Last Friday the wife was working and Phoenix was chillaxing with the grandpees so I thought I'd sleeve up one of my Standard decks and make a run.
Here's what I rocked:
ELDRAZI GREEN
Primeval Titan x 4
Avenger of Zendikar x 3
Wurmcoil Engine x 1
Emrakul the Aeons Torn x 1
Ulamog something or other x 1
Joraga Treespeaker x 4
Overgrown Embattlement x 4
Cultivate x 4
Explore x 4
Everflowing Chalice x 4
Summoning Trap x 4
All is Dust x 3
Tectonic Edge x 3
Khalni Garden x 4
Eldrazi Temple x 4
Eye of Ugin x 4
Forest x 8
Sideboard:
Tumble Magnet x 3
Ratchet Bomb x 4
Acidic Slime x 2
Slice in Twain x 1 (Should be Slime #3)
Naturalize x 1 (Should be Slime #4)
Obstinate Baloth x 4
Just some minor explanations. The reason I decided to play the deck is because Mike and Roy keep pushing me to run Treespeaker x 4. After realizing an unmolested Treespeaker with additional ramp can hit a Turn 3 Primeval Titan I finally understood the power. And it does happen. A lot. Or into Summon Trap into Emrakul. That's funny too. And the absurd things Avenger of Zendikar can do with Primevals is just crazy. Those little 0/1 Plants become Audrey II's in no time.
Played against Elfvine before the pairings went up. I went 4-2 against Elfvine. As long as the deck doesn't stick Eldrazi Monument I should win that match every time. Avenger of Zendikar is just absurd with the card advantage and turns all your ramp into Crusades.
Round 1: White Weenie Quest
This kid was a nice kid who just started playing a few months ago. He has a lot to learn about the game but that's what FNMs are all about. After the match we discussed what he can do going forward and we had a good talk along with some feedback from Roy.
A little about his deck. It is an Aggro/Combo deck that uses Quest for the Holy Relic to fetch Argentum Armor and start destroying stuff while dealing +6 damage each turn. It is super fast and comes out swinging. This is actually a horrible matchup for my deck because a lot of his guys fly. If he can get the Argentum Armor online I lose. The good thing about the matchup is if he doesn't get his Quest for the Holy Relic he is basically playing a bad White Weenie deck that are no match for swarms of plant tokens and Primevals.
Game 1: He gets turn 1 Quest and Menmite. I play forest and pass. He plays Ornithopter, Glint Hawk, Ornithopter and swings for 1. I play Temple and Explore. He drops a Kor and activate sacs Quest for Armor and we are on to Game 2.
Game 2: I side out my only slow removal spell, All is Dust x 3 plus tons of other slow stuff to get in Acidic Slimes, Slice in Twains, Naturalize, Tumble Magnet and a 4-pack of Ratchet Bombs. Basically 12 cards come in for the matchup.
I play a Forest and Treespeaker. He draws plays an Ornithopter and passes. I tell him rule number 1 about competitive Magic: DON'T KEEP A NO LAND HAND!!! He agrees. I go land pump and Wall. He draws and play Menmite. Its not even fair. I go Temple and Primeval Titan and we are on to game 3.
Game3: He plays turn 1 Quest. I play land. He plays Plains and Kor Outfitter. I have a choice to make because I have Ratchet Bomb, some ramp spells and Acidic Slime. I play the Ratchet Bomb and tick it up. By turn 4 he has 3 2cc Kors out. Either I pop his Quest at 1 tick or tick up EOT and kill his trip Kors and my Overgrown Embattlement on my turn. I go for the later and pop dudes plus his wall. Next turn I pop his Quest with Slime. I eventually EOT Trap out Avenger of Zendikar. On my turn I cultivate and play Titan and am swinging with like 6 4/5 plants and the 5/5 Avenger. Its pretty much over after that.
Round 2: Artifact Tempered Steel
Dude was kind of a noobish dickhole from Tampa. The first thing he said was, "Let's get all the shit talking out of the way now! I'm gonna kick your ass!" WTF?!? At that point it's on like Donkey Kong.
Game 1: He plays some Islands so I play accordingly by not running any ramp into open mana. The good thing is this kid taps out for the first 4 turns to run out Myrs and a Tempered Steel. Unfortunately for him I get an Avenger into Primeval chain and he is overwhelmed by plants.
Game 2: He actually gets some shit going with Tempered Steel and his Myr Battlesphere. I Ratchet Bomb all his dudes. I run out Primeval and he's all, "No way dude! Mana Leak!!!" I'm like, "Sure. Summoning Trap." He's all, "What does that do." I respond, "Kicks your ass." I hit Emrakul and he scoops.
After his beating he is a little more humbled since he had no board position during any part of the match. He was totally outmatched and outclassed. I hoped he learned to not shit-talk too soon. Being 1-0 going into Round 2 doesn't warrant a poor attitude. Sure you're undefeated but so is half the room.
Round 3: Roy and Genesis Wave
I've actually played a few more times with Roy and he is actually a nice kid. The fact he is only 23 really explains a lot. So I give him a pass for acting obnoxiously. He is a very good player and total Spike. This dude pretty much worships Conley Woods so I know to expect Genesis Wave. We decide to Intentional Draw because he wants to keep his 1850 rating intact. Not that I would have beaten him. Like I said, he is a tight player and plays tons of Magic. I know he also trolls all the relevant Magic sites so he knows his shit and is always on the ball when it comes to fighting with Magic cards.
We decide to play for the heck of it, no sideboards. We both know we are IDing so it doesn't matter.
Game 1: He wins the roll and gets his early dudes, Treespeaker and Lotus Cobra. This matchup is odd because we basically leave each other alone for the first 4 turns. But it really comes down to who goes first and who gets Treespeaker first. And with Lotus Cobra his deck does some absurd things. I ramp fine but he went first so can take advantage of his ramp sooner. He gets turn 4 Frosty and locks my wall down and when Jace the Mindoucher comes down I'm ready to scoop. We wants to jack his Gen Wave for a while and X9s and does some absurd stuff. The deck is amazing and totally outclasses my deck.
Game 2: I don't bother boarding nor do I know what I would board in and out. So it is irrelevant. I go first and open with Treespeaker, Ramp and a turn 4 Wurmcoil Engine. He drops Jace and bounces my guy. I have to make a choice here. Do I replay the Wurmcoil knowing I have All is Dust in my hand or do I All is Dust and blow up the board knowing I can like 6 for 1 him and have more ramp to recover from losing walls. I Dust and he is stuck on 4 lands. I play the Wurmcoil and finish the game out.
Game 3: Seriously, it comes down to who goes first in this matchup. I gets his early Treespeaker and Lotus Cobra. Jeez. Lotus Cobra has to be one of the best Green Creatures ever printed. With fetchlands it is just absurd. I ramp as usual but he gets his Frosty out and taps my wall so I can't run out Primeval and I end up scooping knowing I can't dig out of it.
By this time we have like 35 minutes left in the round. I let him play my Extended Valakut and I play Demigod Jund. Game 1 I get him down to 9 with Leech, Fauna and Bloodraid into Boggart. He plays Oracle and does some absurd ramping into Titan and Scapeshift for the win. Game 2 I early rush him and with Leech and Fauna with Demigod in the bin and a Demigod in hand. I can close it out if I draw a 4th land. It doesn't matter because Oracle comes down on his side with a Khalni Heart and he does more absurd ramping with Prismatic Omen and Titan. Scapeshift closes it out once again. I'm thinking Valakut in Extended is pretty good. Although I like Jund with the Demigod plan, Valakut is just insane.
Round 4: Pyromancer's Ascension
This is a funny match because this 18 year old kid just traded tons of money cards for the entire deck to my boy Mike. The deck is good but can be built for like $20. I'm just hating because I didn't have an Ascension deck ready to trade. LOL.
Game 1: He gets early Pyromancer's online but it is completely irrelevant. He kept on tapping out to play draw spells or dig for duplicates. By turn 4 I was able to play Primeval and baited the Mana Leak. Yup. He has the leak. I shrug and drop Summon Trap. Emrakul leads us into Game 2.
Game 2: All my slow stuff comes out for Acidic Slimes, Slice, Naturalize and Ratchet Bomb. He gets Turn1 Pyromancers. I try to ramp but he has Spell Pierces for my Cultivates and Chalice. I don't care much because I have an active Treespeaker and a Mana Wall. He taps out to Foresee with Pyros online. I have to tell him that he doesn't Scry 8 Draw 4. He must let 1 resolve and finish the copy. While he is tapped out I play Summon Trap. I hit Avenger with 4 Plants. Next turn I hit more land into Primeval Titan and bash his face in. Next turn my Plants are closing the match out each as 6/7s.
This dude was a nice kid and really wants to learn. I told him to not bother trying to stop my plan and make sure to get his online as soon as possible. I've never played that combo deck but I've read enough about it. Shrugs.
By this time I'm 3-0-1 and tied for 1st with Roy, who has the identical record. The remaining two players that I'm able to play are either Boros or the Eldrazi Green mirror match. If I get Boros I probably lose. Luckily I get the mirror. Or is it so lucky.
Round 5: Eldrazi Green mirror match
The only thing I know about this dude is he is basically playing the same deck as I am. I'm a little vexed because Eldrazi Green has really fallen out of favor to the more absurd RUGs and BUGs as well as the UB and UW Control decks. Eldrazi Green did make a Worlds Top 8 showing when Love Janse rocked the deck in the quarter finals.
Game 1: He gets no ramp and I get all my ramp include all four of my Explores. I start chaining Eldrazi Temples with Titan and Legendary kill his Eye of Ugin with my own Eye. By this time all the noob kids are watching our table. It is funny because at some point, Roy, Mike and myself all have active Primeval Titans crashing in for card advantage. I was able to get Avenger online with Primeval chaining lands and end the game rather quickly with plant tokens.
Game 2: I side in Slimes for his Eldrazi lands and 3 Tumble Magnets to fight his Titans and Eldrazi Giants. Again, he gets no ramp and I get all my ramp. I get an early Titan and fetch Tectonic Edges and start popping his lands. I stick a Tumble Magnet and he finally gets his Titan out. I tap his Titan and swing with mine while he chumps with Mana Walls. I have the Eye of Ugin on my board and am surprised he didn't fetch his Eye to kill my Eye. Because of that misplay I am able to tutor up Emrakul and force cast him for the Time Walk and the win. I mention the misplay and he said he didn't notice it among my plethora of lands. Make a note kids. When a person fetches or tutors out shit, always ask what they are getting.
I am tied for first with Roy at 4-0-1. Roy gets first but is cool enough to split the packs evenly with me. I end up with 9 packs. All the packs are being horded and ET runs out of good packs. God forbid I waste my packs on Scars of Mirrodin. Funny story. Mike let a few of the guys borrow his Tier 1 decks, UB Control and Elfvine. They both did well and packed at the same time both beating Mike with his own decks. They packed and gave them all to Mike. Mike is a lucky mofo when it comes to packs. I've seen him randomly pack Molten-Tails and Koths. Gah! He got some Rise of the Eldrazi packs and got a Foil Consume the Meek, a Gideon and an Emrakul. WTF!!! LOL. I get a Foil FNM Everflowing Chalice that I trade to Mike straight up for a Kozilek. I already have a Kozilek that I don't run but I'm not gonna pass on a good playable Mythic for a fancy foil. I have gazillions of normal Chalices that work just fine for me. I also had a $10 gift card to the store so I picked up a few needed Fetches and my 4th Inferno Titan.
A few days later, when I knew ET got packs in, I stopped by to cash mine in. Seeing how lucky Mike was I figured id get some ROE packs too. Ironically I packed a Vengevine that I've been looking to get a playset of. Yah for me! lol
All in all a fun FNM. Way better time then the last few times I played some tournaments. This time I actually had a deck that I didn't really care for nor did I care whether I won. Therefore I was almost invulnerable to going on tilt.
