Hallo, I am very happy to say that all of the win conditions I bought yesterday won a game themself. A Mirran Crusader suited up with Sword War and Peace is lotsa fun (with just 1 card in the opponent's hand, that's 10 damage) and Geist of St Traft lead to a very cool victory round 3. Or 2. Anyway, the games!
At Blacktown again, I'm paired against Blake who's fresh from work and newish to Magic.
Round 1 v Blake with red deck gets there.
Unfortunately for Blake, red deck didn't get there, though the story is funny. There's a turn 1 Reckless Waif that doesn't flip because I keep smoothing my hand and making plays until I land a Hero of Bladehold. Easy victory? Naaah, he's got the maindeck Combust for it (yikes!). That's OK, my hands full of threats so I just play another Hero and hope it sticks. Nope, Combust number 2 torches her.
The game continues uneventful for a moment as his Waif does flip and begins bashing in, when I cast my Mirran Crusader hoping to staunch the flow before it can begin. He answers with, yes you guessed it, Flame Slash.
What? Flame Slash? And sorcery speed mind you?? Funnily enough I pointed out that Flame Slash was a sorcery BEFORE that it wasn't even legal standard. "I gotta call the guy running this thing," I tell Blake, and the runner comes in from his smoke break/phone call. Seeing this isn't FNM I didn't say anything. My opponent was awarded a game lose, asked if he had any other nonlegal cards and we were told to play on from the current situation. I don't know that I like the 'play on' rule, seeing I was winning and was about to be handed another win for an easy match.
Still, it's not official FNM, though it is DCI sanctioned, though it is REGULAR so who knows/cares/whatever. We find a few Lightning Bolt and even a Chain Lightning in his deck, and I figure it's the lightning bolt special fanciness type deck, replace them all with Mountains and continue play.
Back to the action, Mirran Crusader looks smarmy bashing in next turn, when Elspeth shows up and makes dorks, gains me some life and a Fireball from Blake doesn't do much to save him.
1-0
1-0
That feels odd to write. Funnily enough the commoission the unStandard cards caused went along the table, and in round 2 one of the fellas who was talking about it got busted for Ornithopters. Good games!
My round 1 opponent was the amazing Mr Anderson.
Round 2 vs Wolf Run Wolf
Seeing the match up but not knowing the wolf part of it (ramp into lotsa mana, drop a lot of which Wolves exactly?) I keep a good hand for me that doesn't get there. His Birds of Paradise begin attacking when doubled with a Green Sun Zenith for another, followed by a Hero of Oxid Ridge. It's hard to block without creatures, let alone being dead.
For game 2 I sideboarded in my Dismembers and Spellskites, hoping he'd get anyone but his Hero's. He plays a Mayor of Avabruck early which I Dismember, going to 16, because my Geist of St Traft doesn't need to die yet. He drops to 14 off my first attack, tries to make a Kirin Outlaw as a blocker which gets Oblivion Ring'd and he takes another hit, going to 8. He has another Kirin Outlaw which I Dismember again [to 12] but then Consecrated Sphinx shows up and seals the deal.
Game 3 I don't change my sideboarding, though considering the Hero of Oxid Ridge I should have taken out the Spellskites.
Anderson gets an early Getstaf Shepherd who flips rather quick and my Phantasmal Image tries keeping up but he doesn't really. My hand is filled with complicated tricky measures I *could* take to stop the flow, but he has Midnight Howling [the werewolf enchantment] so that my Day of Judgment is useless, and he uses Kessig Wolf Run on my Phantasm who just can't hack the hike. I die pretty soundly, Anderson on a flush looking 16.
2-1
1-1
I also make a mental note: Actually Ghost Quarter's to the main, stupid. I forgot t mention I had counted my deck in between rounds and found 59 cards in the main. I'd removed a Plains for 2 Ghost Qs but neglected to put them in. This may have changed the match results (game loss each, then just play one game) but the result is the same. I ask Runner for the land banks and gets myself a nice replacement Island.
Round 3 versus Rony.
Yet again, my best mate/arch nemesis Rony is the opponent. He's trying a Burning Vengeance deck, which I think is great. Playing FNM the points are really worth it and the boosters are rather arbitary as to who gets them, so the games are just for fun. We tested before the event and he countered everything I did and had a B Vengeance on board when the first round was called, so I didn't know what my chances looked like.
Game 1 I keep 7 and he keeps 6, and he has the Burning Vengeance turn 3. I drop a Hero to just lay the smacks in, but he has a Geistflame and flashes it back to kill the Hero. I think that's a pretty good capability for the deck, but I answer with Consecrated Sphinx and begin drawing oodles, then next turn follow it up with a Sphinx copy via Phantasmal Image. He tries for a Forbidden Alchemy but it finds nothing and he concedes to 8 flying power and me drawing 5 a turn cycle.
Game 2 I sideboard in all my Negates, because they were especially good, and ask Rony jokingly "You're creatureless aren't you?" He confirms so I out all the Timely Reinforcments and Day of Judgment for goodstuff, including another Mirran Crusader.
Game 2 Rony and me lay lands until he tries to Alchemy, which I Leak. He doesn't have the counter-counter and just shrugs as he draws, me joking "Did you need that to draw out of a rut?" He drops the Burning Vengeance next, when I get a Hero and we all know that 7>2. Only he has a Sever the Bloodline for it, so I drop Gideon and hope to avoid all the creature removal he has.
Gidy gets him down to 14, then 8 then a Mirran Crusader joins my side of the fight which gets Mana Leak'd but I pay the 3. Rony's last turn he casts a Snapcaster Mage (liar! There WERE creatures!) but I check out his graveyard and see only a Sever the Bloodline that could make things bad. Dissapate does away with that removal and Rony dies.
2-0
2-1
My final round is against David, playing green white with artifacts in. He's got the powerful stuff, ala Gideon and DoJ, so he's playing green/white "me".
We both keep 7 and he has an early Jade Mage, which I copy with Phantasmal Image to keep the beats off/trade. He doesn't beat, so I do him down to 18. Hero comes down for me, which gets matched by a Druidic Satchel (for reals). I've written here *squints* P. H. squiggle, so I don't know what I played next, but he drops from 18 to 8, taking 7 from Hero-tokens and 3 from the Jade Mage. Hero 2 comes down, and he has a Day of Judgment! Back breaking, if I didn't have another Hero, the third. His answer then is Gideon, who says "Come at me bro," in a real convincing manner, so my team does buying David another turn.
He has a Satchel there after which isn't enough to beat my Hero beats matched with another Phantasmal Image-Hero.
Game 1 I sideboard Negate for his Gideon, Day of Judgment etc. We both keep 7 and I get a very stiff question straight away. He drops Grand Abolisher (no mana leak, no dissappate, etc) so for turn 2 there's no point in playing an untapped land. Does that mean Seachrome Coast or Glacial Fortress? I drop the Fortress tapped, figuring a turn 3 Seachrome Coast to Oblivion Ring the Abolisher is just delicious.
He gets a Satchel on an empty board, which isn't itself threatening but without any pressure from me it threatens to take control of the game. I get another Oblivion Ring so he drops Scepter of the Empires and begins a long game of plinking me down. I'm down to 17 when I get Elspeth and make some dorks, and gain life up to 20 again, but all the while he plinks me with Sceptre. He resolves a Garruk's Companion which begins beating me for 3 a turn and uses his Exilir to go up to 25.
I'm down to 14 when Elesh Norn shows up for the first time ever and rips the game a new one. My soldiers are 3/3, I bash for goods (his 2 minions died) and I make another 3 tokens with Elspeth, and then he Day of Judgments. Yeah, that happens some times.
He's at sixteen after my attack, I drop a Mirran Crusader with Mana Leak back up and he tries to Day of Judgment again. I counter it with Mana Leak and that's rather game, as he has no more threats or counters and his 14 just gets chewed out. Sword of War and Peace shows up and makes it two "small" attacks before I've got the match.
2-0
3-1
So a beaut 3-1 performance! There was certainly times when I could have played smarter, such as dropping loads of creatures into two Day of Judgments. Losing Elesh and all those lovely 3/3 Soldier tokens wasn't so bad though, considering the way I played. I knew the possibility was there, and it meant I could win NOW if he didn't have DoJ. He did, but because of how I'd chosen to play I still had the just-as-lethal threat or Mirran Crusader+Sword.
As I said above the Sword and Geist were both worth it, though I think St Traft will be moved to the sideboard. I like him in games against removal.dec, but he needs more cards to remove blockers and ones that preferably don't cost me 4 life to play. You know, those Vapor Snags I never added.
In his place the Mirran Crusader will rejoin the maindeck (so 2x main) also because of the Sword of War and Peace. It's just nice to know how quick that clock is, and only blue creatures can block after the Swords on the Crusader.
So after my thoughts, here's tonights deck. Note to self: add those Lands. Tricksy lands.
Geist of St Traft to sideboard
Mana Leak/Timely Reinforcments from sb gone -> 2x Vapor Snag in.
So tonight's run (proper FNM, at Megagames again) will look like this:
8 Island
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands
4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
---
13 creatures
4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Timely Reinforcements
3 Dissipate
3 Mana Leak
2 Day of Judgment
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Gideon Joura
1 Elspeth Tirel
---
22 others
2 Negate
2 Dismember
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Spellskites
2 Go for the Throat
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Swamp
---
15 sideboard
OK so based on the cards I have upstairs, we're experimenting lightly with a black splash. Go for the Throat, Nihil with black for card draw. The Nihil would have been Forbidden Alchemy, but 1 mana is cheap to pay and the exile-your-bin isn't counterable, so against opposing Snapcaster Mage's I will be FEARLESS. The Ghost Quarter is against the self same decks, because when they get Drownyard going it's just yuck.
Thanks all, I'll letcha know!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
TNM, thursday night's Magic
Hello hello, here's the latest brew of my deck:
8 Island
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands
4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Geist of St Traft
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
---
13 creatures
4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Timely Reinforcements
3 Dissipate
3 Mana Leak
2 Day of Judgment
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Gideon Joura
1 Elspeth Tirel
---
22 others
2 Negate
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Dismember
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Spellskites
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Mana Leak
---
13 sideboard
Do note Traft and s of War/Peace are in the main, because they're new threats and look like fun together. Again, no black added because the lands haven't arrived. I'm not sure how I'd do against the control decks now, but with Traft I've got a threat cheap enough to drop early, who they HAVE to counter because they can't doom blade it, ditto for the Mirran Crusader, but now he's a singleton with a brother in the sideboard.
Moved some counterspells around too, 3 Mana Leaks with 2 Negates in the side, to make less redundant draws at the games end when Mana Leaks "pay 3!" is negligible.
I also parked one of the Wurms in the sideboard, and he's joined by some Spellskites. The skites are just good creatures, blocking everything early (like that Noble vampire!) and redirecting spells away from my lovely Consecrated Sphinx, say, then bounced safely to hand and replayed ala giggle (thanks steel sabotage).
Venser and Jace are vacated from the sideboard because there was never a time when I wanted to play them. Venser is a random fella who I'd consider putting back in at some point, but Jace REALLY wants to be in a mill deck, because the effects seem random without the help of Nephalia Drownyard, and the +1 ability is rather underwhelming (though good) for 5 mana.
Elesh was moved to the main because I love and want to have her babies, which goes well with the increase to 25 lands main. Rony insists that 26 is what I want, and he said I always mana screwed against him, but seeing I won those games I'm agreeing with me. Plus I don't wanna see a million land when my threat cost 4 (Hero) and such. The big spells that cost 6 are really just there to close out the game/eat removal for the smaller looking, "plan B" guys.
So I'll let you know how I go! I am trying to figure out how to do pictures on this thing, but at the moment it's not working. There's an HTML editor button I can see, so hopefully I'll just locate the directory I need to link to (I made my own website a few times now).
Ta! Fox.
