Hi everybody!
So what happens when you take a random winning deck off the internet, sleeve it up, and take it to the local store to crush the competition? Free wins, right? Not so much ...
I decided to play something different for Modern this week: Jund. I had most of the cards in the list that took second place at GP Minneapolis, and the deck looks like fun, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Plus, it gave me a chance to finally play with all those sweet Bobs and Goyfs I'd picked up recently.
Round 1: vs. Pod. Melira Pod? Not so sure. It's pretty well-known by now that Melira Pod often doesn't even run Melira. But anyway. Yeah, this was a fun match. Grindy, back & forth, and close down to the end. I'm sure I misplayed all over the place, sideboarded wrong, and I know I forgot a non-zero number of Bob triggers. But it was a close match, and I had fun. A+, would play again. 0-1.
Round 2: vs. Storm. Game one I had a pretty good draw, curving two discard spells into Liliana into Blightning (my own addition). Game two I lost to Empty the Warrens tokens. Game three I mull'd to four, and actually had a decent start until he storm'd out on turn four to kill me with tokens and Grapeshot. 0-2.
Round 3: vs. Merfolk. He turned my lands into Islands and overwhelmed me with fish. I got mana screwed in game two. Frustrating. 0-3.
By this point, I was pretty annoyed, and I just dropped. I had fun with the deck for the first couple of rounds, anyway. I probably just need to practice more.
In the meantime, I continue to tweak the Chromantenchant deck. I went 1-3 at FNM, losing to R/W Heroic deck, a mono-black aggro/heroic deck, and Maze's End. I beat Naya Aggro when they got a slow start (i.e., not that aggro).
I'm making a change I suspected I'd need/want to: shifting the color focus from Bant to Junk. I love Detention Sphere, but Banishing Light is the same thing most of the time, and black gives me some more powerful Constellation cards, like Underworld Coinsmith and Doomwake Giant. I'm gonna try Athreos instead of Karametra, too. And maindeck Pacifism to have a bit more early game against the aggro decks. We'll see how that goes tonight.
Sorry this is brief. I just wanted to brain dump while it's still kind of fresh in my mind.
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
Review: Solforge
Hi everybody!
Well, I'm going to do something a little different today: talk about something non-Magic-related. But I'm sure there is a non-zero percentage of people reading this who would be interested. So here's my review of Solforge.
For those of you who don't know, Solforge is a Digital Collectible Card Game published by Stoneblade Entertainment. It's known for being designed and developed by a bunch of well-known Magic personalities, like Richard Garfield and Brian Kibler.
The game is played not completely dissimilar to M:TG, in that there are cards that represent creatures and spells, and the object of the game is to reduce your opponent's health to zero. (For an overview of the game and how it's played, visit their website: http://solforgegame.com/game/what-is-solforge/.) There are a couple of unique features that make it stand out from other CCGs: The concept of Lanes, and the Level Up mechanic.
Creatures are deployed into Lanes. Each player has five Lanes, which oppose each other. In combat, if my opponent and I each have a creature in the same Lane, they'll battle each other. Otherwise, they'll attack the opponent's health. Lanes are also relevant in some cards' mechanics, such as moving between lanes, affecting creatures in adjacent lanes, etc.
The Level Up mechanic is how cards evolve as the game goes on. Both players and cards level up. Whenever a card is played, it levels up (if it's not already at the maximum level), and the next time it is drawn, it'll be the next level up. Players level up at the end of every fourth turn they take. Player level determines which level cards may be played. For example, if I play a Level 2 card the turn after I hit Player Level 2, I won't draw the Level 3 version of the card until I reach Player Level 3. This mechanic is functionally similar to the mana mechanic in M:TG, in that it governs the overall power level of the game as a function of time.
The game is "free to play," which means that you can download the game for free and get some very basic stuff to play with, but if you want to grow your card collection quickly, you gotta spend real money. Gold is the in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world money, and is used to purchase single cards, booster packs, event tickets, pre-constructed decks, etc. Silver is another in-game currency that can be acquired through playing the game, but the player is limited in what he or she can purchase with it (basic booster packs, singles, event tickets, space for additional Constructed decks). There are daily rewards for playing. Usually some silver, and a random card or basic booster pack.
I started playing the game last year sometime (maybe summer/fall?). I had fun with it at first. It was like Magic, but different. I purchased the pre-constructed decks, and made some decent decks out of those. But I quickly got to the point where I was whooping the computer easily, and losing to online players who had lots of powerful cards.
