#teamswag

A Sweet New Standard Deck!

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 01:44:00 +0000

Hello again! After a brief, location-induced hiatus, TeamSwag is back to producing content! Since we aren't here for fancy introductions, I'll jump right to the point: a sweet new Standard deck.

4 Mystic Monastery
4 Flooded Strand
2 Shivan Reef
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Triumph
2 Island
2 Plains
4 Mountain

4 Mantis Rider
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

4 Magma Jet
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Stoke the Flames
3 Searing Blood
2 Deflecting Palm
2 Mindswipe
1 Suspension Field

---
3 Satyr Firedancer
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Magma Spray
1 Narset, Enlightened Master
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Searing Blood
1 Suspension Field
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Dictate of the Twin Gods

The manabase gives us 16 red sources and 14 of blue and white, allowing us to cast UWR 3 drops on turn 3 a high percentage of games. We're currently testing a different manabase with Evolving Wilds to allow us to play Chained to the Rocks and be more likely to cast Searing Blood on turn 2, but that's still in development. There's a reasonable chance 16 red sources isn't enough, so this may change slightly before the weekend.

The Threats!

Since both of our main threats are three mana, a majority of games allow us to play a tapped land on turn 1, a spell on turn 2, a threat on turn 3, and a second threat + tapped land on turn 4. Both threats aggressively pressure the opponents life total, and even a single hit with the Rabblemaster and friends can put our opponent dead to the burn in our hand.

Mantis Rider lines up very nicely against most of the creatures in the format: there aren't many good fliers aside from Prognostic Sphinx, and we can get in 3-6 damage before it comes down. If RUG and Naya planeswalker heavy builds show up, the Rider can interact quite favorably with their Xenagos or Sarkhan (beating the former in a fight and killing the latter with 2 attacks). If Bile Blight is popular, the power of double Rider drops, but against nonblack decks the Riders can kill very quickly.

Rabblemaster is likely the best red card in the format, both in aggressive and midrange decks. The token can usually get in damage the turn it's played, and if we can use a spell to push in 6 points the next turn, we're in a pretty good spot. Multiple test games ended abruptly if the opponent stumbled while we had the rabble, it's simply too much damage for most decks to handle. Ideally, the Goblins can kill on their own, and with a large arsenal of tempo spells to push them through, they can end many games before they really start. Even if we only hit for 6-8 over the course of a game, the supporting burn spells can usually finish off the opponent before they stabilize.

The supporting cast of 2 Chandra, 1 Sarkhan, 1 Keranos rounds out our offensive threats. Chandra has proven excellent in this deck, either plussing to push Rabblemaster through a blocker (or two blockers if we can remove the second) or drawing an extra card per turn. The ultimate is very real in this deck; most of the time it will do 9-12 damage since there are so many burn spells in the deck. Sarkhan is fairly slow, but can take over a slower game in a turn or two. It's unlikely that we'll ever get to 7 mana, so Stormbreath is just worse than the planeswalker in this build, and some matchups demand killing creatures, making the minus ability very relevant. Finally, the single Keranos is excellent at finishing grindy games with lots of removal or lifegain, since we essentially draw 2 cards a turn, and sometimes it's a free Bolt. I'll take it.

The BURN.

Unlike the previous season, we only have a pair of spells that deal 4, but there's significantly less lifegain in the format to frustrate us. 4 of each makes sense, since we're trying to draw just enough burn to kill them, and these do it with a single card.

Charm is pure insanity in this deck, since all the modes range from relevant to excellent. The blue mode can gank anything in response to a fetch, or just top some 4+ mana creature and smash with Rabblemaster. Racing situations don't come up terribly often, but when they do, the white mode gives us an angle that most other decks can't fight. Other than the threats, this is likely the best card in the deck. (The red mode is good)

Magma Jet gives us some much needed deck manipulation, since flooding can be a real problem for us. It's a little counter-productive with fetch lands, so try to time your fetching to get maximum scry value. On that note, it's fine to bottom something good if you need land, since cracking a fetch can put everything back in the deck - use the scry to set up the next turn or two, not necessarily the long game.

Lightning Strike is a bit of a given. It's not as efficient as ye olde Lightning Bolt, but it still does 3 and that's all we need.

Searing Blood is obviously excellent in burn decks, but we're keeping one in the sideboard to hedge against the likely large percentage of green decks with fewer targets. It's possible to combo kill something with this and a block/Keranos/Goblin token, so even in the bad matchups it's not 100% dead, though it still comes out for the postboard games. The single Suspension Field hedges in that direction, letting us deal with a Courser/large threat for less mana than they spent on it.

Deflecting Palm, aka the Best Lightning Helix ever, is a strange animal. In the matchups where it Helixes for 5, it's obviously insane, but it can get clunky in multiples or against small creature decks. The inherent problem with situational burn spells is drawing too many, which pushed us to playing 2 in the main with the ability to play 3 when we want it. However, when the card is good, it feels incredibly unfair. Just yesterday, we were jamming the Abzan matchup and witnessed the most absurd Palm ever. My board, 11 life, a single Satyr Firedancer. Opponents board, 17 life, some Caryatids, Anafenza, Courser, monstrous Fleecemane Lion. He attacks with the team, I cast double Deflecting Palm, choosing the Lion and Anafenza, preventing nine and taking two. The Firedancer kills his Courser and the Khan, leaving him exactly dead to the Charm+Stoke in my hand. Maybe this won't happen often, but it was the most absurdly powerful I've ever felt while playing a standard red deck.

Mindswipe rounds out the maindeck at two copies. It's not the most efficient burn spell or counterspell, but it's good enough to stop a large threat and deal some damage. Even if they play an Elf with 5 mana untapped, you can still dome them for the maximum damage.

Onto the sideboard!

Since we don't have a metagame to analyze yet, the sideboard might not be 100% correct, but here's the basic plan.

3 Satyr Firedancer - Comes in against almost all creature decks. It either eats a removal spell, protecting Mantis/Rabblemaster, or takes over the game if the draws line up well.

2 Anger of the Gods - We're expecting a reasonable amount of aggro for the first weeks, since they're more accessible and easier to build than the midrange decks. Curving Anger into Rabblemaster/Mantis is quite powerful, and the turn we take off to sweep their board puts us quite far ahead in the race.

2 Disdainful Stroke - This was Negate until quite recently, when we decided to add an extra answer to Siege Rhino. It stops every non-Ashiok planeswalker in the format, as well as Siege Rhino, Arbor Colossus or any other large creature. Most importantly, it nets a large mana advantage, pushing the tempo in our favor if we can back it up with more castable spells.

2 Magma Spray - Extra early interaction against Monoblack/Monored aggro. We don't always draw Anger, and the one mana spell works well with our taplands. We'd absolutely play Shock if it was legal, but it isn't, so here we are. Bonus! Shuts down Bloodsoaked Champion, which can sometimes be problematic.

1 Narset, Enlightened Master - Comes in against removal heavy control decks and the mirror. One attack is usually enough to end the game, since hitting 6-8 points of burn off a single trigger is quite common. Freerolling planeswalkers is a sweet bonus.

1 Keranos, God of Storms - Excellent in the grindy matchups, or any time we can't draw enough burn to kill through their lifegain.

1 Searing Blood/1 Suspension Field - These cards work very nicely together in the 75; if one is dead, the other is probably excellent. As the metagame develops, the main/side numbers will shift around, but this seems like a good hedge for week one.

1 Deflecting Palm - Certain decks tend to fold to this card with any amount of backup, RUG Monster style decks in particular. Any matchup where this is reliably a Helix for 4+, it's excellent, but we don't want to draw all 3 against fast aggro.

1 Dictate of the Twin Gods - Another card for slow decks. Since most of our spells cost 2-3 mana, it's very realistic to flash this in and follow up with lethal burn, especially if we aren't dead to their creatures. Bonus absurdity with Deflecting Palm.

---

So that's the list! I'll hopefully be jamming this at the New Jersey Open this weekend, and I'll be back next week with a report. Any questions or comments are welcome below or through various social medias.

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

"Pietart"

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 11: Artist Interview with Peter Mohrbacher

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 21 May 2014 21:08:00 +0000

No, that's not a typo you're seeing in the title, just an episode that took a bit of editing before it could be published.

In Episode 11, listen in as Willis (flying solo for the first time) interviews Magic artist Peter Mohrbacher, the man behind Brimaz, Pharika, Erebos, and several other all-star cards from recent Magic history.

(Note: Due to some technical issues, there might be a couple of locations where the conversation seems choppy or skips a bit. This was due to Skype not cooperating completely and having to stitch together the episode from several calls. I've tried to make the transitions as seamless as possible, but if something seems amiss, that's probably it.)

As mentioned in the show, Peter's Instagram, which contains tons of cool stuff can be found at: http://instagram.com/bugmeyer

Full episode can be found below:

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 13: Limited Set Design Interview with Zac Hill (Part II)

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 21 May 2014 13:56:00 +0000

#teamswag welcomes back Zac Hill for another week as he joins Willis and Mason "The Mason" for another discussion on set design, including why the sideboard matters in Limited and how this has changed, thoughts on maligned Limited sets such as Avacyn Restored and Dimir in Gatecrash, non-intuitive formats and picks, and a discussion on Conspiracy, including an analysis on Elspeth, Sun's Champion vs. Backup Plan.

Contact The Future Project at: hello@thefutureproject.org
More info on the future project can be found at: thefutureproject.org
Full episode can be found below:

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 12: Limited Set Design Interview with ZacHill

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 14 May 2014 02:48:00 +0000

In this episode of the #teamswag Podcast, Willis, Pieter, and Mason "The Magnificent" are joined by former Wizard's designer and developer, Zac Hill in part one of our interview discussing limited set design and theory.

Listen in as we discuss overpowered cards and their effects in limited, why some cards get reprinted and how their context changes, and what considerations are made when determining a power level for a set.

The Future Project and all the great work they do can be found at www.thefutureproject.org

Full episode below:

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 10: Artist Interview with rk post

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:47:00 +0000

In another episode of the #teamswag Podcast focusing on the artist's of Magic the Gathering, Willis and Pieter are joined by rk post, the man behind Arbor Elf, the Avatar of ### cycle, Fulminator Mage, and Faerie Macabre.

Listen in as rk post discusses his career, the change from physical to digital production, the origins of Mind Funeral (and its development name), and why he has one of the more unique signatures and artist's credits in the game.

Full episode below:

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 9: Artist Interview with David Palumbo

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:41:00 +0000

In Episode 9 of the #teamswag Podcast, Pieter and Willis are joined by Magic artist David Palumbo, the man behind cards such as Stomping Ground (GTC), Devout Invocation, Cancel (M14), Nimbus Naiad, and more.

Listen in as we pick his brain about how Magic cards are made, what inspires him, and the origins of everyone's favorite homunculus, Fblthp.

Full episode can be found below:

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 8: Modern Brewing

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 02:10:00 +0000

In Episode 8 of the #teamswag Podcast, Willis and Pieter are joined by "Marjorie" Mason and Dave to discuss deck brewing. Listen in to learn when and how to brew, how to attack a particular metagame, and to evaluate the successes and failures of your creation. Full episode can be found below.

Featured as our Deck of the Week, we have The Walking Dead, with the list posted by our friends over at The Cauldron. For a more in depth look, also check out the tourney report on the deck.

