So I was up at the local shop yesterday (Full Moon Games), and I played a match with the owner as he was giving me a few ideas to help tweak my deck. So far, everyone that I've talked to about it likes it, which is a plus. Me and one of the other more competitive guys that works at the shop have been sound boarding ideas back and forth and he's helped me make some valuable tweeks. My main point today is that I played against a deck that isn't seeing any attention in the metagame right now at all, which is strange. I don't have the exact deck list, but it is essentially Bant Pod with an emphasis on the UW side of things. There is of course the core of the Green in there for birds and the staples like Acidic Slime. What floored me is how much the deck played out like a Solar-Flare deck. There were so many great card interactions that I was left a little confused after a few of his plays and had to take the time to go through them step by step in my head before I let him finish. The deck was running Venser, Sun Titan, Phyrexian Metamorph, Phantasmal Image, Trinket Mage, Acid Slime and a ton of other great stuff. It was mind blowing how fast he got running, too. I think the best bit of tech in the deck were the Stonehorn Dignitaries paired up with the clones, the Pod, and the Sun Titans. After around turn 4 or 5 every game, I got Stonehorn locked within sight of victory. It was consistent, it was obvious and it was harsh.
My thinking is... In an Aggro dominated environment such as the one we're seeing in Standard right now, why is this deck not seeing more play? It's just too good against the other popular decks. It doesn't leave much room for escape over all. The way the Pod works in the deck is amazing. It gives a much more versatile package when paired with blue instead of Red. I'm going to go up there and ask Ray to give me another look at it later today.
SD13
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
PTQ Indianapolis (May 19)
Alrighty then... Where to start...
Well, I guess the first thing to do is to give a shout out and some thanks to my friend Snibble. Without him loaning me around a third of the deck I played with, I never would have been able to play as competitively as I did.
Next, how about a decklist.
3 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Champion of the Parish
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Angel of Jubilation
4 Champion of Lambholt
3 Mayor of Avabruck
(18 Creatures)
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Entreat the Angels
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Angelic Destiny
(17 Spells)
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Cavern of Souls
2 Gavony Township
7 Forest
7 Plains
(25 Lands)
Sideboard
3 Grafdigger's Cage (good against Zombies, Pod, Frights, passable against RG Aggro)
2 Day f Judgment (Planed for Boros and Zombies)
2 Kessig Cagebreakers (Plan against control, never ended up using it)
2 Elspeth Tirel (plan against control)
3 Oblivion Ring (Generally awesome card to fix problems)
2 Sword of Feast and Famine (Zombies and RG Aggro)
1 Sword of Body and Mind (Expected to see a few tempo decks)
So lets get down to game play.
Round 1
Tyler on Venser Control.
I sat down across from my opponent Tyler and we went straight to business. We talked a little as we were waiting for the round to start, but mostly focused on the game. He played a bunch in different formats and sounded like a bit of a "grinder." Cool guy though and a great player. He was playing one of my decks absolutely worst matchups. After getting off to a good start in game one, he dropped a Stonehorn Dignitary and I knew I was in trouble. It took a few more turns and I was trying to get in for damage, but as soon as Venser came down, I knew there was no hope for me and I scooped straight to game 2. I brought in all 3 O-rings and dropped SoWP and both Entreats. The second game ended up with me waiting to topdeck the O-ring as he locked me down with Venser and a Dignitary. It never showed up, he got the emblem, and I scooped for a round loss. I was off to a rough start. Tyler was pretty cool though and ended up going 5-2 I think, so I didn't feel too bad about losing to him.
0-1 (0-2)
Round 2
David on RG Aggro.
So after round 1, I got called up to the judges table for a deck check. It seems that the first of many random mistakes made during the day was to start off by writing my list wrong and having it total up to 59 cards. I got it straightened out, but the clerical error cost me a game loss this round. We started on game 2, and I was recorded as losing the first game. Craptastic way to get the round started. David was all business and we got started as soon as the judge straightened us out. Starting off with game 2, I came out of the box hard. I took the game with little to no trouble and had a bit of a confidence boost. Game 3 took it away. We came out pretty much squared off toe to toe. Then he dropped a Sword of War and Peace and took it to the bank. Started really thinking about needed Beast Within and O-Rings main deck after these two rounds. I honestly think with a third game, I might have had a chance to win this round, since it seemed we were just racing each other and I was very capable of keeping pace with him.
0-2 (1-4)
Round 3
Cameron on Solar-Flare
I sat down at the table and started looking around as the round started. My opponent hadn't turned up yet so I sat and shuffled for a bit. He turned up a few minutes later and signed the slip with me as two wins and shook my hand, saying he was off to lunch. He didn't get to leave right away and we ended up doing a bunch of trading. Cool guy.
1-2 (3-4 [Kinda])
Round 4
David on Wolfrun Ramp
Game 1 was a blow out. He was firing on all cylinders and there wasn't much I could do but watch as he dropped a turn 4 titan and crushed me under its heels. Game 2, he flooded out and I took the easy win. Game 3 was a real fight. I came out strong and was worked him down to 5, then he gained a little life, then I had him back down to 1 with lethal damage on board. He top decked a Slagstorm and cleared most of my board, save one spirit token. In the process, he killed his own Solemn Simulacrum and drew an Inferno Titan off of it to kill my last spirit and hit me for two. The next turn, I botched up and made my first actual play mistake. I played a Champion of the Parish off of a Plains instead of a Cavern of Souls, meaning I didn't have the mana open to play the Angelic Destiny on it to keep it alive through the titan attack. He killed the champ on his attack and then finished me off. If I hadn't made that mistake, I may have been able to take the game honestly, but he scooped to me on his turn before killing me, citing the need for food and wanting to play in a cube as his reasons for not rubbing his good luck in my face. I thanked him, shook his hand and then went on wondering when my odd luck was going to stop.
2-2 (5-5)
Round 5
Feng (not his first name, but I don't have his first name written down) on UW Miricale Planswalkers.
