UK Nationals happened this past weekend. It was in Sheffield - practically my home town (Barnsley doesn't have a real book shop, ergo it is not a real town) - so I pulled together a blue/black control list for Patriot Games pre-nats standard tournament, packed up about 50% of my belongings and headed to my Gran's house to live in Chapeltown for four nights.
Night one was literally as medicore as possible. I went 2-1-2 (the middle is a tie, for Americans who don't know how numbers work), which I kind of expected. I think blue/black control is fine in general, but the meta game at Patriot is sporadic, and with a bunch of unknown (to me) players attending as well, I was pretty worried about the aggro decks. My losses came against an interesting Jund pod deck by Rob, which I feel like I should've won, and Quinton's mono red, which is basically a write-off. The whole match with Quinton lasted about ten minutes, including sideboard and shuffling time - that should tell you all you need to know. The draw came against a pod-less version of RUG. I had only played against that deck once before, months ago, and i think i made a couple of play errors. It was a very intense game, which i feel like i could have won if i was more experienced in the matchup, but that's what happens when you only play a handful of standard games per month.
My wins were fairly straight forward, not really worth talking about. I beat a homebrew red/blue control list, which got mana screwed in both games, and a bizarre red/white/black homebrew with hawks, equipment and Dark Tutelage. My opponent, Matt, who borrowed the deck from a friend, graciously killed himself with the enchantment in game one, while game two was a fairly straightforward Solemn-into-Sphinx demolition job.
I went home feeling like i would probably skip the standard LCQ next day, even if i scrubbed out in the limited one. The meta felt pretty stacked against U/B, and i'm far from the best pilot for it so i went to bed hoping to open some titans in the morning.
A quick word on M12 limited. So far, it has been cruel to me. At the prerelease i used up all my bomb-luck by opening a Grave Titan and Sphinx of Uthuun. Since then, i have lucked-out horribly in every draft, even if i had a decent deck (see the post about game day, for example). In short, i felt like i was due some luck.
But if there is such a person as lady luck, i must've pissed her off more than i thought. The first - and, tellingly, only draft - actually went okay. I opened a Sorin's Vengeance in pack one and passed nothing in black except for a Wring Flesh. I picked up a Berserker and Incinerate back-to-back, then saw basically zero red playables for the rest of pack one. No problem, I would just play blue/black control in limited, too.
Pack two continued down that path, with a handy Doom Blade being the highlight. In pack three, i don't really remember what happened, except that i somehow got a third pick Sorin's Vengeance. Now, that seems pretty good to me; if i can stall out until seven, the game should be pretty un-losable, right? The problem is that i got pretty greedy. With little decent removal, i decided to splash the Incinerate and a Shock - yep, i splashed with two triple-black spells in my deck. And no, i didn't have a single Manalith. In retrospect i don't really know what i was thinking, but i at least had the decency to cut my Devouring Swams so i didn't need any double-mana until turn five.
The first match actually went surprisingly well, lulling me into a fall sense of security. I won the entire match with just five attacks. Granted, in game two he wrecked me with green beaters before i could do a single point of damage, but games one and three were comfortable wins.
Match two showed me just what was wrong with my deck, however. I played against the U/W aggro deck with a bunch of pegasi and drakes. Game one lasted a LONG time before he managed to "out-dude" me and finish the game off. I did resolve a Vengeance - my only damage of the whole match, as it turned out - but i didn't see the 2nd one and couldn't draw enough guys to keep up. In game two i mulliganed to five and got stuck on lands. My only spell - a Skywinder Drake - got Mana Leaked and i quickly scooped.
At this point, i figured that i would drop out if i didn't win my last match. A 1-2 record would make it so that even 3-0'ing the 2nd draft probably wouldn't be good enough. So when i sat down opposite Russel (of Worldslayer and card-throwing fame) i did so with equal measures of excitement and dread. Excitement because i know i'm a better player than him, but dread because i know how shitty i would feel if i exited nationals because of losing to him.
Sure enough, i cast a Vengeance after his green and white dorks beat me down to 13. I stablised comfortably from there and killed him. A few nerves dealt with, but in game two it was almost as one-sided as my mull to five in the previous match. I did zero damage while his crappy dudes, and a massacre wurm, ate my life very quickly. So, game three, i was on the play, and I kept two Vengeances, four lands and a dude. Oh, god, why? I've read a lot of pro players speaking about how they will play worse and keep bad hands against a player they view as inferior and this was a perfect example.
But rather than simply crushing me, the game teased me cruelly. I drew pretty well, and we stalled out for quite a while - me at 15 life and him at 11. I bashed him down to 6 but then he drew guys and i stumbled. His board was big and scary - including an un-thirsted Wurm - but I had a chump blocker and Royal Assasin with six lands, including triple black. I untapped, failed to draw a land and passed the turn. He untapped, slammed a Celstial Purge and killed my Royal Assasin. No worries, I still have a chump blocker and plenty of life. He passed the turn, I untapped, miss on land but played another chump blocker before i passed. I still had plenty of time, I assumed. He untapped, slammed a Crown of Empires, tapped my biggest blocker and killed me with exactly 15 damage. Oops.
Still, with four days hindsight, there's no point in crying about bad luck. My first nationals taught me a harsh but important lesson - one that i can apply to any of the competitive games i play. Concentrate on the game, not on my opponent. Sure, keep an eye for mistakes and know where you can get an edge, but you still have to play well. Magic isn't a game where the best player always wins. Underestimating an opponent is almost as bad as, oh, lets say, splashing cards in a deck with triple-black spells. Splashing in a deck with two triple-black cards is stupidly greedy, especially in a high-ish level event like nationals.
I can bitch about getting unlucky with the mulligan in round two and not drawing land in round three, but they wouldn't have been such problems if i had built a better deck. Having basically one win condition is not a viable option unless you really build around it. This weekend showed me that i need to play a lot more than i do.
