Salt City Magic

Quick Tournament Report

2009-08-19T07:31:00.002-04:00

I know. You've all been telling me. Sorry everyone, sometimes writing isn't what you want to do. For me, it's been that way for a while. I'm still here.
Last night, I went out to a local event with few players, but a pretty high competition level. The good thing about playing Legacy in Syracuse is that although you may only get 12 people at an event on a Tuesday night, 9 or 10 of them are going to be high-caliber, dedicated and probably well known Legacy players. Last night was no exception. It was a four round, cut to top4 playoff event. I played the following list:

// Lands
4 Wasteland
5 Island
3 Tundra

3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand

3 Mutavault

// Creatures
4 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Cursecatcher

// Spells
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Daze
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 AEther Vial

//Sideboard

3 Stifle

4 Swords to Plowshares

3 Blue Elemental Blast

2 Disenchant

1 Relic of Progenitus

2 Absolute Law

Before the tournament, I decided that I'd prefer to have my deck basically pre-boarded for the aggro matchups, because the field looked much more aggressive than control, so I swapped the MD Stifles for 2 Jittes and a Relic. It seemed to make very little difference, as neither of the choices were particularly relevant during the event.

Round 1 - Zach Tartell - Ichorid

Game 1: I lead with Island, Cursecatcher, with a Daze in hand. He draws and discards Thug. I cast Lord of Atlantis, and swing. He dredges, and plays Coliseum. He casts LED, which I Force. On my turn, I Wasteland his land, and attack. He takes a couple more turns of dredging, with little of relevance going on, while I add a Reejery to my crew and attack for the win.

Sideboarding: +3 Stifle, +1 Relic, +4 Swords; -4 Standstill, -2 Vial, -2 Jitte

Game 2: I open 2 StP, Sovereign, Force, 2 land, and a Relic. Nuts. Zach opens with Unmask taking Relic, Therapy on StP. Shit. However, I take that opportunity to draw a Cursecatcher, and then while Zach tries to find business, I start accumulating guys in play. I manage to stop all of his discard outlets for long enough to get the job done without any hate.

1-0

Round 2 - Shane - MonoU Merfolk

Wonderful, the mirror.

Game 1: This game, Shane and I play all the same spells. Literally. Except, he plays his first, since although I'm on the play, I need to Daze his turn 1 Vial, and it sets me back a land. He gets ahead in the race, and although I swing for 12 on my last attack, he's still alive, and I'm dead.

Sideboarding: +4 Stp; -1 Relic, -3 Lord of Atlantis

Game 2: This game, I open slow, while he hits Cursecatcher. I play a Mutavault and a Standstill. He Wastes, and swings. I play a second Mutavault, and he accidentally declares his Cursecatcher as attacking. Whoops. Since I'm now free to swing away under the Standstill, he breaks it, and I'm way ahead. I play man after man, all the while holding 2x StP, and make short work of the game without showing them.

Game 3: He opens with Vial, and so do I. He plays a turn 2 Jitte, which is a little scary, but my hand is FULL of gas, so it's ok with me. I end up Vialing in a Silvergill, and then backing him up with 3 Sovereigns and a Reejery. I StP the only guy Shane plays, and Force the last-ditch Echoing Truth on the Sovereign, and he extends the hand.

2-0

Round 3 - Junior - UW Wizards

Game 1: He leads with a turn 1 Sage of Epityr, and I'm confused. I answer with Vial. He plays another on turn 2, and Ponders. I play a Standstill. He cracks it after a turn, but by then, I've got Vial active with Cursecatcher and LoA in play. It's too late, as a second Vial and a second Standstill are added, and more 3 mana lords are slid into play.

Sideboarding: +3 Stifle; -1 Relic, -1 Daze, -1 Sovereign

Game 2: Again, he opens with Sage, and again, I lead with Vial followed by Standstill. I waste his Tundra, and after he fetches a basic and breaks the Standstill, I either Stifle or Waste all of his lands until he dies.

3-0

At this point, I draw into top 4.

Semis - Colin Chilbert - TES

Game 1: Colin doesn't win turn 1 with protection, so I get to put a Cursecatcher out there. Colin plays a few cantrips and such, and Duresses me, etc, so I don't have any protection, but I am taking pretty large chunks from his life with attacks. He doesn't draw the right business, and I capitalize by winning with no disruption whatsoever.

Sideboarding: +3 BEB, +3 Stifle; -2 Jitte, -4 Vial

Game 2: Colin Duresses me, and wins on turn 3 or so, with Chant safety. Nothing to see here.

Game 3: I open with Cursecatcher, followed by playing nothing to keep 2 mana up for the Stifle and BEB in my hand. Turn 3, I decide screw it, and play another Cursecatcher and a LoA. The second Cursecatcher gets a sigh from Colin, as it shuts off his next play. He Duresses out the BEB. He baits me with an LED, I let it resolve. With a Mystical Tutored Dark Rit in hand, he casts Chant, then Rite of Flame with 1 land open. I sac a Cursecatcher, since I can now counter the Dark Rit with the second. He's forced to pass the turn, and I've stolen a Chant turn away from him. From there, his next turn is another attempt to win, but he's first storm short, and then mana short (after IGG), so he's left going for an Empty the Warrens. I promptly remind him that my men are Lethal, and he has Volcanic in play, so Empty won't stop me from killing him, and he scoops.

Finals - Brandon with BWG Good Stuff

Game 1: Brandon and I both mull our 7. I debate keeping the 3 land, 2 Jitte, 2 3cc Lord hand, but decide it's too slow. He mentions that he mulled a 1 lander with Dark Rit into Hippy, since it didn't do anything else. Fortunately, we both mulled, since that hand WRECKS the hand I shipped. I keep 6, he goes to 5, and based on his facial expression, he's not happy with his 5. He plays a fetch and says go. I play a guy. He does nothing and says go. I play LoA. He fetches a Plains and StPs. I Daze. He misses another land drop and it's basically over.

Sideboarding: +4 StP, +1 Relic, +3 Stifle; -2 Daze, -1 Standstill, -2 Vial, -1 Sovereign, -1 Silvergill, -1 ?

Game 2: We both keep 7, and he leads with Scrubland into Rit, into Hippy. I have the Force, but I choose to use StP instead. He follows up with another Dark Rit into Choke, which I Force. I waste his Green source, and play a dude. Over the next few turns I waste two of his lands and Stifle two fetches as Reejery, Silvergill, and a Mutavault apply the pressure.

Winner.

All in all, the deck ran exceptionally smooth the entire day. StP is amazing, and it solves a BUNCH of issues for you. I didn't see any red decks though, which is great for me, but poor for testing against bad matchups, but I'll take it. As I get in more testing and play with the deck, I'll be sure to keep you guys updated. Thanks for reading!

Blessed.

2009-07-07T15:39:00.001-04:00

BREAKING NEWS

Holy fucking shit.

Bryant Cook gets a PM about an hour ago from a lady who found the Source from a Google Search of my roommate (Bret Weed). She gives him a number to call.

As it turns out, she found the backpack under her porch this morning (A WEEK LATER), and it had Bret's DCI card in it. She dug a little to find him in this thread: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=13852

She lives less than a block from me. Less than a block from where they broke in and stole my cards. The backpack was full.

I got everything back. EVERYTHING. No iPod, but ALL THE CARDS.

I can't even describe how happy I am right now.

The PM:

Quote:

Originally Posted by yma611

Thru a google search I found the post that says "Bret Weed is coming" to some event about a Boston Roll call....I live in Syracuse and found a bag under my front porch with some merchandise in it, for playing wizard games...in one of the pockets I found a card with Bret Weed on it...the bag has broken glass in it, so I am assuming his car was broken into and this was taken...i would like to return it to him... my # is 315-XXX-XXXX...

Thank you
Amy

Jacked.

2009-07-02T08:20:00.001-04:00

Tuesday night, sometime between 11pm and 7am Wednesday, my car was broken into. The thief stole my backpack which contained my legacy deck, and my Elder Dragon Highlander deck. The important things in those decks were: 4 Force of Will (altered to the Fantastic 4, signed) 4 Foil Japanese Daze 4 Foil Tarmogoyf 3 Foil Stifle 4 Foil Aether Vial 6 Foil Signed blue fetchlands 2 Beta Trops 1 FBB Trop 4 Wastelands (1 foil) 4 Mutavaults 2 Foil Japanese Relic of Progenitus 3 Foil Krosan Grips 2 Sower of Temptation and a shit ton of Foil Merfolk. Also, My Captain Sisay EDH deck, with a foil signed Heath, and a ton of good Green and White foils (mostly Legends) along with the artifact mana (all foil) and a Foil Chinese Mindslaver, and a Japanese Gaea's Cradle. I'm out approximately $2000. I'm not excited about it, and as it turns out, it's not covered by insurance. Unless some kid tries to sell it to a game store locally, which is less likely than him throwing it all out, I'll never see those cards again. This is YEARS of investment and trading and tournament wins and all kinds of work, gone in an instant. I'm not looking for handouts. I just want you guys to know, and to warn you to NEVER leave your cards somewhere where you can potentially be victimized like I was the other night. It's one of the worst feelings I've ever had.

Merfolk

2009-06-24T08:15:00.002-04:00

Forget everything bad I've said about Merfolk.

I'm on the fish train, and I'm not looking back. They're possibly the most fun I've had playing Magic in the last few months, without exception, and I'm not even a little ashamed of saying it.

