Draft Talk

So, Kimball, Brenna and I did an M11 draft last night at Pastimes. Three of the people at the table were making snarky comments literally at each of their picks. "God, THIS card shouldn't be here this late. " "Come on, people, pick up on the SIGNALS!" "Jeez, am I the only one who knows what he's doing here?"

It was super annoying. The rest of us were dead silent, respectfully drafting our decks and trying to not be distracted.

You know who lost in the first round of that draft? All three of those chumps. Kimball and I split in the finals. Sadly, Kimball knocked Brenna out of the bracket in the first round. :(

I guess the moral of the story is that it's cool to read MTG strategy articles, but don't spout out shit that you don't understand, and most importantly, be respectful of your fellow players. You shouldn't be saying anything during a draft, and you should ever be insinuating that your opponents aren't as knowledgeable or as skilled as you are.

Especially right before they destroy you.

later, suckers

-Greg

Hey, gang. I got a real life gig writing about MTG for Pastimes Events. Between the 50 hours a week I work, the two night classes I'm in, the dog I take care of, and the wife I'm trying to stay married to - well, let's say all that plus this new writing thing I'm not going to have time to update this ole blog anymore.

The site content goes live in about 3 weeks, so you guys make sure to check it out! I'll be posting content weekly, with a video every couple weeks or so.

Insert Clever Worldwake Pun Here, pt. 2

-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!

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.

Indianapolis PTQ - Almost Got There

-Greg

We arrived in Indianapolis late on Saturday night, pulling in to Pete's aunt and uncle's house around 10 pm. Even though we stayed up late poring over matchup tech and sideboard slots, they were plowing us with snacks and soda, and were genuinely amused at how a group of young adults such as ourselves preferred to spend our free time. Pete's uncle was particularly interested in the cards, especially the foils and foreign ones. I have a feeling that if we'd stayed another day we would've had him hooked on the game, too.

We arrived at the venue with enough time for everyone to scope out the decks people were registering, help Tom grab some last-minute cards, and register. There was a unusually large number of players sleeving up Affinity, which we were all a little confused by, but luckily we built our Tezz boards to double as affinity hate. Midway through writing our lists down, one Adrian Sullivan dropped by with a big smile and a box of clementines! I got this warm and fuzzy feeling of community spirit, which I quickly buried deep inside , reminding myself that between 2 and 8 of these people would be my sworn enemy for one hour each. I just hoped I didn't have to play Adrian, because I would've wanted to scoop on the spot to return his gesture of kindness.

I don't have my whole list in front of me right now, but I basically played aggro-loam with every stupid two-card combo I could think of that would fit in Naya colors. Bloodbraid Elf into Boom//Bust, Flagstones to make sure my mana denial left me a step ahead, Seismic Assault with Life from the Loam and Countryside Crusher, and Punishing Fire with Groves all gave me that "I'm an asshole for playing this" feeling. I'll post the full list later, as a lot of people seemed interested in the deck's inner workings.

On to the report!


Round 1: Dark Bant

The guy that sat down next to me I immediately recognized from the player meeting. He was trying desperately to figure out what he had messed up on his deck reg sheet, riffing through cards desperately as his strangely supportive girlfriend tried to sort it out. I took it personally how rude he was being to his lady friend, and decided to pass on calling the judges (who were busy poring over lists, anyway), and completely humiliate him in a rousing game of MTG. Of course, if Brenna's super-sleuthing abilities hadn't already tipped me off that he was playing Doran, I might have done the right thing and went to judge-town. Actually, if he were playing mono-red burn... I definitely would've called the judge. Pro tip: Have your shit together before the tournament starts.

Game 1: I chose to keep a mediocre hand of seven with relevant lands and some burn. I torched his first BoP, but he had the second on turn two to drop the third-turn Rafiq. I chuckled a little bit at facing down Rafiq before I realized that the unchecked 0/1 bird was now officially a threat. He played another land and spun the Bird sideways. I asked what color mana he wanted to make, and he says "ATTACK! ATTACK!" I said, "Go back man, declare your attack step." After this, a Path to Exile on Rafiq was all it took to put him completely on tilt. I continued playing attrition with him for a while, waiting until I got a clear read that he didn't have anymore removal in-hand by obviously tapping five lands and counting out 1-2 white mana before playing Baneslayer. He winced noticeably at this, and when she hit the table, it looked like someone had kicked him in the stomach. Of course, he drew his card, and did this cartoon-style I'm-so-relieved act and pathed her in his first main phase. Then I died to a Qasali Pridemage carrying a Jitte when I couldn't draw anything before it got to infinite counters.

sideboard: + 2 purge, + 2 runed halo, -2 something, -2 something.
For a deck that relies solely on creatures, mine were substantially better - so I decided to board in a way that would 1 for 1 him until I could burn him out. Sorry about the spotty notes I took; I didn't really take this guy seriously.

Game 2: I started off slow, forcing him to play into an attrition war with me by playing just enough creatures to trade with the ones he could ramp into, then burn everything else, including him, to the ground. The only trouble I had for the entire game was a Jitte, but every time one of his little dorks tried to pick it up I singed them with a never-ending supply of Punishing Fires. Surprisingly, I never draw anything but burn, removal, and Baneslayers... So I killed him with a Baneslayer while he was playing with an empty hand. I chuckled a little to myself when he scooped, and somehow resisted the urge to show him my hand. STILL HAD ALL THESE LIGHTNING HELICES.

Game 3: 3 went exactly like 2 with one exception: instead of Purging a Doran, I Pathed me a Rafiq.

1-0


Round 2: Affinity.

Game 1: I drop Seismic Assault on turn 3, burn lands at the end of his turn, and start casting and dredging Loam on turn 4. I continue to burn the few Ornithopters and Frogmites he can play, and eventually just whittle him down. I literally only cast two spells this entire game. It was awesome.

Board: +2 krosan grip, +3 Kataki, War's Wage, -2 assault, -3 path.
Path is awesome in this matchup because they don't have basic lands. It sucks, though, because they have Ravager. Grip and Kataki do what Path does and more.

Game 2: I eat a turn 1 Toughtsieze, and have to bin my Countryside Crusher. My hand looks a lot worse now, but I hang in there with Punishing Fire and Lightning Helix. Eventually, I look pretty much dead as the board is me with some lands, him with 2 Ravagers, 2 artifact lands, Frogmite, and a pretty scary Cranial Plating. Like the true pro I am, I rip Kataki off the top. He eventually succumbs to my furious 2/1 beats and some burn spells.

2-0


Round 3: Hypergenesis.

Game 1: Hypergenesis into Iona, naming white. I manage to stay a live for a while since I had cast multiple Lightning Helices, and have him to the point where I can burn him out with Loam+Assault if I can just untap. He swings with an exalted 8/8 Iona while I'm at 9 life, then casts Violent Outburst and chooses not to cast the cascade spell. This seriously confused me, until I realized that that made Iona get me for the last point of damage. Ouch.

Sideboard: +2 purge, +2 runed halo, -4 punishing fire and hope for the best...
I had taken out all my sideboard HG hate, so I just... Wished for the best, I guess. In hindsight, he would always name Iona to white, so I have no idea why I put in two more Purges over Punishing Fire. Runed Halo is good because you can still put it into play when they cast Hypergenesis.