I splurged and spent about $50 acquiring a few Legendary cards (analogous to Mythics in M:TG) to bolster my Constructed decks. I fared better, but then they started releasing more powerful cards, and even decked out with a ton of Heroics (analagous to Rares in M:TG) and Legendaries, I was getting outclassed.
They introduced Drafting earlier this year, and I thought that was a great idea. Until I started actually playing it. I would fare well in the first couple of Player Levels (PLs), until PL3, when I suddenly had to deal with ridiculous bomby threats. I learned how to draft and play somewhat better, and I started winning more. Until I went on a streak of 3 drafts in a row finishing 1-3 or worse.
So after 9 months or so of daily playing the game, I'm finding myself getting very frustrated with the game. It sucks to lose all the time, and it sucks to feel powerless to do anything about it.
Part of the problem is that Constructed is most definitely a Pay To Win kinda thing. This is somewhat understandable, since it is a CCG, after all. But even if M:TG, it's possible to build decent decks on a budget, and there's more granularity between different "tiers" of decks. In Solforge, if you don't have a bunch of Legendaries, you will not fare well in online play.
So, isn't Drafting supposed to help level the playing field? It does. But then there is frustration that sets in there from a different level: variance. Again, I understand that it's a card game, and there's gonna be variance. But there's a pretty big difference in variance in Solforge games vs. M:TG games. In M:TG, you can keep a two-land hand if you have enough threats and/or removal to get pressure on or stall early, and then draw into what you need. In Solforge, if your opponent has a few Level 3 threats and you don't have an answer, it's very difficult (if not impossible) to recover. There's also the variance involved in the actual draft. Some cards are just ridiculously powerful in draft, and are virtually impossible to beat (I'm looking at you, Chrogias), even with good draws.
And I think that's the underlying theme of my Solforge experience. Games are highly subject to variance. If I get a bad draw and my opponent doesn't, I lose. If my opponent gets a bad draw and I don't, I win. Even in Constructed, if I have a bunch of powerful cards, if I get a bad draw and my opponent doesn't, I will lose.
So I've decided I'm not spending any more money on this game, and I probably won't be playing it a whole lot anymore in general.
But people who are invested in this game seem to enjoy it, despite the heavy luck element. They "weather the storm" and wait for things to statistically even out. I wonder if there's an overlap between these types of players and experienced Poker players (moreso than M:TG, for which I know there's a fair amount of overlap).
In the meantime, in Magic stuff, I've not been doing a whole lot since last I updated. I've got a new iteration of the Chromantenchant deck ready to go, which I'm gonna give a whirl at FNM tonight.
I did a casual sealed deck with some friends earlier this week, and I went 0-4 with a bad stall/Constellation deck. Like I've been telling people, I like Theros for Limited, but I just don't get to play it much. I'm hoping that once I get a judge rotation going at Mox, I'll have more FNMs freed up to go draft somewhere.
Cool. Well, thanks for reading! Until next time...
Well, I'm going to do something a little different today: talk about something non-Magic-related. But I'm sure there is a non-zero percentage of people reading this who would be interested. So here's my review of Solforge.
For those of you who don't know, Solforge is a Digital Collectible Card Game published by Stoneblade Entertainment. It's known for being designed and developed by a bunch of well-known Magic personalities, like Richard Garfield and Brian Kibler.
The game is played not completely dissimilar to M:TG, in that there are cards that represent creatures and spells, and the object of the game is to reduce your opponent's health to zero. (For an overview of the game and how it's played, visit their website: http://solforgegame.com/game/what-is-solforge/.) There are a couple of unique features that make it stand out from other CCGs: The concept of Lanes, and the Level Up mechanic.
Creatures are deployed into Lanes. Each player has five Lanes, which oppose each other. In combat, if my opponent and I each have a creature in the same Lane, they'll battle each other. Otherwise, they'll attack the opponent's health. Lanes are also relevant in some cards' mechanics, such as moving between lanes, affecting creatures in adjacent lanes, etc.
The Level Up mechanic is how cards evolve as the game goes on. Both players and cards level up. Whenever a card is played, it levels up (if it's not already at the maximum level), and the next time it is drawn, it'll be the next level up. Players level up at the end of every fourth turn they take. Player level determines which level cards may be played. For example, if I play a Level 2 card the turn after I hit Player Level 2, I won't draw the Level 3 version of the card until I reach Player Level 3. This mechanic is functionally similar to the mana mechanic in M:TG, in that it governs the overall power level of the game as a function of time.
