Good Gamery

Category: strategy

  • Tournament Report: Spirit Mountain Vintage Open – *Winner*

    Last month, a local Indian school held a Vintage tournament with an interesting twist. They decided to take advantage of their status on the reservation and allow Ante cards, since gambling is perfectly legal there. I brewed up the following list:

    It’s a typical Mana Drain control shell, but with an Ante package added in. The suite of Fiends and Bronze Tablet combine with Dance of Many (animating Tablet via March of the Machines) to break the symmetry, allowing you to exchange a token copy instead of the original. Timetwister effects allow you to reuse the combo, eventually exchanging tokens for every card in their deck, assuming they don’t scoop before then. I used glass beads for tokens, but really, you can use anything.

    Round 1

    Facing a total scrub playing affinity. I get Dance of Many going on Timmerian Fiends, and I can basically take his deck at will. Amazingly he plays it out, and finishes game 2 with 14 cards left in his library. Good luck next round, champ.

    Round 2

    Dude playing a Parfait variant. Land Tax presented a bit of a problem, until I could steal it with Tablet and Tax the living shit out of him. Notable sideboard included Peace Talks, which held off some activations of Tablet. It wasn’t hard to wait out the Peace Talks, and then ambush him for everything. So long, chief.

    Round 3

    Zoo. Dropped game 1 to a fast start, but I brought in Massacre, and really, what can you do when your whole race gets Massacred? Nothing, that’s what!

    Round 4

    Mana Drain mirror. I came prepared with Smallpox+Blankets out of the sideboard, and he can never build up his manabase enough to gain control. Nice try, kemosabe. Have a handful of glass beads, and I’ll enjoy keeping your lands.

    Round 5

    Dredge. I’ve never seen anyone splashing red for Gamble before. He must reeeeeaaaallly like Gambling. Anyway, Dredge doesn’t have much in the way of permanents anyway, and I make short work of him.

    5-0, and in the top 8!

    Round 6

    Oath. I don’t play a creature until I can simply steal his Oath, and that is. Nice Oath, dude. Here’s a hint: any deck based on keeping a promise probably isn’t going to get you far.

    Round 7

    I don’t even know what he was playing, because he scooped as soon as he saw me. Funny, cause he had a date with some Bottle Gnomes.

    Finals

    It’s the Zoo guy from round 3! His deck is pretty sparse at this point, and he doesn’t put up much of a struggle. Matter of fact I think he will fight no more forever.

    So that’s that, and I take home a couple boxes for my trouble. More importantly, I stuff my trade binder with a couple hundred Vintage cards that I scalped from my opponents along the way. (The one scrub from round 1 asked if I’d do trade-backs. I said yes, but as if!)

    In the unlikely event that you find yourself with the opportunity to play in this sort of tournament, I highly recommend the deck. It’s good enough that I found myself banned from the tourney venue. I can only assume it was due to the overwhelming performance of the deck.

  • PTQ San Diego Tournament Report

    10/17/2009 – PTQ for San Diego in Rockville, MD

    First, let’s start off with the sealed pool I received.

    A few lines borrowed from the Chat Dump while you think about how to build this pool:

    13:54    iConn   how does your sweet pearl trident deck beat
                 a pyroclasm
13:54    Seeker_ counterspell
13:55   Seeker_ memory lapse
13:55   Seeker_ ...mana leak?
13:55  Seeker_ force spike!
13:55   iConn   also
13:55   iConn   more importantly
13:55   iConn   how do you cast coral merfolk with a straight face

[19:09] [wcb] or encyclopedia brown
[19:09] [wcb]
[19:09] [RHat] encyclopedia brown was fucken badass
[19:36] [prolep] hey rhat
[19:36] [prolep] and whoever else is around
[19:36] [prolep] [RHat] [19:09]  encyclopedia brown was
                 fucken badass
[19:36] [prolep] I have concrete proof of this fact
[19:37] [theStu]  present it
[19:37] [RHat] i am around
[19:37] [prolep] what is encyclopedia brown's first name
[19:37] [RHat] i forget
[19:37] [prolep] you are allowed to wiki it
[19:37] [RHat] leroy!
[19:37] [prolep] BADDEST MAN IN THE WHOLE DAMN TOWN

[crickets]

[19:38] [prolep] god
[19:38] [prolep] i just realized you guys might too young

[Peebles1] man selling all these pokemon cards is going
           to be ANNOYING

mary: i wrote a song
reuben: what is it
mary: it's called the people you work with
      are stupid douchebags
reuben:
reuben: how does it go?
mary: "the people you work with are stupid douchebags.
       the people you work with are stuuuuuupid douuuuuuuchebags"

    A quick analysis shows that the correct build of this pool is probably blue and black, since they have removal, bombs and evasion.

    The first runthrough gives the following cards for a deck:

    I would prefer to play 18 lands in this type of deck (with Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, double Whiplash Trap, Merfolk Seastalkers and double Windrider Eel, getting flooded isn’t a huge issue).

    I filled out the last three slots with Ior Ruin Expedition, Shoal Serpent and Bog Tatters.

    My reasoning on the Serpent was that I wanted a big fat wall to block while attacking with evasion guys, or building up Ob, Nixilis to lethal them.

    Tatters seemed better than the alternatives (Crypt Ripper and Hagra Diabolist) since it will usually have evasion vs the best sealed decks (which tend to be black).

