Good Gamery

Category: strategy

  • 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 :)

  • 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.

  • GyantSpyder’s Nothin’-but-Chaff M11 Set Review: White

    This article is a Summer of Emilevin’ contest entry. This 6 week contest gives out both weekly prizes and final prizes of booster packs! You are invited to participate and compete by making some awesome and/or hilarious content of your own! Click on the Summer of Emilevin’ banner above for more information.


    The Gatherati have given M11 a good threshing for the last few weeks, and the set has been picked clean of tech, sleepers, cards that are awake, and cards that woke up only to realize it’s Saturday and who the fuck designs a cell phone alarm that defaults to going off every day at the same time if you set it to go off once.

    But that doesn’t mean I can’t do a set review. Nay, it means I can do the most legit set review of them all, because it focuses on what you get when you spend your dinero on this fine game — mountains (and islands, and forests, and plains, and oh somebody shoot me in the head) of delicious, inedible, flaky chaff. Welcome to GyantSpyder’s Nothin’-but-Chaff Set Review, M11 edition.

    My ratings are all for the same format: Shoebox in the Back of Your Closet Constructed. I might add commentary for other formats I play or hear other people talk about, but if I don’t mention a card, it’s probably because it thinks it is better than other cards, and I’m not interested in jerkface, persnickety cards like that.

    Besides, nobody wants to read an “all-wheat” set review by somebody with a 1650 online limited rating. That would be silly.

    “Hey guys, Cultivate puts a land in your hand and one on the battlefield tapped: Seems good in a deck that needs a land on the battlefield tapped and one in my hand and that can pay 3 mana at some point, one of them green. In that deck, it will be a perfect fit, like a custom-tailored Oxford shirt. Combo it with Vengevine and Jace, which I hear some people have some of. Make a ramp deck, because why the hell not, every card that costs mana can go in a ramp deck — the whole point of a ramp deck is to pay mana for stuff. Control sure likes it too; I talked to him personally. We went bowling; true story. What are you doing behind my back with that piano wire?”

    No, sir, reading that 500 times was enough for me — 501 would be overkill. Besides, they always say write what you know, and I know what it means to be worthless; I’ve ridden across town at 11:30 at night on the Baltimore Light Rail.

    Same ratings as always, folks:

    5.0 — Worthless, but this card is the real deal. Extends mankind’s notion of what it means to be worthless or otherwise occasions universal celebration. Examples: Chimney Imp, Sorrow’s Path

    4.5 — Worthless, but creates the fully-realized impression it might have value in another reality whilst remaining without it in our own Examples: Homarid, Dash Hopes

    4.0 — Worthless, but a past, present or future sentimental favorite. Examples: Dwarven Pony, Noggle Bandit

    3.5 — Worthless, but I’d be excited to play this in a raw-dog, basic-land four-color sort-of-good-stuff deck, even if it makes me lose (especially when it makes me lose). Examples: Banishing Knack, Salvage Slasher

    3.0 — Worthless, solid chaff. Somebody who doesn’t quite know how to play Magic might be excited to be given this card by a small child. Examples: Joyous Respite, Kranioceros

    2.5 — Worthless, disappointing chaff. If I saw a bunch of these jammed into a urinal in a public bathroom, I’d still pee on them, but I’d feel bad about it, because they were denied a chance to be more interesting chaff by a cruel and uncaring universe. Examples: Adarkar Windform, Restless Bones

    2.0 — Worthless, boring chaff. This card is mundane or unimaginative or otherwise fails to trick me into a having a strong reaction to it, as opposed to other crappy cards that do. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. Examples: Spineless Thug, Dense Canopy

    1.5 — Worthless and upsetting, even for stable, well-adjusted adults. Examples: Bog Hoodlums, Inner Fire

    1.0 — Kicking and screaming constructed role-player. Examples: Cancel, Demonic Dread

    WHITE

    Ajani’s Mantra

    We all know the lifegain trick — new or inexperienced players like it, but as you get better at the game, you learn it is an arithmetic solution to a geometric problem. So lifegain cards get forgiven for sucking, to an extent. Sucky lifegain cards come in two flavors — sucky one-shot lifegain, and sucky long-term investments.

    Still, even on its own terms, Ajani’s Mantra is dull. If I’m going to make a bad long-term investment, it better promise me some awesome returns before failing to deliver. After all, my whole game plan revolves around the game going forever and nothing happening. In the unlikely event that it turns out that way, Heroes Remembered or Honden of Seeing Winds promise me lifegain well into the double digits. Ajani’s Mantra promises me maybe a Nourish, and it can be completely shut down by a turn 10 Jhessian Infiltrator.

    Plus, this card’s flavor doesn’t sound magical at all, and its art is mundane. It’s something Ajani said at some point and presumably says a lot that has a marginal effect on stuff, plus a cloud that looks like a cat, which I see all the time. Nobody would want a card called “GyantSpyder’s Advice for Buying Steak Sauce and Hey That Street Sign Kind of Makes it Look Like that Guy is Humping that Deer.” The font would be too small.

