Good Gamery

Category: strategy

  • NJ’s Alara Reborn Capsule Review

    The usual disclaimers: I don’t play MTG anymore, I haven’t shuffled up in years, and I’m mostly out of touch with the modern metagames. Every one of these I do is a little less useful than the one before it.

    If this isn’t your kind of thing, you shouldn’t bother, but if it is and you do and you want to comment/agree/disagree/expand/ask me to expand on something, I make an effort to read and respond to everything in the discussion thread.

    I only evaluate cards in the context of constructed play, and I only talk about cards that I think have a shot at seeing play in block, standard, or extended. If I don’t talk about a card, it’s because I don’t think that it’s constructed caliber.

    This set is on the whole quite weak, but I think that block is likely to be a varied metagame and that a bunch of these cards fit in at the block level.

    Ardent Plea – 1WU

    Enchantment (Uncommon)

    Exalted

    Cascade

    For this and for several of the other cheaper cascade spells, you’re not playing it because you want the spell effect; you’re playing it because you want to tutor for something and have built your deck such that cascade gets you one particular effect. Giving up everything with a CMC of 1 or 2, other than your cascade target, is a huge sacrifice in some formats and almost no sacrifice at all in other formats. In a format with this many CIPT lands, it’s less expensive than it might otherwise be so that’s something.

    Similarly, the quality of the targets varies by format. If this is getting a Balance effect, then it’s very strong; in the past you might have been willing to mess with your deck enough to guarantee Skullclamp or Jitte or Grim Monolith. Right now, I guess you can go get Bitterblossom and that isn’t bad, but I don’t think it’s enough to make you swear off all other cheap spells, even if you can fill in with stuff like Shriekmaw.

    Specific to Ardent Plea, I can see this getting play if a) 3 drops aren’t much better than 2 drops and b) you have a curve that has a billion 2s and no real 3s. I don’t think that’s the case right now but it has been at a number of times in the past.

    Ethercaste Knight – WU

    Artifact Creature – Human Knight (Common)

    Exalted

    1/3

    If there’s a million billion Pyroclasms in the format, ok, maybe.

    Fieldmist Borderpost – 1WU

    Artifact (Common)

    You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Fieldmist Borderpost’s mana cost.

    Fieldmist Borderpost comes into play tapped.

    {T}: Add {W} or {U} to your mana pool.

    These basically suck for constructed unless you can get some additional added utility out of the fact that they’re a multicolored artifact. Would it have killed them to make it not CIPT if you paid the actual mana cost, or to let you bounce nonbasics?

    Meddling Mage – WU

    Creature – Human Wizard (Rare)

    As Meddling Mage comes into play, name a nonland card.

    The named card can’t be played.

    “This violent wasteland is an indictment of its people. These cowards lack the will to oppose disorder.”

    2/2

    Hey, Pikula is still good! What do you know. This will see play all over the place, just like it always has.

    Sovereigns of Lost Alara – 4WU

    Creature – Spirit (Rare)

    Exalted (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)

    Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, you may search your library for an Aura card that could enchant that creature, put it into play attached to that creature, then shuffle your library.

    4/5

    You’re going to need some kind of redundant tutor effect to make this worth building around, but 6 mana for a guy who swings next turn as an 8/9 flier that makes people drop their hand is potentially pretty good. This is especially true since he has sort-of-haste. On the minus side, you have to put bad cards in your deck to make him happy and he’s expensive, so yeah probably not so much.

    Brainbite – 2UB

    Sorcery (Common)

    Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a card from it. That player discards that card.

    Draw a card.

    If everyone’s swapping 6+cc haymakers then stuff like this starts to look almost attractive. Almost.

    Mind Funeral – 1UB

    Sorcery (Uncommon)

    Target opponent reveals cards from the top of his or her library until four land cards are revealed. That player puts all cards revealed this way into his or her graveyard.

    #26/145

    This is going to reliably put a *lot* of cards in the yard, although you need something else to actually deck people. Maybe you have card interactions that want you to do that or maybe decking gets to a critical mass.

    Mistvein Borderpost – 1UB

    Artifact (Common)

    You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Mistvein Borderpost’s mana cost.

    Mistvein Borderpost comes into play tapped.

    {T}: Add {U} or {B} to your mana pool.

    See previous Borderpost comments.

    Anathemancer – 1BR

    Creature – Zombie Wizard (Uncommon)

    When Anathemancer comes into play, it deals damage to target player equal to the number of nonbasic lands that player controls.

    Unearth {5}{B}{R}

    2/2

    One of the few game-changers in the set, Anathemancer gives an actual disincentive to running 26 nonbasics. It’s *still* not a great pressure creature if it’s doing less than ~4 damage for you on the way in, and you’re probably not unearthing it, but it may mean that life is a bigger issue in control on control rumbles than it would otherwise be.

    Deathbringer Thoctar – 4BR

    Creature – Zombie Beast (Rare)

    Whenever another creature is put into a graveyard from play, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Deathbringer Thoctar.

    Remove a +1/+1 counter from Deathbringer Thoctar: Deathbringer Thoctar deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

    3/3

    Murders token creatures and I guess that’s a big deal right now. Really wanted to have devour. Probably too expensive but may fill an important niche anyway.

    Demonic Dread – 1BR

    Sorcery (Common)

    Cascade

    Target creature can’t block this turn.

    Probably the weakest of the cheap cascade spells, since you need a target for it.

    Terminate – BR

    Instant (Common)

    Destroy target creature. It can’t be regenerated.

    You can’t do this for any cheaper. Will see play everywhere except possibly extended, and even there it’s a strong contender.

    Thought Hemorrhage – 2BR

    Sorcery (Rare)

    Name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand. Thought Hemorrhage deals 3 damage to that player for each card with that name revealed this way. Search that player’s graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with that name and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

    Not as good as people are going to think it is, but it’ll see play in exactly the same situations that Cranial correctly saw play. The damage isn’t a total red herring– planeswalkers– but it’s pretty much irrelevant. You have to be able to put a major dent into someone’s strategy for Extracting them to be a good plan, just like always.

    Veinfire Borderpost – 1BR

    Artifact (Common)

    You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Veinfire Borderpost’s mana cost.

    Veinfire Borderpost comes into play tapped.

    {T}: Add {B} or {R} to your mana pool.

    Supra.

    Bloodbraid Elf – 2RG

    Creature – Elf Berserker (Uncommon)

    Haste

    Cascade (When you play this spell, remove cards from the top of your library from the game until you reveal a nonland card that costs less. You may play it without paying its mana cost. Put the removed cards on the bottom in a random order.)

    3/2

    The best of the cascade spells by a fair margin. You can play this productively in an aggro deck; even if you’re just hitting burn, it’s still plenty fine.

    Dragon Broodmother – 2RRRG

    Creature – Dragon (Mythic Rare)

    Flying

    At the beginning of each upkeep, put a 1/1 red and green Dragon creature token with flying and devour 2 into play. (As the token comes into play, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. It comes into play with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)

    4/4

    Not as good as Broodmate but still might see play. Broodmate is real good and maybe you want 5 of them.

    Firewild Borderpost – 1RG

    Artifact (Common)

    You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Firewild Borderpost’s mana cost.

    Firewild Borderpost comes into play tapped.

    {T}: Add {R} or {G} to your mana pool.

    Once more with feeling!

    Predatory Advantage – 3RG

    Enchantment (Rare)

    At the end of each opponent’s turn, if that player didn’t play a creature spell this turn, put a 2/2 green Lizard creature token into play.

    Predatory Advantage will crank out creatures on a very regular basis, and the creatures are a nontrivial size. This is a fine way to leverage time into a win, although it’s totally outclassed by stuff like Bitterblossom and may be straight outsized in block.

    Spellbreaker Behemoth – 1RGG

    Creature – Beast (Rare)

    Spellbreaker Behemoth can’t be countered.

    Creature spells you control with power 5 or greater can’t be countered.

    5/5

    The stats get you are a reasonably good deal. Not sure there’s enough countermagic floating around to justify playing him right now, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be at some point in the future.

