Suydam Insane: Standard Musings

States is two weeks away and the format is wide open. The question is what to play? Here is a run down of decks you can expect to see at States.

Mono Red: This deck is always popular with new formats. It's a little weaker this time around but none the less something you will see.

Snap-Blade: From what I understand a lot of people like Snapcaster Mage. I for one can't blame them. This deck could be a player but from what I'm hearing it falls short.

Solar Flare: Hey look what has been risen for the grave literally. Unburial Rights combined with utility creatures is very good. The only thing holding this deck back is card availability. Those who can afford it will be playing it so make sure you have a plan to deal with it.

Pod Variants: These decks were doing well before INN and will continue to do so. The key to beating Pod decks is shutting down Pod. If you can do that their deck is just a bunch of one ofs and is rather inconsistent.

Venser Blink: Same here doing well before INN and it Gained a few cards so be on the look out for this deck.

Puresteel: This deck really gained a lot from INN Mentor of the Meek, Geist of Saint Traft , Invisible Stalker and possibly a couple more cards. I expect this to be one of the most played decks at States.

Tempered Steel: Tempered Steel is going to be the most played aggro deck at states period. Lots of talk of adding red for Galvanic Blast and Curse of Stalked Prey. I think its reasonable as both add some depth to the deck. Although Curse is slow than Steel Overseer it does effectively the same thing. If you're not prepared for Tempered Steel a quick 0-2 awaits you.

Alright that's all I've got for now. Hopefully this weekend we will get a more clear picture of the format from the 5K.

Thanks for reading,

Daniel

OrbstinityMaster on MTGO

Alternatives in Standard

Hello everyone, I want to start by saying that I am still actively working on getting more writers involved so that there is more content available. For those of you are helping, thanks a bunch!!!

So on to the Topic!!!

My favorite thing about Magic is that it leaves you so many options when it comes to being creative and making a deck your own. I pride myself in coming up with ideas that are not only different but still very competitive. I have had a small amount of "success" when it comes to competitive Magic (2x PTQ Top 8's) but they were both with decks that were not very well known at the time (home brew).

One of the articles I will try to do every couple of weeks will be this one "Alternatives in Standard" to give you guys some kool, little known decks that may be interesting to play with friends or a local FNM etc.

This week I will be giving you a B/W deck I call:

REANIMATOR CONTROL

3x Despise
3x Sphere of Suns
2x Doom Blade
2x Go for the Throat
3x Dismember
3x Oblivion ring
3x Timely Reinforcements
4x Unburial Rites

4x Liliana of the Veil

3x Fiend Hunter
3x Sun Titan
1x Grave Titan
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One

4x Isolated Chapel
11x Swamps
9x Plains

I have yet to complete the Sideboard, but it would likely have ways to answer other control decks and very fast agro decks. Stuff like..... Deathmark, Geth's Verdict, Distress, a 4th O-ring etc.

One of the Engines you want to get going first is Liliana's +1 and discard one of the following

- Big nasty creature
- Something you can easily get back with Sun Titan
- Unburial Rites (preferably if you have multiples or last resort)

Then keep Liliana alive with all your removal e.g. doom blade, o-ring, dismember etc.

Hopefully by turn 5-7 you can start playing big guys and or reanimating them with Burial Rites.

Rinse and repeat.....

Against control you will probably side in some discard spells.

Against agro you will probably side in something like Day of Judgement and or things like Pride Guardian and a 4th Timely Reinforcements.

The deck is not yet tested but it seems to have lots of kool interactions and different ways to win.

Let me know what you think!!!

Tony Derbigny - Saints81

A "New" Modern

This article is all about what changes have taken place in modern. If you look at the Top 8 decklist for Pro Tour Philly this is what you have.

Splinter Twin x3
Pyromancers Ascension x2
Breach Post x1
Infect (mono-blue) x1
Affinity (mono-red) x1
Counter Cat x1

6 out of 8 of the decks were stiffled because of the changes but I'm not sure if it completely kills them all. Breach Post and Infect were done in but Splinter Twin and Pyro Ascension are still intact at the core.

Here is what they lost:

Splinter Twin
4x Ponder
4x Preordain

Pyromancers Ascension
4x Ponder
4x Preordain
4x Rite of Flame (only in 1 of the 3 lists)

Infect
4x Blazing Shoal
4x Ponder
4x Preordain

Breach Post
4x Green Sun Zenith
4x Cloudpost

Really the bannings of Ponder and Preordain just keep the consistency level down for these combo style decks. That gives the other archtypes a chance to actually play out maches rather than just losing on turn 2.