Until next time.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Big Red
After getting rocked a few weeks ago at Lakeland's Standard FNM I decided to regroup. I found an interesting list by Frank Lepore on TCGPlayer.com and decided to build the deck with tons of my own personal modifications.
The reason for wanting to build the deck was the use of Kuldotha Phoenix. The Phoenix has always been my favorite card from Scars of Mirrodin. Historically Phoenix's have been my favorite type of creatures because of the insane recursion and card advantage they provide. I built a deck revolving around Worldheart Phoenix, which was basically a 5C Control deck but abused the Domain mechanic along with Etched Oracle's Sunburst mechanic. All my creatures kept coming back after Wraths or Damnations would blow up the world. I also built a Mono-Red Boom & Bust deck featuring a playset of Magma Phoenix. The deck worked because of multiple sacrifice outlets I put in the deck to abuse the Phoenix's ability. In conjunction with re-occurring lifegain, the deck was difficult to stop.
Kuldotha Phoenix is trickier in Standard because it forces you to play tons of artifacts to get the Metalcraft going. I initially built a few decks that feature Kuldotha Phoenix, neither of which I had any success with. First was an aggressive build that used cheap artifact creatures to get Metalcraft online. The problem was these creatures were fairly fragile and couldn't compete with the better aggro dudes. The other deck I tried was a Destructive Force deck with tons of ramp and artifacts like Ratchet Bomb, Brittle Effigy, etc. to achieve Metalcraft. This deck didn't work because I'd have awesome ramp in Destructive Force but no relevant threats to close it out.
Fast forward a few months and I built this deck:
BIG RED:
Kuldotha Phoenix x 4
Inferno Titan x 3
Koth of the Hammer x 4
Lightning Bolt x 4
Arc Trail x 4
Comet Storm x 2
Ratchet Bomb x 4
Contagion Clasp x 4
Tumble Magnet x 4
Everflowing Chalice x 4
Valakut the Molten Pinnacle x 4
Tectonic Edge x 3
Mountains x 16
Sideboard:
Goblin Ruinblaster x 4
Pyroclasm x 4
Shatter x 3
Etched Champion x 4
The Sideboard came late but the deck is basically what I played at the last tournament. I tested a version with 24 land and no Inferno Titans and packed 2 Chandra Nalaar and Triskelion. After testing with Mike we realized that Chandra wasn't enough. I always thought she was good in a few respects: 1) She can trade with Titans on her own and ping Planeswalkers, 2) worked well with the minor Proliferate theme. In testing I was never in a position were I needed a Chandra to win so she was dropped. Triskelion was also dropped although it tested very well. It can come in and start machinegunning dudes on your turn and your opponents turn. He also worked very well with Proliferate. With the rules change that prevents damage stacking during combat, Trisk has lost plenty of swagger. Back in the day you could block as a 4/4, stack damage to kill the attacker, then stack his machine gun ability to deal 3 at other attacking creatures or at a player's dome. Trisk was a one-man army. Not not so much. We decided for the same casting cost, Inferno Titan, a 6/6 that acts as a recurring Arc Lighting was way better. And it was.
The deck is a Mono-Red Midrange deck that can play the aggressive deck when need be or the control if called upon. During testing with Mike I ended up playing something like 20+ games with the deck, no sideboard though. I tested the deck against a solid gamut of decks: Kuldotha Red 2-1, Elves 2-1, UW Control 1-0, UB Control 2-0, White Proliferate 2-0, Quest 2-0, Liquid Metal 0-1, and won most of the games I played. It seems the deck is geared to beat aggro decks because it packs plenty of creature hate in spot removal, 8 2-for-1s and 4 Tumble Magnets. Control matchups you need to grind out wins in a few ways: either play the beatdown and get an early Koth online and early Phoenix, grind out recursion Phoenix wins, or dome them with Valakut in the long game.
While testing the deck it seemed that it always had all the answers it needed to relevant threats and I always had cards in my hand when my opponent had none. Every thing I drew was a card advantage machine and could get ahead in every game. Every game I played Koth I won. Dropping Koth was an immediate threat. If his Emblem got online in was a matter of inevitability. You have to scoop to lose that game. Once it was online your opponent would still need to spend time and resources to get him off the field. Phoenix is a renewable threat as long as you have Metalcraft up, which isn't difficult considering the deck runs 16 artifacts. Doomblade my Phoenix? Sure, I'll swing for 4. Mana Leak? Sure, I'll swing for 4. Most decks don't run Condemn or too many Journey to Nowhere so Phoenix is pretty sick. Ratchet Bomb and Arc Trail are amazing in aggro matchups. Against a Quest deck you can clear their all there guys and blow up their Equipment. If they do manage to get Argentum Armor up you have Tumble Magnet to shut them down. Tumble Magnet I'd usually deem a throw away common. But in reality it is an important control element to the deck. Being able to continually shut down threats is very important. Versus Titans they can't even get there attack triggered ability online with Tumble Magnet out. The deck is surprisingly very effective and extremely resilient.
That night, Mike and I discussed sideboard options because Mike wanted to build the deck for a tournament he was planning on playing at by his hometown. Mike went 5-0 at that tournament but I can't remember what decks he played. I do know he played some Tier 1 archetypes though. Not sure.
I decided to sleeve up my 75 and went to Armada Games in Tampa. I've casually played at Armada before and know that a few guys there are judges and almost everyone in the room is a Spike and rock Tier 1 decks. After doing tons of trading (where I moved about $70 worth of cards) and picking up Inferno Titans and some other stuff I surveyed the room. I mostly noticed a ton of Elves decks, BR Vampires, White Weenie Quest, RUG and Eldrazi Green.
Round 1: Shawn playing UW Control
Game 1: I win the die roll and keep my 7. I open with Valakut and Shawn lets out a long disparaging sigh. He plays Colonade and passes. I play a mountain and kick Chalice for 1. Shawn plays a land and Wall of Omens and passes. Wall of Omens is a clear sign of UW Control so I play a mountain and Koth while he is tapped out and swing for 4. He plays an Island and passes. I don't draw another land for a few turns. I play a Contagion Clasp, swing for 4, he blocks and pass. Shawn draws, plays Jace and Brainstorms. My go I'm holding a Phoenix, Inferno Titan, Comet Storm and some Arc Lightnings that I can't use because I only have one of the two mandatory targets. I make the emblem and play another Contagion Clasp and pass. He plays land, Preordains, and Fateseals me. On my go I draw another Inferno Titan and discard Phoenix hoping to resurrect it. He slams down Frost Titan and Fateseals me. Because of Frosty's first ability it is difficult to get enough mana to kill it. A few turns of taking a beating and I'm done. Sideboard out Arc Lightnings and put in Goblin Ruinblasters.
Game 2: On my go I keep my 7 and open with Valakut. He keeps his opening 7 and immediately slams down a Leyline of Sanctity. FML. I decide to play it out and hope for a Ratchet Bomb. He goes and Preordains. I go and play a Contagion Clasp. He goes and plays a Wall of Omen. I go and play a Tumble Magnet. He goes and Plays a Wall of Omens. All said and done I have 3 Tumble Magnets and a Contagion Clasp that I'm Proliferating. I get to Ruinblast a Colonnade but it is too late since he has Gideon and Jace the Mindsculptor out. I'm holding tons of Lightning Bolts, 2 Inferno Titans and a Comet Storm which are all dead cards. I also stick a Phoenix which he decides to NOT counterspell or Unsummon with JMS and Celestial Purges it instead. I stick a Koth that is exiled by another Purge. I play an Inferno Titan that gets Flashfrozen. UW has all the answers and I have none save 4 Ratchet Bombs that I see none of. I kill a Sun Titan and a Wurmcoil engine but get ultimated out by Jace. Terrible loss and my worst game of the night. I really wish Red had some hate cards for White.
Round 2: Vincent playing BG Infect
Vincent and his brother are a pair of nice kids in college. They've played Magic for a while, casually, and only recently have been exploring competitive Magic in the last 5-6 months. Nice guys.
Game 1: Vincent has to mull while I keep my 7. He opens with an Infect dude on turns 1 and 2 that I two for one with Arc Trail. He plays another Infect dude that I Clasp. He plays the Infect lord that I Bolt EOT. I play Koth and beat face. He sticks another Infect guy that I kill with Inferno Titan. He scoops.
Game 2: Vincent doesn't really sideboard. I put in Pyroclasms for Ratchet Bombs. He mulls again and I keep my 7. SEE GAME ONE.
I ask him what pump spells he's playing. He says he has everything but Vines of the Vastwood and asks what the card even is. I know he and his brother are n00bs so I try to drop some knowledge and tell them that their Tier 2.5 decks are not enough for a room filled with Spikes. Every deck in the room, other then mine and the two brother's decks, are Tier 1. I suggest going Mono-Green Infect and tell him Jacob van Lunen posted a budget decklist a month or so ago which has a fast clock.
Vincent and I play some casual games but he urges me to play Big Red. He comes at me with some Jank Myr deck that I roll two games in a row. I'm no Kai Budde or Jon Finkel, but he is just outclassed.
His brother asks to play me. I switch up to my horrible RG Metalcraft deck and get my ass handed to my by Primeval Titan and Garruk Wildspeaker. I did stick a foil Lodestone Golem and a Spike commented, "Whoa! You never see that in Standard." I reply, "I'm just playing some Jank deck for fun." He adds, "Yeah, but that's some Jank with serious sass." I switch up and play Mass Polymorph. We play two games that go something like this: we both ramp, we both counter some spells, I go to Mass Polymorph and we have a counter-war. I stick Emrakul, Iona for Blue and Stormtide Leviathan. This happened two games in a row. Smily face.
Round 3: Dave (I don't remember his name but I'll call him Dave) playing BR Vampires
I've played Dave before, the one time I stopped by Armada months ago. Back then he was playing Valakut but pre-Scars. He is a very good player that plays tight and is very polite. He makes sure we both have accurate life totals, kindly tells me to untap stuff when I forget, etc. He also informed me then that he is a DCI Judge and judges all the big events in Central Florida and PTQs. Very nice guy.
Game 1: I'm on the play and have to mull. He keeps and asks if my six is better. I reply, "I'm good." He plays Swamp and Vampire Lacerator. He's obviously playing Vampires. I go Valakut. He winces. He plays Bloodghast and swings for 2. I play Ratchet Bomb and tick it to 1 at the end of his turn. He plays Lavaclaw and comes in for 4. I play Contagion Clasp on his Bloodghast. He sticks Kalastria Highborn comes in for 2. I tick up Ratchet Bomb to two. I pop it on my turn. He domes me with Bolt. I stick Koth and come in for 4. He plays two little Vampires and gets Bloodghast back. I stick an Inferno Titan and clear some of his guys. He draws, beat, no Doomblade. I swing in, dome him for 3 and pump for 10 for a total of 13 damage. By this time he is on one card, draws for the turn and scoops. Inferno Titan is freaking AMAZING.
Game 2: I side out Ratchet Bombs because all his dudes would force me to kill my own Clasps. Pyroclasms are much much better. This game he mulls but gets the best curved hand and I get stuck on 4 lands and a Chalice for 1. This is actually an epic battle but once he got a Highborn online and a second one after I killed the first, it's pretty much over. I made some pretty critical errors with Arc Trail. He played the Vamp that can sac for +2/+2 and I kept targeting it and another creature which he'd sac to save the sac dude. This happened three times. At the end of the game I exclaimed, "All my 2-for-1s weren't 2-for-1s!!!" I should have been hitting the sac Vamp for 1 and doming him for 2 to either lose the sac Vamp or another vampire. Bad play in a game that I think I would have lost anyways to Kalastria Highborn and some slowrolled Bloodghast triggers.