Game 1 was a complete blow out for him. He hit 3 Temp Mastery with no deck fixing while having Gideon and Tamiyo on the field. Easy win for him. Second game, I boarded out SoWP, both Angelic Destiny, 1 Angel of Jubilation, 1 Champion of Lambholt for both copies of Elspeth and 3 O-rings. My board plan against control went off without a hitch. Elspeth ended up winning both games for me in the long haul. This was the first taste I got of something actually going according to plan.
3-2 (7-6)
Round 6
Sam on Naya Pod.
Sam made the mistake of fixing his deck face up when I came to the table and I had the opportunity to see what he was playing before we started. It wasn't my fault, I don't know why he was doing it that way, but he was. As it turns out, game 1 was an easy win. I dropped turn 1 Champ, turn 2 Mayor, Turn 3 SoWP and he scooped without ever playing more than basic lands. Game 2 ended up being just as easy. I brought in Grafdigger's cages against him and drew one in my starting hand after a mulligan (I had a really bad hand the first round). I played a Pilgrim on turn 1, a champ and the cage on turn 2, and then cruised past to an easy win after a few more tokens came in. I made a play mistake here of missing a Mayor's trigger for my token. That was the second of my actual play mistakes for the day, and probably the least important. He did some grumbling about the cage and how he was holding two pods in his hand. I half expected he'd have boarded them out expecting some kind of hate against them. Another perfect sideboard game.
4-2 (9-6)
Round 7
So perseverance had brought me to the 7th round with a good enough record to have a legitimate shot at landing myself in the prize pool. Obviously not the top 8, but I had a decent shot if I won of making some packs off the top 16.
Jacob on Grixis Zombies
I didn't expect to see this deck at all. I expected a few zombie decks, but nothing like this. Game 1 was a loss for me, and he played heavy control elements and just crushed me with small damage every turn while I couldn't stabilize long enough to mount a comeback. Game 2, I boarded in Day of Judgment and Sword of Feast and Famine, thinking the protection could be vital. I ended up out racing him and never hit a sideboard card. Game 3, I did hit a SoFF, but a missplay ended up costing me dearly. I used an Avacyn Pilgrim to play and equip the sword while I had plenty of land to do so. I had cards in hand that may have been able to save me, but after hitting with the sword, didn't have the mana to play them since I used the pilgrim instead of a land to play it. He ended up being able to win a slightly longer game after my mistake.
4-3 (10-8)
So, not really the way I needed the last round to go, but that's just the way it happens. The only reason I made it that far was because of opponents that were hungry and dropped anyway, so I shouldn't have been so surprised by the loss last round.
As far as things I learned from this PTQ, my deck is very strong against the stuff I expected to see in the metagame, and weak against the things I didn't. Also, making very small play mistakes with the deck's manabase really screwed me out of a few wins. Matchups I expect to see more that need work will be the Wolfrun Ramp and RG aggro matchups. The other seemed pretty solid and Zombies isn't really a deck worth worrying about. My match up against Vensor Control was an anomaly as well, and not something I expect to have repeated.
There are a few changes I think I'll end up making to the deck. I think Garruk Relentless has a solid place in the deck and I'd like to work him in somehow. I think Kessig Cagebreakers need to come out of the board. I never played them and I don't know that I ever would. Especially if I end up dropping more creatures to add Garruk, which seems likely. I also may drop the Entreat the Angels to add a few copies of Beast Within main deck. The card is just too good to be sitting on the sidelines and offers solutions that even Oblivion Ring doesn't. As far as the extra swords in my Board? I picked up a few more SoWP and may make them main deck, moving the Angelic Destiny to my board. I also feel like Timely Reinforcements has a place in the sideboard against decks like Zombies and Boros, but I'm not sure if I'll add it or not.
Anyway, that's about it for my PTQ Recap. Questions and comments are always welcome and feedback on the deck or sideboard plan is always great.
SD13
Well, I guess the first thing to do is to give a shout out and some thanks to my friend Snibble. Without him loaning me around a third of the deck I played with, I never would have been able to play as competitively as I did.
Next, how about a decklist.
3 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Champion of the Parish
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Angel of Jubilation
4 Champion of Lambholt
3 Mayor of Avabruck
(18 Creatures)
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Entreat the Angels
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Angelic Destiny
(17 Spells)
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Cavern of Souls
2 Gavony Township
7 Forest
7 Plains
(25 Lands)
Sideboard
3 Grafdigger's Cage (good against Zombies, Pod, Frights, passable against RG Aggro)
2 Day f Judgment (Planed for Boros and Zombies)
2 Kessig Cagebreakers (Plan against control, never ended up using it)
2 Elspeth Tirel (plan against control)
3 Oblivion Ring (Generally awesome card to fix problems)
2 Sword of Feast and Famine (Zombies and RG Aggro)
1 Sword of Body and Mind (Expected to see a few tempo decks)
So lets get down to game play.
Round 1
Tyler on Venser Control.
I sat down across from my opponent Tyler and we went straight to business. We talked a little as we were waiting for the round to start, but mostly focused on the game. He played a bunch in different formats and sounded like a bit of a "grinder." Cool guy though and a great player. He was playing one of my decks absolutely worst matchups. After getting off to a good start in game one, he dropped a Stonehorn Dignitary and I knew I was in trouble. It took a few more turns and I was trying to get in for damage, but as soon as Venser came down, I knew there was no hope for me and I scooped straight to game 2. I brought in all 3 O-rings and dropped SoWP and both Entreats. The second game ended up with me waiting to topdeck the O-ring as he locked me down with Venser and a Dignitary. It never showed up, he got the emblem, and I scooped for a round loss. I was off to a rough start. Tyler was pretty cool though and ended up going 5-2 I think, so I didn't feel too bad about losing to him.
0-1 (0-2)
Round 2
David on RG Aggro.
