I realized that I haven’t done a report on a prerelease lately, and since classes are over I actually have time for this one. It’s actually a pretty busy weekend, but I had time to squeeze in a trip to the last(?) Houston regional prerelease. I only had time for one flight of sealed, no drafting, but hey, that’s better than nothing.

We got 5 packs of New Phyrexia and 1 Pack of Scars of Mirrodin, which I thought was a little weird. Here was my pool (I’m putting colored artifacts in with their color):

In sealed, removal is often pretty hard to come by, and so I went with Black because it was thick with it. Geth’s Verdict might not be the best possible removal, but I couldn’t pass on having four of them. I decided against going Infect since I really wanted the Moltensteel Dragon, of course, and the Slash Panther. I seriously considered running blue for all the fliers, but I decided there were too many with UU casting costs and I thought it would be better to stay away from that, plus the red was pretty good on its own. The green didn’t impress me at all. I certainly wanted to be able to do something with the Birthing Pod but I really didn’t have the curve for it.

I tinkered with the build a lot over the course of the day, so it’s hard to provide a decklist since I don’t think I started any two rounds with the same deck. I think the modal answer would be something close to this:

Creatures (10) Furnace Scamp Fume Spitter Hovermyr Immolating Souleater Mortis Dogs Skinrender Fallen Ferromancer Pith Driller Slash Panther Moltensteel Dragon Spells (14) Despise Darksteel Axe Gremlin Mine Contagion Clasp Shrine of Burning Rage 4 Geths Verdict Strider Harness Pristine Talisman 2 Artillerize Enslave Land (16) 11 Swamp 5 Mountain

Yes, it’s light on creatures, but I found it pretty good at keeping the opponent’s guys off the table. I did sleeve up the blue guys and six Islands in case I wanted to switch colors, but I never really had the urge to try it. Oh, and I never actually ran 41 cards, this is just a sketch of what I played.

I forgot to write down names, so I’m sure I’ll botch this. Sorry, opponents.

Round 1: Allen, playing WRu, maybe WRg
Game 1 he curved out beautifully and I never really got anything going. The big blowout was the turn 6 Sunblast Angel that killed my only dude, a Slash Panther. Game 2 I drew lots of Verdicts, and kept his guys off the table, beating down with a Hovermyr with Axe and a Slash Panther. I believe I ended it with an Artillerize. Game 3 he got a little land screwed, I had more Verdicts and I got turn 5 Invader Parasite to set him back to 2 land, and applied with my Immolating Souleater, using a bunch of life to make him lethal. Some beats.
1-0 matches, 2-1 games

Round 2, Chris? playing wrgu
Yes, four colors—he only played like seven colored cards in total and had a Wellspring for fixing. Game 1 was all about his Shrine of Loyal Legions and my inability to do anything useful about it. Turns out making a bunch of tokens at instant speed makes Geth’s Verdict somewhat less than optimal—bad, even. Also lost my Dragon, that of course I paid 4 life for, to a Gremlin Mine, ouch. Game 2 there was no Shrine and I curved out pretty well, got in a nice Skinrender and Slash Panther for beatings. Game 3 was again about the Shrine and my inability to do anything about it. He also had a Gremlin Mine, pinning the Dragon in my hand. I eventually got out the Slash Panther to take down the Mine, but he was so far ahead by then that it hardly mattered, and I again died to a bunch of Myr tokens. I knew I was in trouble when he got the Shrine and a Perilous Myr back with Remember the Fallen. Grr. OK, gotta win out to earn packs.
1-1 matches, 3-3 games

Round 3, Anthony playing UBw
I got turn 1 Axe, turn 2 Hovermyr, turn 3 equip and serve for 3. He never dealt with that particular threat, as I think his only flyer was a Vault Skirge that ate a Contagion Clasp counter, but that was not enough to win the game on its own. I got pretty far ahead, though, but he got… Batterskull. Ugh. Fortunately, it was late and he was far enough behind that a Fume Spitter cutting down the Batterskull was good enough for me to get him to 9. I equipped the Hovermyr with a Strider Harness, bashed for 4 in the air, then ended it with Artillerize. Game 2 I again came out reasonably fast, but got slowed down with the stupid Batterskull again. I Verdicted and Artillerized him down to 1 guy, a Blinding Souleater, which he then equipped with the Batterskull and hit me for 5, gaining him 5, of course. I handled it, though, by Enslaving the Souleater, which I then equipped with the Axe and swung back for 7. He got Mortis Dogs and then took back the Batterskull back, but I was able to keep the equipped mutt off me with his Souleater—hooray Phyrexian mana activation cost, since I certainly couldn’t pay W. Anyway, I kept the Dogs tapped down, swung in with other stuff, and took it home. Yay Enslave!
2-1 matches, 5-3 games

Round 4, Calvin, playing WU
These games were pretty silly, actually. Game 1 I got Mr. Moltensteel on turn 4 off a turn 3 Talisman and never drew another land. However, the Dragon and the Slash Panther, who came out next turn, got there, though I don’t think I ever used life to pump the Dragon. My opponent had to chump a bunch and I had infect counters on both the Panther and the Dragon, though I compensated the Dragon with the Strider Harness. I also used the Gremlin Mine to kill a Spellskite because otherwise my Shrine would be useless, and ultimately the Dragon got there, assisted by an Artillerize to finish. Game 2 I got turn 1 Furnace Scamp, turn 2 Fume Spitter, turn 3 Verdict his one blocker and sac the Scamp, turn 4 I don’t remember, turn 5 Moltensteel Dragon. He tapped out for a Sky-Eel School, which I promptly Enslaved. I swung with the Moltensteel and the Fume Spitter, and since he was tapped out I spent 12 life to pump the Dragon enough to make him lethal. Very short match. I’d love to say I won this on on play skill, but hey, better lucky than good, right? In some sense it wasn’t that lucky, since the only other match I drew the Dragon he was useless—he earned his keep here, though.
3-1 matches, 7-3 games

I would have loved to stay and draft, or even play in the second flight, but my son had a Little League game, so I got my five packs, opened them (nothing particularly good in them, unfortunately), and headed home.

Moltensteel is obviously spectacular, and Batterskull is clearly amazing, even if I did deal with it. I was really impressed by how good Shrine of Loyal Legions was, though, I’ll have to keep an eye out for that one in draft; has to be the class of the Shrine cycle. Slash Panther was also very good, which was not a surprise. I ended many games, and took out a couple significant threats, with Artillerize. Better than I thought it would be. I know I didn’t start out running both, but by the end of the day that was definitely the thing to do.

Phyrexian mana seems good as a mechanic—it certainly kept the games short, since people tended to run their own life totals down. The Pristine Talisman was really good, maybe should have run more than 1, particularly with Phyrexian mana in play. Of course, in draft, with only 1 pack of NPH, I don’t think it’ll be quite so much of a factor, at least in draft.

Can’t wait to see what it’ll do to Standard. The new Sword seems good because pro RW is awesome, though to be honest I’m not a huge fan of the abilities that it has, since Sword of Light and Shadow has life gain on it and Sword of Fire and Ice has damage on it—I was hoping for something more unique. (Actually, I was hoping the red ability would be Pillage but that’s just because I love Pillage and wish they’d reprint it.) I’m definitely not looking forward to two-card combos (that’d be Splinter Twin with Deceiver Exarch and Bloodchief Ascension with Mindcrank), but I do really like the new Tempered Steel deck. Hopefully, the dominance of CawBlade will at least be mitigated some.

Skipped FNM the last two weeks, as two weeks ago was GP Dallas and last Friday I was a bit Magic’d out and instead had a date night with my wife, saw Hanna, which was decent. Didn’t want to play Caw or RUG again, wavered between BUG and @Smi77y’s Jace, the Mind Hammer. Decided on the build of MindHammer that Top8’d the New York NatsQ, made a couple changes to the board expecting less Valakut and more Caw. Here was the list:

Tezzeret, the Mind Hammer

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Creatures (4) 1 Grave Titan 1 Inferno Titan 2 Wurmcoil Engine Planeswalkers (10) 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 3 Koth of the Hammer 4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas Spells (22) 3 Everflowing Chalice 2 Contagion Clasp 4 Galvanic Blast 4 Sphere of the Suns 2 Go for the Throat 3 Slagstorm 4 Tumble Magnet Land (24) 2 Blackcleave Cliffs 4 Creeping Tar Pit 4 Darkslick Shores 1 Drowned Catacomb 2 Island 7 Mountain 4 Scalding Tarn Sideboard (15) 4 Duress 3 Flashfreeze 2 Go for the Throat 3 Memoricide 1 Pyroclasm 2 Crush

Decent turnout at Montag’s for FNM, 5 rounds cut to top 8.