I played in a local even last night, which is set up in such a way that going X-1 basically eliminates you from the prize pool. None of us are very happy with the single elim style event, but it's the way the store runs it to keep it under 10 hours. The store is in a mall, and they have a pretty firm time they need to close the shop up. Anyway, here's the list I played:

3 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
1 Dust Bowl

4 Island
3 Tropical Island

6 fetches

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Wake Thrasher
2 Cold-Eyed Selkie

4 Tarmogoyf

4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Stifle

SB
2 Relic of Progenitus

4 Blue Elemental Blast

3 Krosan Grip

3 Sower of Temptation

2 Seasinger

1 Umezawa's Jitte

First of all, card availability was an issue in some of my card choices. I had to scrape together some things at the last minute, because I really only decided to play the deck about two hours before the event, and didn't have a lot of people coming to borrow cards from. I would have liked Standstill in the deck, and the Dust Bowl should obviously be the 4th Wasteland. I didn't ever get a Wake Thrasher or Selkie in play, so I'd like to see them in action before I really judge them, but they may not be needed if I have Goyf (which was ALWAYS smaller than Cursecatcher) and Standstill. Other than that, however, the deck is much more solid than I expected it to be, even against decks not running blue. I'm concerned about the "red deck" matchup - Burn, Sleigh, and Zoo, but I'm still playing with options for them. Possibly Chill, or Kira, Great Glass Spinner. I think I'm going to play this for a time, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

Significant changes at the Mothership

2009-06-10T07:38:00.002-04:00

Well, it's gone and happened again.

Wizards of the Coast, in all their finite wisdom, has decided that Magic, a game which has never seen the kind of success that it has at this moment, needs to be changed on a fundamental level. And here we are, stuck figuring out what that means to us.

I'm not happy. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I'm upset. And yet, as each moment passes, I realize that I'm not really as mad as I was the moment before. I may even be coming to terms with it. See, I played way back when, back when things were much different. Back when Mishra's Factory was a much worse card, when Lotus Vale was pretty simple to understand, and when Mogg Fanatic, while good, was far from Mogg Fantastic. For those people who remember playing the game under pre-sixth edition rules, these changes - or at least the one getting the internet all abuzzled (the combat changes) - should seem like a return to form, more than a change for the worse. In reality, we should consider the past ten years as an interesting variant on the game that we had been playing for years prior. Of course, the fact that we've now been working under this rules paradigm for longer than the period between the game's origin and Sixth Edition is not a trivial one, but we must remember that we've seen changes this fundamental before, and while some players were lost, overall the game continued to push on.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy to see many of the best creatures in the game be relegated to the injured reserve. Morphling - once hailed as the best creature ever printed - is now pretty much garbage in combat. Ravenous Baloth is significantly worse. And hardest for me to swallow, my new love Qasali Pridemage is no longer a rootin-tootin Disenchant with a punch. Now he's pretty much just a three mana Disenchant - still ok, but not the powerhouse he was yesterday.

And yet, if you step outside the focus of a player who knows the rules intricately, and take an objective view of the way combat should work, there is no reason why a creature should be able to exchange blows with another, and then, in the final grips of death, go out in a blaze of glory and take himself out for a beneficial gain. Realistically, should you be given a mortal blow, you're dead. If you want to make a valiant play on the way out, you shouldn't get to punch your opponent's Tarmagoyf along the way. This all makes sense to me. I think in time, with some distance from the issue, it will to many other players, as well.

I don't really have much else to say on the matter. It's annoying to me that yet again, people are calling mutiny against the vile dastardly villains at WotC, but at this point, I'd be more surprised if no one picked up that flag. So I say, let's let the chips fall where they may, and get used to this change for a while before we really judge it without experiencing play with it. Maybe we'll see it as a positive change somewhere down the line, just like we all do about the Sixth Edition changes today.

Guest report from Vestal - Zach Tartell

2009-06-08T13:22:00.002-04:00

Hey all! My teammate Zach Tartell (of internet obscurity) has been gracious enough to put his report up on the site with us. Here's his take on the tournament! Thanks Zach!

List:

3 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass

3 Gemstone Mine

1 Undiscovered Paradise (I'm not sold on this)

4 Ichorid

4 Narcomoeba

4 Bridge from Below

4 Cabal Therapy

2 Dread Return

2 Deep Analysis

4 Lion's Eye Diamond

1 Flame-Kin Zealot

1 Eternal Witness

4 Golgari Grave Troll

4 Stinkweed Imp

3 Golgari Thug

4 Breakthrough

4 Putrid Imp

4 Unmask

Sideboard:

4 Firestorm

4 Pithing Needle

4 Chain of Vapor

2 Wispmare

1 Ancestor's Chosen (MVP)

Thoughts on the list:

If I knew a better place to put the Unmasks I'd drop them in a heartbeat for the 4th Coliseum, the 3rd Deep Analysis, and 2 Careful Study. I love Careful Study like nobody's business. Daemon says it's terrible, and I'm inclined to agree with him, as Unmasks can hit your opponent as well, but I love drawing me some cards, and it helps dig for boarded cards, and everything else. Except that the the board is fairly fixed. I'd consider losing the Wispmares (as I didn't like them even against Plague) and maybe a Firestorm for them. But then I'd need to find a place for the fourth, or whatever. Ancestor's Chosen is AMAZING. Don't ever not play it. I wish I could find a place for it main deck (and, I wish I could find a place for a third DR and a cool maindeck target (like the persist non-creature Vindicate guy)). It saved me two times, and was amazing. A 3rd DR might be worth discussing, 'cause using Witness twice or three times is great. That's probably the card I'd put first into the main deck (over Careful Study even). But, onto the report:

Round 1: Dave Trimberi, Mono-R Burn

Game 1: Dave wins the die roll, drops a mountain and then Lava Spikes me. I put 50 cards into my graveyard with a LED, Breakthrough, Troll, Troll hand (into a Deep Analysis). I win after a suspended Rift Bolt.

Game 2: My life totals go as follows: 20, 17, 14, 12, 62, 59. My notes suggest that nine Zombie tokens and a certain 4/4 First Striker turned sideways on turn 4 for a win.

1-0-0

Round 2: Robe Pierre-Olivier, Naya Zoo

Game 1: I win the die roll, lay a turn 1 Putrid Imp. Robe drops some sort of turn one threat (as my life drops by two instead of three), probably a Kird Ape or a Figure. I get in for one twice, and then two, and then, after some tricky combat math, Robe burns my face off.

Game 2: My life totals (every time I use Ancestor's Chosen I'm probably gonna make you read my life totals for hilarity's sake) are: 20, 17, 14, 11, 8, 5, 20 (fifteen cards in yard), 17, 15, 36 (a clever Therapy followed by one of those great "without passing priority, DR targeting AC" tricks), 31, 24 (Goyfs must have come into the mix), 23, 21, 16. Robe's go a little quicker: 20, 18, 2.

Game 3: This game includes a turn-three Ancestor's Chosen for 39 life and 9 zombies.

2-0-0

Round 3 vs. Mike Farrell's RG Goyf Sligh

These games go quickly, and Mike's notes explain it fairly well. He open hands a Fanatic (I must have been sloppy while shuffling, 'cause he mulled to it) that makes my bridges suck. Both games. The first game just includes me dying to burn while the second makes me think I might have a chance: I tear his hand apart with some fun Unmask/Therapy action, then dredge my face off with a pretty sick LED/Breakthrough/Troll trick. He promptly rips a Crypt to end my hopes of back-bouncery.

2-1-0

Round 4 vs. Bobby Didn't-write-a-last-name's Counterbalance Painter (next-level-flavory)

Game 1: I do my Ichorid thing, Bobby spends a lot of time spinning his top. He takes two from a threshed PImp, then 18 from a horde of Zombie tokens.

Game 2: Bobby takes his turn three win. When I'd've milled my whole deck anyway. Makes me totally wish I still had the Mike Edinger tech of a copy of Krosan Reclamation in the board.

Game 3: Bobby Goyfs me down to 15, then starts to assemble his combo pieces. He drops a Servant, then thinks about it for a second. I know from a previous Therapy that he's holding a Force. Bobby shrugs and asks me if it really matters. I tell him, "Name black! That way my Shriekmaws won't be able to hit your stuff!" Trinket Mage finds a Grindstone, and he plays it. On my turn I DR my Witness for a Chain of Vapor. He activates Grindstone and I bounce Painter in response. He forces away a Dark Confidant, and I remind him it's black. He points at his Painter, and then I remind him again that it's black. He gives me the sad panda face and scoops up his cards. I - no bullshit here - bought him a hotdog to make him feel less bad. Ketchup only.

3-1-0

Round 5 vs. Rick Argero (Jander)'s Cascade/Hypergenesis combo

Game 1: I win the die roll, and keep a hand of LED, LED, Breakthrough, Troll, a Bridge, and a City of Brass (pretty good for six, right?). I go absolutely busted on his face, Therapying him twice on turn on one for his two combo pieces in hand, leaving him with a Progenitus or something. I have an easy turn two win.

Game 2: After a mull to five (wait for it), I keep (wait for it) Breakthrough, LED, Golgari Grave-Troll, Land, Narcomoeba. G-d's chosen people, right? I get another two Therapies out on Rick, leaving him with a Volcanic fallout (excellent choice for the day) and an ESG. I have a turn 2 Eternal Witness into Breakthrough into more ridiculousness.

4-1-0

****If you're reading this to hear about somebody do well, this is where it ends. I go 0-3 for my last three rounds.****

Round 6 vs Matt Abold's Elf Survival

Game 1: I mull to six, Unmask Matt for Natural Order (he has a turn 2 combo hand). He drops a Priest, topdecks a Survival, and goes nutty.

Game 2: I mull to five, keep a choice 5 (Firestorm, Land, Breakthrough, Dredger x2), wrath Matt's turn one two LLanowar hand, then die to Lord beats.

4-2-0

Round 7 vs Anwar Ahmad's Eva Green

Game 1: Anwar mulls to five and I dredge for shit. Remember that report that he wrote when he top 8'd the Syracuse $2000 event? His hilarious Vishnu-related banter? Turns out that twelve-armed bastard was indeed looking out for Team Brown.