The game is "free to play," which means that you can download the game for free and get some very basic stuff to play with, but if you want to grow your card collection quickly, you gotta spend real money. Gold is the in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world money, and is used to purchase single cards, booster packs, event tickets, pre-constructed decks, etc. Silver is another in-game currency that can be acquired through playing the game, but the player is limited in what he or she can purchase with it (basic booster packs, singles, event tickets, space for additional Constructed decks). There are daily rewards for playing. Usually some silver, and a random card or basic booster pack.
I started playing the game last year sometime (maybe summer/fall?). I had fun with it at first. It was like Magic, but different. I purchased the pre-constructed decks, and made some decent decks out of those. But I quickly got to the point where I was whooping the computer easily, and losing to online players who had lots of powerful cards.
I splurged and spent about $50 acquiring a few Legendary cards (analogous to Mythics in M:TG) to bolster my Constructed decks. I fared better, but then they started releasing more powerful cards, and even decked out with a ton of Heroics (analagous to Rares in M:TG) and Legendaries, I was getting outclassed.
They introduced Drafting earlier this year, and I thought that was a great idea. Until I started actually playing it. I would fare well in the first couple of Player Levels (PLs), until PL3, when I suddenly had to deal with ridiculous bomby threats. I learned how to draft and play somewhat better, and I started winning more. Until I went on a streak of 3 drafts in a row finishing 1-3 or worse.
So after 9 months or so of daily playing the game, I'm finding myself getting very frustrated with the game. It sucks to lose all the time, and it sucks to feel powerless to do anything about it.
Part of the problem is that Constructed is most definitely a Pay To Win kinda thing. This is somewhat understandable, since it is a CCG, after all. But even if M:TG, it's possible to build decent decks on a budget, and there's more granularity between different "tiers" of decks. In Solforge, if you don't have a bunch of Legendaries, you will not fare well in online play.
So, isn't Drafting supposed to help level the playing field? It does. But then there is frustration that sets in there from a different level: variance. Again, I understand that it's a card game, and there's gonna be variance. But there's a pretty big difference in variance in Solforge games vs. M:TG games. In M:TG, you can keep a two-land hand if you have enough threats and/or removal to get pressure on or stall early, and then draw into what you need. In Solforge, if your opponent has a few Level 3 threats and you don't have an answer, it's very difficult (if not impossible) to recover. There's also the variance involved in the actual draft. Some cards are just ridiculously powerful in draft, and are virtually impossible to beat (I'm looking at you, Chrogias), even with good draws.
And I think that's the underlying theme of my Solforge experience. Games are highly subject to variance. If I get a bad draw and my opponent doesn't, I lose. If my opponent gets a bad draw and I don't, I win. Even in Constructed, if I have a bunch of powerful cards, if I get a bad draw and my opponent doesn't, I will lose.
So I've decided I'm not spending any more money on this game, and I probably won't be playing it a whole lot anymore in general.
But people who are invested in this game seem to enjoy it, despite the heavy luck element. They "weather the storm" and wait for things to statistically even out. I wonder if there's an overlap between these types of players and experienced Poker players (moreso than M:TG, for which I know there's a fair amount of overlap).
In the meantime, in Magic stuff, I've not been doing a whole lot since last I updated. I've got a new iteration of the Chromantenchant deck ready to go, which I'm gonna give a whirl at FNM tonight.
I did a casual sealed deck with some friends earlier this week, and I went 0-4 with a bad stall/Constellation deck. Like I've been telling people, I like Theros for Limited, but I just don't get to play it much. I'm hoping that once I get a judge rotation going at Mox, I'll have more FNMs freed up to go draft somewhere.
Cool. Well, thanks for reading! Until next time...
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Excited Again
Hi everybody!
So, I haven't been posting much lately. Mostly because I haven't been having a lot of fun with Magic, and I didn't want this to be a dump of negativity. After all, I'm supposed to be Professor Shine, not Professor Dump. The Krakens deck wasn't doing very well, even after tweaking it, and Elephants weren't faring any better. The problem with them seem to be that they struggle against the top decks in the metagame. They are both capable of sneaking under the radar and stealing wins when they critical windows, but I'm not good enough a player to be able to do so consistently. So ... Sorry. Back to the drawing board.