    Vengeful Rebirth – 4RG

    Sorcery (Uncommon)

    Return target card from your graveyard to your hand. If you return a nonland card to your hand this way, Vengeful Rebirth deals damage equal to that card’s converted mana cost to target creature or player.

    Remove Vengeful Rebirth from the game.

    I actually like this guy a lot, since it provides two turns worth of action in a lategame situation. It is, however, slow as shit, and its value as removal is very much contingent on opposing threats being cards you can kill with single-target burn. Not sure that’s true right now.

    Violent Outburst – 1RG

    Instant (Common)

    Cascade

    Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.

    I don’t think this is good enough to see play for its effect+cascade, so it’s probably limited to uses that abuse Cascade. It is, however, instant and does not require a target, so in a vacuum it’s the strongest of the 3-cc cascade spells.

    Vithian Renegades – 1RG

    Creature – Human Shaman (Uncommon)

    When Vithian Renegades comes into play, destroy target artifact.

    3/2

    Sure yeah whatever. An extra point of power on Uktabiridian Shamrangutan isn’t going to change anybody’s life, but its predecessors were good enough to see play and so is this.

    Captured Sunlight – 2GW

    Sorcery (Common)

    Cascade

    You gain 4 life.

    Bloodbraid Elf is an aggro effect, and it goes in a deck that has a bunch of cards you can flip that do something useful no matter what the board situation may be– creatures and burn. This is a controlling effect. Controlling decks tend to play a combination of removal and resource-gathering spells at their low drops. Removal is conditional; resource-gathering is not. If you’re in a situation where your opponent just played a threat and you flip a resource card, then this is a misspent turn; ditto if your opponent does not have a threat and you do flip removal.

    If your deck has a bunch of Rampant Growths at the low slots, then Captured Sunlight may be a great deal; if you need those slots to play Path to Exile and Oblivion Ring, then not so much.

    Dauntless Escort – 1GW

    Creature – Rhox Soldier (Rare)

    Sacrifice Dauntless Escort: Creatures you control are indestructible this turn.

    3/3

    No big deal here, but in a sweeper-heavy environment– or just in an environment where lots of guys are banging into lots and lots of other guys– Escort might see some play. 3/3 for 3 mana isn’t totally tragic anyway.

    Knotvine Paladin – GW

    Creature – Human Knight (Rare)

    Whenever Knotvine Paladin attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each untapped creature you control.

    2/2

    Knotty is regularly going to swing as a very large dude, and he has synergy with Elspeth and especially with Ajani Not-Vengeant. I think that there are probably too many other good options, but it may be that the lure of flopping down Procession or the like after Knotvine is just too strong.

    Mycoid Shepherd – 1GGW

    Creature – Fungus (Rare)

    Whenever Mycoid Shepherd or another creature you control with power 5 or greater is put into a graveyard from play, you may gain 5 life.

    5/4

    Backloading the life gain is significantly worse than frontloading it, and I think you basically never get to trigger Shepherd off of another creature’s death, but it’s pretty big and the lifegain is substantial. This is so, so not Loxodon Hierarch, though.

    Qasali Pridemage – GW

    Creature – Cat Wizard (Common)

    Exalted

    {1}, Sacrifice Qasali Pridemage: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

    2/2

    An excellent package. 2 mana for a 2/2 exalted seems reasonable, even without a built-in Naturalize. I think that zapping enchantments may turn out to be a bigger bonus than it has been in the past.

    Reborn Hope – GW

    Sorcery (Uncommon)

    Return target multicolored card from your graveyard to your hand.

    Regrowth is kind of unexciting unless you’re doing something abusive with it.

    Wildfield Borderpost – 1GW

    Artifact (Common)

    You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Wildfield Borderpost’s mana cost.

    Wildfield Borderpost comes into play tapped.

    {T}: Add {G} or {W} to your mana pool.

    Again and again.

    Identity Crisis – 2WWBB

    Sorcery (Rare)

    Remove all cards in target player’s hand and graveyard from the game.

    Any control mirror needs to be prepared for this; it is a game-winner. I think it’s costed just outside the range where aggro and even midrange decks will be able to play it comfortably.

    Tainted Sigil – 1WB

    Artifact (Uncommon)

    {T}, Sacrifice Tainted Sigil: You gain life equal to the total life lost by all players this turn. (Damage causes loss of life.)

    Sigils corrupted by outsiders do not lose their power, only their purity.

    If there’s something awesome you can do by paying a bunch of life, then this is compelling; otherwise not so.

    Zealous Persecution – WB

    Instant (Uncommon)

    Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 and creatures target opponent controls get -1/-1.

    This is totally unremarkable unless you are playing a bunch of little tiny dorks yourself and are also expecting to fight against other people who are playing a bunch of little tiny dorks. However, my understanding is that that statement defines a good chunk of the present standard metagame, so pencil the ol’ ZP in.

    Double Negative – UUR

    Instant (Uncommon)

    Counter up to two target spells.

    Other than Cascade, I don’t think you get this to fire, but countermagic is expensive anyway so maybe somebody wants this.

    Lord of Extinction – 3BG

    Creature – Elemental (Mythic Rare)

    Lord of Extinction’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in all graveyards.

    */*

    Lord of Extinction is the new Sutured Ghoul, if anybody ever wants a Sutured Ghoul again.

    Maelstrom Pulse – 1BG

    Sorcery (Rare)

    Destroy target nonland permanent and all permanents with the same name as that permanent.

    On reflection, I think this is slightly worse than Vindicate, but Vindicate was really good and being able to take out tokens or randomly 2-for-1 some guy is useful too. This should see play in standard and in block, although probably not in extended.

    Putrid Leech – BG

    Creature – Leech (Common)

    Pay 2 life: Putrid Leech gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Play this ability only once each turn.

    2/2

    Beats up everything else that costs less then 4 mana, and lots of things that cost more. I can see this sneaking in somewhere.

    Cerodon Yearling – RW

    Creature – Beast (Common)

    Vigilance, haste

    2/2

    Vigilance mostly sucks here, but two mana for a 2/2 haste is a reasonable deal and might squeak it in. Haste is very good.

    Lorescale Coatl – 1GU

    Creature – Snake (Uncommon)

    Whenever you draw a card, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Lorescale Coatl.

    2/2

    Gets very respectably-sized quickly. Not sure being big is enough, but if it is then the Coatl is a contender. Bonus points for being easy to cast off of a Hierarch. I’m not sure that it’s worth trying to dick around with card draw to make the Brain Snake bigger, but rather you can simply appreciate him for the big growing hunk of p/t that he is.

    Vedalken Heretic – GU

    Creature – Vedalken Rogue (Rare)

    Whenever Vedalken Heretic deals damage to an opponent, you may draw a card.

    1/1

    I think the time of the Phid has just plain passed us by.

    Sphinx of the Steel Wind – 5WUB

    Artifact Creature – Sphinx (Mythic Rare)

    Flying, first strike, vigilance, lifelink, protection from red and from green

    No one has properly answered her favorite riddle: “Why should I spare your life?”

    6/6

    Unless you’re cheating her out, I think there are better uses for your mana, but if you’re cheating anything out this is a decent contender.

    Thraximundar – 4UBR

    Legendary Creature – Zombie Assassin (Mythic Rare)

    Haste

    Whenever Thraximundar attacks, defending player sacrifices a creature.

    Whenever a player sacrifices a creature, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Thraximundar.

    6/6

    So is this. Thrax is probably trump if there’s a reanimator mirror sometime in the future.

    Dragon Appeasement – 3BRG

    Enchantment (Uncommon)

    Skip your draw step.

    Whenever you sacrifice a creature, you may draw a card.

    To be useful this has to be abusive, and I think it’s too expensive to be abused.

    Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund – 4BRG

    Legendary Creature – Dragon (Mythic Rare)

    Flying, haste

    When Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund comes into play, gain control of all Dragon creatures in play and untap them.

    Dragon creatures you control have haste.

    7/7

    Obviously, this is a strong answer to your opponent’s Broodmate. Outside of that– and that might be a really big deal in block– I’m not sure you want it at all.