8 Island
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands
4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Geist of St Traft
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
---
13 creatures
4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Timely Reinforcements
3 Dissipate
3 Mana Leak
2 Day of Judgment
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Gideon Joura
1 Elspeth Tirel
---
22 others
2 Negate
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Dismember
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Spellskites
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Mana Leak
---
13 sideboard
Do note Traft and s of War/Peace are in the main, because they're new threats and look like fun together. Again, no black added because the lands haven't arrived. I'm not sure how I'd do against the control decks now, but with Traft I've got a threat cheap enough to drop early, who they HAVE to counter because they can't doom blade it, ditto for the Mirran Crusader, but now he's a singleton with a brother in the sideboard.
Moved some counterspells around too, 3 Mana Leaks with 2 Negates in the side, to make less redundant draws at the games end when Mana Leaks "pay 3!" is negligible.
I also parked one of the Wurms in the sideboard, and he's joined by some Spellskites. The skites are just good creatures, blocking everything early (like that Noble vampire!) and redirecting spells away from my lovely Consecrated Sphinx, say, then bounced safely to hand and replayed ala giggle (thanks steel sabotage).
Venser and Jace are vacated from the sideboard because there was never a time when I wanted to play them. Venser is a random fella who I'd consider putting back in at some point, but Jace REALLY wants to be in a mill deck, because the effects seem random without the help of Nephalia Drownyard, and the +1 ability is rather underwhelming (though good) for 5 mana.
Elesh was moved to the main because I love and want to have her babies, which goes well with the increase to 25 lands main. Rony insists that 26 is what I want, and he said I always mana screwed against him, but seeing I won those games I'm agreeing with me. Plus I don't wanna see a million land when my threat cost 4 (Hero) and such. The big spells that cost 6 are really just there to close out the game/eat removal for the smaller looking, "plan B" guys.
So I'll let you know how I go! I am trying to figure out how to do pictures on this thing, but at the moment it's not working. There's an HTML editor button I can see, so hopefully I'll just locate the directory I need to link to (I made my own website a few times now).
Ta! Fox.
Techno, not chess.
I was planning to write about chess, and relate it to Magic, and how playing any game and playing it well and finding the underlying stratedgies will help you in every other game (or learning how to spell strategy properly), but instead I'm outside because it's annoying inside, and I can. Instead; technology.
I'm seated outside on a lovely cool night, not minding the mozzie bites because they beat the incessant drill of the TV into my brain, and obviously I avoid the peat bog like conditions of being inside. The internet I'm using is being screamed in to my computer by a wireless router, who in turn is getting it from I don't know where. The very first computers took up entire rooms and those who worked on it predicted they'd just get bigger. Now they've just announced that they can get a byte of information down to about 96 single atoms.
If the internet connection were to break, I could activate the bluetooth on my phone, connect THAT to the internet, and keep right on going. The amazing part is my niece and nephew wont care, wont be able to care, because to them it was always a part a life, simple and granted.
I remember hearing about the days of black and white TV, and how people would tape strips of coloured celophane to their TV and kid that they had colour TV. Now we've got whatever TV they ever played on youtube, or isohunt.com, the myriad of jungles of information out there that are so uncategorised and "oversold" as to cause a hyper active attention system in any daily user, thus shrinking their ability to focus, pay attention and ultimately think clearly.
So I love still reading books, and I enjoy sleeping with the battery pulled out of my phone. Try telling me anything THEN, facebook/twitter/internet. Of course, the battle isn't won! It kicks up again when I think of my dearest, and that I want to hear from her, talk to her, communicate. She's not that far away, phone or computer. Or telephone, the old fashioned thing with the "wireless"ness but it's never as impressive because it's not a network.
I can relate this back to Magic, actually. Back in the days, the early days, the days before even I knew what a "Standard tournament" meant, there were 4/5s. And they were HUGE. Bigger than your 15/15s of today, oh my yes. They could be blocked by two creatures and KILL THEM BOTH. They were easily worth 7 mana for the size alone.
The comparison is pretty simple. As Magic got older and evolved, the card pool expanded. Much like technology. As both got better, so did the users and the regulators, sort of like creatures and kill spells. Now a 2/2 who can't be shot and makes a 4/4 co-attacker is worth only 3 mana! Back in the day I remember playing a 1/1 who tapped for Red mana and was red itself. Whoever heard or red acceleration?
Eitherway, the minor funk this technology shock creates comes from the idea that if you tell anyone "Hey, technology wasn't always this good" they'll just say "But yes, it is right now and who cares and let's watch stupid cat videos all over the internet all night." I don't really hear the "thanks" there, and I can't personally tell you anything about anyone who worked on getting the internet to being a real thing, apart from Al Gore, and I only know he had it set up at the white house years before the public found out about it. And I'm not even sure how accurate that information is.
So, I guess, I'm taking it for granted that this amazing new technology will be taken for granted by most, and no thanks really awarded to whoever made it. Companies make money off the internet, not whoever created it. Perhaps the same became of whoever thought of the Letter, but it all stands true.
So next time you cast your 6/6 for 4CC and get a really nifty bonus anyway, just remember the brave souls who went before you, and thought a 4/5 was really big and a great deal for only 7 mana.
Fox Murdoch.
I'm seated outside on a lovely cool night, not minding the mozzie bites because they beat the incessant drill of the TV into my brain, and obviously I avoid the peat bog like conditions of being inside. The internet I'm using is being screamed in to my computer by a wireless router, who in turn is getting it from I don't know where. The very first computers took up entire rooms and those who worked on it predicted they'd just get bigger. Now they've just announced that they can get a byte of information down to about 96 single atoms.
If the internet connection were to break, I could activate the bluetooth on my phone, connect THAT to the internet, and keep right on going. The amazing part is my niece and nephew wont care, wont be able to care, because to them it was always a part a life, simple and granted.
I remember hearing about the days of black and white TV, and how people would tape strips of coloured celophane to their TV and kid that they had colour TV. Now we've got whatever TV they ever played on youtube, or isohunt.com, the myriad of jungles of information out there that are so uncategorised and "oversold" as to cause a hyper active attention system in any daily user, thus shrinking their ability to focus, pay attention and ultimately think clearly.
So I love still reading books, and I enjoy sleeping with the battery pulled out of my phone. Try telling me anything THEN, facebook/twitter/internet. Of course, the battle isn't won! It kicks up again when I think of my dearest, and that I want to hear from her, talk to her, communicate. She's not that far away, phone or computer. Or telephone, the old fashioned thing with the "wireless"ness but it's never as impressive because it's not a network.
I can relate this back to Magic, actually. Back in the days, the early days, the days before even I knew what a "Standard tournament" meant, there were 4/5s. And they were HUGE. Bigger than your 15/15s of today, oh my yes. They could be blocked by two creatures and KILL THEM BOTH. They were easily worth 7 mana for the size alone.
The comparison is pretty simple. As Magic got older and evolved, the card pool expanded. Much like technology. As both got better, so did the users and the regulators, sort of like creatures and kill spells. Now a 2/2 who can't be shot and makes a 4/4 co-attacker is worth only 3 mana! Back in the day I remember playing a 1/1 who tapped for Red mana and was red itself. Whoever heard or red acceleration?
Eitherway, the minor funk this technology shock creates comes from the idea that if you tell anyone "Hey, technology wasn't always this good" they'll just say "But yes, it is right now and who cares and let's watch stupid cat videos all over the internet all night." I don't really hear the "thanks" there, and I can't personally tell you anything about anyone who worked on getting the internet to being a real thing, apart from Al Gore, and I only know he had it set up at the white house years before the public found out about it. And I'm not even sure how accurate that information is.
So, I guess, I'm taking it for granted that this amazing new technology will be taken for granted by most, and no thanks really awarded to whoever made it. Companies make money off the internet, not whoever created it. Perhaps the same became of whoever thought of the Letter, but it all stands true.
So next time you cast your 6/6 for 4CC and get a really nifty bonus anyway, just remember the brave souls who went before you, and thought a 4/5 was really big and a great deal for only 7 mana.
Fox Murdoch.
Ramping/pimping for thursday night
Hallo hallo, Magic hasn't been such a focus this week as I've been with my honey. Thursday and friday are on this week though, and I just bought some nice bling for my white blue deliciousness. There isn't any black being added yet, seeing the lands haven't arrived and I really think my chances against non-Solar flare decks aren't terrible. Don't ask me about that red deck wins deck though. And why didn't anyone tell me Negate was legal? It counters everything.
Except that 1/1.
I took out the Sphere on the Suns from the sb and put in Geist of Traft, Sword War Peace and 2 Spellskites. The Skites are good because they also fit into the sideboard of my Legacy deck, which I should talk about here some time soon.
I believe Geist has arguments for main or sideboard. As a sb card, he'd be brought in as an any extra Phantasmal Image kill against himself, otherwise he'd simply be great against infi-removal.dec, but I'd need some way to protect him each combat. That's where I think protection spells would rock, inparticular Apostle's Blessing, which I was originally eyeing off.
The Sword will go into the main as random greatness, plus doubles as evasion for Traft as well as super-dupering up my M Crusader to have protection from everything nonBlue. The Spellkites will help against the aggro decks, as well as the other decks that try and pop my cards. Vapor Snag my Hero? Nopes!
Looks fun. Stand by for more, this time about Games in general (think Chess).
Except that 1/1.
I took out the Sphere on the Suns from the sb and put in Geist of Traft, Sword War Peace and 2 Spellskites. The Skites are good because they also fit into the sideboard of my Legacy deck, which I should talk about here some time soon.
I believe Geist has arguments for main or sideboard. As a sb card, he'd be brought in as an any extra Phantasmal Image kill against himself, otherwise he'd simply be great against infi-removal.dec, but I'd need some way to protect him each combat. That's where I think protection spells would rock, inparticular Apostle's Blessing, which I was originally eyeing off.
The Sword will go into the main as random greatness, plus doubles as evasion for Traft as well as super-dupering up my M Crusader to have protection from everything nonBlue. The Spellkites will help against the aggro decks, as well as the other decks that try and pop my cards. Vapor Snag my Hero? Nopes!
Looks fun. Stand by for more, this time about Games in general (think Chess).
Sunday, January 15, 2012
FNM again, 13th
Well hi howdy. Wanna know how last week went? OK, press holt Ctrl and press Pg Dn now. For those who like to read a story proper, just keep agoin'. By the way, Ah'm also watching How the West Was Won right now, so excuse mah ak-sent.
Taking the list previously written, I was eagerly awaiting how the deck would run without the Solemn's, and curious to see when I'd wanna side in the great 1-ofs in my sideboard, namely Elesh Norn, Venser and Jace. Turns out Elesh is a very easy inclusion to any deck with creatures, especially any deck running Delver of Secrets seeing every creature it plays is just dead. Also, Snapcaster Mage's no longer bash for two, while your whole team is just stupid big. I mean a 6/8 flying sphinx just isn't Ouch enough.
Also the Think Twice's being gone was an easy fix, seeing it's just a card that cycles, which is inherently useless right? Let's get to it.
Round 1 versus Jarred playing Solar Flare.
Straight away my arch nemesis. I haven't got much of a chance right here, because every threat I play can be countered or killed, and at the end of his turn so I ain't got much chance to interact right like. We both keep 7.
My threats for the first game are two Hero of Bladeholds that get Doom Blade'd each. He gets out some Pristine Talisman action and drops a Grave Titan. I manage to cast DoJ, while he Forbidden's for an answer he doesn't find. His turn he drops Gideon (that traitor!) onto the field, saying all the critters I don't own gotta attack him. I Oblivion Ring during my own turn, but he Alchemy's again, and finds the Mana Leak to counter it, or always had it and felt like playing around.
Sideboarding I don't know what he'll do and don't remember how I sideboarded, but he plays Drownyard and I can't do anything as my library slips into my graveyard. I knew I had 2 Ghost Quarters main but even if I drew one o' them he'd still have another Drownyard I wager. I try an Elspeth to out bash him, countered, then a Sphinx who draws me two cards before dying as well. Also in reality it were a stupid choice, seeing I'm just milling myself another 2 per turn, if I do choose to draw.