Game 2: He mulls to six card, which makes my LD Heavy hand seem pretty decent. Turn 2, I Boom//Bust his land and my Flagstones, putting me a land ahead. Turn 3, I Ghost Quarter him, leaving him again with one land in play. Then I start slamming down Bloodbraids, desperately trying to hit a Boom//Bust to lock him out. Of course, it never happens, and he dumps his hand. Progenitus, Iona set to white, and TWO Darksteel Colossi. Thanks for playing.

2-1

Round 4: Mono-red Burn.

Game 1: We were just discussing the never-scoop policy in the car, and I'm glad I stuck to it. I cast the heavy half of Boom//Bust at 1 life, and win with nothing but two Goyfs on the field. Pro play, Greg!

Sideboard: +2 Celestial Purge, -2 Boom//Bust
For some inexplicable reason, I brought Gaddock Teeg to a gunfight. I would seriously learn my lesson of not packing Kitchen Finks...

Game 2: I am at 3 life with lethal damage on the board when he topdecks Bolt to burn me out.
game 3: I am at 4 life with lethal damage on the board when he topdecks Flames of the Blood Hand to burn me out.

2-2

Normally, people drop at x-2, but I didn't want to let two fluke matches ruin my run. I knew the deck could win in almost any situation, so I stuck it out, determined to play tighter.


Round 5: Almost AIR (splashing white for Path)

Game 1: I can't figure out what he's playing, so I just start grinding his manabase with Boom//Bust and Ghost Quarters. Eventually I tap out and he drops a very unexpected Thunderblust (!!!) to get in for seven. Next turn, he plays Demigod and swings in for the kill. I Quarter my own tapped Flagstones to grab a Plains, and he starts tapping lands and playing irrelvant instants to do irrelevant shit, which I should've realized was to throw me off my game. I start stacking triggers, too, burning his Thunderblust twice to kill it for good, and in the argument over timing I forget to resolve my Quarter trigger to Path his Demigod before I take the damage. I lose a totally winnable game soon after, because I let this guy throw me off my game - intentionally or not.

Sideboard: +2 purge, +2 runed halo, -2 ghost quarter, -2 punishing fire

Game 2: I play the early game around Blood Moon, making sure I can get my Plains and Forest in play so I'm not totally wrecked if he combos out. Thankfully, he comes out of the gate pretty slowly, so I Runed Halo for Demigod, and Purge/Path his Thunderblusts. He's forced to save Shrapnel Blasts for my Baneslayers, and I Loam+Assault him into submission.

Game 3: He puts me to a pretty low life before I can Purge his threats, then I cast Bloodbraid and flip Boom//Bust. He's skeptical that this trick works, but the judges assure him my tech is legit, and I'm rewarded with a board that's totally empty except for a ridiculously large Knight of the Reliquary.

3-2

Round 6: Affinity

Game 1: Just to remind everyone, I didn't play during Mirrodin block, and have never faced Affinity before this tournament. Luckily, no one was around when I was proving this to my opponent, who sacced his Ravager to itself in response to my Path to make a giant Ornithopter. I make a mental note to read the cards that I'm unfamiliar with, and we go to game two.

Sideboard: Same as before.

Game 2: I mulligan to a sick six-card hand with Kataki and spot removal. In his second turn, he goes down to one robot, giving up a land, and then plays Glimmervoid. I untap, Path his one guy, and then point to his Glimmervoid (I read the card!). He says "What? Oh shit. Nah.. Fuck it, I can't deal with this," and scoops them up.

Game 3: We grind each other down for a while, with me using my newly found knowledge of the Modular ability to play chase the counters with his Ravagers. I'm successfully matching his threats 1 for 1 for a while, Gripping his Masters of Etherium, and casting Punishing Fire in response to Ravager's Modular ability. In the end it just came down to me playing a better game than him, and after I cleared the air of Thopters, I crashed Baneslayer in for massive damage. The best lesson I learned today is that it is an awesome idea to play foreign cards. He swung a 14/2 Thopter that was carrying TWO Cranial Platings right into my Baneslayer... Who has first strike.

4-2

Round 7: Rubin Zoo
Game 1: I keep a bad hand and get crushed pretty fast.

Game 2: During his mull to four, I accidentally dropped some of his cards on the ground. I acted dumb, which in conjunction with his bad draws upset him enough that he accidentally scattered his cards all over the table. I slow-roll the burn win to push him over the edge. I am the Jedi.

Game 3: I mull to a decent six-card hand that's heavy on creatures. He plays Nacatl, Path, Goyf, Path, Deathark, Path. Not much you can do about that.

Round 8: No Show.

I got paired WAY up, and was really looking forward to hopefully doing some dream-crushing while waiting to see if the Wife would win her way into the top 16, but the guy never showed. I hope he's ok, because he had enough points to potentially win into half a box and he just... Didn't show up.

5-3

This deck is strong, and amazingly fun to play. It packs a wide range of extremely relevant threats and win conditions without being too unfocused, which gives you a number of different strategies to win that can be easily modified on-the-fly. This wide range of options isn't always good thing, however. Everything matters. Every land decision, every point of life, and every single trigger from your side or the other will affect the game more than another deck would. But that's what's so rewarding about it. Every win you pull it is based totally on your skill, and in your ability to run percentages in your head while still evaluating the strength of your and your opponent's threats. It's extremely important to remember everything the deck can do, and figure out or know how your opponent's deck works. I feel like every game loss I got (with the exception of the two nutty games against Hypergenesis) were completely within the realms of winning.

At any rate, there are some changes that need to be made. The deck needs a way to survive the burn matchup. I've been kicking some ideas around, and it's pretty much CoP: Red or Kitchen Finks - but if I run Finks, I think I want to run a single copy of Oran Rief, the Vastwood to gain massive amounts of life. It's easily tutorable with Knight of the Reliquary, but in order to make sure I can always hit RRR and WW, it will have to replace a Ghost Quarter or a take up another sideboard slot. I'm not sure if it's worth it yet.

Want to guess what my absolute best sideboard card was all day?

Runed Halo.


SERIOUSLY.


At any rate, I'd like to end this post by saying the guys from Pastime's ran a nice, tightly organized event, and the judge team were all great. I know some people dont like to play at Pastime's for whatever reason (I, myself, prefer not to attend any big event they try to hold in their shop in fear that I will be trampled by the crowd trying to escape a fire), but I definitely appreciate the way they run their larger events and treat their customers. Big thanks to Alan, Ron, and all the other guys whose names I can never remember!


Cheers!

Into the Blue

A special guest post this weekend from a fellow Team Barnabus card-slinger and good friend Luciano Leon. Hope you guys enjoy it!

-Luciano

As of this writing, blue mages have been left out in the cold. In years past, blue was the go-to color of control and tempo. Blue had control, in the form of counter spells, and tempo, in the form of Memory Lapse and bounce effects. Most competitive forms of counters and tempo cards are pretty nonexistent at the moment. Anyone hoping to stand a chance at winning in the new standard piloting a blue deck must come to grips with how to deal with Jund, where WotC has decided to put most of its card advantage.