    Lavalanche – XBRG

    Sorcery (Rare)

    Lavalanche deals X damage to target player and each creature he or she controls.

    Alara’s burning blood cannot be contained by mere earth and stone.

    The upside of this is that it does considerable damage to your opponent, and there’s enough incidental burn floating around between Ultimatums and Regrowthbolt and Banefire that accidentally doming somebody is a perfectly reasonable way to win a fight. The downside is that it’s super expensive. I suspect that it sees plenty of play in midrange decks and up, but I don’t think you can support it unless you’re planning on casting it for at least 3-4 and that means you better have 26+ mana sources.

    Finest Hour – 2GWU

    Enchantment (Rare)

    Exalted

    Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, if its the first combat phase of the turn, untap that creature. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase.

    This card is freaking amazing when it goes off. Rafiq into Finest Hour, with no other enhancement whatsoever, does 24 points of damage. Other exalted dudes get somewhat less impressive but still great results. I think this might be a reasonable two-of, since it adds a commendable burst, but a lot has to go right for it to function at peak efficiency.

    Flurry of Wings – GWU

    Instant (Uncommon)

    Put X 1/1 white Bird Soldier creature tokens with flying into play, where X is the number of attacking creatures.

    This is a fog, typically, in the worst case. That matters because Fog is a card that you never want to put in your deck, but that you often want to have in your hand. That said, you need to get 3 guys out of this to be happy with it as a creature generator, and since a lot of the time you’re not getting 3 guys you have to expect 4 some of the time. I don’t think that happens often enough for this to make the grade.

    Jenara, Asura of War – GWU

    Legendary Creature – Angel (Mythic Rare)

    Flying

    {1}{W}: Put a +1/+1 counter on Jenara, Asura of War.

    Wounded soldiers looked up, grateful for her appearance. But she passed over them, her eyes firmly on their foe.

    3/3

    Tidy little package. I think Jenara isn’t an all-star but does provide a useful dimension against a lot of people; she’s quite hard to kill with toughness based removal, can brawl effectively early, and in the late game can become big enough to fight with anybody. Her legendary status probably means you won’t want a full boat.

    Wargate – XGWU

    Sorcery (Rare)

    Search your library for a permanent card with converted mana cost X or less and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.

    I think Wargate has a shot. It’s bad at doing everything it does, but versatility is sometimes useful too.

    Maelstrom Nexus – WUBRG

    Enchantment (Mythic Rare)

    The first spell you play each turn has cascade.

    Nexus is Future Sight on crack. I think this is probably the most important new card in the set for the control wars. Once you land this, you’re just in an amazing position in terms of accruing resource advantage; you’ll be getting Capsules all over the place, removal for free, et cetera, et cetera.

    Esper Stormblade – {wb}U

    Artifact Creature – Vedalken Wizard (Common)

    As long as you control another multicolored permanent, Esper Stormblade gets +1/+1 and has flying.

    2/1

    One of the more promising dudes like this. There’s a nice critical mass of good two-color dorks on both the WUB and the GWU axes.

    Trace of Abundance – {rw}G

    Enchantment – Aura (Common)

    Enchant land

    Enchanted land has shroud.

    Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, you may add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

    It’s basically Fertile Ground except that it’s not as good at manafixing. Fertile Ground is good enough, and this may be good enough too if you don’t want your resource acceleration to be dependent on creatures.

  • NJ’s Conflux Set Review

    Read the article at this Thread Link.

  • How to Be an Awesome Magic the Gathering Player



    1. If you don’t have cards, find a way to get some. Unsuspecting players at Friday Night Magic events, for instance, might be too busy having fun with their friends between rounds to notice the dark stranger subtly slipping decks into a satchel by his side.

    2. Continually overvalue your cards and undervalue their cards when trading. They’ll eventually submit to a pity trade out of politeness. Profit.

    3. When you play in tournaments, wear an iPod. Obtain a girlfriend in order to bring her along to stand behind you and rub your shoulders.

    4. At high level tournaments, count to 60 in your head before making a decision on anything.

    5. Enjoy the degree to which your life improves as you continue to dump more and more time and money into Magic cards.



    1. If you make a mistake, intimidate the player into letting you take it back. If he does not, grumble at him under your breath for the rest of the match.

    2. Tap your lands and creatures at a slight 25 degree angle. This puts them into a “half-tapped” state that could go either way with the simple brush of a sleeve.

    3. Stack lands into perfect piles so that your opponent doesn’t know how many lands you have. If he complains, stare at him as you loudly read off slam each card in the pile onto the table. Then restack.

    4. Join MTGSalvation.com and visit the competitive subforums for sound advice from skilled players.

    5. While posting on MTGSalvation, change fonts in the middle of curse words to avoid the profanity filter. This tip also applies to the obscenity filter and vulgarity filter.



    1. Magic players are like that one girl you have a crush on: They only want to hang out with giant assholes. Becoming a giant asshole might make the friends you have that are worthless and pathetic like you less.

    2. Obtaining a girlfriend might hurt the amount of time you spend on MODO. Make sure to let her know early on that you do not intend to make her feel desired above computer games. Being out and open with your selfishness gives her no excuse to complain.



    1. Magic cards

    2. An iPod

    3. A girlfriend to exploit and ignore

    4. An internet connection (56k or higher recommended)

    5. A terrible attitude




    (Discuss this item in the forum!)

  • To Mulligan or Not to Mulligan


    One topic that is not often covered in articles about constructed is how
    to properly mulligan with decks, and what factors to consider while
    mulliganing. However, I feel the best way to approach a discussion of this
    is through examples.

    Example 1: B/W Control, (just after Time Spiral was released for
    States ’06):

    Now, keep in mind, the major decks back then (or the well known ones) were Solar Flare, Solar Pox, Zoo, R/G aggro, Dragonstorm.

    You were favored vs most of those decks with tight play. (In fact, my only loss in States ’06 was to dragonstorm who drew 3 ignorant bliss and 1 remand in game 2, in running turns).

    However, one of the most important things to consider is how your path to victory looked vs those decks. The games vs control basically degenerated into attrition wars, so Wayfarer and Arena are the best cards, with Nightmare Void (a tutorable target) being a softlock with Arena. The only difference between the hands vs aggro and vs control is that Wayfarer is slightly worse vs them, because it tends to die very easily, and you lean much more heavily on your removal spells.

    Let us consider the following hands, that I randomly generated from this link:
    BW Control.

    Hand #1: Swamp, Caves of Koilos, Ghost Quarter, Weathered Wayfarer, Faith’s Fetters, Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Phyrexian Arena.

    This hand is basically the best opening hand you could draw. Since it has 2 sources of card advantage (wayfarer and arena), fetters to help you stabilize, and a lategame finisher that you can probably play on turn 8 or 9. In every matchup, I would keep this hand.

    Hand #2: Plains, Orzhov Basilica, Wrath of God, Condemn, Phyrexian Arena * 2, Mortify.

    This hand is also a keeper, even though it is slightly marginal, seeing as how you need a second black source for your Arenas, and the 2nd Arena is much worse than the first. Condemn, Mortify, and Wrath help you survive vs aggressive decks, and Arena is trump vs control.

    Hand #3: Plains, Swamp, Castigate, Weathered Wayfarer, Mortify*2, Faith’s Fetters.

    I guess the hand generator just likes me today, because this hand is very good as well, containing a source of card advantage, some disruption, and 3 removal spells.

    One point, in games 2 and 3 (where you know what your oppt is playing), you should try to mulligan into a hand with Castigate or Phyrexian Arena vs combo or control, and a hand with removal spells vs Aggro.

    Let me take another example (from Ravnica 2006, States Limited, top 8 Draft)

    U/R/W Ravnica Draft    :

    Several things first: Yes, this deck is misbuilt, if you look at the
    sideboard. However, that does not mean we can’t learn things from looking at sample hands from this deck.

    Hand 1: Island, Island, Island, Barbarian Riftcutter, Hypervolt Grasp, Cackling Flames, Faith’s Fetters.

    Clearly a mulligan, with only 7 red sources, and 6 white sources in the deck (counting Azorius Signet).

