Tag: MagicTG

So, today I tweeted this:

Is it just me, or does standard just rock right now? So many viable decks. I want to play everything this week at FNM!

Maybe it is just me, but I got a bunch of re-tweets, so maybe I’m not alone.

I’ve only been back in the game since Zendikar, and up until Rise the metagame has been dominated by Jund. Now, Jund is still both popular and good, but it doesn’t rule the roost in nearly the same way. One could argue, as has one of my favorite MTG bloggers, Mulldrifting (Lauren Lee), that the dominant decks right now are UWr and Bant variants (Mythic, Next Level). What’s exciting about standard right now is that there are so many good decks, all of which are viable. Maybe not all fantastic, but when you plan for FNM, (or I guess a PTQ), you can expect really any of these, and they are all legit threats:

UWr “Superfriends”
Mythic Conscription
Next Level Bant
UW control (usually tap-out, but sometimes with main deck counters)
Naya Vengevine
RDW
Jund
Turboland

There are also interesting hybrids out there, like the UW Sovereigns deck as well as other cool tech like Brilliant Ultimatum—plus other random stuff like Eldrazi Elves, Time Sieve, and Turbofog are still around.

It’s also important to realize that “Jund” is a horrible label because there are so many variants of Jund floating around right now. Jund varies a lot in terms of amount of removal/burn, amount of ramp/mana fixing (Rampant Growth? Trace of Abundance? Lotus Cobra?), and the exact creature base (Vengevine or no? Putrid Leech? Master of the Wild Hunt? Siege-Gang? Bloodwitch? Still running Broodmate?), and even planeswalkers (Sarkhan, Garruk, both, neither). Trying to prepare or sideboard against “Jund” is not always clear, because Jund itself is pretty amorphous. You have the Jund colors, of course, and everybody still runs Bloodbraid Elf, but after that, it’s all over the place.

This is a pretty drastic change from pre-Rise, and what’s interesting about it how few Rise cards are actually involved. Mythic Conscription obviously relies on Eldrazi Conscription, the UW decks use few Rise cards other than Wall of Omens and Gideon Jura. Turboland, at least LSV’s version, uses exactly zero main-deck cards from Rise (there are a whole 2 Narcolepsy in the sideboard, though). On the other hand, NL Bant is based heavily on Vengevine abuse, and of course Naya puts the nasty plant to good use as well. RDW got the most from Rise with Devastating Summons, Kargan Dragonlord, Flame Slash, Staggershock, Forked Bolt, and Kiln Fiend. Not all builds run all of those, of course, but most run most of them.

Frankly, I think it’s awesome. Sideboarding is difficult because of the diversity, playtesting requires a significant gauntlet, and many of the matchups play out very differently. (For example, NLB is the beatdown vs. the UW decks, but not vs. Mythic.) There is no one boogeyman. I personally think Mythic is the strongest deck, but even Mythic is uneven and legit arguments can be made for other decks. To me, that’s a great environment. The major complaint that people appear to have—and I cannot disagree—is that it’s expensive because of the preponderance of planeswalkers and other mythics. Otherwise, though, I have to say I can’t wait for FNM each week.

So, the question I wanted to consider is “how did we get here?” That is, why is the environment kind of a “let a thousand flowers bloom” kind of situation. To look at this question, I take inspiration from Flores, and look at the answer to this question: what’s are the best cards at each casting cost? I believe it looks something like this, though of course people will disagree with specific choices here, I think this gets to the heart of the matter:

Casting cost	Best	Contenders
1	Lightning Bolt, Noble Hierarch	Path to Exile
2	Spreading Seas, Wall of Omens, Lotus Cobra	Terminate
3	Blightning, Maelstrom Pulse	Knight of the Reliquary
4	Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Vengevine, Bloodbraid Elf	Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Ajani Vengeant
5	Baneslayer Angel, Gideon Jura	Siege-Gang Commander

Oblivion Ring is a nice card at 3, too, but seriously, wouldn’t you really rather have a Pulse? Of course you would. This is why Jund was still generally better than Boss Naya right before Rise came out. Jund would cascade into Pulse and Blightning and Terminate, and Naya would cascade into O Ring and Birds of Paradise. Good cards, but not a level playing field. (Vengevine makes cascading into Birds a lot more attractive, of course.)