That leaves us to talk about the two Top 8 decks that did not lose anything. They are both agro creature based decks. It leads me to one simple conclusion, either play agro or play something that can beat agro. Combo is something that Magic does try to help along but only when it is not overpowered. Its a very thin line between playable and just too strong.

It leads me to believe that control and tempo decks will have a shot again.

My bet would be something along the lines of these archtypes.

- 5 Color Control
- Fairies
- Jund

Tell me what you think, am I completely off the mark or spot on?

Thanks again for checking us out here at LA Magic Hub!!!

Tony D.

New Banned and Restricted List!

Well, well, well you had to see it coming. With modern having a second turn kill and a few other unfair things going on Wizards updated the banned and restricted list.

Here it is directly from magicthegathering.com

Announcement Date: September 20, 2011
Effective Date: October 1, 2011
Magic Online Effective Date: October 12, 2011

Modern
Blazing Shoal is banned.
Cloudpost is banned.
Green Sun's Zenith is banned.
Ponder is banned.
Preordain is banned.
Rite of Flame is banned.

Extended
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is banned.
Mental Misstep is banned.
Ponder is banned.
Preordain is banned.
Stoneforge Mystic is banned.

Legacy
Mental Misstep is banned.

Vintage
Fact or Fiction is no longer restricted.

Scars of Mirrodin Block Constructed, Standard
No changes

The Slaughter Pact - Junk Pod

Most of the local players should know me. My name is Slaughter. I play frequently and help out at Rocket's Hideout in Baton Rouge. I don't travel much to play Magic, but I try to attend a Grand Prix or two each year and I play in all the Grand Prix Trials that I can. I also regularly attend FNM and Tuesday Night Standard tournaments at the local shop. I am known to often play Mono-Red or Rogue lists, but I do go with the more popular Control lists from time to time.

Innistrad is a very interesting set to me. I was excited about it when I first heard that the father of magic (Richard Garfield) would be on the design team. If I am correct, the last set he worked on was Ravnica, which most would agree was one of the greatest sets in Magic's history. The flavor in this set feels very full with every single card and the art is also quite amazing.

This is a list I threw together to get some ideas buzzing and decided to share with the populous. There aren't many Innistrad cards listed, but everyone is encouraged to adjust the list to better suit their playstyle and metagame.

Junk Pod

4 Birds of Paradise

2 Avacyn's Pilgrim

4 Viridian Emissary

1 Sylvok Replica

2 Fiend Hunter

1 Blade Splicer

1 Mirran Crusader

2 Phyrexian Rager

1 Entomber Exarch

1 Glimmerpoint Stag

1 Hero of Bladehold

1 Necrotic Ooze

2 Skinrender

1 Thrun, the Last Troll

2 Acidic Slime

1 Archon of Justice

1 Grave Titan

1 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Sun Titan

4 Birthing Pod

2 Go For the Throat

1 Doom Blade

4 Woodland Cemetery

4 Razorverge Thicket

4 Sunpetal Grove

2 Isolated Chapel

4 Forest

3 Plains

2 Swamp

Section 1: Engines

I'm sure most are familiar with how this deck archetype works by now. The card advantage and quality that Birthing Pod can generate along with the board presence it can establish is very powerful and can get out of hand quickly if not kept in check by your opponent.

Birds of Paradise and Avacyn's Pilgrim can be used as to accelerate your deck into many options. A Birthing Pod or even a Phyrexian Rager on turn two can put you well on your way to victory. Fiend Hunter can also be a great way to slow down the pace of an aggro deck and give your field a good blocker on turn two.

Section 2: Interactions

There are many great interactions between your creatures and Birthing Pod. One of my favorite in this list would be the interactions between Sun Titan and Fiend Hunter. Using Fiend Hunter early to slow a game down and save some life by blocking, then returning it to play later to deal with a creature when Sun Titan hits play can get you out of some tight situations.

There are many more subtle tricks that can be pulled off with the list above, but I've got to leave something to the imagination.

Section 3: Finishing the game.

Grave Titan is easily one of the best finishers in standard. Dropping a 6/6 that gives you 10 power on the field is a difficult thing for your opponent to answer. Wurmcoil can also be used in a similar manner to climb back up from a low life total against any hyper-aggressive deck.