So after round 1, I got called up to the judges table for a deck check. It seems that the first of many random mistakes made during the day was to start off by writing my list wrong and having it total up to 59 cards. I got it straightened out, but the clerical error cost me a game loss this round. We started on game 2, and I was recorded as losing the first game. Craptastic way to get the round started. David was all business and we got started as soon as the judge straightened us out. Starting off with game 2, I came out of the box hard. I took the game with little to no trouble and had a bit of a confidence boost. Game 3 took it away. We came out pretty much squared off toe to toe. Then he dropped a Sword of War and Peace and took it to the bank. Started really thinking about needed Beast Within and O-Rings main deck after these two rounds. I honestly think with a third game, I might have had a chance to win this round, since it seemed we were just racing each other and I was very capable of keeping pace with him.
0-2 (1-4)
Round 3
Cameron on Solar-Flare
I sat down at the table and started looking around as the round started. My opponent hadn't turned up yet so I sat and shuffled for a bit. He turned up a few minutes later and signed the slip with me as two wins and shook my hand, saying he was off to lunch. He didn't get to leave right away and we ended up doing a bunch of trading. Cool guy.
1-2 (3-4 [Kinda])
Round 4
David on Wolfrun Ramp
Game 1 was a blow out. He was firing on all cylinders and there wasn't much I could do but watch as he dropped a turn 4 titan and crushed me under its heels. Game 2, he flooded out and I took the easy win. Game 3 was a real fight. I came out strong and was worked him down to 5, then he gained a little life, then I had him back down to 1 with lethal damage on board. He top decked a Slagstorm and cleared most of my board, save one spirit token. In the process, he killed his own Solemn Simulacrum and drew an Inferno Titan off of it to kill my last spirit and hit me for two. The next turn, I botched up and made my first actual play mistake. I played a Champion of the Parish off of a Plains instead of a Cavern of Souls, meaning I didn't have the mana open to play the Angelic Destiny on it to keep it alive through the titan attack. He killed the champ on his attack and then finished me off. If I hadn't made that mistake, I may have been able to take the game honestly, but he scooped to me on his turn before killing me, citing the need for food and wanting to play in a cube as his reasons for not rubbing his good luck in my face. I thanked him, shook his hand and then went on wondering when my odd luck was going to stop.
2-2 (5-5)
Round 5
Feng (not his first name, but I don't have his first name written down) on UW Miricale Planswalkers.
Game 1 was a complete blow out for him. He hit 3 Temp Mastery with no deck fixing while having Gideon and Tamiyo on the field. Easy win for him. Second game, I boarded out SoWP, both Angelic Destiny, 1 Angel of Jubilation, 1 Champion of Lambholt for both copies of Elspeth and 3 O-rings. My board plan against control went off without a hitch. Elspeth ended up winning both games for me in the long haul. This was the first taste I got of something actually going according to plan.
3-2 (7-6)
Round 6
Sam on Naya Pod.
Sam made the mistake of fixing his deck face up when I came to the table and I had the opportunity to see what he was playing before we started. It wasn't my fault, I don't know why he was doing it that way, but he was. As it turns out, game 1 was an easy win. I dropped turn 1 Champ, turn 2 Mayor, Turn 3 SoWP and he scooped without ever playing more than basic lands. Game 2 ended up being just as easy. I brought in Grafdigger's cages against him and drew one in my starting hand after a mulligan (I had a really bad hand the first round). I played a Pilgrim on turn 1, a champ and the cage on turn 2, and then cruised past to an easy win after a few more tokens came in. I made a play mistake here of missing a Mayor's trigger for my token. That was the second of my actual play mistakes for the day, and probably the least important. He did some grumbling about the cage and how he was holding two pods in his hand. I half expected he'd have boarded them out expecting some kind of hate against them. Another perfect sideboard game.
4-2 (9-6)
Round 7
So perseverance had brought me to the 7th round with a good enough record to have a legitimate shot at landing myself in the prize pool. Obviously not the top 8, but I had a decent shot if I won of making some packs off the top 16.
Jacob on Grixis Zombies
I didn't expect to see this deck at all. I expected a few zombie decks, but nothing like this. Game 1 was a loss for me, and he played heavy control elements and just crushed me with small damage every turn while I couldn't stabilize long enough to mount a comeback. Game 2, I boarded in Day of Judgment and Sword of Feast and Famine, thinking the protection could be vital. I ended up out racing him and never hit a sideboard card. Game 3, I did hit a SoFF, but a missplay ended up costing me dearly. I used an Avacyn Pilgrim to play and equip the sword while I had plenty of land to do so. I had cards in hand that may have been able to save me, but after hitting with the sword, didn't have the mana to play them since I used the pilgrim instead of a land to play it. He ended up being able to win a slightly longer game after my mistake.
4-3 (10-8)
So, not really the way I needed the last round to go, but that's just the way it happens. The only reason I made it that far was because of opponents that were hungry and dropped anyway, so I shouldn't have been so surprised by the loss last round.
As far as things I learned from this PTQ, my deck is very strong against the stuff I expected to see in the metagame, and weak against the things I didn't. Also, making very small play mistakes with the deck's manabase really screwed me out of a few wins. Matchups I expect to see more that need work will be the Wolfrun Ramp and RG aggro matchups. The other seemed pretty solid and Zombies isn't really a deck worth worrying about. My match up against Vensor Control was an anomaly as well, and not something I expect to have repeated.
There are a few changes I think I'll end up making to the deck. I think Garruk Relentless has a solid place in the deck and I'd like to work him in somehow. I think Kessig Cagebreakers need to come out of the board. I never played them and I don't know that I ever would. Especially if I end up dropping more creatures to add Garruk, which seems likely. I also may drop the Entreat the Angels to add a few copies of Beast Within main deck. The card is just too good to be sitting on the sidelines and offers solutions that even Oblivion Ring doesn't. As far as the extra swords in my Board? I picked up a few more SoWP and may make them main deck, moving the Angelic Destiny to my board. I also feel like Timely Reinforcements has a place in the sideboard against decks like Zombies and Boros, but I'm not sure if I'll add it or not.
Anyway, that's about it for my PTQ Recap. Questions and comments are always welcome and feedback on the deck or sideboard plan is always great.
SD13
On Gaming, Planning, and the Lack Thereof
This is the first in a pair of posts about my weekend adventures in Magic. This one will be devoted to all things not directly tied in to the actual PTQ. There are a ton of things that I'd like to touch on that happened, but I figured putting both the PTQ recap and the side notes all in one post would make it exactly half the length of the book of Genesis.
