Ding!

Hi everybody!

I'm told that "Ding!" is the WOW shorthand for "Level up!", and it is also occasionally used in the Magic Judge community. So ... Ding!

Yup, I took my Level 2 test this last weekend, and I passed "with flying colors" (quote from the L3 who tested me). I got two questions (out of 50) wrong, which of course I'm disappointed about, but I'm pretty stoked that I passed. :)

So now what? I hope to keep doing what I've been doing: working events, and mentoring new judges and judge candidates. But now I get to do so in a more formalistic way, including the process of actual certification. I do have a few more intermediate goals in mind though: participate more in education, and get into team leading and eventually head-judging more Competitive events. I'm not really sure how to make this happen, but that sounds like a good opportunity for me to touch base with my Regional Captain. :)

I also wanted to reflect a minute on something that's making the rounds in social media, both within and without the Magic community: the photo series of a guy posing in front of accidentally-exposed butt cracks. I have a few thoughts about this whole thing.

1. Nobody wants to see butt cracks. Magic players have a reputation for being "gross" anyway, and having ill-fitting pants/belts/shirts that expose butt cracks is only helping to propagate the stereotype. Maybe make it a part of your pre-tournament preparation to ask your friends to do a "crack check" before going to the event.

2. Posting this kind thing is inappropriate. If I find somebody doing this at my event, I will ask that person to stop. It's not as bad as the person who posted pictures at another event last year with rather rude commentary, but it's still a public disparaging.

3. It seems like a lot of this conversation has already gotten blown way out of proportion, by both sides of the issue. Personally, though I got a chuckle out of the photo series, I side with the idea that players should expect to attend an event without being publicly disparaged.

4. Butt seriously: Cover up your crack.

Yup, that's all I got for now. I haven't done much in the way of playing recently, since I've been studying for (and taking!) my L2 test. Tonight I'm gonna go to Standard and see how the Herd fares. And then we'll see about where to go next with Judging.

Thanks for reading!

Battle the HERD

Nevermind the Minotaurs, here's the Elephants!

So yeah, here's my Born of the Gods Game Day report. I tweaked my Elephants deck once again, and I brought this:

Lands (25):
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Abandon
3 Temple of Plenty
1 Temple of Triumph
3 Mountain
2 Forest

Elephants (25):
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
2 Loxodon Smiter
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Xenagos, God of Elephants
2 Aurelia, the Elephant Leader

Spells (10):
2 Chained to the Rocks
1 Selesnya Charm
3 Mizzium Mortars
3 Domri Rade
1 Clan Defiance

Sideboard (15):
2 Shock
1 Lightning Strike
3 Unflinching Courage
2 Wear // Tear
3 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Boon Satyr
1 Selesnya Charm

Sure, go ahead and start the game at 47 life.

Round 1: vs. Selesnya. Both games he came out of the gate pretty strong, and I was able to slow him down with early removal and timely fatties. The MVP of this matchup is Stormbreath Dragon, who single-wingedly shut down his offense, and stalled him long enough for me to stabilize and build a board after I finally killed his Unflinchingly Courageous Fleecemane Lion after he gained about 30 life (no exaggeration). Two epic grindy games. If he'd had an answer to my Stormbreath, though, or drawn another Brave the Elephants... Win, 2-0. Record: 1-0.

Sometimes you just need a fireball.

Round 2: vs. G/R Monsters. I suspect she didn't get the greatest draw. I let her have random dorks while I attacked with my on-curve elephants. She landed a Polukranos, and I 2-for-1'd myself to get rid of it (swinging a Smiter into it, and following up with Mortars). But I figured I needed to keep getting damage in. And that plan worked like a charm. When she'd start getting a board presence together, I'd finish her off with something. It was a Clan Defiance one game, and I think a Stormbreath another. Win, 2-0. Record: 2-0.

Sure, go ahead and draw two. I'll attack for 9. :)

Round 3: vs. U/B Control. This is an interesting-looking deck, and I was curious to see how it would play out. However, I soon realized, he doesn't have sweepers, so I didn't have anything like a Supreme Verdict to play around. I ran out all my dorks and elephants, and quickly stomped him down. I suspect if he had a better draw it would have been a better game. Thoughtseize and Doom Blade are good cards against me. Win, 2-0. Record: 3-0.

And this was good enough for the second seed going into the Top 8. Woo hoo!

Those two points add up quickly. Especially when the follow-up Elephantals are lethal.