    Ior Ruin Expedition was extremely sketchy, and probably should have been Cancel in the maindeck.

    As for the swiss rounds:

    I went 6-1-1 (loss in round 4, drew in round 8). I believe it is correct to draw in this sealed format. The games themselves weren’t very interesting, since they all played out in the same sort of way: I would stabilize the board with my removal / bounce and kill them with a evasive guy or Ob Nixilis.

    So I’ll fast forward to the deck I drafted in the top 8.

    Round 1, I played vs the only other UG drafter at the table. Game 1, I set up a board state where Seastalkers locks down his guys and lethal him over the span of 2 turns. For the record, I almost died to quadrupule Scholar targetting me, but the Seastalkers let me kill him before this happened.

    I board out Gomazoa and Gladeheart for Hedron Crab and 1 Mountain (since he had mold shamblered my only red source in game 1).

    Game 2, his deck did nothing, and I took over quite easily.

    Round 2, I played vs RW with bombs (such as Hellkite Charger and Felidar Sovereign). Game 1, he gets manascrewed and double Whiplash Trap + fatties finish him off.

    I board in 1 Lethargy Trap for Frontier Guide, because his deck seemed to be a bunch of small guys + Teteering Peaks.

    Game 2, I get him to 3 life, but his Sovereign arrives to stabilize him completely because I had already spent both Traps trying to kill him. Game 3, he smashes me easily with Hellkite Charger.

    I am only slightly upset, because his deck was pretty good, and my deck didn’t have many ways to beat his.

    However, I am more upset that he conceded to the other guy in the finals after losing game 1.

    I will probably not be PTQing again this season, but here are a few notes:

    I believe the best sealed decks are B/x, and that you should draw.

    18 lands is correct for most of the sealed decks, but I can see a case for 19 if you have a TON of landfall guys.

    This is a much more sane draft format than the previous two, so I recommend sticking to two colors with possibly a splash in draft.

    Good luck in your sealed and drafts in the land of Zendikards! (couldn’t resist it).

    –llarack

  • NJ’s Zendikar Capsule Review

    NicotineJones applies his prophetic foresight to all sorts of Zendikards! Heed his words, or as Wisdom herself would say: “Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind.”



    NJ’s Capsule Review of Zendikar is located here.

  • Drafting UGx in M10

    Warning: This article contains language.

    Alright, serious time guys, let’s talk about M10. It is very fashionable right now to say that M10 draft is a terrible format. I believe the argument goes a little bit like this:

    1. M10 has a lot of bombs.
    2. ???
    3. IT’S ALL LUCK.

    If I hear one more person cry about how they were blown out by Overrun or Sleep I’m going to stab them. Yes there are many uncommon blowout cards can decide a match in M10. This means a couple things for those of us real men who want to get better at this format. First, you want to be the one casting the bombs if possible. Second, you want to be able to answer the bombs coming from the other side of the table. Now this may seem like common sense when I write it out like that, but I see people playing terrible aggro decks that cannot beat Giant Spider daily (let alone Sleep) so clearly someone is not getting the memo.

    Anyway, I’m having some pretty solid success in this format so I’m going to talk about my very favorite archetype: UG(x). UG has a lot of things going for it. First of all, not only can it play 2 of the most absurd uncommon bombs in the format in Overrun and Sleep, but it is well equipped to make the most out of both, by allowing you to amass a large army of dorks while not allowing the enemy to attack profitably. Second, you get access to blue’s draw technology at common, which lets you regulate your draw better than the average bear. Third, you are playing green so you get easy splash access for bullshit like Fireball and Doom Blade if the situation arises.

    Your weakness is that you cannot actually kill things. This is usually okay. As I will get to later, Deadly Recluse is actually a removal spell in disguise, and Entangling Vines does the trick against troubling beaters. Royal Assassin, however, may be a problem unless you are running ICE CAGE. It’s okay though, you are a real man so challenges like that do not deter you. Right?

    Okay so let’s talk about some cards:

    The Finishers: Overrun/Sleep

    These cards are the reason to run UG. If I open one of these cards, I will likely try to draft UG. (If I do not open one of these cards, I will often force UG anyway and hope to grab one later but your mileage may vary.) These are first picks in the archetype, with only a few rares and maybe Mind Control qualifying as better. The idea is to try to craft a board position from which one of these cards wins the game.

    How many is too many? I like to have 2 of the above finishers in my deck if I possibly can. Obviously sometimes this is not possible. I will start taking certain other cards over the third, including premium flyers like Air Elemental or even something like Merfolk Looter if I don’t have any yet.

    Sometimes you are UG and do not have Overrun or Sleep. This is called UG sadface. It is possible to win with UG sadface but it takes longer. Gogo Phantom Warrior.

    The best commons in rough pick order:

    Merfolk Looter

    Looter is fantastic. He finds your lands, your finisher, your answer, or your gasoline, whichever you need most at the time. He also overruns for 4. I love this little bastard. Perhaps most importantly, Looter makes it very possible to win without a finisher. If you are drawing gas while they are drawing lands for too long, eventually you will get there on sheer card quality. Just believe in the power of the loot.

    Deadly Recluse

    I got a lot better at this format when I realized that Deadly Recluse is basically a removal spell. He stops their best dude from attacking, and then he overruns for 4. When you think of it that way, he’s almost better than a removal spell in this archetype. I have first picked this guy and you should too.