So what is this post going to relate to... Well, there's travel plans and last minute changes. There's also trading to touch on. And lastly, I think card choices and sportsmanship need to be touched on.
So, let's start with travel plans. The original plan was to meet up with some guys from Legends and ride the majority of the trip with them. Due to some events in the personal life department, my girlfriend and I decided to drive up together. There were a few reasons for this. First, she has friends in Indy and wanted to get out of the house and see them again since we don't get up that way very often. The second is that my step-dad has been having health issues and I didn't want to be stranded if I needed to head home in a hurry. It all worked out for the best and we ended up having a great time both before and after the tourney. Sorry to the driver from Legends from changing plans so many times over the course of the week. I'm sure it had to be a headache!
Of course, at events such as PTQs, Grand Prix, and other large Magic related tournaments and gathering, there are always people looking to trade cards. It's a great way to meet new people and help the community by enriching card pools and wallets. This is a story about the two kinds of traders that I met this weekend. The first guy that tried to trade for me was a complete pain in the neck and I regret even trying to swap cards with him. I don't know where he was from and I didn't catch his name. The long and short of the story is that he wanted to trade for full value for his cards, and wanted an average of 25% of value off of mine. Needless to say, when I want to swap cards, I want equal values. If I want a 25-30 dollar card, I want to be able to trade my 25-30 dollar card for it. Not 40-45 dollars for the 30 dollar card. That is unfair and just being a jerk. Nice not trading with ya, pall. The second part of my trading story is actually very cool. The guy's name was Cameron and he was from here in Indiana. He was there with some friends and was s'possed to be my opponent on round 3 but conceded to me to go have lunch. He didn't end up getting to leave in a hurry because his ride was in the middle of a trade, so we started talking. He was trying to break into Legacy and was building up his card collection. We just BSed about the tournament so far and what our opponents were like and about some of the cards we were looking for. We started to hash out some small trades at first and they were all very easy going. I ended up trading off some of my dual lands to him for some Standard stuff that I really needed. I kinda regretted it, but was willing to make the sacrifice to get the cards I needed in a much more played format. Afterwards, we parted ways, he went and got lunch and I went on to round 4. Later that day, we got back to trading and I ended up getting my playset of duals back in tact. It only cost me a few prized collection pieces that I never played with. I do miss those cards, but at the same time, I helped him get his collection started, restored my playset of duals (with an artist signed copy after the trade), and picked up a ton of stuff I needed or could trade off a lot more easily than the Mox and Chaos Orb.
The moral of the story is... Don't be a jerk when you're trying to trade. It builds bad blood and makes people avoid you. Be cool. Be sociable and likable. Don't be standoffish and over value your cards while undervaluing your trade targets. The fact that Cameron and I were able to establish what values we were comfortable with using, and then sticking to them made things go much more smoothly and even made it fun and profitable for both of us.
Now, on to the sportsmanship portion of my rant.
I played a guy 5th or 6th round that was playing a deck that's very easy to hate against and has a few very solid hate cards to shut it down. My problem with this player's sportsmanship was his attitude about me sideboarding in the card against him in game two. When I played it, he just got a crummy attitude towards me and started being really salty through the rest of the game. I can't help it that he picked a strategy that 1, I knew would be present 2, that I knew how to play against, and 3, that has such easily playable hate. If you play a popular deck choice that has cards that oppose it like that, don't be shocked or angry when it happens to you. Be a better player and play around those cards.
That's all of my non-game related ranting for now. I'll be back in a bit with the PTQ follow up.
SD13
So what is this post going to relate to... Well, there's travel plans and last minute changes. There's also trading to touch on. And lastly, I think card choices and sportsmanship need to be touched on.
So, let's start with travel plans. The original plan was to meet up with some guys from Legends and ride the majority of the trip with them. Due to some events in the personal life department, my girlfriend and I decided to drive up together. There were a few reasons for this. First, she has friends in Indy and wanted to get out of the house and see them again since we don't get up that way very often. The second is that my step-dad has been having health issues and I didn't want to be stranded if I needed to head home in a hurry. It all worked out for the best and we ended up having a great time both before and after the tourney. Sorry to the driver from Legends from changing plans so many times over the course of the week. I'm sure it had to be a headache!
Of course, at events such as PTQs, Grand Prix, and other large Magic related tournaments and gathering, there are always people looking to trade cards. It's a great way to meet new people and help the community by enriching card pools and wallets. This is a story about the two kinds of traders that I met this weekend. The first guy that tried to trade for me was a complete pain in the neck and I regret even trying to swap cards with him. I don't know where he was from and I didn't catch his name. The long and short of the story is that he wanted to trade for full value for his cards, and wanted an average of 25% of value off of mine. Needless to say, when I want to swap cards, I want equal values. If I want a 25-30 dollar card, I want to be able to trade my 25-30 dollar card for it. Not 40-45 dollars for the 30 dollar card. That is unfair and just being a jerk. Nice not trading with ya, pall. The second part of my trading story is actually very cool. The guy's name was Cameron and he was from here in Indiana. He was there with some friends and was s'possed to be my opponent on round 3 but conceded to me to go have lunch. He didn't end up getting to leave in a hurry because his ride was in the middle of a trade, so we started talking. He was trying to break into Legacy and was building up his card collection. We just BSed about the tournament so far and what our opponents were like and about some of the cards we were looking for. We started to hash out some small trades at first and they were all very easy going. I ended up trading off some of my dual lands to him for some Standard stuff that I really needed. I kinda regretted it, but was willing to make the sacrifice to get the cards I needed in a much more played format. Afterwards, we parted ways, he went and got lunch and I went on to round 4. Later that day, we got back to trading and I ended up getting my playset of duals back in tact. It only cost me a few prized collection pieces that I never played with. I do miss those cards, but at the same time, I helped him get his collection started, restored my playset of duals (with an artist signed copy after the trade), and picked up a ton of stuff I needed or could trade off a lot more easily than the Mox and Chaos Orb.