    RATING — 2.0

    Ajani’s Pridemate

    This is one of the flagship chaff cards in the set. Look at this card, and you immediately know M11 has a shitty lifegain theme. This card will, in turn, slide effortlessly into any lazily built lifegain deck. Even if there weren’t more than the usual number of lifegain related cards in M11 (which there very well might not be, I’m not going to count them), this card alone gives context to a whole bunch of other chaff in the set. That’s called “getting value.”

    It’s also a card that begs you to build a half-assed deck around it that offers rapidly diminishing returns the more time you spend on it, and that’s something I love my chaff cards to do (take Blademane Baku, for example).

    There are a few things holding this card back, however. For one, I am confused as to whether “mate” means Ajani has sex with these lion dudes. For another, why are there two of them when the title of the card is singular (is that Ajani in the background there?). For a third, why is the lion dude in the front clearly a tiger?

    RATING — 3.5

    Angelic Arbiter

    I’m probably going to skip a lot of the crap rares in the set, because they’re not quite as worthless as the great many crap commons and uncommons, but I figured I at least had to address the first white one in alphabetical order so I had a place to put this paragraph.

    Angelic Arbiter (or, as I call it, “Arbitrary Angel”) is a thick hock of flying fat with a complicated ability that may or may not do anything. One thing is certain — Arbitrary Angel is going to get a lot of people upset because they forgot to do the thing they wanted to do before they did the thing they didn’t care whether they did or not. It also wins the M11 award for “Most Likely to Stop Working Correctly on MODO Every Time a New Set Comes Out.” Somebody call a digital plaque engraver.

    Whether or not the Arbitrary Angel’s abilities generate an advantage for the person who sinks a million mana into it depends on whether that person’s opponent makes decisions about what to do on his or her turn by some mechanism other than random chance. Since no other such mechanism has yet been discovered among Magic the Gathering players, the angel is about as likely to stop somebody from making a mistake than it is to keep him or her from doing something constructive.

    How this is all communicated by lens flare, giant wings and a whole lot of butt-tentacles is anybody’s guess.

    RATING — 2.5

    Armored Ascension

    This is a reprint of a fine card that plays well in casual decks. I like having it in the core set more than having Blanchwood Armor, because Blanchwood Armor is just good enough to keep letting me down, whereas, thanks to costing an extra mana, Armored Ascension is not quite good enough to get my hopes up, despite its levitational flavor.

    However, Armored Ascension is starting to slip — the art that has been rerun twice now doesn’t show the spell combining the concepts of armoring and ascending nearly as hilariously as Frodo McShieldwings did.

    Fun fact: Despite caring more about Plains than any card in Standard short of Landbind Ritual, no version of Armored Ascension has ever shown a Plains on it. You’re welcome.

    RATING — 3.0

    Assault Griffin

    Sometimes you find one of those little round pads about the size of a dime in your apartment, and you leave it on your dresser for a couple of months. Then, one day when you’re bored, you pick up the little pad between your thumb and index finger and wonder whether there’s something in your room that is sitting on top of something else and running the risk of scratching that thing, because it is missing one of its little round pads.

    So, you go around to all of your things that are on top of other things and look, and some of them are missing a pad and some of them aren’t. The DVD player is always missing one, for example. But you’re not sure which thing this one is from, and you don’t really want to put hot glue anywhere near your DVD player, so you put it back on your dresser for a few months in a little ceramic cup with a pen cap and a few buttons that correspond to as-yet undiscovered now-unwearable shirts.

    This is what Wizards is doing with Snapping Drake.

    RATING — 2.0

    Blinding Mage

    White’s power of blinding things seems poorly articulated. For one mana and tapping, Blinding Mage can blind one dude, For 8 mana and not tapping, Dawnglare Invoker can blind all the dudes an opponent controls. Given that both these cards use localized, unfocused light sources, they should not have such disparate effects. Looking into the sun doesn’t blind me less if there are a thousand other people also doing it.

    Blinding Beam is the way to do blinding cards right — give them a reason to blind something specific. The beam-like quality of the blinding also makes it conceivable that they work on things like Wall of Frost, which, while not affected by blinding, might very well be affected by beams.

    Fun fact: There are four creatures in Magic that are already blind, but they can all be blinded again by blinding mage. You’re welcome.

    By the way, does anybody actually play tappers for fun? I mean, they work great in limited, but I don’t think I’ve seen very many casual decks sporting Master Decoy. People seem more likely to just forego removal altogether than to have their creature removal die to creature removal. This makes Blinding Mage a bit less exciting than it might otherwise be in the ol’ shoebox.

