A Series of Tubes

New Phyrexia Prerelease

2011-05-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

I love Phyrexia, they are my favorite villains in the MTG universe and one of my general favorite things in the game. I love this set, and it was tons of fun to play. Just don't kill yourself with phyrexian mana like I did in game one. Went 3-1, only loosing when I got mana screwed.

// *** Main Deck *** //

// Creatures
1 Leaden Myr
1 Immolating Souleater
1 Phyrexian Hulk
1 Vulshok Replica
1 Spikeshot Elder
1 Oxxidia Scrapmelter
1 Batterskull
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Moltensteel Dragon
1 Slash Panther
1 Wing Splicer
1 Viral Drake
1 Entomber Exarch

// Removal and misc
2 Grim Affliction
2 Volt Charge
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Conversion Chamber
2 Parasitic Implant
1 Mindculling3 Island
6 Swamp
8 Mountain

// Sideboard tech
1 Ogre Geargrabber
1 Blistergrub
1 Flamborn Hellion

// *** Unused Sealed Pool ***//

// Black
1 Dross Hopper
1 Tainted Strike
1 Bleak Coven Vampires
1 Postmortem Lunge
2 Vault Skirge
1 Moriok Reaver
1 Dementia Bat
1 Contaigious Nim
1 Ichor Rats

// Red
1 Ruthless Invasion
1 Ogre Menial
1 Melt Terrain
1 Kuldotha Rebirth

// Blue
1 Spined Thopter
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Twisted Image
1 Neurok Invisomancer
1 Volition Reins
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Defensive Stance
1 Arm with Ether
2 Numbing Dose

// White
1 Blade Splicer
1 Sensor Splicer
1 Sunspeaker Shikari
1 Auriok Edgewright
1 Kemba's Skyguard
1 Marrow Shards
1 Seize the initiative
1 Fulgent Distraction
1 Loxodon Wayfarer
1 Apostle's Blessing
2 Remember The Fallen

// Green
1 Ezuri's Brigade
1 Tangle Angler
1 Blight Mamba
1 Cystbearer
2 Viridian Betrayers
1 Leeching Bite
1 Triumph of the Hordes
1 Copperhorn Scout
1 Wing Puncture
1 Glissa's Scorn
1 Tel-Jilad Defiance

// Brown
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Soliton
1 Heavy Arbalest
1 Accorder's Shield
1 Strider Harness
1 Golden Urn
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Echo Circlet
1 Culling Dias

Probably could have splashed white, but I opted for the Grixis deck. Was really good, had a lot of removal.

last MSS draft

2011-05-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the last draft that I'll be doing in MSS, since New Phyrexia is next week. I think I went out with a bang though, drafted mono black jank infect. Saw a lot of removal and couldn't decide on a second color.

// Creatures
4 Blackcleave Goblins (don't be hatin')
2 Plague Stinger
1 Scourge Servant
1 Ichor Rats
1 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Moriok Replica
1 Painsmith

// Removal
1 Trigon of Corruption
1 Virulent Wound
2 Grasp of Darkness
2 Spread the Sickness
1 Go for the Throat

// Equipment and misc
1 Morbid Plunder
1 Flayer Husk
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Strider Harness
1 Copper Carapace

// Sideboard
4 Mountain
2 Vulshok Replica
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Turn to Slag
1 Concussive Bolt
1 Flight Spellbomb
1 Razorfield Rhino
1 Pierce Strider
1 Magnetic Mine
1 Cystbearer
1 Neurok Invisomancer
2 Tainted Strike
1 Exsanguinate
1 Spine of Ish Sah
2 Instill infection

Probably my funniest draft ever. I wound up playing a very control type deck. The spine of Ish Sah and Instill Infections were in and out of the deck constantly. I would basically ping away all the myr I saw, kill all the other stuff, do my best to match my removal to their creatures. And then, once they've been stripped of fatties, I would win with a geared up plague stinger or black cleave goblin. Funnest play of the night was morbid plundering a Moriok Replica to draw more cards. Total of six cards over three turns or so, and that CA won me the game.