The moral of the story is... Don't be a jerk when you're trying to trade. It builds bad blood and makes people avoid you. Be cool. Be sociable and likable. Don't be standoffish and over value your cards while undervaluing your trade targets. The fact that Cameron and I were able to establish what values we were comfortable with using, and then sticking to them made things go much more smoothly and even made it fun and profitable for both of us.
Now, on to the sportsmanship portion of my rant.
I played a guy 5th or 6th round that was playing a deck that's very easy to hate against and has a few very solid hate cards to shut it down. My problem with this player's sportsmanship was his attitude about me sideboarding in the card against him in game two. When I played it, he just got a crummy attitude towards me and started being really salty through the rest of the game. I can't help it that he picked a strategy that 1, I knew would be present 2, that I knew how to play against, and 3, that has such easily playable hate. If you play a popular deck choice that has cards that oppose it like that, don't be shocked or angry when it happens to you. Be a better player and play around those cards.
That's all of my non-game related ranting for now. I'll be back in a bit with the PTQ follow up.
SD13
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Pre-PTQ Nervers
Well, I'm getting the pre-event jitters. This time, it comes from not playtesting nearly enough. I only finalized my deck over the weekend and haven't had a chance to really play a single game with it. I have faith in the card choices, and in the deck's numbers for the most part. What I don't have faith in is the way it is going to curve out and my ability to make informed choices while playing it. When I sit down at my first game, I just have to remind myself that its just another game of Magic.
Other than the jitters, I'm also going to be making my first outing with Team Legends. Or at least most of the Linton branch of it. Guess that roots me in a team for the next round of Nerd Day tournaments in Robinson. heh. Always fun to picks sides, right?
And shortly after the dust settles from the PTQ, I'm off to help run a Midwest Warfare Warhammer 40K event on the following weekend!
SD13
Other than the jitters, I'm also going to be making my first outing with Team Legends. Or at least most of the Linton branch of it. Guess that roots me in a team for the next round of Nerd Day tournaments in Robinson. heh. Always fun to picks sides, right?
And shortly after the dust settles from the PTQ, I'm off to help run a Midwest Warfare Warhammer 40K event on the following weekend!
SD13
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Prepping for PTQ Indianapolis (May 19th)
Alright, so I've had almost no time to playtest and the one deck I was brewing was too inconsistent on three colors to work. I liked the principle, and it had some very explosive games, but I think I can make something almost as good with better mana in two colors. So, let's have a look at the evolution of my deck for this event.
I started off with my BW Tokens. I love this archetype, probably to my detriment. I was digging through red though and found some very interesting cards and wanted to test them. I tested a variation of my tokens deck with Rally the Peasants, Thatcher's Revolt, and Zealous Conscripts. Loved it when it worked. There were a few very satisfying surprised looks on the faces of opponents that didn't see what was coming when they get first turn Champion of the Parish, second turn Intangible Virtue, third turn Thatcher's Revolt for a total of 10 damage in the form of a hard to stop ball lightning effect. That's right, I just compared Thatcher's Revolt to a Ball Lightning. But in this deck it was better than Ball Lightning in some very dumbfounding ways. In addition to permanently buffing Champion, it made some hard to stop damage that came across after you dropped a few anthem effects. Adding more non-basic lands just unbalanced the manabase too much to be acceptable and made for some bad games where I was essentially time-walking for the other player after not having a relevant drop till turn 3 or 4.
So, I went back to the drawing board. I still love the Tokens archtypes. I think with the right twists, it can over run a lot of the bad matchups for aggro decks in the format. I think Hero of Bladehold has made new friends with what is possibly my favorite three drop critter in the format right now. Champion of Lambholt. I didn't realize just how good she was until a good friend of mine and I started doing some playtesting on a WG Humans deck I suggested to him. After thinking about it more, and goofing around with it some in my head and on paper, I decided that GW Human/Tokens can be really nasty and have some great plays. It immediately has some amazing perks. It has a better curve than BW because of having a mana dork to play as a 1 drop, bringing the first turn a long way from "land, go." Next, it offers a lord in the Mayor on the two spot, helping round out some great two drops with an anthem on a body. At the three position, green brings Champ of Lambholt, which is a house. And for some true end game success, Green offers us some solutions to bad match ups. Against control with a ton of board wipes, how about a few Kessig Cagebreakers to get the ball rolling back in my favor again? Or how about Sigarda as a solution to things like Killing Wave and other nastiness of that nature.
Of course, as a few end-game cards to really spice the deck up, how about Entreat the Angels? It's already a great card, but I think paying 5 mana for an Archangel is way better than paying 7. And if you miracle it into play, you can get 3 of those angels for the same price... So... If I draw this on accident on turn 5, with 1 Intangible Virtue on the field, you're telling me I get three 5/5 flyers with vigilance? Sounds like a game winner to me. Even on turn 3 for 1 of those, I'd be thrilled.
So, where does that leave me? With very little time to playtest this deck until the weekend and with a few more key cards to trade for or borrow. Fortunatly, I think I know where I can get a few of the ones that I really need to put the cap on the thing. I'm naming the deck, I just haven't figured out what yet.
So here's the list as I see it right now.
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Champion of the Parish
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Angel of Jubilation
4 Champion of Lambholt
2 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Angels of Jubilation
(18 Creatures)
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Entreat the Angels
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Angelic Destiny
(17 Spells)
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Cavern of Souls
2 Gavony Township
7 Forest
7 Plains
(25 Lands)
That's about it for me. My sideboard is still in the air, but I've got some ideas. More to follow as I get in some testing and some trading in the next week or so.
SD13
I started off with my BW Tokens. I love this archetype, probably to my detriment. I was digging through red though and found some very interesting cards and wanted to test them. I tested a variation of my tokens deck with Rally the Peasants, Thatcher's Revolt, and Zealous Conscripts. Loved it when it worked. There were a few very satisfying surprised looks on the faces of opponents that didn't see what was coming when they get first turn Champion of the Parish, second turn Intangible Virtue, third turn Thatcher's Revolt for a total of 10 damage in the form of a hard to stop ball lightning effect. That's right, I just compared Thatcher's Revolt to a Ball Lightning. But in this deck it was better than Ball Lightning in some very dumbfounding ways. In addition to permanently buffing Champion, it made some hard to stop damage that came across after you dropped a few anthem effects. Adding more non-basic lands just unbalanced the manabase too much to be acceptable and made for some bad games where I was essentially time-walking for the other player after not having a relevant drop till turn 3 or 4.