The main reason why blue-based control experiences such an uphill battle is that its control cards are roughly a turn too slow. That is to say, slow, compared to how fast an aggressive deck can deploy its beats. The only aggressively costed counter spells are Essence Scatter and Negate. The inherent problem with running these cards is, they can catch you in an awkward position of having brought the wrong weapon into the fight. Holding a Negate in your hand while facing down a Broodmate Dragon or Baneslayer Angel on the stack is just incredibly frustrating for control players. Standard desperately needs a simple two-mana counter that does not care what spell it targets. Now, I know we are not getting Counterspell back any time soon, if ever, but I think this format calls for something like Remand. Remand costs two mana, can counter anything, and even cantrips. It isn’t a hard counter, it’s more of a tempo swing, as it returns the spell back to the caster’s hand when it counters it. It is these little incremental tempo swings that blue-based control thrives on.

Another thing blue is in dire need of is card draw at instant speed. If WotC wants to make blue reactive, that’s fine, but going a turn without accomplishing anything is not ideal. Jace Beleren can only do so much in this aspect. A step in the right direction would have been to have made divination into an instant, instead of a sorcery. It wouldn’t be too much to ask, considering the power of counter spells has been throttled down.

Even when most have all but given up on blue, there are those who continue to play Islands. Not only play Islands, but also force their opponents to do the same. Zendikar’s Spreading Seas revisits one of blue’s more quirky abilities, turning lands into Islands. As the bulk of the current card pool hails from Alara block, there are a lot of color-intensive spells being cast. A single Spreading Seas on an opponent’s Savage Lands can leave them cut off from casting relevant spells. Multiple Spreading Seas can be debilitating. This tactic has never been as relevant in the past as it is now. It is mostly effective because there is a card in M10 that adds redundancy to the strategy, Convincing Mirage, giving you effectively 8 Spreading Seas. This from of mana denial strategy can buy you a lot of time if you hit the right lands, since your opponent will be left hoping to top-deck a relevant land.

I, personally, am looking forward to whatever Worldwake brings. Blue mages everywhere will rejoice if the set brings powerful tools to pair with the recently spoiled Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Hopefully that will be the case. Even if blue continues its slump, Standard will benefit from an additional set, as it will inevitably help create new archetypes and add overall variety to the format.

Bonus - Tom is PISSED

-Greg

A bonus post for tonight, dudes. EDH with the team is always hilarious, and in this covert sound clip that Brenna took one night, you can hear Tom's extreme anger over Luciano's dick move.

What happened:

Tom has some token making monsters out, and some tokens. I have three relatively harmless Slivers. Pete has some utility guys that aren't really a threat. Luciano casts Hex to destroy six creatures. He looks around the board before pointing rapidly at Tom's guys, including his 1/1 Dragon and Saproling tokens saying "this one, this one, this one..." Tom FFO's.


Here's the File

Extended Season - Archetype Primer

-Greg

I'm afraid we aren't testing enough for extended season, especially for the decks we're home-brewing, so starting the week I get back from vacation we're going to definitely invest some more time into testing relevant matchups. "But what are the relevant matchups?" you ask. Honestly, that's pretty up in the air, as the format is this far only defined by the top Austin lists and the hypothetical bottom-line aggro speed.

Enemy number one, though, is probably going to be Tezzerator.


The Blue Deck that LSV will play - Tezzerator

What it is: Nasty. Cheap counters and removal will hold you down until they can draw or tutor up their two combo pieces (Sword of the Week + Thopter Foundry), at which point you'll die to a swarm of 1/1 Thopters. If you haven't seen the combo before, it's pretty easy to understand: Foundry allows you to sac an artifact to gain a life and get a 1/1 token. If a 1/1 creature comes into play for you and Sword of the Meek is in your graveyard, you can return it to play and attach it to the creature. If both are in play, you sac Sword to Foundry as part of the cost so it's in the yard when the ability resolves, the token comes into play, and you return the sword and stick it on the token. Then you just do it over and over again until you're out of lands to tap.

If anyone wants a good primer on how to play the deck, or a good list, you should definitely check out Luis Scott Vargas's write-up on Channel Fireball.

How you beat it: The players who will be piloting this deck are going to cover a wide range of skill levels, from inept players new to the format to competent to dangerous gun-slingers like LSV. What you've got to do is remember that this deck is built to leverage their skill against yours, so you have to play smart - even against someone who you think is a doofus. A lot of what you'll be doing are just the same things you already probably know just from playing against control in the past. Some pointers:

1. A lot of the spells you'll need you either have to get out fast, or cost 2, so you'll be either playing through or around Spell Snare and Mana Leak for the entire game. Don't walk your Tarmogoyf into an open Island.
2. Don't over-extend. Most lists run at least two Wrath/Day of Judgement main, with plenty of ways to dig for them. A good player will also be more likely to keep a hand that's good against aggro, because of the prevelance of Zoo.
   
3. Be aggressive, especially game one when you don't have targeted hate against them. If you don't win before they assemble their combo, you will not win.
4. Don't take out all your removal post-board. A lot of lists pack Baneslayer in the side, and this isn't a creature most decks can race.
   
5. Think hard about what gifts you'll be giving them. A good player will give you two options that aren't really options, either forcing you to give them the mana they need (by playing artifact lands and snow-covered lands), or giving them their missing combo pieces (by getting the cards, or things that get them anyway).
   
6. Pack hate. Keep some of it main.
   

The deck is reactionary and wins by abusing artifacts and counterspells, so you have to use cards that can fight this strategy. Try running some of these answers:

B/W Martyr of Sands

-Greg

Anyone who's ever played with my wife, or even played in the same room with her, knows this: my wife is more interested in gaining copious amounts of life than she is in winning the game. Even in decks not specifically designed to gain life, I have seen her bend her cardboard minions to her devastating will and shoot her life total into the hundreds. I remember a recent 1K she, to the chagrin of a very serious player (who was feverishly snapping the cards in his finely tuned deck), crashed an exalted Baneslayer Angel repeatedly into a wall of bird tokens, climbing quite rapidly to 246 life before he agreed to go to the third game. Even worse, before the advent of the M10 rules changes it was quite common to hear things from her like "Equip Loxodon Warhammer on my Divinity of Pride." These games were not about winning. They were about abject humiliation of an opponent; amidst a generation of boys who were raised to believe whole-heartedly in self-affirmation through the accrual of "points," - she viciously hammered (no pun intended) into their heads a startling and inescapable truth: shes has way more points than you.

Another peculiar, yet endearing, quality she has is an unabashed hatred for Extended.

"EXTENDED IS TERRIBLE." - Wife, via Twitter
"Hell no I don't want to play Extended. Let's just play Standard." - Wife, at the table
"It's boring to watch someone combo off. Why do a hobby if not to have fun?" - Wife, Via Gchat just now.
"Of course I love you; I put the knife down, didn't I?" - Wife, in the kitchen

And while that last quote isn't exactly about Extended, she does have a good point about the high level of awful a player experiences when watching their opponent play card after card with no chance of interacting with the game-state. That is boring. The magic, though, is that Extended is not legacy; there's no Ad Nauseum/Tendrils of Corruption, no Dream Halls/Conflux, and not any real combo deck that can compete with the insane level of aggro that abounds. Ok, ok, there's Hexmage/Depths - but that deck is, to be fair... Bad. The only way I can figure out that it made top 8 at Austin is that it was driven by the highly competent, and irredeemably lucky, PV. Ok, and sure, you've got your Sword of the Meek/Thopter Foundry package... Ok, that deck is good, but not unbeatable or format warping.