    RATING — 2.5

    Cloud Crusader

    This is one of many Magic cards with art that could also appear on a heavy metal album cover, and that’s a fine thing. It seems as if waving around that big sword would be difficult to do with one hand regardless, but would be especially difficult to do with the griffin’s huge wings in the way and his own billowing cape to deal with. It seems likely he’d either get his sword caught in his clothes and plummet to his death, or cut off his own griffin’s wing and plummet to his death (that is, if green doesn’t just straight-up plummet him to his death).

    It’s surprising that different artists did the art for Cloud Crusader and Arbitrary Angel — each is made impressive by the big wings and a blazing skyscape and unimpressive having a face and torso too small to be discernable. (Oh, and Arbitrary Angel would appear on more of a corporate rock album from the late 70s, like an early Journey album or something from STYX. It’s just a little too “white” for Earth, Wind and Fire.).

    All that said, Cloud Crusader is a meh piece of chaff. It’s functional in limited, but once it’s in the shoebox, I can’t see any reason to pull it out. Somebody turning to the chaff isn’t going to be looking for power level — if she wanted to play good cards, she’d play good cards. It doesn’t matter very much whether this is better than Mothrider Samurai or not.

    RATING — 2.0

    Excommunicate

    Time Ebb was better chaff than Excommunicate, even though Excommunicate is in a better color for limited. If I have 50 Time Ebbs in a box, that’s kind of cool, it’s like I have a giant Time Ebb. Fifty Excommunicates don’t aggregate in a fun way. Excommunicating a whole lot of people isn’t a fun or fantastical thing to do.

    Back in the mid-90s, my mom was threatened with excommunication by some random Midwestern douchebag Bishop for subscribing to a left-of-center Catholic newspaper. He just sort of up and said that anybody subscribing to this newsletter should be excommunicated. That informs why I think this card is lame — excommunicating one person is a sort of severe thing to do, but the more people you excommunicate, the weaker it makes you and the more it makes you look like a dillweed.

    And besides, it’s not like it has actual consequences. All it means is a bunch of very specific people aren’t allowed to talk to you, and, when the rubber meets the road, most of those people will still talk to you anyway. If you think it actually has power over heaven and Hell and stuff like that, you missed the part where the guy wanted to do it to housewives who read a Catholic newspaper.

    So, it makes sense that you might want to run one Excommunicate in your draft deck to get an attack through, but I can’t imagine plugging four of them into decks to play for fun. It’s a dull, dry concept, and the card doesn’t actualize it very well, what with the smear in the middle and all the people around it yelling “HOOOOOLY CRAAAAAAAP!!!”

    RATING — 2.0

    Goldenglow Moth

    Remember when I said that investing in lifegain “better promise me some awesome returns before failing to deliver?” Well, to paraphrase Montel Jordan, “This is how you do it.”

    Goldenglow Moth can gain me four turns worth of Ajani’s Mantra every time it blocks! If I can pump its toughness every turn and convince my opponent to attack into it with small creatures for five turns while doing nothing else important, that’s 20 life! That’s chaff-tastic!

    RATING — 3.0

    Holy Strength

    Holy strength has always been the lamer strength. It is so much lamer than Unholy Strength that, even though it’s already a bad card, it feels worse than it actually is. Holy Strength has been so thoroughly humiliated by Unholy Strength that Holy Armor looks superior, just because there isn’t an Unholy Armor running around kicking sand in its face.

    It’s not like +1/+2 itself is bad for chaff. Indomitable Will was awesome — one of my favorite chaff cards of Kamigawa, the block with a “chaff matters” theme. Armor Thrull is one of the best chaff cards of all time.

    But even Edge of the Divinity on a white creature is strictly better chaff than Holy Strength — not because of its additional possible upside, but because Holy Strength is a punk. If you’re digging through chaff cards, you’re putting up with enough crap and don’t need to associate with punks.

    RATING — 1.5

    Infantry Veteran

    Infantry Veteran deserves credit for one thing and one thing only. He has never fixed his seriously fucked up face. He’s living in a world of magical healing where people turn to stone and back again, where magicians heal a universe-shattering apocalypse every April, rain or shine. If dude can morph into rhino, dude can get a rhinoplasty.

    The only reason Infantry Veteran’s face has stayed fucked up through 13 years and five reprintings is because dude just doesn’t give a fuck. Especially from a 1/1 for 1, I can respect that.

    RATING — 3.0

    Inspired Charge

    Laser swords notwithstanding, this is just another variant of “if you get angry, you get stronger, yeah, all of you” without much to recommend it specifically.

    Cards like this make me wonder why creatures engaged in combat with wizards and mythical beasts can be magically enhanced by anger. If they’re fighting some demon or sea monster or brushwagg to the death while their buddies are getting offed by lightning bolts and doom blades and whatnot, are they not already sufficiently perturbed?

    I hate to break it to you buddy, but you’re an unarmed owl facing a crimson hellkite. If you’re got anything left in the tank, now’s the time. I should not have to spend 2WW to alert you to the severity of your situation.