So, I went back to the drawing board. I still love the Tokens archtypes. I think with the right twists, it can over run a lot of the bad matchups for aggro decks in the format. I think Hero of Bladehold has made new friends with what is possibly my favorite three drop critter in the format right now. Champion of Lambholt. I didn't realize just how good she was until a good friend of mine and I started doing some playtesting on a WG Humans deck I suggested to him. After thinking about it more, and goofing around with it some in my head and on paper, I decided that GW Human/Tokens can be really nasty and have some great plays. It immediately has some amazing perks. It has a better curve than BW because of having a mana dork to play as a 1 drop, bringing the first turn a long way from "land, go." Next, it offers a lord in the Mayor on the two spot, helping round out some great two drops with an anthem on a body. At the three position, green brings Champ of Lambholt, which is a house. And for some true end game success, Green offers us some solutions to bad match ups. Against control with a ton of board wipes, how about a few Kessig Cagebreakers to get the ball rolling back in my favor again? Or how about Sigarda as a solution to things like Killing Wave and other nastiness of that nature.
Of course, as a few end-game cards to really spice the deck up, how about Entreat the Angels? It's already a great card, but I think paying 5 mana for an Archangel is way better than paying 7. And if you miracle it into play, you can get 3 of those angels for the same price... So... If I draw this on accident on turn 5, with 1 Intangible Virtue on the field, you're telling me I get three 5/5 flyers with vigilance? Sounds like a game winner to me. Even on turn 3 for 1 of those, I'd be thrilled.
So, where does that leave me? With very little time to playtest this deck until the weekend and with a few more key cards to trade for or borrow. Fortunatly, I think I know where I can get a few of the ones that I really need to put the cap on the thing. I'm naming the deck, I just haven't figured out what yet.
So here's the list as I see it right now.
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Champion of the Parish
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Angel of Jubilation
4 Champion of Lambholt
2 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Angels of Jubilation
(18 Creatures)
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Entreat the Angels
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Angelic Destiny
(17 Spells)
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Cavern of Souls
2 Gavony Township
7 Forest
7 Plains
(25 Lands)
That's about it for me. My sideboard is still in the air, but I've got some ideas. More to follow as I get in some testing and some trading in the next week or so.
SD13
Saturday, May 5, 2012
FNM Playtesting
So, last night I took one of the decks I'm testing up to the local shop to get some games in. As it turns out, all the most casual players turned up to support the new set. Well, the catch is, all the casual players were playing all of the most casual decks. I got to play 4 sets. I showed up a little after they started, so I had to sit the first round out, but that was fine, I needed to finish buying a few cards and getting a few in trade as well.
I played RWB Tokens (A list I'll disclose later.)
Round 1- Loss.
Round 2.
Played against a poison deck that was very typical. Green and blue with some unblockable guys, a lot of infect, and a bunch of random combat tricks to secure the win. I crushed his hopes and dreams. First game I got a slow hand (At least it looked slow at first glance). I played a tapped land first turn, second turn another and a Champ of the Parish. Third turn Thatcher Revolt and swung for 7, Fourth turn Thatcher Revolt and Swung for 10. Fifth and 6th turn were dropping tokens to get winning damage through. Pretty fun game, he didn't have enough steam to keep me down. Second game was a more normal game, with me dropping tokens to chump block while pushing some vigilance tokens into the redzone for a fairly quick kill.
(1-1, 2-0)
Round 3.
Played against the only competitive deck I saw all night. He was running Esper Spirits. Not exactly top tier, but still fringe competitive. First game I out paced him early on and got a fairly quick win. Thatcher Revolt provided a significant damage percentage in this game, too. Second game he played all the tricks but couldn't stem the tide of tokens coming in and I flash-backed a Rally the Peasants to pull down the win. The only real mistake I made in this one was side board options. I saw delver and snapcaster and I got locked in on them without paying attention to what else he played, so I made a bad deck call. I read it as UW Delver instead of spirits, so I put in a few cards to improve my matchup against control instead of against the swarm. Fortunately for me, he never hit his swarm and I was easily able to out pace him for easy wins.
(2-1, 4-0)
Round 4.
Played against RG Werewolves. Won the first game by sneaking across in the air to get the win with some Lingering Souls tokens pumped by Intangible. Second game was very grindy and we both have very locked up board states. He managed to get out a Mayor of Avenbruck and a pair of Huntmasters and after that it was all down hill. Third game, I resolved a Sword of Feast and Famine on turn 3, Turn 4 Piled it onto a Champ of the Parish and played a Honor of the Pure and started the one sided beating. Being able to untap my lands every turn and then drop chump blockers or anthem effects won this game with ease. He did manage to get in some good damage via Kessig Wolfrun and a Daybreak Ranger that had been beefed up with Increasing Savagery. I did toss out the chump blocker tokens before he started giving it trample, but after that, I focused more about getting damage across.
(3-1, 6-1)
Round 5.
Played against another UG Infect deck. This one was even less evolved than the other and the guy just got lucky. Apparently, he'd been getting lucky every round because he was 3-1 when he sat down with me, too. First game, he got the nuts draw and beat me into the ground by turn 4 in much the same manor I'd seen most infect decks work. Game two, I kept a hand I felt good about that was going to have me locking down the board and getting damage through pretty quickly. It worked out just the way I expected, with him being forced to chump block and lose creatures. Finally, the turn before I could deal lethal damage, he suited up a Cystbearer with a few auras, a few combat tricks and, a trepenation blade. He swings, pulls my top 3 cards for a total of 10 poison in a single attack. Yay variance.