And don't even tell me about Dragonstorm or All-in-Red with Deus of Calamity. Unless you're just pushed to the point of drooling at a turn 1 fatty, wonky decks with unpredictable, unreliable, and unrecoverable tendencies aren't going to give you the power AND consistency you need to win, um, consistently. And powerfully.

But I digress! So now, with my wife's two most prominent MTG idiosyncrasies detailed - how was I to convince her that Extended was a fun format?

FUCKING MARTYR OF SANDS.

I have tinkered with this deck a little, and found it to be enjoyable despite how long the games tended to be. Dying with this deck on the table in front of you is harder than it should be, and the look of despair on your opponents faces when they realize how much damage they'll have to do to you is priceless. Problem was, like with Conley Woods' deck from Austin, it's equally difficult to kill with this Deck of Defense (+200 HP, +20 Defense, -1000 Attack). At first, I splashed red. Hated it. Then I splashed green. Hated it. Then I went back to Black/White. Seemed better. Then I started adding Felidar Sovereign, and we were getting somewhere. Here's the decklist:

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
2 [EVE] Fetid Heath
2 [TSP] Vesuva
2 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
3 [ZEN] Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 [GP] Godless Shrine
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
1 [SHM] Mistveil Plains
6 [M10] Plains
1 [M10] Swamp

// Creatures
1 [ZEN] Felidar Sovereign
2 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
4 [CS] Martyr of Sands
2 [PLC] Necrotic Sliver
2 [ALA] Ranger of Eos

// Spells
3 [CFX] Path to Exile
2 [M10] Diabolic Tutor
3 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
1 [SHM] Runed Halo
1 [ZEN] Sorin Markov
4 [ARE] Castigate
4 [9E] Phyrexian Arena
2 [DIS] Proclamation of Rebirth
2 [10E] Wrath of God
2 [ZEN] Day of Judgment

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 1 [SHM] Runed Halo
SB: 2 [M10] Pithing Needle
SB: 4 [PLC] Extirpate
SB: 3 [ZEN] Ravenous Trap
SB: 1 [EVE] Figure of Destiny
SB: 2 [LRW] Wispmare
SB: 1 [SOK] Kagemaro, First to Suffer

The drill is simple. Draw a shit-load of cards with Arena, gain a shit-load of life with Martyr, recur a shit-load of dudes with Emeria, kill a shit-load of lands with the Slivers, and eventually win with a hard-to-kill Sorin or a Felidar when your life total is in the upper shit-loads.

A friend recommended we try Dread Return in the main for extra flair, and I'm definitely going to try running a copy. The two Emerias bring back plenty of Necrotic Slivers (to lock them out of mana) and Martyrs (to gain gratuitous amounts of life), but I can see a situation in which you might Emeria back two Finks, sac, and dread return them for Sovereign against an opponent with no lands. Seems good, but possibly win-moreish. Another option I'm entertaining is Grim Discovery. There are lots of Ghost Quarters floating around these days, and being able to buy-back your Emeria and a dude seems like a solid plan in a deck that needs Emeria and some dudes to recur.

Anyway, I'm tired of writing for now. I'll update in the next few days or so after some playtesting with both options.

As always, comments, critique, and hate-mail are more than welcome. Hit me up!

Top 2009 States Lists from OK and KS

-Greg

Hey, guys! It's been a while, but I just wanted to drop in and hit you guys with some decklists.

While checking out the States decklists, I noticed that there was literally no place on the web where you could see the top 8 decks from Oklahoma. I know it seems weird that someone might want to see these lists, since the big OK isn't really a hopping place for MTG, but being born and raised there, I have a strange attraction to keeping up on the ole' home state. Eventually, my online research led me to the tournament organizer's email address, and he was kind enough to provide me with the finalists' decks from OK and KS States tourneys. So, without further ado, here, for the first time on the internet ever, four deep-fried, southern decks for your viewing pleasure :


drumroll

Oklahoma Champion - Gerald Sixkiller - U/W Control

4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
4 Marsh Flats
10 Plains
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Vedalken Outlander
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Emeria Angel
4 Path to Exile
4 Devout Lightcaster
4 White Knight
4 Honor the Pure

Sideboard:
2 Celestial Purge
3 Mind Control
2 Brave the Elements
4 Negate
2 Day of Judgment
2 Journey to Nowhere


Oklahoma Second Place- Tony Menzer - Jund

4 Savage Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
3 Forest
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Broodmate Dragon
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Rampant Growth
2 Terminate
4 Blightning
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Bituminous Blast
1 Chandra Nalaar

Sideboard:
4 Relic Crush
4 Jund Charm
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Mind Rot
1 Maelstrom Pulse


Kansas Champion - Michael Mead - RDW
4 Jackal Familiar
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Ball Lightning
4 Hell's Thunder
4 Goblin Guide
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Banefire
2 Earthquake
4 Teetering Peaks
18 Mountain

Sideboard:
2 Earthquake
3 Act of Treason
3 Manabarbs
2 Elemental Appeal
2 Chandra Nalaar
3 Unstable Footing



Kansas Second Place - Sean Patchen - Naya Lightsaber
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Baneslayer Angel
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Wild Nacatl
4 Wooly Thoctar
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Journey to Nowhere
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Arid Mesa
3 Plains
3 Mountain
3 Rootbound Crag
6 Forest

Sideboard
3 Acidic Slime
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Dauntless Escort
3 Luminarch Ascension
3 Unstable Footing

Testing for States - Update

-Greg

After running the GWb Junk list through a gauntlet of games, I've got to say I'm pretty happy with where it ended up. I found Putrid Leech to be pretty underwhelming, and since I was being smashed by Eldrazi decks to no end, I made the switch to Qasali Pridemage in the main. Emeria Angel was also completely ridiculous in conjunction with Knight of Reliquary and Lotus Cobra. I really think this deck is where I want it now.

Lands
5 [UNH] Forest
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
3 [UNH] Plains
2 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
3 [M10] Terramorphic Expanse
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
2 [UNH] Swamp

Creatures
2 [CFX] Thornling
4 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
3 [ZEN] Lotus Cobra
3 [ZEN] Emeria Angel
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Spells
3 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
4 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [CFX] Path to Exile

Sideboard
1 Path to Exile
4 Zealous Persecution
3 Day of Judgement
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Dauntless Escort
2 Duress


Taking it to FNM tonight to hopefully get some more games under my belt before I head off to States on Saturday. Good luck to everyone!

States

-Greg

If you've read my most recent post, you'll know I'm not exactly thrilled to play Standard. Also, if you were at Pastimes this past Saturday, you'll know that the level of hatred I have for playing Jund is probably second only to the hatred I had for last season's 5CC lists. So, with States coming up this weekend, I'm trying to hit that balance between playing a deck that is strong enough to win, and doesn't make me hate every match. Looks like I'm going back to the GWb list I ran a few weeks ago.

Here's the list. Any tips or ideas for how to strengthen it are greatly appreciated.