Anyway, now let’s look at the top decks and how they do with these cards:

Myhic: Noble Hierarch, Lotus Cobra, Knight of the Reliquary, Jace, Baneslayer, sometimes Elspeth and/or Gideon. One (or more) at each casting cost.

UWr: Path to Exile, Spreading Seas, Wall of Omens, Jace, Elspeth, Ajani Vengeant, Gideon. Nothing at 3, but double at 2 and those are both cantrips, and multiple at 4.

NL Bant: Hierarch, Lotus Cobra, Wall of Omens, Jace, Vengevine, Elspeth, Gideon. Again, nothing at 3, but one at each other casting cost and many 4s.

Jund: Lightning Bolt, Terminate, sometimes Lotus Cobra, Blighting, Pulse, Bloodbraid, Siege-Gang. Again, at least one at each casting cost. One of the things that makes Jund so good is that it has so much play at 3, and it gets 3-drops for free much of the time. Thrinax and Leech are also very strong cards at their costs, too, just barely missing this list.

It’s no surprise that these are some of the best decks; they play the best cards at their casting cost!

What’s also interesting is what is not here. There’s nothing here for Vampires, most notably at 1. The best two-drops in Vampires are Bloodghast and Vampire Hexmage. Good, solid cards—but not the best. Vampire Nighthawk is a limited bomb but not one of the best cards around at 3. Vampires is not a Tier 1 deck for a reason.

RDW breaks this analysis, of course, as it has virtually nothing on the list but is good anyway. I’d note that before Wall of Omens, one of the best RDW variants was Barely Boros, which splashed white for Path and Ajani, breaking onto this list. Maybe Devastating Summons belongs with Path on the 1-drop contenders list.

Interestingly, Grixis ought to be good, right? Bolt, Spreading Seas, Terminate, Blightning, Jace… Got 1-4 drops covered, and Grixis also gets another really solid 3-drop in Sedraxis Specter. I think the real problem is that there’s no great threat for Grixis at 5. Grixis’s big-time threat, Cruel Ultimatum, doesn’t hit until 7, and there’s just not much in way of high-quality ramp in Grixis colors. The Bant decks will ramp into their Jace first, the UW or UWr decks have strong 5 and multiple strong options at 4, which gives them something to do on turn 5 where Grixis does what, exactly? It can’t play another Jace… I think if Sorin Markov cost 5, he’d be played here and Grixis would be much better. That a guy made top 8 at GP Manila and that Flores qualified for Nationals with Grixis tells you those guys were either lucky, good, or both—the deck should be one notch below the top, I think.

So, how will M11 affect Standard? I think that will strongly depend on what it can put onto this list, and what is lost. Baneslayer is back for another round, so that’s safe. The rotation of the Shards block will also have a big impact, as there are several cards on this list that will be going away.

Interestingly, the list also suggests that Junk should have a shot: Noble, Path, Wall of Omens, Cobra, Pulse, KotR, Vengevine, Elspeth, Baneslayer, Gideon. Kind of a weird mix of cards, and Noble doesn’t make black mana, but maybe this is worth a shot. Seems like you’d need to run Ranger of Eos to make sure you trigger Vengevines, and there aren’t really great 1 drops for these colors past Noble. Guess a Scute Mob, but that doesn’t seem like quite enough. Student of Warfare seems soft. Anyone tried Alex Shearer’s recent Junk list? He doesn’t like Baneslayer or Gideon in his build, but this analysis suggests those should be at least tried. Not sure I like the Stoneforge Mystic package without Cunning Sparkmage, and he’s not running Cobras, either. Hmm. My thoughts would be something like this:

Creatures
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Vengevine
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Baneslayer Angel
        
Other spells
3 Path to Exile
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Gideon Jura
        
Land
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Stirring Wildwood
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 Sejiri Steppe
1 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Plains
4 Forest
2 Swamp

I couldn’t get Wall of Omens to fit in sensibly with the Ranger of Eos package, nor could I get in Emeria Angel, which also seems like it’d be great here—if producing bird tokens counted for Vengevine activation, I’d do it in a heartbeat over the Ranger package and tuck in a third Elspeth and a fourth Pulse. Also not sure about the mana base. I’d maybe consider 3 Student of Warfare and 1 Scute Mob over the Lynxes, too, but I kind of miss playing Steppe Lynx. Turn 1 Lynx, turn 2 Cobra swing for 2, turn 3 fetch into Gideon or Baneslayer and swing for six seems pretty good.

