almost bombs
So what are we left to win with? Well, quite a bit actually. Fliers are worth almost any premium cost associated with them, and here we have some very strong options. Lightkeeper of Emeria is a really strong card, bringing the beats overhead while boosting your life total. Blue also gives us the very powerful Windrider Eel, cheap beats in Horizon Drake, and the surprisingly fast Wind Zendikon. While Bladetusk Boar isn't much of a flier, the intimidate ability means he can start smashing most decks within a relatively short amount of time.
Black, since I'm missing most relevant vampires, lacks much of a bite (har har har). Green presents another interesting conundrum: The meat is there, but not in a form that is easy to cast unless we dedicate ourselves to playing forests in abundance. Timbermaw Larva hits hard, but only if you have lots of trees. Leatherback Baloth is a huge body for a reasonable cost, but it's a very specific cost that makes it very difficult to cast.
At this point, it looks like we're going to have to go with some combination of red, blue, or white.
The Rest
So, now that we've anaylized our win conditions, our next step will be to analyze each color's abillity to remove threats, fix mana, and the strength of utility cards.
Tune into the next installment, where I'll do just that, and show you guys the final forty I decided on. Thanks for reading!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Insert Clever Worldwake Pun Here, pt. 1
-Greg
I'm going to have to open with an apology.
Despite the obvious love MTG players, and internet blog readers in general, have for puns - today I am offering none. In a world full of "Worldwake up!" and radio DJs poking fun at the new iPad, I'm afraid all the good puns have been made, repeated, and hammered into oblivion by appearing in demotivational posters and lolcats pictures. The ship has sailed, as it were, so instead of making the lot of you groan at my lack of wit... I'm going to make you groan by writing a two-part post that's way too long!
But, anyway, since this is an MTG blog, let me stop complaining about puns and move onto what the MTGnet is up in arms about: Worldwake.
Being two people who love eating poorly almost as much as we like slinging cards, the wife and I threw our dice and sleeves in our pockets and headed to the Midnight Prerelease Worldwake Nerdapalooza 2010 (not their official title, but I heard a lot of people referring to the event as the MPWN2010... Ok, not really. Sorry to lie to you in the opener). Despite everything happening either at a the time of day that can arguably be called either way too late or way too early, or the day after, we both went home pleased with the time we had spent. My hat goes off to the guys at Pastimes for holding yet another enjoyable, well-organized event. Thanks, guys!
Casual Magic
We go to a lot of large events, sometimes driving several hours at a time to slug it out at PTQs and 1/5Ks, but until last weekend we had never ventured out to check out a big casual event. I gotta tell ya, we might start doing it more - and I urge you guys to do the same. As I've written about before, casual players are friendly as hell. They're as excited by the cards as they are the game itself, and playing a few rounds against people who didn't show up with only winning in mind was a really pleasant change of pace for the two of us.
This slightly-shifted player base is bizarre and interesting compared to the usual teens/twenties dudefest we usually run into. There were adults there, some professional guys in business-casual attire. There were some older people, which I love to see, including a friendly gentleman who must have been 70 years old. There were kids, some of whom must have been ten or younger. There were girls there (more than a dozen out of around 150 on the second day), and they seemed to be having an awesome time. It was a really cool mish-mash of people who you would never expect to all be in the same room together, let alone having fun together - and the resulting sense of community was truly humbling. There we were, spread across more demographics than you'd care to count, and the end we were all united by one thing that; we were all nerds who relish in the art of cracking packs and turnin' 'em sideways.