Thankfully, we have a new set, and it's chock full of shiny goodness. I was particular drawn to this pretty little eidolon:
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here that I've been really wanting to try a deck with Chromanticore for a while, and with all the green land-auras in Standard right now, the time was right. So I brewed up this pile:
Land (25):
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Plenty
3 Temple of Mystery
3 Breeding Pool
3 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Hallowed Fountain
4 Forest
1 Mutavault
Spells (35):
1 Mana Bloom
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Nylea's Presence
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Verdant Haven
3 Detention Sphere
1 Banishing Light
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
3 Sphere of Safety
2 Chromanticore
1 Karametra, God of Harvests
Sideboard (15):
2 Pacifism
2 Oppressive Rays
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Banishing Light
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Plummet
2 Unflinching Courage
1 other card (I don't remember)
The plan is basically this:
1. Play some early ramp and disruption.
2. Stick an Eidolon.
3. Draw a bunch of cards, stick a Sphere of Safety.
4. Draw more cards, stick a Chromanticore.
How did it play out? In my typical tedious style, here's the tournament report:
Round 1: vs. Izzet.
This reminded me of the current Event Deck, with Guttersnipes and Nivix Cyclops and Spellheart Chimera and the like. It wasn't huge on countermagic, but it had enough blue-based disruption to protect the various Kiln Fiend-analogs. The main combo of the deck seemed to be Crypsis and Armed (as in, the red half of Armed // Dangerous). Guttersnipe was kind of a backup plan, but it's also capable of being Armed and Crypsis'd.
Anyway, the match seemed to be a race to combo out. He won game one with a 14-point or so attack, I won game two with a Chromanticore bestow'd on a Courser, and he won game three after I flooded out HARD. I think I ended the game with something like 8 lands in hand. And this was after scrying away a bunch of other lands. Crazy. I guess that's Magic, though, eh?
Loss, 1-2. Record: 0-1.
Round 2: vs. Mono-Black Aggro.
Okay, this is the kinda deck I was hoping to take down, and it worked like a charm. Even pre-board, I was able to stall *just* long enough to get a Sphere of Safety out and keep him from one-shotting me with a giant Bestow'd guy. Game two I ALMOST achieved the dream of bestowing a Chromanticore on a Chromanticore ("Yo dawg..."), but after already getting locked down by a Sphere, he conceded before I could live that particular dream.
Win, 2-0. Record: 1-1.
Round 3: vs. B/G Dredge.
I was able to get my engine going both games, but I had some awkward draws, and he had some good draws, and I wasn't able to land enough combinations of Sphere of Safety and D-Sphere to keep him from one-shotting me with a giant bestow'd Lifebane Zombie. This is a potentially problematic matchup, but I have ideas.
Loss, 0-2. Record: 1-2.
Round 4: vs. G/R Monsters.
A matchup I was dreading. If Stormbreath didn't have protection from white, this wouldn't be much of a problem. But .... Yeah. So I had to rely on the Sphere of Safety plan to keep it at bay. Unfortunately, I realized another weakness of the deck: I need to close out games. Turns out just stalling out and drawing 10 cards a turn isn't quite enough by itself to ensure victory.
Loss, 0-2. Record: 1-3.
So, not a great performance, but considering it was a relatively competitive tournament, and it was my own brew, and it was the first LIVE ACTION for the deck, not bad. But most importantly: I HAD FUN. And the matches I lost felt like they could have been winnable with (1) some deck tweaks, and (2) more practice. On that note, here are some thoughts about the deck:
Well I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading! Until next time ...
So, I haven't been posting much lately. Mostly because I haven't been having a lot of fun with Magic, and I didn't want this to be a dump of negativity. After all, I'm supposed to be Professor Shine, not Professor Dump. The Krakens deck wasn't doing very well, even after tweaking it, and Elephants weren't faring any better. The problem with them seem to be that they struggle against the top decks in the metagame. They are both capable of sneaking under the radar and stealing wins when they critical windows, but I'm not good enough a player to be able to do so consistently. So ... Sorry. Back to the drawing board.