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 7: Journey Into Nyx Set Review - Mythics and Rares

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 01:02:00 +0000

Willis and Pieter review the Rares and Mythic Rares from the upcoming set, Journey Into Nyx. Listen in as we go over each card for Limited and discuss certain stand-out cards that might see play in Standard, Block, Modern, and Legacy. Uncommons and Commons will be released soon!

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 6: Born of the Gods Sealed Primer

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 14:12:00 +0000

In episode 6, Pieter and Willis are joined by Mason McNugget and Jadine to discuss the Born of the Gods Sealed format in preparation for Grand Prix Philadelphia. Listen in as we discuss sleeper cards, strategies, interesting interactions, and how to get a leg up in this format.

The full episode can be streamed or downloaded below.

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 5: Affinity Primer

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:26:00 +0000

In episode 5, Pieter and Willis are joined by Mason the Fuckstick as we devote an entire episode to Affinity in Modern. Listen in to learn what makes the deck tick, why it's good, how and when to mulligan, sideboard strategies, and how to beat it. Full episode can be downloaded or streamed below:

Our Deck of the Week this episode is 8-Rack, which Mason will be going over in the first part of the episode. The decklist and article can be found here.

Pieter's list from the TCG Silver event can be found here and our shared list from Grand Prix Richmond can be found here.

Sample Hand 1:
Blinkmoth Nexus
Ornithopter
Mox Opal
Memnite
Welding Jar
Springleaf Drum
Steel Overseer

Sample Hand 2:
Thoughtcast
Etched Champion
Etched Champion
Signal Pest
Darksteel Citadel
Glimmervoid
Inkmoth Nexus

Sample Hand 3:
Darksteel Citadel
Inkmoth Nexus
Arcbound Ravager
Cranial Plating
Cranial Plating
Sprinleaf Drum
Galvanic Blast

Sample Hand 4:
Inkmoth Nexus
Inkmoth Nexus
Darksteel Citadel
Vault Skirge
Mox Opal
Etched Champion

Hand Swap:
- Darksteel Citadel
+ Island

Sample Hand 5:
Darksteel Citadel
Arcbound Ravager
Ornithopter
Mox Opal
Thoughtcast

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 4: Grand Prix Cincinnati Recap

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 23:37:00 +0000

In episode four, Pieter and Willis are joined by Mason "The Muggle" and Grand Prix Cincinnati Top 16 and Top 8 finishers Jadine Klomparens and Jeff Pyka (respectively) as we discuss the tournament, the Standard metagame, and look towards the future. The full episode can be downloaded or streamed below:

(Michifus) Grand Prix Cincinnati Recap

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:44:00 +0000

This last weekend saw us heading westward to southern Ohio for Grand Prix Cincinnati. It had been quite a while since I had played a large-scale Standard tournament, with much of our focus seemingly on Modern and Legacy with Standard being reserved for those weekends where it was a smaller tournament and there was "nothing better".

With our original plan of leaving Thursday night and staying in Pittsburgh quashed due to scheduling conflicts, I kinda glossed over the fact that we had an extra ~2.5 hours of driving to do on Friday morning. Something I don't think I realized until Wednesday. Suddenly, "leave by 6-6:30" became "on the road by 5".

Ha. Five nightowls packed, ready to go, and on the road by 5am? That didn't happen, as we had misunderstandings on when we were leaving, errands to run, and things forgotten that had to be picked up. On the road by 6 was the new plan.

Thankfully, the trip went relatively smoothly (minus a little bit of road work / oh-no-we-better-drive-20-under-to-look-at-the-big-yellow-trucks-50-feet-away-from-us fuckery in Ohio and briefly visiting Kentucky due to a closed street near the Convention Center) and we arrived shortly after noon.

(When in doubt, #showthemyourteeth)

After getting to the hotel / convention center lot, we were ready to jam some Magic. With most everyone else needing to build, fine tune, prep decks, and test it later in the afternoon before we started any competitive play. The other four dipped into Standard (either grinders or WaB), while I opted to bust out the fish for a couple rounds of Legacy, since I probably wouldn't have a chance later in the weekend.

After starting 1-2, I was out of any serious prizes and the others were ready to check-in and rest up. None of the matchups had anything of note, minus some misplays on my part that were silly, since Legacy is brutally unforgiving most of the time. Since the Hyatt was booked for the tournament, we ran into a sweet situation while trying to figure out a way to sleep five of us in a room. Story aside, we ended up trading our basic 2-bed room for a conference suite(?) that had a massive table, kitchenette, large sectional sofa and two roll-away beds. Toss in free wi-fi and breakfast and we were some happy Magic players for the weekend.

(Cincinnati #teamswag HQ)

(Hello from 2108)

Friday night saw us wrapping up with a walk to KungFood Chu's Amerasia in Covington, which I highly recommend if you're a fan of kung-fu kitsch, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and/or delicious Asian food. I wish I had snapped some photos in there, but, trust me, it was A+.

Cut to Saturday morning, where Pieter, Abel, and I were ready to grab some breakfast and head in for Round 3 of the main event (Kane and Sean were already battling away). We ended up fielding 4 decks that weekend, with Kane and Sean on U/w Devotion, Pieter on B/W Midrange, Abel on Monoblue Aggro, and me on B/r Devotion)

My final list ended up being as follows:

Creatures:

4 Pack Rat

4 Lifebane Zombie

4 Desecration Demon

4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Spells:

4 Thoughtseize

3 Bile Blight

3 Devour Flesh

1 Ultimate Price

4 Hero's Downfall

4 Underworld Connections

Lands:

4 Blood Crypt

4 Temple of Malice

4 Mutavault

13 Swamp

Sideboard:

2 Dark Betrayal

2 Doom Blade

3 Mizzium Mortars

2 Rakdos's Return

2 Drown in Sorrow

2 Erebos, God of the Dead

1 Whip of Erebos

1 Sire of Insanity

As I had struggled over the past few weeks to find a Standard deck that really "clicked" with me, I realized I wanted to go back to Monoblack Devotion, as that deck had served me well in GP Louisville and was still well positioned in the current meta.

I thought that it was a bit lacking though, and had to answer the question of "what do I splash?". Red seemed like the perfect choice, as you gain answers to a LOT of decks with the inclusion of Mizzium Mortars, Rakdos's Return, and Sire of Insanity. This was a deck made to give Esper and B/W a run for their money and I think it was a fine choice for the Cincy meta.

Round 1 - Bye

Round 2 - Bye

Round 3 - Win, 2-1 (Esper Control)

Game 1 - It was 2 Pack Rats in hand for me vs. missed land for the control player which resulted in a steamroll victory for me.

Game 2 - I kept a slower start, which my opponent had answers for when I tried to get anything online. I ended up scooping once he ripped his second Sphinx's for 6.

Game 3 - This was the game that showcased why we splash red. After Thoughtseizing and seeing that I needed to play VERY cautiously, I waited for my opponent to tap out to Elspeth, which I immediately nabbed with Hero's Downfall. The next turn, I dropped Rakdos's Return for 6, forcing him to pitch his hand and play topdeck mode. The turn after saw me landing Erebos and drawing into a Lifebane which I could cast that turn to seal the game.

Round 4 - Loss, 1-2 (Reanimator / Dredge)

I was on the Pack Rat plan in all three games, but he was able to drop an Angel of Serenity to finish me off in Game 1 and land an early whip in Game 3 to bring back value creatures like Armada Wurm. All three games were very close and very good, but I didn't see my hate cards when I needed to.

Round 5 - Win, 2-0 (Jund Monsters)

The Jund version of Monsters gives me a bit more of a headache, but it's still a relatively easy matchup, as he is able to get some swings in, but Gary keeps things out of reach as I pound in with my fatties. I also brought in Rakdos's Return in Game 2, as he was feeding me tons of information off of Courser and Domri, so, even if for 2-3, forcing a problematic card out of hand seemed good.

Round 6 - Win, 2-1 (B/W Midrange)

Game 1 - If your opponent is not blinking an Obzedat because he HAS to block your Pack Rat to avoid lethal damage, you're probably sitting pretty.

Game 2 - Alms beast came out of the sideboard this game, which seemed like an odd inclusion, but after taking two mulligans to 5, the derpy 6/6 was able to beat in for the game.

Game 3 - I missed a couple of early land drops, but my opponent drew some ineffective threats that I was able to answer and then stabilize with Gary to get in there.

Round 7 - Win, 2-1 (R/W Burn)

Game 1 - My opponent was sitting on plenty of life, but I had plenty of devotion and two Garys in hand, just never saw that fifth mana.

Game 2 - Desecration Demon and Gary took this one home, as I was able to keep my life total just out of reach.

Game 3 - I kept a removal-heavy hand with the intent of turning them into rats, but my opponent had a very creature-heavy hand, which was surprising for that deck. I think he had the right idea in that I would probably take a good chunk of my removal out / not want it in hand, but this time it didn't work as I ripped his creatures and hand apart and then started the Pack Rat engine.

Round 8 - Loss, 0-2 (B/W Midrange)

Both games saw me getting my opponent close and then seeing an Elspeth or Brimaz + removal some in and seal the game. Even with a Whip on board, he had enough hate on board to stop me dead in my tracks as the aggressor.

Round 9 - Win, 2-1 (Monoblue Devotion)

I FINALLY BROKE THE ROUND 9 GRAND PRIX STREAK! WOOOOOOO! And man, it was a close one. I didn't actually take any notes on this, but looking at my lifepad, G1 was incredibly long and grindy with Underworld Connections doing it's thing before I was able to start slamming in big chunks of damage.

Game 2 was the aggro-nuts from my opponent, as I never got a chance to touch him.

Game 3 was incredibly stressful, as we went to time shortly after the game started. Thankfully, I was on the Pack Rat plan and was able to get him in Turn 5 due to a super-lucky Mutavault topdeck to punch in for exact damage with a hoard of 7/7 rats when he was at 7.

Round 10 - Win, 2-0 (Orzhov Midrange)

Pack Rats + removal for Blood Baron got me through the early and mid game as Desecration Demon sealed the deal as my beater.

Game 2 was nuts as I had triple UWC online, a Whip of Erebos, and two Garys to be able to stay alive and dig for whatever I needed.

Round 11 - Win, 2-1 (Orzhov Midrange)

I had the perfect mix of speed and removal to take the first game fairly easily.

Game 2 saw Gary trying to save the day, but a lack of answers to my opponent's threats gave him the game fairly easily.

Game 3 saw the ol' T1 Thoughtseize, T2 Pack Rat plan, which he never had an answer for.

Round 12 - Loss, 0-2 (Monoblue Devotion)

In both games, my opponent had fairly quick, heavy devotion hands that either got a ton of advantage off of Bident + Nightveil Spectre (G1) or a Master of Waves that I couldn't answer (G2)

Round 13 - Loss, 0-2 (B/r Devotion)

My first mirror of the day was not a good one, as my opponent was able to get UWC and Gary online before me in the first game and had a ton of hand disruption in game 2 to pick apart my mulligan.

Round 14 - Loss, 1-2 (Monoblue Devotion)

Man this one was a bummer. Game 1 was Pack Rat carrying the game with no problems. I almost got there in game two, but ht was able to keep Thassa Devotion up and swing in for pretty big chunks of unblockable damage.
Game three was probably the worst of it, as I was off to a strong start, but he had the perfect mix of interactive cards to shut down both of my in-hand Pack Rats. Close, well-played games, and he just got ahead of me.

