Good Gamery

Category: mtg

  • Eventide Prerelease Thread

    i played two flights today; the main, and a 2hg afterward. it was my first prerelease since ravnica and my first time playing magic offline since gp: sf 2007, so it was good to play real magic again.

    INDIVIDUAL FLIGHT: 3-1

    my pool was pretty good, though i had to leave a crackleburr in the side without any good r or u to support it ;_; i ended up BW, with a bunch of solid men led by midnight banshee and divinity of pride as well as double desecrator hags for support (yes, i chained them often), some good removal, and an island for biting tether cause fuck yeah biting tether

    R1: vs. matt

    matt was a nice guy playing a rwg deck, but i'm not sure what his main colors or good cards were. whatever, it's a prerelease.
    g1: he played some guys and i played some guys, and then i played a midnight banshee which wrathed his board in two turns and killed him.
    g2: he got me pretty low, but i stabilized and then locked his board with midnight banshee and kulrath knight.

    1-0

    R2: vs. mike

    mike was running rw. he was a worse player than matt.
    g1: he didn't get lands and i rolled him.
    g2: i mulled to 6 on the play, and he whittled my life away as i proceeded to not draw lands for several turns. he pantsed up a full-sized rw hatchling with the rw aura and gained a ton of life, but i was able to keep chumping by rotating my hags. despite the screw, i held out for a while and even stabilized for a bit. i was at 3, though, and he was able to kill my only flier and hit for the last point.
    g3: i don't remember much about this game, except that i kicked his ass.

    2-0

    R3: vs. some guy

    some guy was also playing bw. he was not particularly outgoing.
    g1: he was a bit land-light early, and had to beseech the queen for a swamp on t4 while i beat his face in. then he proceeded to kill all my guys with his insane amount of removal, until i had a bunch of things that didn't matter and he had swans of bryn argoll ftw.
    g2: like g1, but with him ahead the entire time. the cards just weren't in it for me; it's one of those games that comes once in a while where there's really nothing you can do =/

    2-1

    R4: vs. alex

    alex was also playing rw. i don't know why people kept choosing this combination in sealed; it's bad guys + alright removal.
    g1: he didn't get lands so i killed him with a t4 divinity of pride.
    g2: he mulled on the play; i let him draw the extra card just because there's only so much bad luck a man can watch at a prerelease. he had a regular start and mine was slow, but i got the midnight banshee to stabilize.
    g3: i wanted to play again, and offered not to count g1 as a game. he said sure, and i stomped him again.

    3-1

    6 packs, not awful. i hung around for a bit, then frantically searched for someone to 2hg with. at the last minute, i just asked loudly if anyone needed an extra head. the guy standing right next to me did, as it turned out, and he also went 3-1 in the first flight so i figured he'd be a decent partner.

    the pool was solid again. we figured pretty quickly that there was a ton of good G and W, and we ended up with Gr and W. the W deck was some good {bw} hybrid synergy, some good removal, and a light from within that i only drew in the last match. its men were mostly passable, but there was a bit of chaff. the Gr deck had a bit of removal, a bunch of solid men, and a couple bombs in creakwood liege and howl of the night pack.

    r1: it's hard enough for me to remember one name, fuck you

    one deck was WUR (?!), the other was BG. i couldn't get a creature to stick, but my teammate, jason, played a bunch of guys and i spent most of my time playing the removal. the BG girl came out of the gate fast with a couple {wb} mimics and a lurebound scarecrow set for black, but ember gale wrathed her board happy.gifi had no idea what the WUR guy's strategy was, and BG was stuck on four lands for the longest time until jason dropped a woodfall primus and stuck her on three. big dudes ftw

    1-0
    after this game, we switched the decks up a little bit and added U to the W deck for guys who did not suck.

    r2: a couple of assholes who should die because they get stupid combos at the worst time

    one guy was RG, and the other was BW. we were hitting them pretty well for the first few turns, and had them below 20 with a double-mimic-fueled 12 point turn coming up. then they dropped a soul snuffers with flourishing defenses in play, killed half our dudes and got 9 tokens. then they played a kulrath knight and i shoved a knife in my eye

    1-1

    r3: some cool dudes who had as much fun not being serious about magic as we did

    this match was awesome. one of them was bw, and the other was rw (???). we swung back and forth for awhile, but the board crystallized soon enough as we built up our forces. i went insane with a knacksaw clique that my teammate had kindly pantsed with presence of gond, and i can confidently say that the only thing more satisfying than putting a recumbent bliss on your opponent's best creature is putting your opponent's recumbent bliss on your opponent's best creature. we finally broke the stall by putting a gift of the deity on a green guy and luring all their blockers while a bunch of wolf tokens traipsed in for lethal.

    2-1

    r4: a couple average guys who made embarrassing play errors

    one was mono-w, and the other was GB. they got some early pressure with the 2/2 G guy, but we stabilized in short order and i lived the dream of restless apparition + edge of the divinity + light from within. they got a creakwood liege that let them chump for god knows how long, but i built up a flying force and he howled for a night pack. ember gale on the head that had most of the creatures let us swing for lethal virtually unopposed, and that was game.

