copy link below ->
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/174a
Monday, December 19, 2011
Update of Banned and Restricted List
copy link below ->
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/174a
now i am not the most competitive player out there so i will leave those sort of
articles to the other bloggers on this site who are much more inclined to write those
what i do want to write about today is a player made format that one of my clan/guild
mates on mtgo or magic onilne introduced to us it is called clone magic the idea of the format is that a couple friends get together and create a fix set of cards our pool was like 250-300 cards give or take then everybody in your playgroup acquired a full set of the chosen pool note it is recommended to have a pool that consist mostly of cheap and widely available cards unless your playgroup is full of high rollers once you get a group of players together this is the fun part a player chooses the deck building rules
this can be as complicated or as straight forward as you like but everybody in your group has to build a deck form the cards in the pool we would usually rotate who came up with the constrction rules some examples of rule sets are no mana cost higher then 2
all creatures. all cards that the number 1 is wrtten on it. the sky is really the limit here
articles to the other bloggers on this site who are much more inclined to write those
what i do want to write about today is a player made format that one of my clan/guild
mates on mtgo or magic onilne introduced to us it is called clone magic the idea of the format is that a couple friends get together and create a fix set of cards our pool was like 250-300 cards give or take then everybody in your playgroup acquired a full set of the chosen pool note it is recommended to have a pool that consist mostly of cheap and widely available cards unless your playgroup is full of high rollers once you get a group of players together this is the fun part a player chooses the deck building rules
this can be as complicated or as straight forward as you like but everybody in your group has to build a deck form the cards in the pool we would usually rotate who came up with the constrction rules some examples of rule sets are no mana cost higher then 2
all creatures. all cards that the number 1 is wrtten on it. the sky is really the limit here
Sunday, December 18, 2011
ANNOUNCING...
Hey Everyone,
It's been a while since I've posted or for that matter played MTG in real life. This will be changing soon however because, Tony has finally found his location for Gamers Paradise! Now if you've been paying any attention at all to our Facebook page we have been hinting about a tournament of some sort. This isn't just any tournament no no its much more than that. We understand it comes at a time of "limbo" for the Magic community so we've really brought our A+++ game to make this a very appealing tournament to all. So without any further ado I present to you.............
Click on Picture to enlarge....
Click on Picture to enlarge....
Thanks for reading,
Daniel Suydam
OrbstinityMaster on MTGO
Recent Banning of Alex Bertoncini - Cheating and how it affect the games integrity
Hey guys,
If you all follow Magic, you might have heard that Alex Bertoncini has been suspended from competitive Magic play by the DCI. For those of you who do not know, Alex Bertoncini has been a Star City Games Open Series grinder and this past year was named the Player of the Year and won the Star City Games Invitational. The prize was $10,000 and Power 9.
In short, Alex was caught either purposefully cheating or misrepresenting the current game state. On one occasion, he Brainstormed for five and it was caught on camera. On another occasion, Alex had Kira, Great Glass-Spinner out. His opponent used Jace, the Mind Sculptor’s bounce ability and then used Cursed Scroll to kill Kira. Instead of putting Kira in his graveyard, Alex returned it to his hand. Purposefully of not, Mr. Bertoncini has on multiple occasions negatively impacted the game state that were in his favor.
I wanted to see if others have witnessed another player cheat or been part of this experience. I must admit that I witnessed another Magic player cheat at an FNM and did not say a thing. It was the last round of the night and my FNM was over. I finished with a 3-2 record, on par for me. As I went over to watch the two players playing for first place, I was not surprised when I saw a Caw-Blade deck. Its pilot was one of the better players in the shop. As I sat and watched the game progress, the game came to a stalemate. Neither player was doing much of anything until the Caw-Blade player cast Preordain. He looked at the top two in one hand and looked at his current cards in the other. Soon, he brought both hands together and treated it more like a Brainstorm. He then put two on the bottom and drew from the top. The guy basically drew three cards and put two “dead” cards on the bottom of his library. From there, he took the game over and won. His opponent had not realized what had happened as he was reading his cards while his sly opponent took advantage. Looking back, I should have said something but did not since I was not part of the game.
To help maintain the integrity of the game we all love, we all need to hold each other accountable for cheating, slow game play, and sloppy technical play. This kind of behavioral should not be allowed at any level of competitive play or on the kitchen table for that matter.
What do you all think about calling others out when you witness someone trying to misrepresent the current game state?
Thanks.
E17
If you all follow Magic, you might have heard that Alex Bertoncini has been suspended from competitive Magic play by the DCI. For those of you who do not know, Alex Bertoncini has been a Star City Games Open Series grinder and this past year was named the Player of the Year and won the Star City Games Invitational. The prize was $10,000 and Power 9.
In short, Alex was caught either purposefully cheating or misrepresenting the current game state. On one occasion, he Brainstormed for five and it was caught on camera. On another occasion, Alex had Kira, Great Glass-Spinner out. His opponent used Jace, the Mind Sculptor’s bounce ability and then used Cursed Scroll to kill Kira. Instead of putting Kira in his graveyard, Alex returned it to his hand. Purposefully of not, Mr. Bertoncini has on multiple occasions negatively impacted the game state that were in his favor.
I wanted to see if others have witnessed another player cheat or been part of this experience. I must admit that I witnessed another Magic player cheat at an FNM and did not say a thing. It was the last round of the night and my FNM was over. I finished with a 3-2 record, on par for me. As I went over to watch the two players playing for first place, I was not surprised when I saw a Caw-Blade deck. Its pilot was one of the better players in the shop. As I sat and watched the game progress, the game came to a stalemate. Neither player was doing much of anything until the Caw-Blade player cast Preordain. He looked at the top two in one hand and looked at his current cards in the other. Soon, he brought both hands together and treated it more like a Brainstorm. He then put two on the bottom and drew from the top. The guy basically drew three cards and put two “dead” cards on the bottom of his library. From there, he took the game over and won. His opponent had not realized what had happened as he was reading his cards while his sly opponent took advantage. Looking back, I should have said something but did not since I was not part of the game.
To help maintain the integrity of the game we all love, we all need to hold each other accountable for cheating, slow game play, and sloppy technical play. This kind of behavioral should not be allowed at any level of competitive play or on the kitchen table for that matter.
What do you all think about calling others out when you witness someone trying to misrepresent the current game state?
Thanks.
E17
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Ides of November, Sorta....
Well hello to all of the faithful, or not so faithful blog viewers (we love everyone regardless). I have to sort of appologize for the lull in content on the site, I have to take full responsibility for it. I have been trying to get stuff together for a big statement I hopefully will be making soon. (With God's grace). Unfortunately, I have not had the time or budget as of late to be more involved with our local store and gaming community. Therefore out of site out of mind. I have not had the opportunity to play Magic myself which has hindered my ability to write my own articles.
I do still want to take this time to thank EVERYONE who has in some form or fashion contributed to this Blog. Without you guys there would be nothing much for me to be talking about or appologizing for. Even if none of you who have contributed decide to stay actively involved I am still very grateful.
So I take this time to say thanks to everyone and I/We will be working hard to keep this thing up and running and to keep this an interesting place to visit for years to come. Just bare with me as I continue to work on this Blog and make it one of the coolest places on the web..... hopefully.
Thanks,
Tony D.
P.S. nothing good comes easy.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Right Commander For The Job
So a couple of your card filpping buddys wants to play some commander. But you don't have one of these fabled commander decks. The solution to this problem seems pretty straightforward build one. But you don't just want any old Legendary critter. no you want a general that will Bring you that Glorious victory. Or at the very least have some fun trying. You need the right commander for the job. first things first you have to decide what your deck does.
There are three main archetype in magic. As i am sure any one reading this knows. aggro, control ,and combo aggro rarely ever works in commander. You may get one or if your lucky two players down. But you normally lose soon after. Don't get me wrong it's still a option just the weakest of the three. Combo on the other hand is quite good especially if you have the right set up and some tutors. cards like niv mizzet the fire mind who can win the game with a sample two card combo. Stuff like curiosity and similar effects can end the game quite easy if not interrupted. Last but not least you have control. and it is by far the most widespread of the trio. Commanders like sakashima the impostor that can and will become the spitting image of the biggest guy out there. And merieke ri berit who can just steal the best creature on the board make it do her laundry kill the creature then rinse and repeat. are just some of the manipulative commanders out there.
After you have decided on a archetype it's time to pick the color or colors of the deck and the overall theme of the said deck. Not all commander decks have to follow a theme but there are many generals that are stronger when the deck supports its theme. Take zur the enchanter; for example without any enchantments for him to fetch up he is no good. but put even a few halfway good ones in and he is quite dangerous. it is also important to remember that some color combinations have assess to many different commanders with different themes. blue and black has guys like grim grim corpse born who needs a steady flow of creatures to be effective while oona queen of the fae works best in a deck that has a strong mill focus.
Another important aspect to keep in mind when picking a commander is its mana cost. You want your generals out on the battlefield as much as possible. and due to the hostile nature of commander creatures die including your generals. So getting them off the bench again is key to your survival. This is why rhys the redeemed is one of the better generals out there. Not only is he extremely cheap and easy to recast but he can build his own army one that keeps growing with every passing turn. But with that being said your average generals cost anywhere between 3 to 6 mana. If you do plan on playing one of the more expensive legends, then it should have a game ending effect lona shield of emeria is a prime example of a general that will most likely only come out once. But can easily stop the game cold in it's tracks.
The last thing to consider when picking your commander is how much attention do you want to attract. After all commander is a format full of politics alliances and of course back stabbing. Some generals are just so easy to abuse to the point where the game is one sided and not fun. Even if your deck is not made to be abusive the other players will for the most part still be weary of your decks capabilities and try to target you. Generals such as zo-zu the punisher, azami lady of scrolls, jhoira of the ghitu and momir vig simic visionary are just a few of the generals that will put a target on your head. that is all i have for now it is time to retire the old keyboard.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Zen and the Art of Metagame Analysis
The biggest problem that most intelligent players run into in their attempts at becoming better and better at Magic is that they hit a plateau and have trouble figuring out why they can't get beyond it. There's any number of things that could be holding you back, but after a certain point, it is rarely the usual suspects. In the early stages of your career, mistakes are obvious in every aspect of your game; you keep hands that are terrible, you give your opponent free information by playing spells at the wrong time, you miss on-board tricks, or you just plain forget triggers all the time. While these errors are glaring, they are also fairly easy to correct if you're willing to learn, and as you get more skilled, some of them disappear entirely.
So let's fast forward. You're a fairly skilled player, better than the average, but not among a pantheon of elites. You consistently perform well in small tournaments and maybe even have a PTQ Top 8 or two to your name. You rarely miss triggers, and while you may choose a less-than-perfect line of play, you almost never pick a path that's strictly wrong. You still make mistakes and don't always play perfectly, but there's no glaring problems with your playskill. This is the plateau that most competitive players find themselves on. You have room for improvement in your in-game decisions, but you are unlikely to see massive leaps forward in your abilities like you saw when you first started. So how can you still get an edge on the competition?