Game 2: I lead with a busted LED/Breakthrough hand with two (count 'em, two!) GGTs, and hit.... nothing. I hit an Ichorid that, over the course of a couple turns, empties Anwar's hand with a pair of Therapies (turns out hitting two Goyfs blindly is pretty close to the ultimate tits, and getting his Engineered Plague with the first, blind one, was sweet). Except that I continue to worthlessly for some turns so he runs out of fuel. Anwar Sinkholes one of his own lands to fill his yard to drop a Tombstalker that kills me in increments of 5.

4-3-0

Round 8 vs. John... something.

Game 1: While we're shuffling up he tells me he's so greatful that he's not playing against Dredge again. I lol to myself. I do my busted Ichorid thing, and he spends most of his time going through his sideboarding plans.

Game 2: A turn one Relic is bested by a turn 1 Needle thereon. Which is beaten in turn by a turn 2 Crypt. He beats me with a Rhox War Monk for a while, and I pick up my cards.

Game 3: For a guy who hates playing against Dredge so much he's doing pretty well: I Therapy for Relic, hit one, and he Crypts me twice in three turns. Rick Argero is sitting on his side of the table (having gone into the scrub brackets after I ruined him for other men), and sees the (to borrow a phrase from Arsalan Iftikhar) redonculous draws John gets, and then shamlessly fucks with him.

Brief Props:

-Jim, first and always. Neither of us did much dreaming that day, but he was there for it anyway.

-Colin for blah blah blah I certainly don't remember the story you told.

-Jack M. F. Elgin, for recognizing my zero tolerance policy for fucking around.

-Parcher, for the sweet list.

-Rick, for driving.

-Former servicemen and -women, for making delicious (and completely un-nutritious) food during the event.

-Eli, for his great events.

Breifer slops:

-Stupid non-white people G-ds, for not looking after us white folk.

-Bad dredging.

That's all I've got - look out for the Grapist, folks.

Binghamton Lotus event - Scrubtacular!

2009-06-01T08:49:00.003-04:00

I'm not gonna lie, I scrubbed out of the event this weekend. Hard. Like, take the worst you've ever done at a tournament, and then pretend that I'm you, and that was how I did. I suppose it would have been prudent for me to have tested the format some, or to have actually attempted to tune my deck for some sort of predicted metagame. Instead, I went in blind, and was thanked for it by a 1-2 drop record, and spent the day in the bar. Here's what I played:

Lands
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
2 [CHK] Island (3)
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [R] Tropical Island
3 [R] Tundra
2 [u] Underground Sea

Creatures
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
3 [RAV] Dark Confidant
2 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
2 [ARB] Lorescale Coatl
2 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage

// Spells
2 [FD] Vedalken Shackles
4 [CST] Swords to Plowshares
4 [5E] Brainstorm
4 [CS] Counterbalance
4 [NE] Daze
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [LRW] Ponder
3 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top

Sideboard
SB: 3 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 4 [R] Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 4 [7E] Engineered Plague

I hated the deck. I mulligained at least three times in all three rounds - twice to 5, once to 4. I hit a land on Counterbalance almost every single time I played it. I would top into irrelevant cards with no way to shuffle them away. I hated Lorescale Coatl because it cost far too much mana, and I almost never wanted to see Sower of Temptation. I hated Bob, because he forced me to expose my manabase, and made it really difficult to have all the mana colors I wanted at the same time. Having a Bob, a Pridemage, and two fetchlands in your opening hand was a beating all day. Which one is more important to play? All in all, this was a pile of cards I do not intend to bring back to an event again. Honestly, I had a ton of fun playing with Natural Order Thresh, and I may just go back to that. Anyway, I was smashed by Landstill round 1, and then beat my friend with Elf Survival round two (which knocked him out of the event - I HATE doing that), and then was knocked out myself by Merfolk round three. Lame.

As an aside - even with three Merfolk decks making top 8, I still don't know if the deck is what it should be. I've been thinking about it, and aside from the Islandwalk, I'm not convinced the deck wouldn't be better if it ran a creature base more similar to thresh. It already runs Goyf in many lists, so what if it ran something like:

4 Cursecatcher

4 Goyf

4 Bob

4 Coatl

2 Wakethrasher

I dunno, something like that. I think Cursecatcher is retarded, but I'm not sold on any of the other creatures as individual threats. It's like, if you can answer the horde, the individual guys aren't all that scary. Something to consider, anyway.

So, I scrubbed. Yep, I do that on occasion. They say that even the best of the best players in the world only win approximately 60% of their matches. I'm by no means on that level so I can't claim the same, but I'd say this was one of those "40%" days. It happens.

After round three, I decided to hit the bar. The event was at a VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), which is a membership-based club where vets go to hang out and tell stories. They're also awesome to hold tournaments at, and I got to spend my day paying $2 for drafts. I think I know who the real winner was at this event. I spent the first hour in there talking to the other patrons and the bartenders, and then after round 4, Colin Chilbert (Di on the Source) scrubbed and joined me for some casual Magic. After a few games of EDH, we got down to brass tacks, and started Winston drafting a cube provided by eventual top 8'er Dominic Lodovichettie (Happy Gilmore on the Source).

I'm going to make a bold claim: I firmly believe that I have Winston Drafted cube more times than any other Magic player alive. I've had a cube in my house for almost two years, and my roommate and I have spent DAYS doing nothing but shuffling, drafting, playing, and repeating; over and over and over. It's an excellent waste of time, and we've probably done over a thousand drafts. I'm not saying this makes me the best cube drafter, but experience does factor into the equation. Of course, Jack "I know everything about everything" Elgin asserts that I have my entire strategy of drafting completely backward. He's wrong though.

Anyway, for the first draft, I went UBr with a bunch of Ophidian type dudes and Psychatog. This strategy is risky, especially depending on what you do and don't see in the draft. It looked like we shuffled a little light, because we hit a pocket of about 25 non-basic lands about halfway through the draft, which completely threw off all the strategies I had considered. Colin drafted a RG sligh deck, and managed to take games one and three.

For the second draft, I took a risk and first picked a Workshop. This sets me up for a very particular strategy, and if it doesn't come together, your deck is a PILE. It ended up getting there with Braids, Elspeth, Ajani Goldmane, and The Abyss rounding out my serious color contributions, and Sundering Titan being bombtastic. Colin lost both games we played with this pair of decks, taking most of the beatings from the Abyss. His deck simply wasn't structured well enough to be able to keep up with The Abyss + Braids (with Lightning Greaves on it!).

In the final draft, I set out to make a UW control deck using Weathered Wayfarer to get ahead in card advantage. What ended up happening, though, was that my UW deck turned into a UB deck, which then turned into a Wg weenie deck. I know. Still, with three different Pacifism effects (Arrest, Prison Term, and Faith's Fetters) as well as Loxodon Warhammer and Armadillo Cloak, which could help out my Swans of Bryn Argoll in smashing face, it worked out well. Colin was not to be trifled with, however, with his four color monstrosity which contained bomb after bomb after bomb. I managed to squeak out two wins of the three games, but by no means was this an easy victory. He had me on the ropes the whole time, no doubt.

I'll say this - my BW Braids/Workshop deck would have beaten the piss out of any of the five other decks we drafted on the day. As I said, if the Workshop deck gets there, it's amazing. If not, it sucks. This one got there.

So, that's pretty much what we did all day. I had a bunch of fun with the cube and EDH, even though I didn't do so well at the event. I managed to get pretty drunk, and ate a lot of food that was pretty awful for me at the same time. In terms of performance, the event left much to be desired, but I would still call the day a success.

Topic for discussion in the comments - How high do you value Moxen, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, etc in Cube drafting? Does it matter if you're Winston Drafting or Pack Drafting?

On Battlefields, and the Exiled Zone

2009-05-29T12:41:00.002-04:00

An open letter to Wizards of the Coast:

Dear Wizards, or whomever deems this blog worthy of reading,

Please stop fixing things that aren't in need of being fixed. Instead, could you concentrate on doing something productive, such as fixing the server issues with MoDo, or paying me money to write for you, or something along those lines?

There are much more important things for you to be concerned with than naming the "In Play" zone (look, it already had a name!!!) and the "Removed From the Game" zone (It's also called the RFG Zone, by literally every magic player - thanks for the confusion!) something new, these 15 years into the game's legacy. We all appreciate you making us sound more like Yu-Gi-Oh players when we're discussing the game, though. That's awful nice of you.

It's not going to foreshadow the end of the game, so don't think I mean that. But it is annoying to me, and many other players, that you feel the need to spend time, money, and resources on these ridiculous, frivolous things.

In short, hire me to make all your decisions from here on out, ok? Thanks.

Love, peace, and chicken grease,

Adam

Holy crap, I get to play!

2009-05-27T11:26:00.003-04:00

I'm actually playing Magic this weekend, for the first time in almost a month!

There's a Legacy event on Saturday at Jupiter Games in Vestal, NY. Winner gets a Lotus, with some other sick prizes being doled out as well. If you guys are in the area, feel free to stop in, or better yet, join us for the event! Info can be found here.

I'll be certain to drop a tournament report in, regardless of my performance. It's Legacy, so I don't plan to do much preparation for the event, other than maybe a few goldfish games to remember what cards do. Oh, and I'll try not to Force any Demigods this time around.

Time away

2009-04-29T14:03:00.002-04:00

I swear, I haven't just been ignoring the blog. I've literally played no Magic in like a month. I've been SUPER busy with my Masters degree, work, etc. As soon as I get some play in, I'll be sure to report on it, but for now, you'll have to bear with me.

This is, coincidentally, why I wanted more writers on the blog, but of course that would require my staff to contribute. We've seen how well that's progressed.

Alara Reborn Spoiler

2009-04-21T08:12:00.001-04:00

So the new set is insane. It's so good that it makes me nervous. I'm not going to like seeing all of these cards staring me in the face when I'm playing limited against them, and its going to be a bitch playing around them in Standard. As if the format wasn't already overpowered enough, now we have to deal with the absurdedly broken.

But on the other hand, I can't wait.

Ratings Jump

2009-04-08T10:10:00.003-04:00

Sorry to all the people I beat in Rochester! I gained over 110 points on my constructed rating on the day! (I haven't ever really played constructed with any regularity) I'm positive I got at least 4 of them for full K-value. Sucks to be you guys!