Round 15 - Loss, 0-2 (Esper Control)

Out of all of the games I played this weekend, these were the two where I felt the most helpless. In game one, he had a Last Breath and Supreme Verdict to hold off the Pack Rats and was able to pluck away my other good cards with his Thoughtseize and counter-magic. I scooped on a resolved AEtherling.

Game two saw me dropping a Lifebane Zombie and looking at his hand, which had a double Jace, Syncopate, Mutavault, and a Supreme Verdict. Based on what I had in hand, there was no line of play I could take that he couldn't answer. Damn.

All in all, it was a pretty decent showing, but I was a bit bummed out to miss the top 100 and getting some cash. Still, a top 150 finish was better than my usual trick of missing out on the win-and-in round. Minus the final round against the Esper player, none of the games felt out of reach and came down to some luck, bad lines of play/decisions biting me in the ass, or letting my opponent dictate when I play my hand.

I definitely loved the deck and the direction that red took it in, as I was able to handle most of the Blood Baron decks I saw and had a pretty good time against Esper, which were the two decks I was on the lookout for.

After finishing Day 2, I had a couple of hours to burn as the others were doing various Sunday side events. With one spot left in the final Standard Win-a-Box of the weekend, I decided to give the ol' gal one last spin before calling it a night.

After beating B/W Midrange and Esper Control (in which I got to do the ol' Rakdos for 5. Countered? Okay. Rakdos for 6? Resolves? Good. Sire of Insanity. Let's play topdeck, bitch.) Pro tip: Control players get real salty whenever you steal their thunder in dictating the pace and state of the game. My opponent in the finals was amicable to giving me the win if I would split the box with him and give him 2 of the 3 packs I got for coming in second (since there were no more events for the 'free entry' to be worth anything).

-----

Moving forward, I still think Monoblack is one of the best decks in the format. Esper was in force this weekend, as the top lists were well tuned and had their thumb down on what to expect. If you are expecting a wide range of creature decks, control, and B/W, I think the B/r list above it perfectly fine to run an event.

If you're expecting the meta to copy a lot of the top 8 decks and with a shift to a lot of control, I think their might be some merits to looking at a blue splash for Far // Away and Notion Thief. (In an ideal world, Grixis Devotion could be a thing, but even with a very light red splash the mana base is spread a bit too tight for my liking).

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 3: Grand Prix Richmond Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:38:00 +0000

In episode three, Pieter and Willis are joined by Mason "The Magic Muffin" to discuss Modern and Grand Prix Richmond. The full episode can be downloaded or streamed below.

In the first part of this episode, we discuss Turbo Twin as our "Deck of the Week". A link to the deck can be found on SCG here.

(Michifus) GP Richmond Recap & Notes on Affinity

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 15:19:00 +0000

Hey everyone. Pieter beat me to the punch for getting the GP Richmond Recap published first, so check out his post for a look at the event and weekend happenings.

We ended up running the same list that weekend and hammered out a 75 that we were both pretty happy with.

GP Richmond Affinity (Click to Expand)

4 x Darksteel Citadel
4 x Blinkmoth Nexus
4 x Inkmoth Nexus
3 x Glimmervoid
1 x Island

4 x Cranial Plating
4 x Springleaf Drum
4 x Mox Opal
3 x Thoughtcast
2 x Galvanic Blast
1 x Welding Jar

4 x Arcbound Ravager
4 x Vault Skirge
4 x Ornithopter
4 x Signal Pest
3 x Steel Overseer
3 x Etched Champion
3 x Memnite
1 x Master of Etherium

Sideboard:
3 x Thoughtseize
2 x Spell Pierce
2 x Spellskite
2 x Wear // Tear
1 x Ancient Grudge
1 x Grafdigger's Cage
1 x Relic of Progenitus
1 x Rule of Law
1 x Whipflare
1 x Illness in the Ranks

With this list, I was looking at the following gameplan:

vs. Jund
Good: Etched Champion, Spellskite, Relic of Progenitus, Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce
Bad: Memnite, Galvanic Blast

vs. Ajundi
Good: Etched Champion, Master of Etherium, Thoughtseize, Whipflare, Illness in the Ranks, Relic of Progenitus
Bad: Memnite, Galvanic Blast, Signal Pest, Steel Overseer

vs. UWR Control
Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Spellskite, Grafdigger's Cage, Wear//Tear, Rule of Law
Bad: Steel Overseer, Galvanic Blast, Memnite, Signal Pest

vs. UWR Midrange
Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Spellskite, Rule of Law, Ancient Grudge (if playing Blade Splicer)
Bad: Steel Overseer, Memnite, Signal Pest

vs. Zoo
Good: Etched Champion, Spellskite
Bad: Memnite, Steel Overseer, Thoughtcast

vs. Splinter Twin
Good: Spellskite, Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce
Bad: Steel Overseer, Memnite, Master of Etherium, Thoughtcast, Signal Pest

vs. Burn
Good: Spellskite, Etched Champion, Spell Pierce, Rule of Law
Bad: Memnite, Thoughtcast, Steel Overseer

vs. Melira/Kiki Pod
Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Whipflare, Grafdigger's Cage, Illness in the Ranks (if playing Lingering Souls)
Bad: Memnite, Signal Pest, Thoughtcast, Steel Overseer

vs. Merfolk
Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Wear//Tear
Bad: Memnite, Thoughtcast, Master of Etherium

vs. Soul Sisters
Good: Etched Champion, Whipflare, Thoughtseize
Bad: Signal Pest, Memnite, Thoughtcast, Steel Overseer

vs. GR Tron
Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Spellskite, Ancient Grudge
Bad: Etched Champion, Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast

vs. Scapeshift
Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Spellskite
Bad: Etched Champion, Galvanic Blast

vs. Faeries
Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Illness in the Ranks, Whipflare
Bad: Memnite, Signal Pest

vs. Infect
Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Spellskite, Ancient Grudge
Bad: Signal Pest, Thoughtcast, Master of Etherium

vs. Bogles
Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Etched Champion, Spellskite, Rule of Law
Bad: Memnite, Steel Overseer, Thoughtcast

vs. Storm
Good: Rule of Law, Spell Pierce, Thoughtseize, Grafdigger's Cage
Bad: Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast, Steel Overseer

vs. Blue Moon
Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Grafdigger's Cage
Bad: Galvanic Blast, Steel Overseer

vs. Ad Nauseum
Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Spellskite
Bad: Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast, Steel Overseer

vs. Living End
Good: Arcbound Ravager, Etched Champion, Relic of Progenitus
Bad: Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast, Signal Pest, Memnite

vs. Affinity
Good: Spellskite, Ancient Grudge, Steel Overseer
Bad: Memnite, Etched Champion, Signal Pest

---------------------------------

Quite a bit to go through and there were STILL decks I played against outside of this list. Anyway, here's the breakdown of each round:

Round 1 - Bye

Round 2 - Bye

Round 3 - Loss, 0-2 (All-In Twin)
Game 1 seemed pretty good, as I had the "dump your hand by turn 2 and start swinging" plan, but I was able to only get my opponent to 4 before he was able to go off with Pestermite + Splinter Twin.
Game 2 was a very grindy match with Spell Pierce keeping him off of combo, but hardcasting the Flash&Tap guys and a lack of manland+BB Cranial mana ultimately kept me off of significantly pressuring him.

Round 4 - Win, 2-1 (Affinity)
I won the flip, which is generally a huge factor in the mirror. After the board started to get clogged up, having BB for Plating and a Galvanic Blast in hand allowed me to swing in for 12 damage + 4 off of the Blast to win me the game.
In Game 2, we had another long game where I had a misplay in allowing his Grudge to hit my Plating instead of redirecting it to Spellskite, as he didn't have a source of green until I would have been able to swing in.
Game 3 was a pretty east victory, as my opponent mulled to six and kept a very risky no-lander. After Thoughtseizing his Mox Opal, he was unable to gain any traction and two big swings were enough to lock the game down.

Round 5 - Loss, 1-2 (Affinity)
After an incredibly long mirror, I was treated to another one, which end to turns and ended on turn 5. In the first game, I had the coin flip AND the nuts, which wasn't event close, as it was 27-9 before my lethal swing.
Game 2 was his turn for the nuts, as he had a turn 1 Plating and a turn 2 kill with Infect.
Game 3 was incredibly long. I started to fizzle out towards the end, as I needed to draw some play and pressure, which I didn't end up seeing as my opponent kept gaining ground on me. As we went to turns, I thought I had the stall, but he was able to drop two more 0-drops to get around my blockers via Arcbound Ravager on Turn 5.

Round 6 - Win, 2-0 (Merfolk)
These were pretty easy wins with Etched Champion + Steel Overseer carried me through Game 1. Game 2 saw a Phantasmal Image copying my Spellskite and a Hurkyl's Recall, but I was able to play through those and get there with manlands and Arcbound Ravager to get the flexibility I needed to swing in through the air.

Round 7 - Win, 2-1 (Bogles)
My starting hand was pretty nuts and Arcbound Ravager + chump blockers was a stud against his pimped out Kor Spiritdancer.
Game 2 saw my opponent throwing down threats more quickly than I could answer them. The lack of lifegain on my end was a huge detriment, as our life totals were very swingy in this game.
Game three saw me dropping a Spellskite and my opponent have no answers for it, while Vault Skirge and Cranial Plating quickly put me out of reach if he did ever get the answer for it.

Round 8 - Loss, 1-2 (Reanimator)
This was honestly a rogue matchup that I wasn't expecting the late in the tournament, and it caught me with my pants down. In Game 1, he was able to combo off on turn 2, which I had no way of stopping whatsoever.
Game 2 saw Inkmoth Nexus get me there, as Thoughtseize and Spell Pierce held him off.
Game 3 saw an iffy keep on my end, as it had plenty of gas, but Thoughtseize was my only hate card in my 6. Ripping the Thoughtseize on T2 saw 2 Simian Spirit Guide, 1 Faithless Looting, 2 Goryo's Vengeance, a Darkslick Shores, and a Griselbrand, so nothing I grabbed would have kept him from going off. And off he went, and I was out of making day 2.

Round 9 - Win, 2-0 (Rock)
Losing the win-and-in on the final round stings a whole lot, but losing the round before and then having an incredibly easy matchup the next round certainly doesn't take too much of the sting away. Game 1 saw the T1 hand dump and Cranial Plating online by T2. My opponent played a Swamp and promptly scooped. I think it was a good call, but even playing that Swamp gave me a good amount of information to work on.
Game 2... black... scooped right away. Lots of discard effects? Lack of artifact hate in the main? I decided to go with an well-round sideboard approach and brought in 1 x Thoughtseize, 2 x Spell Pierce, 1 x Spellskite and dropped 3 x Thoughtcast and 1 x Signal Pest. It turned out to be a pretty good call, as I was able to counter his T3 Liliana of the Veil and swing for a ton of damage (getting him to 1) before he ripped a Creeping Corrosion the next turn. At that point, he was tapped out and I still had a Blinkmoth on board to activate and snout him with.

Overall, I was incredibly pleased with the deck. None of those losses felt like I was completely out of it, except for the Reanimator deck where I should have taken a more aggressive approach to my mulligans (though Thoughtseize seemed like it was enough to keep him from going off).

It's a bummer missing Day Two by one loss once again, but, for not playing Modern that much, I was incredibly pleased with the results and it was definitely nice to be running the same deck as a fellow teammate. Our combined experience and thoughts on the 75, lines of play, and sideboarding definitely helped, as we each had moments where we would have came up short if not for the other person's impact coming through.