Well, there's several areas of Magic outside of the game itself that affect your chances of victory. This is actually one of the most wonderful parts of Magic; the tournament is as much won a week ahead of time as it is the day of. You are rewarded for forethought and effort in addition to your raw ability to out-think your opponent. I will, in time, discuss all of these aspects of the metagame of Magic, but for now, I'm just going to cover one: Deck testing and selection.
So the big tournament is coming up in three weeks. Let's say it's a Standard PTQ for simplicity's sake. There's a new set coming out in a week, and you already know the full card list, but haven't had any chances to play any new decks in FNM's to get a feel for how good they are. But you've got your group together and plenty of proxies. Where should you start?
Well, the first thing you should consider are the known quantities, and these exist for almost every tournament, even the ones where the format is experiencing upheaval. For Alara's rotation, this was Valakut, for the release of New Phyrexia, it was Caw Blade and RUG, and more recently for Zendikar's rotation, this was the multitude of Pod lists. These three actually provide some excellent examples of the different situations you can encounter with these known decks.
During the rotation of Alara, the biggest elements in the metagame were Jund, which was on the decline, Mythic, which was completely dominating everything, and then Valakut, which along with Mono-Green Eldrazi was on the rise. With the rotation coming, it looked like Valakut lost almost nothing and even gained a few new tools, and it was probably where everyone started. And when the first tournaments like States came around, it turned out that it really was just better than everything else. This is possibility A, that the known deck from the previous format is actually still the best deck. This is one of the easiest situations to recognize, and realizing it early means you can focus in on maximizing the quality of your particular list.
When you find yourself in this situation, you should ask yourself some questions. Was this deck popular before the change? If the answer is yes, you should put a significant amount of your time into the mirror match. Any edge you can get will be crucial in your hopes of winning the day, and you are likely to be a favorite in most of the matchups where your opponent is playing a different deck. Don't waste your effort, or your sideboard slots, trying to beat decks you're already favored against, unless the matchup is complex and you are only favored if you really understand it well. The exception to this rule is the deck that really beats yours. That's a different part of metagame analysis that I'll cover later on. Also, how tuned is this deck for the new metagame? When there is a change in format, the best deck may remain on top, but it usually needs to be tweaked to respond to new threats, be they from new competitors, or simply the mirror match.
Now let's look at the release of NPH. Prior to New Phyrexia, RUG Control and Caw Blade we're clearly the dominant forces in Standard. At GP Dallas, they split the top 8, and made up 15 of the decks in the top 16, marred only by Paulo playing Boros, and let's be honest, he could play Mindcrank combo and top 16 a GP. These were the decks to play, and no one really had a good chance playing anything else. Based on our last example, it would seem like you'd be pretty safe with either of these going forward, and you'd have almost been right. Except that Wizards decided to print a certain card called Batterskull that completely cemented Caw Blade's place as the best deck. RUG Control could never compete with that clock, and it never made another serious showing. This is possibility B, that one of the best decks in the metagame gets a card, or cards, that its rivals can't compete with. This may seem fairly obvious, and in this example it was, but it's not always easy to identify when this has happened. You have to understand how the decks interact with each other and evaluate how the new pieces fit into that puzzle.
So what should you do in this situation? Provided that you have accurately ascertained that a deck has gotten such a massive upgrade that no one else can compete, you should play that deck. It seems straightforward, and it is, but a lot of people struggle in this situation. This comes up in Magic more often than we'd like to admit, where there's a deck that has become so dominant that it has forced its main competitor out. This may seem like it was the case in possibility A, but it actually wasn't. In that example, Valakut still had aggressive decks like Mono-Red to keep it from just steamrolling everything. Caw-Blade never had that (prior to bannings), and yet, even at its peak, it never saw more than about 50% tournament representation. Why? Well, some players can't afford $800 decks, but at PTQs, we can start to push that group out of the equation. The real truth is that people don't want to win with the best deck. They want to be the person who came up with a way to beat the best deck, and in testing, they have trouble letting go of that. I cannot stress this enough. When you have a deck that is clearly better than every other deck in the field and has no real predators, play that deck. Decide if your goal is to win the tournament or outsmart everyone, and make the right call.
Finally we have the situation that we just went through recently with the Zendikar rotation. This is sort of the least common of the three, in that it's fairly rare for none of the dominant decks to remain after a change. Now, Pod was still around, but Pod had never dominated. Still, it was expected to be where most people started building for the new Standard, since it lost nothing except the Twin combo and gained some new toys. But as anyone who tested extensively prior to States can tell you, Pod wasn't good enough. How does a deck go from being a competitor in one Standard and then lose nothing and be a poor choice in the new one? Put simply, the environment changed. This is why it is so important to understand the metagame when choosing your deck. At first, Red reappeared, having previously been forced out by Timely Reinforcements and the prominence of white decks. The clock the deck could force on the Pod decks, combined with the somewhat suicidal nature of Phyrexian mana spells, made for a fairly poor matchup. Oh, and then there was Wolf Run, a deck that, much like Valakut, answered an opponent tapping out with immediate death. Because the Pod decks operate purely at sorcery speed, a Wolf Run player never even needs to respect open mana, and that makes for a bad situation.
This is possiblity C, when the known quantity isn't good enough anymore, and this is probably the hardest for people to accept. I mean, if it worked before, why shouldn't it now? We get set it in our ways, used to playing a certain deck or a certain style, and we mentally skew our results to fit our idea of how good we think our deck is. If we're wrong, we might not discover it until the actual tournament, and by then it's too late. Keep track of your testing results, and get good players playing good decks to try and beat yours. If they can, don't rationalize the losses away. Sure, they beat you because they topdecked the burn spell, but the deck is designed to do it. Sure, it's just a couple of bad matchups, but how many 90-10 matchups does it take to move on to something else?
For our example, we're going to assume it's option C, where there is no clear best deck, and there's enough of a shakeup that most of the group's ideas are coming from scratch. So we need to figure out what we're playing against to decide if our ideas are good enough, but there's so much to do, where do we even start?
First, I think it's always best to start with those decks that tend to exist in every metagame. Mono-Red and White Weenie fall into these categories, as they are very proactive, and their success tends to rely more on the quality of the cards available to them than on the other decks in the meta. Next, pick out any potential combos in the available card pool. If they are more than two cards, bench them; it's hard enough to get a two-card combo together consistently and you'll almost never make a consistent deck from more than two. Then look for powerful cards that you can make into an engine for a deck. Any kind of fast mana or repeatable card draw mechanic is a good candidate for this, but it varies from format to format.
Now, with some prototypes for those decks built, start testing. Test all of the builds against each other, and make note of which cards are performing well and which ones you hate having in your hand. Now, inevitably you'll have a couple of decks that seem like they aren't competing, but that doesn't mean you should abandon it. Figure out why the deck isn't working well. If you find yourself dying too quickly to aggro, add in some early defense. If you're having trouble keeping your opponent from stabilizing with a sweeper, add in some burn to give yourself reach. I can't tell you the specific solution, as they vary wildly from deck to deck. You might throw a deck out because you can't figure out the combination of cards that fixes all of the problems, and that's okay.
So let's say you've got three, maybe four, decks among your group that are all testing fairly well. Now is the time to brew control decks. You can't really do this without some idea of what decks are good. True control decks are very reactive. They respond to threats, trade one for one, and then eventually establish themselves and win from there. Now, control is an overused and underspecified term. Caw-Blade was aggro-control, for example, and thus much easier to build in a vacuum, because of its proactive gameplan, and then later tuned to the meta. But purely reactive control decks need to be special tailored to what everyone else is playing, so add them in later.
Now, the new set just came out and they had a Star City Games Open event. Mono-Red crushed, putting 8 decks in the top 16, 4 in the top 8, and won the event. This may seem like really good news, considering you had been testing Red and it was a front-runner to be your deck for the event. But it's actually the opposite; decks like Mono-Red are very easy to hate out of a meta, and it just made its way onto everyone's radar. This is something you need to be very aware of in testing: some decks are only as good as the preparation that everyone else is making for them. I like to call this Dredge Syndrome. Dredge is a deck that lives and dies by how well your opponents prepare their sideboards to fight it. These decks are sometimes the correct choice. They have a lot of raw power, but they sacrifice stability for it. These glass cannons lose a lot of their potential in metagames that are prepared for them.
So you continue testing as you have been, trying out new cards and improving designs. Another week passes, and with it comes another Open Series event. As we expected, Mono-Red gets beaten down, both by the decks that prey on it and because of over-sideboarding by the decks that are weak to it. Control decks designed to handle its clock seem to rule the day. Except for that one deck that no one has heard of that tears its way through the Swiss and wins the whole tournament. This is a major shakeup, as we now have a deck out there that appears to beat everything and that no one seemed to expect. This is a dangerous situation in a metagame, especially when it develops just before the important event. People favor results that seem particularly vivid and compelling, even if logic doesn't support them. You watch a deck crush an event, and it becomes easy to get locked into that deck without any further thought. But you're letting someone else do your testing for you, and that's never a good way to get ahead. There's a lot to consider when a deck breaks a single tournament open, especially when no one knew it was going to be played. Does the deck do something that can be easily disrupted? Are there strong hate cards for it? Can the existing decks adjust to compete and make it a pretty good deck instead of the best one? How does this affect decks that you've written off, like Mono-Red? While it may be easy to jump on the bandwagon of the vogue deck, there's a lot of things that could make it a very poor choice. Keep a healthy perspective on everything that's going on, and don't get caught up in the hype.
You'll notice that I haven't at any point really explained how to build a deck from scratch. That isn't merely oversight. Deckbuilding is a complex thing that I could devote an article series to, and the specifics aren't really the point in this article. I'm assuming that you understand why you shouldn't run twenty lands or which cards go in which decks. If you don't, you probably don't spend a whole lot of time playtesting for PTQs, and this article is explicitly tailored to you. And that's okay. This article has some bleed over into deckbuilding; many of the ideas I've described are things to keep in mind when building a deck regardless of occasion. But what I am going to discuss in detail is constructing the right sideboard.
This is an area that some people put too little effort into and some people put too much effort into. Building the right sideboard is easiest when you recognize what it actually is: hedging your bets. A sideboard isn't a magic pile of cards that guarantees you victory, but it also shouldn't just be ignored. You simply have to understand what each card does for you. This is one realm where matchup percentages, which are usually arbitrary and distracting, provide a good visual for what your goal actually is. Let's use an example.
