Good Gamery

Category: serious business

  • Chris Carter Memorial Tournament (Salem, OR)

    Our very own Justin Sexton (JSexton) has been working with Cascade Games to organize the Chris Carter Memorial Magic Tournament event in Salem, OR, on Saturday, December 11 (tomorrow).

    The following is from the event information page at CascadeGames:

    On October 19th, 2010 the Magic community lost an amazing and talented player. Christopher Ross Carter was an active member of the local Magic scene, playing in tournaments since his early teens. From mentoring new players to building his own online Magic store to creating his beloved Cube, his hand was in every aspect of the game. Known for his risky and innovative play style, Carter made a name for himself that reached past his own circle of players.


    Just after midnight on October 13th, Chris was in a car accident on his way home from work. He was in a coma for almost a week before passing away. Christopher left behind the love of his life Michelle, his two beautiful daughters and three stepchildren. As avid a Magic player as Chris was, he was an devoted father and husband. He found a balance between his love for the game and love for his family. Spending the first 4 years as a stay at home dad, he gave his children precious moments with him that they will hold dear forever.

    This year Christopher ventured out to become the breadwinner and give his wife more time to spend with their children. Though he had less time for Magic he compensated by playing casual games with friends on lunch breaks and days off. He also hosted game nights, holding Cube drafts until odd hours after tucking his children into bed.

    Christopher Ross Carter was an amazing man, a wonderful father, a devoted husband and a memorable player in the Magic community. He will be missed.

    Many different sites and individuals have generously donated into an impressive prize pool. All proceeds from the event are going to be given to the Carter family.

    Check out the event information page at CascadeGames.com for more information.

  • Extending Tier .999 Decks

    I’ve decided to switch gears, since for most people, the next relevant Constructed format will be Extended. For those of you who do not remember, Extended used to be a very different beast. When I first started playing, Extended was Tempest -> Mirrodin, with a significant banlist to keep Urza Block in check. Now Extended is Lorwyn -> Scars of Mirrodin with M10 and M11 as legal core sets.

    As a result, a lot of reasonable Extended decks will be the old Standard decks of these past three years, with a chance for innovation by looking for cross-block synergy.

    I’ll start by considering what I think are reasonable lists for major archetypes, and discuss what other cards could be considered.



    An old boogeyman of Standard:





    This Faeries list is probably a bit different from ones you have seen in the past. For one, I do not believe Scion of Oona or Vendilion Clique are particularly well-positioned, so I move to a more controlling Faeries build with 5 spot removal spells, and really only 4 Mistbind Clique, 4 Bitterblossom and 8 manlands to win with.

    You are also able to board into pure UB control if necessary (vs aggressive decks). 4 Molten-Tail Masticore, 2 Wurmcoil Engine, and 4 Disfigure usually come in for this plan.

    I am not 100% sold on Tectonic Edge, since it is another colorless land, and might be replaced by the best land in Magic: Island. Also of note, I am not sure maindeck Thoughtseize is necessary, but turn 1 Thoughtseize followed by turn 2 Bitterblossom is one of the best openings Faeries can have.





    There’s not much to say about the gameplan of this deck. It is worth noting there’s a lot of room for variation in card choices (Demigod of Revenge or not), since that forces you to play more lands. Goblin Guide and Figure of Destiny are invaluable one drops. I was even considering Spikeshot Elder, but realized it was probably too weak. You could also play Burst Lightning as a potential burn spell, but I believe Flame Javelin and Staggershock are both superior here. Smoldering Spires and Teetering Peaks are both pseudo-spells that you can justify playing more lands for to help with Demigod as well. Boggart Ram-gang is also worth consideration, but probably will not make the cut.

    Stigma Lasher is a fine guy on turn 2 to disable Kitchen Finks, Wurmcoil Engine and possibly even Baneslayer Angel if he connects. Ratchet Bomb lets you answer Kor Firewalker and Burrenton Forge-tender with relative ease. Koth of the Hammer is an annoying card for Control decks to answer. Searing Blaze is a great card to have in any sort of aggressive mirror. Notice that in this deck, you have to cast it as a sorcery to get value, since there are 0 fetchlands to be seen.





    I played in quite a few PTQs with this deck while it was legal in Standard. Not much has changed since then. You play the best spells at the top end, stapled together with a reasonably good manabase and removal spells. There’s quite a few ways to build this deck as well. You could build it as a very planeswalker heavy build with Ajani Vengeant and Jace Beleren, though he is often overshadowed by his big brother (Twin? Future self?) now. There’s any number of removal spells you could play, including Path to Exile, Condemn, and more Plumeveils.



    In short, I am hesitant to really give you an exact build of this deck that I would be comfortable playing 100% until we see what happens at Worlds next weekend. This build should give you a good starting point for your own 5CC ideas, though.


    Another boogeyman:





    This is probably a much more aggressive build of Jund than most of you are used to. It was called Jund Blood at GP Seattle (in 2008) and there was a 5 color build of it that splashed Cryptic Command and Cruel Ultimatum. You are able to aggressively curve out as well as back up that curve with efficient removal, and also burn your opponent to draw cards off Sygg, River Cutthroat during their turn. This deck is not quite as good at grinding people out as builds with Bituminous Blast, but it still has Blightning and Sygg, River Cutthroat as sources of card advantage.



    You could also consider: Bitterblossom as an additional 2 drop (somewhat slow), maindecking Great Sable Stag as an addition or to replace a three drop. The sideboard could also probably use some work after we see what occurs next weekend.


    Not quite as big of a boogeyman, but still seeing some play:





    I personally have not done a lot of work on this archetype – this list is merely a tweaked list from a recent magic-league first place showing. Merfolk has always nipped at Faeries’ heels, but has generally been regarded to be worse overall. However, it does have the advantage of having tons of creatures that pump the Merfolk, making it generally better in creature on creature matchups, as well as having access to Cryptic Command for fogs/falters.

    Other cards to consider: Molten-Tail Masticore is a great card that gives you ways to kill them out of the combat zone, and also lets you be slightly more resilient to Day of Judgment. Reveillark is a card that gives you resilience to removal heavy decks. I have also seen Sage’s Dousing over Mana Leak, but I think that it doesn’t have enough of an upside for being on the wrong spot in the curve – especially after cutting the weak Stonybrook Banneret.





    This deck is an evolution of Zvi’s Mythic deck for PT Amsterdam. Its plan A is to Hideaway an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and get it out with a Primeval Titan or by activating Knight of the Reliquary in the case of Mosswort Bridge, or simply attacking with your small guys for Windbrisk Heights. It’s worth noting that Mutavault can help activate the bridge when you have Primeval Titan plus another 2-power creature. Plan B is to cast Baneslayer Angel / Primeval Titan and just swing with them, or hardcast Emrakul later in the game. I would believe that this deck is pretty favored vs everything that does not have a lot of burn or sweepers.

    I am hesitant to mess with this deck too much, since there’s not a lot of room to sideboard cards in or out, and the deck seems very focused as it is.

    And finally, a deck after kingcobweb’s own heart:





    This deck still seems relatively powerful and resilient to whatever hate people throw its way, especially with the introduction of Vengevine as a viable board card. For those of you may not know, you can loop Primal Command if you get your library small enough (courtesy of Regal Force) by casting Primal Command to shuffle your graveyard in (including the Primal Command that was already in your yard) and search for another Regal Force. At this point you can shuffle and put their lands on top of their deck if necessary or just get an Ezuri, Renegade Leader or Joraga Warcaller to kill them with.



    Other cards to consider: Arbor Elf is another Llanowar Elves, although you would have to put more Forests in the deck. Eldrazi Monument can serve as another win condition as well as giving you protection vs sweepers. I am not sure about Acidic Slime in the sideboard, but I think it is worth having access to in case if someone shows up with a crazy Platinum Angel or Platinum Emperion that you otherwise cannot beat.


    As a bonus, I will share the current standard deck I’ve been grinding with:




    The deck is not very innovative, but it is very strong at doing its own thing – which is to spit out huge threats early and finish people with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle triggers or Plant Tokens. You could probably justify cutting the Wurmcoil Engine for a 3rd Avenger of Zendikar, as well as putting the 4th Lightning Bolt back in for it. Otherwise, I am really happy with this list so far and feel good about its matchups except for the mirror (which is a direct coinflip).


    I hope this article has been enlightening, and as usual, feel free to leave comments in the forums or to PM me.



    –llarack

  • Final Ggameria Introductions!





    Several weeks ago, you were introduced to the brand new plane of Ggameria, upon which the new set Events Upon Ggameria (GG1) will take place. You were additionally introduced to the five MONOCOLOR factions of the realm.

    Then, you had the pleasure of undergoing further Ggameria introductions, and you saw your first glimpse of the five FRIENDLYCOLOR factions.