Round 1: Loke, playing mono-B Vampires
Loke is a really nice guy, always fun to play. I got kind of a slow start game 1, drew tons of land and mana artifacts, and not a lot of action, so he had me down to 9 before I got off a Slagstorm, which I followed up with a Magnet and Koth, then a Wurmcoil. Koth went ultimate and the Wurmcoil only got in one hit before eating a Go for the Throat, but that was more than enough. Game 2 I got a Slagstorm 3-for-1 on turn 5, and he never really recovered from that.
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: Daniel, playing Knights
Daniel has become pretty regular at the store in the last few months and we’ve played a few times before. The only annoying piece of this deck for me is the Exemplar, but fortunately there’s enough spot removal to take that out before hitting with a sweeper. Game 1 I got a Clasp for an Accorder Paladin, then got both Koth and Tezz out and managed to use the Clasp to pump both into ultimate on the same turn, Tezz’d for I think 10 damage and burned him out with a Mountain. Game 2 I don’t remember all that well. I know he got an early Student of Warfare that hit me twice and I had to Slagstorm to kill just that. I got a 5/5 something with Tezz and a couple whacks in with Tar Pits, but I don’t remember how I finished him off. I know at one point he had a Caravan Escort leveled into a 5/5 first striker, which I bounced with Jace, but other details escape me.
2-0 matches, 4-0 games

Round 3: Mike, also playing Knights
Battle of the Mikes. I usually win these and expected to win this as well, but no, I am a Bad Player™. Here’s what happened: Game 1, today’s punt of the week. I actually had to mull to 5, took a shaky hand, and drew out of it greatly. However, I got Silenced—yes, I mean it—on three consecutive turns. So, in some sense, I should have lost this game… except I shouldn’t. Once the silence was over, I got Jace out and bounced a guy, and he could only hit me down to 1. Then I got an Inferno Titan, and that was really bad news for him, but I was still at one. I got Koth, and was bouncing, burning and pounding for 10 with him at 14. I wanted to end the game and he was at 4, so I played a Scalding Tarn to Galvanic Blast him for 4… but I cracked the fetch to do it. For some reason I thought I was at 2, not 1, but no, instead I am a moron. Game 2 he opened with a Leyline of Sanctity, which seems like a bad sideboard choice from where I sat, but whatever. He got a few whacks in with 3-power Knights pumped by an Exemplar, but I got a Magnet to keep the beating slow, then spot removal for the first Exemplar, then he got the second, which I also killed. I eventually hammered him with a Mountain (get it?). Unfortunately, we were now short on time, and he mulled very slowly, and played kind of slow, and we didn’t finish; the closest I could get him was to 4 at the end of extra time. Not good enough. So, I’m an idiot. I should definitely have won this match, which would have allowed me to draw twice to get in at 3-0-2, or even played once and still lost and drawn in at 3-1-1, but no. In some sense it was karmic since I never should have gotten out of that mull to 5 (I topdecked like a champ to start the game) and three Silences, but still, ugh.
2-0-1 matches, 5-1-1 games

Round 4: Jason, playing RUG
Jason was new to the store, or at least I hadn’t seen him before, and it was immediately obvious that he’s a good player. I had terrible draws in both of these games—mostly land in game 1—and he pretty much rolled me. I did double Slagstorm one turn to kill both a Frost and an Inferno Titan at the same time, pretty funny, but had no real threats and got hosed. Game 2 he got the Cobra explode into stuff draw and I kept a one-lander (with a Sphere and two Flashfreezes) and even topdecked land, but it just wasn’t enough to keep up with the Cobra (which I did eventually kill) into Turn 3 Slime. That was bad.
2-1-1 matches, 5-3-1 games

Round 5: Austin, playing UB Control
Austin was also new to the store, and also clearly a strong player. Austin offered to draw in with me, but he didn’t realize that I had been rounded up and I couldn’t draw in, so we had to play it. We spend a lot of game 1 doing the Draw, Go thing on both sides, but of course he didn’t know that i didn’t have any permission and was simply drawing nothing but land and six-drops, until he Inquisitioned me. Game degenerated from there, I ultimately died to Tar Pits. Game 2 I of course put in all the Duresses and the two extra Go for the Throats and took out the Slagstorms and Clasps, since they’re both pretty useless against him (though I guess the Slagstorms would kill Zombie tokens, that’s not really a good answer). I Duressed him turn 1 and saw no permission, took a Go for the Throat. Turn 3 he dropped little Jace and drew into the missing permission (I had two Wurmcoils and an Inferno Titan), and I never got anywhere against all the extra cards he drew since I was unable to kill Jace. Bleah. I had never really thought about the matchup with UB Control since it isn’t a big part of the larger meta and hadn’t been seen at Montag’s in a long time. It’s a really bad matchup with this deck…
2-2-1 matches, 5-5-1 games

And, of course, I missed the top 8. Bleah. Frankly, there is no way that should have happened, as I absolutely I should not have gotten a draw in round 3. Of course, both the Knights players I faced made top 8. How stupid is that? I’m an idiot, I know…

Now, the deck. To be honest, I haven’t played the deck much—this was the first time, I hadn’t even practiced with it—and while I’m not sure about the Caw matchup, it seems good on paper with all the instant-speed removal and the Slagstorms main. OTOH, the RUG matchup is pretty rough and UB Control seems like an auto-loss if the UB pilot is competent at all. Still, it was fun to play in the other matchups and I do like the deck, but then I’m a sucker for Planeswalkers and decks that are built around them.

This is a report I didn’t expect to write, since I really didn’t expect to play FNM this week. Why? Because it is the kids’ spring break, and we all took a trip out to Albuquerque to visit my younger brother Ben, his wife, and their daughter. Now, my brother actually plays MTG, but strictly on a casual basis. What we’ve done the last couple times we’ve gotten together is buy a bunch of packs and play sealed against each other, which is a blast. However, this time when I asked him if I should get packs, he said no, I should bring some tournament decks. So, that’s what I did. I had three decks together: SparkBlade, Valakut, and a UB Infect deck based on the one Brian Kibler posted on SCG earlier in the week. Thursday night we played a few matches after playing Settlers of Catan with my sister in law. It went pretty well, and on Friday to my surprise the schedule worked out and so Ben and I headed over to Active Imagination for FNM. Ben took Valakut and I took SparkBlade for Ben’s first-ever sanctioned match.

Here’s the list I played:

SparkBlade

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Creatures (12) 4 Squadron Hawk 4 Stoneforge Mystic 3 Cunning Sparkmage 1 Sun Titan Planeswalkers (7) 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 3 Gideon Jura Spells (15) 1 Basilisk Collar 3 Preordain 3 Lightning Bolt 3 Spell Pierce 2 Mana Leak 2 Arc Trail 1 Sword of Feast and Famine Land (26) 3 Celestial Colonnade 4 Seachrome Coast 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Arid Mesa 1 Glacial Fortress 4 Mountain 2 Plains 3 Island 1 Terramorphic Expanse Sideboard (15) 4 Flashfreeze 2 Pyroclasm 2 Deprive 1 Sword of Body and Mind 1 Cunning Sparkmage 1 Hammer of Ruin 1 Chandra Nalaar 2 Twisted Image 1 Inferno Titan

Ben’s list was pretty much the same main as the winning deck at SCG Memphis with a couple small changes: one Avenger of Zendikar in the main deck, and in the sideboard, I added two Wall of Tanglecord.

I didn’t remember to bring a pen so I have no notes, everything is from memory and it’s now Sunday, so there will be errors and omissions, for which I apologize.