    RATING — 2.0

    Mighty Leap

    This card succeeds in every way that Inspired Charge fails, and by that I mean it has a flying elephant. When you’ve laid down the basic structure of an art object, it’s not enough to just leave it there — you need to populate it. Not every space in that structure is begging to be filled with something specific, but that doesn’t mean you just leave the inessential chambers empty. That’s where you put something, anything.

    A flying elephant is as good a thing as any — I certainly prefer the sincerity and sense of fun in this card to something rote and tedious like Angelic Blessing or Elspeth, Knight Errant’s second +1 ability.

    RATING — 3.5

    Palace Guard

    Palace Guard should have spoiler tags on it, because it comes out and says something about Magic that it sometimes takes people years – or never – to figure out, and in doing so, ruins a fair amount of exploration.

    “Go ahead. Block any number of creatures.”

    “Any number? Really? You mean I can block any number of creatures? I can block as many as I want?”

    “Sure. Go ahead, block any number.”

    “What happens then?”

    “Did you read the rest of me?”

    “Yeah, the foul stench part is kewl!”

    “No, I mean the rest of my rules text. Read it to me.”

    “Palace guard can block any number of creatures.”

    “Then what?”

    “What do you mean then? Then nothing. That’s all that happens. We can block as much as we want, and it never does anything. Oh my God it never does anything. You never do anything. You never win. We never win. You can block any number of creatures, a million creatures, and none of it matters. You still lose. We still lose. I am terrible at Magic.”

    “Welcome to the desert of the real.”

    Palace Guard is depressing. It has an ability that was impressive only when it was used very very sparingly or not at all. Blocking as much as you want is a lot less impressive when you slap it on a Horned Turtle that still sucks. Valor Made Real does a great job of creating the whiff of specialness out of nothing, but that whiff was farted out of the room by Palace Guard which makes what they do a mundane part of a third-rate tribal deck.

    RATING — 2.5

    Siege Mastodon

    Tom LaPille creamed himself over inventing Siege Mastodon back when M10 came out, and when he did, I was on board. Siege Mastodon was one of the flagship cards of M10 in the same way that Mighty Leap is one of the flagship cards of M11 – it’s a common we haven’t seen before that has new enough, simple enough mechanics and flavor that it sets a tone for the set, and it also involves an elephant.

    Siege Mastodon’s relative value has gone down significantly in M11. It isn’t new anymore, white seems to be all about flying now and not about big-butted groundpounders. The soldier theme was a defining characteristic of M10, and while nobody has really mentioned this that I’ve seen, it’s straight up gone – no swordsmiths, armorsmiths, first-striking rhinos (M11 is a bad set for rhinos in general), all gone.

    Without a white dedicated to slogging it out in the trenches, Siege Mastodon is relegated to standing around watching other things fly – an important role, but neither a fun nor exciting one – and part of what makes Mighty Leap so fun and funny.

    Sadly for Siege Mastodon, the joke’s on him this time.

    RATING — 2.0

    Silvercoat Lion

    “When the children cry,” it is because it turns out their fancy new Magic card has been born into a world already designed to make it irrelevant.

    “Wait” before you dismiss the card out of hand, though, because it is a lion, which is a cool animal, and if you’re going to have to make a worthless card that is out of flavor for what the rest of its color is doing in a set and has no fantasy resonance, you might as well make it a cool animal.

    This card “was big in the 80s before slipping into irrelevance and then dissolution in the early 90s and subsequently reforming as a glorified novelty act hearkening back to a time that never quite existed.”

    You know puns and references are dominating card reviews “when the children cry.”

    Shit I said that one already.

    “Mike Tramp”

    RATING — 2.0

    Solemn Offering

    Sometimes you really want a chicken sandwich, but you’re not sure what kind of chicken sandwich you want. It really doesn’t matter, so you go up to the counter at the sub shop, and you order a chicken cutlet sandwich with lettuce, tomato and pickles. And then they give you a chicken parm sandwich. You eat it and you just as easily could have chosen the chicken parm. It’s not like you wanted it less. But it pisses you off a little or disappoints you that nobody listened.

    Then you begin to doubt yourself. Maybe a chicken cutlet sandwich with lettuce, tomato and pickles would have been awful. Should you have said something other than cutlet? Maybe it’s your fault, and they did you a favor by giving you the chicken parm sandwich. It was okay, right? I mean, you like chicken parm. You should have eaten something healthier regardless. And no, chicken cutlet isn’t healthier, it’s still fried, and if they’d asked, you would have let them put cheese on it.

    The four life you gain from solemn offering is like the parm (you know, from a parm tree) on the unordered but begrudgingly enjoyed parm sandwich, made a little bit more exciting because Ajani’s Pridemate is there to trick you into thinking it matters. Hey, maybe it does. Maybe the lifegain really is making the difference, and this card is a lot better than it was in M10. But it still isn’t what you would have ordered if anybody would have given you a choice.