Until next time, #donttilt and #showthemyourteeth,
-- Michifus

PS Pieter, Mason "The Mangler", and I will be back to podcasting on Monday. Look for our thoughts and discussions on Richmond, Modern, and more on Monday night.

(Pietart) GP Richmond Report (324/4300)

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 18:43:00 +0000

I'm sure you're all aware that Grand Prix: Richmond, the largest constructed tournament of all time, took place this weekend. TeamSwag shattered its own record, fielding a full six (6!) players in the event (.14% of the field), an increase of 20% from GP Louisville. Nice! We drove to Virginia Thursday night to stay with some friends, and made our way to the tournament site early Friday morning.

"Tournament site" doesn't really describe how massive this event was. We reached the convention center around 11:30 but didn't enter the actual tournament hall until we conquered the 2.5 hour line. As much as I love shuffling my feet and making small talk with strangers, I was ready to battle.

This hallway, completely full. The line turned the corner and looped around at the end.

I couldn't help but grin as we finally picked up our playmats and entered the familiar chaos of players, vendors, judges and tables. After a brief search for the last sideboard cards and a fourth Mirrodin Ornithopter, I played my complimentary Mini-Master. The first opponent said he was conceding to go play some Modern, and just wanted his pack. I liked his style, so after getting my second pack for the free W, I scooped to my next opponent to make time for a Last Chance Grinder.

I already had my byes, but Willis and I had finally come up with a reasonable sideboard that morning and I was eager to test it. This is the 75 that Willis and I registered for the Grinder and main event.

4 Darksteel Citadel

4 Blinkmoth Nexus

4 Inkmoth Nexus

3 Glimmervoid

1 Island

4 Cranial Plating

4 Springleaf Drum

4 Mox Opal

3 Thoughtcast

2 Galvanic Blast

1 Welding Jar

4 Arcbound Ravager

4 Vault Skirge

4 Ornithopter

4 Signal Pest

3 Steel Overseer

3 Etched Champion

3 Memnite

1 Master of Etherium

---

3 Thoughtseize

2 Spell Pierce

2 Spellskite

2 Wear/Tear

1 Ancient Grudge

1 Grafdigger's Cage

1 Relic of Progenitus

1 Rule of Law

1 Whipflare

1 Illness in the Ranks

(Shoutout to Karlito/Karl Drogo for lending me the cards!)

The Grinder itself solidified what I already knew about the deck: Affinity has some insane draws and punishes people for skimping on sideboard hate. Even if they find hate, Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce and Wear/Tear can answer most of it pretty easily. I didn't take notes during the Grinder, but I remember most of what happened.

Round 1 - Tarmo Twin

He floods out pretty badly in Game 1 after playing Tarmogoyf into a 3-for-1 Electrolyze, and I finish him off with a timely Plating. For Game 2, he gets stuck on two lands and I run him over.

Round 2 - UW Control

I knew of my opponent (Steve Guillerm) from his writing on TCGPlayer, and he was as pleasant as I had gathered from his articles. In the first game, I play 6 permanents on the first turn, including Steel Overseer, forcing him to Path it on his turn. The second land plus the Citadel/Opal I had in play let me cast and equip the seventh card from my opener: Cranial Plating. He dies in two swings from my team. In Game 2, he mulligans plays a tapped land, and I run out a couple guys and a Thoughtseize that sees Tectonic Edge, Path to Exile, Snapcaster Mage, Stony Silence and Baneslayer Angel. I have a Wear/Tear in my hand, so I take the Snapcaster since I can fight through a Path pretty easily. He draws enough lands to stay in the game and eventually sticks the Baneslayer, stabilizing the board. I flash the Galvanic Blast which is more than enough to finish off his last 3 life points.

Round 3 (Top 8) - Protean Hulk Combo

I'm not exactly sure how my opponent's combo worked, but it involved Protean Hulk, Viscera Seer, Body Double, Reveillark and Mogg Fanatic. It was pretty sweet, but my Game 1 was significantly faster. For the second game, I brought in some disruption that pulled his Reanimation spell and bought me enough time to get in the last points of damage.

Round 4 (Semifinals) - Ad Nauseam

I'd talked to my opponent during the player meeting and between rounds, fulfilling my objective to make at least one friend at the tournament. In Game 1, he sticks a Phyrexian Unlife at a low life total, buying himself enough time to combo me. For the first time, I got to ask my opponent "Am I dead?" and get a straight "Yes." My postboard plan works out perfectly for Game 2, a fast clock backed up by Thoughtseize and Spell Pierce. At one point, his outs were reduced to drawing multiple cards for his turn, prompting an unprotected value-Ad Nauseam. He didn't find all the pieces, and we were on to Game 3. I play out cheap dudes while he cantrips and plays some acceleration. On the final turn, he cashes in his Pentad Prism to use Hurkyl's Recall, which I Spell Pierce. He has the Pact of Negation, but not enough mana to pay for it and hold off a lethal swing on the following turn after I rebuild my board post-combat. On to the finals!

Round 5 (Finals) - Kiki Pod

My opponent (Brian Liu, you may have heard of him in relation to this event) didn't have byes yet so we immediately started negotiating splits. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to separate the VIP upgrade from the byes, which would've been ideal for both of us. After some consideration, we decide that I get the packs and he gets the byes: 3 extra Modern Masters packs and half a box of BotG made up for not getting the free upgrade/sleep-in special (which I'd already paid for), and he seemed pretty excited about getting byes. Spoiler: he wins the whole tournament. Pretty sweet!

It's pretty late at this point, so we walk a few blocks to the hotel and get to bed at a (gasp) reasonable time. I feel good about the sideboard after seeing it in action, and fall asleep feeling quite confident.

The next morning, Willis and I enjoy a leisurely breakfast and coffee before getting to the convention center around noon. At this point, I'm struck by the sheer vastness of the tournament: we have to cross the street to get to our flight. Willis, Mac and I are in the same flight, though we're isolated from the rest of the team. After some bonus friendmaking, we say our "good luck"s and get ready to jam. Headphones in, hat on, feeling good.

Round 3 - Justin, Middle Zoo

We chatted a bit while shuffling each other's decks, but once the clock started it was all business. Game 1 was pretty brutal, as only the fastest Zoo draws can try to race Affinity pre-board. I hold my ground guys back for a turn, chipping in for one in the air after he Bolts my 9/1 Vault Skirge. He swings back, putting me to 12, but the second Plating off the top seals the deal. He draw is better in Game 2, but he never finds removal for my Steel Overseer and dies to a pair of Vault Skirges and an Ornithopter. 3-0.

Round 4 - Mike, Bogles

He doesn't do much Game 1 without Daybreak Coronet, and I easily race him. After boarding, I land an early Spellskite with Welding Jar backup, forcing him to use both copies of Back to Nature before jamming Auras, which bought me enough time to get in some Plating hits. 4-0!

Round 5 - Mitch, Kiki-Pod

Mitch's deck had some elements of Melira Pod as well as the Kiki-Jiki combo, allowing him to blow out my board of Overseer, Memnite, Skirge with a turn 3 Orzhov Pontiff, the turn before I can activate the Overseer. In Game 2, I put some pressure on him, but lose a turn saving my board from Kataki. I find the Whipflare to clear his board, but he draws the combo before I'm able to finish him off. 4-1.

Round 6 - Drew, UR Delver-Mancer

Finally, a three-game match! Aggro-control is pretty soft to super fast starts pre-board, and he couldn't find enough burn to keep the Plating from hitting him. For the second game, he plays a turn 1 Delver which immediately flips off Hurkyl's Recall. He clocks me while alternating between killing my guys and bouncing my whole board and I can't get anything through. In the third game, we trade hits and removal until I'm dead on his next swing with a lone lethal attacker on my side. Both of his Snapcasters have attacked, and he leaves a Vendilion Clique on defense. We're on turn 5 of turns, several people have crowded around. I untap and knock the top of my deck. Galvanic Blast! I kill his Clique after declaring attackers, getting in for exactly enough damage. 5-1!

Round 7 - William, BG Rock

Rock is a pretty easy matchup, since Creeping Corrosion is one of the only cards that interacts favorably on their side. I crush him in the first game, and build up a solid board in the second. Knowing I'm only dead to a land off the top for his Corrosion (I'd seen his hand with a Thoughtseize), I pass with Spell Pierce up and lethal on board. He doesn't find the land, inducing a bit of salt, so I show him the Spell Pierce. "Yeah, fair enough, you got it." 6-1!

Round 8 - Jeffery, Tarmo Twin

The adrenaline of being so close to Day 2 makes my memory of this match a little fuzzy, but I know how the games ended. Game 1, I have him dead on board, but he has Exarch for my Plating creature and has the Twin in hand. Game 2 he doesn't draw any hate and I run him over. Game 3 goes very long, and he's eventually able to get through with a sizable Tarmogoyf and Batterskull. We go over my sideboard plans and discuss the match (I forgot that his build also plays Batterskull in the board and didn't bring in any answers for it). At 6-2, I have my fingers crossed for a good matchup in the last round.

Round 9 - Ian, BG Rock

Fortunately, the finger crossing works and I get an easy matchup. Game 1 isn't remotely close, and in the second I have double Thoughtseize to match his double Creeping Corrosion. 7-2, into Day 2!

Excited but exhausted, we make our way back to the hotel and try to sleep. As is common, we fail miserably and discuss standard and modern for several hours. At some point, I drift into an uneasy sleep fully aware that Daylight Savings would rob me of an hour. The alarm sounds far too early, and I drag myself to the shower. All the teamswagmates we're incredibly supportive, ensuring that I was set up to do well the following day: letting me have the bed, first shower, and bring my non-magic stuff to the car since I had to be at the tournament an hour earlier. You guys are the best! <3

Round 10 - Brandon, Merfolk

As soon as we present our decks, the pair of judges near us immediately swooped in for a deck check. Apparently I had forgotten to write 4 Darksteel Citadel on my decklist (16 lands, 4 lines of lands, seems good.) when I turned it in Friday night. Hooray for a game loss! Luckily, Merfolk is a very easy matchup and I beat him pretty quickly in games 2 and 3. My opponent was very nice and apologetic about the decklist error, and we both agreed it was pretty lucky that it happened then and not one Day 1 during a tight match where the loss could've knocked me out of Day 2. Have your friends look over your decklist before you hand it in! 8-2, frazzled but alive.

Round 11 - Keenan, Melira Pod

In Game 1, he blows out my board of Overseer and 1 toughness creatures with an Orzhov Pontiff, then gets Qasali Pridemage to stop my Plating. For Game 2, I get him to 1 but can't find the Cage to stop his active Pod, and he finds the combo. 8-3, we definitely need the second Cage in the board.

Round 12 - Branden, 8-Rack

I had never tested this matchup before, but I figured I just had to dump my hand and try to race his Rack effects. In Game 1, he nut-draws me after I mulligan: Inquisition into Thoughtseize + Raven's Crime into double Shrieking Affliction and the Rack (Take 9). Game 2 is pretty quick, I have a fast start and sandbag a land to slow down his Rack. He doesn't get enough pressure on board, and I kill him easily. For Game 3, I mulligan to 5 and can't apply enough pressure to race his Liliana and racks. He has an Ensnaring Bridge in play, and I'm on the Overseer plan but can't find an Ancient Grudge or Wear/Tear to remove it and die to his racks. He missed multiple Rack/Affliction triggers which bought me a few turns, but not enough to find an answer. 8-4, disappointed but still happy to be in Day 2.