He also gets Karn, who is HORRIBLE to play against. Which is to say he a fantastic card. Upon hitting the board, threat the first is gone. In this case, Sphinx. Then if I don't present another one during his tapped out turn, he just exiles a card from my hand. Mind you I gave him a Timely Reinforcements, but soon enough the game is obviously completely over.
I swear that the deck needs black in some form, and he agrees, and Rony laughs when it seems like I've finally seen the light. That, or simply play more things that work at end of turn, when it'll encourage my control opponents to tap out for counterspells. (In reality, I'm just thinking of adding the slightest touch o' Black for Forbidden Alchemy.)
0-2
0-1
Round 2 I'm paired up against Nathan, mah arch nemesis. Or my "bro" from Mega games. He's piloting the Twinx Poison deck, or what you might know as solar flare with the Spellcaster's Pike deck. I don't know this until game 1, when I keep a 5 lander and keeps 6.
He Tribute to Hunger's my first Hero because he's hungry, then Snapcaster's it back to eat my Wurmcoil Engine as well, but from his lofty 30 life he's smacked down to 24 but the follow up tokens. I sit on my cards before copying the Snapcaster with Phantasmal Image to flashback my Ponder and go asearchin'. Elspeth comes down soon after and begins gaining me life, when he castes Surgical Extraction for Mana Leaks. "You do it," I say, giving him my everything and letting him exile them hisself.
Now at this I'll take a small detour. If I'm playing well at all levels, that includes FNM or a GP. So I play by the rules to the T. While searching Nathan only took the 3 Mana Leaks in my deck, leaving the original on in the graveyard. Halfway through the match he finds another Extraction and spies my bin again, removing the "left behind" Mana Leak which I says he can't do so-sir-ee. I explain to him the rules of the cards say everything right thar, so he begins to argue, sees the point and figures it don't matter anyway. In a GP this would matter good and proper, as I could later Snapcaster my own Mana Leak back, (regardless of my deck's current configuration) so I say it's made us both better players. Now back to it.
At 29 life I begin to gain life with Elspeth, making tokens when she can. His life trickles down from 24 to 22 and eventually 16, 11 and 9, but he gets a Pike out, "Man up" his Inkmoth Nexus and "suit up" with his Pike, and bashing Elspeth lil' head in. Soon after her, he comes to poison me outta the game, me at 10+ poison but 38 life. It may not read like it, but this game took 30 odd minutes.
Game 2 I don't record our opening hands, so we'll say 7. He gets a Sun Titan early, I deal with it and get a Hero and he's straight down to 13 from an unblocked hit. He assembles the winning hand of Inkmoth Nexus with Pike threatening, but I have an Oblivion Ring to get rid of instant-death-fear.
He keeps my Hero at bay using Feeling of Dread (surprisingly useful) so the tokens get to bash as simple 1/1s. I get Elspeth to make some more tokens and increase the pressure, and she starts cooking up the counters as he resolves a Sun Titan against me returning an Inkmoth. He's got a Ghost Quarter for my Ghost Quarter, then Elspeth blows up the board. This was hilarious to actually do, because it was done completely wrong. I put Elspeth in the bin. "She had 6 counters. Her ultimates only 5." I put all my creatures in the bin. "Your dudes are tokens." You know, makes sense.
His Pike returns and he threatens to then poison me out, but I bum block with the Soldier token, and on the following turn have the Oblivion Ring to stop him from getting the poison kill, my soldiers finally doin' the overwhelming thing.
Game 3 we know there isn't much time left, so I sideboard quick enough but I'm aware of the crappy start risk and him being able to simply win the match. He keeps a full grip, I forget my own.
He gets to a quick Inkmoth poisoning attack, before trying a Shrine of the White Tokens which I counter with my sideboard Steel Sabotage (worth it!). The next hit comes from a Pike wielding Inkmoth Nexus (6 poison) but he can't kill me on the last turn as I draw and play an Oblivion Ring, that goes along reel purdy with the two I already had in hand. Time is called, and I draw.
Bonus: during game 2 I passed one turn without activating Elspeth at all. Nathan laughed at the mistake just as I noticed it myself. "Elspeth is not Lilly." I tell Nathan both have to win, so we'll be 2-1-1 brothers and totally rock all the 6 pointers.
1-1-1
0-1-1
Round 3 versus Jeremy playing black/red Vamps
Well, Vamps certainly isn't the deck it was. Jeremy has Bloodcrazed Neonite and I let it run into my Hero of Bladehold. He casts Crossway Vampire so Hero can't block his attack that drops me to 17, when I cast Timely Reinforcements and bash for 7 with Hero. His next life is 8 and then we shuffle for game 2.
Game 2 I get an education in opponent level's. We both keep 7, he has Stormkirk Noble turn 1 but it stops dead (after he enchants it with a Gruesome Deformity) when I get desperate and cast an Phantasmal Image copying. It never attacks again, so I believe Jeremy thought it was a 3/3 red dork as well. The 3/3 part ain't right.
Jeremy Tribute to Hungers up to 23, then drops to 16 as I get a Wurm out and start stabilising real nice like. He casts a Markov Patrician at one point that blocks my Hero on it's lonesome, gaining a minute of time. Now my board is filled with tokens and I drop a second Wurm, when Jeremy has a Sever the Bloodline against me. It's a great move, dealling with two awesome threats and leaving no token-y residue but the Soldier tokens just eat face, as another Wurm joins in the final swing of Hero, tokens, and Wurm, taking Jeremy from 27 to -20.
2-0
1-1-1
Between rounds I find Nathan who has won his match, so we're both 1-1-1. We need to win the last round, though I'm paired up against Rony. Rony, the fella who I was taking to FNM for his birthday. I concede straight away, but he protests profusely and we play it out.
Rony's piloting a Delver of Secrets blue/red deck, which is he own fun brew. It looks fun but too inconsistent, seeing without a flipped Delver is has no real pressure beside the burn. We both keep 7 handers, me keeping 2 counter spells, sphinx n lands.
He has the Delver and plinks me for 1 before trying to Ponder, which I Leak. He reveals a Disperse next and beats me to 16, then resolves a second Ponder. I Wrath after that clearing the board, though Rony Disperse's his Insect and replaying it his turn. He attempts to play a Bears which I laugh at, to think I'm countering.
Elspeth shows up and begins making babies, which he Gut Shots, Vapor Snags and then blocks with AEther Adept (yes). Hero comes down on my side, he AEthers again but I have the inevitability as he can't get a threat going, while mine are coming in a constant stream now, via new cards and Elspeth tokens/life gain.
He struggles to remake ground, but a Mirran Crusader that I double up with Phantasmal Image, which Rony carves outta the way with Arc Trail (2 your Crusader, naturally) before a Timely Reinforcements prompts a concession.
Game 2 is too tricky for my liking, the game went long when I didn't feel like it would, so I take out the Mana Leaks in favour of more threats. Stupid, I guess? The idea was good, but I didn't count on game 2.
We both keep 7, and Rony's turn 1 Delver flips immediately (Mana Leak revealed) into Insect Ab. I'm at 10 before I Timely back to 20 and Soldiers, but he Leaks and has a second Delver instead! My Day of Judgment never gets its sunrise (Mana Leak #2) and I drop and O Ring at 4 life that does nothing really useful.
Game 3 the Mana Leaks go right back in. And did I mention I brought Elesh in? Naturally.
So the final game of the night. Rony is 2-1 and wants glory, I'm 1-1-1 and wanna win. We both keep 7 handers and Rony's early Phantasmal Bear is Oblivion Ring'd into Oblivion. He has another creature which turns on my Timely Reinforcements, gumming up the ground and raising me ot a lofty 24. AEther Adept and Arc Trail deal with my tokens, while I Oblivion Ring another Bear and he Vapor Snag's my tokens.
He life snips away in snippets of 2 when he tries for a Delver, which I Dissapate, which he Dissapates. The next turn I Day of Judgment, which he swears I didn't have because I wasn't playing it. I had a second in hand which I'd had since the games start, so I felt confident that I would get the points.
At this point my hand is Elspeth, Hero and Sphinx, and I know I can layer out the threats in the right order. The first one will get Mana Leak certainly, then after that hopefully the next two make it. I cast a Timely Reinforcements regardless and Rony says "Life only?" I didn't realise the board was empty, so I shrug and accept my play mistake, upping to 19 life.
Next turn my Elspeth is countered instantly, "Why are you playing bad?" Rony asks earnestly, followed next turn by a Hero of Bladehold that he Vagor Snag's, before it comes down again. Rony draws for the turn and Arc Trails, targeting me for 2 and the Hero for one, which I think about before I let resolve. Immediately after comes the Incinerate everyone was expecting, which I Leak. Sphinx comes down soon after, to match Rony's new Bear, and that takes the card when I'm drawing 3 a turn and Rony's outta gas.
Boom!! 2-1 win for an event result of:
2-1-1 (7 points).
So the new design played remarkably well. After my round 1 lose and revelation I was expecting a few more loses but didn't lose another match. 4th outta 12, the most annoying thing about my latest list is the Sphere's in the sideboard. Never even considered. I'm super wanting to move Elesh to the main, and main deck Timely Reinforcements is just so fun and unexpected, it's a proper show stopper.
Gideon also has been amazing since I managed to get my Ps and start driving him properly, and Elspeth has also been a great card for her versatility with army production/life gain potential.
Now, did I miss the Solemns or Think Twice's at all? No, not one bit. There was a teensy bit of "aww, I'm bored," while playing Nathan in round 2, as he'd draw cards at the end of turn, but apart from that nothing. They truly are "get there" cards, and when your deck is full of them you can't get "there" assuming "there" is your threat and thus the win. I also ran 3 Wurms main which I will maintain before I love a chunky Wurm. Everybody else suggests 2.
The Ghost Quarters were also good, so I'm moving 2 main and removing a Plains, leaving 2 more in the sideboard against dedicated Kessig Wolf Run/nonBasic land lovin' decks.
As mentioned above, the black I'm hoping to add is Forbidden Alchemy, and some Go for the Throats. Being able to let a spell resolve and then "counter" it once it's on the board is great, as it puts less strain on the mana I need to leave open. Doom Blades as further answers to Inkmoth Nexus's too, seeing everybody and their dog has them.
As for the Land base, I've got some Isolated Chapels. Not so much for this deck, but for Sorin who's about to be released. Everybody's seen him, right? I figure putting those 4 Chapels and 1 Swamp in the main will help the deck to run the flashback/Terror wannabes, and we'll have ourselves a not-quite Solar Flare.
Thanks for reading all this by the way, it's fun to really play some Magic now :)
Taking the list previously written, I was eagerly awaiting how the deck would run without the Solemn's, and curious to see when I'd wanna side in the great 1-ofs in my sideboard, namely Elesh Norn, Venser and Jace. Turns out Elesh is a very easy inclusion to any deck with creatures, especially any deck running Delver of Secrets seeing every creature it plays is just dead. Also, Snapcaster Mage's no longer bash for two, while your whole team is just stupid big. I mean a 6/8 flying sphinx just isn't Ouch enough.
Also the Think Twice's being gone was an easy fix, seeing it's just a card that cycles, which is inherently useless right? Let's get to it.
Round 1 versus Jarred playing Solar Flare.
Straight away my arch nemesis. I haven't got much of a chance right here, because every threat I play can be countered or killed, and at the end of his turn so I ain't got much chance to interact right like. We both keep 7.
My threats for the first game are two Hero of Bladeholds that get Doom Blade'd each. He gets out some Pristine Talisman action and drops a Grave Titan. I manage to cast DoJ, while he Forbidden's for an answer he doesn't find. His turn he drops Gideon (that traitor!) onto the field, saying all the critters I don't own gotta attack him. I Oblivion Ring during my own turn, but he Alchemy's again, and finds the Mana Leak to counter it, or always had it and felt like playing around.