(3-2, 6-3)
End thoughts? Well, the casual players made this one a hard night to judge from a competitive stand point. I'll most likely never see infect decks when going to PTQs. I may, on some weird off chance, see one at the Grand Prix Qualifiers, but even that isn't likely. So what do I take away from the night? When you take Thatcher Revolt and pair it with a copy or two of Intangible Virtue and a Champion of the Parish, it goes from being a pretty weak card, to being a huge swing. Paired with a Champ and even a single Intangible gives you nine power spread across 4 bodies to swing in with. I wasn't sure I'd like it or not, but I really do. So the deck list?
So my thoughts on the deck go something like this... I never got to play the Conscripts, so I don't know how good they are or aren't yet. I think if I had the chance to play them against another more competitive deck like Ramp, I'd love them. Sorin... I find myself holding him and playing more tokens or more anthem effects a lot of the time. I like him, I think he's really solid, but I just don't know if he's good enough in this deck. I do like that he gives me more reach into a long game, but I'm wondering if maybe Elspeth or another copy of Gideon wouldn't be better. Game enders in the deck are the Sword of Feast and Famine and the Angelic Destiny. I can't tell you how fast those two cards just put games away after they resolve. Another great finisher is Hero of Bladehold. So hard to stop after it resolves.
Really, what I think the deck needs are a few better card choices in the midgame phase to help pull wins across. Maybe the right call is to drop Sorin for another sword and another Angelic? Not sure yet. Suggestions or thoughts?
SD13
I played RWB Tokens (A list I'll disclose later.)
Round 1- Loss.
Round 2.
Played against a poison deck that was very typical. Green and blue with some unblockable guys, a lot of infect, and a bunch of random combat tricks to secure the win. I crushed his hopes and dreams. First game I got a slow hand (At least it looked slow at first glance). I played a tapped land first turn, second turn another and a Champ of the Parish. Third turn Thatcher Revolt and swung for 7, Fourth turn Thatcher Revolt and Swung for 10. Fifth and 6th turn were dropping tokens to get winning damage through. Pretty fun game, he didn't have enough steam to keep me down. Second game was a more normal game, with me dropping tokens to chump block while pushing some vigilance tokens into the redzone for a fairly quick kill.
(1-1, 2-0)
Round 3.
Played against the only competitive deck I saw all night. He was running Esper Spirits. Not exactly top tier, but still fringe competitive. First game I out paced him early on and got a fairly quick win. Thatcher Revolt provided a significant damage percentage in this game, too. Second game he played all the tricks but couldn't stem the tide of tokens coming in and I flash-backed a Rally the Peasants to pull down the win. The only real mistake I made in this one was side board options. I saw delver and snapcaster and I got locked in on them without paying attention to what else he played, so I made a bad deck call. I read it as UW Delver instead of spirits, so I put in a few cards to improve my matchup against control instead of against the swarm. Fortunately for me, he never hit his swarm and I was easily able to out pace him for easy wins.
(2-1, 4-0)
Round 4.
Played against RG Werewolves. Won the first game by sneaking across in the air to get the win with some Lingering Souls tokens pumped by Intangible. Second game was very grindy and we both have very locked up board states. He managed to get out a Mayor of Avenbruck and a pair of Huntmasters and after that it was all down hill. Third game, I resolved a Sword of Feast and Famine on turn 3, Turn 4 Piled it onto a Champ of the Parish and played a Honor of the Pure and started the one sided beating. Being able to untap my lands every turn and then drop chump blockers or anthem effects won this game with ease. He did manage to get in some good damage via Kessig Wolfrun and a Daybreak Ranger that had been beefed up with Increasing Savagery. I did toss out the chump blocker tokens before he started giving it trample, but after that, I focused more about getting damage across.
(3-1, 6-1)
Round 5.
Played against another UG Infect deck. This one was even less evolved than the other and the guy just got lucky. Apparently, he'd been getting lucky every round because he was 3-1 when he sat down with me, too. First game, he got the nuts draw and beat me into the ground by turn 4 in much the same manor I'd seen most infect decks work. Game two, I kept a hand I felt good about that was going to have me locking down the board and getting damage through pretty quickly. It worked out just the way I expected, with him being forced to chump block and lose creatures. Finally, the turn before I could deal lethal damage, he suited up a Cystbearer with a few auras, a few combat tricks and, a trepenation blade. He swings, pulls my top 3 cards for a total of 10 poison in a single attack. Yay variance.
(3-2, 6-3)
End thoughts? Well, the casual players made this one a hard night to judge from a competitive stand point. I'll most likely never see infect decks when going to PTQs. I may, on some weird off chance, see one at the Grand Prix Qualifiers, but even that isn't likely. So what do I take away from the night? When you take Thatcher Revolt and pair it with a copy or two of Intangible Virtue and a Champion of the Parish, it goes from being a pretty weak card, to being a huge swing. Paired with a Champ and even a single Intangible gives you nine power spread across 4 bodies to swing in with. I wasn't sure I'd like it or not, but I really do. So the deck list?
4 Champion of the Parish
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Zealous Conscripts
(8 Creatures)
4 Lingering Souls
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Rally the Peasants
3 Thatcher Revolt
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Honor of the Pure
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Angelic Destiny
1 Day of Judgement
(25 Spells)
1 Gideon Jura
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
(3 Planeswalkers)
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Isolated Chapel
2 Slayers' Stronghold
2 Vault of the Archangel
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
8 Plains
(24 Land)
Sideboard
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Day of Judgment
2 Elspeth Tirel
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdigger's Cage (Meant to be 3 Cages, no Nihil, but I couldn't find my other cages in time.)
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (Bad choice and I'd almost never put her in.)
2 Torpor Orb
2 Grand Abolisher
So my thoughts on the deck go something like this... I never got to play the Conscripts, so I don't know how good they are or aren't yet. I think if I had the chance to play them against another more competitive deck like Ramp, I'd love them. Sorin... I find myself holding him and playing more tokens or more anthem effects a lot of the time. I like him, I think he's really solid, but I just don't know if he's good enough in this deck. I do like that he gives me more reach into a long game, but I'm wondering if maybe Elspeth or another copy of Gideon wouldn't be better. Game enders in the deck are the Sword of Feast and Famine and the Angelic Destiny. I can't tell you how fast those two cards just put games away after they resolve. Another great finisher is Hero of Bladehold. So hard to stop after it resolves.