Thankfully, we have a new set, and it's chock full of shiny goodness. I was particular drawn to this pretty little eidolon:
| Pretty. |
Land (25):
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Plenty
3 Temple of Mystery
3 Breeding Pool
3 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Hallowed Fountain
4 Forest
1 Mutavault
Spells (35):
1 Mana Bloom
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Nylea's Presence
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Verdant Haven
3 Detention Sphere
1 Banishing Light
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
3 Sphere of Safety
2 Chromanticore
1 Karametra, God of Harvests
Sideboard (15):
2 Pacifism
2 Oppressive Rays
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Banishing Light
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Plummet
2 Unflinching Courage
1 other card (I don't remember)
The plan is basically this:
1. Play some early ramp and disruption.
2. Stick an Eidolon.
3. Draw a bunch of cards, stick a Sphere of Safety.
4. Draw more cards, stick a Chromanticore.
How did it play out? In my typical tedious style, here's the tournament report:
| More or less. |
This reminded me of the current Event Deck, with Guttersnipes and Nivix Cyclops and Spellheart Chimera and the like. It wasn't huge on countermagic, but it had enough blue-based disruption to protect the various Kiln Fiend-analogs. The main combo of the deck seemed to be Crypsis and Armed (as in, the red half of Armed // Dangerous). Guttersnipe was kind of a backup plan, but it's also capable of being Armed and Crypsis'd.
Anyway, the match seemed to be a race to combo out. He won game one with a 14-point or so attack, I won game two with a Chromanticore bestow'd on a Courser, and he won game three after I flooded out HARD. I think I ended the game with something like 8 lands in hand. And this was after scrying away a bunch of other lands. Crazy. I guess that's Magic, though, eh?
Loss, 1-2. Record: 0-1.
| Fear the Sphere! |
Okay, this is the kinda deck I was hoping to take down, and it worked like a charm. Even pre-board, I was able to stall *just* long enough to get a Sphere of Safety out and keep him from one-shotting me with a giant Bestow'd guy. Game two I ALMOST achieved the dream of bestowing a Chromanticore on a Chromanticore ("Yo dawg..."), but after already getting locked down by a Sphere, he conceded before I could live that particular dream.
Win, 2-0. Record: 1-1.
| Chromanticore-bane. |
I was able to get my engine going both games, but I had some awkward draws, and he had some good draws, and I wasn't able to land enough combinations of Sphere of Safety and D-Sphere to keep him from one-shotting me with a giant bestow'd Lifebane Zombie. This is a potentially problematic matchup, but I have ideas.
Loss, 0-2. Record: 1-2.
| If only ... |
A matchup I was dreading. If Stormbreath didn't have protection from white, this wouldn't be much of a problem. But .... Yeah. So I had to rely on the Sphere of Safety plan to keep it at bay. Unfortunately, I realized another weakness of the deck: I need to close out games. Turns out just stalling out and drawing 10 cards a turn isn't quite enough by itself to ensure victory.
Loss, 0-2. Record: 1-3.
So, not a great performance, but considering it was a relatively competitive tournament, and it was my own brew, and it was the first LIVE ACTION for the deck, not bad. But most importantly: I HAD FUN. And the matches I lost felt like they could have been winnable with (1) some deck tweaks, and (2) more practice. On that note, here are some thoughts about the deck:
- First and foremost, I need to make sure I have a safety valve at all time. Chromanticore is awesome, but it alone won't finish games. I need to be able to hit a proverbial reset button. I'm thinking a Bow of Nylea in the maindeck, Elixir out of the 'board should help.
- Nyx-Fleece Ram is adorable (and the Terese Nielsen artwork is amazing as always), but I'm not sure it's where I want to be.
- I'm probably going to add black. Along the lines of the first point, I feel like I should have a secondary win condition. Underworld Coinsmith seems like he could do the job. It's also another source of lifegain. Doomwake Giant seems worth exploring, too, and I could bring in better removal. There's also the Agent of Erebos for the Dredge deck.
- I thought about maybe adding Pharika, but if I'm relying on being able Bow and/or Elixir myself, I don't want to be exiling my own creatures.
- Sideboarding is difficult. The deck has a strong "engine" component to it, and taking out parts of the engine will make it run less efficiently.
Well I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading! Until next time ...
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Growing Pains
Hi everybody!
So not much updates recently, as I'm going through some growing pains with the BUG deck. I feel like I'm getting better with it. The deck is in flux--I don't even remember exactly what's in it! But I think I'm getting closer to where I want it to be.
I don't really want to get into details about tournament reports, because .. well, mostly because I don't remember a lot of the details. So I'll just go over some things I've noticed.