Sideboarding I don't know what he'll do and don't remember how I sideboarded, but he plays Drownyard and I can't do anything as my library slips into my graveyard. I knew I had 2 Ghost Quarters main but even if I drew one o' them he'd still have another Drownyard I wager. I try an Elspeth to out bash him, countered, then a Sphinx who draws me two cards before dying as well. Also in reality it were a stupid choice, seeing I'm just milling myself another 2 per turn, if I do choose to draw.
He also gets Karn, who is HORRIBLE to play against. Which is to say he a fantastic card. Upon hitting the board, threat the first is gone. In this case, Sphinx. Then if I don't present another one during his tapped out turn, he just exiles a card from my hand. Mind you I gave him a Timely Reinforcements, but soon enough the game is obviously completely over.
I swear that the deck needs black in some form, and he agrees, and Rony laughs when it seems like I've finally seen the light. That, or simply play more things that work at end of turn, when it'll encourage my control opponents to tap out for counterspells. (In reality, I'm just thinking of adding the slightest touch o' Black for Forbidden Alchemy.)
0-2
0-1
Round 2 I'm paired up against Nathan, mah arch nemesis. Or my "bro" from Mega games. He's piloting the Twinx Poison deck, or what you might know as solar flare with the Spellcaster's Pike deck. I don't know this until game 1, when I keep a 5 lander and keeps 6.
He Tribute to Hunger's my first Hero because he's hungry, then Snapcaster's it back to eat my Wurmcoil Engine as well, but from his lofty 30 life he's smacked down to 24 but the follow up tokens. I sit on my cards before copying the Snapcaster with Phantasmal Image to flashback my Ponder and go asearchin'. Elspeth comes down soon after and begins gaining me life, when he castes Surgical Extraction for Mana Leaks. "You do it," I say, giving him my everything and letting him exile them hisself.
Now at this I'll take a small detour. If I'm playing well at all levels, that includes FNM or a GP. So I play by the rules to the T. While searching Nathan only took the 3 Mana Leaks in my deck, leaving the original on in the graveyard. Halfway through the match he finds another Extraction and spies my bin again, removing the "left behind" Mana Leak which I says he can't do so-sir-ee. I explain to him the rules of the cards say everything right thar, so he begins to argue, sees the point and figures it don't matter anyway. In a GP this would matter good and proper, as I could later Snapcaster my own Mana Leak back, (regardless of my deck's current configuration) so I say it's made us both better players. Now back to it.
At 29 life I begin to gain life with Elspeth, making tokens when she can. His life trickles down from 24 to 22 and eventually 16, 11 and 9, but he gets a Pike out, "Man up" his Inkmoth Nexus and "suit up" with his Pike, and bashing Elspeth lil' head in. Soon after her, he comes to poison me outta the game, me at 10+ poison but 38 life. It may not read like it, but this game took 30 odd minutes.
Game 2 I don't record our opening hands, so we'll say 7. He gets a Sun Titan early, I deal with it and get a Hero and he's straight down to 13 from an unblocked hit. He assembles the winning hand of Inkmoth Nexus with Pike threatening, but I have an Oblivion Ring to get rid of instant-death-fear.
He keeps my Hero at bay using Feeling of Dread (surprisingly useful) so the tokens get to bash as simple 1/1s. I get Elspeth to make some more tokens and increase the pressure, and she starts cooking up the counters as he resolves a Sun Titan against me returning an Inkmoth. He's got a Ghost Quarter for my Ghost Quarter, then Elspeth blows up the board. This was hilarious to actually do, because it was done completely wrong. I put Elspeth in the bin. "She had 6 counters. Her ultimates only 5." I put all my creatures in the bin. "Your dudes are tokens." You know, makes sense.
His Pike returns and he threatens to then poison me out, but I bum block with the Soldier token, and on the following turn have the Oblivion Ring to stop him from getting the poison kill, my soldiers finally doin' the overwhelming thing.
Game 3 we know there isn't much time left, so I sideboard quick enough but I'm aware of the crappy start risk and him being able to simply win the match. He keeps a full grip, I forget my own.
He gets to a quick Inkmoth poisoning attack, before trying a Shrine of the White Tokens which I counter with my sideboard Steel Sabotage (worth it!). The next hit comes from a Pike wielding Inkmoth Nexus (6 poison) but he can't kill me on the last turn as I draw and play an Oblivion Ring, that goes along reel purdy with the two I already had in hand. Time is called, and I draw.
Bonus: during game 2 I passed one turn without activating Elspeth at all. Nathan laughed at the mistake just as I noticed it myself. "Elspeth is not Lilly." I tell Nathan both have to win, so we'll be 2-1-1 brothers and totally rock all the 6 pointers.
1-1-1
0-1-1
Round 3 versus Jeremy playing black/red Vamps
Well, Vamps certainly isn't the deck it was. Jeremy has Bloodcrazed Neonite and I let it run into my Hero of Bladehold. He casts Crossway Vampire so Hero can't block his attack that drops me to 17, when I cast Timely Reinforcements and bash for 7 with Hero. His next life is 8 and then we shuffle for game 2.
Game 2 I get an education in opponent level's. We both keep 7, he has Stormkirk Noble turn 1 but it stops dead (after he enchants it with a Gruesome Deformity) when I get desperate and cast an Phantasmal Image copying. It never attacks again, so I believe Jeremy thought it was a 3/3 red dork as well. The 3/3 part ain't right.
Jeremy Tribute to Hungers up to 23, then drops to 16 as I get a Wurm out and start stabilising real nice like. He casts a Markov Patrician at one point that blocks my Hero on it's lonesome, gaining a minute of time. Now my board is filled with tokens and I drop a second Wurm, when Jeremy has a Sever the Bloodline against me. It's a great move, dealling with two awesome threats and leaving no token-y residue but the Soldier tokens just eat face, as another Wurm joins in the final swing of Hero, tokens, and Wurm, taking Jeremy from 27 to -20.
2-0
1-1-1
Between rounds I find Nathan who has won his match, so we're both 1-1-1. We need to win the last round, though I'm paired up against Rony. Rony, the fella who I was taking to FNM for his birthday. I concede straight away, but he protests profusely and we play it out.
Rony's piloting a Delver of Secrets blue/red deck, which is he own fun brew. It looks fun but too inconsistent, seeing without a flipped Delver is has no real pressure beside the burn. We both keep 7 handers, me keeping 2 counter spells, sphinx n lands.
He has the Delver and plinks me for 1 before trying to Ponder, which I Leak. He reveals a Disperse next and beats me to 16, then resolves a second Ponder. I Wrath after that clearing the board, though Rony Disperse's his Insect and replaying it his turn. He attempts to play a Bears which I laugh at, to think I'm countering.
Elspeth shows up and begins making babies, which he Gut Shots, Vapor Snags and then blocks with AEther Adept (yes). Hero comes down on my side, he AEthers again but I have the inevitability as he can't get a threat going, while mine are coming in a constant stream now, via new cards and Elspeth tokens/life gain.
He struggles to remake ground, but a Mirran Crusader that I double up with Phantasmal Image, which Rony carves outta the way with Arc Trail (2 your Crusader, naturally) before a Timely Reinforcements prompts a concession.
Game 2 is too tricky for my liking, the game went long when I didn't feel like it would, so I take out the Mana Leaks in favour of more threats. Stupid, I guess? The idea was good, but I didn't count on game 2.
We both keep 7, and Rony's turn 1 Delver flips immediately (Mana Leak revealed) into Insect Ab. I'm at 10 before I Timely back to 20 and Soldiers, but he Leaks and has a second Delver instead! My Day of Judgment never gets its sunrise (Mana Leak #2) and I drop and O Ring at 4 life that does nothing really useful.
Game 3 the Mana Leaks go right back in. And did I mention I brought Elesh in? Naturally.
So the final game of the night. Rony is 2-1 and wants glory, I'm 1-1-1 and wanna win. We both keep 7 handers and Rony's early Phantasmal Bear is Oblivion Ring'd into Oblivion. He has another creature which turns on my Timely Reinforcements, gumming up the ground and raising me ot a lofty 24. AEther Adept and Arc Trail deal with my tokens, while I Oblivion Ring another Bear and he Vapor Snag's my tokens.
He life snips away in snippets of 2 when he tries for a Delver, which I Dissapate, which he Dissapates. The next turn I Day of Judgment, which he swears I didn't have because I wasn't playing it. I had a second in hand which I'd had since the games start, so I felt confident that I would get the points.
At this point my hand is Elspeth, Hero and Sphinx, and I know I can layer out the threats in the right order. The first one will get Mana Leak certainly, then after that hopefully the next two make it. I cast a Timely Reinforcements regardless and Rony says "Life only?" I didn't realise the board was empty, so I shrug and accept my play mistake, upping to 19 life.
Next turn my Elspeth is countered instantly, "Why are you playing bad?" Rony asks earnestly, followed next turn by a Hero of Bladehold that he Vagor Snag's, before it comes down again. Rony draws for the turn and Arc Trails, targeting me for 2 and the Hero for one, which I think about before I let resolve. Immediately after comes the Incinerate everyone was expecting, which I Leak. Sphinx comes down soon after, to match Rony's new Bear, and that takes the card when I'm drawing 3 a turn and Rony's outta gas.
Boom!! 2-1 win for an event result of:
2-1-1 (7 points).
So the new design played remarkably well. After my round 1 lose and revelation I was expecting a few more loses but didn't lose another match. 4th outta 12, the most annoying thing about my latest list is the Sphere's in the sideboard. Never even considered. I'm super wanting to move Elesh to the main, and main deck Timely Reinforcements is just so fun and unexpected, it's a proper show stopper.
Gideon also has been amazing since I managed to get my Ps and start driving him properly, and Elspeth has also been a great card for her versatility with army production/life gain potential.
Now, did I miss the Solemns or Think Twice's at all? No, not one bit. There was a teensy bit of "aww, I'm bored," while playing Nathan in round 2, as he'd draw cards at the end of turn, but apart from that nothing. They truly are "get there" cards, and when your deck is full of them you can't get "there" assuming "there" is your threat and thus the win. I also ran 3 Wurms main which I will maintain before I love a chunky Wurm. Everybody else suggests 2.
The Ghost Quarters were also good, so I'm moving 2 main and removing a Plains, leaving 2 more in the sideboard against dedicated Kessig Wolf Run/nonBasic land lovin' decks.
As mentioned above, the black I'm hoping to add is Forbidden Alchemy, and some Go for the Throats. Being able to let a spell resolve and then "counter" it once it's on the board is great, as it puts less strain on the mana I need to leave open. Doom Blades as further answers to Inkmoth Nexus's too, seeing everybody and their dog has them.
As for the Land base, I've got some Isolated Chapels. Not so much for this deck, but for Sorin who's about to be released. Everybody's seen him, right? I figure putting those 4 Chapels and 1 Swamp in the main will help the deck to run the flashback/Terror wannabes, and we'll have ourselves a not-quite Solar Flare.
Thanks for reading all this by the way, it's fun to really play some Magic now :)
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Updatees...
Not a typo. If you've come looking for an update, I work from 6.45 both saturday and sunday, so I'm pooped and typically don't wanna "work" on a weekend night, even if writing about Magic is still a lot of fun. Needing to get my facts right/making sure the post reads well is considerable work.
Having said that, FNM last night went great for me, coming 5th outta 12. For the first time I can remember I broke the 2-2 mould with a 2-1-1 performance! Also won some Isolated Chapels and preordered some Sorin's from the store. Business class, oh yeah.
More tomorrow night!
Having said that, FNM last night went great for me, coming 5th outta 12. For the first time I can remember I broke the 2-2 mould with a 2-1-1 performance! Also won some Isolated Chapels and preordered some Sorin's from the store. Business class, oh yeah.