As I said before, this is just a basic list for an unknown metagame. If I were going to include a sideboard, I'm sure it would involve some number of Timely Reinforcements, an Elesh Norn, and maybe some more Exarchs. Try this out sometime and let me know how it goes. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

- Johnathan Slaughter

COMPLETE INISTRAD CARD GALLERY AVAILABLE

The full spoiler is officially out today from Wizards! There are lots of things to look at and lots of things to see.

Link - http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/innistrad/cig#

My Questions to you.......


What interests you the most?

What cards are you most interested in building around!

What do you not like, if anything?

Let us know we would love to here it. There is almost too much for me to talk about in one article so I'm going the route of gathering opinions instead of giving my own. The one thing I will say is that this set is soooooo full of flavor. Everything bounces off of everything else, there seems to be no cards that are not directly tied into the theme of this set. It is really exciting to see but its kind of weird at the same time. Only time will tell how successfull the set will be as a whole, but I know limited will be a BLAST!!!

Introductions

So first I want to thank Tony for letting me contribute to this site. Maybe I should talk a little bit about myself for those who don't know me personaly. My name is Coleman Perret, I'm fifteen years old, and I am an aspiring magic player in the baton rouge area. As I'm fifteen and can't drive, as well as the fact that I am an active member of my church youth group, I don't have as much time for competitive magic as I would like, but I would like to think that I an decent for my age and my two years of magic experience. I still make mistakes, and I learn theory and practical technique constantly from those who are better, or at least more experienced, than me. Most of my posts will concern tournament reports and my personal ideas about certain formats and deck ideas. I will take any article ideas people throw at me. And if these posts help anyone get a little better at magic, or just entertain you, then maybe it was worthwhile.
-Coleman Perret

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As The Dice Turn

This post goes out to all the board gamers. As both an avid board gamer and MTg player, I have spent copious amounts of time in hobby shops across America. As a magic player (both casually and competitively), the benefits of having a local shop are readily apparent. I can engage in formats no popular with my core group of players, I can participate in any number of competitive events, and I can meet with other players for trade and casual play. A local shop is sought after by Magic players of all levels for these and other reasons. Board gamers, however, are often content with the small group of players who are personal friends and families.The question I pose is this: what would bring board gamers into their local store? Are your gaming purchases strictly made online? Is price/convenience your motivation? Would you be interested in board game nights with the opportunity to play many new games without purchase? Are you interested in demonstration days where you are able to view components and mechanics before a purchase? Would a game exchange program be of interest to you? Any comments/ideas/rants appreciated. Ciao

Innistrad!

Well, well. The new set Innistrad will be hitting the shelves next Friday. I for one will be at Rockets Hideout going to the midnight draft. Its always an exciting time when a new set is released. There are always cards you want to get and new decks you want to build or cards you want to just add to existing decks.

Innistrad has lots of interesting and new stuff:

1. New Mechanic - Flip Cards

2. New creature type - Werewolves

3. New enchantment type - Aura Curse

4. New Planeswalkers - Garruk and Liliana

Only time will tell how the new top down design strategy pans out but I know it will be interesting to see. I think limited will be very fun with the style of this set but not sure how it will affect standard (type 2). There will probably be a couple cards that affect older formats as usual but which ones, remains to be seen. My guess is Heartless Summoning will be a card to watch in older formats for sure.

Well I didn't have a ton to say until I actually get to play, but let me know what you think of the new set and what cards you think will make their mark!!!

Under the Radar

First a little bit about me. My name is Daniel Suydam I've been playing Magic for 11 years at various levels of competition. In 2008 I decided to dedicate myself to playing competitive Magic. Since then I won Regional's and placed 55th at Nationals in 2009. Since then I haven't finished worse than X-2 at any PTQ and X-3 at 2 GPs. I consider myself a solid player when I have the time to prepare properly for events. I tend to always bring an original deck or at least something with a level of creativity in it. My posts are usually going to be on constructed brews or tournament reports but they may branch out to draft/constructed videos in the future. Okay that's enough about me on to the article.

Top 15 Sleepers for post INN Standard:(NOTE These are sleepers not cards that obviously get better such as Visions of Beyond, Vengeful Pharaoh, Koth of the Hammer, Mirran Crusader, Garruk,Primal Hunter ect...)

#15

This little guy has a lot going for him. Being blue, cantriping, and playability in Birthing Pod variants are all very good reasons he could see play but maybe not, only time will tell.

#14

I'm thinking some kind of R/G metalcraft poison and if kuldotha red is a deck they could both make use of this but thats only speculative.

#13

I think now is the time for this card to shine. It just screams Puresteel Paladin or Grand Architect. Only time will tell but if I were a betting man (and I am) I'd put my money on the boots putting on a stomping in the near future.