    Stampeding Rhino

    The Rhino is a god damn house. He’s offense, he’s defense, he’s pound for pound the best large monster at common for you. PS – Giant Growth yu.

    Giant Spider

    Giant Spider is such a pain in the ass to get around in this format. He blocks nearly every common without breaking a sweat until you need him to go aggro with a finisher. I’ve played so many games where a single Giant Spider neutralizes 3 or more attackers because they simply cannot attack profitably. Hold up Negate and they can’t even get by him with a trick. Run as many as you can.

    Divination

    Card advantage is hard to come by in this format. Divination gets you the necessary gasoline and draws you closer to your finishers. Pick ‘em high.

    Giant Growth

    Combat tricks are huge in this format, and growth is one of the better ones. It will solve a lot of problems for you, including ICE CAGE.

    Entangling Vines

    I would put this higher if you couldn’t count on getting them so late. These are actually key in this archetype as they are your best real removal spell. I recommend playing at least 2 if possible. This should probably go without saying but you want to save them for a creature you can’t otherwise handle if possible; don’t blow them on their turn 3 Warpath Ghoul. Good targets include super evasion creatures like Phantom Warrior and Dread Warlock, huge flyers like Air Elemental, and other pain in the ass creatures like Inferno Elemental.

    Centaur Courser

    Sam Black said this card is probably a trap and I don’t know what the fuck that means, but when your opponent plays a turn 2 dork and you trump it with Centaur Courser, I suppose it might feel like a trap. Seriously, I love this guy. People are addicted to curve and play all kinds of stuff like Silvercoat Lion and Child of Night, both of which Courser shuts down. Courser is also larger than White/Black Knight, which is occasionally important. Follow your Courser with a turn 4 Giant Spider and start beating down.

    Borderland Ranger

    This is a good man. He helps you get to UU or GGG all while providing a nice warm body that overruns for 5 or trades with Warpath Ghoul. Also gets a lot better if you’re splashing.

    Negate

    I said it before in the forums and I will say it again: Negate is blowout insurance for the low, low price of 2 mana. Not only do you get to counter the monster finishers like Overrun/Sleep/Fireball, but you also counter the little annoying combat tricks like Harms Way that can occasionally blow open a game. Someone may have told you at some point that Cancel is better but they are lying to you: UU1 is infinitely harder to hold up than 1U.

    Essence Scatter

    Worse than Negate in my humble opinion, but since you don’t have real creature removal and you often aren’t doing anything important on turn 2, these are nice to have.

    Snapping Drake/Wind Drake

    Why so low, you may ask? Evasion dudes aren’t particularly critical to your strategy of Overrunning or Sleeping their face off. That, and Giant Spider and Razorfoot Griffin slap these guys with their insectoid and leonine dicks, respectively. Short of Giant Growth, you have no way of solving those problems if one of the above are chilling on D. That said, the drakes are in fact solid men, and are often good for a few swings before they get shut down. They’ll usually make the cut.

    Horned Turtle

    Respect the Horned Turtle. Seriously, this motherfucker holds it down.

    Ponder

    I will take all of the above (and maybe some of the below) first if I need them, but if you can pick up a Ponder or two, they should nearly always make the cut. Just don’t cast it on turn 1 like a cone unless you need to find lands. Value goes up if you draft Djinn of Wishes!

    Other commons that you may or may not want in no particular order:

    Elvish Visionary

    I don’t go out of my way to pick this guy, but if I’m short on 2 drops and have Overrun, this is a fine man.

    Llanowar Elves

    This guy’s value definitely goes up if you already have Overrun or a lot of Coursers, but I wouldn’t take it too highly otherwise.

    Naturalize

    Definitely maindeckable in this format, and always nice to have waiting in the board. Try to grab at least one late.

    Oakenform

    Getting yourself 2 for 1’d with a creature enchantment is no way to win the game with Overrun, son.

    Mist Leopard

    …is garbage but sometimes he makes the cut anyway. Barf.

    Unsummon

    I don’t pick them very high but it’s worth noting that they’re better if you have 2 or more Essence Scatters in the deck. Also good to board in if you see creature enchantments and/or lots of Illusionary Servants.

    Rampant Growth

    There’s nothing really good at 4 to ramp into at common. This gets better if you have Cudgel Troll or a splash color.

    ICE CAGE/Illusionary Servant

    You either love these cards or hate them. Personally, I like cards that don’t randomly go dead to a Blinding Mage, especially in an archetype without real removal.

    Craw Wurm/Enormous Baloth

    Yeah I know Baloth is an uncommon, shut up. These enormous expensive dudes are nice as a 1 or 2 of. I wouldn’t play any more than that. Their value goes up if you have a Sleep. Nothing like swinging into an empty board with a Craw Wurm… mmm…

    Notable Other Crap:

    Fireball/Earthquake

    These are easy splashes and you should first pick them in packs 2 and 3 if you are lucky enough to scoop them up. Grab Terramorphic Expanse, Rampant Growth, and Borderland Ranger higher accordingly.

    Doom Blade

    I’ve splashed the swamp for multiple Doom Blades a couple times and it’s pretty solid, as they shore up one of the deck’s main weaknesses: the creature removal department. You know, the removal suite. The removal package. Doom Blade would like a word with you.