Lands
5 [UNH] Forest
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
3 [UNH] Plains
2 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
3 [M10] Terramorphic Expanse
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
2 [UNH] Swamp

Creatures
3 [CFX] Thornling
4 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
3 [ZEN] Lotus Cobra
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Putrid Leech
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker

Spells
3 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
4 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [CFX] Path to Exile

Sideboard
SB: 1 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 3 [M10] Duress
SB: 4 [ARB] Zealous Persecution
SB: 2 [ZEN] Day of Judgment
SB: 3 [ALA] Tidehollow Sculler
SB: 2 [ALA] Oblivion Ring

Bad Decks, Extended, Que Sera Sera

-Greg

So, despite my spotty record in the year I've been playing competitive MTG, I still can''t consider myself much of a casual player. I don't really enjoy playing EDH more than once every six months or so (although I do love to watch the games - especially if Pete and Luciano are playing. SHOUTOUT GUYS!). I find Planechase to be especially unlikeable, as each player's turn is excrutiatingly long, leaving me to watch in bordeome as everyone shouts and grabs at cards and stacks enough triggers to make me roll my eyes. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I also don't enjoy playing the inevitable 60-card formatless decks that people will always have - but for opposite reasons. Since these decks are normally carried around and piloted by people new to the game, or just getting back into it, I try to suffer through the matchups with whatever I have on me, sticking around after to offer whatever advice or new card primers I can - and while the latter part is always a good experience, I do not find the games themselve to be enjoyable. Sadly, it's as if I can't shake that need for competition and winning. Sure, casual games can test your knowledge, memory, and ability to juggle various triggers (especially true for EDH), but the thrill is just not there for me.

The best part about any casual format, something I hope most of you would agree with, is that casual players are just awesome people. EDH players always want to show you their insane combos and win conditions. New players always want to share interesting deck lists and ideas, and still have that New Player Smell® of someone who's just having a good time. Old players starting up again have cool stories about their experiences with older sets, and share my appreciation of the sort-of return to basics (or at least flavor) that M10 brought. On the flip-side, players like myself who prefer slugging out out 1v1 matches full of tricks and mind-games tend to be enormous assholes. I've heard enough sarcastic iterations of "nice deck" or "nice draw," or even straight-up aggression and resentment to losing to know that the only real joy to be had at a PTQ or higher is winning. I'm ok with that, sure, but no matter how thick-skinned I am, I still wish I could be playing these intensely competitive games with these intensely friendly people - something that only really happens when we can organize a good 8-man cube draft.

The point I'm trying to make, in a very round-about way, is that Standard right now is just not my favorite format. There are interesting ways to win, interesting cards, and there's definitely been a gauntlet thrown down by Jund (who doesn't love a challenge?) - but I can't seem to get into a format where you just do this:

1) Grab four Baneslayers
2) Add 46 support cards
3) Bash

Not to say there's no complexity or room for maneuvering, but it definitely says something when both the Channelfireball crew and Japanese national team's sickest take on the format is to run a stock Jund list with more gas. These problems were really becoming obvious to me this weekend, as Brenna took to our kitchen table with a white-weenie deck that packed only eight mana-producing lands. It was fast, scary, and cute - but by using this modified strategy...

1) Grab four Baneslayers
2) Add 46 support cards (board sweepers, stallers, mana rampers, and big dudes)
3) Survive six turns until she runs out of gas
4) Deal fifty damage in a few big swings

it was not too difficult. There are other options in the current meta, too, but they seem to fall back on similar strategies. That is, if you play Rhox War Monk, isn't he doing the same thing as Baneslayer? He's a big dude with lifelink, meant to establish board presence and lower your opponent's life total while upping yours. Throw this thinking in with a staggering glut of spot-removal, mostly irrelevant card-draw, and you've got yourself a format that's defined by creatured-driven attrition wars. Do you have a bigger dude than me? Do you have spot removal? Cool, let's sideboard.

What you'll notice in my modified strategy is no real mention of what the support cards are, which I assure you, is irrelevant and predictable. In fact, you could probably build the deck I was running with only that information, and knowledge of my colors (GWb). Lotus Cobra? Check. Knight of the Reliquary? Check. Path? Check. Maelstrom Pulse? Check. Furthremore, what would you say the most powerful control cards in the format are? Is Wall of Denial on your list? Because if not, it should be, and regardless of whether or not people will agree with me that WoD is a "control card," it most certainly is. It is, in fact, a prominent control card, central to a deck's strategy. Last season, Plumeveil filled a similar function, but didn't even come close in the wall's level of importance. In short, mucking up the battlefield before laying down a flier is the control strategy in the Standard season of late 2009. There are other options, sure, but how long can you cascade into Spreading Seas and still say to yourself, yeah, Blue rules? Not long, I don't think.

But to tie this in to my previous statements about casual vs competitive magic... Well, people who are playing Standard seem to be strictly divided in two camps: nice casual players, and competitive jerks. In a bizarre twist of fate, though, these two player camps are using the same strategy, and it revolves almost entirely around tables covered in dudes. Just think what life would be like if they hadn't printed Day of Judgement...


So, with my rant aside, I've been getting more and more into Extended. There is an entirely new level of complexity to explore, more options and outs available, and more explosive games that rely on your ability to build and drive.

All I have to do now is convince my wife that it's fun...

GP Minneapolis, BAD DECKS GO

-Greg

Bryan, Luciano, Pete, and I piled into the car this weekend and made the 7-hour trip to Minneapolis for the Grand Prix. Our two days there were, for the most part, uneventful. Bryan finished day one with an impressive record of 7-1, but couldn't quite get there in the day 2 drafts. I went in with no byes, and had to admit to myself somewhere around round six that I couldn't play well enough to ride my mediocre pool to victory. In hindsight, I realize I made some errors in my final build, so at any rate, I paid forty bucks for a lesson in limited craftsmanship and a Chrome Mox. Fair enough.

For the first time in all the events I've played with my go-to "suck it, nerd" playmat, I finally managed to offend someone. I'm not sure what he aimed to gain from telling the judge my mat was confrontational, but since the judge and I had seen each other at other events (and because he was a reasonable person with a sense of humor), I know what he didn't gain: anything.

So, since the only real advice I have for someone looking to succeed in sealed is "open a sick pool and destroy everything that stands in your way," I'll tell you about our next adventure: Friday Night Bad Magic.

The goal is this: Build a terrible deck. Go to FNM. Win. We brewed up a hilarious set of rules, caveats, and ideas, and are planning to take our awful decks to the Lich's Lair this Friday, after which I'll post here about our experience.

OMG STANDARD DECKS YES

-Greg

I just logged into my Tweeter and noticed Evan Erwin had linked to a blog entry here about the Cat/Bird Deck, which has become quite infamous in our local group of players. I'm glad people seem to enjoy the story, and I hope it inspires everyone to help out new players - Brenna and I had such a fun time building and playing it, that it wasn't like it was charity. It was just awesome.

Pastimes Halloween 1K

-Greg

The Pastimes Halloween 1K - The Subtle Art of Dreamcrushing Yourself

This past Saturday, Brenna and I sleeved up some new decks to hit up a 1K Standard tournament at Pastimes, in Chicago. A couple other guys we play with a lot were there, and I feel like between us, we had more than enough talent to put at least one of us in the top 8. Unlike most Pastimes events, this one was relatively small (meaning, less than 60 people), so while it was still a competitive REL event, it was much more laid back than other events we've attended there.

Anyway, here's the list I ran. Note I was short 3 Lotus Cobras, so I had to make due with a couple Stags and a Bird. The board was built with Boros Bushwacker, Jund (and by extension, the ubiquitous vampires decks), and random anti-Jund control decks in mind.