The Event
One of the things that really helped MTG get its hooks in me at an early age is the art. Even looking way back to times before WotC could really devote the resources they currently employ, I still found myself totally enthralled by the world depicted on the card's images. Lhurgoyf was a big scary thing feeding off a graveyard. Wrath of God was a battlefield of strewn bodies. Even the guy on Forget looked like a dude who had forgotten something (aside: he's dressed like Snoop dogg). It made sense. It was impressive. I've always suspected I was not alone in this regard, and seeing the people flock this weekend to shake hands with and buy prints from featured artist Steve Argyle definitely confirmed this in my mind. I got a handful of cards signed (including my set of textless Ponders), but it took me a long time to find a moment between rounds that I could wait through the lines forming around his table. Having artists at events is a great idea, even more so when they're extremely nice guys like Steve. If anyone has a similar love for the pretty picture aspect of the game, I definitely encourage them to drop by the artist table at any event that has one. It's rare to find people who love what they do so much, and even rarer to find people so appreciative of their fans. Also, if you bring a stack of cards for signatures, make sure you slip them a couple of bucks. It's by no means mandatory, but it's a simple gesture that shows you appreciate their time as well as their art.
Another cool feature at the big events is the the Gunslinger table, where an accomplished MTG player just hangs out all day, playing any challenger in any format and handing out packs to anyone who can best them. While I have to laugh at the title a little bit, I have to laugh at myself even more for being so excited about it; The excitement is apparently infectious, as the line to trade licks with the most recent pro tour champion was always long. I was able to watch Brian Kibler play about a dozen games, and the guy was so friendly and fun that I don't think a lot of people minded the savage beatings he was handing out. Just a side note: If there's a shop out there looking to add more girls to their usual players, all I can say is hire Kibler to hang around and work the crowd. Even my own wife was swooning at this handsome bastard, to the point that she kept a seven card hand of Bitterblossom, Bitterblossom, Bitterblossom, Island, Island, Spell Snare, Watery Grave. *
Complaints
I have literally one complaint about the entire weekend: Pastimes had no way to accept a card as payment while in the motel event room. Subsequently, the motel's ATM ran out of cash, and I ended up paying for a draft with a handful of singles and a dollar in quarters. Very embarrassing. :x
Wrap it up, Already
If you, like me, have become disillusioned by the stress and work you have to put in to achieving even a moderate amount of success in competitive Magic, then hitting up one of these events is an awesome way to remember why you even got into the game in the first place. All the friendly faces, all the high-fives, and all the new friends I made really took me back to being a kid growing up in small town in Oklahoma. Back then, I had to beg my mom to drive me two towns over to track down some comic book shop or game store that I found in the phonebook, and even then there was no guarantee that they would have any cards at all. Finding someone to play with in a town of 3,000 was even more difficult, so it was pretty much my brother and me. Now, that's not to say that I didn't enjoy every second of being crushed by my brother's ridiculous decks. I just wish that we could've had access to places like this - places where we could just be ourselves - enjoy ourselves - doing something that the people around us were quick to ignore or ridicule.
______________________________________________
* This is a hand she'd normally throw back without thinking. I should probably mention that she's a pretty damn good player, with a respectable rating.
I'm going to have to open with an apology.
Despite the obvious love MTG players, and internet blog readers in general, have for puns - today I am offering none. In a world full of "Worldwake up!" and radio DJs poking fun at the new iPad, I'm afraid all the good puns have been made, repeated, and hammered into oblivion by appearing in demotivational posters and lolcats pictures. The ship has sailed, as it were, so instead of making the lot of you groan at my lack of wit... I'm going to make you groan by writing a two-part post that's way too long!
But, anyway, since this is an MTG blog, let me stop complaining about puns and move onto what the MTGnet is up in arms about: Worldwake.
Being two people who love eating poorly almost as much as we like slinging cards, the wife and I threw our dice and sleeves in our pockets and headed to the Midnight Prerelease Worldwake Nerdapalooza 2010 (not their official title, but I heard a lot of people referring to the event as the MPWN2010... Ok, not really. Sorry to lie to you in the opener). Despite everything happening either at a the time of day that can arguably be called either way too late or way too early, or the day after, we both went home pleased with the time we had spent. My hat goes off to the guys at Pastimes for holding yet another enjoyable, well-organized event. Thanks, guys!
Casual Magic
We go to a lot of large events, sometimes driving several hours at a time to slug it out at PTQs and 1/5Ks, but until last weekend we had never ventured out to check out a big casual event. I gotta tell ya, we might start doing it more - and I urge you guys to do the same. As I've written about before, casual players are friendly as hell. They're as excited by the cards as they are the game itself, and playing a few rounds against people who didn't show up with only winning in mind was a really pleasant change of pace for the two of us.