    Air Elemental/Mind Control

    Obviously you should pick up these clutch blue uncommons if you get the chance.

    Cudgel Troll

    Clearly nuts. It’s usually worth waiting to turn 5 him against red or black.

    Awakener Druid

    +6/+6 from Overrun! 4/5 haste on turn 4! YAY!

    Howl of the Night Pack

    Yeah this is real good in this deck.

    Wall of Frost

    Horned Turtle is probably better than this thing because the Turtle can join the Overrun party. Just sayin’.

    Natures Spiral

    This is a sick card if you have already picked up Gargoyle Castle or Mind Control.

    Alluring Siren

    Actual flavor text: “Hey there big boy, I think you should impale yourself Giant Spider’s insectoid dick! Come on, it’ll be so fun!”

    Sample Draft

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    Fuck yeah Sleep over Gargoyle Castle.

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    Pump. The. Fist.

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    Mind Spring is some good.

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    I feel like I misclicked here or something, no idea why I took rod of ruin.

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    lolwtf.

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    This draft converter created by Benjamin Peebles-Mundy. Visit the draft converter today!

    Photobucket

    As you can see, I had a pretty good draft here. Usually I'm capable of a little more early damage (no Coursers!) but the 3 recluses and the howl more than make up for that here. I went with 18 lands because of the multiple Looters and the Mind Spring. Flooding will not be a problem for this deck, to say the least. I ended up 3-0, yay!

    I hope you found this article helpful. Now go forth and shred some queues!

  • The Vampiric Tutor’s Academy of the Arts

    “Welcome to my innermost library of secret scrolls – you’ve been such a studious pupil all along, and so full of life! Since we both already know you’re here to learn more about Magic, let’s cut right to it. Ah ah ah!”

    tutorship

    1. Cast a creature spell in your first main phase to trick your opponent into thinking you had your combat phase already.

    2. Whenever your opponent casts a spell, make sure to touch a couple of your lands and make like you’re about to say something, but don’t. What were you about to do? Your enemies will keep guessing, but ever wrongly!

    3. When tapping for mana, put a couple extra in your mana pool. You will never know when you might need it later, and your opponent will forget about it until it’s too late.

    4. Every cantrip in your deck is equivalent to a land, so you can swap them out one for one. Good examples include Bandage, Zap, and Aphotic Wisps.

    5. Land Grant works best in decks where you are unlikely to get land in your opening hand (or hands where you have a Gemstone Caverns). Load up on both and forsake normal lands.

    6. If you’re playing White and keep losing to decks that have creatures attacking you, pack your deck full of Circles of Protection. This quick cover will allow you to sit back and relax while your enemies ram their men into your Circles. Eventually, you’ll draw a big spell you can use to win against your opponent’s army.

    7. Play as many colors as you can, to make sure you have a card for every situation that may crop up. You never know who is going to show up and challenge you to a duel, and as a bonus, playing lots of colors will keep Angry Mob from wrecking you.

    8. If you’re dueling in a location with bright lights, make sure to use all foil lands from different sets and with different borders. Due to this shimmering distraction, your fellow wizards won’t be able to survey your available mana effectively. Since you’ll have tested your deck beforehand, you will be immune to its blinding effects.

    leng

    9. Once you have a couple lands in play, keep a couple in your hand and bluff that you’re holding useful spells. Make sure to look at them sideways to make it more convincing, since the only reason someone would do that is if it’s a split card. Since a crafty black wizard might try to Mind Rot you, add a Library of Leng to your deck. This will keep them from seeing the cards in your hand.

    10. You can cast Vampiric Tutor to search for, you guessed it — another Vampiric Tutor. This will put the mind-screws on an opponent while you rack up dozens of virtual cards in your virtual card advantage IRA.

    “My most valuable student, it seems you’ve run out of life… you were so close to winning the next GP, too.”

    At those words, your Vampiric Tutor changes into a bat and flies away as you crumple to the floor, a bloodless husk!

  • Oyakodon Tournament Report

    Recently, my living situation has aligned itself in just such a way that I have developed an interest in cooking. I’m coasting along on what money remains until I return to America in a couple months, want to learn Japanese dishes while in the little time I have left, and want to supplement my newfound exercise habits with healthy meals.

    I am a dude with a Jewish mom, so I have quite literally never had to fix anything more ambitious than a sandwich or an omelet. Cooking can be daunting at first! Luckily, most Japanese staples are incredibly simple to make, healthy, and cheap. Tonight, I made:

    Oyakodon – steamed white rice, topped with chicken, egg and onions served in traditional Japanese dashi broth.

    For the unfamiliar, donburi is a dish made from rice, broth or water mixed with soy sauce and rice vinegar, and various toppings. Donburi is as filling as it is delicious, and generally requires less than 30 minutes to prepare.

