Obviously, I like Apple stuff, and I have for a long time. I even used to work there, some 20 years ago. However, unlike some tech pundits who shall remain nameless, I don’t think Apple should be given a free pass when they screw up.

Well, right now, Apple is screwing up, and doing so badly. Today is June 15th, the day that pre-orders for the iPhone 4 were supposedly going to start. I say “supposedly” because while the online Apple store is configured to take orders, it is not actually able to do so, at least not for me.

Bloggers and tweeters are already blaming AT&T for the snafu, but I have a hard time believing this is entirely the fault of AT&T. Actually, it cannot be entirely the fault of AT&T, because if AT&T can’t handle it, Apple should have known that and done something about it in advance.

However, despite that, and despite the fact that AT&T may indeed be overloaded, Apple is doing a terrible job of dealing with the situation, because as far as I can tell, they are doing exactly nothing about it. There are no warning messages on the store Web site, not even a “we apologize for the delays and difficulties some customers are having.” There’s nothing. There’s just a store Web site that randomly dies, and because the process is multi-step (and presumably not all the steps directly involve AT&T), there are many different points along the way where it can die.

Here are the steps after you click “pre-order” on the model you want:
1) Note what kind of customer you are (e.g., returning AT&T iPhone customer)
2) Provide your AT&T information (i.e., phone number, billing zip code)
3) Confirm or change rate plans (this may actually be multiple steps as well)
4) Add to cart

I don’t know what step 5 is, because I’ve never gotten that far. Dying after step 2 seems to be the place where blame might mostly be laid at the feet of AT&T, since that’s where the site says that it’s getting information from AT&T.

However, I’ve had it die after all four steps. Sometimes it says “Your session expired,” even though I’ve never left it idle for more than 10 seconds. Sometimes it literally says “Oops, there’s an error” with no explanation. Or “Your request couldn’t be processed” also with no explanation. This, from the company that prides itself on the user experience?

Give me a break.

Look, Apple, if you cannot actually provide the service, shut it down. It’s not for lack of trying, I’ve been at it for hours. (Fortunately, I’ve had other work to do while doing it, since it requires only infrequent user interaction—mostly just waining for the site to generate the next error message.) It’s especially annoying when Apple has clearly already handled the AT&T front end and the process dies when adding the final order to the shopping cart. That one cannot be laid at the feet of AT&T.

I think the problem at Apple is attitude. @gruber reflected this attitude well in his tweet: “Remember when that one Android phone was so popular that the carrier was overloaded attempting to process preorders?” Yep, everything is fine as long as customers are flocking to us with their money. If we’re making money, we must be doing it right! Ugh, by this logic, Microsoft did everything right in the 1990s, because they made truckloads of money then. Hey, if everything is rosy for the stockholders, everything must be great, right?

Except it isn’t, at least for the customer. What this fiasco says is “we’re not professional enough to handle our business.” Not that everybody always is, of course, but Apple’s corporate image is one of responding to the user. Apple needs to better understand what it can and cannot do. Apple didn’t try this with the last iPhone I bought, the 3G. You had to go to an Apple store on launch day and wait in line for hours. This was annoying, sure, but it wasn’t like Apple was trying to provide a service and failing, which is exactly what Apple is currently doing with pre-orders. Stevie told us all on the keynote stage that we could pre-order on June 15th. We can’t. It’s certainly OK for the Apple suckups to call Microsoft or Google out onto the carpet when they break their promises, but Apple somehow gets a free pass?

I mean, sure, ultimately, this will just be a blip on Apple’s record. Millions of people will (eventually) get their iPhone 4s, and they’ll be great and sleek and cool, and the Apple fanboy press will be abuzz with love for them, and Apple will make buckets of money, so it will all be great in the end, so who cares?

Well, maybe, but I’m worried. Apple is starting to be accused of turning into the company it used to call the Evil Empire, Microsoft. This is exactly the kind of anti-customer stance that plays into that perception. Is this really just a blip, or it it another step down a dark path? I hope it’s a blip, but I fear it’s a step. Time will tell.

Finally, as I noted in the title, this is a great commercial for Android. Even, or perhaps especially, if this is somehow all blamed on AT&T. Google execs must be drooling. “Look at what a crappy customer experience you get with AT&T. You know there are Android phones on Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile, right?” Somehow I’m betting this is not the message Apple wants to be sending, but I’m sure there are plenty of people hearing it loud and clear right now.

Look, I want to spend my money on an iPhone. More importantly, I want to do it when Apple said I would be able to do it. It shouldn’t be this hard… apparently, Apple neither needs nor wants my money. Or, more likely, they don’t give a crap because they know they’ll get it anyway. It’s a Joan Jett moment, Apple—I hate myself for loving you. Or something like that.

About a week ago, my new Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1 speakers arrived and I had a chance to set them up. I have 30 days to decide if I like them, as Ascend is an Internet retailer and it’s hard to get to audition a pair. Here are my thoughts after about a week or so of listening (noting that I was out of town for about half of that week):

General
First and foremost, these are highly detailed speakers. Because my younger son was a light sleeper as an infant/toddler, I got pretty into headphones for a while. While headphones have their issues, the one thing decent headphones give you, much better than a great many speakers, is detail. These speakers, right out of the box, deliver headphone-like detail. This is far and away the most impressive thing about these speakers across the entire frequency range.

The best anecdote I can give is that my wife, not exactly an audiophile, walked in while I was listening. I asked if there was anything she wanted to hear, and she chose Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” a song our kids love and that she’s heard many, many times. After it was mostly done, she looked at me and said “There is more to this song than I realized.” Yes, she was hearing details she had simply never heard before.

Highs
I’m used to metal (or at least poly) tweeters; the Sierra-1s use soft-domed tweeters. There’s a certain zing you can only get from metal tweeters, but of course there’s often a cost of some harshness or fatigue. The Sierra-1 tweeters do an outstanding job of providing detail and wonderful imaging and soundstage, and without the fatigue. They’re very smooth, and handle music that other speakers hiss out as sibilance very well. They are not, however, quite as sharp as the harder-material tweeters that I’m used to, which is both good and bad. It’s like all the really sharp bits of the music have been rounded off. I’m not sure if it’s more accurate (probably for some things and not others), but it’s definitely different.

The place where these deliver the strongest performance is violins. Violins are, in my opinion, one of the hardest instruments to reproduce well, particularly in the higher part of their range. A lot of speakers (and headphones) turn even well-played violins into a screechy mess, or at least generate more screech than what I would expect to hear live. The Sierra-1s are, so far, absolutely magnificent at reproducing violins. If I keep them, they will almost certainly end up costing me money, as I’ll have to invest in more violin music. Darn.

The one downside of all this fabulous detail is that the Sierra-1s reveal flaws pretty effectively. Bad recordings and bad compression are made evident quickly. I don’t have a lot of music that suffers from bad compression, but there are a few 128 kbps tracks in my library, and they tend to stand out through the Sierra-1s. My previous speakers provided slightly less detail, of course, but were a little more forgiving as a result.

Midrange
This is where these speakers really, really shine. Vocals sound liquid smooth, and all the nuance (for singers that have any—I’ll admit I like some that don’t) is present. Whatever was done in the crossover for these speakers was done really well, because with most two-ways, there’s an audible dip in response where the drivers cross over (sometimes somewhere in the vocal range, yuck). I don’t hear it at all in these speakers, much to my amazement. Middle piano notes are crisp and clear, and electric guitars in this range have great punch. But it’s really the vocals that shine. My wife commented that “Freddy sounds awesome” on these, referring of course to Queen’s Freddy Mercury. It’s almost enough to make me an opera fan… well, not really, that would require the proverbial “act of god,” but that fact that I even thought it is a testament to how well the Sierra-1s do vocals.

Bass
OK, let’s be clear: these are bookshelf speakers with 5.25” drivers. My thought going in was “How much bass could they possibly deliver?” Well, so far more than I thought. The bass is far better than I could have imagined from speakers (and drivers) of this size. It’s tight and clear and without a doubt the best bass I’ve ever heard from a bookshelf speaker without help from a sub. They do a great job of generating sound like a floorstander while still being bookshelf-sized. I’m generally pretty skeptical about claims in marketing copy, but maybe there really is something to the bamboo construction. That or there’s some serious mojo in the drivers. Or both.