Yeah, there would have to be a sideboard, too, which would feature Doom Blade for Mythic, Kor Firewalker for RDW, O Rings for UWr, Celestial Purge for Jund, Bojuka Bog for other Vengevine decks.

I’m open for suggestions, thoughts, criticisms…

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.

OK, so this is a little off the wall, but my brother Ben is going to be visiting for New Year’s and will be staying through the weekend (we’re going to the Texans-Patriots game that Sunday). Ben is a long-time Magic player (he’s played longer than me, in fact), but has always been a casual player. Small card pools, multiplayer at the kitchen table, that kind of thing. He’s never played a sanctioned tournament (or probably ever with a really tuned deck) before, but he wants to come with me to FNM while he’s here after we’ve gorged ourselves on bowl games on Jan 1st. I’ll obviously need to prep him a little on tournament play, but it’s FNM so nothing too serious there.

The real issue is with decks. What should we play? I don’t have cards for any two arbitrary Standard decks. Here are the decks I can build with the cards I have around:

Angelfall
4 Steppe Lynx
3 Kazandu Blademaster
4 White Knight
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Emeria Angel
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Banefire
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Conqueror’s Pledge

2 Marsh Flats
1 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Arid Mesa
3 Teetering Peaks
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Mountain
11 Plains
1 Emeria, the Sky-Ruin

Sideboard
2 Path to Exile
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Devout Lightcaster
3 Celestial Purge
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Ajani Vengeant

I might fiddle with the mana base a bit (dump the Scalding Tarn and the Terramorphic in favor of a pair of Naya Panorama), but it’d be basically this list. The advantages of this deck are that it’s pretty easy to play and that it’s actually a pretty good matchup against Jund.

There’s also a version based on blue as the splash instead of red:

Bolov0 Special
4 White Knight
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Vedalken Outlander
3 Emeria Angel
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

4 Fieldmist Borderpost
3 Negate
4 Path to Exile
3 Flashfreeze

4 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
2 Marsh Flats
2 Scalding Tarn
7 Plains
2 Arid Mesa

Sideboard
3 Celestial Purge
3 Devout Lightcaster
2 Meddling Mage
2 Jace Beleren
1 Flashfreeze
4 to be determined, maybe Deft Duelist or Rite of Replication or some mix of the two.

Only slightly harder to play, but there’s almost nothing out there to handle pro-red guys and again, it’s straightforward in concept.

Austrian RWU Control
4 Wall of Denial
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

3 Double Negative
4 Flashfreeze
2 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Earthquake
2 Jace Beleren
3 Ajani Vengeant
2 Day of Judgment
2 Mind Spring
3 Oblivion Ring

4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Plains
4 Serji Refuge

Sideboard
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Day of Judgment
3 Essence Scatter
2 Felidar Sovereign
4 Spreading Seas
2 Pyroclasm

I’m sure the Austrians playtested this more than I have, but I really like a 4th Wall of Denial over the third Jace. Err, and I only own two Jace’s. (Note that today’s LSV column is based on this deck. He agrees that there should be 4 Wall of Denial; now I have to think about some of his other changes. I will not play Spreading Seas main deck, though.) Now, this is obviously harder to play, but there will be almost zero sideboard hate for it, I think, as I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this around FNM at our store.

Now, for something completely different:

Valakut Ramp
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Bogarden Hellkite
1 Chandra Naalar

4 Expedition Map
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Rampant Growth
4 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Harrow
3 Lavaball Trap

4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Forest
12 Mountain

Sideboard
3 Caldera Hellion
3 Grazing Gladeheart
3 Trace of Abundance
3 Burst Lightning
3 Magma Spray

I don’t think in the main deck that it’s quite as good against Jund as the earlier options, but the sideboard is helps a great deal and the deck has the advantage of being a total blast to play… this deck is just fun.