    ROUGH LIST, SERVES 1

    1 cup of Japanese white rice

    1/2 onion

    1.5 tbsp dark (regular) soy sauce

    1 tbsp mirin (Japanese rice vinegar)

    1/2 cup water

    1 tbsp sugar

    1 tsp dashi (powdered soup stock made from kelp and skipjack tuna, a fundamental ingredient for Japanese cooking, including miso soup)

    ~1/4 cup chicken thigh; enough for about 6 bite-sized chunks

    1 egg

    egg

    STRATEGY

    RICE: Wash your rice a few times until the water isn’t cloudy, but don’t worry too much, as cloudier rice is just stickier rice.
    Combine one and a bit cups of water for each cup of rice you make in a pot.
    Cover the pot with a lid, and bring the rice to a boil on high heat.
    Then, cook it on low for about 15-20 minutes, until the water is mostly gone.
    Remove the pot from the fire, and let it steam with the lid on for another 10-15 minutes.

    Or, use a rice cooker. Seriously.

    ONION: cut off the narrow ends of the onions. Place it flat on the cutting board, slice it in half, and remove the skin. Wrap one half in aluminum foil and put it back in the fridge, because you are poor. place the other half on its broad, flat side, and cut it widthwise into ~5mm strips.

    CHICKEN: remove any bones and skin from your thigh meat, rinse it, and cut it into bite-size portions.

    EGG: beat an egg.

    BROTH: combine the dashi, soy sauce, water, rice vinegar, and sugar in a pan.
    Mix the ingredients, cover the pan, bring the heat to medium, and leave the mixture for a minute or two.

    When the broth is hot and uniform, remove the lid and stir in the onion before replacing the lid again.

    After another couple minutes, stir in the chicken and put the lid back on.

    Wait a couple minutes to turn over the chicken, and when it’s cooked on both sides, stir in the egg; make sure it doesn’t stay together enough to form any large pieces.

    Pour the mixture over your bowl of rice. Congratulations! Enjoy your delicious donburi with chopsticks and a spoon.

    Without further ado, here is how the tournament went.

    Round 1 opponent: WGr Beef Yakisoba

    He opens with a pile of steaming broiled noodles topped with rare beef and oblique cut green onions. I lay an egg and pass the turn. He picks up his chopsticks and swings with a slice of beef and a hank of noodles, spraying beef juice over my board for -1/-1. I crack the egg and fetch a chicken equipped with makotobashi. I lay a scoop of white rice and top it with a drizzle of soy and vinegar. He draws 4 noodles in a row and scoops his lunch.

    Second game much like the first, except now I’ve found my onions and my onions trample over his onions and take his beef.

    1-0

    noodle

    Round 2: BW Futomaki

    This is a variant on the popular Japanese deck substituting G avocado for R snapper. Basically he rolls over me as I try to find a protein source and fail.

    1-1

    Round 3: Texas Toast

    I am quite surprised that this is still seeing play. I’m having trouble getting past the cheese and garlic but eventually rice proves a more stable mana base than rye. First game I lose horribly to garlic. Second game I side out onions and chicken and throw in 4x pickled egg and 3x wasabi. Even though he has slathered the red zone with butter and garlic cheese, the wasabi comes down hard and fast, and burns his sinuses right out. Game 3 I go rice, egg, 2x wasabi and he offers the handkerchief.

    2-1

    Round 4: E. Honda playing 5c Torinabe

    This is Swiss final round and I’m tired, thirsty, and have a runny nose. E. Honda entered the tournament with a 2050 rating and 1 point shy of a 3-bye invite to GP Bangkok. He is piloting a new, unscouted version of his trademark midrange toolbox Nabe deck, and is an impeccably technically precise player despite his quirky tournament attire of bath towel and geta. He clomps over to the table, settles his 270 kg frame into the tiny folding chair, and smiles.

    Game 1 saw me get a good start with Rice, egg, 2 chickens and a dash of vinegar. He seems to have trouble finding a black mana but manages a turn 3 norimaki and starts laying out some serious fat. I am pinging in the air thinking this will be a long but inevitable game. Then he sacs potato, norimaki, crab, tuna, and mushroom to get Mothra. I try to distract the giant with Wasabi but remember as Honda untaps that moths can’t smell.

    Game 2 I side out 4x mirin and side in 4x Kirin.

    We are both getting drunk but I am secretly taking pings from my own Wasabi and it keeps me alert enough to outmaneuver Honda, who is by this time sleepy drunk and has to get up to pee. He has taken 3x Kirin to the face and looks like he is about to pass out as the judges watch him lurch for the washroom. After several minutes he returns, red in the face and somewhat more alert. But it has cost him momentum and he fails to deal with 100 stings from wasabi + raw onion.

    Game 3 I start out with Kirin. Rough on the stomach this early in the game, I am getting low on life and it seems he has developed a tolerance. I keep at it though, and finally he is so drunk he can’t remember whether he has untapped this turn and forgets a bunch of may effects during his upkeep. I go all-in with a sick chicken and he folds. Literally. His folding chair finally collapses, he goes down, tries to get back up, and is down for the count as the judges wander by to keep him from falling asleep in the aisle.

    3-1

    I gotta go pee so bad, I miss the final standings but hear later on I was just shy of top 8.

  • Biggest (Statistical) Beating Ever

    Earlier this year I decided I would take an interest in Shards of Alara block constructed, in part because I was getting back into Standard, and couldn’t be bothered spending up on Lorwyn and Shadowmoor block cards that were going to rotate like, any month now, and also because I was anticipating getting the Shoulder Tap to do Event Coverage for this years Block Constructed Premier Event, Pro Tour Honolulu.

    Apparently I was getting ahead of myself, and every man, woman and intern in the Wizards of the Coast offices was all “omg me, me!” and my shoulder went untapped.