I honestly thought I was alone in black for a long time. I kept seeing grasps table and spread the sicknesses late into the pack. I saw a guy with a blue leaning blue/black deck who happened to be sitting two spots to my left, but I hardly noticed. Well, I should have noticed the creatures dry up. But I got caught up in some conversation in pack two and forgot to monitor my creature intake. If I had gone green and dedicated infect at this point, I would have done much better. Maybe I would have gone 4-0 instead of the 3-1 that I got. I'm always really timid about going infect though.

MBS/SOM/SOM draft

2011-04-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

// 10 Creatures
1x Kuldotha Phoenix (foil)
1x Kuldotha Flamefiend
1x Embersmith
1x Blisterstick Shaman
1x Vulshok Replica
1x Gold Myr
1x Silver Myr
1x Myrsmith
2x Kemba's Skyguard

// 7 Removal Spells
2x Divine Offering
1x Turn to Slag
1x Phyrexian Rebirth
2x Galvanic Blast
1x Into The Core

// 7 Artifacts and misc
1x Glint Hawk Idol
1x Flayer Husk
1x Infiltration Lens
1x Master's Call
1x Darksteel Axe
1x Panic Spellbomb
1x Origin Spellbomb// Lands
8 Mountain
8 Plains

// Sidebaord
1x Spiraling Duelist
1x Auriok Replica
1x Goblin Gaveleer
1x Furnace Celebration
1x Crush
1x Sunspeaker Shikari
1x Chrome Steed
1x Snapsail Glider
1x Silverskin Armor
1x Salvage scout
1x Ferrovore
1x Flameborn Hellion
1x Kuldotha Ringleader
1x Gnathosaur
1x Clone Shell
1x Concussive Bolt
1x Trigon of Rage

Great deck today. Got a final score of 3-1-1. Would have been 4-1 but we ran out of time on the last game. Crazy high density of artifact hate and some really good removal. Bombs were nice too. Nothing to complain about here.

MBS Draft - Raredraft HO!

2011-04-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

Deck
// Creatures 1 Lumengrid Drake 2 Chrome Steed 1 Necrotic Ooze 1 Phyrexian Rager 1 Bleak Coven Vampires 1 Thopter Assembly (foil =D) 1 Snapsail Glider 1 Veldalken Anatomist 2 Leaden Myr 1 Blightwidow 1 Molder Beast // Artifacts, Enchantments, and Spells 1 Dissipation Field 1 Horizon Spellbomb 1 Turn Aside 1 Culling Dais 1 Shape Anew 1 Sylvok Lifestaff 1 Argentum Armor 1 Spread The Sickness 1 Tumble Magnet 1 Grasp of Darkness 1 Strandwalker	// Land 1 Darkslick Shores 5 Island 6 Swamp 3 Forest // Sideboard & Unused 1 Memoricide 1 Vivisection 1 Gold Myr 1 Brass Squire 1 Ezuri's Archers 1 Blunt The Assault 1 Viridian Corrupter 1 Tangle Mantis 1 Bloodshot Trainee 1 Shatter 1 Concussive Bolt 1 Gnathosaur 1 Rally the Forces 1 Relic Putrescence 1 Plague Stinger 1 Scourge Servant 1 Scoria Elemental

So today I did things wrong. I don't really mind though. I rare drafted like a motherfucker and I pretty much passed a fantastic red deck. (I saw three burn the impures, but I was taking ghetto rares over them). I had a blast even though my final score was 1-1-1. Not gonna bother reviewing my strategy cause I turned down a good dinosaur deck out of spite. Those red and green picks that I have were very late in packs when the blue and black were gone, that was a signal that I was in a bad spot but I did it anyways. Memoricide was a champ today, and dissipation field was fun.

Draft Break

2011-03-21T13:10:00.001-07:00

I gave up magic for lent. I'm not catholic, but my family is and I'm using it as an excuse to save some money. I need to save my cash for a spring break trip. Hence the lack of updates.