More tomorrow night!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Prepping for FNM (real one this time)
So tonight Rony and I sleeve up again for battle. He's taking a burning vengeance deck, which'll be interesting, while I'm still piloting blue/white. To date I'd have to say the fun is quite high, but that's because I feel like I'm doing things at every point in the game. Key culprit of fun there is Solemn Simulacrum, who's apparently not all that good because he only accelerates into something big/game ending, which apparently I don't have.
I have got the Wurms and Sphinx's, which I imagine count, but the deck still wants more tweaks. I'm moving the Day of Judgment duo to the main board, and bringing in some Vapor Snags with an Unsummon. The deck really wants to interact with the opponent's things more, and O Ring while great isn't cheap enough to remove their threat and then lay down my own. Paying U on top of a threat works well, and it would've made my game 1 round 1 yesterday a lot easier, as I desperately dug for (and found, hoo yeah) any removal to get a Birds of Paradise outta the sky. And I know Dismember came only cost 1 and is permanent, but I don't like the life cost, esp if I'm looking for cheap answers against the red/white aggro decks.
Steel Sabotage would have reset one thing yesterday had I drawn it, the red Shrine's of my round 4 opponent's. Apart from that, it wasn't used.
For some inspiration I reread this article by LSV, where he's running an Esper coloured deck. No I'm not running black, but the similarities are undeniable.
http://www.channelfireball.com/home/running-the-gauntlet-esper-daily-event-1/
See that Volition Reins in the side? Elesh? Elspeth? Basically it's a more honed version of my own deck, plus black. On that note, I do wonder if I find myself getting bored with just blue/white and wanting to expand into black, or ditching white entirely for black. A major culprit of that is of course the upcoming Sorin's Awesomeness card. Haven't seen it?
http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/dka/9xh27x1cck_en.jpg
That's right. Black white tokens hurrah! Buy up now.
Before I get on with the list I'm sporting tonight, I did a pile shuffle yesterday and found one extra card. So yesterday I was running 61 main, 15 sideboard. Silly Fox!
Also, forget the Snags.
8 Island
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands
4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Consecrated Sphinx
---
12 creatures
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Timely Reinforcements
3 Dissipate
2 Day of Judgment
1 Gideon Joura
1 Elspeth Tirel
---
23 others
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Vapor Snag
2 Dismember
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Jace Memory Adept
---
15 sideboard
This build has more land with Ghost Quarters in the main and 2 in the sideboard for Kessig match up, as well as 2 Vapor's/2 Dismembers split. I'll let you know how I go.
Fox
I have got the Wurms and Sphinx's, which I imagine count, but the deck still wants more tweaks. I'm moving the Day of Judgment duo to the main board, and bringing in some Vapor Snags with an Unsummon. The deck really wants to interact with the opponent's things more, and O Ring while great isn't cheap enough to remove their threat and then lay down my own. Paying U on top of a threat works well, and it would've made my game 1 round 1 yesterday a lot easier, as I desperately dug for (and found, hoo yeah) any removal to get a Birds of Paradise outta the sky. And I know Dismember came only cost 1 and is permanent, but I don't like the life cost, esp if I'm looking for cheap answers against the red/white aggro decks.
Steel Sabotage would have reset one thing yesterday had I drawn it, the red Shrine's of my round 4 opponent's. Apart from that, it wasn't used.
For some inspiration I reread this article by LSV, where he's running an Esper coloured deck. No I'm not running black, but the similarities are undeniable.
http://www.channelfireball.com/home/running-the-gauntlet-esper-daily-event-1/
See that Volition Reins in the side? Elesh? Elspeth? Basically it's a more honed version of my own deck, plus black. On that note, I do wonder if I find myself getting bored with just blue/white and wanting to expand into black, or ditching white entirely for black. A major culprit of that is of course the upcoming Sorin's Awesomeness card. Haven't seen it?
http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/dka/9xh27x1cck_en.jpg
That's right. Black white tokens hurrah! Buy up now.
Before I get on with the list I'm sporting tonight, I did a pile shuffle yesterday and found one extra card. So yesterday I was running 61 main, 15 sideboard. Silly Fox!
Also, forget the Snags.
8 Island
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands
4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Consecrated Sphinx
---
12 creatures
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Timely Reinforcements
3 Dissipate
2 Day of Judgment
1 Gideon Joura
1 Elspeth Tirel
---
23 others
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Vapor Snag
2 Dismember
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Jace Memory Adept
---
15 sideboard
This build has more land with Ghost Quarters in the main and 2 in the sideboard for Kessig match up, as well as 2 Vapor's/2 Dismembers split. I'll let you know how I go.
Fox
FNM - results. first, a correction.
A correction indeed. Blacktown doesn't run FNM. It runs Magic on thursday night, and it's not FNM. They just run an event. So no whistles nor worries Magic/Wizards, they wasn't a single Glistener Elf promo to be seen. Shame really, I wanted another one.
No no no, indeed this set of Magic went down thusly:
Game 1 match 1 I'm against Brad. Clothing of choice for me is a "cool guy/intimidation" set of jacket, white converse and cool red shirt with an "I have issues" dogtag. Also the killer face and hair. I don't think it did much but make me look at nice dressed up for Magic, really.
Brad was playing green/white tokens and Galvony Township. I win game 1, but it's close for a while. My first mistake is using Oblivion Ring on his Birds of Paradise. He was playing a load of ramp, and I figured I could keep him off big numbers, OR wait and exile the threat, and I opted for the first. Birdies gets exiled, then Garruk the Flipper shows up. Oh well.
I get to cast a Consecrated Sphinx and begin drawing a lot, Phantasmal Image to get another and I'm drawing 5 per turn cycle. This is great because I can attack in the air unmolested, while he creates a nice big ground force. He gets really big when I drop a Wurmcoil Engine, me thinking it wont save me from the alpha strike. When it comes to the attack, I block here and there (Wurmcoil on Geist-Honored Monk, etc) and gain just enough to life, on two life.
It was at this point a great many things came together and worked beautifully. He was on 16 from a lone Sphinx bash, so I played the Phantasm and copied it. 2 swings of 8 would kill him. He can see this too, so I bash him to 8, drop Gideon Jura and DON'T screw up. Big tick for me. Everyone has to attack Gideon, it's enough to kill him, and presumably this allows me to fly over for the win. Otherwise I'm on two, so any removal and I die.
He plays a Birds of Paradise. I draw Think Twice, which draws Ponder, which finds Oblivion Ring for the exile and the game. I'd like to thank anyone who's ever said "Just hold on there and play to your outs." I knew my outs were blow up the world or exile the birdies, went searching for O Ring and found it. Good game.
Game 2 he gets a much better start, and my threats don't really do much, my blockers being Mirran Crusader against his green/white army. I get confused and lose the Crusader I block a white dork, but by this point I lose and we hadn't started shuffling for game 3 when time was called.
1-1 games
0-0-1 matches
Round 2 was against another blue white deck that had also drawn. Groan. We were going to have slow games, assuming we both played D. Game 1 I misplay and try to cast something (gasp) which he of course Mana Leaks. This means I'm tapped out on his turn, and he resolves a Geist of Saint Traft against me. This isn't immediately game over, as I continually get 2/2s to put in his way, ala Solemn Simulacrum, but the angel token eventually deals with me as the Saint Traft gets an Angelic Destiny of his own.
I bring in DoJ and Ratchet Bomb, seeing I can blow it for 0 or crank it to three before he even drops Saint Traft, but I keep a bad hand while his seems perfectly OK anyway. We get into one decent counter war, which I win, but it doesn't matter as Traft shows up once again and I have no answer, and DoJ gets countered.
0-2
0-1-1
Round 3
My opponent is a little kid, who's only just learnt to play Magic. He read a few cards that I played, so I explained a few things that I was doing as we were playing. One of the players up from me, a gentleman my friend Rony knows, whose name I forget (sorry man, what is your name?) was laughing at how well I was explaining what "I" was doing, neglecting to say "But you can stop all this if you just shock my Phantasmal Image now." I didn't know the kid had Shock eitherway, the point I think is interesting is once again how should you treat brand new/younger players.
I don't advocate playing their game for them, nor going super easy on them because they're new to it. I like to educate where I can, so I have a Hero of Bladehold for example I explain the battle steps and how he can shoot my stuff before I attack, which will mean no tokens and no +1/+0. At this point Rony laughs at how cruel I'm being, but I defend myself saying "What am I meant to do, concede because he's a kid?"
I'd stick by it again in the future. It's probably ruthless, as in I don't want to lose to a kid who doesn't know the game well, but I don't intend to leave them in the dark (compared to the seasoned players etc), so I'll educate after the game, or during it if they seem to be doing nothing. The most annoying for me when learning a game is having a hand of Stuff, and just not knowing what it could do. I ask a million questions when learning a game, so when I see someone new to a game I imagine they would do the same. If they don't, I'll ask the questions for them.
Eitherway, I win. Both games Hero of Bladehold comes down and that's it. One gets double Shock'd, so I played a second. On second thoughts, I probably didn't need that Consecrated Sphinx/Phantasmal Image combo. At the time I was thinking "mercy killing."
2-0
1-1-1
Round 4 karma caught up with as I'm paired against mono-red counter creatures burn. Stormblood Berserker, Chandra's Pheonix, red Shrine and Volt Charge all make very short work of me, and my creatures. I manage to buy a turn in game 1 when I'm at low life but resolve a Wurmcoil Engine. His Shrine is sitting on 8 counters while I'm sweating only 7 life, and he activates the Shrine targeting my Wurm. He has enough to finish me the next turn eitherway.
Game 2 goes similarly quick and bad, as my early dorks get cleared aside. He has double Pheonix, I Day of Judgment, he pings me and rebuys both Birds and continues bashing like nothing happened. O Ring doesn't show up, poor dear. I try the same trick when his Shrine is up to lethal and I've got a Wurmcoil to resolve, but he doesn't bite this time and kills me in his upkeep.
0-2
1-1-2.
I come 13th outta 22, which is rather a 2-2 style result. It's at this point that the integrity of how Blacktown runs it's Magic shows. Before I go on I will point out again that this wasn't FNM, and as such there was only points on the line, no FNM promos or otherwise. In fact I'll start with the good.
There is space. This is always great, because I hate small dungeons that cram all their players into a room. Second, there was food and drinks aplenty. Pizza for $8.50 when you sign up for Magic is great, and you can pick whatever you like. Plus a drinks fridge that I took a picture of, just because it was that great. The only fridge that looks better is one from new year, aka mine, that was filled with beer. Third, the man himself who ran the joint. After rounds, we stayed back and played until 1ish, when the store is reported to close at 10pm. He's a good fella and fun to chat to.
Now, the bad. Players are given the ability to report their wins, on the actual computer running Wizards Event Reporter (WER). This is crap. I don't care how well people know things, because they get it wrong. I know this because as we're sitting and chatting after rounds, my right-seated neighbour congratulates my opponent on his 4-0 performance. "So you won the whole thing," they say.
Let's check my results again, before the last round. 1-1-1, or 4 points. Against a guy who was obviously 3-0 or 9 points. I should have been no where near this crazy fine cat and his mono-red deck. I point out the error and we begin to hunt down the error. His round 1 opponent had put the match results in incorrectly, and as such he'd been placed down since round 2.
This is the kind of thing that I don't like at Magic events. Allowing the players the ease of entering their results when they finish sounds nice, but it allows for an entire event to be run incorrectly. If this were a high end event, it makes a great deal more difference than it does at this random event. It's a confusing sign of ownership, one of too much casualness, and not owning the event/score boarding properly.
For a quick comparison, Megagames in Penrith use paper slips for results and the TO always calls out the result before he puts it into the system. It may seem small, but it helps a lot.
Now having reported all that, how would I change my deck? Well I'd have to reconsider quite a lot. In point form:
+The Sun Titan's never really impressed when they showed up. Titan into Phantasm into O Ring never happened, and when I managed to chain Titan into Phantasm anyway the pair of 6/6s were largely useless because I got swarmed. I wanted DoJ much more often then I wanted Sun Titan.