You're playing Mono-Red pre-Zendikar rotation, and Soul Sisters is a deck. Prior to boarding, you feel this is a really horrible matchup, maybe 10-90 in their favor. So you're looking at some sideboard options, and you realize that Leyline of Punishment does a good job of shutting them down. So you board four of them and slam your opponents, right? Not quite. Let's do a little simple math. Boarding four Leylines doesn't even guarantee one in your opening hand, and it's probably too late if you hardcast it. Let's say, optimistically, it takes your matchup up to 30-70. Now, Soul Sisters is not very well represented in the metagame. At a 7 round PTQ, you'll probably play against it once. You'll probably lose game one, statistically speaking, so you're under the gun in game two. Boarding in the Leylines increases your matchup by twenty percent, which is pretty good. That means that out of ten games, you'll win two more than you used to. But you need to rattle off two straight to win the match, and with just a thirty percent chance to win, you have only a 9% chance of winning the match. Now, without the sideboard changes, your chance of winning is a measly 1%, which means those four cards have upgraded you 8%, which is not meaningless. But consider that this is one match in the entire tournament, and that your chances of winning both post-board matches is still below 10%! Is that worth 4/15ths of your board space?
Now let's consider a different situation. You're playing against an artifact heavy deck, maybe Grand Architect, still with Mono-Red, and you figure that pre-board, the match is probably 40-60 in their favor. Now let's say that you bring in 4 Manic Vandals that really hurt them and swing the matchup to 60-40 in your favor. Again we have an increase in post-board game win percentage of 20%, but this time we go from a 16% chance of winning both games two and three to a 36% chance after adding the Vandals. And let's say hypothetically that Grand Architect represents 3 of the 7 matches you'll play in the day. That seems like a much better allocation of slots than the Leylines.
Without doing the math, let's consider a matchup that you're a heavy favorite in game one. You can board in four cards to go from 70-30 to 75-25, but is that really worth it? Based on what we've seen before, you're only getting a marginal increase, and you're also favored to win game one and thus not need to win both post-board games.
I think you're probably getting the picture I'm trying to paint here. It's not worth trying to save your really bad matchups; if there are enough of them that they warrant half your sideboard to just bring them to feasibly winnable, then you probably have the wrong deck for the tournament. And you shouldn't spend slots trying to improve matchups you're already likely to win, even if that deck is very prevalent. I've seen Soul Sisters decks with 8-10 sideboard slots devoted to Mono-Red because it's prevalent, but statistically, those cards aren't earning them wins, and that's what it's all about. Your sideboard cards are best in the middle of the field, where they can eat up large percentages and turn bad matchups into good ones. If you make a bad matchup close but still lose, you don't get points for trying, and you don't get extra points for blowing opponents out. Use your sideboard to maximize your wins, and your tournament results will improve.
There's a lot more in depth that I could go into about building and utilizing sideboards, and I'll probably cover that in my next article. But for now, I've led you up to the day of the tournament, and hopefully your metagame analysis has put you on the path to success. Until next time.
Late Disclaimer: I'm hardly flawless at math, especially probabilities, and I will be the first to admit that the calculations above may be off slightly, or even a lot. I don't think it affects the merits of my points, but feel free to correct me in the comments, as it is my desire to know the correct approach.
~Kyp Maher
So let's fast forward. You're a fairly skilled player, better than the average, but not among a pantheon of elites. You consistently perform well in small tournaments and maybe even have a PTQ Top 8 or two to your name. You rarely miss triggers, and while you may choose a less-than-perfect line of play, you almost never pick a path that's strictly wrong. You still make mistakes and don't always play perfectly, but there's no glaring problems with your playskill. This is the plateau that most competitive players find themselves on. You have room for improvement in your in-game decisions, but you are unlikely to see massive leaps forward in your abilities like you saw when you first started. So how can you still get an edge on the competition?
Well, there's several areas of Magic outside of the game itself that affect your chances of victory. This is actually one of the most wonderful parts of Magic; the tournament is as much won a week ahead of time as it is the day of. You are rewarded for forethought and effort in addition to your raw ability to out-think your opponent. I will, in time, discuss all of these aspects of the metagame of Magic, but for now, I'm just going to cover one: Deck testing and selection.
So the big tournament is coming up in three weeks. Let's say it's a Standard PTQ for simplicity's sake. There's a new set coming out in a week, and you already know the full card list, but haven't had any chances to play any new decks in FNM's to get a feel for how good they are. But you've got your group together and plenty of proxies. Where should you start?
Well, the first thing you should consider are the known quantities, and these exist for almost every tournament, even the ones where the format is experiencing upheaval. For Alara's rotation, this was Valakut, for the release of New Phyrexia, it was Caw Blade and RUG, and more recently for Zendikar's rotation, this was the multitude of Pod lists. These three actually provide some excellent examples of the different situations you can encounter with these known decks.
During the rotation of Alara, the biggest elements in the metagame were Jund, which was on the decline, Mythic, which was completely dominating everything, and then Valakut, which along with Mono-Green Eldrazi was on the rise. With the rotation coming, it looked like Valakut lost almost nothing and even gained a few new tools, and it was probably where everyone started. And when the first tournaments like States came around, it turned out that it really was just better than everything else. This is possibility A, that the known deck from the previous format is actually still the best deck. This is one of the easiest situations to recognize, and realizing it early means you can focus in on maximizing the quality of your particular list.
When you find yourself in this situation, you should ask yourself some questions. Was this deck popular before the change? If the answer is yes, you should put a significant amount of your time into the mirror match. Any edge you can get will be crucial in your hopes of winning the day, and you are likely to be a favorite in most of the matchups where your opponent is playing a different deck. Don't waste your effort, or your sideboard slots, trying to beat decks you're already favored against, unless the matchup is complex and you are only favored if you really understand it well. The exception to this rule is the deck that really beats yours. That's a different part of metagame analysis that I'll cover later on. Also, how tuned is this deck for the new metagame? When there is a change in format, the best deck may remain on top, but it usually needs to be tweaked to respond to new threats, be they from new competitors, or simply the mirror match.
Now let's look at the release of NPH. Prior to New Phyrexia, RUG Control and Caw Blade we're clearly the dominant forces in Standard. At GP Dallas, they split the top 8, and made up 15 of the decks in the top 16, marred only by Paulo playing Boros, and let's be honest, he could play Mindcrank combo and top 16 a GP. These were the decks to play, and no one really had a good chance playing anything else. Based on our last example, it would seem like you'd be pretty safe with either of these going forward, and you'd have almost been right. Except that Wizards decided to print a certain card called Batterskull that completely cemented Caw Blade's place as the best deck. RUG Control could never compete with that clock, and it never made another serious showing. This is possibility B, that one of the best decks in the metagame gets a card, or cards, that its rivals can't compete with. This may seem fairly obvious, and in this example it was, but it's not always easy to identify when this has happened. You have to understand how the decks interact with each other and evaluate how the new pieces fit into that puzzle.
So what should you do in this situation? Provided that you have accurately ascertained that a deck has gotten such a massive upgrade that no one else can compete, you should play that deck. It seems straightforward, and it is, but a lot of people struggle in this situation. This comes up in Magic more often than we'd like to admit, where there's a deck that has become so dominant that it has forced its main competitor out. This may seem like it was the case in possibility A, but it actually wasn't. In that example, Valakut still had aggressive decks like Mono-Red to keep it from just steamrolling everything. Caw-Blade never had that (prior to bannings), and yet, even at its peak, it never saw more than about 50% tournament representation. Why? Well, some players can't afford $800 decks, but at PTQs, we can start to push that group out of the equation. The real truth is that people don't want to win with the best deck. They want to be the person who came up with a way to beat the best deck, and in testing, they have trouble letting go of that. I cannot stress this enough. When you have a deck that is clearly better than every other deck in the field and has no real predators, play that deck. Decide if your goal is to win the tournament or outsmart everyone, and make the right call.
Finally we have the situation that we just went through recently with the Zendikar rotation. This is sort of the least common of the three, in that it's fairly rare for none of the dominant decks to remain after a change. Now, Pod was still around, but Pod had never dominated. Still, it was expected to be where most people started building for the new Standard, since it lost nothing except the Twin combo and gained some new toys. But as anyone who tested extensively prior to States can tell you, Pod wasn't good enough. How does a deck go from being a competitor in one Standard and then lose nothing and be a poor choice in the new one? Put simply, the environment changed. This is why it is so important to understand the metagame when choosing your deck. At first, Red reappeared, having previously been forced out by Timely Reinforcements and the prominence of white decks. The clock the deck could force on the Pod decks, combined with the somewhat suicidal nature of Phyrexian mana spells, made for a fairly poor matchup. Oh, and then there was Wolf Run, a deck that, much like Valakut, answered an opponent tapping out with immediate death. Because the Pod decks operate purely at sorcery speed, a Wolf Run player never even needs to respect open mana, and that makes for a bad situation.
This is possiblity C, when the known quantity isn't good enough anymore, and this is probably the hardest for people to accept. I mean, if it worked before, why shouldn't it now? We get set it in our ways, used to playing a certain deck or a certain style, and we mentally skew our results to fit our idea of how good we think our deck is. If we're wrong, we might not discover it until the actual tournament, and by then it's too late. Keep track of your testing results, and get good players playing good decks to try and beat yours. If they can, don't rationalize the losses away. Sure, they beat you because they topdecked the burn spell, but the deck is designed to do it. Sure, it's just a couple of bad matchups, but how many 90-10 matchups does it take to move on to something else?
For our example, we're going to assume it's option C, where there is no clear best deck, and there's enough of a shakeup that most of the group's ideas are coming from scratch. So we need to figure out what we're playing against to decide if our ideas are good enough, but there's so much to do, where do we even start?
First, I think it's always best to start with those decks that tend to exist in every metagame. Mono-Red and White Weenie fall into these categories, as they are very proactive, and their success tends to rely more on the quality of the cards available to them than on the other decks in the meta. Next, pick out any potential combos in the available card pool. If they are more than two cards, bench them; it's hard enough to get a two-card combo together consistently and you'll almost never make a consistent deck from more than two. Then look for powerful cards that you can make into an engine for a deck. Any kind of fast mana or repeatable card draw mechanic is a good candidate for this, but it varies from format to format.
Now, with some prototypes for those decks built, start testing. Test all of the builds against each other, and make note of which cards are performing well and which ones you hate having in your hand. Now, inevitably you'll have a couple of decks that seem like they aren't competing, but that doesn't mean you should abandon it. Figure out why the deck isn't working well. If you find yourself dying too quickly to aggro, add in some early defense. If you're having trouble keeping your opponent from stabilizing with a sweeper, add in some burn to give yourself reach. I can't tell you the specific solution, as they vary wildly from deck to deck. You might throw a deck out because you can't figure out the combination of cards that fixes all of the problems, and that's okay.
So let's say you've got three, maybe four, decks among your group that are all testing fairly well. Now is the time to brew control decks. You can't really do this without some idea of what decks are good. True control decks are very reactive. They respond to threats, trade one for one, and then eventually establish themselves and win from there. Now, control is an overused and underspecified term. Caw-Blade was aggro-control, for example, and thus much easier to build in a vacuum, because of its proactive gameplan, and then later tuned to the meta. But purely reactive control decks need to be special tailored to what everyone else is playing, so add them in later.