* I tried cutting back from 4 to 3 Kiora because a lot of times she was just a bad Fog or Elvish Visionary. I'm realizing that I'm way too cautious about using her -1. I really want her to survive and to bubble all the threats. But I need to let her die sometimes so I can dig and find more permanent answers. I love Urban Evolution, but maybe the 2nd one of those needs to be the 4th Kiora. I can -1 her, immediately replace her, often ramp, and if she dies the next turn, then hey, that's less damage coming at me.
* I typed up my decklist, and was immediately horrified by all the random 1- and 2-ofs. I'm going to consolidate that.
* I'm always happy to see my singleton Jace AOT. I'm taking that as a sign that maybe he shouldn't be just a singleton.
* Far // Away is cute, but it's usually not what I want at any given time.
* Essence Scatter is another card I'm usually happy to see, especially against all those annoying creature decks (seriously, what's up with that?).
* Mana is sometimes an issue. I've been having to mulligan a lot because of color issues. I suspect swapping some of the Temple of Deceits out for the new G/B temple will help. Why can't I just run 9 Sylvan Caryatids? Or Farseek? In the meantime, I'm gonna try to cut back on some of the mana-thirstiness of the early game (I'm looking at you, Dissolve and Hero's Downfall) and/or up the number of dual lands.
* I achieved The Combo three times last night (overload Rift + Reap), and it was awesome. One time, it prompted an immediate obsession, and the other times it resulted in crazy grindy topdeck battles, including a near-death experience against aggro where I was hanging by a thread at 1 life. It was ridiculous and awesome, and I want that 2nd Reap in the board for the slower matchups.
* Nylea's Disciple is super sweet against Aggro. Most of the time I have a Caryatid (or two) and/or a Courser (or two) out, so I gain a bunch of life, and then she just sits there and clogs the board.
Otherwise, I've been doing lots of Judging lately. I got another SCG Standard Open under my belt. Fun, hard work, pretty uneventful. Working the booth was fun, but really busy. It's also interesting to see the growth of these events firsthand. The first time they came to Madison, they got about 250. Next time in Milwaukee, it was 350. This time, 600+. Dang. They get some criticism about their buying and selling business, but I can't fault them at all for the success of their Organized Play program. They run great, quality events, and it's always a pleasure being a part of it.
Oh yeah, I guess previews for the new set are rolling out. Cool? I guess that's cool. I'm not super excited about anything specific so far, but there's plenty to come.
Okay, well that's it for now. Thanks for reading!
So not much updates recently, as I'm going through some growing pains with the BUG deck. I feel like I'm getting better with it. The deck is in flux--I don't even remember exactly what's in it! But I think I'm getting closer to where I want it to be.
I don't really want to get into details about tournament reports, because .. well, mostly because I don't remember a lot of the details. So I'll just go over some things I've noticed.
* I tried cutting back from 4 to 3 Kiora because a lot of times she was just a bad Fog or Elvish Visionary. I'm realizing that I'm way too cautious about using her -1. I really want her to survive and to bubble all the threats. But I need to let her die sometimes so I can dig and find more permanent answers. I love Urban Evolution, but maybe the 2nd one of those needs to be the 4th Kiora. I can -1 her, immediately replace her, often ramp, and if she dies the next turn, then hey, that's less damage coming at me.
* I typed up my decklist, and was immediately horrified by all the random 1- and 2-ofs. I'm going to consolidate that.
* I'm always happy to see my singleton Jace AOT. I'm taking that as a sign that maybe he shouldn't be just a singleton.
* Far // Away is cute, but it's usually not what I want at any given time.
* Essence Scatter is another card I'm usually happy to see, especially against all those annoying creature decks (seriously, what's up with that?).
* Mana is sometimes an issue. I've been having to mulligan a lot because of color issues. I suspect swapping some of the Temple of Deceits out for the new G/B temple will help. Why can't I just run 9 Sylvan Caryatids? Or Farseek? In the meantime, I'm gonna try to cut back on some of the mana-thirstiness of the early game (I'm looking at you, Dissolve and Hero's Downfall) and/or up the number of dual lands.
* I achieved The Combo three times last night (overload Rift + Reap), and it was awesome. One time, it prompted an immediate obsession, and the other times it resulted in crazy grindy topdeck battles, including a near-death experience against aggro where I was hanging by a thread at 1 life. It was ridiculous and awesome, and I want that 2nd Reap in the board for the slower matchups.
* Nylea's Disciple is super sweet against Aggro. Most of the time I have a Caryatid (or two) and/or a Courser (or two) out, so I gain a bunch of life, and then she just sits there and clogs the board.