Quarterfinals: vs. U/W Control. Game one I got a good draw, keeping lots of pressure on him early, and landing a couple of my better maindeck threats against him (though I now forget exactly what .. maybe Xenagos and/or Domri?). Second game, I couldn't quite get ahead of him in tempo, and he followed up a Fated Retribution with an Elspeth and counterspell backup. Game three I landed two Voices early and quickly attacked him down to a range where two Elephantal tokens and hasty Mistcutter hit him for exactly lethal. He admitted that he could have stopped those Voices a turn earlier, saving him four damage, which might have been just enough to stabilize. I acknowledged that I was out of gas with the Mistcutter, and a Sphinx's probably would have won the game for him. Coulda shoulda woulda? Win, 2-1.

Ugh, this card.

Semifinals: vs. G/R Devotion. I played against him like he was Monsters, but he was really Devotion. So the tempo-him-out plan worked great, until he landed a Polukranos and Monstrous'd for a million. And the next game he Clan Defiance'd for 13 to kill me. Also, I kept a bad hand in that first game, and I failed to draw enough land to curve into my larger elephants. But that second game, he had the nuts Nykthos draw, and there was little (if anything) I could do about it. Loss, 0-2.

So I finished 3rd/4th, which was good enough for 4 packs (plus the promo cards for participation and Top 8). Not bad for $5.

Some thoughts:

• With that devotion match, and the other "swarms of critters" decks floating around out there, I wonder if it's time to think about Anger of the Gods. I don't have that much ramp anymore, so Mortars isn't a reliable sweeper. It's just unfortunate that it's such a bad combination with all my two-drops. Against white, though, maybe I just take out the Voices for Angers.
• Yeah, I'm gonna complain about Devotion now. I understand that it's a great showcase for the whole Theros thing, both flavor and mechanics. But I don't think this kind of thing is really that fun. They dump their hand, and get some huge ridiculous devotion effect. I know I'm probably tilting, but I also think I'm not the only one who feels this way.
• And in general, it seems like Standard has stagnated. Last year, although the format was mostly Shades of Aggro/Midrange, there were at least lots of different configurations available, and some fringe strategies were viable. Now there are about five archetypes that are viable, with a pretty clear Best Deck in Mono-Black Devotion. I was hoping that Born of the Gods would mix things up, but it doesn't seem to have done so. Mono-Black and G/R got better, U/W got a scryland, and not much else changed.
• As for my deck, I think two Aurelias are too many. I love the card, but too often she sat dead in my hand, or I had to scry her away. I'd much rather have some earlier action. Maybe a third Smiter?
• I decided to keep in that singleton Sc'Ooze. It's not a great turn-one play, but it's great on turn eight after a bunch of elephants and other random dorks have died. It gains me life and becomes a serious threat.
• As much as I love it, I'm not sure I really need Hammer of Purphoros anymore. With Xenagos and his Fanatic, Stormbreath, and Aurelia in the deck, and Mistcutters out of the 'board, I have plenty of hasty threats as it is. I usually don't need to use the "Hammer my own land" ability. Against Control, if the game gets to that point, odds are that they've cleared my board multiple times and probably landed a Sphinx's or two. A 3/3 haste dork every turn isn't really going get through an Elspeth.

So I have a few things I can tweak. We'll see what happens.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading!

Praise to the God of Elephants

Greetings, and Xenagos Bless.

So I revamped my configuration of the Herd, and I came up with this:

Lands (25):
4 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Plenty
3 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Triumph
3 Mountain
2 Forest

Elephants (25):
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
3 Courser of Kruphix
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Xenagos, God of Elephants
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Spells (10):
2 Chained to the Rocks
4 Mizzium Mortars
1 Selesnya Charm
3 Domri Rade

Sideboard (15):
2 Wear // Tear
1 Revoke Existence
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Boon Satyr
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Shock
3 Unflinching Courage

And here's how the rounds went:

Seriously, have you read this card?

Round 1: vs. Orzhov Midrange. I brought the beats, and he brought the removal. I think this matchup comes down to who can draw better. Game three, he ran out of removal, and I was able to land an Aurelia and slap Unflinching Courage on her. I won that one. Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

Sure, I'll discard my only threat after a mull to 5. Jerk.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Black. Similar matchup, but this time my opponent got the better draw. Game three I had to mull to a hand of four lands and something that got Thoughtseize'd turn 1. The my actual threat got Downfall'd, and the rest was academic. Loss, 1-2. Record: 1-1.

Chromanticore deck??

Round 3: vs. Azorius Midrange (brew). Nice guy, and a cool deck idea (he ran Civic Saber to take advantage of all his multi-colored doodz), and he was able to be tricky with the incessant stampede, but eventually he ran out of stall tactics, and I was able to trample him to death with random dooders. Win, 2-0. Record: 2-1.

Labyrinth's End?

Round 4: vs. Maze's End. Xenagos help me. The problem with this matchup is that I need to try to be a turn ahead of his stall tactics. It's different from normal control decks, because they have to draw well for like 15 turns. With this deck, they only need 3-4 Fogs while they durdle their way through the proverbial maze, and then they literally just win. This is kind of a unique matchup in which I don't know if there's much I can do except try to get pressure early and often. Not sure how to go about that. Not sure it's worth bothering too awful much about it. Loss, 1-2. Record: 2-2.