Lands
5 [UNH] Forest
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
3 [UNH] Plains
1 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
4 [M10] Terramorphic Expanse
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
2 [UNH] Swamp

Creatures
3 [CFX] Thornling
4 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
1 [ZEN] Lotus Cobra
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Putrid Leech
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
2 [M10] Great Sable Stag
1 [M10] Birds of Paradise

Spells
3 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
4 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [CFX] Path to Exile

Sideboard
SB: 1 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 3 [M10] Duress
SB: 4 [ARB] Zealous Persecution
SB: 3 [CFX] Celestial Purge
SB: 1 [ZEN] Day of Judgment
SB: 3 [ALA] Tidehollow Sculler


Round 1 - Andrew with Vampires
I sat down across a guy who had no sleeves on his deck, and managed to notice a Blood Seeker while he was shuffling. Game 1 I dropped a Stable Stag on the second turn, followed soon after by a hammer and that was pretty much it. Game 2, he does a little better, but my dudes were just bigger and faster, and my removal was better. Funny thing is, this guy's unsleeved deck had had several expensive cards in it- including a foil Bloodwitch and a foil Nocturnus. Sleeves cost $6. If just ONE of your cards is worth more than that (Nocturnus - $30, Bloodwitch - $6, etc, etc), then why in the hell aren't you using sleeves?

1-0

Round 2 - Jesus with Mono-Green Elves (yes, this really is a good deck)
This round I sat down across from a guy who gave me a ridiculous beating the last time we played. His play is tight, and his decks are always crazy tech that I've never seen before, so I was definitely worried. In a freak bit of luck, my opponent had been given a game loss in round 1 due to a deck reg error, so we started off on game two. He took the lead pretty quickly, with various mana rampers into a Garrku and Eldrazi Monument, and I had literally no outs. Game 3, I sandbagged a Pulse for a long time, resisiting the urge to take out all his Beast tokens. I finally manage to stick a Baneslayer to hold off his attackers, stick a hammer on it, and pass the turn. He plays like thirty more dudes, drops the monument, and Eldrazi gives him an indestructible wall of flying beasts and Elves. I untap, Pulse the Monument, and swing for lethal.

2-0

Round 3- Matt Jensen with Dredge (yes, this really is a real Standard deck)
This round I play against one of the funnier dudes in the room, who happens to have good taste in hats. I watched him play a little earlier, and I knew he was playing some bizarre mill-yourself-unearth homebrew. Game one was pretty terrible. I kept a slow hand, he milled a bunch of dudes, got an active Crypt, and unearthed for like 18. Awesome, good game dude. I board in all my RFG stuff, and keep a much faster hand. I ramp into double Thornling and we go to game three. It was pretty much the same, though, as he has trouble getting Crypts online before I can lay the beats. Hierarch was a total all-star this game, dropping him to five points - low enough that I can end things in only a couple of Thornling swings. Thornling fucking rules.

3-0

Round 4 - Nick with Boros Bushwacker
These games were just embarassing. I can't get a fast hand, can't fix my mana, and he plays around the Zealous Persecution I was bagging to wipe the board.

3-1

Round 5 - Bryan with 4-Color Cascade
Lucky me, I get paired up with a friend in round five. We discuss ID'ing, but after we run some numbers, we realize that with a draw, it's possible for both of us to be out of to-8 contention. Both decks seemed evenly matched against the other top-8 chumps, so we play it out. Game 1, I mull to six, and after Blightning, I just fold up and die. Next game was a little better for me, as I stick an early Lotus Cobra and ramp into Thornling with enough mana to make him move. Game 3 was really similar to game 3. I keep a slow but powerful hand, and stick a Baneslayer on turn 4. We go back and forth, and I'm really overextending to keep up with his card advantage. My draws are good, though, and I manage to keep his board mostly clear until we get to this situation:

Bryan's at 10, I'm at 40. I have two Baneslayers, he has one Baneslayer and a Wurm. I have three cards in hand, and if he draws dead I can push through for lethal in a couple turns, even with his Baneslayer lifegain. My board position is almost completely unbeatable. I tap GGB, and Pulse his Baneslayer. Bryan looks at me, then makes a gun shape with his hand and shoots all three angels, "Pew, pew, pew." Oops.

So yeah, literally gave Bryan the game because I am completely incapable of playing Magic. Anyway, I guess if you're going to totally fuck up, you might as well do it at a time in which you give your buddy a shot at some prize money.

3-2

Anyway, at this point there was about a 2% chance that I can manage to finish in the top 8, but it involves a complicated and improbable series of up-and-down-pairings, crushed dreams, and Halloween magic. Luci and Bryan are both win-and-in, so I decide to play the round. Even if I'm not able to eek my way in, I can at least dream-crush some other slob.

Round 6 - Chris with RUW Control
I hadn't eaten much by this point, and was a little on tilt about the last game, so I obviously wasn't in the best mood. I felt a little bad about my mood, though, because Chris seemed like a pretty nice guy. I'm obviously in complete moron mood still when I try to pulse a Capsule when he had mana open. He just sac'd it in response, and I just had to laugh at my own stupidity. I take a second and get my head together, because I was definitely not losing this round. Stag hits the board, and work around his control long enough to stick a Baneslayer to hold off his unkillable Sphinx of Jwar Isle. He scoops it up, and I board in my Sculler/Duress package. Game two, I took four damage from fetch lands and ramped into the win. Thanks, Thornling.

4-2


Ninth place. Awesome. Bryan ended up in the top 8, but Luci's vampire opponent forced the draw to put herself in, and Luci out.


Overall, I have to say this deck is one of the strongest Standard decks I've played in a long, long time. It's fast, it's packed with threats, and the board is flexible enough to give you an answer to almost any deck you might face. Vampires is practically a bye for it, and Jund is nearly as easy. Dedicated control is a bit of an issue, but speed of the mana-ramping, the disruption board, and the flexibility of the threats can really put you in the clear if you're on top of your game. Luckily, most control decks now are hybridized anti-jund builds, and this deck totally eats them alive. The biggest problem is Boros Bushwacker - it's just so fast! The Zealous Persecutions are great in this matchup, but if your opponents are leaving fetchlands open then you are seriously screwed. Your two biggest threats, Baneslayer and Thornling, are going to practically give you this game if you can live that long. Good luck with that one.

As for changes I would make, I did have some small issues with the land. 23 feels like just the right amount, leaving me mana/color screwed in only one game all day. But I did have several instances where I had literally no basic land left to grab from fetches or paths, and was often wishing I had a second Sunpetal Grove to grab with Knight of Reliquary. Figuring out what to cut is hard, though, because everything is balanced out really well. Terramorphic is the easy pick, but the damn thing is surprisingly good, working with the fetches to give you access to almost any combination of early turn plays. Here's how I would run the lands now (but I'm still not sure if the second Sunpetal is better than a full set of Terramorphics):

5 [UNH] Forest
3 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
4 [UNH] Plains
2 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
3 [M10] Terramorphic Expanse
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
2 [UNH] Swamp


As for the main - I loved it. Sable Stag was an incredible main deck card all day, so even though I threw them in last-minute, I can't imagine cutting them to put Cobras back in. Cobra is really good, though, much better than I expected, so that Bird needs to be replaced with a snake ASAP. But what do you cut to make room? Wel... Nothing. As it is, I feel like running four Cobras forces the deck to run like a deck based around Cobras. That probably doesn't make sense, but I only wanted to go all-in on a Cobra about half the time - so running two Cobras makes sense to me. If you wanted to run this list, and needed all four snakes, then the obvious cut is the Stags - but it might be prudent to drop a Pulse and possibly a Knight. Right now Stag is just that good. Vampires can't kill it, Jund pretty much has to bolt it, and control decks built to hose Jund will have to waste valuable Paths to keep him at bay. Then again, if the meta starts to fill up with Boros or this new green elves thing, then they'll need to go back to the board.

