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:

Pretty.

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:

More or less.

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.

Fear the Sphere!

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.

Chromanticore-bane.

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.

If only ...

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:

• 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.

I'm looking forward to making some tweaks, and running it out again next week. Good times!

Well I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading! Until next time ...

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!

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 ...

F- this Kiora in particular.

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.

Great roadblock vs. aggro.

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.

Apparently all those spells are blue vapors?

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.

Not new-player-friendly.

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!

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!