Still, on the plus side, i did play my first ever minimasters, which is pretty awesome fun. I even won at my first ever attempt, thanks in no small part to Fireball. I did volunteer my services to Rich Hagon, who seemed like a thoroughly decent bloke, but i ended up being too addled and busy to actually go and see him again to do some writing. Ho-hum, i definitely need to be more prepared for the next event like this.
But overall, i was pretty disappointed with my performance at nationals. I enjoyed the weekend as a whole, but I feel like i let myself down in terms of playing and drafting. And as for two-headed giant, well... that seriously was annoying unlucky, completely outplaying our opponents, only to die to a stupid overrun. Best-of-one is not cool, and if i'd known it was like that i probably wouldn't have signed up in the first place. I still think we could've gone 4-2 if Tom had stuck around though (he went home when we were 1-2). Our pool was incredible!
Oh well... next year, eh?
Showing posts with label mtg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mtg. Show all posts
Monday, 22 August 2011
Monday, 20 June 2011
Colour wars: a new hope? (aka my uninformed opinion on the bans)
So, this blue card just got banned. And a white one. They were pretty good. You might have heard about it. I guess there have been several billion words typed about this topic by now, but here are my thoughts anyway.
I won't lie, when i woke up and checked the Daily MTG page (after loading up the Dreamhack SC2 streams), i was pretty happy. Happier than i thought banning a piece of cardboard could ever make me. That doesn't mean i was dancing down the street and hugging strangers, but it made me smile at least.
That was my first, selfish reaction. I'm on a very constrained budget and Jace has never been an option for me, so there was at least a little schadenfreude. I once managed to borrow two of them from friends for a tournament and i once cast Volition Reigns on one, but that's it. Oh, yeah, I've lost to it numerous times as well.
But as a wannabe journalist, i have to try and be neutral and see the other side. Well, fine. I can understand that people spending £200+ on 4 Jaces get pissed-off when those cards get banned. I can understand the pros being mad because a skill-testing card has been removed from the format - the cost of cards is an irrelevance to them, so don't take their opinion on the cost of cards too seriously.
But coming at this from the perspective of someone who is involved in another niche competitive sport, the bannings are, if anything, too late. My other biggest hobby, for those who don't know, is esports (that's professional computer gaming). I'm also a big sports buff, and i know that the most important thing to the growth of any sport - any form of competition, really - is a constant influx and retention of new players. Wizards does an excellent job of making the game approachable for noobs. I'm writing this the day after the release parties of Commander - easily one of the best products they have made ever. Appropriately, it's also a week after the release of the event deck with Stoneforge Mystic in it. Both of these show how Wizards has stepped up their efforts in recruiting new players, rather than rest on the laurels of Zendkiar's massive sales and Duels of the Planeswalkers' immense popularity.
The banning of Jace and SFM is, in my opinion, Wizards' attempt to keep players around. Sure, a few whiners say they will quit because they've lost value. Maybe a few of them will follow through, but this is the internet, so i doubt Wizards is too worried. But players have already left because of Cawblade, and that hurts Wizards in the most painful place - their wallet. Hopefully these bans come quickly enough to stem the flow and keep the game healthy.
Wizards basically say they are banning the cards because they make standard stale. I don't think that anyone can honestly dispute that fact. You can say that Jace and SFM made the format more skill intensive, sure, that's a possibility - more informed voices than mine have made that claim. But the fact is that £200 (or more) is a steep barrier that a lot of players are unwilling or unable to overcome and when the cards that cost that much are a prerequisite for the best deck (you can't replace Jace, you just can't - believe me, i've tried) it basically means you have to play a tier two or worse deck.
Tier two decks can win, as recent tournaments have shown, but those decks took advantage of the fact that Cawblade decks were so prevelant. Control players were tuning with other control players in mind, leaving out the removal that would protect them from vampires and goblins. That's how good Cawblade is: it can ignore half of the format and still beat it more often than not.
Now, let's be clear: i'm not insinuating that Wizards banned the cards because they are too expensive - that is not really their concern. But the fact that Jace costs so much starts a snowball effect. People bitch and complain that cards are too expensive and that the format is dull; players stop attending tournaments; Wizards is forced to act. So indirectly, the price of Jace is the reason it got banned.
Stoneforge Mystic, on the other hand, is just too fucking good. £15 is expensive for a rare in this day and age, sure, but even i could bare to part with £60 if it meant i had the best deck in the format. The fact that it was barely played outside of Naya for the period before Cawblade arrived was simply because we had almost no good equipment. Now that we can put a pseudo-indestructable 4/4 with vigilance and lifelink into play on turn three, things are a bit different.
So why ban both? That's the other question people keep raising. Jace wasn't breaking the format before Mirrodin Besieged, right? Well, kinda. As i recall, there were basically three decks back then: UW Control, UB Control and Valakut. Two of those played Jace and could not function the same without him, the other two featured a then-£40 Primeval Titan in a similar "this deck sucks without me" fashion. Pretty annoying for us budget players, but they kept each other in check, with the main three maintaining a traditional rock-paper-scissors. Sure, there was no aggro deck, but it was better than the height of Cawblade's dominance. Is a format where two expensive mythics dominate better than a format where one expensive mythic and an expensive rare dominate? (oh, and lets not forget, you do still need to buy the equipment too). I don't know, but the point is that Jace did dominate the format back then too; you either played Jace, or you played cards to beat Jace - isn't that the definition of format-warping?
In combination with Stoneforge Mystic and a slew of ridiculsouly good equipment, Jace is THAT good. But if only Mystic was banned, UW would still be one of the top decks - you can make an argument that, with Torpor Orb tempering Valakut, UWwould still be THE deck. From here, it's all speculation. Would Valakut be good enough to keep Vengevine off the top tables? Can UB make a comeback with Tezzeret? I don't want to hazard a guess, though i'm fairly sure that monoblack probably still isn't good enough.