Now, while bass clarity and volume are good, the bass extension is not quite as good as the speakers they replaced; I expect this is due to the physical size limitations, but they definitely do not go as low. On the other hand, very little music really taps hard into that frequency range. My test track for bass extension is “Root Beer” from the American Beauty soundtrack, which has significant signal in the 25-40 Hz range, and the Sierra-1s don’t get much of it. However, I don’t think many bookshelf speakers do much better.

Of course, the trendy thing with bookshelves these days is to add a subwoofer. Frankly, I’ve never been a huge fan of subwoofers for music (though of course they’re integral in home theater) and these go low enough for most music that I will only very rarely miss the lowest bass extension.

Aesthetics
I ordered these in the “light cherry” finish because that’s what I thought would go best with the other wood in my study. It didn’t hurt that Ascend had that finish on sale for $160 off around the time I was planning on ordering them anyway. Anyway, not to put too fine a point on it, these are simply gorgeous. They’re made out of bamboo, not MDF, and the finish is light enough that you can see the grain of the bamboo. The finish itself is like glass, a really beautiful shine. The down side of this is that fingerprints are instantly visible; thoughtfully, the speakers come with a pair of white fabric gloves so you can handle them without leaving too many. Here, check out the pic:

My meager photo skills and cheap camera simply do not do justice to them, but as you can see, the finish is high-gloss—the reflection of the blinds behind the speakers is pretty clear even in this photo.

Also, you can see some CDs on the shelf on the right for a size comparison. Oh, that’s a Sanus SF30 stand that it’s on, by the way.

The Verdict So Far
Generally, I’m pretty impressed. Overall I like the Sierra-1s, but there is some adjustment. I have some tinkering to do yet, and lots more listening as well. The tinkering is that as you can see from the picture, these are pretty close to the wall/window, and the Sierra-1s are rear-ported. I think the overall tonal balance might be a little bit off as a result and the bass maybe a smidge boomier than optimal because of the placement. Ascend has specially-designed foam plugs to use in the rear ports for difficult placements, and I’m certainly going to give those a try once I get used to how they sound without the plugs.

However, even without the tinkering, as I said, I am so far pretty impressed with these, particularly for an $800 bookshelf speaker. During my 30-day trial I plan to also go out and audition some other speakers: Paradigm Studio 20, B&W 685, KEF iQ30 and maybe even the Klipsch RB-81, though I’m generally not a huge Klipsch fan. My home theater rig is PSBs, but right now PSB doesn’t seem to make anything in the right size/price range. These other speakers will really have to show me something to get me to send the Sierra-1s back; I will be particularly astonished if I find a rival in reproducing violins, but I’m going in with an open mind since I haven’t heard the others yet, and those are all generally favorably-reviewed speakers as well. So, while I’m impressed, I’m willing to be even more impressed by something else, though I’m not counting on it.

Setup Notes
This is my study, which is the home of my primary computer setup. Music is a mix of 256 kbps VBR AAC/MP3 (stuff bought through the iTunes store or Amazon MP3) and uncompressed. This is fed from the optical out on my Mac Pro into the outboard DAC built into a HeadRoom Desktop headphone amplifier, which routes the RCA outs to a NAD C740 receiver. This is obviously not super high-end or anything, but it’s definitely a cut above standard Best Buy-grade fare.

Background
This is only for the deeply interested reader; I put it last because it’s only marginally relevant to the review. Anyway, 20 years ago, almost to the month, my uncle gave me a pair of speakers that he built himself. He’s pretty serious about it and these are not just some slapped-together boxes. They were three-way speakers with Audax TW010E1 tweeters, 8” woofers, and a midrange with specs I don’t remember. These were highly capable speakers that served me well. However, since we moved into a new house in 2006, I’ve been less happy with them as my study (where they lived) is a cozy 10’ 4” by 11” with a substantial portion of that meager space taken over by bookcases. That is, the room is a little tight for them. I’ve wanted something smaller—like bigger bookshelf speakers on stands—ever since we moved in to this house. Space issues also mean that a subwoofer is not a realistic option.

The real problem, however, is that the speakers started to fail. In particular, the woofer surrounds were literally disintegrating:

Yep, time for new speakers. 20 years of good sound for free, though, is nothing to sneeze at!

So, we’ve been drafting for the last two months at Montag’s. Frankly, nine weeks in a row is a bit much. It’s not that I don’t like drafting, it’s just that I like Standard a bit better and I haven’t gotten a chance to play Standard with Rise yet.

I’ve been out of town some this week and I really haven’t had time to brew or playtest. However, I have had a deck in mind for a long time. Right after Eldrazi Conscription was spoiled, at FNM I bought a playset of Sovereigns of Lost Alara for $2. I hadn’t right away figured out the appropriate full build, but of course soon thereafter Mythic Conscription hit the scene. The numbers from Nationals Qualifiers and PTQs have made it clear that this deck is the real deal, so that’s what I ran. Here’s the build I went with:

Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Dauntless Escort
1 Rafiq of the Many
4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Sovereigns of Lost Alara

Other spells
2 Gideon Jura
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Eldrazi Conscription

Land
1 Arid Mesa
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Forest
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
2 Sejiri Steppe
2 Stirring Wildwood
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard
4 Negate
3 Bant Charm
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Admonition Angel

Pretty standard, except for the Admonition Angel, which was my tech for the mirror. Well, maybe the Linvala isn’t that standard, either, but it’s great in the mirror (shuts down all the mana dudes) and is terrific against Naya… in theory, anyway. I ran Bant Charms over Pridemages because I like them as removal in both the mirror and against Jund.

Round 1: Kris, playing UWb Control
Kris is a Montag’s regular and a really nice guy; I always feel bad when I beat him. Game 1 was very quick, I hit with a buff Knight of the Reliquary for 9 on turn 5, which he then killed on his turn, but on turn 6 I got Sovereigns and hit him with a Bird of Paradise for 11. Game 2 was a little more drawn out; he managed to kill a few guys and got a Bloodwitch on the board after I had hit him with a Colonnade, but I got a Sovereign out and smacked him again with a very, very large Birds of Paradise, and he scooped.
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: Austin, playing Jund
I had never seen Austin at Montag’s before, but it was clear to me early on that he’s a solid player, and he opened Game 1 with a Savage Lands so I knew right away what I was in for. I managed to win on the back of an early Dauntless followed by a pretty buff Knight (I have to say KotR makes getting Blightning’d with land in your hand not so bad). Game 2 he drew like a zillion removal spells. The best I did was an early Firewalker, but he died to Consuming Vapors, which put me off my next turn as well. I did manage to Bant Charm a Vengevine, but he had too much removal and too many Bloodbraids. Game 3 I got early mana dudes and then a Knight and a Firewalker. The Knight only got in once before eating a Terminate but the Firewalker managed to get in for something like 10 total before eating a Doom Blade. I did at one point have a Sovereign in hand this game (finally), but it died from my hand to a Blightning. He had a Thrinax and a BBE on the board but I managed to finish him off with a Lotus Cobra and a Colonnade; the Cobra got through courtesy of a Sejiri Steppe. I did not play a single Sovereign the entire match—beating Jund the hard way feels pretty good!
2-0 matches, 4-1 games

Round 3: Joe, playing Jund
Joe is one of the strongest players at the store. I usually manage to make a match out of it, but mostly don’t win. Game 1 went well, though, I managed a Sovereign with him at 19, blasting him down to 5. He killed the Conscripted dude, but it still wasn’t enough; he drew mostly land. Game 2 was the reverse. I got stuck on two land (both Forests) and he eventually killed my mana dudes with a Jund Charm, and that was it. Game 3 I can’t say I remember all that well, other than that I won it. I had him down to 7 before I hit a Sovereign—I probably would have won without it, but it was the deal-sealer.
3-0 matches, 6-2 games