PTQ Rochester - the Aftermath

2009-04-06T09:15:00.003-04:00

Well, I almost got there. Almost. Which counts for exactly dick, in the long run. Here's the dig:

I played Elves at the PTQ, for two reasons. 1) It is an absolute blast to play, and I've been itching to play it since LSV won with it months ago. Unfortunately, Extended is a format wholely unsupported in Syracuse, and its been impossible for me to do more than test with it, so I knew no matter how bad a choice it was, I was playing this fucking deck. 2) It was actually a pretty excellent metagame choice, since its kinda fallen off everyone's radar, since Fae has sprung up and become the top dog of the format. Plus, I had a sick sideboard.

the list - Extended Elves (By Adam Barnello)

4 Nettle Sentinel

4 Heritage Druid

4 Birchlore Ranger

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Elvish Visionary

4 Wirewood Hivemaster

4 Wirewood Symbiote

4 Glimpse of Nature

3 Chord of Calling

3 Summoner's Pact

2 Thoughtseize

1 Mirror Entity

1 Viridian Shaman

1 Regal Force

3 Windswept Heath

2 Wooded Foothills

3 Gilt-Leaf Palace

3 Horizon Canopy

3 Forest

1 Temple Garden

1 Overgrown Tomb

1 Pendelhaven

Sideboard:

4 Elvish Champion

3 Imperious Perfect

2 Patriarch's Bidding

2 Burrenton Forge-Tender

2 Choke

1 Harmonic Sliver

1 Kataki, War's Wage

There you have it. It's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. The PTQ was 8 rounds, and I went 6-2, for a disappointing 9th place finish - mere tiebreaks away from making top 8. A real heartbreaker. All in all, the deck ran solid. I lost two matchups (one to BG Aggro, one to Naya), both of which were when my opponent got an early active Jitte, and I had no answer availible in time. That's the biggest weakness the deck has, I believe. If not for that card, the rest of the matchups were pretty easy wins. It helped that I managed to dodge Fae the entire tournament, of course. Still, I firmly believe that extended, perhaps even moreso than Legacy, is a format completely defined by what you can and can't dodge in your matchups in the swiss. If you simply get paired against unfavorable matchups all day, even the most powerful of decks can put up poor numbers. Meanwhile, TEPS could be playing against Slide all day, and skate to the top 8 with barely any resistance at all. I'm not blaming that, of course, but it is an observation I've made on the format in general as I've been prepping for this event.

Speaking of which:

Round 1 - Bant Aggro

Game 1 finds us in a stalemate, as he has a few guys in play, but I've got double Hivemaster and a pair of Symbiotes, so I can nullify his attacks with both Jitte and War Monk. We match threats for a few turns until I finally get to the point where an Alpha Strike is lethal. I swing, he blocks correctly, and goes for a Bant Charm on one of my (11!) tokens. This would put him to one, but the Pendelhaven wins it for me.

Game 2, I muster the nutty Turn 1 Llanowar, turn 2 Choke, Turn 3 Lord plan, and he's never even in the game.

1-0

Round 2 - TEPS

Game 1 - I have an inkling on what he's playing before the match begins, because he's a Rochester local that I've played in Legacy a few times, and his style is most definitely combo. He opens with a tapped Steam Vents to confirm my suspicions. We both manage to combo early in the game, to little success. He Desires for 4 into garbage, and I make some mana and tutor up a Regal Force and play it, drawing six, but emptying my mana. He attempts another Desire for 3, hitting garbage, and we move to game 2.

Game 2, he manages to go off successfully, well before I've established any kind of pressure. Eventually he hits Tendrils on Desire, and I scoop.

Game 3, I come out of the gates much faster than previously, along with a Thoughtseize on a Desire. He Magma Jets a Symbiote that I was planning to break open with, which sets me back. He desparately Desires for 2, into a Rite and second Desire, but the second one whiffs, and we sign the slip.

2-0

Round 3 - Affinity

This poor bastard. Another Rochester player whom I've had plenty of great matches with across a number of formats, I'm always pleased to play the RIT guys. However, today was not his day.

Game 1, after a bit of talk on how I didn't really expect much Affinity (savage mental play, Mike), he mulls to 5 on the play and opens with land, Springleaf Drum. I play land, Llanowar. He drops land, Worker, Frog, Ravager. Nice mull, dude! I go infinite on turn 2, and win Turn 3, after attacking and killing his Frog with Llanowar. Whoops.

Game 2, he mulls his opener again, with land, Chrome Star, go; followed again by my land, Llanowar opener. His turn two is Plating, triple Ornithopter, go. I play Kataki, and pass. He saves his Plating and a Thopter, and rips a land to equip and hit for three. Next turn he loses his board, and the match.

I actually kinda felt bad about that one, but shit, my plan came together.

3-0

Round 4 - BG Aggro Rock

Game 1, my opponent leads with birds, while I lead with some non-Llanowar elf. Turn two, he plays a Troll Ascetic. I play some more guys. Turn 3, he plays and equips Jitte. That's fun. He uses the counters to kill men, and I lose.

Game 2, my opponent leads with Darkblast on my one drop. I play Pendelhaven turn 2, and it slows the killing somewhat, but he eventually gets more removal than I can deal with, and I never see the Bidding that would have saved me the game, and likely the match (three lords were in the yard).

3-1

So, I can't beat the turn 3 active Jitte. Noted.

Round 5 - BWG Loam control

This match, I expect much of the same crap I saw from last round, but it wasn't quite the same. Apparently this deck is much more focused on the Loam engine with Raven's Crime, which I expected to be a beating, but wasn't.

Game 1 - He leads with a Crime, and I pitch a Chord. I play an elf. He Crimes me twice, and I pitch an extra land and an elf. Turn 2 I play Visionary, and play Symbiote. From then on, his Crimes took the worst cards in my hand, while I drew cards with bounced Visionaries. I eventually made some dudes and attacked, while he played with Loam. It wasn't really pretty, but the 1/1 beatdown plan was super effective against him.

Game 2, he again opened with Raven's Crime, and I again opened with 1/1s. This time, Elvish Champion entered the fray, and my unblockable army trounced all over his Overgrown Tombs.

4-1

Round 6 - BWG Loam control

Rematch?

Game 1, he leads with Overgrown Tomb and Raven's Crime, when I expected to see Stomping Grounds, Wild Nacatl. Well, I do a happy dance in my head, and discard some crap. It goes a lot like the last round, where I make guys with varied mana costs, and attack, while he tears my irrelevant hand apart and tries to find Damnation. He doesn't, and I win.

Game 2, I do the same thing that I did in game 2 of the last match, only this time, after he casts Punishment for 1 (see: Crime//Punishment), I get to go "Patriarch's Bidding?" He moves to call the judge to see if the card is legal (OMG! so BROKEN!), but I remind him that the expansion symbol is the same as the fetchlands in his yard, and he takes his football and goes home.

Round 7 - Naya Aggro

This round I'm playing Chris Trembly, another RIT guy. Chris and I have a long history of shit matches, where one of us gets blown out by the other. In all the times we've played, I don't think we've played two actual games of Magic in a row, ever. And we've never seen game three.

Game 1 - Chris opens three removal spells, and a couple of Thoctars that are far too much for me to handle. My deck got the "I'm a 1/1 that doesn't do anything" draw, which was not the draw I needed from it here. I crap out.

Game 2 - I mull to 5 before I see a single land. He plays Jitte on turn 4, and equips, while I have a board of Nettle Sentinel. The streak of shitty magic between us continues.

5-2

At this point, I'm resolved to basically be out of contention, but there's some disparity in the rumor mills on how the tournament will end up. The undefeated player in first played round 7 out, to help out teammates on the fence. If that keeps up, one X-2 may sneak into the top 8. I figure I've come this far, I may as well secure a top 16 slot (half a box), and maybe get lucky and make it.

Round 8 - BWG Loam Control

We chit chat idly, and he tells me he was higher in the standings than me. That's a good sign if I win, but who knows. It's all about where the tiebreakers end after this round, so either of us can potentially make it. He lets me know the guy in first is his teammate, and is dream crushing this round, too, to help him out. I say 'thank him for me if I beat you' and we play.

Game 1 - He opens with tapped Godless Shrine, and I can barely contain my excitement. How lucky, I get paired against a basically unloseable matchup THREE TIMES in the swiss! My deck does its thing, and I make a shit-ton of men and swarm him.

Game 2 - He Thoughtseizes me on turn 1, and takes Glimpse. On turn 2, he hits me with two Raven's Crimes. He continues to Crime me, until he Punishments me (hahahaha, get it?), and I manage to draw Bidding with no guys and 4 lands in play. If he only knew...

Game 3 - I open the nuts. Turn 1 Llanowar, Turn 2 Lord, Turn 3 Lord, Turn 4 Lord...

6-2

So, that's how it went. After the match, I sat around and chatted with some people, waited for the frigging Slide mirror to get done (paint dries), and then nervously watched as they printed the final standings... to be disappointed as my name stood in the only single digit standing that doesn't matter. The kid that made eighth was playing RGW Aggro Loam, and his two losses were to both the TEPS players in the Top 8. While one of my losses made top 8, the other managed to go X-2-1. Thanks for the help there, bud.

I got half a box for my efforts, and I got to eat a Garbage Plate (google it) while the top 8 was grinding it out all night. I went home and passed the hell out.

I can't decide if it would have been more disappointing to make the top 8 and lose, or to miss out like I did. I think either would have sucked, but at least I'd be able to say I made top 8, you know? Oh well. Better luck next time.

Before I sign off, I just want to let you guys know - the board wasn't a fluke. It was amazingly strong all day, and I think it solves a lot of the problems the deck has anyway. It's a super strong backup plan, and if you elf players out there test it, I know you're gonna find it's as good as I've been saying. Let me know if you test it, and what your thoughts are on it!