Round 1: Kitty, playing BR Vampires
I hadn’t seen Vampires in ages and had given zero thought to the matchup. I sort of thought that it might go OK with Sparkmage-Collar and SoFF main deck, but actually it’s not as great as I hoped. She got a turn1 Pulse Tracker all three games, and game 1 she pretty much just ran me over. Game 2 she managed to get me down to 1 but I managed a Hawk with both the Sword and the Collar on it so I could get out of Bolt range, and then got out my Sun Titan for long enough to take control of the board and pull it out. Game 3 she just came out a little bit too fast and had a Vampire Hexmage for what I was hoping to be the game-swinging Gideon and I lost the race. Basically, this game came down to my inability to find either a Pyroclasm or an Arc Trail, despite running through all 3 Preordains. Sometimes your deck just won’t cooperate.
0-1 matches, 1-2 games

Round 2: Brandon, playing Angry Birds
Whee, the near-mirror. Terminology note: I call the CawBlade variant running red “Angry Birds” if it isn’t running Sparkmages main, and “SparkBlade” if it is. There are way too many variants of this deck right now. Anyway, Brandon was clearly not a slouch player, since he was sporting various bits of evidence of playing GP Denver and his conversation with a friend indicated that he got paid there and he was planning to use that for GP Dallas. So, this would clearly not be a walk. Game 1 was quite long with neither of us able to get much done in terms of advancing the board. He got three Jaces but I had a Bolt for one, a Hawk and an Arc Trail for the other, and two Hawks plus a Sparkmage for the third. He got Gideon, I boneheadedly lost a counter war over my reply Gideon by mis-tapping land, but my second Gideon stuck to empty the board. By this time we were both pretty much out of counters and so my Sun Titan stuck and he carried the day. An unanswered Titan is a good thing. Game 2 he got a Kor Firewalker on turn 2 and I was unable to prevent him getting a Sword of Body and Mind on it, and that’s a monster. He only managed to get through with it a couple times, but it was enough that I just wasn’t able to quite catch up. We knew going in to game 3 that we didn’t have much time. He got another Firewalker in the game, though not quite so early, and I was in some trouble and I figured my best outcome was probably a draw. I refuse to slow down my play, but I did go into heavy defensive mode. Time was called, and he might have had a shot on turn 5 of extra time, but I landed an Inferno Titan on turn 4 and had enough in the air to kill his active Gideon so he didn’t have enough for a lethal counterattack, and that was it.
0-1-1 matches, 2-3-1 games. Ben, of course, hadn’t dropped a game and was a very pretty 2-0

Round 3: ? (sorry) playing a home brew UB Control featuring Tezz
Tumble Magnet, Contagion Clasp, Inquisition, both Trinket and Treasure Mage, Wurmcoil Engine, counters, Creeping Tar Pit. A perfectly reasonable deck. though I didn’t see Jace come out, which I certainly would have included. Anyway, game 1 he got a Trinket Mage to get an Everflowing Chalice on turn 3 and I came back with Jace after playing Hawks on 2 and 3. I was able to protect Jace and grind out a slow win since I couldn’t seem to find a Mystic and he had an active Mystifying Maze, so this was slow death by unequipped birds. Eww. Game 2 I opened with a Colonnade that promptly became a basic Island thanks to Spreading Seas. That was the only source of white in my hand so I Deprived his turn 4 play to bounce the Colonnade, but I was so far behind the mana curve that when he cast Tezz a couple turns later with a counter to back it up, I couldn’t stop it, and he eventually beat me to death with a 5/5 Tumble Magnet. Game 3 was another fairly drawn-out affair. I don’t remember the early part of the game, but late game I had a Gideon and a Sworded Hawk. He got a Phyrexian Revoker naming Gideon and a Maze with enough land to fuel it. I got Jace, though, and bounced the Revoker and then swung, and he Mazed the Hawk, knocking off the Sword, but took the Gideon hit. He replayed the Revoker, lather, rinse, repeat. He bounced Gideon instead because he couldn’t afford the extra 3 points of damage and I got to untap and he had to pitch a card. Next turn I got a Colonnade and that was too much and I killed him—on turn 3 of extra time, so whew.
Ben lost to UW CawBlade, I believe in two.
1-1-1 matches, 4-4-1 games

Round 4: Rob, playing Boros
I’ve played this matchup enough to know how it works. If Boros doesn’t get SparkBlade down near Bolt range in the first four turns, it has no long game against the planeswalkers. Both these games basically worked to this formula. I got early Sparkmages both games, and while they were eventually exiled with Journey to Nowhere, I was able to get both Jace and Gideon in play and had enough burn to keep Gideon from being run over, and prevailed. Game 2 was a little more tense in that I missed my turn 3 land drop, but I had a Bolt and a Pyroclasm and kept him off me long enough to find a third land and get the Sparkmage out, which held him at bay long enough before he found a Journey that I had a chance to find a couple more land (thank you, Preordain) and stabilize a little. It still took me a long time to get the double white I needed to cast Gideon for the win, but a second Sparkmage helped me get there. Never really felt in danger in either of these games.
Ben lost again to some mono-White concoction running Ajani. I don’t know the details.
2-1-1 matches, 6-4-1 games

Round 5: Ben, playing Valakut
So, the pairings computer hated me. Not only did I get paired down, but I had to play my own brother, wielding my Valakut deck. These games played out in eerily similar ways. I had turn 2 Stoneforge, turn 3 Sparkmage, and no second source of blue for a long time in both games. However, I had the Sworded Stoneforge doing work for me in game 1, and in game 2 I actually got a Collar with my Stoneforge since I had the SoFF in my opening hand. Ben took an opening hand in game 2 that we agreed he should never keep—no source of green—and by the time he drew a Forest it was just too late. I don’t think Ben was playing his best, though, as we didn’t realize that this FNM didn’t run a top 8 and just paid based on standings after five rounds of swiss (which is really, really weird, by the way), so he was playing a little on the soft side thinking I’d have a better chance in the top 8. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see how SparkBlade could win against a deck it’s supposedly unable to beat—mostly bad draws by Valakut, and countering the early ramp. A Collared Sparkmage is also helpful at limiting the effectiveness of their Titans.
3-1-1 matches, 8-4-1 games

A rocky start but overall an acceptable showing, though not nearly good enough for the upcoming GP.

The deck is still solid, though I want to try out GerryT’s Darkwing variant as well as a Tezzeret list that I’ve recently been thinking about. Unfortunately with GP Dallas coming up and me having to miss the next FNM (it’s my wife’s birthday), well, I don’t have a lot of time to mess around and I might just end up sticking with SparkBlade. Main decking the Sparkmages/Collar and not running Day really does seem very good overall and I like this variant better than Angry Birds or the straight UW list, though the straight UW list is also very good. As for changes, Twisted Image is just a little too cute in the sideboard, however, and I’d probably cut those in the future and go with Kor Firewalker instead. Sun Titan in the main was very good and that I would most certainly keep. The biggest problem I have when playing this deck is figuring out what to take out when I sideboard.

So, there are two big Standard tournaments coming up to Dallas, which is driving distance for me. However, I can’t actually make it to the Star City Open, but I will definitely be making the trip up for GP Dallas. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much Standard around here lately, so I was happy to have Montag’s back to Type 2 for the second week in a row. Last week I played an Esperfriends deck (Jace, Tezz, Gideon, Venser) that was a lot of fun but just could not hang well enough with fast aggro like the current crop of Boros decks.

So, this week I went with LSV’s SparkBlade. Here’s the list:

SparkBlade

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Creatures (11) 4 Squadron Hawk 4 Stoneforge Mystic 3 Cunning Sparkmage Planeswalkers (6) 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 Gideon Jura Spells (17) 3 Lightning Bolt 4 Preordain 1 Basilisk Collar 3 Spell Pierce 2 Mana Leak 2 Arc Trail 1 Sword of Feast and Famine 1 Tumble Magnet Land (26) 3 Celestial Colonnade 4 Seachrome Coast 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Arid Mesa 1 Glacial Fortress 4 Mountain 2 Plains 3 Island 1 Terramorphic Expanse Sideboard (15) 4 Flashfreeze 2 Mana Leak 2 Pyroclasm 2 Twisted Image 1 Deprive 1 Sword of Body and Mind 1 Cunning Sparkmage 1 Inferno Titan 1 Hammer of Ruin

It’s a really interesting deck, with no Day of Judgment main, instead relying on the Sparkmage-Collar combination for creature control.

Turnout at Montag’s was again somewhat disappointing, so four rounds of Swiss cutting to top 4.