    Ever since then, you have been checking Good Gamery every day, hoping and praying for the advent of the third GG1 preview article, where the five ENEMYCOLOR factions were waiting in secret.

    But now the secret is a secret no longer! HERE THEY ARE!




    GGAMERIA’S ENEMYCOLOR TRIBES



    Mole Kingdom ()

    The great and noble moles live in mountain burrows and are perpetually at war, above ground and below, against the corrupted Chipmuko. They guard the overworld from the forces of the underworld, and survey each canyon and shoreline from their majestic cliffcastles. Very proud and prone to knight almost anyone, the moles are great at leveraging their numbers and self-sacrificially dealing damage.

    Click here to see the mole preview card.


    Partying Faeries ()

    Unlike the downers and party-foulers of faeries past, these faeries have been on an epic bender for centuries, and don’t take kindly to faux pas like “needless war, dude” and “judging others, man.” Crash one of their parties with that attitude and you’ll get bounced back to your owner’s hand faster than you can say “Did you know that ‘Dark Side of the Pale Moon’ lines up with ‘The Wizard of Quoz!?’”

    Click here to see the partying faerie preview card.


    The Squizzidan ()

    Like the Chipmuko, the Squizzidan were orginally seen in Alternate Universe Mirrodin as the powerful “SquizzidanX.” With bodies like humans AND YET the heads of squids, they dwell in the highest stormy mountain peeks. As if that wasn’t bad enough, to stay alive, they must dunk their heads in waterfalls every few minutes. The Squizzidan excel at pinging wizardry and thriving in the face of adversity.

    Click here to see the Squizzidan preview card.


    Vegetarian Zombies ()

    As ravenous, unrelenting, and idiotic as their brainivorous cousins, these zombies have elected a more enlightened dietary lifestyle, preferring to mutilate and consume plants alone. They excel at being efficiently costed beaters and at explaining to you, in their delightfully monosyllabic manner, why their dietary choices are more ethical than yours, you Philistine.

    Click here to see the vegetarian zombie preview card.


    Werewolf Mafia ()

    Grayshadow City is a sprawling stone metropolis with casinos, offices, banks, and shops as far as the eye can see. But beneath the whitewashed exterior resides a sinister truth: The citizens of Grayshadow City are plagued by both the curse of the werewolf and by organized crime! If you run a shop, you’ll need to pay for protection. If you run a casino, you’ll have to pay the bosses back home. And if you want to move up in the world, you better keep your fur clean, your teeth sharp, and watch your back. The werewolf mafia is all about a new keyworded activated ability called Moonshift:

    Moonshift (0: Add a moon counter to this permanent, or remove all moon counters from this permanent. Use this ability only at any time you could play a sorcery, and only once each turn.)



    Click here to see the werewolf mafia card.


    Hope you enjoyed this third Events Upon Ggameria preview article. Next will be the CYCLES OF GGAMERIA!


  • PTQ Gravesend Report *1st*

    Hey there again kids, and welcome to another PTQ report.

    This time we’re headed to Gravesend for the PTQ, with a similar cast of characters. The housemate Ray is again driving, so I’m again mising the lift and the best seat in the car. We arrive safe and sound despite typical GPS shenanigans, and immediately it is obvious that this PTQ is much smaller than the previous PTQ, in Chesham. While that PTQ was 112 players, this time around we’ve only managed to get 42. Yeah, that is an tiny number; the smallest PTQ I’ve had the pleasure of playing in. Couldn’t exactly say why it is so small, but running good starts early.

    So we get down to business, and after playing pokemon through the player’s meeting, we end up with the following sealed pool:

    So, decent looking pool. Some things jump out at me, and after I sort into several piles (Colours + colour-specific artifacts, infect cards, metalcrafty-artifacts, regular artifacts) I can quickly eliminate the infect deck this time – all told, I have a mere 8 cards which say ‘infect,’ and I certainly don’t have a mass of black removal that would tempt me to try building infect anyway, or some kind of hybrid deck.

    Beyond that, it is pretty clear that I am going to be playing red here, with multiple good removal spells, and I’m always going to run all of Darksteel Axe, Tumble Magnet, Golem Artisan and the Contagion Engine – as an aside, during the car trip the question was posed, what ‘card do you most want to see in your card pool?’ and my glib-but-serious response was ‘an engine.’ I don’t mind which, Wurmcoil Engine or Contagion Engine, but that’s the one card (out of two) I want to see most. And, well, here I am with a Contagion Engine. Must be nice.

    The other cards which are begging to be played are the trio of Chrome Steeds, so I lay them out along with the three Myr I’ve got, and take a look at the handful of other possible artifacts I’ve got: the replicas (although the Vulshok Replica is obviously already in the deck), the Clone Shell, the Memnite, the Mindslaver.

    Then I look at my second colour, which is probably going to be white: I’ve got the Arrest, the Glimmerpoint Stag
    and the Indomitable Archangel that are always going to make a white deck, as well as several other options. Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Grasp of Darkness is an option, but I feel like the white cards are just better – Skittles and the Angel are roughly comparable in that they’ll both probably kill in 3 hits; Skittles by himself and the Angel with help from my other monsters, and the two removal spells are also roughly equivalent. The dragon probably has the edge over the angel given it can regenerate, but the Glimmerpoint Stag is enough to make up my mind.

    I also toy with a blue/red deck, since in blue I’ve got 5 2-power evaders, but losing the removal spell and the big flyer don’t seem worth it, plus I end up playing an artifact or two less with the blue cards, which weakens the Chrome Steeds. In the end, I register this deck:

    The Grafted Exoskeleton is an option, but I’m not a fan of that card with no other source of infect. I understand the theory, since on nine of my creatures it is lethal in two attacks, but I don’t like the vulnerability to being blown out by a Shatter effect, and I don’t like the potential for it to be dead if I’m trying to kill them with damage. I also considered splashing the Sylvok Replica with a Forest and possibly the Horizon Spellbomb, but I wasn’t sure if it would ever be relevant, and I’m not a fan of the Spellbomb in non-green decks. Dispense Justice is another decent option; I think this card gets a bad rap despite being completely servicable, and is harder to play around than it looks – however, I’ve got a good removal suite and I’m hoping to be doing the attacking. However, I do side the Dispense in a couple of times.

    There are some questionable inclusions, too, and I’m completely willing to believe that I misbuilt here. I’m still not sure where I stand on Abuna Acolyte, it seems like it should be good, but it is a non-artifact that doesn’t attack and doesn’t kill anything, so I’m a bit wary of it, and I’m actually not a big fan of Clone Shell despite playing it here. The Neurok Replica might be a bit loose, too, but I wanted to play as many artifacts as I could justify, what with the three Steeds. I could also afford to shave a land, but I wanted to make sure I was able to cast the multiple 4-drops I’ve got.

    So then, let’s play some magic.

    Round 1 vs Andrew Kueh


    I’m pretty sure I won the roll and choose to draw; either way he went first, and when he takes a mulligan things look pretty for the home team. He is playing infect, but he is mana-screwed somewhat, and is using a Sylvok Lifestaff to avoid falling way behind. He isn’t able to mount any real offense, though, and I quickly punch him out with some dorks, aided ably by a Contagion Engine.
    Game two and he again elects to play, and this time he has a better start, getting some poison on me, and rebuying an Ichor Rats with a Corpse Cur. However, I get good value out of an Arc Trail and my creatures are good enough that I can beat him down all while playing around an Untamed Might or Virulent Strike.

    Round 2 Vs Jackie Ang


    I lose the roll here, and Jackie puts me on the play. Jackie has a fast start with a Lifesmith, some random dorks and a Darksteel Axe, gaining a bunch of life along the way. I assemble my defense with the Indomitable Archangel, Tumble Magnet and some dorks and begin attacking in the air, but Jackie has a Contagion Engine of his own to kill my team and put me further behind – I’m on 7 while he is on over 24, but not to worry: I have an Engine of my own! I don’t have any counters on the Tumble Magnet anymore, unfortunately, but I’ve got rid of his team, and a collection of assorted monsters, a spell or two, and when he misses with a last-ditch Cerebral Eruption, I get him down to dead.


    The second game starts awkwardly when I pile shuffle my deck and realise I’ve only got 39 cards. Super scrub, that’s me. Somehow I missed it when I piled before the first game, but I call a judge on myself now and what could be a gameloss (or dq if we try to just say nothing) is downgraded to a warning since I called it on myself – the lost card was a mountain, by the way. After that embarassing detour, game two actually starts. His turn one Spikeshot Elder is met with my Galvanic Blast, and he has to use Cerebral Eruption early on because I’ve got a Chrome Steed and friend menacing him. He mounts a decent offense with a pair of Darksteel Axes on a smattering of creatures, and he has a Rust Tick so my Contagion Engine and Tumble Magnet don’t do completely nasty things. However, I bait out untapping the Rust Tick by using all the counters on the Magnet; he suits the Tick up and I gladly trade off some random creature – then I untap and blink the Magnet with a Glimmerpoint Stag. In the end, I win because he is stuck on four lands with a bunch of fives in hand, and the Magnet plus Engine is tapping down his Myr each upkeep. Pretty lucky, since he apparently made a mistake on one turn by not using the Myr to cast a 5-drop pre-combat; I tapped the Myr in combat before going to the upkeep-tap plan and if he’d cast a 5 I’d have been tapping that instead, allowing him to cast the rest of his spells.