    RATING — 2.5

    Stormfront Pegasus

    Now we come to the card that looks like it was painted on the interior vault of an Italian cathedral, or on the packaging for an action figure that comes with a brush and a bottle of bubbles. I like the Clydesdale hooves on this duder – they make a fair amount of difference. He’s all, “I came here to prance, but I know how to party.”

    In M10, Stormfront Pegasus was a confounding functional reprint. Was it really worth it to not just call the thing Mistral Charger? It sounds like the name was somebody’s pet project. In this case, though, I think it was justified.

    Stormfront Pegasus was a must-kill-or-block-or-otherwise-answer threat in M10, and its extra-resonant name was much more befitting of its tiny little sphere or badassitude. When white has a lot more fliers, it probably won’t stand out as much, but it still justifies itself.

    Stormfront Pegasus is proof that it isn’t enough for a card to have a name that can translate across block creative concepts – it should have a name that doesn’t suck when it translates across block creative concepts. Mistral Charger fulfilled the first, but not the second, so good riddance to bad horsies.

    And it’s not like anybody was using their Mistral Chargers any less before than they are now that you can use 8 of them. 8-flying-pikers.dec just broke a vase. I mean legacy. I mean a vase when it fell off the shelf and knocked it over, because it’s 120 cards in a plastic box with a picture of Ang from Avatar on it. His name is Ang, right? Christ, I’m almost 30.

    RATING — 3.0

    Tireless Missionaries

    It’s appropriate that they gave a card that is shittier than Venerable Monk a shittier name and concept than Venerable Monk. And Venerable Monk is itself a pretty shitty card for a whole bunch of reasons, related to being not fun at all and useless in any mildly competitive format, like Throw Me Against the Wall to See if I Bend Constructed (Venerable Monk is bad at that because of the emotional difficulty of throwing a blind Filipino man with sufficient force).

    That symmetry the lone saving grace for Tireless Missionaries (well, that and that it has sort of a sex position in its name, by which I mean “ireless,” which is what sex is like sometimes if you ask nicely and wash the dishes first). I mean, I know a 2/3 that gains life at least has a purpose – it holds off aggressive decks full of 2/2s and gains back one and a half attacks full of life. But this is an advantage built into the card that operates at a totally different level than the card will when it is actually on the battlefield.

    You can make a card that is ideally suited to attack through 1/1s, but no other creatures. But if it is only played in formats where the creatures people play are random, its purpose will be lost.

    This card is there to bulk up the shitty lifegain theme and to be worse than a 3/3 for 5 would be, but the more I think about it, the more it disgusts me.

    This card is just pretentious. It thinks it has a “role.” It thinks it “can do something.” I resent that it reaches so far above its station.

    RATING — 1.5

    Wild Griffin

    Lazy, lazy lazy. This card has never been a real card in a real set, and it shows. They should change the name of this card to “Not Wind Drake,” because that’s all it is. It’s Wind Drake, except they decided ahead of time they wanted to put this dude in as many sets that don’t matter as possible, so to pad that number, they put it in white sometimes for no reason – in three beginner sets that don’t matter, and then in 10th edition. Then they put it in M10 with Stormfront Pegasus, which makes it look like a doofus.

    The least they could do is spell it with a y or something. Wyld Gryphon I would play. Maybe I’m just being narcissistic.

    RATING — 1.5

    TOP 5 M11 CHAFF CARDS: WHITE

    5. Goldenglow Moth

    4. Infantry Veteran

    3. Armored Ascension

    2. Mighty Leap

    1. Ajani’s Pridemate

    Man, if Ajani’s Pridemate turns out to be constructed playable in some random crapfest of a deck, I’m going to have Roc Egg on my face.

    Wait, you said I left out Roc Egg? Roc Egg is PLAYABLE, man, PLAYABLE! What are you TALKING ABOUT!!?! You get a pawn of ulamog, and a bloodthrone vampire, and some bloodghasts, and some peppers and mushrooms, and a whole lot of cheddar cheese and a season ironed skillet, and then you put a land into play tapped and coat the skillet with butter before saccing everything and serving three with orange juice, using the may ability to replace those dudes with spawns, who bring back other dudes and garnish with parsley, winning the love and affection you always hunger for but which will never be afforded the endless boxes upon boxes of chaff magic cards that fill the world’s closets and landfills.

    Like sands through the hourglass, man. Like sands through the hourglass.

    NEXT TIME … BLUE!


    …

    …

    DRUNK!

    …

    …

    MOSTLY!

  • NJ’s Rise of the Eldrazi Capsule Review

    Rise of the Eldrazi? NicotineJones has wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under his feet! NJ has applied his prophetic foresight to the cards of ROE. Do yourself a favor and get the scoop on the hidden gems and overhyped junk therein!




    NJ’s Capsule Review of ROE is located here.