Sisay is broken

2009-03-31T08:51:00.003-04:00

So, I guess I didn't realize it at first glance, but Captain Sisay is pretty powerful. She's subtly powerful though, in a way that may allow you to fly under the radar in a multiplayer game, and the longer she's in play, the more steam she picks up, and the more insane she gets. I've been having a TON of fun playing her, and I suppose its a good time to share the list - I've actually gotten a request to do exactly that! Who knew people were reading, right?

Alright, without further ado, I present the EDH deck with more commas than any other - "Captain's Maneuver."

General:

Captiain Sisay (of the Skyship Weatherlight)

Legendary Permanents:

Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Asmira, Holy Avenger

Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Akroma's Memorial

Brigid, Hero of Kinsbale

Commander Eesha

Crovax, Ascendant Hero

Darien, King of Kjeldor

Day of Destiny

Eight-and-a-Half-Tails

Gaddok Teeg

Glissa Sunseeker

Helm of Kaldra

Honden of Cleansing Fire

Honden of Life's Web

Hua Tuo, honored Physician

Isamaru, Hound of Konda

Isao, Enlightened Bushi

Kentaro, the Smiling Cat

Konda, Lord of Eiganjo

Konda's Banner

Kongming, "Sleeping Dragon"

Mangara of Corondor

Masako the Humorless

Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker

Mindslaver

Myojin of Cleansing Fire

Nagao, Bound by Honor

Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho

Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo

Pianna, Nomad Captain

Reki, the History of Kamigawa

Rhys the Redeemed

Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant

Saffi Eriksdotter

Sensei Golden-Tail

Shield of Kaldra

Sword of Kaldra

Takeno, Samurai General

Tenza, Godo's Maul

That Which Was Taken

Tolsimir Wolfblood

Umezawa's Jitte

Yomiji, Who Bars the Way

Yosei, the Morning Star

Eiganjo Castle

Flagstones of Trokair

Gaea's Cradle

Kor Haven

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

Miren, the Moaning Well

Pendelhaven

Yavimaya Hollow

Non-Legends:

Willow Satyr

Loyal Retainers

Crown of Convergence

Loxodon Hierarch

Priviledged Position

Thousand-Year Elixir

Lightning Greaves

Ajani Goldmane

Elspeth, Knight Errant

Mirror Entity

Eladamri's Call

Cauldron of Souls

Sol Ring

Mana Crypt

Darksteel Ingot

Gilded Lotus

Mox Diamond

Chrome Mox

Selesnya Signet

Talisman of Unity

Mutavault

Arctic Flats

Brushland

Elfhame Palace

Horizon Canopy

Nantuko Monastery

Riftstone Portal

Windswept Heath

Sungrass Prairie

Temple Garden

Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree

Wooded Bastion

Savannah

Some Forests

Some Plains

Extended PTQing

2009-03-30T09:36:00.004-04:00

There's an extended PTQ this weekend in Rochester, that I'll be attending with Alex Artese and Carl Dillahay. While I think Alex is probably playing the best deck, and Carl is bringing a brew of his own that kicks the shit out of the best deck, I'll be playing Elves.

I've been in love with the deck since it hit the scene when LSV wrecked face, and I've been itching for a chance to play with it. Since Syracuse, for some stupid reason, is completely devoid of interest in Extended altogether, this seems like it will be the only chance I get to make it happen.

I'm not convinced the Mirror Entity kill is ideal, since it's open to disruption at sorcery speed - you need guys without summoning sickness in play to attack, or else you need to wait a turn. If they have blockers, its even more of a problem. Still, the deck is much more resilient to hate than I expected it to be, so it should be fine.

We'll be testing this week more, and hopefully it all goes to plan.

EDH Banned List Update

2009-03-23T10:24:00.004-04:00

So Tinker got the axe, and Crucible comes back. I've gotta say, I'm unimpressed by this change. While I'm bummed to lose Tinker - and realistically, that hurts my Azami deck pretty bad - I think Crucible-Strip is retarded, and green decks that run it, LftL, and Fastbond are going to go apeshit. It kinda makes me wish I hadn't given up on the Turboland deck, but no one was having fun playing with or against that deck anyway.

Do we realistically need to autoinclude Crucible now, as protection from FastbondStriplock? It's unclear as of yet, and I may pose that we ban it in the local area to prevent that rediculousness from occuring.

On the other hand, now that I've put the samurai deck together, I think its funny that Tinker gets banned. The card is straight unfair. Like, even the most inoccuous play (Tinker-Gilded Lotus) puts you so damned far ahead on mana for turn 4 (or earlier) that it becomes tough to lose. In a deck that features bombs like Oona (my roommate's General), it's far past borderline unfair, into the unfun territory.

So it is what it is. It's a bomb to end all bombs, and I'm not really that broken up to see it go.

By the way, in the interest of continuing the unfair accelleration, I plan to replace tinker with Mishra's Workshop.

Sketch is complete

2009-03-19T08:38:00.002-04:00

The Sisay Samurai deck came together pretty nicely, I must say. I played a few games last night, both multiplayer and one-on-one, and it performed admirably.

It's not broken in the way Azami is, but it does get to do some fun stuff. I especially liked combinations like Myojin of Cleansing Fire plus That Which Was Taken (putting a Divinity Counter on Sisay, of course); or Yomiji, Who Bars the Way plus Mindslaver. I also happened to get out TWWT with Priviledged Position - that put a target on my head pretty quick.

As for the general herself, she's pretty strong. I've been happy with making my first tutor target Gaea's Cradle, which has gone on to make some pretty broken plays. In addition, I added Jitte, more as a way to deal with other ones.

Loyal Retainers has been one of the best cards in my deck, by the way.

The samurai theme is actually much better than I had originally anticipated, and between Sensei Golden-Tail and Mirror Entity, the bonuses just keep coming, even for guys who didn't know they could learn Bushido.

I'll throw the list up once I have a little more work put into it. There are some slots I'm not convinced on, and there are a bunch of non-legendary cards I want to fit into the deck. For a first pass, though, I'm excited! Who knew you could make a fair deck that was fun to play?

Back to the Drawing Board

2009-03-18T10:54:00.002-04:00

So the Turboland list didn't work out. As it turns out, the idea was a cool one, but there are so many cards you need to assemble to get the engine running, that it's almost impossible to do while your opponents are stopping you - and if you don't get them together, your deck is a pile of garbage. It's also another Solitaire deck - you aren't playing with your opponent as much as trying to get to the point where you play alone. My friends are pretty bored with that type of deck - the "let me know when you win" kind. Since I've already got the Azami deck for that, I figure its time to make one where I play dudes and attack. So, my next attempt will be to make a W/G Samurai/Spirit deck featuring almost 60 Legendary Permanents, with Captain Sisay as my General. We'll see how that goes.

By the way, I've been meaning to mention how I crank out so many decks without much effort. If you use Magiccards.info to copy and paste card images into a 3x3 matrix in MSPaint, it's a pretty quick way to make accurate proxies. For casual formats like EDH, it's worthwhile to do this before you buy cards. You don't want to be sixty cards into a deck and find out it sucks.

In Extended news, Elves is retarded. We were testing a GWR Slide deck, which should have had plenty of game against it, since it plays 1/1s, but Elves is so frigging good that we couldn't beat it anyway. I'm pretty amazed at the resiliancy of the deck in the face of hate. It can go from no board to winning in a single turn. Impressive, to say the least.

New EDH deck in the works

2009-03-12T12:18:00.004-04:00

Well, Chicago allowed me to finish pimping my EDH deck completely - minus a single Asian Voltaic Key. Now its time to start a new one, hopefully a little less broken (but still fun).

I'm gonna play Vorosh, the Hunted as my general.

The deck is going to be TurboLand. And I'm fucking stoked.

List to come when I feel like the kinks are worked out.

Chicago Report - Nightmare

2009-03-11T08:31:00.006-04:00

It was a long, long weekend. But more importantly, it was a long, long trip out to Chicago.

When we decided that we wanted to make the trip out, we had a slew of people from Syracuse going, and everyone came to the same conclusion - no one wanted to drive for 11 hours. We considered our options. A) We take a plane to and from Chi-town, and in doing so, spend little time and a bunch of money to get there, or B) we take the train, and we spend a bunch of time, and slightly less money to get there. Well, we decided that the train sounded like a much more fun way to go, and we booked our tickets for the 13 hour trip - or at least most of us did.

Thursday night, after a long day at work, making money for the Man, I picked up a ticket for munkie, since he managed to make himself broke. Fortunately, he also managed to accumulate plenty of saucy cards to sell to vendors so he could both repay me, and fund his return trip. We arrived at the train about 9, my car included Nat Howland, another player on EPIC (my legacy team), and we settled in to wait for everyone else. There ended up being 8 of us on the trip together, along with another local, Danny Meeker, who managed to win the Rochester GPT - which had all of 12 players at it.

I'm not gonna lie, that kinda pissed me off. Rochester has had a GPT for every legacy GP. At the first, for Philly, there were 70 players. I came in 10th, on breakers. At the second, for Columbus, I was the only Flash player, and I came in 6th, losing in top 8 to Thresh with MD Meddling Mage and Stifle. There were 50 players. This one was not advertized anywhere. It was completely off my radar screen, and I feel like I lost three byes because of it. Anyway, he got the byes, and was on the train as well.