+Where were you, Dissapate? Seriously, I got like 1 the entire tournament lol. No seriously, I needed to mulligan a lot more than I did this tournament. Note for tomorrow's FNM.
+I need to spend more time thinking like a boss ala Paulo/LSV, especially in the control mirror. Trying to play a threat first is akin to slipping up, because of course my round 2 opponent (James, right?) had the Mana Leak, and it just meant I was tapped out for his turn, allowing the threat that I couldn't unstick. So this leads straight to my next point.
+Vapor Snares wanted!! 3 with another in the SB, because God damn this deck just can't seem to deal with some things. It's cheap, buys time, has the added ping, and best of all resets a lot of cards. It allows Sun Titan to go again if needed, but removes the counters from a Stormkirk Noble, for example.
Those are quite big points. I'll stop there, please post comments, it takes one second to make an account.
Fox "Tomorrow will go better" Murdoch.
No no no, indeed this set of Magic went down thusly:
Game 1 match 1 I'm against Brad. Clothing of choice for me is a "cool guy/intimidation" set of jacket, white converse and cool red shirt with an "I have issues" dogtag. Also the killer face and hair. I don't think it did much but make me look at nice dressed up for Magic, really.
Brad was playing green/white tokens and Galvony Township. I win game 1, but it's close for a while. My first mistake is using Oblivion Ring on his Birds of Paradise. He was playing a load of ramp, and I figured I could keep him off big numbers, OR wait and exile the threat, and I opted for the first. Birdies gets exiled, then Garruk the Flipper shows up. Oh well.
I get to cast a Consecrated Sphinx and begin drawing a lot, Phantasmal Image to get another and I'm drawing 5 per turn cycle. This is great because I can attack in the air unmolested, while he creates a nice big ground force. He gets really big when I drop a Wurmcoil Engine, me thinking it wont save me from the alpha strike. When it comes to the attack, I block here and there (Wurmcoil on Geist-Honored Monk, etc) and gain just enough to life, on two life.
It was at this point a great many things came together and worked beautifully. He was on 16 from a lone Sphinx bash, so I played the Phantasm and copied it. 2 swings of 8 would kill him. He can see this too, so I bash him to 8, drop Gideon Jura and DON'T screw up. Big tick for me. Everyone has to attack Gideon, it's enough to kill him, and presumably this allows me to fly over for the win. Otherwise I'm on two, so any removal and I die.
He plays a Birds of Paradise. I draw Think Twice, which draws Ponder, which finds Oblivion Ring for the exile and the game. I'd like to thank anyone who's ever said "Just hold on there and play to your outs." I knew my outs were blow up the world or exile the birdies, went searching for O Ring and found it. Good game.
Game 2 he gets a much better start, and my threats don't really do much, my blockers being Mirran Crusader against his green/white army. I get confused and lose the Crusader I block a white dork, but by this point I lose and we hadn't started shuffling for game 3 when time was called.
1-1 games
0-0-1 matches
Round 2 was against another blue white deck that had also drawn. Groan. We were going to have slow games, assuming we both played D. Game 1 I misplay and try to cast something (gasp) which he of course Mana Leaks. This means I'm tapped out on his turn, and he resolves a Geist of Saint Traft against me. This isn't immediately game over, as I continually get 2/2s to put in his way, ala Solemn Simulacrum, but the angel token eventually deals with me as the Saint Traft gets an Angelic Destiny of his own.
I bring in DoJ and Ratchet Bomb, seeing I can blow it for 0 or crank it to three before he even drops Saint Traft, but I keep a bad hand while his seems perfectly OK anyway. We get into one decent counter war, which I win, but it doesn't matter as Traft shows up once again and I have no answer, and DoJ gets countered.
0-2
0-1-1
Round 3
My opponent is a little kid, who's only just learnt to play Magic. He read a few cards that I played, so I explained a few things that I was doing as we were playing. One of the players up from me, a gentleman my friend Rony knows, whose name I forget (sorry man, what is your name?) was laughing at how well I was explaining what "I" was doing, neglecting to say "But you can stop all this if you just shock my Phantasmal Image now." I didn't know the kid had Shock eitherway, the point I think is interesting is once again how should you treat brand new/younger players.
I don't advocate playing their game for them, nor going super easy on them because they're new to it. I like to educate where I can, so I have a Hero of Bladehold for example I explain the battle steps and how he can shoot my stuff before I attack, which will mean no tokens and no +1/+0. At this point Rony laughs at how cruel I'm being, but I defend myself saying "What am I meant to do, concede because he's a kid?"
I'd stick by it again in the future. It's probably ruthless, as in I don't want to lose to a kid who doesn't know the game well, but I don't intend to leave them in the dark (compared to the seasoned players etc), so I'll educate after the game, or during it if they seem to be doing nothing. The most annoying for me when learning a game is having a hand of Stuff, and just not knowing what it could do. I ask a million questions when learning a game, so when I see someone new to a game I imagine they would do the same. If they don't, I'll ask the questions for them.
Eitherway, I win. Both games Hero of Bladehold comes down and that's it. One gets double Shock'd, so I played a second. On second thoughts, I probably didn't need that Consecrated Sphinx/Phantasmal Image combo. At the time I was thinking "mercy killing."
2-0
1-1-1
Round 4 karma caught up with as I'm paired against mono-red counter creatures burn. Stormblood Berserker, Chandra's Pheonix, red Shrine and Volt Charge all make very short work of me, and my creatures. I manage to buy a turn in game 1 when I'm at low life but resolve a Wurmcoil Engine. His Shrine is sitting on 8 counters while I'm sweating only 7 life, and he activates the Shrine targeting my Wurm. He has enough to finish me the next turn eitherway.
Game 2 goes similarly quick and bad, as my early dorks get cleared aside. He has double Pheonix, I Day of Judgment, he pings me and rebuys both Birds and continues bashing like nothing happened. O Ring doesn't show up, poor dear. I try the same trick when his Shrine is up to lethal and I've got a Wurmcoil to resolve, but he doesn't bite this time and kills me in his upkeep.
0-2
1-1-2.
I come 13th outta 22, which is rather a 2-2 style result. It's at this point that the integrity of how Blacktown runs it's Magic shows. Before I go on I will point out again that this wasn't FNM, and as such there was only points on the line, no FNM promos or otherwise. In fact I'll start with the good.
There is space. This is always great, because I hate small dungeons that cram all their players into a room. Second, there was food and drinks aplenty. Pizza for $8.50 when you sign up for Magic is great, and you can pick whatever you like. Plus a drinks fridge that I took a picture of, just because it was that great. The only fridge that looks better is one from new year, aka mine, that was filled with beer. Third, the man himself who ran the joint. After rounds, we stayed back and played until 1ish, when the store is reported to close at 10pm. He's a good fella and fun to chat to.
Now, the bad. Players are given the ability to report their wins, on the actual computer running Wizards Event Reporter (WER). This is crap. I don't care how well people know things, because they get it wrong. I know this because as we're sitting and chatting after rounds, my right-seated neighbour congratulates my opponent on his 4-0 performance. "So you won the whole thing," they say.
Let's check my results again, before the last round. 1-1-1, or 4 points. Against a guy who was obviously 3-0 or 9 points. I should have been no where near this crazy fine cat and his mono-red deck. I point out the error and we begin to hunt down the error. His round 1 opponent had put the match results in incorrectly, and as such he'd been placed down since round 2.
This is the kind of thing that I don't like at Magic events. Allowing the players the ease of entering their results when they finish sounds nice, but it allows for an entire event to be run incorrectly. If this were a high end event, it makes a great deal more difference than it does at this random event. It's a confusing sign of ownership, one of too much casualness, and not owning the event/score boarding properly.
For a quick comparison, Megagames in Penrith use paper slips for results and the TO always calls out the result before he puts it into the system. It may seem small, but it helps a lot.
Now having reported all that, how would I change my deck? Well I'd have to reconsider quite a lot. In point form:
+The Sun Titan's never really impressed when they showed up. Titan into Phantasm into O Ring never happened, and when I managed to chain Titan into Phantasm anyway the pair of 6/6s were largely useless because I got swarmed. I wanted DoJ much more often then I wanted Sun Titan.
+Where were you, Dissapate? Seriously, I got like 1 the entire tournament lol. No seriously, I needed to mulligan a lot more than I did this tournament. Note for tomorrow's FNM.
+I need to spend more time thinking like a boss ala Paulo/LSV, especially in the control mirror. Trying to play a threat first is akin to slipping up, because of course my round 2 opponent (James, right?) had the Mana Leak, and it just meant I was tapped out for his turn, allowing the threat that I couldn't unstick. So this leads straight to my next point.
+Vapor Snares wanted!! 3 with another in the SB, because God damn this deck just can't seem to deal with some things. It's cheap, buys time, has the added ping, and best of all resets a lot of cards. It allows Sun Titan to go again if needed, but removes the counters from a Stormkirk Noble, for example.
Those are quite big points. I'll stop there, please post comments, it takes one second to make an account.
Fox "Tomorrow will go better" Murdoch.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Same day sideboarding
OK, before I leave tonight here's the changes and explanations behind them.
-1 Hero Bladehold
-1 Frost Titan
-1 Think Twice
-4 Sphere of the Suns
+4 Oblivion Rings
+3 Steel Sabotage to SB
+2 Sun Titans from SB to Main
+1 Elesh, Elspeth, Venser added to SB
The Hero and Frost Titan were removed to make space for the O Rings. I figured playing a load of threats without decent removal for the opponent's threats felt too simply minded and aggressive. After all, I had no hope against Tempered Steel if they ever resolved their namesake card. The Hero and Frosty felt alright to remove because 3 Heroes means I'll still draw one in good time, and Frosty really did far too little when he showed up, compared to what I had hoped for him to do.
The Spheres are gone because my deck didn't need that much mana. They were most often played against other control decks, who'd allow me the extra mana because they would just play around my threats and extra stuff every turn, counter the critical spells while killing creatures on their own turn. I do envy their black.
Sun Titan came in as a real-big-six, who can obviously return Phantasmal Image to chain together a nice load of power and toughness (with vigilance) for a little cost, ending with an Oblivion Ring hopefully.
The only other changes were some fun one-of's in the sideboard that help the deck as well as being cute. Elspeth can make dorks and be reset with Venser (though this doesn't allow 2 activations in the one turn: watch out for that. Elesh Norn is great against the smaller attacking decks assuming I get to 7 mana, so maybe some Sphere of the Suns could stay in the sideboard, maybe 2.
Having said that, I don't enjoy Ratchet Bomb in the sideboard. I haven't played it to great effect yet, but I don't imagine removing them just to try out Elesh whom I might never want. Blowing up stuff for 2 mana is always quicker and easier then maybe blowing up a load of things (and swinging for heaps) if I get to 7.
So here's the list I am piloting tonight; wish me luck.
8 Island
8 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
---
24 lands
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Hero of Bladehold
3 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Sun Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx
---
17 creatures
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Think Twice
3 Dissipate
1 Gideon Joura
---
19 others
4 Timely Reinforcement
3 Steel Sabotage
2 Day of Judgment
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Jace Memory Adept
---
15 sideboard
-1 Hero Bladehold
-1 Frost Titan
-1 Think Twice
-4 Sphere of the Suns
+4 Oblivion Rings
+3 Steel Sabotage to SB
+2 Sun Titans from SB to Main
+1 Elesh, Elspeth, Venser added to SB
The Hero and Frost Titan were removed to make space for the O Rings. I figured playing a load of threats without decent removal for the opponent's threats felt too simply minded and aggressive. After all, I had no hope against Tempered Steel if they ever resolved their namesake card. The Hero and Frosty felt alright to remove because 3 Heroes means I'll still draw one in good time, and Frosty really did far too little when he showed up, compared to what I had hoped for him to do.
The Spheres are gone because my deck didn't need that much mana. They were most often played against other control decks, who'd allow me the extra mana because they would just play around my threats and extra stuff every turn, counter the critical spells while killing creatures on their own turn. I do envy their black.