  • Speculative Strategy: ‘The Monday 6’

    This article is part of the Rise of the Eldrazi Alliance. Wizards of the Coast is working with Good Gamery, among other fan web sites, to help drum up excitement for the upcoming set. Take a look at the humorous and/or strategic content generated so far, and stay tuned for more new ROE-related articles and ‘chops!


    They’re here!




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    Corpsehatch, Mammoth Umbra, Mnemonic Wall, Pathrazer of Ulamog, Prey’s Vengeance, and Valakut Fireboar. These are the Monday 6, the six cards given to Good Gamery (among other fan web sites) as part of a spoiler pool.

    What follows are the six cards, each with commentary by four of GG’s top Magic players/evaluators:

    Peebles (Benjamin Peebles-Mundy)


    Peebles is an accomplished Magic player and prolific writer for StarCityGames. He played in five Pro Tours, finishing 15th in LA and 22nd in San Diego, and invented Ghost Dad alongside NicotineJones. He is highly involved in the GG community, and is both a GG forum admin and chat op.
    Llarack (Jarvis Yu)


    Llarack is an awesome Magic Player on Good Gamery. He finished 17th at GP Denver, 27th at GP Philly, day 2 at GP Seattle, 5th place at SCG 5k Richmond, and is currently 8th in the running for MODO Extended Player of the Year. As both a skilled player and a GG chat op, he is universally considered simply… amazing.
    NicotineJones


    NJ is a longtime member of the community whose ability to analyze and speculate about new cards has earned him mad respect. He invented Ghost Dad alongside Peebles, and he’s written several capsule set reviews for Good Gamery, which have been vital in helping our community get a jumpstart on emerging metagames.
    Sti (Stuart Wright)


    Hailing from England, Sti boasts a European Championships ’03 Top-8, three Pro Tour Top-16 finishes, and 2nd Place Great Britain Nationals ’07, and has impressive ratings in both Constructed and Limited formats. He’s also written for StarCityGames. Read his commentary using a British accent.

    Card #1: Corpsehatch





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    Peebles


    I pick Brainspoil and I play Befoul, so I’d be picking and playing Corpsehatch pretty high if it didn’t have the whole token-making thing going on. With that tacked on top, I expect to be picking it very high. Having seen only 7 cards from the new set (and therefore being in a position of extreme authority on the topic), I assume that you won’t be getting so many Eldrazi Spawns that you’ll be able to regularly fire out twelve-drop Eldrazi fatties, so the tokens will probably either chumpblock or immediately sacrifice themselves to effectively reduce the cost of Corpsehatch to 1BB, letting you make another play in the same turn.
    Llarack


    This card seems unplayable in constructed unless standard slows way the hell down (which I doubt it will for at least another two years).


    In limited, it’s probably really good unless if RRR (triple Rise) draft turns out to be really fast, which it isn’t looking like with a bunch of expensive cards spoiled so far.
    NicotineJones


    Corpsehatch won’t make it in constructed play, but it’s a fine limited card that both buys you some time and accelerates you to a huge monster. Like, for instance, an Eldrazi.
    Sti


    This is a solid limited card and, while a bit expensive, it does provide two chump blockers to help with it being a bit slow. The mana generation is more of a constructed effect and this card is a bit too costly unless you really want Eldrazi for some reason.

    Card #2: Mammoth Umbra





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    Peebles


    How good +3/+3 and Vigilance will be is pretty tough to call at this point, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t relatively dominating. The actual fun part of this card to look at is Totem Armor, which is a pretty good attempt at fixing the automatic two-for-one drawback of auras. I don’t think it gets all the way there, as your man is still vulnerable to being removed by something like Journey to Nowhere, or killed while the Umbra is still lurking on the stack, but at least a Corpsehatch off the top won’t completely blow you out.
    Llarack


    This also seems quite unplayable in constructed since 4W enchant creatures are not where you want to be, especially with the existence of Journey to Nowhere, Oblivion Ring and Path to Exile.


    Depending on the amount of removal and bounce in RRR, this card could be really good or really bad. Only time will tell with this one.
    NicotineJones


    [Like Corpsehatch,] Mammoth Umbra won’t make it for constructed play either. The good news is that size plus vigilance tends to dominate a limited board, and double-blocking kill your pantsed-up dude will only kill the enchantment. Like all expensive enchant creatures, you’re vulnerable to getting blown out by removal, but if you want to build a monster this is a pretty good way to go about it.
    Sti


    This is another “limited-only” outside of some sort of combo. It has the traditional problem of auras, where you have to be careful to avoid removal in response to this. I do, however, feel this is worth the risk, as it gives you a very large creature that can both attack and defend even if they kill it once. You do want to take it out against blue decks, as having the creature bounced is a backbreaking tempo swing.