MBS Draft Results #4

2011-03-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

I got to do MBS/SOM/SOM this time. Was pretty cool, but the draft was ultra wierd. Eleven people but white was very open. The guy next to me went mono red. Two mono colored decks at one table is pretty cool I guess?

I raredrafted alot at the start of my MBS pack and the people next to me were not raredrafting at all. I got shimmer myr, psychosis crawler, and phyrexian revoker passed to me. The start of a pretty cool metalcraft deck. Passed a knowledge pool in that first pack and I don't regret it.

I had a hard time deciding on a second color. At first I was thinking blue or green and picked a few things up but decided not to. I tried a red splash some time in the second pack, but come the third pack the mono red guy wound up cutting me. My third pack had carnifex demon but it was to late to go black.

When I looked at the pool the red splash was really appealing, bloodshot trainee + equipment is one of my favorite combos. I decided that I'd rather go for more consistency and do mono white. Plus, I was kinda sick of getting color screwed in all the dinosaur decks that I'd been doing. Looking back, I probably should have gone a little red for the trainee, rebirth, and turn to slag.


// Creatures 1 Ghalma's Warden 3 Snapsail Glider 1 Razor Hippogriff 2 Auriok Sunchaser 2 Loxodon Partisan 1 Palladium Myr 1 Sunspeaker Shikari 1 Psychosis Crawler 1 Razorfield Rhino 1 Auriok Edgewright 1 Shimmer Myr 1 Phyrexian Revoker 1 Bladed Sentinel // Spells 1 Soul Parry 1 Arrest 1 Dispense Justice 1 Frantic Salvage 1 Master's Call // Equips 1 Copper Carapace 1 Flayer Husk 1 Barbed Battlegear	// Unused 1 Golden Urn 1 Shatter 1 Kuldotha Rebirth 1 Bloodshot Trainee 1 Turn To Slag 1 Copperline Gorge 1 Carnifex Demon 1 Turn Aside 1 Halt order 1 Mirran Spy 1 Carapace Forger 1 Slice in Twain 1 Rot Wolf 1 Flameborn Hellion 1 Vulshok Heartstoker 1 Loxodon Wayfarer

MBS Draft Results #3 (So sick of this)

2011-02-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

We did MBS/MBS/SOM today instead of MBS/SOM/SOM like we should have. Naturally, it sucked. Here's my decklist:

// Bombs
1 Exsanguinate
1 Hellkite Igniter
1 Precursor Golem

// Creatures
4 Gnathosaur
2 Phyrexian Juggernaut
1 Darksteel Myr
1 Iron Myr
1 Goblin Gaveleer
1 Oxidda Daredevil
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Blisterstick Shaman
1 Embersmith
1 Ogre Resister

// Removal
1 Turn to Slag
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Virulent Wound
1 Crush
2 Burn the Impure

// Other Spells
2 Morbid Plunder
1 Copper Carapace

// Sideboard
1 Spin Engine
2 Morbid Plunder
1 Ferrovore
1 Into the Core

// Unused
1 Razorfield Rhino
1 Loxodon Partisan
1 Hexplate Golem
1 Blunt the Assault
1 Spire Serpent
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Assault Strobe
1 Veldalken Anatomist
1 Brass Squire
AND A PILE OF GODDAMN GERM TOKENS.

Look at that. Four Gnathosaurs. Four Morbid Plunders. All sorts of nonsense going on. And the worst part? Mine wasn't even close to the weirdest deck. I was sharing black with a guy who did infect, and I was sharing red with a guy who I didn't even play. The one guy who went blue at our table essentially had his pick of whatever he wanted. I don't even want to think of all the counterspells he got, but he told me he wound up with six serum rakers. If the shopkeeper tries to do a draft without two scars again I think I'm just gonna sit it out. It's not worth it. It's frustrating and stupid. All the shit in MBS kinda relies on the SOM packs too. I would have liked some real equipment to use with my brass squire, or some metalcraft for my rhino. but no, I get four gnathosaurs again.