Round 1: Daniel, playing Boros
I’d played Daniel numerous time before. Decent player always armed with a quality deck. He won the die roll and played a turn 2 Stoneforge off a Plains and a Scalding Tarn into a Mountain. I didn’t know if I was facing the mirror or Boros. His next play was a Mirran Crusader so that answered the question. However, I had a Collared Sparkmage, and then got into Gideon and took it, though it took a while to get there. Game 2 I don’t remember quite as well. He had trouble getting double white which let me get set up despite his early Goblin Guide. I think if an aggro deck is going to win this matchup, it has to win early.
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: Andrew, playing Kuldotha Red
I’ve played Andrew once or twice before; nice guy. He kept a one-lander and generated a turn 1 Goblin Guide and a turn 2 Kuldotha Rebirth. However, I had a Bolt for the Guide, got a Sparkmage on my turn 3, and got Jace on turn 4 and bounced a token. The Sparkmage kept him off much, and the land screw made it impossible to recover. Game 2 I mulliganed down to 5, but recovered those lost cards when I managed to kill both an Ornithopter and a Signal Pest with Twisted Image. That actually got me ahead on cards, and I got Gideon to connect while wearing the Collar, which was a nice 12-point life swing, and that carried the game.
2-0 matches, 4-0 games

Round 3: Carlos, playing G/r Elves
Carlos is a regular and we’ve played many times. This is a pretty normal deck for Carlos. He had turn 1 Birds of Paradise and turn 2 Nissa’s Chosen followed by a Nissa Revane into another Chosen. I double Arc Trailed to kill Nissa and the Bird, but he followed that up with another Nissa, and I died to a swarm of Chosens. Game 2 I managed to get Jace on turn 4, Gideon on turn 5, and an Inferno Titan on turn 6, so that one went well. Game 3 I didn’t see early permission and he stuck a Chandra Nalaar, which is pretty effective against Squadron Hawks and the like. I never managed to get anything going after that, and Carlos took it. I did board in all four of the Flashfreezes, but the only one I drew in either of the games was after Chandra had already hit the board in game 3. Oh well.
2-1 matches, 5-2 games

Round 4: Loke, playing WW
This is a really bad matchup for Loke, and I managed a collared Sparkmage into one game and a Feast and Famine equipped Hawk with Jace out in the other game. These weren’t really competitive.
3-1 matches, 7-2 games

Semis: Joe, playing UW CawBlade
Joe and I play each other rather a lot, it seems. I won the die roll. On his turn 3 he tapped two for a Hawk, leaving a blue open. I tried a Jace, and he did have the Spell Pierce. He got a Stoneforge Mystic before I did, and Joe got ahead with the latest Sword. Game 2 I had my Sword of Body and Mind in my opening hand as well as a Stoneforge. I cast my Stoneforge on turn 2 and fetched the other Sword, which I put down with the Mystic’s activated ability. Joe took care of it with a Divine Offering, but I came back with the the blue-green blade. I got through with the equipped Mystic multiple times and milled out all of his relevant removal. Game 3 was an epic battle. Drawn out, slow playing around each other’s counters. The key for me was getting down a collared Sparkmage, and then a Jace. I only had two Hawks and the shaman, so I was killing him very, very slowly, but I started fatesealing with Jace to try to keep him off Day of Judgment, even though I had the other two Hawks in my hand, which I didn’t play out just in case. He got Elspeth, which took me a long time to kill. After that he got a Sword and kept drawing Colonnades, which meant I had to keep killing them rather than shooting Joe. I was, however, able to keep Joe off of Day, and eventually my three damage per turn got there, two turns before I would have been able to go ultimate with Jace anyway.
4-1 matches, 9-3 games

Carlos also made it to the finals, but it was getting late and since we had already played, we decided to split.

So, a small FNM isn’t exactly a huge test, but the deck is quite impressive. It has terrific game against aggro and I think the red definitely gives it the edge in the mirror. I have to say that I was pretty unimpressed with the Tumble Magnet when I drew it, and Gideon was always great. I think next time I play it I’d consider swapping the Magnet for either a third Gideon Jura or a Sun Titan. I might also even consider Chandra Nalaar in the sideboard for the mirror; it’s quite a problem. I liked the threat of Hammer of Ruin, though, and it’s more reusable than a Divine Offering. On the down side, the lack of Day makes it seem a bit soft to Elves, and I can’t imagine, without either Spreading Seas or Tectonic Edge, that it has a great matchup with Valakut, even with the Flashfreezes. So how viable it is in April for GP Dallas will depend on how the metagame shapes up.

A friend of mine asked for this recently, so I thought I’d provide it on the blog. When I want to audition or evaluate audio equipment or settings, I use a playlist that I burn specifically for that purpose. Here’s what’s on that playlist and what I listen for. (Note that I have all these on CD, and so these are uncompressed when testing or listening at home—links are for convenience, I don’t recommend testing with compressed music.)

1. Art of Noise, “Il Pleure (At the Turn of the Century)”
from The Seduction of Claude Debussy, 1999

This is a slightly weird track, in that it mixes spoken word, acoustic piano, drum machines, opera, and of course AON synth. Looking for clear differentiation of instruments, but mostly for how the the female opera vocals are handled. Unnatural mids make this sound poor.

2. Nine Inch Nails, “Into the Void”
from The Fragile (disc 2), 1999

I actually stopped in an audio shop one day on a whim, and didn’t have the older version of my test mix with me, and the sales guy demo’d with this track. The important part is the intro, which starts with a high-end, well, I’m not sure what it is—almost a squeak, then something xylophone-sounding, then adds cello, then acoustic guitar, then some light percussion, then the full force kicks in. I’m listening for the clarity of the instruments in the early stuff, which is quiet, and the force when more stuff kicks in.

3. Tool, “Stinkfist”
from Ænima, 1996

4. The Cult, “Wild Flower”
from Electric, 1987

A good audio setup needs to sound good when the electric guitars attack. The Tool recording is an excellent recording, The Cult recording is less so and is useful for seeing how things handle slightly less clean-sounding guitars. On a bad setup this will just devolve into distortion and little else. (Sorry no link on the Tool track. Come on, Tool, get it together and get on Amazon or iTunes.)

5. Tears for Fears, “Start of the Breakdown”
from The Hurting, 1983

There’s a lot of left-right panning in this track, so anything that impacts channel separation shows up immediately here. Obviously, this is not so much an issue with headphones, but if you don’t get the sense of something moving back and forth in space, something is definitely amiss.

6. Michael Hedges, “Breakfast in the Field”
from Live on the Double Planet, 1987

This is acoustic guitar originally recorded live on digital equipment. Different guitar strings should be distinct, and some ambient sounds (e.g., foot taps) are evident on better equipment.

7. Rodrigo y Gabriela, “Hanuman”
from 11:11, 2009

The latest addition. This is acoustic guitar as well as the last track, but sounds almost nothing at all like it. Not only are RyG absolutely fabulous and this album especially excellent, but it’s also a terrific recording. (Yes, I’m running out of superlatives.) You should be able to separate the two guitars very distinctly, and the percussion should not sound like drums when you listen carefully, because of course it isn’t, it’s Gabriela drumming with her hand on the guitar—and that’s what it should sound like.

8. George Winston, “Spring Creek”
from Summer, 1991

This is an acoustic piano piece which runs through a pretty thorough range of the 88 keys. Keys should sound distinct and be identifiable in chords when not struck perfectly in synch, which of course real human players do. Bass keys should sound natural, high keys shouldn’t sound harsh, mids should not get lost.

9. Vivaldi, “Summer (presto)”
from Janine Jansen’s The Four Seasons, 2004 (CD layer from SACD mastering)

Classical makes different demands than the rock/techno/acoustic on the rest of this list, and this is a good piece, heavy on different strings. Viola should be distinct from both violin and cello, the cello bits should be moving without being overwhelming. Setups that are too bass-heavy (equalized for rock/techno) don’t sound right here. Setups which are too bright can make the violins sound screechy. This is a pristine recording and flaws are quickly evident.

10. Bach, “Concerto for 2 Violins, Strings and Continuo in D minor, BWV. 1043: I. Vivace”
from Hilary Hahn & the L.A. Chamber Orchestra, Bach Concertos, 2002 (CD layer from SACD mastering)

I’m a sucker for violins, particularly in testing audio. Bad setups make it sound screechy, particularly Miss Hahn’s particular style. (Some might say her poor fingering, but I think on good equipment it sounds just fine.) Violins here should sound like, well, violins. This is another outstanding recording and can sound very close to lifelike on good equipment.