Round 13 - Jonathan, Storm

This matchup seems pretty good, but my draws were insane in both games so he was never really in it. For game 1, I play out my entire hand, including a Plating and Vault Skirge which gets there quite easily. I board in my hate and disruption and jam my entire hand on the first turn again. My clock is a little slower (turn 1 Ravager instead of Plating) but I draw Wear/Tear his Ascension and Thoughtseize a ritual out of his hand, locking up the W. 9-4!

Round 14 - Greg, 8-Rack

I'd met Greg a few months ago after he won our win-and-in at a Sealed PTQ. We'd seen each other at tournaments since then, so our match was pretty social. He was on 8-Rack, which I definitely didn't expect to play twice. He grinds me out with a multiple Rack draw in the first game, and I take the second with a few massive Plating swings. I mulligan in Game 3, which is the worst thing to do against the discard heavy deck. I needed a fast, redundant hand, but was only able to fulfill the former. I played out most of my permanents and he Inquisitioned the Plating, leaving me on the mediocre beats plan. He gets two Ensnaring Bridges into play while I brick for a couple turns, reducing my outs to the lone Ancient Grudge. I can't find it, and die horribly and slowly. 9-5, dead for cash.

Round 15 - Andrew, Tempo Twin

In typical Game 1 fashion, I run him over before he assembles much of anything, but I see enough to know that he's on Twin. He finds the combo in Game 2 after seeing two of his three Ancient Grudges. In the third game, he curves Spell Snare into double Electrolyze, leaving me with a Plating and some manlands. I hit him to 7 poison, but he finds answers to both Inkmoths. I transition back to the damage plan, but play around his Cryptic Command too hard. By playing around it every turn, I never actually put him in a position where he needs to cast it, and the lack of aggression gives him time to beat me down with 2/1s. Finished 9-6, same record as DC.

While I was a little bummed to not do as well on Day 2, I was still ecstatic to make it that far. Affinity was absolutely a good choice for the tournament (2 in the top 8, 3 more in the top 16) and it's one of the top considerations for the upcoming PTQ season. Later this week I'll post a report on the deck itself and our card choices, as well as what to change moving forward.

Thanks for reading!

<3 Pietart

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 2: Pro Tour BNG Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 03:14:00 +0000

Episode 2 can be found below:

In our second episode Pieter, Mason, and I discuss the results of the Modern portion of Pro Tour Born of the Gods, highlighting changes to the meta, good and bad builds, props, slops, and what we're expecting to see in Grand Prix Richmond.

How Would You Build It? Episode 1

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 15:40:00 +0000

In this installment of How Would You Build It? we're looking at a Born of the Gods & Theros sealed pool involving 3 of each packs.

The pool (in .dec format) can be found here.

For those interested in a text list of the cards, they can be found here:

Click here to expand

1 Aerie Worshippers
1 Akroan Conscriptor
2 Akroan Hoplite
1 Annul
1 Anvilwrought Raptor
1 Ashen Rider
1 Asphyxiate
1 Battlewise Valor
1 Borderland Minotaur
1 Boulderfall
1 Cavalry Pegasus
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass
1 Deepwater Hypnotist
1 Defend the Hearth
1 Divine Verdict
1 Ephara, God of the Polis
1 Excoriate
1 Fated Infatuation
1 Feral Invocation
1 Flamespeaker Adept
1 Fleetfeather Sandals
1 Flitterstep Eidolon
1 Floodtide Serpent
3 Forsaken Drifters
1 Glimpse the Sun God
1 God-Favored General
1 Great Hart
1 Grisly Transformation
1 Guardians of Meletis
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Hold at Bay
1 Karametra's Acolyte
1 Karametra's Favor
1 Last Breath
1 Leafcrown Dryad
1 Marshmist Titan
1 Meletis Astronomer
1 Mindreaver
1 Necrobite
1 Nessian Asp
1 Nessian Courser
2 Nimbus Naiad
1 Nylea's Disciple
1 Nyxborn Eidolon
1 Nyxborn Rollicker
1 Nyxborn Shieldmate
1 Odunos River Trawler
1 Pharagax Giant
1 Pharika's Mender
1 Prescient Chimera
1 Purphoros's Emissary
1 Pyxis of Pandemonium
1 Rage of Purphoros
2 Reckless Reveler
1 Returned Centaur
1 Sanguimancy
1 Scholar of Athreos
1 Scourgemark
2 Scouring Sands
1 Sealock Monster
1 Servant of Tymaret
1 Setessan Oathsworn
1 Setessan Starbreaker
1 Spearpoint Oread
1 Sphinx's Disciple
2 Stratus Walk
1 Sudden Storm
1 Sunbond
1 Titan's Strength
1 Triton Shorethief
1 Unknown Shores
1 Voyage's End
1 Wavecrash Triton
1 Weight of the Underworld
1 Wingsteed Rider
1 Witches' Eye

(Michifus) Based on this pool, my immediate gut reaction was to go with Azorius. With a good number of flyers, two of the Inspired token makers, Voyage's End, Glimpse the Sun God, two gods, and some removal and tapdown, it seems like a slam dunk. My devotion for Heliod is a bit on the low side to hit consistently, but giving all of my flyers Vigilance AND having a source to dump mana into to get guys is a pretty sweet deal. That said, this is the build I came up with:

The curve on this thing is a little wonky, but after goldfishing a few hands, it definitely seems to get going and never looks back.

Witches' Eye was a strange inclusion, but with Heliod not playing nicely with the four Inspired Creatures, it was a backup to tapping down the creature(s) I needed when and if I needed them.

With Ephara and Heliod, as well as consistent Scry and draw action, I should be able to dig through a pretty good chunk of my deck. Having several sources of producing tokens with extra mana is also a really tough threat to deal with, especially with Heliod being Indestructible.

Once the board state is stalled and I can gain presence, Glimpse the Sun God is more than likely going to be Sea God's Revenge 2.0 preceding an alpha strike for the game.

(Mac) Born of the Gods & Manipulating Tempo

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 06:03:00 +0000

Over the weekend I had the chance to play in three prereleases, all of which were a good time. I didn't end up opening up any bomb mythics from the new set (you're only allotted 2 BOTG packs and a seeded one, the rest are Theros), but I still managed to make competitive decks each day. It's kind of a bummer when you don't have a lot to work with in sealed, even more so when the color you chose is not the one you end up running. My first prerelease of the weekend was a lot like that.

PRERELEASE 1: "Golgari Good Stuff"

A lot of talk was going around that blue, white, and black were the colors to be in. There's some truth to that, but the way I saw it was that we're only going to open two born of the gods packs and I wanted to choose the archetype that I had performed the best with in Theros (U/G)--seeing as the majority of the cards I would open would be from that set. the white promo is pretty unimpressive as is the black one, so I wasn't really trying to go too deep into those colors anyhow. The red promo looked pretty sick as well, but I'll get into more detail about that down the line. I was left deciding between blue or green as my seeded color, with hopes to pick up one or the other as a splash. I believe blue to be the stronger shell with access to countermagic and tempo cards, like voyage's end and griptide (one of the best cards in limited), along with newer cards like Retraction Helix and Nullify. I ended up being a blue mage.

Much to my dismay, I could not play blue. I had some good blue cards, like a couple of nullify's (bonified counterspell in this limited) and a dissolve, backed by retraction helix and my blue promo, but I opened way too many good black cards to not play them. The problem I found with the blue/black that I opened was that they both had really good cards, but I needed some meat-- some big, fat, huge green or red aggressive creatures. Without them I didn't think my deck would ever really get there. The black that I opened I deemed worth diving in for went as follows: 1x Nighthowler, 1x Pain Seer, 1x Whip of Erebos, 2x Necrobite, 1x Rescue from the Underworld, 1x Insatiable Harpy. That's some pretty sick pulls in a color you're not even seeded in if you ask me. With whip in my deck I decided to go with my gut and stick some big fat green creatures in there. Notable green that I opened up was as follows: 1x Nessian Wilds Ravager, 1x Mortal's Resolve, 1x Snake of the Golden Grove, 1x Vulpine Goliath, and 2x Nylea's Disciple. My deck was shaping up to be a huge lifelink Pain Seer deck--Perfect.

I didn't take notes on individual games that day, aside from getting killed at one life by an Akroan Skyguard due to messing up a Pain Seer trigger. What I can tell you though is that Pain Seer is what Gerry Thompson calls "the truth". I won every single game in which I played him, except the one I punted. My opponents would see my five and six mana green creatures, write off Pain Seer, hope to see me hit a six-drop off pain seer, I'd hit the six-drop off pain seer, then slam a whip and crush. Pain Seer might not be as good as dark confidant, but I don't think he's in anyway a write-off. I think that it's an incredibly good card that just needs a shell. Whether or not that shell will be standard playable is hard to say, but after the first prerelease I ordered the rest of my play-set at around $5 a pop (it's not gonna go lower). I think that if you can make him reliably hit enough it's worth it. It can even have some edges over dark confidant at times (you don't ever have to take the chance if you're low). He also is a 2/2 instead of a 2/1, which doesn't hurt. I'm not saying he's as good as DC, but in this standard, where people play four underworld connections and divination, why not give him a try? The green promo is a lot better than I had initially anticipated it would be, with asphyxiate and excoriate running around. He's either a 6/6 that murders something or a 12/12 that will eventually crush their board. This was probably the second best deck I made all weekend.

PRERELEASE 2: "Izzet Heroic Tempo"

This was definitely the best day for me, I finished 5th and scored around 6 packs of BOTG with a super sweet Izzet deck I call "Heroic Tempo". Out of all the decks I've ever made playing limited this has to be the most unique, cooky deck that I've ever concocted. At the time I put it together all I could think was "Oh god, someone's gonna play an aggressive 5 drop and then I'm gonna lose". I couldn't have been more wrong. What this deck actually did was teach me a better understanding of just how powerful tempo is and how to properly utilize it. Sam Black isn't one of the best players in the world because he always makes the "perfect play", he's one of the best because he has an outstanding perception of how to manipulate tempo within a game. It comes as no surprise then that he's done so well with mono-blue devotion ( a deck based on tempo and one I previously had such disdain for, until recently when I cast my first Master of Babes). The deck changed over the course of the tournament as I fiddled with it, but I'm going to lay out the whole deck list that I ended up with here so you can see some of the crazy interactions I had with it.