#12

Value value and look more value! Birthing Pod decks are on the rise this guy will see play in them. I mean c'mon he gets guys back or he Duress+lands your opponent!!!

#11

Bant Birthing Pod is already seeing a lot of play. I feel like most people would just rather play Acidic Slime but this guy does have a relevant body. You can sit on him similarly to how you do with Seals.

#10

Lots of good removal and good creatures = good Vats. I think it was a bit slow for this Standard format and Squadron Hawks weren't exactly ideal targets.

#9

I think mono color decks are going to be on the rise. I like this guy Hexproof and potential large body give the Elder all the makings of an all star if MGA is a player in the new Standard.

#8

Let me go out on a limb here and say this guy is going to be insane! I see some type of WW/WG human deck coming. This guy has it all 3 power for 2 mana, battle cry, and a human! So many things make him good we just have to see what INN has in store for humans.

#7

This one is spicy I mean its an extra lord for anything but specifically humans and werewolves I think thats why this guy was printed(A plant of sorts like Steel Overseer). I could see several different decks being able to make the best out of lords 5-8 in the new Standard specifically elves which I will be writing about it my next post.

#6

This one is a bit out there but just hear me out. Have you ever had an opponent at 24 life and Overrun in your hand with 23 pts of dmg after you cast it? Ever been stuck on 4 lands with Overrun in hand and your opponent is dead if you only had a fifth land? Yes I know it only gives +1/+1 trample and infect but the fact that you can kill your opponent with only 10 damage! Seems reasonable with all the cheap powerful creatures we have this could certainly play a role in an aggressive green strategy.

#5

As I said earlier I think Hexproof will be a major player with everyone packing Dismembers and the like. Not to mention he doesn't get killed by anything except Day of Judgement only if you Don't have the mana to regenerate him. He sees some play now and I can see this guy getting a lot more attention in the near future. Possibly wielding some swords or infecting someone who knows?

#4

So this card has always caught my eye. I think blue is in a position to abuse this card. At the worst its a 3 mana Rampant Growth. I'm thinking Mono Blue Illusions/Mono Blue Architect Aggro this could go a long way as far as card advantage goes.

#3

So you are putting cards in your graveyard eh? I like big guys for 4 mana! Oh what's that you say I can equip this to my creatures oh my... I think this card only gets better with INN and I hear a certain 1/1 unblockable hexproof blue creature...yeah it's happening.

#2

I've always had a soft spot for this guy. I think he has a lot of potential in the upcoming post INN Standard. Both effectively using your graveyard and filling it up, a 4/4 body for 4 mana and not to mention regeneration; I see this guy as a major player in the post INN Standard. The fact that it only dies to Dismember is a big bonus as well.

#1

What doesn't this guy do? Blue is getting better and he has a very good abilities that work well with equipment, Wurmcoil Engine, and blue creatures. I see so many different applications for this guy. The sky is the limit for Grand Architect. I for one can't wait to tap some islands and/or blue creatures!

Deck Archetypes with some possible builds :

Poison

Some kind of poison deck should be a player in the post INN Standard. Whether it's Mono black or maybe a R/G Metalcraft concoction which I mentioned earlier.

Mono Blue Illusions/Mono Blue Aggro

One or both of these will be a player in the post INN Standard.

B/G Elves/Rock

Now this is a lot of speculation but I think it could be a very real archetype.

I'll be providing decklists on all these in my upcoming posts.

So there you have it my first post. Please leave me comments, suggestions or ideas for what you would like to see in future posts.

Thanks for reading,

Daniel

OrbstinityMaster on MTGO

Magic the Gathering is TM and copyright Wizards of the Coast, Inc, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved.

PLANESWALKER POINTS

Wow, what a change! Planeswalker points are here to stay and it is interesting to see how people are going to change their habits when it comes to playing in FNM and other tournaments.

I was talking to a buddy of mine (Trevor) and he told me that one of the biggest changes may be that people will want to play out tournaments instead of x-2 drop. You no longer have to protect your rating. You get you points for playing, not just winning alone.

I personally am very excited about the change. I don't have to worry about (losing points) anymore. I can just concentrate on having fun and winning as much as I can. The only drawback it has for a guy like me is that I don't get to play as often as I would like because of the family life. But, it is still really cool to see the change.

To see the point system etc visit http://www.wizards.com/Magic/PlaneswalkerPoints

I have been playing for a while but mostly off and on, I've been more of a collector than a hardcore tournament player. I was still pleasantly surprised with my point total though. I am currently a level 37 sorcerer with 5367 points.