The fourth Pulse could easily be a Path, but I'm still undecided. I love the hammers. They are completely broken, and easily give you games you don't deserve by basically turning your tokens or early drops into mini-Baneslayers.

Anyway, enough rambling. This is what I'd run if I were doing another tourney tomorrow:


Creatures
3 [CFX] Thornling
4 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
2 [ZEN] Lotus Cobra
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Putrid Leech
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
2 [M10] Great Sable Stag

Spells
3 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
4 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [CFX] Path to Exile

So there's this young kid, like 11 or 12, who goes to our usual card shop all the time. He shows up two hours early, is there every night cards are played, and unlike most kids his age, is polite, courteous, and generally really likable. He loves cats, and is always showing us pictures of them on his phone. He also loves theme decks, even going so far as to try and scrape together commons and uncommons to make a Kor deck, which seemed bizarre. Of course, these two loves overlap, so this guy's always talking about making a cat/bird deck, which we think is hilarious. Anyway, because this idea is so awesome and funny, and because we love homebrewed and janky decks, Brenna and I built him a cat/bird theme deck that's standard legal - and it's been holding its own against all our other decks. We're going to take it to him tonight, and I hope he likes it. I can't wait to lose to this ridiculous thing at FNM. Here's the list:


2 armillary sphere
2 sylvan bounty
2 overrun
4 khanli heart expedition
2 behemoth sledge
4 journey to nowhere
2 marisi's twinclaws
2 welkin guide
3 aven squire
3 wild leotau
3 scythe tiger
4 steppe lynx
4 wild nacatl

4 naya panorama
2 jungle shrine

2 mountain
8 plains
8 forest


Total value, including basic lands, is $12. Awesome.



UPDATE: This kid totally beat Pete's fully loaded Jund deck at FNM to face me in the finals. I was so happy to see that cat/bird deck that I split with him to put him in third place*.

*He had to be paired up, as I was the only 3-0 going into round 4, and the only 2-1's were people I'd already played.

// Lands
4 [UNH] Forest
8 [UNH] Island
4 [ALA] Seaside Citadel
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
2 [ZEN] Magosi, the Waterveil
2 [M10] Glacial Fortress

// Creatures
3 [ZEN] Scute Mob
4 [ARB] Lorescale Coatl

// Spells
3 [MOR] Negate
3 [M10] Garruk Wildspeaker
3 [M10] Jace Beleren
4 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
2 [M10] Essence Scatter
2 [ZEN] Mindbreak Trap
4 [M10] Time Warp
4 [M10] Ponder
4 [CFX] Path to Exile

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [M10] Pithing Needle
SB: 4 [ZEN] Day of Judgment
SB: 4 [ZEN] Cosi's Trickster
SB: 3 [M10] Sleep


The point is pretty simple: counter spells, draw cards, remove threats, play some Scute Mobs and Coatls, take some extra turns, and bash for 20.

I started out trying to play just G/U, but blue in standard is weak enough now that it really needed a splash to make it work. White was a pretty easy choice, as it gave me access to two cards the deck really needed: Day of Judgment and Path to Exile. I considered black as a splash, but the better black cards really want you to have a lot of swamps, which wasn't a concession I wanted to make.

Like I said before, blue has been significantly weakened in Standard since we lost Cryptic Command and Broken Ambitions, so the control suite is a reflection of the sub-par permission spells available. Running Negates and Scatters is dicey, sure, but Spell Pierce has been an incredible card for me in testing. It helps keep red's burn spells and white's token/pump spells at bay, and blows out control match-ups where counter battles are critical. Mindbreak Trap is pretty cool, but four mana to counter a spell (even an uncounterable spell) is a steep price. Two feels like the right number, but two more in the board can't hurt. I haven't nailed a three-spell cascade yet, but after abusing cascade last PTQ season, I have certainly cast enough to know that they happen frequently enough to want some protection.

Jace is still the best card-draw available, but isn't enough alone - hence the full set of Ponder. It's nice to help craft better hands, and a ratio of 1 mana: 1 card is better than you get out of Jace a lot of the time. Don't argue against this; you know people play Maelstrom Pulse.

Time Warp could probably be cut to three, since it's so awful to see two in your opening seven. But taking extra turns with Mobs, Coatls, and planeswalkers on the board is so pro I hesitate to run less than the full set. Magosi is pretty interesting, too. I don't know if you guys have messed with it much, but skipping a turn with a Silence or relevant counters in hand is really a breeze... Not that there are any Silences in the deck, although I haven't ruled it out.

The sideboard isn't really a sideboard, more of short-list of cards I wish I could squeeze into the main. Needles seem extremely relevant with the new Zendikar cards, and DoJ is pretty important against creature-heavy decks that want to outpace you. Sleep isn't totally necessary with all the Warps. Trickster is situational enough to be almost useless, although I have had opponents choose not to search for a land when he's on the board, and fetch-lands can make him pretty huge. On the whole, Coatl is just, you know, better, so the best I can offer Kosi is a sb slot.

Anyway, more testing is the next step. Wish me luck!

duuuuuuuuuuuuuude

-Greg

So, Gen Con PTQs, all told, would've cost us around $120 each. Per tournament.

So we bailed.

On the plus side, there are two more PTQs this season within driving distance of us: Detroit and Des Moines. We're not sure if we're going to either at this point, but we normally don't make up our minds until a few days before anyway.

Anyway, if you guys are in the area, Brenna and I will be going to FNM this weekend at the Lich's Lair in Lansing, IL. We'll also probably be doing an M10 sealed at our place Saturday, so if anyone wants in on it just message me. Good luck finding M10 packs!

So, anyway, about decks: I have no idea what to do in Standard right now. Control decks are huge right now, and so a deck should take advantage of the glacial speed of a deck full of Vivids. On the other side of the coin, this prevelance of control means a deck has to be able to beat the fast aggro decks that crop up to take advantage of the metagame. The major sweepers going around happen at three mana (red sweepers like Fallout and Jund Charm), or five or six (white sweepers like Austere Command and Hallowed Burial), so if has a lot of creatures, it has to be able to get past turn three without losing position, and either win by or be able to recover from a turn five reset. You should also try to minimize the scale to which the biggest kill spells affect you.

In short, a deck has to be fast, have a powerful mid and late game, and be extremely resilient to destructive and disruptive tactics - basically, a deck has to be able to do anything, and recover from anything. This deck doesn't exist.