    Heh, untapped.

    So anyway, in an unusual move, the Magic Online Championship Series (Season Two) was scheduled a week before this Pro Tour, and used the exact same format. Well, other than it being online instead of real life, of course, so the shuffler being broken will be a non-issue this weekend.

    (Except for Weasel, whose irl shuffler is broken.)

    Before Alara Reborn came along to shake things up, the format was undeniably ruled by Naya decks. When I say “ruled”, I probably should say “Dominated” in as much as the mere appearance of a non-Naya deck in any of the Decks of the Week top 8 lists often lead people to proclaim The End is Nigh, The Sky is Falling and other such apocalypsisms.

    Now that Alara Reborn has shaken things up, the format is undeniably ruled by Jund decks, and when I say “ruled”, I most definitely should be saying “Dominated”. The culprit, if one had to be named, would almost certainly be Bloodbraid Elf, or BBE. Technically, it’s more that the Cascade mechanic is potentially problematic, and the fact that Maelstrom Pulse and Putrit Leech are exceptionally good cards, but it’s Bloodbraid Elf that means nobody is playing X-Spells like Banefire, Martial Coup or the new and delicious Lavalanche anymore.

    Considering there were 32 Bloodbraid Elves in the top 8 of the MTGO Champs, you’d think that the metagame for this weekend was well and truly sorted out, but I was curious. You may not have noticed, but they’ve added links to the rest of the decklists from the page of top 8 lists. For science, I tentatively clicked on the link to 9th-100th.

    The top 16 showed some variance to the “BBE or Die” approach, with both 14th and 15th place playing none.

    Hydroponix – 14th Place

    Hydroponix had chosen to both go the hate ’em out with Valeron Outrider route, and to have an awesome Asterisk-esque user name. However, I’m pretty sure you could fit some Bloodbraids in there somewhere without crippling your manabase in the slightest, so I’m not sure what the point of that is, other than maybe trying to prove that you can Get There without the Elf. Considering the cash prize in that event goes to 1st place, and
    the rest just get a bunch of packs, he didn’t exactly Get There, either.

    Freyja – 15th Place

    Freyja presented a more conventional Exalted Bant build, and avoided running any Outriders. I assume because they aren’t particularly good against non-Jund decks. Not exactly an obvious move, considering they only take up what, 75% of the metagame?

    Top 8 – 32/32

    Top 16 – 24/32

    Total – 56/64

    Moving on the the top 32.

    The next 16 decks matched the top 16 in that everyone bar two were packing a playset of Bloodbraids. This time, strandba in 18th place was playing what amounted to an Old-School Naya deck. The only Alara Reborn cards he had were 3 Vithian Renegades in the sideboard. I think strandba could have fitted some Bloodbraids without even trying. I suspect, the answer here is that he did not even try. Murkkis in 20th place was the highest finisher playing an Esper Control build, which let’s face it, probably shouldn’t try to squeeze in the Elf, even though I’m assuming it probably could.

    Top 8 – 32/32

    Top 16 – 24/32

    Top 32 – 56/64

    Total – 112/128

    An Esper deck built to include Bloodbraid is probably just a 5Color Control deck, of which there are none inside the top 32. In 33rd place, Orgg Ascetic played a 5CC deck, whose only creatures were 4 Wall of Denial and wait for it, 4 Bloodbraid Elf. In 34th, ChicoMartini had Exalted Bant, and so did thekid in 37th. KT0, in 42nd place, had an interesting take on Esper Control, including a bunch of Glassdust Hulks and Architect of Wills to cycle, powering up 4 Soul Manipulation. FilippoK in 44th place had 5CC as well, but lacked the Bloodbraids to go with his Walls, instead playing a single Sphinx of the Steel Wind.

    In 50th place, Judah threw the numbers out by playing only 3 Bloodbraid Elves in his unusual 5CC build. Unusual in that the only cards he ran 4 of were Crumbling Necropolis, Savage Lands and Exotic Orchard. Everything else was quite frankly, a mess. JHawkins, 52nd, and Inuyasha, 53rd, both played 5CC, monkeywrenched85 in 55th place had a deck very similar to Orgg Ascetic, in that he actually did have the Elves, but only the Wall of Denials to keep them company. I can’t think a Wall of Denial would be particularly good company either, to be honest.

    Drake in 58th place played 5CC, and finally Your Best Friend in 62nd place, played a deck whose only creatures were 4 Wall of Denial. No doubt the Walls would tell you otherwise, regardless of what you asked them, but here is his list.

    Your Best Friend – 62th Place

    What’s he expecting to do, Martial Coup away one of his Walls before casting Cruel Ultimatum? Perhaps he’s expecting to discard one to a Blightning or something, because there’s not much else can kill ’em. I do like that he’s playing 8 Regrowths though, that’s pretty cool. Everyone else in the top 64 was playing 4 Bloodbraid Elves. Maindeck too, none in their sideboards.

    Top 8 – 32/32

    Top 16 – 24/32

    Top 32 – 56/64

    Top 64 – 95/128

    Total – 207/256

    So what will the weekend bring? Will anyone channel Zvi Mowshowitz and Bring The New Solution? Is there something amazing that everyone on Magic Online has missed? Can I possibly end this without a question mark? Seems unlikely. No wait, success!