Now, the new set just came out and they had a Star City Games Open event. Mono-Red crushed, putting 8 decks in the top 16, 4 in the top 8, and won the event. This may seem like really good news, considering you had been testing Red and it was a front-runner to be your deck for the event. But it's actually the opposite; decks like Mono-Red are very easy to hate out of a meta, and it just made its way onto everyone's radar. This is something you need to be very aware of in testing: some decks are only as good as the preparation that everyone else is making for them. I like to call this Dredge Syndrome. Dredge is a deck that lives and dies by how well your opponents prepare their sideboards to fight it. These decks are sometimes the correct choice. They have a lot of raw power, but they sacrifice stability for it. These glass cannons lose a lot of their potential in metagames that are prepared for them.
So you continue testing as you have been, trying out new cards and improving designs. Another week passes, and with it comes another Open Series event. As we expected, Mono-Red gets beaten down, both by the decks that prey on it and because of over-sideboarding by the decks that are weak to it. Control decks designed to handle its clock seem to rule the day. Except for that one deck that no one has heard of that tears its way through the Swiss and wins the whole tournament. This is a major shakeup, as we now have a deck out there that appears to beat everything and that no one seemed to expect. This is a dangerous situation in a metagame, especially when it develops just before the important event. People favor results that seem particularly vivid and compelling, even if logic doesn't support them. You watch a deck crush an event, and it becomes easy to get locked into that deck without any further thought. But you're letting someone else do your testing for you, and that's never a good way to get ahead. There's a lot to consider when a deck breaks a single tournament open, especially when no one knew it was going to be played. Does the deck do something that can be easily disrupted? Are there strong hate cards for it? Can the existing decks adjust to compete and make it a pretty good deck instead of the best one? How does this affect decks that you've written off, like Mono-Red? While it may be easy to jump on the bandwagon of the vogue deck, there's a lot of things that could make it a very poor choice. Keep a healthy perspective on everything that's going on, and don't get caught up in the hype.
You'll notice that I haven't at any point really explained how to build a deck from scratch. That isn't merely oversight. Deckbuilding is a complex thing that I could devote an article series to, and the specifics aren't really the point in this article. I'm assuming that you understand why you shouldn't run twenty lands or which cards go in which decks. If you don't, you probably don't spend a whole lot of time playtesting for PTQs, and this article is explicitly tailored to you. And that's okay. This article has some bleed over into deckbuilding; many of the ideas I've described are things to keep in mind when building a deck regardless of occasion. But what I am going to discuss in detail is constructing the right sideboard.
This is an area that some people put too little effort into and some people put too much effort into. Building the right sideboard is easiest when you recognize what it actually is: hedging your bets. A sideboard isn't a magic pile of cards that guarantees you victory, but it also shouldn't just be ignored. You simply have to understand what each card does for you. This is one realm where matchup percentages, which are usually arbitrary and distracting, provide a good visual for what your goal actually is. Let's use an example.
You're playing Mono-Red pre-Zendikar rotation, and Soul Sisters is a deck. Prior to boarding, you feel this is a really horrible matchup, maybe 10-90 in their favor. So you're looking at some sideboard options, and you realize that Leyline of Punishment does a good job of shutting them down. So you board four of them and slam your opponents, right? Not quite. Let's do a little simple math. Boarding four Leylines doesn't even guarantee one in your opening hand, and it's probably too late if you hardcast it. Let's say, optimistically, it takes your matchup up to 30-70. Now, Soul Sisters is not very well represented in the metagame. At a 7 round PTQ, you'll probably play against it once. You'll probably lose game one, statistically speaking, so you're under the gun in game two. Boarding in the Leylines increases your matchup by twenty percent, which is pretty good. That means that out of ten games, you'll win two more than you used to. But you need to rattle off two straight to win the match, and with just a thirty percent chance to win, you have only a 9% chance of winning the match. Now, without the sideboard changes, your chance of winning is a measly 1%, which means those four cards have upgraded you 8%, which is not meaningless. But consider that this is one match in the entire tournament, and that your chances of winning both post-board matches is still below 10%! Is that worth 4/15ths of your board space?
Now let's consider a different situation. You're playing against an artifact heavy deck, maybe Grand Architect, still with Mono-Red, and you figure that pre-board, the match is probably 40-60 in their favor. Now let's say that you bring in 4 Manic Vandals that really hurt them and swing the matchup to 60-40 in your favor. Again we have an increase in post-board game win percentage of 20%, but this time we go from a 16% chance of winning both games two and three to a 36% chance after adding the Vandals. And let's say hypothetically that Grand Architect represents 3 of the 7 matches you'll play in the day. That seems like a much better allocation of slots than the Leylines.
Without doing the math, let's consider a matchup that you're a heavy favorite in game one. You can board in four cards to go from 70-30 to 75-25, but is that really worth it? Based on what we've seen before, you're only getting a marginal increase, and you're also favored to win game one and thus not need to win both post-board games.
I think you're probably getting the picture I'm trying to paint here. It's not worth trying to save your really bad matchups; if there are enough of them that they warrant half your sideboard to just bring them to feasibly winnable, then you probably have the wrong deck for the tournament. And you shouldn't spend slots trying to improve matchups you're already likely to win, even if that deck is very prevalent. I've seen Soul Sisters decks with 8-10 sideboard slots devoted to Mono-Red because it's prevalent, but statistically, those cards aren't earning them wins, and that's what it's all about. Your sideboard cards are best in the middle of the field, where they can eat up large percentages and turn bad matchups into good ones. If you make a bad matchup close but still lose, you don't get points for trying, and you don't get extra points for blowing opponents out. Use your sideboard to maximize your wins, and your tournament results will improve.
There's a lot more in depth that I could go into about building and utilizing sideboards, and I'll probably cover that in my next article. But for now, I've led you up to the day of the tournament, and hopefully your metagame analysis has put you on the path to success. Until next time.
Late Disclaimer: I'm hardly flawless at math, especially probabilities, and I will be the first to admit that the calculations above may be off slightly, or even a lot. I don't think it affects the merits of my points, but feel free to correct me in the comments, as it is my desire to know the correct approach.
~Kyp Maher
Monday, November 7, 2011
Fix This Deck! (UPDATE)
Needs More PRIMETIME!!!!!!!!
Hello again everyone and thanks for checking out our corner of cyberspace. Well here is a quick update on some of the changes I have made to the EDH deck I recently posted. Of course it is still a work in progress but I want to give you a look at what I have done so far.
Out: Nezumi Graverobber
In: Fauna Shaman
Reason: Shaman is just so much more powerful than the graverobber, and does not have to stay on the board for as long to make an impact on the game. Obviously Shaman has the ultimate utility of finding what you need then later you can reannimate large targets you pitched early on.
Out: Fleshbag Marauder
In: Dimir Doppelganger
Reason: This is sorta a no brainer, marauder sometimes is just horrible. Doppelganger is really good at stealing craetures that have died earlier in the game like Primetime etc. It also keeps them from using the creatures later. the best part is that you can change targets and keep removing their creatures from the game. (works well with Living Death)
Out: Triskelavus
In: Primeval Titan
Reason: I don't think I really have to tell you why on this one, lol
Out: Artisan of Kozilek
In : Woodfall Primus
Reason: Primus is so much more useful and really affects the board sooner. Primus also has persist which makes him good against mass removal and makes him an awesome reannimator target. Its like a 4 for 1 on a regular basis.
Out: Mitotic Slime
In: Simic Sky Swallower
Reason: I used to love the idea of getting so many creatures in a mass removal heavy EDH world, but its just not enough. Having one really big flying, trampeling guy that can't be targeted is much better. :)
Out: Lhurgoyf
In: Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
Reason: VOH is just so much more impactfull. Lhurgoyf unfortunately just does not do much, if it had trample or something it would make it much better. It just relies too much on what everyones graveyard looks like and can be really bad sometimes.
Out: Ancestral Vision
In : Imp's Mischief
Reason: I would much rather steal someone else's draw card spell than to have to wait 4 turns on my own, lol. Maybe not the best or most consistent choice, but this is EDH, its supposed to be fun.
Out: Carefull Study
In: Life from the Loam
Reason: Fauna Shaman is so much better than carefull study as a looter effect. And I really wanted a spot for Life from the Loam. Loam also works extremely well with cycle lands etc.
Out: Mortivore
In: Vigor Mortis
Reason: Wanted more reannimator effects and Mortivore was next on the cut list, especially since I had already cut his brother Lhurgoyf.
Out: Dimir Signet
In: Explosive Vegetation
Reason: Wanted a more "explosive" ramp target, lol. Plus is less common that your basic lands get blown up.
Out: Mind Twist
In: Decree of Pain
Reason: Mind Twist is good 1v1 but bad in multiplayer. Decree of Pain is awesome in multiplayer and very flexible.
Out: Swamp, Mortarpod
In: Strip Mine, Reliquary Tower
Reason: Adding in Primetime and Loam made me need to up my land quality just a bit.(could do even more though). And Mortarpod went from bad to worse when I took cards like Trikelavus and Mitotic Slime out.
Well...... Its getting better but still needs a few more things. Still looking for a Genesis (cough cough). But its all about fun and I can't wait to play some more. Thanks and let me know what other ides you may have.
Tony D
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Build this Sealed!
Okay folks with the Sealed PTQ season in Full swing I thought this would be a great exercise and also a way to get people more involved than we have been in the last week or so. Now granted this sealed pool is I think pretty cut and dry. I'd like to see what we can come up with.
Here is the pool:
First off I looked at what colors were playable immediately eliminating Green and Black. I had already decided I was playing some of the red cards no matter what being that there was a Volley and a Devil's Play. The rest of the red was still quite strong. After that I immediately saw a Snapcaster which has some synergy with Volley so I checked out the Blue and while it was okay I found it to be lacking in in overall card quality. Next I went to White which had everything you could want in creatures and removal. I then explored U/W/r because of my Moorland haunt double Sticher's Apprentice and double Intangible Virtue but it looked weak and had some mana issues. I also explored U/W but, ended up deciding my red was just too good not to play.
Here is how I built it:
I really liked the pool and think the deck was solid. Now lets see what you guys can do with it!
Thanks for Reading,
Daniel
OrbstinityMaster on MTGO
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Fix this Deck! Please!!!
Hello Everyone,
First of all if you are reading this I want to say thank you for visiting and I appreciate the support. This is a "we" thing and I am constantly trying to get as many people as possible involved. We have had over 1200 hits on the blog so far yet only a handfull of comments, so I thought that this type of article would create some discussion and get more people involved. And also maybe it would be a tool for others to get some help and insight on decks they want to tweek as well.