Sun Titan came in as a real-big-six, who can obviously return Phantasmal Image to chain together a nice load of power and toughness (with vigilance) for a little cost, ending with an Oblivion Ring hopefully.
The only other changes were some fun one-of's in the sideboard that help the deck as well as being cute. Elspeth can make dorks and be reset with Venser (though this doesn't allow 2 activations in the one turn: watch out for that. Elesh Norn is great against the smaller attacking decks assuming I get to 7 mana, so maybe some Sphere of the Suns could stay in the sideboard, maybe 2.
Having said that, I don't enjoy Ratchet Bomb in the sideboard. I haven't played it to great effect yet, but I don't imagine removing them just to try out Elesh whom I might never want. Blowing up stuff for 2 mana is always quicker and easier then maybe blowing up a load of things (and swinging for heaps) if I get to 7.
So here's the list I am piloting tonight; wish me luck.
8 Island
8 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
---
24 lands
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Hero of Bladehold
3 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Sun Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx
---
17 creatures
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Think Twice
3 Dissipate
1 Gideon Joura
---
19 others
4 Timely Reinforcement
3 Steel Sabotage
2 Day of Judgment
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Jace Memory Adept
---
15 sideboard
Test Your Brain
This update has two sections. One talking about how the brain works and "short cuts" it will take for itself, and a second section where I briefly discuss my pregame plan, talk, size up etc.
PART THE FIRST
A fantastic show is on Discovery channel right now, talking about the brain and how it works. They run a few games to show this, and one has actress saying "ga", but it sounds like she's saying Ba. The truth is she is "Ba" comes out of her mouth, but the eyes don't see the characteristic "B" bump on the lips. Because of this brain rewires it to believe you are hearing "Ga." After all, it's what you see and it's what's correct, right? What they have done is played the film of her saying "Ga" over the sound of her saying "ba."
It makes sense that the same applies to Magic. What you're opponent is saying (casting, attacking) is what you can hear with your proverbial ears. What your opponent is physically mouthing (what your eyes tell you) is how your opponent sets up their board. If they've got Island Island untapped and it's turn 2, you're expecting a Mana Leak on your play. But if you pass and they don't have it, you were hearing Ga not Ba. Further, you've got no information to verify whether they had Mana Leak or not, they may never have had it.
Another cute trick is where they play a sound that's rather gibberish. It doesn't make sense, but you can imagine it sounds like something. Speech. Then they play a spoken sentence, "she cuts with a knife." Once people have heard that, they replay the original sound. Usually people can't "unhear" the words, now believing that the gibberish now sounds like the sentence "she cuts with a knife." This is amazing once again for Magic tricks. If your opponent lost their round 1, then they've been told already tonight that their deck doesn't work, they're not on the their game, they aren't going to win, etc. This is more commonly known as "tilting", and there's no reason that your opponent won't feel it already. I'm aware you could feel the same, losing your first round, but the sensible player will identify why or where they screwed up, and not make the same mistake.
Knowing a few tricks like this can really help you to carry out your plays with spiced information. It's no secret that players will organise their hand in a certain way. I personally organise my hand Lands, then via mana cost. Once I realise I'm doing this I shuffle my hand after every draw, but I won't always catch myself. Some people like to put the kill spells (Terror, Terminate) in the right of their hand, so you can watch where their cards go as soon as they draw them. Occasionally people draw a land and plop it immediately onto the field, deck to table top. They're happy and relieved that they can finally do something, so they go auto for a second and the brain says "YES, do it!" These moments cost players games, and it's usually the calm and alert opponent who can capitalise on it.
An example from last year would be me against Owen Egan. He's a great player who I often play against in drafts, and for the first time in a while I was winning against him. I drew a nice big 3/3, he had no one that could block well, and I had the 2/1 haste infect goblin. Excited to beat down, I cast the fatty and moved the Strider Harness off the Goblin onto my new fatty and went straight to combat, to which everyone watching and Owen himself said "No, wait. The Goblin dies." In my excitement, I'd forgotten all about the -1/-1 counter on the goblin, and moving the equipment off killed it. Go on auto, lose the game.
Tomorrow night I'm taking my man Rony to FNM at Blacktown, as a birthday gift. I hope I don't play him, and not because I can't beat him. In Limited we're 4-2 in my favour. It's because I've promised to concede to him as a birthday gift. Yah, that'll happen.
What I aim to do is put to use some of these ideas above, that teaching a player something in game 1 will make them "see" or "hear" the same pattern occuring in games 2 or 3. I'm taking my blue/white build [same as last time, though vastly improved] and I'll Mana Leak turn 2 game 1 every time. Then see how my opponent plays game 2. I imagine plenty of the time they'll respect the Mana Leak, whether I have it or not.
PART THE SECOND
My own pre-game is simple enough for me. Appearance is first. A lot of players, especially at bigger events, like to wear the suits. The tie, the shirt, the jacket. It makes a big speech about the player, they are "the business man". For me I imagine myself as much the same, so I don't feel intimidated. I've known other players who do, but I usually just compliment the player and get on with it. I mean, I've got a suit at home too. I could wear it, but am I more comfortable in my jacket tonight, or would I prefer my "I love beer" shirt?
Age also comes into it, as a younger player tends to have a deck filled with their favourite cards that they think are good. And they indeed might be, but often there's a good percentage of the deck that are cute/favourite cards which rather play like blanks against a real/seasoned deck. For a good example, check out my deck from last week. Even earlier then that, it used to have Myr Battlesphere (good) and Golden/Silver Myr to back it up (very bad).
You can try and garner some information from the look of your opponent's face, but I've learnt that this is stupid. For me certainly. People who've looked like stupid, cavemen type opponents have continued to simply crush me into the ground and 4-0 FNM or 3-0 a draft. Plus there will always be stupid luck anyway, so sizing up brains from appearance is rather a waste.
After the image comes the pregame banter. Depending on who it is and how well I know them, I either go through the "So how long have you been playing," routine, or just ask them whether they think they can beat my awesomeness/specific deck contents. With someone like Rony I'd talk about the weather or how soon he expects his Consecrated Sphinx's back, give him something to be distracted by all game long.
Depending on how chatty the person is, I usually tell them I've been playing since 1999. This can be impressive, seeing these days saying "I've played since original Mirrodin," can impress upon players, though someone told me the other day they started in 93, and I was the one going all googly eyed. Time, I imagine, in a trained brain, equals more skill through sheer volume of exposure. Of course that's utter cock anyway. I've been playing since 1999 and to my memory have only won one draft.
After the "how long" question I usually like to drop the "level 1 judge" bomb, to see if that doesn't get a reaction. It might, or might not, but mostly I'm happy to tell players that I judged because I couldn't play. That way, I feel like it conveys an intimidating knowledge of the rules, while still making it sound like I'm not unbeatable. Some kind of balance.
After the banter comes the shuffle and mulligans. I try to do my mulligans after my opponent. I love watching them spy their hand and go "Um." That's the most interesting part. Not an obvious "Keep," but a tentative, "Hmm... I know it's not a great hand," and now they've got to consider going to 6. After that, I'll mulligan but I always watch their eyes and eyebrows when they're peeling their opening 7/6/5/what have you.
Myself, I've never noticed if my opponent has watched me while I mull over a mulligan, but I'm sure some have. I like to keep a blank face, or imagine I do. If I am going to keep a hand, I'll tell myself a story of how the games going to play out using this hand, and I'll know how good my 4-ofs could help get into a better position to win. If I'm happy with either of those (the story of winning, or of the 4-of's getting me there) I feel I can keep.
And all this before the first land is even played!
This is just a simple look at how I go about my Magic experience, and I try to do it for every single game. If I were at a GP I'd look (possibly a tiny bit harder) at my opponent's face when they're drawing their opening hand, but even with casual games or silly repack drafts I'll do it. I never let myself take back mistakes, and expect the same of my opponent.
That's it for now. Though I'd like to leave it on the following note. A lot of pro players are just nice people, who aren't playing the game because they must win. If they lose, they do so graciously, and I'm thinking of LSV and Paulo Vitor Dama Da Rosa when I say that. To play like them, I certainly can't, but I can win and lose like them, that is with good humour and a sense of "that's just how it went." Granted there are going to be a lot more mistakes for me to make that they wouldn't have, and they'll play the game how I couldn't have imagined before seeing them do it, but even LSV has tried to Mana Leak Thrun, the Last Troll.
So grapes and all, just shuffle up again.
Thanks for reading,
Fox "Mulligan aggresively, yo," Murdoch.
PART THE FIRST
A fantastic show is on Discovery channel right now, talking about the brain and how it works. They run a few games to show this, and one has actress saying "ga", but it sounds like she's saying Ba. The truth is she is "Ba" comes out of her mouth, but the eyes don't see the characteristic "B" bump on the lips. Because of this brain rewires it to believe you are hearing "Ga." After all, it's what you see and it's what's correct, right? What they have done is played the film of her saying "Ga" over the sound of her saying "ba."
It makes sense that the same applies to Magic. What you're opponent is saying (casting, attacking) is what you can hear with your proverbial ears. What your opponent is physically mouthing (what your eyes tell you) is how your opponent sets up their board. If they've got Island Island untapped and it's turn 2, you're expecting a Mana Leak on your play. But if you pass and they don't have it, you were hearing Ga not Ba. Further, you've got no information to verify whether they had Mana Leak or not, they may never have had it.
Another cute trick is where they play a sound that's rather gibberish. It doesn't make sense, but you can imagine it sounds like something. Speech. Then they play a spoken sentence, "she cuts with a knife." Once people have heard that, they replay the original sound. Usually people can't "unhear" the words, now believing that the gibberish now sounds like the sentence "she cuts with a knife." This is amazing once again for Magic tricks. If your opponent lost their round 1, then they've been told already tonight that their deck doesn't work, they're not on the their game, they aren't going to win, etc. This is more commonly known as "tilting", and there's no reason that your opponent won't feel it already. I'm aware you could feel the same, losing your first round, but the sensible player will identify why or where they screwed up, and not make the same mistake.
Knowing a few tricks like this can really help you to carry out your plays with spiced information. It's no secret that players will organise their hand in a certain way. I personally organise my hand Lands, then via mana cost. Once I realise I'm doing this I shuffle my hand after every draw, but I won't always catch myself. Some people like to put the kill spells (Terror, Terminate) in the right of their hand, so you can watch where their cards go as soon as they draw them. Occasionally people draw a land and plop it immediately onto the field, deck to table top. They're happy and relieved that they can finally do something, so they go auto for a second and the brain says "YES, do it!" These moments cost players games, and it's usually the calm and alert opponent who can capitalise on it.
An example from last year would be me against Owen Egan. He's a great player who I often play against in drafts, and for the first time in a while I was winning against him. I drew a nice big 3/3, he had no one that could block well, and I had the 2/1 haste infect goblin. Excited to beat down, I cast the fatty and moved the Strider Harness off the Goblin onto my new fatty and went straight to combat, to which everyone watching and Owen himself said "No, wait. The Goblin dies." In my excitement, I'd forgotten all about the -1/-1 counter on the goblin, and moving the equipment off killed it. Go on auto, lose the game.
Tomorrow night I'm taking my man Rony to FNM at Blacktown, as a birthday gift. I hope I don't play him, and not because I can't beat him. In Limited we're 4-2 in my favour. It's because I've promised to concede to him as a birthday gift. Yah, that'll happen.
What I aim to do is put to use some of these ideas above, that teaching a player something in game 1 will make them "see" or "hear" the same pattern occuring in games 2 or 3. I'm taking my blue/white build [same as last time, though vastly improved] and I'll Mana Leak turn 2 game 1 every time. Then see how my opponent plays game 2. I imagine plenty of the time they'll respect the Mana Leak, whether I have it or not.