    Hand 2: Island, Boros Garrison, Faith’s Fetters, Helium Squirter, Ogre Savant, Barbarian Riftcutter.

    I would probably keep this hand on the draw, and consider mulliganing it on the play.

    Hand 3: Island, Mountain, Mountain, Mountain, Plains, Three Dreams, Helium Squirter.

    If I had any sort of knowledge that my opponent was playing an aggressive deck, I would probably mulligan this hand on the draw. Otherwise, I would keep it.

    To quickly summarize, you have to keep suboptimal hands much more often in limited, simply because of the higher variance in hands because of the lack of focus of limited decks.

    Example 3: B/G Elves from Richmond 5k

    A few key things about this deck. The sideboard was built anticipating a lot of Faeries (like 40-50% of the metagame, which turned out to be nearly correct), a decent amount of Elves (in which case, you want the 4th Profane Command, 2x Primal Command, and 1 Shriekmaw), a smattering of Reveillark, and a bunch of other random decks which you don’t really care about.

    I wrote a round by round report about this deck at the following link Elves. But I did not really discuss how/why I would mulligan certain hands.

    Hand #1: Imperious Perfect * 2, Garruk Wildspeaker, Swamp, Treetop Village, Llanowar Elves, Mutvault.

    This hand is great in every matchup except vs Faeries. I would 100% mulligan vs Faeries on the play or draw, and keep everywhere else. This in particular emphasizes the point that in certain matchups with certain decks, you want to mulligan aggressively.

    Hand #2: Llanowar Wastes, Swamp, Wren’s Run Vanquisher, Imperious Perfect, Profane Command, 2 * Nameless Inversion.

    This hand is pretty good, even if you miss your first land drop (you just play Vanquisher on turn 2, and kill their first 2 guys, hopefully forcing through 9 points of damage.

    Hand #3: Treetop Village, Gilt-leaf Palace, Mutavault, Forest, Terror, Nameless Inversion, Llanowar Elves

    This hand is actually fairly good vs Faeries and Reveillark simply because there are 2 manlands in it, but kind of mediocre vs other decks. However, I probably would never mulligan this hand.

    My last example is probably one of the most degenerate decks ever (last season’s extended dredge), which can be found at the following link:
    Saito Dredge from GP Vienna

    Hand #1: Watery Grave, Careful Study, Tolarian Winds, Golgari Thug, Bridge from Below, Golgari-Grave Troll, Narcomoeba.

    I think you keep this hand, even though you are not happy about it, because bridge and narcomoeba are kind of dead, and your deck only has 14 other mana sources, so it is not that likely you will hit a land off careful study.

    Hand #2: Island, Cephalid Coliseum, Stinkweed Imp, Ichorid, Breakthrough, Breakthrough, Breakthrough.

    This hand is very good, and will most likely win on turn 3.

    Hand #3: Watery Grave, Watery Grave, Polluted Delta, Polluted Delta, Cabal Therapy, Golgari Grave-Troll, Breakthrough

    This hand is a tiny bit slow, and I might consider mulliganing it if you know your oppt is playing Doran (because of thoughtseize/duress) or vs a deck with counters that can stop your first Breakthrough. Otherwise, you just therapy yourself, breakthrough (hopefully hitting another dredge card).

    Hand #4: Careful Study, Flame-kin Zealot, Putrid Imp, Breakthrough, Cephalid Coliseum, Cephalid COliseum, Flooded Strand.

    Looking at this hand, it is relatively good, although slightly risky due to the lack of a dredge card (and there are only 11 in the deck). I would still keep it, simply because you will see about 9 cards over the next few turns from Careful Study into BT for 1, into Coliseum.

    Hand #5: Polluted Delta*2, Watery Grave, Cabal Therapy, Putrid Imp, Breakthrough, Bridge from Below.

    This hand is BARELY keepable, due to a lack of a dredge card, and holding Bridge from Below (which is basically a blank). If you are playing vs storm, or Zoo, I would consider mulliganing this hand, because there are certainly better 6 card hands with Dredge.

    To sum it all up, most limited decks should not mulligan as often as constructed decks, simply because of the lack of focus, and the higher variance inherent in the format. This is not quite as true if you know your opponent’s deck is very very good, because you will need a better hand in order to compete.

    In certain matchups, do not be afraid to aggressively mulligan, especially if it is a bad matchup for you. One example from this last extended season was Goblins vs Storm or Ideal. You could never keep a slow ringleader hand, simply because it did not put enough pressure on them to force them to waste resources and also because it let them draw 1-2 more cards to go off with. Another example was, Domain Zoo vs Storm or Ideal, in which case, you had to mulligan into a 1 drop/2 drop hand, or risk not having enough pressure to beat them.

    I welcome criticisms and/or PMs on this topic.

    –llarack

  • GP Denver Report – Kithkin Yu

    After doing virtually no playtesting the week before, and playing in 2 GPTS with Faeries going 0-1 and 1-1, I decided it was time to switch decks. Looking at the Kobe coverage, the kithkin deck seemed to be a very solid beatdown deck with its only fault being a lack of reach.

    The Japanese kithkin deck’s maindeck seemed fine, but the sideboard seemed to be suspect (with my 0 playtesting, of course).

    So I decided to change the deck to the following list:

    Rounds 1-2: Byes (or rather, me walking around watching Imnion, Falco, and various other people battal)



    Round 3: Clifton H. Hinton, Kithkin, (2-1)



    Game 1: We both clog up the board pretty well, but I eventually bite it to a Mirrorweave on my Cenn when he gets ahead by 2 creatures.



    Sideboarding: -3 Goldmeadow Stalwart, -2 Unmake, +1 Mirrorweave, +3 Moonglove Extract, +1 Ajani Goldmane



    During game 2, I call a judge to watch him for slow play, because game 1 ate a lot of time, and he seemed to be taking 1-2 minutes for turns 1-4, and the judge gives him a slowplay warning. Eventually he gets to a point where he makes an attack that is not lethal even with Mirrorweave, but my crackback is.



    Game 3, he mulligans to 6, but accidentally draws 7. The judge is still sitting nearby watching him for slowplay and so forces him to mulligan to 5. Then he mulligans to 4. He goes Plains, Plains, Plains, Stillmoon, Stillmoon. I go, Plains, Heights, Plains, Spectral, activate Heights for Cloudgoat, Cenn, Cenn. He really doesn’t have a shot after that.


    Round 4: Nathan J. Bertelsen, Kithkin, (2-1)



    Also of note, this guy top 8ed the PTQ the very next day, which Falco top 4ed. He had maindeck Barkshell Blessing, and a much lower curve.



    Game 1: I’m pretty sure I get Spectral/Heights into Cloudgoat, so he’s behind the whole game.



    Sideboarding: -3 Goldmeadow Stalwart, -2 Unmake, +1 Mirrorweave, +3 Moonglove Extract, +1 Ajani Goldmane



    Game 2: He gets Thistledown Liege when I wasn’t expecting it, so I lose most of my team while he’s way ahead on board and eventually succumb.



    Game 3: I have an insane draw with Stalwart into Cenn into Procession into Ajani.



    Round 5: Jeremy W. Manthei, Unknown, (2-0)
    I don’t remember what this guy was playing, I just remember mauling him with insane draws. Sorry.




    Round 6: Josh C. Wludyka, Red Deck, (2-1)



    Game 1: I mulligan to 5 on the play, but lead with Figure, Procession, then Cloudgoat. He still loses because of all of the tokens just swarming him.



    Sideboard: -3 Stillmoon Cavalier, -1 Goldmeadow Stalwart, +2 Oversoul of Dusk, +1 Ajani Goldmane, +1 Reveillark



    Game 2: I throw this game by attacking Forge-tender into Soul Snuffers, and so his 8/8 Figure kills me when I’m at 8, and my top card is Unmake.



    Game 3: I drop turn 1 Stalwart, turn 2 Cenn, then turn 5 and 6 Oversoul of Dusk, which barely manage to outrace Demigod + burn.