    3-1

    6 packs again; not bad. i guess i'll just use them at a FNM in japan or something.

    obligatory +/- section:

    +
    midnight banshee and kulrath knight, for being best friends
    the guys from r3 of 2hg, for joking around the entire time
    jason (my teammate), for giving a ride to some guy he'd never met and helping me understand the finer points of leech bonder (it UNTAPS, hurrrrrr)
    jason, for knowing when to draw howl of the night pack (always)

    –
    this prerelease, for taking $50 of my lazily-earned cash
    anyone who destroyed me in a ridiculous blowout, for not considering my feelings ;_;
    FLOURISHING DEFENSES SOUL SNUFFERS MOTHERFUCKING SHITBITCH ASSCUNT DICKTARD
    everyone else, for not posting anything yet

  • Eventide Limited; Rampant Speculation

    I like trying to figure out cards before actually playing them.

    General stuff – One thing that's obvious is that losing a pack of Shadowmoor will impact most linear color-based strategies. You will have fewer targets to get full value from your Godhead auras, and your Duos will trigger less often. It will be interesting to see how people choose colors in SSE. I think you can go several ways with your land base:
    – Mono-color or nearly so. You will probably get some solid cards late in Eventide that few others can play. You can get near-maximum value out of main-color effects, but your off-color effects will be distributed over four colors so you probably can't expect too much from them.
    – Allied-color. I don't think it'll be that hard to pick up enough playables from Eventide if you're w/u for example.
    – Enemy-color. Here you sort of pass on exploiting auras, slightly better mana, and certain uncommons and rares in Shadowmoor for the ability to always cast something like Unmake or Deity of Scars.
    – Three-color wedge. Your deck will contain e.g. plains, islands, and mountains. You can get the mana-intensive cards from W/R and U/R in the third pack.
    – Three-color allied. e.g. plains, islands, swamps. This might work out similar to a 5cg type strategy since you can play so many cards if you are willing to do "sealed deck mana".

    A lot of this depends on just how rewarding the late picks in Eventide will be.

    Retrace – It's always good to have something to do with extra mana in the late game, especially if the cards are useful earlier on. Things like Spellshapers and Invokers have historically been pretty good. I'm not completely sure if retrace is that special though.

    Cenn's Enlistment – 3W
    Sorcery (Common)
    Put two 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature tokens into play.
    Retrace

    This is sort of similar to Icatian Crier, which was generally playable but not too exciting unless you had a few Fortify/Celestial Crusader type effects. As compared to Crier, you don't have to invest 3 mana and a card on a vulnerable 1/1 to get things started. On the other hand, four mana generally means you can't play this and another spell like you could with the Crier, or leave mana up for a trick on their turn. SSS has generally been fast enough and had enough evasion that making a bunch of 1/1s isn't that exciting. SSE is probably a bit slower but I'm not sure if it makes the difference. I would play this around 70% of the time in sealed if white, and maybe 25% of the time in draft.

    Raven's Crime – B
    Sorcery (Common)
    Target player discards a card.
    Retrace

    This seems kind of clumsy, in that you rarely are in a position to safely discard land early on unless you are pretty flooded. It does have a benefit similar to Cinderhaze Wretch in the late game in that it prevents your opponent from sandbagging something big, unless he has several cards in hand and is willing to potentially trade them for your land topdecks. It's good that it only costs one mana. I would play this maybe 30% of the time in sealed or draft.

    Oona's Grace – 2U
    Instant (Common)
    Target player draws a card.
    Retrace

    In formats like core set limited, cards like Treasure Trove have been powerful in the right kind of deck. I'm pretty sure this block is nothing like that. You have to activate this thing three times before it outperforms a no-conspire Ghastly Discovery. Especially if you're discarding your extra lands, you often won't be able to play whatever you draw with this. Still, there is a good chance you will win a stalled out game this way. Sealed 40% draft 10%

    Flame Jab – R
    Sorcery (Common)
    Flame Jab deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
    Retrace

    I'm generally happy to play Scar. This is a little worse the first time, since you can't use it as a trick or stop a persist guy, but I think retrace more than makes up for that. You're not likely to actually get ahead on cards, but your opponent will have a hard time keeping their witch or x/1 evasion guy alive. Sealed/draft 80%

    Monstrify – 3G
    Sorcery (Common)
    Target creature gets +4/+4 until the end of turn.
    Retrace

    I don't know what problem this is supposed to solve. If you have an unanswered evasion guy, you can speed up your clock pretty significantly, and after a long attrition battle when you both have smallish guys you can put your opponent into chump-block mode. I don't think these things together are worth spending a card on. Sealed/draft 10%

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  • GoodGamery Content Management System 3.0

    This joke is down for extended unplanned maintenence. GoodGamery administration has been notified of the problem and is working to correct it. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.