So, some bad luck for the herd, but it was still a good showing. I'm still having fun with the deck, and it's doing well enough, so I think I'll keep honing it. Speaking of which, here's the post-mortem list of bullet-points:

• I cut the Smiters for Fanatics, and I'm pretty sure I made the right choice. They usually can't, or ever even want to counter Smiter, so I figured I'd switch to something that natively has trample, and that helps fuel devotion to the God of Elephants.
• I moved Chandra to the 'board. There are enough matchups where she's not that great where she wasn't what I wanted to see in Game 1. But she's good enough where there were some matchups I did want to see her. So .. yeah.
• Courser of Kruphix and Domri is a really cute combo, but that interaction didn't really come up that often. I jammed three of her in my deck with the thought that she'd help me smooth my mana. But I found that I couldn't really rely on that. It's better to use the scrying and Caryatids to do that work, and Courser can smooth out later-game draws (filtering out lands). The lifegain was mostly irrelephant, but in certain matchups, I could see how it'd be nice to have. I think I'll try a 2/2 split. Also, in controllish matchups, giving them free information about everything I'm drawing isn't really where I want to be either (especially since a lot of my gameplan revolves around haste/flash creatures).
• Xenagos. Definitely a god worthy of our elephantile devotion. I usually end up with a random dooders, and he makes the less threatening ones become less threatening. Sometimes I would have a Voice and a bigger, non-trampler (like Polukranos) on board, and I'd buff the Voice so that they'd be under more pressure not to just chump the huge thing and take 2. But that's another reason why I like Fanatic so much--he has trample! Also, turning him into a creature actually happened in several games. And most of the time it was kinda win-more, but it was good to know that it was an option.
• Aurelia. Seriously. I think I'm going to try out a second one next week. Probably in the 'board.
• I'm also glad I put in the second Chained to the Rocks. With the way my deck runs now, I usually don't need it until later in the game anyway, and by then I almost always have a Mountain I can Chain something to (as well as something I want to Chain to it). I think 11 total Mountains is the right number.
• I'll probably tweak the ratio of Temples. I think 4/3/1 of Abandon/Plenty/Triumph is about right. With Fanatic instead of Smiter, I definitely want red more than white. Sometimes I like the idea of having more temples for more temple-scrying, but I really hate drawing a bunch of temples and being a turn behind all the time. I suppose maybe I could cut a Forest for a fourth Temple of Plenty? But as soon as they start playing Burning Earth again, I'm hosed. D:

Well, that's about it for now. Next time I write, I hope to have something to say about Modern. Until then, thanks for reading, and Xenagos be with you!

Invoking the God of Elephants

Hi everybody!

So, first Standard event of the new Standard season with my new and potentially improved Elephants deck. I kinda went back and forth in my head about which direction to go with it, and I decided that the only big change I was going to make was taking out Elvish Mystics and a random card for Courser of Kruphix and Xenagos, God of Elephants. And adding Temple of Plenty. Because Temple Scrying is awesome when they're all on-color. As of last night, my deck looked more or less like this:

Land (25):
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Plenty
3 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Triumph
3 Mountain
2 Forest

Elephants (25):
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze 
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Courser of Kruphix
3 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Xenagos, God of Elephants
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Spells (10):
1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Selesnya Charm
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Domri Rade
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard (15):
3 Mistcutter Hydra
3 Unflinching Courage
2 Wear // Tear
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Boon Satyr
3 Shock

So how'd it go? Well, read on!

Elephants don't like being splashed.

Round 1: vs. Bant Superfriends.
Super sweet deck. Jace, Kiora, and Elspeth all teamed up in game one to shut down my elephants in game one. Kiora's "splash" ability is pretty annoying when a lot of my gameplan seems to revolve around a few single big doodz. Post-board, splash-proof Mistcutters and other hasty threats did them in. And once again, I heard "I wasn't expecting Aurelia!" Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

My unflinchingly courageous elephants will make sure to tap you on the shoulder before trampling through.

Round 2: vs. White.
He admitted that his deck kinda wanted to be two or three different decks at the same time. He had that M14 enchantment that triggers when you gain life or something? And a bunch of Archangel of Thune. But it also wanted to be white weenie, with early aggression and Gods Willing/Brave the Elephants backup. Unfortunately, he was just a little too slow, and his Brimaz and Precinct Captains were quickly tromped over by my herd. My favorite moments came in game two, when I suited up an Elephantal token with Unflinching Courage, and Xenagos'd it to become an 8/8 lifelinking trampler. Sure, block with your Soldier of the Pantheon. I'm still gaining 8 life. :D Next turn, I played some random dood and did the same thing with a 10/10. Also, Unflinching Courage is good. Win, 2-0. Record: 2-0.