But there is one that's close. Elf Combo is good. Forge-Tender helps with the early sweepers, while cheap, efficient elves and massive card draw help recover from total resets. Cruel Ultimatum is nothing to you, as you can pitch a cheap dork to it, and if in a good position, you should be able to shrug off the life and card disadvantage. Primal Command is an enormous pain for tap-lands, and with all the accel you can get it off on turn turn three or four on a regular basis. Against aggro, you have plent of your own dorks to chump block, and Primal Command can be used to gain gratuitous amounts of life. Speaking of gratuitious amounts of life, I've been adding Soul Warden lately. I gained 25 life in one turn earlier today using Primals and one Warden.

The most important part is a splash for one card: Banefire. Banefire will flat out give you games that you have no business of winning by keeping you from having to wait a turn to rush your million elves in. It also fights through Cryptic Commands by simply blowing your opponent out in the first main phase, because chances are, they'll sand-bag it to tap your team down. Running a single mountain main might not be the best idea, but it allows you to fetch your red source from an opposing Path to Exile, which frees up your Manamorphs to help you get through your deck more quickly.

Here's the list I'm rocking at FNM tomorrow:

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
12 [IN] Forest (3)
3 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
2 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
1 [UNH] Mountain

// Creatures
4 [ALA] Elvish Visionary
4 [MOR] Heritage Druid
4 [R] Llanowar Elves
4 [EVE] Nettle Sentinel
4 [ALA] Ranger of Eos
4 [EVE] Regal Force
4 [M10] Elvish Archdruid
1 [LRW] Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 [SHM] Devoted Druid
1 [M10] Soul Warden

// Spells
1 [CFX] Banefire
4 [SHM] Manamorphose
4 [LRW] Primal Command

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [LRW] Burrenton Forge-Tender
SB: 4 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 3 [LRW] Cloudthresher
SB: 1 [M10] Naturalize
SB: 4 [SHM] Guttural Response

-Greg

Hey guys. Madison ended up being a total wash for me, and my record was completely abysmal. I got some bad draws, kept some sketchy hands, and basically paid through the nose for not being fast enough to keep up with any form of aggro. Brenna did well, going 4-3, and narrowly missing the 5-2 record she needed to finish in prizes. I'll not spoil what she was up to, as I'm hoping she'll write here about what was a really interesting day for her. BUT, the man of the hour was our buddy Matt Grandgeorge, who was debating a last-minute change to some junk deck, and instead took his Baneslayer/Cascade deck all the way to first place! Congrats, Matt.

I'll give a couple brief paragraphs in a minute about my matchups, but first I have to tell you guys this story about Magic Workstation...

There was a guy with a game open who requested you not use counters or bounce spells from shadowmoor, conflux, and some other new set. So, being a little bored of playing fair games against people who are sane, I joined. I grabbed the first deck I saw with no blue (a type 2 elf/banefire combo), and popped in.

The game was going fine for a few turns, and I had a throng of elves and a few lands on my fourth turn, to his bird of paradise and sword of fire and ice. I play primal command, choosing to bounce his equipment, and search for a guy. Here is the transcript of what happened after that.

bounce the sword, search creature
dog ears is looking its Library...
Did you read the game name?
dog ears shuffles library
dog ears stops looking its Library...
yeah, no counters
i don't have any counters :/
dog ears is looking its Library...
dog ears puts Elvish Archdruid into play from Library
dog ears shuffles library
dog ears stops looking its Library...
So you read the 2nd word and the 2nd to last word and somehow
missed all the rest?
dog ears puts Elvish Archdruid to Hand from Play
it said no shadowmoor, conflux counters or something
just a bunch of sets that you didn't like the counterspells from
it also said 'No Returns"
dude, you're playing one of the most broken pieces of
equipment of all time, and you're complaining about my primal command?
Either play the game you joined or forfeit
you forfeit!
I win
you don't
You joined my game
because i won
not the other way around
i refuse to concede
Then I suggest you choose another for Primal
if you refuse to follow the rules, then you lose automatically.
Actually, if you refuse to play the game you joined, you
automatically forfeit
Because you should have never joined in the first place
and i still say that i choose the modes of returning your
sword of fire and ice to your library's top, and i will search a
creature
so thanks for the win
yeah right
Learn to read
thank YOU for the win
because i am winning so hard
i was going to make a million elves
dog ears is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Fire and Ice's note changed: bounced
Kam is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
dog ears is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
dog ears puts a Sword of Fire and Ice on top of Library from Play
Kam puts Sword of Fire and Ice into play from Library
dog ears is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
Kam is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
dog ears is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
Kam is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
dog ears is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
Kam is now the controller of Sword of Fire and Ice
dog ears puts a 0/1 Sore Loser token into play
Kam is now the controller of Sore Loser
dog ears is now the controller of Sore Loser
Kam is now the controller of Sore Loser


INCREDIBLE.

Anyway, the tournament:

Round 1 - 4C Bloodbraid
I totally dominated game 1, dropping creatures, countering spells, and bashing for the win in around 9 minutes. Game 2 was totally opposite, as I drew nothing relevant, and died to lots of hasty dorks. Game 3, I mulliganed to a SICK 6 card hand, and realized I had drawn seven cards. I call a judge immediately, who issues me a warning for improper mulligan, and has me go down to five. I get a one lander, and fight for surprisingly long time, but his card advantage just happened faster than mine. So, rather than losing to superior skill, I lose to my own inability to count to six, and am the only one on the team to lose round 1. Stellar.

Round 2 - Fucking Time Sieve.
Game 1 is mine again, hitting Larks for infinite Siege-Gang Commanders, and blow him out with multiple Austere Commands. Game 2 I tap out for massive board advantage, betting that he can't go off - and of course, he luck-sacks the top deck to hit me for exacties. Game 3, I walk right into a Safe Passge with lethal on the board, and lose in extension turn 4, with about 25 peole standing around us. The game was close, but his playing was just tighter than mine.

Round 3 - QUILLSPIKE COMBO
The only interesting thing to happen here was this: I punt massively by not countering Deathrender, which he uses to somehow put Progenitus on the board. I dig hard with Lark/Mulldrifter and Jace, finding two Cryptics to stall two turns, and do exactly twelve damage with Lark and an enormous Figure of Destiny to completely crush this extremely nice person's dreams.

Round 4 - RDW
These games were really boring, as his deck just couldn't get there. Runed Halos, Cryptic Commands, and Siege-Gangs are too much, and we wrap it up fast.

Round 4 - BR Aggro
This guy got total vengeance on his mono-colored counterpart, and it's over before I know it. The awful thing about magic is if your opponent gets the nuts and you don't, you're toast. I had to mulligan to five, got hit by a nasty Thought Hemorrhage for Cryptic Command (my only hope), and am forced to Halo for Hemmorhage it next turn. He smiles when I scoop, showing me two more in his hand. What an awful time.

Round 5 - Sulli Merfolk
He takes the beatdown role game one and two, taking game one with Wakethrasher + Sygg, River Guide, and I can't keep up. Next game, I lock him completely out and Banefire for the win with three life - just enough to not get Harm's Wayed to death. Game 3 I lose in some way that must have been stupid, because I didn't even write it down.

Round 6 - Soldiers
He takes me to two life two games in a row, and I lock him down and blow him out. It was pretty boring, actually. Sweep soldiers, play Larks, bounce Larks post-combat for Siege-Gangs and Anathemancers.

Round 7 - Soldiers
Two frustrating games of not drawing the right mana, and the tournament is over. Too many soldiers, not enough Austere Commands.