Izzet Heroic Tempo:

Creatures: 12 Instants: 6

1x Artisan of Forms 1x Retraction Helix

1x Wavecrash Tritan 1x Nullify

1x Opaline Unicorn 1x Lightning Strike

1x Coastline Chimera 2x Fall of the Hammer

1x Master of Waves 1x Dissolve

1x Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass

1x Felhide Spiritbinder Sorceries: 4

1x Mnemonic Wall 2x Scouring Sands

1x Sealock Monster 2x Bolt of Keranos

1x Akroan Conscriptor

1x Arbiter of the Ideal Enchantments: 1

1x Forgestoker Dragon 1x Dragon Mantle

Lands: 18

9x Island

9x Mountain

"But Mac! You can't play 41 cards, only NOOBS do that!" While it's true that adding extra cards dilutes your deck a bit, I've always been a fan of running 41 with 18 lands if you don't have anything you want to cut. Sure I could have cut a Scouring Sands, but those were in and out between games. Anyhow, my bombs in this beauty were Arbiter of the Ideal, Forgestoker Dragon, and Master of waves. Honorable mention to Artisan of Forms and Fellhide Spiritbinder (He's rediculous on his own). I chose red this time after seeing how absurd untapping with Forgestoker Dragon is in limited. He can kill most creatures, since you have at least six mana when you cast him, he can attack through just about anything, and he is a huge clock on his own. I was basically locked into blue as much as I was red as you can see with a master of waves and the blue promo. The one thing that I have to note about BOTG limited is that red has gotten a lot better overall. It seems that their creatures have gotten tougher with more abilities, and they also have access to more removal than before (see Bolt of Keranos and Fall of the Hammer). Fall of the Hammer? Why yes please I'll take 2...or 3, or 5. Simply put, hammer was ridiculous at all times in this deck, or any deck of the red persuasion for that matter. Being able to have a one-sided pit fight at instant speed that's easily castable AND triggers heroic is amazing in limited. One of the best interactions I had with it was against a U/W deck somewhat similar to mine, MoW and all. I had a Master of waves on board and an Artisan of Forms. I attack with the Master and his minions into his two creatures. He blocks the master, before damage I fall of the Hammer on Artisan of Forms targeting his creature and turning mine into another Master of Waves. The Hammer won't resolve once he becomes another copy of MoW (prot red), but all my elementals get pumped up by the extra +1/+1 freshness that is Artisan of Forms, and had it copied another creature his would have died. My opponent put a damper on my day by using retraction helix on my first master in response to the heroic trigger (which works unfortunately), but I thought it was such a cool interaction that I had to share. It's almost as good as the other interaction I was looking for all day, which is to untap a Fellhide Spiritbinder with a Master of Waves on board to create a copy of the Master and swing for an obscene amount. The tokens wouldn't have haste, but they still stick around after the fact due to the original Master of Waves' +1/+1 clause...HOW SICK IS DAT?!! Despite this deck having really good interactions going for it, there were still plenty of games where I had to manipulate a lot of tempo to get things going my way, which is primarily what I want to emphasize about the weekend.

After I played this deck I started thinking about magic differently. I had always heard the word tempo being thrown around and I thought I knew what it meant. I had a grasp on it, but it was like a senior citizen's rock climbing grip...not very good. After Saturday's prerelease I'm addicted to it though. "Oh, you're going to play you're Nessian Wilds Ravager? Ill be stealing that as a 12/12 with a Fall of the Hammer on my Akroan Conscriptor, and killing your only blocker as well ." Or... "Oh no! You're going to do what?! Monstrous you're Shipbreaker Kraken? I'll use retraction helix on my Artisan of Forms to create a copy of it, then bounce that puppy back to your hand." The interactions I had with some of these cards were seriously obscene, especially with Retraction Helix. It's important to note though that when you have these spells that create tempo you have to know when to use them to maximize the efficiency of swing in tempo. Hold that retraction helix till they tap out for a six drop, or sandbag that sudden storm until you have near lethal/lethal on board. I found a new love for opening Artisan of forms and also the heroic mechanic as a whole. I'm not huge on the heroic triggering counters thing, it's just not my style in limited, but copying and stealing creatures? Now THAT'S VALUE!

Anywho, I ended up going 4-1 in the event and was pretty pleased with my performance. I felt like I won games I shouldn't have simply because of my play, not luck. I manipulated tempo to my advantage to win when I was so far behind. I wasn't thrilled to have to rush to work after the event, but I was pumped to wake up on Sunday and get another go at it.

PRERELEASE 3: Simic-Tempo

This day was unfortunately the worst of the pools I had, which stunk cause I ended up getting the archetype I had yearned for--U/G. I picked green this time, finally in my roots. After opening up a Prophet of Kruphix and a Bident of Thassa I was sold that I was basically Algae or bust. The rest of the deck had some weird draws and was kinda dead in the water unless I drew bident, or prophet, but I'll lay this one out for you too since I kept it sleeved up.

Simic-Tempo:

Creatures: 13 Instants: 8

1x Vaporkin 1x Gainsay

1x Kiora's Follower 1x Nullify

1x Nessian courser 1x Voyage's End

1x Agenst of Horizons 1x Mortal's Resolve

1x Noble Quarry 1x Shredding Winds

1x Scourge of Skola Vale 2x Sudden Storm

1x Graverobber Spider 1x Fated Intervention

1x Setessan Starbreaker

1x Snake of the Golden Grove Sorceries: 1

1x Prophet of Kruphix 1x Time to Feed

1x Horizon Scholar

1x Nessian Wilds Ravager Enchantments: 1

1x Kraken of the Straits 1x Bident of Thassa

Lands: 17

9x Forest

8x Island

I originally had 18 lands in this deck too, but ended up switching this one around a lot more since I started out 0-2 with it : /. There were just some key cards that I was missing in my original version. I cut Fade into Antiquity for Setessan Starbreaker, which can just be "when this guy ETB destroy target creature" sometimes. The best card I added was probably Noble Quarry. It doesn't seem like much, but being able to push through damage is so good in almost every situation, it's better than trample in my opinion. They either waste removal on it or they can't block anything else, or on the other hand you can bestow it onto a 12/12 ravager and watch all their dudes explode. Definitely not a mistake I'll make again. Also the Gainsay was for the last match I played against a Bant control deck which had some BOMBS in it. My changes were for the better, I didn't lose a match after I made the changes from what I started with to this iteration of the deck. All of the games I lost were really close which is always a bummer. I lost my first match because I didn't think to sac my prophet of Kruphix with a feral invocation on it(I had it in the deck then) in response to removal, so that I could add enough counters to my Scourge of Skola Vale to swing for lethal next turn. That's just the way it goes sometimes though. Nonetheless I made the changes and felt good about it, until I saw my last opponent play kiora and then ramp up into a Shipbreaker Kraken... Turns out Shipbreaker kraken along side Kiora, The Crashing Wave is pretty powerful. Too bad for my opponent I was able to kill his Kiora due to my unblockable creatures via Noble Quarry. Also, there's this funny thing that happens when someone has a monstrous Shipbreaker Kraken out tapping down all your dudes and you have a Prophet of Kruphix out. All your jam untaps on THEIR upkeep, instead of yours, which is better if you ask me. It's like a pseudo vigilance. I was able to push enough damage through in the early game, so that he couldn't attack with his Kraken. Eventually he was forced to block my Graverobber Spider bestowed with the Noble Quarry and eat the 14 other damage I had on board, sending him to his demise in game two.

This Deck turned out to be another quarky tempo-ish deck with the Sudden Storms and Voyage's End things going on. One of the things I started paying more attention to after playing this deck along with the heroic tempo deck from Saturday though was side-boarding. Using a card like Nullify is great when you're on the draw, but can be a little lackluster when you're on the play trying to tap out aggressively. Then they slip a Shipbreaker underneath your counterspell and you throw-up on the table. Then again you can always just have a prophet out and always have the mana for it :P, that's pretty good too. Seriously though, knowing when to side stuff like that out helped me a lot in my last couple games and is applicable to all formats. Probably more-so in constructed where you have 3-4 copies of a lot of cards, which makes a more substantial impact on boarding them out (factoring in chance to draw them). I ended up winning a pack with Hunter's Prowess in it as the rare and a sweet deckbox with "Xenagos, God of Big Thangs, and Fast Thangs too" on it. A pretty descent weekend all around if you ask me.

CONCLUSION: Moving Forward

Looking past the weekend I can only expect that the new cards will shake up the format a bit. Will they change every archetype? I don't believe so, we'll still see mono-black and mono-blue with their shiny new toys, but I think there will be more room for brewing and other decks getting an upgrade to full on tier 1. Cards I would look out for that may be flying under the radar are:

-Pain Seer

-Fall of the Hammer

-Eidolon of Countless Battles

-Fellhide Spiritbinder

-Fated Intervention

-Searing Blood

These are a couple of the cards over the weekend that I noticed performed exceptionally well and that I think may have potential to find their way into some kind of deck in standard. Any deck that creates good tempo swings in standard after BOTG releases will have my up-vote. Ideally I'll play one that's fresh and unexpected, but hey, you can't have it all. Thanks for listening to my adventures, till next time.

(Michifus) Podcast Episode 1: Born of the Gods Set Review: Rares and Mythics

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 03:12:00 +0000

Episode can be streamed or downloaded below:

In Episode 1, Willis, Pieter, Penn, and Kyle discuss the rares and mythic rares from the upcoming Born of the Gods set coming out in February.

I am looking into hosting options or publishing to iTunes, so bear with me until that is worked out.

(Michifus) SCG Open: Baltimore - Legacy Recap

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 16:24:00 +0000

So, fair warning, I'm still incredibly new to the game of Legacy, so my understanding of the game and commentary/assessments on the game may be underdeveloped or even way off, so feel free to leave any commentary or corrections if you see me derping it up.

With 402 players, we were looking at a full nine rounds of Legacy action. Being my second ever Legacy tournament and with a new deck in hand, I was excited to see how the day went, as just about anything was going to be better than the 0-X scrubfest I had at Grand Prix Washington, D.C.

The Deck

Merfolk (a.k.a. Fish Slap)

Creatures

3 x Cosi's Trickster

4 x Cursecatcher

4 x Lord of Atlantis

4 x Master of the Pearl Trident

3 x Phantasmal Image

4 x Silvergill Adept

3 x Merrow Reejerey

4 x True-Name Nemesis

Spells

3 x AEther Vial

4 x Daze

4 x Force of Will

Lands

4 x Cavern of Souls

12 x Island

4 x Mutavault

Sideboard

1 x Grafdigger's Cage

1 x Pithing Needle

2 x Relic of Progenitus

1 x Spell Pierce

4 x Swan Song

1 x Vision Charm

1 x Umezawa's Jitte

1 x Llawan, Cephalid Empress

3 x Submerge

While Burn was a fine deck for starting the format with minimal investment, this seemed like a much better path for starting to build up a "real" Legacy deck, as the investment was pretty reasonable, already owning Mutavaults, Cavern of Souls, and most of the other newer spells and creatures. Force of Will is never a bad purchase, and True-Name Nemesis will probably be a good investment for the long haul.

Plus, there's this:

Ask me a year or so ago when I was getting into the swing of competitive Magic if I would ever shell out for a set of Force of Will and I would have called you crazy, but here we are...

Round 1 - Loss, 0-2 (Black & White)

Not sure what this deck is called, but it ran a ton of hand disruption spells, Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, Stoneforge Mystic (along with Umezawa's Jitte, and Batterskull). With no hand and answers to anything I could topdeck, it was easy pickings for my opponent.

Round 2 - Win, 2-1 (Tendrils Storm)

The board state was looking mighty fine in game one, but he was able to combo off and got there.

Game two saw a spicy no-land-hand keep from my opponent, and he had plenty of combo fuel in there, but stopping that first Dark Ritual kept things in my favor as he never saw another mana source.

Game three also saw me keeping the black sources in check, as he couldn't combo off with no black hands.

Round 3 - Win, 2-1 (Warrens Storm)

With 14 Goblins on board, I was still able to hold them off with my creatures until a Lord of Atlantis brought a lethal swing in for me.

Game two saw Silence and hand disruption pick apart my answers and he was able to overrun me with the gobbos.