    Round 7: Michael Jacob, Red Deck, (2-0)


    Game 1: He’s making snide comments about my topdecks during this whole game, but eventually he dies to my massive amount of token makers when I am at 5 life, and I suspect he was holding a Flame Javelin, but did not have enough time to deploy his burn.



    Sideboard: -3 Stillmoon Cavalier, -1 Goldmeadow Stalwart, +2 Oversoul of Dusk, +1 Ajani Goldmane, +1 Reveillark



    Game 2: We get into a board state where he can’t kill my Reveillark because it will regrow 2 Forge-Tenders, so I just start swinging with Reveillark into his face, and I Unmake his Demigods that he plays as blockers.



    Oh and yeah, this guy won US Nationals the weekend before. So beating him felt good.



    Round 8: Conley L. Woods, Kelpie, (2-0)



    Game 1: He leads with Secluded Glen and a bunch of lands, so I think he is playing Faeries, but by turn 6, he hasn’t done anything except play a Soul Snuffers, I suspect he is playing River Kelpie which I had tested with a lot on MWS. He eventually dies to more token makers, because apparently all he has drawn were a bunch of maindeck Snakeforms.



    Sideboard: -3 Stillmoon Cavalier (seems very poor vs Soul Snuffers), +2 Oversoul of Dusk, +1 Reveillark



    Game 2: I get stuck on 2 lands, but keep playing guys so I can attack. Eventually we get to a point where if I topdeck a 3rd land for my Unmake, he loses, because he is playing extremely aggressively, and I do finally topdeck the plains.




    Round 9: Mark S. Hendrickson, Kithkin, (2-1)



    Game 1: Don’t recall what happens here, I think I just get ahead with a bunch of token makers and Ajani Goldmane.



    Sideboarding: -3 Goldmeadow Stalwart, -2 Unmake, +1 Mirrorweave, +3 Moonglove Extract, +1 Ajani Goldmane



    Game 2: He gets ahead with token makers and Ajani Goldmane.



    Game 3: We both clog the board up, but eventually I just attack him with Stillmoon Cavalier for 5 damage 4 times in a row.



    Round 10: Walter Shatford, Kithkin, (2-1)


    Honestly, Bill Stark does a pretty good job of writing about it here.



    Round 11: Scott D. Barrentine, Merfolk, (1-2)



    Game 1: He plays a turn 3 Plumeveil after I attack with a stalwart into it, so I play a Stillmoon Cavalier, which eventually gains flying and attacks him a bunch of times.



    Sideboarding: -1 Mirrorweave, -4 Knight of Meadowgrain, +3 Moonglove Extract, +2 Oversoul of Dusk



    Game 2: It’s a very close race, but his Sygg + Mutavault hold off my Oversoul of Dusk with a +1/+1 counter long enough so that I die to his other guys.



    Game 3: He has Stonybrook Banneret into Sower of Temptation into Sower of Temptation into Merrow Rejereey.



    This match left a bad taste in my mouth, because I’m pretty sure my deck is a heavy favorite vs him.




    Round 12: Paulo Vitor D. da Rosa, Faeries, (2-0)



    This match was in the Feature Match area, but the games were very uneventful.



    Game 1: He gets stuck on Swamp + Mutavault + Bitterblossom while I curve out with Stalwart, Cenn, Procession and just beat him down.



    Sideboarding: -4 Knight of Meadowgrain, -1 Unmake, +3 Moonglove Extract, +2 Oversoul of Dusk



    Game 2: He only has 1 blue source for most of the game, so I run my unimportant spells into Spellstutter Sprites and resolve my Cenns and Figures and crush him.



    Round 13: AJ Sacher, Faeries, (0-2)


    Game 1: I remember getting crushed by Bitterblossom, Scion of Oona into Mistbind Clique in game 1. Nothing I can really say about this, except I did attack a 4/4 Knight of Meadowgrain into his 5/5 Mistbind Clique.



    Sideboarding: -4 Knight of Meadowgrain, -1 Unmake, +3 Moonglove Extract, +2 Oversoul of Dusk



    Game 2: I think he has Scion into Sower this game which is very difficult for me to beat :(



    Round 14: Antonino De Rosa, 5 Color Control, (0-2)



    I’ll go out on an limb and say that this matchup is basically the worst possible for Kithkin, and your oppt needs to mulligan a lot for you to have a shot. The games were uninteresting, since he would just play a sweeper and reload with Mulldrifter :(



    Round 15: Gerry Thompson, 5 Color Control, (0-2)
    http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpden08/welcome#16




    I guess it was a decent tournament for me, but it just feels so disappointing to miss Top 8 when all I had to do was go 3-3 on Day 2.



    I am pretty sure that my sideboard was incorrect.



    In the future, if you want to run Kithkin, Falco’s list from the PTQ the next day seems more correct to me.



    However, I would modify the decklist slightly to be:

  • NJ’s Eventide Constructed Review

    Same deal as usual. If I don’t talk about a card, I don’t think it’s going to see play in any constructed format.

    I mostly care about block, standard, and extended.

    I’ll make an effort to respond to comments/criticisms/arguments; I usually make a couple of big mistakes per review and then a bunch of little ones, and often the comment thread illuminates those mistakes in a timely fashion.

    Again, it’s been quite some time since I have actually played MTG, so take this all with a generous pinch of salt.

    Archon of Justice

    3WW

    Creature – Archon

    4/4

    Flying

    When Archon of Justice is put into a graveyard from play, remove target permanent from the game.

    It used to be that you were getting a pretty good deal when you paid 5 mana for your 4/4 flier, but that is increasingly no longer the case—5 mana is when creatures start to get really, really powerful. Obviously the effect is nice, but I can’t ultimately see this being a great card since it is actively difficult to trigger the rfg effect when you want it triggered.

    If you were fighting a straight up attrition war, or otherwise were in a situation where you cared about getting a 2-for-1 and didn’t care how long it took you to do it, then Archon would be attractive.

    Endless Horizons

    3W

    Enchantment

    When Endless Horizons comes into play, search your library for any number of Plains cards and remove them from the game. Then shuffle your library.

    At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a card you own removed from the game with Endless Horizons into your hand.

    I see Endless Horizons as a potential sleeper hit. The effect is powerful and many decks in the past would have wanted it on their side, but it may suffer from its block— unless there’s something Charbelchy out there (and I guess there might be) this isn’t powerful enough for extended and the incentive to have a manabase that is largely composed of non-plains cards is very strong as long as Lorwyn block is legal.

    Flickerwisp

    1WW

    Creature – Elemental

    3/1

    Flying

    When Flickerwisp comes into play, remove another target permanent from the game. Return that card to play under its owner’s control at end of turn.

    The body is actually all right for 3 mana if you can find something useful to do with the effect. Options include resetting perms that run themselves down somehow, reusing CiP effects, and killing auras. There’s not too many CiP effects at less than 3 mana, so that puts the kibosh on that a little bit.

    At 2/2 this probably would have been interesting in some respect with Reveillark, which is probably why it’s 3/1.

    Hallowed Burial

    3WW

    Sorcery

    Put all creatures on the bottom of their owners’ libraries.

    Important in block, largely irrelevant elsewhere.

    Glamerdye

    1U

    Instant

    Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another.

    Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

    Sometimes cards like this find a narrow usually-sideboard application, and this is a pretty potent version of the archetype.

    Inundate

    3UUU

    Sorcery

    Return all nonblue creatures to their owners’ hands.

    It’s possible that this could see some use as a SB card if there’s a blue-based creature deck that has a matchup that tends to bog down.

    Wake Thrasher

    2U

    Creature – Merfolk Soldier

    1/1

    Whenever a permanent you control becomes untapped, Wake Thrasher gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

    It’s pretty burly on offense, but I think the fragility and total lack of evasion or utility kill it. Merfolk is a phenomenal creature type to have, though.

    Ashling, the Extinguisher
    2BB
    Legendary Creature – Elemental Shaman
    4/4
    Whenever Ashling, the Extinguisher deals combat damage to a player, choose target creature that player controls. He or she sacrifices that creature.