For all of you magic players, check out the new system and leave a comment and let us know your level and what you think of the BIG CHANGE!

Modern Post Philly: What's Next?

Happy Labor Day! First and foremost, I would like to thank Tony for letting me contribute to the site. I am by no means a professional player but I enjoy playing and looking for ways to exploit metagames. I have been playing Magic continuously for about seven years but I first started back in Fallen Empires.

I am very excited about the Modern format although I must admit; I was hoping Overextended would have been the new format. Nevertheless, Modern allows me to play some of my all time favorite cards like, Gifts Ungiven, Dark Confidant, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Troll Ascetic, etc.

This past weekend, Modern had its debut during Pro Tour Philadelphia. There was no truly defined meta as the format was brand new. A brewer’s paradise if there ever was one. The banning of multiple staples pushed people to find new and broken synergies. Attack with Inkmonth Nexus, play Blazing Shoal discarding Dragonstorm. Take 10 poison, next game? Shuffle up and let’s play again. Of course this is the perfect hand but it did happen. In fact this weekend had many combo decks and made aggro decks play the unusual role of control. The dominant aggro deck of the weekend was Counter Cat, a Team Channel Fireball innovation. Combine aggressive 1 and 2 drops backed by some creature disruption in the form of Qasali Pridgemage and Gaddock Teeg and a splash of blue for counters and you get a hybrid of Zoo and Merfolk. The deck ended up in the finals but lost to the Type II strategy, Splinter Twin.

The Splinter Twin archetype was able to achieve an enormous amount of redundancy with Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker playing copies 5-6 of the deck's namesake and Pestermite being Deceiver Exarch copies 5-7. This was one of many U/R based combo decks this weekend. There were also copies of U/R Pyromancer Ascension and U/R Pyromancer’s Swath. All the decks had 4 Preordains and 4 Ponders to help find combo pieces. The final “combo deck” was very different and wanted to drop a giant monster to win.

TwelevePost was the most represented deck at the tourney. It was thought this deck could out race the traditional Zoo decks by playing 8 mana generating walls, gaining massive amounts of life thanks to the new locus Glimmerpost, and Primeval Titan to ramp into the scariest creature of them all, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The TwelvePost archetype had its fair share of innovation with Through the Breach tech to get your Emrakul out faster than your opponents in the mirror match or just set your opponent back multiple turns with his Annihilator ability.

At the end of this tournament, we started to see a Modern metagame start to form. All the decks were extremely powerful and left unmolested, could kill at remarkable speeds. When Zoo/Counter Cat is one of the slowest decks in the room, you know you are playing against a room full of combo. What I also noticed was the clear lack of Swamps in the Top 8 and in the decks who achieved 18 points or higher in the Modern format. If you ask me, Swamps seem well positioned.

If you are fighting creatures, no other color give you access to more removal. Sitting across a combo player, they better hope they can still combo with only three cards in hand at the end of turn two. The deck I am suggesting is reminiscent of Eva Green in Legacy or B/g Discard from Time Spiral/Lorwyn Standard. The deck plays some cheap discard, Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Wrench Mind, Rise // Fall and some of the best removal in Dismember, Gatekeeper of Malikar, and Putrefy. Once you have erased the memory of your opponent, you drop the aggressive All-Stars Tarmogoyf, Nantuko Shade, and either Nyxathid or Tombstalker. With your opponent’s hopes and dreams in their graveyard, you go to town and kill them in short order. Below is a list I am currently playing.

Lands:
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
2 Twilight Mire
2 Dragonskull Summit
3 Swamps
4 Ghost Quarter
22 lands
Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Nantuko Shade
2 Nyxathid
17 Creatures
Spells:
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Wrench Mind
4 Rise // Fall
4 Dismember
2 Putrefy
21 Spells

SB:
4 Augur of Skulls – comes in against combo
4 Dark Confidant – comes in against combo and control decks
4 Vampire Nighthawk – comes in against creature based decks
3 Ancient Grudge – comes in against Affinity

This is a very rough list but I think discard based decks are well positioned right now.

Another reason many professional magic players decided to play a combo or aggro deck was the lack of card draw. Ancestral Visions and Jace, the Mind Sculptor have been banned. Probably one of the best card drawing spells in Modern, Harmonize, is not even blue. Until a control deck comes along with ample card drawing, I can see a discard based strategy doing well.

Until next time, let me know what you think about the deck and thanks for reading.

E17