Otherwise, I've been doing lots of Judging lately. I got another SCG Standard Open under my belt. Fun, hard work, pretty uneventful. Working the booth was fun, but really busy. It's also interesting to see the growth of these events firsthand. The first time they came to Madison, they got about 250. Next time in Milwaukee, it was 350. This time, 600+. Dang. They get some criticism about their buying and selling business, but I can't fault them at all for the success of their Organized Play program. They run great, quality events, and it's always a pleasure being a part of it.
Oh yeah, I guess previews for the new set are rolling out. Cool? I guess that's cool. I'm not super excited about anything specific so far, but there's plenty to come.
Okay, well that's it for now. Thanks for reading!
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Kraken's Out of the Bag
Hi everybody!
Well I haven't gotten a chance to play much lately. After being gone for a weekend to test for Level 2, I've placed more priority on my home life. Then, I was asked at the last minute to sub for another local L2 at a TCGplayer event in Chicago, so I wasn't able to try out the Pauper Dredge list I've been excited to try out. But this last Tuesday, I finally got a chance to play some Standard. And I couldn't resist trying something different/new/exciting, so I sleeved up this:
Lands (25):
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Watery Grave
3 Breeding Pool
3 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Forest
2 Swamp
3 Island
Creatures (9):
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 AEtherling
2 Sepulchral Primordial
Planeswalkers (7):
4 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Vraska, the Unseen
1 Jace, Memory Adept
Spells (19):
1 Mana Bloom
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Ultimate Price
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Read the Bones
2 Dissolve
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Inspiration
1 Urban Evolution
1 Gaze of Granite
2 Reap Intellect
Sideboard (15):
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Unravel the AEther
2 Golgari Charm
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Bile Blight
1 Doom Blade
1 Dark Betrayal
2 Gainsay
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 (I forget?)
Yup, this is the "Makin' Krakens" (pronounced "kray-kins") list that Frank Lapore and Melissa DeTora have written about on TCGplayer.com (which in turn they got from someone on Magic Online). I tweaked it somewhat to match what I felt like playing, but the core is pretty much the same.
Basically, I want to control/survive the early game, hit a bunch of land drops, and then start landing haymakers with 7 mana in play. AEtherling, Primordial, planeswalkers, and/or the Timmah! combo of overloaded Cyclonic Rift followed up with Reap Intellect for a million.
Well, how'd it go? Read on ...
Round 1: vs. Rakdos Midrange. He had some early aggression with Young Pyromancer, but also lots of burn and removal. I made plenty of play mistakes during this match, usually involving getting greedy with Kiora. Basically, I wanted to splash a random dooder and tick her up, but then she'd just die to Lightning Strike or Dreadbore. I needed to user her -1 ability more, to ramp and to get some card advantage. I did land a turn-6 AEtherling (with a blue mana open to blink it), so that was pretty sweet. I also should have brought in Jace AOT to deal with the Pyro token storm and/or to dig for some answers. Loss, 1-2. Record: 0-1.
Round 2: vs. RDW. So many 1- and 2-drops. I got ran over pretty badly in game one, but games two and three I had all kinds of removal and sweepers (Golgari Charm, Drown in Sorrow), and my planeswalkers took over the game. Courser of Kruphix was an all-star in this one, stabilizing the board, and gaining a non-trivial amount of life. Win, 2-1. Record: 1-1.
Round 3: vs. Esper Control. Hard match. Game one was a lot of draw-go, and he had counters for my threats. Game two, he ripped apart my game plan with Thoughtseize and counters, but got greedy with running out win conditions. I bounced his Elspeth and topdeck'd a Reap Intellect, which resolved. I took his Elspeths, Sphinx's Revelations, and Detention Spheres. Unfortunately, he won the topdeck war, drawing into counters for my threats, and eventually an AEtherling that I couldn't deal with. Loss, 0-2. Record: 1-2.
Round 4: vs. Boros Midrange? Control? Very new player here. Her boyfriend/friends told her, "you're coming with us to play tonight." So all of her opponents had to show her how to play. I don't mind that aspect of it, but they gave her a hard deck to try to learn how to play. Lots of stuff like planeswalkers, gods, enchantments, scrying, triggers .... So much vocabulary. Anyway, the actual games went in my favor, though they took a long time. Win, 2-0. Record: 2-2.