Really, what I think the deck needs are a few better card choices in the midgame phase to help pull wins across. Maybe the right call is to drop Sorin for another sword and another Angelic? Not sure yet. Suggestions or thoughts?
SD13
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Giddy and Intrigued
So, this is mostly a post just to relate that I'm giddy about the fact that my wonderful girlfriend and I have managed to put our finances on stable enough ground in time for me to pre-order one of the last boxes that Full Moon Games had available of Avacyn Restored, so I have a chance to crack some packs tomorrow night at midnight.
In other news, I've started hearing more and more about 3d altered art cards and I have to say I'm intrigued. The first I heard of it was a friend of mine in Florida mentioned seeing some at a local shop in Tampa. Which is pretty cool and I thought it was a novel idea. But with EDH (Now called commander because Wizards can't leave well enough alone), I can really see that having a few really fun generals made into 3d cards could be fun and enjoyable. Also, I read on TCG play (or perhaps it was Quiet Speculation) that a judge at a major event (I believe it was a PTQ) last week cleared a 3D Delver of Secrets for play so long as the required checklist card was actually the one sleeved up. That means that 3d versions of the flip cards are actually legal for play. That makes me want to get a few Delvers. Also it made me start thinking about the idea of using 3d tokens. After a brief google search, there were some really cool ideas for these 3d cards. Some include abacus type counters or even the older style spinning counters that used to come in fat packs. I love this idea. I think it would be really cool to have a few 3d Tokens with counters to keep track of numbers for my token decks. Anyone think they can pull off making these kinds of things and doing it well? If so, there may be commissions in your future.
SD13
In other news, I've started hearing more and more about 3d altered art cards and I have to say I'm intrigued. The first I heard of it was a friend of mine in Florida mentioned seeing some at a local shop in Tampa. Which is pretty cool and I thought it was a novel idea. But with EDH (Now called commander because Wizards can't leave well enough alone), I can really see that having a few really fun generals made into 3d cards could be fun and enjoyable. Also, I read on TCG play (or perhaps it was Quiet Speculation) that a judge at a major event (I believe it was a PTQ) last week cleared a 3D Delver of Secrets for play so long as the required checklist card was actually the one sleeved up. That means that 3d versions of the flip cards are actually legal for play. That makes me want to get a few Delvers. Also it made me start thinking about the idea of using 3d tokens. After a brief google search, there were some really cool ideas for these 3d cards. Some include abacus type counters or even the older style spinning counters that used to come in fat packs. I love this idea. I think it would be really cool to have a few 3d Tokens with counters to keep track of numbers for my token decks. Anyone think they can pull off making these kinds of things and doing it well? If so, there may be commissions in your future.
SD13
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Some Thoughts on Post Avacyn Standard
Well, I'm back again and I'm loving the Avacyn Restored stuff I'm seeing around so far. I didn't get a chance to play in the pre-releases, but that's just the way life happens some days. This time around though, I'd like to talk about a few cards I'm excited to see coming into play in the near future. Personally, my favorite card in the set, bar none, is Angel of Jubilation. She's cheap, she's an anthem ability, she's flying, and she'll be a fun problem to toss in front of your opponents. Best yet, she'll slot right into my token deck.
Speaking of decks that gained new toys, I've been looking through the new stuff that might add to my Venser deck. While there's not a ton of stuff added that's in the colors that I liked, there is some stuff that's fairly splashable that could be fun to add. I just have to go through and find it and do some more playtesting with the deck in general. It does look fun though. I did alright with it in the FNM I played it in. It needs some tweaking in general, but I think the numbers are close. It may need a few more lands and it certainly needs to lose the inquisitor exarchs. I've already got them slotted in for Suture Priests.
So, what do we have to talk about until next time we play? Hmmm... Cards I'm looking for from Avacyn? My list goes like this:
1. Zealous Conscripts
2. Angel of Jubilation
3. Entreat the Angels
4. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
5. Sigarda, Host of Herons
6. Slayers' Stronghold
7. Cavern of Souls
Those pretty much sum up my picks from the set. At least the ones I don't think are too over hyped. I don't like Temporal Mastery much. It'll be good in some older formats, but I think it's being over rated currently. I feel the same way about some of the other cards in the set. Vexing Devils seem good, but I don't think they're 15 dollars worth of good. They should settle down some in a few weeks. Those are just my opinions though. I think most of the cards that are topping 15.00 right now will settle down to around there by the end of May. I don't think there are many cards in this set that are going to change the face of the Standard format the way we play it now.
SD 13
Speaking of decks that gained new toys, I've been looking through the new stuff that might add to my Venser deck. While there's not a ton of stuff added that's in the colors that I liked, there is some stuff that's fairly splashable that could be fun to add. I just have to go through and find it and do some more playtesting with the deck in general. It does look fun though. I did alright with it in the FNM I played it in. It needs some tweaking in general, but I think the numbers are close. It may need a few more lands and it certainly needs to lose the inquisitor exarchs. I've already got them slotted in for Suture Priests.
So, what do we have to talk about until next time we play? Hmmm... Cards I'm looking for from Avacyn? My list goes like this:
1. Zealous Conscripts
2. Angel of Jubilation
3. Entreat the Angels
4. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
5. Sigarda, Host of Herons
6. Slayers' Stronghold
7. Cavern of Souls
Those pretty much sum up my picks from the set. At least the ones I don't think are too over hyped. I don't like Temporal Mastery much. It'll be good in some older formats, but I think it's being over rated currently. I feel the same way about some of the other cards in the set. Vexing Devils seem good, but I don't think they're 15 dollars worth of good. They should settle down some in a few weeks. Those are just my opinions though. I think most of the cards that are topping 15.00 right now will settle down to around there by the end of May. I don't think there are many cards in this set that are going to change the face of the Standard format the way we play it now.
SD 13
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