    Round 3 vs Eduardo Sajgalik


    Alright, confession time: I wasn’t super excited about playing in this PTQ, and it really hit me in this round. I’ve been in Europe since February and I was planning to go home early in January; if I win the PTQ I’m going to be in London for another month and then some, and the weather is really getting me down. On the other hand, I still want to play on the pro tour, so I should be playing in ptqs. Right here, though, I didn’t want to be playing magic.


    Game one I’m on the play, and I keep a hand I probably shouldn’t, before nasty stuff is done to me with Barrage Ogre, Neurok Replica and Nim Deathmantle.


    Game two I choose to draw, and again keep a hand that is a bit sketchy, and get punished pretty quickly. It didn’t help that my opponent is quite good at magic, and had a good deck, but with my mindset I almost certainly wasn’t going to win this round. Stupid, isn’t it?

    Round 4 vs Andrew Buchanan


    Game one, and I’m still not feeling like playing magic, and I again make a poor keep and do a bunch of nothing while getting my face smashed in. If he’d had regular creatures instead of a hasty Kuldotha Phoenix, my Contagion Engine might have got me back into it, but that’s no excuse. Three games in a row without dealing a single point of damage, and in hindsight I’m extremely embarrassed about my attitude.


    Game two, and this time I have a hand which is a legitimate keep, and while I’m still not keen on playing magic, I’m not playing like a retard. Perhaps the key moment is when he Trinket Mages for a Chimeric Mass before making it with X = 4, but I’ve got the Glimmerpoint Stag for the straight two-for-one, before assorted beasties take it home.


    Game three, and I snap out of my funk and decide that, hey, I’m here to play magic, stop being a donk, and actually focus. I wanted to win two weeks ago, and I still want to win now. I’m on the draw in this game, but I’ve got a fast offense with Chrome Steed and Indomitable Archangel, and while he has Chimeric Mass and a pair of Sylvok Lifestaffs, his mana is tight and he can’t leverage them very well at all. I’ve put him on the Kuldotha Phoenix based on his annoyance at not finding a sixth mana-source, and general disappointment with his Chimeric Mass, so I’m making sure not to just die to the hasty flier, but in the end I kill him from 12 by Arresting his blocker, sending in a 4/4 with a Darksteel Axe, the Vulshok Replica, and throwing the Replica for the final three points.

    Round 5 vs Mark Laily


    So here we are, win this and we can ID again, and I’m actually focused on my magic now.


    Game one he wins the roll and puts me on the play, but then proceeds to mulligan three times, while I’ve got the sick turn 3 Indomitable Archangel, turn 4 Chrome Steed, turn 5 Tumble Magnet, turn 6 Contagion Engine – in other words, I continue to run really good.


    Game two, and my recollection is pretty hazy, but I’ve again got some large creatures and he is stuck for mana – he has an Archangel of his own, but I still bash him down really quickly.

    Round 6 vs Jack Ho


    ID into top 8.

    The top 8 seems okay for a tiny PTQ, Jack Ho and myself are both repeating in the top 8 from last time in Chesham, and joining us are two of my swiss opponents, Andrew Buchanan and Eduardo, as well as Stephen Murray (forums user Jecht Murray), all strong players – the other three aren’t known to me and could just be ringers, or could be secret masters.
    The draft starts out very weirdly when after we’ve been seated and while the judge is getting the packs, one of the unknowns decides to make an announcement: “Hey guys, I’ve never drafted this before, so I want you all to know that I’m going to be forcing poison.” Um. Pretty sure you can’t do that there, but nothing much is said, and we get drafting.

    Things begin well when I open a Sword of Body and Mind, and a second pick Plague Stinger over Glint Hawk and Glint Hawk Idol is okay, possibly. I think ideally I want to be in poison, but pick three is mediocre and I grab an underwhelming Kemba’s Skyguard. Fourth pick is a Carrion Call, and I round out the pack with, well, not much of consequence except for an Untamed Might, a Revoke Existance and some random dorks. Going into pack two, and I’ve got a couple of infect cards, a couple of white cards, the mythic Sword, and not much else. I first pick a Plague Stinger, and take another pick two to make a trio, but the poison dries up and I realise that I’m not going to be draft poison, and that my deck isn’t looking so flash right now. A late-ish Sylvok Replica tempts me into green, and an Engulfing Slagwurm is exactly the kind of card that my mediocre deck is looking for: able to win games on its own, making up for my criminal lack of synergy. Pack three starts well with a Chimeric Mass, but mostly we fill out our deck with cards that are neither metalcraft nor infect.

    In the end I’m battling with this collection of cards, which seems better than the last top 8, at least:

    There really aren’t many options available to me here, either. I want 17 lands because of the Wurm, the Mass and the Might, and the only other cards I could be maindecking are Salvage Scout, Culling Dais or Loxodon Wayfarer, none of which seem better than what I’ve got in there.

    Quarterfinal vs Sean McVally

    He wins the die roll and elects to play, and plays a first turn Accorder’s Shield – my immediate thought is that he is one of those bad players who plays the Shield (or Mox Opal) before it can do anything, but then he plays a Glint Hawk. He has another Glint Hawk the next turn, and starts the beats, but I trade a Glint Hawk Idol for one of them while developing my board with a Carapace Forger, Sunspear Shikari and a Sylvok Lifestaff – but he has the Shield on his remaining Glint Hawk and so I can’t actually attack with my lifelinking, first-striking Shikari, all the while taking two a turn.


    I drop Molder Beast and Golem Artisan, but he gets a Grafted Exoskeleton onto a Bloodshot Trainee and murders my Golem. Revoke Existence deals with that, and the Molder Beast swings in, but Turn to Slag deals with it and the Lifestaff as well. I attack my two 2/2s into his 2/5 vigilance, and after he picks off the Carapace Forger, I cast and use Sylvok Replica to kill the Accorder’s Shield, taking down the Hawk in the process.


    He plays a Kemba, Kha Regent and gets in for two, then a third Glint Hawk, bouncing an irrelevant Golem Foundry, but has to trade it for the Sunspear Shikari since he’s only at five – and then I drop the Engulfing Slagwurm. He plays and blocks with a Vulshok Replica, and domes me down to 5, before untapping, and attacking me down to 3 – then casting Cerebral Eruption. I flip a Clone Shell and he wins, but attacking me first is really bad on his part since it just means he auto-loses if the Eruption misses.

    Game two starts of in a similar fashion to the first, as he again has Glint Hawk x 2, bouncing the Accorder’s Shield, but this time I’ve got a sideboard Wing Puncture in response to the equip, before equipping Sword of Body and Mind and connecting. He attemps to Turn to Slag, but the creature carrrying the sword is conveniently an Auriok Replica, which I sacrifice choosing his remaining Hawk – he promptly attacks with the Hawk for zero damage.


    I then put the sword on a wolf token, followed by a Molder Beast, and mill him out. I forget to take notes on his deck after milling him, though.

    Game three is looking a lot better for me when he doesn’t have a turn one Glint Hawk, while I’ve got Leonin Shikari with a Sylvok Lifestaff – he has a Shatter for the Lifestaff, but doesn’t have an answer for the Sword of Body and Mind that comes next, as well as the Molder Beast. He was also manascrewed, and did strange things like not tapping his Myr for mana before bouncing it with a Glint Hawk, which meant he couldn’t recast it that turn. I’m running really good, clearly.

    Semifinals vs Stephen Murray

    Game one and Stephen is on the play, opening with Copper Myr into Tangle Angler, while I’m going to the skies with Glint Hawk Idol and Kemba’s Skyguard – although the Angler combines with Trigon of Rage to eat the Skyguard – and a Trigon of Corruption is going to stop the Idol from taking him out alone. Luckily, I draw my Sword of Body and Mind and the Idol connects despite picking up a -1/-1 counter. I can’t attack with it again, though, so I just play and equip an Abuna Acolyte. We’re in a bit of a stalemate here as I can’t attack through his creatures and the Trigon is keeping my Idol grounded, while Stephen can’t really damage me.