The article, as you see is called "Fix this Deck!" and I wanted to write this one because I was looking in my truck and saw an EDH/Commander deck that I literally have not played more than once or twice. I hate to say it but its because I'm embarrassed at the lackluster effort I put into building it. It was a precon G/U/B mill/graveyard strategy "Devour for Power". The problem is, after I bought it I figured out I didn't like the "mill" portion of the strategy and wanted to just focus on the graveyard. So I'm kinda stuck in the middle.
So here, I will post the decklist and see if I can get you guys to help me make some changes. I really am a big fan of synergy and power level. But I prefer synergy and a nice gameplan over sheer power. So guys please help me FIX THIS DECK!
P.S I sorted everything in order of casting cost(low -> High), to make it easier.
COMMANDER
1x Damia, Sage of Stone
CREATURES
1x Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
1x Hermit Druid
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Nezumi Graverobber
1x Bone Shredder
1x Eternal Witness
1x Yavimaya Elder
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Lhurgoyf
1x Mystic Snake
1x Wonder
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Mortivore
1x Brawn
1x Masked Admirers
1x Sphinx of Lost Truths
1x Acidic Slime
1x Mimeoplasm
1x Grave-Shell Scarab
1x Puppeteer Clique
1x Mitotic Slime
1x Mulldrifter
1x Vorosh, the Hunter
1x Wrexial, the Risen Deep
1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
1x Triskelavus
1x Krosan Tusker
1x Avatar of Woe
1x Artisan of Kozilek
ENCHANTMENTS
1x Animate Dead
1x Oversold Cemetery
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Necromancy
1x Grave Pact
SORCERY/INSTANT
1x Unearth
1x Ancestral Vision
1x Minds Aglow
1x Careful Study
1x Reanimate
1x Tribute to the Wild
1x Disturbed Burial
1x Stitch Together
1x Cultivate
1x Putrefy
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Buried Alive
1x Rite of Replication
1x Syphon Mind
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Damnation
1x Zombify
1x Living Death
1x Mind Twist
1x Mind Spring
ARTIFACTS
1x Sol Ring
1x Dimir Signet
1x Simic Signet
1x Mind Stone
1x Mortarpod
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Crystal Shard
1x Oblivion Stone
LANDS
6x Islands
5x Swamps
5x Forests
1x Polluted Delta
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Command Tower
1x Rupture Spire
1x Bayou
1x Tropical Island
1x Watery Grave
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Breeding Pool
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Dimir Aqueduct
1x Darkslick Shores
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Jwar Isle Refuge
1x Dreadship Reef
1x Lonely Sandbar
1x Barren Moor
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Temple of the False God
Well, thats it guys/gals. Have fun chopping it up, because I really would like to play this one day soon, lol.
Until next time!!!
Tony D.
First of all if you are reading this I want to say thank you for visiting and I appreciate the support. This is a "we" thing and I am constantly trying to get as many people as possible involved. We have had over 1200 hits on the blog so far yet only a handfull of comments, so I thought that this type of article would create some discussion and get more people involved. And also maybe it would be a tool for others to get some help and insight on decks they want to tweek as well.
The article, as you see is called "Fix this Deck!" and I wanted to write this one because I was looking in my truck and saw an EDH/Commander deck that I literally have not played more than once or twice. I hate to say it but its because I'm embarrassed at the lackluster effort I put into building it. It was a precon G/U/B mill/graveyard strategy "Devour for Power". The problem is, after I bought it I figured out I didn't like the "mill" portion of the strategy and wanted to just focus on the graveyard. So I'm kinda stuck in the middle.
So here, I will post the decklist and see if I can get you guys to help me make some changes. I really am a big fan of synergy and power level. But I prefer synergy and a nice gameplan over sheer power. So guys please help me FIX THIS DECK!
P.S I sorted everything in order of casting cost(low -> High), to make it easier.
COMMANDER
1x Damia, Sage of Stone
CREATURES
1x Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
1x Hermit Druid
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Nezumi Graverobber
1x Bone Shredder
1x Eternal Witness
1x Yavimaya Elder
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Lhurgoyf
1x Mystic Snake
1x Wonder
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Mortivore
1x Brawn
1x Masked Admirers
1x Sphinx of Lost Truths
1x Acidic Slime
1x Mimeoplasm
1x Grave-Shell Scarab
1x Puppeteer Clique
1x Mitotic Slime
1x Mulldrifter
1x Vorosh, the Hunter
1x Wrexial, the Risen Deep
1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
1x Triskelavus
1x Krosan Tusker
1x Avatar of Woe
1x Artisan of Kozilek
ENCHANTMENTS
1x Animate Dead
1x Oversold Cemetery
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Necromancy
1x Grave Pact
SORCERY/INSTANT
1x Unearth
1x Ancestral Vision
1x Minds Aglow
1x Careful Study
1x Reanimate
1x Tribute to the Wild
1x Disturbed Burial
1x Stitch Together
1x Cultivate
1x Putrefy
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Buried Alive
1x Rite of Replication
1x Syphon Mind
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Damnation
1x Zombify
1x Living Death
1x Mind Twist
1x Mind Spring
ARTIFACTS
1x Sol Ring
1x Dimir Signet
1x Simic Signet
1x Mind Stone
1x Mortarpod
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Crystal Shard
1x Oblivion Stone
LANDS
6x Islands
5x Swamps
5x Forests
1x Polluted Delta
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Command Tower
1x Rupture Spire
1x Bayou
1x Tropical Island
1x Watery Grave
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Breeding Pool
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Dimir Aqueduct
1x Darkslick Shores
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Jwar Isle Refuge
1x Dreadship Reef
1x Lonely Sandbar
1x Barren Moor
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Temple of the False God
Well, thats it guys/gals. Have fun chopping it up, because I really would like to play this one day soon, lol.
Until next time!!!
Tony D.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
ISD MTGO Drafts
I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Here are a few drafts I've done on MTGO.
My best Draft by far went 6-0. I love the G/W aggro archetype. Unfortunately it is becoming one of the more overdrafted archetypes so I'll be staying away from it unless it's very open or open a bomb.
Pretty descent draft I picked Parallel Lives P2P1 thinking I could capitalize on it and then got Moorland Haunt P4P1. After that I got nothing for tokens.dec and audibled to humans in pack two after getting 3rd pick Champion of the Parish. Made the finals and cracked a Snapcaster so that's a win in my book.
This was my first draft online. It wasn't very good despite having a lot of ways to fill my graveyard up. Playing 2 Grimoire was very greedy and while it never caught up to me it was an oversight on my part. Splinterfright was very good and I think my deck could have been a little better had I just gone G/U. I still won my first round and lost my second in three games getting flooded in the third.
Thanks for reading,
Daniel
OrbstinityMaster on MTGO
Saturday, October 22, 2011
States Report: Top 8- Tannon Grace
Anyone who knows me or heard me talk about states leading up to the tournament knows how bad I want to win a state championship. Having numerous top 8's and even a second place finish has done nothing but make me want it more. This year I vowed to go all the way, I even went as far as telling many of my friends I was going to win. No, I was not being cocky. I said this with a little bit of jest but I do believe that if you don't go into a tournament thinking you will win you probably should not be playing.
States is one of my favorite tournaments every year. You have a brand new set leading into a budding brand new format. There is so much room for growth and brewing that it is a dream for people who put the time in before tournaments to do testing. Also there are so many great people at the tournament all with new and exciting decks.
Leading up to states I was pretty set on playing esper control, (blue, black, white). The deck would play out alot like solar flare but without Liliana and better cards for the current metagame. I had a list together and tons of games under my belt. I felt really good about my deck choice and thought I really had a chance to win it all this year. I was beating mono red, solar flare, tempered steel all easily and had great SB plans for every deck. Then I play tested against Wolf Run Ramp. Man were my eyes opened. Within 5-10 games I was ready to sleeve up Primeval Titan for the first time. So after getting in alot of testing with my new deck choice I was ready for the crazy day to start. 105 players registered making it the biggest LA state tournament in history.
Artifact Creatures
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Wurmcoil Engine
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Primeval Titan
4 Viridian Emissary
Instants
4 Beast Within
Planeswalkers
4 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Sorceries
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
3 Slagstorm
Basic Lands
9 Forest
3 Mountain
Lands
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Rootbound Crag
Sideboard:
1 Ratchet Bomb
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Tree of Redemption
1 Viridian Corrupter
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Slagstorm
1 Devil's Play
We talked alot over the week about how to change the deck. Add the 4th titan? Thrun main? SB tech vs the mirror? I tried all these but just found that I liked the deck to much as is and all the numbers just felt right to me.
Round 1 Jeremy Shapiro
Jeremy is a really solid limited player with multiple money finishes at Gp's. I sa down ready for what I expected to be a long grueling match. He lead off game one with a plains into elite vanguard. I look at my hand with lands, viridian emissary, slagstorm, and a titan. I feel there is no way I can lose this game, so I play a land and pass the turn. Then something strange happens. Jeremy swings for two and plays a celestial colonnade! For those of you who dont get why this is strange...colonnade rotated out of standard a few weeks ago. So I call a judge over and explain what happened. Alot of my friends playing close by got a kick out of me calling a judge so quickly in round 1. Some people had not even started their games and here I was with a match win. So I decided to walk the room and check on what people were playing and how my friends were doing. Almost all my friends won their first rounds so everyone was in good spirits. 2-0
Round 2 Chase Usey
Chase is a good friend of mine and had done some extensive testing with me over the week leading up to the event. Chase usually plays more aggressive decks but today was on my control deck, since none of the agro decks appealed to him. I knew almost all of chases 75 so winning game one was going to be easy since he wasnt running many counters main besides some mana leaks. I won the important die roll and played a turn 2 emissary and a turn 4 Simulacrum. I just kept attacking with these threats and a Nexus until chase had to do something. This allowed me to land a titan and force lethal on multiple fronts. For game 2 I brought in some Thruns and swords. I stuck a turn 3 Thrun and rode it to victory. I did make a awful mistake in this round. I had out a emissary, a solemn, and a bird with 6 lands. I had a sword in hand and knew chase had a doom blade. So I cast sword, equip my birds and he blades in response. I just put my bird straight in the graveyard. Who wants to float mana and equip another creature? Not this guy it seems. If you play your deck correct in these matches its really hard to lose. In game one you can keep running your cards into their mana since they dont have many counter spells. Or you can just cast the cheaper creatures they cant really afford to counter and just ride them for turn after turn forcing them to do something. 2-0
Round 3 Brian Basoco
Second round in a row against a good friend. Brian has been on multiple magic road trips with me and even saved me in GP Dallas when I didnt really have a place to stay. I knew this was the mirror since we talked between every round. I mulligan to 6 the first game after losing the die roll and dont like my chances in this game at all. Brian importantly lands the first titan of the match and I am immediately under the gun. I cast my own titan but know that I am behind and likely to lose. On his turn Brian decides to cast a Wurmcoil, much to my confusion. I untap and attack with a nexus and my titan. I get the last 2 Inkmoths in my deck and wolf run my attacking nexus for 7. Brian cannot attack back for enough to kill me so we are onto game 2. I really feel like Brian should have won this game, if he went in on the poison plan the turn he cast the Wurmcoil I would have just been dead. I bring in some swords, ancient grudges, and a devils play. In game 2 I make another embarrassing play mistake. Brian has out a titan while I have out an emissary, a solemn, and a beast token. He casts a slagstorm precombat which I let resolve...with a beast within in hand. So instead of turning his titan into a token I have to hit one of my own lands and block. Opps. I go on to win game 3 thankfully. I take a few minutes for myself after this match to collect my thoughts and make sure nothing like that happens again. I feel very lucky to be 3-0 with 2 mistakes of that level happening.