Now, there are two other decks that have some appeal. I don’t quite have the cards for but I’m pretty close and I’d be willing to get the rest of what’s needed to get there:

Barely Boros
4 Goblin Guide
4 Plated Geopede
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Hell’s Thunder
3 Ajani Vengeant

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Burst Lightning
4 Zektar Shrine Expedition
2 Earthquake
2 Act of Treason
1 Quenchable Fire

4 Arid Mesa
7 Mountain
4 Naya Panorama
1 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Terramorphic Expanse

Sideboard
1 Ajani Vengeant
2 Act of Treason
2 Earthquake
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Path to Exile

This should be pretty easy to play, I’d think. I could also generate a mono-Red RDW-style deck fairly easily.

Another mono-colored option would be something like this:

Vampires
3 Bloodghast
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Vampire Nocturnus
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Hypnotic Specter

3 Disfigure
4 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Marsh Casualties
1 Sorin Markov
1 Mind Sludge
2 Sign in Blood

1 Gargoyle Castle
22 Swamp (some replaced by however many Marsh Flats and Verdant Catacombs I can dig up)

Sideboard
2 Marsh Casualties
3 Desecrated Earth
2 Sadistic Sacrament
3 Black Knight
3 Duress
2 Deathmark

Again, this shouldn’t be too hard to play.

I know, it’s a goofy build, but in mono-black I just have to play one Hyppie just for nostaligia and I only have 3 Bloodghasts and 3 Bloodwitches. (I only have one Vampire Nocturnus, but I’d suck up the other three if my brother really wants to play this.) Now, the main deck Marsh Casualties may be a little odd but I think is actually the right thing; that’s a really good card.

Now, I could build some form of Boros Bushwhacker, too, except that I don’t have any Ranger of Eos. I guess those are cheaper than Vampire Nocturni, so that’s a viable option as well. No Jund, I have basically none of those cards. (Seriously, I just came back to the game right after Zendikar came out, and I hate playing what everyone else is playing so I haven’t been motivated to get any.) No G/W since I lack many of those cards (no Knight of the Reliquary or Noble Hierarch or Lotus Cobra.) No Grixis, I don’t have any Ultimatums.

The other consideration is that I only have one playset of Arid Mesa, Scalding Tarn, and only 3 Marsh Flats, plus only 2 Baneslayers and only 4 Paths. So we couldn’t both really play decks that are heavy white, but one of us could, and then the other could play the Valakut deck or Vampires, or something like that.

So, my question for anyone who can provide informed input: which pair of decks should we play? (Ben, your input is, of course, paramount. Anything look particularly appealing to you?)

Whee, my second constructed tournament in the last decade, FNM at Montag’s Games. I experimented with a mono-white weenie deck, but I just didn’t like it that much. I really like the bolov0 UW Aggro deck, but I didn’t have the cards for it so I decided to go back into battle with the WW/r deck from last time, though I made some changes as I have since acquired two Baneslayers and in playtesting the mono-white thing, I’ve come to be an even bigger fan of Conqueror’s Pledge. The other thing I realized is that I just didn’t like the Burst Lightnings in there. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good card, but the problem the deck has is rarely the ability to do 2, or desperately need to pick off a guy with 2 toughness. The problem is the mid-game clog. With mostly weenies, if the game goes on to later turns, it can be hard to get guys through. I wanted a finisher, something that could do 5 or 6 in the late game. The deck needed Banefire. I also really liked Kazandu Blademasters against Boros Bushwhacker and Vampires, so I pulled the Elite Vanguards for those. That’s a speed compromise, but I thought it was worth it. So, here’s the listing:

Creatures & Planeswalkers (20)
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Kazandu Blademaster
3 White Knight
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Emeria Angel
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Other spells (15)
2 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Banefire
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Conqueror’s Pledge

Land (25)
2 Marsh Flats
1 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Arid Mesa
3 Teetering Peaks
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Mountain
11 Plains
1 Emeria, the Sky-Ruin

Sideboard
2 Path to Exile
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Devout Lightcaster
2 Celestial Purge
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Ajani Vengeant

I went with two extra Paths in the sideboard for any green (or Naya) fat or Baneslayers, the O-Rings for control or anything random, the Lightcasters/Purges for Jund and Vampires, and the Ruinblasters for Jund and Valakut, as I thought John might be playing that. That’s also what the Ajani was for, as well as for any control deck. I didn’t actually have the second Ajani Vengeant, but I successfully traded John for one before we got started.