11. The Power Station, “Some Like It Hot”
from The Power Station, 1985

Listening almost entirely to Tony Thompson’s slamming drum intro to this song. If it doesn’t slam, the bass needs work. This is not a particularly great recording, but it doesn’t need to be for what it’s trying to deliver. Big toms and bass drums, that’s what you’re after here. (Please ignore the Duran Duran lineage here. This is about Tony Thompson’s drum work, OK?)

12. Underworld, “Little Speaker”
from A Hundred Days Off, 2002

Very bass-heavy electronica. Weak bass really shows here, should get that dance-club ”thump“ in full force. This is synthesized bass, so it will and should sound different from the slams in the previous track.

13. Thomas Newman, “Root Beer”
from American Beauty Score, 2000

If you’ve seen the movie, the is from the bit where Kevin Spacey has one of his waking dreams about Mena Suvari, this one while he’s getting her a root beer from the fridge. Lots of cymbal transients to test the treble response, and well as some really low bass rumbling; this gets down around 20-25 Hz, so if whatever equipment you’re listening to doesn’t really rumble, your bass extension isn’t good enough. (Sorry no link. Amazon has the CD version…)

14. Shadowfax, “Oasis”
from The Odd Get Even, 1990 (track also appears on Pure Shadowfax)

This is also a fully-digital recording with a mix of strange instruments and traditional rock instruments. I find Paiste cymbals to have slightly different timbre (don’t ask me to describe it) from other cymbals (not better, just different), and that should be evident as they are mixed very prominently here. The high whistle (or whatever it is) should also not be shrill. There’s a lot going on here—be sure all instruments sound distinct.

15. Tori Amos, “Precious Things”
from Little Earthquakes, 1991

I find Tori’s voice is sometimes difficult to reproduce well, and this is a good test for it. Good mix of acoustic piano, drum, and electric guitar. When the guitar kicks in on the line ”I want to smash the faces“ right around 1:50 into the track, it should be very involving but not overwhelming. If the setup is too forward, the guitar there will overwhelm the vocals, which is bad.

16. The Police, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
from Ghost in the Machine, 1981

You wouldn’t think a Police track would ask much of your setup, but this one does because Stewart Copeland does some really great cymbal work here which isn’t mixed super prominently (not like the Shadowfax track). If the setup has much mid- or bass-push, they tend to get lost, which is bad. I have yet to hear this sound right through MP3 compression, either. (In general, that’s where MP3-style compression bothers me the most—cymbals never sound natural.)

17. Propaganda, “Strength to Dream”
from A Secret Wish, 1985 (CD layer from SACD mastering)

This is a fully-digital recording which has a thunderstorm in it. If you’re in a an audio shop and turn this way up, people should start looking out the windows for rain. Seriously.

18. Pink Floyd, “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”
from The Wall, 1977

This is in here just for fun. The first time I heard this track after I had put in new speakers and an amp in my car, I had The Wall in and had really stopped paying attention to it, then suddenly I found myself looking for a helicopter. Took me a second to realize it wasn’t really a helicopter, it was my stereo. Always trying to reproduce that.

Yes, this is a pretty wide range of stuff. If you can find something on which everything here sounds really good… buy it!

So, a couple weeks ago I had this idea for a Standard deck, and it wasn’t until tonight that I’d gotten a chance to actually play it in a tournament. This is the last Standard tournament for a while and the last one before Mirrodin Besieged rotates in, so I’ve been bummed that I haven’t had a chance to play it, but I had to miss FNM last week for a date night with my wife. These things happen.

Anyway, I’ve changed the deck some since I originally posted it. Here’s the list I actually played:

Sin City

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Creatures (13) 4 Wall of Omens 4 Emeria Angel 2 Wurmcoil Engine 2 Sunblast Angel 1 Sun Titan Planeswalkers (3) 3 Gideon Jura Other spells (19) 3 Everflowing Chalice 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Doom Blade 2 Luminarch Ascension 2 Mimic Vat 2 Day of Judgment Land (25) 4 Arid Mesa 4 Marsh Flats 6 Plains 3 Swamp 2 Mountain 2 Tectonic Edge 3 Lavaclaw Reaches 1 Blackcleave Cliffs Sideboard (15) 4 Duress 2 Luminarch Ascension 2 Revoke Existence 2 Pyroclasm 1 Day of Judgment 3 Baneslayer Angel 1 Liliana Vess

Not playing Day of Judgment in the main was simple lunacy; Day is amazing. Admonition Angel is very cute and all, but with Gideon and Luminarch Ascension, my opponents tend to swing, so Sunblast Angel is just too good not to play 2 of in the main deck. Emeria Angel is a weird card. There are some games when she is just so good it’s ludicrous, and other games where I just want to hit myself for even thinking about playing her. I never figured out a better option, though, so I kept her in. The Revoke Existence in the sideboard are admittedly iffy; Act of Treason is probably a better choice.

In my mind, the sketchiest thing about this deck going in is the mana base. Three colors is hard to support without any really serious color fixing beyond the fetchlands. Fortunately you never really need more than one black or one red source, as long as you have two white available, the deck is happy.

The deck name comes from the color combination, in case that isn’t obvious. Sin City is partly a response to something someone said at FNM earlier, that there are only two viable choices in the current envrionment: all-out aggro and decks that require 4 or more $40+ mythic rares, usually Jace. I wanted to build a viable control deck where nothing in the deck cost more than $25; Gideon Jura is by far the most expensive card in the deck and is findable at under $20, so this fit the bill… if it’s actually viable. I am not, nor have I ever been, a great deckbuilder, but I’m proud of this one.

Turnout at Montag’s Games hasn’t been all that great lately and that trend continued tonight, only 16 people showed. 4 rounds of Swiss, cut to top 4.

Round 1: Brandon, playing RDW
Well, a real test right out of the gate. I’d seen Brandon at Montag’s before, but we had never played. I knew he was playing RDW because he and a friend were talking about it beforehand. Game 1 can be pretty tricky but post-sideboard should favor me since nobody actually plays Combust and four Wall of Omens plus multiple Baneslayers is still awfully good against RDW. Game 1 I opened with an Inquisition and a couple spot removal spells. He won the die roll, played a Mountain, and passed. I Inquisitioned him first turn and saw a Mountain, a Staggershock, a Koth, a Searing Blaze, and two Goblin Ruinblasters (main deck? really?). I took one of the Ruinblasters. Now, I don’t know why he kept this, as it’s not exactly what you’d call a pressure-packed hand. I guess in an environment with a lot of Lotus Cobras, it’s keepable. However, this gave me time to play out a Chalice then a Vat and then Gideon on turn 4. He got a Goblin Guide after I put down Gideon so Gideon was at 6, and I just killed the Guide with Gideon and put the goblin under the Vat… not exactly the greatest Vat run ever. He Staggershocked Gideon down to 2, so I pumped Gideon back up and played an Angel, which ate his topdecked Bolt. From there I just beat him up with Gideon. He threw various bits of burn at me before playing Gideon and I did end the game at 8, but I never felt like I was in serious danger. I sided out the Luminarch Ascensions, two Inquisitions, and two Emeria Angels for the extra Day, the Pyroclasms, and the three Baneslayers. Game 2 I opened with a Bolt, a Doom Blade, and a Pyroclasm and four lands, which I kept. He put down a Plated Geopede on his turn 2, then swung without landfall on his turn 3, then played out another Geopede. Then I Pyroclasm’d. He came back with a Mountain and a Kargan Dragonlord, which I did not immediately Blade, but waited for him to pour all three of his mana into next turn before paying homage to @Doom_Blade_Guy. I followed up with Gideon. He burnt Gideon out after two hits, but I had drawn into a second one and he went all the way. Hey, not bad!
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: John, playing Valakut
John is a regular at Montag’s and we’ve played many times, though not lately as John has been kind of sour on Standard of late. Nobody at the store had played Valakut in a long time (I think I may have been the last person to do so) and so I hadn’t really thought about that matchup much. In retrospect, my deck seems pretty soft to it. Game 1 I mulled down to 5 because of no white mana at either 7 or 6… and actually the five I kept had no white either. I didn’t draw a white source until turn 5 and by then it was just way too late, Mountains were bolts and I just died horribly. I sided out all four Emeria Angels and something else for the four Duresses and the extra Day.Game 2 I took a hand with 3 hand kill to keep him off ramp, but… no black source. In fact, I got stuck on two Plains and a Tectonic Edge for a couple turns, and I had to Edge off a Valakut. Needless to say, I lost this one as well. These were two quick and hopeless beatings. Completely hosed on mana, but I knew that was a risk with this deck so I decided to just suck it up and win the rest of them.
1-1 matches, 2-2 games