Round 4: Chris, playing UWr Control aka Super Pals
Well, it was kind of Super Pals; he wasn’t running any Elspeths. Game 1 I got the god draw: two mana dudes, three land, Baneslayer, and Sovereigns. Turn 3 Baneslayer, turn 4 Sovereigns. He had a Path for the Baneslayer, but he was stuck on two Plains so I smashed him next turn with a Bird for 11 and he scooped. Game 2 was a lot more interesting. I had a fetch land and mana dork on the first turn and was ready for a Knight on the third turn, but on his second turn he cast a Meddling Mage, naming Knight. I drew another Knight and had no other play, so I O Ring’d his Mage. He O Ring’d my O’Ring, naming Knight again. I drew a Gideon, cast it, and killed his Mage. He cast Ajani and I came back with, of course, a pair of Knights. He tried to Gideon my Gideon but I had a Negate. Gideon and the Knights got in one smash for 12, bringing him down to 7, but met Day. I got an O Ring for Ajani and hit him down to 1 with Gideon and put down a Hierarch. He cast a Wall of Omens, which drew him an Ajani, which he also cast. He could keep Gideon tapped, but not both Gideon and the Hierarch. Since I had a Sovereign in hand, that was game.
4-0 matches, 8-2 games

Round 5: ? (forgot, sorry) playing Jund
I was the only undefeated, so I had no incentive to play, and he was 3-1 with good tiebreaks and a draw with me would only help those, so we drew. We played a couple for fun without sideboarding, and I rolled him both times off Sovereigns. Game 2 was actually a Sovereign on an attacking Gideon, and I had two Hierarchs out, so Gideon came in as a 19/19 trampler. Hot.
4-0-1 matches, 8-2 games

Quarterfinals: Eddie, playing a UGR homebrew
Eddie was very cool, marveling at his ability to make the top 8 with a deck featuring main deck Pelakka Wurm. He won the die roll so I was on the draw. I got an early Hierarch and a Cobra. The Cobra got in for 3 and I cast a fourth-turn Baneslayer. He played a land and had the answer, a Mind Control. However, I had the answer to that in a Jace, bouncing the power lady back to my hand. From there I started Fatesealing him, bounced a couple chumps later, and ran through. Game 2 I got early fetches into a 4/4 Knight, then Jace again and a 5/5 Knight off an exalted, then Sovereigns for the win.
5-0-1 matches, 10-2 games

Semifinals: Matt, playing Vengevine Naya
Matt is an outgoing kid and a pretty good player, though he can venture into “arrogant punk” territory at times, especially when drafting. I knew going in that this wast a great matchup because he ran main deck Sparkmages, and of course the Mystic equipment package. He had both the Sparkmage and a Collar in his opening hand Game 1 and I had to go down to 6 cards. I had a Cobra and a Hierarch down and was bouncing the Sparkmage with Jace and then another Jace. He did keep re-casting the Sparkmage and I kept drawing Hierarchs and Cobras and Birds, casting them slightly faster than he could kill them, and actually beat him down to 4 with exalted Cobras. Eventually, though, the second Jace ran out and the Sparkmage got Collared up and I just could not get through a Vengevine and Bloodbraid. In wen the Linvalas and the Bant Charms. He got an early Pridemage, but I got an early Linvala, which also prevented any Sparkmage shenanigans. We traded blows for a while, me getting in mostly with Linvala. Unfortunately, I once again drew mostly little dorks and land, with no sign of a Baneslayer or Sovereigns, and while I got him down to 4, he overwhelmed me with Vengevines and Bloodbraids. I’m sure if I could have produced a Sovereign early in the first game or anytime in the second, I could have won, but it wasn’t meant to be.

So, at the end of the night, 5-1-1 matches, 10-4 games.

The good news is that my buddy Jason, also playing Mythic Conscription, won in the finals. Jason owed me some money and since there wasn’t anything he wanted from the store, paid me off with his credit winnings, so I ended up one Elspeth at the end of the night, which is pretty good.

So, my thoughts on the deck… overall I like it a lot. It’s pretty resilient and just flat-out wins games out of nowhere. I think I’d like to work in a couple of Finest Hours, though, so the deck can win a little earlier without relying on a creature. I wasn’t all that impressed with the Dauntless Escorts, so I might move those to the sideboard and just bring them in against decks I know are running Day. Jason’s versions doesn’t run Gideon but does run 2 each of Rafiq and Finest Hour, and that worked out well for him. He also runs a different board, with both Pridemages and Bant Charms, along with Emerge Unscathed. So I might tinker a little and replace the 3 Escorts with 1 more Rafiq and 2 Finest Hour,

On the other hand I might use my new Elspeth (I’m up to three now) to build Super Pals, even though I’m still short one Gideon. I’ll be traveling again next week so not much time to brew and test…

So, I was planning on going to the usual FNM on Friday, May 29th. However, I was running a little late so I called the shop to try to reserve my spot. Unfortunately, they ran out of packs… but it was OK, because one of the guys, John, brought his cube… so, those of not in the usual ROE draft were going to draft from the cube.

Now, I had never done a cube draft before, but it always sounded kind of cool, so I was completely game to give it a try. Well, I have to say, it exceeded every expectation. John’s cube goes all the way back, including Power 9 cards and everything. Most of the guys there had drafted from John’s cube before—though not with ROE included, I gathered—but I hadn’t. So I had no idea what the appropriate strategy was. Also, since I took a ten-year break from the game, there were bound to be a lot of cards I didn’t really know, and that happened. We all ponied up $5 at the beginning, $20 for first and $10 for second. Guy, who runs the store (Montag’s Games), ran us using the DCI software, which was kind of trippy with only six people, but it did the job.

So, what’s the strategy in an unknown environment? Well, I have two defaults when I have no idea what to do: mindless aggro and big control. Based on what I was passed, the strategy was pretty clear.

First pack I “opened” a Mox Sapphire, which seemed pretty good. I was passed a Baneslayer, then something I forget, then a Gideon Jura. Well, then, Blue/White control was clearly the way to go. Here’s the deck, as best as I can remember it:

Flooded Strand
Glacial Fortress
Kor Haven
Mox Sapphire
Mox Ruby

Baneslayer Angel
Wall of Omens
Wall of Denial
Thieving Magpie
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Glen Elendra Archmage
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Serendib Efreet
Sphinx of Lost Truths
Sphinx of Magosi
Sphinx of Jwar Isle

Gideon Jura
Basilisk Collar
Ponder
Armageddon
Counterspell
Mana Leak
Cryptic Command
Force of Will
Psionic Blast
Islands (several)
Plains (several)

I think I’m maybe missing a cards or two, but seriously, how cool is that as a draft deck? Yes, it’s a little lighter on removal than would be ideal, but still, very wicked. I know the Mox Ruby was out of color, but it was a good pick to cut off John on my left in the third “pack” who I knew was heavy red.

Round 1 I played Jason piloting a Black/White deck with a few sweepers (Damnation, Wrath) and Bitterblossom, but I was able to pretty much control the board with counters and bigger fliers and that sealed the deal. Won one of the games with a Psionic Blast to kill him when he was at exactly 4. He never saw that coming from the blue/white deck!

Round 2 was against Joe and his wicked Blue/Black deck that dropped a Finkel (err, Shadowmage Infiltrator) early game 1 that I never answered, winning with Jace 2’s ultimate, and game 2 got decked again, this time by a Nemesis of Reason.

Round 3 was John and his mono Red, very sligh-like deck. Game 1 he got a turn 1 Jackal Pup and just rolled me. Game 2 he took a 1-land draw which also had a turn 1 Pup, but I had an answer (one of the walls) and he didn’t draw land soon enough. Game 3 I again managed both Walls, though he got through them (got through the Wall of Denial with Wither counters). He got out Chandra Nalaar, which took out a guy and which I eventually killed, and then I got a Baneslayer out to restore that life total. He dropped a Siege-Gang Commander, but had to tap out to do it, and I had both Moxen out, so I cast Armageddon so he couldn’t kill me with the goblins, and that was it.

Semifinals were against Tony and his Green/White/Black deck. I don’t remember this deck or this match very well. I do remember taking some beating from a Chameleon Colossus at one point, and getting very lucky that Tony named the wrong color when he hit me with a Persecute, but other than that, I don’t remember much.