Round 4 Heath Vizier
Heath was a really nice guy I had never met before. I knew heath was on mono red for sitting next to him the round before. I lose the die roll and look and a hand with titan, garruk, bird and 4 lands. This hand isnt bad but it just cannot beat his deck on the draw. I mulligan into 3 lands 2 emissary and wurmcoil and *snap* keep. I play the wurmcoil on turn 4 while still at a healthy life total and ride it to victory. I mulligan to 6 game 2 and get crushed. I have a good hand game 3 and get out a turn 3 thrun followed by a turn 4 tree. I win the game from there despite going to 1 life at some point. 4-0
Round 5 Dylan Smith
Dylan is a great guy and a good friend. We are again on the mirror match and talk about drawing before the round starts. We are in first and second place at the time I believe and I kind of like the idea. It is a round early to draw, and I usually dont like doing this kind of thing but looking around the table I liked our match ups next round. If we got paired up against the other draw decks, which would likely be solar flare or control decks, we were both ok with this. I did not feel like flipping a coin this match, since he is a good player and I felt like he would not be an easy match, I took the draw. 4-0-1
Round 6 John Freitas
ANOTHER good friend of mine. John and I go way back. We even played on a team pro tour together. I got luckily paired against him this round since he was 5-0 and could scoop to me. It was nice to have another round off and know that I had just locked up another top 8! 5-0-1
Round 7 Jody Keith
You guessed it, another good friend. Jody and I drew both being locks for top 8.
Round 8 Top 8 Grant Bordelon
Grant seemed really happy to be in top 8 and told me this was his first one at any decent sized tournament. I told his congrats and wished him luck. He was playing a blue black control deck but stalled on lands in both games and was never really in either one of them. One funny moment happened when grant cast dissipate on my Thrun in game 2. We had a good laugh about it since he was so far out of the game anyway.
Round 9 Top 8 Lyall Alfred
Another mirror match was in my future for the rights to play in the finals. I mulligan to 5 on the draw and get crushed. In game 2 I mulligan to 5 on the play and get crushed. After this I am pretty sad and quite mad. To get that close again and lose that way was heartbreaking. I tried to keep my feelings to myself, be professional and wished my opponent good luck in the finals. Lyall went on to win the tournament, showcasing the power of this deck, so congrats Lyall. My friends could tell how disappointing this loss was for me and did a great job of making me feel better. Thanks for all the support and congrats from everyone, it really does mean alot. I just wish I could have brought home the title I wanted so bad and put that championship plague up in my local store.
Overall the tourny was great. Nick Buras did a GREAT job head judging his first event. Everything was run smoothly and on time. I really enjoyed the hour later starting time for extra sleep. Congrats to Kyp Maher on another good showing, losing on his win and in for the second year in a row. I know next year you will be in that top 8 with me! Also great job Coleman, with what I believe was a 9th or 10th finish. Drawing in the last round and missing on breakers. Now standings were not posted before the last round, my only gripe about the tournament all day long. But to any of you in the future, if there is any doubt as to if you will make it in with a draw just play it out. I would rather have my fate in my own hands and play for it then wait and see if I make it on breakers. Im glad Garruk is finally getting to shine, he has been criminally underplayed since being printed. Many of my opponents misplayed versus him and drawing 6 with him just felt so good all day. I dont think I lost a game all day where I drew with Garruk and even won a game or two that I might not have because of him.
I do think that this deck and other versions of it are the best decks in standard right now. The version that is more mono green with dungrove elder seems awesome to me and I may try it out soon, I really think it may be the way to go forward with this deck. I cannot wait to attack with elder and a titan at the same time. I might make a few changes going forward if you want to run this version. I think 1 Thrun main is not a bad idea, UB and solar flare are getting better at fighting you game one and this is another threat that is hard for them to answer. I did not really like the swords a whole lot but the may be necessary. A swamp and memoricide is not out of the question for the mirror. I personally would like maybe 1 or 2 more acidic slimes to just keep ahead on lands. Hitting a wolf-run can sometimes be the difference in a win and a loss.
Other than this deck the UB control decks seem like the only control strategy that can really keep up. You have to play tight and know the match-up but it is winnable. Not to mention UB can just beat up on the other control decks, what may be the best match up for them. Another deck I love right now is the token deck. I feel it has real game versus all the other decks out there right now, surprisingly. Ill be the first to admit I wrote that deck off as gimmicky. The real dark horse deck right now has to be mono black infect. It seems to have good game vs most decks and can get a few free game wins verses unsuspecting, unprepared opponents. As for what I will be playing this week in standard? It will probably be UB control with some spicy cards. But I have been wanting to have more fun while playing lately and that has me leaning towards playing burning vengeance. I will be working on a URB version most likely with a light green splash.
Tannon
States is one of my favorite tournaments every year. You have a brand new set leading into a budding brand new format. There is so much room for growth and brewing that it is a dream for people who put the time in before tournaments to do testing. Also there are so many great people at the tournament all with new and exciting decks.
Leading up to states I was pretty set on playing esper control, (blue, black, white). The deck would play out alot like solar flare but without Liliana and better cards for the current metagame. I had a list together and tons of games under my belt. I felt really good about my deck choice and thought I really had a chance to win it all this year. I was beating mono red, solar flare, tempered steel all easily and had great SB plans for every deck. Then I play tested against Wolf Run Ramp. Man were my eyes opened. Within 5-10 games I was ready to sleeve up Primeval Titan for the first time. So after getting in alot of testing with my new deck choice I was ready for the crazy day to start. 105 players registered making it the biggest LA state tournament in history.
Artifact Creatures
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Wurmcoil Engine
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Primeval Titan
4 Viridian Emissary
Instants
4 Beast Within
Planeswalkers
4 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Sorceries
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
3 Slagstorm
Basic Lands
9 Forest
3 Mountain
Lands
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Rootbound Crag
Sideboard:
1 Ratchet Bomb
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Tree of Redemption
1 Viridian Corrupter
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Slagstorm
1 Devil's Play
We talked alot over the week about how to change the deck. Add the 4th titan? Thrun main? SB tech vs the mirror? I tried all these but just found that I liked the deck to much as is and all the numbers just felt right to me.
Round 1 Jeremy Shapiro
Jeremy is a really solid limited player with multiple money finishes at Gp's. I sa down ready for what I expected to be a long grueling match. He lead off game one with a plains into elite vanguard. I look at my hand with lands, viridian emissary, slagstorm, and a titan. I feel there is no way I can lose this game, so I play a land and pass the turn. Then something strange happens. Jeremy swings for two and plays a celestial colonnade! For those of you who dont get why this is strange...colonnade rotated out of standard a few weeks ago. So I call a judge over and explain what happened. Alot of my friends playing close by got a kick out of me calling a judge so quickly in round 1. Some people had not even started their games and here I was with a match win. So I decided to walk the room and check on what people were playing and how my friends were doing. Almost all my friends won their first rounds so everyone was in good spirits. 2-0
Round 2 Chase Usey
Chase is a good friend of mine and had done some extensive testing with me over the week leading up to the event. Chase usually plays more aggressive decks but today was on my control deck, since none of the agro decks appealed to him. I knew almost all of chases 75 so winning game one was going to be easy since he wasnt running many counters main besides some mana leaks. I won the important die roll and played a turn 2 emissary and a turn 4 Simulacrum. I just kept attacking with these threats and a Nexus until chase had to do something. This allowed me to land a titan and force lethal on multiple fronts. For game 2 I brought in some Thruns and swords. I stuck a turn 3 Thrun and rode it to victory. I did make a awful mistake in this round. I had out a emissary, a solemn, and a bird with 6 lands. I had a sword in hand and knew chase had a doom blade. So I cast sword, equip my birds and he blades in response. I just put my bird straight in the graveyard. Who wants to float mana and equip another creature? Not this guy it seems. If you play your deck correct in these matches its really hard to lose. In game one you can keep running your cards into their mana since they dont have many counter spells. Or you can just cast the cheaper creatures they cant really afford to counter and just ride them for turn after turn forcing them to do something. 2-0
Round 3 Brian Basoco
Second round in a row against a good friend. Brian has been on multiple magic road trips with me and even saved me in GP Dallas when I didnt really have a place to stay. I knew this was the mirror since we talked between every round. I mulligan to 6 the first game after losing the die roll and dont like my chances in this game at all. Brian importantly lands the first titan of the match and I am immediately under the gun. I cast my own titan but know that I am behind and likely to lose. On his turn Brian decides to cast a Wurmcoil, much to my confusion. I untap and attack with a nexus and my titan. I get the last 2 Inkmoths in my deck and wolf run my attacking nexus for 7. Brian cannot attack back for enough to kill me so we are onto game 2. I really feel like Brian should have won this game, if he went in on the poison plan the turn he cast the Wurmcoil I would have just been dead. I bring in some swords, ancient grudges, and a devils play. In game 2 I make another embarrassing play mistake. Brian has out a titan while I have out an emissary, a solemn, and a beast token. He casts a slagstorm precombat which I let resolve...with a beast within in hand. So instead of turning his titan into a token I have to hit one of my own lands and block. Opps. I go on to win game 3 thankfully. I take a few minutes for myself after this match to collect my thoughts and make sure nothing like that happens again. I feel very lucky to be 3-0 with 2 mistakes of that level happening.
Round 4 Heath Vizier
Heath was a really nice guy I had never met before. I knew heath was on mono red for sitting next to him the round before. I lose the die roll and look and a hand with titan, garruk, bird and 4 lands. This hand isnt bad but it just cannot beat his deck on the draw. I mulligan into 3 lands 2 emissary and wurmcoil and *snap* keep. I play the wurmcoil on turn 4 while still at a healthy life total and ride it to victory. I mulligan to 6 game 2 and get crushed. I have a good hand game 3 and get out a turn 3 thrun followed by a turn 4 tree. I win the game from there despite going to 1 life at some point. 4-0
Round 5 Dylan Smith
Dylan is a great guy and a good friend. We are again on the mirror match and talk about drawing before the round starts. We are in first and second place at the time I believe and I kind of like the idea. It is a round early to draw, and I usually dont like doing this kind of thing but looking around the table I liked our match ups next round. If we got paired up against the other draw decks, which would likely be solar flare or control decks, we were both ok with this. I did not feel like flipping a coin this match, since he is a good player and I felt like he would not be an easy match, I took the draw. 4-0-1
Round 6 John Freitas
ANOTHER good friend of mine. John and I go way back. We even played on a team pro tour together. I got luckily paired against him this round since he was 5-0 and could scoop to me. It was nice to have another round off and know that I had just locked up another top 8! 5-0-1
Round 7 Jody Keith
You guessed it, another good friend. Jody and I drew both being locks for top 8.