On the other hand, I got some kickass bombs. Hellkite igniter was simply amazing. Late game I normally have an artifact out (I see seven in the deck at a glance, not alot but you go through alot of your deck by the time you have seven mana) and he has haste so he can get in there right away. Even if you spread the sickness on him he still gets his five in there.
Exsanguinate is fireball. More people should take it. It is a great finisher imo. It can also be used as a last ditch effort to gain life and stall. It's a harcore stall breaker.
Precursor Golem is just naturally good. It has some trouble with things like slice in twain and spread the sickness, but if you're careful it's great. Also, if you use the main golem as a chump blocker or something, and ressurect it a few times with morbid plunder you can fill the board with 3/3's. It's fun.

One more little note. Fuck germ tokens. MBS has some of the coolest zombie tokens ever, and I play two zombie decks (60 card and EDH). I have pulled about two zombie tokens out of all the MBS packs I've opened. How many germ tokens? Too fucking many. I would gladly trade germ tokens for zombies.

MBS Draft Results #2

2011-02-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

I played dinosaurs last night .

Deck
// 15 Creatures 2 Ogre Resister 2 Gnathosaur 1 Iron Myr 1 Blade-Tribe Berserkers 1 Acid Web Spider 1 Tangle Mantis 1 Fangren Marauder 1 Ogre Geargrabber 1 Molder Beast 1 Kuldotha Flamefiend 1 Goblin Gaveleer 1 Embersmith 1 Carapace Forger	// 6 Artifacts 1 Tumble Magnet 1 Bladed Pinions 1 Viridian Claw 1 Horizon Spellbomb 1 Strider Harness 1 Ichor Wellspring // 3 Other spells 1 Turn to Slag 1 Crush 1 Lead the Stampede


// Unused / Sideboard 1 Blunt The Assault 2 Ezuri's Archers 1 Tel Jilad Fallen 1 Furnace Celebration 1 Concussive Bolt 3 Golden Urn 1 Necrogen Censer 1 Neurok Replica 1 Dispense Justice 1 Revoke Existence 1 Salvage Scout 1 Psychic Miasma 1 Oculus

Went 2-1 with it. Lost one game because the guy had black sun's zenith and wiped my board twice with it, then cast chimeric mass for nine. Dinosaurs is such a fun archetype. While everyone was fighting over infectors and metalcraft things I was able to pick up most of my creature base about halfway through some of the packs. Was originally gonna try a sac type deck with the furnace celebration, but wound up not doing it. Though, ogre geargrabber + molder beast is a hilarious combo.

This wasn't at a store, it was at someone's house. They did a thieves auction for the prizes. It was my first time doing it like that and it was pretty cool. I was able to pass a skitheryx guilt free in the third pack and wound up going home with hand of praetors and a couple other two dollar rares even though I came in tied for third.

Draft Results: Mirrodin Besieged release day.

2011-02-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

The store I go to has drafts on sunday, so we did the release today. However there was something kind of unusual, they were out of scars packs. So we did three MBS drafts. Here's what I wound up going with:

Main Deck
// 17 Lands 9 Mountain 8 Plains // 14 Creatures 1 Kuldotha Ringleader 3 Goblin Wardriver 1 Accorder Paladin 3 Blisterstick Shaman (Hilarious against infect btw) 2 Leonin Skyhunter 2 Ogre Resister 1 Koth's Courier 1 Mirran Crusader // 9 Non-creature spells 2 Burn the Impure 1 Divine Offering 1 Choking Fumes 1 Into the Core 1 Flayer Husk 1 Strandwalker 1 Master's Call 1 Concussive Bolt	// Stuff I side boarded so much that it is almost main deck 1 Gnathosaur (I take out artifact hate and put this in if I don't see them using artifacts, happened surprisingly often) 1 Ogre Resister (See gnathosaur)

I also had considered splashing green, but I wound up grabbing so many things with or in their mana costs that I decided against it. Here's my green stuff if you want to give me your two cents.