The critical feature of this deck is that it’s very good against Jund. It doesn’t come out as fast as Bushwhacker, though the fast draws are very quick, but it has a much better mid-game than Bushwhacker with the Pledges, Angels, and Elspeth. White Knights are also very good against Jund, and of course the sideboard options with both Lightcasters and Ruinblasters makes it a tough out for Jund. Of course, really good cascades can still swing games, but if that’s their only good out, then I think it’s a good matchup.

We had a light crowd of only like 16, so four rounds and cut to a final 4.

Round 1: Trevor, playing Jund with Nighthawks and Sign in Blood
I had never played Trevor before but I had seen him at FNM in previous weeks. He was playing before we got started and I thought it was Boros Bushwhacker, but that obviously wasn’t what he was playing in the tournament.
Game 1: I got an early White Knight and had an Honor of the Pure pulsed, but the Knight got in a couple whacks before being Bolted, then got out an Emeria Angel and Elspeth, but he got a Broodmate and friend. I had an Elspeth-generated token in play with the Angel and a bird token, but they were staring at the two 4/4 Dragons and something else on the ground (a Thrinax, I think). He Pulsed off the Emeria and put down a Nighthawk, but then I dropped Baneslayer and he didn’t have an immediate answer, so Elspeth pumped her up and she swung for 8, crunching the Nighthawk. He didn’t want to swing with the dragons for fear of the mad rush of tokens. His next draw didn’t help him and I swung with everything, bringing him down to 5. I had exactly six lands in play and Banefired for the win.
Game 2: I went down to six cards and took an OK draw with a Blademaster and a couple Plains, an Honor, a Banefire, a Teetering Peaks, and a couple other cards I don’t remember. Plains, done. Trevor blew a fetch, done. I put down a second Plains, cast Honor, and passed the turn. He blew a Catacombs, done. I topdecked a Steppe Lynx. He went down, done. Trevor played another land and passed. Awesome: draw Bolt, fetchland, Lynx for 5. I think his next play was a Nighthawk. Bolt it, Teetering Peaks, swing for another five, leaving him at 5, put down the Blademaster. He Blightning’d me for a couple cards and Bolted the Lynx and blew another Catacombs. He Signed in Blood down to two, and I threw fire at him for the win.
1-0

Round 2: Doug, playing Jund with Great Sable Stags
I was 0-2 against Doug, one loss in a draft and one loss last time in Standard.
Game 1: Doug mulliganed down to five cards and I got a fast draw, running a Steppe Lynx on turn 1 with a fetchland and a Blademaster on turn 2. Turn 3: Plains, swing for five, leaving him at 11. I’m not 100% sure exactly how it went down after that (sorry, a lot of these Jund games run together); I think he dropped a Stag that I bolted and then I whacked him and then Banefired him out. Or something. Starting at five cards can be rough.
Game 2: I took a two-land draw, which is normally something that should not be a problem. However, I never saw a third land and died with a variety of stuff in my hand that never hit the table. A couple two-drops got in there somewhere—I remember a White Knight getting Bolted—but I never really mounted enough of a threat to make this even remotely interesting.
Game 3: I took a slow draw but it had good land and a Ruinblaster. He still had nothing on the board besides land at the end of his third turn—two Savage Lands and a basic—so the turn 4 kicked Ruinblaster was not well-received. (“Wow, dirty pool for a white deck!” he exclaimed. Hey, it’s worth running red just for Ruinblasters vs. Jund.) That gave me the time advantage. We both got stuff out and traded some blows—I don’t remember very many details, though I do remember a couple specific plays. I got off a Conqueror’s Pledge that looked to be terminal (there was an Elspeth token in play too), but he played a Bloodbraid and cascaded into a Pulse which wiped them all out. Nice one. Next turn I had five land out with a fetch in my hand, and rather than playing the Baneslayer in my hand I put down the Lynx and held the fetchland. Stupid, stupid—he of course Blightning’d me on his turn, so they both went into the graveyard and he zapped Elspeth down from 6 counters to 3, which was a great play for him. However, Elspeth pumped the guys who were still on the board and I managed to get him down before he drew enough answers.
2-0