    However, Stephen makes an ill-advised attack when my gang-block forces him to use the Trigon on his turn to keep his Tangle Angler alive, and so I can get in another time with the Idol on my turn, leaving him with a miniscule library, and the difficult task of dealing me 22 damage in a short time, all the while making sure I don’t get third attack in with my Sword. Some large creatures on my side of the table and he can’t get through, and mills out – and this time I take advantage of the Sword’s mill to take note of his entire deck, bar 3 unknowns.

    Game two, and Stephen again has the turn three Angler, while I’m again going to the skies, this time with Glint Hawk Idol and Snapsail Glider – a plan which doesn’t last long when he assembles a Wall of Tanglecord, followed by a… Wall of Tanglecord. My Molder Beast is matched by a Trigon of Corruption and a Perilous Myr, and Stephen can start grinding me out – but I draw my seventh mana-source and summon the Engulfing Slagwurm, which bumps into him and his creatures a couple of times, before I put 9 mana into a Chimeric Mass. I kill the Trigon pre-combat with a Sylvok Replica so he can’t put a counter on the Mass; forcing him to trade both Grasp of Darknes and Alpha Tyrannax for the Mass rather than just the Grasp, and the Wurm combines with a Golem Artisan to take me to the final.

    Final vs Eduardo Sajgalik

    Yup, that’s the guy who beat me in the swiss, and he had an easy quarterfinals since the fool who announced he was going to force infect got DQ’d for doing so, giving Eduardo the win. That said I don’t want to take anything away from Eduardo, since he’s drafted a very nice r/w metalcraft deck with multiple Shatters, Rusted Relics, smiths, along with a Hoard-Smelter Dragon at the top of the curve. Me, though, I’m a miser.

    Game one, and I get to play, while he takes a mulligan. He has a decent start with a pair of Glint Hawk Idols, but he is triggering them with Sylvok Lifestaff and Accorder’s Shield, not the most efficient use of mana. Meanwhile, I get down a Kemba’s Skyguard and Sunspear Shikari, pick off an Idol with Sieze the Initiative, before going big with a Molder Beast and putting him down to 12. He taps out for the Hoard-Smelter Dragon, but I’ve got the Untamed Might when he blocks, and he is too far behind to come back.

    Game two, his early plays include a Myrsmith and an Embersmith, but my offense is comprised of Sunspear Shikari, Snaspsail Glider and Sylvok Lifestaff, so his smiths aren’t terribly effective. He Shatters my Sylvok Lifestaff instead of my Glider, which I’m not sure about, and I get him down to 8. He has a Razor Hippogriff, but I’ve got Golem Artisan along with the Glider and a Clone Shell (imprinting a blank), and, in an anticlimax, he just can’t beat the Golem.

    Wow. I’ve won a PTQ.

    And, frankly, I’m really not sure what to take away from this PTQ; I know that my attitude in a couple of rounds was very poor, but when I was focused I was playing good magic (although obviously not perfect) – and some number of my wins could have been losses if my opponents hadn’t made mistakes, even though I was undeniably lucky all tournament long. I’m also not sure what to take away from the draft; I’m fairly sure I was just wrong with my picks early on, but I think I did a decent job of recognizing that what I was doing wasn’t working, and drafting the only deck I could, really. I guess the biggest lesson I learned from this PTQ was that you’ve got to play in tournaments to win tournaments. Sounds stupid, but it is worth remembering.

    Anway, thanks for reading, and see you in Paris, hopefully :)

  • Tier .999… Standard Decks, Part 1

    Tier 0.999… Standard Decks (or not quite so 0.999…)!

    For those of you who do not know, recently deckcheck.net has gone down. In its place, I hope to provide a reasonable summary of Standard decks (and perhaps other formats) for GoodGamery by presenting five decks per week, and possible variations of them.



    From 10/24 MTGO Standard Daily Event 1690040, we spot this interesting deck:

    Those of you who remember Naya before the rotation can see the resemblance to the old Naya list. New cards that have been added: Squadron Hawk (yeah, it’s in M11, but it wasn’t widely adopted), Molten-Tail Masticore (which is fantastic at giving any aggro deck reach), Sword of Body and Mind (an excellent card to have vs Elves and Eldrazi Ramp).



    Things to dislike about this list: 24 lands only in a deck that is fairly manahungry, only 5 fetchlands for Lotus Cobra. Only 2 manlands to have access to vs control decks.

    I would suggest adding at least 2 fetchlands and 2 more manlands in place of some of the basics if you were to try this out, and go up to a total of 25 lands, probably shaving 1 Llanowar Elves. His sideboard is typical, and seems reasonably tuned (1-ofs abound because of Fauna Shaman).

    Another interesting deck:

    This list should be a heavy favorite in the mirror since you can ramp to your big guys faster, and you have an “oops I win” spell. You are much weaker vs decks with heavy countermagic, however.



    If you expect the field to be heavy ramp, I would suggest playing this list. Postboard you are ok vs ‘small’ aggro decks with Pyroclasm buying enough time to combo them out with Valakuts. You can also splash black for removal and Memoricide easily off 4 Verdant Catacombs and 2 Terramorphic Expanse as well as 4 Growth Spasm if you really wanted to.

    Tulio_Jaudy (3-1) in a Daily Event

    This is an interesting looking decklist. Clearly the goal is to setup fast Masticores/Wurmcoils off Grand Architect (consider turn 1 Hatchling, turn 2 Owl, turn 3 Architect, Engine).

    I am not sold on Sleep, nor am I sold on the fact that it has to be mono-blue. 3 Mana Leak seems like an odd number which says to me, he’d like to draw it early, but he’d only like to draw one, which seems somewhat confusing.

    Monored, Boros, or Elves don’t seem like very good matchups for this deck, but I do believe that Ramp and other blue decks are slightly behind here, especially after board when he gains access to the amazing Lodestone Golem.

    The nut draw for this deck is something like, turn 1 Quest for the Holy Relic, Ornithopter, turn 2, Memnite, Ornithoper, Glint Hawk, Ornithopter, use Relic to find Argentum Armor and attach it to your original Ornithopter, swing, vindicate a land, have them take 6.



    This happens often enough that you better have a plan to deal with it in postboard games.



    It is worth noting they do not have to decide what to attach it to until you let them resolve the ability entirely, meaning you have no good time to respond with a Lightning Bolt or Burst Lightning. This is part of the reason why I think this deck is very well-positioned vs Ramp and Monored alike.



    Postboard games vs decks with Pyroclasm seem a bit rougher but still winnable. Your plan of going for an Armor is still #1, but you also gain access to Kor Firewalker, Leonin Arbiter and Luminarch Ascensions vs ramp (Ascension is a fast clock).



    I am not 100% sold on Tectonic Edge, and I think Brave the Elements is worth considering (possibly over Journey to Nowhere and Basilisk Collar).





    Here’s a very different take on UB-Control. There’s actually quite a few variants around, and if you pay careful attention to what spells they play in game 1, it’ll give you more information as to what they could have in their sideboard.



    This list eschews any sort of creature that is vulnerable to removal for Calcite Snappers and Sphinx of Jwar Isle. Snapper is a reasonably good blocker, and can go on offense quite easily in control mirrors. Sphinx is hard to deal since the primary win conditions nowadays tend to be ground-based.



    I am not sold on Inquisition of Kozilek here but the deck is sort of lacking things to do on turn 1.



    One non-Standard deck!:

    I like where this decklist is positioned at the moment for the metagame. Your matchups in most game 1s are about 60% except vs Dredge and Goblins. Tight play is essential to this deck, since you don’t want to go around wasting your fetchlands and Brainstorms since they are a lot better once you have a Counterbalance in play.


    Postboard especially vs Goblins, you get to answer their guys with a total of 6 sweepers as well as having access to Shackles if the game goes really long. Vs Dredge, you get essentially 6 graveyard hate spells, as well as the ability to sweep their board if they don’t have Flame-Kin Zealot on that turn.


    I hope you find that this was a good start to this series of articles. Enjoy the decks!




    Any commentary/suggestions are greatly appreciated, either in the forums or via PMing me.

  • Chesham PTQ Tournament Report

    Hi there, boys and girls!

    Welcome to my tourny report, in which I recount the details of my ptq failure. Hooray! Unable to run modo on my netbook, my prep has been limited to physical drafts, reading articles and… watching other people play modo. Feels good.

    Arrival at the ptq was courtesy of my housemate, Ray, who drove a car to Chesham, other occupants occupied the car. There were no memorable moments during an early morning car trip, obviously. Don’t expect any humour here.

    Get to the venue, give Grover a hug as is my wont, settle down to get my sealed pool. 112 players, larger than I’m used to but not huge by any means. Here is the collection of cardboard that ended up in my hands.