Ironically, one of the healthiest things to happen to magic is what highlighted the flaws. This is hardly an original thought from me, but the SCG opens have thrown standard into the spotlight like it never was before. Almost weekly scrutiny has made it blatantly obvious that Cawblade is better than Jund ever was. The numbers, which are more reliable than previous years due to the increased sample size, bare this out.
I guess there is one other argument to dispel - preordain. Apparently some people really believe this, which i found hard to, er, believe. The argument goes that one turn one you can dig for the Jace or the SFM, which helps your mulligans, i suppose. Okay, sure... but what are you digging for? It sure as hell ain't more preordains. Besides, everyone can play preordain, it's a common.
I won't lie, when i woke up and checked the Daily MTG page (after loading up the Dreamhack SC2 streams), i was pretty happy. Happier than i thought banning a piece of cardboard could ever make me. That doesn't mean i was dancing down the street and hugging strangers, but it made me smile at least.
That was my first, selfish reaction. I'm on a very constrained budget and Jace has never been an option for me, so there was at least a little schadenfreude. I once managed to borrow two of them from friends for a tournament and i once cast Volition Reigns on one, but that's it. Oh, yeah, I've lost to it numerous times as well.
But as a wannabe journalist, i have to try and be neutral and see the other side. Well, fine. I can understand that people spending £200+ on 4 Jaces get pissed-off when those cards get banned. I can understand the pros being mad because a skill-testing card has been removed from the format - the cost of cards is an irrelevance to them, so don't take their opinion on the cost of cards too seriously.
But coming at this from the perspective of someone who is involved in another niche competitive sport, the bannings are, if anything, too late. My other biggest hobby, for those who don't know, is esports (that's professional computer gaming). I'm also a big sports buff, and i know that the most important thing to the growth of any sport - any form of competition, really - is a constant influx and retention of new players. Wizards does an excellent job of making the game approachable for noobs. I'm writing this the day after the release parties of Commander - easily one of the best products they have made ever. Appropriately, it's also a week after the release of the event deck with Stoneforge Mystic in it. Both of these show how Wizards has stepped up their efforts in recruiting new players, rather than rest on the laurels of Zendkiar's massive sales and Duels of the Planeswalkers' immense popularity.
The banning of Jace and SFM is, in my opinion, Wizards' attempt to keep players around. Sure, a few whiners say they will quit because they've lost value. Maybe a few of them will follow through, but this is the internet, so i doubt Wizards is too worried. But players have already left because of Cawblade, and that hurts Wizards in the most painful place - their wallet. Hopefully these bans come quickly enough to stem the flow and keep the game healthy.
Wizards basically say they are banning the cards because they make standard stale. I don't think that anyone can honestly dispute that fact. You can say that Jace and SFM made the format more skill intensive, sure, that's a possibility - more informed voices than mine have made that claim. But the fact is that £200 (or more) is a steep barrier that a lot of players are unwilling or unable to overcome and when the cards that cost that much are a prerequisite for the best deck (you can't replace Jace, you just can't - believe me, i've tried) it basically means you have to play a tier two or worse deck.
Tier two decks can win, as recent tournaments have shown, but those decks took advantage of the fact that Cawblade decks were so prevelant. Control players were tuning with other control players in mind, leaving out the removal that would protect them from vampires and goblins. That's how good Cawblade is: it can ignore half of the format and still beat it more often than not.
Now, let's be clear: i'm not insinuating that Wizards banned the cards because they are too expensive - that is not really their concern. But the fact that Jace costs so much starts a snowball effect. People bitch and complain that cards are too expensive and that the format is dull; players stop attending tournaments; Wizards is forced to act. So indirectly, the price of Jace is the reason it got banned.
Stoneforge Mystic, on the other hand, is just too fucking good. £15 is expensive for a rare in this day and age, sure, but even i could bare to part with £60 if it meant i had the best deck in the format. The fact that it was barely played outside of Naya for the period before Cawblade arrived was simply because we had almost no good equipment. Now that we can put a pseudo-indestructable 4/4 with vigilance and lifelink into play on turn three, things are a bit different.
So why ban both? That's the other question people keep raising. Jace wasn't breaking the format before Mirrodin Besieged, right? Well, kinda. As i recall, there were basically three decks back then: UW Control, UB Control and Valakut. Two of those played Jace and could not function the same without him, the other two featured a then-£40 Primeval Titan in a similar "this deck sucks without me" fashion. Pretty annoying for us budget players, but they kept each other in check, with the main three maintaining a traditional rock-paper-scissors. Sure, there was no aggro deck, but it was better than the height of Cawblade's dominance. Is a format where two expensive mythics dominate better than a format where one expensive mythic and an expensive rare dominate? (oh, and lets not forget, you do still need to buy the equipment too). I don't know, but the point is that Jace did dominate the format back then too; you either played Jace, or you played cards to beat Jace - isn't that the definition of format-warping?
In combination with Stoneforge Mystic and a slew of ridiculsouly good equipment, Jace is THAT good. But if only Mystic was banned, UW would still be one of the top decks - you can make an argument that, with Torpor Orb tempering Valakut, UWwould still be THE deck. From here, it's all speculation. Would Valakut be good enough to keep Vengevine off the top tables? Can UB make a comeback with Tezzeret? I don't want to hazard a guess, though i'm fairly sure that monoblack probably still isn't good enough.
Ironically, one of the healthiest things to happen to magic is what highlighted the flaws. This is hardly an original thought from me, but the SCG opens have thrown standard into the spotlight like it never was before. Almost weekly scrutiny has made it blatantly obvious that Cawblade is better than Jund ever was. The numbers, which are more reliable than previous years due to the increased sample size, bare this out.
I guess there is one other argument to dispel - preordain. Apparently some people really believe this, which i found hard to, er, believe. The argument goes that one turn one you can dig for the Jace or the SFM, which helps your mulligans, i suppose. Okay, sure... but what are you digging for? It sure as hell ain't more preordains. Besides, everyone can play preordain, it's a common.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
NPH pre-release. Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb
Ah, sealed, what an irritating luck-fest. Still, i just can't resist it, and especially the pre-release. New cards a free shiny thing and the slim chance of opening bombs/money rares apparently outshine the more real chance of opening a mediocre or worse pool.
When i watched Tom open a Sword of War and Peace (i knew i should've sat in that seat) i should've known how my day would go. The one mythic i opened in my pool was basically my only bomb, but it was a pretty good one. Sheoldred, the Whispering One might be practically worthless anywhere outside of Sealed, but christ, it's good there. I'm not exaggerating when i say that i cast it six times yesterday and i won those six games. The other five i lost (for my fellow maths noobs, my record was 3-2 overall).
Still, my most awesome moment of the day came thanks to Necrotic Ooze. I've played with this card in EDH and never really had it do anything. But in my game three of my third match yesterday he was a beast. He had infect from Vector Asp, firebreathing from Ogre Menial and Immolating Souleater (both in my colours, i was BRg) as well as the ping ability from Fallen Ferromancer. Yeah, that one wasn't even close. Ferromancer is crazy good, by the way - haivng two of those in my pool really helped me stall for Sheoldred.
I could've easily been 4-1, but i mis-played against Mike. I was in a pretty good-looking board position so i was sandbagging lands, since i had upwards of eigh in play already. Unforunately, i kinda forgot about the Tower of Calamties in my hand, and was pretty annoyed when he cast Tainted Strike on some random dude, i forget which one. I hate infect as a mechanic, but that was totally avoidable. My other loss earlier in the day also came against infect. In fact, looking back, every single deck i played was infect-based apart from Patrick's, which i kinda raped by casting Sheoldred in both games.
In summary: sealed is still a horrible format, but if you open a bomb like Sheoldred, build around it and stall out until she takes over the game. Just untapping once with her means the game is almost un-loseable. Your opponent will have sacrificed a chump blocker and you'll have one of your stalling guys back. Not to mention the awesomeness of swampwalk on a 6/6 when most decks are playing black to some extent.
Oh, and i guess as the author of a blog whose url is monoblackcontrol, i should probably be happy that my all-star card was black, right? Still, couldn't it have been an Obliterator? :(
When i watched Tom open a Sword of War and Peace (i knew i should've sat in that seat) i should've known how my day would go. The one mythic i opened in my pool was basically my only bomb, but it was a pretty good one. Sheoldred, the Whispering One might be practically worthless anywhere outside of Sealed, but christ, it's good there. I'm not exaggerating when i say that i cast it six times yesterday and i won those six games. The other five i lost (for my fellow maths noobs, my record was 3-2 overall).
Still, my most awesome moment of the day came thanks to Necrotic Ooze. I've played with this card in EDH and never really had it do anything. But in my game three of my third match yesterday he was a beast. He had infect from Vector Asp, firebreathing from Ogre Menial and Immolating Souleater (both in my colours, i was BRg) as well as the ping ability from Fallen Ferromancer. Yeah, that one wasn't even close. Ferromancer is crazy good, by the way - haivng two of those in my pool really helped me stall for Sheoldred.
I could've easily been 4-1, but i mis-played against Mike. I was in a pretty good-looking board position so i was sandbagging lands, since i had upwards of eigh in play already. Unforunately, i kinda forgot about the Tower of Calamties in my hand, and was pretty annoyed when he cast Tainted Strike on some random dude, i forget which one. I hate infect as a mechanic, but that was totally avoidable. My other loss earlier in the day also came against infect. In fact, looking back, every single deck i played was infect-based apart from Patrick's, which i kinda raped by casting Sheoldred in both games.
In summary: sealed is still a horrible format, but if you open a bomb like Sheoldred, build around it and stall out until she takes over the game. Just untapping once with her means the game is almost un-loseable. Your opponent will have sacrificed a chump blocker and you'll have one of your stalling guys back. Not to mention the awesomeness of swampwalk on a 6/6 when most decks are playing black to some extent.
Oh, and i guess as the author of a blog whose url is monoblackcontrol, i should probably be happy that my all-star card was black, right? Still, couldn't it have been an Obliterator? :(
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
New Phrexia: Back in Black
Set reviews are pretty common on these here intrawebz. So, rather than bore you all with another long-winded take on why Karn is probably unplayable and Mental Misstep will change the face of legacy, i figure i'd live up to the blog's name and take a look at the black cards only. I'll mostly be looking at standard, since it's what most people care about, but i'll also consider limited.
Blind Zealot: This card seems pretty awesome in a black aggro draft deck. The problem is that in MSS, that generally means Infect but maybe there are the tools to change that in the new format. I'm not convinced, but this still seems like a solid draft pick in the middle of the pack. In terms of standard, this seems like a worse Gatekeeper, with a decent upside of being unblockable by some/most decks. A semi-unblockable 2/2 for 3 might be good with some recursion, but it probably doesn't do enough on its own.
Caress of Phyrexia: Pretty close to being Strictly Worse than Sign in Blood. One more card for far more than double the cost. Card advantage/draw is great, but the price is far too high here, and is probably worse in draft that it is in standard, due to prominence of Infect.
Chancellor of the Dross: This seems pretty hillarious in something like EDH if you get it in your opener. In standard it's far too expensive for a french vanilla 6/6 flier. In draft it's obviously pretty solid, especially if the slowdown we saw in MSS continues into MSN (so is this what Wizards refers to when they talk about the new Magic Online? MSN? Rumbled!). There are better bombs to first pick from this set, and the decent leyline effect is negated by having a seven mana card in your opening hand, but a 6/6 lifelink flier is hard to pass P1P1.
Dementia Bat: I guess i should leave the puns to LSV, but you really would have to be demented to play this in anything but limited. Even there it's filler at best. Nine mana for a Mind Rot on a 'meh' body? I really hope i never have to run this.
Despise: Sweet; Inquisition for Walkers and Creatures. This seems like an absolute auto-include in any black decks. Maybe not a four-of, since Inquisition is better against low curve/no walker decks but you'll probably want four between the main and the side. For black players this might be the most important card of the set. As for limited, since it hits creatures this might actually be playable, which is rare for a duress effect. I wouldn't try and take it early, but i'd be happy to wheel one.
Dismember: I'm not as excited as everyone else about this card. For black players the extra -1/-1 isn't much better than Grasp since there aren't many five toughness threats played in standard right now. For other colours, well... is killing a Thrun worth four life? Is killing a Titan worth 2-for-1-ing yourself AND taking four damage anyway (possibly seven if it's an Inferno)? In limited this card will be excellent but i still expect to see it mostly in black decks. Like all the Phyrexian mana cards, though, it gets better against Infect.
Enslave: Cool, Mind Control in black. Like any MC effect, this is obviously solid in limited, but will probably see zero standard play. The cost is high, and black has much better ways to deal with creatures. Looking forward to seeing someone cast this on a Vatmother and hopefully in a deck with Caress of Phyrexia.
Entomber Exarch: Gravediggers are generally playable in limited, and this one has some versatility to boot. Granted, i can't see the second clause being used often, there are always corner cases (maybe you have an empty graveyard). In standard this will be the same as every Gravedigger, unless someone needs an alternate win condition for their Megrim (Liliana's Caress, whatever) deck...
Evil Presence: Urborg for extreme budget EDH players? Yeah, this is unplayable everywhere.
Geth's Verdict: I tend to overvalue cards that make your opponent sac creatures, but this one seems pretty legitimate. In standard there aren't enough decks where shroud is relevant enough for this to be good, but in draft this could be okay. The loss of life is a vaguely relevant upside with Phyrexian mana around, but be aware of the downsides in a format where expendable creatures abound.
Glistening Oil: Tainted Strike is somewhat playable in MSS as a finisher in a deck that couldn’t quite get the critical mass of Infect creatures. This card is closer to Phyresis, which was never playable in any format. The built-in recursion is nice but mentioning this in the same sentence as Rancor seems laughable, and so is any deck that plays this.
Grim Affliction: This seems okay in Limited, where it goes into basically any deck thanks to the abundance of one toughness creatures. It’s marginally better in an infect deck, of course, but I’d rather have almost any other black removal spell. As for standard – no.
Ichor Explosion: If you’re looking for a wrath effect in black in standard, clearly this is not the card you want. Even in limited, seven mana is a lot for a conditional card that kills your stuff as well. This kind of card is the downside of drafting the last set first because in pack three you will have a better idea of whether your deck wants this card or not. Expect to wheel this in a decent pack with good players.
Life’s Finale: This seems like a pretty huge blowout in limited. Wrathing for six with an upside has proven to be good already in this format thanks to Phyrexian Rebirth. In certain board states this is probably even better. Removing all villain’s on-board threats AND three that haven’t been cast yet seems insanely good. In standard this is probably too slow, and there are better things to do with six mana nowadays, if you hadn’t noticed.
Mortis Dogs: This seems like pure limited filler. You should get it late in the pack, which is nice, and I expect to see at least one case of a killing his own Dogs to drain the last few points in a stalemate.
Parasitic Implant: Clunky removal and even clunkier combos with a card like Mortis Dogs above does not make a good card. Run this if you’re light on removal but you don’t need to pick it high like you do with good removal.
Phyrexian Obliterator: Wellllllll… is it good enough to bring back our beloved control deck? On its own, probably not, I’m afraid. There are other tools, but this card alone won’t make or break a deck. That said, it is good, and it can only be played in mono black for obvious reasons. Being a 5/5 on turn four is obviously great, but in a world of titans, ‘dies to removal’ is huge. This leaves nothing behind after being ‘Throated’ but if it sticks around for a turn or two it will warp the game around it. Even dying to a Titan is probably beneficial for you since sacrificing six permanents is back-breaking. In draft you’ll probably windmill slam this for value, and then try desperately to draft mono black. In standard, as much as I want this card to be amazing, I really can’t say how good it is yet. Then again, if it isn’t tier one, I can at least get them a little cheaper #banmythics
Pith Driller: This seems reasonable but not great. If it had infect this would be awesome, but without it… meh, killing a Myr on turns four-through-five is not very exciting, neither is a 2/4 body. Less Driller Killer and more Filler Driller.
Postmortem Lunge: This seems like a sometimes better/sometimes worse take on last set’s Morbid Plunder. It’s better if you’re getting back an evasive guy but getting back anything else for this cost is not really worth it. Moreso than most reanimate effects, this one really scales with the quality of your creatures and is probably not first pickable in draft.
Praetor’s Grasp: I hate using smilies in any article, but… what the heck o_O This card seems awful. Maybe I’m missing something, but even out of the board in game two in limited, this does almost nothing. I guess if your opponent’s deck has just one win condition… you’re probably going to win anyway because they don’t know how to build a draft deck. I expect Tom to open at least six of these in his packs over the next year or so.
Reaper of Sheoldred: First-pickable in a weak pack, this card seems pretty solid to me. Obviously it’s not constructed-viable but in limited this is an awesome reach card for the infect deck. Even as a blocker it has inevitability and as an attacker it’s always getting in for one unless they have removal.
Sheoldred, the Whispering One: In limited this is the windmill slam for black in this set. This is what you get for seven mana, and it’s definitely worth it. In standard is loses to Titans and will probably never see play unless mono black becomes a deck, since it’s pretty sick in the mirror. Personally though, I’m eyeing up a black EDH deck.
Surgical Extraction: Seems like all of the contentious cards from this set are in black. I’ll just go with Alexander Shearer’s article from last week: “How to Waste two Life at Instant Speed.” There’s not much more to add; this card is bad.
Toxic Nim: Bleh, I’m not a fan of infect, and this just seems overpriced to me. Regenerate for one black seems good but even in limited there are better things to do with six mana. Left alone, this is going to eat through the opponent’s board pretty quickly, but it dies to EVERYTHING and is a liability in the infect mirror: Tap six, play Toxic Nim, say go. Opponent casts Virulent Wound, timewalks you.
Vault Skirge: Cute design, right? You pay two life to get it in play in an off-colour deck, then it gets the life back… eventually. The art is cool, the frame is sweet, the card, however, is awful. With infect, this would be a strict upgrade from Plague Stinger, without infect it’s close to strictly worse.
Whisper Specter: I exspecter (sorry…) this to be 15th pick on a regular basis. Specters are very hit and miss, but this is definitely the latter. Three mana for a 1/1 that only makes villain discard if you sacrifice it? Awful.
Monday, 21 March 2011
What i did last weekend (or: my first Nats qualifier)
After missing last years nationals qualifiers by being blissfully unaware of their existence, i figured it would be pretty stupid to do the same again. With a year's extra experience and a handful of cards borrowed from Tom, I arrived bright and early after getting up at 6.30AM to watch the GSL finals, finally putting my deck together at about 8AM. Who needs playtesting and preperation anyway? Given my budget and card collection, there's only about six cards i would change in retrospect anyway.
Oh, right, yeah... i was playing Esper CawBlade but with Sword of Vengeance and Sword of B+M due to monetary issues. I also have alternative finishers in the shape of Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine.
Round one vs Elves: As other attendees have pointed out, Patriot was pretty heavily over-capacity, but i managed to dodge having to play any games at the café over road. Indeed, round one looked pretty comfortable indeed as i got paired against Kieran who i had recently met at last weekend's Steel City and proceded to beat thanks to a blistering array of skill (top-decking three Flashfreezes in a row vs his Valakut deck ;D!). But the luck was decidedly on his side this weekend as his elf deck got off to a start so fast that i was unable to recover. Like most people, i wasn't expecting elves, so my sideboard was pretty dead to it. Never the less, i felt like i was in a pretty good spot in game two with both Black Sun's Zenith and Day of Judgment in hand as he continued to commit dudes to the board. Yep, one black or white mana source and i'm going to wreck this game... any turn now... Okay, down to eight life, no problem, just gimme a plains... Suffice to say, i lost 2-0: not the start i had hoped for. 0-2 (0-1)
Round two vs Valakut: And so it began. My epic struggle against Valakut would be the theme of the day, as i faced it three times. After beating it comfortably last week i was fairly confident but this game (like the other Valakut games later in the day) were super intense. I've never enjoyed playing against Valakut but this game was actually pretty exciting - so much so that we both got a warning for missing a wolf trigger from my sword. The milling was what really made the difference, however, as i managed to mill almost all of his threats (including mountains) in both games. In game two he killed me from 18 life when i had him down to 8. That's how Valakut rolls. Game three was pretty similar to game one, and i managed to keep him off Valakut triggers thanks to Tec Edge and Seas. 2-1 (1-1)
Round three vs Valakut: There's not really much else to say about Valakut vs this deck. Game one i controlled the game as my deck is supposed to, countering or removing any threats he played. In game two i was in a good spot but forgot to play around Avenger of Zendikar. Any topdeck for him except a fetchland would've seen me win on the next turn, to be fair as he was down to 3 at the time. Apparently game three was super one-sided, however, as i didn't even write down the life totals in my notes. I countered an early Cultivate which really set back his three-land hand. It's pretty insane when a Valakut deck can't get lands out and i proceded to win comfortably. 2-1 (2-1)
Round four vs Grixis Tezzeret: Urgh. I really wish i'd played heavier white and put Divine Offering in the sideboard. I didn't, and so this was the most crushing defeat of the day. In game one i had no chance, since roughly 50% of my non-land cards do nothing against his deck. It was so boring and uninteractive that i can't remember how he got me in Galvanic Blast range for the kill. Game two was even more depressing as his combined brainstorm/tezz +1 failed to hit anything useful for about five straight turns. Still, Tumble Magnets kept my hawks at bay until he inevitably hit some ridiculously huge artifact that i couldn't deal with. I feel like this match was pretty much unwinnable for my deck in its current state.0-2 (2-2)
Round five vs UW Control: Having managed to dodge any kind of Cawblade mirror so far, i was disappointed to see him play blue and white lands. But when he played a turn two Luminarch Ascension i was mostly just confued. Is that card even remotely playable in the current meta? If our match was anything to go by, the answer is no and he made no secret of the fact that he sided it out. When even the control decks are playing aggressive two drops, the ascension seems pretty awful. In game two he managed to resolve a Sun Titan but he nothing except Tec Edges in his yard, which was irrelevant due to my superior board-state. My manlands did a lot of work in this game, and when i killed his Titan it was on to round six. 2-0 (3-2)
Round six vs Valakut: Another Valakut. My opponent was quite the talker and this was another typically tumor-inducing match. Game one was pretty close, with both of us dropping bomb after bomb, only to see them killed by the opponent next turn. In the end i managed to topdeck removal for his Primeval Titan which allowed my Wurmcoil Engine to finish the job. Game two was quite the rape, with me frantically struggling to find removal or counters, and eventually failing. Game three was pretty excruciating for my opponent as he proceded to basically miss on two Summoning Traps - he didn't consider Lotus Cobra to be a hit, strangely. My deck was kind, and i managed to get my mill game going yet again. He was pretty pissed but that's Magic. Now i had to try and figure out the maths of qualifying, the whole thing bemuses and confuses me, since it's my first "major" tournament. 2-1 (4-2)
Round seven vs Eldrazi Ramp: As it turned out, the unexpected elf loss in round one really cost me. I would have to win my last game and just hope that the other people on 12 points all drew. Not much chance, but still worth a try. Oh, what's that? Eldrazi Temple? Oh dear... I don't seem to be able to build a deck that puts up a meaningful fight against this mindless "hurp durp lets play huge guys you can't deal with" deck. Game one has precisely zero notes in my pad, he trapped up an Emrakul on turn six... awesome. Can't wait till ROE rotates out, really. In game two i managed to draw land denial and stall him long enough to bash his face in, despite milling an Emrakul with my sword. The luck of my turn two Mystic in game two was completely balanced out by my inability to get off three lands in the vital game three. When i eventually got up to four, he tec-edged my tar pit and then acidic slime took out my own tec edge. Ironically, i managed to draw another land next turn but it wasn't enough to stop him cheating out an Ulamog via Eldrazi Temple/Eye of Ugin.
All-in-all i was pretty satisfied with my performance. For a thrown-together budget deck with no Jaces it performed pretty well. Two of my losses felt pretty unwinnable without a healthy dose of luck while the elf match was painful in nature. I really feel like i should win that matchup, and getting stuck with two uncastable wraths in-hand was fairly frustrating. As for Eldrazi green, fuck that deck. I swear you could give it to a handicapped monkey and he could win at least 50% of games - not that my opponent was a handicapped monkey, but the point stands.
I was pretty satisfied with my own performance too. I haven't played much standard in the past year, and my record isn't great (1544 constructed rating before the qualifier results go online), but i think i played fairly tightly. No glaring errors come to mind, although i have to get rid of my bad habit of playing lands before drawing a card off Jace/Preordain. It never really made a difference on Saturday, at least.
I feel pretty confident about the Huddersfield qualifier (probably the only other one i can get to, unforunately), not least because i now know i can borrow a playset of Jaces from Bob. If the meta game doesn't change drastically in the next three weeks i think i might do okay.
Oh, right, yeah... i was playing Esper CawBlade but with Sword of Vengeance and Sword of B+M due to monetary issues. I also have alternative finishers in the shape of Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine.
Round one vs Elves: As other attendees have pointed out, Patriot was pretty heavily over-capacity, but i managed to dodge having to play any games at the café over road. Indeed, round one looked pretty comfortable indeed as i got paired against Kieran who i had recently met at last weekend's Steel City and proceded to beat thanks to a blistering array of skill (top-decking three Flashfreezes in a row vs his Valakut deck ;D!). But the luck was decidedly on his side this weekend as his elf deck got off to a start so fast that i was unable to recover. Like most people, i wasn't expecting elves, so my sideboard was pretty dead to it. Never the less, i felt like i was in a pretty good spot in game two with both Black Sun's Zenith and Day of Judgment in hand as he continued to commit dudes to the board. Yep, one black or white mana source and i'm going to wreck this game... any turn now... Okay, down to eight life, no problem, just gimme a plains... Suffice to say, i lost 2-0: not the start i had hoped for. 0-2 (0-1)
Round two vs Valakut: And so it began. My epic struggle against Valakut would be the theme of the day, as i faced it three times. After beating it comfortably last week i was fairly confident but this game (like the other Valakut games later in the day) were super intense. I've never enjoyed playing against Valakut but this game was actually pretty exciting - so much so that we both got a warning for missing a wolf trigger from my sword. The milling was what really made the difference, however, as i managed to mill almost all of his threats (including mountains) in both games. In game two he killed me from 18 life when i had him down to 8. That's how Valakut rolls. Game three was pretty similar to game one, and i managed to keep him off Valakut triggers thanks to Tec Edge and Seas. 2-1 (1-1)
Round three vs Valakut: There's not really much else to say about Valakut vs this deck. Game one i controlled the game as my deck is supposed to, countering or removing any threats he played. In game two i was in a good spot but forgot to play around Avenger of Zendikar. Any topdeck for him except a fetchland would've seen me win on the next turn, to be fair as he was down to 3 at the time. Apparently game three was super one-sided, however, as i didn't even write down the life totals in my notes. I countered an early Cultivate which really set back his three-land hand. It's pretty insane when a Valakut deck can't get lands out and i proceded to win comfortably. 2-1 (2-1)
Round four vs Grixis Tezzeret: Urgh. I really wish i'd played heavier white and put Divine Offering in the sideboard. I didn't, and so this was the most crushing defeat of the day. In game one i had no chance, since roughly 50% of my non-land cards do nothing against his deck. It was so boring and uninteractive that i can't remember how he got me in Galvanic Blast range for the kill. Game two was even more depressing as his combined brainstorm/tezz +1 failed to hit anything useful for about five straight turns. Still, Tumble Magnets kept my hawks at bay until he inevitably hit some ridiculously huge artifact that i couldn't deal with. I feel like this match was pretty much unwinnable for my deck in its current state.0-2 (2-2)
Round five vs UW Control: Having managed to dodge any kind of Cawblade mirror so far, i was disappointed to see him play blue and white lands. But when he played a turn two Luminarch Ascension i was mostly just confued. Is that card even remotely playable in the current meta? If our match was anything to go by, the answer is no and he made no secret of the fact that he sided it out. When even the control decks are playing aggressive two drops, the ascension seems pretty awful. In game two he managed to resolve a Sun Titan but he nothing except Tec Edges in his yard, which was irrelevant due to my superior board-state. My manlands did a lot of work in this game, and when i killed his Titan it was on to round six. 2-0 (3-2)
Round six vs Valakut: Another Valakut. My opponent was quite the talker and this was another typically tumor-inducing match. Game one was pretty close, with both of us dropping bomb after bomb, only to see them killed by the opponent next turn. In the end i managed to topdeck removal for his Primeval Titan which allowed my Wurmcoil Engine to finish the job. Game two was quite the rape, with me frantically struggling to find removal or counters, and eventually failing. Game three was pretty excruciating for my opponent as he proceded to basically miss on two Summoning Traps - he didn't consider Lotus Cobra to be a hit, strangely. My deck was kind, and i managed to get my mill game going yet again. He was pretty pissed but that's Magic. Now i had to try and figure out the maths of qualifying, the whole thing bemuses and confuses me, since it's my first "major" tournament. 2-1 (4-2)
Round seven vs Eldrazi Ramp: As it turned out, the unexpected elf loss in round one really cost me. I would have to win my last game and just hope that the other people on 12 points all drew. Not much chance, but still worth a try. Oh, what's that? Eldrazi Temple? Oh dear... I don't seem to be able to build a deck that puts up a meaningful fight against this mindless "hurp durp lets play huge guys you can't deal with" deck. Game one has precisely zero notes in my pad, he trapped up an Emrakul on turn six... awesome. Can't wait till ROE rotates out, really. In game two i managed to draw land denial and stall him long enough to bash his face in, despite milling an Emrakul with my sword. The luck of my turn two Mystic in game two was completely balanced out by my inability to get off three lands in the vital game three. When i eventually got up to four, he tec-edged my tar pit and then acidic slime took out my own tec edge. Ironically, i managed to draw another land next turn but it wasn't enough to stop him cheating out an Ulamog via Eldrazi Temple/Eye of Ugin.
All-in-all i was pretty satisfied with my performance. For a thrown-together budget deck with no Jaces it performed pretty well. Two of my losses felt pretty unwinnable without a healthy dose of luck while the elf match was painful in nature. I really feel like i should win that matchup, and getting stuck with two uncastable wraths in-hand was fairly frustrating. As for Eldrazi green, fuck that deck. I swear you could give it to a handicapped monkey and he could win at least 50% of games - not that my opponent was a handicapped monkey, but the point stands.
I was pretty satisfied with my own performance too. I haven't played much standard in the past year, and my record isn't great (1544 constructed rating before the qualifier results go online), but i think i played fairly tightly. No glaring errors come to mind, although i have to get rid of my bad habit of playing lands before drawing a card off Jace/Preordain. It never really made a difference on Saturday, at least.
I feel pretty confident about the Huddersfield qualifier (probably the only other one i can get to, unforunately), not least because i now know i can borrow a playset of Jaces from Bob. If the meta game doesn't change drastically in the next three weeks i think i might do okay.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
MBS Prerelease: Arresting the Wurm
It's been a few months since i wrote aboug magic, and 3:30AM seems like the perfect time to start again.
This past weekend was pretty much an unmitigated disaster. I've never been too fond of sealed as a format, but prerelease is kinda like a 'must-go' and, of course, i wanted shiny new things!
So, wanting to do well, i made my first mistake by picking Phyrexian. On paper, as most people have pointed out, the baddies definitely seemed to have a higher average when it comes to card power and quality. What they don't have, crucially, is Burn the Impure. Fuck that card, seriously.
My pool felt 'okay.' Nothing to write home about, but definitely capable of a positive win/loss ratio... or so i thought. I opened an Inmoth Nexus (which is sweet) and a Massacre Wurm (which is fine), as well as four garbage rares (Decimator Web seems painfully slow, but i figured i'd give it a try). My SOM packs weren't even worth mentioning - i played two cards from SOM, total.
Still, Massacre Wurm seemed like it would 'ninja' me some wins, despite being a non-infect card in my infect deck. Sadly, i lost both games where i cast it. The first time, it killed a single creature when it ETB'd, then immediately got arrested. The second time it was far too late to turn a game i'd basically already lost. Well, that's how it goes sometimes...
If going 1-4 was the worst part of a prerelease, it would've been pretty fine i guess. While Inkmoth and Wurm aren't as cool as, say... a foil Koth and a Tezzeret, they're still pretty good. My 'sympathy' booster even had a Red Sun's Zenith, which is... okay, i guess. No, the worst part was a pretty stupid miscalculation.
£40 for a FTV: Relics is pretty sweet, and i'm like a magpie when it comes to shiny things so i couldn't resist buying one. I kinda forgot that i don't really have £40... oops! So the coolest thing i picked up this weekend is currently sitting on ebay while i pray someone buys it to tide me over till payday. If noone does, i guess i'll be missing the release, where i'd finally get to draft something other than triple-Scars.
Still, on the bright side, if it does sell i've made at least £10 profit! Mox Diamond... :(
This past weekend was pretty much an unmitigated disaster. I've never been too fond of sealed as a format, but prerelease is kinda like a 'must-go' and, of course, i wanted shiny new things!
So, wanting to do well, i made my first mistake by picking Phyrexian. On paper, as most people have pointed out, the baddies definitely seemed to have a higher average when it comes to card power and quality. What they don't have, crucially, is Burn the Impure. Fuck that card, seriously.
My pool felt 'okay.' Nothing to write home about, but definitely capable of a positive win/loss ratio... or so i thought. I opened an Inmoth Nexus (which is sweet) and a Massacre Wurm (which is fine), as well as four garbage rares (Decimator Web seems painfully slow, but i figured i'd give it a try). My SOM packs weren't even worth mentioning - i played two cards from SOM, total.
Still, Massacre Wurm seemed like it would 'ninja' me some wins, despite being a non-infect card in my infect deck. Sadly, i lost both games where i cast it. The first time, it killed a single creature when it ETB'd, then immediately got arrested. The second time it was far too late to turn a game i'd basically already lost. Well, that's how it goes sometimes...
If going 1-4 was the worst part of a prerelease, it would've been pretty fine i guess. While Inkmoth and Wurm aren't as cool as, say... a foil Koth and a Tezzeret, they're still pretty good. My 'sympathy' booster even had a Red Sun's Zenith, which is... okay, i guess. No, the worst part was a pretty stupid miscalculation.
£40 for a FTV: Relics is pretty sweet, and i'm like a magpie when it comes to shiny things so i couldn't resist buying one. I kinda forgot that i don't really have £40... oops! So the coolest thing i picked up this weekend is currently sitting on ebay while i pray someone buys it to tide me over till payday. If noone does, i guess i'll be missing the release, where i'd finally get to draft something other than triple-Scars.
Still, on the bright side, if it does sell i've made at least £10 profit! Mox Diamond... :(
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