Game 3: This game is epic. I keep and he mulls. It is a tight game that almost goes to time and comes down to the last draw to win the game. I think he made errors not killing Koth early. But it didn't matter since I had 3 Valakuts and 1 moutain. He Doombladed one of my attacking 4/4 moutains. There was a lot of back and forth between his dudes getting in licks and my 4/4 mountains coming in. It was basically a race. By this time there is a small crowd gathering (pun intended) around our match. One guy, a nice guy named Corey who I've played before, is really excited about this game and even exclaims, "Sorry to crowd you guys but this is the BEST game I've seen all night!!!" I did have a blowout play when he attacked me with a pumped Lavaclaw Reaches and Landfell Bloodghast hasted. He activates and swings in. I have enough to multi-kick Comet Storm to kill his dude, his land and dome him for 2. The crowd erupts! He eventually gets more guys out that rape Koth. But not before I can use Koth's ghetto Garruk move to turn 1 of my mountains into 2 mana to stick a Phoenix. When I do he quickly flashes a Doomblade then pulls it back. I tell him, "I'm not swinging. I'm getting mana." He laughs. He now decides to kill the Mountain instead of Phoenix to keep me off mana which is a good idea since I now only have 3 Valakuts out. The crowd wince in horror as I lose my critical mountain. On his go if he draws a land I'm dead because there are two Bloodghasts in the bin and he has a small team out. I'm holding an Inferno Titan with only 3 Valakuts and a double kicked Chalice. He's at 7 life. I tell him I should have plenty of outs but could really use a mountain. If I don't draw a mountain or a Lightning Bolt I'm done. I untap and draw. I calmly play a another Phoenix and swing in for 8. Got him. The crowd erupts one last time, "OOH!!! DAMN!!!" What a great match. Dave and I discuss the last game. He wanted me to hit that mountain because he thought I was going for a Koth 4/4 attack, which he tells me I couldn't attack with right away because of summoning sickness. The crowd correct him, "He was holding Inferno Titan in his hand." It would have been nice to bullseye him with Titan but I'll take a double Phoenix alpha strike any day of the week.
I'm 2-1 and its rolling around 10:00pm. I have work the next day and I wanted to see my family. I decide to drop. All in all I was not happy about the first set because I got face raped by UW Control and Red typically doesn't have color hate answers like a Celestial Purge, Deathmark, or Flashfreeze. What I wouldn't do for Flashfires or Anarchy. But we have to test against the Tier 1 control deck for the future. The good thing is Etched Oracle my be an answer but not sure yet. Also, UB Control decks just Top 4'd the Top 8 at Worlds so UW will take a backseat meaning Leyline of Douchebaggery may not be a problem in the future.
Extended PTQs are around the corner and I have plenty of cards for Double Standard so I'll build and test and see if a PTQ is in my future.
The reason for wanting to build the deck was the use of Kuldotha Phoenix. The Phoenix has always been my favorite card from Scars of Mirrodin. Historically Phoenix's have been my favorite type of creatures because of the insane recursion and card advantage they provide. I built a deck revolving around Worldheart Phoenix, which was basically a 5C Control deck but abused the Domain mechanic along with Etched Oracle's Sunburst mechanic. All my creatures kept coming back after Wraths or Damnations would blow up the world. I also built a Mono-Red Boom & Bust deck featuring a playset of Magma Phoenix. The deck worked because of multiple sacrifice outlets I put in the deck to abuse the Phoenix's ability. In conjunction with re-occurring lifegain, the deck was difficult to stop.
Kuldotha Phoenix is trickier in Standard because it forces you to play tons of artifacts to get the Metalcraft going. I initially built a few decks that feature Kuldotha Phoenix, neither of which I had any success with. First was an aggressive build that used cheap artifact creatures to get Metalcraft online. The problem was these creatures were fairly fragile and couldn't compete with the better aggro dudes. The other deck I tried was a Destructive Force deck with tons of ramp and artifacts like Ratchet Bomb, Brittle Effigy, etc. to achieve Metalcraft. This deck didn't work because I'd have awesome ramp in Destructive Force but no relevant threats to close it out.
Fast forward a few months and I built this deck:
BIG RED:
Kuldotha Phoenix x 4
Inferno Titan x 3
Koth of the Hammer x 4
Lightning Bolt x 4
Arc Trail x 4
Comet Storm x 2
Ratchet Bomb x 4
Contagion Clasp x 4
Tumble Magnet x 4
Everflowing Chalice x 4
Valakut the Molten Pinnacle x 4
Tectonic Edge x 3
Mountains x 16
Sideboard:
Goblin Ruinblaster x 4
Pyroclasm x 4
Shatter x 3
Etched Champion x 4
The Sideboard came late but the deck is basically what I played at the last tournament. I tested a version with 24 land and no Inferno Titans and packed 2 Chandra Nalaar and Triskelion. After testing with Mike we realized that Chandra wasn't enough. I always thought she was good in a few respects: 1) She can trade with Titans on her own and ping Planeswalkers, 2) worked well with the minor Proliferate theme. In testing I was never in a position were I needed a Chandra to win so she was dropped. Triskelion was also dropped although it tested very well. It can come in and start machinegunning dudes on your turn and your opponents turn. He also worked very well with Proliferate. With the rules change that prevents damage stacking during combat, Trisk has lost plenty of swagger. Back in the day you could block as a 4/4, stack damage to kill the attacker, then stack his machine gun ability to deal 3 at other attacking creatures or at a player's dome. Trisk was a one-man army. Not not so much. We decided for the same casting cost, Inferno Titan, a 6/6 that acts as a recurring Arc Lighting was way better. And it was.
The deck is a Mono-Red Midrange deck that can play the aggressive deck when need be or the control if called upon. During testing with Mike I ended up playing something like 20+ games with the deck, no sideboard though. I tested the deck against a solid gamut of decks: Kuldotha Red 2-1, Elves 2-1, UW Control 1-0, UB Control 2-0, White Proliferate 2-0, Quest 2-0, Liquid Metal 0-1, and won most of the games I played. It seems the deck is geared to beat aggro decks because it packs plenty of creature hate in spot removal, 8 2-for-1s and 4 Tumble Magnets. Control matchups you need to grind out wins in a few ways: either play the beatdown and get an early Koth online and early Phoenix, grind out recursion Phoenix wins, or dome them with Valakut in the long game.
While testing the deck it seemed that it always had all the answers it needed to relevant threats and I always had cards in my hand when my opponent had none. Every thing I drew was a card advantage machine and could get ahead in every game. Every game I played Koth I won. Dropping Koth was an immediate threat. If his Emblem got online in was a matter of inevitability. You have to scoop to lose that game. Once it was online your opponent would still need to spend time and resources to get him off the field. Phoenix is a renewable threat as long as you have Metalcraft up, which isn't difficult considering the deck runs 16 artifacts. Doomblade my Phoenix? Sure, I'll swing for 4. Mana Leak? Sure, I'll swing for 4. Most decks don't run Condemn or too many Journey to Nowhere so Phoenix is pretty sick. Ratchet Bomb and Arc Trail are amazing in aggro matchups. Against a Quest deck you can clear their all there guys and blow up their Equipment. If they do manage to get Argentum Armor up you have Tumble Magnet to shut them down. Tumble Magnet I'd usually deem a throw away common. But in reality it is an important control element to the deck. Being able to continually shut down threats is very important. Versus Titans they can't even get there attack triggered ability online with Tumble Magnet out. The deck is surprisingly very effective and extremely resilient.
That night, Mike and I discussed sideboard options because Mike wanted to build the deck for a tournament he was planning on playing at by his hometown. Mike went 5-0 at that tournament but I can't remember what decks he played. I do know he played some Tier 1 archetypes though. Not sure.
I decided to sleeve up my 75 and went to Armada Games in Tampa. I've casually played at Armada before and know that a few guys there are judges and almost everyone in the room is a Spike and rock Tier 1 decks. After doing tons of trading (where I moved about $70 worth of cards) and picking up Inferno Titans and some other stuff I surveyed the room. I mostly noticed a ton of Elves decks, BR Vampires, White Weenie Quest, RUG and Eldrazi Green.
Round 1: Shawn playing UW Control
Game 1: I win the die roll and keep my 7. I open with Valakut and Shawn lets out a long disparaging sigh. He plays Colonade and passes. I play a mountain and kick Chalice for 1. Shawn plays a land and Wall of Omens and passes. Wall of Omens is a clear sign of UW Control so I play a mountain and Koth while he is tapped out and swing for 4. He plays an Island and passes. I don't draw another land for a few turns. I play a Contagion Clasp, swing for 4, he blocks and pass. Shawn draws, plays Jace and Brainstorms. My go I'm holding a Phoenix, Inferno Titan, Comet Storm and some Arc Lightnings that I can't use because I only have one of the two mandatory targets. I make the emblem and play another Contagion Clasp and pass. He plays land, Preordains, and Fateseals me. On my go I draw another Inferno Titan and discard Phoenix hoping to resurrect it. He slams down Frost Titan and Fateseals me. Because of Frosty's first ability it is difficult to get enough mana to kill it. A few turns of taking a beating and I'm done. Sideboard out Arc Lightnings and put in Goblin Ruinblasters.
Game 2: On my go I keep my 7 and open with Valakut. He keeps his opening 7 and immediately slams down a Leyline of Sanctity. FML. I decide to play it out and hope for a Ratchet Bomb. He goes and Preordains. I go and play a Contagion Clasp. He goes and plays a Wall of Omen. I go and play a Tumble Magnet. He goes and Plays a Wall of Omens. All said and done I have 3 Tumble Magnets and a Contagion Clasp that I'm Proliferating. I get to Ruinblast a Colonnade but it is too late since he has Gideon and Jace the Mindsculptor out. I'm holding tons of Lightning Bolts, 2 Inferno Titans and a Comet Storm which are all dead cards. I also stick a Phoenix which he decides to NOT counterspell or Unsummon with JMS and Celestial Purges it instead. I stick a Koth that is exiled by another Purge. I play an Inferno Titan that gets Flashfrozen. UW has all the answers and I have none save 4 Ratchet Bombs that I see none of. I kill a Sun Titan and a Wurmcoil engine but get ultimated out by Jace. Terrible loss and my worst game of the night. I really wish Red had some hate cards for White.
Round 2: Vincent playing BG Infect
Vincent and his brother are a pair of nice kids in college. They've played Magic for a while, casually, and only recently have been exploring competitive Magic in the last 5-6 months. Nice guys.
Game 1: Vincent has to mull while I keep my 7. He opens with an Infect dude on turns 1 and 2 that I two for one with Arc Trail. He plays another Infect dude that I Clasp. He plays the Infect lord that I Bolt EOT. I play Koth and beat face. He sticks another Infect guy that I kill with Inferno Titan. He scoops.
Game 2: Vincent doesn't really sideboard. I put in Pyroclasms for Ratchet Bombs. He mulls again and I keep my 7. SEE GAME ONE.
I ask him what pump spells he's playing. He says he has everything but Vines of the Vastwood and asks what the card even is. I know he and his brother are n00bs so I try to drop some knowledge and tell them that their Tier 2.5 decks are not enough for a room filled with Spikes. Every deck in the room, other then mine and the two brother's decks, are Tier 1. I suggest going Mono-Green Infect and tell him Jacob van Lunen posted a budget decklist a month or so ago which has a fast clock.
Vincent and I play some casual games but he urges me to play Big Red. He comes at me with some Jank Myr deck that I roll two games in a row. I'm no Kai Budde or Jon Finkel, but he is just outclassed.