Round 3: Daniel, playing Caw-Go
Daniel is a regular who I’ve played before, though not too many times. He got stuck on a Seachrome Coast, a Mystifying Maze, and a Tectonic Edge for a couple turns. I wasn’t really putting much pressure on, but I did get a Luminarch Ascension on turn 4 and then just hit him a couple times with a pumped manland. He got Gideon, but that turn I got the fourth counter and thus two Angels, who made short work of his planeswalker. I came back with my own Gideon, but he came back with his second, killing both. However, I still had angels and they ended it. I sided out all four Walls and the two Days plus one Emeria for two more Luminarch Ascensions, the Duresses, and Liliana. Game 2 I got a little land-hosed, and he hit me with Spreading Seas three times in my first four land and I never really got anywhere. Game 3 I got a Luminarch Ascension on turn 2, hit him with Duress on turn 3 and took a Revoke Existence, and then got another Ascension on turn 4. I actually almost let him keep the Revoke and took big Jace since I had the second Ascension in hand, but I decided it was better to put max pressure on him. That worked, and angel tokens went all the way.
2-1 matches, 4-3 games

Round 4: Carlos, playing Gr homebrew
Carlos is another regular who I’ve played many times. His deck was largely Elves (including Nissa) with Bolts, but with a few curveballs in there, like Precursor Golem. Game 1 Carlos managed to get ahead and had a couple Nissa’s Chosen (one summoned by Nissa, who ate a Bolt) and 3 golems beating up on me, but I had a Wall of Omens, a Luminarch Ascension, and a Wurmcoil Engine. He had me at 7, but I dropped Gideon and made him swing into the Wurmcoil. Gideon took 7 but lived to force another attack, costing Carlos another dude, gaining me 6 more life, and I was accumulating Ascension counters. Gideon died to a kicked Burst Lightning, but by then I had 4 counters on the Ascension and that was it. I was at like 31 life when it ended. Game 2 I thought I had a good draw with a Day and a Baneslayer, but Carlos hit my land with Acidic Slime on turns 4 and 5. I had fetches to get more Plains to replace the lost ones and got a Day off killing the elf and both Slimes and followed that up with a Baneslayer, and I figured I had it, but he immediately answered my fattie angel with Chandra Nalaar. Wow, Chandra, hadn’t seen her in a while. Well, I got stuck on those 5 land with both a Wurmcoil and a Sunblast in my hand, and Carlos finished me off. Ugly. Game 3 I got off a Day on turn 4 and then got a Baneslayer on turn 5, which I had to swing into his Garruk which had made two Beasts. He also had two other creatures on the board and swung with everything since I had no blockers. This meant on turn 6 I managed a 4-for-1 with my Sunblast Angel. He never really recovered from that, and scooped when I followed that up with a Wurmcoil.
3-1 matches, 6-4 games

Semis: Daniel, playing BUG Wave
The other two in the top 4 were my round 1 opponent Brandon (he hadn’t lost since) and my round 2 opponent John (undefeated). I’d played Daniel a couple weeks before and knew he had the same deck as that time. It’s basically a green ramp deck with Genesis Wave, which waves into Ob Nixilis, the Fallen or Avenger of Zendikar. The only blue main is, I believe, Jace. It’s a very streaky deck: when it doesn’t work, nothing much happens, and when it works, it’s a freaking explosion. Anyway, game 1 was a train wreck. He won the roll, and I faltered a little on mana after hitting him turn 1 with Inquisition and seeing Explore, Ob, Primeval Titan, Genesis Wave, and three lands. I took the Explore, and of course he topdecked a Cobra. Meh. He Cobra’d into Primeval Titan getting two fetches, and while I had a Doom Blade, it did not bode well. He got an Oracle then Ob and then Waved for the win. Yikes. I sided out all four Emeria Angels for the Pyroclasms, the Day, and a Duress. I got a turn 2 Luminarch and that was the difference. He ramped into a bunch of land but I knew what he had from an early Inquisition and he didn’t have the two black he needed for the Ob in his hand. I got the Luminarch active and made angels, hitting him down to 7. He fired off a big Wave and got an Avenger, but all the plant tokens in the world won’t block a sky full of 4/4s. I went back to the sideboard, putting in a third Luminarch and changing out the Inquisitions for Duresses. This game was really tight. I got a turn 2 Luminarch again, but he got Ob before I got enough counters to go crazy. I came back with a Wumcoil. He played a basic land to Ob me down to 8, but of course he didn’t swing. I swung with the Engine going back up to 14 and played a Sun Titan. He got a Wave and hit some land and an Oracle and a couple small dudes. He flipped the top card in his deck and missed a land, so he cracked a fetch to put me down to 2 and missed land again on the top of his deck. He probably figured he had to get rid of the Sun Titan to get in next turn with his new little guys, so he swung with Ob. I chumped with my Titan, and came back with a Sunblast Angel to kill Ob. I could then swing in with the Wurmcoil to go back up to 8 life. He was at 7 so he chumped with a Treespeaker. We both knew his next draw was another Oracle, so he couldn’t really do anything, and that got my Ascension up to 4 counters. I made an Angel and swung for lethal. Whew!
4-1 matches, 8-5 games

Brandon bested John in the other semi, and because he really wanted to get to another store that was having a midnight prerelease, we agreed to split.

I got to bank my credit toward a Tezzeret 2.0 which Guy (the store owner) said he’d almost certainly acquire on Sunday, which is when Montag’s has its prerelease. Excellent!

So, the deck. It’s not the most consistent deck in the universe, as the mana is a little suspect. Sphere of the Suns would be much better than Everflowing Chalice here, though the Chalice was pretty good to me overall, I only cast it with more than 1 counter once all night. On the other hand, the deck has some great tools. Luminarch Ascension is a really terrific card against non-aggro decks, and combined with 8 1-mana discard spells makes post-board games pretty good against control decks. Day and a full suite of Walls and Bolts, plus Wurmcoil, is a fantastic pain in the ass for aggro decks and that worked out great as well. Valakut is definitely the worst matchup and I’m not sure what the best solution is there.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that a 16-man FNM isn’t exactly the Pro Tour or anything and 8-5 isn’t a stellar game record. I’m not suggesting that Sin City is a Tier 1 Standard deck. However, I think I was able to make my point that it is possible to build a reasonably viable deck that isn’t all-out aggro and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Later edit: OK, so the right answer for Valakukt is (well, was, since the format is all different now) probably Leyline of Sanctity. Not sure that it’s really all that great since most Valakut builds run some kind of artifact/enchantment control in the side, but it has to better than the current nothing.

I’ll come right out and say it: I have absolutely no idea, in either game. I have no trouble seeing these going either way. Well, OK, I have trouble seeing the Bears blowing out the Packers, but I can see the Bears winning. And I have less than no clue on the Steelers and the Jets. So, given that, here we go…

Packers @ Chicago(+3.5)
So, right now the Packers have all the hype. More quietly, the Bears have actually been pretty good in the second half of the season, and they certainly played the Packers to a near standstill in week 17. However, if Aaron Rodgers has another week like last week (though that seems unlikely), it won’t matter what the Bears do. That was a performance for the ages.; the Falcons are good and really didn’t play that badly in that game, Rodgers was just that amazing. But that was in a dome and not on the Soldier Field slop. Oh, screw it, this game isn’t really about that. It’s about the side of the ball nobody is talking about: the Packers’ defense vs. the Bears offense. I don’t trust Cutler at all. The only reason he didn’t get picked twice last week is that the Seabags DBs can’t catch. If the Bears get behind and have to throw, there will be picks. Cutler has been too quiet on that front lately but I see him reverting to form when it really matters, and then getting all pouty about it. I’m taking the Packers to cover just because of Cutler.