    The problem with this guy is that he’s only good at beating up small things and he isn’t that large—he’s going to get chumped a lot. The good news is that he’s got 4 toughness and is black, which sometimes is enough since that lets you dodge a lot of removal. Would have been nice if he’d been able to nail pro-black creatures, but alas. Might make it in block but frankly I doubt it.

    Necroskitter

    1BB

    Creature – Elemental

    1/4

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a -1/-1 counter on it is put into a graveyard, you may return that card to play under your control.

    This is another pretty resilient guy who could be very annoying against decks that want to attack you on the ground. It is however mildly annoying that if you steal the other fellow’s persist guy, they get it back the next time it dies.

    Nightmare Incursion

    5B

    Sorcery

    Search target player’s library for up to X cards, where X is the number of Swamps you control, and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

    I wanted to point out the specific circumstances under which this would be a viable SB card but frankly they’re not going to happen so don’t worry about it too much. (You need a deck that plays 15ish swamps going up against a deck that has a very limited number of win conditions.)

    Raven’s Crime

    B

    Sorcery

    Target player discards a card.

    Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

    While Crime isn’t godly, it’s a very inexpensive way to consistently control the other fellow’s ability to hold cards in hand. If you’re a mana-flooded aggro deck with this as one of your action cards, you’re probably still going to lose anyway but at least you can try to make your opponent pull some of their answers off the top of the deck. This is also one of the best ways to rapidly turn the game into a low-resource slugfest— an opening like Swamp, Crime, Swamp, Crime, Crime is really going to hamper the other guy’s ability to play his normal manacurve to its conclusion, although obviously you’re light on resources yourself in that scenario. In that respect it reminds me a little bit of Pox and related cards.

    I think this may wind up seeing extended play at some point.

    Soul Snuffers

    2BB

    Creature – Elemental Shaman

    3/3

    When Soul Snuffers comes into play, put a -1/-1 counter on each creature.

    If this is 187ing things, then it’s pretty solid. Otherwise, not so much.

    Chaotic Backlash

    4R

    Instant

    Chaotic Backlash deals damage to target player equal to twice the number of white and/or blue permanents he or she controls.

    Backlash could wind up being pretty important at the block-ish level. There are a lot of white token-generators, and sending one of these to the face isn’t a bad response to Cloudgoat Ranger.

    Flame Jab

    R

    Sorcery
    Flame Jab deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

    Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

    This is kind of like super-ghetto Lava Dart and probably fits in a lot of the same places. If there are many 1-toughness dorks to kill, the stock goes up.



    Puncture Blast

    2R

    Instant

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    Puncture Blast deals 3 damage to target creature or player.

    Standard-issue 3 damage for 3 mana. This stuff normally floats around the periphery of playability.

    Rekindled Flame

    2RR

    Sorcery

    Rekindled Flame deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

    At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent has no cards in hand, you may return Rekindled Flame from your graveyard to your hand.

    4 for 4 at sorcery speed isn’t good but it isn’t awful, and if you get to do it twice that’s pretty cool. Unfortunately I think it’s too easy for the other guy to keep you from recovering Flame for it to do its trick.

    Stigma Lasher

    RR

    Creature – Elemental Shaman

    2/2

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    Whenever Stigma Lasher deals damage to a player, that player can’t gain life for the rest of the game.

    This is not rocket science here—the more lifegain there is in the environment the better Stigma Lasher looks. 2 mana for a wither bear doesn’t have you pumping the fist but it’s acceptable if the other trick is going to be useful for you.

    Also, Fiery Justice you.

    Thunderblust

    2RRR

    Creature – Elemental

    7/2

    Haste

    Thunderblust has trample as long as it has a -1/-1 counter on it.

    Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

    Now we’re talking. This is a huge hasty beatstick that needs to be killed twice. It hates clogged boards and requires a heavy red commitment, and both of those things are a problem, but if you are a deck that can cast this and keep the table clean it’s going to be very, very annoying for your opponent. Also, comes out t3 off of a Smokebraider and off of a Soulstoke you get to keep it with a counter on it.

    Unwilling Recruit

    XRRR

    Sorcery

    Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gets +X/+0 and gains haste until end of turn.

    Threaten has been good enough in monored or near-monored decks in the past and this is better than Threaten in those decks.

    Bloom Tender

    1G

    Creature – Elf Druid

    1/1

    T For each color among permanents you control, add one mana of that color to your mana pool.

    Potentially explosive, especially if your manabase is larded with hybrid spells in other colors. There are a couple of attractive 1CC hybrid creatures that you would potentially want to play; Figure of Destiny is probably top among these and that sets you up for some very big t3s. That said, I don’t think you can count on getting more than 1 mana out of Bloom Tender regularly. It’s still better than something like Leaf Gilder, though.

    Helix Pinnacle

    G

    Enchantment

    Shroud

    X: Put X tower counters on Helix Pinnacle.

    At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are 100 or more tower counters on Helix Pinnacle, you win the game.

    This is a win condition you might like if you’re the kind of person who likes this sort of win condition.

    Nettle Sentinel

    G

    Creature – Elf Warrior

    2/2

    Nettle Sentinel doesn’t untap during your untap step.

    Whenever you play a green spell, you may untap Nettle Sentinel.

    My feeling is that the drawback is annoying too often for this to see play, but it’s got a chance. Better in environments where you can reasonably expect to trade off a 2/2 early.

    Primalcrux

    GGGGGG

    Creature – Elemental

    */*

    Trample

    Chroma – Primalcrux’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of green mana symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control.

    I’m a sucker for big beaters with trample, and Primalcrux is almost always going to be the biggest guy on the board. 6 mana and having to play monogreen is a big price tag, though.

    Twinblade Slasher

    G

    Creature – Elf Warrior

    1/1

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    1G: Twinblade Slasher gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Play this ability only once each turn.

    Solid, but there are a lot of things that want you to spend mana on them right now. Still, this is a legitimate one-drop that stays combat-relevant after bigger things hit the table. I think this sees standard-level play.

    Scarecrone

    3

    Artifact Creature – Scarecrow

    1/2

    1, Sacrifice a Scarecrow: Draw a card.

    4, T Return target artifact creature card from your graveyard to play.

    edit: I thought about saying something about Scarecrone and wasn’t going to, but apparently I left it in the list, so here goes. The second ability is quite strong. You can do a number of abusive things by recurring artifact creatures, and the price is not excessive. However, the body is pretty weak and I think that the available suite of artifact creatures just aren’t good enough to make this sing right now.

    Balefire Liege

    2(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)

    Creature – Spirit Horror

    2/4

    Other red creatures you control get +1/+1.

    Other white creatures you control get +1/+1.

    Whenever you play a red spell, Balefire Liege deals 3 damage to target player.

    Whenever you play a white spell, you gain 3 life.

    Tacking a lava spike on to all of your red spells is very exciting, but 5 mana is still a lot to pay for that privilege and an underwhelming body.

    Batwing Brume

    1(W / B)

    Instant

    Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn if W was spent to play Batwing Brume. Each player loses 1 life for each attacking creature he or she controls if B was spent to play Batwing Brume. (Do both if WB was spent.)

    If there’s a WB deck that wants to race another deck, the Brume may find a fit in the SB.

    Crag Puca

    (U / R)(U / R)(U / R)

    Creature – Shapeshifter

    2/4

    o(u/r): Switch Crag Puca’s power and toughness until end of turn.

    3-mana 2/4s occasionally wind up being useful just because they have a huge ass and are generally good at fighting other things that cost 3 mana or less.

    Deity of Scars

    (B / G)(B / G)(B / G)(B / G)(B / G)

    Creature – Spirit Avatar

    7/7

    Trample

    Deity of Scars comes into play with two -1/-1 counters on it.

    o(b/g), Remove a -1/-1 counter from Deity of Scars: Regenerate Deity of Scars.

    This is one hard, hard beastie to take down, and it has evasion, and it hits hard, and it’s in an attractive color combination. I think this sees quite a bit of play in standard and block.

    Duergar Hedge-Mage

    2(R / W)

    Creature – Dwarf Shaman

    2/2

    When Duergar Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Mountains, you may destroy target artifact.