Finals were against Joe (my Round 2 opponent). I won the first with a quick start including both Glen Elendra and Augustin. I don’t remember game 2. Game 3 he had slightly better board position but I was ready with a land, a Gideon, a Sphinx of Jwar Isle, and a Mana Leak in hand. However, he hit me with Hymn to Tourach and nabbed both the Gideon and the Sphinx, ugh, and then just rolled over me.
Still, absolute loads of fun!

So, I am now officially a fan of cube drafting. Drafting cards like these is serious fun!

However, next Friday we finally go back to Standard after nine straight weeks of draft, and I’m itching to play. Not sure if I’m going to play Mythic Conscription, Grixis, or Esper Control. They all seem like fun to me!

I couldn’t go to one of the big pre-releases on Saturday because of family obligations; my five-year-old had a soccer game and my nine-year-old had a baseball game, and those are things I generally won’t miss, even for a pre-release.

So, I picked up Jason on the way to Montag’s Games for the Sunday pre-release. He had played in the regional pre-release the day before, and we talked about his impressions of the set. His main recommendation was to stay away from red unless you have bombs in red, because small burn spells aren’t very good against all the fat in this format. He also reiterated the importance of fliers and the utility of levelers.

Montag’s opens at noon on Sundays and the event was supposed to start at 1:00—and we just barely made it. Apparently there had been a line since 11:30. I guess WotC is getting the reaction they wanted to Rise. Montag’s isn’t that big and usually maxes out around 45 people, but the shop owner, Guy, decided we could stretch to 50 for this one since he knew a lot of people would drop pretty early. It was decided that we were playing 5 rounds, cut to top 8. This is important later…

They guy next to me opened multiple bombs: Gideon, Deathless Angel, etc. Here was my card pool:

White
2 Demystify
2 Guard Duty
Oust
Soul’s Attendant
Eland Umbra
Kor Line-Slinger
Ikiral Outrider
Puncturing Light
Wall of Omens
Dawnglare Invoker
Malakandi Griffin
Harmless Assault
Totem-Guide Heartbeest
Soulbound Gurardians

Blue
Distortion Strike
3 Eel Umbra
Narcolepsy
See Beyond
Coralhelm Commander
Guard Gomazoa
2 Venerated Teacher
Phantasmal Abomination
Mnemonic Wall

Black
Nighthaze
Zulaport Enforcer
Contaminated Ground
Null Champion
Last Kiss
2 Perish the Thought
2 Zof Shade
Cadaver Imp
Dread Drone
Skeletal Wurm

Red
Devastating Summons
Goblin Tunneler
Spawning Breath
Staggershock
Tuktuk the Explorer
Lagac Lizard
Valakut Fireboar
Surreal Memoir
Traitorous Instinct
Battle-Rattle Shaman
Emrakul’s Hatcher
Fissure Vent
Explosive Revelation
Akoum Boulderfoot
Disaster Radius

Green
Might of the Masses
Spider Umbra
Joraga Treespeaker
Bramblesnap
Realms Uncharted
Sporecap Spider
Aura Gnarlid
2 Daggerback Basilisk
Boar Umbra
Ondu Giant
2 Living Destiny
Kozilek’s Predator
Nema Siltlurker
Broodwarden
Stomper Cub
2 Haze Frog

Colorless
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Reinforced Bulwark
Enatu Golem
2 Not of this World
Eldrazi Conscription
Artisan of Kozilek
Hand of Emrakul

I did not initially like my card pool at all. I was hoping for some of the great white and a bunch of levelers and fliers, and I really wanted to play the Venerated Teachers that I had, but I just couldn’t justify going with either blue or white for a lack of serious threats. I don’t like Guard Duty as removal when I don’t have fliers to get around any walls I might create on the other side. Also, as a general rule, I hate playing three colors, and I just didn’t feel like I had any two colors that were deep enough. But, I decided that I had enough color-fixing with the 2 Evolving Wilds, the Ondu Giant, and the Realms Uncharted that I could safely run three colors. House rules for a pre-release are that deck changes between rounds were allowed, and I tinkered a little. Here was what was in my 40 sleeves at the end of the day:

Zulaport Enforcer
Null Champion
Last Kiss
Cadaver Imp
Dread Drone
Skeletal Wurm

Staggershock
Emrakul’s Hatcher
Disaster Radius

Joraga Treespeaker
Bramblesnap
Realms Uncharted
Aura Gnarlid
2 Daggerback Basilisk
Boar Umbra
Ondu Giant
Kozilek’s Predator
Broodwarden
Stomper Cub

Eldrazi Conscription
Artisan of Kozilek
Hand of Emrakul

2 Evolving Wilds
4 Mountain
5 Swamp
6 Forest

The plan was to try to run out as many Spawn tokens as possible and make them count with either the Broodwarden or some Eldrazi monster (or have something made into an Eldrazi monster via the Conscription). Someone pointed out to me that I was playing… Jund. Yergh.

Round 1: Kris, playing Bant
Game 1 he had two early small guys, and got Snake Umbras on both of them. My slow start was just way too slow; he was up something like five cards from the Snake Umbras… Ugly. Game 2 was a giant board stalemate. I didn’t have a second mountain for my Disaster Radius and he had a 6/10 first striking Caravan Escort (two Umbras) with neither of us being in position to productively attack. When I finally ripped a Mountain, I didn’t fully realize the implication of him having a Dawnglare Invoker and 8 land. I blew up his side of the board (except for the 6/10) but he tapped all my guys in response, and was able to swing for the win thanks to an Ogre’s Cleaver. Oops.

0-1 matches, 0-2 games. I made a couple changes, including going to 4 Mountains and 6 Forests instead of 3 and 7.

Round 2: Dean, playing Jund
Game 1 he got out something small out early and I took a couple hits, but then killed it with Vicious Hu..err, Last Kiss. I cast Realms Uncharted and that solved any color problems and I never missed a land drop, so I started spitting out midrange guys and Spawn tokens and ran him over. Game 2 was more back-and-forth. I again Last Kissed something early, which he also did to me (he got a level 1 Null Champion—good play). However, I again got an early Realms Uncharted though he ran out a little ahead, getting me down to 9, but then I got a Skeletal Wurm with a friend (again, I don’t remember what, sorry), and he never had an answer for that big beating. Actually, he was at 3 with two chumps available, but I got the Conscription on the Wurm, and he couldn’t handle that kind of trample damage.

1-1 matches, 2-2 games.

Round 3: Nick, playing Naya
Game 1 He got a turn 1 Student of Warfare and that was a Bad Thing. However, I ramped with a Treespeaker that got me to a Broodwarden, unfortunately with no tokens in play. He got a Hyena Umbra on the Student, but it still didn’t have double strike—he needed another turn before he got there and was mostly tapped out. I don’t remember what I had to kill the Umbra, but I had six land and the Treespeaker and so cast Eldrazi Conscription and swung for 14, taking him to 6. He leveled the Student and bashed me for 8, a putting me at 1, and he dropped a Tajuru Preserver to shut off the Annihilate, but still really had no answer for the return swing with the 14/14 trampler. I won with a grand total of two attacks! Game 2 He got a Knight of Cliffhaven on his second turn followed by a Time of Heroes on his third turn, so on his fourth turn he had a flying 4/5. Yikes. However, on my third turn I got a Basilisk, and on my turn 4 I cast a Boar Umbra, so the race was on. However, I got a Preadator and then I was able to swing for lethal with the tokens because my next drop was the Broodmaster.

2-1 matches, 4-2 games.

Round 4: Tuan, playing Black/Red
Game 1 we both did nothing relevant for a couple turns, other than him putting a turn 2 Contamination Ground on one of my Forests (I had only a Forest and a Mountain at the time, so I think it was an attempt to color-screw me, which didn’t work) which I once tapped for two. Whatever I tapped for I don’t remember, because it died right away to a Last Kiss. Then I got a killer run of cards: Predator, Hatcher, Broodwarren, Drone. He got a Hatcher of his own, but I just had to many 2/2 tokens for him to survive. Game 2 I got a turn 3 Basilisk with turn 4 Boar Umbra on it and he went all the way, though there was some fun along the way. He managed to drop a big Eldrazi when he was at 5 (either the 7/7 or 8/8 one, I don’t remember) but I had Disaster Radius along with Hand of Emrakul in my hand, so I was able to clear the board to swing for lethal.