We depart Syracuse at 10, and head almost immediately to the Lounge, where we test, and test, and test, and test. And then play casual formats for a while. I went about 60-40 with my deck vs. TES, which I saw as a good thing, as I expected to see a bit of combo on the weekend. For the purposes of getting it out of the way, here's the list I decided upon:

NOThresh (MD by Alix Hatfield)

4 Force of Will

4 Counterbalance

4 Daze

4 Brainstorm

4 Ponder

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Tarmogoyf

4 Nimble Mongoose

3 Werebear

3 Sensei's Divining Top

3 Natural Order

1 Progenitus

4 Windswept Heath

4 Flooded Strand

3 Tropical Island

2 Tundra

2 Island

1 Plains

1 Forest

1 Dryad Arbor

Sideboard:

4 Tormod's Crypt

4 Path to Exile

3 Krosan Grip

3 Back to Basics

1 Empyrial Archangel

I could discuss the list to some detail, but the long of the short of it was this - it was solid all day, I didn't really have any issues with the deck at all. The manabase was excellent, rarely did I have any issues with my mana, even in the face of Wastes, Ports, and Stifles. I'm not comitted to the board - Path ended up being boarded only once, but it wasn't terrible, and it did exactly what I wanted it to. The deck was really strong.

So, after a hell of a long night on the train, we arrive at Union Station at 9am EST, 10 local, and start drinking. Chicago doesn't have open container laws, and we can pretty much walk around with beer. It was kinda awesome. So, we hop on the Metra (their public train system), and head out to whereverthefuck the hotel and GP are. After another hour on the Metra, and about 10 minutes cramming 9 people in a 5 passenger cab, we get there, and the hotel is AMAZING. It's beautiful, and you can tell it's brand new. The place is decked out to make the best impression for the travelling businessman, and it was full of scummy gamer nerds. Oh well.

We head up to the room, which features such amenities as a tv in the bathroom mirror, extremely comfortable beds, a table perfect for testing sessions, and a $4 bottle of water. After getting settled, we head to the convention center. Trading happens, selling happens, a few people head to grind, in the vain attempt to get them byes. I register and recieve my GP playmat, which is immediately sold for 10 bucks. Thanks, Wizards. After that, we find some people from the East Coast to hang with, and get ourselves into as much trouble as possible. I end up passing out at about 8pm, and sleeping all the way through the night until I wake at 7am in my hotel room, with Colin's bony ass cuddled up next to me. I swear, it isn't as gay as it sounds.

The morning of the event, I'm feeling well rested, and I'm ready to pop some Advil and take on the world. We head downstairs and get ourselves into gametime focus. After the player's meeting, I have a bye, so I use the time to get some grub, get a bunch of stuff signed by Rob Alexander (nice guy, by the way), and poop. Then its showtime.

Round 2 - Jordan Benson, with UGR Counterbalance Thresh

Game 1, I'm on the play and open with Mongoose, followed by turn two Counterbalance. He Dazes. I Daze back. He Forces. I Daze back. I'm now up cards on him, with Counterbalance and a threat in play to his empty board. It's academic from there.

Game 2, he Dazes my turn 1 Top, and I never see a second land.

Game 3 looks a lot like game 2, except I Brainstorm 3 times in the first four turns looking for my second land, and he has about a dozen counterspells for my plays.

I start the event off with a loss, and go to the X-1 bracket. Not exactly how I intended my GP to go.

Round 3 - Mitch Blumenshine - MUC w/Grindstone Painter

Mitch gets a game 1 loss for tardiness, as he was stuck in line getting cards signed. He's pretty chipper about it, all things considered, and we go to game 2. I note that when he set his deck on the table (face up), I see an Extract on the bottom of his deck.

I see an opener of Turn 2 Counterbalance with Daze backup, but it has Progenitus in it. Knowing he has Extract, I see this as a good thing, and keep. I turn 1 Ponder, he turn 1 Extracts. I inwardly chuckle as he looks through the deck, and doesn't see the target for the NO. Eventually, a Goose goes the distance, after I Swords three Painters.

2-1

Round 4 - Tyler Hanft - 4C Counterbalance Control

Game 1 is won for me on the back of another second turn Counterbalance. This seems to be a trend. It's important to note that while I've seen four colors from Tyler, I still have no friggin idea what the hell he's playing. First, I thought UGW thresh. Then I was thinking ITF. I ended the game with no clue.

Game 2, I resolve another counterbalance and a Goyf. He's sitting on three duals, and he Mainphase Ponders, and tries to StP my Goyf. I reveal Back to Basics, and think. I Daze the Swords, knowing he has the mana to pay. He thinks, and let's the Swords be countered. I play B2B, and he's down to one land. He plays a second B source, and scoops his yard up for Tombstalker. My Goyf is a 4/5. I eventually find a second Goyf, which means I win the race, and he's forced to play defense. I find a Krosan Grip, and swing into his Stalker with both men. Before damage, I grip my Counterbalance, as I'm not affraid of his board of no untappable lands, and win on the spot.

3-1

Round 5 - Matt Severa - RG Goblins

Game 1, I make a critical mistake, and do not Force of Will the second of Matt's Vials. This allows him to shut off my entire hand, and use his lands to stop me from ever resolving another spell. I don't know why I didn't Force the Vial, but it was an error I can only blame on myself. I try to shrug it off, and hope my 8 Swords will get there game 2 and 3.

Game 2 - I have all white and green cards in hand, which is great for me in this matchup. The key to winning against Gobs with Thresh is to put them on defense. I open with Mongoose, he opens with Vial. I end up using three "swords" this game, but he drew all four Ringleaders, and hit two to four guys on each, including two Siege-Gang Commanders. Not exactly what I was hoping for. So, I go to the win or I'm done bracket.

3-2

Note that up to this point in the event (the halfway point, if you don't count byes) I have not yet seen the card Natural Order at any point in time. Had I seen it against Matt, I am certain I win that match. I resolve to start a new tournament right now, and go 4-0. If I do, I make day two. And so begins the new tournament.

Round 6 - Michael Carey - UGW Thresh with NO (Noble Hierarch build)

Game 1 is a victory for me on the back of turn 2 Counterbalance on the draw. He has the Daze and the Force, but so do I. He doesn't resolve anything before I kill him.

Game 2 is the first time on the day that I see Natural Order. Unfortunately, I'm locked under CounterTop, and it's stopped by a Natural Order on top of his library. Goyf with +2/+2 from Hierarchs wins this game.

Game 3, I again resolve Counterbalance, and he's stuck on a 1 land Hierarch draw. He can't mount any offense, and can't resolve any cantrips through my Balance. He scoops it up to a Swords on his mana guy.

4-2 (1-0 in the new tournament)

Round 7 - Kitt Howland - Ichorid

Shit.

Game 1 on the play, Kitt opens with Breakthrough for 0, which is Forced. I play a Goose, and he draws and says go. I swing and play cantrips, he draws and says go. I swing and play cantrips, he draws and discards Grave Troll. I swing and FINALLY CAST NATURAL ORDER. He dredges, and gets a Moeba. 2 Ichorids, no Bridges in the yard. I swing. I swords his Moeba. He dredges, hits nothing and scoops. (I beat Ichorid game 1, with WHITE THRESH)

Game 2, I keep a disaster of a hand with 4 land, Werebear, Swords, and Ponder. I don't know why, but I felt like it was going to get me there. I can't explain the feeling, but it just felt right. I dunno. He keeps, and opens with LED. I do not force. He plays Underground Sea, and Careful Study. I do not Force. He discards Sea, Flamekin Zealot. I do a happy dance in my head, cause he's got no dredgers! I play a land and Ponder into Goyf, Swords, NO. That's turn 3, baby. I keep the NO safe from Therapy and pass. He draws, plays Coliseum, and hardcasts Moeba. "That's how it's gonna go this game, huh?" "Yep. Pretty much." I play my turn 2 Werebear, and pass. He plays a second Coliseum, and a second Moeba. Turn 3 I NO into Big Progs, and he slumps. He draws, plays a second LED, and casts Breakthrough for 0. He draws 4, and dumps no dredgers. He cracks LED, activates Coliseum, and dumps no dredgers. He activates Coliseum, and dumps two Stinkweed Imps, finally. Burns for 1, says go. I swing 10. He dredges into garbage, and scoops. I saw zero Crypts this match, but for the first time, got to win with Progenitus.

5-2 (2-0 in the new tournament)

Round 8 - Alex Wice - Belcher

Game 1 I keep a mediocre hand, but I can tell he's thinking about his plays, and he's probably playing combo of some sort. His friends ask if he won game 1 already, so I guess Belcher, and am right. I daze a Manamorphose on his turn 1 which buys some time, but turn 2 he Land Grants and I see he's probably going all in on Warrens. He does, and I lose.

Game 2 - He again makes some mana and I stop him. Unfortunately he rips off a Manamorphose like a champ, and he Land Grants showing me Magus of the Moon, Blood Moon, Deus of Calamity. Fuck. He drops Magus to my board of Trop, and my hand of 3 fetches, and I'm screwed. I have a shot when I drop a Goyf off the basics I've gotten to around 10 life, but when he goes for a Demigod, and like a MORON I FUCKING FORCE WITHOUT RESOLVING THE TRIGGER FIRST AND LOSE THE GODDAMN GAME EVEN THOUGH I WROTE AN ARTICLE ON IT LESS THAN A WEEK BEFORE MOTHERFUCKERIHATEBEINGBADATMAGICANDIDESERVETOBEKNOCKEDOUTOFTHEEVENTTFORPLAYINGLIKESUCHAFUCKINGCHOADAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

5-3 (3-1 in the new tournament)

Round 9 - Jason Nielsen - MUC

Game 1, we get in a huge counter battle over a turn 1 Mongoose which lets me know he's playing MUC. I think its cute that he's playing all the FoFs from the Jace vs. Chandra deck. I win the battle, and my Goose goes the distance.

Game 2, he gets the jump on me with a bunch of rediculous plays, and a disrupt on my EOT Brainstorm. He's ahead the whole game, and I never really get back into it.

Game 3, I'm swinging with a 2/3 Goyf for a while, while trying to keep his stupid Shackles off the table. We have some serious counter wars, but I force him into positions where Daze will be relevant, and I manage to stop his stupid friggin Call of the Skybreaker twice, and Goyf puls it through.

End result - 6-3. I think it's respectable, and there were little mistakes that cost me two rounds. It's nice, for once, to realize that there were small plays that were sooo important that if you had simply played them correctly, you may have won, and made day two. I think its these plays that will stay with me the most after this weekend, and help me grow as a player. Perhaps if I can minimize those mistakes next time (and maybe go in with a couple more byes), I can make a run at it for real.