So yeah, some rough going. Some tweaks are definitely needed, some of which I've already made. I moved Jace AOT into the maindeck, to give me some better game-one action against Control and Aggro. I'm thinking about moving Jace MA into the 'board for similar reasons. I don't really want to see him in game one against Aggro. I think the singleton Inspiration is really cute, but it's better suited to a more hardcore draw-go style of play, which I'm not really doing. I love Read the Bones, but that life loss can really add up, especially if I don't have Courser out. I'm not sure how I feel about Mana Bloom. Again, I suspect it's better suited for a draw-go style of play where you can take better advantage of the whole mana-on-both-turns thing.
So .. do I want to play draw-go? I don't think I do. At least not right now. I want to spend my early turns setting up. Caryatid, temple-scrying, spot removal (and sweepers post-board). And once I do get set up, I tap out a lot for planeswalkers and other threats. It's hard trying to establish a threat presence and leave countermagic up when need a million mana in order to do so.
But overall, I love the deck. It can be frustrating when I can't get much going, but it's a blast once the engine gets fired up. I really like how a lot of the key pieces pull doubple duty as disruption/control and potential win conditions. I'm gonna make a few tweaks, hopefully learn how to play the deck better, and see if I can release some Krakens. :)
Thanks for reading!
Well I haven't gotten a chance to play much lately. After being gone for a weekend to test for Level 2, I've placed more priority on my home life. Then, I was asked at the last minute to sub for another local L2 at a TCGplayer event in Chicago, so I wasn't able to try out the Pauper Dredge list I've been excited to try out. But this last Tuesday, I finally got a chance to play some Standard. And I couldn't resist trying something different/new/exciting, so I sleeved up this:
Lands (25):
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Watery Grave
3 Breeding Pool
3 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Forest
2 Swamp
3 Island
Creatures (9):
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 AEtherling
2 Sepulchral Primordial
Planeswalkers (7):
4 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Vraska, the Unseen
1 Jace, Memory Adept
Spells (19):
1 Mana Bloom
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Ultimate Price
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Read the Bones
2 Dissolve
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Inspiration
1 Urban Evolution
1 Gaze of Granite
2 Reap Intellect
Sideboard (15):
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Unravel the AEther
2 Golgari Charm
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Bile Blight
1 Doom Blade
1 Dark Betrayal
2 Gainsay
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 (I forget?)
Yup, this is the "Makin' Krakens" (pronounced "kray-kins") list that Frank Lapore and Melissa DeTora have written about on TCGplayer.com (which in turn they got from someone on Magic Online). I tweaked it somewhat to match what I felt like playing, but the core is pretty much the same.
Basically, I want to control/survive the early game, hit a bunch of land drops, and then start landing haymakers with 7 mana in play. AEtherling, Primordial, planeswalkers, and/or the Timmah! combo of overloaded Cyclonic Rift followed up with Reap Intellect for a million.
Well, how'd it go? Read on ...
| F- this Kiora in particular. |
| Great roadblock vs. aggro. |
| Apparently all those spells are blue vapors? |
| Not new-player-friendly. |
So yeah, some rough going. Some tweaks are definitely needed, some of which I've already made. I moved Jace AOT into the maindeck, to give me some better game-one action against Control and Aggro. I'm thinking about moving Jace MA into the 'board for similar reasons. I don't really want to see him in game one against Aggro. I think the singleton Inspiration is really cute, but it's better suited to a more hardcore draw-go style of play, which I'm not really doing. I love Read the Bones, but that life loss can really add up, especially if I don't have Courser out. I'm not sure how I feel about Mana Bloom. Again, I suspect it's better suited for a draw-go style of play where you can take better advantage of the whole mana-on-both-turns thing.
So .. do I want to play draw-go? I don't think I do. At least not right now. I want to spend my early turns setting up. Caryatid, temple-scrying, spot removal (and sweepers post-board). And once I do get set up, I tap out a lot for planeswalkers and other threats. It's hard trying to establish a threat presence and leave countermagic up when need a million mana in order to do so.
But overall, I love the deck. It can be frustrating when I can't get much going, but it's a blast once the engine gets fired up. I really like how a lot of the key pieces pull doubple duty as disruption/control and potential win conditions. I'm gonna make a few tweaks, hopefully learn how to play the deck better, and see if I can release some Krakens. :)
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
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!
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!
Monday, March 3, 2014
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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:
Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading!
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. |
| Sometimes you just need a fireball. |
| Sure, go ahead and draw two. I'll attack for 9. :) |
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. |
| Ugh, this card. |
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.
Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading!
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