  • Breaking Triple ARB Draft: Aggro Jund Cascade

    Alara Reborn has been causing a lot of commotion throughout standard and extended because of the power of cascade to enable cards like Hypergenesis in extended and Seismic Assault/Swans in standard. Therefore, it is not surprising that cascade is overwhelmingly powerful in limited. I have been drafting triple Alara Reborn since it was released online and have developed a strategy that has been blowing other decks out of the water left and right: Aggro Jund Cascade.

    Let’s take a look at this archetype and what makes it so good. Aggro Jund Cascade is focused on cheap and powerful creatures that overwhelm your opponent before they can stabilize. It takes advantage of the power and synergies between Jund Hackblade, Putrid Leech, Violent Outburst, Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast to create explosive and overpowering starts. Direct damage and hasty creature cards like Sewn-Eye Drake, Giant Ambush Beetle, Breath of Malfegor and Igneous Pouncer help seal the deal before your opponent can make any truly impressive plays.

    The first thing to realize about triple ARB draft is that there are no turn one plays, aside from borderposts. The second thing to realize is that the sweeper spells, Zealous Persecution and Lavalanche are slower and less effective than Jund Charm, Infest and Volcanic Fallout. As a result, triple ARB really rewards playing an aggressive deck.

    Aggro Jund Cascade is faster than Naya or Bant beatdown because it’s men are either overpowered for their cost, like Putrid Leech or have haste like Jund Hackblade. Let’s take a look below at the sort of cards Aggro Jund Cascade wants at each casting cost before we discuss relative pick order.

    Two CC:

    Jund Hackblade

    Putrid Leech

    Terminate

    Colossal Might

    Sangrite Backlash

    Trace of Abundance

    Naya Hushblade

    Grixis Grimblade

    Three CC:

    Kathari Bomber

    Violent Outburst

    Jund Sojourners

    Vithian Renegades

    Four CC:

    Bloodbraid Elf

    Rhox Brute

    Sewn-Eye Drake

    Five CC:

    Bituminous Blast

    Deadshot Minotaur

    Giant Ambush Beetle

    Gorger Wurm

    Breath of Malfegor

    Slave of Bolas

    Six CC:

    Igneous Pouncer

    Valley Rannet

    Vengeful Rebirth

    Drafting this deck is pretty easy. Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast are both easy first picks. Beyond that, you assign a much higher priority to two-drops and Violent Outburst. Putrid Leech and Jund Hackblade are both worth a first pick in a pack without Elf, Blast or other removal. Terminate, Sangrite Backlash and Colossal Might are all great utility spells to hit off cascade. Grixis Grimblade is another fine two drop. Naya Hushblade is simply ok. Trace of Abundance is a fine card, but if you start drafting them, you have to make sure you are going to make good use of your acceleration. Rhox Brute is a good card to accelerate into. It’s also worth noting that almost every R/G/B rare is a bomb in ARB.

    To some extent, Violent Outburst is what keeps this deck ticking. Grab as many as you can.

    Early on, try to cut off R/G and R/B as much as possible. If you have the choice between two cards, you want to go for the faster and cheaper option or the cascade card. If you cut off R/G and R/B, what will likely happen is that you will start getting fed Putrid Leeches since no one else will be in G/B. Keep this in mind while you draft since you can focus early picks on Jund Hackblade and Violent Outburst, picking up Putrid Leeches later in the draft.

    Kathari Bomber is a great card in this deck since the 1/1 tokens it provides get turned on by Violent Outburst. The deck loves haste, too, so the unearth ability of the Bomber is great. Other notable creatures with haste are Giant Ambush Beetle, Swen-Eye Drake and Igneous Pouncer. The unexpected nature of these monsters can put a lot of pressure on a deck that thought it was stablizing, enabling you to squeeze through the last few points. Igneous Pouncer also does double duty of fixing mana, so in this regard, Valley Rannet is also worth a late pick. Sometimes a turn four play involves landcycling to get off three lands and playing a Jund Hackblade, so I usually try to pick up a couple of the landcycling guys.

    Finally, cards like Breath of Malfegor, Slave of Bolas and Vengeful Rebirth top out your curve, enabling you to sneak in the last few damage you need after your explosive starts. Colossal Might also accomplishes a similar role and should not be overlooked.

    All in all, this is a really powerful deck that can be drafted to be very consistent. Most of my deck lists have multiple Putrid Leeches, Jund Hackblades and Violent Outbursts. Everything else you draft should be to support that core strategy. Alara Reborn drafts are only live for a few more days, but armed with this archetype, you have plenty of time to go win some packs! Good luck.

  • Hypergenesis Combo in Classic

    When Alara Reborn spoilers were starting to hit the internet, the first Cascade spells appeared to show both restraint and caution from R&D, as most of the spells besides the obviously awesome Bloodbraid Elf had marginal effects. Free Spell mechanics, however, have a legacy not only of being broken, but of being unexpectedly broken, so there was still a lot of hope that Cascade would live up to its forbearers.

    One of the early contenders was a deck concept I first saw on the Starcity Games forums as an idea for Extended. The deck played as many of the 3cc Cascade spells as it feasibly could and had no cheaper spells than the chaff rare Hypergenesis, which you could conveniently play for free after the Time Spiral rules update. Being able to cast Hypergenesis on turn 3, or even turn 2 off of a Simian Spirit Guide could let you drop any number of broken things into play. The downside, of course, is that you are necessarily limited in the disruption cards combo decks usually need to be viable. Against a field of Spellstutter Sprites, Toils of Night and Day won’t get you there.