Abandoned Green Splash
1 Greeen Sun's Zenith 1 Quilled Slagwurm (very late in the pack, mostly a hate draft.) 1 Tangle Mantis 1 Rot Wolf 1 Viridian Emissary 2 Fangren Marauder (Main reason I wanted to splash in the first place, decided they were over the curve that I was setting myself up for.)

Also picked up some other random stuff that I didn't use

Unused
1 Banishment Decree (decided it was too slow for a temporary removal.) 2 Kuldotha Flamefiend (I wanted to run this, but I didn't have artifacts.) 1 Ardent Recruit 2 Tangle Hulk (Drafted while I was thinking about green, decided against it.)

My first pack's rare was a Decimator web that I passed. I took Kuldotha Flamefiend over it. I kinda regret that, because I had that web used against me and it milled several of my fatties while I wound up not even using the Flamefiend. Second pack had green sun's zenith which made me think of the green splash, I kept picking good red/white stuff over green stuff though. Third pack was just dumb luck, Mirran Crusader. A great card in my colors.

I found myself getting mana screwed alot. I was using 17 lands when most people seem to use 16, but it still happened. I do have alot of things that cost two colors, but I had several games where I sat at two lands for several turns. Or I'd have one plains out and a hand full of things that cost .

Because of the aforementioned mana screw I only got a score of 2-2. This surprised me because whenever I went red/white in scars (I started drafting about halfway through scars btw) I would wreck face.

My store should be doing MBS/SOM/SOM from now on, which should really make the format a better environment. There was a lot of competition over even the shittiest artifacts with three MBS packs, adding SOM will help make metalcraft and red sacrifices much easier to do.

This week on the Internet: Beyblade Ebay Kids

2011-02-06T00:04:00.000-08:00

So picture this: you leave your young children unattended for god knows how long while you shop for bras and purses on the internet. Naturally, the children go and play bey-blades in the bathtub. What should you do when you find out that your bathtub is scratched by the little weapons grade tops?

If you said shout at them and ground them, you're not the person I'm about to rant about.

This batshit crazytits lady thought it was a good idea to post a picture of her CRYING CHILDREN on an ebay auction to help fund her new bathtub. She forced her crying children to hold up the ziplock bag full of tops. The description for the beyblades? Two of them light up. That is all she said about it. The rest was just bitching and moaning about the tub. Then she describes how she plans on selling the rest of the stuff that the kids own to pay for her new tub.

C'mon lady, they're kids. If they had taken a baseball bat to the tub and smashed it with malicious intent I could see you punishing them like this (but not posting their pictures online, thats just fucked up). I totally get what the kids were doing, a bathtub is a fucking great place to have bey-blade fights in. I only caught a little bit of that fad growing up, but I remember using big old salad bowls for my arena. The tub would have been perfect and I'm shocked I never thought of it.

Luckily, the internet superhero's (or the internet hate machine, depending on who you ask) are acting on this. Our good friends at 4chan have taken time out of their days full of ruining little girls lives to ruin this older lady who acts like a little girl's life. After an epic bidding war, the price for the ziplock bag of sadness reached just under a million dollars. Of course, no one was going to pay the million dollars; thats just what the price was at before the auction got taken down for having way to many bogus bids.

Also one of the children has meme potential, which is why you don't post pictures of your kids in public. Cause 4chan will turn them into memes.

Pic Related: The auction page, complete with crying child and eerily somber child. Checking the feedback page will show that the seller has a history of buying lingerie, expensive purses, and stripper training workout tapes. You know, things a model parent needs.

Pic Also Related: the guy is a meme. I expect an ED page soon. Gratz Daney21, you just got your son's face all over the internet permanently.

EDIT- I called it: http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Daney21

Wassup

2011-02-05T12:23:00.001-08:00

New to this blogging thing, gonna try it out though. I like talking to myself and this is pretty similar right? I'm thinking I'll title all my stuff as "Sup dawg i heard you liek...." and then something related to what I'm talking about.

EDIT- No.