Xenagos help us, it's a @#$% WALL OF FROST.

Round 3: vs. Blue.
I landed a bunch of Elephants early, one of which got Tidebinded, and another of which got turned into a Frog Lizard, but eventually he ran out of answers, and I won. Game two, I faced a greater challenge: WALL OF FROST. Yes, a 0/7 defender that freezes my elephants for the next turn really crimped my style. I had to use two spells and lose two of my doodz for a turn to get rid of one (and a clone of one!). I think I ended up dying a couple turns later when he landed a rather splashy Master of Waves. Game three, he stumbled on mana, and I Chained his Wall to the proverbial Rocks, and Xenagos-devoted Elephants (Mistcutters, specifically) ran over his random Weirds and Owls. Win, 2-1. Record: 3-0.

Lesson learned: kill it while I can.

Round 4: vs. Black.
We were the only 3-0s at that point, so we ID'd and split the top two prizes. We played a match for fun, and it was pretty interesting how it played out. I haven't played this matchup much, and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I think the key to this match is to keep the pressure on them. And I should probably kill Pack Rat while I can. Ideally, exactly one turn before it becomes unmanageable. The last game we played was pretty crazy back & forth, with me having to sac a bunch of doodz to Desecration Demon so as not to die. I had an Elephantal token and a Stormbreath, and topdecked an Unflinching Courage to trample over for the win. We scooped up our cards, and were talking about the final game state, and he realized maybe he wasn't dead after all. But we couldn't remember for sure what was all on the board or who was at what life. I thought either way I had it, but I don't remember for sure. But yeah. Kill Pack Rat. Record: 3-0-1.

So yeah. Another good night for the Herd. The deck gained some worthy additions in Courser and Scrylands and the God of Elephants, and they all played their part. Some more detailed thoughts:

• Having Temple of Plenty is pretty awesome. The scrylands are incredibly useful in smoothing out draws, allowing me to sculpt sketchy hands into good ones.
• Similarly, ditching the Mystics and focusing more on playing on curve and fixing my mana and draws seems to be the right choice. I miss the explosiveness of playing huge creatures a turn earlier with regularity, but I think sacrificing explosivness for consistency is the right call.
• Xenagos. He is definitely a God worthy of our Devotion. He turns random dorks into serious threats, and turns serious threats into really serious threats.
• I'm happy with not cutting the white. Having the white gives me just a little bit of extra spice that I might lack otherwise. It's not any one card, but a few that all combine to give it just a little more versatility. Aurelia, Unflinching Courage, Voice, Chained to the Rocks, Wear // Tear. Some of them could be replaced by other things (e.g., Voice -> Ooze, Wear // Tear -> Unravel the AEther), but it wouldn't be *quite* the same. And there's really no other card quite like Unflinching Courage or Aurelia.
• Speaking of which, one swap I think I'm going to try is Fanatic of Xenagos instead of Loxodon Smiter. It makes me sad, because, well, Elephants. But Fanatic has trample, and it'll usually be a 4/4 for at least one turn. The "can't be countered" aspect of Smiter is nice, but it doesn't seem to come up all that often.
• I want to find room for one more Chained to the Rocks. I think maybe cutting the Selesnya Charm is the way to go. Most of the time, I want it for the removal mode. Sometimes the pump mode is nice to push through damage, but I think I'd rather just Chain the offending blocker to a Rock. Yeah.

I win!

Oh yeah, so I also got to play some Pauper this weekend! That was super sweet. I like this format a lot. I played some Dimir Control (Ghostly Flicker version). I won't go into too much detail, but the gist of it is that it's super durdly, with no real win condition other than a Ghostly Flicker/Mnemonic Wall lock of some kind (usually with Chittering Rats, but sometimes infinite chump blocking works just fine). The tweaks I made to it from the last time I played were effective (e.g., adding cycling lands and Mana Leaks). I lost only one match, a ridiculously grindy match to Delver. But the whole thing was super fun. Now I want to try brewing something even more horribly durdly: BUG Dredge.

Okay, well I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading!

RRRRRUMBLE!

Hi everybody!

So, more tweaks to the elephants deck, mostly to the sideboard, and some actual good results to report! Here's where I'm at:

24 Land

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Magma Jet
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Domri Rade
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard:
3 Shock
3 Unflinching Courage
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Wear // Tear
3 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Boon Satyr
1 Selesnya Charm

Basically, I wanted more game against Aggro. Unflinching Courage was matchups against removal-light decks and/or where life totals matter. Shock is to help stem early aggression, and wanting to make sure that I always drew at least one in those matchups. So how'd it go? Read on!