    So the first thing I notice about this pool is the Wurmcoil Engine, that there is a spicy little card. Then I do what I do, which is split the pool into 9 piles: 5 colours with colour-dependent artifacts, artifacts-that-care-about-artifacts, generic artifacts, the infect cards, and lands. Expect, well, this pool as no lands, and no artifacts that care about how many other artifacts I have, with the exception of Glint Hawk Idol – which I put in the white pile most of the time anyway. Oh I guess Throne of Geth also counts, but that’s a silly technicality because it goes in the poison deck, not the metalcraft deck. Technicalities count O_O

    So yeah, the metalcraft deck doesn’t seem to exist, as I have 4 cards with the word metalcraft on them, only one of which I want to play. The poison deck looks decent though, a reasonable number of infect guys, some strong equipment. Lacking a fraction in removal, but we can deal with that. This is the infect deck I lay out:

    Other cards that I considered in this build, but didn’t run:
    Accorder’s Shield and Bladed Pinions, which I dismissed because I didn’t want to run a 5th piece of equipment and the other options just seemed better because they boosted power. It might have been better to run the Shield over a Lifestaff or the Lash, though, I don’t know. I’m not a fan of the Pinions, though.
    Vector Asp: Even when I want more poison creatures, I’m not a playing this guy. I always seem like I have stuff to do with my mana, and a 1/1 infect isn’t even that exciting if I could afford to pay for his ability all the time.
    Horizon Spellbomb: I’m not a fan of this outside of deck’s with a splash – it seems like so much mana just to get a card + plus a land, and I don’t care about the artifact. Maybe I’m supposed to run it and a mountain to squeeze the Shatter in, but I still don’t like having a Horizon Spellbomb in my deck.
    Fume spitter #2: Sometimes this guy seems really good, so maybe we want the second. I’m not convinced that the second one is better than any of the other cards though.

    I also laid out this blue/white concoction, which had some more choices available to it:

    Here we could have been playing a few cards differently; the Battlegear can be run in this deck since it doesn’t just frag half my dudes, and the Abuna Acolyte might be good enough – I actually haven’t had a chance to play with this guy yet, or against it much, so I don’t have a firm evaluation. It seems like it should be good, but I keep on passing it or letting it waste away on the pine. I think it is just the combination of not being an artifact and not being a good attacker that sours me to the Acolyte. Auriok Edgewright is another option in this deck, but we don’t have a great deal of artifacts and he doesn’t even excite me that much when he does turn on. I’m also a fan of Seize the Initiative, but the same isn’t-an-artifact-can’t-attack makes me leave it out so often.

    In the end, I registered the infect deck but kept the Blue/white deck sleeved to side into, since I wasn’t sure which deck was best. In hindsight I think the infect deck was the wrong choice, but at the time I was kind of uneasy about playing a non-infect non-poison deck, and I felt like being on the infect plan game 1 would be a bit stronger. I expected more opponents to choose draw, and I think their maindecks are going to be worse against poison than against non-poison. That and the lowish number of creatures in the blue/white deck swayed my mind.

    Oh and obviously the poison deck had the awesome Tel-Jilad Fallen + Equipment combo, so we wanted to play that :P

    Now on to some actual matches, although bear with me as my memory is pretty bad and I don’t really have much incentive to remember these games, either.

    Round 1 Vs Raymond Wat

    aka My housemate who drove me here. The perfect start :headesk:

    I win the roll and elect to play, obviously. Did you really need me to tell you that? I get down some early poison guys and get Ray up to 7 poison counters relatively quickly, but he assembles Mimic Vat + Sylvok Replica and starts eating my stuff. He’s only about to bash me down to 15, though, before I get him with an end of turn Carrion Call, untap Blackcleave and swing with the team for the game.

    Game 2 I side into the blue/white deck since I’m already disenchanted with the poison list, plus I expect Ray to bring in some silly low-drops in an effort to increase his game against poison – while hopefully I’ll fly over for the win. Evidently something similar to that happens, as his life total appears to have dropped to zero. How lucky! I know I cast a Wurmcoil Engine at some point, but it was to earn the concession.

    Round 2 Vs Ed Payne

    I remember like, next to nothing about this round. First game he appears to have won the roll, elected to play (so much for my theory about opponents choosing to draw game one), and then he gets poisoned out while plinking me for one a turn.

    Game 2 I again side into the other deck, and quickly munch him with some 2-power flyers while he is manascrewed. Mise well :-/

    Round 3 Vs Richard Parker

    I win the roll and get the Sylvok Lifestaff -> Plague Stinger draw, which gets him to six poison pretty quickly. However, he has a Sky-Eel School so I decline to attack in the air in the hopes of forcing him to trade it for a ground-pounder, allowing me to get pack in there with the stinger. A pair of surprise Darksteel Sentinels eat my ground force, a removal spell takes out the Stinger, and I die in short fashion. Would have been interesting if I had forced the trade with my Stinger and his Eel when I had the chance since he would have taken much longer to kill me if he hadn’t still had the flier.

    Game 2 I elect not to side into the u/w deck, since I felt like the infect guys were better against the Sentinels, and the 2/2 fliers a tad unexciting against the 3/3 flier I saw. I do however take out the Perilous Myrs for a Lifesmith and the Accorder’s Shield, since I didn’t see anything worth killing with the Myrs, and they would be really hard to get killed anyway since he looked like he would be able to kill in the air. The game itself was an extremely protracted affair in which I got him up to 6 poison counters with early dudes, but he then gummed up the board with a Grand Architect making his creatures pretty big. He had a scary Invisimancer and Lumengrid Drake beatdown going, but I had Lifesmith and Lifestaff, and according to my lifepad I gained a total of 36 life via these two – which made the race really difficult for him. I had Throne of Geth to get him up to nine poison, but he had the Volition Reins to kill it, so I was forced to get him with a bunch of 1/1s I made with Trigon of Infestation (had three extra charge counters from the Throne) while gaining life by sending Lifestaff carrying insects on suicide missions – before I went with the end of turn Carrion Call, untap Grafted Exoskeleton + Equip to Lifesmith, swarm past for the last point of poison play.

    Coming into game three, it looked like time was going to be tight, so I sided into the blue/white deck since it seemed like the only one that could win quickly, additionally dropping the Trigon of Thought for the Barbed Battlegear. I did indeed have a fast draw, and was beating down with a Glint Hawk Idol that kept on picking up a Lifestaff and then dropping it, while conveniently stranding his Skinrender in hand. I had a disperse and volition reins, and I think I would have won a long game, but I went aggro with the reins, taking a 2/2 flier – which he skin-rendered. Fine by me, I guess, but he then had a sky-eel school as time was called, and I couldn’t get past it + chump-blocker before time expired. Awkward.

    Round 4 Vs Robert Bulton

    We start things off with my opponent winning the roll and again choosing to play. Poop. I don’t have a great start and he is gumming up the boarding with Wall of Tanglecord, Auriok Edgewright, Accorder’s Shield. I use my Wurmcoil Engine to kill some guys so that I can then get some poison going, and start to proliferate him with the Throne of Geth from 5 counters – but he draws the Revoke Existence. He then gets some evaders and I’m pretty clearly going to lose at some point since his defense is solid and I can’t ever block his guys, so I just scoop early-ish since I’m in the draw-bracket now. I know my opponent is slow, so I want as much time as possible.

    This game also involved the Play Of The Day in which my opponent equipped his Blistergrub with his Infiltration Lens… I guess he was worried I’d sacrifice all my swamps then block his guy O_O Or maybe he was just terrible. (He was just terrible).

    For the second game I switch into blue/white deck, since by now I’m convinced it is better, and I call a judge over to watch for slow-play. No more draws. He isn’t doing much, and I’ve got a Wurmcoil Engine and a Argent Sphinx bashing his face in – I ‘play around’ dispense justice by attacking with extra creatures, which I’ve now been told doesn’t work, obviously. He can just trade with the random extra creatures, then dispense my good guy(s) away at the end of combat. However, him being… not very good… my mistake doesn’t matter.

    In game three, I’ve again got the Argent Sphinx and some friends, while he is suck on one land. We’re running good I guess.

    Round 5 Vs Benjamin Twitchen

    I again get an opponent who chooses to play, although this one is made immediately obvious when he runs out a turn one Vector Asp. Poison mirror it is! He has removal for my first poison guy, but I’ve got a Perilous Myr gumming things up a bit and he can never afford to waste mana giving his guy poison in the first few turns. He has Heavy Arbalest equipped and running, but I get a couple of Tel-Jilad Fallen, and he doesn’t have any non-artfacts, so it takes him a couple of turns to kill them with non-artifact creatures – they each get in for one hit, although the second one shouldn’t have connected in my opinion, and should have instead been traded for a Contagious Nim. Then, with me at 5 poison and him at 6, he attacks for the ‘win’ instead of playing a bit more conservative with the arbalest, and loses to Carrion Call, chump block one creature, equip the left-over insect with Lifestaff and Lasher, get in. He definitely should have attacked for 2 poison less than the win and then equipped the Arbalest to an untapped infector. I’m starting to see the advantage of being in the draw bracket.