His brother asks to play me. I switch up to my horrible RG Metalcraft deck and get my ass handed to my by Primeval Titan and Garruk Wildspeaker. I did stick a foil Lodestone Golem and a Spike commented, "Whoa! You never see that in Standard." I reply, "I'm just playing some Jank deck for fun." He adds, "Yeah, but that's some Jank with serious sass." I switch up and play Mass Polymorph. We play two games that go something like this: we both ramp, we both counter some spells, I go to Mass Polymorph and we have a counter-war. I stick Emrakul, Iona for Blue and Stormtide Leviathan. This happened two games in a row. Smily face.
Round 3: Dave (I don't remember his name but I'll call him Dave) playing BR Vampires
I've played Dave before, the one time I stopped by Armada months ago. Back then he was playing Valakut but pre-Scars. He is a very good player that plays tight and is very polite. He makes sure we both have accurate life totals, kindly tells me to untap stuff when I forget, etc. He also informed me then that he is a DCI Judge and judges all the big events in Central Florida and PTQs. Very nice guy.
Game 1: I'm on the play and have to mull. He keeps and asks if my six is better. I reply, "I'm good." He plays Swamp and Vampire Lacerator. He's obviously playing Vampires. I go Valakut. He winces. He plays Bloodghast and swings for 2. I play Ratchet Bomb and tick it to 1 at the end of his turn. He plays Lavaclaw and comes in for 4. I play Contagion Clasp on his Bloodghast. He sticks Kalastria Highborn comes in for 2. I tick up Ratchet Bomb to two. I pop it on my turn. He domes me with Bolt. I stick Koth and come in for 4. He plays two little Vampires and gets Bloodghast back. I stick an Inferno Titan and clear some of his guys. He draws, beat, no Doomblade. I swing in, dome him for 3 and pump for 10 for a total of 13 damage. By this time he is on one card, draws for the turn and scoops. Inferno Titan is freaking AMAZING.
Game 2: I side out Ratchet Bombs because all his dudes would force me to kill my own Clasps. Pyroclasms are much much better. This game he mulls but gets the best curved hand and I get stuck on 4 lands and a Chalice for 1. This is actually an epic battle but once he got a Highborn online and a second one after I killed the first, it's pretty much over. I made some pretty critical errors with Arc Trail. He played the Vamp that can sac for +2/+2 and I kept targeting it and another creature which he'd sac to save the sac dude. This happened three times. At the end of the game I exclaimed, "All my 2-for-1s weren't 2-for-1s!!!" I should have been hitting the sac Vamp for 1 and doming him for 2 to either lose the sac Vamp or another vampire. Bad play in a game that I think I would have lost anyways to Kalastria Highborn and some slowrolled Bloodghast triggers.
Game 3: This game is epic. I keep and he mulls. It is a tight game that almost goes to time and comes down to the last draw to win the game. I think he made errors not killing Koth early. But it didn't matter since I had 3 Valakuts and 1 moutain. He Doombladed one of my attacking 4/4 moutains. There was a lot of back and forth between his dudes getting in licks and my 4/4 mountains coming in. It was basically a race. By this time there is a small crowd gathering (pun intended) around our match. One guy, a nice guy named Corey who I've played before, is really excited about this game and even exclaims, "Sorry to crowd you guys but this is the BEST game I've seen all night!!!" I did have a blowout play when he attacked me with a pumped Lavaclaw Reaches and Landfell Bloodghast hasted. He activates and swings in. I have enough to multi-kick Comet Storm to kill his dude, his land and dome him for 2. The crowd erupts! He eventually gets more guys out that rape Koth. But not before I can use Koth's ghetto Garruk move to turn 1 of my mountains into 2 mana to stick a Phoenix. When I do he quickly flashes a Doomblade then pulls it back. I tell him, "I'm not swinging. I'm getting mana." He laughs. He now decides to kill the Mountain instead of Phoenix to keep me off mana which is a good idea since I now only have 3 Valakuts out. The crowd wince in horror as I lose my critical mountain. On his go if he draws a land I'm dead because there are two Bloodghasts in the bin and he has a small team out. I'm holding an Inferno Titan with only 3 Valakuts and a double kicked Chalice. He's at 7 life. I tell him I should have plenty of outs but could really use a mountain. If I don't draw a mountain or a Lightning Bolt I'm done. I untap and draw. I calmly play a another Phoenix and swing in for 8. Got him. The crowd erupts one last time, "OOH!!! DAMN!!!" What a great match. Dave and I discuss the last game. He wanted me to hit that mountain because he thought I was going for a Koth 4/4 attack, which he tells me I couldn't attack with right away because of summoning sickness. The crowd correct him, "He was holding Inferno Titan in his hand." It would have been nice to bullseye him with Titan but I'll take a double Phoenix alpha strike any day of the week.
I'm 2-1 and its rolling around 10:00pm. I have work the next day and I wanted to see my family. I decide to drop. All in all I was not happy about the first set because I got face raped by UW Control and Red typically doesn't have color hate answers like a Celestial Purge, Deathmark, or Flashfreeze. What I wouldn't do for Flashfires or Anarchy. But we have to test against the Tier 1 control deck for the future. The good thing is Etched Oracle my be an answer but not sure yet. Also, UB Control decks just Top 4'd the Top 8 at Worlds so UW will take a backseat meaning Leyline of Douchebaggery may not be a problem in the future.
Extended PTQs are around the corner and I have plenty of cards for Double Standard so I'll build and test and see if a PTQ is in my future.
Monday, November 22, 2010
50 Decks of Christmas
In order to cull some of the holiday sadness involving Magic the Gathering I plan on doing an emotional look back at the decks I've built and played since coming back to the game.
Before I left Chicago I had something like 50 Legacy casual decks built. All a mixture of Aggro, Control, Midrange and combo decks.
DECKLISTS OVER TIME:
1. Jund*
2. Polymorph*
3. Red Deck Wins (Shards, M10, Zendikar, M11)*
4. Gargadon RDW
5. Mono-Green Stompy Budget (Shards, M10, Zendikar, M11)*
6. Mono-Black Budget (Shards, M10, Zendikar, M11)*
7. Swans Combo*
8. Restore Balance Cascade*
9. Living End Cascade*
10. Rude Awakening
11. Jund Ramp
12. Bant Aggro (Equipment Deck)
13. Ghazi-Glare
14. Call of the Wild Eldrazi
15. Naya Zoo 2009 Extended
16. Life From the Loam (Raven's Crime)
17. Satanic Sligh
18. UW Tokens/Opposition*
19. Thopter/Swords*
20. Gold Deck Wins*
21. 5/C Cascade*
22. Worldheart Phoenix Control*
23. Gladiator/Arena Control
24. Solar Flare
25. Angelfire
26. Big Red Mana Ramp (Snow)
27. Artifact Snow Control
28. Ravager Affinity*
29. UG Madness Legacy*
30. Project X
31. Snow White (Martyr/Proclamation)
32. Mono-White Enchantments
33. Blink/Touch
34. GB Elves*
35. UW Merfolk*
36. 5/C Elementals*
37. 5/C Planeswalkers
38. Doran Doran
39. RG Madness Aggro
40. Living Death*
41. 4/C Mannequin (BRUG)
42. Astral Slide*
43. Mono-Blue Faeries
44. Magma Phoenix/Boom-Bust*
45. Izzetron
46. Slavertron
47. UGR Teachings Control
48. Domain Aggro
49. Legacy Burn
50. Legacy MUC
51. Legacy White Weenie
52. Legacy Mono-Black Disruption
Current Decklists:
Affinity - Legacy
Mono-Red Burn - Legacy
Esper Control - Standard
Mass Polymorph - Standard
GR Metalcraft - Standard
Mono-Black Midrange - Standard
Budget Eldrazi Green - Standard
Mono-Green Aggro - Standard
RG Planeswalker Valakut - Standard
Mono-Blue Control - Standard
Man plan is to cull the old feelings for my casual Magic days is to write a decklist, review and matchup for every deck on the list. It is akin to Sufjan Stevens 50 States albums.
Not sure if it's going to happen but it will be fun.
Before I left Chicago I had something like 50 Legacy casual decks built. All a mixture of Aggro, Control, Midrange and combo decks.
DECKLISTS OVER TIME:
1. Jund*
2. Polymorph*
3. Red Deck Wins (Shards, M10, Zendikar, M11)*
4. Gargadon RDW
5. Mono-Green Stompy Budget (Shards, M10, Zendikar, M11)*
6. Mono-Black Budget (Shards, M10, Zendikar, M11)*
7. Swans Combo*
8. Restore Balance Cascade*
9. Living End Cascade*
10. Rude Awakening
11. Jund Ramp
12. Bant Aggro (Equipment Deck)
13. Ghazi-Glare
14. Call of the Wild Eldrazi
15. Naya Zoo 2009 Extended
16. Life From the Loam (Raven's Crime)
17. Satanic Sligh
18. UW Tokens/Opposition*
19. Thopter/Swords*
20. Gold Deck Wins*
21. 5/C Cascade*
22. Worldheart Phoenix Control*
23. Gladiator/Arena Control
24. Solar Flare
25. Angelfire
26. Big Red Mana Ramp (Snow)
27. Artifact Snow Control
28. Ravager Affinity*
29. UG Madness Legacy*
30. Project X
31. Snow White (Martyr/Proclamation)
32. Mono-White Enchantments
33. Blink/Touch
34. GB Elves*
35. UW Merfolk*
36. 5/C Elementals*
37. 5/C Planeswalkers
38. Doran Doran
39. RG Madness Aggro
40. Living Death*
41. 4/C Mannequin (BRUG)
42. Astral Slide*
43. Mono-Blue Faeries
44. Magma Phoenix/Boom-Bust*
45. Izzetron
46. Slavertron
47. UGR Teachings Control
48. Domain Aggro
49. Legacy Burn
50. Legacy MUC
51. Legacy White Weenie
52. Legacy Mono-Black Disruption
Current Decklists:
Affinity - Legacy
Mono-Red Burn - Legacy
Esper Control - Standard
Mass Polymorph - Standard
GR Metalcraft - Standard
Mono-Black Midrange - Standard
Budget Eldrazi Green - Standard
Mono-Green Aggro - Standard
RG Planeswalker Valakut - Standard
Mono-Blue Control - Standard
Man plan is to cull the old feelings for my casual Magic days is to write a decklist, review and matchup for every deck on the list. It is akin to Sufjan Stevens 50 States albums.
Not sure if it's going to happen but it will be fun.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Friday Night Magic
FNM didn't go as planned. I didn't plan to win the whole thing knowing that a few ringers always attend. But I at least wanted to come out with a winning record. That didn't happen. 1-2 and a bye. Not good for my ego or confidence.
I decided that I didn't want to play Goblins because I was tired of the deck and took it apart to build Legacy Mono-Red Burn. I picked up some Baneslayer Angels weeks after moving to Florida but haven't played them competitively. So I figured I'd give the old girls a chance. I had a UWB Control deck built that tried to abuse the best cards in each color. I really built the deck hoping each card would be either a 2-for-1 or at least a cantrip.
Here's the list I rocked at the last FNM:
Baneslayer Angel x 4
Wall of Omens x 4
Seagate Oracle x 4
Wurmcoil Engine x 2
Sun Titan x 1
Mana Leak x 4
Cancel x 2
Doomblade x 4
Consuming Vapors x 2
Day of Judgement x 2
Volition Reins x 1
Mind Control x 1
Jace Beleren x 3
Celestial Colonade x 4
Creeping Tarpit x 3
Glacial Fortress x 3
Drowned Catacomb x 3
Seachrome Coast x 2
Darkslick Shores x 2
Terramorphic Expanse x 1
Tectonic Edge x 1
Islands x 3
Plains x 3
Swamps x 1
Sideboard x 15
Flashfreeze x 4
Celestial Purge x 3
Deathmark x 4
Mind Control x 1
Volition Reins x 1
Tectonic Edge x 2
My plan was to out draw my opponents into all the business spells, stabilize the board and then take over the game with lifelink dudes. Walls and Seagates clog the board and help me to dig. Counters and removal stabilize. Baneslayer is crazy in winning games. When she hits she needs only four more turns to win. Wurmcoils are awesome to me but too slow for the format in my opinion. The sideboard was good to cover the bases of almost any matchup. Things just didn't go my way.