Round 1: vs. Rakdos Midrange Brew. I played against a friend and fellow L1 Judge, and though I appreciated his brewer's spirit, it didn't seem to work out that well for him. In Game 1, he kept a bad hand (one land). In Game 2 I kept a bad hand and got my one threat Thoughtseize'd out. In Game 3, he just had way too many top-end things to do, and I had enough early aggression to knock him out before he could mount anything. Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Blue Devotion. In the first game I got beat up pretty bad when he had enough unchecked early flying critters to fuel a huge Master of Waves. The second game, he overextended and allowed me to swoop in with (I believe) a Dragon and a hasty Mistcutter. Third game, he mull'd down to five, kept a hand with two Mutavaults, a Nykthos, and some blue action, but never drew an Island. He was dead by turn 4-5 after I curved out pretty well. Win, 2-1. Record: 2-0.

Attack for a million? Attack for a million again?

Round 3: vs. Mono-Green Devotion. I lost a sloppy game one after we both misplayed (he let me have a Voice token, and I sent my Dragon right into his Arbor Colossus without a way of finishing it off). Second game I don't remember much about, other than the ground was stalled out when Aurelia and probably a Dragon swooped in for like 14 points of damage out of nowhere. He wasn't expecting that. Third game, he had an early Polukranos, which I promptly Chain'd to a Rock of some sort. Then I landed a Domri, with no other action. I had a Dragon early, but it got Plummet'd. I suited up an Elephant with Unflinching Courage, and he doubple-blocked with his X-1 and Boon Satyr to trade. Eventually, Domri ultimate'd, and the second Domri found an Elephantile friend, who promptly suited up some Courage, and stomped for a million. Win, 2-1. Record: 3-0.

Choose your master. Some ethereal ghost priest thing, or ELEPHANTS.

Round 4: vs. U/W Control. God I love this matchup. So much back and forth and so much tight play required on both ends to come out with the win. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the matchup is much less fun on the other side of the table. Well, game one went about as well as it usually does: not very. I stomped him down to about 8 life, when he ran me out of cards and started chaning Sphinxes. Game two I put him on the back foot almost immediately with Chandra, drawing tons of gas and making him answer threat after threat while he struggled to keep up. Aurelia ended up sealing the deal, I think with backup from some other random dooder. Third game came down to basically this: He -2'd Jace and flipped D-Sphere, Dissolve, and Blind Obedience. I thought about it. Fact? Or Fiction? I decided to give him two answers rather than the card that would single-handedly mess with one of my main lines of attack (hasty creatures). He took the two answers. I proceeded to beat him to death with the hasty dooders that he could neither Dissolve nor Detention. If he'd have taken that B.O., it probably would have been a different game. I think he was sitting on a Sphinx's that he could never cast because he kept having to answer my threats. If he would've had one turn of downtime, maybe he could have Sphinx'd and filled up on more Verdicts and D-Spheres. "What if..." Win, 2-1. Record: 4-0.

So, yeah! 4-0! My Round 4 opponent was a worthy opponent, though, so I offered him the prize split, even though tournament math prevented us from being able to intentionally draw. I think I ended up with something like 21 or 22 packs, which I banked in store credit. Not bad!

Yup, I'm still enjoying the deck. It's pretty satisfying when all my tweaking and philosophizing and practice pays off like this. Of course, if I'm honest with myself, I think I may have lucked out on a few things from my opponents: bad draws, play mistakes, unproven deck brews. But I'm still pretty happy with where the deck is at. I'm having lots of fun playing it. So I think I'll continue to do so.

With that, here's the obligatory philosophizing:

• I'm sold on the Unflinching Courage. Suiting up some random dooder and tromping through for mega lifelink damage is pretty sweet.
• I'm not as sure about Voice of Resurgence anymore. In theory, it's a no-brainer 2-for-1. But in practice, people are learning to play around it. I usually get a free dooder once every tournament, but I can't really rely on that. Answers like Last Breath don't make it as wrath-proof as it would otherwise be. Several of the best decks in the format don't really care about it. Maybe it's better as a sideboard card.
• I've been siding out Elvish Mystics a lot lately. At least when I'm on the draw. It seems like curving out is much more important than slamming down a turn-two Elephant or Domri. But the Caryatids are awesome. They fix my otherwise very awkward mana, and turn-three Polukranos is VERY sweet. Also, +1'ing Domri and finding an Elf .... not that exciting. If I keep him in, I should also have something like Boon Satyr to make him not terrible.
• Aurelia. Card is such a blowout when I can set it up. So much damage out of nowhere. "What's your life at? 18? Okay, I think I got this one." Maybe I should go up to two. But I never want to see more than one, and I never want to see it in a hand with a bunch of other big stuff and no way of casting it.
• S-Charm works as a spicy 1- or 2-of. In the mono-green matchup, I completely messed up his combat when he swung in with Arbor Colossus, Nylea, and Mistcutter, and I exiled his Colossus to turn off devotion and just take 4 from the Mistcutter. I feel like I should have it in against other big threats, like Desecration Demon and the Gods. I do look forward to Revoke Existence once BNG drops, though.