    Game two, same old story – I sideboard into the u/w deck. I have Wurmcoil while he is mana-screwed, and I have the Halt Order for his Rust Tick. Must be nice? It is nice.

    Round 6 Vs Aston Ramsden

    I’m paired-up into a 5-0 now, since I’m the only 4-0-1 in the field. I now a little about this guy’s deck since he beat Grover in the previous round, and more importantly I know from Grover that he isn’t a very good player.

    Game 1, another opponent who chooses to play. I get some early poison in, but I’m slowed down because I have to waste a turn Slice in Twaining his Sword of Body and Mind – better than not having the Slice, though. I get him up to 6 poison, but he has Contagion Clasp for the Plague Stinger, then has it proliferating onto a Tumble Magnet to deal with the Plague Stinger again when I get it back with a Corpse Cur. This is slowing him down a bit, but he has an Auriok Edgewright with double-strike, which combined with the Tumble Magnet and a Barbed Battlegear means that I can’t attack with many guys without just losing on the attack back. The crucial moment of the game comes a bit later when he has a Molder Beast and a Sylvok Replica – he decided to put the Battlegear on the Beast, which is just wrong since I have a Livewire Lash on my Perilous Myr. Anyway, he attacks with his 9/2 trample, and I pretend to miscount how much damage I’ll take if he sacs the Replica, and block with just that Myr – thanks again to Charlie for letting me know that my opponent isn’t very good. Obviously he counts the damage himself, realizes it is lethal, and tries to kill me by sacrificing the Replica on the Livewire Lash – so I target my own Perilous Myr with Instill Infection, trigger the Lash killing the Molder Beast, Myr dies and kills the Auriok Edgewright, and I draw a card. I still don’t have much offense since I’d been forced to chump with some guys, but this buys me ample time to find a Throne of Geth and kill him with Proliferate.

    Game 2 and we again decide the blue/white deck is best – although my opponent doesn’t even touch his sideboard and I’m pretty sure the surprise value is completely meaningless. Either way, I have a mana-tight but really fast start with Myrsmith, Glint Hawk Idol, Lifestaff, and I’ve got Disperse and Auriok Replica in reserve so I’m not worried about much – although I forget to play around the Sunblast Angel which Grover told me about. Being a miser has its advantages, though, and he doesn’t draw it.

    Round 7 Vs Eugene Hwang

    ID into top 8 :)

    Top 8 Draft

    I take Embersmith pick 1 over Glint Hawk and Glint Hawk Idol, which I guess is correct but I feel like red just doesn’t do much in this format. Don’t know. Pick 2 I take Galvanic Blast over Arrest and Shatter, and I basically round out the pack with a bunch of unexciting creatures. Pack two I first pick Ezuri’s Brigade since I don’t really have a second colour and it is a nutty card, plus there wasn’t much me – but I get a gift Carnifex Demon pick 3 and just decide black is the way to go. The rest of that pack and the entirety of pack 3 can be summarized as Grasp of Darkness, Arc Trail and a bunch of mediocre creatures and a bit of equipment, mostly. Not a very exciting deck, but I don’t think anyone had an exciting deck.

    Here is the deck I registered:

    Yeah that is a lot of unexciting creatures that I’m planning to turn sideways, but I have some power-boosting equipment, a smattering of removal and a nice bomb.

    Cards in the sideboard which I didn’t play: Furnace Celebration; because I didn’t think I had enough sacrifice effects and because I’ve had a couple of bad experiences with this card in draft before where I’ve found it really hard to actually use effectively.
    Flameborn Hellion and Ogre Geargrabber, as some bigger guys to finish them off – but I felt like I would be better off trying to swarm with little guys holding equipment than I would by playing another six.

    Quarterfinals Vs Rob Wagner

    I’m off to a good start when I 1-in-36 him, topping his 11 with my 12. On the play I keep a hand with Sylvok Lifestaff, Perilous Myr, Iron Myr, Blade-Tribe Berserkers, Turn to Slag, Swamp, Mountain. I have the three artifacts in play on turn three, and if I hit my third land I can get the Berserkers out there and start going to town – I miss, though, and he has an instill infection for my Myr. I get my land after that, and run out a pair of Moriok Reavers in consecutive turns, but he has Slice in Twain, Skinrender, Moriok Reaver and then Asceticism, and even if I’d found my Carnifex Demon he had the Flesh Allergy for it.

    Game 2 and I board in a pair of Blistergrubs for the Turn to Slag and a Moriok Reaver – he showed me that he drew a second Asceticism as a joke in game 1, so I knew that the Turn to Slag was going to be pretty unexciting – and I hadn’t seen any equipment either. I’m on the play, and I punt by keeping a hand I should always always mulligan – 5 lands, two unexciting spells, and when five of my top seven are lands I’m gone. A carnifex demon at some point would have got there if he never drew flesh allergy, but I didn’t it and I’m out of the PTQ.

    I put the horrible mulligan decision down to tiredness, since I didn’t even realize I should have taken the mull until I’d gotten home and had a cup of tea. The entire trip home I was just so bummed out about drawing so many lands and losing like that, it took a clear head to spot my mistake.

    So yeah, 12 packs of Scars and some lessons are what I got out of that day, the most important lesson of which is, I think, make sure I can maintain focus in the top 8. The solution is more water during the day (had enough to eat) and probably a cup of coffee before the top 8 if I can manage it. So yeah, pretty disappointing PTQ on the whole; I’ll just have to win the next one :)

  • Further Ggameria Introductions!





    A couple weeks ago, you were introduced to the brand new plane of Ggameria, upon which the new set Events Upon Ggameria (GG1) will take place. You were promised 15 beautiful tribes at which to gaze and to revere, but were only given the 5 monocolor tribes.

    Ever since then, you have been checking Good Gamery every day, hoping and praying for the advent of the second GG1 preview article.

    The aforementioned advent? Upon us, bro!




    Today we’ll be talking about Ggameria’s ALLIED COLOR PAIR TRIBES. Behold.


    The first is the sentient plants (), with fungi included out of pity. What if every blade of grass, every tree, every weed, and every mushroom had desires, wishes, goals and dreams? An earth-shattering notion, is it not? That’s Ggameria; every revelation is more mindblowing than the last. The sentient plants are not too keen on attacking others, but enjoy helping out in other ways. Better get a decapitation permit before mowing the lawn.

    Click here to see the sentient plant preview card.


    Then come the Skychickens (). While secretly unable to fly of their own volition, they have done everything in their power to convince the other factions that they can. Their capital city floats among the clouds of Ggameria, hovering all about, depositing armor-clad crusaders wherever the king decides is lacking in justice. So while they’re not very good at flying, they’re pros at temporarily flying.

    Click here to see the Skychicken preview card.


    Cowabunga, dudes! The landsharks () are comin’ at ya, full-force and full-throttle. These extreme fish are after only three things: Radicality, tubularity, and gnarliness. To obtain them, the landsharks live life on the edge, whether it’s raging in the mosh pits or defying death with extreme sports and stunts. Needless to say, this is very intimidating to others. I’ll even bet you just wet your pants just now, you little baby! Hah, that’s what I thought.

    Click here to see the landshark preview card.


    Next up are the dryad giantesses (). Combining the serenity of the forest with the raw size and power of the mountains, these ladies are ready to assert themselves. Being dryads, most have Forestwalk, and being giantesses, most are very large. How did they get so big, you ask? Oh, there’s an explanation, but I’m afraid it’s one of the numerous mysteries of Ggameria, waiting to be unlocked!

    Click here to see the dryad giantess card.


    Finally, we have the Chipmuko (), a united tribe of barbarian chipmunks. We were first introduced to the Chipmuko in Alternate Universe Mirrodin. But from where did the Chipmuko truly originate? Regardless, the Chipmuko on Ggameria have been corrupted over time, giving up the purity of redness alone and embracing the darker arts. Living in mountain burrows, they are perpetually at war with another Ggamerian faction, who also lives in mountain burrows, generating tension. The Chipmuko enjoy being a Goblin-like sligh faction and triggering abilities upon entering the battlefield.

    Click here to see the Chipmuko card.


    Hope you enjoyed this second Events Upon Ggameria preview article. Next will be the ENEMY COLOR PAIR TRIBES!


  • Running Up with Red at MD States

    The week before States, there was a large tournament in New York City which would pretty much dictate the decks to beat for States. After looking at the top 16 decks, 1st and 2nd were both Ramp decks (1st was Valakut and 2nd was Eldrazi). 3rd and 4th were Elves and UR Control (Destructive Force variety), 5th-8th were Eldrazi Ramp, Valakut Ramp, UW Control, and Eldrazi Ramp. 9th-16th had 2 UW Control, 2 Valakut Ramp, 1 UGr Shaman, 1 Bant Shaman, 1 WW-Relic, and 1 Eldrazi Ramp.