After the main event, we decided to start the party. None of us made day two, although there were three of us in contention. I ended up with the best breaks, and as I said yesterday, placed the highest, but Colin and Carl were both X-2 going into round 9 - unfortunately they both had bad beats and lost. We got a little crazy until about 4am, and we all fell asleep as soon as the lights went out.

On Sunday, we hung out around the hotel for most of the day, drafting, playing casual decks, trading, and rooting for our friends that made day two. Eventually, we did an 8 man draft (which we lost due to overthinking our opponents - we all drafted the underdrafted colors, and left them the retarded red decks), and then headed back to the train station. We were accosted almost constantly by bums and beggars, and were yelled at on the train ride home. We crashed into our seats, and passed out - a long weekend of Magic and fun fading off into the distance behind us. Monday morning came too soon, and we all went back to the real world.

I'll get to it, I swear!

2009-03-10T09:43:00.003-04:00

Well I'm back. And I'm pretty tired. It was a long, amazing weekend in the windy city, for sure. I've got plenty to say, but no time to say it (of course) because of stupid work blowing up in my face while I'm out for two days. I'm dog-sitting for the next two nights at a friend's house while he and his wife are on vacation, so I'll probably bring along my notes and try to recap as much of the weekend as I can while I'm there. It will take some time, so expect the report to be broken into a few parts.

I'd like to apologize for the lack of live updates. I was planning to bring my laptop along with me to the event, but at the last minute decided against it, so I'd have one less thing to keep track of while in an unfamiliar location. It turned out to be the right call, as thieves were rampant at the event - something I'll get to a bit more later on.

Sorry to string you all along, but the rest is soon to come!

By the way - Standings for my crew:

Me - 211

Carl Dillahay - 213

Colin Chilbert - 222

Bryant Cook - 345

Alex Artese - 440

Nat Howland, Brian Baum, and Matt Abold - 600+

The Countdown Begins

2009-03-04T10:57:00.003-05:00

Hey all.

Tomorrow (Thursday the 4th) I've got an article coming out on StarCity about GP Chicago. It's a brief summary of some rules and interactions that are probably going to show up in one or more rounds of play throughout the event, so it might be worth it to check the article out. There's even a handy dandy link to the site over to your left. No, down a little. There you go.

There's about 35 hours remaining until I board up onto the train and set off for Chicago. I'm beginning to get antsy - work is taking forever to drag by, and I'm having a hard time focusing on anything but Magic. You know how it goes. The day before is always the worst. Tomorrow I've got a boring ass meeting all afternoon, so at least I can be bored legitimately, and not just sit at my desk thinking about how to sideboard against Merfolk. By the way, I've decided on my deck.

We had a testing session last night at my place. It was a pretty solid crew of 7 or 8 guys testing our decks against each other, with some other tier decks in there as well. My personal testing went well - honestly better than I expected, and I've got to say I'm much more comfortable with my deck choice now than I was two weeks ago. Especially the sideboard I've worked out. I'm pretty stoked on that part, actually. I'd love to share it with you, especially since the chances of any of my potential opponents reading this blog is basically zero, but as I've linked to it in the SCG article, that potential might actually increase to "unlikely!" So, you'll have to wait until I start updating from Chicago, which I have yet to figure out how I'll do, but rest assured there will be updates.

On a personal note, Zach, don't forget to give Matt my cards tonight. Jerk.

Later!

The "Other" Salt City Magic

2009-02-24T08:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was playing the "google myself" game (yes, I realize how vain that is), and I decided to see if this blog pops up on Google for "Salt City Magic." Little did I know, the page already exists for a group of dedicated performance magicians in the Syracuse area. Holy shit, man. This page is awesome. Check them out: www.saltcitymagic.com

It almost makes me want to change the name of the blog, so I don't compete with them. Almost.

Chicago on the Horizon

2009-02-23T11:36:00.003-05:00

With my trip to Boston for Extreme Beer Fest behind me, I can now spend a bit more time focusing on the upcoming GP in Chicago. My deck of choice for this event is TES (with Ad Nauseam and Mystical Tutor), because in all honesty, I hate the format right now, and it makes my matches over quickly - whether I win or lose. I'm not happy with my game 1 percentages against decks like Team America, which pack basically every card I don't want to see, all in the same deck, but I think games 2 and 3 become slightly more favorable for me, as I gain additional protection from their counters. I've been considering making a few changes to the list, which I'm sure Bryant will consider blasphemous - for example, I've been debating the inclusion of Dark Confidant into the main, as it provides additional pressure, as well as reach, should it go unanswered.

The most problematic thing I've seen from testing is certainly manabase disruption. It's diffucult enough to establish a manabase with only 10 lands (and realistically, only 8 you ever want to see - 4 of which go away), if you're facing Wastelands and Sinkholes on top of that, then it's even more difficult to establish yourself. I don't think there's a simple solution, but hey, that's combo vs. blue.

My strategy has basically been to go all in game 1, no matter what. If I can win in the first two turns, I go for it. The odds have to be better that way than in biding my time. As the blue decks in the format run 8 cantrips or more, the more time they are given, the more hate they accumulate. I feel like the odds of "do you have the Force of Will?" only get worse as the game progresses. So, game 1 (assuming an unknown opponent) you have to either get info through Duress, or run into a wall. Should you be facing a non-blue opponent, it pays off.

On that note, I truly hope people pick up Survival based Progenitus/Natural Order decks. While they kick the shit out of blue decks, based largely on Legacy's lack of answers to Big Progs, they've got next to no game vs. combo. This looks good as the tournament advances. In my eyes, I'll be facing Counterbalance three times in the projected 9 round event. Maybe that's optimistic, but its my guess. If I can snake one of those matches, then I can still lose two and make day two. I just need to beat all the non-blue I see, which is why I'm playing TES, right?

Anyway, that's where my testing is at this week. I'll keep you guys updated as it progresses.

Argus Kos, Wojek Veteran

2009-02-17T14:22:00.003-05:00

Well I think that it is about time I made my presence known here on this silly little blog. To take a break from competitive Magic, everyone convinced me to build an EDH deck. I was a little skeptical of this obscure format, but after playing a few games with Nightmare and his roommate, I quickly was hooked and started formulating ideas for competitive decks. After some hours in the Gatherer database, the little Timmy in me really wanted to swing with dudes after being subjected to queer combo decks like Nightmare's and Bryant Cook's. I have worked very hard on this deck, and the synergy the deck has is borderline amazing. The deck has a Soldier theme, with some Giants playing backup. I am always looking for better ideas for this deck, but at the same time I feel that the list is getting very tight, and each card so far has proven its worth. I was even having trouble finding room for the new EDH gem, Path to Exile. Here is what I'm working with now:

General:

Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran

Non-creature spells:

Chrome Mox
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Condemn
Swords to Plowshares*
Mana Vault
Sol Ring*
Path to Exile
Enlightened Tutor
Lightning Helix
Disenchant
Umezawa's Jitte
Boros Signet
Incinerate
Shared Triumph
Rise of the Hobgoblins*
Quietus Spike
Orim's Thunder
Sunforger*
Fervor*
Goblin Trenches
Darksteel Ingot
Oblivion Ring
Mobilization
Shared Animosity
Aura of Silence
Scourge of the Nobilis
Elspeth, Knight Errant*
Ajani Goldmane
Ajani Vengeant
Chandra Nalaar
Gilded Lotus
Spectral Procession
Razia's Purification
Austere Command
Decree of Justice

Dudes:

Figure of Destiny
Silver Knight
Boros Guildmage*
Ethersworn Cannonist
Boros Swiftblade
Knight of Meadowgrain
Knight of the White Orchid
Goblin Legionnaire
Battlegate Mimic
Skyknight Legionnaire
Stonecloaker
Duergar Hedge-Mage
Taurean Mauler
Field Marshal*
Mirror Entity*
Hearthfire Hobgoblin*
Flametongue Kavu
Brion Stoutarm
Spitemare*
Knight-Captain of Eos
Giant Harbinger
Nobilis of War*
Reveillark
Cloudgoat Ranger*
Furystoke Giant
Siege-Gang Commander
Balefire Liege
Jareth, Leonine Titan
Crovax, Ascendant Hero
Bull Cerodon
Eternal Dragon
Razia, Boros Archangel (Soon to be Akroma, Angel of Wrath when I get a foil one)

Lands:

9 Plains
6 Mountain
Ancient Tomb
Rustic Clachan*
Flooded Strand*
Bloodstained Mire*
Windswept Heath*
Flagstones of Trokair*
Rugged Prairie*
Forgotten Cave*
Windbrisk Heights*
Sacred Foundry*
Eiganjo Castle*
Plateau
Naya Panorama
Boros Garrison
Battlefield Forge
Ancient Amphitheater

*= Foils I need as of the time of this post. So if you got em, hook a brother up.

That is pretty much it. It might look a little rough around the edges on paper, but, trust, it's competitive. Been described as "one of the best and most fair EDH decks" in the Syracuse area. Let me know what you think!

Changes to EDH

2009-02-12T10:45:00.002-05:00

Apparently, Pat "The Innovator" Chapin posted an EDH list that was strikingly similar, yet shittier, than mine. I'm kinda bummed that he'd rip off a list from mine and make it worse, but it falls in line with a long history of pros "improving" things that they have no idea about.

Stick to your fortes, pros. We don't really need any more Chrome Moxen in Solidarity. Or should I say "Reset High Tide?"