Speaking of BNG, there's a new set coming out! New toys! New Elephants! Here are some that I'm considering:

God of the Elephants! This could actually help shore up my game one against Control somewhat. Making a topdecked Smiter a 8/8 with haste? Seems pretty good. I bet in other matchups, I could turn on his devotion once in a while too. Also works with Domri's +1. Pretty much an auto-include.

Utility Elephant. A 2/4 body on turn three isn't the worst. Blocks most aggro creatures pretty effectively. Gaining life against them isn't the worst either. It also has possible interesting connotations with Domri, Chandra, and the scrylands. I like the intangibles on this one. She'll be in my 75 somewhere. Might even be 4-of maindeck.

Tribute Elephant? This guy looks great, if only the choice were mine. However. He's always going to be a 4/4 for three mana at some point. I guess the question is, am I okay having a 3/3 if a 4/4 with haste isn't what I want on turn three? But then there's another question. What if I cut white, and run this guy instead of Smiter?

King of Elephants? This guy is obviously awesome on his own. But does he fit in my deck? I suspect not. I suspect most of the time the cat tokens are going to be just random dorks that sit around and don't do much. They'd work well with Voice tokens, but I can't really count on that happening much. I think I'll pass for now.

I'll probably tweak a few other slots, like utility spells and whatnot. Probably Revoke Existence. Maybe another Chained to the Rocks. Between that and with Temple of Plenty coming, I can probably phase out the singleton Magma Jet. We'll see.

So what else is going on? I brewed up a sweet Dimir Control deck for Pauper, but it didn't do great this last weekend. So I'll wait until I shore it up a little better before I unleash it to this here blog.

This weekend is the BNG prerelease, which I'm going to be very active at. I'm playing in one, and judging at three others. I'm pretty excited for it, but I think I'll be exhausted by the time Sunday evening rolls around. But I'm looking forward to it. We'll see how this Limited format plays out. It'll be interesting, for sure. I just kinda wish I had more time to be able to play Theros Draft more. I only did one draft, and it was pretty casual. Oh well.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading!

Braving the PTQ

Hi everybody!
"Hi Prof. Shine!"

So, I brought the Herd with me to the PTQ this weekend. And ... I pretty much bombed. I lost my first three (one in epically hilarious mana-screwed fashion), but I was having fun so I kept playing. Then I started winning. Then I found myself playing in Round 9 for three packs ... and I lost. So I finished 5-4. Not bad, I was hoping for better. Here's what happened, more or less (I don't think I can remember every match, but I'll try).

Plus bloodrush? Owch.

Round 1: vs. R/G Aggro. First match, I got paired against another Mox regular. And I got stomped by his Armed // Dangerous shenanigans. It seems like maybe my post-board strategy for Aggro wasn't quite up to snuff. Loss. Record: 0-1.

So many Clerics....

Round 2: vs. W/u Aggro. Another match against a Mox regular. :/ This time, I took him to three games, and we went to time. I was close to stabilizing, but he just had too many little doodz, and I was at too low a life total to start to turn things around. Yeah, my sideboard strategy needs work. More to come on that. Loss. Record: 0-2.

Yup!

Round 3: vs. Murkan Control. Game one I mull'd to 5 and kept a hand of: Mountain, mana dork, mana dork, Magma Jet, other spell. Ugh. Well if I draw any second land I'm probably okay. 7 turns later, I have a Mountain, and a graveyard full of spells, and he has Elspeth. Game two I mull'd once or twice again, and actually drew pretty decently. Unfortunately, I was so excited to be able to play spells, that I played right into his Ratchet Bomb that killed my Domri and Hammer. I think I drew like pewp after that. Loss. Record: 0-3.

Maybe I should have waited to play my Smiter.

Round 4: vs. B/R brew. Nice enough guy, but his deck was kinda janky. He had some discard shenanigans, but not nearly enough to hold back the herd's persistence. Win. Record: 1-3.

Round 5: vs. RUG. I don't remember much about this match. I think he didn't really get much going, and I had Elephants. Win. Record: 2-3.

Flying Wurms, o noes! :/

Round 6: vs. Selesnya. Some tokens, some non-tokens. Kinda aggro, but with the midrange explosiveness/reach that Ajani gives. Pretty good match, close, back & forth. But ultimately, I was able to stabilize against him to let my Elephants take over and bring him down. We lamented the suckiness of the Karametra (the new W/G God), and the general lack in general of support for tokens strategies in the current Standard environment. Win. Record: 3-3.