    When Duergar Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Plains, you may destroy target enchantment.

    Acceptable as an Uktabi Orangutan or as a walking disenchant in the appropriate color, if your mana justifies it.

    Evershrike

    3(W / B)(W / B)

    Creature – Elemental Spirit

    2/2

    Flying

    Evershrike gets +2/+2 for each Aura attached to it.

    Xo(w/b)o(w/b): Return Evershrike from your graveyard to play. You may put an Aura card with converted mana cost X or less from your hand into play attached to it. If you don’t, remove Evershrike from the game.

    I really, really wanted this to be awesome, and I don’t think it is, quite. It does do a pretty good job recycling Prison Terms, though.

    Figure of Destiny

    (R / W)

    Creature – Kithkin

    1/1

    o(r/w): Figure of Destiny becomes a 2/2 Kithkin Spirit.

    o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w): If Figure of Destiny is a Spirit, it becomes a 4/4 Kithkin Spirit Warrior.

    o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w): If Figure of Destiny is a Warrior, it becomes an 8/8 Kithkin Spirit Warrior Avatar with flying and first strike.

    Plan on getting Figure to 2/2 most games, but it’s not pushy about when you pay the mana. Sometimes you’ll get it to 4/4 rapidly, and although it won’t happen particularly often there will probably be times you make it a 4/4 the turn it comes down and swing for the fences with an 8/8 the turn after. It might not be quite good enough for extended, but it’ll see standard play.

    Gwyllion Hedge-Mage

    2(W / B)

    Creature – Hag Wizard

    2/2

    When Gwyllion Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Plains, you may put a 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature token into play.

    When Gwyllion Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Swamps, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.

    Probably is good enough to see play in mono-white decks.

    Hag Hedge-Mage

    2(B / G)

    Creature – Hag Shaman

    2/2

    When Hag Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Swamps, you may have target player discard a card.

    When Hag Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Forests, you may put target card in your graveyard on top of your library.

    Not terrible as a plus-size Ravenous Rats.

    Inside Out

    1(U / R)

    Instant

    Switch target creature’s power and toughness until end of turn.

    Draw a card.

    Well, it does kill Wall of Roots and Doran, and cantrips while doing so; those are useful qualities so in the right metagame maybe somebody wants to play this guy.

    Mirror Sheen

    1(U / R)(U / R)

    Enchantment

    1o(u/r)o(u/r): Copy target instant or sorcery spell that targets you. You may choose new targets for the copy.

    Insert commentary about obvious Early Harvest stuff here. I can’t say that I see another use for it right off the bat. It’s probably somewhat better than Reiterate for that function, but it’s not a blowout.

    Nobilis of War

    (R / W)(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)

    Creature – Spirit Avatar

    3/4

    Flying

    Attacking creatures you control get +2/+0.

    This guy was so much better as originally spoiled, with haste instead of flying. As is, I don’t think it sees much play.

    Overbeing of Myth

    (G / U)(G / U)(G / U)(G / U)(G / U)

    Creature – Spirit Avatar

    */*

    Overbeing of Myth’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

    At the beginning of your draw step, draw a card.

    I want to like this guy, and I think stapling a Howling Mine to the forehead of what is likely to be a reasonably-sized creature is a great idea in principle. I worry that the mana will be difficult and I worry that there will be too many times that Overbeing isn’t big enough.

    Pyrrhic Revival

    3(W / B)(W / B)(W / B)

    Sorcery

    Each player returns each creature card in his or her graveyard to play with an additional -1/-1 counter on it.

    Peebles thought that this had a chance of being a player in something like Reveillark, where you could return a full yard and just push people’s faces in with the renewed CiP effects. I think there’s something to that plan. It could also be good enough in some kind of more conventional draw/discard Reanimator strategy.

    Quillspike

    2(B / G)

    Creature – Beast

    1/1

    o(b/g), Remove a -1/-1 counter from a creature you control: Quillspike gets +3/+3 until end of turn.

    Obviously the combo with Devoted Druid is potent but brittle, and in a deck with Profane Command you may wind up getting a significant number of oops-I-win kills even through some resistance. I think that the combo is too fragile to be the centerpiece of a deck, but if it turns out that you’re not punting too many games otherwise because you keep drawing these goddamn Quillspikes then game on. Devoted Druid is a playable card on its own merits, so the cost of having access to the combo is low.

    Rendclaw Trow

    2(B / G)

    Creature – Troll

    2/2

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

    Persist dudes that beat up other persist dudes are cool. Maybe not good enough, but cool.

    Restless Apparition

    (W / B)(W / B)(W / B)

    Creature – Spirit

    2/2

    o(w/b)o(w/b)o(w/b): Restless Apparition gets +3/+3 until end of turn.

    Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

    I can see this being a pretty good card in a controlling strategy, where your plan is to just kind of run it out there and block something random with it on t3 and then to use the threat of pumping it to hold off the other fellow afterwards while you do something instant-speed with your mana.

    Rise of the Hobgoblins

    (R / W)(R / W)

    Enchantment

    When Rise of the Hobgoblins comes into play, you may pay X. If you do, put X 1/1 red and white Goblin Soldier creature tokens into play.

    o(r/w): Red creatures and white creatures you control gain first strike until end of turn.

    Obviously this is no Decree of Justice, but we don’t have Decree of Justice right now. I think that the ability to generate a large number of creature tokens is essentially pretty good and this does so at a very reasonable price, plus gives you some first-striking mojo if that turns out to be worth anything.

    Sapling of Colfenor

    3(B / G)(B / G)

    Legendary Creature – Treefolk Shaman

    2/5

    Sapling of Colfenor is indestructible.

    Whenever Sapling of Colfenor attacks, reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, you gain life equal to that card’s toughness, lose life equal to its power, then put it into your hand.

    This is only as good or as bad as an expensive indestructible creature is in the environment. 2/5s are mostly good at blocking things, so it would have been nice if the other ability triggered on upkeep instead of on attack, but whatever.

    Spitting Image

    4(G / U)(G / U)

    Sorcery

    Put a token into play that’s a copy of target creature.

    Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

    Getting to 6 mana with this guy will make it quite difficult for the other fellow to kill you with big creatures, since you always have the option to mirror his drops and will usually have the option to continue to do so. I think this is a pretty strong card for a deck that hits 6 mana fast and doesn’t mind tapping out. That said, if you’re copying your own fatties then this is probably win-more; so it wants to be played in a situation where both players have fat.

    Stillmoon Cavalier

    1(W / B)(W / B)

    Creature – Zombie Knight

    2/1

    Protection from white and from black

    o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gains flying until end of turn.

    o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gains first strike until end of turn.

    o(w/b)o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gets +1/+0 until end of turn.

    Double protection is always nice, although it’s hard for me to get excited about the pumpknight suite of abilities anymore. Mana is more precious than it once was and creature quality is higher.

    Unmake

    (W / B)(W / B)(W / B)

    Instant

    Remove target creature from the game.

    If you can swing the mana, this is clean, simple removal. It needs to fit into something that’s already a deck, though. Kithkin can probably play this quite handily.

    Cascade Bluffs

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(u/r), T Add UU, UR, or RR to your mana pool.

    Fetid Heath

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(w/b), T Add WW, WB, or BB to your mana pool.

    Flooded Grove

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(g/u), T Add GG, GU, or UU to your mana pool.

    Rugged Prairie

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(r/w), T Add RR, RW, or WW to your mana pool.

    Twilight Mire

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(b/g), T Add BB, BG, or GG to your mana pool.

    All very nice lands to have in the mix. You do need to be a little careful—playing 3 colors with 12 hybrid lands is going to get you manascrewed regularly. That said, I think you’re fine with between 6 and 8 lands that make colorless by default in a typical deck.

  • Eventide Prerelease Thread

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

    INDIVIDUAL FLIGHT: 3-1

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

    R1: vs. matt

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

    1-0

    R2: vs. mike

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

    2-0

    R3: vs. some guy

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

    2-1

    R4: vs. alex

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

    3-1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    1-1

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

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

    2-1

    r4: a couple average guys who made embarrassing play errors

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

    3-1

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

    obligatory +/- section:

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

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

  • Eventide Limited; Rampant Speculation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Early Shadowmoor Results (Updated!)