Round 8 Top 8 Grant Bordelon
Grant seemed really happy to be in top 8 and told me this was his first one at any decent sized tournament. I told his congrats and wished him luck. He was playing a blue black control deck but stalled on lands in both games and was never really in either one of them. One funny moment happened when grant cast dissipate on my Thrun in game 2. We had a good laugh about it since he was so far out of the game anyway.
Round 9 Top 8 Lyall Alfred
Another mirror match was in my future for the rights to play in the finals. I mulligan to 5 on the draw and get crushed. In game 2 I mulligan to 5 on the play and get crushed. After this I am pretty sad and quite mad. To get that close again and lose that way was heartbreaking. I tried to keep my feelings to myself, be professional and wished my opponent good luck in the finals. Lyall went on to win the tournament, showcasing the power of this deck, so congrats Lyall. My friends could tell how disappointing this loss was for me and did a great job of making me feel better. Thanks for all the support and congrats from everyone, it really does mean alot. I just wish I could have brought home the title I wanted so bad and put that championship plague up in my local store.
Overall the tourny was great. Nick Buras did a GREAT job head judging his first event. Everything was run smoothly and on time. I really enjoyed the hour later starting time for extra sleep. Congrats to Kyp Maher on another good showing, losing on his win and in for the second year in a row. I know next year you will be in that top 8 with me! Also great job Coleman, with what I believe was a 9th or 10th finish. Drawing in the last round and missing on breakers. Now standings were not posted before the last round, my only gripe about the tournament all day long. But to any of you in the future, if there is any doubt as to if you will make it in with a draw just play it out. I would rather have my fate in my own hands and play for it then wait and see if I make it on breakers. Im glad Garruk is finally getting to shine, he has been criminally underplayed since being printed. Many of my opponents misplayed versus him and drawing 6 with him just felt so good all day. I dont think I lost a game all day where I drew with Garruk and even won a game or two that I might not have because of him.
I do think that this deck and other versions of it are the best decks in standard right now. The version that is more mono green with dungrove elder seems awesome to me and I may try it out soon, I really think it may be the way to go forward with this deck. I cannot wait to attack with elder and a titan at the same time. I might make a few changes going forward if you want to run this version. I think 1 Thrun main is not a bad idea, UB and solar flare are getting better at fighting you game one and this is another threat that is hard for them to answer. I did not really like the swords a whole lot but the may be necessary. A swamp and memoricide is not out of the question for the mirror. I personally would like maybe 1 or 2 more acidic slimes to just keep ahead on lands. Hitting a wolf-run can sometimes be the difference in a win and a loss.
Other than this deck the UB control decks seem like the only control strategy that can really keep up. You have to play tight and know the match-up but it is winnable. Not to mention UB can just beat up on the other control decks, what may be the best match up for them. Another deck I love right now is the token deck. I feel it has real game versus all the other decks out there right now, surprisingly. Ill be the first to admit I wrote that deck off as gimmicky. The real dark horse deck right now has to be mono black infect. It seems to have good game vs most decks and can get a few free game wins verses unsuspecting, unprepared opponents. As for what I will be playing this week in standard? It will probably be UB control with some spicy cards. But I have been wanting to have more fun while playing lately and that has me leaning towards playing burning vengeance. I will be working on a URB version most likely with a light green splash.
Tannon
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
States 2011: A Success Story?
It's now Sunday October 16th. I am awake and wishing I was asleep on the night of the 14th. I finished 11th at States and needless to say I'm quite disappointed. You see I've been playing Magic for a very long time and only really tasted "success" once. It would be fair to say I expect to win every tournament I attend. I have the skill and the deck building capabilities to do so but, for some reason I just can't seem to finish the tournament well enough. Always a bridesmaid never a bride some would say. To be in contention to top 8 at so many events only to fall short is disheartening to say the least. Now if you know me well enough as many of you do I will whole heartedly admit I'm am a lot of things and a bit of a sore loser is definitely one of them. I can't help but have a bitter taste in my mouth when I lose and its out of my control. I know you're saying 11th place out of 105 of the best players in LA is pretty good and you would be right. I know it's good just not good enough for me. I expect more from myself and I think it's under that pressure I strive for greatness. I will admit I made plenty of play mistakes and that came from not testing as much as I should have. Overall I had a great time I finished "well". Not to mention I got to play and see some of my best friends. Now on to the deck and the tourney report.
G/B Rock
Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Skinshifter
3 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Spellskite
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Bloodgift Demon
Spells:
2 Doom Blade
3 Dismember
3 Beast Within
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Planeswalkers:
4 Lilliana of the Veil
2 Garruk Relentless
Artifacts
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
Lands:
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Ghost Quarter
10 Forests
7 Swamps
Sideboard:
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Rachet Bomb
2 Naturalize
2 Spellskite
2 Creeping Corrosion
2 Tree of Redemption
1 Dismember
1 Beast Within
Overall is was extremely happy with the deck. I feel like it has great matches all around. I'll get the changes I would make at the end of my post. Now for the tourney report.
Round One vs. Ryan Suire w/ W/u Geist
Ryan and I go way back he is a staple in the Lafayette Magic community and all around a good guy. Normally he plays very aggressive red deck and I automatically assume that's what he is playing. Boy was I wrong.
Game One
He wins the die roll and we both keep seven. He rolls out a Champion of the Parish off a Seachrome Coast I'm stunned. I play a BoP and pass the turn. He plays an Inkmoth swings for 1 with champ and passes the turn. I play a Skinshifter and pass back. Turn 3 he plays Mirran Crusader luckily I have Lilliana in hand to deal with it. I play Liliana kill his Champ w/Doom Blade and make him sac his Crusader. Turn 4 he rolls out another Crusader and passes. I Draw and go into the tank I have a lot of gas in my hand I play a Bloodgift Demon and decide not to active Lilliana at all this is a GIANT misplay as I assume he will attack Lilliana anyway so why discard one of my good cards and he has something like 5 cards in hand. Turn 5 He untaps casts Angelic Destiny and takes me to 7 not even bothering with Lilliana. on my turn I draw 2 cards go to 6 find no answer and scoop it up onto game two.
Sideboarding
Out
3 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Garruk Relentless
In
2 Spellskite
2 Naturalize
1 Beast Within
Game Two
I'm on the play and mull to 6 he keeps 7. I play a BoP and pass. He plays Champ and passes. Turn 2 He plays another Champ and swings for 2. Turn 3 I play my land and a Sword of F&F and pass he Misses his land drop and plays yet another Champ he swings for 5. Turn 4 I play my land and a Skinshifter equip sword to BoP Attack for 2 and pass.
He misses his land drop again and plays Elite Vangaurd he swings with his 4/4 Champ I Dismember paying no life. Turn 5 I play a Ghost Quarter and drop a Bloodgift Demon swing for two untap my lands get another card and equip my demon with sword pass. He finally plays his third land and and attacks with all 3 creatures I block the 3/3 champ with my demon and take 4. Turn 6 I draw 2 and take 1 I try to cast Garruk it gets Mana Leaked. I swing with Demon he takes seven I untap Having nothing but lands I pass. He plays an Inkmoth attacks for 3 which I take and he passes. Turn 7 I draw 2 and take 1 going to 4 I attack he blocks my Demon with Inkmoth to which I allow thinking of Disperse or Rebuke and that I'll Ghost Quarter his Seachrome Coast in response setting him off of either blue or double white he searches up an Island I immediately realize my mistake and he plays Snapcaster Mage EoT and thats game. After the matches he mentions he only plays one island and was sandbagging lands the entire game. I played this match very poorly and I think it was very much my game to lose.
Games 0-2
Matches 0-1
Round Two vs. Hillary Joubert w/ R/G Wolfrun Ramp
Hill and I are very good friends and he is a great player. He texted me the night before the tournament his choices for decks. I figured him to be on U/W control as he normally is. Once again I'm very wrong. Now many people may think by assuming I know what my opponent is playing that I keep hands that are better against those decks. As a matter of fact I make it a point to not keep hands I wouldn't keep any other time. Unless I'm 100% sure I know what my opponent is playing.
Game One
He wins the die roll and mulligans to six while I keep my seven. Turn 1 he plays a Rootbound crag and passes. I play forest and BoP pass. Turn 2 he plays Copperline Gorge and Viridian Emissary the jig is up. We go a few turns playing land with me holding alot of removal he eventually take the game with multiple Primeval Titans and we go to game 2.
Sideboarding
Out
3 Mayor Avabruck
1 Garruk Relentless
In
2 Spellskite
1 Beast Within
1 Dismember
Game Two
I know now he's on Wolfrun and play accordingly saving Beast Within and Ghost Quarter for the important lands. He lands a Batterskull but plays it a little conservatively and eventually I take the game with a Bloodgift Demon w/Sword of Feast and Famine.
Game Three
We start game 3 with about 10 minutes left. He lands an early Pimeval Titan I have Lilliana for it and we start a very long drawn out game. We go to turns and I stick a Bloodgift Demon on turn 1 and we end the game with him at 5 and me at 7 poison with 3 Inkmoths on the board.
Games 1-1-3
Matches 0-1-1
Round 3 vs. Mike Laviolette w/4 Color Burning Vengeance
Mike is a very skilled veteran of the Louisiana Magic scene. Unfortunately these games aren't very close.
Game One
We both start off with tapped lands and I attempt a turn 2 Skinshifter he leaks it and we play another turn of draw go. He casts EoT Think Twice and on his turn plays Burning Vengeance. I cast a Thrun all he does is try to draw an answer for the next 5 turns.
Sideboarding
Out
4 Lilliana of The Veil
1 Garruk Relentless
In
2 Spellskite
2 Naturalize
1 Beast Within
Game Two
Pretty much the same thing as game one only I Stick turn 3 Thrun and the game is over shortly after.
Games 3-1-3
Matches 1-1-1
At this point I get into the mentality of "All you need to do is win out" I really don't like this mentality and I wouldn't recommend it. You play your best magic when you are having fun and you're relaxed enjoying yourself. This particular mindset can only set you up for 2 things failure or heartbreak both of which I know quite well and neither are very fun.
Round 4 vs. Lawrence Ledy w/Tap Out Solarflare
Lawrence and I got paired up at the Nationals Qualifier earlier this year in top 8. He was playing RUG while I was on Big Red. He destroyed me both games casting Thrun and me having no answer at all. So to say I was out for revenge was a bit of an understatement.