    All of this led me to believe that MonoRed would be a very good choice for States, since it had a pretty good matchup vs Ramp-based decks (especially boarding Mark of Mutiny/Threaten effects) and it had a reasonable matchup vs other aggro decks (which are always popular). UW control, depending on the build, could be a 50/50 matchup or nigh-unwinnable.



    Don’t dragons like eating goblins?

    So the list I decided to run (after basing it on Cedric Phillip’s list) was:

    You’re probably scratching your head by this point, and for good reason. It should be 4 Mark of Mutiny in the board for sure, and Tunnel Ignus turned out to be terrible for a lot of reasons. (I will discuss what changes I would make for future lists at the end of this, however.)

    A few interesting things to note though: 25 lands might seem like a lot until you consider that Spikeshot Elder, Plated Geopede, Molten-Tail Masticore, Koth of the Hammer and Kargan Dragonlord are all fine cards with more lands in play. It wasn’t uncommon for me to hit 6 mana and just have Elder be a significant threat by itself (this is important especially vs Day of Judgment). Teetering Peaks is also essentially a Shock to the face (or forces them to trade with something they didn’t really want to). Flame Slash (which also probably should have been a 4-of) is very good at killing Wall of Omens, Overgrown Battlement, Joraga Treespeaker, etc.

    I almost didn’t run this deck because I couldn’t find 4 Koth of the Hammer until the very last second, and I would probably have run 4 Molten-Tail Masticore if my buddy had come through on the other 2 Masticores I needed :/

    Onto the tournament itself, they announced 126 players, which was right below the cutoff for another round. This implied that not all 5-1-1s would make it, but 6-1 and 5-0-2 were definite locks.



    Koth is secretly a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog.

    Round 1, paired vs UW Allies, John Gatza

    Game 1, I mulligan to 6 on the play, and he has Kabira Evangel into Talus Paladin, and I don’t have Flame Slash for either. He also had Mana Leak and Spell Pierce for Lightning Bolt and Searing Blaze on Evangel, so I lose in pretty short order.

    Sideboarding: -4 Koth of the Hammer, -3 Plated Geopede, +4 Cunning Sparkmage, +3 Basilisk Collar (The reasoning behind this is that Koth is a relatively slow card which isn’t great in a race, and Geopede is not a great blocker, but I would rather leave in 1 Geopede than 1 Koth.)

    Game 2, I have a relatively strong 7 containing Spikeshot Elder and Cunning Sparkmage. I lead with Elder into Sparkmage (he leaks it), then shows me he is stuck on 2 lands. So I just start bashing him with Elder and playing around more Mana Leaks, and eventually play a Dragonlord that goes 8/8 while I burn the small guys he manages to play.

    Game 3, he mulligans to 6, and I have Elder, Sparkmage, Sparkmage to mow down all of his guys, as well as having a few burn spells to clean up the ones that slip through.

    Round 2, paired vs Eldrazi Ramp (splashing Black), James Peyton

    I knew what this guy was playing since we had been talking before the tournament started.

    Game 1: I won the dieroll (always helpful, even more so vs ramp), and I have Goblin Guide into Spikeshot Elder + Flame Slash on his battlement, into Dragonlord which basically kills him on about turn 5 or 6.

    Sideboarding: -4 Koth of the Hammer (this card is unreal slow, and doesn’t do that much vs them), -4 Searing Blaze, +2 Act of Treason, +2 Mark of Mutiny, +4 Tunnel Ignus

    I also knew he was boarding black removal spells such as Smother and Doom Blade, since I saw Verdant Catacombs in game 1. It’s very important to notice small things like this so you have more information (to avoid leveling Dragonlord into a removal spell, etc).

    Game 2: He does not have an accelerant on turn 1 or turn 2, which leads me to believe he has Smother/Doom Blade in hand, so I do not level my dragonlord after playing t1 Spikeshot, t2 Dragonlord and attacking him on turn 3. He shows me the smother, then untaps and plays spasm on turn 4. I attack him again, play another guy (I think it was a Geopede), and he plays Wurmcoil Engine on his t5. I only have him at 13 or so, but I have a Mark of Mutiny in my hand. So I Mark his Engine, play a non-fetchland, non-peaks land, and bash him pretty low. He attacks with the Engine to go back to a relatively safe life total of 10, and passes with 6 up. I have another Mark in hand, and decide that if he traps into another guy here (which I’m pretty sure he has), I’m ok as long as it’s not another Engine, but it is, and he manages to stabilize with the help of 13 lifelink damage every turn :/

    Game 3: I run him over since he keeps a hand with no removal but has Battlement (gets Flame Slashed), Growth Spasm (I ate the token with Spikeshot Elder to slow him down by 1 turn) and I have other early guys to boot.

    Round 3, paired vs something, Jeff Warwick (I want to say it’s UW, but I can’t actually remember)

    I honestly do not remember this match at all. Sorry.

    Round 4, paired vs Valakut Ramp (with Genesis Wave), Darryl Donaldson

    Game 1, I keep a somewhat slow hand and get run over by Primeval Titan on turn 4 into Genesis Wave for lethal on turn 5 (flipped Expeditions, etc).

    Sideboarding: +2 Act of Treason, +2 Mark of Mutiny, +4 Tunnel Ignus, -4 Koth of the Hammer, -2 Molten-Tail Masticore, -2 Burst Lightning

    Game 2, I keep a 2 lander with Guide, Geopede and Mark, so if I draw land #3 on t3 or 4, he is probably dead from Titan grabbing 2 Peaks out of my deck. Instead I brick on land for all 4 turns, and Titans do me in.

    Round 5, paired vs UW Control, Kola Olagunju

    Game 1, I keep a slow hand, play turn 4 Geopede, he does nothing until a turn 6 Baneslayer with no mana up. Luckily I have saved up 4 Fetchlands, so I crack all 4, triple searing blaze his Baneslayer, then Bolt him for 21 points of damage.

    Sideboarding: +4 Cunning Sparkmage, -4 Searing Blaze (You want to board out Slash if they have no Walls, but this guy did)

    Game 2, he mulligans to 4 (!!!), but still makes a game of it with Preordain into Wall of Omens, into him missing land drop #5 for Baneslayer, but still Days away 2 of my guys. Luckily the 3 card disadvantage does prove to be too much for him and I take it by playing enough lands to play around Leaks from him.

    Round 6, paired vs UW Control, Tom Fulks

    Game 1, I think I have a hand with a lot of Goblin Guides and like 3 Mountains and proceed to draw into burn for his face when he’s at like 8 or so.
    Sideboarding: +4 Cunning Sparkmage, -4 Searing Blaze (Saw Wall of Omens again)

    Game 2, I have a hand with 3 lands and a ton of gas, so I run 3 guys out into a Day (while getting him to about 10 or so), then he plays a Firewalker. This is awkward, because I need to somehow draw enough burn and guys to get around his Firewalker. This doesn’t happen before he draws a Baneslayer and I lose pretty quickly.

    Game 3, I have another very good hand with 3 lands and a bunch of guys. My first draw is Koth, and his first play of the game is Firewalker on turn 2. Hmm, this is awkward. Luckily he starts missing land drops after playing the Firewalker, so I manage to start playing spells around his Mana Leaks, and eventually a Koth forces his Firewalker to get aggressive, so I can swing back and kill him.

    Before this round, I looked at my breakers, and they weren’t good enough to try drawing in. Plus there was a metric ton of people at 5-1, so I had to fight anyway.

    Round 7, paired vs UW Control, Zachary Molloie

    Game 1, I get around his Wall of Omens by Flame Slashing it on turn 2, after playing turn 1 Spikeshot and turn 2 Guide (as well). I get in enough early damage that the 2nd Spikeshot manages to kill him almost by itself.

    Sideboard: +4 Cunning Sparkmage, -4 Searing Blaze

    Game 2, I have early guys again (Spikeshot into Geopede into Dragonlord), and he just has a bunch of Condemns/Purges/Flashfreezes into a Baneslayer. I don’t really have that much going besides that, so Baneslayer goes the distance for him.

    Game 3, I keep an opening hand of Mountain, Guide, Guide, Guide, Koth, Slash, Bolt. You might think this is not a very good hand, but Goblin Guide is one of your best weapons vs any sort of control deck. So I come up swinging pretty fast (after missing 2 land drops), and slashing 1 of his 2 wall of omens, I manage to get him to 2 before he stabilizes the board. Now the board state is his 6 lands (including 2 colonnades) vs my 6 lands with Koth in hand. I decide to sit there a to draw burn since he can’t really tap out for a guy very soon without risking losing. This plan goes very well, since I proceed to draw 4 burn spells in a row, then he eventually taps down to 4 mana (which means he can only have 2 counters since I was pretty sure he wasn’t boarding Pierces), so I show him all 4 burn spells and he concedes.