Round 1: Roy - RUG Midrange
RUG has won the most recent big tournament and Roy is one of the ringers. I know he plays what the pros have already dictated to him is good. Roy is a nice enough guy but is a bit on the obnoxious side. He plays very tight and knows his deck extremely well. He goes to all the area PTQs and even tried to convince me to ride with him to Atlanta for a Grand Prix. I don't know why I got paired up with him since his DCI rating is infinitely better then mine. Back to the deck that many consider control. RUG decks I consider Midrange because depending on the matchup will change its gameplan. If its up against aggro it plays the control. If its up against control it beats down. The deck can have very quick starts so up against my Control deck it was the beatdown player.
Game 1: I keep a decent hand with all three colors of mana, some control and a Seagate. He drops Lotus Cobra, Explores, does some Halimar Depths shenannigans. I play lands, Seagate and keep passing but I hit my land drops for 5 turns but I'm digging for double white so I can Day of Judgement. I think as I'm tapped out for the Seagate at some point he Kicks a Goblinruin Blaster and hits my Colonade, my only white source of mana. He sticks Jace Mind Sculptor and goes to work fixing his draws. I have a Volition Reins in hand but was slowed down a turn. Now, I've never actually played against Jace the Mind Doucher because I just recently started playing Standard again. I think Jace is a ridiculous card and never should have been printed or prices driven so high. Back to the game. I'm at 10 life and decide to V-Reins his JMS instead of playing Wurmcoil because the Wurmcoil will just get Unsummoned. He has enough mana to activate his Raging Ravine, play a Kicked Ruinblaster and attack for 10. Bullseye. FML.
Game 2: I side in Flashfreezes and Deathmarks. I take out all the 6cc and a Cancel. I go first and stick a Wall of Omens then play draw go for a few turns. He goes to Ruinblaster and I say Flashfreeze, he goes Spell Pierce, I go, "Awesome play. Didn't see that coming." He over extends with two Lotus Cobras and Goblin Ruinblaster that I DoJ the next turn. He plays JMS and I place Jace v1.0 to legend rule his JMS. He plays a Frost Titan and I Consuming Vapors it. He plays a Lotus Cobra for more land drop shenannigans and I rebound his snake. At this point it seems I have all the answers to his threats. He sticks another JMS and I play Baneslayer. We play Draw-Go-Bounce-Play-Baneslayer for a few turns. His JMS dies and I stick another Baneslayer and he scoops. Even though I had all the answers that game he still exclaims he drew nothing but land. Right.
Game 3 is embarrassing for me. I totally fumble this game starting with a two-land no white mana hand. It has two Wall of Omens and I need one of my 13 white sources to get this hand going. He goes Lotus Cobra and plays some lands into Explores into more lands. I still do not get my white mana but draw into another Wall of Omens. Shrugs. He sticks a turn 4 Frost Titan. WTF? LOL. Shrugs again. I go Doom Blade Titan. He says, "Sure. It's not dead." I instantly remember his first ability. I should really be better at this game. I scoop. FML.
I consider Roy one of the "Ringers" because he is a very Spike player in a field of Timmies and Johnnies. I thought I played decent considering I never play competitively these days and he was rocking a Top 8 deck. We small talk and he adds that I play too many comes into play tapped lands. I agree but usually I'm never colored screwed. It happens.
Round 2: Tommy playing Roy's Eldrazi Elves.
Tommy is a very nice kid who I've mildly befriended since moving to Florida. We've played before and he's a good player as long as he knows his deck. Elves is an amazing deck that doesn't even need Eldrazi Monuments to win.
Game 1: I win the roll and play a Colonade. Tommy keeps a slow draw with double Oran-Rief Vastwoods. I play some Walls and Seagates digging for a Day of Judgement as I Doom Blade a pumped Joraga Treespeaker. He keeps sticking the Joraga Warcallers and pumping them with Oran-Rief and an epic quadruple pumped Joraga Warcaller. He swings for lethal with his super pumped lord-dudes that already had some pumps from the Vastwoods.
Game 2: I side in Flashfreezes and Deathmarks. The game is going very well in the beginning. I Flashfreeze and Doomblade all his early dudes. I get some Seagates down and Wall digging for a Day of Judgement as I Deathmark a Ezuri Overrunner. He sticks a Vengevine pumped with a Vastwood and swings. I do not block with one of my three open defenders. I do this for a few reasons: 1. Tommy has no cards in hand and 2. I have another Deathmark. I don't want to lose a blocker for when it matters if I know the Vengevine will die for sure AND he will need runner runner creatures to get the Mythic haster back. I stick a Baneslayer and swing to knock him down. He only has some mana dudes but sticks a gigantic Warcaller that makes his dudes upwards of 7/7s. I stick another Baneslayer and swing to knock him down and gain some life. He bum rushes me and I block with all my might, making all the correct blocks on his largest attackers. I lose two Seagates, Wall of Omens and Baneslayer. I go up in life and with my all in blocks after taking something like 18 damage I'm a 6 life. Tommy is at 10 and I have a live Baneslayer, a Creeping Tarpit and a Celestial Colonade. Problem is I need one more mana to double activate my manlands and swing for lethal. I ask Tommy if he sees it. I tell him I need to draw a land to win the game. I untap and slam down the top card of my library onto the battlefield. Beat. Mana Leak. That was an awesome loss.
Tommy smokes me in like 20 minutes so I ask if he wants to play my Affinity deck while I play my Mono-Red Legacy burn deck. I don't get much Legacy play so he agrees. Its funny that Tommy has NEVER played Affinity so he had no idea how to play it. As our explosive plays start dropping a small crowd of 6 gather to watch. It briefly reminds me of me and Jaco playing Type 1 during downtime at Standard PTQs way back in the day. The entire room would watch Jaco and I drop Moxes and Juzams on turn 1 and 2. It was a good feeling. It's a fun few games and the Affinity deck is clearly a faster clock. Cranial Plating is retarded. With the addition of Menmite it has made the deck that much better.
The interesting thing that happened the dudes crowding to look through my trade binder. Its a rarity to see some good old school stuff in a person's binder. Dark Confidants, Reflecting Pools, Force of Wills, Counterbalance, Sensei's Divine Top, etc. At some point Roy invites me to travel with him and some of the other guys to play Extended in Atlanta. I decline because my reality is worlds different then these youngsters. As much as it would be fun to rock some new Extended it is difficult enough for me to get to play in an FNM.
Round 3: Bye - Edward, the shop manager gave me the bye for the round and we did some trading that ended with me giving up some one-ofs that I never really used and me gaining another foil Chain Lightning and Grim Lavamancer as well as some other odd foils. But Edward alerted me to him playing some EDH and that has sparked a fire in me to play some casual once again. Magic has become meaningful again.
Round 4: Corbin - RG Aggro Fling
Corbin is a n00b that I roll over 2-0 in about 15 minutes. Its unexciting and at that point I'm pretty tired after working a full day and staying to play Magic until 10:00 pm.
I get 7th or 8th out of 15. I don't pack but I get a Gatekeeper of Malakir FNM foil as a prize. Yeah. All in all it was not a cool night for Magic. I did play tons of games prior to the tournament starting, including a few Mass Polymorph wins, but I am just not enjoying current Standard right now.
I'm pretty sure I need to deconstruct what I have and try to rebuild. It is very time intensive to do so. I will have to find the time. But Standard is just not cool with all the Mythic bullshit, as a budget player, pisses me off. I am tired of playing Mono-Red but having three Koth of the Hammer makes me want to do so. I am very much contemplating trying to hook up 4 Primeaval Titans to play Eldrazi Green. But I doubt that will happen.
EDH is on the horizon and Legacy tournaments at Armada makes me want to actually drive out to Tampa. We'll see what the future holds. I am also waiting for the new format announcement.
I decided that I didn't want to play Goblins because I was tired of the deck and took it apart to build Legacy Mono-Red Burn. I picked up some Baneslayer Angels weeks after moving to Florida but haven't played them competitively. So I figured I'd give the old girls a chance. I had a UWB Control deck built that tried to abuse the best cards in each color. I really built the deck hoping each card would be either a 2-for-1 or at least a cantrip.
Here's the list I rocked at the last FNM:
Baneslayer Angel x 4
Wall of Omens x 4
Seagate Oracle x 4
Wurmcoil Engine x 2
Sun Titan x 1
Mana Leak x 4
Cancel x 2
Doomblade x 4
Consuming Vapors x 2
Day of Judgement x 2
Volition Reins x 1
Mind Control x 1
Jace Beleren x 3
Celestial Colonade x 4
Creeping Tarpit x 3
Glacial Fortress x 3
Drowned Catacomb x 3
Seachrome Coast x 2
Darkslick Shores x 2
Terramorphic Expanse x 1
Tectonic Edge x 1
Islands x 3
Plains x 3
Swamps x 1
Sideboard x 15
Flashfreeze x 4
Celestial Purge x 3
Deathmark x 4
Mind Control x 1
Volition Reins x 1
Tectonic Edge x 2
My plan was to out draw my opponents into all the business spells, stabilize the board and then take over the game with lifelink dudes. Walls and Seagates clog the board and help me to dig. Counters and removal stabilize. Baneslayer is crazy in winning games. When she hits she needs only four more turns to win. Wurmcoils are awesome to me but too slow for the format in my opinion. The sideboard was good to cover the bases of almost any matchup. Things just didn't go my way.
Round 1: Roy - RUG Midrange
RUG has won the most recent big tournament and Roy is one of the ringers. I know he plays what the pros have already dictated to him is good. Roy is a nice enough guy but is a bit on the obnoxious side. He plays very tight and knows his deck extremely well. He goes to all the area PTQs and even tried to convince me to ride with him to Atlanta for a Grand Prix. I don't know why I got paired up with him since his DCI rating is infinitely better then mine. Back to the deck that many consider control. RUG decks I consider Midrange because depending on the matchup will change its gameplan. If its up against aggro it plays the control. If its up against control it beats down. The deck can have very quick starts so up against my Control deck it was the beatdown player.
Game 1: I keep a decent hand with all three colors of mana, some control and a Seagate. He drops Lotus Cobra, Explores, does some Halimar Depths shenannigans. I play lands, Seagate and keep passing but I hit my land drops for 5 turns but I'm digging for double white so I can Day of Judgement. I think as I'm tapped out for the Seagate at some point he Kicks a Goblinruin Blaster and hits my Colonade, my only white source of mana. He sticks Jace Mind Sculptor and goes to work fixing his draws. I have a Volition Reins in hand but was slowed down a turn. Now, I've never actually played against Jace the Mind Doucher because I just recently started playing Standard again. I think Jace is a ridiculous card and never should have been printed or prices driven so high. Back to the game. I'm at 10 life and decide to V-Reins his JMS instead of playing Wurmcoil because the Wurmcoil will just get Unsummoned. He has enough mana to activate his Raging Ravine, play a Kicked Ruinblaster and attack for 10. Bullseye. FML.