In three, True-Name Nemesis and Umezawa's Jitte provided an answer for the Xantid Swarm, which allowed me to punch in to victory.

Round 4 - Win, 2-0 (??????)

This was a very odd round, as the only spells I saw game one were Sensei's Divining Top and Liliana of the Veil and the Top again in game 2. Spinning the top was yielding no results as my opponent couldn't dig for what he needed in either game.

Round 5 - Win, 2-0 (UWR Delver)

Cavern of Souls is ridiculously good to have in game 1, as most of his hand was useless against uncounterable creatures and the ensuing beatdown.

Game 2 saw AEther Vial finally shine, as sneaking in Masters/Lords to blank Lightning Bolt or to get more damage in combat is pretty darn good. Llawan, Cephalid Empress also came in for this game, and ended up removing the flipped Delver, which swung the game hard in my favor.

Round 6 - Loss, 0-2 (BUG Delver)

Good god these were brutal. T1 Deathrite Shaman, T2 double Delver of Secrets, T3 flip = beatdown city. I had no way of stopping the pain train.

Game 2 saw me getting Wasteland'd and not drawing any basics.

Round 7 - Loss, 1-2 (Dark Maverick)

With 4 True-Name Nemesis on board and 1 in hand, the game was mine to win, but I got greedy with an attack and over-extended, allowing my opponent to hit on the backswing and finish with his Deathrite Shaman and Batterskull.

Game 2 saw Pithing Needle shutting down DRS, which slowed down the ramp to good stuff enough for me to get the win. Cosi's Trickster was also a stud here, as it made fetching lands with no DRS value sting that much more.

Game 3 was another land drought game, as I got stuck on an Island and Mutavault with a handful of UU spells.

Round 8 - Loss, 0-2 (Elves)

Game one saw the Natural Order combo get off and game two saw ol' Stompy getting hardcast when I had a Swan Song in hand. A little more pressure on board would have been good for me to race the combo, but, alas, it was not there.

Round 9 - Drop

We decided to make it back to State at a decent hour, since we were all 4-4 or worse at that point.

Wrapping Up

4-4 wasn't too bad of a finish for a brand new format, and I definitely feel as if I learned a lot. Now that I've played the deck and have seen it in action against some other decks, reading/watching videos about the the deck will make a lot more sense for future improvements, tweaks, and changes.

I'm not really sure if this is good or bad, but I think this weekend saw me getting bitten by the Legacy bug. There's something incredibly fun about playing with some of the most powerful cards in Magic's history and all of the completely crazy interactions, spells, and brews that can populate the format.

As I said in my Standard Recap post, we should be posting a Born of the Gods set review soon this week, so keep an eye out for it.

Don't tilt,

-- Michifus

(Michifus) SCG Open: Baltimore - Standard Recap

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 15:12:00 +0000

This weekend saw three of us making the journey down to Baltimore for the SCG Open for the Standard portion of the tournament on Saturday and Legacy on Sunday. I'll have a followup post for the Legacy portion after this post and Pietart should have his recap up shortly, as well.

For whatever reason, I decided taking pictures was for nerds, so I don't have any photos from the events.

The Deck

Boros Midrange

This deck has seen decent success in the past few weeks, and I liked its mix of on-board aggression and relevant answers for most decks in the format. It can usually pull ahead of Monoblack, can shut down Monoblue, and has enough recurring threats to give UW players a headache.

With that said, it was time to play ten rounds of swiss in a pool of 643 players...

Round 1 - Win, 2-0 (Jund)

Both of these were fairly easy games, as I didn't take any damage in game one and was dropped to 12 in game two.

After getting Thoughtseize cast in game one, the rest of my opponent's disruption blanked, as Duress and Lifebane Zombie failed to hit targets. The triple threat of Young Pyromancer, Chandra's Phoenix, and burn kept the board filled and my threats recurring as Chandra sealed the deal by plinking Lifebane Zombie and keeping Desecration Demon in check.

Game two saw the Pyromancer on board with Purphoros along with plenty of burn in hand. Two Reckoners on board also kept the board completely under my control.

Round 2 - Loss, 0-2 (Boros Devotion)

This deck seems like a bit of a problem for me, since I ended up losing to it twice this tournament. It also seems to be making a bit of a comeback, so it might be worth testing this matchup.

In game one, the Hammer of Purphoros, high devotion, and a Fanatic of Mogis was able to punch in for a big chunk of damage out of nowhere.

Game two was much closer and came down to a lucky topdeck on my end. I was able to swing in for 8 of the 10 needed and drew a... Purphoros. The Magma Jet would have been next, but my opponent's Hammer + golem token took care of Chandra I had that would have drawn me the winning card.

Round 3 - Loss, 0-2 (Boros Devotion)

Again, this game came down to a huge swing in damage thanks to a Fanatic of Mogis being dropped on top of a Boros Reckoner and Hammer of Purphoros. I had used my removal at that point to keep the early-game devotion under control.

Game two saw a Stormbreath Dragon drop when I didn't have an immediate answer for it and then it become monstrous and was well out of reach.

Round 4 - Draw, 1-1-1 (Prophet Bant)

Both of these games were super, super grindy as my damage was being blanked by his Sphinx's Revelations, but he was unable to keep any board pressure due to my removal. Thankfully I had the burn in hand for Prophet of Kruphix and he wasn't holding any creatures to flash in as a response.

Game two saw an Advent of the Wurm, Armada Wurm, Archangel of Thune, and a Primeval Bounty beating me within an inch of my life. I held on as long as I could, but his creatures got out of reach in a hurry.

Game three started with only 7 or so minutes on the clock. We chipped each other down to 10-12, but Stormbreath Dragon was able to hold off the assault and some play errors on my opponent's end kept it to a draw instead of a loss.

Round 5 - Win, 2-0 (Orzhov Midrange)

Mizzium Mortars stole the show by answering the Blood Baron of Vizkopa while two Chained to the Rocks shut down the Pack Rat and "in response" token. From there, the board was mine as I could ride Assemble the Legion to the win.

Game two was looking bad for me, as Blind Obedience and Obzedat, Ghost Council made things a headache for me. Reckoner was a huge board denial though, and Purphoros along with cheap guys hitting regularly won the war of attrition for me.

Round 6 - Win, 2-0 (Orzhov Aggro)

Both of these games were pretty much smooth sailing, as Pyromancer plus burn kept me rolling in blockers for the flimsy creatures that could have been thrown at me, which Boros Reckoner kept the threat of a 2-for-1 real. With the ground stalled, Chandra's Phoenix chipped in damage until the Stormbreath Dragon came in.

Round 7 - Win, 2-0 (Monoblack Devotion)

With one of my Assemble the Legion picked away due to Thoughtseize, I had to keep Desecration Demon under control with Chandra while chipping away with a Reckoner and Chandra's Phoenix. With plenty of burn to keep the Phoenix coming back as Demon food, game one was no problem.

Game two saw Assemble the Legion and Chandra, Pyromaster removed from my hand, but Purphoros, two Phoenix, and a Stormbreath Dragon punished my opponent for getting greedy with an attack of Lifebane Zombie and two Mutavaults.

Round 8 - Loss, 0-2 (Naya Monsters)

Both of these were very close games, coming down to 6-4 life in both before my opponent got the best of me. Xenagos pumping out satyrs along with a Stormbreath Dragon was had to deal with when there was no removal in hand for them.

Round 9 - Win, 2-0 (Opponent no show)

Woot. Time to play some Pokemon.

Round 10 - Win, 2-0 (Monoblack Devotion)

Pithing Needle naming Mutavault held the early game down as I watched his board get more and more clogged with Pack Rats. Boros Reckoner, however is a stud against the rat swarm, guaranteeing a 2-for-1 with every combat. After dropping three Reckoners, the board was stable enough for me to wait for Assemble to Legion to turn things back in my favor.

Game two was much of the same, with Purphoros, Reckoners, and burn holding down the fort until Elspeth showed up to machine gun in six damage with her +1.

Wrapping Up

I finished up 90 of 643, which wasn't too bad, but ultimately disappointing, as I was under-prepared for the Boros Devotion match up and it showed.

That said, I finished the day feeling really good about the deck. It can be quick and brutal when it needs to, or it can ride the grind train and try to win the war of attrition with some hard to answer threats. With no Standard on the horizon for the next few weeks, I might have to shelve this temporarily, but I think it will definitely be making a comeback.

Coming Up

On Tuesday night, we should start working on a set review for Born of the Gods, so keep an eye on the blog for our first podcast!

(Pietart) Get Excited!

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:43:00 +0000

This weekend marks #teamswag's first SCG Open of the new year, in sunny, wonderful, Baltimore! While it isn't our first tournament of the year, I'm pretty excited to play in a tournament that doesn't end in "Q," as the qualification is an upside rather than the whole tournament. Let's just say the top heavy tournaments this January haven't been as good as I'd hoped (1-2 PTQ with Monoblue, 3-3 IQ and 0-3 PTQ with UW Control, 11th in PTQ Millersville with Monoblack), but things are looking up.

Despite knowing full well that Monoblack is likely the best deck in the format, I hesitated to pick it up. Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I like drawing and gaining X a little too much, or maybe it was something different. Either way, after revelating for 6 lands one time too many, I decided to sleeve up Monoblack devotion for last weekend.

And I'm never looking back.

After starting the PTQ 5-0, I lost on camera (first time seeing coverage at a PTQ, pretty exciting) to Monoblue, and then again to UG Devotion (Green base, splashing for Zegana, Cyclonic Rift, Prophet). The UG deck seemed pretty beatable, but the first game I flooded out horribly after keeping a 4-lander and never seeing another spell. The second game was much quicker, as I never drew out of my Swamp/Double Mutavault opener and died with a fistful of double-black cards.

At the start of the last round, me and my opponent were at the top of the X-2s, dead for Top 8 unless something absurd happened at tables 1-6 (spoiler: nothing happened). I won a pretty easy match after my opponent received a game loss for failing to de-sideboard, landing me in 11th for a cool nine (9!) packs.

For only playing the deck at FNM the night before, I'm feeling ~~pretty good~~ great about it. It's sad to not play blue, but I guess we have Temple of Deceit and Nightveil Specter, so I'm not too far from my roots. For reference, here's the 75 I'm planning on keeping sleeved for the Open.

4 Temple of Deceit
4 Mutavault
18 Swamp

4 Pack Rat
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
4 Underworld Connections
3 Devour Flesh
2 Pharika's Cure
1 Ultimate Price
--
3 Duress
3 Lifebane Zombie
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Pharika's Cure

There really isn't much to say about this list as it is clearly quite stock. The singleton Ultimate Price in the main (and Doom Blades in the board) are here to help shore up the RG Monsters matchup, where Devour Flesh doesn't always cut it and we need more 2 mana removal.

(Brief note on spoilers: I don't really like trying to predict where the format is going without seeing a full spoiler, but we can safely assume I'll play at least one tournament with Bile Blight/Drown in Sorrow added to the glory above.)

While I'm pretty pumped up about more Monoblack, it's even more exciting to play Legacy again! I've only done two Legacy tournaments before, with vastly different results. The first was SCG Baltimore a little over a year ago, and I play TES. TES is not a friendly deck, especially for someone with little experience piloting combo. I managed to eke out a match win, but it couldn't make up for conceding mid-combo because I made the wrong mana with Lion's Eye Diamond. Yikes.