    With that in mind, I wondered if the combo would be viable in MODO Classic (a format similar to Legacy). You would have to deal with Force of Will and Counterbalance, but you gain your own forces as well as Elvish Spirit Guide for the potentially t1 kill.

    I am currently testing with the following list.

    A walkthrough of the elements of the deck, starting with the combo:


    4 Ardent Plea

    4 Violent Outburst

    3 Hypergenesis

    Ardent Plea and Violent Outburst are the only two Cascade spells that don’t require a target. Demonic Dread is unplayable, as cards like Forbidden Orchard don’t make it work with consistency and also interfere with your gushing.

    The Fat:


    4 Hellkite Overlord

    4 Progenitus

    4 Inkwell Leviathan

    2 Bogardan Hellkite

    I am using a much smaller creature base, as I found that comboing out in the first place is more important than guaranteeing you the kill once you do. Without effective disruption, you don’t have inevitability and card afford to sculpt a perfect hand, and that means often only being able to cheat out one creature. Also, with the pitch spells, you often are throwing away extra dudes either to stay alive or to push through the combo. Progenitus and Inkwell are the hardest to kill creatures available. The Hellkites are quick sources of damage to the face, which can be important against combo.

    The Support:


    4 Serum Powder

    4 Force of Will

    4 Gush

    Serum Powder sucks, but makes do. The Gushes are here because I wanted other spells that an opposing control deck would care about. Also, with the low land count, you often can Gush to ensure you hit your third mana.

    The Mana:


    4 Flooded Strand

    4 Wooded Foothills

    2 Breeding Pool

    2 Steam Vents

    1 Savannah

    1 Tundra

    1 Gemstone Caverns

    4 Elvish Spirit Guide

    4 Simian Spirit Guide

    I’m not sold on Gemstone Caverns, but the speed can help. Savannah is in the awkward spot of being a non-island, but you need to be able to fetch a white source out of Wooded Foothills, so it gets the call.

    The Sideboard:


    4 Commandeer

    4 Krosan Grip

    4 Pyrokinesis

    3 Eureka

    Krosan Grip is for Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void that can easily lock you out. Pyrokinesis is an early drop that takes care of Ethersworn Canonist and Meddling Mage, as well as aggro and elves combo. Eureka is also for blue decks, which often have trouble with top-of-the-curve answers. Usually Force is their only hard counter, and they rely on Daze, Counterbalance, Swords to Plowshares and Spell Snare to mop up the rest. Being able to suspend hypergenesis can set up a turn where you can potentially overrun them with three must-counter spells between a consecutive end-of-turn, upkeep and main phase.

    I was actually surprised how viable the deck is. Blue decks aren’t the autoloss they appeared to be, partially because you have card draw and as mentioned, their hard counters are limited. Meddling Mage and Counterbalance were the hardest to beat, so it’s definitely not a favorable matchup, but I’d be ok if you can bring it up to 40/60. The real draw of the deck is you also have several near-bye matchups against mono-red, zoo and other creature decks.

    The downside is that the deck is pretty inconsistent. You have no control over your draws and you need the right mix of land/spells/creatures to go off, including which lands you are lucky enough to draw. This makes mulliganing both absolutely necessary and especially costly, though, and also means you will often keep hands that are missing one component and die to decks that would ordinarily have no right beating you. The deck has a huge problem with Necropotence that goes away, but I’m not sure it fares any better versus Ad Nauseam Tendrils. It’s also not a cheap deck, considering the forces, so it’s definitely not as good as any other deck you could build for about the same money, but it’s insanely fun to play.

    Next steps regarding the deck are figuring out if I can fix the lands, if the creature mix is ok, and if the sideboard could be better. Other considerations are Magus of the Moon, Natural Order over Commandeer and maybe grip.

  • Regionals Turbo Fog Players Regret Decision

    Thousands of Magic: The Gathering players expressed feelings of disappointment and regret after choosing to play Turbo Fog at last Saturday’s Regional tournaments, only to fare poorly against those who knew how to play their decks.

    “I had been playing Five Color Control for months, but when I saw that Japanese Turbo Fog list, I knew I had to play it,” said James Griffith of San Luis Obispo. “I wanted to play something unique and different at Regionals, so I decided to play Turbo Fog like everyone else.”

    “Match 1 of Regionals was the first time I had played the deck,” said Ayden Jayden Payden of Green Bay. He admitted that his spontaneous switch to Turbo Fog may have been a mistake. “One opponent Banefired me for 8, and I played Holy Day in response, but the judge said that wouldn’t stop the damage even though the Banefire was, in a metaphorical sense, ‘attacking’ me.”

    Griffith’s 12-year-old brother Randy played red and did relatively well at Regionals. “I would attack, and my opponent would fog. But I would keep attacking and eventually they’d run out of fogs,” he said, shrugging.

    Griffith agreed and said that it was the lack of a perpetual fog that cost him vital matches. “If only there was a fog that worked turn after turn!” he shouted.

    “Make their life zero and then they can’t attack you anymore,” Randy responded, shrugging a lot. “It’s the best fog in the format.”