3-1 matches, 6-2 games.

Round 5: Theresa, playing White/Blue
OK, so this sucked on all kinds of levels. First, Theresa is a fiancé of one of the Montag’s regulars, Joe, who is a very cool guy. This was Theresa’s second sanctioned tournament so she’s not a veteran, and I hate beating new players, and especially cool ones. Second, Theresa was 2-1-1, meaning I had been rounded down. This means that even if I won, this was not exactly helping my tiebreakers. Game 1 she got out a first-turn Skywatcher Adept followed by a 4th-turn Makindi Griffin, and I had nothing until a turn 3 Basilisk. She chumped the Basilisk with her Adept. I got something that generated Spawn and then a Cub, and just outraced her; I got her down to 3 and finished her with Staggershock. Game 2 she was color-hosed and had a handful of big drops with only 4 Plains in play and I completely ran her over with an Aura Gnarlid, then Bramblesnap, then Hatchling, used the 3 Spawn to pump the Bramblesnap, then sac’d for 3 to put Conscription on the Gnarlid, good game. I felt really bad because the whole match took us less than ten minutes.

4-1 matches, 8-2 games. Way to come back from the first-round loss…

And then it sucked. With only five rounds, there were a total of 10 people with 12 or more points (only 1 with 15); I was one of nine people who was 4-1. However, I was 10th on tiebreaks because my first-round opponent lost to his next round and dropped, and of course I was rounded down in round 5. Argh! The pairings computer hates me. So, for going 4-1 I got… two packs of ROE and a pack of Worldwake. Whee.

On the other hand, I now realize now that my card pool was much better than I initially thought. Having three Spawn generators plus the Broodwarden is really, really good, and I think Eldrazi Conscription is better than any of the actual Eldrazi, because (a) it grants trample, which they lack, and (b) since it goes on a creature, you can usually swing with it right away, meaning the clock is VERY short. Pretty much a major bomb in limited, and I’ll even have to try it in constructed with the set of Sovereigns of Lost Alara I picked up with my FNM winnings on Friday. Anyway, the Lorax, err, Treespeaker is better than I realized. The white levelers were consistently a strong early threat and were involved in all the games I lost and both the other games that were close, so I’ll be looking for those in ROE drafts.

The other good thing is that I think after the mistake in game 2 of the first round and one time I missed a land drop with a land in my hand (I don’t remember when), I think I played very cleanly. I’m normally a pretty awful limited player but I’m 11-2 in my last 13 sanctioned limited matches (other than IDs), so that’s something to build on. I’m looking forward to drafting ROE next weekend, and I generally don’t look forward to draft all that much, so maybe I’m turning a corner.

I had really no time at all to think about or test out a new deck for this week’s FNM at Montag’s, so I just grabbed a deck that I had together, which was Boss Naya. Here’s the listing:

Creatures (23)
1 Scute Mob
3 Bird of Paradise
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Stoneforge Mystic

Other spells (11)
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Path to Exile
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
2 Oblivion Ring

Land (24)
5 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
2 Raging Ravine
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Rootbound Crag

Sideboard
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
1 Goblin Guide
2 Manabarbs
1 Celestial Purge
1 Bloodbraid Elf

I swapped a Celestial Purge in the board for an O Ring. Frankly, for a better Jund matchup I think if I play this again I’ll drop the sideboard Ranger for another Purge.

Round 1: Joey, playing WW/r
I actually didn’t see any red at all in the first game, and very little overall.

Game 1: This was short. He had the nuts opening, Lynx-Fetch-Fetch more little dudes, and I was just never able to stabilize.

Game 2: In went the Sparkmages with the extra Collar and Mystic. I got an early Nacatl, we traded some blows (he did get one Fetch-powered Lynx hit in before I got the Bolt). I ended up being land flooded, but I had a Raging Ravine and the 3/3 Nacatl and he could only manage bears, and the Ravine eventually was swinging for 8, and went the distance.

Game 3: Early Nacatl with both a Plains and a Mountain again for me, early Firewalker for him. He tapped out for a Sigil for 3. On the following turn, he pulled a counter to equip it on a Kor Duelist he had just cast; I bolted it in response. He then tried to equip it on the Firewalker, which I Pathed in response. Nice dead Sigil. I had a clear board and next turn dropped a Bloodbraid (I don’t remember what the cascade was), brought him to 9, and he didn’t draw answers.

Matches 1-0, games 2-1.

Round 2: Parker, playing WW
White Weenie hasn’t been particularly popular at this store, so I was surprised to see two in a row.

Game 1: I got a second-turn Nacatl and followed up with a Knight of the Reliquary, beat down his smaller dudes down to 10, then he ran Day, which I expected; I was holding a Ranger back. I cast the Ranger, got more Nacatls, and they carried the day.

Game 2: In went the usual anti-creature package: Sparkmages, extra Collar, This was a great drawn-out battle. I had an early BoP and a Knight, however, he had some early dudes as well and an O Ring for the Knight. I got double Sparkmage (but no collar), which kills everything I had seen from his deck except Firewalkers. I wasn’t drawing much else I could use at the time, but I got to double-ping him for two turns before he cleared things out with a Day, and I O Ringed a Firewalker. I knew it was coming, but the real problem with it was not that I lost threats, but I lost the BoP, which was my only source of white… and I had both Baneslayers in hand. He cast a White Knight and a Mystic, and had a Machete from earlier in the game, so now he also had a Collar. However, I drew a Plains and then a Mystic, so I had a Collar as well. Then then he cast a Baneslayer. I still had only one white, but got a Ranger and fetched a Nacatl and a Hierarch so I could get WW. His equipped Angel beat me down to 2, but then my comeback started with my own Angel and a Path for his. (He had a Path or an O Ring for my first Angel but I had the second.) I just had bigger and better dudes and was gaining obscene amounts of life, and won at like 35 life.

Matches 2-0, games 4-1.

Round 3: Tony, playing Open the Vaults
Tony is a strong player and we played a great match two weeks ago, with his Junk deck edging out my Grixis build. I thought he was playing Bant based on some cards he was getting prior to the match, but I was wrong. I actually really like this deck a lot, but I don’t have the cards for it.

Game 1: I realized I was wrong when he cycled a Glassdust Hulk right away. I had my turn 1 Nacatl beating away off the top and just drew gas so I killed him before he got to the 6 mana he needed to Open those vaults.

Game 2: I wasn’t sure exactly what to sideboard for this matchup. I assumed he was running Day and/or Coup, so I put in the extra Ranger and Bloodbraid as well as the Escorts, and also sided in Manabarbs. One of the Manabarbs slipped out while I was shuffling and Tony groaned. I again drew early gas (multiple fetches and a Terramorphic for my early Knight) and he missed his third-turn land drop, so I had no fear of Day for a couple turns, so I ran out more guys and rushed him, again killing him before he could get to six land.

Matches 3-0, games 6-1. These were both really fast games so I had some time to kill between rounds.

Round 4: Carlos, playing Eldrazi Green with Red for some burn and BBEs
We were only playing 4 rounds before top 8, and Carlos wanted to draw, which was fine with me.

Quarterfinals: Dave, playing… Jund
Well, I couldn’t avoid it all day, could I? Dave was new to the store, and his girlfriend was with him, and she didn’t make the top 8 and she was very clear about her desire to leave, but he wanted to play.

Game 1: I got a Nacatl on the second turn (my only green source was a Ravine, so I had to wait until turn 2) but no mountain, so it was only a 2/2, and just looked stupid on the third turn when he dropped a Thrinax. I eventually had to burn the Thrinax when he got a second one, and somewhere in there I got Blightning’d and a Bloodbraid and then he got a Siege-Gang Comander, and I died to tokens. An Ajani Vengeant made it take a smidge longer, but barely delayed the inevitable. Bleah. He got all 4 Maelstrom Pulses in this game, too.