Game 2: I side in Flashfreezes and Deathmarks. I take out all the 6cc and a Cancel. I go first and stick a Wall of Omens then play draw go for a few turns. He goes to Ruinblaster and I say Flashfreeze, he goes Spell Pierce, I go, "Awesome play. Didn't see that coming." He over extends with two Lotus Cobras and Goblin Ruinblaster that I DoJ the next turn. He plays JMS and I place Jace v1.0 to legend rule his JMS. He plays a Frost Titan and I Consuming Vapors it. He plays a Lotus Cobra for more land drop shenannigans and I rebound his snake. At this point it seems I have all the answers to his threats. He sticks another JMS and I play Baneslayer. We play Draw-Go-Bounce-Play-Baneslayer for a few turns. His JMS dies and I stick another Baneslayer and he scoops. Even though I had all the answers that game he still exclaims he drew nothing but land. Right.
Game 3 is embarrassing for me. I totally fumble this game starting with a two-land no white mana hand. It has two Wall of Omens and I need one of my 13 white sources to get this hand going. He goes Lotus Cobra and plays some lands into Explores into more lands. I still do not get my white mana but draw into another Wall of Omens. Shrugs. He sticks a turn 4 Frost Titan. WTF? LOL. Shrugs again. I go Doom Blade Titan. He says, "Sure. It's not dead." I instantly remember his first ability. I should really be better at this game. I scoop. FML.
I consider Roy one of the "Ringers" because he is a very Spike player in a field of Timmies and Johnnies. I thought I played decent considering I never play competitively these days and he was rocking a Top 8 deck. We small talk and he adds that I play too many comes into play tapped lands. I agree but usually I'm never colored screwed. It happens.
Round 2: Tommy playing Roy's Eldrazi Elves.
Tommy is a very nice kid who I've mildly befriended since moving to Florida. We've played before and he's a good player as long as he knows his deck. Elves is an amazing deck that doesn't even need Eldrazi Monuments to win.
Game 1: I win the roll and play a Colonade. Tommy keeps a slow draw with double Oran-Rief Vastwoods. I play some Walls and Seagates digging for a Day of Judgement as I Doom Blade a pumped Joraga Treespeaker. He keeps sticking the Joraga Warcallers and pumping them with Oran-Rief and an epic quadruple pumped Joraga Warcaller. He swings for lethal with his super pumped lord-dudes that already had some pumps from the Vastwoods.
Game 2: I side in Flashfreezes and Deathmarks. The game is going very well in the beginning. I Flashfreeze and Doomblade all his early dudes. I get some Seagates down and Wall digging for a Day of Judgement as I Deathmark a Ezuri Overrunner. He sticks a Vengevine pumped with a Vastwood and swings. I do not block with one of my three open defenders. I do this for a few reasons: 1. Tommy has no cards in hand and 2. I have another Deathmark. I don't want to lose a blocker for when it matters if I know the Vengevine will die for sure AND he will need runner runner creatures to get the Mythic haster back. I stick a Baneslayer and swing to knock him down. He only has some mana dudes but sticks a gigantic Warcaller that makes his dudes upwards of 7/7s. I stick another Baneslayer and swing to knock him down and gain some life. He bum rushes me and I block with all my might, making all the correct blocks on his largest attackers. I lose two Seagates, Wall of Omens and Baneslayer. I go up in life and with my all in blocks after taking something like 18 damage I'm a 6 life. Tommy is at 10 and I have a live Baneslayer, a Creeping Tarpit and a Celestial Colonade. Problem is I need one more mana to double activate my manlands and swing for lethal. I ask Tommy if he sees it. I tell him I need to draw a land to win the game. I untap and slam down the top card of my library onto the battlefield. Beat. Mana Leak. That was an awesome loss.
Tommy smokes me in like 20 minutes so I ask if he wants to play my Affinity deck while I play my Mono-Red Legacy burn deck. I don't get much Legacy play so he agrees. Its funny that Tommy has NEVER played Affinity so he had no idea how to play it. As our explosive plays start dropping a small crowd of 6 gather to watch. It briefly reminds me of me and Jaco playing Type 1 during downtime at Standard PTQs way back in the day. The entire room would watch Jaco and I drop Moxes and Juzams on turn 1 and 2. It was a good feeling. It's a fun few games and the Affinity deck is clearly a faster clock. Cranial Plating is retarded. With the addition of Menmite it has made the deck that much better.
The interesting thing that happened the dudes crowding to look through my trade binder. Its a rarity to see some good old school stuff in a person's binder. Dark Confidants, Reflecting Pools, Force of Wills, Counterbalance, Sensei's Divine Top, etc. At some point Roy invites me to travel with him and some of the other guys to play Extended in Atlanta. I decline because my reality is worlds different then these youngsters. As much as it would be fun to rock some new Extended it is difficult enough for me to get to play in an FNM.
Round 3: Bye - Edward, the shop manager gave me the bye for the round and we did some trading that ended with me giving up some one-ofs that I never really used and me gaining another foil Chain Lightning and Grim Lavamancer as well as some other odd foils. But Edward alerted me to him playing some EDH and that has sparked a fire in me to play some casual once again. Magic has become meaningful again.
Round 4: Corbin - RG Aggro Fling
Corbin is a n00b that I roll over 2-0 in about 15 minutes. Its unexciting and at that point I'm pretty tired after working a full day and staying to play Magic until 10:00 pm.
I get 7th or 8th out of 15. I don't pack but I get a Gatekeeper of Malakir FNM foil as a prize. Yeah. All in all it was not a cool night for Magic. I did play tons of games prior to the tournament starting, including a few Mass Polymorph wins, but I am just not enjoying current Standard right now.
I'm pretty sure I need to deconstruct what I have and try to rebuild. It is very time intensive to do so. I will have to find the time. But Standard is just not cool with all the Mythic bullshit, as a budget player, pisses me off. I am tired of playing Mono-Red but having three Koth of the Hammer makes me want to do so. I am very much contemplating trying to hook up 4 Primeaval Titans to play Eldrazi Green. But I doubt that will happen.
EDH is on the horizon and Legacy tournaments at Armada makes me want to actually drive out to Tampa. We'll see what the future holds. I am also waiting for the new format announcement.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Reality Bites.
"Hello, you've reached the winter of our discontent." – Troy Dyer's answering machine, Reality Bites (1994)
I'm of the generation where Reality Bites is relevant for me. The emergence of grunge, MTV, a young Ben Stiller, Violent Femmes covers, and Ethan Hawke was still badass. I think there was even an obscure Tim Burton cameo but I might be getting that confused with Cameron Crowe's Singles. I'm not that old, as in early 40's old (I'm in my "new" 20's), but I am of the tail end of Generation-X. So yeah, Reality Bites was a good movie for me.
I chose this quote because this is how I feel about the current state of Magic: the Gathering. Winter is soon upon us. Thanksgiving is only one week away. Christmas will quickly be here. And I'm super unsatisfied with the current state of Standard in Magic the Gathering.
Current Standard Decks (note: all budget decks, meaning no Mythic rare shenanigans to get me by):
Eldrazi Green
Mono-Green Aggro
Mono-Blue Metalcraft
RG Metalcraft
Esper Control
Mono-Black Midrange
Mass Polymorph
Planeswalker Valakut
I'm super discontent with Magic right now for a few reasons:
1) as I've mentioned before the Mythic Rare BS that has taken over standard has become ludicrous. It is almost impossible to properly compete without the big Mythic Rares packing your deck, i.e. Jace the Douchesculptor, Titans (you know which ones), Gideon, Vengevine, Mox Opal, etc. Now, it is not impossible to compete. There are a few decks out there that are highly competitive and have proven so in PTQs and MTGO, i.e. Kuldotha Red (which only uses two Mox Opals in the Mythic category) and Boros, which other then Stoneforger Mystics and fetchlands is almost all common and uncommon.
2) I don't really have a chance to play that much anymore. Back home I had my regular playgroup at Westwood College. Granted we played casually but I used those games to tighten my play style (although I always said casual play weakened my skills). Back home, before leaving for Florida (Swans and Phoenix were are already in FL), I played maybe 6 days a week. At school, during off days and sometimes on the weekends. These days I'm lucky if I can even look at my cards let alone play maybe once every few weeks. So my playtime has drastically dropped, and that has obviously affected my love of Magic: the Gathering.
BYE BYE STANDARD. HELLO EVERY OTHER FORMAT. Happy face.
My goal now is to try and find some place to competitively play Legacy if I can and to try and prepare for any upcoming Extended PTQs in the area. Talking with the manager at the Lakeland comic store, he has opened my eyes to possibly playing Casual EDH as well (more on this to come). Lastly, I am very much anticipating the announcement and legalization of the new "Over Extended" format, which will consist of Mercadian Masques block till current.
I'm basically giving up on Standard. I did attend an FNM but realized it just isn't worth it anymore. More on that soon.
Wanting to play Legacy is difficult because having the expensive cards to compete is tough. Thankfully, I really don't need to Buy-In to compete because there are a few decks that I can run with a degree of success. I do have enough of the old cards to compete. Also, one of my best friends let me borrow some cards years ago, mainly Force of Will x 4, so that is already a good jumping point.
I've already discussed a Faerie type MUC build, which I think can work very well. It has a soft lock combo in Counterbalance and Sensei's Divine Top as well as a mix of Wizards and Rip-Tide Laboratory. I may even add a few artifacts like Ratchet Bomb, Vedalken Shackles, and Isochron Scepter hooked up with Academy Ruins. Playing control has been one of my strong suites but the Legacy format is so wide open that I don't know enough of the metagame to properly compete.
Mono-Red Burn or what I'm going to dub "Burn Notice" is basically a deck that needs 7 business spells to win. Bolt, Chain, Incinerate, Bolt, Hellspark, Bolt, Fireblast FTW. If you can get that string of cards by turn 4 you win. The problem with this deck is there are combo decks in Legacy that turn two kill you, lock you out or plain run you over by turn three. Charbelcher, Reanimator, Survival Vengevine or Goblins.
The other option I have is running Ravager Affinity. Affinity is the scourge of Mirrodin Standard and can currently compete with the aggressive decks and combo decks present in Legacy. With a nut draw it can kill turn 3. The sideboard can be good enough to fight Survival decks and combo decks. Cards like Ethersworn Canonist shut down combos, Pithing Needle and Meddling Mage can kill Survival and all the graveyard hate cards are artifacts, namely Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus and the new Nihil Spellbomb. I have been toying around with the idea of throwing the combo of inevitability into the deck: Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek.
The other deck I'm thinking of running for Legacy is White Weenie. There are a SLEW of awesome effective 1-drops and 2-drops (Figure of Destiny, Student of Warfare, Mother of Runes, etc.) for this deck plus insane card advantage (Ranger of Eos and Stoneforger Mystic). Plus it runs the best spot removal in Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and even one or two Oblivion Ring. My favorite part of this kind of deck is Armageddon. Happy face.
And with Stoneforgers you can rock some of the best equipment, Swords of Fire and Ice, Light and Shadow, Umezawa's Jitte, etc.
With the new Extended, Lorwyn Block and up, I can really shine. Since I played HEAVILY during Lorwyn Standard I pretty much have every card worth running in that block as well as Alara Block, with the exception of Bitterblossom. I'm not sure what will come of the new Extended now that Time Spiral block and 10th Edition has rotated out. My feeling is that the big bad menace of Faeries will be relevant. At the same time card advantage machine that is known as Jund will also be available. Bloodbraiding into a Boggart Ram Gang is amazing. I also think that incarnations of 5-Color Control will also be happening again. I bet some form of Elves will also be happening as well. White Weenie is also going to be money since Kai Budde's version lost almost nothing in the rotation. Some forms of Doran Rock will also be good as well. 3cc 5/5s are very good as well as their buddies 1cc Loam Lions and Treefolk Tutors.
Nextime i'll discuss the travesty that was my last FNM, upcoming EDH, as well as the undertaking I plan on blogging about: writing and deck discussing each deck I ran prior to leaving Chicago. That is 50 decklists I'll be writing about. What up? High five.