    Card #3: Mnemonic Wall





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    Peebles


    Is there anyone here who didn’t play with Izzet Chronarch? If you managed to miss Ravnica, the general idea is that you’re paying a lot for a body that’s not too impressive, so what really matters is what you have in your deck to buy back. If you can rebuy removal spells or things like Peel from Reality, the effect is pretty sick. If you can only rebuy Twitch, you probably don’t need to spend five mana on a Kraken Hatchling.
    Llarack


    This could conceivably see play in Zendikar / Eldrazi block constructed as a card in a control deck. It makes Day of Judgment a lot better, since you can blow the Day of Judgment early and then return it back with this guy, and force them to commit another guy just to get around this.


    The value of this card is also very dependent on how fast or slow RRR is. You can basically count on there being reasonable removal to get back with this thing, though.
    NicotineJones


    The only way Mnemonic Wall makes it in constructed is if there’s some kind of a slide effect that makes recursion possible. I think its prospects are grim for limited play, too– 0/4 for 5 mana is just not a good deal.
    Sti


    To be played in constructed you really need some sort of blue deck that doesn’t mind tapping out and returning a removal spell, as a deck full of counterspells can’t really afford to tap out for just a 0/4. Zac Hill built a grixis deck of this style but it hasn’t proved very popular so far. In limited the type of deck that wants this effect probably prefers the more defensive body over something like the 2/2 body Scrivener provides.

    Card #4: Pathrazer of Ulamog





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    Peebles


    This is a gigantic creature. If there were no way to ramp him out, then it would be a strange deck indeed that ever ran him what with the whole eleven mana up front. However, Corpsehatch shows that there will at least be some support for Eldrazis, and boy if you can get this guy into the attack step you will be quite the satisfied little child. Plus he’s got like at least 20 fingers.
    Llarack


    This just seems like a worse Phyrexian Colossus that you can’t cheat out at all. Also, why isn’t this thing an artifact? If there are more counterparts to Eye of Ugin in Rise itself, then I guess this thing might be played in constructed at some point.


    11 drops rarely make the cut in limited, unless if there is a common Eldrazi mana cost reducer or if this format is actually as slow as Onslaught block.
    NicotineJones


    Pathrazer of Ulamog is outclassed by the Eldrazi we’ve already seen elsewhere for constructed play. In limited, it’s nasty if you can get it down; we’ll see if the rest of the set provides tools to do that. 11 mana is just a ton of mana, though, so it’ll need plenty of help.
    Sti


    The high costs of these Eldrazi cards makes me wonder if there will be a number of cards that reduce their cost like Eye of Ugin.

    Card #5: Prey’s Vengeance





    (click for the large version)

    UBB code to paste the large version in a forum post:
    [img]http://www.goodgamery.com/articles/drazi/card5_big.jpg[/img]


    Peebles


    Two doses of +2/+2 is (who would have thought) both better and worse than one dose of +4/+4. I think that the “average” use for Prey’s Vengeance will be to ambush an attacker of theirs and then push through an attacker of yours, which sounds pretty nice to me, but I know that at some point I’ll be alpha-striking and wishing that it would just give me the full effect right now. Rebound, like Totem Armor, is also vulnerable to having the target disappear in response, but I think overall it’s a pretty reasonable ability.


    As an aside, Kodama’s Might was +2/+2 for G with that set’s keyword on it, so I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a card standing in for Glacial Ray (especially since they can avoid the two-for-one if they have a sacrifice outlet).
    Llarack


    This card seems to be the most exciting of the cards to me. You can use it early on in some sort of aggressive deck mirror, then get another +2/+2 the next turn for value. The trouble is, it’s not particularly great in Boss Naya, so its usage seems limited to Eldrazi Monument green and this card is sort of underwhelming there.


    This seems reasonable for limited since you get value out of it as a pump spell and then basically a free bonus +2/+2 next turn.
    NicotineJones


    Prey’s Vengeance is a card that might make it in constructed. Normally, it’s going to be a solid combat trick when you play it initially– +2/+2 is generally enough of a boost to swing creature combat your way. The second turn, the other guy just doesn’t block your pumped man. Like any creature pump, instant-speed removal is sad times for you. In constructed, you are basically paying for 4 damage to the face spread over two turns that you can sometimes use as a combat trick. That probably isn’t good enough, but sometimes very fast green aggro decks exist that want Giant Growth type cards anyway and in that context this may nose over the line. It gets better if the world is full of toughness-based removal, since it can counter some of that.


    The rebound mechanic could be interesting with storm and similar mechanics, though.
    Sti


    People have played cheap Green pump in constructed before and this card will often deal four damage over two turns for a very cheap price. It does have to compete with Vines of Vastwood, but it does have the advantage of being cheaper and spreading the pump effort over two turns can allow you to force through a creature twice in a row. In limited this type of effect can be used to provide a tempo boost, removing a creature for only one mana in a sense and the second casting can help you to finish them off before they can stabilize.