Game One
He wins the die roll and mulls to six as do I and we are off to the races. I play BoP and Skinshifter for the for few turns while he plays the draw cards and fill my yard plan. He lets every single spell resolve so I gather he's on the Tap Out version with little to no counters. I beat him down with my Skinshiters eventually landing a Sword of Feast and Famine grinding him out while he does some Sun Titan+Unburial Rites action but, I'm already too far ahead for him to catch up.
Sideboarding
Out
4 Lilliana of the Veil
3 Mayor of Avabruck
In
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Naturalize
1 Beast Within
1 Dismember
Game Two
I keep 3 Land,BoP ,Thrun, SoFaF, Extraction. I'm in complete control of this game from beginning to end. He plays O-Ring on my SoFaF to which I respond by casting another and blow up his O-ring with Beast Within. He really get the graveyard full and I draw another Extraction. He attempts to go off I in response take all his targets for Sun Titan and he has only lands to get back. I then cast Bloodgift Demon representing lethal next turn he plays a Phantasmal Image copying my Demon but I have the removal spell to get rid of it.
Games 5-1-3
Matches 2-1-1
Round 5 vs. J.T. w/ RDW
Game One
He wins the die roll and we both keep seven. He plays a Storm Kirk noble and I play a BoP he Arc Trails and gets in. I play Skinshifter with no mana up to see exactly what he does he picks it up and reads it good news for me. He plays a Chandra's Phoenix and bashes. I play my third land and pass I end up getting a roughly 4 for 1 out of my Skinshifter shooting the Phoenix with a Doom Blade. He plays a Shrine post combat which is bad news for me because if he gets up around 5 counters I just die. He plays another on the turn after and I keep playing guys he keeps getting counters on his shrines and eventually points the at me for lethal.
Sideboard
Out
3 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Lilliana of the Veil
In
2 Tree of Redemption
2 Rachet Bomb
2 Spellskite
1 Beast Within
Game 2
I'm on the play and don't have a 1 drop He has an arsonist so on turn 2 I play Spellskite and pas i dont block and he plays a Stormblood Berserker. I play a Sword of war and peace and pass he misses his land drop and swings for 4. I equip my Skite and serve for 7 gaining 5. he plays a third land and a Phoenix and swings I keep pressure and then I play Rachet Bomb and a BoP and he looks rather stunned. He plays quite a few guys including a Lavamancer intending on racing but, I keep coming in with Skite and re-equipping my BoP post combat. I eventually bring him to 4 he finally kills my Skite and I rip a SoFaF to end the game with my BoP.
Game 3
Time is running low and we play very fast. I stick turn 1 BoP into turn 2 Skite into turn 3 Tree of Redemption. He plays an Arsonist into Phoenix into Berserker into Hero of Oxid Ridge. I kill Hero and we start the grind I keep swinging in with a Skinshifter with SoFaF but only for 4 a turn. Then post combat equipping my Tree effectively gaining 2 each turn. This goes on for a while but he never finds his second Hero and I kill him with Skinshifter.
Games 7-1-4
Matches 3-1-1
At this point I'm noticing a trend I keep getting paired down and start to do the math. I will have the worst breakers at 5-1-1 even if I do win out. This is quite disheartening but, if EVERYTHING goes right I could top 8 off of luck and not too many IDs...
Round 6 vs. Brian Basoco w/ R/G Wolfrun Ramp
I know Brian as he goes almost everything in driving distance. He's a good guy knows all the same people I do and occasionally plays at Rocket's. He is a very solid player and I expect a very good match
Game One
I win the die roll and keep seven while he mulls to 6. I play a Bop and pass he plays Copperline Gorge and passes. I play a Mayor of Avabruck for the first time the entire tournament and pass he plays an Emissary and passes. I pass the turn with a Beast Within and Dismemeber in hand flipping my Mayor. He plays a Rampant Growth and attacks. I know I want to keep the Primeval Titan off as long as possible so I decide to take it. On my turn get a wolf play aggressively. I cast a Garruk which makes a 3/3 wolf which I hear is rather impressive and get in for 3. He misses his land drop and leaves his Emissary up to block. I kill the Emissary and come in for 9 make 2 wolfs and pass the turn. On his turn he plays 2 spells to flip my mayor but I have Lilliana to kill his blocker and and take the game with exactsies.
Sideboarding
Out
3 Mayor Avabruck
1 Garruk Relentless
In
2 Spellskite
1 Beast Within
1 Dismember
Game Two
This game went very quickly I play a BoP and pass He plays and Emissary on turn 2. I have a Thrun for turn 3 but he lands a turn 5 Wurmcoil Engine and I can't really get back into it so I scoop.
Game Three
I play a BoP. He plays a Rootbound and passes. I decide to Beast Within his land on my turn 2. He comes in with the beast while I slam Skinshifter and he misses his land drop I try to keep him off lands but I run out of gas far too quickly. im playing off the top trying to race off of 3 lands and my BoP but I'm starting to fall behind then he lands a primeval titan and I have to start blocking he eventually has plenty enough to kill me with an Inkmoth we go to time. I ask Brian to concede to my before we ever taking a turn explaining he has this game won anyway but at X-2 he doesn't have a shot at top 8 while I do at X-1-1 he thinks about it for a minute and says its just packs and gives me the win. This is a very honorable thing to do and I know for sure I would have done the same thing and will continue to do so when the situation occurs.
Games 9-1-5
Matches 4-1-1
Round 7 vs. Nic Olsen w/ W/g Tokentown
Nic was the talk of tournament. He is April the owner of Rocket's nephew and a cool kid. He started off 4-0 then losing the last two matches. Before we play I ask him hows he's been and he says "I just ate 22 Tic Tacs so I'm in the zone!" He also mentions a promise of 3 candy bars from his Aunt if he top 8s. I get the feeling hes going to play his little heart out and I expect no less.
Game one
I stick an early Skinshifter he makes a ton of tokens and we are off to the races. He lands an Honor of the Pure and Gavony Township all the while making tokens. I get him down to 2 and pass. He plays an Elspeth gaining 4 life and now he has lethal on his turn. Luckily I rip a SoFaF and I'm able to kill him.
Sideboarding
Out
3 Mayor of avabruck
3 Liliana of the Veil
In
2 Rachet Bomb
2 Naturalize
1 Beast Within
1 Dismember
Game 2
I mulligan to 5 he keeps seven and just destroys me he plays very conservatively though making sure he has plenty eneough to kill me he also has a sick curve out of Doomed Traveler, into Honor of the Pure, into Midnight Haunting while playing Gavony Township, into Shrine of Loyal Legions and Intangible Virtue, into Elspeth just BRUTAL. For as young as Nic is the skill he has after 22 Tic Tacs + 4 during sideboarding is amazing and I really hope he stays with the game.
Game 3
In my head I'm thinking play tight don't make any mistakes and do your best and maybe you can beat him. In reality I'm probably about to get creamed by a ten year old which is fine won't be the first probably not the last. I look at my opening seven and I see a Rachet Bomb I'm stoked the rest of my hand is very good a Llanowar Elves, Skinshifter, Thrun and 3 lands I keep and Nic does as well. I decide to slow roll my Rachet Bomb. He doesn't play anything for the first 4 turns on my turn 5 I play Thrun with a big grin on my face swing in for another 4 with my Skinshifter putting Nic at 8. Nic then draws his card plays Day of Judgement... the crowd goes wild he blew me out I have nothing but removal he slow rolled me like a champ. I never saw it coming the amount of restraint to slow roll me like that is incredible. I really felt like we played roll reversal for a second and I was the 10 year old who just walked into the DoJ. I draw for turn it's a Skinshifter and play it and Rachet Bomb and pass. I get in for 4 bringing him to 6 he plays and Elspeth and tries to gain life I kill all his creatures in response. He plays a Traveler after the the Elspeth and passes. I draw a SoFaF but dont have enough to play and equip so I just play it and a BoP, swing for 2 flying bringing him to 4 so he doesn't get a flying token so that I have lethal on my turn with flying and the SoFaF. He plays an Inkmoth and makes some tokens and an Honor of the Pure. Knowing I have to draw a removal spell for the Inkmoth I draw for turn.... Naturalize!!! I go through the motions and win the game. Nic was an awesome sport and my best match by far all day.
Games 11-1-6
Matches 5-1-1
At this point my friend Marcus Bailey says he thinks I will make top 8. I'm pretty skeptical because I was at a PTQ a couple months ago with the same number of rounds and players. What ended up happening was a couple people drew themselves out of top 8 and the guy who went 0-1-1 then 5-0 got 9th. I get my hopes up talking nonsense but, deep down I really know it's not my day and I'm pretty upset about it. They call top 8 sure enough my names isn't in it. Visibly I'm pissed off but what about? Had Brian not scooped to me I wouldn't even be in contention. Did I really deserve it anyway? I feel like I did what any other person would have done. Try to win the tournament by any means other than cheating. I didn't force Brian to scoop to me. He did the right thing in my opinion. I think there's a fine line there but, hey what can you do some people are gonna see it one way others will see it another ya know? When you win a tournament its because everything went your way it was meant to be scoop, no scoop, undefeated or squeaked in on breakers. EVERYTHING has to go your way on that day. October 15th wasn't my day but I will have mine. Hopefully sooner than later but, until opportunity knocks I'll be waiting.
About my deck as you can see I boarded out Mayor of Avabruck almost every match this guy can be great if the meta changes but as it stands I don't think he's quite good enough. Lilliana, Garruk, and Bloodgift Demon were all very good when I casted them and I wouldn't change the numbers at all. Skinshifter and Swords were amazing all day long and I couldn't have been happier about adding the Swords. MVP goes to Spellskite in this meta he is just plain amazing stealing Wolfrun activations and blanking alot of burn and removal. Here are the changes I would make to the deck if I were to play the deck again.
G/B Rock
Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Skinshifter
4 Spellskite
2 Thrun. the Last Troll
2 Bloodgift Demon
Spells:
2 Doom Blade
3 Dismember
3 Beast Within
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Planeswalkers:
4 Lilliana of the Veil
2 Garruk Relentless
Artifacts
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Sword of War and Peace
Lands:
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Ghost Quarter
10 Forests
7 Swamps
Sideboard:
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Rachet Bomb
2 Naturalize
2 Sever the Bloodline
2 Tree of Redemption
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Dismember
1 Beast Within
Well I really hope you enjoyed this post it was ton of fun to play and write. I really cant believe all of the involvement we have had on the blog so far. I know when Tony and myself came up with the idea we never thought it would be this big. So thanks to all the contributors and readers for making this such a "success". I can't wait for the upcoming PTQ season as INN limited is very fun to play and I'll for sure be in Lafayette for the PTQ on the 12th. As for writing and playing I'll be on a bit of a hiatus as I'm getting married on the November 5th and I have a lot of things left to do before the wedding.
Thanks for Reading,
Daniel
OrbstinityMaster on MTGO
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)