PART THE SECOND
My own pre-game is simple enough for me. Appearance is first. A lot of players, especially at bigger events, like to wear the suits. The tie, the shirt, the jacket. It makes a big speech about the player, they are "the business man". For me I imagine myself as much the same, so I don't feel intimidated. I've known other players who do, but I usually just compliment the player and get on with it. I mean, I've got a suit at home too. I could wear it, but am I more comfortable in my jacket tonight, or would I prefer my "I love beer" shirt?
Age also comes into it, as a younger player tends to have a deck filled with their favourite cards that they think are good. And they indeed might be, but often there's a good percentage of the deck that are cute/favourite cards which rather play like blanks against a real/seasoned deck. For a good example, check out my deck from last week. Even earlier then that, it used to have Myr Battlesphere (good) and Golden/Silver Myr to back it up (very bad).
You can try and garner some information from the look of your opponent's face, but I've learnt that this is stupid. For me certainly. People who've looked like stupid, cavemen type opponents have continued to simply crush me into the ground and 4-0 FNM or 3-0 a draft. Plus there will always be stupid luck anyway, so sizing up brains from appearance is rather a waste.
After the image comes the pregame banter. Depending on who it is and how well I know them, I either go through the "So how long have you been playing," routine, or just ask them whether they think they can beat my awesomeness/specific deck contents. With someone like Rony I'd talk about the weather or how soon he expects his Consecrated Sphinx's back, give him something to be distracted by all game long.
Depending on how chatty the person is, I usually tell them I've been playing since 1999. This can be impressive, seeing these days saying "I've played since original Mirrodin," can impress upon players, though someone told me the other day they started in 93, and I was the one going all googly eyed. Time, I imagine, in a trained brain, equals more skill through sheer volume of exposure. Of course that's utter cock anyway. I've been playing since 1999 and to my memory have only won one draft.
After the "how long" question I usually like to drop the "level 1 judge" bomb, to see if that doesn't get a reaction. It might, or might not, but mostly I'm happy to tell players that I judged because I couldn't play. That way, I feel like it conveys an intimidating knowledge of the rules, while still making it sound like I'm not unbeatable. Some kind of balance.
After the banter comes the shuffle and mulligans. I try to do my mulligans after my opponent. I love watching them spy their hand and go "Um." That's the most interesting part. Not an obvious "Keep," but a tentative, "Hmm... I know it's not a great hand," and now they've got to consider going to 6. After that, I'll mulligan but I always watch their eyes and eyebrows when they're peeling their opening 7/6/5/what have you.
Myself, I've never noticed if my opponent has watched me while I mull over a mulligan, but I'm sure some have. I like to keep a blank face, or imagine I do. If I am going to keep a hand, I'll tell myself a story of how the games going to play out using this hand, and I'll know how good my 4-ofs could help get into a better position to win. If I'm happy with either of those (the story of winning, or of the 4-of's getting me there) I feel I can keep.
And all this before the first land is even played!
This is just a simple look at how I go about my Magic experience, and I try to do it for every single game. If I were at a GP I'd look (possibly a tiny bit harder) at my opponent's face when they're drawing their opening hand, but even with casual games or silly repack drafts I'll do it. I never let myself take back mistakes, and expect the same of my opponent.
That's it for now. Though I'd like to leave it on the following note. A lot of pro players are just nice people, who aren't playing the game because they must win. If they lose, they do so graciously, and I'm thinking of LSV and Paulo Vitor Dama Da Rosa when I say that. To play like them, I certainly can't, but I can win and lose like them, that is with good humour and a sense of "that's just how it went." Granted there are going to be a lot more mistakes for me to make that they wouldn't have, and they'll play the game how I couldn't have imagined before seeing them do it, but even LSV has tried to Mana Leak Thrun, the Last Troll.
So grapes and all, just shuffle up again.
Thanks for reading,
Fox "Mulligan aggresively, yo," Murdoch.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
First, read this!
A quick explanation. I'm an avid Magic fan, player, judge and writer, but also an avid reader. As such, this blog has (has?) two purposes. To report about my Magic activities, as well as report (lightly) on the books I'm reading as found on the Time Magazines top 100 from 1923 to 2005. So that's why the title reads "Fox Murdoch's Time 100 Novels Review", which I really should change.
This does mean occasionally I'll change the topic to books, but it's very easy to tune out as such a time if you do choose to, or to actually read maybe one or two books and learn something.
If you wanna read good stuff about Magic, check out channelfireball.com. Those guys are my HEROES.
Hope that helps!
This does mean occasionally I'll change the topic to books, but it's very easy to tune out as such a time if you do choose to, or to actually read maybe one or two books and learn something.
If you wanna read good stuff about Magic, check out channelfireball.com. Those guys are my HEROES.
Hope that helps!
Fox Murdoch's first time...
Well it wasn't THAT amazing. The world didn't move until round 3 when I lost against Tempered Steel. It turns out counters are great, but when you need to save one for Tempered Steel itself, they just play a load of guys that don't cost much and don't amaze on their own but over several terms that just get the job done while you can't tap out. My realistic solution would have been to drop a Wurm asap so I could bash and gain life every turn, meaning any combat was atleast against -6 but I didn't think that until after the round. He went on to win the FNM, so fine by me.
Back to round 1. I'm against kid-jo who's brought his favourite deck. I always wonder if it's OK to play well (not go easy, not utterly devastate them) and figure that yeah, it's OK. They usually enjoy just playing, and normally upon the death state just dump their favourite spell onto the field because hey, they wanted to play it. He had a Mana Leak at some point, but that was it.
Round 2 I was against mono black infect, which I wasn't sure about. Game 1 I keep a Ponder/Hero of Bladehold/5 land hand and it works quite well. He just doesn't draw anything, I see an Inkmoth/Plague Myr and he dies as the tokens go 2 4 6 dead.
Game 2 he rises against me and I can't counter his spells that'll matter, while game 3 we have a real game of it, and it goes long and he nearly gets to kill me but I'm only down to 4 when I can swing back for the win that he can't combat. I resolved Sphinx against him which is really rather game.
Round 4 I'm against the Solar Flare deck, and he had a better position on things though I played well enough until Gideon showed up. He's like a Manual when you drive an automatic. The board clutters up with him controlling a Wurm and me having a Wurm (Mind Control'd) and two Solemn Simulacrum's and I make him attack Gideon, then swing in with my own guys... so his Wurm never dies! I die.
Game 2 it's not so close, as he gets his goods out and I realise how he has +8 counters on me, because he can allow creatures to resolve then kill them with Go for the Throat, which rather beats my 4 Mana Leaks. He came 2nd, so also good.
I'm 2-2 and top the 6 pointers. I get plenty of good info about how to improve the deck, and pretty much it is "play the stuff that's already being played by everyone." There is one card I'd love to slip into the main, so we'll how the changes go from here.
Below, the decklist. The sideboard is one million percentage scramble, apart from the Timely Reinforcements and Ratchet Bombs being vs aggro (tho who can even PLAY vamps anymore?)
8 Island
8 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
---
24 lands
4 Hero of Bladehold
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Frost Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx
---
17 creatures
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Think Twice
4 Sphere of the Suns
1 Mind Control
1 Gideon Joura
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
---
19 others
4 Timely Reinforcement
3 Blue Sun's Zenith
2 Day of Judgment
2 Sun Titan
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Jace Memory Adept
---
15 sideboard
What the deck needs is a better sideboard. 4 Steel Sabotage in the sb (or 3) to combat the artifact heavy decks. 3/4 Dissipates in the main because Mana Leak isn't enough and isn't a hard counter, gets bad really quick. I think 2 Looters in the SB makes sense for the longer games where more cards will be better, and allows me to cycle the Mana Leaks once they're useless.
There is an obv case for Snapcaster being introduced, but what do you think I am, all money!? I would play him if I could, but I'm currently enjoying the fun of the deck rather than the lock downishness.
Jace could be removed to make space for other impressive Planeswalkers who don't give Solar Flare +2, such as Venser and Elspeth. With the two Elspeth can make tokens, Venser reset her to many counters, then next turn life gain and the turn after go ape. Especially with a Wurm on the board, having some 1/1s and 3/3s sounds good.
Lastly there is a big want also for Oblivion Rings and moving the Sun Titan to the main. Titan's great but I don't feel like I'd wanna play that game, with the obvious Sun Titan > Phantasmal Image > Sun Titan > O Ring gg play. Though it would be bloody fun! So I'll rework the deck and get back to you all.
I feel with better play this could easily have beena 3-1 result, but I didn't feel like I had a good chance against tempered steel, it's just so quick without the as-quick counters.
Ta for reading!
Back to round 1. I'm against kid-jo who's brought his favourite deck. I always wonder if it's OK to play well (not go easy, not utterly devastate them) and figure that yeah, it's OK. They usually enjoy just playing, and normally upon the death state just dump their favourite spell onto the field because hey, they wanted to play it. He had a Mana Leak at some point, but that was it.
Round 2 I was against mono black infect, which I wasn't sure about. Game 1 I keep a Ponder/Hero of Bladehold/5 land hand and it works quite well. He just doesn't draw anything, I see an Inkmoth/Plague Myr and he dies as the tokens go 2 4 6 dead.
Game 2 he rises against me and I can't counter his spells that'll matter, while game 3 we have a real game of it, and it goes long and he nearly gets to kill me but I'm only down to 4 when I can swing back for the win that he can't combat. I resolved Sphinx against him which is really rather game.
Round 4 I'm against the Solar Flare deck, and he had a better position on things though I played well enough until Gideon showed up. He's like a Manual when you drive an automatic. The board clutters up with him controlling a Wurm and me having a Wurm (Mind Control'd) and two Solemn Simulacrum's and I make him attack Gideon, then swing in with my own guys... so his Wurm never dies! I die.
Game 2 it's not so close, as he gets his goods out and I realise how he has +8 counters on me, because he can allow creatures to resolve then kill them with Go for the Throat, which rather beats my 4 Mana Leaks. He came 2nd, so also good.
I'm 2-2 and top the 6 pointers. I get plenty of good info about how to improve the deck, and pretty much it is "play the stuff that's already being played by everyone." There is one card I'd love to slip into the main, so we'll how the changes go from here.
Below, the decklist. The sideboard is one million percentage scramble, apart from the Timely Reinforcements and Ratchet Bombs being vs aggro (tho who can even PLAY vamps anymore?)
8 Island
8 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
---
24 lands
4 Hero of Bladehold
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Frost Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx
---
17 creatures
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Think Twice
4 Sphere of the Suns
1 Mind Control
1 Gideon Joura
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
---
19 others
4 Timely Reinforcement
3 Blue Sun's Zenith
2 Day of Judgment
2 Sun Titan
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Jace Memory Adept
---
15 sideboard
What the deck needs is a better sideboard. 4 Steel Sabotage in the sb (or 3) to combat the artifact heavy decks. 3/4 Dissipates in the main because Mana Leak isn't enough and isn't a hard counter, gets bad really quick. I think 2 Looters in the SB makes sense for the longer games where more cards will be better, and allows me to cycle the Mana Leaks once they're useless.
There is an obv case for Snapcaster being introduced, but what do you think I am, all money!? I would play him if I could, but I'm currently enjoying the fun of the deck rather than the lock downishness.
Jace could be removed to make space for other impressive Planeswalkers who don't give Solar Flare +2, such as Venser and Elspeth. With the two Elspeth can make tokens, Venser reset her to many counters, then next turn life gain and the turn after go ape. Especially with a Wurm on the board, having some 1/1s and 3/3s sounds good.
Lastly there is a big want also for Oblivion Rings and moving the Sun Titan to the main. Titan's great but I don't feel like I'd wanna play that game, with the obvious Sun Titan > Phantasmal Image > Sun Titan > O Ring gg play. Though it would be bloody fun! So I'll rework the deck and get back to you all.
I feel with better play this could easily have beena 3-1 result, but I didn't feel like I had a good chance against tempered steel, it's just so quick without the as-quick counters.
Ta for reading!
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