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



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

    MGA (Pronounced “MGA “)

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

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

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



  • PS Elves Yu, Redux!



    Attending the SCG 5k, I knew that I didn’t want to play Faeries, because the mirror was way too random for my tastes, and I had been doing well with Elves in modo 8mans.

    I came to the conclusion that the following list was probably very good, and is what I ended up registering for the 5k:




    Round 1: Michael A. Oliveros, Doran (2-0).

    Game 1: I win the dieroll and choose to play (obv?). I lead with gilt-leaf palace, revealing Vanquisher to thoughtseize his birds when he kept a 2 lander with 2 dorans and a viper. This turns out to be very good because he doesn’t draw the 3rd land until turn 5, by which point I have a colossus beating him down. I end up profaning him for 5 when he is at 5 for the win.


    Sideboarding: -2 terror (mediocre vs doran/colossus), -1 wayfinder, +2 primal command, +1 profane command.



    Game 2: He mulligans on the play, and leads with turn 1 birds into turn 2 doran. I open with turn 1 llanowar elves into turn 2 vanquisher + elves. Turn 3, he just passes with only 3 mana, and on my turn 3, I primal command his murmuring bosk searching up a Colossus, which ends the game pretty quickly after that, even though he gets a warhammer on doran.


    Round 2: Jay S. Carter, GW manaramp (2-1).

    Game 1: He wins the dieroll, and leads with snow-forest, suspend search. This leads me to believe he’s some sort of manaramp deck, so I hold off on thoughtseizing him for as long as possible. My turn 1 is, forest, elf. His turn 2, he plays a plains, so I then realize he must be the popular GW manaramp, and change my gameplan to try to play around wrath of gods. This plan is derailed when he plays a turn 4 oversoul. I then commit my colossus to the board which trumps his oversoul. However, the game degenerates to a point where he gets enough mana to play wrath into crovax, and then flashes out a cloudthresher with him on 4 life after I profane commanded him a few times to force damage through (with fear), after which I lose.

    Sideboarding: -4 Inversion, +1 Profane Command, +2 Primal Command, +1 Squall Line (I just wanted another fireball if the game became clogged vs his oversoul, and inversion doesn’t really kill anything in his deck).

    Game 2: He mulligans to 6, keeps his hand. I go palace, thoughtseize, and take his wall of roots and notes he has 4 lands and a mouth of ronom in hand. His turn 1 is forest, suspend search, which lets me know that he still has 4 lands in hand. I am a tad flooded, but I have double treetop village which beat him down to 9 before he mouths one. Then I commit a colossus which finishes the job.

    Game 3: I kept a slightly sketchy hand of: palace, forest, vanquisher, profane*2 + garruk on the draw. Luckily, my first three draws are a land, then a perfect and then another land. So the game ends up not being close, despite him getting a turn 3 oversoul (which could not even attack into my vanquisher). He then plays a crovax on turn 5, and I just terror it to make him pay 2 life so I can profane him to neardead. I then rip another profane which ends up killing him.

    Round 3: Justin D. LaRose, Faeries (2-0)

    I recognize this guy’s name from browsing the decks from the last 5k, and also the first Rockville PTQ. He seemed like a fairly good player, so I put him on Faeries.

    Game 1: I win the dieroll, and open the following hand: forest, boreal, vanquisher*2, perfect, wayfinder, thoughtseize. Normally this is a pretty terrible hand, but since I am fairly sure he is playing faeries, and i’m on the play, i will probably get in both vanquishers before he is able to counter them. This is exactly what happens, and he gets stuck on 2 mana after committing a bitterblossom. So the vanquishers take the game when I draw a swamp for inversion.

    Sideboarding: -3 Garruk, -3 Profane, -4 Perfect, -1 Wayfinder, +4 Thresher, +2 Squall, +4 Riftsweeper, +1 Shriekmaw

    Game 2: He leads with island ancestral, then swamp bitterblossom. My first two turns are palace, llanowar, into llanowar, riftsweeper ancestral. The look on his face was PRICELESS, especially when he suspended ancestral the following turn, and i riftsweepered it. The game is not very close after that after I draw a treetop to go along with my bears.

    Round 4: Robert D. Seder, Faeries (2-1)

    Game 1: I mulligan to 5 on the play, and I promptly get mopped up by turn 4 mistbind, turn 5 mistbind. He didn’t have early ancestral or blossom, but it was pretty irrelevant.

    Game 2: I run the same sideboarding plan as earlier. I mop him up when he keeps a 2 lander with ancestral, I riftsweeper it, he suspends another, and I riftsweeper the 2nd one. This guy gives me an incredulous look as he scoops it up to treetop + double bear attacking for 3 turns in a row.

    Game 3: He mulligans to 6 on the play, and has turn 1 ancestral, but I wait until turn 3 to play my riftsweeper (because of turn 1 elves) so I can play around rune snag, which he ended up having. After that, I start swinging with my bear, llanowar elf, and treetop with pendelhaven in play.

    Round 5: Korey Mcduffie, Faeries (2-0)

    I had seen this guy playing a round earlier, so I knew exactly what he was playing.

    Game 1: I win the dieroll ({e}, obv), and open with turn 1 Llanowar, turn 2 perfect, turn 3 colossus when he taps out for blossom. He just looks at my board in disgust and concedes.

    Game 2: Riftsweepers get his early ancestrals, and mutavault and a treetop finish the job.

    After this game, he made a comment about he was sure he had lost infinite ratings points to me. I told him I was 1971 coming into this event, and then he started to backpedal on his comment.

    Round 6: Daniel Samson, Monogreen Elves (1-2)

    Game 1: I win the dieroll, he mulligans to 6. His first 3 turns are just forest go, so I think he is g/w manaramp. Then he lays a g/w liege on turn 4, but I vomit out 2 perfects which actually just beat him.

    Sideboarding: -1 Wayfinder, -2 colossus, -1 tarmogoyf, +1 profane, +1 shriekmaw, +2 primal. (Colossus is kind of mediocre vs his infinite chain of blockers, especially with heartmender out).

    Game 2/3: He gets early persist guys, including finks which let him just sit there long enough to cast overrun both games to attack for 30+.

    My draw in game 3 was kind of mediocre too, but I think if we played this matchup like 70 times, I would lose about 60% of the matches.

    Round 7: Anna Scott, Kithkin (2-1)

    We got put in the feature match area, and I’m not really sure why. All I do know is, over the three games, I counted about 15 play mistakes from her, including main-phasing reinforce on her knight of meadowgrain several times. I lose game 2 due to getting flooded, but game 1 and 3, I win fairly easily, despite getting stuck on 3 for quite a while. She had some odd card choices, including coordinated barrage (wtf?) and walking into my removal spells while trying to barrage something.

    Sideboarding: -1 Wayfinder, -2 Colossus, +1 Profane +1 Shriekmaw, +1 Finks

    Round 8: Marshall A. Ashford, Merfolk (2-1)

    This matchup is even easier for elves than faeries is by a long shot, because they are forced to commit threats at sorcery speed, and they are HEAVILY reliant on their lords, making your removal spells super live.

    The games play out as I expect, with me killing his key lords while laying threats. I lose game 2 to an unexpected Teferi’s Moat, but game 3, I just kill him very quickly with double vanquisher so profane command can finish the job through his moat.

    Round 9: Brian Kelly (ID, but I then find out he was playing R/G land destruction which seems favorable for me).

    Round 10: Scott Jeltema, Fiery Justice (0-2)

    This matchup actually seems abysmal to me, when I find out he has 4 maindeck fiery justice, calciderms (which are a HUGE problem for me if I don’t draw colossus, and he can still kill colossus with justice).

    I get destroyed in 2 games when he had turn 3 calciderm both games as well as stonecloaker to win the goyf fights.

    In conclusion, I still think this is the 2nd best deck (with #1 being Faeries) but it has a very good matchup vs Faeries.

    However, I would modify the decklist slightly to be: