Catching Up ...

So I got a little lazy the last couple weeks about updating this blog. It's not that a whole lot hasn't happened, it's just that nothing terribly interesting and/or exciting has happened. I guess I'll give a brief rundown.

GW: Opponent discards a card named Pillar of Flame. If he or she doesn't, you win the game.

I've had fun playing Junk Rites in Standard, winning more than losing, which is pretty cool. I've adopted Voice of Resurgence for the maindeck (with another one in the 'board). I love the elemental deer dude, but a lot of times he seems to be a Duress for my opponents' Pillars of Flame, and he gets significantly worse when I get hit with Rest in Peace. Oh, and though I'm not playing a Jerk deck anymore, I still get to go into Jerk Mode sometimes when I get the Slime draw. You know ... Slime your land. Resto Slime. Reanimate Slime. Reanimate Resto, blink Slime. It's fun, but I know it's kinda mean, and I always apologize afterwards.

You sacrifice your own creature and I die? Hmmm...

Yeah, I'm still not sure I understand this Aristocrats deck, though. I try to kill his dude, and instead he kills his own dude and I die. Hmmm. I mean, I understand the card interactions and all that, but it's so weird to me that Cartel Aristocrat and Blood Artist are two of the scariest cards in Standard to me right now.
 

More like WIN Drake, amirite?

I played a couple of DGM/GTC/RTR drafts, and had a lot of fun with that. My archetype of choice has been "stall with big-butted creatures, and poke to death with little fliers." Sometimes Doorkeeper mills away their Assemble the Legion, and other times he doesn't, and I die to the Legion swarm. And I still hate Madcap Skills. Seriously, that card should be banned in RTR-block Limited formats. Okay, not seriously, but I still hate it. Overall, though, I'm pleased with how the format seems to be so far. It doesn't seem as cut & dried as 3xRTR and 3xGTC were (Aggro!).

I got to head-judge another event, which is pretty cool. :) We had something like 19 players for Game Day, and I had a great time running that show. There wasn't a whole lot to do--players have a pretty good handle on things by now--but it was good experience. It's possible I should have called a player on Slow Play, though. I also realized after the fact that running the Top 8 rounds timed at 50 minutes was technically a deviation from policy ... 90 minutes is recommended, and deviations from that need to be announced at the start of the event. Oops. Next time.

Oh yeah! Rules changes. Did ya know some rules are changing? Check the article on the Wizards website: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/248e

Here's a summary:

1. Legend Rule. Currently, if there are two or more of the same legendary permanent on the battlefield at the same time, they all go to the graveyard. Starting with M14, it only looks at permanents a player controls, not the whole battlefield. So, we can each have a Geist of Saint Traft. But if a player controls more than one Geist, he/she puts all but one into his/her graveyard.
2. Planeswalker Uniqueness Rule. Pretty much the same thing. If you control Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and I play Jace Beleren, they both go to the graveyard. Now, we can each control a Jace. So in the aforementioned scenario, we each get to keep a Jace. Hooray! But if one of us plays a second Jace, one of them will have to go to the graveyard.
3. Constructed Sideboards. Currently, your sideboard can be 0 or 15 cards. No more, no less, nothing in between. And if you swap cards between games, it has to be one-for-one, so that your sideboard remains at 15 cards. Starting with M14, your sideboard can be up to (and including) 15 cards. So if you only really need 5 sideboard cards and for whatever reason don't want to fill it out with basic lands or whatever, that's fine. Also, when you use your sideboard, you don't have to swap strictly one-for-one. The only caveat is that your sideboard cannot be over 15 cards, and your deck can't be under 60.
4. Indestructible. It's becoming a keyword ability! So if you Turn (and/or Burn) something that has become indestructible (say, via Boros Charm), then you can remove the ability to destroy it. Hooray! At least, that's the way it sounds like it'll be. They'll make it a keyword ability, and then errata cards to grant the ability.
5. Unblockable. Isn't a keyword, and still won't be. It sounds like they're going to issue errata to make that fact more clear. Instead of "creatures you control are unblockable until end of turn," it'll say "creatures you control can't be blocked until end of turn." It changes the rules of the game, doesn't grant an ability.
6. Additional Lands. Currently, when you have something that enables you to play an additional land for a turn (say, via Explore), and you play a land, you need to specify whether you're playing your "land for turn", or playing your "extra land for turn". This matters with permanents like Oracle of Mul Daya. Currently, you can play an additional land, flicker the Oracle, then play another additional land, and then play your "land for turn." Weird. Well, that's changing. With M14, you'll get a "pool" of land drops, which changes as you gain or lose effects that enable you to play extra lands. And when you play a land, that counts against that pool. So no matter how many times you flicker that Oracle, you'll only get one extra land drop. And, when you play a land, you won't specify whether it's "land for turn" or "extra land". The game will just keep track of how many you've played, then count up how many lands you're allowed to play, and allow you to play another one or not accordingly.

1UU: Destroy target Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

So, some pretty big changes, mostly in the Legend rules. What do I think of all of this? Well, I think that "Rumors of [Magic's] demise have been greatly exaggerated," a paraphrase often attributed to Mark Twain or Albert Einstein or Grumpy Cat or something. It's true that it removes a common line of play when dealing with such things--"Jace your Jace?", "Geist your Geist?", and "Clone your Thrun?" But it also adds other lines of play, like .. blocking Geist with Geist. Or my Chandra pinging your Chandra. Which, of course, makes little to no flavor sense, but whatever.

People have been complaining about Wizards "dumbing down the game" since .. probably forever, I don't know. But I don't see how this is dumbing down the game at all. In fact, if anything, it'll make players have to get smarter in dealing with some of these problematic permanents. We'll have to think harder about how we're going handle an opposing Geist or Sorin or whatever. (Hint: Supreme Verdict is a card!)

And then one of the more interesting things this brings to mind is speculation about the upcoming fall set, Theros. Ya think maybe it'll have a Legendary theme or subtheme? We shall see!

The other rules ... Well, I think they're great. Nothing earth-shattering, just cleaning up a few things that can stand to be cleaned up. I approve.

I still don't know what's going on in this illustration.

What's coming up ... hmmm ... Oh, Modern Masters, for one. I'm not 100% how much I'm going to "buy in" to the set, but I'll definitely play some of the release events. That should be pretty fun. I hope to crack a foil 'goyf or four. I may or may not bite the $280 bullet and buy a box. I probably won't though.

I hope to do some more judging, too. I'm really enjoying the whole thing, and I want to do more of it. I'm already starting to look forward to Level 2 at some point, so I'm going to try to get on staff for some Competitive events coming up. Fun!

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