Game 2: I know the standard thing to do is not bring in the Sparkmages/Mystic/Collar package, but I decided to buck conventional wisdom and tried bringing it in, along with the one Purge. I also brought in the extra Sledge. I opened with a Hierarch, but he Terminated that on his second turn. I managed to O Ring a Thrinax and later Pathed another, but that was after he had hit me with Blightning, to which I pitched a Bolt and a Collar, but kept the Baneslayer. The reason I pitched the Collar was that I had a Mystic, so I ran that for another Collar. We had kind of a stalemated board position (I couldn’t cast the Baneslayer, not enough land), and we had traded some hits, but then he cast a Broodmate. Grr. I took a whack from the dragons, but got a Sledge on a Nacatl (I also had a Ranger and Bloodbraid on the board), and had a Hierarch, so I could swing and get some good life points back, and then I got the last land for a Baneslayer, and that turned the tide.

Game 3: I had a 2/2 Nacatl on the board and on his turn 4 he dropped Garruk and made a token. I had no real answer to that—my Sparkmage was just not it—and the following turn he used Garruk to untap lands and cast I don’t remember what, because the memory of it was crushed by what happened on his turn 6. He cast… another Garruk. What? OK, I said, that’s great, they both die. He was confused, because he didn’t know the rule about that. He wanted to take it back. I felt kind of bad about it because he obviously really didn’t know, and if it had been in the Swiss I probably would have, but in the third game in the top 8 I was unwilling. He got really huffy when I wouldn’t let him, and next turn I Bloodbraided into a Hierarch and he just scooped in frustration. Now, I’m sure he thought I was a jerk for not letting him take it back, but that seems like a pretty basic rule to me. I think in the top 8 with actual money on the line that’s a rule players should be expected to know. Plus, his girlfriend seemed pleased that she wouldn’t have to wait any more, so I’m sure it wasn’t a total loss for him.

Matches 4-0-1, games 8-2.

Semifinals: Dustin, playing Vampires
Dustin is a regular and a very cool guy and I felt like this was a good matchup, so I figured it would be fun. Joe, playing Jund, had won the other semi and requested a draw in the finals and a split of the prizes. As we were shuffling up for game 2 I realized that the reason Joe was asking was that he wanted to leave, so Dustin and I agreed that whoever won would draw with him, so Joe took his half of the take and split.

Game 1: This was an awful game. Dustin got a turn 2 Bloodghast (that’s actually an annoyance for Naya) but got stuck on two land, and I had an early Nacatl and then a 4/4 Knight, so this was over in just a couple minutes.

Game 2: In went the usual Sparkmages/Collar/Mystic package, with a Purge for good measure. I also sided out all my planeswalkers, since they suck vs. Hexmages. This was another really long game. I took a hand with marginal land but with a BoP. He had no 2-drop but his 3-drop was a kicked Gatekeeper, killing whatever dude I had out, and he followed that with another kicked Gatekeeper that killed my Bird. He just kept drawing answers for every threat I drew. A Nacatl died to a Feast of Blood, a Knight died to a Smother (that’s pretty good), and I had to O Ring one of the Gatekeepers just to keep my life total from being super ugly. Something else died to another Feast, but I did get a Mystic for a Collar. I also got a Bloodbraid into an O Ring, which ended up on a Gatekeeper, but I couldn’t swing with the elf because I needed blockers. He dropped a Hexmage which made the elf even less useful. He tried to Smother the BBE, but then realized it couldn’t die to Smother—one of the few in Boss Naya that doesn’t. He dropped another Hexmage and I had to kill it, so I ran out a Sparkmage and pinged one, and of course he Smothered it. He got a Nighhawk and I got a Ranger into two Nacatls, though after one whack with a Nighthawk I was at 5 life and he was at 25 life. I got another Collar, though, and collared up both Nacatls and managed to keep my life total at a reasonable numbe, so then he cast a Persecutor. Hey, that’s no Vampire! But, I topdecked a Baneslayer, which was good because he had just put down a second Persecutor. That was pretty good, but I couldn’t really attack, because the swing back with the two Persecutors was not a race I could win down by 20 life. However, I ripped another Sparkmage, Collared it up, and that was the difference.

Obviously, no real match in the finals.

Matches 5-0-2, games 10-2. That’s a pretty good night! I converted my store credit into a couple Maelstrom Pulses (I have none, and I kind of want to try playing Junk) and some super-secret tech for Extended for GP Houston, which is coming up soon!

Boss Naya is both fun to play and a really good deck against most of the field… but it’s generally not a good matchup against Jund. You can’t expect to dodge Jund all day in a serious tournament, so I’m not surprised that it was only 10% of the field at the Open in Indy. I think the board needs a couple more Purges and then maybe it’ll be better in games 2 and 3, but that’ll make the deck weaker against the U/W control decks, which I was also very lucky to dodge at FNM because several people were playing that as well. Hard to know.

Another Standard FNM at Montag’s, and so another report. I played Boss Naya last week into the finals so this week I wanted to play something original. I had been tinkering with a Grixis build but in playtesting it just folded like a lawn chair to Jund. I tweaked it a little and it went a lot better, so I decided to give it a whirl. Here’s the listing:

Creatures (7)
3 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Sedraxis Specter

Other spells (32)
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Essence Scatter
3 Into the Roil
4 Terminate
4 Blightning
2 Treasure Hunt
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Earthquake
3 Cruel Ultimatum

Land (25)
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Dragonskull Summit
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Swamp
3 Island
3 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Double Negative
3 Countersquall
3 Flashfreeze
1 Earthquake
2 Smother
2 Mind Control
1 Relic of Progenitus

Such is the state of blue that I felt the need to start three counters and board nine more to be situational. Here’s how it played out:

Round 1: Ken, playing Esper Mill
This was completely out of left field. Creature-less with Tome Scour, Twincast, Mind Funeral, Howling Mine, Angelsong, Safe Passage, and numerous other mill cards. Thinking outside the metagame; I love it!

Game 1: His first turn was Island, Tome Scour, go. I certainly wasn’t ready for that. What was really, really bad was when a few turns later he hit me with a Mind Funeral and got like 30 cards off it—very bad luck. However, I got both a Persecutor and a Spectre out and just managed to kill him with a handful of cards in my library.

Game 2: I didn’t see any creatures so I took out the Essence Scatters and most of the Terminates for the Countersqualls and the Double Negatives. I got Jace out and started building him up, but he managed multiple Howling Mines, a Mind Funeral and a Twincast Tome Scour, and even though I got off a Cruel and had a Spectre active, and him down to 4, he hit me with a late Traumatize followed by a Tome Scour which left me with not enough cards to make it through my draw phase. He’s not the fastest player in the world so we only had a few minutes left and I was worried that we’d draw on time.

Game 3: I played as fast as I could, as I dropped a Spectre on turn 3 and another on turn 4. He had an early Howling Mine and, of course, a first-turn Tome Scour (all three games). Turn 5 I sent in both of the Spectres; he had an Angelsong but I had Countersquall, so he took 8 points down to 6. He had another Angelsong the next turn, but I had Bolts so I won just before time was called. Whew.

Round 2: Tony, playing GWb Junk
Despite me reading a couple pieces about this deck, I hadn’t really thought about it much and I didn’t have a plan in mind for it.

Game 1: I thought I had this game in the bag. I managed to keep the board mostly clear and got a Persecutor out fairly early. He tried a Baneslayer but I had the Scatter for it and beat him down to six with the big Demon. I think we both thought I had this one in the bag but he topdecked a Marshal’s Anthem which brought back his Baneslayer—not the best thing to see when you have a Demon out. I wasn’t too worried since I had a Terminate for it, but then he topdecked another Baneslayer and that I could not answer.

Game 2: In went the Mind Controls and the Smothers. He mulliganed down to 5 and as a result got a slow start. I got a Spectre out who got in one whack before being taken out, but the card advantage situation was positive, and then I got a Cruel and then another Cruel. That’s pretty much game right there; I ultimately ended it with a Persecutor.