Round 3: John, playing R/g Valakut
I love playing against John, he’s a fun opponent and I really like this deck, too. We had played slightly different versions of these decks against each other two weeks ago after we finished our match that counted, and so I was expecting a fairly even match. I think I have a slight advantage, particularly if I got a fast start.
Game 1: I had to mulligan down to five, but it was a monstrously good five: Steppe Lynx, two Teetering Peaks, Elspeth, and a fetch. Turn 1: Fetch, Lynx. Turn 2: Peaks, Lynx, swing for 4. Turn 3: Lynx, Peaks, swing for 4. Turn 4: Scalding Tarn, crack for a mountain, swing for 4, play Elspeth. He managed to burn off the Lynx and got rid of Elspeth after a token or two, and I couldn’t cast the Conqueror’s Pledge in my hand even though I had five lands in play, because only two of them were sources of white, but I drew fire and burned him out.
Game 2: In came the Ruinblasters and the Ajanis. I got a slow draw, but his deck doesn’t do much the first couple turns anyway and it had Ajani in it, so I kept it. I got Ajani on turn 4, then an Emeria Angel. Next turn I got greedy and it cost me. I played a Knight of the White Orchid, making a bird token, then I played a Teetering Peaks to pump up the Angel and make another token. BLAM, Lavaball Trap. I knew he played these and I should have been more patient; he blew up the Peaks and a Mountain, leaving me with three Plains and nobody on the board. I then proceeded to draw nothing but red cards: Bolt, Ruinblaster, Banefire, and another Plains. A Siege-Gang commander and his crew of tokens beat me up. John never got a Valakut in this game, but that Lavaball trap was enough to stall me for long enough that it didn’t matter.
Game 3: John unfortunately had trouble drawing any Forests and while he managed to Burst Lightning my turn 2 White Knight and then something else, I had managed to get two Honors in play and had a couple Steppe Lynxes on the board. They weren’t getting landfall, but they were swinging for 2 each. I had John down to 2 and drew a fetch with a Bolt in my hand, and played the land and cracked it, which was dumb as John again had the Lavaball Trap. (Why I didn’t just swing for the game I’m not sure.) I bolted in response to the Trap, though, so it was over.
3-0

Round 4: Wyland, playing Jund
We decided to just draw into the final 4.
3-0-1

Semis: Trevor, playing Jund with Nighthawks and Sign in Blood
John won his fourth-round match and I was Trevor’s only loss. Obviously the top two wouldn’t play each other, so I was destined for a rematch, and got Trevor, meaning John and Wyland played in the other semi.
Game 1: He won the die roll and went first. I got a fast draw, Steppe Lynx, Plains, and two fetches, and he didn’t get a Leech or a Thrinax early, so he was at 12 at the end of my third turn. He did deal with the Lynx but I got out Elspeth and a White Knight and they went the distance.
Game 2: I mulliganed down to six and kept a hand with two Plains, a Mountain, a Bolt, a Devout Lightcaster, and a Purge. I kept waiting for targets but they never came out. I topdecked a White Knight and played that on turn 3. Turn 4 his Garruk came out and made a beast, but I bolted that and attacked Garruk. Trevor was holding a full handful of cards but not dropping permanents; he Signed in Blood twice and actually discarded and I was still looking at an empty table. I got out two Honors, but had no guys, but then drew Elspeth, and had in my hand just two Purges and the Lightcaster. He Durress’d me, taking a Purge, and I made a 3/3 token. Whack. He Blightning’d me for the Purge and the Lighcaster, and I made another token. It was too much.
4-0-1

Finals: Wyland, playing Jund
Because it was still really early and there was talk of having a draft if we finished early enough, we decided to draw and split prizes. Drafting sounded a lot better to me than playing another Jund. However, Gus, the store owner, wasn’t feeling well and decided he wanted to go home, so I got my foil Oblivion Ring (with kick-ass art, I might add) and I blew my store credit on some Glacial Fortresses, so maybe next time I can play something different… something with Sphinxes.
4-0-2

Heh, and I wondered if maybe the eight-card package against Jund (3 Lightcasters, 2 Purges, 3 Ruinblasters) was too much sideboard space… not by a mile. Yes, there’s a reason that 1/3 of the field at Worlds played Jund; it’s definitely a good deck. Regardless, what fun is that, playing what everyone else is playing? If a lot of people play it, there will be a lot of hate floating around, too. Personally, I think the mirror is especially degenerate in the case of Jund; it just seems to come down to whoever gets luckier in the Cascade lottery. Meh, not for me. Oh, and since I wasn’t playing during Shards block, I don’t have the cards, too—there’s also that.