    Card #6: Valakut Fireboar





    (click for the large version)

    UBB code to paste the large version in a forum post:
    [img]http://www.goodgamery.com/articles/drazi/card6_big.jpg[/img]


    Peebles


    Sometimes you really want to attack with your Kami of Old Stone. In that case, wouldn’t it be lovely to hit for seven damage instead of one? While I don’t think that there will be too many cases of Fireboar-related death, he’s a great blocker and he’s in the color that’s most-likely to be able to clear out the tiny guys that would stymie his attacks, so I think that he’ll be pretty threatening to play against. It’s nice that being a 1/7 blocker leads your opponent to attack with more guys just to get damage through, making it more likely that you’ll be able to live the dream and get your Firecat on.
    Llarack


    If people don’t play removal and somehow a five drop is good enough to hit several times, then yeah, you want this card in constructed. Otherwise, I give it a huge thumbs down.


    I have an unhealthy love for cards like this in limited. Suffice it to say, I think it’ll probably make your maindeck more often than not, and gets better with each removal spell you have in your limited deck.
    NicotineJones


    Valakut Fireboar is the kind of man I’m predisposed to like– huge butt, hard to kill, does something useful. There is no way it makes it in constructed, but in limited it’s not a bad way to sit back, block some guys, and bide your time for a burn salvo. They have to keep blockers back against the Boar most of the time, because racing a 7-power creature isn’t an option; if they get aggressive you could remove a blocker or two to punish them for their impatience. I think the Boar will be reasonably good at creating ground stalls in limited, but it still isn’t a high pick.
    Sti


    This is another limited card that fits best in a defensive Red deck. It provides a large body to protect you, with the threat of attacking for a large number. In practise they will normally have a creature held back to deal with a 7/1, but the very threat of this does force them to hold something back.

    Want to weigh in yourself? Hit the forum link below. We’d love to have you join in on the discussion.

  • Our Plan for Tonight (Spoiling the ‘Monday 6’)

    This article is part of the Rise of the Eldrazi Alliance. Wizards of the Coast is working with Good Gamery, among other fan web sites, to help drum up excitement for the upcoming set. Take a look at the humorous and/or strategic content generated so far, and stay tuned for more ROE-related articles and ‘chops!


    Good Gamery was chosen as one of the Magic fan web sites to spoil a pool of 6 cards from Rise of the Eldrazi on Monday — but Monday, as you know, starts at midnight Eastern, or 9:00 PM Pacific. Either way, for most of us, these cards is gonna be spoiled tonight.

    And who better to escort these 6 new ROE cards into public knowledge than four of GG’s top Magic players/evaluators? Don’t even try to answer that rhetorical question; it cannot be done.

    You heard right. At 9:00 PM Pacific tonight, you’ll not only get the 6 brand new ROE cards, complete with all sorts of big, juicy images, but you’ll also get speculative commentary from Peebles (Benjamin Peebles-Mundy), Llarack (Jarvis Yu), NicotineJones, and Sti (Stuart Wright). Let me tell you about these dudes.

    Peebles (Benjamin Peebles-Mundy)


    Peebles is an accomplished Magic player and prolific writer for StarCityGames. He played in five Pro Tours, finishing 15th in LA and 22nd in San Diego, and invented Ghost Dad alongside NicotineJones. He is highly involved in the GG community, and is both a GG forum admin and chat op.
    Llarack (Jarvis Yu)


    Llarack is an awesome Magic Player on Good Gamery. He finished 17th at GP Denver, 27th at GP Philly, day 2 at GP Seattle, 5th place at SCG 5k Richmond, and is currently 8th in the running for MODO Extended Player of the Year. As both a skilled player and a GG chat op, he is universally considered simply… amazing.
    NicotineJones


    NJ is a longtime member of the community whose ability to analyze and speculate about new cards has earned him mad respect. He invented Ghost Dad alongside Peebles, and he’s written several capsule set reviews for Good Gamery, which have been vital in helping our community get a jumpstart on emerging metagames.
    Sti (Stuart Wright)


    Hailing from England, Sti boasts a European Championships ’03 Top-8, three Pro Tour Top-16 finishes, and 2nd Place Great Britain Nationals ’07, and has impressive ratings in both Constructed and Limited formats. He’s also written for StarCityGames. Read his commentary using a British accent.

    See you tonight!

  • Tempest Block Pick Orders, a GoodGamery featured thread

    Magic Online has released many older sets, including all of Tempest Block, and people draft them!  Ben Peebles-Mundy, GoodGamery poster and fan of odd draft formats, has posted his draft pick orders for every card in Tempest, Stronghold, and Exodus.  Read and comment here!

  • NJ’s Worldwake Capsule Review

    Awake, thou that sleepest! It’s Worldwake! NicotineJones applies his prophetic foresight to the cards therein. Take heed, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of foreign lands, which will become a snare in your midst.



    NJ’s Capsule Review of Worldwake is located here.