Gary. Yeah.

Round 7: vs. B/w/u Devotion. I had him on Esper Control, so I boarded accordingly after I stomped him game one. Second game I saw the Pack Rats and Gary and ... yeah, let me re-sideboard plzkthx. Game three I chuckled when I saw what I forgot to side out ... Hammer of Purphoros. But hey, maybe this won't be so bad. So I play it, and start stomping him with hasty Elephants. He couldn't get much of a board presence going and conceded shortly thereafter. Win. Record: 4-3.

Why did they have to reprint this? :/

Round 8: vs. U/W Control. He introduced himself and commented on my SCG Judge playmat, then he mentioned something about doing commentary for them. Oh yeah, I thought his name looked familiar! I complimented him and his organization's quality tournaments, while having a crazy epic match. First game, he got kinda land screwed, and I had way too much pressure for him to keep up. Second game, he kept up with me very well, matching me answer-for-threat, and eventually chaining Sphinxes. I thought maybe I could pull out of it and/or go to time, but ... yeah. So we played a hyper fast game three with about 5 minutes left, and again I had a lot of early pressure and he got land screwed. Fun match. Good guy. Win. Record: 5-3.

First to monstrous this guy wins!

Round 9: vs. G/R Midrange. Okay, by this point, I was pretty tired and loopy, and frankly, ready to go home. But hey, gotta battle for those three packs! IN IT 2 WIN IT!!/ Or something? Well anyway, I kept some marginal hands, and his monsters were bigger than my monsters and I got blown out by Mortars and a giant Polukranos and f- this s- I'm going home. Loss. Record: 5-4.

Well despite opening and ending the day with a some bad losses, I had a lot of fun. I got to mingle with my Mox friends and share bad beat stories and just in general have a great time interacting with the community. And playing Magic was fun too. Even the losses were either close matches, or comically bad. And winning 5 in a row was pretty sweet. Hooray Magic! \o/

So, what change(s) do I need to make? Well, I'm gonna start here:

Because elephants should TRAMPLE, amirite?

I've been noticing that the this Standard format is a "big life swing" format. I mean, it's being shaped by a common 5-mana creature that drains life. It's probably time I did something similar. At least two of my Aggro opponents commented about how much the lifegain can swing a game in one's favor, and +2/+2 and trample can make a beefy dood into a huge threat. Yeah, that's what I need. Too many times, I've started to stabilize against them, found myself unable to counterattack, and die to a topdecked burn spell or Brave the Elephants. Imma try it.

But ... Honestly, I think 9 rounds of trying to compete with this deck has worn on me. It might be time to look elsewhere. I have Mono-Blue built, and who knows what goodies Born of the Gods may bring. We'll see!

Thanks for reading!

So Many Elephants

Hi everybody! "Hi Prof. Shine!"

Well, the holidays are behind us, and I'm getting back into my normal [Magical] routine. For Standard, I'm continuing to rock the Elephants. I've made a couple of tweaks, and right now I'm right about here:

Land (24):
4 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Triumph
3 Temple of Abandon
4 Forest
2 Mountain

Creatures (25):
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Loxodon Smiter
2 Boon Satyr
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Spells (11):
1 Magma Jet
1 Chained to the Rocks
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Domri Rade
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Warleader's Helix

Sideboard (15):
2 Boros Reckoner
2 Fiendslayer Paladin
2 Wear // Tear
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Shock
1 Scavenging Ooze

And here's how the matches went last night:

"Mountains come out of the sky and they [punch you in the face]." - Yes (paraphrased)

Round 1: vs. R/g Devotion. I wasn't terribly thrilled to get paired against this right away, but it seemed to go well in the first game. She didn't have much action in the first few turns. A Hammer turn three, followed up by Purphoros turn four. Okay, cool. Then, Burning-Tree, Burning-Tree, Ash Zealot, Hammer, all with Purphoros triggers, and swing for a bunch. Owch. D: I picked off some of her doodz, but a Boros Reckoner finished me off. Second game, I landed some early elephants and she got stuck on three land. Third game, she quickly kept a 7-card hand, hit all her land drops, and did a lot of scrying. So ... I was a bit concerned. I played it pretty safe, holding on to burn and waiting for the critters to start coming out. But .. they never did. So I bonk'd her to death with an Elephant or two. No Nykthos explosions, no Purphoros shenanigans ... just a few random dudes and a few random burn spells. Well, it's a win! Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

Remember this guy? Yeah, I don't think I can beat him.