So, the family and I will be visiting my parents in Minneapolis next week and maybe I’ll check out FNM up there. The three closest places are Chaos Games, Dreamers Cards & Games, and Monster Den Games. Which of those three is the best place to go?

Last week Friday I played my first sanctioned constructed match of Magic in over a decade.

Ten years? Seriously? Yep, it’s ben ten years since I put together a deck on my own and had a go with some really expensive pieces of cardboard. So, after ten years of being away, I obviously got along just fine without it. Why come back now?

In some sense this is a WotC success story. After a long time, they lured me back. How? Well, that’s a longer story that requires a little bit of history. I played competitive Magic for what seemed like a long time but was really not that long, just a little over a year. But it was a pretty intense year, because I played with some pretty intense people. (Warning: I’m about to do a lot of name-dropping. Not because it says anything about my ability, which is meager, but because it says something about my environment. Nonetheless, if you dislike name dropping skip ahead a bit.)

Really, the person who taught me what little I managed to retain about Magic was Aaron Forsythe. Yes, that Aaron Forsythe, former PT player and current head of R&D for Wizards of the Coast. I believe I was the first person to buy Aaron a celebratory drink on the night he first qualified for the Pro Tour. In that PTQ he beat Andrew Cuneo in the finals. Obviously, I was living in Pittsburgh at the time, working as a postdoc at CMU. I started out in Aaron’s Arena league (those don’t exist anymore), but things got a lot more serious fairly quickly. I made the Top 8 at my first-ever sanctioned tournament, an Extended PTQ in December 1997. This was not too long after Randy Buehler won PT-Chicago. Eventually Aaron and a couple of the more serious guys from our Arena League would play with Team CMU. Erik Lauer—yes, that Erik Lauer—patiently spent probably about two hours with me one night showing me how to better play the CounterHammer deck I took to regionals that year. I learned most of what I know about how to draft from Mike Turian, yes, that Mike Turian. I loaned Randy Buehler either a Memory Jar or a Tolarian Academy he took with him to, I believe, PT-Rome, because Team CMU didn’t have enough. Team CMU also drew some notable visitors, too. One of the first drafts I ever did (all Tempest) I started out by passing to none other than Jon Finkel. (I just have to tell a side story about that: I opened my pack, looked it over, took a card—it was either a Mogg Fanatic or a Shock—I don’t remember for sure which, we’ll just say it was a Mogg Fanatic, and handed it to Jon. He looked at the pack for about ten seconds and then announced: “You took a Mogg Fanatic from this pack. That was the right pick.” He knew this because he had memorized the cut sheets. Not too intense or anything.)

There were a lot of great players around. I’m 1-1 in sanctioned matches against current WotC R&D employee and former Team CMU’er Nate Heiss. I once beat future pro Jess Means in a PTQ “feature match,” only to get crushed two rounds later by Mark Globus (now also of Wizards R&D) and his main deck Rune of Protection: Artifacts. You’d end up across from current or future pros at random local tourneys; I’m 2-0-1 against pro Nick Eisel in local tournaments. In one of those I got wrecked by Randy Buehler in the quarterfinals of the same (unsanctioned) tournament and stayed to watch the epic battle between Randy and Eric Taylor.

I mention all this not because it shows anything about how good I am—I am not remotely in the same league as all those people I played with in Pittsburgh (and I have the rating to prove it)—but because it provides some insight into the local intensity level. So competitive magic, was, for most of the people around me, pretty serious. And yet I got out of the game pretty completely. This was due, I think, mainly to three factors: (1) I moved and took a new, very demanding, job, and not long thereafter became a father, (2) I really wasn’t all that competitive with my peer group, and my ability to devote the necessary time was getting worse, not better, and (3) WotC made it really easy to want to leave. I left in the midst of the Urza’s block. The DCI was banning new cards it seemed like every week, because a lot of pretty broken cards had been printed. The scene was almost entirely dominated by combo decks, like the aforementioned Tolarian Academy/Memory Jar nonsense to High Tide to I don’t even remember the next combo. Magic games consisted mostly of ignoring the other player (with the exception of permission, which was of course everywhere) and setting up your combo, hopefully before the other player did. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but not a huge one. It wasn’t fun. The Mirage and Tempest blocks were fun; there were combo decks and weenie decks and fattie decks and discard decks and burn decks… there was everything. When it was Urza, it was so dominated by combo decks that it was really easy to just let reasons (1) and (2) take over—I didn’t fight it at all. I just stopped playing, cold turkey, and it didn’t bother me at all.