Game 3: My opening hand looked great: Terminate, Blighting, Jace, Persecutor, Spectre… but only a single Catacombs for land. I sent it back and got another single-land hand. I sent that back and got yet another single-land hand, ugh. I decided I just couldn’t go down to four, so I played it. I actually drew land the first few turns and managed to make a game of it. I did make one savagely stupid mistake in the game. Tony cast a Stoneforge Mystic and Collar, and I put down Jace, and bounced the equipped Mystic. No, I have no idea WTF I was thinking. Anyway, next turn (turn 5), he got an Emeria Angel with a land. I bounced it, he re-cast it and then had a fetch on turn 6, so there was a table full of birds. He got in a six-point whack with the flying force but then I drew a Persecutor. He equipped one of the tokens with the Collar so I could only attack if I was willing to lose the fat flyer, but he couldn’t productively attack, either, for any more than 1. He played a Baneslayer and beat me down to 1 with it. I got off a Cruel to go back to 6, but it just wasn’t enough.

Grr. 1-1 is not the start I was hoping for.

Round 3: Kris, playing White Weenie with Blue
The blue splash seemed to be just for Deft Duelists. If there was any other blue, I didn’t see it.

Game 1: I won the die roll and Scattered his turn two Firewalker. Turn 3 he cast Honor of the Pure and followed that with Deft Duelist, and then a Skyfisher. I took 6 when they both came over. I played Jace and bounced the Skyfisher, but then of course lost Jace to the Duelist. I drew a Terminate for the Skyfisher but couldn’t get rid of the Duelist with a Roil and two Bolts in my hand. However, I Blightninged him and got another Jace out, so he was in topdeck mode and I was controlling the top of his deck. Jace kept him off other threats but the Duelist beat me down to 7. I used Jace to brainstorm into the last land I needed for a Cruel Ultimatum, which netted me another Cruel, and that was too much.

Game 2: In went the Smothers and the Mind Controls (in case he had Baneslayers). He cast an early Duelist and then got a Collared Mystic. He got a few whacks in before I killed the Mystic with a Bolt or a Smother (I don’t remember which), then got another Duelist. I got a Spectre that hit him once and then I cast another Spectre. I had six lands out but not enough to Cruel and I had no land in hand. I sent both Spectres and he Pathed both of them. Awesome, two free land, next turn Cruel Ultimatum. Next turn Blightning and a Persecutor, and that was it.

So, I was 2-1. We had four rounds of Swiss cutting to top 8, as has been common at Montag’s of late. Now, often 2-1-1 will make the top 8, but I assumed that my first-round opponent had gone 0-3 or something like it, and my second-round opponent lost in round 3, so I thought I had to play for it.

Round 4: Alan, playing GWb
Not strictly Junk, but Junk-like. I didn’t see Mystics, and he definitely had Steppe Lynxes, so

Game 1: This was one of the dumbest games I have ever seen. I took a two-land opener (both red-black duals), and didn’t see a third land for a really long time… 11 or 12 turns, at least. The only thing that made this game last even that long is that he was also stuck at two lands for several turns, but he broke out with a Lotus Cobra with a fetch into a Baneslayer and I was discarding Cruel Ultimatums. I never did a single point of damage in this game.

Game 2: He got a first-turn Lynx that I did not Terminate on turn 2 because I had a Quake in hand. Sure enough, after he swung once for two he put down a Lotus Cobra and passed the turn. So, my turn three play was a one-point Quake for two cards—pretty good. I Blightninged him and got a Jace out against his Noble Hierarch. I was scrying him (kept him off two Pulses) and Blightninged him again while he was poking me with the druid, and I managed to kill the Hierarch. He cast a Ranger of Eos which I felt I had to block with an animated Creeping Tar Pit. So he had some weenies out and started hitting Jace once he go to ten counters. I had the mana I needed and used Jace to brainstorm into a Cruel Ultimatum putting him at 3 and me at 16, and that put it out of reach.

Game 3: He got a first-turn Lynx with second-turn and third-turn fetches, so I was at an early 12. I got a Bolt for the Lynx and Blightninged him and I felt I had things stabilized, though I had a Roil and two Jaces, and a in my hand and no sources of blue. I finally drew an Island, but he got a 6/6 Knight of the Reliquary along with something else that I can’t remember. I Roiled the Knight once and did not draw a land off it. Next turn I drew a blue source, but it was a Catacomb so it didn’t help me right away. Knight’s friend had hit me down to two and I drew a Spectre, but I couldn’t play both Jace and a Spectre on the same turn, so I couldn’t stop both guys, and that was game.

So 2-2 and I missed the top 8. Turns out my round 1 opponent did make the top 8, so my tiebreakers were actually good, and if I had drawn I would have made it into the top 8 after all. Bummer.

I think the deck is close to being good. I don’t like versions that run things like Calcite Snapper because they have to sacrifice draw or disruption or removal. I really like the Persecutor in Grixis because while it dies to some spot removal, your opponent typically has only three turns to find such removal, because chumping it is generally ineffective. It crushes Bloodwitches and Sphinxes; the only real problem is Baneslayers—stupid protection from Demons. Nighthawk would be a problem except that it dies to both Bolt and Smother, so those are pretty easy to deal with. Maybe it needs Swerves or something… it’s close.

Anyway, I don’t always stay for the top 8 but this time I decided to because I wanted to see the mill deck in action against something else. His draw was bad, it was my buddy Paul playing U/W control, though not the Chapin version. The first match was close, Paul won with four cards left in his library and at least one Howling Mine in play. Game 2 was hilarious. Paul had exactly one copy of Telemin Performance in his sideboard, for the mirror. He drew it in his opening hand, and two Howling Mines and a Font of Mythos meant he wouldn’t miss a land drop, and on turn 5 the game ended when he cast it. Awesome sideboard tech!

The final four were three U/W control decks and one Jund, and the Jund lost to Paul in the semis. I was thinking of taking U/W control for a spin next week, but not after this; people will be packing all kinds of hate for it and it’d hardly be original. Maybe I’ll go back to Naya or I might try something really fast like Boros Bushwacker or something goofy like Valakut Ramp with Avenger of Zendikar…

Been a while since my last report. My local shop, Montag’s Games, alternates between draft and Standard, and last month was draft, and I don’t ever feel like writing reports on draft; hence the gap.

So, this was the first post-Worldwake Standard for me, and I’d been thinking about what to play for a while, and had been kicking around both a Grixis build and a Naya build for a while. (Prior to PT San Diego.) @dcampa93 and I had bounced some Naya around on Twitter and had both come to the conclusion that Stoneforge Mystic was the way to go, getting Sledge and the Collar… and then PT San Diego happened, and it turned out we weren’t the only people with that idea. Not to hard to come up with, right? Of course, the Boss Naya that was played to an undefeated record in the Swiss was without a doubt a better build than mine (I kept trying to work in Thoctar), but I wasn’t at all surprised that it did well.

So I played it. I made some microscopic changes and played this list:

Creatures (23)
1 Scute Mob
3 Bird of Paradise
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Stoneforge Mystic

Other spells (11)
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Path to Exile
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
2 Oblivion Ring

Land (24)
5 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
2 Raging Ravine
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Rootbound Crag

Sideboard
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
1 Goblin Guide
2 Manabarbs
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Bloodbraid Elf

The minor changes are that I moved two Baneslayers into the main, trading out for a Ranger of Eos and a Bloodbraid, and I went with 3 Birds and 3 Hierarchs rather than 2 and 4 because sometimes the deck gets a little stuck for red mana, so I wanted the extra red source, but one I could still get with a Ranger. And, frankly, after playing it, I would most certainly keep only 3 Rangers in the main deck, because I never wanted to cast more than two in a game anyway, as most of the 1 drops will be exhausted by then. As LSV himself noted, an unanswered Baneslayer is game over a lot of the time, and that just seemed better in the main than either Ranger #4 or Bloodbraid #4.

Round 1: Jason, playing Mystic WW
Game 1: My deck did very little here, and he had the Journeys and O Rings for my threats, and I got beaten down with a Kor Skyfisher with a Sigil on it.

Game 2: All about the Baneslayer, baby. I got one on turn 4 thanks to a Hierarch, and the exalted monster provided the beats.

Game 3: I have to admit my memory for this game is a little shaky. What I do remember is getting hammered with Kor Firewalkers that I had trouble stopping. However, I did get down 3 Sparkmages (without any equipment) and managed to keep the board otherwise pretty clear, and I believe a Knight went all the way.

Round 2: Nathan playing Bant
This was a ramp-style Bant running Khalni Heart Expeditions, Summoning Trap, Avenger of Zendikar, Iona, and Empyrial Archangel. Prettyf interesting, actually.