Jets @ Pittsburgh(-4)
So here’s the thing. I’ve been a little sour off and on with the Steelers because their offense seems shaky to me at times. That seems like a Very Bad Thing™ when facing a Jets team that has just schemed out Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. On the other hand, Big Ben seems like he’s harder to beat via scheme, since what he does is salvage broken plays. On the other hand, the Steelers O-line is subpar and hurt, and I don’t think Polamalu is really fully healthy. Of course, then there’s the other factor, which is when the Jets have the ball. I don’t see them being able to just run over the Steelers the way they ran over the Pats last week. <sigh> Remember that I said I have no clue? Yeah, that. OK, here’s the pick: I think this will be a defensive struggle, it will probably be decided by a turnover or a freak kick return (cf. Jets vs. Colts two weeks ago), and I think whoever wins, wins by a field goal. Therefore, because the spread is more than a field goal, I am taking the Jets. I expect ugly football, in a good way, and a very tight game.

It’s late in the rotation and a new set is about to come in, and people are complaining that Standard is getting stale. So, here’s something new to try.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not much of an original deckbuilder. However, every once in a while I have an idea that I think is worth at least exploring. Yesterday as I was doing errands before FNM, an idea struck me and I thought it was worthy enough to hastily try to throw it together and give it a spin. Unfortunately, FNM didn’t happen last night since not enough people showed. I did get to play the deck a few times against what I think is actually a pretty good Metalcraft aggro deck. I was worried that the deck would be soft to aggro in Game 1 and it didn’t seem bad at all.

The deck name is obviously drawn from the color combo: black and white with a splash of red. Here’s the list:

Sin City

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Creatures (14) 4 Wall of Omens 4 Emeria Angel 2 Wurmcoil Engine 1 Grave Titan 1 Admonition Angel 2 Sun Titan Planeswalkers (3) 3 Gideon Jura Other spells (18) 3 Everflowing Chalice 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Luminarch Ascension 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Doom Blade 2 Mimic Vat Land (25) 3 Tectonic Edge 4 Marsh Flats 4 Arid Mesa 5 Plains 3 Swamp 2 Mountain 3 Lavaclaw Reaches 1 Blackcleave Cliffs Sideboard (15) 4 Duress 2 Luminarch Ascension 2 Pyroclasm 3 Baneslayer Angel 1 Sunblast Angel 2 Day of Judgment 1 Liliana Vess

The deck was actually inspired, in a weird way, by Mike Flores’s Mythic Titan deck and the point he made about Luminarch Ascension and then some other thoughts I had about changes to that deck I was going to make. In particular, I wanted to add Wurmcoil Engine (because it’s amazing) and the “other white Titan,” Admonition Angel, to take advantage of all the land the deck generates. Then I realized that Emeria Angel would be good there as well, and then it occurred to me that many of those effects would be fine off fetchlands. @dcampa93 on Twitter suggested going more control and adding Wall of Omens somewhere, and that made me think about Pyroclasm as a mass removal option in lieu of (or in addition to) Day, and I realized I wanted to try something that doesn’t use the Jace-Cobra-Preordain-Mana Leak basis that makes Flores’s deck in some way just the Bant variant of BUG and RUG.

Once I decided on the color combination, and realized I’d be running eight fetches, I really wanted Emeria Angel. There have been some interesting discussions out there about using her in UW control decks as a way to protect Planeswalkers, but I think she’s actually pretty good even without a large number of Planeswalkers.

The other card I really wanted was Mimic Vat. I think this card is incredibly underrated, or maybe just underplayed. It makes your own removal better, can blank opposing removal, and is simply nuts with creatures that have ETB effects. It’s also amazing with a Wurmcoil on the table.

Overall, Sin City plays like a control deck but one that can turn aggro very quickly. Gideon is key to this ability, and the other thing I’ve noticed about the current environment is that it is, in general, light on fliers. The titans are all ground-pounders, and even most of the aggro decks are pretty much all on the ground. Bird tokens are great blockers but also can go aggro very effectively. Lavaclaw Reaches is also really aggressive in the late game if you can get their board clear or get all blockers tapped via Gideon, and of course you can finish with Lightning Bolt.

The sideboard is also really important. Against control decks, the other two Luminarch Ascensions come in with all four Duresses and Liliana. This gives you 8 cheap hand kill, 1 expensive but recurrent hand kill, and 4 Ascensions, which certainly seems like it should be good. And even if they can kill and Ascension, you can possibly get it back with Sun Titan.

Against aggro decks, you obviously take out the Ascensions and bring in the Baneslayers and Sunblast (Sunblast is great with Gideon) as well as the Pyroclasms and the two Day of Judgment. You end up with a lot of lifelink with the Baneslayers and the Wurmcoils which should give you a lot of extra clock. What else you take out would depend on the matchup. Emeria Angels aren’t very good against decks running Bolt, but they don’t die to Disfigure, so that’s at least something. Regardless, the two Days, two Pyroclasms, and all the lifelink makes you hard for aggro decks to kill.

(B/R)UG is probably one of the tougher matchups. Pyroclasm is great against the Cobras and Oracles but you only have two, and that’s not in game 1. I need to test more against this matchup; it might be the case that something like Sword of Body and Mind is called for in the sideboard. The good news is that Inquisition of Kozilek kills Lotus Cobra, Explore, and Mana Leak, which is pretty good. Unless they run Acidic Slime main (unfortunately, some do), they most likely won’t have an answer to Mimic Vat in game 1 and that can be a game-swinger but again, you only have two.

In general against anybody playing Blue I’m thinking keep in all the Bolts as an answer to Jace. You want all 8 hand disruption cards not only to keep them off things like Jace and Mana Leak, but to make sure you know when they have permission so you can safely cast your big guns.

There are a few things that definitely merit further consideration:

• Act of Treason. It certainly seems really good right now against some decks and Sin City runs the right color, but I’m not sure what to take out to run one or two copies. Except maybe:

• I’m not 100% sure that I’m sold on Grave Titan in this deck. Is that the card to cut for an Act of Treason or a second Admonition Angel or perhaps another removal spell?

• The mana base might not be quite right. Three Tectonic Edges seems like the right number, particularly since they can be recurred with Sun Titan; but because of the Titans perhaps even two would be OK. It’s great to have eight fetches, too but maybe there’s something else that would be good.

• Is there a call for Oust or Journey to Nowhere? Bolts and Doom Blades seem pretty good, but they don’t handle indestructibles or produce great results vs. things like Wurmcoil Engine, and of course neither one really handles Grave Titan, either.

Maybe it’s awful, but it seems at least feasible in concept and of course, you can build it without $300+ worth of Jace. It’s not as cheap as Boros and Vampires, of course, but if you want to play something other than aggro without Jace, maybe some version of this is an option for the next couple weeks.

I’d love to get feedback! Comment here or hit me up on Twitter, @SunByrne.

Saturday
Ravens @ Pittsburgh(-3)
Yes, Baltimore blew out the Chefs. However, that was as much about KC playing like ass as it was the Ravens playing well. The Chefs looked like they panicked in the second half for no apparent reason, since they were only down by seven. Both defenses very tough, both teams set up to stop the run. I think the difference in this game is the quarterbacks, and while Flacco looked OK last week, when the game is on the line, I trust Big Ben more than Flacco. I’d really rather have to give two because I’m worried about a 9-7 kind of thing happening. However, I’ll still take the Stillers.

Packers @ Atlanta(-1.5)
I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. I love the way the Green Bay defense is playing, but the Falcons have been fantastic at home over the last couple years. The last meeting was close, and I see no reason to think that it’ll be anything other than that this time around. I will guess that Al will go with his local team, the Falcons, so I’ll take the Packers to riverside.

Sunday
Seahawks @ Chicago(-10)
The Seahawks have played inspired football the last couple of weeks. I think the Bears are the better team (unless Cutler flakes out), especially on defense, but I just don’t see the Bears turning it into a blowout. I’ll take the points.

Jets @ New England(-9)
It’s a shame they can’t delay this game for a few days, because the war or words leading into it has been so good that I’ll be sad to see it go. The Welker thing the other day was fan-freaking-tastic; how he kept such a perfectly straight face I’ll never know. Just the best stuff ever. I thought the Jets really played well last week in Indy. Again, I think the Pas are the better team, but I’m guessing that the Jets can hang with them, no matter what happened last time.’’

Good luck!