There were moments of temptation, sure. There was a Pro Tour stop in Houston in I think 2002, and I got to see Aaron and Randy again, as they were working for WotC at the time. I showed up at the site, played in a sealed side event, and took Aaron and Randy out for dinner so they could escape the site for a while. I thought maybe playing would get me into it again, but it didn’t really. “Morph” just didn’t do it for me. I went to the Legions pre-release and remembered all the things I disliked about Magic tournaments and just didn’t have enough fun to overcome that.

I thought of or heard from someone that triggered me looking at things again around Mirrodin, and that was almost enough. Super-aggro artifact decks had some appeal, but ultimately it just wasn’t enough.

Then the Zendikar pre-release rolled around. I had recently re-connected with Aaron and was following him on Twitter. He mentioned that he was being sent to Houston to gunsling at the Zendikar pre-release and so I thought it would be great to get together. Let me point out that at the time I was much more interested in seeing Aaron than I was in the set. Aaron is just a really great guy, irrespective of Magic. Also, the pre-release was being held at the airport hotel, so Aaron wouldn’t get to leave the airport complex if I didn’t go out there, and nobody deserves that. So, I picked Aaron up, we had an outstanding dinner, and then Aaron asked if I had time to hang out and play for a while. I kind of expected that, and I had even brought my box of old decks that I still have together. A PT Jank variant, Steel Necro, old-school 5C green, a couple Rath Cycle block decks (CounterPhoenix), stuff like that.

Well, we never touched the old stuff. Aaron broke out two of the Zendikar theme decks, the Vampires deck and the “Unstable Terrain” UG deck. Aaron played Vampires and I played the other deck… and I really liked it—a lot better than Onslaught. We cracked open the boosters, pooled them, and tried to make our decks better. (Incidentally, the UG deck won a slight majority of the games, not because of my play skill, but because while Vampires got a consistently faster start, it just didn’t have the staying power. And of course Jwar Sphinx is just better than anything in the Vampire deck.) I liked landfall as a mechanic. The cards seemed balanced. And, of course, playing Aaron over a couple of beers is just awesome any day of the week.

But then it got even better. Aaron broke out his “gunslinger” decks, one of which was posted on the Daily MTG site. The posted deck is a green-black-blue Allies deck, and playing against I learned to hate Bala Ged Thief almost immediately. The other deck, not posted, was a W/R deck; basically white weenie with angels (both Emeria and Baneslayer) splashing red for some burn. That’s pretty much my favorite kind of deck; my first ever tournament constructed deck was basically the same idea, a fast white/red small creatures and bolts kind of package. It was just awesome to play a shiny new version. A format where you can play Savannah Lions and Lightning Bolts! (Yeah, Savannah Lions are called Elite Vanguard now, but it’s still 2/1 for W and it’ll always be a Savannah Lion to me.) In fact, our very first two turns with these decks involved Aaron playing a Bird of Paradise and me bolting it. BoP, bolt… how classic is that? Zendikar is fun, and not just because of the nostalgia. Landfall, super-slivers, kickers… good stuff all around.

So, while I wasn’t able to play in the actual pre-release, the damage was done. I wanted to play again. And it’s so much easier now, too. There’s a great card shop, Montag’s Games, about two miles from my house. The weekend days are devoted to the kids, but Friday night is usually open for me after the kids’ soccer practice. FNM for the month of October was Zendikar drafts so I got to learn the set without having to jump into constructed right away. And it gave me time to start working on getting the cards I’d need to build Aaron’s deck, or something close to it… This time, it was enough. I’m back. Yeah, I’m 40 years old and I still don’t have time to be serious about it, but that’s OK. It’s fun, and that’s what counts.

That’ll be my next MtG post; a FNM tournament report! Been a long time…