    This puts me to 6-1 which definitely makes the cut for top 8.



    This is an entirely new species of goblin.

    Quarterfinals, paired vs UW Control, Thomas Buck (with maindeck Ascensions, Contagion Clasps, and no Walls)

    Game 1, he actually manages to get Ascension online after getting 1 turn of no damage, then clasping it up to 4 while my hand is virtually all burn spells. I die pretty quickly to a swarm of 4/4 Angels.

    Game 2, I don’t remember this game very well, but I do remember Sparkmage and Spikeshot manage to finish him off after he days a bunch of my guys.

    Game 3, he starts off slow, and apparently has no countermagic for my early guys. Guide flips a condemn on like turn 2, so I decide to swing with it intentionally and then play a dragonlord which eventually ends up killing him.

    Semifinals, paired Valakut, Joey Martens

    (this is actually the list I built for him and a friend which emphasized speed in the mirror and cut Bolts and Cultivates from the maindeck in favor of Growth Spasm and Treespeaker)

    Using this knowledge means I can just play all of my guys and never fear a lightning bolt in games.

    Game 1, I barely kill him through a Primeval Titan he casts on turn 4 with the help of guide into geopede into dragonlord.

    Game 2, He casts a baloth then traps into a Wurmcoil Engine which is sad times for me. I don’t think I’m ever really in this one.

    Game 3, I have Spikeshot on t1, guide on t2, slash his battlement on t3, play a geopede, attack him, kill his baloth on t5 with bolt + activate spikeshot and he concedes since he is basically dead.

    Finals, vs UW Control (same list as the one in Quarters), Kurt Spiess

    Kurt and I have a relatively long history of battling matches. The first time I encountered him, he was playing the KarstenBabyKiller vs my B/W control deck. I obviously get smashed, since stone rains tend to be pretty good vs Basilicas, and Cryoclasm made me cry ;__;. He’s gotten a lot better since then and probably has more constructed ptq top 8s than I do by this point, since I don’t get out to that many anymore. He would probably be an even scarier opponent if he actually played limited more once a month.

    Game 1, I grind him out with Spikeshots and Guides very slowly, and manage to eat a Gideon along the way for the win.

    Optimal sideboarding: -2 Flame Slash (no wall of omens in his list, but I think I pull all 4 blaze for game 2 instead of slashes), -2 Searing Blaze, +4 Cunning Sparkmage (game 3, I go back and sideboard like this)

    Game 2, I misplay this game pretty badly on like turn 9, and I also kept a sketchy hand of 5 Mountains, Guide, Spikeshot on the draw. Spikeshot is really good vs control decks, since they basically have to deal with it by itself. Anyway, at some point in this game, he activates Gideon with 3 counters on it. I am supposed to respond by shooting him twice and redirecting to Gideon. Instead I let Gideon’s ability resolve, and realize what I’ve done. When Gideon is a 6/6, the loyalty doesn’t come off him when he is dealt damage. So instead I have to ping him for 2 end of turn, and kill Gideon on my turn, which enables him to play a Baneslayer next turn without fear. Frost Titan arrives after this, then I lose.

    Game 3, I keep another hand of 5 Mountains, Guide, Spikeshot. After swinging on turn 1 with guide, I see purge, then on t2, I see condemn, so I stop swinging with my team of guys. In the mean time, he is not doing much, but eventually draws into a Baneslayer. Koth arrives to ritual me from 6 to 7 mana, so I can activate spikeshot twice targeting Baneslayer and Bolt it as well. Gideon and Frost Titan arrive soon afterwards, and I lose.

    In retrospect, I think I was running pretty hot to beat UW 5 times, since I don’t feel the matchup is that great.

    Changes I Would Make

    Play 4 Flame Slash for sure. Phillips had Devastating Summons in his sideboard, which is basically only for the mirror. If you don’t expect the mirror at all, you don’t really need to board these (and I wouldn’t, at the moment). Searing Blaze is a great card vs cobra/birds/other aggro decks, but there’s honestly not too many of those at the moment. However, it is worth having access to, especially in postboard games.

    New list:

    As a bonus, here’s a list I have been battling with in MTGO standard queues (pretty similar to Peebles’ list, probably only like 5-6 cards apart) and doing pretty well with:

    I would appreciate any comments in the forums, and hope people got something out of this report.

  • Introducing Ggameria





    You’ve seen it on the Internet. You’ve overheard your buddies at the local card shop talking in hushed and excited tones about it. Your mother even tells me that it’s the most stimulating thing in her life right now.

    But what is Ggameria?

    Why, Ggameria (gǝh-MƏH-ree-yuh) is a brand new plane in the Magic: The Gathering multiverse! And it just so happens to be the setting for the upcoming Magic set, enitled Events Upon Ggameria.





    Set: Events Upon Ggameria

    Abbreviation: GG1

    Block: Ggameria

    Cards: 300

    GG1 is not a joke set in the style of Unglued or Unhinged; none of the spells ask you to throw cards around like Frisbees or to take off your pants. It does have a lot of jokes, however (subtle jokes in card function, ridiculous flavor text, etc.), so feel free to LOL out loud as your gut directs.

    GG1 can be used as a stand-alone set or played with other Magic cards.


    Surely this news has caused your face to melt and brain to explode. But I’ll keep making this article anyway as a matter of principle.


    The plane of Ggameria is the only plane in the multiverse that entirely rests upon a creature. A massive, plane-sized turtle, to be exact. That turtle’s name is Ggamerion. His disposition is pleasant, but the action upon his back is anything but!

    That’s because Ggameria is home to no less than 15 different tribes. All of the tribes hate each other. And the intratribal situation isn’t very peaceful either. And all of this, while bad news for the tribes, is great news for a Magic player, who enjoys the thrill of Magical conflict far more than just sitting around the card shop, talking about plotholes in Star Trek movies.

    Anyway, tribal conflict = fun Magic. But who are these tribes? What’s their deal, anyway? Let’s take a look!

    We begin with the 5 monocolor tribes, whose flavor is so centered upon their piece of the color pie that Mark Rosewater himself would write 28 design articles about each one if WOTC employees were allowed to read about Ggameria. Which, of course, is forbidden.


    The first is the homunculi. These amorphous, tentacled abominations enjoy drawing cards, countering spells, and long walks on the beach — because they’re the mono blue tribe! The homunculi are one of the youngest races on Ggameria. But who created them? and for what purpose? Secrets.

    Click here to see the homunculus preview card.


    Then come the humans. Whereas humans on Earth come in a variety of colors and tones, humans on Ggameria are all white. And thus, they are the mono white tribe! The humans gather in little towns, work endlessly to perfect their little houses, elect inept governors, have too many children, and eagerly take advice from corrupt religious leaders. But more importantly, they often have activated abilities that target others and abilities that trigger when they’re targeted. Just like your average white collar office environment.

    Click here to see the white human preview card.


    Who’s next? The turtles! Called the Testudians on Ggameria, these quiet, elderly, shamanistic forest-dwellers would like nothing more than to find lands and generate mana in peace, as they’ve done for thousands of years. But these damn whippersnapper tribes with their hootin’ and a-hollerin’ are making that real tough. Turtles do not have a significant presence in the first set, Events Upon Ggameria. You’ll see why later.

    Click here to see the Testudian preview card.


    Next come the fiery amazon elementals. This perpetually aflame, all-female tribe of warrior-vixens is led by the Queen of Flames, Kylorra. Why no males? “Fire ‘reproduces’ just by touching flammable materials,” Kylorra told us while making “air quotes” with her flame fingers. “Frankly, there’s just no need for males.” The elementals excel at doing “red stuff”: fire-breathing, direct damage, haste, stuff like that. You know what I’m talking about.

    Click here to see the fiery amazon elemental preview card.


    Finally, we have the demons. Like the Testudians, the Ggamerian demons are a very ancient tribe. Once, the demons practiced villainy, killed recklessly, administered misanthropy, and wreaked general havoc. But millenniums is long y’all, and to be quite honest, the demons have run out of things to do. Now, they just kinda hang out while liking artifacts and milling people.

    Click here to see the ancient bored demon preview card.


    Now it’s time for a little FAQ.

    Q: Uh, what about the other 10 tribes?

    A: Stay tuned! More Ggameria articles to come! Up next is ALLIED COLOR PAIR TRIBES.

    Q: When will GG1 be released?

    A: Patience, my friend! A future Ggameria article will announce the Advent of GG1, with instructions for playing through Magic Workstation.

    Q: Okay cool.

  • Card of the Year: Incite