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  • Martin Sheen




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  • ‘Chop: Doomgape: World Tour

    doomgape

  • MTGO Players to Receive Twice the Anticipation

    Starting with Eventide, players of Wizards of the Coast’s wildly successful Magic: the Gathering Online (MTGO) will be given the opportunity to look forward to two sets as opposed to the usual single set. Since Shadowmoor has yet to be made available online, the Eventide Preview Booster on www.magicthegathering.com marks the first time ever that MTGO players have been able to see cards they can’t play with two sets in advance.

    “We’re excited,” said Wizards of the Coast Brand representative Worth Wolpert. “Anticipation of what’s coming around the corner is a big part of what players enjoy about Magic,” he continued, “I mean, just look at the response we’ve had on the forums.” At this point Mr. Wolpert turned to his computer, clicked a few things, muttered something about “casual morons”, and told me to leave.

    “A lot of the anticipation that MTGO players have felt in the past year has been met with bitter dissappointment, leading to a certain level of jadedness” commented veteran MTGO player Hoagie Side Salad. “In the world of MTGO optimism, new sets are a sure thing – players now have double the new upcoming cards to be happy about,” he continued. “I mean the only way we wouldn’t see these sets is if they just shut the whole thing down, and they wouldn’t do that, right?” At that moment his eyes darted from side and he excused himself.

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  • Second Eventide Preview Booster Surfaces

    Greetings friends! Another Preview Booster has appeared on magicthegathering.com, and as usual I have the real scoop. I have once again been leaked a second preview booster, and wanted you to be the first to see its secrets.

    Take a look!

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  • Pro Tour Hollywood Captions

    mtgcom tournament center

    Philly

    user posted image
    The latest Japanese android, which can play Magic cards and is capable of up to 38 proprogrammed false emotions, still suffered from the "uncanny valley."

    user posted image
    "You's best keep da comments 'bout my clothins to yoself o else I'ma hafta bus' some 'eds, ain' dat right fellas?"
    "Thas right boss."

    user posted image
    wise.gif

    user posted image
    "How many games out of three do you hope to win each round, Mr. Van Lunen?"

  • Early Shadowmoor Results (Updated!)



    Well the first Shadowmoor results are in from a non wizards weekend at SCG and there are a few interesting developments. First off it seems Faeries are still king taking 1st and second in the 5k and 5 slots in the top 8 at the 2k absolutely dominant, elves took another two slots in the 5k, and Merfolk took a slot in both tournaments picking up new tools like Mirrorweave, which can be an overrun vs any blue deck with a lord of Atlantis or a reejeray in the right situation, However this is mitigated somewhat in blue matchups due to Faeries and merfolk both running 12 counters of one kind or another on average. Merfolk also picked up a fine one drop in the form of cursecatcher. There were, however, three new decks in the top 8 of the 5k that were more or less new.



    Not really new but I’ve always liked the predator justice combo personally ever since it made a showing in block and any time there are a bunch of X/1’s or X/2’s around it’s a great deal — and right now there are tons. This runs a pretty solid G/W frame. The deck got a great matchup round one of the top eight vs Elves. I’ll watch to see if this was a fluke allowed by luck and a field of untested decks or if it makes a more substantial showing this time.
    The deck has some interesting synergies aside from the obvious cards that combo with Predator, Stonecloaker for example works well with Finks and Calciderm as well as providing a modicum of graveyard hate. Another minor combo is running a fairly large number of basic land and Flagstones of Trokair to take advantage of Edge of Autumn.

    MGA (Pronounced “MGA “)

    This is the whitest mono green aggro deck you’ll ever see and seems really unrefined to me and I have heard the guy piloting it had incredibly lucky matchups. It takes pretty heavy advantage of Wilt-Leaf Liege as well as running heartmender. Heartmender I’m not sure about, at first I thought it was just bad but since I haven’t had the opportunity to test this yet I can’t say for certain. I could see heartmender being very annoying as long as it’s keeping just one or two other guys around and the deck is running a heavy persist theme.
    Additionally the deck doesn’t run Garruk, treetop village, or Tarmogoyf, Tarmogoyf has been dropped to accomodate cards with more synergy and the deck is not particularly good at growing it. I’m not entirely certain about the choice of Overrun over Garruk, the lack of village just puzzles me. The deck has very few tricks aside from the occasional persist critters and is about absolutely nothing but brute force but does that well enough I think.

    There are admittedly some mana intensive and extremely greedy decks in this format though maybe not to the same extent as only a year ago. At the very least guys like fullminator mage and Magus of the Moon rarely lack for situations to be useful. The deck has a number of similarities to big mana but is somewhat sleeker.
    I think the deck runs too much acceleration with not nearly enough to ramp up to.Fullminator and magus both disrupt mana but don’t work particulary well together when magus is out you want to take out their basics obviously but poor synergy isn’t neccesarily a reason not to run both. I think the deck needs to be refined a fair bit maybe running some sweepers such as firespout instead of the spot removal but there is plenty to consider here going forward. One major issue is that it is quite lackluster on the draw vs fae right now and that’s huge.

    Aside from SCG Tokyo held it’s regionals and… FAERIES. Mostly faeries, an elf deck, Doran, and a couple of larks. There was one deck sort of worth mentioning