Game 1: We clogged up the board with relatively modest dudes, then I got a Scute Mob and a Sledge, and he got Avenger of Zendikar. Monster Scute Mob applied and he threw the Avenger and many pumped up Plant tokens in front of it. I then put the Sledge on a 4/4 Knight of the Reliquary and applied beats with that for a couple turns. He got a Summoning Trap for Iona naming Green, but I had another Knight out and gave my Sledged Knight protection from White and finished with burn.

Game 2: Neither of us had anything particularly impressive in the first three or so turns, but I got a fairly early Baneslayer. He managed to get a Empyrial Archangel out with a Summoning Trap (hard cast), but I had a Bolt so I applied with the Angel (6/6 thanks to a Hierarch) and then Bolted. He ran off some more Summoning Traps but missed anything big and never found an answer to the angel of awesome.

Round 3: Jeff, playing Bant
This was a completely different take on Bant. Finest Hour, Rafiq, Pridemages, Hierarchs, Loam Lions, etc: guys made huge by Exalted and swinging twice.

Game 1: I kept a five-land draw and mostly got run over. He got Loam Lions early on and I got small Knights. He got Rafiq and a Battlegrace Angel and I just did not have answers.

Game 2: A similar deal, but very slowly unfolding. I had a Collar and a Sparkmage in my opener but when I went to equip the Sparkmage, he had the Bant Charm for it. He had Finest Hour and multiple Ranger-generated Hierarchs, so anything swinging for him would be large and was coming twice. I, however, had the Collar and Ajani, who was alternately tapping and Helixing things, so every time he attacked it cost him a creature and I maintained some life total. This stalemate was pretty drawn out and we had time called on us, so this worked out to be a match loss.

Round 4: Paul, playing mono-White Emeria
I love this deck. Knight of the White Orchid and Kor Cartographer, then a toolbox of white creatures including World Queller. Very hard to beat if you don’t kill it early. However, we both had really good tiebreaks and did the math and realized that we’d both get into the top 8 if we drew in, which we did.

Quarterfinals: Carlos, playing Eldrazi Green/Red
This is similar to Eldrazi Green, of course, but with Red for Bloodbraids and Bolts and such.

Game 1: I once again have to admit that I don’t remember this game very well. I had multiple early 3/3 Nacatls and he, uhh, didn’t.

Game 2: For the third match in a row I sided in the same seven-card package of 4 Sparkmage, 1 Mystic, 1 Collar, and 1 O Ring. I didn’t get the red machine-gunner, but I had early fetchlands and Knights, and either a Collar or a Sledge, and beat him down pretty quickly again.

Semifinals: Jeff from round 3
Game 1: This was a pretty good game, with some momentum swings. He got early Sejiri Merfolk and Loam Lions and I got a Mystic and had a Bolt for Rafiq. He managed a Finest Hour and beat me down to 5, but I got big a big Knight and with equipment and had many chumps for his big double-shots, so I was able to gain serious life and turn the tide. I got him down to 2 but he had chumps and I finally drew burn in the form of Ajani and roasted him out.

Game 2: In went the same 7-card package as before. Whee. This was a very dumb game because his deck just deserted him. He got stuck on two land, and while he managed a pretty solid board with that, it just wasn’t enough and I just pounded him with a big lifelinked Knight.

Finals: Ray, playing Jund
Ray actually wanted to play for it, which is rare in the finals at Montag’s . Not a problem, but a surprise. Fine with me, of course, I don’t mind playing for it—we came to play, right? Anyway, this was a lot like the semis in PT San Diego in terms of deck matchups, because his Jund was also running Rampant Growth and Siege-Gangs.

Game 1: Pretty even early, with us trading Bloodbraids and other 3/3s. I Bolted a Garruk after it made a token and he got a Siege-Gang which he used a couple tokens to kill a big Knight. I was getting through with Nacatls, though and we kind of traded down to 11 and had more or less a board stalemate. He then drew Bolts, and won with Bolt-Bolt-Bolt throw a Goblin. Ugh.

Game 2: I had Bloodbraids early, the second of which hit a Mystic. He Pulsed off both the Bloodbraids but he was at 10. I hit him with a Nacatl down to 7. Next turn I activated a Ravine and swung with something else, bringing him down to 1, and he was unable to topdeck an answer and that was it.

Game 3: Absolutely stupid game in much the same way as my second game in the previous round. However, unlike that game, in this game we both drew lots of land. As in out of the first 16 cards I saw, 9 were land. I had a Path for his turn 3 Thrinax and Bolted something else. I got a Mystic and therefore a Sledge, but he Pulsed off the Mystic. He got a Ruinblaster, which hit nothing (all I had in play were six basics at the time) and a few turns later I finally had to O Ring it—In the meantime, he was drawing all land as well. He got a second Ruinblaster, which hit a Rootbound Crag, and all I had on the board was a Sledge. I drew more land and he just killed me. Whee.

Overall a pretty good night, even if the last two matches were decided by mana issues. The forces of chance giveth, and they take away—I just would rather have had action both times.

OK, first a long-overdue record update.

By virtue of my best week of the entire season, Week 14, I closed the gap a little tiny bit. When I last updated, I was down by 20 games. The current standings are 131-141-5 to 150-125-5, so hey, I’m only 19 games behind now! Ugh. Yeah, so Al wins the season, which we’ve known since, what, Week 6? Note that if Al was actually playing against Vegas, he’d have cleaned up this season.

So, even though it’s entirely academic at this point:

Indianapolis Colts vs. New Orleans Saints(+5)
I, of course, hate the Colts and am also obligated to root for the great story that is the Saints’ season. However, I’m not sure that’s a rational pick. I mean, really, the Colts are just better. However, the Freeny thing is big, and then there’s the other injury everyone is not talking about, Powers, the Colts’ DB who’s out and whose replacement got torched by Braylon Edwards (who even managed to not drop the ball) in the conference final. The Saints will put up some serious points in this game, since they can also run the ball (which nobody is talking about). The Colts will be one-dimensional… but that hasn’t really been an issue all season, so why start worrying now? My guess here is that this will be a complete shootout, which is exactly what the NFL wants anyway. My only meaningful thought here is that the over/under is a mere 57 and that I’d feel pretty good about taking the over, since that’s not even 30 points per team, and both teams should easily hit that. Yeah, so, that’s still not a pick. Frankly, I have no idea. I mean, really, look at my record for the season, I’m 10 games under .500… I obviously have no idea. OK, let me think about what my reaction to various outcomes would be: (1) Colts narrow victory. That is, I think, the expected outcome. (2) Saints narrow victory. That sounds good, I’m rooting for that, and it’s maybe even plausible. (3) Colts blow out the Saints. I’d be disappointed to see that, but not surprised. (4) Saints blow out the Colts…. yeah, I don’t see that one at all. Well, that settles it then, I’m taking the Colts and giving the five points.

But I’ll be rooting for the Saints—and so should everyone not in Indy, frankly. And secretly, though he’d never admit this, not even to himself, Archie Manning probably is, too. It means everything to New Orleans and next to nothing to Indy, since they just got one and will most certainly be in the running next year, too, which might not be true for the Saints.

AFC
Jets @ Indianapolis(-7.5)
I really, really want the Jets to win this game. It would be such sweet, sweet justice if the Colts lost to a team that they tanked a game to, wouldn’t it? (Plus of course I hate the Colts, so it gets the double.) I don’t see it happening, though, as the Colts are just way too good. On the other hand, the Colts have mostly not been blowing people out this year (last week notwithstanding), and the Jets will be way fired up, and can cover a lot better than the Ravens can. I’ll take the points on the theory that the Jets will at least be in the game, probably aided by more inexplicable missed field goals, since Matt Stover is like 62 years old now.

NFC
Vikings @ New Orleans(-3.5)
I knew I had it last week when everybody was taking the Cowboys. Well, this time I’ve heard a few pundits and TV/radio talking head take the Vikings… Not a good sign. I said weeks ago that I don’t think the Vikings can win in New Orleans, and I’ve seen nothing since then that changes that. Saints. (But I’ll be rooting for the Vikings!)