My local shop, Montag’s Games, has the occasional Tuesday Standard-for-a-box, but we didn’t have the 8 necessary for a box, so a couple people decided to play a standard tournament for $5 instead. This may be the death of standard-for-a-box, but since I can only make Tuesday night some of the time anyway, that’s OK.

So, last Friday I played GW Quest, which was fun, but of course I lost to my own BUG deck that I had loaned out. Funny and all, but I figured I’d give BUG another run. I made one minor tweak, going down to 3 Explore for a Garruk. Here’s the list:

BUGger Off

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Creatures (13) 4 Lotus Cobra 3 Oracle of Mul Daya 2 Grave Titan 1 Frost Titan 1 Primeval Titan 2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen Planeswalkers (5) 1 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Other spells (15) 4 Preordain 1 Disfigure 3 Doom Blade 3 Explore 4 Mana Leak Land (27) 4 Forest 3 Island 3 Swamp 4 Creeping Tar Pit 2 Halimar Depths 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Verdant Catacombs 3 Drowned Catacomb Sideboard (15) 3 Acidic Slime 3 Obstinate Baloth 2 Spell Pierce 2 Consume the Meek 2 Disfigure 3 Memoricide

With the small turnout, 4 rounds cutting to top 4.

Round 1: Trevor, playing Boros
Trevor plays at Montag’s often enough that we’ve played a few times in the past, though not too many. I had no idea what he’d be playing, but it became apparent when he played a first-turn Goblin Guide followed by a second-turn Plains. The Guide actually helped ramp me into an early Grave… Titan, and he didn’t have an answer for that, so I was able to outrace his little guys. Game 2 he got in a couple whacks, but I got an early Oracle followed by Ob, then played a regular land land and a fetch, killed the blocker he left back with either a Doom Blade or a Disfigure, and swung for lethal. Ob is seriously good in this deck.
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: Jack, playing Caw-Go
Jack is also a regular who I’ve played several times. This was a pretty long match, and unfortunately my notes aren’t all that good. Game 1 I know I took a bunch of whacks from a Hawk and eventually a Colonnade and I was down to 4 with multiple cards on Journeys to Nowhere, but I stuck a Frosty and a Jace, and things swung my way quickly after that. Game 2 he got a very slow start, missing his turn 3 land drop, but I was drawing pretty much all land so I couldn’t put on any real pressure. I do remember getting Ob and a land and then cracking two fetchlands and Ob eating a Celestial Purge in response to the double-crack. Oops. Game 3 I also don’t remember that well, but given that his life total went 20-14-8, I’m pretty sure I stuck a Frosty. Good match.
2-0 matches, 4-1 games

Round 3: Joe, playing UB
I play Joe pretty much every time I head over to Montag’s. Joe is almost certainly the strongest player in the store and UB is a very good deck, so we were both expecting a long, drawn-out battle. Amazingly, games 1 and 2 were both very quick. Game 1 he tapped out for something (probably Jace) and I stuck Ob, then got an Oracle next turn, and just exploded on him. Game 2 on turn 4 I Memoricided him for Mana Leak and got all 4 of them, so I thought I’d be able to not have to play around his permission. However, he Duressed me on his turn 5 and got the one Mana Leak I was holding, so his turn 6 he stuck a Grave Titan, and I never came up with an answer for that. Game 3, however, was epic. I made one key mistake here, and it probably cost me the match. In my opener I had two or three spells with Green in the cost—including a Cobra—but no Green sources. However, one of my lands was a Halimar Depths, so I figured it was worth keeping since odds are good there’d be a green source in the next three cards. I played the Depths and found… no green sources. It was an Explore, a Preordain, and another Green card (Garruk, maybe, I don’t remember). Great, I could put the Preordain on top, slide past the two nonlands, and hopefully draw into a source of Green. However, when I got to my next draw phase, I drew… Explore? Oops. I put the cards back in the wrong order! I basically gave Joe a free Time Walk. Very sloppy.
Fortunately, Joe had no early pressure. Many things were countered, I was Duressed a couple times. I did get the Cobra and an Oracle out and with a Tar Pit had Joe at 7. He Edged my Tar Pit and stuck a Frost Titan which got in a couple whacks before I was able to put down Jace and brainstorm for a Doom Blade. He dropped Jace to kill my Jace. We were both in topdeck mode, I drew a couple lands which did nothing but with two Cobra hits had him down to 3 when he topdecked a Wurmcoil Engine. Urgh. However, I drew an Acidic Slime and so had to Slime his Wurm. I still had a problem with those nasty tokens, and he topdecked… Mimic Vat. I drew I don’t remember what and passed. He swung with the tokens, so I blocked the lifelinker with the Cobra since I didn’t want him to get the Slime, putting me at 1 and him back up to 6. I topdecked Jace and bounced one of his tokens, killing it. I figured next turn I could then bounce the Slime and recast it to kill the Vat, and then he’d have a token to my ooze and we’d be stalemated so I could brainstorm for an answer after that. (Something about this doesn’t add up, so I know I’m remembering something wrong but I’m not sure what.) Unfortunately, he topdecked a Doom Blade so he killed the Slime and swung in for the game. So close! Oh, well, my own fault for the bonehead play on turn 1.
2-1 matches, 5-3 games

Round 4: Dillon, playing UB
Ugh, another UB control deck… Dylan is also a semi-regular who I had played a couple times before. Dylan is also a strong player so I figured I’d be in for it. Game 1, however, I got Garruk on turn 4 so on turn 5 I got a Grave Titan, Dylan having tapped out (well, only 1 land untapped) for little Jace. When I swung the next turn he tried to Consume the Meek in response to blockers, but I had a Leak and countered it. He was again tapped down, so I followed with Frost Titan and he scooped. Game 2 he hit me early with an Inquisition (getting a Cobra) so he knew I had a Grave Titan in hand. I got an Ob through with Spell Pierce help, and so he came back by tapping out for his own Grave Titan. I put down my Grave Titan on my ensuing turn, so the board was Ob, two black Titans, and four zombie tokens. He drew and passed the turn. Since I had the advantage of having Ob, I swung in with my Titan only. He blocked with two tokens and an animated Tar Pit. He drew and passed. I drew a fetchland, making Ob into a 9/9 and swung with Ob and all the zombies. He had no answers, so that was it.
3-1 matches, 7-3 games

Semis: Jeff, playing Wb Metalcraft homebrew
Jeff is a regular and we’ve played many times. I didn’t quite know how this would go, as I didn’t really know what was in his deck other than 0-drops and Steel Overseer. I presumed Tempered Steel but otherwise wasn’t sure. Game 1 was over quickly. He had no 1 drop but his two-drop was a Myrsmith. Didn’t seem too bad and it was something I could kill later if necessary so I tapped out for an Oracle. Turn 3 he got Tempered Steel. Yikes. Turn 4 he produced 3 Ornithopers, making Myr tokens with the Smith and suddenly I was staring down six 3/3s. I Disfigured the Myrsmith next turn, but it was just too late. Yow. In went the Consume the Meeks, the Acidic Slimes, the Baloths, and the two extra Disfigures. Unfortunately, he was a little mana flooded and I was mana light, which made my Leaks dead. He had a Chalice and a couple little metal guys out and then dropped an Etched Champion. It turns out Etched Champion is really, really good against my deck when Metalcraft is active. My only real out is that they’re not very big so it’s a slow death so I had some chance of drawing Consume the Meek. I got a Slime to kill his Steel Overseer, though he responded with an activation so his Champion was 3/3. I also got a Baloth, but I could not keep him off Metalcraft. He drew a second Champion and that meant he could outrace my Tar Pit, and that was it. The two Consumes were in the bottom five cards in my deck, so it wasn’t like help was on the way. Really wicked little aggro deck, great homebrew. Very soft to Day, but not enough people are playing UW. Pyroclasm would be good, but only assuming no Tempered Steel. Nobody is running 4 Consume. Next time I play BUG I’ll run 3 in the board.
3-2 matches, 7-5 games

Still loving BUG, though I might tinker a little more with it. I might try Duress in the sideboard instead of Memoricide, and definitely go up to 3 Consume the Meek. So the big problem is what to play next FNM. I don’t want to go with RUG or BUG, I did GW Quest last time, and I don’t want to go with UB or UW since there’s enough of that around. I haven’t played a lot of Vamps but I’ve seen it at the store. I’m definitely not going back to Valakut after the last time I played it, so… hmm.