I'm of the generation where Reality Bites is relevant for me. The emergence of grunge, MTV, a young Ben Stiller, Violent Femmes covers, and Ethan Hawke was still badass. I think there was even an obscure Tim Burton cameo but I might be getting that confused with Cameron Crowe's Singles. I'm not that old, as in early 40's old (I'm in my "new" 20's), but I am of the tail end of Generation-X. So yeah, Reality Bites was a good movie for me.
I chose this quote because this is how I feel about the current state of Magic: the Gathering. Winter is soon upon us. Thanksgiving is only one week away. Christmas will quickly be here. And I'm super unsatisfied with the current state of Standard in Magic the Gathering.
Current Standard Decks (note: all budget decks, meaning no Mythic rare shenanigans to get me by):
Eldrazi Green
Mono-Green Aggro
Mono-Blue Metalcraft
RG Metalcraft
Esper Control
Mono-Black Midrange
Mass Polymorph
Planeswalker Valakut
I'm super discontent with Magic right now for a few reasons:
1) as I've mentioned before the Mythic Rare BS that has taken over standard has become ludicrous. It is almost impossible to properly compete without the big Mythic Rares packing your deck, i.e. Jace the Douchesculptor, Titans (you know which ones), Gideon, Vengevine, Mox Opal, etc. Now, it is not impossible to compete. There are a few decks out there that are highly competitive and have proven so in PTQs and MTGO, i.e. Kuldotha Red (which only uses two Mox Opals in the Mythic category) and Boros, which other then Stoneforger Mystics and fetchlands is almost all common and uncommon.
2) I don't really have a chance to play that much anymore. Back home I had my regular playgroup at Westwood College. Granted we played casually but I used those games to tighten my play style (although I always said casual play weakened my skills). Back home, before leaving for Florida (Swans and Phoenix were are already in FL), I played maybe 6 days a week. At school, during off days and sometimes on the weekends. These days I'm lucky if I can even look at my cards let alone play maybe once every few weeks. So my playtime has drastically dropped, and that has obviously affected my love of Magic: the Gathering.
BYE BYE STANDARD. HELLO EVERY OTHER FORMAT. Happy face.
My goal now is to try and find some place to competitively play Legacy if I can and to try and prepare for any upcoming Extended PTQs in the area. Talking with the manager at the Lakeland comic store, he has opened my eyes to possibly playing Casual EDH as well (more on this to come). Lastly, I am very much anticipating the announcement and legalization of the new "Over Extended" format, which will consist of Mercadian Masques block till current.
I'm basically giving up on Standard. I did attend an FNM but realized it just isn't worth it anymore. More on that soon.
Wanting to play Legacy is difficult because having the expensive cards to compete is tough. Thankfully, I really don't need to Buy-In to compete because there are a few decks that I can run with a degree of success. I do have enough of the old cards to compete. Also, one of my best friends let me borrow some cards years ago, mainly Force of Will x 4, so that is already a good jumping point.
I've already discussed a Faerie type MUC build, which I think can work very well. It has a soft lock combo in Counterbalance and Sensei's Divine Top as well as a mix of Wizards and Rip-Tide Laboratory. I may even add a few artifacts like Ratchet Bomb, Vedalken Shackles, and Isochron Scepter hooked up with Academy Ruins. Playing control has been one of my strong suites but the Legacy format is so wide open that I don't know enough of the metagame to properly compete.
Mono-Red Burn or what I'm going to dub "Burn Notice" is basically a deck that needs 7 business spells to win. Bolt, Chain, Incinerate, Bolt, Hellspark, Bolt, Fireblast FTW. If you can get that string of cards by turn 4 you win. The problem with this deck is there are combo decks in Legacy that turn two kill you, lock you out or plain run you over by turn three. Charbelcher, Reanimator, Survival Vengevine or Goblins.
The other option I have is running Ravager Affinity. Affinity is the scourge of Mirrodin Standard and can currently compete with the aggressive decks and combo decks present in Legacy. With a nut draw it can kill turn 3. The sideboard can be good enough to fight Survival decks and combo decks. Cards like Ethersworn Canonist shut down combos, Pithing Needle and Meddling Mage can kill Survival and all the graveyard hate cards are artifacts, namely Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus and the new Nihil Spellbomb. I have been toying around with the idea of throwing the combo of inevitability into the deck: Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek.
The other deck I'm thinking of running for Legacy is White Weenie. There are a SLEW of awesome effective 1-drops and 2-drops (Figure of Destiny, Student of Warfare, Mother of Runes, etc.) for this deck plus insane card advantage (Ranger of Eos and Stoneforger Mystic). Plus it runs the best spot removal in Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and even one or two Oblivion Ring. My favorite part of this kind of deck is Armageddon. Happy face.
And with Stoneforgers you can rock some of the best equipment, Swords of Fire and Ice, Light and Shadow, Umezawa's Jitte, etc.
With the new Extended, Lorwyn Block and up, I can really shine. Since I played HEAVILY during Lorwyn Standard I pretty much have every card worth running in that block as well as Alara Block, with the exception of Bitterblossom. I'm not sure what will come of the new Extended now that Time Spiral block and 10th Edition has rotated out. My feeling is that the big bad menace of Faeries will be relevant. At the same time card advantage machine that is known as Jund will also be available. Bloodbraiding into a Boggart Ram Gang is amazing. I also think that incarnations of 5-Color Control will also be happening again. I bet some form of Elves will also be happening as well. White Weenie is also going to be money since Kai Budde's version lost almost nothing in the rotation. Some forms of Doran Rock will also be good as well. 3cc 5/5s are very good as well as their buddies 1cc Loam Lions and Treefolk Tutors.
Nextime i'll discuss the travesty that was my last FNM, upcoming EDH, as well as the undertaking I plan on blogging about: writing and deck discussing each deck I ran prior to leaving Chicago. That is 50 decklists I'll be writing about. What up? High five.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Dark Lairs
So a friend of mine who follows my blog asked about my own collectible card game, Dark Lairs.
What? You have a collectible card game?
The answer is yes...it's a long drawn out yes.
It started almost two years ago. I was having one of those days where I thought, "What the hell am I doing with my life?" At this point, I was already a dad and my son was the most important thing in my life. I was working as a designer and was teaching drawing and design courses at Westwood College. Career wise I was pretty happy (other then the usual bitches and gripes). I think I was having a creative crisis. I felt like I haven't really done anything, creatively, that was worth a damn.
Sure, I've had a few gallery showings, had some work hung up at local joints, pretty cool but nothing to write home about. So I created a creative bucket list. This list is of things that I wanted to accomplish creatively before I died.
The list as of now...
Start my own design company
Do at least one freelance illustration for a fantasy game company
Write, draw, and publish my own graphic novel
Publish my own creative memoir of all my collected work
Do at least some contract work for a videogame company
Do some storyboarding for a movie
Write and Illustrate my own children's book
Sell a screenplay
Have work hang in another gallery
Create my own Fantasy Collectible Card Game
These are some modest goals that are very attainable if I just line up all my ducks in a row. The first one, start my own company, is what I'm currently working on. I'm getting some website stuff accomplished and talking with my new partner-slash-salesman, i.e. my dad, about how to attack the market here in Florida. The last one is what Dark Lairs is all about.
Over the last five or six years I've been doing tons of drawings that I'd eventually want to turn into finished illustrations. I started to use my drawings as demonstrations for the drawing and character development classes I taught at Westwood. Eventually that collection of drawings started turning into a makeshift portfolio. My initial goal was (still is) to use that portfolio to knock off the freelance illustration for a gaming company, off of my bucket list.
Then, one evening as me and the family were walking around Walmart, which we constantly did back home, because Walmart rules, my wife wanted to buy this lame card game called Bandits. It was a very very basic action based card game that win condition involved accumulation. The few games we played I kept thinking that this game should be adapted into a fantasy game.
That was the spark.
I began re-creating the rules to my own liking and slowly changed the rules enough to where I thought it could be super fun as a Fantasy card game. I started creating characters and cards to use with my illustrations. Suddenly this game was creating itself. I kept adding more and more to the rules and came up with new card types and win conditions.
I mentioned the game to one of my other gaming buddies, Shawn, who was also in the process of creating a pen & paper RPG (that's traditional roleplaying to you non-geeky types). Shawn told me to enter the game in a game contest at the Chicago Game and Toy Expo in November. The spark became a wildfire at this point.
Dark Lairs, the lame name I came up with, was now something that consumed me for a while (that and Magic). Luckily the homeboys at Westwood, the dudes in my play group, were very interested in helping me get the game squared away for the contest.
In hindsight, I realize I started to create the game to showcase my artwork, the game itself was a lot more difficult to create. Being an amateur game designer helped but there are smarter people out there to help me. So I sent the rules to my playgroup and some old friends that use to game with me back in the day.
Anyways, while creating the game for the Chicago competition, the oddest thing happened out of nowhere. I moved to Florida. Dark Lairs was shelved for a while. When I finally sort of settled in Florida I figured the game was dead.
Thankfully my wife was adamant that I finish the game and enter the competition anyways. Why not? This was very true. Shockingly, my mother was very supportive of me creating and finishing the game. She thought it could be a way to open some doors for me professionally. It has yet to yield anything just yet but I'm working on it (kinda, building contacts). With the support of my wife and mom, it was on like Donkey Kong.
I immersed my downtime with finishing the game. I contacted the Florida chapter and found out the due date for our region. I created the game and mocked up the shit out of it hoping to win on style points. Unfortunately the contest is based on the actual rules but the main playtester loved the game design.
Needless to say my game was entered into the contest and I scored very low. This wasn't a surprise because I wasn't able to really test the game and I got tons of feedback from my friends on how to clarify and fix the game. When I get the prototype back I'll figure it all out. But as of now, my dreams of having my game published by Rio Grande Games is dead.
That is actually totally okay with me. I knew going into the contest I didn't have a good shot. But I'm glad I entered anyways. How many people can say they created, illustrated and printed their own collectible card game? Not many.
So Dark Lairs has helped me accomplish my goal on the bucket list. Dark Lairs is also in rules limbo right now. I really want to Alpha and Beta test is a lot more and get the rules more refined. Hopefully I can get with my people back home and fix the game and maybe try for next year.
When I finish my website I'll post the card designs and illustrations up there and for sure link to my blog. yah! This experience has been fun and no regrets. I have a cool looking game and needs some work. It has also opened up some creative doors. I can actually put game designer as a title. LOL. Deadpan.
Seriously though...
I'm working on the general rules to expansion sets for Dark Lairs: Pirates of the Caribbean, Dark Lairs: Stars Alignment and Dark Lairs: Portal Wars.
I am also looking to create a fantasy card game based on the rules of football and a game based on Chess. But we'll see what happens.
For now...keep gaming...
...and on that note, I'm pretty sure I'm going to give up Magic the Gathering for a while. Take a hiatus. I just don't have the drive any longer to play. Trying to play competitively here in Florida has kinda killed Magic for me. I'd rather play casually with the dudes back home. Sad face.
What? You have a collectible card game?
The answer is yes...it's a long drawn out yes.
It started almost two years ago. I was having one of those days where I thought, "What the hell am I doing with my life?" At this point, I was already a dad and my son was the most important thing in my life. I was working as a designer and was teaching drawing and design courses at Westwood College. Career wise I was pretty happy (other then the usual bitches and gripes). I think I was having a creative crisis. I felt like I haven't really done anything, creatively, that was worth a damn.
Sure, I've had a few gallery showings, had some work hung up at local joints, pretty cool but nothing to write home about. So I created a creative bucket list. This list is of things that I wanted to accomplish creatively before I died.
The list as of now...