This slightly-shifted player base is bizarre and interesting compared to the usual teens/twenties dudefest we usually run into. There were adults there, some professional guys in business-casual attire. There were some older people, which I love to see, including a friendly gentleman who must have been 70 years old. There were kids, some of whom must have been ten or younger. There were girls there (more than a dozen out of around 150 on the second day), and they seemed to be having an awesome time. It was a really cool mish-mash of people who you would never expect to all be in the same room together, let alone having fun together - and the resulting sense of community was truly humbling. There we were, spread across more demographics than you'd care to count, and the end we were all united by one thing that; we were all nerds who relish in the art of cracking packs and turnin' 'em sideways.
The Event
One of the things that really helped MTG get its hooks in me at an early age is the art. Even looking way back to times before WotC could really devote the resources they currently employ, I still found myself totally enthralled by the world depicted on the card's images. Lhurgoyf was a big scary thing feeding off a graveyard. Wrath of God was a battlefield of strewn bodies. Even the guy on Forget looked like a dude who had forgotten something (aside: he's dressed like Snoop dogg). It made sense. It was impressive. I've always suspected I was not alone in this regard, and seeing the people flock this weekend to shake hands with and buy prints from featured artist Steve Argyle definitely confirmed this in my mind. I got a handful of cards signed (including my set of textless Ponders), but it took me a long time to find a moment between rounds that I could wait through the lines forming around his table. Having artists at events is a great idea, even more so when they're extremely nice guys like Steve. If anyone has a similar love for the pretty picture aspect of the game, I definitely encourage them to drop by the artist table at any event that has one. It's rare to find people who love what they do so much, and even rarer to find people so appreciative of their fans. Also, if you bring a stack of cards for signatures, make sure you slip them a couple of bucks. It's by no means mandatory, but it's a simple gesture that shows you appreciate their time as well as their art.
Another cool feature at the big events is the the Gunslinger table, where an accomplished MTG player just hangs out all day, playing any challenger in any format and handing out packs to anyone who can best them. While I have to laugh at the title a little bit, I have to laugh at myself even more for being so excited about it; The excitement is apparently infectious, as the line to trade licks with the most recent pro tour champion was always long. I was able to watch Brian Kibler play about a dozen games, and the guy was so friendly and fun that I don't think a lot of people minded the savage beatings he was handing out. Just a side note: If there's a shop out there looking to add more girls to their usual players, all I can say is hire Kibler to hang around and work the crowd. Even my own wife was swooning at this handsome bastard, to the point that she kept a seven card hand of Bitterblossom, Bitterblossom, Bitterblossom, Island, Island, Spell Snare, Watery Grave. *
Complaints
I have literally one complaint about the entire weekend: Pastimes had no way to accept a card as payment while in the motel event room. Subsequently, the motel's ATM ran out of cash, and I ended up paying for a draft with a handful of singles and a dollar in quarters. Very embarrassing. :x
Wrap it up, Already
If you, like me, have become disillusioned by the stress and work you have to put in to achieving even a moderate amount of success in competitive Magic, then hitting up one of these events is an awesome way to remember why you even got into the game in the first place. All the friendly faces, all the high-fives, and all the new friends I made really took me back to being a kid growing up in small town in Oklahoma. Back then, I had to beg my mom to drive me two towns over to track down some comic book shop or game store that I found in the phonebook, and even then there was no guarantee that they would have any cards at all. Finding someone to play with in a town of 3,000 was even more difficult, so it was pretty much my brother and me. Now, that's not to say that I didn't enjoy every second of being crushed by my brother's ridiculous decks. I just wish that we could've had access to places like this - places where we could just be ourselves - enjoy ourselves - doing something that the people around us were quick to ignore or ridicule.
______________________________________________
* This is a hand she'd normally throw back without thinking. I should probably mention that she's a pretty damn good player, with a respectable rating.
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