Round 2: vs. Esper Midrange. Sweet deck. Some early aggression, some disruption, some reach, and some synergy. Kinda like the old Aristocrats deck, but .. not really. Anyway, this was a tough matchup. I got a bit color-screwed the first game when I didn't hit a white source of mana until turn 4 (with Chained to the Rocks and Loxodon Smiter sitting in my hand). Then Imposing Sovereign hindered my "Blockers" plan. Oh well. So I sided into my aggro configuration, with more burn, cheaper creatures. And that's when I saw the Esper deck's Plan B: Control. I played into not one, but TWO Supreme Verdicts, and when the dust settled, he had an Obzedat, and I had nothing. Loss, 0-2. Record: 1-1.

Hasty pro-blue elephant that can't be countered? Yes please!

Round 3: vs. American Control. Holy crap do I love playing this deck against Control. I lost game one to an unchecked Assemble the Legion, but games two and three, I showed him my powerful post-board plan: "Deal with this, or die." I love it when every card I play draws a response of "Oh, [swear word]." He was able to Pith Domri in both post-board games, but he couldn't stop all of my different angles of attack. I'm pretty sure most of my sideboard cards played some role in this match, including my getting a sweet sweet 2-for-1 with Wear // Tear (Pithing Needle and Assemble the Legion). Win, 2-1. Record: 2-1.

Not awesome against Jace, AOT, but if they don't have Jace, then she and a random unblocked  elephant will just win.

Round 4: vs. Esper Control. I offered the prize split, but he declined. Okay, more free packs for me. :) Well, I won the first game when he failed to draw enough answers to deal with all my aggression. I quickly sided into my "mono-ridiculous-must-deal-with-threats" configuration and prepared for an easy 2-0 win. Unfortunately, he actually had answers to all my threats! Domri got D-Sphere'd. Chandra got Thoughtseize'd. Mistcutters and Elemental tokens (Elephantals?) got Verdict'd. Then he started chaining Sphinxes and ... yeah. Couldn't keep up. Game three, though, he went to 16 to Thoughtseize me turn one and found: Land x3, Smiter, Chandra, Hammer, Aurelia. He took the Hammer. I played out a Caryatid, a Smiter, and topdecked the 5th land to finish him off with Aurelia. We played a few more for fun, and they mostly played out the same way. I congratulated him, though, on being the first Control player to beat me in a post-board game. Win, 2-1. Record: 3-1.

So yeah! That was good enough for 4th place (out of 23). I got 8 packs ($18 store credit) for my efforts. I paid $11.50 for the event, so ... hey, I came out ahead! I'm a professional Magic player! Okay, not really.

Anyway, the obligatory post-mortem/debrief:

• So glad I added the 4th Mortars in. Such a good card. I don't think I overloaded it much last night, but I was more than okay just killing a Soldier of the Pantheon with it.
• Shock out of the sideboard was pretty sweet. It kills a surprisingly large number of creatures in this format.
• I was actually kind of impressed with Scavenging Ooze. Against the red deck, he gained me a little life and became a pretty serious threat. I might try that out in the 'board instead of Fiendslayer (which I still have yet to see in an actual game). I even brought it in against Control as another threat (especially post-wrath).
• I really wish I could have gotten in some matches against Mono-Blue and Mono-Black. I think I'm okay against Mono-Blue, but I'm not at all confident about Mono-Black. I just don't think I can beat a sequence of Underworld > Desecration > Gary. Or even multiple Desecrations. It makes me want to try out Selesnya Charm, or more Chained to the Rocks. Because ... ugh.
• Speaking of other cards I wanna try out .. Peak Eruption. Several times over the last month or two, I've been thinking it would be really sweet against these Red/Boros decks. But I really don't wanna dilute my creature base any further.
• Speaking of which, I really want to find room for that 4th Domri. I can probably take out that Helix. But I've been thinking of maybe trying out a Sc'Ooze in that slot. But the extra removal is pretty sweet, too. Hmmm.
• Actually now that I think about it, Sc'Ooze could be good against Mono-Black, too, for nullifying the Whip-value tactic.
• Very minor point: Far too often, I found myself wanting white mana and having to wait longer than I would normally like to get it. I think I'm going to swap a Temple of Abandon out for a 4th Temple Triumph.

So yeah. Elephants! I like this deck a lot. It's fun, it's winning, and there's still room for improvement. Of course, Born of the Gods is coming, and that's likely to shake up the format somewhat. I'm not sure about my specific deck yet other than [obviously] adding the W/G scryland. But for Elephants .. I'm not sure yet. We'll see what Xenagos and Karametra bring us. :)

Not much else going on with other fronts yet. I haven't gotten to play Pauper lately, but I think I'm going to try Dimir Control next chance I get. Probably in 2 weeks. I Judge'd at a PTQ in Green Bay last weekend, and I had a great time doing it. I talked to the HJ about testing for L2 (his wife is an L3), and hopefully I can set that in motion sooner than later. There seem to be quite a few more Judge opportunities coming up over the next few months. So that's exciting. :)

Well, that's about it for now. Thanks for reading!