Start my own design company
Do at least one freelance illustration for a fantasy game company
Write, draw, and publish my own graphic novel
Publish my own creative memoir of all my collected work
Do at least some contract work for a videogame company
Do some storyboarding for a movie
Write and Illustrate my own children's book
Sell a screenplay
Have work hang in another gallery
Create my own Fantasy Collectible Card Game
These are some modest goals that are very attainable if I just line up all my ducks in a row. The first one, start my own company, is what I'm currently working on. I'm getting some website stuff accomplished and talking with my new partner-slash-salesman, i.e. my dad, about how to attack the market here in Florida. The last one is what Dark Lairs is all about.
Over the last five or six years I've been doing tons of drawings that I'd eventually want to turn into finished illustrations. I started to use my drawings as demonstrations for the drawing and character development classes I taught at Westwood. Eventually that collection of drawings started turning into a makeshift portfolio. My initial goal was (still is) to use that portfolio to knock off the freelance illustration for a gaming company, off of my bucket list.
Then, one evening as me and the family were walking around Walmart, which we constantly did back home, because Walmart rules, my wife wanted to buy this lame card game called Bandits. It was a very very basic action based card game that win condition involved accumulation. The few games we played I kept thinking that this game should be adapted into a fantasy game.
That was the spark.
I began re-creating the rules to my own liking and slowly changed the rules enough to where I thought it could be super fun as a Fantasy card game. I started creating characters and cards to use with my illustrations. Suddenly this game was creating itself. I kept adding more and more to the rules and came up with new card types and win conditions.
I mentioned the game to one of my other gaming buddies, Shawn, who was also in the process of creating a pen & paper RPG (that's traditional roleplaying to you non-geeky types). Shawn told me to enter the game in a game contest at the Chicago Game and Toy Expo in November. The spark became a wildfire at this point.
Dark Lairs, the lame name I came up with, was now something that consumed me for a while (that and Magic). Luckily the homeboys at Westwood, the dudes in my play group, were very interested in helping me get the game squared away for the contest.
In hindsight, I realize I started to create the game to showcase my artwork, the game itself was a lot more difficult to create. Being an amateur game designer helped but there are smarter people out there to help me. So I sent the rules to my playgroup and some old friends that use to game with me back in the day.
Anyways, while creating the game for the Chicago competition, the oddest thing happened out of nowhere. I moved to Florida. Dark Lairs was shelved for a while. When I finally sort of settled in Florida I figured the game was dead.
Thankfully my wife was adamant that I finish the game and enter the competition anyways. Why not? This was very true. Shockingly, my mother was very supportive of me creating and finishing the game. She thought it could be a way to open some doors for me professionally. It has yet to yield anything just yet but I'm working on it (kinda, building contacts). With the support of my wife and mom, it was on like Donkey Kong.
I immersed my downtime with finishing the game. I contacted the Florida chapter and found out the due date for our region. I created the game and mocked up the shit out of it hoping to win on style points. Unfortunately the contest is based on the actual rules but the main playtester loved the game design.
Needless to say my game was entered into the contest and I scored very low. This wasn't a surprise because I wasn't able to really test the game and I got tons of feedback from my friends on how to clarify and fix the game. When I get the prototype back I'll figure it all out. But as of now, my dreams of having my game published by Rio Grande Games is dead.
That is actually totally okay with me. I knew going into the contest I didn't have a good shot. But I'm glad I entered anyways. How many people can say they created, illustrated and printed their own collectible card game? Not many.
So Dark Lairs has helped me accomplish my goal on the bucket list. Dark Lairs is also in rules limbo right now. I really want to Alpha and Beta test is a lot more and get the rules more refined. Hopefully I can get with my people back home and fix the game and maybe try for next year.
When I finish my website I'll post the card designs and illustrations up there and for sure link to my blog. yah! This experience has been fun and no regrets. I have a cool looking game and needs some work. It has also opened up some creative doors. I can actually put game designer as a title. LOL. Deadpan.
Seriously though...
I'm working on the general rules to expansion sets for Dark Lairs: Pirates of the Caribbean, Dark Lairs: Stars Alignment and Dark Lairs: Portal Wars.
I am also looking to create a fantasy card game based on the rules of football and a game based on Chess. But we'll see what happens.
For now...keep gaming...
...and on that note, I'm pretty sure I'm going to give up Magic the Gathering for a while. Take a hiatus. I just don't have the drive any longer to play. Trying to play competitively here in Florida has kinda killed Magic for me. I'd rather play casually with the dudes back home. Sad face.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
CHICAGO!!!
I've been in FloRida for a little over three months and I finally got a chance to go home, even for a short while. The reason for the epic return? My boy was getting MARRIED!!!!
My dude, Kevin, was actually my best man at my wedding and sort of shared duties with my favorite cousin, Jeff (who I'll get too as well). But I have to say, other then my own wedding, Kev and Karen's wedding was the best wedding I've been to. Ironically, the other "best" wedding I've been was Remy's in LA.
I'll just get into it...
Why was this trip extra special? It was a few fold actually. Obviously my friend getting married is one of the main reasons. Another reason is being able to see all my other friends that I left back home in Chicago. I also got to see my family that remains back home. Phoenix got to see his grandparents and play with his other friends. AND lastly, we got to enjoy Chicago.
I so miss Chicago.
Just when I was getting used to Florida, we take a trip home and I so miss Chicago all over again.
I miss Chicago.
But I'm loving Florida now too.
So, wow...Kevin got married. For those of you who don't know Kevin. I'm sure that's everybody. Kevin is one of my childhood friends. We grew up together and formed that friendship that will last a lifetime I hope. He is an amazing friend and I'm so happy he was able to find his soulmate. And soulmate Karen is. Karen is a female version of Kevin. That's probably they fit so well together. During the wedding I gave an impromptu toast to represent our childhood group of friends. I was so drunk my hands were shaking and I spilled most of the rum in my glass. Anyways, I toasted about a lot of things apparently. Nobody has really said anything about it, probably because I was so hammered. But, earlier in the weekend, after the rehearsal dinner, my wife probably summed up Kevin and Karen best, "They are different enought to make life interesting yet so similar to make it last a lifetime." To me, that is a beautiful line and I really wish I was so fucking drunk to fumble it all, quotes, toasts, my drink and all. But it doesn't matter. If I'm not getting drunk to honor one of my best friends, then I'm doing something wrong.
Cheers to Kevin and Karen! Love you guys and I'm so happy.
Oh yeah, there wedding was so interesting because it was at a joint called Salvage One, an old antique furniture store in Chicago. It was just so perfect for them and totally exemplifies their personalities.
http://www.salvageone.com/home.php
As for seeing our friends...
All my friends that I grew up with are just about the awesomest people in the entire fucking world. I'd gladly take a bat to a dude's head if they asked me to. But, just being away for a while and seeing everybody just reminded me of how awesome they all are and how much I miss them. The epic hangover I had the next day was worth every minute hanging out with them. I hope we get a chance to see them soon. I keep telling them to plan a group trip here to Florida so we can explore some beaches and hit up Disney World. It'll be fun!
The wedding was the main reason we went but seeing family and friends outside of the wedding was important too.
Our best friends out in Naperville were awesome enough to let us crash with them, pick us up and drop us off at the airport and let us borrow their badass Acura MDX for the weekend. Bestest friends ever. And, they have three amazing kids that love hanging out with Phoneix. Cheers to the Flowers clan for letting us drunkards chill with them. Unfortunately their kids were a little sick so Phoenix got a cough, fever and sniffle. Nothing a little Florida sun and humidity won't clear up in short order.
We also had a chance to see my cousins and uncle. Of course we met at an all you can eat buffet. The food was amazing and I wish I could take my hangover back so I could've enjoyed the food more. But, my cousin Jeff, who I love like my own brother, is now married, shotgun shotgun, and his wife as a bun in the oven. I'm very happy for them because being a father I wouldn't trade for the entire world. But I am a little disappointed. I don't really want to say more then that. I do love them but...
Eh. I'm done for now.
Chicago in a nutshell:
White Castle
Portillos
Chinatown's Evergreen
Chinatown's Happy Chef
Thaitown
Pappadeaux
Buffalo Joe's
Joy Yee
Yeah...I'm a fatty and love every minute of it.
Cheers!
My dude, Kevin, was actually my best man at my wedding and sort of shared duties with my favorite cousin, Jeff (who I'll get too as well). But I have to say, other then my own wedding, Kev and Karen's wedding was the best wedding I've been to. Ironically, the other "best" wedding I've been was Remy's in LA.
I'll just get into it...
Why was this trip extra special? It was a few fold actually. Obviously my friend getting married is one of the main reasons. Another reason is being able to see all my other friends that I left back home in Chicago. I also got to see my family that remains back home. Phoenix got to see his grandparents and play with his other friends. AND lastly, we got to enjoy Chicago.
I so miss Chicago.
Just when I was getting used to Florida, we take a trip home and I so miss Chicago all over again.
I miss Chicago.
But I'm loving Florida now too.
So, wow...Kevin got married. For those of you who don't know Kevin. I'm sure that's everybody. Kevin is one of my childhood friends. We grew up together and formed that friendship that will last a lifetime I hope. He is an amazing friend and I'm so happy he was able to find his soulmate. And soulmate Karen is. Karen is a female version of Kevin. That's probably they fit so well together. During the wedding I gave an impromptu toast to represent our childhood group of friends. I was so drunk my hands were shaking and I spilled most of the rum in my glass. Anyways, I toasted about a lot of things apparently. Nobody has really said anything about it, probably because I was so hammered. But, earlier in the weekend, after the rehearsal dinner, my wife probably summed up Kevin and Karen best, "They are different enought to make life interesting yet so similar to make it last a lifetime." To me, that is a beautiful line and I really wish I was so fucking drunk to fumble it all, quotes, toasts, my drink and all. But it doesn't matter. If I'm not getting drunk to honor one of my best friends, then I'm doing something wrong.
Cheers to Kevin and Karen! Love you guys and I'm so happy.
Oh yeah, there wedding was so interesting because it was at a joint called Salvage One, an old antique furniture store in Chicago. It was just so perfect for them and totally exemplifies their personalities.
http://www.salvageone.com/home.php
As for seeing our friends...
All my friends that I grew up with are just about the awesomest people in the entire fucking world. I'd gladly take a bat to a dude's head if they asked me to. But, just being away for a while and seeing everybody just reminded me of how awesome they all are and how much I miss them. The epic hangover I had the next day was worth every minute hanging out with them. I hope we get a chance to see them soon. I keep telling them to plan a group trip here to Florida so we can explore some beaches and hit up Disney World. It'll be fun!
The wedding was the main reason we went but seeing family and friends outside of the wedding was important too.
Our best friends out in Naperville were awesome enough to let us crash with them, pick us up and drop us off at the airport and let us borrow their badass Acura MDX for the weekend. Bestest friends ever. And, they have three amazing kids that love hanging out with Phoneix. Cheers to the Flowers clan for letting us drunkards chill with them. Unfortunately their kids were a little sick so Phoenix got a cough, fever and sniffle. Nothing a little Florida sun and humidity won't clear up in short order.
We also had a chance to see my cousins and uncle. Of course we met at an all you can eat buffet. The food was amazing and I wish I could take my hangover back so I could've enjoyed the food more. But, my cousin Jeff, who I love like my own brother, is now married, shotgun shotgun, and his wife as a bun in the oven. I'm very happy for them because being a father I wouldn't trade for the entire world. But I am a little disappointed. I don't really want to say more then that. I do love them but...
Eh. I'm done for now.
Chicago in a nutshell:
White Castle
Portillos
Chinatown's Evergreen
Chinatown's Happy Chef
Thaitown
Pappadeaux
Buffalo Joe's
Joy Yee
Yeah...I'm a fatty and love every minute of it.
Cheers!
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