The second tournament was GP DC, where I made Day 2 piloting UWR Delver. I played a lot of Delver when it was in standard (even, embarrassingly, after Ponder rotated), and this deck is 100% in my wheelhouse. It's funny, I still remember the sick tempo swings of playing a first turn Delver and shooting their bird in the gut before Mana Leaking and Vapor Snagging any threats. UWR is like that, except with Wasteland, Force of Will and Lightning Bolt instead of their better-behaved cousins.

The exact 75 has yet to be determined, as I'll be restricted by what cards I'm actually able to borrow. In an ideal world, here's what I'd play:

4 Arid Mesa

4 Flooded Strand

1 Misty Rainforest

4 Tundra

3 Volcanic Island

4 Wasteland

4 Delver of Secrets

4 Stoneforge Mystic

2 True-Name Nemesis

1 Batterskull

4 Brainstorm

4 Daze

4 Force of Will

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Spell Pierce

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Ponder

1 Grafdigger's Cage

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

2 Grim Lavamancer

4 Meddling Mage

2 Rest in Peace

1 Pyroblast

2 Red Elemental Blast

1 Wear // Tear

Super efficient threats, free counterspells and the best 1 mana removal spells printed. Seems good! As a still slightly new magic player, there isn't much that feels as good as slamming a double-sleeved Force of Will onto the table. Given my lack of experience with the format, I won't really be able to say anything insightful til after the tournament.

Good luck out there, see you all next weekend!

Pietart

#showthemyourteeth

(Michifus) Grand Prix Sacramento recap

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 00:52:00 +0000

While sitting in the Sacramento International Airport waiting for flight one of three to return back home, I figured it would be a good time to do a Grand Prix recap.

After departing Thursday afternoon from State College, I arrived in Sacramento from D.C. at about 7:30p, which was a bit ahead of schedule. After a brief cab ride downtown, I was at my destination: the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel.

Greetings from Room 1911

Hungry and with some time to burn before Casey made it in at 10:30 from San Francisco, I checked in and went exploring.

Maybe I'm spoiled from living in a college town for the last decade, but I was surprised to see that EVERYTHING was closed at 8pm on a Thursday night. Hell, even three different liquor and beer stores I looked up were closed. I settled on some snacks from 7-11 and stocked up on a couple of things I forgot to bring with me (aspirin, Chapstick, etc.)

Grand Prix Friday

Fast forward to Friday. After lunch at the Claim Jumper (or as I initially thought, the Clam Jumper), it was time to get into some Grand Prix action. About 10 minutes late for the free Mini Masters we got for pre-registering, Casey and I played some Standard until the 2HG event we were interested in fired at two. Christopher Rush and rk post were also setup already, so we got some cards signed.

The 2HG tournament was underway. Our pool was... mediocre. Casey built a decent UG build looking to abuse Master of Waves, while I piloted a BW build looking at maximizing removal, disruption, and life leach with Gray Merchant and Scholar of Athreos, both of which remind me of the back-breaking nature of Extort in 2HG from last season.

We ended up finishing the tournament 2-3, just missing a prize payout. Two of our losses were to some really close games that ended up swinging out of control due to a well-placed Cutthroat Maneuvers. Our third loss was due to getting our Scholar exiled while their's got to stay online for 6+ turns.

Grand Prix Saturday

Sacramento Convention Center

Time for the main event!

Even though I had two byes from the previous season and an included Sleep-In Special from my VIP registration, I ended up making the Player's Meeting since it was Casey's first Grand Prix, which can be overwhelming if you don't know what's going on.

At 1,854 people, this was the largest Magic Grand Prix in California history and the exhibition hall was PACKED.

Blue side of the pairings

Pass to the right

After round one, it was time to receive my pool and register a deck.

The registered deck with my four common sideboard cards on the right

The stuff I ended up not using

The white in my pool was pretty mediocre, with a couple of playables but nothing I was super excited about.

Red was almost there, as it had a lot of Heroic enablers, but my good Heroic creatures were spread amongst two colors and I didn't like them on my slower curve.

Blue had some solid spells and disruption in Voyage's End and Nimbus Naiad, but, again, nothing I was super-excited about.

With that said, Black and Green were shaping up to be the best colors for the pool and home of most of my rares. Agent of the Fates is a total stud if you land him and get to begin the Heroic engine. Boon of Erebos was also a star in this deck, as Theros removal is generally pretty bad and trading one mana and a card to negate their removal AND trigger Heroic is usually a good value.

Nessian Asp did his usual work as a beater, and he almost always slowed the game down to my pace when he dropped. Shipwreck Singer was also another star of this deck, as her abilities come out of nowhere and completely change the pace of the game and board state.

Agent of the Horizons was the darkhorse of the deck and ended up carrying several games for me, as unblockable + recurrence outlets for him are pretty good.

Round 1 - Bye

Round 2 - Bye

Round 3 - Loss, 1-0-1

Game 1 took us almost 45 minutes to complete, as it was his Scholar of Athreos + 12 mana (at the end of the game) versus my creatures and Whip of Erebos. I was able to keep most of his early and midgame board presence on board due to Agent of the Fates and enablers, but my removal for Scholar came late and my graveyard was picked apart by Whip of Erebos at that point.

This was also the first of several times over the weekend, where I dropped my opponent to 1 health and couldn't seal the deal.

My life total:20-19-16-15-19-23-20-28-26-24-21-31-30-29-41-40-44-41-44-41-43-40-38-40-38-36-34-32-28-11-12
Opponent's life total: 20-19-20-12-14-17-7-8-9-1-2-5-3-6-4-7-5-7-9-13-11-10

31 to 1 at one point, and he was able to battle back. Sigh.

With 10 minutes to play in Game 2, we ended up drawing, so my opponent got the round.

Round 4 - Win, 2-0

As much as I complained about it in round three, my opponent got me to 1 health twice in Game 2.

This was the round where Shipwreck Singer was an absolute all-star, as my opponent dropped an Elspeth and had 13 soldiers on the board at one point which I was sitting on 7 health and blanked his removal with a Boon of Erebos. Whipping back my Asps AND having the mana to make them Monstrous was also a pretty spicy maneuver and highlight form this round.

Thankfully, Sip of Hemlock has that 2 damage built in, as that was my finisher in game two after holding off the Elspeth beatdown.

Round 5 - Win, 2-1

Nessian Asp was the all-star of this round and carried me in games one and three. Bringing in the Bow of Nylea as a sideboard card also proved to be a surprise for my opponent, as the lifegain and +1/+1 counters on the Asp proved to be hard to deal with.

This was yet another time that Sip of Hemlock's 2 damage was enough to seal the deal for me.

Round 6 - Win, 2-1

After a mulligan in game one, I was unable to gain any traction against my opponent's deck. No green mana rendered half of my hand useless.

Game two was probably the most stressful I played in the tournament. Fade to Antiquity came in to combat my opponent's Spear of Heliod, and I ended up drawing it the turn after he Bestowed a then-unseen Celestial Archon. With no answer in hand to the flying first striker, I had to leave the Spear and exile the Enchantment Creature. With no Whip on board, attacking into the Spear wasn't really in the cards with minimal bombs on board and in deck. Bow of Nylea again did some heavy work by loading up Nessian Asp and Agent of the Horizons with counters to make an alpha strike.

Game three saw the Bow of Nylea stay in, which made a nasty combo with Agent of the Horizon and the Whip of Erebos, which allowed me to come back from 10-23 to a total of 63-3 before my opponent scooped.

Round 7 - Loss, 0-2

With my deck, you can imagine how backbreaking a mulligan to four can be. No chance whatsoever in game one as I got steamrolled hard.

Game two saw Prophet of Kruphix flooding the board before I was able to draw an answer for her. At that point, my opponent's Bow of Nylea was on board and I was stumbling to catch up.

Round 8 - Loss, 1-2

My opponent was running a tight deck of Heroic and Bestow, which made Feral Invocation that much better. I had removal and answers for creatures, but having to deal with the Bestow creatures after they dropped off proved to be too much to deal with.

Shipwreck Singer had another field day in Game 2, though, and was able to allow me to dictate the board state.

Round 9 - Win, 2-1

I actually didn't take any notes on this game, as I was starting to tilt from missing Day 2. From the life pad, it looks like it was a very grindy matchup in my favor, with life gain negating chunk damage my opponent threw at me while slowly whittling his life total down.

Wrap-up

As my opponent and I discussed afterwards, it's almost better feeling to lose that final round, so you finish 5-4 instead of 6-3, as it makes the near miss sting a lot less. Even in the 0-2 loss in round 7, I never felt like winning was completely out of grasp with the deck, and, honestly, I was surprised that it did as well as it did.

The round three loss was also a point of disappointment, as having only one game determine who made it was a total bummer, especially since I got him to 1 life at a point in the game and ended up losing it.

Also, I'm not really sure why or how I missed them, but I think Returned Phalanx should have had a home in this deck. I know I passed on it in early construction due to the Defender and blue mana requirement (and having a very light blue splash), but I think one or both would have made a fine addition to the deck.

Checking the rankings today, I came in 268 of 1,854, which is nice I suppose. 208 points is also a nice jumpstart to the current season, especially with Richmond and Cincinnati coming up soon.

At that point, things were wrapped up in the Convention Center and it was time to call it a night.

Afterwards, it was off to try to find SOMETHING in Sacramento that was open on Friday at 9 at night. Thankfully, we found Mayahuel and got some delicious Mexican and spicy tequila drinks.

Dat wall art = <3

Grand Prix Sunday

Still kind of on tilt from a disappointing run on Saturday, Sunday didn't go much better. A 1-3 run with Monoblack in the Sunday Super Series Standard and two first round bump offs in win-a-box events proved to be incredibly disheartening.

At that point, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon. Surprisingly, the artist's lines were still really long (for those that were still there), so I decided I wanted to round up some grub and call it an early day. Again, NOTHING WAS OPEN WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS CITY?!

After wandering around a bit, I ended up finding a place called Pizza Rock and got their Ol' Smokey pizza. Finished off the bottle of bourbon and watched some sports on tv before calling it a night.

Goodbye from Room 1911

Wrapping Up

With SCG Open: Baltimore and Grand Prix Richmond and Grand Prix Cincinnati looming on the horizon, I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of non-PTQ, large-scale tournaments. I'm excited to see where Born of the Gods takes the meta, as this was an uneasy Standard season for me, as no deck ever seemed to properly "click" with me.

Thanks for the great time, GP Sacramento and Channel Fireball... this was definitely a great first impression of the west coast Magic community.

-- Michifus

(Michifus) Humble beginnings and mission statement

noreply@blogger.com (#teamswag) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 22:37:00 +0000

For a while now, Pietart and I have discussed the idea of starting a website dedicated to #teamswag and our adventures in Magic the Gathering.

Our thought process was that by writing about Magic and creating content related to playing, we would hone our focus on what was happening in our games, what we did well, what we could have done differently, and allowing for our teammates and others to provide commentary and criticism.

Beyond being a review of what HAS happened, we're also excited as using this as a platform to think about the future. Be that in deck brews, set reviews, or any other aspect of the game, we're looking forward to writing about what could happen and where the game grows from here.

With that said and those loose goals, we're looking to see how this grows in a very organic fashion, shaped by what interests us and what type of content we would like to produce.

Anyway, thanks for checking us out and we hope you find something enjoyable or informative while you're here!

-- Michifus