Anyway, I've made a few changes to my list. Here's what I've got:

- Prosperity

- Mind Spring

- Brain Freeze

- Island

+ Fatestitcher

+ Glen Elendra Archmage

+ Master Transmuter

+ Reliquary Tower

And here's why - Prosperity and Mind Spring both fall into the category of cards I'm always dissapointed to see. They both require too much mana investment to play, although Mind Spring is generally the better card. Prosperity is always going to give my opponents more cards than me, and it's generally a bad idea to do so. It's also a poor win condition, since I usually draw many more cards in the span of the game than my opponents (or Mana Severance), which means the best it can do is end the game in a draw. As for Brain Freeze, it's biggest purpose in the deck lately has been to pitch to Force or imprint on Chrome Mox. It imprinted so often, it became a running joke in my playgroup - "Chrome Mox?" "Sure. Imprint Brain Freeze?" "Sigh. Yeah..."

The cards I've replaced them with have been begging to be in the deck for some time. The Archmage counters two spells and draws two cards. It's quite an efficient package, and I've been meaning to get one in the deck, but waited to find a foil one first - what can I say? The Fatestitcher has one job: untap Tolarian Academy. He's nice to pitch to cards like Thirst or Frantic Search, since he's not really overwhelming as a 4 drop, but he's great as a one mana uncounterable untapper. The Transmuter is the real gem of this round of changes, however. As soon as it was spoiled, I knew Wizards meant her for this deck. It almost makes me want to run Sundering Titan, to just go bonkers with the LD. Almost. Instead, I'll procede to make a bunch of mana, or I'll be playing Jar for one mana, or any number of other rediculous plays that you could make. I'm toying with the idea of running Thousand Year Elixer to make her "Hastey," but I think its probably overkill. Note that Voltaic Key has the same effect, if you can wait a turn to activate her. We'll see how often she survives the turn to be active. It does add a third non-Wizard creature to the deck, but I think with the addition of the extra two Wizards, it balances out. The final card, Reliquary Tower, is there as a cute trick. I'm not sure how good it will ever be, but it doesn't really hurt my mana, and it's a fun card.

On another note, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates. I've been extremely ill for the last week or so, to the point of missing my SCG writing gig as well, and I know everyone else is busy. I'll try to keep up a bit to let you know how things progress as GP Chicago nears, and I'll probably be updating during that weekend, as well. Keep your browsers tuned in!

Skittles

2009-01-16T14:26:00.004-05:00

I'd like to talk about a casual format, particularly my favorite casual format – Skittles. A five color, peasant, highlander format, which requires equal numbers of every color, as well as artifacts. Gold cards and hybrids are handled in a unique way in Skittles - they count as a percentage of each color in their cost. For example, a card like Grixis Charm would count as a third each of Red, Black, and Blue. This creates an interesting challenge to deckbuilders on how to best equalize the color percentages when using cards like these.

Deck building and creation is half the fun of the format, searching for old type two or extended cards which you loved playing but can’t find a place for them anymore. My favorite thing about skittles is how cards in this format are bombs and are trash in every other format, like Ghost-Lit Stalker for example. Since the format is slowpaced, a sorcery speed, discard four cards can often win you the game. Making your opponent discard 3-4 valuable cards is worth the cost. The goal of the format is to keep playing cards that gain you card advantage, being a two for one creature or a Draw spell. The more ways you have for stopping the opponent the better, however, you don’t want to one for one. This is the reason Swords to Plowshares is mediocre in Skittles, it doesn’t net an advantage. The attrition war is everything, from hitting land drops turns one through seven, to accelerating with artifact mana or Kodama’s Reach.

The fundamental turns of skittles are turns six through eight. This is when the bombs are cast that will determine who’s ahead in the attrition war for the mid to late game. Once you lose the card advantage race or attrition war it becomes harder to dig yourself out of the hole, but there’s ways to turn the tides, such as Haunting Hymn and Tidings. These two cards are the type of bombs I mentioned before - others include Slice and Dice, Ghost-Lit Stalker, Jetting Glasskite, Hymn of Rebirth, Harmonize, etc. While a turn five Haunting Hymn won’t win the game instantly, it will put you far ahead for later on. One way to avoid getting bogged down in an attrition war is to play cheap threats; since most of the decks focus so much on two-for-ones, significant threats are something that decks generally lack. Control decks take time to set up and control the game, fast draws often stump these control decks. Most skittles decks are control decks with creatures with strong abilities, because their abilities are powerful and interactive most people opt to play them over one casting cost beaters. The deck I've been playing lately is below. Feel free to use it as a baseline to start feeling the format out for yourself:

Lands

1 Wasteland
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Nantuko Monastery
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Savage Lands
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Mirrodin's Core
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse

Creatures
1 Stonecloaker
1 Phyrexian Gargantua
1 Shriekmaw
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Etched Oracle
1 Jetting Glasskite
1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Ana Battlemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nucklavee
1 Ghost-Lit Stalker
1 Mulldrifter
1 Stormfront Riders
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Ancestor’s Chosen

Spells
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tidings
1 Bant Charm
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Haunting Hymn
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Naya Charm
1 Jund Charm
1 Harmonize
1 Slice and Dice
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Resounding Thunder
1 Spectral Searchlight
1 Dromar's Charm
1 Rise/Fall
1 Wayfarer’s Bauble
1 Momentary Blink
1 Twisted Justice
1 Cone of Flame
1 Opportunity
1 Reap and Sow

Nightmare's Broken EDH deck

2009-01-16T08:46:00.003-05:00

I've made reference to this deck in a few places on this here internets before, but I've never had the deck in front of me to put it up card for card. Occasionally, I'll change a few things around with the list, but its been exactly what it is for some time now. Here's the list, with a little discussion of cards in the deck to follow. Remember, 100 card decks.

General: Azami, Lady of Scrolls

Sensei's Divining Top

Minamo, School at Water's Edge

Darksteel Citadel

Seat of the Synod

21 Island

And that's it, in all its glory. I've added links to the cards in case you're unfamiliar with any of them - and let me say just how much of a pain in the ass that was - but hopefully you can see some of the reasons it's as broken as it is.

A note or two on some of the cards:

Merrow Levitator, Inspired Sprite - These are the Nettle Sentinels of the deck. If you have Azami in play and either of these online, it's pretty difficult to lose. They allow you to absolutely bury all of your opponents in card advantage. They are by far the best Wizards in the deck.

Sigil Tracer - He's your number one win condition in multiplayer games, especially if your opponents have Gaea's Blessing in their decks. He allows you to go infinite with Turnabout if you have enough mana and guys in play, and he lets you Fork (or Twincast, as it were) your Stroke of Genius or Braingeyser to kill multiple opponents at once.

There are two non-Wizard creatures in the deck. Both are needed, as the Etherium Sculptor provides a third way for you to make the Sensei's Top/Future Sight/Helm of Awakening combo work. Note that you have access to two Future Sights, as well. The other creature, Tidespout Tyrant, allows you to go infinite in mana a countless number of ways. With him active, you generally finish the game with infinite mana, your deck in your hand, and your opponents with no cards in play. He's bonkers.

Memnarch + Filigree Sages + Tolarian Academy. Think about it.

Azami has a unique, and unfair, interaction with Mind Over Matter. If they're both in play, she taps to cycle cards, in effect. Draw one, don't like it. Pitch to untap Azami, draw another. Repeat.

All in all, it's probably one of the two most unfair EDH decks I've seen played, with Bryant's UB Pitchlong-esque monstrosity being the only one in front of it. I get about one game in with my opponents before they become frustrated and I have to break out a more "fair" deck. Still, it's enjoyable to occasionally do some things the game really doesn't want you to do, so if you're in the mood, throw it together with your own play group and try it out. Don't say I didn't warn you!

About Me.

2009-01-15T15:34:00.006-05:00

Hello everyone, I’m Bryant Cook. I'm best known for creating and piloting Legacy combo decks - Specifically, The EPIC Storm and EPIC Painter (In collaboration with Colin Chilbert). I also helped innovate the first lists for Legacy's versions of Cephalid Breakfast and Ichorid, both former Tier 1 decks. I’m mainly a Legacy player who dabbles in Limited and loves to play casual formats such as Skittles and Elder Dragon Highlander.

Another Staff Addition

2009-01-15T15:05:00.003-05:00

Bryant Cook, most notably the player who's put in all the work making Tendrils of Agony viable in Legacy, has accepted the invitation to contribute here, and should be doing so quite soon. I'm excited to add him to the staff, even if he only knows how to play combo.

I should be posting real Magic content soon, possibly tonight. My first real post will be my decklists for the two Elder Dragon Highlander decks I've been building, with some insight into why they are what they are. They're both a blast to play, so be sure to stay tuned!

Update on Authoring

2009-01-15T09:21:00.002-05:00

So far, I've gotten one author comitted to contributing to the blog, and another few who I've extended offers to, but haven't heard back from.

I'm excited about the yes, it's from Colin (Caulyn) Chilbert, the mind behind most of the decklists I've put up on StarCity. He's never really written regularly before, but all the primers I've seen him write for his various concoctions along the way have been excellent, as have his tournament reports. This makes me believe that given the outlet of a consistant place to put his thoughts, he'll have no trouble at all getting some things on paper, and on the blog. Along with that, he's one of the few people I know who does legit testing for Legacy events on MWS, so it would be nice to see some of the results from those sessions to further my own understanding of both the metagame, and Colin as a player.

I'm working on getting Colin's account set up, but once I do, he should be dropping posts in your laps. I don't know about all of you, but I'm excited. More to come, as I trick others into working for me for free.

Welcome to Salt City!

2009-01-14T11:56:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and check us out.

A brief introduction for those of you who've stumbled on us accidentally. This blog is meant to serve as an outlet for a few Magic: the Gathering players from Syracuse, New York to post whatever ruminations we have about Magic, life, etc. We've all experienced quite a bit, and have our own list of accomplishments within the game, so if you feel like taking what we have to say seriously, then by all means do it, and thanks for the vote of confidence.

Right now, the roster of contributors is sparse - it is the first hour of this blog's existance, after all - but we should be fleshing out all the authors as the week progresses. I'll ask each of the authors to throw out a hello within their first blog post or two so you can get aquainted with them.

Thanks again guys and gals, and welcome to Salt City Magic!